mr. hastings: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, president obama has not been shy about his willingness or his desire to circumvent congress and take unilateral action on a variety of issues. this lack of shyness includes the designation of new national monuments. in fact, during the president's first term in office, an internal memo was leaked to potentially lock up more than 13 million acres of western land with the simple stroke of the president's pen. major land use decisions should -- such as this should be made -- not be made behind closed doors and should fully involve the local citizens whose livelihood would be directly affected by such action. that's why, mr. chairman, i trongly support h.r. 1459, the ensuring public involvement in the creation of national monuments act, sponsored by our colleague from utah, mr. bishop. this legislation requires -- would require public participation before a president can designate a national monument under the antiquities act. mr. speaker, the committee is not in order. the chai

. >> thank you, mr. chairman. welcome to all of the witnesses. we are pleased that you're here and we know that we are goingle to learn a great deal from you. over the past year and a half the message i think from industry and consumer add vow cats to our subcommittee has -- advocates to our subcommittee has been pretty clear. our video laws are outdated. and in some cases they are even being abused. in 2010 there were just 12 broadcast television blackouts nationwide. in 2013, last year, there were 127. similarly retransfees are expected to more than double from $3.3 billion last year to $7 billion by 2018. i think that it's pretty clear who the losers are in all of this. it's consumers who will continue to see rising cable bills and in most case also not be compensated when programming -- when their programming is blacked out. some say that this is simply a manufactured crisis, but i would ask the following questions be considered. why is a law that was intended to promote localism being used to block national c

chairman? mr. chairman? >> yes, senator corker. >> i want to thank senator barrasso for his efforts if that regard, and he's been way before crisis out there on this issue. i have a second-degree amendment that i believe would bring this amendment more fully in line with wto issues which i am afraid that the base amendment bumps up against. and i also know there are some complexities. i know we had a discussion the other day about lng and how you actually cause it to get to the place you want it to get to. but i'm going to not offer the second-degree amendment because my sense is this amendment is not going to pass. and i want to say to my friend from wyoming that i'm going to vote for this, and i hope though as we move along if it's offered again on the floor, we might work together to try to overcome some of the issues we feel make this relative to wto issues, make this work better. but i really appreciate the thrust, and for that reason i'm going to support your amendment. >> before i recognize other memb

chairman, and what mr. sherman said about the ukrainians coming together, it is now time for them to unite, to speak with one voice, also, that's tremendously important. it's important for us, also, to make sure that right now, not waiting until another time that we engage with the moldovans and the georgians, and the people from azerbaijan and all of the other countries in the region that we are talking to them and they know that we have an interest in their overall well-being and their economy and in their democracies. let's not wait until there's something else that happens, and then we all of a sudden are jumping in. let's show, and i think that that's what this bill does, it shows that we're going to stand by the ukraine, we're going to try to help them with their economic circumstances so that they can stand on their feet, and improve their democracy, it sends the right message, i believe thereby it will send the right message to our allies in the region. that is tremendously important. and again, i e

mr. cramer: thank you, mr. chairman. i thank chairman hastings and chairman lamborn and my friend from ohio, mr. johnson, for introducing this important legislation. i had the great honor for nearly 10 years, prior to coming to congress, to be on the north dakota public service commission where we carried the laws and enforced the federal laws on behalf of our late-night coal industry that employs thousands of people. we had a little over 100,000 acres under permit, mined 30,000 -- 30 million tons of coal every year, and burn it to generate electricity, very low-cost electricity. we had a great relationship with our federal government, our federal partners. we did it in partnership. they appreciated and honored the state. as a consequence we have clean streams, clean water, clean air , good, rich topsoil. as well as the jobs that come with it. we don't have mountains. so a rule that was designed by somebody to deal with removal mining doesn't really match the prairies of north dakota which is always the problem with one-

chairman, i have a statement. i have a procedural question, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i have a procedural question. mr. chairman, you cannot run a committee like this. you just cannot do this. this is -- we are better than that as a country, we're better than that as a committee. i have asked for a few minutes to -- and now you're turning me off. i am a ranking member on this committee and i want to ask a question. what's the big deal? may i ask my question? may i make my statement. >> you're all free to leave, we've adjourned but the gentleman may ask his question. >> mr. chairman, i have one procedural question and it goes to trying to help you get the information by the way you just asked. >> thank you very much. mr. chairman, i have a one procedural question. and it goes to trying to help you get the information by the way that you just asked. >> what is your question? >> let me say what i have to say. i've listened to you for the last 15 or 20 minutes. let me say what i have to say. i have one procedural question. >> ms. lerner, you're released. >> i'd l

is that a commitment i can count on, mr. chairman? >> if the gentleman will yield, i believe our commitment is that we would bracket that language and continue to have that discussion between here and the full committee. >> that is my understanding as well. lastly, i remain concerned that section iii does not operate consistent with my colleagues intent and i hope these concerns can be addressed. mr. chairman, i look forward to working with you to resolve our outstanding differences before the full committee markup. thehe gentleman yield back balance of his time and i thank the gentleman and his staff and the ranking member's staff for the work they have done over the intervening period, and the suggestion to have put forward have been in good faith. we have tried to work on those and obviously made some progress. with that, i would now recognize the stolen from nebraska for an opening statement -- the gentleman from nebraska for the opening statement. >> i believe this market is timely. at issue here is the live watchedlike what we o

chairman. >> mr. neal. >> thank you, mr. chairman. madam secretary, let me come back to your role for a few moments about the trustee of medicare and social security. but just a reminder here that the democratic minority vigorously opposed the original part d prescription drug benefit plan offered by the bush administration because we did not think it had gone far enough. upon ascending to the majority right after, we took the role that not to undo what has been done but instead to work hard to improve it, and closing the doughnut hole was a pretty masterful piece of work. and now there's broad acceptance of the whole notion of the part d benefit. i wish it would've been the model we have adopted in congress for working with aca, but let me draw your attention specifically to a couple of issues. graduate medical education and the role of medicare financing our hospitals across the country as you know in massachusetts, our hospitals would be the equivalent of what boeing perhaps means to that's pacific northwest. i think it's a reasona

mr. lamborn: i thank the chairman. mr. speaker, i rise today in support of h.r. 4152, which provides loan guarantees for ukraine. i am deeply concerned about the crisis in ukraine. vladimir putin is clearly the aggressor, but the united states and our europe allies have not done enough to support freedom, self-determination and human rights in ukraine. when america does not provide strong and reliable leadership, bad things are more likely to happen. unfortunately president obama's foreign policy of leading from behind is a failure. even the liberal "the washington post" this week said that president obama's foreign policy is based on fantasy. we in congress must do all we can to restore missing american leadership on foreign policy and that starts with ukraine. the people of ukraine should not be pawns in vladimir putin's hands. we must stand with our european and our other allies and do all we can to support freedom, self-determination and human rights in ukraine. i ask my colleagues to support h.r. 4152. thank you, mr.

thank you mr. chairman. >> mr. rogers. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, let me ask you about the s.n.a.p. program. in your budget request, you propose that we spend $104.7 billion for food stamps. that's 3.3 billion dollar increase in one year. i'm told that there's some 49 -- 47 million participants per month. and whether you call it education or recruitment, there are people out there, from the government, that are aggressively seeking out people to sign up. and let me ask you, where in your budget request do you have moneys for, quote, education, unquote? >> mr. chairman, we provide several hundred million dollars to states, through the education and training part of the budget, that provides them resources to do several things. one is to make sure that those who are eligible are aware of the existence of the program. and to work with us to do a better job of connecting the 8% of snap beneficiaries that are able bodied without dependents, to be able to access work opportunities if they're aware of jobs that are available. one of the great op

senator hatch. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. lew, appreciate you being here today and appreciate what a difficult job you have. the nonpartisan congressional budget office says over the next ten years, spending on social security, medicare, medicaid, c.h.i.p., and exchange subsidies will total over 21.6 trillion dollars. moreover that spending will grow at an average rate of 4.4 appearance compared to the gross in the size of the economy projected to be 8.2 appearance and means growth is unsustainable. mr. certificatesecretary, i hav questions of entitlement i just mentioned. in light of the cbo projection of 21$21.6 trillion of spendingn entitlements, that's just some of the entitlements, by how much does the president's budget propose to reduce such spending and second, does the budget propose to reduce growth in entitlement spending at all and if so how? >> i think the observation you're referring to is one we've seen for a long time, has to do with demographic aging of the baby boom, the fact people my age and older are reti

thank you, mr. connolly. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i would say to the ranking member, sounds like his understanding is correct. and i would hope we'd do the same with, oh, i don't know, the

and mr. keating. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i just want to close and frame this resolution that i am supporting, this legislation this way. what was done and what russia did was illegal. now, there are other means of dealing with issues of autonomy. there are different ways to do that. with kosovo they did it with the security council. it can be done under the ukraine constitution. and the prime minister has made clear that he's open to discussions and dialogue on these issues of autonomy. if it's done legally, everyone's rights, including groups like crimea shlgs everyone's rights are better protected. that's the way it should happen. f the way it's happened has been at the barrel of a gun. that's what this legislation addresses. the ill legality of what should be done. i don't think that should be lost on us. and i yield back. >> i thank the gentleman for yielding back. . if there are no further speakers on the underlying bill, i recognize smoois to provide a manager's amendment which was provided to yours office last night.

>> that is correct mr. chairman. as we have informed your staff we are looking into 2011, 2012 and in a few months or weeks we will report back to the staff. >> is the investigation rigging the net new assets, is that investigation something which stemmed from client five assets or is it rather? >> it will be broader. i think we want to look at the area for the two years that i mentioned before. >> you told the sub committees that the investigation has identified indications in the private banks chief operating office that may raise issues, may raise issues of influence being inappropriately placed in the new asset process. is that correct? >> that's also correct mr. chairman. that is why we avoided drawing any conclusions. >> okay. where there e-mails that you looked at? >> kent there were some e-mails we looked at in the wording we didn't like. >> can you tell us who sent the e-mail's? >> i think there are a number of e-mails and we are going to report back to the step. >> do you know the names of any offhand? spee

. >> that, to but -- >> mr. chairman, thank you very much. mr. sedney, your college so thank you for being you. i have three of her questions are like to raise about specific programs, particularly of interest to me as a senator from kansas but the first one is a program, a law that was passed in 2,010,000 the house of representatives than, check the health of subcommittee on veterans and were successful in passing a bill called access receive closer to home arch. the crux of that effort was to recognize particularly in a state like ours, like mine that the hospitals are a long way from many veterans. we initially addressed that with outpatient clinics. and that provide routine services closer to home but still miles, ma hours away from many veterans in our state. and so my effort with the support of many of my colleagues, including the senator from arkansas, we were successful in passing legislation that would require the va to provide services in a sense hometowns where the veteran chose to have the services provided. if they lived more than a

we go now to mr. holding, north carolina. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman as we heard during our hearing in both the immediate an long term ukraine is going to require a wide range of assistance from the united states and our international partners. my amendment adds resolve clause to the resolution that expresses the support of the house to work with our partners in ukraine to improve transparency, combat corruption and protect individual rights through independent judiciary and strong rule of law. making improvements in these areas will be crucial to long-term stability in ukraine and they are also the foundation which strong democratic governance is built. i ask members to support my amendment and support the package. i yield back. >> thank the gentleman. mr. kissinger, from illinois. cheryl: thank you. >> thank you for excepting my amendment, strength inches the underlying bill impose sanctions on russian federation officials but also on russian and ukrainian ollie garth and others complicit in russian intervention and interference. the steps r

my time is up, mr. chairman. i certainly hope after all the sturm and drang for this issue we might come together on a bipartisan basis. >> i certainly hope so. i hope the gentleman remembers that 501(c)(4)s are not tax exempt to the contributor. so they really are no different than any corporation that spends all of its money doing anything. but, it is an interesting question of what social welfare was in 1959, and whether promoting a reduction in smoking, or something else would have been considered political prior to the creation of the federal election commission. >> you know, mr. chairman, if i may, we may even decide, frankly, look, let's just have a new category that, if you want to be political, and you want to hide who your donors are, hopefully you don't, there's this category. so that we're not playing, frankly, with words, and in a sense all being complicit in this disingenuous exercise. so i take the chairman's point, and would add to it. thank you. >> i thank the gentleman. we now go to gentleman fr

mr. chairman, mr. engel, members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to testify on the issues of great importance. not only for ukraine but for the region and for the united states. this is a critical moment for an opportunity for ukraine and usdie is well positioned to help ukraine meet some of its most pressing challengings. the ifm will be crucial to those efforts. this concludes my testimony. i'm prepared for questions. >> thanks, miss alexander. we'll go immediately to mr. singh. >> chairman royce, ranking member engel, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. i visited kiev last week to meet with government officials and express our solidarity during this difficult moment. secretary lu has spoken several times with the ukrainian prime minister. who has assured us that the government is prepared to take the necessary steps to build a secure economic foundation. including the implementation of urgently needed reforms to assure financial stability, unlea

my time is up, mr. chairman. i certainly hope after all the sturm and drang for this issue we might come together on a bipartisan basis. >> i certainly hope so. i hope the gentleman remembers that 501(c)(4)s are not tax exempt to the contributor. so they really are no different than any corporation that spends all of its money doing anything. but, it is an interesting question of what social welfare was in 1959, and whether promoting a reduction in smoking, or something else would have been considered political prior to the creation of the federal election commission. >> you know, mr. chairman, if i may, we may even decide, frankly, look, let's just have a new category that, if you want to be political, and you want to hide who your donors are, hopefully you don't, there's this category. so that we're not playing, frankly, with words, and in a sense all being complicit in this disingenuous exercise. so i take the chairman's point, and would add to it. thank you. >> i thank the gentleman. we now go to gentleman fr

chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. to follow up on the subject we've all been keenly interested in, of course, is the number of detention beds and the folks that you've got here in the country that are not legally present. the -- as in 2013, mr. secretary, i used 368,,000 violators all of whom met the definition of mandatory detentions. you've got a tremendous number of people here who were -- that number -- folks, for example, that have been accorded due process. people who had entered the country illegally. they received a final order of approval but they remain in the country in defiance of that order. at the end of july 2013, there were 872,000 individuals on issa's docket who met those -- in that category. they've gone through the whole process and they've been ordered removed. the vast majority of those just simply disappeared. so in light of that, what are the assumptions that you're making that would justify the agency recommending that you only need 30,539 detention beds? since you obviously have plenty of cus

mr. chairman, i yield back. >> mr. chairman, may i very briefly answer the question? >> yes. >> i've been a commander africa debt squadron at air force academy. we remove hundreds of quotes from the board, they're not in the room, congressman. they're in the hallway and used for personal professional messaging, we make sure we understand that context. what you said is absolutely true, every cadet has right to free religious expression if someone else comes to them, bothers me have that discussion, if that would happen i compliment both of them. we have to get the facts straight. general johnson. >> member my time is up. different if they have one-on-one discussion. that is not what happened. it is the chain of command came to this cadet and again, i'm just going by what your office has given me facts on the facts are wrong i can't answer that the second thing you can't have it bows way. you can't say we forced other people to take quotes off this was voluntarily done. if you ask this cadet and other cadets they don't believe it was voluntarily done. with that, mr. cha

. >> mr. chairman, i have a statement. i have a procedural question, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i have a procedural question. mr. chairman, you cannot run a committee like this. you just cannot do this. this is bet -- we are bert than that as a country. we are better than that as a committee. i have asked for a few minutes the fact is i am asking a question. i am the ranking member of this committee and i want to ask a question. what's the big deal? may i ask my question? may i make my statement? >> you're all free to leave. we have adjourned. but the gentleman may ask his question. >> thank you very much. mr. chairman, i have one procedural question, and it goes to trying to help you get the information by the way you just asked. >> what is your question? >> let me say what i have to say. i have listened to you for the last 15 or 20 minutes, let me say what i have to say. i have one procedural -- >> ms. lerner, you are released. >> first i would like to use my time to make brief points. for the past year the central republican accusation in this investigation -- >> we

think you did that, mr. mr. chairman. you don't get the second half of your money for commercial until you comply with the statute. you ought to think about putting contingencies on the aid to ukraine and the aid to egypt until they, the egyptians, give you access. >> with the gentleman yield. i think -- i agree with you. not so much on this particular part of it. egypt is decided the other day, the new regime, to sentence to death a hundred 28 people who supported the previous president they're time ran out. though situation is dissolving in the wrong direction. let alone whether or not we can get some basic level cooperation on the benghazi thing. the director's point in response to the chairman is that the issue here for our country is that eventually we're going to get these people. just like we got a lot. thousands of people were killed. took a time for justice to be, to find -- on the work its way. but if we are a great nation, patient and when that point have innocent people which -- the people it did this. so in t

price. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i, too, want to add my welcome, director burwell and thank you for your service. budgets, you know -- people's eyes glaze over when you talk about budgets, but it really is about priorities. how are we going to set priorities for the country? sadly, when we read through the president's budget, once again it's more spending. significantly greater spending. greater taxes, increasing debt, and no significant addressing of the fundamental drivers of spending here in washington. that is social security, medicare, and medicaid. to a great degree. so when i look at it and review what the president's proposed, it's really disappointing. budgets also reveal whether or not the assumptions that are made are honest and objective. if businesses and families don't honestly e vail wait their situation, where they are, they'll never be able to put in place a course correction. so i want to visit the growth assumptions that omb makes. by way of doing that h i want to revisit where we've been in th

thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. a point of want to quickly follow upon, identifying her real problem with the ability of employees and airports to get access to an identification documents and i hope she will continue to work on that. mr. secretary, i noticed that in your background -- i am trained as an attorney as well. i did civil defense work in houston defending businesses and individuals, engineers, professional people. i see that is your background. >> you were the general counsel for the department of defense. just as a point of curiosity, do you think that the individuals picked up by our soldiers overseas and on the battlefield held at guantanamo are entitled to the equal protection and due process? >> that's a very interesting question that we wrestle with extensively. under the the current stated the case law. >> my opinion is whether the supreme court tells me to think piteous of the currency of the case law is that with regard to the right to habeas they have that. certain of the limited rights. there

thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. rice. mr. secretary, your entire written statement will be entered into the record. you're now recognized for five minutes to summarize your testimony. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> i'm sorry. i should have asked my chairman if he had an opening statement. >> yes, sir. >> excuse me. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. secretary, for being here. on your first appearance before the committee. in the past several years, ranking member loi, along with our counterparts across the capitol, have worked hand-in-hand to restore regular order to this committee. thoughtful oversight and austerity. the omnibus bill for fiscal '14, which we agreed upon in january, is truly emblematic of that commitment, making responsible choices to right size our federal government and target precious tax dollars where they are needed the most. that bill was a true product of coming together, reflecting our shared desire to roll up our sleeves, cast partisanship to the wayside and do the critical work expected of t

mr. goodlatte: mr. chairman, mr. nadler's amendment purports to clarify that nothing in this legislation limits or otherwise affects prosecutorial discretion. if this amendment is adopted, it will only serve to cause confusion regarding the scope of the president's duty under the take care clause and the ability of congress to bring a lawsuit pursuant to this legislation. the underlying bill provides that the house or senate may authorize a lawsuit based upon adoption of a resolution declaring that the executive branch, quote, established or implemented a formal or informal policy, practice or procedure to refrain from enforcing, end quote, federal law in violation of the take care clause. adoption of a policy, practice or procedure is not an exercise in prosecutorial discretion. rather, the exercise of prosecutorial discretion involves the determination as to whether a particular individual or entity should be the subject of an enforced action for past conduct. in other words, nothing in this bill limits prosecutori

thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. secretary. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, just to maybe return to points that my good colleague from connecticut raised, i think the point of our dialogue was that there was a compromise that was struck in the bill that would reduce commodity programs for farmers by 7% and reduce snap program by 1%. some people thought that was lopsided. my only point that i'm trying to make, sir, to drive that home is that at least the 1% that is out of the snap program, that is merely an agreed to point, it should be fixed and it would save $8 billion and that would be the agreement. we'll leave that and i'll say support of farmers and support of the agriculture community is a long standing tradition of this congress and this country and without a healthy, vibrant agriculture community, without healthy, vibrant farmers there is no food in the grocery store for people to buy or for snap beneficiaries to purchase and so i think we need to be mindful. the 7% reduction, i would be hard-pressed to find any other program that's been re

thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator. >> thank you, mr. chairman. general, thank you for your answer to senator inhofe's question about your ability to arry out your responsibilities , as you say, your forces under your command are operationally ready but we see more and more indications of fewer and fewer units of the united states army that are operationally ready. and that must be a great -- of great concern for you. in case of the unthinkable and that is an outbreak of conflict. is that correct? >> yes, sir, that's correct. on the korean peninsula, the nature of the fight is potentially high-intensity combat and time and space factors also present a tough problem for us. so the delivery of ready forces on a time line is important. >> admiral locklear, would you agree that china's efforts are under way to change the balance of power in at least the western pacific? >> i would agree. >> and that may be carried out in an incremeble fashion such as the -- incremental fashion such as a requirement over the acquisition a, the of an aircraft carrier, i

mr. lamborn: i thank the chairman. mr. chairman, i rise in strong support of h.r. 2824, the preventing government waste and protecting coal mining jobs in america act. this critical piece of legislation which was introduced by representative bill johnson and myself is designed to save taxpayer dollars and protect american jobs by putting the office of surface mining on a responsible path forward for managing and regulating coal mining in america. so far the obama administration has spent nearly $10 million taxpayer dollars rewriting a coal production rule, the 2008 stream buffer zone rule, but the rule of 2008 was never fully implemented. the administration is conducting this rewrite without ever providing justification for the need for a new rule. the $10 million does not include the money spent on attorneys fees and costly litigation or the internal costs born by the agencies, even more critically it does not include the cost to the families of the thousands of workers who have been displaced or seen work delayed by the

. >> thank you, mr. chairman, mr. secretary could you give me the breakdown of the 2,000 custom and border patrol officers by location? >> we're in the process of doing that right now, sir. >> all right. nose to be unfriendly here. how do you ask for 2,000 if you don't know where you're going to put them? >> it's an overall assessment of what we need. >> where did that come from? why 2,000? why not 1753, or 2162? how did you come up with 2,000? >> well, first of all, i wasn't -- >> you inherited it, i understand. >> i'm responsible for it, obviously. my sense is that we are able to make an overall estimate based on where we know we have a need nationwide, to get to that number. >> okay so, with the domestic, you're saying nationwide so they would be not overseas in preclearance offices. is that correct? >> by and large, but some are and should be in my judgment, devoteed to preclearance overseas. that's very important. >> how big do you think that number is? >> off hand i don't know. we just opened a preclearance capa

chairman i yield back. >> mr. larsen. >> general welsh i am also on the strategic committee and i imagine if we have in the last couple of years we will have a debate about forward-deployed nuclear weapons in europe. so to kick that off for the subcommittee at some point in the future when we have that hearing can you first off discuss some of the costs of forward to playing weapons in europe and can you discuss what are contingency plans if one or more nato countries do not get her capable aircraft after their own aircraft are retired? >> yes, sir. the forward-deployed nuclear force, takes money to maintain and it takes money to up grade and takes money to keep secure and provide security. you have to pay attention to it. it's not an insignificant cause. as you know the specific cost classified i would be happy to come to talk to in detail about those. the nato nations if they choose not to upgrade their own nuclear aircraft capabilities than other nato nations that have those capabilities from an operational per

thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> mr. botticelli, your predecessor i think was confirmed at cbp earlier this month? is that right? >> correct. >> you've been in your current capacity now as acting director? >> two weeks now. >> for two weeks. okay. is it fair to say you didn't have a lot of input with the president face to face on this particular budget? >> you know, clearly we work with the administration. >> but you personally. you personally were not face to face with the president on this budget? >> correct. >> okay. have you been invited into the white house, into the oval office to talk about the growing problems with substance abuse and the effects, the cascading effects across society? have you had an opportunity, have you been invited, have you had the opportunity, can you kind of take me inside the white house and tell me how that conversation is going? >> as part of the executive office of the president, we obviously work with the president and the president's advisers in terms of what our policy has been. >> i

thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. angle. -- mr. angle. chairman emeritus. >> thank you so much, mr. chairman. thank you to you and to our ranking member for holding this important hearing. because relations between the u.s. and taiwan are at a critical juncture. i'm concerned, as all of us are, about china's continued rise and aggression in the east and south china sea. and the feeble response by our state department to north korean missile launches, which are a clear violation of international sanctions. the people of taiwan have every reason to fear development in the west pacific, to worry about the future of their land, and to question both the resolve and the commitment of the united states, how tragic. and as we approach this 35th anniversary of the very important and essential taiwan relations act anniversary, we remember that this crucial legislation forms the cornerstone of u.s.-taiwan relations. it is the foundation of policy that has been and will be, and will remain for ever more the anchor of peace and security in the west pa

chairman. >> senator murphy. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. senator johnson referenced the fact that there many people that believe this is a sign of russian weakness in the sense that only two weeks ago russia have the president of the ukraine essentially under their palm both economic and politically a country that had reversed course and had committed into a new economic relationship with russia that moved away from an economic association with europe and today the situation is very different. there are 43 million other ukrainians which represent 95% of the country's population which now have a government towards europe, and russia now faces economic sanctions from the united states and europe if not crippling will certainly be damaging and faces a future is somewhat of an international pariah who has had much lesser ability to influence the future course of democratic and economic values. and so ultimately i guess the question is what is the end goal here? this was a panicked reaction to yanukovych's removal from office than what he is see

price. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i, too, want to add my welcome, director burwell and thank you for your service. budgets, you know -- people's eyes glaze over when you talk about budgets, but it really is about priorities. how are we going to set priorities for the country? sadly, when we read through the president's budget, once again it's more spending. significantly greater spending. greater taxes, increasing debt, and no significant addressing of the fundamental drivers of spending here in washington. that is social security, medicare, and medicaid. to a great degree. so when i look at it and review what the president's proposed, it's really disappointing. budgets also reveal whether or not the assumptions that are made are honest and objective. if businesses and families don't honestly e vail wait their situation, where they are, they'll never be able to put in place a course correction. so i want to visit the growth assumptions that omb makes. by way of doing that h i want to revisit where we've been in th

chairman. mr. secretary, i had the honor of meeting with the ukrainian prime minister this morning. and he reiterated to us that obviously, the united states is indispensable in terms of ukraine. ukraine's freedom and the aspirations of ukraine to look westward rather than eastward. and an observation i've had for quite some time is that the european union in its negotiations for affiliation with the eastern partnership laid down a lot of stringent hoops that a country like ukraine would have to jump through before they could join before they could get the aid, before they could get whatever they needed. you contrast that with putin saying here's $15 billion, no strings attached. here's cheap energy. we're going to give you that. it seems to me that the eu has sort of failed in the past to really even the playing field and, of course, we're dealing with these countries that are right on the cuss cusp, not only ukraine but moldova, azerbaijan, armenia. does the eu finally get it? do they finally und

thank you mr. chairman. >> mr. director i'm going to take a winding road here but ron noble is the head of interpol the law enforcement careerist from the united states, a friend he is doing a good job. you mentioned in your opening statement that almost everything you do now has an international connection. i was in brussels a few years back when all the law enforcement your counterparts in the european union, they have arranged for circumstances where no matter which country going through an extradition process, just a seamless system they set up between some 28 nations. we don't have that in the united states. i was wondering as you see these in a national parallel are there ways and you don't have to answer now but have you thought about what we can do to improve our systems here? the real question underneath all of this is the chairman mentioned the target. the target is one of my favorite operations. they have done a billion dollars in library refurbishment. they have done them in every state but a number in

mr. conway. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i would say to the ranking member, it sounds like and i would hope we would do the same with i don't know, the ig, mr. russell george, i'd like to see all of this over partisan political e-mails. i'd like to see if the e-mails relative staff members, to this committee. i think that would be relevant to put an end context his findings into determining whether he is a subjective source of information. that is a different matter. mr. koskinen, as i read the declaration of independence, it is written largely initially the first rock by thomas jeffers but was subject to an editorial to be. he didn't like that appeared he thought his words were good. among those words were entitled to life, liberty. now here's the editorial committee did not act. he sat in the pursuit of happiness. it sounds like some people would substitute for that to 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) tax systems. do you read that in the declaration of independence? >> i don't read it that way. >> it doesn't read that way. it's not

thank you, mr. chairman. i was talking about my county commissioners earlier, speaking of predictability, not a single one said they ever passed a continuing resolution as way of resolving their budget issues. with that, i yield the floor. >> thank you, senator. we turn to senator roberts then. >> thank you. senator, i had some glowing remarks about the chairman and, of course, we are talking to an empty chair here, so i didn't mean that to reflect upon the chairman, but, anyway. he's originally from wichita, kansas, and they are now discovering his chairmanship. they're very proud and they're going to beseech the chairman with the milk of human kindness and humble requests. maybe a little frankincense and mur and a little bonused appreciation for the aircraft industry, if that would work out. i have a lot of pride that a good friend and colleague has now become chairman of this committee. people ask me how do i get along with ron wyden. i said everybody gets along with him. you might not agree with him. ever