day, they go to the closet and get their gun. do.hing you can and these are cheap and simple. that takethere bases that step that you are talking about? guest: they will encourage it, but it's not mandatory anywhere. let's go to barbara in florida on that line for family members or members of the military. barbara, good morning. caller: good morning. i would just like to say thank you to c-span for airing this -- ptsd.r i have ptsd, but i have a wonderful doctor, a be a doctor, and my psychiatrist -- a v.a. dr. and a psychiatrist.

and there is a study called project valor. and there is a study of military personnel with ptsd for three years. that really helps as well. i have to subsidize with the lady that called in earlier. she sounded suicidal and i cried. i had to compose myself before i could make this call. but i'm glad you are putting the number up on the screen, the suicidal prevention hotline. because she sounded so desperate. airingin, thank you for this particular subject. it is vitally important stop -- vitally important, and to let people know that we are not all crazy because we have ptsd. we are struggling, but we are making it. thank you, and got bless you. the kindank you for words. there are many people fighting this, really hard. dedicated people like mark and

caroline. this is something where there are very good people, thousands of them, and this is all they do is try to help others. it is also with her membrane that the only area in which you are seeing suicide begin to rise among -- the only area where you are starting to see suicide begin to rise among female veterans is because of rape. that is where you are seeing women start to take their lives. woman who wasung raised at the naval academy and for something to be done and they didn't, and she asked to at least sleep in a different room and they wouldn't let her switch. she was suicidal and try to take her own life. she was able to get help. if you think of the callousness

of that. the veterans who are sexually assaulted here and not brought, and that is also the cause. call waiting,, a michael. go ahead. thank you for letting me call in. i would like to tell you a problem that no one understands. corpsmen.-tour navy i, world war ii, korea, vietnam, afghanistan, the governmentwar, our is well aware of what is causing post-traumatic stress disorder. don't let anybody fool you. you cannot put people on continual rotations, four and without itx times

affecting them severely. our government will knows that. you can have all the psychiatrist and all the hoopla and all the money spent to determine why we get post-traumatic stress. that is the major cause. bring back the draft. our people served in the military. that is what ended in vietnam. draft in not have a vietnam, we probably would still be there. because so many people were being drafted that they said, no, i'm not going to go. you bring back the draft and make everybody serve, not just 1%. host: making the point that the burden is being carried by too few people. guest: it is, and there's no question. of people canage serve. many of us are too fat, or do not meet the graduation requirements.

many interpersonal do not want to draft. they do not want people with of all problems, abuse problems, arrest records. they want people to come in who volunteer. but 1.i wanted to respond to at the beginning of the call, a profile of of man named ty carter, who won the medal of honor in afghanistan for the bravest thing possible, repeatedly running into a taliban ambush and dragging people out. and when i interviewed him, he said that if you go to war, and you come back, and if you are the same person as when you left, that is when you need help. work changes you will stop it -- war changes you. it should change you. if you come back and you have not change, that is when you need help. couple of minutes turning to the story of the grams, --

a poem. it says, they leave you are death, give them your meaning. guest: i find that poem to be extraordinarily moving. difficult -- it's it is difficult with kevin because they blame themselves so directly. there were signs that they just missed. ast died in combat in dangerous war. but with kevin, they feel like they could have saved him and they didn't. one thing i find so extraordinary about mark and carol, we did hundreds of hours of interviews. they knew there would be people out there who would read the book and think of them as failed parents, who would read the book and think, yeah, mark, yeah,

carol, you did feel your son. they knew people would judge them, but they at no point did they hesitate sharing these painful expenses, or their own self-doubt or blame. that is amazing to me, because no one wants to be in a position of having outsiders looking in and saying you failed. they are hoping that something this book might -- someone reading this book might realize peoplene person or five or 10 people get that help, whatever blame they may get from other people is worth it. host: christian has been waiting in oklahoma city, oklahoma on the line for democrats. caller: let me finish, because you always hang up on me. i do feel sorry for the settlement, but once again, this is the -- another problem that the bush and ministration cause. president obama has to go in and

fix it. for people who are going to call -- let's talk about who has blood on their hands. the republicans, and hillary clinton who sent you to war, they have let on their hands. you have a gentleman who called in and said america is not strong anymore. what makes a strong america? is it shock and awe? is it killing innocent babies? is it using blackwater to slaughter innocent people? yochi dreazen, i will let you jump in. you get into the politics at all of this issue? a debate on the right way to move forward? about there is a debate whether you spend this amount or

that amount of money. you don't hear republicans say it's not real. the bush and ministration started the afghan and iraq wars, but the obama administration surged the war. it is to solicit to say one deserves blame and gas to a simplistic to say one deserves blame and the other doesn't. house, democrats and the white house. this is not a partisan issue. isre is good and bad and it not easy to break it down in black and white. within then military, what do you do with someone who kills themselves? do you give them a military funeral? do you give them a 21-gun salute? to butople say no oncene who is troubled, you have served, you oh them that debt. you of them that honor. it is not an easy issue. host: thomas has been waiting on

the line for veterans. from kentucky. go ahead. thomas, are you with us? caller: i am a vietnam veteran with ptsd. just turn down your tv and go ahead with your comment or question. caller: what i was about to say -- ok, what i was about to say is that posttraumatic stress disorder not only applies to the military, but someone -- some of the -- in the area has it. gauge i will give you a final minute here. guest: it is true. you can have it if you see a friend of yours can -- a front of your shot in the street, killed in a car crash.

have, we have. any issue we have, they have. that is the issue of suicide and ptsd. world, otherother entity, they are not you -- you cannot say that. we are them, they are us. host: yorkie treason is the author -- yochi dreazen journal" begins tomorrow with cheryl atkinson. on wednesday, shane harris and "at war: the right of the military internet complex." on christmas day, martha bayless, and "through a screen darkly." and friday, clarence page, ,uthor of "culture worrier

reflections on race, politics, and social change. and coming up later today, a recognition of q and a turning 10. we have selected one interview from each a year of the series to show every weeknight at 7:00 eastern. tonight, kenneth feinberg, who oversaw the compensation program for survivors of victims of 9/11. in our hour-long interview, he talks about the experience and his book "what is life worth?" and in the promising results of cancer research. dr. francis collins from nih is part of a discussion of the aspen institute that focused on innovation and challenges. collects it is amazing to see the insight, and they are coming out of all sorts of technologies we did not have before. the things we can do with

imaging are phenomenal and getting better. and the efforts to understand clinical types and the advent of how -- electronic health records. all of these things are coming together in it with i would have not imagined in my lifetime, but we are not nurturing that discovery in the way we could be , and it is particularly troubling and oftentimes really .iscouraging what is your chance? if you have a great idea about cancer research and its preclinical and it is not something where you are working institute, what is the chance that your grant is going to get funded? it is about one in six. traditionally, over the most of the last 50 years it has been one in three. in the cancer institute, i think

one in 10, i think even lower. >> into the rest of that discussion with tonight's director dr. francis collins tonight at 8:00 eastern here on c-span. , homeland security secretary jeh johnson talks about initiatives in cyber security. he also discussed immigration policies affected by president obama's executive order. this was at the council in arlington, virginia. it is 45 minutes. [applause] >> good afternoon. i was talking to your ceo about how we both served in the pentagon during the clinton

administration and i was reminded of the time that i had their as general counsel of the department of the air force from october, 1991 to january, 2001. it was my first experience working in the pentagon. my first time, really around the military. i had a lot to learn in terms of military culture, acronyms, and military protocol, which as most people in this room know is very strict. who you are in the pecking order , your grade, your civilian equivalent, matters for terms of who gets on the phone first, where you car, where your office is, your acronym, how you are referred to, how people right e-mails to you and everything. it matters for much. i had a lot to learn when i first got to the pentagon in october, 1998.

told, you are a four-star equivalent. i went fromow, being a private law practitioner in manhattan to a four-star equivalent as a civilian presidential appointee in the pentagon. day, will never forget one i was riding in a staff car with a two star general and i was new on the job and i wanted to defer to him and i allowed him to his that in the right rear of the staff car. he said, no, no, sir, you are not allowed to do that. you have to sit right here because you are four-star equivalent and if you do anything other than that, you are degrading your own office and position and that's not there for the people -- that is not fair for the people who work for you. point taken. from that on, i did a careful calculation in my head about things i would have to make judgments on in instant. so this was now a couple years later, maybe a year or two later

and i'm at an air force conference call the corona conference, which the chiefs and the secretary have once or twice a year with all of the four stars in the united states air force. .nd we were having dinner this is at an airbase in florida. we were having dinner at this club, an officer's club, and we were all moving toward our cars, and i was getting on the bus. and the chief of staff of the air force, mike ryan, says jeh, i will give you a ride back to the lodging.to i'm thinking, ok, i'm thinking in my head, i'm a four-star equivalent, but he's the chief of staff of the air force, so that is like four and a quarter. [laughter] and at his car. so i will allow him to get into the right rear of the staff car. so i went around the car to the left-hand side, got in the back of the car on the left-hand side

behind the driver. general ryan got into the driver seat. [laughter] i felt pretty silly. his executive saved me and got into the right front of the car. we set the pledge of allegiance here. i know the pledge of allegiance like everyone does. there was a time when i actually forgot the pledge of allegiance. i hesitate to say this. in new york city they have this wonderful program called "principal for a day" and i was principal for a day at ps 143 and corona, queens, where i went to kindergarten. you get to speak on the pa system and give the morning announcements. i was giving the morning announcements for the principal at ps 143. and she said, now, student, we will have mr. johnson say the pledge of allegiance.

it had been i don't how long since i had said the pledge of allegiance. i'm a trial lawyer. i'm not usually at a loss for words. but i now know how to say the pledge of allegiance. [laughter] talk to you about what is going on the department of homeland security. there is a lot going on. just on with andrea mitchell on msnbc and we had so much to talk about. she had so much to ask you. there is no shortage of things going on. knowst of you in this room , the department of homeland security is the third-largest department of the government with 230,000 personnel, a $60 billion budget -- i will come back to that in a minute. among responsible for, other things, counterterrorism, cyber security, border security, port security, maritime security, aviation security, administration and enforcement ,f our immigration laws

protection of critical infrastructure, protection against chemical and bio threat, protection against nuclear threats against the homeland, protection of our national leaders and response to natural disasters. we include cvp, which is itself the largest federal law enforcement agency in the country, ice in for -- , tsa,ation and customs the coast guard, the secret service, fema, the federal law enforcement training center, and altogether, 22 components. counterterrorism must and will remain the cornerstone of our department and, the reason we reformed right after 9/11 -- the reason we were formed right after 9/11. it's still a dangerous world in terms of the terrorist threat. and the terrorist threat to the homeland is evolving. many of the leaders of core al qaeda responsible for the attack

on 9/11 are either captured or killed. core al qaeda had a relatively conventional command and control structure, but things are becoming more complicated in terms of the terrorist threat. we have seen the rise of al qaeda affiliates. and we've even seen the rise of groups that core al qaeda has isild -- has announced, being the main example. it is the most prominent terror organization on the world stage right now. it represents a serious threat to our homeland. it is a dangerous terrorist organization with at least 31,000 fighters on the ground in iraq and syria. it has acquired territory in iraq and syria. they receive $1 million a day in oficit revenue, and as all you know, they are willing to execute americans because they are americans in a very public and depraved way. sil has called for attacks on

the west. what is new about the terrorist threat over the last 13 years? isil.f course, second, the phenomenon of foreign fighters. itself consists of foreign fighters to a very large degree and the phenomenon of individuals leaving their home country and going to the fight syria for various different with you anding up then having syria to return to their home countries, including this one, and including other countries for which we do not require a visa to come to our country. social media, the rise of social media, the use of the internet by terrorist organizations to recruit and inspire is a relatively new phenomenon compared to where it was 13 years ago. groups now have the ability to recruit without an individual ever going to a terrorist

training camp, or meeting a single other member of that terror organization, or being trained by that organization or accepting a direct order from somebody in a command and control structure. we see the rise, therefore, of lone wolf attacks in various different contexts. ottawa, and, in here in this country from time to time. in my judgment, the lone wolf threat is one that must be taken very seriously, because it could arise at any moment in the homeland, in the united states. our intelligence community does a pretty good job of detecting terrorist threats at their earliest stages from overseas. natureverseas, but the of the lone wolf attack, the independent actor is such that it could occur at any moment with little warning. what are we doing about it? obviously, there has been the military response as part of

international coalition by this government against eiffel --isil and a rack and syria. here at home, we are doing a number of other things, we are responding to threats generally in that region of the world and have enhanced aviation security at what we call last point of departure airports overseas. july i directed that we enhance aviation security at some 18 to 20 airports and we have ratcheted up that number recently, we have enhanced aviation security of people getting on planes that for the united states. we screen and before they get on the planes. pursuing prescreening capability, which some of you may have heard about at last point of departure airports. where the customs presence that you normally see on arrival at jfk or dulles or other international arrival airports will now be forward deployed to airports before you get on the

plane. we have done this now at 15 airports overseas. i want to build more of these. i want to move our homeland .ecurity out beyond our border every chance we have to defend our borders at the 50 yard line versus the one yard line, i want .o try to improve upon we have screened through preclearance something like 16 million people. at the abu dhabi airport, we opened preclearance earlier this year, and in abu dhabi alone we have screened 290,000 passengers and crew and denied boarding at abu dhabi alone this year to 450 individuals, including several on the terrorist screening database. as i announced on november 3, we are requesting more data, more information from travelers who seek to travel to this country from countries for which we do not require a visa in the

system. in general, we have greater information sharing with our allies about individuals a suspicion who seek to travel here. i have asked my staff to assess whether we can obtain more in through therogram various security assurances that they provide to us when neighbor, participants -- when they become participants. here at home, also, we have ramped up -- we have enhanced -- cvee refer to ascve event. , forto cultural centers examples, meet with organizations run the country. it is in chicago, columbus, ohio, minneapolis, los angeles, otherintend to go to

places to talk to community organizations, islamic organizations about reaching young people who have an inclination to turn to violence or who may be inspired by what they read and see put out by terrorist organizations. when we have these engagements, we talk about a range of issues. these community leaders very often want to talk to me about the issues that people in their community have with the .epartment of homeland security profiling at airports, or the enforcement of an -- of immigrationon and laws. we have a range of issues to build trust not only with my department, but components of the federal government as well as state and local law enforcement. given how the terrorist threat to our nation is evolving, it is more and more important that we in my department engaged state and local law enforcement as well as the private sector.

if you see something, say something is, in my judgment, more than a slogan. more and more, we are putting out information bulletins to the private sector about the state of homeland security as we see it. closelyecurity is related to homeland security. over the last 15 years, we have made huge investments in border security. over the last 15 years, we have -- we are now in a place where there are more assets, personal, technology on the border than there ever has been, and we have seen results. in the year 2000, we were at a million, 1.6 million apprehensions on our southern border. apprehensions of those crossing the border illegally are an indicator of total attempts to cross the border illegally. in the year 2000, it was 1.6 million. the last few years it has been

around 400,000, which is a fraction of what it used to be. last year in fiscal 14, it was run 480 house and. -- it was around 480,000. it when at -- it went up principally due to the spike in immigration in texas on the southern border. everyone probably saw the images of the kids crossing our border in the rio grande valley sector. summer'sed last resources into south texas to deal with that phenomenon. we put more people on the border. we cracked down on the smuggling organizations. we began repatriating people faster. the numbers of those coming from central america, guatemala, hundreds, el salvador -- that is where they were all coming from

-- increased, but so did the number of repatriations back to their countries. the high watermark that surge last summer -- for that surge last summer, i can give you a , june 10, 2014. a lot of it is seasonal. migration starts to go up, and then it takes during the early summer, and it goes down when it is hot. last year in the rio grande sector it went up tremendously, and when up on june 10 until the number crossing now is the lowest it has been in two years. it is significantly lower than it was last year. i want to keep in place for purposes of border security and lot of the resources we put on the southern border to prevent this from happening again.

place called dili, texas, on monday to talk about the opening of our new detention center in south texas. it will be the largest immigration detention center we have with the capability to hold up to 2400 people. he must and we should send a message that our borders are not migration andl that people come here, you will be apprehended, detained, and we will send you back to this and with our laws and our values. we are putting in place a southern border campaign strategy. we are eliminating the stovepipes in my department icee cvp does its thing, does its thing. we are going to do with border security in a more integrated fashion where we have task

forces and a task force leader who coordinates the effort in different parts of the country. that plan is underway. i announced on monday in texas the leaders of the three task forces. everyone here knows about immigration executive orders that the president announced on november 20. the thing i would like to stress here is that those executive actions are comprehensive in nature. immigrantation, the accountability aspect of it, the deferred aspect of it, has received a lot of attention. in my judgment and in the judgment of our office of legal counsel, we have the legal authority to fix our broken immigration system in a variety of ways, including deferred action. from my homeland perspective, we want to encourage people who are in fact not removal priorities and have not been for years. not bere people who will

deported, we do not have the resources, and a have become integrated members of society, removalhey are not priorities, criminals, i want to know who they are, i want them to come out of the shadows. so we are offering people consistent with our legal authority opportunity to come out of the shadows the must submit to a background check, and be held accountable if they had been in this country five years. they have children who are u.s. citizens or lawful permanent residents, and they are not criminals, they have not been convicted of serious crimes. there is a fair amount of excitement in the community about this program. and i expect that we will have a lot support from mayors, members of congress, and others who will assist in encouraging people to apply. there are other aspects of our executive actions. there is an emphasis on the apprehension of recent arrivals.

our actions are not for those who might come here in the future illegally or who came here this year. borders an emphasis on security, which is what i talked about a moment ago. there are ways in which we can facilitate employment in high-tech, in the high-tech industry, which we've done. they're facilitating the issues on green cards, moving your project delays -- removing your credit delays with green cards. in cyber security, everyone is aware here of the recent attack on sony. i said on tv about two hours ago that this attack is a serious attack. we are not at this point ready to identify who we believe is responsible, but the u.s. government is taking this attack kerry seriously. anis an attack on a company,

attack on its employees, and frankly it is an attack on the freedoms that we enjoy in this country, the freedom of an entertainer or an artist to make something, though it may be controversial, and the freedom of people to go see it. we're reviewing a range of options for how we will respond to this attack. i am pleased in the meantime that our congress, working in bipartisan fashion, has passed several pieces of legislation to strengthen and bolster the department's role in cyber security. s2519, which codifies the authority of dh is to provide assistance in cyber security to the private sector. act ofthe modernization 2014, which codifies the authority of the department to assist other federal agencies. , the payroll form

act, which includes the ability to enhance hiring and pay within my department for a cyber security workforce. these bills passed just last week, with the leadership of senator tom coburn, sign that senator tom carper, and others working in a partisan fashion. i applaud their ability to do that, to strengthen my department's cyber security mission. tsa, john pistole has been the leader, the administrator of years.r the last 4 1/2 we had his retirement ceremony yesterday. john has done a remarkable job. tsa is in a better place as result of john's good work. i said that yesterday. amazingly, tsa has enhanced

aviation security and is more popular with the american public through programs like tsa pre-check. i suspect most people in this room are members of tsa pre-check, just looking at this crowd. [laughter] for a background check, you get on a shorter line. you do not have take your belt off, your shoes off, you do not have to empty out your pockets as much. the same time tsa preach it enables us to focus on the class of travelers we know less about. an amazing statistic, which i cite every chance i get, about tsa's screening efforts. 2014, first 10 months of i saw this public and i decided i want to talk about it myself. at first 10 months of 2014, airports in the united states, that you go to, tsa sees from carry-on luggage of people about

to get on commercial airplanes that you fly on 1,855 firearms. 1,470 --one of which was loaded -- over 3000 weapons of one type or another. we seized these in the first 10 months of 2014. afterou see a tsa officer this conference and you are going back home, please thank him. the leadership of craig fugate, has come a long way, and is a remarkable job. jobve seen fema on a personally coordinating response to various different types of disasters come a tornadoes, mudslides. they do a remarkable job. today we are releasing the recommendations that an independent panel has made to me concerning the united states secret service. i appointed a panel in october to take an outside independent

look at the role of the secret service. that panel has reviewed the recommendations with me. we will be releasing a summary of those recommendations later today. in my judgment, the panel's recommendations are astute, thorough, and fair. fundamental change is needed at the secret service, though they do a remarkable job of protecting the president, the first family, and other national leaders. they do a remarkable job of protecting world leaders who come to new york, the general a summary of the you and every year. they are the best protection service in the world. no other protection service can do with the secret service does. it is an organization that is in need of some change. and so it is incumbent upon the leadership of the secret as ace, as well as me, cabinet secretary of the department that oversees the secret service, to bring about

the change and make sure that the change is sustained, and we are going to do that. some of the recommendations that were made were in fact recommendations made in years past, that were never acted upon. so i am committed to making sure we get that job done. a are in the midst of recapitalization of the coast guard fleet. i'm excited about the new leadership of the coast guard, and on the management front there are a number of things we are doing and the department since i have been secretary over the last year. i was sworn in on december 23 last are, so it is almost exactly a year. we have embarked upon a unity of , to bring about more unity, for a more efficient, strategic acquisition and budget process regular on in the budget cycle, we are doing that now, the deputy secretary and i have embarked upon an

aggressive campaign to improve morale. i think we are starting to see improvements already. we have brought back to secretary's awards program which had been suspended and gone dormant since 2008. so thank people for their work every chance we get. we are thanking our workforce are the important contributions to homeland security. this morning in fact i was out in our parking lot, at our headquarters, at 7:30 this one, handing out candy canes to work as an seo arrived. they were quite surprised. on november 17, and this is inside baseball, but i'm proud of it, the department of homeland security received an unqualified audit opinion from our outside auditors, kpmg, the second time in history in the department, second straight year, though our department has for 11en in existence users, that we have received an unqualified opinion. many of you expect an unqualified audit opinion from

your auditors. in government that is not always the case. given my department is 11 years includes a number of financial systems, and unqualified opinion is remarkable, and i congratulate our cfo community for doing that. is theld like to make nibus doess -- crom not include the department of homeland security. my department is still operating on a c.r., which will expire on february 27. that puts homeland security in a very troublesome in position for the following reasons. it is disruptive and it creates uncertainty in our homeland security workforce and in our programs. arrangement, the deal that was made with congress. overall it was a good thing that

we not have a government shutdown, but we need to come back to my department and its missions and fund them in february. in cannot -- fund them every. we cannot engage in new start while we are operating under a c.r. i cannot pay for less summer's surge of resources to deal with the spike in migration in south texas last summer. there's still a bill for that. we asked for a supplemental. we have not received support from congress. that bill gates to be paid and we need to pay for sustaining those resources going forward, at the new detention facility we opened this week. we cannot pay for new investment in border security technology until we have an appropriations bill, and we cannot find a majority of dhs non-disaster grants until we have an appropriations bill. and there are a number of other respects in which we are on in terms of some of our

very important homeland security initiatives. it is key we get one. the good news front, a year ago there were a number of vacancies in the department of homeland security in senior-level position. we now have including myself over the last 12 months, thanks to the hard work of the white house, the senate, 13 senate -confirmed presidential appointments to the department in leadership positions over the last year. any secretary whom you are looking at a new deputy secretary, a new commissioner of cvp, a new under secretary for nppd, a new under secretary for science and technology, a new under secretary for intelligence and analysis, general frank taylor, a new inspector general, john roth, a new director of

cis, a new deputy administrator of fema, and new commandant of the coast guard, a new vice commandant of the coast guard, and just last week a new assistant secretary in charge of immigration and customs enforcement. we also have in non-senate-confirmed appointment's a new assistant secretary for legislative affairs and a new assistant secretary for public affairs. we have one nomination left pending, and undersecretary for management, who happens to be a former client of mine. the retired vice president for administration of johnson & who has impressed virtually every senator he has met. he will be a great addition to our team. i hope he will be confirmed early in the new year. it is no accident that i was the somebody who

vice president for administration of johnson & johnson, which is a large decentralized health care opening, with operating components. in terms of congressional oversight, it is still the case we have something like over 108 committees and subcommittees of congress that report to exert oversight over my department. and we received a lot of compliments from members of congress on both sides of the aisle. for this we have improved our response time to congressional inquiries and letters. we have developed some good bipartisan relationships on the hill in my judgment, although i have testified now in 12 months. i have testified 12 times for congress, which keeps me busy. i believe we have improved our relations and our relationships with congress and leaders on the hill. in conclusion, i would like to judgment the role of my department and the role of

the secretary of homeland security is to strike the right talents between -- alan's between geomet -- -- balance between command security and our values and liberties. first instinct very often of a security expert is to rush to the harshest form of security. for example, if there is some sort of risk to aviation mayrity, the first instance read two ricardo carry-on luggage, no food, no utensils, no jackets, nobody gets up to go to the men's room, and you can create a risk-free commercial flight, but it will be a miserable flight and will be an unnecessary burden on the traveling public. i would like to tell people that erect more walls, or screening devices, build higher walls, higher fences, interrogate more people in the

name of homeland security, but you would live in a prison. and so in this country we put a premium on freedom of movement, freedom of association. we cherish diversity. we cherish our freedoms. we cherish our privacy. so homeland security means striking a balance, which is what we seek to do every day on your behalf. i tell my work that there is no more important mission and the safety of the american people and the security of the homeland. i'm pleased to have the opportunity to talk to this group some of because i know there are many of you in this group who help support us in our mission. and we look forward to working with you. i am glad to have the opportunity to to be here so i can see you in the flesh and i can meet you, and i look forward to a productive working relationship in the future, and i want to say thank you and happy holidays to everybody here. thanks a lot.

>> how would you like to do this? >> i will look for questions from tsa member companies. thehank you for taking time to join us today. and happy holidays. you outlined an impressive track record of the 22 agencies within the department, but many would say there is still room for improvement in terms of the integration of those. >> i would agree. i would be the first to agree. >> and you issued a directive of that effect, an initiative. could you take a little time to speak to what progress you have seen in terms of that

integration and what things you still would like to see to create a more -- we have created a decision-making process within the department, which is typically chaired by the deputy secretary, to bring forward various different decisions that are made with the input of all the components sitting around the table. concerns our budget process and a host of other issues. that process is already in place. we have routine discussions, not just normal staff meetings, but routine discussions around the table at department headquarters where i bring together component leadership to talk about a variety of it issues as recently as yesterday. we are in the development phase of our southern border campaign strategy, which indispensable he involves a discussion of coast

guard leadership, the leadership of ice, the leadership of cvp, in the leadership of cis. they are in my office frugally. and the development of my executive actions, that involved a discussion that went on for eight months with my component leadership. that was not something that we developed simply by me and my immediate staff at the edges had hs headquarters. there is a discussion that involved the leadership of the components last summer when we were dealing with a surge in south texas. aat routinely involved coordinated effort and a task a border patrol official, the number two official in border control, in coordination with cis, ice, coast guard, and fema.

met with the leadership charged with responsibility for dealing with border security involved leaders of those components. there is still in judgment -- in my judgment a lot of work to do. the department is 11 years old. think of where the department of defense was in 1958, 1959. the department is 11 years old, but we did a merger, a very 2002 corporate merger in of a lot of different components of our government. i believe it was a good thing. when you think about where all these different components were scattered across the federal but we needefore, to do more to eliminate the stovepipes. it is still pretty amazing to me how much we function and think in terms of stovepipes. i think we can do a better job. theout sacrificing uniqueness and the culture of each of the components.

>> i'm with a law firm. i have twp quic questions. -- two quick questions. to what degree does the homeland security department coordinate their efforts with canada, because the terrorists at 911 came through canada? my second question is are you into drones, because they can do all kinds of things today, and they play into homeland security. i can give you my dhs answer or my dod answer. i will give you my dhs answer. i will start with your second question first. -- we are moving generally to a risk-based strategy for homeland security.

risk-based strategy was a hallmark of aviation security led by john pistole at tsa for the last couple of years. but as we get better at technology, surveillance equipment, weekend moved to a risk-based strategy for border security as well where you do not have literally border patrol agents and walls across every inch of the southwest border. that is not feasible and it is usually expensive and the taxpayers do not want to pay for that. so with our intelligence capability and our technology, which includes aerial surveillance, we can and we should move to a more effective and efficient way to patrol border security. appropriatewith protections for privacy and civil liberties, i think aerial surveillance is a good thing. that is number two. number one, we're in constant

partnership with my canadian counterparts about our shared border interest. could we do a little better? yes, and so mr. blaney and i, my canadian counterparts, we have onmitted to working together sharing information about individuals of suspicion and creating more of a partnership environment. i think it is good now, but i would like to see it gets better. for the sake of our shared border interest. we are in close cooperation there. two very important international relationships, canada and mexico. i spend a lot of time with my canadian and mexican counterparts. i spent time with my mexican counterpart two days ago in mexico city. so -- mr. secretary, let me ask you

about the sony case and the hacking. from your perspective and as the department has looked at it, what is the actual significance and invocation of what happened in the sony situation -- >> a very serious attack. we know that the company itself was affected. we know that employees of the company were affected. information, movies that the company was not ready public were made,. so it is a very serious attack. to consider at range of serious options, which we are doing right now in the u.s. government, about how to

respond to it. and i would not want this type of attack to be a wave of the future. we are considering a range of options about how to respond. in addition, there is also an opportunity -- this is also something that should heighten awareness of our private sector partners. right now andgov there's information about how to increase -- this is a term i learned within the last year -- cyber hygiene, but there is a role to play for less sophisticated companies in cyber security. the big firms, particularly in the financial services sector, know and understand cyber security and the thing that they benefit from is information sharing with the u.s. government . there are a lot of companies out there that are not as sophisticated that need to be,

and dhs is in a position to help , and weh cyber hygiene continually offer this information to the public, and it is up to people in corporate america to take advantage of it. and we are willing to partner with a lot of companies to do that. so that, plus i am very pleased with the cyber security legislation that just passed congress, which i think will help strengthen our department's mission, puts us in a good place, but there is a role for private companies when and at the same like this comes to public light. >> when an episode like this comes to public life. thank you. >> here's a look at some of the programs you will find christmas day on c-span network. festivities start at 10:00 the

lighting of the national chris mistry, followed by the white decorations. after 12:30, celebrity activists talk about the causes. jeb:00, samuel alito and bush on the bill of rights and the founding fathers. on c-span2 at 10:00, venture into the art of good writing with steve pinker. super -- andof a then see a side of a superhero. on american history tv on c-span3 at 8:00, the fall of the berlin wall with footage of george bush and bob dole, with speeches from presidents john kennedy and ronald reagan. at noon, dachshund experts on fashion choices -- at noon, fashion experts on first lady fashion choices.

thantom brokaw on his more 50 years of reporting on world events. then on the c-span networks. for complete schedule, go to www.c-span.org. >> q and a is 10 years old. to mark a decade of compelling conversations we are featuring one interview from each year of the series. our 2005 interview with kenneth feinberg, who oversaw the compensation funds for the victims of 9/11 and wrote a book about it. ♪ >> this week on "q&a" our gues