I believe her nomination is an inspired choice.

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…

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?

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

I guess that would be extremely poor performance.

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

This year alone, the Federal Government will spend more than $70 billion on IT projects, and yet OMB every year, through its tracking system, identifies billions of dollars of wasted spending on IT.

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

Why can we not get our act together when it comes to websites for tracking spending?

There are a considerable number of privately funded BSL3 labs in this country that are permitted to work on a number of dangerous pathogens that could result in a serious biological event, yet these labs are not required to inform any…

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

I join the Chairman in welcoming Tara O'Toole to the Committee today.

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

Despite the existence of the PART ratings, managers across the Federal Government do not use the assessments when it comes to allocating resources.

The President has committed to making this Administration more transparent, and that is something that I completely support.

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

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

In the previous Administration, OMB tried to use low PART ratings as a justification for terminating or reducing funding for various programs.

Shouldn't that information be shared?

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

I think you have identified the key issue.

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

OMB has developed a system known as the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART), and it is a performance results system that is intended to evaluate the effectiveness of Federal programs.

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…