taken seriously the recommendations from the gao, and we have already implemented a lot of the changes or the im3r06789s that he identified with respect to scheduling and reporting and another thing that i would say is that i think that the largest risk to that october 2015 launch date right now is again with stability associated with the funding. again, because of where we are today at 615 and needing to go to 800 -- 803 in the next fiscal year and if we are under a continuing resolution it is going to impact the ability to maintain the october '15 launch date and the items of readiness he pointed out. >> that makes sense. it is gratifying to hear about your partnership with noaa on the joint polar satellite. i want to get a feel for how you

plan to achieve that? are the roles and the decision making authority and the governance and oversight clear? in other words, are these clear between the two agencies? >> yes. in fact, i think that one -- since the separation between the defense and the civilian side for weather satellites, if you look at the overall performance that we, noaa and nasa, have been able to achieve first and foremost with maintaining that we would launch on time in the october 2011 time period, we maintain that schedule. when you look across the schedules associated with the jpss-one we are currently on track, and we share meetings together, key decision points are jointly chaired between our respective agencies, and our programs are fully integrated at a green tech facility outside of goddard space flight center and the teams are working extremely well and it is a very good

partnership. >> if i may mr. mcinerney, i would endorse marcus's comment, because there is a 40-year long partnership between nasa and noaa and providing the nation with weather satellites. we came back to that model in essence with the unwinding of the n-pose program and if i could use the analogy since jpss moved out of the dysfunctional household of npos, we have a new team aboard and they have set fresh marks and again in the 13 months i have been around they have been con ssistently meetin the marks. we see great value and productivity in the partnership and in the taxpayer and not with a top notch acquisition within noaa when we have an outstanding one in the partner agency. >> okay. one more question, mr. chairman. has there been analysis of the anticipated operational period of the npp at slight, and what

terms in the continuing performance of that instrument? >> i will take the beginning of that. again, the npp spacecraft was developed for a five-year life, and, you know, we have launched it last october. the calibration validation period is going along as planned and in fact, we are a little ahead of schedule with some of the products that have already been received well by the national weather service and implemented into the algorithms that have led towards additional forecasting capabilities. the checkout across all of the instruments is looking good. and the satellite is operating well. again, you know, there are issues that you have the first time you are flying in the spacecraft and this is not to be operational initially, but we haven't seen anything that is outside of the ordinary with launching of the new satellite. >> and the ground system is performing well, and we are making progress towards adding,

again, the redundancy and the i.t. security and robustness that we need to have in place when jpss-1 comes along to meet the critical ti requirements that noaa has. it was remarked and i forget by whom earlier in the hearing that none of the instruments on npp are performing as they should. i would ask mr. watkins to correct me if i misstate anything, but my tracking of the technical data is that all of them are in fact performing at or above spec with some anomalies that are needing to be worked out, but the technical team has shown a good accumen to jump on top of those and digging down to understanding the root causes and developing the corrective actions which is the what you do with the space systems. >> thank you. my time is up. >> thank you very much. i want to thank the witnesses for the valuable testimony and the members for the questions and the members of either subcommittee may have additional questions for the witnesses, and we will ask you to respond to those in writing. the record will remain open for two weeks for additional

comments from the witnesses. the committee is now adjourned and the committee is adjourned. >> i would like to assure you that we will be timely with the responses. >> thank you very much. send the message to the epa while you are there. next on c-span3, a veterans panel investigates marketing practices by educational institutions to u.s. veterans. and then senator kelly ayotte talks about budget cuts. officer david petruzza talks about the president. >> harry truman goes to the white house and says to eleanor roosevelt, can i pray for you. she says, no, we need to pray

for you. >> their campaigns -- >> there are a lot of promises made. he said he would have to rent a very large hall and very much larger than this one to get all of the people that jack kennedy promised the vice presidency to that year. >> and the ideals -- >> calvin coolidge may have been the last jeffersonian. he believed in the limits of governmental power and particularly of federal power to resist the temptation to extend it. >> this sunday on book tv, your questions and comments for david petruzza live and in depth. also, middle east expert on the obama's response to the arab spring, afghanistan, iraq and the palestinian peace process which is sunday night at 9:00, part of book tv this weekend on c-span 2. next, a house panel examines veterans education issues, including deceptive targeting practices by some educational

institutions. last april president obama signed an executive order aimed at protecting veterans at such practices. this veterans subcommittee hearing is 2 1/2 hours. good afternoon, everyone. could you please take your seats. we are going to go ahead and get started. we are going to have votes probably within the next hour or so, so i think that we will go ahead and start the committee hearing. i want the well come everybody to the subcommittee on economic opportunity. to our oversight hearing and we will be examining the executive order 13607 and the impact on schools and veterans. as you all likely know there has been considerable discussion on the other side of capitol hill and in the press of instances of questi questionable practices by schools as well as the need to inkre

increase transparency to the operations of colleges and universities. president obama recently issued an executive order directing v.a., department of education and d.o.d. to take steps to improve the information and seriser i have -- services available to veterans and police and the college market. we are hearing the remarks of those officials. i would like to know if they contain some of the recommendations that we had earlier. for myself, i am open to things that will add to the veterans' ability to make informed choices while not reinventing the wheel. for example, the department of education's college navigator website has 272 categories of data, many of which are further subdivided by various

demographic and financial subcategories. after reviewing the categories, other than the number of veterans attending a school, i believe it would be the rare veteran who would need more information to choose a school than now contained in the 272 data points. before we begin with the first panel, i'd like to note that in reviewing today's testimonies, several witnesses have testified that there needs to be a coordinated evident on the part of the various oversight organizations. in my opinion, this subcommittee's role in that effort should begin with insuring that the membership of the v.a.'s advisory committee reflects that need. we must also insure that the advisory committee has the opportunity to present its views on these types of issues to the secretary and congress as required by 38usc-3692. i am disappointed since congress revised the committee's membership in public law 1

111-275, the committee has not met in the last year and possibly longer and i hope that the director will inform us of his plans to make use of the advisory committee. also in reviewing the membership of the advisory committee i think that we should consider bringing in experts in compliance and enforcement, and i look forward to working the ranking member in the subcommittee to enhancing the role of the advisory committee and i recognize the distinguished ranking member for the remarks and i would note as a graduate of both iowa state university and the university of iowa, he probably has no problem getting tickets for the autumn civil war, and i'm not sure which city it is, and i would not put you on you which team ycity you are ro for since it is an election year. >> well, thank you for the gracious introduction and it is true that i have degrees from both fine institutions. i spent four years at one and two years at one. i was a walk-on under coach earl

bruce, and so it is a matter of basic math for me. you can figure that out. and so i look forward to the committee and discussing the president's executive order and everybody knows that the purpose of the post 9/11 g.i. bill is to provide veterans and their dependents with a higher education. we continue to provide oversight of the generous veteran benefit which i was proud to implement. we owe it to the veterans and the taxpayers to make sure that the money spent for this program is spent wisely. veterans deserve to have accessible standardized information regarding education, institutions and degree programs in order to make informed choices on how to get the best education that they have certainly earned under the post g.i. bill, and the post 9/11 g.i. bill. unfortunately, i have heard reports of aggressive and

deceptive practices targeting the veterans by some educational institutions and as u.s. supreme court justice louie brandeis said "sunlight is the best disinfectant." i agree and i'm pleased that the administration is the trying to address the abuses, and the executive orders to provide veterans and service providers with the intoformation they -- information they need and the to decide on the course of study that is right for them. we know that the executive order was prompted in part by a call of action by 13 different veterans and service member groups when they wrote a memo called the military and veteran students educational bill of rights that i hold in my hand. the order establishes principles for excellence, for educational institutions, and these principles provide added endorsement, oversight and most importantly transparency for prospective students seeking to

use their post 9/11 g.i. bill benefits. these principles would require that educational institutions collect and provide information to help prospeckty students to make an informed decision while helping in an educational program, and that students will provide detailed information such as no before you owe form which discloses information about tuition and fees and financial aid and estimated student loan debt upon graduation and graduation rats.s these principles will aid in making informed educational decisions, and by providing needed information in an easily accessible form, this is going to curb fly by night techniques and add protection to service members whose deployment may require short absences. this is a fashipassion of mine i came to congress and that is why i introduced and the president signed into law the plain language and communications act requiring every federal agency, including the veterans administration to

write forms, brochures and pamphlets and other information in language that is intended audience can understand. a practice that has been horrendous in most federal agencies until that bill became law. we know that the information is critical for the veterans, and good number of them may be the first in the families to attend college. that's why we need to provide them and all veterans with the tools they need to work their way through this sometimes confusing application process. i don't think that there is any such thing as too much information to provide veterans and service members making decisions that will affect the rest of their lives. i look forward to hearing from the witnesses today, and i look forward to working with you, mr. chairman, as we try to make sure that all veterans, everyone utilizing the benefits has the information they need to make informed choices that are sound investments of the taxpayer resources and i yield back.

>> thank you mr. brayly. at this point i ask for unanimous consent to enter the statements from several different organizations, the rand corporation for the american council on education, mr. steve gonzalez of the american legion, mr. ted dewalt from vet jobs, mr. patrick be bellan from vets with common sense, and paralyzed veterans of america and the military officers association into the record. there are tables outside of the hearing room if there are objections. hear n hearing no objections, we will continue. our first panel consist of mr. joe winn, mr. ryan galucci from the veteran of foreign wars and also a michael dakdut.

as the panelists take your seats, i would ask you to limit your oral statements to the five minutes allotted so that the panel has sufficient time for questions. let's begin with mr. winn. you are recognized for five minutes. >> thank you. good afternoon, chairman stutzman and ranking member brayley, and fellow veterans and guests. let me first thank you for the opportunities to come before you on behalf of the veterans organizations they represent to share our views on the president's recent executive order 13607. this order is a generous step towards offering for-profit colleges and institutions that receive g.i. bill funding for students and veterans an opportunity to improve their r performance before laws are passed that will impose more severe regulatory remedies. though my time in service was many years ago as a vietnam era

veteran in the u.s. air force, i have vivid memories of the military experience, and i remember quite well the tough time i had finding employment after going to a for profit institution that provided no placement assistance or counseling though theyed a veer tized they would. my experience serves as an example of what many veterans from iraq and afghanistan are going through now. ongoing analysis being done by the u.s. senate's health committee and other organizations shows students at for profit colleges have lower graduation rates and employment outcomes with better outcomes and defaults. they are raising the costs which are higher than for profit services and these are because students who need supportive services receive one quarter of the funding from federal aid. it appears to be the federal aid dollars that has led many of the

admission officers to use aggressive strategies to target students using the g.i. bill for funding. you see the g.i. bill benefits do not count as federal educational benefits under the department of education's 9010 rule a longstanding requirement that no more than 90% of a for profit's college's revenues can come from federal financial aid. in light of the findings, this is downright troubling to read news that for-profit colleges are allowed to continue predatory and fraudulent practices with little or no accountability. i agree with the president's executive order that when it comes to the shopping for an education of veterans, should not be treated as if they are buying a used car. they need to be given all of the information regarding tuition and fees up front before they are enrolling in a program of study. they should not be burdened with additional fees after completion of the program or fees not covered by other funding sources. i also agree with the president's executive order wrin

veterans should be made well aware of the quality of the education offer and the potential for employment when they successfully complete the program. counselors should be readily available to provide financial and educational advice. this is as president obama attempts to establish a policy that ensures that the nation's service members and spouses are not deceived by for-profit colleges. if for-profit colleges plan to achieve the goals proposed in the executive order, compliance should not be difficult. though i suspect that it will be some resistance since doing the right thing will undoubtedly affect the bottom line, less profit. if this order will serve to improve the likelihood of success for our veterans, it will obviously be well received by them, and perhaps more of them will become gainfully employed or start their own small businesses. the executive order does not address the 9010 rule, and until

that law is changed, g.i. benefits will be targeted for-profit colleges for sure. an enforcement rule needs to be strengthened and underpinning legislation appears to strengthen the principles princ efforts referred to in the executive order. in conclusion, since our young men and women stepped up to serve this country following the devastating attack of our nation on 9/11, many who returned displayed honor and valor during their service for this country. they don't deserve to be taken advantage of. every effort should be made by every institution, governmental agency and commercial enterprise to be sure these veterans

receive all the benefits that they deserve. congress needs to implement laws to stop the predatory practices being demonstrated by for-profit colleges and institutions and to re-enforce the principles of excellent as put forward in this executive order for the benefit of our families and our community, this concludes our statement and i respectfully request that my oral and written statements be submitted for the record. >> chairman stuttsman, thank you for the opportunity to share our thoughts on the president's recent executive order

addressing consumer protection concerns for today's student veterans. in this time i ask the committee to refer to my full prepared station. recent senate investigations and gao reports that some schools make a concerted effort to attract veterans into their programs with no intention of providing quality education. the vfw has seen numerous efforts from both congress and the military to scale back educational benefit programs which is why we continue to fight for the landmark education for veterans. the vfw has worked diligently to improve student schools who may have been victims of fraud, waste or abuse. in around the vfw co-authored a

letter. we are glad to see that everyone listened to our collective voice. today we also applaud the president in taking a boltd first step in making sure that veterans receive the quality education we promised. the executive order is naturally subject to state law which means that bills must be passed in a timely matter so that our -- executive action can also be limited in scope and progress can be difficult to assess which is why the vfw feel an advisory committee should be formed to help monitor the situation. as the agencies responsible for executing the president's ground

work, first, the vfw understands that schools may face additional administrative hurdles. the vfw suggest that the va adopt what is in the dod. this will minimize administrative burden. second the vfw supports the idea of providing data comparison tools through e benefits but a simple link to college navigator isn't sufficient. the government should identify at least 10 data points. third the vfw must clarify that the anonymous complaint process means only that the va must protect only the personally -- the veteran has exercised proper

chains of authority before seeking va intervention. we must also clarify that this is a tool to collect relevant information on the -- still serve as the primary enforcers, reasonably resolving complaints at the local level. the vfw was not want to see archaic protocols. the vfw calls for an additional hearing. as a result of unclear regulations, the vfw believes that valuable resources are going to be be cutting down on unrelated tasks. we must solve this confusion in the short-term. the post-9/11 gi bill stands to be -- we must protect this benefit at all costs. unfortunately, the vfw and our partners have felt hamstrung by an overwhelming lack of quality

information to confirm fraud, waste or abuse or to determine veteran students success. the bills currently before congress will help to gather this kind of data, and fostering veteran's success in the class room. we hope it will motivate -- offering our student veterans the quality education we promised. this concludes my statement and i'm happy to answer any questions you may have. >> thank you, mr. tom tarantino, you're recognized for five minutes. >> mr. chairman, and ranking members of our committee, on behalf of our veterans and supporters, thank you for inviting me to testify on the president's executive order establishing principals of excel license for education. it will help empower student veterans make educational choices that meet their needs.

we believe that with proper implementation this order will begin to provide veterans and their families with clarity about our educational choices. by signing this executive order, the president has initiated a process that if addressed by legislation alone, the various agencies would have had to wait months to begin working on it. we firmly believe that sound implementation of this executive order, will provide timely clarity for student veterans. in order to achieve success, we must address two questions. what are the outcomes that consumers need to make sound choices and how are benefits, and/or federal aid how will they pay for education that veterans and student members needs. for most choosing a school -- schools are required to report

hundreds of data points to college navigator, it does not simple size -- even a cursor review of college favor navigator. when yujing college navigator to compare like programs, the data often doesn't match up. unfortunately some of these schools use -- executive order has been necessarily cleaning up bad reporting it will expose schools that are -- even if this executive order coupled with legislation fixes errors and inconsistencies with student outcome data, we must tie that data to a tool that student veterans can use to determine what benefits or aid they are eligible for and how they're going to use it to help fund their education. nothing like this calculator

currently exists from the va or department of education, identifying metrics students can use to choose a college is important, but this must be coupled with the opportunity on how they could use their benefits to achieve their goals. searching gi bill on google reveals pages of deceptive websites. veteran who is submit their information to these websites are often subject to aggressive recruiting and harassment. i am concerned that there is no instruction in the executive order to protect websites like gi -- almost a million veterans have used the gib to gather information about changing to the gi bill. when implementing this order, there must be clearly