Process, making sure that when we are making changes to our military members lives, that it is this body and his bodys worst responsibility that we are there to make sure we are providing the oversight to see if the changes that we made are doing what we intended them to do. And this deals with the commissary. Many in this committee might know, but our colleagues might not know, that is the Grocery Store and the military. Is nothing predictable in the military and it is very stressful. Grocery shopping should not be stressful. Is not a business. It is a benefit to the tune of about 300 per family member. Haveof those same families people working at the commissary. And the money from the commissary goes back into morale , welfare, recreation, and things to make military life improve. What we are doing, to be clear on this is, we are changing the way the commissarys work. Suggestion and i ask you to think of this from a. Oldiers perspective the mandate was to modernize the military, the
The army reserve responded within 24 hours and had forces moving to the east coast. I provided dewatering units, Aviation Assets to help the National Guard and it worked just fine. Break. Go to d. O. D. , fema, eplows. 100 provided by the army reserve embedded in your fema regions. 50 it shall over 50 of the d. O. D. Are provided by the army reserve which is utilized routinely to defend the homeland in terms of complex catastrophes to support the Guard Brothers and sisters. That all happened in the National Defense act of 2012. Paul, before we go to you, judd, can you talk that from a National Guard angle . Yes, sir. In addition to what general talley mentioned about authorities in place a unique aspect of the air National Guard is our ability to operate under state active duty underneath the funding and control of the governors. The response capability exists. We saw it time and again across the 54. The Additional Authority that general talley mentioned, i might add in terms of contro
Controls and a lack of oversight, but we have also seen the departments take our controls and implement them, so they are working hard to improve their environment and their internal controls and oversight. To do that, have you published a manual, a set of guidelines . What have you done . It meetings you conduct on training . We have published a number of reports. You are looking at our latest report from january 2014, and we published a number of reports i believe two in 2013 and one in 2012. Your report talks about some of the problems, sort of an audit or overview of what is a simple but is there guideline that you publish . We do not publish a guideline for the department. That would be a management function. We have provided recommendations on what they should include. Have they published that to your satisfaction . Yes, sir. Again, we have some noncompliance at significant levels. Thate see you testified the department of defense or at least the air force you are speaking for ai
Unanimous requests. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection, so ordered. n mr. Cruz so the first unanimous consent request i would promulgate, mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h. J. Res. 72, making continuing appropriations for Veterans Benefits for the fiscal year 2014, which was received from the house. I ask further consent that the measure be read three times and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The presiding officer is there objection . Mrs. Murray mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from washington. Mrs. Murray mr. President , as the presiding officer knows and our colleagues know, i have spoken often of my own father who was a world war ii veteran who spent most of his life in a wheelchair, earned a purple heart. I know the sacrifices that our veterans make. As chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee before this, i fought
Afternoon. Because i submitted my complete testimony for the record, i will and based on your question, will i provide a brief summary of my testimony. First and foremost, we in the air force are committed towards ensuring proper spendinging controls are effectively used in the government wide Purchase Card Program referred to as gpc. In summary, when used p place of written purchase orders, it allows us to reduce delen quent payment charges, save 70 per transaction and obtain rebates that further our ability to execute the mission. In fiscal year 2013, air force units saved 105 million on 1. 5 million transactions and received 14. 7 million in rebates on total expenditures of 1. 2 billion. Through a variety of controls, we are able to monitor the activities over 26,000 card holders spread across Ten Air Force major commands, four field operating agencies and three direct reporting units. Both domestic and overseas. In accomplishing this, we endeavor to work with the office of secretar