Our troops who put their lives on the line for our freedom and security should not be sent into harm's way with the cheapest equipment--they should go with the best equipment.

What if they did not get the same deal? How does that hurt us?

I have some additional questions. So I am going to start this, but then we have a vote on the floor that we have to be back in 4 minutes.

I like to hear that. We hear about delays and things. Wildly successful----

What is the impact on our national security and the Navy's ability to project power if we are short on amphibious vessels?

Is 34 the right number of amphibious vessels?

I'm really appreciative that you're looking at this acceleration, given the need that we know is very apparent.

We're not going to be the first one to go down that path.

It's the rural areas that really we need the help the most.

We've all had incidences in our states. A number of years ago, we had an incident in New Hampshire that prompted an early discussion in our state about this where we had a horrible, horrible mad man who murdered a judge, murdered troopers…

Providing the best weapons and equipment to our service members can be the difference between our troops returning home safely or not at all.

the sequestration effect is even greater because they cannot necessarily reallocate in a way because they are a small supplier.

What is the impact of the shortfall?

I guess I do not understand why we are negotiating for them when we are dealing with scarce dollars and we could be better focusing our resources on oversight of our own taxpayer dollars.

If sequester does happen, how many years would full readiness recovery be delayed?

another sequester would prevent any opportunity to recover the readiness our Nation deserves and lead to creating a hollow force we have fought so hard to avoid.

what is the current status of our retrograde and reset efforts from Iraq and Afghanistan, and what equipment shortfalls would we face if we were forced to surge in the next 12 months?

what is the Marine Corps' plan to restore these units to readiness?