i spoke with gao yu's lawyer. he said there was little proof for her committing this crime, she is accused of handing this information over to an overseas website. the website denied they've received this from her. the evidence on the conviction- of gao yu herself. she confessed in jail being threatened. usually these confessions are not valid. we are not talking about the usual thing here. this may be enough to get her in jail for a long time. >> christine reporting from beijing. german foreign minister frank-walter steinmeier will mark the end of apartheid. >> he made the trip in spite of the diplomatic crises that forced him to cancel other visits. >> it is a visit that nearly didn't happen. crises in the middle east and ukraine have cap steinmeyer busy. germany's forign minister didn't want to cancel his trip in the year that south africa celebrates the 20th anniversary of the end of apartheid. >> in the past everything else was always more important than europe and germany's relations to africa. i think we ha

it's believed to be the one that gao you is accused of handing to a u.s.ion, and essentially it was an internal communist party document warning members, circulated very widely within the party, but warning members against the dangers of western values and freedoms, things like our constitutionalism, things like freedom of speech, free media, those sorts of things. it was seen to represent another tightening, if you like, of the policy towards, you know, political reform, those sorts of issues under china's new leader xi jinping, who came to power a couple of years ago, and since he came to power, we've seen this tightening. numbers of dissidents, academics, lawyers, journalists swept up, accused of crimes against the state. and critics say that gao you has fallen foul of the same thing, that basically she was involved in nothing more really than what anywhere else would be considered journalism. the development of sources, the discussion of internal party wranglings. pretty critical of the chinese leadership, but nothing worse than that. and yet for havin

now, gao as an agency is located in the legislative branch. we are sometimes referred to as the investigative arm of congress or the congressional watchdog. and so in that capacity we examine how federal taxpayer dollars are spent and we examine how government programs and initiatives and efforts operate. most of our work is done at the request of chairs or ranking members of committees of jurisdictions in congress, or our work can also be mandated by committee reports or public laws. our reports are available on our website, which is gao.gov. and many of our reports contain recommendations to agencies that we are reviewing on changes or improvements that they can make to their programs. on the border security and immigration work in particular we've covered a range of topics. on the border security side we've looked at issues like goals and metrics for assessing border security efforts. we've also done work looking at dhs's management and oversight of efforts to acquire and deploy surveillance technologies along the border. we've also done wo

. >> and the gao. >> and a summary of the results of the audit is found on page 55 of the annual financial report or 86 of your packet in it we rendered an unmodified, and we did not have weaknesses over the financial reporting to report. and this is a favorable out come. >> and we performed a compliance audit on the transportation authority, federal expenditures since the authority had more than 500,000 of federal expenditures during this past year, the u.s. department of transportation requires that we perform additional compliance tests work on the authority's management and control activities, and we also issued and did not have materialal weaknesses or any other findings over the compliance to report as well. >> >> the second report is the report to the finance committee and under the professional standards we are to provide, the oversight bodies with information on the following seven items as listed in the slight prepttation, and this is included in the report to the committee. as related to the aspects of the accounting practices the authority was required to implement the renewed

the gao found there are three dozen insurers available to consumers now there's three on average. when insurers have a monopoly, they can raise prices that is what is going on. >> the only monopoly this has enacted has been government. this was the whole objective wasn't to lower people's premiums. it was simply to get health care established as a right of this country and get government right in the middle of this. everyone knew the math was faulty. they knew the numbers didn't add up. they were cockamamie. they bought into the premise that health care is a right. neil: ithe ends justify the means. >> the millennials got smart. they're saying, no, we don't want anything to do with this. >> they've dialed down the people signing up. neil: it was from 13 million to nine. >> to just nine people. neil, what about the people who lost their insurance. 6 million last year who lost their insurance coverage from work or for whatever reason. when you net it out, what, 3 million we're talking about? or 5 million or nine, or whatever. neil: they're saying your premiums would be up a lot more

gao just two months ago said this web site is not secure today.ntolerable, and it was our responsibility to continue to try to find out something about it. bill: if it's not secure, people are still signing up, as you know, because the enrollment period is underway yet again. >> that's right. bill: you were trying to figure out ultimately, though, whether the white house knew that the healthcare.gov web site was so bad before it went public. did you get an answer? >> we did not. in fact, we asked mr. park over and over again. we tried to find out who was responsible, who was just hell bent on getting this web site operational on october the 1st, and we can't get those answers. bill: well, they're saying he was not involved, and i don't know where you go from here. >> well, he absolutely was involved -- bill: what's your next move? >> well, i'm leaving congress in january, so hopefully whoever -- in fact, i expect the committee will continue to look into this, try to get a full disclosure of what happened because it's our responsibility under the c

so it is gaoed to be here and we also do a little bit of a different structure for this meeting and so my colleagues will actually introduce ourselves and what we do during the day and who we are in the world. and then, without further adieu, i will ask my colleagues to start. commissioner wong? >> thank you. >> thank you, for coming out and so we ran a little bit late this evening, my name is victor wong and i have worked in public service and civil rights as an attorney for 22 years and time as a public defender and as a kiefl consecutively rights attorney and as a da prosecuting sexual assault and hate crimes and i am the deputy director of api legal out reach which is the largest provider of immigration legal services in the city and we mainly focus on immigration and domestic violence and human trafficking and elder abuse and as a non-profit that i spend my day job at, thanks. >> so my name is dejesus, and i am an attorney during the day and i have been on the commission for a number of years and i grew up in san francisco and in the vernal heights area. and i do have to say, in 1

colleagues, today i'm also calling for a hearing at gao on a report that was released yesterday by our chief economist, a report that analyzes the economic impacts of the central market tenderloin payroll tax exclusion zone which i was proud to walk on more than three years ago with mayor lee, supervisor kim, and many stakeholders. it's a detailed document that some of the key take aways show that the program has succeeded beyond our initial expectations. a few facts. payroll tax revenues grew at 648% for the area compared to an overall city growth of 47% during that same time period. the area $7.1 million more in payroll taxes he than it would have if the area had grown at the same rate as the rest of the city during that time period. the program caused 4.2 million in payroll taxes to be foregone, but because of the increase in the additional payroll tax it's a net benefit of $3 million. there was a 49% increase in the number of new businesses he established in the area in that four-year time period of 61 new businesses which is compared to the rest of the city's new business growth r

the gao do a study to figure out how the voter id laws affected voters. >> congressman, you have beenpaigning as we mentioned with wendy davis in some of the earlier polls a couple of days ago. she was down in the double-digits. we are not reporting early results today. but in your opinion from what you are seeing on the ground, do you think she can pull through? >> wendy has a fighting chance. she has been working hard and she is excited and a new base of voters in texas. we know, for example, by looking at the early vote that the voter pool is more diverse now and a lot of people have been inconsistent or nonvoters coming out to vote. i hope that that is more true than on election day. she has a fighting chance and has done a wonderful service for the state of texas. >> speaking of important and often overlooked, a lot of talk about the pivotal latino vote. 7.8 million people expected to vote in the election. latino voters around the country. democrats in a wide advantage among latino voters across the board. that does seem to be trending down. a new poll showing diminished since 20

it's been detailed before this committee, been detailed by gao reports, by the inspector general, and others. some of that record, as well as particular airline disappointments are detailed in my written testimony. i commend the testimony to you. so, the record begs a series of questions. that need to be asked and what an historic opportunity this reauthorization bill presents. does the united states have the best governance funding structure in place to deliver the most efficient, modern, air traffic control system? have the atc models used by other countries enhanced safety and efficiency, and if so, can the best attributes be applied in our system here without adversely impacting safety? if yes, would the adoption actually improve our system, which is a key question obviously, and if so, at what cost and to whom? asking these questions is not a criticism of the current faa leadership. they have been advancing the ball. however, it is simple my a need to ask and examine these questions given the checkered history of progress and frankly , the stakes for maintaining the status quo. a

are suffering from a real morale problem and he wants to give them bonuses like he does the irs and gao and everybody else. you know, maybe if he would let them enforce the law that they're there to enforce, they wouldn't have such a morale problem. let's talk about the voter i.d. laws. in those states where there is no photo i.d. required, will these illegals be able to vote? >> well, i think you've got a number of things. i think, first of all, can they vote? can they be working in elections, even if they don't ultimately come to the polls, are they walking door to door, are they doing things that the president might want them to do? >> i think all of those are big concerns, because anytime you say that we're not going to enforce a law on the book, that erodes that basic rule of law. and for the president to come down and use this argument he's used that basically, look, if you don't change the law, have a right to break the law, what's he going to do next? is he going to say, i want a third term? and if congress and the american people don't change the law, i'm going to declare marti

you verd what victor gao said from beijing, calling the report not credible. we spoke to someone from the tanzanian government who told us that is not credible, and they have bafed up security, laws and strengthened the security system. what is your response? >> well, i can understand that the report has made for uncomfortable reading for the tanzanian or chinese authorities. in response to the comment, it was in no way our intention to imply that the chinese premier was involved for smuggling ivory out of tanzania. but the case is there to highlight the ongoing evidence of the use of diplomatic bags to transport goods, illegal goods, out of the country. it's documented by us and others. in terms of the evidence that we have, we have been following the issue for over a decade now, and our recent investigations clearly have provided us with evidence that whilst the tanzanian government has made great steps to tackle the issue, they ramped up anti-poaching efforts, and there has been indications that the localized market has had an impact, but they are not tackl

gao reports every year on programs that should be eliminated or evaluated and make sure that we're investing taxpayer dollars on programs that actually work. so the work has the initial work done. we've got to take this up and get things done and base our decisions based on metrics, data and are these programs getting results for the american people. >> senator ayotte and senator warner, thank you so much. >> thanks, jake. >> turning to the other top story and the city of ferguson, missouri, anxiously awaiting the grand jury decision in the shooting death of michael brown. one activist who has been critical of police is now being asked by the governor to help bring the community together and prevent any violence, so how does this 20-year-old plan to do it? we'll talk to him next. for most people, earning cash back ends here, at the purchase. but there's a new card in town. introducing the citi® double cash card. it lets you earn cash back when you buy and again as you pay. that's cash back twice. it's cash back with a side of cash back. the citi double cash card. the only card that lets you

the closed door trial of gao you lasted just four hours. she's accused of passing on a communist party document that warns its members against western values. she denies the charges. the 70-year-old faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if she is found guilty. >>> britain's anti-european union uk independence party, ukip, has won its second seat in parliament. mark reckless was re-elected to his seat in southeast england after defecting from the governing conservative party. the result is a blow to prime minister david cameron, who's already promised a referendum on britain's eu membership if his party wins next year's general election. >>> stay with us here on "bbc world news." still to come, a world famous london landmark which some regard more highly than the politics conducted inside it. but are the houses of parliament falling down? you owned your car for four years. you named it brad. you loved brad. and then you totaled him. you two had been through everything together. two boyfriends. three jobs. you're like "nothing can rep

[inaudible] it's been detailed before this committee, detailed by gao report, by the inspector general and others. some of that record, disappointment are detailed in our test one and i commend that testimony to you. so the record makes a series of questions. does the united states have the best governance and funding structure in place to deliver the most efficient and modern air traffic control system? have the htc models used by other countries enhanced safety and efficiency, and if so can the best adjective to be applied here without adversely impacting safety? if yes, with the adoption actually improve our system which is a key question obviously. and if so, at what cost and who? asking this question is not a criticism of the current faa leadership. they have been advancing the ball. however, it is something i need to ask and examine these questions give the checkered history of progress and, frankly, the stakes are so but maintaining the status quo. a4a has an open mind on these questions. to that end we've engaged independent aviation expert to create a fact base and see if the

2018, toure, the defense department is expected to invest $83 billion in 459 aircrafts, according to a gao report. that's $180 million per jet but with the defense budget dwarfing other programs, and tons of other problems facing the nation, is this money being spent wisely. a new article in "government executive" magazine calling the five things you could buy for an f-35, lists other things we could do with that $180 million, like ending epidemics like ebola, state-of-the-art disaster relief systems. for more let's bring on patrick tucker, editor. thank you for being here. you write in this piece that the f-35 could potentially cost as much as $600 million apiece when you factor in maintenance and other costs. so, we're looking at tons of money here for this. what is the justification for spending all this money at a time like this? what does this particular fighter actually do? >> well, the main thing this fighter does is protect extremely well-funded defense contractors from going broke. other than that, it's less capable that many argue, than a bunch of systems we already have. it's no

i mean, that's, the language i just read to you are direct quotes from the gao. >> so, sir, i'm not an expert in this arena. i don't want to comment on -- >> you said repeatedly you were an adviser. as an adviser, do you advise people that the website is secure today? >> that's not the area where i really concentrated my advisory work. >> well, knowing what you know now, do you consider the website to be secure today? >> so based on my understanding, i would use it. i have my family -- >> no, i didn't ask you if you'd use it. it's easy for you to say yes. do you think the website is secure today? >> my understanding is -- >> would you advise the american people to use the website today? >> my understanding is that it is. >> despite all these reports saying it's not you still think it is? >> the best source of information about that is cms. >> they're obviously biased. they've got an in-house conflict of interest to say anything else. do you discount all these third-party entities, these credible organizations saying that it's insecure. do you disagree with them? >> sir, again, i would

well, they've read the pentagon audits and the gao reports and the "60 minute" exposes and so on. it's horrendously inflated. waste, fraud, abuse is only part of it. we're still building cost-overrun military weapons systems designed for the soviet union era of hostility. like, the f-22 should never be built. you could put it on this stage. that's how much $200 million of electronics cost, profit in overruns. why are we building more submarines, nuclear submarines? one trident submarine--nuclear warheads can destroy 200 cities. that's before it reloads. why are we building more aircraft carriers, $15 billion a carrier? we got 13. the next country to challenge us is italy, has two. [laughter] it's the military industrial complex that eisenhower warned us against. people don't like that. they'd rather have that money go where eisenhower wanted it to go in his famous "cross of iron" speech that you can look up on the internet--april 1953, when he said, "is this the way we want to live? we can wipe out the soviet union. they can wipe us out." and then he did what no other president di

. >> the gao reported that this would triple last year with disability from social security and 2300 veterans received payments for more than 100,000. and some of that is, i think, based on the law and so the law needs to be changed. and so i can tell you what we are doing is that we are working hard to improve our quality of our disability claim activity and generally we've been above 95% sometimes with 98% and we have a whole quality organization and make sure that we are doing our job right. this is one of the areas where it has helped us and we have more work to do. the other thing is the claim work and initially it was all done on paper. and you can do it more quickly and you can do it more accurately. so we are working with these veterans service organizations into what we call what they help us to and also we are doing them digitally. [inaudible question] >> the commerce minister acting legislation, trying to prod this to make greater use to help this. until let's talk about this straight up to help you guide and they say this and a lot of veterans say that it manages a cadre

. >> gao did a report earlier this said the same things you said about the long term situation. by reaching those deficit numbers but you saw the deficit problem. i'd and novia of commons on that so what do you say to that? >> to be nominated as secretary of treasury my old boss pete domenici was with the finance committee he knows the numbers very, very well and is very smart. i think he recites the company line. i say that with great respect for him. but i think he repeats the company line. no intelligent person can look at the probable path of our debt with 10 or 11,000 people per day retiring and going onto medicaid and that number increases to say we year on a sustainable path. . . >> they were right when we were saying that. we shouldn't have been worried about the trillion dollar deficit. but the problem is still the longtime deficit in the same folks are bragging about this. so the long-term has been a similar unsustainable directory and that was before. >> i would just add that a lot of the reason this comes down to because the economy has been recovering, which is a po

. >> that is what i was wondering and you also said the ei gao extractable? >> it's an international initiative that transparency initiative. the u.s. is participating. the interior department and the u.s. has the lead on it and it's basically you know to enhance accountability in terms of this important sector and the revenues. >> that's going to be important. you say also and i don't remember if you said africa or a particular country was at a crossroads. they had expensive renewable resources and emerging oil and gas market, i guess resources. quantify that for us percentagewise. 50/50, 60/40? >> well i think clearly there are a dozen or more countries where oil and gas is developing. some are more developed in angola and nigeria. others where exploration is just beginning in the early stages. i think it's a little bit too early to say exactly what that mix will be. you certainly have countries like tanzania and mozambique where you you have in a sense worldscale gas resources that are being developed and that will then open up lots a lot of opportunities

including gao, a social security, congressional research service he has not touched cbo but the riseed economist could you get this conversation launched with in the commonwealth and inequality and what we know has been going on in these areas over the past generation? >> i want touse step back a little bit talk about inequality talk about economic opportunities or outcomes. it is easier to talk about outcomes because they're easier to measure. that is the discussion about consumption or income or wealth inequality. in a word however you measure inequality looking at it, the floor or after transfers and taxes, the trend over the last three decades has been upwards of wealth and consumption and equality over the past 35 years. the interesting thing most of the action has been at the top of the wealth or income distribution. it is the top 1 percent and it does have some implications why in kind inequality is important it is competion for civic and gauge read. >> now we will pass the microphone all the way down. and from the human resources administration and to what happened in new yor

. >> gao did a report earlier in september and said very much the same things that you did warning about the long-term situation that the administration released the pre-deficit numbers. the treasury secretary and omb director shaun donovan said we solve the deficit problem. as you pointed out the debt is still a significant issue. i don't know if you have a comment on that but i have a follow-up question. what do you say to the paul krugman's of the world that's a problem solved and we can move on now? >> he is a friend of mine. when he was nominated to be secretary of treasury pete domenici my old boss was the person who introduced him to the finance committee. he knows numbers very well and he is very smart. i think he is reciting the company line. i say that with great respect to him but i think he is repeating the company line. no intelligent person can look at the probable path of our debt with 10 to 11,000 people a day retiring and going on to medicare and that number increasing and say we are on a sustainable path. >> i agree it's a situation where the numbers and effects are mos

it's been detailed before this committee, been detailed by gao reports, by the inare inspector general and others. some of that record, as well as airline dive appoint are detailed in my written testimony. so, the record begs a series of questions. that need to be asked and what an historic opportunity this reauthorization bill presents. does he united states have the best governance funding structure in place to deliver the most efficient, modern, air traffic control system? have the atc models used by other countries enhance safety and efficiency, and if so, can the best attributes be applied in our system here without adversely impacting safety. if yes, would the adoption actually improve our system, which is a key question obviously, and if so, at what cost and to whom? asking these questions is not a criticism of the current faa leadership. they have been advancing the ball. however, it is simple my a need to ask and examine these questions given the checkered history of progress and frankly the stakes for maintaining the status quo. a4a has an open mind on these questions to that

the gao reported 60,000 veterans were trim dinners, drawing military retirement pay, plus disable prom -- from the veterans and disability from the social security. average payment, 59 grand. 2300 veterans receive payments of more than 100,000. is that something that needs to be fixed or is that good? >> well, some of that is, i think, based in the law so the law needs to be changed. ... this is one of the areas were lean six sigma has helped us. we have more work to do. the other thing that has helped assisted digitization of the claim work. initially it was all done on paper. today over 90% of it is done digitally and what we find is when you do it digitally you can do it more quickly and you can do it more accurately. so we are working with the veterans service organizations to turn more and more of the claims and to what we call fully developed claims meaning the veterans service organizations us create a thorough file but then also we are doing it digitally. >> kevin diaz from houston. >> sir congressman from texas is drafting legislation. congressman john conyers is drafting legi

you've touched on the $6 billion investment that the gao reported, but there's little confidence amongthe stakeholders in faa's ability to implement nextgen. where is that disconnect, and what return on investment is the taxpayer seeing from this process? mr. calio, if you could just expand more on what you've already talked about on that issue, i'd appreciate it. >> thank you. congressman davis, there are -- as captain moak pointed out, there are benefits that are already being realized. in certain areas we've put in procedures where planes can get in quicker and take off faster. more clearly needs to be done though. the return on investment will come, i think, when the -- or we think when the procedures or the business processes captain moak has referenced and governor engler addressed are put in place. our problem is the system currently as it's structured and operated does not have -- the question came from i can't remember which member, if you were making a capital expenditure as a business, you would look at your return on investment, your return on capital, you would have your p

you touched on the edges of the five to six billion dollar nextgen investment that the gao reported but there's little confidence, i think we have seen and heard through testimony, among the stakeholder in faa's ability to implement nextgen. where is the disconnect and what return on investment is the taxpayer seeing from this process, and mr. calio, if you can expand a little bit more on what you have already talked about on that issue, i'd appreciate it. >> thank you. congressman davis, there are, as captain moak point i ode, there are benefits already been realize ned certain areas. we have put in place procedures where planessening get in quicker and take off faster. more clearly needs to be done, though. the return on investment will come, i think, when the -- we think when the procedures -- the business processes that captain moak referenced and governor engler addressed are put in place. our problem is the system currently as it's structured and operated does not have -- if you we -- the question came from -- i can't remember which member -- if you were making a capital expenditu