witnesses included the administrator of the fire administration ernest mitchell. officials from the national fire protection association, and international association of firefighters and the tucson, arizona, fire department chief. thorn authorization of the u.s. fire administration expires september 30th of this year. senators joe lieberman and susan collins introduced legislation that would reauthorize funding through 2017. republican congressman ben quayle of arizona chairs this subcommittee hearing. it's about an hour. >>> the subcommittee on technology and innovation will come to order. good morning. welcome to today's hearing entitled working for fire safe america, in the united states fire administration priorities. in front of you apacketses for today's witnesses. i recognize myself for five minutes for an opening statement. today's hearing is being held to review the fire service community's priorities for the future of the united states fire administration, the usfa established following the 1973 report of the national commission on fire prevention and co

i think the administration has been dealing with it fairly reasonably unclueding by the way, let's be clear, people pointed out, neither this administration nor i believe any republican administration has shown any great eager ngs to urge the rulers of bahrain or the rulers of saudi arabia to join the push to democracy. once again, reality constrains. the problem here is not party differences who would do what. how do we reconcile our deep belief in democracy and support for human rights with concerns about the -- the negative aspects of what happens. look, as a matter of democratic principle with a very good thing that the palestinian authority had elect,s. and that hamas won them. and that was not such a good thing. and that is a dilemma. i have not yet fully worked out. as to what to do -- when elections are going to bring about -- negative consequences. so i think it does call not for a, just, oh, let's be for it. but to give serious thought to what is involved. >> could the u.s. have steered the outcome of what is happening in egypt in a different direction with different policie

well, on behalf of the original administrator for the newly created administration for community living, i would like to congratulate the city and county of san francisco for launching the 2012 aging and disability technology summit. it was approximately a month ago that secretary kathleen sebelius said the u.s. department of health and human services announced the creation of this new federal agency, and that is the administration for community living. and in her words, she said "for too long, too many americans have faced the a possible choice between moving to an institution or living at home without the long-term services and support they need." so this new administration for community living will be to helping people with disabilities, as well as seniors, to live a productive, satisfying lives. now, as you may be aware, the aging and disability population has been recognized actually at the local and state levels for quite some time now. so the mechanisms for providing support that facility community living have been really brought together into local and state agencies such as the

east the way the bush administration was. want to pivot back to domestic policy and declare as much of it to be over as possible to get back to the economy. that is what it speaks to people's mine set. >> some of the documents released from bin laden's home suggest he was concerned about the media image and thinking of changing the name of the group, and class tieing those who killed too many muslims in al qaeda's name. and, then, this, american al qaeda spokesman discussed al qaeda's media strategy and said, in general, and no matter what material we send, i suggest we distribute it to more than one channel, so logical be healthy competition between the channels in broadcasting so no other channel takes the lead. it should be sent to abc, cbs, and nbc, and cnn and as for fox news, let her die in anger. >> well, is there a school where they come out with this flowery language "let her die in her fire." this guy obviously if terrorism does not work out he can be an intern at media matters. >> a lot in that statement but they sa

the u.s. fire administration. the fire administration is committed to providing national leadership to fostering a solid -- stakeholders in prevention, prepardness and response. in my testimony, i will share an overview of the core functions, major priorities, present activities and goals. despite making progress over time, have been higher than in most of the industrialized world. this has held true in both fire deaths and dollar loss rates. thousands of americans die each year and thousands more are injured. average annual fire losses greatly exceed those from floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters. the fire administration provides fire safety and prevention programs to help decrease tragic losses. we also lead the way in preparing communities to respond. we are supporting communities a federal fire prevention and control efforts and coordinates information about fire programs throughout the country. there are four traditional stars of the administration and one relatively new or budding star that we have

i'd sign it that would strongly urge the administration -- >> we would be glad to do another one. >> at the very least to subject such an agreement to the normal legislative/executive majority rule process. i'd be in favor of that. i think preemptively tying their hands because of something we think they might do is a slippery slope that without any basis that i can tell on what they have done in the last three years is a slippery slope you do not want to go down. i would oppose the amendment because i think it is hypothetical and premature. i would be willing to sign a letter urging for a binding legislative process before they could bind the country. i would yield back. >> the gentleman yields back. there is no further discussion on the amendment. the question is on the adoption of the amendment offered by mr. l lamborg, log-0302. so many in favor say aye. those opposed say no. the ayes have it. amendment is agreed to -- >> mr. chairman, a recorded vote, please. >> recorded vote is requested. we'll roll this recorded vote to the end of the subcommittee mark. any additional amendment

the george h.w. bush administration on israel. the big story, barney presents to the republican party is moving to the right. the big story is republican party has become a reagan republican party with respect to israel and not bush/baker republican party. i served in the first administration, i was dan quayle's chief of staff, and argued with president bush he shouldn't be as tough. end of the day bush did the right thing in the gulf which helped israel. wasn't for the purpose of israel. the first gulf war, helped rise yal's security a lot. some people were opposed to that war and they weren't republicans. i would argue objectively having bush in the white house was actually a better thing than having michael dukakis s in the white house. and nixon didn't get a lot of jewish votes. an awful lot of jews were happy that nixon was president and not mcgovern. the current republican party to barney's distress is not the bush/baker, moderate, republican party, and close to oil interests. the current republican party is pro israel party.

i've talked to you about our hearings where the generals and the administrators have said we feel confidence in what we are doing. we believe the money is in the budget that the president has put forward will allow us to do our job correctly. we had a couple of amendments where we tried to strike some of that money because the administrators and others had said they wouldn't know what to do with that, etc. so this really speaks to what the administration said it would do as it was working to pass the new treaty and really what is going on now in congress and with our nation. i would like to say that as i said earlier that the cuts to the weapons activities were spear headed by the republican led house, not by the administration. and the administration has gone forward in this budget year and put more moneys in. i mean, your amendment just passed to continue to put more. $320 million more into this. the key measures as to whether the united states is funding capabilities necessary to maintain the health of the nuclear stockpile, that should be a standard. that should be the commitment. i beli

the administration's and the industry's actions are to be commend in this respect. but i have learned over many years that self-regulation is inherently one-sided. in many industries, many times, in many eras, it's inherently one-sided, and that consumers' rights always seem to lose out to the industry's needs. i believe consumers need strong legal protections. they need simple and easy-to-understand rules about how, what, and when their information can be collected and used. they need easy-to-understand privacy policies rather than pages of incomprehensible legalese. we should take up strong consumer-focused privacy legislation this year. i do not believe that significant consensus exists yet on what that legislation should look like, but i will continue to work with my colleagues on legislation. as chairman of this committee,ly continue to work with the administration and the ftc, both represented here, to push the industry to develop an adhered-to strong consumer privacy protects. i will continue to oversee hearings to make sure the trusting is people have placed

the george w. bush administration agreed to two codes of conduct to help combat proliferation. all of these useful diplomatic initiatives took the form of executive agreements, not treaties, because they don't control or reduce military forces. in fact, our joint chief of staff support the administration's effort to negotiate a code and they have been closely consulted. although they have raised potential for impacts on defense activities they have expressed support for this approach as the u.s. enters into discussion to resolve areas of disagreement. >> will the gentle lady yield? >> i would yield. >> a quick question for you. there is no objection to treaties per se as long as congress has been in the loop. for instance the senate ratifies a treaty and congress has been consulted. that is all that this amendment does. it says the administration can't go and do these without congress. >> that is one of the reasons i showed you where the president has gone and talked and has been able to put in place a code of conduct and has been able to negotiate some of these without all of t

the council of i.g.s. we play more of an administrative role under the i.g. reform act. the sweet spot for the role of omb, myself, and acting director zions, is to work with the inspector general community, to understand what they're seeing, what trends they're seeing, what findings they're leading to, to help inform omb on the right policies to issue across government to help deal with those issues. that's the primary focus of our work with the i.g.s, is to learn from one another about how we can strategize together as omb to cross coordinate government activities, and the i.g.s can learn from us so they can focus their investigations appropriately. >> let me ask you a question. mr. zants is the acting head of omb. correct? >> that's correct. >> why hasn't the administration sent his name up for confirmation, or have they? >> at this time, i do not believe his name has been submitted for nomination. i'm unaware of the circumstances surrounding that issue. >> do you know how long it's been since his name's been submitted? >> again, i do not believe his name has been sub

know there's always discussions about the extent of the current administration from the bush administration different from the obama administration and how they dealt with north korea but in the book i go through the history of these and in the end the packaging may have been different but there is a positive half as you know well which is in return for giving up the nuclear program, the united states community would provide security guarantees, provide economic assistance, it would provide energy assistance, it would provide political normalization, it would provide money, it would provide a regional security environment in which they could feel safe and secure. all these sort of things in return for nuclear weapons but that has not worked. has failed. it has failed for every administration bring back to george w. bush, and i think with the obama administration we have reached the end of the road in terms of this because i think many would argue that the obama administration at least in terms of its intention was probably the most forward leaning u.s. administration to come into office whe

now we have the obama administration. we haven't seen any refugees in the oval office, but we have seen a human rights envoy that actually makes north korea and, you know, talk with the north koreans, raised human rights with the north koreans, even though that was a probably relatively short conversation. what do you see as the merits and demerits in pressure situations? >> i think it is great that the obama administration and for instance come up robert king has been able to make two trips or more to north korea. i think that is great. the more that we can open the dialogue with these issues with the north, the better. literally part of what he was doing, as you know, was to try to negotiate a humanitarian assistance package for north korea in terms of food, more than it was to talk about human rights abuses. the fact that he was there was very important. as you know well, the dialogue on human rights is an interesting dialogue. you can tell them that they need to improve their human right situation and the response will

in the meantime, politics may be choppy for the administration. s in their view political play that helps them with women. church leaders are not backing down. it seems like it may have a price to pay on the catholic voters possibly. >> if the press reports it. strikes me how underreported it. in the main stream press either because they don't understand how significant the ruling is. it's not contraception, yes or no, but restrictioning the scope of definition of a church and making it so narrow that the first amendment protection for the free exercise becomes narrowed as well and can strengthens. it's an assault on religious freedom or because the press wants to protect obama in a case in which this would hurt him with cath lidges. >> quickly down the line. egypt, we don't know the full extent of result that was presidential election. but one of the big questions there on the ground is whether the military will fbi up control in cairo. >> it will give up ostensibly, legal and publicly, but it aspires to have the role that turkish military had of

from the bush administration, different from the obama administration in terms of dealing with north korea, but in the book i go through the history of these, and in the end they, you know, the packaging was different, but there's a pose positive path on offer which is in return for giving up the nuclear programs, the united states international community provides security guarantees, economic assistance, energy assistance, political normalization, provide money, provide a regional security environment in which north korea could feel safe and secure -- all of these sorts of things in return for giving up their nuclear weapons, but that has not worked. it's failed. it has failed for every administration going back to george hw bush. with the obama administration, we really reached the end of the road with this. many argue the obama administration, at least in terms 6 initial intentions, was the most forward leaning u.s. administration to come into office coming to the north korea problem, and yet it's now in a position indistinguishable from the harder line that the bush administration

i mean, there were people in the administration who supported wage and price control. >> nobody supported it on its merits. the ones who supported it, supported it only for political reasons. everybody agreed we should get out of it as soon as possible. >> okay. but were you going to get out of it before the '72 election or not? >> no. short answer no. >> so, the exit strategy would be? >> i think we may have implemented something before '72 but we were planning on the post-election. look, it was clear to everybody in the administration this was an election ploy, but the democrats deserved it for having demanded it for so long. >> right about this time i think you have that discussion with volpe and romney -- >> no, this was after. >> when did you have that discussion when they asked -- >> after we were all fired. >> after we were all fired. meese te please tell us about that discussion. >> after -- well, let me see now. i'm not positive about that. after the election of '72 in which a number of cabinet officers, undersecretaries or deputies, and assistant secretaries' resignations were a

. >> and during the previous administration, you also conducted vigorous investigations relating to the former administrator, is that correct? >> that's correct. >> your work at rooting out fraud seems to be just as vigorous whether there's a republican or democrat sitting in the white house. is that correct? >> that's correct. >> let me ask you this. do you believe that you would not have been able to achieve the results that you achieved if you were an acting i.g.? >> i don't believe that. i believe -- i would hope i would do exactly the same things. >> okay. let me ask it in a different way to make my point. you are a member of a community of exceptional i.g.s, some of whom are in acting positions now, some of whom are perm -- permanent. and you meet with them, you consult with them, you work and participate in many endeavors together. is that right? >> that's correct. >> now, do you treat your colleagues any differently if they are a permanent or an acting i.g.? >> no, i do not. >> do you give more weight to the opinions of a permanent i.g. as opposed to an acting i.g.? >> no. >> do

of the emergency management agency and the united states fire administrator in charge of the united states fire administration at the department of homeland security. it is indeed an honor to appear before you today to discuss the u.s. fire had fenestration. the fire administration is committed to providing national leadership to foster a solid foundation for the fire and emergency stakeholders and prevention preparedness and response, and my testimony today i will share an overview of the administration's core functions, major priorities and present activities and goals. this might making progress over time, the united states has been higher than in most of the industrialized world. this has held true in both fire deaths and loss rates. thousands of americans die each year and thousands more are injured. property losses reach millions of dollars. average annual fire loss in the united states exceed those from floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and other natural disasters combined in our country. the fire administration is a national leader in providing fire safety and prevention p

and that hasn't always been the case in administrations. in fact, the record of friction both between the nsc and state and state and defense is legion throughout the research i'm sure you've done. but that group at the top, again, the fact they had known each other for decades by the time we came in i thought was quite important. it was also important that those of us at the next level down in the deputy's committee had grown up bureaucratically, since we were sort of young guys going back to the reagan years. dave jeremiah, paul wolfowitz, myself and others, a committee led expertly by bob gates. we long since figured out whether we liked each other, what we thought of each other. we really got down to work. we knew we were working for a group of people who were just striving for the right answer, not some shallow, bureaucratic victory. i think the operation did operate extremely well, both for policy formulation, and i think, especially for crisis management. i would say that one perhaps not so positive effect is i think the deputy's comm

>> i think the administration is right. we're a nation at war and in time of war a belligerent certainly has the right to target the leaders of the other side who are in the chain of command and that's what we are doing. >> but if the battlefield in essence here has become the entire globe, how does that change the moral calculus of when and how the u.s. uses force justly? >> wel i thi you're rit that the more important questions are the ethical ones and one of the ethical questions is how big the battlefield is because the administration claims the right to target leaders wherever they may show up in the world. a second moral problem that arises is the problem of civilian casualties. even if we have the right to go after leaders of al qaeda we have to do it, both as a matter of law and as a matter of ethics, in a way that minimizes civilian casualties. the administration doesn't actually count civilian casualties so we don't know how manyhere have really been. mr. brennan says that there have been times that they haven't ac

i guess the administrator mitchell, how does the united states fire administration how do you support the rural fire departments? i have a lot of them in my fourth congressional district there. how do you support those? i guess the fundamentalal differences in the nature of the rural fire problems compared to the u.s. fire problem as a whole and i say this, it's sad that we had to have a 9/11 to really get people to appreciate you all the way they should. a lot of communities are protected by volunteer fire departments and face unique challenges, agriculture fires, fires to wild land and urban interface. usfa offer training especially tailored to volunteer firefighters? and what type of resources have you developed a fire department's operating in rural communities? i guess do you want me to repeat that? >> i think i get it. thank you, congressman. >> i didn't think you'd want me to repeat it. >> we have courses tailored to volunteers. largely what we have are offerings of those courses we work with the volunteers to try to make them more available. ing the difficulties to having the

i would strongly urge the administration to continue u.s. support for the multi-stakeholder model in its talks leading up to the dubai meeting this december and i yield to the gentle lady from california. >> i thank you the chairman. as the uss prepares to take part in the world conference in dubai, we need to provide the delegation with a clear and unmistakable manday. keep the internet free of government control. at the wicket discussions a new treaty will be debated. most worrisome to me are efforts by some countries to provide the u.n. with unprecedented new authority over the management of the internet. to prevent this from happening i introduced house concurrent regs loogs 127, i'd like to thank my co-sponsors chairman upton, ranking member waxman, subcommittee chairman walden and eshoo. in many way this is is a referendum on the future of the internet. for nearly a decade the u.n. has been angling quietly to become the epicenter of internet governance. a vote for our resolution is a vote to keep the enternet free from government contro

in the coming months i also look forward to speak to the administration's re@rization. they are giving the committee with ways to protect the country against terrorist threats. we have to be sure that we protect the privacy rights and civil liberties of law-abiding americans. or i try to reauthorize the patriot act. the bipartisan improvements were not enacted. as congress considers the administration's question to reauthorize the vice amendment act, i'll look at whether we should retrain accountability or liberty protections in various parts. we are faced with a daunting national security challenge, and director mueller is maintaining historic focus on fighting crime. at a time of economic crises and shrinking state local enforcement budgets, many expect violent crimes to skyrocket. instead, crime rates across the country continue to decline. along with the commitment of the president and the congress to continue federal assistance to state and local law enforcement, the dedicated service of fbi ats throughout the country has played an important role in helping to keep

of the emergency management agency and the united states fire administrator in charge of the united states fire administration at the department of homeland security. it is indeed an honor to appear before you today to discuss the u.s. fire had fenestration. the fire administration is committed to providing national leadership to foster a solid foundation for the fire and emergency stakeholders and prevention preparedness and response, and my testimony today i will share an overview of the administration's core functions,

the u.s. fire administration. the fire administration is committed to providing national leadership to forcer a solid foundation for our stakeholders in prevention, preparedness and response. in my testimony today,ly share on overview of the administration's core functions, major priorities and present activities and goals. despite making progress over time, fire losses in the united states have been higher than in most of the industrialized world. this has held true in both fire deaths and dollar loss rates. thousands of americans die each year, and thousands more are injured, property losses reach billions of dollars. average annual fire losses in the united states greatly exceed those from floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and other natural disasters combined in our country. the fire administration is a national leader in providing fire safety and prevention programs to help decrease tragic losses. we also lead the way in preparing communities to respond to fires and other hazards in the line of fema's

the administration is remaining on the sideline.there is a denouncation by the secretary of state on houla. the president is not making the case for military intervention on our part and other countries we hear that. we will say yes tis a tipping point. >> is it your sense that the administration will remain on the sideline. >> they haven't begin an indication of staying on the sideline. in libya you didn't know they would get involved and they turned on a dime and decided what they would them to. there is a question, why libya and why not syria. they thought a genocide was happening in libya and perhaps they don't consider what is going on in syria. >> it is a terrible situation but they don't seem to be reacting to it with the same sense of urgency. >> and another trouble spot, egypt. there is a run off in the first free presidential elections. between mammogram morsi member of the muslim brotherhood . former general akman shahi. we have to remain on the sideline even though we are not crazy about the muslim brotherhood taking con

the administration's proposal to pay closing costs of borrowers who agree to shorter loan terms. finally, some but not all of the refinancing provisions were addressed in the loan affordable refinance program expansion also called harp two. for example harp two removed loan to value cap for underwater homeowne homeowners. fa scaled back lender liability, which lenders cite as an obstacle to encouraging them to extend refinance loans in harp two. but fha -- fa did not squal back representations and warranties, liability for cases when a different servicer was refinancing the loan which has led to a lack of competition among lenders that has resulted in much higher interest rates for borrowers. we need to inject competition and market forces into this market where services have arn unfair monopoly on refinancing certain borrowers who effectively have no choice but to use their original lender. some obstacles at the hearing, my statement will flush it out. one of the last aspects of the sakt that according to preliminary estimates it will stop bailouts and save tax payers money becau

the fact is the bush administration pushed for resolution through the u.n.ecurity council, calling for iran to halt its nuclear program, and the last three ratcheted up the sanctions against iran. so, did the media go after the vice-president on this one, kirsten? >> i mean, he never lets facts get in the way of anecdote or story and the problem so often, the attitude, there he goes again and you never have to report any of the things that he says. >> jon: and the media let him get away with it. >> if they applied the same standard to joe biden as they did to dan quayle, for example, over the misspelling of the word potato, then biden would be a raging idiot and quayle an intellectual. i mean, this is so -- everything he said is so objectively untrue that somebody in grade school could have put holes in it. >> jon: all right. let's move on to another story of buckling under pressure. this one political correctness run amok. >> on thursday, the chronicle editor said, well, we think this is a provocative piece, but this is an invitation to debate. so that was

it's directed overall at the administration. but it does create problems as it relates to overall trust issues. i thank you all for your testimony and look forward to the future hearings. >> and senator, i take very seriously this concern of yours. we will be submitting the 9b report shortly. >> thank you, senator corker. >> senator harden. >> mr. chairman, let me thank all our witnesses. i found their presentations to be as comprehensive a presentation as i've ever received on the treaty and i thank you for that. i thank you for particularly addressing the criticisms that have been made about this treaty. of course, it's typical of any treaty that we hear some of these complaints. i want to go into an issue that i think secretary clinton you alluded to. and that is that this is not a static situation. it's changing all the times and now there are groups that are meeting that will affect u.s. interests that we are not a party to. we don't have our representative there. the law of the sea is changing because of the treaty. and the

it's intriguing dynamic, because wall street is just so angry at the administration. dodd frank and the new regulation. they feel they have been postures in the black hat as you describe it. somehow they forget people didn't like bail-out or tarp and the wall street in the talk of too big to fail is offensive, especially to main street so. that also talking about the private equity firms that invest in businesses around the country who aren't necessarily on wall street in some big bank. put their money on the line to make it work. >> they're not blame -- look, the fact is if you go back to the republican primary, what rick perry said about vulture capitalism stands. it comes from a fellow republican. republicans attacked romney in just this way. corey booker was wrong here. i appreciate his honesty. if that is how he feels that is how he feeled. he said he was nauseated. that is a strong feeling. but the primary reason for romney candidacy, he says he knows how to make the economy run. he says he can make the economy much more smooth. he will come back more quickly if

and wendy sherman when she was in the clinton administration. here's the larger point i'm trying to make. if there is a reasonable prospect that the united states or israel might go to war withish awit withish iran and the united states has not had a serious conversation in three decades, it's in our self interest and not a gift for us to seek out bilateral talks with the iranians, within the frame work of the p-5 plus one talks. because we've got to get a very clear sense, if there is a bottom line where they can make a deal with us and the other countries that would stop them well short of a nuclear weapons capability. and everyone in the room will tell you, the russians, the chinese and the europeans, this is more about the u.s. and iran than it is the europeans and the asian countries in iran. point two would be, i share elliot's -- let me just say one more thing. if anyone knows under secretary of state wendy sherman, they would know she is tough, she is very smart, and i think she is a perfect choice to lead these negotiations. the second p

we tracked down the active administrator. we sent griff jenkins out to investigate the growing scandal. >> it's been less than a month since we were introduced to the lavish spending and culture of waste at the gsa. >> we can pick up the sushi but $44 for breakfast. i can't spend $44 for breakfast. somebody to say that. >> big government doesn't work. it doesn't work. this is not the way the private sector works. i think what we need to talk about, what do we do instead of the gsa. >> the goals we impose, not eagle following it's own damn rules. >> you are so quick to make someone else's follow the rules and you can't follow your own rules. >> $800,000 spent on a conference, regional directors in hot tubs with glasses of wine in a rap video mocking it all. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: this is from the agency whose job it is to save the taxpayer's money. we tracked down the acting administrator at a townhall morning public service recognition week to find out what they are doing to fix the problem. >> reporter: what else have you learned i

what happens in the obama administration in the second term obama administration as far as the middle east? >> i have no idea. you know. everybody made a great fuss about the president being heard on that hot night moment when he was to president medvedev of russia, he said give me more space, i'll have a lot more flexibility after i'm re-elected. it was obviously a foolish thing to be caught saying, but of course the truth is, as the white house very cavalierly said, well, that's true. and it is true. it's true for any president. so i guess the only question we have to answer is, what does that flexibility in the second term mean for this president? especially if he chooses to go into re-election with a vice president who will not after him seek the presidency? so a little bit liberating in some ways. i don't know, i've been struck by what i perceive as the president's antipathy to israel, but i am, as aaron noted very nicely, you know -- i have much more empathy with people who have empathy with israel, and i think you're right, the president has no empathy, he has no visceral feeli