Because everybody else has told you that. I cannot tell you or describe the amount of pain and suffering that not only my family or friends have experienced, but the community of blacksburg, our fellow survivors. I cannot going describe how important this legislation is and how much your support would mean to us in general. Thank you. [applause] my name is maya. Im here on behalf of my father. Who was killed last september in a workplace shooting in minneapolis along with five other dads. Im here because my family supports legislation to ensure that these kinds of tragedies dont happen and so they dont have to get the call that their father or mother or brother or sister or child will not be coming home that night. And so toiled thank you for your leadership. [applause] this is a picture of me and my mother, that i gave my mom soft in high school. My parents were returning to the safest city in thousand oaks, california in may 30, 2005 a man with a history of violence and easy access to weapons shot my cad three times and shot and killed my mother who stayed and tried to keep others alive. I cannot express the importance of this and other legislation and i cannot express the thanks for my family and community for all of you for everything that you do. Thank you. [applause] this afternoon in the senate, i will be introducing this bill. Caroline mccarthy and eduardo will introduce it in the house. Ladies and gentlemen, we have done our best to craft a responsible bill to ban these assault weapons. Guns designed for military use, bought all over this country and often use for mass murders. This is really an uphill road. If anyone asked today, can you win this . The answer is, we dont know, its so uphill. There is one great hope out there than is you. Because you are stronger than the gun lobby. You are stronger than the gun manufacturers. But only if you stand up, if america rises up, if people care enough to call every member of the house and every member of the senate and say we have had enough, these weapons do not belong on the streets of our towns, our cities, in our schools, in our workplaces, in our malls, in our movie theaters. Enough is enough. We can win this. But it depends on america and it depends on the courage of americans. Thank you so much for being here this morning. Thank you. [applause] what is the best training far policeman . The best training you can get to become a Good Police Officer and understand it is ly say that until the die i die. You learn how to develop sources, you learn how to use intelligence information, you learn how to leverage relationship in the community. That is the key. People in the Community Trust you, theyll tell you the things that are happening that are not yet crimes. So you can gear convene. Theyll tell you how to go about doing. Itly earned the most of my career from those relationships. From High School Dropout and single mother and Youngest Police chief in washington, d. C. On the next washington journal Weekly Standard editor bill crystal on how republicans in congress should proceed over the next four years or president obamas second term in the white house. Then kevin locks at the safe gay rights in the u. S. After that the Agricultural Department and reporter charles of reuters discuss the effect of the ongoing drought is having on the u. S. Economy and food prices. Plus, your emails, phone calls, and tweets. Washington journal live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. One of the key themes, of course, for any exhibition on the civil wars are the abolition and e mans nation. We are fortunate that they came of age what they did. Between the two of them, they make issues around e mans passion and abolition. Issues around human rights and American Freedom on a general nonrace specific level. Ly go through every piece of include that johnson puts in the picture. Ill summarize by saying for you Pay Attention to the top half as well as the bottom half. What you get is a white cat in the bedroom window and dark skin black Woman Holding a child. Theres a ladder and a fabric coming out the other. Theres a way in and out without being seen. Theres a rooster up here. Roosters have a habit in the evening of finding a perch and calling to the hen to spend the night with them. The hen is on top of the slave quarters. If you add up of the little ins and outs and look down here at the white girl entering the black yard with the black woman checking to make sure its clear. Shes coming to heart music. Shes the mistress or the masters daughter. Shes not here to hear the music. No one is paying attention to her. Look who is here. Is she a product a one of those lie yai son . The civil war and the influence on american artists. Part of the American History tv this sunday on cspan3. At 7 p. M. Eastern and pacific. Republican senator of indiana says that begin americas financial situation. Its ciflt to make a case for supporting aid. The Ranking Member on Homeland Security told the council on Foreign Relations the crucial to foreign aid being spent e officially where interest u. S. Interests are at stake this is an hour. [inaudible] [inaudible conversations] hello, everyone. [inaudible] presiding after i did the last one i said it could be a cold day in washington before i did another. [laughter] i would preside again. Here we are. Pat yourself on the back for turning out in this weather, but i think strong turnout is a tribute to both yourselves and the guests we have today and the importance of the topic well be discussing. Just a few points of business i have to go through before we start. So you to completely turn off not just put on vibrant brat all the cell phone or blackberry. It will interfere with the sound system. You wouldnt want to miss a word im going it say. If you would like to use an trok device like an ipad or Something Like that, you can do that outside, theres a space one i, i guess the folk outside theres a overflow. Where you can see the live feed of the meeting. You dont have to worry about that if you want to use one of the devices. In contrast to some of our other meetings in the past. Its on the record. So dont blurt something out that you dont really mean or if you cant defend later on. It can be used against you. With that, lets welcome our guest, senator dan coats, who doesnt need much of an introduction. Hes a obviously somebody you all know, certainly not just because of his role in the senate on the Appropriations Committee in his involvement with the issues of foreign aid there but also in his previous incarnation of u. S. Ambassador to germany during the first half of last decade in which there were a few interesting matters like iraq and so forth. Senator coats obviously is very interested in transatlantic relations. Its all to that experience and other experiences hes had. And his concerns have lad him to lead him to want to discuss the matter that were going discuss today which is in a relationship between the budgetary pressures and other pressures facing the United States and the role in the world. Senator thank you for coming out this morning. I know, its not easy for you to get here in the snow either. I guess id like to begin by in a general way, asking you what is the concern . What is worrying you about possible interaction between limited resources here, pressure to cut the budget and what that might do in terms of limiting u. S. Role abroad. Well, the consequences, i think, both a diminishing pool of Resources Available all the fiscal pressures that are on the congress now in terms of the decisions they make and how to allocate funds, and the perspective to the future. Not looking all that good. Combined with, i think a less and less engagement, knowledge of, and participation by members of congress in global affairs. Whether it is National Security, militaryrelated or whether its foreign aid relate order diplomacy in our presence throughout the world. If you look back to congress twenty twenty five years ago. It was made up of people who had a relationship to world war ii and the aftermath in terms of the u. S. Engagement. The Marshall Plan and rebuilding of japan and americas presence, and the relationship also, i mean, and the lessons and the threat by the cold war. And those were very defining major umbrella issues that produced great statesmen Henry Jackson and others on a bipartisan politics waters edge. Americas presence and engagement around the world. Two super power and the umbrella that kind of was held over the world in stifled the kind of regional and local frankses factions and tensions that erupted after the cold war. It had had an Significant Impact on the American People and the commitment and the support for the commitment for the u. S. To be a globally engaged super power. It was the possibility of a fire and everybodys in to try to dheep from getting out of control. With the law, in the aftermath of that, there was a defining event and that was the iraqs encouraging in to kuwait. We saw the Global Presence put together by jim baker and george h. W. Bush and the success in the engagement of it. But subsequent to that, we have seen a completely different scene. That is what i would describe as three alarmers and two alarmers. We about a dozen fires popping up here in different parts of the world within all of a sudden you have people who dont have the a lot of people in congress who dont have the previous reference have basically come to the conclusion that the world has changed and we cant afford nor do we have the public support for global open gaugement. Engagement. When you talk to people back home and you say why do we give so much foreign aid . It is literally like saying, you know, you need to diet and lose a lot of weight and you get a haircut and solve the problem. The amount of foreign aid and presence now is shrinking to the point where its relatively insignificant compared to it. But yet the will to support that Going Forward and even step out and say well we ought to be more engaged here or do more here or these are the functions that are working. Its hard to get public support for that. Its hard to get congressional support for that. So i think the issue here a long way of get together point is that is that what are the consequences of diminished public support, diminishing public support. I think pretty well articulated bit president both in the campaign and post Campaign Announcement the signals are pretty clear. Were not going everywhere. Were not going get in to every everything. Were going to retract. And the support of the American People basically saying why are we there and need to keep doing this . Whether it is maintaining forces or presence in germany, to be a staging point for all that is happening in the middle east, whether its engaging in syria or not engaging in sir why. Whether its leading from behind on libya, the pacific, you know, its more like how do begin to have the resources to address those potential threats in the future. All of that, i think is something that needs to be carefully looked at and talk through, and we need to be realistic about the fact that the united is not going to be engaged on global basis in the current fiscal situation and given the current political will of the American People. Obviously theres an interaction between the resource that we have available and the political will we have. Obviously if we have inif i nate political will we find the resources, maybe vice versa. You in some of the speeches you made recently you talk a lot about nato. And the fact that the experience in afghanistan is not over yet but hasnt been a terrifically happy one for nato. That might sort of lead to a process which we just dont have the will anymore or the intelligence to intention to stay in nato. Given the budget tear restriction . I think in the event that poses a threat the libya situation where clearly the united was not going to take the lead. It was going to supply reconnaissance, but a little bit of backup but nato getting together and Going Forward or not. You know, the threat and table stablized libya and the consequences for southern europe, the history when the european presence there. That was the precipitating event. I think its going to take something similar to that one issue that i think potentially could be that is the whole situation where the pursuit of the Nuclear Weapons and iran and the fact that europe would be easily one the gun site and there would be a significant consequences for those nations closest to the middle east for the nuclear arm. Thats a little bit on the security side. You allude to the development side. I think the general public talk about foreign aid. I think they lump everything together. When you talk about the quantity of the budget that is devoted to aid, thats what you have in mind is the development assistance. That is always going to be a vulnerable part of the budget. I recall joe biden saying theres a campaign, the only program will cut was foreign aid. Tell us your view about how we can kind of put that one on a sustainable basis politically. How can you persuade the public its being used e officially . What are the things working and those that are not . I think the keyword is efficiently. We have the to demonstrate is the money that the taxpayer money being sent overseas for foreign aid is number one in our Strategic National interest. And we have to articulate what that interest is. Second dpli, i think we have to go beyond just sending the money so it gets depositive its and who leads the countrys swiss bank account. We have to demonstrate that money is being effectively used to address certain things. And give george w. Bush significant credit for the challenge Corporation Program for [inaudible] in africa. Because they set a set of standards they these are our values. These are our standards. If you are able to enforce implement and enforce the standards, we will provide you that support and very good Success Stories there. This is a difficult climate of which to go back home and tell people this is something that work. And it is International Interest. We do have a ought to have a moral equipment on some of the tragic things that are happening from the standpoint of nutrition and disease and so forth. But as we see what is happening now in africa, particularly in the islamic and the threats there and the changes that are taking place, africa suddenly is become a place where we have more interest and the chuck was a deep tear of secretary i got from he was deputy to jim jones and spent a lot of time looking at africa from the standpoint of his position in europe. Kind of foreshadowing what was to come then pleading for engagement and presence in dealing what was happening there. Now seeing some of the consequences of this playing out. We have to make the case to the American People. We have to show that were effectively spending thundershower money fur the right reasons and International Interest and underlying, i think, moral commitment to address some of these major nutritional diseaserelated problems that in doing so americas presence is seen as a positive not a negative. Theres a whole another issue arising now because of the sort of backlash against the United States and u. S. Installations and country like pakistan and egypt which are large recipient of the united. Theres a powerful sentiment that the people dont us. They take the money and burn the flag. Let cut them off. Theres resolutions and stuff introduces. Talk about how you respond or how you think the country ought to respond to the powerful sentiment. Well, i think the Common Threat here is the presence of al qaeda and the affiliate. And the threat it poses to the world. From the standpoint of stability. And peaceful transition of governments. Were reminded of that almost every day. And sweeps across the middle of the world starting in indonesia and coming across Northern Africa and moving down to the sub sahara part of africa. This is a threat that has enormous implications. We have seen that ignoring the threat as we did in afghanistan pre 9 11. T true that the American Public is more wary but never the less, were reminding every day on cnn n and other networks and journalists from the washington post. Talk more i want to get that mentioned in there. Were living in different kind of world. Its hard to define where the threat is because it popping up everywhere. Its like wack a mole. You wack one iraq and you think it get it settles and youre back in afghanistan. And we are in the arab spring and libya and algeria and things are happening that pose real threats particularly at the time when the possibility of the combination of weapons of mass destruction and terrorists can result in attack on american presence whether its there or here. That is a threat, a grave threat we have to keep reminding the American People that were only one attack away from a terrorist attack using the weapons of mass destruction potentially the total direction of the major u. S. City. We dont want to have to reengage our thinking and presence and how we use our Security Forces and diplomacy to address these kinds of things. And post 911 area. Doing it now ahead of time. I mean, addressing it now without thinking well, were not going to be able to do that unless theres another defining event. Could have horrible consequences. Follow followup on that, i guess, part of what youre saying there may a sense what we san diego lot of money to a count