H.L. Mencken once said that for every human problem there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong. I have a lot of sympathy for Mr. Thornberry's amendment and for what is behind it. He talks about micromanagement. Micromanagement…

the carveout for the National Labs was an outrageous thing to do.

We can make a big difference on something that may seem deceptively uninteresting.

This time, there will be a fight. And I think it will be bipartisan.

You have asked a very, very important question, and I would just say, when we wrote FITARA, we decided to make it less prescriptive and more expansive.

We are not going to stand for it. We will revisit this issue.

I felt listening to him like I was watching RT, Russian Television.

This hearing is nothing but a smokescreen, yet another in a long chain of attempts by my friends on the other side of the aisle to deny what is manifestly true, that the Iran nuclear agreement is working.

I thank my friend, the chairman, for holding this hearing to examine the usefulness of social media and other crucial enhancements to the Federal background investigation process.

I remain concerned that the government should not retain social media data of third parties who happen to engage with the applicant but have not consented to waiving their privacy rights.

Improvements in communication between local law enforcement and Federal background investigators could prevent and could perhaps have prevented a tragedy like that that occurred in the Washington Navy Yard.

He has sworn to uphold the law, Mr. Mendelson, and he's trying to do that.

I would remind him that we will have the same conversation in 10 to 15 years when Iran has consolidated its gains in Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Syria, et cetera.

I think the Heller ruling was wrong.

You're taking that out of context.

Listen, I am old enough to have lived through the Cold War. We had nuclear agreements with our bitter enemy that had promised to wipe us from the face of the earth, the Soviet Union.

That's not what an elected official has to do.

And I think they should be, because objectively they are.

I think that's not useful counsel for them, and it's certainly not welcome counsel for me as a Member of Congress seeking guidance through a very meddlesome set of problems.

I think there is a growing concern as a management challenge what is happening in terms of wait times.

I approach the subject of home rule as a former local government official, having served in neighboring Fairfax County for 14 years on the governing body, 5 years as chairman, of the largest jurisdiction in metropolitan Washington.

But we have bought some time, and we didn't just buy time and freeze it in place. We reversed it.

I think this is our 30th hearing on Iran. And I don't know that this committee has cloaked itself in glory on the subject.

I don't get to ignore it. I don't get to dismiss it.

My name is Connolly. You can address me by my name.