It is critical for the safety of the country and for our citizens, and so I would devote the attention and time and energy to this to see if we could bring that gold star home.

I have talked with Senator Akaka. We have not introduced the bill yet, but again, we are working on legislation to improve performance evaluation in all of the Federal departments.

I really would like to have you spend some time in that area because I know you are going to be under pressure to abolish the system. But to me, it is something that is important for the future of our country.

The security clearance process has been on the high-risk list since 1990.

One of the problems I think we have in government, and I have talked to one person after another who have left the Federal service, is they say, I go to work for an agency, I work my butt off, and I do not get recognized for it.

I believe that this will go a long way toward rebuilding a collaborative relationship with employee unions and managers.

As Chairman and now Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia since 1999, I have worked hard to enact flexibilities to ensure the Federal Government has…

There is no way that we will be ever able to afford to really secure the border without immigration reform in this country.

I want to echo the thanks of this Committee and others for your service to our country and for the service of your husband to our country.

The transformation of the Department is on the High-Risk List, and one of the things that we have been trying to do is to get an agreement on the metrics that we would use to determine whether transformation actually is taking place.

People are not aware of this, but the backlog of security clearances, particularly with private contractors, is costing us a lot of money.