something, get something done. and this particular instance today, talking u.s. peacekeeping, last week, i went to the u.n. headquarters to meet with the undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations. i was struck by the challenges , by thecekeepers face number of countries where we have peacekeepers deployed, and by the possibilities of peacekeeping in terms of protecting fragile countries from falling into being failed states. i have supported peacekeeping efforts in terms of appropriations support and they viewed as a positive way to build peace. acrossegations made

dozens of different missions for decades are simply shocking and unacceptable. it is the u.s. that is footing most of the bill for the peacekeepers who are committing these atrocities against men, women, and children. if the people who we are funding and supporting to the peacekeepers cannot be trusted our support for peacekeeping is at risk of doing more harm than good. listen to act, not just to bring an end to sexual exploitation. simply providing peacekeeper and police does not fulfill a member state's obligation. it is the responsibility of

member states to oversee the appropriate units. it is a struggle. contributing countries are deploying in order to get troops paid we are not attracting the best, most capable forces from around the world. before we make progress, we have to institute meaningful accountability for nations and their peacekeepers that connect these crimes. i've been forward to exploring ways we can help the u.n. push for accountability that is meaningful to and these crimes. crimes.d these ambassador, tell me what training methods have proven most effective so far?

all panel members to answer this question. what has been successful to -- is the training of the many of the contributing countries that sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war yet what training is most effective at preventing that he ? if you would allow me to say i want to reiterate a point that general rothstein made which is that this is not fundamentally about a training issue. there is no training that will guarantee that this will not occur. when you look at the troops committing abuses, some of them are among the best trained. we know that they have explicit

components of sexual exploitation prevention in the training methods. ultimately, it is an accountability issue. there is no contributing country that is immune from these abuses, it is how they deal with it that provides prevention. how effective is naming and shaming? a number of implicated countries are close allies of hours. -- of ours. i think accountability matters before training. how effective is naming and shaming? >> thank you. i like to avoid the phrase naming and shaming because i see naming --n

accountability. it really is a watershed for us to be able to identify the countries and to be able to follow directly with them and the passivity that has existed, the sweeping under the carpet. , tolack of accountability not allowed anymore senator isaacson talked about having a big stick and you talked about money. to be able to say that you will not participate in peacekeeping any longer if you do not all troops accountable, if you do not sit -- report back to the security council, if you do not ,rosecute these allegations that is ultimately the u.n.'s big stick.

could she did in countries will overtake jurisdiction over their troops. they can choose to have a full appropriate response or not. if they do not, they should not be part of peacekeeping. >> i could not agree more. i am ashamed that we have been supporting peacekeepers that are doing horrible things. we want to find a mechanism for accountability that is appropriate. what sorts of engagement accountability are most effective for troops? >> [inaudible] apologize. let me start by echoing what the ambassador said. training is necessary. . do not think it is efficient this is broader than training in

a belief we have to train through the training that we provide, we think it is pretty good. what we work to do in our training, we start in a classroom. we moved to scenarios. we moved exercises. we focus on unit leadership. we were closely with the united nations to find the best practices. we make sure they understand the policy. all of that will not be sufficient. i would? what ambassador -- i would echo when ambassador coleman said. just because you have a rotten individual or unit does not mean you want to disengage from the country. as we remain focused on future outcomes, if that country will every want to effective for the better, we want to be involved in the training to make it better and

not walk away. those of the difficult decisions. >> i am looking forward to the second panel where we will hear about you when suppression of whistleblowers and the likelihood that these abuses are more widespread. thank you. there ought toe, be some way for us to figure out a way to surgically deal with this in a bipartisan manner that gets at this issue, not bringing in other issues. we ought to be on a figure out a way to do it. senator flake will ask senator shaheen to ask her questions. testimonyou for your and for the work you are doing. with whatfollow up

you said about how important it is for the u.n. to hold countries accountable and to ask, has ever been done? do we have examples of where that has occurred and we have seen a change in behavior and if that is the case, why haven't we instituted a process whereby that is on a regular basis? >> thank you. u.n. has consistently followed up with the contributing countries when allegations come to their attention. they have documented and presented evidence. they have followed up with a contributor countries. too often, they are met with silence. withrankly, have acted timidity in pushing back on the

tcc and demanding action. >> that is the question i am asking. is there a case, can you cite a time when the u.n. has demanded action is taken to putting country has failed to act where forave denied them funding continuing to contribute to peacekeeping efforts? >> i know of a number of examples. some of them have happened with u.s. urging. haiti hadyans in sexual abuse allegations. we know about them at the time. there was not a website, this was not published, but we learned about it. we engaged bilaterally. they did take action. they held a public trial. the food victims from haiti to

the trial. 80 toy flew victims from the trial. when i went -- they flew victims from haiti to the trial. the u.n. brought it to the highest levels of attention in the south african army in the delicate. .t does happened the issue is that it doesn't always happen. too often, they get no response from the tcc. when that happens, if we do not know about it, or if another member state doesn't, it falls through the cracks. >> one of the issues raised is that there is no agency responsible just for this.

is that the assessment of the panel that if we had a person in charge of just making sure that when there are allegations that troop contributing countries are taking action doll people responsible? would that help solve the problem? reportindependent panel in excruciating detail catalogs how information was diffused, fragmented, the bureaucratic inponse that so appalled us response the u.n. has appointed a person as a special envoy to deal with the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse and we welcome that appointment right we think that that will help provide a focal point within the u.n. said that there can never again be an excuse that the diffusion of responsibility allowed critical information and

-- fall through the cracks to occur. we absolutely welcome that. >> has she taken any action? appointed.ecently right now, she has been in the , theal african republic democratic republic of congo. i think you will see action coming out of her, from her office. sen. corker: the leahy legislation that would have the united states denied assistance. is this something that has been done in particular instances where there have been documented cases of sexual exploitation and abuse? have we actually seen the united states deny aid to countries you have failed to take action? >> certainly will we have credible evidence, those things

that fall under that lady laws level individual unit when we have that information that goes into our database that we work both through the nation in countries when those individuals potentially come of her security assistance with the united states as well as databases back here. specifict have a example that if there is somebody who has credible allegations, they were going the database and we would not work with that unit or individual and that process is in place. >> i am asking a broader question. have we actually denied aid to countries who have contributed troops to peacekeeping missions who have failed to take action with those troops on allegations that have been shown to be true? at the overall country level, we have not suspended to my knowledge and overall -- country. >> should we?

should be considered that action if we see repeated abuses? i would like each of you to respond to that. >> we absolutely have to be ready to consider that. it is important we take it on a case-by-case basis. as i said earlier, from my perspective, it is not so much that an incident happen, it is with the country does about it. if a country lacks the will to follow through on that, because incidents are going to happen -- and so, if the country takes reasonable action of follow-through, then we probably ought to continue working with him. >> i am actually asking if they failed to take action. should we look at suspending aid? >> thank you. it is an important question because we have to think about the leverage that we have in our relations with countries but i

think we have to look at it in a holistic way. most of the assistance we provide to africa is in the health area. we are not in the business of giving out freebies because we want to feel good, we are in the business of providing assistance that meets needs. you have to weigh whether or not it makes sense to cut assistance we are providing to prevent the spread of pandemic disease in response to a countries and ability to deal with sexual exploitation and abuse. in other areas, we are providing the rulee to support of law system and development of capacity to enforce law. i would want to redirect how that is used. tool, not necessarily the two of first resort. you have to look at what the assistance is directed to you. we are try to do that on a case-by-case basis through our

engagement with the countries named in the report and that is an ongoing conversation we will have. just say that if countries are not responding or taking action, they should not be included in a u.n. peacekeeping. therefore our contributions through our peacekeeping assessments should not be going to those countries. that u.s.ly agree engagement to strengthen are great but if there is a willful nonresponsiveness, they should not be part of peacekeeping. >> thank you all. >> senator markey? >> thank you.

can i ask how we deal with the countries from which these soldiers come? we are talking about the but doesof soldiers the country itself need training ? do we need a program that goes to get to thee adults in these countries so that they are taking intervention steps necessary on to be made accountable? those of the people that we have what ise training to -- that program that we may or may not have in place? thank you. you raise a very hard topic. rule, in my

experience, doing tactical training, pre-deployment training is hard but we are pretty good at it as a country. helping to build those backs upons that tactical operations units is more difficult. it is intellectually more difficult. i just came out of a year in afghanistan where my job was to build the afghan air force. now is trying to build their institution so i have lived a little bit of this myself and it is hard work. wheree programs out there we are trying to get after that. in the state department, we have taking a look is at countries, how we can after the institution building that has to back this up -- the rule of law.

the defense department -- i don't want to speak for them because i do not know but i know they are working some of the defense programs. those are the things we are trying to work but it is difficult. it will take a long time because change in our own bureaucracy, think how hard it is to make change happen much less when you are working through a foreign government. we will have to stay at this for a while. >> i do not think you can solve the problem until those leaders in the justice system in the own countries have the proper training and gumption to enforce the laws. these are just young men on the prowl in a foreign country. that is a dangerous thing without proper supervision back home. what would you like to see put on the books? what would you like to see funded?

to teach them with a stick will be could potentially try to have them except as a standard by the proper educational standards. without us having to punish the country. i want to include the thought that we started our effort last month to go to every country on the list, this is part of what we were asking. we want to make sure they understood the gravity of the allegations. them the to impart on importance of following up. third was to open a dialogue about what the country needs in terms of assistance to build up his own ability to investigate and respond. those conversations are at an early level. we only got the information last month that we are going to build

on. those conversations are going to feed back into our decisions about assistance we provide including the law area. we should engage and hopefully we should be funded. where countries are now willing, where they don't have the gumption, those countries should be barred from peacekeeping altogether. i believe that the resolution in the security council that we fought for provides for that kind of banning from peacekeeping. >> let's talk about the countries you think are the worst. give us the worst three countries. so we can just get an idea of what we are talking about.

in terms of their total lack of regard for humans rights violations? worst? give us the three colleaguerefer to my and esther coleman who previously said it is hard to say who is the worst because we are only now in a world movie can identify what countries are doing. --assador: may disagree congo, morocco, cameroon, tanzania, burundi, nigeria, togo, ghana, madagascar, senegal, canada, germany, slovakia, moldova -- do you want to pick three? if you don't want to put in canada, you don't have to?

you might want to give us an idea of where this problem is and it will focus our attention more precisely on what we should start with? we should probably start with the worst in him we can know when we have to have is a project to teach the country how much they should care. would you like to try that, ambassador? what you are saying is important. we need to identify where the problems are. like alooking at a case democratic republic allegations horrific but we think the secretary general did the right thing by sending them home. they are not in peacekeeping anywhere else. at the same time, as part of this focus on the issues, we have seen that the democratic

republic of congo has detained 20 peacekeepers to start trials against them. to the need to see is trials go? several countries you mentioned have started judicial processes or finished them against peacekeepers who were accused. i would say it is too early to answer the question as to who is the worst because we haven't seen -- there you saying congo is as a country that has already received special attention? are there to bring others you and i to tell us if you are going to prioritize your we should be focusing that have been particularly bad? comment.i can troops were repatriated

because of a pattern of abuse. there were so many abuses that they were repatriated. in addition, the republic of troops were also repatriated because of a pattern of abuse. they are two different things going on. one is a pattern of abuse which speaks to a lack of control in the other is a pattern of nonresponsiveness. on that pattern of abuse, has , itgations become apparent is easy to see when there has been a pattern of abuse, in terms of nonresponsiveness, we are only now understanding which thatries have allegations have been pending for a long time where there has been inadequate follow-up and accountability.

lookingprocess, we are at which are those countries and we do not have an answer for you. we will get back to you with that answer. >> it is important for us to .now >> yes. >> you have to narrow it down because senator cardin is saying that we have the ability to think creatively about all of the other relationships that we have with the country that can help to get the leaders who general austin was sitting are reluctant to have their judicial system fully engaged in nature that they are accountable and that the soldiers are accountable -- the military is accountable -- >> and we look at it in the same way. >> when will you have that list together?

that would be a great hearing to just have. those worst offenders focused upon by the committee. >> are you talking about highest incidence or nonresponsiveness? >> it is going to be a combination. i ensure it is one in the same. >> not necessarily. that is what we are trying to untangle. there are some countries that pretty significant allegations against them. you now see the democratic republic of congo putting 20 people on trial. so taking quite an aggressive action about that. it is very early stages of that. a lot of times it takes in fact quite a long time for these

things to work their way through their judicial system. the point i want to emphasize is that having a week judicial system, having a process that doesn't meet our standards, all rule of law is no excuse for not taking action. tcc that hasone deployed to a peacekeeping mission that doesn't have the ability to impose discipline -- >> we are agree with you. what the chairman is saying is we want to help you. there is no excuse. just tell us who they are, what their excuses are, and we will try to reinforce it because there is the power of the purse which the congress does have to focus their attention. >> thank you. to clarify, this has

been helpful exchange. the united nations can discipline a country that doesn't take appropriate steps by denying them the right to be a tcc. the human resolution speaks directly to that. there doesn't appear to be any direct remedy that the united than yourn take other public information that is made available. that is why we are looking for ways in which we can help in regards to getting action taken in regards to impunity. i just wanted to clarify that. it is unbelievable that we had a report in 2005 and you

just now-- not you -- publishing information. it speaks to terrible leadership, lack of concern, toughingness to deal with issues. i think it speaks favorably of the human leadership -- i do not think it speaks favorably of the human leadership. -- of the u.n. leadership. >> were there provisions dealing with redress of the mru -- redress -- redrafts of the mou's. ?

if that is not part of the security council resolution, is that an area we should focus on? >> it is not part of the security council resolution because those decisions are not taken up in the security council, they're taken up in the general assembly. the model mo you on which all of them are based is renegotiated every several years. it will be up for review coming in 2017 and it is absolutely an area that is ripe for review, for making more explicit actions regarding sexual exploitation. bipartisanon some strategy, you know, strong demand. it is something that i think we would all probably agree with that is the only question i have. i appreciate. with want to follow up

this panel? upset --e are all very i think you are too -- i know that typically the administration doesn't particularly appreciate input from folks who sit on the side of the dais. in this case, maybe they would welcome that. i look forward to looking with -- working with members on both sides of the aisle to figure out a way to put additional pressure on -- i have to tell you, if i had to go to work and deal with nations, i would have to find other lines of work so we thank you for attempting to morass that is so ineffective. we thank you for your efforts. we appreciate your efforts to nature that training is done at

a better level, the work you are doing at the state department. we do want to assist you in penalizing countries that tolerate this and do not do the appropriate, do not take the appropriate action so we will be working with you very closely for the next several weeks. with that, we hope you have an .pportunity on the next panel we will all the record open until the close of business on friday if you can respond to questions that may come your way in writing. thank you for your service. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> we are ready for the second panel.

most of us had a chance to read it last night or this morning. thank you for being here. i would like to recognize the three witnesses, miranda brown, .ho has powerful testimony brown.could begin, dr. thank you both for being here. >> good afternoon. i am a former australian diplomat. as the chief of the eastern southern africa section in december 2012 and occupied this position until 2014. i have experience reporting human rights violations including sexual abuse in a peacekeeping environment.

i will give you an insider's perspective. field, experience in the i know that sexual abuse in peacekeeping missions is vastly underreported. with bottlenecks for reporting and various stages. there are multiple barriers to reporting sexual abuse. the victims, many of whom are minors, no there is a likelihood the perpetrators will go unpunished and fear discrimination, stigmatization, and retaliation. officers inights peacekeeping missions are usually first responders and hence the internal reporters of the abuse. they have their own fears about their physical safety as well as their job security. there ismy view is significant structural barriers to reporting abuse by peacekeepers and you and personnel. the current set up which relies

on humans rights officers assuming the rules as reporters to theequate, poses risk victims, and is inherently biased against reporting. such barriers are exacerbated by the inadequate u.n. internal justice provisions or protections to whistleblowers. an example of these barriers is the case of anders -- who abuses to french authorities on the basis that the abuse was ongoing and the leadership had not taken any steps to stop it over a period of many months. the abuse continued until two thousand 14 when he disclose it to the french authorities. in 2015, he was suspended and placed under investigation for his disclosure. shortly after, i blew the whistle to officials in geneva

about the sexual abuse in the central african republic and the treatment of him. despite the fact that his suspension was deemed unlawful, a panel is automated and. he remained under investigation until january 2016. these actions are having will continue to have a chilling effect on the reporting of abuses in peacekeeping missions and have badly damaged the reputation his stature of the united nations. why the secretary-general has do notounced measures -- address the structural barriers provideting, nor protections for u.n. staff to report wrongdoing by the institution. these measures do not address the u.n. internal accountabilities for abuse authorities -- and that is referred to just to dishonor not

being transparent -- they should apply to the human leadership. many of the measures you have her today should apply to the human leadership because 70 percent of the abusers appear to have been committed by -- by unry nonmilitary personnel. i recommend the committee consider the following from the human leadership demand that all victims of sexual abuse by peacekeepers are offered immediate protection that is not currently the case. recognize and address the barriers and reporting sexual abuse by peacekeepers and personnel. systemwide procedures that provide meaningful training to all staff working in peacekeeping missions on reporting sexual abuse by peacekeepers and other personnel. institute mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse of the appropriate authorities. and address the inadequate whistleblower protections afforded to u.n.

.taff institute zero-tolerance for all officials whose conduct fails to meet highest standards of ethics and integrity and apologize. from the state department, demand reforms from the u.n., calld zero-tolerance and for the removal of all senior officials whose conduct feels to me the highest standards. recognize that the staff are not adequately protected from retaliation for reporting sexual abuses by peacekeepers were personnel. seek amendment to the u.n. whistleblower protections as detailed in my recent statement. implement the provisions of the u.s. consolidated for appropriations at 2016 section 70481 whistleblower protection and ensure that the next secretary-general is committed to eradicating sexual abuse in peacekeeping and is committed to protecting whistleblowers from

retaliation. finally i would like to emphasize that my motives for testifying today for blowing the whistle on abuse of authority and sexual abuses to protect the u.n. as an institution and to uphold the principles on which it was founded. this has come as a considerable personal sacrifice -- i lost my job and i remain hopeful that the high commissioner for human rights will reinstate me in my position. i hope that my testimony today will not impact on the high commissioner's decision. thank you. thank you for inviting me. i served as the president of the better world campaign which was to promote a stronger relationship between the u.s. and the united nations. havee previous witnesses made clear, there is a cancer within the united nations and it must be cut out. the scourge of sexual

exploitation by peacekeepers continues. the victims of this abuse are real and the consequences are as well. ago, a 16 numeral grove was allegedly raped by a peacekeeper from," in the hotel computer what is sickening violation not only of an innocent girl but the trust placed in a peacekeeper by the united nations in the military that sent to help the people of the central african republic. hearing to her ventas reports emanating, it would be natural to want to withdraw all peacekeepers before more damage can be done. to protectinstinct each be balanced against the good the peacekeepers continue to do. the u.n. mission has played a critical role in the conduct of free democratic elections which have led to the swearing in of a new vision presented committed to rebuilding the war-torn country into successful legislative elections which just

concluded. trained nearlyve 200,000 children on avoidance of gift left work -- a by the warring factions. as a result, human rights laws issued a report which indicated that the human peacekeepers will be critical to disarming rebel factions in reestablishing security. the question is, how do we support the fight over being done by peacekeepers in the car and elsewhere d -- inakar and elsewhere -- in dakar and answer? ensuring justice for victims -- if they are to root out the bad actors with a veil from france, or the developing world militaries that are the backbone of you and peacekeeping, he must show the new policies just announced by the u.n. and endurance by the security council will be implanted with unshakable resolve. tissue byn shameless the secretary-general of countries charged with exploit

-- sexual this petition in abuses ground breaking for the first time in the history of you and peacekeeping transparency is now at long last the corner of the un's response. secretary-general has suspended payments to troop contributing countries whenever there is a double allegations against one of its troops. he has repatriated entire military contingents to their home countries where there was evidence of widespread and systematic abuse again a first. so, long overdue these actions of the right course. even so, it even though they are endorsed by the security council, these measures will mean nothing unless they are actively inconsistently enforced . ' that will render some countries sending on offending contingence's title the a black ae on the global stage but lost important compensation to that conjure that a nation. and for those countries where there is evidence of widespread

or systematic sexual exploitation abuse, they should joining newrom missions. the u.s. must say no on deployment until demonstrable progress is made. the secretary-general has the power to do that and he must wield it and the security council must back them up. there are certain to consequences. one year from now, the security council may choose to intervene in a country facing a crisis with lives in a line international communities already went to the u.n. to quickly deploy peacekeepers. only a few countries will offer treatment of the several will have a checkered human rights record. while there will be justifiable demands to deploy a robust force, the human must hold firm and reject any nation with a record of widespread or systematic abuse. it stands, there is a severe shortage of well-trained troops for a growing number of increasingly complex and dangerous missions. the u.n. is challenged to recruit the best trained and

equipped troops. if peacekeeping is ultimately free -- from the stain of sexual abuse, the responsibility must not sit with the u.n. alone -- other member states need to answer the call. last year's peacekeeping summit resulting in pledges of 40,000 more peacekeepers from a diverse group of countries ensuring these places actually materialize in the troops deployed to hardship -- such as instrumental in backing up the denial of certain countries over the records of sexualized patient and abuse. in conclusion, it is absolutely shameful that it is a high-profile's explanation in a queue's expedition and accuse cases elsewhere to grab the world attention to this crisis and to pull open the curtain to the culture of impunity which exists in the human peacekeeping. the u.n. and members of the security council are now seized with developing and implementing solutions to this crisis. we have to make it right because

we have no other choice. i would be happy to answer any questions you might have. -- >> thank you for your testimony. if you could briefly, could you share with us why you are at present not employed? the reason my contract was not renewed was the act of retaliation because i am the whistleblower. you said something that i think we may have missed an opportunity with the last panel to pursue as much as we should. that 70% of the pieces actually take place by civilians that were directly for the united nations. is that correct? >> that is my understanding it will be useful to check with the yuan on that statistic. if so, i would suggest that all of the measures that are being applied to the troop contributing countries should also apply to the 70% to the u.n. staff as well. did you agree with the order

of magnitude taking place at the civilian level with direct -- >> there are definitely cases were civilian employees are engaged in sexual exploitation. the 70% figure strikes me as i been at four to work with you to figure out how that number was determined but i also agree with the doctor's recommendation which is any tools used to investigate the charges of sexualized rotation and abuse involving military personnel should also -- >> i would think that we spent a theof time talking about sovereignty if you will in the countries dealing with the room but the fact is we should spend more time -- we are doing now -- on the civilian side itself. i am looking through the list and i may not be catching every single one that i think i could be. it appears to me that in every single case relative to a

civilian that i have access to here is one with suspension but in almost every .ase, it is a pending issue can you share with me why that would be the case and not --? >> i cannot comment on the figure would obviously my suspect is there is a lack of accountability inside the u.n. just as there has been for the troop contributing countries. that does need to be addressed. >> you are out in the field. you were out in the field. u.n. that at the would cause them with their own employees that were directly for the united nations to tolerate this into not be more forceful in a ensuring that this is not happening? >> i think that wanted to consider here is that but is a level of attention

is now being paid notably by police and military contributing countries but also by civilians is unprecedented in part because of their into situations coming out. so we as a major contributor to the regular budget in 20% -- peacekeeping -- need to insist the u.n.employee of the absolutely subject to the same forms of discipline and dismissal in justice as we are insisting upon intercountry bidding countries. >> if i could, why would that be the case? just naturally, why is it that the united states needs to apply pressure on the u.n. for the u.n. to want to prosecute people who work for them who are involved in sexual exploitation? i do not get it. a couple of factors at work. and of which justifies it.

which is one factor is that so many of the appointments within the human system are derivative of specific countries wanting to play particular employees and so that creates this member state politics within the u.n. system -- the 190 three member states -- that sometimes makes it difficult for member states to want their employees to be punished. that is not an excuse. i think of the dynamic is sometime at work and in a very unhelpful and wrong way. >> and that is the same thing that occurs on the troop site, right yeah go they have member states who do not want actions taken against their own military personnel -- >> for sure. in the case of our to contribute countries, it is more specific because they specifically would not contribute troops to you in peacekeeping missions if they do not have total control of the discipline of their troops so if all discipline cases be adjudicated jointly between the u.n. and the computing countries, then in

fact, many nations that are currently the backbone they choose to withdraw. and maybe the price that we have to pay and the security council have to figure out in a more systematic way out of the camera countries into peacekeeping that sure that theake peacekeepers carry out their way in an ethical >> heck of a to>> do otherwise is -- your perspective, why -- why does this culture exist why would the u.n. be reticent to do with? >> i hate to say it but it reminds be a little bit of child sexual abuse in the catholic church. i think there is only now been a atlization of the problem the senior levels in the u.n.. there have been coverups. i hope that this is an exposure thereesult in changes but needs to be some structural changes particularly in terms of reporting because at the moment,

you have multiple conflicts of andrest at multiple levels just collecting the information is problematic. the human rights officers in the field often face pressures on them not to report or for example, they may -- they are having to report in the case of the u.n. staff, they're having to report on colleagues. in the have to report and their supervisors. they are not in place to prevent them from receiving retaliation. most of them are junior staff on short-term contract. they could be not renewed, they could be transferred, there is no incentive for them to report in a way for them to report under copies. there is no protection. following on from that, the internal structures for example the office of internal oversight services lacks independence. there are so many problems in relation to accountability within the u.n.. these problems can be addressed.

i think they can be addressed but in a studio recognition first and that is what i am calling for. there must be recognition by the leadership that there are internal problems that have to in relationcluding to obviously these abuses that are being committed by the staff because of protection for the staff to report the abuses. my time is up, but, are you telling me that with this report 2005 whichut in apparently was somewhat of a chattering at the time -- are you telling me that leadership at the united nations has just become aware of this problem you ?ou >> no. it has taken them some time to actually act on it. i hope they are going to act on it. they must do so.

challenge is at the highest levels of the you would have been about this even before 2005. the issue of whether u.n. officials knew about sexual exploitation and abuse in or taking action as the ambassador there is ongoing dialogue for over a decade between the united nations and to contribute in countries about ongoing cases of sexual exploitation and abuse but i case to has taken this a human can type of a commitment. video thing to consider here, un security council for over a decade in both republican and democratic and ministrations pushing for increasing peacekeeping missions -- increasingly complex, large emissions and as a result, when the u.n. comes back and says, there are not enough peacekeepers in the system, there is a real tension between two we approve larger more complex missions we do not really have enough well-trained

soldiers with appropriate command and control to carry out this missions? it is not simply a case of one individual in the u.n. in the whole operation, the security council has been well aware of the situation for over a decade and yet continues to improve larger and more complex missions despite the fact that there are not enough troops in the system. it is complex. >> thank you. anything both of you. dr. brown, i listened to your last comment and i can ensure you that we take the integrity of our hearings pretty seriously so we will very much appreciate will protecte and the integrity of our process. thank you for your participation. i looked at the information provided to us by the united nations from their public website. they show on civilian episode in did and then in 2015, i

some math and they showed 14 which are be about 20%. i don't necessarily believe these are accurate numbers. when you reply i do not know if that is available to us. but we will try. i just had a conversation with my staff and i agree with the senator, we will be asking the first panel additional questions for the record. dealing with the united nations accountability for particularly civilian issues. there are two parts to the united nations' responsibility. one, how they in fact supervise the activities of the participating countries. what they do with the tcc's to watch their conduct. it is not just a matter of sending them home, it is a matter of making sure that they

do not do wrong. that is a supervision responsibility which falls with the united nations. yes, we want to take action against countries that are not responding correctly, but there should be accountability within the united nations itself. secondly, there needs to be certainly responsibility of the united nations to give clear direction to its civilian workforce as to what is expected. to give them adequate training, but to have adequate supervision, so again, so that conduct is clearly understood and a zero-tolerance is understood. if there are violations, that there is accountability. accountability not only in removing those individuals, but holding them responsible for their actions and that may very well require the united nations to have arrangements with its way that it employs its personnel to make sure that

there is accountability for their activities. so i will be asking those types of questions for the first panel in an effort to try to see how we can complete the circle, because i think that you raise a very valid point of, it is fine to say that the tcc's are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, and they should be removed, and i agree with that. but there is also the primary responsibilities with the united nations and those responsible there with how these missions are deployed, supervised, etc. and how the personnel are expected to behave and making sure that those who are carrying that out are held accountable. so, i guess my point is this. have either one of you seen actions taken to deal with what i just said?

is there a clear direction given by the united nations on the civilian personnel? is there clear supervision, clear training, clear ways to get the information on those who are violating, so that they can be removed and held accountable? is there a clear line of responsibility and accountability from the united nations to the civilians that are in these countries in which we have the u.n. missions? mr. yeo: two quick thoughts. first, it is important to note that the secretary general did remove the head of the u.n. mission when these charges first came to light and i think that is the type of accountability that is long overdue and necessary and will hopefully send a signal to future military and civilian commanders that, when missions that are under their supervision, as you said, they are responsible for making sure that the troops and various contingents are actually performing their duties in a principled way.

if they fail to do that, then they need to be dismissed from their job and in the case of the central african republic, that did occur. second of all, in terms of civilian employees, civilian employees that are deployed to all of these missions receive extensive training, human rights training, but as the previous panel indicated, training is not a substitute for appropriate supervision, so in the case of civilian employees we need to ensure that the people who are at the highest levels of each individual mission are fully responsible for the actions of employees and at the earliest possible moment that allegations are raised, of sexual exploitation, that they are reported to the right authorities in the system and active investigations are taken. in fact, the new immediate response teams that the u.n. has established to make sure this

happens within 5-10 days of the occuring, evidence of crimes related to sexual exploitation and abuse are preserved, is deployed in the case of both civilian and military employees. so i could not agree more. mr. cardin: we know that historically, within military command, there has always been a challenge and particularly with colleagues reporting misconduct. we have tried to take action to deal with that. on the civilian side, dr. brown, is there the same type of inherent problems with reporting colleague misconduct? dr. brown: i believe so, yes. and i believe there is the adage, there is a number of other problems. for example, prosecution would require the lifting of immunity of the staff. also, the way the system is currently constructed it would require the u.n.'s office of internal oversight services to investigate. we are talking there about u.n. staff investigating other u.n. staff. there are inherent conflict of

interest within the system that will need to be addressed. mr. cardin: so with the immunity, in other words, they are immune from criminal prosecution in the host country? dr. brown: in theory. mr. yeo: i would like to make a it clear that the secretary-general, in writing, has made it quite clear that no u.n. employee who is subject to sexual exploitation and abuse, if they have diplomatic immunity it will be waived, most civilian employees that are deployed as part of peacekeeping missions actually do not have diplomatic immunity. in either case, the secretary general and the u.n. team has made it clear that diplomatic immunity will not apply. mr. cardin: knowing the countries in which the peacekeeping missions are situated, the capacity to do with these types of issues are limited. dr. brown: that is correct. and i think the going back to the point of the investigation itself, we have an inherent problem because you have a u.n. investigative body investigating possibly quite a senior official in the country.

you have an inherent conflict of interest, and you still have a conflict of interest in my view with the u.n.'s office of internal insight services, investigating tcc, or the discipline and conduct unit investigating it, or even the human rights officer investigating it. when it comes to actually u.n. staff, it is that conflict of interest that is exacerbated and i think that it will need to be addressed. along with the problems inherent in the reporting lines themselves, because there are multiple barriers to this information, moving up, moving up the chain. mr. cardin: the questions i think i would ask, when asked by the united nations, is that what capacity did they build in countries where there are you u.n. peacekeeping missions,

to be able to have the capacity to prosecute those who violate the laws in those countries, on sexual exploitation and abuse? that would be an interesting point, to see how the u.n. is helping the country to be able to hold accountable those who violate these laws. mr. yeo: these employees needed to be repatriated to their home countries and subject to prosecution at home. so there needs to be a prosecution either in country, which is often a challenge, or back home. mr. cardin: but if they are civilians, it would be even more complicated. dr. brown: correct, i think so. mr. corker: back to the pressure you were talking about earlier, where you have these expanded peacekeeping needs that are complex. you have pressure for more of that to occur. i mean, i look at the types of populations, generally speaking, that are being quote, "protected." and, i mean, is there some

institutional disrespect for the types of people that these peacekeeping missions are being sent out to protect, is there something there that we need to understand? mr. yeo: i think the disrespect that occurs is between individual soldiers and the disrespect that comes as a result of individual actions they are taking, the crimes they are committing as a peacekeeper. but having visited many different peacekeeping missions around the world, i am honestly shocked by the willingness of these peacekeepers to serve away from their homes for some time, maybe months, years on end, protecting people they do not even know. and they are doing it at great personal risk when you look at, for instance, those peacekeepers in mali that are battling terrorist elements in mali. there has been dozens of peacekeepers killed there, three french peacekeepers were just killed yesterday. so, it is a complex situation.

i think that most peacekeepers are committed to civilian protection. we had a wonderful american who was deployed to south sudan as part of the peacekeeping mission. and the military showed up at the gates, they demanded that he turn over all of the young men in the camp and he absolutely refused. he stood at the gates and he said, you may not come in. and as a result, the people that day were saved. of course, he from my perspective is a hero. i was in south sudan, there are 200,000 people today living in these camps that largely over we their lives to the fact that we have peacekeepers guarding these camps, trying to do their best to protect the people inside, who would otherwise be killed by other elements in the country. it is very complex. i do not think that there is a culture where they do not want to protect the people that they are supposed to protect.

i think that this is a case of individual soldiers doing wrong and they need to be punished for it. mr. corker: let me ask you this, based on what you just said. are we, do you think at this hearing, getting an unbalanced view of this issue? mr. yeo: no, i do not think so at all. i think what is happening in car, what is happening in mali, and what has happened in terms of sexual exploitation and abuse in other countries is absolutely horrific. and it gives the entire concept of u.n. peacekeeping a bad name. this is well-timed, it needed to occur, and most importantly it needs to occur a year from now, now, this is not going to be fixed overnight and we need to make sure that there is bilateral and multilateral pressure for years to come, so that 10 years from now we are not looking back at this and saying, well, we did this 10 years ago. 10 years from now, peacekeeping needs to be the model for how this is. i know that this is something that jane, who has been appointed by the secretary

general and as you know was a former deputy secretary for the department of homeland securities, is looking at. what are the best practices for training and commanding control to make sure the -- how can we borrow from militaries all around the world, including the united states come in to make sure that we can work with the countries that are the backbone of peacekeeping, to improve their performance? it is a long haul and it will require a lot of bilateral and multilateral pressure. mr. corker: let me just ask my question again. the disrespect i was talking about is, you have the hierarchy of the united nations that has these complex missions and needs more in the way of peacekeepers, yet we are sending out countries that are known to have problems, i'm sorry. where as the senator mentioned, in many places rape is certainly an act of war, it is part of war. i was just in the balkans, it is unbelievable to know and see and understand and meet women who are dealt with their in that

way, it was an act of war. part of war. back to the disrespect i am referring to, i am not talking about the soldiers, i am talking about at the u.n. level, is there a sense that there is just so much in the way of need, and these populations him is there thereulations, is something there that i am missing? mr. yeo: i think there was acceptance of this low-grade, what was viewed at the time as a low-grade problem and that acceptance extended for years on end, not just by the highest levels of the u.n., but also u.n. states, including the security council. i do not think that that acceptance is there any longer. if you look at what has happened, we actually can see for the first time ever, military units being repatriated. for the first time ever, we have a policy endorsed by the security council saying, no more units may be deployed if they have a track record of systematic abuse, or they refuse to get back to the u.n. in terms

of what they have done with discipline, or they refuse to investigate. this is the first time they have done this and this is new. we need to ensure that it is enforced, so that units from the congo are not deployed in future missions unless they have fundamentally changed the way that they do business. it has to change and the u.n. is now committed to that, it has been endorsed by the security council, and i think that acceptance of these practices is over. mr. corker: dr. brown? dr. brown: if i may, i agree entirely with what was said, but i will just add that the u.n. has failed as far as i can see, to accept itself as having a problem. and that is what needs to happen. there needs to be a recognition that itself needs to reform itself. it needs to recognize that it does not have the accountability structures.

and most of the measures that are applied to the tcc's must apply to the u.n. and furthermore, the staff that take great risks in reporting the sexual abuse must be protected. we have had a terrible case which has just sent a chilling message through the system, and that must be rectified, otherwise we are going to find that the staff will something report.y not mr. cardin: well, i want to thank both of our witnesses. this has been very helpful to us, but it really starts with the recognition that sexual exploitation and abuse is not acceptable. and it has to be carried by the top leaders, so it starts with the top leadership at the united nations and it has to be, not as understood by everyone in the leadership at the united nations, it needs to be enforced by everybody in the hierarchy of the united nations, so that they understand it is different than it has been in the past.

it does not mean that people in the past did not look at it seriously, but the institution did not look at it as serious. and that has to change. but it requires a cultural change. and without that, you will not get the type of action that you want to see. and the action that we want to see is that the member countries that are participating in the united nations understand that it cannot be tolerated, said that their leadership impresses upon their participants that this will not be allowed, and that if you are involved, it is going to be very severe. and that you are bringing disrespect to our country's participation and jeopardizing our standing, and we will not allow that to happen. it is not allowed. that is what you are going to have to have for there to be the type of change that we want to

see occur. so, yes we have seen some encouraging signs. you mentioned some of those encouraging signs, including the passage of the security council resolution. but, we are far from declaring that that has been accomplished in the culture of the united nations, that is something that is still a matter that many of us are concerned that that message is clearly being broadcast the way it should be. and that is something that we will continue to follow. in the meantime, i expect that we will take additional action in congress. mr. corker: we want to thank you both, it has been a very powerful hearing. i think that your testimony, and i hope that your testimony, is going to end up affecting people and that hopefully thousands of people who otherwise would have been sexually abused or raped, whatever, will not have that experience because of people like you who have been willing to testify in this manner. i want to build on what you just said. in essence, because the united nations is providing peacekeepers that in some cases, not every case, it are sexually

are sexually abusing people. our citizens here, who work hard every day and raise families, and pay taxes, they are basically sending money, sending their hard earned money to an organization that has been unwilling to deal with a crisis within it. and it taints america, it taints taxpayer money that we are sending. and i hope that somehow, very soon, the leadership of the united nations will understand that the american people, through their elected representatives, are not going to stand for us sending money to an organization that is unwilling to deal with this moral depravity that is taking place there, but not being willing to own up to a problem and do with it in an appropriate with it in an appropriate way.

we thank you and we appreciate very much your time and travel. the record will remain open to the close of business friday and if you could, respond to questions, my sense is you will want to do that. we thank you again. with that, the meeting is adjourned.

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>> here are some of the hearings we are covering tomorrow. the house transportation and infrastructure subcommittee will be meeting. let coverage on c-span3 and

c-span.org. and using military dogs to help veterans, let coverage of the oversight committee on national security begins at 2:00 p.m. eastern on c-span3. ♪ journal onington every day with policy issues that affect you. congressmanning, charles dent will be talking about the legislative agenda and his role on fiscal and military issues. he will talk about the campaign and the pennsylvania primary. and then judy chu will be with us to discuss immigration issues and the fair date in court for kids act.

and the foreign affairs correspondent for political will be on, talking about the challenges that the obama administration faces with the changes for the visa waiver program and the aftermath of parents in the san bernardino attack. this'll be thursday morning. ♪ campaign 2016, c-span takes you on the road to the white house as we follow the candidates on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders received the endorsement of transit workers union local 100, which represents employees. new york will hold its primary

on tuesday. the union president and bernie sanders spoke at the event. it is 10 minutes. [applause] bernie]g >> good morning and welcome to the local -- to the home of the local 100. today, transit workers are feeling the bern. local 100 is a blue-collar transport sector, industrial union. our 42,000 members carry the enormous response ability of keeping new york city and beyond moving every day. we moved new yorkers to jobs and

schools every day of the week. we are blue-collar new york. [applause] workers are the backbone of new york's working communities. we live here and we work here and there are thousands of workers in every neighborhood across the city, take a look around, this is what local 100 looks like. [applause] >> brothers and sisters, there is no doubt that america needs a jolt. new york needs a jolt, working families made a jolt, and business as usual politics are not going to give us the jolt we need. payday foras equal equal work for women across america. women earn $.79 on the dollar compared to american men and here, equal pay is not a

question, to be a local 100 women earn exactly the same rate of hay as tw men. exactey have the same overtime and promotional opportunities. why? because they have a solid trade union contract behind them. [applause] >> the best way to break down pay disparity for women is to grow the trade union movement in america and that will not happen with business as usual politics, but it will happen with bernie sanders as the president. [applause] >> tw local 100 has been fighting for workers against the powers that be in the city and the state for decades. we have always stood tall for what we believe in, despite the consequences. in bernie sanders, we see a patriot spirit. bernie sanders has been fighting against the powers that be in

this country on behalf of american workers his entire life. [applause] >> that is what this country needs, that is what american workers need, a true champion of our cause. i say, and this union has always said, if you do not stand up and fight you can never win and bernie sanders fights the fight. [applause] >> so today, i am here to proudly say that new york city transit workers and dw local 100 stand with bernie sanders for president of the united states of america. [applause] [cheering] >> brothers and sisters, i give you bernie sanders. [applause] [chanting bernie] i am honored, i am grateful to have the support of this fantastic union.

thank you so much. [applause] ,ernie sanders: john said everything that i believe, and that is at a time when our middle classes disappearing, when we are seeing all new income and wealth going to the top 1%, when we have the unequal distributional of it income, more than any other country on earth, it is too late for the same old establishment politics. we have to stand together, take on the big money interests, and make it clear that our government works for all of us, not just the 1%. [applause] bernie sanders: and when we talk about the needs of this country, yes, together we will raise the minimum wage to $50 an hour so that nobody works 40 hours and

the lives in poverty. yes, we are going to fight to do hastly what your union fought for, to bring pay equity for workers all over this country, the women that are paid $.79 on the dollar. together, we are going to end these disastrous trade agreements that have cost us millions of good paying jobs. for a the way, have led race to the bottom, where corporations say, we are going -- we are going to create trade policies that work for american workers, not just ceos of large corporations. [applause] johne sanders: and yes, as pointed out, we all know in this world you do not have a growing middle class unless you have a

great and growing trade union movement. [applause] bernie sanders: and it is no secret that there have been fierc attacks against thetrade union movement for last number of decades and in is --ou could thawrg it that it is the trade unions today that are the last lines of against a vicious corporate agenda that is working hard to destroy the middle class. [applause] senator sanders: and that is why i believe that we need that makes it easier notworkers to join unions, harder. and we have introduced legislation that's pretty simple. if you are in a bargaining unit and 50% of the that unit plus one sign a card saying they want to belong to a union, they get a union. [applause] anator sanders: and if

employer -- if the employer refuses to negotiate a first timely manner, that employer will be heavily penalized. [applause] senator sanders: and then we come to the issue of the work people in this room do. it is no secret to anybody in whether you're in the state of vermont or whether you're in new york city, that our infrastructure is crumbling. just ourmeans not roads, which are crumbling. not just our bridges. was in flint, michigan, several months ago, and what i in there was unspeakable terms of a water system poisoning its children. but it's not just water systems, it's waste water plants. , it is dams and mass transportation and our rail

system and that is why i have willduced legislation and a $1ment, as president, trillion investment to rebuild crumbling infrastructure. we need the best mass system in the world. it is essential to our economy. people in this city depend on a high-quality mass transportation system to get to work. that's what the economy depends upon. say this is not just a major economic issue, is.h it certainly i'll tell you what it is also. i'm a member of the u.s. senate the environment and anyone who tells you that , isate change is not real not caused by human activity, is causing devastating harm to this planet, is lying to you. that's the simple truth. we have a moral responsibility

that we leave this planet in a way that is healthy our kids and for future generations and one way that is to radically transform our transportation over this country. we need great mass transit systems. system.a great rail we've got to invest in those and when we rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, by the way, when we rebuild our infrastructure, we create 13 million good paying jobs. [applause] senator sanders: now, i have been criticized by people who say, well, you know, bernie, a even in dollars, washington, that's a lot of money. how are you going to pay for that? let me tell you exactly how we will pay for that. we're going to end the allowsous loophole that

large multinational corporations money into the came taxan islands and other havens so that at the end of a given year after making billions profit, they do not pay one nickel in a given year in federal taxes. we end that loophole. that's $100 billion a year we into our infrastructure so i think it makes a lot more sense for this to rebuild our transit system, our rail systems, our givestructure, than to large, profitable corporations massive amounts of tax breaks. so after i leave here and i want thegain thank you from bottom of my heart. i believe we're going to win city.n new york that we're going to win here in state.k some of you may know we have won eightout of the last caucuses and primaries.

this campaign 50, 60 behind hillary clinton. in the last few weeks, there have been two national polls us ahead of secretary clinton so we're on a roll and is enormouslyoday important to taking us a step further. now, interestingly enough, to you what's going on in america today -- where's larry cohen. is the former head of the communications workers of america. larry, as soon as we leave here, we're going right over to a c.w.a. toe with the stand against the greed of who wants to take away healthcare benefits, wants to jobs after making billions in profits. that's the kind of corporate together we're going to

take on. t.w.u., thank you so much for support. >> tonight on c-span, a hearing safety of the washington, d.c. metro system. foreign relations committee looks into allegations peacekeepers committed sexual assaults against zones andin conflict bernie sanders receives the endorsement of a new york transit workers union. tomorrow night, donald trump, kasich speakjohn at a fundraising dinner for the party.k republican road to the white house coverage begins at 7:45 eastern on c-span 2. >> madam secretary, we kindly our delegate votes to the next president of the united states.

of meals andouple a steam shovel and i think again ironiesne of the other and owe anti-government your entire fortune to the government's largesse. investigative journalist sally denton talks book "the profit

profiteers." chtel, whom. if the american taxpayers are paying for it, it seems the taxpayers should have thess to information about contracts, the amount of money, safety, the political relationships. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern .n c-span's "q&a" >> our student cam winners. students were asked what issues do you want presidential

candidates to discuss? of our middle school winners are from scranton, pennsylvania. and abbie o'brien presidents to discuss -- >> i'm abbie and this is fione. we're standing in times square, known as the crossroads of the world. many immigrants who passed through here. know this is a complex problem, we need to come up with a plan to resolve the issues.immigration we believe all immigrants should have the opportunity to reach for the american dream. >> what is the greatest benefit that immigrants contribute to scranton? >> as i said earlier, the best benefit i think is learning about their culture. their ways, their religions, the they dress, the foods they eat. so it makes us better people.

>> on a national level what are your views about current immigration policies for immigrants coming to the united states of america? >> again, you know, we should never, never roll up the welcome mat here to america. this is how this country was founded. it's founded on hope that people can come here and have a better life, a better opportunity. >> as we began our research about immigration issues, it became clear to us that the problems surrounding immigration were complicated. it also became clear that most politicians in washington agree on the following. the problem areas regarding need to be addressed and resolved. >> that means we have to finally, once and for all, fix our immigration system. this is a family issue. it's an economic issue too. but it is at heart a family issue and if we claim that we

are for families, we have to pull together and resolve the outstanding issues around our broken immigration system. >> my chicogoans have been waiting for congress to act and take action for over a decade. polish, ukrainian, irish, and mexican have been waiting. jamaicans and filipinos. they've been waiting for family visas and backlog that is stretch to 20 years act.se congress refuses to >> we have to fix these broken things in washington, d.c. fix the broken immigration system, both the illegal and legal side. >> as all of you know we have 11 million people in this country who are undocumented. 99% of whom came to this country to improve their lives. to escape oppression. to flee desperate poverty. and violence. >> this project has shown us

that the issue of immigration is emotional and raises many questions. what should we do about children of illegal immigrants? how can you tell if someone is here legally or illegally? how are you concerned about the emotional aspects. need to escapeat difficult situations. it's scary to think that checks place, people might enter the country to do harm. mr. trump: jeb bush with mexico come in, it'sple an act of love. it's not an act of love. we need a wall. we need a wall. you see what's happening with illegal immigration. and in all fairness, if it weren't for me, they wouldn't even be talking about illegal immigration. >> it's very important that we enforce our immigration law that we encourage people to come here

legally, to come through the vetting process, the inspection process. we want immigrants to come to america for that life. that's what america is. a beacon of hope. however, when we allow people to knowingly break our laws, evade inspection, to bypass any type of medical screening, to live here in america and depress the wages of american workers, which we know for a fact illegal immigration depresses wages for american workers. we also know, unfortunately, that there are people around the world that want to do us harm. that hate our way of life. that want to come here and steal that way of life from us through terrorism. >> we can't imagine our lives

immigrants value contribute. we have to find a way to address immigration and keep the country safe. we must show compassion, a fair in regard to the illegal immigration population here.y living we need to work together to figure it out. done.t be >> the american people support comprehensive immigration reform not just because it's the right thing to do, and it is, but know it strengthens families, strengthens our strengthens our country. president obama: this is what america exceptional. we welcome strivers. we welcome dreamers. from all around the world. and it keeps us young, keeps us invigorated, keeps us striving and pushing the boundaries of what's possible. and then we all bind ourselves

together around similar ideals. a similar creed. and one generation in, suddenly those kids are already americans. like everybody else. >> how is immigration important to the building of america? >> i think the best way i can answer that question was that in 1954, days after ellis island, they made the announcement it was closing down, that an editorial appeared in the "new york times," i'll share part of it with you. in that editorial it said, immigrants have given to the united states artists, actors, doctors, writers, farmers, philosophers. immigrants have given this nation its teachers. immigrants and their descendants today elect our nation's laws. perhaps some day a monument that celebrates its immigrants will calledon the island ellis. >> we're standing in front of the statue of liberty which was and still is a symbol of hope and freedom for immigrants coming to america. >> we feel 2016 presidential candidates should discuss immigration issues.

so we believe whoever is elected should make immigration issues one of their top priorities. >> to watch all the prize winning documentaries in this student cam competition, visit studentcam.org. >> the new c.e.o. of the area transit.c. system testified at a house hearing about recent safety the recent decision to close the subway system for 24 hours to conduct emergency safety checks. this house oversight hearing is 2:15. >> good afternoon, i'd like to welcome everybody to the

committee on government oversight and reform. we have, this afternoon, a joint subcommittee hearing. the subcommittees of transportation and public assets, which i'm pleased to chair. and we have our rankings member, ms. ducworth. and then we also have the government operations subcommittee which is chaired by mr. meadows and mr. connelly is ranking member. like to call the meeting to order and without objection, authorized to declare recess at any time. i would also like to announce order of business. we'll first hear from the chairs and ranking members and then we to questions and first i witnesses and the swear them in and we welcome

them today. few minutes, we'll get to them. so that's the order of business subcommittee hearing today and i also would presence of our colleagues. we have congresswoman comstock of virginia. we may -- i'm not sure if he's going to be here but we would certainly welcome congressman maryland,r of beyer ofan sid virginia and congressman delaney of maryland. congressman if delaney is here. but i'll ask unanimous consent allowed tolso be participate and without objection, so ordered. while they're not members of the committee, we appreciate their participation. order of businesses will go through members of the and our o.g.r.

committee and then recognize those individuals. some of myield opening statement time to ms. comstock and we'll proceed in that order. beginday i would like to by making some remarks. i'm pleased to welcome everyone. this is not a new kids on the block hearing. continuum oflly a hearings that we've held. i had the opportunity to chair transportation committee and we withd at the problems lamada and washington metro during that tenure. 12th of january, 2015, horrible, we had a

incident, accident, in which an their life int the metro system. a hearing february 13 of 2015. our first o.g.r. hearing to review what had taken place. we personally visited ntsb. at -- we looked at the problem that was identified. tried to find out what was what wrong at that point, occurred -- what made that incident occur. and then seek remediation. we did a second hearing and i remind members, july 21, 2015, very concerned that after talking with mr. hart -- him in a while, from ntsb -- that some of his told me werens he passed on from the fatal

incident. in june, i'm not sure if they were taken care of. we had the latest incident. we had a shutdown of the system, hours, march 16, last month. i gave enough time for folks to prepare for this hearing. i wanted to do something immediate. new leadership -- wmata and i wanted to make certain everyone had time to prepare for this hearing. we have a metro system in crisis in washington, d.c.. find what has gone wrong, what steps have been to correct the problems. we need to look at the management restructuring and we look at the financial inucturing that is currently place. systems inew transit the united states that receive

subsidization that metro does in washington so we need again, hold people's feet accountable, and see what's what's been done and then look at solutions for the future. that's the purpose of this hearing. what we're going to do today. i yield the balance of my time to the gentlelady from virginia, ms. comstock. thank you, mr. chairman, thank you for yielding and i him for theo thank hearing and allowing us to join. this is a vitally important issue to my district and to our entire region and i appreciate our new manager and i'd like to everyone in the audience, that mr. wiedefeld is general manager of metro and we appreciate his work with us. he first game and met with all of the washington area, my colleagues, we all emphasized a cultural change and i appreciate how much you are

taking that to heart and really facing a lot of what you have theed to heart, truths of system. we were together at an event yesterday in lowden county and i say how much people did appreciate, again, you're talking about the many hard we have on how we're going to have to deal with the long road ahead to regain public had a drop-offve in metro ridership because of reliability and the increased concerns for safety. so i do appreciate the march you, yourself, have publicly called on metro to truths and yourd noted that safety, culture at metro is not integrated with is not wellnd rooted at all levels. i know yesterday when you spoke you talked about how you're eliminating a lot of the silos because of what was happening with all the direct you, when something went wrong, everyone looked to somebody else. really did highlight some of those problems well and

isnowledged that metro actually at this time doing less with more, to quote your statement, and in nearly 10 years there have been no reductions in work force resulting in redundant back officeong staff that will be abolished through attrition where possible. thatimportant to note you've identified, in the need to modernize this, that the back not needaff we might now needs to be reallocated. we need to have management or labor changes that we would probably need to change this. have redundant positions that are needed soaking up resources we need on ie front line and particularly appreciate that you're putting more safety resources into all the stations going through the process. the organizational span of too wide, asnow is you noted in your -- in the anding we had yesterday it's not mission focused. so i appreciate particularly

ont you've been highlighting the customer focus of metro and moreeed to have a much customer focused work force and to have that be certainly a top priority. was able to go up to the rock recently, the rail operations control center, and i know one biggest concerns that i had had when i read articles the washingtonnian back in training was the program. i noticed in the recent audit identified training as a key problem area. any way we can help you as you go through that process of revitalizing and changing that training so we have the best people available and get the most valuable for the money and here.ces we're putting in i thank the chairman for allowing us to join you here today. i thank the general manager for his work and particularly in recruiting, the new safety understand, i

whileannounced a little after we met yesterday, the new city transit's patrick our new safety officer. i appreciate the opportunity to be with my colleagues today and to discussing this. >> thank the gentlelady from virginia. recognize our ranking member, ms. ducworth. states, railted the safestks among modes of transportation but as warned, ofnberger the commercial aviation industry, it's important not to to absence ofas accidents. we have been through a very safe period, it's easy to think it's everythingre doing right but it may be that simply we are doing some things right but not everything and we simply can't relax. unfortunately, a series of rail nation's in our capital reminds us of sully's statement and how it applies to

mass transit. over the past seven years, nine passengers and seven employees the been killed on washington metrorail system and many more have been injured. confidence inst metro and rebuilding trust will more from wmata that reminding nearges driving is riding.gerous than of course, congress must hold itself accountable for creating a weak federal transit administration. according to the railroad f.t.a. lax the authority, resources and makeience necessary to sure state oversight agencies effectively protect rail transit passengers and workers. i'm concerned at that entire rail transit sector may be out with the positive safety trends experienced by other asms of transportation such global aviation. in aviation, we've managed to

cut the rate of crashes and in half between 2000 and 2012. moving forward, rail transit past experiences of other transportation industries. it's worth remembering the from mr. deborah hearseman, former chairman of the national transportation safety board, who when solutiong aviation's to a more proactive approach to safety, grimly noted that in eras, theviation lessons of accidents used to be written in blood where you had had to an accident and kill people to change procedures or policy or training. her morbid description of aiation's past sounds tooure familiar when examining the challenges facing rail transit. nearly a decade has past since the 2006stigated derailment of a chicago transit authority train. asb's work produced comprehensive list of

c.t.a. andions for f.t.a. according to the accident offered many recommendations to rail systems around the country. they recommended that f.t.a. inform all rail c.t.a. agencies of the derailment and among other things make sure all rail thesit systems have capability to communicate with passengers during an emergency smokee ability to remove from tunnels. this was 10 years ago. oversight that f.t.a. of the reasonable transportation authority was inadequate and failed to correct track deficiencies. despite the recommendations in 2006, it became tragically clear january 12 of 2015 that nor wmatat.a. implemented reforms to prevent similar incidents a decade later. metro could not communicate with passengers during the emergency.

inabilityll, metro's to remove smoke from the tunnel had deadly consequences. why wetituents wonder spend taxpayer dollars on ntsb investigations if the lessons are never learned, let alone acted on to prevent future accidents. seems torward, there be bipartisan recognition that f.t.a. was set up to fail and map 21ased that strengthened f.t.a.'s ability to enforce rules. i thank the chairman's leadership. we cannot relax. we must examine what further enhancements must be made to statutory authorities and examine key issues as to whether f.t.a. would be a more effective safety regulator for metro. ans committee should play important role in helping reform spread across agencies in all government. at the end of the day, the millions of americans that rely

mass transit care very little about which federal agency is overseeing which state entity. simply want peace of mind that their local mass transit system will transport them safely to work and back home to their families. i look forward to hearing from about how we and can achieve this goal. . yield back, mr. chairman >> let me recognize the chair of government operations subcommittee, gentleman from north carolina, mr. meadows. you, mr. chairman, thank you for your leadership on requesting this hearing and each of you, many of you for coming back another time to address an issue that is important. obviously the d.c. metro system nearly 200 million riders annually and these are not just only the hard working federal employees of the district but people from all across the country who come visit and look at and

they america's treasures, monuments that are here. the washington metro was once standard of public transit. but in recent years it's become synonymous with several other delays, poor service, and rampant safety concerns. and in many ways this just adds to the unfortunate situation that wmata riders find themselves today. focuses on the efforts that wmata has sought to address some of the issues surrounding the safety and general service and to work towards making sure that will onceetro system again deserve the moniker that it is indeed the best transit the country. the metro rail system recently 40th anniversary and while any system that has been in service for that length time is bound to experience its fair share of maintenance

wmata metro rail system seems to be plagued by problems.and systemic in the past few years, wmata has oferienced a large number significant accidents and passenger safety events and all remembercan not too long ago in 2015 when was killed due to firelectrical cable that -- that sparked an arcing obviously is still under investigation and still being dealt with, that resulted of smokee amount filled railcars. find thatrised to that event was just not unique. it was unique in that we had a loss of life. but in talking to some of my we've hadound that smoke-filled cars and other problems even more between that event and the one

that obviously has brought us here to this additional hearing today. following the july -- i mean, with the ntsbent undertook an investigation, and urgent safety recommendation that wmata needed to address, the related electrical cables to prevent further fire hazards. last month, an electrical cable at the mcpherson square theo station experienced same type of arcing incident that we had previously identified. the fact is that this same type tofire hazard is continuing result and major fire-related incidents raises questions as to the effectiveness of wmata's safety efforts and the agency's oversight of wmata. in response, wmata and the manager, the new general manager, as my colleague pointed

out, closed the metro rail system for 29 hours to conduct an emergency safety inspection this emphasis on safety certainly is a step in the right direction for wmata and to get back on track, the nation's premier public transit system. it created unbelievable chaos within the city on that particular day. many people experienced of traffice hours jams that they would not experienced, just because of that shutdown. safety does come first but it the importance of this rail system to this city and the way that we do work and is a must that we have to address this. beyond the safety related issues, wmata seems to be miscommunication and back biting that sometimes, between the operational controls represented by the general manager's office and the policy

controls represented by the board. this issue was particularly thisle in the aftermath of mcpherson incident where there seemed to be a public the boardnt between and the general manager as it relates to the action necessary to get wmata back in a state of good repair so i look forward to each one of your testimonies working with the witnesses to not only address the safety that have really affected wmata but also to a unified face for a helpm that we need to restore the confidence and trust for those that use the system each and every day. so i'd like to thank our witnesses for attending today's hearing, for taking the time to with this committee to ensure that when wmata celebrates its 50th anniversary, it can do so and that we can celebrate it as being the best system in america. with that, mr. chairman, i yield

back. representative mica: i thank the gentlen. recognize the rankings member of the government operations subcommittee, the gentleman from virginia, mr. connelly. >> if i could do a unanimous before the time starts. i have a statement to be entered into the record on behalf of our colleague, chris van holland of maryland, a long-time supporter and some time critic of metro and been a great partner in -- >> without objection, so ordered. >> i thank the chair. mr. chairman, i appreciate the thertunity to revisit safety and service challenges metroby the washington system. i spent 21 years of my life working on metro related issues. now as a member of this body. disheartened than i with the current unacceptable state of affairs. wake of the january 2015

hearings inheld two which i said metro was facing multiple crises. a crisis in leadership. a crisis in safety. a crisis in commuter and stakeholder confidence. and a crisis in funding. let me start with the most significant improvement, which is the november hiring of wiedefeld.ager paul his hiring was long overdue. monthso went 10 solid without a permanent general manager. i think most observers agree he proving to be the right leader at the right time to help get metro back on the right track. i rode the orange line with mr. wiedefeld through northern january so he could hear firsthand from riders about reliability and concerns and because the gods were on our side that day, we two cracked rails in the process leading to many delays. mr. wiedefeld recently issued a customer accountability report

he lays out the hard truths about safety, reliability and basic customer service with more than 50 actions he and the agency will begin to take to address those. of course, that's in addition to the urgent safety recommendation the ntsb as part of its theing investigation into tragedy. whichition, the f.t.a., conducted its own safety of its own has 91 corrective actions. i know the new general manager agrees that safety ought to be priority number one. since our last hearing, two additional incidents have riders and eroded confidence. first a train derailed in early hours of august 6 on the orange, blue, silver lines andeen federal triangle smithsonian. the train which was not carrying due to as yet derailed defect in the rail line, a wide

detected buty misreported and unfixed. punchetro suffered a gut march 14 with another electrical orangeincident, on the blue silver lines at mcpherson square. thankfully, the incident also the systemfore opened but it was a disturbing safety shortfall that should fixedeen identified and immediately following the tragedy at the plaza. mr. wiedefeld shared that assessment, prompting him to take the and unprecedented step of closing the entire metro order tor 24 hours in allow for emergency inspection of all such cables. though it created a significant challenge for the region's commuters and federal government, which encouraged unscheduled use leave and telework on that day, i supported the decision for one-day closure though i

caution against prolonged closures in the future it. serve said -- served as a shot the bow that the culture of mediocrity is no longer acceptable. what's been particularly frustrating, with each of the safety investigations is the revelation that metro does, in fact, appear to have good policies and procedures in place. they're just not followed, they're not implemented, mr. wiedefeldow aims to rectify. in addition, shutting the system welcome message to riders, if you can call it that, welcome, that is, that somebody is finally taking their safety and reliability concerns and demanding accountability within the system. as part of his internal assessment of metro, i've encouraged mr. wiedefeld to make significant personnel changes and i'm pleased by yesterday's announcement about the hiring of new chief safety officer. further, those responsible for

issues tohese languish should step down or be removed. this, it should be no surprise that metro ridership 6% and 12% ony weekends. in response, metro hired a consultant to conduct a top-to-bottom review of its operations, mckinzie and company blueprint fora both strategic short-term fixes that could be applied immediately along with more long-term recommendations. my time is running out, mr. chairman, in the opening statement. know we will discuss financing as part of this hearing and i will hold off on statement until we get to that round. thank you. >> thank the gentleman and have fivell legislative days for anyone who writteno submit a statement in agreement with the is so ordered. we now are pleased to turn to panel of witnesses and again i want to welcome you.

me first introduce the honorable jack evans, chairman the board of washington metro transit authority. mr. evans. mr. paul wiedefeld, the thegeneral manager of washington metropolitan area transit authority. welcome, sir. the honorable chris hart, chairman of ntsb, national board, andion safety we have ms. carolyn flowers, at the federal transportation administration. to thatyou're new position but we also have you, mr. matthew, he iswellbee, and theutive director of federal transportation administration. ourlike to welcome all of witnesses. the order of business is such that we allow you about five

minutes. hereof you have been before, some of you haven't. we'd like you to summarize your in thaty, hopefully time. if you'd like additional information or statements or submitted, just ask through the chair or a member and we'll be glad to do that. is an investigation, an oversight committee of in alls so we do swear of our witnesses so i'd like you to stand if you would, please, raise your right hand. you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're about committee ofe this congress is the whole truth and nothing but the truth? let the record reflect that all the witnesses answered in the affirmative. ourn, i want to welcome chair of wmata, mr. evans. mr. evans:.ecognize

>> hit the red button there. mr. evans: thank you. good afternoon, my name is jack chairman of the board of the washington met metropolitan transit authority. i want to thank you and appreciate the opportunity to testify before you today on what most critical issue facing our regional. chairman mica, i want enormousledge your commitment in leadership in the transportation field throughout the country and chairman meadows, i want to thank you for coming to the state of the union mayor, state of the district speech, and we appreciate your support of the ranking member, duckworth, as a graduate of the elliott school of international at the george washington

university where i know you're with the district of columbia and ranking member yourlly, i thank you for constant support and advocacy for metro and i thank all of you and thank my congresswoman, eleanor holmes done a fabulous job representing our region. you a littlee background. i moved to washington, d.c. as a summer intern 1976, had an to ride metro when it first opened and you've heard my comment before. a shining, new metro system, reminding us all of the show, georgetv jetson and there it was. i moved here in 1978 permanently. rode metro throughout the 1980's and 1990's. 1993, joined the board of metro and served on the board twice as chair99 of the board. 1999, end ofin 1999. it was a shining example of

regional cooperation and as has mentioned, was the envy of transit systems throughout the country. rejoined the board in january of last year and i was outraged. you to know this, at what i had found. 15 years after i left the finances were in chaos and the operations were just behind it. what happened? we get here? first we have to realize something. i want everybody to recognize this. all of us. it's not just paul and i. room is everyone in this and we have to take responsibility for this system and get it fixed. talked about who rides metro with 200 million metro a year. district, virginia, maryland residents. thisllion people visit region every year. and 35% of our riders are federal workers. 50% of the federal work force rides metro. that's all of you. that's all of us and it's an

to remember for later in my comments. so what are we dealing here? we're dealing with operations and paul's going to talk about that. he's going to talk about how we where we are and what we're going to do to fix it but i can say we have years of neglected maintenance and the idea of fixing this by working three hours at night and on the weekends is not working. we need a better plan. now, the finances. wereif this system operating like a clock, it will never survive under the financial structure that we have right now. quickly, we get our money from two areas. 1.8 billion dollar budget, 900 million from the fare box, 900 the region. right now what i'm dealing with, dollar --.5 billion let me repeat that $2.5 billion liabilityension problem. next year's budget, starting out for $100 million short because we balanced this

year's budget with $100 million money.time add on to that increasing costs, short out ofllion the box and i have an $18 billion deferred capital maintenance problem, the maintenance paul will talk about that needs to be done. occurs we have to buy and it's systematic problems roslyn bottleneck that prevent us from getting trains across the river, into the district. has to be fixed. what are our solution? number one, we need the federal the operatingn side. we need $300 million from the government. $900 million divided by three, $300 million, each jurisdiction is doing. federal government needs to do that, as well. you paid for 2/3 of the system. put $6.9 billion into the system. you have to help us. secondly, we need a regional funding source.

ithave been talking about since 1993 when i first joined the board. hearing.ittee had a here it is. spent your whole time talking about a regional funding source and nothing ever happened. need $1 billion a year from the region and if the region won't do it, the tennessee valley authority, a federal agency, set up by all of you, in order to collect money. me conclude with this. i have been the finance chair in the district of columbia for 17 years. ok? we were here in 1995 with a city bankrupt. without federal assistance and was theholmes norton leader on this. without federal assistance, we would not have made it. government assumed a $10 billion unfunded pension liability that the district of had.bia ourpaid for our prisons and judicial system. giving us the breathing room we

to survive andy become what i would say is one of the most dynamic cities in has the best who financial picture. so that's what i'm asking for you today. together.this we need your help. thank you for the opportunity to .estify >> thank the gentleman. generalow recognize the manager of wmata, mr. wiedefeld. recognized.you're mr. wiedefeld: good afternoon, mr. chairman. thank you for having me today. i'll be very brief but since --e come aboard if you are four months ago, a big part of time has been spent reaching out to the community. i've got a firsthand experience from using the system, listening tunnels,walking the walking the bus garages and maintenance facilities. the issuesd about and opportunities we have. unfortunately during this time

i've had to make difficult decisions. first one dealing with the blizzard we had that affected the region and the second one is fire at mcpherson square. wereof those decisions driven by commitment to safety for customers and employees. in the near term, my priorities remain to be safety, service reliability and getting our theal house in order as chairman mentioned. last month, also mentioned, i a report, customer accountability report that of actionse number based on my short time here of things i want to do and things i've heard and what we learned from mckinzie and other sources. is torpose of that report be transparent but more important is to be accountable public and for the managers to be accountable and basically setting that bar. that's why that was done and it will continue to grow. and although the actions i've reflect aink different management approach and the start of a change of

culture here, there's still way to go and this is where i need the stakeholders in this region to support me to there. i think we need to step back and look at what we have been doing in terms of the maintenance of the system. we've gone from crisis to crisis. tend to deal with things cannot god that just on. we've created a program to try do the improvements which we're not getting done. it's inefficient. we are impacting our customers day to day, on weekends, and we're suffering from that so i the veryoming out in near future with a new program to get at these issues and get system up to the state it should be and then we'll continue to maintain it from there. the solutions will be easy so going to sugar coat it, that is for sure. but there are things we have to do to get this to where we want to be. last month we celebrated the

40th anniversary of the system and it is something to celebrate. metro's played a central role in transforming the region into one of the most dynamic in the world. it's shaped the land use. it's become the backbone of our economic development. it's played a central role in the mobility needs of the residents and visitors alike. 1.2 million passengers per day, and supported environmental airs, particularly in quality. in short, metro will remain the economic growth and quality of life in this region but it is time to be realistic the challenges we're facing as a region to make metro system great again, challenges that must be met given the vital importance to the region today tomorrow. i want to thk our regional congressional delegation for chairmanport and the and congressmen for agreements

cellular phones installations. untilll hold questions the end. mr. hart is the chairman of the ntsb. welcome back and you're recognized, sir. thank you. mica,fternoon, chairman meadows, ranking member ducworth, ranking member connolly. you for inviting me to testify on behalf of the ntsb. has completed its smokingation into the incident. the board is expected to approve publical report at the meeting may 3. as i reported last year, our investigation revealed that some electrical connections associated with power to the third rail were improperly constructed and installed without sealing sleeves. absence of sealing sleeves can create the potential for electrical short circuiting

and smokelts in fire events in the system. nearly a month after the lafonte plaza incident, we examined those cableound connections were missing sealing sleeves. we were informed by wmata of an arcing event at mcpherson square station. we observed the damage to the power electrical components were similar to that accident.onte plaza one portion of the cable was heat as was intense a portion of the third rail cover board similar to the lafonte plaza accident. 2015, we recommended that they were constructed and installed with sealing sleeves. clear that the cable connectors at the mcpherson

modifiedation were not how it waslear is independent. anxiously waiting for wmata's report. hase 1982 the ntsb investigated 13 accidents involving wmata. more than half have occurred 2006. our lafonte plaza investigation railllustrated again that transit accidents continue to cause injuries and death and oft more effective oversight rail transit is necessary. improvedhy we included rail transit safety oversight in our most-wanted list of improvements. inadequate safety oversight can many hazards that are allowed to develop and system hazards.itute systemic the physical hazard that led to the lafonte plaza station system-wide.resent that is where the ntsb issued

urgent safety recommendations to the secretary of transportation january 2016 urging that wmata be constituted a commuter authority so that the federal exerciseauthority can oversight. it was acknowledged that committee lacked the level of oversight needed to ensure safety at wmata. however, he disagreed with our recommendation to transfer oversight of wmata to the f.r.a. and instead determined that the f.t.a., the federal administration, would begin increased oversight and directly enforce and investigate the safety oversight of wmata. while we can all agree that the wmata byversight of the talk is insufficient, we are f.t.a.'s that the oversight is not equivalent to to other similar

properties or heavy commuter rail. little ability to oversee wmata effectively. f.t.a. has no prior experience in direct safety state safetyas a overstate agency, has limited .taff every day, millions of people use rail transit to go to or from work, home or other destinations. in the case of wmata metro rail, ridership is critical to the of allve operation branches of the federal government as evidenced by the recent unprecedented shutdown day.he system for one that is why it is so important for wmata and rail transit systems nationwide to be subject to competent oversight bodies that have standards and rules enforceth the power to those rules. although each system has unique operating challenges, all need safety to continue operations.

responding.rd to >> thank you, mr. hart. chairman mica and ranking member and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to discuss the washington rail system. here in washington, d.c., serious incidents, crashes, and safety lapses have highlighted the need for change and. of map, with the passage 21, congress granted fta the authority to oversee the safety of public transportation through the existing's rate safety

oversight agency structure. -- fdace then, fda has has reorganized and significantly strengthened safety staffing and oversight functions. each transit agency is still responsible for inspecting its own infrastructure and conducting the necessary training to keep their services safe. fda oversees the state safety --rsight agencies or as soa or ssoa's. after the tragic generate 2015 plaza smoke incident, fta exercised our thick -- our safety authority by conducting the safety management inspection of metrorail and metro bus which resulted in 54 safety findings.

our inspection report identified numerous it deficiencies and operational concerns. in october 2015, secretary fox instructed fta to temporarily assume the responsibilities of .he local ss 08 -- local ssoa fall, fta has been on the site at metro providing direct set -- direct safety oversight. our safety team is comprised of subject matter experts from across the department. industry knowledge and expertise and enforcement power to improve metrorail safety. over the past several months, on a daily basis, we have conducted inspections and investigations and verified corrective actions. as of last week, fta had conducted 107 inspections that covered track, rail operations

control center, vehicle and systems maintenance, automatic train control and traction power. wen these inspections, identified 229 defects, requiring 56 remedial actions by metro. directingn, we are 140 open investigations. , fta initiated a three-part safety blitz which is a targeted series of inspections that focus on three areas. red signal overruns, track integrity, vehicle secure event. direct safetyn oversight is temporary. it is critical that maryland, virginia and the district of columbia joined together to .reate a -- to create an ssoa secretary fox urges that the three jurisdictions come together with all haste to create the metro safety

yearssion outlined six ago. in closing, as the former ceo of the charlotte area transit system and the coo of the los angeles metro system, i know balanceis important to safety and service demands. but safety is not an option. we continue our work with the local jurisdictions to establish a new and effective ssoa for the long-term. thank you for calling this hearing. and together with the fta executive director, i look forward to answering your questions. our mica: i thank all of witnesses for their testimony. want to separate my questions

to two parts. first, i want to talk about the incident of january 12, our subsequent hearing on february 13. then i want to look at the overall picture. mr. evans said the crisis and chaos and metro. first of all, after the incident we held hearings. there andi went down personally inspected the cable. we identified what we thought was the problem. then you told me you gave by june.ations have verifiedou safety deficits. when did you first give them?

june last year. ok. because theblem lamotta director or manager was not there then. but the first thing you would have done -- and i am not the sharpest electrical engineer on the block. but you go in and change out those cables that we saw were shorted that didn't have proper seals and that were parking -- arcing. 65% are done. rep. mica: were they done after june into what day/mr. weed failed -- and to what day? iedefeld: i'm not sure.

rep. mica: i got involved in this after that because we found out what we asked you to do years ago and promised you 150 million to get the communications and other things. that is our contribution to capital improvements. at thes only done station. but that is probably why they lost that light, because they could not communicate. you have been there a short time. is the wireless medications agreement finalized to finish it ? do you think it will take a year? you will see what it takes to do

a mile at a time? no, we are going to do it miles apart and come with a schedule. rep. mica: we need to restore public confidence. there is a communication device that does not work within the tones. that needs attention. that is part of what i wanted resolved and threaten to have money withheld if we didn't. this money game is mind-boggling. unliquidatedis the dallas in open grants and many coming from the federal government. isof the 18th of march, it $783 million. it's not like they don't have the money. had $485, 2015, they million available. they had the money available. what they has incompetence did

not get the job done. you are the new kid on the block and we are counting on you. but i want people fired. i want something done. you've got the communication system underway. arcingot to resolve the arcing causes smoke of people die. you have falling ridership and you have increasing operational costs. this burdens may. this caused me to go deeper into your finances. i heard you, mr. evans, and you gave a nice presentation. i was here in 1995 when we put the control board in. you are running three quarters of a billion dollars in debt. kinds of unfunded liabilities, pensions, everything. the most screwed up business i

have ever seen in business or government. but you have a current surplus in the district. ?hat do you have/ let's step up to the plate. i'm telling you i am not going to bail you out good i am not going to support bailing out the district of columbia. it is bailing out. look at the operational. i compared chicago -- 75% of the capital funds come from local .nd state money in pennsylvania, 61%. nobody gives more money for nobody improvements -- has more money available than you all have available. so please don't come here -- there is lots of money available. we don't have leadership. we don't have management.

up topeople need to step the plate. virginia needs to step up to the plate. maryland needs to step up to the plate. and the district, with that huge surplus, now needs to step up to the plate. because you sure you sure you're not point to get it out of my folks. and the improvement can be made. no other system in the country has the kind of resources into it. divide, don'tt to divide by three. let's divide by four. and have everybody step up to pay for it. i'm not making -- i'm not here to make up for bad management. i'm not here to make up for poor safety record. i'm not here to make up for a lack of action. and you -- who was it -- the new general manager. when i saw the liability for insion and unfunded benefits the multibillion dollar area, is that true?

that's huge. that also needs to be addressed and it doesn't need to be bailed taxpayers.federal i've spoken my piece. if you know me, i do that and then i act and i will act to make certain that we get this in order. i wish you well, mr. general manager and we will work with you. we will give you all the tools. you have the money available. you need to get in there. fire people. i think you are doing some of that. and get that place an order. with that, i yield to the ranking member. mr. connolly: he has distorted that virginia has to step up to the plate. i want to remind my friend that

he doesn't want to burden his people. i don't want to burden mine. in virginia, we pay our subsidy. when you say a bailout, my constituents here something quite different. i hope you will keep that in mind. ,s you care about your people mr. byron mr. comstock and i care about ours. we split the bills in virginia, not the state gave we already have one of the highest recovery rates in the country because we don't have a dedicated source of revenue and the federal government does not provide operating subsidies. not a penny. not one penny. it is the only compact member that doesn't provide a penny. do you want me to yield, mr. chairman? rep. mica: just two things. i will put in the percentage for capital. most of their problems are capital. representative connolly: clearly problems that are

operational. you thea: i will give fact that some other jurisdictions we found have as much as 6%. but they take certain money and put it into operations that we have a loud and we have done that also in times of the financial district. connolly: where you stand is where you sit. where my constituents stand is that the federal government gets a free ride every day on metro because it doesn't pay operating subsidies. and as mr. evans indicated, that costs our jurisdictions in virginia about $300 million a year. you can make all the hay you want about the federal government providing $150 million in operating capital and that did not come without strings. that had to be matched dollar for dollar by the three jurisdictions. there are operating subsidies.

and we had to give up voting seats on the governing body of metro. and federal representatives are capital limited to issues. they get a vote on the operating side of the house. and they don't pay for it. so it's a matter of perspective. having said that, i sternly associate myself with the remarks, you're my remarks -- your remarks about management and operating difficulties in holding people accountable. and i'm deeply concerned that, given the depth of the problem, that people, frankly, examples will have to be made of some people and i don't just mean senior management. i think the chairman and i share that view. it has got to that point that, if we are going to reassure public confidence, we have to --d people available at accountable at every layer of the organization.

hart, in your recommendations, you recommended that the safety oversight be done by the fra, not the fta. is that correct? mr. hart: that's correct. we were looking for an immediate solution. that thean do things fra does now. the fra has rules and people to inspect to see if the rules are being met and people to enforce it if the rules are not being met. the fta can have that eventually but it does not have it today. that is what we are looking for, an immediate interim solution rep. connolly:. rep. connolly:ms. flowers, you are not the director of the fta. you are a senior advisor? ms. flowers: i am currently the lead at fta. lead?onnolly: the and you came from charlotte with secretary fox? ms. flowers: i came after.

rep. connolly: do you have the capability that the ntsb recommended? have thers: we do capability. we agree that action was needed to improve oversight. rep. connolly: i'm running out of time. i'm not trying to be rude. we have deaths. we had accidents. we had people injured. mr. hart at ntsb said, look, no fooling around. safety is number one. we need the fra and its resources because the fta don't have the right now. ms. flowers: you gave a statutory authority and oversight of public transportation. and you also strengthened our authority. rep. connolly: i'm well aware what we did in the statute. i'm talking about capability today. that is what the ntsb took cognizance of because -- and that's why it recommended your agency make the oversight. and yet the secretary decided to

overrule or ignore the recommendation. on ourwers: we have staff are you a tory experience from fra and faa. rep. connolly: regulatory? ms. flowers: yes, from regulatory agencies who have safety experience from faa and fra. rep. connolly: what does a had to do with whether you've got the ability to hone in on cable carter's -- cable covers that ?ould arc ms. flowers: we just completed a safety blitz of our track inspection. rep. connolly: oh, you did? ms. flowers: yes, we did. march 16, the day before the holiday. st. patrick's day. have people in metro inspecting the cables along with

metro? ms. flowers: when we did our safety management inspection, we did identify issues -- rep. connolly: no, ma'am. that is not my question. on the 16th of march, with that 29-our period, you've got the responsibility, god knows why, in the fra. secretary fox decided to ignore or overrule the recordation. but were you in their inspecting these cables? no.flowers: of thennolly: so one more important safety issues we are facing, in a noncredit -- shuttingnted move, down the system, the fta which claimed of authority, overruling the ntsb, you were not there. ms. flowers: that is correct, sir. rep. connolly: we are supposed have confidence in your ability while you are lecturing maryland ndc and virginia to get their act together and you are nowhere to be seen on the day in

question when we are trying to deal with a major, imminent, potentially life three ning -- life-threatening safety issue.would you like to know where ms. flowers: -- would yours: wha like to know what we did? we were working with lamotta over the telephone. we did oversight of their inspection the night before we talked to them. we used the information to verify what they were doing. we are also now conducting our own blitz of the system, a their tracks. gaveconnolly: i'm sure he great comfort to metro that you were verifying of the phone. they had between a half billion and three quarters of a billion dollars sitting in

the bank to make the repairs hart and fta said last year needed something to be done. it is not a question of money. it is a question of management and somebody doing something. let me yield back to mr. meadows. representative meadows: we have two separate issues. i will try to address both of those. i think we have some pictures here that maybe we can put up. if you can explain to the guesstee the pictures, i of that particular picture -- i guess they are jumper cables. is this where the issue is? i need the picture of the jungle

-- the jumper cables, please, sir. right there in front of you. that one. are the cabless that provide propulsion power to the third rail. there is a fiberglass sleeve that needs a sealing sleeve on the fiberglass boot. the fiberglass beauty needs a sealing sleeve to keep things from coming inside. rep. meadows: so basically an insulator to keep it from arcing. mr. hart: an insulator to keep from contamination. rep. meadows: so is this the only place where you can have an electrical problem that would create smoke in the tunnel? mr. hart: there are probably a number of other places. the insulators, for example, if they get contamination in the insulator, than the electricity can arc from the third rail down to the ground. if we are going to inspect this and we are really looking -- ic see the general manager wanting to step

in. just to clarify, that is one potential source of arcing. if they are laying on the ground , built on a floating slab, the rail is, that means it will be smooth. if the kale -- if the cable is laying on concrete and it runs, it can fray that way. rep. meadows: here's my concern. tom what i am coming understand, the jumper cables are not the only source of potential problems. and yet it appears, when we had the inspection, it was a jumper cable-only checklist. who made that decision? mr. wiedefeld: we made that decision because the decision was that at mcpherson it was a jumper cable issue. that is where you get the arcing from. in effect, you have a third rail that is steel. rep. meadows: mr. hart, would

you say that is adequate enough? that we are looking for only jumper cables and that is satisfactory? mr. hart: all cables, not just jumper cables. rep. meadows: so why would we only look at your cables? mr. hart: i think it is the terminology. saysart:rep. meadows: it right here. i ask that we submit this for the record. rep. mica: without objection. rep. meadows: it says only jumper cables shall be inspected ationl mission -- exlam point. mr. hart: again, i think it is a terminology issue. those that you see with the big orange booze, what are being called jumper cables, if you recall, when we came out the next day and saw the cable that was frayed, that is where you have two pieces of cable that have a space.

there is a smaller cable that goes back and didn't have the large orange boot. we weren't looking only at the orange good cables. rep. meadows: you are saying that the language on here only jumper cables did not mean to only look at jumper cables. your sworn testimony here today is that they looked at all -- mr. wiedefeld: they looked at all electrical cables and closed any gap between the third rail. rep. meadows: ok. let me go in the list further. and ians, your solution have read a few of the articles and i heard your testimony today. let me understand. you need another $1.2 billion in operating revenue. is that right? mr. evans: we need $300,000 times four. $900 million.have rep. meadows: so you are only saying an increase of $300

million good you want the federal government to buy a. so if you are dividing -- federal government to buy it. mr. evans: the federal government is a full partner, a fourth partner that pays zero. rep. meadows: according to your testimony, when we originally put in this to -- this system, we were more than a full partner and we put into thirds of the capital improvements originally. mr. evans: that's right. the government pay two thirds of the cost to build this system. so you are saying it needs another $18 billion in terms of capital. mr. evans: yes. rep. meadows: so your plan -- so your plan is to give 18 billion dollars in close down the system for six months in order to have a good system. is that the best? mr. evans: no, that's not my

plan. rep. meadows: i guess you were quoted as saying as close it down for six months. when i heard that, i could think of traffic jams for six months. mr. evans: congressman, let me say this. if you want me to come up into view good news, i can do that. but if you want to hear what we really need to do, that is the only reason why i'm here. ok, where's the 18 billion -- if you are going to get testy about it -- let me just say parent i've got the numbers. if you are looking at increasing revenue, you become the most expensive operating system, more expensive than chicago or new york or pennsylvania. so why would you have the highest operating cost out there? what would justify that? if you want to look at numbers, let's look at them. mr. evans: we are the second largest transit system in america. rep. meadows: new york is higher.

theevans: if you had opportunity to travel the world as i have, beijing, paris, london, moscow and say world-class system -- this system has become an embarrassment in the nation's capital and we are all in this together. rep. meadows: those are all communist countries. mr. evans: paris, london, communist countries? they are capital cities. systemant a world-class like they have, the federal government in those countries pay for all of the system. all i'm asking from you is $300 million, which is your fair share given the fact that we transport 50% of your workforce every day. you want them to be safe to you want this to be reliable. you want to leave your like we did in 2005 and do nothing. and if we do that, next time something happens, i am blaming it on you guys because we need your help rep. meadows:. rep. meadows:you're the one that

has been on the board. how can you blame us? you are the ones making the decisions. mr. evans: i've been on the board a year. it is not operating well now and we need the resources, in addition to the wherewithal. rep. meadows: when can you get this committee a full breakdown of how that money will be spent? mr. evans: within a week. rep. meadows: i yield back. mr. evans: let me just say this. you're never going to have a better chance. you have a chairman and myself who has done this for years. you have a general manager who is as capable as anybody has ever been. if we leave your today and do nothing -- and mr. chairman, when you are saying you're not going to give us a dime, really? does that what you are saying? we need resources for the system. this is your system. this is my system. you're going to put your parents and your kids on this system, a system like it is today, really, give me a break. we really have to step up.

i have reports are from 2010, 2011, 20 we cannot leave here and do nothing again. >> the balances that have been unexpended. it was a half $1 billion almost. the money is there. connolly: i'm going to yields to my good friend eleanor holmes norton. ms. norton: as to who needs when metro shuts down the federal government shuts down. we have evidence of that just recently.