Susan Collins

I share the Chair's determination to keep proceeding, and I look forward to beginning subcommittee markups in June.

Our focus with regard to our military competition with China must remain on deterrence.

Competition with China occurs in every domain, from the United Nations to cyberspace to Africa.

We cannot settle for CRs (continuing resolutions) that freeze our progress, result in year-over-year funding cuts.

I think we have a shared understanding that the solution here must be an all-of-Government approach.

The Chinese Communist Party does not govern by CRs, and they do not govern by cuts, and we cannot either.

I am having trouble squaring the Administration's national security strategy with a budget request that proposes to increase non-defense spending by 8.5 percent, while defense spending would increase at a rate of 3.3 percent.

Are you concerned about the fact that the weapons that the Americans gave to the Security Forces could now be turned against us and our Western allies in a terrorist attack?

Another threat to the United States is a terrorist attack. I think with our focus on China and Russia and Iran, North Korea, we can't lose sight of the fact that Afghanistan is once again a safe haven for many terrorist groups.

The Administration's 2022 National Defense Strategy rightly captures the importance of deterring China.

I am having trouble squaring the Administration's national security strategy with a budget request that proposes to increase non-defense spending by 8.5 percent, while defense spending would increase at a rate of 3.3 percent.

Are you concerned about the fact that the weapons that the Americans gave to the Security Forces could now be turned against us and our Western allies in a terrorist attack?

Another threat to the United States is a terrorist attack. I think with our focus on China and Russia and Iran, North Korea, we can't lose sight of the fact that Afghanistan is once again a safe haven for many terrorist groups.

I would, however, suggest that it is not a sufficient condition and that the President's budget is inadequate to achieve this goal.

The Administration's 2022 National Defense Strategy rightly captures the importance of deterring China.

Thank you very much, Chairman Tester, for holding this hearing on the fiscal year 2024 budget request for the Department of Defense.

I think we have a very strange system here because--to say the least, because most of us would think that the rebate, the discount that is negotiated by the PBMs, would largely benefit the consumer at the pharmacy counter.

The problem with that explanation is insurance is based on the principle that the healthy are subsidizing the sick.

What we found was a system of getting insulin from the manufacturer to the customer that was rife with perverse incentives, convoluted and opaque.

In 2018, I chaired a hearing of the Senate Aging Committee on why the costs of insulin was so high.

I think we have a very strange system here because--to say the least, because most of us would think that the rebate, the discount that is negotiated by the PBMs, would largely benefit the consumer at the pharmacy counter.

The problem with that explanation is insurance is based on the principle that the healthy are subsidizing the sick.

What we found was a system of getting insulin from the manufacturer to the customer that was rife with perverse incentives, convoluted and opaque.

In 2018, I chaired a hearing of the Senate Aging Committee on why the costs of insulin was so high.

I am having trouble squaring the Administration's national security strategy with a budget request that proposes to increase non-defense spending by 8.5 percent, while defense spending would increase at a rate of 3.3 percent.