Adam Smith

Most of the crisis right now is asylum seekers.

The biggest thing driving it is people are desperate, primarily in Central America.

Personally, I don't think spending tens of billions of dollars on a wall is going to change that equation.

Two-plus years later, it is a mess.

There wasn't actually any crisis at the border when President Trump took office.

How can we be confident that this time we actually are going to get what we are looking for and not wind up wasting money?

We have not had the best past record in terms of developing new large programs.

I think the biggest challenge within the Department of the Navy right now is the new ships that you are building and preparing to build.

Our statute that this committee has passed and has been incorporated in the NDAAs in the past just calls for multiple sources so that we are not dependent on Russia for their natural gas, because Russia has been known to weaponize energy.

I urge you to support the inclusion of both the Work for Warriors and the Keith Nolan Air Force Deaf Demonstration programs.

I am just asking for you to be fair as it pertains to Staten Island.

It makes veterans on Staten Island feel like we don't care.

If I were to tell you, highest COLA lowest BAH in the city, you would think that was crazy.

Individuals who want to serve should have the opportunity to do so.

Work for Warriors is a strong example of an investment that we should be rushing to make.

As chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, one of my top priorities is ensuring that our veterans have the resources they need to succeed.

By all other government metrics, New York City is counted as a five-borough element.

There has to be--you know, it is like when the cords get all bundled up, there has got to be some place to start to sort of pull it apart and start working.

It is brutal and difficult, and it is just as brutal and difficult for the non-defense discretionary budget to try and do that as well.

This committee does not accept that.

I think is folly. In a $4.75 trillion budget, obsessing over tens of billions of dollars in the discretionary portion of it, be it defense or non-defense, isn't all that helpful from a fiscal responsibility standpoint and is unbelievably…

A ton of money has been wasted. And a lot of the problems, I submit, on the F-35... could have been reduced if we knew what we were spending the money on.

Because it would be a lot easier for us up here to advocate for more money for you if we knew it was being well spent.

The solutions coming out of the White House are making it worse, not better

Thanks, Secretary Wilson, for what will likely be her last hearing before the House Armed Services Committee.