We didn't take an oath to the sequester.

It is painful to contemplate that American demand has turned this country, which is one of America's staunchest allies, into the most dangerous nation on the planet.

We've not had a war that's been 13 years of continuous warfare before.

I know, from talking with Iraqi Government leadership, how well your service there was regarded.

It is my hope that working on the budget, working through the National Defense Authorization Act, that we'll be able to do in fiscal year 2016 and forward what we did in fiscal years 2014 and 2015.

If we battle hard to get sequester relief, we want that commitment to be an unequivocal one.

These across-the-board cuts and reduced discretionary spending limits have had significant negative implications for readiness, operational capacity, and our military personnel and their families.

It is also a recruiting pool, though, that has a lot of other people interested in that talent. It is a very competitive one.

We have to have a way--a defensible architecture for our country, and we have to get on with that.

So the surprise was the timing rather than that they actually took this step.

The national security challenges we have, they're the most--debt that we can control doesn't match up to an Iranian nuclear threat.

I think the U.S. energy position gives us a significant national security opportunity.

It is also a statutory requirement, 10 U.S.C. 5062(b). It is a congressional statutory policy as well.

But, separate from budgets, strategically, I gather there is no dispute within the DOD, the Navy family, the White House, in terms of the 11-carrier strategy, which is statutory but also a strategy that is desired and preferred, in terms…

America has an obligation to make sure servicemembers and their families are fairly and appropriately compensated.

I think, as I was hearing your testimony, you were indicating that China is pretty rapidly chewing away any dominance that we might have in the region.

I want to offer my condolences to the Navy on the loss of a sailor, Petty Officer 2nd Class Mark A. Mayo.

I frankly think we are tightening the belt in ways that will come back to bite us.

What is the VA doing to monitor the multiple and various prescription drugs that are given to veterans to minimize the possibility of suicidal behavior?

one of my concerns that I've expressed to the VA Secretary is reducing the wait time for a veteran to schedule an appointment

Madam Chairwoman, I am impressed with the fact that as they have come to us and asked us for sequester relief, they basically said we will absorb more than 50 percent of the sequester cuts over the entire length of the sequester.

My primary objection is a process one.

Then what I will do is we will try to submit a precise question in writing rather than have you have to guess what we mean.

I think there is an enormous wasted energy in a BRAC process for communities needing to come together.

I know this subcommittee and the Seapower Subcommittee I just came from are very worried about sequester going forward and how it affects everything that we do.