Gerry Connolly

This would be a big dent in the debt if we simply put the resources into IRS to collect the money that is owed.

That is what the tax gap is, correct?

Should the Congress of the United States not read into that a resolve to end cooperation?

So while one can understand the concerns raised by my colleague, and I share them, on the other hand the idea of 'let us not engage, let us in fact have a policy of implacable hostility,' has consequences.

Perhaps making a Devil's advocate argument about it, though, the idea of 'Why would we negotiate with or be engaged with a criminal regime?'

Your committee's annual work on the NDAA is a model of bipartisan inclusivity. We should strive to follow that more often in Congress.

This isn't an opportunity for partisan exploitation. This is an opportunity for the Oversight and Government Reform Committee to look at an agency where something went dreadfully wrong.

On April 12, Pakistan's Parliament unanimously demanded the end of all U.S. drone strikes in Pakistani territory.

It is an insult to the African Union and to every African that in 2012 a building as symbolic as the AU headquarters is designed, built, and maintained by a foreign country.

This should be a symbol of Africans pulling themselves up, but instead it looks like China is doing it for us.

I would hope that the Obama administration would be able to dedicate more time to dealing with Africa.

I will commend President Bush for the work that he did on global AIDS.

Intellectual theft is epidemic in China, and it must be addressed as we move forward in this relationship.

We need to focus, obviously, on our human rights values, as we interact with the Chinese.

But the United States has to insist on its interests in this relationship; otherwise, it is one of unequal partners.

The U.S.-China relationship is absolutely one of the most important, obviously, in the world, and it is a relationship that must be worked out.

Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you all for being here.

We must show utter and complete passion for this subject. We must stamp it out.

This is unacceptable. If America is about anything, it is about a value system.

This is a bipartisan effort. This is not going to be an issue that is going to divide us along party lines at all.

My time is up, Mr. Chairman, but I just want to cite H.L. Mencken, who once said that for every human problem there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong.

So, given my brief time, Walt, it is going to cost a half a billion dollars a year to the Postal Service, hardly saving money, and that grows over time.

Now, you also said a second problem with this, I am sure also unintended, is that we are going to have one heck of a penalty on widows and other survivors.

I am shocked. That loss of a half a billion grows over time because of the aging workforce.

So, golly, gosh darn, a proposal allegedly designed to save money will cost money.