A big part of my frustration during that period was the political process telling the military how to do its actual functions.

There can be nothing more important, in my view--and I think John McCain and I share this concern--than ensuring that, in this type of a process, that the military be allowed to report to the political side.

With these figures in mind, I believe the Blue Ridge Parkway Protection Act is a sound investment for Virginia's future.

I want to particularly thank the chairman and specifically members of his staff, like Deborah Estes and Bob Simon, for their hard work on this.

If the Comcast-NBCU merger is approved, how do we find a balance between marketplace negotiations between distributors and content providers?

The one thing that I've learned, that I wasn't aware of before and does concern me, is, as these men and women deploy overseas, the one thing we can't capture--and they don't complain about it, but--is the opportunity lost.

How does that affect your ability to train up a ground soldier?

First of all, was to include them for the first time in a GI Bill. It never happened before.

Just let me, as the Chair, make a couple of comments.

I think there should be no doubt in anybody's mind that we are very committed to making sure that our military people are well compensated.

There's been a lot of discussion about the impact of these multiple deployments on employer relations.

A snapshot.

As a former infantry rifle platoon and company commander, I think the question needed to be asked.

I pushed so hard to get this GI Bill through.

Actually, when I was Assistant Secretary of Defense, we did----

Frankly, we don't see any strain on the force, the way it's working.

That's actually very healthy for the military.

If Congress should enact a law that says, 'Pay money for this circumstance,' typically, it says, under regulations established by the Secretary of Defense...