There is incredible economic opportunity in this region of Africa, economic opportunity for trade, partnerships with U.S. businesses.

Stability in the region is incredibly important to the United States.

The instability there is giving rise to the many Al Qaeda-inspired insurgencies and that instability threatens our security.

the expertise is critical. And while we all replenish and restock and move forward, but as Members leave, we lose their expertise and their experience.

This is a very important issue. As you described, the situation in eastern DRC is dire.

I think it is critically important that the U.S. engage, that the U.N. engage a high level envoy to that region.

The United States faces complex national security challenges across Africa. The terrorism and violent extremism that plague the continent, along with instability, corruption, governance, poverty, illicit trafficking, and more, combine into…

Given the looming threat of sequestration, or further cuts to the military, I believe most of us on this Committee have become ever more focused on ensuring our military's missions are both essential and appropriately tailored.

Stop pretending that we can bang the table about how awful the deficit is and then shy away from any of the steps necessary to cut spending or raise revenue to deal with it.

Clearly, you are planning for it. Clearly, you are considering on a programmatic basis issues that are a very, very thorny problem to deal with.

They see sequestration as having a devastating impact on defense.