Security is absolutely essential, but if you do not treat your people fairly, there is going to be a void that is going to cause instability.

I appreciate the hard work Senator Ayotte has put into her bill and her willingness to work across the aisle with the ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, Senator Blumenthal, and Senator Brown. Since I objected to her…

I appreciate that, and I thank the Presiding Officer very much. I thought I was getting an agreement here. So to continue, it could be longer than the 5 years that is in the bill of the Senator from New Hampshire, but it would be the…

reserving the right to object, I agree with much of what the Senator from New Hampshire said, and that is that our veterans deserve to have the highest quality care by the Veterans Administration. Those employees at the Veterans…

We know that, historically, within military command, there has always been a challenge, in particularly colleagues reporting misconduct.

There can be zero tolerance.

Knowing that the countries in which the peace missions are situated, the capacity there to deal with these types of issues are limited.

let me first thank Senator Baldwin for her comments. I agree with her statement, and I am also grateful for the leadership of the senior Senator from Maryland and the leadership Senator Mikulski has shown on gender issues. The paycheck…

I think the U.N. is, I think, in great jeopardy of building enough critical mass around here where severe penalties should be taken against them with withholding of funds from them.

I do not have confidence in their system to provide justice--international justice, not U.S. justice.

I do not necessarily believe these are accurate numbers, do not get me wrong.

But for civilians, it may be even more complicated.

We are going to be asking the first panel some additional questions for the record dealing with the United Nations' accountability.

the Leahy rule, which is one that I support, indicates that we do not give aid to countries that do not adhere to basic international standards.

If they do, the chairman and I are going to do everything we can to make sure they do not have the resources to do that.

I support U.N. peacekeeping. A lot of taxpayer money goes into U.N. peacekeeping.

The sexual abuse perpetrated by U.N. peacekeepers must end--must end.

That cannot continue. So there has to be accountability here.

I do not understand why we continue to send money to countries outside of the U.N. that allow this type of abuse to take place.

This is not easy work, and we appreciate your commitment and passion to get this right on behalf of vulnerable people globally.

I think it speaks to, I am sorry, terrible leadership, lack of concern, unwillingness to deal with tough issues.

Those who are perpetrators need to be held accountable. There can be no exception to that. Zero tolerance.

I can assure you that we take the integrity of our hearings pretty seriously.

What capacity do they build in countries where there are U.N. peacekeeping missions to be able to have the capacity to prosecute those who violate the laws in those countries on sexual exploitation and abuse.

It really starts with the recognition that sexual exploitation and abuse is not acceptable, and that message has to be communicated by the top leaders.