Claire McCaskill

The political piece did not turn out so well, and the economic piece is an abject failure.

If we have a neighbor to the south that has decided this is acceptable, it means that there is a whole lot of other things they think is acceptable that frankly threaten our national security.

It is obvious that buses and trains are moving loaded with thousands of children for miles through Mexico.

If we were to abandon the Growler, I would be anxious to hear what the capabilities would be to replace it.

You have an opportunity to clean this up.

It's costing millions of dollars for every recovery we have. Millions.

I have never seen a more inexcusable turf war in my life than the turf war that has gone on within this important responsibility within the military.

Senator Gillibrand and I have worked together on a number of historic reforms that have been signed into law.

We're going to hold you accountable, that we're going to be paying very close attention to how all of this is done.

Who decided what the metrics were?

Do you understand that sounds weird?

I have learned the hard way that if you do not figure out who is in charge, the chances of you getting something fixed go down exponentially.

I think people, if you are in this hearing room, they know I like price certain a lot better than cost-plus.

I mean, we have to do better at this.

And that has got to be really hard for Raytheon, because you cannot do both. That is impossible with this contract, correct?

You ran out of money. You had to start the option early, because you guys ran out of money, and you have cut staff by, what, 30 percent, that are doing the training?

Well, I think, there, the issue is that--even in this testimony today, there does not seem to be a clear explanation that can be articulated between the difference in what you contracted for and what you paid for.

Is the $250,000 number one I can bank on at this hearing? Is that the number it costs to adequately train air controllers in the FAA?

Acquisition is about the people who know what they need buying it and having some idea what it costs.

OK. So, you thought the most you were going to pay for was 4,500. You paid for 5,600, correct?

That is weird. We do not have Vice Presidents in government unless his name is Biden.

OK. So, you had a set of metrics before this contract was--before you had the competition on this contract.

I sit up here and rail against government agencies for being inefficient and ineffective and I am a member of the U.S. Congress.

So, the issue here is this. Complicated training, but this is to try to simplify the problem we have.

So, you are telling me that you are paying for training for these people and you are not even sure...