But $300 million or $400 million a year is enough, on top of the $12 billion that various government agencies--DOE, DOD [Department of Defense]--are already spending in direct support to South Carolina.

The key thing, politically, is to realize that no one here today is talking about taking money away from South Carolina.

this hearing should be good news for America and good news for South Carolina.

I am worried that, as we enter the month of October and head toward Halloween, that really the subject of this hearing is a horror story for the American taxpayer.

I think the real news of this hearing is that most all the experts agree that there is a new and better and cheaper way to dispose of this plutonium.

Although this has been a technical and calm hearing so far, I think a couple of bits of testimony are truly startling.

Let me emphasize the word 'hear.' This is called a hearing. It is not a press conference.

I would particularly urge my chairman and my colleagues to keep this open session as short as possible.

So we have to get real about this, and this committee has failed in that regard.

I think you went a little bit too far if you used the ULA ratio last year as the appropriate mix.

But any new RFP would delay the whole process--

It is easily possible to show that SpaceX has received about $3.5 billion or so, possibly more, in open source funding.

But the definition of 'expeditiously' in the modern age is 6 to 7 years.

I think Mr. Bruno just said there is no such thing as a replacement for the RD-180 engine, there is no drop-in equivalent.

So I hope the members of this committee and of this Congress will solve the sequestration problem, something that repeated Congresses have failed to do.

I think we should approach this hearing as all others with a great deal of humility.

Nobody likes monopoly, but I think in the best case situation we would have a duopoly or maybe an oligopoly.

So we could make it happen if we paid them to make it happen.

So it is not as scary as FAR 15, the big monster, but this is a little monster.

While we are dependent on the RD-180, it may not be the smartest thing strategically to bad-mouth the source.

It seems to me that we need at least 9 RD-180s. We may need 29.

But this Congress, this committee, can say 2019. That doesn't mean it is going to happen.

I am a budget hawk, and I hate to bring up the issue of sequestration, but that probably is, as Ms. McFarland pointed out, the most important issue we face.

Essential question of fact here. SpaceX testifies that they can handle 60 percent of national security loads--60 percent.

I don't want to put words in your mouth, Dr. Griffin, but there are some advantages sometimes to big government.