she met with folks in a lot of different places, including northeastern pennsylvania. to say that people have been inspired and moved by her story and by her activism is another understatement. she spearheaded an effort to build shelters for women, especially victims of domestic abuse, and she did this in a province. she aspires to start a restaurant owned and run by women in which female customers can gather and socialize in safety. we know security is still a very real challenge for afghans, particularly women and girls. solidifying the gains made over the last 12 years will require support from afghanistan security forces. for the past two years i have led an effort in the senate to ensure that the department of state and defense are working to bolster the role of women in the security force. in the defense authorization bills, i have work to put resources behind the recruitment and retention of women in the afghan national security forces. about 1800 brave women are now serving in these forces. some have broken the glass ceiling to become pilots in the air force, a

you know, i come from northeastern pennsylvania, chris, where we have these fanciful motions of fairand free speech. i understand other americans feel the same way. those notions were trampled upon today in the oversight hearing, and the great irony, chris, is that our ranking member for the democrats is elijah cummings out of maryland. and mr. cummings started off, you know, when lois lerner first came to testify in congress, and when it was russell george who showed up last year with his detailed report about unfair targeting of certain political groups, mr. cummings was outraged and he expressed his outrage vow sieverously, and he was ready to reign down hellfire on whoever was doing this at the irs. >> that's an excellent point, a lot of people, we on this network, i remember doing the show that night, the initial indications were something truly, truly screwed up happened there, the question was how far up it went. i want to play elijah cummings talking about the extent of investigations that have already happened. take a listen. >> we have now interviewed 38 irs employees, hund