I think that over the course of the past couple months, we have made some progress.

As the country faces its most profound economic downturn since the Great Depression, it is critical that we meet our responsibilities to unemployed workers.

One of the things that your Department does, it may be kind of mundane, but that's important to a lot of people that statistics are tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Okay, let me ask, if I can, about unemployment insurance. There's a--in the budget the administration puts forward an idea to reduce unemployment overpayments by about $3.9 billion.

Three or four dollars were appropriate in 2001 when the PFCs were set.

We have some legislation here that we are working. It is S. 590, Defense Communities Assistance Act of 2009.

One of the concerns there would be by creating a new office are you creating another layer of bureaucracy or another little section of the maze there, or are you really cutting through some of that and streamlining your operations?

Do you remember, I thought we appropriated some money to do the cleanup?

my sense is they ought to be--there ought to be some sort of so-called 'death penalty' for them or some sort of blacklist where for a period of years they just can't bid on these contracts.

That would be great. And if you could just keep us posted on that, that would be great.

Do you know what your current timeline is on making the decisions around Lone Star?

I think that Eglin may have an issue with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter going there.