I am pleased today to join my colleague from New Hampshire, Senator Shaheen, in introducing the Small Business Export Growth Act, which would help small businesses better navigate the complex process of promoting and selling their goods…

our commitment is in the years ahead, this money will be used efficiently to provide service to you and not be wasted where it's not needed.

I commend you on the reform, and I do think it's important that you're slowing the growth of the money that's being held in the fund.

Especially with AFRICOM, yes.

So I do appreciate your follow-up on it. We certainly are taking on additional risk by doing this.

But also, location is helpful, too.

I think it only makes sense in terms of not only the cost, but also making sure that we maintain our attack submarine fleet.

I would suggest if it is not already a criteria, that performance evaluations be part of the measure, how much money did you return to the taxpayers.

If we have predictability regarding certain budget expenses, why are these accounts not completely funded in DOD's budget requests?

I am concerned that the annual transfer of funds between defense accounts, especially at the end of the fiscal year, decreases accountability and increases the difficulty in achieving accurate financial statements.

I think it is important. We have to be able to account to taxpayers.

to what extent is DOD actually realizing the intended savings?