John Hoeven

Thank you, Chairman Nelson, for calling this hearing to consider the fiscal year 2012 legislative branch budget requests.

What do you want? What don't you want? And there's an associated cost or reduction that goes with it.

I agree on the 2-year--matter of fact, I'm cosponsoring legislation to go to a 2-year budget cycle.

I think you may be covering the same point that I want to explore for just a minute.

We have to be mindful of those security requirements, too.

Mr. Chairman, with your indulgence? Exactly. Again, that goes to the cost equation. You have to have a pipeline to get it to the oil field typically or to the wells in the field.

Absolutely. So Mr. Klara, Ms. Greenberg in the lab and in your brainstorming sessions, what are we going to do with this CO2 that's going to generate some revenue for us?

It seems to me that the 2 big issues in getting the technology to move forward for carbon capture and sequestration are cost and liability.

I think that it has tremendous potential particularly because of the convergence with CO2 capture and carbon sequestration.

Incentives that pay for themselves are the ones that probably stand the best chance to advance.

I would like to ask members of our panel what do you think the key regulatory piece is for us...

I commend you for it. And I want to work hard to help you achieve it on behalf of our airmen and the mission.

That is a tremendous asset and a tremendous facility and I would ask that you check and get back to me that you are, through your O&M account, maintaining those fuel lines, for both now and for the future.

It is, both your MILCON budget and then your O&M budget, as it is set up right now, is very important for the ability of our airmen and aircraft to deliver those missions.

I think one of the biggest problems in terms of the Federal Government is they're making things more complex instead of making it simple.

I've always found that people react better if you ask them to do something then if you tell them they have to do something.

The challenge is dollars. As you know we're a little short of dollars here, spending more than we're taking in and that's a problem that we've got to change.

Well, it is a good plan, and I commend you for it. And I want to work hard to help you achieve it on behalf of our airmen and the mission.

I would ask that you check and get back to me that you are, through your O&M account, maintaining those fuel lines, for both now and for the future.

It is, both your MILCON budget and then your O&M budget, as it is set up right now, is very important for the ability of our airmen and aircraft to deliver those missions.

The work you do to support them is incredibly appreciated, and, of course, tremendously important.

It's amazing to think we've been at war for over a decade--more than one war.

You know, with all they've been doing over the last 10 years, do you have a sense that they're keeping up in terms of their needs?

We need to get that creativity going in the private sector.

I think it's going to be absolutely key that we work together, particularly as we go into this next farm bill, on crop insurance.