Edward M. Kennedy

Is your understanding of the language that is now in Congress that it gives you any authority to move ahead with any kind of testing as part of the research program?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr. Secretary, for your willingness to address this issue.

We have had 16 killed from Massachusetts. A great number of those have been as a result of riding in light-skinned HMMWVs.

I think the area and the requirement of the greatest need is obviously Iraq and having sufficient numbers of either the armored HMMWVs or the armor kits.

the fact is you are below the requirement that the Army has set for themselves and this budget which we are having our hearing on does not provide the makeup of the requirement that the Army itself has set.

If we can get that from you and the supplementary services and what is happening over there in terms of these patrols, I would appreciate it.

I think it would be worthwhile to raise it with him as a reasonable action.

You do not foresee it with regard to these two weapons, the bunker buster and the low-threshold war----

Are there any circumstances whatsoever in your research that you could foresee the possibility of any testing?

I must express some reservation about that.

The Secretary was directly informed by the Red Cross about some of these allegations and abuses that took place in the prison and I have intention of questioning him.

I'm going to use my 6 minutes.

I think I am entitled to ask a question on a subject which is relevant to his testimony.

My question to you is, when those issues were raised to you, what did you do about it?

I have never been denied the opportunity to question any person that's come before a committee on what I wanted to ask.

It is the beginning of the unwinding of Medicare, the replacing of Medicare with the private sector and privatizing the Medicare system. Make no mistake about it.

I believe that the way these forgotten nuclear workers have been treated by our government is truly one of the gravest injustices I've seen in my state.

We look at the front page of 'The New York Times' here. 'The American leading the hunt for banned weapons in Iraq says his team has not found any of the unconventional weapons cited by the Bush administration as the principle reason for…

We urge you not to implement this new regulation that will end overtime protections for those currently eligible.

Protecting the 40-hour work week is vital to balancing work responsibilities and family needs.

We urge you not to go forward with any regulation that denies overtime pay protections to any of America's currently eligible hard-working men and women.

Those are serious policy issues and questions.

the policy decisions are not made by you. They are made by the administration and obviously to the extent Congress does.

Well, I thought also there were assurances about non-first use against countries that didn't have nuclear weapons, that that was included as well.

I want to commend the Defense Department for its immunization of smallpox.