Good afternoon, my name is scott smith and im a Senior Adviser on the Afghanistan Team and im glad to welcome you all here for a timely discussion on ending the war in afghanistan. Id like to welcome those joining by live stream. You can engage with us and each other on twitter with todays hashtag afghanpeace. Usip was founded by congress 35 years ago as an independent, nonpartisan, National Institute charged with the mission of preventing conflicts under the premise that peace is possible. Usip has been involved in afghanistan in particular since 2002 and supporting sustainable peace in afghanistan is a core priority for us. Our team is engaged at all levels of the process including convening meetings like this here in washington, our meetings with key stakeholders, for discussions on how to bring about an end to americas longest war. We publish details on substantive topics rolled related to peace. We work in afghanistan through our office there at the grass roots level hosting peace
[background noises] the ways and Means Committee will now come to order. Good morning, today we will consider the historic u. S. Mca transforming agreement that creates a new High Water Mark u. S. Trade deals moving forward. The implementing bill before us is the result of many months of negotiations and indeed more than a year between House Democrats and the ambassador robert who worked with us honorably every time we met. And im very proud of the outcome of that we have reached. When we assume the majority this year, we were asked to consider a renegotiated nafta that had structural flaws in a number of areas including enforcements, labor rights, the environment, and access to medicines. Let me start with enforcement. Which was the crux of this agreement. As ive noted many times over the past year, i did not vote for the original nafta, the chief reason was a lack of enforceability. In the past 25 years, weve seen the shortcoming of the original agreements, much of which comes down t
Speak the ways and Means Committee will now come to order good morning we will consort considered a historic usmca the high watermark with trade deals moving forward it is the result of more than one year House Democrats and the ambassador light heiser who worked with us every time we met. Im very proud of the outcome we have reached. When we assume the majority this year we were asked to consider a renegotiated nafta in a number of areas including enforcement the environment and access to medicines that we start with enforcement as noted many times i did not vote for the original nafta and the chief reason was the lack of enforceability. The past 25 years we have seen the shortcoming much of which comes down to lack of enforcement in my view the improvements to the usmca finally makes the agreement enforceable n by preventing a country to block a nation dispute settlement attempt. Nafta has been symbolic and over 25 years there have been 39 petitions filed with zero enforcement action
I have not seen this room filled this much in a while. Good afternoon, everyone. It is great to be here with you in the pentagon briefing room. Sec. Esper since i became the secretary of defense last month, ive had the opportunity to meet with many of you. Im especially pleased that the chairman and i can spend time with you all here today in the briefing room. The United States military has a proud history and a great story to tell. It is my commitment to the American People, who entrust us with their sons and daughters to keep them informed of the work that our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, and apartment of defense civilians do every day to keep our nation safe we have many avenues to engage with the media in todays world. Moving forward, i intend to do these briefings to maintain an open dialogue about the departments activities. Our head of Public Affairs and a representative of the joint staff will also begin holding regular press briefings. My aim is to give you an over
I have not seen this room filled this much in a while. Good afternoon, everyone. It is great to be here with you in the pentagon briefing room. Sec. Esper since i became the secretary of defense last month, ive had the opportunity to meet with many of you. Im especially pleased that the chairman and i can spend time with you all here today in the briefing room. The United States military has a proud history and a great story to tell. It is my commitment to the American People, who entrust us with their sons and daughters to keep them informed of the work that our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, and apartment of defense civilians do every day to keep our nation safe we have many avenues to engage with the media in todays world. Moving forward, i intend to do these briefings to maintain an open dialogue about the departments activities. Our head of Public Affairs and a representative of the joint staff will also begin holding regular press briefings. My aim is to give you an over