John Thune

I feel this is unwise and would have a particularly negative effect on large rural states such as mine.

During your Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on April 28, 2009, understanding the sensitivities surrounding this matter, I asked you what you thought of strategically dispersing our carrier fleet on the east coast and whether or not…

I am a little concerned we are going to be dealing with it in the surface transportation bill.

I look forward to working with all of you and hope that we can find some solutions and some good results for the American people.

It is important the positions be filled in a timely manner by qualified nominees who are ready to take on many of the challenges that face our country.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Senator Hutchison, for holding today's hearing, and I want to thank our panel for their willingness to serve.

We have an over-dependence upon foreign energy.

On his Defense Budget Recommendation Statement on 6 April 2009, Secretary Gates described these decisions as the product of 'a holistic assessment of capabilities, requirements, risks and needs for the purpose of shifting the department in…

To me, this proposal to delay development of the Next Generation Bomber until post-START arms control talks are completed appears problematic.

I am hoping that we can perhaps figure out a way to expedite this EIS process.

I hope that the Department will move quickly on both those programs.

Thank you all very much. I appreciated very much your testimony and your very candid observations.

Gentlemen, the Army maintains sets of prepositioned stocks of combat support vehicles for contingency use.

Thank you all very much for your testimony.

I'm concerned that the future will be more uncertain and more unstable.

I believe it's reasonable to assess that the precise requirements for land forces will continue to evolve.

None of these decisions are going to be easy.

I think this is an important hearing.

How much longer can we wait to fully embrace NextGen technologies, both in terms of safety and handling the air traffic volume

Transforming our Nation's current air traffic control system is absolutely critical if we are to improve safety and plan for the anticipated growth in the amount of flights

To make NextGen a reality is going to take a considerable amount of time and money, both from the Federal Government and from the users

Those are statements and suggestions that I find unacceptable, and I look forward to hearing more from you on making sure that the census is an open and independent process.

We do have an exciting project in Selby, South Dakota. Basin Electric has proposed a 700-megawatt pulverized coal power plant with post-combustion carbon capture and sequestration and Powerspan's technology may prove instrumental in making…

That would be a role that we could play, Mr. Chairman, in this process.

A lot of proposals to cap and/or reduce carbon emissions are going to have a significant cost to our economy and going to impact individuals' lives every day.