after that, air force secretary deborah lee james addresses the women and international security organization. and later the senate returns at 2:00 eastern time for a debate on the so-called doc fix legislation involving how much the government pays doctors who treat medicare patients. >> last year virginia state senator kay deeds suffered a personal tragedy when he was stabbed by his mentally ill son. before the incident a judge had issued an involuntary commitment order for senator deeds' son to receive treatment but no beds were available. today at the national press club, senator deeds will talk about his efforts to change the mental health system in his state. you can watch his remarks live starting at

after that, air force secretary deborah lee james addresses the women and international security organization. and later the senate returns at 2:00 eastern time for a debate on the so-called doc fix legislation involving how much the government pays doctors who treat medicare patients. >> last year virginia state senator kay deeds suffered a personal tragedy when he was stabbed by his mentally ill son. before the incident a judge had issued an involuntary commitment order for senator deeds' son to receive treatment but no beds were available. today at the national press club, senator deeds will talk about his efforts to change the mental health system in his state. you can watch his remarks live starting at 1 p.m. eastern over on c-span. >> bend is a timber town. you wouldn't know it to look at it today. the timber qualities are almost completely removed, but, yes, bend was a timber town to begin with. at the height of the timber industry, so if you were to drop into bend in, say, 1928, you would have smell the mills, you would have smelled sawdust. if you went through certain parts of town,

deborah lee james and mark welsh provided testimony emphasizing the impact on the readiness. the congressman buck mckeon of california chairs this two-hour hearing. the committee will come to ord order. i want to thank you all for joining us here today as we consider the fiscal year budget request for the department of the air force. i appreciate the witness with ty and there's a part of the airmen. joining us today are the honorable deborah lee james, secretary of the air force and the general mark welsh, chief of staff of the air force and he is brightened up the room a little bit by inviting his wife and his daughter lives to be with us. thank you for joining us. i want to welcome the secretary, the 23rd secretary of the air force. as this is her first posture hearing before the committee. we are also delighted that she is a further past staff members. we were talking before we came in and she pointed out where one of her offices was in her tenure on the staff. happy to have you back. welcome back. while this committee and you have warned about the consequences of the cuts

air force secretary deborah lee james suggested today the culture there encouraged cheating. >> i certainly felt that the testing an training environment was unhealthy. the drive to always soar 100% -- score 100% on exams when 90% was the standard, and the use of these scores in some cases as the sole differentiator on without got promoted and who didn't, just seemed inappropriate to me. >> woodruff: the air force announced plans to modernize three nuclear missile bases and upgrade training on "core values" and leadership. the secret service is also under new scrutiny over alleged misconduct. the issue resurfaced after an agent turned up drunk at a dutch hotel before president obama's visit this week. today, the "washington post" reported two officers suspected of drinking had a car accident this month in miami during a presidential visit there. in economic news, a bill restoring jobless benefits for more than two million americans cleared a procedural hurdle in the senate. it's not expected to survive in the house. and wall street failed to gain any traction. the dow jones industrial avera

. >> today, air force secretary deborah lee james gave a speech about recruiting and keeping women military officers. this is about an hour. >> thank you, and indeed i think this is the first of many events we will do together. i think we're natural partners. women and international security and the harvard women diplomacy and development. just maybe a few words about this organization. it was created there the mid-1980s, and really has a mission to support and promote women in the international peace and security field. we're an international membership organization, combossed of both women and men. we actually welcome men in its midst. we have a -- presence in some 47 different countries and also we have active chapters here in the united states, particularly in massachusetts, new york, florida, and california. we're engaged in three main activities, one is research, the second is capacity building, and leadership training, and the third is professional development, outreach, and networking. and for more on wiis i refer you to our web site. today we are at the end of women's history month

air force secretary deborah lee james will be a guest on the women in the international security group today she will be speaking about women in positions related to america's national security. >> high. and if you've just come in, come on out and take a seat. wonderful. thank you all for making it out in the middle of the day and it's exciting to see all of your faces. a lot of them are familiar to me and a lot of them are new, so that as exciting as well. i'm the program chair for the women of the harvard women and defense diplomacy and development. one of the two cosponsors for this event. and harvard w. three d. which is an defense diplomacy development was launched in the fall of 2013 and we are dedicated to cultivating women to become leaders that work together toward sustainable peace. our goal is to bring together leaders and future leaders within the professional sectors of defense, diplomacy and development to build trust and collaboration between the different sectors to create holistic policy decisions and solutions. and our network is very much, just as much about passion

air force secretary deborah lee james will be a guest of the women and international security group today. she will be speaking about women in positions related to america's national security. we will have that live at 1:30 p.m. eastern on c-span2. also today, the brookings institution is hosting a discussion on u.s.-china relations including looking at sports and cultural diplomacy. former nba player yao ming and former nba commissioner david stern are among the panelist. that will be live beginning at 2 p.m. eastern on our companion network c-span. supreme court justices are weighing whether corporations have religious rights that exempt them from part of the new health care law that requires coverage of birth control for employees at no extra charge. two cases than an were combinedd argued at the supreme court tuesday. it involves family-owned companies that provide health insurance to their employees but objected to covering certain methods of birth control that they say can work after conception in violation of their religious beliefs. you can hear the oral argument from earlier this

ado, i willfurther introduce the honorable deborah lee james, secretary of the air wilson,nd stephen strike command. >> good afternoon. thank you for joining us today. general wilson and i promised you periodic updates about our very important nuclear mission. the cheating incident and our efforts to address these matters. we are grateful that use vent time with us this afternoon. as you may recall during our last briefing in january, general wilson and i showed you there were 92 crew members under investigation for some level of involvement and a test compromise at the air force base. either they participated in cheating or knew something about it without reporting it all stop back in january, general wilson launched a commander-directed investigation, and forced improvement program, to get to the bottom of this situation and to recommend needed improvements. further, the secretary of defense order that we provide him a plan within 60 days, containing a way forward. finally, when we provided our last update, i offered you seven -- what i call my observations from my recent visits to

joining us today are the honorable deborah lee james secretary of the air force and general mark sub to chief of staff of the air force and he has brightened up the room a little bit by inviting his wife that betty and his daughter lives to be with us. thank you for joining us. i want to especially welcome secretary james the 23rd secretary of the air force as this is her first posture hearing before a committee. we are also delighted that she is the former house staff member and in fact we were talking before we came in here and she pointed out to us where one of her offices was in her tenure on the staff. we are happy to have you back. welcome back. this committee and you general welsh have warned about the consequences of the cuts to our defense budget. i don't think policymakers in washington or the american people really understand how much has been cut and what it means. for the air force what it means is although the budget request highlights were investments in readiness the air force still cannot meet its readiness needs until 2023. let me read that again. 2023, 10 years alm