Jeff Sessions

I applaud DOD. You have done a good job of maintaining a clear commitment to modernization despite tough budget times.

An unclassified excerpt from the executive summary of a Joint Staff operations assessment... there could be operations impact on U.S. military space operations.

I think it is a matter worthy of thinking about whether we need that capability.

I was pleased that the Defense Strategic Guidance released in January recognized space as an area where DOD should prioritize and protect new capabilities and investments.

I would just urge you to be very cautious before you sign agreements that could in any way complicate our ability in the future to take reasonable actions for our national interest or to support our allies in that fashion.

I suspect we will have war in space one day.

I would like to be confident that the U.S. Government, DOD is not making commitments with regard to what we plan to do that will bind us and maybe make it impossible for us to effectively maintain our space and missile defense capability…

The fiscal year 2013 budget proposes significant reductions to the Air Force budget which is the majority of space funding, General Shelton, we calculate as being down 22 percent.

One of the critical issues facing America is to get out of this 'we're not going to do anything about nuclear weapons.'

We don't want to just smooth it over and say we can delay this or delay that.

This is an inauspicious start, would you not agree?

I'm pushing you to be aggressive in making progress.

I just asked how many are there.

I would just say if you can make a proposal that shows that you can do the work without a multi-billion dollar new building, I'd be interested in hearing it.

This was not a little matter. The wording of the thing was discussed with the White House in depth.

You don't disagree, do you, that the budget you have does not meet the necessary DOD requirements?

What about the manufacture and maintenance of them, the core labs and all that are involved?

Unfortunately and counter to the bipartisan progress that we have made thus far, NNSA's fiscal year 2013 budget undermines that progress and the agreements that were reached, it seems, and jeopardizes the future viability of the nuclear…

I share some of the concerns that you've raised. We do have responsibility to our constituents to challenge the proposals that are before us to make sure every dollar that we spend is wisely spent.

We might as well be honest about that and put it out here.

I'm wondering if there could be savings from some consolidation for efficiency purposes in our historic operations.

I offered for the record a statement from the Birmingham Water Works Board, which I think is doing very well.

We should respect that and just not immediately reject the budget that has been proposed.

The $800 billion stimulus that the President pushed through in 2009... spent only a tiny fraction on water infrastructure.

Well, as I understand the EPA law, and I think it controls what they do, they are not able to say, well, your sewer system overflows, and you have to stop it, but you can do it over a period of time, which they do.