Question of knowledge of what happened. Today we are seeing something remarkable. I wish this legislation would have happened 10 or 20 years ago, but the fact is its happened, its going to have a major effect on the future. And many, many works of art that i use the expression the last prisoners of world war ii will finally find the Rightful Owners. I thank the senate and congress for what they are doing. Thank you, ambassador. Let me ask you do you believe the United States has lived up to our commitment as set forth in the declaration to make certain that claims to nazilooted art are resolved expeditiously and based on the facts and merits of the claim . The answer is yes and no. Yes, we have in many cases, no we havent in certain cases. There have been organizations and art thats been returned correctly, and theres been other art thats been, lets say, found a way to make either the statute of limitations or other factors stopping it. Very often its very difficult for a museum when theyre told one of their best pieces of art is a piece stolen, they try to find ways to stop it. The other question is provenance research. Many paintings, theres a question of what happened to them between 19, lets say 39 and 1945, and sometimes the germans kept very good records. Other times the records were destroyed. Its a question of trying to put together things, but in the will, the United States has tried to live up to the washington declaration and the other declarations, but at sometimes topped by necessary las vegas, and this is what i think this act does. Dame mir ren, you testified a that lot of people were like their mothers story or the grandmothers stories. Are any of those conversations particularly memorable or compelling you would be able to share with the committee . I think that it wasnt so much specifically one story, but the fact that there were so many of them. As i said every night outside the stage door someone would approach me with great emotion and say how much this film had meant to them. I think it was finally to see the telling of their story revealed to the world that they found so deeply moving, exciting t. And utterly meaning much just the fact their stories that would been secret and suppressed or even if they tried to tell people, nobody wanted to listen. The fact that finally somebody was listening. I think thats what was so very important for them. Thank you. Let me finally mention, in your testimony you said that it would be that the act would not if it eliminates one time of procedural obstacle to replace another. I certainly can say thats not my intention and certainly not the intention of any of the authors of this legislation, so let me invite you, indeed every member of this panel to work with hour staff, and if theres specific revisions that you believe would improve this legislation, in particular prevent the vent legislation to remove the earp proposal barriers and allow an adjudication on the mirts so that justice may be served. I would invite everyone on the panel to work with our team to make sure there are not any inadvertent barriers put in he place. Thank you, senator cruz. I want to thank every one of you for powerful and eloquent testimony. Ambassador lauder, i know that your work on this issue began long before this movie. In fact, i think we discussed this issue long before the movie and actually held meetings publicly in rooms a fraction of the size of this one, because at the time there was little or no public attention to it so the great work of dame mirren and the movie has been to greatly elevate the visibilitiened profile to give us the support we need for this profoundly important cause, and dame mirren, you used the word modest to describe this proposal. It is indeed exceedingly modest. All it does is unlock the courthouse door to thousands of people who are seeking their day to present their case. Again, some of the most powerful institutions in this country, and in fact, as i listen to you and to mr. Goodman, what i really felt was anger and outrage at the nazis, but also at the museums and other very reputable institutions that have repeatedly invoked these technical legal obstacles. Lets not be too polite about it, in case after case after case around the country im not going to name the museums, but they are among the leading institutions in our nation, and in some sense they have been complicit in this injustice. They have indirectly aided and abetted the thug ary of the nazis who were completely immoral, in fact amoral, but these institutions had made a pretense of observing the rules of morality. So let me ask you, ambassador lauder, do you think we can enlist the museums in this cause and other institutions that perhaps ought to be on the right side here . The right side of justice and the right side of history . Yes, we can and we should. The question is, no museum wants to be looked on as keeping nazilooted art. I think that the more we can expos the various museums who are holding it, i think we win the battle. I think this question of having the claimant ask about the merits, is the right thing. Too many times the museums have hid behind the statute of limitations, but more importantly, they have made it so expensive for so many claimants to do the work. Through our committee weve had dozens of claimants say please help us. The museum is costing us huge amounts of money we cant afford to get the piece back. Very often weve had to speak to the museums that unless and truly they stop doing this, they would then have the publicity of nazistolen art in their museum. Thats worked in many cases, but each case is a fight, and this changes the whole this makes it a level play iing field for e first time. Mr. Goodman, you had your hand up. I would be happy to yield to you. I think one of the problems today that when a claim is presented to the museum, they take it to their Legal Department. As long as the Legal Department will give the advice that this is not a claim that could be successful in court, then the museum feels that their main duty is to the collection, to preserve their collection, and since there is no viable legal claim, they feel already hesitant to even review the claim. So i think if this act would remove that obstacle and allow the leaders of the museum to hear legal a advice, that yes, this is a valid claim, they would be much more willing to sit down and reach a fair and reasonable resolution. Mr. Chairman, i have one more quick question. Hearing your story and having being very familiar with the story thats told in the movie, i take it that in neither of these cases was there any kind of delay, which is the purpose of the statute of limitations to prevent, in other words, delay in making claims or taking advantage of the passage of time. A both of the stories, the one depicted in your movie, dame mirren, and yours in your own life, indicates to me there was just no way that there was delay or postponing of claims. Am i correct in that observation . Yes, thats absolutely true. In every day my family acts just as soon as we can. The problem is whats been gathering sufficient evidence to get a case to court or if not a settlement. Its been an uphill battle to gather the information, most of which didnt become available until the end of the last century. I have to add that despite all this, its extremely expensive what families like mine do. So i do this despite the obvious financial obstacles. Its a point of honor that i have to resolve what is outstanding of my familys. And dame mirren, in the story that you depict, there was hardly delay. In fact its a story of determination and incredible courage. Yes. I mean the minute that maria understood, as far as i understand it she read a newspaper article talking about restitution. She was not aware in her loupe to that point that ever was going to be a possibility. Suddenly it was revealed i guess a law was changed and she realized now there was a possibility to do that. The minute she understood that, i any it was ten or more users that it took her to get to the point of the art coming back to her. It was a very long and difficult battle. Again, this woman had a little boutique in los angeles, she wasnt a rich woman, but she had the advantage of a young lawyer, we tell the story in the movie, randy horneberg who came on board. Thats how she managed. And she lit a fire under him. My god, she did. Absolutely. She was an extraordinary woman. Unfortunately i never met her, but i saw film of her. She was we owe her a great deal, all of us sitting here dealing with this issue. It was 12 years, almost 4 million worth of travel that she did. I met her at the beginning. She was the most determined human being ive ever met, and dame helen portrayed it perfectly. It was 12 years of her work, huge amounts of money that was involved before this was done. The last things the austrians said before you can bring a claim in austria, you have to something something down like 5 million or some huge number before you can bring a claim. Thats why the claim came to the United States instead of in austria. Thank you. I would note that you explained or legislation as modest. That may be the first time that modest has been used for the United States senate. Senator lee. Thank you very much. Thank you for holding this hearing and thank to each of you are for your testimony. Tell us would you say at the doctri doctri doctrine of laches should be applied. I think we heard that when Holocaust Survivors came to the United States were not ordinary citizens in terms of going after their rightful property. I think it would be unjust to put the burden on the court to have a different level of Due Diligence assigned to Holocaust Survivors because of all the of the horrors theyve been through. Laches is there to take care of injustices. Ironically in this case the application of that doctrine would be manifestly inequitable . Yes, i would say that illustrates talk to us about the federal hook in this. Of course when we are looking at theft, most of the time, theft is an issue of state law. Its not in the ordinary circumstance a matter of federal law. Federal law can on you cover theft of federal property. Certain types of intellectual property. Standard gardenvariety theft, including theft of artwork typically would be a matter for state law as to substance and procedural issues like statute of limitations. Tell us would you this is an probably use of federal law and what it is that gives Congress Jurisdiction to do this. Well, the state of california tried to address this issue and enacted a statute of limitation law that covered holocaust appropriation. That law was struck down by the ninth circuit. In that decision it was held that addressing this issue is a federal issue and the state had no power to carve out that exception. That exception could only be carved out on a federal level. The reasoning that the ninth circuit used was what . That by creating this special designation . The United States has a consistent Foreign Policy and policy about rest attituding artwork since 1943, so this was more a commitment and the obligation of the United States in general to address these issues and therefore its a federal rights to carve out that exception. So given that consistent Foreign Policy it would be impossible for any one state to req nigsz a special rule relative to this type of dispute involving this type of article without engaging in Foreign Policy . Yes, i would say that. That makes sense. One question that might be raised by some, this applies with respect to art taken in connection with one particular type of genocide, with you particular episode in our history. There are other general ocrisis around the world, mass confills indications of life and property that might have been occurred, so why focus on this one rather than others. Do you want to address that question . Sure. I fully agree there orem grievances that maybe addressed in this sittings, on the other hand, the United States has a consistent policy regarding the restitution of nazi eralooted art, and the United States taking on the washington principles and declaration that it will enable claims to come forward and affirm in the declaration that the claim should be heard on the merits. So those something that would be a next logical step in that policy. Okay. This one certainly wouldnt preclude us from doing that with respect to other atrocities . Not at all. In fact it gets back to this consistent policies, consistent Foreign Policy approach that the United States has taken with respect to this genocide, these atrocities that dictates or necessitates or action here, and certainly doesnt preclude us from doing so elsewhere, or the need to do so based on a need for a consistent Foreign Policy might arise. Yes, i agree. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, ive been delegated to act as chairman while senator cruz is out of the room, and were going to proceed in order of appearance of, senator kunz. I would like to thank the panel for your testimony and remarkable work. To ambassador, just the very idea that the work you are doing is to set free the last prisoners of the Second World War is such a powerful visual and emotional symbol, and dame mirren, it is such an hannor to be with you. Your Work Together and the whole testimony of the panel, is the power of art and film to move, and a paint been to inspire, to inspire years and work, millions of investment making sure its restored to its Rightful Owner. Im grateful for the work of the senators who have convened this hearing. Mr. Goodman, let me start with you if i could. How would the act made a difference. How could it support your efforts to recover your familys art. In the first instance my family found themselves in u. S. Court in chicago. We won the first motion to dismiss. However, my family felt obliged to settle out of court, because we had no guarantee we would win or that the judge would not throw the case out based on our case have been expired the statute of limitations. So we had to accept second best, because we were on strong moral ground, but very weak legal ground. Also its my belief that if the senate here can further our cause, law aside, the mood that would be set by the senate would be sending a message to museums and the art business in general that a settlement is welcome and long overdue. So yes next time i end up in court no doubt it would help. There are a few bainings im still trying to track. There are at least 20 good paintings missing from my familys collection, several gold renaissance sculptures, and at least 300 important antiques. So the search goes on. Were talking about statute of limitations. Ive been working on this for 20 years and ive uncovered a lot, but theres still a lot more to find. So i dont know where ill be next year. If it passes this certainly would be a huge help for my family and it establishes a moral record as well that we should follow. Thank you. Ms. Per zigy, what do you think that plaintiffs would have to offer that would be different in future actions . Well, in some of these cases, the actions of previous family members, the ancestors were questioned, whether they were diligent, whether they did the right thing, did the right research . Whether they negotiated too long or too short . So a lot of issues came up that i think was open to interpretation, and what i think this act will bring is certainty. The best way to resolve these claims if both sides know where the law stands, because you can sit down and reach a resolution. Do you think the art world would respond in a constructive and positive way . Or might there be other vehicles found to delay . Are there real concerns about this legislation . I can only speak to with regards to christies i believe we see ourselves ashrined with the spirit of the bill, but from an art market perspective, we need to be able to convey good title. So therefore we need to look at the facts of the case and make sure there isnt any taint on the artwork. Again without commenting specifically on the bill, what gaskly the bill is appropriation is basically ma business template that we already have instituted at christies which is negotiated settlements and making sure that were looking at the facts case by case and achieving sort of that fair and just solution as passed by the washington conference principles. Dame mirren if i might, the comment has been made that, you know, the looting of art was in some ways a piece of their larger horrific campaign to destroy an entire people and their culture. Today were engaged in a conflict with isis, which is doing very similar things, looting and destroying cultural artifacts of an entire region. How do you see the impact not just on those who are the victims of actions and have been dedicating, as people have so much of their time and live of undoing the injustices, what impacts do you think this may have on the appreciation in the world of the value of Cultural Treasures . I think its i mean i absolutely agree with you. When i was engaged in the film and having to imagine living in that world that maria had to live in and her memories, i thought my god, this is happening to people as we speak. This is happening to people. People are banging on doors and walking in and taking lives, but also trying to take peoples history away from them. As the sort of horrors of what happened in the Second World War as i grew up and began to learn about them and began to understand more and more, the thing that affected me the most and does to this day is the idea of losing all trace of your existence on this planet. All trace. Even if you personally survived, to live in a world with absolutely no family, no history, no memories, no photograph albums, no one to talk to, what was grandma like . No picture of grandma . Just the simple human things. This is why i feel strongly that this has nothing to do with money. It so happens that some of these works of art are wort a lot of money, but its so much more to reclaim your place in history. I was thinking it was like people going into the beautiful cave paintings in france, thats all we know about those people, and then going with a knife and scratching them out, we dont want to remember you, youre gone, youre finished. So, yes, its happening as we speak, and its must be we must be be eternally vigilant against, especially. Thank you so much for your testimony. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you, senator kunz. Senator tillis. Thank you, senator cruz, and thank you and others for working on this bill. Ambassador lauder, can you give me an idea do we have any rough idea of how many pieces are still outstanding, number of people who are still waiting to take action like mr. Goodman has taken . There is no good numbers, obviously, with you can saying think probably 2 to 300,000 worths of art around the world that have been unaccounted for. The minor ones we will never know, but the major ones we have seen from the records that the nazi kept what they stole. It doesnt even touch the amount of drawings, presents, amounts of furniture that was never recorded. The closest we can say is probably a couple hundred,000 works of art are out there somewhere. Mr. Goodman you were saying theres some 24 more pieces of art. How many have you recovered to this point do you still have searching to do . Elf a lot of searching to do. Theres one important painting that i have traced to new york in 1955, and beyond that, the testimony of the eras of two different art gallery it is that conflicts, so one of them is probably lying to me and i cant yet figure out which. I have recovered, or at least received settlements so far for about 20 paintings, and i received about 300 antiques from the dutch government. Settlements from the french government, and most recently i had an important settlement from germany for two gold renaissance clocks. So its kept me very busy the last few years, but its by no means finished. Mr. Goodman when you talk about settlements, give me an idea of what the nature of a settlement would look like . In some cases i have to settle for a nominal sum, maybe 40 , 50 of the real value, but i weigh that against what legal action might cost if i was actually going to entitled in a sense to get to court. And then it depends on where i found something. I found a painting in switzerland where legally i dont have a leg to stand on, but for emotional reasons, i got the consigner to give me 50 of the proceeds. I would like to get something about. I found something in los angeles about a mile from my home, and that collector, after i talked to him about a year actually took it off his wall and helped to load it in the back of my car. There are good and bad people in all of this. You know, if you think about this act, it wouldnt seem to be a terribly politically charged debate here, but what about in europe and other originating countries . What sorts of challenges do we have or opposition is there to what the senators are trying to do with the here act . This is a difference between most of Continental Europe and the u. S. Legal system. One of the fundamental differences, the statute of limitations is prescriptive in europe. That means after the passage of title, the title actually transfers to the possessor, while in the United States, the statute of limitations is procedural, which means that the claimant will be barred to recover the art work, but good title would never pass. So in europe if someone is holding a nazi era looted art, even if he gives it back to the original owner, he can go back to court and claim it. In the United States if a current podsor gives it to the original owner and goes to court, he will never be able to reclaim it. One of the reasons why europe, france, germany, austria, holland, the uk, took the option to establish commissions or special laws or adjudicating bodies is because they couldnt change statute of limitation laws. In the United States there have been town Hall Meetings and all sorts of effort to establish a commit, but in the United States most of the museums are privately owned. In europe they are publicly owned, most of them. So if a minister of culture in germany or france decides that museums are supposed to behave in certain ways and waive the statute of limitations they do not need to change the law. In the United States you dont have such a government body. And therefore you need to change the laud, and in the United States you can. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you. Senat senator. In 196 is, the minneapolis was bequeathed a paymenting called smoke over roof tops. They later determined that it had been stolen by the nazis. The institute did the right thing by returning the art, but the process for determining that was long and arduous, which im sure youre used to starting in 1997, and it took ten years of research. How can we work to make this process work more effectively and quickly for the parties involved . I think that a lot has changed in the last several years in terms of access to information as well. Being able to support claims and documentation. So in that instance that claim might be resolved differently now in terms of access to supporting a claim. In terms of the law, or i think i should probably let you, aggie, respond. About the research aspect . Yes. Well, i think that at the time of the washington conference principles, if you read the principles. It calls to a general database and there was hope that computer and i. T. Possibilities will quick quickly and just click a button and have an answer. It never happened. In the now hose information is processed, but it did not stop many institutions, occurrences with National Archives and other information to develop their own local databases. So today you can sit at your desk look at the auction you have the restitution files in german,digitally accessible, so a tremendous amount of information today. What would have taken enormous amount of time or maybe not even ever been completed to years ago, today you can do it quite quickly. Thank you. Mr. Ambassador, i was thinking the time, the reason the bill is so important is because of the statute of limitations, it helps. How that is that level of cooperation improved over time . Or has it improved . It it depends by country. Some countries have improved. Some countries like germany has not done never provenance reference, i believe it was originally sold into switzerland and the records were very difficult. The question is between knowing its stolen and finding the piece of paper that says here it is, its very difficult. But the question is, many countries have started to become better at it, certainly European Countries have not. Thank you. Im impressed you knew about the one painting. I collect art. Really . No, im kid. Mismirren, maybe you have answered this question, but i loved the movie. I watched it twice actually. Could you talk what was the most surprising thing you learned about this issue from a policy political standpoint by doing the movie . Well, just you have to actually live in that world. So i in plays maria altman i had to put her memories in her mind and know exactly what that world was like that she was coming from. As i was playing about the role and quintly now being here, im here because because the emotional i mean all the time playing the role i was thinking supposing someone came to my door tonight, a group of guys thumped on the door, you know, broke it in, walked into my house and took all of everything that i own. All forced me to sign a piece of paper, basically sort of giving it to them all, settle selling it to them for a very small amount of money. I dont really own anything of great value like that, but the pure emotional thing. Why is it was it wrong then and suddenly today only because its, what, 7 a years later . Suddenly we forgot about it. No, we dont forget about it. Its as wrong today as it was then, and the justice that we should be seeking for them should be sought for now. I dont see any difference anyway, it was thoughts like that that sort of made me feel very im not jewish, this didnt happen to my family, but i had to imaginatively live in that world, and i feel very strongly about it. Thank you very much. Senator hatch . Thank you. I would like to be added as a cosponsor, if you will. Without objection. I want to compliment everyone on this panel for the excellent testimony that you have given. Im honored to serve along with distinguished senator from minnesota on the units Holocaust Museum board of trustees. The museums website says the primary mission includes, quote, encouraging the visitor toss reflect on the moral and spiritual questions raised by the events of the hole okaus as well as their own responsibility this legislation is part of that respond in my opinion and shows how the job of remedying the facts is still not over. Ambassador lauder, i have Great Respect for you. Is it fair to say that one component of the nazi assault was a massive, deliberate and Systematic Campaign to steal art and cultural objects that was unprecedented in scope. Sorry, the question is is it fair to say that one component of the nazi regime was to steal this art . It was a major part, for two reasons, as was said, it destroys the memory. The other aspect is they wanted very very much to use art both to make museums and gives to various collectors in the res jet stream. Hitler also wanted to make a major museum in lintz. And we will never know all the thing that have been stolen, but senator hatch, i also thank you for all the years that you have worked on the subject, and your work there is exemplary. On behalf of the jewish people, we thank you for what you have done. Its been a pleasure. Thank you. Youre so nice. I just got back from israel, where i went all over. I have to say, i have such admiration for the israelis and the jewish people throughout the world, you in particular. Now, dame mirren, you are one of my favorite people. Thank you. I think its safe to say youre one of everybodys favorite people. A terrific actress. I want you to know i feel very deeply towards you. Stories about real people and experience with powerfully communicate the reality of Something Like the holocaust. It looks like mr. Goodman and the film in which you starred with raise away. Announcer . More than 70 years after the war ended, how can we tell these stories in order to keep alive what you described as a moral imperative . Art is incredibly important. I believe, im an artist, that our history as a people, as a legal system, you know, will be told through our art ultimately in 1,000, 2,000 years time. Our existence on this planet will be communicated to future generations through our art. I think that was what was so extraordinary specifically about maria altmans world, the viennese world, it was so full the culture and art, being in vienna, and the beautiful houses built by the jewish community, i realized it was a jewish culture, the beautiful memory of vienna and was actually created by the jewish people. To try and take that away from them was just so unutterably cruel and unfair. Anyway, i guess thats what im saying. Our memory of people on this planet is created by our artistic contribution. I agree. Mr. Chairman, could i ask one more question . Absolutely. Thank you. One concern that might be raised by the bill is the impact on the system of federalism. Senator lee did raise this to a degree. I want to understand why congress may legitimately step in and preempt these state rules. Not only is there a longstanding and federal interest of guess this claims involved. Did i get that right . Yes. Okay. Yes. There was a state, california who tried to address these issues by a state legislation, and that legislation was upheld on constitutional at the circuit, because it was encroaching on federal policy as a result california had to enact a new legislation without carves out holocaust era looting. Another issue is maybe the interstate travel of artworks. Depending on where the would drop the art so this is something that i think needs to be addressed on the federal level. Also the United States has a clear on policy on restitution issues. Since 1943, up to the terrorism declaration of 2009 under which the United States undertakes the obligation to address these issues. So i think its proper to pass the here act on a federal level. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator franken . Thank you all for your testimony today. I was born in 1951. My parents, as an american jew, the holocaust was something that was profound ly something that y parent taught me about. Thank you for being here and for your tireless work on behalf the the victims and their families you talk about the review and how Different Countries have addressed it. Based on the review and practices of countries who have made major progress in this effort, what steps do you believe must still by taken in addition to the passage of the bill today to ensure that the United States is doing everything it can to return works of art to their Rightful Owners . Well, one of the issues is information. We need to have more information about what the museums hold. On an average museum will exhibit about 30 of its collection at all. So the 70 would stay in storage. The United Kingdom had a wonderful project called your paymenting, now following up with another project called your culture, which was started by bbc, and christies participated. They took the job of digitizing all paints and caumont stirs. So it took it took ten years. But since then, i think digitization improved. You can public all the artworks that a museum have. I can say today that anyone has a suspicion that a u. K. My seem holds a painting, they can go on the internet and see themselves. This could be also a project that serves not just restitution but a general culture. Why shoint scholars be able to find artworks that they can learn from and share with the general public. So i think there are other creative ways to go forward and i would be very happy to assist you or anyone else figure out what would be the best way in the United States to proceed. So the digitization of this information, like all information is helpful. I understand that christys has facilitated the restitution of a broad array of artworks, including some stolen by parties other than the nazis. For example, christys rest constituted a piece that had remained with its Rightful Owner in germany for the majority of world war ii. It was only in the final weeks of the conflict that it was seized by soviet troops, passed through the hands of their military administration, ended up in amy seem miuseum in germ. Can you discuss the extent that you believe other parties in addition to the nazis have been responsible for looting and the misappropriation of arts during world war ii . We deal with thank you, senator, for the question. Shiure. The main goal is to make sure everything we sell has clear providence. I would clarify that although theres lots of museums works that might not have clear providences. A lot of the work that has not been returned is in private hands and we come across it when these works get consigned to us. During world war ii, you had looting by the nazis. Afterwards, you had looting by the stazi. We basically are dealing with all issues involving theft and making sure again that what we sell has clear title. Cuban collections nationalized by the castro regime. So we basically are doing thorough Due Diligence. We have a thorough Due Diligence program in looking at every single work of art that gets consigned to us to make sure that it has clear providence. When it doesnt or when theres a question, we aim to clarify that history of ownership. The difficulty of course is that the art market never really focused on these issues until fairly recently. Maybe the last ten to 15 years people would buyers would be interested in a providence if it belonged to a famous collector. But routine research and getting a Clear History of ownership was not a priority. As a result and theres a lot of spotty information. And you have lot of the sources that we use to do our Providence Research like catalogue of an artist, history of their works or whatever were using, whatever were looking at that might have been published might have been published with wrong information. All this to say that we are looking at everything that gets consigned. It is difficult again because of the challenges of the passage of time. And now were weve accessed information and the internet has been huge and the opening up of archives in europe, in Eastern Europe and books being written by various authors. The difficulty is again that there is so much information out there and none of it is really centralized. So the work is extremely laborious. It takes a tremendous amount of time which is a challenge for us because we work on deadline. We dont have a static collection like a museum. Works are coming in and we have to do thorough Providence Research in a matter of weeks or a month. So thats another thing that could be helpful in all of this too is finding some sort of way to centralize all of the fragmented information thats out there to make it easier for individuals to pursue their artworks without having to resort to specialists necessarily or support, but being able to do it on their own if they have the access to information. Thank you. Mr. Goodman, i think, wants to answer, but i want toty a tt th ail. The added complications by what was looted by the nazis, the problem then became that they were not able to deal with individual claimants. So most of what was recovered by the allies at the end of the war was returned not to the Rightful Owners, by to the country from which they had been stolen. In my familys case, many of our pieces were returned to the new dutch and french governments who then in many instances claimed they could not find the Rightful Owner and then auctioned these pieces. Theres a worse case with the former yugoslavia as well who claimed all sorts of things had been stolen from them. There are many works on the market today that theoretically have a clean bill of health because theres a case right now in california where a russian collector bought a piece theoretically legitimately from the dutch government. The problem was, they didnt return that piece to the Rightful Owners. So there are layers upon layers of what the claimant families have to deal with in order to prove that an actual theft took place. A collector in the states today can argue fairly reasonably that it was bought quite legitimately. Bought it from an official government body. So trying to give you a Bigger Picture in a sense of what were up against. Thank you, senator franken. I want to thank each of the witnesses for coming today. I want to thank you for your learned testimony and the time and energy and commitment of each of you fighting for this issue and fighting to see justice served. I am proud. I want to thank senator core unanimous, senator bloomen thal and senator schumer. Im particularly grateful for expediting this legislation through the full judiciary committee. There are many times washington doesnt work and doesnt work well and we face deadlock. Im hopeful that well see some real bipartisan cooperation and the senate and the house of representatives act and act expeditiously. Seven decades is far too long to wait for justice. Senator grassleys full written statement will be added to the record without objection. We will keep the hearing record open for an additional five business days. It will be closed tuesday, june 14th, 2016, i would invite any of the witnesses to submit Additional Information for the record. With that, the hearing is adjourned. As we leave this event, go live now to hear from admiral paul zukunft, hes at the center for strategic and International Studies to talk about the future of Maritime Forces and policy. We expect his remarks in just a moment. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to csis. Im kathleen hicks. Together with our partners at the u. S. Naval institute and daily whos just taking his seat representing them here today, were happy to bring you our Maritime Security dialogue. Today, were especially happy to invite the commandant of the u. S. Coast guard, admiral paul zukunft. This is a great update on everything thats happened for and with the coast guard in the meantime which has been significant. He, as you may well know, admiral zukunft has extensive Operational Command experience in the pacific and in the atlantic of of note, he was the federal on scene coordinator for the deep water horizon spill and he directed there more than 47,000 responders, 6,500 vessels and 120 aircraft dealing with the Largest Oil Spill in u. S. History. You can agree he has both the Extensive International experience and homeland experience necessary for the coast guard. Sorry about that. You can be a marine corps commandant as well, i have no doubt. Before we begin today, i do want to just go through our safety procedures. We have doors behind us and then we have this door behind me that leads to the back of the building, this leads to the front of the building. This is our normal safety precautions that we relay to you. And i will be here to direct you in case of a fire alarm. I want to thank our sponsors for the event, that is Lockheed Martin international. Thank you to both of them for making this seriar sear sear yeez possible. Its always mindful of the threats that face us on a daytoday basis. Those are the threats we always look at in the coast guard and the maritime domain as well. What id like to open up first, when i came into this job just over two years ago on day one, we put out my commandants direction. Usually theres a tendency of wait six months, study, see whats going on, then ill provide my direction. You dont have six months to waste. So the first day one is we put out my commandants detection. The fist piece of that was about service to nation. First of all, strategy needs to drive our budget. For nearly 225 years, weve always looked at, heres our budget, now what do we do with it. Really not looking at what our unique authorities are and where do we plug and play on a global scale. Not just here in the homeland, by worldwide as well. Also intelligence driving operations. Weve been a member of the National Intelligence community now for 14 years. Its not just driving the operations, its also driving where you do not operate. Where you would apply what i would call space decisionmaking. We have 11 statutory missions. Historically, we would try to fill those buckets up evenly. But recognizing some of those buckets are already pretty healthy. We had a compliance rate of over 95 . Then i looked at what was happening in the western hemisphere. We had intelligence on over 80 , 85 of the drug flow ultimately destined for the United States, 80 to 85 , but on the best of days we could target 10 . Means over 70 , 75 of that gets a free pass. Lets pit a series of strategies together. I can certainly look out five years which is what we did last year and we put out a fiveyear strategic intent. Looking at the socioeconomic influences on a global scale. Whats happening in the European Union where you have countries that are struggling economically, yet you have a rising china, you have a rising southeast asia. Many of the maritime nations of the world are not trying to build navies, theyre trying to build coast guards. They see their most intrinsic threats is human trafficking, illegal fishing, smuggling and the like, and of course natural disasters, search and rescue. At the International Sea power symposium in 2014, i felt like the agenda was hijacked because it became very coast guard like. Many of the maritime nations of the world cant diuplicate the best navy in the world and that is our United States navy. Second to none and always will be. We recognize that discretionary budgets are not going to grow any time soon and we also recognize that there will be a change in administration. We factored all of that in looking out over the next five years of the coast guard and where do our authorities resonate globally where we bring the best return on investment. Then we went off with a number of regional and functional strategies. One of those is our strategy for the western hemisphere. When i arrived in the job, that year, we had 68,000 unaccompanied minors from the countries of honduras, guatemala and el salvador leaving those countries to make safe arrival in the United States. So the first thing i did as the chairman of the Interdiction Committee within the office of the National Drug control policy, i went down with a number of principles here in d. C. And we met with the president s of the triborder regions, in colombia and panama as well. We said, well, why are these Young Children leaving. Probably the most sobering account of this was in el salvador. He says its like this. The parents right now, theyre taking their kids out of school because theyre afraid theyll be coopted or forced to join a gang. This is a country right now that has 40 unemployment, 50 poverty. Now youre pulling this next generation out of a higher education. So where is el salvador going to be in the next 15 to 20 years . When i ask there in honduras or guatemala and i say, why the violence. A year ago, honduras was the most violent nation in the world and murder rates were approaching nearly 100 per 100,000. The president said when these drugs arrive in bulk and land in my country, the first thing that we lose is rule of law. The money is so great, i cant pay Law Enforcement enough to police this activity. So if you can keep this offshore or prevent it from coming onshore, i can then address the security environment of my country. But as soon as this its like money falling from the sky, but in this case, it arrives in bales of cocaine. And again, 75 of it is getting through. If you can do that, then you can have an impact. So intelligence driving operations and driving how we manage risk. We doubled down on our coast guard presence in the transit zone in the western hemisphere. Didnt do it by ourselves. We had great support by customs and Border Protection in hsi within the department of Homeland Security and the National Intelligence kmient, d. E. A. , fbi just to name a fie others ail in on this as well. Last year, we removed 191 metric tons of cocaine and took 700 smugglers into custody for prosecution here in the United States. The prosecution rate here is 98 . The prosecution rate in honest diers honduras is 2 . We continued that effort this year as well. Last year, 191 metric tons, over 700 smugglers. Six months into this year, we have removed over 245 metric tons of cocaine. We are on a glide slope to remove over 400 metric tons and weve taken 400 smugglers into custody as well. Its what this is doing to regional stability in central america. When i look at the cooperative strategy for the 21st century, the navy is and must be deployed elsewhere. And they are. Whether its the repositioning to the pacific, in the mediterranean. When we start looking at where those gaps and seams, theres a significant one in the western hemisphere right now. At a point in time where the perry class friday ggates are n longer in service. So weve doubled down there. Weve also looked at the arctic to the north. And it is no big secret that the waters of the arctic is opening. With it, weve seen about a 300 increase in human activity in the arctic. I was up there last year when shell was drilling in the berger oil field. About a third of the worlds natural gas and about 1 trillion worth of minerals reside on the sea floor up in the arctic region. Its not profitable to exploit that when oil is hovering just north and south of 50 a barrel. If nothing else, you can look at that oil and gas that is up there as Strategic Reserves of the United States. You can also look at the fact that weve done extensive sea mapping beyond our traditional 200 economic exclusive zone up in the arctic. Its nearly twice the area of the state of california. By weve seen other nations up there doing Scientific Research and establishing a pattern of operating in this very same area as well, recognizing that the United States is the only arctic nation that has not ratified the law of the sea convention. Were seeing more and more human activity. The cruise ship crystal serenity will depart this august and transit through the bering straight and eventually return to new york in an area that is charted, about 5 of the arctic today is charted to 21st century standards. I was in iceland not that long ago on the icelandic coast guard vessel four. There on the chart, the data for that chart is 1915. When Ernest Shackleton was rewriting history in terms of mans resilience, you know, fighting mother nature. But now you have cruise shipping activity in these very same waters. Today, the coast guard trolls the sinking of the titanic 400 years ago. What happens if we have an event, a cruise ship that finds an uncharted penbnacle, or otherwise beset in ice. The United States cant do it alone. Just this past week, i was in boston and met with ail ll of t heads of the arctic coast guards. And we had the lead. I was the chair of this. We had russia there. This is no easy feat, but its the one area where we have an open dialogue with our russian counterparts in terms of how to reframe the strategic environment of the arctic. Shipping going through there, what if you have an oil spill. Rish admits even with the fleet of icebreakers they have they do not have the capacity to deal with the challenges in the arctic. The first thing we need to do is set up a communication protocol where we can communicate with one another 24 by 7 and share domain awareness of what is happening in the high north latitudes. We will meet one last time to finalize these operating guidelines for the arctic as well. You might say, will there be other cruise shipping activities. I know what the price per passenger is. Its a lot. If im in the cruise shipping industry, this is a business. So you might want to get in on this business. And i fully anticipate we will see more and more cruise shipping into this very pristine environment coming up in the future as well. So were not done there. We also looked at whats happening in the cyber domain. And i know all of you follow cyber. I look at primarily through the Maritime Transportation lens. I was out in long beach earlier this year, and it looked like something out of star wars, even though thats where george lucas got the design for those robots. Those Autonomous Vehicles moving containers across and theyre unmanned. Theyre using liquefied natural gas so theres very little carbon footprint. They pit transponders down beneath the tarmac and theyre using a gps signal. They realize if theres a disruption, theyve got resiliency. This robot, when it senses its battery pack is down, it will go to the charging station. Robot pulls it out, piuts anothr one in and it goes back to work. We have seen ships disrupted by cyber. Weve seen mobile offshore drilling units move off their drilling circle. Which means they had to kick in, shut in that well, because that main control console lost the ability to communicate with the thrusters. In this case, that blowout preventer worked and its happened on more than one occasion. Its a big cost to the industry. It costs roughly 1 million a day to lease a mobile offshore drill unit. When you look at lost productivity time, obviously the cost goes up as well. So industry is keenly attuned to operating in a cyber domain. Even something as fundamental as you have to replace a part. How do you know theres not malware in that part as well. Weve reached out to the International Maritime organization and held a number of town halls. Normally industry does not want to be regulated, yet they realize if were going to change behavior, it may require a regulatory regime, how does industry stay ahead of the Cyber Threats of today. Our financial sector, about 95 plus percent is behind a bonafied firewall. Our Maritime Transportation system on the other hand is about 25 . About 90 of our global trade moves by sea. So it is a very vulnerable segment of our economic prosperity, but more importantly, our Economic Security and with that our National Security. Another area im looking at is within the energy sector. When we wrote this energy policy, oil at that time was going for 100 per barrel. Every day a new tank barge was entering the mississippi river. In fact, we saw a 50fold increase in down bound barge traffic carrying crew. You saw what happened just a week ago when a train derails. Very strong light ends, very volatile substance, but theres also a heavy end to this as well. It has about the same specific gravity as water as those lighter ends bleed off and then it sinks into the water. Somebody mindful of earlier this year we had record flooding in the interior of the United States, which means you have high river conditions. And so theres a big difference pushing a barge down river versus up river. When youre going down river, its like skyline parkway with a double semi with no brakes. Most of these were grain barges because they werent moving crude at the time. When that sinks and gets into those water intakes, we need to make shi make sure were ready to respond to that scenario as well. We inspect all of these barges. Were producing lng in record levels and just starting to push lng into the Global Market right now. Theres a lot of competition out there. But the United States sits on the highest volume of natural gas of any other country in the world. Huge, huge economic potential there. So why is that important to me is that we regulate. So it gets back to our regulatory roles. And our inspection regime. And if im not training that next generation to be in front of industry rather than lagging it, then we will then become an impediment and not a facilitator of this commerce as well. So were paying very close attention to that. On the next piece of that, we are investing in the coast guard like never before. Up there, youll see a couple of pictures if i got the right one cued up, and we do. We just ordered the second phase of our Fast Response cutters. Its 154 feet in length. Just doing yeoman died in the state of florida today. We had enough ships out there to stop them and interdicting most of those folks trying to find a better life here in the United States. Some may ask shouldnt we be shunning these ships over to the mediterranean and the agee january sea. If you do that, we have a maritime migration challenge here in the United States as well. Do we go to the aid of the ei a eu and leave our maritime borders exposed . We look at that as well. Were also were missionizing 14 c27j fixed wing aircraft. These we acquired at no cost from thei u. S. Air force. This year, we were awarded lead time materials for our ninth National Security cutter, our program of record was eight. But there was funding to go ahead and build a ninth one of these as well. Is there work for nine National Security cutters . Slight absolutely. Two of our National Security cutters, the straton came back a little less than a year ago with 32 metric tons of cocaine on it. Thats enough to fill this room to the ceiling with pure cocaine. The burtoff didnt do quite as well. By they interdicted selfpropelled semisubmersibles. The only way you find these is through intelligence. Thats where this whole of government comes into play. Its the ability of these platforms to leverage intelligence to position those where the greatest threats may exist as well. At the end of this fiscal year, well award final design for what will be the largest acquisition in coast guard history, and that is our offshore patrol cutter. You can see the three bidders we have up there. Bolinger shipyard, eastern ship building. 25 ships in that program of record. Which as i said, will be the largest acquisition in coast guard history. Great dynamic ship sea keeping capabilities as we look at where we might be operating over the next 40 plus years with an emphasis on affordability. Affordability becomes the operative word for this program of record. And finally, on the upper left, what you see, there is a posturing state within this administration and within this Senate Appropriations bill Going Forward that would look at investing in heavy icebreakers. This is a dialogue that we have had for the last 15 years. Weve already put out on fed biz ops over foyer montur months ag you need a heavy icebreaker to do. There is a lot of stake holders that have arctic equities to make sure youre going to build a heavy icebreaker, does it meet the need of whole of government. So weve already done the Due Diligence and the document thats been submitted to omb as well. We already hired acquisition staff personnel to get a jump start if we have an appropriation to move forward. And then we held an open house with industry. We held one two years ago when there was 3 million in our heavy icebreaking budget. Guess what. I had three, koithree people th expressed an interest in heavy icebreakers that said if you were serious, youd be showing real money. There was a mark of 150 million for 17 and we had nearly 300 interested parties, including international in terms of heavy icebreakers. So tremendous interest in that rec recapitalization as well. As Many Services will probably testify to at a budget hearing, you can usually do one of three things. You can modernize, build and restore readiness, or build fore structure. Rarely do you get to do all three at the same time. We are modernizing. The fact that the coast guard operates 24 by 7, i dont have to worry about a forcing garrison and get them ready to deploy. Our readiness levels have been sis tak sustained at a pretty high level. But it takes me to the final strategy, and probably the most important one i put out is our Human Capital strategy. How do you manage talent in the 21st century. How does google, how does tesla, how does microsoft, how do the others, how do they manage their talent . You say wed love to hire veterans. I say, no you dont need to hire my workforce away from me. Thank you, but no thanks. Meet the bare minimal requirements. We are a Service Going for that top 10 , not the bottom 10 . Im shiure all my service chief counterparts would say the same thing as well. Thats who Silicon Valley is going after as well. Even in the airline industry, theres a hiring boom taking place around us right now. So were doing a great job recruiting people. Were doing a great job recruiting diversity. The class of 2020 will arrive at our Coast Guard Academy in two weeks. 40 women and onethird underrepresented minorities. Our Coast Guard Academy today is the most diverse it has ever been across every spectrum of our demographic than its ever been in our coast guard history. Build it, they will come. We needed that critical mass. Theyre there. When i look out ten years, we lose roughly 50 of our female officers out of a given year group. Why is that . Were losing about 50 of our underrepresented minority officers out of a given year group and why is that . Request you be married, have a family, have those challenges positions and still serve our nation . Where nearly 50 of the women in our service are married to other service members. Not just coast guard. So were very interested in whats happening over at the pentagon, start looking at fi h future force of the 21st century. But were a very specialized coast guard. Were no longer the jack of all trades, master of song. If you saw the movie the finest hours with bernie weber still going out even though his compass washed out of, that is a very perishable skill set operating in those breaking bars and we have mates that do it better than anybody else. I need to start specializing within some of our specialty across the coast guard. Cyber is a specialty. Inspection regimes is a specialty. Diving, hazmat response, thats a specialty. So acquisition, our legal profession, you need all of these to make this coast guard machine tick. Too many times, junior members feel like theyre within the less favored Community Within the coast guard. It doesnt matter if you drive a ship, fix a ship, provide intelligence to a ship or prosecute a case that was made by a ship, you need all of that and you need it all together. So it is a table with many legs. So we need to specialize across our domain, across the many specialties that we quite honestly have been a jack of all trades, but not a master of the critical f creditical few. I was at a recruiting and i was in boston and gave two ocs oaths to new officers joining the coast guard. They had their graduation a week and a half ago. Instead of putting stars on the shoulder boards, but a coast guard shield. I said thank you for your service, welcome to the team. This really threw me for a shock. I was at the Space Convention three weeks ago and we had a static display there and one of our e3s and our odis, our work uniform demonstrating one of our small boats. Shes assigned to station weigh here on the potomac river. I asked what did you do before coming to the coast guard. I was in the air force in this case. What did you do . I attended the air force academy. I left after i graduated five years and picked up my masters degree and resigned to be an e3 in the United States coast guard because i want to be a rescue swimm swimmer. When you talk about talent in your service, dont judge anybody by how many ribbons, how many stripes, whatever. Just engage in conversation and you would be amazed at the talent that is in our midst. What am i doing to train, retain, you know, that talent. That is really the essence of where we need to be focused on Going Forward. Thats just a scenesetter. I know we have open time for open mike here, question and answer. There are some folks that are going to stiump me out there. I want to thank csis again for allowing me to be here this morning. Ty so muthank you so much kathi. [ applause ] thats great. Well chat a little bit and open it up. Im really pleased that you ended there on the Human Capital piece because i was really st k struck going through the charts beforehand and your conversation about the incredible amount of continue night aity and change coast guard is experiencing. I wonder if you can speak from a mission perspective. You talked about everything from well take about everything of these. Trafficking, fisheries, general regulation, Law Enforcement, port security, and about the need to be operating with international partners, industry partners, interagency partners, int interservice partners. That speaks to a wealth of agility that you require out of your workforce. Can you talk about how you grow those leadership skills and whether thats the same as its always been or something shifting in how you approach that . Win, weve got tremendous talent thats out there. Theyre mituch better informed. I think back to when ive been captain of the ships and you get the message board. Theres only a select few people that sign af off on that. Ill give you an example. I was in memphis, tennessee, not that long ago. We have an inland river tender. Its the coast guard cutter kankakee. They maintain the aids to navigation on the Lower Mississippi river. I asked the junior most person. Shes been in the coast guard all of six months. If you dont know what they do on an inland river tender, vegetation grows over the banks. If youre pushing a barge and cant see that day board, theres a possibility you might run aground. They go out there with chain saws and weed whackers. They stir up fire ant nests, its snakes. Its not what you think you joined the coast guard to do. Shes been in the coast guard for ail of six months. I said what do you do in the coast guard . She goes, i facilitate the movement of over half a trillion dollars worth of congress so they can get up and down the mississippi river. She talks about what permission is in a much grander scale. You talk to any one of our folks that are out there. They connect themselves to something much bigger than themselves. Look at the nasa model back in the 60s. That seaman is no different than the janitor at nasa. What are you doing here . Im putting a man on the moon youll find that pretty much wherever you go in our service. You also touched on resources. The resource picture for the coast guard looks maybe better than normal. I dont want to overstate it. Im sure youd like more. Youve made comments in the past paraphrasing the jaws line, we need a bigger coast guard. How do you feel about the resource picture now that the fy 17 budget request is in, you mentioned theny major investment streams under way. What most challenges youecuting i am immensely pleased with our acquisition budget. We have what it costs to operations and people from under that funding portfolio as well. Were not keeping pace. We are funded below that level to sustain our operation. So its great that other modernizing. The sustainment piece is still a bit of a challenge for me. Ive been to enough commissions ceremonies now. More births than funerals. Its a great gala event. Thats where the real expenses of that platform start to kick in. Now you own it for the next 40 years. Now you need to operate and maintain that for the next 40 years to include the salaries of the crew, the fuel you biurn. Youre going to need a bigger boat, youre going to need a bigger coast guard. You can go back to 1988. Almost every president ial election cycle, theres been a rather significant hurricane. I always call it the perfect storm. In the height of a president ial election cycle, you now have a storm. Lets face it. It will invite scrutiny over how that response goes. I know the coast guard is ready for that. We just finished up an exercise last week in the pacific northwest. Its the cascade subuction zone. If i have two events at the same time, i am identify schlitz. We are currently resourced for a relatively benign operating environment. Were going to need a bigger coast guard Going Forward. You mentioned this today with regard to the european migration crisis. I think the United States has pledged or said it would attempt to assist and provide in particular to provide a vessel to assist. Does that impact you directly . You talked about the tradeoff. Im pleased weve had a dialogue. Our vice commandant who is confirmed and wearing a four star, he is an o10 in the coast guard. Looking at their challenges and where there might be u. S. Coast guard equities. Weve had those dialogues. Theres no immediate request for us to disband our coast guard presence here and send those ships to the mediterranean. We do bring subject Matter Expert in mass migration. Weve had those dialogues and well see if they manifest themselves into a request for u. S. Coast guard egg maugmentat. We now see subsaharan economic migrants entering into this flooding the european continent. Just to be clear, if you had to rush right away, if there were a request from the president to support a migration crisis, for instance, one of your cutters, what would be the Operational Impact for you in the immediate . Infortunately, i dont have a ghost fleet thats tied up somewhere ready to be activated in a contingency like this. Which would mean, we would have to pull a resource away from doing front line operations today and put that operational element at risk. Weve got a significant migration flow coming up from primarily from cuba, but also from haiti as well. Two weeks ago we came across a rust ik rustica. Suffering very ill effects. We were able to stabilize them. These migrants were expecting to be medivaced to a u. S. Hospital. They realize that the coast guard is there to stop them. If the coast guard is not there and the numbers that we are today, then its a free pass. I think we need to be ready. So if we do reposition the coast guard, we need to be able to answer, what are we doing to protect our maritime boundaries as well. We cant do both. Let me ask one last question then ill finish with the audience. Tell me a little bit about just how you see this arctic environment evolving in terms of the actors and what their motivations might be and how the coast guard plays into that. My initial concern for the arctic is really the indigenous inhabitants of the arctic. It was up there last summer. And the week before i arrived. They had what we would call a category one hurricane. Normally, there would be a sea ice barrier that would prevent any buildup of seas and coastal erosion. The nearest ice was nearly 400 miles away. You can imagine, youve got 18, 20foot combers washing in on barrel, alaska. In the middle of the storm, theyre out there with earthmoving equipment trying to establish a berm made out of silt. They came in probably within a length twice the length of this room of losing their own source of freshwater. Youre seeing that across the northern latitudes. And theyre seeing their way of life change. These are nations unto themselves. So how do we reestablish those nations. I always look at the arctic as the canary in the coal mine for rising Ocean Temperatures and its impact. Ill take a delegation to greenland in august. Well head out to the largest that is moving into the atlantic ocean. I cant fathom why its doing that, but i can certainly observe what is happening. If you were to look at a complete meltdown of the ice fields of green land, youre talking about a 21foot rise in sea level. Its not going to happen overnight. What are we doing to prepare for a rise in sea level. We just rebuilt station sandy hook following hurricane sandy. Probably built it on shifting sand. With the expectation that it will still be there and functioning 100 years from now. If i start looking long term of my coastal infrastructure and where im going to invest coast guard, i better be keeping climate change, rising sea level in you know, very much at the forefront as well. So the arctic is where a lot of this is taking place. The first people to witness this are the indigenous habitants. Well start right up here. The mike is coming. Please identify yourself. Im the coast guard reporter at navy times. I wanted to ask what are some of your biggest personnel wins over the past couple years and the what do you have on the docket for the next couple . Okay. Personnel wins. Very pleased with our Leadership Program that we have for all of our enlisted personnel. We have from the most junior level to the most senior level in our enlisted workforce, a leadership continuum going all the way up to e9 in the coast guard. Were still catching up in that regard when it comes to our officer Leadership Development programs. There its just a question of capacity. The area im immensely pleased with, we have a diversity and inclusion Strategic Plan as well. We are finally catching up to reflect demographics of this nation within our workforce and the coast guard. Ive taken a personnel effort. Ive been out this last year to seven minority serving institutions. When i go there, i dont go by myself. Someone doesnt want to see some old guy like me and says, why would i want to join the coast guard. So i bring in a very diverse delegation with me. We meet with the president of these universities, with the faculty. By then we meet with the students. They get to see the coast guard and the opportunities that are available to them. Its been a great recruiting tool for us as well. If i was trying to get into the United States coast guard today, i would be standing outside that wall watching the corps of cadets parade on that field. And i did okay in the coast guard. Every one of those folks in that parade field are going to do no nominal in the coast guard. Okay. Weve got one right here. Second row. Hi, my name is mindy riser. Im the Vice President of an ngo. My question is this the state department has been explaining the complexity of its relations with russia. Id like you to say a little bit about the experience of the people who are working with russia over arctic issues. What are some of their issues . Whats their negotiating style . And if you talk about any other kind of encounters you have with the Russian Naval fleet or their equivalent of the coast guard. I spent probably better part of three hours just one on one interacting with my russian counterpart. Because when canada hosted the arctic coast guard forum, their parliament would not allow russia at the table. Sin russia didnt show up, we never got off the launching pad. They come part mentalized. Theyre compartmentalize the ukraine, crimea. So we can talk about the arctic in wholistic terms. Safety of life as sea. A all of us are challenged, what is the technology that we can bring to bear to mitigate the effect of an oil spill in this very pristine environment. We also recognize that a lot of our Scientific Research, some of that has been compartmentalized as well. It wouldnt be to our collective advantage, even something as germane as fisheries. Do we see fishing fleets going north to attract those as well. But i would say its measured. Its compartmentalized and strictly focused on the arctic. But at the end of the day, its productive. We are now working on an information exchange. Basically via internet. Where all eight members of the arctic consol nations at the principle level can interact with one another. Say you have an event up in the arctic. Maybe its our eyesbreaker. For whatever reason we get buzzed by a russian aircraft. I can reach out to my koint counterpart and say whats up with this. The other Service Chiefs dont have that luxury. I would categorize the arctic among all the arctic nations as transparent and they they recognize the coast guard aspect of diplomacy. The russians floated last week a new icebreaker. You have in your budget to develop an icebreaker but its going to take some time. How should we and the audience think about this new icebreaker from the russians. We also look at it as ship counts. We start looking at that as mutual assured destruction in its missile count. The purpose is how do we leverage the collective resources of all of the arctic coast guards in the event of a contingency. Were also putting together what i would call a heat map. A heat map is using ais information, which everyone has access to, its one of the greatest concentrations of activity up in the upper arctic. So we will do a tabletop exercise this year and we will do a fullscale exercise next year, doing a mass rescue at sea. In fact, were not even waiting till next year. Were going to do one in august using norway and canada will participate in that as well. Well have 250 role players as now displaced passengers and what we cant replicate is how do you replicate, you know, the 24hour news cycle. Thats really the next place you really need to go. I use the malaysian aircraft. Too many times we deal with the fact call level and also sight of the fact that well be dealing with that. Lets do this gentleman on the end and then the gentleman two from him. Yes, thank you. Admiral jim leakly. On the great lakes were very fo focused on the domestic ice issue. With all the acquisitions and the 140 rehab program, do you have the bench strength to continue to do that . And the second question is do you see as domestic ice as developing your bench strength and future icebreaker missions for the polar missions . And well take the other question. Thank you for your presentation. At the outset on behalf of the navy pass on condolences, thoughts and prayers to all of those affects in all those events in florida over the weekend. And my question is on china in particular, but other nations that arent arctic nations and their increasing interest in the arctic nations. Does that give you cause for any concern at all . On the great lakes were granted a reprieve this year with a relatively light ice season. It allowed to us buy ahead on the maintenance on our 140 cap ice breakers. Do we bring in another lake icebreaker . If i were to prioritize, the immediate need is the topline icebreaker. I will be in ottawa on the 5th of july to look to see where is canada . As you know, we have a memorandum of agreement with canada. So if for whatever reason we dont have the capacity, we can look to canada to provide reciprocity. I also look at whats happening on weather patterns in the arctic. So as the waters and then the air warms, the jet stream instead of it being more of a straight line, it meanders. And it brings the frigid air, we call them polar vortex, its become a new household term, they scream across the great lakes and we get years like we had in 14 and 15, severe, severe winters, heavy icing. I will not assume that everythings going to warm up and well have no ice left in the great lakes. Its an investment we need to be prepared to make as well. And finally, ill be up there and riding a laker in a couple of weeks to actually see it from the wheel house. So thank you from the question. If i go back to the second question on china and their role as an observer on the arctic consul but they will soon launch a second medium icebreaker. It the same issue that i have with transparency. When i see where theyre doing Scientific Research that happens to coincide where we have an extended Continental Shelf and thinking, you know, long term being i know china views this as global commons. If i see a mobile offshore drilling unit moving up there, houston, we have a problem. I dont know what the longrange plan is. What is chinas vision for an arctic strategy. Beyond the global commons, where are those lines drawn and will it encroach upon the sovereign interest of the United States. I cant answer that and that causes me concern. Admiral, thank you, you make the coast guard sound like the most fascinating workplace in the world and im sure it is. Please join me in thanking him. [ applause ] politico reports pennsylvania senator bob casey is going to propose legislation to restrict people convicted of hate crimes from owning guns. In the senate the blocked legislation to ban people on a federal terrorism watch list from buying guns. And roll call is reporting florida senator marco rubio may consider staying in politics. He said the shootings are making his reconsider his future and where he might be more useful. He said when he ran for president that he would not seek another term in the senate. Our live coverage continues at 1 00 eastern when girl scout Anna Maria Chavez will take member questions. And at 2 30, afghanistans ambassador will speak live from the hudson institute. And cspan will be live as Hillary Clinton clinton holds a Campaign Rally at 12 30 eastern. And republican candidate donald trump gives a speech at st. Anslem college in manchester, new hampshire. Cspan will have coverage live at 2 30 eastern. Madam secretary, we proudly give 72 of our delegate votes to the next president of the United States tonight on the