mr. chairman. mr. secretary, the overall budget framework which sinks the nation into deficits which are near $1 trillion a year or recently estimated, $7 trillion over the next ten years. certainly republicans have moved away from what they used to say about balanced budgets. in addition, they decide that they are going to make cuts to very important initiatives that many people here in america have come to rely upon and they are, despite what is being said, making cuts to medicare. overall, the budget proposes more than a half trillion dollars, $532 billion in cuts to medicare over ten years. $200 billion alone to our hospitals. these hospitals are the cornerstones of many of our communities and cuts of this magnitude will result in hospitals closing and losing jobs. a reminder for virtually every member of this committee as well as members of congress, the hospitals have now become the biggest employers. as i noted earlier, in massachusetts, first class health care. the budget proposes another $80 b

mr. chairman. welcome to the committee, mr. chairm chairman. the cato institute estimates ending the deferred action for childhood arrivals could cost the u.s. economy over $280 billion in reduced economic growth over ten years. the center for mesh progress puts that number $460 billion bigger but still a loss. the chamber of commerce doesn't put a number on it but they do say that ending daca would be a nightmare for america's economy. >> so what kind of economic impact would ending daca and making 700,000 dreamers deportable have on our economy? >> let me say that these are difficult and important issues and we don't do immigration policy at the fed. >> i'm not asking you about immigration policy. i'm asking you about the economic impact of taking 700,000 people, 90% of whom are employed, out of the economy suddenly. >> i don't want to wade into a hot political discussion but i will say this. economic growth can come from two ways, it will either be more people working or higher productivity. the work force is now growing at about .5% per yea

mr. chairman, mr. chairman, i have a letter that the arkansas department of environmental quality sent me yesterday in support of epa's recent decision to approve arkansas's revised regional hay state implementation plan. quote the letter "arkansas applauds the epa's recent improvements in regard fostering increased cooperation with the states in order to achieve environmental goals in a sensible and practical manner." i'd like unanimous consent to enter the -- >> without objection. >> thank you, mr. chairman. administrator, i was very happy to see the epa approved arkansas's revisions to the regional hay state implementation plan. many in arkansas are thrilled that we now have an epa who's willing to listen to the states, and are excited to proceed towards the goal of improving air quality. in the past we've had a situation where the epa wanted to hear input as long as the state agreed with them. if not then they got themselves in trouble. can you explain your approach to cooperative federalism, and th

mr. chairman. >> thank you >> would the gentleman yield to the chairman >> of course, mr. chairman >> in the minute and a half that he had remaining, i had a question, chairman powell, dealing back on the interest on excess reserves. i asked your predecessor this question and the answer was not clear to me. i think as you know, under statute that the rate must be -- and i'm trying to find the exact language -- cannot be above the usual level of short term market interest rates and, yet, we know that the fed has been paying a price over the fed funds rate and paying over libor and certainly i think it's currently paying 150 basis points yet our constituents typically receive about 10basi points on their savings account. and so i'm just curious on what does the phrase above the usual level of short term market interest rates mean? in your 2012 rulemaking that implemented ioer, it allowed you -- it allowed the rate to get pegged to your primary credit rate but that's an administered rate which means you can set it where you want to set it so legally is there any cap to the int

mr. chairman. >> the gentleman yield to the chairman. >> of course, mr. chairman. >> in the minute and a half that he had remaining, i had a question, chairman powell, dealing back on the interest on excess reserves. i had asked your predecessor this question and the answer was not clear to me. i think, as you know, under statute, that the rate must be, and i'm trying to find the exact language, cannot be above the usual level of short-term market interest rates. and yet we know that the fed has been paying a price over the fed funds rate, been paying over libor. and certainly i think currently paying 150 basis painoints. yet our constituents typically have 10 on their savings account. so i'm just curious on what does the phrase above the usual level of short-term markets interest rates mean? in your 2012 rule making that implemented ioer, it allowed the rate to get pegged to your primary credit rate but that's an admin stertd rate which means you can set it where you want to set it. so legally is there any cap to the interest rate you can pay in ioer? cou

mr. chairman. i want to welcome our witnesses today. thank you -- i want to thank our colleagues especially from maryland for urging us to have this hearing and i commend you, mr. chairman, for holding it. our friends from gsa and the fbi, welcome you. we thank you for you and your colleagues for the work that you do, especially at the fbi. thank you very much. the hearing today is is a follow-up to our hearing in august of last year, a hearing we held on the cancellation of the frprocurement for a consolidated fbi headquarters. at the conclusion of that hearing, the witnesses from gsa committed to providing our committee with a workable solution to meet the fbi's needs for new headquarters. after an extension, the committee received the promised report on february 12th. and the report is a complete, as the chairman suggests, a complete reversal of a plan for the fbi that was more than a decade in the making. it abandons previous efforts to consolidate fbi's operations away from the bureau's current

mr. chairman. welcome, chairman powell. me and whaturbing is remarkable -- i think downright disturbing, to me, are the policies coming out of this trump administration in three specific areas that you as the haverman of the fed ou direct input on. there are three areas in particular -- first, the tax cuts. 83% of there that president's tax cuts go to 1% of the american families? that is not fair at all. youe go to his budget cuts, know who was impacted the most because of this budget cut? it's the african-american community. draconian,o his for coney terrible proposals to cut $17.2 billion away from food stamp recipients. and then, if that's not mean and ugly enough, they want to turn food stamp stop recipients from even being able to go into the grocery store and buy groceries just like you and i. this is mean, man. you seem like a very reasonable person. of theoing to 1% wealthiest people? at the same token, they want to in boxes, canned food, dried milk, powdered milk to the poor people in this country. mr. chairman, yo

mr. chairman. i i yield myself such time as i may consume. to first commend the gentleman from california for addressing this issue. he is quite right that it's important that in order to peditiously make sure that accommodations for the disabled are made, people have to understand what those requirements are. and the regulations on this change frequently and constantly. so i do not oppose this amendment. i support it. i would ask the gentleman if he would work with us moving forward to make sure that this does not impose an inordinate burden on the bureaucracy responsible for putting this out so as to delay getting new regulations to protect the a.d.a. folks. there are many, many languages spoken by people in various businesses in this country. some are very common. and that's definitely the case. we may not have this written in every single language that's spoken by every single individual. i thank the gentleman. mr. chairman, at this time i'm pleased to yield one minute to the gentleman from tex

mr. chairman. welcome, mr. secretary. i look forward to your testimony on the threats to firearm stability. the economy has grown steadily for the past eight years, in large part because of the hard-earned progress of the obama administration. unemployment has fallen in some but certainly not all families have recovered from the financial crisis. we made some progress. we still have some pretty substantial challenges to financial stability in this country. personal savings rates have fallen for years now stand at open 2.4%, the lowest since september 2005. household debt continues to climb. job growth in 2017 was okay. we will hear about that tonight. but below job growth in 2017, was below the levels of job growth in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016. 3 million americans have lost their health insurance. since this president took office. the largest jump since gallup started tracking coverage a decade ago. for the second year in a row, life expectancy for americans actually fell, driven in large part by an opioid epidem

mr. chairman. thank you, mr. secretary, for your time today. the chairman mentioned earlier the $1,000 bonuses that comerica bank gave to their employees down in dallas. before they moved to dallas, they were headquarters in detroit and they still have thousands of employees in detroit. in fact, we hope -- >> would the gentleman yield on that point? >> the gentleman will yield. >> i was being facetious. as a member of dallas, we're very happy where where comerica is located. >> the legislation you helped get through congress helped fiat chrysler to make an important decision, headquartered in my district. they decided to invest $1 billion in michigan, create 2,500 jobs, give each employee $200 bonus and move a plant from mexico back to michigan. so that's going to make a huge difference to people in my district and i thank you for that in that regard. my friend from georgia asked if you heard about cfpb's decision not to investigate equifax. the d.c. circuit decided to throw out all of the penalties and fines that were imposed against phh, over

mr. chairman. >> will the gentleman yield to the chairman? >> of course, mr. chairman. >> in the minute and a half he had remaining, i had a question, chairman powell, dealing back on excess reserves. i asked your predecessor this westin and the answer was not clear to me. i think, as you know, under must be --t the rate and i'm trying to find the exact language -- cannot be above the usual level of short term market interest rates. has beennow the fed paid a price over the fed funds rate. paying over libor. it is currently paid one hundred 50 basis points yet our constituents typically receive about 10 basis points on their savings account. what does the phrase "above the usual level of short-term market interest rates" mean? in your 2012 role-making that ioer, it allowed the rate to get pegged to your primary credit rate, but that is your administrative rate which meet you can set it where you want to set up. so, legally is 30 cap to the interest rate you can pay in ioer? mr. powell: issue suggested, the languages the general range of short-term interest rate

mr. chairman. chairman powell, i appreciate you taking the time to be here. one of the big challenges we've faced in this country is the policies of the previous administration that deal with lethargic growth that impacted communities across the country. we are seeing policies that are getting the economy moving in creating job opportunities and putting resources back into the pockets of the individuals who and giving people opportunity to increase their prospects for their families and communities. i want to make sure they are applied across the board in this country, to each community. i want to highlight the benefits i've seen in my district from the tax cut and jobs act in colorado. the bank of colorado, which has a significant presence in the western slopes and four corners region. after the passage of the tax cut , there will be a positive effect on the growth of businesses and our local economy. added a of colorado special bonus at the end of the year for all 641 of their associates in colora

mr. chairman. mr. secretary, i'd like to thank you and your staff for the hard work you put into ensuring that we deliver tax relief to middle-class americans throughout the country. and that will benefit workers and make american businesses more competitive and productive. of course as we move forward, it will be important that the tax law is properly implemented and that implementation is consistent with congressional intent. i appreciate how your department has worked productively with members of congress and their staffs. will you commit to continuing to work with congress to ensure that our intent in writing the tax law is realized as the law is implemented? secretary mnuchin: yes, i will. we've already started those conversations on certain areas, as you've pointed out in your opening remarks, and we look forward to working with you. sen. hatch: ok. from what i understand, in coming months, the european commission and oecd may advance suggestions about how to tax a so-called digital economy. d

mr. chairman. mr. secretary, welcome. in new jersey one in the one children are diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorder, much higher than the national average of 168. is it true that the fiscal year 19 budget zeros out a program that has been of great interest to those in the autism community care zack program? >> i do not know that graham in particular, senator. i'm 14 days into this and so i know we have several programs that is part of just prioritizing direct care delivery direct service delivery and underserved care there are programs that simply we had to not recommend funding because -- >> let me help you out because you've been on the opportunities but i've been longer. it is zero in the budget. in fy 18 the congressional justification was that the department believe the same services could be provided to the states the maternal and child health block grant and you know that's the same reasoning today. >> as i said, the challenges we have is we are part resizing direct service care -- >> i

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, the cato institute estimates ending today professorred action for childhood arrivals program, making those people deportable could coast the economy $280 billion and reduce economic growth over 10 years. center for american progress puts that number 460 billion, bigger but, still a loss. the u.s. chambers of commerce does not put a number on it but they do say, and i will quote, ending daca would be a nightmare for america's economy. so what kind of economic impact would ending daca and making 700,000 "dreamers" deportable have on our economy? >> well, let me say that these are difficult and important issues and we of course don't do immigration policy at the fed. >> i'm not asking you about immigration policy. i'm asking you about economic impact of taking 700,000 people, 90% of whom are employed, out of the economy suddenly? that is what i'm asking you about. >> and i don't want to wade into hot political discussion but i will say this. so you think about economic growth. i

mr. chairman. >> senator nelson. >> mr. chairman, thank you for the kind comments, at of severl with you, with regard to the slaughter of 17 students and teachers. and senator rubio and i will be addressing this issue on the floor of the senate at noon today. mr. secretary, i want you to know that you are a very prepared individual. you are a fine person. when you hear on your confirmation hearing i asked you several questions about medicaid and medicare, and you sidestep the questions. about cuts. and now coming forth just a few weeks later with the budget, sure enough you have about 1.4 trillion over ten years in cats to medicaid -- cuts and the states will have to plug the holes by raising taxes or cutting other parts of the budget that they are responsible for, like education. estate alternatively could choose to cut medicaid benefits or drop people from the program or cut payments to providers. how would you expect the state like florida that has a big population to afford to cover the higher cost? >> so on medicare one

mr. chairman ranking member welcome to the committee, mr. chairman now, mr. chairman, the cato institute estimates that end in the deferred action for childhood arrivals program and making those young people deport bable could cost the u.s. economy over $280 billion and reduce economic growth over ten years. the center for american progress puts that number at about 460 billion bigger, but still a loss u.s. chambers of commerce does not put a number on it, but they say and i'll quote, ending daca would be a nightmare for americans, america's economy so what kind of economic would ending daca and making 700,000 dreamers deportable have on our economy? >> well, let me say that these are difficult and important issues and we of course don't do immigration policy at the fed. >> i'm not asking you about immigration policy i'm asking you about economic impact of taking 700,000 people, 90% of whom are employed, out of the economy suddenly that's what i'm asking you about. >> i don't want to wade into a very hot political discussion, but i will say this. so you think

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator sanders. i will now introduce the witness. our witness this morning is mick mulvaney, director of the office of management and budget. director mulvaney has held this office since february of 2017 and is charged with assisting the president to fulfill his vision through the production of the federal budget and its implementation across the executive branch. prior to his time as director of the office of management and budget he served the people of the fifth district of south carolina as their congressman, where he was first elected in 2010. during his time in congress, he has served on both the budget committee and the joint economic committee. for the information of colleagues, dr. mulvaney will take less than seven minutes for his opening statement, followed by questions. we look forward to receiving your testimony. director, please begin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. ranking member sanders. thank you for the promotion. my mother would be glad to know i finally

mr. chairman, thank you very much. i too want to personally commend the panel for not only appearing today, but for doing this very difficult, challenging work. you're amazing. mr. clancy, your testimony suggests that regional veteran collaboratives are part of the solution to ending veteran homelessness. what are those? and why do you think they're needed? >> thank you, ma'am. the veteran collaboratives, as we mentioned, not only here in cincinnati with the pvca, but also combined arms in houston as the congressman mentioned, are critical because it enables the community to come together in a collaborative sense to provide the best of services for the veteran. we can combine best practices, different organizations receive different funding, and we can -- as best we can, move upstream to get those transitioning veterans before they become in crisis mode. >> thank you. mr. chairman, i yield back the balance of my time. >> thank you, ms. rad waggen. now yield to ms. custer. >> thank you very much, it's a very informative

mr. chairman. i intend to do the same thing. i'll sit until the bitter end with you. thanks. >> the first round of questions go to my friend from oklahoma, mr. coal. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank you for this hearing. this is something my good friend the former chairman was planning to do as well, but it's really important for us to do and i want to begin, dr. hall, by thanking you and your staff. i've dealt with a lot of different cbo directors since i've been on this committee and with the staff and it's been unfailingly professional and courteous, no matter who was at the head of it. so i think you had a head a very fine agency. i don't always agree, but never had any difficulty getting the explanations and the judgements, and that's fair enough. i do want to ask a couple of things and my good friend from kentucky talked about the affordable care analysis. there is one area that i want to ask about. you know, it's sort of down in the weeds then i want to build on that and ask you h

mr. chairman, my time has expired. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> i appreciate my ranking members patients but i also appreciate the fact that he is willing to do for his questions to the end so that members who have to come and go because of other commitments are given an opportunity quickly to make the concerns known and answer questions. with that, i yield to the ranking member. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you to all the witnesses for spending your money with us. we have enjoyed it very much. i want to follow up on the notion as we take away income they tend to work harder and if you give them more they tend to work less. with the same theory apply to taxes that if you lower someone's taxes and thereby give them more income with a ten to work less and if you tax them more and took income away from them what they tend to work harder? >> i think it's useful to think about differences and effects on average tax rates versus marginal tax rates. if i increase someone's marginal tax rate or let me do the site if i decreased someone's

mr. chairman, welcome, mr. secretary, beginning with chairman dave kemp years ago, and now through the leadership of chairman brady, we began -- i've been on this committee ten years, so seven or eight years ago the process of meet examination hearings and proposals, and we finally achieved something historic. tax reform to benefit american families and businesses. with each passing week, we see positive impacts all across the country. businesses in my home state of washington have announced bonuses for employees, pay increases for their employees, and investment in work force development and increases in employee match gift programs. i want to expand just a little bit on the question that chairman brady had. so, you've got the withholding tables, you've got the calculator. what other regulatory efforts are you putting forth to spread the good news to the united states citizens roos the country about this tax cut? how are you sharing information and how can we help you? >> well, we have a massive effort to irs t

mr. calvert: i thank the chairman. mr. speaker, the goal of the americans with disabilities act is to provide access for the disabled. that goal must be pursued and protected. it's important to distinguish, however, that the a.d.a. is not intended to feed drive-by lawsuits and put good people out of business. unfortunately, my state, california, has become ground zero for abusive a.d.a. lawsuits. i've heard many small businesses in my congressional district who have fallen victim to abusive a.d.a. lawsuits that are not aimed at improving access to the disabled. in fact, california accounts of a.d.a. 40%, 40% lawsuits nationwide. despite being home to just 12% of the country's disabled population. protecting small businesses from abusive lawsuits and ensuring disabled americans have adequate access are not mutually exclusive goals. that's why i'm an original co-sponsor of h.r. 620 and believe its passage is critical to both the disabled and to our small business. by giving business owners adequate time to make appropriate c

mr. chairman. >> would the gentleman yield to the chairman? >> of course, mr. airman. >> in the minute and a half that he had remaining, i had a question, chairman powell, dealing back on the interest on excess reserves. i'd ask your predecessor this question and the answer was not clear to me. i think as you know know under statute that the rate must be and i'm trying to find the exact language above -- cannot be above the usual level of short-term market interest rates and yet we know that that the fed has been paying a price over the fed fund rate, paying over libor and certainly, currently paying 150 basis points yet our constituents typically receive about 10 basis points on their savings account. and so i'm just curious on what does the phrase above the usual level of short-term market interest rates mean. in your 2012 rule-making that implemented ioer it allowed you, it athrowed rate to get back to primary rate but you canet it where you want to set it. legally you can pay in ir, can you pay 300 basis points, 500as? >> i think as you sgested, we are not p

mr. chairman. a very much appreciate this hearing on afghanistan so we can hear from the administration in regards to its strategies on afghanistan moving forward. we have two very distinguished witnesses. secretary schriver, i appreciate the fact that the department of defense is present and represented here today. as you know, during the syria hearings we were unable to get a representative from the department of defense and i think that was unfortunate. we still have not had a classified briefing on the u.s. troop presence moving forward in syria. i hope that will take place. afghanistan, 16 years of u.s. combat in afghanistan. significant u.s. investment of our blood and treasure. and we are finding out that it is much harder to make peace than war, which is something that we always know is a challenge. all of us condemn the recent carnage that was caused by the insurgents and terrorists in the attack last month. and we very much are committed to ending the violence in afghanistan. but the ques

mr. chairman and thank you mr.ecretary and thank you on behalf of ohio's congressional district for your critical role in helping us past the job back very different story after story about the difference it's making in the lives of hard-working dam is an innovative companies in ohio. one story was highlighted during this presidents' day to begin in in, their employees talking about their expansion plan. just talking to the owner of a cnc business a very competitive niche a lot of automation talking about how much automation is moving their industry and he was concerned about his ability to keep up with the investment required to be competitive and did not understand that we have moved past section 179 with immediate expensing. was very excited to talk to his accountant about how i can ramp up that -- thank you on behalf of the people of ohio. i want to highlight the other things going on in our economy. related to regulatory reform. their number of folks have talked about that and it would be great to get your sup

mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. neal. today's sole witness is alex azar, secretary of department of health and human services. the committee has received your written statement, mr. secretary, it will be made part of the formal hearing record. you reserve five minutes for delivering your oral remarks. secretary azar. welcome, you may begin when you're ready. >> thank you very much, chairman braid i did, ranking member neal, members of the committee. thank you very much for inviting me here to discuss the president's budget for the department of health and hewlett-packard services for fiscal -- health and human services for fiscal year 2019. it is great honor to be with you today. i can not tell you the honor of my life it is to serve as secretary of health and human services hhs's mission is to enhance and protect the well being of all americans and it is a vital one and the president's budget clearly recents this fact. the budget makes significant strategic investments in hhs's work, boosting discr

mr. chairman. thank you all for being here today, excuse me, and for your service to our country. you know, one of the core tenets of the armed services and of our country is no one is above the law. from the most recent recruit to the most senior officer, all service members are subject to the same ucmj laws and the same ucmj laws and same ethical code of conduct. but there is a phrase in the military that goes like this. "different spanks for different ranks." and as don christianson, the former general counsel for the air force said, and i quote, "every day, troop is court marshaled for what a general officer is given a slap on the wrist." so it's with great sorrow and anger that i have read countless reports of misconduct among senior leaders including general officers and admirals. this is borne out by the data on page 66 of an 85-page d oorod inspector general report on, quote, top dod management challenges, unquote, is a finding of a 13% increase in complaints alleging misconduct by senior o

mr. chairman, i yield back.o. >> mr. chairman, i yield back. >> ms. rosen, you're now recognized for five minutes. mr. russell, you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank all of you for being here. i guess, mr. chairman, i don't understand why members of congress want to trash the uniform code of military justice. it is the one glue that holds our military together. we can critique it. we can oversee it. we can hold it accountable. but god forbid if people in the political environment ever trash the uniform code of military justice and get rid of it. you think we've screwed up the military good now? put it in the hands of with no ucmj and put it out there where we have people with no understanding of the institution that create lord knows what. good order and discipline, decisions, battlefield decisions that commanders have to make, that would all be eroded and gone. and we'd feel good about it and then we'd hold our hearings and pound fists on tables and talk about what went wrong as honorable people sit here before us a

mr. chairman. >> thank you mr. chairman. guess what question i'm going to ask. >> could this be a russia associated question? >> a deterrence related question. on december 20 urge, 2016 congress passed the national defense authorization act. and it was a section that required the secretary of defense to file a report on just the questions we have been talking about within 180 days which was june of 2017 about the definition of the cyber attack, what would be the response. talks about operational authorities in what operational authority is delegated to the united states cyber command for military cyber and a whole list of the purpose of the amendment which was in the law, which is in the law was to establish up clearly articulated doctrine a response to this kind of situation. i'm asking you as an operator have you been tasked with drafting any part of the response to this requirement? >> i've been part of the dialogue about responding to the operational piece of this in terms of overall responsibility this is the opposite i

mr. chairman. mr. speaker, our troops comprise the most professional, highly trained and dedicated military force that the world has ever seen. they have pledged their lives, the well-being of their families, and their sacred honor to serve and protect this nation. yet here we are, over a month into 2018, and our military and our national security are being held hostage by our colleagues across the aisle over unrelated issues. it's time for the senate to get its act together. the house has passed the full defense funding three times this year. and tonight whether he pass it a fourth time. it is wrong for us to send our best young men and women into harm's way without the resources that they need. asking them to make up with their efforts and their risks for our shortcomings. mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to support this funding legislation and prove to our troops that we have their backs. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from ne

mr. calvert: i thank the chairman. mr. speaker, the goal of the americans with disabilities act is to provide access for the disabled. that goal must be pursued and protected. it's important to distinguish, however, that the a.d.a. is not intended to feed drive-by lawsuits and put good people out of business. unfortunately, my state, california, has become ground zero for abusive a.d.a. lawsuits. i've heard many small businesses in my congressional district who have fallen victim to abusive a.d.a. lawsuits that are not aimed at improving access to the disabled. in fact, california accounts of a.d.a. 40%, 40% lawsuits nationwide. despite being home to just 12% of the country's disabled population. protecting small businesses from abusive lawsuits and ensuring disabled americans have adequate access are not mutually exclusive goals. that's why i'm an original co-sponsor of h.r. 620 and believe its passage is critical to both the disabled and to our small business. by giving business owners adequate time to make appropriate c

mr. chairman. >> thank you. as someone who spent my entire life in the business world, i used to pore through financial information before i made business deals or business transactions. so it was also interesting to see the information get greater tra transparency. we make all of our decisions so let's see what the score is. and we look at your conclusions with decisions are made or if people want to complain. it is important to get a better understanding how you come up with your information. deputy director recently that show your work act to publish the data models to score proposals. would you consider this to be valuable for members of congress? and do you have any concerns with this legislation? >> so in general, we think the approach to having more transparency is a great one and we fully support the general idea of having more transparency. there are many ways to be more transparent. and we want to look at the different options and find the ones that are most effective, most useful to you a

mr. chairman. >> mr. wilson. >> thank you, mr. chairman. general votel, recently the united nations released a group remarkably gruesome report outlining north korea's ongoing efforts to assist syria, building chemical weapons. this report states north korea has been shipping supplies to the syrian government including -- additionally north korea missile technicians have been observed working at chemical weapons and missile facilities in syria. are you able to comment on the u.n. report and if not could you describe them like disruptive role north korea currently plays in syria and whether or not you see that will expand in the coming years? edition what is being done topa disrupt this cooperation between of north koreapt and the syrian government? >> congressman, i admit i've not seen that report so i can't comment specifically on it. obviously very concerned about the proliferation of these types of weapons in syria come with a country that has demonstrated the intent to use them. this will be in airy we will continue to pay close attenti

mr. chairman. mr. secretary, in looking at your construction budget, i think it's $1.1 billion in major construction. and $770 million in minor construction for our priority infrastructure projects and cemetery expansions. so the last four hospitals that the v.a. managed were each at least hundreds of millions of dollars over budget, years behind schedule, the worst example being in my congressional district, which was $1 billion over budget and four years behind schedule. one of the efforts i letting to stripcongress was the v.a. of their construction management authority for building major construction projects, hospitals, $100 million and above. i think that number is way too high. i think it needs to go way down. the same people that had their fingerprints on these for construction projects that were years behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget are the same people that are in charge of construction management today in the department of veterans affairs. it is unchanged. it is -- the pe

mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. o'rourke. now we'll get to our first panel. i'd like to welcome you guys again this morning. thank you for making time for this very important issue. we're honored to have you here. let's start with the john f. chansy, president and chief executive officer of the tri-state veterans community alliance which is located in cincinnati, ohio. mr. clancy, thanks for being here today and representing the ohioans you serve, angela f. williams is next. she's president and chief executive officer of easter seals incorporated. steven peck, the president and chief executive officer of u.s. vets. john w. martin, the development director for the opportunity center. and finally, kathryn monet, chief executive officer for the national coalition of homeless veterans. thank you for being here. mr. clancy, start with you. we now recognize you for five minutes. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen, my name is john clancy. aisle an air force veteran. i serve as president and ceo of the t

mr. chairman. mr. secretary, i wanted to begin by thanking you for your focus on reducing veteran suicide. you are the first va secretary, to my knowledge, to make this such a high profile issue. and i'm convinced that as we acknowledge the problem that we have and by your estimate it is 20 veterans a day every single day are taking their lives, we know that for those veterans who have other than honorable discharge, hundred of thousands have other than honorable discharge. tens of thousands of them were diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury or other conditions unique and caused by their service who are effectively denied access to va healthcare. i know you've worked with congressman coffman and myself and others to try to expand access and there by save more lives in el paso. we know there's a correlation between the number of mental healthcare providers and access to mental health help and suicide. we went from 68 full-time mental health care staff to today 122. more