Adam Smith

I want to congratulate General Milley on his nomination to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Carbajal).

I am sorry, at some point someone has got to tell me what ``engaging in personalities'' means. I have served in this body for a long time. I still don't know what that means. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from…

Just briefly, I will agree, this is a messaging bill, and the message is this is a bad policy. That is what the House is doing. I will also agree that, when it comes to crafting the right policy in this area, it should be done in…

On the Korean Peninsula, we are at a high-water mark since the cessation of conflict during the Korean war.

Without question, the situation has improved in the last couple of years.

I think the improvement of our relationship with the nation of India is one of the most positive developments in foreign relations over the last several years.

I think the number one most important thing is it is crucial to maintain a strong U.S. presence in the Indo-Pacific region.

I share the concerns about other parts of the budget.

My bottom line is we need to keep making progress. We can't slide backwards.

We need the Pentagon to start spending the money more wisely than it has been spending it.

Artificially sticking to those budget caps has almost nothing to do with fiscal responsibility.

The Democratic-controlled House is not going to pass a budget that creates $174 billion OCO and guts every other aspect of funding.

I think to the extent that we rely on that political talking point it undercuts the fact that this all happened because of the battle over the budget.

This committee, and I know there has been bipartisan expression to this, is unalterably opposed to taking money out of DOD to fund the border wall.

No greater authority on that subject than current chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said exactly that.

The comment that funding a border wall out of the Department of Defense is also unbelievably irresponsible.

You have served your country incredibly well, do an outstanding job, and we have always had a very open dialogue.

If you are going to cut the State Department, you better give me more ammunition.

As I like to put it, they want to make the world safe for kleptocratic autocracy.

Thank you, and I want to welcome our witnesses, members of the audience, members of the committee.

Please provide an accounting of all expenses incurred by the Department of Defense--specified by appropriation, budget activity, and sub-activity group--for all operations and support for DOD and other Federal activities along the southern…

I want to do everything we can to make sure we don't slip backwards on the progress that we have started to make in rebuilding and repairing the military.

At the end of the day my priority for the committee are two things: number one, to maintain the bipartisan tradition of this committee.

I want to start by saying it has been a great pleasure working with Chairman Thornberry for--well, for as long as we have been in Congress.