I want you to know I'm more than willing to work with you to help achieve the goals.

Just one question. Like last year's budget, the 2013 President's budget assumes that the Congress will introduce and pass an aviation fee increase.

We need to triage that. We just simply don't have the money, and we need to go to the core competitive process.

I would just like to follow up on that because this is obviously a significant part of the budget, and it is probably the most politically directed part of the budget that we have to deal with.

The first responders' response and the mechanisms that kicked into gear right after the storm swept through showed that we made very significant progress in dealing with these types of emergencies.

The President's budget does not pass that test. I will work with my colleagues to identify resources to restore those cuts.

I think what I heard you say is, is that the expenditures to date, the $35 billion distributed across the country regardless of the size of community and so forth, that you are saying that base capabilities are essentially funded to this…

And I think we need to do that, and I commend you for doing so.

You defined it and others defined it in the security business as one of the most major threats that the Nation faces.

And I would urge you to keep doing that.

So I guess there's a possibility that they wouldn't be operational during that 1-year holding period.