ig office. as of today, 10 of the 73 statutory ig positions are vacant. some of the positions have been without permanent leadership for years on end where others only recently became vacant. although the overall number of ig vacancies is important, the context particular -- surrounding particular vacancies is necessary to truly understand the implication of that vacancy. ig positions can become vacant for a variety of reasons. some of which are troubling, while others are completely appropriate. in some occasions a vacancy may be beneficial. likewise, ig vacancies can continue for extended periods of time for a variety of reasons. it's useful to look at some of the current vacancies to understand how they began why they have continued and what the implications of those vacancies might be. the state department ig has now been vacant for 1,576 days, over four years. the position first became vacant when the state's most permanent ig resigned amid allegations that he had been blocking criminal investigations into contractors operating in iraq. the initiation

i can't get the information. there's no igs in place to even help us. so you see the frustration and we've got to do a better job. we've got to restore faith in this whole system. i mean, just in the last few weeks, my goodness, people just have to, have lost faith in government. do you see my point, mr. werfel? again, i hope we can make

and did the igs report back to you? are you informed when there's waste, inefficiency, corruption, or any of the above? >> as a general manner, i review ig reports. >> did you review the ig report for gsa? >> i have read the ig report. >> did you -- did mr. miller bring it to you, also, in may or in june of last year? >> no, he did not. >> he did not. so it went to kimberly harris, is what the information we got. then nothing was done with it. we didn't see it. it was never given to us. now i know why they only wanted to give us one line. they gave us one line that was their total administrative cost. now, of course, we're not the brightest people in the world, but we figured out, if you are spending 300% more in 2 1/2 years, now that would be a financial management issue. wouldn't it be, mr. werfel, if you saw that, increase in administrative expenditures? >> i would -- >> it would light up a few lights. if it doesn't, then there's something wrong. >> no, no, absolutely. >> somebody doesn't have their lights on up here.

the departments. most recently acting ig trent's office proposed 40 suspensions or debarments. similarly at the state department, before acting ig -- the igs office recovered recove leadership recovered funds increased $10.7 million and to the number of investigations open has increased to 49. i guess what i'm really just simply pointing out is the fact that these individuals do in fact provide very effective services and that we are in good stead often times when they are placed in those offices, although they have not been permanently placed and i guess it does help, though, to try and speed up the permanent placement so that the individuals have the security themselves of knowing what they're going to be doing, what they're going to be expected to do. and my point is simply that we should try in as many instances as possible to make these permanent placements so that these individuals are not just acting at a level of uncertainty about what their tenure is going to be in a particular office or location. so i thank you all. >> mr. chairman, i yield back to you. >> will the gen

and without the igs. with that, i'll yield back. >> on that agreement we'll stand in recess until just a few minutes after the second of two votes which means about 15 minutes. thank you. >>> this meeting will come to order. now recognize the gentleman from oregon, mr. davis, for five minutes. [ inaudible ] >> one indicator of effective sentence the amount of recovered funds or the number of suspensions and debarments, other quantitative metrics, all of which igs report to congress on a semiannual or quarterly basis. do you have any statistics that compare the output of permanent igs to acting igs? >> let me go ahead and comment on that question. we -- when we compile our statistics, we compile them for the whole community of igs. now, i believe that we could break it out for -- on a fiscal-year basis, the statistics for organizations headed by permanent igs versus organizations headed by acting igs. but we do not currently have those statistics. >> all right. i'm sure you would agree that acting igs often

but it wasn't the ig, with 300 personnel at his command, he didn't find this at all. only when the administrative staff referred it to him and then it took him nine months to come up with a report that frankly, i think almost anyone even on this panel could have written in half the time. so, yeah. having an ig is important, but i don't know that the ig is entirely the heroic figure, as is sometimes painted in this particular case. i think this -- if he was doing his job he could have uncovered this years before and maybe avoided the embarrassment of the situation. in any event, it was the appointed administrator and her staff that uncovered that excess, referred to properly to him and he was able to investigate that. is that your understanding of that as well, mr. werfel? >> i wouldn't call myself an expert on all the moving piece, but it is my understanding that in this particular case, the deputy administrator referred the issue for further ig investigation. if i could, i just want to make a broader comment about omb's role in inspector general reports in response to

the igs are america's front line of oversight in the executive branch. fiscal year 2009 alone, their audits and investigations identified over $43 billion in potential savings. having a robust group of permanent inspector generals at the federal agencies is the best way to protect taxpayers from waste, fraud and abuse. the obama administration has often proclaimed its commitment to transparency and accountability. that's why it's so troubling, and i remember that his predecessor had similar situations, and i want to note that, that the president has allowed vacancies at several ig offices to linger for months and in some cases years. even more disturbing is the administration's willingness to demonstrate a pattern of, at times, of hostility toward some members of the inspector general community. that is not to say that that has not happened with past administrations. one of the president's first actions on the ig front was to remove ig gerald waltman from his post at the corporation for national and community service. we on this side of the aisle objecte

and other efforts have focused on the necessity of holding igs accountable. our most recent effort to strength at any system is a webpage called where are all of the watchdogs. it tracks the overall number and length of ig vacant sis and whose responsibility it is to fill the positions. pogo created the tracker because we firmly believe the effectiveness can be diminished when the office does not have permanent leadership. ig offices led by permanent igs have structural advantages. some of those are unique to the ig context and others are general management concepts that could apply in any organization. one structural advantage, permanent ig leadership involves independence. another advantage includes credibility. both of those qualities can have a huge determineant of an office. as of today, ten of the 73 statutory ig positions are vacant. some of the positions have been without permanent leadership for years where others only recently became vacant. >> though the number is important the context around certain vacancies is necessary to truly understand the im

those are issues we need an ig in place that can help go after that. the question becomes, that's out there. we know about those things. what do we not know about, because we've never had a permanent ig in those areas? so it's the unknown. obviously you can't answer that either. someone has to raise the flag to fill the position saying we have to have a watchdog in place. one other issue. one that surprises me. i have other concerns on usaid, and i'm sure there is no political ramification for usaid to have a theme of forward. but for that program that is out there that is intentionally focused on transitioning money to other governments and to nongovernmental organizations, 30% of their budget. so now we have usaid that doesn't have an inspector general transitioning 30% of its funds in this new forward program to people that don't have a watchdog. we're in trouble on that. we have a giant risk of an enormous amount of fraud and waste that's happening with no watchdogs now in two layers of that. does that raise a red flag to you at all? >> actually it doe

activities and accomplishments of the federal igs. each year your report includes data on government wide potential savings and total savings to the government from all ig audit and recommendations. can you explain the difference between potential and total savings, i think we have a chart here somewhere. there we go. can you explain the difference between potential and total savings? >> let me just take a step back. my understanding of the data -- and this is based on the data that each office compiles in response to requirements, and the data categories talk about potential savings because it is very difficult to measure actual savings. so my understanding of the data that we're providing we give a number for potential savings from audits, and another for potential savings from investigations. we add that up and have a total number of potential savings overall. it is very difficult to track actuals because of the nature of the criminal justice system, for example. >> so but you do this reporting. it's coming out of your office. >> ye

chairman, that i think it's critical that the ig to a completely independent review investigation, notjust a review of the agency's investigation. thank you. >> thanks, senator collins but i agree with you. i know this for require a commitment of personnel by you, mr. edwards, but it's so important to get to the bottom of this event, to get to the truth of it so we can find out exactly what happened. the aim here is of course to restore confidence to the secret service, which most of those members obviously deserted by their work. so i agree with -- the members of our committee will be called in order of appearance, and in that regard, senator brown is next. >> thank you, mr. chairman. director sullivan, thank you, mr. edwards, thank you for attempting. it to mr. sullivan, listening to your testimony you said you were not aware this had happened before, and that's evidenced by some of the investigation should done in your long history in the service, is that correct? >> yes, senator. >> and you're still can't figure it out. this is something you also said. is that correct? >> this type

>> i don't have a specific time frame for you, sir, but i know as a result of the ig audit that has recently been released that the tsa is working not just on coming up with a workable single definition of security breaches but to overhaul its reporting system so that security breaches are reported consistently, that they're validated and that headquarters gets the information from all 450 airports so they can study it and come up with more comprehensive. >> what's the time frame when this wouldable completed. >> i'll have to get back to you on that. >> moving on to i.c.e., you know, accepting thousands of dollars in bribes to provide documentation, you know, ties to drug trafficking organizations, you know, this is exactly the kind of thing the terrorists want to exploit getting documentation to get into the united states and attack the american people. again, this is just really unacceptable. what are you doing within i.c.e. to remedy this? >> mr. chairman, we have a vigorous preemployment screening process and a thor role background investigation to try to weed out those individuals on th

the next day our assistant ig and the acting deputy assistant ig for investigations met with officials from secret service's office of professional responsibility, also -- we have a nine-person team augmented by three criminal investigators. on may 2, the team met with officials and began the first part of our three-part review. in part 1, we are evaluating the adequacy of secret service's response to the incident in cartagena and adequacy of the scope, methodology, and conclusions of this internal investigation and the sufficiency of the collective actions already implemented or planned. we are in the process of interviewing secret service personnel responsible for coordinating the agency opposes response to the incident and conducting its investigation as well as personnel within the office of the director, those in charge of field operations, and in the office responsible for security clearances. we will review of records, documents, and other materials related to the secret service's internal investigation including standards for inspection and investigation. we will review protoco

we agreed with the ig's recommendation and it appears that procurement reform, a new policy to bettere acquisition functions are underway. however dav is very concerned that during the transition prosthetic va services should retain appropriate staff to ensure a strong connection between veterans and clinical components care while contracting will always be a dominant aspect to prosthetic supply to determination of what type of prosthetic are appropriate and should remain with medicine and rehabilitation passionless aided by prosthetics representative in conjunction with direct involvement of the disabled veterans being served. one of our commenters put it best. without precedence and ordering specialized prosthetic items in limbs, veterans could experience unnecessary delays as they would simply be invoice numbers rather than patients with unique needs. while va could expand its in-house prosthetic manufacture with the ig's cost-cutting, cost should not be the sole factor for an expansion of in-house fabrication of lens. in our opinion the most important aspect of abt kerry is mainta

the next day our assistant ig and the acting deputy assistant ig for investigations met with officials from secret service's office of professional responsibility, also -- known as res, briefing them. we have a nine-person team augmented by three criminal investigators. on may 2, the team met with officials and began the first part of our three-part review. in part 1, we are evaluating the adequacy of secret service's response to the incident in cartagena and adequacy of the scope, methodology, and conclusions of this internal investigation and the sufficiency of the collective actions already implemented or planned. we are in the process of interviewing secret service personnel responsible for coordinating the agency opposes response to the incident and conducting its investigation as well as personnel within the office of the director, those in charge of field operations, and in the office responsible for security clearances. we will review of records, documents, and other materials related to the secret service's internal investigation including standards for inspection and investig

in addition, as the ig noted about the va's overpayments, exce excess inventories, "strengthening controls over these actions should jot compromise the quality of the prosthetic limbs provided to vetera veterans." in short, the va can be a better steward of taxpayer dollars while still providing access to care including in the area of prosthetics. another way the va can better manage the billions spent in prosthetics every year is to actually enforce the acquisition regulations that apply to section 8123. and the response i received yesterday, the va still fails to acknowledge the abuse of section 8123 and the blatant circumstance come vengs of the far and the var by va enemployees. we know pt problem exists. now is the time to fix it. if employees in the past have failed to follow internal guidance, then perhaps a legislative clarification is necessary to ensure best value for taxpayer dollars. lastly, before simply reorganizing employee structures and moving chest pieces around on the board i am requesting here today that the va present to this committee in detail its plan to improve its

. >> given today's sell off and given the ig unknowns of the european and greek elections and french elections this weekend, how were traders setting up. >> yesterday we saw people get really bearish part low in front of this weekend. partly in front of the news we got this morning that paid off. again, people are just worried in general. we talked about the fact that the options on the s&p were cheap and you should be buying protection. that was more a function of the fact that options were cheep. you can buy when you can and not when you have to. you might have to. >> in terms of seeing the greatest sell offs, look at how the mighty have fallen and stocks have been close or at 52-week highs and trading sharply lower. some might argue it's a reach for liquidity as there is concern about the markets. >> that's a great point and when you look at the three names in general, this is best of breed. there is a lot by portfolio managers or individuals that will throw in the chipotles and anything. if you turn on the tv, people are telling you buy more, buy more as they make highs. to me, t

i think the important thing is we need to find reforms that guarantee both an initial ig and line of ccession so that simplygain will be have sem an empty slot. >> it is not unique to the administration and i said i think part of it is these of hard jobs sometimes to fill. i think we in congress with our overblown rhetoric about federal employment and the value of public service make them less desirable. the compensation oft season not comparable to what you can have in the private sector with a comparable skillset and i think the senate confirmation process has become to burden some that some people just give up. >> i was astounded to see there is no inspector general for four years in the department of state with mammoth programs. i saw some of the waste and incredible spending when i visited afghanistan last year. now, i'm wondering who is responsible for not having someone responsible. that kind of outrageous spending on overseas aid programs is going unchecked. >> president obama is showing that he does it. want any internal people looking around. he doesn't want an internal audi

. >> i did see the ig report and it was a former mitt romney adviser named in the report them and give us some context. >> it is what of the two republican members on the agency. >> he gave inside information that violated ethics. not a single republican on the hill has said it about this, not one. he has not resigned, either. if that were a democrat or had been a labor person, they would have been doing handstands in front of the fox news 24/7 but not a word. >> he is one of the republican members of the board and has been accused of disclosing internal board information to former board members. there have been two reports and you have called for his resignation. do you think president obama should call for his resignation? >> yes, i think he should not be on the board. i think he is being improper and what he did violated the ethics rules and i don't think he should be there. he has shown he is no longer capable of neutral decisions. that is what they are supposed to be. it is supposed to be an independent agency that takes faqs and tries cases and decide to winds on the block. when

or the igs office to uncover ways to save taxpayer money. how do we reframe the focus so it is sustained on the federal work force and all the good things the federal government is doing. >> that sound like our initial question. and the problem is, equivalent of saying. 500 planes took off today. and landed safely. you know? that's your -- expectation. >> that is the news. >> should we throw up our hand. as long as nothing is going wrong. let's assume the federal government is functioning great, and when it isn't, let's pounce on everyone, slash federal benefits and pay. is that what we do? how do we, and you as leaders, make sure the message gets out that all of the good things your agency does and the federal government is capable of is because of your people? >> one of the reasons for this week. these are the things that you fry to do. i mean that's what the partnership for public service's mission is to both, both -- reward people who do good work in the federal government. advertise the fact that they do good work in the federal governme

so she sees the independence and the continuity of the professional staff important to the ig's office. would you agree with that? >> i would agree. >> and would you basically agree with her statement that the staff can make a difference and is a very important part of getting the work done? >> finding well-qualified staff is extremely important. >> and, mrs. fong, would you also agree with mrs. bats' statement? >> i believe that she has a very good point there and i would add that our acting i.g.s by definition are part of that very qualified and experienced career staff with professional expertise. >> in closing, i think we all can agree that a permanent senate-confirmed i.g. is preferable. but we should not accept the idea that an acting i.g. and their staff are not capable of performing excellent, vigorous oversight and achieving results that are just as meaningful as the permanent i.g.s. thank you. >> thank you. >> i thank the gentlelady. just in the nick of time returns the gentlelady from california, my colleague, miss spear, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i find

in looking at the record through, roughly the number of vacant ig vacancies are comparable to those in 2004 as president bush was gearing up for his re-election, and i think that, perhaps, suts something about how onerous and difficult the senate process has become, as the chairman suggested. if the chairman will indulge i just want to give the witness an opportunity to answer that, and i'm done. >> do you have any comments, disparaging the senate? >> i don't have any comments. on a personal level, they confirmed me pretty quickly. so i'm very appreciative of the senate. the only thing i would remark, i would go back to ms. fong's remarks in the first panel in which she talked about the complexity of the process of bringing an ig onboard. there's obviously the senate process. there's the desire to find highly qualified individuals, and so there's -- it's a complex terrain, and one in which probably should be evaluated over time. >> thank you. i recognize myself for more or less one question. >> please. >> first panel to my pleasure congratulated ed for passing o bipartisan basis the da

the next day our assistant ig and the acting deputy assistant ig for investigations met with officials from secret service's office of professional sports --lity, also known as we have a nine-person team augmented by three criminal investigators. on may 2, the team met with officials and began the first part of our three-part review. in part 1, we are evaluating the adequacy of secret service's response to the incident in cartagena and adequacy of the scope, methodology, and conclusions of this internal investigation and the sufficiency of the collective actions already implemented or planned. we are in the process of interviewing secret service personnel responsible for coordinating the agency opposes response to the incident and conducting its investigation as well as personnel within the office of the director, those in charge of field operations, and in the office responsible for security clearances. we will review of records, documents, and other materials related to the secret service's internal investigation including standards for inspection and investigation. we will review pr

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. >> i would assume the dollars ig nation simply by the name obviously means that if one institution were to fail, that there wouldable systemic problems to other institutions bank or nonbank. we will obviously found that in 2008. is that one of the main criterion to having the designation? >> yes, the statutory standards that are the council should designate firms that could pose a threat to the financial stability of the united states. the council in its rule and guidance has stated that threat to the financial stability is where an impairment of financial mediation or financial activity could have a real effect on the real economy. so that is a standard on which a designation would ultimately be based. >> okay. one of the concerns i have is with the orderly liquidation authority you're probably aware, we tried to go with an enhanced bankruptcy look on this and failed so the liquidation authority rests with the fdic. again i'll go back to my original question. when you're looking at a nonbank entity, the fdic vice president more accustomed to working with banking entities. i want s

coming together, working toward a common goal, several institutions, okaloosa, walton, century, the ig's canine. what we're doing this morning, mass search. our goal is to identify, locate and remove items of contraband, making santa rosa a safer place for the inmates and the staff. >> today's search will cover two housing units and involve officers from santa rosa, three other state prisons, and the state's inspector general's canine unit. the dogs are trained detect the scents of both drugs and cell phones. >> we've got six different search teams. some things i want to caution y'all. i want everybody to remain professional during the search today. i want to leave the bunks and the areas as close as we can to the way we found them. in the event it becomes necessary to use force, utilize other methods first if necessary for procedure. >> get in your boxers. shower slides only. unlock your lockers. stay in your cell. >> we're about to roll the door. stay in your cell. >> make sure it's unlocked. >> let's go! >> what we do is clear out the cell first. we try not to let staff go in and cont

. >> the ig report tells us we have more to do to get to the level we all want and that's exactly howe're going to proceed. >> reporter: some of the spending irregularities discovered were $238 for wine, a $9200 plane ticket to prague, and three dinner bills that totaled $4800 in hawaii. even board chairman michael kurda was among those affected by the findings. investigators say his wife's employer the jenner & block law firm, was awarded a no bid contract worth $100,000. >> to be clear i did not order the engagement of the firm and i do not believe there is an actual conflict. my wife is an employee of the firm, not an attorney. she does not receive and will not receive any compensation or benefit as a result of the engagement. >> reporter: still to be determined if the silver line will be extended into loudoun county. some county supervisors have raised the possibility of withdrawing support if the costs to loudoun taxpayers and toll road users are not reduced. one mwa board member says loudoun commuters need to realize they will fund the project no matter what. >> loudoun citizens

. >> the ig report tells us we have more to do to get to the level we all want and that is exactly how we're going to proceed. >> reporter: some of the spending irregularities discovered were $238 for wine, a $9200 plane ticket to prague, and three dinner bills that totaled $4800 in hawaii. even board chairman michael kurda was among those affected by the findings. investigators say his wife's employer the jenner & block law firm was awarded a no bid contract worth $100,000. >> to be clear, i did not order the engagement of the firm and i do not believe there is an actual conflict. my wife is an employee of the firm not an attorney. she has not received and will not receive any compensation or benefit as a result of the engagement. >> reporter: the investigation was prompted by complaints about the escalating costs of the rail project. the report also identified behavior that it said would not happen at any other publicly funded agency. >> i think we can enact procedures in terms of openness, transparency, ethics that hopefully will be compliant with things that would be expected from

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flouorescet to leds and there is a special challenge for the industry to replace the a-lamp and the tra igs d l a edison light bull thab we are most familiar with and we with the liquid thermal management have uniquely created a no compromise replacement for the incandescent lightbulb and you can use this in any fixture because we manage the thermals more effectively and creates the same lighting experience and the same color temperature and the same filtering. >> yes, we can see it, because it is right here and looks the same as what we are used to. >> yes, in any lighting fixture, you will get that same experience. >> what is neat is that we think of lightbulbs disposable and go to the store and buy it and throw it out. >> 25-year life in residential use, and 25,000 hours and 6 to 8 years in commercial use, and it will be a consumer durable and when you move, you take it with you. >> and how much time went into develop iing this? >> four years to bring it to market. >> wow, that is amazing. >> tremendous technical challenge, and that is one of the reasons that the edison awards recognized

they've given tens of thousands of people to the ig. this is what doj said of last thursday. nt strongly disputes the contention that we have failed to cooperate with the committee's review of fast and furious. that was last week. has there been anything since then? >> no, not that i know of. but i can tell you that after two years of subpoenas for documents, in any case in america, in any case that is going on right now, in civil courts, from coast to coast, if you were to take this kind of time to produce the documents that this congress has been asking for -- the doj is basically turning its head to the subpoena power of congress. i mean, what else do you do after two years of asking for documents? i mean, who knew about this gun running program at doj? what did the doj finally figure out that this thing was going on? what did eric holder really know, and what was in his email account when he appeared before congress and told congress he didn't know anything about it? bill: those are interesting questions. if holder would admit who authorized it, and if he said how high it

important, and the federal reserve is in the process of finalizing rules to supervise the entities that are des ig mated. there are many questions, again, about the effect the systemically significant designation will have on these nonbank firms. we have already seen with the largest banks systemic significance equates to market participants viewing these institutions as being too big to fail and expect the government to intervene in times of severe distress. the implied government guarantee also results in lower borrowing costs. it is less clear what the effect of this designation will have on nonbank entities. i know many of our witnesses on the second panel have serious concerns about the standards used not only for designating the firm but also for the supervision of nonbank firms once it is designated. there are legitimate questions about how these standards will work with the various business models of nonbank firms. does the federal reserve have the expertise to supervise nonbank firms from different industries? how well will the fsoc and the federal reserve coordinate to ensure the standar

, and widespread waste of taxpayer dollars, including personal trips for him and his wife and now the ig justice department to conduct a criminal investigation about that man. so he could be back in hot water with no jets, no whirlpool, no one, just the hot water and the --. shannon: plenty of it. trace, thank you very much for the update. >> reporter: okay. shannon: by the way jeff neely had a long career with the general services administration. he joined the agency that manages government buildings back in 1978. his final post for the gsa was public buildings commissioner for the pacific rim region. his final salary? $172,000 a year plus perks. >>> just in time for the holiday weekend a break for you at the pump. national average for a gallon of regular gas falling about a nickel from last week to $3.678. that is 40 cents higher than drivers paid at the beginning of the year, still a far cry from fears of $5 a gallon gas some predicted for the summer. we have the managing partner of chatwood investments joins us to talk about what sounds like good news, ed? >> definitely good news. no

all of the ig rant, the down and outs, the half wits are given the place of precedent before her and her friends in that procession. looking a the are thible people at the end of the parade rue bow, quote, could see by their shocked and altered faces that even their virtures were being burned away. it's a good thing, high calling to defend virtue and orthodoxy in the parade toward heaven there may be some unexpected people in the lead. thank you [applause] >> part what we promised was an evening conversation which necessarily involves you. we'd be delighted to take your questions now. we simply ask that you pose all questions in the form of a question. short, pointed, and to the point. if you can raise your hand. we'll call of you and one of my colleagues will be by with a microphone so everybody can hear you. questions for any of our speakers? right there. >> i'm curious if your book picks up the question of any institutionalism. you specifically talked about jesus railing against wealth, but he rails even more against the constitutions of religion of his time, and in this time, it

the past. but, now, we're ig paying closer attention to the long term impact. >> we have a couple minutes left the i will ask you both more broadly. if you want to add on, that's fine. we touched on this a little bit. we're here with historians at the annual meeting. when people ask why should we study history? why is it important? >> why should we study history. history gives us a way of understanding the world the a way of paying close attention to the sources of the fast and trying to figure out how people in the past framed their own lives. i think that is really important. to think through for ourselves. and to see that we actually have power over the way we think through our lives, not just how we live our lives, and in some watz t ways the structures that frame our lives, the cultural implications of what we think about what we do every day. i think it matters quite a lot. and i really think it is very important that i teach my students to see similarities and differences. when they study the past. this issue of -- college kids leaving school without employment which comes up unmy class

but the base ig rights of citizens should not plip and flop and be erased like an etch-a-sketch.stant, and abiding, thanks president obama for reminding us of that, thank you for

i would point out that the province where the french of mother prominent, province scheduled to prns igs during the course of this year. what we would look to allies to make their national decisions in the context of the overall alliance approach which has us in, isaf, until the end of 2014. you can make all kind of contributions. combat troop contributions. train and assist kinds of contributions. you can make other kinds of contributions, right? we'll have a discussion with the french about where they want to go on this, but the key concept here, though, is, again, despite the specific nature of the contribution, despite the national decision you might make about pace of withdrawal or timing, you are a member of the alliance, all-in, in together, out together as an alliance in a general fashion. >> we should look for something along the lines of what the u.s. has already done, or the u.s., maybe they my withdrawal combat troops but leave in training missions? can't speak for him, jessica, but those are the kinds of discussions we would be having. i'm being very direct. the kind of disc