neither does anybody within the department of defense as far as i know. so in terms of holding dod accountable, it is extremely difficult to do so using the 2+3 planning framework. so now, we move on to the third and final test involving the report. i call this the winners test. and the logic here is, i think, much more straightforward. the national defense strategy outlines certain priorities. if the budget aligns with the strategy, then the budget winners should be the same priorities identified by the strategy. that's fairly straightforward. the trick in the report, though, is how you define what a winner is. so, one option would be to find a winner in terms of the absolute level of funding provided to certain programs. the problem is the entire budget is growing, right? which means almost all of the programs are receiving more money, which means everybody's a winner. so that's not very useful, analytically, so i left that method aside. a second way you can do it is by calculating percentage changes programs, but you can imagine how that might not be us

we now have a dollar figure of how much money from the department of defense budget has been funneled into the president's business. it's not a small amount by any stretch. the united states department of defense using money we pay in taxes has transferred almost $200,000 of that money into donald trump's pocket. politico reported last week the house oversight committee was investigating why an air national guard crew stayed at trump's turnberry golf resort in scotland. yesterday they reported air force crews stayed at trump's resort at taxpayer expense for several days at a time, even taking the opportunity to play golf at the resort. now the overnight committee has given oscine idea of the scope of the systematic commitment to trump turnberry as well as the estimated cost to taxpayers. and both of those things are quite staggering. in a public letter to the department of defense, house democrats say that based on the limited documents provided to them by dod, quote, it appears that u.s. taxpayer funds were used to purchase the equivalent of more than 650 rooms at trump turnberry sin

of defense, the honorable mark esper. [applause] thank you general dunford. lady,esident, first members of congress. fellow cabinet members. men and women of the departmentfense and most especially, friends and family members of the patriots of september 11 2001. pentagon ande thank you for joining us as we gather here to honor those lost on that tragic day and to recognize the heroes who rose to the occasion in the face of evil. this morning's ceremony affirms our commitment to never forget that fateful day 18 years ago. terrorists from a distant land attacked the spirit of our nation. on a grassy field in pennsylvania, in the twin towers of new york city and here at the pentagon, they stole the lives of thousands of innocent people. fearful of america's values, ideas and freedoms, our nations enemies sought to dim the beacon of hope that america has long shown throughout the world. and while the terrorist attacks brought great pain, the american people responded with even greater bravery and determination. most of us recall exactly where we were when we first learned that our nation was under attack. some were at work. others were at home. in this of t

it was this document. 680 page document to define the next generation of handguns for the department of defense stop it then went through -- the army says they finally had to take it over to get the job done -- and then it went through a process of procurement and acquisition that took about 10 years. take about 10g to years to get it fully deployed. when will be the next generation handgun? when i first started taking this document, 680 pages and bringing it before the committee, i have some folks in acquisition who said it is only 40 pages of specifications. my question to them was are all the -- all the other pages intentionally left blank? do they have requirements that the suppliers can just dismiss and only focus on those 40 pages? we all know the answer to that. i want to make sure that we figure out a way to acquire appropriate to the risk of whatever it is we are requiring -- i fully expect we probably had it rop that was 300 pages long for the next generation paperclip. tell me what you think we are already doing -- we discussed this in the office, give me your assurance that these so

it was this document. 680 page document, to define the next generation handgun for the department of defense and then went through the army says they finally had to take it over to get the job done by the way. but then went through a process of procurement and acquisition it took about ten years. it was finally selected and i was going to take about ten years to get it fully deployed. when will need the next generation handgun. when i first started, i taken this document 680 pages and bringing it more for the committee. i had some folks and acquisition but it's only 40 pages of specifications. so my question to them was, are all of the other pages intentionally left blank ? do they have requirements that the suppliers can just dismiss. only focus on those 40 pages. boy only answer that. i want to make sure that we figure out a way to acquire appropriate to the risk of whatever it is boy are acquiri acquiring. i fully expect boy and our fd that was 300 pages long for the next generation paperclip. i'm not going to look for that but i could see that. tell me what you think boy are already doin

a 680 page document, to define the next generation handgun for the department of defense. it then went through. the army said they finally had to take it over to get the job done, by the way. it then went through a process of procurement and acquisition that took about 10 years. it was finally selected and now it will take about 10 years to get it fully deployed, when we will need the next generation handgun. now, when i first started taking this document, 680 pages, and bringing it before the committee, i had some folks and acquisition at dod say it is only 40 pages and specifications. so my question is, are all the other pages intentionally left blank? do they have requirements that the suppliers can just dismiss and only focus on those 40 pages? and you all know the answer to that. i want to make sure we figure out a way to acquire, appropriate to the risk, for the specification, whatever it is we are acquiring. i fully expect we have an rfp that is 300 pages long for the next generation paperclip. i'm not going to look for that, but i can see that. tell me what we are d

government's response for the department of defense. do the overflight of grand bahama and abaco. there's a long road ahead. but we want to assure everyone we're standing with our bahamian partners and there's more assistance on the way. i want to say thank you for rear admiral jones for all of the assistance he's helped us with with the u.s. coast guard, with particularly the helicopters and the medical teams that have been assisting us, evacuate to nassau, those that are injured and the devastating hurricane. as the minister said, there's keys that are very remote and difficult to reach. under the leadership of u.s.a., the office of foreign disaster assistance of fairfax county search and rescue team is on the ground and developed a plan to get out there and walk those keys and make sure that we're reaching all populations that we can. thank you. >> let me start by saying thank you to minister dames for the strong leadership and the close collaboration. as we're part of a broader effort, we look forward to continuing to collaborate wit

by contrast, look at the department of defense. a senate confirmed undersecretary who has the oversight function over all of dod's intelligence missions. except for the component leaders, and there are seven or eight of them, there is no middle level management between those people and the secretary. congress pleased that just before or after i left office, codified the joint task force structure i created so that we would have more of a dod type model when it comes to border security. is, in onehing respect, i think we need to go further. i would like to see our government -- and this is probably politically unobtainable -- consolidate more of the federal law enforcement missions under one cabinet level person. if i could wave a wand, i would take every federal law enforcement agency and put it under one cabinet level official. not necessarily the attorney general. entity conflict all of their missions. much like they do in ministries of the interior in other nations. is probably politically impossible to do that. and that sense i

europe that the europeans are going to have to pick up the slack on some of the money the department of defense won't be able to spend now. that's undercutting one of the major missions of the department. and then finally to get to the heart of the school's issue, it's well known military -- i think general mccaffrey would agree militaries recruit soldiers but retain families. but right now trump has a dagger pointed at the heart of those families. so it's not just the emotional argument, it's that he's hurting our readiness, that he's distracting soldiers from focusing on the mission and undermining our deinterprterren posture in europe. >> general mccaffrey, would you like to respond to anything mark said you would like to elaborate on but i would also like you to address some of the politics on this. if donald trump were a democratic president and he were raiding the military budget in almost an extra judicial manner in terms of not following the laws that congress has the legal right to appropriate funds, i think republicans would be going bananas. how is donald trump going to survive a mov

i came from the department of defense, which is larger than multiples. the departments of the air force, or the department of the avy in and of themselves, are larger than dhs. nd it's the third largest cabinet level department. but it's too big in the sense.ing ts missions are very diffuse, very decentralized, cultures are vastly different. the ulture of fema versus secret service versus the coast guard, and the command and structure of dhs lacks maturity of the dod. so one christmas, i set out to every person dhs lacks in dhs who was directly reporting going and just kept going, thinking of people who report directly to me. stop.on i had to there were so many people that i felt like i had to write to. by contrast, if you look at the department of defense, there is, example, somebody, a senate confirmed undersecretary who has oversight function over all intelligence missions, and so, except for the component leaders, and there are seven or them, there is no middle level management really those people and the secretary. congress leased that just before or

of reform favor will be necessary under flat conditions. said i would note that the national defense strategy commission, a group of bite partisan expert said that they believe that the department of defense and needs 3-4% gpt gb d growth to implement the national defense energy. and it seems to be tough to do that under flat budget. all >> we are yielding a lot of progress in particular for general murray's command. we were able to reduce the requirements process which was taken is 5-7 years. now he can crank out fully loaded, required documents to the doctor who will release an rfp to vendors in 18 months or less. for complex weapons systems. we've reduce the time it takes to make a decision, turn to the contrary, saying develop a prototype of culture, armored vehicle, machine gun. now he reduce that spend time. is the speed of an order for business. reducing the cycle time to achieve a sale , that is great for american business, and great frescoes we will get it sooner. we don't spend millions of dollars talking to ourselves, and moving paper back and forth to make up our mind. the speed of which we can bring these capabilities forward will help us change. between the work t

and you know, i would note that when the department of defense was created in the wake of world war ii, most analysts say that it took over 40 years for the department of defense to really become integrated. the department of homeland much younger than that. it has many more missions. but it is maturing, it is coming together, and the efforts spent tweaking, moving one box here, one box there, would not be worth the effort. i would suggest, respectfully, that one area that could really help the department would be to streamline congressional oversight. i know that is delicate and requires committees to give up some jurisdiction, but the committee on homeland security has a tradition of operating in a fairly bipartisan way and being a very good overseer of the department, and it needs to push some of those other committees out of the way. sen. johnson: thank you. as you know, you're preaching to the choir here. >> thank you. as you know you are preaching to the choir. this committeeee actually passea deal to begin that process. i'm completely sympathetic with it. again, your voices will

a lot of criticism online from both experts and average twitter users commenting that the department of defense or any division of the department of defense, which this was, should not be suggesting it's going to kill u.s. citizens. so on saturday one day after the tweet was published they deleted the tweet and the issuing body, the division visual information distribution service issued an apology saying that the employee who published the tweet or posted the tweet, their attitudes expressed does not represent the st. albans of the department of defense basically backtracking on the tweet. the internet captured it in post tert through screen shots and other -- >> give me some sense. in this case is there a public relations problem within the department of defense? >> i think the department of defense, like most major corporations or anything else, is trying to adapt to the social media age and get their message out there in a way that's going to connect with people. sometimes unfortunately you're going to miss the fat end of the bat when you're aiming for the ball. in this case they missed it.

away how would you characterize the typical sex offender well if i look at our data from the department of defense and young people that are ages 18 to 2425 when you say that most of them are serial rape. i don't have data one way or the other to determine that what percentage of the rapes are caused by serial predator. i don't i don't have any numbers and i don't know how to i don't think we collect that type of data there's been studies done of people who enter the military are twice as likely to have committed rape as their equivalent population in the civilian world i'm not aware of that study my area of expertise focuses primarily on prevention and victim care but we're. focusing on the perpetrators. i notice that dr kay whitley is not in her chair is it under your direction that she has not shown to test one of this morning or do you have an executive privilege to do a search no sir you've instructed her not to come what is your reason for doing that if you find the department's response in provisions efforts fall short of your expectations responsibility for that shortfall rests with me the

thank the committee of the confidence of bipartisan support they've shown the army and the department of defense for the committees top lundmark which provide the foundation for a budget deal that provide fiscal certainty in the fy '20 20 and fy 2021. we will work to maximize the utility of every dollar with ruthless privatization and safeguard of most treasured national resource, the minute women serving in the army, the eight civilians and the families. i'm an avid supporter of the national defense strategy and will continue the privatization necessary for it to be realized. the nds serves as our blueprint. minimizing any potential turbulence as result of the transition of leaders. this strategy allows for a laserlike focus against great power competition while institutionalizing the hard lessons learned in counterinsurgency of the violent extremist organization fight. if confirmed, i will continue to champion the army strategy and vision with an emphasis on readiness, modernization, and reform. it is only to the care of our people that these priorities will be achieved if i've encouraged by t

the department of defense appropriations bill has to be passed. ngress can write into the budget none of the funds provided to the department of defense may be used to provide for housing or transportation at a trump-owned property. that is perfectly legitimate. it's done all the time. they can do that today without confusing this around the impeachment issue. >> jake, i see you nodding. i'll give you the last word. >> he's right. mr. jolly was an aid on the appropriations committee too so he knows this well. [ laughter ] but, yeah, and they could say that no money could go to setting up the g7 at doral. democrats keep saying we are looking to find out the whole story. well, the story is unfolding and a lot of democrats are saying there is nothing to wait for anymore. we need to streamline our efforts and really focus on the next year or so on really probing the president in every single way. and some democrats believe they have been successful so far, and many do not. so that's going to be one of the big story lines from now until the midterm elec

there's a memo of understanding between the department of defense and the department of interior that's been there since 1983 which mandates they cooperate and they consult and they work through these things in an appropriate way. were something like that to be part of this bill, i think there is, at least i know i could support it and everyone else on the floor would argue to do the same thing. the sad part is this bill doesn't do that. instead, it simply locks up the issue on the one line that happens to be there. now, here is where i don't blame anyone seated on the floor. the six of us that are actually here. i do blame the rules committee. the rules committee made a very bad rule and abusing some of the powers that the rules committee has to deal with it. not only did they make several amendments self-executing, and i'm sorry, i was on the rules committee for a long time, i thought when we did that, that's lousy policy. but it was also lousy policy in this rule to make rules, some of the amendments self-executing. en they forgot other amendments that could have brought something in

first, to infect the department of defense with politics and to start to undermine the credibility of the department and its interactions with the legislative branch. and, second, more importantly, to diminish funding for critical military projects. now, what kinds of projects are we talking about? so there are 127 projects that are being raided that we funded, we enacted a law and then the president declared an emergency, the republicans upheld that emergency, and now these projects are being defunded. let meet give you a couple of examples -- let me give you a couple of examples out of these 127. this is the form that comes in. these are the department of defense's words. first project, fort bragg north carolina, butner elementary school, replacement. and there's a section that's called impact if not provided. in other words, well, what happens if we don't provide this funding? this is what the department of defense says. the continued use of deficient, inadequate and undersized facilities that do not accommodate the current student population will continue to impair the overall edu

members of the house armed services committee just wrapping up a briefing with the department of defensecongressman mike rogers was there, and he joins us now. congressman good to see you. i know it was a closed door meeting can you give us a general sense of what happened there though? >> yeah, we had a lot of questions obviously and we're not paying attention to iranian remarks like that. they are trying to disturb the oil markets to try to upset the price of oil to get some relief in the sanctions, so your viewer s need to know that's what that's all about when they make those kind of declarations. it was we wanted to get a handle on what the intelligence community knows, what the department of defense could tell us about options they were looking at and we got a pretty good feel about where we are, and we're close to going to war. i do want your viewers to know that. >> congressman did you just say we're close? david: no, we're not close. >> little different there. here is my question so you have the iran and they did this, they poked the bear, and they have got a response of sanctio

notion that the democrats first responsibility is irritating the white house and funding the department of defense. we can reroute this process and move forward for the sake of our senate process for the sake of stable funding for the federal government and for the sake of our nations security. >> his responding about federal spending the need to pass election security and gun background checks inflation. >> madam president, i thanks unanimous unanimous consent. they failed to advance yesterday, emotions to proceed to a package of appropriations abills. demonstrating something that leaders mccall and a radio.no there are not enough votes in the senate for the presidents wall. the senate refuses to fund the border wall the president promised mexico would pay for. especially not at the expense of our troops and their families an important public health programs like childcare and headstart. just yesterday, the pentagon warned the dire outcomes of the money to fund the military it's not provided. read today's washington post. our military people are upset with this. their chain of command, the not go

the successful he had moving down the euphrates river valley the department of defense led with the fdrforces was truly remarkable. we will not take our eye off the ball in sharing that whether ices or other radical islamic groups continue to be under pressure from the united states of america. just to close it up, that would include in these camps you are referring to. >> the white house says that. [inaudible] how is it out of alignment? >> i will leave that to the white house to talk about. other than to say i think president trump, i watched his campaign, i've now worked with him as ci director and secretary of state now, someone asked with the policy be different absent any individual being here? these are but the president's policies. we give him our best wisdom, we share with him our understanding with our intelligence director we did our best to make sure they have the facts and data available to make good decisions but i don't think any leader around the world should make any assumption that because someone of us departs that president trump's foreign policy will change and mate

after all, american empire consists of more than the department of defense and the nsa, cia, department of homeland security, all of these are part of the national security state. the dea isn't just enforcing a war on drugs at home. they are waging a war on drugs abroad throughout latin america and the world. the state department and usaid engage in foreign aid programs that large little serve pure till ambition% so the costs are higher than the number gave you, but whenever names we put on the cost of american empire, it's important to know that we're not just talking about the government spending dollars. when they spend the dollars they will looking for alternative uses. when metal is used to build a fighter jet, that's being taken away from tractors, forks and knives or anything else that you can make with that same. they might develop a number of consumer approximate or medical devices or capital goods that could increase productivity, so we just think of military spending as moving money around. we're giving up goods and services which could enhance our lives. is that cost worth i

that was eprected by the united states congress and was promoted by the state department and department of defense they have no concerns about corruption. they understood the importance of the security. and finally on the question of the transcrip transcript, look, overwhelmingly it wasn't badgering as much is a direct effort to get the president to use his powers to investigate former vice president biden's son that is crystal-clear any plane reading will do that i do believe people will read the summary. i yield back. focusing remarks on the role of technology in modern society. >> the gentleman of his excellency.

there is an enormous amount of collaboration and support that the department of defense and command provideo the lebanese forces. there are a wide range of assistance programs that the united states, department of state and aid have. the entire conference that was hosted in paris to examine additional investment opportunities in water, electricity and so on was something robustly supported by the united states. so we have a close partnership on all of these issues. but we have every expectation that the lebanese government will expunge this terrorist cancer from its body politics. this is an organization with the blood of not just hundreds of americans, argentinians, and others on its hands, but the blood of lebanese people as well. we expect we will work together to preclude this terrorist group and drive it back from where they are today. missy: and in the front row? you said that you may sanction -- asst. sec. billingslea: i did not say that. if they are engaging in activity that are related to terrorism. asst. sec. billingslea: very precise here. we do not designate ethnic groups. we de

department of defense. justify having been willing to work with the chinese government on complex projects, including artificial intelligence under projects time, not at the same being willing to help the department of defense develop ways to minimize civilian casualties for a better ai? how do you reconcile those approaches? >> we have talked about today, we do partner with law enforcement and the military in certain ways offering some of our services. we draw responsible lines about where we want to be in business, including limitations on getting in the field of building weapons and so on. evaluate that over time. >> let me shift to a different is this panel has talked about combating extremism and the efforts of social media to do that. many americans, including myself, have a long-standing saysrn that one big tech it is combating extremism, that it is often a shield for advancing political censorship. recently,talk about twitter extended its pattern of censorship to the level that it took down the twitt

reporter: friday the department of defense said more u.s. troops are head together middle east following a drone and missile attack earlier this month on a saudi arabian oil plant. the developments as president rouhani arrives tomorrow for the u.n. general assembly where he will hold a number of meetings. he's not expected to meet with president trump or anyone from the american delegation. the iranians will present a plan for gulf security. this is in juxtaposition to talk about how to push back against iranian aggression. jon: israel's arab parties are pouring their support behind benny gansz as they look to block benjamin netanyahu. the election results in a deadlock. the ceremonial president picks the. advertise with the best chance of forming a stable government. jon: 2020 candidate hitting general motors picket lines. all this as a new iowa poll has senator warren in the lead with 22% just ahead of bind as 20%. here is the massachusetts senator reacting to the new numbers. >> we are still months away from the iowa caucuses and the firs

over the course of four years, the department of defense spent $294 million, the equivalent of nearly four u.s. airports joint strike fighters on erectile dysfunction medication. seriously, look it up. in 2016, the washington post reported that the pentagon buried an internal study on $125 billion of internal waste amid fears that congressman is the findings as an excuse to slash the defense budget. if we were talking about the department of education failing and calling it success, conservatives would not be calling for increased funding. and we are spending more to get less. the impact of this bureaucracy is stark. as former secretary of the navy lehman notes john "it now takes an average of 22.5 years to deploy new weapons instead of the quad for years it took during the cold war." contrasting, china and russia are producing this generation ships and fighters and watch for years. and why is this? it is because our bloated budget inhibits innovation. the world that -- the war we fight in the future will increasingly depend on innovation. we will need more advanced technology. but a

. >> these comments come after an announcement about the department of defense -- the more u.s. troops are heading to the middle east following a bone missile attack earlier this month on a saudi arabian oil plant. at a news conference the secretary of defense said that the forces would be deployed to saudi arabia for defensive purposes. he added that the forces would be focused on air and missile defense. >> the americans and the saudi arabians believe iran is behind this attack leaving the trump administration to impose more sanctions on iran targeting their bang. >> these developments come as an iranian delegation is in new york city bearing for the general assembly next week. the iranian president arrives monday but he is not infected to me with president trump. and jerusalem reporting. >>> facebook announced they have suspended tens of thousands of apps that may have mishandled personal data. this out numbers the hundreds that facebook previously took action against in the womb wake of the cambridge analytical scandal. they gave very little details about the problems with th

make sure we are doing that. >> do you think there are instances of, that a clear cut example for the nation's defense of the u.s. department of defense but we will work with the chinese, something very clear and, obvious to think that there is something we should do to prevent that or penalize that, we the congress? >> i think it is an important question, i think is a business we draw responsible and consistent lines but the details would certainly have to come out. >> let me just ask one follow-up, question it's a follow-up to senator scott's earlier question, you said that the twitter account of maduro in venezuela is not broken any of the rules, what are the rules and what point would you look to have somebody who is certainly not treating the citizens well senator scott has been a leader on this issue but what are those rules at what point would you look at what they are doing to their own citizen as a way they're not providing the platform that you have. >> thank you, well the rules apply to many, so i can make a full copy available, but for example whether it's encouragement of violence, whether the twitter account w

he oversaw environmental policy at the department of defense. people -- you know, there are lots of ways to try to help people take the issue of yk climate change seriously. but what would you tell people to think about? >> i think it is important to recognize that the military is recognizing the threat from climate change for a very long timing. and i think that that in and of itself is a very compelling fact. when you have different voices talking about climate change pro and con, but when the military says this affects my mission, it has a very important impact and sometimes a more important impactenvironmentalist saying is this a big deal. when military voices are on capitol hill saying this will affect my bases, this will affect my training, my troops, this will affect where i'm going to have to fight in the future, that is a compelling message. >> specifically why and how. for those at home who don't know, why is it that it is going to cost your troops so much more? what are the contributing factors? >> so let's talk about a few different w

department of energy cold war era defense production and deep space energy site in his community known as mound laboratories. mayor church has worked to make the mound facility viable for businesses again, continuing the facility's legacy and southwest ohio's spirit of innovation. the mound business park is now home to 15 business that is conduct important research and development. the mound business parks development could not have come to fruition without dick church's crucial work. dick church has been a hands on mayor. in many communities almost everyone can say they know the mayor. in miamisburg, the mayor can say he practically knows everyone. congratulations, dick church, on an incredible career as mayor. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair now recognizes the gentleman from indiana, mr. pence, for five minutes. mr. pence: thank you, madam chair. i rise today in strong support for the army national guard's proposal to station a cyber battalion in indiana's sixth district. the indiana national guard's existing capabilities, programs, and infrastructures make the hoosi

the department of defense is briefing members of the armed services committee this very hour on the attacks of those saudi oil facilities. iran's foreign minister is threatening to the last morn if iran is attacked. oil holding steady. john roberts is here with all the latest. >> good afternoon to you. more on this in the days ahead. secretary of state mike pompeo will be back in washington d.c. tomorrow where he will brief the president on his talks with officials in both saudi arabia and abu-dhabi. mike pompeo saying he believes this was iran. no doubt he says on who is behind it. listen here. >> i think it's abundantly clear and enormous consensus that we know precisely who conducted these attacks. it was iran. i didn't hear anybody in the region that doubted that for a single moment. >> pompeo declared this to be an act of war and pointing the finger at iran. the president is yet to make that declaration. this morning a cnbc conference, mike pence said his national security team is going to meet tomorrow as part of a thorough, deliberative process. here's pence. >> the president has sai

one of the key aspects was a realization that we had not defined and clarified the role of the department and defense of the homeland. i think we all understand that the homeland has a role in defending it. as we begin that journey, we've articulated that and worked with interagency partners. so really the use case that i want to put on the table just briefly is a thing we call path finders. in the defense of the homeland we have begun to partner with the department of homeland security and the requisite critical segment owners. the first one we started on was the financial sector so we have a financial path finder. as part of that what we do is work with dhs, the different isacs as well as fs arc which is a industry representation of the key banking industry, the financial sector representatives. we've begun an information-sharing process associated with u.s. cyber command and some of the intelligence community representatives in being able to share sgi indicators of compromise and systemic risk. we also have a path finder associated with the electric sector, the energy sector, really focused on the

. >> it's an honor to represent the men and women of the department of defense and we're grateful forces our people are making. >> you stood out, mr. secretary, because you spoke about the troops. you stood out from that whole group of people that were praising the great leader. what was going through your mind that day? >> well, the defense department has been an apolitical organization. it ranks highest in the american's people's confidence as far as the institutions of government. institutions even beyond government. i think a large part of that is that we stay true to the constitution and the constitution has a way we elect a president. republican or democrat when they come in i wanted to represent this national treasure we have that we call the u.s. military that stays obedient to the civilian leadership and civilian control. it is a godsend to us to have this defending our experiment in democracy. so i wanted to just highlight that that day. that's why i came back into government when i was asked. and that's all i was representing that day. there was nothing deeper to it than wh

taxpayers $100,000 that is written in checks to the trump hotel from the fbi, secret service, department of defense and all of the agencies going down there. in the house we passed legislation to prevent departments from allowing the president to violate the domestic emoluments clause. the senate has not acted on it and it is part of that stack of 175 bills that we have sent over to the senate that is just sitting there on mitch mcconnell's desk along with prescription drug reform to lower prescription drug prices, begun safety legislation, universal background check, which is supported by more than 90% of the american people. they are not acting on that and also enforcing the basic constitutional guarantees that keep the president from turning the government into -- of the united states into a get rich scheme. host: ron, new hampshire, independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. question,sk my regarding your segment on amending the constitution, there is a crowd source constitutional amendment called the uniting amendment, and it incorporates almost all of those suggestions that your caller

first i know that the department of defense is claiming that there's no policy against it, but we believe actually against the constitution, so they should align their policy to the constitution. but at the same time, you know, just to relieve the american taxpayers' mind to build faith that they understand that they're not doing anything to line their own pockets at the expense of taxpayers, this -- donald jr. and the trump organization should return the money to the american people. >> if the pentagon doesn't do what you want and hand over these documents when you want them what's the next step? are you looking at like subpoenas here? >> i think subpoenas is an option and i think that's what we need to do to get those documents. i want to be very clear, we've seen this administration from the very beginning when i interviewed will burs ross, steven mnuchin, that they have a strategy. first is delay. delay any requests. say you're not going to turn over documents. then it's dodge the questions once they show up. and then if necessary, lie to the american people and to the committees. so