as i review the department of defense's budget, i am very concerned that the ship building account is significantly undervalued. ship building represents a mere 2.2% of the budget requested by the department of defense. 16 ships were eliminated or delayed outside the five-year budget window, and just to put this in perspective, our country currently spins s as much on interest payments on the national debt every month than we do for shipbuilding in the entire year. further, the executive branch alone spends more than the entire shipbuilding budget, $15 billion a year on federal agency, travel and conferences. i know the administration's trying to address travel and conferen conferences, and that says something about priorities and the commanders have testified repeatedly about the increasing importance of the maritime domain and their areas of responsibility. i recently returned from a conference in southeast asia, and i know secretary panetta, you were there as well in which i heard about china's aggressiveness in the south china sea and its maritime claims and its harassment of vess

example in this regard from a.i.d., from the department of state, from our diplomats and our developers. we're not very good at this in the department of defense. only 8% of the department of defense speaks a second language, for example. i've chosen to put here the rosetta stone. we are working hard on this. we want to increase our ability to understand and to be able to communicate both directly and also to understand the culture, the history, the literature, all of the salient aspects of the cultures. because if we can do that, then we can far more effectively support you in your work. next, please. we're also doing some fairly creative things as we work with local security forces. now, these are afghan soldiers. and you should look at this photograph and you should say, well, that's an odd photo. because they're all holding books. and if you know anything about afghanistan, you know that, sadly, the literacy rate in this demographic, 20 to 30, is very low. it's only about 15% to 20%. because the taliban withheld education throughout this demographic's opportunity to learn. so you should say, so why are afghan soldiers all holding books? an

this is a joint department of defense and the va program that covers all of the services. i wanted to ask you why the department has not taken the lead in evaluating and making improvements to the entire system. >> senator, i have asked the other service chiefs to implement the same approach that the army is taking. >> to go back to 2001 and review all cases? >> that is correct. >> so they are all following that and we will be told the progress of that. who is heading that up? >> bair undersecretary for -- our under secretary for personnel and health care. that is the individual that you need to contact. >> i would very much like to be kept informed, as i am sure all of our members of congress would. this needs to be transparent and clear. we need to make sure people are accessing the system. the only way to do that is to be clear and open with everyone. i would like more information to be given on that as soon as possible about how that is taking place and what the timetable is and how that will occur. >> i appreciate your leadership on this, senator. i am not satisfied ei

i'm not someone who says that we shouldn't cut anything from our department of defense. but we have to put into perspective where we are with our department of defense right now because in addition to this issue of sequestration, the president's proposed 2013 budget that is come forward has already been taken up by the senate armed services committee and the house committee as well in terms of the authorizing committees. that will be a cut of $487 billion of spending reductions over the next ten years. and there are some pretty tough choices in those initial spending reductions. but our defense leaders and secretary panetta have testified before the senate armed services committee about the choices made in those reductions and they're difficult but doable. what we're here talks about today is an additional 500 to $600 billion in across the board fashion that will come in january of this -- 2013 because of the supercommittee's failure to come up with savings. it hits both defense and nondefense. my focus today will be on the defense end. that additional $500 billion, gets

and if the department of defense chooses to protect manpower accounts when the army and marine corps would have to cut even more deeply than into training, maintenance and modernization funds which, of course, would have a negative impact on industry, which we're going to talk about in a minute, secretary panetta has said that sequestration would result in us having the navy bring us back to 1915, ground forces back to 1940 before where we were before world war ii, and the smallest air force in the history of our country. we would have to potentially undermine contracts and agreements that we have, including the joint strike fighter, the kc-46a super tanker and many of our modernization efforts that are under way right now that are very, very important to making sure that our men and women in uniform have the very best equipment to protect our country. but in conjunction with this no one would say that the department of defense is an area where it's a jobs program, but the reality is that sequestration not only undermines our national security, it will hurt our economy, and it could f

have you or your sister agency ever done a report within the department of defense to find out what the cost, comparing dod to va, is the cost equal, number one? and secondly, you talked about the inventory management. is your recommendation consistent with what actually the department of defense is doing? do they have the same problems that va has in regards to cost and inventory management? >> with respect to the provision of care and the way va and dod are different, i think is that dod has, i believe, focused the care of patients who are badly injured from war at several discreet centers. and by then getting a large enough group of patients continuously there, they're able to put the resources in those select several places, d.c., maybe san diego, bethesda, snoen wroe, maybe one or two others and provide cost effective state of the art care. va is a much more diverse organization. the veterans have already been through the acute trauma. they're up and about. so it's a little bit of a digit problem. to answer the second question, we have done no work on the cost of dod to compare it

this is a joint department of defense and va program covers all of the services. so i wanted to ask you why the department has not taken the lead in evaluating in taking the lead to the entire system. >> senator, i've asked the other service cheaps to implement the other service chiefs to go back in 2001 and review all kisses throughout the entire system. >> that's correct. >> they are all following the army's lead and we are told the evaluation and the progress of that. who is heading that up? >> the undersecretary for personnel and and health care. that's the individual. >> i would like to be kept inform as all of our members of congress would. i think this needs to be transparent and clear. we need to make sure that people are accessing the system and giving back if they need it and the only way to get that is to be clear, open and honest with everyone. i didn't know we were looking at all of the other services and i would like more information and to be informed on that about how that's taking place and what the timetable is and how that's going to occur. >> i

as i review the department of defense budget, i am very concerned that the shipbuilding account is significantly undervalued. ship building represents a mere 2.2% of the budget requested by the department of defense. 15 ships were eliminated or delayed outside of the five-year budget window, and just to put this in perspective, our country currently spends as much as interest payments on the national debt every month than we do for shipbuilding in the entire year will. for the executive branch as a whole spends slightly more than of the equivalence of the entire shipbuilding budget $15 billion a year on federal agency travel and conferences. i know the administration is trying to address travel conference this book that really says something about our priorities. i am concerned that the combat commanders have testified repeatedly increasing the maritime domain in their areas of responsibility. i recently returned from a conference in southeast asia and i know secretary panetta did were over there as well and the aggressiveness of the south china sea and its maritime claims it's harassment vessel

and to emphasize it as a priority, to build the collaborations with the department of veterans affairs, with the department of defense, with the national guard bureau, and to keep on collaborating until we get to the point where we can show that every service member who is eligible and who needs service will get it, no matter where it may be. and we want to see that happen in every community at the local level and at every state level. so, our initiative at samhsa is to get states to think about this in a broad way and then translate that into local community providers, action, education, and awareness. and, dr. karlin, the president also has an initiative. you want to talk a little bit about the presidential initiative on issues related to military families? we've been very fortunate because congress has recently enacted legislation that has broadened va's authority to provide mental health and counseling services to family members. this has been a wonderful gift to the agency in so many ways, because now we're able to work directly with family members in a way we haven't been able to do before. so, within va now, w

distinguished panel of witnesses this morning to review the president's budget request for the department of defense and to give us an overview of the needs and challenges facing our national security interests. we thank you very much for your willingness to serve in these important positions. they really are complex and couldn't be more important. we appreciate the dedication and the years of experience that you bring to the challenge as well, and we expect to have an opportunity today to find out some of the specific details that need to be brought to the attention of the senate. thank you very much. >> i thank you very much. may i now call upon the secretary. >> thank you, mr. chairman. senator cochran, members of the committee, it is a distinct privilege and honor to have the opportunity to appear before this subcommittee of appropriations and first and foremost, let me express my personal thanks to all of you >> i thank you very much. may i now call upon the secretary. >> thank you, mr. chairman. senator cochran, members of the committee, it is a distinct privilege and honor to have the opportu

as part of this effort, the department of defense and department of veterans affairs are working together to build a data repository that will help us better analyze suicides and suicide attempts, and do what we can to spot trends and to get ahead of that. likewise, we are improving program evaluation so that we can better focus our resources on those programs that are proven to be effective. the department is also working to fundamentally transform the nation's ability to understand and treat traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress. the signature unseen wounds, the last decade of war. earlier this month, the department and the intrepid fallen heroes fund announced a plan to construct state of the art treatment centers for brain injuries, psychological disorders, at nine of our largest installations in the country. i am delighted that we were able to break ground on the first two of these centers at fort bellevar and camp lejeune. these centers, these centers made possible by the generosity of private citizens, god bless them for their generosity and what they do. because of thei

and it is significant that it is changing and it is significant that the department of defense, the department of veteran affairs, are no longer closed systems. and, in fact, those systems have, i think, appropriately acknowledged that there may be people in the community and we need to work together to make sure that we are reaching out together with communities, and that means talking to the civilian population and the civilian providers, and the civilians have to feel the same way. that they can have conversations with the military treatment facility providers with the va, and that whole dialogue, i think, is emblematic of a new way of thinking, and i think it's extremely important and very, very favorable for the behavioral health world to understand that. and dr. karlin, let's talk about utopia. people would have memorandums of understanding, they work together, but in reality, if that system wasn't yet perfected, do families need to know they need to be persistent? family members are so key to everything we're talking about because, oftentimes, it's the family member that is the first an

with efforts being undertaken at the department of veterans affairs and the department of defense and several agencies at the department of hhs it is incumbent upon us to examine these activities so that they can work in a coordinated and efficient manner and i proudly serve on the congressional brain injury task force that encourage bipartisan support for tbi research and rehabilitation and with that support i am confident that the committee will make even greater strides to help patients living with the aftermaths of tbi. so i want to extend a warm welcome to the families 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. today we have four witnesses on our panel. dr. bonnie strickland, director of divisional services for children with special health care needs at u.s. department of human services. mr. william ditto, director of the new jersey tbi division. new jersey board of health. dr. flora winston, children's hospital, philadelphia, and dr. mark ashley president of the center for neurosk

va is also supporting the department of defense by collaborating on the establishment of the extremity trauma and amputation center of excellence. the mission of this center is clinical care, including outreach, education and research, and is designed to be a lead organization for direction and oversight in each of these areas. the center is currently being implemented and will obtain initial operating capacity by the end of this fiscal year. in summary, va supports high quality amputation and prosthetics care by supporting ground wi groundbreaking research into new technologies, training a highly qualified cadre of staff and pursuing accreditation of all eligible prosthetic laboratories in va's amputation system of care. we are improving our oversight and management of prosthetics purchasing and inventory management to better utilize resources that we have been appropriated by congress and to serve america's veterans. we appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss this important program. my colleagues and i are prepared to answer your questions. thank you. >> than

there's the question that the department of defense and public security as well as the intelligence community are facing tough decisions as they seek to balance the needs with but a reality. today's panel of government officials are on how they can balance this well insuring national security.

defense barton. -- department. if we lose more shipyards, if we lose more of the industry that supports our defense department, it makes it very difficult to mobilize in the future. my goal is to try to design a budget year that maintains the shipyards that we have, maintains the industrial base that supports our defense system. the reason that they are important is because of the agility issue i talked about. we will have a smaller force. the ships allow us to be very agile, quickly deployable, to be able to move quickly if we have to. that is the reason that we want to maintain those as part of our defense structure. just to add -- the number you excited is based on existing war plans any particular phase at which the amphibious warship capabilities are under the most press. what we are doing as a result of our defense strategy is opening up our plans to look at assumptions we make and see if we can adjust the way we conduct operations in order to mitigate that risk. at this point, the commandant and i are preparing a budget proposal. the number in that proposal are adequate to the task. it means to have to adjust th

but we start with the first principle is anything we do has to make sense from a defense point of view. we are the department of defense and that's how we justify our investments. >> the secretary has been very generous with his time. i want to thank you, sir, for joining us. i hope you feel like you've got away without suffering too many casualties. please come back again. >> wonderful group of people. thank you so much for the opportunity. [ applause ] >>> coming up here on c-span3, a look at the causes behind the 2008 financial crisis with former freddie mac chief economist kevin villani. that's followed by girl scouts ceo anna marie chavez on the future of the organization which celebrates its centennial this year. then a hearing on railroad and highway security with tsa officials testifying. on the other c-span networks, the atlanta council holds a discussion on europe's financial crisis. the ceo of deutsche bank discusses european action so far and gives his thought on the future economic outlook in europe. that's at 5:00 eastern on c-span. president barack obama is getting a little help from former pr

has shown a pretty activist style when it comes to large issues, cool. >> you mentioned the department of defense has superiority over the v.a. as it relates to this issue. why do you think that is in the fact it doesn't have to go up to the secretary, the department of defense. it appear it's down at the lower level. why is that? >> i think it's a question of leadership recognizing the clientele and their needs and the fact that john said a number of them want to get back in the fight. they've got to be certified to return to duty. congress provided funding. congress still provides funding. it's known as g watt funding. my only concern about that is given the budget situation, i don't know how much longer the funding is going to let the centers operate at the level they do. i think the real key is what i called holistic. i don't want to go into the details of trying to name it. it's the merger right together of physical therapy, outpatient therapy, adaptive sports, challenges, to me one of the best kept secrets in the military is the outpatient nurse amputee manager. for years at walter reed i w

as part of this effort, the department of defense and the department of veterans affairs are working to build a analysis of suicides and suicide attempts to spot trends and get ahead of that. likewise, we are improving program in violation so we can better focus our resources on those programs that are proven to be affected. the department is also working to fundamentally transform a nation's ability to understand and treat traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress. the signature unseen wounds of the last decade of war. earlier this month, the department and the sbred fallen heroes fund announced the plan to construct state-of-the-art treatment centers for brain injuries, psychological disorders at nine of our largest installations in the country. i am delighted that we were able to break ground on the first two of the centers fort belvoir and camp lejeune. the centers were made possible by the generosity of private citizens. god bless them for their generosity and what they do. because of their generosity this will help complement national interest for it center in bethesda an

there is a very strange dita disconnect and the department of defense doesn't alert the mayor or the local da. nothing like that. a group of people are coming back to a community. it thwarts the effort. >> we know the da has not always communicated with community groups either. >> there questions of privacy. as i would think, the easiest thing to do is with the dod and the va knows who is coming home and it's hard to require them to go out and find these folks and ask them if you have problems and you think you need help with it. i have never seen the inside of a da medical center. so i identify as a veteran. veterans often times stand on their own. it's hard for them to ask for help a lot of times. they do identify. i think it would be proper attic to say to the da everybody who comes out of the department of defense, you have to track down and make the following. we hear them take a bad knock because they say our doors are open. some feel it's not enough. that's what it's about. trying to find veterans in the public assistance arena. i don't know that there is an easy answer. proper

i'm particularly pleased that this conference is run jointly by the department of defense and the department of veterans affairs. building a stronger collaboration between our two departments is absolutely essential. it's essential to meeting the needs of our service members and veterans, and i am proud of the strong working relationship that i built with secretary shinseki and i agree with what he told this audience on wednesday, that our two departments are now working more closely together than ever before. it's essential and important that we build that kind of partnership if we're going to address issues like suicide. this issue, suicide, is perhaps the most frustrating challenge that i've come across since becoming secretary of defense last year. despite the increased efforts, the increased attention, the trends continue to move in a troubling and tragic direction. all of us gathered here share a very deep concern about this issue and about the trends that we are seeing. we also share a commitment to take action, to do everything possible to prevent these horrible tragedies and to supp

there's also a caveat on there that the department of homeland security will work with the department of drves to make sure we -- department of of defense to make sure we are not building redundant fleets and the navy needs what it's building and the coast guard needs what it is building as well. so i think that is an unresolved question at this point. clearly we're talking with the navy and admirable greenan and i meet frequently and speak often and we're going to continue to work through that. i'm focused right now in try to go get the full funding for number six in the fy '13 budget and we'll start tackle fy '14 budget after that. >> what are the consequences of interrupting the production list? >> rough estimate as you push these ships out a year it's roughly about $50 million. the contractor, the ship builder has to take into consideration the fact that how long am i going to have to keep this work force, how much are the parts going to cost if i have to buy them a year later, and so we've used the figure of about $50 million. >> is it possible to do an end sea light as some suggested to strip of its combat system and strip it of i

with efforts undertaken at the department of veterans affairs and the department of defense and several agencies at the department of hhs it is

members of the subcommittee thank you for your opportunity to provide a perspective and how the department of defense cares in particular prosthetic cares and collaboration between dod and department of veterans affairs. it's always important for us to look back before we look forward to take from lessons learned. the washington post reported in a few days the army will print a formal evaluation to give officers the opportunity to return to active duty. this was written in 1951. fast forward to 2003 we repeated this within the military return individuals to active duty. to date we have had over 305 individuals who remain on active duty and over 53 of these have redeployed into iraq or afghanistan. the goal of our program is to return patients to athleticism or their preinjury level of activity. it is a philosophy to have our patient tell us how far they want to go and then we work with them to achieve those goals. dod has a significant lowered patient population than the va. our patients are significantly different than the vast majority of the va patients. they are young active service members frequ

department? >> i will ask general dempsey to comment as well. one of the things that i am trying to do is to maintain our industrial base in the defense departmentif we lose more shipyards, if i lose more of the industry that supports our defense requirement, it makes it very difficult to mobilize in the future. so my goal is to try to design a budget here that maintains the shipyards that we have, maintains the industrial base that supports our defense system. on theamphibs, the reason they are important is because of the agility. these ships allow us to be very agile, quickly deployable, to move quickly if we have to. that is the reason that we want to maintain those as part of our defense structure. >> to add, senator, the number that you cite is based on the existing war plans in a particular phase in which the amphibious warship capabilities are under most stress. what we're doing as a result of the defense strategies, we are opening up our plans to look at the assumptions we make and to see if we can adjust the way we conduct operations in order to mitigate that risk. at this point, the commandant and i are confident that the budget propos

why couldn't this be done by other agencies such as the department of defense or the national institute of health? start with bill. anyone who wishes to answer that. >> i would say that the dod's mission is to rehabilitate troops to their maximum potential for rehabilitation and either return them to the line or send them on for further care. va's job is for the longstanding, lifelong care, once they leave the service. those are different goals. so dod's focus is on acute care and acute rehabilitation. va should be on long-term outcomes and long-term care for our warriors and certainly if possible, it should be done in partnership with nih and dod. but va should be taking the point on long-term care for amputees. >> do all the panelists agree with that? >> i would concur with that. i think that's absolutely essential for va, just because of the paradigm shift that did occur within dod, maintaining veterans, disabled veterans for so much longer. and providing this upfront amputee care. as they transition into va, that's certainly the lifetime care and they're focused on effective care an

so it serves the department of defense or serves the intelligence community. that ability to have a security clearance, an active one, is a very necessary component. and that part of the market is still a good market, and it's got competitive pay. so anything that can be done to help preserve that clearance, maybe, i don't know, put it in a deep freeze or deferral mode versus just cancel it outright, i think could be a real needle mover for everyone. >> okay. thanks. >> that's a great idea. >> thanks very much. any other comments on this? would you just pronounce your last name for me? >> sulayman. >> i know you're used to hearing tom tarrantino talk about the -- that's certainly something we thank you for your leadership on to try to change the 90-10 rule. and we have heard anecdotally, and we think we have plenty of examples and there are plenty of statistics to back up the idea that veterans in trying to take advantage of the best career-ready training program that's out there, which is the g.i. bill, especially the post-9/11 g.i. bill, now that it can be us

department of state. peter verga is the chief of staff at the undersecretary for policy at the united states department of defense and the honorable mara rudman is the system administrator for the euro of u.s. agency for international development. pursuant to committee rules all witnesses will be sworn before they testify. please rise and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear or from the testimony you're about to give up the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth? thank you. you may be seated. let the record reflect that the witnesses all answered in the affirmative. in order to allow such time for discussion please limit your verbal testimony to five minutes. your entire written record and statement will be -- written statement will be made part of the record. we would now like to recognize mr. patrick kennedy for five minutes. make sure that microphone is nice and close. there you go. >> thank you. chairman chaffetz, ranking member tierney, distinguished members him a thank you for inviting me to discuss the state department operations in iraq after the military to civilian-led transition. u.s.

everything i can tell watching it, as an observer of these things is that it did not come from the department of defense. and did not come from the cia. and indeed, if i were at the department of defense and i suspect the military, whose people are put at risk when there is additional information learned about how we conduct our operations, have to be grinding their teeth t. looks to be out of the white house. now, at what level of the white house, i am not in a position to know. >> but is it out of the white house that someone said somebody to somebody else who said somebody to somebody else and shouldn't have said something, or is it a sense that it was a selfish political reason -- both are bad. but one to me is much more sinister and troubling than the other, regardless of the impact. >> i just don't know. if -- if a disinterested observer looked at it, they would have to say that it had the cumulative effect of advantaging the president politically. >> when people have these discussions, when you had them -- how many people are in the room when it's classified? i assume it varies. but how many woul

some of the health care research is in the department of defense, as you know, and the like. let me go to mr. ditto. how many states are working with returning service members or veterans? >> give me a quick number. probably about 15 or 20 from what we're aware of. now, some states are very advanced in this. the state of massachusetts, for instance, has a very involved, e elaborate program they've been working on for years. they had a lot of commitment of resources at the state level that helped to bring this collaboration together and work on. what wooim worried about from the standpoint of our organization and representing state governments is sththat we just don't have every state working on this but every state has returning service people. so right away we're in sort of a difficult position because we're really not necessarily reaching people. the other thing is, and i'm sure it's no surprise to you, most of the public entitlement programs across the country, especially like medicaid, become the payer for long-term care services for people with various disabilities inclu

i am please that this conference is run jointly by the department of defense and the department of veteransonger collaboration between our two departments is absolutely essential. to meeting the needs of our service members and veterans. i am prodded the working relationship that i have -- i am proud of the working relationship that i have had with the secretary. i agree with what he told his audience on wednesday. there are two departments that are working closely together than ever before. it is essential and important that we build that kind of partnership if we are going to address issues like a suicide. this issue is perhaps the most frustrating challenge that i have come across since becoming secretary of defense last year. despite the increase efforts and attention, the trends continue to move in a troubling indeed tragic direction. all of us gathered here share a deep concern about this issue and about the trends that we are seeing. we also share a commitment to take action to do everything possible to prevent these horrible tragedies. and to support those who have served our countr

it will be gifted to the department of defense and run by members of the military. brianne carter, abc 7 news. >> thank you. it is a nice day. goodbye rain. goodbye clouds. hello sunshine. what is going on? >> we are going to have a good amount of sunshine. comfortable conditions. no rain anytime soon. water the garden again especially over the next couple of days. here is frederick. bright sunshine. thin clouds. you the tree shaking because of the northerly wind. it is the epitome of a refreshing breeze. ushering in the dry air. 72 in washington. 74 in morningside. 83 is a high today in the district. b.w.i. is closer to 82. he does on in dallas. 91 degrees. 91 in jackson. cooler in the upper midwest. slight chance of thunderstorms in minneapolis and down in dallas. overall, it does not look like we have severe outbreaks. maybe a bit in south dakota. airport delays, nothing to speak of. the go ahead in terms of weather delays. >> we will see you in a little bit. turning to vote 2012. we know who the congressional candidates will be this year in virginia. there are n

of subsidizing homeownership. >> more on sunday at 8:00. >>> yesterday the defense department hostinged it's first pride month event since the repeal of don't ask, don't tell. we'll hear a discussion on the value of diversity in the mi military as well as remarks from leon panetta. this is an hour. >> good afternoon. welcome to the department of defense lesbian, gay and transgender national event. please stand and remain standing for the national anthem. ♪ ♪ >> please be seated. please direct your attention to the center screen for the president's lgbt pride month video message followed by secretary panetta's pride month message. >> i've often said that the true genius of america is that america can change. we can pass laws to write wrongs. we can soften hardened attitudes. our union can be made more perfect. change never happens on its own. change happens before ordinary people, countless unsung heroes of our american story stand up and demand it. the story of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender american is no different. we remember the activists and advocates who refuse to be treated like second class citizens

to tell us what the impact is specifically of sequestration, and that's fine, but every department, not just the defense department, every department should be informing the public, informing congress, what the effect would be of sequestration should it happen. so i'm all in favor of requiring the defense department to do that. i joined in the language in the defense bill to make an amendment on the pending legislation to try to do that, and if so, it ought to apply to every department, and the impact on education and health care and on other important programs as wel well. >> any impact on private industry? >> on sequestration? >> on ways to avoid se kwe sequestrati sequestration? >> there's been so much written. many of you with the paralysis one sees on the industry side. there's i don't know how many hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars or cash on corporate balance sheets. and the reality is that corporations aren't going to invest in capital until they get some sense of the environment that they're investing into. and so this continued turmoil and uncertainty of continued paralysis. and if

secretary gates announced the formation of a working group to be headed by the general counsel of the defense department to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the risk of repeal of don't ask, don't tell on overall military effectiveness. we were to take ten months, and we were told to systematically engage the force on this issue. in effect, go have the conversation with the entire u.s. military about this issue and report back to me, the president and the congress, what they've told you. i did not know carter ham then commander of u.s. army europe at all before admiral mullin volunteered him for this assignment. over ten months, i got to know carter and his wife extremely well to the point where my wife and kids spent thanksgiving 2010 with them in germany where we visited wounded warriors at the hospital there. carter began as a private in the army in 1973. he knows the army about as as anyone. he was just right to navigate this sensitive assignment and in the development of our report, i never let my own civilian legal thinking stray far away from his military perspective or his own voice. the stu

department of state. i welcome any questions you might have. thank you, sir. >> we now recognize mr. peter verga, chief of staff for undersecretary for the u.s. department of defense. you're recognize for five minutes, sir. >> number attorney, distinguished members i appreciate the opportunity along with my state college to provide an update on the united states transition from a military chief of the land that present in iraq. given iraq's important situated reteach eclair the middle east to remains profoundly in the united states national interest that iraq emerges a strategic partner with the united states coming summer, stable self-reliant nation and positive force for moderation and stability in the region. and the time since he last appeared, the united states has upheld its commitments in the two dozen eight u.s. iraq security agreement by withdrawing all u.s. forces by the end of december, 2011. the department of defense has worked closely to help ensure a successful transition to civilian led presence in iraq. before, during and after the train addition, dod provided support to the safe success as u.s. forces withdrew from iraq. today the department of de

&pa laurel maainn becomes maryland's 6th service memberr to die in combat this ear.thh department of defensenounced the death of eugene mills the third this morningg fox45's paul gessler takes us to his neiihborhood, where "i waa ooking forward to hhm '- coming back."in the mancinns' sunroom, memoriis brighten the . homee(sound effect)..the two have lived here in laurel for 30 years.....eighbbrs with the miils family for 15 of them. "and i had tolddhim to be careeul, and he hugged me goodbye."the watched lance corpooal eugene mills the third grow up, become a man. "walked with his head up. there was no reason not to. he was very proud of what he was as a marine." marinee" i kept thinking, 'he shhuld be coming home sson.' apparentll, it wwsn't soon enough."two ours of duty-- 'llttle ene', as they callee "i didn't know what to say. it was like a ppnch in the gut." guu.""when you know them personally, it's harder, because there'ssmore than ust a face aad a picture in a the graduate of tholton high school in columbba died in a firefight in helmand provvnce. say he was inspired to join the marine