The President can veto it. He can veto a bill which has items in it he does not like.

It is too bad that there is only one house that can have extended debate.

I will not give it away.

I happen to agree with our Chairman. It does not exist in the House. It does exist here.

To just suggest that such a rescission is not additional power to the President is simply wrong.

the cost of even a 400,000 Afghan security force is a tiny, tiny fraction of what the cost is of having our forces in Afghanistan.

I am very leery about giving Presidents more power.

He has led the fight to try to make sure we spend our tax dollars in a more cost-effective way in the way we buy weapons systems.

we now are facing over one trillion dollars in lost revenue to the Federal Government a year because of these tax expenditures.

We cannot get something done around here without being able to table it. But the President, under this bill, would be able to.

we eliminate those tax loopholes which give incentives to people to move jobs offshore.

The power is to obtain something from Congress. That is the power.

I noticed that the more recent President Bush did not even ask for rescissions.

I sure would not. It is the people's money, but I sure as heck do not want to provide an incentive to people who move their businesses offshore.

I happen to agree with Senator Manchin in terms of the economic giant, and that China intends to be a military giant.

Secretary Gates, are the Iraqis recruiting and training any police units that are comprised exclusively of religious minorities and, if so, are they deployed exclusively to the areas where their respective communities reside?

I support this proposed increase. I know from our conversations that Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen support it as well.

I join and concur with Senator McCain and his comments about you and your tenure here as Secretary of Defense.

Thank you very much, Senator Shaheen.

I hope that we will soon, as a committee, be in a position to enact a full year appropriation at an appropriate level.

Do either of you have concerns that the joint arrangement will prove too unwieldy?

Are you confident that DOS is committed to making this initiative work jointly beyond the tenures of both of you and Secretary Clinton?

We are in a battle, and more than half of it is taking place in the battlefield of the media.

Improving Afghan governance remains a major challenge to success.

no part of the Government, including DOD, can be exempt from close examination.