strategic command manages nine missions across the department of defense. these missions range from satellite and space situational awareness, missile defense, and electronic warfare to combatting weapons of mass destruction. stratcom coordinates the activity of u.s. cyber command across the department of defense, unlike combatant commands, which are regionally folk you, stratcom's missions are global. that capability needs to be preserved as we continue to reduce the size of these forces and modernize the infrastructure at the department of energy that supports this mission. general kaler, here are some of the issues that i hope that you'll address this morning. first, are you satisfied with the direction we're taking in our nuclear force posture and with the department of energy's role in maintaining our nuclear stockpile so that we can continue to reduce its size without testing while ensuring the stockpile remains safe and meets military requirements? second, do you believe we are on a sustainable path to protect our space assets and to reconstitute them

now, this department of defense report again the department of defense report that the deputy secretary asked for also made an amazing statement. it said something i have been saying for ten years. what i have been saying for ten years if you have the suitcases out there and you're just inspecting them with your eyes, you can't tell whether or not that's a bomb in them by just inspecting them with your eyes. you have to sniff them. open up the suitcase and look around. then you might fail, but certainly you're not able to identify which suitcase has a bomb by simply looking at it. this is not a very profound statement to say, but a lot of technical detail behind this very simple statement which is correct completely in terms of the analogy i'm giving you. the defense science board report actually says that the department of defense has not demonstrated the ability to tell war heads from decoys. this is the report that's -- unclassified report that deputy secretary of defense carter had asked for a couple of years ago. it also says that a capability that the missile defense agency has be

strategic command, or stratcom, manages nine missions across the department of defense. these missions range from satellite and space situationale awareness, missile defense, andn electronic warfare, to combating destruction.ss stratcom coordinates the activities of the u.s. cybercommand across the department of defense. unlike combatant commands which otyregionally focused, stratcom submissions are global. as noted in the presence its strategic guidance, stratcom commands nuclear forces that can under any circumstances confront an adversary with this prospect of unacceptable damage. that capability needs to be preserved as we continue to thduce the size of the forces and modernize the infrastructure at the department of energy that supports thisce mission. the general kehler, here are some ot the issues that i hope you'll address this morning. first, are you satisfied -- are you satisfied with the direction that we're taking in our nuclear force posture and with the department of energy's role in maintaining our nuclearure and stockpile so that we canen continue to reduc

we have good cooperation across the department of defense and with our partners in the department of homeland security to axhooef that end. >> i think we can all understand why it's a work in progress gin the complexity of the issue. would you say that we would have some way of bringing it to a resolution, that issue, so we can have some criteria to determine when the nation is under an attack, military attack that needs a response or a military-like attack that requires a response? do you believe we'll have that kind of sense or identification, criteria, for instance, within a year? is that a reasonable expectation? >> senator, i don't think that's an unreasonable expectation. i wouldn't want to put an exact time limit on it, but i think there's momentum. there's a moment tuum across th department and across the government. we appreciate the support of this committee and senate in helping us think through this. i know you had a suggestionful tabletop exercise, lots of good feedback from that. continued efforts like that to inform, to educate and understand will help us get more quic

the department of defense has stepped up to the plate. we have met our responsibilities under the budget control act. but with these record deficits, no budget, no budget can be balanced on the back of defense spending alone. based on my own budget experience, i strongly believe that all areas of the federal budget must be put on the table, not just discretionary alone but mandatory spending and, yes, revenues. that is the responsible way to reduce deficits and the responsible way to avoid the sequester provisions contained in title three of the budget control act. the sequester would cut another roughly $500 billion from defense over the next nine years. these cuts would hollow out the force and inflict severe damage on our national defense. the president's fy-13 budget does put forward a proposal to avert sequestration and reduce the deficit by $4.3 trillion over the next decade. i recognize that people can agree or disagree with those proposals. we come up with a large balanced package of savings. the savings come from four areas, effic

a 2008 department of defense report noted how climate change will impact current and future u.s. national security. the department of defense has been progressive in transitioning bases around the world, solar panels, etc. the weather patterns in somalia have led to difficulties with shabbab.al- could you talk about climate change and the department of defense and could you get senator mitch mcconnell to stop blocking that legislation? thank you. [applause] >> i learned a long time ago, do not mess around with people. state what you think is right and hope that others will follow and be able to incorporate those thoughts in whatever they do. i have tremendous

, the united states department of defense has a contract with that same russian arms exporter. and i sent a letter, mr. chairman, to secretary of defense mr. panetta along with 16 colleagues, a bipartisan letter, raising this issue. and i would like to have that made part of the record. >> objection. >> appreciate that. >> imagine my surprise when i found that russia is not only selling weapons to hugo chavez in venezuela and to the mullahs in tehran, but syria, but also that we have a very -- we have a contract, the department of defense to sell a set of helicopters, the 21 dual use mi-17 helicopters for the afghan military from rosoborn export. this is a no-bid contract awarded by the army last summer several months after the syrian uprising began. and it's worth $375 million. that's $375 million u.s. going russian arms merchant arming president assad and killing -- with which he is killing innocent syrians. it does not require a leap of logic to conclude that the proceeds of this contract are helping -- helping finance these mass atrocities. i should also note that syria ha

northcom and southcom or the primary entities to which the department of defense engages in the western hemisphere. the ability of criminal organizations to outgun civilian law enforcement and buy influence has meant that militaries have been asked to take on internal security responsibilities throughout the region. this expanded role for our neighbors' militaries provides opportunities for our military to improve its advise and assist acivitiy iey iey ies activities. we look forward to your continuing engagement in the hemisphere and respect for the military and respect for human rights. given horrific level of violence in mexico specifically related to the flow of money and guns from our country into mexico, you want to hear general jacoby's assessment of the security along and below our border and the two militaries to defeat the criminal organizations. the southcom includes caribbean and central and south america. general fraser as we discussed last week while there's no traditional military threat emanating f, southcom is contending with an increasingly and powerfule these criminal

is that something you knew that the department of defense owned? >> no. >> is it proper to sight see european castles, shop in seoul's exciting shopping districts, the best one, to go to walt disney resort. answer the question. >> that's nonappropriated funds first of all, which means it's not a part of the defense budget. but a lot of the facilities are provided for men and women who go into battle and who have been deployed overseas and you know what? i think at the very least we owe them is the ability to enjoy whatever time they take off from going to war. >> this i plies to a million civilians who have never seen war, and for folks who do not live in these particular areas, they can't jump on a plane. if you're not audit capable and you're here asking for more money. my constituents are very interested in how that money is spent. >> the fact that we're not audity doesn't mean we can't do there a series of auditors, and i have made it a major area of everyo emphasis. i can tell you where we're spending the money, i can't go through all the detai

one was by defining the term department of defense critical infrastructure security information and also by adding a public interest balancing test. in order to use the exemption the secretary of d.o.d. has to determine in writing that the information is d.o.d. critical infrastructure security information and that the interest in preventing the disclosure of the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. the maloney amendment passed the house, and senator leahy was a great champion in the senate. and so with the work of both sides the language was enacted as part of the final bill. and i think now the next step is seeing how the department of defense uses this new authority, ensuring it is not abused but it is used responsibly and that the intent is followed and these steps that require that two-step test is met when the exemption is used. one thing to note is that the efforts of open government groups were critical in supporting the effort to limit the scope of that exemption. and that's something i would ask as a staffer, that folks who follow these issues

the department of defense is the biggest energy user within the federal government, 93%ly all energy used is used by the department of defense and as you so rightly point out, so much of that is fuel to power our vehicle. and i know that there was an exchange earlier around the cost of biofuels, and i wonder if you could speak to the memorandum of understanding that you have with the department of agriculture and the department of energy to try and move forward to develop a biofuel that is drop-in that will allow us to be more efficient and reduce the dependence on oil. >> thank you, senator. and it was good to see you all. the memorandum of understanding that the department agriculture and the navy signed was in the direction of the commander of chief and three of our departments to come up with a geographically disbursed, competitively priced biofuel industry for the country. the navy contribution pho thto would come from the defense production act which, as i pointed out a little bit earlier, explicitly mentions energy as one of the things that the defense production act could be u

senator lieberman mentioned he and i introduced an amendment to the defense bill codifying a memorandum of agreement between the department of defense and the department of homeland security. the purpose of that amendment was to ensure that this relationship endures and highlights that the best governmentwide cyber security approach is one where dhs leverages not and expertise. this bill, unfortunately, this principles of that moa by expanding the size, scope, and reach of dhs and neglects to afford those necessary to protect the homeland to the only institutions currently capable of doing so. u.s. cyber command and the national security agency. at a recent fbi sponsored symposium at fordham university, the commander of the u.s. cyber command and the director of the nsa stated that if a significant cyber attack against this country were to take place there may not be of much he and his leaders could do to stop it in advance. in order to stop a cyber attack you have to see it in real time. you have to have those authorities. these are the conditions we put on the table. now how and what the congress chooses that will be a

some of this is answered in part through the agreement that was reached with the department of defense, but is there any further funding that is likely to come from the department of defense, given they have ownership over the site at some point and are responsible for some of the contamination, or did we reach the maximum ability to get funding for the cleanup from them? >> i would say our ability to get federal funding from the department of defense is probably more related to the climate in congress with respect to federal appropriations than the reality of what we encountered at pier 70. >> once you have touched on the ownership of lands and divided the contamination, there is ongoing responsibility for cleanup. to go it easier is curious -->> indeed there is. if there was a component of the release of country to the navy and hold them responsible for, we certainly live want to do that, so we would take a look at that. >> the same holds true if there were underground storage tanks? to go historically there were underground storage tanks. to the best of our knowledge they have been

that end, working closely with the coast guard, united states navy, other partners in the department of defense and the department of homeland security, and also staying tied close thrly to the canadians is right framework to be working in now. >> one statistic i'll use, i think it came from the coast guard alaska, and that is a few years ago you would maybe see 50 ships moving through the bering sea and now close to 1,000. with the arctic, i think seven last year, now 34. in one year alone. so it's moving in a rapid pace of activity up there. we know our friends from china and russia are very interested, china in our land, as i would say, curious about their efforts and so again, your gap analysis, will that also then be utilized as you moved forward in your long-term budget planning of how these pieces fit in and where you need to allocate assets? >> yes, senator. i think that's an important first step with our closest partners to look at the gaps and particularly in how you communicate, how you see and understand what infrastructure we may need, and what kind of continued presence you might

first of all, dean has been an adviser to the defense department on these issues. so recently and currently. so he's very knowledgeable about the strengths and limitations of the systems. he's also done a national academy study -- >> may explain his position. >> let me just comment on two points that ted raised. one is was there any technical input to the missile defense review or actually i think he said this was no technical input. these were some of the technical groups that pored over the details of the systems and remember, we are talking about the systems in the process of evolving over a decade. and there's always lots of uncertainty here. both in terms of what we'll find out about our own systems and what we'll find out about the threat. technical groups represented in the review included -- and you have to make your own judgment about their capability of veracity from the missile defense agency itself. from the navy. from the air force. from the office of science technology policy, from the white house, from the joint staff of the chairman of the joint chie

, the united states department of defense has a contract with that same russian arms exporter. and i sent a letter, mr. chairman, to secretary of defense, a bipartisan raising this issue. imagine my surprise when i found that russia's not only selling weapons to hugo chaves in venezuela and also syria, but also that we have a contract for the department of defense to sell helicopters. this is a no bid contract awarded by the army just last summer. several months after the syrian uprising began and it's worth $375 million. that's $375 million u.s. taxpayer dollars going to a russian arms merchant arming president assaad in which he is killing innocent syrians. the proceeds of this contract are helping finance these mass acrossities. i should also note that sere y'all has a history of not actually paying for those weapons according to press reports than president vladimir putin wrote off nearly 75% of syria's $13.5 billion debt for arms sales. i think it's unconationable that u.s. taxpayers would be put in this position where their hard earned tax dollars would indirectly subsid

some of this is answered in part through the agreement that was reached with the department of defense, but is there any further funding that is likely to come from the department of defense, given they have ownership over the site at some point and are responsible for some of the contamination, or did we reach the maximum ability to get funding for the cleanup from them? >> i would say our ability to get federal funding from the department of defense is probably more related to the climate in congress with respect

miller, have moved to the department of defense from the state department, i think that's a wise decision. i understand also from comments made by secretary panetta yesterday, that these transfers are now on hold because, as some of us suspected, it now -- the administration does not have confidence that the qatar government is going to be capable to living up to the requirements we put on them for these five individuals. my question to both of you is, do you think that the release of these five individuals to the taliban, even under the conditions that are being discussed, is a wise move when you consider the rate of recidivism that we know to be about 27%, and when we particularly know that these are five leaders of the taliban who have previously been declared to be too dangerous to be released and are likely to re-enter the fight. dr. miller, i would like your comments, please. >> senator, the department of defense and secretary panetta support process of reconciliation or efforts to support an afghan-led afghan-le reconciliation. we are doing that with eyes wide opening and understan

with efforts being undertaken at the department of veterans affairs and department of defense and several agencies at the department of hhs. it is incumbent us on to examine these activities to work in a coordinated and efficient manner. i proudly serve on the brain injury task force and encourage bipartisan support for tbi research and rehabilitation and with that support i am confident that the committee will make greater strides to help patients living with the aftermath of tbi. i want to extend a warm welcome to the families attending today's hearing as part of brain injury awareness month and i look forward to your testimony. i yield back to the chairman. >> the chair thanks the gentleman. we have four witnesses on our panel. dr. bonnie strickland, director of division services for children with special health care needs, u.s. department of health and human services. mr. william ditto, director of the new jersey tbi division, new jersey department of health. dr. flaura winston, children's hospital of philadelphia and dr. mark ashley, president centre for neuro skills. we ask that you

the department of defense's statistics of sexual assault aren't able to tell the entire story. since there's so much at stake when someone speaks out. especially in the military. the number of reported cases in the military is kept low by a culture of shame and retaliation. if someone speaks up, she's labelled as disloyal or unpatriotic. and often isolated, ostracized and harassed. the military culture victimizes people by demanding silence. this is hard for civilians to understand, because the military has a different set of rules. the uniformed code of military justice. the legal protections given to civilians are different. service members don't have the rights to independent counsel like civilian victims do. so we recognize that when someone goes public about her victimization, it's extraordinary. and to continue speaking out in the face of retaliation reflects the courage of these plaintiffs. what's so tragic is that the blow back isn't always just professional. it can be personal as well. often, people's families and friends don't support the choice to speak out which can

in discussions with secretary panetta and general dempsey about the overall budget of the department of defense and the platforms that exist. in terms of platforms for intelligence gathering, are there particular areas you think the expenditure of resources poses a threat? in other words, to put it more simply, where diminished fountain impedes or imperils intelligence gathering on the united states? >> well, sir, we are going through our own trust in the intelligence community since a large portion of the national intelligence program is embedded in the dod budget. so we were kind of given the same production on a proportionate basis. so way or the node for the first time in 10 years of cutting intelligence resources. we've been on an upward slope for the whole decade and that is going to come to a halt. and so, we will have less capability than we have had in the last 10 years. that said, i've been through this before. when i served as. in the early 90s and we have the peace dividend after the fall of the wall and a profound cutting, intelligence community didn't do it very well. so we try to

for several years swan has been advocating for reform within the department of defense and veterans affair, culminating in president obama signing the victims rights protections into law. the concerted bipartisan effort this law included basic protections as the guarantee of privileged communication between a sexual assault victim and his or her victim's advocate and the requirement, the commanders must authorize expedited transfers of sexual assault victims who request them. these reforms were a long time coming and will assist countless survivors in the aftermath of an assault. in fact, swan's legal and peer support line has received phone calls from those whose unit transfers were possible only because of the new law. part of the military's intransigence on meaningful change lies in the insistence that it has the rules to administer justice to survivors and yet the sexual assault response office known as sapro has been the pentagon's primary answer to stopping sexual assault in the ranks. to be clear, sapro has no law enforcement authority or any authority to prosecute or punish. it's r

governor and upon the direction of the president or secretary of defense, we pull togethered unique xabltds and capacities of the department of defense to multithe impact of a primary federal agency such as fema. now thanks to the congress and the president the 2012 national defense authorization act put into lay initiatives supported by the council of governors and the secretaries of defense concerning dual status commanders and activation of reserves and domestic disaster response. i appreciate this committee's support for this two important members that save american lives. it was my privilege to serve in afghanistan and iraq with many superb members of the national d i believe that in the krus bell of over ten years of continual conflict with the support of congress, dwoeped the finest total force i've ever seen and norad and northcom depend on that force daifr. this past year has been busy. we synchronized our efforts and worked through the budget process. for fy '12 and for fy '13 reducing the onm funding by 6%. with the resources and authorities at han and maintaining the vigilance, we can continue to gend and suppo

sequestration that really is a meat ax as the secretary of state indicated on the industry and the department of defense. >>> it's a very, very partisan year. there are a lot of members, particularly on the republican side who are saying, you know, there's a certain degree of an miss of raising the debt ceiling no matter what happens. is this message penetrating this is outcome is going to be particularly bad? >> it's already penetrating. they're recognizing in the district that this is not some philosophical argument here in washington d.c., but it is affecting people out in their communities, that is affecting the jobs, it's affecting their communities as a whole as they see announcements come out with job layoffs and things of that nature. i think when the department indicated they're going to request another round of brac, that also brought home the reality of this. this is not a political science argument, it's real. >> great, guys. thanks very much. >>> coming up next, two stunning cuts to the u.s. coast guard. >>> the department of homeland security's 2013 budget request cuts two large cutters fo

so this is what the department of defense brings to bear against this. but i have to agree with you. north korea is an outlier today in the world. the president was just in seoul over the last couple of days with a nuclear security summit. over 50 of the world's leaders were there, and everybody is getting aboard to eliminate weapons of mass destruction and to decrease that danger. again, north korea san outlier. so in addition to what we're doing, the department of defense, we're also supporting a broader international diplomacy, nonproliferation efforts to try to deal with that threat. >> great. appreciate what you're doing. very, very important. thanks so much. >> thank you. ms. davis? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you both for being here for your service. i'm sorry i missed the early discussions, but i wanted to ask you -- i guess extend the discussion on the tour normalization. and what you are finding in terms of, i think morale of the unaccompanied tours because the turnover as i understand it is about 600, 700 service members every month. is t

. >> let me transition you a bit to the department of defense's business transactions with this same firm i mentioned earlier. rosoboron export, they are engaged in military sales of russian weapons to assad's regime. reportedly, the company has signed a deal with the syrian government to is sell it 36 combat jets capable of hitting civilian ground targets can you confirm that? >> i can't. i would have to look into that. >> i don't mean to blind side you i'll share with you this article and i would be interested in following up in greater detail. the company was sanctioned by the united states in october 2008 for assisting the nuclear program but those sanctions were lifted by the department of state in 2010. this is what i wanted to get to, it's my understanding that the department of defense through an initiative led by the u.s. army is buying dual use m-1 -- excuse me, m-i-17 helicopters from this same company. i would like to know whether either of you can confirm this as that point? >> no. but i can confirm that we are buying m-i-17s for the afghan military but i cannot done firm

killings it's becoming a more and more important part of the defense strategy of the united states recognized as such in recent policy papers by. department of defense really goes back to the bush administration and indeed a lot of this seems to have been put in place under the tutelage of dick cheney so here we see one of dick cheney's ideas being rather frightening carried forward by barack obama and his attorney general eric holder and this is of course a problem when the entire world becomes your battlefield and you know it's. very general eric holder claims that this is not stepping away from our values or our laws or our ideals but i can't see you know the notion that really this is some small committee that then sends some information out to the president who then you know laterally decides whether they're going to execute this american citizen or not as anything but a huge removal from our values and ideals but i thought it was interesting to eric holder yesterday said that those who choose to use the word assassination he said that it's misplaced he said it isn't belong in this discussion let's hear it make completely wrong about

of defense, u.s. northern command post together the capacities of the department of defense to apply the impact of the federal agencies such as our close partner fema. the 2012 national defense authorization act put into law initiative supported by the council of governors and the secretary of defense concerning tool status commanders and activation of reserves in domestic disaster response, i appreciate the committee's support for the two important measures which will help save american lives. it is my privilege to serve in afghanistan and iraq. i believe in the crucible of over 10 years of continued conflict with the support of congress, we have developed the finest total force that i have ever seen. this past year has been busy. we synchronized our activities, and we have done our part to realize the efficiencies that we have worked for the budget process. four f why 13, reducing our funding by 6%. maintaining our vigilance, we will be able to continue to defend the american people. thank you for this opportunity to be here today. i look forward to the discussion. >> we will have a seven-minute fir

defense, and electronic warfare to combatting weapons of mass destruction. stratcom coordinates the activity of u.s. cyber command across the department of defense, unlike combatant commands, which are regionally folk you, stratcom's missions are global. that capability needs to be preserved as we continue to reduce the size of these forces and modernize the infrastructure at the department of energy that supports this mission. general kaler, here are some of the issues that i hope that you'll address this morning. first, are you satisfied with the direction we're taking in our nuclear force posture and with the department of energy's role in maintaining our nuclear stockpile so that we can continue to reduce its size without testing while ensuring the stockpile remains safe and meets military requirements? second, do you believe we are on a sustainable path to protect our space assets and to reconstitute them if necessary given the congested and contested nature of space? third, the department of defense has allocated a block of the electromagnetic spectrum that connects our space, cyber and electronic warfare assets to our fozs. str

that independent assessment, there should be no concrete plans made by the secretary of defense or the defense department until we have a chance to examine an independent assessment and then go through the authorization process for any expenditure of funds that need to be made in order to get this redeployment issue into some kind of sanity and believe me, we acted as is our responsibility because of our intense frustration about the lack of progress on this issue and now 2 1/2 months go by and they haven't let a contract to get an independent assessment by the way and we wanted it to be completed by the 1st of april, end of march which cannot obviously happen. i'm not going to continue to let you slow walk us on this issue. just put things in perspective on the f-35. again, we started this program in 2001. cost assessments for a couple of thousand aircraft, it was going to be $238 billion. of we have now had additional costs of $150 billion. 1 50 additional billion dollars in costs. block 4 as i understand it, please correct me if i'm wrong, general amos, block 4, 32 aircraft which are 50% complete, whi

. >> this attorney is suing the department of defense and the department of veteran affairs on behalf of edgewood veterans. what do you hope to get for them? >> nothing for themselves out of this case other than perhaps medical care. they are not going to get money. they were mistreated and they don't want to let it be swept under the rug and have everyone die and never see the light of day. it's why they are doing it. >> tim josephs says he has had parkinson's-like symptoms on and off throughout his life. >> do you think his parkinson's is related to the tez he underwecht at edgewood? >> those substances affect the same region of the brain. tim clearly had adverse -- they gave him such high doses that he ranged from overdose with one substance to the an dote back and forth, and he actually had to get a very powerful antipsychotic drug because he flipped out. >> at what point does an 18-year-old kid think this is for life? what they are doing to me is going to affect my health for the rest of my life? >> things were different then. you believed in your government and wouldn't believe

of "the military times." welcome. how does the defense department trade benefits or the offering of benefits for same-sex couples? >> -- guest: as you know, six months ago, the part of defense finally lifted the ban on gays serving openly in the military, which eliminated the long standing rule allowing service members to be involuntarily separated for being gay, but because of the existing federal defense of marriage act, the department of defense did not have to answer a lot of 40 questions about what kind of benefits to extend to potentially same-sex couples. the issue has been on hold, just like any other federal agency right now. the department of defense does not recognize a same-sex marriage, even if it is a legal marriage in one of the state's that recognizes them. that means they do not get additional housing allowance, which is several hundred dollars a month. they do not get extended health benefits. they cannot live in base housing. there is a range of things right now that are very much on hold because of the defense of marriage act. ho

we've gotten right in the last years is figuring out how to do that hand off of care from the department of defensethe department of veteran affairs. it's still a little bumpy, but by and large the treatment's pretty good. there are a lot of injuries that veterans suffer that simply aren't addressed with in the private health care system. prosthetics are not very profitable and research on that and traumatic brain injury isn't a part of the for-profit health care system. without v.a. research, we would be so far behind in our medical knowledge and medical care for the entire country that we have to make sure that we support and sustain the system that we have now. >> well, tom, thank you for your service, thank you for what you're doing advocating on the part of our veterans. that is tom tarantino. coming up, it's back out to the campaign front and our political posse. independents are sure to play a big part in 2012 elections. we will tackle that next. stick around. lowered wages for union and non-union workers too. i wonder why they do that. i wonder if it has to do with campaign donations from i

despite efforts of the defense department over the years, the defense department remains the federal agency that has not passed a clean audit. department of homeland security finally cleared the hurdle. so there's clearly room here for improving efficiency, and, in fact, as part of your budget, you recommend increasing the audit workforce in order to save taxpayer money and not allow those dollars to be wasted. in fact, you recommend a 10% increase in the audit workforce so thea with can get a handle on these things. i'm going to assume that a 10% cut in that workforce when you've asked for a 10% increase would make it more difficult for you to save taxpayer dollars in a wise way through auditing. >> obviously. >> thank you. thank you. now, i want to get to this issue of contractors. because sometimes people in congress when they talk about they're going to reduce the civilian workforce, they think it's going to save the taxpayer dollar. you say, hey, we reduced the size of the civilian workforce. when in fact, in many instances, those same tasks and responsibilities have to be, are c

the department of defense is the biggest energy user within the federal government. 93% of all energy used is used by the department of defense and as you rightly point out, most of that is fuel to power our vehicles. i know that there was an exchange earlier around the cost of bio fuels. i wonder if you can speak to the memorandum of understanding that you have with the department of agriculture and the department of energy to try and move forward to develop a biofuel that is drop in, and will allow us to be more efficient and reduce our foreign dependance on oil. >> the memorandum of understanding that the navy and others signed and the president signed was in response to the direction of the commander in chief to come up with a commercially viable, competitively priced biofuel product for the country. navy's contribution to that would come from the defense production act. which, as i pointed out a bit earlier, explicitly mentions energy as one of the things that the defense production act can be used for. i think it's important that the requirements, drop in fuel, that we are not g

defense department. i think it is worth noting that 36% -- 36% of civilian employees are at the defense department. almost one in four civilian employees and the federal government work at the defense department. that is 764,000 out of 2.1 million federal employees. so that proposal would result in the department of defense cutting over 80,000 civilian workers. over the budget. now as part of your budget, you have emphasized and to strengthen the defense acquisition workforce in order to save taxpayer money to make sure we are not wasting money, to make sure we have sufficient capacity and capability. in fact he say this workforce determines the quality of dod's acquisition outcome from the area of the budget we all agree is a need of improvement. mr. secretary and i would point out gao is highlighted as an important area as well and is pointed out in many cases we actually now higher contract is to oversee as part of the acquisition process because we don't have enough in-house expertise come a practice that raises conflict of interest issue was chios pointed out to waste taxpayer money. i want to

its dangerousness the only allusion to health consequences is contained in this phrase the department of defense and many other organizations have studied and continue to study the health chemical radiological and environmental effects and exposures of depleted uranium that's all they wrote to the u.s. army the use of depleted uranium is taboo but i did manage to speak to one former high ranking official at the department of defense. being west was with the marines of the battle of fallujah he later wrote a book recognized in the u.s. as the reference on american strategy in the rebel city you heard about it you keep it real. but wife was for us. but you think. it's all nonsense. to predict uranium or something. a bomb is a bomb. it's not like somebody is leaving behind radioactive so that the marines walk through i mean radioactive fields then all the marines die if any scientists show a linkage between the lingering health problems relative to a military weapon then that military weapon should not be used unless there's an extraordinary reason however if there is a lingering problem the first

is that something that the department of defense knew about? >> sorry, what was that? >> $750,000 soccer field at gitmo that was just announced by the department of defense. is it something you were aware of? >> no, i wasn't. >> the guantanamo commander who overseas the camp explained the high cost and need to ship equipment and materials to the remote navy base adding their mission to keep detainees under safe conditions to provide socialization. gitmo officials were asked how the project compared to other others. >> say whether this is the largest construction going on right now? >> let me check that fact but i'm pretty sure it is. i can't think of anything else. >> anything else on that scale? >> the price tag of $744,000 is significant. depending on spokesman -- pentagon spokesman confirmed anything over $749,000 needs congressional approval. so far, democrats are silent on the issue. aclu, human rights watch and amnesty international had no comment tonight. >> bret: thank you. >>> the president weighs in on a dispute between rush limbaugh and the d.c. law student.

relationship is one that is shared by the president by me, as secretary of defense, and by my entire military and civilian leadership at the department of the defense. the strength of that shared commitment is reflected in the size and the make up of this audience your presence here today is a testament to the broad and unshakeable support that the american people and the american leaders of all be backgrounds have for israel. i'm told that there are more than 1,500 students from hundreds of campuses attending. my wife and i as some of you may know developed a policy institute, the purpose of which is to inspire public service and that is exactly wh lly what aip here. as current and future leaders come together. you send a strong and an unmistakable signal to the entire world, the united states and israel stand together, our shared values, our shared interests, and our shared desire to work together are absolutely essential to the securities interests of both nations and to a peaceful and prosperous middle east, as a former member of congress, representing the central coast of california for over 16 years. [ applause [ applause ] tha