The middle east. First of all and foremost, i want to submit for the record the statement by chairman mccain who is not here today. Were joined this morning by a group we all know well. You have all been before this committee. As i mentioned to you a minute ago, and i think most of the members of this committee have seen you in action in the field, and ambassador crocker, you have been a diplomat in residence, woodrow wilson, school of public and International Affairs at princeton university. He has been all over the map, and in the last couple of decades. Ambassador eric edelman, counsellors center for strategic and budgetary assessment. By my account this is your ninth appearance before this committee. Does it sound right to you . Yeah. And ambassador jeffrey, the philip solange distinguished fellow, University Washington institute for near east policy. I remember being with you in turkey and other places, and, of course, ambassador stuart jones, Vice President of the colin group. Yo
The statement by mccain joined s morning by a group that we all know well youve all been before this committee is i mention to the you a minute ago and i think most of the members of meet have seen in action in the field and investor crocker youve been diplomat in residence Wilson School and at Princeton University been all over the map. And in the last couple of decades, and a investor harry counselor, senator for strategic and budgetary assessment l by my account that is your 9th appearance before this committee does what sound right to you . Yeah. Investor at the university of Washington Institute for the policy i remember being with you in tucky, and other places and a, of course, ambassador Stewart Jones Vice President of the cohen group who your presence visited by i think every member here by both jordan and in iraq so it is great to have all of you here. Much of our nation attention has gone towards middle east in materials of military operations and thats appropriately so. Wev
The subcommittee will come to order. I want to welcome everyone to todays hearing of the emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee of the House Armed Services committee. With the president budget request released earlier today, this is our first opportunity to explore this request and the major implications for key defense missions. I think it is fitting that the first area we will dive into is cyber. This is an increasingly important area on overseeing the departments progress in building and maintaining cyber forces to protect, defend, maintain, and when necessary conduct offensive operations in cyberspace. As we move towards developing the fiscal year 2018 and daa, i have made cyber and cyber warfare one of my main priorities. In the coming weeks, Mac Thornberry and i, and the house Ranking Member adam smith stand to introduce legislation that strengthens congressional oversight of sensitive military cyberoperations, including mandating prompt notifications to congress in the e
Officials at tsa, and employees are scared to report problems, fearing retaliation. One employee says he was instructed by management to racially profile somali americans. A report from the Inspector Generals Office concluded they have a serious staffing problem, losing more than 100 airport screeners every week. This is 2 25. Committee on oversight and government reform comes to order. Without objection, the chair has authorize zed to declare a recess at anytime. We have an important hearing today examining the Management Practices and misconduct at the Transportation Security Administration, the tsa. As we enter the summer travel, Many Americans are headed to the airport. We get a lot of people coming in from overseas who want to travel domestically, but have a lot of americans taking their families or going on business, the whole array, everything you can think about. The numbers are pretty amazing, how many people travel on a daily basis. But often when they get there, theyre findi
Changes put into these airports, the rationale behind some of this stuff absolutely makes no sense from a security standpoint. Riskbased security is a title thats slapped on everything. And the motto is from the Previous Administration theres never been a risk i wasnt willing to accept. Its like dealing with a Financial Investor. You give a Financial Investor 100,000 of your money and he or she will do things with it they would never do with their own. Thats one example of the logic that goes in and the thought process that goes in. One of my counterparts took a survey over a period of five months with calls that we have with tsa leadership prior to mr. Neffengers arrival. There were 147 topics discussed, not one was security related. They may have talked about playbook or some security aspect but there was always a metric driving it and it was a running joke. This is the priority of that leadership. Let me jump to another point here. Can you walk us through the process that tsa engage