There is a tool that Virginia has found particularly helpful, REPI, which I think stands for readiness and environmental protection initiative.

I rise to address a question to myself and every Member of this body, and the question is a serious one: Is the Senate capable of tackling challenging national security questions in a mature and responsible way? We have many hard national…

We held a hearing on sea level rise affecting our military installations in Hampton Roads.

I do agree. All of you said that that is absolutely key to this.

sequestration violates every last budget principal that any wise public or private sector manager would embrace.

What would you do to the roads? After hundreds of years of trying to improve the roads by adding more roads, they realized that it only gets ?worser? the more you try to make it better.

the 2005 BRAC round was not a cost-saver. It was a cost increase that significantly exceeded the budget at that time.

We have to do all of that in the face of this constrained budget environment.

The need to reduce unneeded facilities is so critical that, in the absence of authorization of a new round of BRAC, the administration will pursue alternative options to reduce this wasteful spending.

Hampton Roads has embraced sort of an all-of-government approach.

When we send our fellow citizens into harm's way, they rely on us to provide them with the best possible training and equipment so that they can accomplish their missions and return home safely.

I think that he, the President, first of all, made very clear the gratitude that the leader of Afghanistan has for the sacrifices that our men and women in uniform have made to help ensure the security of Afghanistan.

Flexibility, I don't view that as the real solution.

I want to focus on some of the climate issues.

Energy really is the backbone for all parts of our mission.

We know that the growing national security threats to our country require that we end defense sequestration once and for all.

Secretary of the Navy Mabus, I hear him talking about the Green Fleet, the big Green Fleet trying to find alternative energy.

We are in a contingency-rich world right now.

My understanding is, and it is hard to compare all contracts, apples to apples, I know. But in 2012, when we did green biodiesel purchases, we were paying up to $12 a gallon.

we don't have a lot of choice.

I am concerned that DOD's proposed BRAC authorization language does not include protections against the type of implementation cost growth that we experienced in the 2005 BRAC round.

If we do not continue to invest in the best military in the world, then we will not be prepared for the challenges we face, but also the world will be a much worse place and a much more dangerous place without our assistance.

We would have faith that you would use the right analytical tools separate and apart from a BRAC process.

Our soldiers should expect that, when they go up against an adversary, that adversary faces an unfair fight whenever they come up against the United States of America. We are putting that at risk.

This committee is really a good one in the Senate because we have such a tradition of bipartisanship.