Saying that we will attain the 50 percent deployment availability goal for LCS because that is what we need to make the Optimized Fleet Response Plan achievable rings a little hollow with me.

I believe that some of the problems we are experiencing now with LCS vessels is because we got too far in front of ourselves by trying to deploy ships before they were ready to deploy.

If we had been told it was $478 million and 12 years late for some of the programs, I do not think that this committee and the Congress of the United States would have approved it.

Seventeen years, $700 million of taxpayers' money has been sunk into the Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle.

Should you be in your job?

We are only as good as the information we receive as that the LCS would cost $220 million dollars per ship.

Neither of the LCS variant is expected to be survivable in high intensity combat.

It is outrageous. OK? Let us do it.

Right now, it takes 18 months--right?--to receive the clearance, so that you can be employed by the Border Patrol. Right?

I believe it is cost-effective and the right thing to do, given that our addiction to drugs fuels so much of the lawlessness and instability in that region.

Comprehensive immigration reform would provide a 5.4-percent boost in gross domestic product (GDP).