The MV-22 remains our number one aviation acquisition priority.

I have two concerns here. First, today's Navy routinely operates in littoral waters increasingly populated by a very capable diesel submarine threat, yet we are doing away with a class of ships designed to counter that threat.

my staff was recently briefed on the implementation of the Call to Service Plan, which Senator Bayh and I were successful in including in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003.

I am looking at the pay tables here. In 2000, the law prescribed military pay raises to be ECI plus 0.5 percent.

The sustained increases in defense spending we have made over the past 3 or 4 years are, I think, making real strong progress.

We're also told that the administration is considering a wide array of far reaching proposals that would change the way the Department of Defense operates and the role of Congress in overseeing these operations.

The premature declaration that we've already shared all useful intelligence makes us seem excessively eager to bring inspections to a close.

It's critical that we fully honor the services of our men and women in uniform and that we keep faith in their dedication to duty.

I was astonished to read on Tuesday that State Department spokesman Richard Boucher characterized what appeared to be an agreement to implement U-2 flights as, 'nothing worth getting excited about.'

Another way to support the inspectors is to back up their request for U-2 surveillance planes with a U.N. resolution.

Funding for Navy shipbuilding is increasing, not as much as we wish, but clearly the curve is headed up.

The fiscal year 2004 request of $379.9 billion represents a $15.3 billion increase over the fiscal year 2003 level.

I have unhesitatingly given my support to this courageous President throughout this controversy for many months.

If there is any chance of disarming Saddam Hussein without war, it is for the United Nations to speak with one voice.

We will begin fielding components of a national missile defense this year.

Supporting U.N. inspections is an essential step if we're going to keep the Security Council together.

Supporting the inspectors in these and other ways is not inconsistent with the position that the administration has correctly taken that the burden is on Saddam Hussein to show where the prohibited material is or what he's done with it.

This budget proposes only a modest increase in defense spending at a time when our military is engaged in one war.