Command general and they are in regards to addressing a group of airmen this month. What he has said to have made in comments to the airmen was anyone who is passing information to congress about these capabilities is committing treason. As part of those comments he has also said that if anyone accuses me of saying this, i will deny it. Let me just tell you general welsh. Do you find those comments to be acceptable in any way to accuse our men and women in uniform to say you are committing treason if you communicate with congress about the capabilities of any other of our Weapons Systems . No, maam, not at all. There is investigation currently ongoing with that incident. And i actually contacted the general involved and his commander and the department of defense is overseeing an investigation being run by isaf eiji. And they will present that as soon as the investigation is complete. I hope that this is a thorough investigation because obviously, i think its very serious to accuse peo
Infrastructure on the routine basis. Further our adversaries are probing Critical Infrastructure whether chemical plants stock exchanges any type of important infrastructure. And our partner countries that can inflict damage to the Global Economy as well as exacerbate instability in the security environment. What are your specific recommend ages with arerd to increasing cyber capability and specifically how do we compete with the private sector to get the brightest minds and the best engineers and math met igses to want to serve as cyber warriorsen and hands the Cyber Defense . Have you thought about ways to not only recruit and retrain and retable the best and brightest in the fields but also to perhaps develop resources throughout National Guard and other sources. And the panel senator, we did not go into that level of detail we noted the importance of the area the importance of the investing of both defensive and offensive capabilities urged the department to move forward with moder
All of us . You know like most statistics they are all over the place but by any measure there are references to 85 of Critical Infrastructure and the backbone on which we ride whether you are power plant, a financial company, whether you are a shopping center. All of that the vast majority that resides in the private sector. And local government or privatelyowned. That means that the dot gout piece or the dot. Mil that is controlling United States government is a small portion and so we are incredibly reliant for all the services we rely on that are critical in many instances to our life and sustenance whether its a hospital or Financial Bank account you are vulnerable if you are hooked up to the internet. In my brilliant introduction i referred to rails, water mains and power grids. What percentage of this is in the private sector . All of it. Did everyone hear that . Privatelyowned. Its not the federal government responsibility. It doesnt come under the control of the federal govern
Senators mark kirk and Robert Menendez have introduced a bill which adds economic sanctions against iran for its nuclear program. It restores some sanctions that were lifted when i ran into negotiations with the u. S. And imposes new sanctions on Senior Iranian officials and their families. The Senate Banking committee met today to work on the bill. This is an hour. [inaudible conversations] the meeting will come to order. As we are getting a quorum here we will move to Opening Statements. We will then consider a Nuclear Weapon free iran act of 2015. I would like to come in at this time senators kirk and menendez for their tireless efforts and i mean tireless over so many months including this legislation. Earlier this week we heard testimony from Senior Administration officials and a panel of experts on the need for iran sanctions. I will note that this testimony is an addition to the at least 11 other times Administration Officials have testified before Senate Committees on iran sinc
That it was giving too much power to the president. Do you agree with that . What is your view of this . I have mixed feelings. Youre talking about the authority that is given for the trade agreements. And what is the tpa, the actual acronym trade promotional authority. Trade promotional authority. There is an argument to be made by some on the separation of powers that by giving this authority to the president that youve taken power that should be the congress. There is also i guess, another argument that these are really treaties and they ought to be actually done as treaties and theyre not, theyre done by simple majority. But im also a big believer in free trade, i think free trade is a good thing. So there have been libertarians or libertarian conservatives, my father included who voted against some of the trade deals because they felt like they gave up sovereignty to international bodies. I think it is a valid point. I have voted for the trade deals, though because like a lot of t