Ron Johnson

I think it is really quite clear that that unilateral Executive Action on Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals was the primary cause for this surge.

I want to see where we have our strengths and where we have our weaknesses.

You kind of know where it is.

As long as we detect them, apprehend them, and then process them with a notice to appear, and then disperse from around America into the shadows, we are going to continue to have that problem.

If you really take a look at the root cause of so much of our border insecurity, it is the insatiable demand for drugs in this country and what that has spawned over the last 50, 60 years.

It was a humanitarian crisis

The reality is if you are a parent or a child in Central America and you send your child or you come up and you get into America, the bottom line is you are staying.

We should not be minimizing this. Yes, it is down from last year, but last year was a humanitarian crisis.

I think there is a root cause there, and I think it is called 'Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals.'

These are not going to be easy problems to solve, but we have to make incremental improvements.

We bear some responsibility for that.

It is not a pleasant reality. It is an enormously difficult problem.

We really need to analyze the root cause of the problem.

The American people deserve to know the truth. They have not gotten it yet.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The fact of the matter is the agency has lost credibility, and that credibility needs to be restored.

I think it makes it even more important that we actually hold people accountable, that the American people see that those that did the targeting are brought to some semblance of justice.

Thank you for all your good work.

If we simplified our Tax Code, that would make it a little bit easier to comply as well.

This was far more than that. This was an amendment passed on a debt ceiling increase in 2010 that has had a real impact, provided us excellent information, and provided real savings, tens of billions of dollars of savings.

I also want to certainly pay tribute to Senator Tom Coburn.

Are you going to launch an investigation to see if this was known sooner to hold people accountable?

I guess I just want to ask, how long has the VA recognized the potential of opiate overdosing or over-prescription to be a problem?

I would like to thank you and the Committee for allowing Senator Baldwin and I to come and participate in this because this is, obviously, an issue that is striking dear to our hearts here in Wisconsin.

I always say if it's not broke don't fix it. And I would say there are a lot of people having buyer's remorse on this rulemaking.