mckeon of california. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 590, the gentleman from california, mr. mckeon, and the gentleman from washington, mr. smith, each will control 10 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: madam chair, i urge the committee to adopt the amendments en bloc. all of which have been examined by both the majority and the minority and i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from california reserves. the gentleman from washington is recognized. mr. smith: thank you, madam chair. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: i agree with the chairman that we should adopt the en bloc amendments. i did want to take a moment here. we don't have any speakers on this, to make a couple of comments about some rules committee decisions that i have not had a chance to speak about before. overall, again, i applaud the product that we have created here in a bipartisan way, and i thank the chairman fo

mckeon: mr. chairman, at this time i yield two minutes to the gentleman from florida for the purpose of a colloquy. the chair: the gentleman from florida is recognized for two minutes. >> thank you so much, mr. chairman. i want to thank you, chairman mckeon, ranking member smith, and the armed services committee staff for your fine efforts in bringing this important measure to the floor for our military. i also want to take a moment to -- and this opportunity to highlight the importance of modeling and simulation and the role it plays in maintaining our military readiness while being of course most cost effective. mr. mica: last year in fact in the defense authorization act we put in language, report language, that highlighted modeling and simulation as a cost effective tool in maintaining a high level of readiness for our military. in response our armed services have followed suit in utilizing modeling and simulation effectively and continue to do so in current and future programs. while that re

mckeon: mr. chairman, i yield three minutes to my friend and colleague, the vice chairman of the armed services committee, and the chairman of the intelligence emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee, the gentleman from texas, mr. fortenberry. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. fortenberry: i thank the chairman for yielding and, had mr. speaker, i want to -- mr. chairman, i want to start by commending the leadership of chairman mckeon and ranking member smith and getting this bill to the floor in such a timely way. especially after the president's budget was quite late. but also in getting this bill here on a unanimous vote of the committee. none of us agree with every provision that's in this bill, but members of the committee were able to put aside personal preferences on individual issues to support a bill that benefits the nation overall. and i hope that the house will do likewise. and i think it is important to emphasize that it has been a bipartisan effort with the chairman

chairman buck mckeon of the armed services committee. chairman ed royce and the foreign affairs committee. and chairman mike rogers and the intelligence committee for their excellent work that has advanced this issue and brought up new facts without their dill -- new facts. without their diligent work, we would not be where we are today. but mr. speaker, that work was thwarted and by this administration not proactively in an open and i believe transparent way addressing the issue equally themselves, they have placed us where we are today. it comes as a result of their -- of -- of their being an unwilling partner. it comes as a result of many, turns, the administration has put up roadblocks to the congressional incarery -- inquiry. whether it's not meeting with congress, delaying the delivery of important document, heavily redacting critical information and retroactively classifying previously unclassified files, this administration earned exactly the title that has been placed on them today. uncooperative. mr. speaker, this will not be t

mckeon. >> no. >> mr. mckeon votes no. >> mr. smith? mr. smith votes aye. >> mr. thornberry votes no. miss sanchez votes aye. mr. jones. mr. mcintyre. aye. mr. forbes, mr. forbes votes no. mr. brady? mr. brady votes aye. mr. miller? mr. miller votes no. mrs. davis? mrs. davis votes aye. mr. wilson? mr. wilson notes month. mr. langvin votes aye. mr. rubio votes aye. mr. larson. mr. larson. mr. bishop. mr. bishop votes no. mr. cooper. mr. cooper votes aye. mr. turner. mr. turner votes no. burd dia. mr. kleiny mr. klein votes no. mr. courtney votes aye. mr. rodgers. >> mr. rodgers votes aye. mr. lopsack votes aye. mr. franks. mr. franks votes no. miss tsongas. aye. mr. garamendi votes aye. mr. khannaway votes no. mr. johnson. mr. johnson votes aye. mr. lamborn. mr. lamborn votes no. miss hanabusa votes aye. mr. whittman votes no. miss spear. miss spear votes aye. mr. hunter. mr. hunter votes no. mr. barber. mr. barber votes aye. dr. fleming. dr. fleming votes no. mr. carson. mr. carson votes aye. mr. kaufman. mr. coffman votes no. miss shea-porter. miss shea-porter v

>> yes. >> second, chairman mckeon found that a special operations unit assigned to the european command which was training in croatia was ordered to move to a u.s. naval air station in italy. do you dispute that? >> no, sir. >> third, chairman mckeon found that a special operations unit in the united states was also dispatched to the region. you do not dispute that, do you? >> no. >> am afraid i do not understand why you're testifying today under oath that the united states military did not try to help the night of the attack, and how do you explain that? >> i did not say that they did not try. >> what did you say? i know general hamm is watching this. i want him to be clear. >> i am not disputing any of their actions or testimony. i am speaking to as a nation we should try to do more. that the preparations prior to the capability and capacity that we put forward in order to deal with situations such as this so that in the future, as we find ourselves out there in an expeditionary government environment or just in places around the world that we have provided as much military capacity a

but chairman mckeon said he had done an investigation of those who had a hand in this. he started out thinking he had something. the president authorized all forces to be available and that was the pentagon's decision. there was no delay in the use of any of those forces. so i think that he's right. and i think certainly the general is right also. lou: with all of that in front of us, what are we to discover if it turns out that the state department would be ambassador under attack, the entire staff under attack with the cia and ask rushing to their defense within 40 minutes or less, why in the world would there not be an action to defend that embassy as there would, as i would presume, if any embassy in the world were under attack by matt. >> the fact of the matter is that the on scene commander had no organic forces. there were no forces put on alert, given the preeminence of 9/11 and all of the act committee that was taking place in northern africa. that was another mistake. but having no organic forces, they did request this and it didn't deploy. by the time it arri

. >> coming up in a moment, we heard from the house armed services committee chairman buck mckeon as the chair at its foundation. the heritage foundation. you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. that is live at seven :00 eastern. the houses in that 10:00 for morning hours speeches. at noon, a contempt of congress resolution against former iressa employee low was learner. -- irs. >> c-span's newest book sunday at 8:00 am a collection of interviews with the top storytellers. >> part of the reason i did this book was martha. when she arrived, she was in love with what she referred to as the naughty revolution. she was enthralled by the nazis, which struck me as a surprising thing, which is surprising given what we all know. c-span sunday at 8:00 published by public affairs books now available at your favorite bookstores. >> everyone is coming to the new york there. -- coming from four corners of the earth and idaho. they come down from maine and athens streets and tokyo and kokomo and rome. down from frisco introit, from hamburg, aurora, illinois. mrs. abbott and mrs. tod

let's lay in with representative buck mckeon. he's joining us by phone from santa clarita, california. the president said that the commitment to help fight or give supplies to afghanistan by way of counterterrorism will remain strong. in what way do you see that happening? >> well, i think just the fact that he's gone there to afghanistan to see the troops, to thank them for the mission and the work that they have done, that's the speech that i have been asking the president to give for a long time now. and it's incumbent upon all of us to pay attention to what he had to say. i think the fact that he did thank the troops, thapgnked the families, that he laid out for the american people the fact that they had been successful in their mission, all of the things that there will never be ungoverned territory for al qaeda to attack us from. i was really happy to see him go there and to tell the troops how much he appreciated them, how successful they have been in their mission. the fact that millions of young people are able to go to

buck mckeon is with us next. >> . this is his view of the world and his view of how he sees america's view in the world. martha: a scathing editorial in the post saying you took the troops to zero in iraq and look what happened. you said we wouldn't allow the red line to be crossed in syria and look what happened. the president has a lot to answer for this morning and he will do that at the west point commencement speech. you see the cadets as they file in. bill: it's a striking sight of time we see it. martha: the white house is investigating itself after a huge blunder us about th -- a ha top cia official in jeopardy. brit hume calming this another example of the administration's mismanagement. >> reporter: obviously it was an oversight and mistake but one wonders what kind of operation you have where sufficient a grievous mistake can be made. it feeds into this ongoing running story that led to suggestions this administration has trouble running things. martha: white house counsel is being asked to come up with a r

mckeon on tv. you're thoughtful and careful in your thoughts. and i think meticulous in the product that we expect to see today. i want to thank you both for being here. if you have anything in writing, without objection, that will be entered into the record. mr. mckeon is recognized. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. thank you for those very kind words. chairman, ranking member slaughter, thank you for meeting today to discuss our national defense operation act for 2015. i in particular would like to thank my partner, my ranking member, adam smith. we've had opportunity now of working together for four years. and it's been -- it's really been delightful. he does not back down one bit from his position. he argues very strongly for the things that he believes in. in fact, we almost had a blowup in our markup, and we backed off. and fixed it. and i think that, mr. slaughter, your side should be very happy with him as a ranking member. thank you. but we really have had a great relationship. and i'm hopeful that you'll continue that, as we go fo

mckeon's comments set off something of a turf war and leadership saw the need to compartmentalize thenvestigation going forward. so wait. was darrell issa actually the straw that broke the camel's back? more specifically, was darrell issa's colossal mismanagement of a highly dubious scandal that also happens to be the only thing republicans have left to talk about was that the thing that made the speaker sick and tired enough to finally call a house select committee on benghazi? as nbc's first read explains, boehner needs to control this more, and a special select committee actually allows him to call more of the shots and parenthetically keep darrell issa out of the spotlight. joining me now is the democratic congressman from maryland's eighth congressional district and the ranking member of the budget committee, chris van hollen. thanks for joining me on this absurd and all pervasive topic in republican circles. >> sums it up. good to be with you, alex. >> let me first ask you, do you think the house select committee is a power play by speaker boehner? >> no. i actually think that s

chairman buck mckeon of the armed services committee. chairman ed royce and the foreign affairs committee. and chairman mike rogers and the intelligence committee for their excellent work that has advanced this issue and brought up new facts without their dill -- new facts. without their diligent work, we would not be where we are today. but mr. speaker, that work was thwarted and by this administration not proactively in an open and i believe transparent way addressing the issue equally themselves, they have placed us where we are today. it comes as a result of their -- of -- of their being an unwilling partner. it comes as a result of many, turns, the administration has put up roadblocks to the congressional incarery -- inquiry. whether it's not meeting with congress, delaying the delivery of important document, heavily redacting critical information and retroactively classifying previously unclassified files, this administration earned exactly the title that has been placed on them today. uncooperative. mr. speaker, this will not be t

>> yes. >> second, chairman mckeon found that a special operations unit assigned to the european commandhich was training in croatia was ordered to move to a u.s. aval air station in italy. do you dispute that? >> no, sir. >> third, chairman mckeon found that a special operations unit in the united states was also dispatched to the region. you do not dispute that, do you? >> no. >> am afraid i do not understand why you're testifying today under oath that the united states military did not try to help the night of the attack, and how do you explain that? >> i did not say that they did not try. >> what did you say? i know general hamm is watching his. i want him to be clear. >> i am not disputing any of their actions or testimony. i am speaking to as a nation we should try to do more. that the preparations prior to the capability and capacity that we put forward in order to deal with situations such as this so that in the future, as we find ourselves out there in an expeditionary government environment or just in places around the world that we have provided as much military capacity and c

mckeon: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that the clerk be authorized to make technical corrections in the engrossment of h.r. 4435, including corrections in spelling, punctuation, section and title numbering, cross-referencing, conforming amendments to the table of contents and short titles and the insertion of appropriate headings. and that the mandatory instructions for amendment number 35 be changed from after line 21 to after line 9. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to speak out of order for the purpose of making an announcement. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized. mr. rogers: mr. speaker, i wish to announce to all members of the house that the permanent select committee on intelligence has ordered the bill, h.r. 4681, the intelligence authorization act for fiscal years 2014 and 2015 reported favorably to the house today w

the question you're talking about, the buck mckeon argument, i remember talking to republican votersbout benghazi. they would bring it up without me mentioning i. they would show up outside obama buses that went by with benghazi signs. what made them angry and has kept them angry is the fury that they were told not to help any of the people in the compound, any of the people responding that night. and, again, because the reporting has been so confusing it's not widely known. i think you can go on conservative radio and media and you'll hear they were told to stand down. this was in together of 2012. to the extent that that's vetted again in public on tv with lots of people watching it, that might remove some of the fury. and gowdy, who i respect on all sides here as a prosecutor, that's what animates him, the idea that families were lied to and that their family members who were dead were not given the help they needed. if that is -- that story's fully told that everything was done to help them, that changes that. >> what's missing is a key piece of information. >> yeah. i think -- w

let me read you another quote from buck mckeon. i think i've pretty well been satisfied that given how quickly howthing happened and quickly it dissipated, we probably could not have done more than we did. we had been working on this for a long time. we issued a preliminary report. when we run out of people to some point we think we will have as much of the story as we are going to get and move on. what is the purpose of this? what is the manner in which they will proceed? how is that manifested in respecting the rights of the minority? then we will make a decision about where we should go. this is brand-new. this is one week old. >> [inaudible] >> no. if they cared about the presidential, they would be passing an immigration bill. this is all about them. i think it's pretty clear. their focus on the affordable care act has run its course. now they have to find something else to talk about that is not about how we create jobs, how we build the infrastructure. simple as abc. let's create jobs. american made. stop having tax cuts tha

mckeon, it is long past time for us to move on. i really appreciate so much hearing from mr. connolly, the statement from ambassador stevens' family, and i've heard it before. and the eloquence which they talked about him. remember, he had been there in benghazi, basically been there for the day. and everybody said and all the things i read, he was the kind of man, he spoke the language, he wanted to be out with the people. he would not want to be behind the walls of compound. and he knew what he was doing and he made his choices. but the thing that rang so strongly with me was the one thing they said he would not have wanted was to become a political pawn. and that's exactly what we're making of ambassador stevens and the other three americans who died in that tragic event. without any question we are also causing once again to those four families, people who oved them most, grievous hardship to try to deal with all this again and it's being done for politics, it's being done to raise money. and so i want to close to paraphrase another great american at another time and ask

and we will take you to the wired business conference here in new york city and here from howard mckeonvice president and double sure of wired. -- publisher of wired. ♪ monitoring a developing story for you. county police in maryland say a vehicle has ramped a television station and there may be an armed person in the building. identified thee vehicle as a dump truck and said people should stay away from the building which is located off the busy road north of baltimore. a spokeswoman of the police says the vehicle hit the station just before noon. hole could be seen in the front of the building this afternoon. police officers are on the scene and news helicopters are hovering above. we will continue to monitor this and bring more developments as soon as we get them. it is 26 minutes past the hour and bloomberg television is on the markets. matt miller has the details. >> getting you caught up on where stocks are trading after the s&p 500 hit a record high earlier, going above 1900, currently trading just a few points below that at 1897. the dow at 16,000 719. the nasdaq at 4001 hundred

mckeon. all those in favor will say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it.dment is agreed to. are there other amendments? mr. coffman do you have an amendment at the desk wexler the clerk these read the amendments? without objection the reading of the minute will be dispensed with. the chair recognizes german for colorado for the purpose of offering and explaining his amendment. >> thank you mr. chairman. this amendment concerns the requirement has been around for 17 years for the pentagon to pass an audit have operable financials. under this amendment the failure to achieve a clean audit on the department statement in budgetary resources and 2015 will result in a requirement that the chief financial officers at the department of defense the army of the navy and air force all up and require to have served that an agency that has received a clean audit opinion in order to be confirmed in that respected position. by 2018 what it does is it puts teeth into this requirement. right now by 2018 is essentially says that they cannot pass, they don't have audible rec

today, buck mckeon spoke about defense spending at the heritage foundation. >> through smart planning am a rear management of capital resources, targeted cuts and reduction of some bureaucracy, we have been able to shield our military from a crippling blow. this is the last year we will be able to triage the pain. next year, unless something happens, it's really going to hurt. this year's defense bill is $45 billion less than the 2014 request. that's what the white house asked for, and that is the limit set by earlier budget deals. we are funding $521 billion for the base defense budget and $79 billion for the war in afghanistan. the $79 billion for afghanistan is a placeholder because frankly, the president still has not decided on the final mission there. so now we have to start making some hard choices. given the failing security situation abroad, it's the height of stupidity that we even have to make these choices in the first place. >> we will have live coverage of the house armed services committee markup of the 2015 defense programs bill chaired by buck mckeon tomorrow morning

buck mckeon the put out this statement, i'm please the the white house met the military's request for forces in afghanistan, however holding this mission to an arbitrary egg timer doesn't make a lick of sense strategically. the president's decision to set an arbitrary zat are for the full withdrawal of u.s. troops in afghanistan is a monument tal mistake and a true ump of politics over strategy. >> with that, let's bring in our panel, steve hayes, a.b. stoddard, and charles krauthammer. charles. >> i think it's worse than a political act to announce the leaving. it's kind of an act of personal narcissism. when this was talk about a few months ago in the press, there was a mention of the fact that if the full withdrawal happened in 2016, that would allow obama to leave office having fulfilled a promise to liquidate the wars. i mean, is that how we're now setting the strategy of the united states of america? a war zone where so many have died and so much treasure and blood has been spent so a president can leave office looking good? it's certainly been designed as has been suggested to

early on, back in 2009, she actually came in with demi moore, matthew mckeon i had and they bought aice little piece of the business and started promoting the brand for us which has been great. >> you've also branched out obviously from just pure coconut water and you've added flavors. >> over time we've added different tropical flavors. we have tropical fruit, pineapple, peach mango. as of late we actually added lemonade. we wanted to take something really mainstream, especially here in america, and what we're calling it is a lemonade upgrade. it's 50% coconut water with -- i'm sorry, it's like 90% coconut ater with lemon puree. >> anybody knocking on your door to maybe buy you? >> we have conversations with strategics, with multinationals all the time. for now i'm having a really good time running the business. down the road we might look at strategic partnership, we might look at an i.p.o. but for today i'm building a really nice business. and having fun doing it. >> and you can get it all at places like costco, seven-11. >> whole foods. >> i can see everybody's thirsty now. comin

mckeon: thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank the gentleman for his concern and for bringing this issue to the floor. we did address this in the underlying bill, d.o.d. contractors are providing very important services that support the mission in afghanistan and they should not be illegally taxed. we need to address this. i think the gentleman's amendment will move the process forward. i think we have time between now and the senate passage and conference to resolve the issue . also hopefully there will be a new president in afghanistan that will have a whole different way of addressing this situation. so what i would ask is that we do continue to work together on this as we move the process forward through conference. with that i yield back my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from colorado is recognized. mr. lamborn: mr. chairman, how much time is left on our side of the issue? the chair: the gentleman has two minutes remaining. mr. lamborn: ok. i reserve the balan

in a few minutes, the gentleman buck mckeon will be here before the committee, and i want to thank them for their incredible work, the work they do together. to make sure that this work is not only timely, but close to the mark so that the polly of the united states congress is properly taken care of, i want to thank chairman mckeon for his years of service as i previously said about the gentleman, mr. wolf. their years of service, not just to this institution, but really, people who love freedom and who expect the congress to have professional attributes at it. i want to let everyone know that today's hearing will be limited to general -- the rules committee will meet tomorrow for consideration of amendments. with that said, i want to thank my colleagues nor joining us today. obviously chairman wolf and mr. fatah are at the witness table and prepared today. i want to give the same opportunity to the ranking member of the committee, mrs. slaughter for any opening statements she may have. you are recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i understand that cjs is going to be open rule. it's

committee as well as john mccain on the senate side and buck mckeon of the armed services. very tellingy -- a sign. i think that was the belt whether of this. veterans callse that hurt him more? inst: i think that set it motion. the american legion said he had to go and that is huge. nothing has happen like that in decades. and the final straw was the lawmakers who had been supporting him, people like john mccain saying he is a distraction. host: we continue discussion on eric shinseki's resignation. our phone lines are open. we are taking your comments and questions as we go about this. a special line continuing for veterans. with to be calling on that line for veterans from albany georgia. caller: thank you for airing this desperate situation for veterans. i am a veteran. i joined the army at 16 years old. as a result of some of my duty, i contracted melanoma cancer service connected. i have been dealing with the v.a. for 12 years trying to get a rating for this melanoma cancer. they finally gave me 10%. i don't want money, i want my health. to go back to the situation of

house armed services chairman buck mckeon who is retiring this year said holding this mission to an egg timer doesn't make a lick of sense strategically. >> the war on terror will not be won on the defensive we must take the battle to the enemy, confront his plans and thwart them before they work. >> today on counterterrorism, the president will talk about how the threat has changed and how an effective u.s. strategy will adopt to combat al qaeda and decentralize threats and he'll lay out plans for a $5 billion partnership fund intended to train other nations to deal with troops. and what does the drawn down mean for counterterrorism efforts in, say, syria? the united states is considering expanding the covert option for the u.s. mission, training others to put boots on the ground. these are all questions the president will attempt to april dress today in his speech. joining me now, secretary of state john kerry. mr. secretary, good morning to you, sir. >> good morning, cluck. how are you doing? >> i'm okay. let me just ask it this simple way, will we ever look back on the war in afghan

business of what gets in and what doesn't get in is a fascinating subject because a lot -- aaron mckeon once said words are simply a piece of communication, an element of communication and just because it's not in the dictionary doesn't mean it's not a word. she used to say you don't need a pedigree to be a dog. and so that's sort of the way to look at it. one thing i find that's really interesting is a lot of writers, especially contemporary writers, love to create their own words. my favorite example is calvin trillion, the humorist, and he actually crypted a couple words -- created a couple words. wonky is one, and the other is the buffalo chicken wings which were called before that spicy chicken wings, and when he wrote a book called "alice, let's eat," they became buffalo chicken wings because he fist had them in -- first had them in buffalo, new york. he was on a pilgrimage about food. when i was doing research on this book, i found that sinclair lewis would invent words, and then he'd send off letters to merriam-webster, and the letters are in files up there, and he'd come up wit

republicans with strong ties to the military comest another john mccain and representatives buck mckeon said that it was time for new leadership at the va. that and more being reported and again, tonight, the house veterans affairs committee is holding a hearing on this matter. and we were watching live coverage right here on c-span2. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> statement witty zelman, please take a seat. [inaudible conversations] >> we will reconvene. doctor lynch, i will read from the april 9 hearing here in this room. basically i ask you, does the va have every legal authority that it needs to pay for a veterans care, whose care is the way to receive care outside of the va system. what is your response? to my knowledge, sir, yes. i followed up. so would it be correct to say their that failure to deliver care in a timely fashion is complete western up poor leadership at the va? your response. i think that that would be a stretch, sir. i think that our system strives to treat patients because we think we do provide good care. we think we provide quality care.

i want to thank our chairman who also -- chairman mckeon who will be retiring. thank you for extending great and strong leadership, chairman mckeon, and setting a positive example for all of us on this committee. my thanks also to the fellow members of this committee and subcommittee and all the committee and subcommittee staff for the great example of diligence and dedication that you set. we look forward to passing this mark, mr. chairman, and thank you for this opportunity to address the committee. >> thank you. as has been mentioned, your leadership will be missed. your presence on this committee, for a long time, is one that those of us who have served with you have appreciated. and you've always been a statesman. and you've always voted your conscience. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> is there any other discussion? mr. courtney? >> thank you, mr. chairman. briefly, again, i want to salute the chairman and ranking member for really accomplishing the incredible balancing act in terms of trying to keep this country moving toward a 300-ship navy, under all the

yesterday called for his resignation, same with chairman of house armed services congressman buck mckeon, and what you hear house speaker john boehner are reluctant to call for his resignation, they respect him and they believe his resignation will not fix this crisis. the that problem aside, general shinseki was not in his position because of his service, he was there to take care of veterans administration and health care provided to needy veterans, very best in need veterans. 1700 of those were left entirely off the list without care. jay carney, the press secretary for president obama said yesterday the president is deeply troubled and the secretary will immediately implement the recommendations of it g report. there have been 18 ig reports of this type of scheduling malfeasance and impact, negative impact on veterans health care since 2005 and general shinseki has been accountable since 2009. jon: president obama has essentially said, nina, that you know, we have a huge backlog of problems at the va when my administration came into office. we had all of these vets coming out of the

this has been looked at so exhaustively that buck mckeon, the chairman of the armed services committee, just last week criticized darrell issa, the republican chairman of the government oversight committee, the last witness, the brigadier general he brought before the committee to yet again investigate benghazi brought nothing new forward. this is their republican armed services chairman. so the bottom line here is that the republicans have clearly lost the ability, because we've had such a precipitous drop among republicans even in their fervor for repealing the affordable care act, that they are clearly doing this to drive their turnout -- >> you know, candy, that is not true at all. >> michele, i didn't interrupt you. excuse me. michele, i didn't interrupt you. i'd appreciate it if you didn't interrupt me. >> to the question, can you just not participate in this. when there are so many things, you know a new document came out -- what precipitated this was a document that the committee didn't know about came out this week that certainly made it look as though the administration certa

it's bud mckeon's jurisdiction. he issues a statement today saying that general lavell offered nothing new and added nothing to what the committee already knew, which was that the state department had done the best it could under the circumstances. how's that for a new benghazi story? >> dana, a memo. i mean, i don't get it. what is the significance that they're trying to use this memo and even use language like criminal and bring back richard nixon. i mean, connect the dots for me. i don't get it. 'it's being satd this is the smoking gun. they collected more smoking guns than a troupe of civil war reenactors. but they haven't produced anything significant. are they looking at what could have been done to prevent that attack to save those americans in benghazi? are they looking at what could be done to prevent such a thing from ever happening again? no. they're looking at what contributed to what susan rice said on the sunday talk shows, which my definition happened after the people in benghazi had already been kill

mckeon, and the ranking member, mr. smith of services committee for their leadership and their hard work in crafting this bill each year and for coming to bipartisan agreement on so many of the serious matters contained in this bill. this is a massive undertaking that touches on so many aspects of our defense and national security priorities and the health and well-being of our military personnel and their families. but there are serious and substandive matters in this bill that we must debate over the next few days because they merit the attention of every single member of this house. first and foremost, h.r. 4435 fails to make many of the difficult choices required by our current budgetary constraints and fiscal reality. this sahaaf a trillion-dollar bill, that's -- this is half a trillion-dollar bill, that's trillion with a t. is for 95.8 billion the department of defense base budget, another $17.6 billion for defense-related activities, mainly nuclear within the department of energy, and another whooping there are 7

and representatives darryl issa, no shrinking violet on benghazi, buck rogers, and mckeon.s possible they're worried the select committee might uncover something that they missed, or perhaps it's because they know there's actually no scandal there and that this committee will set in motion some inertial process. joining me now is joy reid. great to have you here instead of having you tweeting during the show. >> exactly. >> i am fascinated by the backstory here, by the reporting there. because it is the case that they wanted a select committee, select committee. and john boehner was saying no for a long time and something broke. >> john boehner's been in politics for a long time, so he knows the history of this kind of fishing expedition is what happened with white water, this idea of trying to find some scandal, any scandal, hoping that maybe you get a thread you can tie a scandal to. but, yeah, there have been at least four separate reports produced on benghazi, three of which actually came from the house of representatives, so he knows that his own people have investigat

buck mckeon says the troops should stay until the job is done. in a written statement he said, quote, holding the mission to an arbitrary egg timer doesn't make sense strategically. the president's plans depend upon afghanistan's new president agreeing to the deal, which outgoing president hamid karzai backed away from. both of the candidates in a june 14th run-off election said they will sign it. >> wendell goler live at the white house. we've learned the president did speak to ckarzai in afghanistan this morning. that could have had a lot to do with what his comments will be later on, in about 43 minutes from now, the president is going to announce the troop drawdowns and his plans moving forward with troops in afghanistan. keep it right here. >>> in the meantime, we've always told you about the growing v.a. scandal and the many problems are veterans are having to get to health care. you might think that we aren't spending enough to get our veterans that help that they need. turns out, that's not the case at all. according to the white house, v

buck mckeon national defense authorization act for the fiscal year 2015 as amended favorably to the housewith a recommendation that it did pass. >> questions of emotion the gentleman from texas mr. thornberry so many as in favor will vote aye. those opposed, no. the chair calls for a recorded vote. the clerk will call the roll. [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] [applause] >> we are a couple of hours ahead of last year. there is some stuff when you go through but first let me thank all of you. it has been an honor and privilege a privilege to work with each of you and i told the republican members the other day and i will say it to all of you, if the people at home could get to know you or could see you our numbers would be much higher than 13%. most of you. [laughter] now, on behalf of all of us let's give the staff a round of applause. [applause] [applause] they are fantastic. i know at times going through this process there are times maybe you think you are getting short shrift or you're not getting help. i will tell you this is really been tough and i will say one more ti

during an interview buck mckeon discussed the new house committee on benghazi. here's a pdf that interview. -- a preview of that interview. [video clip] >> we were looking at a relatively small portion of the operation in benghazi. what happened prior to that time , what about the request for more security that was denied? ambassador even in benghazi? the british have withdrawn. i think many questions remain to be answered. saw the chairman recite a number of those questions. it is important we get to the bottom of it. >> from your perspective you are satisfied with the military response? theiven what the posture of military was at the time, yes. we are not on a 24/7 rotation. we do not have pilots sitting on the runway with the plane fully me theird equipped with ammunition, weh can't do that. we now have rapid response or marines -- rapid response marines stationed around the world. that is a lesson we learned. we have the means to get them to where we didn't have the airlift with the marines. and then there was a requirement before they went into tripoli that

he's considered to be the next chair of the committee to succeed congressman buck mckeon who's retiring at the end of the year. his remarks are about half an hour. >> well, thanks. i appreciate the invitation to be with y'all today. and certainly have benefited from heritage foundation's insights on national security since i was a young hill staffer working on defense issues in the early 19 0s -- 1980's. those were exciting and rather contentious times. i think we suffer from a bit of amnesia if we believe that reagan's defense buildup and his fight against communism, alongside margaret thatcher and john paul ii, were some sort of inevitable triumph of consensus policies. in fact, reagan's policies were resisted every step of the way. viciously. and just as steps that we need to take today are and will be resisted. i also think the effort of heritage to look back a century at world war i is good and needed. partly to prevent the sort of amnesia that i just mentioned and partly because there seems to be an inevitable tendency to abuse history for current political ends. even recent histo

and i want to thank you chairman mckeon and ranking member smith congressman wilson and congresswoman davis were including these provisions in the bill and obviously congressman turner and the many others who have worked on this over the years. however there are still many more questions that deserve and demand our attention such as should a commander have this authority to make a the final decision on whether a criminal case should recede to trial? will that change have a significant impact on the military's ability to confront and eliminate this all too pervasive crime? ultimately we have to get this right. this is a multifaceted challenge and it requires efforts on all fronts and i think we all agree that by itself simply changing a commanders authority will not get rid of this scourge of military sexual assault. and yet an institution defined by the chain of command and the dictates of deference inherent in that command structure commanders have played a crucial role and it is clear we need much more change. we need a change from a culture that allows the general to be promoted af

and buck mckeon talks about u.s. foreign policy, and the senate armed services committee has a hearing on military bay pay and benefits. >> the house armed services committee meets tomorrow to work on the 2015 defense programs bill. we'll have live coverage of the day-long markup session as committee members craft the $521 billion military spending bill. you can watch beginning at 10:00 eastern time on c-span3 and c-span.org. >> kind of set up our own prison, set up our own trap. we don't know that we're actually contributing to it. when you get addicted to drugs, there's a whole world gets built around your need for drugs. when you get suicidal, every until in the world is, die. a beautiful sunrise, beautiful day, parent and people love you but everything gets closed in. all i can think about, i got to go. and so i think we ourselves get caught up in those traps that society somehow contributes to, but we take it on personally and we can't see what is really out there. we can't see that the world is really there, be