mr. sullivan i just got back from north carolina, parking dispute.t's the first report out of the local police. is that true? >> that's what they are saying. you have to remember in this stage of the investigation that's all they have there is no proof this will be a hate crime if there ever will be. there is a lot of suspicion as you heard the family saying that they suspect that something is going on here. the dad was on tvtv or the day before saying his daughter told him she had several run ins with mr. hix where it seemed clear to her that her religion was a problem for him. other neighbors said hix was fine. clearly a troublemaker. fine when barcot lived there with a male roommate. when his wife moved in with him it got more tense. they suspect it was clearly evident then they. >> muslims because they were wearing head wear. >> he is an atheist and he hates all religion. the quotes are vial about all religions. i guess it t. is possible because there with a demonstrable attire religion that might have set him off. mr. benson, how do you see this

mr. sullivan. mr. tillis. >> no instructions. >> mr. lee. >> mr. graham. >> aye by proxy. mr. cruz. >> aye by proxy. mr. reed. aye. >> mr. nelson. mr. mccaskill. mr. manchin. miss shaheen. mrs. gillibrand. mr. blumenthal. mr. donnelly. mr. hirono. mr. kaine. >> aye by proxy. >> mr. king. mr. heinrich. mr. chairman. >> aye. >> 25 ayes, one no instruction. >> then the motion will be reported favorably of dr. carter's nomination to the senate to the floor of the senate and hopefully we can get a vote perhaps even as early as tomorrow. >> do you want to keep it open? >> we'll leave it opened for senator sullivan to make his wishes known for a while. i'm sure this committee meets today to receive testimony on our nation's defense budget and priorities from the bipartisan national defense panel. this group of former military leaders, members of congress and pentagon officials who served under republican and democratic presidents released their unanimous recommendations in a report on our nation's defense strategy last year. we have with us today two distinguished members of the nati

mr. sullivan. mr. lee. mr. graham. mr. cruz. mr. reid. mr. nelson. mrs. gillibrand. mr. donnelly. mr. king. mr. heinreich. mr. chairman? >> 25 ayes, one no instruction. >> it will be reported favorably to the floor of the senate and hopefully we can get a vote perhaps even as early as tomorrow. >> do you want to keep it open for sullivan to vote? >> no. we'll leave it open for senator sullivan to make his wishes known. for awhile. the armed services committee meets today to receive testimony on our nation's defense budget and priorities from the bipartisan national defense panel. this group of former military leaders, members of congress and pentagon officials that served release a report on our nation's defense strategy last year. we have with us two distinguish distinguished members with us today. they are among the most respected defense experts on both sides of the aisle. we're grateful for you to appear before us today. also dr. william perry for his leadership and the panels members and staff for their diligent work. the national defense panel's bipartisan and consensus report i

mr. chairman. >> senator sullivan? >> thank you, mr. chairman, and i want to also thank the members of the commission, the great work that you've been doing for the country now and before. i first want to get a sense of kind of the big mac row issues the competing issues that you have seen mr. chairman as part of your mandate. and in particular what i was interested in, is there a concern about the projected growth of benefits, of retirement that ultimately will be or could be taking away from training and readiness? i think we all want to make sure we're taking care of our troops. i think, though, sometimes what gets lost is ultimately the best way to take care of them is to make sure if and when they need to go fight that they come home alive. and was that is that an issue that the committee, the commission has had to deal with on a broad scale this kind of tex between competing issues that we're looking at with regard to military expenditures. >> mr. chairman can i take that question? >> senator sullivan, thank you very much for your

mr. sullivan. >> no instructions. >> mr. lee. >> mr. graham. >> aye by proxy. mr. cruz, aye by approximate which. mr. reid. aye. >> mr. nelson. mr. castle. mr. manson. miss shaheen. mrs. gillibrand. mr. blumenthal. mr. donnelly. mr. ono. mr. cane. >> aye by proxy. >> mr. king. mr. heinrich. mr. chairman. >> aye. >> 25 ayes, one no instruction. >> then the motion will be reported favorably of dr. carter's nomination to the senate to the floor of the senate and hopefully we can get a vote perhaps even as early as tomorrow. >> do you want to keep it open? >> we'll leave it opened for senator sullivan to make his wishes known for a while. i'm sure this committee meets today to receive testimony on our nation's defense budget and priorities from the bipartisan national defense panel. this group of former military leaders, members of congress and pentagon officials who served under republican and democratic presidents released their unanimous recommendations in a report on our nation's defense strategy last year. we have with us today two distinguished members of the nat

mr. chairman. >> senator sullivan. >> thank you mr. chairman.e members of the commission. the great work that you have been doing for the country. now and before. i first want to get a sense of kind of the big macro issues, the competing issues that you have seen mr. chairman, as part of your amandamandate. and in particular what i was interested in is is there a concern about the projected growth of benefits, of retirement, that ultimately will be or could be taking away from training and readiness? i think we all want to make sure we're taking care of our troops. i think though sometimes what gets lost is ultimately the best way to take care of them is to make sure if and when they need to go fight that they come home alive. and with was -- is that an issue that the committee, the commission has had to deal with on a broad scale? this kind of tension between competing issues that we're looking at with regard to military expenditures. >> mr. chairman, can i take that question? >> senator sullivan, thank you very much for your question. i knew t

mr. chairman. >> senator sullivan. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and again, i want to thank the panelists. i appreciate your great service to our country and the joint statement. it's very helpful when we get those kind of joint statements. you know, we've been discussing a lot of the challenges certainly that we have as a country in terms of national security. we also have a lot of strengths. to me the ultimate strength that we have is men and women in uniform who continue to volunteer, raise their right hand, post-9/11 so, they know what the risks are to serve our country. i've had the great honor, i get to spend a lot of time with our troops. i'm sure that was a great part of both of your jobs. and just in the last two weekends i was at the national training center a couple weekends ago with thousands of young alaskan soldiers, training out there. and this past weekend i was with a smaller group of anglico marines reserveists. and this time with the troops for me raises a very interesting question i'd like the two of you to maybe comment on. what we hear from our civilian leaders a lot,

mr. chairman. >> senator sullivan. >> thank you mr. chairman. and i wanted to also thank the members of the commission. the great work that you have been doing for the country. now and before. i first want to get a sense of kind of the big macro issues the competing issues that you have seen, mr. chairman, as part of your amandamandate. and in particular what i was interested in is is there a concern about the projected growth of benefits, of retirement, that ultimately will be or could be taking away from training and readiness? i think we all want to make sure we're taking care of our troops. i think though sometimes what gets lost is ultimately the best way to take care of them is to make sure if and when they need to go fight that they come home alive. and with was -- is that an issue that the committee, the commission has had to deal with on a broad scale? this kind of tension between competing issues that we're looking at with regard to military expenditures. >> mr. chairman, can i take that question? >> senator sullivan, thank you very mu

mr. sullivan: mr.president last night tens of millions of americans watched the super bowl a game that's become something of a national tradition, an american holiday. and for good reason -- competition, grit, hard work can bring out the best in all of us, but not all americans were watching. last night just like every other night of the year, there were young american men and women humbly and without complaint shouldering the burden of protecting their fellow citizens from harm. some were doing this overseas in places both familiar and unfamiliar to us, and others were here in america doing the hard training that is necessary to hone their warrior skills to protect us. mr. president, i had the privilege of being with thousands of these fine young americans last night at the army's national training center what's called n.t.c., at fort irwin, california. just like in the super bowl, they were in the field engaged in fierce competition force-on-force operations as part of some of the best, most challeng

mr. chairman. >> colonel sullivan. >> thank you, mr. chairman. gentlemen, thank you for your wonderful service to our country. i just wanted to echo what senator wicker mentioned or colonel wicker in terms of general mattis' comments yesterday about the strategic aspects from a national security perspective of the national debt that we have racked up over the last several years, 18 trillion increasing. i think we all say we are struggling with the issues of sequestration and issues of readiness but with the broader issues of how our fiscal situation this country impacts national security. so appreciate the testimony here. i also appreciate the focus on what is happening and what potentially could be happening with regard to training readiness of morale particularly given the global security threats that i know we all recognize are out there. similar to senator shaheen i would like to focus a little more local impacts. i think it's important to the people that we represent also here the potential for local impacts could be with regard to sequestra

mr. chair. >> senator sullivan. >> dr. carter i wanted to go back to the issue of iran for a moment. under the chairman's we've had some tremendous witnesses over the last three weeks testifying on strategic challenges and how to think through them. dr. kissinger's testimony in particular was very powerful. he said as we kind of struggle with these we collectively, in the legislative branch executive branch these strategic issues and challenges, that we need to ask ourselves questions. and the first one -- and i think in his view the most important one -- was what do we seek to prevent, no matter how it happens, and if necessary alone. i'll repeat that. what do we seek to prevent, no matter how we prevent it and if necessary, alone. in your view, would preventing iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon fall into that first category that dr. kissinger laid out? >> yes. yes. >> okay. thank you. second, i want to get back to the issue we talked about a little bit earlier this issue of kind of being straight up with not only congress and the american people on our challenges, i think you've

mr. chair. >> senator sullivan. >> dr. carter i wanted to go back to the issue of iran for a moment. under the chairman's we've had some tremendous witnesses over the last three weeks testifying on strategic challenges and how to think through them. dr. kissinger's testimony in particular was very powerful. he said as we kind of struggle with these we collectively, in the legislative branch executive branch these strategic issues and challenges, that we need to ask ourselves questions. and the first one -- and i think in his view the most important one -- was what do we seek to prevent, no matter how it happens, and if necessary alone. i'll repeat that. what do we seek to prevent, no matter how we prevent it and if necessary, alone. in your view, would preventing iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon fall into that first category that dr. kissinger laid out? >> yes. yes. >> okay. thank you. second, i want to get back to the issue we talked about a little bit earlier this issue of kind of being straight up with not only congress and the american people on our challenges, i think you've

mr. chairman. my time has expired. >> kernel sullivan. >> thank you, mr. chairman thank you for your wonderful service to our country. i just wanted to echo what the general and what the kernel have mentioned in terms of the general's comments in terms of strategic aspects from a national security perspective of the national debt that we have racked up over the last several years am $18 trillion, and it is increasing. we all see that we are struggling with the issues of sequestration and readiness and how this fiscal situation in this country actually impact national security. we appreciate the testimony here and also the focus on what is happening with regard to training and readiness and row and though global security threats that we all recognize are out there and is similar to senator shaheen i would like to focus on local impact. it's important that the people that we represent also here, then it could be with regard to sequestration. and i'm sure all of you gentlemen would agree that alaska is one of the most strategic and military places that we hav

sullivan. >> thank you, mr. chair and thank you, gentlemen. mr. rasmussen congratulations on your recent appointment. so i want to follow up on senator king's questions. there's a little discussion here about guantanamo how it potentially weakens national security that you made in your testimony, at the same time, i think we would all agree that allowing no imperative -- terrorist back on the battlefield to engage our troops, citizens, also weakens our national security. i think that that is one of the big concerns. back on the certainly this committee and members of congress. and i'm certain also members of the administration. so from a broad perspective of of the remaining gitmo detainees, how many are currently assessed to be higher medium risk? >> senator, i don't have those numbers of my fingertips. if you're referring to the assessments that were done by gtmo back in the last decade my impression is, snowing -- knowing the population of that which was already transferred using those categories, i think we have transferred most of those who a

sullivan. >> thank you, mr. chair and thank you, gentlemen. mr.rasmussen, congratulations on your recent appointment. so i want to follow up on senator king's questions. there's a lot of discussion here about guantanamo -- how it potentially weakens national security that you made in your system testimony. at the same time, i think we would all agree that allowing known terrorists back on the battlefield to engage our troops, our citizens, also weakens our national security. and i think that that is one of the big concerns, certainly of this committee and members of congress. and i'm certain also members of the administration. so from a broad perspective, of the remaining gtmo detainees how many are currently assessed to be high or medium risk? >> senator, i don't have those numbers at my fingertips. if you're referring to the assessments that were done by gtmo back in the last decade, my impression is, knowing the population of that which we've transferred most of those who are low-risk. but i don't know the precise data. >> but i mean, of the cu

sullivan. >> thank you, mr. chair and thank you, gentlemen. mr. rasmussen, congratulations on your recent appointment. i want to follow-up on senator king's questions. there's a lot of discussion here about how guantanamo potentially weakens national security that you made in your testimony. at the same time, i think we would all agree that allowing known terrorists back on the battlefield to engage our troops, our citizens, also weakens our national security. i think that that is one of the big concerns, certainly of the -- this committee and members of congress. and, i'm certain, also members of the administration. so from a broad perspective, of the remaining gitmo detainees, how many are currently assessed to be high or movement risk? >> senator, i don't have those numbers at my fingertips. if you're referring to the assessments that were done by j.t.f. gitmo back in the last decade, my impression is, knowing the population of that which we already transferred, using those categories, i think we have transferred most of those who are low risk.

after senator sullivan is finished with his question. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and dr. carter, i want to thank you for your service and your family, your wife and kids. i know how much they go through in these hearings. sometimes it's tougher on them than it is the nominees. i want to to start with just a little history and geography. 1935 general mitchell often referred to as the father of the air force was testifying in front of congress. he said quote, i believe in the future whoever holds this place will hold the world. it is the most important strategic place in the world. it is the most central place in the world for aircraft and that is true either of europe, asia or north america. you know what place general mitchell was referring to in his testimony in 1935? >> i think, senator it was alaska. >> correct it was alaska. do you agree with general mitchell? >> i do i point out that one proof of what he said, i suppose suppose, is that your state is home to one of our principle missile defense batteries and the reason for that is it's kind of on the way to and from

after senator sullivan is finished with his question. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and dr. carter, i want to thank you for your service and your family, your wife and kids. i know how much they go through in these hearings. sometimes it's tougher on them than it is the nominees. i want to to start with just a little history and geography. 1935 general mitchell often referred to as the father of the air force was testifying in front of congress. he said quote, i believe in the future whoever holds this place will hold the world. it is the most important strategic place in the world. it is the most central place in the world for aircraft and that is true either of europe, asia or north america. you know what place general mitchell was referring to in his testimony in 1935? >> i think, senator it was alaska. >> correct it was alaska. do you agree with general mitchell? >> i do i point out that one proof of what he said, i suppose suppose, is that your state is home to one of our principle missile defense batteries and the reason for that is it's kind of on the way to and from

after senator sullivan is finished with his question. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and dr. carter, i want to thank you for your service and your family, your wife and kids. i know how much they go through in these hearings. sometimes it's tougher on them than it is the nominees. i want to to start with just a little history and geography. 1935 general mitchell often referred to as the father of the air force was testifying in front of congress. he said quote, i believe in the future whoever holds this place will hold the world. it is the most important strategic place in the world. it is the most central place in the world for aircraft and that is true either of europe, asia or north america. you know what place general mitchell was referring to in his testimony in 1935? >> i think, senator it was alaska. >> correct it was alaska. do you agree with general mitchell? >> i do i point out that one proof of what he said, i suppose suppose, is that your state is home to one of our principle missile defense batteries and the reason for that is it's kind of on the way to and from

. >> after senator sullivan is finished with his questions. >> thank you mr. chairman. and doctor kafrter i want to thank you for your service and particularly your family, your wife and kids. i know how much they go through in these hearings. sometimes it's tougher on them than the nominees. i want to thank them as well. i wanted to start with a little history and geography. 1935 general billy mitchell, often referred to as the father of the air force was testifying in front of congress. he said, quote, i believe that in the future whoever holds blank this place will hold the world. it is the most important strategic place in the world. it is the most central place in the world for aircraft and the that is true either of europe, asia or north america. do you know what place general mitchell was referring to in his testimony in 1935? >> i think senator, it was alaska. >> correct it was alaska. >> do you agree with general mitchell? >> i do. i point out that one proof of what he said i suppose, is that your state is home to one of our principle missile defense batteries.

mrs. o'leary's cow for the great chicago fire, or now we blame hey leg sullivan. the great fire of london began in a bakery on putting lane. we blame the british for burning washington, d.c. in 1814, and the earthquakes in san francisco in 1906. maybe we don't know because this fire happened in the middle of the civil war. but we know that the union army burned atlanta. who burned columbia? sherman and his fiendish hell hounds sherman and his demons wrote a poet, sherman and his army of villains, wrote grace brown elmore. what did sherman say in reply to these charges? in his official report, sherman blamed confederate general wade hampton. as he explains, hampton had ordered that all cotton should be moved into the streets and fired, to prevent us from making use of it. the bales were cut open, free from the ropes and backing and tufts of cotton were blown about in the wind, so as to resemble a snowstorm, and these piles were burning. as night fell, and wind picked up, the fire spread beyond the efforts of soldiers to control them. sherman argued, union soldiers

mr. chairman, which are fundamental to the spirit of this great nation. almost two centuries later justice william brennan would write the historic 1964 "new york times" versus sullivanecision that quote, debates on public issues should be uninhibited, rowbust and wide open. i believe president madison and justice brennan would be particularly proud of the rigorous, robust and unfettered debate that has led us to this historic moment and what a moment it is. i believe the framers would be pleased to see these principles embodied on a flat form that has become such an important part of our lives. i also believe they never envisioned a government that would include the input in leadership of women, people of color and immigrants or that there would be an open process where nearly 4 million citizens have had a direct conversation with their government. they would be extremely amazed because we are extremely amazed.5a so, here we are 224 years later at a pivotal fork in the road. poised to preserve those same virtue virtues of a democratic society. free speech. freedom of religion, a free press, freedom of assembly and a functioning, free market. as we look around the wo

mr. chairman, which are fundamental to the spirit of this great nation. almost two centuries later justice william brennan would write the historic 1964 " new york times" vs. syllabus -- sullivanecision that debates on public issues should be on inhibited, robust, and wide open. i believe predecessor madison and justice brennan would be proud of the rigorous, robust, and unfettered debate that has led us to this historic moment and what a moment it is. i believe the framers would be pleased to see these principles embodied on a platform that has become such an important part of our lives. i also believe they never envisioned a government that would include the input and leadership of women, people of color, and immigrants or that there would be an open process where nearly 4 million citizens have had a direct conversation with their government. they would be extremely amazed, i would venture to say, because we are extremely amazed. so, here we are 224 years later at a pivotal fork in the road. poised to preserve those same virtues of a democratic society -- freeze each, freedom of religion, -- free speech freedom of assembly and a functioning free market. as we look around the

mr. sullivan: i ask unanimous consent to call off the quorum. the presiding officer: without objection. million sullivan: i have eight unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i had--i'd ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be rescinded. the presiding officer: wowcts. mr. cornyn: mr. president on tuesday next week, israeli prime minister binyamin netanyahu will make an historic address before the congress. this is his third address as prime minister of israel. at the invitation of speaker boehner, he's coming to discuss iran's nuclear ambitions and the ongoing p-5 plus-one negotiations as well as the rise of th