John Thune

Let me express my appreciation to all of you gentlemen for your willingness to serve.

What I would like to share with you are some concerns I've heard from my constituents regarding TRICARE and customer satisfaction.

If confirmed, can you inform the committee as to what steps you would take to improve the relationship between TRICARE and private health care providers?

I thank the panel for their willingness to serve.

Thank you very much, gentlemen, for your service. I look forward to getting you confirmed.

I appreciate that and if you could answer it for the record it would be great, because that is such an important part of our success there...

I believe that the commitment, the political commitment of the Iraqi government to the success of this plan, is probably more important right now than the additional troops.

Let me echo what has been said repeatedly here and express my appreciation for your service to your country under extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

What do you think the consequences should be if the Iraqi Government fails to step up and follow through on its promises?

Sectarian-motivated violence now inhibits political progress, effective governance, and economic development.

I am very concerned about the mixed messages that are sent by statements that are made here, not so much again as they are directed to constituencies back in the States, but more importantly what impact that has on the men and women who…

I think that the questions that have been asked earlier--what is most important in the debate that is occurring up here right now, in my view at least, is the impact that it has on the men and women who are wearing the uniform.

But it seems to me that the bottom line concern that we have to have is that our troops understand that we are committed to them and support them and want to make sure that they have every opportunity to be victorious, to complete the…

If thought were being given to the effect on the troops and the conditions on the ground in Iraq, I do not think you would probably see as many of these resolutions floating around here on Capitol Hill.

I think the real opportunity here for Congress to have a say in this, if they wanted to, would be with respect to the purse and the power that we have in terms of appropriations.

You mentioned some of the things, ethnic cleansing, other countries interfering, terrorist groups moving in, disruptions in the flow of oil.

I want to thank our witnesses for their testimony, and we look forward to discussing further...

I just think that this whole debate really is about American energy. It's about getting away from our dependence upon foreign sources of energy.

I appreciate having the opportunity to work with you, Mr. Chairman, as well as with Senator Clinton, in including provisions that would promote biofuels research.

The proposed rule change would have a big impact and lead to a lot more efficient operation of dry mill ethanol plants.

I will wait until I have a chance to ask questions. I want to thank you for holding the hearing.

The Senator from Kansas, if he wants to yield for a question, I guess that is your prerogative. We have other speakers coming. I am hesitant to allow too much time to burn off the clock.

I will not yield at the moment. We have a few minutes left on our time, and then the Senator from Illinois could use his time to speak.

I cannot yield, but if the Senator from Massachusetts requests time and wants to use the Democratic time for that, we have 14 minutes on the majority side I would like to use to talk about the small business health plan. But if the Senator…

Today we have had a full day of debate on the nomination of Judge Alito for the Supreme Court. This all-important debate will continue tomorrow and the balance of the week. Tomorrow, we will again be alternating hour time blocks for…