It is very important to follow the law.

I appreciate your continued focus and attention on making sure the people of Portsmouth are fully supported.

We have currently about 54 attack submarines, and we're only meet of half of combatant commanders' request for.

We need a better mechanism to share those among the shipyards before--public shipyards--to ensure that we can learn from each other.

I very much thank you and your family for your service to the country and willingness to take on this important leadership position during these challenging times.

I know the Chairman would share this concern, since we're in this public forum, that we say something about what Russia did yesterday in the United Nations, in terms of blocking the request for an investigation into MH-17.

It's important that we have a conditions-based withdrawal from Afghanistan, as opposed to a calendar withdrawal.

Your enemy can wait you out and know when you're going to leave, versus what's happening on the ground.

I believe, based on what I've seen them do in the past, that they have the capability to do that.

When we give a well-performing soldier who has deployed (often multiple times) a pink slip simply to meet a budget-drive endstrength reduction, I think that is breaking faith.

Right now the level of uncertainty, the velocity of instability, and potential for significant inter-state conflict is higher than it has been since the end of the Cold War in 1989-91.

I continue to be troubled by the condition of New Hampshire Army National Guard readiness centers--a trend that I know is reflected around the country.

The demand for ground forces will continue to increase even more so since many of our longstanding allies have significantly reduced their military forces over the last 25 years.

Members of the New Hampshire Army National Guard--and servicemembers like them around the country--deserve better.

Whichever option we decide upon must take into consideration not only the safety and security of our soldiers but the communities in which they work.

I do not agree with that, and I think this committee very clearly in the defense authorization--actually the Army requested $106 million for Patriot improvement to upgrade our use of the Patriot, and that was actually accepted by this…

Well, that's terrific. And they're ready to receive them, and looking forward to it.

The cyber threat is clearly very significant.