postal service headline,rticular this 11 postal service marks straight years of financial loss. kevin kosar, what is the r street institute and why are you interested in what is going on with the postal service. 11 straight years of financial r street institute is a think tank in washington, d.c., we cover a variety of issues, energy policy, criminal justice reform, postal ional reform and policy, which is something i learned at congressional research service, where i worked decade. host: the postal service loss, ing at a financial quasi government entity expected to turn a profit each year? service used tal to be a government aigence and to n 1970, it was rebirthed the postal service and gave it freedom that typical government said, you need to cover operating cost and for years, postal service did reasonably well at that, but for the last decade it's been a them. road for host: what is main reason behind driver es, the biggest of that? guest: two things. that it is cost intensive business, postal ervice has to deliver everywhere. t is required to do it six days, by unionized w

services. so that -- again, because the local jurisdictions don't have authority and jurisdiction over t.n.c.s, this -- the ability to levy some type of fine -- excuse me -- fee or surcharge, would have to be allowed either by the state through cpuc or some other state mechanism. there are some models for this, and there are some cities that do have accessibility surcharges. seattle, chicago, both have a surcharge that goes into an accessibility fund. and, again, point number three, i already mentioned, san francisco doesn't have direct jurisdiction it would have to be allowed by some kind of state action. maryland is also an interesting case study, maryland has a similar jurisdiction where the states have jurisdiction over t.n.c.s and in 2015, the state of maryland did pass or did make it possible for the local jurisdictions to levy this type of surcharge. so it's a good model for our location and we have thought through if the -- how to improve the available on-demand services and if there we

yeah.: yeah, the relationship between congress and the postal service mildly.y, to put it postal service is supposed to be cover ess, supposed to its cost, provide services in a manner, but ent meanwhile, the postal service is a creature of our democratic mean, it didn't get created in the private sector, it was created by representatives in congress. you see the postal service being pulled in different directions, it is not congressmen and congresswoman are peculiar with peculiar ideas postal service should do, what they are doing s reflecting what their constituents want f. constituents want something like the postal service to carry live scorpions, which the postal service does, congress asks the to do it.vice it is an uneasy thing to run a enterprise with a democratically elected public behind it. host: comments and questions on twitter. james says, deliver the mail a week, monday, thursday and saturday, wild and wonderful asks kevin kosar, what any, are regulations on other ex?riers such as ups or fed guest: oh, well, like any other regulations ject to that a government entity would

of their actual service use for the baseline services. and separately, the baseline charges are assessed on a budgetary basis, so when actual spending is below budget which it has been for the past several years, d.t. will go through a process where they credit customers with a portion of the charges, the process is not defined anywhere and not transparent. and so the net effect of all this -- >> big departments are subsidizing the little departments. >> that's right. >> because the big departments, they tend to just use less also. so, sort of like the cause and effect relationship with the cost sharing is kind of broken. i think the primary negative effect of all this, d.t. customers don't understand what they are paying for and according to our survey, they want to understand what they are paying for and want to choose what services they are getting from d.t. so another way that d.t. recovers costs is through what i'll call project-based work orders. so, this is funding that is to cover service requests that can't be accomplished within

we're grateful for your service. [applause] >> since we're getting punchdrunk up your i have a bunch of items. we can vote on the now but i guess in is the time maybe we'll just forgo it and leave for another day. madam secretary, could you please announce the date of the next meeting. >> the next meeting of the fcc is thursday december 14, 2017. >> that the commission meeting is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

provides the s.f.govtv services, networking services, data centers service, a wide range of enterprise application services, project management we discussed and also public safety, all the radios for the 800 megahertz system used by law enforcement and fire, as well as all the external cabling that is done to provide dark fiber to the city buildings. so, it's not a large team but it's a mighty team, a very dedicated technology professionals that are committed to providing excellent service to the city departments. we do support 55 departments so at times we have to juggle priorities. it's always a challenge to prioritize our work and i think that's something that i hope we can make more transparent, which is what is involved in this audit. so just moving forward, i want to say thank you again for being here. i have served as a c.i.o. for eight years for pierce county, washington. i have 30 years managing technology and technologists. i have completed my first 100 days of service and i hope that i will be able to provide the stable and long-term leadership that the city is looking for.

level for services. finally, the notice of inquiry if adopted seeks life line in households needing help. the bureau recommend approval on this item. >> thank miss duvall, comment from the bench. commissioner clayborn. >> there is a simple question i fear there is -- that is too rarely asked in these quarters, just who is a life line subscriber? according to survey's data it is a she. she makes $14,000 per year, she is middle aged, single and has a child within her care. she is trapped in systemic poverty and she has picked the only device and telephone plan she could afford. stated more boldly, the plan has picked here. that service is permitted primarily by owireless provider because she can afford one source of telecommunication. that source allows her to keep with her child's educators. and that service, she is able to help her child with that homework. she was able to stay on top of that full time or often multiple part times but too often dead in minimum wage shift schedule. and just what, have the

thank you for your service not only your active service to protect our country to your continued service of sacrifice is made with you as militia family. honestly i'm sitting here thinking this is unconscionable we have to have this discussion not doing everything we can to take care of you and your families when you put yourselves on the line this is ridiculous to me. i want you to know from our perspectives your words are not ringing hollow and we have to do something the last thing we want to do is have this it on the shelf with your words going nowheres you hear that commitment already and we're already putting action items in place. so highlighting in the comments you were denied respite care a couple of months ago. is that correct? can you talk about that and why that occurred?. >> i was tonight in the fall it was to come here fran toller at -- for the summit as a fellow in september. i put in for a respite care severity there to help tom. it is not like the invitation he absolutely cannot but he can feed himself but cannot cook for himself. a person from the v.a. two did the intak

record quite a service for one family.is that when it comes to caring, the men and women who have served our country, the vice president is a man we know will always do the right thing. myies and gentlemen, it is great personal pleasure and professional honor to present to you, the vice president of the united states, mike pence. [applause] vice president pence: general mcconville and admiral michael, to the director, the distinguished members of congress and all of our honored guests, but most of all, to the men and women of the armed forces of the united states of america and to all of our veterans who have worn the nation,of this great happy veterans day. [applause] there is a day in the spring when we remember those who served and did not come home. day, is theeterans day when all across america in gatherings large and small, we pause to remember those who served and did come home. thenearly a century since guns of the first world war fell silent, and the 11th at or of the 11th day of the 11th month, the american peopl

we should thank them all for their crnt service or their -- current service or their past service. mr. president, the gentleman from arkansas, i want to thank you for your service because you served bravely in combat positions before entering the u.s. senate. that's another amazing thing about the veterans, is they continue to serve. if you go to a coffee shop, you may see a huddle of veterans around somebody that's organized the event. that's probably a veteran making sure that veterans are speaking to each other and working through some of the challenges that some of them have when they're put in very difficult situations. or if you go into a community center, you'll almost always see a veteran there continuing to serve even after they have ended their vif duty -- active duty service. on veterans day we should go to every person we know is a veteran and thank them. we should make sure that anybody you see in uniform -- i'll be in the airport probably thursday evening or friday. i'll make it a point to go to every person i see in uniform and thank them for their service because we

not of his own service, but of his families.father, second lieutenant edward j pence also served in the 53rd infantry division. not long after phil scott, our sergeant.ickasaw he was rewarded the bronze star for his actions as a rifle platoon leader near pork chop hill. that is not all. in 1983, the vice president's older brother also served with the third battalion, third marine regiment, in beirut, lebanon, just before the infamous baruch bombings that killed 241 american servicemembers and 58 french paratroopers. now, currently serving, is the vice president's son who is now in flight school. that is quite a service record from one family. what it tells me is when it comes to caring for the men and women who have served our country ladies and gentlemen, it is my great personal pleasure and professional honor to present to you the vice president of the united states, mike pence. [applause] [applause] pence: thank you, secretary. secretary mattis, secretary zinke e, all of the members of the cabinet, secretary wilson, general d

they need following their service. to all their veterans, thank you for your service. may god bless you and may god continue to bless the united states of america. i yelled back. >> the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. recognize they to founders of the southern tier veteran support group. army, a veteran of the holding leaders said -- leadership positions. al is a veteran of the navy and a graduate of the u.s. naval academy, having served as a naval officer performing anti-submarine warfare and surface surveillance missions. after their military service, they saw a great need to provide help to other veterans where other agencies could not. this started informally with them getting donations and support with a could, until the southern tier veteran support group was formed in august 2011. today, their work has brought over 70 community partners together to assist veterans and their families with 400 twice receiving5 veterans assistance since 2016. thank you all for what your organization has done to help our ve

service. this is the kicker. the fcc takes action to extensively reduce robocalls, but then make sure you and i can pay for the privilege. if you ask me, that is ridiculous. the consumers are fed up with these nuisance calls, so on this aspect of today's decision, i dissent. >> thank you, commissioner. robocalling remains the number one category of consumer complaints to the federal communications commission. as chairman i repeatedly made clear that the sec's top consumer protection priority is aggressively pursuing this course. this report is one more step towards the feeling that commitment. today's action i give consumers new tools to protect themselves such as do not originate with an unassigned number blocks. importantly we do so without piling more ineffective for inappropriate regulations. instead, we provide relief for fcc rules having a reverse effect of facilitating unlawful and unwanted robocalls. i think my colleagues for their thoughtful comments on this item and for joining me in

record quite a service for one family. that when it comes to caring, the men and women who have served our country, the vice president is a man we know will always do the right thing. myies and gentlemen, it is great personal pleasure and professional honor to present to you, the vice president of the united states, mike pence. [applause] vice president pence: general mcconville and admiral michael, to the director, the distinguished members of congress and all of our honored guests, but most of all, to the men and women of the armed forces of the united states of america and to all of our veterans who have worn the nation,of this great happy veterans day. [applause] there is a day in the spring when we remember those who served and did not come home. day, is theeterans day when all across america in gatherings large and small, we pause to remember those who served and did come home. thenearly a century since guns of the first world war fell silent, and the 11th at or of the 11th day of the 11th month, the american people

so i just think these-it's not so much important all the services are duplicated as the services not advocated by their current understanding of what they might get at is sutter hospital, as opposed to the new panel. so i think it's important to make sure that's in the materials when they are selecting not in generative when they're selecting during open enrollment. >> so i want to make sure i understand first, i want to acknowledge what you are saying has been a lot of thought put towards transition of care. obie falls into that category. so anyone who is my think, beginning their second trimester, which means about 13 weeks, 12-13 weeks into pregnancy and it's been established all of those will go through the standard direction they would've gone prior to january direction they would've gone prior to january 1. there is no issue there for those people and again anyone who's in the course of any form of treatment they would continue on with that form of treatment given the panel that existed into 2017. so we can be rest assured there will be surprises for them. we are we want to be

form of service to the nation. between the first draft in 1917, and then in 1918 it goes out to it is claimed every man has a 45. responsibility to the nation and that is demonstrated through registering for the draft. when you register, it will be the local boards who make a determination about who is best serving the war effort in the military and whose best serving it by remaining at home and working in the economy. all those homefront activities also contributing to the war. everybody has to render service. the question is where you are selected to be placed. this will also become a very important thing returning veterans will come back to at the end of the war because a lot of that rationale is quickly discarded in a postwar period by the government. they want to remind the government of what it claimed. sense that get the all men in the draft eligible age range are required to render their service, we can see this rationale being explained through the process by which the draft worked. unlike in the civil war

thank you for your service. guest: many of the veterans whether they were drafted went over and served honorably and are proud of their service, came back and carried on with the rest of their lives. the vietnam experience of coming home, we came home and were given a heroes reception. it was overwhelming. what about those poor kids? 21 kids who can, didn't have it. many of them can home in caskets and their names are on the wall over here. they served honorably and they gave it their all. in a way it wasn't fair. i have always felt that we should have known better. today, there is a theme. don't blame the war on the warrior. so many of the decisions and the way that war was carried out was political. we saw it four years. our pilots, we were going up against them but we could not go near the bases. were shot downat by surface to air missiles that we could not touch the missile sites. and suppliesent being unloaded by the ships and we couldn't go -- it was a crazy 1969,'sit wasn't until 1968 that a try to make s

the was a national park service service -- wildlife the power to designate refuges comes into play in obvious ways. this became the site of the context. that is very complicated timing but it certainly comes into a more forceful era and then the era of management. that goes back to the general 1800sffice from the early which passes that land and distribute land and then becomes the foresttore of reserve. ended,notice that this it is a was claims, is the successful ones. 1930's, the late arriving progressive era action creates the grazing service which regulates and allocates access to the grazing lands. the lovingoll is course. people vote for a taylor grazing act at that stage. generaling service and land office. -- students love this -- when you give the history of federal agencies, they love it. [laughter] patricia: there is a video game went to happen. think it ischildren fun. be a bureaucrat today, this is fun. the talk i get on the department of the interior, i call it hair-raising tales from the department of the interior. they are. in everyo are involved culture and the poor s

we honor his service to our nation. i thank the gentlewoman from illinois for introducing this bill to pay tribute to the life and sacrifice of sergeant riney. i urge my colleagues to support the bill and reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from new jersey is recognized. mrs. watson coleman: thank you, mr. speakerle. i yield myself -- thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. mrs. watson coleman: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm pleased to join my colleagues in consideration of h.r. 2672, a bill to designate the facility of the united states post office located at 520 carter street in fairview, illinois, as the sergeant douglas j. riney post office. born in georgia in 1990, douglas riney graduated from spoon river valley high school in illinois and married his wife in 2012. the two of them lived in fairview with children leah and james, where douglas proudly volun

the national health service. the quality of nhs is demonstrably improving outcomes prepare for major conditions, dramatically better than three, five or ten years ago. what has been achieved in the past three years? more convenient access to primary care services, the primary care workforce, and all rates ever. big expansion in public satisfaction with little inpatient at its highest for more than two decades. that is the good news of the national health service. >> it is very strange, mister speaker, that the chief executive of nhs provided in the middle of the longest and deepest financial squeeze in history, i know what they are talking about. the number of people waiting four hours has gone up by 557% since 2010. the opposition to us, the tories over there were very noisy, when i mentioned -- where the opposition -- you are in opposition, it is not complicated, it is not complicated. [shouting] >> two weeks ago, mister speaker, i raised the question of in school budgets. teachers and parents telling mps what

so i just think these-it's not so much important all the services are duplicated as the services not advocated by their current understanding of what they might get at is sutter hospital, as opposed to the new panel. so i think it's important to make sure that's in the materials when they are selecting not in generative when they're selecting during open enrollment. >> so i want to make sure i understand first, i

to provide services at non-v.a. facilities for veterans who live in rural or underserved communities. i can't state how important this is enough because it affects those veterans in my districts in places -- different islands in the state of hawaii who are separated literally by a body of water rom the v.a. clinic. the bill would mandate the v.a. to ensure they provide annual reports to congress on those services that they have been providing to our veterans. this is such an important piece of legislation. i urge all of our colleagues to stand up and support its passage and see it through to its enactment because we cannot afford to leave our men and women in uniform behind. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from minnesota. >> i'd like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from washington state, mr. kilmer who since coming to this congress has focused on the issue offense care for veterans and for that i am grateful. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. kilmer:

s critical mental health care services. as a marine corps combat veteran, i'd like to live by the rule we never leave anyone behind. unfortunately, the military routinely use the other than honorable discharge to rid itself of combat veterans who were designated as having disciplinary problems and who often had documented medical histories of ptsd. rather than providing them with the treatment and rehabilitation they so desperately needed. while the correlation of their mental health care condition and their minor misconduct could be linked, this made no fact to their character of discharge. mr. speaker, my legislation, h.r. 918, veteran urgent access to mental health care act, seeks to help this. those have been able to seek v.a. care for a service-connected disability. however, due to the way these combat veterans were discharged and because of a failure to connect the dots between their minor misconduct and their mental health condition, the department of defense's failed to recognize this as a problem. h.r. 918 will sta

the forest service, b.l.m. and other agencies use bureaucratic terms like forestry technician, which fails to recognize the dangers they face and the sacrifices they make to protect others. my amendment, which i am pleased to offer with my colleague, representative mark desauliner from california, represents a bill we have sponsored as well, which simply designates these brave men and women the title they have earned by designating the office of personnel management to create employee classes designated as wildland firefighters. mr. chairman, 15 technicians have passed away this last year fighting wildfires. several are from california. it's unconscionable while they perish fighting fires, the agencies that employ them refuse to call them firefighters. we should take action to rectify that failure and i ask members to consider our bill h.r. 3907 to do so. however, mr. chairman, knowing there's additional work to be done with the very bureaucracies which refuse to use the term firefighter with last-minute concer

a significant number of whom never even seek services to provide them with the services they need to work through these challenges. we need to make sure or getting healthcare and services where it's most convenient to them. a lot of them will provide a brick-and-mortar presence to the va so they can go and be amongst other people were actually dealing with the same sort of circumstances and their being served by half the populationpuet in our veterans hospital and our healthcare centers where veterans themselves. this is a very important part of the broader solution that we need to provide our veterans as we continue to build a relationship with them for the rest of their lives. mr. president, we will never finish all the work we need to do and will just keep making installments to it that we need to pay but what we need to do on november 11 is support our veteranss. take an extra effort to thank a veteran, think of veteran spouse or child, the child of the veteran for their service to this great nation. we will never ever be able to fully repay the debt we owe them but we can make i

speaker, public service is in crisis, from police to the fire service. few dodgeper rich their taxes. yes. handsvernment sits on its , as billions are lost to viable public services. the conservatives cut taxes for the view, and vital services for the many. it is not just one rule for the super rich. apologize for interrupting. >> both sides of this house will be heard. the idea that when somebody is asking a question there should be a concerted attempt to shout that person down is totally undemocratic and completely on acceptable from which whatever quarter it comes. i would just ask colleagues to give some thought to how our behavior is regarded by the people who put us here. jeremy corbyn. >> mr. speaker, quite simply, is in the truth that this is a government that protects the super rich, while the rest of us pick up the bill through cuts, austerity, poverty, homelessness, low wages, and slashing of local services all over the country? that is the reality of a tory government. >> prime minister. >> we have taken 160 billion pounds extra in as a resul

you need support and services for the work you do every day on the ground. i want to thank you for dedicating your career and work for tackling a difficult issue. no one wants to see anyone unhoused in san francisco. you rent two chapters in the district i represent, sanctuary and next-door shelter. many have heard me tell the story so i won't go into it but on my first night as acting mayor, i actually stayed at next-door shelter to understand the experience of what it was like to go through the reservation system and stay in one of our shelters and experience what unfortunately many san franciscans experience. they also run an amazing employment vocational program one part of our chefs program to prepare many residents to go into the culinary and restaurant industry and i see a lot of supportive finger waves. it provides the food for many of the dinners i attend and has been hired to many of our small businesses in our district particularly in the market. i thought i would share the final story which is they run a senior center and supportive affordable ho

crown prosecution service and the kids storm purposely deleted the e-mails and breached it so data policy to keep julian assange should is being interviewed at children's live in probation companies we talk to the boss of nato representing thousands of ration offices loss from the cowriter band the day to day to knowing me knowing you with alan partridge we speak first for us tomorrow the largest country and tiley in europe ukraine witness new protests yet in the southwest the support you could see it's in the book that was born with a series flame that was my only book when you know you must look at these two because the motive of the beast is to deliberately my good for the physically sick and yes no for which you can play with the lady is out of the loop of the outcome and the protests on russia's borders of course had the full support of the us a so-called deep state let alone its elected leader if we had been actively engaged in what's been happening in the ukraine nato nation media would mostly ignore the fact that both the usa and the e.u. though were defacto supporting nazis there

service, the ambulance service was called forward and at this stage i am unsure as to why the fire serviced for so long. greater manchester fire and rescue service has a technical response unit — these are people trained specifically to deal with terrorist situations. that unit took part in the trafford centre exercise last year. it's still uncertain who on the night made the decision not to deploy that units. save the uk fire service is the major online platform forfirefighters in the uk. but on the night of the manchester bomb those who were on duty used this page as the event was unfolding to vent their frustrations that they weren't being sent to the arena. i have been a firefighter in manchester for nearly ten years and i had never felt so much guilt in my life. we were only half a mile away from helping, half a mile from potentially saving lives and that will always stick with me forever. a paramedic lady came to us, pleading with us to help, because they needed it. one firefighter who was on duty that night has come forward to tell us how it felt. we just sat there waiting, waiting

services. conditions that veterans are. pacted on in their connection to service, like spinal cord injury, blind rehabilitation, prosthetics and orthotics, post-traumatic stress disorder, poly trauma, traumatic brain injury, thing that matter mores. you'll see the va investing more in those services and commodity in services that can be accessed easily any private sector. last and the only clinical priority of the five isss prevention. 20 veterans a take taking their life unacceptable. that that is still happening and we are focusing our efforts, working in lots of ways that we haven't focused on before to try to get that number down, and down significantly. so, those are the areas that we're working on... disclaimer and i'm going to start by saying that i am far from an expert in the issue of benefits. i consider myself a healthcare expert as a practicing physician. i know a lot about health care, not as much about benefits. i'm trying to learn every day more and want to thank you for being pa

it is i who need to thank all of you for your service and sacrifice.s been a deeply moving experience for me. at the time i must confess it wasn't the easiest of projects. was the average age of a vietnam service member. i was 21 going on 22. although my battle and what we all went through to build this is nothing compared to what you ofured, maybe it was part the story of the vietnam war and its aftermath. i also want to acknowledge and give thanks to those who were instrumental in realizing this design. the small group of vietnam veterans who work so hard to set up the idea to give congressional authorization to hold the competition and then to whether an incredible political to janrm to get it built scrub, the founder of the vv mf, whose idea was to build a memorial pillar. [applause] ofwas created by small group the nonveterans, robidoux beck, ron gibbs, jack wheeler, colonel don shake, some of whom are here today. sadly, for those who are not still with us. they fought so hard to help realize this design. to cooper leckie, the architects of record

category one is if there is a change to your service and category two is discontinuing that service.it is in that first category then we are talking about notice under section 251 and the second category were talking about section 214 process and that's the basic [inaudible] that were talking about. >> thank you so much. my second thing was point out that since you mentioned college as well, go tar heels. [laughter] >> i thought you were going to say blue devils. >> you criticized apple for not including an enabling chips in their phones but will you be urging verizon to do so given that there are reports that they purposely blocked radio chips and their manufactures included in the phone. >> therefore they just came out. -- >> know i'm asking for someone else so wireless is not my thing. >> i'm happy to take a look at not sure if there was a story that just came out but i haven't seen anything on the issue this week but generally speaking i thank you know my overall philosophy which is that the fcc cannot require these phones or these chips to be activated but my hope is that -- >>

national park service? 1916 is the original enabling act, but there are parks that perceive that. -- that precede that. before there was a national park , 1916 was its official creation -- fish and wildlife chronology is too complicated. there are agencies that exist, merge. becomes big in obvious ways, theodore roosevelt. he designated the national -- it comes into a more forceful era with the progressive era. the bureau of land management, good luck. it goes back to the general land office from the early 1800s, which passes that land, distributes it, and it becomes an ineffective steward of forest reserves. people have often noticed, favorite jackson turner tells us that -- not necessarily successful claims, made after this. 1930's, the late arriving progressive era action, the grazing act, created the service that regulates and allocates access to grazing lands. -- is a nation the lobbying force, the dustbowl. for -- it doesn't look like progressive era timing, but it goes back. students love this, when

we pray for those that still carry the scars from service in vietnam. we ask this in your precious and mighty name, amen. >> now i would like to introduce the joint armed forces color guard from the military district of washington for our presentation of colors. color guard, please present the colors. if you would stand please. to sing the national anthem, please welcome master sergeant of the president's own united states marine band. ♪ o, say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rocket's red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there o, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ [cheers and applause] >> please remain standing while army lieutenant general charles embiidy leads us in the pledge of allegiance. >> on behalf of our acting secretary, ryan mccarthy, and g

and they're apparently only taking 100 foreign service officers. the head of the foreign service association is ambassador barbara stevenson and this isn't getting a ton of attention, but i think this is really important. she has just posted what i see as a distress call. this is being published in the foreign service journal next month and it details what she calls, quote, the mounting threats to our institution and to the global leadership that depends on us. quote, there is no denying that our leadership ranks, she means in the foreign service, are being depleted at a dizzying speed. the foreign service officer core at state has lost 60% of its career ambassadors since january. rafr ranks of career ministers, three star general equivalents are down from 33 to 19. the ranks of our two star general e 85 lequivalents have to 369 and still falling. were the u.s. military to face such a detaptation of its leadership ranks, i would expect a public out cry. like the military the foreign service recruits officers at entry level and grows them into seaso

what we call found'sal services. -- foundational services. conditions veterans are impacted on in their connection to service like spinal cord injury, blind rehabilitate shin. posttraumatic stress. traumatic brain injury. polytrauma. things that matter most. you'll see v.a. investing more of those services and not as much in service that is can be accessed easily in the private sector. last and the only clinical priority of the five i talk about is suicide prevention. 20 veterans a day taking their life unacceptable that that is still happening. so we're focusing all of our efforts working in also of ways that we haven't focused on before to try to get that number down. and down significantly. so those are the areas that e're working on. because i'm here at the national press club, i wanted to challenge myself and in the spirit of veterans day, aim going to talk about something much time t spend as as maybe i should talking about that, that is our area of benefits. i think that this is an area that i believe we can do much t as maybe i should