I have never had any more support shown in a bipartisan way for the nomination of Judge Steve Jones.

Thank you, Senator Merkley. We very much appreciate your and Senator Wyden's expressions of support for these two nominees.

I believe that the urgency of getting the United States of America onto a robust and secure health information infrastructure... is a primary national goal and of real urgency.

We cannot have elderly people lying alone, racked with pain, when medicine to cure that... is at hand, because of bureaucracy.

I think we do bring a perspective about the appropriate role of a judge to our duties.

I am extremely favorably disposed toward your nomination, but there are these institutional problems that need to be addressed.

I think when that support is bipartisan, as it is in your case, it highlights once again the institutional value in this body of deferring to and giving great weight to the recommendations of the home State Senators.

One is to respect the role of Congress as the duly elected representatives of the American people in our system of American democracy.

Your service on the district court and on the circuit court provides excellent background and qualifications for this position.

The purpose of medicine is to take care of the sick and when that purpose is not being met... a secondary purpose is interfering with a primary purpose.

We are delighted to have him back and look forward to a more successful trip through confirmation at this time.

So, besides just the value of efficiency and productivity gains, this is also about freeing up resources and continuing operations overseas and support the fighting forces.

It seems that, wittingly or unwittingly, we created a system that it's much harder to hire a full-time DOD employee than it is to write a contract worth 10 or 20 times more.

I would tend to agree with Senator Sessions on this, and I think a lot of it has to do with resources.

Senator Vitter had a hearing in Louisiana. In fact, he asked me if he could do that and I agreed to allow him to do it.

Today's hearing builds on those and reflects our work with Ranking Member Richard Shelby.

I am grateful to Senator Shelby and Senator Vitter for raising the spectrum of this particular question.

I am extremely strongly in favor of pushing as much of this to the private sector as possible.