Security, certainly the military has used forms of encryption for decades. But can we can you give us a contemporary snapshot of how encryption used by government or nongovernment users protect us against cyberattacks today . We can start over here, please. I will answer the question, but im not at all the expert in this space. I think the other panelists are much more expert than i am in the notion of encryption and protecting our infrastructure. The one point i will say that i tried to emphasis in my Opening Statement is that we shouldnt forget about some of the changes that are happening in terms of the way that infrastructure can be accessed. I think we sometimes lose sight of the fact that phones themselves now are used as authentication devices. If you can break the encryption and get into the phone, that may be a very easy way to get into the power grid, to get into our transport systems, into our water systems. So its not just a question of the firewalls or the access. Its what is the instrumentality that you use to get into those things that we have to be concerned about. I believe fundamentally that security is on the same side as privacy and our economic interest. Its fundamental in the National Security community. Its also mandated by law to protect all sorts of other data in other infrastructures and systems such as financial services, health care records, so on and so forth, such that even folks who might not gain an advantage by having strong encryption available like admiral rogers, the director of the nsa, and james clapper, the director of national intelligence, are on the record saying that they believe its not in the u. S. s best interests to weaken encryption. Anyone else wish to comment . I mean, encryption is used in protecting critical intrastructure the same way its used in protecting other aspects of our society. It protects Sensitive Data when its being transmitted and stored. Including on mobile devices and over the internet and so on. I just want to add that Critical Infrastructure systems are largely based and built upon the same components that were using in consumer and business devices as well. There arent, you know, Critical Infrastructure systems essentially depend on mobile phones and operating systems that you and i are using in our daytoday life. So when we weaken them, we also weaken the critical inf infrastructure systems. Could i just add briefly that i actually thought mr. Sewells answer was pretty good. And whats critical about those systems that we rely on to protect our Critical Infrastructure is when we find flaws in them, we have to patch them quickly, we have to fix them quickly, as mr. Yoran said, the systems are kaunls kntly being looked at. Im concerned if we end up imposing requirements on our security infrastructure on our encryption tools, if we impose requirements, the process of identifying flaws, fixing them, putting out new versions rapidly, is going to be slowed down. To figure out whether those comply with whatever the surveillance requirements are. I think thats the wrong direction for us to go in. We want to make these tools as adaptive as possible. We want them to be fixed as quickly as possible. Not be caught in a whole set of rules about what they have to do and not do to accommodate surveillance needs. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Chairman for allowing me to participate. Appreciate it, and ill yield back. I thank you. I asked unanimous consent that the letter from cta be admitted to the record. I would ask unanimous consent, ms. Eshoo has a letter we would like to have put on the record. I also ask unanimous consent the contents of the document binder be introduced to the record. Without objection, they will be entered to the record with any redactions stamped. I want to thank all the witnesses and members that participated in todays hearing. I remind members, they have ten Business Days to submit questions to the record. Thank you so much. We look forward to hearing from you more and well get you together. Thank you. Meeting adjourned. Our live coverage of the president ial race continues tonight. For the new york state primary. Join us at 9 00 eastern for election results, candidate speichers and viewer reaction. Taking you on the road to the white house on cspan, cspan radio, and cspan. Org. Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard a case about the president s plan to halt deportations for some undocumented immigrants with children who are in the country legally. The Supreme Court releases audio of the oral argument on friday. You can hear it friday night on cspan at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. The campaign 2016 bus continues its travels to visit winners from this years student cam competition. Our bus recently visited Spanish Springs hospital in nevada to recognize justice beth for her third prize documentary. Our bus and crew then headed to california to meet with student cam winners in that state, including a visit to Correia Middle School in san diego where congressman scott peters took part in the ceremony. And in elhombah, judy chu joins family and classmates to honor members for their winner documentary on Social Security called a sense of security. A special thanks to our cable partners, charter, comcast, cox, and Time Warner Cable for helping to coordinate these Community Viz tsdz. Remember, every week day this month on cspan, be sure to watch one of the top 21 winning entries at 6 50 a. M. Eastern before washington journal. President obama delivers his last speech at the white house Correspondents Dinner a week from saturday. And coming up this saturday, cspan takes a look at some of his previous speeches from past dinners. No one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the donald. And thats because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. Like did we fake the moon landing . What really happened in roswell . And where are biggy and tupac . All kidding aside, obviously, we all know about your credentials and breadth of experience. For example, seriously, just recently in an episode of Celebrity Apprentice at the steakhouse, the Mens Cooking Team did not impress the judges from omaha steaks. And there was a lot of blame to go around. But you, mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. And so ultimately, you didnt blame little john or meatloaf. You fired gary busey. And these are the kinds of decisions that would keep me up at night. Cspans look at the president s past speeches from the white house corresponds dinner is saturday night on cspan at 10 00 eastern. The special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction says a Pentagon Program to stabilize the economy in afghanistan is inefficient and poorly managed. He testified before the House Armed Services subcommittee on oversight and investigations last friday. Welcome. Im delighted to convene this hearing. Overseeing the investment of taxpayer dollars is extremely important. Its one of the core responsibilities we assume as representatives of the people. I know Ranking Members fear and others of this committee find this obligation equally significant. In the years since september 11th, 2001, the department of defense has been in a fight against emboldened terrorists. Congress met the increased National Security demands by significantly enhancing the departments base budget and the overseas Contingency Operations fund to address new threats and meet new requirements. Since 2010, congress has slashed defense spending by 1. 3 trillion, however, and today, were realizing significant negative impacts within the department of defense based on those decisions. Readiness of all our armed forces is at an alltime low. Our fair force is smaller and older than when it was conceived in 1947. Our navy has fewer ships to meet an ever increasing operations tempo. Our ground and amphibious forces have still yet to recapitalize and reset from past years of compat operations and most unfortunate is that our standing among our partners is allies leaves many questioning u. S. Commitment and resolve to navigate through the multitude of emergent security challenges we face as a nation and leader of the free world. China is rising, russia is resurgent and emboldened. Iran is beginning to flourish militarily from a good deal they g got from our nuclear negotiations. North korea consistently acts out against its neighbors as it tries to achieve nuclear capability, and extremist ideologies are spreading through the northeast and other parts of the world at alarming rates. In addition, my service on this committee, im also privileged to serve on the house Budget Committee. Many other members of the Budget Committee and i are concerned about the combination of these emerging threats and the desperately low levels of funding were dephovoting to defense against the current and developing National Security threats. The picture is clear. These threats cannot go unaddressed, and our National Defense is in need of more resources to insure our National Security and the common defense is secure. At the same time, it would be very difficult for anyone in this room to dismiss our countrys current 19 trillion in debt and as representatives of those who are ultimately on the hook for that debt, the taxpayers, we will be neglectful not to investigate and scrutinize how their tax dollars are being spent. We need to be able to look our colleagues and our constituents in the eye, to sincerely assure them were doing everything we can to oversee wise investments. That brings us to the heart of our hearing today. Were here to examine a number of cases coming from the later stages of operations in iraq and afghanistan to investigate how taxpayer dollars were spent and determine what if any changes need to be made Going Forward to assure the people their tax dollars are being spent responsibly. Nation building is not a core responsibility of the department of defense. Yet as major combat operations in iraq and afghanistan began to subside in 2010, the department shouldered much of the po posthostility responsibility. Primarily because it is large enough and has the ability to provide immediate resources and capabilities. Consequentially, the department of defense established the task force for business Stability Operations, first in iraq, and then again in afghanistan in 2010. With similar and parallel goals to support the transition away from war. What is known as phase four and phase five efforts. The task force case studies we plan to discuss today include the afghan compressed natural Gas Infrastructure project, the italian cashmere goat project, and the task force utilized in afghanistan. But not all in prudent spending decisions occur during Contingency Operations. For example, as the department of defense Inspector General reported there have been problems with the aviation spare parts supply chain. While its extremely important that we scrutinize the departments purchases to insure theyre smart and reasonable, its just as important that we use all means necessary to get our taxpayers money back or Exchange Parts from venlders who may have supplied part that did not meet contractualquirements or technical specifications. If our airmen receive the wrong or defective parts, we must make it right by the taxpayer. Again, i reiterate the importance of hearings such as this one. We live in a world of vast expanding threats that require a robust and full response. If were going to use hard earned tax tallers to fulfill our obligation to provide for the common defense, we owe it to the taxpayers to rigorously scrutinize how the dollars are spent and the qualifications of those making spending decisions. I look forward to exploring and learning more about these certain highprofile case studies which as department of defense investigators have reported, may have benefitted from more exacting standards of how those investments are made. I turn to the subcommittee Ranking Member for any opening remarks she wishes to make. Thank you, madam chair. And i thank our witnesses for being here today. I want to especially thank mrmr. Mr. Shop, and ms. Wicecarver for the services you provide to our country. Todays hearing includes discussing a herd of cashmere goats. Yes, goats. Dod spent millions of dollarsen a project involved shipping male italian goats to afghanistan to be meated with female afghan goats in order to make cashmere. Too bad many of the female goats were already infected with a disease that could have wiped out the entire herd. Too bad that only two of those fancy italian goats are still usable in the project. I think we can safely say that manufacturing warm, fluffy sweaters are not the key to economic recovery in afghanistan. Nor is it in dods expertise. But thats not all. Dod also wasted money on an unused coal storage facility, an unsustainable business incubator, and one of the most expensive gas stations in the world. The special Inspector General for afghan reconstruction estimates the gas station alone cost 43 million. Now, we can quibble about how much it really cost, but in the end, it cost over 43 million. And a gas station in pakistan, similar to the gas station, cost only 200,000. Today, we are going to discuss two dysfunctional dod programs that are desperately in need of oversight and budgetary common sense. The first is dods illconceived and badly executed uaaid knockoff. The task force for business and Stability Operations. Tfbso for short. Starting in afghanistan in 2010, tfbso was supposed to Catalyze Economic Development in support of the military. But according to sigar, they have received more complaints, more complaints about fraud, waste, and abuse over the last two years than any other organization operating in afghanistan. Even compared with the old boondoggles in afghanistan, the short sightedness and sheer absurdity of the projects is mind boggling. Theyre tailor made ammunition for critics of our misadadventurer here. Well also discuss poor practices which put our service men and women at risk. At the core of this hearing is what do we have to show for our money . For tfbso, i can say the answer to the question is not much. Heres what we got for the nearly 1 billion, nearly 1 billion spent at tfbso activities. A defunkt cashmere goat farm, private villas for staff, and an outrageously expensive gas station. Is that it . We dont know since the pentagon apparently no longer possessed the expertise to address the question. Were there any successes or sustainable accomplishments from tfbso, or should we have left Economic Development to uaa. I. D. And the state department instead of using the military as untrained aid workers . As they recently said, tasking dod to do development is, quote, like giving the Postal Service the mission to run our drones in afghanistan. Unquote. The dod igs report is equally damming on aviation, and the problemed associated with defective parts. For example, the dod ig found defective tiedown straps used to attach oxygen hoses to pilots helmets remained there after the air force reported they should be recalled. The flaw was severe. The ties did not hold the hose to the mask, which could have caused the loss of oxygen to crew members during flight. The frightening part is these defective ties may still be in dla inventory. This and other poor oversight and procedures are projected to have cost taxpayers 12. 3 million in unrecovered funds over just six months. Unfortunately, this is old news. Past dod ig reports have found that the dla has regularly overpaid for spare parts and badly manages their bloated inventory. Today, i would like to know what the dod has learned from the sigar reports, has oversight and coordination been improved or will it be improved . Or does the dod tend to go on wasting taxpayer money on italian goats and defective spare parts . We have to remember that we have many competing uses for funding. And wasted funds hurt our troops and their readiness. This is the kind of stuff that belongs on last week tonight with john olver. Not as a subject of a congressional hearing. On behalf of the department of defense, i apologize to the american taxpayers for the wasteful spending thats gone on, and with that, i yield back. Thank you. Im pleased to recognize our witnesses. I want to thank them for making the time to be with us. Today, we have mr. John sopko, the special Inspector General for afghanistans reconstruction. Ms. Jacqueline wiwicecarver, an mr. Charlie lilli, the Deputy Director of aviation and head of aviation contracting activity from the Defense Logistics Agency. Thank you all for being with us here today. So well begin now with your Opening Statements. Mr. Sopko. Thank you very much. Cha chairwoman, Ranking Members and members of the subcommittee im pleased to be here to discuss sigars activity in afghanistan and our review of dods task force for business Stability Operations known as tfbso and three specific aspects of that operation that the chairwoman asked me to look at or to comment on. The first one dealt with the construc