Transcripts For CSPAN3 Politics And Public Policy Today 20160615

The first was on Scottish Independence and the economist said, well, ultimately, if people wanted independent and govern themselves, you cant say no. And then you turn the page and read the column on britain and europe and they said britain must absolutely stay in the European Union, and no conditions whatsoever. You think, okay, if youre in favor of Scottish Independence, personally intellectually, why does that not apply to the brexit vote . Dont get a really good answer for that one. The gentleman in the black shi shirt. Not politically, but sartorial. Poor choice of words. I apologize. In the polo shirt. Instantally, although were segueing away from scotland because im from scotland, i have to mention during the last general election referendum, Party Leaders had a debate. The leader of the s p on the stage happened to blunder into exactly that thing, and when they were talking, the leaders were asked a question about eu membership, she rattled off this, she is a very patronizing and horrible individual. She started on auto pilot trying to lecture the rest of the uk. And in the middle of her answer, she realized what she was saying. She actually said, of course, just because you dont like things in the union, its not appropriate to behave like a petulant child and try to leave. You should get Better Together was the Campaign Slogan for staying in the uk. And she suddenly realized she used the words better, and then a couple words later, together, stick together. And she had to stumble and then start talking. I digress. I have an entirely different point. Actually, its more to dr. Bromunds analysis. Theres one word that has animated a lot of the discuss in the whole brexit issue for a large number of people in britain. And thats turkey. And turkey not only represents a failure of the eu to deal with a serious threat or a bully or somebody that has is prepared to do whatever they want to further an agenda, and the eu seems incapable of rising not just to large scale bullies but in russia, but to anything done on the southern borders by the likes of turkey. Not only does it present that feeling, but it presents a serious imminent jump in immigration numbers, and the stresses on resources if turkey were to cede membership to the eu. Deis perhaps less said than it should be, but its certainly one of the threads that informs as far as im aware, a lot of peoples thinking about why brexit possibly now has to happen because i would count myself has someone who is very proeu for a long time, but things have gone so wildly off rails. Me question is your analysis said we should go back to the u. S. Should go back to our prior state of the three pillars. But unfortunately, the three pillars dont address the problem of an islamicized turkey, and in fact, turkey would be in the third one would be part of this democratic solution. Its ostensibly a peaceful country, also ostensibly working toward prosperity for its own population, perhaps by spreading into europe, but it doesnt revisiting those three pillars doesnt help us address the fact that its also almost literally the trojan horse thats being rolled into europe. Im wondering, is this is that the absence of an analysis that includes that, is that intentional on your part or do you in other words, do you not see the turkish issue as being that big, or is it because there isnt really rather like the United States doesnt have a good answer to islamic radicalization, is that an issue to that . Obviously, theres some sort of larger questions there which this panel cant really address about the nature of u. S. Policy to the regime itself, and i share your skepticism and maybe even more of the nature of the irdewon experience in turkey which i think is severely damaged if not destroyed one of the very few states in the wider middle east that was based on the model of the Western State system. And im not hiere to apologize for him, but he did set up a state which offered some possibility of moving towards a western model. And that was a good thing. The reason i didnt mention turkey is that i have no more desire to see turkey cede to the European Union than i do Vladimir Putins russia secedin to the European Union. This strikes me as something that is, a, very far off. B, it should be very far off. And c, i have no desire to bring it closer in the near future. The irdewon government is repressive and intolerant in the extreme. I see no favorable Political Trends in turkey that would cause me to reassess that point of view. I see no genuine desire among the nations of europe, and certainly not the peoples of europe, for turkey to join the European Union. And for that matter, im not even sure that the turks are really all that enthusiastic at this point about joining the European Union. What i do know is that David Cameron says hes very enthusiastic for turkey to join the European Union. Now, you can, if you really stretch, sort of make the argument that, which some british Prime Ministers have made for a long time, the more people we have in the European Union, the less effectively it will work and the more effectively we can sort of muck it up by having lots of people involved in it. I dont think that strategy has been terribly effective. And i have no desire whatsoever to try it with turkey. Which is far too large and its own way significant a country to play that kind of game with. I dont think turkey is a fit member of the European Union. But you know, maybe im ill suited to say that because i dont really like the European Union much anyhow. So if i were a proud turk, why would i want to be ruled from brussels . I mean, it doesnt have any it doesnt have any appeal to me on any level whatsoever, although i can understand why its an unattractive prospect for people in the uk, or for that matter, in france, italy, germany, lots of other places. Nile. Just to follow up on the points. Turkey has a population of roughly 80 million. And if turkey joins the European Union, thats a this is a massive development. And i think that thats another reason why the british should be keen to exit the eu, and at the moment, frankly, i think Angela Merkel is operating a sort of appeasement policy towards the regime. Basically bribing the turks to take back refugees. This isnt you know, this deal isnt going to last forever with turkey. And i think that, you know, europe is playing a very dangerous game with the turks at the moment. But without a doubt, if turkey does enter the European Union eventually, that would be a huge game changer within europe. And you will see largescale migration from turkey to parts of western europe, including to the united kingdom. And you also need to bear in mind as well with the large refugee influx, the germans took in about 1. 2 million ref jew u in about 1. 2 million ref jewgee last year. 2,000 in february and march alone of this year. And i would expect that more refugees would find their way over to migrants actually, would find their way to germany eventually, and within a number of years, the migrants will possess german passports. They will give them then the right to travel anywhere inside the European Union, including the united kingdom. Germanys problem becomes britains problem as well. You raise an important point about Mass Immigration into europe, long term consequences. These are very big factors as well in shaping the debate in britain over brexit. Victoria. I had an observation i think goes to teds point about what has happened to americas policy toward europe. Which is the day that our current president made the decision to send back the Winston Churchill bust, he made another decision, which was who was going to be the first foreign leader he would call after his inauguration. It was irdewon. I think those two choices on january 20th, 2009, really set us on, as the United States, on a trajectory that has pursued a really counterproductive policy along these lines. Funny, interesting how quickly things can change. I remember when i worked for the conservative party a decade ago, before all this nonsense, this craziness, there was this thinking because of the historical relationship between britain and the turks and also specifically the British Conservative Party and the turks, that and because voting in the councils isnt based on population, getting turkey inside the European Union was a way there could be like an ang r lo turkish control of access inside the institutions. Now we know its nonsense in irdewon is someone you cant work with and trust. The gentleman in front, and i think this probably will be the last question. Hi, my name is mike. Im an intern with Family Research council. Just a twopart question. The first one would be with the turkey issue. Would turkey, if they are not allowed to be more influential in the eu or join the eu, would they start straining towards the middle eastern side, toward the opec nations and is that concerning . The second part of the question would be, if the eu breaks away, like you said, doctor, if britain breaks away from the eu and you said other countries would do the same, how would that affect greece or even the eastern bloc such as romania or hungary, where they have weak economies . How would that affect those nations or even tunisia . Yeah, let me say a few words on both of those points. My concern is not that turkey will stray towards the middle east. My concern is that the irdewon regime has already pushed turkey to stray towards the middle east, if i can put it that way. His regime represents among other things a deliberate rejection of the belief that the future of turkey had to lie in turkey. And that the idea of a new Ottoman Empire was a dangerous dilution which had cost turkey in world war i and preworld war i years lots of lives and treasure. Turkish lives and turkish treasure. The answer to that was to have a turkish state that was for turks, not a turkish middle eastern empire. The governing ideology of the regime was new ottomanism. The expansion of that old ottoman role, the recovery of that old ottoman role. The European Union did nothing to dissuade him from any of this. These are internal turkish developments which i think are highly undesirable. But the European Union is not in any form an answer to this question. This is a turkish issue. On the question of economics, greece has undergone an Economic Contraction that is bigger than our great depression. It has done that because it is part of a currency zone, and if you cant devalue your currency externally, which is not a cure for lots of things, but if you cannot devalue your value externally, you must do it internally. Thats a polite way of saying you need to have extremely high unemployment. Now, getting out of the euro is not a sovereign cure for all of greeces and other places economic problems, but if you cant recover your external financial freemendom, youre go to devalue internally, thats the way it works. So problem number one that these places have is theyre in the euro, at least some of them are. Victoria. I would just reiterate teds point or build off that point a little bit and say that, i mean, the problems greece is experiencing are greek problems. And to say that youre going to shackle the uk to solve those problems, i think, winds up being from an american perspective, counterproductive because then youre just undermining the uks ability to act as a Financial Partner to the United States. So surely, out of selfinterest, i dont think that helps us. Then from the greek perspective, i would say that if being in the euro is fundamentally the cause of the problems, youre never going to solve it if you make your prime directive staying in the euro. Just a point on your second question about the economics. The brexit on the rest of europe. And as ted mentioned earlier, undoubtedly, the greeks are better off outside of the european single currency. And the euro at the end of the day is a political project more than anything else. An artificial construct. Youre beginning to see that construct crumbling. And you know, whether brexit takes place or not, i think youre going to see the euro beginning to crumble and eventually fall apart. At the moment, greece basically is being given orders by brussels and berlin. Its not a sovereign nation. It barely runs its own government at the moment. And thats an unsustainable situation. And also, theres a limit as well to the generosity of german taxpayers, although undoubtedly, the germans have benefitted sig competently from the euro, but i think the idea of patience is going to run out in germany. Angela merkel faces a very, very tough election next year. I think that you are seeing the landscape, Political Landscape starting to change across europe, and a great momentum toward sovereignty and selfdetermination, all across the european continent. And i do think that countries such as greece are far better off if they are unshackled from the euro. I think greece is better off frankly if its outside of the European Union as well. And i do believe that brexit will certainly encourage many other European Countries to hold popular referendum and i think that the european elites that have dominated the continent for many, many decades could well be taken by surprise when european populations actually vote on their future in the eu. Even in germany, theres a rising skepticism now, and the european project is being fundamentally challenges all over europe, not just in britain. And that, i think, is a very good thing. Anything that advances the drive towards democracy and selfdermation and taking powers away from centralizied democracies and back to the people is a positive development. Great. To conclude for the british citizens in the audience, you still have a few days to make sure you register to vote in the referendum from over here, and every vote will count. Thats for sure. Hopefully you learned something or were swayed today. For everyone else, thank you for coming. Please join me in thanking our panelists. And 24 hours time, or maybe less, you can watch this again if youre so inclined on heritage. Org. Thank you. A House Committee voted to censure John Koskinen over emails that were deleted. The Oversight Committee called it obstruction in their investigation into whether the agency targeted conservative groups seeking taxexempt status. The committee voted on party lines. The censure hasnt been set for a house vote and the senate is not expected to take it up. This afternoon, the state departments special envoy for libya will be on capitol hill to testify about u. S. Policy in libya. Well have live coverage as he answers questions from Senate Foreign Relations Committee members at 2 15 eastern. Tomorrow, well have live coverage as cia director john brennan testifies on the agencys intelligence activities and its ability to meet diverse mission requirements. Our coverage of the Senate Intelligence Committee Hearing starts at 9 00 eastern. After the surrender at appomattox, the United States faced more than a decade of challenges during reconstruction. In policies instituted at that time had a Lasting Impact on American History. This saturday, starting at 1 00 p. M. Eastern, American History tv on cspan3 is live from Gettysburg College in gettysburg, pennsylvania, for the annual Civil War Institute summer conference, as authors, historians, and professors examine topics that confronted our newly unified country with abigail cooper, assistant professor of history at brandeis university. Redirection in the north with andrew slap, associate professor of history at east Tennessee State university. And the postcivil war career of ulysses s. Grant with brooks simpson, professor of history at Arizona State university. Also hear conversations on the return of the confederate veteran and the origins of the lost cause. The annual Civil War Institute summer conference, live all day saturday, beginning at 1 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan3s American History tv. For the complete weekend schedule, go to cspan. Org. The u. S. Coast guards commandant recently spoke about the military branchs future, including challenges with Drug Trafficking and Desperate Measures being taken by migrants wanting to set foot on u. S. Soil. The commandants comments came in remarks at the center for strategic and international studies. He also talked about the u. S. russia relationship with regard to arctic policy. This is about an hour. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to csis. Im kathleen hix. I direct the International Security program here, and together with our partners at the u. S. Naval institute and vice admiral pete daley who is taking his seat, representing them here today, were happy to bring you our Maritime Security dialogue and today were especially happy to be inviting to speak the commandant of the u. S. Coast guard, admiral paul zukunft. He was kind enough to come here about 17 months ago. 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 known, admiral has extensive Operational Command experience prior to being the commandant of the coast guard in the pascific and atlantic, and of note, he was the federal onscene coordinator for the deep water horizon spill, and he directed there more than 47,000 responders, 6500 vessels, and 120 aircraft dealing with the Largest Oil Spill in u. S. History. So i think you can agree that he has both the Extensive International experience and the Homeland Security experience necessary for any commandant in the marine corps excuse me, for the coast guard. Sorry about that. You could be a marine corps commandant as well, 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 the case a fire alarm goes off or something along those lines. I want to also thank our sponsors for this event and for the whole series, and that is Lockheed Martin international and huntington engles industry. Thank you to both of them for making this possible. Over to you, admiral. Thank you. And good to see so many familiar faces here. And first of all, a somber week. Lets face it. You know, 49 is the last count, and i know there are families mourning and its always mindful of, you know, the threats that face us on a daytoday basis. And those are the threats we always look at in the coast guard and maritime domain as well. But what i would like to open up with here first is when i came into this job just about two years ago, on day one, we put out my commandants direction. And usually theres a tendency of let me wait six months and ill study, see whats going on, and then ill provide my direction. But i realized i only have four years. And so you dont have six months to waste. So the first day one is we put up my commandants direction, and the first piece of that was about service to nation. And then we broke that down, first of all, strategy needs to drive our budget. For nearly 225 years, we have always looked at, okay, here our budget. Now what do we do with it . And it was, we were doing what was left over, and 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, but worldwide as well. So not just strategy driving budget, but also intelligence driving operations. We have 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. You know, where you apply what i would call riskbased decision making. We have 11 statutory missions. And historically, we would try to fill all 11 of those buckets up equally. But recognizing some of those buckets are already pretty healthy. I looked at our International Fisheries enforcement, and we had a compliance rate of over 95 . And then i look ed at what was happening in the western hemisphere, and on any given day, 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 . Which means over 70 , 75 of that gets a free pass. So we started looking at the external environment and said lets put a series of strategies together. I cant forecast out 10, 15, 20 years, but 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, not just here in the United States but on a global scale. Whats happening in the European Union, where you have countries that are struggling economically, and yet you have a rising china. You have a rising southeast asia. And many of the maritime nations of the world are not trying to build navies. Theyre trying to build coast guards because they see their most intrinsic threats in a maritime domain is human trafficking, illegal fishing, smuggling and the like, and of course, natural disasters, search and rescue, and in fact, at the International Sea power symposium in 2014, i felt like the agenda was hijacked because it became very coast guard like, but many of the maritime nations of the world, they cant afford, and they certainly cant duplicate the best navy in the world. And that is our United States navy. Second to none, and always will be. So my plug for that as well. But we recognize that discretionary budgets are not going to grow anytime soon, and we also recognize that there will be a change in administration. So we factored all of that in as we tried to look 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 on the job that year, we had 68,000 unaccompanied minors, primarily from the countries of honduras, guatemala, and el salvador, leaving those countries in the hands of the human trafficker to make safe arrival in the United States. And 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. We met with the president of colombia and panama as well. We said, well, why are these Young Children leaving . And probably the most sobering account of this was when i met with the president of el salvador. He said its like this. The parents right now, theyre taking their kids out of school because theyre afraid that they will either be coopted or be forced to join a gang. This is a country right now that has 40 unemployment, 50 poverty, and 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 asked there or honduras or guatemala and say why the violence . A year ago, honduras was the most violent nation in the world. Murder rates were approaching nearly 100 per 100,000. And president hernandez said, well, the problem is when these drugs arrive in bulk and they 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 with 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. He says if you can do that, then you can have an impact. So again, 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 from customs and Border Protection and hsi within the department of Homeland Security and the National Intelligence community, department of justice, dea, fbi, just to name a few others. All in on this as well. And so 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 about 98 . The prosecution rate in honduras is 2 . So you dont have to be a math wizard to figure out where you get the best return on investment. So we have continued that effort this year as well. Remember, 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 have taken 400 smugglers into custody as well. Its not just the volume, its the illgotten gains, what this is doing to regional stability in central america. When i look at the cooperative strategy for the 21st century and were written into that as well, the navy is and must be deployed elsewhere. And they are, whether its the repositioning to the pacific in the mediterranean, but 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 frigates were really doing the lions share of our enforcement activity with coast guard Law Enforcement teams embarked on those platforms are no longer in service. So we doubled down there. We have also looked at the arctic, to the north, and it is no big secret that the waters of the arctic is opening, and with it, we have seen about a 300 increase in human activity in the arctic. I was up there last year when shell was drilling, and the burger oil field, in the sea. And conservative estimates are that about 13 of the worlds oil and about a third of the worlds naperal gas and about a trillion dollars worth of minerals reside on the sea floor of the arctic region. While its probably not profitable to exploit that when oil is just south of 50 a barrel. Is it going to stay that way forever . If nothing else, you can look at the oil and gas that is up there as Strategic Reserves of the United States. You can also look at the fact that we have done extensive sea mapping beyond our traditional 200mile economic exclusive zone up in the arctic. Its nearly twice the area of the state of california. But we have 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 bearing strait, through the Northwest Passage and return to new york. And an area that is charted about 5 of the arctic today is charted to what we would say 21st century standards. And i was in iceland not that long ago and on a vessel. I was talking to the captain. I went to the chart room, and the data for the chart is 1915. When earnest shackelton on the endurance was riding, you know, rewriting history in terms of mans resilience, you know, fighting mother nature. But now, you have cruise shipping activity plying these very same waters. Today, the coast guard still flies the International Ice patrol following the sinking of the titanic 104 years ago. And so what happens if we have an event, a cruise ship, if you will, that finds an uncharted pinnacle or is otherwise beset in ice . These are not ice breaking cruise ships that are up there. So we start looking at what our needs are for presence. United states can do it alone. Just this past week, i was in boston and i met with all of the heads of the arctic coast guards. All seven other countries. And we had the lead. I was the chair of this. We had russia there. And this is no easy feat, but 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. They, too, are concerned with amount of human activity. Shipping going through there. What if you have an oil spill . Russia 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. An Information Exchange where we can communicate with one another 24 by 7 and share domain awareness of what is happening in the high north latitudes. So in march, we will meet one last time while we chair the Arctic Council to finalize these operating guidelines for the arctic as well. You might say, well, will there be other cruise shipping activities . I know what the price per passage is if i want to book a fare on the crystal serenity. Its a lot. And if im in the cruise shipping industry, this is a business. And 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 at long beach earlier this year, and it looked like something out of star wars, even though thats where george lucas got the deswine fign for the ro but these vehicles, Autonomous Vehicles moving containers across the yard, and theyre unmanned. And in fact, theyre not even theyre using liquified natural gas, so theres very little carbon footprint. But they put trance pond transp and theyre using a gps signal, but they realized if theres a disruption of that gps signal, they have got resiliency. In fact, this robot when it senses its battery pack is down, they also run batteries, it will go to the charging station. Robot pulls it up, puts another in, they go back to work. And i dont think it costs all that much per hour to move these things around. A huge investment. But we have seen ships that have been disrupted by cyber. We have seen mobile offshore drilling units move off their drilling circle, which means that blowout preventer had to kick in, shut in that well, because that main control console lost the ability to communicate with the thrusters, and so now you have what could have been another deep water horizon, but in this case, that blowout preventer worked. Its happened on more than one occasion. Its a big cost to the industry. Literally millions. It cost roughly a Million Dollars a day to rent, to lease a mobile offshore drilling unit. When you look at lost productivity time, reestablishing control, obviously the cost goes up as well. 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 . We have reached out to the International Maritime organization. We have held a number of town halls. And normally, industry does not want to be regulated. And yet they realize if were going to change behavior, it may require a regulatory regime, best practices of how does industry stay ahead of the cyberthreats of today. Our Financial Sector about 95 plus percent of our Financial Sector is behind a bona fide fire wall in protecting very sensitive information. Our Maritime Transportation system on the other hand is about 25 . And 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 tham time was going for 100 a barrel. Every day, a new tank barge was entering the mississippi river. We saw a 50fold increase in down bound barge traffic carrying balk and 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 the lighter ends bleed off and then it sinks in the water. Something to be 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 downriver versus upriver. When youre going down river, its like going down skyline parkway with a double semi, with no brakes. Its very difficult to stop these things. We saw a number of bridge aligzs. Most of these were grain barges because they werent moving crude at the time. But when that sinks, and then it gets into the water intakes, we need to make sure that were ready to respond to those scenarios as well. At the end of the day, we need to keep that inland highway of ours open and robust at the same time we inspect all of these barges. Were producing l g in record levels and starting to push l g into the Global Market right now. Theres a lot of competition out there. I think we will see a supply glut of l g in the near term, but the United States sits on the highest volume of natural gas of any or country in the world. Huge, huge economic potential there. So why is that important to me . 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 this. On the next piece of that, we are investing in the coast guard like never before. Up there, youll see a couple pictures, if i got the recognize one cued up, and you do, were building we just awarded the second phase of our Fast Response cutters. Its 154 feet in length. Just doing yeoman duty in the straits of florida today. Several occasions we probably evaded a mass migration from cuba because 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 might ask, shouldnt we be shunning these ships to the mediterranean or aegean sea. Theres an opportunity cost if you do that. If you do that, we have a migration problem, a maritime migration problem here in the United States as well. Do we go to the aid of the eu and then we leave our borders, our maritime borders exposed . Thats the tradeoff risk based decisions we have to make. We look at that as well. Were also, we were missionizing 14 c27j fixed wing aircraft. These we acquired at no cost from the u. S. Air force and were missionizing those to help in our isr capability. This year, we were awarded 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 . Absolutely. In fact, this last year, two of our National Security cutters, the straten came back a little less than a year ago with 32 metric tons of cocaine on it. That is enough to literally fill this room to the ceiling with pure cocaine. The other didnt do quite as well. They filled the room about three quarters of the way to the ceiling. But they interdicted three selfpropelled semisubmersibles which the only way you find these is through intelligence. Thats where this whole of government comes into play, and its the ability of these platforms to leverage intelligence. So we can optimally position those where the greatest threats may exist as well. So were building those out as well. At the end of this fiscal year, we will 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, the three bidders that we have up there. We have bollinger ship yard, eastern ship building, and then we also have bat iron works vying for that. 25 ships in that program of record. Which as i said will be the largest acquisition and coast guard history. Great dynamic ship keeping, sea keeping capabilities, as we look at where we might be operating over the next 40plus years, with an emphasis on affordability. Affordability becomes the operative word for this program of record. And then finally, on the upper left, what you see is there is a posturing statement 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 four months what you need a heavy icebreaker to do. So we consulted with navy, National Science foundation, Arctic Research council, department of interior, department of commerce. There are a lot of stakeholders that have arctic equities to make sure if youre going to build a heavy icebreaker, does it meet the needs of whole of government. We have already done that due diligence, including the operational requirement document that has been submitted to omb as well. We have already hired acquisition staff personnel so we can 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 ice breaking budget, and guess what. Whe i had three, count them, three people who expressed an interest in heavy icebreakers. They said if you were serious, you would be showing real money. When i hosted that, there was a mark of 150 million at that point in time for 17, and we had nearly 300 interested parties, including international in terms of heavy icebreakers. Tremendous interest in that recaptizatir recapitalization. Its great were recapitalizing it and modernizing it as never before. As Many Services will probably testify to at a Budget Hearing is you can usually do one of three things. You can modernize, you can build and restore readiness, or you can build for structure. Rarely do you get to do all three at the same time. We are modernizing. Our readiness, we dont have a force in garrison, so the fact that the coast guard operates 24 by 7, i dont have to worry about a forcing garrison and getting them ready to deploy because theyre already deployed. Our readiness levels have been sustained at a pretty high level. And were gradually growing back some of our force structure as well. 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 . So before i did this, i spent some time in Silicon Valley. How does google, how does tez l tesla, how does microsoft, how do they manage their talent . They said, hey, we would love to hire veterans. I said, no, you dont need to hire my workforce away from me, thank you but no thanks. Right now, about 25 of americans, male, female, between the ages of 17 and 24, meet the bare minimal requirements to serve in the United States military. Were a Service Going for that top 10 , not the bottom 10 . And im sure all of my service chief counterparts would say the exact same thing. Well, thats who Silicon Valley is going after as well. And at a point in time where were seeing in the energy sector, in the cyber domain, even in the airline industry, you know, theres a hiring boom taking place around us now. Were doing a great job recruiting people. Doing a great job recruiting diversity. The class of 2020 will arrive at our Coast Guard Academy in two weeks. In that class will be 40 women and one third underrepresented minorities that will mirror image the classes of 19 and 18. In fact, our Coast Guard Academy today is the most diverse it has ever been across every spectrum of our demographic than it has ever been in our coast guard history. I am proud of that. Build it, they will come. We needed the critical mass. Theyre there. Then i look out ten years. When i look out ten years. We lose roughly 50 of our female officers out of a given year group. Why is that . Losing about 50 of our underrepresented minority officers out of a given year group. And why is that . Can you be married, have a family . Have those challenging positions and do it all and still serve our nation . Were nearly 50 of the women in our service are married to other service members, not just coast guard. How do you manage that dual career track. Were very interested whats happening across the river, at the pentagon. Start looking at future force of the 21st century. So were very engaged in that as well. But were a very specialized coast guard. Were no longer the jack of all trades, master of some. If you saw the movie the finest hours with bernie weber, still going out even though his compass has been washed off, we would probably launch Something Else besides that boat today, but that is a very perishable skill set operating in those breaking bars and we have meats who do it better than anybody else. I need to start specializing within some of our specialties across the coast guard. Cyber is a specialty. Inspection regimes is a specialty. Diving, hazmat response, thats a specialty. And so acquisition, legal profession, you need all of these to make this coast guard machine tick. And too many times members, more junejuior members feel like thee in the less favors community in the coast guard. Doesnt matter if you drive a ship, fix a ship, or provide intelligence to a ship, or provide isr for a ship, or prosecute a case that was made by a ship, you need all of that. You need it all together. So it is a table with many legs, and so we need to specialize across our domain, across the many specialties that we quite honestly have been somewhat of a jack of all the United States coast guard. I want to be a rescue swimmer. You talk about talent in your service, dont judge anybody by how much stuff they have. How many ribbons and stripes, but engage in the conversation and you would be amazed. What am i doing to train, retain that talent and that is really the essence of where we need to be focused ongoing forward. That is a scene setter. I know we have open time for open mike, question and answer. There folks who are going to stump me, i can tell already. I want to thank you for allowing me to be here this morning. Thank you. Thats great. Thank you for opening it up. Im really pleased that you ended there on that piece because i was going through the starts and your conversation about the incredible amount of continuity and change. Then to end up on the people piece of it i the kind of workforce you need to deal with it. I wonder if you can speak from a mission perspective. We will talk about trafficking and fisheries. Anded need to operate with partners and inner service partners. That to me speaks to just a health of agility you require out of your workforce. Can you talk about how yyou shit and approach that . There is talent out there and they are better informed. Gone are the days where you own the information. There is only a select few people who sign off on it. I doubt we do that anymore. Everybody knows whats happening. I will give an example. I was in memphis, tennessee not that long ago and we have a coast guard cutter, kankakee. They maintain the navigation on the Lower Mississippi river. I asked the junior most person, she has been with the coast guard all of six months. If you dont know what they do, we have mixed aides and vegetation grows over that. If you are pushing a barge and cant see that, and there snakes under that piling. And its not what you join the coast guard to do. She has been there for all of six months. I said what do you do . She said i facilitate the movement so it can get down the river. She doesnt talk about the bee stings and the fire ants and the snakes, but a much grander scale. They connect themselves to something much bigger than themselves. If you look at what the nasa model was in the 60s. What are you doing by putting a man on the moon . They connect and you find that wherever you go in our service. There is so much more information. You touched on resources that make it better. Thats the line about how we need a bigger boat. Saying 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 the new major investment streams under way and the growth of the structure and the readiness. What most challenges you in executing all of that . I am pleased with the acquisition budget. On the other side, we have the operations and maintenance. And people as well. We are below that level to sustain our operations. Thats the work that i need to do and demonstrating how critical that is. I have been to more births than funerals. Its a great gala event. You need to operate and maintain that and the salaries and the fuel you burn. Thats going to be the next piece. You need a bigger boat and coast guard. You go back to 1988 and almost every cycle since 1988 has been a significant hurricane. You now have a storm. If we only have a hurricane and nothing else, we just finished up an exercise in the pacific northwest. You dont get that 96 hour and you have a trembler and tens of thousands of fatalities. If i have two events, i am out of it. We are currently resourced for a benign operating environment. I think they said it would assist and provide in particular to provide a vessel to assist. Does that impact you and you talk about the trade off. How does that manifest . He can be the emissary with greece and turkey and looking at the challenges and looking at where there might be equities. We do bring a lot of experts in mass migrations. We had those dialogues and we will see if they manifest themselves into a request for an augmentation. And just to be clear, if you had to rush right away, one of your cutters, what would be the impact for you . Thats away from doing that element at risk. We have a significant flow coming up from cuba, but also haiti as well. Two weeks ago, we came across with 11 Cuban Migrants on it. We are able to stabilize that and thats the act of desperation that they upper expected to be medivaced and the coast guard is there to stop them. They will take these to gain access to the United States. If the coast guard is not there, if we reposition, we need to answer what we are doing to protect our Founding Fathers as well. This is how you see this evolving with the actors and what their motivations might be and how they play into that. My initial concern is the indigenous inhabit ants. I was up there last summer and the week before i arrived, we called it a category one hurricane. That would prevent a build up and you can imagine we have 18 to 20 foot combers washing in and they were trying to establish a burm so dont have seawater inundating. They came in in the inhabit ants. They are seeing their way of life change. These are nations on to themselves. How do we reestablish those nations. I look at it as the canary in the coal mine. Thats forever Ocean Temperatures and the impact and to demonstrate that further, i will take a delegation and we will head out to the largest glacier. This is moving at the ready of about eight miles a year into the atlantic ocean. I cant fathom why, but i can observe what is happening. If you were to look at a complete melt down of the ice fields of grownland, you are talking about a rise in sea level. Its not going to happen overnight. If it does happen, what are we doing to prepare for a rise in sea level. Following hurricane sandy. With the expectation that it will be there and functioning 100 years from now. My coastal infrastructure and coast guard will be keeping Climate Change and rising sea level and very much at the forefront as well. The arctic is where this is taking place. The first people to witness this are indigiuous. Let me open it up to the audience. Please identify yourself and your affiliation if you have one. Im the coast guard reporter at navy times. I wanted to ask your biggest personnel wins and what you have on the docket for the next couple. The personnel. Im pleased with the Leadership Program we have and i give credit to the pey officer for the coast guard. Thats the Leadership Development programs and a question of capacity. The area i am pleased with is we have a diversity and inclusion as well. Taking a personal effort i have been here to seven minority institutions. I dont go by myself. Someone doesnt want to see old guys like me. Why would i want to join the coast guard. I bring in a diverse delegation and i meet with the president and the faculty and the students. They get to see the opportunities available to them and it has been a great recruiting tool for them as well. Thats complete and i would be standing outside that wall watching the cadets prey on the field and i did okay. We have one right here. Im mindy and im thanking you for an illuminating report. We have those for russia. I would like you to say a little bit about the experience of the people who are working with russia over arctic issues. What are the issues and the negotiating style and if you talk about any other encounters you have with the fleet as well. I spent the better part of three hours interacting with the russian counterpart. The parliament would not allow russia at the table. Since they didnt show off nor did finland and denmark, we never got off the launching pad. We talked to them and they compartmentalized. They will compartmentalize and some of the military to military actions, this is the federal Border Service of the russian federation. Their principal comes to mead with me. We can talk about the arctic and holistic terms. All of us are challenged if we see an aggressive offshore Drilling Campaign and what is the technology we can bring to bear to mitigate an oil spill in the environment. We also recognized that a lot of our specific research, some of the that is compartmentalized as well. Wouldnt it be to the collective advantage like fisheries. Do we see them move further north and do we see fishing fleets going north to and focused on the arctic and productive. We are working on the Information Exchange where all eight members at the principal level can interact with one another. Say you have an event in the arctic and maybe its the ice breaker and for whatever reason, we get buzzed by the russian aircraft. I would categorize the arctic as transparent. They have a coast guardled approach versus a militaryled. They recognize and they recognize that diplomacy in recognizing the arctic issues. You have how we and those should look the them. The rugs have 41 and we have two. We start looking at that as mutual destruction and the missile count. The purpose of this forum is how we leverage the resources of the coast guards in the effect of a contingency. We are looking at a heat map. They are using ais information which everyone has access to. Thats one of the concentrations we will do a table top exercise this year and a fullscale exercise next year doing a mass rescue at sea and we are not waiting. We will do in august using norway and canada that will participate in that as well. We will have 250 low players and we cant rep li kit a news cycle. Thats an exercise where you need to go. They have a number of others of who is in charge of recognizing a lot of scrutiny and uniquely established relationships and all the nuances and too many times we deal with the tactical level and lose sight of the fact that we will deal with the command authorities if you have a titaniclike event in the modern era today. I will group a final two questions because we are running low on time. The gentlemen from him. Thats from him. Yes. Thank you. With the association on the great lakes to a domestic ice nation. I have two questions. With all the acquisitions you have going on in the woj 40 rehab program, and the second is how you see them. The australian on behalf of the thoughts and prayers to all those with the events in florida over the weekend. We are with you does that give you cause for any concerns . I will take this one. We were granted this maintenance that we have the bring in another ice breaker. I would need top relief before they can address an ice breaker. I would be in ottawa on the fifth and they see where is canada . For whatever reason, we dont have the capacity. We can look to canada to provide them in the United States. That work fist they where are they as well. Well look at these and we are buying service for those 1 whats happening in the weather patterns. As the waters and the air warms. The jet stream instead of it being more of a straight line, it meanders. When it meanders, it brings the frigid air, the polar vortexes and its a new household term, they scream across the great lakes and you get them like we had in 14 and 17 severe winters. Heavy icing. I will not assume that everything is going to warm up and we will have no ice left. Its an investment that we will need to be prepared for. I will be riding away in a couple of weeks and we will be right riding away from the wheel house. I will go back to the second question on china and their role as an observer on the consul. They will soon launch a second medium ice breaker. They have a second continental shelf. China view this is as the global commons. The research, if i see a drilling unit moving up there, we have a problem. I dont know what the long range plan is, what is chinas vision for a strategy. On the global commons, where are the lines drawn and i cant answer that question. Obviously that does cause me great concern. Thank you so much for your time and incredible leadership and you make it sound like the most fascinating in the world. Please join me. The state department will be identifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. We will talk about the obama efforts to establish a unity government in libya. Bob corker chairs the committee and he is in the room. We expect it to get under way in a few moments. Live coverage on cspan 3. We welcome you, but its generally we dont try to start a hearing without our democratic counterpart and Ranking Member being here. This is a courtesy until he is here. Yall dont have to be quiet. Carry on conversations that would make us feel more at ease when you do that. Foreign Relations Committee will come to order. We want to thank the witness five years after the u. S. Decision to intervene in libya which i think most of us was a text book case. I wonder what the libya policy is. Others did the same. We spent most of our time on the issues and they were put in place by the crs. They are very, very tough complex situations that have developed. This is an attempt to understand the achievable out come in line with what cost. Woe really just would be getting back to where they were. There has been a lot of time and a lot of lives lost and a lot of backward momentum. As different faxes continue to compete as isis continues to use the chaos to establish and they provide arms and training to a security force. I hope they can explain to us what lessons the administration can go from the Libyan Security forces and what progress needs to occur to try again. To determine the way forward we need an accurate assessment and what we are doing to help them and what can bring the administration on board with the new government. We have sanctioned libyan individuals who are hindering the formation of a unity government in the past. Are we prepared to do so in the future . For a country with vast oil wells and thankfully void of sectarian tensions. Libya should be a success story. In many ways, the failure of policy following the fall of gadhafi hindered libyas progress. We want to thank you for being here who i know has concerns about the future of libya. We look forward to your testimony and thank you for helping us to understand our way forward. I think this hearing is particularly important as to how we perceive. Its comp walicated. In order to counter isil and libya. And they step up diplomatic efforts. On a brought level this is the right approach. I am pleased to learn they are physically on the run and they continue to make inroads by inspiring people online to commit atrocities as we have seen in our own country and in orlando. The rush to be back the latest terrorist threats, the expediency outpaces and exceeds our strategy. Thats a matter of concern and key need to follow it up with a workable strategy. The fear if we are not careful and do not devote the same time and resources to democracy, promotion and the humanitarian support and worsening the countrys division and repeating past mistakes we made elsewhere. If we had one militia acting under the internationally recognized government and who knows who will pick up arms tomorrow. Let me be clear. If they have information about the threat against the United States, we have to act. We have to act and do whats save for our country. I know they are trying their best to support the government for the gna. Three months ago i conveyed the urgency for Libyan National unity and enhancing storing water to the people and helping libya take their place among the community as a nation. They will combat the extremist forces and the migrant forces of thousands. We lost thousands of people that have gone through libya. Thats one of the casualties of the instability of that country. While the gna is doing their best to restore order, they fester as spoilers in the eastern part of the country continue to block a vote on the approval of gna. As long as they remain fractured. We cannot fight this fight for them. I think thats a very important point. If and when the u. S. Decides to give training in forces it must be with the full support and the potential for that support later to be turned against the United States. We need to have a Clear Strategy in libya. They said the open ended nature on the never ending war on terror. It begins as a Small Mission to build capacity and can morpho into something much larger. All of this is based on authorization predating upheaval in the world. The existence of the Islamic State. As i said earlier, the libya policy must strike a balance between creating Good Governance. The core problem is it is fractured between the old order and the new. We in the International Community must continue our best to try to bridge the gaps. Libyans are tired of having multiple competing governments. I will be interested in whether this has a major impact. They have unity, prosperity. Its my open that we have a balanced policy and not just expedia. Thank you very much for the comments and we appreciate you being here as people know you are the special envoy for libya. The bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the u. S. State department. You can summarize your comments as you will in about five minutes. All of your written testimony will be entered in and if you would, please proceed. I thank you for the opportunity appear before you. Thats where gna in libya. This is to support a unified Accountable Government and that meets the needs of the libyan people. Thats across north africa and europe. At the center of our policy has been support for the creation of the gna as a unifying bridge to help libyans move beyond the period of competition referred to by the chairman and Ranking Member. Until the country adopts a new constitution and a longterm government. To do that we engage with the libyans and International Partners and un special representative and secretary general and predecessor to support the negotiation of the libyan political agreement which was signed on december 17th to bring about the gna. They are rebuilding the libyan state. Rather than fighting one another backed by the dialogue, they have begun the hard work of addressing common challenges. Our collective International Support for the gna has already had Practical Impact on the ground. We have seen Libyan Forces engaged in sustained fighting and the region around cert and into the city. They made impressive gains into the enemy. They announced plans to form a president ial guard. It established command centers to combat. The Prime Minister stated he will Seek International assistance to train and equip forces for this fight which will not be a fight that will be over in days or weeks. They will look at help and we are prepared to provide it. The policy in kwlab is focused on degrading other extremist groups. And to our interest in north africa and europe. In libya, it made clear the willingness to create action. In the past year, the United States has conducted action against several terrorist targets in libya including a strike that took out a Training Camp in the town west of tripoli. We have been working to disrupt connections and the core group in iraq and syria to headlight the flow to libya and shut off finances and counter and defeat the destructive messages. As with the other priorities, chiefing the objectives, it depends on helping them rebuild an effective state. While Real Progress has been made, much more achieves a durable and broad reconciliation. And they put aside their certainly interest under the gna. They would build their nation and urge them to support the institutions and in particular with the central bank of libya whose unity is vital with longterm stability. They continue to support as the g. I look forward to taking your questions. Thank you. I assume that you believe its reasonable that libya can be put back together as a unified state that can secure the border and maintain monopoly over the use of force. Is that something that can occur . I believe it can. Several things in your statement that need to all be taken into consideration. I unitary state is essential. Did division c be disaster Border Control is snag will require work. And based on the way things are progressing at present, how long into the future do you think that is. Thats more than most people expect in that period of time. They are truly impressive. They involve a tremendous amount of sacrifice. Is that the Unifying Force right now that is causing them to come together . Samuel johnson, the british writer once said that the prospect concentrates the mud. There is a concern after that is dealt with. I think the approach of having accord for transition is designed to produce mechanisms for Getting Services provided and Political Support in east, west, and south. For the government to succeed, it has to be able to provide services at the local level. There has to be buy in and municipalities. With real attention given to under served areas in the past. Thats an important part. They capable of doing is that . We dont have sectarian issues and we have divisions in the country. Is it reasonable to believe in a period of time that matters, they will be able to do that. I dont think its easy for them to do it. The council consists of nine people. They work and Grow Together into a working unit and they are committed to that. The constitutions that they need to build out and elections they need to carry out for a permanent government are going to have to be designed a nation they can build for the future. Given the potential wealth, past and future, they have the tools in theory they should be able to do it. I didnt understand what the National Interests were and leaving as we have, you laid out a series of numbers which certainly to most americans is a lot of money and on the other hand they are dealing with the issues. A light amount of resources. I am wondering what role you see them playing right now. Are we one of third countries . Are weed lead country. It doesnt appear that the main major force with as much effort happening on the ground. Can you share with us the thoughts . The assistance money are small amounts. By comparison to what we are doing in iraq and many other places. There we are part of a coalition. Who is leading that coalition . The un is in the lead for the mission in libya. The European Union is committing substantial amounts. Are they taking more of a leading role than the United States here in the European Union . No, sir. In the assistance area, our requests are what they are. Our core work over the past year has been political in the first instance to get alignment amongst all libyas neighbors. The europeans and us to work with libyans to bring them together and get them aligned and fight one or the other. It played a substantial role in the creation of National Accord. I think all of us on the committee traveled through Northern Africa and seent havoc that the fall of libya created. The amount of arms that have traveled through the countries and the support that its given the transnationalist terrorist groups to be able to do what they are doing. Thats happened. Thats water under the bridge. I still am having difficulties seeing the progress and someone like yourself there. Do understand that if we end up in a situation years from now the country cannot maintain its borders and have total control over whats happening militarily in the country. That havoc is going to continue. We thank you for your efforts and look forward to additional questions. We thank you, mr. Chairman. I certainly understand the u. S. Participation with the International Community in 2011. I think it was well received in Congress Legal the administration chose not to commit authorization for the use of military force. As i said in my Opening Statement, i think we have to act when we have a reason to do it. We have to think about the consequences there for the actions. Today my understanding is this we have a limited number and the foreign nations are considering sending in ground forces. Im not beyond the training and equipping center. What is the intentions for personnel being used in libya. I think that question needs to be addressed in another setting. With the participation of other parts of the government. You can tell us whether they are anticipating sending up an authorization for the military campaign in libya. I dont know of a military campaign being contemplated. We have our people there. I understand the lines that you are drawing. Is it anticipated that you will seek congressional action as part of the strategy for united front u. S. Participation and whatever is done in libya. Im prepared to provide you any information i have in an appropriate setting at any time. One of the factors that you judge how well you are proceeding. I acknowledged my Opening Statement the progress that you made against the terrorists. That has been major advancements. We have yet to see the ratification of the unity government which a major step yet to be taken. We know there are leaders in libya that are resisting that. They are not there by any stretch of the imagination. You gave an optimistic account. One of the indicators is the reopening of the embassy. Is that likely to occur . Senator, we very much want to have the embassy reopened in libya. We want to be present in libya and think it is important. Our ability to do that depends on the evaluation of the security situation and as of now, we have not evaluated that its time for us to do that. We will be here to talk about it. Could you be more specific to what will be necessary to reopen the embassy. They feel its the right thing to do in the instance. Other parts of the administration would have to concur. We would be here talking about it. The capacity of the libyan people taking on isil. What is that capacity with our without a nga. How did you see the title see themselves against isil . When the government rerecognized whose house was based there, the east of extreme libya. They had that period and there was a competing government that no one recognized in tripoli. Thats the period of time when did she secured a presence in the far east of the country and a substantial geographic territory in the region around cert in the center of libyas coastal region. Since the government was agreed on and on december 17th and voted on favorably for the Presidency Council and political agreement, not for the cabinet, but the house of representatives. We have seen different Libyan Forces take on did she with substantial success. Did she was first kicked out of derna by local forces who some of the people invited them in were not what to do by extremists. They had undertaken further efforts in and around the area. Most recently forces east and west of cert have collaborated under the govern of National Accord through operations to impressively push dash back out of cert. I dont want to disappoint the chairman and my Good Governance and corruption. One of the real challenges is the trafficking through libya which is causing people through traffickers and to try to get to europe. Part of that is corruption and in addition you have a large percentage in desperate need of assistance and the honesties and the institutions of government are so weak, its hard to get that aid. What is the prognosis we will have a government that will stop the traffickers and be available to deliver the aid that is needed. I cant offer a probability. The government is working initially to counter is that a high priority. We have a lot of problems, but we are making a high priority to make sure we can stop the tragedies taking place in the crisis. Just this week, senator, the un endorsed a resolution to enhance maritime oversight and potential arms trafficking from my point of view. The more vessels there, the more likely we combat the migrant flow. We talked to all of libyas neighbors and dealing with migrant trafficking in any country as europe demonstrated itself, they have any number of borders is a difficult business and will take a lot of business over a lot of time. In terms of the crisis that we have been working with, with the company with the wednesday council on measures to try to reduce the risk of humanitarian crisis and get some traction and liquidity they have been facing with the loss of con23i dense in the twogovernment period and we are making progress in that area. Thank you, senator. Thank you and thank you for your service. I have two quick questions. I want to get to the arms embargo that the Ranking Member mentioned. I want to get your opinion on this potential financial situation which i think is critical as well. Oil is right now almost 97 of the revenue. I know with the price of oil being down and also the annual production is about a 30 of the capacity if i got the numbers right. I look at the reserves depending on the out take could be as short as three to nine years. Thats shocking. Thats 100 of their economy. And the best situation, whats the out come here. You have a financial catastrophe sitting here in the midst of this distressed battle situation. Im trying to get past the ceasefire and all the rest to say okay, what do we do to rebuild it economically to stop the foster of this radical element. Would you address the potential collapse . Yes, sir. You just identified one of the core issues that we have been concerned about and been working on. They are at risk of eating that and being and we are working to try to get the forces. That shortens the number of years to burn it out. I think the problem is not so much pumping it out and losing it, and not enough coming in. There is no solution and reforms they can take and they are not producing their oil. The debt situation is not in the crisis levels. They should be pumping 1. 5 billion a day. They have been pumping less. I talked with the head of the Petroleum Forces and said you have got to turn the oil back on. He supports the government and the forces have been fighting to get rid of dash. They have shut down 440,000 barrels a day. Some of the concerns have not been met. That is an important economic issue. Does isis pose a threat . To the production, yes. To exploitation, probably not. They run northsouth, southnorth. They did area and destroyed some terminals, some areas where oil was being stored at the terminals, and thats probably reduced the capacity some. But its quite limited damage at this point. One of the things thats really impressive about the efforts against daesh in the cert region and the oil crescent region, its begun to push them away from their ability to threaten libyas future Oil Production, so thats a significant development. But the libyans need to draw together and address one anothers grievances so that everybody agrees to allow the oil to be pumped again so they have less of a mismatch between the money coming into their treasury and the money thats going out. Would you agree were within a year or two in the best Case Scenario of having a potential collapse if they dont do that . Yes, sir. Couple of years. Second question. Im sorry, thank you for that candor. Relative to the Security Council resolution just yesterday, i believe, what do you think the impact of that will be, and will it have any impact on whats coming in to support daesh . Its not clear to me where daesh is getting its weapons from. I think a lot of it is through domestic stockpiles and that kind of thing. Whats important about the arms embargo is limiting the risk of Different International players aligning themselves with different forces within the country. And thus exacerbating the risk of internal conflict. We spent a tremendous amount of time in 2015 in tand the first of 2016 getting regional players aligned. There are three conditions for us to have success in libya. Very briefly, one, negotiating process. We worked that out and we got the political agreement by having one u. N. Led process. Secondly, having regional players with interests and relationships in libya agree on a common course and press forces within libya that theyve been working with to participate in and to agree with it. We have gotten tremendous success in that. Thats the second. Third, there have to be benefits at the local level, at municipalities throughout the country and in different regions from the agreement and from the government so they have a stake in stability. Were working on that, senator. One last comment. I applaud all of that. My only admonition would be to add a fourth, and that is the post effort. What happens after that happens to the economy and to the people and the economy that were talking about so that we can minimalize the danger of critical radicalization there . Ultimately we would like to see the libyans have resources go to people at the local level. They have to get the basics done in a public financial situation so theres greater accountability for the resources and their spending. In systems that are transparent to the libyan people and meet modern standards would be very good for libya. Some of the money were requesting from Congress Today would go to that. Some of the money youve provided us in past will go to public administration. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Are you squared away . Is that synonymous with having just sat down, squared away . Synonymous with knowing your staff, whispering in your ear, and i wasnt sure if youd taken it all in. I think im ready to go. There you go. Thank you, sir. Thank you for your service. We were just in saudi arabia about two weeks ago, and one of the highest ranking ministers said to us that libya was going to make syria look like a piece of cake. Which was a very startling comment to come from that source. What would it take for that set of circumstances to unfold, and what can we do to avoid it from ultimately transpiring . Senator, regional competition in support of different forces so that libyans cant come together to fight terrorists could potentially lead to a very bad scenario. Thats one of the things weve been working to counter over the past year, year and a half. Having the terrorists destroy Oil Infrastructure and having the oil not continue to flow, to be able to fund core government activities and salaries for government workers and for the people of libya would be another threat, if theres a humanitarian collapse due to the inability of libya to sustain its economy. That would be a second element. The third element would be not taking on daesh now. Allowing them to gain a further foothold. Theyre entirely predatory. They live off the land and they live off the land in extraordinarily ugly and ruthless fashion, as we all know. So they need to grab more territory at all times in order to survive. So when you push them back on their heels and take territory away from them, its very difficult for them to continue because they need to be able to generate income to keep themselves going. So ignoring that problem would create the kind of risk youre talking about. So theres the risk of internal conflict. Theres the risk of economic and humanitarian collapse, and theres the risk from daesh. The three of them are intertwined which is why the strategy has been to get political alignment so that we can get to the libyans to undertake, as they want to do, countering the threat to all of them from the Islamic State which they detest. So in your it testimony youve pointed out that in libya, isis lacks the ability to use Oil Smuggling as a major Revenue Generating resource as it has done in iraq and in syria. In march this Committee Held a hearing on libya during which i expressed the concerns that isis appeared to be expanding to the point where they could have threatened sensitive Petroleum Facilities and improved their longer term capability to move against Oil Production facilities in the interior regions to the south. But now the immediate risk appears to be greatly reduced thanks to the current offensive operations by militias loyal to the government of National Accord which appears close to defeating isis in cert. I give great credit to the administration, our military forces that are assisting militias loyal in the National Accord and are International Partners for what appears to be progress against isis in libya. If it were not for their efforts, i believe we could have faced a real risk of isis gaining access to Revenue Generating Oil Resources in libya as it has done in syria. That said, no single tactical success is sufficient to avoid this kind of Strategic Risk while militias loyal to the government of National Accord are fighting isis in cert, the general, who has aligned with the house of representatives is positioning his forces to the south of cert where they are watching and waiting. Although the general and the toll brook oppose isis they have not agreed to support the government of National Accord. Mr. Winer, this appears to be a moment ripe for aggressive political intervention. The united emirates have a history of support. If the general goes to war with the militias loyal to the government of National Accord, there will only be further chaos and isis will have an opportunity to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and resume the expansion in libya. What are we, the u. N. And e. U. Doing to bring the house of representatives together with the government of National Accord . Thank you, senator. I must say that each of you worry about the same things that i worry about. The anxieties are consistent with what we worry about every day when it comes to libya. In your answer could you specifically tell me if we are working with egypt and the uae to push general hifter and the house to an agreement with the new government. Egypt and the uae and every country neighboring libya and every other in the region has signed on both expressly and in bilateral discussions with us as well as in multilateral. Secretary kerry said in vienna last month that the United States wants to see the general be part of the solution. We see him as playing a significant role but he will not be the only ones and were working on that. Were consult iing with the uae and egypt on that among others. And i feel we have a great degree of alignment and constructive fashion that could well lead to positive results as weve already seen positive results the past weeks in cert. Thank you very much. I dont know if senator markey mentioned this to you or not but a couple of months ago we had the opportunity to travel to saudi arabia and visit with deputy crown prince, the crown prince and others in the royal family as well as the foreign minister and other members of the government. One of the questions of the crown prince, i believe, the situation in libya, in syria and when it came specifically to the situation libya the question was asked how do you think it compares to syria and i believe syria will be a piece of cake compared to libya should this collapse occur. Perhaps you already mentioned that and i dont want to mischaracterize the statement. Could you explain how that could be the case and whether or not you agree with comments that such comments like you look at the crown princes remarks that libya syria is a piece of