Heidi Heitkamp

I think that when we are talking about it, I think all of us, every person in this country, probably wishes for 100-percent situational awareness.

The issue of youth homelessness is a national embarrassment and we should be doing everything we can to prioritize this issue

While Native Americans make up less than 10 percent of the population in North Dakota, we've seen some reports where up to thirty percent of the homeless youth population in a given area are Native American

I have heard the stories, and continue to hear the stories to this day, not just of the homeless youth and their experiences

We have seen an increase in the number of runaway and homeless youth in the State

And the court does not live in a vacuum. I mean, the court understands real world implications of their decisionmaking.

Where the first analysis probably was, who is going to sue us if we do it, right?

I think Congress should play a role in making this determination.

I think one of the concerns that I have about all this is where we have burdensome and unnecessary regulation.

The President is politically accountable for decisions that he makes, maybe not in his second term.

I am not pleased with the process that was used in the controversy around that rule.

Why is judicial review necessary if, in fact, the agency makes a mistake? Congress plays a role in correcting agency mistakes...

Thank you, Chairman Lankford.

Well, I mean, if you take my example of King v. Burwell, if the judiciary decides we are tired of patching this together, what happens?

When we do not act effectively, we are basically writing a blank check.

Congress needs to take responsibility for clarifying ambiguity in things that are as controversial, I think, as CO2.

I do want to once again give you a high five for all the great work that is done in North Dakota with constraints on resources and for the extraordinary cross-border cooperation and local government cooperation.

I mean, we have submitted the staffing needs as part of the annual budget for the last couple years.

Once again we are back to budget constraints giving us a less secure border, I think is the point Senator McCain was trying to get at.

Thank you, Chairman Johnson for the introduction and for the opportunity to talk about a border that we do not talk a lot about in this Committee, which is the Northern Border.

I think one of the challenges we have both on the north and on the south border is, as we have put and deployed more resources at the points of entry, we have opened up rural America, whether it is on the Northern Border or the Southern…

I personally support lifting the embargo entirely.

I am suggesting that maybe the current law is being broadly interpreted.

I think I can remind you hope is not a strategy.

I hope you understand what I am saying, which is that there are probably some things that are easier to implement than other things that you are recommending in your judgment.