Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

It certainly seems like something that we need to work together on, because with these huge numbers of vacancies it's certainly posing problems and risks in this area.

I think the Community Care program which we'll be hearing about is a model that I'm hoping that the rest of the country will take serious note of.

One of the issues that we've done in North Carolina is to take the transfat out of the school lunches.

We have to focus on this more aggressively.

I believe that the Army needs to establish the protocol that the contract management be established directly between the Army and the uniform treatment vendor.

Congress established the Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) in 1996 as a tool to help the military improve the quality of life for its servicemembers.

It is important that we replace the M4 with a new state-of-the-art weapons system that meets the operational requirements of our military in theater.

The MHPI program authority is slated to expire in 2010. What can we do to assist the Army and DOD to ensure that this program remains in effect after 2010?

I think that there will be such a large number of children going to the schools in the community also, that a lot of attention needs to be addressed to that issue.

I agree with Governor Mabus that this is an extremely high priority for the Department.