the sca, department of state, and the offices of the secretary of defense and policy. the military departments and our foreign partners are all critical to ensuring the success of our foreign military training programs. and we have been working hand in hand to update processes and policy guidance in response to the events in pensacola. in closing, i want to reiterate how invaluable foreign military training programs are to advancing our national security objectives. international military students are here as student visitors to learn skills and professions but, also, to learn about our people, our culture, and our values. and this cannot be overstated. the human relationships forged between our respected military members promote long-term defense and strategic relationships, increase our interoperability, and enable partners to contribute to our shared security objectives over the long-term. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. we will go ahead and start with our rounds of questions, and we'll get as many questions in as we can prior to breaking for the vote. s

the sta, the department of state, and the offices of the under secretary of defense for intelligence and policy, the military department in our foreign partners are all critical to ensuring the success of our foreign military training programs and we have been working hand update processes, and policy guidance in response to the events in pensacola. in closing, i want to reiterate how invaluable the military programs are to advancing our national security objectives. international military students are here as student visitors to learn skills and professions but also to learn about the people, our culture and our values. this cannot be overstated. the human relationships, with the respective to the military members, promote long-term relationships, increase our interoperability. and enable our long-term relationships. thank you very much. >> will start with our rounds of questions. and we'll get as many questions and is as we can. before breaking for the boat. i will go ahead and start with a couple of questions about acquisition of weapons in the united states. in mystery, thank you

mccarthy about the availability of department of defense expertise. the department of defense can step into a situation and very quickly convert hotels into hospital type arrangements. they can take closed hospitals and put them up and running in a very quick order. i think that expertise is desperately needed. i've encouraged the secretary of the army and the secretary of defense to make that expertise available. we're connecting up right now between our state and the experts at the department of defense. these are men and women who do this and are prepared to do it at a moment's notice if our military men and women are in peril. i would say at this point america is in danger because of this and we should turn to their responses and help as quickly as possible. mr. president, i want to say one thing about a statement made earlier today by both senator schumer and by senator mcconnell. we have before us an opportunity and i hope we seize it to show that we can continue the bipartisanship that leads us to this moment. the first two bills that addressed

first the department of defense will make available up to five million n95 respirator masks and other equipment from our own strategic reserves to the department of health and human services for distribution. the first one million masks will be made available immediately. next we are prepared to distribute to h.h.s. up to 2,000 deployable ventilators for use as needed. these machines are different if the civilian equivalents and require special training to operate but we are committed to supporting h.r. s.'s requirements in any way we can. third the department has made our 14 certified coronavirus testing labs available to test nond.o.d. personnel as well and we will soon offer additional labs for that purpose. we hope this will provide excess capacity to the civilian population. finally, we are considering activated national guard and reserve units to assist states with planning, logistics and medical support as needed. in my conversations with governors and members of congress about d.o.d.'s resources, i have made it clear we will continue to support the administration's comprehensi

as the nation aggressively response to the coronavirus the department of defense is focused on three priorities. first, protecting our service members, civilians, and their families. we are committed to taking all necessary measures to safeguard the well-being of our most important resource, or people. second, remaining prepared to carry out our core national security mission and to defend the united states against any threat. and third, continuing to support president trump's whole of government response to the coronavirus. for several weeks, the department of defense has been searching personnel, capabilities, and equipment to help slow the spread of the virus. thousands of national guard troops are mobilized across the country, conducting a variety of essential tasks ranging from planning to logistics to medical support. are moving units critical supplies and equipment and medical personnel to some of the most heavily impacted areas. the department world-class doctors and scientists are at the forefront of infectious disease research, working alongside our government and private se

for several weeks, the department of defense has been -- to help slow the spread of the virus.housands of national guard troops are mobilized across the country conducting a variety of essential tasks ranging from planning to logistics to medical support. active-duty units are moving critical supplies and equipment and medical personnel to some of the nation's most heavily impacted areas. the departments world-class doctors and scientists are at the forefront of infectious disease research working alongside our government and private sector efforts to accelerate a vaccine and therapeutics for this virus. and now, in this great time of need, the president has directed the deployment our nation's most powerful symbols of medical care and compassion, the navy's two hospital ships, the mercy and the comfort. both ships have tremendous history of humanitarian assistance and have provided care for people throughout the world. this exceptional legacy continues as they now take care of their fellow americans. the skilled medical professionals who will set sail in the comfort will play

of defense, dr. mark esper, the chairman of the joint of the joint chiefs of staff, general milley, to hear about the president's fy21 budget proposal for the department of defense. i will start with some good news -- well, first of all, i will start with thinking our witnesses for being here and thanking them for their service to our country. further service to the country. both served their country in various capacities for a long time, not an easy thing to do. i appreciate that and look forward to continuing to work with you. unlike last year, we have a budget agreement, and last year we spend a lot of time talking about how difficult it is to run while anything in the government but certainly the department of defense without appropriations bills in a timely manner. last year we were off by 3.5 months, something like that that's better than drifting into the next year. we did get appropriation bills done by december of last year which gives some predictability to the department i think that is enormously important. this year we hope to come a little closer to october 1 certainly on the authorizing bill that also the appropriation bill but most imp

in looking at the needs, potential needs of the department of defense in the event of a national security emergency, we agreed with the department that the selective service system should remain in place. we looked at the russian as to whether or not women should be required to register. if you think about the population demographic today, where over 50% of the united states are females, we know by standards, equal amounts of men and women qualified by current standards for the military service, roughly around 29% of the population, that if we ever found ourselves in a position where we needed to go to a draft, we should be able to call upon all americans to defend this country as a civic responsibility. we know there are certain skill sets that will be required, that perhaps females are better suited to fill. when we look at maintaining standards in a draft, and when we look at making sure we have enough individuals with required skill sets necessary to enter the call, we felt it would be unwise to continue to limit the draft or selective service registration system only to males between

nebraska -- plus we had four members from the executive branch, dni, fbi and homeland and department of defense and we had six people from the private sector. are we ready? i think so. if i'm on armed services and intelligence, i can't tell you how many hearings i've been to where this is being raised. the likelihood is the next pearl harbor will be cyber, that's how serious it is. >> bret: there will be some dealing with covid-19, for all the people who look at washington and say nothing can get done in a bipartisan way, does it seem like that? >> i think the commission's work is evidence of that, this isn't a partisan discussion, everyone came together to figure out what are the best ideas but secondly, within the broader reorientation of u.s. foreign policy in the last three years, the trump

i imagine you guys are such.ered the last bullet point at the bottom, number 14, department of defense contractors. i'm not going to mention which company i work for, for security reasons, but i actually wound up being under one of those categories of working for the inartment of defense manufacturing, working for a company that produces military equipment. the militaryart of industrial. it's ironic to me in a sense, i go into work every day and i even come off work just now, taking overtime hours, keeping of production. it's kind of ironic that the department of defense contractors are still going into work producing military equipment for who knows what we will use it for in the future, but we keep in touch, myself and .ther employees core veterans we keep in touch with colleagues who are still serving in the u.s. armed forces and because of everything going on there, like in the navy and army and such, they are all getting, contracting the virus in stuff, shutting down. they are not really running missions or doing anything along those lines. the actual armed forces is shutdown by t

the way the department of defense is built, it doesn't do any mission around the world without using the reserve component. toon't think there are plans retreat missions that have been mobilized. we will be part of those deployments going forward. are there any guard overseas that have tested positive? are you concerned they are getting tested enough and they are being turned around fast enough? the think they are part of army and air force and if they need testing, they are getting testing. i'm not aware of any member that has tested positive. if there is, they will be treated like any other soldier. general, just a follow-up, are there tests for national guardsmen overseas? tests?have >> the national guard? >> wherever they are located, are people getting tested? do we not know they have it because they have not been tested? >> the military apparatus has some testing. is in place for any military member that might need to test. >> i am trying to understand the downside of mobilizing the national guard with the federal order. if you could explain that for the audience more clearly. w

general milley: there's quite a few questions in there the defense of defense -- the department of defense has put out a stop move through the middle of may. what does that mean? all p.c.s. moves, all unit moves, all moves are stopped unless a waiver is granted, an exception is granted and it has to fall under one of three categories. one, mission essential. second, some humanitarian reason. third sun due duress or hardship on a particular family or soldier or service member. who makes that decision? secretary has delegated that to the combatant commanders. the service secretaries. and the defense agency head. -- heads. and they are in further authorized to delegate that decision to the lowest level one star or s.c.s. equivalent in their chain as they see fit that person, one star, two star three, star, or four star can determine if it meets those cry tieria. if it's normal p.c.s., doesn't fall in one of these, you'll be on freeze, on hold, completely for about 60 days and then we'll re-evaluate. if there's a 90-day curve and things seem to be getting better we'll prioritize those in the q

yes, we do all kinds of planning in the department of defense. we take inventory of all our resources, storks, what we have -- stocks, what we have to be done. short answer, yes. with respect to the vaccine, yes, the military labs are in fact working, you know, very consistently. not only on that vaccine but all kinds of things. the military labs have capability to do that and working with health and human services. your last point, barbara, taking care of soldiers and families. it's one of the top priorities of secretary as defense. it's one of the top priorities of all of us in uniform. it's one of our solemn responsibilities to take care of our soldiers and families and we intend to do that. we'll provide whatever assistance is needed including time off, if they are working with civilian employers, to include supplemental help if they lack supplies in the home. if they get infected and have to be at home for, say, two, three weeks, something like that. yes, we'll work with our families and troops. reporter: how many u.s. personnel have been tes

away how would you characterize the typical sex offender well if i look at our data from the department of defense it's young people that are ages 18 to 2425 when you say that most of them are serial rapists. i don't have data one way or the other to determine that what percentage of the rapes you think are caused by serial predator. i don't i don't have any numbers i don't know how to i don't think we collect that type of data there's been studies done 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 when prevention includes focusing on the perpetrators. i notice that dr kay whitley is not in her chair is it under your direction that she is. not shown for testimony this morning. you have an executive privilege to do a search. 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 rest

we consider the details of the budget request, i'd like to address some broader concerns i have with the department. the national defense strategy commission report released in november 2018 expressed significant concern about the balance of power between civilian and military leadership at the department of defense. specifically, it stated, civilian voices have been relatively muted at the center of u.s. defense and policy undermining the concept of civilian control. unfortunately, the situation has only gotten worse since the commission issues its report. the office of the secretary of defense is without senate confirmed leadership in many of the most important positions in the policy office of the seven positions requiring senate confirmation, there are only two confirmed individual, one of these is now serving as the acting under secretary. we just received a nomination for under secretary of personnel and readiness after two year vacancy. then on monday, the administration withdrew the nomination of elaine acosta to be department controller. these vacancies continue to challenge the ability to effectively respond t

sort of deferment from ever going to war but she fought this war in terms of the budget the department of defense takes 20 percent of the u.s. spend do you think it's just a jobs program or do we really need to occupy all these countries where our special forces are in 70 percent of all nations across the world what is this about war has become of very ambiguous project in our life time you know it has lately evolved to more like occupying certain countries in kind of a desperate attempt to stabilize problems that we've created i think we have to consider that a lot of it comes from the evolution of what the condition of the world was in 1905 after the 2nd world war our intentions were not always wholly bad and probably still are not wholly bad but they have become distorted and perverted and it certainly doesn't help that so much of our gross domestic product is now dedicated to the enterprise of the ambiguous warfare yes seems like the war is definitely the number one export for the u.s. but i would posit that trump is anti-war and this is one of the reasons why he's. being attacked by what's c

we are working with the department of defense, the coast guard, the apartment of homeland security, our colleagues at cdc -- the department of homeland security, as well as the department's in california to ensure we bring people home safely and as quickly as possible. vp pence: dr. birx? will be athis comprehensive brand -- plan, that like the diamond princess was a comp ransom approach to ensure the health and welfare of citizens. as dr. fauci discussed, we know many people on the cruise ship are in their 60's, 70's and 80's. we want to make sure, as we know that a similar bottle just a more vulnerable group, we want to pay special attention to anyone with comorbidities or other conditions. we are working with people on the ship and the medical team to make sure their health and welfare is prioritized. thank you. vp pence: good. with theephen hahn fda on abella velti of testing? -- on the availability of testing? >> thank you. this is a swab test, not a point-of-care test. it has been developed by the cdc faced on their first obtained the next sequence of the virus. that test is very

. >> sure, i think there are many things the department of defense is going to have to do. we're still ongoing with our deployments around the world. states are still planning, particularly in the gulf coast and for hurricanes that will come up along the side. we're dealing with this issue right now as the closest, nearest issue they have to deal with. but, if and when a hurricane were to come, the states will be prepared. emergency response network, fema, the whole apparatus will be ready to deal with that. >> what sort of planning are you doing already? if a hurricane comes, everyone has to evacuate. what about quarantine? >> that's a good question. right now, we are in the midst of dealing with this pandemic. every state plans to deal with evacuation procedures and policies. how are we getting people away from the coast? those plans are sitting there on the shelf. we may have to adapt how we do it, if there are quarantine people out there. hopefully by july and august, when the hurricanes hit, with the traditional size, perhaps it can be mitigated then. the we will have

now turning to the budget request before us, the year 2021 budget, the department of defense seeks $636.4 billion to the base budget and $69 billion to overseas contingency operations funds of which $16 billion is designated to pay for base requirements. in the base budgets request, they highlight resources targeted for a more lethal force that is prepared for a high end fight against competitors and to operational the national defense strategy. including investments in space and cyber demaendz, recapitalization of the nuclear deterrent and the largest ever research and development budget for artificial intelligence, direct energy and hyper sonic weapons. the base budget also supports the quality of live of our service members for sustaining initiatives and by authorizing a 3% pay raise. however, it is clear that base budget request will not cover all of the defense department's requirements. so once again, we have been presented with an overly generous use of the account. i acknowledge that both congress and other administrations have included elements of base funding in the accounts in

of defense who had news conferences to dy. wh they have to say? >> first the secretary of defense, mark esperlaid out how the department of defense can help. ions of masks to be given to health and human services. ventilators, as well. military testing labops will be ed up for civilian testing. governs, of course, beginning to ask the national guard for help. and the department of defense has been etty transparent judy, about how this virus has impacted them. 39 positives across the department, 500 tests. how they have been protecting service members, civilian, depends, there are severe travel restriions. if you areart of the department of defense, you cannot move essentially insi the united states beyond the base or your home. soal distancing inside the pentagon, even the secretary of defense and his deputy cannot see each other in the same room. as for the department of state, there's a handful of case, but we really don't know much beyond that. >> woodruff: so nick, we know the state department has been all this, including talking about propaganda. what are they saying in. >> so yamiche referred to this,r so let'sak this down. there has

>> we are fortunate in that we are part of the department of defense and from cybersecurity, we have the baseline of the department's cyber rules and standards to base implementation off of. we manage the cyber protections with the v.a.. to meet the d.o.d. standards and as far as the interoperability with external proirgs, we do that through the agreements in place. and we are engaged with agencies, and organizations to make sure we have influence -- [] ms. kirkpatrick: i appreciate your attention to it. anything i can do to help to solve that problem, feel free to call me. i yield back. mr. ruppersberger: thank you for being here and i appreciate your confidence and i want to get into the readiness program, smart. i know congressman would womack. and we must ensure that we continue to take care. our deputy staff of. [indiscernible] research and development and the air force has been there for many years and have a good relationship and we are focused on the navy and marines. >> duties of the smart program it is taking that combat medic and expounding and building upon what we have in

offer options going forward. >> give us some idea of the capacity that is out there within the department of defense. how many hospital beds? how many doctors? if it comes to that. >> we have 36 hospitals in the united states. from the standpoint of a domestic response, 36 hospitals within the united states. as many of you are aware, they are relatively small hospitals. they are not 1000 bed hospitals. they range in size. many of them are configured to support our immediate military needs. they take care of the active-duty population and their families and some retirees. we have some large facilities like here in the d.c. area, walter reed, that have more diverse services. we have smaller services in remote facilities like fort wainwright in alaska. it has a small hospital that offers basic community hospital services. unfortunately, the answer is it depends on the community and what the requirement was to support the operational force in the community that has determined the size of the hospitals that we have. >> -- publicly ask for the corps of engineers to construct facilities. what could the cor

and also with senator duckworth my colleague in illinois reaching out to the department of defense . i want to find out if we can start building yield hospitals in the parking lots of major hospitals across our state . we've done it before when we had to and particularly dealing with theevil that crisis . we need to do that here at home. the expertise of the army corps of engineers and other professionals at the pentagon are ready to move on a moments notice fto build a field hospital if needed for men and women in uniform. let's take that same willingness and expertise and translated into more debt capacity and roof capacity that the hospitals most in need. ulthe protective equipment across this country still is not at the level it should be. for the men and women in the military as well as those in civilian life. the proposal before us ignores the desperation we are hearing from cities and towns and states. without tax revenues coming in, they're running out of cashto keep operating services and meeting payroll. we need a certain federal funding through current programs with flex ab

defense department contractor who passed away this saturday after contracting coronavirus earlier this month. our thoughts go out to his family and friends as they mourn his tragic loss. over the weekend the department of defense continued to take aggressive action to surge personnel, capabilities, and equipment in support of trump's whole nation response to the covid-19 pandemic. on the frontlines of this fight are over 7,000 national guardsmen, operating across all 54 states, territories and the district of columbia who continue to assist state and local authorities in their response efforts. in new york, washington, and california, the president has approved mobilizing national guard troops under title 32 status, which provides them full access to federal resources, but still allows them to be managed by the state government. to be clear, this is not a move towards martial law as some have erroneously claimed. our great national guard troops are performing tasks, such as supporting drive-thru testing sites, conducting food delivery to protect vulnerable populations and helping states plan and coordinate their local responses. allowing states to maintain control over their national guard forces is th

he didn't mobilize department of defense. now, he finally is and they can add tremendous resources and be kind of a two-pronged attack here in serving americans. we say in my show all the time, look for the helpers. well, the helpers can come in the form of veterans and military at unprecedented level. they have scale and scope in terms of logistics in medical personnel that no agencies have in the government and in the world. and the secretary of defense has to be honest. and a couple weeks ago, he told congress he has everything he needs. then, in the recent bill, he asked for $16 billion. even now, he is saying we've got everything we need but then simultaneously, they issued an order today calling reserve folks who have been retired, over a thousand of them, to serve at the va. so there's been mixed messages but we want secretary wilke to succeed. we want him to be a lead element here but he's got to ask for that help. one way he did today. he asked for retired medical personnel who worked at the va. so i am going to echo

hotel that we have secured, where, if we need to move folks that have tested positive, the department of defense will not allow them to stay at travis air force base. we have to find a place for them to go to remain for the period of time in the quarantine. >> officials expect the carlos facility to be ready to take patients later today, other california passengers are being quarantined at travis air force base in miramar in san diego. there, they are being monitored closely by healthcare officials getting their temperatures taken twice a day and being screened for coronavirus symptoms. >> settings, lakeshore elementary school in san francisco will be closed for at least two weeks, it comes after for students and their family members have come down with a respiratory illness. they have not been tested for coronavirus, they are being asked to self pointing while they are getting tested. extra elementary is right next to the high school which was shut down last week. one parent says it is not enough. >> you know, it doesn't make sense to partially close some schools and leaves the mother open in i

for preparedness and response at the department of health and human services advised the fbi and the department of defense to write the legislation that set up the agency. he is the newest one of the four in terms of coming to the government that he has been ahead of the cancer center in in texas one of the most respected institutions in the world so those are the professionals that they heard this morning. what's happened at home here in the united states is we had slightly more than 100 cases detected and about half of those are americans wh were travelingd had to be brought home and were repatriated as we say and the other half detected here and unfortunatelyna we have had six deaths. fair to say that citizens in the united states are at low risk from infections from the coronavirus if you don't have to take my word for it. for the health education labor and pensions committee. or take the words of "the new york times" said a couple of days ago on its front page in the sunday newspaper in describing the situation in the days ago.tes two it's far from certain and affects many regions that one's. continu

details of the budget request, i would like to address some broader concerns i half of the department. the national defense strategy commission report released in november of 2018, expressing vacant wrist concerned about the balance of power between civilian and military leadership and the department of defense. the commission report stated, civilian voices have been relatively muted on issues at the center of the u.s. defines a national policy, undermining the concept of fleeting control. unfortunately, situations only gotten worse since the commission issued its report the offices of secretary of defense without getting conformation and it's most important positions, policy office of the seven positions required senate confirmation, there are only two confirmed individuals and one of these is now serving as the acting undersecretary. we have received a nomination for with sector personnel rated after a two year vacancy. on monday ministration withdrew the nomination of al ain moscow, the departments control. these vacancies continue to challenge the departments responsibility to respond to national secur