so i think putting that all together, there is -- i see stronger signs of a desire to find some agreement than in a readiness to use force to get a

maximum outcome. >> so this lady here with the glasses, and after her we'll go to the gentleman. >> hi i'm teresa wilmer-hutchins, and i'm at the center for international student dees studies for maryland. given all the action in uukraine, what are your directions for u.s. policy? >> i have some recommendations. i think we should support ukraine very strongly financially, i think we should support ukraine very strongly militarily. i think the international community should do both of those things, those of us who know better about the financial problems ukraine faces. so we ought to be their support. we should also defend and beef up the defenses in the nato nations that border russia.

so that's an important -- if we're trying to deter the russians from doing what they've been doing, that is, first invading crimea and then invading the southeastern part of ukraine and we don't want them to do that more, then we need to push back and we need to push back by reinforcing militarily the countries that are in nato on the periphery. we need to support ukraine and we need to provide the ukranians weapons in order to resist. >> there you go. would you like to -- >> yes. i'd like to add in addition to bill's prescription a different perspective. and here i think my position is somewhat like that of anglo anglo amako. we have to realize it's the undermining of the european system. it isn't just ukraine. it is the question of all the agreements that have been broken, all of the solemn commitments, and quite frankly, a lot of the ease with which we have lived in the last 20 or 25

years has led to an expectation that this would continue forever forever. and we have to realize, this is a political problem that is of enormous significance and that will only be solved when we come to a political solution. and that, so far as i can see at the moment is not on the horizon. so we better think very hard if only because we would have lost an enormous amount of effort. and we may, in the process, destroy the economy of both ukraine and russia after we have spent 25 years trying to bring them into the community of nations. >> so this gentleman here on the aisle, please, and then we'll move there. >> i'm a student and i want to bring it back to the point that the lady from george mason had regarding instability and reform in the progress of the

situation. the eu and is as nato and the european union as a total have been using a carrot stick in the balkans to push for reforms and things like that. in a lot of the countries in the past 10 years there's been extreme backsliding. how do we avoid that in the ukraine and push the situation in the balkans? >> i think perhaps just to continue my last comment, what we did was we relaxed. we thought if we paid them enough money they would simply, in their prosperity do what we wanted them to do sort of naturally. it doesn't work like that. nobody has spent either the time or, quite frankly, the commitment of their own defense budgets or their overseas aid budgets to the extent that was necessary to sustain the commitments that we made. and until we do that we can't

be surprised at the results. >> so the ukranian reforms are difficult. they're very difficult for the government to undertake. so there needs to be something out there, there needs to be a carrot out there. and one thing that could be out there which european don't like to hear is a ue membership, there could be a nato membership membership. if we could have something out there, not immediately because as we said earlier, it will take a lot of time to meet the standards. that was the motivation for a lot of the eastern europeans to do the difficult economic reforms in order to do the eu. ukraine could be offered the same. >> over here, please? >> sam terrup international studies. how strong in a regional and

global context are the regional divides that you demonstrated to us today? is this -- do you see divisions like this based on regions of other countries on big issues that countries are facing and is ukraine particularly regionally divided if you look in a regional or global context based on your experience working in other countries? >> we have done surveys around the world as part of the world public opinion data network and ukraine has been part of that network and surveyed over 20 nations. and as we were going along we always were surprised at how heterogenius ukraine was. this is very unusual. if you look around the united states, you would be be amazed how humble genius the united

states is. people have this idea of other parts of the country, but there is tremendous amounts of similarity, and that is normal. so this is extremely unusual. and it has always looked to us like a precarious state. and so it's really not surprising that things are breaking up the way they are. and i can only underscore in terms of policy implications, that that should only be understood how precarious it is, and just getting a majority or something like that, that's probably not going to create consensus because -- across the nation as a whole because they're in different parts of the country chunks of the country where the majority is really opposed then you really have potential for instability. >> excellent point. this gentleman on the aisle, please? >> question for steve, i think,

mainly, in that the numbers you have shown us suggest to me that the most likely outcome is a frozen conflict unlike all those others we've seen before around the borders of russia. so why isn't the model something more like muldova, something more like georgia and these other places where the frozen conflicts go on and on without any real resolution? of course, the implications of that are fairly clear. they don't need to be sketched out. >> i think others here may be able to better comment, but, yes, the majorities across the country supporting the minsk agreement suggests this is going to be some kind of framework, and the emphasis in the eastern regions on having some kind of autonomy along the lines that are referenced there. i don't know if you need to

think of it as strictly frozen. i see the elements of basically some kind of agreement not necessarily full-scale federalism, but just some kind of greater autonomy so that -- one of the key questions, why do people in the east -- what is it they're really afraid of right? and i have to say, we haven't fully defined that. but the numbers to me suggest that they could get to comfort with that, and that those in the west could get to comfort with this greater autonomy so that the elements are here of some agreement that is organic, that there were people to get to something that feels something like normalcy. >> i would agree, it doesn't have to be a frozen conflict.

just as steve says, the minsk agreement, if fully implemented would not lead to a frozen conflict. that is, there would be some additional autonomy not yet defined. not just for others in the country. but also in the minsk agreement is the withdrawal of foreign forces. that means russian forces. if that happens, then there can also be the osce monitoring the border between russia and ukraine so that the russian forces can't continue to come in, and that means then that the government in cave would control the entire area. then you can have the elections i talked about earlier. so it doesn't have to be a frozen conflict. now, there is skepticism whether the agreement would last. but if it were fully

implemented, it wouldn't have to be frozen. [ inaudible question ] >> so if you couldn't hear, he said the point is there will be continuing russian interference. >> jim this is what i mean about the political solution that there has to be an overarching political solution that perhaps would give -- to take bill's scenario -- a ce different powers or be backed by something other than than it is at the moment. but it's going to take a long time. i also think this feeling of ukraineness, which is different from muldova transvistra. transvistra is not stretching muldovaness. it's a russian outpost as far as some of the russian inhabitants

are concerned. i also think you're talking about enormous cultural and religious differences that have been there and recognized for a long time. this isn't the case. this isn't that kind of huge walls that have been there for three centuries. i think we have reason to be more optimistic but we're going to have to work at it. >> nobody seems to be rushing for the exit, so i think we can get away with one more question. how about here on the aisle? >> hi. i'm at u.s. mission to the osce. going along to his point, i completely agree. i have a little bit more of a pessimistic view on this in that russia's goal is where they can defacto the east to use as a veto to control the region. what do you think about that? >> that might be russia's goal,

but it doesn't mean they get there. >> that's why i'm a little bit pessimistic, because i see this neutrality where people aren't sure where they want to go. i'm worried we'll see a lack of will from the west where they also say they don't know where they want to go, and russia can use this to leverage and influence the country. >> i would emphasize that the more ukraine moves westward, the greater the opportunities are for russia to try to influence the eastern part of the country because you're going to have more alienated people in the eastern part of the country. to the extent that people in the east have assurances that they're not going to be pulled kicking and screaming into europe, the less russia will have a source -- >> we'll leave the last few moments of this and take you live to hear secretary of state john kerry. he'll be talking about climate change and global energy use.

he's at the atlantic council in oregon live on cspan3. >> distinguished ambassadors who are here this morning thank you for taking time to represent your countries to come here and share your concern about this critical issue. and i'm delighted to be accompanied by our envoy on climate who has been toiling away in the fields for a long time now and helping to shape president obama's and the state department's policy on this. todd stern, thanks for your many efforts on it. fred, thank you for your leadership here at the atlantic council. i think fred has demonstrated that he seems to always have the ability to have his finger on the most critical issues of the day, not just today, actually but of tomorrow. and as a result we can always count on the atlantic council to be ahead of the curve and to be challenging all of us to think. so we appreciate very much what

you do and thank you, all of you, who are on the board and/or part of and committed to the efforts of the council. i have to add, you also have an impeccable eye for talent. i was not surprised to hear that you had the good sense to hire one of the most experienced global energy experts and a good friend of mine in massachusetts, and now that he's the director of the new global energy center, you couldn't be in better hands. and secondly, my former legislative assistant on energy and climate and then went to the white house, heather zeickel, is part of this great family on effort in climate. i think we're kind of a family this morning in fact. it's clear that from venezuela to iraq to ukraine, there is no shortage of energy challenges in the world today and we've had

many conversations recent. recently i was in brussels. we had a summit where we laid out an agenda on how we can liberate these countries from their one-country dependency such as russia and for others it has huge strategic importance. at the time of the list of energy challenges is climate change. that is why the road to paris series, the one posted by the senator, is so very important. i'm delighted to be here and be a part of it. as fred mentioned, climate change is an issue that is personal to me. and it has been since the 1980s when we were organizing the very first climate hearings in the senate. in fact, it really predates that, going back to earth day when i had come back from vietnam, it's the first political thing i began to organize in massachusetts.

when citizens started to make a solid statement in this country. and i might add this was before we had a clean water act or safe drinking water act or coastal zone manager act. it all came out of that kind of citizen movement. and that's what we have to be involved in now. and the reason for that is simple. for decades now the science has been screaming at us warning us, trying to compel us to act. and i just want to underscore that for a moment. it may seem, you know obvious to you, but it isn't to some. science is and has long been crystal clear when it comes to climate change. al gore, tim worth and a group of us organized first hearings in the senate on this 1988. we heard jim stanton stand in front of us and tell us it's happening now, 1988.

so we're not talking about news reports or blogged posts or even speeches that some cabinet secretary might give in a think tank. we're talking about a fact-based, evidence-supported, peer-reviewed science. and yet if you listen to some people in washington or elsewhere, you would think there is a question about whether climate change really is a problem, or whether we really need to respond to it. so stop for a minute and just think about the basics. when an apple falls from a tree, it will drop toward the ground. we know that because of the basic laws of physics. science tells us that gravity exists. and no one disputes that. science also tells us when water temperature drops below 32 degrees fahrenheit, it turns to ice. no one disputes that. so when science tells us that

our climate is changing and human beings are largely causing that change by what right do people stand up and just say, well, i dispute that. or i deny that elementary truth. and yet there are those who do so. literally a couple of days ago, i read about some state officials who are actually trying to ban the use of the term climate change in public documents because they're not willing to face the facts. now, folks we literally do not have the time to waste debating whether we can say climate change. we have to talk about how we solve climate change. because no matter how much people want to bury their heads in the sand, it will not alter the fact that 97% of peer-reviewed climate studies confirm that climate change is happening and that human activity is largely responsible.

i have been involved in public policy debates now for 40-plus years, whatever, since the 1960s. it is rare rare rare i can tell you after 28 years-plus in the senate, to get a supermajority of studies to agree on anything. but 97% over 20-plus years? that is a dramatic statement of fact that no one of good conscience has a right to ignore. but what's really troubling is that those same scientists are telling us what's going to happen. not just the fact of it being there, but they're telling us what's coming at us. these scientists also agree that if we continue to march like robots down the path that we're on, the world as we know it will be transformed dramatically for the worse.

and we can expect sea levels will continue rising to dangerous levels. we will see nations moved as a consequence in the pacific and elsewhere. bangladesh countries that are low, we will see large swaths of cities and even some countries underwater. we can expect more intense and frequent weather events like hurricanes and typhoons. we can expect disruptions to global agriculture sector that will threaten job security for millions of farmers and undermine food security for millions of families. we can expect prolonged droughts and resource shortages which have the potential to fan the flames of conflict in areas that are already troubled by longstanding political, economic, religious idealogical, sectarian disputes. imagine when they're complicated by the absence of water and food. these are the consequences of

climate change. and this is the magnitude of what we're up against. and measured against the array of global threats that we face today, and there are many, terrorism, extremism, epidemics, poverty, all things that respect no borders. climate change belongs on that very same list. it is, indeed, one of the biggest threats facing our planet today. and even top military personnel have designated it as a security threat to not just the united states but the world. and no one who has truly considered the science no one who has truly listened objectively to our national security experts could reach a different conclusion. so yes, this is personal to me. but you know what? the bottom line is it ought to be personal to everybody. every man, woman child,

businessperson, student grand parent, wherever we live whatever our calling, whatever our personal background might be this issue affects everyone on the planet. and if any challenge requires global cooperation and urgent action, this is it. make no mistake. this is a critical year. and that is why this road to paris series is so important. the science tells us we still have a window of time to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. but that window is closing quickly. we're already in a mode where we're looking at mitigation, not just prevention. in december the world will come together at the u.n. climate conference in paris and we will see whether or not we can muster the collective political will to reach an ambitious

comprehensive agreement. now, even those of us who are most involved in the negotiations, and todd and i have talked about this and talked about it with the president. we all understand. we even know the agreement we're trying to reach in paris will not completely and totally be able to eliminate the threat. it's not going to. but it is an absolutely vital first step, and it would be a breakthrough demonstration that countries across the globe now recognize the problem and the need for each and every one of us to contribute to a solution. and it will set the market moving. it will change attitudes. it will change governments. and then progressively, no one can quite measure what the exponential productivity of all that effort will produce. so we have nine short months to come together around the kind of agreement that will put us on the right path. now, rest assured, not a threat but a statement of fact, if we

fail future generations will not and should not forgive those who ignore this moment, no matter their reasoning. future generations will judge our effort not just as a policy failure but as a collective, moral failure of historic consequence. and they will want to know how world leaders could possibly have been so blind or so ignorant or so idealogical or so dysfunctional. and frankly so stubborn that we fail to act on knowledge that was confirmed by so many scientists in so many studies over such a long period of time and documented by so much evidence. truth is we will have no excuse. you don't need to be a scientist to see that the world is already changing and feeling the impacts of global climate change and significantly. that many of the things i

mentioned a moment ago are already beginning to unfold before our eyes. just look around you. 14 of the 15 warmest years on record in all of history have occurred since the year 2000 in all of recorded history. last year was the warmest of all, and i think if you stop and think about it it seems that almost every next year becomes one of the hottest on record. and with added heat comes an altered environment. it's not particularly complicated. i don't mean to sound, you know haughty about it but think about it for a minute. life on earth would not exist without a greenhouse effect. that is what has kept the average temperature up until recently at 57 degrees fahrenheit, because there is this greenhouse effect. it was called the greenhouse effect because it does exactly what a greenhouse does.

when the sun pours in and bounces off at a different angle, it goes back up -- it can't escape. and that warms things. very simple proposition. now, it's difficult to tell whether one specific storm or one specific drought is solely caused by climate change or a specific moment but the growing number of extreme events scientists tell us is a clear signal to all of us. recently southeastern brazil has been experiencing a crippling drought, the worst the region has seen in 80 years. the situation is so dire that families in sau paulo have been drilling through their basement floors in search of groundwater. and the historic droughts in some parts of the world are matched only by historic floods in others. malawi is currently in the midst of a disaster in which more than 150 people have died, tens of thousands of people have been

stranded by the rushing waters, cut off from food, clean water, health care and thousands more have been forced from their homes. this is happening now. it's not a future event. and you can find places like california where they've had 100-year, 500-year droughts and so forth causing fires as a result. fish moving; everything is changing. it's happening before our eyes. that's the reason there is no excuse for ignoring this problem. the second reason is that unlike some of the challenges that we face, i can readily attest to this, this one has a ready-made solution. the solution is not a mystery. it's staring us in the face. it's called energy policy.

energy policy. that's the solution to climate change. and with the right choices at the right speed you can actually prevent the worst effects of climate change from crippling us forever. if we make the switch to a global clean energy economy a priority, if we think more creatively about how we power our cars, heat our homes, operate our businesses, then we still have time to prevent the worst consequences of climate change. it really is as simple as that. but getting there is proving not to be as simple. so what more specifically do we need to do? i'm not going to come here and just describe the problem. what do we need to do? to begin with, we need leaders with the political courage to make the tough but necessary policy choices that will help us all find the right path. and i am pleased to say, and proud to serve with a president

who has accepted that challenge, who has taken this head on. today, thanks to president obama's climate action plan the united states is well on its way to meeting our international commitments to seriously cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. and that's because we're going straight to the largest sources of pollution. we're targeting emissions from transportation and power sources which account for about 60% of the dangerous greenhouse gases that we released. we're also tackling smaller opportunities in every sector of the economy in order to be able to address every greenhouse gas. the president has put in place standards to double the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks on american roads. we've also proposed regulations that will curb carbon pollution from new and existing power plants. but it's not enough just to address the pollution generated by dirty sources of energy. we also have to invest in

cleaner alternatives. since president obama took office, the united states has upped its wind energy production more than threefold and increased our southerlylar energy generation more than tenfold. we've also become smarter about how we use energy in our homes and businesses. this is by far the most important set of climate actions the united states of america has ever undertaken. and it's a large part why today we're emitting less than we have in two decades. it's also the reason we were able to recently announce the goal of reducing emissions by 26 to 28% from 2005 levels and accomplish that by the year 2025. and that will put us squarely on the road to a more sustainable and prosperous economy. now, this upper end target would also enable us to be able to cut our emissions by 83% by

mid-century, which is what scientists say we need to do in order to prevent warming from exceeding the threshold level of 2 degrees centigrade celsius. but i can't emphasize this enough. no single country, not even the united states, can solve this problem or foot this bill alone. and that isn't just rhetoric. it's physically impossible. think of it this way. even if every single american biked to work or carpooled to school or used only solar panels to power their homes, if we each planted a dozen trees every american if we somehow eliminated all our greenhouse gas emissions guess what? that still wouldn't be enough to upset the carbon pollution coming from the rest of the world. the same would be true if china went to zero emissions but

others continued with business as usual. it's not enough for one country or even a few countries to reduce emissions if their neighbors are unwilling to do their share. so when i say we need a global solution, i mean it. anything less won't work. now, of course, industrialized countries obviously play a major role in bringing about a clean energy future. from the days of the industrial revolution all the way through the last century, obviously the industrial countries benefited by developing and growing but they also created the basic template for this problem. but even if all the industrial countries stopped today it doesn't solve the problem. and it certainly is a signal that other countries shouldn't go off and repeat the mistakes of the past. we have to remember that today almost two-third of global emissions come from developing

nations. so it's imperative that developing nations be part of this solution also. now, i want to make this very, very clear. in economic terms this is not a choice between bad and worse. some people like to demagog this issue. they want to tell you, oh, we can't afford to do this. nothing could be further from the truth. we can't afford not to do it. in fact, the economics will show you that it is better in the long run to do it and cheaper in the long run. so this is not a choice between bad and worse. not at all. ultimately, this is a choice between growing or shrinking an economy. pursuing cleaner, more efficient energy is actually the only way that nations around the world can build the kind of economies that are going to thrive for decade to come. and here's why. coal and oil are only cheap ways to power a nation in the very

near term. but if you look a little further down the road, you begin to see an entirely different story. when you think about the real numbers over time, the costs of those outdated energy sources actually pile up very quickly. start with the economic impacts related to agriculture and food security and how scientists estimate that the changing climate is going to cause yields of crops like rice and maize and wheat to fall by 2% every decade. consider what that means for millions of farmers around the world and the inflationary impact that will have on food prices. now factor in how that would also exacerbate global challenges like hunger and malnutrition that we already face. add to that the other long-term health-related problems caused by dirty air. asthma is an example, which

predominantly affects children and already costs americans an estimated $50 billion annually. the greatest single cause of young american children being hospitalized in the course of a summer in the united states is environmentally induced asthma. and that costs billions. the reality is that carbon-based air pollution contributes to the deaths of at least 4.5 million people every year. no part of that is inexpensive. and any nation that argues that it simply can't afford to invest in the alternative and renewable energy needs to take a second look at what they're paying for, consider the sizeable costs that are associated with the rebuilding of devastating weather events. in 2012 alone, extreme weather cost the united states nearly $120 billion in damages.

when typhoon hyann hit the philippines a little over a year ago, the cost of responding cost a little over $10 billion. that's just the bill for the storm damage. think of the added health care costs, the expenses that result from agricultural and environmental degradation. it is time my friends for people to do real cost accounting. the bottom line is that we can't only factor in the price of immediate energy needs. we have to include the long-term cost of carbon pollution. we have to factor in the cost of survival. and if we do, we will find that pursuing clean energy now is far more affordable than paying for the consequences of climate change later. but there is another piece of reality to take into account. and as you can see these arguments begin to compound and grow, become irrefutable, frankly. clean energy is not only the

solution to climate change. guess what? it's also one of the greatest economic opportunities of all time. want to put people to work? this is the way you put people to work. the global energy market of the future is poised to be the largest market the world has ever known. we're talking about a $6 trillion market today with 4 to 5 billion users today. that will grow to 9 billion users over the next few decades. by comparison, the great driver of wealth creation in this country in the 1990s when superbillionaires and millionaires were created and every income level in america went up, that was the technology market. and it was a $1 trillion market with only a billion users. just to get a sense of the possibilities here. between now and 2035 investment

in the energy sector is expected to reach nearly $17 trillion. that's more than the entire gdp of china, and you just have to imagine the opportunities for clean energy. imagine the businesses that could be launched, the jobs that will be created in every corner of the globe. and by the way, the united states of america in the year 2015 doesn't even have a national grid. we have a great big gaping hole in the middle of our country. you can't sell energy from the wind farm in massachusetts or minnesota to another part of the country, because we can't transmit it. think of the jobs in creating that grid. actually, you don't have to imagine it. all you have to do is look at the results that we are already seeing in places like my home state of massachusetts. in 2007 we set a couple of goals. we pledged to build 2,000

megawatts of wind power capacity by 2020 and more than 250 megawatts of southerly power by 2015. it was pretty ambitious. it was unprecedented. but we knew the risks to the united states was enormous. fast forward to today. massachusetts has increased renewable energy by 400% in the last four years alone. we used a bulk purchasing program for residential solar to help keep prices low for residents and businesses across the state. and because of that, today there are residential solar installations in 350 of massachusetts' 351 cities and towns. today the commonwealth's clean energy economy is a $10 billion industry that has grown by 10.5% over the past year and 47% since 2010. it employs nearly 100,000 people at 6,000 firms.

and it's the perfect example of how quickly this transformation could happen and how far its benefits reach. if we put our mind to it, folks, if we make the right decisions and forge the right partnerships, we can bring these kinds of benefits to communities across the united states and around the globe. to get there, all nations have to be smarter about how we use energy invest in energy and encourage businesses to make smart energy choices as well. now, we'll have to invest in new technology. and that will help us bring renewable energy sources like solar wind and hydro not only to the communities where those resources are abundant, but to every community in every country on every continent. we'll have to stop government money from going towards non-renewable energy sources like coal and oil. it makes no sense to be subsidizing that. which is why the united states

has been helping to drive efforts in the g-20 and apec to phase out wasteful fossil fuel subsidies. we've actually taken steps to prevent now global financial institutions from funding dirty power plants and putting public money into those things that we know are going to go in the wrong direction. we'll have to strengthen legal and regulatory frameworks in countries overseas to help spur investment in places where it's insufficient. it's much easier for businesses to deploy capital when they have confidence in the local legal and regulatory policy. and to attract money we need to control risk. the more you can minimize the risk the greater confidence people investors, will have to bring their capital to the table. we also have to continue to push for the world's highest standards in the environmental chapters of the trade agreements that we're pursuing just like we

are doing in the transatlantic trade and investment partnership and the transpacific partnership. just like labor standards and other agreements these environmental agreements have to be really fully enforcible. finally, we have to find more ways for the private and the public sector to work together to make the most of the innovative technology that entrepreneurs are developing here in the united states and around the world. and this is the idea that is behind the white house announcement that they made last month, the clean energy investment initiative. its starting goal is to attract $2 billion in private sector investment to be put toward clean energy climate change solutions. now, the good news is much of the technology that we need is already out there and it's becoming faster and faster, easier to access and cheaper to

access. a report that the department of energy released this morning actually projects that in the united states, wind power is going to be directly competitive with conventional energy technologies within the next 10 years. none of this, therefore none of what i have said is beyond our capacity. it's not a pipe dream. it's a reality. it's right there. and it's up to us to grab it. the question is whether or not it is beyond our collective resolve. now, we have seen some encouraging progress frankly, over the past few months. during president obama's trip to new delhi earlier this year and fred referred to it in his introduction, india -- well, both china and india the president affirmed its far-reaching solar energy target and our two nations agreed on a number of climate and clean energy initiatives. we also committed to working

closely together to achieve a successful global agreement in paris. so india has joined in that challenge. that came on the heels of the historic announcement in china that the united states and china, the world's two largest emitters of carbon pollution, two countries, by the way, long regarded as the leaders of opposing camps in the climate negotiations have now found common ground on this issue. and i joined president obama as he stood next to president chi and todd was there when we unveiled our 2020 commitments. that was an enormous achievement. it was felt in lima and had the impact on the ability to move towards paris with greater momentum. around the same time, the eu announced its target as well which means we have strong commitments from the three

largest emitters in the world. now we need more and more nations to follow suit and announce their ambitious mitigation targets as well. and because this has to be a truly all hands on deck effort, i invite all of our partners businesses and industry groups, mayors, governors throughout the country and around the world to announce their own targets, their commitments leading up to paris so we can set an example and create a grassroots movement toward success. this will help us come forward with plans that will help every country be able to reach their goals. now, i am keenly aware that we can do a better job of engaging the private sector and our partners at the subnational level of government in this effort. and i can tell you that i plan to make certain in the next months that that happens. i know many of you have already made impressive announcements, those of you engaged in business or on the boards of enterprise

or ileomosinary or education institutions. you've helped figure out how we combat climate change, and i appreciate that. but now it's time to build on those pledges. let us know how you're doing. let us know through the state department, through state.gov, and how we can help you make progress. this is the kind of shared resolve that will help ensure that we are successful in paris and beyond. in closing, i ask you to consider one basic question. suppose, stretching your imaginations as it will have to be that somehow those 97% of studies that i just talked about, suppose that somehow they were wrong about climate change

in the end. hard to understand after 20 years of 97%, but imagine it. i just want you to imagine it. what are the consequences we would face for taking the actions that we're talking about? and based on the notion that those might be correct. i'll tell you what the consequences are. you'll create an extraordinary number of jobs. you'll kick our economies into gear all around the world because we'll be taking advantage of one of the biggest business opportunities the world has ever known. we'll have healthier people. those billions of dollars of costs in the summer and hospitals for emphysema and lung disease and cancer will be reduced because we'll be eliminating a lot of the toxic pollution coming from factories and stovepipes. you'll be be able to see your

city. we'll have a more secure world because it will be far easier for independent companies to do what they need to thrive and not be blackmailed from another nation, cut off, their economy turned into turmoil because they can't have the independence they need and the guarantees of energy supply. we will live up, in the course of all of that, to our moral responsibility to leave the planet earth in a better condition than we were handed it, to live up to even scripture which calls on us to protect planet earth. these -- all of these things are the so-called consequences of global action to address climate change. what's the other side of that question? what will happen if we do nothing and the climate skeptics are wrong? and the delayers are wrong. and the people who calculate cost without taking everything

into account are wrong. the answer to that is pretty straightforward: utter catastrophe. life as we know it on i, through my life, have believed you can take certain kinds of risks in the course of public affairs and life. my heroes are people who dared to take on great challenges without knowing for certain what the outcome would be. lincoln took risks. gandhi took risks churchill took risks, dr. king took risks, mandela took risks, but that doesn't mean every risk-taker is a role model it's one thing to risk a life or principle to save a population. it's quite another to wager the well-being of generations and life itself simply to continue

the appetites of the present or insist on a course of inaction long after the availability of that evidence is folly to that path gambling to the future itself when we know full well what the outcome would be is beyond reckless, its just plain immoral and it is a risk no one should take. we need to face reality, there is no planet b. i'm not suggesting it will be easy in these next few months or next few years. effective it were we would have resolved this decades ago when the science revealed the facts we are facing. it is crunch time now. we've used up our hall passes, our excuse ss, we've used up too much valuable time. we know what we have to do. i am confident we can find a way to summon the resolve the need to tackle this shared threat and we can reach and agreement in paris, we can carve out a path

toward a clean energy future. we can meet this challenge. that is our charge for our children and grandchildren and it is a charge we must keep. thank you all. [ applause ] >> i want to thank secretary kerry for passionate significant important remarks i think will set up the road to paris. we're really way beyond that. we understand you have to rush out to a very important meeting at the white house. i do want to ask one question to close this off if you can broaden this to the energy world at large. we're seeing falling prices and have the u.s. energy boom. how are you looking at the impact of both of those things in context of this?

what is the geopolitics of these falling prices and the rise of america as really the leading if not a leading energy producer in the world? >> well, the impact is very significant, obviously. it's certainly affected russia's income and the current situation in russia, affected the situation in iran affected the budgets of those producing states. it has potential on some sides strategically be helpful and potential on other sides to be strategical damaging. for instance if petro karab would fall because of prices in venezuela we could end up with a serious humanitarian challenge in our near neighborhood. there are a lot of pluses and minuses of it. you have to remember the primary reason for america's good

fortune in this turn around is l & g, production of gas and fracking in regards to our independence and we're also producing more oil attitude the same time and we've become one of the world's largest if not the largest energy producer? that's positive as long as we're on a road to deal with the problem i just laid out today. remember while lng is 50% less carbon than oil it is nevertheless carbon and has an impact. we have to do all the things i just talked about, move to sustainable renewable in terms of energy that don't have that problem. the way the world is going right now because of the dependency -- another negative impact it has greatly reduced the price of coal and in certain countries people are going on a price basis and racing to coal and means we have a number of power

plants come plants coming on line with coal in countries at a rate that is destructive. there is no such thing in the end as absolutely clean coal, so we have a challenge with respect to what we're going to do. there are tellings that significantly -- technologies that significantly clean coal and when you do carbon storage that isn't happening enough and there is a way to use it and far more expensive in the end and other technologies coming on to produce other things at a far better cost. wind is going to be on the line with energy. what really has to be done is the setting of the goal through the paris agreement so people can see countries everywhere are moving in this direction and the

marketplace is moving and when entrepreneurs and investors start to say, this is the future and it takes hold. that accelerates the process itself. when that begins to happen, that that's when this 6 trillion$6 trillion market and 9$9 billion users kicks in and takes over. it's a mixed bag for the moment. we certainly see the road map to move in the right direction. >> in closing, let me just say three or four years ago, the atlantic council gave you an award not knowing how much you would be further earning it with your miles on the ground and want to thank you for your climate change historic and ground breaking and your visionary principled leadership at time we know is historically challenging. thank you. [ applause ]

>> ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated as the secretary exits the room. thank you. >> secretary kerry speaking before the atlantic council ahead of this summer's u.n. convention on climate change. the secretary was on capitol hill yesterday speaking before the foreign relations committee, the president's request for use of military force. the issue of isis dominated the three hour hearing and you can see it on c-span.org, so did the issue of iran and nuclear negotiations particularly the 47 senators to the iranian leaders. secretary kerry was askedseveral times by different senators about that. here's what he had to say.

>> during my 29 years in the senate i never heard of or heard of it being proposed anything comparable to this. if i had, i can guarantee you no matter what the issue or who was president i would have certainly rejected it. no one is questioning anybody's right to dissent. any senator can go to the floor any day and raise any other questions that were raised in that. but to write to the leaders in the middle of a negotiations particularly the leaders that they have criticized other people for even engaging with or writing to to write them and suggest that they're going to give a constitutional lesson which by the way was absolutely incorrect, is quite stunning. this letter ignores more than two centuries of precedent in

the conduct of american foreign policy policy. it -- you know, formal treaties obviously require the advice and consent of the united states senate that's in the constitution. but the vast majority of international arrangements and agreements do not. and around the world today, we have all kinds of executive agreements we deal with. protection of our troops. the recent agreement we just did with afghanistan. any number of non-controversial and broadly supported foreign policy goals. the executive agreement is a necessary tool of american foreign policy. it's been used by presidents of both parties for centuries literally. it is recognized and accepted by congress from the earliest period of american history.

now, with respect to the talks, we've been clear from the beginning, we're not negotiating a quote legally binding plan. we're negotiating a plan that will have in it a capacity for enforcement. we don't even have diplomatic relations with iran right now. the senators letter erroneously asserts this is a legally binding plan. it's not. that's number one. number two, it's incorrect when it says congress could actually modify -- >> all this hearing available at c-span.org. we will take you live now to capitol hill. a senate appropriations subcommittee hearing on a budget request for several justice departments divisions including fbi, dea and the marshall service. it's just starting. the chair in the center is richard shelby.

>> dea administrator michelle leon hart and atf director, todd jones. they will later each testify about their agency's 2016 budget request. this morning i want to begin by thanking the men and women of the fbi, marshall service and dtf who work to protect this nation. we're in debt for their service and sacrifice. in particular i want to express my condolence to u.s. marshall josie wells who was killed in line on duty tuesday while participating in a fugitive task force in baton rouge, louisiana. deputy marshall wells was attached to the southern district office in mississippi and had duty fully volunteered for this task force. our thoughts and prayers are for his friends and prayers and

entire marshall service community for their loss here. the constantly changing landscape of criminal activity at home and abroad has challenged the justice's department ability to deal with emerging threats. we expect our law enforcement agencies to be more nimble and sophisticated than the terrorist this is a pursue. the goal of this joint law enforcement hearing is to determine how the 2016 budget would give each law enforcement agency the tools and capabilities needed to tackle those changing threats, whether they're cyber attacks drug trafficking, financial fraud or terrorism. i believe our federal law enforcement agencies must work together particularly in tough budget environment ss in a manner that safe guards taxpayer dollars while preserving public safety. the fbi's mission includes protecting and defending the united states against terrorism

and foreign intelligence threats, fighting cyber crime as well as tending to traditional criminal activities, such as violent crime, public corruption and white collar crime. in order to carry out these priorities, the fbi's 2016 budget request is $8.5 billion, which is an increase of $47 million above the 2015 enacted amount. in the past year, we've seen terrorist threats and increased cyber attacks. i believe it's imperative that the fbi appropriately balances the bureau's diverse responsibilities while targeting the highest needs and criminal threats facing our nation. the marshall's service has the honor of being america's largest federal law enforcement agency. the marshals provide judicial security apprehend fugitives and protect witnesses and transport prisoners among other important duties. the 2016 budget request of $2.7

billion for the marshall service is $1 million less than the 2015 enacted level of 2.8$2.8 billion. the funding reductions are largely isolated to the federal prisoner detention account. i want to hear how the 15 budget requests will allow the marshall service to continue its critical missions for the pursuit, pursuit and arrest of fugitive tax offenders who are targeting our children. the drug enforcement administration's 2016 budget requests totals $2.5 billion, the agency serves a central role in our society, working with domestic and international partners in enforcement and control of substance laws and regulations of the united states. in addition the dea's diverse control program prevents, detector and investigates the

diversion of controlled pharmaceutical pharmaceuticals and listed chemicals. this mission is critical with prescription drug abuse arguably being the country's fastest growing drug problem. the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms and explosives is tasked with combatting illegal use and trafficking of firearms, illegal use and torng of explosives and acts and bombings among other crime fighting roles. atf atf's 2016 budget request is $1.3 billion which is $60 million above the '15 level. i'm interested how the agency would use this increased funding, particularly in light of recent complaints from hunters and sportsmen who believe that atf overstepped its authority by attempting to ban certain ammunition for recreation use. i look forward to hearing the

views and explanations of the witnesses for the details of their 2016 funding totals and working with our committee members to prioritize necessary funding for our federal law enforcement agencies. at this point, i'd like to recognize my friend and colleague, senator mikulski, former chairman of the committee. >> thank you for this hearing today and really bringing the full complement of federal law enforcement before the committee not only to review their budget but so we could first of all truly express our appreciation. we do appreciate every single man and woman who works for the agencies represented here today are so much valued and appreciated and they should do that. we need to do that in three ways, number one, giver them respect and respect them and the

sacrifices they do and their families do every single day while they're often away protecting us. number two let's have the right resources and make sure we don't do another sequester where fbi agents were digging in their pockets and dea agents wondering what they could do to do their job and while we're looking attitude sequester how we go after the sexual predators and the judges. and the wonderful fiskorensics, not only what you're enforcing but able us to identify we had few years ago came from a single gun from the forensics that you did. it's that. some carry a gun and some work with a microscope all are on their job and i wanted to say that. tomorrow, i will be at a

maryland montgomery commercehamber of commerce event in which they honor those who provide public safety. firefighters and also police officers. the baltimore field office, mr. comey, will receive an award for being the best safety partner. it's not only what you do, how you do it actually engaged in the community, leveraging the assets of both the federal government and state and local where everybody's best at what they're best at and best at what they're most needed for. so we appreciate that. of course, we want to express our condolences to the death of deputy marshall jose wells, killed in the line of fire and we wish our police officers in ferguson a good recovery. so we've got a big job to do. we way we start with respect i

believe with the right resources. while we're looking at the law enforcement agencies of the fbi dea and atf, make up most -- half of the justice department's budget. close to $15 billion. i think that's a bargain. i think that's a tremendous bargain for what we get in the way you are out there protecting america. there's only a modest increase here of $98 million and i'm concerned whether that enables you to keep on hiring the people that you need to do the job, to be able to sustain the effort with the people that you hire also, will we be able to do the cost of living adjustments for the people who work with you, whether agents, intelligence analysts or computer analysts. these needed increases come in the context of the president's

request. yes, we do know it's above the caps and we will have a robust discussion. while there are many pounding the table, let's lift the caps on defense debate, there's another way we need to defend america. we need to defend america in the streets and neighborhoods of our communities and we need to defend them from sexual predators. we need to defend them from murderers and killers. we need to defend them against the lone wolf who could be roaming around one of our big cities or small towns. if you want to protect america, you not only want to lift the defense caps you want to lift the domestic caps and have parity with that. i want you to know i feel very strongly about it. when i say i didn't want to run again because i didn't want to raise money but raise hell, this is one of the areas that i'm

going to raise hell about and we're going to do it here today. we look forward to hearing what it is you need for those resources. we count on you to be able to do this job. i could go through the data, which i will when we get to the questions. two areas i hope we could also focus on in addition to your specific mission, of course, is the heroin crisis that we hear from every governor including my own in maryland. we look to work with our governor. yes, he's a republican and yes, i'm a democrat but we're 100% marylanders and we're 100% involved in dealing with heroin. of course, the women of the senate joining with very good men are now focusing on the issue of human trafficking. we look forward to hearing it. i need to know what are the right resources for you to be best attitude what you're best at and best at what you're needed for and we best better get our act together and make sure we support you. i look forward to the dialogue.

>> thank you. we will start the hearing testimony with fbi director comey and then go right to left. we welcome all of you and your written testimony will be made part of the record. >> thank you. nice to be here. vit chairman mikulski and senators. thank you for the opportunity to sit with three, i would say old friends but i don't want to criticize any, people i've worked with for many years more than we'd like to admit and appreciate your expression of condolence for the marshall service, terrible loss a reminder of the people we have and risk they take to protect this country. we're very grateful for that. the fbi's 2016 budget request is about maintaining the capabilities you have given us. it's about being good stewards of the taxpayer's money and make sure we recover from the effects

of sequester by filling the ranks so depleted over the past couple of years. there are two enhancements requested in our budget each for about $10 million, one relates to cyber capabilities trying to build those and the second to our efforts to integrate better in a technology technological way with this community. as the rest of you know, the fbi like my colleagues here, it's all about the people. 70% of our budget goes to our good folks. we have remarkable men and women working 24 hours a day all around this world to protect this country and its citizens. the members of this committee are very well aware of the threats the fbi is responsible for addressing. counter-terrorism remains at the top of our list for reasons that make good sense. the world of terrorism has shifted just in my 18 months on this job particularly in the growth and unflourishing spaces of the progeny of al qaeda most

predominantly with isil and use of groups like isil and aqap with sophisticated technology and social media to spread their poison attract recruits to their so-called callieiphate and try to motivate people who don't want to do harm in the united states. this poses an enormous challenge to us to find the people responding to that siren song and track those traveling and find those who may be motivating to radicalize and stay in place but engage in murderous behavior in the name of some misguided effort to find meaning in their lives. counter-terrorism remains at the top of our list for reasons i know the american people appreciate. as chairman shelby mentioned we have responsibility for counter-intelligence. the spy game is not a thing of 1950s or '60s, it is alive and well. increasingly for all the threats, manifesting on the internet cyber dominates the

fbi's life and have to be digitally literate to protect kids, fraud terrorism, protect critical infrastructure and our secrets. we're working very hard to make sure we have the workforce and technology and we're deployed in a smart way to be able to deal with the threats that come at us through the internet which is all the threats we're responsible for. we spend a tremendous amount of time working with our partners here at this table to address a variety of criminal threats. vice-chairman mikulski mentioned our efforts to protect children. we work very hard on that and fight public corruption and a host of other efforts we do around the country. we do them almost entirely in partnerships with federal partners and state and local partners. is there literally nothing the fbi does alone. we accomplish great good but do it in partnership with lots of other folks. i want to close just mentioning a couple of our capabilities this committee has supported don't get the attention they deserve. the first is rtdak.

it is the analysis center for explosive devices around the world. it is a tremendous effort. we are putting together a world class facility so we can do with explosive devices the way we do fingerprints, to connect the dots and save lives. i had a chance to visit recent ly for the commitment to keep our allies safer and i appreciate your support. and we have the hazardous devices school for today and tomorrow to diffuse devices and protect the american people. two tremendous resources that don't get much attention. i'll mention one other. in the great state of west virginia we have thousands of people working in our criminal investigation services

department, division, literally the frame on which hangs the law enforcement of this country. they run the information sharing, the fingerprint database, they run the dna database, they run the sharing of vital information that protects law enforcement officer s officers officers. i told them when i visited, your work to a lot of people sounds boring. it is only boring because it works so well. we take it for granted this work will be there so when a cop pulls somebody over and runs their name or fingerprints they know immediately whether that's a rapist or terrorist or fugitive and people are protected by that. they are underappreciated but the frame that hangs law enforcement of this country and we are grateful for our west virginia colleagues. with that i'll stop and thank you again. this committee has been tremendously supportive of the fbi. we recognize it and our great folks are extraordinaryily grateful for the support we've gotten from the committee and i look forward to taking your questions. >> thank you. miss hilton.

>> thank you mr. chairman. good morning, everyone. i want to start by thanking you for your recognition of deputy josie wells, who we lost this past tuesday. he was without a doubt one of our finest. he was a young man committed to our fudgetive investigations. he worked to make our country safer. his loss was hard for all of us but you can imagine his family. he came from a long line of law enforcement. his father is a retired law enforcement officer from mississippi and his two brothers currently serve as law enforcement police officers. we will stand with them as we bid farewell to josie this weekend as we recognize yet another fallen u.s. marshall service hero.

our total request for nearlyincludes $1.2 billion for salaries and expenses and $1.5 billion for de tension and $15 million for construction of courthouses nationwide. the agency's many accomplishments over the years as we celebrate our 225th anniversary this year recently would not have been possible without your support from this committee in particular. in recent years, you have acknowledged and provided resources for us to safely guard the nation's federal prison inmate and detention populations. you recognize the importance of those resources. over the past year we had worked carefully to assess the agency spending and where necessary, make improvements and reduce costs. the usms has also benefitted from this committee's decision to restore our resources in 2014, on salaries and expenses. this allowed united states to fill 200 vacant u.s. marshals and i thank you for that

support. i can assure you we take our fedish airresponsibilities financially seriously. and we will work with your staff to submit a moderate budget mindful of our country's financial situation. we have worked proactively to use existing resources, to ensure officer safety. aside from retaining a small carryover from the detention balance the u.s. marshall service worked to make sure a significant amount are made to the administration and congress for other purposes. it is my ongoing focus to ensure we be as efficient and effective as we can within the dollars given to us and priority to take transformational steps to make the marshall service to be a data driven agency to make

strategic and tactical business decisions. ultimately this is helping us present a performance based budget to show how we are managing our resources appropriated from congress. the '16 budget you have in front of you provides the necessary resources to protect and enhance you spoke about today. arresting violent fugitives, protecting children and enforcing law enforcement in the communities. still a paramount concern for the marshall services as we see more violence in our federal courthouses and federal judiciary. we saw it in wheeling west virginia, saw it recently at a judd judge's home in the night, the judge just barely escaping the shooting and his family and the violence in the court in utah. you can see it play across the media and violent criminals introduced to our court system pose a great risk to our

judiciaries. this increases our enforcement efforts for law enforcement as we provide safety to our officers try to work and ensure we can meet the requirements under the adam walsh child protection and safety act. the national center for missing and exploited children estimates over 769,000 sex offenders live in the united states of which i am proud to say we have apprehended at least probably close to 12,000 annually. brought them into compliance because over 7,169 are not in compliance. it is my top priority in this agency as we have lost too many and every effort to make sure personnel are adequately equipped. along with those at the table and my partners and we're collectively together, we the

marshall service apprehended warrants for more than 105,000 violent fugitives a year. deputy marshals who risk their lives arresting and apprehending those who flee from justice and wanted we are requesting 1.5$1.5 million for law enforcement training so we may keep that effort. the committee has recognized the urgent need to contain proliferation of gangs across our country. it has a severe impact on law enforcement because of the high-rising level of violence we see. gangs are no longer isolated to motorcycle gangs and urban street gangs they are now in suburban and rural communities, socially economically depressed communities and over more than 1 million members are criminally active in the united states. this is something we all want to address. our '16 budget request has an increase of $2.5 million for a total of $15 million for federal courthouses as i spoke earlier

about the situation we faced to make sure to mitigate the risks of the public that attend those courthouses and judiciary. mr. chairman, ranking member mikulski and members of the subcommittee, i request your sport to fully fund the '16 budget request to support the members of the marshall service you recognized earlier to carry out the protection efforts of our judicial process. we have proven ourselves a valuable asset to our communities insuring public safety and protecting our children. thank you. >> good morning, chairman shelby ranking member mikulski and members of the subcommittee, i want to start by thanking ranking member mikulski for her many years of leadership and dedicated service to our country. you have been a trail blazer for wom enen in the senate and i am especially thankful for your support of dea's museum

traveling exhibit that went to the museum science center in baltimore last year. over 350,000 people visited the exhibit during the sep month run and they learned not just about law enforcement but also the science behind drugs, addiction and recovery. dea is in mourning this morning after hearing the news of deputy josie wells and we offer all our assistance to director hilton. the support of this committee has led to the arrest of many violent drug traffickers exemplified by the recent arrest of marine tinnez also known as latotu and omar morales. these arrests are another win for mexico in the fight against brutal criminal cartels like the knights temp plar and lasettas. these arrests along with last year's capture of guzman signal

major steps forward in our shared fight against drug trafficking and violence. since the department of justice began coordinating efforts against the most known wanted drug traffickers in 2003, there have been 183 identified around the world. come cumulatively, over three-quarters have been indicted in the united states. over half have been arrested here or abroad and one-third have been exstreettradited to the united states to face justice. in fiscal year 2014 alone we saw several successes against them including seven who were extradited to the united states, one surrendered to the united states authorities and six more racer arrested in custody outside the united states. historically the image of organized crime in the united states was of hierarchal organizations exerting influence

over criminal activities at the local levels with cells of loosely affiliated groups. that still remains true today. however, these organizations now have direct connections to mexican drug trafficking organizations to distribute heroin methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana and other drugs throughout the country. this is the new face of organized crime. the violence perpetrated by these groups harms communities across the united states and dea is set up to manage the distribution cells and traffic organizations with whom they conspire. of notable concern is the alarming level of heroin use and abuse in this country and increases in heroin related deaths. after years of declining use, the availability and abuse of heroin is now increasing,

especially among younger americans. this is due in part to the increased production of heroin in mexico, even as colombian production has declined. in 2013 8,257 people died of a heroin overdose. nearly tripling since 2010. a contributing factor to increasing demand for heroin is prescription opioid abuse. prescription drug abuse is a nationwide epidemic. overall, 43,982 people have died of a drug overdose in the united states in 2003. that was more than half of which involved prescription drugs. these deaths represent not just a statistic but they are family members, our friends our neighbors and our colleagues. if we look at the operational successes we are having today

coupled with the decline in overall drug use there is reason for optimism. since its high point in 1979, the overall rate of elicit drug use in america has dropped by over 30%. by taking harmful drugs off the street dismantling major drug organizations and seizing profits we are making our nation a safer place to live and to do business. the support of this subcommittee is critical to our success. i look forward to working with you and would be happy to answer any of your questions. thank you. >> good morning, chairman shelby ranking member mikulski and members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today with my colleagues. this is a great team i'm privileged to work with within the department of justice. i think together we are moving forward to enhance public safety around the country on behalf of the citizens that we serve.

i'm also pleased to be here to scus the president's fy 2016 budget request for atf. atf's principle mission is to protect our communities from violent criminals who illegally possess and use firearms, use explosives for elicit purposes and engage in deadly acts of arson. we accomplish our mission through partnerships and through the enforcement of the criminal law regulations of firearms and explosives industry. this makes us somewhat unique among u.s. law enforcement. we have a long history of maintaining working relationships not only with our federal partners but with our state and local partners. we put a premium on those partnerships. the public safety agencies the industry groups and community organizations that we work with are vital us to being able to accomplish our mission. when serious violent crime happens at communities across the country atf is there working side by side with our partners. in the past three years alone atf has been at the front line against crime helping our

partners investigate the boston marathon bombing horrific mass shootings in aurora colorado and washington navy yard as well as insisting in thousands of other investigations that have simply not made the national news. atf's work with its partners is producing tangible results in communities across the country. our discussion today i hope leads to some help for you all in sustaining the results we have accomplished in various places around the country. for example we recently completed an enhanced enforcement operation in bridgeport, connecticut and chicago, illinois. in both circumstances we have made an impact working with our state and local colleagues on diminishing and lowering violent crime in those communities. we accomplished this not only through manpower and strong partnerships but by also leveraging our technology resources, such as nybin, the

national integrated ballistics informational network. it compares high resolution cartridge cases the senator alluded to it earlier, recover from mult crime scenes and compare and contrast and follow the gun strategy to identify the worst of the worst offenders in communities. this technology has been integrated with e-trace and we are are, in certain communities around the country test driving crime gun intelligence centers showing very promising results. atf's contributions to public safety extend beyond these operational successes. as director comey mentioned tdak is in huntsville and we have our national training for explosive research there established through the members of this committee and it's performing important work. by the end of fy 2016 it will significantly increase its staffing by 30% and work on

increasing fire and arson investigation in addition to explosives research. because we are getting healthier as an organization over the last several years we will offer several courses that haven't been offered because training is usually the first thing to go when you have tough budget times unfortunately. in addition we will be bringing our u.s. bomb taetdata center from washington d.c. and put it in the cedar facility in an effort to make sure we are not only fully integrating our capacity but collaborating at the highest levels with the fbi's explosive device analytic center that is down there. another important asset our fire research lab in maryland is currently involved in research of several high profile fire incidents. i want to thank this committee for the support that that lab has. it's sort of an un -- surprisingly to me, as i've learned across the country our

arson capacity is something that's a great treasure to federal law enforcement. we've worked on several significant arson investigations with state and locals trying to figure out what happened. we are performing tests recently on the west texas fertilizer plant that killed 15 first responders and injured 160, and we're currently looking at the hor horrific fire that happened several months ago in annapolis that killed a grandmother grandfather and their grandchildren trying to determine some of the things with christmas trees. this kind of research is taken care of very quietly but would be very helpful to public safety across the board. to support this important work -- and i look forward to discussing it further atf's 2016 budget request totals $1.26 billion, including 5100 permanent positions nearly half of which are special agents. this request includes 52 million

increase in base resources that really is focused as director comey mentioned on our human capital. atf has a very experienced special agent workforce. within the next three years we will have nearly 35% of that workforce be either mandatory or eligible for retirement, so we need to do all we can over the next several years including to this budget cycle to refresh and get new agents out there before the senior agents leave. i look forward to answering your questions. i do want to maybe set the table here as preemptive. the chairman mentioned about in our regulatory effort, a proposal we posted -- requested comments on for the last 30 days. that comment period will close. it involved not -- it involved an exemption for a particular type of 556 round. we've gotten nearly 90,000 comments. we will assess those comments.

working with you, with others, see how we can really address what was at the genesis of that posting, which was an effort to address nearly 30s exemption requests in finding a framework for dealing with that. with that said i see the time is over and i will be happy to answer any questions that you have. have. >> thank you. thank you very much. i'll direct my first question to you. on february 13th, the atf delivered a proposed framework that would have eliminated the green tip ammunition from the sporting purposes. this week, the atf abandoned this proposal. a lot of us are troubled the aff's process and intent regarding this proposed ban. i've heard from numerous constituents who use this ammunition for shooting sport and hunting and they're strongly opposed to the ban, as you know.

additionally it's concerning to a lot of us the new federal firearms regulation reference guide published in january in inexsplikably remove m 855 ammunition from the exemption list for sporting purposes. why did the atf propose this m m-855 ban, when such ammunition has been allowed under sporting purposes exemption for many many years. >> senator, thank you for the question. i think it's important for everyone to understand again that the genesis of us putting that framework proposal up for public comment was our good faith effort to try and construct a framework to deal with nearly 30 exemptions that we have had in the cue for many many years at atf. we do have a responsibility to regulate. we can't stick our head in the sand with respect to the additional exemption requests. the m-885 exemption has been in

place for nearly 30 years. it was a classification that atf made on that particular round. i want to make sure everybody understands, this was not contrary to some of the blogosphere and effort to completely ban that certain type of cartridge. it's this one particular green tip that is in essence, military surplus, that under leopa does qualify as armor piercing but has had an exemption for 30 years and been in the market and used for sporting purposes for the last 30 years. so our request for input on a framework was our effort to try and get a transparent process we could act on the nearly 30 other exemptions that were there and not sort of not look at the exemption that was out there on m-885. so, you know, i think the reality of it is we need to deal with the pending exemptions. there aren't going to be any new

exemptions granted until we work our way out through this. the exemption for 885 has been there for 30 years and will remain. >> you abandoned it this week did you not? >> we're going to take the input in. we are not going to move forward without analyzing the nearly 90,000 comments from all spectrums with a sense of figuring out how we do this rationally, in a common sense way that first and foremost for us protects our law enforcement officers in compliance with leopa. leopa. >> i'll direct this question to the fbi director. you talked about earlier the terrorist explosive device analytical center we call tdac and so forth and how important it is. what is tdac's operational construction status at this point? when will the facility be fully

operational, do you know? >> i think we're on track to open it sometime late this spring or in summer. i went down there to check on its progress because i'm keenly interested in it. the building's up looks good to me but other things to be done for it to be ready. we have had some delays because our contractor has struggled with some of the unique technical requirements to deal with explosives in that building. my understanding we're on track for no later than summer opening. >> how is the atf working cooperate cooperatively with you, with the fbi on this? are they putting their good offices forward to work with you and cooperate with the fbi regarding tdac? >> yes, as they always do. director jones said one of the hallmarks of atf they are a great partner in a whole host of ways and they are with tdac. >> director jones, you ref reynolds in cedar a few minutes

ago. where are we exactly on that as far as staffing the program we call it the national center for explosives training and research? >> you know, i've had an opportunity -- >> you mentioned this earlier in your testimony. >> i've had an opportunity on a number of occasions to go to in cedar, a wonderful facility for our organization and asset. i think when tdac is up and running and what we've dean at in cedar and what we plan to do expands beyond the explosive training and research, focusing primarily on homemade ieds and some of the research there has expanded into the fire and arson realm, not to -- we have a great lab in ammondale and doing work down there and that necessitates us moving additional personnel down there. i think the main thing is that we're finally going to move the u.s. bomb data center personnel from washington down to in cedar as originally envisioned and

that's going to happen this year. one last question to the fbi director. how is the fbi responding from the army's separation from the hazardous device school they sent word, as i understand it where they had a partnership there and the army indicated they would no longer provide personnel to the school but i think that's an important operation there. >> i agree completely mr. chairman. we're working with them to see if there are folks they will no longer have there as part of their complement that can come work for us so we don't lose the expertise and our overall commitment is not lose capability. as you know with the support of this committee we're expanding that facility because there's such a hunger for advanced bomb tech training. >> thank you. >> thank you. i want to compliment you on the fact we will consider the

tradition of a classified hearing after this because so much of what we want to do about counter-terrorism and organized crimes are question ss in that setting and thank you very much for being able to provide us with that opportunity. i've got essentially two questions. one, i want to raise, is about heroin. i have a significant issue in maryland, raised by our local dea people as well as governor hogan. we heard a place like vermt declared it a state of the state issue. in fiscal '15, this committee requested that the doj convene a task force to come up with a comprehensive federal solution of law enforcement health care treatment and prevention, not only law enforcement. director comey, you told me that it had been handed to the dea

is that right? are you -- could you tell me what dea is doing? are you the task force that i asked for. because we've gotten very little feedback about it. >> sir, i'd be glad to address that. the task force you called for was not tasked to dea. i do know that the department has been looking at it and actually has convened some meetings that we have attended. to put together -- >> is there a department of justice task force? i'll ask the attorney general, that you know of that has the task force that we asked for? >> i know that they have had meetings with people outside the department and within the department. >> okay. >> have gathered. >> so they didn't do it. we'll come back to that. could you tell us though what you're doing miss leonhart? >> sure.

europe is the perfect example of what it's going to take for our country to stem the flow of the rise rising heroin problem. as you know in maryland your heroin deaths nearly doubled. in fact when you look at all overdose deaths in maryland last year, the majority of them were actually heroin overdoses. so we very quickly and have for the past year we put together a local task force. we have one in baltimore and we have a similar task force arrangement here locally we're working with our partners. but in baltimore we became very concerned about why this raise in heroin overdoses. we understand why there's more heroin coming into our country. that's because more and more of it is coming -- almost all western hemisphere. but more and more of it is coming from mexico and is being controlled by the same mexican

organizations and trafficking groups that we see all across the country who have brought cocaine, midwest and marijuana to our communities. so we started looking at it and started -- >> remember i have five minutes. so could we get -- >> we started to be concerned because there was an epidemic of fentanol laced heroin a few years back. we started working with medical examiner examiners, coroners and police departments and looking at those deaths and finding a number of them are actually phentanol laced heroin overdoses. we have efforts going public service announcements warning local law enforcement. >> how many of these great task forces do you have doing this great work in the baltimore community? >> i know the washington hida is

working this. >> no. i'm asking dea, the baltimore efforts i compliment you on. i'm frustrated the doj did not do the comprehensive thing. you can't only fight the law enforcement is a tool we have to look at prevention enforcement and intradiction, and then recovery. okay? so-zploorb >> yes. >> that's not going on. >> you are doing a great effort. do you have seven of these? 17 of these efforts? how many do you have? >> we have -- the main effort in baltimore but we also have a couple different task forces operating and coordinating together here in washington d.c. and then we have communities throughout the country, where we have replicated what baltimore did. the results of what we've done when we've been able to get health folks together law enforcement -- >> okay. i will ask you. what are you doing on drugs,

director comey? >> in every field office, we are engaged in focussing on the complex trafficking organizations almost all the time in partnership with dea. our contribution to the heroin epidemic has been to work with dea to try and disrupt the traffickers bringing it in. we have not touched the other pieces you've talked about. >> does the marshall service have a role? >> ma'am, our role is primarily dedicated to the regional task forces and district task forces on the ap mention of the futives involved and we work collectively with our colleagues on state and local and apprehend ing drug fudgetives. >> mr. jones. we look for the worse of the worse on firearms and protecting either their organization or business. the guns are always the driver for us but have obviously leads us to some collaboration with dea and fbi and state and locals

across the board. >> well my time is up, but i think it says, we really need a different kind of coordination here. first of all, i want to complement compliment everybody on what they're doing. it's not a criticism of you, and the fact also of working with the state and local governments. we had the methodologies of task forces. there needs to be, i think a more organized effort. if we have a second round, i'll follow up with other questions. i appreciate what you're doing. i gained a great deal of insight here. thank you. >> senator langford. >> i would like to follow up on what senator mikulski was asking. is there a clear layout of the lanes of responsibilities when you deal with drug issues. the two areas i can see clearly dealing with gangs and drugs and obviously there's a tremendous

amount of overlap, all four of you have lanes of responsibility in those areas. does it exist there is a clear layout of who has what lane? >> i believe that there are >> i believe that there are very clear lines. for instance atf and fbi, they're violent crime task forces and our role is really to identify those trafficking organizations, especially mexican cartels, major mexican organizations that are supplying the gangs and that's what's fuelling violence on our streets, so we work together in a collaborative way. when our lanes are. and i have been very proud to say the 12 years that i've been in washington, we've not once ran into a problem that i had to go to the fbi director and say we were overlapping here. i've not had to go to the director of atf. we work well together and know what our lanes are.

>> with that and i would like to have that document, just to be able to see so we can get clarity of who has what lane. whatever that may be. i'd like to be able to have that so we can get the clear dif wrennation. but part of the issue for us as well as we deal with a bunch of issues, we appreciate very much what you do and the folks that are on the street and individuals that literally lay down their life for our country and do that every day. and deal with the grief and our nation grieves. we want to have the maximum number of people engaged on the street both protecting each other and our nation, the least amount of administrative work, so where there are areas of overlap and one is related to the area, we'd rather have one on the street and half theed ad cost as possible. so, that would help us to be able to get that perspective. i know there's a lot of focus on national terrorism, rightfully

so, by if way, but we can't lose the focus on drug and gang violence that's happening in the united states because we lose more folks to drug and gang violence every week in the united states than we do to national terrorism. we can't put one priority over another one. i would continue to reenforce that with the funds and focus we have, that's a continued, major emphasis we have to keep up and the da's trying to lead the way but all four of your agencies are very involved in that as well. a specific question. mr. jones here as well. eric holder and i had a conversation several years ago and it was a conversation about some of the procedures and process and trying to align the fbi processes for how they do undercover operations and the permissions and access points to d.c. because there's two different sets of processes. it was about three years ago, we had that conversation. do you know where that is in trying to align processes with

more on fbi like process for investigations? >> i had three priorities when i came on board. one was to get the organization healthy. not just in resources, the infamous morale question. number two was to fully integrate atf. having served on the agac, being intimately familiar with undercover review committees, all of the process that are there at the department of justice, we are on target with integrating and making sure that we are in sync with all of the doj law enforcement components on how we do some of those fundamentals in terms of processes for higher or high risk law enforcement operations. now, the challenge for all of us and the thing that gets attention oftentimes is when the

policy is not put into practice completely across the country and that's, that's sometimes a challenge. because putting it into practice involves people and communication and training. >> what do you think that is in implementation of the policy though first? >> for us? >> yes. >> we are in sync with doj policy across the board and will continue to refine all of our borders and policies and practices on paper. >> there's a decrease this budget on the prisoner detention bulgt budget line aim on that and the reason there was a decline in population. can you tell me the reason you've seen there's a decline in federal prison population? >> you're accurate senator is that the major contributeor is the decline in the population.

it's also a lot of efficiency that's been reduced in business practices. >> any certain population there's a decline in length of detention? >> the decline in population stays strong in immigration, stays at a steady pace. there's a slight decline in drugs and a slight decline in supervised release. but those fluctuate primarily because of the length of time it takes to prosecute the cases. so it's time in detention that really impacts the dollar. so immigration is a faster time of those cases compared to drugs. it's really the time factor that reduces it. >> thank you. i yoeld back. >> senator feinstein. >> thanks very much mr. chairman. director comby i want to thank you for the work people do in counterterrorism. i was there when bob muller announced the development of an intelligence branch in the fbi

and at that time, i had some concerns about it and i've watched its evolution. whether it was azazi or plots that are not well-known, the fbi has been able to disrupt plots in the united states and i think that's a very important and significant thing and i want very much to thank you for it. one of my disappointments was to learn that the six year report of the committee on detention and interrogation program sat in a locker and no one looked eded at it and let me tell you why i'm disappointed. the report, the six 6,000 pages and 38000 footnotes, which has been compiled, contains numerous examples of a learning experience of cases of

interstation, of where the department could learn perhaps some new things from past mistakes. and the fact it hasn't been opened, at least that's what's been reported to me, is really a great disservice. i'd like to ask if you open that report and designate certain people to read it and maybe even have a discussion how things might be improved by suggestions in the report. >> i have read the tech xif summary. you asked me to do it. i kept my promise and read it. there is a small number of people at the fbi who have read it, but what we have not done have we thought about whether there are lessons learned for us. there's a tendency for me to think we don't engage in interrogation like that, so

what's there to learn. >> you did and bob muller pulled your people out, which is a great tribute to him. >> so, the answer is yes. i will think about it better. i don't know enough about where the document sits at this point this time. you mentioned a lock box. i don't know that well enough to comment at this point. >> thank you very much. let me talk to you about another problem. human traffic ingking is is now if second largest criminal enterprise in the world. it's behind only the drug trade and in this country, too children 12 13, 14 are being trafficked. they're being transported across state lines to cities all over the united states. in some areas like los angeles even street gangs are running these trafficking rings. so traffickers now to distance themselves have come upon a method of using the internet and there are some 20 internet sites

where a per veaer, a trafficker, for as little as a dollar, can buy in an ad and so, the internet effectively becomes comply sit. these are children. under underage girls. sometimes, boys. they're held against their will. i've become very concerned about this. and will be doing more on it. but my question to you is what kind of, what can the fbi do to really make this a major priority and crack down on it? it's international. but it's also big time national. >> i think you're characterization of it is correct, senator. it's a huge feature of our work. in all of our field offices, we work in some 70 task forces to address it. we work internationally to try and address it so it's a big feature in our life.

we are trying to make sure we send a message that there are huge costs to doing this in the united states. we're focuseded on the individuals. you allude to the challenge with internet sites. that's a challenge for us. obviously, we have a wonderful country with a first amendment that protects people's ability to create site. we're trying to focus on the individuals that may be operating a site with purposes of trafficking and lock them up for a lock period of time and we're doing that all over the country. >> have you had any success? >> sure. >> could we learn more about that? not now. i'd appreciate sitting down with you. according to the government account bability office, the famous gao, for the last ten years, february '04 through december '14 there were 2233 cases in which a known or suspect suspected terrorist, individuals who are on the federal terrorist watch list at the time,