Kelly Ayotte

I appreciate that. And, obviously, I think it makes sense that your agency is really communicating with the airports and coming up with a mutually acceptable solution.

The bill is called the 'Transportation Security Acquisition Reform Act.'

I appreciate you have a challenging position but very important leadership position for the country.

Thank you very much. I know my time is up, and I think this is a very important issue.

I think that attitude issue, I would love to see, as you look at this issue in the followup with the FBI, what is it that the local officers feel has been the attitude change on the ground, because that is what is going to make the biggest…

I would hope that it would not just be left with the discretion of the agent.

I think this has to be a holistic approach where you are also engaging the prosecutors they work with on a regular basis to say, hey, this is important and this attitude is what is going to help us protect America, working together.

I want to thank both the Chairman and the Ranking Member for holding this hearing.

I wish to praise my colleague from Nebraska for her leadership on the important amendment she has just described, the Workplace Advancement Act, which will address legitimate issues to ensure that laws we have had in place for half a…

A big part of the problem, however, is the availability of heroin.

I want to thank the Chair and thank the Ranking Member.

So you think that there's an opportunity through the voluntary process for everyone to get on the same page?

All I can ask of you is to work with all the stakeholders to provide some certainty.

Heroin has become a major problem across the country, but particularly in New England and New Hampshire.

The tragedy last September at the Washington Naval Yard showed us the dangers insider threats can pose.

As we continue to face the possibility of further budget reductions under sequestration, we may be forced into adopting some variation of a less ready, temporarily tiered status within the next few years in order to make critical…

I would think it would be important for this committee, actually, to hear directly from Mr. Valukas on the investigation itself.

I would hope that you, as CEO, would be making sure that it is not just that you are telling that to people but you actually are ensuring that these documents can't be interfered with before he undertakes his investigation.

I understand that the Navy has revised its guidelines for accounting for the size of the Navy's battle force.

As I understand it, at this point, nobody within GM has been fired as a result of the issue that comes before us today on the ignition switch and obviously this long pattern of having information and not providing disclosure and recall to…

You described the situation with the duplicate parts, the duplicate ignition switches. One had the defect, one didn't; however, the same part number was kept.

If forced to continue along this path, we will risk a force that is tiered in its capabilities.

I believe this is criminal.

We need Congress to intervene and provide us the flexibility to determine where those reductions are made rather than the mandatory across the board cuts that the law requires.

It seems to me--and you are potentially facing--that this is a very important issue, to ensure that no one can interfere with that at this point.