The subcommittee on defense appropriations to the United States senate will come to order. Today we are receiving an update on military readiness and Defense Budget matters we are pleased to welcome to the committee the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Fiscal year 2017 department of defense appropriations agreement i look forward to completing the work of that bill in the coming weeks. We are well into the fiscal year and members of the subcommittee understand that legislation as we complete our work of the 2017 appropriation agreement, we also recognize request for additional appropriations fiscal year 2017 that has been submitted to congress. We welcome comments from the panel as well as the submission on 2018. Did is an honor judge the secretary of defense before us with his first appearance as secretary. I am pleased to welcome back to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff before the committee. With the forward to hearing more about your prior
Dunford testify before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee on military readiness in the upcoming fiscal years budget. This is one hour and 45 minutes. Cochran the subcommittee on defense appropriations to the United States senate will come to order. Today we are receiving an update on military readiness and Defense Budget matters we are pleased to welcome to the committee the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Fiscal year 2017 department of defense appropriations agreement otheren approved by the body, the house of representatives. I look forward to completing the work of that bill in the coming weeks. We are well into the fiscal year and members of the subcommittee understand that legislation as we complete our work of the 2017 appropriation agreement, we also recognize request for additional appropriations fiscal year 2017 that has been submitted to congress. We welcome comments from the panel as well as the submission for 2018. It is an ho
They act as Emergency Responders with us. The southern ute have been an incredible and incredibly diligent and being embedded in our command center, working on this. The professionalism has been wonderful, so we will make sure they are properly reimbursed for expenses. The 2nd process is the claims process, what damages have it occurred, and we use the federal claims tort act in order to process those claims. How does the federal tort claims act help the navajo . They lost a huge amount of irrigating water which can have longterm devastating effects of drought continues and they do not have the water now or in the future . How can they be made whole . Two things that are happening here as well. We are talking to the navajo about how they get reimbursed. We need to work with the president as well as the Navajo Nation epa to reimbursed for their expenses. The 2nd issue is the claim process. I want to make sure that we are all aware that the reimbursement process is quite different. While
There was pressure buildup at the Gold King Mine. They made a judgment that turned out to be wrong. Whether constitutes Due Diligence and factors, thats what the department will have to advise us. We will follow up to see if there were mistakes made, if they could have avoided this or if there was other mistakes. Thank you. I read a long and detailed testimony to be offered later he points out concerns about the 3 million gallons but also about whats coming in the years to come and the Navajo Nation will need. Is there any reason to think that this is more than the trigger for this attention . I think it has raised visibility of these issues in a way that im hoping something good can come out of it so we will be better off in terms of how we manage these sites moving forward. Weve been working with the navajo for years. We will continue to do that. We will address concerns that they have identified as best we can. We now know the water may not be at the level it needs to be so that we
Democrats and republicans, as they often are divided on a lot of things. But also surprising areas of agreement. Lets start with the biggest question, whether the u. S. Should send troops to fight isis . Here are the results. The country is split down the middle, 44 to say yes, 45 say no. Taking a look at the partisan breakdown. The polarization is so much the driving factor. Democrats overwhelmingly say no, republicans overwhelmingly say yes. Mark, what is this to the likelihood of the u. S. Muster the ability to do this . Mark the country is surprisingly divided. Many saying we should send troops as not. The republicans overwhelmingly support it. Jeb bush for the first time aggressively saying yes. The Republican Party is headed in that direction, but its still a country divided. John its hard to imagine a country split this evenly getting to the point where it sends troop into the conflict. Mark its easy to say yes without the specifics. What is holding back even some republicans ar