Roger Wicker

Now, Mr. Seward, you were kind enough to come by my office yesterday afternoon, which is a good thing because your testimony is the only testimony I missed coming in late because of the Prayer Breakfast.

And that is the principal thing, that is the principal change that you are advocating today. Would that be fair to say?

That includes the mountainous West Virginia that you can hardly hear 50 feet, according to Senator Manchin?

Well, thank you for that. So roughly a sixth of all the unserved households?

There are about 500,000 households that are not covered under the current Connect America Fund that were basically left behind in the first two rounds of the Connect America Fund.

We ought to be looking at new ways.

If we can afford to do a Census every 10 years and base our decisions on what we do economically as a Nation based on the Census, we should be able to do a census of our coverage across this country for mobile broadband.

I want to express my appreciation to Senator Schatz for beginning the hearing in my absence.

Thank you very much.

Unfortunately, our intent is not widely understood by the Afghan people.

We must move beyond a year to year mentality and began looking at Afghanistan from a multi-year perspective.

My recommendation is for a long-term commitment to Afghanistan from the US, NATO, and Coalition nations.

I am sure you have given lots of thought to what has been accomplished during your time in Afghanistan and what you will hope to see from a well-deserved CONUS vantage point after you finally come home.

How prepared are we to respond--to prevent--not to respond in a mutually-assured-destruction manner, but to defend against such a thing?

It would be more damaging than a nuclear bomb, would it not?

On page 24 of your answers with regard to electronic warfare and spectrum operations, you say, among other things, Russia and China have each committed significant resources.

If confirmed, will you commit to providing this Committee with a report on the Air Force acquisition strategy for replacing these Huey helicopters?

Do you believe a no-fly zone would have saved lives of innocent civilians in Syria?

This is a capability that we retain. We know how to do it.

As evil as ISIL is, it is the barrel bombs and air attacks that are causing most of the civilian casualties in Syria.

I believe the U.S. commitment to the NATO article 5 obligations is critical to U.S. strategic interests.

We risk tossing away hard-fought and hard-won gains.

I believe in conditions being the driver not time.

Does it make any sense for us to risk that by drawing down troops?

They are responsible for the security of their nation now.