[applause] good afternoon, everybody and thank you for that warm introduction, and thanks to the sponsors for pulling such Amazing Group of professionals together this afternoon. It is took an honor for me to share the stage with general joe votel. He was a fantastic colleague but also a wonderful role model of the sort of servant leader for all of us who were in government. Joe, you served as commander of u. S. Socom, as commander of Central Command during probably the busiest time ever for armed forces in the middle east. You are an avid and regular consumer of intelligence. I wonder given the conference and its theme in this audience if you start by just giving us a war fighters frank assessment of the intelligence support you received. How were we doing . What were the strengths, weaknesses, the gaps . Thanks michelle. Let me add my thanks to the insa leadership and all of you for being here. Michelle, thanks for joining us here today for this panel. Youre right, i do consider myse
The [inaudible conversations] the Committee Meets today to hear at all Mike Boettcher is. You have more titles than anybody else. The commander of the u. S. Cyber command, director of the agency and chief of the Security Service given your upcoming retirement this might be the last time you are dropping in. As the recent National Defense strategy identified renewed great power with russia and china and that kind of stands along with what the general said when he said that we are losing our qualitative and quantitative edge as we move into this 3to National Defense strategy. As we approach the eighth anniversary of the Cyber Command, we should recognize the remarkable progress made in the concept establishing the command. Later this year we anticipate the Operational Capability for 6,200 persons Labor Commission force despite the main successes, there are still significant challenges. The committee remains concerned about the hollow cyber force due to the lack of priority across the ser
The president S Administration is National Wear red day to prevent heart this these in the National Catholic schools week the president will be signing executive orders back to lenders and borrowers. And another great deal was reached with Lockheed Martin with the intervention 55 planes were purchased for u. S. Military u. S. Military had a net 455 million savings for the u. S. Taxpayers and average Cost Reduction of 7. 5 . Speaking of good numbers the economy added within 227,000 new jobs effectively more than the one of its 75,000 expected it reflects Consumer Confidence that the Trump Presidency has inspired. And adp shows strong private sector hiring. President Trump Campaign how to make america work again even before he took office of market delivered and is turning the economy around is looking forward to insure every american who wants a job as the opportunity to find one. He is pleased of the job growth in the Labor Force Participation is rising and recognizes theres a lot more
Further to that point of order, two words. Well done. Back in the u. S. , Mcdill Air Force base in tampa, florida, President Trump made his first visit to a u. S. Military command, visiting the heads of Central Command and the special Operations Command and speaking and having lunch with soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, heres part of his comments earlier today. Ladies and gentlemen, introduce the president of the United States, commander, United States Central Command, general joseph votel. Please, please, sit down, theres actually somebody more important than the sent come commander here today. This is a than the centcom commander here today. The commands here at macdill have been extraordinarily busy over the last 15plus years. Those in favor say aye been responding to crises on almost a daily basis in the most volatile and important regions of the world. Our mission is to protect americas interest and keep its citizens safe and the outstanding men and women, military, civilia
Today that works well as a joint force. However, i do believe that given the change in our strategic environment, particularly in the last three or four years, that it is time to do a review. With reference to your specific question, i dont know that theres a need for the change. I report to the secretary of defense and if if confirmed ill report to the secretary of defense and the president. But i think what we need in this environment is we also, and i think what general dunford was suggesting, is we need the ability to have agility in our Decision Making and deployment of assets. Very few of these challenges today are limited to one cocom. There are multiregional, multifunctional, multidomain and challenge the structure we have today and our ability to be as agile as our challenges or adversaries are. Mr. King we have to be sure that allows our agility . Mr. Scaparrotti yes. Mr. King general robinson . Ms. Are binson the most important part of this is the agility and ability to work