Angus King

That is true of Maine as well, by the way, Mr. Secretary.

Our legislature has opposed it unanimously. Our delegation is unanimously in opposition to it, and the coastal economy of Maine is enormously dependent upon fisheries, lobsters, and visitors throughout the year.

These are resources that belong to the people of the United States. We are taking money out of the pockets of taxpayers.

That's preposterous.

I'm sorry. They already--I can't believe what you just said.

To me, the clipboard is the sign of not being in the 21st century.

I would hope that we could try to learn something from the private sector.

I'm sick of that term. That means none of government.

Well, that's kind of ridiculous, isn't it?

I would urge you to think creatively, because we are fielding a lot of capability... and yet, we are not adequately responding to someone who is attacking us.

People are dying because we are not interdicting these ships.

And in the long run, it is certainly in the taxpayers' interests to have those two shipyards.

The committee believes that the Navy should maintain the two proven shipbuilding sources of large surface combatants.

I would commend to both of you--Senator Cotton and I on the Airland Subcommittee had an informal roundtable with a group of Air Force pilots to talk about this issue without a lot of officers and press or anybody.

I would be interested in the overall question of the sustainment costs and why they are so high because, as I say, Ellen Lord said they are unaffordable.

You mean a product can be delivered to us that costs 100 million bucks, and if it fails, it is on us?

That gives new meaning to the old rock song, 'Rust Never Sleeps.' It is unbelievable.

If the Iran agreement were abrogated, we would lose that visibility into the Iran nuclear enterprise, is that not correct?

It will increase migration patterns, conflict, famine, and the like, which is often how wars start.

This is clearly, as your report indicates, a serious issue of national security, is it not?

I want to compliment you and the members of your--the community that you represent on the report that you have supplied to us.

There's no such thing as a silver bullet, maybe silver buckshot.

I hope one of your elements of your work will be red teaming so that you can demonstrate to utilities where they have problems.

What I am asking you is, if you observe and develop, and I would ask this question also to the electric cooperative and to the utility industry, generally, if there are impediments here, please let us know what they are so that we can try…

Well, I hope we can. I hope, Madam Chair, that is a bill we can move.