that position was harvested to do other things we learned two weeks ago that the secretary's decision to harvest some of the positions you have taken off the table -- the two upstart position for major general -- that bill what has been unfulfilled for a long time. i would like to ask you about how that relates? they have a mission to be cast by combatant commander's to provide services. had you square your statement that having military leaders is important at the same time we

are taking a military build it out?

we will have to two general offices. one and then the other. i understand that you have -- i am a little confused on the number of the simple facts of the matter. you remove the director.

>> what documents are you reading from? i will need to come back to you and reconcile that particular reference. i am pretty confident in what i told you. we're not going to change directions on the acquisition force. i have not made a decision. we have a very capable director of the agency now, that is not military. i have not made a decision on that. i would walk -- would like to talk about this and where you started it. continuing contract thing is part of our operation as far as the future as we can see. it has to start with military leadership. the commanders of those need to not only recognize the

contingency contract thing is part of the job, but also, we have to give them the skills and the training and the support that will allow them to discharge that responsibility will. you have a couple of recommendations on the interim report. i would like to say that it is part of a war plan in the staffing plan. part of our training plans. we are putting in building contingency contract at all levels. >> i want to get a recommendation on the report in establishing a director in the joint chiefs of staff. we have half of the force and roughly half of the force. we have spent billions of dollars on contracts and grants in theater. let us establish and recognize

this. it should not be submitted to the j four and run by the lower 6, but rather -- rather a separate entity. >> i do not really, because it is really a joint staff for admiral mullen to decide. i think your opinions on the organization of the joint staff are relevant. >> it may be able to be improved. i do not encounter organizational problems on the joint staff. we have lots of problems. we have plenty of problems. it is not to say that your

judgment is not right. >> thanks for being here this morning. i will try to get shorter questions give answers. talk about the people the tools of proud of it in. will it be a contractor responsibility? it is a mixture of contractors and determined people. >> thanks. you talk about the balance needed. and being held accountable by the taxpayer. most of the initiatives you have

put in place, we would agree with and support. they have been mostly about managing contractors. my question goes to having the contractors into the requirements to begin with and managing what they looks like. you may be aware of an opinion piece in the washington post written by an army officer. he talks about a lot of the services the commission has been concerned with. he was talking about being in iraq. the argument is about combat pay. he spoke about food.

his room had a personal air conditioning units, internet connection. he says the conditions were plush. do you have any formal authority to weigh in on the demand side of the equation to look at what the wants and needs are being specified and to be able to get in and control those? any formal authority to do that? >> i do. i have a lot of informal authority on top of that. i am not very respectful between the difference of acquisitions and requirements.

i do not think i should have to pay attention to certain distinctions. they have to be together. >> what about the control of resources? the military department controls the resources. >> not deserve it. the secretary of defense controls the resources. >> i was referring to something else. >> correct. >> that would be your formal authority as adviser to the secretary of defense.

>> i am the acquisitions executive. >> you recommended the program manager be set up for services. the services need a lot more attention than what they have received in the past. would the program manager be responsible for upholding reviews for services? >> aes. having those contacting for services should conduct cost reviews. >> i am not sure how that would work. >> each component is responsible for setting best practice policies, making sure they are implemented.

they do not do all of the services contract in. that is done pervasively in the military services. but we want to make sure we touch every place that is contacting for services. that is a little different than a contract for weapons systems. most of them are in rogers' doing something else. >> the part that you mention, making sure policies are implemented. that is always the key. making sure they are implemented. you talk about how they are going to collaborate with organizations. i am not sure on what the function is here. if you do not control the money, you can write policies.

what will force something like a in a cost review in a way that diminishes what one could argue expensive requirements on non emission essential items that we seem to be reckoned upcoming? what is the power to do there? >> the first is that we will into have, we will require services, managers, that those that are contract for services use these best practices. want to recognize that those requiring services in the department of defense, many are

trying to put something else done. their principal job is not to acquire services. i do not want to turn them into services. i want them to keep doing what they are doing. a want to help them do the right thing. there is another aspect of this. coping is important. these people are trying to do other things. help them do the right thing is with respect to services patterns. one of the tenants of good trade, kraft is to do market research. these people are busy. they could use some help in

market research. that is something we may be able to do centrally to help our registered buyers of services. that is a way we can help them get better value without turning them into market researchers. >> my time is up. i cannot agree with the more that acquisitions should be a core function of the department and not an ancillary of administration duty. >> thanks. i want to extend my voice to the rest of my colleagues. it is not easy. i do appreciate the fact the to have taken time to get out to the theater. i also want to thank the admiral

and others. i have a question along the lines of what my colleague has done. you mentioned my colleague in general mechanicals. when my -- general dick nichoni. there is a list of some things that will be eliminated. eliminate 65 positions in the next few years as incumbents complete their tour. we were just talking about implementation.

this tells me that you may have the greatest intentions in the world. having been there, i know the frustrations. getting the department to move -- you are testifying in mentioning this general, and here is her position being eliminated. i do not know if you can answer me now, but i hope you will look into it. >> that position has been renamed. it is what the contract in community used to be called. it is used to being eliminated. the job is not being eliminated now. this is a clerical issue. >> if that is the case, you are

short one general officers. >> u.f. 65 that are being eliminated. everyone is under the impression that jobs are being eliminated. you say that you are renaming this to something else. maybe it is not eliminated. you cannot have it both ways. somebody is playing some kind of a game somewhere. >> i think that as a mistake. let me get back to you on that. >> of credit. a recommendation to create an assistant secretary. you want to comment on the creation of a j 10 and commander

of a jade in office. we believe this would be helpful, because we want to see the same kind -- kind of position created across the government, so you have coronation. one thing you do not mention in your testimony is ordination with other agencies. can you comment on our recommendation and give us thought on how you are working with other agencies on these matters? >> it is very important to have an effective working relationship with other agencies. that is particularly important right now in iraq has been managed the iraq transition. we do have good relationships with both of those organizations. you mentioned some names

already. the people who are leading the effort on our behalf the the individuals whose names are already mentioned, they're sitting behind rain, my deputy, so we have a really excellent and the dedicated people. they know this is for me. they know it is job 14 secretary gates. they come from take parts of our department. they are not eager to change that, because i need those two organizations. they come from those who are day-to-day involved in the logistics contacting.

they come from our contract and professionals. it comes from our opening remarks. we have a desire to fight wars in a more responsive way. the other is to deliver better buying power for the taxpayer. right now, i have them in bedded in those connected missions in those areas. having excellent people means an effective connection to me. today are working effectively

with us on this, particularly the iraq one. >> we are not exactly aligned on the issue, but i appreciate your answer. >> that was one of the four, where i said, i understand your intent. we did have a difference on it. >> that is fine. i commend you on focusing on implementation. let me ask you again about replacement by a civilian. 69 additional slots. what does it tell us about the importance of the cma? -- dcma?

>> the no. 69 is small players on the specific point of fact, it may be like the officer where we need to come back to you. >> it is a little awkward. we only have one microphone. we will get back to you. we just want to focus on him a. >> i will get my five seconds back quickly. people need about 70 people.

it makes a difference in a contract in. a huge deal. the last thing we need right now in the middle of a war is for dcma to be interrupted by braque. >> we are giving them a lot of attention because of their importance. we are also getting them aligned in terms of the data requirements they place on contractors. there is a lot going on. >> this is not a court of law. it is not where you have to know the answer of the question before it is asked.

the reason we wanted you is that we have two very capable people. we want to know what is in your head. and having two disappointments that i want you to respond to. i want to understand why the hell isn't service contract gained, contingency contract thing mentioned -- contract in and contingency contract thing mentioned -- contracting and contingency contracting mentioned? they said they put in what secretary gates wanted in there. your statement that you opened

up, makes me feel and touch you focused more on things instead of services. i have this concern. what i would like to do is have you explain to me before, what you do not like, and thanks for complementing the work of the report. i appreciate that a lot. >> i understand your intent, but

look of a different way of looking at implementation. do you want to know what is in my head? it sells like the omission of services. it should have been in there. want to know what is in my head about services sex i have mentioned it about five times it is part of better buying power the better opportunity for better volume. >> would you speak to #21? we appreciate that there is only four.

we need to know whether we need or whether you need to based on an -- information we can provide you. if you could speak to this contract proposal? >> sure. let me take it from the top for those that are listening to this. past performance is an important thing to take into account -- account. you consider past performance when you hire a contractor. the government does the same thing. there are questions that your

recommendations in john, which is how do we know what the past performances are. we agreed on past performance been relevant and a very important criteria and we do not have good enough data. we need to learn how to get our people to keep better past performance data. i asked you to be cautious on what has to do with the difficulty arises when a contractor has no past performance as a government or

dod contractors. how do we handle that situation? it is important that we not do anything that you wrecks a barrier to entry for a contractor who is not a contract with the government before. they will not have a past performance record. >> your concern is one that it is not as good as it used to be. your second point is, if they have not had experience working for the government, they have no past performance. >> they do, but it will not be in our database. i do not want to make the absence of data in our database, a barrier to entry to them. related to that is the point that if they are a contractor

that has done the kind of work for governments that we want them to do, but their past performance can be assessed, and the measure is relevant. five of like you to speak about the suspensions in the environment. >> also a very important topic. i am grateful to you for raising it. you have two recommendations with respect to suspensions. i will make a couple of comments on them. the first is i think i would agree with you that we need to take another look at the process. i think we have the regulations

and the loss and we need to take a look at the process by which we look at that i think your recommendations are spot on for 2125. i have a couple of cautions. when we get to the point of considering suspension and debarment, that is way past the point i want to be. we have to get back to the front end, where prevention in the detection of fraud -- we need to get better at those. prevent fraud by making it impossible to put one over year. you are all over contract performance. you are doing what a contract monitor should do, which is make sure the government is not being

defrauded. and we have systems to detect fraud where it where it occurs my feet is on prevention and detection, and secondary after fraud has occurred. >> each of you will have a five minutes. >> we came back from afghanistan. they started something that is linked to cars i. there is a scandal, because they found millions of dollars they

are questioning about. the deal is under you. will you be willing to have the matter gone over by the auditors and if it is possible to make a clawback of money. >> i will not say no to that under any circumstances. i cannot tell you about the feasibility of it. we talked briefly earlier about this particular transaction. as i said, talking about the subject surrounding it in general, but not this specific transaction. >> separate question. you are very good to the

problems awarded. in theater, the number three biggest awards in the billions afghanistan, it has been many years since and acquisition strategy. one to go from one that was a single source to competition. my question is this contract in some respects matters the most in afghanistan. are you willing to start the acquisition strategy for a successor to this dinosaur? it is a dinosaur, because the

problem is the one you are talking about. i think you are right. >> i do not agree with you. it may have some imperfections, but it is better than others. ever upward. we will change. we will look constantly to improve, including the award provision. it left in a log type circumstance, that we have seen the most ineffective use in the last decade. >> our concern -- he may be

underestimating the scandal surrounding the contract. there is a scandal. it was involving more bad electrical problems. it was not intentional. there are thousands of electrical problems they need to take care of. there are some questions. it is complete so they can get paid. it was not complete yet. my question to you is this, suppose on this scandal, it turns up to the -- anyone that goes there knows this. it is inherited by the problems.

they have not yet looked at the clock? for leaving behind the earth policies. in this circumstance, would you have clawback stoc? >> i am always willing to have cloth sacks. 20,000 over time. that is on track. the other half for in sourcing is on a case by case basis. your priorities in that

grouping, in sourced 3500. savingsot realizing the you had hoped. going forward, you must -- must ensor's them. >> you can demonstrate cost savings. >> inherently, the government must be in sourced. however, there is a lot that is not inherently governmental. it is not that we could not do to through a contractor, but not desirable to lock that capacity. you could do it, but it is advisable.

>> someone to rescue your views on private security. a doctrine has three fundamental elements. security, the timid governance, third come along. give us some examples of where -- third is rule law. give us some examples. >> let us take the case of static security of a facility. >> that is not inherently governmental. it is not at the outer perimeter of the facility.

>> about the operating base. >> the closer you get into the perimeter, the more expeditionary you get. the more potential necessity for more cooperation and integration. that is the point at which you do not want to have the contractor. >> you equate this with the department of labor to provide static security. it would be for an operating basis for a war zone? >> not necessarily. >> you just did. i asked for an example of security and you said static

security. >> that was not with the department of labour. >> i am talking about -- i am trying to understand your example. >> what is an example of inappropriate use of private security contracts, if i understood. >> security in a war zone is not -- i guess it would be a static security at an outer perimeter of a facility where the contractors are not required to participate. purely a static security function. >> if they have a security

function, where they are exposed to some danger it is the reason for their existence. they are not authorized to take offensive action and cannot participate early in the military action. that would be somewhat government. >> we visited the embassy a number of times. 30 feet away, there was a blast radius from and i edie that went off. i would say you are exposing us -- most people to combat situations. >> we have to get him out. >> regarding the financial information, the readiness

requirements, the first strategical -- in both of those, readiness to execute missions is a key indicator. in 2010, the commander is 100% ready to execute. one of the recommendations that we made in the interim report was about how you measure the readiness. the military unit at the legislatively required training funding, recruiting. do you know if there is any iece?actor peac

is there something we may have ? ssed th >> this is the outside my purview. we must have a readiness in association with a contingency. i do not measure and report readiness. having a contingency contract in be part of the war plan can't be in a central part of leadership training, those are both

indispensable in today's environment. we will not go to war without contractors. we have to build that into what we call rate -- readiness, training, leadership, and war planning. for the record, they do, and we can provide more details. >> in it, you talk about the defense acquisition development fund. the expectation is that the military departments provide funding for long-term sustainment in these and forced positions. that was a three-year fund. so we should start to see the military to permit start to begin to put money in.

is that money there? >> the money is there. >> he will protect that money? -- you will protect that money? you will make sure the money is there. >> absolutely. >> that is it. >> thanks. i will try to be quick. you said the secretary carter in one of your responses that in terms of the extensions, there are times when it is too hard to change courses. it sounds a lot like to big to fare -- fail. how do you ensure that people that do not like changing

courses say it is too hard to change them. >> that metaphor has to do with balancing the value associated with competing with the potential -- if there is potential, and it needs to be evaluated in particular ways, with any possibility of interruption of service. >> that is my point. are you laying out the guidelines for that evaluation? if you do not lay it out, nothing is going to happen. >> you are absolutely right. the guideline is that the expectation is to compete again. and not want to pretend i do not see a good reason why under certain circumstances, people

may do that in association with a contingency. >> why you have highlighted the importance of having somebody contracted with this contingency. you list their needs to be uniform taxonomy. you list a number of things. i see where certain contingency activities fit in. private security is not one of your big six. training is not one of your big six. it is huge in contingencies. how do you ensure that they also receive the same high level of a focus, when you did not list them? >> they are in there, but under a satisfactory. we need to change the taxonomy. you have to be careful when you look at the data. most of our data is by contrast.

you have to put in a code for the entire contract. many have different kinds of services in the. we are still struggling with how we keep track of what we do with services. >> you will highlight those in particular and work them differently? my last question is, the follow- up says, after 30 days, the contracting officer shell advertise again. since the memo has been issued, has anything different happened? >> i will get back to you with information on that. >> mr. chairman, you have the rest. >> i have no more questions for

you. an excellent staff. the admiral and i have some dialogue about how much past performances way in. i think he feels pretty confident on past performance than we think you are. our final report is due in july. any input you would like to make, we would love it. some of these recommendations come from your people. we categorize them and put them in ways that we thought were best. we appreciate your time. we need to get out of here. >> i would like to thank you for what he did. this has been a very important mission. i admire the work you do. >> thanks for that. this meeting is adjourned.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] 1] >> followed a potential 2012 candidate today on the road to the white house. from iowa, a kentucky senator, randall paul. that is later today on "road to the white house." >> this year's student can competition asked students to consider washington, d.c. through their lands. today, they addressed a topic to

better understand the role of the federal government. >> starting at a very young age, [unintelligible] how does our federal government help us to get them. in 1948, my great uncle was diagnosed with polio. in 1955, there was a polio vaccine. since the first vaccine was invented, it has been used in

most of the world. we are still searching for a cure for many of the diseases in the world today. people search many hours a day for vaccinations that will help cover immune system fight off bad viruses. >> if you talk about the priority plan for the institute that i direct, which is the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases, our top priorities over the next several years is an hiv vaccine, malaria, tuberculosis vaccines, and a universal flu vaccine, and namely one that you can give once or twice in the lifetime of an individual that will protect

them against all influenza. >> the government cannot produce enough of a new vaccine for everyone. a partnership with pharmaceutical companies is being formed. >> our role is to do fundamental basic science translated at the clinical level and then handed over to a pharmaceutical company so they can produce it in large quantities to be made available for the american in the global public. >> the government feels the need to step in. this happened last year in 2009, when an influence epidemic swept through the area. -- flu epidemic swept through the area. the federal government wanted to

some companies to take control. some felt it was their duty to make sure as many people had access to the vaccine. >> the government went ahead and put the money out of their so they could make this rapid vaccine. all of these immunizations were bought to be provided at a clinic. [unintelligible] >> how much control should the government have? 17% of americans are without health insurance. millions of americans do not get the vaccine they need.

>> is there is insurance through the maryland government. it covers children more than adults. the parents earn enough not to be covered, but not enough to have insurance for the kids. we get vaccines that we should administer on the kids. >> kids without health insurance can still get the vaccine they need in maryland. >> children that have health insurance plans that do not include immunization can get vaccines in some states, but not others. >> anyone uninsured get federal

assistance. >> a mandate addresses a couple of concerns. immunization is too important for anyone to be left uncovered. it should be linked with existing medical care. that is essential. >> the federal government sponsors vaccine research in emergency situations and helps some get health care. they help the american people to make sure they get the help they need. >> good to the website to watch of the winning videos and continued the conversation on our facebook and twitter pages. >> next live, your calls and comments on "washington journal." . then on "newsmakers"

representative norman dicks. after that, defense secretary gates admiral mullen. >> i can say pretty much what i wanted as mayor, and the only person that gets in trouble is me. >> stephen goldsmith spent eight years as mayor of indianapolis. today he has a different boss, michael bloomberg, and a different job description. >> i want to make sure the tax dollars go a little bit further. i want to prove that large cities have a corporate future. >> q&a, tonight at 8:00 on c- span. >> this morning, a political roundtable, including a possible government shut down. government shut down.