Claire McCaskill

I am somebody who is worried about the death spiral of a 5-day delivery.

I want to make sure this process is fair and transparent.

I do not think we should give up on the notion that we are going to sit down, write a letter, and put in it thoughts, prayers, and hopes for somebody we care about.

I feel strongly about 6-day delivery.

I really believe that if somebody would begin to market the value of sending a written letter to someone you love, you might be surprised what it could do for your Christmas season.

I want to particularly comment on both Senator Cornyn and Senator Begich being here.

We need some kind of clarification. I think all of you have 40, 50, 100 planned, but nobody has anywhere near 657 planned.

Sound financial systems and good data are critical to our efforts to provide efficient management, save money, and ensure accountability at the Department of Defense.

Thank you all for this hearing, and we will continue to follow up and provide the pressure we think is necessary.

I do want to say for the record that the irony is not lost on at least the subcommittee chairman that it does take some nerve for us to call a hearing calling you to task for your lack of fiscal management in light of what we are busy…

I would like to find out who that person was that made that decision, that looked at the Marine Corps.

It could be all of this effort and all of this money is only as good as the data feed-in.

They couldn't use the same system?

I am just looking forward to an audit.

I want to make sure that, right now, we know who to hold accountable on the feeder system problem.

I think you can assume it will be a qualified. I don't think that any of us are expecting a clean audit the first time around.

I think that sometimes that waste part is in the eye of the beholder.

I will look forward to an opinion, even if it is qualified. I would be thrilled with a qualified opinion.

It is very troubling that we are not getting cost codes to people in the field.

I think one of the reasons that DOD has failed at this for so long is because it never received the kind of attention and emphasis that it should have through the years.

Well, don't you think, though, it would be pretty easy to figure out whether somebody is manufacturing airplanes?

I do not think this is a mistake.

I think we all know that they are the big gorilla when it comes to contracting in the Federal Government.

I think they were legitimately a small business when the contract was given, but now they in a short period of time have become a very big business.

I think that would be terrific.