We take you live to capitol hill now where Navy Admiral Craig Faller will testify on the National Defense strategy, testifying before that the Armed Services subcommittee chaired my joann joni ernst. Welcome to the admiral. Thank you very much for being her, sir. Todays hearing is a continuation of the committees efforts. This is an important component to our efforts to ensure our military is appropriately resorr resourced, equipped and postured to defend the nation against a growing away of threats. In europe and across the indo pacific region. U. S. National security interests not just within their geographic boundaries but elsewhere around the world. China is taking a long term approach oftentimes with the goal of undermining the United States. The situation in the western hemisphere is no different. Admiral faller you highlighted in testimony earlier this year that china has accelerated expansion of its belt and Road Initiative in the western hemisphere at a pace that may one day overshadow its expansion in Southeast Asia and africa. Chinas efforts to back oppressive governments and to pump loans into local economies at unpayable Interest Rates reveal chinas interest in spreading influence and consolidating power. As a result, latin america has become a fixture for chinese ambitio ambitions. And the exclusion of the u. S. And canada from regional discourse. Trade and economic ties between the United States and latin america are changing with china surpassing the United States as the main destination for exports from several latin american countries. We have cooperation in brazil, venezuela andargentina. China has increased arms sales in a manner that violations restrictions and hinders our ability to integrate with our strategic partners. Russia is also working to expand its influence in the region. Its doubled down on its efforts to prop up corrupt authoritarian regimes. Just a couple weeks ago one of russias most advanced warships was docked in havana harbor. Finally drivers of migration place significant strain on regional governments and can engender regional instability impacting not only the southern border of the United States but providing additional flash points for china and russia to exploit at the expense of american soft power. All of this demonstrates clearly that the western hemisphere should be viewed as an important front in our efforts to compete with china and russia and implement the nds. I look forward to your input and your candid assessment of the involving Security Dynamics in this region. Describe how the nda information is important and how youll allocate south coms resources. Thank you for joining us today. Stability in south comm is critical to our National Security. I want to thank admiral faller for his service and for appearing here to today to testify on the implementation of the National Defense strategy in the Southern Command area of responsibility. Its clear that russia and china have increased their influence in the south comm ar. Personnel. Russias supintervention in venezuela has propped up the maduro regime and helped deny transition to the interim president guaido. This fits a pattern of increasingly aggressive russian seeking to use all of the tools in its play book to undermine the appeal of the democratic process and keep russian aligned regimes in power. While russia and chinese influence in latin america is destabilizing to the region, i think its also important to spend a few minutes on the most pressing threat to democracy in the western hemisphere. And that is kruchgcorruption. Corruption is the root cause of mass migration, instability and impugn in latin america and the trafficking of narcotics to our country. No amount of Security Assistance dollars to latin america will be helpful. President trumps stated rationale to punish these countries for the migrant crisis is ill considered and totally counter productive to reducing forced migration numbers. Ultimately it undermines our National Security in the region. Unless we support Civil Societies in these countries and help improve economic conditions, we will never get a handle on the illicit drugs that flow through these countries and into the United States. One final note and i think its critical for us to discuss is that corruption in central and south america not only destabilizes the region but it also provides china and russia with a foothold into these countries as well. Corrupt governments are more likely to take loans from china that allow them to skim millions off of the top and leave their treasuries empty. The more we focus on combatting corruption, the more successful we will be in implementing the National Defense strategy in the regi region. Thank you for those opening comments. Admiral faller well start with your Opening Statement and then we will move into questioning. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today and for the steadfast support you provide the men and women of the south Southern Command day in and day out. Id like to introduce my command senior enlisted Sergeant Major brian zik foos. Ive been in command of southsome fsouth so comm for several months. These opportunities and challenges directly impact the security of this hemisphere, our neighborhood. Criminal organizations, narco trafficking, all enabled by weak governance. Most disturbing insight the aha for me however has been the degree to which the external state actoractors, china, russi iran have expanded their access and influence right here in our neighborhood. The National Defense strategy makes clear Great Power Competition has reemerged as the number one security challenge facing our nation. China, russia and others want to shape a world consistent with their thoirn models. Theyre blurring the lines of what constitutes a military threat through economic coercion, the systemic stealing of technology, influence campaigns and malicious cyber activity. Competition is happening globally and right here in our neighborhood, the western hemisphere. We see this most acutely in venezuela, where the security crisis created by maduro has compounded every single security crisis we face in this hemisphere. Russia in their own words is predicting their loyal friend to quote by propping up the regime with loans and technical and military support. China, as venezuelas largest single state creditor, saddled the venezuelan people with more than 60 billion in debt and is exporting Surveillance Technology used to oppress the venezuelan people. Iran has restarted direct flights from tehran to caracas. Along with cuba these actors engage in activities that are counter to u. S. Interests. How do we counter the threats and seize the opportunities in this hemisphere . How do we counter the threats posed by state actors in venezuela and across the region. The best way to outcompete is by fe focusing our strengths, the strong and enduring ties we have with our neighbors. We work with each other from a foundation of mutual respect. We reinforce and build on this through training, education, intelligence and information sharing and exercises. Security cooperation is our best tool to continue building these strong partnerships and turn the challenges of our hemisphere into opportunities. Working together training and exercising shoulder to shoulder with American Military professionals is our Competitive Edge and no one can match our system. We also need the right focused and consistent military presence day in and day out to go along with this training and education. We cannot achieve positive results and influence outcomes without being on the playing field. Ill point to two examples of the positive impact of our presence. Our Strategic Bomber force and f16 Fighter Aircraft from the South CarolinaNational Guard are trained with the Colombian Air force in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of colombias air force while also demonstrating our shared resolve in the face of regional and global challenges nearby the United States naval ship come fot comfort is in lima peru. Comfort shows the very best of the United States of ill start with just a couple questions and well go back and forth in order of arrival. With that well go ahead and get started. Feel free to take as much time as necessary, admiral, to discuss the challenges and opportunities you have in southcomm. The National Defense strategy clearly identifies Great Power Competition between the United States and of course china and russia as the most pressing threat to National Security. Given their expanding presence in your a. O. , the nds has particular relevance to your area of responsibility. So if you could explain what is the role of the u. S. Military as were competing with china and russia in the western hemisphere what more can we be doing . Our partners want to work with us so its up to us to deliver that in a way that provides a return on investment for american taxpayers. Colombia and brazil are two very good examples where we spent a lot of time, weve traveled to columbia on multiple locations, weve been to brazil, their chiefs of defense have been to see us. It begins with intelligence sharing and education at a personal level. We enhance each others situational awareness, strengthen our understanding of the opportunities and challenges and work on education both in our schools and ours. Ive had the opportunity to go down there and speak at their institutions. Thats the foundation that counters russia and china best because frankly they cant compete with our system. Theyre trying. Theyre in the area. Everywhere i go the chiefs of defense say the chinese have come, theyve offered us free education, unlimited travel, opportunity to go to their schools. Theyve replicated our model. Theyve started Spanish Language training in beijing. The message i get from our capable partners is we dont want to train with them, we want to continue. When you meet new chief of defense, for example the new chief of defense in el salvador and the new minister of defense, both have been to u. S. Schools and theyre committed to working with us, not with others. Thats the way we move forward in a real meaningful way, senator. Thank you very much. Just to go a little bit further with that, i do firmly believe in those mill to mill opportunities whether through training exercises or through educational opportunities. Now, we have spoken, maybe you can expand a little bit on the lack of opportunity maybe that we have been able to extend to other military members attending our military schools. If you could talk a little bit about what some of those challenges are whether its funding or otherwise, it would be good to hear that. The opportunities to expand our education in our schools and training in our schools, and there is a difference, is the single best investment we can make longterm to our partnerships. Graduates of our School Systems go back with an understanding of u. S. Doctrine, tactics and techniques and really become lifelong friends. The chief of defense in argentina, for example, is an honor grad of the Army War College and very proud of it and was just admitted to the Army War College hall of fame. That is noted by the Political Leadership and valued. Hes one of my best strategic partners. Our levels of funding that have been provides and principal source of funding comes from education training. Thats basically been flat lined for as long back as i can do the math. Then your dollars of flat accounts getting us less school seats over time because the schools cost more than what we are able to contribute within the rules. Ive advocated and former defense secretaries have as well that we would be well served to look at increasing. For southcomm its about 11 million. I think i could absorb 18 million, a modest increase. When you look at the kinds of monies were spending in other areas, this is a low amount of money for a high dividend, hawahig hawahigh thats an area wed do well to expand, senator. Very good. Dollars well spent. Thank you very much, admiral. Ranking member peters. Thank you, madam chair. Admiral, we appreciate it. I think its clear from the discussion that we had earlier in my office as well as in your testimony that you provided here in the opening is that you agree corruption, lack of economic opportunity, violence and really the failure of democratgovernan the connection between weak governance, corruption, Transnational Criminal Organizations and then even the opportunity for china and russia, as you articulated, is significant. I consider that the number one Security Threat that we face here in this hemisphere. That same corruption breeds criminal activity, could breed terror activity and certainly breeds the kind of dirty deals that other external state actors come in and thrive on. In order to deal with that breakdown of governance, it probably makes sense to have a whole of government approach in dealing with it. That means not just the military operations that youre engaged in but also ngo activities. I know youve had experience working with the ngos. Are they helpful . Do you think thats part of the approach that we need to take in order to stabilize those countries . The strong institutions and the Strong Defense institutions in these countries contribute to the whole of government solution and thats where we focus. We have a program called Defense Institution building which gets after that through our perry center here in washington, d. C. As that plays into a whole of Government Strategy across what we call the dime, diplomacdiplo information, military and checkchec economics. Youre saying programs like u. S. Aid, state Department Programs in those countries are critically important for us in our work to stabilize those areas and hopefully prevent mass migration. Ti have a civilian deputy whos a full ambassador from the state department. She has former u. S. Aid experience. We have a Senior Executive from usaid that sits to my left at every meeting as one of my most senior reps. The Trump Administration recently cut off all nondefense aid to the northern triangle. Did the administration consult you as to whether or not that made sense . The pressure thats being applied to these governments i would offer is good. The decision to cut off is a policy decision and im not normally part of policy decisions, senator. I advocated and articulated to the defense leadership the important contributions that professional militaries from honduras, guatemala and el salvador have made particularly in the counter narcotics fight. Thats why we were able to continue our mill to mill engagement, senator. The leahy law bars assistance to Security Forces who have committed gross human rights violations. Would it make sense to add corruption to the list that would cut off Security Assistance, particularly corruption that enables drug and Human Trafficking . Senator, i dont know that i would have thought through enough how corruption might play into the leahy law. I think the leahy law is extremely effective. Its demanding, rightly so. And it produces units that we can trust and look at and know are doing the right thing with respect to human rights. In the Financial Times interview from june 26th, 2019, president putin said, quote, there are no Russian Troops in venezuela and characterized the personnel there as just specialists and instructors to train local forces. Yet multiple press outlets have reported that Paramilitary Forces deployed to venezuela to provide security for president maduro. These are the same forces that conducted missions on kremlins behalf. How would you characterize the actions of kremlin forces in venezuela . Is it just regular training or is it something more nefarious . Senator, weve consistently seen the way russia manipulates media around the world. At one point in february for my full senate Armed Services committee hearing, about a week before the hearing i was here doing prehearing office calls and i came out to the news that russian state tv was reporting my appearance near the border. I think that states russias approach overall to accuracy. There are Russian Troops, defense contractors, their presence in the hundreds in venezuela. They are supporting the maduro regime. They are keeping russian gear operable. They are conducting a full range of activities you would expect a foreign power to do to prop up their puppet regime. Thank you, admiral. Senator holly. Thank you for being here. Is it fair to say that one key russian and chinese objective is to reduce United States influence and access. I think for russia well characterize as almost a wounded bear wanting power. They want to make the u. S. Look bad and do anything that would blunt the u. S. Advantage even if that advantage is for the International Good of the people as it is in venezuela. For china, they have economic interests around the world. Were working hard as a nation to figure out how those legitimate International Interests can actually be played using the rule of law. They have an economic interest primarily. The ports theyre working on the extensive i. T. Infrastructure, the space access theyre working on, all these that would be characterized by Chinese State officials as soft power, they have hard aims. As i said earlier this year, theyre setting the stage for future access and influence that would have clearly military dimension. Just on this last point about china with their ports, with their development, you see that as part of a larger Strategic Plan on chinas part to ramp up their influence in the region and also to diminish ours. Is that fair to say . China has global aims that extend beyond economic. I think weve got to continue to outcompete china globally including in this neighborhood, this hemisphere. Give us a sense of what you think in your judgment that looks like. What do we need to be doing to mete and turn back their strategic aims here . There are a lot of security challenges around the world as have been outlined, north korea, iran, russia, china, souch. We have to make sure we look at those globally. We have to make sure theyre resourced globally. At a point weve got to be in the region, be present. That means u. S. Navy ships,coast guard cutters, marine forces, special operations forces, small numbers. We have in some cases adequate numbers now, but if we took reductions we might have to for the global fight that would have a disproportionate impact in the longterm ability to work with our partners. Im confident were going to come out of those. The Sergeant Major and i spent several hours on a ship in florida recently. Its a capability we need. The navy is committed to deploying one in october. We look forward to that so we dont have a navy combatant now so thats a gap. We need those for monitoring the situation in venezuela,also for the global counter narcotic fight. Thats our number one asset to detect that flow so we are short assets, yes, senator. Thank you for that. Thats very helpful. Let me ask you about our mill to mill context here which youve already discussed some. They seem to be in your region relatively narrow focused and at the small unit level. Do you feel that our training events with our partner nations are focused at the right level and are they having the effect that you think they should be . We do focus at the unit level. But we also have some high end exercise with our very capable partners. We just completed unitas. Our very capable chilean partnered hosted that. 12 nations in that dpexercise fm around the globe. At the same time we had our forces commando. So 19 special operations squads working together in a team. We do have high ends exercises. I think theres more we could do to increase the level and complexity of those and bring more partners in. Thats one of the things were focused on the theres Additional Resources for exercises. Last question just on unitas. Over 1700 personnel participated, 12 nations. Can you describe the degree of trust among the participating nations, things you feel came out of this that you would report onto this . I attended the Opening Ceremony and had a chance to sit in the brief in the hangar of a chilean frigt. You saw a band of brothers standing there on the flight deck that would make any one of us proud. Thats exercise money, training dollars thats well spent. That covered everything from hadr to response to a terrorist activity and it was intense. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. You mentioned the shortfall in the global counter narcotics efforts. The Opioid Crisis in the u. S. Was responsible for more than 147,000 deaths in 2017. Much of that comes in from mexico, heroin grown in smern countries trafficked to the u. S. By air and sea. It has a real impact on the b r entire country. Its a significant focus of ours. As i mentioned in a previous question, there are insufficient resources dedicated that were working as hard as we can with the coast guard. Theyve dedicated twice the number of cutters to the effort than what they commit in their annual global plan and our navy stepped up to commit more. Joint Interagency Task force south in key west is the premier center. With about 1. 5 of the budget gets about 90 of the drugs headed into the country, cocaine which is principally coming from colombia. Were working as hard as we can with our partners across the u. S. Interagency, principally to look at ways to be more effective and put more resources and intelligence and thought into the interdiction problem. Its also supply problem and a demand problem. In that regard, id have to say that colombia has stepped up in a significant way. While the statistics that you cite dont reflect that because of the time lag, what has been published and made public for 2018 sin 2018 is a significant increase in manual eradication, a significant increase in colombian partner interdiction, a significant increase in the colombian forces contact with n narco traffic. More can be done. We are certainly dedicated to that because there is still way too much drugs that are getting through and getting to this country, senator. Thank you very much. I want to switch subjects now. Im looking at contract award document from the Defense Logistics Agency for february of 2018. One of thedescribed here is for contingency at Guantanamo Bay for construction of that mass migration complex. It includes site shaping for tents, concrete pads. It goes on to talk about mass notification system, various infrastructure requirements. Are you aware of this contract and have you been part of any discussions about what that mass migration complex is going to be used for . Is it going to be used for movement of migrants from our southern border to Guantanamo Bay . Senator, one of our missions is to be able to handle any kind of mass migration event. Thats a southcomm mission. We have experienced that in the past with migrants from cuba and haiti. Part of the naval station, theres a field at part of the naval station in Guantanamo Bay is an unimproved field that could be subject to any kind of weather conditions, mud. So to get that film to a standard that if we had a mass migration, we could keep the migrants on cement pads instead of in the mud and have power and water for sanitation ready to go. We didnt currently there ahave facilities in the numbers. We also run an annual training drill. We actually send our Army Soldiers there to walk through the command and control in the interagency coordination that may be required. Im very much involved in the details. That is for projected future mass migration event. There have been no discussion or no order given to me to prepare that site for any kind of southwest border flow. Are you aware of any discussions that have been held that you may not have been given a direct order, but have you been part of or do you know of any discussions that have been held to move southern border migrants there . No, senator. Nobodys had a discussion with me to that effect. Thank you. Senator corona. Thank you, madam dhachair. She referred to a 23 Million Contract to house mass migration, people as a result of mass migration. What is that money for . Is it just i dont understand. Isnt it going to go to put some buildings up in this field that youre talking about at Guantanamo Bay . Senator, we currently have a migration operation principally for cuban migrants. This money is for mass migration. I dont think were talking about cuba or haiti. So the current facilities are inadequate to hold any more than a few hundred. So the worst case plans based on historical analysis or some kind of future event, could be a weatherrelated event, would call for a larger infrastructure footprint that could hold into the tens of thousands. Its based on electrical infrastructure, sewer, water, power, some sanitation buildings. Its a very spartan camp, though, senator. Are you saying this money is not for the purposes of moving some of the migrants from the northern triangle countries to Guantanamo Bay . Thats correct, senator. Not for. Any news reports that say there is a potential for housing these people at Guantanamo Bay would be mistaken . Ive seen the same news reports, senator. But the program money and the project and the mission is for mass migration not southwest border. So you havent gotten any order or theres no direct order, no discussion about sending people from the northern triangle to Guantanamo Bay. But if such discussions occur, would you let this committee know . Senator, i assure you i would if theres a discussion with that respect. Thousands of people coming from the northern triangle, our facilities are bursting at the seams and theres no question that some of our defense assets might be put to use to house these people. So it think its a mat earn of great concern for us. So page one of your testimony, you talk about the impact of interstate econocompetition wit china and russia. So china, as you know, is a primary great in the indo pacific arr but they are increasingly turning to other countries. What impact has chinas activities on southern demand had with your relationships with partner nations . Chinas very busy trying to insert themselves into having influence with our partner countries in that area. Is it making it harder for you to retain these important relationships with our partner countries . Our partners still want and view us as a partner of choice and our schools, education and everything is preferred. I think the challenge comes in if we dont have the speed, the quantity or for some reason were not there to be able to provide the partnership. So from that respect when a nation ill give you one example. Im sitting having my third cup of tea with one of the leaders from a capable caribbean partner nation. I dont start out asking about china. I start asking about the things that are mutual threats, how they perceive them. I have a lot to learn in my tour. But we get to china whether they bring it up, ill bring it up. Ill be blunt and ask whats china providing for you. This particular chief of defense said they gifted me 23 million last year, heres cash. I looked at my Security Cooperation card and i think my total sum of assistance was 1. 5, which i felt was pretty adequate. So were not going to compete in volume. We have to compete in quality and speed of relevance. Sometimes that may be fast, sometimes slow based on what the partner needs. So that does make it challenging, though. 23 million. The chief of defense said, well, i didnt buy any i. T. With that, admiral. Well, okay, but theres only so many uniforms you can buy with 23 million, so you did something with it. I get it, its hard to turn down cash. Thats the challenge were competing with. One wonders for how long can they turn down what might be basically free money. Are china and russia also involved in the northern triangle countries . So its different per country. I try to always break them apart and go country by country. Previous leadership in el salvador had a little different view about china and it changed directions. I think the new leadership is much more pro u. S. In really wanting to partner. I mentioned their chief of defense and minister of defense. And thats including both russia and china. And i see the same in honduras and guatemala. From a policy perspective, they stuck by taiwan and the u. S. , guatemala and honduras have. I think its different. But russia and china are in there and theyre trying to make inroads and theyll take every opportunity to move in if were not. It sounds as though that is a constant thing for you. So keep doing it. Thank you, madam chair. We will go ahead and do a second round of questioning. I think our members have additional questions theyd love to hear your thoughts on. We talked a little bit about argentina during your office call and some of the deep space tracking facilities that are there. If you could in an unclassified setting, can you elaborate on the assessed purpose of that facility and the threat it is posing to our military and other assets that we have here. Dhichinas working in space around the globe and across all elements of space. I think our focus on space is exactly right. Theyre looking for access points. They found them in south america and argentinargentinas princip. Thats the extent to what china is doing and the degree of military activity at that site is extremely concerning to the security of the United States. Can you expound on what is the impact to the United States . Chinas ability to have a more global view of all space activities. That could run the gamut of offense and defense. Outside of china and russia, we spent a lot of time visiting about them. But iran and iranian proxies do have a long history in south america and the western hemisphere. There was the 1994 bombing of a judicia Jewish Center in argentina and hezbollah fundraising activities across the region. How would you characterize their presence in this hemisphere and what are their primary objectives . Iran continues to be the number one state sponsor of terror around the world. Their long arm of malfeasance is everywhere. Weve seen that recently in their attacks on tankers. They have right here in washington, d. C. Where they attempted to kill the saudi ambassador to the United States really within blocks of where were stwe e were sitting and their state sponsored terror attack in argentina. There are active connections between Iranian Regime and hezbollah fundraising activi activities throughout the region. We watch this we watch these closely. Theres also iranian sponsorship of Islamic Centers with very dubious and questionable purposes throughout the hemisphere that has considerable ties to known terror activities in iran. And we keep our eye on this and we work closely with our capable partners, such as brazil and argentin argentina, to share information about these threats. And in your estimation, then, these elements that exist in this hemisphere, are they capable of hindering u. S. Objectives . Weve seen what iran is doing day in and day out, senator, in the arabian gulf, in yemen, in saudi arabia, in the uae, what theyve done here in the past and so i i dont put much stock in their good intentions going forward, and so i think weve got our eye on this one as best we can with the resources we have. Thank you, admiral. Ill yield back my time. Senator peters. Thank you, thank you, madam chair. Im going to pick up on a question the chair asked yud about. You talked about the space domain. The other domain we need to be focused on is cyber, in particular, chinese activities around the world in that area. Can you explain what the chin niece may or may not be doing in latin america to expand their Cyber Capabilities . Start with the crisis in venezuela, so the maduromade crisis there, pushed out over 4 million migrants, unfortunately, its affecting their region, is being aided, abetted, by russia, cu cuba, to a lesser extent, a significant one china. The debt i mentioned in my Opening Statement, china is also, i mentioned this as well, involved in enabling cyber for the maduro regime. We look broadly beyond that. The attractiveness of i. T. Infrastructure and the safe city smart city concept where i. T. Infrastructure can provide surveillance opportunities for Security Forces as being actively pursued by a number of important partners in the region. Weve been very actively involved with our interagency partners to explain the risks, the partners that they get it and theyve been able in some cases to articulate that to their leadership to slow or stop some projects but they turn to us and say whats our alternative . They ju they, just like was mentioned about the money, senator hirono mentioned at some point you do need resources. They had i. T. Infrastructure. On a milltomill level, were working on packaging with cyb cybercom. Some of our first ever Security Cooperation packages with partners we asked, almost everywhere we go, the partners want to do more in this area and made visits to do some assessments and with support of congress, were going to come forward with some 333 packages that will do training, cyber infrastructure, in a miltomil realm. Thats got to be our response and thats another reason why we need to, when i talk more broadly about being there and being consistent, thats one of the areas were going to look moving forward and that will help both of us on cyber defense. China is there in a big way, senator. China is uses cyber not just to deal with security issues, surveillance issues to prevent crime but also to keep track of their population and some would argue to manipulate the population and get them more compliant with with the regime. Do you think latin american governments are also moving in that direction with the assistance of the chinese . Senator, when i talk to our partners about u. S. Versus china, i say, look, im not here to bash china. Im not here to even ask you to make a choice. Im here to talk about whats important to you and whats important to us and i think i know where you come from where you honor and respect democracy, rule of law, human rights and sovereignty. I look at those four representative variables and i look at the competition that you might to do business with. These other external state actors and i know where we stand. Were not the perfect people, but we work really hard at being good in this country, particularly in our military. We make mistakes, but theyre usually mistakes of, you know, honest mistakes. I know where i stand on those four variables and where the competition stands on those four variable. When you buy into a product, are you prepared to buy in what might come with what kind of rule of law, what kind of respect for human rights . I dont see currently an indication that people are buying into that in a way thats corrupting them or causing them to stray from their commitment to us and their commitment to professionalism on a miltomil level. It concerns many ew s me when y long term, democracy, human rights, rule of law. Senator shaheen . Thank you. Admiral, as im sure youre aware in 2017 President Trump signed into law the women peace and priority security act. We prioritize women in conflict negotiations and security structures and peace negotiations. Can you talk about how southcom is implementing that law and how you see it helping you to accomplish your mission . Master chief stationsy sytac my gender adviser, alter ego to the command Major Sergeant here. Shes out actually on a field trip working on this. When we look at professionalism, what it takes to be a professional force, i thnk thats principally why people want to partner with us. Were professional. Professional forces are legitimate. Professional forces respect human rights, rule of law. They also respect talent and allowing equal opportunity to come in and compete irrespective of who you are, what you do and whether youre a female or male. Thats what our approach is and how we talk about it. So my commanders conferences that i have, we have a big one coming up in august in brazil for all the south american countries. That will be a focus point of the discussion with our counterparts and how they work that and how we work with them and weve actually had requests from some of our partners to say how did you, United States, work through the integration putting women on the team, on combat ships at sea . Thats one of promjects were taking on with one of our partner nations. They appreciate the act because it came with resources that help us to sponsor training courses. We hosted a first course where were training the commanders. I kicked the course off, the afternoon of my first day in command, actually, and were looking how to move this forward in practical ways that deliver combat capability. I actually think it does. I know it does. Delivers combat capability. Well, i think its also important to point out that theres a growing body of evidence that shows what a difference it makes to have women at the table in conflict resolution and in peace negotiations where we know if women are part of those negotiations, they are 30 , more than 30 , likely to last for longer than 15 years. So i think for all kinds of reasons including the ones you cite, its important for us to see this law implemented. Thank you very much. Thank you, madam chair. Senator hirono. Thank you. The joint Interagency Task force south helps dek s detect, monitd stop Drug Trafficking. Can you clarify for me, you mentioned in your response 40 of interdictions are by our partner countries. Thats 40 of the 6 of the drugs that are interdicted. When President Trump declared a National Emergency to fund his border wall, he announced he would pull 2. 5 billion from the department of defenses drug interdiction program. Thats the program that were talking about. So how are the funds in this program used to address Drug Trafficking and if the funds are diverted to build a border wall, how would this impact your ability to complete your drug interdiction efforts . Senator, the joint energy Task Force South as you mentioned currently led by coast guard two star is key to this effort. Theyre doing a great job with about 1. 5 of the overall counternarcotics funds for the entire u. S. Government to get about 80 , 90 of all the cocaine. Still, its not enough. As you cite. 6 . The you know, the policy decision on how the how the border securitys done is not something that im involved in. Weve not had any cut in our funding for the counternarcotic fight, so however that money is flowed, we have received the money that weve needed and do need to fight the fight that were in. We do need more assets. That does cost money, but the principal problem we face has not been as money. We appreciate congress support in that. Thank you. Clarify me for that this 2. 5 billion, youre not going to miss it if it goes away. If it went away, if we lost the money from counternarcotics, wed miss it. I guess it was a long answer to weve not had a cut in our counternarcotics funding. Well, it may happen. The way things are going. So considering, you know, since the president is talking about diverting this money for a wall, which, by the way, thats not going to help in terms of your drug interdiction efforts because most of your drugs come through the regular ports of points of entry, not where a wall will be. You noted in your testimony on page 2 that this area, your arr, is the largest source of illicit drugs and Illegal Migrants to the United States. You know further on that youre working with partners to address share challenges and threats in this area including weak governance, corruption, Transnational Criminal Organizations and the flow of illicit drugs. And you say that youre looking forward to discussing the nature of this activity and detail how youre working with the partners to address those issues. Can you give me an example of how youre working with your partners to go after all of these the weak governors, corruption, the litany of that