the Air National Guard represents only 6 percent of the Air Force budget, and yet it provides nearly 35 percent of its capabilities.

In New Hampshire we believe that under any objective criteria our strategic location in the Northeast... would result in a very cost-effective utilization of the placement of the KC-46s.

I remain committed to working with our allies to ensure the strength of the NATO alliance and collective European defense.

I hope that DOD will take that very seriously and produce that, because as we're looking at our security going forward, those public shipyards are a critical part of that.

I would hope that the Air Force and DOD will take a look and ensure that at least some of those aircraft are based at Guard bases around the country.

It is inexcusable that we are in this position now... not knowing what we're going to do because we have been unable to act.

One concern I have as we look going forward, particularly with respect to our public shipyards, is that there's a real backlog of projects that need to be done at those shipyards.

Congress must do everything possible to avoid sequestration, because I certainly agree with that.

Certainly in New Hampshire we've seen both sides of the issue, because Pease Air Force Base was the first base closed in the country.

The treaty was an extremely difficult and contentious debate here in the Senate.

I think as we talk about what we need to do in our education system, I think it is important to point out that this is a national security issue as well.

Thank you, Secretary Mabus, General Amos, and Admiral Greenert, for being here this morning.

I am also concerned about our four public shipyards and the fact that this year's military construction budget does not, again, contain much-needed dollars for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

We're actually seeing that on the ground?

I had no doubt about that.

Can you talk at all about the trajectory of our submarine capabilities versus Russia and China over the next 10 years?

this remains a coalition effort and making sure that we continue to keep our other partners, our European partners, engaged in this effort is very important.

We cannot keep releasing people like Daqduq who have the blood of Americans on their hands.