tv Capital News Today CSPAN April 30, 2010 11:00pm-1:59am EDT
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s that for the free guaranteed ride home program. if you take a look at the nationals, infield tonight a familiar face back at third base. ian desmond the shortstop was asked earlier tonight, a few minutes ago down down at the clubhouse what is it like having ryan back in the lineup again. >> remainan zimmerman back in the lineup? >> ryan who in. >> it was awesome. the guy is unbelievable. to come off of the bench after how many game and hit two home run and a double and looked like he never missed a beat. pretty impressive. >> nyjer morgan, the catch of the game, catch of the months. >> he's unbelievable also. when the game is moving at the correct pace, everybody can be better at their position. the pitchers were pitching unbelievable. the bullpen was striking people out and getting ground balls. keeping us in the game. tonight we got struck out 15 time and still scored seven runs, eight runs. we beat them pretty bad and
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it's pretty good combo we've got going offense and defense. >> you also finished the month april with 13 games, three games over .500. that has to make you feel pretty good. >> it goes to show that hard work and spring training and believing in yourselves you we can compete with anybody. >> nobody competes higher than nyjer morgan at centerfield. remember when he came to the ball club last is year he said nobody gets a hit in morgantown. watch this catch. great jump. and extended totally. he has struggled a little bit this year because he's been in between on balls that are been in front of him and you just have to play by instincts out there. he has great baseball instincts and i think that he was thinking a little bit. i talked to jim riggleman about it. >> instead of reacting? >> instead of reacting. i think he was thinking because there was several balls that he broke for and stopped and a couple got buy him nominee thousand no doubt that this man has the speed and instincts and
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the quickness and great hands to be a plus, plus centerfielder and he hasn't played this well as well as he did last year but he's beginning to play the way that he did and a lot of that has to do with expectation. once you see a guy play as well as he did, you expect it everyday. when he does make a mistake, you kind of think about it too much. >> kind of like you -- got to get that baby together. >> scott olsen tonight gets the win against his old teammates. first time he's beaten his former ball club. when the fox and i return. nationals win it 7-1 over florida.
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7-1 the final in south florida. the falls take game one in the three game series. scott olsen gone 13 consecutive scoreless. he was asked how did you evaluate your performance? >> it was all right. it was a battle the first two innings. we couldn't really find the slider for a strike and then we just threw a lot of pitches. kind of prevented me from going later in the game in the first two innings but after that we settled down pretty good and everything after that was in the zone, right when we want to be. >> was that the key keeping the ball down in the zone? >> it's the key to everybody. i don't throw hard enough to throw by people. i have to be in the zone all of of the time and be able to throw strikes when i'm behind in the count. we were able to do ta today and
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their offense came through and did fantastic i think it really gabe us a jolt. >> how about nyjer morgan with that catch. >> unbelievable catch. our defense was one of the things we had to improve on and he was the start of it. he's been spectacular out there for all of the pitchers and you feel really comfortable with the defense we have right now and the way they're playing. >> i know it's only one month but do you feel pretty good having 13 wins in the month of april and being three games over .500 now? >> it's pretty early. it's a good month. that's kind of how you look at it. it's just a month. we've got four, or five more to go. we just need to maintain this and even get better. there's still room for improvement. >> thanks, scott. >> does it make any difference. a win is a win. >> i would belying to you if i told you it didn't mean a little bit more. the effect of being traded and all of that it worn off.
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it was nice to finally beat them. >> what's the different emotion. how do you describe kind of what -- >> i pitched okay against them last year. two or three times but we weren't able to pull it out. it's nice to pitch well against people that you play with and people you know. it's a little bit nicer but it's still just another win. >> you've done well these past few starts, one common alley of why you are pitching well in. >> being ahead in the count. that was a struggle early on today in the first couple innings. we weren't ahead. we were 1-0, 2-0 in, 3-1, to a lot of guys early on in the game and i just can't pitch like that. and these last two games we've been ahead in the count and we're down in the zone and it's working out. so i'm going to try to keep this groove and keep it as long
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as possible. >> and tomorrow night the nationals craig stammen tries to win the winning streak. followed by volstad. volstad has been a guy who hasn't pitched well against this ball club. throws pretty good but our matchup we're going to get him first round pitch and craig stammen coming off of two solid outings where we went 8 innings and has not walked but two batters all season long as he's thrown 27ings. that's our nats extra post game. the nationals take the gail 7- 1. for ray knight, i'm johnny holliday. we'll see you tomorrow night at 6:30 you... uhh... was it rather old and wrinkly? yeah, you saw it?
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fear the deer. bucks, a chance to close out the hawks in game six of their first round playoff steries. jerry stackhouse singing the the national anthem prior to the game. you like that? jamal crawford, sixth man of the year and actually played like it in this one the the score was 34-31 at half, the bucks by three. it was not pretty basketball the first 24 minutes and it got worse for the bucks in the second half. there bibby gets one to go as the shot clock expires. hawks up five. here goes smith. got that to go. atlanta up seven on part of a
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19-0 run. who's going to cap it in johnson. see, the bucks had 34 at the half but they've got 36 now and the hawks blowing them out as they head to the fourth quarter. atlanta up 18. hawks outscoring the bucks 29-11 in the third quarter. miserable bucks in front of the whole city, the whole state. latched on to this one, waiting for them to win a playoff series. not going to happen. stack knocking down the three and the harm. he'd make the free throw. single lidgities at down to nine. four minutes to go, the hawks have nine. crawford drives, lays it in. hawks eadsly, 83-69. game seven sunday in atlanta. hawks win a road playoff game
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for just the second time in their last 18 tries. they had stunk on room service. jamal crawford, he has a game high 24. that's good. game seven coming but not until game six comments, thoughts, opinions. >> we didn't want the season to end. you know, we weren't ready to go home for the summer. we got something special here. now we're getting back on track. going back for game seven. >> it's the first time we've been in this type of game and we didn't react near hi as well as we would have liked to have. that's for sure. now we're -- we've got to go down there and find a way to get another one. ? both teams were just grabbing and clawing and fighting to win a basketball game. now we can go home and play in
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front of our fans. >> neither the hawks or bucks have had much success in game sevens. interestingly, the hawks return all their starters from the 2009 first round against the heat. the bucks haven't been in a game seven since the 2001 finals against the 76ers. there should have been good carmr -- karma for the bucks because it's in 1971 on this date that they won their first and only nba championship. so much for that really. lebron james, the most valuable player, according to multiple reports. the vote wasn't even close. coming off his finest season in his seven-year career. james becomes the second youngest player behind only queem -- kareem abdul-jabbar to win back-to-back m.v.p. awards. he averaged just under 30 points per game.
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just the third player with those numbers in a single season. joining jim brown as the only cleveland athlete to win multiple m.v.p. honors. stunning first place mets off their 9-1 home stand taking on the phillies. jerry manuel. david price off kyle hendrick. fourth of the year. setting the tone. two batters later, jeff francoeur showing off his blast. into the seats. it's francoeur's fourth home run of the year. bottom second. nobody on. raul ibanez. francoeur, he used to play football. that helps. he into the wall, makes the catch. meanwhile, wow -- rod bra jas -- barajas adds to the
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punishment against the phils. six in 21 at-bats against his former team. mets have won eight in a row. they've taken it to another level during this win streak. the teamer has allowed homers at a noticeably decreased rate though seven of the eight games have been at citi field where like three people hilt home runs. braves-astros. atlanta, a nine-game losing jag which makes houston feel so much better about dropping eight to start the season. jerdjerd. like butter. well, butter that's been in the fridge. he swings it hard. hunter pence. mansala.
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bourn. heyward again swinging it. deep to right. hunt r pence has got it! don't do that in front of the home folks, they pay to see the rookie hit home runs. oh, well, all is well that ends well. >> i got company, matthew barnaby with me. one game in the stanley cup players tonight. the giant killer montreal canadiens. they took out alexander ovechkin and the canadiens and now took their can turn against sidney crosby and the defending champion pittsburgh penguins. crosby, ready to go. scary moment for the canadiens. their good big defenseman markov clears it then goes down hard to the ice the matt cook with a hard hit. is this clean? >> to me this is clean. you is just finishing your check. clean check, but always draws a
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crowd. >> penguins got a power may out tv and they would capitalize. already 1-1 with the extra man. ponikarovsky. scombroorn stahl gets it back. what is the difference between the penguins' power play and the capitals' ineffective power play against this team? >> first of all they had structure. i think a lot of it was because montreal was tired, unable to get through and back to where they were. and pittsburgh outworked the penalty kill where washington didn't >> look how sid crosby kept that lie -- play alive for cris letang. goligoski beats halak. the final with crosby getting two assists and mario lemieux happy. pittsburgh wins 6-3. you mentioned montreal tired,
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pittsburgh, six days' rest. it worked for them. >> it did especially on the power play. they only gave up, montreal, one power play goal in seven games. the best in the league. tonight they looked like a very fatigued group and pittsburgh took advantage of it. they were the better team, they deserved it. montreal will respond and be much better in game two. >> still not a lot of time to recover. game two is sunday afternoon in pittsburgh. thanks, matthew. >> thank you. tim tebow still wearing orange and blue but it's bronco gear, not gator stuff. getting his first workout at mini camp. got coached up plenty by coach josh mcdaniels. >> it's not really pressure. i just go out here and play football and i'm loving toing that. learning a great offense from great coaches. >> just improving, getting
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better on everything. the footwork, the drops. everything has been what i've been working out. i can't narrow it down, i got too many things to work on now. >> rams getting the rookies. sam bradford slinging it a little bit for st. louis. the number one selection overall got a playbook and appears to have, well, read it by the way he practiced today. >> i felt like i did a good job in the huddle and good job of taking control. it's a great learning experience for me getting a lot of good reps out there today. obviously i've got a lot to learn. i've only seen a very small portion of the playbook. all i know is i'm going to show up and try to help this team win. >> as for the other quarterbacks, colt mccoy at browns camp. right on target. crisply thrown but no deep balls with the media present.
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jimmy clausen going to packers mini -- panthers mini camp. coming up, what's gotten into paul konerko? into paul konerko? anoth - ( rock music playing ) - ♪ lights out... introducing bud light lime in cans. - ♪ shoot up the station... - the great taste of bud light lime - now goes wherever you need it to. - ♪ tv's dead ♪ where's there to run? darlin', don't got to worry ♪ - ♪ you're locked in tight - only the superior taste of bud light lime, with a refreshing splash of one hundred percent natural lime flavor, - puts you in the summer state of mind. - ♪ darlin' ♪ don't got to worry, you're locked in tight... ♪ one taste and you'll find the summer state of mind. - bud light lime. - ( vocalizes )
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jeff -- eat a snickers... please. why? every time you get hungry, you turn into a diva. a diva? yes, a diva. [ aretha ] okay. thank you. better? [ male announcer ] you're not you when you're hungry. better. [ male announcer ] snickers satisfies. coca-cola company and the chair of the global coca-cola foundation. and the two past honorees, the fearless marion wright edelman president and founder of the children's defense fund and master educator dr. johnetta cole to director of the smithsonian national museum of the national art and both dr. johnetta and marion wright edelman are former award of the uncommon height of word award. [applause]
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>> the life and the surprising times of dorothy irene height who rose to uncommon heights and invited us to join her along the way. now every speech has a beginning, middle and end. i am going to do you all a favor and take the middle out of mind. so i will start at the beginning by offering congratulatory condolences to the families of dorothy irene height, the blood family, then we go out in concentric circles to the rest of the family, the delta sigma theta family, the national council of negro women family, and all of us who claim her because she did so much for us. but officially i am here to represent a corporate world that she called upon early and often
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to help and all of us couldn't speak tonight so on behalf of sears and general motors and chrysler and ford and hallmark and johnson & johnson and shell and bet and ups and essence and black enterprise and wal-mart and ups i'm representing them because all of corsi interpol and she called us early and often. [laughter] and we always said yes because she was doing the heavy lifting. she was doing god's work and all the we had to do was follow and we knew everything would be all right. so in closing let me just say
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that dorothy irene height helped us off hour game, each one of us when we were with her. she was on commonly concerned about all the fuss. in closing i will use my favorite quote from john henry clark and i know that irene dory irene height knew him. she said history is the clock people use to tell their time of day. it tells them who they are and what they are. it helps them find themselves on the map of human geography. those who live their lives well know that is what they do every day that writes the history of of tomorrow. dorothy irene height wrote a lot of history and allowed us to
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germany with her on the road. like you, i will miss our good friend. like you, corporate america, will miss her, too. [applause] >> we have heard a portrait of a great woman this evening. we have heard she never lost the common touch. i was so honored at the award because there isn't a common bone and dorothy height. she had an uncommon collection of hats and i have not worn a hat in 20 years but i have one on tonight. [laughter] she was always the best dressed woman in the room and bar none and i promised her i would buy a hat and i borrowed this one tonight. [laughter] [applause] she was uncommonly burly and
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with an uncommon photographic memory and sense of history and she could tell stories and she really was and i am grateful. she was the longest serving board member of the children's defense fund and i mean active board member and was an uncommonly wise leader and adviser and an uncommon friend. you could call her early and late and she would call you early and leave and she was always there when you need her. she was just m. uncommon friend and mentor and role model. she was in on common bridge builder between privileged women and less privileged women and black women for the women's movement and the children's movement, and i remember in the wednesdays' of mississippi and the president referred tonight with the housing project still down there in mississippi.
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they remember when she came to try to bring other privileged women to give fourth to the home and lots of other poor black women but she was a bridge builder and everybody remembers being brought together just as she brought them together but she was then on, and bridge builder. she was on commonly courageous and bold and so must we be uncommonly bold and this new era of new challenges to the community and to our children. she left us some pretty clear instructions about what we were to do and we have heard a lot of those instructions this evening but my favorite quote from her is when she said we african-american women seldom do just what we want to do but we always do what we have to do an she told us that if we don't save our children, nobody else is going to do eight so let's
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get about the business of saving our children from this cradle of pipeline that is sapping their energy and their future and she started the first john hope franklin summit at the howard university and the last one is wendi at harvard university tomorrow and then we are going to go to the next step but we need to do what she told us to do because she left us a legacy and an example of leadership and of courage. finish that legacy of making sure the children she wanted so much to have a future will get its and i hope you will remember her as a uncommon servant of god. my mama and daddy taught me the service of paid by lifting she paid her rent and all of our print and an extraordinary amount of rent for the children
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that need help. let's pay our rent and make sure that next generation gets what she gave us. god bless dorothy height. [applause] >> deer family of dr. dorothy irene height, and that includes her ever so special bader secretary alexis herman. my sisters and my brothers all with so little time to pay tribute to the long life and the amazing and graceful work of dr. dorothy irene height, let me simply give a voice to praises the offer glimpses of who
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dr. height was and always will be for me and countless women, men, and children and our communities, our nation, and our world. dr. height, the queen mother of a civil rights movement. dr. height, and iconic feminist who was an insistent voice on the race in the women's movement. dr. height, leader extraordinary of three white just women's organizations. the ymca, the national council of negro women and delta sigma
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theta sorority dewey de dr. height love to those organizations like the devil who loves sin. [laughter] and of course, dr. height, the bearer of the torch from dr. mary mcleod bethune. dr. height, our shero. but for me, words that wonderfully kafta dr. height are words that yet another one of my sheros just used. marion wright edelman spoke of dr. height as a woman of uncommon. there is something else about the on comparable dorothy height
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and it is this, that she challenged each of us to strive towards uncommon greatness. she urged each of us must sore to the height of our possibilities. but, dr. height warned us that no matter how high each of us might soar we will never have done enough if we do not then turn and help somebody. so let us say it again and again but more urgently let us do what is called for in the mighty words of dr. mary mcleod bethune
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, words that ordered every step of dr. irene height'g and purpose filled life. let us climb, my sisters and brothers but let us remember to lift others as we climb. and finally let us take comfort in words of an african proverb no one dies as long as they are remembered. dr. dorothy irene height, you will never be forgotten. [applause] estimate that is the path to make sure that dr. dorothy is
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never forgotten and we are almost there. i just want a few women to stand as we come to the end of the program, near the end, just know dr. height would want me to hold melanie campbell is melody in the house? melanie campbell. the executive director of the national coalition on black six participation and also the computer of the black women's roundtable brought us together always with dr. height at the center. the woman whose round table are in the house please stand and let us acknowledge you. there we are. [applause] black women and leadership standing strong and firm. and dr. mveaux of the college for women. are you in the house still? there you are. dr. barbara skinner always the worker. i've got your notes and your order. i will be there. thank you, dr. barbara of. and let me introduce to you a
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[applause] [applause] >> now, joe coleman [inaudible] thank you so much. [applause] thank you. i want to bring before you a woman who i love and admire so, and it was diane watson who stood strongly for dr. height receiving the congressional medal of honor. she's the one who pushed it through. please welcome congressman diane watson. [applause] >> i, too, looked in my closet and looked upon the shelf. i live in los angeles, that is where my hat's our bill i found
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this one. it might be caught the wrong way. i don't know. i just threw it on my head for the leedy. and my purple, too. there is so much to honor and let me tell you this, my grandmother's mother was the slave masters child. so my grandmother got the education because at that time and, you know, your way out was education. and she talked to me about mary mcleod bethune, mrs. roosevelt, and marcus garvey. they always wanted to go back to africa. but it was mary mcleod bethune that passed the mantle of leadership to dorothy height h19. and so, because -- and i must've
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been three or four years of -- when i came here to congress, i came on a mission. and i knew that in my her freshman year i had to honor this great lady upon his shoulders i stand on and all of my colleagues. and so it was my honor to ensure that our own hero receive one of the highest honors our country can bestow. but i did not do it alone. i did it along with the members of the house and the senate. and as i was working to get the signatures necessary i would slide in net next to those on the other side of the aisle. and i said i am carrying a gold medal for dorothy height. who is dorothy height? malae represent hollywood, so i went into and i said you don't
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know who dorothy height ase? i would whisper in their years. i said don't let anyone know that you do not know who dorothy height is. [applause] they would lean over and i would lean in and i said she proceeded rosa parks. my goodness. and mary mcleod bethune chose her to carry her legacy because mary mcleod bethune started the first college for college girls and negro women. where can i signed? and we got the appropriate signatures. so i want you to know we must always tell our history because we come off of a continent where our history was always oral.
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so as we leave this place tonight and leave the church tomorrows let's let those living in now and those yet unborn know that dorothy height lived and loved and served among us. dorothy, we will see you soon. god bless you. [applause] >> before we bring you the beloved alexis herman people a year from the council of negro women so please begin to make your way to the podium, dr. schorr. please come up. and are you still here? if she's not, tell her we call her name. she has been working so hard with alexis on the program, donner who was just feeding us the information about so many of
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the things that dr. dorothy had done that were buried in the archives and donna unearthed them. please come forward, dr. shore. [applause] >> good evening. i am barbara shaw and by vice president -- and sorry, vice chair of the council of negro women, and that was elected by our national board as the interim chair person, a position i would rather our mother, our beloved leaders still carry for us. but god in his infinite power decided was time to call home his child. so on behalf of the board, the national board of directors, it
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is my pleasure to greet this marvelous family, the affiliate's members and we also greet all of our sponsors, all of our partners, and we say thank you for what you have done through the years for the national council negro women. we will continue to carry the legacy. at this time i would like to recognize, and i think it's so important for you to know that for the past almost a year where is she, dr. thelma daily, i want you to come up here. [applause]
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we have to acknowledge her. she is the senior advisor to the council and a member of the executive committee. she has generously given up her time and her talent. down through the years but especially during these challenging times she has taken the council in the direction dr. height would have her do it under dr. height's direction. and now that dr. height has gone to the great beyond the doctor daily along with myself and the members of the governor's committee and the executive board would continue the work of the council. we thank you for your support and asked you continue to pray
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that you will support us in our 75th year please pass forward the envelopes that you have. [applause] and i want to say i love the title that was given in the program but i do not hold a ph.d. but a degree in another area. thank you very much for your kindness. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. we are coming to the end of this amazing gathering attribute and a gift of love to the spirit of dr. dorothy irene height and we are going to ask everybody to please just be still for a moment as we bring up alexis herman and we want a family to exit before any of us do and please, please remember you know
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that even in the good times dr. dorothy had to struggle for money. who steps up as we should for black women we must step up. i'm going to ask you please make sure you have envelopes and that he feels the envelopes with whatever you can and if you don't have cash or a check to night that he would call the national council and make a donation with your credit card. this is the work that we must do. we must sustain the movement, elevate and move it forward. so i bring to you alexis herman, the honorable alexis herman whose vision and power and hard work laid to this amazing attribute to night. putting this together in such short time and something that is beyond any of our ability to really understand. and we know that dr. dorothy loved her as her daughter and
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men did you for nearly 40 years. so we called you fourth, alexis. alexis herman, the u.s. department of labor secretary. secretary of the u.s. department of labor, that was one of the proudest moments i think in all of our lives. thank you for all that you do and for all that you've done. thank you, alexis herman, for supporting dr. dorothy so magnificently. and hspirit and dr. dorothy did leave you alone with your beautiful partners, charles. stand and let people see you, alexis's wonderful and beautiful husband. [applause] please, come and greet us. >> good evening. i really have no closing remarks
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tonight. i only wanted to come here tonight to say thank you. i want to say this before on behalf of dorothy's sister and on behalf of the council family come to each of you for being here and for staying, and you are right we are ending exactly the way that dorothy probably would have ended a program tonight. i want to thank you, susan, for guiding us through this magnificent evening of song and tribute. so very special and we love you so much. [applause] i want to thank lea dewitt don't know if she is still in the house that we had terrific volunteer team that can together
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this entire week including the memorial celebration tomorrow at the cathedral. rather than closing remarks, we should end dorothy height's style tonight with a closing song. so as you journey safely home tonight, and as we see you for the home ongoingelebration tomorrow let us stand and sing dorothy's song. >> we all know the song. here we go. ♪ let me call you sweetheart ♪ hauer i love ♪ ♪
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ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. corker: thank you. mr. president, i know there will mr. president, i know there will >> said it is my hope and i know the senator from virginia and i worked on a number of issues together in order to create the bill we think is solid to stand the test of time we hope that spirit continues on. one of the things many
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members have been talking about on the floor is the size of the institutions we have in this country. there has been some movement to arbitrarily decide what the institution ought to be. i think everybody is frustrated by what occurred a couple of years ago a lot of ideas to try to prevent the same types of things that occurred a couple of years ago even one year ago from happening again. what i help people keep in mind is the reason our large financial institutions are the size that they are is because we have companies in this country that need a large institutions in order to be competitive pressure are like to start with the fact that obviously would you are a large company in this country what you want to ensure is you have a financial institution that
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covers the entire geographic map of our country to be able to do business in every state in this country that is easy and allows you to do what you do in a competitive way than we have to remember especially as we continue to talk about other countries in the tremendous growth and china and other places we lived in a global environment and mr. president, and that global environment, some of the great companies founded here in this country need the ability to operate around the world to do so in no way that continues to create great american jobs. we need to have a banking system in this country where we have institutions that have the ability to our country then we need the ability for the institutions
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also to compete on a global basis. what that means is we have highly complex institutions that can do all of the things necessary for these companies to compete pry help us they look at the arbitrary down sides as they look at the lines of business that banks candor cannot be involved in that they take into account of the 10 largest financial institutions in the world, the top five financial institutions in the world, where our companies have to compete we have not to one bank. not to one in that category. here we have a large gross domestic product in the world the most competitive business environment and we do not have one institution that ranks of the top five of the world. would you take it on down to the top 10 we only have two
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financial institutions to banks that are in the top 10. i know there's a lot of optimism and it sounds really great then you'll take on wall street but we need to remember we may be taking on the heartland. companies across the country that depend upon the ability for instance if you are in indiana or ohio and making some product out of metal you probably want to know if you have a long-term contract to have the ability to hedge the risk of the metal going up and if you do with another country where we have a lot of shipment going there the ability to know if you are selling at for what you think is the u.s. dollar, it has currency swaps. what of the great things
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about america talk about the american dream is people in this country have the ability, like the senator, no better example. the senator from virginia had a dream and realized early on maybe $5,000 he may have lost the very quickly. then with small amounts of money to create a great company and did that over and over and over again. the reason he was able to do that, in this country we have the ability to bring capital together around on japan yours. you don't have to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth. i know i started exactly the same way with $8,000 when i was 25 years old. you have the ability to have a dream and to accumulate
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ways to build around the dream with capital formation that creates jobs. this debate is interesting in people can score political points it is great to take on wall street but what we have to be careful of is we are not cutting off our nose to spite hour face. what makes this country great is all the company's that people got up this morning and went to work and had an idea and built a company and employing people now all of us realize is the most important thing for all of us to care about that heads of households of the country have the ability to raise their children, pay for their education, do the kind of thing that improves our standard of living. i am a little concerned as i hear night after night after
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night people come to the floor to bash wall street, by the way things certainly need to be corrected and the senator from connecticut is trying to do that with portions of this bill and we have worked on portions of a bill that we hope will do that but two arbitrarily say we will create a system in this country of small banks, banks that don't have the ability to aid companies around the world so we as a country can be globally competitive, backed concerns me and i hope again in the name of political points we will stop much of this discussion and mr. president i hope we come to our sense is. i should not say that. that was a misstatement. everybody has opinions. i hope we look at the end result of our actions and
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what that may mean to the good people to work hard and depend upon those people who were willing to take risk for their families to put food on the table and educate the kids to live a life in america we can be proud of. i see the senator of connecticut nobody is on the floor. i will talk for a second. this is probably the second longest speech i have never given on the floor i will yield. >> i am glad to see my colleague from tennessee, and not a thing he has just said that i disagree with. i agree with everything he just said and i hope that mentality will prevail in the coming weaker to we're engaged in this discussion prepare reading an article the other day that he was making that the 50 largest banks in the world, four of
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them are located in the united states, five located in our neighbors to the north with a much smaller economy and country and did not suffer any difficulties that we have gone through the last couple years during the economic crisis. it was not not working beautifully but in those structures we have had year despite the fact one of those 50 largest banks have more than redo in that category of course, we don't always agree with "the new york times" has written about this as well i don't know if my colleague has seen this. but it may be one way to look at this but really it is a question of whether or not there is proper regulation, capital requirements, liquidity these of the factors to keep an eye on because it can
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become a problem but it may not be the only issue but a vote institution engaging in the marketing of products to put the system at risk. we need to focus on the issues. this is what we tried to do and my compliments to the presiding officer from tennessee we spent a lot of time talking about what was then this bill is not exactly everything we want but it is 9195% and i hope in the coming-- nobody does any underlying damage but i want to pick up on the second point* that i think is very important. i said the three goals i have been this bill, one is to try to close the gaps with the economy that went wild and caused so much
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difficulty is our country has been going through. so we can recognize it is not our job to regulate. two things we don't do very all this stage very well is that accounting standards and right regulation. that is not within our pay grade. we focus on the institutions that have the responsibility but i want to plug in those companies but a second to say we can create, there's always some danger but i commend both of my advocates make macaulay's as advocates the early warning the a deal with a series to have a different perspective to keep an eye out for the greece or the shanghai because we live in that global economy my colleague from tennessee has just
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articulated. it will come maybe long after all of us because there will be another economic crisis someplace. do we identify it early enough before it metastasizes into the rest of the economy or globally? downgrading of their debt to causing the euro decline and it finds itself once again on the precipice of the economic disaster spilling to the rest of the world. the second point* of the bill. the third point* is equally important to make sure and our determination to satisfy point* one and point to we don't end of strangling the financial system so the creativity and innovation and flow of credit capital critical for job creation and wealth creation are created that is a very difficult sense of balance to maintain. nobody has gotten it
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absolutely right but to make sure we satisfy the first two while simultaneously not to making sure we don't make it more difficult for that kind of innovation or creativity. the senator from virginia and tennessee and many others they had determination, idea, imagina tion to create an idea that puts people to work to solve problems, a medical device our prescription drug to create a new widget how we function as a country all sorts of ideas, the wellspring of what made us a unique such a unique place in the world but before we begin the fall amendment process i will repeat this as many times as i can.
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obviously there is debates whether or not we advance those goals and i believe honesty we will disagree how to do that and our job is the hardest in the world to speak of a former mayor to come out of the executive side of government with a body of 98 other people we're all coequal s to try to board job of a body such as this 100 people a clear decision of how to achieve those goals but that is a challenge to do that and again i am very grateful to both of you for the contributions you have made and they say that with complete sincerity with appreciation to the effort in this can be a good honest discussion and debate and see where it lies to
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filibuster not unlimited debate or unlimited time that during the next couple weeks to get focused in no way and not solve every problem and take on every imaginable institution in the country, but we think it focuses on the critical ones that are important for i appreciate my colleagues for sharing your thoughts and i agree with them. >> mr. president? >> i appreciate the comments from the senator from connecticut. i would just like to summarize the way i see things today. first of all, i would say i think last week or over the last short period of time, the lowest point* in my senate career of three
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years and four months hearing all the rhetoric on both sides of the i/o candidly on this bill and i continue to hear it unfortunately in the evenings on the floor but this is a serious issue and complex and a lot of substantive issues and the thing that frustrates me most about this body that has nothing to do about being a mayor or business person but the outlandish things people on both sides of the i/o can say to cut americans out so those who are busy raising their families, do what they do on a daily basis and what we do here is a long ways away and they hear pieces of it to divide up our country i hope we can focus on the facts and we will see if that occurs that would be the first of a long time if that occurs but i hope it does.
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mr. president, as i look at the bill on the too big to fail piece my senses a senator from connecticut will work with the senator of alabama and fix that. i have a feeling the managers' amendment is coming forth and there will be people on both sides think a resolution mechanism is not appropriate there will be abolished towards bankruptcy it is what we wanted to strength in big ways there are committee issues to keep that as happening but i hope we will do everything we can to strengthen the bankruptcy-law so the default position is to go into bankruptcy. that is the way our country works when a company fails but in some cases i do believe there is a resolution mechanism and the senator from connecticut and alabama will come to terms over the next several days to insure there are not
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those gaps. the administration gets involved and wants to create flexibility and i would want to do the same. i will take the power and we need to close the ups of the things that we intend to have been actually happened and my sense is that you will fix that over the weekend. we have the issue of the derivatives i think all of us want to see derivatives clear. there have been issues coming forth under the agricultural committee that i think is something i friends on the other side of the aisle will figure how to solve i look forward to the debate you have that will be humorous to watch. but that have the senator from connecticut and arkansas will figure out how
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to get that back and of the derivatives issue, my sense is we will get to a place that probably works. i know judd gregg is a really smart guy and jack reed both smart from both sides of the i/o that some point* they will bear some if through to in saxby chambliss and blanche lincoln but at the end of the day i think we know the issue will probably divide this group if we don't work it out. that is the consumer protection piece. i want to see consumer protection take place. i know the senator from connecticut knows i was serious about trying to resolve the issue in march. it is my hope of that we can come to terms of that. it is my hope we can create an appropriate balance so it
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is in balance with a regulation for people who do not do that on a regular basis to make sure the banking system is safe and sound and the institutions are not at this for those kinds of things but hopefully we can get that in balance i don't know the senator from connecticut wants to speak to this but it has a lot of people concerned as an agency is written today they don't have appropriate checks and balances with the wrong type of leadership over time them possibly i hope over the course of the debate we have the ability to achieve that
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balance where people across the country wake up on a daily basis not directly involved in the financial industry have no fears to reach out becoming an necessarily involved but i know the senator from connecticut recognizes that. i will digress slightly with canada a much smaller gdp one of the reasons they did not get into the same difficulties we had is they have underwriting mechanisms that determine what is appropriate for people to do as it relates to borrowing for the home. there underwriting standards are very different and the senator has 5% with securitization i have a different approach and what to feel they wheat should
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not be securitizing loans in the first place to people who cannot pay them back all the way to get the base of the issue and who we can merge with the senator from connecticut has proposed maybe some real underwriting so when the loans are written in the first place we make sure they are written in such a way people who love taken out the mortgages are taken out and canada have almost no issues whatsoever because they have a different underwriting standards. i know we don't want to be prescriptive in this body but i would hope the senator from virginia or connecticut and all of us could sit down and figure out a way to address that candidly it is
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hard for me to believe we have bay financial regulation will but as the senator from connecticut says we cannot deal with everything we have to come back and deal with fannie and freddie i think all of us would like to deal with that now we have to buy the apple to deal with those issues when it is taken up the back to consumer protection, i think as a body we have a chance to pass something about that is a serious piece of the legislation that a lot of thought has gone into and have taken place we have a
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chance with potentially overwhelming if we can figure out a way on the consumer protection piece to come together. i think the senator from connecticut knows both republicans like to be on that issue and if you look at a 10 scale where they would like to be as an aide for what four people who consider protection is the issue instead of score political points and save you vote against this bill you the overall three which is ludicrous i have to tell you every tuesday it is called tennessee tuesday people come up senator alexander and i agree to people from tennessee there
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is no wall street bankers. and credit unions a community bankers those of the pope's most of us care about. as it relates to constituents in our state and these provisions are the things that scare them the most about what that might become down the road. if you are with us you are against wall street but at some point* with the life and adventures afloat and a time when these negotiations take place in a serious way but instead of dividing the body of the issue we all care about we hope it will unite the body by figuring out a way to merge the issue of the two more fully
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prepared realize there is a bill can pass with a 62 vote margin. that is possible there will be a couple of votes that might have different sensibilities about particular issues. but mr. president as a tribute to the senator from connecticut who has been here many years and is leaving his body at the end of this term, i hope we have no way to come together on this one issue that ultimately has the potential to have legislation maybe it does not even leave because it is so divisive that i don't think this country respects much. i think they are over that end like to see us work in a
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way. mr. president i'm getting ready to yield the floor but i think the senator from virginia and connecticut and i hope that within this body we will do something that seeks the appropriate balance to do something that truly is bipartisan compromise to stand the test of time. i yield the floor. >> >> again i want to thank my friend from tennessee i don't want to address each and every point* of make a couple of suggestions. for most people many have long since left the timber since i arrived in 1981 but i believe people believe that. i have never chaired a committee before 36 months ago despite being here 36
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years a lot of people have longevity politically and health why so i had a wonderful experience being a junior member almost my entire experience then became chairman of a major committee for the first time it was a great departure from my friend paul sarbanes and joe biden going to vice presidency and ted kennedy passing created the opportunity to chair a committee. but with the subcommittee chairmen in every single instance, with the exception of one or two i always had a republican partner. kit bond and i and orrin hatch and i wrote todd care legislation working on private litigation reform mitch mcconnell and i did
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the pope act and premature birth and the screening with a high last i not have bay public partner with the willingness to come together to say this is what i would write so today to sit down to help manage something to get the best results that we can with the circumstances that we live in so my hope is then the coming weeks when i don't have a partner yet to it says come along. two totally dominate the other but obviously with some success in the last word seven months 37 of the 42 measures are the lot of the land because richard shelby and i have been able to work together on a wide
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range of issues port security a lot of major bills with sanctions and the like i hope that will happen the next couple weeks and i am reaching out to but let me mention specifically a couple of things. i agree with my colleague i hope we can resolve the issue on the issue the only bipartisan proposal on the table is the one people managed to get some bipartisan support for that. and it will involve a all of us my friend from tennessee would love to sit in that chair and have day good laugh but you will be involved with the like a not but on the issue of too big to fail the residing officer has done 98% of the work we
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will try to work ourselves through in the next couple days what we believe is a fair resolution to do with those issues to guarantee i hope with all at the end of the debate if everything is designed to perpetuate the too big to fail concept. the underwriting issue, the federal reserve has underwritten standards at long last grabbing been around 19942 pass legislation mandating the federal reserve against deceptive and fraudulent practices of the residential mortgage market they never promulgated one in all of those years. we ended up in the unregulated part of the economy were brokers and others who were people in into complicated matters. i get a kick out of this having known to several homes in connecticut, to actually over the last 30
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years and one here. we have been to those closings where we sit down across the table with a stack of papers and i have yet to meet anybody whether a banker, lawyer or senator read all of the details. we assume those representing our interests has protected us but i imagine a lot of people are backing of the understanding of the financial literacy would not know what they would read. of course, the command the banks -- committee banks will not have the unregulated funded economy they will play by the same rules said is unfair for those who do do the job but my state of connecticut i forget the numbers but it is so infinitesimal the number of foreclosures that
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occurred was subprime lending in my community banks based on the evidence i have heard over the last number of months. we need to get that unregulated shadow economy regulated. securitization the difference is we had a deep appreciation for the ability of the average american to buy a home because if we understood how much that meant, the adr they could have their own home the greatest source of wealth creation the acquisition of equity in a piece of property to provide a source of revenue to educate your children provide a cushion in your retirement and stabilizes families and communities. look at neighborhoods where people have a financial interest and the property in which they live. we are different.
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i know if you have five year loans we are the only country in the world that provides a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage. it has been a remarkable tool to provide stability and wealth creation. other countries don't do that i believe you have to have underwriting standards. how do get them and what is the standard? having that 15 or 20% may be absolutely critical under one set of circumstances but for somebody else it may not be. depending on the fico score what we want is underwriting standards to take into consideration to meet those obligations the securitization of real estate market of the capital
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allowed for expansion whether or not it can be done responsible bundled products aaa or aa or weather and not the institutions are marketing products that they will be concerned about what happens with the unregulated brokers in the hearings which they showed the first broker with the financial advisor we learned there would be thrown by the financial advisor they are paid quickly the banks the right to merge -- mortgages hold on average eight or 10 weeks. then they bundle them together and sold them off so the banker is paid to the unsuspecting investor that
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says aaa and double a pretty good. people pay their mortgages and because nobody was sitting there really insisting whether or not that our work could afford to do these under circumstances all of the teaser rates and things that went on and having somebody there that would be accountable to keep an eye on you in the broker said to have to do this right and number one, put some skin in the game, i know if you have skin in the game you'll pay more attention to what you are doing. you will not expose yourself to losses. or this is where we need to come together, meet some standard of the underwriting standard. you don't want to do that? put money on the table because that goes out the
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door and you have allowed it to happen but i prefer if they have the underwriting standards. the choice is one option. the way to marry the two ideas to get good underwriting standards the ability to move forward on the consumer side of the equation, sometimes a lot more gets made of the issues for the very reason my friend from tennessee worries i find people pumping up politically to fire up people because they have other motives i am fully aware people can demagogue on the issue of what we're trying to do and trying to say for the very first time seven agencies have a consumer protection responsibility and virtually all of them have failed because it is not a priority always something else takes a prior deposition including
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those that have responsibilities and i acknowledge it is critical i am also painfully aware that for quite a bit of time between 2003 and 2007 people's adjusted in 2005 our institutions are safe and sound. what do talking about? locale much money they are making. but it was dropping from within. because of the very things my colleagues talk about people pushing this stuff out the door and unregulated sectors of the economy running wild it was hardly safe and sound because no one was watching a for what was happening at the most fundamental level that person that picks out a home for their family decides this what we love to have. they go to close on the deal
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it is hardly a level playing field and again when you are excited about and convinced it is the right thing for your family, i am not accusing we have to be better and more responsible and senator arcoxia has talked about financial literacy will try to include those provisions to raise financial literacy but i have an eight year-old and a five year-old. my eight year-old is that the public schools and to get them to talk about math class is in the context of to do a checkbook to understand their financial responsibilities i don't discount that finance a responsibility people have.
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of the year trying to do is say that the average citizen has an advocate. when these matters are out there we saw what happened with the credit-card industry catching people right and left it passed earlier tried to do something with that issue. the earth, this guy is falling when that is hardly the intention and i am prepared to how to make this work better by now want to exaggerate what this means and how old bill should fall because we're trying to do a little more in this area of protecting people who have very middle protections i am not talking about at the community bank level. the community bankers again
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by providing regulatory coverage than non regulated areas is the federal regulators of the financial institutions. i only have one in connecticut that is an excess of 10 billion it is the local the involvement not of consumer protection agency jumping all over you but done at a local level and again we have to watch it but i think we would be remiss if we did not end up that says what do i get out of this? i don't like the bashing that goes on but to make a point* some people engage in that the ada we want to provide the capital credits for that person with the idea or the plan to add too
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much was two circular all happening within the enclosed circulatory system where little capital was moving out to slow to make bets the wealth increase but very little got out. so through that mechanism the person you are talking about maybe that was a young man of 25 who took a chance nine news said he has a good idea. that is the very idea we ought to have more of when they come to that door and s interested in your idea with venture capital and equimark its i know my colleague can bear witness of the angel investors we will fix that part of the bill when i spoke with a colleague who
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cares as senator warner does we will have amendments because i think we went too far and we need to fix that. so if you have a good idea you can get behind it but too much of wall street gave up on that. and it was so seldom soar been its own capacity to generate wealth for itself that lost sight and that is what makes people so point* san angry and after all of this stuff i think my colleague from tennessee but having been charged i will never again as long as i live of that meeting on the first floor to figure out how to do this in the fall 20082 put this in a position we did not find a collapse we will never know the answer but most of the seven
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you have important people coming to us you have to respond and we did so and stepped up and managed to write something that made a difference but the ability to come together to get the job done and then to watch as we stabilized these institutions to provide security and predictability to turnaround and disregard all of that and with the silly arguments in the midst of everybody else suffering terribly the arrogance that people got irate the notion that having done this to stabilize and provide the certainty that we would collapse as an economy would have thought that leaders of the institution would say thank you america thank you average share taxpayer.
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you kept this country alive and we thank you for doing that and for the next few years by the way blood this is self-imposed from because you stabilized it we will roll up our sleeves and figure how we can do a better job of. two draw a business created jobs i don't recall hearing one voice say that during fess parker not one. thank you america. for writing that check to help us stabilize sorry economy it was the arrogance of debt that drove people to distraction. i don't disagree we need to move on but it is important to understand what happened to and why people are so angry and so upset to and lives have been ruined and
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jobs lost because what happened over the last 18 -- there will never get it back. that retirement income has been gone that job has disappeared. and then when them saying that is how life is i hope things get better why not the consumer protection agency? said you don't get taken to the cleaners. will want to take small businesses and others to make it clear that is not what we're trying to do but it is important the weekend and insulated and understand at that level those tea party people they decided
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not to go again with vice and bumper stickers although i don't understand the average person it was not about me necessarily they were deeply upset they are not bad people there are some dangerous elements but i have a feeling people who are nodding their head reading about them in the papers that would appeal that to also not in the crazy demonstration but i feel that way to. they are not democrats or republicans with the political affiliation every day but does anybody watch out for them?
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and people talk about the systemic risk and derivatives and currency swaps if there's anybody in that place the credit-card company somebody standing in for me giving me a shot slide and up in the ruin his position when we were going through a safe and sound point* going through the regulators when we were anything but. anyone who claims to have always some is something they have written a i get nervous about people who think that way and we will not write something that will satisfy everybody but hopefully making sense.
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but that point* of not losing sight it is about big companies that sell over the world with the institution that they could stay with and compete in the global economy let's not forget to that person who was not a big company or corporation to go to work every day they can retire with dignity maybe take that vacation and in this debate this bill that has my name on it i will be the last one to say there is nothing biblical about this is our best effort to. it is our best efforts and i
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guarantee we will find out even though all of us it does not go as well as the author intended something that speaks to that individual who was not a banker or wall street guy or a big corporation two as the consumer in the country to know we have that in mind i yield. >> mr. president i have comments were the senator from connecticut and i can share i have no way of changing the names then he suggest he said he is hoping i have been a notice from my other colleagues i actually think in a short amount of time to be candid he did change this bill to have numerous names on it and i hope we have the ability to talk about those over the next several days apparently
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it is not quite time for that. but i do want to mention the issue of wall street but there is no question after what occurred many people on wall street could have use of public relations firm to help them no question the bonuses that we saw after america is basically with taxpayer money survive no doubt that created a backlash. as a matter of fact the senator from virginia and i are working on an amendment that if this ever happens again and we have to take the bond of the new resolution part of the dodd bill with the bonuses and other types of things in recent years would be qualified. it cannot make huge sums of money are taker company down the tube without paying a price we're working on something that is
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inappropriate it is thought quote if somebody takes their company down and wreaks havoc and makes us have to use that mechanism. is something we need to look at but with of mechanism that was in place having some imperfections the realize you and senator shelby will fix this weekend if that was in place the meeting might not have occurred to do with the contagion that exist when a company goes down. i want to go back talking about the group's i would say to the senator, it is not those issues that you alluded to that made them so angry and made me angry. it is the huge expansion of
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government that they see take place. it is a huge role that washington is beginning to play and as a look at the consumer protection title the big guys on wall street don't care about that. this will not affect the big guys on wall street say have people that have the ability to deal with the consumer was. those and not the people coming into our office is just a bit and have the ability to do with them in the same way. the senator from connecticut would be willing to sit down and talk about ways of ensuring that americans should not fear this organization overtime is way involved in their lives that is soaking most of the anger
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today if there is a way of achieving a balance where nsf and -- jess's consumers are protected and the senator knows i am working to pull the agencies together to have a voice dealing with this issue if there is a way of doing that i think the senator from connecticut would find that this body would come together very quickly. maybe the bull growing bridge modified just a little bit. sometimes when restudy things before we take action i know americans might be shocked if we did that but if we could moderate just a couple things just a few sentences and look at consumer protection and a way that is balanced so with
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the government taking a bigger role in people's lives unnecessarily. if we could fix that, i think we can. that is what i think frustrates me. if we can do that we can appropriately deal with the resolutions and derivatives. changes need to take place in both sides know what they are. we will have a bill. that i think will stand the test of time and americanamerican s will embrace and it won't do the things we set out to do. there was a long colloquy and i think the senator of connecticut for indulging me, the senator to virginia that i talk to before coming to the floor. i hope we can deal with some of these concerns to ensure that consumers are
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protected, derivatives are clear, we don't end up with the aig situation and deal with the issue when the company in this country fails, they fail. that is what the residents of tennessee care about. they don't care about a business in shelby county a mom or proper operation or bigger if they fail, they're out of business. when they see the large institutions fail and a dollar glut of business they consider that to be a moral hazard and morally wrong. we will get that right before this bill passes i hope. i hope we can deal with them appropriately. i yield the floor. >> i appreciate those comments again from my friend and colleague from tennessee. one quick observation. going back to the issue that
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wall street could have used a public-relations firm. that is the essence of the problem. when you have to hire a public relations come if you don't understand this yourself there is something fundamentally wrong. with multimillion-dollar is in bonuses so people who lose their jobs and homes in foreclosure because of the problems you created out there i don't know why you need a public relations operations? where is decency and ethics and morality that the average citizen for this constitution -- if we have to hire public-relations we're in deeper trouble than i can imagine. not just wall street but the business we're in. it may not be a bad idea but i presume he shares my view
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but i think he would have thought a good look in the mirror and said to themselves why are people angry? what can we do to help? and that is what is going on out there. >> obviously mr. president and i have been humorous in talking about that but you are right parts of the senator from virginia and i both know in our business is beer the last ones to be paid. everyone was dealt with and obligations were dealt with and i agree from the senator from connecticut something went awry after the company and the country had made the use company's whole and it appeared to me obviously the conduct was very unseemly so i agree with the senator from connecticut and yield
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on behalf of our members worldwide i would like to welcome the speaker and attendee for today's event which includes guests of the speaker as well as working journalists. i would also like to welcome our season and public radio audience. after the speech concludes i will ask as many audience questions as time permits. i would now like to introduce the head table guest from your right steve salmon military and diplomatic world news emily wittman and a member of the press club, ann roosevelt to the editor of the defense daily. austin, when church chairman of the washington editors, world war ii navy carrier pilot and 60
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year member of the national press club. [applause] gladys comments assistant secretary of the navy. skipping of the podium andrew schneider associate editor for kiplinger washington editors and the chairman of the speaker's committee. skipping for a moment of the speaker we have the group and the national press club board of speakers' committee member who organized today's event. sean, assistant secretary of the navy, john donnelly congressional quarterly national defense correspondent and member of the national press club board of governors. jim newlin of clark and weinstock retired navy public affairs officer and president of the public affairs alumni association and finally secretary of the agriculture tom vilsack and guest of the speaker.
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[applause] today's speaker started his career for decades ago when he served as a naval officer in the u.s. navy after having graduated from an ivy league law school. less than 20 years later he earned a seat in the mississippi governor's mansion at the age of 39. in the 1990's he was tapped by president clinton to serve as u.s. ambassador saudi arabia. today he joins us as a 75th secretary of the navy where he is a voeckler ticket for the nearly 1 million men and women who serve in the navy and marine corps. he's responsible for a budget of about $150 billion annually and today he is here to respond to the navy and marine corps push to produce at least 50% of its based energy from renewable sources within a decade. looking at the foot print he has been tending the way the naval aviators consume energy. whether it be jet fuel, ship
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system engine design or simple composting the cheapest to become chief of the navy is developing ways to reduce consumption. for example setting the military comes alive a tight for fuel and energy he has identified orman services consumption as a potential point of vulnerability. recently, he stated with strategically negative to reduce america's reliance on foreign sources of fossil fuel to get the military down the road to energy independence. the chief of the navy also has taken action to allow women to serve on submarines. other issues under his purview reach from future aircraft acquisition programs to whether he believes congress will change the department of the navy to the department of the navy and marine corps. please welcome the honorable secretary of the u.s. navy three [applause]
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thank you for the wonderful introduction. i want to recognize a couple other people. sean bullard who covered me all of those years ago when i was governor. i'm glad to see you again and see that you're gainfully employed. and tom vilsack, tom vilsack was an astoundingly good governor of iowa, and he is continuing that as secretary of agriculture. i'm going to talk about the eckert culture navy partnership. i am incredibly fortunate to have tom vilsack as a friend and america is an incredibly fortunate to have his talent as the secretary of agriculture then. all i am honored to be here today to be speaking with you. by understanding is the very first speaker as the national press club was teddy roosevelt.
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i do want to point out, however, that the both theodore roosevelt assistant cousin franklin were assistant secretaries of the navy. [laughter] today is the navy birthday to run for 12 years ago congress authorized the department of the navy. it was a pretty different place an organization from the navy have today. then the navy only had three commissioned forgets, the united states, the constellation, and the constitution still in service in the naval shipyard. we had a tiny navy and one which had never fought since the day of the revolution the navy had
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been pretty quiet. all you can make an argument the reason america changed from the articles of the confederation to the constitution that we have today was because we could not feel the national navy to deal with the powers and the was one of the impetus for getting together in '89. in 1798, then secretary of the navy benjamin stoddard had three ships very few squadrons of marines to say all the ships and he was a very decidedly regional and limited navy. today things have changed a little bit. some of the things allen talked about today we have 286 ships in
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the battle fleet. 3800 aircraft. over 900,000 people. 4.4 million acres 72,500 buildings. and budget north of $150 billion. but the numbers don't tell the story. and what i would like to do is spend just a few minutes doing what i call navy and marine corps 101. what do we do. why do we need a navy? why we need the marine corps in today's world? we are everywhere. the navy, marine corps are america's awaiting. if we are doing our job, we are usually somewhere far from home. we are in combat today in the
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things that you see the, what you report on day after day. the 19,000 marines and afghanistan. also today in the middle east and iraq and afghanistan 12,000 sailors on shore like doing more for reconstruction team zandt during counter ied duty. we have more sailors on the ground than we do at the sea in the central command. but today we have ships off the horn of africa fighting powers. we have ships around africa engaged in the africa partnership station, ships in asia engaged in the asia partnership and around south america during the same thing.
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we can do everything from high in conventional warfare through a regular warfare through humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to partnership building and we do it all with the same equipment on the same platforms and all using exactly the same people. we have to be flexible. we have to be ready for whatever comes over the horizon because as smart as the people who do the planning, as far sighted as we can be, we simply cannot provide for every individual with a. we have to be trained. we have to be ready and we have to have the frame of mind that does not get us into one way of thinking what is flexible to meet whatever challenge comes at us whether it is that rescue
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operation in haiti or allowing combat over afghanistan in support of our soldiers and marines. one of the overlooked things about what we do in the navy is the engagement and around the world day in and day out. you cannot surge people and equipment, but you cannot surge trust. day after day american warships and american sailors and marines are going into countries and partnering with those countries doing humanitarian assistance mission is training the local navies and marines and meeting whatever local citizens and leadership oftentimes the navy is the only face of america that
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the leadership of the countries will see and particularly the populations of the country so i think the navy in that engagement in that partnership building has become an integral part of how people view america and of our diplomatic efforts around the world. the big difference in the united states navy and the 40 years that have passed since i served is not so much the equipment although that has gotten a lot better and it's not the technology also that is advanced beyond my imagining for decades ago. it is the people who served. i serve with a lot of very
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dedicated, very skilled and very motivated people that they simply could not touch the sailors and marines we have today in terms of skill level and education level in terms of commitment, in terms of all the things they have to know how to do. and we are the only country on earth that can produce the numbers and the quality of people that today's serve in our armed forces. we are the only country on earth that pushes the responsibility down to the second class seamen in the infantry to the lance corporal on patrol the marines have a term strategic corporal. we have that in spades in the navy and the marine corps.
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i want to talk about one specific thing we are doing that allen mentioned in the introduction. we are trying to change the way the navy gets and uses energy. we are simply too dependent on foreign fossil fuels. we would not let, we would not allow our worship or weapons to be built by the countries that we do allow our ships to be powered by their fuel. this is a strategic former guerrilla the and one that has to be addressed. and we are doing a lot to make sure that we meet this strategic imperative. the matter of energy
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independence is a matter of our security. we need those ships at sea when we need those aircraft in the air, when we need the marines on the ground we have the energy produced right here in the united states to do that. we use a lot of energy. the federal government uses about 2% of all the fossil fuel used in america. the dod uses 90% for the federal government and the navy was about one third of the dot requirements. outside the overall strategic reasons to do this there is the tactical and the example i like to use this getting a gallo of
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gasoline to eight marine front-line unit in afghanistan you have to put that gasoline on a tanker and take it across the pacific and put it into a truck and truck it over the cushaw and down through afghanistan and as you do this you've got to guard it and one of the most dangerous assignments today in afghanistan as convoy. we lose marines in dee dee and sailors in the convoy and we take marines away from what marines should be giving. fighting, engaging, helping rebuild that country. so if we can reduce the demand for energy and produce it locally, we have made our marines better fighters.
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today we have solar power water purification units in afghanistan. today marines are using spray on insulation. they are reducing the amount they need and changing the way we get energy. i set five goals for the navy in energy. the biggest one is one allan mentioned. ten years, one decade, half of all energy usage in the u.s. navy ashore and afloat will come from long fossil fuel sources. there are some others. ten years have of the basis of to be net zero we ought to produce at least as much energy as they use. we of one based today china lake in california things to the
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geothermal energy produces more energy than it consumes and it's putting the excess energy into the local grand. we have done some things that some of you have reported on. last week we flew the green hornet and f-18 and if you recognize the green hornet i know the you are of a certain age. the green hornet, a regular off the shelf if the team that flu last week supersonics on a mixture of regular gasoline and biofuel all fuel at catalina in the mustard family, small feed and can be used in rotation with wheat and it can be ground in
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every single state in this union which brings me to one other thing the energy push is doing. we can through partnering with tom vilsack and the department of agriculture help american farmers. we can help move america to a new energy economy. it is in of america estimates and we cannot afford to fall behind. we signed an emco du agriculture the navy did in january to coordinate our research and work together. we had our first big event in hawaii. hawaii has a big navy, big marine presence. hawaii farmers are also having
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difficulty as sugarcane is leaving and hawaii is the most dependent of all 50 states on imported farm energy. we are going to help all three of those. the two obstacles that we've identified to reaching our energy goals one is the price of alternative fuel today and second is the lack of infrastructure to deliver those tools. in a flip on the line from a field of dreams if the navy comes they will build at. if we create the demand, if we create a market, if the military does with the military can do which is be a market leader and create the demand early we can
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drive the price down and help american farmers and help america's small businesses and we can cause that infrastructure to be built. at the same time that we are moving toward these new forms of energy it's imperative that we also use less to do the same job. we launched the first hybrid ship last fall built in my home state of mississippi. it uses an electric drive for speeds of ten knots or less. on its first voyage around south america to its home port in san diego the u.s.'s main island, a big shift saved almost $2 million in fuel costs.
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over the lifetime of that ship, if fuel prices remain absolutely the same, we will save about a quarter of a billion dollars in fuel. we are prototyping that engine to be retrofitted onto or guided missile destroyers so that we can begin to move that further out into the fleet. we are doing a lot of things and we are getting a lot of help. operation freedom which is a military just out of the military who has made it their goal to leni mog only the military that the united states of the defendants of foreign sources of energy. we are getting help from the department of agriculture. we have five working groups employing today with the department of energy to make
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sure that we are coordinated. we are working with karen mills, the administrator of the small business administration to make sure small american businesses are included in this because so many of the good ideas, so many of the things that are going to affect us in the future come from brough booze small entrepreneurial businesses that have the audacity to think about things in a different way. we are doing a lot of things and we are doing it for one major reason. it makes us a better or fighting course. it makes us better at being the the navy and marine corps that america needs. america, america's navy, has
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always led when we have changed sources of energy. we change from sales to coal in the 1850's. we changed from coal to oil in the early part of the 20th century. we went to nuclear for our aircraft carriers in the 1950's. every single time that we made one of those changes there were people who said you are abandoning one source of proven energy or one you do not whether it works and by the way it is too extensive every single time there were those and every time they were wrong. and i have confidence that they will be wrong again.
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the navy and the marine corps do not back down from a challenge. the navy marine corps will fail every mission given to them including helping us become energy independent. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much for your time mr. secretary the questions are being passed along as we speak. the first question in terms of the approach you were taking towards reducing your fossil fuel usage could you talk about some of the initiatives that you are pushing more towards actually reducing fuel use and what efforts you are making in terms of recycling fuel that you have been using. >> reducing the fuel use i gave the example of the islands. we are installing smarten great technology on all of the basis
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using stimulus money and i do want to say that this administration and the president has laid out the vision and out energy conservation and sources of energy and independence and national security issue as an economic issue as well as a clam issue but we are doing that. we are also doing a lot of smaller things. in san diego they did an analysis of where the energy was going to read a lot of it was when to move water to irrigate plants, grass. so they changed it all out to artificial. when they first started they thought this is going to be ugly
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and we do think of astroturf in the 70's. but i couldn't tell the difference most of the time and their energy bills have dropped dramatically as well as their water usage have dropped dramatically. those are a few of the things we have 50,000 noncombat vehicles. the turnover about every five years just by changing the vehicles that we buy, more electric, more hybrid, more flex-fuel vehicles, we are lowering the amount of energy and we're going to cut the fossil fuel use at least in half in five years. >> with climate change last year the chief of naval operations establish a task force to make recommendations of how they respond to treating the arctic ice coverage. what steps is the navy taking to develop the shipping and aviation capabilities and the newly opening arctic ocean?
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>> the arctic could be ice free in this summer's within a quarter century and it's going to require us to make that a normal part of our service and our navy patrolling and protection making sure the sea lanes remain open. i don't think we need in a different kind of ships or in a different kind of aircraft. we just are going to have to think about it differently and include this as part of our normal tactical and strategic operations. >> how will the navy's 286 ship structure b affected by tighter budgets and competition from the expanding chinese navy? >> we have to enter 86 ships in the fleet today. we put in earlier this year the
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budget which calls for the next five years building an average of ten ships per year some 50 ships over the course of that five years. over the course of the next ten years, we have put in a 30 year plan that shows us getting to 326 by 2020. but no. the chief of naval operations has used his 313. so this administration has gotten us on the ramp to get to more than 313 by the end of this decade and in order to do that, we have had to be realistic about what ships are going to cost. we have tried to be realistic about how much the funds the congress will appropriate for the naval shipbuilding and in order for us to build the ships that we think we need, to build the ships that we have put into
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this plan we cannot afford cost overruns and schedules to slit. and while we await to the industry the ability and what kind of ships we are going to buy, we owe the industry mature technology, not technology that is not proven to put on chips and technology improves wait until the next block of ships. we know the industry stable design. we shouldn't be designing ships at exactly the same time we are building them. on the other hand, if we do that, and i think the navy is doing that through sean who is here today, the industry owes us some things. that is their largest client. they have to make the investments in infrastructure. they have to train the work force, and they have to show us
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the prices and numbers of hours taken down with each successive ship in the class and i will give you to programs that are working well right now. the submarine's coming in on budget and ahead of schedule and the tak supply ships have had a reduction we are building number 12 right now in the class and the number of hours it takes to build the ship has gone down 40%. that's the first one of the class. as we've got to pay very close attention to how much the ships cost or we simply won't be able to build enough. >> u.s. been publicly addressing the transition to allow females to serve aboard submarines. could you please comment on the progress of that initiative and have you selected the first group of candidates and when would the deployment began?
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>> we are in the process in fact starting today selecting the first groups of candidates and the reason that we are starting today is that there was a noted the case in per go to the congress that expired yesterday. we will be looking at the naval academy in the rotc and ocs. first officers will go on an 18 month pipeline initial selection and report to their ships the first two types of submarines they will deploy on are the ssb ballistic missile submarines and the guided missile submarines. we have had a lot of interest from some very impressive young
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women. we are going to look case by case of the lateral transfers and for every ship, there will be at least one more senior female officer who will transfer latterly probably from the supply corps to be a mentor for the brand new officers that are going on board. the of 20 years of experience of women on the ships and frankly we could not run the needy without women and this is something that is the right thing to do. >> what about american culture? >> i think what everett says is good -- what ever it says is good. the technical degrees of engineer and science are being granted to wind today and we
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simply have to be competitive and recruit in that group. it also says we have recognized that when it comes to serving your country there shouldn't be a gender impediment to that. >> and terms training this questioner asked what can be done to help train soldiers with mindsets that lead to action especially foreign deployments that the people view them or as helpers rather than outsiders who may not have their best interest at heart? speed we see that kind of trading today who go to the planet and take a look at cultural awareness. you get a lot of training before you go.
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marines in particular have been very innovative in this in afghanistan for example. the teams of female marines that go into areas and talk to the women that simply will not talk because of their culture to the male marines. marines are involved a lot in engagement and making sure that what they do is not culturally offensive wherever they are and part of this partnership that talked about is becoming very comfortable in a lot of different cultures. and i've talked about the marines notion of strategic corporal. that corporal, the lance corporal a lot of times is the only american people have seen and he or she is the face of
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america and the incredibly well trained. >> moving to current issues can you comment on their request for naval assistance and oil spill clean-up of the gulf of mexico? >> this administration has been heavily involved ever since this began. homeland security is the agency that has the lead on this. number come northern command which is the continental united states is the dod component and we are standing by ready to provide whatever assistance they need. but homeland security is the one agency that has the full picture of this and they are doing a very good job right now of coordinating all the different
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responses that are being made to this crisis. >> are you anticipating the department of homeland security will ask you to play a role? >> we are standing by whatever role they would like us to play. and the degree to grasp on the subject and but ever the need we will try for that. >> during the cold war we had an incident agreement with soviet union to insure an accident wouldn't cause a world war iii. what to support such an agreement with iran? what are you doing to ensure acceptance in the streets don't become a major international incident? >> again i think sailors, marines, commanders of ships and task forces are very well-trained. they understand the difference between an accident and something that's not but they
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also understand what steps have to be taken before any. they have to operate under the rules of engagement, and i don't think an agreement like that is particularly necessary. i think that the navy and the people who command the ships and serve on the ships have a very good handle on and are trained to respond to things like this in the appropriately. >> how will the role of men and women in the navy and marine corps evolves play as your personnel are used and needed to operate the warships? >> the navy has shrunk by about 60% over 50 years we are down to the core of about 324,000 from sailors today and the warships
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we are building the one example i will give is the combat shipped. the ship by served by light cruiser had a thousand people. to dig the guided missile destroyers which is close to an equivalent should which is what i have served on have 280 and the ships that are very fast and able to fight in shallow waters has a corps crew of 40 with their weapons system the crew grows to only 80 and i think it says a couple of things. one is that people have to be weighed more first and we more things. just good at a lot of things to discuss that one single thing. if they're going to see.
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it also says we of a lot of faith in those people. those people are commanding and running this pretty big warship. but as time goes by, the world always changes. the things we have to deal with are inevitably going to change in the training and that is why what we buy and that is why and how we plan we have to be incredibly flexible we have to not get stock in one way of thinking about issues and we have to be ready for whatever new comes over the horizon we have to deal with and i am very comfortable and confident that the sailors and marines can deal with anything and that we are buying platforms that are flexibleug can
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meet in the eventuality as well. >> conagra's required news service combatants and ships be nuclear power. is that cecil? -- is that feasible? >> what congress said is we should take a look at it every time. to make the business case, to make the financial case or nuclear power on certain chips, a set of the carrier's cost about $450 a gallon -- apparel, sorry. $150 a barrel for a sustained period of time to read some of them said that the up-front cost of just two big to build a number of ships that we need if they were nuclear powered. but again we don't know what is going to happen in the future or what is going to happen to the
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other types of fuel and we don't know what technology breakthroughs are going to happen with nuclear power. we are not in the world in the sort of ships except we are trying to move away as routt but the as we can. >> do you support the house bill renaming the department of navy and marine corps? >> i'm going to quit, but of the marine corps who is more of an expert than i am. things have been working fine the last 200 years. he thinks that it's not necessary. my position on it is that whenever it is named i want to meet the secretary. [laughter] >> when will we see the first nuclear destroyer or cruiser? >> well, you've already seen them. we have had nuclear power cruisers in the fleet they came
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into the fleet and the late 70's and began to decommission in the 90's and earlier in this decade so you've already seen them. we've proven that concept works. >> will u.s. media expansion be able to keep up with the expansion of the chinese navy ship fer ship? those that even matter? >> i don't think that is the test regardless of who you are talking about. i think the test is the capabilities and not simply shipped numbers. >> looking at budgetary needs hour is the navy going to pay for its new ballistic missiles of without torpedoing the budget? >> i talked about the fact that we were trying to be realistic in the shipbuilding plan we put in we were trying to be realistic what ships cost and realistic in what congress would
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appropriate. we also were trying to be realistic in what was coming down the road. the replacement for the ohio class ballistic missile submarine will begin -- the ohio class will begin to require and 2027. 17 years from now. those ships if they cost what we estimate they will cost today will not a whole in the surface navy and also attack submarines but 17 years is a long time. and the requirements, the reason we put that in there was to be realistic and start the discussion on what sort of capabilities we are going to need as a navy not just in the ballistic missile submarines or surface fleet but what capacities are we going to need
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in the navy. what i can control what this congress can't control is about ten years in terms of what ships we are going to build. that comes a good way after that. there will be decisions made along that will have a big impact on that but truthfully and realistically five years to ten years past five years to ten years you're getting too far more speculative decision making that i am willing to give in to. >> question from the audience. why does the navy by another 1,000 destroyer when you said that the dee dee g51 is better suited for threats? >> body and the 1,000 is a class
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secretary defense. it started out as a 30 some odd ship program truncated several years ago to the seventh ship program and secateurs rebates last april almost exactly a year ago truncated it to three shifts. the three ships, at number one and two are under construction along the lead time items are in training for the third one. the reason that we went to war secretary gates and now the navy is going back to restarting the ddt 51 is that the ddg 51 off versus far more capabilities than the fee ddg 1,000 at a lower price. the president has given the navy large responsibility in terms of ballistic missile defense.
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or for the world. and the ddg 51 as the platform that can do the ballistic missile defense. the ddg 1,000 cannot and that is the reason that we have the ddg 1,000 truncated and we are opening up a line and beginning to build more ddg 51's. in fact we've requested eight ddg 51's over the last five years. >> will you release the navy report investigating congressman murtha's death at the bethesda hospital? >> degette will be released when it's finished. so yes. >> what is the minimal number of sailors and marines that you could see? >> i talked about the ses and how we are reducing the number
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from 40 and 80 in the entire crew. the rest of the question is one of those i learned, i hope i learned early in my career. it is a hypothetical. and i -- nothing could has ever happened when i answer hypothetical questions. [laughter] >> hypothetically how much do you think the u.s. navy should have? [laughter] >> will actually come of hypothetically the u.s. navy needs the floor at least 313 ships in the fleet. we are on a tract. this administration is on track to get us to more than that in the next ten years to 320 ships. the chief of naval operations has said 313 as a floor and not a ceiling and just as important
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as house members are to keep a bloody and mixture of ships you are building. the combat ship is going to be one of the backbones of the navy. a very different ship from previous u.s. navy ships. sprick a couple follow-ups. you mentioned earlier the challenge posed by piracy in the horn of africa. how has the dnieper dissipated in the operations and what progress is the media making within of nato forces such as china and india? >> we have a task force on 51 also the port of africa combating piracy. nato also has a task force as does the european union. there's this task force at atlanta. there are a lot of other countries, 16 in all at last count that have individual for more ships under the tasking of their home country.
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we engage in a routine navy to navy communications in these waters. we have to. we are out there for the same reason. we are all fighting the same people and we need to know where other people are. so the coordination so far, and i anticipate in the future, has been good at the ship to ship navy to navy level and we will continue. >> a follow-up on the bet question use of the navy is standing by to help with the oil spill. given that it's already getting the short why are you standing by? >> what i meant when i sit standing by which is a sort of navy term is that whatever is being requested we are furnishing and homeland security is the overall agency in charge. they have -- they are
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controlling this very big response effort and i have a piece of the picture and i don't want to piecemeal in terms of talking about what is being sent. >> of the industry is to the efficiency of the ships are built should they also be looking for ways to reduce maintenance costs and was signs of those efforts have you seen? >> when the marine corps and army comeback from a war they do a thing called reset. they have the equipment, the vehicles, the weapons that have either been lost in combat or worn out and are no longer useful. they have to buy eight new ones to get ready for whatever is coming next. the navy resets every day. we we've reset in drive and our
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free set is called maintenance. we have to simply maintain the ship's commander yes, we are looking at ways and working pretty closely within the industry in ways to reduce maintenance costs. but also we are looking internally because we have to make sure we get the maintenance and the shift toward availability is every one of the ships need if they are going to meet their life span so for the navy it is an account called operation and maintenance account. it is a crucial account for us to make sure we have enough funds and to make sure that we get those ships and maintenance on a routine basis that they need. sprick how is the navy being affected by the process and enlarging the panama canal? >> can't get bigger ships
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through? i will digress for eminent. the width of the panama canal was determined by the navy ship. it was exactly 2 feet wider than the battleship which was the largest ship of its kind. we in the navy have long since built much larger ships the indy 500 class battleship and we have adapted very well to getting to places and other ways in the panel can now so operationally is queen to mean that much one way or another in terms of how we operate. >> when will the need to decide whether it will of a multi-year deal for the super hartness? >> we are working on that right now. we have gotten -- we had a proposal from the manufacturer.
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now it's being worked in terms of whether or not the savings are there the what justified the multi year and we are hopeful that there will be resolved very soon. >> hell do you anticipate the u.s. nuclear submarine fleet to be affected by president obama's proposals to reduce the size of the u.s. arsenal and u.s. strategic dependence on nuclear weapons? >> fi ballistic missile submarines lead is one of the three legs of the deterrents try along with long-range bombers and ballistic missiles land-based ballistic missiles. and i think that it will always be an important leggitt of that try at treated arguably is the most survivable of that and will be important. the other thing is a large part of our fleet is not ballistic
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missile submarines. adis attack submarines, which are one of the most flexible platforms that we have. >> we are almost out of time but before i ask the last question there's a couple of matters to take care of such as the patient with us for one moment. first of all to remind the members and guests and future speakers may 19th we of the honorable tim kaine the chairman of the democratic national committee. he will be discussing his party's prospects in the 2010 elections. on may 21st, the one of the washington capitals will be addressing a luncheon and on may 26th week of barbara bush, the daughter of the former president george w. bush and president of the global health corporation will be speaking. second, as is traditional of the part of the program like to present our guest with the traditional national press club
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mug. [applause] and we do appreciate the time you spend with us this morning. we understand you are going to be having a meeting shortly thereafter with other defense officials and we would love to hear how that works out for you later this afternoon if you would give us a call. and it underscores the for close to a decade now this has been a nation that has been in war time and that is special strains for the sailors and marines and all members of the services. as sailors and marines find themselves to playing for and five times to fight in iraq and afghanistan how is the navy and marine corps coping with what some would say are high multiple deployments? what is the navy doing to help those families cope without a father or mother serving on multiple tour and for what will soon be nine years? >> you're absolutely right. we have a very high operational tempo. there are a lot of deployments for both marines and sailors. at any given day, 40% of the
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ships are deployed and more than 50% are at sea. so it is not as you pointed out in the question just the sailors and marines. it's also the families and the navy and marine corps i think are doing remarkable things in terms of reaching out to the families helping with child care, helping with some of the stress multiple deployments have health care issues and things like that. and it is a truism but it's true that the force, the people in the force, the sailors and marines in the force are the most valuable things we have and the last thing i would like to leave you with this in spite of a high operational tempo and multiple deployments, in spite of the stress that have been put
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on the navy and marine corps this is the most resilient group of people i have ever seen. and of the morrell, the level of dedication and the level of recruitment and retention that is going on right now in the navy and marine corps is simply astounding and you and all americans should be exceptionally proud of the young men and women who wear the cloth of this country. fewer than 1% of the country where the uniform of this country. they are the most skilled and resilient people i have ever had the honor to meet. thank you. [applause]
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thing to consider mabus for coming today. we would also like to thank the national press club stuff including the library and broadcast operations center for organizing today's event. for more information about joining the national press club and how to acquire a copy of today's program, please go to the website, www.press.org. thank you for a much once again this meeting is adjourned. [applause]
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