this research does not belong in the department of defense. it belongs in civilian departments and agencies of our government. so i say to my colleagues, the defense authorization act focuses the department's research efforts on medical research that will lead to life-saving advancements in battlefield medicine and new therapies for recovery and rehabilitation of service members wounded on the battlefield. this amendment would harm our national security, the amendment from the senator from illinois would harm our national security by reducing the funding available for military relevant medical research that helps protect service men and women on the battlefield and for military capabilities they desperately need to perform their missions. and it would continue to put decision making about medical research in the hands of lobbyists and politicians instead of medical experts where it belongs. i would like to repeat for at least the fifth time. i strongly support funding for medical research. i do not support funding for medical research that has

but vi to say right now that this the n important thing for us at the department of defense is the fact that we're undergoing a process within the department for the review and update of the national defense strategy. we're also looking at a whole new realm and era of new technologies, new methods of warfare, emerging capabilities and fifth generation weapons systems. and that really for us needs an update ud bad updated. from the department of defense perspecti perspective, that is the sole and primary reason why congress allowing us to ability to look the our basing to make prudent decisions on where to station the forces. you go back to secretary mattis's three priorities when he took over as secretary of defense. he wants to address concerns, he wants to increase military capabilities and enhance he thalty. for my perspective working for him, the brac process offers us the opportunity to address readiness by providing the forces the best possible ranges and installations for them to be stationed at, allows us to consider where we might want to add capability to the department of def

the original analysis was done looking at what then the department of defense in 2016 that like the of research would be in 2019. although congress asked for it to be applied to a four structure that existed in fy '12. the department sent over a first report to congress in april 2016 that show 22% excess capacity across all dod. based on that racial of analysis. so looking at it objectively and i think this is what secretary mattis did is i'm looking at, 1980 wasn't the right ratio? is that now how we apply this forward? that some of the concerns he raised under testimony earlier this year about the capacity analysis and whether we do have 22%, 25%, 25%, 28% in the air force. i know there are concerns the still exist about that. still we tried to do the best we could, the department tried to do the best we could with the authorities we had to come up with what we felt was the best gas. that's what you saw delivered to congress. first in april 2016. august is asking us to update that report and to accurately reflect what the asfoor which was fy 12, in the process of working the package

a number of objections have been raised, the upfront cost during a time when the department of defense was hit with a very sudden spending reduction in 2013 as a result of sequestration and the budget control act. one of the big concerns is rights now the first years in e questions trags is when the budget was lowest and the lowest cut. that's when there would have been increased costs as a result of doing the background if they had done it at that time when the department started requesting it at that point. and so the idea that funding is the shortest now, but you need to get money today to start closing the bases, which we don't want you to do anyway. that was not a political winner at that time. so upfront costs has always been a concern. obviously, the concern of economic impacts in the communities and job loss has been a huge concern for members of congress. as i mentioned, that's tempered by the fact there's only a relatively small number of folks whose bases get closed. there's a small number of losers from that concern being acute. there has been traditionally a concern, in fa

we have had some certainty for the department of defense and also to other agencies. i believe if defense funds are increased, domestic agencies must also be increased because they too are suffering from the same severe budget as others have. all of us acknowledge that -- the f.b.i., the department of homeland security, the state department, and many other agencies that contribute to our national security. in fact, in the wake, literally, of hurricane harvey and hurricane irma, we have seen the centers for disease control dispatched, e.p.a. individuals dispatched to evaluate in the harvey situation threats to the environment and in the case of irma to try to prevent those threats by being deployed before the storm actually struck. so our national security, our public safety, all of these issues involve not just the department of defense, but the whole array of government enterprises. we understand that the well-being of our nation and what our men and women are fighting for depends on funded and -- funding agencies, not just the department of defense. for example, as i

the white house and department of defense couldn't figure out who would take ownership of the mechanics. nobody wanted to own it. would it be somebody at the defense department? maybe someone in the office of public affairs they should be doing this. no one could quite figure it out until the program failed. so the operational war was impacting our ability to articulate a better, fairer, more aggressive during the year. it was also impacting the quality of the journalism. by the end of 2003, the press corps in baghdad had pretty much been stripped. we had a saying in the office but the one thing that all of the reporters was he never heard of any of them. they have stripped the bureaus be the normally a token presence in those bureaus and those personnel were then told they were not permitted to travel around the country. that meant that they sat in hotels as they waited for the daily car bomb to go off. they sent the crew out, victor footage on 24 hour cable news and that became the story that we started seeing them we started seeing that as early as the summer of 2003. then there was

so in this case it was the department of defense that have this equipment, so we asked the departmentense to provide this equipment. a couple of these purification units are being delivered immediately with more on the way. what we are also doing it his clear that this is in the early stages of the disaster response, so our teams are on the ground conducting assessments and looking for gaps in ways to respond in the future. not only do we do response but you for a number of questions about preparedness. that is an essential part of any disaster response is what you can do ahead of time. and this is a big part of what usaid does is help communities become more resilient disasters around the world and i have a personal saying that how we honor the people that have been affected by disasters, learning lessons for response and preparedness we can put in place, and again that is how we honor those that have been affected by disasters. .. >> >> the money is spent at the community level. >> there are a lot of players to that question but first the responsibility is if the bahamian government

the white house and department of defense cut it figure out who would take ownership of the mechanics. nobody want to own it. nobody could quite figure it out. so the program failed. the operational war was impacting our ability to articulate a better, fairer more aggressive message about our progress during that first year. to be fair it was also impacting the quality of the journalism. by the end of 2003 the press corps in baghdad have pretty much been stripped. the one thing that all of the baghdad reporters heading comment was that for the most part you never heard of any of them. they have stripped the bureaus leaving only a token presence in this bureaus and those personnel then were told they were not permitted to travel around the country. that means a set in hotels and waited for the daily car bomb to go off. they got their footage. that became the story. that we started seeing we started seeing as early as the summer of 2003. then there was a larger work to shape perceptions. the white house is over reliant. as a justification for war ultimately hurt our credibility. if the

were careful in how we chose the 40-mile figure. 40 miles is the distance used by both the department of defense and the department of veterans' affairs as a boundary for reasonable access to a health care facility. the department of defense tricare prime program in which care is primarily delivered through a military treatment facility is available to individuals who reside within prime service areas or p.s.a.'s. p.s.a.'s are locations that are within 40 miles of a military treatment facility. similarly, the v.a. choice program which allows veterans access to health care in local communities rather than waiting for a v.a. appointment or traveling to a v.a. facility is available to those whose residence is more than 40 miles driving distance from the closest v.a. facility. my amendment would also set a deadline of 60 days after the enactment of this legislation for the department of defense to report on the financial impact of the co-pay increases of military retirees and their families. with the information provided by the department of defense, congress can then rationally assess the impact of

leveraging the power of the department of defense and an assortment of other agencies, ii remains the only institution in our country and probably in the world with the capacity to respond quickly and effectively to the crisis at hand. and so while response for this storm will take a significant amount of patience, it will also take a significant amount of urgency for each day that goes by this crisis will get worse, not better. and i fear that if, in fact, there'there is not enough urgenn the response, we will be talking about a very different set of stories in the days to come.ng i hope i'm wrong, with all of my heart, but i fear that when communications come back up and when we start getting more access to some of these areas that event cut off, we willnd start learning the toll of theor impact of the storm was far worse than we had imagined. and i pray with all my heart that someone will watch this video on youtube one day and safe will, he's exaggerating, it wasn't that bad after all. i hope that's what will happen but i fear it will not. and every day goes by, it will only get w

in that phone call, earlier today, with officials of fema and the department of defense, i asked for a plan. they are working on it. the military, northern command is working on a plan. they could not tell me when it would be ready, or what it will say, or what the total number of troops or other logistical supplies will be, nor could they commit that there would be a waiver under fema regulations of conditions that apply to permanent recovery. the only decisions that have been made is a through be which deal with debris recovery over the next 180 days. and that is part of what the island needs, a longer-term plan as well as an immediate one, to make sure that there is a road to recovery. there is a path that will provide hope. not only is the well-being and health of this island threatened, so is hope. which is so important for progress to be made. the people of puerto rico have been met with at best, ambivalence and ambiguity or the president of the united states. earlier this week, he seemed more inclined to blame the island itself, and the size of -- is that of advocating for hel

it authorizes funding for department of defense and energy department defense-related programs. also it sets troop levels and military pay and base closures and realignments and a final passage vote is expected at about xpm and if that is true it will go into conference at the house. while the nomination of solicitor general and after wednesday the senate will take a break for the rest of the week on the state work. live coverage of the u.s. senate on c-span2 the presiding officer : the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, the chaplain, dr. barry black, the chaplain: let us pray. holy and gracious god, let your light shine out of darkness into our hearts. today, fill our lawmakers with a knowledge of your purposes, providing them with the insights to accomplish your will. inspire them to humble themselves under your mighty hand, so that you may exalt them in due time. lord, keep them mindful of the great responsibility you have placed upon them, and may they trust your power to do through them more than they can ask or imagine. watch over and guard them and

the more important thing right now is the department of defense. the facts were undergoing a process in the department for the review and update of a national defense strategy. also looking at a new realm an era of new technologies and methods of warfare. emerging capabilities and will fifth generation weapon systems. for us that needs an updated basis strategy and emerging national defense. that is the sole and primary reason why congress allowing the ability to make prudent decisions on where to put our forces. we go back to secretary mattis when he took over secretary defense. he wants to address readiness concerns increase military capabilities and enhance lethality. from my perspective working from him this process offers the opportunity to address readiness by providing our forces the best ranges and installation for them to be stationed at. . . >> will thank you. thank you fred and heritage foundation for having us here today to talk about a very important topic and i'm certainly pleased to join with my colleagues, my former colleagues and an

there are 69 hospitals total. 47 have been assessed by the department of defense and health and human services. 44 of the hospitals are operational. this is important for a number of reasons. we were concerned with patients needing dialysis and 6500 or so. those are life-threatening conditions if they don't get the treatment. it is not a matter of too fast or too slow. people are fixating on that, but two business models under way. they decentralized one and centralized one. i will get into that briefly and take your questions. first, we send -- the request was for me to talk louder. two things. we need to centralize certain plans and the restoration of power on the island is a centralized effort. we call a direct mission has been eaged and now the united states army corps of engineers is in charge of restoring power on the island of puerto rico. he has been in charge of that mission since early yesterday morning and has a prioritized and centralized plan for accomplishing that end. the plan starts with providing the diesel fuel necessary for emergency power generation and it proceeds

military bases in germany in route to syria we reached out to the department of defense for a statement on the claims and have not received a response as of news time in washington and sweeps r.t.d. . has claimed responsibility for an attack killing at least fifty people in southern iraq today gunmen opened fire. on people what i check point near nasiriyah on the ticker problems before an attacker detonated a car bomb and during dozens more here images from today's attack they will be advised that was a graphic scene. item of evidence after the the attackers struck while isis is hanging on to the eastern syrian city dairies or by a thread with the syrian army punching through their lines after days of heavy fighting and marks a turn in the war against isis but as isis the weekend's al qaeda remains strong harry stuckey investigative journalist in boston publisher joins us to explain why al qaeda is still a stubborn problem for the syrian people thank you so much for joining us today i want to start with that how is al qaeda benefiting from the decline of isis right now. well there's not

military bases in germany in route to syria we reached out to the department of defense for a statement on the claims and have not received a response as of news time and washington and sweets are today. but u.s. senators voted overwhelmingly against senator rand paul's amendment to the twenty nine hundred national defense authorization act had been passed the amendment would have repealed the authorization for the use of military force from two thousand and one and two thousand till i just no way congress would have been recalled required to review each of the united states foreign military intervention the act was brought in shortly after the attacks on september eleventh and has an able to country to launch in numerous wars and the global fight against terrorism alternately paving the way for more than sixteen years of conflict we spoke with former u.s. congressman ron paul and father of rand paul take a listen people make money off will learn sometimes they say well we'll have a little war we'll have a little cold war and this will help our profits and they don't intend it to go muc

leveraging the power of the department of defense and others agencies, is your only institution in ourcountry or world to respond quickly and effectively to the crisis at- hand. so, while response to the storm will take a significant amount of patience, it will also take urgency. for each day that goes by the crisis will get worse not better. i fear that if there is not enough urgency in the response o will be talking about a different set of stories in the days to come. i hope i'm wrong. but i fear when communications come back a and we start getting more access to areas that haveff been cut off we will learn that the impact of the storm is far worse. is what i pray with all my heart somebody will watch this video and say he was exaggerating, it wasn't that bad. i hope that's what happens. but, i fear it will not. every day that goes by it will only get worse. i don't believe it's fair to say that some people don't care what they haven't paid enough attention to it, i think it's just a challenge that is unique and requires us to respond in ways we would not normally respond. most plac

julie: what does the department of defense spending budget look like? if they are having complications, you would see that with some other competitors. but the department of defense fiscal year 2018 budget asked is dead onease that arrival, congress is saying, because they don't like donald trump's overall budget. julie: let's switch gears to talk about apple. sin a star is pushing back -- sinion of 3-d sensors us are is pushing back production of 3-d sensors. of's bring in the cofounder blue ventures and a veteran of apple. he joins us from minneapolis. we could talk about apple more broadly. just quickly here, what happened with the 3-d sensor delay? can apple turn elsewhere to get that particular component? >> they have triple suppliers. this is their second largest supplier for the 3-d map. it will be in the higher end of what we are calling the iphone pro. question of what happened, behind the scenes, when they start to launch these new components, they will go and .ggressively test them it essentially failed some of the tests, which pushed back pr

defense spending as a percentage of gdp. my question is, as the future years defense program begins to overlap the mid- 2020s has the departmentof defense started to look at how this fiscal picture might change what we can afford and where we invest and has the potential fiscal future been accounted for in any of our future operating concepts for global power protection strategies? >> senator, our plan to date is highlighted by the fact that our capabilities will require somewhere between three and 7%. we can debate that i'm willing to come over here with an analytic foundation for my assessment between three and 7% and that's dependent on how much risk you want to assume as you build the force. between three and 7% will be required for us to build the capabilities we need. where do we come up that percentage contract we looked at the capabilities of russia, china today and we looked at the trajectory they are on for capability development, we looked at where we are today and what investments we need to have to maintain a competitive advantage over those. competitors. we use them as a? , if you will. what i would say i suppose

the civil military dialogue does not only occur within the department of defense. it occurs within the branches of government as well. that's why the chairman also serves as a principal military adviser to the congress and that's why, as part of the confirmation process, we ask current and future chairman like all military officers, to provide their best personal advice to this committee if asked. it is to ensure that the members of this committee and the full congress are able to meet our independent constitutional responsibilities to the americans we serve. at present, this committee, and the congress more broadly, is not receiving the information and respect it deserve as a co-equal branch of government. we do not work for the president or the executive branch. we have distinct and equal responsibilities under the constitution, and the administration needs to understand its obligation to the congress in this regard. too often, members of this committee are learning in the media for the first time about major national security and military activities that we, as t

the department of defense is said that u.s. must pay close attention to climate change are as head of the agency who has to respond to these sort of massive storms that require your staff to be on 24/7 for days at a time and essentially wipe out the budget, do you feel that the government needs to focus on climate change in a broader way at this point following the storm? >> i think the government needs to definitely focus on disaster resiliency, twofold. disaster resiliency, the only way we achieve it is, is that we have to create a true cultural unprepared is within our citizenry. we have to help them understand our true vulnerabilities based on what they do well and where they work. and it's not just getting supplies for three days as many people are learning how important that is. it's also having the savings accounts for three to six months to overcome simple emergencies as well as the disaster,, activate interest policies and everything else. when it comes to the infrastructure side, i think we do have a long way to go. g

military effort under way, about 16 department of defense ships as well as department of defense personnel and one of the big goals is to try to get flights moving in and out of these airports more quickly, to get people off the islands and to get more supplies in. >> to get those military troops, the national guard forces on the ground there. they're desperately needed, our white house correspondent sarah murray reporting for us, thank you very much. let's get some more, all of this from puerto rico's congressional delegate, jennifer gonzalez is joining us, thanks so much for joining us, i know you are in close touch with the leadership there, what is the situation right now like? >> this is devastation, that is puerto rico, not a puerto rico we saw a week ago. we are surviving three major disasters. the financial dire situation regards back home, hurricane irma and now hurricane maria that makes things worse. i arrived lasted night from the island. so i was there, i will tell you this, seeing the coast guard and the military operations, there are, they have been taken there, moving patie

. >> let's talk about this department of justice 1033 program that allows for the distribution of surplus military equipment. >> it is a department of defense program. it is one of several government programs that provide equipment to law enforcement. >> why was it put into place? why did the department decide to get this equipment, free of charge, to local police departments? did not decide, congress decided. has said that the 1033 program does not further its mission. , when rampinged down from actions in the middle east, there was extra equipment, we use do something with it, they decided to pass it on to law enforcement. ledescribed the events that up to the decision in 2014 by the obama administration to take a look at this program and revisit it. >> the obama administration did not look only at the 1033 program. federaled at all government programs that provide equipment to law enforcement. the obama administration provided more than $82 billion to law enforcement for resources. weref these programs inconsistently applied. they had different rules, different people operating them, and they were communicating. after the events in fergu

in this case it was the department of defense that had this equipment, so we in turn asked the departmente to provide this equipment, a couple of these reverse osmosis purification units are being delivered immediately with more on the way. what we're also doing is -- it's clear that this is in the early stage of the disaster response, so our teams are on the ground conducting assessments and looking for gaps in ways to respond in the future. and the last point i'll make before turning it over to question and answers, is that not only do -- we do response and response is very important when lives are on the line, but you've heard a number of comments and questions about preparedness. that's an essential part of any disaster response is what you can do ahead of time. and this is a big part of what usaid does is disaster response and help communities become more resilient to disasters around the world. i have a personal saying is that, how we honor the people who have been affected by disasters is doing better the next time. learning lessons for response and preparedness that we can put in

atre's a change in policy the department of defense, they're going to need to decide who is veteran. the the come out in department of defense, my mission and responsibility is clear. ofbody who becomes a veteran somebody we are going to take care of, as long as they want us to take care of it. courts have you have any interesting or memorable conversations with veterans, whether it be world war ii, vietnam, or other conflicts? >> and thinking about yesterday, were headed -- military vitiation day. spent some time with world war ii veterans. these are such amazing people. they have stories of such sacrifice and courage that impact me. i love spending time with them. i came to my management meeting this morning with leaders here and said -- my spirits yesterday, we have to do something more about capturing .he stories of individuals young people today don't really understand what that generation went through and what they did to be able to allow us to be here today. >> generally speaking, this generation, generation didn't want to talk about it. they moved on with their lives. >> i thi

this legislative package revise critical appropriation for nafta security, including the department of defense, the department of veterans affairs, and the department of energy possible clear programs, and the legislative branch bill. my colleagues, this is the primary constitutional duty of the congress, to ensure the safety of the homeland and the american people. this legislation is carefully crafted to fund our critical military priorities, supporting veterans, and making our board --borders more secure. the core of the package is funding. i thank chairwoman granger for her leadership. the bill provides $658.1 billion for these functions, an increase of $61 billion. there is no doubt that this is a significant increase from the current spending levels and certainly from the last eight years. but this increase is vitally important to continue the process we started this spring to rebuild, repair, reequip our armed forces that we started in 2017 appropriations package. mr. chairman, the secretary of defense mattis has made readiness and modernization of our forces his top priorities. it is a

the dual status commander role allowed me to command all of the department of defense national guard from other states. all the department of defense assets coming into the area. that's been tremendous. right now are made focuses in east texas where we're still doing search and rescue evacuations because of the high water. were also beginning to transition a focus on distribution of commodities like water and food. working with local officials to make sure the citizens who are there get what they need. >> it's incredible when he think about when the storm landed and that the challenges are still so great. you're bringing in so many people in many want to help and are serving and happy to do that, how to handle that logistically? >> molly: several ways. we have thousands of partners, every federal agency, fema, the department of defense, every federal agency and state agency and all the locals coming together. what's more phenomenal to me is the local support even from other states has been flowing in and unbelievable numbers. all that being coordinated through the state division of em

this legislative package revise critical appropriation for nafta security, including the department of defense, the department of veterans affairs, and the department of energy nuclear programs, and the legislative branch bill. my colleagues, this is the primary constitutional duty of the congress, to ensure the safety of the homeland and the american people. this legislation is carefully crafted to fund our critical military priorities, supporting veterans, and making our board -- making our borders more secure. the core of the package is full-year funding for the department of defense and intelligence communities. i thank chairwoman granger for her leadership. the bill provides $658.1 billion for these functions, an increase of $61 billion. there is no doubt that this is a significant increase from the current spending levels and certainly from the last eight years. but this increase is vitally important to continue the process we started this spring to rebuild, repair, reequip our armed forces that we started in 2017 appropriations package. mr. chairman, secretary of defense mattis has made

there won't be one penny for the department of education, the department of defense. that's how quickly these programs are growing. so we do two good things. we put medicaid on a more sustainable fashion -- path because it's an important program, and we allow flexibility to get better outcomes for the taxpayer and the patient. what a novel idea. the second block grant. this is money that would have been spent by a bureaucrat in washington. under the first republican proposal, you would get a refundable tax credit to go out and try to buy insurance somewhere, and we would give insurance companies money so they wouldn't collapse on the obamacare exchanges. what we have decided to do is instead of giving a refundable tax credit to an individual to buy a product that's going to go away because obamacare won't work, instead of giving a bunch of money to insurance companies to prop them up, we're going to take that same amount of money and give it back to the states so by 2026, they all get the basic same contribution. now, what did we do? we repealed the individual mandate

department of defense you to the pentagon memorial to honor the 184 lives lost at the pentagon september1, 2001. 180 -- the lives lost. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the director of administration, mr. michael l rhodes. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for joining us today. all the members of the greater pentagon community, all those who are observing elsewhere through the broadcast. we welcome you to today's 9/11 observance created we are here ofether, family and friends those we lost here. first responders from the department of defense and other agencies have stood with us side-by-side. everyilding survivors and -- we are here together as a pentagon family and always will be. we are bonded as the nation is by that tragic day and by our continued presence here today. we come together, all of us, united at this site. to remember those we lost. mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, friends and coworkers. here, the purpose of this , and we, we remember also reflect upon and renew our faith and our commitment to all that is good in this n

president, i come to the floor today to question the plan for auditing the department of defense. the new chief financial officer, mr. david norquist, presented a plan to the armed services committee on may 9. it appears flawed like a lot of other such plans. the department may be audit ready by september 30th deadline but the goal -- and the goal ought to be a clean opinion -- isn't in the mix. it is placed -- we get another lame excuse. quote, i recognize it will take time to go from being audited to passing an audit, end of quote. we have heard this story over and over again for 26 years. when will it come to an end. i don't think the pentagon has a clue. if the department is truly audit ready, then why is the chief financial officer predicting failure before the audit even starts? double talk is necessary to accomplish that goal. a monster is lurking in the weeds and nobody wants to talk about it. it's the deal breaker. that's a term that's often used in audit reports. they are red flag accounting issues listed in department of defense reports for years and years. they're prefa

the senate is back this afternoon to begin work on a 692 billion-dollar bill on the department of defense. you can watch live coverage of the senate today at 3:00 o'clock eastern on c-span2. the house tomorrow on c-span or streaming on the free c-span radio app. >> tonight on "the communicators". mark jamison, a visiting scholar at aei, a net neutrality. he's interviewed by reuters telecom reporter, david shepherdson. >> take for example what we call fifth-generation wireless. 5g. it is a technology that we start being rolled out next year and it will be a place for about a decade or so. it very specifically has built into it what they call slices. each slice can be customized to a particular service or particular customer or a particular edge provider. whatever it might be, it is designed to do that. that violates that idea of same treatment of bit. net neutrality is out. >> watch "the communicators" tonight at eight eastern on c-span2. >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. it is brought to you tod

the dual status commander role allowed me to command all of the department of defense national guard om other states. all the department of defense assets coming into the area. that's been tremendous. right now are made focuses in east texas where we're still doing search and rescue evacuations because of the high water. were also beginning to transition a focus on distribution of commodities like water and food. working with local officials to make sure the citizens who are there get what they need. >> it's incredible when he think about when the storm landed and that the challenges are still so great. you're bringing in so many people in many want to help and are serving and happy to do that, how to handle that logistically? >> molly: several ways. we have thousands of partners, every federal agency, fema, the department of defense, every federal agency and state agency and all the locals coming together. what's more phenomenal to me is the local support even from other states has been flowing in and unbelievable numbers. all that being coordinated through the state division of emer

the dual status commander role allowed me to command all of the department of defense national guard ther states. all the department of defense assets coming into the area. that's been tremendous. right now are made focuses in east texas where we're still doing search and rescue evacuations because of the high water. were also beginning to transition a focus on distribution of commodities like water and food. working with local officials to make sure the citizens who are there get what they need. >> it's incredible when he think about when the storm landed and that the challenges are still so great. you're bringing in so many people in many want to help and are serving and happy to do that, how to handle that logistically? >> molly: several ways. we have thousands of partners, every federal agency, fema, the department of defense, every federal agency and state agency and all the locals coming together. what's more phenomenal to me is the local support even from other states has been flowing in and unbelievable numbers. all that being coordinated through the state division of emergenc

in 1976 the department of defense decided to repurpose those national guard squadrons air refueling,o which was not new technology, it was well developed in 19 1976.er 6 -- in pilots had been flying fighter pilots -- king of the skies. you are goingtold to get these gigantic boeing 707s and fly those. you are taking me from a porsche to abbas. there were grumblings -- a porsche to a bus. there were grumblings. when they told them where they but young to be going, are not going to be home anymore. home defense was home. you never left. 135, you are going places. japan, to go to guam, the philippines. you're going to germany. that is where missions are taking you are in -- that is where missions are taking you. we are in. since 1976 we have been doing air refueling missions. threads been a constant of military aviation history from 1924 to the present day. >> we are on the campus of go

his package provides critical appropriation for security and the department of defense and the department of veteran as and energies nuclear programs and the legislative branch bill. this is the primary consecutive duty.tutional to ensure the safety of the homeland and the american people. legislation is carefully crafted to meet that esponsibility funding our critical priorities and making secure.so the core of this package is full year funding for the department intelligence the committee and i think chairwoman granger for her leadership in defense portion of the ill provides 658.1 billion for the functions of increase of 61 discretionary funding in the enacted levels. there's no doubt this is significant increase from the current spending levels and certainly from the last 8 years. but this increase is vitally continue the process we started this spring rebuild, repair and reequip our armed forces we started in appropriations package. mr. chairman. i's.ttary of defense it's a fact today we have too can't fly andthat too many ship that is the can't ale and too many troops that cannot de

there won't be one penny for the department of education, the department of defense. that's how quickly these programs are growing. so we do two good things. we put medicaid on a more sustainable fashion -- path because it's an important program, and we allow flexibility to get better outcomes for the taxpayer and the patient. what a novel idea. the second block grant. this is money that would have been spent by a bureaucrat in washington. under the first republican proposal, you would get a refundable tax credit to go out and try to buy insurance somewhere, and we would give insurance companies money so they wouldn't collapse on the obamacare exchanges. what we have decided to do is instead of giving a refundable tax credit to an individual to buy a product that's going to go away because obamacare won't work, instead of giving a bunch of money to insurance companies to prop them up, we're going to take that same amount of money and give it back to the states so by 2026, they all get the basic same contribution. now, what did we do? we repealed the individual mandate

them, ano more important, we want them to know that will continue to works with fema and the department of defense and the rest of the administration to help in the recovery. i expect we'll have more soon on what additional resources will be necessary in puerto rico, and elsewhere in the paths of the storms. the recovery effort is certainly not going to be easy.ui it's not going to be quick, buto we are here to do our part. >> one other thing, mr. president, and the main subject i'm going to speak up today, instead of trying to take health care away from millions of americans, the senate and the white house should focus on a much more pressing

legislation authorizes base defense budget together with the other request with 8 billion of other defense activities, supports a toll defense budget $640 billion in funding for the department of defense and the nationals could programs in thea department of energy. the legislation also authorizesc $60 billion for overseas contingency operations, in totae this f topline of $700 billion. this funding is critical to begin addressing the readiness shortfall and modernization crisis caused by the self-inflicted wounds of the budget control act known as sequestration, and repeated continuing resolutions. we need to look no forward in recent headlines as i mentioned of fatal accidents during routine training operations were evidence of the deteriorated state of our military. these ship collisions and aviation accidents are taking lives of our servicemembers at an alarming rate. killed in fact, in the last three years we have killed four times as many of our own soldiers in peacetime training operations that our enemies have in combat. while there's plenty of responsibility to go around, we cannot ignore congress his role. years of budget cuts have force her military to try to do

island of saint maarten which is a dutch territory and the department of state together with the dutch government and the department of defensehas begun the process of evacuating people from their. my colleagues in the department of defense have worked closely and have reported that already evacuating over a thousand americans from saint maarten to puerto rico and there may be more evacuations to follow tomorrow. harris: i know puerto rico didn't take the eye of the storm but they still had well over 900,000 people, businesses and homes that were without electricity. they are dealing with their own situation, plus flooding there. what you are saying is the martin was so bad that you're going to take them to another island before you can possibly bring them to the mainland and that would be the goal. i don't know. can't do it now because you have poured in the crosshairs. admiral brown, before i let you go, what does it look like in terms of your night tonight? what are you specifically doing with your people to. >> what we are doing right now is as i said, we've repositioned our assets and we've also repositioned our control