Claire McCaskill

Senators Tester, Mikulski, Coats, Collins, and I have introduced legislation to make the National Security Agency (NSA) Inspector General (IG) a Presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed position.

I think it is classified because you get away with saying things are classified in the Intelligence Community.

I think this has made it incumbent on the Intelligence Community to be as transparent as possible with Congress while protecting the classification of information that is important for our national security.

I think there needs to be a little bit of a gut check in the Intelligence Community.

When you have somebody like Senator Feinstein who is--she is a work horse, not a show horse.

What I would really like to see is, you have made this statement; it was the policy in the contract that allowed that.

We want to be reflective of society where we serve.

In fact, I believe I am correct in saying that there has never been an analysis for alternatives in this regard since this sponsorship of NASCAR began.

I want to see metrics. I want to see analytics. I want to be the most effective steward of taxpayer resources that I can be.

I mean, the facts speak for themselves. The data are very clear. You are not getting recruits off NASCAR.

The primary reason you want to brand it is so that we get 50,000 people who step across the line and say I am willing to serve.

It is interesting to me that another branch of the military with more money finds sponsoring NASCAR is not cost effective.

Now let's put on the Record how long you have been in your respective positions because I want to make sure it is very clear that some of the problems we are talking about were not your decisions.

Today, I want to explore the Army National Guard's rationale for continuing its sponsorship of professional sports programs and discuss whether spending solely to promote 'brand awareness' is an effective use of taxpayer money.

What policies are there in place now to ensure these programs are not abused by officials who want the perks associated with the sponsorships?

If there is anything that is in writing anywhere that would lay out the parameters of that, whether it is in the contract or written in any policy anywhere, that would be really important for our Committee to see.

I guess it is hard for a lay person to see how having your name associated with NASCAR is brand awareness and an ad on an action show, where young men and women are maybe watching it--how one is lead-generating and recruiting and one is…

If you were going to rank professional sports sponsorships--let's assume for purposes of this discussion that your budget for this area of recruitment and marketing was going to be cut by a third.

I do not want to diss the women that love NASCAR because some of them are my family members.

I am trying to figure out when the Army pulled the plug after their analysis, which would have been full of great data for you to look at.

It seems like to me--do you know why all the other active military components decided to not recontract with NASCAR?

We have asked, and we have not been able to locate any analysis that was ever done, comparing the relative benefits of this sponsorship versus other marketing.

But I am curious as to why. Whenever I look at contracting and I see layers, I always want to know why and why is that of value to us, the government that is contracting.

OK, Senator Johnson.

Because, it's the investigation function that keeps the car manufacturers honest.