I commend you, Mr. Chairman, for the steps you've taken to impose accountability on the Defense Department and to provide the means for Congress to exercise some oversight of how this money is spent.

I just don't believe that we're giving enough attention to the war in Afghanistan.

Thank you for coming before this committee today.

the administration has the advantage, the political advantage, of saying, well, this is our budget for this year.

the American people are entitled to have that light because they are footing the bill.

It is increasingly clear that the Bush administration has no idea of when to start to bring American soldiers home from Iraq.

Is that increased effort requiring any corresponding increase in the average monthly cost of operations in Afghanistan?

But how can you justify spending tens of billions of dollars on these computerized accounting systems when you do not even know how to fix what is wrong with those systems that we are pouring money into?

The White House plays hide and seek with the costs of the war, hiding them from the American public until after the November election.

The administration is in the midst of a massive rotation of forces in Iraq.

Well, I'm sure that Congress would want to be sure that there's some limitations on these monies and that this will not be a slush fund.

And when would you expect to lift the stop-loss order?