Chuck Hagel

I have made it abundantly clear that there is no place in DOD for sexual assault and made it a top priority to do everything possible to reduce and prevent sexual assault.

Chuck Hagel, the former Republican senator from Nebraska was sworn in as secretary of defense.

The battle over Chuck Hagel's nomination is over. The Senate today confirmed the former Nebraska senator as Defense secretary. The vote was 58-41.

Senate Republicans today blocked a vote to confirm defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel.

We have a constitutional obligation to provide for the defense of this Nation of ours and a moral responsibility to pass a safe Nation on to our children.

I do not personally believe that you can eliminate the command structure in the military from this process.

We cannot stand by and allow this unbalanced approach to remain the law of the land.

The President's fiscal year 2014 budget continues to implement the $487 billion in spending reductions over 10 years agreed to in the Budget Control of 2011, as Senator Sessions noted.

I think we all accept it is a crime, and it needs to be treated as a crime.

I made this decision very reluctantly. I made it reluctantly because I recognize the significant hardship this places on our civilian personnel across the country and their families.

It is, I think, a critically important part of our foreign policy, clearly in our national interest.

When you are making friends around the world, when you are developing partners and allies, you are developing the next generation of global citizens who see America helping them.

If you do not hold people accountable, then you are not going to fix the problem.

DOD, I think in many ways, has been bloated. The Defense Department has gotten everything it has wanted the last 10 years and more. We have taken priorities. We have taken dollars. We have taken programs. We have taken policies out of the…

My understanding is that the Navy has complied with the law and submitted the report to Congress on 1 February 2013.

You have my commitment to do everything I can about that.

I think within that realm certainly the kind of money that we spend, as you've noted, on fuel, that should include some not only sense of that, but are there things that we can be doing with our research and technology in DOD, why wouldn't…

I have been informed that the Navy has met approximately 60 percent of the combatant commanders' total attack submarine requirements.

A strong, agile, safe, secure, effective, nuclear arsenal for the United States is not debatable.

I support the President's policy on Iran of prevention, not containment.

I believe it is in the long-term energy security interests of the United States to promote a commercially viable biofuels industry.

If confirmed, I will build on existing cooperation and ensure DOD continues to engage in regular consultations at high levels with Azerbaijani counterparts.

A full-year Continuing Resolution and sequestration would damage our readiness, our people, and our military families.

I support President Obama's Cuba policy which is focused on supporting the Cuban people's desire to freely determine their future.

I agree with the President that longstanding norms guiding state behavior, including the law of armed conflict, also apply in cyberspace.