Chairman isakson call this meet of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee together. I apologize again for being a little bit late i want to make sure were on the right track. I didnt mess anything up. I want to welcome secretary shulkin, who has had a great start. I dont think anybody in this administration started out with a better unanimous vote than he. Doing better than unanimous when you are confirmed. I think the vote last week on accountability was extraordinary. And the way we got to the decision working together was extraordinary and i commend the Ranking Member on his help in doing the same. We have some other things to do today to Start Talking about. Well have some other decisions made. We can keep the same tempo, same discipline, and same commitment to making sure we all know what each other knows before they happen rather than find out after the fact well all be better off. I welcome dr. Shulkin and the other members of the staff that are here today. And appreciate all tha
[inaudible conversations] this morning epa administrator scott pruitt testifies before House Appropriations subcommittee on Donald Trumps fiscal year 2018 budget request for the agency. Live coverage at 11 00 am eastern on cspan3, cspan. Org and the free cspan radio apps. Next, Veterans Affairs secretary doctor David Shulkin testifies on the president s 2018 budget request for his department. The hearing also has representatives of veterans groups talking about budget proposal. This hearing is about two hours. [inaudible conversations] let me apologize for being a little late. A couple things coming down the hall, i dont want to flip up on me but stand at ease. In the air force, and for just one minute, my trusted friend, Ranking Member, will open the [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] call this meeting of the Veterans Affairs committee together. I apologize again for being a little bit late but i want to make sure we are on the right track and i didnt mess anything up
I wanted to make sure we were on the right track and i didnt mess anything up. Wanted to welcome secretary. I dont think anybody who had a better unanimous vote. It was extraordinary and the way we got to the decision working together and was extraordinary. I commend the Ranking Member on his help doing the same. We have some thing to talk about budget wise. We can keep the same tempo and same commitment to make sure we all know what happens before it happens and well be better off. I appreciate all they have done in our meeting to explain where they are going. It is upward and outward and further ahead all along. I will make a long statement except to say a couple of things. I dont want to make this today but one thing i have to brag about, the certainer decision in getting our electronic after years of unwillingness is extraordinary. There are signs people were coming together in the past and makes sure it happens and works for our department of defense and the department of veterans
We will speak with alex kruger, the head of the private equity firm first reserve. Lets have a look at where european equities are trading when now 30 minutes until the end of the trading session. Stocks falling for the fourth day and tension has been on central bankers. In the meantime, the imf cutting its assessment of the u. S. Economy. Ambitions ofumps 3 growth are possibly pieinthesky come up my words not the imf words. You can see the currencies rising against the dollar and bonds and commodities and cds. Lets get the bloomberg barometer. Wellbeing is positive. Below zero. Shows th shows the opposite. We did have some data today in the u. K. Consumers feeling just as gloomy as they were after the brexit vote a year ago. We had an index of Consumer Confidence dropping to 106. 9 in june, a level only slightly higher than that post referendum low. This is from the center of economic and business research. A fascinating piece of data. This gauge does look at gauges such as inflation,
Now on cspan a. Review of the 2018 federal budget from the money the president requested to what congress, who holds the purse strings, ultimately decides. Joining us from capital gal nancy, senior correspondental now correspondentent for bloomberg. Nancy, tell us what the president requested for 2018, and what were his Top Priorities . The president stuck with the overall number in the law, the budget control act, requesting basically a little bit over 1 trillion. 1. 1 trillion as the law allows for. Within that number he really departed from the budget control act numbers, and he requested a lot more for defense programs. About 54 billion for security related programs. And covers that with an equal amount of cuts in nondefense spending, 54 billion. So thats a violation of the budget control act there. But more than that, its very politically unpopular. Yes, numbers really members really like the defense spending increase, but they dont like taking it out of nondefense programs agricu