Jack Reed

If they move there, which some people indicate they might, would that be another sort of pressure point in terms of not only Jordanian but Israeli counter-reaction?

My role is to try to highlight those challenges and to make sure that whatever decision is made addresses them as effectively as we can.

Would it make sense to review those provisions and give you more flexibility and ways in which you could conduct military-to-military dialogue with Russia in certain situations?

I commend you for the careful and thoughtful and hard work that went into the National Defense Strategy.

Fortunately, we find ourselves in a moment of budget stability, having passed an agreement in February.

We cannot dig ourselves out of the current readiness crisis in just 2 years.

We cannot afford to stand still in this area when our adversaries have been investing in their nuclear forces for the last 2 decades.

Despite recent reforms, lasting change will require your leadership and vision to sustain a whole-of-the-government approach.

I continue to be concerned with the availability of aircraft and the preparedness of our airmen.

Do I have your personal assurance to do the same?

Do you agree these protections enhance the financial readiness of servicemembers and their families, and the overall readiness of the armed forces?

Congress sent a clear bipartisan message that protecting servicemembers and their families from predatory and high cost lending was of paramount importance to their financial security and military readiness.

The Chinese seem to be making that type of commitment very publicly: hundreds of millions, billions of dollars.

The Chinese activity to appropriate our intellectual property is obvious.

They are undertaking significant national investment in artificial intelligence and quantum computing that is dwarfing anything that the Administration is proposing or suggesting.

Collecting intelligence, then acting on it in a coordinated fashion, are two different things.

The last election there was Russian influence. This election, they seem to be more prepared.

Passing on relevant intelligence is not actively disrupting the operations of an opponent. Do you agree?

But has he singled out the Russian threat, which appears to be critical to this election coming up?

But you need more. I will take that as a yes.

Do you have the technologists, the computer experts that can begin to understand how these cryptocurrencies work?

A theme seems to be appearing that there is not a binary choice between war and diplomacy.

This has been an extraordinarily thoughtful presentation by the witnesses.

I am also concerned that there is a lot of cavalier talk about war and limited strikes with North Korea.

I am still quite concerned that we have made little or no progress in these areas and that we are not doing everything we need to set the right conditions for diplomacy with North Korea.