We were weeks away from deployment. Mississippi was a leader in deploying a network for first responders.

Unless the law changes, sequestration is back in October of this year.

Mississippi was one of the grantees under BTOP and moved forward very aggressively with greater speed than any other recipient.

I hope that your offer to continue working with the state comes to fruition.

This was unfortunate because tens of millions of state and Federal tax dollars had been spent.

Where can we see one of those?

Mr. Dee, I was interested to hear you say that even without sequestration, the Marine Corps budget is the most austere of the services.

I would just hope that we as decision-makers and particularly the commander in chief as a decision-maker would make sure that we not leave too early based on a political agenda in Afghanistan.

There's no other shipyard in the world that has the ability to construct a Ford or a Nimitz nuclear aircraft carrier.

Secretary Stackley, the fiscal year 2016 Department of Transportation's budget request for The United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) includes $5 million for a national security multi-mission vessel design.

These decisions should be made based on conditions on the ground, not political calculations.

I think the Senate is almost unanimous in agreeing that a return to sequestration would be most harmful.

Are we being a little more realistic about the expected timeframe in which we are going to have to use these aircraft?

Well, we want to work with you on that, and be part of the solution.

Before we begin, I think Senator Hirono and I would both like to express our concern for the seven marines and four soldiers missing after a helicopter crash early this morning in Florida.

General, how is the transition going from the Iraq and Afghanistan counterinsurgency and stability model to the more traditional role as a ready and capable rapid response force?

I think Senator King has engaged in a very important line of questioning about the importance of all of our yards.

I think everyone here is committed to replacing sequestration, if we can.