I agree with the chairman and stand ready to work with the gentleman--and I commend him for the work that he's been doing over the years--to reach out to all regions of the country to bring the best and brightest into the military…

The gentleman was quite good at making the cases against this amendment, but I will have to reiterate some of the things. First of all, I rise in opposition to the gentleman's amendment. The bill provides an additional $250 million to…

They don't have any money. The Department of Education can't fund this because the new majority is taking a lot of the money out of the Department of Education that they would use for this purpose, and they don't have the money. That's why…

I think the gentleman from Illinois brings up a very important issue, and I too look forward to working with the gentleman to ensure that classified data is protected from misuse and theft. Cybersecurity may be the most important defense…

The allocation for the Defense bill has already been reduced by $9 billion. Funding for the research and development title of the bill has been reduced from the 2011 level by nearly $2 billion. Further reductions risk harming critical…

Last year we were $17 billion below last year, $9 billion this year. So we're making some serious cuts in this budget.

We're working the list up, so I will share it with the gentleman down in the gym. I yield back the balance of my time. The Acting CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake). The question was…

The gentleman explained to me that the $10 million would not be part of the government program, that this would give people with traumatic brain injury, posttraumatic stress disorder, an option to go to the private sector?

I rise in very strong opposition to the gentleman's amendment. The decrease appears to be directed at funding provided in operation and maintenance defense-wide for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The operation and maintenance…

That is what I am trying to get to. I think the idea that they can submit their budget but not be able to tell us how many contractors there are, how many contract employees there are, is just ridiculous.

I agree with the gentleman. If we can get a better deal, let's try to get a better deal. If we can do it less expensively, we can do it less expensively. I yield back the balance of my time. {time} 1700

And I do this very reluctantly, but I'm glad that the sponsor of the amendment has arrived, and we will let her talk about this. Section 8127 limits spending for military bands to $200 million for fiscal year 2012. Now, that is a lot of…