Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana. We appreciate your being here.

The press has reported that the President is interested in perhaps winning a Nobel Prize for his work with North Korea.

I cannot see how we could counter with offense the Chinese buildup. And I don't think that is the way to go. I think the way to go is defense.

We are fortunate today in the first hearing of the subcommittee to have three very distinguished witnesses.

None of this is your fault, but I don't know a single area of government that is more widely misunderstood back home or more widely criticized because lots of constituents think that somehow the, quote, 'foreign aid budget,' is almost half…

One-third of our economy is tied up in world trade. We don't realize that, and now we're slowly realizing it.

The Armed Services Committee has banned the Pentagon from even thinking about another BRAC round.

I think it is pretty clear in your paragraph at the bottom of page 2, the top of page 3, that the National Capital Region comes first, at least as far as aircraft or cruise missile threats are concerned.

How do we tell our friends in New York or Boston or Norfolk, Newport News, or South Florida, they get less protection than we do here?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would also like to welcome the witnesses, and in particular, wish General Robinson the best of luck.

It is vitally important that we get it right because, literally, the survival of our Nation, and of the planet, is at stake if we get it wrong.

several years ago, I referred to the MOX [mixed oxide] program in South Carolina as a zombie earmark.

Nuclear deterrence is our number one priority defense mission.

I would hope that you and the Department of Energy would have a proposed termination date for that program in the relatively near future.

I welcome the stronger Air Force budget.

The Fair Chance Act is a bipartisan legislation that I introduced with Representative Darrell Issa to address these challenges in the Federal Government.

Whatever we do with regard to these folks, we have to be--it has to be real, and it has to be effective.

At some point in time, this Congress needs to have a debate after 16 years and let us have a new debate on the future of Afghanistan.

We have spent billions and trillions of dollars to rebuild Afghanistan, and we cannot build your bridges and your roads right here in America.

The problem is that Congress continues to pass bills that waste money over there, and we cannot even get a debate.

This is not the America for which we dream.

If you are black born in America today, you have a one in three chance of going to prison.

The biggest cancer on the soul of our country right now is the American criminal justice system, and we can make it right.

So we are really not talking about a fix. We are talking about covering up the problem or stabilizing it?

What are we going to do to improve the performance record here?