Richard Shelby

Do you like where they are at this point in time?

Is there any justification, General Bolden, for advancing SLS with a funding profile that provides the taxpayers a 50-50 chance that it will succeed on schedule and on budget?

I am concerned that the budget request for SLS is a sign that NASA intends to advance a funding profile that supports a Joint Confidence Level well below the 70 percent threshold.

I look forward to continuing to work with you and being able to be as happy about funding in the future.

I really want to thank you again, you and Senator Mikulski, for the leadership you have displayed with this subcommittee.

Ultimately the market will decide winners and losers in the marketplace, and the government should not do that, should it?

The idea of picking winners and losers in the marketplace, that's the tenet of communism, socialism, and so forth.

That's picking winners and losers, in a sense, in the marketplace, which is what we don't do.

The more we talk about that and the more we, in reality, do that, the better off we are.

That seems like to a lot of people central planning. You're choosing 25 communities out of the whole Nation as favoritism, so to speak, and that's very dangerous, I think, and sounds like central planning to me.

I'm not convinced that all of the satellite projects that the Department is focused on are truly necessary to the core mission of NOAA.

I believe it must maintain a focus on these projects that ensure weather forecasters have the data and information they need to protect life and property.

Ensuring that priority satellite projects stay on schedule and on budget is essential to the overall budget picture.

In a time of constrained budgets, prioritization and strong oversight are essential to keeping the Department on the right path.

I have joined several other Senators in advocating for a $30 million appropriation for this program.

I think you're put there to do that job, in your sworn oath to do that job.

I think it's critical that Inspectors General have that ability to make the decision for themselves, and legislation obviously would clear it up entirely.

I think that we need to make sure, under all circumstances, that you and your fellow Inspector Generals have unfettered access to documents that could root out wrongdoing in any Department.

We want to make sure you have the tools to do your job, because the Inspector General... was created for a reason.

But, we want to make sure the Inspector General can do his job, even in the Justice Department.

Have you, or will you, direct the Department of Justice that you oversee to grant the Inspector General unfettered access to relevant documents to carry out his investigations within the Department, even though it might be detrimental to…

I think Congress has been clear, as has this committee, that the Inspector General must have unfettered access to any and all documents necessary to carry out his duties.

It's statutory, is it not?

Do you believe that a lot of our prisons are overcrowded, State and Federal?

People that you wouldn't want in your neighborhood or your school or around your children----