and there's a bomb inside a dead dog underneath the ground self-date nateing explosion happens and rattles the brain and that causes traumatic brain injury. slightly less than 50% of the service members with tbi also have post-traumatic stress disorder, and although the veterans come back, strengthened by the service, there are quite a few suffering. because of that problem, one in six veterans have a substance abuse disorder. one in six coming back to your communities and cities have a substance abuse disorder. one in five have a mental health condition. as a result, some turn to drugs or alcohol because as a result of their service. you can literally have all the resources out there, but it's such a macho environment in the military, no one says hey, can we talk about huer feelings?

i'm having mental et issues. that's not going to happen. as a result, they turn to drugs and alcohol, and because they do, some end up in the criminal justice season like we're seeing and instead of incarceration, we want to give them rehabilitation which the solution is veteran's treatments courts. now, the courts give you a history -- they fall into the history of drug courts. the first drug court began in 1989 in florida. miami was experiencing too many drug non-vinted offenders coming through the system. a judge there created a drug court and there's 2500 drug courts in all 50 states that save money, cut crime, and now they serve veterans. 75% who graduate never see a pair of handcuffs again.

by sending somebody to prison costing the state $23,000 a year in oklahoma, it costs $5,000 to send them through a drug court. they are working. because of that infrastructure of drug courts, we have vet rans' treatments courts. a friend of mine in new york had an amazing idea. he saw so many veterans coming through on mental health drug court dockets, and he wanted to do something about it starting the first court in january of 2008 in buffalo, new york. now, these courts are different because they are a hybrid of drug and mental health courts. traditionally, you keep them separated. the frequent court appearances, random drug tests and other services while holding them accountable to the court, family, and themselves. i want to give you the structure of a veteran core briefly. there's the administration

there, veteran service organizations that are in your community like the mayor legion, veterans of foreign wars, blue star mothers, marine corp. league, vet center, department of labor, disabled veterans outreach persons, employment reps, and the state county bar association that also participates, and when i was in oklahoma, i was a member of jim inofe's counsel, and came to the court to help us out with medical records. there's other agencies, and the point is that each city that you live in, that you govern, has a va hospital. you're within reach of a va regional office. you're not necessarily creating another bureaucracy with a veteran's treatment court, just allocating resources there anyways, so i want to tell you how they work. perfect example. i coordinated the tulsa corp., there was a two year iraqi

veteran, post-traumatic stress disorder, second dui, suicidal in the jail. never enrolled in the veterans health administration or enrolled in the benefit administration that center any va services, unemployed, divorced, and lost custody of his son. however, six months later, tony -- got him enrolled, leads the substance abuse groups, got him service connected with the veteran administration so he gets about $1300 a month that he puts back into the economy for apartment rent. he's on his first semester at the university of tulsa getting an undergrad, first person in his family to receive a college education. here's somebody that was suicidal, given up, now is going to be a college graduate back in the city of tulsa, tulsa community. goes to the vet center regularly

and got custody of the son because the bar association helped him out. what he was excited about was the oklahoma department of veterans affairs qualified him for free hunting and fishing which to me was ironic. i said it's free college, you're stoked for life, but he was excited about free hunting and fishing for oklahoma. [laughter] we were third in december and now there's 8800 more being planned just keeping up with demand is pretty tough. it really is changing the way that our criminal justice system and the va treats veterans. veterans treatment courts today, i mean, all over the news, cnn, and, in fact, when we launched in tulsa, fox news, cnn, it was incredible. we're in tulsa, oklahoma, what's going on here? stars and stripes, the national law journal, military times,

marine corp., navy, air force, army times covered these. we're a part of the national association, a drug core professionals. they were there from the get-go and started the whole movement. general robert russell was a former board chair of ours and now on the committee. that's how we've been able to implement all of the treatment courts so far. we started the planning initiative funded by the department of justice. five day training program. we've trained about 32 veterans treatment courts with a total of 300 individuals. we have another training going on in san jose in a couple weeks to train more teams and three more after that for a total of 40 courts. through the court mentor court network, we have four veteran network courts, one in buffalo,

tulsa, and orange county. we pay for folks to go visit a veterans treatment court to learn how to do one in all day training. justice for vets and drug court professionals at the 17th annual drug court training conference, hosted the largest gathering of court professionals in the world across the nation. we had all of the outreach from the hospitals there, panel sessions, targeting, mentoring, national guard, you name it, we hosted it, we trained it. we had a really good friend of mine now who spoke at the conference to over 3700 veterans treatment court drug court professionals. nick did two tours in iraq -- no, afghanistan, and the battle began when i came home. judge patricia marks and the

team saved my life. he was picked up for drug use and post-traumatic stress disorder. he'll graduate this spring with his undergrad in substance abuse counseling to help other veterans from the university of new york. we've been on capitol hill several times. we hosted the first senate judiciary committee hearing on veterans treem courts and been on the house committee, and i want to take the time to thank captain cooper for his support and the first lady's support. our training was mentioned in strengthening our families, meeting america's commitment by the white house as one of many best practices to help veterans and their families. mrs. thompson and captain cooper talked about prelim, keeping families together, suicides, veteran courts solve these problems, and they are working. some of the outreach, really the person behind this is general

barry who doesn't hesitate to recognize he out ranked me by 23 pay grades every time we talk. we met with general craig mckinley, and we have a lot of our reserve and national guard members deployed in the war on tear roar not attached to a military base, but are in your cities and communities, and in tulsa, for example, we open the doors to take active reserve and guard members and guard veterans as well. we serve those folks w0 are your neighbors that go to school with your children. to really wrap it up, legislation, we helped california, colorado, illinois, virginia to develop legislation. we're helping maine, and oklahoma, where i'm from, and other states as well to develop veteran treatment court legislation, and one of the first things i did when i came

on board was to gain support of the most presee gas and most republicked service organizations. the marine corp. league, blue star mothers, veterans of foreign wars, american legion, national association of state directors of veteran affairs all came on board with public support for veterans treatment courts. like i said before,s organizations are in your communities and they vote and they are in the mayor's office. other support, criminal justice systems, national district attorney's association, american bar association, american judges association, treatment court committee chaired by barry, and under his leadership, we've been able to implement and get a lot of veteran treatment court, policy implemented so far, but just hitting the tip of the iceberg with this. there is a need. we're getting about 150 veteran

arrested each month alone in tulsa county. we didn't have an action active military base, but because of the high population, we got that many arrested. thank you very much for your time. if i can answer questions, i hope i didn't go too fast. please never hesitate to send me an e-mail, and i really appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you, very, very much, and thank you to the presenters. i would like to open it up for questions now if anyone has any questions for our presenters. i guess i'll start out. captain cooper, you had talked about some centers and where nay are at, how do we link in? for example, my city, we have a human services department. how did we link into that, and tell us a little bit more where the centers are or how they are derived and located. >> talking about the department

of labor called one stops. thousands throughout the country, i am no one-stop expert, but with that many, there's many opportunities in south florida and around big cities throughout the country. i recently went online and used that mighty google apparatus, and they are easy to find, easy to access, man by great folks, and enablers, people who understand what the local market looks like and can take and recognize skill sets and help veterans in particular massage their resumé to help it closely align with the pool and reservoir of opportunity, but easy to find. on a larger scale, also for anyone who is near a va center, folks can go there and help on the educational side as well as the employment side of it, or

you can go back to google. i'm too reliant on them, to the veteran's job bank and type in if i'm sergeant cooper from the navy, and i'm electrician, i can type in a great translation piece to type in what my military operation code is. it translates that, and i can type in where i'm interested in working, i'm electrician interested in month come ri, maples, and it -- montgomery, alabama, and it shows me my pay grade and jobs fitting me in that area. it's a sophisticated tool. they are all new, only two months old, so some good opportunities there.

i'm from east orange, new jersey. i was approached by a young lady, i believe she was a veteran, and she wanted to set up a transitional home for returning single parent mothers with children with an educational component plus transition back into the work force, and she ran into a roadblock somewhere. is there any place you can recommend that she can pick up on this for contact? would that be the list you referred to before on the google thing? >> you want to talk about that one? i can give you an idea. so this is what i would say, this fits into the category of we like to use everyone can do something and do what you do best. if this young lady thinks this is what she can do best, would probably go to a local va, you know, va and housing and hud have teamed to really attack

veterans' homelessness, and they've made tremendous progress and try to end it by 2015. on a good trajectory. first go to local va or a hud office to help this, and they can arm this particular individual with all the tools they would want from an eggal stand point, employment, because it really is a holistic -- you have to attack this holisticically and without addressing the homeness component or employment leaves the three legs of that stool empty, won't be able to sustain itself. that's my recommendation. >> okay. >> for starters. >> if i could add, i would also go to the small business administration. they have grants for veterans and military spouses for entrepreneur opportunities, and so they could probably help her with a loan to get started on, you know, setting up the home

and what she would need to furnish it and things like that. >> thank you. >> i'll take one final question, and actually barbara and matt touched on this, and you had talked about, i guess, sensitivity training for our police forces, and, of course, our mayors, that's our core service tour community, and links between your program and the diversion program and what earmarks these programs can say, you know, where can we send them, and maybe you both can partner with that question. >> the one resource i would recommend is the defense center for psychological health and

traumatic brain injury has a website that is amazing as far as resources what are the issues facing military members in their family, and they also have -- there's the national center for health and technology called t2. they actually have free mobile apps for military members and their families that talk about ppsd, mood, how to deep breathe to offset the stress, and there's a lot of resources out there that address awareness of what are the red flags about mental health or psychological health and traumatic brain injury. i'd go there, and it's my understanding they have a course for clinicians in the communities to learn about the issues facing military families and combat operational stress, so that would be another good resource for the law enforcement people to take, not that they

are a clinician, but they can be aware of the impact of deployment on families and on service members. >> thank you. to piggy back off of what barbara was talking about, keep in niend, a lot of law enforcement are veterans, a lot have served in the military, and they understand that culture. we do a loot of education -- lot of education with the va and the tulsa police department and what we ended up doing with the law enforcement, they would actually ask at the jail or even sometimes during arrests have you served or are you currently serving in the united states armed forces. we never asked if they were a veteran. they thought they were old. i didn't associate myself as a veteran, and i thought that was my gad -- dad and grandfather. those are two major points, and the department of defense has done a lot of great work as well. >> okay.

i don't have anymore questions, so i want to recognize our staff, larry, for your hard work putting together this panel, and i want to thank you all for joining us today at the u.s. conference of mayors. thank you very, very much. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> i do believe that the west for all of its historical shortcomings, and i've schaving in the book in discussing the shortcomings because they have to be admitted, for all of these shortcomings, the west, still today, represents the most acceptable and workable universal but workable culture. >> in 1991, the united states was the only global super power. how to restore its status in the world today. on saturday, strategic vision on 10 eastern on "after words," and also, did fdr use world war ii as a cover to create a more

powerful executive branch? that's saturday at 11 p.m., and sunday night at 10 #, the new privacy is no privacy. how your rights are being eroded by social networks. booktv every weekends on c-span2. >> earlier today, the u.s. army chief the staff spoke with reporters how the pentagon's new budget proposal could affect the army. this is half an hour. >> what i want to do then is open it up for questions you might have. first, great to see you. thanks for coming out on this friday morning. over the past 236 years, the history of the united states army has been marred by decisive action on a wide range of missions including regular warfare, assistance operations, engagement with allies with partner capacity and support civil authorities. our army has been fully committed to combat operations in iraq and afghanistan.

we are incredibly proud of the work accomplished in the two countries and elsewhere. we do remain a nation at war committed to the mission in afghanistan. we also remain an army that's globally engaged. we have 90,000 soldiers in support of operations with another 96,000 soldiers stationed overseas. our nation's army has soldiers located in nearly 150 countries around the world. moving forward, we're mindful of the primary purpose and win the nation's wars. this role is non-negotiateble. it's not all that our nation requires of the army. in today's complex environment, it is imperative the army remains responsive to the geographic combat and commanders and a decisive arm of the joint force. the army provides depth and versatility to the joint force through the capabilities embedded in our active guard and reserve components.

meeting the challenges of an uncertain complex and interconnected strategic environment requires an army that is adaptive and innovative, flexible and agile, integrated and sink newsed. with that in mind, our army must retain the right capacity and diversity to perform a wide range of missions and provide a variety of options to the national security leaders. the president and secretary of defense provided new guidance to focus our efforts. the creation of the strategy was inclusive and comprehensive. secretary and i were involved in the unprecedented and corroborative process. in the defense strategic guidance was clear. we're strengthen presence in the asia-pacific region, remain in the middle east, continue to build and strengthen critical partnerships and alliances around the globe.

over the last five years, we grew the army to meet the requirements associated with large scale combat and stability operations in iraq and afghanistan. with the successful completion of our mission in iraq, the continued transition of operations to afghan security forces, and the reduction of u.s. presence in afghanistan, our strategy calls for us to no longer plan for large scale stability operations. accordingly, the time is strategically right to reduce the army's fore structure. given a fiscally constrained environment, we will accomplish these in a controlled manner. we are committed to ensuring we walk down the hill being ready. the nation's already off a cliff. we'll reduce the active force and strength from 570,000 to 490,000 including a reduction of at least eight brigade combat teams. it is important to note, however, that an army of 490,000

in 2017 will be different and more capable than an army of 482,000 that we had in 2001. an army seasoned by combat will continue to increase investment in special operations forces and the cyber domain, improved command and control capabilities, enhanced mission command, combat teams are more capable and lethal, increased assets, national reserves give us increased depth and capacity. finally, we'll leverage the lessons learns from ten years of combat as we look into developing what our future force might look at. going forward, the army has three principled interconnected roles, prevent, shape, and win. we prevent conflict. we do this by maintaining credibility based on the army

capacity, its readiness, and monitorrization to prevent miscalculation by potential adversaries. moreover, the army has a critical role in shaping the environment by supporting commanders and sustaining strong military relations with allies, billing the capacity of partners to maintain internal and regional stability and operating alongside the joint forces to facilitate access around the world. we stand ready 20 win our nation's wars when needed. if all else fails, ready to rapidly apply arms capabilities to dominate any environment and win decisively as part of the joint force. as we look ahead, the secretary and i have have several priorities. we'll provide trained, equipped, and ready forces to win the current fight. second, we will develop the army for the future as part of joint force 2020, a versatile mix of

capabilities, formations, and equipment. we must sustain our high quality all volunteer army and transform ways we modernize equipment by better aligning requirements, resources, and the acquisition process and up vest in energy initiatives in order to reduce the cost of energy within our budget. we'll adapt leader development to meet our future security challenges, and finally, we'll foster continued commitment to the profession of arms, a noble calling found on the bedrock of trust which will be key as we move forward and develop our future army. we are an army in transition. while continuing missions abroad over the next budget cycle, we'll refine, adjust, and dammit as we move the army towards the future force needed. our approach to the budget cycles remain strategy base and fiscally prudent. adjustments come through

balancing three stats. the first piece consistenting of an strength fore structure and personnel, and second is modernization, and third readiness. first, we'll continue to meet our commitments in afghanistan and around the world. the army continues to play a role in the in additions identified in the strategic guidance and including counterterrorism, irregular warfare, defer and defeat aggression, projects power, defending the homeland, providing support to civil authorities, and conducting civility and service operations. we'll increase engagement with allies in the asia-pacific region, home of seven of of then largest armies in the world to have collective security and promote economic prosperity. we must utilize the depth to sustain relationships with our friends and allies to ensure stability by billing partner capacity in the middle east, decrease our european foot print

by two heavy brigade combat teams with the first one coming out of europe in 2013. in order to continue our strong engamingments with nato and other partner, we'll deploy rotational forces to conduct training and readiness exercises with our allies and our new partners. in latin america, africa, and elsewhere, we'll have innovative costs and small footprint approaches to maintain stability and build capacity. reductions occur over the next six years. we'll follow a draw down ramp to care for soldiers and families while maintaining a ready and capable force to meet any requirements including our current operations in afghanistan. we'll also continue to look at the optimum design of the combat teams and units leveraging lessons learned in combat. this analysis is ongoing and don't expect any discussions for several months, but it could lead to a reduction of

additional brigades if we decide to increase the capability of the combat brigade structure. ..

over the next several years of transition to ensure sustained readiness. after that to the future, there's efficiencies we need to reduce costs. secretary mchugh's direction has been clear in this regard. energy security requires us to focus on reducing our energy requirements. in terms of operational fuel usage, but also home issues. we need to continue to find efficiencies and reduce cost of doing business as part of our mitigating risk to our strategy. this includes eliminating redundancies in streamlining our heads orders. in terms of pay and benefits, the secretary of agree with the budget request. the volunteer force is the foundation of our military. the cost of military personnel has grown in a substantial, unsustainable rate over the last decade. we will not reduce, but reductions must occur at the rate of growth in military compensation and other personnel cost and benefits.

it is imperative that during this transition and in strength reduction and we maintain a commitment to our soldiers and families as commensurate with services sacrifice. today the army ensures mission unaccomplished event can be guaranteed national security interest and compels adversaries cannot prosecute military campaigns and forges a positive difference around the world. it is that the american people expect and what our own freedom demands. the secretary and i will continue to assess and make adjustments that is necessary to ensure we have the writer make that is agile, flexible and prepare for a full range of operations. >> thank you very much. i'd like to open it up to questions. >> can you expand a little bit on the european plan, particularly in light of as you take two out, can you give us the date i suspect that one will

be coming out and can you talk about how you envision support for nato allies and support for some of the smaller allies that have been participating in afghanistan, for example, and also the two heavily armored brigades coming out, do you see them going away, or will they get moved? >> first come in the plan is that one brigade formality and 13 on the second and 14. they will come out of the forest. they will not be re-stationed. that is the plan right now as we look at this. as we look ahead, i really see this as a model of how i see us doing things. we will have a rotational base out of the united states as we do our generations of uber tape units into our training complex we will have at

hohenfels/grafenwoehr and our other partners in europe and will be a lot to do that at several levels across different domains. in reality, i think in the long run it will cost more for units to get involved in working with nato partners. it watches are limited to those stationed in europe and i think we'll be able to tailor our engagements based on those. for example, we might higher headquarters and we want to have a strike stryker unit to diversify our relationships with our partners. so if we do this properly focused on this we will be able to make this an advantage to us if anything. >> general, thank you for your time this evening. i want to talk about the national strategy. ausa listen to a question about after 9/11 a 480 the army was

supposed to admit -- you say you're comfortable dropping at 490. share with us if you would, what about the new strategy is different enough to give you that? >> well, the fundamental principle of a strategy since we offer long-term stability operations and that is what drew the increase, the fact that we were engaged in iraq and afghanistan for eight to 10 years. so the thought process is a nice silky stability, that would be in a much smaller scale and rely more and other partners to assist us as we do stability operations. so we know we have a lot of uncertainty. in fact we end up having to do a large-scale stability operation. we will depend on our ability to reverse and expand, which would be highly dependent in order for them to help us to buy us time to potentially look at

re-expanding the thought process and i feel comfortable with that. >> i'd like to follow up on tom's question. we keep hearing that one of the things you're concerned about -- you were talking about expanding and where the united states goes in the missions to conduct itself, why is that not considered the holiday out 10 years ago and now to talk about more missions it's not? and could use any more details about the starting trio three and where that would lead? >> first of all, i didn't believe it was hollow pre-9/11. i think we have problems in the late 90s when we came out a significant number, almost 300,000 in the army and i think we recovered from that. but i will say as i look at the

490,000, it's about how that matches that. and what hollowness means is if you have a structure in it but it's not ready. so in other words if you have a lot of structure and you don't have the money to sustain training to ensure they are tripped properly or to ensure we have a commander properly, i believe that how we are right now, we will be able to do that on the level and that's the thought process. in terms of brac, i think they will ask for two more brac. that will be some pain that we expect the request we go through to more brac rounds. we will have to wait to see what the thoughts are on that. i don't see -- the army with through a very significant brac here in the army. so in the army, they follow one

brac would be -- would not have as much impact on the enemy because we've pretty much done but we want. will have to do some minor thing. we'll find some things, but for the most part we have established our installations. we'll see around the army, except for some of the overseas places in the continental united states and alaska and hawaii, you may see a reduction in the installation, but i don't think you see a big installation be announced to close -- but we think we have the right footprint. both see as we work our way forward. >> there is mention in the white paper yesterday about delaying democratization helicopters. kinison granularity to that? and also does not affect aas? at us like to estimate the air force decision to terminate c-27j. do you plan to send the ammo

used and the tribes to provide direct support for the c-27j? >> first, with the aviation, we have all the modernization of the program that we need. we slowed it down a bit, but we are very calm to go with that because of the reason that we are doing with all engaged in assets as it comes out of the war zones in iraq and afghanistan. we are still doing reset and we still continue to modernize her fleet, but it will be a bit of a slower pace. we are fairly comfortable with that. in terms of the sea 27, i find that this morning. please sign up this morning. it is important to us that we have sea 27, i find that this morning. we find that this morning. it is important to us that we have sea 27, i find that this morning. we find that this morning. it is important to us that we have stand and wherever, i find that this morning. we find that this morning. it is important to us that we have stand and wherever we might deploy. it's a con that tested well i was a commander in iraq and i thought it was a very successful so i am comfortable with that.

do we want medicaid to laos at the c-27. i'm not sure we can fully mitigate it, but it will help. >> that is part of the delay of the year -- [inaudible] >> general, do you feel that i'm his shoulder bulk of the burden of these defense budget cuts? when we look on paper, it sure looks like you're taking the biggest hit. and also, how did you come up with the number 490. is that budget based on what were considerations? >> sure, first, i really want to be very clear. this is not about winners and losers. this is coming up at the right joint force. i believe the army grew more than anybody else over the last five or six years as we got involved in iraq and afghanistan and that is very specific because we were worried about the up tempo of our shoulders. so i think it's comfortable now

that we are done with iraq and coming down in afghanistan so we cannot do this. i don't see that is carrying the burden. i'm saying we are making a correction based on what we see out there as a potential threat. that what i've looked at is what is 490,000 get me? so what we are doing is increasing our special operations force. we go to 35,000 special operations forces in the army. it is important to understand this is if you can. we've been doing this over the last three or four years. i want to emphasize incredible missions and roles they play in what they been doing a plus 10 years in afghanistan and we want to continue that. we think that's the way of the future. it is not the relationship has been built between a special operation in conventional forces. the innovation we've gained in iraq and afghanistan will now carry forward as we continue to conduct their missions around

the world. you got to look at the number of brigades and i feel comfortable, although as i mentioned right now we are planning on looking under reorganization that could potentially make a reduce forward. but the capability we have behind would allow us to execute a strategy that were talking about. so i feel comfortable with where we're heading. that's how i got the 490,000. >> says seven of the top 10 armies -- the largest armies are in asia. you've also mentioned that the deterrent effects of having -- are you worried you're sending a thick note that reducing the size of the army, yet just as they appeared in for his asia where there's a larger army? >> i'm convinced that the army we have left behind would be a combat team has also increased the aviation capacity. it gives us enough to deter. and to know that we are capable

of moving this army anywhere in the world can it be more capable of be quicker and allow us to the other. >> sir, can you explain the purpose and goals of the low cost operations in africa and latin america? >> well, first of all, it's about continuing to stay engaged and continuing to build relationships with the leadership and all of these nations. we can be that a couple ways. we can do for us to special operations that we can do it with unique forces such as engineers, medical, epa shame. so there'll be more niche forces, which would help them to build what they don't have. so those kinds of things that i think we will have more of an africa and south america, for example. i think we have it capacity to do that. we have the ability to bring

other capabilities to these nations that not all the armed services can and i think that's our strength. so what do we'll be focused on the asia pacific and middle east, we'll have the capacity in order to do a small scale defense, wetherbee training events are loving partner capacity for bilateral things that allow us to establish these relationships. it's really the relationships of support. >> the 490 cut by roughly what is the status of the future defense plans of the $259 billion, what is the army's contribution to that figure? >> tony, you know, i keep wanting to be able to give a number to this, but it's so complex. the reason i say that it is not only people reductions is not only benefit reductions, but the

footprint that we had that goes out in the reduction of training dollars. we'll work our way to this number, but in the end it will be upwards of -- it will be a significant number. i don't want to put a number. >> eurocom background system -- yesterday they cut to reductions reductions -- gao cleared a protest recently. >> the reduction is $1.7 billion. it was because of the challenge. we had to delay it because of the challenge and so we couldn't spend 1.7 alien dollars. so what happens is the program is now move to you. some $1.7 billion is taken out because of the protest. that purchases them are moving forward at the ground >> general, historically with

the security challenges and the coalition of partners, i think i might have said that the partners have always relied on america to provide it from the gun they've latched on to you guys in here, a few thousand there. are you saying particularly to your european partners commissary we're not are not going to provide the force anymore. you're going to have to provide a of a lot more. is that realistic? >> i don't think that's what we're saying. i think were going to have plenty of capacity to lead with boots on the ground and get the capacity to do that. we certainly are going to need our partners to move along with us as we do this. they would provide more. we need to continue but we have been doing and build small partnerships.

>> on the fourth progress in europe, [inaudible] >> we are still working on now. >> with all due respect, there's only to have paper craze in europe, so they can do half of them ourselves. >> following on michael's question, have any of your counterparts in europe or germany expressed the pacific concerns that not just joining the army, but all the families and their economies are tough they are, too. and specifically about trying down to 80,000, when will that start? is that going to begin before the war in afghanistan is going to end? we've been working very closely.

we've been talking about this for several months. and i think actually they are somewhat pleased and there's still some capability, so i think we were. but they never tell you about the drawdowns is there's two things that the numbers in the 90s was the most important thing to me. if you remember we are de-committed to going down 520, so we're starting this year to take some structure out. but we've been able to move across a six-year period from 12 to 17. so by doing that is spread evenly. it allows us to downsize and take care of soldiers and families. we hope to do it mostly by attrition. or maybe some other things we have to do, but we are trying to do most of it by attrition and also for our commitments in afghanistan.

so they can sustain our commitments in afghanistan and get it at the right optempo that we are able to provide enough dwell time for our soldiers and families. and for me a sport known for 90 timbre was the fact we are able to do this over a six-year period. it is not exactly even because we do it a sign -- it is based on what we call cohorts that come in. for example through four years ago we're bringing a much cohorts, so we might reduce those a little bit more than we do the ones that we do in 15 or 16. but we avert this very carefully against our requirements, and so we are very thoughtful in doing this. this is very important to me as we walked through this important process. thank you very much. appreciate it. >> shortly after this briefing, u.s. chief of staff spoke with reporters on how the budget proposal could affect the air

force. he discussed how the air force decide which programs to cut come including the disbanding of six fighter squadrons in the shelving of the global 30 come a long range high altitude intelligence trail. this is half an hour. down not >> good afternoon, everybody. welcome back. it's my pleasure to welcome here norton schwartz, chief of staff of the united states air force. the general has been serving that capacity since october 2008 which makes him the longest serving member of the body of joint chiefs and his fourth budget season comes as somewhat a i think probably as well. today easier to provide a context on the air force implication that the defense strategic guidance and as you know was released last week and the budget priorities inside that guidance with the chairman

and the secretary discussed with the yesterday. the general be making a brief opening statement and taking your questions. general, over to you, sir. >> ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. we appreciate you being here today and allowing me to share with you some insight into the air force's contributions to the new defense strategy and how we have approached the budget challenges that we face. innovation and adaptability are essentially essential strength of the united states air force and once we have sharpened during the last two decades of combat operations. we've become ever more integral to the successful operations of the u.s. armed forces and our joint teammates rely on the air force for the core contributions that we provide. against a backdrop of fiscal challenge and diminishing resources, the security environment continues to evolve

and has become ever more complex. that's driving the need for a new defense strategic guidance. and that's the air force approaches further reductions consistent with that guidance, our fleets are already smaller and older than that the end of the cold war downsizing. by trading size for quantity, the air force has made the hard choices to support the nonstrategic cadence for the fiscal year 2013 budget submission. it'll be smaller, but superb force that maintains our agility and flexibility and readiness to engage the full range of contingencies and threats. throughout this evolution, we remain and shall remain committed to our ongoing

responsibilities to provide globally posher regionally full spectrum airpower to nuclear deterrent, air, space and cyberoperations, counterterrorism and global intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance. although smaller, we will sustain global operations in the asia pacific and in the middle east and by tailoring our presidents presence. air force capabilities are clearly instrumental and priorities of the new defense strategic guidance, such as deterring and defeating aggression, project team power and anti-access and area denial environments and the threat of weapons of mass destruction, space and cyberoperations an important strategic terms.

in every area, although area constrained resources, the air force has taken care to protect the critical capabilities on which our joint innovation and their agencies and coalition partners. in summary, these distinctive and entering capabilities provide every day our air and space control, global intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility and global straight. and then also maintain the cross domain command and control necessary to make these capabilities affect daily across the spectrum of operations. confronted by a more complex and dynamic security environment as well as significant reduction in this resource, and the air force

determine that the best task force was to become smaller, emphasizing multirole systems and common configurations in order to maintain and protect the high quality for us, mitigating risk on capacity while seeking to end pete our ability to deal with advancing adversaries over time. to avoid a hollow for us, we have and we will protect readiness at any level and strength in our integration of the total force team of dave guard and reserve airmen. we are slowing modernization in some areas, but at the same time we will protect the key programs that are most critical to future air force capabilities. for example, the kc-46 tanker,

the f-35 joint strike fighter and the long-range strike bomber. despite the many challenges that we have faced, today the air force is still by any objective standard, the world's best. it is our intent, indeed it is our obligation to the american people into her airmen airmen and their families that we remain the world's finest air force and the gears in the decades to come. ladies and gentlemen, i'd be happy to take your questions. yes, ma'am. >> yesterday, secretary pineda offered numbers for the size of the active-duty army and marine corps. can you talk about the size of the active-duty air force over the next 10 years, including what happened to the personnel and the six laminated squadrons? >> the total force of our air

force will come down in the neighborhood of 10,000 personnel. importantly however, that those reductions are tied to force structure going away, so we are not reducing personnel to meet budgetary. these are directly connected with the force structure just as we are going to be taken. >> general shores, could you explain to us what is meant by using the word terminate they talk about the block 30 global hawk, but divest when you talk about the c-27j. are you mothballing the jets era to have? medica go into detail about the cost assessment that went into play that type of scale and favor extending the u-2 surveys. >> the bottom line on your

multiple questions, let me start first with the rationale. it was iraq's tatian, our certainty and our hope that the advantage is that a global hawk platform provides, which we anticipated would be both the cost of operation on the one hand and clearly persistence on the other would play out in this. the reality is that the global hawk system has proven not to be less expensive to operate day and the u-2. in many respects, the global hawk system is not capable from a system point of view as is the u-2. and so, we have made this choice

as the deputy secretary made yesterday to cancel the block 30 program. and the disposition of the aircraft is not yet finalized, but it would be my exit tatian do we replace these assets into storage, usable storage, for future possibilities, whatever they might be. importantly, we will retain the block 20 and the bloc 40 capabilities, and so we will -- we will use the global hawk to its best effect. but the bottom line is that the delta between the global hawk and the u-2 was not sufficient in order to retain vote for the same mission. ..

the we will not repair. generally speaking, the existing isr inventory that will mean as there are with the exception that we answered earlier.

>> is there an increase or decrease in the future budget priority? >> i would say this is an area where we will continue to invest. yes, ma'am. >> you talked about the rationale for the global prosperity -- is the same irrational advice for other programs but justifiable in the budget? >> it is a consideration when, and we in a limited budget circumstance that we face have to compare what is the best value to the forces and obviously to the taxpayer. i would say each circumstance is an individual assessment that clearly we are going to make calls on what gives us the best capability for the dollar invested, and in this particular

instance, it was the better bet. >> sort of a question and surge. do you buy additional matter what the quantity is to show some constants in the program? >> you will have an opportunity to see the five-year defense program investment profile next week. i prefer not to go into greater detail at this time given that we would prefer to give a congress the opportunity, the courtesy of seeing our program before we open it up at that level of detail. >> how do you reverse the search pilots taken out of the six squadrons of many are in the reserves and the inflow for years what is the pilots that haven't flown? >> what we are doing is one remission in the units.

in other words, for example, a unit those operating the manned aircraft might transition to a remotely piloted aircraft mission and so the fundamental skills will still be employed in a different way. >> is expected to be that much cheaper or that much better than youtube? why is it that the block 40 is not being eliminated? >> double-fault 40 is a grand moving target indicator platform that is not a sensor in capability. on the other hand, it is the compatible platform in terms of its center and was for that reason of a trade. >> what percentage will you see

an increase in the number flown by the air force after all this is done or decrease if you can put a percentage or number on that. >> we are somewhere over 250 remotely piloted aircraft today, and that number will continue to increase through the five-year defense program. >> do you have a phone number? general, to shiftable but you were getting smaller and you are getting more agile. what is that going to mean for the airmen and the families moving forward? are they going to be play war, are they going to be based in places longer? how does that work for you? >> what we've done is to adjust the forces active reserve and guard to recognize the tempo that is in the new strategic guidance. the role will be to manage the active duty force of not less

than one to two and not less than 124 for the reserve in the guard or better, and that we have approached that to the chain that predictable level of workload with that is sustainable for the long term. you can search the sustainable level of effort will be one to two and not less than 92 not less than 94. >> can you talk about what we did that you believe will have on the air force we will execute those reductions provided the converse authorizes the reductions over the program period. and with respect to the base closure. for the united states air force,

disclosure of around 2,005 and did not close bases we did a multitude of realignments and so on to and there are estimates and that iraq that our infrastructure we had access infrastructure in the neighborhood of 20% since 2005 our inventory of aircraft for example had a decline in the neighborhood of the 500 aircraft. and so, the presumption is i think it is a fair presumption that there is yet more of an excess infrastructure. so, indeed we certainly support to go through the measured round of the base closure analysis and execution. >> you have a number of cases that can close or just a reduction of the size that you

have. >> the expectation is that we would actually close the bases in the future to the ground. >> in your opening statement to site to deutsch and the strategic deterrence. cicatrix carter acknowledged the budget basically is status quo when it comes to nuclear forces except by two years the ohio class. what kind of analytics are under way in the air force today to help the president reach his goal of going lower with the expiration of getting to zero and as you look at that, since both the air breathing and land-based leg that you alone are aging and will be replaced you think it is wise to sustain both or can you see getting rid of one of those? >> i think that question is once again. i think first of all while there are no reduction adjustments in

the strategic structure for us in the ballistic missiles and the boundaries in the fy 13 program the important thing you need to appreciate is that we do have new start targets to meet by february of 2018. but the central limits just quickly address 700 strategic delivery vehicles, deployed delivery vehicles. another 100 come 812 and in 1500 warheads and that of course is as the scene includes including the navy. the bottom line is that there are still decisions pending on how to go about reaching the new targets and that would unfold in the f-14 program. with respect to the question on

the next, it remains our conviction that especially as you go down in terms of the nuclear structure that it actually becomes more important. the diversity, the variety, the attributes associated with each leg actually reinforce each other to a varying degree that we will certainly expect and offer the best military advice recommending that we retain the try and even as we go to the lower numbers. back here, please. >> this commitment to the next generation bomber, the last 75 and the next generation tanker. do you have concerns about these programs coming into production at one time and what effect might that have on the resources? >> in fact, you know, there is a stagger. the f35 is in the initial

production. the tanker will begin to deliver in the 15 to 16 period and of course we are talking about the post 2020. so clearly this is a challenge in terms of sequencing this in a way that meets the budget targets. but the bottom line is these are important capabilities for the nation and one that we will make sacrifices elsewhere to sustain. over here, sir. >> yesterday we talked about the part of the retirement and the c-130. how confident are you given the global demand for the airlift to the air force can continue to deliver on that front especially when we are talking about continuing to operate in places like afghanistan. >> the first signs and construct

that we are dealing with, which produces lesser numbers of brigade combat teams, for example, also has implications for the size of the force. and so, our assessment is that the strategic airlift will pay for the two under the 75 aircraft level. that is to wondered 23 c-17 and the 52c5 with liability improvement program modified aircraft. are sufficient to satisfy the demand for dedicated military airlift, strategic airlift. and with respect to the c-130, and inventory of 318 likewise is

sufficient to provide the interest theater support. so, this is an analytically based approach. you asked me if i am comfortable, i am coming and importantly the other chance of the combatant commander concern and in this instance are as well. >> yes, sir back here. >> the reverse ability how is the air force going to address that across-the-board? with the force structure are you talking about putting the capacity with contractors to surge if needed? how is this being dealt with across the whole program? >> of a reversible but he has a different flavor for the navy and for the air force perhaps

than it does for the ground forces. they are major capital and item intensive. so when you think about the reverse ability, one needs to think about what programs do you have that serve the role of the modernization or the weak capital because there are long leads associated with major and volumes and each of the major disciplines i think you'll find in this program and certainly outlined in the defense strategic guidance commitment to those programs that will allow us to either expand necessary on an established program that would compensate for the unexpected, and i think it is

certainly true with the tanker and it is true with the bomber f 35 programs similarly. >> yes, sir. right here. >> did in this debate to determine if it established an art will for however many and how do you identify which squadron you are talking about and where there are? >> the basic approach was an analytical approach associated with what is known as case three scenario. it's one of the baseline scenario is to conduct the analysis and so on. and that assessment based again on the new strategy the new strategic guidance, and this

addresses your question as well came to the conclusion that we had some excess capacity on the fighter side, and that was the driving choices the were made here. the mix of this was to do with emphasizing over those kind of aircraft with no mention -- niche or less for such deadly because in the small force i think you can appreciate the mandate and the necessity for maximum versatility. >> we have time for just two more. >> sir, if the decision to probably multiple local block is a reflection of the draw down in

the drawdown in afghanistan we don't need as much lessons. >> a combatant commander colleagues would probably indicate by going to do that there has been suppressed demand for intelligence surveillance outside of the central command area for a number of years. and so it is not our expectation that when combat operations subside that the demand for the audience are generally will come down. we believe that some substantial proportion of that capacity would be reapplied and other theaters to have been underserved. >> would you do with this he 27?

>> disposition is not clear. one option clearly is to put them in the 2000 storage in the air force base at the your, and that is probably aware best option. >> i'm sorry, forgive me. >> my fault. a tight 1,000 storage is essentially recoverable storage. you don't use their plans for small part. you don't pick and choose and cherry pick, which the stoneridge allows you to do, so obviously the 1,000 storage require years sort of ongoing surveillance and so on. so the disposition isn't the those are the options.

>> if i can just conclude by saying that we've talked about lots of things today on would just like to remind that the power of our air force like a sister services our people, or airmen in this case, and not only the excellence they strive to provide but the commitment that their families offer to us on a daily basis. so again, while we tend to focus on things i just want to remind that this is really about wonderful people doing the nation's business. thanks very much.

>> by the end of my second term -- [cheering] we will have the first permanent race on the moon, and will be

american. and by the end of 2020, we will have the first continuous propulsion system in space capable of getting to mars in a remarkably short time because i'm sick of being told we have to be timid and i am sick of being told we have to be limited to technologies that are 50-years-old. >> when the founder said that the creator had in bobos with certain unalienable rights among them, life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, they leave out a path for america that was not temporary but was in during, a path of that says in america we can't pursue happiness as we choose. we do not need a government to tell us what kind of a car to get word of what kind of white gold we can have. we don't need a government to tell us what kind of health care we are going to have. -- the candidates are posting of the social media along with political reporters and viewers like you at c-span.org/campaign code 2012. next, women in elective

office in business talk about how telecommunications can address the needs of women. we will hear about the importance of education and a national broadband plan that could impact women at the local level. posted by the minority media and telecommunications counsel, this is an hour. [inaudible conversations] >> if i could have your attention. ladies and gentlemen, we are going to reconvene. we are going to go ahead and reconvene our discussion session good morning. i am julia johnson. i have the pleasure and honor as serving as the chair of the minority telecommunications council and i want to tell you i believe the panel discussion from the morning session has been extraordinary.

but the real conversation starts now. with our women leaders. allow me to provide a little bit of context, and commissioner clyburn kind told a few of our secrets. so these women leaders from across the country has been meeting for the last day and a half focused on broadband, its power and what can be utilized as a tool of empowerment for communities, women, families and for the benefit of the nation. they've looked at it from the context of wireless, cable, radio, broadcast, and its meaning in our community. this session sets the stage for policy dialogue. with women who have their fingers at the polls of the opportunity to make a difference and to make a change. i'm going to go ahead and introduce each of our speakers

and also recognize some of the other women leaders better sitting in the audience and then we will begin this important dialogue. our keynote speaker this morning will be ms. daniels, who serves as the executive vice president of wilco electronics system. wilco is an african-american privately-owned cable operator, and it provided affordable and quality services, cable services, telecommunications services, remote surveillance services and security systems throughout the philadelphia and delaware valley area for the last 33 years. as executive vice president, she takes on a broad portfolio of responsibilities including governmental affairs, regulatory affairs, public affairs, business development and serves as the voice and the face of the publication. she was recently awarded the 2011 eisenhower fellowship where

she traveled to india, singapore, malaysia to explore and cultivate global relationships on the emerging technology that will be benefit for her unique market footprint in the philadelphia and delaware area. so she will bring this perspective of a successful entrepreneur who understands not just the legacy technology but the difference is it brings into the digital age. after her keynote address, we will hear from preserves as the president of the national hispanic caucus of the state legislators and as a member of the connecticut house of representatives. for those of you who are not familiar with the caucus, this caucus serves and represents millions of people across the united states and is comprised of over 300 hispanic legislators across the union. we look forward to your comments.

sharon western is the chairman of the black legislative win in an organization made up of hundreds of women from across the united states. she also served as a separate corporate him in the louisiana state legislature. she brings to us the ability to convene women around issues of technology as they have filed one of the best pieces of national legislation and multiple states focused on i.t. health care. both her organization and the national hispanic caucus of state legislators have championed broadband adoption and use in the reports and their legislation on mount taxation, privacy and security. finally, we have karen speed of the hispanic elected officials, the organization that is made up

of thousands of local elected officials across the united states. she also serves as the treasurer of carson city in california. so we welcome her to the stage as well. let me start off with a video that speaks to another issue that was addressed over the conference, and that is broadband adoption and youth and the power of content and how it can influence across multiple platforms as mentioned by commissioner clyburn this morning. with one digression. we brought together both economic regulators from the fcc, and then we also brought in our federal trade commission and they engaged in a dialogue about the power of content, privacy and security and why it would be important to women and families. let me to yep this quick video.

>> [inaudible] there is no appreciation for women. it's all about the body and not about the brain. [inaudible]

>> i have close friends that would go to the bathroom and put on ten counts of makeup. >> and fifth degree and i was worried about my weight and high school and still worried about my weight. >> it is a culture that women are born to be fundamentally insecure. >> it is determined by men we are not going to make any progress. >> when they're seven years of the one to be president of the united states of america and ask the same question when they are 15. >> we are short changing voices needed in public forums to the table.

>> [inaudible] >> a woman in the oval office -- >> why the media treats them like shit and its portable. i don't know how we can survive for rise above it. ♪ select it is extremely important for women to be able to write their own stories and give them to people to become infected by. >> media can be an instrument of change. it can awaken people and change minds. it depends on who is piloting the plane. ..

>> it was a labor of love, and he came into the industry when no one really was coming into cable in philadelphia. he was not only a minority provider, but just a plain provider bringing cable to philadelphia when it was just comcast and probably like five to ten other operators. that was in the 197 # 0s. you know, from that time, we've been, you know, looking at a different phase. in the 1970s, you're bringing cable, and we found the niche

into public housing. we were a provider with an antenna on the building, distributed system, and that's how you provided cable at the time. we told the building to comcast 15 years ago and then specifically into public housing, and that was an actual choice we made because that's our community needs, and we knew that, and that was a niche we wanted to contribute to our own legacy. before it was trendy or sexy as it was called yesterday, it was an industry that we saw there te was a need to serve the two companies. it took a look time to cultivate that relationship, doing television, going to community meet, and really getting into the residential base and understanding and talking to them and having survey, and that

takes time to do, but that's what we did to get people to adopt to cable, and i want to give you the backdrop because that's what we're doing now to get people to adopt a new technology which is really not that much in those neighborhoods, and that's broadband. it's going to take time because for some of the communities, they've never had it in their neighborhoods. people think of facebook, and that's all they know about the internet. they know how to get on to a myspace page. to put it into context, that's where our business is coming from, so what we're doing now is looking at a different way to bring the model together, so in philadelphia, i don't know how much people know about it, but just a quick background, philadelphia, i like to say, is a tale of two cities. on the one hand there's university of penn and temple and the world's largest telecommunications operator and innovation hubs, which is

beautiful, by on the other hand, you have a large unemployment boies. you have a school system that now teachers are working for free because we cannot basically pay our teachers. literally, that's happening now, it's a current issue. they are not getting a lot of schooling in terms of computer science and literacy. 7% of the households are african-american women single households, so there's a disperty in between philadelphia being a city of going in other direction. to kind of look at that dichotomy saying what can we do here? philadelphia applied for broadband technology opportunities moneys under the stimulus plan, and that was an actual choice to be a city wide coalition to say we have a lot of impediments. what can we do to bridge the divide which we know is widening and widening so what we did was,

you know, my company kind of said that's all everybody come together because we really do know what's going on on the ground in the trenches so we said let's go to the city of philadelphia, brought in the residents, and we got a grant for about $20 million to provide households of 5,000 netbooks, various content, the university came in, community college came in, it was called freedom rings, just look at philadelphia and what it was doing to free people in broadband, and we were building rings of fiber, and it was a very unprecedented public-private partnership. there was a lot of necessary components. minority business, minority people, local people working on their own problems, and this is actually a picture of the graduation that we had when we actually distributed the first of all of the laptops which were 5,000 of them. this was public housing at one

of the sites. this is a about a hundred people there getting their certificates. this is some of the partners. i mean this is the private-public partnership right heerk and these are just some of the women who got their laptop, and i want to just go back to this picture. 23 you see that, that's mostly all women in that picture, and i, you know, this kind of -- this is 5 good way to talk about why we are here because for most of minority community, it's really the women who are kind of the people who are really bringing this adoption into the households, so it kind of goes to the first point which is that why philadelphia ended up going further on program and why they didn't go for the many programs out there was because the content needed to be local, and they also have their own programs that they wanted to them implement, and that was important because when it's local and you know it, you adopt

it. that was a very effective way we started securing this adoption in philadelphia. the other point was that it was woman that we were targeting, and just, you know, all over the world, i was just received a fellowship to go around the country, around the world to look at broadband digital models and there's so much out there, but there's definitely 5 very, very -- a very, very entrenched, i'd say, policy that they are all looking for going for women, that's in bangladesh to north philadelphia. it's the same because they are the purchasers, family oriented, connected, e-mailing, more responsible, not afraid to ask, and these are qualities making women more so the main adopting entities in the families that we're looking for. in temperature l university,

quick, quick story. they did an interesting story to tell the students to go out there and create a program around personal finance. they went out into the community and they did that because haw can you work with the community if you don't know what's out there. they sent them out, came back, and what did you find? well, people don't want to go to bank because they don't trust the banks, but there's a ton of hair salons all around north philadelphia, on every block, like two, so the students said, you know, teacher said what are you going to do? they said, well, i think we're going to broker a deal with the hair salons to probably go into the hair salon and offer, you know, basically online personal banking, and show them how to do it while they get their hair done. when you get your hair done on a friday, you're there all day. [laughter] all day, and it was a fantastic work reel vaition, but it was a

great program. they went to where they were going, where women trusted where they go all the time, set up on an line, brought the laptop and set them up, and that's how they started their adoption. that's how they started getting people to come on board, and i say that because, again, it was local. again, it was trust. it was looking at what's on the ground, and you have to assess the community, and sometimes the thacial broadband efforts are wonderful, needed, and helpful, we have to look at what is around and who is there. this gets to a point that if there's providers or operators working in the entities or communities, there should be encouragement of the national broadband plan and the national model to look at who is on the ground in the trenching working on these issues. that's the opportunity for minority businesses as well. we're always asking where can we have participation, what can we

do? you know, we ask it every year, and, you know, i am a minority operator, and i have not been asked to contribute, but i could a lot because i've been doing it for 34 years, and this issue is not an everyone kind of works together or works separately, but it's a village to take this issue to take it where it needs to go, and i think that's an another opportunity, and i think it's going to be asked, and i think that's another way that we should look as a policy how to get more people involved in broadband adoption, look at who is on the ground, and i know in every urban city there's an operator or minority provider of something working with this community. that's a good policy, at least, that we should look at. this last part is, this is a video, women have a different perspective. i got that fellowship because i was the only one that said to the city and the groups let's

work together and get the money together. that's work with the community all together. no one elsemented to do that. i'm not saying # because i'm a woman i was able to do that, but as a woman, i thought holistically that we have to work together and collaborate. i'll bring in this, you bring in this. the perspective of what my father started to end and close when he did cable, he never thought he would be a social service provideer, but as a woman and just someone who was traveling and just aware of more because we think about it at the same time, and part of that is we had to look beyond just putting a pipe in someone's home and look at what else could complement the pipe and what else to empower the people i'm providing the service to. we did b-top. it was a beautiful day and a 97-year-old woman was crying

because it was a certificate for a computer and training. that was -- it was stirring. that's where we are going. i know you're going to have plenty to implement back home, there's so much about local content, where people trust, there's something to say about women leadership in these roles, so, you know, again, i'm here for questions, but there's so many stories out there, and i'm thankful that we can share as many as we can. last thing, bundling packages. that's also very interesting. if you can unbundle a package, that's effective in getting people to adopt because you can separate them and that makes it more affordable and people can separate their services, and it's easier for them to consume them in their home so i'll be here, thank you. >> thank you.

[applause] >> we'll save questioning given the shortness of time until the end, but excellent presentation, and we appreciate your leadership. >> good morning. i also got questions, so questions are good. there's always room for questions. i'm state representative from connecticut in the newly elected president with the national caucus. i'd like to thank mmtc and the speakers allowing me the opportunity to participate in the panel discussion. it was funded over 20 years ago and represent well over 300 hispanic working in 30 states across the country. i'm proud to say through the policy advocacy, research effort, we have been at the

front of the movement and use central policy priority. last year, passed a resolution calling on congress to pass a legislation to have a move to protect consumers especially la tee knows among the most avid users of the mobile web when making online purchases. acsl support the national broadband plan and the fcc promotion of policy that encourage investment and innovation with greater access to broadband technologies. efforts by industry, stake holders, and policymakers to make broadband services more assessable and affordable to minority communities. again, especially women and children are essential such as what is made possible. latino communities stand to benefit for this policy. in 2010, ncsl created national

broadband task force aiming to ensure the hispanic community benefiting and taking full advantage of opportunities by the technology. the task force already released a broadband white paper entitled expanding opportunities in the hispanic community, solution for increased broadband access which call for a national repeals and a peels to local, state, and federal stake holders and used through the development of the program and public-private partnership that promote innovation and new opportunities within the latino community. i look forward to collaborating with groups as well as industries, stake holders, and regulators. the broadband policy remain front and center in 2012. there was much more to be done

and acsl look forward to be part of this dialogue as well as everyone here in the room today. in the effort to ensure that all minorities' communities are participating and contribute to our nation's growing society. i also would like to add that we have to tackle education cause and educate and mentor those who are uninformed and do not see the value of broadband, and this is where community groups like ours come in. we have to mac it o non-issue with a point of access making broadband internet available at all times in our community. groups like ours care deeply about the future of broadband as a tool to help empower our community economically through education and through entrepreneurship. having become president this

month, i'm here like you guys to learn and to ask questions. there's vies of the future universal service fund, how to balance innovation intellectual properties and how to balance the need with the need in a local community and lastly, how we can all work together to achieve these goals that are crucial and important for the future in our community. thank you. >> thanks. [applause] >> thank you. i'm delighted and honor to be here with you all as well as my fellow elected officials, and i certainly would be remiss if i did not thank mmtc, david, the president and our chair, julia

johnson, for their constant vision and commitment to this issue. i don't know about you, but every year when i come, i feel more informed, the content is certainly insightful, and when i leave here, i'm motivated to do more. as you know, i am the president of the national organization of black elected legislative women, noble women, and we're a non-profit organization primarily made up of african-american female legislators who are presently in office and former state log tores. we were founded in 1985, and the original goal was to make sure that we played a very active and dominant role in shaping public policy and to serve as a catalyst to provide economic and social justice for all classes and races of people, and so this topic is really timely because as you have heard, we just came out of our annual congressional

broadband technology and media form convening some of the top women policymakers, business leaders, and innovators in the broadband technology and media spectrum. we intend to be engaged at the local, state, and federal levels collaborating with the white house, the federal trade commission, and the federal communications commission on model legislation. if you go to our website, you will see that we have a report that we produced last year entied led -- entitled "winning the future," and we did this in collaboration with the women legislators and how women use broadband as well as opportunities that broadband can offer to them. we encouraged government, industry, and individual efforts to identify and leverage

opportunities to increase home broadband adoption through the creation of relevant content that helps people better understand essential broadband as an essential service. we supported a national call to action to bring together government, business, and the non-profit sector to create affordable broadband access and adoption solutions, and, of course, to spur new uses of computer technology with smart, easy to use interfaces to ensure the potential broadband users can receive digital literacy training, and i applaud what you're doing. that's a perfect example of way we want to accomplish. of course, there are a few impediments hindering some women to adopt broadband, and you've heard many of those today in various conversations and dialogues. some include costs,s lack of

digital lit literacy, and famils not knowing or realizing how this cutting edge technology could positively influence their lives, and so to address one cost barrier to broadband adoption, taxes on our digital goods. we passed a resolution urging lawmakers to establish a national frame work that provides certainty and uniformity for state and local governments in the taxation of digital goods and services while protecting consumers from multiple and discriminatory taxation and supporting the continued growth of the digital economy, and so we have to refrain from measures that may put our people at risk for multiple discriminatory taxation of digital goods and service, and as we look forward to seeing increased adoption rates, we must be certain that the consumer privacy protection that

we seek, that that protection, is in place, and that these protections are simple, that they are flexible, that they are effective, and that they don't do harm to broadband users. by performing these tasks, we demonstrate to women how they and their families reap the benefits of broadband and encourage them to dupe it so this we women are up to speed and well prepared to have a first class citizenship in today's digital driven society. thank you. [applause] >> good morning or good afternoon, i don't know where we're at yet. [laughter] i'm karen, the president for hispanic legislated local official, and also the city treasurer in the city of carson, california. i'd like to thank president

david and especially chairperson julia johnson for inviting me and allowing me to participate on behalf of helo and national league of cities. i've learned so much at this summit, such valuable information. for those of you not aware, hispanic elected local officials are a constituency group formed in 1976, part of the larger organization, national league of cities, and through national league of cities, we are able to advocate on behalf of the towns, cities, and throughout the country on the hill for issues that affect our communities and broadband is one that we really have not had a large enough voice in i think at national league of cities. however, helo recognizes that broadband serves as a great equalizer and catalyst the social and economic growth, particularly in the low income

and minority communities, and we have supported policies and efforts in helping the country effectively transition into an information economy. through our resolution process, we adopted a resolution promoting government intervention ensuring universal broadband opportunities, and what that was was to encourage community advocates to find ways to increase home broadband adoption through the creation of culturally relevant content to help hispanics in particular better understand the value of broadband as essential services in their homes. helo worked hard to ensure consumers are provided with information and tools necessary to make the smart decisions regarding the wireless service. we have supported industry efforts by wireless providers representing more than 97% by u.s. wireless consumers to provide summers with free alerts notifying them on monthly limits

on voice, text, and data plans before they are reached. those alerts are now provided to consumers by ctia's wireless consumer usage notification guidelines. they not only empower consumer, but allows consumers to effectively manage wireless bill and associated costs. efforts like this reflect the industry's ability to meet the needs, the consumer needs, without excessive over regulation ensuring unfed everies and re-- unfeddered reliable service and this not only encourages greater broadband adoption, but greater stability and growth within the industry, thus leading to the economic recovery and competitiveness. the same -- digital literacy is a life skill like the ability to read and write and it's apparent in america's society.

as american society becomes more reliant on the internet. as such, broadband policies become a very important policy to helo, and we'll continue supporting efforts to improver access and adoption, particularly among women and children moving into the future. programs like comcast programs are programs making a difference in our communities, and for those of you, i don't know if you've -- you probably heard at lunchtime yesterday, but it's a wonderful program that i don't think is getting enough press in our communities that lets services be provided both hardware and wireless access at home and at a low cost to families in low income communities; however, a report released by the national

telecommunications information administration reports that oftentimes the primary reason for not having internet access is the lack of interest or need compared to other factors such as costs at 24% and the lack of a computer at 15%. the lack of interest -- that's amazing in today's world, isn't it? i think that basically comes from the lack of knowledge, and there's a fear factor that's out there, particularly when you look at people who don't have enough information on the internet, women, head of the household in many cases, then you are fearful of it. you think your kids will be on there, think they'll get bad information, and education is where we have to start and where we as local officials can have more of a part of. i look forward to working with mmtc, policymakers, and my

colleagues and applaud work being done by folks in the room, and finding ways to get more women and children connected in the interpret. the more we're able to educate the latino communities about the benefits of broadband, the greater chance there is of improving the lives of our hispanic population that only improves the lives of our community and country overall. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. we'll open the floor to questions, and i see we have one now, and as you're coming up, i just want to give again a little context. the women seated here for the last two and a half days had the opportunity to meet in the white house and met with the cto, here yesterday, and, you know, if any of you know him, it's hard to find him speechless, but he said after the question of collaboration and of innovation that he received from these

women at their hour visit at the white house were some of the most compelling and candidly questions that caused him to think twice. bringing women into the dialogue or lead the dialogue is making a difference. the other aspect was having commissioner edith ramirez and commissioner julie sitting down with fcc commissioner cl yburn created a discussion about user interface and ensure the technology is consumer ready and demonstrated that something that tom taki said that the big corporations are starting to do and that's listening to consumers, something women leaders always have done and reacted to. i salute you all, and we open this up for questions. >> thank you. i'm donna sullivan here from north carolina. if you hear me say wanna and gonna, i make no