Mark Begich

In the healthcare reform bill that the President signed yesterday, we have within there a task force...

I want to get a better understanding of how you come to that conclusion so we are not missing that boat.

General Green, I understand the Air Force implemented the Family Health Initiative (FHI)...

I understand the Army has instituted a number of programs to address the increasing suicide rates among servicemembers.

I think this is an important issue.

I would ask you to provide me, if you can at some point, some of the data that shows that...

I'm going to be very interested as we move through this over the next several months.

I'm also very pleased to see that there is kind of a reexamination.

It's probably the highest percentage, I would bet, or per capita, in the country.

General Schoomaker, do you believe this program is properly funded?

I don't think you have support, bipartisan, for this effort, Mr. Chairman.

Make the rules as we go, is my rule.

We would love to see confirmations happen very rapidly, but don't wait for that. Move forward on progress.

We are the tip of the iceberg of what's going to happen in this country, very rapidly.

The reimbursement rate is critical.

I have introduced a piece of legislation to set up a task force for Alaska to bring all the different agencies that deal with healthcare and TRICARE.

There is no better producer of jobs than the focus of what you do every day in the different departments

I'm nervous about waivers. Just so you know, because that--you know, when you have a huge project come along in a small rural area, it's a hard--it's hard to compete, to be very frank.

Our focus is on safety, and the comparison and the shortfall of the comparison between safety people available for all forms of transportation in NHTSA and just anything else.

I think it's $182 million for the EAS funding--the Essential Air Service program. As you can imagine, in Alaska, that is critical.

I'm interested in--I said '60,' in my statement, and it's 66 new employees for NHTSA.

I want to make sure that it's a fair system that's competitive, but maybe in a rural-to-rural versus rural competing against--Kotzebue competing against Los Angeles, we lose.

How does this compare to the TIGER grants, or are they two separate--or is this kind of the merging of it into a more formal, sustainable program?

I got a little nervous, to be very frank with you, because in rural states, sometimes just getting--you know, I can't put multimodal in Kotzebue, Alaska.

The clock is ticking, and I would not hesitate to be radical about your decisions and be forceful on a timeline.