Commercial petroleum inventories are low, retail product prices are high, and economic growth is slow.

If there is a small amount of oil being added each day, it is a much bigger proportion of the private inventory than it is of our SPR.

If you could submit to us for the record then what assumption you are making relative to the inventory for the out years, it would be helpful.

The Afghan people have approved a new constitution.

Are you doing any operational testing yet?

Today we're meeting to hear testimony on the administration's request for $25 billion to fund the cost of ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan over the first few months of fiscal year 2005.

It is not clear that NATO member nations will provide the manpower and equipment that will be needed to fulfil the alliance's political commitment.

the last intercept test of the ground-based national missile defense system took place on December 11, 2002.

You are saying operational testing is underway?

For the follow on 10, I want to be real clear as to what we are talking about.

Admiral Ellis, you will be responsible for operating the NMD and protecting the U.S. from nuclear-armed missile attack, beginning in September 2004.

The big advantage of the mid-course, from a defensive point of view, is that we have relatively more time to react than during the other two phases.

General Kadish, you said at the hearing that you had plans to fly interceptors out of the Fort Greeley site.

The majority of this funding is in pursuit of a rudimentary and uncertain defense against the unlikely long-range missile attack.

Combatting terrorism in the United States and abroad is the imperative of national security.

I think there is a very strong consensus here that you are moving in the right direction, meeting new threats.

This request is close to twice the entire 2005 budget request for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Okay. Because we now plan to reduce deployed strategic nuclear warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads by 2012.