Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by xq institute. Bnsf railway. Lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. And with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff he is spending most of his time out of public view, but today, president elect trump was suddenly much more visible. Items on his agenda the cost of new president ial planes and prospects for new jobs in the telecommunications industry. The day started with a surprise appearance in the lobby of trump tower in new york. Mr. Trump lit into the boeing company over its contract to build two new versions of air force one. Its going to be over 4 billion, for the air force one program. And i think its ridiculous. I think boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money. Woodruff earlier, on twitter, he had gone further, saying the government should cancel the order with boeing. Boeings initial contract was for roughly 3 billion, but costs have been rising. Still, the white house said today it has no idea where the president elect got his 4 billion figure. Boeing said in a statement that it hopes to deliver the best planes for the president at the best value for the american taxpayer. Later, another sudden appearance this time, with japanese billionaire masayoshi son, c. E. O. Of softbank, a japanese tech and telecom company. And hes just agreed to invest 50 billion in the United States, and 50,000 jobs, and hes one of the great men of industry, so i just want to thank you very much. Reporter there was also news that the president elect has divested himself of his entire stock portfolio. His Transition Team said he sold off his portfolio back in june. The statement gave no details, amounts or documentation for the stock sales. All of this, as meetings with potential staff and cabinet nominees continued, including the c. E. O. Of exxon mobil, rex tillerson, said to be a candidate for secretary of state; talkradio host laura ingraham, a possibility for White House Press secretary; and Iowa Governor terry branstad, who could be up for a diplomatic post. Mr. Trump will visit iowa later this week as part of a thank you tour that began last week in ohio. The tour also carried him to fayetteville, north carolina, for a rally this evening. Sreenivasan in the days other news, president obama defended his record fighting terrorism in his last Major National security speech before leaving office. Mr. Obama traveled to Macdill Air Force base in tampa, florida, home to the special operations and central commands. The president told the troops that hes led a Relentless Assault on the islamic state, but he also warned against targeting muslims in the name of battling extremism. The u. S. A. Is not a place where some citizens have to withstand greater scrutiny or carry a special i. D. Card, or prove theyre not an enemy from within. Were a country thats bled and struggled against that kind of discrimination. Sreenivasan the president also denounced any use of torture, defended drone strikes and urged again that the u. S. Prison at guantanamo bay, cuba be closed. Woodruff in iraq, army units made a new push toward the center of mosul today. Islamic state fighters had tied up the iraqi forces on the southeastern side of the city for nearly a month. But this morning, an Armored Division launched a fresh assault. A Senior Commander says they moved within a mile of the tigris river, backed up by u. S. Air strikes. Sreenivasan a Human Rights Group is accusing Chinas Communist Party of systematically using torture and coerced confessions against members accused of corruption. Its part of president xi jinpings sweeping antigraft campaign, now in its fourth year. Human rights watch says it found widespread abuse at interrogation and detention sites that are outside chinas official criminal justice system. Woodruff back in this country, crews have now searched nearly all of the oakland, california warehouse that went up in flames during a music party, leaving at least 36 people dead. Officials say they do not expect to find more bodies. Overnight, firefighters stabilized parts of the gutted building, to continue the search today. They say they hope to finish the job tonight. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Sreenivasan the u. S. Supreme court sided today with samsung, in a highprofile patent fight with apple. All eight justices voted to throw out a 399 million judgment against samsung for for copying features of apples iphone. The High Court Said the award was too large, and ordered a federal Appeals Panel to come up with a new amount. Woodruff wall street edged higher again today, with Telecom Companies leading the way. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 35 points to close at 19,251. The nasdaq rose 24, and the s p 500 added seven. Sreenivasan still to come on the newshour the buried pentagon report showing 125 billion in waste; a bipartisan bill that funds joe bidens cancer moonshot; liberia experiments with privatizing its Education System, and much more. Woodruff every few years, Defense Department leaders conduct efficiency reviews, looking for ways to save money. Two years ago, Deputy Defense secretary robert work commissioned a study that looked at how much the Defense Department spent on things like its supply chain, Property Management and health care, but according to the washington post, when the results came back that said an estimated 125 billion could be saved over five years, the report was buried by top pentagon officials. Reporter Craig Whitlock broke the story for the post, and is here to tell us more. Craig whitlock, tell us how all this started. Why did. Why was this study ordered in the first place . Well, the couple years ago the pentagon budget, the Defense Budget was under a lot of pressure. It had been flat for a few years, and military leaders were ordered under sequestration and the budget control act they could actually be forced to stomach some pretty substantial cuts in the coming years, so Deputy Defense secretary bob work ordered a federal Advisory Panel of privatesector executives to start collecting a lot of data about how much the pentagon spends on its back Office Functions as a way to find ways to save money. Woodruff and the work study got under way. They asked him to do it in a relatively short period of time, just a few months. It wasnt easy to do. I gather there wasnt a great deal of cooperation across the board. But they did come back with a report. And what did it find . Well, what they found was pretty striking. This is kind of hard i think for most folks to understand, but the pentagon actually up until then had no idea how many contractors actually worked for it. So they were trying to figure out how many people worked in their business operations. They found that more than one Million People worked in these core business operations, like you said, health care manage. , human resources, property manage. , things that any organization needs, but, you know, even for the pentagon, one million is a lot of people. These are essentially desk jobs. That compares to only 1. 2 million active duty troops. So the backing of the pentagon is almost as big as, you know, the tip of the spear so to speak. Woodruff so secretary work, numbertwo man at the pentagon, when he and others saw this report, what did they do . They out thed this in advance saying this was going to be really important. They asked private sector executives to help them make sure the report didnt gather dust and that they would, you know, adopt these recommendation, but when the numbers came back much bigger than they thought and the recommendation is we can save 125 the billion over five years, effectively they buried and killed the study. The data that had been collected internally for the first time to pinpoint how many people worked in these jobs was kept secret. It is still classified and confidential. We worked hard for months to get our hands on it. We were unable. To i was working with bob woodward, my colleague here who is pretty good at that stuff. To this day they have kept that data confidential. Woodruff and you write the reason it seemed they wanted this buried was that they were afraid if this information came out that congress would not appropriate what he and others thought the pentagon needed to get in terms of future appropriations. Thats right. Theres a political calculation. They were worried that members of congress would say, look, youve been asking us for more money. Weve been saying the troops need more money, you need more funds for ships and tanks and airplane, but your own report, your own data show that you can save 125 billion. Why are you asking us for more . So they were worried congress would cut the budget instead of giving them more, so thats when they decided this was not something they wanted to act on and that they wanted to keep it quiet. Woodruff so Craig Whitlock, whats the fallout from this today . How is the pentagon dealing with this disclosure . Well, i think the pentagon is very uncomfortable. They dont dispute the numbers. They dont dispute that there are a Million People working in their back office jobs. They dont dispute that the study found they could save that much money. They do say it would take more time, that maybe it wasnt practical to do this so quickly. But what theyre feeling today is some pressure from congress, members of congress, members of the Armed Services committee. Theyre saying at a minimum the pentagon owes it to the American Public to release this data showing how all this money could be saved. And i think the pentagons concerned they want to see how president elect trump reacts. Heres a guy who campaigned on a platform for Major Military buildup, and he said he would pay for it by cutting waste and abuse in the military budget. He wasnt very specific about how he would do that, but, you know, heres a blueprint for how they could save a substantial amount of money. Woodruff well, speaking of the president elect and speaking of pentagon spending, separately from all this, the president elect today tweeted and then talked to the press. We showed this a moment ago, that hes upset about how much he says its going to. The boeing company is going to be charging to build two new air force ones. We know there are two of these airplanes that carry the president around. Do we know for a fact from boeing that thats how much these planes are now supposed to cost . Well, you know, hes actually pretty close on that, donald trump, when he says 4 billion. Now, thats over the whole program. Thats the cost of developing and designing these airplanes and to build and to buy them. Boeing doesnt have all those contracts yet, but it really is the inside track. Its the only company the pentagon has been dealing with to work on this. But over the next several years, the pentagon has projected or set aside 3. 9 billion for these two airplanes. Now, one reason it costs so much is that these arent just boeing 747 passenger planes. They have to be equipped essentially asen a Airborne Command center for the commanderinchief. He has to be able to issue orders in case of nuclear war. It has to have antimissile defenses, electromagnetic defenses. So these are pretty fancy essentially warplanes and command centers. That said, president elect trump is saying, do we need to be spending that much on them. Woodruff very quickly, Craig Whitlock, is it believed that boeing will now hold the costs down as a result of the president elects comments . I think its fair to say a lot of people at boeing and the air force are scrirming a bit. Theyve already had some scrutiny from congress. They know there will be a new commanderinchief who symbolically, one of the first things hes going to point out, alleged pentagon waste, is point at this program. So, you know, i think theyre going to go back to the drawing board and theyre going to have to justify the projections. Christa Craig Whitlock, great reporting by you and bob woodward at the washington post. Thank you. Thank you. Sreenivasan while most attention has been focused on the action at trump towers in manhattan, lawmakers at the u. S. Capitol are close to passing a major bill that would lead to big changes with drug approval, medical research and much more. Lisa desjardins kicks off our coverage with this report. Reporter weeks from the end of its term, congress is passing a whopper of a bipartisan bill. This legislation promotes critical investments in research and treatment development. Reporter a godsend to supporters, a spending spree or corporate giveaway to critics. Heres a look at the 21st century medical cures bill. It is a mammoth 6 billion measure, now four major pieces of legislation packed in one. Starting with a giant 5 billion shot of funding to the National Institutes of health for research. That includes almost 2 billion for the moonshot effort led by Vice President joe biden to find a cure for cancer. Thats one reason Many Democrats are on board. Another the bill now includes 1 billion to address the opioid epidemic. Its a National Crisis thats been in funding limbo for months. A third major piece, Mental Health reform, includes a new assistant secretary position for Mental Health and substance use. Republican tim murphy, a psychologist, has pushed for this for years. This does not end the scourge of mental illness, but this puts us on a path to really making some substantial change and give people help. Reporter now for what Republican Leaders love the bills core reforming how the food and Drug Administration approves drugs. The bill speeds things up for some drugs, especially biotech, and it promotes Drug Research for rare diseases. To some, thats modernization of a redtaperiddled process. But to others, the bill falls short theres no money for revamping outdated labs and thin staff at the f. D. A. , and some lawmakers see it as a gift to pharmaceutical companies. Those voices are led by massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren i cannot vote for this bill. I will fight it, because i know the difference between compromise and extortion. Reporter but she is in the minority. The bill has received overwhelming support in congress, and the president plans to sign it into law. For the pbs newshour, im lisa desjardins. Sreenivasan lets dive a little deeper now into this bill what would change, and some of the criticisms around it. For that, were joined by two reporters who have covered this field extensively sydney lupkin of Kaiser Health news; and ed silverman, Senior Writer with stat news, a site covering medicine and healthcare. So sydney lupkin, lets start with what does or doesnt happen to the f. D. A. Theres been a lot about that. Whats the biggest potential change. Sure, so one of the things that happens for the f. D. A. Is it gets another 500 million over ten years. It also has more hiring power to fill the hundreds of vacancies that it has as a result of new initiatives, new laws other over the years. So thats one thing that happens to it, but the big thing is it really sort of makes the approval standards a bit more flexible for drug and device manufacturers. Sreenivasan okay. Ed silverman, if this flexibility increase, is the f. D. A. Stick on the hook if something goes wrong . Yeah, its a doubleedged sword for the agency. On the one hand there will be a new process that could be in place. The agency will have to come up with a guidance, as its called, a program that will determine whether or not it can use different data to evaluate the approval process for new indicationings or new uses for existing medicines. The catch with that could be that if something goes awry, the agency is still on the hook, lets say theres patient harm, for instance. So thats the down side. At the end of the day, its the regulator who is typically blamed when something goes wrong. Sreenivasan ed, this has already gotten pushback from the likes of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Well, the concern is that in making the approval process more flexible for new uses for existing medicine, its actually lowering the standard, because of instead of whats using the gold standard, randomized control trial, the new approach would allow the agency possibly to look at other sorts of data, Something Like safety surveillance data, patientrecorded outcomes, these are things that are legitimately useful and tell us real things, but theyre not the same as having a fullblown trial, and thats the sort of tool that is used to determine the safety and effectiveness of any medicine. Thats big potential difference. Sreenivasan sydney lupkin, that also affects the bottom line of farm pharmaceutical com, because while their clinically approved double blind is the governor weld standard, its also more expensive. This does stand to save them a lot of money, which is why they lobbied for it.