then i want to encourage everyone at the supervisor level, you know, to be open, to listen. doesn't mean you're going to agree or to accept but to have that give and take. and that is what we're looking for. when you think about 21st century diplomacy, we're asking, you know, our director general, we're asking fsi to envision what is the training, what are the new modes of thinking that we have to equip you with because you're not your mother's or your father's diplomat or foreign service officer or civil service expert. you're coming with a new set of challenges. so how can we help equip you but then how can you help prepare yourself to be ready? i think if you look at the qdr and go through that and imagine how this will lead to the vision of our role in the world, how we

can be more effective, more impactful, how we can go further on less because will's no guarantee in these austere times that we'll have what we ideally like, that starts a conversation. in kind of the office groupings, the subject matter groupings, the affinity groupings, have that conversation and come with ideas either through the sounding board or directly to people in positions of responsibility and let's see where it leads and we'll do our best. [ applause ] good morning, madam secretary. my name is leon gallanis, i worked for undersecretary kennedy. in your opening letter in the

qdtr, you ask the question how do we do better? i'd like to say in order to meet the program goals, we need that strong management platform in the department and usaid and an important component is how we manage data information. we have an intra bureau working group started in june 2011 that is working to getting all those silos together to share data and access data better so you get that information you need quicker and more accurately and we would be keen on meeting with your staff and briefing them with our success and the work to be done. >> we will do that. you're 100% right. in today's world you can either manage data or be drown by it. that's the choice. and if you starting drown, the natural human inclination is just to ignore. so the smarter we can be about

managing and presenting and utilizing data, so we'll follow through on that, pat, okay? >> not a question. >> it's okay. a shameless but very important plug. [ laughter ] [ applause ] >> good morning, madam secretary. my name is michelle la kormy. >> is rick barton here? rick's right in front of me. we were so fortunate to recruit rick to be the first leader of the cso and i think his vision and what all of you are thinking through will answer that question. i want us to be able to deploy

expertise in the form of americans both from the government, from the outside if appropriate but part of our network, to be on the ground, as i said in my remarks, doing what is necessary to protect us, promote our values and further our interests. and that's why this is so exciting because i can't standing here today tell you exactly all of the different roles and functions that cso will perform. it will -- it already does have a very tight partnership with counterparts and aid that we need to increase the flow of information and cooperation, but then going beyond that into the rest of the government. but i do know this, this was absolutely one of the most important decisions that came out of the qdtr. we entered into it with the question of do we need this? we'd had some efforts that were

really quite important but never were given the support, the resources, the attention and time that they deserved. so it was a natural question to say do we need this and the answer was resoundingly yes but it has to be done the right way. so i'm hoping that as we go through the startup and the consolidation of the cso, you'll be coming to me to say, well, here's what we need to do to do what we think we need to be doing and i will be as responsive as i can. thank you. >> madam secretary, this question comes from noah dona from istanbul. he says with the recent hiring surge, many mid-level foreign services positions were seeded to entry level to provide positions for those newly minted fsos. now that the first wave of these

hires are approaching mid-level bidding, how does the administration plan to return these positions to the mid level. >> i can tell you that h.r. is developing a plan to move positions where they're needed and when they're needed. this will be done in close consultation with the bureaus because we obviously don't want anyone who came in on an entry level to feel like there's nowhere for them to go. soap we're going to be taking a hard look at this. i mean, it was one of the good problems we had, like how were we going to quickly incorporate, integrate our new entry level hires because we had so many of them and that was our goal, to begin to refill our ranks, but now we have to take a look at what changes have to be made to kind of keep the momentum going for these young -- not all young but, you know, many young entry level people. so thank you.

>> good morning, madam secretary. my name is suess sesan johnson. i'm the president of afsa. i'd like to thank you for that excellent and exciting update of qdtr implementation and for your really inspiring advocacy for all of us to embrace change, participate in it and see what we can do to make our agencies more effective in advancing and protecting u.s. interests. so thank you very much. afsa really welcomes this. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> madam secretary, president obama led his state of the union address with the remarks, and i'll quote, "last month i went to andrews air force base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in iraq. together we offered a final proud salute to the colors, under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought and several thousand gave their

lives." the president continued, "for the first time in nine years there are no americans fighting in iraq." madam secretary, you know that all of us salute the accomplishments and sacrifices of our military colleagues and in fact many in our community are former veterans of the armed services. my question is what are your ideas and thoughts on what the state department can do to ensure that the american people remember and better appreciate that we all, the money and women of the state department and our other foreign affairs agencies, are still there, are still in harm's way, are still taking care of business and advancing the interests of the united states. and the related question, how can afsa help. [ applause ] >> i think that's a very fair

question and we are obviously trying to talk about it, trying to raise the visibility of it. this is the largest postconflict operation the state department has ever tried to lead and manage. it's hard. many of you have spent time trying to help us with this transition. but i think when i see the president tomorrow, i will mention to him the importance of also having presidential attention to our members of the civilian side of the ledger who are still in iraq and who are still facing a lot of threats and dangers. and he is very mindful of that, very grateful for it and i think will look for an opportunity to try to raise it to a higher visibility. so i thank you very much. and of course afsa has been a

good partner in all of this work and we continue to appreciate your support and your constructive criticism. thank you. [ applause ] >> madam secretary, another synthesis of two similar questions about the future of the state department and you in 2013. the state department has been very fortunate to have an experienced, intelligent, productive and passionate secretary these past few years. with the election season -- [ applause ] >> can we put that first part of the question in writing so i can put it in front of me when it gets really, really hard? >> we'll put it on your eer.

>> with the election season fast approaching, can you offer any predictions for the state department after the elections in november, specifically are you considering staying on or not? this is the synthesis. what could we do to persuade you to run for vice president? after your tenure here comes to an end what will you do and what will become of us? >> oh, my goodness. first of all, it one of the most extraordinary, wonderful experiences being able to work with all of you, which i am always telling people everywhere how privileged i am. i think i have made it clear that i will certainly stay on until the president nominates someone and that transition can occur, but i think after 20 years, and it will be 20 years, of being on the high wire of american politics and all of the

challenges that come with that, it would be probably a good idea to just find out how tired i am. everyone always says that when they leave these jobs. but i have no reason to have any concerns about the future of this department and usaid as long as we continue to make the case to the broad public about who we are, what we stand for, the work we do and why it's important. and i am looking forward to this year. i don't want to think about what might come next because i don't want me or anyone of to us divert our attention. i think the best case we can make is to do the work we're doing every day at the highest possible standard and trying to achieve the best outcomes for

our country. and then the election is, you know, going to i'm sure suck up a lot of the attention from following areas that we think are so important, you know, trying to resolve frozen conflicts, trying to, you know, bring food and health care and education to desperately poor people, trying to build up america's reputation and reality in so many places in the world. but the good news is, you know, maybe we can even get more done if they're not paying attention. [ laughter ] so just factor that in. i think from my perspective,ly just work as hard as i can till the last minute i have the honor of being secretary and certainly do everything, no matter what i do, which i have no idea what it will be, to support all of you. and i am happy to work with vice

president biden, who does an excellent job and is is a huge advocate and supporter for this department and for usaid. it's a little odd for me to be totally out of an election season since as secretary of state i cannot participate. but, you know, i didn't watch any of those debates. [ applause ] >> that will have to be the last question as you have another engagement. >> well, thank you all very, very much. let's keep going! [ applause ]

still ahead, a conversation on unemployment of veterans. and a u.s. mayor's panel discussion on reintegrating combat veterans into society and a look at efforts to combat youth and gang violence. >> april 15th, 2010 i had arrived in pashz, walkris, walk the hotel lobby, met general mcchrystal for the first time and he looked at me and said, oh, you're the "rolling stone" guy, i don't care about the article, i just want to be on the cover. i said, well, sir, i think it's between you and lady gaga. i was just making a joke not knowing she was going to be on the cover. general mcchrystal relied just

put me and lady gaga in a heart shaped tug. i thought this is a different kind of general and will be a different kind of story. >> but just several months later as a result of the article, general mcchrystal had been fired. sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q & a. this is c-span3 with politics and public affairs programming throughout the week and every weekend american history tv, 48 hours of people and events telling the american story. get our schedules and see past programs at our web sites and join in the conversations on these social media sites. >> defense secretary leon panetta today proposed $33 billion in military spending reductions for fiscal year 2013. he says the military will be, quote, smaller and leaner but agile and flexible.

the center for strategic and international study looks at the spending cuts. >> on your screen tom tarantino, iraq and afghanistan veterans of america, he's their senior legislative associate. how does your organization differ from others that help iraq and afghanistan vets get job? >> we're the first and largest nonprofit advocacy organization for vet in iraq and afghanistan. we're a young are population and we define community a little differently so we have to redefine how we deliver services. primarily because there are so few of us. 2.4 million have served in iraq and afghanistan, less than 1% of the population so the traditional models of service delivery don't work. we are online. we understand community that's not defined by where we live but

by our access to communication. the way we can't with the world is different from previous generations. it's a way we've been innovative so we can reach out and redesign the sense of community we had in the military. over the last two years, the joblessness epidemic in veterans has been worse. we're looking at an average unemployment rate of 12.9%. we don't have any real way to qualitatively and quantitatively tell the business community what a military skills are, what being a military medic is, what being a platoon sergeant means

in the world. in generations pass, people understood this because chances are the person sitting across the table toted a machine gun around for a few years. that's no longer true. this military divide has created an even greater divide within the community. businesses want to hire vets. they're partnering to try to learn what the military community can bring their community. they're actually building cohorts of veterans within their company to try to teach h.r. managers and hiring managers what vets can bring to whatever they do as a company but we're a long way away. what we need to do is go back and actually quantify what military skills mean. right now if you're a medic, can you serve 10, 15 years in an army and get out and you can't even drive an ambulance in most states. we've never quantified what being a medic says to being an

emt in the civilian world. we spent this last year working with the house and the senate to pass the vow to hire heros act and this is going to translate military skills, it's going to retrain people for a new market and it's also going to incentivize hiring of veterans. >> if someone joins the military at 18 but don't have a college degree, they go to iraq and afghanistan, they get skills and training and come out and still don't have a college degree, does that factor into their ability to get a job? >> it absolutely does. there's two things to say about that. first of all, one of the things we've done is pass the post 9/11 gi bill. it's probably the greatest veterans benefit in a generation. it allows veterans to get a four-year degree or vocational degree or whatever they need to do to do what they want in their civilian life. also we have to teach people that these 21, 22-year-olds coming out of the military

without a college degree have practical job experience that's 10, 15 years beyond what their civilian peers are. myself as an officer, i come out in my late 20s, but i managed an organization of 400 people with a $3 million budget. we have to quantify those skills so the business community can understand them and take advantage of them. we spend billions of dollars every year training our military to be the most educated and technically proficient in the world, we spend countless man-hours training them and giving them these skills. for some reason we think it's totally okay to just throw that away when they leave the military. well, it's not. we have to figure out a way to bridge that gap. it's certainly we're starting to do now but unfortunately it's a little late for this employment market. >> along our normal lines we've put on the air, we've set aside a line for those unemployed

veterans. you can reach out to us on twitter and e-mail as well. bridgewater, connecticut, you're up first. richard on our independent line for tom tarantino. >> caller: my question is i think our servicemen and women would be better served if we started bringing some of the billions we're spending in afghanistan back here and deployed those resources for employment here. i think the last time i looked at the defense budget, there was like $12 billion spent on the afghan security forces and that's more than we're spending on our joint strike fighter, i believe. so i'd like to you comment on that. thank you. >> thanks, richard. the bottom line is that in all these discussions about the defense budget and about you, know, cutting the defense budget, we have to make sure that what we cut and how we reappropriate funds does not take away from the personnel

benefits. the bottom line is you don't balance the budget on the backs of the men and women who spent the last ten years sacrifices. whether it's having a few less strike fighters to pay for health care, whatever, i'm not a budget and defense expert. there has been a growing rhetoric coming out of the house, the senate and even the white house talking about changing the way military health care, the way military retirement is done. those are part of the compensation package for people who join the military. they're not an insurance program, they're not anything that's equivalent to the civilian retirement and health care t ntinue to ask people to have been born the brunt of this conflict and have sacrificed for the last ten years to sacrifice a little bit more. frankly, they've given their share. >> off of twitter jim hynes asked with all due respect why should volunteer military veterans receive preference treatment over other americans? >> people who join the military

volunteer for the elite of public service in this country. this is a big problem with the military civilian -- military service isn't just another job. this is a choice to serve something greater than yourself and the benefits to this country from our military are immeasurable in terms of security and freedom but also in terms of leadership and in terms of the types of things these people do when they get out of the military, you know, this is -- it is the elite of the public service in this country. it's hard for people who haven't served in uniform to understand the service and sacrifice we go through. admiral mullen talked about it in his speech to west point. he fears american people don't understand the military, doesn't understand the burdens the military and their family are put under during a time of war. we owe veterans our freedom. and it's part of the deal when someone joins the military and agrees to put their life on the line for this country and for everyone in it, we do that

understanding that our country is going to be there for us when we come home, if we come home. >> butler, tennessee, republican line. floyd, good morning. >> caller: i'm a vietnam vet. i was there in '68, but i'm also an eisenhower republican. and i learned because of what eisenhower did, he created the roads in this country, he built them. heap created the gi bill for the world war ii vets coming home. they got education free. but we don't have a republican today like that. that's what i'm talking about. and you talking about a vietnam vet, we got nothing. we got absolutely nothing. and you guys over there, you got paid three times what we got

paid in money. all i see is a mercenary force that we don't need, that we ought to do away with. that's all it is, it's greed and oil. >> first of all, thank you for your service and welcome home. i think it's true that the way the country treated the vietnam generation is despicable and i think now we have a chance to turn the page on that. we have the chance to welcome men and women home from iraq and afghanistan in a respectful way. you know, we talk about the greatest generation after world war ii and it was president roosevelt who created the gi bill and then eisenhower who created the infrastructure system in this country and a lot of this was built because veterans wanted to come home and continue to serve their country. i think we have a chance right now to acknowledge and welcome home this new greatest generation of americans who are coming home from iraq and

afghanistan and then allowing them to continue serving their country, whether it's in the private sector or working in various nonprofits. it's a group of men and women who chose blackservice apublic . and when they return, they want to ten to serve. that's why i do what i do. >> nick, an iraq vet from tampa, florida. gary, good morning. >> caller: good morning, sir. i'm an iraqi war vet. i was overseas five times. i guess i had a question. the unemployment rate for the vets is appalling, number one. but the returning vets, have you noticed any particular career field that has been more attractive for vets coming home than any other field? >> yeah. and thank you for your service and also welcome home. yeah. as is typical, the government

sector is always the largest employer of vets. there has been a lot of defense contracting is very attractive to vets, largely because it's a similar industry, you have a lot of cultural competency. but what we're seeing now is the tech sectors and financial services are making a huge push to hire vets. a lot of vets are going into them. the technology sector leans well because it's young, innovative, fast paced. they train us to be independent operators, to be, you know, to be innovative and to think outside the box and so i think that leads well to some of the younger business sectors in this country. in the financial services sector, they're making a huge push to hire veterans. the problem with veteran unemployment from iraq and afghanistan is that we are so spread out. it's very difficult to find concentrations of where everyone is and what everyone's doing. the best way do this is we have to make sure we have a way to

educate anybody who wants to hire a vet, we have something to give them that says this is what the skill means, this is how it translate noose success in your business and we say to the vets, look, this is how you market yourself. we're really good at training them to become warriors, but we're horrible at helping them to become citizens again. ism know there's stuff going on in congress right now that might help that along a little bit. this is something the public and private sector has to partner together to make this happen. >> "usa today" offers some information about women unemployed saying there were nearly 22% unemployed as of december 2011, iraq and afghanistan female veterans. >> it's really tough to get good numbers on female veterans. on an average the number is about the same, 12% for women, 12.4 for women. that's averaged over a