Jerry Moran

The committee has been given justification to put all this money into the Global Hawk. We do so, and then all of a sudden, well, wait a minute, we are going to mothball 18 of them after the committee has spent taxpayers' money on it.

So even though we appropriated the money, you are not going to spend it?

I want to associate myself with the concern registered by Ranking Member Dicks over the idea of mothballing 18 new Global Hawk Block 30s.

I think that would be helpful.

Should the Air Force not purchase the two additional Block 30s, a production break may very well impact the cost and schedule for the BAMS.

When you made all the tough decisions you had to make when you put this budget together, are there risks that you recognize that we are taking because we can't do everything necessary in terms of our national security strategy?

We have this year in the fiscal year 2013 budget a request for $1 billion in reset costs.

The commitment to sailors and marines and their families is there whether they serve 4 years or 40.

We will very carefully manage the reduction in Active-Duty end strength from 202,000 to 182,100 marines by the end of fiscal year 2016 in order to keep faith with the marines and their families to the maximum extent possible.

So why would the Navy certify a major upgrade to the Aegis system, saying that it is combat-ready without testing the system's ability to perform both air and ballistic missile defense?

Well, we can't help but have confidence and trust that you are on top of it.

I think you are getting very close and it should be of some concern, and I trust it is.

The Afghan army is much more effective operationally.

I do not think Maliki or anybody else that serves in the government is interested in having Iran dominate or try to influence what happens in Iraq.

It is conceivable it could be counterproductive.

I think you would find willing Members who could come together.

If you want to get out of that hole, you have got to do exactly what history tells us.

You mentioned Iran as the most serious concern in the Middle East.

The professionalism, the quality of the personnel is terrific at Walter Reed and at Bethesda.

Well, I do not want to interrupt, and we do seem to be repeating ourselves, but it is 65 years now that there has been a consensus that we ought to combine our military medical services because the mission of healing the body is the same…

It does not make sense to have separate medical care among the services.

What are we going to sacrifice in terms of our expedited withdrawal from Afghanistan?

Well, it bears noting, Mr. Chairman, that at Fort Belvoir it is actually working quite well. We have not received one single complaint.

Why cannot we do here what we have to do in Afghanistan and actually do quite well when we need to?

The problem is back at home here where we are trying to implement something that we have known was going to happen for some time, we are not necessarily doing it because we do not have the personnel and the line authority, et cetera.