What kind of experience are you having with recruitment and retention?

With increased operational demands placed on the reserve component for the past several years, signs of stress and strain are showing.

I'm considering introducing legislation that would enhance retention of those experienced career servicemembers.

Let me say that the Predator, the very effective Unmanned Aerial Vehicle that is saving lives and helping our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and carry out their mission today as we speak from the comfort and safety of this room, was a…

Let me say that the MRAPs program, that has saved a dramatic number of lives by deflecting the power of IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan, was either a congressional earmark or a program that was strongly pushed by Congress at a time it was…

As a Democrat, I am proud that after 12 years of a Republican majority in the U.S. House, when Democrats took control of the House 2 years ago, we, one, dropped the total number of earmarks dramatically; two, provided more transparency for…

It is no laughing matter to troops from Fort Hood near my district in Texas who are on their third or fourth tour of duty in Iraq and have small children back home and a spouse working.

given that slowdown in construction and in some parts of the country, reductions in the natural cost of construction, this might be a good time to make the investments in modernizing our DOD hospital system, improving our barracks, and…

So many congressional earmarks, Mr. Chairman, coming from Congress are actually Defense requests made from our commanders in theater or our base commanders whose requests were turned down by OMB.

I have concerns about the readiness of our Army as well as our other services.

Let me say, as chairman of the Military Construction Committee, the modernization of our DOD hospital system was shamefully ignored for many, many years through Democratic and Republican administrations.

Thanks to MILCON/VA Appropriations Chairman Chet Edwards, VA received a $2 million appropriation for IT support.

I think we need to maximize the potential for renewable energy in our country.

I think much more of the Gulf should be open.

It seems to me that a significant part of that is planning, citing and pricing and part of that is citing on public lands.

I believe we ought to be drilling most of the Gulf of Mexico. I mean, I'm for drilling.

If you project forward what we've done in the past.

The previous President kept zeroing out the $75 million for drilling research, oil and gas research. As chairman of the committee, I kept putting it in.