I want to make clear that I view the issue before us as separate from how the Affordable Care Act addresses mental health insurance coverage.

I think you have shown a great deal of interest in this subject matter and are moving in an appropriate way.

the mental health parity regulation will be issued tomorrow.

I cannot thank you enough for the leadership of you and your family and that you continue to exercise and provide on this issue.

I will put it that way. We did some very, very important things together, and we were and still are very dear friends.

I think we must resist the temptation to think that federal regulators can account for and control everything around us.

Due to its national importance, the Navy will maintain a credible and modernized sea-based strategic deterrent even if it results in taking risks in other missions of the Navy.

Delays in depot maintenance and upgrades to missile warning and space surveillance tracking will significantly impact national missile defense and space situational awareness.

Prolonged sequestration will force difficult choices concerning nuclear modernization and sustainment programs.

Delays to depot maintenance create a bow wave of requirements.

will we see changes in our strategic objectives and priorities because of budget restraints?

The Nation will be more secure and will achieve more sustainable savings if reductions in defense spending are made in a more reasoned way.

Sequestration cuts deeply into Air Force investment accounts, which under the law must be applied equally at the program, project, and activity level.

So presumably those options will be considered by the President and the Secretary of Defense, and at some point a decision will be made?

I have not sensed quite the same level of alarm coming from the White House as I have sensed when I've met with each of you.

It seems to me that if the administration did, in fact, think this situation was this dire, as dire as you are explaining it to us, I would expect to see that issue, those sets of issues, receive a lot more time and attention and energy…

I express my deepest gratitude to you and those who serve under your command.

Sequestration is very harmful to Air Force readiness and our airmen.