I appreciate you being so supportive of us holding this hearing

I certainly want to assure the region that they do have a great deal of support in Congress.

We cannot allow Southeast Europe, the Balkans to slip into the wrong category.

I think probably the best way to counter violent extremism in any of its forms is through economic opportunity.

So really targeting the leaders, not the population.

I want to thank Senator Cardin and his staff, along with my staff, for what I think was an incredible effort to bring balance to a bill but to send a very strong, strong message to Russia.

We have done about 81 percent of Simpson-Bowles and we still have a massive debt problem and a massive projected deficit.

I think our solution forward is going to be to get our Democratic and Republican former Governors in the Senate to work on some of these budget reforms.

We have done about 80 percent of it. Now we do need to do entitlement reform, but Simpson-Bowles barely did anything.

This would actually be a subtractive process.

Let us provide that civil liability protection against those civil suits so local law enforcement are not caught between a rock and a hard place in a very difficult situation.

I think it would solve an awful lot of that problem right there.

I think that is a pretty reasonable request.

The defense of this Nation and the defense of our homeland is a top priority of government.

We cannot be penny wise and pound foolish.

We need to allocate the resources to keep this Nation and our homeland safe.

Let us pass a law to give those local law enforcement officials liability protection against those civil suits, because part of Pat Toomey's sanctuary city law, that could clear up this whole difference.

We have obviously committed to securing our border.

It's easy to blame the U.N. It would be more honest and effective to hold accountable the governments actually responsible.

Threatening to walk away from the Council is not going to give us leverage to achieve the reforms we want.

This is, I think, our 25th hearing on some aspect of border security.

Well, let us put the kinetic part of that Ukrainian conflict aside and just open source, the attack on the electrical grid twice now.

the U.S. Government has a role here, too.

We probably ought to start laying out some pretty strong lines and be very predictable.

Well, they had breakers. They could do that. I am not sure--as I understand the American--and I am no electrical engineer here, sorry.