and how long does the virus last on a surface, like someone sneezing or something like that? and also, if i may, the obama administration sent military people to these affected countries x cuba sent -- and cuba sent 600 doctors. and they've treated 58 million people over the years with medical diplomacy. >> guest: well, hard surfaces are where the virus can survive longest, and it's not that long, it's a matter of hours on a hard surface. so, again, that is definitely something people are thinking about, what if somebody gets on a bus or they, you know, they touch something, door handles, all this stuff is part of the general worry about how the disease could spread here. it's, i don't think it's at that point. i don't think it's anywhere near

at that point right now. but it's, everybody wants to know about transmissibility, and part of the reason is that the cdc has been so emphatic about it not being transmissable, yet people are hearing about transmissibility. two people have it now. so it makes it like like -- look like the cdc is not being forth coming. it, clearly, seems to be a tough disease to understand in terms of how it transmits to people. and so far, again, it's just two health care workers who had real contact with patient and not, you know, anyone else in the general public. if it stays that way, i think confidence in the cdc will increase. but if not, i think frieden's got a problem on his hands. >> host: no matter what the result of the midterms, there's a lot congress has to handle when they come back from the break. what's the likelihood that ebola gets to the top of the line to do?

>> guest: it will if more happens about -- people are catching this more frequently here, more passengers arriving from africa with it, more transmissibility going on. you can bet it will be numero uno on what the members of congress are dealing with for hearings, for budget, money matters, you'll hear them talking about this because the public cares about this. already you're seeing people get really upset about this. the polls show people are really worried, they're focused on i. if it stays that way, congress responds, and they will be talking about this and taking action on i. if it fades out of the picture, it's because no more cases, congress will be back focusing on the lame duck issues that they need to resolve including a budget bill to fund the government into 2015 which is, again, something they need to do practically every few months these days. that'll be at the top of their list in november. but ebola has a potential to be a real headline here after the

november election. >> host: susan ferrechio with the washington examiner joining us to talk about congress and the presidential -- the white house reaction to ebola. thank you for your time. >> guest: you bet. >> and a reminder that the house subcommittee hearing on ebola will start in just a few moments, actually, it's underway now live on our companion network, c-span. and just as the u.s. mounts its response to ebola, the head of homeland security, jeh johnson, released a statement announcing the retirement of john pistole. "usa today" has that the story. john pistole announced today he would retire effective december 31st. he served more than four years atop the agency created in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in 2001. it screens travelers and luggage at airports. johnson said because of pistole's efforts, our country's transportation systems are more safe and secure. he's expected to be named to a position in academia in 2015.

well n a moment we'll bring you lye coverage of a pentagon briefing on the military's response to ebola. we expect that to start in just a moment as reporters are being given some last minute information before it gets under way. we're just learning from cnn, by the way, that nina pham will be move today the national institutes of health facility in maryland. that from two sources again can, cnn reporting that today. also from the associated press, passengers arriving from west africa at four more u.s. airports will have their temperature taken today. the screenings began saturday at kennedy airport in new york. it's part of an effort to cope travelers with -- to keep travelers with ebola from bringing the virus into the united states. the death toll will rise to more than 4500 this week from among 9,000 people infected by the deadly disease. >> ebola virus in lie beer

california africom established a joint command headquarters to facilitate the coordination of all u.s. military forces' support to usaid in stopping the ebola outbreak. we are currently overseeing the no rove ya medical haunt which is a 25-bed hospital and up to 17 ebola treatment units as well as the training of health care providers and other usaid requests as approved by the secretary of defense. we've made great progress since the president announced our participation in the whole-of-government effort here: we're gaining momentum every single day. we have added two military labs, and i can talk about that later if you want more information on those to the already-existent labs that are here, and they're making a tremendous difference every single day. they are literally saving lives. we've completed the vertical construction of the monrovia

medical unit, the 25-bed hospital for the treatment of health care workers staffed by professionals from the u.s. public service commission corps. our service members are excited to be here helping and working hard with their liberian counterparts to to help end this outbreak. this is not an easy or simple mission, but with the leadership of ambassador malac, i believe we are starting to make real progress. at this time, i'd be happy to take your questions. >> thank you, sir. per our custom, we'll start with tony capasio from bloomberg. >> sir, what provisions are being made in case u.s. troops are infected with the virus? have designated -- have hospitals been designated for their care? what's been -- what is in place right now for that unfortunate, if that happens? >> yeah. so we have protocols in place

with the augment of both increased medical capability, we have the special purpose mag which will be critical in helping soldiers, sailors, civilians and ohs get out of here. now, if someone were to come through and, unfortunately, contract this disease, we have quarantine protocols that we would enact, okay? so they would be quarantined, and we would put on appropriate gear to take care and stabilize that patient until we could arrange for transportation to move them back to a facility. that would not be done here. >> do you see any need for contracting private transport companies for medical evacuation or shipping rolloff containers to sup limit the military's

logistics equipment at point? at this point? >> yeah. so there already was a very vibrant and low -- robust lo lo gistal architectures here. one of our concerns when we came in here was does the country of liberia have the contracting capacity? and we are very happy with both the local contracting capacity that's here, and we're using a lot of that, leveraging that. what am i talking about? gravel, wood, nails, those sorts of things are critical to building these ebola treatment units. so we are bringing some capacity in, but most of that is found here in the local economy that we're using to build our various projects. >> united states spending millions of defense dollars or state dollars on private u.s. or foreign contractors coming in and providing transportation assistance or construction

assistance. >> say that again, please? >> you do or do not anticipate spending millions of dollars of u.s. money for private contractors from the united states or from europe to complement your effort? >> we have a continue -- continue wonderful leveraging contractors from other places like you just mentioned. so it's a continual contract. there's no sole source that we're using in terms of leveraging the contracting capability in this great country. >> [inaudible] from cnn. >> barbara starr from cnn. general william, go back on one thing, and then i have a couple of questions. on the evacuation capability of this special purpose mag tav, are you saying that people who need to be evacuated because they may have been determined to be at risk but are showing no

symptoms or may have fallen into a risk category would be evacuated by the marines? that's my first question. >> so, thanks, ma'am. we would have -- there would be multiple ways we would evacuate. that could possibly be one way that we would evacuate folks that had no known exposure or low risk and would not have ebola, exhibit ebola-like symptoms. we measure while we're here twice a day our monitoring as required by the recent guidance that was put out while we're here in liberia. yesterday i had my temperature taken, i think, eight times before i got on and off aircraft, before i went in and out of the embassy, before i went in and out of the place where i'm staying. as long as you exercise basic sanitation and cleanliness sort of protocols using the chlorine

wash on your hands and your feet be, get can your temperature taken, limiting the exposure, the no handshaking, those sorts of protocols, i think the risk is relatively low. i'm not an epidemiologist, but it's been shown that this disease is most manifest when handling bodily fluids; blood, other sorts of fluids. and there is no plan for u.s. soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines to do that. now, the exception is mobile labs that are here, and they are triple protective. the ambassador and myself went up to bong county a day or two ago, and the two that are here now, there are four more coming, one in bong county, one in island clinic. the sailors that are in there performing the confirm or deny on the ebola virus, they are wearing ppe, and they are testing for this virus.

the other soldiers, sailors, our, marine are not coming into contact with specimens. >> i guess i'm asking if someone is asymptomatic at the moment but yet you have determined either their ppe failed or for some reason they came into contact, but they are currently i asymptomatic, nonetheless, they need to be monitored and/or evacuated out of the area. how are you getting them out, short of them being determined to have the virus? >> yeah. so they currently would be quarantined and watched, and we would attend to them. the personnel that would attend to them would wear ppe, and then they would be stabilized, and we would provide one of these contracting mechanisms that was mentioned earlier with come in here and move them out to a medical facility. >> very quickly, sir, given the fact that in the united states over the last couple of days the cdc guidelines seem to have

potentially not worked as expected. as you monitor that and you look at your own following of the cdc guidelines, are you looking, are any of you looking at changing anything or strengthening your own practices beyond the current state of the cdc guidelines? >> no, ma'am. i'll start and offer the ambassador or ben to weigh in on this. i have great confidence in the cdc guidelines. i meet with the current lead here all the -- daily. and i have great confidence and don't plan on adjusting any of the current guidelines. >> this is ambassador malac, if i could just follow up on major general williams comment related to the guidelines. our staff here, our agency has been operating in this ebola

environment for six months. we have been following very carefully the cdc guidance and advice from day one, and we have no need or feel any need to have to make a change or deviate from those guidelines that have been or very successful. we have made sure that everyone on the staff, including our local employees, are well versed in all of that information. and to this point, they are keeping us safe. >> thank you, sir. >> hi, general. this is courtney cue by from nbc news. i'm sorry, i'm still a little unclear on the procedures. if some u.s. troops are exposed, not necessarily if they have ebola, but if they're exposed to it. especially if there's a group of them. the contracting mechanism that you mentioned, i'm assuming that's a contracting flight that would then take them back to the united states. what medical facility or facilities have been identified? would they go to a civilian facility or a military one? and since you brought up this

special purpose mag tav, those ma reaps, i believe -- marines, i believe, will go back to marrone. has there been agreement about procedures for when they get back, whether they want them quarantined? considering they're not going back to the united states immediately, is there any kind of agreement with the government? >> well, i'll start with the second one first. i know that africom is currently working the procedures for those sorts of things. we're also working, as you know, the 101st will come on and take this mission to its completion. general valeski actually is end route this weekend, and we'll change out next weekend, the following weekend. and so we are also starting to work with not just spain, marrone, but also italy and the other places where my current forces are coming from. we have folks that are here from germany, from italy and all over. so that's being worked at higher levels to work those sorts of,

to work those pieces. and your first question again, ma'am? >> i'm still just a little unclear on the specific procedures for evacuating troops, specifically if there's a group of troops that are exposed to ebola. they'll be quarantined in liberia, but is it then a contracted aircraft that brings them back to the u.s., i'm assuming? and where will they go, military, civilian? >> well, i would start with as the ambassador just mentioned, there are nongovernmental organizations, aid, cdc. i fell in, we fell in on a host of folks that have been living here for some time and operating in this complex environment. and so if, god forbid, one of these soldiers, sailors, airmen or marines contracted this disease, as i mentioned, they would be stabilized, they would be quarantined, we would go through the appropriate protocols, people would be

attending to them in the appropriate ppe. to date, no one has shown those symptoms. i've been here 30 days as of today. so they would be warn teaked, and we would synchronize and work those actions so they would go back to the appropriate medical facility. >> and has any u.s. military facility been identified as the one that would accept potential ebola-exposed patients? >> um, not to my knowledge, ma'am. i'd have to get back to you on that. i know that the joint surgeon, we're in constant contact with not only the joint surgeon, but our own army surgeon about the appropriate protocols. i would envision that -- i've got a lot of time in europe, but i cannot comment on that fact. i know that here on the ground i'm at the tactical level, my concerns would be about

stabilizing this soldier, sailor, airman or marine, making sure we use the appropriate ppe, and then when we work the coordination and synchronization to get them to the appropriate medical facility where they could get the treatment they needed. >> thank you. >> christine, thanks. >> hi, general. this is christina wong from the hill. some lawmakers back here are advocating for troops to directly treat ebola patients. do you foresee that happening in the future? >> that's not currently in the department of defense portfolio, to do that. as i mentioned, what we are currently adding and to help fill the gaps of the usaid as the lead and federal agency are the mobile labs. that's probably the closest it comes to the ebola virus chain, if you will. we have two three-man sailor teams, as i mentioned, in bong county and in island clinic who

are making a big difference. they are handling spes be mens of -- specimens of people who have been afflicted with the ebola virus. and so the medical treatment that you're talking about currently we have not been asked to do. the closest that comes to it is the public health command that i mentioned that will be manning the 25-bed hospital. those 65, the 65 doctor/nurse team that will flow in here in the next week or so, and they will actually be involved in the care and feeding of health care workers who have been afflicted with the ebola virus. >> so that team of 65 doctors and nurses, are they u.s. personnel? >> yes, ma'am, they are. >> and then lastly, secondly, progress on slowing the spread of e pole la. have you seen -- ebola. have you seen any progress in slowing the spread?

>> so not an epidemiologist, and if ben wants to talk more about this,s in 30 days that i've been here, i've seen great momentum. what this requires, this disease requires a team of teams. the department of defense team, department of state team, cdc, the u.n., nongovernmental organizations, peace corps, all those together are providing the momentum that we currently have. i won't speak for the ambassador, but she'll tell you that, you know, there has been some change, and a lot of the projections have been assuming no interventions, and a lot of interventions are happening on scale. aid has six streams that they track, the ambassador runs a daily update, and we get that progress of how we're doing against it. and i will tell you that a lot of momentum has, is starting to occur, and i'm are ability as ao

get after this fight. >> to you, then we'll shift to the center of the room. >> if you could, again, maybe elaborate on what exactly what you think the impact has been so far of your mission there on the overall effort to stem the outbreak, and then related to that, one of the explanations we heard at the beginning was that by wringing in this logistical help -- more ngos, more organizations would then be able to move in, arrive and help. are you seeing that? and perhaps usaid could address that. >> yeah. i'll let ben start that, sir. thank you for your question. >> great. and in line with the question regarding the trends, it's difficult to make a concrete statement on the trends based on epidemiological data. when looking at trends, you have to look at it over several

epidemiological weeks, and we're constantly working to improve the surveillance on that data and monitoring any trends there. what i can say is that the whole-of-government effort that the u.s. has brought has definitely been catalyzing in not only bringing the hope for improved efforts at breaking this chain of infection, but as really improve -- has really improved the momentum behind the international effort. we work with many international partners and in full support of the government of liberia's national strategy for the reduction of the ebola outbreak. and as mentioned, we're putting together up to 17 ebola treatment units, 65 community be care centers -- community care centers. two laboratories are already in place, four more on the way providing training for both local and international staff that will man these ebola treatment centers. also a significant logistics undertaking both international

and in country. we've also stood up 56 safe burial teams which now provide access to safe burial country wide. and this is in addition to all of our nongothal organization -- nongovernmental organization partners and the efforts of the united nations to support the efforts of the government of liberia. >> the other thing i would add, sir, to kind of add on to ben's excellent explanation is you can't -- in this fight leadership is very important. and the military is used to working in complex, ambiguous environments. and i'll tell you here, the leadership expressed by the government of liberia, the embassy here and others and aid and cdc cannot be underestimated. i often hear from folks as the ambassador, myself and aid confront this in a united front, they say you give us hope. and the ambassador's leadership,

aid's leadership and now the military are adding fuel to those gaps and trying the to fill those unique, those gaps with our unique capabilities and lo gist you cans -- logistics. the first week i was here, africom redirected from the east part of africa over here, and les been cbs providing over the shoulder expertise, and stuff's been going up very, very quickly. lastly, i will talk about the armed forces of liberia, what we're calling exercise united shield. brigadier general who's the commander of the armed forces of liberia, we have partnered with them x. had you been out with us yesterday, i invite you all to come out. if you had been there yesterday, you'd have seen all these sappers, these liberian engineers up there constructing one of the etus, ebola

treatment units that have been talked about. it was awesome. and so we have a lot of momentum starting here. >> i have a follow up. sorry, sir, just a follow up. going back to your comments earlier about the hospital that's now constructed, we had understood that u.s. personnel would be training health care workers, but it's our -- it sound like what you're saying is that u.s. possessor personnel will be actually working with and treating health care workers there who may be in infected with the virus. is that correct? >> yeah. both your comments are correct, sir. so we needed aid to help train the local health care workers here. up to 500 a week, we'll do 200 here in and around monrovia, and then we will have three teams that'll be in and around the area, so up to 500 health care workers we've been asked by aid to help in the overall training effort, not just -- dod is not

shouldering all the training piece. the u.s. public health services are actually providing support to health care workers who, if they unfortunately are vicken with the disease -- stricken with the decide. that's what their purpose is, that 65. the 25-bed hospital, i hope we never have to put anybody in it, but that's the purpose of the u.s. public health services and their job here. >> 65 u.s. troops, sir? >> no. >> no. this is u.s. public health services. >> tony and then jennifer and maggie, and that'll probably be it. >> sir, from inside the pentagon. the dod portion of this is expected to last about six months. i'm wondering if at this point you could say that if that would be sufficient or if you expect to have to come back and get additional funding. i think it's 725 million, the dod portion, right now?

>> yeah. so i believe we have the resources we need to fill the gaps that aid has asked us to fill with our unique capabilities. and that's probably all i really want to say on that right now. i know that the department of defense is committed to this, but we are one of many actors here. the ambassador talked about that. there have been folks that have been pulling on this rope for some time, and we were brought in now to provide -- fill some of those unique gaps. you know, i'll have helicopters here. i have some now, the v-23s, and what they're principally doing, i didn't answer this earlier, they are principally completing the flight surveys. the ones in and around monrovia are relatively frat, they're in a built-up area. but when you go up north or southeast, you're in the jungle, and you have afl that's helping us clear the sites for these,

they're in there with machetes hacking down the jungle, sided by the local officials there. so we're not just coming in and dumping these units where we want. we're working with the community and the districts, we're working with the government of liberia to site these where they need to be, and most importantly, they're sited where aid and the government tell us they need to be sited. so i'm comfortable where we are right now with resources. we'll see this through. i think the fact that we're bringing in one of our divisions, the 101st airborne division, he already has about 40 folks on the ground. we're doing the left seat-right seat feet. if nothing else the last 12, 13 years have taught us, and he'll fit right in with the ambassador and aid in terms of the construct and leadership that's already extax. >> sir, it's jennifer griffin from fox news.

if i could ask all three of you, what are the biggest challenges, the most urgent challenges you're facing right now, the biggest problems you're facing. and also, do you believe that the u.s. should halt flights from liberia and the affecting areas? there are neighboring african countries that have closed the borders to people crossing from liberia. why do you not think it's a good idea to halt flights from west africa. >> yes, ma'am. i'll start off and hand it -- i'll do the first part and hand the rest to the board. challenges -- to the ambassador. challenges for the department of defense, it rains a lot here, and the infrastructure is challenging which is why i'm bringing in lift to use the vertical component of this great country. we've been asked to build these ebola treatment units is going to require us to get them and resource them by using the water, the air. and so my biggest challenge right now is working through the environment. now, the ambassador tells me she's lived here longer than any

of us that the season's about to change, and so we're about to go into -- gary valeski will come into different conditions. it's, that's been the most -- we -- i wouldn't say we underestimated, but i think we didn't realize how wet it would be here, and that's become somewhat of a challenge. i'll let the ambassador handle the other two. >> major general williams has outlined some of the sort of physical challenges, on top of this i would certainly emphasize the issue of very poor infrastructure, and that you can interpret in many, many different ways. physical infrastructure, human infrastructure, financial infrastructure, if you will. this is a, you know, very poor country that's only 11 years removed from a long and devastating civil war. that really destroyed everything. some of that rebuilding has happened, but when you now have an epidemic like this ebola epidemic, that is affecting all parts of a country -- it's very difficult to access many of the

parts of the country in order to find out exactly what the disease is doing in some of these remote areas. so we have that overall challenge of understanding how we can communicate with all parts of the country at what level we need to communicate our messaging to lie liberians. it varies greatly. and the complex nature of this epidemic in an urban area like monrovia, which has never been seen before. so we're really looking at two separate epidemic, what happens in monrovia, in a crowded, urban area, and what happens in a rural environment where you have a population that has very low literacy, in some cases, that is quite cut off from the rest of the country. so the challenges are many. we are making progress on overcoming those challenges. fortunately, the weather will soon be one of our mideast -- the least of our -- the least of our challenges, but we will

continue to confront this difficulty in getting out of the other parts of the city -- other parts of country. as for the issue of whether or not borders should be closed, i think president obama and others have been very clear all along, isolating these countries is not the way to address the epidemic. we need to be able to get people and resources and supplies in. and, in fact, it has been quite challenging over the last several months because there have been a reduction in commercial flights, because there is a reduction in shipping that comes into the country. very difficult to get things like food as well as spry supplies in that are critically needed in order to help address this epidemic. >> thank you. >> >> i think it's been said about the various challenges that we face in this response, and it's certainly a response unlike any we've ever undertaken before. but based on the range of activities and the leadership that has been brought to this response, certainly in part by

the u.s. government, we're certainly seeing a more effective and more responsive international be effort. international effort. and the challenges working in, working amongst all of these deficiencies that exist in the basic health system and just the lack of knowledge of how to battle this disease, the challenge is really maintaining an effective and dynamic response against an often-unseen adversary. >> [inaudible] >> hi. it's maggie -- [inaudible] washington times. yesterday you said that you were hoping that international partners would contribute protective equipment and other supplies to the ebola mission, and you said that the etus required seven personal protective equipped pieces per bed, per day. i'd like to know why you need help in that area, i'm wondering does this indicate a, you know, lack of access to certain amount of supplies or because supplies are too expensive?

and the next question is for all three of you. germany wants to assist with the mission, but my understanding is the country would be unable to transport its affected people back to germany. australian politicians have also indicated the same thing, they don't have a transport plan. would the u.s. consider facilitating the international health process, and is that a conversation that's ongoing at this point? >> sure, i'll seek to the personal protective equipment piece. when treating ebola, the specification or requirements for ppe is at the highest importance. many of the the infections particularly amongst health care workers is actually when they are taking off and putting on the ppe. so while there are a range of personal protective equipment items available throughout the world, it's important that we have the exact possessifications required to safely provide care to ebola patients. and there certainly is a lot of discussion around how to improve

the pipeline and supply of these materials, and there's an international working group amongst many interested organizations and nations to insure that pipeline stays robust and adequate for the response. >> and if i may on the issue of medical evacuation, obviously, this is an issue -- a topic of great discussion for the last several months, not just since the arrival of the u.s. military here. as we together have sought to encourage international health care responders to come in and help to fight this disease. i would point out that, in fact, germany is bringing in -- is going to take over the operation of one of the ebola treatment units within the next two to three weeks. it will be a combination of the german red cross as well as german military medical personnel who will be working together. in fact, germany has received already to date three

evd-positive patients that have come from liberia or sierra leone for treatment. so they do have the capacity the treat these patients. but the discussion about we obviously need a more robust and more organized and coordinated process, so it's very clear what will happen in the event that someone is in need of a evacuation as a result of ebola. this is an ongoing can conversation at capitol level. i know my colleagues in washington are quite engaged with a number of countries to determine how best to manage that type of a system. >> our very own stars and stripes. >> hi, general, john harper with stars and stripes. do you anticipate that you're going to need more troops as this effort goes on including national guard or reserve? and also, what kind of force protection measures are in place for u.s. troops over will in liberia?

>> yeah. so as you know, the president announced the troop level that we would need over here, and so as you know, for any of these kinds of contingencies, the commander on the ground will make relations up or down -- up the chain of command if he or she needed more resources to accomplish the mission as we support aid and the government of liberia. so i'm comfortable with the current, what the secretary of defense has approved in terms of the forces that will flow in here over the next -- i guess i should have mentioned some time ago, we're about 500 now, a little over 500, in the joint operational area. and that includes senegal. i didn't mention earlier, but we have a staging base in senegal. and the idea behind that to give us more agility as we move into theater and increase our ability to rapidly resupply and bring soldiers, sailors, airmen,

marines and the equipment into the center of gravity and where aid has asked us to focus. which is why the commander's here. but we will also have some capacity at seven call the to enable the on-- senegal to enable the onward with movement. the force protection is what i talked about. were you talking in terms of ebola or, yes, other types of force protection? >> including, you know, if someone infected with ebola tried to approach u.s. troops or if there was some other domestic unrest, for both of those really. >> yes, sir. so on the higher end in terms of the force protection piece, i've worked very closely with the governor of liberia and the ambassador. i feel very comfortable with the current r.o.e. that's in place. as the commander on the ground, we have certain authorities to protect american service folks,

soldiers, sailors, airmen, marine and/or united states equipment. and those are in place now, approved by the ambassador, approved by the government of liberia. that's sort of the high end. but as i mentioned earlier, this is a permissive, very permissive environment. liberians like americans, and we're liking liberians. the americans already here told us that. and so this is not afghanistan or iraq. so we have -- depending on where you are in the country of liberia, we have different modulated r.o.e. in terms of that sort of force protection. with respect to the ebola piece, it's discipline. every day in the morning with my breakfast i take a malaria pill. that's my biggest concern. we don't shake hands. i wash my hands a lot, okay? with chlorine. we step on chlorine. we don't shake hands. we keep our distance.

and as i mentioned before, soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are not in contact with folks inflicted with the ebola virus. they just are not and are not going to be besides the folks i mentioned, the u.s. public health services if, god forbid, one of health care workers came in the contact with that. so that's our, that's our force protection for the ebola piece. we feel comfortable. i will tell you when i came in here 30 days ago and i was flying in, i was calling, you know, talking to all my cdc friends and my aid friends and trying to find out exactly the kind of environment that we were going to be operating in. but be you're here, sir, there's vitality here. this country is not hunkered down from this dreadful disease. as i drive around and fly around with the ambassador and others, there's vial here h -- vitality here. folks are getting about their daily lives and are very, very resilient. so i would not say there's no

risk, but there is risk that can be tampered down if you take the appropriate discipline and use the protocols as established by cdc. >> i think that's it for questions, ambassador m ark lay -- malac or ben hemingway or general williams, do you have anything you would like to leave us with? >> no. >> i would just like to say that we appreciate all the assistance that the u.s. military is bringing to our, to the fight here and that we are all together working very, very strongly and very, very well together to support the plan, and we are going to get on top of this. however long it takes, we hope it's going to be faster and sooner than anybody would like, but we think it's going to happen, it will happen. it's just a question of when. >> and i would just like to add to the ambassador's comments that the department of defense -- and there are more than just soldiers, sailors, airmen and marine, there's also civilians over here, i are some

on my staff that are doing a fantastic job. we're motivated, we're part of a greater team, and we're here to fill the gaps as aid identifies for us with the government of liberia. so we're very glad, it's a very noble mission, and we're proud to do it with our teammates here. >> thank you very much. thank you, guys. >> well, we could get more on ebola virus and response from air travel officials. federal aviation administration had michael huerta as the keynote speaker today. life coverage coming up at 1:10 eastern time here on c-span2. his remarks coming as the director of the transportation security administration, john pistole, announced his retirement today effective at the end of the year. homeland security secretary jayh johnson praised pistole in a statement saying because of his efforts in the past four and a

half years, our country's transportation systems are more safe and secure. live right now on capitol hill. despite the congressional break, a house subcommittee is meeting examining u.s. response to ebola. the heads of the cdc and the institutes of allergy and infectious diseases are testifying along with other government and health officials. live coverage taking place right now on c-span including your reaction on social media. the hearing expected to last there's three hours -- at least three hours. well, coming up next, health experts discuss information on the various types of ebola strains, the signs and symptoms, therapeutic and vaccine treatments and how to effectively contain the outbreak in west africa. this was part of a johns hopkins university forum held in baltimore. we'll tell you as much as we can until we hear from the head of the faa. that is scheduled for 1:10

eastern. >> okay. well, good morning, i'm very honored to be participating in this prestigious symposium. i'll say at the outset that as the director of the facility, we are in the business of developing medical countermechanisms, and what keeps me up at night is what happens be one of my lab workers catches his experiment. and we do have medical treatment facilities. the special containment studies unit in bethesda will handle cases of occupational exposures from the fort dietrich campus. cdc, of course, has emory. and about two years ago i convened a symposium with two colleagues, rick davy and lisa hensley, bringing the medical directors of those various facilities together to review medical countermeasures that could be possibly prepositioned in those facilities so they'd be available on short notice.

and it was somewhat disturbing at that time that there were no medical countermeasures that could be prepositioned. and the best we could do was to review the literature and see where things were in the pipeline and to try to get an assessment of what we felt were the most promising things. and this laid the groundwork, actually, for what's been happening recently where there was a meeting several weeks ago at the world health organization where mike corilra rerued the state of the art. -- reviewed the state of art. and i'm drawing heavily for mike's slides here, i thank him for providing them to me. and this makes it go can, huh? there we go. and this is the famous disclaimer, you know? i am an nih employee, but i'm not recommending anything, i'm just reviewing the literature, and these are my opinions and those of my colleagues. and the caveat also that the assessment of efficacy is based almost solely on animal testing data. up until recently, there was no

experience with any of these countermeasures. of course, recently there has been some experience, and i'll get to that in time. when you look at animal models, you know, there are animal models for ebola using mice and guinea pigs and nonhuman primates. primates are regarded as the best disease modelses, but, of course, one has to be close in interpreting these data. and as usually insufficient clinical disease data to assess capability between humans and nonhuman employments. primates. it imagines targeting host cell functions may be impacted by subtle differences among the species. identifying correct dosing, some of the more promising drugs have funny pk in monkeys, and you have to watch out for that. and target effects may differ between humans and nonhuman primates. i won't go into this other than

to say ebola's a fairly simple virus but still has a fairly complicated life cycle, and thrush a number of points for intervention in its interaction with the innate immune system. so the way i'm going to go through this today is i'm going to go through the available vaccines first followed by therapeutics, do within each -- and within each category tell you what we know about human dosing. and in the way we like to present this is to have a virtual product label. and you can see there that, you know, who makes it, description of the product, where is it in development, how us it act. efficacy data in nonhuman primates if available, human safety data if it's available, available product quantities if it's known, manufacturing and capacity, you know, can it be ramped up and, if so, how quickly? and other conversations. can it be used as postexposure or treatment or in combination?

so let's talk about vaccines. first, you're talking about vaccines as general use. this is for pre-exposure in at risk populations and the like. so considerations are the number of doses, can you get away with a single dose, or is a prime boost strategy required? how long does it take to provide protective immune general misty and possibility that the vaccine will only reduce severity although it will increase survival. and then the question, is there a window of opportunity for post-exposure prophylaxis? and is the the dose the same for that strategy, or is it going to be higher than for general use? okay, so the vaccines which are getting some traction right now is one developed at the vaccine research center in conjunction with glaxosmithkline. it's based on the chimp add know

virus three vector with the ebola protein gene inserted along with the sudan gene n. nonhuman primates, immune eyed -- immunized, it's 100% protective, and it is now in face i test -- phase i test anything this country. the vector itself, the chimp add 3 vector has been in over 200 subjects, and the ebola protein vaccine has now been in about 80 subjects in the phase i study which is being conducted, will eventually have 200 people. the company projected 15,000 doses of the monosay lent vaccine to be available in december, and it's at minus 80 degrees and known to be stable for a protracted period of time at -20. the other vaccine which is getting a lot of attention is

based on vsv. same idea, the gliocoe protein of vsv is traded out for the protein of ebola zaire. it was developed about ten years ago, phac, and is now licensed to newlink or bioprotection which is in the process of ramping it up. there is an ind. it is effective as a single dose. general use vaccine, it's known to be protective at 100% within 21 days, and there is some data that suggests it is effective when given can almost immediately, less than an hour, after exposure in nonhuman plaits. primates. it was, actually, the slide is now out of date. it was used several years ago for a lab accident in germany. it has now been subsequently used in some of the patients evacuated to the united states. there are about 1400 doses of it

available now, and as i said, it's being ramped up. other vaccines, there's lots of them out there, but they are, you know, further back in the pipeline. profectus has a v, v platform, bavarian nor dick -- nordic. crucell also has mva addno virus vaccine. the army is developing vlps, and thomas johnson university -- thomas jefferson university has both live and inactivated recomp about the rain byes vector vaccines which actually look very good, and that one is coming up fast. okay, the timelines for chimp ad-3, vrc has already started phase one testing. you can see other tests are scheduled to occur.

15,000 doses for phase two will be available in december, and this is actually a late breaker, that i understand that there is now a three-arm clinical trial develop anything liberia involving 30,000 people, 10,000 people on each arm. one arm gets chimp ad-3, one arm gets vsv, and the third arm gets an unrelated vaccine, probably hepatitis. okay. and there's that. so the target populations for vaccines are, obviously, front line health care workers, contact cases and a ring vaccination, other high risk exposures and potential immediate post-exposure use with a clear case definition. okay, so now we're going to turn to therapeutic considerations, agents with antiviral activity which may either target the virus directly, target a host cell function required for its life cycle or something that

augments host defenses. and then other host-directed therapies will be discussed as well. okay. all the products are still under development. the actual treatment doses and regimens are uncertain at the present time. the mechanism of action may dictate, you know, temporal usage. they may be effective late, not early, we don't know. we've all heard about zmapp, the antibody cocktail, and our medical directors' meeting, a predecessor was selected as the one the medical directors felt most comfortable using because they're comfortable with the idea of passive immunization. it's been used effectively in many other diseases, and the animal efficacy data looked very good. this is actually produced in tobacco plants, at least two of three are, the third is produced at health canada.

the r&d has been used now in seven cases, in seven cases. it has two neutralizing antibodies in the cocktail and one adcc. zmapp is 100% effective when initiated in a trigger to treat protocol in experimentally infected monkeys once they are fib ril and have vie ream ya. this is pretty darn good. there are no controlled human safety data, there is none of it. it's been used. but they're ramping up production. they expect to have 12-20 doses, drop in a bucket, by december. and as i've mentioned, it's now been used several times in patients evacuated to europe. and although all but one of those patients ultimately survived, it's unclear whether the, whether the zmapp had any beneficial effect because nobody has been measuring viremia

before and after infusion, so we just don't know. human convalescent serum, of course, has been used many times in the past. it was used with seven of eight patients in the waning days of that outbreak survived, but it was really impossible to assess, again, whether that had anything to do with their survival. i can tell you an experimentally-infected monkeys when we have survivors and we take their plasma and use it in a passoff immunization scheme, it rarely, if ever, works. and the only time it workses is when you concentrate it and make a highly concentrated, then it works. but, so, you know, again, collecting immune plasma in the field and using it in that environment is fraught with some dangers. and i'm thinking that if zmapp or something like it can be ramped up, that's probably the treatment of choice. that's not a recommendation, that's just my opinion.

[laughter] i don't want to get fired. [laughter] okay. iseri contribution is developing a protocol for plasma collection in west africa. and, again, as i say, it has been used in patients evacuated to the u.s., again, with indeterminate results. other passive immunization schemes, the russians actually produced an igg years ago. it was actually shown to be pretty effective in nonhuman primates in delaying time to death. the primates developed serum sickness, however. so that didn't really go anywhere. there's an outfit in france called fab intech that is interested in making fab2s. this technique has been used commercially for rabies and tetanus, and we're meeting with them to see about immune nicing

probably some horses, perhaps with the rabies vaccine as a source for that antibody. and then another interesting wrinkle on passive immunization is transesomematic cattle. this is being done in conjunction with sapford applied biologics, and those animals, cattle are being immunized thousand and will be available in four to six months. we intend to test all these things in nonhuman primates at the irf. turning to tech mira, this is the sirnas in lipid nanoparticles, the target vp pa 35 and the silences viral genes. it has been shown to be 83% effective when initiated at 48 hours and 67% at 72. there is a phase one single-sending dose study that's been completed. the fda put it on partial hold

because there were some instances of hypertension and -- [inaudible] release. the thought now is that they will release the clinical hold provided the dose is lowered somewhat. and it appears that, you know, within three or four months there will be, you know, modest quantities available as well. other antivirals, a little further back in the pipeline. the surepta product, pmos, 60-80% effective in monkeys when tested an hour post-infection. phase one single-sending dose has been completed and potentially 24 treatment courses could be made available about now. there's been a lot of interest in t705, the japanese government has this in great quantity and has suggested using it. it is licensed for infriewns sa in japan, currently in phase

three for uncomplicated influenza. bottom line, up front, it doesn't work. we've -- i'm aware of studies that were done in which higher doses than the flu dose were tested in monkeys, and once again delayed time to death, but eventually it was still 900% -- 100% fatal. biocryst t -- is a small model, it, again, has shown good efficacy. 100% efficacy against marburg, somewhat lower against ebola. preclinical studies is anticipated in november and potentially 2,000 treatment courses by next year. and then -- [inaudible] made by kaymerics, this is actually, i think it's in the stockpile now for smallpox. and it is a small viral preliminary inhibitor, it has in' toe actsivity against

viruses, it has been many phase three. the same drug for cmv and adno virus is a good safety record. there's potentially 3500 treatment courses available, and it was used in the dallas case, although unsuccessfully. you know, with the caveat that intervention was initiated quite late in that disease course. we intend to test this one in the guinea pig model. ..

so much the better. and i'm going to put up this raw data that just came off over the weekend when we look at azt, so our composite control. you to basically they have no affect. we tested it in human liver cells, same thing. and the primary human mcafee. again same thing. they are off the table. here just shows the pmo's have some efficacy in this test. finally interferons, there are multiple products available. blockade of type one receptors in nhp models accelerate the disease. basically interferon beta, alpha

two have delayed times of death but have never been uniformly effective. expressing extends the window for therapy. it's interesting that some selective modulators, sermons -- syndrome's, they have an impact. 90% survival in a mouse model. early studies in primates indicate there's ocular disturbances in males but we may go back and test this again. and final just a number of other drugs have been identified. you can see them listed there, all of which we will be testing to see if by some chance they actually work. and then, i think i'm running out of time. i am.

so just to say that you have, in any of these things, you have to continue to provide care for the severely ill patients, of cour course. and the reports that suggest the aggressive approaches to clinical care can improve survival rates as we've heard from some of the other speakers. so in summary, there are no approved products but novel products are incapable. they are and limited a visibly. some will be available sooner than others. to our approved products or other indications in the therapeutic benefit. there are multiple vaccines under development that have the potential to have significant impact in the future if this field trial kids off in liberia in december. i think you'll see a change in that epidemic curve we've been looking at. but, of course, it's unknown how well these will perform in people with ebola. so with that i think i will stop, and thank you for your attention.

[applause] >> thank you very much, peter. will mov move on to the last tan our first session. let's introduce joshua epstein, professor at johns hopkins school of medicine interests of the johns hopkins university center for advanced modeling in the social behavior and health sciences. he will talk about ebola modeling for the enemy and long-term. -- intermediate and long-term. >> thank you very much. thank you, president daniels and especially andrew pekosz for organizing this really wonderful event. today i want to talk about ebola modeling for the immediate and long-term. the fact i use the term long-term betrays a certain sobriety about this topic and i'll come back to that.

modeling, the things i want to cover in the talk are reasons to doubt the worst-case estimates that has come out of the cdc. i want to also talk about why i doubt that ebola will fade out completely. i expect pandemic cycles are more plausible. related up like to talk about why the outburst now, why did we see -- >> we will be this event at this point and go live now to the aero club of washington for remarks from faa had michael huerta. just getting underway on c-span2. >> many of you know that today john pistole announced his retirement, that he is stepping down as administrator of the transportation security administration after four and a half years. i know that you will join me in wishing the very best for john. he has probably the toughest job in washington and he has done it with great skill, and he will

survey be missed by all of us in transportation. as you all know, we've had a very busy last few weeks at the faa. the sabotage and the resulting fire at chicago-kent only been described as one word, that is devastating. but it was also something else. it was an event that the way i saw it was marked light a profound sense of teamwork. we have been spent a lot of time together over these last few weeks, and when we visited chicago center to see progress on recover i think one of the things that i was certainly struck by was that you couldn't help it was a manager. you can help u.s. a controller. and you couldn't tell who was a technician. i couldn't tell he was from industry and he was from the faa. in fact, what it look like was

one team. now, this just goes to show what can happen when the faa and the industry work together, come up with a plan, established targets, and then commit to meet them. we did that in chicago. and we need to do that on a much larger scale for the future of the aviation industry. you are all aware that the faa is facing significant challenges, both in maintaining our system, 50,000 operations per day, countless companies all supporting about 12 million american jobs. and at the same time modernizing that system. and this needs to be done, all this needs to take place in the face of an extremely unforgiving budget environment. as an industry we have to

responsibility to pull together as one, like we did in chicago. integrate the kind of airspace system that will serve our needs and provide a very bright future for this country. when we cooperate, look what happens. chicago came back into service three days ago, as promised, and it took just two weeks. and let me tell you why it worked. chicago center controllers travel facilities in other states to keep air traffic moving. they are, after all, the experts and how to move traffic in chicago's airspace. they put that knowledge to work helping their colleagues at the adjacent facilities that it assumes the responsibility for the airspace that would typically be controlled by chicago center. technicians rerouted phone lines to keep communications flowing. at the same time mechanics and electricians rebuild from the

fire, installing two dozen racks of equipment, and connecting more than 10 miles of cable to some 835 distinct circuits. this was an extraordinary team effort, and a very quick turnaround time. and it should be a lesson to all of us about the rewards, the cooperation and the rewards of having a clear mission. regardless of this great work, i do understand that the traveling public was frustrated. they were frustrated with flight delays and frustrated with cancellations. we are currently in the middle of a 30 day review of our contingency plans and our security procedures for all of our major air traffic facilities. and i've asked my team to think as creatively as possible, and to make recommendations for improvements. some have suggested the faa should have been able to restore

full operation in a matter of hours. that our contingency plans have always been about the steps that we take to maintain a safe system. safety overrides every other factor. the plans have never been designed so that someone could handle a full schedule for every airline within minutes or hours of a major catastrophic event. in the long run, however, nextgen does give us the ability to recover from unexpected outages more quickly because it's more flexible system. chicago is a good example of why we all need to come together to make sure we focus on upgrading our nation's airspace infrastructure so that we remain competitive, and that we can make sure that we can withstand the unexpected. now, that same teamwork and collaboration that allowed us to get chicago center up and running nt weeks is a model for what we in industry need to do

more of the. in fact that same level of cooperation is taking place between the faa and industry over the last year as we have defined and focused our priorities for next year. we have worked collaboratively with the industry to the nextgen advisory committee. we listen to what you say, and we actively respond. we are very focused on providing near-term nextgen benefits and have already done so in many parts of the country. we are building on this, and we're sharpening our focus on near-term benefits. tomorrow, we will be delivered a report to congress outlining the near-term priorities that we've all agreed upon, government and industry, and we are committed to delivering them. these priorities fall in four areas. more satellite-based navigation procedures, better use of runways, better situational

awareness at airports, and more streamlined departure clearances through data. let me give a couple of examples of some things we're working on. the first is satellite-based navigation. a lot of good work has been happening in places like seattle and denver, and other cities through collaboration with airlines, airports and other stakeholders. we are fast track a more direct routes in the airspace above other busy metropolitan areas through our metroplex initiative. and already airlines are seeing benefits in fuel savings and in lower carbon emissions. take houston in north texas. in houston alone this amounts to 3 million gallons of fuel savings annually, and millions of dollars in savings for the airlines that operate there. we will be extending these benefits in northern california, to charlotte, atlanta in the next three years in response to

the request that came in from industry. while these procedures make our airspace more efficient, we also want to get the most out of our nation's runways which takes me to the second example. industry has asked loud and clear for improved weight turbulence separation standards at more airports. we heard you and we're increasing the number of airports that have this capability. we're going to reduce separation standards at nine your airports located in five cities over the next year. those cities are houston, metropolitan new york, chicago, san francisco and charlotte. we have already seen the benefits in memphis and in legal over the last two years, and this year we have implement these new standards in cincinnati and in atlanta. at hartsfield jackson international airport we are seeing great results. delta airlines is reporting faster taxi out time, reduced

delays and the partridge you, and less time with her spending in take on airspace. industry and the faa came together to choose these for nextgen priorities and we will deliver on them. we focus our efforts we could achieve the maximum benefits in the shortest amount of time. what about the longer-term? we are also planning into the future for longer-term benefits from airspace modernization through new technologies. again taking the instance in chicago as an example, i'd like to paint picture about nextgen helped us recover from this tragic outage much more quickly and how it will help us even more in the future. the common theme in nextgen is that we're switching on nation's air traffic system from point-to-point communication to networked communication. one facility can communicate with all, and all can communicate with one.

right now each air traffic facility can only see and talk to aircraft within their prescribed area. voice radios and radars are wired directly and exclusively in the facilities that they serve. nextgen's architecture is much more resilient, and it's much more flexible in our legacy point-to-point systems. the voice system is one example. this allows us to transfer duties from one facility to another much more easily if we need to, and that's a whole lot different than changing a lot of hardwiring. the nextgen alternative to radar automatic defendants broadcast is a network of sensors. this allows us to adjust the surveillance pictures that controllers at sea simply by changing network settings. in contrast, radar is point-to-point can potential requires modifying hardwire like

phone lines or routers or modems and switches to change the picture that a controller sees. it's a much less flexible system. nextgen will take the entire airspace and make it much more flexible and much more adaptable. you already seeing the results. during the chicago incident, we reconfigured our new improved automation platform, so that controllers can at jason centers can see far beyond the boundaries of their own center and deeply into the airspace that was controlled by chicago center. it was great to visit kansas city center and see kansas city controllers sit at the screen with chicago sectors displayed with the chicago controller sitting next to him making sure they understood the unique operational characteristics of the airspace. now, we've got a complete

picture by putting it all together in a way where we were taking advantage of the flexibility we have in eram. our old legacy system would not have allowed controllers to see past their own center's airspace. since eram is a network, its architecture is more flexible and it's much more powerful. eram can process information from a much larger base surveillance point as well. 64 different radar versus 24 under the legacy system. and they can follow nearly twice the number of aircraft. so as a result controllers in a jason centers have the ability to see the traffic flying to chicago center's airspace. they're better able to control it, and the proof is that just four days after the shutdown, chicago's o'hare airport was once again the busiest airport handling more operations than any other airport in the country. now, with the voice system, with

the ran, we'll have more flexibility to control our airspace in a much more dynamic way. it means will be able to provide traditional high-efficiency separation of aircraft in the event of an unplanned outage. many of you know that it is one of the foundational elements of nextgen. it's the technology that allows us to move from a radar-based system to a satellite-based system. our nation's air chance petition network has long been a paradigm for safety and for efficiency all around the world. but our role as a world leader is not something we can take for granted. technology is evolving, and we as an industry need to take advantage of the greater efficiencies that are enabled by these new technologies. it's the job of government to lay the groundwork for infrastructure projects that will benefit everyone, and that's just what we have done. this year the faa completed the installation of hundreds of ground transceivers.

in addition the automation system that runs eram is now operating at 16 to 20 inward centers across the nation that control eye altitude traffic. we've come a very long way on eram and very proud we are pushing the across the finish line this spring at the remaining four centers. this is a powerful automation tool that is going to make a huge difference in the efficiency and the safety of our skies. we are also installing a new automation system and kiva social habit by 2016. this is all very significant progress. recent assertions by the department of transportation inspector general that adsb is not fighting benefits today are missing a key point. the network has created the foundation for nextgen enemy additional benefits that will be layered on top of this system.

it's like the foundation of a house. if essential that you build that first. a report by the mitre corporation came out last week showing that we are on the right track with nextgen. we are follow through on a decision that we all made in 2010, all of us together, faa, with help from industry to move our country to a satellite-based system that will provide a greater situational awareness for all airspace users and greater competitiveness for our country. the mitre report looked at the bigger picture and recognize the full benefits of ads-b will be realized once industry equips to use the system that we have built. the deadline for equipment is low more than five years from now. as many of you know, we're holding a call to action on ads-b at the end of this month. we are going to be bringing together industry leaders and

associations identify the barriers that exist in compliance and to talk about solutions. we need to make sure that everyone is prepared to comply with the january 1, ma 202090 because the deadline is not going to change. we need to bring this same level of focus and cooperation as we look at faa reauthorization. we will only realize the full benefits of our airspace system when they haven't aviation industry that is engaged and that is united around our priorities. we have a lot to accomplish to modernize our nation's airspace, but also to maintain the equipment that we use each and every day. our stakeholders would like us to do everything faster, to do it better, and to do it cheaper. and believe me, we are all for that. but the question is, how are we going to do that any constraint and unpredictable fiscal

environment? this industry needs to come together. we need to rally around what is important, just as we all rallied together in chicago to get the job done. this industry needs to fight for the priorities that we all arrive at, and we need to agree on how we're going to pay for it. this process is going to take compromise and setting aside of the many differences that we might have between us. but everyone in this room has a responsibility to support efforts, to secure and airspace system that best serves our entire nation. a good way to accomplish this is through the faa reauthorization that will will all be working on next year. last year we started a conversation about what kind of airspace system we want and how we should pay for it. there's a sense among some in

the industry that it's time for structural reform. that's because the faa is facing two main problems. first, there's been a lack of predictability in our budget to dish -- due to short-term extensions, continuing resolutions, and because of the constraint fiscal climate here in washington. and second we face challenges focusing on core priorities in light of the very diverse interest of all of our stakeholders. it's clear to me that we will not succeed if we don't prioritize. now, there's no shortage of points of view on how to solve these problems and the direction to take. but what i hear our many separate conversations, conversations about air traffic control, or about addressing certification. what we need to have is a conversation across the industry to identify the priorities for

the system as a whole. the danger is that if we only promote certain narrow interests, we could devolve into trading one of our interests off against another, and the industry as a whole will be worse off. if the incident in chicago teaches us anything, it's that when the system shuts down, there are immediate economic consequences. we all know that our national airspace system underpins an industry that adds $1.5 trillion to our national economy. this system is really an ecosystem where each part relies on the other to function well. there can't be a disconnect between industry and government, or between sectors in the industry, if we expect to be successful. all of us should have a very

keen interest in how all of these issues play out. so we need to have an honest conversation about the challenges we face. while you can always debate the exact budgetary needs of an agency, one thing is very clear. there is simply no way that the faa can implement nextgen and recapitalize our aging infrastructure and continue to provide our current level of services without making some serious trade-offs. even with short-term choices there will be significant impacts to our budget into the services that we provide. we need to have the flexibility to make investment choices that further the help of our airspace system, and that make choices simply because they might be politically popular. a year ago it was clear to me that there was a sense of urgency, and that many parts of the industry were willie to

entertain some approaches that they might have ruled out in previous years. the past year has only sharpened my own sense of urgency on this. however, i fear there's a level of complacency that is developing, business as usual might work. it won't. and complacency is a mistake. if we don't come up with a concrete plan, and if we don't do it collectively, i'm afraid we will be signing up for more instability and more uncertainty, which is exactly what we all say we can't stand for. america is truly unique that we have a vibrant and we have a diverse aviation center. commercial carriers, regional carriers, business aviation, recreational fliers, not to mention new users like unmanned aircraft systems and commercial space operators.

we have a strong manufacturing base for aircraft and for avionics. each sector is important, and together they create that 12 million jobs that this industry contributes to our national economy. aviation was born here in america. it started here and it's always been about a pioneer spirit. so many before us have made great contributions in engineering and in avionics, in design and in manufacturing, all of which have gotten us to where we are today. that leaves us with an important responsibility. as leaders in this industry, we need to protect the system, and we need to move it forward. we need to think about the future and how we will modernize our system, if all we are going to do is protect our own

positions and jockey for finished thinking we can somehow go it alone, we are wrong. we all need each other and we need consensus across the entirety of this industry. again, think back to our experience in chicago. in just two weeks a team of dedicated people turned an incredibly bad situation, an act of sabotage completely around. they kept air traffic moving into the world's basest airport doing whatever it took. they did it because they are dedicated. they are proud of our aviation system, and they were able to set aside any differences. and they came together and came up with a plan. our whole industry can do the same. now, coming to some kind of consensus is not easy. in fact, we all know it's very, very hard. at the price of complacency will be much greater. aviation has consistently pioneered innovation in this

country. so let's create an alternative path to the gridlock that is so prevalent here in washington. i look forward to finding a solution with all of you in this room to ensure that we at the faa, and you in industry, or in the position to continue to provide the safest and the most efficient system that we need in the years ahead. none of us should settle for anything less than that. thank you very much. [applause] >> and the administration has agreed to take some questions. >> questions? >> there have been some calls for -- [inaudible]

>> the question was from part from "usa today" picked it up ip and calls for travel bans on flights out of west africa and what could i say about that. first of all this is an extremely important public policy issue and it's led by president obama, and he is all of the right advisors that are advising them on how to deal with what is a very significant public health emergency. ..

>> [inaudible] when it comes to people, what are your plans as far as training and -- [inaudible] >> you know, the question is what are we doing as we talk about what the needs are to develop the next generation of people. we, like a lot of the economy, is going through a significant generational change, and that's both a challenge and an opportunity for us. the challenge is, of course, that a lot of experience goes out the door, a lot of knowledge about how the system is developed, why it's the way it is. and capturing that is extremely important. but the other question is how do you take advantage of what a new generation has to bring to the table. because there are different skills, different mindsets x. the thing that is probably most important is i think we do business very differently in the future than we have in the past.

let me just give you two examples. taking first aviation safety, traditionally that has been a function of insuring compliance with rules. and that has evolved through a lot of good work of a lot of people in this room to a system of how do we share data, how do we evaluate data, and how do we in a shared way use that to promote highest levels of safety? so that's one. the second is as we look to a next jen environment -- gen environment where we have different technology that is providing to us a different view, pilots and controllers having a shared view of what's happening in our national air space system, we go from a traditional system of our traffic control to a system of air traffic management. of how cowe use that

information -- how do we use that information, pilots, controllers and some of these new users that i was talking about all to maintain the highest levels of safety. so what do these two things mean? what these two things mean is that we place a very significant premium on skills of how do we collaborate, how do we share and how do we understand distinct roles, because collaboration yields for us a much better result. we saw it in chicago, that's where we need to go on reauthorization, and that's how this industry is going to accelerate and to evolve in the years ahead. thank you. anyone else? okay. >> okay. michael, thank you very much for taking the time -- [applause] to speak to the aero club. [applause]

this isn't your first time at the rodeo, so we know we give a token of appreciation for taking the time out of your busy schedule, and we replaced the plaque that we normally have with our new token of appreciation which gives our appreciation for you speaking. the mission of the aero club, a replica of the rifle. [laughter] thank you very much. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. >> okay. thank you. hope you can join us next month. our luncheon is on november 18th. we'll be giving out the trophy to chip barkley, and we'll also be bringing in the new board of directors, board of governors, excuse me, for next year, so i hope you can join us. like us on facebook, follow us on twitter and join our

linkedin gro. thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> if you missed any of this conversation about airline safety and security, you just go online, we'll have it up at our c-span video library. that's at c-span.org. and currently underway on our companion network, c-span, underway now a house subcommittee hearing with testimony on the u.s. response to ebola with dr. tom frieden of the centers for disease control and prevention and also dr. anthony fauci, director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases. they're among the witnesses. you can share your thoughts during the hearing at facebook and via twitter, and we'll be taking your phone calls after the hearing. if you can't tune in now, we'll also be showing the hearing again in its entirety tonight at 9 p.m. eastern time over on c-span. also tonight democratic congressman bruce braley and republican state senator joni

ernst is their third and final debate in the u.s. iowa senate race. a poll released yesterday shows ms. ernst leading. 8:00 eastern time on c-span. here are some of the ads voters in iowa have been seeing during this campaign. >> i'm bruce braley, and i approved this message. >> take a closer look at joni ernst. in the state senate, ernst sponsored an amendment to outlaw abortion and would have banned many common forms of birth control. she even wants criminal punishment for doctors who perform an abortion. >> i think the provider should be punished. >> joni ernst, radical ideas, wrong for iowa. >> [inaudible] to fulfill campaign promises. >> joni ernst promises to shut

down the department of education, abolish the epa. that's why extremist sarah palin and the billionaire koch brothers want ernst in washington. >> to fulfill campaign promises. >> joni ernst, too extreme for us. the league of voters is responsible for this advertising. >> i get very upset. >> are you ready to apologize? >> that individual had no college education. i find it ironic that there's this big push to shut down the house gym. do you have any advanced degrees in economics in there's hardly anybody working. i get very upset. you're damn right i -- [inaudible] there's no towels? a farmer from iowa. if you never went to law school -- we're doing our own laundry down there. i get very upset. you don't have a master's or ph.d. in health care policy. one of the most important places i go is to the house gym. have you published any scholarly

treatises in a peer-reviewed journal? a farmer from iowa. you never went to law school. i get very upset. are you ready to apologize? you're damn right i -- [inaudible] i get very upset. >> some of the ads in iowa there. and then last night in kansas republican senator pat roberts and independent greg orrman met in a debate that was held in wichita. here's a portion of their debate. >> how should we deal with the ebola epidemic? senator roberts? roberts: well, again, the ebola epidemic along with isis shows you how we should really secure the border and not be granting amnesty. but i issued a statement just a couple of days ago. why can't we do now what we know we're going to have to do down the road? and that is to have a quarantine on west africa, stop the plane traffic, the air traffic from west africa to the united states. we also ought to get our best

and brightest over to that country just as fast as we can. the world health organization just said that if we do not take action within the next 60 days, we could lose 10,000 people a week. that's a humanitarian disaster. but, again, this all goes back to isis, ebola and the other problems that we see on the border. we must secure the border and secure the national security of our fellow americans. >> moderator: okay. thank you, sir. mr. orman? orman: you know, ebola's obviously a serious issue, and we need to have a serious, coordinated public health response to it that does include sending the best and the brightest over to west africa to deal with that problem. i also believe that we should suspend air travel with west africa for the time being until the crisis is contained. but this goes back to sort of a crisis in leadership. you know, senator roberts has come back and has made some very strong statements about ebola

when he's back in kansas, but it just came out the other day that when he was in washington last month, he skipped a hearing on the ebola virus. and so i think it's inappropriate to talk tough here and yet when you had an opportunity to do something about it, senator, you chose to skip the hearing. and i think that's a real problem for kansas i can't thinks. robert: the hearing was held in september, nothing of substance came of it. we have a crisis of leadership, all right, with regards to this whole situation. i think the administration, more especially the president, again has been two steps behind and asleep at the wheel. we ought to do now, he just said that this was a much -- that he will have a much more aggressive program. we don't know what it is, of course, yet but we're going to have a much more aggressive program. it is the president that i think we have to look to for this kind of leadership, and we're looking for his plan or his strategy. we don't know it yet.

we have to do this, and we have to do it -- >> moderator: sir, your time -- rebuttal. orman: well, again, the crisis in leadership in washington is on both sides of the aisle. and, senator, while you didn't cay tend the hearing on ebola, it's also come out you didn't attend two out of three hearings in the agriculture committee, a committee that you want to lead someday. and so i think that crisis of leadership is a crisis of leadership that you share in too, sir. >> that was from last night in kansas and also last night a debate in florida. in the governor's race there between the incumbent, republican rick scott, and former governor charlie crist who was a republican while in office from 2007-2011, now running as a democrat. this is the second debate between the two candidates. cook and the rothenberg political reports have listed this race as a toes-up, and -- toss-up, and we have the debate courtesy of wsor in miami. this is about an hour. >> decision 2014 before you

vote. a special election year series brought to you by: broward college, providing exceptional programs and resources to prepare students for high demand careers. by leadership florida, putting florida first. and by the florida press association, the trade association for florida's newspapers providing communities across florida with the news and information relevant to their life. with underwriting by: the florida league of cities, the united voice for florida's municipal governments. by the florida association of insurance agents, florida's trusted choice independent insurance agents. by the florida credit union association. credit unions in florida are giving banking a better name. by aarp florida, helping floridians 50+create real possibilities in their lives. and by the claude pepper foundation, dedicated to enhancing the well being of florida's seniors and preserving

american democracy. now, from the beautiful campus of broward college in davy, florida, decision 2014 before you vote presents candidates for the office of governor of florida. and now your host, from wfor-tv cbs 4, elliot rodriguez. >> moderator: and good evening, everybody. we are live from broward college in davy, florida, broadcasting to 11 florida television markets from bailey hall where we are prepared to have the two major party candidates for florida governor square off for the next hour. good evening, everyone. i'm elliot rodriguez, anchor at wfor cbs miami. joining us on the panel tonight are rosemary goodrow, the editorial page editor of the south florida sun sentinel, and frank denton, editor of the

florida times newspaper in jacksonville. we would like to thank and welcome all of you who are watching us, and we'd like to thank our host tonight, broward college, and its president j. david armstrong jr. who is joining us here in the audience along with a group of students. tonight's debate is set to be interactive. we want to hear from you. we have a panel of journalists who will be monitoring all of your questions and comments on facebook and twitter at hashtag flgov debate. on the panel are manny garcia. manny is the executive editor of the nape l daily news, and patricia -- [inaudible] a reporter for the miami herald. also joining us is bob gaborti, executive editor of the tallahassee democrat and jeremy wallace, the political editor of the sarasota herald tribune. and right now we want to take a

shot of the stage here at bailey hall in broward county, and as you can see, two candidates who were invited to take part in this debate right now are not stepping up on the stage. [laughter] ladies and gentlemen, we have an extremely peculiar situation right now. we have governor charlie crist -- [applause] [cheers and applause] >> moderator: governor, florida governor rick scott, our incumbent governor and the republican candidate for governor is also in the building. governor rick scott, we have been told that governor scott will not be participating in this debate. [laughter]

>> moderator: ladies and gentlemen, i am being told that governor scott will not join us for this debate. ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, this is a debate. rosemary goodrow, i don't know, what can we say? >> well -- crist: that's the ultimate pleading of the fifth i've ever heard in my life. [cheers and applause]

wow. it is. i'm sad the people of florida -- >> moderator: governor, we're not -- crist: -- are not going to get to hear about a -- >> moderator: we're not asking a question of governor crist. i'm asking about the situation we find ourself in. >> governor, do the rules of the debate say that there should be no fan? crist: not that i'm aware of. >> so the rules that the scott campaign just showed us that says no electronics -- crist: are we really going to debate about a fan, or are we going to talk about education and the environment and the future of our state? i mean, really. [cheers and applause] there are serious issues facing our state, and it's like funding education appropriately, protecting our environment, making sure we have ethical, honest leadership -- >> moderator: governor -- [cheers and applause] crist: i mean, if he's going to give it to me, i'm going to take

it. >> moderator: this is not, this is not, this is not -- [inaudible conversations] >> moderator: this is not a platform for one came we're -- for one candidate. we're hoping that governor scott will join us on the stage. crist: that'd be great. >> moderator: and i'm told that governor scott will join us on stage. in all fairness to governor scott, i was shown a copy of rules that they showed me that said there would be no fans on the podium. [inaudible conversations] [cheers and applause] crist: very sad. [inaudible conversations] >> moderator: my understanding is that governor scott will be coming out. crist: not in my life. unimagined. >> moderator: frank, have you ever seen anything like this? >> no, i haven't. this is remarkable over sort of a trivial issue no matter which

side you believe you're on. >> moderator: we are placed in the awkward situation of having to decide -- [cheers and applause] >> i don't think it's our role -- [cheers and applause] >> moderator: governor, thank you. ladies and gentlemen, that has to be the most unique beginning to any debate -- [laughter] crist: i don't think we'll forget it. >> moderator: not only in florida, but i think anywhere in the country. let us start, please, let's start with, first of all, the rules. the rules of this debate are one minute for the question to the first candidate, the second candidate will have a minute, and then the first candidate t will have 30 seconds to respond. we want to get a lightning round in here with 20 seconds. let's get right to it, and let's ask the first question which was determined by a coin toss to

governor crist. governor crist, you have spent millions of dollars in this campaign defining your opponent through negative advertising, and in the end the voters are unhappy with their choices. based on social media posts we have monitored, the public is frustrated by the tone and rancor of this campaign. tonight without attacking your opponent, define yourself for the voters and tell them why you deserve to be governor. crist: thank you very much. first, i want to thank you for sponsoring this debate and, governor, it's good to have you with us now. [laughter] i want to start out by saying i grew up in florida. i love this state. i've been here for 55 years growing up in st. petersburg, and i care deeply about public education. i'm a public school kid myself graduating from st. pete high in 1974. i think it's important that we reinvest in education, because we need to. pleasure i also think that it's important that we do what's right for higher education. i'm a graduate of florida state

university, and i know that our higher education institutions, our great universities need to have appropriate investment. and finally, i know that it's important for the future of florida that we get focused on the middle class and job creation. creating jobs that pay well. not just minimum wage, although i think we need to raise the minimum wage, but we need to give an opportunity for people in the middle class to do better for themselves and their children. and it all starts with a great education. >> moderator: thank you, governor crist. [applause] governor scott, same question to you. scott: first, i want to thank everybody at leadership florida for the opportunity to be here. i want to thank my wife who's been with me since i was 19. we've been married 42 years, and we are blessed with two wonderful daughters, three grandsons who, hopefully, are -- my almost 3-year-old is able to see tonight, he got poked in the eye today a school. but why should they elect me as governor again? i grew up in a family that struggled. you saw the ads in 2010, it's embarrassing my mom called me a

good boy, but she was a wonderful mom. she was willing to divorce a husband that was abusive which gave me a shot. if she had not divorced that man, i don't know what my life would have been like. she remarried, five kids. they struggled to put food on the table. we lived in public housing, but she told me, rick, if you'll go to church a lot, if you'll study hard and make straight answerers,if you'll be an eagle scout, then you have a shot at the american dream. i ran in 2010 because i believe in the dream. i've lived that dream. >> moderator: thank you, governor scott. your rebuttal? crist: i think it's important we reinvest in education, we talked about that earlier. and unfortunately, rick scott cut education by clash 1.3 -- $1.3 billion. you can't do that and expect our children to get a good, solid education and have an opportunity to good employment and a great career. so i think we have to focus on that, in my view, and we also have to focus on our

universities, as i stated before. again, unfortunately, rick scott took $300 million away from our universities. >> moderator: thank you, governor. next question to governor scott. >> governor scott, you claimed florida lost 825,000 jobs because of charlie crist. can you tell us what governor crist specifically did to cause those job losses? scott: sure. actually, it was 832,000 jobs that were lost between 2006 when charlie got elected and jeb bush left him with a great economy, and by time he left office, unemployment went from 3.5 to 11.3%, the second highest increase in unemployment in the country. here's what he didn't do and here's what he did. step one, he raised taxes on citizens by $2.2 billion. $2.2 billion. you should never raise taxes, especially after he said he wouldn't, but in a recession where people can't afford it? he said if you have a child that's going to go to university, it's going to cost you more money. hehe wasn't willing to call on

companies. i talk to companies all the time. charlie wouldn't call on them. he raised regulation. if you think about building a business, i want to build those businesses to be in florida. lower taxes, less regulations, streamline the permitting process, that's why we lost 832,000 jobs when charlie was governor. >> governor crist? crist: the people of florida know that i didn't cause the global economic meltdown. [laughter] any more than -- [applause] thank you. any more than rick scott caused the national economic recovery. people are smarter than that. they understand, and they understood that we were serving in a difficult time, and we had to make tough choices, and it wasn't easy, but we got florida i through. one of ways we got florida through was to work in a bipartisan way, to work with people across the aisle, to take the recovery money that helped us make sure we didn't have to

fire 20,000 schoolteachers. that is something that rick scott was an absolute mistake. what would he do if we have a double dip and something goes wrong with the economy again? >> moderator: thank you. crist: because of politics not seek help? scott: charlie's campaign slogan should be powerless for the jobless. he couldn't do anything. he wanted the job as governor, but he didn't want to call on companies, he didn't want to do the tough thing, he didn't want to cut regulation. he didn't want to do the job. he spent all his time trying to be vice president and then running against marco rubio for the senate. he lost, 3,000 teachers lost their job while charlie was governor. 832,000 people lost their job. >> moderator: thank you, governor scott. [applause] frank? >> governor crist, you support, as you said, you support raising the minimum wage, and i think you've said you'd raise it to $10.10. the other side of that is is points out that there are many

small businesses that are struggling to keep the doors open, keep operating. why should government tell them what they should pay their employees? crist: i think it's important to raise the minimum wage because it's very hard for people to get by on what the minimum wage is today in florida. $7.93 is not enough to make ends meet. raising et -- can it to $10.10 would be a 27% increase in income for hundreds of thousands of floridians. what a difference that would make in the economy. more money they would have in their pocket to be able to go to mom and pop small businesses around the state, have the opportunity to in turn help those businesses do better and pay their employees more. you know, things aren't great in florida right now. i've recently been on a kitchen table tour talking to real people, and they are challenged. some of them have to work two and three jobs to make ends meet. that's not right. florida can do better than that, and we deserve better than that. you deserve to have a governor who will fight for you, fight more raising the minimum wage,

fight for equal pay for women. rick scott is against both. it's unfortunate, but we can fix it, and i look forward to it. [applause] >> moderator: governor scott. scott: so charlie is a lot of talk, but charlie's not a lot of action. he had the opportunity. he voted against minimum wage when he was in the senate. he didn't think it was the right thing to do, so he voted against it. but, you know, here's the problem, i want jobs. charlie lost 832,000 jobs, and he wants to lose more? the cbo says 500,000 jobs will be lost if charlie gets his minimum wage increase. i don't want any of those individuals to lose their job. i know what it's like. i had parents that didn't have a job. i had parents that watched their home almost be repossessed, their or car being taken. he doesn't know what it's like to be like that. charlie is a zero-wage governor. 832,000 people went from wages to zero wages when charlie was

governor. >> moderator: governor crist, do you have a rebuttal? crist: rick, there you go again trying to blame the global economic meltdown on me. it is unbelievable that he would continue to say that. but he says it. and he also says that he created all these new jobs all by himself. you just can't rick, and it's -- trust rick, and it's sad, it's unfortunate. you know, he has spent so much money on television advertisements, the media themselves have said they're the most negative ads that have ever been aired in florida and the most dishonest. and he's continuing that dishonesty today. when he tells you that i lost a bunch -- >> moderator: governor, thank you. right now we want to hear from the voters. this debate is connected through social media, through our social media panel. so let's find out what the voters are saying through social media. let's go to to manny garcia of the naples daily news. and, manny, what's trending on

social media right now? and we need you to ask a question of governor scott. >> well, the fan -- [laughter] no, actually, one of the things trending is, elliott, you started it off, but really i don't think the candidates answered it, so for governor scott, one of the things that continuously comes up is that between you and special interest groups -- and i think it also applies to governor crist -- but tens of millions of dollars has been spent, what really amounts to a scorched earth campaign between you two. so the question is why should folks, why should you be reelected when the campaign is so dirty? scott: when i talk to voters, they tell me they care about three things. and it's very similar to my family growing up. step one, they want a job. they want a job, they want a jock. they want a governor who says i'm going to get up every day, i'm not going to be running for vice president or u.s. senator, i'm going to et up every day and say how can i get more jobs?

how can i get lockheed martin to move me jobs here, how can i get northrop grumman to move more job here? who's going to travel to make sure i get more jobs? number two, it's like my mom. she said, rick, get a good education. education funding was cut when charlie was governor. when he left, both per-student and overall k-12 education was less than it was when he started. so, and third, they want to live in a safe environment. so what i work at every day, jobs. better education system. make sure you can live in a safe neighborhood. >> moderator: governor crist, do you want to address the nastiness of this campaign and the negative ads? people are just turned off by them. crist: yeah. well, of course they are, so am i. i've had about $50 million dollars of negative ads thrown on me, do you think i'm not tired of it? [laughter] ..