Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20240622

Is one of the tests that the fbi utilizes. One other thing most of the people have been radicalized and guarded to violent extremists has certain characteristics. The same type as people who join gangs. Low selfesteem, unemployed categories such as this. A gives you some indication of the kinds of people they usually get involved. There are different statistics on that. That maythat may be more true to those who are going of foreign fighter out and less true or al qaeda type operators. Educated and you have seen across the board a high incidence of the down and hours. Not to say that there are not pockets. There are two aspects to the foreign fighter problem. There going to come back in the terrorists it is true. What is even more vital is the fact that they are recruiting going over the. It is like voting on american idol. It allows the claim that this is a caliphate. Showing the pipeline down over and apart from the physical threat is an important part of diminishing the brand. Yes, maam. You will probably be our last question. Susan craft. I have been covering this terrorist twitter problem trying to give more down to a question that was better. We have a question asked about facebook and other social media sites. 200,000 leads going on a day is it you seemed to dodge the question and talk about the dark space being a real problem. Jamestown we talked about twitter and the message being dangerous but he also talked about the dark space. Im wondering if the white house had asked them if the white house is letting twitter go about letting twitter be more lenient because Law Enforcement has an interest in the open space and they are not cracking down on twitter when waiting on them as much. If that is a helpful tool because you can track them and i would love to talk about the state departments failed efforts in the counter narrative is theyre have been a lot of Washington Post articles talking about is the complete lack of effort. They havethey have had programs but it seems like to have all been either failing or gone too far. Lets run down the panel and ill give you the option comment on social network with the state departments role or a little bit of both. Sure. No social the government would allow the communication and is being nicer to twitter. It seems to me that it could be a way that they can glean intelligence. It also seems like a mighty doubleedged sword as you allow them to communicate a lot. I have no specific intelligence what the government is doing but it seems like theyre would be a fine line. On the counter narrative that is to be a cooperative effort by number of different agencies not the least of which shallto employ saw the psychological warfare capabilities military has which is an important part. Adding to that i dont think it is something the government does well and it needs to evolve to aa publicprivate type process where you have some government element to it but it is not solely government. The other. I would make is, at least the studies i havei have seen with regard to recruitment online, it is an important tool, but it is the studies have not shown i indication that solely online recruiting has resulted in conversions to violent extremism. You still need the physical presence of someone who we will close the deal which is important. There has been so much focus. We tend to think that that is the problem command i dont think thats correct. Katie. 70 million twitter followers why . That is a Virtual Community and a Virtual Community found by a certain level of common interest which does not mean anyone will do anything she says. What makes this dangerous is theyre is a social network Virtual Community that links which is what maximizes the impact of social network. Theynetwork. They are rooted in groups of people that are going to do something. Compare with what we saw in the green revolution in iran. There was a massive social network which was moving all these ideas. Why waswhy was it . There people on the ground going into the streets. A linkage between human and virtual web which makes the virtual web powerful which tells you whether than concentrating on the phenomenon of the most significant thing that you can do to diminish the value is to diminish the value of physical network. This is notthis is not just in terms of network of people and our countries but this thriving, growing metastasizing menace in the middle east that is claiming a state. I would touch on that comment. What are the true size of the nature of the threat. Theretheyre is a huge delta that the psychological an actual threat. If you look at the numbers of folks on twitter for one thing that is fascinating and surprising is how few attacks and. He is relatively small numbers. Why didnt they focus on attacks to the United States . Isis has its own agenda but if they were intent many of you with inspire Magazine Online recruitment and how to manual. This isthis is the winter of 2014 issue gives detailed instructions about how to make explosives in your moms kitchen the cover of the indicators and science. We have not seen near the kind of use. This number of actors. They can all be sleeper cells but you need to take with a grain of salt the level of hyperbole. I am the one who talked about Technology Enablers which is real command we have to be cognizant of that in terms of how the future state in terms of what is available can change the game. Youre not seeing a lot of adherents in terms of action that is good news. You could have had a session and people could have come in. You did not here that. You did not here an assessment. You heard options and a discussion about how to make arrested for risk informed decision of Different Things we can and should do. That is where good Public Policy decision should be. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] commerce subcommittee hearing on communications and technology is just over an hour. [inaudible conversations] 1230. If we can go ahead and get started. Apologies of the classified briefing get schedule later today the cutsback on schedule about the same time this hearing was originally scheduled. We moved it up to now so that we can here from this distinguished panel of witnesses. Ive asked my colleagues because we now have a vote scheduled we will dispense with Opening Statements which is anyone knows is unprecedented historical annals that they we will all be in the official record. Unless there is objection i would like to proceed straight to our panel of witnesses. Witnesses. This is an important hearing on promoting broadband infrastructure investment. You all are in the frontlines command we look to you. We will start right out delighted to have you. Thank you for your leadership on this issue and appreciate the opportunity to testify. We represent the companies that design own build command manage for communications companies. Wireless carriers, infrastructure providers and professional services firm. Our mission is to help members provide wireless facilities to meet consumers growing mobile data needs. The industry plays an essential role in meeting mandated demand. Infrastructure makes wireless work enables delivery of data services. Wireless infrastructure as a catalyst for Economic Growth and job creation. The study found investments in our industry will generate 1. 2 trillion in Economic Growth and create 1. 3 million knew jobs in five years. This committee has shown great leadership trying to eliminate barriers infrastructure deployment. I commend you. Most notably section 649 a has had an impact on the ground itelement a major local barriers to upgrading Wireless Infrastructure. They have done an outstanding job of implementing the law. We still face for the spectrum is expensive, expensive, scarce command takes a long time the unity use. All the more reason to move quickly. Technological advances to foster greater efficiencies. In the networks themselves there getting smarter directing capacity to where its needed, these take time to develop and implement. The 3rd way is through the Rapid Deployment of infrastructure. Wireless infrastructure driven by private capital addresses a wireless data conscious and is deployed ranging from traditional cell towers to white coverage and capacity to small cells. Intensification of networks reduces scarce spectrum. Allowing users please more out of existing spectrum. There is Resistance Congress can help even more to remove the barriers. Streamlining these barriers. Streamlining the process of setting Wireless Infrastructure for land despite the law enacted by congress and the executive order by the president significant challenges remain. Furtherfurther legislation will extend broadband coverage and increased employment in rural areas. Bci supports f1618 recently introduced in the senate to address this issue and we look forward to continuing work to develop legislation. Additional roadblocks remain some state and local entities require proof of need which are both illogical and costly. Local communities should not be in the business of citing where services are needed. Where is needed to serve consumers and local governments are not in a good position to be secondguessing technical questions. Efforts to harmonize the rates would help promote broadband investment. The fcc has taken important steps. States that regulatesstates that regulate should follow the fccs lead. Wireless infrastructure boosts every sector of the economy. Demonstrating its effectiveness Global Competitiveness the challenges remain in reaching the full potential. They need to eliminate regulatory barriers so that industry can invest capital without resistance and not at cost and delays that we will slow the rollout of wireless broadband. Member companies aremember companies are grateful for bipartisan recognition of the centrality of Wireless Infrastructure. I wouldi would add that we look forward to making continued progress and we thank you for joining us and for holding this hearing. Thank you. We appreciate your testimony the owner, we are delighted to have you here. I enjoy the time i was i was in your committee and toward your facilities command we are glad you could be hear to share your thoughts on the challenges you face. Thank you, chairman members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I also want to thank the chairman for visiting the committee to see firsthand the obstacles that drives face in deploying broadband and i want to thank the Ranking Member for the request to have the Government Accounting Office look into the challenges and barriers to employment prevalence. Broadband provider which we refer to was founded in 1988 dollars 12,000 and members living in a reservation. Whenwhen we 1st and purchased the exchange only 10 and percent of our residents have access to basic phone service. Those looking to get connected had to pay tens of thousands of dollars before Mountain Dale today they offer phone service to 100 percent of our residents we also offer Broadband Service across the reservation. They Work Together to raise awareness tribal lands only served areas in the country. 40 percent lack access to speeds. A number of obstacles that present challenges to broadband deployment. I have set those out with more detail. First population density is an obstacle. Twenty person per square mile. Maricopa county has approximately 414 persons per square mile. Rugged terrain characterized by mountains and hard soil is typical of farmland. Low, medium, and high rates of poverty prison a severe challenge for the delivery of broadband. The Median Income is 24,000 to 59000 in arizona. Approximately 48 percent of persons living on a reservation live below the Poverty Level compared to 50 verizon. These50 percent for arizona. These economic circumstances are not unique to our travel community. This continues to negatively impact tribes. Our committee and others like it continues struggle. Because of the allotment policy obtaining rightsofway is complex and raises cost substantially and delays deployment. Access to capital is a barrier. Trouble lands can be leveraged as collateral for securing loans because they are held in trust. This private capitol is often not available meaning the only when your available is the federal government specifically the utility service. Loans were critical to gr g. I. When it took over its service area and remains critical. The combination of these challenges has resulted in average cost per loop be over 2,873. Because travel nations face unique challenges we often need unique solutions. Having tried athaving tried at the table and engaging in government to government consultations critical. Too often policies have an intense consequences of price because were not properly consulted in the beginning. The current effort to reform the universal service fund is a good example. Usf is when properly scoped a critically important source of funding that can help make it possible to deploy broadband to our reservations. Tribes have offered a proposal that would target specific support to lands through a broadband factor that can be added to proposals for standalone broadband fun. Inclusion of this travel broadband factor would promote a targeted use of universal Service Funding to advance the policy objective. The office of native american has been a welcome addition to the commissions outreach efforts to ensure that tribes are included in the development of proposals to employ more broadband. Sometimes the fcc forgets about tribes which is why we appreciate the letters sent from a Bipartisan Group of members of this committee mining the commission that tribal leaders need a seat table. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you and hope to be an ongoing resource for the committee. Thank you. You can count on that. We that. We appreciate your testimony. People dont have a craig moffett. Thank you for your kind invitation to participate. By way of introduction i have been a financial analyst for the past 14 years. Before that i spent 11 years advising telecommunications companies. So this is now my 25th year and i have spent much of that focused on issues of broadband deployment. I thought i would share general observations particularly focusing on the economics of ` competitive broadband. I would start by saying the obvious. That should be taken as a given but the issue of return on capital is either ignored or misunderstood. It is not a matter of whether a business is risen are profitable but that are of whether a business is sufficiently profitable toward the high levels of is required for a structure. 2014 the largest phase of the cable industry and a healthy return. The physical aspects all and healthy returns in excess of cost of capital with returns ranging from 13 to 33 percent which are usually high. Onon the other hand it should be noted they earned returns below the cost of capital. Longterm return as to earn returns well an axis of the cost of capital during the maturity of the network to offset for years or even decades of losses. By contrast large Telephone Companies do not attractive returns. For example, a decade after 1st undertaking the homebuilder out verizon has not yet come close to the return. The paltry 1. 2 percent return. For the nonfinancial types of that is the equivalent of borrowing money at 5 in order to earn 1 . Thats a good way to go bankrupt. No one would undertake to replicate those disastrous returns. At t began deploying and much less robust and less costly fiber is also earned poor returns. Committed to make five are available for 12 and a half million homes in order to make the acquisition of directv more palatable. But it is hard to believe that we will be much better this time around. Around. There have been changes in the market. Developed bendable fiber that has helped lower the labor costs. Google has popularized the demand. They can target areas with the companywhere the company has the best chance of earning an acceptable return some critics call that redlining but it typically means it will be billed to the lower income communities and has been successful. You can think of it as a way of ensuring all the children are above average. The broader take away is theyre are concerns to be had from over building. Let that can. Marketmarket forces are unlikely to yield the fully competitive broadband market. Among some to regulate incumbent networks. That is if the not unreasonable assumption that any attempts to foster competition will be ultimately unsuccessful and regulation in this case the Cable Operators are therefore require. The counterargument that regulation will only step investment among incumbent providers amble there for mick the problem worse and will in the process generate unwelcome unintended consequences is equally wellintentioned and well supported by the historical evidence. That is to say there are no easy answers here. I will conclude by adding a few it is not observations about the cable industry. Everyone understands the cable video business is facing pressure. Cord cutting has been talked about but its finally showing up in a meaningful way in the numbers and program in cost or eating that way at cost. The video business in the broadband business are on opposite sides of the same coin. It is after all all on infrastructure. Rashana video profit pool would therefore naturally turn a pricing response of broadband or Cable Operators have greater leverage. It may sound nefarious but not intended to be so. Simply not duration the Cable Operators have benefited from the fact that their infrastructure can support two separate businesses and each can be delivered a lower cost if that were not the case. The aca American Cable Association is made this case eloquently in arguing absent reforms to restrain runaway programming cost growth video will be unprofitable and broadband will be left to carry the entire burden of incremental deployment. All things equal that will mean that new broadband will become increasingly challenged and therefore will become less and less likely or simply to add this is my own editorial they will simply have to sharply raise the price of broadband. Now i would simply observe the pressures in the video business are relatively broadbased and attributable to more than programming and cost inflation and this they therefore been unavoidable scenario that i will leave my remarks there. While my remarks sound gloomy they are not meant to. Notwithstanding my view that there are politicized statistics i would suggest otherwise. Its simply the case abroad and infrastructure that is very difficult to support two of you in some cases even one upped and i submit that cleared alakman to the microeconomics of rock band business demand to see that the policy table so thank you mr. Chairman and subcommittee members for your time and the opportunity to testify. Thank you very much mr. Moffett. We will go to Michael Slinger erector of global google fiber cities. We welcome in the floor is yours. You will need to pull the microphone very close and push the button until the light stays on. Chairman walden recommender ed sheeran members of the subcommittee thank you for the invitation to testify about investment in broadband infrastructure. We believe the successful agenda will benefit consumer Small Business is in the economy. My name is Michael Slinger and i currently serve as the director of google fiber city teams. In this role like oversee the operation of Business Strategy to bring gigabyte speeds across United States. We have long believed that the next chapter of the internet will be built on gigabit speeds. The gig delivers enough bandwidth for everyone in the home or Small Business brother devices and fast connections on lease entrepreneur ship. If today we were riding a bike having eight could be writing a race car. Thats why we launched google fiber which provides download and upload connections of up to 1000 megabits per second. Our goal is to make the web faster and more affordable more relevant and more useful for everyone. We launched the service five years ago and todays available in kansas city kansas Kansas City Missouri austin texas and provo utah. Deshermer in the process of building our network in six markets in exploring bring it to another floor on top of that. In rolling out Google Google fiber we go from scratch one street one house at a time. This means repairing infrastructure and working closely with cities to make sure we are ready to Work Together to build a brandnew network. This experience has given us inside into barriers to deployment. I will outline thoughts on policy changes. First policymakers can ease gaining access to existing infrastructure. To construct highspeed networks broadband providers need access to existing utility infrastructure such as pauls conduits on a consistent costeffective and timely basis. While the fcc has taken important steps to improve rules relate to infrastructure access our own experience of building new Broadband Networks demonstrates more work needs to be done to reduce those barriers. Second, policymakers can the east rightsofway the expense and complexity of obtaining the access to public jurisdictions and increased the cost of broadband employment deployment. Policy that facilitates partnerships between different entities and companies doing local construction will be beneficial. We see a lot of benefit instituting policy which may involve the installation of an oversight conduit and buy any new network. Third, policymakers can help resolve the challenge of high rates for access to video programming. This would help smaller players in the business negotiate fair terms for access to popular broadcast cable content and make it easier to attract and retain subscribers. Finally i would be remiss if i failed to mention the importance of balanced spectrum policies. Federal agencies should pursue a balanced approach to spectrum reallocation that allows for licensed and unlicensed commercial use frequencies. I will note as we think about deploying gigabit. Networks when to keep in mind 30 of Americans Still dont use the internet at home. This means they there are disadvantage when it comes to education Job Opportunities social and civic engagement. One of her main priorities in Building Digital inclusion into our deployment plans from the beginning. We are guided by a couple of main principles make the internet more affordable make access to the community and teach people how to get on line. Just last week as part of the connectome Initiative Announced by the president obama and hud secretary castro we bring our service to Affordable Housing properties for 0 per month with no installation fees. We are partnering with Community Organizations on computer labs and letters to programming. Thank you again for the invitation to speak at this hearing and to share our views on how we can remove barriers give americans more choices and help reach the goal of nationwide broadband abundance. Thank you mr. Slinger. We appreciate your testimony now without our final witness today deb socia associate director next 30 and please go ahead with your comments. Good afternoon. Thank you for opening this hearing on such an important topic. My name is deb socia and im the executive director of next century cities a bipartisan city to city collaborate formed last october. We have grown to 100 member cities all of them are dedicated to ensuring access to fast affordable and reliable broadband. Highspeed access is essential to americas economic future. Its as simple as that. With what can be complicated as making it happen on the ground. Cities face a range of technical economic and political challenges including obstacles at the state and federal levels. Providing for this critical need has emerged as a core responsibility for local government. Many cities and towns from around the country taking diverse and creative steps to secure their internet teacher. When it comes to providing access to highquality internet everyone has a role to play. Its initiatives bans Political Parties and issue that crosses the urban world divide in an issue that on many sectors of our society. Theres no single pathway to nextgeneration broadband network. Several of the most Innovative Solutions have emerged in unexpected places. The small towns in idaho and mt. Vernon washington have each developed a ticket that open Access Network radius local governments are directly involved in building physical infrastructure and leasing access to competing private providers. Just outside of baltimore westminster maryland has initiated a Publicprivate Partnership with a provider of Fiber Internet Service and with the introduction of google fiber in kansas city experiencing speeds and affordable rate. Cities like Los Los Angeles and i and chattanooga tennessee have built their own networks and now have some of the fastest most of what competitive access available. Next century city is dedicated to helping all committees achieve highquality access regardless of the path they choose to pursue. If a membership represents an inclusive crosssection of america from small rural such as winthrop minnesota to large urban areas like l. A. And boston boston. What unites these is a commitment to the imperative rock band access for continued growth and understanding that local governments are best situated to understand and provide for the needs of their residence. Its exciting time to time for creative local solutions to usher in a new generation of innovation as the internet continues to transform all aspects of society. Next century city is only developed the policy agenda showing how multiple stakeholders can help communities develop the crucial infrastructure needed today consistent with our mission this new resource provides guidance that will be useful to communities regardless of how they choose to pursue their broadband goals. Part of the policy agenda looks at steps local and State Government can use to ensure highquality access. Locally governments can Institute Policies that minimize disruption as well as take other steps to ensure their cities are fiber ready. At the statelevel policy agenda addresses changes such as modernizing state regulations and making investments in the middle mile infrastructure. We are here in capitol hill and i want to emphasize a recommendation we heard from mayors about steps the government could take to empower local communities. First and foremost congress can encourage competitive local markets through National Legislation and other avenues. In addition you have the ability to provide the National Platform for the issue of broadband is a necessary infrastructure. Hearing such as this helped to elevate this discussion and attract National Attention to this critical issue. Finally the policy agenda discusses how congress can better require information about available Internet Access including speed up connection price for consumers and areas of operation for service providers. As is clear from everything we have heard so far today the need for fast affordable and reliable broadband Internet Access is undeniable. Innovative leaders in communities across the country recognized as urgent need and developing the critical broadband infrastructure that will allow residents and their cities to thrive. Its evident by the over 100 next century cities i am speaking on behalf of today communities they represent over 18 million americans. Thank you for providing this platform for communities to develop opportunities for collaboration with federal policymakers. What are we to working with members of this committee and your colleagues to ensure that communities across the country at the nextgeneration access to all americans need and deserve. Missa or thank you for your testimony and your insight. I will start off with questions. As you probably know the job creation act directed to gsa Government Service agency to develop a master contract to simplify replacement of wireless antennas on federal buildings. Lasted a minute Straight Year of the tsa the master contractors completed and available by executive agencies. In your opinion to believe gsa has done everything in its power to give life to section 6409 which are referenced in your testimony for the middleclass tax relief act . Have they done everything they can . I dont believe they have. I met federal agency in a fight implemented something that congress instructed me to do i would be embarrassed recent. To date nothing has been done. Three years after congress enacted this legislation progress has been slow in gsa has not been practiced to the agencies in the Wireless Industry members are having to negotiate for each and every site individually just as they have in the past. Tsa has not implemented the intent of congress in me cannot wait three more years for whats needed today is an urgent lack of lands. Gsa i think its been driving its heels. I think there might be need for further legislation. Or maybe a hearing with one witness. I appreciate that in for the rest of the panelists there are issues you are writing. Let us know because this is one way raise because its important and we concur with what commissioner atul steen said it i dont think they have gotten it right yet. Ms. Socia Network Operators were tipping an offer in exchange for the obligation to serve anyone upon reasonable request. The models we have been discussing carriers deployed to areas where theres an economic case for the bill. How do we allens our Network Economies with the threat of redlining practice and refusing service to areas deemed a poor financial risk and as i heard about the incredible buildup google is doing what i applaud east of the mississippi getting access into our tribal lands and access into our remote in rural amenities whether its wired or wireless remains a big problem. So i wonder how we can address that . The interesting thing about when you think about profit but think that is problem acrosstheboard with building out to these more rural locations and therefore requires an influx of capital. Theres is no way to do this without support the ways that our cities are looking at what profit genoways a Company Might look at whether profit is. Its about education and public safety. Its about Economic Development and transportation and all of these opportunities that are presented when you have access. So what is that worth and how do we ensure that our tribal lands in our Rural Communities can benefit in the same ways our communities are able to back. Before i go to mr. Moffett this is an issue and getting Wireless Phone coverage in areas of fontana upstate new york. Just getting access and connectivity remains a real issue. The job is not done so mr. Moffett from your perspective what do we do . I would certainly agree with ms. Socias comments that is not realistic to think those projects are going to be selffunding in rural areas. That said i think the targeting of the funds that are available to connect america funds can be improved such that those funds are more carefully directed to new greenfield projects that really are bringing broadband to places that havent been served in the past. Theres why some controversy around whether an area is either partially served or sufficiently served and secondarily i think its also important that those connect america funds be made available to all manner of companies so they can be more competition of potential providers. A quick answer mr. Slinger to try a model out in rural remote areas of the country to make that work . As you know fiber may not be the right solution technologically for rural areas and we want to make sure there is sufficient spectrum available for Wireless Technologies as well as we are experimenting with technology and is well with fixedwing aircraft out of new mexico. We think in rural areas that may be new technologies that can bring internet to those areas. I hate to cut you off but we are all tied for time so i will turn to my colleague from california. Thank you mr. Chairman first of all for having this important hearing and a high level of operation relative to witnesses and invitations. We appreciate it. Jonathan its great to see you former commissioner of the fcc and everyone that accepted our invitation to be here today. To mr. Slinger and ms. Socia thank you for your important advocacy. I wish the congress had passed it i guess i think we have more of that policy actually to use the expression and embedded in our federal roadways but how do you think a the executive order is working . I want to get my questions out first, okay because time is very brief and if you think there are any additional steps that congress should take two and sent that deployment of conduit as part of the federal highway projects and that system which i dont know right now doesnt seem like the highway project system is going anywhere. It looks like its being driven off the road in congress but here maybe we can concentrate on that. Mr. Moffett i listened carefully to what you said and i think its highly pessimistic. Its depressing to listen to your description of every last sector of the Telecommunications Marketplace and my question to you would be where do you see a bright spot. Governor lewis thank you for being here. There was a report that just came out in terms of rock band penetration in our country. We are 24th in the world that i think it could part of that number is a representation of native americans on reservations in our country. Its a shameful record. Its a shameful record and i think if there is going to be something that moves up to the top of the list to your in a bipartisan way is to see that we bring to the parts of the country where there are reservations that you get First Class Service for firstclass citizenship. You really do. I mean for students to have to be driven by their parents 65 to 75 miles away to sit in a car in the to get some kind of connection to do their homework something any member of congress who is a parent here would ever put up with that. And we shouldnt have that in our country. I hope that mr. Slinger and governor lewis will form a partnership and then come back and report to us. I would really like to have you meet and see what you can come up with because you both need each other and we need those of you. And to miss out or the use of port and a snack century city support the local having local municipal systems . We support whatever it is our local communities need to do in order to get where they are going. That doesnt answer my question though. Its too broad. I understand. Many of our neighbors signed on to the preemption. The two cities that filed petitions chattanooga and wilson were two of our cities and we have we believe deeply in the idea that competition is important and we believe deeply in the idea that local folks should be able to solve their local problems in a way that makes sense. I come from a government so i agree with you and i think they should have the opportunity to do that as well. Jonathan i regularly hear from constituents who are frustrated with the tower siting process. Now here is one for you. Everyone wants great service, the service in the whole wide world but no one wants a wireless tower in their backyard or where they can see it anywhere near where they live. So how do you respond to this . The people are saying that performs me to be made to take away local jurisdictions say over the placement of cell towers. Its really its like trying to get socks on an octopus. They wanted, they dont want it and yet there are some have to send us. Those are my questions and you have 13 seconds to answer them. You dont have any time because im overtime that you can respond in writing and that way i will get more meat on the bones i think. Thank you for being here and please mr. Slinger and governor luis come together and if my office or other offices can help facilitate let you know. Thank you mr. Chairman and thank you for the panel today. Its always a great discussion we have in subcommittee. I would like to go back to some of the questions that the chairman was posing and also the gsa dragging its feet and getting some of these things done. Especially lew talk about streamlining the process to providers to obtain federal lands and protect the lands. Just out of curiosity on average how long does it take for a negotiation process at the federal government compared to the private industry . Takes four years and sometimes they can drag out longer for many years. Generally private companies will avoid federal lands because it takes so long. You dont seen a return on the investments that craig was talking about so they will go right next door if there is nonfederal land thereby. You were saying on average its for predicate can drag out even longer . Any ideas or examples of how long it has taken over four years . I have heard it for years and longer. Sometimes it never gets done. There is never finality to it or decisionmaking process in place. The gsa was supposed to take steps to standardize the process and it hasnt been done. Let me follow up on that. Maybe infinity and beyond what additional costs have occurred when the government is unable to streamline its process and a broadband structure buildout . There is lost revenue. There is a huge cost trying to go through that ross is to get the site acquisition done. 30 above the landmass is federal property and a lot of great viable buildings in dense urban areas could use a facility to do with the capacity demands so its a shame that these negotiations take so long. Not only do you use Revenue Companies lose viable places and consumers lose access to service they need. Think you. Mr. Slinger i think in your testimony talked about the percentage of the population that doesnt have access to broadband. But her senate with that he . What we are seeing now is 60 million americans and some of our cities we work and now 25 to 30 of people never had an Internet Connection at home. They may have access to cell phones that they dont have an Internet Connection at home. Two quick followups because again i represent urban tiberi rural ambu may look at the numbers for the percentages when you have what her senator that would be urban suburban very rural and was at 60 million . How would that write down and also how many people would that include that would not want to have access to broadband . I dont have a breakdown of rural but in urban areas i can save 25 to 30 of residents dont have anything at home at all. No Internet Connection. Governor if i could turn to you and thanks very much for being with us today and your testimony. Again you said you have a very rural population. I think you said you have 20 persons per square mile and its a great concern in your area along with the rural areas in the country about having that essential brought and for constituents. He talks about the u. S. And if that would help you but are there areas that would be a benefit to you and your community . Thank you for that question. First of all i would like to recognize that i have two of my councilmembers here. And also from our telecommunications blended nelson and pamela thomas. Thank you. Thank you. I would say one critical issue is right to way. Right away as a challenge where its a complex issue that has to do with the nature of tribal lands. It goes back to the allotments policy that had devastating effect on tribal lands and so the short answer if they do not get right of ways we have to build around them and of course that is very capital expensive. Obviously this is pretty costly compared to establishing it right away but sometimes this is our only course of action. That is an issue that we really need to look at grade another is b. E. T. C. Designation process which is overly complicated so streamlining of the process would you welcome to many tribes. Thank you very much and my time has expired create. I will now recognize the gentleman from new jersey mr. Pallone for five minutes. I want to get one question to mr. Adelstein about infrastructure or in disasters like Hurricane Sandy but then i want to get a question to governor lewis so im trying to split this up. Three years ago Hurricane Sandy devastated my district. The force of the storm knocked out some indications for days. Mr. Adelstein you testified about the Wireless Infrastructure being deployed and up raided across the country and issa port this to plummet but my constituents are concerned about whether the equipment works in a disaster so what should and should do to make sure people can call for help and reach loved ones in an emergency and what do you think that the fccs work to improve resiliency . At the top priority for industry. We want to make sure customers get access when they needed the most. We saw cooperation between tmobile and t. At t and share their Network Operation centers. I would say in terms of the structures themselves not one of them might down during the storm storm. The issue was things that were beyond the control of Power Companies access to roads and trees that fell but what makes it difficult sometimes we cant even get generators sited on these things. Going back to the issue this committee the generator violates a noise statute. I dont think any neighbors would complain about the noise of the generator and yet counties will not allow us to put them there and then complain when the system doesnt work. We need proactive thinking about having facilitating access to it and one more point to add the best thing you can do is redundancy. All of the work done by the committee to promote deployment is promoting redundancy and ensuring there will be adequate facilities and more likely they will survive the disaster. You want to comment on the cease work because chairman camilla. We work mostly with chairman wheeler and the members of the commission and looking out a corporate arrangement where we can provide incentives for the industry to deploy this kind of equipment. I think you industry is doing a lot taking investment in things like backup power and working in a corporate fashion. We believe the goals are shared to ensure that these networks are resilient and redundant. Thank you. That he go to governor luis and i should say i love the reservation. I havent been there for a long time and its about time i go back grade on the one hand i was thinking relative to many tribes you might have more ability and the remote areas were poorer tribes if you will to achieve similar goals that you mentioned. So i just wanted to ask about hunting. You mentioned the universal service funds. I guess the gentleman from google talked about this connect palm initiative. I think the president was at the choctaw reservation last week talking about that. What are the sources of wandering . Is the universal service fund useful to you now and what would we have to do to improve its . Look at the federal government do in terms of funding for tribal infrastructure . Particularly for those tribes that might have more difficult the . Im thinking of the pueblos in new mexico or the tribes at the grand canyon smaller and less funding available. How were these funds helpful to you the once a helpful to the wants of we do have in these programs that we these programs that we do have are they . Thank you congressman pallone and you are always welcome. With usf funding Stable Funding mechanisms are critical. Where they have to develop the climate bank plans are land federal Funding Sources to be there to begin with. Providing funding for the structure build outs and that is critical to the longterm sustainability of these telecommunications providers. Are you using funds from universal service now . Yes we are. How does that work . How do you do it . Thats critical to the overall this is plan. Relying on that source of income moving forward, its critical. Its a longterm Business Outlook and with regards to the longterm capital told out as well. Thank you mr. Chairman. The gentlemans time has expired and the chairman recognizes mr. Shimkus for five minutes. I appreciate you all being here. I want to go to adelstein and the governor. The Environmental Review process on federal lands is a burden so have you thought through how local municipalities can do their zoning outside of federal lands and how we can marry that with what goes on there and can you comment on that . Yes some counties are great and we heard from google that those communities make it easier to get access and that is where the investment goes. A specific community arent seeing the investment they would get if they werent throwing up road locks. They are not going to have service in their backyard so we were corporately with local communities and every single facility that has been cited in cooperation with the local government but to have it be dragged out or took the work of the committee to say you dont have to get another zoning hearing to put up a 4g antenna that is party there. Increasingly communities are recognizing this. The smart ones are moving ahead in the last 20 cents 2013. There are streamlined deployment and those states are receiving more investment to get the word out about the way the fccs implementing the laws you pass. Commissioner clyburn asked us to go out the. With me ask mr. Lewis on the federal robberies because thats a another challenge. The question is can we force a zoning issue to get you guys owning a ability like we do municipalities . Senator byrd via wood the agency could keep the money they get to pay for the cost of processing it. There would be common forms and contracts by the need for more lets lishan. Theres an expectancy of lease were no so when somebody invests their. That make it governor lewis to respond. Federal lands in Indian Country has been a long issue in regards to our unique situation as the nature of indian land in regards to fracks and land interest that are just so critical and sometimes are one of the major obstacles to build outs with regards to right of ways. If we can somehow streamline that process to the bureau of Indian Affairs and department of interior that would really help out tribal infrastructure buildout in the future. My largest Congressional District is 33,000 people. When do you think google would hit that community on your timeline . Did you want to name that amenity . Im not the chairman of the committee so i dont have as much power. We have published this so we can ask mr. Adelstein said get Fiber Deployment whether its google or any provider tim picture they have the permitting process that allows for a large volume of permits to go through to make it easy for people to get onto telephone poles. So its the same type of debate with the rural or the federal land deployment. The ease of being able to have access and a timely response and its all about return on investment. So with the rural area cant make the call based upon the formula then you have to be able to dip into our u. S. Or other forms of low interest loans to make it and also time is money. Any delay and what we talked about here affects the ability for someone to go to the cap bull market can make it pitch that they will get their return on investment. That is correct as well. I yield back my time. The chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania mr. Doyle. Thank you for this excellent hearing and is excellent panel. Jonathan welcome back great rodkin infrastructure comes a critical component for every facet of our daily lives. All levels of government communicate with citizens increasingly leverage the network to improve the delivery and efficiency of service. This work in partnership with Carnegie Mellon university and google is a connective platform that will integrate Traffic Cameras and information kiosk to create a Living Laboratory for nextgeneration technologies. This platform will be used to improve traffic had earned in realtime allowing Citys Department to officially predictable road wear and schedule maintenance and allow people to explore and interact with the city more effectively. Available in ubiquitous ripe infrastructure provides a basis basis for the next generation solutions. I for one and a big fan of making every tool in the toolbox available to local governments to make sure they have access to the best networks in the best platforms in order to improve the lives of People Living there there. Mr. Chairman i would love to work with you on putting together some legislation to address some of these challenges challenges. Let the start with ms. Socia. How can localities leverage shared infrastructure to increase the deployment of broadband to cities like pittsburgh to address our own municipal needs . How can we and other municipalities use what we are building to expand access more broadly and what if anything stands in the way of the municipality leveraging the infrastructure . Really interesting work has been done as you have suggested. Many of her cities are using smart infrastructure to do interesting work to determine particulates in the air and checking asthma rates and using street lights that have cameras in them for public safety. We are seeing a lot want that happened and i think there are barriers for cities to doing this work is well and some of them are the state regulations that prohibit their building out their own infrastructure. In some cases as was mentioned earlier it was issues of how densely populated the circumstances i am curious about the discrepancies that exist. In pittsburgh for it since i can get 500 megabits per second but it would cost me 400 a month. When we look at cities like chattanooga and kansas city and boston and other cities residents can get a dig for less than 100. Im curious maybe mr. Moffat and mr. Slinger and ms. Socia could comment on why you think these discrepancies exist. Thank you for the question. My observation would be you are right there are a wide range of economic models and its a challenge because there is no nearterm variable costs. Its a cost bus models so you see Companies Experimenting with different prices in part because they are trying to iraq but that quantity demanded will be at different prices. The challenge but obviously you tend to have lower prices where you have multiple competing networks and again it raises the questions of whether the providers are earning a sufficient return of the market share at the prices they are charging. In many cases they are not traded this is a difficult area to do Economic Research however because you will find there are a lot of companies that have different of this than profitability. I want to get to mr. Slinger. I would say if you look at the cities in which we are operating or cities we have announced we are seeing in prices drop. We now go to the gentleman from louisiana mr. Scalise for five minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman. Mr. Adelstein you talk in your Opening Statement of a lot a lot of the work thats been done to expand spectrum within this committee where we have come together to make more spectrum available and our chairman has been a great leader in that effort too. One part of that equation absolutely is expanding more spectrum and of course the other part of that is your members very few build it out and to build that infrastructure to take advantage of the spectrum. If you could share with us some of the challenges or hurdles that your members face to make the investment that they can make to take advantage of that spec and to make more spectrum available in the marketplace. Spectrum has been quite a hurdle. You saw 41 million was spent for a limited amount of spec and white tape. Better than the cbo estimate. Hopefully cbo recognizes the value of spectrum. The fact is that was a 12 increase in available commercial mobile sector. If youre a 12 increase in throughput and 700 we are down to 680 . A long way to go to build out to meet the needs of people and as i said local communities often are saying no to these facilities. We have the Business Case in rural areas as we have discussed today in the overall return on investment is difficult. We cant afford to have regulatory drag on these investments. Slowing them down making it more expensive when there is enough capital toga to meet these needs already. That is where we are at in this country and as slow as it is its immediately available when you see that same structure and reuse it. All of these burdens on federal lands and urban areas the fcc has done a great job in the committee has done a great job in trying to address that but we need to work with our partners in state and local governments as well. We have been grappling with trying to remove those burdens not just spectrum and a whole lot of areas related to Energy Production were federal land and in the local area some of those restrictions make it really hard to experience a lot of the economic opportunity. Thanks for that answer. Mr. Moffett in your analysis if you could share with us some of the similar challenges where some actions that may be congress or the fcc can take to further expand the opportunities for wifi broadband . As i said earlier i think there are opportunities can connect america funds and making those available to a wider range of companies who are bringing broadband to rural areas but there is an overarching question here and it relates to the question that Ranking Member issue asked earlier about what are the bright spots . If you think about this is the larger value chain of microeconomics breathing from the content companies and internet providers to the infrastructure providers where the bright spots are is clearly outside of infrastructure. The App Developers and the companies are earning extraordinary returns. There is a very kneejerk and familiar regulatory impulse to say lets try to protect the companies that are making high returns from the ones that are making low returns. As an economist thats a very odd structure. Final question mr. Slinger when google fiber was being deployed its been reported you all were able to work with local governments and maybe some expedited approval processes so that not just you but other entrance were able to move things through quicker. He could talk in general about the ability for government to take more of a regulatory approach and how it the regulation in the sense of helping expedite the expansion of technology has helped you and helps others to develop even more broadband . Im going to go back to the fiber check list which we published in 2014. Some of our major areas obviously are having access to the poll to make the poles ready. One thing that has been suggested was if municipalities took a proactive step in doing Home Maintenance while they are doing Home Maintenance get rid of the old wires that arent needed that would allow new entrants google fiber or other entrance to get in quick lien attach it poll. That is one thing that would really help and policy and access to their rightofway. Theres more we can do with federal highway to make sure no one is ripping up a road to construction repaving that we putting conduit that anyone can use. Those are smart things that allow new market entrants and also lead to more competition. Thanks for your answers. The gentleman yields back the balance of his time. Unfortunately we are going to have to pull this to a close because we are down to four minutes left in the vote. This is not the last hearing. We expect to continue this work Going Forward in your testimony has got us to a good starting place. We have a lot of followup to do. There are members that didnt get a chance to ask questions. We do have information to submit for the record including from cca tech freedom and mr. Olson i believe you have a document you want to articles on broadband deployment and with that i am afraid we are going to ms. Matsui to want just a minute or two . Just a minute or two. I was curious i want to ask mr. Slinger some questions. I find what youre talking about very interesting because i look at this and what you say is all very important that about deploying broadband infrastructure and im from sacramento so we have wonderful areas that are doing great rings. Im looking at a particular area and are sitting that is economically deprived and we have a light rail station thats going to be completed their with fiber. But yet we have schools and libraries that are deprived and people there who have no access. If we were to do something they are and i dont know whether we can have a special project but im looking at this for Economic Development. Is that something that we can provide access that you say that you need . Is that something that you were somebody else can take on as a project working with us because im trying very much to help this area. They feel very deprived looking at the rest of my district that feel like they are on the move and they are not on the move and i want to get them on the move. Is there something we can do there . There is a lot that we do earlystage with all the cities we look at to make sure they have the right kind of Digital Inclusion plans in place to make sure the cities have a focus on it and again there is no silver all it. We want to make sure that all providers and local Community Groups take this on and add fiber and the technologies to make sure people understand the relevancy of the web and hopefully get more people on line. Thank you very much and thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you. We will have to call it to conclusion. We have votes on the house floor so thank you to all of you for your testimony, your counsel and we look forward to being back in touch with you as we move oregon to others who have ideas for the congress and now we can expand access to affordable broadband broadband broadband across the country wherever it is not. I understand we have some tribal letters for the record as well from mr. Lujan which we are happy to accept and what that he will adjourn. [inaudible conversations] the Senate Debates the six year transportation bill. Good morning. Senate Armed Services meets to consider the nomination of mark milley. We welcome you general milley as well as members of the family. We are grateful for the sacrifice and continued support of the nation. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you. I appreciate the United States. I was wanting to ask you if you would like to introduce your family. First senator reed and i have to mode for a while. My wife hoois here holly ann and my son and daughter are not here. They are both working. My son peter is down in texas work in the oil industry and my daughter is also washing working in the oil industry and based from chicago. The committee is part of a major transition of American Military leadership. If confirmed as army chief of staff you will serve along side the joint chief of staffs new Service Chiefs for the navy and marine core. You will lead part of the volunteer soldiers and time and time over a decade of time in iraq. The army indured 70 of the casual casual casualties. As the nation confronts the most array of Global Crisis since the world war ii the next chief of staff of army is responsible for making sure the total army and active guard and reserve remains the most decisive land troops in the world. We have drastic reductions in defense funding and the army is going to be forceded to carry out missions with fewer dollars, soldiers and equipment. It has been reduced from 570,000 active duty personal to 490,000 troops this year and last week the army announced they would cut an additional 40000 troops reducing to 450,000. There is talks the army could decline to 420,000 troops and what is worse is one third of the army teams are ready for deployment and decisive operations. In short, the army is facing a downward spiral of military competitive that increases the risk of too few soldiers who could enter training without proper equipment. With assumptions we are getting out of iraq and deployments to africa. We have seen the rise of isis russian invasions and the ebola crisis. We must adopt to new realities or scale back to meet reduced needs. Instead the administration and many in the congress are trying to have it both ways. Asking soldiers to take on a growing set of missions with fewer and fewer resources. This is not about reverse affects. It is about enforcing the budget control act of 2007 and 2011. That is the only way we will get back to a truly strategy Defense Budget. I believe there is no strategic rational for the army to fall below the pre9 11 troops of 490,000 troops. Administrate staff has been growing at the same time as the decline. This committee is embarking on an effort to make reductions in Head Quarters and administration across the department of defense. If confirmed, i want you to be relentless partners in this effort. You will have to modernize the force and the army is facing a challenging in repairing, replacing and reconditions equipment. The army must continue to modernize for threats. The armored Multi Purpose vehicle enhance command and control and medical evacuation and other functions while significantly improving the protection and safety of the soldiers. Perhaps, more importantly, this requires the army to learn the lessons of its failed Acquisition Programs. A record that has been particularly abyssmal. From crusaders to the Ground Combat vehicle billions of dollars have been wasted on programs that never became operational. There were cost and schedule estimates, requirement, excessive risk taking and currency between testing and production. There are diverse opinions on acquisition reform but one thing for sure is the status quo is unacceptable. To provide soldiers to equipment they need to defend the nation we cannot continue to have blurred lines of accountability and innovations of responsible inside the defense acquisition system. That is why in this Years National Defense Authorization act this committee adopted reforms to reduce the role in the acquisition process and create new mechanisms to insure accountability for results. Among these reforms is an enhanced role for the service chief. The army must insure the Acquisition Program is on schedule within cost and perform to expectations. If that doesnt happen, general, we will be calling you. We look forward to your testimony. General milley is joining us with his wife, and thank you for your service to nation and army. And i want to acknowledge them and wish them well. You will see the army when the United States is facing a multitude of challenges broad abroad. The amount of resources for the army is continue to decrease. It was announced the army would convert two bir gade teams to combat forces chatty. This is necessary to reach the final goal of 450 soldier,000 soldiers. The army has thought identified which instillation will be impacted by this. If sequestration levels remain in place the situation is ominous for the army. The army needs strength to the level of 420,000 soldiers in the coming years. I hope you will share your views how to manage the reductions and if they are called for. And what if any, impact these reductions have on the readiness of the army. In addition to managing the re reduction reduction, the army is grappling with increasing levels. They have made to make tough decisions on the modernization program. As the Program Released acknowledged the army cannot afford to equip and sustain the total army with the most modern equipment and we must acknowledge fiscal reality and selectively modernize equipment and formation. At the same time the Army Continues to cope are reduced levels. Testifying before the Senate Appropriation subcommittee it was said levels are at a historic level. Only 33 of the brugades are ready and it should be closer to 70 . I look forward to hearing from you. They serve as the first line of defense when there is a National Disaster at home and the role the National Guard played in afghanistan and iraq was critical to our success. There has been tension between the active and reserve components. The most notable example being the Army Restructuring a initiative. Last year there was a review of the size and structure of the army. The commission has been working with meeting and stakeholders and conducting hearing to provide the report to congress by february 21st 2016. You will work with general brass if elected and i look forward to hearing from you how you envision the relationship and what, if anything can be done to strengthen that relationship. I have said sequestration is undermining our National Security and our military readiness. The Defense Budget should be based on a longterm strategy and not sequestration budget caps. The chairman made this point eloquently and i hope you will share your thoughts on the topic. Thank you for your service. General standard question of all military nominees and i would like to proceed with those before the Opening Statement. Questions are as follows in order to exercise legislative and spects it is important this committee and other committees of the congress are able to receive testimony, briefings and other communications of information. Have you adhered to laws and regulations gov rngerning conflicts of interest . I have. Do you agree when asked to give your personal view if they differ from those in power . I do. Have you undertaken anything to compromise the election . I havent. Will you respond when requested in a timely manner . I will. Will those briefings be protected from witnesses ual will the witnesses we protected during their briefing . Yes they will, do you agree to appear and testify before the committee . I do. Do you agree to provide electronic documents in a timely manner when requested by a committee or consult with the Committee Regarding good faith delay or denial providing such documents . I do. Thank you. Welcome and please proceed. Thank you chairman mccain, and Ranking Member reed and the members of the senate Armed Services for the privilege to appear before you. I appreciate the confidence the president of the United States and the secretary of defense have shown by nominating me to be the next army chief of staff of the american army. It is your army that is the strength of our nation. Our soldiers are the strength of our army and their families are the strength of the soldiers. Likewise my family has been my strength through my life. My mother and father served in the world war ii. My mother attending the medical needs of soldiers airman and marines at a Military Hospital near seattle. My father served in the Central Pacific making landings in the bloody battles as a young 19 and 20 year old. Sadly, my mother passed over 20 years ago and my father passed just last april a week shy of his 91st birthday. I am absolutely sure they are both very proud from above of their soldier son and will always be a source of leadership and guidance for me. I am unbelievable and lucky to have the most dedicated and strongest woman in the world my wife holly ann. She, like me parents, is a constant course of inspiration and love. During seven deployments on operations and thousands of days of training holly ann has been like so many spouses, a single parent who raised two wonderful children who are adults. Our daughter Mary Margaret and are son peter who could not be here today. It is for them and all of the children and the future generations that i and all of us in uniform are continuing to go to give our todays for their tomorrows. I would like to take a moment to recognize holly ann as a represent of all of the army family and spouses for their resilience, service and sacrifice. And also i would like to congratulate my predecessor, ray odierno and his wife linda, who have given 39 years of service to our nation. I want to personally thank them both for their tremendous leadership as the current chief of staff and leading spouse. Our nation has been well served by the selfless soldier and his entire family. Chairman senators service in the United States army is a privilege and earned the old fashion way. Through hard work and meeting standards of discipline and excellence. Your armys contract with the American People is a combat ready force build around the nations most valuable assets, our sons and daughters, who become the best equipped army in the world. Our fundamental past is like no other. It is to win. And to win in the unforgiving situation. There are other tasks and roles and mission your army can do. We assure allies, deter people and provide foundational capabilities to enable other joint forces in a variety of ways. We provide needed help to victims of disasters. But our reason for being, our very reason for being, at the very core of what it means to have an army is to win and to win decisively in Ground Combat against the enemies of our country so american citizens can enjoy life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And every year 120,000 of americas sons and daughters raise their right hand to they can the oath to serve in the United States army. In return, we make the commitment to develop them as soldiers, leaders and importantly as citizens. These soldiers are the core of the allvolunteer army made up of the active nation guard and the reserve. We are a total army. We are in fact one army. We are americas army. And all of us come from the people. Right now, we have the most skilled and combat experience army in the nations history. But in this time of increasing instability and increasing uncertainty throughout the global we must face and solve significant challenges. I pledge to be a steward on behalf of the american taxpayer we recognize we all serve as well. And finally, if confirmed at army chief of staff i want to make sure the army meets the expectations of the people. The American People have expected your army to fight and win our nations wars at any time, any place, and your soldiers are ready to do that today as we have done that for 240 consecutive years. Today we have a great army and stand on the soldiers of those coming before us. Thank you, general, thank you for your strong statement. Last week four unarmed marines and one sailor in chattanooga, tennessee were murdered. What steps do you believe should be put in place immediately to secure facilities in the United States especially like recruiting centers. As the son of someone who served in the fourth marine division. I want to extend my sympathy to the families. It is key task for any commander and all of the leaders in the army and throughout the military. Specifically, there is a wide va variety of active and passive measures. Commander north is going to shoot out increased force Protection Measures which i will not discuss what they are publically. But there is a variety of hardening things like bulletproof glass. Increase patrols, work closely are Law Enforcement. As far as arming recruiters go i think that is complicated legally and there are issues involved we will have to deal with that. The legal part of it can be resolved do you think they should under certain conditions be armed . I think under certain conditions on both military basis and out stations recruiting stations we should seriously consider. With regard to afghanistan, should we withdraw to the cal n dar base man or the condition base plan . I am a condition base. Would you say the situation would warrant evaluation and revision of the president s plan by 2017 to have an embassybased force . Right now talking with general campbell the commander of the force in afghanistan, it is my understanding the plan is continually reviewed and we will execute based on the plans on the ground. It was testified even with the 38 billion addition that the nations military would remain at the lower wedge of reasonable defense strategy. Do you agree with that . I do with respect to the army. I agree with the assessment of being at the lower ragged edge . I think he testified to significant risk if we go to 420,000 it would be shifting to high risk. Did you believe we should arm the ukraine people with weapons . I think providing nonlethal equipment is being done i am asking about lethal equipment. I think it is Something Like that we should considered and i will be in favor of lethal defense weapons do we have a strategy to beat isis . I think you are familiar with the nine lines. That strategy also applyies to syria . Syria is part of the strategy. You believe we have a strategy to defeat isis . There is a strategy yes. Do you think it will defeat isis . I think currently right now the way it is laid out as i understand it is that it is going to take a considerable amount of time measured in years, to defeat isis if we execute the strategy as it is currently designed. Maybe you can tell me about the strategy because the president said they have not yet developed. There is nine lines of effort as i understand. The two that concern the military are providing a variety of enabler capability do is the Iraqi Military and also to provide Security Forces assistance and building partner capacity with the Iraqi Military. Do you believe we need Forward Air Controllers . In my experience it provides more effective air support. Thank you, general and thank you for your service and we look forward to moving forward with your nomination and congratulations and all of us would agree your predecessor was an outstanding soldier also. Thank you. Thank you very much chairman and thank you general for your testimony. I get confused because it is usually miley. That is in rhode island. You are from massachusetts. As long as we both like the red sox it is okay. I will stop there and ask you a serious question. You are facing force reductions 450,000 active forces which leads to the question how do you ensure you can get the requirements facing the army and several possibilities and you can comment on. It is a much smoother closer integration with the national regard and forces so they can come to the fight earlier. That is one. Two is obviously continuing to operate jointly and train jointly with the marine core which is a way to augment land forces. And three, to continue or to increase in fact during operation of the millitary that is our ally. Will that in any way help off set the decline in man power . Well first senator, i think the reduction brought it down to 450,000 for the active force and 98 98 980,000 for the total force and i agree with the current chief of staff that puts the nation at risk. In order to elevate that working with allies is fundamental. I think that is necessary to mitigate some of the risk. Specifically with the national regard, we speak of one army, and looking back three or more years it is much more one army than it was previously what are you going to do to make sure it is more than rhetoric and one consistent army watt are you doing . We integrate at both combat Training Centers louisiana and california. We are fully integrated with the reserve component and National Guard. Integration of the forces is key and we will sustain that. We are partnerships that are partnered with National Guard units and they are stationed for supporting each other. One of the areas of concern, and this has been led by senator mccains effort has been acquisition reform. He frankly indicated a long litany of systems. There are proposals that involve the chief more directly and not only with authority but responsibility. Can you comment about the acquisition process . And what you would like to do as its service chief in making it more effective . In my view i think the service chief should have an increased role across the entire acquisition process where we are responsible and held accountable for linking the requirements, which the service chief play a role in now. But we are not the Service Chiefs are not as engaged as could be with respect to the resources and decisions of actually acquisitions. Those three people linking resource do is the requirements in my view the chief should have increased authority to link all three throughout the process. In puts of requirement and outputs of acquisition both. Just a point, the greatness is being challenged. 30 of army birgades are ready to go and that requires massive budget relief or major reallocation of resources. If you dont get the budget relief what kind of resources were you repaired to reallocate for training . There are three levels any chief of staff can use. End strength, modernization, and readiness is the other one. Our obligation is making sure we have ready forces. There is no soldier who should go into mans way not fully manned or equipped. Readiness is the number one priority. That is my number one priority if confirmed and remain the number one priority chatty that leads end strength and modernization. If confirmed we will have to look to make sure we balance those three components as we go forward. Mr. Chairman and thank you general for being here today. You said readiness and investing in future needs are priorities. Did you believe the future needs will require the army to focus on modernizing capabilities or do you see a shift to new missions and new capabilities . I know there has been a lot of talk about the armys role in coastal defense. So where do you see that headed . Thanks senator, as you said two priorities exist for any chief of staff. Readiness of the force and posturing the force to be ready in the future. I would be looking at the 20252035 time frame. Our modernization strategy is to improve system in increments. There are a wide variety of emerging technologies we may or may not have military application 1520 years from now. We want to look and explore those and ask the right questions to see which apply to ground forces. Emerging technology we will take a look at. Do you see a shift to new missions that are going to be necessary for the army to acquire . I think the fundamental missions that currently exist and the variety of strategic dockt documents out there will we remain consistent. Even with the advancement of new technology by people who are not our friends. Do you see the army playing any role in that . On new missions . The only one that is coming to mind is cyber. We definitely have increased our capability in cyber across the joint force and the army is building a cyber force and we will continue to look at that because it is critical for the defense of the nation and armys capabilities. And as the current commander of the army forces command, i know you are responsible for providing army units so you can fulfill your commander requirements. We heard a little bit about force reduction and the impact that may have. Right now are you able to fulfill the combat commander requirements . Where will it be when you look at a force that is reduced to 450,000 . Commander force right now we are able senator, to fulfill the commander requests for forces that have come in. As we continue to draw down to 450,000 by 20172018 i think we will inquer increased risk and at the end it will be significant risk. We will have to see. We dont know what the future requirements are going to be. Senator mccain mentioned he has issues in Eastern Europe he has issues with isis and a wide variety of other security challenges around the world. If demand continues to increase as it has in the last year, unanticipated demand, we will have to reassess the risk assessment. So comes one