i do think that democrats historicically didn't look carefully enough at electeding democratic governors who control governors mansions and democrative legislative candidates. >> >> we had a good democratic year in 2012. most governors were elected four years ago in a republican landslide, so republicans were on the defensive. senators were elected six years ago, which was 2008. the financial crisis, a big democratic landslide. if the results of the election this year point in all kinds of different directions, and we're asked what are the voters trying to say, i think the answer is land slides don't last. that's what they're trying to say. finally, court ruling on money, is that creating a problem for democrats? >> lifting on total campaign

contributions, is that creating a problem more for democrats than republicans? >> it's the icing on the cake to a bad decision which was citizens united, and it's going to lead to more money in politics, which i think is bad for democracy. >> but is it worse for democrats than for republicans? >> hard to tell. i mean, i look at this in the democratic governors association, and again, not so loud like a broken record, but we get outspent. we understand that. we're in an environment where we need to raise money so that we can we compete, but we've got to spend our resources more wising than they do. when we do, we win. that's why we won eight of the last nine races. i'm really focused on democratic governors. i'm doing it because i believe it's going to mack a real difference for america, and we understand that we're going to get outspent. we just got to be smarter, have better candidates, and actually implement the policies we've promised to implement, which is job-creating opportunities for

middle class americans. >> thank you very much, governor. we hope you have another engagement. >> thanks so much. pleased to meet you all. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] >> i stand here with my colleagues on the arizona delegation, both senate and house, and with very close friends of congresswoman gabrielle giffords to remember a tranl i can -- a tragic event that took place three years ago today. 10:10 ry 8, 2011, at m., in just 19.6 seconds, 19 people, including congresswoman giffords and myself, were shot during a congressional corner in tucson, arizona.

this event was democracy in action. a member of this body, the people's house, was meeting one-on-one with her constituents. six wonderful people died that day, including my friend, gabe zimmerman, my go-to guy on the congress woman's staff. but, you know, tucson and southern arizona have definitely not been defined by that terrible act. but instead, we are defined by how our community responded. the compassion, the love, the prayers and the goodwill that poured out have helped all of us heal our broken hearts and bring some good out of that horrific day. organizations have been

established to help with the educational needs of children to prevent bullying and to reduce the stigma of mental illness and improve those services. and congressman giffords continues her remarkable recovery. her perseverance and determination give hope to others, and she's a true inspiration to the country and to the world. you might have noted that earlier today she jumped out of an airplane and took a tandem dive with another sky diver, her second one. this woman's resilience has no bound. sadly, in the last three years, other communities have been struck by similar senseless ts of violence, and the most fitting memorial would be to take action to prevent another such tragedy. as a shooting survivor, a grandfather, a member of

congress, i am determined to do so, and they know that many others in this body and in the senate have the same aspiration . let us never forget the six people who died that fateful christina -old taylor green, dorothy morris, u.s. district judge john role, hillips shneck, dorwin stoddard, and my friend and colleague, gabe zimmerman. mr. speaker, i'd now like to ask that the house have a moment of silence in remembrance of these good people. >> members will rise and observe the moment of silence. >> find more highlights from 35 years of house floor coverage on our facebook page.

c-span, created by america's cable companies 35 years ago and brought to you today as a public service by your local cable or satellite provider. >> on the next "washington journal," a discussion on suicide prevention. our guests are john madigan of the american foundation for suicide prevention and mary jo gibson of the congressional for suicide prevention and education. then former u.s. ambassador to iraq, christopher hill, talks about iraq's elections and the country's stability since the with draul of u.s. troops. and later, our spot lite on magazines features scientific american and other recent articles looking at the history and safety of e-cigarettes. "washington journal" is live every morning at 7:00 eastern on c-span. you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter.

live this morning, it's prime minister's question time in the british house of commons. you can see it at 7:00 a.m. eastern on our companion etwork, c-span2. the inspectors general from homeland security, the c.i.a., and the justice department testify about intelligence and information sharing leading up to the boston marathon bombings, which took place a year ago. this morning, they appear before the senate homeland security committee, live at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span3. >> so everybody says, how do you think these women came from such a very low-rebt part of the world? as you know, the victorian era is so strat fewed, and there was the very rich and then there were the middle class and then there were the real

achievers. the life and times of these women is in the most buccaneer time that you can think of. it was after the civil war. finances were beginning to become major. we had rockefeller, jim fisk, all of the robert barons out there making a lot of money, and i think it was easy for them, because they had been running around with low-rent con artists, now let's go with the big boys, and they were beautiful and they were tough, and they were driven, and they were driven both for power and individualism, but as i say, they could have been courtisans, kept in a fine manner if they wanted, but they were pushing for their independence and women's independence, and so they became these fiery feminists, unlike anybody on the scene. >> myra macpherson says that

two little remembered sisters changed the course of american rights and american history, sunday night at 8:00 on c-span's "q&a." >> coast guard commandant and john kelly testified on capitol hill tuesday about u.s. anti-drug trafficking efforts. they appeared before two house subcommittees for an hour and 5 minutes. >> subcommittees will come to order. let's start by recognizing myself and the ranking member. actually our ranking member is not here. i'll recognize myself and my

fellow co-chairmen, mr. hunter, and then to the ranking member on that subcommittee. we are pleased to have this hearing today. without objection, the members of the subcommittee can submit their opening remarks for the record. and now i yield myself as much time as i may consume to present my opening statement, and i want to start first and foremost by thanking my colleague, chairman duncan hunter, of the transportation and infra surkt subcommittee on the coast guard and mary time transportation and his staff for working with me and my time to convene today's timely and important hearing on confronting transnational drug smuggling and an assessment of our strategy and regional partnerships. recently the u.n. issued a report naming latin america as the most violent region in the world with 13 countries in the region listed among the top 20 worldwide in homicide rates.

in fact, the top six most murderous countries per capita are all right here in our own western hemisphere. transnational criminal and narcotics trafficking organizations are becoming more sophisticated in evading law enforcement and as the u.n. report suggests, increasingly more violent. this violence along our border and near our shores poses a great threat to our national security and destabilizes our region. the united states has spent over $1 trillion since the 1970's attempting to disrupt and dismantle drug cartels in latin america with mixed success. i've convened this hearing jointly with chairman hunter today to drill down into whether u.s. law enforcement and military assets are being properly leveraged to address this serious threat. in this fight, we've seen the consequences of our country being forced to confront dwindling financial resources when the d.o.d. deemphasizes

commitment to efforts, which in turn affected our overall counternarcotics efforts. i'm concerned what a disengaged d.o.d. means for our overall counternarcotics strategy in the region. i think we must assume at best a level budgetary environment going forward, so our strategy to combat transnational criminal organizations needs to balance this budgetary con streant with solutions that combat this scourge. excuse me. from a foreign policy standpoint, we need to find ways to better engage our regional partners and help them build capacity more efficiently and more effectively. ambassador, you and i spoke briefly about important steps i.n.l. has taken to work with our partners to build capacity and empower them to address the serious challenges posed by

increasingly violent drug trafficking organizations. i look forward to hearing more about the successes and challenges you face in implementing i.n.l.'s piece of the overall strategy. where possible, i'd like to see replicas of some of the most successful programs that we've helped implement in the region, like colombia and the merida initiative of mexico. of course, the success plan of colombia was only possible because of colombia having the political will and leadership to win their country back from the terrorists and narco traffickers. in mexico, we've seen an increased commitment on the part of the mexican government to partner with the u.s. in this effort through the merida initiative and other joint operations. this commitment has yielded very important successes, and we continue to build on them. it seems clear to me that no amount of u.s. taxpayer moneys will ever be enough to finally turn this situation around without the buy-in and the support of the people in governments of central america

and the caribbean. i'm looking forward to hearing more about the success of the operation, hammer in english, since its inception in january of 2012, but i want to personally and publicly congratulate all who are involved in the two big cocaine seizures earlier this year in the southwestern caribbean. i understand the street value of the seizures would have been somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 million. i think that this is a great example of what we can accomplish when we work together with our regional partners. i want to thank the coast guard and the south con joint interagency task force south for hosting my staff in florida earlier this year in preparation for this hearing and for agreeing to testify today. it's always a pleasure to have state department's bureau of international narcotics and law enforcement affairs here to provide their insight on central american and caribbean security programs in the

hemisphere. i thank them for their willingness to work with my staff on a daily basis and to come on our hearings and answer our questions. i'm hopeful that this hearing will be an important step toward a more cohesive and more effective multiagency strategy to protect our national security interest in our hemisphere. i'll now recognize chairman duncan hunter for his opening remarks. >> thank you, mr. chairman. good morning, admirable general, general, really great to see you. the subcommittees are meeting to review the efforts to confront smuggling and stem the flow of illegal drugs to the united states. i want to thank and commend the house committee on foreign affairs for agreeing to explore this important topic in a joint hearing. drug use remains a serious concern for the united states. illegal drugs pose strain on our nation's health and air criminal justice systems, but also the trade and transport cause significant safety and security concerns. the transport of illegal drugs affects millions throughout the country and the world. some of the most notorious cartels are directly responsible for drug violence, crime and corruption that are

destabilizing foreign nations and risking the lives of american citizens here and abroad. representing southern california, i'm very aware of the harm general traffickers inflict on our communities n. recent years, violence stemming from the drug trade has spilled over and led to kidnappings and murders of numerous people. a little over a year ago, a coast guard senior chief petty officer was killed while leading a boarding team in a counter drug operation off the coast of santa cruz, california. he was carrying out the mission to apprehend illegal drug traffickers on the high seas. stopping both drug shipments at sea before they are broken down in smaller packages is the most effective and efficient way to stop the flow of drugs. the coast guard is the lead agency in maritime because it has unique military and law enforcement authorities, which enable it to seamlessly disable drug smuggling vessel, seize the drugs, and arrest the crew. but that only works when the coast guard's partner agencies and nations have the resources

and assets to act on intelligence targets. however, cuts to the military's budget, coupled with aging and rapidly failing coast guard assets, are undermining mission success. they were only able to get 20% of the cocaine bound for the united states in recent years. it's not because you don't know where the rest, is but that's all you have the assets to interdict. that is half of the national target. since 2009, we've only achieved its rate once. i hope today's hearing will help clarify the direction we need to take in the future to ensure our men and women in uniform have the resources and assets they need to carry out this and other critical missions. i know i said this before, but this will be the last time that the admirable will appear before us, maybe. unless he comes to something else later. i want to again commend four your leadership and thank you for your tremendous service to our nation. this is an interesting hearing for one big reason for me, and it's this -- we can do 100% of this theoretically, if you had the assets to do it.

so by only interdicting 20%, what that means is we don't really care about the other 80. we're not talking about marijuana here, we're talking about opiates, heroin, and cocaine, the main stuff brought up from the south that we're not decriminalizing here in the united states that kills our kids. so with that, let's just, especially if we could right now, talk about why we don't care about the other 80%. why are we not trying to hit our target when it just takes more assets to do so? it doesn't take a new paradigm of how to interdict or anything t. just takes assets. with that, i yield back. > thank you. >> mr. chairman, thank you very much. mr. sires is not here. perhaps mr. meeks could take his place. ok, good, thank you. i'm going to really shorten my statement here. the chairman, mr. hunter, handled almost all of it having

to do with the coast guard, the coast guard budget, and the effect that the budget or the lack of a good budget is having on the coast guard's ability to do its work. and quite possibly, the reality that maybe we really don't care that much because we don't seem to be putting sufficient money into the effort. in fact, it appears as though the current situation would even further diminish the coast guard's budget and its ability to do its job. the chairman, mr. hunter, has gone through all of that, so i don't want to repeat all of it, but there's one thing that i would like to cover, and isn't foreign affairs committee has joined us, we've joined them on this hearing, all too often we look at this problem from the and of view of america not often from the point of view of the countries that are supplying the drugs. it's latin america looking at

the map that was put on our desk here. we can go to southeast asia or even to a place called afghanistan. we need to look at the perspective from those countries and hear their view of our efforts or lack of efforts. you mentioned some in the issue of colombia and the work that's been done there, which is a pretty good example of what can be done when we work with those countries that are our partners in this problem. so at some point, i know we have the ambassador here, and he'll undoubtedly speak to us about the issue from that point of view, at least from the american point of view, but perhaps the ambassador from mexico might want to give us their point of view of this or colombia or other countries that are the partners in this problem. so i recommend that we do that at some point and lesson carefully to their point of view and see how that would

effect our own strategies here. in the meantime, our committee, the coast guard maritime committee, is doing the best we can to make sure the coast guard has its assets. however, we're seriously hampered by sequestration, by the budget that passed the house of representatives two weeks ago, it would make it even more difficult because it does contain new sequestration, in fact, sequestration on steroids, making all of this more difficult. with that, i would yield back whatever remaining time i have. >> i thank the gentleman. i recognize the gentleman from north carolina. >> i'll be very brief. , s been pretty well covered it was a swan song today, strike that, my young ship mate, but i appreciate very much what you've done, best wishes to you in your next

life, but it's been a good report by our subcommittee and the nation's oldest continuous service. always ready. thank you, admiral. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. meeks. thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank both chairmen that are here and the ranking members. let me just say, narcotics has long been one of the main areas of focus of the united states foreign policy in latin america. 17 of the 22 nations which president obama identified as major producers of drugs are located in latin america or the caribbean. so this is not just an american problem, but it's truly a hemisphere problem, and one in which we must tackle head on and do it in multiple ways, i believe, and not just one way. as a friend of latin america and a frequent visitor to the region, i've seen the effects of illicit drug trade personally. in fact, in colombia, for example, a country which i care

deeply about, have been to several times, i've seen the devastating effects the drug cartels and related criminal activity have had on particularly moornt populations, especially the afro colombian and indigenous people, the horrendous violence and tragic poverty in such areas is a direct result of the drug trade. while recent involvement of the police and military by the president may give short-term solutions, we must combat the society in these places in order to elevate the local people to the lives that they deserve. i returned just last week from a trip to haiti and guatemala and mexico city, and there, too, i saw what can result in countries which are the hub for drug transit. we must get to the root of this problem and what facilitates the plague of drugs in the western hemisphere and identify both the social and economic factors which contribute to the widespread production and

transit of drugs in the region. we municipal rest until we are sure they have been eradicated for good. we know we've got to coordinate while we do this. we've got to coordinate what the coast guards are doing and what we have to try to make sure that its coordinated and we can run them out and not use what happens where we run them from one country and they run to another country, because they fear that we don't have the same kind of assets there. so despite my frustration with what's going -- what's going on in the region, i must also say that i'm optimistic. i'm optimistic because we have tools at our disposal and we have new tools we're developing. when i visited, for example, the national police academy in haiti last week, i learned about a new partnership with the new york police department and how the united states is facilitating counternarcotic capabilities abroad with our friends and partners. i also believe that legal trade is a powerful antidote to illicit drug trafficking.

the free movement of goods and services at the heart of a strong law, and i'm confident that new and upcoming free trade agreements will bolster the ability of the united states neighbors to develop robust, diversified economics, which are not dependent on drugs. i'm confident that local farmers and workers will be able to define ways to make their living honorablely and to give back to their countries. building trade capacity is an issue i care deeply about, and thinkable congress must lend its support for the sake of both american and partner nations. lastly, i believe combating the drug trade is also important to bridge our differences and work together to solve our problem, which hurts us all. i look forward to the day when america once again, can't do it now, but can cooperate with venezuela, for example, in combating narcotics. i look forward to extending our hands in friendship to our neighbors in a sincere effort to rid the hemisphere of this horror and to build new regional partnerships that before l bring us closer together than ever before. thank you. i yield back the balance of my time. >> thank you.

just some comments you'd like to make? ok, fine, we'll go ahead and introduce. pursuant to committee rule seven, the members of the subcommittee will be permitted to submit written statements. without objection, the hearing record will remain open for seven days to allow statements, questions, and extraneous materials for the record, subject to the length of limitation of the rules. admiral papp is the 24th commandant of the united states coast guard. he previously served as commander of the coast guard atlantic area, overseeing all u.s. coast guard operations in the eastern half of the world. at american papp is a graduate of the coast guard academy, also holds an m.a. in national studies from the u.s. naval war college and an m.s. in management from college. the ambassador is deputy assistant secretary of state for the bureau of international narcotics and law enforcement affairs.

prior to his appointment, he served as the united states ambassador to the republic of iceland at the u.s. embassy in panama. the ambassador holds a ph.d. in economics and an m.a. in management from the university of wisconsin. general kelly is commander of the united states southern command. prior to his current position, he searched as a senior military assistant for the secretary of defense and commanded marine forces north. he's a graduate of the university of massachusetts and u.s. national war college. tun goes without saying you all understand the lighting system. just understand that it goes yellow about the time you have about a meant left, and it goes red when it's time to cut it off. you guys are so distinguished, i'm not brave enough to probably cut you off, so try and be -- adhere to that as you can, and with that, admiral papp. >> thank you, and good morning again to chairman hunter and

the ranking members and all the members of the subcommittees. i want to thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning to thank you for your continued support of the coast guard and also to discuss the challenges that we face in confronting the illicit smuggling in the western hemisphere and the consequence it is has for our country. i'd be remiss this morning if i didn't recognize some of our other partners in this fight, the department of justice and our partner agencies in the department of homeland security, who also contribute greatly to the efforts to stem the flow of illicit traffic into the united states. we continue to face a significant threat in the drug zones of the western hemisphere and in the southern maritime approaches to the united states. ruthless transnational criminal organizations advancing their illicit trade through coercion, bribery and violence create a destabilizing effect on both the governments and economies of the western hemisphere and our partner nations. for instance, for the second consecutive year, honduras has the world's highest murder rate, a direct result of the massive inu.s.-bound cocaine

entering central america through the western caribbean sea and the eastern pacific ocean, and those drugs reach our shores, and the activities of those sophisticated criminal networks have an impact on america's streets as well in the form of gang violence and turf wars by urban drug dealers. the coast guard is the lead federal agency in support of the administration's national drug control strategy and the strategy to combat national organized crime. on the front lines of our detection, monitoring and apprehension operations, the coast guard deploys major cutters, long and medium range fixed wing aircraft and our law enforcement detachments on navy and allied warships to stop drug trafficers in the transit zone before the drugs can approach our shores. and working with u.s. southern command and the departments of state and justice, a really important fact. we've established more than 40 march i team bilateral agreements with our

international stakeholders, including venezuela, who we still cooperate with in the drug war. our unique combination of ships, aircraft, and authorities and partnerships has continuously proven to be an effective system which employed in the transit zone. operating in the offshore regions have removed more than 500 metric tons of cocaine with a wholesale vowel of nearly $17 this is more than two times the amount of cocaine and twice the pure si seized by all other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies combined. this is where we get the best value for the taxpayer's dollar. it is also where we have the first chance to address this problem, close to the source where the drugs are pure and uncut, in their most vulnerable bulk form and before they are divided into smaller loads

making them harder to detect and interdict. of course we care about the other 80%, but it is not just about the drugs. for every shipment that we interdict at sea, we gather valuable information about the sophisticated criminal enterprises that move these drugs. by understanding the criminal networks we're better able to combat other enterprises. our interdictions remain a key weapon in the u.s. arsenal. the coast guard and its partners rely upon this cycle of success to disrupt the networks behind the elicit trafficking in the western hemisphere. they provide actionable intelligence on future events thus feeding that cycle of success. our at-sea interdictions are the engine that drives the cycle and our success.

more than half the designated priority drug targets expedited to the united states from south america over the last 10 years are directly linked to coast guard interdictions. over 60 have been dismantled because of our investigations iginating with coast guard interinterdictions. contributing to a $14 billion increase of imports of united states good over the last 20 years. but despite our success, far too many illicit drugs still reach our shores. our reduced numberors ships can stop only a fraction of the contraband our intelligence tells us it is moving. a reduction in ships and aircraft will have a chronic negative impact on our department's mission to secure and manage our borders. you don't need to look further than a recent news report from

chicago to get an idea how this is impacting the communities once these drugs reach the homeland. it exploits people in underserves communities to track their illicit good. they manifest themselves in a host of problems infecting our society. the problem is not going away. the flow of illicit trade continues to threaten our homeland. those engaged in this business bring their traffic on, over and even under the sea to deliver contraband to the market. the offshore interdiction of illegal drugs in bulk quantitys is critical to the safety and security of our nation. even more important is the understanding and disrupting of the sophisticated criminal networks that transport these drugs and instability throughout central america and mexico can adversely impact our safety,

security and prosperity. as department of defense rebalances its fleet to the pacific i fear this problem is only going to get worse. sustaining the cycle of success by strengthening international partnerships investing in aircraft recapitalization will keep deadly addictive drugs off u.s. streets, create space for security within the western hemisphere and facilitate the safe flow of legitimate commerce and transport. i want to thank you for the opportunity to speak on this very important topic this morning and i look forward to answering your questions. >> thank you, admiral. ackbassdor? >> good morning, chairman salmon, chairman hunter, ranking member garamendi and other distinguished members of the committee. just a warning, my accent sometimes gets the better of me, if you hear something that doesn't make sense, it really

does make sense. i just mispronounced it. thank you so much for the opportunity to appear here today papp.dmiral kelly and the state department's bureau of international narcotics and enforcement affairs or i.n.l. leads the department's anti- crime counternarcotics efforts globally. we help partner nations build their capacity to fight crime and prosecute criminals under the law. this is no doubt an enormous responsibility. an i.n.l. does not approach it alone. we partner with the best in the united states government to impart expert's. in the western hemisphere, the united states has established

partnerships to con front shared threats and advanced common interests. the collection of the initiative with mexico, our long standing partnership with clomyarks the central america initiative and the security initiative constitute our strategic approach to enhance -- enforcement institutions and capacity so they can investigate and prosecute criminal offenders and remove them from their operations. while the state department has no direct role in interdiction efforts, the governments that we meantor and train in this the western hemisphere do. enhanced government capacity to interdibt drugs, investigate crimes, prosecute and incarcerate criminals. in the bahamas, jamaica, panama,

rica, patrol the waters, seize their products. in the hemisphere where capacity is less developed, they are working in coordination with our programs to develop basic policing skills and they are also working with our u.s. law enforcement and military partners to pursue narcotics traffickers. these successes, large as impressive as they are, paled in comparison to the drug transit threat in our hemisphere. while we're making progress, and i want to emphasize this, it cannot make up for gaps in the u.s. interdiction. let me repeat that. it cannot make up for gaps in the u.s. interdiction in the region. we know that the caribbean is

experiencing an increase in drug flows with the majority of shipments occurring via maritime means. n twounl, cocaine traffic -- 2011 -- it increased to 9% by 2012 and 16% by the end of 2013. central america remains the priority. transfered to entral american territory. we also recognize that it will take many years to see fruits of our efforts in central america to the magnitude of threats we confront there. the partnerships between the , partner rtment nations, the u.s. coast guard constitute a proven and trusted

mechanism that work every single day. it is also important to note that regional partnerships between nations are flourishing. that joint operations have become more common and that information sharing is happening in a near realtime basis. his is a proven formula. while these are all significant developments, they are not enough to curtail the magnitude of trafficking operations. u.s. foreign expertise remains critical. however, the capability abroad requires more from us. chairman salmon, chairman duncan and other distinguished members. thank you for your focus on this important topic. i look forward to our discussion. >> thank you, general kelly. >> i look forward to discussing the partnerships between u.s. southern command and the u.s. coast guard and the department of homeland security and i.n.l. together we defend the southern approaches of the united states.

chairman members, those southern approaches are being asailed by dangerous criminal networks that are well resourced, adaptive and skilled at exploring all avenues of approach. trafficking threatens our country at every land, air and seaboarder and challenges the sovereignity of many of our partners. the department of defense plays a critical supporting role although this role is under discussion and some disagree with it. as you know, we have congressly mandated statutory responsibility as the lead federal agency, for monitoring maritime transit of illegal drugs towards the united states. like the u.s. coast guard and d.h.s., along with d.e.a., f.b.i., we build the capacity of nations which helps enhance security stability in anti- trafficking efforts throughout latin america and the caribbean.

together with u.s. law enforcement partners, we focus on combagget illicit drug trading and interdiction as far from our borders as far as possible. until the drugs are broken down into nearly impossible to detect sizes. amphetaminesin and from reaching our shores. it enhances our understanding of trafficking networks, all with almost no violence. when we're adequately resourced, this approach is very effective. although my come opponent, the task force in the key west receives only 1.5% of the total u.s. government narcotics budget. 1.5%. with the support of partners like d.h.s. and the coast guard, d.e.a. and the f.b.i., they are responsible for removing 68% of

of the sees cocaine heading towards the united states. our international partners are key to our effectiveness, especially in our ongoing operation. 50% of our interactions would not have been possible without the contributions of our partners like colombia, panama, guatemala, honduras, even nick ral rag wa, the united kingdom, france and the netherlands is what makes marteo a success. we could not do it without these partners. they are fighting our drug fight for us and their commitment is second to none. human rights, ladies and gentlemen, are first and foremost all of our relationships with these countries. t is a lot we can do for them. an inexpensive patrol craft with maintenance and training

packages as well as i.s.r. intelligence support. since we're unlikely to get additional assets, right now our partners are the only hope we have of putting a dent in the drug flow coming to the united states. i emphasize, this is our fight, not their fight. it is destructive to their countries, but it is our problem and they are fighting it for us at great loss of life. to help us make a big department all the time. last year alone 132 metric ton of cocaine were seized thanks in part to the contributions of operation marteo. 132 tons. no violence. unfortunately that number is just a small fraction of the cocaine and other drugs that still reach our shores, which we're unable to get at due to asset shortfalls. since 2011, we have faced limits .

we also receive less than 5% of our annual airborn i.s.r. retirements. these limitations mean less preans, awareness of what is move -- presence of what is moving on trafficking networks. human beings. something more debt nonal our national security. make no mistake, drug traffickers are exploiting our lack of presence, especially in the caribbean. we started seeing a shift back to the old smuggling routes through the caribbean. i worry that smaller caribbean nations may soon be overwhelmed. i think they are being overwhelmed by violence and powerful criminal networks as we have seen in some parts of latin america, central america. on a recent trip to haiti, i saw some real improvement in that country. if left unchecked, could change the positive direction in which haiti has taken.

we're doing everythg we can to mitigate these lacks of assets. we're relying heavily on coast guard and border protection. ,owever over the next few years both the department of defense and the u.s. coast guard are facing an unprecedented downturn in the availability of large surface assets like u.s. navy -- nd high endurance cutters. our reliance on the u.s. coast guard, the nation's reliance on the u.s. coast guard and its national security and planned offshore patrol cutters all the more critical. i'm deeply concerned to hear that the u.s. coast guard is facing major budget cuts as is d.o.d. in closing, i share the conviction that the elicit trafficking is a direct threat to our national security and the stability of our partners.

also share the concern that continued asset shortfalls -- against counter drugs. i look forward to discussing these and other issues with you. thank you. >> i thank distinguished pam. i yield myself five minutes to ask my questions. my first question would be for the ambassador. there is a number of initiatives in the western hemisphere that share the objectives of improving citizen security including the initiative in mexico, the central america regional -- the caribbean basin security initiative. in what ways have state applied lessons learned from the various initiatives to maximize the effectiveness of their efforts across the western hemisphere and maybe look at replicating success. you mentioned yesterday when we spoke as well, we all agree that

we have enjoyed tremendous success with colombia and i'm wondering how do we put all of that together and from the lessons we have learned, how do we replicate some of those things? i know there are different nuance, but i would like your thought. >> thank you for your question. it is var good question. as you know, different cups have different challenges. different levels of development. we try to take the lessons learned from one to the other. the case of colombia, there is one case where they have become our -- they export security. we use them to train the -- some of the forces in central america on investigative techniques, polly graph management, interdiction techniques and what we do is take the success of one in one part of the country and take it to another. let me give you another example.

we just are about to establish a nationalized customs training academy in panama. this is a training academy that was established with i.n.d. funds. this academy is now going to become a regional training center. we're going to bring people from other parts of the hemisphere from central america and guatemala and other places. so they have the same approach, e same type of techniques to control borders. depending on the circumstances, when you think about, for example, of our success in peru, the success we have had is because we have combined alternative development along ith eradication. so we're looking at that model and see what we can transfer to other areas. we're beginning to see some

potential plantings of coconut plants in other parts of peru. >> i said this before. i think most people that have worked with the colombia initiative have recognized that while the united states contributions to that process was substantial, i think all of you have said pretty much the same thing. there is no way that that would have been accomplished without the political will coming from the leaders themselves in colombia. and so as we look to try to replicate some of those successes, i'm really heartened to know that you're using folks who are in the trenches in colombia to actually advice and consult and get their hands dirty with mexico, with possibly other latin american nations. but i think there is also another reason for that besides actually having the people that demonstrated the political will, i think that using them in a --

is a little bit more influential because sometimes i wonder if we suggest that it might just be on arrival because we suggested it in you know, the fact that it is the big brother or, you know, the united states, sometimes it causes more problems than solutions. was it his efforts? was it a combination of things? what are your thoughts? i'm interested in three of you. as i'm looking at some of the things going on in mexico now, i know a lot of people were wait and see with the new administration in mexico and we have all been pleasantly surprised with the tenacity that they have approached this problem. i would like your thoughts on -- w can we better utilize some

of the successes in the region and what can we recommend going forward to do that? general, i'll start with you. >> mr. chairman , first, i would say the term, you said the u.s. investment in colombia was substantial, significant or whatever the term was. you're right, except that is a very relative term the united states, i think, four or five or six cents on the dollar in terms of what was spent to, if you will turn colombia around in the drug fight. of course virtually no boots on -- they did their own bleeding. they did their own fighting and dying. what we did, you will be termly grateful for. i can remember when i worked up here on capitol hill some years ago, the discussion back in the late 1990's was should the united states allow colombia to buy, not be given, but buy six blackhawk airplanes,

conventional helicopters. and the discussion in the house and in this room or -- around the fact that why would we allow them to buy these things? it is a failed state. it is going over the edge. there is no hope for them. of course here we are 14 years later, 15 years later and it is virtually a miracle. heroic effort. why did that i win? because they were losing so badly. why did they turn it around? because they had no choice. the good news is we, as i say, allowed them -- we supported them. we encouraged them. we distant, in fact, in a sense unleash a small number of advisors and trainers, u.s. military, and it turned the place around. the clomians really did that themselves because they were losing so badly and fortunately that same plan -- attitude were not -- not focusing in the same

way on countries that are today very close to going over the edge where colombia was the 1990's, they are just over a few inches away from falling off the cliff, yet we're restricted from working with them for past sins in the 1980's. the beauty of having colombia, they are such good partners, particularly in the military realm. they are such good partners with us, when we ask to go somewhere else and train the mexicans, the guatemalans, they will do it almost without asking and they will do it on their own. they are so appreciative of what we did for them. what we did is encourage them for 20 years and they have done such a magnificent job. that is why it is important for them to go. i'm restricted from working with some of these countries because of limitations that are really based on past sins. i'll let it go with that.

>> thank you. i've run out of time. i'm going to recognize duncan hunter. >> thank you, mr. chairman . gentlemen, i guess it would be great if we could have the judiciary committee where the money comes out from the counterdrug money that gets put into federal grants throughout the united states. one big question is why do you get so little of that? is it because it is a jobs program throughout the united states for drug enforcement agencies at munis pap pal levels -- municipal levels of cities and states? why do you think that is? do they have better lobbyistses than you do? that is my question? why is there less money going to you opposed to all of these different agencies that the department of justice doles out grants to these agents, every local sheriff and police gets

drug moneys and you don't. why is it? , that is a real great grenade to jump on. i don't know the percentages that they get to midwestically. do know is i wear a -- domestically. >> 1.5% goes to south com and interdiction efforts. that leaves .5 for everybody else. >> i can't verify. i would have to go back and research. what i will say is one of the hats i wear as chairman of the interdiction committee, the tick which reports to director of the office of natural drug control policy, we are focused on interdiction. one of the things i have gained

during my time is an appreciation for the need for supply reduction and demand roduction. i would advocate more funds for what we do. on the other hand, i can't make a good judgment. we have to have a balanced approach to this. we need to work on reducing demand while we reduce the supply. i was trying to respond to your question. i just don't know figures and percentages to give you an accurate enough response. >> congressman, first of all, the 1.5% is not what the coast guard gets. it is what i get to -- into assistant interdiction of the drug flow. i guess i would guess because we have tended to look at this

issue as you know, the cancer that is within our country and we see what it does to our youth and for that matter, middle aged and older people. people die of drug overdoses every year. the number of people living under bridges and selling their bodies for a fix, this kind of thing. i think we look at it and say this is terrible. let's try to solve this problem at hope. the last place to solve the problem. part of the solution is here at home, but once this drug gets ashore and makes its way from mexico into the united states, it is impossible really. we have a million law enforcement norse this country. the d.e.a. they get about 25 tons of cocaine every year. we can get that in a month no violence. >> that's not balanced. >> that is where the fight is.

>> that is not balanced at all. >> before it gets ashore in central america, now increasing in haiti and the dominican republic. we focus this war on drugs for 30 whatever years on the streets of america, which is the last place you really want to kind of put your main effort. >> i was reading "national geographic" last week. it sad the cartel in mexico, they are not growing weed anymore. they are not growing any marijuana. they are growing popies. what is the big uptick in heroin coming out? >> surprise to me when i took this job. i thought that heroin that fed the united states demand, the habit came from other parts of the world. virtually all of it comes from latin america. virtually all of the heroin that comes and feeds drug habit in the united states is grown now

and produced -- grown throughout latin america poppies and turned into heroin in mexico when it comes in. a tiny bit may come down from canada through canada from afghanistan but not a lot. it is almost entirely -- by the way, meth amphetamines largely produced today in mexico and coming across the border. the zone that i live in and admiral papp to a large degree fights beside me, the zone that i live in, cocaine, which is the big moneymaker, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine is all produced south of the border and trafficed in on this criminal network on which anything can ride. drugs, human beings, terrorists. anything can ride on this network. it is globally linked. it is an amazing thing to see. it is virtually a wide-open

entry into the united states or for that matter, the united kingdom or for that matter, africa or for that matter, the middle east. >> thank you. i yield back. >> thank you, mr. meeks? >> thank you, mr. chairman . let me -- i guess i will just start with general kelly. i have an understanding -- i think i saw some place that in march, you told the senate armed services committee that you only had 5% of the assets you need to perform drug interdiction duties in the caribbean region. i was wondering where that figure comes from because i ought that the annual d.o.d. budget was over $1 billion. it was only 5% that you have. i was wondering how can that be? >> sir, >> i only get five percent of

what i think i may. i only get five percent of patrol aircraft or from homeland security. the border floats -- folks fly them. we fly them out of el salvador who are great partners or the honduras. we only get five percent. we have a very good idea when it leaves either ecuador or columbia and as it moves either side of central america or increasingly toward where to ricoh and the dominican republic, as we get the intel that is about to move, then we isr planesand we get or speedboats to pick up 1-4 tons of cocaine and we pick that up in that airplane watches it

until either a coast guard or u.s. navy helicopter -- the ship of the helicopter on a can get and then it gets seized. without that airborne asset -- we use anything we can get. i have had b-52s flying training missions with isr parts on them and b-1 bombers with isr parts on them flying over the caribbean not in international airspace doing that mission for me. we begged for the assets. i will take any asset i can get. sometimes, believe it or not, it's up bomber. >> can there be negotiations ?ithin dod the national security policy or strategy of the united states

is to pivot the pacific and deal with the wars in the middle east and to deter other countries. nothingves almost forsouthcon. this drug scourge causes our 40,000 deaths per year, $200 billion in cost, and to a very large degree, the biggest emotional thing in my mind is the human misery it causes. the dead are dead but the people who are struggling with this stuff than living under bridges and selling their bodies for hit that keeps me awake at night. these are decisions made outside of my purview. i just to find the problem. >> in your opening statement, that we ared

continuing to work with venezuela with reference to drug interdiction. can you tell us how and what is the relationship and are they cooperating? >> we are getting good cooperation. we have 40 multilateral agreements which have been worked out over the last 20 years with countries surrounding the caribbean, south and central america, based upon partnership with the united states coast guard and we worked through the department of justice to hammer out -- each one is a little bit different -- but we still do have protocols and lice are we have a suspected vessel or a venezuelan vessel that can go through these protocols. the venezuelan coast guard gives us permission to board vessels and sometimes we have to make decisions that the vessels are returned to venezuela and other times, we can take them for prosecution. we continue to have cooperation

there. chairmank to what the asked -- i have had a unique perspective because i have not only been down a driving ships around the caribbean to do interdictions but back in 1998, i had a chance to do a diplomatic mission going into venezuela and colombia. venezuela was very friendly with us at the time. it is quite a difference in cartagena. it was attended go around quite safely. i have seen the partnerships we have developed with the colombians. i have dealt with their head of navy and we are very proud of the way they are taking on a regional leadership down there. they are running drug symposiums and we continue to work with them and sustain that relationship. the key to that has been a continued commitment. they know we are not going away

but i have to admit as they see fewer resources devoted to the counter drug mission, they begin to get a little anxious. they perceive that as perhaps us backing away from sharing the battle with them. >> can i ask one more question? i'd like to go to the ambassador. i mentioned about the row gram i saw in haiti with the new york city police department officers. i think this is good work on behalf of the state department. i was wondering whether or not -- are there other partnerships like that where you find law enforcement from the united on the ground in some of the caribbean islands to help with their judicial systems or their police systems and that way we can get information there and they can lock up hardened criminals there before they come to the united states? is there any other kind of

cooperation the state department is working with like the haiti program? this gives us a chance to highlight some of the partnerships we have developed with states all over the united states. we have a relationship with the corrections department in new mexico. we train corrections officers so that jails in the region are actually jails to rehabilitate ince -- as opposed to making them worse criminals. we work with attorneys generals to teach about prosecution. we do this with a number of states. i would like to submit for the record a paper explaining all of the partnerships we have. this is one of the unsung aspects of the work the united

states is doing overseas. we are taking the expertise developed in various states print in the miami lease apartment, there is a lot of training on narcotics. we also have a partnership with the port of miami where customs officers come to miami to see how we handle port security. doing someabout prosecutions there. absolutely, that is exactly what we are trying to do. we are trying to build capacity on the investigation side and the prosecution side and the courts because we want to empower these governments that apprehend criminals to try them and incarcerate them and do the whole range of judicial process. on thehat depending level of development. that is part of our approach to security in the region. office work with the

that deals with money laundering. we are encouraging countries to so aasset for future laws lot of these agencies that have no resources can use that law to resource their activities. partnerships and i think it's one of the best hearts because it gives us the flexibility to provide different types of assistance depending on what is needed. >> thank you. admiral papp, during the last coast guard hearing, you mentioned that truck weapon and human smuggling still remained huge threat but the budget cuts hindered coast guard's ability to counter this danger since they reduced the manpower and operating hours of the assets

the coast guard needs to combat this continuing threat. testimony, youus stated that sequestration clearly affected the coast guard's drug interdiction efforts as evidenced by the 35% reduction in marijuana seizures -2013 when sequestration began to take effect. this shows there is a direct correlation between the budget and operational capability and that this common theme around here that we all need to be doing more with less is an impossible principle to constantly adhere to. carol horny officer lived in my congressional district when he died from one of these situations. i live one mile from one of where those boats made land on

the palos verdes and insula recently. -- penn insula recently. in my area, i am concerned about the potential effect that the next round of sequestration cuts danger andon this especially as more evidence is showing that smugglers are increasingly using the southwest maritime route to more and more. in my met last week district office with admiral schultz, the commander of the 11 district and i met with captain jenkins, captain of the port of los angeles. i am very excited. be the williams will incoming captain of the porch, the first woman to hold that position in the history of the coast guard. we are all excited about that. i want to know what you can tell me of how you are working with local informed partners to ensure that our major american ports along these popular drug

smuggling routes such as l.a. and long beach are fully protected against this threat. maybe in your answer, you can also tell us how important it is that the coast guard at least maintains its current funding levels in order to preserve its current capabilities. >> thank you, that's a great question. i thank you for your advocacy and i will thank you for being out there for the morrill service with me for senior chief horn and the compassion you showed for his family. if i could ask for the slide that i brought with me while i answer the question. if not, we can use the table drop we did. there we go. the challenge you're talking about is right there along the border. you are right, when we dropped our activities by 30%, we showed a 35% reduction in cocaine

seizures for fiscal year 2013. -- we have restored our historic levels of operations right now. we have increased. two new things we are doing out there in your area is we are more frequent putting one of our major cutters in the area rather than just patrol boats. we can operate airborne use of force with helicopters that stops and goes fast so the pongas have trained marksman. that has been so successful but rather than typing cutter, we have cleared through the department justice land-based airborne use of force. we are putting our helicopters at a shore station and flying them under direction of the sector out there. the other thing we are doing is leveraging our partnerships. we have the regional coordination mechanism. athave a command center sector san diego where we bring in our partners from customs and border protection, customs air

and marine, the other federal partners and state and local law enforcement as well. this is so we can coordinate and effectively synchronize all our activities and get the most out of the resources we have. we do that throughout the country. each one of eric captains of the port or sector commanders has very broad authorities. they head up. maritime security committees. they have safety committees and they bring the partners together. the only way we can get our business done effectively -- is through these partnerships because of our broad-based authorities. having said that, we are still limited by the amount of resources we can get out there. me,his chart i brought with we refer to these as threat vectors. they are also vectors of prosperity. those are our trade routes. that we have to maintain and keep safe and secure. the blue shaded areas

surrounding both coasts around alaska and the hawaiian islands and our trust territories in the pacific is our exclusive economic zone. that is over 4 million square --es of exclusive economics is the largest economic zone of any country in the world. we have to just to get our major cutters over that entire area. it's a lot of ground to cover. we have to make reasoned and risk-based decisions. general kelly usually asks for six coast guard cutters and we are only able to provide for nowadays. if we move one up there off the baja, we reduce into three. it's like squeezing a balloon, you only have so much in it and if you have threats in other areas, you have to move them around. we are zero based right now and hurting for resources. >> thank you. i appreciate that.

>> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. kelly, your testimony indicates you are basically pulling her assets out of the caribbean area. what percentage of your total budget is consumed by guantánamo? >> you mean the detainee base that guantánamo? >> yes. >> it's a separate budget. it's a very separate mission. i own it and we do it really well but it's a separate budget but it's about -- for the detailing office, we are at about $120 million. we are tenants on the navy base down there. there are other -- just by being there, we don't have to buy electricity and things like that

but $124 million is a good round figure. our task is to make choices about how we spend our taxpayer's money. guantanamo and the continuation of it is expensive. that is money that might have been spent elsewhere. uav's and their deployment for patrol. you mentioned helicopters off the coast of california and other places. or the potential of using uav's to increase your patrol capacity? let's start with admiral papp. >> we will take maritime patrol aviation anyway we can get it. there are three key elements to doing these interdictions. first of all, it's having good intelligence.

out of thengest trifecta. we are strongest in intelligence. we have a lot of actionable information. what we have is an absence of resources. the next key thing after intelligence is your ability to have maritime patrol aviation out there whether it is manned aircraft or uav's. it doesn't matter as long as we have something out there that will detect what we know is moving. at the end of the day, you've got to have a surface asset that can interdict. that's where our real shortfall is. use more maritime aviation? yes. would uav's help? yes. at the end of the day you've got to have surface assets. as i said earlier in terms of coast guard cutters, we are down to four down the right now. that is today and we have a

fleet of 44 cutters right now. we are building out new cutters but at the end of this project, we will only have 33. we are going in the wrong direction. in order to provide what ends up being the most critical elements of those three as surface interdictions. >> general kelly? we don't have any drugs of any kind right now. if i could get some -- we don't have any drones of any kind right now. so when anget tired airplane has to refuel, drones can stay up a lot longer and it does not know that it's tired. >> i'm specifically thinking like the use ofuav's global hawk that can stay in the air for 36 hours with the long patrol area and provide -- can provide significant information. the navy is coming up with its

new trident which is a version of the global hawk. it's specifically designed for maritime purposes. i would like you to gentlemen to get back to me about how you might deploy that asset to the benefit of the missions you have. kelly, i believe in earlier testimony in the house armed services committee, you said what you need among others is a platform on which to land helicopters. i think you actually said an old barge might work well if it had refueling capability. can you expand on that? >> that phase of the process is called interdiction. the detection of monitoring, i do that to a large degree. sin interagency process so we which is virtually

all of the aircraft movement of cocaine coming out of venezuela. it either makes its way to the s or up american isthmu the west indies to the dominican republic. or puerto rico. the endgame part is generally speaking to put a helicopter in the air vected over there by and they go fast. on that helicopter is a marksman, united states coast guard men. he has within his rules of engagement the authority to shoot if necessary the engine or engines out of that go facst. it hardly ever happens but the cannot knows that it outrun the helicopter so they

throw the electronics over the side. in my view, what you really need is something that the helicopter can fly off of. you don't need an aircraft don't need a big navy ship or coast guard cutter. six months last year, we have the royal netherlands at a coast guard buoy tender but you could put a helicopter on and it did great work for us in the interdiction mode. at renting,ng now if you will, a merchant ship that would be able to take -- to be able to land and take off a coast guard or maybe or marine corps with a coast guardsmen on board, helicopter. also turning that merchant ship into a motherships of these other smaller countries that do the yeoman work for us like

nicaragua, can have a mothership arrangement so they can get fuel and food and help us in this fight. clear that we are in a tight budget situation which is likely to continue for the next 5-10 years. we need to be creative. , i waswere talking thinking maritime reserve and the fleets we have. is there any potential we can use of those ships with any modifications? we will have to be very creative. admiral papp, we are going to be short of cutters for the next five years. can we figure out a way of doing this with different kinds of assets? >> i think general kelly is right. we will take whatever we can get. at the end of the day, got a responsibility for the safety of in a complex

fast-paced operation. even landing helicopters at sea is not an easy thing. when you got weather out there and when you're launching in the middle of the night. i am reluctant to say that landing them on anything is a good thing. the other thing is that even when you stop the go fast, you got to have both in a boarding team to take custody and sees the people and the drugs. you got to launch that. we have used other things. we have great partnerships with great britain and with the dutch and the canadians and the french. we make use of their platforms where we can and they are professional. they know how to land helicopters and can launch and recover boats safely. we put our law enforcement attachments on board and we make use of them as much as we can. those countries are facing budget shortfalls as well and their participation has diminished over the last couple of years. >> which brings us back to

austerity budgeting, thank you very much, gentlemen. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. i apologize for coming here on latin time but our subcommittee on middle east and north africa was meeting at the same time. i'm still over there and over here, thank you, gentlemen, what of the light to be here. mr. chairman, recently with her the startling claim that latin america has surpassed africa as the world's most violent region accounting for about 1/3 of all global homicides and we must recognize this as one of the many alarming symptoms of a booming transnational drug trade that is the enemy of security and good governance and democratic principles. this is a particularly pernicious issue in central america and the caribbean and the example of a proactive approach to the rise in drug trafficking activity in the caribbean is the partnership

that we have established ofinl and port miami, major hub for travel and trade in the region. through this initiative, port miami personal provide training and anticrime and port security matters to their caribbean counterparts. this is just the beginning. the administration has put more resources into similarly --geted grams and it shows programs and it shows it is serious about combating the illicit drug trade by doing so. the administration's problem in latin america is its failure to address the immediate needs of the region which affect our national security interest. general kelly, your written testimony states " insufficient maritime service vessels and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance platforms him. our primary mission to detect these threats and defend the southern approaches to the u.s. homeland."

that is why last year, i offered toamendment to thendaa rectify this impediment and rectify the issue. i some -- i will recommend a similar engagement because we should not abandon the western hemisphere and engagement is the key with democratic allies. what setbacks have we suffered due to the fact that our engagement with honduras has been limited due to obstacles from the senate? has the positive progress of operation martillo lapsed? in your written testimony that legislative restrictions such as the prohibition of fmf funding with the guatemalans limit our engagement. it's my understanding that there is also a dod policy that com fromsouth utilizing to the maximum extent possible our assets in jtf

bravo in honduras. has this policy hindered our ability to make a larger dent in efforts to fight drug trafficking? these efforts are critical not only because they threaten our security and those of our allies but also because it illegal drug trade in this hemisphere impacts our national security interest throughout the world. engagest organizations in these illicit activities and fund their operations and advance the dangerous ambitions of regimes like that of iran which is expanding its presence and the western hemisphere. drugs equals terrorism financing. i would like to raise an issue with the coast guard. my office has received information that our coast guard, with the help of the state department, traveled to cuba seeking to reach an understanding with the state sponsored terrorism on counter

narcotics efforts. i think it's appalling that are coast guard wishes to have closer ties with the cuban regime, it's the same tyranny that gives refuge and harbors drug traffickers. it jails american citizens and supports terrorism and was caught red-handed as recently as this summer trying to smuggle military equipment to north korea through the panama canal thank panama-- we for stopping at and provide safe haven to this day for american fugitives. i share your concern with the rise in drug trafficking through the caribbean but doing business with the cuban regime is not the solution. they are actually part of the problem. i will give it to anyone who would like to comment. thank you, admiral. >> thank you, ma'am. thank you for your interest and support

for the coast guard. i regret that you are troubled by the activities for it i will get more specifics and get a report back to you. >> it would be helpful, thank you so much. it concerns many of my constituents. somew it is dismissed by but as a person who lost her homeland to communism, i was born in cuba and came here as a refugee and i represent thousands of people in similar ways. we don't have a romanticized view of the communist tyranny in cuba. >> we keep a line of communication open. it's to protect our people and make sure that there is never any mistake. as you know, the freedom flotilla and other activities over the years, we have lost people and we try to make sure we have at least some line of communication open so that we prevent any mistakes from happening and putting people in jeopardy. we also get good information on other illegal activities.

we will take a review of this and i will get a report back to you. >> i would greatly appreciate that, thank you so much, admiral. i thank the chairman. we will go through one more round of we have time. i have one last quick question. you talk about the assets and you talk about the system, the in the box acquisitions programs in congress ruining that, at the same time, if you get a platform -- this is crazy but to put it in visual terms --" waterworld" you have dennis hopper on the big tanker -- you know the movie? i thought it was a great movie. if you can operate off of that, why can't you use the ready reserve fleet? why can't you use floating platforms.

if the coast guard feels it is dangerous, why not man those with contractors? it's kind of like an icebreaker. it does not need to be manned by the u.s. military. they are not shooting at people. why cannot we think outside the box on this stuff? you have the office of naval research and other groups that have ships we can use for interdiction. they use them for testing purposes in san diego and norfolk and off of florida, two. there are interdiction assets out there. there are platforms out there on which you can land a helicopter. if that's what is holding us back, you can't blame it all on sequestration. why not go outside of the box a little bit? why not do the interdiction part if it's not that difficult? 50 years ago, if you have this problem, you would have even them $5 million and they would interdict. they would probably do a good job of it. we have the system

that we have to work in and if we don't get enough of our ships that we require by nature out of our requirements on the whole shipbuilding fleet building those particular ships, we're not going to do it because we don't have the right ship to do it. why not think outside the box? why not use a merchant mariners? when i use the people we pay to be ready to go? -- why not use the people we pay to be ready to go? >> the innovative things we have done, we look for anything passing through the area. while not related to western hemisphere approaches -- admiral locklear and pacific command, when he has ships that are ,ransiting out to the westpac we are putting coast guard law-enforcement attachments on them and running them through the blue areas in the pacific around our trust territories and partner nations. we are sending them through there and doing fisheries law

enforcement to protect the tuna fleet out there. we look for those opportunities. andave had british dutchoilers - anything we can get that is in the pacific, we take advantage of. we work with forces command in norfolk to make sure that if people are doing a training deployment or whatever, the canadian vessels we have had down there, that's again the result of talking to maritime forces pacific and atlantic and the canadian commands and when they have ships that have to go on workups instead of sending them other places, they are now sending them down to the caribbean or eastern pacific and we put coast guard law-enforcement attachments on their. we make use of anything we know about. we will investigate and see what else is out there. like anything else, if you're going to get a ready reserve ship on the way, somebody's got to pay for that area somebody's

got to pay the mariners who come on board. we have reserve fleets out there but i have seen the challenges that are faced would have to work them up to get them ready. the one ship we sent over to deal with the syrian chemicals, getting the mariners available and getting the money to run the ship and ring it up to standards is a challenge. granted, i will take the coast guard cutter or a u.s. navy ship anytime i can. when i put a coast guard helicopter out there, there is a standardization of protocols for landing and recovery and hot refueling and everything else. landing helicopters is a dangerous business. we have lost people doing that. is that youion cannot just -- it's easy to say let's put up our job there or a tanker out there or something else. my coast guard pilots can land on anything in an emergency. it might not be an effective

platform for prosecuting go fast vessels. we would have to work that through. >> i would argue that it is better than nothing which is what you have now, or very little. >> we are already doing it, actually. within the next couple of months, i have asked the system and we have found the money and we will have about a 350 foot ship manned by u.s. merchant seamen and we will use that as a proof of concept. it is not modified yet to launch and recover helicopters. as we move to the next up and do that, we will have the right kind of training and the right kind of procedures on the right kind of gear and equipment. ship will be working for me within the next six or eight weeks and we will have it for at least one year before we then

move onto the next step with helicopters. while we are doing that, it will elize andg to bl honduras and guatemala. we already have u.s. marines working with those partner on operations close to the list charles. -- litorals. work with our assets to go further out because it will be a gas station so we are doing everything you just described already in the next six-eight weeks. i will let you know how it goes. >> thank you. said coast guard snipers are in helicopters. does it have to be coast guard snipers are canopy anybody from any service? >> it's the law enforcement aspect of this. the dod asset can do everything that the law enforcement heart

of it. the shooter has got to be a coast guard or someone in law enforcement. it could be as long as they go through the training. it could be airborne use of force and authorities are very difficult and challenging. we have to take that through the department of justice because we have to get their support to defend our shooters of something happens or goes wrong. as long as we take the shooter through our courses and get them certified -- we have used other than coast guard, we have used navy marksmen off of navy helicopters and i'm sure we could train other people. it's a matter of taking them through the process. >> that's all i have. thank you. great to see you and i wish you well. >> thank you. pursue thinking

out-of-the-box and how we might be able to pursue the discussion and quite possibly the utilization as we were just talking here. we will leave that for the i haveand carry that on been asked by one of our friends from the foreign affairs committee to raise the issue with general kelly about the expulsion of 20 u.s. defense department employees that were attached to the u.s. embassy in kito. i believe this happened over the last couple of weeks. could you briefly on that? what was that all about and why did it happen? actions arecuador's in line with kind of a general loss of u.s. influence in this part of the world in latin america and for many different

reasons. folks case of ecuador, my that were in there and not all were military, there was an awful lot of disinformation past by the president of that country. ecuador has thrown its lot in with countries like venezuela and russia and china. that's were they see the future of latin america so they have made that move. ,he people that were in there working with them was full knowledge of the ecuadorian government and had been there for years and years. they were working with them on that, and drug ever which is a problem in ecuador and they have been helpful. they have decided to throw their lot in with other countries. we are in the process -- >> it's a geopolitical issue? a great way to snub their noses the united states. >> this is a question from representative angle i will

briefly go over it -- on november 15, 2013, an interview with defense news, you stated that since you have lost coast guard the would publish the western hemisphere strategy on how to fill these gaps. that is five months ago. wants to know what the status of the report is. >> we have been trying to come theith strategies for specific areas and evolving missions and put out an arctic strategy just last year. we have in working on the western hemisphere strategy. with the focus of the department of defense assets going for the us -- for the pacific, we have responsibilities in the pacific but my par amory responsibilities are along the threat vector shown in the chart. we lay out what our

doctrine is toward the service and get that approved by eric department? that's important. i have read through the draft. regime, we have a new coming and 30 days and rather than make it look like i'm signing off on a western hemisphere strategy as i go out the door, there should be input from the next commandant which i believe there is and he will publish shortly after taking command. >> thank you very much. i think that's exactly the right thing to do. let the next fellow coming in let because program area i'm sure you will be building off of yours. that was mr. engel's question. our chairman has returned and i believe ms. hahn has a question. >> thank you, i want to go on the record -- it is heartening for me to hear about the

incredible cuts we have imposed on our coast guard. we are continuing to ask them to do more with less. we are talking about contracting out and landing on barges, i wish we could restore the cuts we made and not impose the next round of sequestration on our coast guard. we either believe in your mission or we don't. it is unfortunate we are at this stage. i just wanted to go on the record to say i believe in your mission and i feel we are shortchanging that department and the american people. ambassador, one of the primary missions behind the bureau of international narcotics and law enforcement affairs is to tilt partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies here at home in order to allow these agencies to provide their unique expertise to foreign agencies and governments.

in order to incentivize state and local agencies to provide this expert tease, the state department reimburses these agencies for the cost incurred. that strengthens our overall international security and also bolsters our relationship with our foreign partners while simultaneously creating opportunities here at home. i would like for you to talk about your agencies work with our los angeles sheriff department and the california department of corrections and explain how their expertise and training has been critical in preventing violence in foreign countries, particularly mexico. >> thank you very much. the california department of corrections, has the training of correction officers. the type of training they have received is the type of training that deals with very hard-core issues that these institutions face in their own countries like riots and protection of the

facilities and many times, we think of facilities is keeping people from going out but many times, some of the challenges they face is people trying to come in to free prisoners. we have a range of programs that are trying to provide those kinds of training to them. i don't have the answer on the los angeles sheriff department i will provide it. the superior court of arizona has provided forensic training to costa rica for judges and prosecutors and defense attorneys. the new york police department provides training in haiti are it the broward county sheriff is trained bahamian police and other agencies on gender waste violence. the miami-dade police department has trained haitian police. the north miami police department has trained the

tobago police on sex crimes. the list goes on. for us, it is a pleasure to have these partnerships. another example is the washington state criminal justice training commission posted a study by the mexican police academy managers. the california department of corrections -- i mentioned that already. we have a long list that is growing. we have to be careful not to andad ourselves too thin find a comparative advantage these institutions bring to the table so we can leverage this went overseas. >> thank you. at earl, i want to ask you one last question. admiral, you say we need to address the demand along with the supplied. y. the suppl i'm wondering if this trend in

the united states in colorado and washington and california in do youing marijuana -- think this will have a long-term impact or effect in stemming the u.s. demand for illegal drugs? have we not had enough time to analyze what this will mean? >> i don't think we've had enough time. we discussed it at the last principals meeting of the interdiction committee. most of theoard for agency which includes all the homeland security agencies, dea, justice department, fbi, north, and south, and others -- the anecdotal information coming back from most of the partners in dealing with our south and central american partners are that they are confused by the signals that legalization sends. wonder about our commitment to continuing the fight and when they are investing so much both

theyesources and blood, have to question that. they want to know about our commitment and they see fewer and fewer viewers resources coming down there to join them. we reassure them and tell them what the law is and our continued commitment. it cannot help but create some doubts. iser anecdotal information because of changes in the market with legalization and homegrown marijuana. that is causing some people to switch to heroin production now. it is a complex multivariable equation which i don't think we have a good handle on. it is causing a lot of concern. to give you my thanks for your advocacy and comments. to leave anybody with the impression that i'm not willing to look at other things. we are trying to innovate and make use of whatever resources are available out there.

my job as the commandant of the coast guard is to advocate for what i is best for the country. i advocate for coast guard that is because they are a known entity and we have mollified and trained those card people and boarding parties, people who can andle boats and can land launch and recover helicopter safely. if some other incident whether it's a mass migration or a fisheries patrol, i can send them to do those i to these as well. a barge that can land the helicopter is pretty much a single mission thing. i cannot use that for anything else in the coast guard. to give us valuable something more but my job is to give you the optimal solution. yours is to decide whether we can afford it or not but thank you. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. >> one last question -- who is in charge of saying we

will not go after weed anymore? do you say that? who says we will prioritize that? is that not how it happens? >> there's no question it is illegal and we continued target it and we will stop it to the best of our abilities. >> i'm saying the opposite. in the next 10 years, you might have 20 states legalize marijuana and it becomes decriminalized which it is now anyway especially in the western side of the country, why keep going after something that has been approved by the states? who makes that decision to go after the marijuana loads and go after heroin and coke and meth? who makes that decision? realm, we don't see a lot of marijuana moving from don'tamerica, if you

count mexico, moving into the united states. it's the other drugs. most marijuana can send in the united states is grown all over the country. domestically. it's grown in manhattan and national forests in colorado. -- drug problem is caused latin america is one of the most violent places on earth and honduras is the most violent place in the planet. almost all of it is due to our drug problem as the drug traffics through. the police in the region are either entirely corrupt or so intimidated that they cannot do their jobs because they are so intimidated because of the violence. courts and judges are involved in the same thing.

when colorado and washington legalized marijuana, i was asked by the partners and i said don't worry, is still against federal law and the law will be enforced. it is not being enforced in my understanding. the word hypocrite comes into the conversation. as everyone here is trying to convince these countries to stay in the fight, to fight our fight against drugs, we are seemingly not caring much about drugs anymore. i find it pretty hard and i'm pretty close to a lot of presidents. they are pretty non-diplomatic with me as i am to them. they wonder frankly what we are doing. number -- increasing

in columbia, if they stop what they are doing in terms of our drug fight, we are really screwed. they took 200 tons of cocaine off the market last year. they eradicated or 8000 acres of coca before it was picked. they destroyed 1500 cocaine labs. if they stopped doing that because they see less of a commitment in our country and a move toward legalization, we might as well -- >> why would you tie in the legalization of marijuana with heroin and coke? >> they see a general lack of enforcement in getting after some of these other drugs. as everyone at this table has pointed out, the solution to a large degree to the drug problem is before it gets to mexico and into the united states. there is almost no commitment to do that based on what they see.

we do work with them how we do give a certain amount of money and today we have three navy ships and for coast guard cutters in the caribbean and the pacific doing the work. that comes and goes and they don't see the commitment. that got other things to spend their money on as well. >> that's all i have. i don't think there are any other members to ask questions and with that, this committee is adjourned. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014]

>> the inspectors general from homeland security, the cia and the justice department testify about intelligence and information sharing living up to the boston marathon bombings which took place a year ago. this morning, they appear before the senate homeland security committee live at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span three. >> i stand here with my colleagues from the arizona delegation both senate and house and we are very close friends to congresswoman get real difference, to remember a tragic event that took place three years ago today. 8, 2011, at 10:00 10 a.m. in 19.6 seconds, 19 people including congresswoman giffords and myself were shot in tucson,

arizona. this event was democracy in action. a member of this body, the people's house, was meeting one-on-one with her constituents. six wonderful people died that day including my friend gabe zimmerman, my go to guy on the congresswoman's staff. arizona haveuthern definitely not been defined by that terrible act. defined by how our community responded. the compassion, the love, the hasers and the goodwill helped all of us feel our broken hearts. and bring some good out of that horrific day.

have beenons established to help with the educational needs of children to prevent bullying and reduce the stigma of mental illness and improve those services. continuesman giffords her remarkable recovery. her perseverance and determination give hope to others and she is a true inspiration to the country and to the world. you might have noted that earlier today, she jumped out of an airplane and took it tandem dive, a second skydive. her resilience has no bounds. years,in the last three other communities have been struck by similar senseless acts of violence. wouldst fitting memorial be to take action to prevent a anotherebt to prevent such tragedy. as a shooting survivor, a grandfather, a member of

, i am determined to do so and i know that many others in his body and in the senate have the same aspiration. let us never forget the six people who died that fateful day. nine-year-old christina taylor green, dorothy morris, u.s. district judge johnroll, phyllis schneck, dorwin stoddart and my friend and colleague gave zimmerman. mr. speaker, i would like to ask that the house had a moment of silence to remember these good people. >> members will rise and observe a moment of silence. >>

>> koran -- c-span, brought to you today as a public service by your local cable or satellite provider. >> coming up live in a moment of c-span, "washington journal." the white house takes up live on general speeches. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> and coming up in 45 minutes, a discussion on suicide prevention. ur guests are -- >> and at 9:15 eastern, our

about a on magazines recent article looking at the history and safety of ecigarettes. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- host: good morning. it's wednesday, april 30, 2014. the house and senate are expected to both be in today. a test vote on the federal minimum wage increase is expected in the senate. and overseas, iraqis are headed to the poll in the first parliamentary election. we'll talk about that later this morning. but first on the "washington journal," a controversy surrounding an nba owner's comments that's prompted a renewed discussion of race relations in america. we're opening up our phone lines this mornio