not knowingad -- anything about this panel, last month i was with sam and jack reed on another issue. basically reminiscing at some length. day he feels that it was the hardest thing that he ever had to do in the senate. timed known tower a long as all the senators had. he worked with him on armed services for many years. wast of this investigation done extremely confidentially and very little details of what was found was ever made public. sam nunn of being the latter-day version of joe wise thing toot a say. prudent thing to say. of course, bush was going to be depending on people like sam nunn as an essential partner in anything he was going to try to get done for the next four years, including handling the confirmation of the person nominated to take the place of tower. here, people noticed and 89. this is dan quayle making his political debut in a big way. he had been very mild-mannered and here he is, making his debut -- 1989 in a hitman role that people used to associate with spiro agnew. it was not an attractive role for him and not an attractive role for bush to have quayle p

and jack reed, senator reed's comment that was just referred to, i'd like you to speak to the level ofoncern that you hear along our elected officials who realize that norms broken, standards lowered is really universal now across government. >> well, there are two parts that you talk to democrats, they really are worried that what president trump presents is really a question about how our democracy functions in general. whether or not the institution that people have held up, i'm talking about the dojr t, are t department of justice, whether they will continue to work in the nation's best interest or whether or not a president can come in and put in an attorney general that's been personally loyal to him, as democrats have argued that attorney general barr is to president trump, whether or not that with an agenda president trump has that he can test those norms and break those norms and get away with it. republicans when i talk to them off the record are also people who have been -- a lot of people will back the idea of rule of law who have shied away from the idea of abusing power b

joining us now, senator jack reed of rhode island, the top democrat on the senate armed services committeesenator thanks so much for joining us. you oversee the department of defense. as you've just heard the deputy assistant of defense testified that she learned in late august that money appropriated by congress would likely flow if -- if the ukrainians committed to investigations that president trump wanted, political investigations involving the bidens so how concerning is that? >> it is terribly concerning. the aid that we voted for on a bipartisan basis in the house and senate and signed by the president was designed to aid an ally in direct confrontation with russia and they invaded ukraine and they are fighting through proxies and trying to destabilize the ukraine government. this aid was essential and not just essential for the ukrainians, essential to maintain the integrity of our position in europe, along with our nato allies. so to use this as a -- attempt to extort or somehow shake down a foreign government is outrageous. if that is the case. we have to establish that. >> and s

however the late senator john mccain and late senator jack reed saw an opportunity to do a lot more with the commission than just answer that single question. so they expanded the scope of the commission's mandate, to look at how can we actually encourage more americans to participate across all service lines. whether it be in uniform in the military, whether it be in a national service program, which we also include local communities, similar programs, or in public service, which is finding a job in state, local, federal, or travel government, or running for elected office. there are 11 bipartisan members, appointed by leadership from congress. i am blessed to have a very incredible group of thought leaders, across the service spectrum. representing diverse ideas. and we have worked over the last two years, in listening to the american public, about their views on service. as bell mentioned our goal is to issue a final report in march of 2020 with recommendations back to congress. the american public, and the president. about how we can actually encourage more americans to serve. i also

lives, those were released on a briefing on capitol hill and that briefing was hosted by senator jack reedhe's the ranking democrat on the senate armed services committee. and he's a senator from rhode island. so we have a good relationship with him and he invited us to do that briefing. it's the third time, the third year we've done that. and so that's an important venue for us because that really enables us to communicate our work in a way that gives it a lot of credibility and legitimacy in congress, the senate armed services committee submits that as an official part of the congressional record. so, yes, there are definitely people at the highest levels of government who are aware of the work that we're doing. host: pittsburgh, pennsylvania, independent line. caller: hi. i just wanted to give a shoutout on the cost of war for children and communities here in america. that war and health study sounds interesting. there are so many kids here in america who live around ammunition plants. many of them in appalachia. and one of the plants was designated superfund in the 1990's, then it was

thanks in large part to the hard work and the leadership of chairman jim inhofe and ranking member jack reed, the members of the senate armed services committee, the senate has passed an overwhelmingly bipartisan version of this year's national defense authorization act. the house of representatives, however, passed a very different bill. the conference process is ultimately about finding the best solution that supports our men and women in uniform, but we have to be willing to compromise and find consensus. we cannot resort to political brinksmanship. as the chairman said last week and some of my colleagues have mentioned here today, we are running out of time. it is essential that our colleagues in the house come to the table to pass the f.y. 20 ndaa. we live in a rapidly changing world and unfortunately one that contains a growing number of threats and challenges that our military must face head-on. these threats demand that we be ready and our military can only effectively confront those threats if we provide our service members with the support they need to execute the missions, defeat

jack reed is my counterpart over there. he's the ranking member in the senate armed services committee, and we worked hand in glove throughout this process and even set records. we did our job, and it's got to be completed in the house. this happened in line with the best traditions of the senate armed services committee, a tradition that spans almost six decades. usually this is a bipartisan bill. both sides give and take. so it concerns me to see partisan politics being inserted into this must-pass bill when we go to conference between the house and senate. it concerns me to see democrats filibustering defense appropriations to prove a political point. it concerns me to see them prioritizing their misguided attempts to undo the results of the 2016 election through impeachment instead of taking care of our troops and with the ndaa. if we can't keep defense authorizations free, the partisan gridlock, what kind of a message does that send americans who rely on our troops for protection? our allies, they're out there too. the