I announce that the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Cardin), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Lautenberg), and the Senator from Missouri (Mrs. McCaskill) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Lautenberg) is necessarily absent. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The result was announced--yeas 67, nays 32, as follows: [Rollcall Vote…

I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Lautenberg) is necessarily absent. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The result was announced--yeas 56, nays 43, as follows: [Rollcall Vote…

BVA supports Senator Durbin's bill to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to award grants...

VVA fully supports this bill, and thanks Senator Durbin for bringing it forth in the Senate.

I detected in his comments in the last day or two a sense of anger and frustration over the most recent incident involving an officer in the Air Force.

It is cold comfort to hear these are lieutenants, and they may have been new to the job.

I want to associate myself with Senator Durbin and also Senator Mikulski in what's been going on in the Air Force.

I'd like to know--if you can respond now, fine--have you taken a look at the original goal of the Joint Strike Fighter and whether or not there are other ways to meet the needs of national security at a lower cost?

This committee needs to know what more can be done to address this culture of sexual abuse that appears to be, unfortunately, not controlled within the Air Force.

They are not willing to accept that, which is what I pay them for.

It's our job not to continually self-inflict the damage on our country, its readiness, and its economy.

This seems to be a systemic, persistent problem.

I'm troubled when the program executive officer says that sustainment costs are the big gorilla and are potentially unaffordable in the future.

I agree with you. We have to be thoughtful, because we want to provide these opportunities for men and women in the military to improve themselves and be ready for the day when they may be back in civilian life.

I'm tired of hearing, 'Boys will be boys.' 'Oh, it's an isolated incident.'

I don't believe modernization is optional.

I'd like to cancel it, and I'd like to cancel it not only for this year, but for the next 10.

When I think that these for-profit schools have now become the choice in at least half of the cases for education for our members of the military, it troubles me, because the outcomes are unacceptable for anyone, let alone members of the…

What has been the reaction of the military families to this lengthened stay at some of these bases?

It could be some of the most important work and the most important jobs you have, I would think.

Unless agreement is reached on a deficit reduction plan that eliminates the projected sequestration, the Department of Defense (DOD) will have an additional $50 billion across-the-board reduction in fiscal year 2014.

Base closure commissions are supposed to take the politicians out of the process. I think they've replaced the politicians with other politicians.

I hope we can come together to do that.

If we need stealth to knock down the door, we may not need the same stealth to maintain operations after the door is down.