the department of justice recognizes this committee's important oversight role in on behalf of the department i thank you for allowing me to appear today. the committee originally invited me to appear last week on may 8 as ara parent part of a panel wh four other government witnesses for the department of congress and the census bureau.s i accepted that invitation but in the days leading up to lastol week's hearing the committee informed the department that the committee had added a nongovernment witness to the panel. it is long-standing department of justice policy and practice to decline participation in committee hearing panel to include a nongovernment witness. particularly when the department is involved in litigation regarding the subject matter of the hearing. courting the before last week's hearing the department reached out to the committee and offered several accommodations that would have allowed me to provide testimony last week but those combinations included moving the nongovernment witness to several panel, allowing me to submit written testimony and written responses to questi

the department explained accurate citizenship data is crucial to the department's enforcement of the voting act and protection in discrimination in voting. to fully enforce those requirements, the department needs voting age data and locality and census blocks where voting rights violations are alleged or suspected. since the department committed its letter, four lawsuits have been filed challenging the department's decision to reinstate the question on the questionnaire. the justice department is defending those lawsuits. in deference to the court charged with adjudicating legislation involving the united states the department's longstanding policy and practice is to decline to make statements regarding that litigation outside of court. the department accordingly is constrained in its testimony today. as i said at the outset, the department takes this committee's oversight role very seriously and our goal is to be as responsive to the committee as possible, but in light of the potential litigation the effect any potential statements might have on ongoing court cases and department c

it protected by the department of justice. i assure you our employees, particularly our employees who deal with the media, are cognizant of first amendment concerns. that is not a viable defense if you disclose classified information. if you take a job in the department or anywhere in government, you have access to information where you incur the legal obligation to not disclose it, that overrides any first amendment interest you may have. that is different from the media. that is one of the ongoing battles we face. the media's interest is in getting our people to leak, and our interest is to keep people from leaking. prof. collins: on that very point, does the department have any plans to change its policies concerning reporters? gen. rosenstein: we are reviewing that. that policy has been modified over the years. most recently about four years ago. there have been concerns that a number of prosecutors have raised about the policy. it does give reporters special privileges, because it protects them from subpoenas. it requires

is the department tracking that? >> so all seismic issues are handled at building department. structural issues. so that's outside our scope. any compliance issues with that would fall into the building department. >> commissioner veronese: i guess my point, once there's an earthquake it quickly becomes within your scope when the buildings are stacked on top of each other. i'm wondering if the department doesn't track how many buildings we have, or how effective this program, the soft story compliance. i noticed there's a lot of buildings getting into compliance and that's probably a matter of shortage of finding people who do it these days. i would be interested in knowing and perhaps chief gonzales we could make it part of the report for the next month as to how many buildings are actually in compliance so we could keep our eye on that, since it is an issue that ultimately affects us. >> i will do that, reach out to the department. >> commissioner veronese: thank you. >> president cleaveland: thank you, commissioner veronese. i would also like to congratulate you on a job we

chief of department's report report from the chief of department, joanne heys-white. [reading agenda item 4] >> good evening. >> good evening president cleveland and members of the fire commission. there is a meeting tomorrow before the budget and finance committee although we have not been asked to participate or attend even though it relates to public safety. we had presented before in march after we submitted our budget and so at this time per the chair, supe supervisor cohen wel await further present in the month of june after major submits his balanced budget. we are scheduled to go before the budget and finance committee on june 15 and either june 21 or june 22 with a final date if we have that resolution of june 25, and for the public, there is an opportunity for public comment at budget and finance on jun june 18. regarding of division of training 124th class is in their 5th week, 54 member. we had one resignation due to injury and return to station 49 and we were able to quickly bring up to speed someone else at station 49 and not too much time elapse. we are

we followed up as well with the justice department tonight to find out if, in fact, the justice department is handing over the documents that nunes has subpoenaed on this fbi confidential source. justice department spokeswoman sarah isgur flores clarified to us tonight that the exact word choice, the specificity of the white house statement on this is important. let me put that statement back up there. yeah, so, the white house statement said specifically that this meeting will be set up with congressional leaders to review highly classified and other information that they have requested. information that they have requested is not the same as documents that they have requested. from the justice department spokesperson, information is different than documents. okay. so it sounds like justice department and the fbi and the director of national intelligence have agreed to maybe brief congressional leaders, maybe describe information to them about this confidential source, but not hand them pieces of paper, not hand them documents related to this source. which is what republicans have been tr

the letter represents the view of the department and the department stands by that view. the letter was sent to the census bureau and the department of commerce, i understand from publicly available information the secretary of commerce took a hard look at the request and did an independent analysis of it, considered various options as to how to provide block level citizenship data to the department of justice. >> you have one minute left. >> and the decision was made. >> mr. chairman, we need the support of the chair in order to get to the basis of this decision. we think it's important to the american people. obviously as the chairman you have a great sway under our system of rules under this committee, and i would hope that you would see clear to support this very reasonable request on the part of the minority members of this committee, and support the issuance of this subpoena, with that i yield back. >> the gentleman from california is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. gore i'm going to start off by admonishing you for not being here at the previous hearing

he is bound by the confidentiality rules in the department of justice and has greater access to the department records then it would be appropriate to give congress. that really is the purpose of the inspector general. i think there are among some people, a misunderstanding about what the inspector general does. the inspector general is a fully function -- fully functionally law enforcement who have the ability to conduct investigations and gather evidence and what we have developed over the year with our inspector general -- this is not easy because there have been conflicts over the years as well. but we reached an accord where the department freely shares information with the inspector general that would be highly inappropriate for public release, with the understanding that that inspector general one -- will not publicly disclose the information. their responsibility is to determine that there was wrongdoing. if there is, to make sure appropriate punishments are imposed. but not to release that information publicly cleared -- publicly. we have serious allegations of misconduct. and in term

the department of justice notifying the department that it may provide the august scope memo writteny rod rosenstein. chris farrell is joining us. director of investigation and research for judicial watch. chris, first, congratulations. this looks like possibly this would be a big deal? >> we have a pressed and pressed to get the memo released to the public. it will unlock, a lot of this muller special counsel operation. the public is owed an answer to what his mission statement was. when we first asked for it, the justice department denied it existed and we had to sue in october and they begrudging it admitted. we have judicial watch in the courts and members of the congress. people like mr. nunez and mr. santos and members of the freedom caucus and now judge ellis and three different prongs to the attack and hope that our efforts will finally get the scope document released and so the people can see what mr. muller is up to. >> and the judge who dismissed special counsel's efforts to delay arraignment in the case of the russians -- i mean, >> right. >> lou: it is a mess created by

of justice or nye department. the only data made available to us ising a degree gait statistical data covering census blocks. individual responses are not provide to us. they're kept confidential by the census bureau and every employee who sees them agree's to a nondisclosure agreement and can't disclose the responses for the rest or their lives. >> that's an important point. so i'll ask that question again so you can repeat that so everybody can hear that. any questions in regards to citizenship that is answered in regards to the census could it be used by any law enforcement eight or judicial proceedingie the government. >> could not be used mitchell understanding of the law it could not be used in immigration and don'ters. proceed ago, could not be used dish believe those -- it's my understanding understanding the individual responses stay at the census bureau. i know what we receive in the several rights division is onlye individual response at the census bureau is only statistical data and those individual re

we have departments doing in various stages what the department of environment has done. we have departments starting department wide training to figure out how to on board the contempt for the employees in a way relevant to the work they do. whether they are doing energy and water as the public utilities commission or managing over 6,000 employees thinking how each of those employees are going to implement this. they are thinking about training for all employees and what this looks like for their department specifically. we have departments forming a committee. similar to the department of environment pushing forward this effort with the foundation of the racial justice environmental justice work you have been doing for work. they now are forming a committee to it is not just one person. it is from the top to the bottom and left to the right. this is where your department has been doing this for years which made this a good fit for you. we also the departments who are the advanced stages in really looking at the tool. how do we get it to work now and collect demeanor tak

my department of justice? mr. president, it's not your department of justice. >> his pray torrian guard. nancy gertner and paul butler, great to have you both. >>> next, should anybody believe rudy giuliani when he claims what robert mueller tells him? another source blows up that rudy giuliani claim in two minutes. feel the clarity of non-drowsy claritin and relief from symptoms caused by over 200 allergens. like those from buddy. because stuffed animals are clearly no substitute for real ones. feel the clarity. and live claritin clear. i'm your phone,istle text alert. stuck down here between your seat and your console, playing a little hide-n-seek. cold... warmer... warmer... ah boiling. jackpot. and if you've got cut-rate car insurance, you could be picking up these charges yourself. so get allstate, where agents help keep you protected from mayhem... ...like me. mayhem is everywhere. are you in good hands? >>> president trump's confrontation with the justice department is just one part of the broad effort to f

trying to do it, the congress would protect the department. but here we have a weak speaker. we have members of congress that are only too happy to be complicit with the president and beating down the independence of the justice department. this is a maerjor threat to a re of law. >> he said in a tweet yesterday, i hereby demand and will officially do so tomorrow that the department of justice look into whether or not the fbi/doi infiltrated or surveilled the trump campaign for political purposes. and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the obama administration. and he has ordered that the justice department look into this. >> i think they're trying to figure out how to skin a cat at the justice department, how to, on the one hand, not be subordinate to an order by the president, but on the other hand, make sure they don't erode the independence of the justice department. they've kicked it to the inspector general. i am concerned with some of the comments of the deputy attorney general suggesting, we'll look into whether

to strengthen our police department.been proud to partner with police chief scott on innovative new public safety measures which include increasing our city wide foot patrols, adding investigative teams at district stations and expanding our burglary and serial crime units. as we know last year was a very difficult year for property crimes here in san francisco. over 30,000 alone in our city. an absolutely unacceptable number. since undertaking our initiatives we have seen property crimes decrease by over 17%. we will not rest on our morals in san francisco, we will not let that be the new standard. we will continue to move forward and press ahead on reforms that make our streets and our neighborhoods safer for the residents of san francisco. it's also important to note that these increased officers will be more more than just a deterrent to property crimes. they will be reassuring presences in our neighborhoods of san francisco ensuring that people feel safe and securing the communities they live in here in san francisc

so even though the department of health, dph is the one that's enforcing, it's the planning department that's putting the restriction on. and we're here today not just because with you know the massage parlor was operating illegal. you mentioned that shoulda, coulda, woulda, had there been a reverse decision or something on there, that would not -- it would not be a derestriction, right? >> yeah. if the process would have played out further, and there would have been a hearing, and for some reason, dph determined there was not a violation, they be that would not be a violation trigger perarticle 29. now, even if that would have happened, if -- if planning department had been informed of the operations of that site, there's still a chance that that massage establishment could have been determined to be in violation of the planning code. >> no, i get it. that's why we're here, because the question is we don't know that at that point because a process was skipped and the owner's right of due process was overlooked. >> well, there was no process skipped, per se. even if the owner had been

worked with police department, the district attorney's office and the probation department to create new protocols for special victims units when investigators are called out to a domestic violence incident. that's pretty self-explanatory. worked with the superior work and the police department to improve timely entry of d.v. retraining orders and so this was really brought, and you are familiar with the issue, brought from the community. our attorneys, community-based attorneys came to us and said we are having a very hard time getting, you know, people are walking around with a piece of paper they think is protecting them, and it's not in the system yet. so, i am so pleased that the family violence council, perfect for us, right? brought all the stakeholders and problem solved it. meetings with the judges, records department at the police department, set up a whole new protocol and a new email address, those get filed and sent in to the courts and they are logged in at the end of every day. so, that is a lifesaving accomplishment of the family violence council. sheriff's department

do you believe there is a criminal deep state at the state department? >> i haven't seen the comments from the president. i don't believe there is a deep state at the state department. >> thank you. you formerly served as cia director. do you believe your colleagues in the cia are part of the criminal deep state? >>, you know, this term deep state has been thrown around. i'll say this, the employees that work for me at the cia nearly uniformly were aimed at achieving the president's objectives and america's objectives. >> thank you. that's your experience also when you interact with colleagues at the department of justice as well? >> yes. there are always exceptions to every rule. iefr never led an organization that didn't have bad actors. i don't think any government organization is exempt from having malfeasance as well. >> but in general you are confid

if we don't spend the money from that department, it goes back to the department that it came from or it gets carried forward if they want another large project in the next fiscal year, but that's roughly how it work does. in anticipation of each upcoming fiscal year, we go through a process of steps. we consult with a variety of stakeholders in the city's management ranks. we talk to other people from the mayor's office, members of the board of supervisors, civil grand jury reports and things like the d.o.j. report. that's sort of the 30,000-foot level. we've stepped through a series of meetings with all of the client departments where we talk to the department head and then a couple layers down among program managers for a large department discuss operating environment with them, issues that are coming up, audits that have been done in their departments and look at the large things that are changing in that department, and we draw ideas together, we vet them, we make a guess as to the size and complexity, and then, we populate a work plan with what becomes a couple of hundred line i

so general fund departments, 4.4 million, department of public health, 4.1. and my recollection is -- and maybe it's changed -- that the department of public health is part -- is a general fund funded department. so if that's accurate, are we at 8.5 or general fund just -- and what 4.4 reflects is general fund departments other than public health? and then, my last question is, human services agency, are they general fund funded? >> your knowledge and memory of the city's budget is excellent. the public health department, the last dollar in to both hospitals and the general fund for them is a general fund dollar. they take a lot, a lot of revenues from many other sources. they're general fund supports on the margin. our work order is taken on the nongeneral fund portion of it, so as a practical matter, the general fund $4.4 million, to us, a whole bunch of departments are general fund departments. police, for example, fire, are the two largest, so we do most of our public safety work under that 4.4 million. and then, the work that we do for the health departm

attorney and the government department. we have a much greater degree of uniformity around the country. we still do have a different priorities. if you're in a district with little violent crime you will not devote a lot of resources to crime. just one example. that is the issue jackson was referring to. it was the coordination within the executive branch. >> i want to turn to the attorneys manual in a moment. i would like to read a statement made during the confirmation hearings foros your current position. you said, and i quote, if you confirm my nomination, i will work to defend the integrity and independence of our justice department. can you elaborate on what you meant by staying independent? >> the justicest department is independent of inappropriate political considerations it is important to recognize is notf independent of the executive branch. the department has a responsibility to be in accord with the priorities of the administration. that is what elections are for. we change our embassies, we changeie our polic

including the superior court access center and legal departments and expanding with other departments. >> i just want to let you know we are at the 10-minute mark for the presentation. >> okay, thank you. >> i think we have a couple questions. supervisor fewer? > supervisor fewer: thank you very much. you made reference about moving the books from the law library books from brooks hall. i think a year ago there was discussion at the budget committee for the need to develop a plan to move all these books and it sounds like you are working on it everyday but there's a deadline set for december 2018 to complete that task so do you think you will be able to meet that deadline? >> i am proud to say we came up with a system that's enabled us to move forward much faster than we thought we would. 160,000 volumes of legal books is innumerable amount of dusty boxes and we thought we would have to go through every box but we came up with another method so we feel ahead of the game. once we determine which materials we will be analyzing more closely, that will be a little bit slower, but yes, i'm

these are small departments. i'm out and about as much as anybody as were you when you were a senator representing your folks. and when you talk to the people that are on the ground again not having this funding really is making a big different in a very negative way. can you talk about for those states for those individuals doing a good job when it's going to get released. >> it's just maddening to us that people who totally support our ice officers and allow them to do the minimal things they ask of local law enforcement can't get this money. so what happened was a suit was filed in chicago that said that they may or may not be in violation of our grant conditions and they not only wanted to block us from denying chicago. they denied the -- the judge issued a nationwide injunction. and chicago's law and circumstances are unique. all these other people who comply with the department of justice, all the other people that have other and different laws and backgrounds and joined by the same single federal judge. on

my department of justice? mr. president, it's not your department of justice. >> his pray torrian guard. nancy gertner and paul butler, great to have you both. >>> next, should anybody believe rudy giuliani when he claims what robert mueller tells him? another source blows up that rudy giuliani claim in two minutes. millions of you are online right now, searching one topic. that will generate over 600 million results. and if you've been diagnosed with cancer, searching for answers like where to treat, can feel even more overwhelming. so start your search with a specialist at cancer treatment centers of america. start with teams of cancer treatment experts under one roof. start where specialists use advanced genomic testing to guide precision cancer treatment... ...that may lead to targeted therapies and more treatment options. start where there's a commitment to analyzing the latest research and conducting clinical trials-to help each patient get the personalized cancer care they deserve. start at one of the cance

we have a very senior department. is some retire as a gs-15, in washington, -- finally, our indians. i am a sovereignty supporter. the decision on whether to incorporate, is a one-to-one relationship with the tribes themselves. we have made no decision to do that because conservation should be among equals. i think it is to the advantage, about per been eating or recreation -- about permitting or recreation, to fully incorporate into the structure, the decision that the tribes themselves should make. they should make this as equals. i think this is at the advantage of being at the table from the very beginning when the conservation is beginning -- conversation is beginning. what the structure will look like? we are not exactly sure. the reason why, -- the two greatest icon families in the history of conservation, national geographic, the audubon society, we have a conservation roundtable. because before i bring it into congress, i want to make sure that we have it correct and we walked through unintended consequences.

report, working with the planning department. they would do the concept statement. we would coordinate with their on going anti-displacement projects. and a variety of city departments may have called upon for community outreach and working with consultants and community engagement. next step, as we see, legislation itself will be reviewed by the rules committee on may 9. we'll continue to work with existing districts and those in the pipeline. and should the legislation be approved and resources outlined, we'd compile the chess reports and then depending on the resources work with each of these districts to fund their strategies in a more formalized, organized way. again, a brief, high-level overview of this process. i'm joined by mohcd programs as well as omwd and the planning department. we're hear to answer any questions that you might have about this process. >> supervisor cohen: you get a gold star. there was exactly 5 minutes. congratulations. awesome. you are setting the tone for a winning budget committee. thank you. i'm

failure rate, which is fire department and a police department. but it was like 70% where they had a hard time getting people through the training. so, it's nice to see that 90% success rate, something like that, over the years, i guess maybe higher for retention and injuries are generally the problem. this is a physical job, so those are going to happen. so, those are in some cases unavoidable. we'll have a new mayor the next time we meet. so, i hope this budget goes well. whoever the new mayor is, looks like we will have a good relationship with the fire department. i think we have been fortunate. mark farrell has over the years i think had a good relationship with the fire department and he's really doing a fine job in my opinion as mayor, which isn't going to get me anything. but he has been aggressive. i like to see him put his actions on some of the drug paraphernalia and people in bart and et cetera. those are the same people that our fire department has to deal with. and i think it was interesting for the public to see some of those people

we have a corrupt justice department. we have a corrupt fbi.ely past time, in my judgment, for this congress to seek out that transparency and for it to be provided by justice and fbi. but we can't, we can't kid ourselves about how important this is, because it's an etiological fight by people who are corrupt to their souls leading the fbi and the justice department. >> bell well, i think that ultiy those types of views are only going to be e ver addressed or reconciled or confirmed by the release of information. you and i have some disagreements about whether or not these investigations should continue or not. but i think that what we both agree on is that we need to answer some of these more basic questions of the fairness of the process, what started the process and how similar cases might be handled in a dissimilar way. i do think that the critics of the justice department have some good points to raise about the rather strange disconnect in the treatment of very similar cases. lou: yeah. referring to the clinton case versus the trump-russi

did you read the assessment of the san francisco police department by the department of justice, the findings released in october 2016. >> correct. >> supervisor stefani: with regard to the tasers, you know, they mentioned you formed the taser working group. are you familiar with recommendations 16.1 and 16.2? >> yes. >> supervisor stefani: so 16.1 states, these are the recommendations from the department of justice, correct. it says working with all key stakeholders and community members, the s.f.p.d. and commission should make an informed decision based on expectations sentiment and information from top experts in the country, correct? >> yes. >> supervisor stefani: what did you take that to mean? >> that meant we come together and discuss what would be the rules and regulations that could be in a policy and of course it would be done with the help of experts in the community. and we have those experts come to us. >> supervisor stefani: is that what prompted you to form the taser working group? >> no. we formed the working group first. >> supervisor stefani: before the d.o.j. recom

you can resign from the trump justice department over the principle that the justice department must be operationally independent from political pressure from the president. but no one in the justice department resigned when the president said last year, i have absolute right to do what i want to do with the justice department. another president saying something like that could have easily provoked the resignation of the attorney general and the deputy attorney general, and the assistant attorneys general. a third option for people working in the trump justice department is to adapt. adapt to the president's assault on the integrity of the justice department, and figure out a way to continue doing your jobs. while the president continues his attack on the integrity of the justice department. and that seems to be what most people in the justice department have done. they have adapted. they have adapted to trump so that they can continue to fulfill the oath they all took to, quote, defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic. some people using

so for folks in the state department this is a big deal because it means that the state department isk internally and externally, and they'll be heard in the administration and externally because our foreign interlo int interloquitor. and at least symbolically and in terms of reenergizing the department this is a good thing. >> well, you can probably say it, mike pompeo speaks to the president until he doesn't seems to be how it is when it comes to every cabinet secretary. chris, the fact that the president is making this his first trip to the state department, what does that say? >> tony's right. i don't think you can overestimate the extent to which rex tillerson struggled because it quickly became apparent that the power he thought he had, donald trump didn't think he had and donald trump didn't see him as sort of the extension of his policies in other countries. so tillerson is in the untenable position and mike pompeo was chosen for this job in no small part because of his loyalty to donald trump, and his ability as michelle mentioned in the open, to manage donald trump effective

the order allows the department to set specific application requirements based on how the department submits -- based on how the department approves and reviews applications. for example, we -- in our order, we establish minimum sidewalk widths, whereas the -- as far as the legislation does not, and we also have more specific application material requirements, whereas article 5.8 does not. in terms of the coordination with public health and fire, our -- the requirements have stayed the same under these requirements, and what we have begun is we've done more -- we've been collaborating with health and fire towards the end of the process. so specifically under article 5.8, section 184.89, which talks about the issuance of mobile food facility permits, so just to kind of explain this, after public works has reviewed a location and ensured that all the criteria has been met, if there are public objections, then we go to a public hearing, and if there are no objections, we can move forward with a decision at this point. so basically, at that point when we're kind of completed with our not

this is a pal pable sense and the department of justice flagged this for us. i think if we can move forward just with that one very simple area -- so sorry, not simple. there's nothing simple about it. in just that one recommendation narrowly move forward on increasing awareness around the principals of procedural justice, what are the policies of when they are arriving at a scene and there could be an altercation? how does the sfpd interact with people on the scene? what are the rights of the people on the scene? i think that could go a long way in building trust. i think the way we can do that some of the infrastructure we have in place the chief has forums. i think that we can leverage the chief's forums. there's a great program, the community safety initiative, that my executive director cheryl davis was one of the cofounders of. you know, working with young people. i think that we need to have forums and use those forums to address procedural justice issues and know your rights capacity to start building trust. once we do that accountability is critical a

as your reporter said i'm little bit concerned we have the department of justice inspecting the department of justice. i.g. has done a good job so far. he's revealed important information. and we look forward to hearing his report. >> i want to read a tweet. rod rosenstein knows exactly what happened and what's in the development requested by congress. either the matter warranted investigation and he did nothing or saw the facts and believes nothing is wrong. it's a ruse. >> i don't think it's a ruse. it's a step forward. we'll see how important a step forward it is. you ask if i was satisfied there's an important element. there's been a narrative we have been wanting to know the individual or source. we don't care at all. we have never asked for information regarding him at all. we want the under lying information. that's important to us. and we haven't bnt able to see that the department of justice denied that to us. i don't know how anyone can say that's a good idea. let the department of justice hold that close. let's let them leak it to "new york times" and "washington post." not show

the planning department. both departments determine to this application complies with our complaint by standard. public works subsequently issued tentative approval and verizon mailed and posted notice of this approval. public works held a public hearing to consider a protest and following the hearing the director of public works approved the permit and notice of the determination was distributed to the public. and representatives from the planning department are here and can speak more regarding planning review process. thank you. >> good evening president and commissioner's. actually lindsay, planning and department staff. the proposed interior be a verizon personal wireless service facility is to be located in the public right-of-way and a planning and zoning protective location. adjacent to 3512, late street and on the street with undesignated street views. planning is required to review the application for the proposal at 3512 street to determine if the applicant has demonstrated that the proposed person

none of this is because of one person or department. it is a combination of decisions that over time have gotten us here. each institution has a role to play in creating this structure and through our city-wide team, we'll be able to find different strategies to chip away at it. how does racial inequity manifest in government policies? the first example you see is federal housing administration red line specific neighborhoods and designate them for communities of color. the second is more often than not, our trash transfer stations are in communities of color. and the final example is from seattle, where the mayor went out to a low-income community and saw that many of the streetlights were out. on further investigation, he found out that the streetlight replacement was based on a complaint system. primarily from privileged neighborhoods. so what he did was change the policy to have all the streetlights changed often a calendar cycle. so the department of the environment racial equity initiative is following best practices from other ci

but we also know that the department of defense cannot go it alone. they must work with the private sector and academia. no less important are investments in stem education, programs that develop junior talent into future tech leaders of policies that promote an environment in which global collaboration, discovery, innovation, public institutions, and industry can thrive. i had an opportunity to read dr. schmidt's statement and i want to thank you because it provides a kind of reality test for us, and how do we continue to do many of the advances that we've been working on, and you note those in your statement very clearly. but also build an architecture that is going to bring us into the future and certainly respond to the needs of the men and women who go to war on behalf of our country. i look forward to hearing your testimony today. thank you. excuse me. and i yield back. >> without objection, both of your written statements will be made a part of the record. i do want to comment, dr. griffin, that nobody's read yours because we just got it. and i