mrs. ellmers: thank you to my colleague, mr. gibson. i just want to start right off by saying, madam speaker, that our colleague, mr. gibson, has been a tireless voice for our military and certainly has been a resource for me and has always been more than open and honest with me when it comes to decisions that are facing our military and national security. i just want to thank you, sir, for your service. but then also coming to washington to serve your country yet again, and to be such an advocate for the military and to be such a support for the rest of us who are trying to help in that capacity as well. i am here tonight to discuss this -- in this special order the introduction of the posture act. and i thank the gentleman for this great piece of legislation. the posture act is an important piece of legislation that will prevent further troop reductions and improve military readiness. as a representative of fort bragg based in north carolina, i have the unique perspective to see how this troop drawdown is directly impacting our nation

gibson? mr. gibson votes no. mr. walls? mr. walls votes no. ms. hartzler? ms. hartzler votes aye. mr. o'rourke votes no. dr. heck? dr. heck votes no. mr. nor cross? mr. nor cross votes no. mr. scott? mr. scott votes aye. mr. gallego votes no. mr. brooks votes aye. mr. takai? mr. takai votes no. mr. nuj envotes aye. ms. graham? ms. gram vogt no. mr. cook votes aye. mr. ashford? mr. ashford votes no. mr. briden stein? mr. briden stein votes aye. mr. molten? mr. molten votes no. dr. win strom votes aye. mr. ailing we lard votes. miswolorski votes aye. mr. byrne? mr. byrne votes aye. mr. graves? mr. graves votes aye. mr. zinki? mr. ziismt inki votes aye. ms. still panic votes no. mrs. mcsally? ms. mcsalary? mr. knight? mr. knight votes aye. mr. mcarthur? mr. mcarthur? mr. russell? mr. russell votes aye. mr. larsen? mr. larsen votes no. mr. courtney? mr. rodgers? mr. rodgers votes aye. mr. schuster. ms. mcsally? mr. mcarthur? >>> the clerk will report the result. >> mr. chairman, there are 29 aye votes, 30 no votes. >> the amendment is not adopted. the issue is on the amendment number

. >> mr. gibson. >> thanks, mr. chairman. let me just begin by saying that it's definitely in my view our responsibility to the people's representatives to be weighing in on this. i do support the amendment. and i'll say that after four combat tours, nothing would make me happier that -- if the current set of teenagers never had to see a shot fired in anger. and i would include my two teen auj daughters and my teenage son for that matter. but the fact of the matter is that we have a standards-base force now. and we don't have a standards-base selective service. and i think it needs to change. so i plan on voting for it. i yield back. >> ms. gabberd? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'd like to echo the comments of my colleague from new york who just spoke. i think the whole question of this conversation is misguided because the real conversation is why do we have the selective service and the draft in the first place? when we look at our all-volunteer professional military, i can speak as a soldier that i would much rather have so

mr. gibson. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to add my voice to this due to the peculiarities of way we shape the force we have this dual status but the really, without these maintainers, without these folks who keep our vehicles and our aircraft moving, and flying, you know, we're not going to be mission capable. then the governors don't have that response as well. i know that we've done this year to year but i think it is very important we actually put this in law. so, i strongly support it. thank you, mr. chairman. yield back. >> chaired yields to himself briefly just to say i agree with everything y'all have said. i also believe it is a dangerous precedent to start exempting groups from sequestration. we had this discussion last year. we went ahead and adopted it i'm sure we will again. just a warning this is a dangerous territory to be starting to exempt groups. i think the better result is to fix sequestration as we have talked about. that definitely needs to be done and that will get us past that. gentlelady from c

mr. kaufman, mr. kaufman votes no. ms. gabbart. ms. gabbart votes aye. mr. gibson. mr. gibson votes no. mr. walls. mr. walls votes no. ms. hartzler. ms. hartzler votes no. mr. o'rourke. mr. o'rourke votes aye. dr. heck. dr. heck votes no. mr. norcross. mr. norcross votes aye. mr. scott. mr. scott votes no. mr. gieggo. aye. mr. brooks. mr. brooks votes no. mr. takei. mr. takei votes aye. mr. nugent. mr. nugent votes no. ms. graham. ms. graham votes no. mr. cook. mr. cook votes no. mr. ashford. mr. ashford votes no. mr. briden stein votes no. mr. moulten. mr. moulten votes aye. dr. winstrip votes no. mr. aguilar. no. mr. burn. mr. burn votes no. mr. graves. mr. graves votes no. mr. zincy. mr. zincy votes no. ms. stuphonic. no. ms. mcsally. ms. mcsally votes no. mr. knight. mr. knight votes no. mr. mcarthur. mr. mcarthur? mr. russell. mr. russell votes no. mr. rogers? mr. rogers votes no. mr. schuster. mr. hunter. mr. hunter votes no. mr. mcarthur? >> clerk will report the tally. >> 20 aye votes. 41 no votes. >> the amendment is not adopted. if there are no further amendme

mr. huelskamp: thirdly, going back two years, and i'm looking at a statement from mr. sloan gibson in june, 2014. here's the statement. in phoenix we initiated the process to remove senior leaders. as i understand today, a number of those senior leaders are either still on paid leave or have not been removed. particularly the chief of staff darren daring. is that the case, it's taken two years and mr. gibson has yet to fulfill that process and end the process that they were covering secret waiting lists that harmed up to 20 veterans? secretary shulkin: yeah. i believe approximately 30 days ago mr. gibson did make a disciplinary decision on all three individuals. that decision was removal. they are each in their own process of due process. dr. daring is a title 38 employee so he has a shorter period of time in which to do that. the other two are title 5 employees which as we know we talked about as part of the accountability act takes longer. mr. huelskamp: so june 5 of 2014, the promise is made public, cnn, we're going to take care of this. as we sit here today, april

gibson: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to pay tribute to the life of sean patrick french and the tremendous community organization that has started to honor his life on its 15th anniversary. sean was an amazing kid. a friend to all. a community volunteer. honor roll students and record-breaking athlete at chatham high school. his father described him as someone who never walked anywhere. his mother told the story about him running laps at age 8. at chatham high school he was a standout both athletically and member of the school community. but tragically at age 17 he lost his life as a passenger in a drunk driving crash on new year's day in 2002. days after sean's death, the community rallied around his family and organized a 100-person strong run from the high school to the memorial on route 203. his family and friends, some of whom are with us in the gallery today, use this inspiration to preserve sean's legacy. they ask themselves, what can we do as a community to help kids make better choices? and sean's ru

i believe apronproximately 30 ys ago, mr. gibson did make a decision on all three individuals. that decision was removal. they were each in their process of due process. he has a shorter period of time in which to do that. the other two are title 5 employees. we talked about as part of the accountability act. >> so june 5th of 2014. the promises made public. cnn. we're going to take care of this. as we sit here today, april 19th, still not completed the process to take care of someone and get them out of harming our veterans. mr. shulkin, i ask you to pass on to your superiors. for some reason, the senate's still sitting on it. this is absolutely outrageous. whether it's puerto rico, since net or phoenix. still almost two years later. and we can't get rid of the folks that have harmed our veterans. they all laugh. they've lost all respect within the veterans community. and so we hear these numbers and appreciate -- and i didn't get time to ask question because i've gone over but i understand we've had 58 cases referred to the department of justice for possible criminal charges.

. >> mr. gibson. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank the gentleman for understanding concerns and i would like to support what the chairman stated moments ago. personally i think that we need to go much further when it comes to this reform. the moving towards consolidating headquarters are too top heavy right now. icon candidly we need to prioritize and meet leadership to do that and so i support the direction that we are going and i respectfully ask for members to oppose this amendment and i thank you, mr. chairman. >> are there any further questions? >> thank you, mr. chairman. there is a difference between section 909 and 910. 909 is about readiness. it allows a returning unit cannot be assigned to a cocom because it gives flexibility if they want to be assigned to a different unit and that is important. i agree with the gentleman from new york. we have talked about what has changed in battle, who is calling the shots and the authorities. the following of operations was six lines. the last operation is over 5000 diffe

. >> this morning perry's lawyers, mr. mcgill, mr. olson from gibson dunn, they're together, and, of course, the government will be in front of the d.c. court of appeals making a case looking for an order that will come from the court, they hope, that vacates that third amendment. they should get a ruling let's call it anywhere from six weeks to nine week, something like that. a fascinating story that continues to be followed closely. a lot of twitter traffic earlier in the week when the documents became unsealed and therefore were allowed to be in the public realm as will the arguments today. >> preferred or -- >> that's what perry holds. it's also what berkowitz and fairhome -- where trials were being used are going to be useful, they believe, and then you've got ackman in a lot of the common and some prefer. but, jim, if the d.c. court were to rule in perry's favor, all of the -- all the equity related to these gscs would go up as they did this week when we at least saw these documents for the first time. >> i want to caution peopl

i'm reena ninan. >> and i'm kendis gibson. here are some of the top headlines we're following on this tuesday morning on "world news now." >> well, there is growing anger over the so-called panama papers the leaked document that detail secret financial dealings. thousands calling for the prime minister's resignation because of his secret financial dealings. he's not the only one being named. details straight ahead. >> investigators in tennessee searching for clues after a sight seeing an helicopter crashed near great smoky mountains national park. up an five on board were killed. the chopper was destroyed by fire. >> the governors of new york and california have signed laws that will eventually increase the minimum wage in their states to $15 an hour. >> and with a last second three-pointer, you got to see it. >> gives it to jenkins for the championship. >> the villanova wildcats beat north carolina last night to become the new champions of the men's college basketball. it's the school's second ever, ever national title. the f