Hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee - Building Partnership Capacity and the Development of the Interagency Process

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REP. TERRY EVERETT (R-AL): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Secretary Gates, Secretary Rice, Admiral Mullen, thank you very much for your long service for this country, and to the people who serve under you.

Secretary Rice, I would like comment on a particular honor you received yesterday down at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery. You got the first ever honorary doctorate degree there. This is not a small thing. This honorary doctorate degree at Maxwell University had been in the planning state for three years. It is a singular honor. Maxwell -- the core mission of Maxwell is national security and international relations -- they teach this to our military officers. And so I was delighted that in recognition of you work in national security and international relations, that you received this first ever honor. And, of course, a secondary delight to me is the fact that you're a native of Alabama, and I appreciate it from that standpoint.

Secretary Rice and Secretary Gates, you answered in part some questions that I had intended to ask, such as what command -- combatant commands and other across DOD were these State Department officials operating with our combatant -- with the other commands. And I guess my question, since you partially answered that, is -- if conflicts arrived at -- and I'm sure they must be -- have these conflicts resolved?

SEC. GATES: If they were to arrive, because I'm not -- arise, because I'm not aware of any that have so far, ultimately, I'm -- they would be settled between Secretary Rice and myself. What has impressed me is, as these have gone along in the 16, 17 months I've been on the job, I can't recall any of these issues -- proposed projects with respect to either 1206 or 1207 being in such dispute that it ever rose to that level.

SEC. RICE: Yes, we've not had it rise to our level. I think we should give some credit -- we have a very effective deputies level -- coordination between Gordon England and John Negroponte, and they are very often able to work out any concerns.

SEC. GATES: Also, our bureaucracies know we don't like to fight with each other.

REP. EVERETT: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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