Would the Senator believe that in the Gulf of Mexico, of all the production there, the percentage is even worse in all those acres that are under lease, which is 32 million acres.

I hope we can continue to work toward funding at that level.

A lot of the progress made is fragile, and I am very concerned about it being reversible as well.

Wouldn't it make most sense to look at our bases globally first, not just here at home?

with all of the very well deserved statements that have been made about our colleague Senator Barbara Mikulski, I wanted to raise my voice in support of the milestone she recently achieved as the longest-serving woman in congressional…

One of the things we always want to pursue is reassessment of our needs as circumstances change.

But I always worry about a study that's not done, in anticipation we're going to authorize and/or appropriate money on the assumption of what the study's going to say before we have the actual conclusions of the study, if you follow my…

What we have done with this process is injected politics into it in a way that I think is very difficult.

Well, it does have a certain amount of politics in it, or it would not be applied just in U.S. facilities and not applied to overseas facilities.

I think there is an expectation that you expect savings as a consequence of closing and realignment.

Well, I know. But if you can realign there without the legislation in place, because it does not affect the same group of constituents that it affects here at home--it is in lieu of politics, in place of politics or because of politics…

What seems to be the thought of some folks is, I will sacrifice until your last base.