national security cutter, program of record was a. but there was funding to go ahead and build a ninth one of these as well. is there work for nine national security cutters, absolutely. in fact, this absolutely. in fact, this last year two of our national security cutters, stratton came back a little less than one year ago with 32 metric tons of cocaine on it. that is enough to literally kill this room to the city going with her cocaine. the other one did not do quite as well, they fill this room about three quarters the way to the ceiling, but they interdicted three self-propelled semisubmersible's which the only way you finally sister intelligence. that's where this government comes into play and it's the ability of these

platforms to leverage intelligence of that we can position those for the greatest threats may exist as well. we are building those out as well, at the end of this fiscal year we will award final design for what will be the largest acquisition and coast guard history in that is our offshore patrol cutter. you can see the three bidders that we have out there, we have a shipyard, eastern shipbuilding and then we also have klein works fine for that and will make that decision by the end of the fiscal year. 25 ships in that program of record, which as, which as i said will be the largest acquisition and in coast guard history. a great dynamic ship c keeping capabilities as we look at where we might be operating over the next 40 plus years with an emphasis on affordability. affordability becomes the operative word for this program of record. and finally on the upper left what you see is there is a posturing statement within this administration and within the senate appropriations bill going forward that would look at investing in heavy icebreakers.

this has been a dialogue dialogue with had last 15 years, we've already put outs over formants ago what you need a heavy icebreaker to do. so we consulted with navy, the national science foundation, the department of interior, the department of interior, the department of commerce, there were a lot of stakeholders, if you're going to build a heavy icebreaker doesn't meet the needs of the whole of government. so we have already begun that to diligence including the operational requirements i commit that has been submitted to omd as well. we've already hired acquisition staff personnel so we can get a jumpstart jumpstart if we have an appropriation to move forward on that we held an open house with industry. we held 12 years ago when there is $3 million in our heavy icebreaker budget a guess what, i have three, three people who expressed an interest in heavy icebreakers. they said if you are serious you would be showing real money. now it has to that

there is a mark of $150 million at that point in time for 17 we had nearly 300 interested parties including international in terms of heavy icebreakers. so tremendous interest in that recapitalization effort as well. it's great that we are recapitalizing the coast guard and modernizing it as never before. as many services will probably testify to budget hearing. you can usually do on the three things, you can modernize, you can build and restore readiness, or you can build for structure. but rarely do you get to do all three at the same time. we are modernizing. our readiness, we do not have a forcing garrison so the fact that the coast guard operates 24/7 i do not have to worry about forcing garrison get them ready to deploy because they are already deployed. so i readiness levels have been sustained at a

pretty high level. we are gradually growing back some first structure as well. that takes me to the final strategy in the most part when i put out as the human capital strategy. how do talent in the 21st century? before i did this i spent time on silicone valley, how does google, how to's test look, tesla, how does microsoft, how do they manage their talent? of course they said we love to hire veterans, and i said no you don't need to hire my workforce way for me, thank you but no thanks. but right now about 25% of americans, male, female between the ages of 17 - 24 meet the bare minimal requirements to serve in the united states military. we are service going for that top 10% not the bottom ten percent. i'm sure bottom 10%. i'm sure all of my service chief counterparts with say the exact same thing. that's who silicon silicon valley is going after as well. at a point time when were seen in the energy sector, the cyber domain, even in the airline

industry, there is a hiring boom taking place around us right now, so we are doing a great job recruiting people, were doing a great job recruiting diversity. the class of 2020 will arrive at our coast guard academy in two weeks. that class will be 40% women and one third on the under representative, they will mere the class of 19 and 18 and affect our coast guard academy today is the most diverse it is ever been across every spectrum of our demographic than it has ever been in our coast guard history. i'm very proud of that. build it, they will come, we need that critical mass and they were there. then i look out ten look out ten years and when i look out ten years we lose roughly 50% of our female officers out of a given year and why is that? were losing losing about 50% of our under representative minority representatives in a group and why's that? can he be married, have, have a family, have those

challenging positions and do it all and still survive nation? we where nearly 50% of the women in our service are married to other servicemembers, not just coast guard, so how do you manage that dual career track. so were very interested in what is happening across the river and at the pentagon and looking at future force of the 21st-century. so we are very engaged and that as well. but we are very specialized coast guard, we are no longer coast guard, we are no longer the jack of all trades, master of some, if you saw the movie the finest starter hours with bernie weber still going out even those compass has been washed up but we probably would have something besides that boat today but that is a skill set operating in those breaking bars and we have people who do it better than anybody else. so we need to start specializing within some of our specialties across the coast guard. cyber is a specialty. inspection regime is a specialty.

diving, hazmat response, that's a specialty. so acquisition, legal profession, you need all of these to make this coast guard machine tick and too many times that members of or more junior members of feel like they are in the less favored community within the coast guard. it does not matter if you drive a ship, fix the ship, or provide intelligence to a ship, or provide isr for shipper prosecute a case that was made by ship, you need by ship, you need all of that and you need it altogether. so it is a table with many legs and so we need to specialize across our domain, cross the many specialties that we quite honestly have been somewhat of a jack of all trades but certainly not a master of the critical few that we we need to master into the 21st century. again, cannot be more pleased with the talent but i see coming into the coast guard. eyes at a recruiting office at a recruiting office in boston and i gave to ocs folks and officers

dreading the coast guard and i was at the graduation a week and half ago when instead of putting stars on the shoulder boards i put it coast guard shield and i thanked the cnl and i said thank you for your service, welcome to the team. now this now this really threw me for a shock. i was at the space convention three weeks ago and we had a static display there and one of our e3's and one was dressed in the work uniform demonstrating one of our small boat, she was assigned to a station in washington here on the potomac river and i asked what did you do before you came in the coast guard, and what did you do, she said well i attended the air force academy, went to julie? well i left after i graduated five years and then i picked up my masters degree and i resigned

my commission as a captain of the air force i could be an e3 in the united states coast guard because i want to be a rescue swimmer. so when we talk about talent in your service, don't judge anybody by how much stuff they have, how, how many ribbons, how many stripes, whatever, just engage in a conversation and you will be amazed at the talent that is in our midst. so what am i doing to train, retain, that talent and that is really the essence of where we need to be focused on going forward. that is the scene center. i know we have open time for open mic your question and answer and there are some folks that are going to stump me out there. i can tell. i like it to open it up to any questions or comments that you might have. i like to thank csi s for allowing me to be here this morning. thank you so much. [applause]. thank you. for small we'll chat a little little bit and then open it up. i'm really pleased that you ended there on the human p's

because i was really struck going through the charts before handing a conversation about just the incredible amount about continuity and change that the coast guard is experiencing and then to end up on the people piece of it, the kind of workforce you need to deal with that, i wonder if you can speak for my mission perspective. you type everything from the arctic and will talk about several of these, trafficking, trafficking, fishery, general regulation law enforcement, security, and about the need to be operating with international partners, industry partners, interservice partners, that to me speaks to a wealth of agility that you require out of your workforce. can you talk about how you grow those leadership skills and

whether it's the same as it has always been or is it something that is shifting and how you approach that? >> one, we have tremendous talent out there. they're much better informed and gone are the days where you on the information. i think back to when i was captain of the ships and you get the message board and there's a select few people that sign off on that. i doubt we do that anymore because pre-much everyone on the ship knows what is happening around the world with them today. but i will give you an example. i was actually in memphis tennessee not that long ago and we have a inland is called the coast guard cutter kankakee. they maintain the navigation on the lower mississippi river and i asked the junior most person, she is a semen on the ship and she's been with the coast guard all but six months. now you don't know what they do on an inland river tender, we have fixed aid on the banks of the mississippi river, vegetation grows over them so if you're pushing a barge and you cannot

see there's a possibility you may run aground. so they push their barge in and they go out there with chainsaws and weed backers, they stir up fire interests, their snakes underneath the piling, and it's not what you think you joined the coast guard to do but she's been in the coast guard all of six months and i said well what you do in the coast guard and she says i facilitate the movement of over half 1,000,000,000,000 dollars of commerce so it can get down to the mississippi river. she doesn't talk about the bee sting, the fire ants, the snakes, she talks about what her mission is in a much grander scale. so i think if you talk to anyone scale. so i think if you talk to anyone of our folks out there, they connect themselves to something much bigger than themselves. if you look at the nasa model was back in the sixties, that seaman is no different than the janitor at nasa of what are you doing here. i'm putting a man on the moon. so they connect to a much bigger piece and you'll find that pretty much wherever you go in our service but i think as we have so much more information that's readily available for

people as well. >> you also touched on resources, the resource picture for the coast guard looks may be better than normal, i don't want to overstate it, sure you would like more, but you make comments in the past using the job line about you needed a bigger boat, saying we need a bigger coast guard, how do you feel about the resource picture now that the fy 17 budget request is in? you mention several of the new major investment strings underway. the growth of the structure and the readiness picture. what most challenges you at this point and executing all of that? >> i am immensely pleased with our acquisition budget. on the other side we have our operations in maine is, what our operations and maintenance, would cost to do operations and people from under that funding portfolio as well. were not keeping pace. in fact were fact were not even keeping pace with budget control funding levels. where funded below that level to

sustainer operation so it's great that we're modernizing, the sustaining piece is still a bit of a challenge for me. that's work that i need to do in demonstrating how critical that is because let's face it, i've been to enough commissioning ceremonies now more than i have decommissioning ceremonies, that's a good thing, more births than funerals. it's a great gal event. but that's where the real platform kicks in because now you the next 40 years, it's not on wanting so i need to operate and maintain it for the next 40 years to improve the crew, the fuel you burn in the main as that goes with all of that as well. so that's really good to be the next piece. so when you talk about jaws you can a needed bigger boat and a bigger coast guard. sedo back to 1988 and in almost every presidential election cycle since 1988 there has been a rather significant hurricane, we'll call it the perfect storms. in the height of a

presidential presidential election cycle you now have a storm and let's face it it will invite scrutiny over how that response goes. no will have a hurricane and nothing else, i, i know the coast guard is ready for that. we just finished up an exercise last week in the pacific northwest called the cascadia rising. the cascadia subduction zone and with that you don't get that notice that you're gonna have a traveler, you can have a synonymy and and you can have tens of thousands of fatalities that impact critical infrastructure, but a five to two events at the same time then as i would say i'm out, and that's the challenge that we are currently resource for relatively benign operating environment, but whether but whether you look at overseas threats and the natural disasters exasperating that as well, were gonna need a bigger

coast guard going forward. >> you mentioned today in regard to the european migration crisis, i, i think the united states has pledged or said it would attempt to assist and provide a particular to provide a vessel to assist, does that impact you directly, you talk about the trade-off, how does that really manifest in terms of what the trade-off looks like. >> i'm please we've had a dialogue in fact it was now a confirmed in wearing a four star, he's in over ten in the coast guard to be the coast guard with greece and turkey, looking at their challenges and where there might be u.s. coast guard equities. so we have those dialogues and there's no immediate request for us to disband our coast guard presence here and send those ships to the mediterranean, but we do bring a lot of subject matter expert in that its mass migration. so we've had those dialogues and we'll see will see if they actually manifest themselves into a request for u.s. coast guard augmentation because it's very vexing and

quite honestly it's going to be a persistent problem as we now see sub sahara arguably migrants maybe not refugees that are now entering into this vesper that is flooding the european continent. >> and just to be clear, if you had to rush right away of their work request from the president to support a migration crisis with for instance one of your cutters, what would be the operational impact for you in the immediate? >> unfortunately i don't have a ghostly that is tied up somewhere ready to be activated to support a contingency like this which would mean we would have to pull a resource away from doing frontline operations today and put that operation element at risk. we have a significant migration flow coming up from primarily from cuba but also from haiti as well. i was just two weeks ago we came across a rustic with 11 cuban

migrants on it. right as we arrived all 11 of them drink a bottle of bleach. bleach. they passed it around among themselves. and suffering very ill effects we were able to stabilize them but that's the act of desperation that these migrants were expected to be medevac to u.s. hospital and therefore be feet dry. so they realize that the coast guard is there to stop them and will take these acts of desperation just to gain access to the united states. but if the coast guard is not there in the numbers that we are today than it is a free pass. i think we need to be ready so we do reposition the coast guard that we need to be able to answer what are we doing to protect our maritime boundaries as well. sweat the end of the day, we can to both. >> let mass one more question and then open it to the audience. tell me a little bit about how you see the arctic environment

evolving in terms of the actors and what their motivations might be and how the coast guard plays into that? >> my initial concern for the arctic is really the indigenous inhabitants of the arctic. i was up there last summer and the week before i arrived they had what we call a category one hurricane. normally there would be a sea ice barrier that would prevent any buildup of season any coastal erosion while the nearest ice was nearly 400 miles away. see can. so you can imagine that you have 18, 20-foot comber's washing in on beryl alaska in the middle of a storm they're out there with earthmoving equipment moving equipment trying to establish a berm made out of soap so you don't have seawater inundating their only source of fresh water. they came and probably within twice the length of this room of losing their only source of fresh water. you're seeing that across the northern latitudes where we have these indigenous inhabitants and

their seen their way of life change. these are nations onto themselves. so how do we reestablish those nations? i always look at the arctic as the canary in the coal mine for rising ocean temperatures and its impact. just to demonstrate that further i will take a delegation to greenland in august, will will head out to the largest glacier on greenland, the glacier which is moving at the rate of about e atlantic ocean. now i cannot fathom why it's doing that, but i concertedly observe what is happening and if you are to look at a complete meltdown of the ice fields of greenland, you're talking about a 21-foot rise in sea level. it's likely to happen overnight, but if that does happen, what are we doing to prepare for a rise in sea level? we just rebuilt station sandy hook following hurricane sandy. we probably built it on shifting

sand with the expectation that it will still be there and functioning 100 years from from now so i start looking long-term of my coastal infrastructure and where i'm going to invest coast guard, i better be be keeping climate change, rising sea level, very much at the forefront as well. so the arctic is where a lot of this is taken place. but the first people to witness this are the indigenous inhabitants. >> let me open it up to the audience and see if we could take some questions. the microphone is coming, please identify yourself and your affiliation if you have one. >> i and megan myers, the coast guard reporter at anytime. i wanted to ask what are some of your egg's personnel wins over the last couple of years and what you have on the docket for the next couple? >> personnel? i'm very pleased with our leadership program that we have for all of our list of personnel and i give great credit to our chief petty officer of the coast guard so we

have been the most junior level to most senior level in our listed workforce a leadership continuum going all the way up to e9 in the coast guard. we are still catching up in that regard when it comes to our officer leadership development programs and there is just a question of capacity. the area i am immensely pleased with is that we have a diversity inclusion strategic plan as well. so we are finally catching up to reflect the demographics of this nation within our workforce in the coast guard. i've taken a personal effort, i've been out this last year to seven minority serving institutions, when i go there i there i don't go by myself. someone doesn't want to see some old guy like me, not why what i

want to join the coast guard. so i bring in a very diverse delegation with me. we meet with the president of the universities with the faculty but then we also meet with the students. they get to see a diverse coast guard and the opportunities that are available to them so it has been a great return recruiting tool for us as well. to the point where as i've said before, if i was trying to get into the night states united states coast guard today which is still a complete meritocracy i would be standing outside that wall watching the corps of cadets parade on that field, but i'd be okay with the coast guard. everyone of those folks in that parade field are going to do phenomenal in the coast guard. >> we have one more. >> hello my name is lindsay reiser and vice president of an ngo global peace service with usa. thank you for your report. my question is this, the state department has been explaining the complexity of its relations

with russia. i would like you to say a little bit about the experience of the people who are working with russia over arctic issues, what are some of their issues, what is their negotiating style and if you talk about any other kind of encounters you have with the russian naval fleet or their equivalent to the coast guard that would be helpful as well. >> i will say this, i've spent probably a better part of three of three hours just one on one interacting with my russian counterpart, because when canada hosted the arctic coast guard for, the parliament would not allow russia at the table and sense russia didn't show up, nor did did norway, finland, sweden, or denmark. so basically we never got off the launching head. but we talked to and they compartmentalize. they compartmentalize where you ukraine, crimea, and some of the military action and so this is the federal border service of the russian federation, their

principle comes with me. so we can talk about the arctic and holistic terms, safety of safety of life at sea, all of us are challenged, if we see an aggressive offshore drilling campaign in the arctic, what is the technology that we can bring to bear to mitigate the effect of an oil spill and a very pristine environment. we also recognize that a lot of our scientific research, some of that has been compartmentalized as well. it would not beach or collective advantage, even if it is something as germane as fisheries, do we see fish stock start to move further north and then do we see fishing fleets going north to attract those as well? what i would say say is it's measured comments but at the end of the day it's productive. we are now working on information exchange, obviously via the internet, we are all eight members of the arctic are at the principal level can

interact with one another. so say you have an event up in the arctic, and maybe it is our icebreaker and for whatever reason we get buzzed by a russian aircraft. i can reach out to my counterpart and say what is up with this? the other service chiefs do not have that luxury and then you have to fill that void in the absence of transparency and it remains very opaque. so i would categorize the arctic among all of the arctic nations as transparent. they really gravitate towards a coast guard let approach to the arctic versus a military lead, even though they recognize that we are an armed service we are unique as a coast guard but they recognize the coast guard aspect of diplomacy and working the arctic issue. >> the russians last week just

floated a new icebreaker, you have in your budget to develop an icebreaker but it's want to take time, how should we in the audience think about this new icebreaker from the russians? >> we have to look at it ship counts. the russians russians have 41 and we have to. we start looking at that is mutually assured destruction and missile count. so the purpose of the arctic coast guard is how do we leverage the collective resources of all of the arctic coast guard's in the event of a contingency? we're also looking at and putting together what i call a heat mat. a heat map is using ais information which everyone has access to comments one of the concentrations of the greatest human activity up in the arctic. in all likelihood it's probably where the greatest likelihood of where a mishap at sea as well. so we will do a tabletop exercise the sheer and we will do a full-scale exercise next year doing a math mass rescue at sea. work and i do one in august

using gnome, we had norway and canada will participate in that as well. we will have have 250 role players as now displaced passengers. what we can't replicate is how do you replicate the 24 hour cycle during an episode. you use who is in charge and recognizing that there's going to be a lot of scrutiny, you need to establish a relationship with survivors, all the nuances that go on tour response, two mini times we deal with it at tactical level and often lose sight of the fact that will only be dealing with national command authorities and on a global scale if you have a titanic like event in the modern era today. >> i'm going to group the final two questions because were running low on time. >> on the great lakes were very focused on the ice mission and

so i have questions, with all the acquisitions going on in the 140 rehab program which were obviously a big fan of do you have the bench strength to continue to do that in the second question is to see the domestic isis developing your bench strength in your future icebreakers? . . . .

>> >> do we bring in another great lake icebreaker i cannot put it into my acquisition must -- budget today although immediately is the heavy icebreaker before we could address that. i will be in ottawa in july it has a memorandum of agreement for some reason real have that capacity to provide assistance to the united states if they are deficient but we need to look at this within the next five tenures we buy some service life with a 40-foot icebreaker is but so as the

water warms instead of being a straight line its meanders. it is the polar vortexes that screen across the great lakes and then have a severe winter with heavy icing slow all say everything that will warm up with no ice left with the great lakes but then finally i will be up there in a couple weeks but appreciation for your role think for the question their role as an observer but also

they will soon launch a second medium icebreaker it is the same issue with transparency. when i see where they're doing scientific research with the extended continental shelf long-term no tie nephew's us i am not disconcert so what is giant -- china's strategy? klay can answer that question so that does cause me great concern. >> admiral they give some much for your time and your leadership. you make the coast guard

sell like the most fascinating place in the world. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> we're going public we will be large by people across the country but the senate may change. because of televised proceedings of. >> broadcast to the nation on television not we have operated in secret until now but the observed senate debates during their visits to washington. but today they can witness them in their new homes.

>> the audience is in the galleries we have pushed out the walls of the galleries to include those who wish to watch. >> senators hold the moment of silence for the shooting victims in orlando. this is 30 minutes. >> senate majority leader? >> ask unanimous consent we have a moment of silence for the victims of the orlando attacks. >> without objection

mr. mcconnell: madam mr. mcconnell: madam >> above this capital the american flag flies at half staff a symbol of national solidarity for families left behind plunged into despair.

-- isis claims he is one of the soldiers of the caliphate. isi working to establish if this was directed or inspired by isis. either way i will call him what he really is, a coward. a murderer.ise who claimed allegiance that crucifies children and the heads women. suffering to spread fear and sufferingumay and yet even admits in the midst he could not destroy the common bond of community. every act of compassionesponse every word of response to

the accrual etiology a reminder of who we are as americans. let us recognize each act of heroism and then end women you rush toward danger to put their lives on the line for victims they never meant local law enforcement willme continue working with the fbi to determine the exactct nature of this crime. inspire finding out more details. >> weather in communication with isil are followingl's tactics with isil online magazine leads to a larger point.

whether the of followers of the other islamic terrorist groups are in the west end continue to do so. to prevent more of these atrocities. and with respect to isil is critical with iraq and syria to outlive the life of his this administration asking for briefings on the strategy for very long time i suspect this will happen very soon. also the attack but today we saw the face of evil this

weekend we stand shoulder to shoulder. and to orlando you're not alone your nation is here with you. will not back down in the face of terrorism. with one final matter to my colleague we lost this past weekend. void of which was the oldest of six children it an aspiring doctor.old his and realized he did not get o along with the sciences so he joined the boy scouts. was he told his friends one day he would become mayor.

he was right. this is the guy that turned around cleveland. were paid it with this simple model together we can do a. is slowly the buckle of the rust belt and then to serve two terms and then serve another two. all of and was an advocate for more cis effective government and all of the of of energy approach and then to spearhead two rounds of expansion as one

of the proudest achievements. the secretary general officially announced the decision he recall that was truly one of the most t thrilling days as a senator.is taking care from cleveland fami. to columbus all along guided by the catholic faith in a nearby his family. ultimately he retired to spend more time with the people who matter. voinovich but then a young republicans club or jinnah of when the rich. they were best friends and

deeply in love. here in washington and you could see them strolling to capital or to the church for mass storage would creature with a kiss and hug and when that voinovich flew back to cleveland they would hold hands and say a prayer across the aisle to prepare for takeoff.nd. when it was wheels down from a purchase that house in the '70s with is a working-class net neighborhood where george was raised in spent the rest of their lives together they didn't install an air conditioner. too expensive voinovich was

called many things in his decades of public service. honest, plainspoken and loyal to those who worked he did not appreciate when the heat waves hit but they served them well. asking about his legacy he just wanted to know he had touched people's lives to make things better his impact across this city are cleared out to sea with leadership and public affairs the trade center in columbus with the rock-and-roll hall of fame with the voinovich bridge ohi

and went dark in his honor this city of cleveland and the state of ohio and have lost an outstanding public servant. many of us have lost a good friend. we will keep janet and the rest of the voinovich family in our thoughts. >> madam president? before we start the remarks

on the subject of the day george voinovich was a fine man he was a colleague that senator mcconnell talked about. end after 53 years ago became the county's general with the county auditor and county commissioner and governor of ohio. and brought his experience to the united states senate. for his preparation and hard out work and an was courageous -- speaking yataghans the tax

cuts to question mark the strategy of the war in iraq r and voinovich was right. he voted for background checks for a guns purchased that good shows. he was right in our colleagues were wrong. i send my personalbetsy and condolences and his seven grandchildren. he was a great senator been a member of ohio and the united states. a

>> madam president everybody is in a state of shock and sadness and after the largest shooting in americanve history. d fax continue to develop by a paddle long conversation that we do know this much. pledging allegiance to isil at the lgbt localitythis including 49 people and dozens seriously injured.sense e this is an act of terror in every sense of the word., and against americans. our heart goes out to the victims and their families if they were killed or wounded those debtors still the city of bonn dash missing. those a had time for quiet think

reflection and gas but we could have done to prevent it. destruction. one dash destruction. i haven't had time to think about it. bas madam president, heart sick i am basically sick by inaction. nothing to stop these mass shootings.nto a to live in the country that someone can just walk into a of store and murdered dozens of americans. i don't think we do. is that a country we want to live? this is the country where we lay it -- where we live now.

last december the seniornd senator will prevent fbi terrorist from those explosives.rrorist can one is the feinstein amendment. to legally purchasing assault weapons it is beyond me to go home knowing that they continued with us. with the expanded bathwater dash backed projects. address how low can a campaign for reelection in good conscience to address gunri violence.

how do you speak of running h for office with a potentialhe ws terrorist? yesterday, the junior senators voted and it was quoted to say what we might consider. to root against backf projects i ask is this what we want for america a mass shooting after a massor shooting?ss is failing we still have much to learn and is doing anything to prevent the mass killings.very e because of republican n instruction.

and the whole state of florida the whole country for failing families with thousands of them tens of thousands as president obama said yesterday doing nothing as the decision in my colleagues have made that decision doing nothing we have a responsibility as lawmakers do with nothing radical. to legally purchase weapons.ed remember that we go to a novice.

everybody should read as suspected terrorists should not have guns. terrorist suspects intoes something to limit the clips p and that is designed for mass killings.ore the and we no longer ignore the majt rule and ignore the will of the people. 90 percent of americans are

standard background checks it doesn't matter what stated is a nationwide poll. go. massachusetts iowa lists 80 percent of americans i did see my friend from florida behind me. the in spite of the up public's demand they continue to power the nra is really bad. kne to see how extreme they could be end to take away

the guns and the money. >> they are competing to see how it's treating that soers of terrified of the extreme right by the vast majority's in the people they represent. victi it is sent to the nra. is not guns innocent people died down at holiday parties our schools are clubs are repeaters. that is as scarce the american people. if you need that backbone.

not only are they stalling but with current background check system that isn't too much to be honest. we need to hear more of the gun lobby how more guns are the answer.ub in with higher security guards with more of an armed off-duty police officer out of the sale and. it is time for congress to do something to stop the mass slaughter how else can

you describe it?the >> 49 dead people. is that enough to get your attention? some injured some will be paralyzed. do is that enough to get our attention? as and then to continue to support the solutions of this epidemic in this and as tes we can there is no excuse courae and historically it has beenass proven that they do not care.eople.

soy hopes they can find somebody like george voinovich to pass legislation for the american people. by the way voinovich was a good republican. >> in the previous order the time is reserved. m >> madam president i have just returned from the command center and the

emergency operations center temporary one set up very close to the nightclub not far from the hospital where so many of the victims had been taken where nine of thend victims died in the care of the doctors. in there are up to 50 people, some of whom are still fighting for their lives. needless to say that orlando is shocked. we didn't know that a place that sometimes is called the happiest place on earth

could be one of the saddest places on earth. for the entire front page similar to the statement our community will heal will the community heal? so with though long lines at the blood donation center we are it is literally going around the length of two blocks people standing inmu the hot sun with umbrellas

that say something now the community bill he'll. indeed when we had our office in orlando opened on sunday the kinds of calls with grief and shock and unbelief with the messages of comfort that has been quite a contrast to theic 95 percent of the hundreds and hundreds of calls that the orlando office has received today 95 percent ofoes those have been hateful.

what does that say about us as a nation? will we heal? what does it say about us tea deep inside? where have we lost to thely in teachings in almost all the major religions clearly in the holy scriptures of the old testament in the newse testament and also in the caribbean and you'll recognize the words if i say it in old english a do unto others said she would have them do unto you modern english is to treat others

as you would want to be treated but yet what we found is in our society u today, there are folks that want to divide homesteaded unify a and this killer is a good example i spent two days with the fbi have been on the phone i have spoke to the secretary of homelands security and to our intelligence committee and once the dots are connected t is this senator's opinion by the way the fbi is the lead in orlando talk about good? what about cooperation andocal

coordination that is almost seamless between local and state and federal of governments? all represented in down there in the command center as a number of us went in front of the chaos it is seamless. that is a good thing. that is unity and how we do things in america. but as the dots are connected we will find out it was isis inspired and that is a whole set of issues and how we protect ourselves in the future? will also friday - - line

he was inspired by hatred and we will find that was directed as his father has already said in interviews toward the gay community so here again we have another terrible tragedy.. i have had a number of calls from fellow senators one of those came from richard lehman ball from connecticut's -- bloom and fall in the sensitive because of the sandy hook shooting of 20 children and adults gun down needlessly maybe that was a case and maybe this one is a mental

case but it is driven by hatred maybe through isis of a free society to be willing to speak you want without fear of persecution or maybe it is the hatred of a grouphe of people it is exactly the opposite of what is taught in all the scriptures so as we feel it in orlando it will take a while you can imagine those families you can imagine them down in hoping orlando right now grieving

and hoping and praying that those victims fighting for their lives will make it so ameritech we have to ruth dig down deep to find out who we really are a and i know who we are we are a character of a people that is compassionate and generous end cleaned andn respectful and we are ashas americans if we are ladies and gentlemen, in can express ourselves as has been the tradition of the floor of the senate, in the heat of political debate but

we can be respectful of the other people's point of view that is america and until we've finally come to that conclusion in insist on the average behavior and and tell that happens we will still be grieving madam president i yield the floor. >> republicans as low the hot seat over gun-control

pushing for another vote that would bar suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms we have this senior writer for "politico". they're wasting no time going after republicans what do we see this week? >> we will file back we have done this many times to increase regulation we're already starting to see the fault lines and republicans say that congress should focus on radicalization and what they believe is the problem which is the cancer of radical islamic extremism. their point it would not

promote a motivated terrorist to kill americans but with donald trump at the top of the ticket with congress up in the balance it will be very difficult political issuable sides especially the vulnerable republicans in many states it is a popular position spirit those to follow congress closely this came up in december and failed in the senate did the shooting in orlando change the dynamics in any way? >> i don't think it did but a lot of will say it is a tough argument to hold suspected terrorist you're not allowed to be an airplane's but they should be able to go into west gun

store but gaby gifford in arizona and children were mauled in the school to loosen the tight grip of the gun lobby and as a position they have held for decades that congress should not institute new restrictions on firearms. >> paul rice and met with his leadership team tomorrow house members would get a classified briefing from a national security team including the fbi director what is new that we will learn over the next zero to four hours as they attend these briefings? >> it'll think they will be learning much that is new is the officials are hesitant to give out details because they know they're like to

discuss behind closed doors which is a difficult proposition that is trying to conduct a high level sensitive investigation but we will see how paul ryan will react but if the rest of the team needs a response legislatively or politically to get in the right position monica comes to guns out of charity hands. focusing on the issue to combat isis with the immigration laws i think that is where they will focus their energy to say there are no gun laws to prevent a motivated individual from getting it done. >> senior writer for "politico".

dear colleague wrote this headline donald trump's tragic victory lap. what is this about? >> i think he was talking about the peace that donald trump immediately turned the conversation of the tragedy in orlando to his own political benefit that he has been right on islamic extremism from the beginning to say the country needs to get smart and get tough, extremism and that was his take away was i was right thank you very much he went after them very hard in new hampshire this afternoon that she is unfit and unable to be commander in chief donald trump actually expanded his remarks basically barring anybody even a country of a

suspected terrorist that is a broad expansion of his previous proposal to ban muslims but the point to glenn is making instead of focusing on this somber part of the country to bring people together donald trump made it about himself for a lot of people have said he has reacted to this attack in orlando. >> yet what about the long-term impact? will this resonate during the campaign or change the direction of the clinton campaign? >> i think, will further heightened sensitivity in the narrative about keeping our country safe donald trump is taking a different approach again to bar all muslims or people from states that have suspected terrorist ties from the west

through the immigration policy in hillary clinton's point is that is not what our country is about i think this tie-ins the focus to sharpen the focus homeland's security immigration policy keeping our nation save is the big issue headed into november. >> call details of mine and. thank you for being with us. >> a look at how the army is dealing with decreasing troop levels next. , and the afghan ambassador on security issues followed by discussion of the role of the u.s. coast guard against human trafficking and maritime security issues

>> madam secretary we probably gives 72 over delegate votes to the next president of the united states. ♪

seven good morning is my honor to introduce this morning and then we'll havera an interesting conversation inez you know, the challenges today are sick of e it historically small of the army's size and increasing threats around the globe so the army is facing a turning point this general allen is a 45 vice chief of staff taking the post last august and a native of for which mean a graduate of u.s. military academy at west point previously served as a commander united states army forces command in fort bragg and also to the airborne

facing pom the cavalry division a number of other roles up to that point chief of staff multinational forenera. iraq joint assignmentser of oth include the explosive device organization the operations director i think perhaps the most uniquely qualified of this conversation with his history of serving in leadership roles in every level of the army throughto platoon division level staff ast assignment and served in korea crinoid egypt panama said arabia kuwait and iraq and afghanistan he also has a degree from the naval war college.war college. the 35 vice deputy.

[applause] >> i don't know about you but i feel tired room people go through my biography it thinkime down thinking about it it is an honor first of all, to be here today but before i begin the brief into directory state offore i b remarks i want to extend our heartfelt condolences to all of those stricken in orlando and all families recovering from the tragedy obviously reminds us even here at home dangs a dangerous environment and our hearts go out to all the families that are working through the horrific events this past weekend.s so we're all too familiar with tragedy but it is

something that most often brings us together so where dree go from here or move forward? so with as an opening, we in the army have been focusedin on a stable growth for the last several years and we certainly don't see these conditions in the worldns in the improving and in fact,e instability on the rise virtually every combat command of operation what does that mean for the army? we have prioritized readiness to ensure we deliver the forces and capabilities needed by combatant commanders in these very unstable parts of the world to respond to the crisis that emerges in the

challenge for us in thech current fiscal environment through 2010 by the time weno finish the drive down we will have reduced 120,000 soldiers from the strength of 2010 so as time when crisis around the world is on the rise the forces available of the united forces army to provide trade and ready are in a reverse vector we are constantly looking to ensure rebalance as best we can the delivery of freddie forces and capabilities to meet the emerging demand while still understanding the challenges of the future to build the force that we will need the challenge that you have in

that environment at least with the army is a readiness must remain number one and that means we have a tendency to consume ourency to e readiness as fast as we can generate it and with many respects mortgage our ability to build that force that is needed in the near future. that is a tough environment to be in but it is the for ation and i will try to calibrated it what i mean the demands of what are we faces today 187,700 soldiers are serving around the globe 140 different locations as i mentioned total forces about 25,000 of those are from the national guard and reserve meeting said they today's current operational tempo

operating as a total force which is good news to sustain the operationaling so wi readiness but it does come with a risk because that reserve capacity is part of the research capacity to respond to raise significant crisis that as of yet today has not emerged so we have to balance her much of that available forces leveraged to the current operational tempo right now for the armyr te we're reading 64% of the combatant commanders plan that the department delivers that 64 percent of what is depaf provided comes from the united states army that is

what we know about when eachch year starts then as is always the case there are emerging demands that come up in the united states army provides about half of the emerging demands and that tempo and signal has been very steady and number of 188,000 but the various on that is less than 10% so the demand signal is steady and describes why our chief ofo of the armed the priority on readiness in order to meet that demand now simultaneously we have focused on transitioning from a principallyno counterinsurgency focus

force to one that is ready for high spectrum combat operations and for many soldiers in the united states army, the force that entered into this war had the benefit of about two decades of focus of that type of warfare so the average battalion commanderverai going into a combat situation has between six or 10 combat training center rotations were they prepare for that type of operational oumand the current battalionon commanders are experiencing their second or third decisive action with the high intensity combat environment and the good news that is on the rise we provided every brigade combat team at the combat

training center an, we opportunity for that type of environment even those providing for missions in iraq and afghanistan to build the bench of soldiers to respond to these types of situations. while the search capacity is not growing because emerging demands placed a high premium on that we have been able to build a leadership experience of our tactical commanders so i am come to of the trendlines we're on i am less comfortable withng where we are at with modernization we have a

trade-off that you face theia primary weapon system is a soldier rightfully so about 60 percent of our annual budget pays for soldiers and par civilians than% for the civilia. civilians so that leaves 40 percent to address readiness and modernization about 22% is readiness generation that leaves 18 percent for modernization if you looked at seven or portfortfolios that we currently have to equip ourip army that is spread very thin so we have been forcedto to to prioritize the modernization efforts to address the emerging demands of high-intensity combat and a very focused effort on

divesting the redundant systems so we can apply increased funding for our new priority needs my expectation is this picture that we are currently facing will not change in the nearto cn future so we must look internally to the best of our ability to make the most of what we have to address the emerging needs that areeare out there and the prioritization we have undergone over the course of the past year to address that has been helpful to us in that effort it is an uncertain world and it iseffort unstable but i am often asked what keeps you up that night? my immediate response is nothing i am so tired by the time i get home i sleep very well.

but truthfully what enables me to sleep very well is the quality of the leaders that we have the united states army had every echelon and data daily basis they are performing extraordinary perot attractions making tough decisions with very complex and unpredictable environments and extraordinary contributions around the globe so of the to talk to about those leaders or any other topic on your mind that concludess my prepared remarks to record your questions and areas of focus and interest. [applause] >> i thought we would just have a conversation so i

will kick off if you have a question just raise your i hand please wait for theheget tu microphone and state your affiliation we will broadenr ho the conversation with thein time that we have so one question i want to ask heritage says u.s. index of military strength to engage in the capacity one of the concerns we talk about the '70s in the '90s is when you added everything up not haveve enough trained and ready forces to conduct the operations of you have and prepare for the future to make a compromise somewhere that left you vulnerable may be in a bigger way so myre in ar question is how concerned are you about that today?

we're d.c. the u.s. army interest? >> you highlight the daily challenges are secretary faces how do you deliver the most capable force you canth in the resource constrained environment?n you cannot have it all that is the fact. our focus on readiness to ensure that no soldier or unit sent into a mission they have not been adequately prepared or equipped and expect to be well lead that is a promise we will adhere to but thenow the downside is we are definitely facing the potential of two or three years down the road thete ability to insure we can deliver the most modern equipment possible is where we have except address there is a number of ways to tackle the problem

fundamentally it is a math problem we have begun to look at how do we prioritize the capability for your smaller number of units rather than trying to spread peanut butter for 35 years across the portfolio and by doing that there are some dynamics at play and technology is changing so fast that we think by the time you feel a smaller set you'll be going after a more new and modern capability any race or maybe less of ait me problem but also less struggle is the superiorre it ip competitor that requires a massive response from the united states military and

at the end of the pipeline you will stand a chance that some of those forces will not be adequately prepared.eq >> said taking a risk in terms of capacity gets so risk rtter than down the road so you have these three components that includes the active force in the reserve in the national guard so to put it bluntly what is thehe of relationship like with the national guard? about the animosity andd where's that relationship going in the overall picture? >> first of all, when i say army i mean total army so that tends to be how we communicate we communicate as one army we fight and lead as one sell first and foremost, the army is doing very well thank you very

much for your interest. the issue no the national commission on the future of the army brought forward a number of recommendations on how we could deliver a more capable force in the future 53 of them in all one of the recommendations was so important they made it twice there actually 62 we'reat we aro focused on a number of those include increased capacity and delivering readiness and one of the recommendations for the apache battalion to the national guard between the unfunded requirements for the president's budget this year and the budget of the current stage of preparing you will see a number of thosee recommendations and action

and the challenge that we face to be brutally honest the national commission brought forward a better future army and a number of ways to get there but it was not provided to me and the strategy has to put all that together so we have worked within our budget to get after the most important issues first and some of those clearly involved increasing readiness for a training center rotationsni for the national guard combat teams in next year's budget re-establishing 11th combat brigade in korea that is critical the commission made a recommendation we have strategies to get after that

and the apache battalions whether that is addressed currently or through the submission we will get after that to the best of our ability so i think what is most important is we are working together to improve the total army and that is not an easy challenge 39 days of training in a year does not make a ready units we have to address how we increase the resources and for those units most likely to have to deploy on a tight timeline and insure we have additional time and funding and training for those.al ti >> so looking forward much

of the planning of thet me ask a pentagon is dealing with thenotw budgets but looking forwardat to a new administration with different priorities selecttw have forces of we can grow the forces that are all if we cu shrinking what would you do? more forward? what kind? what is first on your list? >> we're ready take it? >> suffice it to say that is a policy decision so our political leadership will decide our read going to change our posture? clearly there is the recommendation from the national commission report that addresses where we should have additional

presence the european commander in his confirmation hearing made it clear statement where his druthers were to sustain the rotational force and in eastern europe on the first of january we will have of full-time presence of an armored brigade combat team committed to resurfacing that requirement and the question was asked given the choice which would you rather have? full station or rotational? he stated his preference to have full station but from the army's perspective there is a lot of benefit of forestation forces but also sustaining cost when you do that so we have to weigh

that and respond to those decisions that are made so suffice it to say we know the capabilities of the army are most under stress and the direction we are on for the strength to be relaxed to know which capabilities that we need so we will be prepared to deal with that. >> silo push that same question to you if you hadad additional resources what would you? >> we have already prioritized in our plan soec is a matter to address those. we have i high response requirement to protective systems on combat vehicles and the aviation platforms

and indeed to modernize the aviation portfolio with the improved engine and a new aircraft platform we have critical needs in addressing cybervulnerability across the network will have to continue to get after that we have already sustained our focus despite all the cuts we took we preserve our portfolio for emerging demands to have a focus investment strategy in my expectation is as we continue to look at the competitors there are the t gaps that we'll have to prioritize and that is the critical focus. >> one more question andor that will bring in the

audience there is of lot oflot reporting any to increase the efficiency is that has currently with the initiatives to reduce the not employable as or waves not have people just rush to spend your funds so from your perspective so which bringing ber to bring back resources? >> we must we good stewards of what we provide we know we can do better we have a number of initiatives under way to ensure that we deliver on that.

well we have excess capacity infras ever structure throughout the department oftr defense footprint 33% strength levels in of the likelihood is not very high rigt debt we're within our own capacity if we can consolidate to the building is a veteran of the shape the marines will take care of their own internal issues the you identified one of the most pressing problems quitewe have the number one

variable for forces in the future we are struggling with tim% of the forces that r are not available so have to find ways to get them the hope that they need and then to ruth transition more quickly to meet the needs and out there for soldiers to have a realistic goal if you have dealt with that efficientl the force more efficiently?we have we have 100,000 non deployable soldiers to make>> it as predominantly soldiers that cannot fill theirldiers

position and deploy the attacks for which they weresks listed so we got about 80 percent of that we know we can gain efficiency and gainn the speed back to full readiness or another phase of the life tourney but suffice it to say we're talking maybe 10,000 we will expect to get back in by those means? behalf to continue to work with the veterans administration and to lou transition them effectively as possible.nger just

>> that was in terms of time. and then we need to shortens that. >>. >> so it is the very different world from friday. and talking about future capabilities from robotics and big data and cyberand now i come back.

down to earth so what part of the offset is relevant for the army and whathat degree?bunch of coo is that a bunch of cool things you just can't get to itth the budget with modernization? you need more immediate off the shelf types of things? >> we are thankful they aren't pursuing that approach because it does enable us to focus what we need 15 or 20 years down the road and we know in the areas of the integrated air defense that there are very specific capabilities [null] the promise that we are

working very carefully with the team to address the gaps that we have that we know they can help us close so we are focused on building that future army while continuing to deliver the forces that is needed today by combat and commander. >> that is an interesting point because of the role of the integrated air defense what we hear now is highlighted in the commission report increasing possibility operating in the theater we don't have yourlity f superiors and looking at that analysis they talk about what is nato's be nato's capability and how do you balance that so i am interested what would your mix me or go back to the

capabilities for these technologies. >> the bottom line is we're better as retake the joint force approach we have the best air force in the world the best army and navy in the world and we will keep it that way because we will fight together is a joint team now we are specifically looking at what are me capabilities are necessary and frankly we believe the army will play a role tusis at least temporary control of air space to unable destruction of any capability that the joint force will deliver on what they can deliver so we are accustomed having to fight in a contested close fight

that will be the case forto the future and we believe we deliver the types of forces to operate in that highly contested environment creating conditions favorable to our nation. >> is that more organic? or deployable to different theaters? i think you're >> i think you'll see a distributive force that can harness it in a decentralized way to create conditions that enables us to have the outcomes that we needed to deliver. >> watch him. [laughter] thank you very, very much for highlighting all of these famous soldier two

wars fought in contingencies and i have been in three armies the hollow in theand thei professional you highlight the soldier obviously that is everything to our citizens what worries me is the overall of the force and the support of that force by the nation and my question is going to be from ae statistical indicators for retention and recruitment and medical care and post stress care of the soldier you mentioned 100k and 180 + so how is the morale is my question. t >> coverall is good in our

army today and i would say that is true across the entire army but it is something particularly the major is focused on each and every day he is specifically spending a lot of time on capitol hill to make sure they understand some of the efficiencies considered under currently will begin to create a condition in the armed forces not just the army where it is death by a thousand cuts here and there 1% here but it all adds up the bottom line is we are to be distrusted professionals from this grey all volunteer force and we have built as you know, that the merged from post be an on era and

has become the professional envy of the world we need to be very, very deliberate with the adjustments that we make to ensure that in pursuit of $1 million here or there we're not destroying the trust to continue to bring great patriots if there is what i believe is the national security concern not been fully addressed a small percentage of the current population in america that can serve in the military the last survey done 360,000 americans between 18 and 24 that cannot meet thear-old realm prerequisites the army needs 120,000 just to sustain the

current force and we are competing against other othe services universities and businesses for the same segment if they know see a great opportunity for s service in uniform and the sacrifice that is inherent will begin to weigh on the decision process so we must be very focused. >> so where is the army in terms of recruiting? >> but the last decade you were getting what you need? >> speaking to the original question about morale one of the indicators is retention that does remain very solid in fact, we over retain several in the last few

years and we have actually had to ask people to leave because as we have gotten smaller we are over strengthen certain ranks and grades for the force of the future and these people we're asking to leave our professionals most of them over 50 percent have two or more deployments of they have answered the call to their nation but as we have gotten smaller we have had to ask them to consider another phase of the journey of a soldier's life that is not an easy task to take on. recruiting is received a greater challenge the very competitive environmentit's a vr there are many youth in america and not many parents want their child to join thejoiy army news /.

we are competing against parents and a prolific joby market economy is in pretty good shape so again that is what we're watching very carefully we know we will be constrained this year with the objectives that we have with recruiting and we put it more recruiters out in the street our very best we have to stay after it. >> i would like to get your take on either the declining emphasis of coming together with the interagency of

civil affairs psychological operations of the non kinetics stuff that teachers or prevents or stabilizes to talk about the currentreally threats of instabilityrr soared above to get your take on how we reconcile the fact this is one of the areas that i see the most declining interest the yet the most important for the future and what you describe as a depressed environment to be cost-effective it is our hardware intensive or modernization is up here in mental. >> is that part of the 40%your n requirement date today? >> yes.

if you did the fundamental math is not 40 percent but most of but we cannot meet is based on demand that exceeds supply they're asking for a capability we don't have insufficient ready capacity or performing another task is a higher priority. but your point we have been very focused continuing to on deliver what the combatant commanders need for activities as well as institution building and the duty of that effort is it can be an effective if you look at the continent of africa we have a few thousand soldiers better over there well above the

weight class on a daily rate basis with strategic effects by building the capacity to contribute to stability in that region after redefinition working with them is a constant balancing act we're major proponents to shape their prevent conflict we would much rather stay in the space that we are currently experiencing the there always be tension but based on the highest demand capability is simple affairs psychological operations like engineer support the

commitment level that we have speaks to the fact they are employed by our combatant commanders. . .