Unilateral war, which is the impression most people get from this current administration. Thank you. No question i guess. So well just move right on here. Maam. Yeah. Hi. Marisol morales. Followup question to the gridlock and the word compromise being a fourletter word in washington, d. C. How do you feel about term limits for congress . Ive always been an advocate for term limits. Its just my personal believes. Just as im for non partisan redistricting. I think people spend too long in politics. And i dont know what the number is. Let it be ten years or whatever it might be. I just think listen, if you look at my career, ive done 30 Different Things in my whole career. I just think its important always to try and recruit, get new blood, fresh blood involved, someone to come in with new ideas, and you can say doing something too long, you just dont have that same vigor that you had when you started. So ive always been an advocate for term limits. People need to move on do something else. Serve, be a public servant. Which i think is great. But there are a lot of other things you can do in your life and i think its time to bring some fresh ideas. Anything you do in life, youre not going to be as excited about ten years or 20 years after than when you started the first couple years. I support term limits. And i think by have time for one or two im under term limits. Im the only governor in america who has one fouryear term limit. They asked me about it all the time. Im fine with it. I can get a lot done in four years. Youre focused. Four years, boom, get it done. All right. Get it done. Lets get two more questions. This and then this. Thank you very much. Governor mcauliffe, thank you for your time. I live in the clarendon area. Constituent as well. When youre talking about having the Insurance Coverage, i always get more into does Insurance Coverage translate into better health, Better Outcomes for citizens. I know in california, for instance, i dont know what the numbers would be exactly for virginia but theyve had a large increase in their expansion participants, people that are enrolled. But they havent seen a translation, an increase in the number of doctors. Oftentimes theres a gap there. Do you have any sort of assessment of what that means for it . Since you mentioned the Rural Health Care area, i believe virginia has some rather stringent certificate of need regulations. If you want to do additional are you interested in doing reforms on that front to maybe improve on the supply side, making it easier for hospitals to expand . They will think this is a planted question. I just have a bill thats passing through the General Assembly as a certificate of need. We are reforming the certificate of need which has needed to be done for a long time to allow more access for more folks to come in, to have more competition. I think that always is a good thing. I think on your Health Question no question the healther your workforce is and i mean lets be clear here. Folks understand this. These 400,000 virginians today, now, if they get sick where are they going . Theyre going to an emergency room. Thats happening as we speak. The point i used to make to the business community, who do you think is paying for that . You are. But youve now paid twice. Youve already paid through the aca taxes. Thats done. Youre now paying twice. These folks are not not getting care. Theyre going to Emergency Rooms and places like that and totally tying up the whole Health Care Delivery system. I dont blame them. They have no other option. But if youre a mother with a sick child, youre going to do everything you humanly possibly can do to make sure your child gets health care. Thats what were trying to do with a lot of these folks. Remember in the 400,000, these are working folks. I mean, if you dont have any income, youre already on the medicaid, youve got that. Were talking about the gap here. They make too much to get medicaid here. But they dont make enough to have a high deductible or a high premium. Theyre in the gap. Theyre working. And when i talked about the folks having two or three jobs, doing Home Health Care, a lot of these folks are Home Health Care providers. Thats tough work. Driving and taking care of an invalid in somebodys home. Driving, working two or three jobs, they dont get to see their kids at all. This is the community that im talking about. To provide them with the health care, it would be lifechanging for them. It will be better for their health. Better for their whole outlook. And its important. We should be doing this. As i say, weve already paid for it. And in west virginia, theyre now getting that care paid for somehow by virginia, because weve paid into the big pot. It doesnt make any sense. So, yeah, you want a Healthy Workforce. Jobs is my whole issue. Jobs, jobs, i talk about this every day. Were doing it, its working. Part of my pitch is youve got to have a Healthy Workforce. This is part of that. In addition to the economic driver of 2. 5 billion coming back through my economy, its having a Healthy Workforce i can convince a ceo i went to china twice last year, tremendous success. The largest deal ever done by a Chinese Company, greenfield, ever done in the history of china. I just opened up a factory, brought another Chinese Company back, a factory that had been shut for years and years in appomattox, hardadmit area in virginia. Been closed for years. We are reopening that plant with chinese investors. Youre going to love this. Reopened this plant. First deal in 44 years. Reopen it, were going to manufacture pollutioncontrol devices, and guess what. After manufacture, were shipping them back to china and selling it to them. Let me tell you, that is a new virginia economy. But a Healthy Workforce. And im just getting warmed up. I think were actually out of time. Oh it seems like a perfect note to end on. Governor mcauliffe, i want to thank you, i want to thank all of you for coming. Its been a traffic conversation today. And were very appreciative. Thank you very much. Thank you, susan. Lets give her a round of applause. Tonight on the maryland senator ben cardin, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee Discusses Foreign Policy issues facing congress including Irans Nuclear program and use of military force against isis. Also news makers airs sunday at 10 a. M. And 6 00 p. M. Eastern. And the u. S. Senate is not in session this friday. Florida debate expected to get under way next week on the nomination to replace eric holder. If confirmed she would be the first female African American attorney general. Her nomination was approved on february 26th by the Senate Judiciary committee. The vote was 12 to 8 with three republicans and 9 democrats voting to confirm. See the senate live on our companion network cspan2. This week cspan is in New Hampshire for road to the white house coverage of several candidates. Tonight beginning on cspan well take you a house party in dover, New Hampshire with jeb bush bush. On saturday just before noon live on cspan, wisconsin governor scotter walk irin concord. And sunday night senator ted cruz at the annual Lincoln Reagan dinner. Up next, the conversation focused on violence in countries and region instability. Barbara Barbara Barbara bodine takes part. I just returned from libya and i cant emphasize enough that this is a conflict thats reached really dire proportions. Since the civil war started, you know, last year in may, about 2500 people have lost their lives. That may seem is a paltry sum compared to syria. But this is a small population in this country. And the other ripple effects have been quite dire. Massive refugee flows. The plummeting of Oil Production. And then most recently as weve seen the growth of the islamist in Islamic State in libya. We can walk back the back to the nato and failure to assist the Libyan Government but i think what were reel living is the aftershock of gaddafis divided rule policy. That is civil war that reflected his 40 year rule of tierney. The way he gutted institutions, the way he played communities off against one another. And i think obviously the biggest failing of the Transitional Government period after the fall of gaddafi was the absence of a government that could project its authority that had the means to enforce its rule, that had a mo nopization on force. So were talking about the cohesive army and police. And led to the proliferation of the my militias we hear so much about. One based in tolbrook and the other faction based in the tripoli tripoli. Unrecognized. And this distinction between islam and non islam is really a simplification. Were talk act multiple communities and ideological and ethnic and town based communities that have banded together against common enemies. It is a incredibly complex civil war. If i was to point to one dividing line in libya that i see is sufficiently explanatory that helps us understand this conflict, it is really the split between the old order the old officer class t old tech no cats the remnants of the other regime and the younger what i could call the revolutionary camp. Some are islamists. Some are brotherhood. Some ties to al qaeda. But i think that is the real dividing line. Where we are stuck right now is in a vicious cycle of mutual demonization and wild exaggeration. On the one hand you have the camp in the east that is led by general heftar, there is an excellent profile of him in the new yorker this week. That is using the counterterrorism card to paint his domestic opponents, the islamists as terrorists. And on the other side i was in tripoli on the other side. And you have this camp saying this is the return of the conflict of the deep state. We dont want the all officer core coming back. And the heftar is gaddafi part two. And i think one development weve seen is the fragmentation of authority on both sides. We speak about to two camps. The dawn camp in the west. The dignity camp in the east. These are really loose koemgs of the mill smas and they are fragmenting. And on the one hand that fragmentation is encouraging because it allows you to identify moderates you can peel off and bring into a dialogue and that is whats happening now with the u. N. Sponsored peace talks. But at the same time that is worrisome because you have spoiler. So just as the u. N. Talks are under way, you have the islamists carrying out an air strike on the zintan airport yet yesterday and is very worry some and threatens the peace talks. Let me say a little about the rise of isis. The idea of libya as the base as a haven for extremism is not new. It existed under gaddafi with the city of derna that provided many volunteers to iraq and syria iraq and afghanistan. You know, after the revolution you had the growth of Al Qaeda Affiliated groups. And indeed general heftars campaign was to routeot out those groups. Think what you have is not the defeat of those groups but rather their dispersal and mutation. And this is what ear seeing in isis. Isis is really peeling away a lot of members of these older groups that had affiliations through al qaeda. You had influx of volunteers that went to iraq and syria to fight with isis. Libyans that went and last spring and summer. And you have had isis spread to all three of libyas major provinces. And of course they have conducted some very high profile attacks against Corinthia Hotel and most recently tragic killing of egyptian cops. Let me talk about policy options. One thing that makes this so confounds is were faced with a terrorist problem in libya that is em pedbed bem edded in a complex civil war. There are two competing factions and we face this in iraq and syria and yemen is what partner do we assist on the ground . How do woe work with forces on the ground . There is the danger that if we provide assistance to one faction that assistance will be used politically against opponents in the silly war. Where are we at right now with resolving this conflict . You had the United Nations came out i think today and said if these peace talks next week dont resolve themselves, lead to some resolution, there is a real possibleility of a u. N. Resolution. And we may be leading towards that possibility. My conversations with u. S. Policy makers i think what the u. S. Is trying to is persuade more factions of the down coalition, the islamists in the west to move towards a Peace Agreement with the tolbrok government. First is a cease fire. There has to be a policy of non interference. The egyptians are conducting air strikes but my sense and my opinion is these are unhelpful. They are going after camps in the east. But what its having what its doing is having a polarizing effect on the silly war. Egyptian intervention is not helpful in terms of resolving the broader political conflict. I think the u. S. Has a number and the International Community has a number of sort of coercive measures they can use to try to force this conflict to an end. One of them is as asset freeze on Libyas Central Bank reserves or oil funds. Again, both sides in this conflict ironically, both the Dawn Coalition and the Dignity Coalition are acting oil funds of the they are drawing from in pot of money to fuel the conflict, to pay their militias. The idea is you cutoff that stream of revenue, freeze the assets. Put sanctions on certain individuals who are known to be attacking civilian facilities and that will somehow end the conflict. Again, it is a risky hypothesis. There is a lot of operational questions. Because most of the Central Bank Assets are held in europe. And my sense is that the europeans are a little reluctant to do that because of blow back in libya. The question of a u. N. Intervention force, this is often heralded as Silver Bullet you know, send in the u. N. Again there are questions about its mandate. Who would pay for such a force . Where it would deployed in libya. Theres been questions about numbers of troops you would null need to secure key installations or key areas. Talking about tripoli or benghazi, combined they have population of 3 million. And by some calculations you would need about 30,000 troops to actually secure those areas. So again a u. N. Resolution of Intervention Force is not the panacea. My hope and ill just conclude on a guardedly optimistic note. I just got back from the city of misrata, which is the central port city in the west that fuels the most powerful forces on the dawn side. This is a business community. Merchants. Also the most powerful militias. I got sense they are tired of fighting. Exhaustion. And you have mag pragmatists emerging. And you have to identify them and people you can work with. There has to be some confidence Building Measure ging ging measures on both sides. And ill leave it that. Thank you. That was really an excellent beginning to our conversation. Im going to try again. Eebibrahim can you hear us . And would you like to give remarks now . Okay im going to take that as a no. Ibrahim . Can you hear us . Okay. Im going to move on. Again, apologies to all of you and apologies to ibrahim for our technical difficulties here. Garmood morning everyone. Happy to be hear and talk about yemen. I want to point out a few years ago we were talking about yemen relation to tunisia in arab spring and now here today in relation to libya and sometimes in relationship to syria. I this i this is an opportunity to quickly glance over what went wrong. I think maybe it could be a cautionary tale of what the u. N. Should not do in libya, if they have an opportunity for a dialogue. So just a quick look at whats happening now in yemen. You have a houthi Rebel Movement. You have a strong southern secessionist movement. Strong in the sense they are dementing secession but they are not united and it is a coalition of several groups. And you have popular communities also that used to belong to the former president who just resigned. So you have these three main agents taking place. Of course in yemen you also have tribes. You have al qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula. Thats been americas biggest concern. Putting all of these players aside of course there are a lot more than those. And i can discuss in question answer session if you want. But looking at yemen right now. What is going oob right now . A Houthi Movement that ha took over the capital sana. And you have a president and a government that resigned. And so what the houthi Group Proposed for yemenis is the creation of the 551 Transitional National council that will take yemen through another transition for two years. This council will select five members and the five members are going to form a president ial council that is supposed to take care of anything that yemen needs for two years. And then we can have elections. Of course the threat of is that we just finished a transitional process that is led by the u. N. So the risk is, are we recreating another tangs that is Just Transition that is just a lot of work but no actual work would be implemented on the ground . I just want to give kwuyou an explanation of who the houthis are. It started as a shia sect in yemen as a revivalist movement. Then mohr thenmorphed in the 90s. Since the arab spring in 2011 they were able to present themselves as victims of the former regime and to show that they have strength in the northern parts of yemen. So i they participated in yemens National Dialogue with 33 members and they also were able to secure an entire committee in this dialogue just to discuss their concerns. So while they were engaging in the dialogue, they were engaging in warfare outside of the dialogue. They were fighting the selfies which is a group in yemen that belongs to the sunni sect. Whats happening now because of the war between the houthis who are shia and the slafys who are sunni. The its all about power and politics. We need to keep that in mind. The houthis dade subsidy lift. It was a essential move yemen had to make in order to keep its economy from collapsing. So when the people took streets the houthis capitalized and demanded that the subsidy lift would be removed. So to reinstate the subsidies and then they pretty much held protest and within six days they took control of the capital. September 21st they surrounded all the government buildings and took charge of everything there. Having said that. Since they have demanded the creation of a new government there was a new Prime Minister who was appointed, new government was selected. But the new government they created just in november of 2014 actually consisted of tech no cats. Tech cats. Political parties on the ground and tribal leaders refused to participate in this government which is why they probably resigned. They had no actual percent oneffect on the ground. The government was created in november. They got approval from parliament in december and resigned in january. That was a short lived government. And now yemen has no government. Everything is in the control of the revolutionary committees composed by houthi. The revolutionary committees is a fancy name for militant and political Houthi Branch on the ground. And they actually report directly to the leader of the Houthi Movement. They dont deal with the Political Office of the houthis. Why did the houthis take over yemen . What happened . What went wrong in the transition . First of all we get the usual critiques about yemens National Dialogue by the u. N. It was too big. Took long. The members were 565 members. But to be to be to take that a step further, the failure of the transition was actually because of the government that was created. So in 2011 we decided to have a nationalen unity government that was going to be composed of different Political Parties. That government because it was composed of different Political Parties, they refused to work with each other. And i think each political fwranch branch was trying to secure their position on the ground. And headys government didnt really work with him because he was a new president put in place for just an additional two years. So previous to 2011 we had a Yemeni Government acting as a mediator between the International Community and the west and the local power holders on the ground. Yemenis always had tribes and always had movements and even in some cases, you know if you can a successful you can be a shaikh. So the government was able to create a flow of communication between the west and whats going on on the ground. Haddys government kind of broke that tie. Because they didnt have ties to society, they couldnt communicate anymore. And so it seems that led to the weakening of state institutions. The government wasnt able to deliver services. And on the ground Political Parties took advantage of discourses that weakened national identity. People on the ground were for the first time asking, oh, are you sadi, are you sunni. What is your politics . And they started pointing fingers at each other and that is all because of a Strong Political vacuum that was left. So what is what was also another problem is yemen had no checks and balances in place. The military restructuring that took place weakened the military. The law wasnt effective. And we also had a parliament that was in place since 2003. There was a huge and dire need for parliamentary elections but that didnt take place. The worse thing that happened during the transition period is that in february 2014 we were supposed to have president ial elections. That didnt happen. The period was extended and the biggest problem was that the International Community and the players on the ground did not find a legal way of extending this transition which made it very easy for people to come and point out the flaws and to take advantage of whats happening on the ground. The only thing that happened to explain the extension of the transition period is the u. N. s special invitee saided that the deal which had a time limit of two years is only ending by the transition and not by duration. And so that is what us here. What are the mistakes that the International Community committed in yemen . They wanted to keep hadi as a key ally because they were able to combat terrorism on the ground. And of course they didnt extend an official process. And they also had no plan b. In yemen they had the National Dialogue conference and that was the only game in town. All other ways of negotiation. Any kind of tribal negotiations or any kind of on the ground work didnt take place. Everything was entrusted into the u. N. s hands. And everything poured in that direction. That is a very big mistakes. Because the rooiltealities on the ground were separate what what was taken on behind closed doors in a very elite hotel. So looking at yemen, what now . What can we do . So first of all whats happening now is the u. S. The u. K. , france and a bunch of other governments decided to shut down their Diplomatic Missions on the ground in sana and pull them out. There is a policy or strategy of isolating yemenis and isolating the Houthi Movement on the ground. And i think that this policy right now is probably the worst thing that they could do. Its definitely pouring into whether saudi arabia would want because saudi is very upset that there is a Shia Movement near theyre borders. However this isolation will only push the houthis towards the arms of iran and also probably strengthen al qaeda and a Arabian Peninsula. Because at the moment with the government out of sight the houthis are the strongest on the ground and they are enemies are al qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula. So the fight the houthi, any funds or weapons that are going to go into strengthening the opponents of the houthis is probably going to fall into the hands of al qaeda or any kind of militant branch that is similar to that. And so in my opinion the countries that evacuated yemen should probably return and engage in negotiations. The immediate reality on the ground is that the houthis are here to stay. They have control of the majority of the military. At least 60 of the military i would say. They have control over the National Security bureau and the political secure organization of yemen. And so were going to have to deal with them. And i think while i strongly condemn their behavior to arrest protesters and torture them and to keep former government officials under house arrest they have control. So unfortunately if yemen stays in isolation, war is probably going to be the only business in town. And everything is going to pour into that. And that is the last thing that i think anyone in the world would want in the middle east right now given the circumstances in syria, iraq and even libya. Can we save yemen . That is a question that i always hear. I think that, yes, we can save yemen. Because there are always option. There is never one way. We just have to be flexible in our approach. We also have to all put pressure not just on the houthi Rebel Movement but also on political other Political Parties to engage with the houthis to come up with a transition. The only option out of this is to kind of create a force on the ground that is composed of all the different parties. And kind of hope to hold president ial elections. And so we need to stabilize yemen. We need to save yemen from a massive Economic Disaster that is going to come on the way. I think 62 of all yemen is dependent on humanitarian aid. And about 14 Million People are in dire need of clean water. And so looking at the circumstances there, we need to kind of assess these people. And we need to kind of advise the u. N. Special envoy to yemen, he is still in Yemen Holding negotiations between Political Parties and the houthis. I think maybe it is in our best interest to ask him to change his strategy and to hold negotiations that are open and transparent before everyone. The yemeni people need to know everything. And i think on the ground yemenis dont know as much as you probably know here. They dont know what is going on behind closed doors. And i think its very essential to keep all of the negotiations open and transparent and to engage the people in any kind of transition moving forward. The only thing is i just want to say that it is a shame if we lose yemen to the houthi scenario that were going to see in the future. Because yemen displayed one of the few unique democratic experiences in the Arabian Peninsula peninsula. There was hope for democracy and it was one of the few countries where womens participation was actually going somewhere. And i think the u. S. Has invested too much to kind of let yemen go by isolating them or by abandoning all the work that they have there. Thank you. Im going to go to ambassador bodine next and hopefully then our technical issues will be revolved and we could hear from ibrahim. So please. Thank you. Thank you all for coming here this morning. Battling the remnants of what passes ses for a blizzard in washington. And i notice a number of people in the audience who could do just as well sitting up here as sitting out there. So look forward to the question and answer. Thank you for your overview of where we are on yemen and bringing us up to date on libya which i profess not to know very much about. I have to say that sometimes when i hear people talk about libya, i kind of envy you. Because it seems as if you have got a nice, neat you got the east versus the west. Too simple. No, i know. And i took your point on fragmentation and everything. But when you do get to yemen, you get to what ive often described as the kaleidoscopic political structure. Where you have a finite number of pieces and infinite number of patterns. And who is allied with who . And who in coalition with whom at any given time is constantly shifting. And i am sometimes concerned that in washington we try to find mosaics which are statics, as opposed to kaleidoscopes, which are in constant motion, when we are trying to do policy. I think one of the first questions on the policy side that the u. S. And others need to ask is, do we judge whatever we have as a Yemeni Government solely through the prism or via standard of compliance to serve as a proxy ground for our first our war on terrorism and particularly on al qaeda . With the Financial Focus primarily on issues like working with local partners. In a rhetoric that is almost solely focused on counterterrorism. Even the other day when i was speaking about yemen somebody from usaid noded ed noted how much we have increased our economic assistance to yemen over the years. But described it as fully integrated and supporting our counterterrorism effort. And so our development work, our governance work was all put within the context of counterterrorism. So we looking at yemen as a compliant partner in a proxy war . Or are we willing to go back to as was described, looking at the various stresses on this state and on this society that over the last couple of years really have undermined the legitimacy and the efficacy of the government and allowed the extremist narrative to become the onperative one . We we used to be very much engaged in governance and projects in yemen. We were never the largest donor but we were a very active one. And yemen was at one point a emerging but indigenous democratic experiment. In fact, the First Community of democracies summit meeting was held in sana. Unfortunately i think what washington has been doing over the last several years we opted for the first alternative. That we have seen yemen solely within the context of our counterterrorism fight. Which is a highly narcissistic way to be structuring your policy. Your National Interest absolutely needs to be first and foremost. It need not be narcissistic. Ours has become no, sir cyst icarcissistic. In fact a couple of months ago there was some talk about washington starting to open a dialogue with the houthi. But it was all done within the context of well will they let us continue our counterterrorism policy . And so we were defaulting back to where we had always been. The other problem with this is is that its very shortsooigted. Shortsooigt ed sighted and i would also make the contention it has not been successful. Weve been so focused on aqap that a constant stream of reports going back at least a decade, on the houthis on the southern secessionen movement, on all of the various security and political stressors within the country, were not really fully realized and addressed. And in fact ive recently heard someone a senior policy person describe what is going on in yemen as an intelligence failure. And i was very surprised because it was not an intelligence failure. Anyone following yemen knows yemen. Knew what was coming. Perhaps not the exact date but certainly it was not a surprise. I think what we have had ais a policy failure. Persistent efforts to squeeze yemen into the preexisting templates have proved to be of nominal effectiveness. An example is the current effort to try to squeeze yemen into this sectarian battle. That it is between sunni and shia, the fact that they are sadis and shaffis gets completely lost. And by putting it in this sectarian vocabulary we also again walk away from having to face what are the real stressors in the society and the state. Which are again governance and development. We start to see the problems as externally generated. If it wasnt for the iranians everything would be fine. Well everything was not fine. The iranians are actually fairly late arrivals to this. And we have been raising the profile and the status therefore of aqap against sunism and the iranian backed she yism. The houthis are the internally focused indigenous political movement. I agree with samaa that their tactics have been very wrong but to think they can somehow step down the regional u. N. Resolution, which asked the houthis to basically walk way way, was naive at best. They are a political force. They are a security force. They are there. And they are not going to step down. Ironically, if they were to step down lets just say they actually kind of went oh my god the u. N. Security council has told us we have to step down. I guess were going to have to do it. There would be a total vacuum in yemen. There is no party. There is no coalition which is currently capable of running the country. Even with a constantly shifting coalitions. And so this is one where a u. N. Intervention force would be about as counterproductive as anything i can imagine. It would not work. I dont know what side they would be on. I dont know what they would be doing. Except perhaps unifying all of the yemenis against them. But where the political dialogue with these ever shifting coalitions is frustrating, no guarantee of success but is the only step forward, what we have to do in terms of policy is think what happens the day after . This is what we did not do with the National Dialogue which was an amazing experiment in rewriting the social contract. But the International Community was not set to step in the day after the National Dialogue and provide to the yemeni people the economic employment governance changes that had been behind the 2011 revolution to begin with. We kind of went National Dialogue over. We have constitution. You know, put it in the success column. Go home. We cant do that. So we need to learn from our most immediate failures and i think our failures going over a number of years to start thinking about, you know, we dont want the shame of losing yemen. We are not at that point yet. But we have got to change our approach and our commitment to yemen to be one of something other than a proxy war, seeing it as somebody elses proxy war and actually get at what are the stressors within yemen. This is a saveable country. Thank you. Thank you. I think we still have some technical difficulties. Ibrahim, are you on the other end . I think it is solved now. Can you hear me . Yes we can. So as we originally planned our last speaker will be ibrahim sharqieh. Please go ahead. Hello. Thank you for starting this very important discussion early in the morning. It is almost 6 00 p. M. Here and glad to finally begin this discussion. Thanks also to my colleagues for great insights. Im trying after these great presentations on libya and yemen, im trying to recognize some patterns and do some bridging between libya yemen and do some, run some comparison. And recognize some patterns over here try to understand civil wars that are taking place now in the region. And it is sad let me begin with this, that only simply we were talking about change and non violent resistance and National Dialogue. And now the narrative or the debate has shifted from change in peaceful means that were talking about civil wars in the region. Looking at the two country, two case libya and yemen, there are a number of patterns that can be identified here. The very first one is that in my view the process of a transition itself. In my view this is levels of instability and the violence that we are seeing that is taking place in both countries actually is not completely out of norm for transitions looking at worldwide experiences at how other countries dealt with this transitional period. So transitions are going to be complicated, messy, difficult, very challenging and yes can be violent. In many cases actually looking at a number of cases there. There is an estimate of approximately only onethird of transitional conflicts that make it peacefully, successfully peacefully without experiencing levels of violence. But twothirds estimate twothirds of transitional conflicts after negotiated agreements, they usually suffer some aspects of instability. Especially in the first five years of transition and after a regime change or after a civil war and all of that. So what is happening now four years or five years after the arab uprising, i think were still looking at it from a global perspective. It is still within the norm. But we should of course take that for granted and recognize that especially because and here this takes me to the second pat,tern pattern, which these conflicts or civil cars, call them whatever you want to call them can still be contained. Looking at civil wars in generally also globally, the duration of civil wars usually lasts between 5 years to 15 years. Here we are still in the beginning. Actually this is good. This gives us hope. And in this tells us why probably we havent i see the point why some are hesitant about even calling them civil wars. So i definitely see that. Probably we havent reached a serious civil war that is happening in these two countries. So it is still debatable. And it is still within the first couple of years after the transition. So i think in my view this gives hope. And as it is still can still be contained and can be prevented from entering more of a vicious civil war probably as we see in syria or in other places. The number the third pattern that im seeing, which is quite alarming and we should be careful and we should notice it now in fact, which is these conflicts or civil wars are becoming more selfsustaining conflicts. Meaning that this experience of instability that the two countries are experiencing actually are generating new issues that were not or did not exist in the past. For example, in libya only as a result of the recent fighting the number of displaced people has reached almost 394,000 people. This of course adds to approximately half a million from the revolution under the regime. So this takes the number to now approximately 800,000 or some estimates put it even to regime. So this must remember of influx in refugees is pushing the conflict to becoming self sustains here because of the issues that make it stronger or more resistance. And the number of those in the past, we were talking about appropriately a handful, or a few number today were talking about 23 active militias working in libya. This is alarming because we have war lords here that are benefitting from the status. It is in their own interest for this conflict to continue and that is again, the self sustaining continuation of the conflict and it is more alarming. Another pattern that the two countries have shared, we have seen it is obvious now that egypt or the conflict in libya has aspects of spill over in egypt, and we are seeing egypt becoming tissue taking an active bombing part in the conflict in libya. In yemen we have to be careful because always when we talk about the instability there, we always the immediate thing that comes to our mind is saudi arabia. And of course, 2009 is still present in our minds when saudi was pulled into the conflict between the Central Government and the north and make the conflict of the situation more complicated. Beyond the spillover, in the neighbors countries, another pattern that is emerging here is the regional or the global aspect. And i will give you an example here of the oil supplies oil markets, and how the markets go to be impacted as a result of this in libya, for example Oil Production has dropped in libya to today almost 400,000 barrels a day from 1. 6 in the past, so it is almost now theyre producing only part of their can passty and this will have an impact on the oil market. In the case of yemen the hope is as you know that theyre getting closer and now were hearing it more often in the debate. And a civil war in yemen a protracted civil war. Of course it will have a serious impact where we have almost four Million Barrels of oil go through the trade daily. So that is also how it is impacting others. The spoilers were seeing that part of it is emerging and taking more active role, gives the transition in the process. We know that it has been a long time in yemen and now were seeing isil or whatever you want to call it in also becoming more active in libya which is the two countries shared. Another alarming aspect here is that we started to face legitimacy in the two countries. We know that our representative of themselves they have representation, but on the other side who would represent who . And they are more functional in the past. It is now the case. The youth or who exactly is represented, and also even within libya itself. We were talking about operations or on the side of libya, who represents this party. We have a number of parties that we must know who represents who. And know theyre fighting but that is actually so this makes the situation more of a problem. After talking about the patterns the two countries. The solution for the countries in my view might have to come from win. In case youre wondering if there is a military intervention, that is not the solution to yemen or libya. Because already the debate has started in libya with italy declaring their willingness to fight or bomb this is not going to solve libyas problem. The drones the u. S. Have shared my views with president obama that we have a policy in the past, a drones policy in yemen that failed miserably. And it exacerbated the situation. And one reason we are where we are today is because of that shortsighted insecurity approach. Thinking this will solve yemens problems. In fact, we missed an opportunity for a political transition and a National Dialogue to succeed that was magnificent magnificent. And in the past two or three years in yemen, but the past two or three years in yemen showed that we had the International Community ignored dealing with iron, and of course this finally lead to where we are today and unfortunately the transition or the solution from within has been disrupted. Probably the nonviolent resolution of the nonviolent resistance or apprising a need to continue at this time. I agree with washington that striking against or isolating, this will not solve the problems. It will make it, i think, more difficult. Again, i think we need to emphasize the local solution from within supported by the community, and nonviolence National Dialogue, with the hope in leadership ya for the peace negotiations that are attacking place, and here is a very important lesson to learn from yeken where the u. N. Became too much involved in managing the schedule and the dialogue of the yemenies, that actually lost that concept of ownership. I think this is a lesson that is important for leadership ya to learn today. And that the ownership of this the piece negotiations in libya will have to be libyans and they will have to solve it. And i think moving the fwoegss from outside to libya was a step in the right direction. And i cant resist to say one final word because i see this, im sorry to take any more time because this is always, has become central to the debate about especially a conflict, and in yemen it has never been a serious conflict. They have always lived together in peace and harmony on many levels. Political, tribal you name it. The Civil Society organizations. However, im particularly concerned with the way it is being managed that one day the sectarian aspect, and will become start to cause more benefits. So with that i will stop there and thank you. Thank you. And were sorry about the technical issues. Taking advantage that the video system works and fearing it might stop at some point my question for you is your solution of dialogue from within, a change from within, to me sounds very compelling. But there is another possibility which is simply the violence from within gets worse. And that five years from now were talking about a much more bloody conflict. What is your sense of the tra trajectory of violence. Are we thinking about resolution . Thank you, this is a really, really important question. What i would like to see is the following. Because the rest of that Political Parties in yemen are still overwhelmed with the whole movement, although the coups back in november, theyre still overwhelmed and they have not been able to put their thoughts and strengths together and form a balance of power. I think their strength and solution, and i hope i wrote about this also, is that for the Political Parties to come together and more of a nonviolent continuation of the comprising that we saw in the past, and to balance the power with what is there in yemen. Im hoping that the other parties, or the rest of the Political Parties in yemen will realize that and be able to form to come together balance and engage on a solution. But i am concerned that and this is a good question i guess. Im concerned that its not taking that direction yet because i have not seen im seeing more signs of civil war or violence. The tribes inthat have already formed a power together,ing the sound that theyre also forming their own power. So im afraid it is not attacking the direction or solution that i would like to see, but more of exacerbated the crisis of the civil war. So more on that, this is a responsibility of the Political Parties of yemen, and for the International Community to push in that direction. Thank you fred, if i could ask you, really since they since the killings in benghazi, it seems like the United States has been in retreat from libya. There is a hesitance si to have peek in risk, but knowledge on the ground and ability to work with people on the ground diminishes. Is that right is my impression from dc correct . And more importantly if that is the logic, how and why should the u. S. Be more engaged in libya. Is it reasonable to say its a tough suggestion and say okay, moving on, we have other priorities. The attack in benghazi did force the retreat. I saw the u. S. Presence, and libya saying we never get visited any more. And they say look, we train media, we cant execute the programs because we dont have the staff, and they just could not get out of the country. The same thing with the securities sector. We make a lot of noise about should we have helped them build their army early on. There was plans on the books to do that. I there there was u. S. Reluctance to get involved. We were waiting for them to pay up front, to write the check. The question also was where was would this training occur . It would have to be overseas. So i think the question was the problem was one of distraction, no doubt, syria, iraq ukraine, libya was sinking lower and lower. I think there was a sense that it was a european problem. Perhaps there was a overreliance on the un and the u. N. Mission in libya. There has been a lot of thinking about their capacity early on. The u. S. Was quite frank in acknowledging that they focused too much on the elections early on. They were so geared on the successful elections, and then while they happened you had the rise of militias and the deterioration of benghazi. I think moving forward, when i talk to people in senior love policy deals, the u. S. Approach Going Forward is going to be more forcible. There will be i dont know what that means operationally, but you get the sense that washington is taking the problem very seriously. And it is the isis thing. So i think we will view this problem again. This was an effort early on to try to train a very small libyan contingent of count counterterrorism fourss. So again inserting ourselves into this very mosaic. Trying to train a faction to go after terrorists could be more destabilizing in the long run. Thank you is there anything that will catch u. S. Attention as much as terrorism as you know there have been press reports of a greater iranian role. Can i get your sense of how extensive this is . Is this one iranian showed up and then it was an iranian division, but what is your sense that iran wants to establish by having presence. I think it is clear they dont like saudi arabia. They want to weaken saudi arabia, but it is also to create allies. They dont have a lot of friends there right now but theyre a growing force. I think answering this with a certain answer would be difficult. We dont know there are new holidays they are celebrating that are not part of the traditions in yemen. So now i call them a neozadie movement. Theyre not like hezbollah and lebanon who are very similar to the way they are in iron. I think to say with certainly how much support theyre getting from iran would be very hard. I know that at the start of the revolution they provided support to some organizations on the ground. The kind of support they provided is more logistical than financial. It is very obvious from speeches that he is mimicking the at tuesday of giving speeches, and the views on the ground is very similar. So they have come in twice. We have them coming into the capital and refusing to leave. It seems like a yemen strategy. So it is very vague. I think the only way to find answer social security, el situation has never happened before and to say anything with certainty would be a mistake. Barbara, you have been thinking about Counter Terrorism more than the vast majority of americans that have done this, and you have been thinking about it in a yemeni context. How do we think about al qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula. Yes, thank you. I will say that i agree with mr. Of the drone policies. When they want from technical to the full strategy. We began to lose and lose very badly. Interestingly, i wont count the first drones but when it became the focus of our approach what we have done is spread al qaeda. Its supporters have grown its territory has grown and they did see the vacuum that was created but the 2011 revolution and used that to expand their territory. What we should be doing is not so much an instead of, but more of an in addition to. We have been too narrowed and a shared focus. As fred noted you end up training what you think is a ct unit and you just trained a militia. We didnt work with the Yemeni Government on what do you do lets say after 2013 when they come in and they are very focused on aqap. So the aqap presence and problem became much more personal. Even though the military on the ground was educative and the drones were being used. Where we failed is going in afterwards and rebuilding. And so if is one thing to take out some tiny village and scatter the aqap people. But if you dont go back in and rebuild the homes and provide services and provide something else, you have not moved it forward. We used to have what was a clear build and we never got around to the build part. Aqap has a fairly limited reach in yemen because it is such a sunni organization and a large part of the country is not. And we never capital ieszed on that. We never used that as a way to build works against it spreading in other parts of the country. So what i would say is, and this is from something that a yemeni official said to me. Its not that we need to take our focus off of security, but we need to broaden our focus an aperture. Look at the midterm and long term stress, stressors on the society, and be seen as involved in those as we are in what i think a lot of yemenis see. Thank you i would like to open it up to the audience. A few notes please speak into the microphone. Short questions. And also please identify yourself. I will take people in groups of three. Yes . Thank you palm dawkins with voice of america. You mentioned you were recently in libya, what is your feelings larding the beheadings of recent egyptians, is it your feeling it was done by the group or islamic supporters and what does that say for the u. S. Lead Counter Terrorism strategy. And along that line, for the u. S. Extremist summit under way here what needs to be done trease this type of extremism in yemen if this is the core Islamic State . In the back corner . Thank you two questions on libya. The first one what do you think about the agea the agerian game . And dont you think having an egyptian led u. S. Mission in libya would have a new equation with the either with the ethiopians. Thank you. Graham common with icad. If the south succeeded how would that affect them. Thank you i will no ask our panelists to respond. Ibraham, please take up any of the questions you want to take up. Thanks one thing that is on the issue of libya, i think this is going to be keep in mind that we have spoilers the groups in libya. I think it will lead to catastrophic results. Libya is a vast country. There are many active groups that are operating in libya. These are indigenous groups. They have one representation within the public of within the libyan public so theyre not isolated in fwroupgroups probably like al qaeda and yemen. And look today you will see the difficult wide representation. And other parts of libya. So any solution in libya, if we are thinking of this time of somalia intervention, or troops that will intervene and stop the strikes as we see by the egypte egypt egyptian government, i think this will make the situation worst and will have to on the negotiations, and i think there is a plan for this. Because for the past weeks showing willingness and i think that is where it must be doubled and nur that you have an agreement there. Right, i mean i completely agree. Egypt is really a party to this conflict. Theyre backing one side. This has been on going since last year. Theyre backing it with intelligence and logistical support. It is unreasonable and it would be polarizing and it would lead to greater conflict. On the issue of the Islamic State, what do we mean by core Islamic State in libya. There is a council that was among the first groups to de declare loyalty. The people that conducted the execution, there is foreign elements there. The real question is what does this mean for the Islamic States actual reach. What kind of coordination and communication is going on between the Islamic State core and the sprout up group in libya. Certainly there is a transfer of communications, technology, i think the videos really speak to that, but it is unclear to me what that means operationally. I think the danger of what were seeing is a weakening of these groups in libya that have been pushed out of benghazi. You have younger members of these groups graf stating towards the Islamic State. With regard to the white house count er counterextremism conference. I think there is action for ngos to be involved here. I was talking to a lot of groups in libya on the so called islamic sooiz and theyre worried about theyre communities. I spoke to one young man who has a large family and he says some of the members of my extended family have gone to fight in is a problem that affects communities. And i mean tripoli and other partners that the u. S. Should be engaging on that issue. On the subject of southern succession in yemen. We have a joke going on for a few years is the reason that yemen has not succeeded is because of the southern succession. They are composed of several groups that cannot agree with each other. So there has been many opportunities, but theyre still trying to come together. We have a leader who flew as soon as they took over, and he is trying to bring together all of the movements tonight and to come up with a southern solution. In my opinion if they could not do it since 1994, they will not be able to do it now. Right now theyre going to take a lot of funds and support from the outside world to combat or could wanter act the movement. Looking at a possible fragmentation scenario. So you have several that would probably want to be an independent state. The biggest example is the governor of where two oil sites are located. And you will have triable war fair between them and then you will have Political Parties that are disbursed all over. Will they unite or what will they do . Were not really sure. And then we have a new Youth Movement that is not following the older generation that want to do near own thing, they are very angry. And that is pretty scarey in the south. Having said that, i think that moving forward in yemen, a succession near joescenario is not in their best interest. I agree totally. We tend to talk about the Southern Movement, it tends to be capitalized as the Southern Movement and there is no movement. There is an enormous range of views and parties. Obviously what passes for the Southern Movement is really a movement that has nothing to do with the surrounding governance. Even if yemen were to frabment, and i dont personally think that would happen, dividing along the old 1990 line is probably not thousand would nap that event. We all talked about how we should not look at yemen in sectarian terms, but i would say the line is not at the 1990 north yemen and south yemen line. You have two very important governments north of the line that are certainly they dont have anything to do theyre not that connected. So the north south devisionivision i dont think will happen. I heard there are some parties and we were talking about spillover going out of libya, im more concerned about spillover coming in. Some parties in the region who do believe a divided yemen is in their interest and is starting to talk about this again. They talked about it in 1994. And the u. S. Government quite wisely went to them and said a divided yemen is not in your interest, our interest, or yemens interest. If were concerned about the al qaeda not being adequately funded if were worried about failed state and the humanitarian side. If we have problems with one yemen, two or three is going to be just two or three that much more failed states. And so that is not a solution to a problem. I have never been able to find out where the line between the north and south really is. Sdwr i think we have time for one more question, well take one from the very front. Thank you, fred, could you take more about the central bank and how it is relating to the two sides. Was the funding able to stay independent . Just very generally, it has been a recall battle over ownership of it. And in the ben Benghazi Branch was raided, i think it is the real focus of the international effort, to safe guard that. The problem is that the two vieds are accessing funds from it. Again what i hear lately is there is a move to freeze the assets of the bank. The europeans say theyre reluctant to do that, the americans are pushing hard on that, if they cut off funds they will have a lot of angry militias. So just a neutral arbortors, but the funding are still flowing when i was there the salaries were there and the militias were incredibly well armed. I mean were talking artillery tanks, this is a very well armed conflict. Great with apologies to those i didnt get to we have to tend our event now. Please join me before we depart in papging our imaginists for an excellent conversation. And again thank you for coming out, have a nice day. This week, cspan is in New Hampshire for road to the white house coverage. On saturday before noon, scott walker at a Republican Party crass roots workshop in concord. And saturday night within senator ted cruz at the annual link kahn reagan dinner. Here are some of our featured programs on cspan networks. Saturday at 1 00 p. M. 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Lectures in history with top professors talking about americas past, and reel america. Cspan three created by the cable tv industry. Watch us in hd like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter. The Senate Commerce Sub Committee on marine and infrastructure safety and security held a meeting. They were provided remarks on the growing challenges that we have missed. Republican senator deb fisher of nebraska chairs the Sub Committee and this is just under 90 minutes. For our second hearing which is entitled keeping goods moving. To grow the economy and create new jobs we need an efficient and reliable Intermodal Transportation network. Todays hearing allows us to explore this issue with a particular focus on infrastructure and maintaining operations at our nations ports. Americas Intermodal Transportation network is the Foundation Upon which u. S. Businesses along all segments of the supply chain produce goods and get them to market. At our last hearing, cabelas outlined how disruptions or inefficiencies along our just in time shipping Network Shows increased cost and Poor Customer Service and deepwater ports represent a key element of the u. S. Transportation network and are vital to our economic growth. In fact, americas sea ports often serve as the key connection point for all modes of transportation. Our west coast ports alone move 12. 5 of u. S. Gdp per year. A shut down of americas west coast ports even for a short period of time would have devastating economic consequences. According to a recent report by the National Retail federation and association of manufacturers, in the most severe case, a 20day west coast closure would disrupt 2500 jobs, reduce u. S. Gdp by almost 50 billion and cost the u. S. Economy 2. 5 billion per day. Ive heard from businesses and consumers in my state expressing grave concerns about Service Disruptions at west coast ports. Just last week my office heard from an Omaha Based Company that manufacturers electric conductors with inputs from asia. This company is seeing the import time frame double sand costs triple because of current slowdowns. For many businesses changing shipping routes or modes is cost prohibitive. Unfortunately whether they export agricultural goods or import retail, businesses are being forces to opt for airfreight or are rerouting projects to avoid losing market share due to misshipments. Port congestion affects truckers and the competitiveness of the ports themselves. Everyone has a stake in seeing the ongoing negotiation between pmi and ilwu resolved quickly. Members of congress and the Administration Must pay close attention to the ongoing negotiation and the Economic Impact of Service Disruption at our ports. This is particularly important as we face the potential for ports on both coasts to be negotiating simultaneously in 2018, which is when the current east coast labor contract expires. Im pleased that todays panel will represent a wide array of perspectives on the effect of recent disruptions in our nations supply chain. Im eager to hear further details from our panelists on the challenges that slowdowns at our nations west coast ports have posed to their industries and their consumers. Im also looking forward to hearing about opportunities for congress, state and local governments an the private sector to work toward modernizing and enhancing our nations ports, infrastructure for businesses, workers and consumers. We need to explore the policy options to support port growth sand future volumes of freight to keep goods moving. Id like to now invite my colleague senator blumenthal to make any opening remarks. Senator. Thank you, madam chairwoman, senator fisher. Thanks to our witnesses for being here today, coming long distances and contributing your insights into one of the critical challenges that our country faces. Not only the most glamorous or noticed. But one of the most profoundly important to our economy, to jobs and to our quality of life. So we thank you for being here. In the next remainder of this decade, the department of transportation estimates that freight will grow at least 10 in volume. Not to mention the value of that volume to our economy. So far from diminishing, the importance of moving goods, a topic which brings us here today will only increase dramatically, and that estimate, in my view, is a conservative one. No individual part of the country, no city or town, and certainly no region is an island. It all depends on transportation working together to move goods. We focus on passengers as we did last week in the tragic collision in valhalla, new york. A tragedy that was preventible and avoidable, with proper safety procedures. The same is true in moving goods and in moving freight. Safety has to be made number one priority. But were all dependent on freight transportation just as we are on moving people, moving goods is equally important. We all depend on all of the modes of transportation, all of the types of transit, whether it is roads and bridges, rail, water, all working together and all fulfilling their vital functions. So i join in the hope that the parties to the west coast ports dispute can find a reasonable mutuallyagreeable solution as fast as possible. Time is not on our side. And that the businesses impacted by the slowdown, including many in connecticut, are able to weather this time, and the impact economically. But looking beyond this immediate issue are the broader challenges of in vesting and making sure that we build the infrastructure that is vital to moving goods and people. Just as one example, connecticut has a freight infrastructure that is very much in need of that investment, upgrading certain sections of our Freight Rail Network to accommodate 268,000 pound weights in moving goods and services by rail which is the north American Rail Network Standard is very, very important. Most freight railroads in the country are able to sustain freight cars weighing 286,000 pounds and this weight limit includes the weight of the car plus about 110 tons of cargo or 220,000 pounds. If connecticut doesnt upgrade its weight limits then our state could become a freight island. But of course if we are a freight island, the rest of america cant reach us moving goods. And that is just one example of how clogged arteries can styme economic progress and job creation. So im very much looking forward to the testimony that were going to hear today and to hopefully the initiatives it will enable us to take in the interest of all of america. Thank you, again, for being here. Thank you, senator blumenthal. Welcome to the panel today. I appreciate you taking time out of your schedules to being at this hearing and providing the senators with more information on this very important topic. I would like to get right to it. So our first witness is mr. Norman bessac, the Vice President of International Sales of cargo. So welcome. Thank you chairman fisher and members of committee and subcommittee for inviting me to testify. Trade maximizes the retail ranchers and farmers produce and we are able to sell them to the domestic and International Markets where they have the most value. This creates the best opportunities for car gill, our customers, our farmers and ranchers and our hard working employees and where we operate. Ports are an intergral part of the supply chain. Let me detail the challenges that occur when there are problems with product. Car gill has product processed through fresh beef and pork located in nebraska, kansas, texas, iowa, pennsylvania, illinois, colorado and california. Customers from around the world depend on highquality fresh u. S. Beef and pork to sell in supermarkets, restaurants and Food Processing plants. Fresh meat has a relatively short shelf life. It must be quickly packaged and shipped in temperature controlled trucks, rail cars or containers to ensure product integrity and safety and to allow shelf life to sell once the product arrives. Under normal circumstances, a container of fresh pork destined for asia usually arrived with more than 25 days shelf life. The industry is currently experiencing delays of two to three weeks on chilled product due to the congestion in west coast ports. With this delay, our asian customers cannot count on a dependable supply of u. S. Beef and pork so their canceling orders and looking to suppliers in chile, and others to meet their needs. Yesterday japanese customers canceled next weeks chilled pork. I assume others are facing similar orders. This has created a tremendous amount of uncertainty. Today the industry is faced with three choices. First, continue to ship product despite the current uncertainty. This can result in shorter shelf life, an increased risk of potential spoilage and even complete product loss. Second, we can airfreight the product at a tremendous expense. Often three to five times the normal cost. Or third, dont manufacturer export products and adjust operations and procurement accordingly. If you take nothing else away from my testimony today, understand that any of these choices result in negative effects to everyone in the chain. In particular farmers, ranchers, customers and plant employees. Today about 10 of u. S. Beef and 25 of u. S. Pork is exported. The u. S. Meat export federation estimates that the Global Demand for u. S. Beef and pork will reach 17. 6 billion pounds and that is up 46 for beef and 42 of pork and most coming from the pacific rim. Future growth to serve these s depend markets depends on a efficient and effective supply machine. For reference, this is enough to provide 29. 2 billion more fourounce servings of beef or pork. Our nations advance has always been having a fair, robust and competitive Transportation System that ensures we can compete in the global market. We must look at our situation not simply as manufacturers, shippers, labor and capital, but through the lens of global competition. We ignore it at our collective peril. Ports where the goods we make are loaded and exported for the worlds consumers, functioning ports are imperative from both a labor and operational perspective. When ports dont operate, the supply chain backs up, causing longterm problems for us, our industry, our farmer and rancher supplies, our customers and our employees. We ask you to take the steps needed to address the challenges ive outlined today so we can continue to help the world thrive but meeting the needs of consumers around the globe. I look forward to your questions. Thank you. Thank you mr. Bessac. Miss katie farmer. Miss farmer is the Vice President of Consumer Products at bnsf. Welcome. Thank you. Good morning chairman fisher andsubcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to be here to discuss bnsfs perspective on the importance of our nations ports to the u. S. Supply chain. Id like to explain rails role in the International Supply chain. Combined with the shorter Truck Movement at one or both ends. Its growth over the last decade is attributable to a number of factors factors. There are two kinds of movement on intermodal. The first is domestic intermodal which is the movement of 53footlong containers or trailers within the u. S. The second is International Intermodal in which goods manufactured overseas are shipped in 20 and 40footlong containers. These containers arrive on a container ship at a port and those that are not distributed locally are loaded onto trains on dock or trucked a short distance to an on dock or near dock intermodal yard where they are sorted and loaded for movement to markets in the interior of the country. The containers are owned by the steamship lines and we Work Together to balance the flows of eastbound traffic and match back the empties with full loads of u. S. Goods westbound to a ship destined for asia or other International Markets. Last year on our railroad we handled postrecession Record Number volumes of freight. Our service was challenged and we did not deliver the service that customers have come to expect from bnsf. We have moved quickly to add capacity and implemented a record 4 billion Capital Program in 2014 followed by a 5. 5 billion program in 2014 and we have announced a 6 billion Capital Budget this year. With this investment we have permanently expanded the capacity of our network which we believe will continue to maintain the u. S. Supply chain advantage. The San Pedro Bay port complex comprised of the ports of los angeles and long beach is the busiest container port complex in the western hemisphere and a top gateway for u. S. Trade with asia. About 75 of these units carried by bnsf are loaded on dock. The remaining are handled off dock at bnsfs hobart yard in east los angeles. The facility is 24 miles by highway from the ports. Bnsf has been working for well over a decade to build a near dock facility only four miles from the ports. Which would be the greenest intermodal rail facility ever constructed and eliminate millions of truck miles on the i710 freeway between the ports and downtown los angeles. Our efforts to permit and build this facility have been challenged for years by local opposition groups and permit is currently tied up in the courts. We think this project will create operational efficiencies for the ports. West coast ports are facing challenges due to congestion. Growing freight volumes are not the whole story however, since overall freight levels through the west coast ports have not returned to levels seen before the recession. There are several factors that are contributing to growing congestion at these ports including inadequate Port Infrastructure needed to handle the larger ships, limited infrastructure adjacent to the ports, operating restrictions from local communities as well as operating inefficiencies. But by far and away the most disruptive aspect to the supply chain over the last several months has been the reduction in port productivity as a result of the ongoing negotiations between the pma and the ilwu. Port productivity has declined by as much as 50 during this period. The result is yearoveryear reductions in bnsfs eastbound weekly train counts of as many as 20 to 30 trains per week carrying a minimum of 250 containers that are not being processed through the supply chain. This also impacts the return movement of freight westbound for exports. This is causing significant delays and increased costs for our customers. Bnsf has taken numerous actions to serve its customers and ensure the fluidity of our network in the face of these challenges including establishing controls at our intermodal facilities and equipment management. During the 11day shutdown of Port Operations that occurred in 2002 freight permanently migrated away from the west coast. This is certainly a potential longterm consequence from the current situation. Congress can play a role in keeping goods moving through sound infrastructure policy and permitting reform. My written testimony details bnsfs thoughts in those areas. Thank you, and i look forward to your questions. Thank you miss farmer. Next we have dr. Walter kemmsies. Dr. Kemmsies is the chief economist at moffatt and nicheol. Welcome. Is that right . Okay. Good morning. It is well recognized that International Trade is increasingly important to the u. S. Economy. And that this trade mostly utilizes oceangoing vessels particularly container vessels due to the versatility of containers for handling a range of cargos from dry goods to refrigerated goods refrigerated perishables, to liquids and gases. And ports have an Important Role in the movement of overseas freight because they are major Intermodal Exchange points transferring cargo between ships, trucks, and rail. They are essentially the very embodiment of intermodalism. Oceanliners are adrapt dapting to growing trade volumes and i would agree with senator blumenthal that the estimates for trade volume growth are probably low and we should likely see much higher growth rates provided that the infrastructure is there. The oceanliners are responding to this by to not only the larger trade volumes but also to rising fuel costs and to stricter Environmental Impact regulations by investing in larger vessels. The larger vessels mean more cargo on fewer ships and in fewer ports because the time it takes to load and unload the ships is time that vessels do not earn revenues and given the cost of these very large ships it is important that they minimize the time that they spend stationary, particularly sitting in ports. The ports are adapting to this change in the global ocean vessel fleet. They are investing in dredging the access channels, investing in dredging the berths and removing air draft restrictions. They have been acquiring larger ship to shore cranes that have greater reach and much greater lift capacity. They are densifying their terminals so you can stack the containers higher and also by automation. The investments made by the oceanliners in sports are often not matched by the landside investments outside the ports gates. Larger investments and increasing Cargo Capacity handling at ports has created congestion handling at port gateways around the world and in some parts of the u. S. In locations where landside planning and investing is not exactly in line with whats happening on the water side, being the ports and whats happening in the access channels and the global fleet of vessels. So the shorter term issues such as the Severe Weather last year and the transition of oceancarriers moving away from providing chassis to their sxufts allowing the Financial Sector to step in and lease these has not been very smooth. And to some extent this has impact ed impacted the effect of the larger vessels on congestion issues. To that we would include the productivity losses that have occurred at the ports during the contract negotiations. But from my perspective we see the shorterterm issues as masking some of these longerterm trends driven by the larger vessels and therefore causing concern about the longterm congestion problems that we would expect to see in the u. S. Supply chain. It is likely that foreign ports in locations where intermodalism characterizes Freight Movement and planning will be gaining at the expense of u. S. Ports and therefore the u. S. Logistics industry. And to sum up i believe that failure to cut costs across u. S. Ports, by which i do not mean just cutting costs in ways that create competition between u. S. Ports but rather cutting costs for the entire port system is required. Otherwise, u. S. Ports will not be the winners in competition with the foreign ports. The spotlight on this is on the inland segment of the productive flow path, on Railroad Lines in order to improve service to markets close to the port and truck frayedeightways to improve access to markets further away. To defend our exports and imports we need to focus our attention on the inland segments of the product flow path, on the Railroad Lines the great crossings, the container transfer facilities, and for trucks we need to start thinking about dedicated freightways. These types of investments will make u. S. Exports more competitive. Thank you. Thank you, dr. Kemmsies. Next we have mr. John greuling. Mr. Greuling is a board member of the coalition for americas gateways and trade corridors. Welcome, sir. Thank you mohammad chairwoman, members of the subcommittee. Thank you for this opportunity. Today im representing both the will county center for Economic Development and the coalition for americas gateways and trade corridors, which is a Diverse Group of 16 public and private organizations dedicated to increasing federal investment in americas multimodal freight infrastructure. Im also here as the ceo of the will county center for Economic Development. Our responsibility today is marketing the largest inland
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