Claire McCaskill

I believe the figure for the first year is $800 million just to sustain and maintain these facilities.

I think this is a delicate problem you face and I put you on the spot here and I apologize.

I believe DEA's scope of operations in SOUTHCOM's AOR is appropriate.

I need to know from you--and I need to know before my vote on you--whether or not you will make the commitment that what the Army Corps blew up they will put back to the way it was before they blew it up.

I have become beyond a skeptic about the part of the counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy...

The other problem is it is clear that we funded our enemies in some instances, which is unacceptable.

If individual Members of Congress were not injecting their priorities within the priorities that the engineers had determined were the best cost-benefit analysis for all of the uses of the rivers and the most important in terms of…

I really think it is time for you all to do a gut check on COIN as it relates to nation building.

OK. How long do you think it is going to take to get through this additional 64,000 gravesites where you cannot at this point speak with certainty about who is located there?

I understood that the Army was more upset than anyone else about the problems at Arlington.

I think the Army responded in a way that reflects the dedication they have to the fallen.

Setting a different set of rules for Arlington contributed to the lack of accountability at Arlington for many years.

So going forward, those are the only two contracting sources you are going to use and they are clearly delineated from a management perspective that you feel confident you can keep track of it?

So we now know that we have at least 70,000 more people buried at Arlington than had been previously estimated?

There is a lot of redundancy. It will be very hard for them to lose track of a burial site and what remains are located there based on the processes that are now in place, which is a big improvement.

The Nation's most revered and sacred burial ground for veterans and their families.

I think this is a great poster child for people deciding that this work was important.

This country is incredibly blessed by the men and women who step across the line and say, 'Take me.'

I am not going to stop until whoever it is that is running Arlington Cemetery can say, we now have a handle on every single gravesite.

If this was not transparent, if this was not obvious, and clearly it was not, then I think it would be very helpful for someone at the most senior level at the Pentagon to take a look at this issue of obligated but not disbursed and what…

I have said from the beginning that the oversight of this Subcommittee would not end until people sat in front of this dais.

I have a hard time believing that Arlington would have difficulty getting appropriations because I think this body has great respect for what that represents to our country and would want to fund it appropriately.

So what you are saying is we have over 60,000 gravesites where we do not have sufficient back-up and documentary evidence for you all to be certain that you have it right?

I want to thank all of you for the work on this.

This hearing will now come to order.