Dianne Feinstein

Simply put, Guantanamo is one of the best propaganda tools that terrorists have today. Our enemies use it to justify terrorism and recruit others to carry out violent jihad, and our allies continue to criticize it as a violation of the rule of law.

The time has come to repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' It is the right thing to do. Every American should have the opportunity to serve their country, regardless of race, sex, creed, or sexual orientation.

The criteria for serving one's country should be competence, courage and willingness to serve. When we deny people the chance to serve because of their sexual orientation, we deprive them of their rights of citizenship, and we deprive our armed forces the service of willing and capable Americans.

America is big enough to admit when it's wrong and confident enough to learn from its mistakes.

Yes, I support the death penalty. It is an issue that cannot be fudged or hedged.

We have no regulation of drones in the United States in their commercial use. You can see drones some day hovering over the homes of Hollywood luminaries, violating privacy. This question has to be addressed. And we need rules of operation on the border, by police, by commercial use, and also by military and intelligence use.

Supreme Court justices should not be an extension of the Republican Party.

In the wake of 9/11, we were desperate to bring those responsible for the brutal attacks to justice. But even that urgency did not justify torture. The United States must be held to a higher standard than our enemies, yet some of our actions did not clear that bar.

Our system of checks and balances requires policymakers to have accurate information about government actions.

Torture goes against the very soul of our country. We are a democracy, established on the rule of law.

We're not perfect, and there are some dark patches in our past, but what makes us special is that we recognize these evils, we come to grips with them, and we fix them.

Let me be crystal clear: There is no such thing as 'limited use' nuclear weapons, and for a Pentagon advisory board to promote their development is absolutely unacceptable.

Designing new low-yield nuclear weapons for limited strikes dangerously lowers the threshold for their use.

It is my belief that tax credits only go to people who are making money, and they generally keep it.

In addition to being a terrorist recruiting tool, Guantanamo is a huge drain on taxpayer dollars.

There's no reason to think a Guantanamo detainee is any more likely to escape from Supermax than any other federal prisoner.

Theft of a firearm should be punished as a felony, plain and simple.

At age 14, my paternal grandfather fled Poland to escape the pogroms that killed tens of thousands of European Jews. He worked full-time for a cobbler in Boston, making his way to California and eventually starting his own business in Taft - the Goldman Oil Supply Company.

My mother emigrated from Russia as a young child. She couldn't speak English and had no education. Her father died at age 32, leaving the family destitute. An uncle, who worked as a carpenter, supported the family.

I am religious in my thinking.

We cannot expect to keep our nation's secrets secure - or provide meaningful oversight for our intelligence agencies - if proper classification of our country's secrets is as likely as a coin flip.

Information-sharing is elementary to good intelligence work.

Student loan debt is certainly not a fitting topic for a commencement speech, but it's an issue we must confront - not only for thousands of college graduates who deserve a fair shot, but also for our economy.

College costs continue to rise, and student loan debt threatens to price many Americans out of a college education and out of the middle class.

America is still the land of opportunity, and hard work is still a pathway to success.