he is the head of omb. he took a pass on it. do not assume this administration, anytime soon, is going to agree to eliminate or raise a cap on social security. it will not happen. it will only happen if good people in a bipartisan way come together to solve problems of social security and medicare. [applause] moderator: congressman, i will give you another bite at the apple. rep. cramer: my first question is what is your bill number on doing that? sen. heitkamp: i was not the one saying we had not done anything. [cheers and applause] sen. heitkamp: i asked the administration to do it. i asked mulvaney to do it. why not? he is the head of omb. there should be no leadership in the white house? on fixing this? he walked away from it. what he wanted to do, what the president's head of omb wanted to do was raise the age to 70. i said good luck to the oilfield worker who has been working his whole life, knowing he has to work until 70 to get social security. that was his plan. [applause] rep. cramer: first of all, this is the first ti

will see that be the toughest budget yet and he's made that statement and they're fleshing it out at omb. so the combination of lower spending and faster economic growth through the tax cuts is our policy, it's the policy that's working and i think certainly as a share of gdp the budget deficit will be coming down each and every year. it clocked in at, what, 3.8 or 3.9% of gdp. it actually came in $100 billion less than cbo thought. too high, don't get me wrong, but we're gaining on it. >> do you think the deficit will come down or is the administration committed to having it come down? >> both. both. i think it will come down because of faster economic growth and i think the administration is committed to policies that will restrain government, in effect. look, president trump, as you know, is a very successful former businessman, doesn't care much for waste. he is going to go after it. his promise a couple weeks ago of a 5% reduction in nonentitlement domestic spending, i can't recall anything quite so tough. by the way, people say all the money is in the big entitlements. actually it'

this is because executive order 12866, especially subsection 3.f.1 requires additional omb scrutiny of any regulation which has significant economic impact, which is defined as $100 million so the departments were answering each question to make the number bigger to make sure they weren't within a million miles of $100 million and that's why those numbers are bigger than they ought to be. >> counsel, i'd like to ask you some questions about the merits of the injunction since we basically spent most of the time so far on venue and standing primarily. what does interim mean to you? >> well, an interim final rule is one that has been issued that it goes into effect and afterwards, the agencies will accept comments and then subsequently issue a final rule. >> and how long was the interim rule in effect in this case? >> the interim final rule went into effect on october 6, 2017, and the court -- the district court in this case entered the nation wilde preliminary injunction on december 12th so a little over 2 months. >> okay. and i guess my concern with, at least with the briefing, was the

congress resumes session next week and senators jeff flake and chris ombs will call for a vote to ensure he cannot be fired. >> they plan to sue over new rules that will make it harder for those central american migrants to get into the country. the administration wants to block them from claiming asee mu -- asylum. that means they cannot get asylum and would be quickly deported. the group of thousands of men, women, and children are 600 miles from the border. more o the lawsuit coming up with news 4's tracie potts. >> here's the other top stories today. ruth bader ginsburg is recovering after breaking three ribs. she fl inside of her court office earlier thisweek she was admitted to george washington university hospital yesterday morning. >> a catholic priest for a d.c. church is facing two new allegations of inappropriate behavior. he was arrested on wednesday on child sex abuse charges. a teenage girl says he reached down her shirt at the shrine of the sacred heart. he has been removed from the ministry. >> starting today and through the weekend, the roads around reagan national airpo

you think about de-regulation under one fine omb director mick mulvaney. he has been leading a tremendous effort to reduce the regulations that were put in place by the obama administration. from a pure economic point of view, a lot of people associate surprise side economics purely with tax cuts, but the more accurate way of thinking about supply side economics is to also consider things like how de-regulation is a pure supply side benefit. when you lower the cost of firms, you make them more globally competitive and you get a twofer there, which is essentially growth in a noninflationary way, which is the best kind of growth there is. unleashing the energy sector and ending the war on coal is in the same spirit of the beneficial supply side affect, where you get your manufacturers more competitive globally, and you put more purchasing power in the hands of american consumers so that you get that kind of benefit. steel and aluminum tariffs. what has that done? what it has not done is the gloom and doom of the traditional economics profession where tariffs

>> and then to be clear, have you received guidance from omb saying a new level has been set at 700, this is your mission, go ahead and do it? >> you mean has mick mulvaney sent me a memo? no, but he called me on the phone and said here's the assignment. let's get to work on it. you know, i talk to the folks at omb all the time. >> i'm a former marine public affairs officer and freelance writer for defense publications. realizing there are many, what's your biggest acquisition challenge, be it military hardware, work with space command? what keeps you up at night worrying about acquisition for what area? >> that's good. maybe i will kind of loosely kind of walk you through. the number one when i think of -- so i always think of like well, where the big dollars flow; right? i mean it is easy to chase in the department of defense a lot of shiny objects. the top of my list is the sustainment for the f-35. >> [inaudible]. >> well, so it's -- when you think of -- so that's one. i've got more. you know, the second is, and this goes back i think to these questions about how do we transition

it is noted there is omb, when you are thinking about federal procurement policies and legal teams need to get together from the department of justice etc. this is a whole of government effort that is being managed by the white house. there are specific things that dhs and dod are committing to do with each other because of our unique authorities and oversight of the networks we have oversight on. >> secretary, would you like to add anything to your original answer? >> i would just concur that this is a government focus, there are a number of different agencies with authorities and expertise. it has been working very closely for my observation. >> i would end with it has to be all of government approach. we need to make sure we track it down at all aspects. absolutely, that is where it has to come from and it has to go down to the lowest level. >> you feel like you are on target with your mission and goals? >> the supply-chain challenges are hard. this is one of those ones that we cannot fall off target. we need to stay focused on this and, unfortunately, i hate to tell you we will neve

mick mulvaney was the head of the omb for president trump and he fourth a tremendously insightful budget that started to whittle away at the wastespe could, and it was ignored by everybody, it appears. and congress just went about its habits that had been inherited from democrats, republicans. as i said, appropriators are kind of a group unto themselves. they did it for various reasons. some of the conservative members said, we want to have defense spending increase, so we'll cut a deal with the liberals and increase domestic spending and welfare spending. others said, we like these programs. why aren't you spending more to the trump administration and it's truly a disappointing issue. when i was there in the '90s, we actually balanced the budget. and it was hard, but it took willpower from john kasich and newt gingrich, who basically told the appropriators, you're going to chair this committee, but only if you agree to -- with us that we're going to cut spending. >> do you think we'll see a pla balanced budget again? >> i think it will take a long time and it will take a political effor

rapuano noted, there's omb, office of management and budget when you think about federal procurement policy. legal teams need to get together from the proper justice, et cetera. this is a whole of government effort that is being managed by the white house. there are specific things that dhs and dod are committing to do with each other because of our unique authorities in oversight over the networks that we have the oversight on. >> secretary rapuano, would you like to write anything to your original answer? >> i would concur that this is a whole of government focus because there are a number of different agencies with authority and responsibility and expertise. and it is been working very close at least from my observation. >> i would just in with it has to be a whole of government approach. it has to go down to the lowest level. >> and you feel like you are on target with reaching your mission and your goals in that era? >> the supply chain challenges is incredibly hard. this is one of those ones we cannot fall off the target. we have to stay focused. i hate to tell you we will neve

rapuano said there is omb budget when you are thinking about the legal teams need to get together from the department of justice, et cetera and this is a whole of government effort being managed by the white house and there are specific things that dhs and dod are committing to do with each other because of our unique authorities over the networks that we have the oversight on. >> secretary, would you like to add anything to your original answer? >> i would concur with the secretary. this is while of government focus because there are responsibilities and expertise and it has been working very closely at least from my observation. i would end with it has to be a whole of government approach and we have to track it down in all aspects and it has to go down to the lowest levels. >> do you feel like you're on target with each intermission and the goals in that area. the supply chain challenges is incredibly hard and this is one of those ones and we have to stay focused on this and unfortunately, we'll never, quote, get there and we'll have to continually be shaking windows or back doors,

the current situation with the omb director also overseeing on an acting basis the consumer financialrotection, people may not like it, but that is the way the law was written, and it's in place for a while. president clinton and obama both had the opportunity and did use that statute. it is pretty clear, i don't see a challenge. thismportant thing is question of somebody who didn't have the respect of the president and who was clearly not on a day to day running this large bureaucracy, that is behind us, and it's time to move forward and get somebody in there. we need a decision, we need a leader. kevin: could that somebody be you? >> i doubt it. i may be good at organization but somebody who served as a u.s. attorney, someone who served in the fbi, would likely be a better choice. there are a great number of people that have served in one of our -- or more of those bureaucracies. kevin: how important is it for whomever is nominated to tell the confirmation hearing, essentially, on the issue about whether they would recuse themselves or work to fire the deputy attorney general robert

you'll see that be the toughest budget yet and he's made that statement and they're fleshing it out at omb. so the combination of lower spending and faster economic growth due to tax cuts is a policy, it's a policy that's working and i think certainly as a share of gdp, the budget deficit will be coming down each and every year. it clocked in at what, 3.8 or 3.9% of gdp. and 100 billion less than cbo thought. too high, don't get me wrong. we're gaining on it. >> you think the deficit is coming down or the administration is committed to having it come down? >> both, both. i think it will come down because of faster economic growth and i think the administration is committed to policies that will restrain government in effect. look. president trump is, as you know, a very successful former businessman. doesn't care much for waste. he's going to go after -- his promise, what he said a couple weeks ago of a 5% reduction in nonentitlement domestic spending, i can't recall anything quite so tough and by the way, people say well, all the money is in the big entitlements. actually it's not. >> the

the interagency process, your office, nsa, omb, the department of defense, you have indicated you will fire up this industrial base. are there others that we should be paying attention to? i'm sure the budget process is one. these are the key lines of effort for how you translate economic security as national security to direct policy. certainly an ongoing concern is going to be maintaining a healthy defense budget in which we not only spend sufficient dollars but we spend them wisely. nexte at the cusp of the industrial revolution where we are moving into the industries the manufacturing process will be radically altered, where we have things like ai technology which will radically change the battlefield , space is increasingly coming into play. surep concern is to make that we spend that money wisely and over the years we keep making those expenditures. the way to end this is to say this is why economic and national security -- of we don't engage on economic policies we need to grow, we will not have the taxpayers to fund what we need for a national security. dr. navarro, thank you f

and the omb doesn't have staff to review, the largest and most important regulations. the whole game continues to be played year after year with regulations coming out and only a few of them actually reviewed by the president. in addition it is illegitimate for another reason and that is the president has no role of significance in lawmaking accept the approval of the things congress approves. to say it is just as legitimate to have the president there because he is elected as to say nothing really, because the president, the mere fact that he is elected doesn't give him the authority under the constitution to make a law. so really, this is what i call a fig leaf by people who want administrative agencies to continue to have the authority they have, they turn to the president, and they all work for the president theoretically. and not really for democracy in their own way. for congress to give this authority. >> so the other defense of chevron's these are written so broadly it is hard to pin down a single meaning and that brings us to the other major focus of your book

ships, airplanes come equipment to get to that spending for the military and look at the president's omb all at the same time. >> when the issue of infrastructure spending came up and sat for a moment, whatever happened to that? we know what happened to it and we can afford to do it because of the deficit in the tax cuts. david: $1.5 trillion plan is what it was. >> yeah, right. it's nowhere. i think you're right that a democratic congress would want in theory to work with the president on not except for the fact we can't pay for it. by charles come you got me thinking. the left-leaning tenant is we used to talk about that. what else. something the democratic congress would work with them on. >> i think that's a slam dunk. >> trade is a really big issue. we talked about this earlier, but the new u.s.-mexico canada trade agreement has a lot of labor for money, union friendly provisions particularly for the auto sector and we could get them working with democrats in congress on that. >> and i'm just be the pessimist on the panel? i hope that happens, but what we are more likely to see from

omb our feature speaker is robert source, the first ig for nsa. he was involved in the oversight , having served as senior counsel to the ig at the doj. he even served as prosecutor of the northern district of new york. you will be interviewed by the , with aellow at cato special focus on national security and intelligence surveillance, and prior to that, at arsan economist technica. we turn it over to you. >> thank you so much, for taking your precious time. by talking about your approach, i think the first signals when this happened, you might be doing something doingently -- b things differently from your predecessors, when you released a public version of what you have presented to congress, that i think was the first of it was done. somebody asked, how big is your office, and the response was, i have to make sure that that is a number i can divulge publicly, don't worry, it was something he metellus soon after, but in an agency where the default is that even fax that might seem mundane are by default secret, it looks like you decided to take

directly over these things because the number is a great and he doesn't have the staff in the end and omb doesn't have the staff to review any but the largest and most important violation. the whole game continues to be played year after year with these regulations coming out in only a few actually reviewed by the president but in addition it is legitimate for another reason and that is the president has no role of significance in lawmaking except the approval of the things that congress approves. and to say it is just as legitimate to have the president they are because he's elected as to say, nothing really. the mere fact that he is elected doesn't give him the authority under the constitution to make a law. ... way in which congress goes awry writing these statutes. the question of when they write a statue, whether it's a communication 34 sane public standard or whatever, they are not legislating anything. delegating power to the agencies said they should import the non-delegation doctrine by sending these back to congress and telling congress to do it all over again. >> that's one way

when i was a reagan cub scout in omb. we're really ripping along here. >> larry, i appreciate your time very much. thank you for joining us we'll talk to you soon >> i appreciate it, too. >> thank you very much good to visitwith you. the president's top economic adviser. let's go around the horn rich, you first. >> we had monetary policy, exceptionally aggressive post crisis, and in 2015 the fed started tightening and has tightened eight times since then now we just added fiscal policy stimulative through tax reform and we're seeing everything he's talking about with jobs growth, economic gains and today the available workers -- in other words, the number of jobs available exceeds the number available workers. so if i look back in my three-plus decades of investing, this is an amazing environment to be running capital and to be owning common stocks >> as you can see what the market is doing, the market seemed to move lower on mr. kudlow's comments that a deal with china was not imminent. in fact, that the president did no

so i think in the budget that omb is crafting right now, you will see significant spending cuts, notin the entitlement programs, because in the near term the budget deficit problem is in the discretionary spending. the entitlements, in a few years and that will have to be addressed, but right now you can have significant impact on both the deficit and national debt by cutting government spending on discretionary programs. dan: what do you think that will do to the defense budget over four or five years? mr. bolton: in the near term, i think it is going to flatten out. i don't think there's much question about that. i think the president and the defense department have put a lot of emphasis on things like procurement reform and finding ways to reduce costs across a wide variety of areas. i think in the reagan years, when there was a big defense buildup, there was perhaps not so much emphasis on cost cutting and taking costs out. i think that is the difference here. hopefully, although the budget may not be in an upward curve, the effect of spending the money will increase. dan: let's

to submitting it in a budget as a budget request, our process working through osd and in through the omb effort, we're limited on top line total, and i can't ask for everything. so we prioritize across there. we do start with safety first, and then we move through compliance and our efforts across all of those fleets. and once we have our -- the operational utility evaluation out in march we'll have a better understanding of how this plays. we are seeing improvements, as you said, sir, the wyoming guard unit is seeing an ability to get better efficiencies out of the aircraft which is certainly something that we're interested in across our fleet. >> thanks, lieutenant general harris. we'll now go to our ranking member mr. courtney. >> thank you, mr. chairman. one quick question, admiral khan. you described the replacement program for the c2 planes. and, again, just for the benefit of the people watching this who don't know the acronyms, those are the prop planes that, again, deliver people and cargo to aircraft carriers and land with a tail hook, and they're going to be replaced by the mv

it's about how you sift these pieces together and enter agency process the national security council omb the department of defense. clearly you have indicated you are going to follow up and that's a threat of activity is going to keep pushing this objective. are there others we should be paying attention to? i'm sure the budget process is one but others say it pointed to that say these are the key lines of effort on how you translate national security to direct policy? >> well certainly an ongoing concern is going to be maintaining a healthy defense budget in which we not only spend sufficient dollars but we spend them wisely. we are at the cusp of the next industrial revolution where we are moving into the industries of the future where a the manufacturing process will be radically altered, where we have technology which will radically change the battlefield. space is increasingly coming into play and so a deep concern is to make sure we spend that money, spend it wisely and over the years keep making those expenditures and the way to end this with you to say this is why economic securi

another commission looking at executive ranch overseeing itself looking particularly at the control omb and of jao and how they control aspects of the federal government. our here to introduce featured speaker. robert sorts. prior to joining an essay was involved in the oversight and ig world having served on the oig .s -- of the doj he also chaired the whistleblower ombudsman working group. interviewed by julian sanchez, senior fellow at cato. on national security and intelligence surveillance. prior to that, he was an economist at reason magazine. >> thank you very much and thank you for taking some of your precious time to subject yourself to this. [laughter] about to start by talking your approach. hadfirst signals some of us that you might be doing things differently from some of your isdecessors at nsa -- that when you released a public version of your semiannual report to congress. something that had not --viously been public though i don't think anyone would imagine it would endanger national security. , i asked time we met how big your office was in your response was -- i have

regardless of what comes out of the budget process, it begins with ideas at omb and ends with people like richard shelby on capitol hill. i am convinced that the veterans budget, by the time it gets through both chambers of congress, will replace this last veterans budget as the largest in our history. >> do you think that even if you offer up suggested budget cuts, you will walk out of the next budget process with more money? >> you can address that question to senator shelby. [laughter] >> let me tag on, you will be walking into a congress that has democrats in charge of gavels. questions might be different. requests for oversight might be different. how is your job going to change? >> i have been through this before. virginia johnson from the uso was there with me when the department of defense and secretary gates saw the congress change hands. i believe in transparency. i believe in oversight. i was raised in the united states senate. i take article one seriously. there is a reason people smarter than me made it the first article of the constitution. i will answer questions. i ha

i talk to the folks at omb all the time. >> this gentleman here. >> yes, sir, a former marine public affairs officer and defense freelance writer. realizing there are many, what's your biggest acquisition challenge, be it military hardware, work with space command? what keeps you up at night worrying about acquisition for what area? >> that's good. there are multiple themes there. maybe i'll just kind of loosely kind of walk you through the number one -- so i always think of like, well, where are the big dollars? it's easy to chase in the department of defense a lot of shiny objects. the top of my list is sustainment for the f-35. so -- well, you know, so it's -- when you think of -- so that's one i've got more. you know, the second is -- and this goes back to the question of how do we transition as the systems we've built are more susceptible to cyber and other environmental changes. i think digital modernization is another really important area for us. because we will have to transition to a new environment. you can see how rapidly technology is evolving there. whether it's weapons

we've got former omb director david stockman with us he's pounding the table on his bearish market call the top of the hour th ttime, "halftime" is back th ttime, "halftime" is back wihe final trades straight i don't know what's going on. th ttime, "halftime" is back wihe final trades straight i've done all sorts of research, read earnings reports, looked at chart patterns. i've even built my own historic trading model. and you're still not sure if you want to make the trade? ahead. and answer all your toughest questions. sounds perfect. see, your stress level was here and i got you down to here, i've done my job. call for a strategy gut check with td ameritrade. ♪ >>> we're back we'll go around the horn, do final trades farmer jim, you're up first. >> i'll take the stand, apple. i think it's a low hurdle to clear for them i think the stock is priced attractively i'm comfortable in the market overall, relying on apple to power us through tomorrow. >> steve >> credit card companies, visa, mastercard they've still got a long way to go well, you know the 5%, 10% to get back to the highs. i

defense department is currently in the process of finishing up its version of the budget to go forward to omb for the fy '20 budget proposal and of course that will come out with the president's budget in february for what we plan for next year, but overall over 1,000 f-35-as is the air force intention currently. >> so speaking of the marines, there have been some reports that the marines are going to fly their f-35-b in the coming days in their first combat mission. any word on when the air force might do its first combat mission with the f-35-a? >> i read about the f-35-b in the paper this morning as well and i marked down -- so the three service secretaries get together, we get together for breakfast every two weeks and we sometimes get together on the weekends with our spouses to have dinner. we actually get along very well, which is, i guess, historically has not been the case, but there's a lot of good fun in it and this next week i think will be particularly interesting as the air force/navy game is coming up. so there will be pranks in the pentagon. i wrote that down in my book to ask

but we just learned last week the interim final rules are now omb, the laste stop before the rule becomes published. it may be that this appeal becomes moot if the rule becomes finalized. judge graber: i have a question about that. appreciatel, i would both parties submitting a citations, if they have any, the fact thatte you just alluded to. it would be subject to judicial notice. but if that is true, shouldn't we simply defer ruling on this case until we determine whether it is moot? ms. eisenberg: that is an available option for the court. i have no estimate on when the rule will become finalized. .t may set their that is certainly an option available to the court. judge graber: i should say i share, to a certain extent, judge wallace's frustration. oftentimes -- the fact that the government stipulated could suggest they see more urgency than the current argument to the states. ms. eisenberg: i believe that is absolutely right. i think that is a reasonable inference because it is one thing to be coming into court arguing that there is no irreparable harm in balancing the equities were

looking particularly at the control agencies of gao, opm, and omb and how they control aspects of the federal government. so i'm here early to introduce our featured speaker. it's robert storch. the first appointed ig for nsa. prior to nsa, was involved in the oversight and ig world. having served to the deputy ig and chair to the whistle blower ombudsman working group. and previously served as a prosecutor in new york. be interviewed by julian sanchez, senior fellow who studies issues on national security and intelligence surveillance. and prior to that he was -- so i turn it over to you, julian, to speak with the inspector general. >> thank you very much. thank you for taking some of your precious time to subject yourself to this grilling. i want to start by talking about your approach, i think the first signal some of us had that you might be doing things differently from some of your predecessors at nsa was when you released a public version of your semiannual report to congress. something that had not previously been public. though it was, i mean, i don't think there's anything a

and when i was omb director with bill clinton, we were able to pass a similar budget. and the combination of those budgets helped a great deal. it helped to produce a balanced budget and a surplus. that was great accomplishment and an important one for the country. but whether it was that or whether it was serving people in my district, whether it was working in the cia and providing intelligence and doing the osama bin laden operation, whether it was the secretary of defense working with those great men and women in uniform, the whole purpose is to make this a better country and to do things that give people a chance at a better life. and there is no greater reward in public service. you know, you don't make a lot of money in public service, but if you can help others have a better life, that's probably the best reward you could ever receive. >> thank you. e.the political environment into which you both worked in the house of representatives with jack murtha was different than the environment in which representatives cheney and panetta work today. how is it different

does appear that rules will sit at omb for months at a time. it may sit there for several months moving forward, but that is certainly an option available to the court. >> i should say that i share to a certain extent the frustration of judge wallace for the appeal of preliminary injunctions because they can be helpful to shape the legal issues in the case, but often times, it is better if the trial and the final answer from the district court, but the fact that the government stipulated could suggest they see less urgency than their argument today states. >> i believe that is absolutely right judge, and i think that is a reasonable inference because it is one thing to be coming into court arguing there is no irreparable harm and balancing the equity moving core, but simultaneously stained action which would allow the parties to dispose the clearance and see whether not they had the expertise to challenge the declarations on the merit. >> i am not sure if fully answers my question and the state of california is well aware of our rules. we had a

omb, office management budget, thinking about procurement policy, legal teams need to get together from department of justice, etc. this is a governmental effort being managed by the white house. there are specific things dhs and dod are committing to do with each other because of unique authorities and oversight of the networks we have oversight on. >> secretary, would you like to add anything to your original answer? >> i would concur with the secretary. this is a whole of government focus, there are a number of agencies with authorities and responsibilities and expertise. it has been working closely from my observation. >> it has to be a whole of government approach. we have to make sure we track it down in all aspects. absolutely that is where it has to come from and it has to go to lowest levels. >> you feel like you are on target with reaching our mission and goals in that area? >> the supply chains challenge is incredibly hard. this is one of those ones, we cannot fall off target. we have to stay focused the entire time. we will never "get there." there will always be bad guys sh

what we have in doing since then is working with intelligence community, department of defense, gsa, omb, working through -- what are the barriers to civilian agencies being able to best manage third-party risk? it is a fairly monumental problem. it requires thinking about things like procurement, which is challenging, but we are taking it on. we are doing it with all agencies at the table. effort, oneementary of the other national risk assessments was about supply chains specifically. we have an entire initiative, we set up a supply chain task force with partners in i.t. and communications industries, every major player that has a role in delivering technology to the government and the broader citizenry in our country and frankly, globally. their working to get perspective on what federal government could be doing better but also how can we make the ecosystem more secure so we are not so dependent on technology that is developed and delivered from countries that we are not ok with the laws they have in place? it is a challenging problem but we have the mechanisms. >> you are pleased wit

the number we are starting to hear from omb and a national security advisor, it would be about $33 billion less for that year than was expected. again, we are at $716 billion in this fiscal year, which has already begun as of october 1 and the expectation, as many know, others may not, is that we would be at $733 billion, that is the combination of the base defense budget, overseas contingency operation and nuclear activities. and now we are hearing talk that we would be around $700 billion. you may not love the number, but is that one you think you can live with? jim: i can live with the number, i do not love it. the test will be, if you look at the difference between the 733 budget, $733 billion and $700 billion, did the difference come out of core structure, readiness or future capabilities? so if the answer is to do a cut across all accounts, that is not strategy. if you are going to have a strategy driven budget, including the lower number for defense, you should be emphasizing the capabilities of that support and the quality of forces that support the strategy, which is rightly focus

as former omb director, the last budget for this president required a deal with the devils on spendingrtisan because the military and taxes, everybody walked away a winner for the upcoming budget in february, the president said 5% cuts on domestic agencies across the board. a, do you think that can happen, and b, is it enough? >> b is easy to answer no, it isn't close to enough it is probably a good idea, in many cases you ought to go deeper, identify things that are obsolete or failed year after year but the fundamental reality and everybody in washington knows it, you're not going to do anything to avert the debt disaster until you reform and save the safety net programs anybody that cares about senior citizens, about the future of medicare should be demanding major changes right now in those programs otherwise they're going to go broke and fail the people they are meant to serve meanwhile, they'll take this nation over a niagara of debt that's going to lead to some very unfortunate reports on your show in the future economically. >> you know, that sounds much like senator allen simp

we look forward to working with omb and our interagency colleagues to get the proposed rule finalized so that the public can comment. next, i am pleased to report that last week, the department sent capitol hill a new legislative proposal, the space act. as directed by sbd 2, the proposal calls for creating a consolidated bureau of space commerce to be led by a senate confirmed assistant secretary. the agency will report directly to the secretary, coordinating all the department's space efforts and supporting the department's larger mission of creating conditions for economic growth and opportunity. included in the legislative proposal is a provision for mission authorization that will enable america to support a wide range of new space activities. to be clear, the proposal should not be mistaken as expanding government. it is just the opposite. working with the regulatory reform office, the bureau will better coordinate, consolidate, and connect space functions across the department. the bureau will serve as a much-needed storefront for industry within the government. as a priority o

house and senate and the budget committees, per the discussion earlier with senator perdue, plus the omb and the president all need to work together to try to address the issues here if this commission can reach a bipartisan, nonpartisan consensus on this, hopefully the members of this committee can reach across the capitol here and talk to our colleagues in the house and democrats and republicans can work together in a concerted way to solve these problems. that's my plea to all of you. finally, i think that -- we know that the strategic concept of the defense department is if there's a conflict, for example, in the south china sea, we have to move a bunch of assets over there as soon as possible but we don't have the logistical capability to do that. so we found beau toth the strat perplexing and the need for resourcing. both of those things are true. that's also true on the strategy of dealing with our competitors, russia and china have an area capability that we used to be able to deal with. now we will find it difficult without new weapons. while the strategy calls for getting into

the executiven branch overseeing itself, looking particularly at the control agencies of gao, opm and omb and how they control aspects of of the federal government. i'm here to introduce our featured speaker and his interlocutor, robert storch, the first presidentially-appointed i.g. for nsa. and having served at the oig of doj as the senior counsel for the i.g. and deputy i.g. and chaired the sigi's whistleblower ombudsman working group. and he will be interviewed by julian sanchez, senior fellow at cato, who studies issues of technology, privacy and civil liberties with a special focus on national security and intelligence surveillance. and prior to that he was at the economist and reason magazine, so i turn it over to you, swriewl yanker to speak with -- turn it over to you, julian, to speak with inspector general storch. >> thank you so much. and thank you for suggesting yourself to this. [laughter] i want to start by talking about your approach, i think the first signal some of us have that you might be doing things differently from some of your predecessors at nsa was when you relea

there are ombs off of the management budget, legal teams net to get together so this is a whole government effort being managed by the white house and there are specific things dhs and dod are committing to do because of unique authorities and oversight over networks we have oversight in. >> would you like to add anything to the original answer? >> the whole government focus, and abilities and expertise and working closely from my observation. >> has to be a whole government approach and track it down in all aspects. to the lowest levels. >> what are the goals in that area? >> this is one of the ones to stay focused on the entire time. i hate to tell you we will never get there. they are shaking windows and backdoors trying to get into the systems, weapons systems. any supply chain piece off of the shelf will do what they can, they go like water to the least dependent place. >> i yield back. >> mister scott. >> when you mention the word procurement in this field, i imagine you spend weeks in committee meetings on that. we are looking forward to your input on how to handle the procurement.