This discussion. You can see the rest of it on cspan. Org. Going live as maritime administrator mark busby is talking about defense funding, live coverage on cspan2. Retired navy admiral mark busby. I would like to welcome the general officers and the many distinguished guests that are with us this morning. Welcome to our industry partners, leaders of industry and others for your continued support of this event in the navy league as a whole, General Dynamics is pleased to sponsor the special topic breakfast. These events and venues for the Defense Industry to interface with government requirements and acquisition professionals, something that we value. General dynamics thanks you for your participation and we thank General Dynamics for their support. Now back to our special guest. Are you ready, admiral . Admiral mark busby was sworn in as maritime administrator on august 8, 2017. Prior to his appointment he served as president of the National Defense transportation association. A position he has held since retiring from the navy in 2013 where he served our great navy for 34 years. While in the navy he served on staff of the sixth fleet, Us Fleet Forces command, the navy staff and the joint staff. Mark served as commander of the u. S. Navys Military Sealift Command from october 2009, to march 2013 which is where i had the opportunity to meet him for the first time and as former boss admiral john harper. We look forward to your remarks this morning. If you would please join me in welcoming our maritime administrator, admiral mark busby to the podium. [applause] thank you and good morning. A pleasure to be with you. When mike mentioned this opportunity was available and bacon was going to be served i said yes immediately. I kept the bar fairly low in that respect. Any day you start with bacon has got to be a good day but great to be here with you. Thank you for getting up early and spending part of the day here. Good to see you, thanks for being here. Admiral fox, admiral church, good to see you again, sammy and i were staying on a beach together in haiti after the earthquake in 2010. A pair of binoculars looked like macarthur standing on the beach. I was bringing a flashlight battery, no lights were on in haiti but great to be here. My old shipmate, jeff 9 or and steve good dell spend the day in the pentagon, wondering why we were there but bill stevens, congratulations on your ascension to the leadership role of navy league. Navy league will greatly prosper under your leadership and thrilled to have stevens leading as executive director. We could not have asked for a better leader for this organization but it is great to be with you this morning to update you on what is going on in the world of ma and Maritime Affairs. Im going to not drone on a long time to leave some time for questions. Im sure i wont cover everything, maybe touch a few things so i will talk about it, please tag me during question time but i got to say right up front how much we appreciate the hard work men and women and supporters of the membership has done to focus on maritime issues, not just navy and coast guard and marine corps which we have traditionally done but the merchant marine as well. So many aspects that need to be discussed that havent reached light of day for many years. Really stepped up in the last several years, specifically to bring a lot of these issues to the front. When i am testifying on the hill, always there in a previous role in the the league and fairly well supported there. So thank you very much for what you have done and what you continue to do. John task and is leading the charge, could not have asked for a more knowledgeable person. Sealift and Maritime Affairs, he continues to mentor all of us on those kinds of issues, as was mentioned in my biography, i was sworn in just a little over two years ago, eighth of august. Im over my second anniversary in the job. It has been an amazingly quick two years. There has been so much going on, cant believe we are two years down the road already. It is probably a Good Opportunity to reflect a little bit on the last few years so i thought i would touch on a few things here this morning. I was at the jumping off point. I was rummaging through one of the many piles i have on my desk around my office of that. I came across a questionnaire i filled out when going through the confirmation process. If youve ever gone through that process it is truly amazing and i tell people i wish i had paid more attention to a civics class on how Government Works to figure out all that is done but part of that questionnaire, i had to list the three top priorities. I was going to focus on as the administrator. The first of those priorities was to get kings point, the Merchant Marine Academy back on track, as a graduate of the academy 40 years ago this year, the academy had been on not a good course the last several years. The key to that was leadership. Im not going to go into all the details around that, but as most of us who wore the uniform now, leadership played a key role in the health and functioning of a command. Taking it to the top, a bandleader can take a hot performing organization about, part of the first thing we did was get a new superintendent at kings point, rear admiral jack bonow who was a graduate himself, recently retired as president and ceo of the river maritime to exxon mobil shipping. Someone with a rich maritime background, has the credibility with maritime history to function there and hired a new dean from the naval academy, graduate marine corps, fast experience, combat experience, vast experience at academia and that dynamic duo has turned kids point around, done a tremendous job. The alumni are aligned, parents are aligned, midshipmen are aligned, the fact staff are aligned with them. It is a thing of beauty to go up there and see people that are happy and see things getting done. It underscores how critical leadership is, having the right leader there to move things forward. We significantly improved the academys programs for sexual harassment, Sexual Assault. That was born out in the most latest set of surveys among all the Service Academies with the exception of kings point. In instances of Sexual Assault at kings point, went down substantially and significantly and i think culture has turned around. The key thing is midshipmen have taken ownership of the issue, one of the first things i told them when i took over as administrator, i said superintendent and everybody else up here, issue edicts and regulations telling him not to do it all day long, telling you all you are not going to do it to each other. The problem is going to go on. Then i asked my classmates that are in the room in the auditorium to stand up and i attended my classmates, they are on faculty and staff and said look around. I go up there all the time. I get a charge of energy, i want to feel good. When i had a particularly bad week i go up there and talk to the first or second midshipman and time charged up and feel good. Its just a good thing. If you have been up to visit, you are invited, please come up, walk around, talk to the midshipman. It will make your day. The second they wanted to go after was the Ready Reserve force and ensuring its letter to answer the call. Come into it i obviously for my time at nsc to the Ready Reserve force was getting to be an aging force. 44 years average age of the 46 vessels that are in the Ready Reserve force. These are the majority of our government assets that will answer the call immediately when we need a sealift, a a major sealift, Major Movement of forces for our country. They are spread out amongst all the coasts on typically a fiveday readiness, manned by nine people. Those nine people have to keep the ship ready to activate and be out the door for our ships in 96 hours in order to go on dock and provide sealift that our nation needs. That is becoming increasingly a challenge. Anybody knows anything about ships or been involved with maintaining ships knows that as ships age they get more and more challenging to maintain, and also to keep modern. Most of the gear on a 44yearold ship is not manufactured anymore. A lot of it, in many ways its cyber secure because it doesnt have any electronics. [laughing] so thats an upper part but a lot of the control systems, a lot of the communications, a lot of the bridge equipment, its generations old and all that requires updating. So thats the challenge. Thats a big challenge. Its something that we watch, theres been reports written on it recently on the challenges we are having, maintaining that force and how ready would it really be. We routinely test that. We have a thing called turbo activation that trends, runs that activates a certain number of those ships, no notice every years to ensure they can do it. They get graded. Those grades get reviewed at the highest levels and we have to report readiness of our assets day today all the time. Something that general lines at trans, the admiral track very, very closely as do i. I looked other port first thing this morning before i came in. Right now today as we stand right today, we are at 76 readiness. Some of those 46 ships, 76 are ready. The rest of them are in some form either corrective or preventive maintenance that would not allow them to answer the bell today, if called upon. We have two of those ships active doing missions today, getting ready to do a transfer or redeployment of forces for training. One of the ships we activated last week suffered a fire in the interim the day before supposed to get underway. Fire was extinguished. The crew did a great job. Got the fire out very quickly, no injuries. We then activated a sister ship within about 12 hour notice and get underway, and that the mission. Theres issues. That 5g shows these things happened on an older ship. It also shows her people are very cando and got that sister ship ready to go and met mission. So we are pushing forth on that. As i said lots of recent reports, lots of documentation of Readiness Challenges are coming. The rand report is a a recent. The center for strategic and budgetary assessments did one called sustaining the flight they came out earlier this, very good report. Commend it to you if you have not yet checked it out. The other thing is congress has gotten interest in this. I was testifying before congress five times this spring, all on sealift readiness. I was happy to be the tethered goat up there to take the incoming rounds, as long as the word was getting out there and folks like senator wicker, congressman joe courtney, congressman whitman, leaders and the congress are really starting to take hold of this issue. John garamendi of california, all very strongly focus in this area. I think its terrific. All very, very good. I mention transcom. We have general mike weir here is a new transcom happy to have him on board. Weve already had them down on a couple of our ships come drinking coup attempt making sure he gets i love it when army folks like general lines as a transcom command and now general were come i love it when army guys are involved with sealift because they understand probably better than anybody that the way they get to the fight is in a ship. Its not an back of a c17 cannot in the back of sc5. Its not walking across the water. Its in the belly of a ship. To have the army advocating that a stronger than any blue suit or ever had so thanks for being. Welcome aboard and think serving out advocate going forward. We have a strategy, the a strategy along with transcom for recapitalizing. Three problems to Service Life Extension on some of the ships to get them up out to 60 years. Some of the ships that can sustain it. My new or used ships off the market and modify them as necessary to increase their military usefulness and build new ships. I guess that would be an increasing level of expense as well. Thats the program we sort of signed up to you. Its going to take a while. Were working very closely with maybe to figure out how to budget this. There is first to ships are budgeted in 22 and 21, right . 30 and 31 million to buy two ships. Well see what kind of ships we can do. We are going to do the procurement of those ships for the navy so were well into the process right now. My head it sealift is here this morning, and thats kind of what he is doing most days now is figuring out how to do that. We dont like to do it as quickly as possible, but there are budget constraints. Again, the navy has to work through that. Transcom is very interested in making this happen sooner or later so well come to some conclusion here im sure. A third kind of thing priority i laid out was a vigorous defense of the jones act, and those of us that follow Maritime Affairs know that the jones act has been under some attack over the last year, year and a half from many, many different fronts. Lots of discussion about it. Lots of word thrown out there, much of it miss information and purposely misleading and misrepresenting the facts, not appreciating the vast impact of the jones act actually has on our nation and on shipping. For anybody who doesnt know what the jones act is, merchant marine act of 1920 specifies that any cabotage, that is trade occurring within the United States or its possessions, must be on an american built ship, american township, american cruiseship flying the u. S. Instant in order to keep our trade within our national lifelines. Also provides a source of mariners for our industry. There are about 40,000 jones act of vessels, and by the so, i mean, tug, barge, coastal vessel, ship, tanker, containr ship. Of that 40,000, about 99 our large oceangoing ships, ships that you could take anywhere in the world and use for sealift that are manned by unlimited tonnage, unlimited oceans, mariners. Those are ships im particularly focused on because they provide part of the mariner pool to man up the rest of the crew from my Ready Reserve ships, should the time company you have the 99 ships in the jones act. You also have 81 ships u. S. Flag ships that are trading internationally. These are ships like american president lines and other American Railroad carriers that are carrying on International Trade with large ships. Its those 180 ships, that forms the pool of mariners, the employment of mariners that i have to call upon to man up the remainder of our reserve the ships, should the time. And thats been the challenge. Its not enough. Quite frankly, its just not enough and thats where youve heard me testify before congress that i believe were about 1800 mariners short of the requirement necessary to operate those 180 ships, which are critical for our sealift effort, plus an ever Ready Reserve force, my 46 plus the 15 that msc operates in sealift sort of mode. To man all of them up in a time of crisis, a prolonged time of crisis pixel about four to six months after we activate everything, were going to be we believe writer in 18 hundred mariners short. So how do you make that up . A question i get asked every single time. We need more places for people to work during peacetime. We need a larger u. S. Flag fleet, by about 45 ships. People ask a big should use merchant marine be . How big does it need to be . Strictly from a security and National Security point of view, its about 45 more ships, of people, you can take that argument all different directions. If you look at the tanker requirements, should we get into a big go round, a big dustup indopacific, we probably need 86 tankers under most scenarios to do the left of the fuel back and forth to the western pacific. So those have to come from someplace. With a total of six under u. S. International trade right now. There are several more jones act tankers that obviously could be put in place if necessary but we are short there. All these areas are where we need to focus and why the jones act is such a critical part. If you took the jones act the way, those american jobs in all likelihood would go away. Youre talking about the majority of the ships that employ unlimited tonnage mariners. It would have tremendous impact on our National Security, let alone our economic security. So that was the jones act something i can focus on very much, and weve gotten a lot of good support from maritime ministry. People have come up online that at the back some of the rhetoric that has been out there, incomplete story, and thats going to continue. Next year 2020 is the 100th anniversary of the jones act, and the know there are those out there that would very much like to celebrate the demise of the jones act on its 100th anniversary. So i think its going to take work by all of us to continue to focus on defending the jones act here going forward. Some other things that we are kind of looking at, continuing to push forward to make sure that we have enough sealift is the Maritime Security program. Program thats been around quite a while that provides a stipend, small stipend to help offset the cost of operating under the u. S. Flag from a lot of our carriers. We have 60 ships that are part of the program. Right now the receiving a 5 million per your stipend pixel between that 5 million plus cargo preference cargo they get from the government, less any other cargo they can scrape up from around the world, thats how they stay in business and have a state under the u. S. Flag. These are ships that are going to require as part of the sealift surge, they will come after the Ready Reserve force ships a caring, and in sustaining our forces overseas. Its one thing to get them over there. Its quite another thing to sustain them in a contested environment, which we havent had to face really since world war ii. So when you think about how we are going to be sustaining flow of ships to distant shores, its not quite a bit n a be any benign environment probably next day. It will probably be in a contested environment, and that introduces a whole new set of challenges. Quite frankly hasnt been factored in before that we now have two, and it covers a very, very wide range of issues from motivation of the people to participate, to the number of ships available to participate, to the ability to recapitalize when you lose ships, which we will, to the ability of the navy to provide any sort of an escort for the ships going across and coming back. It opens up a very wide range of issues that we kind of have to be looked at and are being looked at. The answers are not always happy ones, but its something that were continuing to focus and we are going to keep pushing on and keep focusing on. So thats kind of the sealift area. Those are kind of the priorities that i sent, what is occurred since then and some other areas that we are now focusing on are the shoreside aspect. We recently, Congress Gave us 293 million to invest in a new Port Infrastructure Development Program which was a first time weve had a really focused program for infrastructure, Port Infrastructure in a very long time. Ports were always able to compete for what was called tiger grants, and all kinds of Grant Programs which were mostly really kind of highway and rail sort of oriented. Ports always cut it took a backseat. We if a focused program and we are accepting proposals right now, and hope to award about 293 million in port focused grants probably right after the first of the year. Again, our ports are economic gateway for this country. Virtually everything flows into the country to a seaport, east coast, west coast, gulf coast. And a lot of the port just are not capable of efficiently taking the size of the vessels that we are seeing coming in today and moving them out of the port. So the connection, the real connections, the road connections, the gateways coming in, the marine highways that connect these ports to smaller ports all have to be upgraded and moved. We are also providing some grant money to Small Shipyards. This is a great Little Program weve had for several years now, about 20 million a year to help out typically around 2520 Small Shipyards. Can make a real big difference to some of our smaller shipyards. Smaller shipyards defined as 1200 people or less. Ill tell you, im keeping marine travel Business Company in wisconsin business. We have brought more travel list for more Small Shipyards in the last two years, but these are all Game Changers for a lot of these smaller yards that are able to broaden their business and stay viable in our maritime industry. So thats been a plus. It also could be used for training, Training Programs for efficiencies, and i think thats a big plus. We also have marine highway grants. I mention marine highways. We have about 7 million a year right now destined to go to marine highway projects. These are to incentivize and to help grow some of these their unique ideas how to better utilize our blue highway, our maritime economy. All this great waterways we have that typically have not been utilized to their utmost. A lot of it right neck is contained on barge sort of service. We are saying innovative ideas on how to use marine waterways, and we use some of these funds to help foster some of that growth and ideas. Every year we are seeing more and more growth in this area, and i think its a very positive sign to help strengthen the jones act and our maritime waterways. So all that said, been pretty busy two years. So any sign of slowing down which is fine with me, i like to stay busy. I like the fact people are talking about maritime things. I just was looking, either a copy of this months proceedings on my desk. There are articles about the merchant marine in there. There was an article in january this year about the demise of the merchant marine in a fictitious pacific war battle, listing all the reasons why that would happen if we continued on with some ill focused ideas. And seapower was covered, covered it well and had a couple of articles. Im buoyed by the fact the discussion is occurring and people such as yourselves have interest in ever talk about it. Its not just going to happen that were going to actually engage and make it a part of that. Again, i appreciate the efforts of the navy lake to help keep this discussion on the forefront and remain focused and were certainly going to look forward to working with you in the future as we continue to tackle some of these real challenges that are here for us. So with that, i thank you very, very much for your attention, and im very happy to stick around for a while and answer a couple of questions. Thank you very much. [applause] first of all, thanks for speaking today. Appreciate you continue to do the hard work. Probably know the answer to this but what are the arguments against the jones act . What point are the making that we need to be aware . The main argument that gets made is that the jones act is basically injecting a premium on the price of virtually everything, youll, goods fuel, goods, anything that gets moved in the United States, that there is a gigantic price that is attached by virtue of the higher cost of a u. S. Built ship, a high cost of u. S. Wages, the safety requirements that we impose on our ships that are not imposed internationally. But all of that extra cost in suffocating passed on to the consumer, and thats just not the case. The amount that gets passed on is so slight, its also the pennies, because when you look at the amount of cargo that gets moved by waterways, thats the dod of moving by water is you can with such large quantities at such low expense. Theres been outrageous claims its eight times the cost in some cases, and you know, thats patently false and has been proven as false. Sir. Regarding the Tanker Security Program that the house introduce in the ndaa, is there any concern that the program will take away or divest funds from the msp or something that congress is where that you can fully support both programs . The Tanker Security Program for those of you who are not aware is a proposed program where we much like a tight security program, we would pay stipend to a certain number of tankers to fly to the flag in and fly the u. S. Flag in International Trade. Because tanker operations, Petroleum Trade is very, very different than dry cargo, whih is the domain of Maritime Security program, they really cant coexist. We actually have to make tankers that are msp today but their kind segregated, very much separate in their trade. A lot of details will have to be worked out its such a program is put forth. It does address some of the issues of getting more ships under u. S. Flag, of addressing the tanker shortage that we have, like were talking the order of ten chips or something. It would be at least a foot in the door kind of thing, but you have the challenge, okay, what will those takers be doing and peacetime. They have to trade in order to survive in peacetime so they can be available in wartime. The stipend to get as part of the tankers could program will not cover all of it. They have to be able to quit and get business someplace. Its not just a snap your fingers easy kind of thing, but msp operators would tell you its a stipend plus cargo preference, was cargo that they go out and get on own to keep them in the game. The tankers would have to have a similar sort of scheme probably to make it viable for them. But were talking to congress and trying to figure out how that might work, should they decide to pass it. Chris. Could you talk more about cargo preference and where we stand there as those Exportimport Bank. Was cargo preference right now as it stands is 100 of dod cargo, must go on a u. S. Flagged vessel, assuming its available, and assuming the price is a reasonable price. We keep that pretty well subscribed. And then 50 of other government cargo, nine dod is required to go on u. S. Flags nondod. To date, those those kinds of cargoes. Exim bank, Exportimport Bank sorts of cargoes would go that we have not had any exim bank cargoes, project cargoes recently because we have not had an exim bank thats been fully subscribed that could pass authorization for projects greater than 10 million, i think the threshold was. Exim bank used to finance power plants and refineries and all kinds of stuff all around the world. All that big project cargo, all the bits and pieces the ge generators and all that kind of stuff, were all going on at least 50 50 of the were goinn u. S. Flag ships and that was a lot of cargo that was available to us that went away for many years. Exim bank has now subscribed again and they getting ready, they have a big backlog i am told of projects that theyre getting ready to approve and that all portends well for u. S. Carriers that will now be able to carry. Were talking in some cases 30 and 40 shiploads worth for a project. I think thats a very positive development, and we looking forward to, heres good news here in the coming of some of those projects to get going. Yes, sir. You mentioned the rand report. I i was wondering if you speak t all about any policy changes or proposals you are working in response to what those organizations published come specifically rand pointed out quite a few things that it sees as flawed and no trouble activation process. Well, im on kind of the receiving end of trouble activation. Transcom, its kind of their program to do that. The way the program runs right now is its no notice activation of ships, and they have to be underway, in our case, within 96 hours. Nse, they do it in five days. Its great, the grading criteria is the same for both of them. The whole writing this difference issue really comes to the fact of how we report writing this issue we at have taken the opinion we have to, if a ship cannot make its underway time, its prescribed 96 hour window, if the repair is going to require longer than that, and we declare it is not ready. If it breaks, they declare readiness degradation right there then and there regards how long they could fix it. We discussed this with msc. We discussed it with the transcom for a long time we all understand there are good reasons why we do it our way. There are good reasons why msc does it their way. At the end of the day when the ship meets the criteria and sales when its supposed to sale at a level, able to do its mission, thats kind of the bottom line. Theres going to be continued to be discussions about it, general lines and i were discussing it on a pretty regular basis to get to a common understanding so we all can have a sinking feeling that when the bell rings the ship is good to be there, whether its wearing gold, blue and gray stack stripes are what if its going to be wearing red, white and blue stack stripes. Back to the issue, cargo preference. Theres a little bit of discussion that we are hearing in the press about a rescission policy on some of the foreign assistance that we the United States has overseas. Any insight into that . I didnt want to get you in trouble with the white house, but is there any insight into that proposal that seems to be dancing around . Jim, i have not had any detail at all on that. Its not kind of got into my desk at all, so i think thats still [inaudible] and i appreciate that. Thanks. Anybody else . Admiral. Whats the average age of your mariners, question . And when youre managing the number of mariners that you need to meet the requirement, talk of a bit more if you would about how youre working that. Sure. Our workforce is a mature workforce, a very experienced workforce that is about 47 years old, average age. And the demographic is starting to shift, and its starting to shift primarily due to International Licensing requirements, standard of training and certification of standards that we subscribe to. That is basically used to take out a license exam for each license third mate, second mate, chief mate. Now you just take two, kind of a junior watch standard and senior watch standard. The costs and the qualifications, additional qualifications that are required for each one of those licenses is substantial and its timely. Takes a lot of time. To go from that junior licensed to the senior license, ive been told its about five, 6000 event, and about five to six months worth of schools agenda stitch altogether in order to get all the certifications to do that. Well, we are putting about 1100 young officers into the pipeline every year out of six state Maritime Academies and kings point. They are all flowing in, all charged up ready to do it. As the progress of the second assistant engineer and second mate and start looking at the future, they are not seeing a whole lot of Employment Opportunity because the number of ships that we have is just not there. A lot of the folks who are there right now are kind of hanging there. Those young folks are having to make a decision, you know, am i going to invest a big chunk of money and a big chunk of time, or am i going to go do Something Else . So were starting to see a bleed off of talent at that level. We are keeping some of them, but, and this very specific areas of need, for instance, of those 46 Ready Reserve force ships, 24 of them are steam driven. So steam engineers, where am i getting steam engineers from . Though seen you guys are hanging in there, when they go does not whole lot of people behind them because where they getting experience . In order to upgrade your license you have to steam experience. The only place to get steam experience is on my Ready Reserve ships that are leaning against the pier most of the time. Its becoming a very difficult challenge to fulfill those positions, and weve got a couple of ideas to get people to hang around and to incentivize folks to stick with us and to get there. But the answer that i give Congress Whenever i get asked that is had with fixing many problems . We need more ships. We need more places for them to work so they can continue to apply their trade and upgrade and the around in peacetime so that they are there in wartime when we need them. Its not an easy, not an easy problem to fix. We are sort of dancing along, you know, we will see what happens. We are building, you know, two new school ships, getting ready to build those. Hopefully more, which we will be announcing the builder of those things hopefully and october timeframe, you know, as a means to continue to keep the flow of people coming into the force. But again, its sustaining them once they are here, giving them a future, this kind of challenge. A lot of investments, they would understand the value of ac power. How does and how does their investment in their maritime fleet both commercial as well as their navy impactor thinking about what we need and what kind of investment our country should be making . Clearly, the chinese have read the influence of seapower. They have clearly read that because theyre following to i. T. They totally get a National Power comes from seapower and seapower is made up of two pieces, a strong navy and a strong merchant marine. We have the number one navy in the world but the number 22 merchant marine. China is building their fleets together. They are making massive investments in their commercial merchant marine, which is why the balance is getting so out of whack, why its so difficult for our nonor lowly compensated commercial carriers to even compete in the same Playing Field with the story heavily subsidized chinese and other nation carriers. I mean, the chinese, they totally get it. Their absolute reading the hand or absolutely subscribing to the fact that the great economic power that comes from having merchant marine that controls trade as well as the navy to protect it and to sustain it, of those pieces are there. We are getting well out of whack. Those of you get the Navy War College review, you dont go on and check it out, theres a great article in their written by rear admiral Chris Mcmahon who holds merchant mariner, who holds the chair up of the Navy War College. He wrote great article that talks about that in light of the great white fleet, and how back in 1907 when we were building this great, strong navy and the company to steve it around the world, they suddenly realized with three logistic ships to sustain it. We had to go out and charter 34 and ships to sustain the great white fleet as it made its rounds around the world. In one case, a couple of cases actually, the fleet had to stop because the ships, they didnt rendezvous or the ship got in a collision and sank and didnt show up. But it really drove home the point of how critical logistics is to a navy. We are kind of getting in that place again. So its a great read. Check it out, autumn 2018 edition of the Navy War College review, a great article that kind of explains it very nicely. Okay. Again, i really, really thank you for your time. Its been great. I always enjoy the opportunity to talk about sealift, and i appreciate your interest in that area and your support going forward. Thank you all very much. [applause] will admiral, thank you very much for the marks and spend time for us here today. Much like you and gina did on active duty, you continue to make that sacrifice to serve our nation and we all grateful for that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Its back there. A little token of our appreciation for your remarks today. Give that to you. Believe me, we did the research. Thank you. [applause] a couple of notes. I i wanted to take a moment to just recognize our president of the navy league, bill stevenson, who is here with us today. Bill is a successful businessman in its own right. He lives in phoenix, arizona, picky been with the navy league for a number of years and worked his way up through the navy league chain of command, and the announcers at our top guy he jumped on the plane last night and flew out here. I had to pick reese up at the airport last night when the storm came through, so just happens bill and therese are getting their luggage at the same time. They had to wait three hours for the luggage to come off the tarmac last night. And any got in late and here he is, and were going to do couple of things and hes going to fly back to phoenix because hes got personal business to do there. Hes a tremendous leader. Hes a great shipmate and friends, and we are fortunate to have them here. I know that bill looks for to having the opportunity to speak with all of you, so if you dont have to rush out work would hang out a while and you get a chance to meet bill. I know you will enjoy the conversation. We certainly appreciate everyone that is here today for, and spending time with us. Remember, the navy law is on 12 october, the Grayken Center downtown for it was a terrific event there last year. We hope that all of you have the opportunity to join us on 12 october. If you have any questions about it, what is theirs cards on the table and tish back there, our point of contact for anybody that would like to help us offset the price on that, as i mentioned last time a no revenue maker for the navy league. Its a breakeven at best, but we do that because we want to provide all of our Service Members and veterans and partners an opportunity to attend that ball. So thank you again for ectomy. The next one is when, tish . September 26, and you will get the flight. So thank you everyone. Enjoy the rest of your day, and look forward to talking with you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] Homeland Security assistant director for infrastructure security Brian Harrell will be delivering remarks protecting Critical Infrastructure against drone threats. Live coverage in just under 20 minutes at 90 eastern here on cspan2. Later today President Trump goes to kentucky. To be speaking at the American Veterans National Convention in louisville. Live coverage at 2 p. M. Eastern on cspan, and both life events will be online at cspan. Org or you can listen live with the free cspan radio app. Weeknights this month were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight we continue our look at apollo 11 starting with moonwalk one, 1970 featurelength documentary about the mission, commissioned by nasa. The film covers prelift off preparations to parades for the astronauts after the safe return with rarely seen space footage and scenes from around the world as people watched mans first steps on the moon. Thats tonight at eight eastern on cspan3. Cspan3. Enjoy booktv this week and every weekend on cspan3. Saturday on booktv at 7 p. M. Eastern, and her latest book are women on the ground. All of the authors were able to push through whatever barriers had an right will open honestly about their deepest struggles. When the ssa comes to mind, its such a raw and honest account of grief and loss and also reflects the state of the arab world today. This isnt an uplifting book. Then sunday Princeton University professor on race, gender and class in america. Her most recent book is a letter to my sons. The reality is i have to arm them not simply with kind of a set of skills and intellectual tools that allow them to floors in school and ethics and values, but also a way to make sense of the hostility that they encounter every day from people at times whose responsibility is to treat them as community members. And at 9 p. M. Eastern on after words Media Research center found and present on his book unmasked, big media war against trump. All modicum of decency has been cast aside, not from donald trump to his opponents but from his opponents to him. They call him far worse things. They are attempting to do far worse to him and what they accuse him of doing to him. They have no right, none. Watch booktv every weekend on cspan2. A look at the united kingdoms relationship with the u. S. , economic trade opportunities for both nations. Are remarks of Heritage Foundation here in washington, d. C. Last about 15 minutes. [applause] good morning, everybody. Its fantastic to be of Heritage Foundation today. An organization which gave so much impetus to the Reagan Administration in the 1980s, unleashing enterprise and opportunity. And is now very much at the forefront of republican thinking as you move into the next decade. And theres a reason why my first visit as trade secretary is to the United States. Id been in the job for 14 days, delighted to be in in the suppt and alter the department of trade was on the set up three years ago because britain has not had an independent trade policy for over 40 years. And im not the only uk minister in washington at the moment. In fact, i bumped into my colleague domenic robb rob befe secretary at the gym yesterday morning at six again. When i was on a running machine and he was on the stairmaster. But as i say, its never too early to talk about trade. If you look at the opportunities from brexit, there are many fold. It will give us new freedoms beyond eu, new billy to set out our on economic policy. In my view the ability to be able to strike a new usda with the u. S. Its very, very high up the list. And it seems to me that with a positive relationship between President Trump and Prime Minister johnson, the impetus around the world to have more freedombased trade deals, as Ronald Reagan said in his 1980 campaign, the time is now for being able to strike it. We are leaving the European Union on the 31st of october. Prime minister johnson has made it very clear there will be no, its, still be no butts. We will also secure a deal with the eu but if we have to leave with no deal, so be it. And as we do that, of course working with the u. S. Is going to be very important. You are our biggest single trading partner in economic terms. But for me it isnt about more than just economics. The u. S. Embraces a spirit of optimism and can do. I think you can see under the new government in place and westminster and we dont believe the gloom and doom. You say britains best days are behind us and we need to manage our decline. Quite the opposite. We think that our best days are in front of us. And as the gipper said, or almost said, its morning again in britain. We are not affected by the declineism your we are confident about our future. We believe that britain is wellplaced to become europes largest economy. With the new freedoms we will have leaving the straitjacket of the eu, we will be able to build on all the strengths we have as a nation, are fantastic universities, are likely tech sector, our creativity, the rule of law, and over all the british attitude. But one of the issues we have in the uk is while london as a highly productive city, its as productive as germany. We have parts of the uk that havent had the opportunities that those in london and the southeast have had. One of Boris Johnsons key planks is to love up across britain, to make sure that weve got the infrastructure, the cyber broadband in cities like leaves in manchester so they, too, can become Global Cities on the world stage. I dont think theres any reason why they cant be highgrowth, high opportunity locations. We are also looking at setting up a new generation of ports, something ive been able to do because we been part of the eu cuts in geneva in fact, ive been beating wilbur ross this moment to talk about the American Free zones, reports opportunity so some will become blurred. Tomorrow im going to be traveling to newark to sit in the flesh and see how it works. I think theres a big opportunity, manufacturing uk to create those custom zones will we be able to import and export Raw Materials into finished goods and create value on our shores. Cities like liverpool which were famous and our famous transatlantic trade which will benefit from a new free trade deal with the u. S. Cities like which do a lot of trade with asiapacific come all of those are potential locations for a new free port which is very exciting. And ive traveled around the u. S. Quite significantly. Last year i was in detroit and cleveland, seeing the benefits that freedoms in this country have given to those Great American cities. And what i think the opportunity from brexit is, is for us to think differently and be able to different places in our country to do things differently so that they can reach their full potential, to give more power to local communities and about enterprise to thrive. Now of course one of the biggest opportunities of the brexit is the opportunity to strike a free trade deal with the United States. And i was pleased to meet ambassador lighthizer two days ago to discuss that opportunity and get things moving. This is following the very positive phone call between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and President Trump. And i think this shows theres a real economic headwind behind our economic partnership. I know its something the Heritage Foundation has done a lot of work on, laying out those opportunities. And want to restate the case of what our two countries should be working much more closely together. We are two of the freest, most democratic, open nations in the world. Our success is being driven by the talent of our people. Not by bureaucrats or party official. An old way it is the power of Free Enterprise, like giving people the ability to put their own ideas and resources forward and obtain the gains of that enterprise that has howard our nations ford. If the idea that people should have the freedom to create value, goods and services to sell them both at home and abroad and to reap the benefits of their own hard work. What i see a free trade deal between our two nations doing is accelerating those opportunities. I think that together we are the idea factory of the world, where people can dream big and they can realize their own ambitions. We are a tech empowered, networked, datadriven pair of nations. If you think about it, together we created and developed the internet. This has been one of the most powerful intentions of our lifetime, getting more people power, taking power away from centralized authorities and allowing people to express themselves and drive their own value forward, and ideas forward. And its not surprising that if you look at billiondollar tech companies, the u. S. And uk are respectively first and third in the world. In fact, the uk attracts tech investment than france and germany put together. Weve got a thriving scene of growth in startups. We have 5 increase in business registrations over the past year and a huge amount of new investment being attracted into our economy. And what has this led to . This has led to im told prosperity for both of our nations. Today there are 1 Million People in the uk to go to work for u. S. Companies. And as 1 Million People in the u. S. To go to work for new companies everyday. And look at what its delivered. The benefits of people in both of our country. But lets be clear, not everybody wants us to succeed in this nation of giving people more power over their own lives, of allowing enterprise to thrive, and of making sure that consumers have a choice, that theyre able to buy with the aspire to and that theyre able to find a better life for their children. As our two nations continues to advance the cause of freedom, there is a growing disquiet from the left that sees america as a byword for free market and Free Enterprise and seeks to attack it. And i believe its because the u. S. Successfully created opportunities through these means that antiamericanism has become a central tenet of leftist dogma. Take a jeremy corbyn, the leader of the labour party in britain. This is an and who is so blinded by pernicious dislike of the west that he sees rogue states as morally equivalent to the United States. He cannot bring himself to condemn islamist extremism without identifying western imperialists as the cause. And disgracefully, he parroted russian state propaganda when a military grade nerve agent was used on the streets of britain. This is a man who calls western hating hamas and hezbollah his friends. He is antiamerican, he is antibritish, and he has antifreedom. But it dont want people to get the wrong impression. These politics of the left are not what people in britain think. Think. It is not what the British Public think. We have a huge number of people in britain working for American Companies or doing business with the u. S. Pirg weve got people who enjoy American Products and services. We had news today that britain that imports more from the u. S. Than any other single country in the world. Recently overtaking germany. And many brits visit america and we share so much length and culture. I was pleased to meet up group of businesses yesterday who were getting Great Results speedy just a couple minutes left in this conversation we will leave it here and go live to arlington, virginia, Homeland Security assistant director for infrastructure security Brian Harrell is about to talk about protecting Critical Infrastructure against drones. And counter ues mission. As you would imagine this is part and parcel to some of the emerging threats and emerging trends that we see when comes to protecting Critical Infrastructure protection from attack. When the type of protecting from overhead attack we really talking about this particular issue. And so today it is important to us, we thank you for the invite, and inviting us out. As feeling just mentioned, we come from a background known as the National Protection programs directorate. Say that ten times fast. Bonus points if even knew what that meant. But today with a name like the u. S. Cybersecurity agency, we have that Value Proposition. We understand before even walk in the door what the value is never going to bring to the table and so the name like that, while we still pass on business cards, while we still great relationships, their story recognition out today with a name like cisa, protecting Critical Infrastructure that mission has changed over time as well. Today as we move further and further away from 9 11, and that antiterrorism post9 11 mission is gravitating towards domestic terrorism to its gravitating towards nations to actors that are looking to cause damage and disruption to our Critical Infrastructure. And this is Important Mission for cisa and something we have embraced. We are our nations risk advisors. Notice, i did not say risk managers. Because that is your job. And over the last 15 years i can tell you weve done a lot of great things that nobody knows about so a big part of it today is providing some visibility thats Value Proposition back and forth, that information thats now