Claire McCaskill

No. I am telling you the original estimate in theater by the contingency operation was $700 million.

This would be a perfect area for this performance officer to dive into because it is government-wide.

So we get back to acquisition personnel again.

I think a $20 million cap on non-compete is fair.

You can really shut their procuring off.

I know Senator Collins has done great work on acquisition workforce and I have been happy to work with her.

We will not fix most of these problems until we get to the point that we have an acquisition workforce that is the right size and the right competence.

Well, it would be nice if they could call them something other than BPAs, because that is part of the problem here.

You should have the various agencies post reviews, so when other agencies come to look, they can say, hey, don't trust this contractor.

You don't go into acquisition in the government because you want to be a star. You go into it because you are driven by a desire for public service.

Are you all confident that anywhere you go in the Federal Government that they are checking the GSA Schedule and they are getting at or near the lowest price on the GSA Schedule for a 47-inch flat-screen TV?

I actually read IG and GAO reports as recreational reading.

Why don't you just say, everybody in the Federal Government, you can no longer buy office supplies except through this vehicle.

But there seems to be a disconnect in terms of information being received on the ground and what you want the policies to be.

You took the position that you had no responsibility for these folks because they were independent contractors.

Why not contract with Paravant? Why not just contract with Blackwater?

But Raytheon was allowed to subcontract?

Now, that is one of the people that you hired with this new leaf, Xe.

Something is really rotten in Denmark.

Until the contractors are held to the same standard as the men and women that are there in uniform, we are going to continue to come back at this.

I think you are wasting a lot of money on lawyers changing names. I think you could invest that money in quality control and accountability.

Is every single person who is working for Blackwater now had the kind of background check that these two yahoos did not have?

We cannot be giving bonuses to companies who have failed in this part of it.

The American people have the right to be outraged that we are playing this kind of game with contracting.

I think anybody I went up to and talked to at my grocery store, if I told them the story we have heard in this hearing, they would say Raytheon failed during that period of time in overseeing this contract.