Thank you, Madam Chairman. Before I welcome our distinguished witnesses, I want to thank you for your personal attention to this issue and for the work you've done in forging a bipartisan bill. I also want to thank Senator Levin and Senator Voinovich and for their efforts as well. The manner in which you have addressed the DoD personnel proposal is testimony to the respect and commitment this Committee has for our nation's federal workforce.

I wish to join my colleagues in extending my welcome and appreciation to the Secretary Defense Rumsfeld, General Myers, Dr. Chu, Admiral Clark, Comptroller General Walker, Mr. Hargnage, and Dr. Light for being with us this morning. I sincerely appreciate your being with us to discuss S. 1166 and the Department's proposal. Your views are so crucial in this debate, and I believe what we discuss today will help us in future deliberations.

About the same time that the Department unveiled its personnel proposals, the GAO reported that DoD's human capital strategic plans were not aligned the component level and lacked information on skills and competencies needed to carry out the Department and component missions. GAO also found that the Department's civilian workforce shrank 38 percent from 1989 to 2002, without regard to the skills and competencies needed to accomplish future missions. I just don't see how we can give the Department the wide ranging, broad authority it seeks without appropriate safeguards in place. I believe the Collins-Levin bill goes a long way to address my concerns.

Should Congress approve DoD's proposal or the House provisions, we will give the Department of Defense the ability to conduct surgical strikes on its civilian workforce. The suggestion that a flexible and contemporary personnel system is sufficient reason to grant the authority DoD seeks without specific guidelines, credible management plans, accountability to Congress, and transparency of decisions is wrong.

As the ranking member of the Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee and co-chairman of the Senate Army Caucus, I am committed to a strong and viable military. And as ranking member of the Governmental Affairs Committee responsible for the federal appeals process, I am equally committed to protecting the rights of federal employees. Madam Chairman, I appreciate your holding today's hearing, and I look forward to the testimony and discussions that will follow.