mr. chairman. i'm prepared to close if the gentleman is prepared to close. >> absolutely. with that i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from maryland is recognized. ms. edwards: thank you. i would just like to say, it's been a real pleasure to be able to work with mrs. comstock on this amendment. it's very rare that we have opportunities to work across the aisle and also across the capitol, to make sure that we're doing the right thing for our transit system here in the metropolitan washington area, that serves so many millions of both federal workers and tourists, from all of our different states and jurisdictions. it's really clear that the general services administration in this day and age is probably not the most appropriate place for the appointment of these members of the board. it is dutifully to be placed with the department of transportation, to which they've agreed. and i thank our colleagues for all agreeing to this as well. and wit

mr. chairman: thank you very much, mr. garrett. welcome. >> thank you, mr. chairman. moment i am very happy not to be on the rules committee. i have four amendments. two on transportation and two touching xm. programt one is a pilot for three agencies. agriculture, interior, and energy. in the pilot program, could this agency -- if you look at the report, the number of vehicles they had and the number of that were talked about that were not even getting driven. to do a reduction of their fleet by 10%. a pilot program of doing it through ridesharing mechanics. the second one is actually then to also studied these mechanics. at the beginning of the study, a couple years ago we got the copies of it. it actually almost seemed to define what ridesharing was. we all know as we are walking around with these super computers in our pockets, the allocation resources, whether it be ridesharing platforms, uber, our -- it is time we use fleets with these technologies. the third one is xm. this third one will hopefully, make people happy because it is two paragraphs. mr. chairman:

mr. chairman. mr. chairman: thank you very much. was the last one you spoke on, number 132 the back haul? >> yes, sir. mr. chairman: thank you. of,e has been a good amount what i would call exercise in congress that we are really less than happy with the many pools thisegulations that administration in particular has placed upon the american people about industry. all sorts of rules and regulations across the board. -- are you inay any way in your amendments, empowering that process? two amendments from the science committee are specifically on research. beerwise, they would not under the jurisdiction of the science, space, and technology committee. on regulation is easing regulation on wlelders. mr. chairman: you are supporting what would be processes for them to go study and learn and provide information. not for them to go right rules and regulations? ando, it is to do research not develop. it has nothing to do with developing any kind of regulations on this. mr. chairman: if this survives, it is my hope that we really do underst

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, the roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects we seek to advance in the legislation before us today require a steady supply of aggregate and gravel. without it we might as well not even be here debating this legislation. in fact, a report from the u.s. geological survey, 2011 usgs report, aggregate availability in the united states, found that, quote, a 70% increase in the annual aggregate production may be required to upgrade our transportation infrastructure. the report went on to say that there is an indisputable need for an uninterrupted large supply of cag are a gate for the restoration and rehabilitation of the infrastructure. it is also important to note that a substantial portion of the cost of aggregate is its transportation costs and lowering those costs will reduce the cost of construction projects. my state, california, is just one example where the need is great. according to a recent report, california goes through 200 million tons of high grade aggregate

mr. chairman. i'm pleased to introduce my stewart. he serves as chairman for the board of trusties for the american forest foundation. he returned to work as new reformable products institute after having retired of senior adviser at georgia tech in 2010. he joined state government in september 2004 when he was appointed director of the georgia forestry commission. mr. stewart's perspective on wild fire for the private land owners is important in our state since georgia has more privately-owned commercial timberland than any state in the country. 55% is owned by private individuals. only 8% by public federal state and county. we should draw on mr. stewart's wealth in knowledge and voices and concerns are critical as we discuss forest management and issues that impact them directly. we look forward to your testimony. >> our next witness is mr. chris treese. i recognize the distinguished senator. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you to you senator to allow me to introduce chris treese. he serves

mr. chairman. >> mr. chairman, i thank all of the presenters, i would hope we would make all of their amendments in order. i especially point out the amendment and my colleague from florida. i certainly hope that those amendments will made in order mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> no questions. >> gentleman does not seek time, is there any republican that seeks time? i want to thank this panel, not only for their intellectual capital that they provided us today, but really the thoughtful ideas of trying to address real problems that we've got. i'll be honest with you, i don't know what we're going to do on your amendments. i know it's a recommendations are, but i think this committee is going to have under new light, we're going to have to evaluate. and i will tell you every one of you have presented us with an answer, not just a new direction, but really an answer, and we're going to have to challenge ourselves. i want to thank all of you for taking the time and i thank you

mr. chairman? >> yes. >> may i be excused? i have a flight that leaves in 38 minutes. >> good luck getting to the airport. [ laughter ] you're excused. mr. cohen is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman and thank the witnesses for coming today. i'm a private sector guy that understands how you're supposed to make money in business and how you capitalize companies and how you either fail or succeed based on your pricing and product and what you've delivered to your customers and basically if you make money you succeed and if you lose money you don't. so we're here today talking about co-ops in particular and i'm from new york where the new york co-op and its failure cost the american taxpayers over $250 million. well, somebody asked me, i'd be surprised we're here today, it's, well no, i predicted this over two years ago. i remember sitting down with some insurance executives, health insurance people in early 2013 and asked them how they would be pricing their products for obamacare and for enhanced benefits and

mr. chairman. the chair: mr. speaker, the committee on the whole us who of the state of the union, having had under consideration the senate amendment to h.r. 22 directs me to report that it has come to no resolution thereon. the speaker pro tempore: the chair of the committee of the whole house on the state of the union reports that committee has had under the senate amendment to h.r. 22 and has come to no resolution thereon. the chair lays before the house the following personal request. the clerk: leave of absence requested for mr. larson of connecticut for today and mr. takai of hawaii for november 2 and the balance of the week. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the requests are granted. the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir. this is to notify you, pursuant to rule 8 of the rules of the house of representatives, that i have received a subpoena issued by the united states merit systems protection board. after consultation

mr. chairman. mr. heck: it is -- the truth is, the export-import bank has transferred money into the treasury to reduce the deficit. it's also been suggested that these amendments somehow constitute reform as opposed to the underlying bill. not true. this is the biggest package of reforms ever enacted for ex-im. it does the fol logue. odd cod fi the chief risk officer and risk management committee, provide and require external audits and fraud controls. provide upgrades in modernization of i.t. long overdue. it expands loss reserves to 5% resm deuces exposure of the portfolio from $140 billion to $135 billion. it has a pilot program shifted to the private sector. s that reform bill without the amendments. these amendments are designed to kill the bill. vote no on the bill, volt for reform, vote no on the amendments. thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the squom reserves. the gentleman from south carolina is recognized. mr. mulvaney: may i inqu

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator roberts, for your illuminating inquiry there. senator baldwin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. ranking member. so, pleased so have you here today. and was pleased to have an opportunity to meet with you prior to this. we all agree that it's critical for the products that are approved by the fda to be of the highest safety and efficacy standards. and that the public must also have meaningful access to accurate information about treatment so that they can make the best health care decisions. i share some of my colleagues' concerns with the ever-increasing drug prices. there has been a little bit of dialogue about that already. and i think that we can do more and should do more to improve drug accessibility, affordability and transparency. so i want to start with transparency. dr. califf, the public still lacks comprehensive access to information about medical products. for example, companies do not consistently report clinical trial outcomes for drugs in the public dat

mr. chairman. mr. mckenrick, you sat on a panel responsible for identifying and interviewing applicants for the l.a. va ro position. why weren't one of the best qualified applicants selected after the second job announcement? >> i can't answer that. after the panel screened the resumes came up with qualified and best qualified i believe and we chose the individuals for interview, we interviewed those individuals and then we selected the ones that we chose the strongest to pass forward. i am not even sure where they went once we were done with our part. the executive management office would handle the packages from there. >> so you don't know why anyone was selected? in that panel. >> i do not know whether they survived the process above us or they simply weren't interested in the end after they found out all the facts. >> do you know why the position was advertised for a third time? >> i assumed because no one accepted it or was appointed in the prior panel. >> but as a panel -- as one of the panel mem

mr. chairman. this is a very important hearing, obviously, and we appreciate all of our witnesse , coming, giving their time, witness, and expertise. a welcome to chris wood with trout unlimited which was founded in my home state of michigan in 1995. we're so happy you're here and look forward to your input on these critical issues. this summer was yet, as we know, another record breaking wildfire season that resulted in wildfire season, resulting in more than 9 million acres, destructions of thousands of homes and properties and tragically these fires took the lives of 13 wildland firefighters. we all know our thoughts and prayers here today are with the families of the brave men and women. this is a stark reminder of the challenges that we face when dealing with the issues of wildfires. a warming climate, record droughts has made this problem worse and more complex for us to deal with. while this's not a single solution that will fix this problem, there's several measures that we as policymakers

mr. chairman. i'm glad to be able to serve on this conference committee focusing on a matter of critical importance to our country and certainly my state as well. this also represents a milestone as members of this committee work to complete a multiyear highway bill the first time in a decade. and long overdue. with service transportation programs set to expire on friday, it is imperative we work quickly to reach a bipartisan and by cbicamybicameral agreeme. a number of issues happened to be particularly important to my state. for example, upgrading the freight corridors and interstate system that moved goods through my state to global markets every day and providing additional resources for public/private partnerships and border infrastructure. delivering investment certainty so we can plan for and deliver the high-quality infrastructure that our country and my constituents deserve. this bill is important. but i'm proud to say the leadership in texas haven't waited on the federal government. in nov

mr. chairman. director clancy, just to be -- to have some statistics here on the record, according to public service, the agency is 70% male, is that correct? >> 75%. let me check that real quick. that sound correct. >> 72% white. leaving it severely out of step with other agencies. women make up 25% of the agency's force but only about 11% of the agents in uniform are officers. >> and you're correct, yes. >> you talked about universities and targeting certain areas of the nation. have you engaged an employment agency to help you or to advise you in finding a more diverse workforce? >> i'm not aware that we have taken that step yet. that's an excellent suggestion that we may look into. i will tell you when we go to these different areas of the country, we have a very diverse group recruiting group that goes out to try to encourage females to apply as well as across the board in diversity. >> are you targeting, also, the military or law enforcement agencies looking for -- there's great people working

mr. chairman. >> the chair recognizes mr. russell from oklahoma. >> thank you, mr. chairman.thank you all for being here today and your dedication to trying to help secure our republic. administrator, thank you for your long and dedicated service to our republic. with regard to some of the issues on the screening partnership program, would you say that the partnerships have been better or worse performers than tsa, and what concerns do you have about that, if any? >> in my initial look at the difference or the potential differences between private sector screeners and the public, we haven't seen any significant differences in performance. assuming that they're trained appropriately and the like. if i have any concerns at all, it's that we have a clear set of standards and expectations, and that those are consistently maintained across that program. but again, i don't see any evidence that there's any particular performance differences between the two. >> thank you. and with regard to the turnover, what percentage of new hires would you say turn over within one year or two yea

mr. chairman. this amendment will allow representatives to cast a vote on whether it is fair and pruned where profits stay in the private sector. this is described as prife advertising the profits and socializing the losses. it does not apply to an exporter who is a small business. early 8990% of the banks support small businesses. it will not impact mom and pop businesses. when a foreign government takes purses if thatuy person defaults on the loan which belongs to the taxpayers. the big businesses would have to pay. startingrm is faced in apa mere 10% and 20% in 2017 so on. loans will still get made. the bank will operate but the taxpayers will have a chance to mitigate requestening a a bailout to the tune of $3 billion. why is this so port? the american takes pairs are the guarantors. thrl level of taxpayer leverage is not sustainable. and in 10 years when we look into the eyes of our seniors and veterans we will need to uphold the commitments. mr. chairman, the modest reforms are a small step.

mr. chairman. >> thank you. we go back to mr.rohr backer of california. >> let me just say i am very frustrated by talk about russia, and i spent my entire life trying to defeat the soviet union, and i was i have pleased to be part of the reagan administration that helped accomplish that goal. bringing down a regime that wanted to impose an eighth yils dictate orship. and russia is expected to be treated as friends after the fall of communism. and what has risen instead is a hostility that is so wleming that it is damaging, not only has it been damage being russin their ability to establish themselves in a new world role. after all it is a major power in the world. they are a major power with interests, just as we are. but the double standard that we have been judging russia and even as present in the hearing today is just overwhelming. we sit here and say, oh, well russia wants to keep assad in power. how horrible that is because assad is a dictatorship, as if saudi arabia isn't a dictatorship and wouldn't murder thousands of pe

mr. chairman, and thank you again to the chairman and the to the ranking member -- and to the ranking member. representative comstock of virginia and i have an amendment that's at the desk and i don't have to tell my colleagues who ride metro every day to and from work of the issues that metro has had with safety performance and management. our bipartisan amendment gives the secretary of the united states department of transportation the authority to appoint the four federal members to the washington metropolitan area transit authority board.

mr. chairman. i'm happy, chair yellen to rescue you from the hostile questioning of my democrat friend over there. don't take it personally, he's like that with everybody. but i do actually want to kind of follow on on something that he had point of interest and frustration for a number of us. is having to do with the speed or lack thereof where there has been some very specific things that were laid out for the fed to do, and specifically, i want to talk about section 13.3, the fed, dodd/frank required the fed to adoption regulations, quote, as soon as practicable. and that was five years ago. there have not been a final rules implemented to what fed reserve restrictions you yourself were going to put as far as and guidelines as far as utilizing 13.3. so i'm very concerned that that is taken that long. when is that that the fed is going to issue those final rules? >> we expect to issue the final rule by the end of this month. >> by the end of this month. i will point out to my friend from massachu

mr. chairman, i yield back. >> the chair recognizes mr. carl wright from pennsylvania for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, tsa is a front line counterterrorism organization. its transportation security officers, those tsos we have get it right every time. mr. neffenger, thank you for being here. i want to ask you, did tsos receive annual review performance testing? >> they do. >> do they know when they will be tested for their annual employee performance reviews? >> typically, yes. >> on average, how did they perform during the annual performance review tests? >> on average, they perform well. >> what yet what we find out is the covert tests by the inspector general, gao and your own internal teams revealed significant problems in screeners performance. it seems as though tsos have to bring their "a" game when they know the test is coming, but not so much at other times. inspector general roth, nice to have you back in our committee room. would you say, covert test of screener skill and knowledge bear out this concer

mr. chairman. >> senator mccain. >> thank you, mr. chairman.and i want to thank all members for the involvement in this really distasteful issue, but one of transcendent important. i would like to thank the senator for her significant involvement in this unsavory unpleasant aspect of america that seems to have grown over time with the ability to use technology. and mr. chairman, i have been a member of this subcommittee for many years. i have never known of a witness to refuse a subpoena. and i'm sure that you will take the necessary action to ensure that that is not done with impunity and i applaud you for your actions. this is all about money, isn't it, mr. roberts? 80% of their revenue for back page can be directly derived from their commercial sex advertising? we are talking about money, aren't we? >> it appears so, senator. >> and we -- this is the most egregious example of that but goes on with other websites around the country, this just happens to be the most egregious. in fact, two federal courts have reached the conclusion that they a

mr. chairman. madam attorney general, under this administration, the number of sanctuary cities has doubled to about 340 jurisdictions. as a result, many innocent americans have been killed. what are you doing to discourage jurisdictions from claiming sanctuary status? >> i'm sorry, the last part of your question. >> what are you doing to discourage municipalities from asserting sanctuary status? by doing so they are endanger americans because individuals are released who commit crimes including murder, rape and so forth. what are you doing to discourage sanctuary cities? >> with respect to the issues that you raised, certainly they are very serious. we are committed to enforcing our criminal immigration laws -- >> there's -- what are you doing to enforce that law. >> i believe it's in the purview of -- >> no. it's in an act. i introduced it. it became law in 1996. >> i'm sorry, sir. i'm having trouble hearing you. >> there is clearly a law in existence that prohibits jurisdictions from refusing to

mr. chairman thank you mr. chairman. gentlemen thank you for your support termination and so many varying ways. i think the discussion today has been very beneficial. i think for all of us and our constituency. general upstander i would like to start with you. we have spent a lot of time talking about the cyberthreat that exists out there and the devastating effects to our networks should they be attacked or when they are attacked. and really the ability to recruit and retain some talent to deal with the cutting-edge threats that exist out there. what i would like to know is us a little bit more, how can we utilize our reserve and national guard forces to bring in some of the best of the brightest? we have a lot of folks that certainly served in similar capacities and their civilian employment. is there a way that we can use them to leverage our forces? >> actually senator it's a great question and we were doing that. i know that continues the reach of the national guard units are setting up cyber teams that would also h

mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. dr. singer, earlier you said the per-unit cost of the cart is driving where we steer the horse. i would like to open it up to the entire panel and ask, what can we do about cutting? where can we do less? a lot of times we talk about where we can do more. i'd like your opinions on where we can do less with regards -- with research, with buying, training. what won't we need in the future? dr. singer? >> i think you've heard from the panel many great ideas and the question is whether we'll be able to implement them and shifts in everything from our personnel system and professional military education all the way to the example of distinguishing between the type of systems and the requirements that we build for them, when we approach it. the problem of legacy systems. another thing that i would put specifically on the table is our tendency to plan and assume for the best and then we act surprised when things don't work out that way. and that was what was i was referenced in terms of the ponti

mr. chairman. i want to rise today and discuss the issue of the syrian refugees and the islamic state terrorists who are coming across our southern border and in relation to this the office of refugee resettlement loophole that exists there and also, mr. speaker, as i begin my remarks, i commend the house and our speaker for speaking out and taking an action to condemn the paris attacks. this administration has announced its intention to resettle 10,000 syrian refugees within the united states in fiscal year 2016. now, i want you to think about that number. 10,000 in the year 2016. they will go to resettlement communities all across the country if the administration has its way. it is important to note that the office of refugee resettlement, or the o.r.r., as it is called, does not simply resettle refugees from overseas. in fact, the o.r.r. has been resettling, they have been resettling thousands of illegal aliens that are coming across our southern border. i want to read to you from their 2013 rep

mr. chairman. afternoon to you, mrs. yellen. 's see if we can set a record together and answer five questions in five minutes. i'm following up on the chairman's questions regarding the role of the fed in the boardroom and i'm going to read a quote from "the financial times" in august of 2014 that said fed officials are also involving themselves in the kinds of decisions company management or board directors usually make. including whether employees should be fired or disciplined, which has been surprising. ms. yellen, do you support this type of activity notwithstanding that you said [ inaudible ] would you approve of this type of invasive action by the fed? would you approve it? >> if there's wrongdoing as we've seen in the scandals, it is appropriate for us in addition to leveling fines to try to identify individuals who are guilty of wrongdoing. >> it's an ongoing process, do you think it should be a matter that the fed, for example, should be opining on human resource decisions and so forth? inside the boardroom as was quote

mr. chairman, i'm pleased to introduce mr. kim stewart from georgia. mr. tewart currently serves as chairman of the board of trustees from the american force foundation. he has also read my alma mater to work his deputy director of a renewable bite product institute esther after having retired in 2,010. previously he was appointed commissioner of the georgia department of economic develop and in january, 2,007. he joined straight government in 2,004 when he was appointed director of the georgia for street. his perspective on wildfire for private landowners is especially important in our state. georgia has more privately owned, timberland than any state in the country. george's 24 million-acre, 55% is owned by private individuals. only 8% by public, federal, state, and county. we should drawn his wealth of knowledge along with his experience in the field. their voices and concerns are critical as we discussed the importance of force management and other forster issues that impact directly. thank you for being here, we look for to your testimony. >> our next

the chairman now recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. nogenbau, rerks, chairman of our financial subcommittee, for two minutes. >> today marks the first time since the passage of dodd-frank that someone from the federal reserve has testified under the statutorily created vice chair of supervision. yet today the person testifying was not appointed or confirmed for that position. i remain baffled the president has failed to put forth a single name for this role. i feel it's in part that dan tarillo, who serves as chairman of the internal banking supervision, can already exercise many of the authorities and in a defacto capacity, free from any checks and balances. the federal reserve, in addition to its monetary policy regulation, operates many financial institutions, some of them the largest in the world. we have seen decisions driven largely by the federal reserve that artificially manipulated the liquidity. under stress testing, the process is likely the most important thing the bank must do this year remains completely free from any over

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator. 'm going to wrap up here in a minute, but before i do i have one more question for you, mr. ward. if you are uncomfortable going down this road, please say so and we can pursue it in a different setting. you talked about the -- and i think it's fairly well accepted by the young national community that the assad regime has used chemicals, even after they said they wouldn't and after they would join the cwc and made all the commitments. they have a partner today, russia. what role does russia play in the organization? and, you know, when you're standing on this side of it, these things are stunning because -- i mean, if the u.s. was involved with a partner that was doing this sort of thing, we would wash our hands of it very quickly or stop it, one or the other. and they, obviously, are not lifting a finger and yet they would have the same information that you would, that the international community has. what can you tell us about that? >> thank you, mr. chairman, for your question. this

mr. chairman. i would like you to indicate whether or not your organization supports the wildfire disaster funding act if we could just start with that. >> yes. absolutely. >> i think we have unanimous -- that is a great place to start and let me then go to more specific kinds of questions, and let me start with mr. chris wood. when you talk about the partnerships through your work with charter unlimited as well as the forest service in the past, could you talk about more about additional examples and details to illustrate how to examine the fire transfers to agencies and their partners when you try to do the work that you're doing? >> is happening is that organizations that work with the forest service are giving everything they can to spend as much money as they possibly can before the fire season starts and in places like michigan, we have seen inventories and road inventories that are not being done to help identify places where the need to be replaced because they are bleeding sediment into ri

mr. chairman. i am pleased to introduce mr. ken stewart, an area of georgia he's currently serves as chairman of the board of trustees for the american force foundation. he also returned to georgia tech after having retired as a senior adviser of industries that jesus in 2,010. previously he was appointed commissioner of the georgia department of economic development in january 2007. he joined state government in 2,004 when he was appointed director of georgia for stricken georgia has more privately owned commercially available timberland than any state in the country. george's 24 million acres, 55% is owned by private individuals. only 8% by public, federal, state, and county. we should draw on his wealth and knowledge with private and family landowners in the field. their voices and concerns are critical as they discuss the four street issues that impact them directly. hank you for being here, we look for to your testimony. >> our next witnesses mr. chris trees, i recognize the senator. >> thank you mr. chairman and thank you

mr. chairman. in light of the president's statement last week that we were deploying 50 special operation forces to syria, i went to know what you see as their mission and do you expect them to be engaged in direct, and how can we be sure that this limited deployment will be eight slippery slope to involve us troops? i would join my colleague, ms. franco who said had we not invaded iraq eight years ago that the whole region wouldn't be destabilized as it is now, but in light of that i went to know if you can respond now and i also want to ask you a couple questions regarding the transitional government in the future. >> let me say that i was in a briefing yesterday and some of these responses on the activities and location of the special forces are classified. >> shirt. >> so, perhaps we will come back to you with a written answer on matt's. there exact role is also a classified response, but let me say that we are also-- as a mention in my statement the president is looking at a number of other op

mr. chairman. >> mr. pummill, who at the va is responsible for approving of the $2 $288,000 for miss rubins and the $129,000 for miss graves? >> the chief of staff of the va is the approval authority for the scs moving incentives and avo. i don't think that they would approve an exact number. that depends on the appraisals of the house and all that kind of -- i don't think they would know that in advance. >> aside from the ig investigation that we've been talking about all night, what investigations -- other investigations may have gone on internally within the va? >> i'm sorry. -- >> other than the inspector is general's investigation that was done as a result of this committee requesting it, what other kind of investigation has been initiated internally? >> whenever a case like this comes up, we initiate what's called an. a ib which is an internal investigation that we attempt to do in va. but since the new secretary's arrived he set up an office of accountability where he's brought in a team, and if it

mr. chairman. thank you all for being here today. mr. roth, i understand some of this information may be classified. and certainly if i overstep my bounds, i'm sure you'll let me know. i would appreciate your cooperation. i would like to ask you what i would consider a little bit more detailed questions. that is, first of all, it's been reported that the undercover investigators, what areas were they specifically looking a at? was it the typical area that a perpblg goes through? >> for this round of covert testing we a acted like an ordinary passengers and tried to get prohibited items through the checkpoint. that is either the ait machine, advanced image technology machine. or part of managed inclusion lieu sort of a action on their own but sent through a steug mom ter. >> so this did not really look where the employees are going. just typical passengers. >> we did it two years ago. trying to get into the very secure areas, unguarded a access to aircraft or checked baggage, that kind of thing. end results were disappointing. >> you ment

mr. chairman. mr. corcoran? >> refugee protection policy has to be based on two principles. one, whatever policies we adopt must not pose a threat to the american people and, secondly, whatever money we take from our people through taxes to devote to these purposes should be -- should yield the maximum humanitarian effect and, unfortunately, resettlement of refugees in the united states from syria or from yemen or somalia or other failed states fails on both of those counts. hillary clinton said at the debate this weekend that the united states should spend, quote, whatever it takes, unquote, to properly screen syrian refugees. i think everybody would agree with that. but it misses the point. the problem is not that we're devoting inadequate resources. it's certainly not that our people in dhs or fbi or state are not committed. our people are doing the best job they can. the problem is that proper screening of people from syria cannot be done. we are giving our people an assignment which they canno

mr. chairman. >> thank you mr. chairman another like to thank chairman shuster and ranking member defazio and inhofe and boxer for the hard work in bringing these bipartisan bills to the conference committee. i'm proud to support this legislation as a reduces red tape and migratory birds streamlining components included in map-21. the star act includes necessary reforms to the complaint safety and accountability program. we have heard from constituents that this program has flawed methodology and what impact their businesses negatively. i am encouraged by their form to revamping the methodology as we step forward to make the system work and give fair judgment to our carrier operators. mr. chairman the water subcommittee on the environment, glad her senate colleagues include important change in the finance division at otherwise known as libya in the drive that traded to loan guarantee pilot program was authorized in 2014 to provide additional funding source for drinking water wastewater and water for structure projec

mr. chairman. mr.ummill, to the best of your knowledge, has any of the va in place mentioned in the report been interviewed or questioned by federal agents in regard to the findings in the report? >> i have no knowledge spent no knowledge of that, okay. can you tell me all a bit more about, i know we suspended the relocation program, and you mentioned some other things, but could you tell me again what specific has been done within the va to counter act a coulter this seems have allowed this misuse of funds to happen? >> i had a long conversation actual again today with our secretary sloan gibson. he actually understands, so does the second trick of them have an accountability problem. as i was telling the congressman decides you a minute ago. we pay out a lot of money. i understand that you can't the appetite of money and not be held accountable. i mean, we have to be account to the congress of the turn. we have to be responsible for what we do in our jobs. adept secondly so to hold people accountable

mr. chairman. >> senator purdue. >> thank you, mr. chairman.ambassador, it's an honor to have you here today. i appreciate the courtesy of a private meeting with you recently. i want to publicly for the record applaud your career. i know you have raised your kids abroad. you probably saw your mother much less than you would have liked through your career. we're here today -- i just applaud your career and thank you for being here and for being willing to take on this new responsibility. i would like to move to the global security crisis that we talked privately about. i see it on three levels. one, we've got a power vacuum out there that has created a rise again of these power rivalri rivalries, china and russia. we saw another power vacuum in iraq into which isis has stepped and created all sorts of problems in syria and iraq and several other areas in the region and in subsaharan africa. of course now the iran nuclear deal that as you well said privately and i think just now that it's all in the implementation. i would like to focus on syria.

mr. chairman. and thank you to federal reserve chair yellen. the 2008 financial crisis inflicted staggering damage to our economy. unemployment tops 10%. home closures is placed millions of families. entire industries are on the brink of collapse. congress responded by passing the most comprehensive overhaul of our financial system since the great depression, the dodd frank wall street reform and the consumer protection act. the act interested significant responsibility to the federal reserve and directed them to improve its supervisory program, so another crisis of such scope will never happen again. recognizing that the federal reserve failed to apply appropriate standards to large banks, congress erected the fed it to impose enhanced to ensure that no large bank or group of banks, could again endanger our economy. i am eager to hear from chair yellen on the progress of these reforms. along with a description of how the fed is using the flexibility embedded within dodd frank. permittedpecifically

mr. chairman. dovetailing, while bad guys want send stuff on cargo ships, they would do it the way they are now with small boats coming up from central and south america. isn't that how they would get anything here? submersibles, do you think ripley too much priority on the shipping container portion when the bad guys send all the drugs up in small boats that are hard to intercept in which we only percent?, 30 something is a fairly accurate statistic. 15-20-30% depending on your metric. however, those small vessels almost never attempt to make landfall in the united states, the era of a go fast vessel going towards south florida are long over. leavef the drugs that south america first make landfall somewhere in central america then take a land pathways to board the border in much smaller packages, more difficult to detect. the success we have using offshore aircraft, offshore cutters, that really takes those big -- the multi ton loads out of circulation. because of the success we have had over the

mr. chairman. mr. reed: thank you. on behalf of chairman mccain, let me thank you gentlemen for an extraordinarily insightful testimony which will be a superb foundation for the hearing the chairman is envisioning, recommendation. truly, truly impressive and helpful hearing. thank you very much, gentlemen. at the direction of the chairman, the hear something adjourned. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national able satellite corp. 2015] >> tonight on the communicators, the top democrat on the house communications subcommittee discussing how congress should discuss cyber security. she is joined by kate, politico's reporter. >> what i'm struck by is what analysts have instructed us, as if there are two main pillars relative to cyber security that need to be honored. and up to 90% of these breaches are due to two factors. a lack of hygiene in the system, and the lack of security management. >> this we

mr. chairman. >> thank you mr. chairman. dr. singer, i must complement .ou to found a technology firm called neo-luddite is an act of genius. i also enjoy your church help quote. one of my favorites is he was once asked how he thought history would treat his role in world war ii. his response was, there he well, because i intend to write it. deterrence, and i think turnarounds really hit the point and i think we should follow up on this, is the question of what is an act of war and when will you respond? if an act of war is not defined your opponent has to know that you are going to consider it an act of war and that there will be a response. mr. singer, i think your point is well taken. it does not necessarily have to be a cyber response, but i do think that there needs to be some response. ultimately,y denial you have to have some offensive capability. you have to be able to punch back or you are simply always on a defensive. heuer nodding your head, i assume you agree with that concept. >> i very much agree. i will consummate

mr. chairman.hanks for your partnership as the senator noted they pass the bill unanimously as we did also it has been ted years since we did a long term bill to provide much more authority to ruth the state to efficiently with dash sufficiently plan for long-term projects. i am concerned and continue to be and i have expressed to us with 325 of the house and the senate at 342 with the scenario could to go on to the next generation and though worse condition in the and it is with 400 million per year there is one way to get their to reduce the terms of the of bill five for four years to get more robust to force people to work and put the policies for word i hope the conference committee will consider that for our also hope they will include building bridges and the house bill to allow for any future revenues dedicated tutus rotation flow through the policies of this bill with no further action required by congress so should a future congress find additional revenue revenue, said that they can be pu

mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. dr. singer, earlier you said the per-unit cost of the cart is driving where we steer the horse. i would like to open it up to the entire panel and ask, what can we do about cutting? where can we do less? a lot of times we talk about where we can do more. i'd like your opinions on where we can do less with regards -- with research, with buying, training. what won't we need in the future? dr. singer? >> i think you've heard from the panel many great ideas and the question is whether we'll be able to implement them and shifts in everything from our personnel system and professional military education all the way to the example of distinguishing between the type of systems and the requirements that we build for them, when we approach it. the problem of legacy systems. another thing that i would put specifically on the table is our tendency to plan and assume for the best and then we act surprised when things don't work out that way. and that was what was i was referencing in terms of the pont

mr. chairman. i'm always encouraged to hear researchers and experts come in and talk about the new development methods that we are beginning to achieve for -- for flu vaccine. but we're still primarily using egg-based technologies to produce the flu vaccine right now in this country, correct? >> it's correct that most of the influenza vaccine is produced with egg-based technology. >> and one of the problems with egg-based technology is that obviously it takes time if the virus should mutate or need to be changed, is that correct? >> it does take time but it also takes time if you make the product using cell-based or other technologies. there may be some time savings but nontheless you need to be able to have the virus that will grow well in the cell-based as well as the others. >> the other problem is we've seen in past hearings is that if you have some kind of a pandemic, then the additional problem to the time it takes to grow the virus in the eggs is the egg availability. we saw that with the av

mr. chairman. mr. director, there are a group of us in hispanic congressional caucus, african-american members, we'd like to have a roundtable discussion with you a conversation from different parts of the united states and not in such a formal setting as this in which you might be able to share with us how better in communities of color in america where the gun violence is so rampant you might give us some of your thoughtful input. would you agree. >> i'd be happy to. >> thank you so much. >> the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. poe, for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. mr. director, thank you for being here. i'm going to talk about several subjects, see how many i can get in five minutes. first, epca, the idea that under current law that if e-mail is stored in the cloud, government doesn't need a warrant to obtain that e-mail. is that your understanding of the law? >> i think the law is -- you probably know better than i -- but it's after 180 days. >> yes, after 180 days. >> we