The continued building of our virginia class at the rate of two a year at some point will child finally with the ohio replacement program. In my view, we need to continue building those two virginia class submarines every year. The New York Times story thats been mentioned to you in the course of this morning is only the latest evidence of the increased emphasize of our adversaries on undersea warfare capability, not just the russians but the chinese. I think in the course of that, article 1 of the comment from one of our military leaders was we are back to in a sense the cold war competition undersea. I would like to know your views and, general richardson, if you want to comment, youre welcome to, whether this program continuing our building of two virginia class submarines every year with the ohio replacement are important, in fact, vital to our national defense. Yes, senator. I defer the numbers et cetera to the services responsible for that. But i can say personally i think we have dominance undersea today, that it is our asymmetric advantage and its very important that we continue to maintain that advantage particularly in light of the challenges you noted. I think both of those improvements to our submarine classes are necessary. Sir, i would just echo what general scaparrotti said. I know ive heard it said from that very place, from others, general robinson, and i know that you share the views strongly that we should have an asymmetric superiority in this area, but i think the specifics are very important. Its not enough to generalize about it. I hope that when you say youll defer, you bring, both of you, a lifelong expertise and experience to these views that i think are very, very important for our civilian leaderses. Sir, i probably then misspoke and said i agree with what general scaparrotti said. I apologize if i said i defer. No, i think he said he deferred. And i guess what im asking very bluntly is that you not defer. And i know thats also easily said than done. But i have such respect for both of your views that i hope our civilian leaders hear them. And i hope that you will emphasize that this asymmetric advantage in undersea warfare is vital to our future. So i think ive talked enough and i defer to you, general robinson and general sir, if i could be clear. What i meant by that was its a really a service decision, but i assure you that if confirmed, i will be clear in my advice and needs to the cno with respect to those programs and particularly after i have a close look, if confirmed, as the ucom commander of my needs there. I appreciate your views, thank you very much. Thank you for your service to our nation. Very briefly, general scaparrotti talking about the undersea capability and the increase in Russian Submarine activity. I was in iceland last fall and was really struck by what a strategic place, its one of the most strategic places on earth keflavic, as you know, were now putting p8s back in there. I hope that might be an area you will be an active consideration of further reinvigoration of that capability subject, of course, to the working with the people of iceland, but it sits right astride the greenland iceland uk gap and its, as i say, i cant imagine more strategic place than i hope we can focus some attention there. The facility is amazing. And i think it would be one that would be we would do well to do some concentrating on. Senator, i agree with your concern, and i agree with the importance of the location and our capabilities in that gap that you described. Mr. Chairman. Look forward to moving your nominations through the United States senate. This hearing is adjourned. Thank you, chairman. Thank you, chairman. Democratic president ial candidate senator Bernie Sanders is in kentucky today. Cspan has live coverage of his Campaign Rally in louisville at 7 30 eastern. Indiana voters go to the polls today. That state has 57 republican delegates and 92 democratic delegates that stake. Cspan will be live tonight with primary results, condition spee candidate speeches, and your reaction. Cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up wednesday morning, paul egan, reporter for the Detroit Free Press will join us by known to talk about president obamas trip to flint, michigan, where hes expected to meet with Governor Rick Snyder and address the water crisis thats been affecting the region for two years. Then james jay, Vice President for the heritage foundation. Hell be on to talk about the navy s. E. A. L. Who was killed this week as a result of fighting in iraq against the islamic state. Also, former green party and independent president ial candidate ralph nader will be on to talk about the latest from campaign 2016. And his upcoming book, breaking through power its easier than we think. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal beginning live at 7 00 eastern wednesday morning. Join the discussion. Yesterday, voice of america director Amanda Bennett delivered remarks on communication, leadership, and policy. It was her first major public appearance since being sworn in as the new voa director on april 18th. She also spoke about the future voice of america agenda and the challenges of u. S. International broadcasting. Its 45 minutes. Online and watching on cspan television. Aname is adam powell. President of the Public Diplomacy council and i am the director of washington programs for the usc center on communication leadership and policy. Theres a green light on. Its too far from your mouth. Communication leadership, usc. Edu. Theyre hosted by the American ForeignService Association at afsa. Org. Our guest today is Amanda Bennett, the new director of the voice of america. She has a long and distinguished journalistic career. Buy yog fe on the reverse of your programs. Hes won two Pulitzer Prizes, one at the oregonian in portland and the second at the wall street journal and what she said two weeks ago when she was sworn in, we must change, we need to change in a big way. So change is coming, change is here. Amanda bennett. Lets test the technology before i start. Is this working . Can everybody hear me now . Thats terrific. Now im going to okay. Thank you. Thank you very much, adam, and thank you, everyone, for coming here. I look out in the audience and i see all kinds of friends and colleagues out here. I so appreciate you coming and i cant thank all of you for being here so im going to single out one person from the voice of america, alan hyle, whose great history of the voice of america kept me from making an error in this speech im about to make, so i need to thank him right now, and then second, id like to acknowledge my predecessor as the director of the voice of america, david enser, who has been as helpful and warm to me as any human being can be in helping prepare me for this big job. Id like everyone please to acknowledge david enser. So as adam says, if you want to know my bbiography, flip the pae over and read it yourselves. Id like to tell you a couple of things you might not know because im of an age that i was part of a movement that cheap airfares and curiosity about the world sent all of us out around the globe in, you know, migration that i dont think had ever happened in the United States before when it wasnt associated with a war, so as a result of this, when i was in high school, i was an Exchange Student in the philippines. When i graduated from college, i worked as an o pair in paris taking care of six children and two bulldogs. I spent the early years of my rear in canada and lest any of you have any misunderstandings, canada was then and is now way more than a foreign country than any of us acknowledge. Later i was the second wall street journal correspondent in china at a time when the fewly opened country was most definitely a foreign country. Since then i worked at five different Media Organization and ive had the really, really good luck to be there when nearly all of them were at their peak of their journalistic power and reach and all of them known for their seriousness and integrity of principles. So for all this, i am way, way more of a journalist than a diplomat. As a matter of fact, im going to say, im all journalist, no diplomat. Many of you in this room who have followed voice of america, led voice of america, worked for or with voice of america, are way more expert than i am at the diplomatic purpose of voice of america. But im here to say to you that i think that we are very much more alike than we are different and that great journalism is, in fact, great Public Diplomacy. So let me remind you just briefly whats happened recently and the changes that have already come to voice of america. Under the leadership of new ceo john lansing, who is the ceo of the broadcast board of governors of which voa is the largest part, weve shifted to five strategic focuses. One is that well target our resources toward five specific geographic areas and issues that are vital to u. S. Foreign policy. China, russia, iran, cuba, and violent extremism wherever you find it in the globe. Well accelerate a dramatic shift to digital and social media, emphasize impact and hold ourselves accountable for success. Enhance strategic cooperation across the five independent networks that make up the broadcast board, and curate, and acquire external content. Not on the do i completely agree with these goals, i also believe these issues reflect in large measure the challenges felt by news organizations all around the world and also being felt inside voice of america. So curating and cooperation. These are hallmarks of the modern media scene. Competition once ruled journalism because multiple Media Operations were competing for audience. Fighting against each other to distinguish themselves with scoops, yet for more than a decade, news organizations have all realized they must share resources in order to succeed. Partnerships proliferate. Nonprofit organizations partner with forprofit organizations. Radios partner with newspapers. All digital organizations partner with print and. And even as weve seen recently with the panama papers, the creation of a multiorganization, multiplatform, multicountry coalition that bound itself into a virtual investigation team. So it only makes sense then in this environment we do our best to bend over backwards to collaborate with our partner organizations, radio free europe, radio free asia, radio sawa, and the office of cuban broadcasting. As for impact, what else has journalism been about in the last 40, 50 years . Ever since watergate, all Media Organizations, all journalists have strifen to have an impact. Domestically to protect our children, to eliminate abuse. To expose corruption. To expose inequities. Internationally, to work to explain and root out terrorism, genocide, couphuman suffers wher you find it. So in the area of digital, just this morning i had the great pleasure of announcing we will have our first Deputy Director of voice of america in more than two decades, sandy sugararu will be joining actually has just joined voice of america, and she comes to us from a robust media and digital background. She was critical to the newsrooms move to a digitalfirst organization at the washington post, reorganizing the entire news operation to support that goal. And at trove, a new startup based on social sharing, she was the managing editor who learned how to use all different platforms to curate and combine content in order to reach different audiences and her aim will be to help accelerate our move to popular and emerging technologies to engage as many people around the world as possible. Especially in places where there is no free press. We need to neat our audiences where they are. Now, i saved the Biggest Issue for last which is actually being the voice of america. Most American News organizations are already covering america. Telling americas story. They just dont realize thats what theyre doing. We need to cover foreign policy, of course, but we also need to cover america. We need to cover america for the benefit of the people around the world were trying to reach. And to do that, we need to use the amazing resources. We have most of them inside the Cohen Building right down the street. To create unique, interesting news and to speak to the vital interests of the people were trying to serve. So what does that mean . It doesnt surprise me at all that one of the most popular features of our Russian Service is a video dictionary of american political terms. Little videos explaining whats a soccer mom, what happens when you filibuster, what does canvassing mean . And how about the bible belt . And one of the most popular stories coming out of the Russian Service was a feature on a 90yearold california woman delivering groceries to her neighbors which within minutes of it being posted drew 900 shares and comments. The comments being, i wish we had that in our country. I love seeing the picture of a normal american society. How about other topics that are of great interest to the audiences were trying to target . Well, i dont know if it will surprise you as it surprised me to discover that iran is crazy for entrepreneurialism. So we need to create a robust coverage of entrepreneurialism which is a hallmark of our society, to cover Silicon Valley, to help connect the ideas that come out of Silicon Valley with the young entrepreneurs in iran who need to know and want to know so much about that. These will be stories that appeal to people who aspire to have the kinds of startups and success that you find coming out of Silicon Valley and to many others of them around the world. How about American Business . I dont think its any accident when you think about what china is like now to realize that a rock star in china is warren buffett, so we need to beef up our coverage of American Business and incidentally of american philanthropy which is probably the most robust of any in the world, and write about these as topics, not just as feature, but serious topics of interest to our audience around the world. We need to build up exciting, unique, content that speaks about our assets in the United States in ways that our audiences want to hear and can relate to. Like education. From the wealthiest high officials child, to the child of the poorest nigerian or rwandan or ugandan or tanzanian, every parent of those child realizes that education is the key to their better lives. We need to put our Heads Together inside voice of america to figure out ways to Cover American education in ways that will speak to these hopes and desires. Then theres medicine. People may fly to other countries to get their faces lifted, cheap treatments, medical tourism, but they come to us when they want to save their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Our coverage of medical issues like zika and ebola literally does save lives and expanding that coverage to coverage of medical advances, the cost and availability of drugs, and simply our knowledge of the best ways to keep our families healthy will help translate the things that are wonderful about this country to our audiences. In africa, in asia, in afghanistan, there is a huge hunger for news and information about women. About their education. About their business success. About their striving for independence. About the things that lead to their development and growth in the World Economy and the forces that are holding them back. We need to devote our resources and our thinking to helping to explain and encourage that movement and that information and that knowledge. So we need to cover everything about america. We need to cover the good and the bad, as William Harlan hale said in february of 1942, just days after the beginning of our entry into world war ii, he said in the first voa broadcast, as you all know, the news may be good, the news may be bad, we will tell you the truth. Well cover the country honestly and fairly, its troubles and its shortcomings, but it wont be a fair picture unless we cover all the other things about america as well. Its people. Its energy for change as well as its force to resist change. Its generosity as well as its greed. Its hope equally with its despair. The striving for a just society as well as the failures to achieve it. Theres an amazing amount of resources and passion and commitment inside the Cohen Building, and among our brave and dedicated correspondents around the world who face danger every day to bring us and the rest of the world the news of their struggles, i believe we can show the world the Amazing Things we can do and in doing that we can truly be the voice of america. Thank you. I will now subject myself to questions. Please wait for the microphone and identify yourself. I thank you very much for an excellent presentation. My name is greta morris and im a retired Foreign ServicePublic Diplomacy officer. And thank you especially for talking about the various issues and subjects that the voice of america is covering. I wonder if you could talk just a little bit about the media because obviously the media of voice of america has changed a lot since 1942, what, with voa television and also digital media. If you could just comment a little bit about that and how you make the choices about which kind of media to use. Thank you. I will be happy to answer that question. I first need to make an unpaid Political Announcement which is adams deep persuasion brought me here at the end of my second week in the office, and i wan