mr. bob butler who brings cyber experience in the department of defense and the private sector. mr. tler has been involved in numerous studies of cyber deterrence including the recent defense science board task force on cyber-deterrence. let me close by thinking our witnesses for the willingness to appear today before our subcommittee. senator nelson. nelson: thank you, mr. chairman. i want to make sure that since elections,earing on that everybody understands that is about thefeels foundation of our democracy. and that we as a government ought to be doing more to defend ourselves. this is not a partisan issue. partyan happen to either or the non-party candidates as well. and it out to be all hands on deck. in public andnd i in closed meetings, because of clearance, we have been quite disturbed about wondering if we are doing as much as we should as a government to protect ourselves. so, in a recent closed hearing of this subcommittee, the department of defense demonstrated that it is not taking appropriate steps to defend against an deter this threat to our democracy. youmr. chairma