tv Key Capitol Hill Hearings CSPAN July 31, 2015 9:00pm-11:01pm EDT
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satisfied with their previous public school experience. marne half of them distressed dissatisfaction. just over one in five were satisfied. they were the most satisfied with the education savings account program. 89% said that they were very satisfied. so the low income families have the most to gain. and i think that a lot of politicians are recognizing it. it works for everybody. and especially those would are least well off now. >> what kind of safeguards are being used to protect the interest of young people that don't have responsible adults to advocate for them? >> in terms of how they use their cards you mean? >> that's a great question. the deposits to these education
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savings accounts are made quarterly. so after a fiscal quarter ends, parents report back to the state department of education and what they use the cards for. they report the cards back to the seats. the department reviews them, makes sure everything is in line and then they make the next quarter's dispersement. the county can intervene and withhold funding from the next dispersement is f.f there is a problem with the families using the card. they recently said there have only been five instances where there is a significant financial, you know, issue or misuse of the card which among -- which is now going on probably -- we're getting close to 3,000 accountses. that's pretty good for the first four, 4 1/2 years of the program. >> we're never going to have a perfect system. we should judge policies by their feasible alternatives as
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opposed to some idea we know we'll never achieve. for example, no child left behind in theory, that's fantastic. the fact is that not a single state met the proficiency standards after dramatically lowering the bar state by state for what the standards were. so with the education savings accounts by putting parents in the front seat again, they're spending something that is like their own money on their own children. you aligned the incentives much better. parents aren't flying completely blind. there are a number of ways without any government regulation whatsoever we can provide accountability and we can empower parents to make better choices. one, private certification. if you think of underwriters laboratories or the good house keeping seal after principle of law, these are private organization that's come in and say, yes this product or service meets our standards.
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there are crediting agencies for private schools and stuff like that. i think we'll see more of that as the market expands and there is more consumer demand private certification. then there is private expert reviews. i think consumer reports or in food, you know, these are people who are experts in their field and they provide reviews of different products and services so that parents have access to that. i know that manhattan institute has something now and they just released and the other organization that's are building out this type of private reviews of schools. the most important so amazon.com, angie's list, yelp this is the way that users are able to share their personal experience with this product or service with everybody else.
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matt who is an education expert in arizona told me that for students that are attending the great hearts charter schools said more than half of the parents that apply to the school have already checked them out at greatschools.com is where parents can arm the schools. they're becoming armed with information. we want informed parents and schools to be accountable for the parents. >> i would just add being the first state to pioneer esa's i think arizona really struck the right balance. they said yes fiscal accountability to taxpayers for how we're spending the money. but accountability for outcomes should go to the people for whom that matters the most, the parents. they left that rest with parents. i think that is a good balance that they struck there. >> time for one more question. yes, sir?
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>> you think the supreme court will ever find in the first 14 precedent a right to publicly fund the educational choice for parents? there's no federal constitutional right to a public education. the rights are found in each individual state. i don't foresee a time in the future when the supreme court goes back on that. that i just don't. >> great. thank you all for being here today. please give another round of applause to our panel. [ applause ]
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daily mail white house reporter talks about the most recent e-mails from hillary clinton being released by the state department after a judge's order. then a look at the possibility of interest rates being raised by the federal reserve. the chief economic correspondent dpor correspondent for "the wall street journal." look for comments on facebook and twitter. washington journal is live every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> we have a discussion on illegal immigration and the enforcement of the immigration law. new jersey governor and
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presidential candidate chris christie speaks at the university of new hampshire at manchester. on c-span2 on book tv's afterwards, michael tanner talks about the growing national debt and looks at restructuring entitleme in. t programs as a solution. and sunday afternoon at 3:00, glenn beck presents his thoughts on islamic extremism. and on american history tv on c-span3, sunday morning starting at 10:00 eastern, we commemorate the 50th anniversary of lyndon johnson's voting rights act. our coverage includes white house phone conversations between johnson and his aide sifg rights leader dr. martin luther king jr. and congressional members about how to enact and enforce the law. and lbj's 1955 speech at the u.s. capitol own the signing of the bill. saturday night at 7:10, university of california berkeley history professor brian delay looks at the history of gun production in europe and how afrmz trading contributed to an
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american victory during the revolution. get our complete sketch at c-span.org. >> the only pirate in history to bring the british navy to a stand still. not one vessel. >> two navy ships. this is unheard of. he actually fought them. >> this sunday night on q&a robert person on the search for the pirate ship the golden fleece and the captain wealthy merchant turned pirate joseph banister. >> he started off his life not as a pirate at all but as a noble english sea captain and gentleman trusted by very wealthy ship owners to sale their ship, the golden fleece, this wooden sailing ship between london and port royal jamaica which was known as the wickedest city on earth.
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and to carry valuable cargo like high sugars between london and port royal. did he that responsibly and nobly. then one day for reasons no one can quite determine, joseph banister stole the golden fleece, stole his own ship recruited a top flight pirate crew and went on the account of piracy. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific on c-span's >> ashton carter talked about education of military families including an effort by the pentagon to track student progress. the vent wasevent was hosted by the military child education coalition. [ applause ] >> thank you very much.
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good morning. good morning. mary, thank you. stephanie and i, where are you? we just met with a few kids from the student to student program your program. great. great. where are they? are you out there? where are they? yay! give those guys a round of -- what an amazing, incredible kids. and what a simple and powerful idea. that local military children and they're not all military children, including some nonmilitary children who take it upon themselves to be ambassadors to new military children who just moved nearby. it's a great take on the tradition of sponsorship in our military, a tradition of sponsorship of new transitions to new bases and new communities
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that is part of our tradition but thanks to this organization is now gone down a generation. we're very grateful of that. and that's just one innovative way that this coalition supports our military kids beyond the classroom. and i want to thank you for orchestrating this tremendous training seminar seminar and for being the go to for our military children means a lot us to. i want to thank the teachers, counsellors, administrators, parents here to dieday for your service to our next generation for committing your mission to making their stories success stories. thanks. to the people in our room this is clear. think about it this way. for our recent high school graduates, the entire time
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they've been in school during elementary school, spelling bees junior high school pep rallies, and senior proms america has been at war. last week i spoke to our men and women on the front lines in iraq. many of them are parents. many of those who aren't hope to be. some day. and for most their lives america has been at war. regardless of the reality they live in military children continue to muster the same grit and courage their parents devote to defending our country. that's what makes our military the finest fighting force the world has ever known. it's our people. that's our secret sauce. not just our war fighters but their families, their kids who
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proud ly proudly embrace their service. people like "magazine on the move." margaret is in high school. her dad is a coast guardsman. they moved six times in her life. she says moving is both the best and the most challenging thing about being a military kid. margaret was asked about the most important thing people should know about military children. i'm told she said, "kids serve too." she's right. so many kids like margaret proudly own their service. they're determined creative wise beyond their years and they seize their unique experiences as an opportunity, our challenge, the challenge this coalition has val yenltly taken on is to provide them the support they need to succeed.
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this may have been mentioned earlier. i think it was. long before i was secretary carter and for one time i was professor carter. so i'm an educator too. as educators we know education is critical to a richer quality of life for our people as americans we know education is critical to a vibrant democracy. but as secretary of defense, i can tell you that the education of our military children is critical to our mission and the military that will defend our country in the years to come. it's true a dynamic force of future will maintain an operational edge and unmatched capabilities. but it's more than just advanced weapons platforms that keep
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people safe. people keep people safe. it's our men and women in uniform and their families. their conviction their courage, their sacrifice. let me just say it again. it's that that makes ours the fighting finest fighting force the world has ever known. if we're going to stay the best the u.s. arms forces has to be an attractive inviting supportive place to serve for families of all kinds. the world's changing. the labor market is changing. younger generations and young families want flexibility and choice in their career paths. we know. that more and more were seeing they want to be on a jungle gym where you advance by moving around and having new
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experiences. noes an escalator where you get on and wait your turn. dod has to keep up. and keeping up means being more responsive to the needs of our military families and their children. that's our obligation. but given today's abundance of career paths to choose from, we can't take for granted that military children are twice as likely as other kids to join the military. nor can we take for granted military parents inclination to recommend military service to their own children. both of those things happen. there's tremendous value when families upholding a tradition of service that is passed from generation to generation. there's no substitute for the unique potent mix of passion and mentorship that comes from a military mom, tad, granddad and in the case of my kids i was
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speaking about earlier today. or all of them. i recently got a letter from a fourth grader who wrote, "dear mr. secretary, i want to be in the military because i want to defend our country. and our country's freedoms. my mom and dad are in the air force. and that is what inspired me. there it is. it's great reason. military children like that future -- like that future airmen who already see the virtue of their parents service also see their peers chase their jungle gym style careers. they too, see businesses trending towards more family flexibility. more opportunities to pursue higher education and fewer long term commitments. so we have to adapt to keep up. and when we make the department of defense a more attractive place to join across the board
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the virtue of service becomes a more worth while endeavor for military and civilian families alike. so our force of the future should be family focused. parents who never feel like they have to choose their profession or their familiarly. we're expanding ma tern and paternity leave and we're creating on ramps and off ramps between active duty and the reserves. so our personnel don't have to derail their careers to get an advance degree or to have a family. we're overhauling the way we place personnel too. to offer more options and potentially, potentially, not always but potentially fewer moves meaning fewer first days as the new kid in the school. to give families more
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opportunity, we're making sure the serving and uniform doesn't mean you have to trade in your aspirations to wear a cap and gown. that's what you want to do. post 9/11 gi bill helped over 1.3 million americans pay for college. and those benefits are transferrable to family members. those are just a few ways we're working hard to be more responsive to the needs of our modern military families. which, of course, support our military kids. but when it comes to education, we have a specific set of tools we use to deliver direct support in the classroom. more than 74,000 kids attend dod-run schools. overseen by our education and activities office. our schools have good teachers
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high graduation rates and above average sat scores. we're doing well but question always do better. that's why starting with this coming school year we'll ab dopting college and career ready standards across all the dod schools. so our military kids can hit the ground running in college and be first in line for 21st century jobs. this is a small part of child education, as you all know. more than 90% of military children attend local public schools. this is essential for pushing progress outside the department's own schools. we're work together to make moving easier on kids. one is to create a military dependent student identifier.
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funnel resources and make smart policy decisions on behalf of our military children over their entire educational careers. if we know how particular groups of kids are performing we can better target resources to maximize their success. we greatly, greatly appreciate iron clad support. thank you. we're working to extend our reach in creative ways, case in point, since our educational partnership grant program where funds go to local schools with the 15% or more number of military kids enrolled. they help more than 10000 high school students earn ap scores that qualify them for college credit.
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that is an incredible return on investment. this round of funding totals $52 million much i want to thank you once again for your continued support. i hope all of you will think of us as a partner and a resource as you tackle these challenges in your districts. i want to close with a story about a visit i made to an air base in japan this past april during the month of the military child. had a chance to spend some quality time with military families and kids and for me it's the best part of this job, hands down. i met some 5-year-old students who were making bird feeders in
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a craft class. in my day i remember we made ashtrays. if you can believe that. goes to show how priorities and times have changed. to boost our military children's potential, we have to change, too. our security demands it. the force of the future demands it. and the flexible thorough, support of our military families and kids demands it together we can meet that demand. i can tell that you our military children are resourceful and resilient. i can tell you they're courageous and compassionate. i can tell you that they're proud of their parents and proud to serve alongside them. but instead i'll let a military child tell you in hir own words. a poem was published by a sixth grader that goes to school in new mexico. and her poem is entitled "military girl." and i'm going to recite a few
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lines. "i am not in the rank of command orders i do not get but my dad is the one who does this i cannot forget i am not the one would fires the weapon who puts my life on the line but my job is just as tough i'm the one who left friends behind my dad makes the sacrifice my dad works to keep this country free but so do my mom, brother, sister and me even though i might get a little wild i stand with the rank known as military child." that poet katie, is one of nearly two million military children whose parents serve among our active duty guard and reserves. that's the scope of our education challenge and our opportunity. margaret, katie, thoubs andz of
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kids like this give us a glimpse of the grit and the wisdom our military children have. and need to make their lives work. our mission is to have their back. to cheer them on. to make sure their stories are success stories, happy stories, and stories of fulfilled lives. because the brave men and women who defend our freedoms and risk their lives all over the world deserve the peace of mind that comes with knowing their families are being taken care of back home. thank you for all you do. to promote that. [ applause ] >> the military child education coalition also hosts a panel with three military leaders on the social needs of military children. this is 35 minutes.
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>> thank you. >> well good morning. hey, look, don't you love those defining moments? i mean they're really really awesome. well, welcome to the family program town hall. i'd like toinlt deuce our panelists we have up here. first we have lieutenant general david albertson who is commander of the army assistant chief of staff for insti lags management we have the air force deputy chief of staff for manpower and services. vice admiral dixon r. smith naval command. and the honorable danny
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g.i.pummel the principal deputy under veterans administration and he is also an adviser. gentlemen, thank you. so we collected questions from the audience the last couple days. and i'm going to start off with some of those questions. i understand there is a mike out there, though. if you have a question from the floor, please don't hesitate to go ahead and walk over there somehow signal me or have someone signal me throw a wad of paper at me or something to get my attention so i can then call upon you. i like to be as spontaneous in the beginning. the first question is a question given to us two days ago. in lifgt theght of the current fiscal environment, how do you see funding of family programs being affected in the short and long term and then are there from
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your perspectives any nonnegotiables? >> i'll jump in. >> yes, the budget is impacting us. our program, cno, chief naval operations said we're not touching that. and so whether it's child development centers or youth programs, we're protecting those. and they're funded well because we understand importance of taking care of our children and the families because obviously that is very important to our sailors when they go forward to deploy. we have that fenced and we're not impinging our child youth programs with this budget. >> it's a great question because it's a reality, right? we have to do it. and the most important thing is i think it's that fine balance we do between mission, you know family and our community and what it is because we understand family is part of readiness. and so from our per inspect in
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any event army and the other things, it is a very you know must fund type thing that we're doing here. just like dixon said, it is nonnegotiable. how we adjust certain things and deal with certain contract you'llal things of the way we are and brings the same service or capabilities, those are things we want to adjust and have discussions on. but to communicate that to the families, i understand, they are part of readiness from our perspective. >> i'll speak back on the one case that i talked about is that partnership piece is really important as we begin to you know, the budget is kind of tight. we'll do the funding the best way we can. but we have to have that
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partnership as well. we know from experience the better off that the family of a service member to include the children are when they transition from military to civilian life, the better they'll be able to make that smooth transition less ptsd more chance of getting jobs that are involved in the communities. >> thank you. you may have personal experiences with this as well you would like to share. what do senior military leaders believe the biggest challenge facing the veteran connected children? >> how do you integrate how do you get your kids integrated
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into your community and areas and stuff? so the biggest challenge as you know is -- and it's a reality that we're not the norm in society anymore in military. it's harder to get n it's hard to do this. and really how do we integrate with our society in the communities and how do we leverage that capability? it's important that you're an enabler to that education, you know experience. you're an enabler to do that. the other folks in this society may not know what did your father do? what is the war about? all the conversations our kids have to deal with at times are very very important. and i think that conversation can be had. we have to reach out and things
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like msec or the school liaison has to educate the principals, the counsellors and all those types of things of what this child's gone through, problem bhi has moved multiple times. their spouses have been or their parents have been deployed. all these types of things, maybe like my kids, 12 different schools, how they have to deal with the thins. all these types of things are going to be maybe not as normal as it used to be. as we shrink and get smaller because what we have to do is that experience may not be there. so i think that's going to be something that we'll have to continue to foster in the future. >> and going forward. so you think about what happened since 9/11. incredible support we have across this united states for
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support for the military and our children. so going forward, is that support going to wayne a little bit? >> so this collaboration with school boards and other organizations like this, that's what we have to do to make sure we have a continued support with our local communities. it's hard to grow up as a military child as you go from school to school. so my kids are -- i have a 22-year-old and 20-year-old, daughter of the 22-year-old, nine different schools three different high schools, that's challenging. >> one in the transition from school to school. come into a new environment. not knowing anybody and the integration. that's where student to student that they do our connection rooms that manufacture the schools now have really help and
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enables our kids to get integrated quickly and be able to focus on academics. that's where the interstate compact and the efforts this organization have had to get all 50 states finally onboard with that. the military student identifier right now and 17 of our states have the identifier on the forms and continue to push that need. because then when you do that you contract those students and they can get through school easy. that state's graduation credentials. those are the two biggest thing this is organization and many organizations are working that and, you know, i personally know we all thank you for what you do on that. but we have to keep on pushing it because the job is not done.
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>> after deployment, what can leadership do to reinvigorate initiatives between inste lagss and school districts? >> make sure they're integrated with the local school board and community. just emphasizing that point is something we need to do. and then every time that we go out as senior leaders to go out to visit with the local communities and visit with those school boards to make sure there is an understanding what it is and the challenges our folks are facing. >> senior commanders are on the school board. they are advisors. >> i think it's very very important. we put school liaisons into our
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areas there. that facilitates that communication that they need and what we need to do. and also from that try to balance to admission community and family, you know, we've done a lot of things like adopt schools and these types of programs put the soldiers to assist. all the things like with stem and working with robotics teams and taking our capital to know that you have to give back to the community and share this dialogue with our children and stuff very, very important. so these are the initiatives we have to continue to foster. this is our lower you know our next mustard seed we have to grow from a leader perspective to make sure the commanders know is part of readiness. and this really gives that you balance that can you see. and you'll just like everything we've seen you'll reap the benefits of it from anything do you from your civil input. education is so important. when you talk to families education is a huge readiness issue. and what we want to do is create
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the environment that the family unit stays together and they don't make decisions because it's an education. war is hard enough to push. but to stay together is very, very important in that focus in the work that we're doing is allowing that and to ensure they don't have to make the other tough choices. >> the next one deals with stem. stem being science, technology engineering and math. and this is -- it could be answered in a yes or no. do you think this is more important than sports? >> yes. >> my two girls, one is mechanical and one is electrical engineering. it's important, right? my wife was english background. but it's really important. but she did go to the academy. but it's really important i think, for stem.
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i think in the future it's a gap that we need to do. and it's exciting. it doesn't matter where you are, there's a lot of opportunities for us like they were in college and they went to -- i mean they were in high school and went to college classes to facilitate some of these exploitation of stem. so i've seen the school districts work very closely with them to ensure they do have the environment to learn and to prosper and to understand that it's okay to -- especially with my girls, being and engineer is a good thing to do. >> we push stem very hard. we have partnerships with 2100 schools out there across the country. and where we can, we leverage the expertise in stem in those partnerships whether it is down
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on the river and out in hawaii where the shipyard or in san diego. bl we are ruining stem competitions. so we consider it very important as dave sid, we have to work that stem piece. the more we can get that into the elementary schools and middle schools, high schools, the better off we're going to be not only as a navy and service but as a country down the road. >> okay. this next one aennd the numbers may be wrong. but the idea is important here. there is a 35% suicide and depression rate of children of military personnel and 37% higher for siblings of military personnel. are you seeking programs to address this?
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>> it's the biggest fear of all parents, right? kids grow up and hormones change and the development, we learned a lot more. but we are in the aspects from the army instituted a lot of the training we did for our soldiers and stuff is being offered to family members and to children that are cyss and stuff like that. so we've done that internally to -- in the acs and teaching master resillency and be pushed all wait down to give them the resilience they need to understand that these are normal and they can get help. it's troubling if you have one that there is so much life to go through that it's not turning on the computer it's a life experience. life is about the ups and downs and how do you get through them as a team or together as a yunt and that you're not alone.
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>> the struggle for the air force, just just to piggyback on the resillency trainers is to have one in every quadsquadron in every air force. that's the path we're on to piggyback on. that not only it is for airmen it's also for the families as well. we're doing the same thing. >> the answer is yes also for that for the navy. but we do the same thing to our fleet and family service centers. >> from a va perspective, we do a lot with suicides. our figures are the best we have right now is about 18 veterans a day commit suicide in the united states. one thing i worry about is the transition period for military children when they leave that reserve status and going into the civilian sector. i remember back when i was in high school, my dad retired from the air force. i was a junior in high school. that was a nightmare for me. i never fit into the new school. it probably delayed my college by four years. i was a mess.
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i don't know if there are figures out there. i heard your figures. i'm dernd that figures were the people that left military and are now civilians. i don't know if anybody is keeping those figures. that is something we need to think about and worry about how do we better hand that will transition for the children? >> good point. >> what do you believe? this is an aspect from a parent's perspective. but what do you think is the best way to hash your resilience in my child after all the deployments and reintegration? we'll get to each of those. >> you know what we try to do for our kids, is you know, we want them to stay in team sports. or the band or something that has more than one person. so just an individual activity isn't something that you know, as you go into a new school and now it's time to go into the cafeteria and if you're participating in a group event whether it's band or choir or sports, then you walk in and
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there is somebody you know that you can sit at the table. otherwise, you're going into that new school and you don't know a soul. >> right. >> those kinds of things get more people around is what we try to do. i think something that helps. >> i think -- that's a tough question. it's reality. even though folks will say that we're not certain places and there's no work, from an army perspective, we're just as busy doing engagement things in the ukraine and balkans and other areas, rotational forces. so the churn is still the same for people deploying. it's part of the aspect you are to be a military child in the military family and stuff like that. they do need to understand to communicate. so the families we have at acs and housing as a family and how you deal with these things are very important. you understand you're not unique with the issues. it's how you communicate them to
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your child as the spouse or something of your soldier's deploying deploying. knowing that they're doing it because their mission requires it. but they really want to be. there and the connectivity they do. all the different programs we can bring together to keep the kids connected, we made a lot of progress on that. but it's going to be part of the norm. we have to continue to stress the programs and learn the communication and understand that it's just a normal thing. it so true. twunt get back to normal as soon as possible. that way they feel comfortable and have confidence in themselves and what they are. and to get that circle that they're not alone. that's the unique thing we have to continue to stress. >> when i look at the things we've done each time we moved with our three kid, it came down to three things the things we could keep stable to keep stable. make sure that love exists in the family.
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they knew we loved them no matter what they wanted to do and the third thing sint inauguration in outside the family whether it in xoog or extra curricular activities and making sure they're involved. >> so one important skill do you believe military children will gain just by virtue of being military connected children that will make them college and career ready? >> i'll jump on that one. and i always -- we spent three years in naples. i guess middle school for our two oldest and spent three years over there and they learned things they learned that there is more out there and a bunch of english speaking americans. there is more to do out there. there is more ways to do things than just the american way. we walk in a church and say look at. this oh, look at this another church. they've been in 15 or 20 churches. but what i really saw the change is when we came back and went to our next duty station back here and had a young man same age as
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our oldest one that lived a couple doors down. he was a solid kid. good grades, athlete, could converse with adults just a squared away kid. but the difference between that young man and our oldest was his universe revolved around jacksonville florida. our son's universe revolved around the world. he understood there is more out there than just jacksonville. and to me and i look now and he's now 28 and what he's doing and how he succeeded, yeah we moved many times. all three of our kids went to at least two different high schools. but the resilience and peace we talked about braen working and providing the things that can be stable, i look at how he and the other two kid are now as a result i think they are who they are because of the experience we had in the military. >> okay. i think the global aspect of the global world we're connected economically, militarily and global and just like dixon said i also think that they are resilient because they had the
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pcs and have done the different things. they integrate really well with people. it's really important to be able to do that. as a national university which was, you know, can be intimidating. graduating from oklahoma and all the other issues. they felt very comfortable with. that i do think our children, they have a great you know worldly experience because they're going to be exposed to a whole bunch of different things. and they can actually be an enabler into the educational environment for the rest of the people they're with. and if the teachers and the principals can actually exploit that type of thing, it really does, you know, make it unique experience. >> we had a short conversation this morning over coffee with
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mary. and, of course the world knew and all that stuff. then we had a discussion about the little things. being on time rsvp'ing nobody rsvps anymore. thank you notes, only military people send thank you notes. yes, sir yes, ma'am little things like that that kind of set them aside that discipline that little bit of extra that they learn from being military children. so that's on the side a little bit and makes them special. >> good comments. >> what can secondary schools do to address the fact that there are too few people with what with they call middle skills, leaving an employment gap. by middle skills, think what the questioner is asking is what do you do about voluntary tech training? are we trying to make everybody college ready when not everybody ought to go to college and things like that?
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>> the american model is you have options, right? it is an individual choice bhauwhat you want to do. i know we're doing a lot on credentialing a lot of our skills from that capability. i think it is an awareness. i mean, there is a big thing even with education how do you do education? i think there is a big attack on the institutional aspect of education. and the brick-and-mortar aspect of doing that. when you look at the new businesses credentialing and getting your certain credentials are just as important as, what? as having this broad based education. because if i'm going to be an i.t. person, i don't really need world history maybe. so there are issues we really have to be able to work on these approaches. georgia tech even with their
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masters program now have been able to cut down the costs especially in some cyber fields just because of this approach to be able to take a different approach where a different approach where you're not so much focused on the other arching aspect but to get the dre ken credentialing. so america will have to continue to look at it and go for that. so we're doing a lot to capture the experts to be able to then impose and to credential folks along their way. so that's why for us for a soldier for life, we're doing credentialing so our soldiers when they transition have more skill sets than the outside. >> we do similar things with the credentialing piece. but to get to the core piece of that question, as you look at where we're going. do folks in the cyber realm, do they need a college degree or is it programming and coding and that kind of stuff whether it can be learned on your own or
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different ways should that be part of our middle schools now as opposed to what we do today? >> it won't be turning wrenches and doing automechanic stuff. it will be cyber. >>? in what ways do you feel these programs help parents and families help with military connected children. >> well, i mean i'm looking out here and i see folks that i recognize and there's a couple of things that come to mind. it's not just the programs that is provided by and that we utilize throughout the services but it's all t separates that are separate but that you partner together and leverage each other with what you do. that's your shoutout, you asked for it last night. that makes a difference. so you all are spending two solid days here and while we sit up here and talk and ask
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questions and you listen to folks, what's really going to happen is the networking partnerships that you're establishing, developing, and the thinks you're writing down and say you poe what? we're going to work that out. so it's the breaks and that's what i think will benefit, the leverage is and what you all do, so thank you. [ applause ] >> and i think what's important is how do you adapt to the new ways things are and what are the new approaches you need to do? i think it's important that msec has been -- a lot of us there are when we founded this thing called msec and being there as a young leader was exciting to see. we didn't know that -- now we didn't know what it would become and just these few years since we were there it does show you the power of what one person can
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do and move this forward. i think that's what's important here is the mustard seed aspect of taking this to our communities, to facilitate this is a expect that education is important, the military child is important, we have to give them opportunities so it that's why it's important so it's an amazing thing. so howe we do that for where we want to be in 2025 is the thing we keep focusing on. >> i didn't think you can put the importance of what mcec does. i think about myself as a independent, my grand kids as independent and the things that have changed. we spoke this morning, we have an all volunteer force. that's important. that's a very fragile all-volunteer force. being a military child is hard. going to school as a military child is hard.
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if we can't make sure those children are taken care of and they have a better-than-average chance of society, that will be one of the pegs you can remove that would cause the all-volunteer force to go away. these kids if you look at the statistics there are future officer, future ncos, most of them join the military. and if you look at the important people in the united states right now, most of them are military children, you have to sustain that. you have to keep that going. >> i'm going ask for closing comments in just a quick second. but i wanted to -- there are a lot of young folks out here and i wanted to ask you might what advice you might give students in the room here with regard to cultivating talent and developing persistence to achieve success. >> work hard. [ laughter ] good advice. >> set goals, stay in school. there's no easy solution for any of this you know? it takes a whole team and with our kids and stuff and i think that's what's important about
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it. and, you know, set your sights high. it's important. you can do anything you want. that's the beauty of america. set those goals high and reach for it. >> despite what mom or dad says chase your dream bus be focused and work hard at it and don't give up. >> okay i would ask each of you if you have something else you'd like to close with that we'll go ahead and close with that. >> it's been a great opportunity just -- the dialogue and questions. if you're well prepared for things with the questions you didn't give us any real answers so it's good to have the dialogue dialogue. but thanks, like most folks we are committed to our military child and education. education is very important. it is a readiness issue. family is a readiness issue especially with the all-volunteer force.
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it's on the three-legged stool that we have to nurture and balance during tough times. so just like this thing, it's their story, it's our mission, our commitment to the mill takes our commitment to you all and what you do here. that's a big part of the professional aspect of what we try to do and i want to say thanks to each and every one of you and what you'll do for our kids as you go to each part of the globe that you come from so thanks very much. >> i'll address -- go ahead, you can clap. [ applause ] by the way, i was kind of risky when i poked at him a little bit because he was a hockey player in college so he might have hit me. my dad quit high school when he was 17 years old and joined the united states air force. he served for 30 years. so to go back to that point before. three of us, my older brother younger sister, we moved all over the world. i went to 10 different schools in my time my sister and
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brother about the same kind of thing. sometimes it's different schools in the same grade because of the way the pcs cycle was. my mom dragged three of us, eight, six and four from south carolina to the philippines by herself through the military airlift system and i was the six-year-old and i know i was a lot of help as we were moving through that. [ laughter ] so we did that but there was no such thing as an mcec or communication between schools and now i've had two kids that have gone through similar things with eight and nine different schools between the two of them. but they merged out of it just fine. but it's that -- some of the things we talked about earlier. the love at home, a bigger organization that they can latch themselves on to. the air force, the military all the services, there's opportunities, so for young people in the crowd here you work hard, there's plenty of opportunities just like ones
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that existed in 1956 when my dad joined exit today. you work hard, you'll do things. so thank you. [ applause ] >> i just want to say thank you. you're here because you care, whether you're an educateoreducator, a parent, run a support program, you work with one of the services to take care of our children you're here because you care. don't forget you make a difference, you support us you support our families and you all truly are a force multiplier and we appreciate that very very much. so, again thank you for what you do day in day out for our children. [ applause ] >> i would just reinforce what everybody else said. thanks. you know why you're here, you know why it's important. from a veterans administration perspective, my big concern is transition of service members to
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civilians, to be productive civilians. one of the greatest things that's happen is congress enacting the act which greatly expanded the transition program and the services now allowing spouses to attend transition with their service member. we know from our statistics in the v.a. that if a spouse attends the transition program with his or her spouse that they sign up for more benefits, take advantage of more benefits and they usually don't mess up their transfer, their college and things like that. just having that spouse there is a huge difference. one of the things i pledged to marry is that the v.a. will work with mcec to try to figure out a ways to get you guys access to our web sites and your information to our transition so that we can provide the people going through transformation the things they need for their children because i can tell you in that whole transition process it takes about 180 days. there's not very much for children in there.
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everybody is thinking about the job, the service member, where they're going to live, where they're going to go to school, how they handle medical issues and things like that. we can't forget that important part of the family transitioning with them. thank you again for having me here today. [ applause ] >> i learned a lot because i didn't know a lot of that information and i think we all took away something from their personal experiences that they've had as they've gone through their time in the military and raised their children, they went through the same thing you all are going through now and that we're trying to help facilitate which is proper transition. marry, if i can ask you to come up and we can give you a memento here. this weekend on news makers, alabama senator richard shelby is our guest. as chair of the banking committee, he talks about the export/import bank, financial regulation under the dodd-frank law and the federal reserve's monetary policy. news makers, sunday at 10:00
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a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. when first lady ida mckinley arrived at the white house in 1897 she was in poor health suffering from epilepsy and her husband president william mckinley would sit next to her so when he saw she was having a seizure he would cover her face with a large handkerchief until her episode past. she attended the 1901man american exposition where her husband was assassinated. ida mckinley sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's original series "first ladies, influence and image examining the public and private lives of the women who who filled the position of first lady and their influence on the presidency. from martha washington to michelle obama." sundays at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span 3.
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the republican presidential candidates are in manchester, new hampshire, for the voters' first presidential forum. on monday at 7:00 p.m. eastern and c-span's road to the white house is providing live coverage on c-span, c-span radio and cspan.org. the new hampshire union leader along with media organizations from the early caucus and primary states are sponsoring the forum. following the forum you can join you are call-in program or add your comments on facebook or twitter. road to the white house, 2016. c-span, c-span radio and cspan.org. congress has until september to have view the iran nuclear agreement before voting on whether to approve or reject it. on capitol hill this week, secretary of state john kerry was joined by energy secretary ernest moniz and treasury secretary jack lew to take questions from lawmakers. the house foreign affairs hearing was one of three
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appearances that all three secretaries made together before a congressional committee within the last week. this runs almost four hours. >> this hearing will come to order. today we continue our review of the nuclear agreement the obama administration reached with iran. this is a critical hearing on one of the most sweeping diplomatic initiatives in years, some say decades demanding the committee's thorough review.
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the global threat from iran has been a focus of this committee for as long as i can remember. last congress we passed comprehensive sanctions legislation by a vote of 400-20. it would have given iran's supreme leader a choice between its nuclear program or economic collapse. but the administration was successful in blocking that legislation. so instead of us considering a verifiable enforceable, and accountable agreement we are being asked to consider an agreement that gives iran permanent sanctions relief for temporary nuclear restrictions. should iran be giving the this special deal? in september, committee members will face the important decision of approving or disapproving this agreement. we will have that vote only because of the iran nuclear agreement review act passed in
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may which the administration did not want. to be frank, the administration's preference has been to sideline america's representatives so i was not entirely surprised when the administration went against bipartisan calls and gave russia and china and others at the u.n. security council a vote on this agreement before the american public. that's backwards and wrong. we've heard serious concerns from experts about the substance of this. first, iran is not required to dismantle key bomb-making technology. does that make the world safer? second, it is permit add vast enrichment capacity, reversing decades of bipartisan non-proliferation policy. because that make the region more stable? and, third, iran is allowed to continue its research and
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development to gain an industrial-scale nuclear program once this agreement begins to expire in as little as ten years. ten years, that's a flash in time. and then iranian obligations start unwinding. does this make the world more secure? we appreciate president obama's effort to secure the most intrusive inspections in history. but it came up short. instead, there is managed access with iran russia and china having a say in where international inspectors can and can't go. the deal's 24-day process is a far cry from anywhere any time. and this provision expires, too. while the administration has processed absolute knowledge about iran's program it is a fact that we have been surprised by most every major nuclear
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development in iran's history i ask, mr. secretary, has iran earned the right to be trusted? this deal guts the sanctions web that is putting intense pressure on iran. virtually all economic, financial and energy sanctions disappear. and where does all that money go? to the largest terror network on earth. gone are the sanctions on iran's nuclear program, but also on the bad banks that have supported iran's terrorism and blilzallistic missile development and to our dismay iran won a late concession to remove restrictions on its ballistic missile program and conventional arms imperilling the security of the region and our homeland if this agreement goes through, iran gets a cash bonanza a
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boost to its international standing and a lighted path toward nuclear weapons. with sweeping sanctions relief, we have lessened our ability to challenge iran's conduct across the board. as iran goes stronger, we will be weaker to respond. yes, the u.s. would royal the diplomatic waters if congress reject this is deal. but the u.s. still wields the most powerful economic sanctions in the world, sanctions iran desperately needs relief from, sanctions that would continue to deter countries and companies from investing in iran. i understand the effort the administration has put into this agreement. but these are about as high stakes as it gets so the committee must ask, if we made the most of our pretty strong hand or are we willing to bet,
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as the administration has that this is the beginning of a changed iran. these are complex issues and i look forward to what should be an extremely informative hearing and i now turn the ranking member. >> mr. chairman, thank you for convening this hear. secretary kerry, secretary lew, secretary moniz, welcome to the foreign affairs committee. thank you all for your dedicated service, no matter what side of the issue anybody is on. i don't think anyone here doubts your commitment to the united states and your good intentions on this deal. thank you for the time you've taken over the last week to engage with members of congress on the proposed deal and thank you for your testimony today gong gave itself 60 days to renew this deal and i sincerely hope my colleagues take full advantage of its time to study this agreement, to ask questions and to make an informed decision when the time comes. we've had many months and many
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hearings to discuss the different aspects of a nuclear agreement with iran. at this point we're no longer dealing with hypotheticals. we have a specific deal on the table and we have to decide if that deal advances the national security interests of the united states and our allies. to answer that question to be fair, we also need to ask ourself what is is the alternative absent this deal with the international sanctions regime and the p5+1 coalition hold together? if this deal fails how would we get the iranians back to the table? would now sanction would new sanctions be coupled with military action? as i review the deal, there are a number of issues i find troublesome. i hope the three of you will address them in your testimony and as you answer the committee's questions. first, i continue to have concerns that international inspectors will not have immediate access to undeclared sides. under the agreement, iran has 14 days to grant access.
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if iran refuses access after that time members of the joint commission could take another week to resolve the iaea's concerns. after that iran has three more days to provide access. so we already nearly a month after inspectors first wanted access, but if iran continues to say no another month could go by while this dispute is resolved. that potential length of time gives me pause. i'd like to know how we can be sure iran cannot use these delays to san size sites and get away with breaking the rules. already we're seeing iran's leadership declare that military sites will be off limits to inspectors. if this is iran's version of transparency during the implementation of the agreement we're getting off to a bad start. i'm also troubled by reports about how the arrangement reached between iran and the iaea on how it will be
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inspected. secondly i have concerns about the sunset of the sanctions on ballistic missiles and advanced conventional weapons. now, my understanding was these weren't on the table during the talks so i was disappointed to learn that after a maximum of five and eight years representatively they'll be terminated i'd like to understand why we allow this to happen and what we can do to ensure this doesn't make a terrible situation in the region get worse. i'm also concerned about what iran's leaders will do when sanctions are phased out and new resources come flowing in. we're talking about tens of billions of dollars. of course i'd like to see iran's leaders use this money to help the iranian people but even with tough international sanctions in place iran has bolstered hezbollah, shi'a militias, hamas, and the assad regime. if this deal goes through how would you propose to keep this newfound wealth out of the hands
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of terrorists and tyrants? next, while i'm glad iran will be limited in its development of advanced centrifuges for eight years, i worry what happens down the road. after the research and development ban expires, iran could quickly move towards the next stage of its enrichment activities. i'd like to know what other provisions in the deal if any will mitigate this risk. finally, i have a fundamental concern that 15 years from now iran will essentially be off the hook. if they choose iran's leaders could produce weapons grade highly enriched uranium without any limitation. they could used advanced centrifuges to speed this progress even further. this amounts to iran being a legitimized nuclear threshold state in the year 2030. my big question is this -- what happens then? are we back to square one? is this deal just pushing the
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pause button for 15 years? i must also say i have that trepidation barely a week after the iranians sign the deal with us there was the supreme leader the ayatollah chanting "death to america, death to israel." you would think that after an agreement was signed with us it might be a modicum of good will that perhaps they keep quiet for a week or two or a month but it went back to business as usual. how can we trust iran when this type of thing happens? it's very disconcerting. so i'm looking forward to hearing from our distinguished witnesses on these issues. i thank you for your service and hard work and i yield back to the chairman. >> thank you, mr. engel. this morning we're pleased to be joined by john kerry the secretary of state, ernie moniz the secretary of energy and jack lew the secretary of the treasury. prior to his appointment secretary kerry served as a united states senator from massachusetts for 28 years. before being appointed secretary
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of energy dr. moniz was professor of physics and engineering at m.i.t. where he was a faculty member since 1973. from director of the office of management and budget to white house chief of staff, secretary lew now serves as the 76th secretary of the treasury. gentlemen, welcome. without objection, the witnesses' full prepared statements will be made part of the record. members will have five days to submit statements and questions and extraneous materials for the record and before turning to the testimony we have most members present here. i know we all recognize the gravity of this issue we want everyone to have a chance to question the secretaries. to accomplish that i would ask everyone members and witnesses to respect the time limit and that means leaving an adequate amount of time to answer your questions and nothing requires full use of your time. we will begin with the summary
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of secretary kerry's testimony. mr. secretary? >> well, chairman royce ranking member engel, all the members of the committee, thank you very, very much, we genuinely appreciate the opportunity to be here to, frankly clear up a lot of misinterpretation, some element of public distortion that exists out there. there's one ad i've seen on tv has at least three or four major absolutely totally incorrect facts chon ss on which it bases the ad and with all respect to the chairman and the ranking member, there are conclusions that have been drawn that just don't in fact, match is with the reality of what this deal sets forth and we happily happily look forward to clarifying that in this hearing. that's what it's about and we welcome the opportunity. we are convinced that the plan
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that we have developed with five other nations establishes the task that president obama set out, which is to close off the four pathways to a bomb. and i think as you listen to ernie moniz particularly on the technical components and see the whole deal i really believe that that is a conclusion that everybody can come to. not saying they will, but can. i'm joined by obviously, two cabinet secretaries both ernie and jack were absolutely critical to our ability to do this this, the treasury department's knowledge of the sanctions and application of the sanctions has been exemplary and they helped us understand the implications of all of these sanctions. and as jack will let you know, we're not talking about 150 billion, we're talking about $55 billion that will go to iran and
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we'll go into that later. but from the day our negotiations began mr. chairman, we were crystal clear that we would not accept anything less than a good deal. one that would shut off all of those pathways towards fissile material for a nuclear weapon. and after 18 months of very intensive talks, the facts are pretty clear to the plan announced this month by six nations, in fact accomplishes that. i might remind everybody. all of those other nations have nuclear power or nuclear weapons. and all of them are extremely knowledgeable in this challenge of proliferation. so under the terms of this agreement, iran has agreed to remove 98% of it stockpile of enriched uranium. dismantle two-thirds of its installed centrifuges and
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destroy by filling it with concrete the existing core of its heavy water plutonium reactor. iran has agreed to refrain from producing or acquireing highly enriched uranium or plutonium for nuclear weapons forever. now, how do we enforce or verify so that is more than words and particularly to speak to the ranking members' question what happens after 15 years. what happens is forever. we have an extremely rigorous inspection verification regime because iran has agreed to accept land ratify prior to the conclusion of the agreement and with -- if they don't it's a material arebreach of the agreement to ratify additional protocol
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which requires you are significant additional transparency measures including cradle-to-grave accountability for the country's uranium. from might being to milling through the centrifuge production to the waste for 25 years. bottom line, if iran fails to comply with the terms of our agreement our intel community our energy department which is responsible for nuclear weaponry are absolutely clear to we will quickly know it and be able to respond accordingly with every option available to us today. and when it comes to verification and monitoring, there is absolutely no sunset? this agreement. not in ten years, not in 15 years, not 20 years, not 25 years. no sunset ever. now, remember two years ago when we began these negotiations -- and a lot of
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people are kind of forgetting conveniently where we are today. people are sitting there saying oh, my gosh, in 15 years this is going to happen. iran's going to have the ability to capable of nuclear power. folks, when we began our negotiations we faced an iran that was already enriching uranium up to 20%. they had a facility in secret underground in a mountain that was rapidly stockpiled enriched uranium. when we began negotiations they had enough enriched uranium for 10 to 12 bombs. already. already they had installed as many as 19,000 nukes leer sentry finals and they had nearly finished building a heavy water reactor that could produce weapons-grade plutonium at a rate of one two to bombs per year.
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ex experts put iran's breakout time when we began -- which remember, is not the old breakout time in which we used to refer to in the context of arms control which is the time to have a weapon and deploy it -- breakout time as we have applied it is extraordinarily conservative, it's the time it takes to have enough fissile material for one bomb but for one potential bomb. it's not the amount of time to the bomb. so when we say they'll have one year to a certain amount of fissile material they industrial to go design the bomb, tests, do a whole bunch of other things and i think you would agree no nation is going to consider itself nuclear capable with one bomb. so if this deal is rejected, folks -- by the way, the existing is when we started negotiations the existing breakout time was two months. we're going take it to one year and then it tails down slowly
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and i'll explain how that provides with us guarantees. but if this deal is rejected we immediately go back to the reality i just described. without any viable alternative. except that the unified diplomatic support that produced this agreement will disappear overnight. let me underscore the alternative to the deal that we have reached is not something kind of unicorn fantasy that contemplates iran's complete capitulation. i've heard people talking about dismantling their program. that didn't happen under president bush when they had a policy of no enrichment and had 163 centrifuges. they went up to the 19000. our intelligence community confirms -- and i ask you all to sit with them -- they'll tell you that's not going to happen.
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so in the real world we have two options. either with move ahead with this agreement to ensure iran's nuclear program is limited, rigorously scrutinized and wholly peaceful or we have no agreement at all. no inspections, no restraints, no sanctions, no knowledge of what they're doing and they start to enrich. now, to be clear if congress rejects what was agreed to in vienna, you will not only reject every one of the restrictions put in place -- by the way nobody's counting the two years that iran has already complied with the interim agreement. and by the way complied completely and totally. so that we've already rolled their program back. we've reduced their 20% enriched uranium to zero. that's already been accomplished. but if this is reject wed go back to their ability to move down that road. you'll not only be giving iran a free pass to double the pace of
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its uranium enrichment, to build a heavy water reactor, to install new and more efficient centrifuges but they will do it all without the unprecedented inspection and transparency measures we've secured. everything that we've tried to prevent will now happen. what's worse. if we walk away we walk away alone. our partners are not going to be with us. instead, they'll walk away from the tough multilateral sanctions that brought iran to the negotiating table in the first place. and we will have squandered the best chance that we have to solve this problem through peaceful means. now, make no mistake, from the very first day in office president obama has made it clear that he will never accept an a nuclear armed iran and he is the only president who has asked for and commissioned the design of a weapon that has the
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ability to take out facilities and who has actually deployed that weapon. but the fact is, iran has already mastered the fuel cycle. they've mastered the ability to produce significant stockpiles of fissile material and you have to have that to make a nuclear weapon. you can't bomb away that knowledge. any more than you can sanction it away. now, i was chair of the senate foreign relations committee when we, a lot of joined together and put most of the iran sanctions in place and i know well as you do the whole point was to bring iran to the negotiating table. even the toughest sanctions previously did not stop iran's program from growing from 163 to 300 to 5,000 to more than 19,000 now. and it didn't stop iran from accumulating a stockpile of
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enriched uranium. now, sanctions are not an end to themselves. they're a diplomatic tool that has enabled us to actually do what sanctions could not without in addition. that is to rein in a nuclear program headed in a very dangerous direction and to put limits on it to shine a spotlight on it to watch it like no other nuclear program has ever been watched before. we have secured the ability to do things that existed in no other agreement. to those who are thinking about opposing this deal because of what might happen in year 15 or year 20, i ask you to simply focus on this. if you walk away, year 15 or 20 starts tomorrow. and without any of the long-term access and verification safeguards that we have put in place. what is the alternative? what are you going to do when iran does start to enrich which they will feel they have a right
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to if we walk away from the deal. what are you going to do when sanctions aren't in place and can't be reconstitutes because we walked away from a deal that our five fellow nations accepted? i've heard critics suggest that the vienna agreement would somehow legitimize iran's nuclear program. that is nonsense. under the agreement iran's leaders are permanently barred from pursuing a nuclear weapon. and there are permanent restraints and access provisions and inspection provisions to guarantee that: and i underscore if they try to evade that obligation we will know it because a civil nuclear program requires full access 24/7, requires full documentation and we will have the ability to track that as no other program before. the iaea will be continuously monitoring their centrifuge
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production as those centrifuge cans not be diverted to a covert facility. for the next 25 years, the iaea will be continuously monitoring uranium from the point it is produced all the way through production so that it can not be diverted to another facility. for the life of this agreement, however long iran stays in the npt and is living up to its obligations, they must live up to additional protocol, and that additional protocol as we can get into today greatly expands the iaea's capacity to have accountability. so this agreement i'll close by saying this agreement gives us a far stronger detection capability, more time to respond to any attempt to break out toward a bomb and much more international support in stopping it than we would have without the deal. if we walk away from this deal and then we decide to use
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military force we vrnt going to have the united nations or the other five nations that negotiated with us because they will feel we walked away. and make no mistake president obama is committed to staying with the policy of stopping this. so in the 28 years, a little more, that i was privileged to represent massachusetts i had a 100% voting record on every issue for israel: first traveled there in 1986. i have great friends there. members of my family, others who care enormously about israel. i understand the fear. i understand the concerns that our friends israel have but we believe that what we have laid out here is a way of making israel and the region in fact safer and i emphasis we do not lose any option in 15 years 10
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years 20 years five years that we have available to us today we will push back against iran's other activities. we've laid out a very detailed policy working with the gulf states and others and we look forward to working with israel in the effort to do that. our current security cooperation with israel is at an unprecedented level. it's why we have a robust military presence in the region and why we're working so closely with the gulf states. so mr. chairman we will continue to push back against iran on every front available but the fact is it's easier to push back against an iran that doesn't have a nuclear weapon rather than one that does. that's been our principal strategic objective. deal with the nuclear web and then you have an easier time dealing with the other issues
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too. the outcome here is critical we believe this deal makes our country and allies safer. it will guarantee that iran's program is under intense scrutiny. will ensure the world community is unified in backing this up and in the end it will karen tee iran's program has to be peaceful and therefore is a good deal for the world, a good deal for america, a good deal for allies and our friends and we believe it richly deserves your support. >> dr. moniz. thank you secretary kerry. secretary kerry has been very thorough. dr. moniz, if you could be brief and we'll get back on time and recognize you at this point. >> thank you chairman royce ranking member engel and members of the committee. thanks for the opportunity to discuss the nuclear dimensions of the iran agreement jcpoa reached the between the e 3, e.u. plus 3. it provides strong verification
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members to give us time to respond if they violate its terms and takes none of our options off the table. i want to stress that i was backed up in the negotiations by the nuclear competency built up over decades at doe and supported by this congress. america's leading nuclear experts at due labs and sites were engaged throughout the negotiations, nine labs and sites in seven states took part in supporting our negotiating position. these experts were essential and as a result of their work i am confident that the technical underpinnings of this deal are solid and the department of energy stands ready to assist with its implementation. the cjjcpoa would extend to at least ten years for japan to develop fissile material. the fissile material being reduced from 12,000 to 300
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kilograms, stringent constrains on iran's stockpiles for 15 years. strong containment and surveillance measures on all centrifuge manufacturing and europe supply chain for 2520-0 and 25 years verification that iran is following the agreement is forever stronger than it would be without the agreement. the iraq reactor redesigned so it's not a plutonium factory and its plutonium bearing irradiated fuel sent out of the country for the entire life of the reactor. thus the luzon parameters are maintained and all paths to a bomb's worth of nuclear weapons material are addressed. in fact luzon is materially strengthened in the p5+1 vienna agreement. one important area and only one of that strengthening is that iran will not engame in several
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activities that could contribute to the development of a nuclear explosive device including explosively driven neutron sources and multiple point detonation systems. these commitments are indefinite. in addition, iran will not pursue plutonium or uranium or uranium alloy met lure ji for 15 years. weaponization requirements especially for missile launched a to the breakout timeline. mr. chairman, i cannot agree the agreement does not dismantle iran's technology efforts relevance to nuclear weapons. in fact, every aspect is rolled back. returning to verification, the iaea will be permitted to used advanced technologies such as electronic seals, technologies that the national laboratories have been developed. much has been made about a 24-day process for ensuring iaea inspectors getting access to undeclared sites. in fact, the iaea can request access to any suspicious
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location with 24 hour's notice. under the additional protocol which iran will implement under this deal. the deal does not change that baseline. the jcpoa goes beyond that baseline, recognize that disputes could arise regarding iaea access and provides a crucial new tool for resolving such disputes within a reasonably short period of time so the iaea gets the access it needs within 24 days. again, this is the nurse time there is a cutoff in time. of course, most important to complement that is environmental sampling provides extremely sensitive measurements of microscopic traces of nuclear materials even after attempts are made to remove the material and a 2003 example found undeclared nuclear material even after iran delayed access for six months. the combination of the
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agreements, technical measures and appearance of p5+1 increase the risk to iran for any attempt to move to nuclear weapons capability. for example, any attempt to enrich to high enriched uranium at any time must earn a sharp response by all necessary means. in fact, a steep response must be clear from the start for any violation of the agreement. blocking the covert path i should emphasize will always rely on the work of the american intelligence community and those of our friends and allies. the deal is based on science and analysis. because of its deep grounding in exhaustive technical analysis carried out largely again, by our highly capable d.o.e scientists and engineers, i'm confident this is a good deal for america, our allies and our global security. this is nicely summarized in the recent letter to congressional leadership by seven former u.s.
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ambassadors to israel and undersecretaries of state. individuals dedicated to strengthening the bonds between israel and the united states: and i quote briefly "this landmark agreement removes the threat that a nuclear armed iran would pose to the region and israel specifically. we see no fatal flaws that should call for the rejection of this agreement and have not heard viable alternatives from those who oppose the jcpoa. as has been state bid many thoughtful analysts, the big gamble would come in turning away from the agreement rather than implementing. so thank you for this opportunity to be here. i look forward to our discussion. >> thank you. go we to secretary of the treasury secretary lew. >> thank you mr. chairman, ranking member engel, members of the committee for the opportunity to be here. this is an important issue, one where i think the full discussion we're having will make it clear will this will strengthen this our national security and that our allies.
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the array of u.s. and international sanctions on iran constitutes the most effective sanctions regime in history. these measures have demonstrated the costs of flouting international law, crippling their economy. today attorney'siran's economy the 20% smaller than it would have been had it remained on its pre-2012 growth path. the united states government stood at the forefront of this effort across two administrations and with the bipartisan support of congress. together we established a web of far reaching u.s. and international sanctions that persuaded iran's leadership after years of intransigence to come to the table prepared to roll back its international program. international consensus and cooperation to achieve this pressure was vital. the world's major powers have been and remain united in preventing a nuclear armed iran. that unity of purpose produced four tough u.n. security council resolutions and national level sanctions in many countries and secured adherence to u.s. sanctions by countries around the world.
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the point of these sanctions was always to change iran's nuclear behavior while holding out the prospect of relief if the world's concerns were addressed. accordingly, once the iaea verifies iran has completed key steps to roll back its nuclear program and extends its breakout time to at least one year phased sanctions relief will come into effect. there is no signing bonus in this agreement. to be clear, there will be no immediate changes to u.n., e.u. or u.s. sakss. only if iran fulfills the necessary conditions will the u.s. suspend nuclear-related secondary sanctions on a phased-in basis. sanctions that target third country parties doing business with iran. of course, we must guard against the possibility that iran does not uphold its side of the deal. if iran violates its commitments once we've suspended sanctions we'll be able to snap back both u.s. and u.n. sanctions and since preventing the u.n.
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snapback requires an affirmative vote from the u.n. security council the united states has the ability to effectively force the reimposition of those sanctions. even as we phase in a nuclear related sanctions relief we'll maintain significant sanctions that fallout side the scope of the deal including our primary u.s. trade embargo and other measures. with very little exception iran will continue to be denied access to the world's largest market and we will maintain powerful sanctions targeting iran's support for terrorist groups such as hezbollah, its destabilizing role in yemen, its backing of the asam regime, its missile program and human rights abuses at home just this week, treasury sanctioned several hezbollah leaders last month targeting the group's front companies and facilitators and we won't be relieving sanctions on iran's revolutionary guard corps, its quds force any of their subsidiaries or senior
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officials. some argue the sanctions relief is premature until iran ceases these activities and that funds iran recovers could be diverted for maligned purposes and i understand that concern but iran's ties to terrorist group are why we must keep it from obtaining a nuclear weapon. the combination of those threats would raise a nightmare scenario. a nuclear armed iran would be more menacing, if we can not solve both concerns at once, we need to address them in term. jcpoa will address the nuclear danger freeing us and allies to check iran's regional activities. by contrast, walking away would leave the world's leading sponsor of terrorism with a short and decreasing nuclear breakout time. we must be measured and realistic in understanding what sanctions relief will mean to iran. iran's $100 billion in restricted reserve which is many fear will be directed for nefarious purposes constitute the country's long-term savings, not its annual budget.
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we estimate that after sanctions relief iran will only be able to freely access around half of these resources or just over $50 billion. that's because over $20 billion is committed to projects with china where it can not be spend and tens of billions in additional funds are in non-performing loans to iran's energy and banking sector. iran can't simply spend the usable resources as they will likely be needed to meet international payment obligations such as financing for imports and external debt. moreover president rohanwhani was elected on a platform of revitalization and faces an imperative to meet those promises. he faces over half trillion dollars in pressing investment requirements and government obligations. iran is in a massive economic hole from which it will take years to climb out. meanwhile, we will aggressively target any attempts by iran to
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finance hezbollah or use funds gained from sanctions relief to support proxies including by enhancing our cooperation with israel and our parters in the gulf. backing away from this deal to escalate the economic pressure and try to obtain a broader capitulation from iran would be a mistake. even if one believed that extended sanctions pressure was a better course than resolveing the threat of iran's nuclear program, that hois is simply not available. our partners agreed to impose costly sanctions on iran for one reason -- to put a stop to its illicit nuclear program. if we insist these countries escalate those sanctions and apply them to all of iran's objectionable activities they wouldn't do it, thaeld balk and we would be left with neither a nuclear deal nor effective sanctions so it's unrealistic to think additional sanctions pressure would force iran to
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totally capitulate and impact kuala lumpur to believe we could martial a deal when our partners believe this is a good one. the cause of saks a strong deal with phased relief after iran fulfills its commitments to roll back its nuclear program and a snapback built in if later on they break the deal, its terms achieve the objective they were meant to achieve blocking iran's foote apath to a nuclear bomb. that should not be put at risk when the prospect of an unconstrained nuclear program present such a threat to america and the world. thank you again and we look forward to answering your questions. >> thank you secretary lew. to get back to a point that was made. as i read it, the 24-day suspect site process does expire in 15 years. the iaea additional protocol
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alone wouldn't deter iran based on their past experience with their non-compliance with the iaea. i think that point stands. the other question i would like that ask secretary kerry relates to what the secretary of defense said in his testimony about the "i" in "icbm." he said that stands for intercontinental, which means flying from iran to the united states. simply countries develop icbms to deliver a nuclear warhead and these will be aimed at us not moscow. and at the same time these missile restrictions are coming on, sanctions on the iranian scientists involved in their bomb work are also coming off. so how is that making us safer? it seems the winner is rush which shah which -- russia which demanded the lifting on iran's behalf the
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lifting of these icbm sanctions. why did we concede on that? >> we didn't concede on that mr. chairman in fact, we won a victory because the -- we have seven nations negotiating, three of the seven thought the sanctions ought to be lifted immediately -- iran, russia, and china. four of them -- germany, france, britain, the united states -- thought they shouldn't. what we succeeded in doing was keeping both the armies embargo and the missile component, the missiles for eight years, arms for five years not withstanding the fact that iran has a very legitimate argument -- which they were making -- that the u.n. resolution 1929 which is what created the sanctions and the structure we were negotiating under said that if iran comes to the table and negotiations, call the sanctions
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would be lifted. now, they didn't just come to the table to negotiate, they made a deal. they signed an agreement. they came to an overall agreement. so they felt they were in compliance with the u.n. resolution and we felt on the other hand that their behavior in the region was such that it would be unconscionable not withstanding to lift. so the compromise was the five and eight. but we don't feel we lost anything whatsoever in that, mr. chairman, for the following reasons. the u.n. resolution 1929 is a nuclear resolution. susan rice put the -- she was then at the u.n. she put the arms piece in at the last minute, it was a sort of throw-in at the last moment into this nuclear resolution. and the nuclear resolution always con team prated that if
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the iaea came to what is known as its broad conclusion that iran was not engaged in any illicit activities in its declared or undeclared activities then all the sanctions are lifted. so no matter what was going to happen here we were going to lose both the missile and the arms under the u.n. component. but here's what we've done in the meantime that we believe actually takes care of this issue. first of all -- >> mr. secretary. i followed the arguments that you've made about the laws that we have to defend against iran's missile program and i understand the steps that you took here. i'm just saying big picture. big picture, when we end up with w a bottom line where in eight years they get the missile, it doesn't look like a victory to me. >> but they don't.
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>> they may not get the missile at that time but they can buy the technology at that time, the embargo is lifted? >> actually, they can't, mr. chairman, because we have, aly happening, specifically the missile control technology regime prevents that from taking place and we have an executive order from the united states that prevents the transfer. >> i would point out there is a reason why russia pushed it, there is a reason -- >> because they didn't want the u.n. component of this. but they know that we have separate capacities and we will apply them. >> i would hope that we could strengthen our hand as we go along but the bottom line is iran is getting a financial windfall and increases the support for terrorist proxies and they have announced that and it integrated into the global economy and upgrades
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conventional weapons and i think it upgraded the ballistic missile over the time of this agreement and it has an industrial sized program in ten years and that is the time frame only if they don't cheat. and so when i look at this and i see that iran's neighbors who know it the best trust it the least, i just ask -- we're presuming iran will change its behavior -- >> no we're not. >> and that doesn't change last week when they were chanting again death to america. >> mr. chairman, please, with all due respect, we're not presuming any such thing. there is no presumption in here about what iran will or won't do. there is one objective. make sure they can't get a nuclear weapon. and on the back side of that, we have a very robust initiative that will push back against iran's other activities. but let me be more specific. order number -- 38 authorizes
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u.s. sanctions on foreign persons to contribute to the proliferation of missiles including efforts to manufacture, acquire and develop them by any person or foreign country of proliferation concern. that is just one. >> okay. my time has expired. mr. secretary, i'm going to mr. engle, but thank you very much. >> thank you mr. chairman and thank all of you for testifying. i still want to get back to 15 years because frankly it is a thing that disturbs me the most. the truth is that after 15 years, iran is a nuclear threshold state, they are legitimized in this agreement as being a nuclear threshold state which means they can produce weapons grade highly enriched uranium without limitation. and you can say they are already at that point now but why would we not try to negotiate a deal where they couldn't have those things in 15 years.
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i also want to mention that a nuclear agreement doesn't whitewash the fact that iran continues to remain a destabilize actor in the region and continues to fuel terrorism around the globe. our friends in israel are rightfully concerned that iran funding of terrorism will continue to effect them in a existential way. and one of the problems i've had that from day one is only limits to the iran nuclear program. the finances of terrorism will continue and could become much worse. the iranian revolutionary guard corp could take advantage of any sanctions relief that results from an agreement between p5+1 in iran because simply put money is fungible so i would like to know how we'll work with our allies to minimize the windfall to terrorist organizations and
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protect allies like israel. and the lifting of the arms embargo and the sanctions around the iran missile program further destabilizes the region and i was disappointed that the sanks will eventually be lifted. we were told that iranian weapons transfers were outside of the scope of the negotiations. so in my opinion the changes to the sanctions should have been outside of the scope as well. so that means when the arms embargo expires iran can legally ship weapons to president assad so he can continue to kill his own people. how can the administration be open to further consideration of new sanctions on arms activity and ballistic missile program and finally because the arms
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embargo and ballistic missile sanctions are not mentioned in the jcpoa only the governing jcpoa will violations of the arms embargo be considered jcpoa does the snapback apply to the arms and missile embargoes if iran continues to ship weapons to his bolo before the arms embargo expires, are they in violation of the jcpoa. >> congressman, there are so many questions in there. we're happy to come back to you on the record, i want to answer every single one of them. but let me take on the biggest ones first of all. let me call to everybody's attention here, the irgc opposes this agreement. so they are not sitting there thinking they are going to get the whole world and do what they want to do. and one of the reasons they impose this agreement and i
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invite you to talk to the intel community about that, they will document that, is they see themselves losing the cover of the nuclear umbrella they hope to have for their nefarious activity. there is nothing here to prevent them from pushing back against the irgc and others going forward. congress and others are all free to work together to build the pushback against the destabilizing activities. but let me ask you a simple question. has iran empowered more destabilizing with a nuclear weapon or stripped of that with an internet agreement they have to live up to and us coming up underneath with a whole new set of agreements and pushback. i think the answer to that is crystal clear. you ask the question of what happens with respect to year 15? folks, under the additional protocol and the modified 3.1 code, please focus on what
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happened. there is not a sudden breakoff at the end of 15 years. they are under remarkable constraint. the safeguards agreement they have to negotiate with the iaea which goes on forever, provides the iaea provides them with safeguards on all source and special fissile material in iran to make sure the material is not diverted to nuclear weapons and all non-nuclear weapons under the nonproliferation treaty have to bring this into agreement and it requires iran to maintain detailed accounting material on all material subject to the safe guards, operating records on all facilities subject to the safe guards, all public facilities in the program are subject to the safe guards, it provides for a
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range of iaea inspections, including verifying the location, the quantity and all nuclear material subject to the safe guards and the design of the facilities. it requires the board of governors to take action without delay, that is a quote, in a situation where it is essential and urgent and provides consequence of noncompliance. that is just on the side of the declared facilities. there are a whole set of requirements for access and inspection and accountability on the undeclared facilities. so congressman, they are forever under enormous constraints here with respect to inspections and accountability. they have to provide accountability for all of the nuclear research and development activities not involving nuclear material, manufacturing and production of sensitive material. construction of hot cells, usable for plutonium separate,
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uranium mines, concentration plants, nuclear waste, all kinds of things. let me let ernie. >> may i suggest this, mr. secretary. we can respond for the record. mr. secretary, to the ranking member questions but if we could go now to ileana ross latinen and we'll get that later. >> thank you, mr. chairman. last week the l.a. times reported that the iran foreign ministers told the parliament that under the deal that they can deny inspectors access to military sites and the defense ministers has stated that he would not allow inspectors to enter military sites but president obama stated quote, inspectors could access any suspicious location, put simply, the organization responsible for the inspections, the iaea, will have access where necessary, when necessary.
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end quote. can the iaea really have access to all military sites suspected of housing nuclear activity and does the agency need preapproval from iran to access these sites? and the whole point of sanctions, mr. secretary, was not to bring iran to the negotiation table and dismantling the iran nuclear infrastructure used to be the administration's goal. the administration repeatedly told us it would focus sanctions only on the nuclear portfolio yet in the deal we have 60 pages of individuals, companies, vessels that will be de-listed, specifically mentioned, many of the sanctions are not nuclear-related. the administration has always stated that all provisions
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