John McCain

The Pentagon's broken acquisition system.

I think there are a lot of things you can.

It is not acceptable for a witness under subpoena to wait until the day before his appearance to announce unilaterally that he will be out of the country and refuse to appear.

I would hope that they are stepping in full force on this as well, though it sounded like it was unknown what role they are playing at this point.

I appreciate the comments of Senator McCain, but I know for a fact that there are many U.S. Attorney's Offices that are actively engaged in a cooperative fashion with local law enforcement and bringing these cases.

In fact, two Federal courts have reached the conclusion that they are in violation of law.

This is all about money, isn't it, Mr. Roberts? Eighty percent of their revenue for Backpage can be directly derived from their commercial sex advertising?

So the fact that this has such a devastating effect is the hook, really, that should lead to every attempt being made to stop this evil.

I have never known of a witness to refuse a subpoena, and I am sure that you will take the necessary action to ensure that that is not done with impunity.

We have a moral imperative to the least of these, to treat other people the way we want to be treated.

We have an equally strong moral imperative, and I think a duty by virtue of our oath of office, to make sure that we do not meet the moral imperative, to the least of these, by putting at risk the citizens of this country.

We just want to go home.

The Preamble to our Constitution says, 'In order to form a more perfect union.'

I find that kind of thing absolutely unacceptable.

We kicked that idea around about the commissary, and I can tell you, we have a PR [public relations] challenge.

We all yearn for those golden days of yesteryear.

I think that's an excellent point.

I thank the witnesses.

We're not trying to get rid of the benefit, we're not trying to get rid of the commissary in their locations. We're trying to reduce the taxpayer subsidy.

I guess I have two questions. One, isn't that a fundamental requirement if--for reform? And how do we get it?

Mr. Chairman, we have got to come to an agreement on the definitions and the baseline.

We cannot afford more of the same insufficient strategy.

Even former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen called the nation's long-term deficits our number one national security threat.

The increased resources flowing to defense will have a near-term, positive impact on readiness, modernization, and quality of life.

Sequester remains the law for Fiscal Year 2018 and beyond, but it should be given a quiet burial.