Kelly Ayotte

Is that what you understand is the new policy? What impact is the policy having on attrition, and do we continue to have, still, challenges on the security for our shipyards?

I know today, in fact, every Senator who is representing a public shipyard is supporting legislation that I have introduced.

The Navy has been struggling to adequately define maintenance requirements which are key to completing maintenance on time.

My sense is that naval shipyard dry-dock capacity is substantially inadequate to serve the future life-cycle depot-level maintenance needs of the U.S. Navy fleet.

Is the Navy prepared, if they have to, to address the career progression issue?

This is a real issue for us, and I really appreciate your coming forward and testifying.

I would urge the Secretary to come forward, because obviously time is of the essence.

We believe F-15s, F-16s, and B-1s cannot replicate the CAS capabilities of the A-10. We know from combat experience that the elimination of the A-10 before a viable replacement achieves full operational capability will cost American lives.

I want to make sure that, if this is the claim on the maintenance personnel, that it is--that we're maximizing and properly using the maintenance personnel.

One of the issues that we put in the 2016 NDAA was a concern that the new long-term TDY [temporary duty] policy may be discouraging excellent, excellent workers from going to other shipyards because of the cost of it and also, you know…

I want to thank all my colleagues, including the ranking member and, of course, Senator Shaheen and Senator Hirono, for their support on this issue.

Thank you for your leadership and all that you have done for the country, for the Navy, and we are so grateful for the sacrifices and service of you and your family.

I just want to say, for the shipyard workers at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, I know they want to go and help the other shipyards.

However, I am concerned that you are saying the temperature problem in the rooms will not be addressed until 2018.

In May 2015, GAO found that incidents of degraded or out-of-service equipment have doubled on surface and amphibious ships over the past 5 years.

I would say that this is one where I really am concerned that we're not keeping faith with them, if they have deployed multiple times and we're going to give them an involuntary separation.

I wanted to follow up--I--on the maintenance issue that was raised earlier.

DOD has said that the Pentagon is starting to run low on smart bombs and guided missiles.

What type of Army and Marine Corps units have the least time at home between deployments?

I want to thank all of you for being here. I want to thank you for your leadership and important positions of defending our country and serving our country with such distinction.

I appreciate your looking at this policy.

I want to thank Senator Booker, because he has been very focused on this issue and making sure that we continue to reform our framework for handling UAS to spur innovation while also we need to make sure that we protect safety and privacy.

He told me that he is concerned that, in fact, criminality, terrorists, and returning foreign fighters are, clearly, a daily part of the refugee flow now.

I think it would be helpful for us to understand the fentanyl numbers, too, and whether those have increased along with heroin.

Essentially, what it would do is require an assessment of the current state of the border between Canada and the United States--and, to me, that makes sense as we look at resources.