Joe Manchin

I want to make sure that the Army is protecting servicemembers and their families.

If you had the flexibility, would the cuts be less painful?

DOD must find ways to increase its purchasing power.

Would a BRAC commission aimed at eliminating unnecessary and unneeded programs be helpful in generating cost-savings for DOD?

Why is it so easy for DOD to quickly lay out detailed spending cuts, but so difficult for DOD to conduct a full, complete, and transparent audit?

Some of the decisions that you have already announced--how long can we persist down that path before these decisions start to have an irreversible effect on our readiness and shipbuilding capacity?

The effects of sequestration are going to be very significant on the defense industry, and we see it already.

They wanted to talk to me about budget uncertainty.

For our troops, for the force, the consequences are very real and very personal.

What is particularly tragic is that sequestration is not a result of an economic recession or an emergency.

What kind of flexibility can Congress provide?

The bottom line is we have a real golden opportunity to be able to use the product in America.

I'm concerned that we're going to lose this opportunity of a lifetime, generational if more, if not more.

Has anyone come to an agreement identified on a reserve, an amount of reserves that we have, proven reserves that we have and how many years based on demand right now?

To be on a level with a consumer in America today hearing reports that we have more energy now and we're about to be a net exporter, and yet they haven't seen any of their costs come down?

This is our last great chance to have this type of a find in energy that could be game-changing for our country.

Let me just say first of all as one of the greatest concerns I think all of you, and I think I know that Mr. Liveris that you said I'm more concerned about how we start getting priced, who controls the American pricing, and once you go…

We should also not forget the positive impacts that exports would have on our trade imbalance and the geopolitical benefits of exporting to our allies.

I think we need to look at existing laws and regulations and determine if and where there are deficiencies.

We also need to be careful about intervening in efforts to export our LNG.

We're trying to create the jobs in West Virginia to use the product you're unleashing.

If we can't get our act together and have an energy policy that works for this country, then all bets should be off.

If we can't get our act together, go for it gentlemen--and ladies, I'm sorry. Let's just do this.

But that didn't do us any good at all because the price is still $4 a gallon.

I do hope that this hearing is just the start of a very important discussion on these and many other issues impacting our natural gas industry.