Rob Portman

We have had some good bipartisan work over the years to improve cybersecurity on this Committee with you, Senator Peters, with you, Senator Johnson, and others.

No entity, public or private, is safe from these attacks.

On the issue of staffing, I support more resources for the IRS.

Senator Cardin and I wrote this bill called the Protecting Taxpayers Act, some of which is now being implemented.

I've said all along that I think it's important that we get the facts out and I think you'll find a report from the Rules Committee and Homeland Security Committee would be very helpful in that regard.

We cannot ignore the need for sound policies to stem the surge.

Reports show that the seizures of fentanyl coming across the border have tripled in 2021 compared to 2020.

It is unacceptable to shift this burden to frontline personnel and expect them to be able to manage the consequences of bad decisionmaking here in Washington.

We are very concerned, as you know, about what we see in terms of inflation.

The last thing we need to do is to make ourselves less competitive.

Thank you for coming today. I think it was very important.

I have a lot of respect for you, as you know, Mr. Secretary, but I am not able to sit here and not comment on this idea that somehow this is Donald Trump's fault.

The sad reality is that some of these children are exploited and abused, including being forced to work in violation of labor laws in order to pay off their smugglers.

I support that program.

I appreciate the bipartisan oversight of the critical issues we will talk about today.

The current policy is essentially that any child from anywhere, other than Mexico, who shows up at our Southern Border is allowed to come into the United States for an indefinite period of time.

We should also pass our bipartisan bill, the Responsibility for Unaccompanied Minors Act, to require better background checks and to ensure accountability.

We welcome competition, but competition needs to be fair.

My concern is that right now China is able to get a free ride.

I think the ideal trade policy is one that is pro-trade and yet anti-cheating.

During my questioning, I discussed how critical it is to ensure that the Social Security trust funds remain solvent.

The bottom line is, all of us want to be sure the Social Security benefits are there.

Social Security is facing insolvency, as we know.

The integrity workload is definitely what we want to be investing in

It sounds like the COVID-19 experience at Social Security has taught us a lot of lessons.