Joe Lieberman

So it would be what, 10 to 20 less over the 5-year period from 2010 to 2015?

In other words, you'd have to cut by two to four the number of JSFs produced?

I take it, Admiral Architzel, that you agree with the President's recommendation to terminate the alternate engine program in the fiscal year 2010?

I think the point is that we're pushing you hard and you're pushing the aircraft that you have hard to meet the requirements, because we're not replenishing rapidly enough.

It is against the backdrop of the continued bravery and exemplary performance of the American Military in Iraq and Afghanistan...

My hope is that we can move your nomination through the Committee and through the Senate as quickly as possible because GSA, the President, and the government need you to be at your desk.

One major concern that I mentioned in my opening statement that has been a real focus for Senator Carper and Senator Coburn, Members of the Committee, has been the excess property held by the government.

In the last Congress, with leadership from Senators Carper and Coburn, our Committee reported out a bill to allow agencies to keep a portion of the proceeds of the sale of excess property.

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

The position will have no operational authority.

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

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

It is hard for cyber security to work without electricity.

The Department of the Treasury, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Justice would be three other major participants.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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?