now in the digital age is they are increasingly collecting this information on people who do not have a direct contact and part of that has to do with the data, that they are purchasing information from collected companies. of with that kind information, it's also being used. >> sarah brain sunday night on c-span's q&a. >> todd harrison is with us. he is the defense budget analysis. we will get to the discussion on the defense budget, what may be ahead in the right and administration and work to do on capitol hill on defense issues. first, good morning. we wanted to start with your the notably quick

firing of the defense secretary earlier this week, mark t. esper? >> it is certainly within the prerogative. it's highly unusual. it was widely suspected he would not continue into a second truck term, but i think that there was an exit dictation he would finish out the term until january 20. that has been the custom host of thesenior people within administration. they would normally continue until the inauguration to be able to remain with their counterparts in the new administration that are going to be coming at. it is unusual. >> do these sorts of moves --

first of all, are they unsettling to the rank-and-file members, the rank-and-file service members and to our allies when they see these administrations? guest: it does. it creates uncertainty. it will not be good for morale. career civil service workers who are there between administrations who are not yes, it's a very unsettling and for our allied partners around the world, it's this awkward time during the transition where they are not really sure who they should be coordinating with. a lot of things will just have to stay on hold.

there still has to be the national command authority in the event of an emergency and that is why these have to be filled by people at least nine acting basis and that is what we have right now. efforts any of these affect the work that you are focused on in the development of the and not budget for the next fiscal year? guest: yes, so we are already into fiscal year 21 and congress yearot enacted the fiscal 21 defense budget, so those are still in limbo. those are really just waiting on they may get around to doing that in the lame-duck session or they may have to wait until january.

that's really up to congress. though the changeover of reset , that is just waiting on congress. but the pentagon is in the final stages of adding together its 2022 budget request. if it were a second truck term, that would come out the first monday in february. but since there will be a change in the administration, that will probably be delayed until april or may. but still, it's this and people in government putting together that budget request and they will handle -- handed over to a new administration on january 20. secretary esper and others in the pentagon right now at this critical juncture are really coming up the works in terms of

finishing, making key decisions. there are rumors the trump administration might try to hurry up and submit that request to congress before biden takes office. a long time ago that used to be the tradition as recently as 1989. the outgoing administration did submit the budget request just prior to inauguration, but since then that's not been the case. it has always been the new administration coming in that has taken that budget and crafted it to their liking. whethermains to be seen they will submit the budget request early, but even if they do, the biden administration wall come in and they will change it. so it really won't matter one way or another. the important thing is having continuity in that planning of outgoingt between the

administration, the new administration and that is in jeopardy. host: plus to get to, including how the biden budget may differ. let's open up the phone lines for our callers. if you have a question, if you want to send a text -- just tell us your name and where your texting from. was go to the current issues. you mentioned the defense budget. of contention appears to be the defense authorization explain thes difference and while that's why potential difficulties that could cause president trump to veto it? sets policyally

for the department of defense and other departments have authorizations as well. money canrules on how be spent, how money can be transferred between accounts, you know, reporting requirements before money can be spent. the appropriations bill is the bill that can issue funding. at the end of the day, we talk about the budget, it's the appropriations will that says the budget. the ndaa says the policies and the rules that go around that. ideally you need. at the minimum, you just need appropriations. so the authorization bill, for the most part, it tends to be a nonpartisan bill. it setting things like pay raises for the troops. .olicy issues

a lot of mundane things about's reports that have to be delivered to congress before a weapon system can proceed. it sets privatization within the pentagon. for example, last years national , there a lot act of things in there. there are interesting issues that could potentially draw a veto or stall in congress and a lot of that stems from the fallout from president trump's decision to transfer funding from the department of defense in order to use for the construction of the border wall.

--distant fallout from that in thehere is language defense authorization bill now that would call for a panel to review the name of military installations, largely army named after confederate generals and this is an area where president trump said he would veto the bill. guest: the military itself has come out and said, yes, they are in favor of doing that. they would like to get rid of confederate names. button issue, hot partisansarily a long

lines, but president trump himself has opposed renaming these confederate bases, it's not even just the bases. street names, building names, things like that, that honor these generals that fought on the confederate side of the civil war. you could probably get that passed in both chambers. the military will keep going. it's not essential that it be passed before the end of the trump administration? that is correct. if you look back over the years, there many times the ndaa has not been passed until january or february. they could just wait with the whole bill until there's a new president in the white house. --airs civic as visions

provisions that really just president trump objects to. host: president trump has made it a goal to draw down troops from afghanistan. is there money for that in the current budget? guest: there's not a lot of transparency in terms of reporting over time how many have been stationed in afghanistan. it's hard to say how many are coming out and what is left. it does appear the president is making moves to try to follow through on his campaign promise to bring down those troop numbers by the end of year. i would note that president-elect biden has said similar things -- not exactly the same, but similar, about bringing down troop numbers. there is money in the 2021

budget request. , thathey requested money was in february of this year. --t was when president trump they did request money from afghanistan that would support a higher troop levels and that's one of the things -- congress will appropriate the higher -- the money for a higher troop level in afghanistan. and then it could be redirected for other things, but that is .till an issue of contention that's really the choice of the president. he does not need congressional approval to draw down forces from a combat zone. that's an inherent doherty of the commander-in-chief. -- authority of the commander-in-chief. talking about the

changes that the pentagon this week after the election in what may be ahead for the pentagon under a bite and administration. let's go to crosby, texas, democrats line. ipo, good morning. -- michael, good morning. >> can you hear me? host: yes, we can. go ahead. caller: who controls the nuclear weapons that trump still got? [indiscernible] come try not to give biden his cabinet? he is the acting secretary of state. sayress cannot come in and -- i want to know who controls the nuclear bank? trump is doing a lot of things.

issues there, nuclear weapons and i think he was getting at the national security, some of the issues raised with the bike administration not getting those briefings, etc. guest: the first part of the question -- we only have one president at a time. president trump is still commander-in-chief. he still controls the use of nuclear weapons. an authority he exercises totally by himself. there is the national command and that authority goes from the president of the united states and to the commander of the u.s. strategic command and that is the chain of authority. if you want to use nuclear weapons, all three of those people have to agree to do it. but president trump is still

commander-in-chief all the way until noon on january 20. then it switches over to the new president, and that will shift the national command authority again. point and important that is why we need all of these positions still filled, even in this time of transition because you never know what kind of crisis can arise. what was the second part of the question? the biden administration not getting those daily security briefings -- the presidential -- yes. guest: that is potentially a problem. the reason you want to have the president-elect and really, his he is goinghoever to select as his chief of staff, national security advisor, what all of those people to start getting those readings as soon as possible to ensure a smooth

transition, to make sure they are watching and paying attention to and are aware of all of the key intelligence issues. you want those new people to be brought in and get up to speed on that so they are ready to go on january 20 when they take charge. so if you do not have the , ifidential daily brief that continues all the way into january, there could be surprises. there are ongoing situations they do classified that not have access to and if a crisis arises they may not have a whole lot of time to prepare for it. this goes back to the recommendations that go back to the 9/11 commission, i believe, making sure we had that transition so we don't get

surprised by things like 9/11. >> the person selected after the firing of mark t. esper to serve as the acting secretary of defense -- what can you tell us about him? guest: he has had a long career operations and he is someone who understands the military, understands the department of defense. he wasrstanding is surprised, as we all were that he was picked. normally it would fall to the deputy secretary. that would normally be expected.

so he will not be on the job for very long, but it is an important role to fill. to john ingo arlington, virginia. good morning. fbi provided -- as far as the future goes, what people need to realize, there's and thatbia and iran is the only thing they need to be paying attention to write now. the reality is you got a certain crisis towant for a

achieve an end goal and when i see things like 1993 and the fbi providing a weapon, i see a pattern and i see this matching is airan and it religiously significant date and i think, who benefits from events that happen? like the first world trade center bombing or a crisis event, and i hear the same suspects saying don't let a crisis go to waste and have an agenda and that agenda fits in with a protocol that happens to be global. host: todd harrison, any comments? a lot of conspiracy

theories mixed in that. vast majority -- we can disagree. and they are calling the integrity. vast majorityhe and sometimes they do things that benefit the country and we do not really hear about it. host: let's go to joe in buffalo, new york. caller: good morning. good morning, guys. host: good morning. there's $700nk billion in the defense budget. formuch would it cost

health care for me and my family i suffer from different things. i won'tse, you know, say your business, but please speak to it. you seem to want to talk a lot compared to, so what the budget is, thanks? host: the numbers on the budget. todd harrison. guest: depending on what you include and don't include is over $700 billion a year now. if you put that in perspective, adjusting for inflation, that is one of the highest levels of defense spending we have had since the end of world war ii. it is higher than the defense spending in the reagan administration.

by historical standards, we are at a very high level of defense spending. the gdp spending is actually it was since world war ii. if you look at the 1950's, 1960's we were spending 8%, 9% of our gdp on defense. today we are at about 3% on defense. another way of looking at it, defense spending as a share of federal budget. that has been declining over time because other parts of the federal budget have grown faster than defense. if you look back to the 1950's 40,1960's, we were spending

50, more of the budget on defense, but that was before programs like medicare and medicaid really got going. the really big drivers of the budget, not only is it defense, that folksone thing do not realize. the vad budget is one of the fastest-growing areas in the federal budget, topping $200 billion a year now and that is projected to continue growing through the foreseeable future. there's a lot going on in the overall federal budget. i think , we arer to say spending a lot on defense now. we are spending a lot on a lot

of things and that's before the pandemic happened. this is something as a nation, it's a political issue. we have to ask yourselves, what are our priorities and how do we want to allocate our resources? host: in a given year, if the department does not spend all this money, does that go into a typical year? >> it depends on the kind of money. there are hearts of the defense it's only available for one year, and so the department has to obligate that money, that is, commit the money under a contract or whatever the case may be within the year is appropriated, or else the money is no longer available and it reverts back to the treasury. for things like for sure meant , they develop new

technologies. that money is available for longer. it has to be obligated. -- ifocurement money you're are looking at ,onstruction money, rehabbing that money is available for five years. it really depends on the type of money you're talking about. -- once the money expires and congress actually gets --tty upset if money is the department to do everything they can to make sure it is not wasted.

good morning. republican line. caller: the media seems to act like in this transition our national defense is falling apart. -- 23t 20 three years years in the army. we knew we had a change of command area we did not panic and it seemed like we have to ground zero. our military will continue on. it just seems like it is portraying our defense of our nation is going to halt until the transition takes place in january. why is that? guest: yeah, i don't think it would be fair to characterize our international defense is falling apart your it's not. our defense is resilient, our military is resilient and full of professionals all through the ranks. i think the concern really is and should be the transition to a new leadership team to make

sure that they are prepared and able to hit the ground running and do not face any surprises that could have been avoided when they take charge on january 20. i think it is trying to avoid surprises. folks should not be alarmed that our national security will fall apart over the next few months. that is not the case. i do not think that is a risk. host: i want to ask you about the biden administration, potential priorities for the pentagon. this headline -- joe biden can and improvemp's trade agreements. what he writes says under defense secretary matus, readiness ls