mr. chairman. mr. chairman, my amendment would strike a provision that was included in the chairman's mark that would prohibit the president there changing the military pay raises authorized in section 1009 of title 37 usc. although i support continued pay raises and i spoke to this earlier for our service members, i am concerned that by increasing them above the requested amount and by removing the discretion of the president and of our military leaders to adjust military compensation, that we could be setting a dangerous precedent. of course, the pay increases are -- do matter. they do count to our service members. but when we increase it, we're then saying that there's less money available for ammo, for ranges, less time in simulators, less money for mtc rotations. if you ask our troops -- and i have asked our troops -- what's more important, the message from them is clear. invest in our readiness. invest in training. and get us the parts we need to maintain our equipment. we all know that it's diffi

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, as the chairman said, i served 10 years as a title 2 rate regulator on the north dakota commission. i know what rate regulation looks like and the internet is not an appropriate vehicle or medium for this type of regulation. the internet is not a monopoly telephone company. it is not a monopoly electric or gas utility. the internet is a dynamic, competitive innovator and even the threat of this type of regulation stiffles that innovation and we don't want that to happen. i want to address the amendment that was referred to by the ranking member of the subcommittee who i have great respect for, but she referred to the term permanent fore barnes. that -- forbearance. that is a contradiction in terms. it is by definition temporary. he who has the authority to forbear has the authority to un forbear. that's why it was not adequate to this bill. this bill simply codifies that which the president of the united states and the chairman of the federal communications commission promise

mr. chairman. and i want to thank the chairman and the members of this committee as well for all the hard work that they've done in putting together this bill. every single member of this committee has contributed to it and contributed to it exactly in the spirit that the chairman just closed his remarks with, to meet our duty to make sure that the men and women who serve in the military have the equipment they need to do what we ask them to do and are as best prepared as is possible. and i think we are genuinely trying to do that in this bill. i also agree with the chairman that the threat environment has perhaps never been more complex for the united states, from russia to iran to the threat of various violent extremist groups to north korea and on and on. it is a very, very complex threat environment out there, and it's complex in part because the u.s. has been since world war ii the guarantor of security for much of the globe, certainly for south korea and japan and for other parts of the world

mr. chairman. >> thank the gentle lady. other discussion regarding this portion of the mark, i yield myself just briefly. i would just say, i do not disagree with the concerns that the gentle lady and the ranking member before her have laid out regarding what happens in the future. i think those are all valid points that we do need to keep in mind. at the same time, what we have before us right now is the fy -- fiscal year 2017 national defense authorization act. and we do not add new people to the army, but we prevent it from being cut any further. and hopefully new congress and a new administration will take a different view as far as permitting further cuts in the army and of course in the other services. the only other point i would just mention is i take the gentle lady's point that the pay raise is $11 a month for an e-4, and yet, that's a co-pay to take a kid to the doctor. that's what the formula says it's supposed to be. if the formula is wrong, maybe we all need to look at that and redo t

mr. chairman. and again, i would like to thank all of the staff who spent countless hours working with us to develop this bill. i would like u to especially thank the chairman and his staff for working together on the readiness portion of the bill and also you, mr. chairman and ranking member smith. we have heard the service secretaries and the chiefs testify that readiness is at a critical junctiure and it addresses some of these crucial needs. we seek to improve training proficiency, facility susta sustainment, restoration and modernizati modernization. as part of our oversight responsibility, our mark requires reports on readiness challenges for the services including the sustainment of major weapons systems and our mark provides funding to support military installation in inf infrastructure activities. we did include provisions to clarify the use of maintenance funding and streamline the process for host nation construction while ensuring that congress continues to maintain effective oversight o

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, as the chairman said, i served 10 years as a title 2 rate regulator on the north dakota commission. i know what rate regulation looks like and the internet is not an appropriate vehicle or medium for this type of regulation. the internet is not a monopoly telephone company. it is not a monopoly electric or gas utility. the internet is a dynamic, competitive innovator and even the threat of this type of regulation stiffles that innovation and we don't want that to happen. i want to address the amendment that was referred to by the ranking member of the subcommittee who i have great respect for, but she referred to the term permanent fore barnes. that -- forbearance. that is a contradiction in terms. it is by definition temporary. he who has the authority to forbear has the authority to un forbear. that's why it was not adequate to this bill. this bill simply codifies that which the president of the united states and the chairman of the federal communications commission promise

mr. chairman. i have an amendment at the desk raise. >> at this staff would please distribute the amendment. [inaudible conversations] without objection the amendment is considered red in the gentleman from rhode island is recognizer five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. i will be brief. i offer this amendment today to ensure the m. d.a. is equipped with fly before you buy capability so that it may make the most cost-effective mission driven decision possible and cheering the redesign kill vehicle prevented the privilege of chairing the strategic forces subcommittee of few congresses ago and i believe this language is both helpful and necessary. not only does the missile defense agency of her with this type and this quality of testing but i believe many members of the subcommittee concur as well and i'm hoping this will be a bipartisan amendment and vote tonight on this amendment creates this amendment does not require any specific number of tests. let me repeat that, this amendment was this not

mr. chairman. the consent to call up package three with amendments that are worked and approved. >> without objection would the staff pass out the unblocked package. without objection, the gentlemen from virginia is recognized for five minutes. >> unblocked package number three is for the following. the amendments are known by mr. jones with real property. amendment 133 r 1 is going to construction for the arctic and subarctic environments. the amendments by mr. larson with accountability of acquisition. the amendment regarding software applications to manage requirements and personnel capabilities. amendment 182 with the defense generator and equipment center, amendment 217 regarding navy maintenance work and amendment 315 by mr. whitman to modify the table for a missing authorization. with that i yield back. >> is there a further discussion of the unblocked package? if not, those in favor say aye. those opposed say no? the ayes have it and the amendments are adopted. >> the staff will distribute

mr. chairman -- mr. chairman -- >> you are -- >> the time of the gentleman has -- >> unanimous request. >> gentlelady will state her request. >> unanimous request for a recess. >> object. >> chair now recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. hinojosa for five minutes. >> thank you, chairman and ranking member waters for holding this hearing on the annual state of the international finance system. welcome secretary lew. i'm pleased that you are testifying today. because this hearing gives us on this committee the opportunity to discuss the net bank in san antonio, texas. the net bank was created in 1994, as part of nafta, to alleviate the environmental concerns and economic problems that would be created by the movement of commerce and people to the u.s./mexico border region. since its creation over 20 years ago, the bank has made a tremendous improvement to some of the most impoverished communities in both nations, including towns and colonials in my congressional district and along the u.s./mexico border

mr. chairman. ron desantis: i thank the gentleman. mr. lyle, what was your experience with the drugs and how did you get prescribed to -- by the va? cole lyle: well, when i took the post deployment assessment. it was preliminary, i am not sure the timeline but there's a , time line that the va is required to give that once you return state side. i then went to a va facility in forth worth and tried to use their system. i eventually met with a psychologist at the va hospital in forth worth and prescribed the sleep aids and antidepressants. ron desantis: and why did they do that? was because of your symptoms? cole lyle: correct. when i returned, i was suffering from recurring nightmares and have acute anxiety attacks. i also just had difficulty with close interpersonal relationships. as i had mentioned previously, one of the side affects that goes large largely unnoticed is -- as a result of post-traumatic stress, there's a high divorce rate among military members. that also had affected me. it was not the direct case of the divorce, but it

mr. chairman. thank you both, mr. chairman and senator nelson for holding this hearing today and thank you administrator neffenge refor your time and service to this country. in your opinion denver recently. >> i was. >> a couple of weeks ago we received a letter from denver international airport my office did and talks about the attacks in brussels and underscoring the need to address the location of the tsa screening checkpoints at denver international airport and i think most people have had an opportunity to have a final departure from, destination of denver or have a layover in denver and understand this is the fifth busiest airport in the country, the 18th busiest in the world, and so this is a significant concern that they are sharing on the screening checkpoints in the great hall at dia. mr. chairman i ask i'd be able to submit this letter for the record. the ask permission to -- >> without objection. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i just wanted to talk to you a little bit about the innovation task force initiativ

mr. chairman. >> i thank the gentleman. the chair recognizes the gentleman from president 11th district of virginia, my good friend, mr. connolly. >> thank you, mr. chairman and just picking up on your last point. my colleague from iowa, gene, i don't want to you miss the opportunity, yes, of course we ought to implement your recommendations, but every dollar we invest in gao has what return on it? >> $134 back for every dollar invested. >> so to your point, i know it's not always a great idea, the conservative side of the aisle, but this one has a return and so investing in gao is very smart investment. >> and i join the gentleman in supporting his notion there that we need to invest more in gao. >> i thank the chair. hear that, gene? run with it. for god's sake, it's a special moment here. any rate, by the way, to mr. blum's questioning, too, this committee in the past has done i think some very thoughtful hearings on both the issue of improper payments, the largest single chunk of which identifiable chunk is medicare frau

mr. chairman. the security summit has been thus far a great success. in fact, part of the indication of its success is that the private sector members have requested, which we've honored, that we make it a permanent partnership going forward, because it has already demonstrated its great utility. we've been able to receive information from state tax commissioners as well as preparers about suspicious patterns. we've been able to exchange information, when we see suspicious patterns or security numbers that have been abused, we've been able to share that information in real-time with the private sector and with state tax preparers. as you noted, we agreed early on the information sharing center would be very helpful to increase the utility of that information and its availability. i would stress, the private sector and the irs and the states are all protective of individual taxpayer information. the information we're sharing is about patterns. it's about activities going on, but basically we're not

mr. chairman. >> mr. chairman? >> thank you very much. mr. rman, i continue to believe transparency and disclose your shareholders is of the utmost importance, both as a matter of corporate governance and investor protection. invest protection. spending is material to how shareholders decide where to invest and how to vote in corporate elections. within the past month both during and after the committee's nomination hearing, i asked both nominees for assurances that they understand the value of this important disclosure to share holders. i remain concerned that if they are confirmed, that they will continue to be on this matter for invest garrs on. for years i have been fighting and pushing sec commissioners to get started on and stay committed to this critical rule making and i led a charge to protect against appropriation bills and it's not just me and my colleagues. more than 1.1 million americans and received more attention than any rule making petition in the sec's history. as such, i will vote against these nominees and i believe that be

mr. chairman. would just remind all of our colleagues that you can't run a ship on biofuel and you also cannot fly airplanes on biofuel. you can certainly not do it in a cost-effective manner. in the last decade we have seen approximately 13 weeks of fuel provided for 10 years worth of effort when it comes to some of these provisions. it is not cost-effective. natural gas on the other hand in petroleum we have -- are vital to national defense regardless of whether domestic use may or may not be. you cannot operate heavy military equipment and many of the other things. if we are going to use examples about the high-performance military equipment that we use then we need to have truth in lending and what that i yield back mr. chair. >> other debate? mr. lamborn. >> i yield my time to my colleague in texas. >> this is no different than you and i driving up and down the street making sure we get the best gasoline price. we don't drive up at the station and pay 20 cents more when the lace across the str

mr. chairman. >> mr. chairman, i'd ask unanimous consent all of the members of the committee, as well as the members of the full committee who have been asked to sit in be allowed to supplement their verbal answers with written answers of the witnesses. >> approved. >> without any members seeking to be recognized for questions i'd like to thank the witnesses for their testimony today. now i'd like to call the witnesses for our second panel to the table. thank you again. >>> okay. start the second panel, i'd like to introduce the witnesses of our second panel for today's hearing started with mr. bruce sewell will lead off the second panel. mr. sewell is apple's general counsel and senior vice president of legal and global security. he serves on the executive board and oversees all matters including corporate governance and privacy. we thank you for being with us today and look forward to comments. also like to welcome amit yoran, the president of american security company. as president, responsible for deve

mr. chairman. good morning to you, members of the committee. we are pleased to be here today to discuss the sixth annual report on overlap duplication and also other opportunities to achieve cost savings and revenue enhancements. in ts report we introduced 92 new actions the congress and executive branch can take in 37 different areas. to give examples in the overlap duplication area we highlight 12 areas. for example, we found that the defense department is procuring commercial services for satellites and about 30% was spent outside their central procurement agency by the different services and other agencies throughout the department. as a result in this central agency the costs were about 15% less than purchasing it outside the central office. we think there is better money to be saved there. tens of billions. we also found nine referral programs at irs for whistleblowers and others to report improper activities that would give irs tips to follow up with tax enforcement purposes and potentially p

mr. chairman. thank you for holding this hearing to examine the efforts undertaken by the department of veteran affairs to provide service dogs to veterans of the u.s. armed forces to assist with treatment for post traumatic stress. i'd also like to thank today's panel witnesses for helping the committee with its work. and again, thank all our veterans in attendance and active military. it is the mission of the department of va to serve and honor the more than 21 million dedicated men and women who are america's veterans in fulfillment of president lincoln's historic commitment to "care for those who shall have borne the battle and for their widows and orphans." with the formal end of the u.s.-led combat mission in iraq in 2010, and in afghanistan in 2014, the return of over 2.7 million veterans from extended service in support of "operation iraqi freedom," "operation enduring freedom," and other war zone deployments, the fundamental duty of the va to provide dignified care to america's veterans an

mr. chairman. first of all good morning cheer, speakers can you pull the mic that a little bit closer to you? >> is that better? thank you to the chair and ranking member tom is, members of the committee. taken for the opportunity to discuss the debarment process on addressing the findings related to duplication from fragmentation and overlap in the department. i also want to add my thanks to those of the chair and the ranking member to the honorable mr. gene dodaro and the gao for the work that they do. candidly while one is not always happy to the we can be doing things better, the truth is we all know full well we can do things that. in fact, as the acting deputy chief management office for the department of defense that's my job description is to find those things. so to be perfect and honest having assisted in identifying opportunities bothers me not but also we look forward to continued work with the government accountability office. as the assistant deputy chief office manager i provide direc

mr. chairman. many say that in addition to bread, water is the staff of life. you are dealing with something that's critical and i thank you for all your passion about it. i really do. dedicating your life to it. everybody takes it for granted, we all do, until a kid gets violently ill or a woman has a miscarriage or there's rashes all over a body, then we go what have we done wrong, all of us together. we are in this together. this isn't an us versus them situation. as erik said it's all about our families. so when something goes wrong like that or when a child swims in a lake that has untreated sewage in it, and they get very ill because of it, everyone focuses on it. today we are focusing on it. we are focusing on other things that i believe are secondary because let me tell you something. we have spent so far $2 trillion in the war in iraq. i care about this country. i care about our kids being safe. and to say oh, we can't afford it, baloney. we could afford the war. thank god not with my vote

mr. chairman. >> senator scott? >> thank you, mr. chairman. good morning to the panel, thank you for taking the time to be here. we certainly appreciate your investment of time and your energies towards making sure the taxpayers' information is secure as possible and i know firsthand that identity theft is a air fiing experience, one that we should hope that all taxpayers have an opportunity to avoid. but the reality of it is that what we've seen over the last several years is too many taxpayers having too much information exposed inappropriately, very poor results. unfortunately there seems to be a systemic failure at the irs in protecting taxpayer information, despite repeated warnings that the irs needed to strengthen and modernize the protection of taxpayer information. due to these failures, i've received a number of emails from constituents throughout south carolina, one in the last couple of days, specifically from a taxpayer in lexington, south carolina, who seemed bewildered at what the federal government, specifically the irs is doin

mr. chairman, there are shortages of personnel. are more countries now contributing that may not have the same access to training. so will the united nations compromise the safety of young people in order to meet the numbers in the peacekeeping mission? if they do, the chairman and i will do everything we can to make sure they don't have the resources to do that. we are not going to support that type of activity. so there will be zero-tolerance, and they really do look forward to discussion we're going down with our two panels today. and i do know that the people that are in front of us are working everyday to make sure that the united states leadership makes it clear that we will not allow, tolerate that type of conduct, and we will demand particularly on the u.n. banner that there be total accountability and no tolerance for this type of activity. >> thank you, senator cardin. i very much appreciate your service here today. our first witness is isobel coleman, u.s. representative united states for human management and reform. our

mr. chairman, ranking member -- mr. chairman, ranking member, members of the subcommittee, on behalf of the high commissioner and the u.n. refugee agency, i'm pleased to appear before you to speak on the global refugee crisis, especially to bat cleanup for four heroes. on a personal note, it is also a particular thrill to testify today with bono whose advocacy on behalf of the world's poorest, pushed leaders to act and whose early music helped to shape my high school years. mr. chairman, you have my full statement for the record so i'll summarize, as well. as this subcommittee is well aware, world attention to refugees has perhaps never been greater. yet force displacement is nothing new and steadily growing and of 60 million uprooted people, some 20 million cross add international border and are therefore refugees while the remaining 40 million people are primarily those who are displaced within their own borders internally displaced persons. if the uprooted formed a single country, it would be the world's 24th largest.

mr. chairman. >> ex pound on the action that you're taking. because it appears that folks have said for almost a decade that it has been lack of training or improper training. that is ten years that this has been going on, or more. give me some concrete steps as to what you're doing, and have you really analyzed what the root cause of this issue is? >> yep. well, let me first start -- it's an excellent question and a very fair question. first of all, i want everybody to be clear, we do not have access or wait times in our performance measures. in other words, nobody is getting bonuses. there is no incentive whatsoever to be manipulating this financially as there was in the past. so i think thanks to your committee's work, we make sure that that isn't existing. so i'm going to go back to the fact that in general we mostly, of our 340,000 employees, have very, very good dedicated employees. we have bad systems in place. one of the things that we've talked about is this is our current scheduling syste

mr. chairman, i yield back. >> i thank the gentleman. the chair recognizes the gentleman from oklahoma, mr. russell, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, for all of our witnesses that are here today, we do appreciate what you do. i'm a big fan of our government counters and also our inspectors general and others that help us ferret out waste and have responsible government. mr. dodaro, the gao found that the commerce department's new innovative technologies manufacturing itm loan guarantee program was essentially performing the same function as four other loan guarantee programs. the program was set up, as you i'm sure are aware, as a result of the 2010 reauthorization of the america competes act. and congress specifically directed commerce to avoid duplication. given the preexisting programs, was it inevitable that itm would overlap with the existing loan programs or was there more that commerce could have done to avoid the now duplicate existing programs? >> we think there's more that could be done. we've made a reco

mr. jeffrey merrifield, chairman of the advanced reactors task force, nuclear infrastructure council. welcome, you're recognized for five minutes. ifield: thank you mr. very much. the commissioner of the u.s. regulatory commission -- >> would you move your microphone closer? merrifield: sorry, i got it. again, thank you very much. thank you ranking member rush. as former commission or the nuclear regulatory commission, i frequently testified before this committee. and again, it's an honor to be here this morning. today, i'm appearing in my role as chair of the u.s. nuclear infrastructure council advanced reactors task force. although, as mentioned, i'm in partner in the pillsbury law firm. my testimony will discuss provisions in hr 4979 on advanced reactors, as well as the proposed changes to the nrc procedures subject of the discussion draft offer the by congressman kenzinger. this salutes the focus and support for advanced reactors, as well as the budget reform provisions that provide funding for nrc to develop a modernized nuclear licensing framework for advanced nuclear technologie

mr. chairman. mr. dalrimple, in your written testimony, you state that the irs is making steady progress on a vast mantle of options recommended by the gao, in 2013 the treasury inspector general for tax administration recommended that the wage assessment division. why has the irs not acted on this recommendation yet? push your button, please. >> we have begun acting on the gao recommendation. we have a team of folks from across our various organizations looking at the referral program. we intend within the 60 days from date of the report to actually put together a timeline. our intentions at this point in time are to limit the number of organizations that have referrals. in other words, we intend to bring the referral process down to, you know, one centralized activity. and our intention is to at some point in time in the very near future have an online opportunity for taxpayers to make referrals. so we're, we're looking at all of the recommendations that have been made, both by the gao and the treasu

mr. chairman, i would like to ask unanimous consent to enter mr. brown's letter into the record. >> without objection. >> it's time to have a conversation about improving the aca and the lives of our constituents. i yield back the balance of my time. >> i now recognize the chairman of the full committee, mr. upton for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this hearing does continue the subcommittee's thoughtful and necessary oversight of the president's healthcare law. the $3.5 billion question is why cms is now diverting taxpayer dollars to insurance companies without any legal authority to do so. health law statute plainly states that a portion of the contributions to the reinsurance program must be given to the u.s. treasury. still, cms has chosen to violate the law by prioritizing reinsurance contributions to health insurers rather than allocating the required portion to the u.s. treasury. initially, cms followed the letter of the law. according to its final rule issued on march 11th, 2014, similar to its rule the prior year, cms planned to

mr. chairman. >> on behalf of chairman mccain, senator lee, please. >> thank you, mr. chairman, for calling this hearing. thanks to all of you, our witnesses, for your testimony today. the utah delegation had the opportunity to witness firsthand the rollout of the f-35 in the air force as the 388 and the 419 fighter wings at hill air force bass in ogg to deny, utah -- ogden, utah, prepare to reach capacity later this year. we've also been able to see the development of the logistics and maintenance functions of the f-35a at toking den air logistics complex which has been so effective that they've been called to assist both the marine corp.s and the navy in meeting the modernization goals for their respective variance of the f-35, and we're very proud of that. the men and women who are working to train on, test and to keep these jets in the air are models of american ingenuity and hard work and patriotism and dedication at its very best, and i hope this congress will provide them with the resources that they very much need in order to continue succeeding in their mission

mr. chairman. good morning to you, members of the committee. we are pleased to be here today to discuss the 6th annual report on overlap duplication and also other opportunities to achieve cost savings and revenue enhancements. in this report we introduced 92 new actions the congress and executive branch can take in 37 different areas. to give examples in the overlap duplication area we highlight 12 areas. for example, we found that the defense department is procuring commercial services for satellites and about 30% was spent outside their central procurement agency by the different services and other agencies throughout the department. as a result in this central agency the costs were about 15% less than purchasing it outside the central office. we think there is better money to be saved there. tens of billions. we also found nine referral programs for whistleblowers and others to report improper activities that would give irs tips to follow up with tax enforcement purposes and potentially produce

mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you, all, very much for being here today and for testifying. i certainly agree with all of the comments about the importance of aid. it is about our security and the impact of what's happening in europe affecting us in the united states because we do have trans-atlantic alliance that has been absolutely critical to world order. we had a hearing this morning in the foreign relations committee on isis and international terrorism. and one of the conclusions that i drew listening to the testimony and our witnesses generally agreed with this is that we've been good in the united states when it comes to military efforts. so we were successful in afghanistan in throwing out the taliban initially. we were successful in iraq and our military efforts. we've been working to try and take back territory from isil that has been successful. but we have been -- and we've been successful in efforts to support refugees and camps and to make sure that aid gets there. but we've been less succes

mr. chairman and members -- ms. waters: mr. chairman and members, my friends on the opposite side of the aisle talk about accountability and what congress' responsibility is and what the constitution says we should do. but i find it very interesting while they are claiming that he o.f.r. and fsoc should be given more oversight, they don't seem to really want to exercise the responsibility to do that. republicans claim that only when o.f.r. and fsoc are subject to annual appropriations process will these two entities be accountable to congress. however, how many times has financial services committee requested the director of the office of financial he -- research to testify? only one time. section 153 of the dodd-frank act requires that the o.f.r. director testify before our committee annually, and yet o.f.r. director has only been invited to testify once in the last four years. the only time being in march of 2013. that means for more than three years our committee under republican leadership has shirked its duties to oversee t

mr. chairman. >> i thank the gentlelady. we have exhausted the republicans on our side so i'll yield to ms. comstock and go to mr. connolly. >> mr. chairman, i didn't know it was that easy to exhaust the republicans. >> i'm still here, jerry. >> you got this one even with all my italian emergency. go ahead. >> thank you, mr. chairman. after seeing a little bit of the back and forth here, one of the things i'd like to recommend to all of my colleagues here is to focus on our new general manager here who has really set out some good things that we all can agree on. so there will be time later for some the food fights and some of the things we have seen here but i think where we need to focus right now is on what mr. wiedefeld has focused on, and i think a lot of our colleagues on a bipartisan basis agree on that. so i would encourage everybody as we go forward on this, let's work on all the things we agree on first before we start any of these of these fights. in that effort, i wanted to ask mr. -- i appreciate what mr. evans s

mr. chairman. if i were to receive more vipr teams i would be able to put them to use across the transportation system. i would deploy them more effectively with our partners in the surface world and deploy them to more public areas of our aviation environment. >> just one last question here. in the past year and a half we have seen repeated abuses of airport badges that grant access to areas of the airport. these are used by airport and airline workers to bypass t.s.a. screening check points and in this case facilitate criminal activities like gun and drug smuggling. these incidents have raised a lot of questions about whether our airports are vulnerable to an insider threat. and as i mentioned earlier in response along with our committee members senator nelson, cantwell, johnson, and klobuchar have introduced the act to help counter some of the aviation insider threats by improving the vetting, credentialing, and inspections of airport workers. do you think it's important to update and expand the

mr. chairman. >> senator toomey. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. cordray, welcome back. >> thank you. >> thanks for being here. as you know, section 1071 of the dodd-frank act instructs the bureau to collect data on small business lending. and i noticed recently that the cfpb has posted a job listing with reference to 1071, and it described the job as, and i quote, once in a career opportunity to make the market for small business finance fairer and more transparent. end quote. so is it, is it your intent that the market will become fairer and more transparent by virtue of the disclosure of data? is that -- >> i think that's clearly what congress said to us by mandating this -- >> well, it is your words in the job description, so that's why i want to understand your intelligent. >> i hope it is a good opportunity, and i hope you'll recommend candidates to us. >> okay. is so my question is, is it your intention that the bureau will limit its work in the small business space to the compilation of data? >> so what i would say is we don't have much aut

mr. defazio, chairman for his comments. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, you certainly laid out well the potential threats of a cyberattack against our critical electrical grid. we know there is constant probing, some of it being done by nation states, not just terrorist groups. nation states hostile to the u.s. and we need to be certain that we are as prepared, well prepared as we can be. the ukraine attack was perhaps a harbinger of things to come. i do believe, though, that the all-hazards approach can also cover the cyberattack area. the issue of probably most immediate concern to those of us who live in the northwestern united states is the threat of a cascadious subduction zone quake in the magnitude of 9 or 9-plus, which will inevitably knock out our grid. so there are going to be exercises conducted, two exercises this year with the cooperation of department of homeland security and all the local a state authorities in the region to simulate what would be possible in the face of that sort of a disaster. many of the problems that could occu

mr. chairman. i would like to, again, thank you for holding this hearing today on the nuclear power, which is highlighting the bill that i introduced last week, hr 4979 the act of 2016. i'd like to ask unanimous consent mr. chairman to enter several letters into the record. these letters are from the nuclear institute, the american nuclear society. >> without objection. >> thank you very much. it needs to start now with the nuclear regulatory commission is able to provide innovative technologies, 20% of the national energy portfolio must remain energy next. as the united states looks to the future more energy will be needed and nuclear power provides a reliable, clean based load power option. investment in new technologies is happening with approximately 50 companies in this country working to develop the next generation of nuclear power. again, that is why we have introduced hr 49/79 it's time for congress to ensure that nrc provides the framework so innovators are preparing to apply for licensing

mr. chairman. >> senator toomey? >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. cordray, welcome. >> thank you. >> -- back. thanks for being here. as you know, dodd-frank instructs the bureau to collect data on small business lending and i noticed recently the cfpb listed a job listing and it described the job as, and i quote, once in a career opportunity to make the market for small business finance fairer and more transparent. end quote. so is it -- is it your intent that the market will become fairer and more transparent by virtue of the disclosure of data? is that -- >> i think that's clearly what congress said to us by mandating this task. >> it is your words in the job description so that's why i want to understand your intent. >> i think it is a great opportunity and i hope you'll recommend candidates to us. >> so -- so my question is, is your intention that the bureau will limit the work in the small business lending space to the compilation of data? >> we don't have much authority in the small business lending area and so that is what our focus under our

mr. chairman. welcome to our panel. i represent virginia's fifth district from the northern piedmont to virginia to the north carolina border. the travel across my district are regularly hear from constituents concerned about jobs and the economy and the seemingly new normal in mr. to state here in washington that makes it more difficult for a main street small businesses to access capital to be successful. while the committee has been laser focused on legislation that would help our small businesses thrive and easy access to capital and told upon bipartisan success of the jobs act to make what important function is so telling congress' duty to conduct vigorous oversight of executive branch agencies. to assess constituents are concerned, i too am concerned the sec often deviate from his three-part mission to protect investors to maintain fair orderly and efficient markets and facilitate capital formation. viewing such as this allows congress to exercise its responsibility of proper oversight about h

mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. general milley, earlier this week lieutenant general mcmaster testified before the air land subcommittee. our chairman has alluded to this in the opening statement, but the quote is as follows. we are out-ranged and out-gunned by many potential adversaries. he also said our army in the future risks being too small to secure the nation. now, do you agree with this statement in whole or in part? >> in part. i think nhr is one -- i love them like a brother. to say many is an overstatement. >> okay. >> but to say we're -- the gap is closing. the capability gap is closing between major great adversaries, absolutely true. i think that was the intent of what he's trying to say. >> okay. >> in terms of the size of the force, i agree with his comment on the size of the force. out-ranged, out-gunned on the ground, i think it's a mixed bag. >> okay, are we out-ranged by any potential adversary at this point? >> yes. >> which ones would that be? >> the ones in europe, russia. on the ground. >> wou

mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. mr. chairman i continue to believe that transparency and disclosure to shareholders is of the utmost importance both as a matter of corporate governance and investor protection. corporate political spending is material to how shareholders decide where to invest their money and how to vote in corporate elections. within the past month both during and after the committee's nomination hearing i asked both sec nominations for assurances that they understand the value of this important disclosure to shareholders. after hearing and reading their responses i remain concerned if these two nominees are confirmed the sec will continue to obfuscate on this matter for investors. for years i have been fighting to pass my shareholder protection act in pushing sec commissioners and nominees to get started on and stay committed to this critical role may keen. i've also led a charge to protect against harmful riders intended to hide the influence of dark money in politics. it's not just me and my colleague

mr. chairman. >> thanks mr. chairman. >> i thank you all for your being here today and for your insights on this very challenging program. it is as complex as it is critical to our national defense and we should expect on this committee and the american public should anticipate that a weapons platform of this complexity will also have bumps in the road in its development and research. i take it none of you will disagree with that basic proposition. despite that bumpy road at some point, the f 35, as a whole, has already made significant advancements in a number of areas and in particular the f 135 program provides truly a fifth generational capability to the fleet. every low rate, initial production, lrip contract, as i understand it, for the f 30, 135 has been on or below coast, recent announcement of the llip lots 9 and 10 will bring the price down another 3.4% from the lrip. to date the 135, f 135 conventional take off and landing engine costs has been reduced by 47% since the initial flight test engines. the