Claire McCaskill

I think it would be kind of hard to shut down.

Well, since we have talked about parking funds, the thing that got my attention in this area when I first arrived here there was a hearing, I believe in this Subcommittee, where there was a lot of talk about interagency contracting and…

The use of interagency contracting has significant benefits when used properly, as we all know.

What we need to be thinking about are meaningful metrics that track the value the government gets for the money they spend.

Shouldn't there be somebody saying that you are going to have to jump through the hoop of a cost-benefit analysis prior to creating another contracting vehicle which adds to the complexity and to the maze, that adds to the stress to the…

The most frustrating thing about government is that we want it to behave more like a business, and frankly, it is not.

It has frustrated me for years that the public and the media seem to have no interest whatsoever in the number of contractor personnel that are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan instead of our military personnel every year.

You could not be more right about that.

I would really like to see the numbers. The auditor in me would like to see you demonstrate that what you have done has saved taxpayers money.

A BPA is a Blanket Purchase Agreement where you know there is a widget that everyone uses and you get a best price possible for that widget.

It appears to me that what we did not have 20 or 30 years ago was the ability to put these things out for everyone to see real-time.

I just worry how many contractors and how many different IT contracts is it going to take for us to get there.

But I would say LOGCAP I and II is not something that any of you would want to teach.

I absolutely could not agree with you more, that logistical support on a contractual basis is a breakthrough.

Well, and that is--somebody who is really qualified and trained in acquisition in the Federal Government is so ripe for the picking by the private sector.

Well, if they can't figure out how to give you a digital picture of what they are trying to sell the government, we probably shouldn't be doing business with them.

We need to think outside the box. We need to do it better.

The notion that some of these corporations, as large as they are, never have to compete should be offensive.

They completely lost sight that it has anything to do about value of the contract.

I am going to continue down this path with hopefully some tenacity and see if we cannot prevail upon OMB.

Transparency is important, particularly as it relates to price premium.

When I have somebody look at me in the eye, in theater, and I ask them, why did that contract go from $20 billion to $15 billion in 1 year, and the person in charge of the contract looked at me and said, it was a fluke.

I have about as much skepticism as you do, I believe, as to whether we have actually gotten any better prices by accumulating those needs.

This is so fragmented. That is why there is no accountability.

Don't be so worried about getting sued.