Beto O'Rourke

We are dealing within the confines of a zero sum game.

I feel so strongly about keeping our ships forward-deployed in the transit zones.

Thank you. Mr. Commandant, I would also like to join my colleagues in thanking you for your service and through you thanking the men and women who serve our country in the Coast Guard.

I think you have put your finger, Congressman, on an important issue, and we have to think about the costs and benefits of how we intervene.

I am certainly no apologist for the administration's National security strategy, and I have some significant concerns with it.

I think when you look at this you have got to also see some of the benefits to intervention.

I would say, big picture, my concern is that the rebalancing... do cause some risk.

I think we have demonstrated that there are types and numbers of forces that can radicalize populations.

The mess we are in is a result of our invasion of that country in the first place.

I think all could agree we want confirmed, full-time, fully committed heads of the agencies within DHS.

I wonder what it means... when we look at not only the threats that we have at our borders with Mexico, but the opportunities we have when it comes to capitalizing on the trade and creating more jobs?

I think in recent years there has often been an image of China as a juggernaut that is just going to be growing at some relentless pace, and that this would eventually pose an overwhelming problem.

A lot of the commentary mentioned the fact that it was intended, as these people saw it, in part to strengthen China's position in the dispute over the sovereignty of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands.

In terms of expanding the capabilities of the attack submarine force, we have already talked about the option of building Virginia-class boats.

Even at two per year, as you know, we will experience a shortfall in the attack submarine force in the 2020s relative to the 48-boat force level goal

The word that we keep hearing over and over again is accountability.

We want to see how that accountability is implemented and what the consequences are when someone does not do their job properly.

I want to thank the Office of the OIG, the Corps, and the VA for being here. And I think that it is the nature of these hearings that we are going to focus on where we have problems.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I want to thank you and the Ranking Member for keeping this Committee focused on performance and accountability at the VA.

We have an access problem. We are very far down on the list to have it addressed in any meaningful, comprehensive way.

In El Paso you have more than 80,000 veterans who are underserved by the existing clinic.

What can, to cut to the quick, what can we do to move ourselves up on that list?

I guess, for Admiral Lee to continue with this line of questioning, I believe either you or the commissioner mentioned that during--or, as a result of the sequester and fewer flight hours, fewer resources deployed, we saw less tonnage…

For the commissioner, you know, just anecdotally getting the information in terms of tonnage seized, hearing you describe what is involved in executing your mandate, it sounds like you are being very effective with your resources.

I am hoping to get a concise answer to the question posed in the title of the hearing, in terms of what a secure maritime border looks like.