operations command about two months ago to discuss this very issue. so we will carry this on in all of the combatant commander areas, but in addition to that, you have some additional requirements that require conventional units to assist bill capacity, do exercises and other things. so it will be a combination of both of those things. >> how many? >> again, we'll develop this over time. so what i expect is, you know, each combatant command will come in whip their own requirements. once they do that we will start aligning forces. now, we're just going to do -- in '13 we can only do a couple, because we're still so engaged in afghanistan. starting in '14, you will see many more army units starting to be aligned. that will be specifically determined on their requirements. we had a meeting in the joint staff a couple of weeks ago that outlined these requirements that are coming in from the combatant command. so we'll take that and then align our forces appropriately to meet their requirements.

>> how many? >> one brigade combat team. it's kind of a pilot or test on how we're going to do this. >> we have time for one more question. >> one brigade per region or several? >> in some it might be one and in some it could be more. four, five, six, depending on requirements. >> one more. >> is that over and above in. >> does that mean you are doing something to see how it will affect -- >> no. it is a percentage cut. so it is very easy to understand. the xweft tragts -- sequestration? >> it is a percentage cut and very easy to unts. in other words, we have no choice where the cuts come. it's directed a certain percentage out of every -- we understand in order to meet this that's the requirement. it will be somewhere around that. but it depends on the combination of active and reserve forces, we decide to use, and that's why the number varies a little bit. >> excuse me. how would you accomplish that?

if you had to get rid of 100,000 troops? would you accelerate some of the processes you plan over the next four years with boards and riffs? >> sequestration will require us to do it over the same time period. yes, we will have to force -- if this happen, we'll have to force many more people out than we are now. able to do 65% or 70% reductions through natural attrition. if we get sequestration, that changes all that and there will be many forced out. that's why sequestration in my mind, is disastrous for us and affects our overall strategy. yes? >> give us a sense, please, about the role of heavy armor in the new defense strategy. how is it changing? as you know, the associated hardware is a topic of contention on the hill. >> yeah.

up through our anil sis we ha have -- analysis we have done hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours of analysis of what is happening in the last ten years and what we expect to happen in the future. we brought brigade and tank commanders and we determined there is a role for armor. there is a role for armor in the counterinsurgency and a role for orrer in the futch but it will continue to evolve. there will continue to be armor in the force. will we reduce the amount of armor? probably. as we come forward with the specific force mix. but we still need a combination of all of those capabilities. as we look to the future. >> coming up on the anniversary of being abducted in afghanistan and i believe his parents are supposed to come in soon for another update. do you meet with them, or would army leadership meet them? >> i met with them last time when they came in, and i talked with them and if they want to, i will meet with them again. >> can you give us an update where you see this search for bergdahl -- stands --

>> you have to have centcom. that's their requirement. we look at it, there's lots of work we never give up. lots of work being done. a lot of analysis being done to try to find where he is. we never, ever stop. i can tell you that much. i do get updates but centcom is responsible. i'd ask you to ask them that question. >> what about the original alliance model. what is your plan for rotational requirement -- >> well, two to one is what we shoot for. by the way, the first time last month, finally at a two to one rat ratio. first time we reached it. it has to do with officer reduction in iraq and continued in afghanistan. we'll have to see. i think we won't have that problem initially, but we will have rotational forces i believe

to support several combatant commands as we continue to develop those requirements and we'll have continuing rotation requirements in centcom, have some in u com. some in paycom. >> briefly, a question, in your clarification you mentioned ranger qualified. does that mean you're looking specifically at entrance into ranger school as opposed to entry into the ranger units themselves? >> i'm not sure i understand your question. >> you said 90% -- >> infantry officers are ranger qualified. so what we have to look at is so if -- you know, what i'm looking for is, if we decide sometime to put females in infantry we have to make sure they have the qualifications to be competitive in that branch. so we have to look at all of that. what i've asked them to do, take

a holistic look and see what it would look like and what are the requirements. that's what we're doing right now. >> i believe the secretary asked for recommendations by summer. >> there's several iterations of this. they're starting to look at it now. we'll get initial results this summer but continue to look at it, my guess, final results sometime in november. >> on brac, the hill's pretty resoundly rejected the idea at least for now. what happens for army? do you still pull troops back and leave empty buildings or does this change the whole -- >> i think for the army, we have to -- for brac, we have to do some things around the fringes for brac. we made some very significant changes in the last brac. and so with receipt ductiductio come out of major insulations. it won't be the closure of major

installations. we'll be okay. we are have supportive in a brac in '15. there are still some things we have to look at. specifically, ashe reserve and guard. we would like to do some things and are looking how we might be able to do a better job of consolidating for them, and there are other areas we might take a look at. for the most part in terms of reductions we're okay because most will happen on the larger ins stlugss. institutions. >> and the family survey listed, military families listed retirement benefits, health benefits and pay as top concerns. where do you stand whether changes need to be made as far as those areas are concerned? >> it's a very complex question. here's the bottom line is, the rate of increase for pay and benefits we cannot sustain the rate of entries. i'm not saying we'd reduce, we can't sustain the increase in benefits.

since 2000, the benefits doubled. until today. if that continues, we're not going to be able to afford the end strength that we have. so it's a trade-off between end strength and pay and benefits. we've got to slow the rate. and we're trying to find out what's the best way to do that? you've got to do a holistic review of all the benefits available. that's what we're trying to lack -- look at as we move forward. we're trying to honor the service and make they're share compensated for the sacrifice and the families that sacrificed. that's clearly in the back of our minds as you move forward. it's a very complex calculation that has to be done, and that's something we'll have to continue to look at was we move forward. >> so with -- women being able to, you know, researching whether women can some day be in the infantry, how is this going to -- how is this research going to be conducted? will they it be allowed to train this summer as infantry?

>> that's part of the recommendations that we'll give back. how we move towards it. we're going to move towards it. okay? it's how we do that and what do we have to do to make assessments, and that's what we're going to have to do as we move forward. >> you haven't decided how the -- >> what i've asked them to do, look at it and come back and lay out first how we want to do this. that should happen here over the next several months. >> thanks. >> okay. all right. thank you very much. have a great day. >> thank you.

arthur brooks author of "ed rote to freedom" argues government policies weakened entrepreneurship person responsibility and upward mobility. speaking at the american enterprise in washington, d.c. introducing him, eric cantor. you can see it live on book tv's website. booktv.org. >> when people are saying to him, don't take the vice presidency, right now you are the most, you are a powerful majority leader. don't take the vice presidency. you won't have any power. johnson says, power is where power goes. meaning, i can make power in any situation. his whole life, nothing in his life previously makes that seem

like he's -- that's exactly what he had done. all his life. >> sunday night, the conclusion of our conversation with robert caro on the passage of power. volume four in the years of lyndon johnson. his biography of the 36th president, sunday night on c-span's q&a. this memorial day weekend on c-span we'll take to you colleges and universities around country to hear commencement address frgs members of congress and the president's cabinet. state and local leaders and business executives. and we also want to hear from you about your commencement experience. did you graduate from college this year or attend the ceremony for a friend or family member? or maybe something about a past commencement sticks with you. we want 20 hear from you. call us and tell us your story. 202-643-3011, and we may use your comments on the air. that's 202-643-3011.

>> reading has become over the last 200 years the ultimate democratic act of the ultimate democratic country, because it makes it possible for the many to teach themselves what the few once held close. the president can quote mark twain, because he's read huck firn and the postman were understand the reference because he's read huck finn too. so that the big lies of demagoguery, although still possible, require a lot more stealth and cleverness, because with careful reading of books and newspapers and now material on the internet, their flaws are revealed to ordinary people like us. it wasn't for nothing that nazis made bonfires of books. in 1992, anna quinlan won a pulitzer prize for her columns on a wide range of personal and political topics. 's in a few weeks you can talk to the best-selling author on

book tv. sunday, june 3rd on c-span2s in-depth. get a head start by watching some of her other comments over the years on line at the c-span video library. on her e blooe beliefs and convictions. this is c-span3 with politics and pub lk affaic affa programming throughout the week. and people and events telling the american story on americans hadtry tv. get our schedules and see past programs on our websites, and you can join in the conversation on social media sites. c-span's congressional directory is a complete guide to the 112th congress. inside you'll find each member of the house and senate including contact information, district maps and committee assignments. also information on cabinet member, supreme court justices and the nation's governors. you can pick up a copy for

$12.95 plus shipping and handling at c-span.org/shop. senator barbara boxer of california chairs the committee working on legislation dealing with the nation's roads, bridges and mass transit. yesterday she said she's optimistic that the house and senate can come to an agreement on the bill. her news conference this afternoon was about 15 minutes. >> hi, everybody. i want to try to complete this before i have to go down for the next vote. so i'll talk fast. at the opening of the surface transportation bill conference on may 8th, i said i'd give regular updates on the progress conferees are making and so here i am to talk to you about the progress. i'm not going to be addressing

specific negotiations between the conferees but i can tell you we have moved past the organizational stage. we've already had about 20 hours of meetings to date, staff to staff, and we are now working on the substance of the bill. so staff has been meeting every day on all the issues. we broke down into groups roughly centered around our committees. for example, obviously, you'd have senator baucus working on the pay-for the. senator rockefeller transportation safety. you have myself on the core bill, highways, bridges. you'd have the banking committee dealing with transit, and then the, the other issues we've broken down. there are other issues. restore act. and excel, and colash and pilt,

payment in lieu of taxes, and various items in the store act will be handled by myself and senator baucus, and that gives you a sense of the way we've broken it down.chairman mike ane been in touch by phone. we actually had meetings face-to-face on thursday and i will be briefing members, all of them, this week. so the process has been very inclusive, and i expect that to lead to a good result. every conferee involved from the freshman to the most senior at this point through the staffs and then again thursday personal meetings. i'm also doing one-on-one discussions in my office, having coffee, doing meetings with individual member whose have specific issues they want to talk about. so i'm optimistic, the conferees

will reach agreement on this bill and the reason is, again, we are starting from a very bipartisan senate bill, map 21, which passed 74-22. it has many proposals the house supports including an expanded tiffia, which as you well know, is a leveraging mechanism we use that will create a million new jobs. we also have program consolidations, we have given the states more flexibility. a lot of reforms. no earmarks. these are all things the house wants to see happen as well. the conference was up and running in record time, because this bill is so important to our workers, our businesses and our economy. and we have a june 30th deadline. that's critical. that's when the current transportation ex-tentension exs and we all know extensions are a death mill for jobs and businesses in our country.

there's another reason i'm quite optimistic about this, and i'm going lay it out for you to see. two days ago the chamber of commerce wrote an op-ed piece in politico, and they wrote a, frankly, a powerful, powerful piece that i think speaks to every member, and they talk about how -- i'm quoting, draconian cuts to the budget are dangerous and disruptive for transit systems that are in need of significant upgrades and they talk about the disarray of the infrastructure. they say that without a successful highway conference, they say, congress would have to cut high rate transit and 15i69y programs by 60% according to analysis by the american association of state highway and transportation officials. so they couldn't be stronger, and i would strongly suggest you might take a look at this op-ed

piece that ran on the 13th of may. so they're very, very clear, and they call, they talk about how giving all of the authority back to the states simply won't work. so that's a reason i'm very optimistic, because obviously, we have the vast majority of democrats in favor of, you know, the senate bill, and we have a tremendous support of republicans. tremendous support of republicans in the senate, and, really, we have to persuade the house republicans and the chamber of commerce has been very supportive of house republicans in every way you can think of, and in addition, today and hot off the press, and it was embargoed until 5, 10 minutes ago, a historic letter. you can get a copy of it. i believe we have copies for you. a communication to the conference on the reauthorization of the surface transportation program. i would tell you that the list,

that these groups, it's almost unheard of that many of these groups would be on the same letter, and as you listen to these names of these groups and you hear the message, you'll see why i'm optimistic that we'll get a conference report. messag message to get a conference report. first message on be 1/2 of our surface oour -- behalf of our organizations we urge you to before the entire expires on june 30th. the american economy is at risk and the nation is falling further behind on our infrastructure needs. the nation's economy is at a critical stage and this bill can be a major factor in insuring strength in the overall economy. and they say a few more things and then they conclude. again, this legislation must be

passed before the june 30th deadline. and i'm going to now tell you who signed this letter. the american association of state highway and transportation officials. the national asphalt pavement association, the american trucking association. i just had a meeting with them in my office. they are so strongly behind this bill. the american society of civil engineers. the association of equipment manufacturers. the associated general contractors of america. the national stone sand and gravel association. american council of engineering companies. american road and transportation builder's association. transportation department of the aflcio. the labor s international union of north america. the national association of manufacturers. american public transportation association. american highway alliance.

international bridge turn pike association and associated equipment distributors. these groups and all of their logos are on this. and i will make sure that the members of the conference committee receive this letter along with the op-ed. i would say to you i'm working on a parallel strategy. one is an inside and one is an outside. the inside is to make sure everyone is involved, everyone participates, everyone is walked through the bill, everyone gets their questions answered and gets to put their ideas on the table. the outside strategy is to continue to encourage these organizations to weigh in. i'm happy to take whatever questions you have. wait a second i will be right

there. the house included a bill so it's in both bills so it will be included exactly how it all comes out is what we are going to be talking about. i fully support every part of the restore act. it's hugely important for the gulf states. it has an ocean's trust fund and a piece that deals with the land and water conservation fund. >> you had said that you have been talking to certain on the transportation and you generally encouraged. can you talk specifically about the involvement? >> sure. i'm not treating the freshman any different. my door is open to everybody. i am having individual meetings with those who have asked for those and reached out to me and a couple of those are freshmen.

i'm encouraged because of the two reasons. one, the fact that we do have this very important coalition that's very active in everyone of their states and everyone of our states. so we all have a lot on the line. i have said this numerous times so forgive me if it is boring to you. i always think of this as 12 super bowl stadiums full of people all unemployed construction workers. that image in my mind drives me forward. i'm hoping it is driving them forward, too. everyone of us gets thousands and thousands and thousands of jobs from this bill and thousands of businesses will be saved, rescued and kept going and new businesses will spring up as a result. every member on that committee has my deep respect. they got there because the leadership chose them. we are all working together. i am an open door to all of them

including the freshman. >> very important and that's on one of the -- i'm on that particular -- i'm heading that working group along with max baucus to get that done. >> can you categorize the attitude of the conference? >> something like this i think has tremendous appeal. restore act has tremendous appeal. i really do believe that. i think we'll help be an engine to get this over the line. >> it's been reported this week that you are confident that the keystone won't be involved -- >> i never said that. >> can you give us an update? >> sure. we haven't gotten down to the

area of disagreement and we will let you know how we resolve things. >> can democrats live with the transportation with keystone in it? >> we already got a vote and didn't get through 60. we have to figure out a way to get through that hurdle. we haven't gotten down to that. what we are doing is walking through the bill and getting the areas of agreement. and that's what we're doing. >> you just said 60 votes was the hurdle there. i thought -- >> they didn't get 60 votes. they needed 60 and didn't get it. i'm in a conference representing the senatism what i said from the start is if you load this up with controversy that can't get through either house it is a problem. we have to find the sweet spot

so we can get 60 votes. if somebody doesn't like it they filibuster it. >> you are not saying that there is going to be a keystone in the final bill, right? >> i'm not saying anything about keystone other than they are on the table and we are working on all of these issues. we haven't yet come to the final agreement. we have been in negotiation for a week and it has been a walk through and now we are getting to it. when we resolve these issues i will be explaining them to you. i will be here every week once a week until we get this done. >> on this issue, any members that have said that keystone is a nonstarter? >> no. no one has laid a line in the sand. people said why did you call such a big conference? to hear from everybody. i had a reason. i wanted to hear what they said. what i thought was most

encouraging was i didn't hear anybody say if i don't get my way on this i'm out of here. i didn't hear that from anybody. i'm happy about that because i think it gives us a chance to work together. we have to meet each other somewhere in the center. we cannot stay in our corners. how did we ever get a bill that was agreed to by baucus and vitter, by sanders and sessions? this isn't easy. you've got to listen to each other and work together. that's what i plan to do in this conference. >> the industry has wanted this bill. september 30th, 2013 is that the limit? >> no. i talked to chairman mikey yesterday and we agreed we need

to find the funding. if we find the funding we will do a longer bill. i am very optestic on the funding side. i want the longest bill we can get that we can pay for because we need time to figure out the long-term solution to how to fund transportation. we are going to have to come up with that. so obviously we need a breather to sit back and look at how we are going to do that especially with cars doing better and better on fuel economy which we all support we know we will have to find another mechanism. >> anyone else seeing you on thursday? anyone else book some time? >> everybody is invited to the briefing. i have several meetings set up for this week. i don't think it is necessary to say when weather whom. i have several meetings and i will continue those as the days go by. thank you very