Claire McCaskill

You've done the right thing by coming forward and talking about it, even though I know it's an invasion of your privacy.

It is a special moment when we can have a Federal hearing at a local level with the Federal Government and the State Government both represented, with everyone on the same page, with everyone trying to accomplish the same goal.

we are now in the silly season where we can't even agree on motherhood and apple pie in Washington at this point

If we were in Washington, every seat in this room would be full. And the reason it would be full is because they would all be lobbyists.

Of the 20 companies GAO called, 17 of them collected up-front fees before ever making any attempt to settle any debt.

I think it is time we take a look at whether or not what one Senator thinks is a good idea is something that we can afford in light of the overall stresses--and we all know that our deficit is a national security threat.

This should never, ever, ever have happened.

I want to talk about a couple of things that I know will be in the report when we eventually see it.

And the notion that you would come in here and act as if you didn't know about it until a month ago is offensive.

it is, frankly, jaw-dropping that we are actually messing around and saying that we have to go create a new system after we have spent all this money.

Please be aware that I will respond if I hear words like `disaster,' `stunned,' `throwing money at contractors,' or `no product to show for it.

I am stunned. It is a disaster. We were throwing money at contractors. And we absolutely have no product to show for it.

Well, let us be honest here. I mean, really, what has happened here is employees at the Cemetery finally had enough and they went to Salon.com and Salon did an expose on what was going on at Arlington.

Was there ever a time that you lost confidence in the leadership at the Arlington National Cemetery?

Let the record reflect that you have availed yourself of the privileges afforded you under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution not to give testimony that might incriminate you.

Arlington National Cemetery is the Nation's most sacred burial ground for veterans and their families.

This is one nugget out of a long scenario of catastrophic incompetence.

the Army must restore the solemn trust that America's heroes deserve, and we expect no less.

We have urns being dug up that are unidentified and they have been dumped, and we have to get on this because this could be occurring in every single section of the Cemetery?

I don't want my questions to be confrontational to you, but you are the only one at the table that could have had an opportunity.

We immediately need resources and manpower so we can check the Cemetery, because we are afraid that we have lost bodies of our heroes.

We are here today because we owe our veterans better. We owe their families much more.

We have waste. We have abuse. And we have fraud. We have the trifecta.

The Army Inspector General found hundreds of mistakes associated with graves.

There needs to be a look around to see if there are any other Arlington National Cemetery scandals.