Mark Meadows

It is still difficult to go home and talk about aid to the Palestinians, you know, and $400 million plus when we have their minister of prisons saying that the people in prison--terrorists--are heroes.

Ambassador Patterson, thank you for your service. Truly, the Egyptian people know that you love and care for them and I just want to say thank you for doing that.

It is really about making sure that we stand with our allies, that we create a safe and secure environment for the Lebanese people.

I want to follow up a little bit on where my friend and colleague from California because it gets to be a very difficult sell.

I look forward to hearing your testimony on how we from a policy standpoint can best implement policy to help the Lebanese people enjoy a peaceful and secure environment.

The media practices self-censorship and the truth is not getting out, it's so much more important that the movers and shakers in this country and elsewhere come to Hong Kong to visit and see for themselves what is actually happening on the…

If we do not have the freedom of the press, how are we to rely in terms of those particular issues in terms of, are they truly independent, as they relate to Hong Kong?

So your suggestion then would be a firmer response from the administration in terms of--instead of trying to say, well, gosh, highlight the problem and saying work with us, is a firmer response in terms of not only what we expect, but with…

As an elected official I can assure you there's a number of media outlets I would love to sanction

I think probably for me, as we've started to look at this, is the challenges that we've seen from freedom of the press...

Asserting their authority has 'gone too far.'

We now have two Supreme Court rulings that have taken place because of the ambiguity thereof.

Twice the Supreme Court has made decisions, one with the SWANCC case, and the other with the Rapanos decision, and they've told agencies that there is a limit to the Federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act.

Well, I appreciate your opinion. I can tell you the people that I represent, they believe that you are stonewalling...

I think we have a strong case that we have been cooperative, continue to be cooperative...

If you have someone where the IRS is requiring documents from an individual, audit or whatever, is it an excusable excuse to say that they don't have the time?

At what point should this committee hold you and your agency in contempt for not complying?

The connection between Hezbollah and Iran is undeniable, going back to 1982 and some estimated $6 billion have now been funneled into terrorist activities through that, at the direction of Iran.

I enjoy a good relationship and wholeheartedly support the efforts of OPIC.

If we are going to compete globally we need to unleash the private sector to allow them to invest in these countries.

Since when is free speech dark money? And I am tired of us.

I want to say thank you so much for continuing to work on this particular area. You have been here before this committee before.

What I would ask from you, then, and not in terms of your oral testimony today, but I would ask for you to submit to this committee, if you would, are three recommendations on how we could augment that training for our TSA employees.

One of the things we need to do, all of us in this room are here to work on this problem and eliminate it.

I wanted to really emphasize what you said about teachers.