one is lawyers and one is doctors, in the department of defense. t: the infrastructure and health care is one of the reasons that the system costs $50 billion a year for the department to operate. we have a huge infrastructure in health care. it is redundant. the army has a set, the navy has a set, the air force has a set. it is a totally miss organized system. host: how do they cost so much? guest: salaries are expensive. you're talking about people who are making over $100,000 a year serving as a military colonel. we tried to take a good look in the 1990's about how you could shrink and downsizing medical complex for the department of defense, but the resistance we got trying to downsize the military health-care system and combine the services capabilities, all my gosh. -- oh my gosh. host: whether so many lawyers? -- why are there so many lawyers? guest: when we dropped a bomb, if not only have to drop the target, you love to bring in a lawyer and say, is it too close to a school? here is how many people may get killed as collateral damage. about

of defense. it is a difficult relationship. the department of defense, and i have seen this process, always tempted to reach into the intelligence committee and say, another 2 billion over there. let me just breezy dow little bit because i need is for my program over here. director of national intelligence. it's. >> guest: we have added more layers. it's not clear. >> host: on twitter. he says remember all of this spending contributes to gdp. cut military spending in there will be a job loss economic slowdown. >> guest: certain job losses for sure, and every drawdown we have done has involved a decline in employment. the we in question is not bill clinton. bush and clinton. it started under bush. 300,000 civil servants. coming out of the civil service. people come out of employment in the economy as well. what you have to keep in mind, it's inevitable. we are in the drawdown. the reason to keep the defense budget night, not to keep them employed. the abbottabad national security . to the special interests. what happened to those people and ho

the department of defense in the person of the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, the key principle staff members of the department, and our primary combatant commanders and commanders responsible for civil authority support are now acting on those recommendations in the form of directed tasks. the tasks sound very familiar for those who have participated here in san francisco fleet week over the last several years. the focus is on integrated planning with civil authorities, swift operations and mobilization, utilization of installations, capabilities and personnel, enhanced organizational effectiveness and improved doctrine, education, training and exercises. the directive comes with an already increased attention on dsca which we have seen the development of courses and training now delivered at multiple professional military education programs and other venues and the maturing of thinking and policies since 9/11 and katrina. there is a recognition within this analysis that there are gaps in awareness of the capabilities dod can provide in complex catastrophes, as well as the inhe

. >>> budget cuts are at the department of defense also in the cross hairs, raising new concerns about national security. fox's peter doocy looks at what it could mean. >> reporter: senator lindsey graham told me this morning his phone rang saturday night and was the defense secretary calling saying he was told the bill to avoid the fiscal cliff will not avoid anything for sequestration. so he'll need to write 800 layoff notices to contractors. >> if the president doesn't deal with this, he's a lousy commander-in-chief. if there's a deal done that doesn't set aside the defense cuts, we've already cut out of the it was department, then i'm disappointed in the president as commander-in-chief and the republican party for allowing this possible a party. >> reporter: sequestration is designed to be painful. it was imposed by congress on itself when the super committee didn't work it out. president obama said today the cuts can be offset by raising taxes on the rich. >> we have raised revenue by the wealthy paying a little bit more, then that would be sufficient to turn off the automatic spe

when the department of defense did a study and they said how much of the great breakthroughs came from science starting as scratch in the laboratory. they look at 700 fronts two came from the laboratory. science is applied science. and so it turns out that there has been far more funding of science a percentage of gdp by the private sector. research foundations, amateur science, in the age before we had income at and estate taxes. governments have been far less generations toward the sciences than the voluntary sector of society was. it's exactly the opposite of what we would think, so often we casually assume that things have to be the way they have always. and what i'm trying to do is do it what russell recommendation once awhile you have to hang a question mark on things you come to believe for a long time. >> thomas woods, what's the difference in your mind between the conservative and libertarian? >> well, this is a tricky one as i really -- my heart is on the table here. i feel like i have sympathy in both camps. i identify myself as a libertarian. libertarian has one basic princ

some of the remaining 20% is also tucked into the department of defense budget. s hard for anybody outside who does not have -- to aggregate the budget data. members of congress to have oversight of the department obviously have access to the clearances the required in order to examine and scrutinize those programs. it is not always clear to me that they do it. that is another issue. there is a temptation of special access. maybe your more compromising in oversight then you should be. it is very, very hard. if it is a billion dollars overall for the intelligence budget, most of that is in the budget, something over 12%, 13% of the entire budget is tucked into -- special access programs are harder to define. you do not know which is which. host: that is separate from that $80 billion figure you're talking about, special access? guest: they're outside of the $80 billion. guest: special operations forces. they have a number for some of their devices. host: the cia director has to go to the defense secretary and say, this is how i want to spend my money? guest: the of

so you need, um, a continuum of support for families not only through the department of defense but also as far as through, um, the communities as well. and now the department of veterans affairs is getting very involved in helping families through their vet centers. so, there are a lot of areas which families can go to. but sometimes, they don't know what they don't know. and there is so much out there that they just don't know, where, um, um to go. um, and that was the piece that was missing for me when i came home. and we have those pieces now, like, my brother, he's done phenomenally because of, we had the information, we had all the programs available to us that weren't available before. what programs did he access, for example? he accessed the yellow ribbon programs that was one i heard, also the, all the va programs. i didn't know about them when i came home, he does, so and he had all that information because he had an educated family who knew what was happening, knew what he was going through, knew what to look for, and where to send him. very good. mike. well, and i think one o

it takes a whole mix of people whether it's the department of defense and even fema having roles to play in that. bob fenton, the assistant chief of fema, used to be the division chief in division 9. he is no stranger to this area, born and raised here, this is his home and so he does have a care and an interest in this community and beyond. and so with that it is hard to fill being his replacement at the regional level because not only to fill his shoes all the great work he did in this region, but also because when you see the size difference, it's a little hard to fit in there. but this this i want to introduce bob fenton, the response head for fema coming in from dc to help support this and moderate the panel. thank you. (applause). >> well, appreciate it. appreciate the opportunity to be back with friends and back in san francisco. and i appreciate the opportunity to be your lunch speaker. as i always say, lunch is one of may five most important meals of the day so thank you for that. let me introduce my panelists. here to my left, we have a great group here to talk about stories fr

berman: the change is strongly supported by the departments of defense and state. i urge my colleagues to support this important legislation and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlelady from florida is recognized. ms. ros-lehtinen: i yield such time to the gentleman from california, mr. royce, and the author of the original house-side version of this bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. royce: i thank the gentlelady. and i do think it's important, as we move forward here, to expand the state department's rewards program. we have found a technique that works and if we can deploy this in order to bring joseph coni or use it to bring to the bar of justice some of the international crime figures that would be turned in under this bill, then it could be very, very beneficial. the bill has already passed the house and was included as a provision in the state department authorization bill that the house foreign affairs committee moved earlier this

have been active in the transformation of afghanistan, and i encourage my colleagues at the department of defense and the department of state to ensure this is a multipronged effort. we must involve all the entities, not only here in the united states and afghanistan, but also in pakistan and india where women there understand the daily challenges that afghan women face and create opportunities for these groups to work together. it is the least we can do to support the women of afghanistan and leave their country with a sustainable path for stability. mr. speaker, this is more than the security of women and their ability to prosper in afghanistan. it is also about our military service members. women on reconstruction teams have worked hard to help the women of afghanistan and members of the female engagement teams have been tremendous role models for young afghan children. our brave military men and women have sacrificed so much in afghanistan. and to leave without the ability of continued security there would be a dishonor to all those who have served. we must ensure that the strides afghan wome

and so the department of health and human services, as a partner, basically, with the va and with the department of defense pledges to do whatever it can to support the psychological health of this population. so, samhsa has taken on the military service members, veterans, and their families as an initiative to focus specifically on the behavioral health issues for this population. and to insure that any individual who needs it has access to appropriate behavioral health services. and those services are what are considered to be evidenced-based practices that are focused on recovery. that includes the center for trauma? that is correct. and we have, we have a variety of resources with-in samhsa, we have a trauma initiative, we have, um, the center for trauma-informed care, we have, um, a focus on a, making sure that what we call recovery-oriented services are available through our community providers and through the states. so, samhsa is not, um, getting in the way either va or dod doing their appropriate mission. but we are partners with them in the sense that both state authorities and behavioral health

one question for us from the perspective of the department of defense is is this going to be someone ntinue to push the idea of an always and forever war where we the united states are an outliar and no allie agrees with us. or will people within the administration now push what jay johnson talked about inrecentlyo retire, who said it is an always and forever thing about war and we are about to reach a tipping point against it. >> i think he's a good pick for obama, and i think there has to be someone, if he is going to actually fulfill the mandate of the president, he's a strong pick in that sense. >> i think everyone has been talking at iran, i think the afghanistan withdrawal, there's going to have to be someone in that position that can hold the line against the massive political pressure that's going to be brought to bear. sometimes internally and externally to prolong the war. we'll talk to the man who interviewed chuck hagel that set off part of the firestorm, aaron david miller, right after this. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some o

people talk about department of defense initiative. let us not forget department of state. the role they prefer around the world is important to america's defense and assess important as anything else in terms of avoiding war and conflict in the future. but we learned in benghazi is we can't go with inadequate resources and inadequate preparation. congress is going to face a new challenge and i hope it includes making certain america's strong not only to the department of defense, department of state as well. last point if anyone who thought that an internal investigation and accountability review board will cost over what happened in benghazi needs to take a look at this report. ambassador pickering is one of our best. admirable it is also one of her best. the two of them have been extraordinary, candid and frank on a show that analyzing a delicate and tragic situation. [inaudible] >> yes. that was brought up several times. it was the conclusion of the accountability review board that there was no willful misconduct, which is the standard used to judge any breach in the dep

secondly, the department of defense and the department of state had the assessed the facility in the event of a crisis for the attacks, like the one that has occurred. when it did, the department of defense mobilize resources very rapidly, but the painful reality was that the department of defense did not have assets, equipment, or personnel close enough to reach the mission in benghazi in a timely fashion. in other words, to protect the lives of people there. after the september 11 attack, the department of defense and department of state jointly work on these evacuation plans at the u.s. facilities worldwide. particularly in these high risk environment. it is critically necessary. given the places nearby, the department of defense should provide more access to the personnel based on the land and adjacent waters in africa to better protect and defend americans and our allies. third, benghazi was clearly a terrorist attack. it was so clear from the beginning. it was self evidence to the intelligence community and the department of state on the ground in benghazi. nonetheless, it was d

a presidential decision okayed by and acted on by the secretary of defense which was not given which is the only reason that the department of defense spec cetera were not on the ground to save some lives by the end of that fight. >> judge jeanine: all right, mike baker. you were ciaop. we hear about delta force and delta force, of course, being the best trained team to extract diplomats under fire. they are halfway around the world in ft. bragg, north carolina. what are they doing there on the anniversary of 9/11? >> that is a whole another issue. they don't have remix to address in the accountability review board. what they did is basically made a statement of the obvious about all of the failures that led up to this point. i think some of the salient issues have yet to be addressed which is what you are talking about now and it is so important. where was the responsed a and the mill tare arery assets. i agree it was inexcusable that nothing was attempted. again, are whether lives could have been saved, it is is speculation, there is no other way to put it but you try. they did have sufficient opportunity to at least mo

department of defense through u.s. africa command is activity supports the planning effort through the provision of planning expertise. the broad strategic concept is sound. more specific planning is under way to address the myriad operational details. the u.s. government exploring options for supporting countries for the mission this u could include the provision of training and equipment to countries that would contribute forces to deploy to the military force and advisory support. i'll stop for now and look forward to your questions. thank you. >> thank you very much. i'm gradeful to the panel and for the opportunity to explore further this complex and very challenging situation. if i might first just on the question of sort of sequencing. all three of you have spoke to the interrelated and complex challenges on the path towards restoring democracy dealing with humanitarian issues. addressing historic grievances in the north and resolving security concerns in the north. in fact i think you said in your testimony our

we haven't answered why the department of defense hasn't reacted one is the ambassador. le were supposed to have been fired are on leave. that is part of the contract, i get it. we had the president after five days we only knew what susan rice says. that's not believable>> you said that is part of the contract i get it. if they resign they are out the door. >> it is not automatic it will happen the day of. the problem with the state department is a people problem. it is people through out the chain of command that need to be obtained for what didn't happen before september 11th and what didn't happen on september 11th. >> the president goes on national television and says they have been held accountable. past tense. meanwhile the only person in jail is the guy who made the video. >> it is unusual when there's this much attention in washington where people aren't held accountable. at the state department there is not a problem. foreign service which all of these four member who's should have been fired are a member of and they really dominate the state department. contract

the president of the professional services council urges the department of defense not to repeat the mistakes made in the early '90s when cut were made across the board and the work force was disproportionately impacted. he urges the cuts should now be more strategic. the story on how it is having a negative impact on the profit of vendors selling to the fed's. therefore, it should be no surprise when you see the results of another survey put out by mamarket connections which shows how government contractors arare seekingevenue opportunities oututside the federal government.. >> we havepent recent weeks looking for a holiday g gift from capitol hill. automatic spending cuts due to kick in in a matter of days but we do not have a bomb of coal to shshow for these talks. two of our favorites -- professor peter momorici from the univsity of maryland and jo boak reporter from "the fisc times." i of always been a big believer in capital hill. i used to work ere. i think there are good people trying to do o good things but there is harard to find much good coming o out of f capitol hill the

even a department of defense bill that ended up passing today 98-0. they still slow walked it every step of the way. >> so does john mccain help you? i mean does his comments give credence to the reform that you're having on this debate? >> well, certainly it does help us. i think senator rand's behavior and other's behavior does help us. i would love to see senator mccain join us. it's questionable whether he will at this point, but the reality is the public wants us to get something done, to work together. we know that a minority view needs to be protected in the senate. you shouldn't be able to block things for the sake of blocking progress in solving problems. >> it was very clear. mitch mcconnell wanted to make barack obama a one-term president. do you get a sense they are going to do that again? let's say ewe didn't make the changes. would it be a repeat of the last session of congress? >> i absolutely do. even though there are members that want to work across the aisle, we're having better conversations now. and i appreciate that. colleagues on

department of defense through u.s. mmand is actively supporting the military planning effort through the provision of planning expertise. the broad strategic concept for that deployment is sound. more specific planning is underway to address the myriad of operation details. the u.s. government is exploring options for supporting the countries that contribute forces to the equal loss mission and this could include the training and equipment to the countries that would contribute forces to deploy as far as the international military force. and additional planning and advisory support. i will look forward to your questions. thank you. >> thank you deputy secretary to read and grateful to the panel and for the opportunity to explore further this complex and very challenging situation. if i might first on the question just sort of sequencing all three of you have spoken to the interrelated and complex challenges on the path towards restoring democracy dealing with humanitarian issues henderson historic grievances in the nort

4310, an act to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2013 for military activities of the department of defense, for military construction and for deficit activities of the department of energy to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to house resolution 840, the conference report is considered as read. the gentleman from california, mr. mckeon, and the gentleman from washington, mr. smith, each will control 30 minutes. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts seek recognition? mr. frank: mr. speaker, as -- since both the gentleman from california and the gentleman from washington signed the conference report, it is clear they are supporters of the conference report, so i claim 20 minutes that is allotted for someone in opposition when both majority and minority are in support. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman from california support the conference report? mr. mckeon: i do. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman from washington support the conference report? mr. smith: i do, yes. the sp

in fact, in 1977, when i first became secretary of defense, we prepared in the department of defense a plan for a nuclear arsenal of 1,000 nuclear weapons ready nuclear weapons. for us and the soviets. and wanted to submit it to the strategic arms limitation talks but the soviets rejected it out of hand before it was made. so 1,000 would have been good then. it's good now. and maybe even we could go down below that. although there are now other countries with weapons in the hundreds aside from the u.s. and russia. and they would have to be included which is a complication. >> i want to take you to the question of strategy and strategy formulation. there are those who say that the united states has lost its ability to think and to act strategically if you look at for example our involvement in iraq, there are those who say that was strategically unwise and became something that was negative to the united states' broad interests. if you look at where we are now closing in on a fiscal cliff or fiscal crises of our own making that could then become obviously problematic for america's bor

frankly, i would like to see a republican over the department of defense. d like to see a formerly anti-gay republican sitting in the secretary of defense getting rid of don't ask don't tell. i would like to hold his feet to the fire so that we can show the republican party can't evolve on this issue and you don't have to be a crazy white wing conservative who stands by these ideas. >> real quickly, though, i have a couple questions left. if not hagel, then who for defense? >> you know, i don't know. they have plenty of great people sitting over there. maybe plenty of the under secretaries. i pay zero attention to the department of defense. but it will be someone who has a lot on their play with don't ask don't tell, afghanistan for 2013. >> jimmy, great to see you. alex is coming your way next. what's coming up? >> thanks, thomas. we have the latest on how the fiscal deal could get done and why house republicans could think their best bet is to take their ball and get home. we will walk the cliff. tom ronafaruhar and ben white. plus, one man could hold the

the department of defense is funding some of this for the vets.o be of use to them and service to them, what an honor. >> elizabeth tyler-kabara: what i'm going to do right now is i'm just going to make some marks here in your hair. >> pelley: the procedure was done by university of pittsburgh neurosurgeon elizabeth tyler- kabara, who showed us that the area that controls hand and arm movement is accessible right on the surface of the brain. what are the dangers? >> tyler-kabara: we worry about if we were to accidentally tear a blood vessel when we were putting them in, that we could cause a blood clot that would collect on the surface of the brain. probably the thing we worry about the most is the possibility of infection. >> pelley: i mean, you do have a connection through the skull to the outside world? >> tyler-kabara: absolutely. may i have some irrigations? >> pelley: during the six-hour surgery, two sensor arrays, each the size of a pea, were placed on the surface of jan's brain. >> woo hoo! >> pelley: then, they were wired to two computer

the department of defense says more than 14,000 jobs previously closed. women have opened up to them this year. denise? >> all right. thank you, kai. hunt says this lawsuit isn't calling for a certain number of combat positions to be open to women. but instead to give women an equal opportunity to compete for the jobs. >>> in wjz's healthwatch, a new study could change the standard of care in breast cancer treatment. new research suggests women should take tamoxifen for 10 years. twice as long as the current five-year recommendation. researchers at the university of oxford found breast cancer patients who took the drug longer, were less likely to die, and less likely to have their cancer come back. >>> well, a former student at frostburg state university pleads guilty to second-degree murder in the stabbing of another student. 24-year-old sean e. liggins entered the plea monday in allegheny circuit court. 19-year-old courtney mccoy died in 2011, after she was stabbed several times. witnesses say the two women were arguing in an off-campus home before the

of rules are those? and what message do the rules send to our troops? we have the first american female combat pilot who took on the defense department for equal rights. e army manual? >> it's a manual that comes out of the center for lessons learned for the troops being getting ready to train and deploy to afghanistan. the proposed. it is not final. but it's ridiculous on many levels. >> greta: here's part of it from one article. one of the confront eggs occur -- with the afghanis, is because of coalition -- that's us -- ignorance or oure -- our lack of empathy for muslim, resulting in violent reactions towards us. >> they are talking about the green-on-blue attack, where the afghan national security forces are tush turning on our troops and killing them. they are kecking that somehow it's our troops' behavior, being inssensitive to them that is bringing about their own murders. this is wrong on many levels. first, this is blaming the victim, instead of the act of terror and the act of murder. this is like telling a rape victim, her skirt was too short. that's wrong. on a second level,ats a method understanding of the green-on-blue killings and how we

department of defense through u.s. africa commabbed is actively supporting the military planning effort through the provision of planning expertise. the broad strategic concept for that deployment is sound. more specific planning is under way to address the myriad operational details. the u.s. government is exploring options for supporting countries that contribute forces to the ecowas mission. this could include the provision of training and equipment to clints that would contribute fores to deploy as part of the international military force and additional planning and advidsery support. i'll stop for now and look forward to your questions. >> thank you very much, deputy assistant secretary for africa dory. i look forward to speaking more about this complex and challenging situation. first on the question of sequencing. all three of you. you spoke to the interrelated an complex challenges on the path toward restoring democracy dealing with humanitarian issues, addressing historic grievances in the north and resolving s

the last area of compensation at the defense department has grown by 80%. i have a health care bill of $50 billion. i cannot do justice for everything i have to maintain in terms of readiness. everything has to be looked at if you are serious about trying to achieve the kind of savings we need to achieve to address the budget deficit. >> there are many wounded warriors and our medical system today and the number is growing. what is being done to ensure adequate level of funding remains? " i have three guidelines when i looked at having to cut billions of dollars. we have to maintain the strongest military in the world. we cannot hollow out of the force. we cannot just crept -- cut across the board. we have to maintain faith with those that have been deployed time and time again. we will achieve savings looking at retirement programs. the benefits we have promised those who served, those that have been wounded, i think we need to stand by. so there are no cuts in the programs that serve our wounded warriors. [applause] >> drones are becoming a vital part in w

department of defense has released its latest report on the on going battle with taliban in afghanistan. progress has been made, but much remains to be done. pressing issue, how to best train afghan forces to maintain security. the report released to the u.s. congress on monday. a key claim is that 76% of the country's population lives in areas where afghan police and troops maintain the leading role in security. it also states that attacks by the taliban rose by 1% for the period of april to september, known as the afghan fighting season. the pentagon says increased violence centered on rural areas and security in cities dramatically improved during the same period. since the start of the year, attacks fell 22% in kabul, 62% in kandahar, and 88% in mazhar-i-sharif. compares with 211. critical concerns are also detailed in the report. international forces have been training afghan security forces for years, but the report says very few afghan units are fully dependent from international counterparts when carrying out operations. another issue are so-called insider attacks by members of