mr. coffman of colorado. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, all of you, for your testimony, for your service to our country. my concern as a marine corps combat veteran is specific to the remains of those who have been lost, particularly in afghanistan or iraq, and certainly anyone lost in combat. and i can remember being in iraq that there was extraordinary care and respect paid to those that fell on the battlefield. and where i see the breakdown, whether it's with the air force at dover or the army at arlington, is the fact that you have civilian personnel, whether by the army or by the air force, that, number one, come from a different culture. where that respect may or may not be there. but is not necessarily shared. but more importantly, are not subject to the uniform code of military justice. when there is a violation of a regulation, it is, in effect, a lawful order. and uniform military personnel can be prosecuted under the uniform code of military justice. where civilian personnel are not accountable to the uniform code of

mr. coffman said. i think we all agree, we kind of have our arms around this but we have to put teeth to it. we talk about accountability and i've had the fortunate opportunity to actually chair the va subcommittee on disabilities assistance at memorials. so obviously i have dual jurisdiction here. and we are beginning, obviously, with sam houston cemetery experiencing some of these same pitfalls that we have here at arlington, unfortunately. again, the word accountability comes up time and time again. and if there are no teeth to anything we're doing, actions have consequences. no one has the fear of a consequence coming down, whether it's through contracting, whether it's through your predecessor. how do we do this? do we do it through the contractor? do we have to do it through legislation, through this committee? i mean, obviously recalling mr. coffman has a legitimate pathway to address that issue. but i think there's multiple factors that have to be in there. but we have to hold people accountabl