It is the view in the White House that the Department of Homeland Security will continue to play an absolutely essential role in the protection of America's cyber infrastructure.

If confirmed, you are going to be in a truly critical position for our homeland security.

If you are confirmed, you will be in charge of the cyber security effort for the Department of Homeland Security.

This is an absolutely vital program to protecting America, and I look forward to working together with you.

We probably do not do that enough in the other committees, so we thank the people behind you.

Rand Beers is a highly qualified nominee with a record of more than 30 years of public service.

I hope you will not hesitate to let this Committee know.

Mr. Beers, thank you for your testimony today, for your willingness to serve.

But there was no reference to the presidential election in that briefing that you received?

I was personally very relieved to see that it did not happen, at least not in what I read.

The position will have no operational authority.

So the key question I pose this morning is why, since we have a 23 percent contracting goal, are only 10.3 percent of the stimulus dollars so far been awarded to small businesses?

I have long been dismayed by the myriad ways that government agencies have repeatedly time and again egregiously failed to meet its statutory goal of awarding the 23 percent of all contracting dollars to small businesses.

These pernicious trends must be reversed.

I hope to learn today what practices the DOT is using to assist small business contractors.

The nomination of Robert M. Groves to be Director of the Census at the Department of Commerce comes at a critical time for the Census Bureau.

I greatly appreciate your leadership on numerous issues of great importance to the District of Columbia, our Nation's capital, especially, I want to say, on voting rights.

This happens to be the D.C. related committee.

This does come down to individual lives and their ability to realize their God-given potential.

I strongly urge the Committee to pass the reauthorization for the program.

I just do not think there is a rational reason to terminate this program.

Thanks, Dr. Wolf. I agree it was less inspiring, but it was very important, and I thank you for that.

Wishing that does not make it so.

I would urge you to go forward and pursue it.

Together we are going to fight to keep this program doing.