Not only was this action done in advance of sequestration, I believe it was done purposely as another tactic to scare Congress and the American public.

I just want to mention one thing that the gentleman from New Jersey talked about in the last panel, and that is opportunity with, in a post Castro, post Chavez environment in the Latin America region.

I think it is an all-of-the-above approach to truly working with our neighbors.

How are you approaching Venezuela?

I applaud the chairman. Earlier in his statement he talked about LNG exports.

I am currently drafting legislation. Hope to have it ready for your cosponsorship on the transboundary agreement.

Even efforts by Federal agencies to streamline the ESA consultation process for Federal fire management plans have been challenged by environmentalists.

First off, I will just say America needs to realize that this is a real threat.

This is on a grand scale. It is not only on grand scale with intellectual property with private corporations, but it is also the theft of military hardware plans such as some of our fighter aircraft.

And I appreciate your willingness to say that because it is not only damaging our economy and our abilities, it is taking our edge away militarily...

If they are stealing the plans of an F-35 and so we have to send F-35s against a comparable aircraft, that is taking some of that competitive advantage away that we have militarily to protect this country.

I think that the hearing today is very, very timely, especially in light of the director of National Intelligence on 12 March.

But there is more to governing than talking, and it is walking the walk. And so, I want to see some action out of this administration.

It is time to approve a Keystone pipeline, a Trans-Boundary Agreement, and let's have truly all American energy security dealing with our neighbors to the north and our neighbors to the south.

It is saddening and disgraceful that our Veterans Administration fails to respond to the needs of these veterans with the same timeliness.

We promised our veterans the moon but instead we have failed in many instances to provide our veterans with the most basic of care.

Unfortunately, when I talk to veterans today, they don't believe that our government is living up to our promises.

Hopefully, we are going to see some movement. Of course, it has been 1,415 days since the United States Senate has passed a budget for our nation.

I think the idea of mandating a certain number of non-conflicted experts on advisory panels is a wonderful idea.

It may be more cost effective and create a non-biased, scientific based fisheries management plan by defunding NMFS immediately.

Clearly, science has taken a back seat to ideology with this administration--THAT NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED NOW.

THIS IS, IN MY EYES, AN OPEN ACT OF CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS AND THOSE RESPONSIBLE NEED TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE.

I hope we make some good decisions here so we can help this country to boom in the years ahead.

The current wait time is an average of 282.6 days.

ICE released a bunch of illegal aliens this week due to sequestration. So how do you think that is going to be viewed by our neighbors?