over but it might be that we see whether at the end of his term or whatever i would i would not say necessarily a coup, but there might be the same ruling party making arrangements to change leadership but i am not involved in any way, shape or form. and i probably would know if someone was. as far as the air force the use of force -- u.s. air force pilot this would be a question for the state department. i believe it was a us pilot. remember they come out of venezuela. a lot of people in cahoots with this whole thing. could not possibly operate. operate. those flights are making their way up the island chain. dominican republic. they were going almost

exclusively into honduras from, dead strips or bits of that land, offload and then take off again or just destroy the airplane. the hondurans with no military help from us some advice and encouragement and started to occupy and move their military command these are very remote areas of honduras moving their military out there. drug traffickers no that they are there. >> a a civilian. >> a us pilot, and chances i am guessing he was on his way -- i don't know what he was doing. but all of the drug flights come out of venezuela. >> you alluded you said that

the policies are a clear return to cold war tactics. how could that translate into account plantation. bomber patrols if in fact they happened. confrontation could escalate not in the midst of an october type of scale another jfk idealist, but on the lower level. >> i don't think much of all. i think just a nuisance. we watch them come and go. very little possibility of them having a confrontation with us ships and airplanes because there aren't any down there. i did not mean it to come up with the way. last year we saw for the

1st time since 2,008 the three ship task force to crews are destroyed type ships and the military logistics shift come to the caribbean. they went to cuba once or twice, nicaragua then they went back on derusha. we had we had a long-range bomber mission come down and spent a few days there. hopped around a little bit violated airspace a couple of times, and the went home. you. you know there is reportedly nicaragua and a few of the other countries that entered into discussions of agreements with the russians so that they could maybe land long-range aviation, refuel pilot rest but i don't think it is an issue. >> ratchet up pressure in the ukraine, arming the ukrainian military are you

concerned that russia in a a tit-for-tat will become more of a nuisance in your part of the world? >> i think so more of a nuisance not a threat. one over the last few years, but none since 2,008 or something. the ratchet up with a few more missions that get people's attention. maybe -- ship operations, that kind of thing. making making the.that they are still around and can come into our hemisphere. very little support from the vast majorities of countries that want to support us trade with us. nuisance would be the word i would use. >> hello and thank you. i had a follow-up.

now that you have identified a potential weakness what are you recommending as the solution? more funding to countries to help them track people where they know that they arrest prisoners. the suggesting more sharing with these countries that you identified. what is a what is the solution to stop the islamic state from using the loophole. the way they interact with their counterparts in various countries. a willingness for all the countries to cooperate with the united states and other nations. so i think you have to watch them. the cia and fbi and people

like that do a good job tracking the network, but there are a lot of people coming and going, and it only takes one to cause problems. for me i continue to agree to partner with countries that want to partner with the united states, which is most of them. my intelligence officer has great relationships with all of there intelligence officers. my operations officer navy component commander he has very close relations with all of their naval see in those. we have very very, very good friendships. that is the solution, i think, the cooperation. >> the 2nd to last

question. >> the united states the exercises going on right now in south korea. maybe the sensors. >> absolutely nothing about that. i do know that the ships and vessels that are produced in south korea are considered to be high quality and some american countries. you know that we have done

flyovers. one of the things that have come out of that is they refuse to communicate in any way. make any attempt to communicate with these aircraft were ships? >> not son command. that would be a better question for norad folks. once they enter the area of operations that i am responsible for and they did not do anything hazardous. the only in and out was from one country of little concern. they just may have been off course of it. and it really just be one more question. >> my question is about one of the units the defense studies, the national defense study.

they publish findings. from columbia. one is now teaching at national defense university. i am wondering if you have insights. >> it does not work for me. i wish it did. but i heard about the chilean. i don't know what the colombian and the professors. i am heavily involved in human rights. i meet with human rights groups in washington every three to four months, a large group at the kerry center.

sometimes they asked me about specific cases. someone else high up and honduras and give me situational awareness. it is it is a good dialogue. when i travel to various countries, just about every time i go down there to any countryw will have a discussion for a couple of hours with local human rights groups. i never know what i we will get, but they all have specialties. two people that were very involved coming off guard. it's a big deal the human rights in general. good questions about it. the 1st time conversation with people that were experts in that field. field. women's rights, another couple of representatives. colombians.

i did not know this until i got this job, but probably 30% 30 percent of the colombians are of african descent. a two-hour conversation getting an awful lot of situational awareness. what what is interesting is when i get out of these are talking generally about these violation all rights in the society or the government doing something. in the columbia case it is never about the government doing it the more societal attitudes and how it has take -- it will take time to change these things. it is very telling. you have to get the president to stop his people from doing x, y and z. the other thing human rights complaints tend to be about way in the past or the

future. i mean serious civil rights abuses and have been for most of there existence, the good news is the colombian government has human rights issues in the past and their working hours investigating them. guatemala. generally speaking,. generally speaking, pretty high marks about how things are going today. the underlines taken off the bad boy end of the thing i i don't know if that answers your question. i am sure ost knows this other gentleman is working that has the allegations against him from columbia. this is known. >> publicly available. >> they are the boss. if you say it is widely

known, it's known, it's probably some process they are going through. thank you for the question. okay. thanks, everyone. net's

standards. this is just over two hours.

live from capital hill: >> this hearing will come to order. in 2012 congress stbestablished first net for america's first responders. today's hearing will examine the challenges and the problems they are facing as they move forward with building a platform for the

country's emergency personal. the spectrum act has been enacted and we are on the way of releasing our draft for proposals but we are a long way away from having a public safety network. there are many things that can go wrong unless decisions are good made. the rfp gives us a sense of whether a network can be build in a cost effective way that secures future generations. they must work to make themselves a self-funding entity. we are con fronted with many pressing and unanswered questions due the complexity of

establishing a system. stakeholders have questions about what first net means for them. there are concerns about how much network access cost local police and fire departments dealing with constrained budget. and it is competitive and many wonder if is going to be better than what first responders currently use. feminist first net is aware of these issues. last year, we will hear from mr. gold goldstein about the problems they find and hopefully we will take the views to build the network. i also ask first net to implement a detailed plan building upon the valuable

lessons learned from the earlier projects. without a plan first net might not take advantage of the sizable investment that has been made. in the inspector general released a report that raises the ethics and concerns and practice. i look forward to what he have learn and if the i g's finding have been addressed. the department of commerce is at a crucial stage and should ask if they are being the best partner and facilitating a safety network that will make us all secure. being an independent authority there is risk and first net was asked if they are on the path becoming like the obamacare website that failed during the rollout.

the challenge of setting up this network is many times grater. i encourage to department to learn from the many mistakes of the health care website. first net has many answers they need answered to be successful. to which degree will the first responders wish to join a network? what is the value? who exactly will be permitted to use the public safety network? as this committee proceeds with oversight of first net i will focus on if a high quality and useful network can be offered to first responders in rural america. they will be a failure if they leave populations uncovered. we have an experienced and knowledgeable panel today and i expect the testimony will provide insight with the issues i have raised. i will yield to the senator from florida.

senator nelson. >> i know the committee members would like to hear my tones but i would prefer to hear the witnesses so i will enter my remark for the record. >> very good. we will get underway. i want to start by introducing our panel today. first we have bruce andrews who is deputy secretary at the department of commerce and brian is next and he is the fire chief of the oklahoma city department. and mark goldstein who serves at the government account lit office. susan swinson who serves as the chair woman of the first responder network authority also known as first net. and mr. todd zinser who is inspector general to the department of commerce. we will start on my left and

your right with mr. andrews. if you can keep the comments con confined to five minutes. >> good morning chairman ranking member nelson and member of the committee. thank you for having me testify. i worked on the staff of this committee when senator rock feller and hutchinson conceived of safe net and this mission erose in the wake of the 9/11 attacks when the work of the first responder was impaired by the problem with communication. we are proud of ow role helping to stand up and support this program. this is a difficult mission but we are confidant first net is making strong progress toward meeting its goals. a nationwide first responder network will enhance safety public communications across agencies and jurisdictions.

first net is an independent authority within the national tell communication and information administration to develop and maintain this network. this is one of the most significant initiatives and it is challenging the self sustaining world class network within the government. that has challenges suffice to say. the department supports and oversees first net. senior leadership from the department, nti and first net meet on a regular bases to discuss the status milestones and potential risks. now it is maturing it depends less on our staff in day to day activities but we continue to offer support and guidance to first net and its strategic

development. secretary zinsor and are i committed to this. we developed a strategic road map in the cost model and val dated by outside experts. we provide legal, human resources and administrative support to first net where they don't have tlar own resources or direct authority. in doing so we seek to streamline and expedite federal policies. we work on statutory compliance internal controls and annual audits. ncia ad ministers the state grant program as well. in december, the department's inspector general issued an audit report regarding the management of concern reports and monitoring of certain contracts. we appreciate the attorney

general general's effort and took the matters seriously and conquered with the recommendations and took a number of step do is address them. it is important to emphasis the report focused on the early operations and highlight the department's full effort on these matters. first net needs public and private sector board members with deep technical experience in wireless broadband communication. to get such board members it was likely they would retain interest and affilations with the industry thus creating a need to consider potential conflicts of interest. the department anticipated this through a robust program that worked to counsel people regarding their employment and financial interest. some administrative requirements may not have been filled board members made the necessary disclosures. the inspector general's report

didn't show violations ofb conflict of interest laws or decision making. it is important to note the first net contracts resulted in valuable work product that is critical to the rapid establishment of this organization and to your point about getting this out as quickly as we can. administrative errors were made and the department took them seriously. for example, we are implementing review of financial disclosure reports and increasing potential conflict review and working to ensure that employees receive appropriate ethics training. first net has grown significantly and it is in a stronger position to exercise their own governance oversight, provide clear direction and structure for the organization. i think it is important we emphasis appreciation to the private sector board members because they are making

significant sacrifices in an important goal and trying to do it the right way. first net is achieving its mile stones relate today state and public comment. it is fully funded due to the proceeds from the fcc's resent auction. we understand some deadlines have not and will not be met. none of that underlines the word being made by this terrific team. creating a public safety wireless network is a major undertaking. we take our responsibility tr the project seriously and we will continue to help ensure that first net succeeds.

as you can see first net is making strong progress toward their goals. i appreciates your time and welcome the questions. >> chief brian? >> i would like to thank the board for allowing me to come talk about the progress made by the first responder network authority or first net. anita haidaryfirst net's goal is a matter of critical importance for public safety. the task will not be easy, the

ifc believes they are developing what is needed from stake holders to make this network a reality. as a fire chief and firefighter who responded to natural disasters and major acts of terrorism i know first hand the benefits of the first net will offer in terms of improving coordination and response during these situations. first net devices and applications will ultimately change the way local fire and emergency medical departments operate. the first net network will make it possible to gain access to tools that provide location data and other vital information for

fire fire fighting. it will enable real time data exchange to assist commanders with operation al decision playing making. the first net will make profound changes in how emergency service is pract practiced. the first net network will facilitate critical decision making in real time and help save lives. under emergency conditions the networks become overwhelmed and we experienced this in oklahoma city 20 years ago. the full