suspension of the rules. after some general speeches, the house is expected to recess until 5:30 today. the house is only in session until wednesday this week as democrats hold any issues retreat. the senate also back shortly. they will work on a bill restoring military pension cuts included in the federal spending bill. you will see live coverage of the senate on c-span2 and the house on c-span. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair will be offered by our the chaplain: chaplain, father conroy -- by our chaplain, father conroy. chaplain conroy: let us pray. dear god, we give you thanks for giving us another day. we ask your special blessing upon the members of this people's house. they face difficult decisions

in difficult times, with many forces and interests demandsing their attention. in these days, give wisdom to all the members that they might execute their responsibilities to the benefit of all americans. and may their constituents understand as well that many in this country have interests at odds with their own. and that the task entrusted to their representatives is extremely complex. bless us, o god, and be with us all this day and every day to calm. may all that is done be for your greater honor and glory, amen. the speaker pro tempore: amen. the chair's examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1, the journal stands approved. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition? mr. wilson: mr. speaker, i

demand a vote on agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. and the journal stand as i proved -- stands approved. mr. wilson: quarmquarm -- i object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present and i make a point of order that a quorum is not present. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 78 of rule 20, further -- 8 of rule 0, further proceedings on this question are postponed. the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentleman from south carolina, mr. wilson. mr. wilson: everyone, including our guests in the gallery, please join in. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

the speaker pro tempore: the chair will entertain requests for one-minute speeches. the gentleman from south carolina. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition? mr. wilson: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. wilson: mr. speaker, a weekend editorial by the "washington times" stated the unemployment rate fell in january, which ought to be good news. but it isn't. over the past decade, we've fallen into a strange and puzzling wonderland of opposites. where economic recovery comes with no growth and unemployment rates drop but people aren't working, end of quote. the president's misleading message conveys that if fewer jobs and government dependency is the new status quo, which destroys fulfilling lives. last week a congressional budget office report confirmed that the nfib and house republicans have been saying for years, obamacare is and will destroy 2.5 million jobs. 2.5 million fewer americans who

will be out of work due to the president's health care takeover. our economy cannot truly recover unless obamacare is repealed. the president's big government policies are destroying jobs. house republicans have solutions that will put americans back to work. we understand that the status quo should be job growth, to help our middle class families achieve opportunity. in ," god bless our troops and we -- in ," god bless our troops and we will never forget september 11 and the global war on terrorism. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts seek recognition? without objection, so ordered. mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, i rise today to mark the third anniversary of the peaceful uprising of bahrain. three years after has protests filled the streets, bat rainy's government's promises of reform remain unfulfilled. restrictions on freedom of expression and arbitrary detention continue unabated. a prisoner of conscience whom i

have adopted as part of the tom lantos human rights commission of defending freedoms project, is one of thousands who have been detained or tortured for peacefully calling for reforms. prisoners like him are denied access to medical treatment and many are prevented from speaking about their abuse, even to their families and lawyers. because bahrain is our ally and home to the fifth fleet, the u.s. has a responsibility to ensure that the bahraini government adheres to its human rights commitments and enacts meaningful reforms. these should include relosing -- releasing political prisoners and ensuring accountability for torture. absent such steps, the u.s. must consider contingency planning for relocation of the fleet. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recesses until approximately 5:30 p.m. today.

>> this got underway a few minutes ago. >> it is a special marine corps task force. the way the marines organize the task forces is with four elements. it is comprised of a command element in the top box on the upper left of the slide. web the air combat element, the ground element, and the logistics element. we think this is what makes us unique. capable ofask force

operating across the mission sets assigned to that force. the marine corps has freestanding mag tafs. starting on the far right, marine expert gary --marine forces. the incumbent -- they encompass the operating forces. this is the bulk of the marines that deploy or come out of these forces. this type force is used for major combat operations. ized force like what you saw made the march to baghdad in 2003. next to that, you have the brigade commanded by a one-star. it says up to 15,000. this can range from eight joint task force headquarters up to

aggregating multiple forces in support of major combat operations. then you have the two on the left, which we would consider our forward deployed forces that we would project forward and anticipate would be operating in theater all the time, not just when there is a crisis. the one we have traditionally deployed is the marine expeditionary unit. it is about 2500 marines. it is associated with amphibious shipping. that is what you mostly see on the news, marines operating off of the ships. we have two of those on the water at all times. one in the pacific and one generally in the european, african, and central command regions. very capable force. working gamut from security cooperation issues up to having the capability of orcuting forcible entry

having a play inside a major theater operation. the last one on the left is the special purpose. they do not have a size. they do not have a number associated with them. created in order to meet whatever the mission requirement is. in this particular case, hours -- our crisis response was established with about 550 marines. infantrysed around an company sized force. the command element was taking -- taken largely from the 24th. designed for specific evolutions or missions, hours being crisis response. i will get into the details on that in a moment. next slide. this was our mission. we were a forward applied crisis

response as mentioned. it was established starting last year around the april time frame. just one of many options the thene corps has, along with augmentation of security forces, fleet antiterrorism security purpose magtfcial does half -- africa that cooperation on the continent. it is different. it is not the same. it does not have the same capabilities. certainly not the combat power it brings to the fight. right is alluding to what we see as the continuum of crisis response. i know it is hard to see a lot

of the words. as you start moving up the slope towards the bang, a lot of things happen, particularly when you're talking about support to assies and emb government facilities overseas. a lot of indications and warnings. the crisis starts to bubble up. we would like to get a force two spmagtf-cr in early deal with the situation early and diffuse it right its presence or action that might be taken such as reinforcing. we are one of the red boxes on the bottom, or one of the many options. there are four deployed. but not the only option available. to -- inons we train the scenery enforcement, site security, tactical recovery of aircraft or personnel, as well evacuationtant

operations. we are capable of being a lead on the wayw-on force that we could scale up. we were unique in the theater based on our ability to self command and control, deployed him a and the mobility we brought as part of the task force. that came from the combinations as well as the task organized ground element could that allowed us to project this force a long way. even though we were based in spain for the majority of the time we were deployed, we were able to rapidly project the force. when we got where we were going, we brought everything necessary to operate.

we believe that is the ground of the marine air ground task force. becomes comes as one consolidated package that is breakle to be able to pieces apart if necessary also be able to weekly be organized in order to a call push the mission without a lot of external support. it doeslready mentioned not replace it. there were questions about whether we were there in lieu of. we do not think so. because of the lack of mu presence in the mediterranean and african region, spmagtf-cr filled that gap. we felt it was complementary. this is a little bit about the operating area and time and space for the problem framing. force fromloy this

p lejune tone -- cam spain. that distance on the red arrows is about the same as it is down to the gulf of guinea. pretty significant. that is to scale. a map of the united states. the united 3.7 times states that can fit inside the continent of africa. when they built maps, it always looks like the united states is a good size. compared tood-size africa, but africa is huge. you start running into significant problems or issues operating there. we also moved the force from djibouti and then further on.

the distance from maron, spain, to djibouti is about 34 nautical miles, about the distance from africa -- alaska to florida. maron,atedly moved from spain, to support operations in the african region. that is the distance from new york to new orleans. even routine movement which we did several times from maron, s pain, is not routine based on this distance. the combination enabled that to happen. for the last six and a half months, i will start on the left-hand side of the screen.

we did a lot of theater security cooperation and partnering with our host nation spain as well as the government of france and the french foreign legion units in the southern part of france. in order towe train team up with a partner nation. armyis case, the spanish and spanish marines and the french foreign legion which allowed access for us into areas for us to operate and execute full mission profiles where we are able to put the force together and tie together our ground combat element and insert them into a range and long enough distance away that he was able for us to replicate to scale what it would be like to project a force into some of the areas we were responsible for. 22's in took the v-ss

supportof those doing operations for africa. when they were training in withal, we supported them equipment approximately 1600 nautical miles from maron to senegal. pretty significant movement. time v-22'sirst were introduced in the western part of africa. we were able to do key leader engagements throughout the western and northern africa. youhe left of the slide, see support operations for africa in may, september, and october. we were also able to take marines in theater, the black , specialtional force

, althoughgtf africa their missions are not merely crisis response, all marines have the capability to do crisis response. we brought those two forces together along with hours, aggregated them in the european theater, as well as operating with the anti terrorism support team. we brought those forces together and did a mock embassy reinforcement followed by a reinforcement with the spmagtf-cr on tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel and also ran mock evacuation exercises, so we were able to rehearse with all the marine forces in theater the type of mission sets we thought we might have to employ. a pretty important point just to say the way we are organized as marines allows us to be very flexible and scalable.

bringing these different forces together along with other joint forces is very easy based on the way we organize and command and control the force. this was a good opportunity. the first time this had been done in the european and african theater. on the bottom right is the movement we made down to djibouti to support operations in south sudan, which ultimately led to support and evacuation of american citizens from the embassy. i hope everyone has at least heard a little bit about the new normal with a new normal environment moving out into the future. if you have not heard about it, a couple of quick weights on it --quick points on it. the new normal is the way to

describe macro-stability, not being in major wars. at the same time, a lot of potential crises, rapidly moving crises that can occur for all kinds of different reasons, whether they be religion, politics, social issues, demographics, things like the arab spring that started in one place and rapidly moved to another. at, the state department and department of defense working through this problem set. as i showed you earlier on the continuing slide, the state department has made a pledge to look early to see where we could get dod support if necessary to provide security early in the process rather than later. agreed it would pay more attention earlier and planned

of u.s.lan for support government the cities and personnel overseas prior to crisis. what we saw with the lessons learned in south sudan what we believe is the first execution of one of these new normal type missions where we used a new ,ormal force, spmagtf-cr deployed in support of a u.s. embassy. the army as well projected a new normal response force into the embassy. you have both the marines and army come together under this construct underneath a joint commander and executed this mission. i have put up a couple of different thoughts on things we might need to think about as we move forward executing these types of missions. the types of resources we should put against them, how long we

would leave those resources in place, who would make those decisions inside of our government when we do those types of operations. set,y difficult problem particularly when you look at the size of the forces we have available in dod and the size africa and the time, space, and force issues associated with projecting force across the continent to the many orh risk type embassies facilities that may be at risk. that is just one theater we operated and. that throughand the globe in a number of places we would consider hotspots. with that, i would turn it over. up here and we

will start a conversation with ourselves and the audience. thanks very much. i thought that was great. [applause] i am going to exercise my get aege as moderator to small handful of questions in myself before turning the attention over to questions from the audience. one of them i dare say is prompted by the last slide. that list of questions. as a commander of the special purpose magtf and now the mu, i assume those are not rhetorical questions. are there answers to those questions? is that work to be done? >> i think that work needs to be done every time we execute these types of missions. it is work that is being done as well.

the point of me putting those up there, when i get a mission for a force like this, i do not have a question about what the mission is and i did not have a question about the mission in south sudan. as i look across the scope of potential areas that are having problems, i think we need to be asking those types of questions each time we employ a force like this. we employed a force like this in one place, we are not providing coverage in a lot of others. >> i wanted to be the guy who helps put context to a lot of what you said for perhaps a less than fully expert audience, which i doubt is in the room, but maybe watching elsewhere. for example, tell us about the v-22. 3/4 of the room knows about it. it sounds like the way it was

configured and the mission assigned might not be possible without that system. go right to the root. what is it? v-22 takes the qualities of a helicopter which can land vertically and combines them and a transport aircraft puts the two things together, so you get quite a bit of range and speed of a turboprop aircraft but when it gets to where it needs to set down directly, it can set down like a helicopter. what you have done any place like africa is you have greatly the area and envelope you can operate in. i would agree when we are a land-based force like spmagtf-cr is, having the capability of the kc130-jbined with the

refueling aircraft, that gives you the reach that would get you into the continent. amphibious shipping off of the coast provides a more direct path to that. without that being sure based in the southern european region, an aircraft like the v-22 gives us that capability. when you fly from miami to anchorage, that is three or four refuelings for an mv-22? >> it is more than that. it is about three to get from which wasitronella, the first piece of the leg, new york to new orleans. i was talking earlier today about this. it number of refuelings,

does not have to be done by the same aircraft leading it forward. another aircraft can meet it at a point, you can plug-in, and keep going. it is limited by the amount of gas that can be provided. at some point, you start running into the number of hours the pilots are flying. that range capability is greatly extended with the v-22. >> to the end of getting the rudiments on the table, i want to ask if you could talk more -- set some expectations. i think it would be correct to thethe impetus for formation of this force was the attack on benghazi. abouter if you could talk setting expectations on the actual capabilities of 500 dismounted marines around a huge area of operation, in terms of

lead time and other things that you would need to have an effect on the ground. i think this force was formed in response to situations in the new normal. i would suggest benghazi was one of those types of actions. a company of infantry marines is pretty capable. >> i did not mean to suggest otherwise. >i am sorry. >> we like to say we are responsible for limited crisis response. clearly, if you had a situation where you had to force your way into an environment or secure a large area, you would need a larger force. but tailored primarily for the missions i flashed on the screen, which would be embassy reinforcement, site recovery, this is a very capable force to accomplish those types of missions. >> not designed for forcible

entry, for example. then i will turn to those of you in the audience, i want to draw on your more than 20-year career in the marine corps and in other assignments and ask if you could put into context the new normal relative to other deployments in the past that you have been involved in, , others of these new normal deployments you have been involved with for more than 14 years --15 years. are we getting better at this? are we still learning the new normal after 15 years? what is your sense of it after having been firsthand involved? >> for me, it is a little bit of back to the future. this is what marines have always done.

this is the type ofhing i did at the beginning of my career. you mentioned haiti. within 72airplane hours and flew down and stood up a special purpose magtf for hait i. 1993-1994. i think this is what we do. we have a long history of these types of small wart type operations. type operations. we have a generation or two of marines coming in in a rack and afghanistan. i think this is more a turn back to the way marines have traditionally operated. this is not an area i feel uncomfortable in. haveof the places we

operated, countries, partners we have operated with, i spent the first part of the year banging around on a ship in the mediterranean, working. allo the new normal is not that new to you? >> i think that is one way to characterize it without getting into the social aspect of media and all those things that we have talked about a lots. for example, the air of spring. i think the new normal tries to characterize the speed at which these crises will the -- iraq's theyhe speed with which can transfer interrupted violently. i think that might be a little bit of a change. i think for marines to be , to be into be ready position, i don't think that is new.

>> ok. thank you for indulging my questions. i will say that our conversation is entirely on the record. we do have microphones. if i call on you, introduce yourself in a clear voice before you ask your question. i will start with this gentleman right here and then i will go to the gentleman in the last row. >> thanks very much. i served in many of the embassies you mentioned. the ones you have not had to evacuate yet and probably will. i'm a little worried why you're briefing. stories,ll the news you went into a fairly non-permissive environment. of do not fly with a lot protection. is that the army attitude? i'm a little unclear on any protections you had going in?

-- on the protections you had going in? >> yes, there were a couple things going on in south sudan. you and askterrupt you again -- for people who have no idea what you're talking about -- what that mission was, when it happened, etc.. what we areknows talking about and when. september atdle of dustup began kicking up between two tribes in south sudan, one that was loyal to be vice president and one that was loyal to the resident. there was disagreement between those two gentlemen as to whether a coup had been attempted or not been attempted and fighting broke out. there were several folks at risk throughout the country. there were a lot of ngo's

operating throughout the country. the diplomatic corps fell in south sudan. force wasn response brought into the embassy to assist with the security, and the embassy had also ordered evacuations. they had already drawn down a large portion of their embassy. -- we tried to's evacuate personnel from further north in one of the camp's, and they were shot up. we ended up coming in after that. in north africa and west africa. we were directed with about 12 hours notice to make that flight to evacuate the rest of the embassy.

theid insist -- assist with continued withdrawal of personnel out of the embassy. as far as the conditions we felt that the security was adequate for us to do that. i'm not sure if that answers your question. >> i will take the question right next to the camera there please. talbot.is joe sir, i would like to ask you about the legal framework of your missions. do you usually need to clear the mission with your local authorities? if yes, do you coordinate with the local authorities in securing an embassy? >> absolutely. the ambassador does that coordination within the country

that we would be operating in, and we would only do that under her or his request. so, that coordination would be done. as far as the countries we operate from, we have agreements we aree or missions that responsible for and we are not doing any operations that are not, that do not have visibility or approvals of those countries we operate from. take a question from this gentleman right here with the glasses. ok, we will start there and go to the gentleman to the right. please. >> i wonder about the relationship of the marines to our special forces, navy seals, delta rangers, army force. to take a current example, there is a report we have special forces in southern libya right now where forces loyal to the former regime took over a military

base. how would you decide who reacts to that? does a clearly defined whose operation is which? well, we are a- conventional force. we are not a special operations purpose taskial force. that just defined this as not a determined by is the data, the marine expeditionary force. from aget any orders combatant commander who i am responsible for. in this case, it would be general rodriguez. he will make the determination for what is the best force for what the requirements are. >> does the scope of the crisis is bonds for us per se -- crisis response force per se change

over time? or not necessarily? necessarily. however, that is how we envision the force, that we would be tasked with a mission that would come up. we would execute that mission, be prepared to operate over a wide area, because it's just not enough units like this to operate in multiple different ates at one time -- places one time. we do have the capability to have forces join ours and roll up underneath it. we do have the scale to do that. the tape abilities that would help augment another force. we could certainly do that as well. >> a question for the gentleman

right there. thank you. i want to ask about the applicability of the structure, particularly this task force. is this something you have had an opportunity to reflect on at all? secondly, i want to talk about the quality and the care their -- character of the relationship with the french and spanish allies. couldt something we expect to see in action in corporate of fashion anytime soon? >> thank you. , werding the mass atrocity have capabilities that would enable us to support humanitarian support or disaster relief, just basic -- capabilities, how the aircraft could move things, move people, move supplies, those types of

things. this organization did not have specific training or, you know, unique tape abilities that would allow us to respond to a mass atrocity. as far as our relationship with the spanish in the french, the relationship that we have with them now is primarily a training relationship, partnering to do training. in operational relationship. >> i would understand that president obama and president released ave communication today at least intimating there would be some more regular cooperation between the two. comment inike to that regard? >> i just heard about the op-ed as iran in here as well. we have the -- the op-ed as i ran in here as well. we have the capability to work with partnering nations.

workve the capability to with the department of defense. it are one of those is something we would be capable of executing. >> if i could take that a little farther, he your unit did a training exercise or otherwise would legionnaires. could you put that in perspective? how long, where? >> there is a perpetual relationship between the french foreign legion brigade and the marines second division. these second marine division is out of camp lejeune, north carolina. we are able to if a site that relationship with the french. that is of great advantage to us to work with the legionnaires who are very comparable to marine infantry in skills and attitude and the way that they employ their force. also what it did was it took us just far enough that it really legs, to stretch our

do aerial refuel, go to an uncertain area, operate in an uncertain environment, training environment we had not seen before. to tie all those things together and execute a full mission row file, it ended up working out very well for us. what it also did, we've done a lot of work with the spanish as well. with the spanish and the french. partg that force in that of the mediterranean does hearken back to what we discussed earlier. in the 1990's and the 1980's, we did a lot of training with the french, italians, spanish, our partners in the southern mediterranean. we have not been able to her the last several years due to commitments in iraq and afghanistan. the pentagon and around washington, we often hear the

term "deployed presence." particularly in discussions about budgets and how to trade off the locations of budgets. i think it is an aspect -- correct me if i'm wrong -- of what our military is doing every day. i doubt most americans have much appreciation for its. if you are out on a six or a month deployment or so, how much engagement is there not only with allied forces, but partner forces. does that change? is that more, the same, less? in our presence posture, if you will? in theainly mediterranean bases, some of that has been interrupted. from the marine corps stance, it has been interrupted by a lack of -- training in the thoserranean, conducting

exercises. i think it is the tremendous value. i imagine it is probably in the interest of all partners to work with us. i will say as well, the experience that provides our younger means when they get the opportunity to go into an arduous training exercise, training regimen and come out the other side and do social activities and a change of ideas, camaraderie with our eventrs, it's really an they are going to remember for the rest of their careers. it's not something that marines 2001 haveoined since had much opportunity to do if they have not been part of a marine expeditionary unit that has been deployed. >> i would guess from what you said as much as anything is working with those partners is

one of the features of the new normal? >> i'm not sure that we ever stepped away from our partners. we have been working with them in a different environment. is probably a return back to those engagements we had habitually all forthe 1990's. deployed forces, the opportunity to train with partner nations in their country. >> i'm just trying to keep my perspective at the level of normal americans. how they do not appreciate how co-mingling,ion, inner capability there really is when our forces get out in the world. >> there is a question from a woman in the dark blouse on the second row please. please? >> i wonder if you could comment on relationships with the department of state. and also usaid.

>> what we have done with this force, i have not done anything with usaid, specifically. the partnerships with the state department have been great from my perspective. i mentioned on to slide -- we call it leader engagement. i probably should've done a better job explaining that. i was fortunate enough with members of my staff to visit what a few indices that were within my area of responsibility and work with the country teams there -- visit a few indices that were within my area of responsibility and work with the country teams there. that is the way that we operate. france, italy, we spent a fair amount of time engaging with the state department, engaging with those country teams in order to make sure, as

the other gentleman asked me, that we have a common understanding of these forces, its defensive nature, and how we would operate if in fact we were called to operate and execute from that country. -- my slide about lessons learned is in no way a slight one way or another. it is just that sometimes this is kind of a heart problem. in order to be out and operate in some dangerous places. one of the things of force like this does is it enables our diplomats to be able to operate, and i would not say take risk, but however what it ought to do is make them feel a little more comfortable with the many risks they do take in the course of their duties, knowing they have a force like this standing by that will make its best effort

to support them as needed. >> thank you. there is a question right here on the second row, please. then i will come here. >> i have a question. colonel, two things -- general assistant commandant , said a couple weeks ago that your staff would have benefited if you had gators, amphibious shipping to work from. one intioned the lack of the area. could you talk about that, and how a couple of things you did might've been better if you had at least part of one? and you talked about your command elements. how about the rest of the ground and air combat? where did they come from? did you training time guys have to prepare for that

mission before you went into theater? >> ok, great questions. amphibioushe , itping and the impact again gets back a little bit to the question of operating in somebody else's country come up or even having to fly over somebody else's country. we are very keen to that, obviously. i think sometimes when the operate in the united states we forget that we have a lot of the latitude to operate inside our training areas and do the type trainingn support and we need to. then we go to another country and the expectation is that we should do the similar or the same things and the reality is we are operating in somebody else's country. we need to be respectful of their procedures and policies and rules that govern the operations there. a maritimeely we are

forests. we maintain the capability to maintainff ships. we that currency as well. navalpability that a u.s. vessel brings to a force like .his is incredible just having that u.s. sovereign territory that can move around and not worry about diplomatic clearances and issues associated with overflight or operations is a huge force multiplier. give me an opportunity to be on a ship versus operating often, marines will take being on a ship any day, a u.s. navy ship. i hope that answers the first part of the question. as far as our organization, all the elements and the spores were drawn from the operating forces , the secondune expeditionary force. these were forces that were

trained and ready. in some cases they had other missions that were assigned and off ramp. then they trained for this mission. then we have the opportunity to bring the force together. not a comprehensive training force program. do for some ofwe our standing forces such as the mew. our training organizations, our special operations group, if you are familiar with that, and our security operations group that supported the training in the theater -- it is a training certified forests. >> there are two questions over here. them inlike to take turn starting with the gentleman on my far right. if there are other questions, please signal to me as we draw down to the bottom of the hour.

>> i have three questions. the first one is, when you are deployed for a longer, a long presence in a country like afghanistan or iraq, do your members get any sort of cultural training to avoid cultural misunderstandings with members of those societies? >> let's take those one at a time. go ahead. >> yes, we certainly do. iraq and afghanistan, both of those have cultural training that was part of those workups. i will say from my experience taking my squadron over to iraq -- this training that we put together prior to the point for this mission, we also brought in a gentleman who spent about 20 years as a french marine thedded inside of a lot of

military organizations in west africa. we did cultural training as well. >> one more question about that -- >> thank you. >> members of local communities were recruited specifically by part of the another u.s. military. i want to say, how does that work? do you usually work with the local in terms of fighting the enemy, whether it is al qaeda or any other? >> this force is not specifically organized that way and of course would not established -- was not established then. we were just established in 2013 . >> let me take the question right next year. thank you. >> thank you. john roden, cna. i wonder if you could talk about aspect, hows combat long you could sustain yourself, those types of things. i also wanted to talk about the

training aspect a little, and ask if there is anything particularly notable, special, specific about the prettied up point training or whether it these smaller missions that? >> thanks. as far as the logistics combat element we brought with this force, it is tailored for the size of the force. would like to talk about our standing marine expeditionary units. 15 days, 30 days, 45 days of sustainment. days was the right number for this force. that level of sustainment allows you to employ the force him immediately. if you have a problem on your hands as far as keeping the force moving. we have tremendous capability

inside the combat element. most of it was through this type capability in order to operate the hub which is our main base in marin. what that enabled us to do was a equipmentbring through that area and get it out wherever the force might be at the time. side,ood capability and but tailored, certainly not as robust as the standing light groups that we have. as far as the training or anything notable, i think that it was a scaled-down version. this is a standup organization. did not exist last year in april. that is about the time he started training to head over to spain. the mostrobably notable thing we did, when we to training, we did training

make sure that command and control could cross all the ission sets. we had a reserved organization at the time which actually belongs to my marine expeditionary unit. we were able to command and control their organization while they went through their certification. we were going through hours and we essentially did it in parallel. >> thank you. two more questions. i'm going to squeeze one in. then we will plan to wrap up in another few minutes. the next question i had over here. yes? with "the newt york times." colonel, thanks for doing this. you talked about your experience africa. and west we have at least two large al qaeda linked organizations there, as well as smaller organizations in libya. youru per pair

organization, how do you assess the threat on the ground? and given how crises shift very quickly, what have you had to do as you think of the threat on the ground in this new normal environment? >> thanks. responsibilities, the personal responsibilities we had related to the u.s. government facilities mentioned -- missions as well as personnel , we tended to focus our efforts towards those. some of the areas that you talk about, the threats that operate down there, our force as the its own self protection capability when it is deployed. and if we are employed into some bring ouregions, we

own organic self-defense capability in order to accomplish those missions. most notably in some of those large wide-open areas, things like the recovery of aircraft for personnel. we have certainly worked through that process, what that situation would look like on the ground and had to make sure in he execution had rater risk. lines, does this company sized element get a daily threat briefings so you're beginning to vector on different problem's 24 hours at a time? is part of what we call battle rhythm. we will be looking at the problem sets every day across the areas we are responsible for. it's a pretty difficult problem. you have this huge area the size of the united states and a lot of really bad people running around. and some of these places are

clearly operating and they are -- there is a place not a lot of u.s. government interest either. i'm not sure we spent a ton of time focusing on areas i was not directly was possible for on a daily basis. ok, a question right here i believe. tony, see a scp or he a -- c scp. going on and deployment for the time that you were on, didn't have an impact on readiness? say, the recon for the next mission set? theably this is as much impact it would have on the ace as well. have rotated the squads. the squadrons have been , soinally out in support

they have been home for quite a bit longer than we have. regarding the command it is a bit of a double edged sword. sustain theo leave-up to the next deployment, we were not able to do that, but by the same token, the majority of the staff served along with me and some of my key advisers and executive officers, sergeant major, so some of the things like getting to know a commander in a deployed environment and the things that are important to me and not important and how i take information, all of those things we may not have learned until we were in the crucible of the workup, we were able to accomplish that while deployed. it is a bit of a double edged sword come but we are certainly not behind. "back to theeme of

theye," similar to where would do two tours in a three-year window, it is like this two-year period. >> ok, i am actually going to take this question here on the i/o and then moved to wrap up. >> thank you very much, colonel. report."s and world run us throughof about what from that incident your unit has taken as it prepares to respond? and, perhaps, if something like that happened today, what part your unit would play? >> what i say is that even slight than ghazi or the type of benghazi events like or those types of events, to respond to events as part of the new normal, not specifically

, but as weghazi , weed about on the slide do have respond, so we some of those same type of capabilities that you might imagine could be utilized in a crisis like that. >> my capstone question goes to -- i guess i am tempted to say the reception. if that is, perhaps, the right word. the reception of the forces in africa. i would like to take a step off and look at some questions circulating around the u.s. and generalnd reorientation of u.s. forces and national security allah towards

-- areas ofworld the world, like africa, which we have not paid to you a much attention to in the last 40 years. what other means you determine to have in and around africa where you have had that exposure. one of the things we do is talk about it like a country, and it is like 58 or 59 countries. i do not remember the exact number now, so each one of those is different. >> sure. >> a place like south sudan is about the size of texas. they are big places, and they have regions inside of them, so they are very different. the areas we operated in, which, i mentioned senegal is one. in africa, we operate in several different countries, overseas,

and i think the response to marines operating in those countries is excellent. certainly, there is willing partners. there is great capabilities inside those nations that they have already, and the opportunity to work with them, i think, is -- i am very optimistic about it. our model, this crisis response model, is not -- we have no intention to base this force in africa, which, i believe, when one item was stood up, that seemed to be the sort of hot issue. that is not our intention. it is an expeditionary forays. we see that the way that we would operate would be to come very --up an expert force, conduct operations, if that was necessary, and leave, and not

leave a footprint, and if we were to leave a footprint, a footprint in sand and not a foot rent in concrete, and i think in africa, there is some great opportunities, and i do not see thereason based on experience we had why that would not be an effective way to operate. will give you the opportunity of a second to last word, and then i will put a wrap on it area did you want to say anything else? >> we appreciate the opportunity to come out and answer these questions. questionsnswered the that were asked, and if i did not get completely to what you were after, you can try to give me -- get me afterwards to try to satisfy your questions. much appreciate you coming and especially so because your remarks and your discussion highlights several

things that are core to atlantic council, not the least of which is partnerships and the new normal national security environment of the united states and the u.s. military forces having partnerships that it can leverage and contribute to around this really fast-paced of security threats and opportunities. the other reason, and maybe more especially something i am more enthused about, when i have you or your ilk come through the atlantic council, it makes more palpable, forgive my reuse of that word, what u.s. forces are actually doing in the world when they are not in afghanistan or iraq, which got lots of attention and popular interest, obviously, and then also is a bit of an antidote, from my point of view, to the reflex prevalent around

the country now that we can just come home. we can just bring our forces home, settle down, and the world will go about its business. when colonel benedict comes, or, successors, i am reminded how completely important the day-to-day cultivation of our capabilities and our activities out in the world, around the world, in places, again, i don't think americans worry too much about american influence in, and that is what posture is all about, so i thank you very much, and i thank all of you for coming. [applause] thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> hi, joe. >> hi, joe.

>> we will have more from the atlantic council this afternoon when they host a discussion on the results of the decreasing u.s. presence in the middle east, and that starts at 4:15 p.m. eastern here on c-span. are ine house and senate session today. the house is in recess until 5:30, when they look at some bills, including one dealing with the drought and weather maps. also, talking about the debt limit, and that, too, is expected to be at 5:30, and we will bring you reaction out of that meeting, should it become available. also, we invite you to our facebook question today about how you feel about term limits, whether members of congress

should have term limits. one person says, they do. if you want them out, exercise your civic today and vote them out. termer said, i do not like limits. i do not think that is the way it was supposed to be. again, you can leave your comments at facebook.com/c-span. over at the heritage foundation today, it is privacy in the digital age, health care, changing the welfare system, marriage, religious freedom among the topics today. is among theruz speakers are long with congressman jim jordan and others. 6:00 thistil about afternoon, and you can see it all on our companion network, c-span3. hosted nasay, we and conversations about the international space station. earlier, they announced they would keep it open until 2024. in this week's "your

money" segment we look at the international space station. joining us from the johnson space center in houston to talk about it is mike suffredini, program manager for the station. thanks so much for joining us. guest: it is my pleasure, juana. host: the president recently announced that it would be extended through 2024. walk me through why that is necessary and important. thet: well, juana, international space station, as you mentioned, has been in orbit for some time. we celebrated our 50th anniversary last november. lastth anniversary november. in 2000 and we began entered is to focus on utilization as the construction was winding down -- in 2009 we began in earnest to --us on construction as focus on utilization as construction was winding down.

importantly, the commercialization of low earth orbit. as we start to look forward, we are looking for companies to make investments in space, to see whatt they can to would be profitable in the world orbit. one of the big reasons to extend is to allow the companies to iss is going to be in orbit for at least 10 more years. when a look at their profit margins and the investment have to make to do any research on iss to get it to orbit and go through its paces, you have to have a wider horizon to look over rather than just 2020. in addition to that, it was important to make these toisions now as we get ready procure our next logistics flight and as we prepare for commercial crews to come on board.

the longer time that we have two purchase services, the better our cost per flight will be. it was an appropriate time to go ahead and extend iss, and we are happy to hear it is extended at least to 2024. not: for viewers who might be familiar with the concept, explain what you mean by low earth orbit. guest: today the international space station operates at 410 kilometers. of course, that varies day to day as we drift down and then re-boost the vehicle. it is about 220 nautical miles above the earth. lower the orbit is in this -- lowers orbit is in this regime. at some point you transition to geostationary orbit. though earth orbit is the -- low earth orbit is defined as within a few hundred miles. host: let's talk about cost.

how much is it cost to operate the international space station every? -- how much does it cost to operate the international space station every year? guest: today we are about $3 billion a year. operating the station itself costs a little over $1 billion a year. however, transportation services -- vehicles, supplies, logistics , water, food, science experiments, spare parts, these vehicles, plus the vehicles to carry the cruise orbit is the remainder of the cost per year. host: we would love it if you joined our conversation this morning. host: mike, i want to take a question from twitter now.

guest: well, it is hard to say exactly how much other countries contributed to the iss. the estimates for the construction of iss on the operation to date is on the order of about $70 billion, and that is from the beginning, when president reagan asked us to consider building a space mission back in 1985 time frame. that is the estimate for the u.s. cost. contributions, other than our russian colleagues, is less than that. they provided modules and logistic services, the backbone of the station, the portions of the in dash portions that the united states built. in addition to that, and really port -- portions that the united states build. in addition the back, and

important early part was models flying to the iss> . one of the first three elements that establishes the iss, and the cornerstone to the station for several years until the u.s. segment was built up. to say exactly how much the partners have contributed, it is a difficult number to put down. but it is clear that the u.s. has probably spent more than any of the other partners that are country bidding to the station today -- that are contributing to the station today. host: byron in alaska on our line for independents. caller: good morning. my congratulations to the people that are doing an excellent job up there. my question is, does the iss and whoever else is involved plan on collecting material that is

probably far more advanced as far as material is concerned from orbitz of space -- orbits of space? they have much different elements of their compared to what we have on earth. do they plan on making a collection in the future as to where it could be used for minor technology in the near future -- modern technology in the near future? guest: that is an excellent question. of course, the space a -- space station's purpose is established and low earth orbit. we are benefiting timidity by the research we do on board and prepare for human exploration, as well as commercializing lowers orbit. from the standpoint of the support that we are providing as we prepare to explore beyond lowers -- lowers orbit, we are supporting those efforts. by directly speaking, we are not in the business of collecting

goals or material in order for us to do studies. that is other programs and projects are perhaps. mike, you mentioned several times the research that is going on on the international space station. what kind of details can you give on that? guest: that is a great question, juana, and it spans a wide spectrum of research. it starts -- i shouldn't say "it starts," but one of it is --nomenal research fundamental research in a number of areas, physics, life sciences . we do primarily because of the research we do even in the -- the work wed do is very early on in terms of products to market. there are cases where the technology is benefiting humanity today. one of the purification systems used to run the world and if it's from the technology from --

benefits from the technology from the iss system. there is research going on in different types of vaccines. salmonella is one that comes to mind. also, micro encapsulation for cancer treatment drugs. these are all kinds of early research going on with by the agency and by commercial companies that will lead to advances in medicine and other areas that help us all out. host: next call comes from tennessee. mike is on the line for democrats. mike, you are on "washington journal." are you with us? caller: yes, thank you for taking my call. ok, you there? host: we are here. go ahead. caller: first of all, congratulations on your success of the space station for years now, many, many years. i question for the man is what

is the possibility of deeper exploration of space, and the america public, as much support as we have for the space program, why is it put on the back burner as far as keeping us informed and having more programs to show what is going on in space? well, of course, naturally, i'm involved in human spaceflight, and everything we have been doing is in preparation for human exploration beyond low earth orbit. you heard the administration and congress talk to eventual manned missions to mars. those preparations have been going on a lower level. supports both technology development and human research necessary for us to be able to explore beyond low earth orbit. the it ministration today has -- the ministration -- the

administration today has endeavor for in retfor spacecraft to go to a large asteroid ring it to the vicinity of the moon and to extract specimens from the asteroid and -- returno his home. those home. all of the systems we are building today and that will be built to support that mission are all systems we need for exploration. as he looked at the list of things we need to do to explore beyond low earth orbit, you need a space station to do the technology development and test out the systems you are going to use, and perhaps most importantly, do all the research to make sure that humans can survive a long trip to mars and on the service and back. that is in progress today. you need a heavy lift vehicle. the space launch system, or the heavy vehicle being built by nasa today.

human-rated capsule to take you there and back and support reentry at high speed that occur when you come from higher altitudes or different orbits coming back into the earth's atmosphere. that is being built today. it is called the orion spacecraft. there will be a test launch this year of the orion capsule. these are systems that are being built today. they're very significant components or capabilities necessary for exploration. in order to go after the asteroid that we are talking about as part of our mission today, you need really an electric propulsion system. it requires a very high capacity solar ray, also in development. these systems are in the technology development stages today. you need a new space suit, which

we are also studying, in fact, spending some money on here at johnson space center in order to get outside to retrieve specimens from the asteroid. you need a spacecraft that will travel out to the asteroid and capture the asteroid, which is being led by the jet propulsion laboratory today. we are looking at funding for .hat in these near-term budgets we are making quite a bit of progress towards human explanation -- human exploration to make your just looking at the systems we are building today. put: "the orlando sentinel" out an article looking at criticisms of the international space station. i want to get your take. they report that about 15% of u.s. racks for experiments on board the station sat empty as of december 31, and a report issued last july, nasa's internal watchdog raised

questions about the real benefit of station science. "a vast majority of the research activities come not to abort th -- conducted aboard the iss relate to basic research, not applied research." we want to get your reaction to that. guest: to begin with, the measure of the capacity for the international space station can be measured in a number of ways. one is the amount of up mast orbited the other is the amount of crude time involved. you can look at the total amount of power we have and whether we .re using and the capacity today one of our biggest constraints on orbit is crude time. onan tell you that the crews orbit and the ground teams have done an amazing job with the crew members they have done all the work done to just maintain the vehicle and provide additional crude time for research. the requirement is about 35 hours a week.

the crews have been doing an amazing amount of work. we're probably averaging close to 40, 45 hours per week. last week we were at 70 hours. that turns out to be a real constraint for us. it is true that not all the racks are full. in the life of a space mission, i would expect racks to receive hardware and operate the hardware for a while while the next set comes up. i would not expect the racks to always be full with operational hardware as we transit back and forth. correct the article is in that we would like to have the racks filled with more research as time goes on, and it is capacity we have available for users. as a mentioned before with the crew time constraint, additional racks do not necessarily mean we can do additional research. to the step up

commercial crew vehicles in 2017, 2018 timeframe, crew time will not be the constraints on much. that should not be the constraints on much. -- will not be the constraint so much. as far as the kind of research being done, i would agree that we are still growing in terms of the kinds of research being done. nasa does perform fundamental research but there's quite a bit of technology development going on. we have stood up and national l ab through the center of advancement of science in space. there are a number of companies that are very interested in s or building hardware to fight you iss. particular has been applying applications on is for a number of years now and they are growing in leaps and bounds. in one respect i agree with the article. we need to increase the amount of users of iss and we need to

fully utilize it, because that is why we have made such an investment. but the application is that the kind of research being done today is limited -- but the implication is that the kind of research being done today is limited and i would say that is absolutely not the case. the number of experiments anger about each day and the amount of work being done on orbit and the amount of benefit i hear from users in the community in general is amazing. and we try very hard through our links and tweets and website to show people some the benefits that the iss provides. host: next up on our calls this morning is david in conway, messages come on our line for independents. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i really love nasa and the space station. i think it is critical for development, and i think the high-tech stuff is great. but i'm curious about 2 things.

one, how many more modules to meet based on the space station -- how many more modules can be placed on the state station? and also, how much are you doing in the way of research for what is the most technical thing andnd, which is nature, making the space station sustainable through a module that has a biosphere with food than you can eat and recycling the water more efficiently? i would love to hear your comments on that. i really appreciate your work. thanks. well, thank you very much. it always takes us feel good who arehave individuals watching what we're are doing and are interested in what we're doing and appreciate the amount of work involved. as far as the number of modules we can add to iss, that can vary. , weou add a module to iss

have all of our available ports with the exception of one kind 3 limited port behind those occupied today, unless they are being saved for docking operations. ifever, we could add modules we decided. the only trick is that when you part module to the forward of the station, which faces towards the velocity vector, we have to move the docking port to the other end of the module. the module design makes a difference. whatever we attach the module to has the appropriate docking interface on the other side of the module. from that respect, we could add modules as we think is necessary. we have a large space station, very capable space vision, and while we are considering augmentations or some types of research associated with new modules or perhaps an

exploration type module for beyond low earth orbit applications, just growing a station for growing sake is not necessary. we have enough today for the capacity that is about right for the varying types of research that we do on orbit. as far as closed loop life support, great question. earthe go off beyond low orbit, we will have a limited supply. nasa's hear people say king, and that is true, but we have a relatively reverse weistics stream so that if need something we bring it to orbit. have -- we do our life support system fairly well. ine and condensate

and turned it back into portable water or water for cooling. in addition to that, when we create oxygen, out of the water osmosis system, what you end up ish at the end of that hydrogen, excess hydrogen, of course. we processed the excess hydrogen with the co2 we removed from the air to create additional water, and the result of that is methane, that we can overboard third we are closing the loop quite a bit on iss. we are learning about the most andcient ways to do that that will be plowed back into the closed loop systems we will design for longer duration space travel to close the system even further. couple will read you a

of quick facts about the international space station and come back to you for question. the international space station is about the length and width of a football field, with more living space than a six-bedroom home and 2 bathrooms. the first crew was in november 2000. it has been visited by more than 200 individuals. it has orbited earth more than 57,000 times. i think the question everybody was happy childhood dream of being an astronaut or going to space monster no -- wants to know, what is life actually like on the iss? guest: [laughs] well, i'm one of those kids could i didn't quite make it, so i can't tell you exactly what it is like on orbit, but when the crews come back, they really talk very positively about the experience. i think it is an uplifting experience. you are up in space, you can look down on this beautiful planet of ours, which they talk

about often. areave a very large glass that faces the earth, and the crews use that often on their down time to take a look at earth. you just don't have that sense when you are on the ground and .magining pictures i understand it is a very uplifting experience. in addition to that, some of the crews end up doing extravehicular activities when they go outside in their to me that must be a breathtaking experience as well, because now you don't have to confines -- have the confines of the modules around you. you have the earth and the universe before them. my understanding, it is a very, very special opportunity. host: our next call comes from takoma park, maryland.

julie is on our line for democrats -- julian is on our line for democrats this morning. caller: i would like to know the countries involved in the international space station, and goingny more years is it to roam? also, one final question, what the space station has been used about beyondlking space, beyond like -- i know the united states is talking about and the mars, international space station playing a role in that. thank you. guest: ok, great questions. the first is that there is five agencies that participate in the international space station, 15 countries. these are the countries that build and operate the space station.

over 68 there is countries that have done research on board iss. ast number grows each year, more and more research is done on board iss. you have the national aeronautics and space administration, which is, of course, the american space agency. we have the russian space agency. we have the canadian space agency. agency.nese space and finally, the european space agency. of course, the balance of the countries that make up the 15 are from the european space agency. oh,erms of the research -- you asked about the life of station. we are studying the structural life of the station to 2028. that date was picked because it

is the 30-year life span the , oft launch back in 1998 what is called the functional cargo block. and the next month, the launch of node 1. that began the assembly of iss. much of the structure was originally designed for a 30-year life, although later we switch to 15-year life. we felt it was highly likely we would get to be on 15 years -- to beyond 15 years when we did our life assessment. in addition, all of our elements were built assuming they would toe 2 rips to -- 2 trips space. and so we didn't have to do that with any of our elements, so that was additional life in the structure. today we are studying until 2028. we have cleared the vehicle until 2020. all of the structures we have cleared 22020 we have cleared

through 2028. we have the newer structures to clear a network is in front of is in frontat work of us. we believe we can go another 30 years, and with the life that we have on the structure even in 2028, we can go longer on the station if that was deemed appropriate. finally, a question i think i answered a little bit earlier, which is what role does iss pla y, there is a number of things we do. one is studying how humans can survive in space travel. the effect on the human body and how you mitigate those effects during space travel. there is technology development, much of which you can only get -- only test in a microgravity environment, but also the unique thermal environments in the microgravity environment.

a lot of those technologies you have to study in a low earth orbit. and the actual systems that we wringo mars and iss and them out to make sure they have the reliability we expect of them. host: i want to get a couple of questions from twitter now and read you just a few. guest: well, you know, i've never done the math on the cost to fly a single crew to orbit. -- if i is about remember my math right, it takes about 700 kilograms of supply for a crew member for 6 months on orbit, if i have my math right. it is in that ballpark. but the costs i've never done. i have to figure out a way to

answer that and we will have to send you the answer, juana, and you can pass it on or reported later. we will put that on our website or something so that we can let everyone know. of course we are constantly challenged to become more efficient, and we are busy working on that. budgets provide enough funding to operate the station. we are hoping that with the new procurement of logistics vehicles we will get the cost -- flight down and inside that relatively constrained budget. canationally, the iss continue to operate with the budgets provided, but we are constantly given challenges and we try to rise to those challenges and continue to operate the station in a way that provides the benefits that

we expect to get from this orbiting platform. host: next caller in springfield, virginia, on our line for republicans. caller: jhi. i'm glad you are on. [indiscernible] host: are you still with us? all right, we are going to move onto our next caller in pennsylvania. peter is on our line for independents. caller: hello, good morning. you kind of answered my question already, but i figured i would just reformulate it. with the rapid depletion of resources here on earth, i think it is time for america to become a global leader in really going consider just fighting for everything that is left here on earth -- instead of

just fighting for everything that is left here on earth. to take a role and may be for americans it will be a boon in jobs in technology and education. we will have to dismantle the get onhine and really the ball with this. i feel like that would really bring us peace and prosperity. thank you for your time. guest: well, thank you. i will comment to that. one of the reasons we believe it is important to continue with the international space station is because it keeps america as the leader in space, which we think has national benefits, including national security benefits. when we all work together as the 15 countries do today to build the international space station, these are countries that not too many years ago were fighting each other.

it does bring us closer together when we work together on achievement of this magnitude, particularly when humans are involved and the safety of .umans are involved that is near and dear to every participant's hard. it brings us together as a country. the other big benefit is for human exploration beyond low earth orbit, it is going to take more than just the resources that anyone country is willing to bring forward. not only is it important for our national security, i believe, for us to be strong leaders in space, but also economically make sense. further, the more that smart, young engineers, or even older engineers like myself that are involved in a project together, the better that project will be. i completely agree that we do

need to continue to lead in space. space is the next great frontier. we have, i think, an inherent .rive to explore it will be very, very important for this country to lead the other countries of our planet beyond low earth orbit together. host: got kind of a tactical question from one of our twitter followers. guest: you know, we have not studied tether technology relative to iss for many years now, but several years ago, that was discussed as a potential way to create power for the station. it has implications, particularly if the tether

breaks. so it was not pursued on station, and today we are not looking at that particular technology for power for station. ands a way to provide power other benefits it has for orbital mechanics, but we are not studying that for station per se. host: next up from p aurea, illinois, the line for democrats. caller: i am totally for space travel,ations and space and i was wondering, have you done any experiments at all on the tesla theory of controlled electronics wireless? and also, have you heard of the cam trails that people are seeing all over the united states? i wonder, are you able to see through the clouds and all to

see what is causing those chem trails? thet: i'm not familiar with second question, so i'm going to have to -- i will just have to beg off on that one. offar as the wireless study the tesla theory, we are not doing that on board the station. that is not to say that there could be some studies that involve it, but we are not doing that today. host: all right, let's take another one of your calls. orlando, florida, dave is on the line for democrats. caller: hello? host: david, you are on with mike suffredini from nasa. caller: i work with teaching from space and also with an riss,ization called a

amateur radio on the iss. we provide opportunities for kids in schools to speak with astronauts in orbit. could you speak about the educational opportunities that iss provides? guest: well, thank you, david, for that question. that is one of the best used ss from anon i educational standpoint through this ham radio operation you mention. we touch millions of children around the world in the process of crews communicating with them through the ham radio assets we have on iss. in addition to that, there is a number of opportunities for small science experiments that the educational division at a and also that commercial

ventures have done in order to let relatively young kids, high school age kids, do research on board iss. in fact, this is one of the things that our friends have been deeply involved in, providing low-cost opportunities ids good toso that k do experiments in space. in addition to that, we have a program we are very proud of. we refer to it as hunch. i wish i could remember what the acronym stood for at the top of my head. we offer high school kids and in some cases college kids the opportunity to participate in the development of hardware and software for use both on the in the spaceaining station but also hardware that is used on orbit. this has been incredibly successful. we've touched in the neighborhood of 40 schools around the country and that list grows every year'. we have had everything from high

fidelity training mockups to cargo bags lying on the next -- flying on the next logistics vehicle being launched by the europeans this summer to a galley table being designed and built today that would be used on orbit. we are giving kids an opportunity to not only learn what it is like to get ready for and do space travel but also to get a sense of while they are in school whether they want to further their education and participate in this as a long-term goal. we have a number of kids who have gone on to college and they cite their experience in the hunch program. i just learned about a young lady who graduated high school and decided not to go to college , working at a pharmacy or something like that, but she had the cargo bags that are flying to orbit for us, and the company in the east that

builds space it's for us -- builds spacesuits for us hired her to come do design and sew together some of these suits. it is just an amazing opportunity that is being provided both for the kids to get this experience and to find out if this is what they want to do with their lives, but also, it benefits us. i can tell you how rewarding it is to work with these kids and watch them provide important hardware and software goods for us to operate the station. host: mike, we are running a little bit short on time so i want to ask you about this -- talked about the private space industry and how that industry interacts with nasa. guest: well, today we have to our national lab effort, we have the center for advancement of also known asace, casis, a nonprofit organization

whose job it is is to bring commercial industry to iss. we participate with them in terms of analyzing opportunities and making sure we can provide those opportunities are there is a number of companies that are and itpating today brought on board universities and other government agencies. before them we started casis. this goes back to what i was talking about earlier. it is our plan to deploy a number of small satellites, 33 , actually,33 in all will be deployed between tomorrow and about a week from now. the lancet share of these are being provided by a company called planet -- the lion's share of these are being provided by calmly called planet labs. low cost. they can fly a constellation and

look at a number of areas over the earth several times. because of the low cost nature , they can sell it at a reduced cost. we have a platform being developed for precise pointing at things like hyperspectral imager is that help folks study any number of things on the planet, both from agriculture on the way to finding minerals and resources and oil and gold and things like this. they're completing the construction so we can fly in space. there is a number of efforts out .here i would encourage folks to go to the website and look at what the opportunities are and what they are doing. host: well, mike, thank you so much for joining us.

our guest has been mike suffredini, program manager for the international space station at >> coming up this afternoon, we will return live to the atlantic council for a discussion on what would happen if the u.s. decreases its presence in the middle east. that will happen in about 20 minutes at 4:15 eastern. the u.s. house is expected to gavel in this afternoon at 5:30, and they will debate a couple of noncontroversial suspension bills, and you can see the house live on c-span. a reminder that the house republicans have a members-only to talk about the debt limit, and we will bring you any reaction or comment out of that meeting, should that become available. ournvite your response to facebook question today about term limits and whether members of congress should have term

limits. one person wrote in and said -- kenny says -- and we invite your comments. you can leave them at facebook.com/c-span. at the heritage foundation today, it is an all day conversation on privacy in the digital age, changing the system, and marriage and religious freedom all among the topics at the heritage foundation. and others ted cruz are addressing the attendees. juan williams from fox news is talking. it on our companion

network, c-span3. scotland will hold a referendum this year to determine whether or not they want to separate from the united kingdom. cameronnister david gave a speech, urging scotland to stay, saying that if scotland broke away, things would not be the same and that there was a moral and diplomatic reason to stay together. he took questions from the audience after. [applause] that.thank you for this is a fantastic, forward-looking university, and we are very grateful for your support today, as we are today for those hosting us in this .agnificent it space less than two years ago, this was a cauldron of excitement. chris was ripping around at 40

miles per hour. i was up there. believe me, ibut only used the edge of it. three more goals, an incredible night. but for me, the best thing about the olympics was not the winning. red, the white, the blue. it was the summer that patriotism came out of the shadows and came into the sun. everyone sharing as one. i want to talkt about today, our united kingdom. last year, the date for the scottish referendum was fixed. the countdown was set, and today, we have just over seven months until that vote. hang and of history the balance, a question hanging over the future of our united kingdom. yes in september,

then scotland will become an independent country. there will be no going back, and as i made clear, this is a decision that is squarely and solely for those in gotland to make. i believe passionately that it is in their interest to stay in the united kingdom. that way, scotland has the space to take decisions, while still having the security that comes with being part of something bigger. hollywood, they can decide what happens in every hospital, every school, every police intion in scotland tom and the united kingdom, scotland is part of a major global player. now, those are the arguments that we will keep on putting until september 18. but it is their choice, their vote. is thatrgument today while only 4 million people can

vote in this referendum, all 63 million of us are profoundly affected. whoe are 63 million of us would wake up on september 19 in a different country, with a different future ahead of it. that is why this speech is addressed not so much to the people of scotland but to the people of england, wales, and northern ireland. countries, there are a whole range of different views about this referendum. there are those that i would call the quiet patriots, people who love the united kingdom, love our flag and our history, but think there is nothing much that they can do to encourage scotland to stay in the u.k., so they stay out of the debate. then there are the shoulder shrug others, people who are ambivalent about the outcome, who think this doesn't matter much to anyone south of the border. if scotlands that

left the u.k. then, yes, that would be sad, but we could just wave them a wistful goodbye and carry on as normal. only an there are those, few, who think we would be better off if scotland did leave the u.k., that this marriage of nations has run its course, and it needs a divorce. today, i want to take on all of these views, the idea that we would be better off without scotland, the idea that this makes no difference to the rest of the u.k., and the idea that however much we might care, we in england, wales, and northern ireland can have no voice in this debate because we don't have a vote. all of the above are wrong. we would be deeply diminished without scotland. this matters to all of our future is. and everyone in the u.k. can have a voice in this debate.

i want to make this case by putting forward what, to me, are the four compelling reasons why the united kingdom is stronger with scotland in it. first is our connections with each other. over three centuries, we have lived together, worked together, and, frankly, we have got together, getting married, having children, moving back and forward across our borders. such is the fusion of our bloodlines that my surname goes back to the west highlands, and, by the way, i am as proud of my scottish heritage as i am of my english or my welsh heritage. the name cameron might mean crooked nose, but the clan motto is let us unite, and that is exactly what our islands and our nations have done. 800,000 scots live elsewhere in the united kingdom,

and more than 400,000 people who were born in the rest of the u.k. now live in scotland. millions of people who do business over the border every single day, like the farmers in lincolnshire who grow some of the barley that is used in scotch whiskey. the united kingdom is that intricate tapestry,e -- millions of relationships woven tight over more than three centuries. that is why for millions of people, there is no contradiction in being proud of your scottish this -- scottishness, englishness, all atness, sometimes once. some say none of this would change with independence, that these connections would stay as strong as ever, but the fact is, all of these connections, whether business or personal, art used or strengthened by the

institutional framework of the united kingdom. when the acts of the union were passed, the role of the state was limited to things like defense, taxes, and property rights. since then, the state has transformed beyond recognition and our institutions have grown together, like the roots of great trees, fusing together under the foundations of our daily lives. you don't need a customs check when you travel over the border, you don't have to get out your passport out at carlisle, you don't have to deal with totally different tax systems and regulations when you trade and you don't have to trade in different currencies. our human connections -- our friendships, relationships, business partnerships -- they are underpinned because we are all in the same united kingdom and that is reason number 1 we are stronger together. the second is our prosperity. some people look at the united kingdom only in terms of debit and credit columns, tax and spend and how that gets split