We think there should be a better countering-violent-extremism effort, that there should be a lead agency tasked to handle that.

We are ramping up security in the United States but also looking at visa applicants, visa waiver applicants - and looking at travel manifests on the airplanes trying to come into the United States.

On this National Agriculture Day, when we all should be taking time to thank and pay tribute to America's farmers, ranchers and their families who produce the food for our tables, we are finding those same people in dire need of our help and support.

Now we're dealing with a younger generation of terrorists that are very, very savvy with computer skills, very savvy over the Internet, and very savvy with social media of the likes that we have never seen before.

In Europe, you have very different situation than you do in the United States. In Europe, it's very segregated. And you have the diasporas in Belgium that I saw. And they're being radicalized because they're not assimilated with the culture. I don't think we have that same situation in the United States.

I think there's kind of a simplistic, kind of knee-jerk response that all you have to do is build a 2,000-mile wall, and problem solved.

The President of Iran has called for the destruction of Israel and the West and has even denied the holocaust took place. Iran and its terrorist arm Hezbollah are responsible for the current conflicts between Israel and Lebanon.

We have a failed state in Syria.

Violent extremism is going viral, but our response to it is moving at bureaucratic, sluggish speed.

Currently, the United States provides 22 percent of the U.N. annual budgets, over $900 million in fiscal year 2007, and some of that funding goes to the Human Rights Council.

Social media campaigns and the savviness of ISIS and propaganda is what greatly concerns us Homeland Security officials.

We know there are terrorists communicating with individuals in the United States. We just can't see what they're saying.

This is an unprecedented pace of terror in modern times. And so, to say they're on the run absolutely defies reality.

That's what really concerns me about the modern-day terrorists that we face is this global expansion.

I think a lot of programs, policies have been put in place since 9/11, have prevented a 9/11-style attack. On the other hand, I think the threat has become greater, not lesser.

My number one objective continues to be to defund or delay the implementation of Obamacare. But as long as any piece of this law is standing, it needs to apply to all Americans equally, and that includes members of Congress and our staff.

What you're seeing is tension that we've seen for years between President Erdogan and his military, his military being more secular, President Erdogan being a little more in the Islamist side of the house.

There's no national strategy to deal with combating terrorism and foreign fighters.

Anything I can do to help destroy ISIS, I will support that.

Without - you know, good intelligence stops plots against the homeland. Without that intelligence, we cannot effectively stop it.

To prevent a crippling attack on our nation's critical networks, U.S. companies and the federal government must work together to combat those who wish to do us harm.

We're making it more difficult to obtain the necessary ingredients to produce meth and tightening criminal penalties for those who deal in this dangerous drug.

We talk a lot about operational control, and that's having a better understanding of who's coming in and who's leaving, what the threat really is. We're never really going to get that.

I know there's a lot of discussion about building a 2000-mile wall. I think we need to complete the Secure Fencing Act, but we need greater technology and aviation aspects down on the Southwest border so we can see the threat from the sky. Until you can see it, you don't know where it's coming from and how to correctly stop it.

Unfortunately, cancer is the number one killer of children in this country today, and it destroys not only these innocent victims, but their families as well.

Do we want a back door in an iPhone where the government can go in to track movements if they have probable cause? I know the director of the FBI and local law enforcement want that capability.

First and foremost, my job is to protect the American people.

We cannot stop what we cannot see.

I don't think Mr. Putin has our best interests at heart.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is the largest external operation force within al Qaeda.

I am extremely concerned that Syrian and ISIS recruiters can use the Internet at lightning speeds to recruit followers in the United States with thousands of followers in the United States and then activate them to do whatever they want to do.

This policy of containment is not a winning strategy. We need a policy to defeat and destroy ISIS once and for all.

I would argue it should be a policy to defeat ISIS where they are, where they exist and prevent them from coming into the United States.

We're a compassionate nation.

I like to celebrate the holiday season - not so much in a religious way, per se, but in a unifying way.

One of my all-time favorite Christmas songs, I have to admit, was the Chipmunks' 'Christmas Song.' I remember playing that song over and over.

Where I grew up in St. Louis, Saturday was country music day on television. We'd watch the Bill Anderson show, the Willie Nelson show, the Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner show, and always the Grand Ole Opry. My parents were fans of that music, and my friend's parents would pull the TV out and watch those shows on the porch.

My friendship with The Doobie Brothers never really changed. We're all still good friends, and I really admire those guys a lot.

When I get in a bad mood about anything, I realize, 'Hey, I'm still working. It could always be a lot worse.'

We try to promote the Christmas season and remind people that it is a season of peace. That's what the season's real meaning is about. No matter what religion you are, there is that point in time where we should celebrate that idea of peace and humanity.

I think that's the one thing we all hope for in this life is we leave something of a legacy, that's meaningful to someone else, when we leave here.

Aretha Franklin is and will always be a national treasure.

Pat Simmons and I always had a great blend together. We did the background vocals on a Little Feat track called 'Red Streamliner,' and that was great fun. I always really loved the way it turned out.

I don't know that we ever overcome doubt. We just have to remember that it's more than likely a poodle in the bushes and not a grizzly bear.

Rap is like any other genre: There are the people who are very creative with it and do remarkable things... and then there's that whole quadrant that sounds alike. There's great stuff that's taken the genre to a new level over the years, and 'Regulate' was one of those tracks that was kind of a landmark.

Hey, I'd love to have a hit single, but if that doesn't happen, I'm not going to complain.

When I was with the Doobies, the style of music was that we all went over the falls with chord progressions, trying to make things as complex and interconnected as possible.

Since the '60s, we've lived so much in an age of quick fixes that the culture itself has become a quick fix.

When I listen to songs, to this day, I listen to the chords and the groove and the melody.

I do love the Nat King Cole stuff, the classic Christmas records. There's something about putting those records on and hearing his voice at Christmastime that brings back a lot of great memories of growing up.