. >> thank you, senator gillibran. senator shaheen. >> thank you for your stamina, we appreciate it. i want to begin where you began, mr. secretary, where we have to do everything possible because i certainly agree with that. i share the concerns we heard expressed from my colleague, and you don't have to respond to this, but i certainly hope we, in congress, would do what you all have been willing to do, put everything on the table and put aside our posturing and come to some agreement that addresses the long term debt and deficitness of this country. it is inexcusable that we are in this position now with you and all of the men and women who are serving in defense and in our military and across the federal government, not knowing what we're going to do because we have been unable to act, so i would like to go in my questioning, i'd like to start with where senator left off, and that is with the guard and rereceiver, and i was very pleased, mr. secretary, to see in your statement that you talked about continuing a nat

. >> thank you, senator gillibran. senator shaheen. >> thank you for your stamina, we appreciate it. i want to begin where you began, mr. secretary, where we have to do everything possible because i certainly agree with that. i share the concerns we heard expressed from my colleague, and you don't have to respond to this, but i certainly hope we, in congress, would do what you all have been willing to do, put everything on the table and put aside our posturing and come to some agreement that addresses the long term debt and deficitness of this country. it is inexcusable that we are in this position now with you and all of the men and women who are serving in defense and in our military and across the federal government, not knowing what we're going to do because we have been unable to act, so i would like to go in my questioning, i'd like to start with where senator left off, and that is with the guard and rereceiver, and i was very pleased, mr. secretary, to see in your statement that you talked about continuing a nat