robert gates, was asked to substantiate that he came back and told the head of the senate armed committee armed services committee. 11 was his name. he said, well, you know, we're looked into this and there is no evidence that anyone was harmed by virtue of these disclosures. so they couldn't substantiate that anyone so much was so much a spatter on en route in reaction to these truths coming out. so that's always, it's always a technique that the prosecutors use. ah, you know, where you think about the people that then hale saw being kills or, you know, gathering chest nuts are gathering grapes or whatever and being killed. who are these people? well, the powers that be the john brennan, of this world. consider those people well with the germans used to call on to mention went on ancient people that own boom boom below the rents. the rest of us mention ok. now, when he talked about his conscience, you know, my conscience is also formed by what we catholics call the preferential option for the poor. and the british british mica. and the vatican made that explicitly clear back in 1975. when they said her

committee on defense to discuss the president's fiscal year 2024 budget. next week both leaders are scheduled to testify before the senate armed services committee and the house armed services committee on dod's budget posture and future year's defense program. again, the secretary and chairman look forward to working with congress to provide service members serving around the world with the resources they need to accomplish the mission and strengthen america's national security for the 21st century and beyond. finally, on wednesday, secretary austin unveiled a comprehensive plan aimed at improving the lives of our dedicated military force and families. it consists of six actions that address needs and education, child care, parental leave and career advancement. the department of defense is committed to working with congress and other stake holders to ensure the successful implementation of these measures. the plan directs the following, kindergarten at dod schools, dependent care flexible spending accounts for service members, improvements to the exceptional family member program, expanded spouse eligibility for career advancement account financial assistance, an

both leaders are scheduled to testify before the senate armed services committee in the house armed services committee on diodes, budget posture and our future years defense program. again. the secretary and the chairman look forward to working with congress to provide our service members serving around the world with the resources that they need to accomplish diodes mission. and strengthen america's national security for the 21st century and beyond. finally on wednesday, secretary austin unveiled a comprehensive plan aimed at improving the lives of our dedicated military force and their families. the new plan consists of six additional actions that address essential needs and education, childcare, parental leave and career advancement. the department of defense is committed to working with congress and other stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of these measures . the plan directs the implementation of the following universal prekindergarten diode education activity schools. dependent care, flexible spending accounts for service members. promoting awareness of new military p

priorities before the senate armed services subcommittee on forces.c [inaudible conversations] >> called to order the meeting of the strategic forces subcommittee of the senate committee on armed our hearing today is on the subject of the space force. i want to thank general saltzman for being with us today, before this committee. and the purpose of hearing is to understand your visions and priorities for the space force as its second chief of space operations. while the budget for the department of defense and the space force has just been released, we plan toea have spae budget hearing which includes the space force later in may after we've had time to understand and detail the president's budget requests. there are many and come look at a topic such warning and launch. we'll take him to understand and are really not right for visiting today but we will take up in may. instead, the hearing will focus ond you, general saltzman. this is your opportunity to explain to the subcommittee and to the public how you will train and equip the space force as the department of defense separate military service and be a a present a forces to the combatant commanders in order to accomplish

armed servicings servicings-- armed services andn affairs committees. what should we expect from tiktok legislation. i found it really curious that the bill in the senatetiktok's name, it's just called social media. i'm wondering if joe biden is hiding behind that, he that he can basically sign the bill and never do anything because it doesn't say anything about tiktok. >> well, i can tell you that for me there's no doubt that joe biden's compromised by china but i love the fact that china of all people wants to talk about fair competition, the the exact same nation, the ccp, who actually steals billions of dollars from american companies every single year in intellectual property. you know, the bottom line is that even the ceo of tiktok said he doesn't allow his children to utilize tiktok. we know that this platform has been utilized to steal and try and harvest data from individuals here in the u.s., we know they that the u.s. government has already banned the tiktok app from being put into their phones so if we can see that it's a perceived threat and it does have the ability to try to do these things, why wouldn't we stop the ccp from continuing to

the united states armed services is facing a historic decline in military recruits under secretaries from the army, air force and navy testified before the senate armed services committeebout the new battle they're facing this month, the air force projected it's on track to miss its 2023 recruiting goal by 10. last year, the us army set a goal of 60,000 recruits. it fell short by 15,000 soldiers. even the best of times, a strong economy and low national unemployment have always made military recruiting difficult. to help boost recruitment. the biden administration has proposed its largest military pay increase in more than 20 years, but critics argue the proposal still lags behind inflation despite efforts for peace talks by china. ukraine says russia still using its drones to attack ukrainian officials say russia's latest missile strikes injured dozens of people, and it came just hours after china's president wrapped up a diplomatic visit to moscow. boxes. mike tobin has the story from keith. ukraine accuses russia of targeting civilians and residential areas in a slew of drone attacks wednesday. president vladimir zelensky posting this video online of what he says is

armed services officials testifying in washington about the challenges they're battling. the army is in a fierce competition for talent with the private sector. in testimony before the senate armed services committeearies from the army, air force and navy spoke to a new battle. they are facing historic decline in military recruits. we need decisive action today to meet our recruiting goals this month , the air force projected it's on track to miss its 2023 recruiting goal by 10. last year, the us army set a goal of 60,000 recruits fell short by 15,000 soldiers, even in the best of times, a strong economy and low national unemployment have always made military recruiting difficult. military leaders say their challenge to recruit has been made tougher by an increase in civilian opportunities topped by a decrease in interest among americans. to be all you can be in an effort to boost recruitment, the army this month relaunched its popular 1981 ad campaign. be all you can be like businesses. we continually adjust our recruiting strategies to attain success. top republican senator roger wicker took aim at the defense department's attempt to address the role that a small number of active duty military p

senate armed -- i con believe it when i heard it. couldn't believe it. but we asked senate armed services committee if this had ever happened in the history of america, the history of this senate, and the answer was they have no record of that ever happening before. and it's happening at an incredibly unusual and difficult time in the world's history with the biggest land war in europe since the second world war, china's sabre rattling in the pacific. we just had an hour's long session of the intelligence committee to hear the report from the head of the fbi, the head of the cia, the head of the nsa, the head of the defense intelligence agency, all of these folks coming together to say, this is what the threat looks like. this is the global threat that america faces. a geopolitical landscape more unsettled than at any point in my lifetime, madam president. and my understanding is that the senator from alabama has placed this unprecedented blanket hold because he objects to the department of defense's new policies to help our service members access reproductive care. and i'll have more to say about

senator warren. as we continue the bipartisan tradition of the armed services committee in developing the national defense authorization act. i'm on four committees and this is my first subcommittee to be a ranking member. the armed services committee is the one committee that actually works well together. i think we will continue to do a great job with the national defense authorization act again this year. everyone here is supporting our men and women in uniform and their families. where prioritizing the morale of servicemembers, and i'm eager to continue that work as a ranking member. there is a routing crisis. if current trends continue, the army, navy and air force will fail to achieve this this year. maybe by 10,000 recruits each. this would be the first time in history that it has failed to meet the recruiting mission. the subcommittee must make it our top priority to do whatever we can to fix it. i'm concerned that in the midst of this challenging recruiting environment, the navy has decided to lower enlistment standards. this had disastrous results before. i am a navy veteran, i joined at age 18. i probably did more swabbing the decks and cleaning then being a radar man. i'm also the son of a world war i