Kelly Ayotte

I certainly want to hear from the doctor. I just wanted to follow up, though.

Our veterans in our North Country deserve the same kinds of access to other more populated areas of the state.

I hope that you will expand that to other areas of the State that have many geographic challenges.

I appreciate that, and I will have a couple of specific follow-ups on certain areas of our State with regard to more access.

For 4 years now my commitment has been that veterans ought not to have to wait for access to health care

How we treat our veterans is incredibly important.

There is agreement is harming an important industry within our country.

So when you talk about these companies being profitable, the reason that the concerns are coming back on innovation is because the companies that it punishes the most, frankly, are the startups because it is a tax on revenue, not profit.

The vote passed in the budget resolution 79-20 to repeal this tax.

Why didn't you issue guidance last August asking your Service Chiefs to submit detailed plans to implement sequestration?

Would you agree that under current spending reductions, and certainly under sequestration, we are likely to have more incidences in which the Marine Corps will not be able to respond in a timely way to save American lives?

I am sure my colleagues, certainly Senator Shaheen, Senator King, share my concerns about the impact and the importance of our shipyards.

This is important that our men and women in uniform and our national security are not impacted by sequestration.

I am a cosponsor, along with others on this panel, of a bill that would come up with some alternative savings to provide at least a resolution of sequestration for the end of this fiscal year.

Is there any disagreement on this panel on that? [No response.]

Did General Ham make any request for assets or support that were denied by you or anyone in the DOD chain of command?

I just would add my straightforward question, I think, and in particular to both of you, particularly to General Dempsey, you said you were aware of the cable.

It doesn't seem to me that we were moving with a sense of urgency, given that we had an ambassador missing.

It's a pretty important cable. You said you were also aware of the deteriorating security situation.

Did the individuals on the ground in Benghazi make any requests for support that were denied?

I appreciate the question that Senator Reed asked about the impact on SOCOM of sequester. Obviously, I think the role of SOCOM has become even more important.

But in terms of a timeline, you would agree with me that it is best to take as much time as you need to interrogate someone that may have valuable information to shed light on al Qaeda and perhaps prevent future attacks.

We would love to have you come up--jointly the three of us on the committee and I am sure Senator Collins would as well with the years spent on this committee--to our shipyard.

I am very worried about the impact that the furloughs have had on the civilian workforce, and obviously the uncertainty because of the Government shutdown.

Secretary Wright, when an individual who received the erroneous payments signs the waiver form, does this waiver also release DOD officials from any liability in association with that payment?