think of what the gentleman said many nights as i was driving home, i would see the car -- ike skeltonnd bill everson. they carpooled together, bill everson our public and member, bite from your side, they carpooled together. they were the best of friends. ike was one of the finest people i served with. i yield back. >> i think the gentleman for his comment. i yield back the balance of my time. >> this week, health and human services secretary kathleen cifelli us was in front of the house energy and commerce committee. in her testimony, she talked about some of the websites reported problems and how they are being fixed. she also addressed the issue of individuals receiving cancellation notices from their insurance providers. the hearing you can see in its entirety tomorrow at 10:35 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> john foster dulles had recently died when that super airport out in chantilly, virginia was being built. president eisenhower immediately announced at the airport would be named dulles airport. for a while when kennedy took over, he didn't want to name it after a crusty old cold w

most of us have worked with ike skelton for a long time. our memories of him are extraordinarily fond and warm. he was a unique and wonderful human being. we really appreciate what he did for this nation in war and in peace. we're grateful that you made reference to him. it's something, frankly, i should have done and have already done in a different way, but should have done here. thank you for that reference. the successful conclusion of the budget conference between the senate and the house is essential if we're going to address the problem of sequestrati sequestration. they are hopefully looking at various alternatives forgetting rid of a mindless, a rational way of budgeting for 2014 the way it was for 2013. but much is going to ride on their success in finding a different approach to deficit reduction. many of us have made suggestions to them as to how to come up with a balanced approach to deficit reduction which can substitute a sensible approach for an irrational approach called sequestration. we're not going to ask you to get into

general odierno i was privileged to serve with ike skelton. he was the model of how to serve with dignity, humble, hard working, incredibly smart. as i know you know his reading list was also required reading for the rest of us, as well. the question i have is in this ties in admiral green to a conversation we once had. you mentioned earlier today about at one time paying benefits was 1/3, looks like it's heading to 2/3. for each of you, what is about the proper balance in terms of those kind of costs around everything else? general amos you mentioned it's at 70% now. what is the right balance for each of your forces? general odierno, if you would like to start? >> best case we want personnel costs to be somewhere between 42% and 45% of our total budget. we are past that now. we are over that at this point. >> admiral? >> i agree with general odierno. we are right now at about 50%. i think that's okay. that's about right. then we need to look internally and say which growing the fastest and what does it mean to our constituency? does it really