George Voinovich

Well, I would just like to say, Mr. Chairman, that it would be wonderful if somebody behind the scenes would take care of this, take care of it in the Appropriations Committee or someplace else, so we do not have to continue to go through…

Let us start thinking about our children. The D.C. school system is improving, but it is not where it should be.

I would like to give Mr.

Cleveland is so bad that we have to try something else to see if we cannot make a difference.

Well, it would be interesting to me to look at the quality of the education of people that are in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program schools.

One thing that we are doing, which I think is really good, is when the Rising Above the Gathering Storm report was issued.

I suspect that most of them would say yes.

If it is a bad program, then we ought to get rid of it. If it is a good program, we should continue it.

It is outrageous to me today that we are cutting this program off with yet a year to go.

The point you're making is let's stay with it, stay the course and get the job done the way it's supposed to be done.

I think it would be worthwhile for you, I'd like to have it and I'm sure maybe the chairman would, to tell us just where we actually are in fulfilling the strategic plan to secure the border in terms of the physical things that need to be…

If you think that there is some more that needs to be done, you know, in terms of the Justice Department, I think you ought to let us know about that in terms of our consideration, in terms of their budget.

I'm concerned about is that until this is in place, this program of visa waiver as I say is going to be in limbo.

I'd like to have you keep us informed about what's going on with that, with that money.

This budget proposes to fund U.S. Customs and Border Protection at $10 billion.

So at this stage of the game, you're not confident that with the additional Border Patrol agents, you're going to be able to tackle the problem that we've got right now?

As you know, the administration has worked hard to break the cycle of requesting emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I've often wondered if there was another way we could secure the border and deal with the 11 million or so illegal immigrants.

But in this particular case, you know that it's inadequate right now by $3.8 billion because you're already committed.

I think I share Senator Byrd's concern that you have an unbelievable management task when you're talking about 208,000 people, 22 agencies...

Thank you very much, Chairman Byrd.

The question I have is this. Is the National Guard essential?

We are quickly approaching the time when we will have doubled the resources available to your Department.

I have asked 10 years ago how much money agencies are spending on training. It is crazy not to know the answer to that question.

What percentage of these department budgets are being used for training?