We had a hearing on this matter just this past July before we truly understood the impacts of the Budget Control Act that Congress passed.

Members of the committee need to better understand the rationale behind the planned retirement of cruisers and LSDs.

I will oppose any initiative that seeks to undermine the preeminence of our military, I will oppose any effort that breaks faith with our service members and veterans, and I will oppose any effort that seeks to diminish the capabilities of…

Fifty million to $100 million?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And to all of our witnesses, I thank you for your testimony today.

Yes, the Department can save money by converting medical military positions to civilian performance.

The Department estimates it could potentially save in excess of $1.5 billion over a five year period.

What can you tell us about successes to address corruption? And do you believe that these efforts will actually address corruption, especially the kind of predatory corruption that feeds on common people sufficiently to allow the Afghan…

I am deeply concerned about the administration's intent to request another BRAC round.

Do you support efforts to get better accounting and visibility into contracted services, as required by law?

Title 10 requires depot core workload to be conducted by government employees at a level that ensures efficiency with the goal to generally be one of cost effectiveness since this workload is funded through working capital funds.

In your opening remarks, you stated that the Department will be forced to use existing authorities to begin the realignment and closure process in the absence of the Congress passing new BRAC authority.

If--and I stress, if--another BRAC round were authorized, what could the Congress do to help ensure a quicker payback time?

Title 10 grants the Department waiver authority for core requirements and for 50/50 requirements for depot maintenance.

There was a lot of discussion last year about the 'exceptions' to the FY10 civilian levels Secretary Gates mandated.

Does the National Ocean Policy consider national security interests in the planning process?

Are you comfortable that all contracted services currently supporting CENTCOM are the most cost-effective and risk-averse source of labor?

In the SOCOM plan for the inventory of contracted services in accordance with section 8108(c) of last year's appropriations act...

You stated you have a large number of contractors conducting training in Iraq associated with the Office of Security Cooperation.

The GAO released a report last week regarding the excessive reliance on contract support, and associated risks, in using contractor personnel to train Afghan police.

In this era of constrained budgets, why would we pay more for contractors and not use military or even civilians, to do the necessary work of the Department?

DOD officials considered the use of government personnel to perform the mission and found that the ANP training program did not include any inherently governmental functions.

As you are well aware of the President's initiative to increase our force presence in the Asia-Pacific region, can you share with the committee the strategic significance of Guam in your global en route infrastructure and how critical will…

Did CENTCOM seek relief from DOD-mandated civilian personnel levels in order to insource contracted work more cost-effectively performed by civilians?

President Obama has made reducing reliance on contractors and rebalancing the workforce a major management initiative of his Administration.