Mike Lee

Sequestration cuts deeply into Air Force investment accounts, which under the law must be applied equally at the program, project, and activity level.

Delays in depot maintenance and upgrades to missile warning and space surveillance tracking will significantly impact national missile defense and space situational awareness.

Delays to depot maintenance create a bow wave of requirements.

Prolonged sequestration will force difficult choices concerning nuclear modernization and sustainment programs.

It seems to me that if the administration did, in fact, think this situation was this dire, as dire as you are explaining it to us, I would expect to see that issue, those sets of issues, receive a lot more time and attention and energy…

Due to its national importance, the Navy will maintain a credible and modernized sea-based strategic deterrent even if it results in taking risks in other missions of the Navy.

I express my deepest gratitude to you and those who serve under your command.

will we see changes in our strategic objectives and priorities because of budget restraints?

So presumably those options will be considered by the President and the Secretary of Defense, and at some point a decision will be made?

I have not sensed quite the same level of alarm coming from the White House as I have sensed when I've met with each of you.

Sequestration is very harmful to Air Force readiness and our airmen.

The Nation will be more secure and will achieve more sustainable savings if reductions in defense spending are made in a more reasoned way.

The legislation that I have cosponsored with Senator Durbin, the Smarter Sentencing Act, S. 1410, would decrease mandatory minimum sentences for certain categories of drug offenders.

As I have expressed many times on previous occasions, in my view the Federal Government has been for decades enacting and subsequently enforcing far too much substantive criminal law.

I think we have to look very closely at our current scheme of mandatory minimum sentences as a result.

I think dissents are very valuable in advancing an alternative view to the approach taken by the majority.

I am certain that she will serve in the Federal judiciary with great distinction.

I like your choice in mentioning John Marshall Harlan II. He is an unsung hero in the last century or so.

I think most people would agree that that is too long.

I applaud the Attorney General's recent announcement about reforms within the Department of Justice, but we need to do a lot more if we are going to extend this expansive growth.

The first and easiest thing we could do is to clarify how a good time credit is calculated.

The increase in patent filings that Senator Sessions mentioned has really created an enormous burden on that court.

I would like to thank Senator Coons and Senator Leahy for introducing Senate bill 1385, the Federal Judgeship Act of 2013.

The lack of additional judgeships, combined with significant growth in the caseload, has created enormous difficulties for many courts across the Nation.

I do not want the Government having that information. It is not the Government's information.