it's a pleasure to welcome rachel hoff from american action forum to moderate our panel. thank you, rachel. >> thank you very much, chris. and -- sorry. thank you very much chris, and to senator cotton for those very impassioned and insightful remarks. i'd like to welcome our panel. very pleased to be joined by this distinguished panel to follow up on the senator's remarks. and dive a little deeper into these questions of current military capacity and capabilities in order to meet rising national security threats, as well as the defense budget question within the context of the broader fiscal year 2016 budget. we are joined by three experts who are eminently qualified to comment on these questions. douglas holtz aiken, president of the american action forum. previously served as director of the congressional budget office as well as senior economist to the president's council of economic advisers. next is david adeznik policy director at the foreign policy initiative. previously he was a visiting fellow at the american enterprise institute and served for two years as depu

it's now a pleasure to welcome rachel hoff to moderate our panel. thank you, rachel. rachel: thank you very much. thank you very much, chris and to senator cotton for those very insightful remarks. i am pleased to be joined by this panel to follow up on the senator's remarks and diving deeper into these questions of current military capacity and capability in order to meet rising national security threats as well as the defense budget question within the context of the broader fiscal year 2016 budget. douglas, to my right previously, he served as director the congressional budget office next is the policy director at the foreign policy initiative. previously, he was a visiting fellow at the american enterprise institute and served for two years as deputy director in the u.s. department of defense. david also served as a research staff member for defense analysis. and mckenzie, who will start us off, is a resident fellow at the center. she's worked on defense issues both here in the senate and in the house of representatives as well as in the pentagon. also, secretary

it's now a pleasure to welcome rachel hoff to moderate our panel. thank you, rachel. >> thank you very much. thank you very much, chris and to senator cotton for those very inciteful remarks. follow up on the senator's remarks and diving deeper into these questions of current military capacity and capability in order to meet rising national security threats as well as the defense budget question within the context of the broader fiscal year 2016 budget. previously, he served as director of the congressional budget office next is the policy director at the foreign policy initiative. previously, he was a visiting fellow at the american enterprise institute and served for two years as deputy director in the u.s. department of defense. david also served as a research staff member for defense analysis. and mckenzie, who will start us off, is a resident fellow at the center. she's worked on defense issues both here in the senate and in the house of representatives as well as in the pentagon. also, secretary of defense and joint staff. mckenzie's served as

it's now a pleasure to welcome rachel hoff to moderate our panel. thank you, rachel. >> thank you very much. thank you very much, chris and to senator cotton for those very inciteful remarks. follow up on the senator's remarks and diving deeper into these questions of current military capacity and capability in order to meet rising national security threats as well as the defense budget question within the context of the broader fiscal year 2016 budget. previously he served as drek tofr the congressal budget office next is the policy director at the foreign policy initiative. previously he was a visiting fellow at the american enterprise institute and served for two years as deputy director in the u.s. department of defense. david also served as a research staff member for defense analysis. and mckenzie who will start us off, is a resident fellow at the center. she's worked on defense issues both here in the senate and in the house of representatives as well as in the pentagon. also secretary of defense and joint staff. mckenzie's served as a staff

this morning, we'll hear from senator tom cotton and following his keynote, i will handoff to rachel hoff, who will introduce and moderate a discussion by a panel of experts featuring mackenzie eaglen, david adesnik, and douglas j. holtz-eakin. first, it's my pleasure to welcome the keynote speaker. senator tom cotton was raised on his family's farm in arkansas and he attended harvard and harvard law school. after a clerkship, he entered private practice. like all of us, his life was disrupted by september 11, 2001. in response, he left and joined the army to serve as an infantry

this morning, we'll hear from senator tom cotton and following his keynote, i will handoff to rachel hoff, who will introduce and moderate a discussion by a panel of experts featuring mackenzie eaglen, david adesnik, and douglas j. holtz-eakin. first, it's my pleasure to welcome the keynote speaker. senator tom cotton was raised on his family's farm in arkansas and he attended harvard and harvard law school. after a clerkship, he entered private practice. like all of us, his life was disrupted by september 11, 2001. in response, he left and joined the army to serve as an infantry officer. he was deployed to iraq and served in the 101st airborne division and a reconstruction team in afghanistan. between his tours, senator cotton served at arlington national cemetery. after his military career, senator cotton served briefly in the private sector and was elected to the u.s. house of representatives in 2012. last year, he was elected to serve in the u.s. senate. now serves on the senate committees on banking, intelligence, and armed services. he is the chairman of the armed services committee

this morning, we'll hear from senator tom cotton and following his keynotes, i will hand off to rachel hoff, with the american action forum, who will introduce and moderate a discussion by a panel of experts -- and aaf president, douglas holts deegan. senator tom cotton was raised on his family's farm in yellow county, arkansas. he attended harvard and harvard law school and after a court ship, entered private practice. like all of us, his life was disrupted by the september 11th attacks.