It seems to me we have to wrestle that issue to the ground if this relationship with the Government of Pakistan is to proceed in any kind of healthy normal fashion.

Republicans have pursued an obstructionist agenda since taking control of this body, cynically willing, seemingly, to risk even harm to our economy for political gain. The refusal of House Republicans to even consider compromise has…

I think they owe the subcommittee and the Congress a fuller explanation for how and why we got to that determination.

I am looking forward, Mr. Chairman, to this hearing and to the testimony to be provided.

I think as a follow-up to this hearing, one of the things we are going to have to be in touch with the State Department about is, now that it has been accorded an FTO, we need to be looking at sources of financing, especially if they…

My friend from Pennsylvania, Mr. Kelly, is so articulate and so persuasive, he almost persuaded me that we are a third-rate power in the world.

the idea that we are the substitute for that strategy is just not going to work.

I hardly think Secretary Panetta was saying that our Air Force is now at the level of 1915 and our Navy at 1940.

Let me say a word about the evening of September 11th. The ferocity and intensive of the attack was nothing we had seen in Libya or that I had seen in my time in the Diplomatic Security Service.

That is not an honest inquiry. And that is an attempt to besmirch, in my opinion, the reputation of a very talented and capable public servant.

If you want an honest investigation of this tragedy, we will join you. But if you want to persist in trying to somehow to put this, lay this at the doorstep of the President or the Secretary of State or the United Nations Ambassador, you…

Ryan Crocker today was interviewed, the former two-time Bush Ambassador and one-time Obama Ambassador, and he decried the tone of the discussion about the tragedy of Benghazi here on the Hill.

Doesn't that, in fact, add more weight to the role of the IRS, not less?

Sequestration--that's the bogeyman Republicans created last year when they refused, for the first time in American history, to allow a clean debt ceiling vote. So they formed a supercommittee which they doomed to failure when they refused…

We obviously disagree.

It most certainly is within the purview; in fact the responsibility of the IRS.

So, given our obsessive concern about the fiscal situation and the National debt, Congress has, in fact, increased IRS's budget, given that ratio, so we can collect that which is owed; is that not correct?

Fortunately, there appears to be bipartisan recognition that OIGs require a permanent Senate confirmed leadership to be most effective...

I want to commend you personally for your longstanding commitment to holding fair and substantive oversight hearings...

A disgraceful, yet increasingly common experience is that of Michael Horowitz, his nomination to be inspector general for the Department of Justice...

Unfortunately, it has become common for months to pass before non-controversial nominees are given an up or down vote.

I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings), the distinguished ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Matter of personal privilege. Did this Member hear the chairman, the distinguished chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, characterize a Member as insincere? The CHAIR. The Chair cannot interpret as a matter of personal…

Of course I know my friend from Arkansas knows his history. That was the whole battle of Federalist versus anti- Federalist. The Federalists won out. That's how the Constitution of the United States got adopted, a more powerful government…

This Member will reserve the right to object at the appropriate time.