Claire McCaskill

the reason we have these unusual situations in Iraq and Afghanistan is because there was a decision made that nationals were too dangerous.

Yes, we want the contract, every part of it to be complied with, and we do feel that all of the parts of the contract are important for the security of the mission.

the previous bridge contract was terrible and we really were concerned about the security at the embassy under the previous bridge

if this is about the locals being not sufficient to guard our embassy in theater because of the threat, it seems to me that we are not going up the food chain, we are going down the food chain.

I can't imagine an excuse that could be valid for FOIA requests languishing as long as they do in many instances.

I think it is very important to point out that on the initiative of the Department of State, in March of this year, you did a check and inspected the guards.

I think most people would be surprised that if you knew that someone that was a contractor for the U.S. Government... it would seem to me that somebody would go, we need to ask some questions here because it may be that we have got…

I think there is still some work to be done in terms of how responsive the State Department is to requests for information.

I am asking you now, should we be hiring private contract firms such as yourself to guard embassies in this situation?

Well, if you are losing $1 million a month, why wouldn't you tell them you don't want the contract again and they would have to rebid it?

Well, when you checked the last time, could they come out with a sentence in English when you checked?

We are going to continue to look very closely at how easy it is to get information and how quickly we can get information out of the State Department.

Let us talk about the language issue. You are now representing that you have all of your folks in compliance with the language requirement of the contract?

I think we have got to figure out a way to resolve that because there are two more years of options on this contract.

I think we have learned some things about contract oversight as it relates to guarding our embassy in theater.

We know now that the JSF is 55 percent over the 2001 estimate.

What I'm trying to get to here is that there seems to be a strong factual basis that we're not going to get to where we want to be on the JSF soon enough.

I know everything is on a fast track here, but that needs to be also.

I think we all have to acknowledge that these companies are broke, and they are not going to succeed unless they get smaller.

There will be liability in the new company for the recall costs, for the warranty costs.

This is painful. There is a great deal of anger and despair, and it shouldn't shock anybody in this room that we are all looking for bad guys.

if we have non-performing contractors that have received the bids because of the credit market that gives us an excuse to rebid.

I think we need to take a hard look at it.

I think it is time for us to take a broad look--and hopefully we can do this on the Subcommittee--at the various goals here.

Well, I am very troubled by that. I don't get how we can afford to fix the car, but if someone loses their life or limb, there is no liability.