they don't hear the stories about how if you rebuild water-retentive landscapes, if you've created a desert, if you bring in the technologies and the techniques we know and if you put people to work rebuilding and refurbishing the watersheds, the rain comes back. it's absolutely miraculous. i mean, there are so many wonderful examples of where we've done this. the key components of this are absolutely at the heart of it. would be watershed protection, conservation and restoration. we have to stop destroying our water systems. we have to repair those that have been hurt. national and international projects to replenish water-retentive landscapes, i'm working with a wonderful scientists named michael in slovakia. he had a lot of land that had been destroyed by bad farming practices, by old, bad industrial dumping and so on. and he's -- he convinced many municipalities and their own federal government to allow a project where they put thousands of people to work rebuilding the kinds of small berms and dams, water retention, water collection, rainwater collection and so on. and they have

we've got one airline who has first-year signing bonus and a retention bonus that effectively raises their starting salary to higher than some mainline airlines. yet, that airline in particular is unable to fill its new hire classes right now. when i hear this is just an economic model i think economics play a role there and that's part of it but we need to look beyond that. and we need to develop the pilot pipeline and restore it and keep it seamless. >> okay. well thank you. i only have half a minute remaining. ms. gilligan i think i'll just submit a question on the record for you. about the contract tower program and

if we do i mean, more engaged employees, higher retention of our customers, a sustainable top line, a growing bottom line. we all win in that equation. our customers do first and our shareholders do next. we're shareholders. that's where we ought to win. >> okay. i think that may be the rousing note on which to end it. it's been terrific to have mark with us today. it's been terrific to have this dialogue between the active leadership and the intellectual background, which mark has kindly encouraged and put in the time to let us have. obviously these are issues where etna and mark are going to be continuing to set an example and push and they're going to be issues we here are going to be continuing to research and push. maybe there is a higher equilibrium we can all get to, which is all an economist can ever hope for. you can hope for share growth, and we can hope for equilibrium. this meeting's adjourned. [ applause ] >> with congress out this week, we're featuring american history tv in primetime. tonight a seminar on the closing of the civil war in 1865. at 8:00, the battles of sai

they're doing that, if they feel that they're just processing numbers, the difficulty in recruiting and retention is going to continue, which means that our backlog is going to continue. >> we agree with you entirely. this is why we're all doing this. it's not because of the stock options you get. you know we're doing this because of the inspirational mission that we have for caring for those who have protected us. >> and we can't ever lose sight of that. >> we can't. it's more than numbers, it's the picture of the gentleman behind you. every one of those we feel it's exactly the reason i gave out my cell phone number during the first national press conference in september, and i take calls every single day from veterans, and i listen to them because you've got to keep that visceral empathy of what we're trying to do. it's all very personal. >> well thank you for your dedication. thank you, mr. chairman, and i questions that i'll submit to the record. >> thank you mr. chairman. also secretary thank you for being here today. appreciate it. i've visited with you before about legislation that i've p

we talk about the loss and what the potential changes to retirement may do on recruitment for retention. the numbers don't lie. in the enlisted ranks about 70% of those who enlist leave the service at the six-year mark. in the officer ranks, about 60% are gone at the ten-year mark. so the 20-year cliff vesting program is not something that's keeping those actively serving to any great degree in the service. as the chairman stated 83% of enlisted personnel leave without any retirement and 51% of officers leave without any retirement because they don't serve until 20. so, again, just for the sake of clarification, what we're trying to do is tell dod to come forward with an implementation plan for the recommendations as amended by us from the commission, as amended. come back march of next year with their implementation plan. gives us plenty of finaltime for those who go out on what the currently serving members on what they think the impact will be on future additions to the maililitary military. concerns they might have that we can then address in ndaa next year so we can move forward wi

awaiting their findings, furthermore, we need to do more to find creative solutions to the recruitment and retention problem facing the medical community in rural clinics. that is not something solely a v.a. problem but i believe that it is an area that v.a. can take a leadership role to address. based on the budget requirements and the vha's experience, which would be the best way, and this has been mentioned by several questioners here and some of your answers. which would be the best way to improve access to quality care and expanded fee for service program? or a program which aims to recruit and retain rural physicians and nurses at rural and which helps to expand telehealth? and which would be the most cost-effective way for the american taxpayer? >> well sir, i think we need to do both. a combination of v.a. care and community care, working together in a network to make sure our veterans get the care they want. i'd like to briefly comment on your chart. >> please. >> i think if you back the time period up, you'd see a more dramatic decline in the claims backlog, and also -- >> go back a couple

we've got one airline who has first year signing bonuses and a retention bonus that effectively raising their starting salary to higher than some mineainline airlines, and yet that airline in particular is unable to fill its new hire classes right now. so when i hear that this is just an economic model, i think that economics play a role there and that's part of it but we need to look beyond that, and we need to develop the pilot pipeline and restore it and keep it seamless. >> okay. well thank you. i only have half a minute remaining. miss gilligan i think i will just submit a question on the record for you about the contract tower program and stress that the senate and house continue to strongly support the faa contract tower program on a bipartisan basis and request you to comment on the record about any recommendations faa may have for reauthorization bill to ensure that this program is enhanced and protected. thank you. >> thank you, senator. i think certainly after our hearing last week, it's important. i look forward to the answer to senator wicker's question. thank you. and now

customer retention, customer satisfaction. our industry currently today has a net promoter score that's higher than congress but lower than cable companies and airlines. not a great place to be. so what can we do to improve the net promoter scores in the way that people feel about our relationship with our customers. if we can get to this point where credibility trust and holistic matters with and they stay with us as an organization, then we've done a lot to improve and make the $26 million a worthwhile investment. we put those all on the spreadsheet and put the credibility factors next to each of them and said what do we need to believe in the way of risk factors. and risk that allows us as the leadership team to take this risk and make this investment. so our view is that company can invest in their employees. we need some changes in economic policy and tax policy. because if we invest in our 0 employees versus a machine and expense all our machine investment, our machines go out for five years, get depreciated and we then

negative impact of low employee engagement and satisfaction in employment productivity, agency mission retention of valuable employees and recruitment of the next generation. we especially need to be mindful of the long-term negative effects on the service the federal government provides to the american people. because ultimately that's what we're going to be focused on. last march i joined with ranking members cummings and lynch in requesting that gao conduct a study of federal engagement trends, as well as potential root causes. we asked gao to provide recommendations for improving workforce morale. i know the gao is completing that study and is here to testify about some preliminary findings, and i welcome mr. goldenkoff to the table. i understand the national archives and records administration, the department of homeland security and chemical safety and hazard investigation board have ranked poorly in the use surveys. this hearing offers us an opportunity to discuss their particular challenges, and the steps they're taking to address them. so it's also important to note many federal agencie

gibson but what is important to note here is that you can have great harm come to retention and recruiting if something does not get you past the ten-year point and you have skill sets that if they walk after years of investment and millions of dollars worth of training, then we have lost them, and i know that there are a handful of us i see the retired sergeant major nodding his head on many of these points because we do understand this, and all this is asking -- this is not asking to throw a wrench in the works. it's not asking to alter the time line or kick the can down the road but it is asking to have a report, to get a chance to address some of these issues in consultation with those of us and others or whoever might be able to shed some additional light that we have not heard from the panel. we've not heard from the members. we've not heard from the voss. when i listen to many of the vsos, there was only one out of seven of them present that was even a retiree to get at some of these issues and i think that's very important to bring that broadly because it will impact so many. so i

. [ applause ] >>> internal revenue service john koskinen will give an up update including employee retention and budget cuts. live coverage from the brookings institution starts this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. on c-span. >>> each night this week at 9:00 p.m. eastern conversations with a few new members of congress. >> as a result, i try to stay disciplined in my message in a a football sense i try to stay between the hash marks. i understand that i represent everyone in montana. montana is one congressman. i represent not only the republican side, but i represent the democrat side independent side, tea party side union side, i represent everyone in montana. and i think if we take that value set forward congress represents america. it's true to articulate the values and the needs, the desires of your district, but the purpose is to make america better. >> five newest members of congress talk about their careers and personal lives and share insight about how things work on capitol hill. join us for all their conversations each night at 9:00 can eastern on c-span. >>> with live coverage of the u.s.

. >> irs commissioner john koskinen will give an update about the irs including employment retention and cuts. that starts this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. on c-span. >>> this sunday on q&a senior editor and the gop candidacy. >> they want somebody who looks like he's stood up for them. i'm amazed now to the degree to which primary voters on both sides are motivated by resentment. and the sense of being put-upon. and those people really don't understand us. and here is a guy who does understand us and he's going to stick it to them. and that happens on both sides. hillary clinton will give her own version of that kind of thing. and i don't think that was true 30 years ago. i mean resentment has always been part of politics obviously. but the degree to which it is almost exclusively the motivating factor in truly committed republicans and democrats. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern and 7:00 p.m. pacific on c-span's c-span's. >> up next a conversation on worker wages and corporations about the economy. from the peterson institute this is 90 minutes. >> well, good morning, everyone. and welco

then they try to add others that are kind of arctic specific, control cultural identity or language retention things important particularly to people in the arctic. so to conclude, in has been a lot of research on health and health well being of indigenous people. previous speakers talked about this in the chapter and the report talks about that. there's been a number of different research intervention efforts underway to improve the health and well being of people in the arctic. one of the takeaway messages in the report is that there has been considerable improvement in a lot of areas of health. i pointed out life expectancy and others. but there are issues health issues in the arctic that remain rather intractable. when i showed them about suicide and tb and some others, some sexually transmitted diseases and domestic violence, just don't really show any sign of improvement i think in the report talks about the warming climate and how this may impact water, food security, certainly some infectious diseases and things like that. lastly, senator murkowski talked about the importance of educa