Thad Cochran

There is some concern about whether or not the Appropriations Committee's prerogatives are being supported not by the administration in its totality.

I think we are trying to do it in a way that is paid for, but also sticks with the sequester and the caps that are given.

This is an excellent hearing.

I think your point, Mr. Blunt, was not successfully for the long term, I think.

I want to make sure that as we look at the next year's budget that we are digging ourselves out of this hole.

Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.

I appreciate the recognition. I am delighted to be able to announce that, this year, the City of Natchez, Mississippi, is celebrating its tricentennial anniversary.

To what extent do you think this budget authority that you will be given by the Congress is sufficient?

Mr. Secretary, my wide-awake staff has decided I need to ask one more question.

I don't know of any higher calling than that engaged in by capable and creative scientists, doctors, researchers.

The President's fiscal year 2017 proposal requests over $120 billion in base funding for the Air Force.

We hope to support our Nation's air and space superiority as we have in the past.

We are pleased to welcome the Secretary of the Air Force, Honorable Deborah Lee James, and the Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh III.

We appreciate this panel being here today to help us understand the progress or lack of progress that we are all interested in making in ensuring that airspace is safe for travel, and unmanned vehicles are licensed or in some way monitored…

I certainly give Senator Cochran a lot of credit for developing the IDeA Program in the first place.

In my State of Mississippi, we have one of the highest rates of type 2 diabetes in the Nation.

How do you administer that? How do you choose which urban areas, for example, are more eligible than others for telehealth reimbursement?

Are you encouraged by the results of your applications and those who are petitioning the government to choose them?

Thank you very much.

I said I am going to focus on medical research in the Department of Defense.

That indicated to you, I think, at that time there were opportunities for accomplishing breakthroughs in medical research among economically challenged citizens.

But in many cases, Mother Nature is just unpredictable, and nobody can predict exactly where the next storm is going to be and how deep the water is going to get.

We need to be sure that we provide the ships and equipment our men and women in uniform desperately need, so they can carry out their responsibilities and missions.

I believe we have an opportunity to take some action prior to the start of other important ship programs by maintaining the national security cutter production line by adding a ninth ship.

EPA's regulations and proposed regulations sometimes run counter to our Nation's economic interests