Claire McCaskill

I think the stronger that you all lead on trying to shut down programs that, in the long run, are going to cost money that we don't have, I think, the more responsive that Congress will be.

Substantial savings will not be realized until DOD commits to spend only what is absolutely essential for the warfighter and critical DOD functions.

We'll continue to work closely with you to figure out ways we can continue to be the best military in the world with less money spent.

I just realized there was one other area I wanted to cover. That was the zero-based review of the Department's intelligence organizations.

We think that you're cutting spending on service contracts by $1.3 billion this year.

We have to wean ourselves off of this incredible explosion of contractors within DOD.

We, in Congress, hope that that is not the case.

I thought it took a lot of courage for Secretary Gates to go out as far as he did on the second engine.

I really appreciate the core, fundamental concept of providing small-scale humanitarian relief and reconstruction projects to help win the local people and to provide force protection.

You've acknowledged $5 billion at the end of combat, an additional $5 billion to reconstitute the force.

Admiral Burke, like Senator Ayotte, who represents the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard--I wanted to go back to your comments about making maintenance a bigger priority, and taking care of what we have.

The goal here is to spend less money. Obviously, the first goal is to have a military that is the best in the world.

I also have concerns that we are paying attention to that because as she said, we have never, ever used our Guard and Reserve in the way that we have over the last decade.

If so, will the fiscal year 2012 budget enable them to induct this workload?

To what extent is the Army assessing which of the many pieces of nonstandard equipment that were purchased to meet urgent warfighters' needs should be added to the prepositioned stock sets?

It appears to the committee that you are underfunding reset and maintenance, and I'm trying to figure out why.

I think we need some. Because, these arsenals are very critical to our ability to support our forces--particularly the Army, but others Services, as well--for their wartime needs.

I think we do need to drill down and make sure that the decision was not made prematurely.

I'm very concerned with aviation readiness in Afghanistan, as our helicopters are under high demand and flying well beyond their anticipated flying hours.

It's frustrating to me, because, as a brand-spanking-new Senator, I went to Iraq... and looked at the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program.

I think it's great what Secretary Gates has done in terms of identifying $78 billion in the Pentagon and $100 billion across the branches.

I am concerned that we could be spending our Federal dollars twice for this possible move.

I continue to feel that we don't have adequate information from the Marine Corps to know what factors are going into this decision.

Why are they exempt?

I couldn't agree more with General Chiarelli, in terms of the quality work environment and the work that needs to be done there.