What do you know about the subject matter that these general officers don't know?

General officers from the current Commander of STRATCOM... have rejected Global Zero's recommendations.

a high probability chemical weapons were used.

Doesn't this mean, if the logic of the NPR holds true, that, the assumption we can rely on our conventional capabilities and conventional deterrent, should be reconsidered?

If we can't fix this problem, we will do what Secretary Panetta described as cuts that would decimate our defense.

we will engage Russia to seek further reductions in our nuclear arsenals . . . because our ability to influence others depends on our willingness to lead.

I am in complete agreement with that. I think that we need to have verifiable treaties that go through the Senate, the regular order process.

The Triad of SSBNs, ICBMs, and nuclear capability heavy bombers all with their associated support elements offer a mutually reinforcing strategic package that provides a credible deterrent to our adversaries, assurance to our allies and…

Excepting for the fact that the Russians hate both of these capabilities, and the Senate has traditionally been hostile to conventional prompt global strike, can you state how much it would cost to deploy these capabilities?

mutual assured destruction (MAD) no longer occupies a central psychological or political space in the U.S.-Russian relationship.

Further deep U.S. nuclear reductions will deepen the concern already apparent among some key allies that the U.S. nuclear umbrella is losing credibility.

The reason why I am asking is because when I look at your report, about half the footnotes are footnotes referencing your own writings. Why is that?

I worry that in the long term, this situation will allow the President to further walk back on his commitments to modernize and maintain the deterrent.

We recently learned that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, released thousands of illegal immigrants out of our detention facilities across the country in anticipation of the sequester cuts. This was done not after the…

You did not forewarn us that this was coming. You did not ask advice about how we should handle it.

Well, I appreciate it. I understand my staff has been in contact with your staff, and I understand that you may not be able to do a waiver but we could do a land swap.

I agree with that. My concern is, there has been some press reports that the Administration has given guidance to maximize the pain in the sequestration to demonstrate to the public these cuts are unreasonable.

I hate to waste time in this hearing on a parochial issue, but apparently I have to since your staff has not been able to handle this for me.

My concern is, there has been some press reports that the Administration has given guidance to maximize the pain in the sequestration to demonstrate to the public these cuts are unreasonable.

I have a church in my district called the Union Baptist Church. It has had a permit for a cemetery since 1954.

So the committee was able to absorb in the 112th Congress an 11 percent cut.

We are continuing our review on the Benghazi terrorist attacks and it is going slower than we want because we can't apply the right personnel resources to the task.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And it is exceptionally good to see you there in the chair this year. Congratulations.

But now it is getting to the point where we can't staff every program that we have at the requirement that we would need.

We tried to find efficiencies. We did, we think, find efficiencies, that we could kind of wring out some savings in the committee.