So are you confident the homeland security perspective will be maintained if this BioShield fund is no longer at DHS?

I know that you and we on this Committee share a similar vision of what we expect for the Department of Homeland Security.

It become an organization that is simply the best in the world at detecting, deterring, preparing for, and responding to disasters.

In the budget process, no department head gets everything he or she wants.

I would feel it would be my obligation to refer the matter to the Department of Justice.

It pays to listen to the people who happen to live in the area or field that you are regulating.

I want to ask you to take another look at the Recovery Act because I believe the funding in that act for the fire departments was for construction and renovation of the fire department buildings, not for the purchase of equipment, which…

Each line of the budget is in some sense a vision of what we expect from our government now and into the future.

I understand the pressure on the local fire departments in terms of personnel, but it is also great in terms of equipment running out because the budgets of all the fire departments are so personnel intensive that a lot of them end up…

OIRA is one of those government agencies that has a very low public profile but exerts great influence over the workings of our government and the daily lives of most Americans.

My guess is there is going to be a lot of interest in these two programs.

Well, obviously we wish you well as you try to do all the things that the law and we ask you to do.

There's surprisingly little discussion in Congress today of America's strategic nuclear posture.

I think the world is far safer today because of what the Nunn-Lugar program has done.

It seems to me as I read the report, which is an excellent piece of work, that the most comprehensive set of recommendations is not with regard to the sort of flash button--flashier public issues.

My support of it is contingent on safeguards and the most important of those safeguards is robust support on the laboratories.

It may be the tipping point.

I know Senator Bill Nelson, my colleague on the Strategic Subcommittee, supported this, as have others, and we thank you for your service and the importance of it.

There's only one thing more important to the Iranian regime right now than the development of nuclear weapons and it is the survival of the regime.

What we have to hope is that any nation such as Iran or North Korea will be deterred from turning over weapons or fissile materials to terrorist groups.

Ayatollah Khameni is not about to see the end of Iran or Shiism in order to fulfill the wilder comments of President Ahmadinejad.

I appreciate that. I agree totally and that's a real concern.

Do nuclear weapons still deter? I know that you've thought about that and I invite it.

I think you spoke with real clarity which is that it's not going to be easy to convince the Iranians to stop the nuclear program.

Dealing with this imbalance is urgent.