When our troops deploy to war, we have a responsibility to provide them the very best equipment.

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

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?

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.

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

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.

What is the impact of the shortfall?

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

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

I continue to be concerned about the use of Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) contracts for specialized gear.

With regard to contracting for foreign military sales, it seems that the U.S. Government is, in essence, negotiating on behalf of foreign Governments against U.S. defense companies.

I heard from each of you that we do not need more layers. What we need to do is eliminate some of the layers.

The Army today is able to produce only enough readiness to meet requirements--and we can only achieve this because of the extra funding made available by the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA).

I am just trying to understand why that is necessary.

What it should not do is strip away the Service Chief's authority when he says I need this capability.

Without a major change in national strategy to account for a smaller force with reduced capability, the Army will likely experience a period where it is indeed hollow.

What is the Marine Corps' requirement for amphibious warships?

We're not going to stop until this is fixed.