Please welcome ceo anna palmer. [applause] good morning, good morning everyone. Thank you all so much for joining thus morning in person, and on a live stage im anna palmer ceo one of the founders of the punch bowl news im thrilled to be here for the popup conversation a bit of the news of the day, no shortage of that and whats happening in congress right now. Andrew our senior congressional reporter will join me on stage to comoderate that conversation a big thank you to rtx for partnering with us to make this conversation possible. Afterward, im going to be joined by henry brooks who is president of power and controls at collins aero space, as always you can find punch bowl news on all social media media at punch bowl news and share with this conversation this and with that introduce sage. [applause] thank you, thank you so much. All right. Well we have plenty to get to. We appreciate your coming this morning on a busy, busy time on capitol hill and andrew ill turn it over to you. Senator wariner over the weekend as you know Congress Passed a bill to Fund Government for 45 days. Its not include any aid for ukraine in it. I know you were outspoken about that on saturday. But the reasoning among you and your colleagues was that this outcome was much better than a government shutdown. Especially for someone like you who represents so many federal workers in the state of virginia. Right now, there are accelerated conversations on capitol hill about trying to get a larger scale ukraine package through. What are your expectations for that and how confident are you that that can actually get done here over the next couple of months . Well thank you andrew thank you anna. Yep. Saturday was about as bizarre a day as ive had, you know, i said like kind of down the rabbit hole up and down is up was kind of the description and you know, what was if you step back for a moment and look, you know, three days earlier, over 7 5 keeping ukraine aid and six senators now that might have gone up but six signed a bill and notion that 75, 85 both wanted ukraine aid so badly wanted it and that opponents were so opposed they were willing to even actually go above the democrats request for spending. And more than double the disaster aid was kind of a telling comment number one. There was a problem, i think, the administration i said this chairman of the Intelligence Committee in i still dont have 100 clarity of the 113 billion that weve approached 6 2 billion on defense side how much of that was left. The a little bit of hide the ball. It was a journal story this morning of about 5 billion. One account there was roughly 1. 9 i think theres lack of clarity and that made the case made the case harder for how immediate the needs were. I do believe the 45 days is going to be shaky i know it was a little weird coming on sunday traveling around virginia getting, you know getting at a boy for keeping government open shows it is falling a little bit. But on ukraine, its crazy. If you are thinking from a National Security stand point that we would take this moment and potentially walk away three things. One, and theres a great ad out that youve probably seen republicans for ukraine. That makes clear the point that the Ukrainian Military has done what we and nato american nato were planning to do for 60 years theyve eliminated 50 of Russia Military capacity. And other half theyve taken second most powerful military in the world and maybe made it second most powerful in ukraine and only 50 of the capacity. But after the cost of a stij American Life of nato. Secondly, in a moment when we have to reaffirm our alliances and we see extended nato theres somehow a signal that were not going to be there and election on saturday and public elections make no sense at all and part that i just i scratch my head because i hear more than senate guys saying well we dont really care about putin and ukraine. But were terrified about president xi in china and not understand the connection that if putin is successful in ukraine, that is a total green light. For xi and china if you dont get that you flunk geopolitics 101 so i think it is absolutely critical that we step up. I share Intelligence Committee know that china is our ultimate longterm potential adversary and between terms of Technology Competition and National Security and 2023 is more than tanks and guns. It is a. I. And 5g and Synthetic Biology and quantum computing but it also is for initial military and i think we really find the dollars i think there was enormous bipartisan interest in getting that. And the big question will become and ill i know youre quickly looking to punch bowl looking at the 45 other questions if you know, the question will be is it one more is it the whole four year slug or going to be in pieces many of the republicans feel we ought to go for a one year slug in the battle. In the republican argument weve heard from senator Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell is that the majority of the money is being spent right here in the u. S. Actually it is not just going over as foreign aid. The argument here is were not cutting checks to ukraine saying have it figure it out but this can help the American Industrial base can you talk a little bit about that and do you think that that resonates with your fellow either democrats or republicans . Leader mcconnell has been strongest defenders as aid for ukraine. As any of us and i want to you know give him appropriate credit for that. And hes actually right of the 62 billion plus that are on the security side, the vast majority of it is going to american companies. For for an increasing our production lines, i mean, some of these area like the old artillery shells and 15 military shells we needs to increase economic capacity i dont have the number but i the overwhelming majority of this is going to the American Defense industry, and the administration then has been good about making sure that these were all out of our reserve not out of re current stock and we were bleeding into that by category. But i think mcconnell statement is right i think one thing we need more is clarity and ill, obviously, some of the things that were in this package, you know, fall on my side of the budget on the intel side so cant be spelled out. But i think making clear, clear accounting will be helpful as we go to the next battle. I want to switch gears to innovation at the department of defense can you talk about how dod can use international to have the most up to date technology and perhaps just as importantly help lower the cost for taxpayers . Well great question adrian, and when we talk first two examples one example is on overhead, and i think about this as well from the intel side as well of the dod side. I think when i first got on the Intelligence Committee that people at the nrl may have had a picture of me through darts at me and i kept trying to say on satellites lets go commercial. You know lets not simply have the large primes and buildings and big flat floating cows in the sky like nobody seen a james bond movie because you realize in the james bond movie they shoot down big massive satellites and not thought that through and weve made that to the point where weve got now you know, spacex we need some competitors there as well. I think on the kind of on the military traditional dod side theres still a lot of room for improvement. I remember early on in this job and havent been a business guy or a governor but ill fix defense procurement and somebody came in with 12 volumes of things when i relatively quickly gave up. One of the things were i am going to spending time. And is how we put together and again i want to note out here all of the funders on the private sector side in the Capital Stack from early stage to military stage because we still have the, you know, the crossing valley of death a great new Innovative Company trying to break into dod how to get a project of record and get that dip. One of the things fundamental change one there used to be a very small universe of funders but as we think about National Security not just tank guns and ships and planes but being a. I. Quantum, centers overhead, you know, frankly im going deep on Synthetic Biology and small modular nukes in areas to compete with china it is a much broader portfolio with a lot more companies who potentially funders they can help those Innovative Companies get there. We need a process and were looking at, you know, could each Security Sector each part of the ic pick four, five designated each year, its still up opportunity to create challenge how you get to the bureaucracy. Is there a way to examine that model. What do you hope to get out of it . Changing this kind of process is arrange arduous. Listen im a lot of those companies are in Northern Virginia but others are moving headquarters, to Northern Virginia. I think its not been its not been lack of innovation. Its been lack of having a procurement process that mos away from the traditional lines and frankly that department can take some risk. And i keep thinking what can we use the Ic Intel Community as a point of the sphere roughly you know, one tenth of the balance of the dod budget to push that and this study is a good one and more interesting in also seeing we can have the secretaries identify champions. But for all of the identification through the procurement process if we dont have a Capital Stack that has dissents Funding Source and it is much more robust than it was a few we had moved light years from where we were, you know, what five years ago when google said maybe we dont want to work with the dod and i quickly minded google leadership they didnt have any problem w working with the ccp in china on the same kind of you know, a. I. Related activity. Even across the traditional Tech Community go hes anxious to be in this. So thats all a good sign. We want to talk about a. I. In china and but first all of this in 25 minute. Were moving fast here folks i promise you ill help be the guide. I have 7 point plans on all of these. I want to talk, though, about the technology and sustainability a little bit. Theres been a lot of talk around the Defense Department updating that technology. Maybe commercial i no vaition can be helpful there. Like the hybrid cars for the air force, how important do you think this is in terms of finding sustainable technologies, the government kind of maybe incentivizing the dod to move in that direction. I know our next speaker will speak to that and theyve done a very good job but absolutely critical, and its like i was down in norfolk yesterday with our ship repair guys who were aghast at the potential government shutdown, and absurdity like if you finish repairing ship last year and youre in a cr you cant start your new business. You guys and in the Work Community have been only group of american who is understand what a cr is but you know, so i think there are ways we can push and dod can be helpful and part of the reasons so essential we literally spend hundreds of millions every year in virginia to raise the dock level where our ships stock because sea level rise. So the columns i have say we want to protect National Security but were going to ignore Climate Change or ignore sea level i wish they talked to the navy. So how do we do this on a sustainability basis . Im actually talking a lot with dod on this is im a huge advocate for small modular nukes in russia trying to promote these dramatically and one of the reasons why we need to we have three or four in processing this country dod is looking strongly at this because what im seeing as we need to move to sustainability were seeing some of the areas that we thought might be kind of and i never thought one size fits all but weve seen the industry go through a dramatic decline and seen our project going off the coast of virginia. But the administration is acknowledging not going to get 30 mega watts half of the projectses off the east coast fallen into cant make it with the current financing. They never question concerns about what about our sailors being on aircraft carriers. This is an area i hope that we from the i see can push this. What a competitor china and russia projects Artificial Intelligence, big topic right now capitol hill pretty specially on the senate. Shipper is leading a push on this trying get legislation sometime next year recent held a closeddoor form with tech executives and industry stakeholders future of cybersecurity. As well as the carcass of the intel. You worry Artificial Intelligence could make it look like childs play. About a difference in our election could you talk about what you mean by that and what the process to think for congress to actually get something done next year . [laughter] first of all, i think i spend as much time on Artificial Intelligence as anyone in the senate and i give credit to schumer for bringing everyone along but i had a dozen plus sessions all bipartisan. And bringing in the whos who as well. Secondly ive never been involved in a subject for the more time i spend on it does not equate to supports one step back. Im never seen something with the promise was radically changed. We go way back back in time the last november with sam altman, and all the other folks coming in, the operating premise was that winter and ii will have the most scale the most data whos got the most money. A geopolitical standpoint huge amounts of data all the right things. Open ai microsoft and google and now amazon. They wouldnt dominate the field on large language models. Thirty get the march that premise a change. Suddenly you have lom coming out of uae for pennies on the dollar. The whole premise you are to build everything around a large language model meant attached specifically industry applications and fundamentally change. I dont think there will be near enough about how economic has changed. Whole question of Building Security build it in on the arms race that may not be billing the security. That brings us to where you go on legislation . I am very much skeptical, having seen congress zero for 100 record on doing anything on social media. We have been blown away on everything i remember what i was so naive last march with this bipartisan idea of god have the framework on how to deal foreign technology. Tiktok was one example coming on the basis of a wall way. This is going to be so easy we narrowly roll along until they drop a wondered milliondollar sponsoring organizations like yours and others. It is hard to push back. For those of you as i told you so i look at the recent story tiktok employees are leaving like mad. Theyre still security risks i am going to answer question what does this look like on legislation . I think those who are optimistic think we can have a holistic legislation. Probably too much too quick. There is huge bipartisan concern we do not want to you guys figure out will putting guardrails later. So, where would i start . Where could ai have the most dramatic Effect Tomorrow in terms of exponentially greater disruption and greater undermining of institutions . I would argue that the two domains multiple liberals this moment one, and elections 2016 would be childs play compared to what 2024 both in terms of the amount of not just depot fakes at the time and scale with which you can create these tools is exponentially higher. Weve seen a democracy alone a legislative approach robert will have enough to get through. One of the other area you could have as much if not more thats confidence in our Public Markets there is been a one example the deep fake of the pentagon and had a little bit of market disruption. By a whole seven minutes i could take it there all the different ai tools that could undermine confidence in individual stock. My sense from a political sausage making if we could combine the socialist those of the two entities, institutions that can be most undermined. People say theres always been a misinformation and disinformation tools out there. This happens at a scale and a speed we can never predict for the last several make on this theres a lot of members on both sides want to sit think about this. There are analogies. This is not a perfect one, not a perfect one, not a perfect one. We had weapons of war forever. You shoot somebody with a gun we have decided as a Society Things like chemical weapons and Nuclear Weapons would have a higher penalty. Not perfect analogy but the notion ai around confidence in public elections and Public Markets the tools could be so much more powerful than traditional disruption there may be either higher penalty lower threshold of proof. It is still a little bit how do youprohibit on the front end. But i think directionally this is where i think we could put together the idea and guardrails even in a congress that his challenge. Recognizing course not doing this in a vacuum that weve got ones that you pay has another china and terms of the domestic im under no allusion to the rules would apply and how they use ai. Fixed operating premise here is were not pointed it was didnt social media as they will figure out later projects we are quickly running out of time. I want to give it to andrew to talk china you broke the news this morning for. And punch bowl news a. M. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is headed to china later this week. Spring and Bipartisan Group with him senator mike crapo