Marshall, who became a virginian, like dr. Esper. He spent the majority of his life in the armed service, the u. S. Military academy at west point. He continued through his carrier in the Army Active Guard reserve, service to the white house, service to this body. In fact, dr. Esper has seen it all as an active guard and reserve member. Work in the private sector, think tanks on National Security policy, service to house and senate committees, service to individual senators, and service to republican administrations. You are familiar with his biography, but i wanted to share two instances of working with dr. Esper, which has led me to the conclusion he is the person of character who should lead the department. One of the first phone calls i received after introduced legislation to address challenges with the and with the unacceptably high Unemployment Rate of Military Spouses was from then secretary esper. He thanked me for the legislation, and talked about his own concern about this as secretary of the army and wants wanted to Work Together to tackle this challenge. We have worked together cooperatively on that. I have been pleased with the armys ongoing efforts in that way. The same commitment to address the quality of life of our military families was something i noticed when this committee began the investigation into the very painful circumstances surrounding substandard military housing. The initial responses by some in the department and at the bases themselves, i think we all experience this, were skepticism, disbelief, denial, avoidance, that was not the response of secretary esper. It was the department of the army that first developed the tenant bill of rights, which became the basis of one of the key provisions that we included in the ndaa this year. Secretary esper extended an invitation for senator warner and i to a company to see the conditions of housing, just 20 miles south of here in a Virginia Army base. When a secretary asks you to do something, you wonder if you will see the village version of it, where we solved this and are proud of our solution. We did not see that. Secretary esper took us to the unvarnished version of problematic housing and people who had been treated badly and could not get help from their chain of command or their housing companies. We heard in a very blunt way about the problems these families had experienced. They were heartbreaking in some ways. We had a roundtable discussion with other families around the table. When the families presented their experiences, encouraged by secretary esper to do so, and often base personnel would begin to respond. If he detected any delay or cannot deal with it right away, secretary esper in a firm and tough way, he would not let people get by with substandard responses. He insisted the families be dealt with fairly and promptly. That willingness to display personal accountability was very impressive, both to senator warner and me. He has been proactive and transparent. I acknowledge the comments made by the Ranking Member about the need for transparency and working for the committee. Working with the committee. I think those are trademarks of exceptional leadership. Most of us were very discouraged by the resignation of secretary mattis. What we have hoped for is a successor who can share the same level of candor and principal, and a willingness to remain independent, even in the most challenging circumstances. I believe dr. Esper has those traits. I would encourage all of my colleagues to support his nomination. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you, senator kaine. Whether you call it that or not, i call it an excellent introduction. Dr. Esper, you are recognized for any comments you want to make. Your entire statement will be made part of the record. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I wish senator kaine can stay here for a couple of hours. Reidman, Ranking Member and distinguished member of the , committee, it is an honor and privilege to appear before u. S. The president s nominee for secretary of defense. I would like to especially thank the senator kaine for that very kind, gracias, humbling introduction. Sir i will not let you down. , you have been a leader in the senate, a leader because you are the father of a marine. You have taken care of our servicemen and women. As you mentioned, i really enjoyed working closely with you these past couple of years. Our experience assured me there is bipartisanship in this building on capitol hill, and there are leaders who will do the right thing. I know you will continue to demonstrate that leadership for our service men and women, and and your constituents in for our nation. I deeply appreciate your remarks. I want to think the president for this opportunity and his confidence in me. Im grateful for the time many of you spent with me in recent weeks. And thankful for the committees swift attention to my nomination. Although i have served 22 days as the acting secretary of defense, today, i appear before you as secretary of the army, in accordance with the vacancy act. I would like to begin by recognizing my wife and our children, who join me today. Like all military families, they have made many sacrifices in support of my service to the nation. Over the past 20 months, leah has traveled with me many times to meet with Army Families and spouses in the u. S. And abroad. As a former Military Spouse herself, she has been an invaluable asset as we focus on a range of family issues. I want to publicly thank her for her support. Im confident that if confirmed, she will assist me in taking care of our great families across the entire department of defense. As many of you know, i am blessed to have served our country in a variety of capacities. On active duty and the regular in the regular army for over 10 years both the u. S. And , abroad during both war and peace. On reserve duty, national guard, army reserve for another 11 years. On capitol hill as a personal committee and leadership staffer in the house and senate. And the pentagon, first as a war planner in the army, second, a Deputy Assistant secretary of defense, and third, reserve ee working for the department of defense for special operations. I worked in the private sector with major corporations, and focused on china and other think tanks. Most recently for nearly two years, as secretary of the army. I believe this broad and diverse experience has prepared me well for the position of secretary of defense. If confirmed, i intend to bring the same focus, energy, professionalism, thoughtfulness, and commitment to the department of defense that i brought every single day to my position as army secretary. Im an avid supporter of the National Defense strategy and its clear assessment of the strategic environment we find ourselves in today. The growing threats posed by great power competitors, such as china and russia, warrant a refocus to high conflict across all military services. This requires us to modernize our forces and capitalize on rapid technological advancements, in the field such as Artificial Intelligence, robotics, directive energy, and hypersonics. We must also build more abrupt Cyber Capabilities. And with your help, establish the u. S. Space force. At the same time, we must be prepared to respond to regional threats, such as iran and north korea, while maintaining pressure on terrorist groups, such as isis and al qaeda. This meets the current readiness with modernization, the departments central challenge. It will require strong leadership, open and continuous dialogue with congress, and the courage to make tough decisions. If confirmed, i intend to continue advancing the strategic goals set forth by my predecessors along three lines of effort. First, we will continue to build a more lethal force by increasing readiness and modernizing for the future. The goal is to deter war. This can only be done with a strong, modern, and ready military overmatched in all domains. Our adversaries must see diplomacy as their best option, because war with the u. S. Will force them to bear enormous costs. Second, we will strengthen our alliances and attract new partners. A Strong Network of likeminded nations willing and able to fight together. Together is an advantage our adversaries do not possess. At the same time, i will continue pressing our allies and partners to contribute more equitably to our shared security, as many other secretaries of defense have done in the past. Third, we will reform the department, beginning with the state. No reform is too small. In the army, we found billions of dollars in savings by overturning hundreds of small stones many said would not make a difference. I will also continue taking the approach that bureaucratic process should not come at the expense of our men and women serving around the world. The bottom line is this, in an era of mounting fiscal challenges and competing demands, we must actively seek ways to free up time, money, and manpower to invest into our top priorities. Lastly, as a personal priority of mine, i intend to place focus on the wellbeing of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and their families. I understand very well the impact that issues such as housing and childcare, spouse spousal employment, have on our readiness of our servicemembers. I heard this firsthand during town halls and private meetings my wife and i held across the army over the last 20 months. Our military families are willing to make sacrifices for their country. In return, im committed to ensuring they are cared for properly. As promised in this committee during my confirmation hearing to become secretary of the army, if confirmed, i will approach these priorities with values and behaviors proven to maximize effectiveness of any team, to act with integrity, to collaborate broadly, to treat others with dignity and respect, to encourage innovation, critical thinking, and straight talk, to empower people and hold leaders accountable. These principles and the values we hold dearest as a profession must be lived, promoted, and upheld day in and day out by leaders. Man, Ranking Member, and chairman, Ranking Member, and members of this committee, thank you again for your time and consideration. Im truly honored to be part of the greatest military in the world. If confirmed, i will continue working closely with this committee and the entire congress as we prepare to meet the challenges that lie ahead. Im grateful for your consideration and nomination, and i look forward to your questions. Thank you, dr. Esper. Senator kaine made a couple of comments about your accompanying him to installations in this area. I was reminded that you accompanied me in some of these areas also. But you went beyond the army. We are talking about the housing problems and the fact that the first time we heard about housing problems was at tigger air force base. You were aware of that. In that meeting that we had, the trip we had together, what impressed me and i think it fits into this hearing today, was how well you did in communicating with the troops in the field. You were one of them. At that time, i thought you were really the guy for this job. Thank you for saying so. When you were with us in june, you were the acting secretary of defense at that time, you said the u. S. National Defense Strategy remains our guiding document. That is really significant. That has not happened before. We had a hearing about this. This was put together by democrats, republicans, people who were top military people in this country. No one at any time since we adopted this well over a year ago has complained it was not done properly. At that time, you talked about why it was important. Also, prior to that in march, when you were the army secretary, in response to one of my questions, you said senator, you made a very important point, you said what we do need, we need a budget. The russians are modernizing, we must build the next generation of combat systems now before russia and china outpace us with their modernization programs. We know that is what is happening today. By the way, secretary mattis, and i appreciated the comment that senator kaine made about him, those were my sentiments, also, and he agreed with that. This is what we needed to be doing and how important it was. In the opening statement, i talked about the fact that the document article that appeared in the economist showed that in the same period of time we were cutting our military spending by 25 , china was increasing theirs about 83 . The people dont know about this. We have competition. When i see this, i look and i we have done a better job. But we need to do a better job than we have done before. When the general became chief of staff, only 5 where the highest level of redness. Now it is at 50 . We are in the right area and moving in the right direction. Budget, this is your opportunity to weigh in on this. And what we will have to do in order to do the job that needs to be done at the time considering that we have competitors we have never had before good i would like to have you use whatever time you need to use and talk bout the significance of the budget deal we are going to have you have. Mr. Chairman. I fully share all of your remarks. The threat by china cannot be overstated. For those reasons i fully support the president s budget, the need for a twoyear budget deal and we need to have authorizations and Appropriations Bills passed on time. I cannot overstate how important it was for dod to receive the budget on time. To celebrate the gains we made and to do all of those things the National Defense strategy tells us to do. Good. T is and also we would ask general the general when he was in to classify the areas and to highlight the areas where we need to catch up. Triadtioned nuclear modernization, space, Artificial Intelligence, and hypersonics. You testified in your open statement paired what would be your priorities in this list or should this be a longer list than it is . This may sound unconventional, but it goes to the first point. Ofneed to get the top tier the pentagon staffed up the soonest. Modernization and the triad is top priority. We need to fully develop the domain of space and improve our capabilities. There are a wide range of conventional capabilities we need to improve and many hinge on Core Technologies that we can speak about during the course of the hearing. Thank you, dr. Esper. Much esther very chairman and mr. Secretary. In your opening remarks you mentioned the continuing tensions between the United States and iran. Madeollowing statement was if you think the war on ran out to be a catastrophe. If you think that it would dramatically dramatically reduced is hard to over estimate. Do you agree . With are not seeking war iran and we need to get back on the diplomatic channel. That raises the channel of how do we take steps that would escalationssible leading to kinetic activity. How do you do that. To foreclose the opportunity for any miscalculation and misunderstanding by developing a concept which i understand we have set up a meeting to brief this committee on soon whereby we do passive patrolling in the strait of hormuz and the persian gulf to deter any provocative acts by the iranians or irgc. At the same time, from the highest levels and the president himself, we said we would meet anytime, anywhere to discuss issues with the iranians to get us on the diplomatic path. You think that diplomatic path is the most thoughtful way to proceed . Pharmacy always is. It always is. In your duties you will be required to opine with funds already appropriated for Critical Military and in the case most obviously presented to you for barter wall construction. The legal requirement is that it must be necessary to support the use of armed forces along the border with mexico. Given the fact that this is a Law Enforcement operation and given the fact that it is not something that is typically in the operational spectrum of military force is to build walls across the border, how can you make that justification . That is something i will need to take a look at. Advicelook at the provided to me by the joint chiefs of staff. Dod is providing is not unlike what we have done in the past in multiple administrations. In many ways, it is one of those things that we do whether it is putting out wildfires or helping with flooding along the mississippi. It is one of those things we provide to the government and to the American People. Lexi would be diverting funds that you have set are critical to the military readiness, posture and operations for activity which is longterm. This is a multiyear project. This is not Something Like a flood or you have to rush in with forces immediately within hours. There is a station and you should not miss that distinction. I agree. If confirmed, i would want to have discussions with you and be transparent moving to that process. Comments. Return to my toould hope you could commit take a federal review and revise the memorandums that we could operate in accustomed this committee has done with the department of defense over many years. Is that something you could do . I will definitely commit to that. I spent my formative years in washington, d. C. On capitol hill. I know why congress has article one and you have important oversight functions. You mention the importance of allies and partners and there has obviously been discordance between some of the statements which the administrate meant have been made with guard to nato into our relationships with many of our allies, the south koreans, japanese do you think we can improve not only the rhetoric but the substance of our relationship with our allies . There is always improvement for relationships with allies. I was pointed with acting secretary on june 24. June 25, i took off in a plane and flew to brussels to meet with allies. One of the messages i want to carry forth is this administration and my personal commitment to nato as someone who served that article five commitments were ironclad and would continue to build to strengthen those partnerships and relationships. A final question, in your dialogue, did they raise the issue of the apparent discordance and diminishment of the relationships between our allies . Was that a significant point that they raised . Actually, i do not remember that coming up. We discussed a range of issues regarding operations in afghanistan, strengthening alliances, but that particular point did not come up. Thank you very much. Secretary esper, thank you for your service. Thank you for your testimony. It is obvious listening to both sides of the aisle from my colleague, senator kaine and the chairman that based on their direct observations and work with you both of them think you are an allstar. I tend to agree. I think your testimony has been right on today. You are going to need to be an allstar because of the challenges that the senator has mentioned. Let me tell you something that many,ready know on this on this committee, the works as a team. Message to the a rest of the world and to those ofeersaries that senator inh was referring to that we intend to give you and the admirals and generals working with you the tools you need to meet the challenges. Passed wasch was billiony the house 733. There was a difference of 17 billion. We are not mathematicians appear, but senator fischer and i have been talking and that is about 2. 3 difference. To my colleagues and say to you if the house and senate cannot in the next few differenceut the between 2. 3 in our versions and agree on a twoyear budget caps, then shame on us. We are the Article One Branch of the government and the only people on the face of the earth or in the country who can do this. It with thetiate president of the United States and the secretary of the treasury has been tasked with negotiating the house and Senate Leaders on this. I hope you will raise your voice and be a strong advocate. I hope at this very moment you are raising your voice. We need a budget number this month. If we get to september 15 and we start having brinksmanship and uncertainty about what we are going to do with this budget problem. Hat becomes a aboutank you for talking things we are going to need to modernize. We are trying to bring our military uptodate and look to the future and you mention Artificial Intelligence for hypersonic in robust capabilities. Cr,e go to a monthlong perish the thought that we would go. If we go to a one monthlong october 1, what does it do to these things you have listed on page three of your testimony as priorities. Sec. Esper every day that goes by limits us. Legacy equipment and that is in terms of modernization. If you look at readiness, manning, equipping, same problems. In many cases you can ever make it up. So it is different from level funding. If we get wave a magic wand and have an appropriation bill, that would be a different matter. Cr does not do that, does it . Sec. Esper steady protectable funding is a key to success because you can manager workforce and organize how you work in ways that are far more efficient than looking at inconsistent and unpredictable funding coming your way. Acr, even a temporary cr, due to senator kaines shipyards . What does it do to military defense manufacturing as a whole during that period . Does it save us money . Sec. Esper for a new Start Program, crs under a new Start Program with crs, that is prohibited. With the shipyards, you have lower levels of funding and it affects your operations and maintenance account and you face challenges guard to maintenance. The challenges go on and on in many cases, you cannot make that up. You are trapped in a situation where you are likely spending fewer dollars on legacy items and legacy modernization. To 10, howle of one important is it that we get the budget number . Sec. Esper 11. Thank you, you are no mathematician either. Sec. Esper thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you dr. Esper for your willingness to consider taking on this very different difficult challenge at this critical time. Opportunity to visit and i appreciate you talking with me. One of the things we discussed contaminationf that impacts one in 400 military installations across the country , one of those is a former base in New Hampshire. The air force has been quite responsive to the challenges of that contamination affecting the Drinking Water for the city of portsmouth. It is becoming more and more a serious issue not just on. Ilitary installations if confirmed, can you commit to taking a stronger and more proactive stance to address the contamination issues affecting our installations and communities . Sec. Esper this is an important issue. We need to own it. I dont know if we have a task force in place, if confirmed i would look into seeing if the services are coordinated and approach it in a holistic way. Thank you very much. Another challenge we are seeing in New Hampshire is with the kc 46 refueling tankers. Comeommander of trans indicated he was making preparations to push back the retirement of 28 legacy tankers and expressed concern about the costs that have been associated with this decision. I recently learned that as many from1 activeduty airmen those who have been there to support those new refueling tankers who will arrive were one of the First National guard basis to receive those tankers. They been moved and continue to fly at other airbases to remain and to support the tinker operations capabilities that need to remain insert tanker capabilitiesul that need to remain in effect. Can you talk about why are the result of these delays . Sec. Esper i received understand you received a letter that they wouldnt be removed and in due course they would increase. The big issue i need to work with you on is as what is the timing that they return. You have my commitment on that. You and i have worked together on things and i will follow through. Much. Nk you very i appreciate that. The worldwide threat assessment of the u. S. Intel Community Note that our adversaries and strategic competitors will look to the 2020 elections as an opportunity to advance their interests. You mentioned the challenges with Cyber Capabilities that we have. The report specifically mentions that russias social media efforts will continue to focus on aggravating social and racial tensions, undermining trust and authorities and criticizing perceived antirussian politicians. Can you talk about whether the department of defense is working on deterrent Cyber Technology and researching techniques to respond to adversaries like russia who are interested in effecting our elections . Sec. Esper we work as part of a whole government approach. We have exceptional capabilities in our Cyber Command and it may be as important as our capabilities. Last year the administration put Cyber Capabilities and allowing us to forward. For those reasons, it is why you saw and 2018 issues no elections no issues. Where more and more confident that the election will be on their 10. Gave you a briefing last week and hopefully that was reassuring. This is something that we must stay on top of. The integrity of our elections is not something then can be threatened and we are committed to playing our fair share in that regard. Sec. Esper thank you. I appreciate that. Both the chairman and Ranking Member mentioned the openings in the department of defense. We discussed that and your commitment to address that. Have you discussed with the president or white house the and fill thosete positions as expeditiously as possible and the need to fully vet any nominees offered . Sec. Esper i met yesterday before i handed over the secretary ship to secretary spencer. I met with white house personnel and we went down the list of the 14 current slots that did not have a Senate Confirmed person to talk about each. I urged them to help us push oaks through. We have a few folks that will be coming before the committee who are on the executive calendar right now. I have Due Diligence and the pentagon to make sure we recruit the right people for seats that still need to be filled. There is a range of responsibilities and i had that meeting yesterday with the white house. Sec. Esper thank you. Mr. Chairman. Thank you mr. Secretary for your service to the country and thank you for your willingness to continue to serve as the secretary of defense. In our meeting last week, he made one white that i wanted to touch on again. In a strategic environment find by great power competition, most effective method of preventing great power conflict and that is our Nuclear Deterrence is of growing importance. Do you want to elaborate on that . I recall that the zero report from several years ago arguing we should reduce our Nuclear Forces because 9 11 exposed the of efficacy and indeed irrelevance of Nuclear Forces in dealing with 21st century threats. I dont think that argument was valid then and i certainly dont believe it is valid now. What are your thoughts . I had the pleasure of working on these on capitol hill and after studying them, a Nuclear Deterrent is essential and a top priority. It is kept pace with deterring nuclear war for 70 years now. The important part is to ensure we have a modern, effective, credible, safe, and reliable deterrent. We need to look at each leg of the triad. Each provides certain capabilities that complement each other and to continue to monitor that is import to our security. We heard from undersecretary lord and she stressed that we have reached a point where lay of modernization is no longer an option. Herou agree with characterization that we dont have any margin of error in any of the program and any leg of the triad and that we must move forward with that modernization . Sec. Esper each leg is in a different status and we need to modernize deterrent. Theave plans to modernize submarines and there is a Program Underway already to modernize our longrange stealth bombers. We saw with the house some of sd. R concerns with the gb you mentioned that you we cannot let up on that modernization, is that correct . Sec. Esper it is important that we maintain that. Brusselsre recently in and you had a meeting with other nato defense nesters. I know one of the topics you discussed was the fate of the inf treaty. As i am sure you are aware, credits of the admins critics of the administration promote that the president s decision to withdraw from that treaty which has failed solely because of russias actions, that has created disunity in our Nato Alliance heard was that your impression . Alliance. it was that your impression . Sec. Esper no, it was not. Russia has cheated or is cheating on treaties. I give the Obama Administration high marks for calling them out and trying to work this and secretary mattis the issue as well. The inf treaty has served us well and it only works if both parties comply. We have worked diligently in complying with the treaty. In discussions with plato nato allies, i was impressed by the fact that everybody was unified and agreed that we cannot stand by while rush arms itself with intermediate range missiles that are nuclear to and have tipped and have most of europe enrage. In range. We agreed and we encouraged russia to come back to compliance. The United States will remain in compliance with our obligations until august 2. After that time, we will pursue what is in our best interests. Re our next steps . Sec. Esper we need to prepare air Missile Defense to defeat those missiles. The army has been working on that and also the other services. The other part is to make sure we develop our own conventional inf range missiles to deal not with just russia but china. Ist of chinas inventory intermediate range and we need to have the capability to respond should we got for bid get into a fight with them one day. Thank you mr. Secretary. Thank you mr. Chairman. Welcome. Esper and thank you for your service to our nation. We havent had a chance to but i hope before the vote we have an opportunity to get together and i hope that you will have an opportunity to visit connecticut, particularly our subbase in our shipyard which is the submarine capital of the world and perhaps stop by rhode island while you are there. Sec. Esper if confirmed, yet my commitment and it may be in august. Wonderful. You have reiterated commitment to our superiority in the undersea domain as well as continued superiority in the air with the 30 in our helicopter force. I notice that you are knotting for the record. Sec. Esper i do. We need to sustain the f35 program which is the world generation fighter which provides extraordinary capabilities. You mentioned rotary wing. The army took a top merged to modernize our fleet. There are exciting opportunities that will give us unprecedented range and payload. The third thing you mentioned is we have to modernize the submarine force. I had the religion in the past of being on those vessels. They are very impressive but the need to be i had privilege in the past of being on those vessels. They are there impressive but they need to be modernized area question, ase to my list of expenditures were made by civilian and uniform department of defense personnel at trump copies between january 28, 2017 and june 14, 2017. 7,000 is about 140 147,000. The pentagon spent 36,000 at the Trump National golf club in palm beach. Over 35,000 at the trump hotel las vegas. Over 16,000 at the trump hotel, Trump Ocean Club panama, among many other lodging and strength expenses at trump copies properties. I know you are not a lawyer you no doubt understand that the clause forbids the president ofing money from these type expenditures by government personnel that enrich him as the owner of those properties. I would like a commitment from you that you will abide all of the Additional Information about official expenditures at these properties from 2017 to the commit and that you will to providing also Additional Information about the official of these government travel expenses, if any. And in fact that you will go further and declare these properties to be offlimits off limit establishment as the pentagon does for military personnel when they are spending taxpayer money. This money is taxpayer money. The expenditures were put on the government travel charge card and i think the American People would have a lot of reservations about this practice. Sec. Esper i will certainly look into the issue and fight as much transparency as you can. I am not a lawyer but your request sounds like something that i should have a counsel with. Commit toing that you provide the information. Sec. Esper im certainly committed to provide the information it is very important to me to continue the longheld tradition that dod remain a ical and thatapolit we conduct ourselves that way. I want to make sure we are conducting ourselves in a rational and ethical manner at all times. I would add in response to the answer that you gave to my colleague about the threat from russian to fear in our election i am no mean as comforted us comforted as you seem to be by the Information Available to us about the response so far by our government. It is a whole of government response but the threat is real urgently increasing and so far we have been doing more but still way short of what is necessary and that is my impression from the briefing that you referred to. And i would like your commitment that you will provide more information about that. Absolutely. I did not mean to convey i am comfortable. It is going to be a threat for a long time. There are certainly other countries that want to influence or change our elections want to be on guard and vigilant. I cannot attest today that 2020 will be flawless but we are in a much better posture in 2018 and we addressed the problem adequately. We always will have a lot of work to do because people want to influence our elections. Will you commit to recuse yourself from involvement in any decisions involving raytheon in light of your past involvement . I am fully committed legaling up to my obligations and commitments. Thank you. Theou can watch all of confirmation hearing online at facebook. Com. Org. Span. Org. You also find Senate Debate and speeches from other events. The picture from reuters has the Arms Committee approving mr. Espers nomination. The full senate is expected to vote on his nomination this week. We will have live coverage as the Senate Returns monday at 3 p. M. Eastern 8 00 p. M. Eastern 3 00 p. M. Eastern. Forhe Senate Resumes bay defense secretary and a tuesday. Vote on the Victims Compensation fund are expected. You can watch the senate live on cspan two. The house takes up a bill to retirees. Irement for watch live house coverage on cspan and both the house and senate live online or listen on our free radio app. Special Counsel Robert Mueller prepares to testify before congress wednesday. We will show you his first Public Statement in may following the release of his