mr. bartlett. the chair now recognizes the new chair of the subcommittee, the honorable adam smith. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i apologize for running a little bit behind schedule. welcome to you all. if there's no objection i would ask that my full statement be included in the record. and then i will follow mr. bartlett's lead. and i look forward to your testimony, and will ask a question at the appropriate time, and appreciate the very important issues that we're here to discuss today and the work that you all are doing on them. without i will yield back. thank you, mr. chairman. >> without objection all the witnesses prepared testimony will be included the record. general outcome of thank you for your service and taking the time to be with us today. please proceed with your remarks. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate the opportunity to be here today, and testify. the ied remains the single greatest threat to our forces in iraq and afghanistan to include the civilian employees that are pres

mr. bartlett. >> thank you very much. i have to question. the first is for general fuller and general bolden. the second is for general fuller. general fuller and general brogan, i'm concerned about the short-term and long-term effects on our soldiers and marines in regards to the total weight of the individual equipment that very caring and afghanistan. as you know, in vietnam the average weight was 30 to 40 pounds. today they are carrying 90 to 100 pounds, and sometimes even more than that. obviously, body armor is a major part of that weight increased that i understand that we have modular antenna designs that can help with this issue. certainly every pound that we can reduce counts. but in the mid-to long-term, when we doing to incentivize to lower this weight? for example, what would it take, assuming a level of protection to reduce the weight of body armor by 50 percent in less than five years? have we even as industries something along these lines? and general fuller, as you know the army and department of defense have recently starte

mr. bartlett. >> thank you are a much. i have two questions. first is for general fuller -- brogan in the second is for general fuller. i continue to be concerned about the short-term and long-term effects under soldiers and marines in regards to the total weight of the equipment they are carrying in afghanistan. as you know, in vietnam the average weight was 30 to 40 pounds and today there carrying nine steep to 100 pounds and sometimes more than that. i understand we have modular design that can help with this issue and certainly every pound we can reduce counts, but in the mid-to long-term what are we doing to incentivize interest? for example what would it take assuming a level of protection to reduce the body armor by say 50% in less than five years? that we even asked industry something along these lines? general fuller as you know the army and department of defense have recently started a new round of audie armor testing to help establish a standard testing protocol with a specific focus on statistical analysis and statistical confidence

mr. bartlett. mr. barton: i ask unanimous consent to -- mr. artlett: unanimous consent against this bill. mr. franks: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks in opposition to this flawed health care bill. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. dreier: drished ranking member of the transportation committee, mr. mica. mr. mica: thank you, mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks in opposition to this flawed health bill. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. dreier: the gentlewoman from ohio, mrs. schmidt. mrs. schmidt: mr. speaker, i have ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks in opposition to this flawed health care bill. mr. dreier: the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. shuster. mr. shuster: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks in opposition to this flawed health bill. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. dreier: the gentleman from newport beach, mr. campbell. mr. campbell: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to re

mr. bartlett. >> thank you are a much. i have two questions.for general fuller -- brogan in the second is for general fuller. i continue to be concerned about the short-term and long-term effects under soldiers and marines in regards to the total weight of the equipment they are carrying in afghanistan. as you know, in vietnam the average weight was 30 to 40 pounds and today there carrying nine steep to 100 pounds and sometimes more than that. i understand we have modular design that can help with this issue and certainly every pound we can reduce counts, but in the mid-to long-term what are we doing to incentivize interest? for example what would it take assuming a level of protection to reduce the body armor by say 50% in less than five years? that we even asked industry something along these lines? general fuller as you know the army and department of defense have recently started a new round of audie armor testing to help establish a standard testing protocol with a specific focus on statistical analysis and statistical confidence levels. w

mr. bartlett from maryland. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from minnesota rise? mrs. bachmann: to address the house for five minutes, revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mrs. bachmann: madam speaker, thank you. madam speaker, i'd like to congratulate the president today. mr. president, you are halfway there. with the president's signature on a health care bill today, the federal government has now taken outright ownership or control of 50% of the american economy. the president can rightly say that he has transformed america. since the inception of bailout nation in september of 2008, with the passage of the $700 billion tarp bailout, the federal government loll -- the government's loll pa losea takeover is under way. president obama fully embraced the $700 billion bailout plan during the first of his presidential debates with senator john mccain. during december of 2008 president-elect obama insisted that outgoing president george bush released billions of dollars to create the automobile task force for the purpose of preventing general mot

mr. bartlett said it today, bad the proportionate amount of money we spend in fighting ied's in protectingour soldiers pursued the cost of ied's, and also we have to keep doing that. we have got to protect our soldiers but are we catching up or are they getting farther ahead? >> sir, it is a quick question and i actually think iraq might be informative here. if we go back and look at what has transpired in iraq and the funding that has come forward to protect our soldiers but also allow us to understand the networks that are engaging us, begin to attack them directly. understands devices in defeat a great number of them. the trend lines are fairly clear and we can get back to you on the specifics over the years. but an aggregate, take the enemy more ideas to achieve the same results. those were all positive trend lines to now where iraq doesn't begin to resemble this year as it did the first time i was there in 03 and several more times after that. i do believe that if we look at the investment provided to the services and to jieddo that would directly translate protecting our soldiers and

mr. bartlett said it today, that the proportion of amount of money we spend in fighting ieds and protecting our soldiers versus cost of ieds, and, there is obviously we've got to keep doing that, we've got to protect our soldiers but are we catching up or are they getting further ahead? >> sir, it's a great question. i actually think iraq might be informative here. if we go back and look at, what has transpired in iraq and the funding that come forward to protect our soldiers but also allow us to understand the networks that were engaging us begin to attack them directly, understand the devices and defeat a great number of them, the trendlines are fairly clear. we can get back to you on the record about specifics over the years but in aggregate, it took the enemy more ieds to attack us to achieve the same results. those are all positive trendlines, to now where, iraq doesn't begin to resemble this year as i had did the first time i was there in '03 and several more times after that. i do believe that if we look at the investment provided to the services and to jieddo, it would translate to

mr. bartlett: health care costs are increasing at two or three times the rate of inflation. obviously this if continues, it wilburry us. any health care reform needs to address costs. there are two major health care cost drivers, this bill is silent on one, that one is tort reform. some believe it may account for a fourth of all health care costs. this bill does nothing to address that. our second driver is administrative cost, which may represent a fourth of all costs. this bill makes that worse by proposing to give the poor people a policy and incur the health care costs associated with that policy. we immediate to give poor people health care, the doctor, the clinic, the hospital a tax credit for giving them the health care. then we avoid the administrative costs associated with that. this bill fails on both those counts. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from vermont rise? mr. welch: with all the controversy about the health care bill, the content of it, the argument about what's in it and what's not in it, this does boil down to a fundamental