Mark Warner

I have more than a little bit of frustration that many of us on this Committee have been raising this issue since the beginning of this year.

If we could put up the chart here, this is another example of how people are kind of lured in.

I partnered with Senators Klobuchar and McCain on what I believe is the most light-touch legislative approach.

We have a President who remains unwilling to acknowledge the threat that Russia poses to our democracy.

What is clear, however, is that this playbook offers a tremendous bang for the disinformation buck.

Russian operatives are attempting to infiltrate and manipulate American social media to hijack the national conversation and to make Americans angry; to set us against ourselves, and, at their most basic, to undermine our democracy.

What is even more troubling is the likelihood that these platforms are still being used today to spread lies, provoke conflict and drive Americans apart.

I'll say it again: agents of a hostile foreign power reached into the United States, using our own social media platforms, and conducted an information operation intended to divide our society along issues like race, immigration and Second…

This is about national security. This is about corporate responsibility, and this is about the deliberative and multifaceted manipulation of the American people by agents of a hostile foreign power.

I would strongly urge you to please take a look at that legislation.

I can assure you that this committee will faithfully follow its charter and conduct vigorous and real-time oversight over the intelligence community, its operations and its activities.

I'm hopeful that this bill will pass the Senate and ultimately be signed into law, as it provides the Department and the intelligence community the needed tools and authorities.

I look forward to supporting your nomination and ensuring its consideration without delay.

The efficiency of FHA is seriously undermined by the lack of having a modern IT system.

Access to housing in this country--and I know you all share this view that it is extraordinarily important.

I still do believe that the current status of the GSEs being in conservatorship is not the long-term solution.

Five minutes to answer the Senator's question and to make my very short statement.

I am pleased to yield to my friend, the Senator from Texas, for a question as long as I still get a chance to finish my comments.

Listen, we want to keep this -- the number of individuals that the members have yet to see in terms of some of the principles that you and your colleagues have reported on, the members of the committee have not even had a chance to talk to…

I know a number of my members on this side of the aisle are going to ask somewhat in depth about the RDI study.

I just believe, in light of some of the concerns raised... that there would be this approach, in terms of holding harmless a valid whistleblower's complaint against any type of reprisal from the agency itself is terribly important.

But how do you go about improving? You said you would look at outside experts.

I believe that the job of the Inspector General is critical to the effective operation of any agency.

Your job--and we talked about, again, this in our conversation--is to be, I think, hard-hitting, to find problems, uncover abuses and recommend fixes.

I wish to express my hope that we'll soon receive from the President a nominee for the position of the IG for the overall intelligence community.