Transcripts For CSPAN3 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20240622

Shipbuilding plan. Are you concerned with that and what more do we need to do, what can congress do to help you overcome that ship shortfall . Senator this is an area where navy and marine corps have been discussing and again have realized together although the requirement, the military requirement is 38, the current fiscal environment is going to drive us to 34. I appreciate the assistance of congress to getting us to 34 to address those that gap between the requirement and what we can resource, were looking at augmenting our lift there with other platforms besides gray hulls. Gray hulls are absolutely the requirement thats needed for the high end threat but there may be applications and opportunities to lift marines using other platforms. Thank you and again i want to tell you, i look forward to you, your confirmation. I wholeheartedly support it. I would ask some questions about concerns in the arctic, but i have a feeling that my colleague here is going to do a better job of that than i can, because hes got a birdseye view but i think it is an area that we all share a concern and would appreciate your support in addressing his and all of our concerns. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thai,eir mr. Chairman, thank you mr. Ranking member. Thank you, admiral for being here. Thank you for your service. Im grateful for your Family Service as well. Were very pleased to have you in front of this committee. I want to talk a little bit about combat integration. I strongly believe that we should have appropriate standards that meet the needs of the positions and that allow anyone who meets those standards to be able to do those jobs. According to your advanced policy questions, the navy will provide a written report to the secretary of defense in september of 2015 with validation of standards as gender neutral. 95 of navy jobs are already open to both men and women, and my understanding is that the remaining positions are special operations positions. Can you tell me how you will work with special Operations Command to assess if you will need to ask for an exception and what if anything, would lead you to ask for an exception particularly with regard to the navy s. E. A. L. S . Maam its true that currently we have more than 95 of the jobs open as you said to women already. I was privileged to be the commander of the submarine forces we ingrated women into the submarine force and that integration has gone spectacularly. Theyve really done a terrific job. Those discussions i think must begin with Mission Effectiveness and im interested in any plan that would improve our Mission Effectiveness in those areas. We have really just the special Operations Forces that remain to be evaluated. Im not familiar with the details of those discussions at this time, but if confirmed im looking forward to getting very involved with special Operations Command to make sure that we give everybody a fair opportunity. Thank you. And a related issue, prevalence of Sexual Assault in the military still remains quite high and one of the biggest concerns this whole committee shares is the rate of retaliation, that in fact of all those who reported 62 were retaliated against, and thats the same rate as it was two years ago, and retaliation takes many forms. 53 experienced social retaliation, peertopeer. 35 experienced adverse administrative action. 32 experienced professional retaliation, and 11 received punishment for an infraction. So arguably more than half of that retaliation is coming from their chain of command or from some command structure. So i would urge you to look very heavily at this issue of retaliation, because unfortunately the effect of it is less survivors come forward, and if you have less survivors coming forward you have less cases to investigate, and you will convict less rapists, and i want to just give you a thumbnail sketch of data that we got from one naval base and this is for the year of 2013 at camp pendleton, there were 15 cases considered, two courtmartial charges preferred, two proceeded to trial, two convicted of Sexual Assault. So two out of 15 went forward. What we know about the crime of rape it has very little false reporting. Some estimate between 2 and 5 are false reports. So in those cases, you are only able to get about 10 cases to move forward. So i think we have to do better in terms of doing the investigations assessing viability of witnesses and credibility of witnesses and bringing more cases to trial, because two out of 15 is not a great rate. So those are challenges that you will have. This committee is very interested in it. I hope you will make a commitment that you will work with me and the rest of us on trying to end the scourge of sexual violence, because it does result, unfortunately, in a lot of people leaving the military, and so a lot of your women a lot of your men are leaving because they are experiencing assault within their own ranks. Maam you have my full commitment that ill spare no effort to eliminate we cant rest until Sexual Assault is eliminated from the services. I cant think of anything more toxic to teamwork than that Insider Threat that preys upon the confidence between team members, and im fully committed to eliminating this. And one of your challenges will be in lower command structures where in the last survey women responded to experiencing some form of Sexual Harassment and sexual discrimination. 60 of that harassment they reported was from their unit commander. So theres an issue with some commanders that they really need to be trained better to eradicate Sexual Harassment and sexual discrimination because again it creates a negative climate that perhaps is more permissive toward Sexual Assault. Yes, maam i think that is the most productive battleground. If were going to solve this, we solve it with the deck plate leaders, the chief petty officers who are in the spaces and elimb national not only Sexual Assault but the precursor behaviors that start us down the road. Exactly. For the record i will submit a question about cyber. Im grateful for your interest in cyber, and my question for the record will be what career path do you see for members of the nav want to make cyber their career. Yes, maam, i look forward to that. Thank you. Yes, maam. Thank you mr. Chairman, and admiral, good to see you again. Great to see your family. My father was also a navy officer, also a father of six kids when i joined the marine corps he reminded me on a daily basis that the marine corps was a department of the navy. Is that true . That is true yes, sir. Ill make sure he knows that. I do want to touch on the arctic. The actual numbers are as senator king mentioned, one icebreaker for the United States, about 40 for russia theyre building five to six new ones, some of our nuclear powered, i mean we are completely just not even in the game, and you know the importance, i must admit i was a little disappointed by your answer to senator king because what i see is happening is the arctic and ice breakers are becoming kind of a bureaucratic football so for example, four months ago i asked assistant secretary of the Navy Stackley to just give me a straight up answer on the arctic, on ice breakers. He kind of did the same thing. Well, its a little bit in the coast guard realm. Well, the question is is it in the National Interests of the United States to have more than one ice breaker when the russians are trying to own the arctic. Whats your answer . I think my answer is clearly yes. So i think what we need to do is not keep talking about youve never gotten an answer from the assistant secretary to the navy four months ago. I never got an answer. We just need to know do we need it . How many, and how do we get there. No more kind of well its the coast guards problem, not really the navys. In the 70s the navy was the service that supplied ice breakers to the country wasnt it . Sir yes, sir, i believe so. Yes, so i think we need to get through the bureaucratic red tape. Its clearly in the National Interests. You just stated it. Everybody states we need to move forward and quit doing the football back and forth between the navy and the coast guard. Would you agree with that . Senator i am not interested in a bureaucratic approach to this. We need to have a plan of action, and i look forward, if confirmed, to working with our partners in the coast guard to address this in real terms and it would be good to hear back from assistant secretary stackley. I asked him a question on this four months ago, he said hed get back to me he never has. Just a real quick question just a yes or no answer. We had an amendment in the ndaa supporting the pacific rebalance that said there was a sense to the congress that the services should increase force posture to give credibility to the rebalance. Is it, should services be free to ignore the defense guidance of the Congress Just yes or no. In the ndaa . No. Okay, finally i want to draw your attention to the chart and some of the handouts here. This reels to chinas reclamation activities in the South China Sea. This is an example, 18 months before and after of the Fiery Cross Reef. Im sure youre familiar with it, admiral. Its actually 2. 7 million square meters, 505 football fields 3,000meter airstrip long enough for any prc military aircraft. Its just a huge one of their large reclamation projects. We were recently in singapore, a number of us, at the shangrila dialogue, and secretary carter gave a speech that i thought was quite strong on what our policy is, but there seems to be a confusion in the policy. So secretary carter stated we will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever International Law allows. He then stated after all, turning an underwater rock into an air field simply does not afford the rights of sovereignty or permit restrictions on International Air or maritime transit. However, paycom commander harris two weeks ago at the Aspen Security Forum stated it is u. S. Policy to afford a 12minute limit around all of the islands that are in the South China Sea and its been a longstanding policy not because theyre occupied by china or built up by china but just in general. He later clarified his statement to include islands and formations. Do you think first of all to me thats very confusing policy. Do you think that we need to clarify that and do you think that admiral harris statement is just a de facto recognition of chinas recognizelamation strategy and is it in your best professional judgment, should we be sailing within 12 nautical miles, and not allowing the facts on the ground strategy to be changed by china, to essentially recognize Fiery Cross Reef and other places . Its a really important issue, and theres no clarification from the white house state department, or department of navy. I think secretary carter and admiral harris statements are actually very contradictory. That kind of uncertainty can create miscalculations. Senator, i think its absolutely important that the navy continue to be present in that region for a number of reasons to provide our continued presence. We are there as a matter of routine in international waters. We do have to respect the legitimately claimed territorial boundaries. I think that secretary carter and admiral harris would agree with me there. But does that mean respecting that, in terms of a 12 nautical mile radius . Sir id have to look at exactly which of those claims are legitimate. Its a dynamic situation. Theres competing claims down there, but the bottom line is we need to get down there, understand the truth, make that very clear, and be present in that area, so that we dont get shouldered out of the South China Sea. Mr. Chairman, ill be submitting questions for the record to make sure that the policy of the United States is clarified on this important issue, because right now its very murky. Good luck. Senator blumenthal . Thank you mr. Chairman. I join senator sullivan in hoping that this issue is clarified, because i think it is so important to our National Security and id like to work with him in seeking additional answers, and i recognize that those answers will involve more than just your input and contribution, but on your contribution, thank you so much for the great work that youve done throughout your career to assure that our submarine force is unmatched in the world in its power, stealth and strength and i want to thank you and your family for your service and ask you first of all whether you can commit to coming back to connecticut to visit our sub base there as one of your First Official visits after youre confirmed, as i expect you will be . Yes, sir. Thank you. On the subject of our submarine force, the Ohio Replacement Program you probably know more about it than most anyone else in the navy and in our department of defense, and i believe that you are committed to it personally and professionally, is that correct . Absolutely, senator its our number one modernization priority. And in that regard as the number one priority of modernization in the United States navy the price tag is likely in the range of 100 billion, which seems staggering, and obviously has to be met, even though the navy has other programs, other modernization efforts, and other shipbuilding projects. Have you given any thought to how that will be possible to do . Senator, as you and i have discussed, this is an absolutely Critical Program for the country, and we are doing everything in the navy to make sure that we not only get the requirements right and stable, but that we treat our cost targets like any other performance parameter for that program, and we are driving and on a good track to achieve all of those cost targets. Having said that as you said, it will be a significant investment for the nation, one that i believe must be done. If we absorb that entire cost within the navy, that will come at a tremendous price in terms of our other responsibilities and ships and aircraft. I dont want to leverage that on our Sister Services and so i look forward to working closely together with the department and congress to address this. Really it should be seen as a challenge for our entire national defense, not just the navy, because its ramifications and contributions to our defense range well beyond just sea power. Yes, sir, i would agree. Let me move to another aspect of the navys combat capability, the f35, which according to analysis ive seen will be six times more effective than legacy fighters and airtoair combat five times more effective in airtoground combat, six times more effective in reconnaissance and suppression of air defenses again, another investment a good word and appropriate one i think to use in our national defense. I noted that the fy 2016 budget request from the navy included 16 fewer f35 aircraft in the last three years of the future Years Defense Plan than were anticipated just one year before. Can you shed some light on that request and also id appreciate your assurance that the f35 is still a priority for the navy. Sir, the navy remains committed to the f35 lightning as an essential part of our future air wing. It is the aircraft that is designed from the ground up to address the fifth generation challenges in information warfare, so we do remain committed to that. The adjustments in the president s budget request for fy 16 again just reflect some of the extremely difficult choices that were making to balance the best way to address the National Security challenges within the resources provided. And the f35 like the Ohio Replacement Program is really essential to all of our national defense. Obviously the other Services Share in the costs and the benefits of it, and im hoping that the strategy here will be a combined department of defense commitment to the investment thats required. Senator, if confirmed i look forward to exploring all those options. Thank you. I look forward to seeing you in new london as the chief of naval operations. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. And again, thank you to your family as well. Sir. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and admiral, we appreciate the opportunity to have you with us, and i believe you have the background and the dedication and the character to lead the navy. And this congress i believe and am confident will support you. I hope that you understand that you have to give us the straight facts, tell us what you believe, and if there are problems, bring them forward to us and i believe congress will respond if in any way possible. Will you as youve committed i think in your written answers but will you give your best judgment to the president of the United States and to congress on all issues of which youre inquired of . Yes, sir, i will. Thank you for that. I see youve had, background is a submarine Development Squad ron and other submarine effort, other commands. Do you feel that that will assist you as we deal with the ohio Class Development . Yes, sir, i do. Give us some of the ideas that you bring to bear on the development of the ohio class which we all know which is important and essential but also we know weve got some budget constrictions out there that are going to place that program in jeopardy, if we dont watch it, and i think more than a lot of programs, failure on the beginning to get it right and the procurement process could endanger that program. So give us your thoughts about what you think needs to be done as we go forward. Yes, sir, i think youve got it exactly right, sir, that youve got to get that the requirements set and the navy has done that. We are working towards providing a mature design, so that youve got to have a mature and stable design before you begin production, so that youre not dealing and managing costly change orders after youve begun production, and then i hope to provide a program, a build plan that would allow for stable and predictable funding, that allows us, the navy to work very closely with the shipbuilders to provide a production line that results in the lowest costs per unit. I think most of us have come to understand how unpredictability and uncertainty and alterations of schedule can drive up cost and sometimes thats congress. Sometimes its the department of defenses fault. Other times, the contractors have to be held to account but are you will you help us remain committed to main taining the kind of schedule that keeps costs at the lowest level . Absolutely, sir, and what we found is that weve got tremendous commitment on the part of our shipbuilders. They are as committed to driving costs out as we are, and there are ample opportunities to deliver highend war fighting capability at the appropriate price, delivers the capability thats required for the nation, and provides businesses a chance to thrive as well. You made reference earlier to the triad our Nuclear Defense triad aircraft, submarines and landbased icbms. Do you believe that remains a critical part of our defense structure . Yes, sir, i do. Some have questioned that, and i guess youre familiar with those concerns. I believe youre correct. I think congress believes youre correct, but i hope you will keep us informed on that because some would suggest otherwise. I think that would be a big mistake at this point in time. You and i had the opportunity to discuss just efficiencies. I serve on the Armed Services committee, and the budget committee. I feel the tensions there very intense ly intensely. Its been said in that the Defense Department in and around the Defense Department but each service is committed to maintaining personnel levels. They fear that if their personnel levels drop, theyll be diminished in their influence and power. Tell me are you committed to maintaining the defense, the navy fleet at the level it needs to be, but at the same time maintaining personnel levels like private businesses have to do, lean and productive. Senator absolutely. We must maintain what we deliver is capability and as the technological environment changes there will be new opportunities that open up for our people. We want to make sure that we keep our people employed in the best possible way doing things that people do best, and so i am committed to making sure that we do that in a lean and agile fashion as possible. And sometimes rules that we pass in Congress Make that difficult for you. I hope that you will keep us informed on how we can help you achieve that goal. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Well, admiral, we thank you for your testimony this morning and we thank you for responding with your personal opinion when its requested. Youre taking on a very difficult task and very difficult times, and im sure that you are well qualified and we will attempt to make sure that your nomination is confirmed before we depart for our illdeserved august recess. This hearing is adjourned. Thank you, sir. Friday an cspan3, defense secretary Ashton Carter talks about educating the children of members of the armed forces. Live coverage of the military Child Education coalition begins at 8 55 a. M. Eastern time. And at 10 00 eastern a look at how new Defense Technology also change how wars are fought. Live coverage from the Brookings Institution on cspan. Book tv is television for serious readers. And this sunday at noon eastern on indepth code pink cofounder madea benjamin is the author of several books including stop the next war now, the greening of the revolution and her latest drone warfare. Join our threehour live conversation. Well be taking your phone calls, emails and tweets and then on saturday september 5th live from the nations capitol for the 15th National Book festival and followed by senior fellow at the American Enterprise institute lynne cheney. Thats some of the upcoming live programs on cspan2s book tv. Senator and president ial candidate marco rubio made an appearance in the early primary state of South Carolina tuesday to give a talk on National Security at Furman University in greenville. He answered questions about isis, Border Security and the iran nuclear agreement. This is an hour. [ applause ] thank you all for being here, and brett, i tell you, i believe, senator that 2016 is about electing a commander in chief who was prepared to do what it takes to keep this country safe so that we can remain free. Youve been a very vocal and outspoken in your criticism of the iran deal. Lets say that theres a president rubio in january of 2017. How do you deal with iran . First, let me tell you why the deal is no deal at all. Second ill tell you how well reverse it and third ill tell what you well do instead. It really is no deal at all. The first thing about the iran deal that we need to understand it releases billions of dollars of frozen assets into the hands of iran. So what will iran do with that money . Are they going to build roads and bridges and schools and consider that charities . No, theyll invest it number one in terrorism sponsorship of hezbollah, sponsorship of shia militias in iraq sponsorship of the 14th of february movement in bahrain, sponsor of the houthis. Second, theyre going to develop their conventional capabilities their ability to destroy for example an american Aircraft Carrier by buying Chinese Technology to do it and thereby posing the risk of a blockade for example of the straits of hormuz or in the persian gulf, and third, theyre going to develop their long range rockets and ultimately their Nuclear Weapons program. Why would you build long range icbms . Theres only one reason, to put a Nuclear Warhead on it. Theyre not trying to put a man on the moon or send a probe to mars. The only reason you build long range rockets is to put a Nuclear Warhead on it and that alone should tell us everything we need to know. The u. S. Congress imposed sanctions on iran and on individuals and banks and on other sectors of their economy and those sanctions are in the books today. What this president is going to do is hes going to use the National Security waiver in that law to lift those sanctions. When im president of the United States, we will reimpose those sanctions. We will remove that National Security waiver and countries around the world and there are companies that do business in iran will have a choice to make. They could either have access to the iranian economy or they could have access to the American Economy but they will not have access to both and not only will we reimpose those sanctions, i hope we can add additional banks and additional entities to the sanctions list and we will continue to do that until iran realizes that they have a very simple choice, they can have an economy, or they can have a Nuclear Weapon program, but they cannot have both and thats the position that we need to find ourselves in here over the next couple of years. You talk about the Nuclear Threat and the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile threat from iran. Here in greenville South Carolina, and on the east coast we have no land Missile Defense system. I think Missile Defense against the iranian threat begins in europe the first opportunity for to us intercept a launch and that helps us not just against the threat of iranian weapon, but also the existing threat of a russian attack, which today as ludicrous as it may sound, we are on the verge of a second cold by Vladimir Putins choice, not because of ours so i think the ability to protect our allies in the u. S. Begins with a Missile Defense system in europe as the first line of intercept. Ultimately i do believe an east coast system is important for our country as well. We are living in an era where the proliferation of long range missiles is going to move rapidly. North korea now possesses them and is increasingly improving their targeting capability. Russia has them. China has them and iran is trying to get them so this will also be an era of Missile Defense and we need to be prepared for it. Russia bears back with Vladimir Putin. How do you work with our key allies like Great Britain and the germans to confront putin . Its important to understand that economically russia is not a global power. They are militarily. 90 of the worlds Nuclear Weapons are in the hands of the United States and russia so that alone is a reason to be concerned and we have to understand that our quarrel is not with the russian people. Its with Vladimir Putin who has decided that he is going to, the way hes going to reposition russia once again is a global power, at least in his mind is to split europe, undermine europe, try to undermine nato and ultimately challenge the United States. He has made a decision that the way hes going to become prominent in the world is by obstructing or being against us everywhere in the world, in essence the other thing hes begun to do is create problems only he himself can solve in order to position himself as this great global leader. He arms and equips the Syrian Regime and then when they conduct these Chemical Attacks only he is in a position to broker a deal to get them to abandon their weapons which by the way they havent done. Theyre still using chlorine gas against their own position. This is the way he positions himself and this president has fallen into that trap. We went out on social media asking people to send their questions in what we wanted to ask. We received one question from sweden. From sweden . From sweden. Okay. Weve gotten some interest on National Security here the question was this. How do we stop the expansion of isis . Well first of all, you stop the expansion of isis the way you stop the expansion of any radical jihadist group, you deny them a safe haven from which to operate. In order for jay hadist group to grow prosper recruit and train and conduct operations they need somewhere to operate from. Al qaeda needed the sponsorship of the taliban to plan 9 11 and isis need syria, the instability there, now iraq, increasingly libya and other places as an operational space. We have to deny them these operational spaces. The next place isis will focus on is afghanistan and you already see within afghanistan a battle between isis and the taliban to become the predominant sunni radical movement on the ground in afghanistan, and as america retreats from different parts of afghanistan, isis is moving in, and improving their capabilities there as well. So we have to target them and their safe havens. Obviously syria and iraq, but i think that needs to be expanded at some point to include the areas of libya, where they operate from and are using it as a base of operations to destabilize the sinai. I think we have to think about confronting them in afghanistan as well not to mention all of these affiliate groups around the world that pledged allegiance to isis. Confronting them means ultimately confronting them on the ground. I believe we have to increase air assaults against them and i think its been important in degrading their logistical capabilities, their ability to resupply et cetera but in the short term we need to subject them to some high profile humiliateing defeats to reverse this global narrative that isis is unstoppable. Thats how they attract recruits. The message they send in social media to jhung jihadists around the world is join us, were unstoppable. We have to prove that i dont think. I think some special operations attacks in combination with increased air strikes is important in the short term but in the longterm isis must be defeated on the ground and i think ideally defeated on the ground by local forces including sunnis themselves, who will confront them militarily with our help, including the help of American Special operators but also with intelligence support and Logistical Support air strikes and targeting assistance, that will allow for example a combination of egyptians jordanians, saudis, sunnis in iraq themselves and kurds and others to confront them and defeat them on the ground and take back the territory they now control. You talked about social media. How do we fight isis on social media and are facebook and twitter, are they doing enough . Part of it is defeating this enin the propaganda battle. Every war in our history has had a propaganda element to it. You look at the old news reels of world war ii constantly propping up the american people, pointing out the successes weve had and of course the nazis and others invested heavily in propaganda. Vladimir putin today invests heavily in propaganda not just in russia but throughout the world. There is a Television Network you may or may not have seen called russia today its on some cable systems, basically run by the kremlin, decided to spread propaganda and i think its important for the u. S. To also win the information battle so it does begin by subjecting them to humiliating defeats and advertising it to the world and i also think we should target them online. I think theres no reason why a country, as a country we should allow isis unfettered access to facebook and twitter and all sorts of other platforms that they use not just to attract recruits but to inspire attacks against us, the west and the world. Now reported that isis may have as many as 100 youth jihadist camps training camps. What can we do with regards to young people to offer them hope in this country . What can we do to combat that. Talk for them hope in this country you mean here in the you state or around the world . Both. Look around the world we have some people in the United States that have been radicalized online for a lot of different reasons. Some of these are disenchanted quite frankly losers looking to be part of something bigger than themselves and this movement attracted them. Others had this weird conversion theyve been radicalized and isis in their mind is the most highprofile and successful radical Jihadist Movement on the planet. They seek to join it or carry out acts inspired by it. The whole incidence i pointed to, the whole idea we need to defeat them in the information war is important, but i think globally its important as well to deny them the operating spaceis for those camps to take route and ultimately thats why its so important that sunnis themselves participate in the defeat of isis. Isis is a radical sunni movement. It finds its strength from disaffected sunni youth and so its important for us to work with our sunni allies in the region. People need to see that isis is being defeated by fellow sunnis that this is not just a western crew side as they like to call it against islam. These are sunni, sunni muslims themselves who are rebelling against a radical violent abhorrent system and i think thats a critical part of this as well. Historically we have four dimensions of warfare, air, land, sea and space and now cyber, its like death by a thousand hacks. How do we win the cyber war . First we have to improve the quality of our Cyber Defenses. The truth is that most Government Agencies simply do not employ 21st century best practices. If you compare the Cyber Defense of a private sector firm to what most federal agencies have were well behind. In fact two to three generations behind so i think one of the emerging challenges of the 21st century for the next command commander in chief is to improve the Cyber Defense agencies and pass a cyber bill which i hope well do in the next couple weeks in the u. S. Senate that will help us with more information sharing with the cyber sector. Cyber is rapidly evolve. Once you solve one problem five new ones are created by an innovative hacker somewhere or some new development that occurred. We need to stay at the cutting edge of that and that requires us to share best practices and information between government and the private sector. But i also think we need to improve our cyber offensive capabilities mutually assured destruction that existed during the cold war on the nuclear front, is something thats important in cyber as well. I think that will be effective when it comes to our relationship visavis other nation states like china and russia but i also think its important not that the deterrent themselves will work but i think its important we have the cyber capability to knock out the ability of a radical group like isis or transnational criminal group for that matter to conduct operations in cyberspace and you talked about some of these other areas critical to that as space defense, because our potential adversaries realize that it doesnt matter how advanced our Technology May be, if they can destroy or blind our satellites, our guidance systems dont work, our Communication Systems dont work. We lose the technological high ground thats so dependent on those satellites and on cyberspace. This recent cyber attack on the office of Personnel Management by the chinese, it took our government four or five months to discover it how would a Rubio Administration deal with the chinese . Well, i think its important first of all that we admit, this administration has flat out said its the chinese who are conducting these attacks and thats important. I think beyond it, i think its important that they be a reciprocal response. If were going to be attacked in cyber by china we have to show the willingness to do the same and again i dont want to get into a cyber war but im tell you, unilateral disarmament only encourages other nations to do more. The chinese today believe that the costs of cyber warfare are not outweighed, are outweighed by the benefits. They think they gain more than they lose and they think they can get away with it. Its great were indicting senior chinese officials conducting cyber warfare. The truth is well never get our hands on them. Theyre not going to travel here. We need to go further and i think for each cyber attack that we can verify there needs to be a reciprocal response that lets others know if you attack america in cyber we will respond and also an emergent issue of National Importance that we improve our ability to defend against these attacks and be able to improve our data and there exists in the private sector mechanisms to do that that are superior to what our government uses today. Our top cyber experts at the nsa and cia tell us we need between 20000 and 30,000 real true cyber exexperts to thwart the attacks in this country and we only have 1,000. How do we have the Recruitment Campaign we need . The good news is that this young generation of americans is the most cyber techsavvy generation thats ever lived. These are young people that have grown up around technology their whole lives. In fact, they have no notion of what the world looked like before social media or the ability to access instant information. So i think we have the ability in this country to create a Cyber Defense force and recruit for it much like weve done in the past for the army, the enoughy, the air force, the marines, and i think there would be millions of Young Americans who would be interested in joining that sort of effort. Of course were not going to hire millions of people, but the ability to go out and actually begin to recruit people to become part of americas Cyber Defense, is something that i think will appeal to millions of Young Americans, and thousands of whom we will find qualified and prepared to fill that role. It will be another way of serving our country the way people have served in the past in uniform. King abdullah of jordan recently came to the u. S. Congress and complained to members that our state department was putting up needed to take to fight radical islam and isis. How would you work with King Abdullah and what kind of role would he play in your Foreign Policy in the mideast . Jordans challenges are extremely igsignificant. Ondan is not an Oil Producing nation. Their economy largely is sustained by foreign aid from the gulf kingdoms and the United States and thats a longterm challenge that jordan needs to confront. They also have a significant portion of their population that feels disconnected and disaffected by the Current System of government and economics, and longterm thats a toxic brew that could lead to rebelling and instability in that country. So those are issues we need to help jordan deal with. Their most immediate threat is number one they have a refugee camp on their border that today houses hundreds of thousands of people and just 1,000 of them are radical jihadists, they have a major problem. I think its important jordan is a willing partner in this effort. I think its important for us to allow them to improve their military capabilities with unfettered access to the sort of military aid that theyre asking for, renew our commitment to that. I think its important for us to help them deal with the crisis theyre facing at the border. The truth is that the aid has been slow in coming not just from the u. N. But from the u. S. About providing what they need to gain control of that border region, that today is being flooded by Syrian Refugees most of whom are not radical jihadists, but as i said if just a small percentage of them are infiltrated you suddenly have a major major problem in jordan. Turkey has been called probably our least dependable nato ally. On one hand theyre bombing isis, on the other hand theyre bombing the kurds. Its a real challenge there. Turkey was admitted to nato at a time when their government was behaving quite differently from what it is today. Their current leaders have taken them on a more jihadist radical islamic traditional islamic approach that i think has made it harder to work with them on a number of issues. It wasnt longer turkey was an ally of israel and today thats no longer the case the way it once was. Its important to reexamine that relationship and quite frankly put it to the test. Either the turks will allow us to use tirkish airbases and air space or not. Its important for them to express a willingness to participate in an antiisis coalition that simply goes beyond their worries about the kurds, but in fact extebdstends to the need to defeat isis so to come back and say were concerned because we dont think 1 2 the challenges in the region will be solved until you roll assad into the mix. Unless you get rid of assad and isis youre still going to have a problem and i think theres some relit matcy to that. As long as assad is in power in any portion of syria youll continue to have the raw elements that made isis possible in the first place. Even if we wipe out isis tomorrow, a new group will emerge. It could be jad al nusra, and that was the group a lot of people thawed would be isis, theyre also gaining strong. Its important to understand as long as there is instability in syria it will remain a prime environment for radical jihadist groups to take root and grow. Today it could be isis. Tomorrow it could be somebody else and so when the turks talk about the need to deal with assad i think that is a he will any legitimate point they raise. Hopefully we put forward an agenda that includes assad to be part of this situation and encourage them to be more active participants in the fight against isis. Our fbi director says he says he has open files in all 50 states with people with connection to isis. Theyre here on our soil. How do we deal with that and how do we fight radical islam here on american soil . Well its a threat that we have not been wholly prepared for. We largely have built our antiterror programs on the notion that someone would come here from abroad and conduct an attack. And then we were worried about americans who traveled abroad were radicalized and came back and now we worry about people that are radicalized online, local mosque somewhere and as a result take these actions and thats the nature of the threat and itss hard. These are not welldefined plots that involve long time planning. This increasingly involves potentially an individual that watches a few videos online, is inspired to take action, buys a gun or a bomb and goes out and kills ten people at a mall. These are the sorts of things that theyre planning and its a much harder challenge. I think we need to be vigilant but we also need to understand as the fbi director has said we wont be able to get them all. There will be a taxttacks on american soil by terrorists because of the nature of this. We need a more Robust Intelligence Program that allows us to understand this new threat that allows them to monitor them online before they can organize and carry out these attacks and every one of these plots we were able to disrupt is a major success story. Over time of course, it will involve the defeat of isis itself, because that is what is feeding the sort of radicalism today. Theyre the ones that are producing the videos and the content online thats firing people in this direction. His predecessor testified in congress a few years ago that we apprehended i think its like 59,000 people from countries other than mexico illegally trying to come into this country. These countries included somalia, iran, syria pakistan all the usual suspects. How does a Rubio Administration deal with Border Security and how do you keep bad people and bad things like radioactive substances out of this country . Its important to point the majority of people crossing the Mexican Border for the First Time Ever are not from mexico. Theyre coming from the northern triangle of latin america, central america, honduras, guatemala guatemala, el salvador and coming from all over the world. People realized if you get to next we could, you can get into the United States because you can cross the border. The mexicans have begun to realize this as well and for the first time in many years, the next cab mexicans have become serious about security on their side of the border. They recognize people are coming into their country if they cant make it across the border are going to stay in mexico and they dont want to deal with that either. There is the opportunity to work closely with mexican authorities to increasingly secure those portions of the border that remain porous and part of that is to create the infrastructure on the ground, the fencing, the cameras, the sensors that cut off these unauthorized points of crossing and basically narrows down the crossing points to only those authorized places where people cross the border, because we transact a lot of business across that border every day. There are people that come across that border every day with millions of dollars of goods for trade and economic commerce. We dont want to shut that down but if we can close off the illegitimate corridors of travel, then we can focus our attention and monitoring on the legitimate crossings and improve our capabilities for example of finding a container that has weapons or smuggling people or Radioactive Material for that matter. And so i think one of the things were going to have to do is work closely with our partners on the other side of the border in mexico who today have an increasingly of the border who have a vested interest in securing the border because they understand it is acting as a magnet for millions of people to sneak into mexico before they sneak into america. Does a fence come into effect a Sensor Technology . Fencing is effective, like in san diego. When we talk about illegal immigration. We have to understand half of the people in this country didnt legally cross the border. They came on an airplane and over stayed a visa. So i think an entry and exit tracking system to allow us to know when people overstay their visas. But there is fencing and sensors and cameras and drones and other technology. And what it will do is it will funnel more and more of the traffic to places easier to monitor and control. And the ports an the harbors, we have to capability on the east coast or the gulf coast of the country and what would you do to improve port patrol. That is a major concern. And it is a matter of debate because the federal government creates the mandates and doesnt offer the funding. We have improved in many borders but we have live in an era of global commerce. And every day tons of material is sent abroad and coming in. And as always there are efforts to continue to improve our ability to monitor what is inside of a container, whether it is a weapon smuggling in or drugs or something we dont want in this country. It is an ongoing challenge. It will never be 100 . In the history of the world, you cannot seal a country off but you can make it harder and improve our detection and deal with the root causes sending the stuff here so it can diminish the amount of things coming in, whether it is weapons or people or weapon of mass destruction for that matter. Electromagnetic pulse. There is indication that the russians, the north koreans, how do you deal with the electromagnetic pulse. It is a significant threat and it is described to people and people think it is Science Fiction but it is a reality. Well have to harden infrastructure in this country. Meaning our electrical grid, our key Government Operations and over time Hope Technology allows us to hard ebb airplanes. You dont want them falling out of the sky because of an attack that wipes out the ability of the engines to function. This is a real threat that doesnt receive enough attention. This is like something out of a horror movie but it is available to actors across the world and a terrorist that could create havoc. So i do believe it must become a priority of this country to harden Critical Infrastructure which we have the technology to do now that would ins lace much of it and lins late it and protect it from the attack. Weve cut the u. S. Army to preworld war ii and we have more admirals than ships how does the u. S. Military look under a Rubio Administration, how big of an army and air force and navy do we need . The numbers and the capabilities have to be driven by the threat. So the number of years ago a Bipartisan Group looked of experts looked at longterm defense need and came up with the Gates Commission the gates funding level. They set a number. This is what it will cost and this is what we should spend it on. We are 40 billion to 50 billion every year. We are underfunding our military every year. This year i tried to pass in the senate to reeve store funding back to the gates number. It would have just been for one year. We need to make that permanent. As president i will make defense spunding a priority. It is by spending it on the right things by developing the research and technology that well need to defeat chinas antiaccess capability. The chinese have developed a 4 million rocket that can destroy a 4 billion Aircraft Carrier, we have to have Counter Measures to defeat that and defend our space assets and satellites and so forth from attack. And we have to defeat the Critical Infrastructure from cyber attack that could blind our ability to community. It is important to stay cuttingedge. And i describe it as whoever the commanderinchief is ten years from now when they face a threat and the military officials come to them with options what the options will be are being decided right now by what we are developing. And if we do not develop the cuttingedge technologies that allow us to keep our promise to the men and women in uniform that they will be the best trained and equipped and fighting force on the ground or in the air, and if we dont invest in that capability, we cant keep that promise to them. Talking about the size of the military and the cost involved. We can train trufly three or four National Guardsman for a active duty soldier. How will that fit into your strategy. The National Guard is critical. They provide a service to our country that extends simply beyond military. We see them respond to every natural crisis natural disaster. I know in florida every time we have a hurricane, we had a number over the last decade, it is the National Guard there first. So they provide an in valuable service. What has changed is the number of people in the National Guard deployed. And so i continue to believe the National Guard is a critical part of the backbone of the ability to if we find ourselves in a crisis situation, quickly call up individuals in uniform to provide for national defense. I think they are part of the strategy, included in the gates number as an important critical element of the 21st century National Security system. Over the last years the biological threat has been ranked as the top threat from a security stand. Of this country. How would you deal with it and prepare for it. Well first of all i think we want to be head of the ahead of the curve in terms of developing a biological capability. We worry about a terrorist Organization Able to develop a biological agent to disburse through the water supply or in a crowded place and this falls in line from the terrorism perspective. Beyond it, when you talk about the biological pandemic threats i think the centers for Disease Control play a Critical Role in ensuring our country is well stocked with the antiviral and antidotes necessary to protect us from a chemical and biological attack and to deliver that quickly to the right place. The ebola crisis exposed weaknesses in our system around the country in terms to rapidly respond to an incident should it occur so part of our over all 21st century strategy is the ability to rapidly and quickly respond to a attack anywhere it occurs in the country by ensuring that the right medicines or the antidotes or responses are there and quickly anywhere that experiences Something Like this. The 9 11 Commission Said that 9 11 was a failure of imagination and were responding to the last terrorist attack rather than thinking outside of the box to prevent the next one. How would you a Rubio Administration think outside of the box to prevent the next terrorist attack and keep america safe. This is an in cider conversation but the National Security council plays a Critical Role in that. Unfortunately this president has turned the National Security council into a hyper state department, and a operational unit as opposed to a strategic one. We desperately need people in our government thinking about what the next threat could be and how it could evolve because around the world there are terrorists constantly thinking of ways to defeat us. I promise you around the world today terrorists are not figuring out how to get a box cutter on an airplane any more because they know we are looking for that. Instead they are trying to develop things we havent prepared for. Understanding intelligence is critical and intelligence has eroded some of them because of Edward Snowden and some smfl inflicted. And that is part of it. And part is having people sitting around constantly gaining out vulnerabilities and a group of experts constantly thinking if i was them this is what i would do and think about ways to prevent that, and staying ahead of the curve. That is why it is so important to have people in government particularly in the National Security who are thinking about future security and trying to think about what the other side might do as opposed to another threat that has existed or exists in the past. Mr. Edward snowdenen, trader or hero. Devastating. We know for a fact that there enemies of the United States today that have changed the way they communicate based on the information he has released. If he had concerned about u. S. Intelligence programs there were multiple different proper channels he could have raised. He didnt have to go to the chinese or the russians and turn over troves of information. You may agree or disagree with intelligence but the fact is today there are men and women in american uniforms who are in danger in danger because of the information he has released. And by the way, some of the things he release ready flat out inaccurate, they are not true. They are flat out lies. And much of the information he has manipulated to turn himself into a heoic figure. He is a traitor and the information he delivered has had a devastating fact about our intelligence. And we know less than we need to know or should have known because of the information hes done. Hes done terrible damage to this country and put lives of real americans at danger because of it. We talked earlier about thinking outside of the box and to prevent the next attack and what the Security Council can do. Boko haram has started attack on naz raw and what do they do. We need to assist them. Boko haram has pledged allegiance to isis and they are part of the Global Network that isis is extending from africa to the caucuses. And we need to view boko haram in a broader view in the war on terror. And many are doing the best we can to confront it and defeat it. In an ideal world, these threats are best defeated at the local level. We simply cant or wont invade or be involved in every country on the planet where these things are occurring but cap as tating the local partners and trying to get other allies immediately impacted by it interested in defeating them militarily is important and we can provide that assistance. We have the worlds greatest intelligence. Even though it has been diminished the ways ive just described but we can improve the capacity of the countries and we need to spend time in the counterterrorism of the countries in the training and the right weaponry and strategy they need to effectively defeat these insurgencies terrorist group and armies. Pretty well documents, almost every time we buy energy overseas some portion goes to finance terrorism. How do you view energy as a National Security issue and what would a rubio Energy Policy look like . What i dont want people to believe is if we produce all of the oil the countries around the world now benefiting from it will produce less of it. The truth is every day hundreds of thousands of day people join the middle class they buy cars and use airplanes. It has a benefit to the United States. To have Domestic Energy resources at our disposal, it lowers the cost of doing business in america which will strengthen our economy and allow us to have a manufacturing renaissance but there will be oil and some will be siphoned and used by terrorist groups. Isis themselves sell oil in the Global Market because they have seized refinery that assad has refused to destroy because he hopes to seize them and capture them again. Geopolitically it will allow us to help break the strangle hold that putin has on europe. Europe today relies on natural gas that they get from russia and if the russians can threaten to cut that off, it makes them vulnerable to pressure from putin and the russian federation. So in that realm it helps as well. Were going to be taking questions from the audience. We have written questions that have come in. Jonathan hoffman is on the side, get them to him. One question from the audience today, what is the senates general opinion of israels defense capable. What is the senates general opinion of israels defense capability. They have never asked us to fight a war for them or invad anyone or send Ground Troops but theyve asked if they run out of bullets, to resupply them. That in global forums we stand firmly on thur side and deeply connected to their security. I have a moral connection that justifies our relationship. Israel was created in the aftermath of the holocaust to ensure never again would there not be a homeland for the jewish people to escape persecution and that is a deep moral commitment our country must honor but we must remind ourselves that israel is the only Free Enterprise proamerican democracy in the middle east. If month looks like israel this conversation would be shorter. So there is one country in the middle east that is proamerican and we should ensure not just that they survive but that they prosper and part of that is to continue to supply and resupply them if they come under assault after they under attack by hezbollah and they were without supplies for weeks and not turning it over to iran to improve the guidance capabilities of the rockets held by hezbollah. They are aiming to hit anywhere in israel. They are in creasing the guidance capabilities to the rockets become tactical weapons to use to specifically targ places within israel. I think it is important to continue our commitment to the iron dome and david sling and to the other defense mechanisms. But if the world gets in a crisis, israel needs to know well help them with money and weapons and intelligence and do whatever it takes to help israel defend itself. What are the odds the new deal with iran gets over turned in congress. There is no doubt in my mind that the majority of the members of the house in senate will vote against it. The real question is whether we can get 67 senators to vote against it because that is what it will take to override a president ial veto. We need to get 13 or 14 democrats to switch and vote for us and that is the battle right now. Can we convince enough colleagues in the senate this is not good for the future of the country or the world and that is where pressure is important. And august is a critical time. Tomorrow well have a hearing in the senate and take testimony from experts. But it is important to be engaged in public advocacy and we pressure our senators not to sign on to this deal. They need to know in a couple of years from now and israel comes under assault from hezbollah and the rockets hitting and killing israelis were funded by the money this deal loosened up and made available to the iranian government. They need to know that. It is true that the iran deal commits more money from iran than the United States than we have given to israel . Well i dont know how you measure that other than to say it doesnt provide direct u. S. Aid. [ technical difficulties ] my microphone was hacked by the iranians apparently. But what it does do you have all of this iranian money frozen in Bank Accounts around the world. That money will now be released under the deal. So yes, it provides the administration said between 50 billion and 100 billion of cash and that is a significant percentage of the gdp of iran. This is a significant percentage of the over all economy. It is a massive infusion of money that they will use i know they will use to do things like sponsor terrorism which they have done. And the second thing we have to understand is it opens the way for businesses to do business in iran which will prop up their coffers. And so we have germans and italy and others chomping at the bit to make deals there and before they couldnt do any work in the u. S. If you were a Deutsche Bank and you wanted to do financing to iran you would lose access to the u. S. Market place. Under this deal, you cant provide lines of credit and capital and the iranians will use that to rebuild their capabilities and the administration insists they will use this to rebuild the economy and take care of domestic concerns. I bet you that isnt what happens. I guarantee you that wont be what happens. I guarantee you it will be used to develop terrorism for proxies around the region. What are the three greatest National Security threats facing the United States and the person who asked this question has a foot note and please dont say climate change. Well there are more than three worthy of our attention but the first we are immediately confronting is the threat militarily posed by russia. And again as i said a few minutes ago, it is a real threat because between the United States and russia we control 90 of the worlds nuclear arsenal. And when you have a Russian Military openly changed their military doctrine since for the First Time Since the cold war openly contemplate the use of tactical military weapons to defeat a nato assault youve run into a dangerous situation. When you see them taking aggressive moves to test fato you run the risk of miscalculation. Vladimir putin is convinced he will test article 5 and push the edge on it and the argument to nato is look if we decide to move on the baltic states, the u. S. Isnt going to go to war with us over that. And if he can convince them of that nato becomes a piece of paper and the notion he can do that is a tremendous risk and threat of a hot war starting between russia and the United States and that is a major risk when you have the two Largest Nuclear arsenals in the world facing off even in a conventional showdown that could rapidly escalate because were dealing with a Vladimir Putin that is more unpredictable and dangerous in his activities than we used to see in the former soviet leaders 35 years ago. The second risk that we face which is very significant is the risk of radical islamic and it spread throughout the world and it poses a new world 21st century risk not totally unlike that of a nation state. It doesnt have a state. They say they have one. They dont have a target or a conventional military force. They pose threats that you understand, not just local fighting forces that take over territory and behead people but people that are inspiring around the world that dont carry an isis membership card but they go online and become inspired to launch attacks against us and the risk of that continuing to spread around the world is extreme and real. And third, the longer picture the dominant 100 years from now and when people look back at the history of our time that shaped the world is the relationship between the United States and china. That will determine much of what the next century looks like. China is a rising power and expanding military capabilities and facing significant head winds but they will continue to grow as a country and the question is how does chinas rise balance with americas standing in the world and if you look throughout history a rising power and a status quo power have gone to war and i dont think that will happen but it is posing ral risks already. China has begun to act on the claim that they own the South China Sea and building artificial islands and they can claim territory rights that extend out 12 miles and if you put those circles together china claims they own the most important shipping lane in the world. We cannot allow in the 21st century for any country to dominate an International Shipping lane. We dont do that. And much of the success was the free navigation of the seas and i think partly sunny important to challenge the notion and make sure that the chinese understand the costs are higher than any benefits they will take from it. And we live in an age where technology is increasing so rapidly and our government is stovepiped and lacks the ability to adapt and respond quick enough so it is almost as if the technology and threats can increasing prebtsly. How does president rubio respond quicker to threats. First understanding what youve just outlined. Most of the people running for president have no idea what you are talking about when you say that. They might know what happened 18 years ago. But this rattled off some facts that will blow your mind when you think about it. You remember the old economy. Think about the new economy. In the new economy, the largest Hospitality Company air b and b, doesnt own a single hotel room. The largest Ground Transportation company uber doesnt own a car. Amazon doesnt own a single store. That is how much the economy has changed. And let me tell you how fast. It took the telephone 75 years to reach 100 million and it took instagram a year and candy crush reached 100 million users in one year. And the world is changing and faster than it ever has. There is no way the orlando world could possibly deal with these changes not ma mention how fast the changes are moving and one of the most important issues of this election is whether or not well elect people to the highest office in the land and to government that understand this, that understand you cant regulate uber like a taxi cab and treat isis like a threat from the 20thth century and we need to have a government that can rapidly respond to these challenges an think ahead and by the time you are done regulating something it doesnt exist any more. And if you try to overregulate it, youll cost yourself. So when you talk about the need to turn the page on the past, this is what im talking about. We need to elect people that understand the 21st century or the future will leave us behind. What is your view of foreign aid. I support foreign aid if it is done appropriately. It is less than 1 of the budget so anyone that tells you that foreign aid is the driver of our debt is not telling you the truth. Number two there is foreign aid successful and foreign aid that has not been. Columbia was a failed state 20 years ago, dominated by narco terrorists and traffickers. They still face significant challenges but a stable and increasingly prosperous country and the strongest american ally in south america. They are a Capable Military force that partner closely with us and if you look at special operations they wear the same uniforms and use the same weapons and train the same way as our special operations do. I was in columbia in december and watched them work and the americans that work with them tell you theyll go to war anywhere along same the columbians. They are offering to use the special operations in guatemala in hondureas and el salvador and often offered to help the mexicans and that is how you turn a country about to fail into a strong ally. And here is another one south korea. The economy was smaller than the north korean economy. 15 years ago, south korea was still a recipient of foreign aid. Today south korea has a developed economy, one of the ten largest in the world and today south korea is a donor, not a recipient of foreign aid and a strong american alley in the asiapacific region made possible. And we put millions of dollars into haiti and with all of the money we put in there enough progress hasnt been made. We still fund money there and some is still being siphoned off by corrupt officials. And i think foreign aid gives us leverage to change the world. About two weeks ago or a month ago i called the girls count act and here is what it says. If you receive foreign aid you must give little girls birth certificates. Ill tell you why that matters. If they dont have a birth certificate, it makes them a target to being trafficked to being enslaved and not receiving education. Young girls do not exist in the roles of government and therefore it is easy to kidnap them and sell them as a dommic laborer or sex slave. And now we are saying if you have going to receive foreign aid, girls count. Im proud that we passed that bill and the president signed it and an example of how we are using existing spending to improve the world to enhance our prestige in the world in the eyes of millions of people. Looking back on your life experiences, what do you believe best prepares you to be commanderinchief . Well, it begins, i think, with a clear understanding of what americas role in the world should be. We are not just another country. Americans have never been comfortable with the idea we must be the most influential country in the world. Most of us would like to focus on issues here at home. Tart our businesses raise our families, go to work retire with dignity. America has no desire to conquer any territory and we dont want to invade and turn anything into the 51st state. For reasons we dont understand, america has been charged with this task of being the most influential nation on earth. The world will always have a more influential country and that will help shape and determine what the world will look like and it is not a coincidence since the end of world war ii democracy and peace has broken out throughout the world. You know why . Because the most powerful country in the world was a Free Enterprise and a peaceful people, that is why the world took that direction. And that is why we didnt have a third world war. So in the 21st century we have a choice. Either we remain the most powerful country in the world or well be replaced by another country like china that does not respect human rights or rlgs liberties or unfettered access to information and tells bishops who their bishops or cardinals are or pastors can be. Is that who we want to be. A nation that doesnt respect the dignity and the rights of their own people and not to mention others. Because if that is it, the world will change and every single one of us will feel the impact of it. So im guided by the belief that america isnt just indispensable, it is exception. Yes, the world grumbles because america is telling them what to do. But here the truth. When they dont they complain even louder. When we dont lead, they say chaos breaks out because america is not leading. Im qualified and i know for a fact because the last five years of being engaged on these issues i know what happens when america doesnt lead. What happens is chaos. What happens is violence. What happens is war. What happens is radical jihadists grow and prosper. That is not the world i want to live in and leave our children. Whether i like it or not, this nation is tasked with the role of the leader of the free world and it is not a role we should give up because the world will return to darkness and a world of age and lack of freedoms and that is not the world i want to leave for my children. And in the previous question you talked about north korea, south korea, the type of missile kim jongun looks like the missile of irans and hes increasing the distance of the the range of that. How do you deal with the north korean regime today. I dont know in people realize this, north korea possesses a rocket that could hit california. Theyre not good at aiming. We dont know what they will hit but they will hit something. And that is why japan is developing defense capabilities. Probably the fifth best navy in the world. People dont realize. But for the first time in history they can provide collective selfdefense and that means that for years after world war ii japan can only get engaged in a conflict if they were directly attacked. If a missile was launched against the United States they couldnt do anything about it and now they can do something about it and that is a significant force multiplier for us. That will improve our capability to provide antiMissile Defenses at the front lines of the conflict right there in asia before it crosses the pacific and not only to figure out a way to get japan and south korea to work closer on some of the issues well multiply the Capabilities Even further and that is the first line of defense to ensure any rocket launched by north korea will be shot down before it hits japan south korea or the United States. The president today and the current government of afghanistan and iraq how would you work with them and how would it differ from the current administration. First of all we would start this artificial time line of getting out of afghanistan by a date certain. We need to eventually afghanistan needs to be turned over to the Afghan People but if we leave too early well undo all of the gains made. And there are still significant challenges. In fact we dont know the full brunt of the challenges because if we tell the taliban were leaving at a date certain theyll just wait. Every time we leave a province, the taliban gains influence in that province. So we have to continue to be committed unless we want afghanistan to become the next iraq. Iraq is a mess because this president artificially pulled out from an artificial timeline without working harder on a status of forces agreement that allowed us to have a presence there. Had we done that there, the government would have been much more stable and the conditions less conducive to what happened. When we pulled out of afghanistan, malachi went after the sunni. They felt the press by the central government. And so when isis came in they initially greeted isis as liberators from the shiao pressors. They dont feel that way any more but now it is too late they are already there. It is important to work with the alleys to allies to work with the christians, kurds shia and if we dont do that, iran will dominate iraq and soon they will have another muppet state. Were coming to the end. And i want to thank you on behalf of the peace of prosperity and american security. Thank you for coming to South Carolina and last question, is there anything that we didnt ask today that you want to tell the people of South Carolina . Um, well you asked a lot of questions so i think we covered you gave a lot of answers. I want to thank you for this. And the most important obligation of the federal government is to provide for our National Security. We do a lot of things in the federal government that we like to do or maybe should do but the one thing we must do is provide for our National Security. If a nation is not secure it can not prosper economically and the American Dream cannot grow and reach people if this is a nation under threat and duress and the next president of the United States and the leaders who you elect to congress in the senate need to be people that clearly understand this and clearly understand the world as it is not the way we wish it was and understand that american plays a role in the world, that when america fails to lead the world is less prosperous and less stable and peaceful and i hope this election will give us a chance to restore our prestige on the world stage to lead the free people of this planet. Thank you sir. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Senator rubio and mr. Hipp, thank you so much for enlightening conversation on behalf of apps and Furman University thank you very much and thank you and have a good day. Thank you very much. [ applause ]. Cspan is partnering to bring you a forum with republican candidates for president. It takes place on monday evening at 7 00 eastern at st. Anns college in manchester, New Hampshire. Live coverage on cspan cspan radio and cspan. Org. This weekend on the cspan networks politics books and american history. Saturday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan, net roots nation hosts a discussion on Illegal Immigrants and the enforcement of the arizona immigration laws. And new jersey governor and candidate Chris Christie on National Security. He speaks at the university of New Hampshire at manchester. On cspan 2 saturday night at 10 00 eastern on book tvs afterwards, Michael Tanner talks about the growing National Debt and looks at entitlement as a solution. And on saturday, glenn beckon extremism. And on cspan 3 sunday morning at 10 00 a. M. Eastern we commemorate the Lyndon Johnson signing of the 1965 Voting Rights act. It includes phone conversation between johnson and his aids and dr. Martin luther king and strategy on how to enact and enforce the law. And lbjs 1965 speech at the capitol and the signing of the bill. Also this weekend saturday night at 7 10 university of california at berkeley history professor brian delay looks at the history of gun production in europe and how arms traded contributed to an american victory during the revolution. Get a complete schedule at cspan. Org. The Defense Department recently admitted that a u. S. Army lab accidentally shipped live anthrax to 192 facilities in all 50 states and seven Foreign Countries. Officials from the Defense Department testified at a House Committee hearing. Tim murphy chairs this twohour hearing. Good morning. Welcome to our hearing once again dealing with anthrax. The subcommittee today examines continuing concerns over the forward select Agent Program. This time our focus is on shipment of live anthrax from a Defense Laboratory that occurred over a ten year period. And as yogi berra said, it is like deja vu all over again. Last year we held a similar hearing on a cdc anthrax incident that potentially exposed searchers to live anthrax due to the fact that established safety procedures were not followed. During the hearing, the director frieden testified well take every step possible to prevent any future incident that could put our Laboratory Scientists and the public at risk and yet here we are again today. And we mistaked the avian flu and the discovery of smallpox in the nih building months after a hearing and the white house ordered a safety stand down and sweep of all federal labs, the sds revealed there was a transfer of ebola from a level four lab to a level two lab. This is all deeply troubling. And despite the growing number of red flags the incidents keep happening. So now we are learned that the dogway proving grounds in utah has shipped anthrax to facilities across the globe. At last count 192 labs had received shipments of live anthrax. Apparently the process toin activate anthrax spores was not effective and the sterility testing to make sure they were inactivated failed to detect the live anthrax spores. What is more troubling is dougway used this potentially deadly process for years. As i said before this is completely unacceptable. This is threatening our Nation Security and Public Health. The committee hopes to learn what is being done this time to prevent future safety lapses and will this be any different. Last week the department of defense released a report and according to the report the d. O. D. Was unable to definitively determine the root causes for how and why dougway shipped live anthrax, yet in the report the department acknowledged that all of the labs routinely operate outside of the validated experimental data for kill curves, unquote. So in other words it seems that at the department of defense there are larger numbers of spores than recommended an the labs could know they could not guarantee an activation at those numbers especially at the dosage of radiation given. The revelation begs questions beginning with why and why for so long. Who was smonl for making the decisions about whichin activation process to use, including how many spores and what level of radiation and are the decisions ever valuations and reevaluated and what is the sds role in developing these processes. And according to a recent and all too familiar headline sds has announced it is conducting another review of how it regulated safety and security at bio terror labs. I think it is important to improve processes and procedures but past reviews had not brought about the change necessary to truly improve safety and standardized processes and procedures maybe, we hope this review will bring about different results. As i said a year ago what we have here is a pattern of recurring issues of complacency and a lax culture of lacency. Last year director frieden stated this was a wakeup call but critical Government Agencies have hit the snooze put on again. None of us want to be here again to discuss another safety lapse and heaven for bid a loss of life. We have work on the labs and gee yo has been calling for strategy for high Containment Labs and the need for National Safety standards for maintaining such labs yet the recommendations have not been implemented which is run of the reasons were here again today discussing another safety lapse that threatens National Security and the Public Health. Today i would like to thank the witnesses for testifying here today. I look forward to hearing your testimony and learning from you. Please be candid and straightforward with us as we try to find ways to improve the safety and procedures in our bioterrorism laps. This subcommittee will not relent on the over site of federal laboratories compliance with select agent regulations and further explore the possibility of an in Deposit Agency to oversee these labs. I now recognize miss deget of colorado for five minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman i saw you dont want to be back here in a year, but weve been here in 2007, 2009, 2014 and now 2014 and might as well mark your calendar now. And part of that is because it is really important that the federal government work on identifying and maintaining Public Health risks. But the work itself inherently contains risks and that is why we do have to continue our over sight. At last years hearing on the anthrax transfer, i talked about the high Containment Lab that we have in ft. Collins which some years ago we identified terrible lapses and i was able to work with my former republican colleague bob schaefer from that district to get a new lab belt. Im proud of that work. But we have to continue to be able to assure our constituents that similar facilities across the country provide no risk tor workers or to the broader community. Now mr. Chairman, as you said, frankly, the details of the dougway incident do not inspire confidence. Were talking about a longterm series of in add vertent shipments of live anthrax from the dougway proving ground in utah which is supposedly one of the most sophisticated facilities in the world. This only came to light in may because a private company contacted cdc after discovering what it thought was an activated anthrax was actually live anthrax. Since then, weve learned that 86 laboratories in 20 states and the district of columbia and seven Foreign Countries received live anthrax spores from dougway over the last 12 years. The labs then transferred the live spores to an additional 106 labs. So were talking about almost 200 labs in all 50 states accidentally receiving live anthrax for over a decade. Miraculously, nobody seems to have fallen ill as a result of this series of incidents. Still, like you, mr. Chairman, im concerned that this activity was going on for so long before one lab finally raised questions that spurred the department to action. Im eager to hear answers from d. O. D. How this was allowed to happen in the first place, and what they are doing to ensure it never happens again. I understand that the departments review of the dougway incident released last week found insufficient scientific literature for thein activation of anthrax spores. The dougway lab was relying on procedures that did not permanently or completely sterilize the anthrax spores. Now this is not my area of expertise but it seems troubling on its face. How have we conducted research on this dangerous pathogen for the past decade without thoroughly understanding how to inactivate it . We need to conduct a serious examination of whether we use similarly questionable protocols for other select agencies and if so i think we can all agree we should immediately cease those operations to make sure we are not putting Public Health at risk. For now appropriately d. O. D. Has issued a moratorium on issuing anthrax from its labs. This seems like an important first step. But i do want to know how that effects the research the lab was doing. Furthermore, i want clarification as to how do we have 200 separate labs all across the country working with anthrax . Do we need to have 200 labs working with anthrax or is it possible that we could limit the number of labs and therefore limit the risk while still doing this important research. I also want to hear today about whether the breakdowns at dougway are indicative of broader problems at this site or across the high Containment Lab system. The labs that handle these pathogens must be held to the highest standards yet the incidents that weve seen recently raise questions about whether we can trust high Containment Labs to safely handle select agents. In the last year weve seen an anthrax exposure incident at cdc, this is what you said, improper shipments of avian flu and even a potential ebola exposure at a cdc lab. I feel really lucky that we havent had anybody infected. But it could happen. And i think were just going on borrowed time here. So i hope all of you have answers today about what were really doing to make serious changes to the system and include the recommendations that gao has made. I also want to hear from our witnesses about the role congress should play in making sure that the program operates safely and with that, mr. Chairman, i yield back. Thank you. Thank you. Does anybody else on this side wish to make an Opening Statement or comments . If not, i would ask and i dont know if youve seen this yet, the cdc an article appeared last night in usa today and i would like you to look at it and see if there is unanimous consent to the record. This is titled cdc lab reporting policy despite scrutiny and reporting problems and i think it is relevant to todays hearing and i recognize mr. Palone for five minutes. I help we can find out what happened today in dougway that resulted in live anthrax submitted to 192 labs in all 50 states and five Foreign Countries. Robert work described these as a massive institutional failure. I hope dr. Hassell can explain how the failures could have occurred as well as what d. O. D. Is doing to strengthen and standardize protocols across all labs as we move forward. Im deeply relieved no one has fallen ill as a result of the lapses and i hope this is the case as d. O. D. And cdc continue to track the labs that receive the samples an the personnel that handle them but this incident raises broader questions about the safety of high Containment Laboratories across the country. Every day hundreds of labs in the federal government and academy and institutions handle pathogens and toxins. Make no mistake the labs perform important work. They conduct research to improve our defenses against biological attacks and strengthening our Public Health response capabilities. Laboratories are required to follow a set of risks the agents pose. They are required to select individuals who have undergone a Risk Security agent by the fbi and implement lab Safety Measures and Incident Response plans. They must also ensure that Laboratory Workers are properly trained on bio safety and security measures. Labs that participate are also subject to registration and inspections by the cdc division of select agents and toxins. There are Civil Penalties associated with lapses in safety protocols, unauthorized use of agents is subject to severe criminal penalties however incidences involving anthrax and ebola and avian flu raise questions about whether we need to strengthen our over site of labs working with dangerous pathogens. Is the current Regulatory Framework sufficient. Do the enforcement agencies have sufficient resources to ensure that over site is robust. What is cdc doing to improve the federal select Agent Program and provent similar situations from occurring in the future . I understand that cdc and d. O. D. Have conducted reviews of the incidents and promise efrl more. I look forward to hearing about the findings and recommendations from the reviews an how they can be used to enhance safety and security at all of the nations high Containment Laboratories. And the gao has an important body of work that can inform this discussion. I look forward to hearing from gao about the recommendations to strengthen Safety Measures across high Containment Labs. Im glad nobody appears to have suffered any injuries because of the latest incident out of dougway, but next time the mishap may be something more dangerous such as a highly infectious pathogen so i hope we can learn from this latest incident and can take seriously the recommendations made by recent and ongoing incident by gao and others to make this program safer. Obviously we look forward to a productive discussion on how we can improve over sight and what the committee can do to facilitate that process. And again thank our chairman and Ranking Member as we proceed. I yield back. The gentleman yields back. And then with no further comments from the then well go to our witnesses. So as you are aware the committee is holding an investigative hearing has the practice of taking testimony under oath. Do any of the witnesses have any objections of testifying under oath . Seeing no objections the chair advises you under the rules of the house and the committee you are entitled to be advised by counsel. Do you want to be advised by counsel today . In that case. Please rise and i will swear you in. Do you all swear the testimony you are about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. All of the witnesses have answered in the affirmative and now you are under oath and subject to the penalties set forth in title 18 section 1001 of the United States code. You may now each give a five minute summary. Please Pay Attention to the lights there. Well start with you dr. Hassell. Five minutes. Thank you, chairman murphy, Ranking Member thank you and distinguish members of the subcommittee, i appreciate the opportunity to brief you on the department of defense inadvertent of samples containing live spores or anthrax. My name is David Hassell im the deposit assistant deputy of defense for biological defense. This is an important standard to develop ways to protect war fighters an the public from known biological threats. Doing this with a development of testing of detection and Protection Equipment diagnostics and decontamination capabilities. We first learned of the incidents under consideration today on may 22nd of 2015 when the centers for Disease Control and prevention was alerted by a private company regarding the live of anthrax in a sample activated at the dougway proving ground in utah. The cdc immediately began an investigation working with d. O. D. Laboratories state officials and the fbi. By may 25th all known laboratories that received anthrax samples from the same batch had been notified and instructed to stop working with the samples. Also on may 25th the four d. O. D. Laboratories that produced an activated anthrax were directed to stop producing and shipping and working with any activated anthrax other than for purposed related to this current matter. Subsequent tests by dougway identified other batches of in activated anthrax as containing live spores and on june 2nd they noted all recipients to stop working with the material, whether it was confirmed to contain live anthrax or not. There is no known or suspected case of anthrax infection among workers at any of the laboratories that produced or received inactivated anthrax and no known risk to the general house and very little risk to the Laboratory Workers themselves however as a precaution 31 u. S. Citizen and 8 nond. O. D. Were paced on treatment and this was completed yesterday. Now returning to the subject of the four d. O. D. Laboratories on may 29th the deputy secretary of defense directed those four d. O. D. Laboratories test all previous anthrax in their inventory to identify the presence of any live spores. That testing is now complete and the results as are follows since 2003 the four laboratories had a total of 149 batches of live anthrax spores. Of the 96 samples available to test 17 tested positive for the presence of live anthrax. All of these originated from dougway. We now know over the past 12 years 86 laboratories in 20 states, d. C. And seven Foreign Countries received directly from doug way inactivated samples that contained live spores. In addition the cdc informed us an additional 106 labs received secondary transfers from some of the original 86 direct recipient labs. This brings the total to 192 laps in all 50 states, d. C. And the three trts of guam, puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands. The root causes of the incident vulted resulted in key findings including that the systemic issue is the lack of validated standards to guide the development of protocols processes and Quality Assurance measures and the resulting recommendations are grouped in three broad categories being enhanced Quality Control programs, establish testing protocols based on relevant Scientific Data and improve program management. The department is committed to ensuring this doesnt happen again and well implement the recommendations in the report and further outlined by deputy work in june. Our top priority is the safety of all involve and we remain committed to complete transparency of information as we go forward. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and ill welcome your questions. Thank you dr. Hassell. Dr. Sosin, before you speak, i want to note, we havent had a chance to review your testimony because it wasnt in until 9 00 last night and the committee rules, we ask for 48 hours so we didnt have time to review that. So when we get testimony at the last minute it is difficult for us to review it and i dont want to think that the cdc is trying to fuft rate our purposes here but i do want to indicate to you and if you could pass the word on to cdc that for future testimony, we want that 48 hour limit adhered to. So at this point wed like to hear from you for five minutes. Thank you. Thank you. Chairman murphy, Ranking Member degget and distinguish members of the subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to testify before you today. Would you like to share with you what cdc has done to respond to the inadvertent release of live anthrax spores from dougway proving ground and to provide perspective on the select Agent Program that cdc supports. Cdc works 24 7 to save lives and protect people. We activated our Emergency Operation center in face of uncertainty about the scope and severity of this release. We understand how concerning this incident has been and our primary focus continues to be making certain people are safe and the anthrax materials are secured and ultimately disposed of. This incident raises serious and challenging issues. It is important to note however, that Scientific Research in laboratories is a vital component in the Nations Defense against naturally occurring diseases and bioterrorism. This research is complex and sometimes dangerous. While it is not possible to eliminate all risk, those of us working in this field across the country and around the world must do all we can to minimize risk. Here is what we know today about the dougway incident. There have been no suspected or confirmed cases of anthrax infection associated with the samples. Persons at cdc assessed some risk and accepted treatment will have completed abt biekt and prophylactics yesterday. The facilities have destroyed them and those needing decontamination have the procedures or are well under way. Highlighting this positive not meant to down play the seriousness of the situation. On multiple occasions over more than a dpek aid, the production methods at dougway failed to inactivate anthrax spores. Growth was being detected on multiple production runs. These runs were sent back for multiple irradiation. This should have been seen for what it was. An indication that the measure of safety was not sufficient. He they they failed to detect live spores. We have looked and found no evidence of a similar problem at other facilities that inactivate anthrax spores. The existing rules are under review. Heres what we dont know. The federal select Agent Program relies primarily on sterility testing. We remain unsure whether there was a problem with the execution of this testing at dougway or if the biology of spores was not sufficiently understood to make the procedure reliable. And heres what we are doing moving forward. We are maintaining a moratorium on the use and transfer of inactivated anthrax spores until we have an acceptable and credible approach to increasing safety and security, and we are developing a Research Agenda on spore biology and we will help to conduct some of that research. At dr. Freedens direction we are directing a review. The review will compliment ongoing work to improve Laboratory Safety at cdc this past year. The time is ripe with new leadership over the cdc select Agent Program for a thorough review of our program to ensure its meeting its mandates, especially in light of recent lab inch dechbtss. The world benefits from work with dangerous pathogens. And they also have a commitment to protecting health and safety. We must achieve a balance to protect workers while encouraging scientific advancement, but safety comes first. One characteristic is a commitment to improvement. The regulation have been refined with vice advice from many. Incident reporting, coordination of inspections with federal partners and tracking shipments of select agents are some suggestions. Where improvements requestcan be made to better the program we will make them. Whether there is disagreement on the best path forward we will contribute to the debate. We will work diligently and thoughtfully with anyone sharing or commitment to protect americans from biologyical threats. Good morning chairman murphy members of the sub committee. Im greg demske. Appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the federal select Agent Program. While cdc administers the select Agent Program with the department of agriculture, oig is authorized to yes, maam pose civil money penalties for violations of the regulations. We also audit, evaluate and offer suggestions for program improvement. Cdc reviews all potential violations and immediately refers urgent or criminal matters to the fbi. In other matters, cdc further investigates and determines whether to exercise its authority to suspend or revoke regge administration or require remedial actions. If cdc concludes a civil violation may have occurred it refers the case to oig for potential enforcement. Oig carefully evaluates every referral and carefully decides whether to pursue the case and what penalty to seek based on the facts and circumstances of the particular case. In our experience violations pose varying risks to Public Health and safety. To date, oig has imposed 2. 4 million for select agent violations. Two of our cases have involved dougway. In april 2007 dougway shipped anthank rrax to a Research Facility. The Research Facility tested the material and found the presence of a low concentration of viable anthrax. We found that dougway ignored the results of its post inact administration viability test, which showed viable anthrax was present of the later in november 2010, a Government Laboratory received a shipment from dougway that included a vial of bot u lie number. Dougway reported two shipments of this achlgt as a federal entity, dougway presents an enforcement challenge for oig. Any cnp on a federal agency would shift money in the government at a met cost to taxpayers and may not provoke betster compliance. Both letters to dougway said that oig determined that dougway violated the regulations and that it should evaluate its actions and take safeguards. Yesterday oig received another referral from cdc on dougway, we are reviewing the matter now. Over the years, oig has audited agents for compliance. Oig provided audit results to the heads of relevant agencies putting them on notice of deficiencies. Oig is expanding our management. We will focus on cdcs oversight and on the operation of hhs laboratories that handle select agents. Through our enforcement work, oig has also identified several tientss to improve program compliance, oversight and enforcement. As reflected in my written testimony, these opportunities focus on enhanced documentation requirements and increased authority for cdc inspectors. We stand ready to work with cdc and others in hhs to continue to to improve the select Agent Program and use our enforcement tools to promote the compliance to protect the safety and health of the american people. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Ill be happy to answer questions. Dr. Crosse . Im pleased to be here today to cuss gaos work. The biosafety and biosecurity practices in these laboratories are intended to reduce the exposure to biological agents and prevent their loss, theft, or misuse. The recent shipments of live anthrax bacteria from dod to u. S. And international laboratories, similar to last years potential exposures of cdc personnel to live anthrax bacteria shows multiple brake downs in compliance with established policies and inadequate oversight of high Containment Laboratories. This is another example in an ongoing series of safety lapses which continue to occur often with the same root cause as for prior incidents. Weve been lucky so far. Researchers in these labs work with highrisk biological agents that may result in serious or lethal infections, and in some instances have the potential to be used in biological weapons. These labs do important work with pathogens to develop vaccines and countermeasures and to understand emerging infectious diseases. However, the pathogens handled by these laboratories also have the potential for highconsequence accidents. If this were to have occurred with high contagious element, we could have had consequences far beyond what weve seen today. Gao is conducting work with this committee to examine these issues. And our preliminary findings show that dod and cdc have begun to address weaknesses in their laboratories but have not yet fully activated these activities. The steps they are taking are intended to address fundamental flaws in the oversight structure, reporting and tracking of biosafety and biosecurity incidents after they have kurdoccurred. For example, they said that the dougway accident is the first that they have tracked at the Senior Department level. Since 2012 dod has been revising procedures and expects to finalize changes by this fall. But these changes will only cover a subset of dods high Containment Laboratories. Our ongoing work will also examine if dod is implementing steps to improve the culture of state of at its laboratories so that future events are reduced or prevented. Similarly, cdc began taking steps to address weaknesses identified in assessments of the june 2014 anthrax incident and other Safety Incidents in its own laboratories. But the agency has not yet completed implementing recommendations intended to improve its laboratory ov