it seems to me that at this time in the history of our country to be fighting the voting rights issue all over again is a very sad state of affairs.

If you ask for more money for judges, I personally will give it to you, because I truly believe the solution is bringing them before a court of jurisdiction.

I think we should look at it again.

cutting Cuba off has not worked

we have as recently as yesterday taken a series of actions to try, within the fairly tight boundaries of law, to open up more contact between the American people and the Cuban people

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To your surprise, I actually understood that argument.

the President's budget request of $1.781 billion, an increase of about six percent for fiscal year 2016, will support 250 new positions.

Your budget request for this fiscal year is quite reasonable, in my opinion, given the large and growing oversight role that you are expected to undertake.

But some of us feel that what made our country great was investing in our country also, investing in infrastructure, investing in education.

I am one who believes that, notwithstanding the omnibus situation that we always have at the end of the year, it is not this committee that causes that.

But what we can't do is continue to cut the very things that will help us make the investments that are going to grow our economy.

The omnibus funding increase was a downpayment on the necessary investments needed for the IRS to succeed, and I believe that more investment is needed to help reverse these declines.