hosting our discussion this morning is mackenzie eaglen. mackenzie is a research fellow for national security studies. she's part of our douglas and sarah allison center for foreign policy studies. prior to joining heritage she was the principal defense adviser for senator susan collins of maine. she's also serve for two years at the pentagon as a presidential management fellows in the office of the secretary of defense. prior to her fellowship, she was a national security analyst at the association of the united states army's institute of land warfare. she's been a guest lecturer at several locations, participate in defense panels at several universities and received her masters degree in national security studies from georgetown university. please join me in welcoming my colleague, mackenzie eaglen. [applause] >> okay, good morning. thank you for being here today. it's always good to have a congressional recess now and then. get them out of town. it's my pleasure today to welcome dr. ashton carter to the heritage foundation. as the under-s

please join me in a joint -- in welcoming my colleague, mackenzie eaglen. [applause] >> it is my pleasure today to welcome dr. ashton carter to the heritage foundation. dr. carter has been working to implement numerous initiatives to save money during a time of what we on no the following budgets -- what we all know is following budget. prior to his current appointment under -- current appointment undersecretary carter worked in a number of positions. he served as assistant secretary of defense for international said -- security policy under president clinton and a member of the science and policy boards. he has also served fdot as the international kennedy -- at the international school at kennedy. dr. carter has talked about the massive portfolio that he hopes -- helps oversee, of which $400 billion is contract about in services. we have asked him to go into detail today about that $400 billion. as he has said in the past, we cannot just look at programs. the per kurram programs are only $100 billion out of the -- procurement programs are only $100 billio