Joe Lieberman

We share the burden of living up to the expectations of the American people and delivering the transparency and accountability and performance that we promised.

I presume, if I can draw you out on that, that would have meant significant layoffs of teachers and other school personnel.

I do want to say how pleased I am that the Acting Comptroller General, Mr. Dodaro, is today going to release before this Committee his first bi-monthly report on State and local spending under the Stimulus Act.

I always feel the best thing government can do is to try to help people get and hold good jobs to provide for themselves.

So you would say your minimal goal for the use of the Medicaid reimbursement or support that is part of this bill, is that there be no cutbacks in services available to anyone in the State eligible for Medicaid?

I appreciate what you are both doing, first to spend the money that we have appropriated.

Any significant fraud or waste in this program is going to have a devastating blow on public opinion and trust in government.

No. We are short in both quantity and quality of staffing, and are not using the latest tools to support early modeling, simulation, and testing.

The DOD's S&T program must be adequately funded to 'stay ahead'; and, traditionally, whenever there is a shortage of DOD money it is one of the areas the Services tend to cut.

Mr. Sullivan and Dr. Kaminski, are either the JCIDS or PPBE as currently constructed able to overcome parochial service interests in this regard?

I am concerned that DOD has historically done a poor job of procuring capabilities that address joint requirements.

Mr. Sullivan and Dr. Gansler, what are your recommendations for effectively balancing the requirement validation process with the calendar-driven funding process?

Mr. Sullivan and Dr. Gansler, I have several concerns with the acquisition system as it currently operates.

I think, clearly, for research-and-development-type activities, cost-plus is an appropriate way to do it.

Defense contracts ought to be done on a fixed-price basis unless the Secretary certifies that there's a good reason not to.

Good. Get it for the record, please.

Is there any way, now or maybe afterward, to submit for the record, you could give us a sense of what we would normally, in conversation, consider to be the acquisition workforce--how many people in the DOD are actually involved in…

I thank Senator Levin and Senator McCain for their legislation, S. 454, which certainly would take us forward in significant ways.

It's probably not been an exciting hearing in content, but it's actually very important, an educational hearing.

The United States must face the fact that it no longer has a monopoly on the world's best military technology.

Two? It is a deal. See, that is in the spirit of compromise, in this case not bipartisan.

Even so, words of caution. There's still the potential for setbacks. This is not an irreversible situation.

Previously, many of us on this committee urged you and others to give a lot of attention and respect with regard to decisions of action in Iraq to the commanders on the ground.

I hope that we on the Senate side--I know in the House the number of military projects in the stimulus is small relative to the size of the package, and I hope we'll take another look at your list and see if we can add some more.

Yes, and I am aware that Congress enacted section 1057 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 (P.L. 110-417) affirming this position.