will reconvene and recognize senator heinrich. >> thank you, chairman and welcome back, dr. carter. . it's certainly been a pleasure to work with you and i just want to say it's really refreshing to work with someone who worked this this potential position who has your technical background and your ability to work with people across the services and with congress. you seem to balance those things remarkably well speaking as an engineer who struggles with that myself sometimes. if i remember right, you served as a staff director on the strategic posture of the u.s. that released its report back in 2009, when i was sitting on the house arms services committee. and i think that report made some very important strategic recommendations. in particular, i thought the idea that livermore should be designated as national security rather than nuclear weapons laboratories was a very important recognition of how the threat environment that we face in the world today has changed. in addition one of the things the commission recommended was that the president issue an executive order for

i want to thank senator heinrich as the prime democrat lead on this. again, my hope is that we're able to build this coalition here on the floor get even beyond the number 46, which was what we had last go round with this legislation. i think we're going to have good discussion within the committee and here on the senate floor. but my hope, mr. president, is that the third time is going to be the charm for this sportsmen's legislation. it's important to us. it's important to our economy. and it's something that i'm certainly willing to take to the mat. with that, i would yield to my friend from idaho. mr. heinrich: thank you mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from idaho. mr. heinrich: thank you mr. president -- mr. risch: i rise in support of the sportsmen's act of 2015. i'm honored to be here with senator murkowski. idahoans and alaskans have a lot in common when it comes to sporting activities. senator crapo and i were honored to host senator murkowski. we don't have the acres but have the diverse environment for hunting and fishing in

the next questioners will be senator heinrich and senator fischer and senator shaheen. [indistinct conversations] >>> the >> welcome back. it has been a pleasure to work with you. i want to say it is refreshing to work with someone in this potential position who has both your technical background and your ability to work with people across the services and with congress. bility to work with people across the services and with congress. you seem to balance those things remarkably well speaking as an engineer who struggles with that myself sometimes. if i remember right, you served as a staff director on the strategic posture of the u.s. that released its report back in 2009, when i was sitting on the house arms services committee. and i think that report made some very important strategic recommendations. in particular, i thought the idea that livermore should be designated as national security rather than nuclear weapons laboratories was a very important recognition of how the threat environment that we face in the world today has changed. in addition one of the things

will reconvene and recognize senator heinrich. >> thank you, chairman and welcome back, dr. carter. . it's certainly been a pleasure to work with you and i just want to say it's really refreshing to work with someone who worked this this potential position who has your technical background and your ability to work with people across the services and with congress. you seem to balance those things remarkably well speaking as an engineer who struggles with that myself sometimes. if i remember right, you served as a staff director on the strategic posture of the u.s. that released its report back in 2009, when i was sitting on the house arms services committee. and i think that report made some very important strategic recommendations. in particular, i thought the idea that livermore should be designated as national security rather than nuclear weapons laboratories was a very important recognition of how the threat environment that we face in the world today has changed. in addition one of the things the commission recommended was that the president issue an executive order for

15 minutes and then after that the next questioners would be senator heinrich and senator fischer and senator shaheen would be in line for the next questioners after a 15-minute break. committee will stand in recess for 15 minutes. after senator sullivan is finished with his question. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and dr. carter, i want to thank you for your service and your family, your wife and kids. i know how much they go through in these hearings. sometimes it's tougher on them than it is the nominees. i want to to start with just a little history and geography. 1935 general mitchell often referred to as the father of the air force was testifying in front of congress. he said quote, i believe in the future whoever holds this place will hold the world. it is the most important strategic place in the world. it is the most central place in the world for aircraft and that is true either of europe, asia or north america. you know what place general mitchell was referring to in his testimony in 1935? >> i think, senator it was alaska. >> correct it was alaska. do you agree with general m

it was all that at of hitler and heinrich himmler had wanted."ltimately about 14,000 jews were killed in the liquidation of the warsaw ghetto. the rest -- the rest were exterminated under conditions we already described. we are trying to sort of cover the actions in different theaters of the war, and sometimes they occur in parallel, but you have to keep in mind the liquidation of the warsaw ghetto is carried on at the same time the germans are incurring terrible losses in their fight against the soviets on the eastern front. and yet they believe it is worth their time to pursue the liquidation of the jews of europe. they believe it is worth their time. they believe it is worth their resources. resources are diverted even though they are deploying valuable workers. again, that is all powerful the rhetoric of total war is. but having been apprised of what was going on, having been armed with the rhetoric of retribution, the british are more than willing to explain they are coming to set these matters right. in the spring of 1943 -- we know in janu

when i first walked in senator heinrich was talking about lithuania. their concern was that all of our attention seemed to be in that part of the world concentrated on i crane. it's true. we've never had -- i happened to be there when they had their election for the first time in 96 years. they don't have a communist in their government in the ukraine. we have that problem at the same time as the others you're addressing. what do you think about our european strength as it is right now? are we adequate? are we becoming inadequate? >> i think that our strength in europe is our alliance with nato and the political solidarity that that represents, which is very important when it comes to the baltic states. and also the response in ukraine, which while not a nato nation is certainly a european nation. and european unity is a part of that. one of our strengths is that. another strength of course is our military strength. and there i understand that we are adding forces, rotational force to the baltic states as a presence there as a deterrent to any russian

thank you. >> thank you. >> senator heinrich. >> thank you chairman. dr. carter you've spoken quite effectively about the need to address runaway costs needless overhead, waste at the dod. i want to touch on the fiscal impact of operating the guantanamo detention facility. maintaining the prison at guantanamo has cost the american taxpayers almost $5 billion since it opened in 2002. an average of $493 million for the last five years. in fact, in 2014 we spent more than $3 million per guantanamo detainee. that compares to about $78,000 per prisoner per year we use to house hardened criminals in the florence colorado super max prison. do you intend to review the cost effectiveness of continuing to operate the facility at guantanamo versus placing high-risk detainees that need to continue to be detained in a more fiscally responsible setting? >> senator, i understand the cost numbers you're citing. they broadly correspond to what i understand. i think the issue that guantanamo will ultimately boil down to is what do you do with the people at guantanamo that c

office we talked about having just returned from ukraine and also when i first walked in senator heinrich was talking about lithuania and that area. their concern was all of our attention seemed to be in that part of the world concentrated on ukraine. it's true, we have never had -- i happen to be there when they had their election for the first time in 96 years they don't have a communist in their parliament in ukraine. so we have that problem at the same time as the others you're addressing. what do you think about our european strength as it is right now? are we adequate? are we becoming inadequate? >> i think that our strength in europe is our alliance with nato and the political solidarity that that represents, which is very important when it comes to the baltic states and also the response in ukraine, which while not a nato nation is certainly a european nation and european unity is an important part of that. so one of our strengths is that. another strength is our military strength. and there i understand that we are adding forces rotational forces to the baltic states as a presenc

there is some misunderstanding and again i appreciate the leadership senator barrasso and senator heinrich abroad to this but this is the only permit that is needed. the lng export application is not the only federal permit to what of the federal permits are you aware of that projects like this are going to get and is set in addition to the local bishop local or state permits? >> like i said you have to run a outlet to get these things but it takes about two years before you even pre-file the site and all these kind of things. then you have to go through nepa studied by the government can take longer, can take less. you have all of the time you have to demand basically everything agency check the box and make sure everything is comply with environmental laws economic interests that is part of the nepa process. you do examine the economic impact, and then you get a final decision. >> are the deadlines associated with those permits? >> on nepa actually not. there actually is none. you can actually it falls under the six-year civil statute of limitations. you can delay these things forever. t

heinrich: i would ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. heinrich: the department of homeland security funding runs out in 17 days. rather than working with democrats to pass a clean department of homeland security appropriations bill, many republicans are prioritizing politics over our national security. with threats emerging every day both at home and abroad casting doubt on future funding for the department of homeland security is a terrible idea. shutting down d.h.s. has real consequences especially in border states like new mexico. a d.h.s. shutdown would threaten public safety, it would hinder interstate commerce, hurt our comirks and jeopardize critical fuppedzing for state local and tribal government activities. some of my republican colleagues are willing to let these things happen because they have an immigration policy disagreement with the president. that, mr. president, is no way to govern, and i.t. not real leadership -- and it's not real leadership. as a border state, new mexico p

office we talked about having just returned from ukraine and also when i first walked in senator heinrich was talking about lithuania and that area. their concern was all of our attention seemed to be in that part of the world concentrated on ukraine. it's true, we have never had -- i happen to be there when they had their election for the first time in 96 years they don't have a communist in their parliament in ukraine. so we have that problem at the same time as the others you're addressing. what do you think about our european strength as it is right now? are we adequate? are we becoming inadequate? >> i think that our strength in europe is our alliance with nato and the political solidarity that that represents, which is very important when it comes to the baltic states and also the response in ukraine, which while not a nato nation is certainly a european nation and european unity is an important part of that. so one of our strengths is that. another strength is our military strength. and there i understand that we are adding forces rotational forces to the baltic states as a presenc

senator tom cotton, senator joni ernst, thom tillis, mike sullivan, mike rounds and senator martin heinrich. for the benefit of our new members and all, this committee has a long fashion of which we're proud. i've had the opportunity of working with senator reed for many years, despite his lack of quality education, he has done an outstanding job here as a ranking member of the committee and for those who are political trivia experts, my staff tells me it is the first time that we've had chairman ranking members from the two service -- oldest service academies and so i welcome the opportunity of working closely as i have for many years with the senator from rhode island. today the armed services committee considers global challenges to the national securities committee and today i'm here with general brent snowcroft and zbigniew brzezinski, each serving as advisors to the president of the united states, laying foundations for the u.s.-china relationship, confronting the ayatollahs in iran and moscow and the middle east have clear assailants today and we're thankful for you to allow us to dr

heinrich. mr. chairman. >> aye. >> 25 ayes, one no instruction. >> then the motion will be reported favorably of dr. carter's nomination to the senate to the floor of the senate and hopefully we can get a vote perhaps even as early as tomorrow. >> do you want to keep it open? >> we'll leave it opened for senator sullivan to make his wishes known for a while. i'm sure this committee meets today to receive testimony on our nation's defense budget and priorities from the bipartisan national defense panel. this group of former military leaders, members of congress and pentagon officials who served under republican and democratic presidents released their unanimous recommendations in a report on our nation's defense strategy last year. we have with us today two distinguished members of the national defense panel, eric adelman and michele flournoy each served under defense on policy and among experts on both sides of the aisle. we are grateful to you to appear before us today. also like to thank the pane

. >> i'm surprises balloons and confetti didn't drop from the sky. [ laughter ] >> senator heinrich. to thank all of you. lord knows what a difficult charge this was. and coming from a state with incredibly high rates of volunteerism. i want to say how much i appreciate the fact that you came to these recommendations unanimously. serving in this body right now we don't hear that word "unanimously" as often as we would like to. but i wanted to ask you if you could elaborate a little more for everyone here and certainly for this panel about the process you used in terms of gathering feedback from our service members, from their families at military installations and that v.s.o.s, veterans service sorgs organizations. that was one of the things i was concerned about but was quite impressed with the level of feedback as you move towards your recommendations. >> senator thank you so much for the question. we spend a lot of time traveling across the country meeting -- meeting at different military installations. we met with service members that is active service mek members, reserve compon

. >> i'm surprised balloons and confetti didn't drop from the sky. [ laughter ] >> senator heinrich. >> thank you chairman. i want to thank all of you. lord knows what a difficult challenge this was. and coming from a state with incredibly high rates of volunteerism. i want to say how much i appreciate the fact that you came to these recommendations unanimously. serving in this body right now we don't hear that word "unanimously" as often as we would like to. but i wanted to ask you if you could elaborate a little more for everyone here and certainly for this panel about the process you used in terms of gathering feedback from our service members, from their families, at military installations and that v.s.o.s, veterans service sorgs -- service organizations. that was one of the things i was concerned about but was quite impressed with the level of feedback as you move towards your recommendations. >> senator, thank you so much for the question. we spent a lot of time traveling across the country meeting -- meeting at different military installations. we met with service members that

heinrich. mr. chairman. >> aye. >> 25 ayes, one no instruction. >> then the motion will be reported favorably of dr. carter's nomination to the senate to the floor of the senate and hopefully we can get a vote perhaps even as early as tomorrow. >> do you want to keep it open? >> we'll leave it opened for senator sullivan to make his wishes known for a while. i'm sure this committee meets today to receive testimony on our nation's defense budget and priorities from the bipartisan national defense panel. this group of former military leaders, members of congress and pentagon officials who served under republican and democratic presidents released their unanimous recommendations in a report on our nation's defense strategy last year. we have with us today two distinguished members of the national defense panel, eric adelman and michele flournoy, each served under defense on policy and among experts on both sides of the aisle. we are grateful to you to appear before us today. also like to thank the pan