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

so it's not, it's not to say that the obama administration is completely the same as the bush administration. i don't buy that at all. um, finally there's the question so is this just a swing of the pendulum. i mean, when at the end of the book on the republicans which was written in '04, i asked whether they represented the outer limits of american expansion of power, and i answered that question yes. so the question is, is this just a swing back, um, is in the other end of the pendulum? and i don't think so. the vulcans of the bush era reflected a belief in overwhelming american power, one that was linked to the years immediately after the end of the cold war. the obamians could not revive that belief even if they wanted to do so, and either will obama's successors. rather, obama's time in office has marked the beginning of a new era in america's relations with the world, an era when american primacy is no longer taken for granted. thanks very much. happy to take your questions. [applause] >> and the fact that obama has stepped them up? tom friedman talked about the same policy, the policy

but rather, about the leadership and administration of the office. the written testimony of the acting i.g. seeks to provide the defense an explanation of certain actions. but in several instances, there are questions raised. it is hoped that direct answers will be forthcoming, though we are prepared to take the necessary steps, including those that extend beyond today's hearing that ensure that we receive all of the facts and with that i recognize the distinguished ranking member. thank you mr. chairman. >> giving my remarks. >> -- it's bad enough that the republican house has not passed a single piece of legislation to improve the safety of off shore drilling. last week, republicans passed two bills that would put the american people at greater risk of another devastating bill. one bill would force us to rush new drilling off the beaches of california, maine, new hampshire, massachusetts, rhode island, connecticut, new york, new jersey, maryland, and other states, without any new safety reforms, the freedout would block all manner of health, safety

i absolutely i actually agree with you i think the united states has and this administration for repping of these strikes has not made the case either from a public standpoint or a legal standpoint is wise it's justified to do so i do believe the u.s. is justified to do so u.s. soldiers are being killed across the border by these groups and the u.s. homeland and u.s. allies are in danger. from the way these groups operated for louis these groups operate but yes i absolutely. agree with you think is not being made in public and the legal case is not being made and this harms u.s. credibility in the long term and this is what happens when you make a tactic of drone strikes and you take that you substitute it for your strategy it's an absolute mess i mean i'm supportive of the strikes i think they should be limited i think the u.s. should be clear about is targeted and i think they should be transparent however i do think they are justified i think the scope of this program john we're going to bring them in germany and here we're going to have rain after the break we'll continue our discuss

the administration wanted to look at it we wanted to declare war on a tactic and so. what's what's happened now is that if you look at international law and you start from the perspective of the un charter which says you really cannot you're supposed to engage in the united states and all other countries are supposed to solve their international disputes peacefully even including non-state actors and you need to be able to work with. countries where non-state actors are are. are being. held or are being. housed or protected by some portions of the government but you need to be able to make that case make it internationally and just think of what would have happened is instead of instead of the ten years ago as invading the u.s. invading afghanistan there was a real push to actually arrest and detain the people who had planned nine eleven i think i think that would be this way i wouldn't be sexy enough or i think a lot of politicians are chris if i can go to you i mean you know let me go to chris here in london and i think it's really it's interesting that they don't wa

there had been so much focus in 2011 about the difficult process within the administration of getting to the military strategy, i think people just didn't focus enough about this fact, in 2014 when we are supposed to make a security transition, there is going to be an election, and if that election results in a meltdown of the afghan government, where we are transferring primary security responsibility to a government that is in crisis, that is not the outcome we need. >> rose: my perception, tell me if i am wrong is that they have been so moved by the idea of believing in the idea that until they got the security part under control, they could not deal to the political part. >> well, that is inhibited progress. >> i think with when the review began under steve's leadership at the end of the bush administration and followed into the early days of obama administration, then the second review that led to the surge in troops, that was highly focused on the security deteriorating security situation. >> rose: because it was necessary, without it -- >> without it you couldn't do anything. >

i am the chief administrative services officer of the general services administration. in that capacity i coordinate internal management and support services to promote efficiency twn agency, covering a wide variety of issues, including travel and conferences. as you were aware our acting administrate member was not able to appear. we reached out to request this hearing be scheduled at a mutually convenient date so that he could personally appear, but informed that the chee was electing to proceed with today's hearing with the awareness that he was unavailable. he looks forward to continuing to work with the committee to improve the efficiency of gsa and refocus the agency on the core mission, of streamlining the administrative work of the government to save money for the american taxpayer. given that the genesis of this hearing was the acting administrator's recent referral to the inspector general of a 2010 awards ceremony for the federal acquisition service. i have come here today to outline the steps we have taken to prevent waste from happening again. as of april o

there was a hearing at the zoning administrator with the planning commission, and both of them, the zoning administrator and the planning commission decided the same thing, that the project that had been built was illegal, they had to go back to the project that had complied with the code. they cannot build an addition that did not comply with the code. in the front. they cannot build an addition on the front because they did not comply with code. mr. greavy is going to speak to the fact that he knew when he was there. we're asking you to uphold the zoning administrator and the planning commission. they both struggled with this case, and i will stand on my brief that you have. thank you. president hwang: thank you. >> hi, i am rodney greavy, and as my attorney mentioned, there were two sets of plans. there were the approved plans in the file and plans at the site that were altered. i am reading a quote from mr. sweeney that says that they altered the plans after getting the plants back from the city. that was clear from the building inspection commission. this has been going on a long time

we've had crises in north korea with success at the administration in every administration has made the same calculation. but we reach a crisis with north korea, are we willing to go all out to the end to solve this thing or do we want a solution that will least park it on the terror they come the diplomatic track, freeze it, cap it and move onto the other issues that most concern us, whether it be domestic economic situation or iraq or afghanistan or serious or the middle east peace process. these tend to be the more important issues traditionally in u.s. foreign policy. >> host: the other issue that makes iraq different from north korea is the u.s. north korea alliance. so how do you see the dynamics of the alliance plane into our ability to address the top concerns that the u.s. has religion north korea's nuclear program? >> undeniably look at the situation, the alliance of south korea is clearly more important than any policy we have a north korea. you know south korea is a key ally for the united states, a major partner in international initiatives around the world. big trading par

there had been so much focus in 2011 about the difficult process within the administration of getting to the military strategy, i think people just didn't focus enough about this fact, in 2014 when we are supposed to make a security transition, there is going to be an election, and if that election results in a meltdown of the afghan government, where we are transferring primary security responsibility to a government that is in crisis, that is not the outcome we need. >> rose: my perception, tell me if i am wrong is that they have been so moved by the idea of believing in the idea that until they got the security part under control, they could not deal to the political part. >> well, that is inhibited progress. >> i think with when the review began under steve's leadership at the end of the bush administration and followed into the early days of obama administration, then the second review that led to the surge in troops, that was highly focused on the security deteriorating security situation. >> rose: because it was necessary, without it -- >> without it you couldn't do anything. >

last year the administration really only deported about 360,000 illegal immigrants. are that to the fact that an estimated half-million into the country legally each year, and you see the problem that exists. there are an estimated 12- 20000000, 12-20000000 illegal immigrants in the country. it is not like the united states is not a welcoming country. we have granted legal permanent residents and an average of more than a million people each and every year. we have naturalized more immigrants, more than half a million of you, approaching a million the year over the course of the san 20 your time frame. meanwhile, the border patrol has a workforce of just over 21,000 agents, 21,000 agents. pretty impressive. that's about double, by the way, then during the bush years, to patrol the 6,000 miles a borders that is, as i said, the will the member from the bush administration years, but has apostle of the amount of illegal drugs flowing into this country. drug seizures were up 20% during the last fiscal year. 5 million pounds of pork products. so why do washington politicia

response to these are the administration response to these they've sold the u.s. media that these are the answer this is the way to defeat al qaeda look all we need to do is kill al qaeda leaders and al qaeda will be done the the the media mocked president bush when he did this in two thousand and two and two thousand and four and two thousand and six and they're right on board because top because access is given the top levels of the u.s. national security council to to media personalities and so they're basically eating what what the people like brennan and others tell them and that's that is why there is very little critical eye in the u.s. media given to this program and look i believe the last the polls were like eighty two percent of the american public supports the drone program you know of course the administration is going to do this it's a political winner it makes them look tough and it allows them to say they wanted to that they were able to defeat al qaeda and allows them to do what they want to do which is disengage from afghanistan and basically dis

there isn't that much of a transformation from the bush administration to the obama administration when comes to the military. and when it comes to the cia. there has just been a little rearranging of the title. so it is the same mindset, some of the same exact people. and it is a reflection of an inability to have a military solution in afghanistan, even with boots on the ground. some people say that this administration, a way of dealing with the war is a whack a mole policy. you whack a mole in afghanistan, then yemen, now they are talking about the huge drones in africa -- i think what is implied in your question is, isn't somebody going to stop them and say this doesn't make sense. on the other hand, it keeps this military complex going, and as long as americans continue to allow it to happen, it will keep happening. >> a soldier has a duty to refuse illegal orders. could you talk about the legalities that are being broken for the soldier, personally, i was concerned about her education process. why people are willing to kill innocent people. they don't seem to have the mentality to

>> the acting administrator came to gsa on april 15th and 16th. he issued a sies of new policies regarding conferences and training. so it didn'take him but a minute or less than a week to issue the policies that we have now that provide oversight central control. and put fiscal responsible back into the spending. >> and what brought that to head? >> well, him comi to gsa, prompted by the resignation of the previous administrator. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. miller, i had intended to ask ab these 486 referrals that miss norton got into. i'm still curious about those. that does seem like an awfully high number. over a six-month period, that comes to over 80 referrals a month. is that much higher than has been done in the past and i know you said, many of these or most of these were not referrals of that gsa employe. but more front pas to the gsa contractors or something. would you tell me a little bit more about that? >> it's a mix of referrals. my point was that a referral can either be against someone doing business

the city administrators budget. the budget for realistic has gone up because the comptroller's office determined we should be paying more. they came up with the formula -- based on their formula which would now be gained two $0.5 million. and we have increased -- we should be paying $2.5 million. and $1.1 million to pick up eight new custodians. there is an increase in budget due to fuel cost increase. mosconi, there is $1.7 million increase in the budget for geological and topographical surveys. as i mentioned earlier, animal care controls and capital renewal will go to plumbing, channels, and planning for a new facility. community education is also an increase. there is money that came in from business taxes. the rising health costs is about $800,000. as you can see from the slide, 38 positions primarily to deal with the transition of projects. and there are 29 positions coming over from the human- rights commission. as for new positions, as i mentioned earlier, eight custodians for 525 bath date. these positions h

did the obama administration leak certain flattering information? i highly think yes. and i will say this, too. on the flip side, when it's information the obama administration no likey, the sons of bitches are government whition l blowers. in fact, our own jason jones has more. >> we hear a lot of stories about government waste, but there are individuals out there fighting for the taxpayer, like former national security agency analyst thomas drake. >> when i was employed at the m.f.a., one of my responsibilities was to discover the very best that existed and put it into the fight. and one of those programs was spin thread. >> an efficient $4 million intelligence gathering program. the problem was the n.s.a. already had a program called "trailblazer" that didn't quite work, spied on americans and was a tiny bit more expensive. >> $a 3 million program made a $4 billion program look pretty bad. >> and after he showed his superiors how much money they could save by implementing thin thread, he received the government's highest honor. >> i was charged as a spy. >> sorry. yo

like the obama administration, we understand the importance of maintaining what we have.80% and the regional plan revenues are directed towards fix it first. this high level of investment continues a long-establish partnership or local and state dollars leveraged federal dollars. at the transportation authority over the last few months, we have acted to invest millions of dollars of the sales tax that we administer in a transit infrastructure, both in the current system to keep it in a state of good repair and also to enhance the system so that transit is prepared to take on its share of forecast growth in the near future which is quite significant. last week at the plans and programs committee, there was an approval+1t! sfmta to procure 90 40-foot motor coach of judges in -- buses in anticipation to the very good news we received today. we know from firsthand experience that replacing vehicles that are passed their useful life with new vehicles may be the single most important performance benefit we can offer survivors in terms of providing reliable service. in fact, in

there's the city administrator program. the community challenge is met, formally known as the communication fund. this provides matching grants to local residences, nonprofits and organizations to make improvements to the neighborhood. there was an increase in the money sitting for the business tax. our budget will include $800,000 a year for a total of $1.8 million. the budget is decreasing by about $500,000 for the office of disability due to changes of priority. there will be legislation before you today that proposes a new plan for the mayor's office of disability plan review foresight kick -- for a site construction and new construction. the office of labor standards and enforcement, a slight increase due to increased costs of installation contracts, which is an automated government contract that is payroll, management, and more. the majority of the budget is the purchase of insurance premiums. which risk-management there is a transfer of function of the jury bond program from the human rights commission. it is about a

the former administrator is gone. the building administrator's gone. others are gone. they have been removed, fired or retired -- >> greta: but right now i. now we are on a second level of scandal and no one showed up from that second level of scandal. there are people who were... who are on tape -- we have the $20,000 drum sticks at that event, $35,000 of picture frames...: one person took medical leave last friday. i had to reschedule that hearing 3 times -- >> greta: okay. so we have a new flock who is supposedly now running the place. and by the way, the statistics coming out of that hearing is that the gsa gobbles up 10% of all the federal government bonus checks and only reflects 1% of the force. so we are now to group 2 running the gsa -- >> we are down to 3 -- because the second tier has been involved in the latest scandzals and they won't come forward and some of them are stepping aside. >> greta: why in the world do we need a quote, smart pay conference right now, going on in oprie -- wherever it is? what is a smart pay conference? >> we wouldn't know about a

and what is sort of troubling is that the administration was very open with the bush administration'shaven't handed these memos over and it is sort of -- it is making people suspicious as to what's in them. you know, what the logic is. the administration has defended the policy publicly, presumably with arguments that are contained within the memo. they still don't want to share it. i think that makes a lot of people both republicans and democrats very nervous. >> eliot: this is perhaps a horrific metaphor but it is like mitt romney's tax returns. show us the memo and what's in there. otherwise, we're going to presume the worst. the republican senators, john cornyn, i knew him when he was a. g., let's impute the worst possible motive in the midst of a presidential campaign. on the other hand on this one they happen to be right. they have senators joining them on this argument. >> the democratic senators have been more timid in crit sietdzing the president. i think part of the way the political process works is with self-interest. it almost doesn't matter if what they're pursuing is in

the administrative code section provides that the port of supervisors declare an emergency and directthe department head to perform work in a manner that the board determines is in the best interest of the city. the approvals are as follows. of the estimated cost of the emergency work is less are equal can proceed without additional approvals. if the cost of the work exceeds that amount, the department head must first secure approval from the mayor in writing or a designee or the commission president. in all cases, when the cost of the emergency work exceeds $250,000, a department head has to seek board of supervisors' approval retroactively. if the port commission delegated authority policy, established under resolution 8099, but it does not address emergency work at all. so this resolution would clarify that the executive director may execute contracts for emergency work consistent with the administrative code chapter 6, and it would ratify the contract actions taken to date to address the pier 29 fire. as is our policy, we will report on any delegated authority in our contracting r

i am the chief administrative services officer of the general services administration. in that capacity i coordinate internal management and sport services to promote efficiency twn agency, covering a wide variety of issues, including travel and conferences. as you were aware our acting administrate member was not able to appear. we reached out to request this hearing be scheduled at a mutually convenient date so that he could personally appear, but informed that the chee was electing to proceed with today's hearing with the awareness that he was unavailable. he looks forward to