so we are respectful of his findings and we take them very seriously and we're working with him to find practical ways of dealing with those concerns. >> and there's another issue, potential issue. i know the regulators are doing a great deal to avoid an issue. that is a reapplication to t.a.r.p. for an institution that might pay out but then need additional assistance. is -- are you establishing any procedures for that? or is that something that's still off on the horizon? >> senator frank confirmed we'll certainly look at that. and i'll be happy to meet with you and your staff on that question. >> thank you, mr. allison for your willingness to serve. i think you began as a lieutenant or an ensign in the united states navy. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> senator, do you have any further questions? >> i'd like to ask one more question, if appropriate. one of the concerns that i have is related to the program and

the possibility of manipulation between buyers and sellers. i believe that t.a.r.p. recipient banks are not going to be participating in the legacy loans program but that no such restrictions have been put into place for the legacies security program which will be managed by the treasury and the fed under talf. any insights on you have basically parties with an interest on both sides of the transaction? >> well, there are going to be very clear conflict of interest rules in the public/private partnership. those rules are also being discussed with the special inspector general as well as the people within treasury. and i think it's very important for the credibility of the program and to protect the taxpayers that the program be

administered in a way that prevents such conflicts of interest. >> absolutely. thank you. >> thank you. >> mr. allison, there's been a few figures floating around about how much is left to be invested or loaned, however you want to put it. have you been able too take a peek and see what's left out there, how many billion are left? >> it's roughly $100 billion, senator, that is available today. >> as as things unfold here, your crystal ball being as clear as anybody's, what kind of criteria do you see utilizing for poestentially investing tho dollars? >> i believe it is important that we leave some headroom in

this program because we're not yet out of this crisis. >> correct. >> and i thing the treasury, the government needs some flexibility so that if there's a need in the future, we can intervene in a timely manner on behalf of the american public. >> so is 100 $100 billion which think is significant for headroom? >> i wouldn't want to place a number on that. we all have to be vigilant and there needs to be flexibility in this program so we can act on behalf of the american people, if necessary. >> thank you very much. i appreciate you putting yourself over in public service and going through all the questions. >> thank you. >> i also appreciate your family for being here. i think behind every good guy there's a good family. so we appreciate that. thank you very much. >> thank you, sir, thank you, senator.

>> you are watching public affairs programming on c-span. next, and house budget hearing for the military special operations units and after that, an event to mark the 20th

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radio or download the podcst. -- podcast. >> now i house hearing on the military operations unit, including the navy seals. this is about one hour. >> members come in as we proceed. i would like to get started on time. it is a pleasure to see you and we appreciate what you do for the country. i have an opening statement that i have written, then i will submit for the record. i want to say how important this is to the national security of our nation, and how much we appreciate the job that you and all of the people under you have done in protecting the

national security all over the world in many places, some of them which are well known like iraq and afghanistan, others that people are not aware of that are just as important the approach that you have brought is invaluable. your the best that targeting individual terrorists, capturing and killing them. this will continue to be an important part of national security. and you understand how important it is to win the war brought war -- broad war. and you know how important it is to [unintelligible] the training in pakistan will be an important part of the success.

and how do we communicate, how do we counter the radicalization? the individual soldiers and marines, and the navy seals have developed skills that are invaluable, they have proven to be more valuable to the department of defense, in understanding what we are up against, what has been learned out there on the battlefield has been very helpful in terms of preparing us on all of these issues and we know that you take a strong leadership role. we know that there will be battles over funding, but you do a great job with what we provide and i believe that congress recognizes the importance of this role and we recognize what you need to fight the fight.

with that i will turn it over to the ranking member. >> i also have a statement for the record, i would like to welcome the admiral, thank you for the hospitality, i had a wonderful chance to visit with you, and we thank you so much for hosting us and we look forward to your testimony. >> atmel? >> good afternoon. thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before the committee to highlight the posture of the special forces command. i would like to thank you for the strong support of this body and we are a product of the congress. we're well-positioned to meet the expectations of the special operations forces. a special operations command is responsible for the servant

components command, the special operations command and the marine corps forces, the nabal's pressure -- special warfare command. we are treating the forces to serve under the operational control of the commanders around the world. the headquarters has many of the responsibilities and the authorities and the characteristics of the defense agency, including a separate budget established by the congress to fund the head of men and material, services and training in the operational activities that are peculiar to special operations. this has also been designated as the command responsible for synchronizing the department of defense planning against terrorism, with robust

activity, punctuated by a conference attracting over thousand people from different organizations. we have been assigned proponents see by the department of defense for the security force assistance, and we hope to form partnerships that will create a more global environment in the face of transnational crime and extremism. the special operations force was assigned to the united states command by the military services for most of their military careers. special forces and rangers, navy seals, marine special operators, rotary wing aviators, combat controllers, rescue jumpers, militarily --

military information support, all of this was enabled by administrative specialists and operators and intelligence analysts, communications experts, budget managers, and many more who are great men and women, who operate within the community. this is a force that is suited to the irregular operation environment that we are engaged in, as you mentioned in the opening statement. this has created a demand for the effect in remote and uncertain and challenging operating areas, whether the mission is to train or revise or provide humanitarian assistance, this is the force of

choice. the high term demand for the special operations forces have led to 86% of the overseas force currently deployed to the united states central command -- the special operations forces have a global presence. they have conducted operations in 106 countries across the globe. special operations forces have taken a long-term approach to engagement, with partnerships contributing to recent -- regional stability. the combination of tactical skills and understanding of the context of application is the core of special operations. through support of this to be a regular warfare, these forces are the first in and the last

out. this is very small and highly capable force -- and is important to know the traditional activities of the regular warfare are not new to special forces, civil affairs operations and psychological operations, internal defense are long standing special operations activities. significant resources are required to make certain that they are manned ended with, to operate globally with unmatched speed and precision and discipline. the budget request includes what is necessary to provide special operations forces that will put the united states with capabilities.

and the major force program has been strong of to me the mission requirements, the success of special operations forces depends on the dedicated budget but also the service parents and partners. special operations forces rely on the services for support. some capabilities must be provided by the services, including remote logistics and telecommunications, with a combination of the special operations command budget and support from the services, special operations command is looking for the balance, for the speed of response, the the operation of crisis, and to have the capabilities assigned in support for the special operations forces.

the special operations command headquarters will continue to develop the most precise and legal counter-terrorism force and we will provide the most effective trainers and advisers and partners, with the skills and leadership and mindset necessary for tomorrow's challenges. we will continue to find kill and capture the irreconcilable enemies, with the global friends and allies and to follow the procedures and technologies that will keep us ahead of the emerging threat. i thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you and i conclude my opening remarks with pride in the special operations forces high command, they are contributing well beyond what the percentage of the total forces indicating.

the our trading partners and the resistance, bringing value to the villagers were still deciding their allegiance. i am ready for your questions. >> we will stay with the five and a rule to keep a structure to the questioning. this has been a critical tool for what you have been able to do in different places. this is $35 million right now. can you tell me why this funding has been used? >> this is peculiar to the special operations and requires that the funding be used to support the ongoing special operations. this is enabling the forces to extend their operations through the use of surrogates and

counterparts, to conduct activities in partnership, of the operations forces, and this is an authority and not an appropriation -- appropriation, to recommend to the secretary, after coordinating with the commander and the chief of the mission, in the country. to utilize $35 million of funding, from within the special operations budget, so this is an issue of prioritization, within the budget. this is enormously important because this is a fund that is focused -- and is used for well correlated purposes, and in a closed session i could provide more detail about how this has

had an effect across the world. >> this is a program that we strongly support. the importance of the interagency cooperation which is increasingly important, as you look at this globally as a counter insurgency, there are a lot of places that will have to come together to make this work. i have seen the special operations command under your leadership and also in the field, they put this together about as effectively as anything i have seen. as you look outside of these areas, you know the people familiar with the struggles, this is around the horn of africa, what do you think is most important in pushing forward that level of

cooperation and the other elements, with the state and the intelligence community. >> the most important thing to push forward by the structures that provide a forum so that the agency can provide the content to the discussions, these are relationships building over time, these are better than we have ever been, so much of this has to do with understanding the organizations and the cultures, and we will see the second or third generations, people have come to these places and already have a relationship. they are moving much more quickly together. there is a standard that was set aggressively at the operational level, the united states command

is serving as a model of sorts at the headquarters level, we wake up every day with about 84 uniformed members going to work at the agencies of government, most of the agencies that you would expect and some of them that you would not normally expect us to be in. this is a few people in 2006, we also went up every day at the air force base with about 140 members of the other agencies coming to work in our headquarters. we have had discussions sitting in the global collaborations, these briefings, and this has provided a transparency that is very helpful. it is very hard having seen this in action to remember what this was like -- back when we only

saw the uniformed members. this is a solid effort. >> this is something we want to encourage. getting people from the different agencies to work together every day, in different forms. you have done a great job of taking people out to different places, the other agencies need to do this as well. this is a good forum for that. we want to look for ways to encourage this, and some of the conflicts between intelligence and department of defense can be resolved if we have more sharing. we understand that there is personnel to manage, that is a great challenge. you have a mission to accomplish, so, if there is a way to help you, to free up more

personal, please let us know. we have an issue with the management within your own entity of different service members, and we are communicating this concern and trying to give you the authority to manage your own personnel. we are looking for those opportunities to build those relationships and continue with the principle that is now applied across the agency lines. i will yield to mr. miller. >> i serve on the nato parliamentary assembly and i have been able to meet with allies and they are proud of the contributions that they are making, certainly in afghanistan and what i would like to ask you for -- i would like to ask you for the record, explain the impact of the capabilities of these partners in the current

fight in afghanistan, and can you talk about iraq as well? >> from your visits to the coordination center, you understand how this is coming together and this is bonding across the special operations. this has stimulated the activities of some special operations forces, being provided to the effort in afghanistan. should i talk about how the special operations are performing, and what the activities are in afghanistan -- i am not certain my monitor should is enough to give a coherent enough answer on that. i will say that in my discussions with the leaders,

there is a feeling of community forming, across the nation's special operations community, and i would say that this is special operations forces -- the special operations line is something around which these forces can rally, and this is a relatively inexpensive and low level investment in a much more broad military capability, to provide. the coordination center is less than three years old, but this has got the legs under it, very well. >> what can we do, what do you think we can do to assist the allies with the soft units? >> i think, there is already

robust activity and we see some countries that in forward to present these forces, and they are using that to attract them to exercise and train with them. there is a synergy that is coming together, bilaterally, and i think that, the short answer to that would be, to explore a way to explore the coordination center, not knowledgeable enough about how this is working, to understand the details of that. the coordination center director ring now has two hats, a two star general serving as the leader of the european command, and i would suggest exploring a

way in which we may form a separate commander -- a separate director for this. >> one question moving away, involves where we are with the gun ships. certainly in my district it appears, that there is a shortfall, but the budget does not request any additional funding for the gun ships this year, can you talk about the plans to address that particular shortfall, and to maintain and modernize just aircraft that are out there? >> we have a recapitalization program for the rest of the fleet, this was a higher

priority, initially, then the gun ships for recapitalization. in the age of what was involved. the level of activity in afghanistan is causing us to understand how important, the precision fire power is. in that tactical environment and we're understanding clearly that the capacity is insufficient and substitute platform simply do not bring the same response to the soldiers in contact that this does. this is not a precision what form, this is a weapon that is accurate, so what we are doing to augment the fleet, what we are trying to do immediately, is

to modify the mc-130 w fleet for a munition as a weapon and a 30 mm gun as a secondary weapon. this is a matter of integrating them in a useful platform. we are looking for funding to do this and we believe that we can deliver this very quickly. >> he is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you for your hospitality. i was able to join you, and thank you for the service that you give to us here and around the world. the concern about the equipment is