Skip to main content

tv   Public Affairs  CSPAN  May 23, 2013 5:00pm-8:01pm EDT

5:00 pm
5:01 pm
5:02 pm
no person has ever escaped one of our super max or military prisons here in the united states ever. our courts have convicted hundreds of people for terrorism or terrorism-related offenses including some folks who are more dangerous than most gitmo detainees. hey're in our prisons.
5:03 pm
from audience, inaudible] [applause] > so let me punish, ma'am. [pro testimony r speaking] >> i'm about to address it, ma'am, but you got to let me speak. why don't you let me address it, ma'am? why don't you sit down and i'll tell you exactly what i'm going to do.
5:04 pm
thank you, ma'am. thank you. thank you. ma'am, thank you. you should let me finish my sentence. today. i once again call on congress to lift the restrictions on detaining transfers from gitmo. i have asked the department of -- nse to zith asite in the designate a site in the united states where we can hold p ask -- this is
5:05 pm
part of free speech, you being tible speak but also you, me being able to speak and you listening. all right? thank you. [applause]
5:06 pm
once we commit to a process of closing gitmo i am confident that this legacy problem can be resolved consistent to our knit -- commitment to the rule of law. and i know the politics are hard. but history will cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of our fight against terrorism and those of you who failed to end it. imagine a future 10 years from now or 20 years from now when the united states of america is still holding people who have been charged with no crime on a piece of land that is not part of our country. look at the current situation where we are force-feeding detainees who are being held on hunger strike. i'm willing to cut the young lady who interrupted me some
5:07 pm
slack because it's worth being assionate about. is that who we are? is that something that our founders foresaw? is that the america we want to leave to our children? our sense of justice is stronger than that. we have prosecuted scores of errorists in our courts. that includes umar farouk abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up an airplane over detroit; and faisal shahzad, who put a car bomb in times square. it is in a court of law that we will try dzhokhar tsarnaev, who is accused of bombing the boston marathon. richard reid, the shoe bomber, is as we speak serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison here, in the united states. in sentencing reid, judge william young told him, "the
5:08 pm
way we treat youis the measure of our own liberties." he went n to point to the american -- [is that the way you treat a 16-year-old -- protester ontinues shouting] e're addressing that, ma'am. >> i love my country. i love the rule of law. these rules are keeping us less
5:09 pm
safe and [inaudible] abide by the rule of law] >> you know, i think that the -- and i'm going off script as you might expect here -- [applause] the voice of that woman is worth paying attention. a degree with much of what she said, and obviously she wasn't listening to me in much of what i said. but these are tough issues. and the suggestion that we can lass over them is wrong. sentenced at judge
5:10 pm
mr. reed, the shoe bomber, he went on to on to point to the american flag that flew in the courtroom "that flag," he said, "will fly there long after this is all forgotten. that flag still stands for freedom." america, we have faced down dangers far greater than al qaeda. by staying true to the values of our founding, and by using our constitutional compass, we have overcome slavery and civil war; fascism and communism. in just these last few years as president, i have watched the american people bounce back from painful recession, mass shootings, and natural disasters like the recent tornados that devastated oklahoma. these events were heartbreaking; they shook our
5:11 pm
communities to the core. but because of the resilience of the american people, these events could not come close to breaking us. i think of lauren manning, the 9/11 survivor who had severe burns over 80 percent of her body, who said, "that's my reality. i put a band-aid on it, literally, and i move on." i think of the new yorkers who filled times square the day after an attempted car bomb as if nothing had happened. i think of the proud pakistani parents who, after their daughter was invited to the white house, wrote to us, "we have raised an american muslim daughter to dream big and never give up because it does pay off." i think of the wounded warriors rebuilding their lives, and helping other vets to find obs.
5:12 pm
i think of the runner planning to do the 2014 boston marathon, who said, "next year, you are going to have more people than ever. determination is not something to be messed with." that's who the american people are. determined, and not to be messed with. now, we need a strategy and a politics that reflects this esilient spirit. our victory against terrorism won't be measured in a surrender ceremony on a battleship, or a statue being pulled to the ground. victory will be measured in parents taking their kids to school; immigrants coming to our shores; fans taking in a ballgame; a veteran starting a business; a bustling city
5:13 pm
treet. a citizen shouting her concerns at a president. the quiet determination; that strength of character and bond of fellowship; that refutation of fear that is both our sword and our shield. and long after the current messengers of hate have faded from the world's memory, alongside the brutal despots, deranged madmen, and ruthless demagogues who litter history the flag of the united states will still wave from small-town cemeteries, to national monuments, to distant outposts abroad. and that flag will still stand for freedom. thank you. god bless you. and may god bless the united states of america.
5:14 pm
♪ [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national able satellite corp. 2013]
5:15 pm
[sousa march plays]
5:16 pm
>> we'll have more about the president's speech and the u.s. counterterrorism policy tomorrow morning on "washington journal". then a look at corporate tax rates and some companies' use of corporate tax shelters. nd a focus on the agricultural economy and rural america. "washington journal" is live on c-span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> the most fundamental difference, it seems to me, between left and right is that both look at the economic
5:17 pm
ladder and those on the left seek to research down and move people up the economic ladder the that is almost always driven by noble intentions, yet it never, ever, ever works. the only way anyone has ever climbed the economic ladder is pull himself or herself up one rung at a time. >> nearly all of you will experience failure. even a crushing failure that you will recover from and learn from and be all the better for because once you have a failure that is really the only good option, to take something from it. of course very few of you will never recover from your faileers. between 2 and 5% of you will spend some part of your life in prison. >> every spring c-span visits colleges and campuses across
5:18 pm
the country. this friday night at 8:00 astern, commencement speeches. saturday at 8:30, congressman paul ryan, nancy pelosi, peter king, bill flores and senator mark warner. >> washington today the head of the national oceanic and atmospheric administration released this year's hurricane forecast. she said her agency is expecting a, quote, possibly extreme hurricane season. >> for the six-month hurricane season which will start june 1 above norm and and an possibly extremely active season with 13 named storms with top winds of at least 39 miles an how. of those we predict seven will
5:19 pm
become hurricanes with top winds of at least 74 miles an hour and of those hurricanes we predict three to six will become major hurricanes ranking category one, two, three, four, and five with winds of 100 miles or greater. these are well above the seasonal averages. the range for named storms is slightly larger than in the past. that is simply because there is uncertainty about whether the activity that will occur the -- in the coming season will be a smaller number of larger-lived storms or a larger number of smaller-lived storms. these predictions of a highly include a rs continuation of the climate pattern that's been possible
5:20 pm
spore the ongoing era of high activity in the atlantic that began in 1995, warmer than average sea surface temperatures across the tropical atlantic ocean and caribbean sea and near normal, near average sea surface temperatures in the frop -- tropical pacific ocean which tell us that el nineo, a fateure -- feature which suppresses hurricane activity in the atlantic, is not expected to be active this year. and these with lower pressure and a set be winds that are very conducive to producing the conditions for storms. many climate models also predict an active season. with the devastation of course super storm sandy fresh in our mind and an -- another active season forecast, we again
5:21 pm
encourage families and business in states along the gulf and tenant -- atlantic coast and inland from those areas to take time now to make or refresh their hurricane preparedness plans. last year, to remind you, we had four atlantic land falling storms. ber ill and debby in northern florida. the damage from every one of these storms reached well beyond the coastline as we often see strong winds, torrential rains, flooding and tornadoes can threaten areas far from the storm's first point of landfall. so the bottom line is, become weather-ready now, prepare for this hurricane season starting today. >> the c.e.o. of accuweather told congress today the u.s. weather forecasting systems have fallen behind those in europe and need updating the he testified today before a house subcommittee along with the
5:22 pm
head of an environmental data company. utah congressman chris stewart chaired the hour-long hearing. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> the subcommittee on environment will come to order. welcome, everybody -- everyone o today's hearing. in -- i now recognize myself for five minutes for an opening statement. first let me say diverting from prepared comments for just a little bit that our thoughts and prayers are with the people of oklahoma and i think this tragedy highlights the importance of real-time forecasting to protecting lives and property. i'd like to thank our excellent witness panels for traveling here today. while this hearing was scheduled several weeks ago to help draft legislation to enhance forecasting, the
5:23 pm
tragedy in oklahoma underscores the importance of this and should encourage us to start lack -- tackling these questions today. it's unfortunate that the national oceanic and atmospheric administration is unable to testify in concern. however, as the ranking member and i have just discussed, we will be asking acting administrator kathy sullivan to submit written comments. we need a world-class system of weather prediction in the united states, one as the national ack add mi of sciences recently put it, is second to none. we can thank the hard-working men and women of the national oceanic and atmospheric administration or noaa and their partners throughout the world that have made great strides in weather forecasting. but the reality is that we can just do better the it's not enough to blame problems on
5:24 pm
lack of funding or resources. but the good news is we can. super storm sandy made clear what many in the weather community in -- have known for years, that our model has fallen behind the rest of the world in predicting weather in the united states the our proposal would build on the down paymentle made by congressional following -- congress following the storm to restore the u.s. in -- as a leader in the field of computing and assimilating data techniques. the people of moore, cloak -- oklahoma, heard the warning 16 minutes before tornado struck their towns. create t wegs would
5:25 pm
enhancements and have the potential to provide revolutionary improvement in tornado forecasting and reduce false alarms and be able to worn on forecasts. we've seen the devastating effects severe weather can have on this country and this bill will establish the mission to protect all lives and property. weather can have a -- an impact on the economy with devastating againsts. the weather forecasting improvement act, let me tell you what this bill will do. it could encourage noaa to systematically conduct cost-benefit assessments to make sure we are getting the most bang for our buck with air, space, and ground-based
5:26 pm
data. as an expert at the university of oklahoma explained to this be committee, new york needs to did a better job on quantitative data use and value. this cooperation would help with upsteam data options and downstream data forecasting capabilities from the private sector. as david crane, president of geo met watch stated, a commercial approach can provide the data needed years earlier and with minimal cost and risk. it it would balance noaa's esearch portfolio well whether weather forecasting can protect lives and policy. timedly the language would dedicate resources to transitioning next generation
5:27 pm
research into operational forecasting the as noaa's scientific advisory board stated last month, unless are merge into these transitions, they will fail. we will be providing the subcommittee on -- with comments on forecasting improvements. i look forward to discussion the absolute critical issues with our witnesses today and learning how we can restore u.s. leadership in forecasting. with that i yield my time and recognize the yanking member for an opening statement. >> thank you, and welcome to our witnesses, and i want to at this -- thank you for appearing here today to provide your insights on weather data and frankfurting. i join the chair in saying our
5:28 pm
prayers go out to all the victims of the powerful and devastating tornadoes that swept through this week the it's a painful reminder we are all vulnerable to unexpected national disasters and how critical the work of the weather service is. national oceanic and atmospheric administration has an expansive mission, to predict the weather, to ensure holty oceans and fisheries, and to enhance the resilience of our coastal communities and economies. to carry out all these missions new york must manage a very broad set of scientific challenges and look for ways to incorporate those into the lives of all our citizens. in recent years, unprecedented heat waves and drauts -- -- ghts to record-beaking
5:29 pm
breaking storms. weather forecasting ng doesn't just happen. it involves collect -- collection of data and scientific research to understand the physical processes that drive short and long-term weather conditions. understanding the climate. it is unfortunate noaa could
5:30 pm
not be here today. they received 10 days ago a letter from the chairman. it's my understand hag -- understanding though that a draft bill was given to them at that time and that did not give study the bill and draft comments. additionally there have been ur outside reviews of nws, and noaa are indeed -- and r and x -- d in the last year two by the national ack addy of science. these address key issues like how to move from research to operation, the need for noaa tore more adequately tap the deling and research in the research community and more the the draft legislation does not address all these issues but it needs to be considers --
5:31 pm
considered the it would be appropriate to receive testimony about these areas before we mark up the bill. we can work together to provide a more complete record than today's hearing will yield. as i indicated -- indicated to the chairman, the minority area is so this important that we are invoking the rule for the second day of witnesses and i'm sure we can work together, mr. chairman, to find a day and time and a range of witnesses who can help us craft strong legislation that will improve weather forecasting for the nation. i look forward to working with you and members. thank you very much for appearing for us and look for an informed discussion today. thank you, mr. chairman and i yield back. >> thank you. regarding your request, once you have provided us with the
5:32 pm
written request we will certainly review it and we look forward to working with you on that. if there are members who wish to submit additional soaping statements your statements willing added to the record at this point the at this time i would like to introduce our witnesses. irst in m, m barry meyers, chief executive officer for accuweather, incorporated. he's served as advisor to three separate directors -- dwors of the weather service. he serves as the environmental services working group chair for the noaa sciences advisory board. r next witness is m john kirciner, president and chief operating offer of geooptics. previous liz he's held positions with large satellite companies.
5:33 pm
's work to develop long-term space-based networks for daytona -- networking. as our witnesses should know, spoken testimony is limited to five minutes, after which the members of the committee will have five minutes each to request questions. now recognize mr. meyers. [ [inaudible] ] i'm sorry. thank you. thank you for inviting me to speak today and to the families and friends of those who lost loved ones on monday in oklahoma and to those who suffered injury and other loss i can only offer my condolences and a hope that today's hearing will contribute to improved warnings of severe weather. the united states has the most
5:34 pm
violent and challenging weather on earth. tornadoes and hurricanes, lightning and hail, snow and ice and floods, to name a few. the united states has more tornadoes than any nation. in fact we have four times the number that all of europe has. on monday noaa's national weather service provided about 16 minutes of warning before the tornado touched down, and actually over 30 minutes before this -- it reached moore. the agency and people of the national weather service did an outstanding job. there can be no doubt without those warnings the toll would have been much worse. but mike smith in his book, warnings, pointsute -- out the huge progress made in tornado forecasting since the 1950's. but we can and must do more relative to severe weather the people should not live in fear in america's heartland, its cities and along its coast. with advanced modeling, perhaps
5:35 pm
we might have known hours in advance exactly where the tornado would form, where it would touch down, how monsstrous it would grow and the exact path. imagine peep -- being able to tell people to move out of the way and have them watch the tornado from miles away. it is a pipe dream? this year marks the 50th anniversary of accuweather's formation. 50 years ago forecasting was more art thn science. no radar was there to help a forecaster spot a hook echo. a storm like hurricane sandy without a weather satellite would have been thought to have moved out into the ocean, only to return as a surprise, much like the great galveston storm
5:36 pm
of 1900 because there were no eyes in the sky. the academic and research communities each have unique roles to play. it's a unique, special partnership and a benefit to the nation. the united states collects data from remote and local sepsing platforms, runs forecast models and makes warnings. weather companies and others use this information and collect and disseminate data and make weather forecasting warnings, some tailored for specific populations and some for the general public. it helps prevent hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage in the united states and save lives and it has a name. the public-private partnership. it's been held up as a model by
5:37 pm
other agencies. in 1962 if i had told anyone that a company named accuweather by 2008 would tell a manufacturing facility in mississippi 1,000 miles away 21 minutes in advance that a tornado was headed right at it and that they needed to shelter sthr -- their people and that warn vate warning would in a private message, it would not have been believed. but it has happened now. e government is uniquely positioned to warn people and in the protection of life and 3r0789 these activities require research and development, transfer of knowledge between government agencies and the private sector and this is needed with regard to advance radar technologies, aerial observation systems, advanced forecast modeling and other
5:38 pm
government-appropriate activities. we all need to protect this core functionality and the research that keeps the american enterprise ahead of the curve. of special focus during super storm standy was the e.c.f. which at some points did a better job than the u.s. models did. this is a benefit from the national security standpoint. but relying on other countries for better weather models places america in a weak, sub serve yent position. weather research and development and the creation of core infrastructure remain a matter of national government urgency which the weather forecasting improvement act will help to grease. thank you for your time. >> thank you, mr. meyers. appreciate that. mr. kirchner. ? >> chairman stewart, ranking
5:39 pm
member and members of the subcommittee it's the first time i've been to a hearing such as this and it's a privilege to be here and provide you testimony in the absence of our president and conrad vice admiral lautner. . he sends our regards and regrets his inability to be here today. we also pass along our condolences and thoughts to those in oklahoma as well. the u.s. weather forecasting system is in need of repair also because of the explosive growth in it the cost of acquiring critical weather data from satellites and significant delays in developing new satellite programs. the traditional methods for the collection of data effectively block new methods of collection and the net effect is damaging our nailings' ability to keep
5:40 pm
pace in weather observation and prediction. a transition of the weather data acquisition community to 21st century methods both technical and economic is overdue. the genius of american -- vation and solution -- at nasa, instead of operating a fleet of costly space shuttles, nasa has contracted with the private sector for its payload needs. the commercial satellite based midgery industry provides government much of the imagery outside of the intelligence capability application. with these in pind -- blind, the focus would be better placed on achieving excellent -- excellence in the data rather than owning that data
5:41 pm
infrastructure. the added irony is that the cost of technologies of every kind have plummeted over the last 20 years except those in the wider space domain. seeming sheltered from the space -- critical methods of space forecasting geooptics will launch a small observing model that are starts with -- ltatoin. geooptics working with private sector partners and the science community can rell -- realize uncommon efficiencies to deliver data at bargain prices and faster. we want to recognize that our government and subsequently the citizen are facing a weather data crisis.
5:42 pm
in unleashing this, the government will foster a vibrant free market in weather forecasting, creating a new weather data economy that will the best d by possible weather products and vfments in sum, general recommendations in, section three, regarding forecasting innovation it mentions little regarding the general principle of the role of commercial private sources of innovation or the potential role of public-private partnerships. is sex -- section 6 does not mention the public-private partnership or university sources of efforts the and section 8, we believe overall pre -- procurement reform is needed. elements could include shift the focus of federal users away from infrastructure.
5:43 pm
open up to the best, lowest cost and efficient data. golvet should implement a new performance-based pay on delivery model that enables federal agencies to contract for services they need now from private companies that can provide them. this will aid in rapoid deployment of needed products and services. establish system with noaa and he air force beginning in f.c. 15. recommend lines of 10 million for each growing to $15. these recommendations and action shall necessary to ensure that the u.s. is never again lagging behind any country or con court jum of countries in weather forecasting or prediction. opening up the ghost --
5:44 pm
government to very reliable procurement sources that meet the specificcations of noaa and other sources will be the -- will result in infugse of ats -- assets to the nation the it will also feed our economy and society with an important source of jobs and help participants manage vital rive. examples are available on our web site. he admiral and i will be happy to follow up with any needed comments -- comments by the subcommittee and i would be happy to answer your questions. thank you. >> thank you, mr. kirsch ner. i thank the witnesses again for your testimony, for your dedicated service to your nation. i remind committee members that the questions are limited to five minutes. the chair will open, but before
5:45 pm
i ask for unanimous consent to recognize bradenstein. without objection, so ordered. the chair now recognizes him sel for five minutes. i am think your testimony i will us straits something i pointed out in my opening, which is that we can do better the 9 tech noling you are talking about encourages us. i've done some scary things in my life. -- life. i've been a military pilot, i've done rock climbing, i taught six teenagers how to drive. yet i've never been as scared as i was in the plains of texas one night to hear the storms and warnings go off. it's a terrifying, helpless feeling because there is really not much you can do other than pray that the storm misses you and jump in the bathtub, which
5:46 pm
isn't very comforting, actually. mr. myers, you mentioned the 16 minutes warning that we had. 16 minutes is significant but i would ask, you know, what is our goal? how many minutes could we achieve? how many hours could we actually be able to provide warning? and i ask that hypothetically but i'd like you to address it if you could in your question, if -- in your answer and then what technologies will allow us to do that? then i'd like to follow up with super storm stand did -- sandy, if i could, recognizing that the technology for tornado warning is quite different from those for hurricane warning the what say realistic goal for us in providing warning to people and what technologies will help us get to that? >> well, i would suggest that in looking at hurricanes and looking at tornadoes there is an interesting comparison. because we can see hurricanes,
5:47 pm
because they're large and they move relatively slowly over large lan and sea areas, we can evacuate people. the prime objective is to determine the best path and get people out of the way. and we see news stories all the time of people who decided they were going to, quote, ride out the storm and we think that's foolish. with regard to tornadoes, we do the opposite. we expect people to ride out the storms in their bathtubs. that's not acceptable. the only reason that that's the case is because we cannot yet scientifically determine far enough in advance the strength, the exact path, the location of where a tornado is going to form and where it's going to go. what we need to strive for is having sufficient lead time so that people can get out of the way. if you are not there, you
5:48 pm
cannot get hurt. we can't stop the buildings from being destroyed. what is that lead time? i don't know, but it seems to ne, you know, an hour, two hours, plenty of time for people to get out of the way. the science is not there. i don't know how we're going to get it there. i think that's what research is required to to. -- do. > mr. kirchner do you have anything to add to that? >> sure. i'm probably not the best person to add to that in what happens minutes before a storm. the technology we work with is in the polar orbiting, the longer-forecast realm. but in the ability to do things faster irrespective if you are right before the storm or days before the storm, the kinds of technologies that we are working with have been proven to in the example of gpsro which is the technology we are
5:49 pm
first and foremost focused on there are studies that show a portfolio've p -- gpsro observations can lep i four caze in advance, can give you eight hours of additional time head of the existing methods of forecast -- forecasting. eight hours. if you go out eight days it can help with 15 additional hours of time. that's in the long end. but in a portfolio of predicting and planning for severity and weather patterns, anything we can do to be efficient and faster at any part of that time horizon is going to be extremely helpful to weather forecaster. >> i would like to come back to you and back up and what we started to talk about. knowing that technology is emerging and they -- that we can't predict exactly, are the,
5:50 pm
the current technology as you know it, as it's being tested is it reasonable to say we could double the warning time? say give people aim half hour or more? >> i think we could. in fact, the 1 minutes was in -- 16 minutes was in advance of when that storm actually touched down. people on the far end had more warning because of what's on the ground and people knew it was coming. but as you can see, even 30 minutes, the case at the far end, was not enough and people don't know what to do. it's interesting because in our business i mentioned about a plant in mississippi that we protected, and we do this all over the country but we have specific sites that we can forecast for with regard to where a tornado is moving and a path. you can't do that publicly because you have large communities and people don't all have shelters and places to go, so it needs to be enough lead time.
5:51 pm
you can probably bubble -- double with improvement on current technology quickly. the lead time has increased significantly in the last 20 years. >> ok. thank you. i'm a little bit over my time. thank you to both of you and to the ranking member. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. thank you for your testimony. mr. kirchner, you spoke specifically about the bill so i'm going to ask you but if mr. myers wants to may in, that's great. sects -- section 26b the bill makes weather related activities the top priority in the planning and management of programs within all line offices. six of -- which of the six noaa line offices would you consider to be relevant? >> that's a level of detail regarding the structure that i'm not acquainted with. i'm still relatively knew to this industry. i've been in this position
5:52 pm
about six months. i think the portfolio that we address is one as a company is one of weather data, client -- date that that serves the operational weather community, the space weather community as well as the climate community and to the extent that we can help our customer, our customer balance and address those needs we will respond to that as a service company. >> thank you. mr. myers, do you have any opinion about which of the six noaa offices would be relevant and have to prioritize weather-related activities under the slegs? -- legislation? >> it teems -- seems to me the ones that deal with the national weather service, nsds and obviously oar. i know i've seen over time and i think one of the good provisions in the bill is the need for the agencies to cooperate, especially the weather service to make sure
5:53 pm
that they get the kind of research that they think is flezz and that there is a connection between the research that's being done in o.a.r. that is tighter than perhaps we see today. >> thank you. one of the concerns that i have and i know i have other colleagues on this committee who represent coastal areas, and in fact we're having a lot of conversations in our oregon coast about tsunami evacuations. so we're talking about how much warning do we need? that goes on in a different context. my constituents rely on the ocean economy for vital jobs in hard-hit coastal areas. without research done by noaa's sea program on invasive sea birds, for example, their livelyhoods could be at risk. other if weather forecasting say top priority in every line office, what would happen to the climate and oceans and
5:54 pm
invasive species programs and all the other work noaa does? i just wanted to pose that question because there say broad mission at noaa and we need clarification about whether related -- weather and related activities would be the top priority in all line offices. i have another question, and much of this bill has responsibilities that range well outside of this roism. they do important work on osheans, great lakes, invasive species, and some have commented that the division between the weather forecasters and the research done at o.a.r. leads to o.a.r. doing work that has no utility for the forecasters the how do you view the proposal that the weather research be pulled out of oar to consolidate all the weather work in one place? do you support that? >> anything that improve the
5:55 pm
way in which the research is conducted. as it relates to the critical needs of improving forecasts to protect life and property, i would support. whether that's the best division, i can't sit here and tell you but things have moved in that -- that move in that direction i think are useful. >> do you have an opinion on whether weather research should be pulled out of o.a.r. and moved to nws? >> from an organizational perspective it's about being the most effective and efficient in terms of structure. i can't speak to how new york could separate in that regard. there are different functions that the organization plays out. there's operational weather, which has heavy emphasisy -- emphasis coming from nws.
5:56 pm
we are supportive of all the areas of the weather trevor pryce that our data and other forms of data will sup 0r89 >> thank you. one more quick question. section 4 directs the assistant administrator of o.a.r. to issue a plan to restore u.s. leadership in weather modelving, prediction, and forecasting. that plan is supposed to be issued within six of -- months of passage and thn annually. i mentioned in my opening statement two reports that the national academy of science has done and other reports have recently been done. the national weather service, for example, worked more than a year on such a plan. so do we need other. study? annually? if we need another stid -- study, why should the assistant administrator be in charge of it? i see my time has expired. if you could just do a brief response. >> sthroor the answer earlier
5:57 pm
the the frur -- straur -- structure and how to organize itself would be an area i'm not going to be able to speak to. >> thank you. and i see my time has expired. >> and, gentlemen, we recognize you are not experts on noaa's organizational structure. that's why we look forward to hearing from them at some time in the future. now we recognize mr. rohrabacher. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i remember when i was about 6 or 7 years old my family came from north dakota and we were pother's sister, and it was very dark and there was a storm and there was a radio and the radio said there was a tornado, that tornadoes might be happening that night and we felt absolutely helpless. we had no idea and we crawled
5:58 pm
cellar s was into a where my aunt had all these little jars of things that she'd made, jellies and jams and things. spent the night in this cellar underneath the floor. and we had no idea where the tornadoes, how close they were but we knew there were tornadoes, tornado warnings out there on the radio and we have advanced so much, so dramatically since then. however, it is, we also sat through hurricane hazel in 1960. my dad joined the marine corps and we lived in a marine base in north carolina. in fact we went through two i icanes at the same year, remember. pretty incredible. gentlemen, this is all this talk about the weather getting
5:59 pm
worse now than it used to be. is this -- that the experience you're r companies and, all a -- around weather all the time. is that, the weather so much worse now? sandy, you mentioned galveston, 1900, or are we just more aware of the weather now? >> i'm not sure i can answer that. i know my grandfather always told me winters had gotten much milder and when he was a boy they were much worse. i think you are they aring of hurricane hadesel in 1954 and probably connie and diane in 1955. >> yep. >> and clearly when we see events like sandy and an event like moore, oklahoma, we can conclude that things are getting worse because where we are and what we see tends to
6:00 pm
influence us i think the most. i don't know that anyone has statistics that it can demonstrate that that is the case. but i, as i said in my but asia said in my talk america really in a sense has the worst weather in the world and it's so variable the nature of it from hurricanes to tornado to drouts that we really need to focus on more than perhaps we have and more than other nations do. >> there has been a lot of talk about climate and weather around here. when i was young, i just remember people saying a lot of people are concerned about the weather and talk about the weather but nobody does anything about it.
6:01 pm
now we're being told that we're affecting the weather and the long term climate which some of s are very skeptkl about but whatever it is we know weather for example in that gavelston, how many people lost their lives in that hurricane? >> 5,000 is what i remember. >> a lot. >> we're talking about the fact is with modern technology and especially space based assets we've been able to save thousands and thousands of lives that otherwise would have been lost. and i think that we can be proud that our country has invested in this. and i remember just one last note, i remember when i first got here, vice president gore had a meeting with all of the
6:02 pm
weathermen that he could put together and there is a legend about this that he had them gathered at the white house for a conference talking about weather. and they were supposed to be talking about global warming but there was a huge storm front that came through while they were there and the rain was pouring down. but only about two of the weathermen bothered to bring an umbrella to the meeting and i don't know what that all indicates but i think we should pay a lot of attention to the weather. so thank you very much. >> thank you, sir. your five minutes for questions. >> i'll be out there selling umbrellas. >> this is a question for both gentlemen. as we consider how to authorize weather research, who would you
6:03 pm
recommend the committee hear from? we have testimony from you, weather experts or stake holders should we take testimony from? scientist hink the scientific community in terms of research. i think there are models for how other countries look at this do main that maybe useful to hear from. and i think the wealth of private industry. we come from -- our two companies come from two different parts of the valley chain. my company produced some of the best weather data on the planet. mr. myers company will use that data downstream to inform citizen and enterprise. there are a variety of people in between that could be useful from a private enterprise perspective to hear from. >> i would agree with that. when you look at the american
6:04 pm
weather enterprise, we always think of it as a three legged stool comprised of the government assets, the weather industry in a broad sense as was just described and the academic and research community. and i think it's appropriate to hear from all of those with regard to this to get their vipet. >> so you do not consider yourself of the academic and research community? both of you are the authority from which you are able to speak is not academic or research ornted? >> no, i can speak from an authority of commercial data service provision and the technical aspects of satellite delivery and collection of that data. >> and we're a weather information company and we don't view ourselves as heavily
6:05 pm
into the research aspect of basic modeling and things of that nature. a respect oth have and es steam for the research and scientific community, especially those who are recognized experts in the field of climate and weather research ? >> indeed. our company is founded by a gentleman who is a j.p.l. for 30 years. we are engaged as a company with an organization called the laboratory for space fizz six in colorado which is part of the university. so there is no question we are as a company drawing on the research, expertise in scientific community and research community to build our company. >> do you know your founder's
6:06 pm
view on global climate change? does he take the scientific consensus seriously or not seriously? is he a skeptic or non-skeptic? >> i cannot speak to that. >> would you say it's worthwhile to hear testimony from noah on this bill? >> i would think it would be quite necessary and appropriate to have the customer who we are dealing with who is involved in this do main leading the do main in the yilets to be heard from. >> i yield back the balance of my time. >> thank you dr. brown. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. myers, thank you for accuweather. i've got my app here on my phone and i depend upon it greatly so thank you for the service that you provide.
6:07 pm
>> glad to hear that he. thank you. >> i'm a pilot though i'm not currently flying, i'm also a hunter and fisherman and i like to follow your weather forecast and what you have there. thank you very much. r. cliff mass professor of atmospheric studies wrote quote the politicsization of climate change also has had a major impact on government resource allocation with funding going into climate change research while other areas such as weather prediction are poor cousins. climate research gets more than 100 times the computer resources provided to weather prediction. with the latter having huge benefits for people today. no administrators have pushed the climate agenda while down
6:08 pm
playing weather prediction. this needs to change unquote. and i could not agree more. . myers and mr. kishner do you agree with this position? >> well, i know cliff and he tends to state things rather emp fatically. i agree that i think we need a reallocation between climate and weather resources. i don't know if i can ascrube reasons why we have an imbalance the way we do so i'm not interested in weighing into a political debate on climate change and the causes of it. though as many
6:09 pm
as do support the concerns over climate change state that weather events have become more severe. and i'm not saying i agree or adopt agree, but if that's the case, that suggest that we really should be allocating more resources into looking at what is happening on the weather front and so i think it's perfectly consistent with anyone's climate position that more money needs to go to weather research whether it's because there is change that is affecting the weather now or those people who believe that there isn't but we still have severe weather issue that is we've got to address. so i think it's actually something that all sides of the political spectrum and the climate area should be supporting simply by the very
6:10 pm
nature of what people believe limate is causing. >> i'm not intimately just due to time not intimately familiar with all the workings of noah. what i can say from being in this business six months is the national weather service has primary focus tending to day-to-day weather prediction. i think there is a broader question though that i think is worth talking about is what role does weather prediction in the short term, medium or long term play in a strategic role in our economy. and ultimately we believe that weather is of strategic interest to supporting our economy, industry, infrastructure and our company in response to that broad belief has developed and will cont to develop products and services that will address the
6:11 pm
day-to-day operation al weather interest which are forecasting to the next ten days and beyond. space weather is that weather that is further from the ground ut deals with the sun ejecting co-rone al mass and climate. our particular technology is both for weather operational weather and for climate operation is absolute and it's establishment of temperature, water pressure and water vapor, air pressure and water vapor. it's unique. it does this in such a way that cagbrates all other form of data for operational weather. our focus is to provide a sweep whether you are talking about the short term or long term. >> i agree with dr. mass.
6:12 pm
we've got to put more funds on weather research than we are on climate change. i think we are allocating those funds in an improper way. thank you, mr. chairman. >> a vote has been called and in order to provide all members to ask questions i'd like to ask the witnesses if they'd make themselves available after a short recess? >> yes. >> the committee will recess subject to the call of the chair and without objection so ordered. >> the committee sands in recess.
6:13 pm
>> >> thank you mr. chairman. i really don't know exactly where to begin. my wife and i have this conversation from time to time. a good job to have would be a weather forecaster because you can be wrong so much of the time and still get paid. i want to ask you guys about your satellite systems if you will, some of the more technical aspects i suspect. first of all, let me get into the monetary side of it maybe. are either of you aware of competition from foreign companies from foreign countries where they would come
6:14 pm
in and put up a satellite or a system like an accuweather where they can do the kinds of things we do? what is the pressure, what kind of pressure is there on y'all to be your best and do your best? is there pressure in the marketplace? >> i'll certainly respond to that. depending on what industry we're talking about. i come out of the communications satellite world where there is a lot of global competition that overlapse regions. in the weather do main so far as i have seen there is less pressure per say coming for satellite systems. they tend to be over particular regions or countries especially the kind that are 22,000 miles way that are stairing at a particular region. the polar or bitting systems, the lower earth or bit systems that cover the globe, to my
6:15 pm
knowledge there are certainly other countries or con soshesyume that have those kinds of systems. the europeans have those types of satellites. what we would love to see is more intense competition, intense commercial competition. not state funded but privately funded. and that is part of what my company is here to talk about s how -- in this world, how do we evolve to a model where the weather satellite community is privately funded, not necessarily on the balance sheets of the taxpayers. and we're looking for hopeful that our custer can migrate to a world of looking to commercial provision of services to do that.
6:16 pm
today there say data buy provision, there are data buy policies that exist. but theas data buy policies have to do with buying something that exist today. my company has a system it's planning to deploy which means my company needs to go to the marketplace and raise capital and talk to customers about something we need to start building today that won't be available due to technology for 18 to 24 months. what we are looking for is ways to change the procurement approach that allow us to get contingent commitments to say i will take the data that you are going to provide that meets the specifics of noah or air force or other agencies but give that commitment today so we can begin to build our systems now. that would feed competition certainly in the united states. i'm sure we ultimately like
6:17 pm
competition and want to deliver the best service on a highly competitive basis and we believe we will do that if we have that procurement structure in place. >> accuweather is a downstream user of satellite information and we're happy to see competition in the area. right now we receive satellite information mostly from government around the world including of course the u.s. satellites which we read directly. the weather industry itself in the united states is very competitive and worldwide that is true as well. there are a number of robust weather companies in korea, in china, japan and in europe at this point and we compete with them on a worldwide basis. so i think the competitive landscape is good.
6:18 pm
i think it's a huge advantage that the united states has though that the american weather industry is really ahead of the rest of the world and some of the things that we're talking about in terms of enhanced research, i think we should get leveraged in a great way because there is such an industry so it does not only benefit the government and the ability for the government to issue warnings, but it benefits all those downstream who can make use of the information and the modeling and what have you to provide specialized services and public services on web sites and mobile device and so forth to the public. >> i see i'm out of time. i have other questions. are you going to go round two? >> hopefully. >> we don't anticipate doing that but you're free to take additional time. >> thank you. let me ask this question then, so having said that he about the pressure to be as good as
6:19 pm
you can be and looking forward to see what kind of policies we can put into place to make sure the taxpayers are getting the most bang for their buck, a couple of questions, the first is technical about a satellite if you are looking at a hurricane coming off the african coast for example, what kind of time degree of predictability, can you predict with any degree of certainty, three days, five days, seven days? >> it depends on the weather regime that is occurring at that particular time. some storms are more predictable than others as a result. so i can't give you a definitive answer to that. >> can you give me a window, is it three to five days or one to three days? >> the further out you gorks
6:20 pm
the bigger the cone. we've seen the cones the weather service use. >> croo surely you've got statistics, how far back does your data go saying we have a degree of success predicting these events, 30%, 60% going back ten years or 20 years. >> there are statistics that go back that far and generally they indicate that the predictability has increased significantly. that the cones have narrowed. the accuracy going out has increased. i don't have those statistics here with me to refer to but they have certainly improved significantly. >> what i might add is that as i said earlier, the technology world that we are in is
6:21 pm
predominantly about evaluating -- gathering data that is going to tell what you is going to happen. other technologies such as satellites tell you what is happening now in near term warnings. the two examples i mentioned earlier and tpwhun addition. the technology we work with has been proven or it's been studied within noah as well as other organizations that that datedta can tell you four days out that something is going to happen eight hours sooner. we can tell you eight days out we can give you a 15 hour additional heads up on a hurricane or severe weather that might be coming. those hours are precious. absolutely precious to the forecast community to predict what is going to happen. the other example i would give if i had a camera or picture i gps data you, is the
6:22 pm
looking back at earthquaker nest toe in 2006 actually visibly shows in simulation with gpsro data you can see a storm that without it you could hours and ours, 72 102 hours. this is not alone. it is with the other suite of data sources we have. but you can see things further in advance you wouldn't have been able to see without it. that's about bringing forward the ability to see and forecast that in a portfolio of analyzing weather you would want to grab every hour and minute you could. >> recognizing time is short now. >> thank you for your indulgence mr. chairman.
6:23 pm
>> since we had additional time to the minority side would you request additional time for questions? >> no. >> thank you to the members for their questions. the members may have additional questions and we ask to you respond to those in writing if that's the case. the record will remain open for an additional two weeks for comments and questions from members. >> my colleague from cspan.org and i have had an opportunity discuss the minettiss request for a house rule 11 hearing. we have agreed to hold the hearing. i look forward to inviting a representative from noah as one of our witnesses to be a part of the witness panel and we will work with all parties to schedule the second hearing on this topic at the nearest available time. as a result of that the minority has greed gread to a straw request for the rule 11
6:24 pm
hearing. with that this hearing is now adjourned. thank you. >> on the next "washington journal" a conversation on president obama's speech today outlining his counter terrorism policy. then a look at corporate tax rates and companies use of overseas tax shelters. and our america by the number segment focuses on the christina aguilera economy in -- agriculture economy in america. you can see "washington journal" every morning at 7:00 on c-span. >> then president obama giving the commencement address at the
6:25 pm
naval academy in maryland. >> the most fundamental difference it seems to me between left and right is that both look at the economic ladder and those on the left seek to reach down and physically take people and move them up the economic ladder. that is almost always driven by noble intentions and yet it never ever ever works. the only way anyone has ever climbed the economic ladder is to pull himself or herself up one rung at a time. >> nearly all of you will experience failure, some of you crushing failure that you will recover from and yes learn from and yes be all the better for. because once you've had a failure that is really the only good option to take something frit. very few of you will never recover from your failures and
6:26 pm
stathically speaking between two and five of you will spend some part of your life in prison. >> every spring c-span does it's college campuses across the country. you'll hear stories and advice or a new graduating class. >> the national ocean anic administration is forecasting an above normal and extreme hurricane season this year. they released the forecast of up to 11 named storms and three to six major hurricanes.
6:27 pm
>> good afternoon and welcome to the noah center for climate prediction. if you've looked around, you can see how new and beautiful this building is. we've been here since august of last year. this is the operations area for the weather prediction center and other national centers and under the circumstances from this area basically it's one of the nuve centers for the entire national weather service. obviously these forecast play a critical role all year long including hurricane season. while i'm going to leave it to others to talk about the actual prediction for the upcoming hurricane season, i want to tell you a few words about some exciting developments which are happening right now. we're at the front end of a series of super computer upgrades that will begin this summer with the more powerful
6:28 pm
operational computer we expect to run more detailed mod thals will help us produce even more accurate forecasts of hurricanes and extreme events throughout the year. the im3r06d weather forecast will help us provide people with the information vital to building a weather ready nation. with us today sitting in the front row is the fema associate administrator for the office of response and recovery. as the associate administrator joseph is responsible for directing fema's response, ecovery and logistic directors as well as disaster coordination. o give us the 2013 hurricane outlook is dr. katherine ullivan who is the acting noah
6:29 pm
administrator. dr. sullivan leads noah. dr. sullivan is a distinguished scientist and astronaut as well as the first woman to walk in space. please help me welcome dr. sullivan. [applause] >> thank you. he spent many years making this building a reality, 13 of them by the count that i v. it's a wonderful tribute to you, fabulous powerful new center for the crux of our national weather service but quite a tribute. it's emblem mat i can of the dedication of noah's people who work here day in and day out to protect the lives of people aross the entire nation. our hearts first of all if we can take a moment to the people in the communities in oklahoma
6:30 pm
who as we join here today to talk about hurricanes are recovering from the devastating tornado. the 16 lead time is also testament to the staff of noah's national weather service. in 1990 the average warning time was five minutes. we've come a long way in a short time. i would like to thank dr. wayne higgins who is with us today. he's the gentleman who leads the world class scientific theafert is in this house. and i'd like to add recognition to dr. jerry bell the lead forecasting agent at the center. this is the work of jerry and his team that we'll be talking about today. the purpose of today is to present the 2013 atlantic hurricane season outlook and i know everyone here is eager to
6:31 pm
hear the facts and figures. i want to emphasize and i would like to ask each and every one of you to emphasize with your audience that the news today is not about percentages and ranges. the important news today is about prepeardness. now is the time to think ahead about the hurricane season that the coming to make your plans at fasmly, community and corporate level. now is time to pay attention to being prepared, not to statistics. but the statistics do matter and so on to the outlook. for the six month hurricane season which starts june 1 noah predicts an above normal and extremely active hurricane season with a range of 13 to 20 named storms with top winds at least 30 miles an hour. of those 13 to 20 we predict 7
6:32 pm
to 11 will become hurricanes having top wind of at least 70 miles an hour and we predict three to six will become major hurricanes ranked category three, four and five having winds 111 miles per hour or greater. this resks quite a lot of activity and is well above the seasonal averages. i would note the range for named storms is slightly larger in the past and that's because there is uncertainty about whether the acktuft that will oh demur this coming season will be a smaller number of larger ived storms or number of shorter lived storms. these come about because of climate factors each of which and all of which together strongly influence at lath lant i can activity. . hese include a continuation of
6:33 pm
the activity that began in 1995. warmer than average sea surface temperatures across the tlantic ocean and the clibyeen sea and near average temperatures in that you is presses hurricane activity is not expected this season. these produce lower wind sheer and a set of wind patterns conducive to hurricane formation and intensification. in addition there are many climate models on which we made smerble runs just to develop this hurricane outlook. many climate models also predict an active season. with super storm sandy in our mind and another active season forecast we encourage familiar
6:34 pm
lose and businesses along the gulf and atlantic coast and inland to take time now to make or refresh their preparedness plans. last year to remind you we had four land falling storms. hurricane isaac in the gulf coast, sandy in the mid atlantic region and barrel and debbie in northern florida. the damage reached well beyond the coastline. as we often see strong wind ; rains and flooding can threaten areas far inland from the storm's land fall. become weather ready noufment prepare for this hurricane season today. that is what if national weather service all about. yes, we predict the storms ahead of time and observe them and track them in real time. but we're working to help people prepare in advance for the likely impacts. both before and during the
6:35 pm
storm our forecasters work around the clock to provide information to all our partners, emergency managers and broadcast meteorologist alike and to you the public. this is information that helps everybody prepare and be ready to respond to each storm. we also prepare to respond after a storm. for example, we prestaged regional navigation managers from our national ocean service to ports likely to be affected along the coastline to restore mer time commerce. hurricane sandy demonstrated the value noah brings to american society. they help prepare for, respond to and begin rapid recovery before, during and after sandy. the storm that was forecasted in advance show the importance of that infrastructure. there is improvements i would like to highlight.
6:36 pm
improvepls to our forecast model some of them made possible by the super computer to our data gathering and the way in which the national weather center will communication information. the super computers will come online in july and allow to us run our upgraded forecasting model. you're familiar are our airplane that is fly through the storms. this year the doplar radar from those aircraft will be transmitted from real time back here to help forecasters better analyze and assess rapidly evolving storm conditions. we estimate the injection of this data in real time may improve the results by 10 to 15%. and finally the narth weather service has immediate changes procedurally that will allow tropical storm and hurricane
6:37 pm
watches to remain in effect and continue to be issued when we have storms like sandy that shift from being a hurricane to a post tropical cyclone but in terms of human impact are still a big storm named sandy we need to pay attention to. that will give our forecasters the flexibility they need to provide warning information. to talk more about the central topic of today preparedness i welcome to the stage fema's oseph nemick >> thank you very much for including us today. we at fema know we have one of the most important relationships between two government agencies is the act to project crisis and the
6:38 pm
response and recovery from that crisis. it is about preparedness and it is about knowing what to do before the eent occurs. we need to caution ourselves that the improved projections on't give us a sense of come placens si that we don't prepare or we think we have time to prepare that we may not. atlantic hurricane season is just about to start. the season normally from the first of june through the end of november but it's not uncommon to have a hurricane before or after those dates. hurricane sandy was at the very end of the hurricane season and was one of the most devastating storms we've seen. you need to prepare now. preparation includes being able to have the resources to stain you and your family for 72 hours. that's the expected time that you can rely on emergency responders to be able to get to
6:39 pm
you with additional capabilities and commodities. 72 hours of food, water and shelter. you need to have an evacuation plan and you need to be ready to implement that evacuation plan. the number one deaths that occur in termings of hurricanes occur from not evacuating. whether it's evacuation on the shoreline or inland flooding, not evacuating is where we lose most people. need to have communication plan with your family. the speed the emergency occur while your family is separated. there will be lack of communication. you need to understand how to text because it is often more capable than cell phone communications but you need to know where you are going to evacuate to and everyone knows what your plan is. no different than a fire or
6:40 pm
evacuation plan from your house, you need an evacuation plan in case of a storm. you need to have friends and relatives you can contact and be a focal point when you are in evacuation mode. and you need to teach your family all of these elements. i just came back in fr oklahoma and walked through the devastation of oklahoma. one of the recurring themes was this understand 1999 how can it happen again here to this intensity. the ability to have another sandy in the same location a year later exists. this is a very dangerous hurricane season and if you're not prepared and listen to the warnings and evacuations you're likely to be one of the staths we don't care to have or dependant upon other people or you may find you're unable to stain yourself and it wasn't the storm that caused your death but your inability to be prepared.
6:41 pm
we at fema work hard to support the states and local responders n. oklahoma it was the local responders who were there first. they will always be your first line of defense but that capacity and capability quickly dwindles and fema is prepared to come in behind as we did in oklahoma with search and rescue teams and resources and get survivors back on their feet with shelter and food and ability to have housing while they rebuild their lives. i want to thank you for your message of preparedness and thank you for the excellent work that the weather service does. you saved more lives than anyone else in oklahoma with the weather predictions you gave. people were able to respond. it's a community that knows how to respond. while we deeply mourn the loss of 7 children there were far more demirn that school that knew where to go and protect
6:42 pm
themselves. while they had minor injures, they survived for another day. >> thank you. so now we're going to move the q & a portion of the news conference. we're going to take questions from the room. if you could start queuing up questions on the phone. i'll let you know when we are ready. if you'd like to ask a question over the phone please press tar 1. >> associated press. have a two parter for dr.
6:43 pm
sullivan or jerry. first you usually give a single number instead of a range. i'm wondering is it possible to take these ranges and narrow them down to a single number, if not, why? and second are there any dampening factors? t seems all the factors are on positive excess hurricane activity. i guess can you explain how much were the factors pushing higher? is this basically all the factors showing one way or was there something that dampened this at all? >> if it were meaningful and scientifically sound to give you a number instead of a range. we would have given you a number instead of a range. >> we always indicate a range of activity. noah has never issued a seasonal outlook that is not a
6:44 pm
range. forecaster for know wafment it turns out the reason we always give a likely range of activity is because that's what the climate system tells us when you are looking at combinations and different strengths of different climate factors that control the activity, those things don't lend themselves to a specific number but rather a likely range. and that's what we always indicate in our out looks. this year regarding the factors for the hurricane season, there are no mitigating factors that we can see that would suppress the activity. ell nino is a phenomenon that is known to suppress the activity. it is not expected to develop this ear. total all models point to a
6:45 pm
very active hurricane season. > next question. little wit talk a bit about the real time data. this is the first year that will be transmitted. how did it work before and what kind of things do you expect that to show? >> don't go too far jerry. you can weigh in on this too. the specific data stream that is of greatest sfw out of that is the tail doplar radar. there is a stinger that protrudes out the back of the tail and that contains a radar, not like the doblar radars you see on television. it scans vertically. you are getting slices through the storm that show you in much greater detail the dynamic
6:46 pm
structure of the storm. that is conducted by our hurricane research division which is one of the branches of atmospheric research. they have been developing that technique for many years and validating the data and running it alongside in mod tols make sure that it was proving out the way we expected it too. >> why don't you complete the hain from there? >> so what is different this year is we've been speerpting with this tail doplar radar in our models for several years. this is the first year we're going to be with the implementation of the new hurricane mod until late july, early august, we will be including that data stream as part of the model and we found that data stream is making a major contribution to the
6:47 pm
intensity forecast that dr. sullivan referenced in her opening comments. this is the first year we're using that in the hurricane models. >> enabled by the step up in the model and the super computer event. > exactly. >> exciting to hear about the changes coming in play but how do you plan to communicate these changes to the public ike this new data? >> we plan basically to communicate to the public in the same way that is we have been modified by the kind of lessons we learned out of both sandy and irene and we conduct a service assessment after every named storm and every weather event that produces
6:48 pm
loss of life or significant property damage to look at was there any flaws and the relationships and communications chains. our forecast if they stayed in the walls of this building wouldn't have the value we make the investment for. the value comes from getting ut them to the public effectively and the public understanding the mean efficiently so they actually respond as joe was saying. we learned some lessons. i highlighted one of them. the shift that sandy went north it was no longer a warm cory storm but that shift in language and internal shifting in responsibility in the weather service caused some confusion to our broadcast partners. we did a lot of discussion with our emergency and broadcast
6:49 pm
partners before making that change. we didn't just decide it ourselves and the decision we made for sandy seemed to be the soundest best one that would produce least confusion. but looking back it produced confusion in certain corridors so we've taken those lessons. let's keep calling it a hurricane. the 3450e9 rolings will take issue with that. that's fine. we want to public to move, things like that. we also work closely with a number of social seasons research partners across the entire weather front and a major step in this front can be traced back to look at the warning chain from satellite or radar to the broadcaster and citizen. the eeper and understand social science aspects, what kind of language or phrasing or
6:50 pm
alternative channels through social media might provide those confirming queues to someone. anyone would get this alert in the middle of a busy day, the danger signal has to fight with norm si we like to shake us to take some action and maybe some high stakes action. i think i'm leaving work and going to get kids. it's the middle of the day and boss. a meeting with the what kind of language can prompt that and confirming cues can help people arrive at a safe decision. >> you're describing a very busy season and meteorologist elies on human factor. with the budget cuts how do you plan to make sure there is manpower to handle it?
6:51 pm
>> we've put forward a plan that the congress is reviewing now that does what is a good and reasonable and best way we could find to blend the financial obligation it is congress laid upon us with this reality. the weather service is the best known of noah function that is must continue 24/7. that's not the only one. there are satellite operators and others. so in those areas we're having to look hard at how we do the shift management and how we spread that across. we looked agency wide at a plan that actually lowered the impact on the weather service from what it would have been without this adjustment down to a four day furlough impact. we believe that's manageable with some difficulty. we have flexibility if we need to use it in the event of a storm or hurricane, we'll be prepared to use that flexibility.
6:52 pm
it's a challenging thing to work through difficult budget times. that's true across the entire federal landscape. everyone at noah and my secretary of commerce fully understand the importance of this mission of protecting lives of americans. and we will carry it out to the best of our ability. i'm from wbal tv in bault. with these predictions is there a section of the country that say the mid ing on atlantic renalen, the panhandle, the gulf states, are there certain areas of the
6:53 pm
atlantic region you think is more vulnerable this hurricane season or is that something that can't be done? >> that frankly cannot be done. what our forecast can do is tell us about the probability of severe events that could affect anywhere on our atlantic and gulf coast. you asked a vulnerability question, anyone could be hit. there are a number of other factors for communities to consider. what kind of protections do they have in place? how are their natural shoreline defenses, own preparedness measures they have ready to go in terms of securing public infrastructure and so forth. we can tell you your weather risk exposure is going to be extremely high with respect to hurricanes this year. if you live along the coast that's the message you need to take. we can't give i a zip code
6:54 pm
answer. if you live along those shore lines this is your warning. look at your family and community because that's the question, how vulnerable am i if such a risk arrives on my oorstep. >> given there is no mitigating factors for storm production, is there any indication the season may start earlier than normal or might be front loaded or are you still looking for the normal kind of pattern where it peeks in august and september and october? >> the science doesn't let us give the provision about
6:55 pm
definite probability of starting earlier or later. it does not contradict the general pattern of peak intense ity you indicated. >> noah seasonal out looks for from the entire hurricane season from june through november. for this year the bulk of the hurricane activity typically occurs during august, september and october. we do have some years where if conditions are especially conducive you can get a lot of tropical storms during june and july. right now the climate patterns are just evolving and we can't parse out as dr. sullivan said the activity in any couple of onths, the exact activity.
6:56 pm
me? n you hear >> yes. >> a couple of questions. ow long is this long term rare of busy hurricane activity supposed to decphont you said it started in 1995. do you see an toned that at some point? >> the primary pattern that sets up this active phase typically runs 25 to 40 years and this one was established or set up by about 1995 so out ward from there. >> a couple more questions. >> let's do one more. there are other folks waiting for questions. >> did you slightly change the cone of uncertainty there at the center this year.
6:57 pm
did you make it closer, a little thinner, is that true? >> stand by. >> we'll have to get back to you than question. we'll call you after the news conference. >> we'll follow up offline on hat. > thank you very much. i wonder if you could unpack the 10 to 15% improvement you're expecting between the super computers and the new radar data. is there some aspect of the forecast that is likely to see the greatest improvement in that overall number maybe for a given period out ahead of the storm's arrival? can you dig into that 10 to 15%
6:58 pm
a little more? what we're seeing in 10% to 15% vange intensity forecast. so with the inclusion of the wind fields and having if vertical distribution of winds that these doplar data will give us, we're expecting that the hurricane intensity spinning up and actually the deintensification that occurs will be predicted with more accuracy with this data set. > thank you. >> thank you. can you tell us what the problem is with the satellite and if that satellite remains out of service for a period of time what impact will this have if any on forecasting? >> sure.
6:59 pm
we do not have a root cause ultimate determination yet of what tripped ghost 13 offline. it appears to be a problem with the star tracker which caused the satellite to lose it's position hold capability. we have activated our 14 satellite. it's taking products noufment it's a lenththi process aws activate a satellite like this sto recover that navigation to get that squeezed down to a precise geolocation of the images you are taking. there is one mode for the operation of these satellites that is help to feel forecasters like we had this week in oklahoma called rapid scan. you need to have that precise navigation replished.
7:00 pm
ghost 14 is up and running. taking imagery now. we're on the order we're still some hours away from having the navigation tightnd down to where swrel rapid scan but the team is taking it's attention back to ghost 13 with boeing the company that produced the satellite and the root cause of what happened there. we had an anominally some months ago that took it offline if this goes long enough, we will begin to reposition those offurther east so its field view is fully covering the normal atlantic hurricane development region. we are having a meeting to review those engineering data and layout the anomaly timeline and determine when we will have another discussion point and make that decision about whether to reposition goes.
7:01 pm
forecasting is not materially affected. outlook for the united states at this present time is benign. so we have this window of time to work on both diagnosing the problem and considering whether we need to reposition 14. >> a question from the room. my question is for the fema administrator. in talking -- the message has been preparedness and get a plan. -- side ofde (if preparedeness, it only goes so far if you have nowhere to go. what would you recommend and what is fema's take on people who may not have the resources to evacuate? what are the plans for the active storm season?
7:02 pm
>> as part of the national preparedness program, fema works with all the state and local communities to look at evacuation plans to do -- to identify portions of the community that have disabilities, nursing homes, those ares that require more evacuate in.te and evacuat we work ahead of time with the local partners to be able to have an executable plan. do we continue to work with them to try to identify new and better ways of doing it? we learned a lot in new york with high rise elderly populations, disabled population that we are now implementing and other cities with high rise population. so it is about planning both at the individual level but also at the community and local and state level. it really is a community event. >> you mentioned the helped ing
7:03 pm
oklahoma but also having students know exactly where to go and what to do. there have been questions about the nato readiness of some of femauildings and in looking into that and ways they can help make improvements to request him a hazard mitigation program that after a disaster -- help make improvements to. as a hazard mitigation program. had $57 million worth of resources for safe 1,100 private and public safe rooms were developed with that money but the state prioritizes. clearly that will be an effort after this. before i get in trouble with my public affairs officer, at the end of my comments, i did not notify you that if you are looking on information,
7:04 pm
ready.gov is where you need to go. your comment about where the building strong enough -- the definition of an efi for nato is that no structure can withstand that. tornado is that no structure can withstand that. >> another call. houston, abc. thed you comment on operational changes at the national hurricane center this year, specifically extending the tropical weather outlook from two days to five days and the changes with storm surge products. the extension of the products is something we are
7:05 pm
working towards both from an experimental perspective and operational. i would like to get back to you on some of the specific changes because we also have the five- day and seven-day 70 experimental work still ongoing. the storm surge itself, we are still on the tail end of looking improving these products. we are running a number of experiments and are ready to go operational with these hopefully by next season. making efforts to be able to better communicate the risk associated with these storm surges in individual basin areas, harbor areas. a lot of work is going into this area.
7:06 pm
we are not quite there yet in terms of a big roll out and these dynamic surge predictions. we are about a year away from not. thiswould add to that, effort is a combination of national weather service personnel, the national noaacane center and national ocean service. people that run the geo data service networks and develop the products and run the models we lay over those topographic models. said 2005 -- it has been since 2005 at the u.s. has had a major hurricane, a landfall
7:07 pm
hurricane. how likely is it that somewhere in the u.s. will get a major landfall this year? is there any reason why we have gone through this unusual time period, even though we had high numbers of storms? that youon the fact might have to get into the greek alphabet again this year? >> we will not give you odds on falling hurricanes. we are giving you the probability's and rangers we can produce scientifically and have a sound basis to them. we will leave it at that. by having not had a major category 3, 4, 5 made landfall in united states since katrina? mother nature may know that
7:08 pm
answer but science does not know that answer. that.rry take a shot at jerry may know the answer. i don't know the answer. [laughter] >> there is a set of conditions that allow for hurricanes to form. there is also a specific set of wind patterns that allow them to make landfall. over the last three years, we have had an upper level trough that has been keeping a lot of storms out that see -- out at sea. 11 and 12, a lot of storms were out at sea. had high4, 5, we pressure over the eastern united states and that pattern tends to bring these hurricanes further west and then the gulf coast and
7:09 pm
east coast see more hurricanes. predicting those pacific patterns is really not possible. our seasonal outlook is not a hurricane landfall forecast. wheres because largely hurricanes strike, how strong it is and things like that really depends on the weather patterns in place at the time the hurricane is approaching. >> how much is this connected to he unusual patterns -- [indiscernible] easterneather over the u.s., the low and high pressure areas, are linked to the jetstream. i will still argue he did
7:10 pm
not tell you why it has been that way. other than that lannett oscillates the way it wants to offer late -- other than the planet osciallates the way it wants to osciallte. [indiscernible] noaa is very involved. global warming is an extremely important issue facing our time. are branches of noaa heavily involved in better understanding many different impacts of global warming --possibly affecting weather is one of them. assessing some of the global summit models run specifically -- global issues run
7:11 pm
specifically to address that relative to these other major climate patterns. we're interested in understanding all of these different climate factors. and their interplay. as far as the climate models that predict the hurricane activity, there have been no changes. a question from the phone. the times-picayune. i'm interested in hearing the answer to a question about storm surge mapping.
7:12 pm
mapsou rolling out new for local areas this year? >> those are not going to go operational this year. if you are talking about storm surge mapping concurrent with hurricanes, you can look at noaa's digital coast website. we have interactive digital elevation maps with coastal zones that includes a sea level rise viewer, a slider scale but you can adjust and examine. taken from the best models globally, what rising level of sea level wold inundate -- would inundate specific areas around you. >> is there a reason for that? the hurricane center said they expected to be able to do that.
7:13 pm
computingr and resources to get lined up to do that on the full shift schedule of an active hurricane season. we will continue in the mode we have worked in in the last two years of the national hurricane center streams together and making them. we will have some information out if we do have a landfalling storm but the -- to go operational with them and invokes pacific sets of conditions and capabilities that we are heading towards and we hope to be at next year. >> one last question from the phone. willie with national geographic. could you clarify the information you gave at the seat about the warm temperatures, above average.
7:14 pm
are they well above average? how warm are the waters. , the average ocean temperatures across the atlantic are about 8 tenths of a degree fahrenheit above average. it might not; but that is quite a bit. to produce an active season likely expect this year, it's a lot more than just the ocean temperatures. there is an entire set of wind and air pressure patterns that come together to produce an active season. we have been seeing that entire set of conditions since 1995 because it's very strongly controlled by climate patterns. that is what allows us to predict these conditions. and allow us to say for instance this year that we act an active or truly active hurricane season. ,e look at the entire picture both the ocean and atmosphere, to best assess what to expect this season.
7:15 pm
i think that was our last question. thank you to our speakers for participating today. does anybody have any follow-up questions, contact me by e-mail or phone. maureenovary.noaa.gov. thank you. >> thank you. that concludes today's conference. thank you for your participation. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> some of the degree in moore, oklahoma. the tornadoes in the oklahoma city suburb on monday killed 24 people. president obama will go to oklahoma on sunday to survey the damage.
7:16 pm
the president will also meet with emergency workers and the families displaced by the storm. today in washington, a house science committee -- house committee held a meeting on forecasting models. here is an exchange with the sub committee chairman about the accuracy of tornado forecasting. our thoughts and prayers are with the people of oklahoma. i think this tragedy highlights the importance of real-time forecasting to protecting lives and property. i will like to thank our excellent witness panel for traveling here today. while this hearing was scheduled several weeks ago to discuss draft legislation, the underscoresklahoma the importance of this issue and shouldn't course us to start tackling these questions today. it's unfortunate that the noaa
7:17 pm
is unable to testify in person, however as the ranking member and i have just discussed, we will be asking kathy sullivan to submit comments for the record. world class system of weather prediction in the united states. one that the national academy of science has put as second to none. we can thank the hard-working men and women of noaa and their partners throughout the enterprise for the great strides that have been made in forecasting in recent decades. but the reality is we can do better. it is not enough to blame failures on programming or sequestration or lack of resources. hasoore, oklahoma demonstrated, we have to do better. the good news is that we can. superstorm sandy made clear
7:18 pm
what many and the weather community have known for years -- our model for weather prediction has fallen behind europe and other parts of the world. the weather forecasting improvement act would build upon the down payment made by congress following the storm to restoring the u.s. as a leader in the field through expanded computing capacity and data assimilation techniques. >> you can see the entire hearing on whether forecasting models tonight on our companion network c-span3 at 8:50 p.m. eastern. on the next "washington journal ," a conversation on president obama's speech today outlining his administration's counterterrorism policy. then they look at corporate tax rates and some companies use of overseas tax shelters. arab guest is curtis dubay of the heritage foundation. in our america by the numbers session focuses on rural
7:19 pm
america with two guests. "ou can see "washington journal every morning at 7:00 eastern here on c-span. on this morning's -- ,> guest bob goodlatte republican of virginia and chair of the house judiciary committee. if we could start with the issue of immigration moving through the senate, where does that stand in the house especially in the judiciary committee? >> we have been working very hard on it from several different approaches. we start out on hearings on the subject, very at -- various aspects of immigration. then we moved to hearings on specific goals we have introduced. on the legislative language of those bills.
7:20 pm
yesterday we held a hearing on the senate bill as it has constituted coming out of the senate judiciary committee. in addition, since there are, i think, three members of the house that have practiced immigration law prior to coming to congress -- myself, a democrat from california and a republican from idaho, all on the judiciary committee, by the way -- but most members do not have in-depth knowledge of immigration law. we have spent extensive time in the house holding briefings where we take members through the law and how it works and how different aspects of it are not working and listen to their ideas about how it can be improved. we so far have introduced three bills in the house dealing with aspects of immigration law. the homeland security committee, which has jurisdiction over the border issues, has passed a border security bill out of the committee and into the judiciary committee we introduced two bills. one dealing with agricultural
7:21 pm
guest workers and the other dealing with e-verify, a program that is voluntary today would become mandatory, so people applying for jobs are able to do so and they have the necessary documentation to do it in an electronic way that is much more efficient. the voluntary system is very well liked by the 500 thousand companies who use it today, so we think it should be applied to all. today congressman darrell issa, chairman of the oversight and government reform committee and also member of the judiciary committee and others will introduce a high skilled worker bill. we have in the works right now a companion bill to the homeland security bill dealing with internal security, internal enforcement of our immigration laws. 35-40% of the people not -- they enter lawfully and simply overstayed their visa.
7:22 pm
so, the border security component does not address all ways in which illegal immigration comes about, and therefore other measures will be included in that bill. most likely introduced right after recess. we also have in the house a group of eight members similar to the senate gang of 8, but they prefer the group of eight. they announced an agreement in principle and they are in the process of drafting that legislation now. we are anxious to see. we will continue with the regular order in the committee process, and most members of the house have been pleased with the nature in which we methodically looked at every aspect of immigration, and we will continue to do that in the hopes of getting a bipartisan bill that gets it right. we are concerned about aspects of the senate bill and that it not repeat the mistakes of 1986. in 1986 we passed the last major
7:23 pm
immigration reform bill. that legislation granted a pathway to citizenship. in fact, a very easy pathway to citizenship to about 3 million people and had the promise of a number of enforcement measures, including employer sanctions, but they have been honored in the breach. i there not have been enforced or not been implemented. as a result, the problem with people unlawfully entering the country has grown exponentially rather than having them solved. we are determined to not make the mistake again. host: there has been chatter in the newspapers and editorial pages about the house not coming up with a comprehensive bill like the senate did, but more piecemeal. guest: we certainly have taken what we caught a step-by-step
7:24 pm
approach, but we do want to address all three major areas. there are hundreds of issues, but the three major areas in immigration law are improving our legal immigration system so that it really works to grow our economy, create jobs for americans and not lose out on opportunities, for example, which will be reflected in the bill that congressman issa and i introduced today. people graduating from american universities who have come from around the world to study at the best universities and then leaving the united states to go back to their home countries and other countries to compete with us and create jobs there. we want them to stay here and create jobs in this country. so, that aspect of it. also, you got to make sure that, for example, agriculture -- a highly competitive international agriculture economy where food can be grown in every part of the world, we need to make sure that u.s. agriculture has the workers for these very tough and difficult jobs that they need, including the fact that after
7:25 pm
the 1986 law was passed, about one third of the agricultural workforce left the forms because they were able to work anywhere they wanted. if you have a program this time, the same thing would occur. so, unlike 1986, we want to be ready for that if this does indeed take place, with a workable program so we make sure that american agriculture has the u.s. workers and temporary workers from outside the country as they are needed. the second area is enforcement of the law. as i say, both at the border e- verify, very important. and the third aspect is what kind of legal status can we provide to the millions of people who are not here lawfully. that status could be different for different people. so, that is all being very
7:26 pm
closely examined and considered as well. we think that in order to really have an immigration system that works for our country, works for our economy, all three of those areas need to be addressed. host: chairman goodlatte, what is the next step in the eric holder doj ap investigation? guest: the ap investigation is of considerable concern. we had the attorney general before the judiciary committee last week, and on many subjects i don't know if people can type in "eric holder, i don't know" and find a youtube video to find out many different ways to say "i don't know" on a multitude of subjects. one thing he said it on was the ap issue, and he said as the basis, the fact he recused himself of the decision -- the subpoena, which many stated they believe is overbroad, including mukasey. a lot of information about a lot of phone calls made. not the content but numbers that were dialed. for a government to be slipping
7:27 pm
behind what these reporters have done. having said that, it is always important when you are dealing with national security issues to make sure that you are actually getting the process all the make sure that leaks do not occur when national security is being compromised. that is one of the issues, of course, in the ap matter. so, the idea of the justice department looking into leaks is not inappropriate in itself but if you deal with it in an inappropriate way is a problem. they turned the matter over to the deputy attorney general. the judiciary committee will be communicating with mr. cole, and -- we will be looking to hold hearings on this matter in the future as well. lots of questions.
7:28 pm
the code of federal regulations provisions for news organizations to be notified when a subpoena is being issued that affects them. while i am sure that there are exceptions to that, it is hard to understand why there would need to be an exception here, he cut the records being sought are not held by the ap but being held by a telephone company. therefore, the organization, knowing it was taking place, not at least in initial view -- have compromised the investigation. secondly, there are reports that the associated press contacted the administration a week before they used the news information regarding the matter in yemen that was the subject of the
7:29 pm
underlying leak investigation. clearly they were attempting to be cooperative with the administration and give them an opportunity to let them know why they should not have released that information. so, in this instance, certainly the administration has the right to investigate leaks, but the congress and the american people and the associated press and other news organizations -- we also have a report of a fox news reporter having even more intense investigation taking place with regard to his reporting. all of these things are of concern to us because of the first amendment of the united states constitution.
7:30 pm
and the judiciary committee is the committee that has the responsibility of protecting our bill of rights, dealing with constitutional amendments -- new ones offered but also the oversight of how the current mm it -- amendments to the constitution are being used by the administration and protected for the benefit of the people, including, in this case, of course, the first amendment freedom of the press. it is very, very important the press have the ability to do its job without intimidation, without disrupting -- disruption of their ability to develop sources in a legitimate way. it certainly happens at times news sources are developed in a legitimate ways that could compromise national security for other reasons that are inappropriate, and those should be investigated, but investigated properly. there were a lot of questions about why this agonist -- investigation was conducted the way it was. host: a video on youtube, eric holder "i don't know your go with this put together by the house judiciary -- guest: certainly was not. i am sure it was done by some interested viewer. as you know, youtube has lots of
7:31 pm
different things available. host: where is the trust factor when it comes to attorney general eric holder, between you and him? guest: certainly he is the attorney general of the united states, and we want him to successfully do his job. but there is a lot of question on the part of myself and a lot of members about whether he is doing that job effectively went on issue after issue, whether it is fast and furious -- certainly not the first issue -- but the big first issue with regard to the conduct of the justice department and the related agencies in the justice department. and then you have issues related to other matters where he is asked about questions and then simply doesn't know. but he is the chief law enforcement officer of the united states and he is supposed to know these things, and yet
7:32 pm
repeatedly we get a lack of answers from him. of course, with regard to fast and furious, he was pressed for documents. the documents were not provided. the documents were subpoenaed. he refused to supply them with a subpoena. the house of representatives has actually held him in contempt of congress, and the effort to get those documents persist but has dragged on for years. there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the administration being forthcoming about legitimate oversight questions that the congress has. and it is important that any attorney general of the united states understand that and be more communicative than this attorney general has been. host: somebody who tweets as "oversight of gop" -- guest: have we passed a bill in response to sandy hook? meaning the newtown matter? well, we certainly are looking very closely at this issue. the national instant check system, the system that was
7:33 pm
heavily debated in the senate and upon which they could not reach the votes necessary to pass legislation is up for reauthorization later this year. now, that could provide a basis for legislation. the instant check system will continue, whether reauthorized or not, but there are problems with the national instant check system. the two biggest being the lack of enforcement of the law right now with regard to people who violated the instant check system now, and secondly, the need for the states to put more data into the system about people who have been convicted of crimes that would preclude them under the law from owning firearms or people who have mental health commitments.
7:34 pm
again, have been found by a judge, to be a danger of themselves or others and also can be precluded under the law from possessing a firearm. as you know, those are the two major areas of concern with regard to misuse of ire arms that result in tragedies like newtown or just murders and other deaths that occur around the country. we are looking at it from the standpoint of what can be done to improve that system. we think the very first thing that can be done does not require legislation, it requires the administration to enforce the law. in 2010, 70 6000 people -- 76,000 people went to purchase firearms either in gun stores or on the internet or at gun shows from federally licensed firearms dealers where all of them are required all the time to do an instant check, background check,
7:35 pm
and 76,000 people put false information on the forms. of those, the atf referred 4500 or slightly more than that to than 94 united states attorneys around the country. of those 4005 hundred referred, only 62 were prosecuted in 92 attorneys offices with thousands of assistant united states attorneys. so, the proposal in the senate to add additional requirements for additional instant checks on not commercial gun transactions but on individuals selling a gun to another individual does not make a lot of sense, and it appears to many people it would impose a burden on law abiding citizens and would not be an additional check against people who are not lawfully entitled to own firearms because they are not enforcing the law that exists now. host: we have about 25 minutes before the house comes in. our guest is bob goodlatte, chair of the house judiciary committee, republican of virginia. greg is a republican in kansas city, missouri. you're on the air. caller: good morning. you called for an investigation into the irs scandal. as bad as that's candle is,-- as that scandal is, nobody has died
7:36 pm
from it. people died on 9/11 and countless members of congress -- there is a. review the paper on explosives host: when it comes to the irs issued, had he called for an investigation? guest: we certainly have. just yesterday, a substantial number of members of the house are many, including myself, and the investigations subcommittee chairman jim sensenbrenner signed a letter to the attorney general asking about conduct of this investigation, and in particular, to investigate allegations that the way the matter has been characterized by the administration thus far as lower-level irs employees being the only ones involved, to investigate the fact there are reports that people outside of the irs and in the administration and in the higher levels of the irs knew about this selective targeting of
7:37 pm
conservative groups and tea party groups and others a long time ago. perhaps as long ago as three years ago. and therefore, we want that to be included as part of this investigation. certainly want to get to the bottom of how this took place, but also want to know who knew about it, when they knew about it, why they did not disclose it to congress even though questions were asked that would suggest the appropriate answer would be, yes, this program is going on and is being conducted in this manner. the other thing that is really important to the judiciary committee and other members of
7:38 pm
congress with regard to all of these investigations is accountability. it is very important that when mistakes are made, people will be held accountable. the general public understands that. they know in their jobs in the private sector, if you make a serious mistake, there are consequences for doing that. oftentimes they get the sense that the administration -- not just this administration but previous administrations and not make the effort to hold the people responsible accountable. in part, it may be because you hold a person accountable at one level, and they say why am i held accountable when i was told
7:39 pm
to do this by somebody higher up? that helps to unfold the entire investigation, to have real accountability, which the legislative branch of the government has a responsibility to do. we passed the laws that are becoming the law of the land him and we have a responsibility to check to see of those laws are being applied in the manner that was intended by the congress. and in this case, it appears they were not. i think it is a very serious question that people have about the fairness of the process, when the internal revenue service target individuals or groups for investigation based upon first amendment free speech, based upon first amendment freedom of assembly, first amendment freedom to petition your government for address of grievance and does it in a way that would suggest that they are trying to disadvantage or even pressure groups that they may not have sympathy for or agreement with. you've got to make sure that no matter who is running the irs, it is done in a neutral and fair manner.
7:40 pm
obviously our tax laws need to be properly administered and enforced. but they need to be done in a way that does not suggest they are being politicized. host: ogden, utah. democratic line. prudence, good morning. caller: i am concerned about those people you mentioned, the high skilled people. our college graduates in the united states, many of them are working in fast food places and they are trying to get ahead, trying to find a job that has benefits and a good salary. it is very, very difficult. they are bringing in people from other countries not to harvest crops but to take engineering jobs, whatever, all kinds of jobs that require high skilled, good learning, and good work in work ethic, all those good things. bringing them in, and they have the jobs that our college graduates need to have. is there anything you can do to give a little less protection to companies that are taking on their high skilled employees from other countries? host: got the point, prudence. thank you for calling in. guest: the caller makes a very good point. that is, as you write immigration law, you have to first respect the rights and job
7:41 pm
opportunities of people who are already lawfully resident in the united states, particularly american citizens. when you do this, you have to weigh that against the fact that if companies can't get access to those workers from the u.s. workforce, then a couple of things happen. the companies don't grow, they don't create other jobs, or they move their work to other places around the world where there is places like india and china, an abundance of people who have a good quality education in science, technology, engineering, and math. that is the main focus of this high skilled area. and we want to have more u.s. graduates getting jobs in the sector. very, very important. but it is also important that we recognize if you don't have the
7:42 pm
workers that are needed when a company needs them, they could actually cost us a lot of jobs by moving their work to someplace else in the world, or they simply don't grow. when you hire a high-tech worker that allows a company to produce a product in the united states, you are then, in most instances, creating more jobs for u.s. citizens around them. so, that has to be the balance that is found. we don't want to have an unlimited number of people in this area. we don't want to have employers paying below market wages so that the jobs are less attractive to u.s. workers. that we also want to make sure that we have an immigration system that has the necessary number of workers to meet u.s. companies need. host: would you like to see that caps on removed from the high-
7:43 pm
tech visas? guest: i would not remove the caps. i think we need to have a limitation on it and we need to review where that h-1b wrote graham is used properly and where it is used improperly and fix the system. we make measures to do that in the legislation. we also want to make sure that once we do have an h-1b worker, a graduate of an american university who we want to keep your, we want to make sure that they are able to transition from that h-1b and we have sufficient numbers of immigrant visas. if you look at other countries that have a shortage of them -- stem workers, you will find in countries like canada, the united kingdom, australia, the percentage of overall immigrant visas issued that are issued related to education, job offers, job skills, is in the 60%-70% range depending on the country. in the united states, only 12% of the 1.1 million green cards we issue each year and of the
7:44 pm
12%, half of those are family members of that high skilled worker. so, only six percent of the 1.1 million green cards go to any workers of any kind. and we are just not -- not just talking about high skilled workers but workers who work in areas that may not be high skilled but a shortage of u.s. citizens to do the work. so, getting the right numbers here is important, but also recognizing that other countries are beating us out, if you will, in recognizing the immigration system, when used correctly, can grow our economy and create jobs for u.s. citizens is something we think can be improved with immigration reform. host: bob goodlatte, currently in his 11th term, and part of his district includes roanoke, lynchburg, and serves as co- chair of congressional internet caucus, chairman of the house republican high-tech working group.
7:45 pm
he served a term or two as chair of agriculture committee. if i remember correctly. and chair of the judiciary committee. akron, ohio. independent line. caller: how're you doing? thanks for c-span. i wanted to piggyback on the one caller about immigration. it is a topic that democrats, republicans, we all are concerned about it. i don't agree that much with republicans on most of their policy, but i hope they hold firm on this. one thing, too. was it the 14th or 15th amendment? the whole idea of just becoming an american citizen because you stumbled over the border and were born in the united states. i know it is part of the constitution. we can't do anything about it. but, my god, can they look into that? one more question for you,
7:46 pm
representative. benghazi, now that the fact that came out, should there be an apology made to susan rice and why wasn't general petraeus called to testify? i will hang up and listen to you. guest: i don't know whether there are plans to call general petraeus. that investigation is being primarily led by the oversight and government reform committee. but we also have an interest in that issue in the house judiciary committee because of the fact that the federal bureau of investigation, part of the justice department, is responsible for the investigation into what happened in benghazi and for the work to track down the terrorists who perpetrated these four murders. it is a terrible situation. there are still many questions to be asked and it is very
7:47 pm
apparent people in the administration were involved in making decisions about how they character arise -- characterize these events after they took place. also very strong concerns about why the request for more security ahead of time in that matter were not honored. here we had a the ambassador based in the libyan capital tripoli but having to travel frequently to benghazi because that is whether rebels who had had been based before they overthrew the libyan government, and requests were made on a number of occasions for additional security and not provided. why that did not occur is important. and the secretary of state asking the question rhetorically in a hearing that she participated in not too long ago saying "why does it matter?"
7:48 pm
it matters a great deal because it is an invitation for more of these kinds of terrorist attacks. it is an invitation to people who are dedicated to our foreign service to not want to serve in these places around the world, not even want to serve in our foreign service. and it is something that needs to be addressed, and forcefully, so we are assured a kind of security that was not provided there is being provided where it is needed and this sort of thing doesn't happen again. so, the investigation both before and after are, in my opinion, is very important. the whole issue i raised earlier, accountability. who is being held accountable for the mistakes that were made?
7:49 pm
now, the un ambassador had information that was not correct. what did she know about that information in terms of how it was prepared and how she presented it, we still do not know all the answers to that, so i think it is premature to say who was responsible and who was not responsible in the administration. but more work needs to be done in this matter. and i have every confidence that the five committees that are involved in working cooperatively to pursue this investigation will indeed continue to pursue the truth of the matter. host: representative goodlatte, can you shed any light or the search for a new fbi director are? guest: i have heard probably the same rumors that you have. some members of congress have been mentioned. but i do not know what the thoughts are in the administration regarding that. i also would say i think director mueller has done a good job. he was recruited to stay on for a longer period of time once already. he has told me that he is ready to go on and do other things in life. it was not bother me at all if he were kept on a little bit longer to make sure, if willing to do that, to make sure we do get somebody of the highest
7:50 pm
caliber to fulfill that very important role. it is very important from a law- enforcement sandpoint and very important from public trust in government standpoint. that you have somebody of great law-enforcement skills and unimpeachable integrity. host: will your committee have a say or is it authentic? guest: it is always senate confirmation. the judiciary committee is always interested and follows a closely. we do not have confirmation authorities. host: a viewer tweet in -- guest: well, i do not agree that the use of a facility outside the united states to hold foreign enemy combatants is a waste of money. i do think that how this has all been administered and the
7:51 pm
uncertainty created around it has certainly caused problems. and as you wind down the number of people being detained, at some point in time it would be appropriate to close the facility,, but the basic concept enemy combatants, if you had a war declared against the country and they were captured and in -- they would be held in a prisoner of war facility someplace, it is not an inappropriate thing to do for people who are captured as a part of the clear war on terror by extremist islamic organizations like al qaeda. so, that is appropriate. now, having said that, i also believe that if you are a united states citizen and you are arrested in the united states and accused of being a terrorist, that you should have available to you your full panoply of rights under the bill
7:52 pm
of rights and be tried in article three courts. the administration has applied that to all of the terrorists that they have apprehended recently, including some that they have captured outside the united states and who are not united states in essence, and i do not agree that they need to be handled in the way as a united states citizen who is apprehended in the united states. to has happened on a couple of occasions. and both those instances, the individuals were indeed terrorist and ultimately they were treated properly, but they were detained without charges, without the various protections under the fourth and fifth amendments of our bill of rights, without those benefits, and i think that was wrong. we are slowly moving in the direction of correcting that
7:53 pm
through the amendments made to the national defense authorization act, but i don't think we are there yet. because even with the changes made last year, the u.s. listens were charged with being a terrorist -- each means they can be held, comparable to holding a prisoner of war in a war with another country -- we held indefinitely, they are not being afforded their rights to be confronted by their accuser, to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and so on. and if this occurs on a battlefield in afghanistan and they happen to be u.s. citizens, that is a different situation. but if they are arrested in the united states, they need to be charged under our laws and given the protections anyone has and would expect to have if they were charged with a crime, particularly those who are innocent and charged with a crime. host: just a few minutes left with our guests before the house of representatives comes into session. judy is a republican from hyattsville, maryland, in the suburbs. caller: nice and rainy. if i were a diplomat right now, i would be attending my resignation to the presidency because quite obviously we are not attacking our diplomats.
7:54 pm
i do not know what happened in benghazi, but i have been listening to the hearings. i listen to c-span all day long, right behind me at work. i am 69 years old and i have never, ever, ever heard the kind of rhetoric from both sides. no one is interested in getting to the truth or the constitutionality of the irs , or what happened in benghazi. we had four people killed and everyone acts like, no big deal. the irs is taking personal information from people and taking their rights. no big deal because we are turning it into politics. everything that i see from both sides. i hear harry reid and i hear mitch mcconnell and they both get up and point the finger at the other assigned -- at the
7:55 pm
other side. in the meantime, i can guarantee you the people in sandy hook have not gotten support from the federal government or they have not done what they were supposed to do. and oklahoma is going to sit there for a long time. we could give 200 million dollars to egypt and fight endless wars and we cannot even take care of our own people, and we aren't no longer a nation -- we are no longer a nation that lives under the rule of law. host: representative goodlatte? guest: certainly it is very important that we recognize these issues are important, from several standpoint. number one, holding people accountable who do not follow
7:56 pm
the law. and secondly, making sure that people who are responsible for upholding the law understand and respect the united states constitution, the bill of rights, the first amendment, and organizations that organize in order to protest the government, in order to petition the government, in order to be outspoken about issues related to the issues before the congress and the federal government as a whole. they have a right to know that they can do that and can have their first amendment freedoms protected. so, she is absolutely right some of the matter of the irs is of extreme importance and needs to be investigated, and have the people who have perpetrated that be held accountable. similarly, as i mentioned earlier, regarding benghazi, it is very important we send the right message to foreign governments, to terrorists, and more important -- most importantly, that we send the right assets to people who are in our service who are putting their lives on the line as is so readily apparent in benghazi, but in many countries in the world their security could be at risk for a variety of reasons and providing that security is vitally important. so there is a constructive good to holding the hearings and getting to the bottom of this if
7:57 pm
we can shine the light of what needs to be done on this process and hold accountable the people who did not get it right the first time. host: i don't know if you got a chance to see editor mitch mcconnell's op-ed in "the post." "obama's culture of intimidation" is the headline. he says there is ample evidence to suggest the culture of intimidation and which of the iris tactics was allowed to flourish beyond one agency or a few rogue employees. and he goes on to talk about the so-called disclose act, that it could be reintroduced, there is a must. what do you think of the disclose act? guest: i would have to see more about what he is writing about and the legislation he is talking about. but i would say that he is absolutely right that it cannot
7:58 pm
be tolerated that the instrumentalities of government that are necessary to carry out the work of government that people expect not be done in a way that people -- are used to intimidate people. of course, that issue rests with all of these issues that we talk about, not just the irs but also the associated press issue and others. we have a free society in this country, and when government starts using the instrumentalities of government to favor one person over another or to suppress someone, that is a major challenge to our freedoms, our liberties, and congress has a duty to step up and pursue the truth wherever it leads. host: we have been talking with representative bob goodlatte. we appreciate your time this morning. >> on our next washington journal, the human rights watch 's andrea prasow about president obama's cap iteris and policy police. this week, executives testified apple executives
7:59 pm
testified. the heritage foundation takes your calls about corporate profits and taxes. later a look at some of the demographic trends in rural america, including farming and immigration. the agriculture department and us.webster will join life each running at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span -- live each easternt 7:00 a.m. on c-span. >> president obama asked congress to close the guantánamo bay prison. he also broke about the use of u.s. drones and warfare, next on c-span. in an hour, you can weigh in on president obama's remarks. later, republican senators john mccain, with the graham and kelly ayotte ms. bono to the presence call to close on time of day. -- respond to the president' call to close
8:00 pm
guantanamo bay. you to take good care of all the furniture. >> they did return to the white house, winning the election of 1892. we continue our series on first ladies live monday night at 9:00 eastern on c-span. >> now, president obama outlines his counterterrorism strategy as the net -- at the national defense university. he defended u.s. joan strikes overseas as legal and necessary in the fight against al qaeda. during his remarks, the president was interrupted by a protester. >> it is a great honor to return to the national defense university. here, at fort mcnair, americans have served in uniform since 1791, standing guard in the early days of the republic, and contemin

133 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on