I especially want to compliment Barbara Mikulski for her outstanding service on this subcommittee and how much we are going to miss her.

The budget request proposes a consolidation of TRICARE and modest increases in pharmacy co-pays and in enrollment fees.

Thank you, Senator Murkowski, for your leadership on these issues and your contribution to the debate.

with the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, our Nation has lost an exceptional jurist and unshakable defender of the U.S. Constitution. Justice Scalia will be remembered for using his substantial intellect to affect how the…

This is an excellent hearing.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

I am pleased to recommend approval of the Omnibus appropriations and tax relief bill that will soon be considered by the Senate. This bill is consistent with the Budget Act that was enacted in November. It funds the operations of the…

I compliment the distinguished Senator from Tennessee for his remarks. I extend my appreciation for his strong leadership in developing and bringing to the floor of the Senate the Defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 2016…

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.

if I understand the Senator's suggestion correctly, his amendment would create an automatic continuing resolution to fund the Federal Government in the event an annual appropriations bill is not enacted by the time the fiscal year expires…

Reserving the right to object. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.

I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Will the Senator withhold his suggestion of the absence of a quorum?