mr. courtney: -- chip mr. courtney: -- the chair: mr. courtney. mr. courtney: tomorrow at hartford there's going to be a sendoff for the connecticut national guard 192nd battalion heading off to afghanistan and you know first of all, they were given notice almost 16 days ago to the day that they were being sent over and i realize this is not in your lane in terms of making the decisions about reaching into guard and reserve units. but frankly folks are scratching their heads, we're at a force level of about 10,000, guard and reserve, there was an understanding and acceptance back in the surge days, when we had hundreds of thousands of people over in the middle east you know, tapping into the guard at this point and frankly doing it with almost the bare notice required by law is something that again, folks are struggling with. so first of all, i guess i would ask you, i don't mean to put you on the spot but if you were in front of those families tomorrow night, you know what you would share with them i'm not asking you to explain the decision making pro

mr. courtney: -- chip mr. courtney: -- the chair: mr. courtney. mr. courtney: tomorrow at hartford there's going to be a sendoff for the connecticut national guard 192nd battalion heading off to afghanistan and you know, first of all, they were given notice almost 16 days ago to the day that they were being sent over and i realize this is not in your lane in terms of making the decisions about reaching into guard and reserve units. but frankly folks are scratching their heads, we're at a force level of about 10,000, guard and reserve, there was an understanding and acceptance back in the surge days, when we had hundreds of thousands of people over in the middle east, you know, tapping into the guard at this point and frankly doing it with almost the bare notice required by law is something that again folks are struggling with. so first of all, i guess i would ask you, i don't mean to put you on the spot but if you were in front of those families tomorrow night, you know what you would share with them, i'm not asking you to explain the decision making p

mr. courtney's name for the? record? i don't think he introduced himself -- we'll give a few minutes for the room to clear for those who don't want to endure the rest of the meeting. >> we are now continuing. we are on item no. 3 the general manager's report. >> thank you commissioners. just a couple of announcements. i did want to take a moment this morning starting off the meeting to remember a dear friend of the rec and park department, joe leonardi, who was the president of the crocker amazon bofi ball club who passed away last month. joe grew up in the city and was an unwavering champion of the sport/game of bocce club members. he will be missed, but his legacy of love of game, love of sport and love of camaraderie. i would like to bring our team to the commission next month. they are traveling to sacramento right now to receive the ipm innovator award from the california department of pesticide regulation. with more than 220 park and over 4,000 acres of space, it did require anne or innovation, creative and dedicat

mr. courtney's name for the? record? i don't think he introduced himself -- we'll give a few minutes for the room to clear for those who don't want to endure the rest of the meeting.

mr. courtney. >> thank you mr. chairman and i want to thank the secretary and general for your service and all of the witnesses here today. i think when the historians write the book on this administration, one of the overlooked achievements was the new start treaty which was ratified on a bipartisan basis. and in the wake of it, we've heart a lot of testimony at the c-power committee about the triad is going to change as a result of the realignment that the treaty created in terms of the leg of the triad that will carry the heaviest burden is the sea based deterrence, about 7% according to the navy witnesses we've had here. in the wake of that and the existing ohio fleet, admiral greenert, secretary stackly and yesterday secretary mavis made it clear the navy program is at the top of the list, because of the timing and even with the president's robust of timing work, which is another reason we should support the top line, there is really just no margin for delay in terms of making sure that we're going to be able

mr. courtney. >> thank you mr. chairman and thank you general for your endurance and service. tomorrow night at the state armory in hartford there's going to be a sendoff for the connecticut army national guard 182nd police battalion. we are heading off to afghanistan and first of all they were given noticed almost 60 days ago to the day that they were being sent over and i realize this is not sorted in your lane in terms of making the decisions about reaching into guard and reserve units. what i would say is that frankly there are folks who are scratching their heads that if we are to force level of 10,000 you know guard and reserves i think there's an understanding and acceptance back during the surge days when we had hundreds of thousands of people in the middle east tapping into the guard at this point and frankly doing it with almost the bear notice required by law as something that again folks are struggling with. so first of all i guess i would ask you and i don't mean to put you on the spot if you are in front of those families tomorrow night what you would share with

mr. courtney. we now turn. secretary michio, secretary james, thank you for the articulation of the threaded sequestration as you are all aware today. the house budget committee will unveil its budget and it will be funding the department of defense that the sequestration number, which i oppose and i appreciate your articulation of what happens. i have had the conversation with most of you that the more we talk in this room about the effects of sequestration the leslie wayne. we've got to get the message outside of this room. we use words like readiness risk, capability, michigan. general odierno, i will ask for worse beyond readiness, risk capability. he testified her to% of our brigades are ready. when our sustained readiness rate should be closer to 70%. this number is disturbing because it is significant to our military but the effects of it when a brigade combat team were bct which is the building block of the power isn't ready in the army isn't ready to fight, could you describe to us? doesn't this mean m

mr. courtney. >> thank you mr. chairman and i want to thank the secretary and general for your service and all of the witnesses here today. i think when the historians write the book on this administration, one of the overlooked achievements was the new start treaty which was ratified on a bipartisan basis. and in the wake of it we've heart a lot of testimony at the c-power committee about the triad is going to change as a result of the realignment that the treaty created in terms of the leg of the triad that will carry the heaviest burden is the sea based deterrence about 7% according to the navy witnesses we've had here. in the wake of that and the existing ohio fleet admiral greenert, secretary stackly and yesterday secretary mavis made it clear the navy program is at the top of the list, because of the timing and even with the president's robust of timing work which is another reason we should support the top line there is really just no margin for delay in terms of making sure that we're going to be able to im

mr. courtney. >> thank you mr. chairman and i want to thank the secretary and general for your service and all of the witnesses here today. i think when the historians write the book on this administration, one of the overlooked achievements was the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty which was ratified on a bipartisan basis. and in the wake of it, we've heard a lot of testimony at the c-power committee about the fact that the triad is going to change as a result of the you know, realignment that the treaty created in terms of the leg of the triad that's going to carry the heaviest burden is the sea-based deterrence. about 70% according to some of the navy witnesses that we've had here. in the wake of that and the aging out of the existing ohio fleet, admiral greenert, secretary stackly, yesterday secretary mabus made it crystal clear that the ohio replacement program is at the absolute top of the list because the timing, even with the president's robust funding for design work, which again is another reason why we should suppor

mr. courtney: thank you mr. speaker. and i want to first of all salute congressman doggett for his effort in terms of bringing this legislation forward. as the chairman of the committee said this is really about giving patients the fighting chance to challenge this coding change that happens while people are in the hospital and have absolutely no idea that they're not being treated as part of in-patient. being coded as observation may sound extremely arcane. what that means is at a time of discharge, if a patient is medically prescribed to go to a nursing home for rehab care for a broken bone or for home health services for a heart condition, they are not covered by medicare if they're in the observation bucket as opposed to the in-patient bucket. and the inspector general's office for medicare issued a report in 2012 that 600,000 patients across the country with long-stay hospital visits over three days fell into this black hole, this no man's land where again, their doctors are telling them they need to have rehab serv

mr. courtney: thank you, mr. speaker and i thank the gentlelady from new york. i rise in opposition to the rule and to the previous question to as she just stated, would allow consideration of h.r. 1434, the act. mr. speaker, there is an emergency out there for young americans who are trapped in high interest rate student loans. the federal reserve bank has tallied that. it is $1.3 trillion of overhang in the u.s. economy. and none other than the former republican governor of the state of indiana and the former budget director under george bush testified before the education committee the other day, and this is what he said, research from the pew research center shows that today's 20-year-olds and 30-year-olds are delaying marriage, delaying childbearing both unhelpful trends from an economic and social standpoint. between 25% and 40% of borrowers report postponing homes, cars and other major purchases. they say their student loans increase their risk of defaulting on other bills. there are 7 1/2 million young americans who are behind on their student loans and

mr. courtney. thank you, mr. chairman. thank you general for your endurance and service.tomorrow night at the state armory in hartford there will be a sendoff for the connecticut army national guard, 192nd military police battalion who are heading off to afghanistan. and first of all they were given notice almost 60 days ago to the day that they were being sent over. i realize this is not sort of in your lane in terms of making the decisions about region into guard and reserve units. what i would say is that franklin our folks were kind of scratching their head if we're at a force level of about 10,000, you know, guard and reserves, there was a big an understanding and acceptance back into the search days when we had hundreds of thousands of people in the middle east, you know, tapping into the guard at this point and, frankly, doing it with almost at their notice required by law is something that again, folks are struggling with. so first of all i would ask you i don't mean to put you on the spot, but if you were in front of those families tomorrow night you know, what y

mr. courtney within the past week, introduce his bill. and i want to see if the gentleman has a position on this. it's the bank on students emergency loan refinancing act. what it would do, it would allow eligible student loan borrowers to refinance their private and federal loans. as the gentleman knows. if you have an auto loan or if you have a home loan if you have a business loan, you can often if qualified, refinance those loans, as interest rates change and the markets change. right now you can't do that with student loans. how do you think this would change the debt load that young people are carrying today, if they could take that student loan to the marketplace, and find competitive refinancing rates? mr. boyle: i am proud to be a co-sponsor of representative courtney's bill. elizabeth warren is the sponsor in the senate. of the companion legislation. this would have a transformative effect on helping those who right now are struggling with the student loan payment. so many of the ideas that we have are more geared toward those w

. >> thank you, we now proceed to congressman courtney of connecticut. >> thank you, mr. chairman and i want to thank all the witnesses being here. it is a critical week for the budget resolution being put together, and frankly, you know, we're forewarned by you all being here and that is very important. secretary mavis, i want to, again, acknowledge the fact that your testimony on page 16 points out that during your tenure, the ship building trajectory is on a upward angle contrary to some of the noise that is out there and also we want to make sure to note that you're doing this with every public forum. compared to 2009, we have turned the direction in terms of military ship building under your leadership. it will have a benefit for decades to come. the question of the day is sequestration and budget controlled caps is a better way to make sure people understand this. and if you could just briefly talk about if the department is left with the bca caps, what does that mean in terms of trying to grow the size of the fleet? >> thank you, congressman. if we go back to bca,