Governor Mabus, you bring an extraordinary range of experience to the task before you. I think the President made a very wise choice.

I believe sharing accurate, relevant, and timely information... is critical to combating terrorism and ensuring national security.

The September 11 attacks illustrated a fundamental failure by our Government to share information effectively.

the September 11 attacks illustrated a fundamental failure by our Government to share information effectively in order to detect and prevent the attack by 'connecting the dots.'

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, major efforts have been made to improve information-sharing.

It's an honor to be here today. I'm particularly pleased with the appointments that the President-elect has made, beginning with Secretary Gates.

We need to move away from supplementals, I think the Secretary has said that, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has said that--I certainly agree.

I don't think anyone knows more about the intricacies of the budget and the institutional culture of the Pentagon than Bill Lynn.

He is superbly prepared for this job, and someone that I admire immensely.

I was touched and impressed. I know he's not here any longer, but I would like to say that for the record anyway.

The tainting--some would even say corruption--of the Department of Justice during the course of this administration has been both pervasive and systematic.

We in the Senate have the good fortune and privilege to be present at occasionally extraordinary moments.

I would also advise you to watch out for OMB. We have received repeated evidence that OMB has become sort of the political bully boy influencing agency decisionmaking in very often I think inappropriate ways.

My information is that dispute does not extend to EPA. I think that the career people know pretty well what has happened to them in the last 8 years.

Rhode Island, as the Ocean State, has a long tradition of environmental stewardship.

Oh, you have more. It would be more per person.

There is no likelihood, I think, of it getting better. It is likely to get worse, if anything.

It is really bad process to begin with. And then it ends up with really unfortunate results.