Susan Collins

We require honest assessments of fiscal realities, untarnished by political calculus.

I hope that this is a case where history repeats itself.

The President's new health care law is already causing health insurance premiums to increase for many employers and employees.

I view it, if OMB goes ahead with this policy, as being totally contrary to the Competition in Contracting Act.

The Postal Service is in an enormous crisis. It has announced a loss of $5.4 billion for the first three quarters of fiscal year 2010.

I hope... that you will assure me that OMB will not issue any procurement preferences that create artificial barriers to competition.

These rules also apply to hospitals, schools, or any entity that is using a large boiler.

I want to thank the Chairman for holding this hearing.

Your recommendation--looking at the threats, looking at the need to project power and ensure access--is a Navy that would be sized at 346 ships.

The practical reality is that it is not going to be, given that the same people who are involved in the budget analysis and the budget request are also performing the QDR.

We really need is an assessment that is unconstrained by the budget requests.

Well, given the amount of money that you are spending to develop a new system, I have to believe the contractor would have been willing to license that system to you.

I understand that, but it seems to me that the VA's system, despite its deficiencies, is better than the paper system that you are now using.

You don't think it is a problem that gravesites are mismarked?

Mr. Metzler, this is really important, because what you are saying right now is at odds with what the Army IG report says.

And you specifically asked for more money and more staff and were turned down?

So do you dispute the findings of the IG report that there were 100 unmarked graves, that there were scores of gravesites misidentified on the maps, that there were burial urns that had been unearthed and their contents discarded?

How are the families supposed to find the gravesites of their loved ones?

We expect the utmost honor and dignity to be given to those buried at Arlington.

Gross mismanagement of these sanctified grounds has tarnished the sacred trust and shaken many military families.

If you thought the money was being spent for the wrong things, if you thought you were understaffed, whom did you relay that to?

Doesn't the staff rely on those maps when they direct the family members to the gravesites?

But Mr. Metzler, you have an IG report that identifies 100 graves without the proper burial stone, that----

To help communities tap into that funding source, because for a community to have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to produce data to challenge these maps is really difficult during these tough economic times.

I feel so strongly that the financial burden of providing the data that would lead to the most accurate possible flood maps shouldn't fall on the communities. It should be FEMA's responsibility.