Susan Collins

You have mentioned in your testimony and confirmed to Senator McCaskill that you are losing $1 million a month on this contract.

I would like you to get back to me on that issue because your testimony says that it was a matter of cost, not technical qualifications.

But what is disturbing to me is this was a spot check over 2 days and it found so many vacancies.

I think that we really should look at a change in legislation that would give us a best value way of appraising this.

Now tell me how that differs from a best value approach to awarding the contract.

And it is my understanding that in such circumstances, the lowest price bid is selected regardless of the relevant strength of the bidder's qualifications, is that correct?

I guess that would be extremely poor performance.

It is my understanding that the Gurkhas are extremely well regarded.

So why wouldn't that have an impact on security?

What concerns me about that assessment is the nature of some of the deficiencies.

It seems to me that it should be an automatic requirement.

Shouldn't that information be shared?

If it is accurate, then it is an alarming situation that demands action by the State Department.

If that is not a true statement, then the Department of State should not be saying it.

In government procurement, ensuring the best value for the American taxpayer is important under the best of circumstances, but it is crucial when our Nation is at war and our fellow citizens are serving in harm's way in Iraq, Afghanistan…

I appreciate the chairman bringing about the CADE strategy because that has been of concern to me.

I think not only about the dollars that we're going to bring in directly, but also about the deterrent effect.

I just want to associate myself with the chairman's last question to express concern about the need for more enforcement and education to deal with these scams.

I hope, as you look at this issue, that we're going to be establishing safety and soundness requirements regardless of the type of institution.

I introduced a bill in March to create a council of regulators to act as a systemic risk monitor.

Ordinary Americans need to know that... they are not going to get a free pass while firemen and teachers are paying their fair share of taxes.

The Fed frankly has its hands full.

I don't think that it's a coincidence that AIG bought a small federally chartered thrift, or established a small federally chartered thrift, in order to get under the regulation of the Office of Thrift Supervision, OTS, which is generally…

I think there's widespread consensus that we do need to have a systemic risk monitor.

I think that the whole issue of leveraging preparers is going to be part of our tax gap strategy.