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Top lawmakers are blasting the Trump administration's proposal to slash funding for the State Department and the US Agency for International Development. Secretary Mike Pompeo testified about the plan to cut his agency's budget by 23 percent. (March 27) AP

WASHINGTON Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on Capitol Hill Wednesday to defend the Trump administrations budget request for fiscal year 2020. But lawmakers grilled him on a host of other hot spots around the world from Iran to North Korea to Central America.

Here are four takeaways from Pompeo's nearly three hours before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:

War with Iran?

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., suggested the Trump administration might be preparing to take military action against Iran a longstanding fear among critics who point to the hard-line anti-Iran views espoused by both Pompeo and John Bolton, Trumps national security adviser.

Paul asked Pompeo if the Trump administration believes it has the authority go to war with Iran under Congress 2001 authorization to strike terrorists who attacked the United States on 9/11.

Members of the Organization of Iranian American Communities stand as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepares to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 10, 2019, during a hearing to review the FY 2020 State Department budget request. The group stood up as a gesture of appreciation for the U.S. designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC, as a "foreign terrorist organization."(Photo: Susan Walsh, AP)

Id prefer to leave that to lawyers, Pompeo responded.

Paul pressed further, implying the State Departments decision, announced Monday, to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps a foreign terrorist organization was intended to lay the groundwork for a military strike using the 2001 law as justification.

There is a connection between the Islamic Republic of Iran and al-Qaeda. Period, full stop, Pompeo said, referring to the terrorist group behind the 9/11 attacks.

You do not have our permission to go to war in Iran, Paul shot back.

'Deal of the Century' and U.S. policy toward Israel

Pompeo repeatedly refused to say whether the Trump administration would oppose Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus vow to annex the West Bank or whether the U.S. still supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Netanyahu secured a 5th term as Israels leader on Wednesday after campaigning largely on his success in persuading President Trump to make a series of pro-Israel policy decisions, including moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. During the campaign, he promised to annex the West Bank in a last-minute bid to rally the right wing.

Pompeo evaded questions about that by telling lawmakers they would soon see the Trump administration vision for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law and a top adviser, is crafting the secretplan, which Trump has promised will be the Deal of the Century.

Pompeo said Kushners plan would be unveiled before too long.

Democrats said it was ridiculous Pompeocould not articulate current U.S. policy on such a consequential question.

Im kind of shocked that that cannot be stated clearly, said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.

Cutting aid to Central American countries

Democrats also blasted the Trump administrations decision to cut humanitarian aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador in response to the current migrant crisis at the U.S. southern border. Pompeo announced the decision under pressure from Trump, who has complained that those countries are not doing enough to stop their desperate citizens from fleeing to the U.S.

All this will do is create greater instability in the region and drive more people in fear and hopelessness to the border, said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee.

Pompeo defended the decision, saying the aid was not working to improve the living conditions in those countries.

The United States has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to try and build out solutions in these countries, he said. It has not been effective ... so we are endeavoring to change that.

Pompeo also ducked a series of related questions, including whether he agrees with Trump that the U.S. should close its border with Mexico and whether the U.S. is "full" when it comes to immigrants.

Wiggle room on North Korea sanctions?

Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo.,pressed Pompeo on whether the U.S. would maintain crippling economic sanctions on North Korea until the regime of Kim Jong Un took concrete steps toward giving up his countrys nuclear weapons cache.

I want to leave a little space there, Pompeo responded. If the administration makes substantial progress in its negotiations with North Korea, it might be the right thing to ease up the economic penalties, he added.

His remarks come at a critical moment. South Koreas President Moon Jae-in will be at the White House on Thursday and is expected to ask Trump to revive talks with Kim after a failed summit in Hanoi resulted in no agreement. Moon may ask the president to lift some sanctions in exchange for steps by North Korea to denuclearize.

Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., suggested the administration was not being tough enough on enforcing current global sanctions, pointing to a United Nations report documenting North Korea's evasion of some economic restrictions with the help of China and Russia.

"I see Kim JongUnjust trying to play out the string to the end of your administration with absolutely no results," Markey said.

Pompeo argued that the Trump administration had done more to constrain North Korea that the the Obama administration.

Related coverage:

South Korean president Moon seeks deal, maybe a new summit, for Trump and Kim Jong Un

More: Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu headed for record 5th term as Benny Gantz concedes

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No war with Iran, Rand Paul warns Pompeo during tense Senate ...

Sen. Rand Paul said he is continuing to press the president on Afghanistan, making the pitch that there could be a political advantage to pulling out as he approaches the 2020 election. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

What do Rand Paul, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mike Lee and Ilhan Omar have in common? They are all teaming up to offer President Donald Trump rare bipartisan praise from conservatives and liberals alike for his withdrawal from Syria.

The Kentucky GOP senator, New York Democratic congresswoman and a bipartisan group of 10 other lawmakers wrote Trump on Wednesday to offer bipartisan support of your announcement of the start of a deliberate withdrawal of U.S. military forces in Syria, according to a letter sent to the president. The group of lawmakers declares that the U.S. presence in Syria is in violation of the Constitution because Congress never approved it and also urges Trump to wind down the war in Afghanistan.

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It is long past time to rein in the use of force that goes beyond congressional authorization, and we look forward to pursuing this longstanding bipartisan objective with your administration, the bipartisan group told Trump. We hope this will serve as a model for ending hostilities in the future in particular, as you and your administration seek a political solution to our involvement in Afghanistan.

The letter was led by Paul and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and signed by lawmakers including Lee, a Republican senator from Utah, and Reps. Omar (D-Minn.), Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Bill Posey (R-Fla.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.). Though hawkish Republicans have criticized Trump for his planned withdrawal from Syria, Paul told reporters on Wednesday morning that the president is not budging.

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He tells me in no uncertain words that his position has not changed on Syria, Paul said. The foreign policy swamp, they want to stay everywhere forever ... I dont think anybodys changing Trump on these things.

Trump has backed off his plans for Syria somewhat in recent weeks, with the administration leaving a stabilizing force there as the U.S. withdraws. But Paul said Trump will ultimately follow through on his promise.

The bipartisan movement represents one of the few areas of aisle-crossing in Trumps Washington. The left and right have been advocating for years now that Congress needs to rewrite authorizations of military force and stay out of conflicts that arent authorized by Congress, including a resolution that will remove the U.S. presence from the civil war in Yemen expected to be vetoed by Trump this month.

The Constitution isnt partisan, Khanna said.

Paul said he is continuing to press the president on Afghanistan, making the pitch that there could be a political advantage to pulling out as he approaches the 2020 election.

Something that would have electoral implications if he was able to end the war in Afghanistan, Paul said. Public sentiment is with him.

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Rand Paul, Ocasio-Cortez praise Trump for Syria withdrawal

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) has blocked a resolution to release the Mueller report again, arguing that full transparency should be aimed for instead of partisan oneupmanship, and demanding the release of documents that detail the Obama administrations involvement in the 2016 election.

According to The Hill,vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Sen.Mark Warner(D-Va.) asked his fellow lawmakers to vote to approve the resolution to release the documents in full in order tofully understand what the Russians were trying to do and for transparency reasons for the American people.

However, Paul has also aimed at transparency, and once again voted down the resolution on Thursday after Warner refused to make public any dealings former President Barack Obama and his administration had with the Clinton campaign during the 2016 elections:

Senate rules say that one Senator can block a resolution, and Paul fully intends to use this power until Democrats agree to release information that would give us a much larger understanding of what happened during the 2016 elections.

It was so scandalous and so unverified and has turned out to be untrue, and yet this was the basis for the beginning of the investigation, added Paul. This was the basis for doing something extraordinary.

This marks the fifth time the resolution has been blocked, but Paul isnt alone.Sen.Lindsey Graham(R-S.C.) has also shot down the resolution, as well as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) who is currently wanting to give Mueller andAttorney GeneralWilliam Barr time to work out theform in which theyd like to release the report to the public.

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Rand Paul Blocks Mueller Resolution Again, Demands Obama ...

Citing a "high-level source," Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul charged in a bombshell Twitter post late Wednesday that anti-Trump ex-CIA Director John Brennan "insisted that the unverified and fake Steele dossier" be included in a classifiedintelligence community report on Russian interference in the 2016 elections -- a decision that ultimately lent credibility to the dossier and may have played a key role in fomenting unfounded fears of Russia collusion for two years.

Paul called on Brennanto testify under oath immediately, as Republicans continue to aggressively seek outthe origins of the collusion narrative.Fox News had not independently verified Paul's source, and Brennan has not replied to Fox News' requests for comment.

Fox News is told Paul's tweet specifically accused Brennan of pushing to incorporate the dossier into theJanuary 2017 official intelligence community assessment (ICA)from the FBI, CIA, and NSA that Russia worked to interfere in the 2016 election.

However, the dossier is notreferenced in the unclassified summary of the ICA report that has been publicly released. Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper previously testified that the dossier was not ultimately used in the ICA at all.

CNN reported on Jan.12, 2017, based on anonymous sources, that intelligence officialsbriefed Trump on Jan. 6, 2017 with a "synopsis" ofthe contents of thedossier, which was written by ex-British spy Christopher Steele. Among the claims in the discredited dossier were that the Russian government hadhumiliating and compromising information concerning Trump.

Sen. Rand Paul called Monday for President Trump to revoke former CIA director John Brennan's security clearance. (Reuters)

Although the decision to brief Trump on the dossier and the intelligence community's reliance on it, then-FBI Direct James Comey would later testify, wasostensibly intendedto make Trumpaware of potential blackmail risks, the unexplained and nearly immediate leak of the meetinglegitimized the dossier's significance and prompted a cascade of unfounded media-driven theories about what purportedly compromising information the Russian government may have on the president.

FOX NEWS EXCLUSIVE: INTERNAL TEXTS SHOW DOJ CONCERNS OVER 'BIAS' OF DOSSIER AUTHOR BEFORE CRUCIAL WARRANT APPLICATION

For example, Vanity Fair article alleged:"The fact that the nations top intelligence officials chose to present a summary version of the dossier to both President Obama and President-elect Trump, asCNN reportsthey did last week, indicates that they may have had a relatively high degree of confidence that at least some of the claims therein were credible, or at least worth investigating further."

Shortly afterward the CNN report, BuzzFeed News published the dossier. Steele, whose anti-Trump views are now well-known, was working for Fusion GPS -- a firm hired by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee.

"BREAKING: A high-level source tells me it was Brennan who insisted that the unverified and fake Steele dossier be included in the Intelligence Report," Paul wrote on Twitter on Wednesday."Brennan should be asked to testify under oath in Congress ASAP."

Information from the author of thediscredited dossier was also used in October 2016 to support a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to surveil then-Trump aide Carter Page.

Just nine days before the FBI applied for the warrant to monitor Page, bureau officials were battling with a senior Justice Department official who had "continued concerns" about the "possible bias" of a source pivotal to the application, according to internal text messages obtained last week by Fox News. (Sources tell Fox News theDOJ stonewalled congressional investigators by not releasing those text messages last year.)

Fox News is told the texts were connected to the ultimately successful Page application, which relied in part on information from Steele. In its warrant application, the FBI incorrectly assured the FISA court on numerous occasionsthat other sources independently corroborated Steele's claimsbut did not clearly state that Steele worked for a firm hired by Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Other newly obtainedtext messagesbetween former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and bureau lawyer Lisa Page revealed a high-level meeting among senior intelligence officials was held weeks before President Trumps inauguration during a critical period for theRussia probe.

WHY BRENNAN, CLAPPER'S HIGH-LEVEL MEETING -- REVEALED BY TEXTS OBTAINED BY FOX NEWS -- WAS SO UNUSUAL

In a Dec. 12, 2016, text reviewed by Fox News, Page wrote to McCabe: "Btw, [Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper told Pete that he was meeting with [CIA Director John] Brennan and Cohen for dinner tonight. Just FYSA [for your situational awareness]."

Brennan was one of the loudest and most virulent voices to trumpet the Russian collusion theory over the past two years, asserting falselyjust weeks ago that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was likely planning to indict members of the Trump administration's family in a scene reminiscent of the"ides of March and the assassination of Julius Caesar.

Paul had supported the White House's decision to revokeBrennan's security clearance last year. Trump administration officials said Brennan was implying improperly that he had insider information to bolster his outlandish accusations. In the same interview in which he told MSNBC that an "ides of March" redux may soon materialize, MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell even remarked at one point, "You have the inside knowledge." Brennan attempted to dismiss that suggestion.

After the news that Mueller found no evidence of Trump-Russia collusionafter an exhaustive probe lasting nearly two years, Brennan offered a meek mea culpa.

I don't know if I received bad information, but I think I suspected there was more than there actually was, Brennan told MSNBCs Morning Joe.

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He added: I am relieved that its been determined there was not a criminal conspiracy with the Russian government over our election."

Brennan said he was not all that surprised that the high bar of criminal conspiracy was not met" -- although, according to Attorney General William Barr, Mueller in fact found no evidence of such a conspiracywhatsoever.

Fox News' Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.

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Rand Paul: 'Source' says John Brennan pushed discredited ...

Sen. Rand PaulRandal (Rand) Howard PaulGOP shifts focus to investigating Obama officials Hillicon Valley Presented by NCTA Huawei lashes out, says US has 'loser's attitude' | Koch group attacks Warren plan for tech crackdown | New bipartisan push to end NSA surveillance program Lawmakers introduce bipartisan bill to end NSA's mass phone data collection program MORE (R-Ky.)said Wednesday that lawmakers should investigate former President Obama, suggesting that he could have played a role in the years-long Russia investigation that concluded over the weekend.

In a tweet, the senator suggested that Congress should probe the origins of the now-concludedspecial counsel investigation into Russian election interference and possible ties with the Trump campaign, seemingly suggesting that Obama was involved in the FBI probe that predated it.

"I agree with @kimguilfoyle Time for Congress to investigate. What did President Obama know and when? How did this hoax go on for so long unabated?" Paul asked.

I agree with @kimguilfoyle Time for Congress to investigate. What did President Obama know and when? How did this hoax go on for so long unabated? https://t.co/fgJZaqR6cI

Obama reportedly was informed by the FBI in 2016 thatthe bureauwas investigating Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 election, but, according to former Vice President Biden's telling,Obama was warned against going public with the investigation by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellThe Memo: GOP frets as Trump squanders advantages GOP shifts focus to investigating Obama officials Ocasio-Cortez shuts down town hall audience member after they call GOP lawmaker a 'moron' MORE (R-Ky.).

Obama, during his tenure,said he confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin aboutRussian interference in the 2016 election. The former president, according to The New York Times, saidhe toldPutin to cut it out, there were going to be serious consequences if he did not.

The FBI's probe of the campaign began following comments former Trump campaign adviser George PapadopoulosGeorge Demetrios PapadopoulosGOP shifts focus to investigating Obama officials Papadopoulos on working for Trump: 'I wouldn't change a thing' Five things to watch at Trump's Michigan rally MORE reportedly made to Australian diplomats about Russia's theft of emails from the Democratic National Committee in May 2016.

The New York Times reported in 2018 that Papadopoulos's comments led to the FBIs counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference, which evolved into the special counsel probe after President TrumpDonald John TrumpMigrants cleared from enclosure beneath El Paso bridge after outcry North Korea calls for probe into 'terror attack' on embassy in Spain Buttigieg: 'I have enormous respect' for Hillary Clinton MORE fired former FBI Director James ComeyJames Brien ComeyWhat did Mueller know? Dems worry Mueller findings could expand executive power Questions mount over Mueller, Barr and obstruction MORE in 2017.

Trump and his allies have repeatedly attacked the Mueller investigation as a partisan effort toundermine his presidency.

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Rand Paul: 'Time for Congress to investigate' Obama | TheHill