Monday, the house wrapping up a brief pro forma session. We will head back live to the Defense Department hearing on civilian Law Enforcement. Your recognized for their maker of the time. You are recognized for the remainder of the time. I am looking for a yes or no if you dont know the answer, please let me know you will take it for action. You have both testified that you have taken else to the constitution of the United States. That includes question mar oath yes. Yes. Are you aware that the executive power shall be vested in a president meaning one or a single president . Yes. Yes. That theu aware constitution makes the president the commanderinchief of the army and navy . Yes. Yes. Are you aware that the president s power is undisputed . Aware that the president s power to remove from office key cabinet officials especially National Security positions including the secretary of defense is undisputed . Sec. Esper yes. Are you aware that the uniform code of military justice criminalizes mutiny . Gen. Milley absolutely. Are you aware of the fundamental proposition that the secretary of defense is selected by the legitimate president mr. Ar sec. Esper yes. Actinally, the insurrection states that whenever the president considers the unlawful obstructions, combinations or assemblages against the authority of the United States makes it impractical to enforce the law of the United States by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into federal service the militia of any state and use the armed forces as he considers necessary . Yes. Yes. The gentlelady is out of time. We will go on to mr. Gates. Minutesognized for five if you are with us. Mr. Bacon . Thank you. Appreciate you for your leadership. The report on the bounties, from an Intelligence Agency within the military or is this from outside of the military . I didnt hear the question. The Intelligence Report that talks about the russian bounties in afghanistan, that that come from outside of the dod . Did it come from a military Intelligence Agency . A dodwas not produced by Intelligence Agency. Thank you for that. Leaksack to, these undermine our intelligence communities and it undermines the confidence of the citizens in the president or where you stand to our intelligence organizations and cells. How active are you in pursuing similar within the dod . I think it is Holding People accountable. Im curious for your insights on this. Congressman, we are aggressively pursuing leaks within the peds department. Defense department. We had some data leaks last fall. When we turned the corner of the new year, i emphasized on day a key thingwould be for us to focus on, the leaks continued. I launched an investigation that is underway to go after leaks whether it is of classified information or unclassified information that is sensitive. Also, unauthorized discussions of the media. All of those things hurt our nations security. They undermine our troops. They affect our relations with other countries. They undermine our national policy. It is bad and it is happening all over the government. The executive branch, the legislative rich to some degree. This is not new to this and administration. Previous administrations have had to deal with this. It is bad and it is unlawful and it needs to stop. Thank you, i appreciate your comments. I would also like to comment couple of days ago, i appreciated your transparency. You said the report was not corroborated. You did not have the level of confidence that the private best president look at the briefing. Is that still your opinion . Sec. Esper it is the opinion of a number of intelligence agencies that could not corroborate the report. You richly,pics on could you go through what kind of training the guard gets what comes to supporting Law Enforcement question mark is it universal to all Law Enforcement or certain specialties . Guard,lley the National Really we are talking about air force police and the Army National guard is part of their mission task list, most of the ground units will be trained explicitly in civil disturbance in support of Law Enforcement. Those would be infantry units. From early military police. The d. C. Guard explicitly is trained in that. You get Refresher Training throughout the year and throughout the weekend drills. They are trained. Not every single unit, but the ground force units that are most likely to work in civil disturbance and support of Law Enforcement are trained. Work thatciate the the guard gave the d. C. Authorities and 30 other cities. What i hear from our constituents is how appalled they are that the church was burned. Aflcio was torched, memorials were defaced. Action needed to be taken in restoring law and order. I appreciate what the guard did to support Law Enforcement. With that, i yield back. Esper or general milley, can you explain to us the command structure, how it was set up . We had the National Guard working with National Police as well as park police. How did that happen . How was the communications between all parties involved and who was in actual command control of that area Lafayette Square . That is a very good question. You understand chains of command from your service. It defies that in many ways. National guard under title 32 goes from the president , to me, to the secretary of the army. Was, department of justice agencies and department of interior specifically park police, that relationship is more of a cooperative one. It is not something that we would understand as caps on or tactical control. Law enforcement would say you would help us if you were here and here and we would agree or not agree to do that, but it was a Good Relationship that make that work out. Any guard units coming into the city remained under the control of the governors. Also reported to general walker but on a cooperative that being said, the deployment of the National Guard in front of Lafayette Square the day of the incident on june 1, there was an agreement to join at some point there was a discussion that the National Guard should stay here in a static position on this day. There was a conversation create who was that between . Gen. Milley im not sure specifically, but i think it was secretary mccarthy and general walker. And the department of justice perhaps attorney general barr or representatives of the department of interior and the park police. Im not sure the specific individuals. I cant find that out. I appreciate it. What was the method of communication question mark we are dealing across agencies. Were they talking over cell phones . How do they communicate across agencies considering the tense situation . Gen. Milley there is a command post set up a combined command post with all of the different but hippolyta belize, park police, secret service, fbi, dea, atf, euro prisons, various counties plus the d. C. Guard. They are all located in the fbi building. They did the larger coordination there. At the various monuments, that is department of interior. That is park police with the d. C. Guard. Specific to Lafayette Square . Gen. Milley cell phone or coal located facetoface. One guy would have a region radio for his agency. Communicating with the National Guard was done over radio . Gen. Milley it was a combination. Can we figure that out also . Gen. Milley yes. If there was any communication over radio through the National Guard, that the National Guard used, i assume we have a transcript of the conversations that were happening . Gen. Milley that i am not so sure. If it is a military communication, i doubt there is a transcript. I may be wrong but i doubt it. Can you check to see if there are recordings specific to the date of june 1 or any other recordings . The police force would normally do that, but we can find out. I yield back. Know whoher of you specifically gave the order to clear the protesters out of Lafayette Square ahead of the president visit to the church on june 1 . You said the guard was in support. Who gave the order and to whom to play the protesters out of that square . We have had that discussion a few times. We had it the other day with secretary mccarthy and general walker and it is still unclear to me who give the direction to clear the park at that point in time. I find that hard to believe. Its a pretty big decision. A lot of people there and it just sort of happened . Im not saying that, i just say i dont know. I never pursued it because you get caught up in other things more relevant. How did you know to have the guard hold back . Guardare a lot of say the did not participate. Why . We could get something from general walker. I dont want to quote him or get it wrong. I want to say that he was on the ground with the park police and what they had asked him to do was to stay static, not move. That is what he was operating from. At the moment when they decided to move forward, he was on the ground. He told me that yesterday. Or the day before. Beyond that, maybe we get something from him to share with you. Gen. Milley i dont know with certainty, but there was a Planning Session at the fbi building in late morning or early afternoon where they divided up who was going to do what. Was is where the agreement as to where they would be created as to who gave the order, i dont know. Attorney general barr spoke to that publicly. I know that it has been mentioned the park Police Captain etc. I dont have knowledge as to who gave the order. Your recognized for five minutes. Thank you. General milley, i want to go into more depth. You answer the question about the training that our National Guardsmen have in responding to situations like we have seen here recently. Most americans associate National Guard with response to National Natural disasters. They are not used to seeing them in the role that have seen them recently. You talk about some units being trained for the direct contact. Ae there instances where guard unit may be called up the doesnt have that particular training or do they get the training across the full scope of what they may face . Understand how to organize, how to tactically address the situation. There are other things. The element of controlling emotions. Those sorts of things, i call it the depth of training. To understand to get in the situation, we see police go through the training all the time to be able to deal with the adrenaline and emotions of the situation. Give us an idea, more indepth. Guard ofirst National Choice is police. Policerdsmen are often in their civilian life. They get civilian specific training on use of force. They are not police at the moment in time so they are not going to conduct arrest. They are test with things like rules of conduct, deescalation procedures, crowd control. Dont react to verbal provocations etc. There is a wide variety of training. A lot of it is scenario training. They do that during the course of the year. In this particular case, they got quick Refresher Training as well. They are trained on their equipment and so on. In this particular case, you are looking at the times and shields and personal protective gear. None of them had weapons downtown or at Lafayette Square. They are trained on all of that stuff and they are the military force that we would first call for civil unrest National Guard military police. Esper, i want to. Sk you about the 1033 program it gets a lot of attention with the equipment that is used by the military that would be available to civilian Law Enforcement. Does that militarize the police force . The questions always surround the Central Point of, do civilian forces needed that and what connection is there to the military requesting that equipment . The determination as to whether or not it is apple for that to be sent to the civilian police force . Can you tell us what happens with the tender to three program and does that include the Big Equipment or is it things like protective equipment like vests and those sorts of things . Sec. Esper it is a congressional program. It is not something i have studied in much detail and i dont think i could speak to what Law Enforcement deems as requirements. I spoke with a general about it the other day. I hope it is something that might come up as part of the after action review to get there assessment. There is a wide range of items covered under that program. I cant pass judgment. I think we can all generally agreed that if we had body armor, that would be helpful to the police to protect them, but beyond that, i would wait to see the review when it comes out or i could take back your specific questions to see if the guard wants to take a look at it. That inley i would say the case of d. C. , with all of those forces, simple uniforms as opposed to other types of equipment became an issue. Our guys are wearing camouflage uniforms. Other police have blue, camouflage, green. That would be something i would put in there. As far as distinguishing. You want a clear definition between that which is military and that which is police in my view. Police,ntly, you want local police, state police, federal police, dealing with Law Enforcement stuff. If necessary, National Guard under the governors control. You what a clear distinction that which is police visually and that which is military. When you start introducing military, you are talking about a different level of effort. The gentlemans time is expired. Sec. Esper one of the things we discussed that i want to address in terms of equipment, at one point the National Guard cross leveled its right shields and let them to Law Enforcement. If you saw police using a military shield that is because we cross leveled and that is a lesson learned. We need to figure out a way to shield the words military police so theres no confusion. I learned early in my Marine Training that there are two types of codes. Physical and moral. The tough challenge i faced in iraq included moral courage. Your behavior was an act of not just contrition and rightly so but an act of moral courage and i want to commend you for that. It is unusual in this administration. Mr. Chairman, you clearly recognize the value of unity. Not just in our military but in our country. Do you believe that other countries or adversaries are interested in taking advantage of divisions and unrest in our country . Onlymilley im not believe that they would, i know they are. Are you going to elaborate on that in any detail . Gen. Milley it would be best to do that in a classified session. I have no doubt in my mind that foreign adversarial countries are trying to take advantage of civil unrest in the United States. It should go without saying job,lfilling your primary i strongly advise you to advise the president to work to sew up these divisions rather than exacerbate them. As others have described in intimate detail. Think youary, i dont leaks begin choose which you like and which are damaging. This white house routinely uses leaks to their advantage but suddenly it is a problem. We have both commanded troops in combat, been responsible for their protection. I can assure you that i also dont care about the semantics of an Intelligence Report and whether or not a particular word was used or not used. That proves nothing. What matters is the substance. I have never seen in my time in combat when we didnt take any threat to our troops seriously. Regardless of the confidence in the Intelligence Report which is never 100 . Whether it was leaked or not, we take action. A very simple question. Aware of you made russian Material Support of the havean who we all know been killing american troops in afghanistan for years and what action did you take . Sec. Esper let me say on the first part of your statement, you talk about credibility of threats. The reports had not been were rated. Have not been corroborated. Some intelligence agencies believe that. There is not consensus. The defenseall intelligence agencies have been unable to corroborate that report. To one of your points, you may have seen my written statement. Regardless, the commanders take all reports seriously regardless of the degree of credibility or confidence and that is the point you were trying to make. I want to reassure you of that. We have been in discussions with the commanders about this. General miller and general mackenzie, i know them going back as early as january were pulling the threads and taking appropriate measures. Our troops are already at the highest force protection level. Nonetheless, when i talk to them, i talked to them all the time about how can we do better. Mr. Secretary, you mentioned january. What action did you take to . Ounter russia not to improve force protection of our troops but to directly counter this threat from russia . Sec. Esper i didnt see the first report until february when it came out in an intelligence piece of paper. I think general mackenzie and general miller got some initial reporting on the ground that they began pursuing. Neither thought the reports were credible as they dug into them. Milley might be able to add more color to that. Gen. Milley i dont want to go to the into the actual intelligence, but i have multiple tours in afghanistan as you know. I have been ive been aware of russian meddling for years. What action did you take . Well, specifically, military action, there is no military action that that intelligence specifically warranted, like conduct a raid. I do apologize, but the gentlemans time has expired. Theants a question that i think is going to be answered in the next couple of seconds. Ill get you an answer, an explicit answer. Thank you. Ill allow you to respond to congressman monthly ton specifically as it relates to the depth, duration, and extent of the russian Malign Influence Campaign in afghanistan and perhaps the extent it predates the current administration. Well, first, we want to be clear. Its not just russia. Theres many other countries it that are influencing various actors in afghanistan. And they are influencing them with training, money, weapons, propaganda, and the International Support and a lot of other things. And im not going to say how we know that, but thean that. Russia is one of those countries thats been doing it for years. Theyre doing it for their own reasons. The mill the military action for us theyre doing it through other groups. The military action is for us is, first and foremost, force protection. Regardless of whos providing weapons or whos providing money, our force Protection Measures are at the highest levels, and theyre going stay at the highest levels, as long as we have troops out there. Just so i could focus the question. I want to go to what were doing for action. A tactical and operational level, theres no particular military action that were not doing that we should be doing. The issue is higher than that. The issue is at the strategic level. What should or could we be doing at the strategic level. Is there diplomatic and informational and economic, are there sanctions . Are there phone calls . Are there pressure, those sourts of things . I can tell thaw some of that is done. Are we doing as much as we could or should . Perhaps not. Not only to the russians, but others. Bought lot is being done. Some of its quiet. Some of its not so quiet. But dont think that were not doing anything, because thats not true. Now, i want to get specifically to the bounties, specifically to the bounties. That is a unique piece of information that is not corroborated. Youve all been briefed on it. I have too. And i and the secretary and many others are taking it serious. Were going to get to the bottom of it. Were going to find out if its true. If it is, we will take action. And im glad you mentioned the other countries. September 5, 2010, this is from the times of london, iran pays the taliban to kill u. S. Soldiers. Then also following up on that, theres a december 2, 2015 report from fox news, report iran paying taliban to kill u. S. Troops. Mr. Chairman, i seek unanimous consent to enter these in the record. Without objection, so ordered. General milley, is it safe to say, given these reports, along with the testimony you just provided, that the environment in afghanistan, the very nature of the place and the very nature of the entities involved, means that our presence there does create these risks where our foreign adversaries create incentives and resources and opportunities for our Service Members to not be harmed. Any time you commit u. S. Military forces anywhere on earth, theres going to be risk. We went to afghanistan for a single purpose, to prevent them from ever being a platform to attack the United States of america with terrorists. Weve been there ever since to do that. We are drawing down forces in accordance with the agreement that was signed with the taliban last february. There hasnt been significant attacks on forces since that agreement was signed. Further direction of the president of the United States, youll be briefed on full coming into the fall. But theres always risk. I know you know that. Theres always risk. Theres nothing riskfree here. Its a risk i know you both appreciate given your service to the country. Its a risk i know the president appreciates. Ive had the occasion to join him at dove when her my constituents have come back for dignified transfer, and that risk being so ever present seems to accentuate the importance of your mission to draw down troops, to create some semblance of normalcy in afghanistan to the extent to which thats even possible. And i believe that it is an unrealistic goal to say that we have to chase every terrorist into every case forever and stay there forever in order to protect the homeland. I think that weve proven that we can be more resilient at home without being more extended abroad, and that after 19, 20 years in afghanistan, our nation is growing very weary of this. Were growing weary of the dignified transfers. Were going weary of the cost in terms of blood and treasure, and we grow weary of these circumstances, where our ad very varies, not just russia, but iran and others that are in the region, utilize our continued presence to utilize our, mighty say, unfocused extension of this conflict to try harm americans. So i wish you godspeed in the mission that youre on to draw down these forces, and i thank you for giving us the briefing, and certainly for enlightening us to the fact there was some flareup. The chairmans time has expired. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Chairman milley and secretary, thank you for joining us today to cover these very important issues. I wanted to take a moment to , if Vanessa Guillen disappeared from fort hood after confiding in her family she had been sexually harassed by a sergeant. Her remains were found a few days ago. Im sure youre both aware of her story. I expect that you will do everything your power to ensure that a full and independent investigation is completed and continue to work to make our military welcoming and safe for our female Service Members. As for todays topic, both of you noted in your testimony, our country is going through a period of anger and selfreflection regarding how our society treats and includes certain members of our nation. While i appreciate your words, actions speak louder. Secretary esper, what concrete steps have you already taken and what other immediate actions do you have in the coming months to ensure that diversity is substantially valued at all levels of our military, especially the modern officer rate. Congressman, thank you. First of all, you mentioned specialist guillen. What a terrible tragedy, murder. Its just horrible. Tragic story. I feel for the family, and they have my deepest sympathies and condolences, and we will conduct a full and thorough investigation and get to the bottom of all that happened and hold those accountable as appropriate. With that, your question is spot on, but we recognize that race is a problem in the military, across the nation, discrimination, prejudice, bias. I talked about my quick action items. I have a list. Ill probably put that out next week in terms of immediate things that we will do to start getting rid of hidden bias in the military such as removing photographs from premotion boards. Ive also had the privilege over the last three weeks to hold over half a dozen listening sessions with soldiers, sarlse, airmen of all ranks across the country, and simply listen. Beginning the conversation alone is something weve never really done, and the chance to sit down with these young men and women, i probably spent a total of 10 hours or so just listening, having the discussion, understanding that we dont even have the right terms and language and understandings of the definitions to have such a tough conversation, and i sat through many of them. So that will be part behalf were going to begin. But i think in terms of standing up to defense board and ultimately the Defense Advisory Committee that is mirrored, i want to believe in some ways its an historic step, a major step forward to really get at this underlying issue that has hung around the neck of our country for well over 200 years and to address the fundamental problems of racism and discrimination, prejudice, and bias, both conscious and unconscious, because at the end of the day, ts about having a cohesive, unified, ready force, and we rely heavily on persons from all backgrounds, races, ethnicities, genders, etc. , to make us the greatest fighting force in the world. Thank you, secretary. I want to ask another question. General millie and secretary esper, i would like to also take a moment to commend you regarding the statements you made at Lafayette Square, being you make nk mistakes and you learn from it. I believe there are many moments we can all learn from. Regret is one thing, but what would you do different in a similar situation . And while i understand we are having reports on specific instances, such as the National Guard helicopters and recon sauns planes, what actions have the department learned about its response, and how would you how are you both working to make improvements . Congressman, you go back to june 1, the evening of june 1, it became apparent to me late that evening, i think chairman milley and i had spent a couple of hours Walking Around d. C. , speaking to the soldiers. We were at the world war ii memorial and the jefferson memorial, and it became very clear that we need to speak on this topic, and if you recall, and i think i entered into the record already, i put a statement out to the force within 18 hours or so that said very clearly that we have a note to the constitution, and that is our sworn oath to defend the American People and give the American People the freedom to peaceably assemble and offer their speech, and that we at all times must do our best to remain an apolitical institution. That, i believe, is why we have the highest regard and respect in the country and have maintained it for many years. I apologize, your time has expired. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Thank you, gentlemen. First of all, i want to commend you for the amazing professional job that you all have done, especially the National Guardsmen, very, very difficult situations. Mr. Secretary, you just mentioned the oath to defend. Our First Amendment rights. Just to review that, Congress Shall make no law respecting or prohibiting the free exercise of or bridging the freedom of speech of the press or of the rights of the people peaceably to assemble. And to petition the government for redress of grievance. What i have seen and what this country has witnessed in the last few weeks, i would argue has not been peaceable, and the National Guardsmen, these brave men and women who have roared and left their home to protect their country, they have faced, with only shields, theyve been yelled at, called names that are unbelievable, theyve had bricks thrown at them, theyve been shoved. Theyve had frozen Water Bottles thrown at they want ive seen on tv fireworks being shot at them. And they have stood there. They have professionally taken it. They have defended our monuments and our treasures. I want to commend them. And at the same time, i want to denounce these actions of some americans. This is violence. This is not peaceably assembling. And it should be treated as such. Weve had questions about training, and mr. Secretary, i know you were just at a fort a few weeks ago, and our community was so thrilled to host you. I know you have seen our missions there, including home to the military police school. Hopely youve learned about the training. Im wondering if you think it would be helpful to have centralized training to ensure consistency across all of the armed forces in military police actions, civil unrest behaviors. Its a good question, congress woman. Id like to take that back. Certainly for the National Guard, how they train, you know, it is very important that, particularly for the guard that has this has a Mission Essential task, to make sure we have a solid baseline. I like to be delibsandrate thoughtful on these things and get back to you. Oh, thank you. Typically, its not possible to do centralized training given the scale of the military in terms of the numbers. So what is typically done is training, essential plan the conditions and standards, each of the smbings lay out all the requirements, and then it is distributed for execution by unit commanders am thats for the forces that are in the operational force. All of the units and all of the Different Services go through the Training School house. So having one Central Location for all things civil disturbance, that can be ok for doctors, for tasks, conditions, standards, to lay that out, and that is typically what everyone does. But then the execution of the actual training that she needs to be more decentralized and distributed. Thank you. The insurrection act has been mentioned as well. And you were asked a lot of questions, were you supposed to ask yes or no. So ill carry on for just one more question. Do you realize if it was not cted on in this recent days. Yes. Ok, now that we have that clear, could there be scenarios in the future for a president where perhaps an insurrection act might be utilized and could be helpful. Congress woman, let me answer this way. Let me offer history. The insurrection act was used in 1957 by president ice en thundershower federalize the guard in arkansas and to also call up the 105st Airborne Division in order to protect nine africanamerican students known as the little rock nine so they can go to school. It was called up in 1962 to federalize the mississippi National Guard to secure the university of mississippi oxford in order to ensure james meredith, an frain air force veteran, could go to school. The military Police Remained there for over a year. 1965, president johnson deployed active duty forces to protect peaceful protest marchers in alabama to ensure that they could protest peacefully, opposes, i believe, segregation and affirming their First Amendment rights fumble look at history, you can see where it was used to advance civil rights. And in a very positive way, our history accounts fairly well. Thank you. I yield back t. Thank you. Mr. Brown is recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I have two questions. I will ask them quickly, and i hope that you can answer that briefly. The first for you general milley, i know that you have a history of warfare in the United States and our armed forces. You use that knowledge and understanding of our history to guide your decisions and thinking. You not only understand, but you embody the values that we live by and that we die by as soldiers. Can you comment on the naming of Army Installations after confederate soldiers . Does it reflect the values . Are these confederate officers held up as role models in todays military . Does it help or hurt the morale of Service Members, particularly that of the black and brown Service Members who live and serve these installations today . Congressman, weve had a lot of discussions in the department of defense and the joint chiefs, amongst the Senior Leaders on that very topic. Ill give you a couple of things to think about. I personally think that the original decisions to name those bases after confederate generals, the 10 bases youre talking about in the army, those were political decisions back in the 19 10s and 1920s and 1930s and world war i, world war ii time frame, 100 years ago. And theyre going to be political decisions today. The military equity here is device siness. As you mentioned, cohesion. 43 of the United States military are minorities. And in the army, for example, these are army bases youre talking about, were up to 20plus percent africanamericans, and in some units youll see 30 . And for those young soldiers that go on to a base of fort hood, fort bragg, whatever, named after a confederate general, they can be reminded that that general fought for an institution of slavery that may have enslaved one of their ancestors. I had a Staff Sergeant when i was a young officer who actually told me that at fort bragg. He said he went to work every day on a base that represented a guy who enslaved his granted parents. So the symbols its not just we have to improve the substance in the military, but weve also got to take a hard look at the symbols, things like Confederate Flags and statues and bases and all that stuff. The confederacy, the american civil war, was fought and it was an act of rebellion. It was an act of treason at the time against the union, against the stars and strapes, against the u. S. Constitution, and those officers turned their back on their oath. Now, some have a different view of that. Some think its heritage. Others think its hafmente the way we should do it matters as much as that we should do it. We need to have ive recommended a commission of folks to take a hard look at the bases, statues, names, all of this stuff, to see if we can have a rational and mature discussion. Thank you, general milley, i appreciate it. I want to get to secretary esper. I want to take a moment to thank you, secretary, for clarifying your position on the use of force and deploymentment of our military, exercising their constitutional right to assemble, to petition our government and peacefully protest. Mr. Secretary, as you stated in your june 17 statement, we strive to create an environment of diversity and inclusion in the military. You specifically stated removing bias and prejudice in all its form and ensuring equal opportunity and respect for all will make us stronger, more capable, and more ready as a joint force. Last month, both the u. S. Marine corps and u. S. Navy announced plans to ban the Confederate Flag and associated imagery on bases and installations around the world. This symbol honors those that fought to maintain oppression and slavery. Furthermore, the Confederate Flag is used, albeit not by everyone, but is used by White Supremacists and other organizations so you can spread hate and racism. We include a froigs ban the display on all property, so i believe immediate action should be taken. What is your plan regarding a departmentwide ban of this symbol . Thanks, congressman, first, let me echo what you said about the National Guard. Im reminded, this is a use of force card handed out, and here in bold says remember to preserve the peace and allow americans to peacefully assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights. Thats what our guard was trained on when they were operating in d. C. I have a process underway by which to look at a number of issues, both substantive and symbolic. It will be a combination of defense and the advisory committee. We want to take a look at all those things, there is a process underway by which we affirm the generals time has expired. Which we affirm what types of flags were authorized on u. S. Military bases. I want to make sure that we have an approach that is enduring, that can withstand legal challenge, but that unities and helps build cohesion and readiness, and again, that process is underway. Thank you. Mr. Walz, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. You are deep in the water here. We cannot understand you. Can you give it one more quick try, or remay have to move on. How are we doing now . Much better. Go. I want to commend the guard. From my understanding, we have over 70,000, six divisions currently deployed for the homeland and overseas. Thats for covid. Thats for civil unrest. Thats for ongoing overseas missions. We vanity even gotten into Hurricane Season in florida or wildfires or others. The guards Defense Strategy points to demographic and Economic Trends that are critical to where we have the structure around the country and it says must be prepared to reposition Guard Force Structure in light of those shifting trends, particularly shifting population, which as we know is shifting drat particularly over the last several decades, yet the structure hasnt followed. In fact, in florida, florida ranks 53 out of 54 bases and territories, the size of guard per capita. They know with every hurricane barring down every season can you come back to me . Im sorry, once again, we cant understand you. I think the first part of your question was reasonably clear. Mr. Esper, if you want to take a stab at the guard situation in florida, take a shot at that. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I think from what i caught, ill follow up with you offline. I think you were talking about this position or maybe the composition of guard force in florida and how its changed over time were not with demographics, so maybe ill just follow you will with you offline, and i think you asked that we have a conversation with the general. Thats what i took from that. Yeah, mr. Chairman, if you could hear me, just a slight tweak there. Its nationwide. Its how the guard is shifting to reflect population flows, particularly looking at the per capita. Florida population doubled ince 1980, yet its guarded. Yeah, youre breaking up. I apologize. Were going to have to move on. Weve got a limited amount of time. Well get that back to him. So were going to move on to mr. Keating, royalsed for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman, mr. Secretary. Thank you for your straight forward way, addressing Lafayette Square issue, and civil Law Enforcement. I appreciate that. I want to circle back before poor done, because we know how a video clip can work. Secretary esper, you were at i believe about i want to be clear, the question was asked, you might have reviewed regarding attacks on our troops. Let me be clear. You can acknowledge that there was no bounty, that indeed there were reports that mentioned payment. Is that correct . Congressman, thats correct. I was responding to the specific question of do i recall use of the word bounties, and i think what i said is i do not recall the use f that word. I didnt want a sound bite at the end of this hearing coming out that said that you said that you never saw a report on bounties. I always try to avoid politics, congressman. Naup any case, i didnt want you to be drawn into it unnecessarily. Hows that . In any case, the director, c. I. A. Director haskell, just in the last few days, has said how important it is for force protection that the dissemination of information occurs to all National Security unity members, obviously, all of you, and in an ongoing effort to secure our troops. She also was underscored clearly that the immediate sub elimination of that information is critical. Are you satisfied that youre getting immediate transfer of this intelligence from our other agencies so you can act on that. Can you state that for the record that you dont perceive any delays, this is really the last time. Congressman, i get a lot of reports every day, an inch thick of material i try get through and read through. I know the hill, this committee gets reports as well, and i think you saw the same reports that i saw on this topic. Its hard for me to gauge the timeliness, because i dont know when they start or get it. But clearly theres a process part of this, an Analysis Part that once they get information, converting it intelligence, all that happens, i dont have a sense of the timing. I dont mean to interrupt. I can follow up with her on that offline. Please do, because its essential that you get that information. I also want to know independently, some of these reports do a lot for Family Members. I deprom a family where we lost a Family Member in action, and particularly the casualties were there, the soldiers were lost. Independently, you looking at those as well, given the intelligence, you have the ril 2018 suicide bombing outside of an air base that killed three of our u. S. Marines. Are you looking at this independently based on the intelligence you have . Congressman, first of all, i share the concern, and condolences still to the family of those marines i believe who were lost. Let me say this much, and ill ask chairman milley to jump in here. General mckenzie is looking back over time. I think he stated publicly as well that he doesnt see causality with that one. And i believe that i got a separate report from one of think intelligence agencies saying they cannot find any corroborating evidence with regard to that alleged program with regard to that attack on those three marines. But chairman. Congressman, as of today, right now, we dont have cause and effect linkages to a russian Bounty Program causing u. S. Military casualties. However, we are still looking. Were not done. Were going to run this thing to ground. Yeah. Thank you. Just as clarification from an intelligence standpoint without being wonky. Corporation usually isnt a term used. Its usually remote, improbable, even odd, highly probable, or certain. Those are the kind of intelligence terms that are done linking things together. Ill yield back. Im actually yielding back of time. Thank you. Mr. Villar, you are thank you, mr. Chairman. Secretary esper and chairman billy, ive got two questions and it whatever time is left i would like to yield so she can get ready. My first question to vanessa andn Vanessa Guillen what i would like to do, im sure you are both as disturbed as we are by the events leading to her death and what i would like to do is give you an she has family numbers in my district, i would like to give you the opportunity to tell that family what we are going to do to make sure those sorts of things dont happen again. Let me first speak to you but more importantly the family and express our sincere condolences with regard to what happened. It is tragic, it is horrible. I watch this over the preceding couple months in terms of how it unfolded. I cant imagine the despair the parents, not knowing the fate of their daughter. It is a terrible incident. I spoke yesterday for the day before with secretary mccarthy. They are on top of that. Iey have a couple suspects think have been arrested. They are digging into the investigation. I think we need to continue to pursue that and take a hard look at that and we have to continue to work with what is believed to be an underlying issue, and that was she was sexually harassed if not assaulted by the soldier in question, that is something that on thees to be a stain profession. We have made progress over 10 years, but nowhere near we need to be. We need to get to zero tolerance of Sexual Harassment and assault and we need to make sure that everybody in our ranks knows where they can go to for help, where they can find help. We have to emphasize that and continue to empower the chain of command to make sure we do everything to make sure that we never have another incident like what happened to specialist guillen. That is my commitment and i know it is chairmans as well. Gen. Milley i would echo every thing the secretary said. A father of a daughter that is a nightmare. My heart bleeds for that family and i cant begin to imagine what they are going through. That we willo know do everything in our power to make sure that does not happen again. I dont know all the details, a full investigation bill, will come up. There were probably missed signals and one of the lessons we learned in other situations is when we get early warning, it is to take action and take action swiftly and appropriately. I think my guess is that will come out in this and that will be one of the things we need to lament for the future to make sure it doesnt happen again. Thanks to both of you. My other question is for secretary esper. You recently extended the deployment of 4000 troops to the southern border. What im wondering is, just today, in the rio grande valley, hospitals were forced to set up units anderve as icu im wondering if there is any consideration being given to using those troops to help support local efforts to confront the coronavirus pandemic. Sec. Esper i will answer your question two ways. First, you are right, we did extend reduce it but extended the limit. We are in support of the department of Homeland Security in as they give us mission statements, we try and be responsive and supportive of what they do. If they need additional medical support, that is something that we can provide if needed. Beyond that, unless i misunderstood your question, we are reacting to incoming requests from fema. I spoke to the director the other night with regard to covid spikes in texas, as you may or may not know, we have deployed a team of medical personnel to assist in texas and we are on the alert and looking for outbreaks in other states such as arizona, florida, california, to make sure we are responsive to the American People in terms of dealing with any outbreaks that may happen around the country. Rep. Smith the gentlemans time has expired. Mr. Kim is recognized. Thank you for coming on here and talking to us today. As you referred to earlier, many of us members were briefed in this room earlier today about the intelligence about what we know, about possible russian payments to the taliban or militants to kill american soldiers and servicemembers in afghanistan. Aside the discussions about whether or not there is sufficient evidence regarding possible bounties or payments, whatever we want to call it, the intelligence and what we know inut russian efforts afghanistan were targeting our personnel is deeply concerning to me and general milley, you made reference to this saying something this is we have known for a long time. I want to ask this question. But think about a previous time we have been in this room together at the beginning of this year talking about iran and at that time, secretary esper and others were talking about how there was a threat to our personnel with regards to iraq and the region due to iranians iranianbacked militias. I want to hear from you, both of these instances, what we know about russias involvement in afghanistan, both involved other nations directing militants to kill american Service Members were target american Service Members abroad, yet i see two different reactions to this coming from you, from the administration. I wanted to ask for your explanation as to what is the difference in the posture between what our conversations in january as what we are having today. Secretary esper. Sec. Esper i think there are two different situations. With regard to iran, you had a ,ase, the head of the irgc designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization, he was a terrorist leader of that organization, he had the blood of hundreds of americans going back many years on his hands, he orchestrated the rocket attacks that proceeded that occurred in december, and we had clear, credible information that he was planning additional attacks on american personnel in the region. A different circumstance between what we saw, the evidence we had, our understanding of the iraq on that battlefield that was being orchestrated by soleimani and it was the consensus of the National Security team that he was a legitimate target. Very different from information or picking up with regard to russia, but i dont know if you want to add anything. Saidmilley something you we have been aware for some time of russian involvement or iranian involvement in other countries, but there is a distinction between arming and directing. We know about arms, we know about weapons, we know about support. We dont have, in the case of the russians, we do not have concrete evidence intelligence to show directing. That is a difference a big difference. If we did, it would be a different response. We are not done looking. We are going to get to the bottom of this county thing. Bounty thing. Bounties, i am outraged, just like every one of us in uniform is. If these bounties are directed by the government of russia or their to kill american soldiers, that is a big deal. We dont have that level of fidelity yet. We are still looking. Rep. Kim we will continue to go to the intelligence with you, regardless of whether payments are made, i felt there was significant information about directing, but we will continue that conversation going forward. Gregor able to get a briefing today . Rep. Kim i did. When we talk about the National Guard being utilized, you were talking about the training they get, yet when we looked at it, out of the 5100 guardsmen and women who work here in d. C. Last 154 from the d. C. National guard were military police, 26 security forces, 83 were military police, four were security forces. That is 5 out of 5100. When you sent out you are notice of emergency diplomat, you focused on active Duty Military Police units. Why was not on the same for our guardsmen in terms of prioritizing military Police Personnel . Rep. Smith this will have to conclude i understand the secretary has to go. We are over time. Up to you how long you wish to enter that, then we will be done. Sec. Esper the chairman may be better situated. Every soldier go undergoes training and we would not ask them to perform a mission if they were not leaf on the rules of engagement and had a basic level of training. Your point is fair, we try to thesetize the best for situations would be military police units. But you also have to go with what you have available to do that and that is why im proud of our guardsmen who were performing missions that were not Core Missions but where a core mission as a soldier or airman. I understand the secretary has to go. We would like to have the opportunity to submit to those questions for the record and get answers as possible. With that, we are adjourned. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] thank you. Today, the wife of democratic presumptive president ial nominee joe biden is joined by democratic senator Lisbeth Warren in a virtual discussion on reopening schools amid the coronavirus pandemic. Watch live at 5 00 eastern on cspan. Org, orat listen with the free cspan radio app. Mccarthyoday, kevin held a News Conference on the republicans let a of agenda. He also answered questions on the latest Supreme Court decision on President Trumps financial records. Rep. Mccarthy good morning. Was a good day for religious freedom in america. Decision, the spring court upheld an order from President Trump that protected religious groups from violating their deeply held beliefs. Government mandates should never conflict with a citizens cost attritional for months, we have asked our citizens to temporarily change their lives in the fight against this virus. Schools were closed, businesses forced to shut