i'd like to spend a couple.. minutes talking about the way in which the chinese government has been willfully week in be enforcing intellectual property rights. .. to be more serious and in enforcing and protecting the intellectual property rights o in protecting intellectual property rights of our citizens? >> won the thing we can do is

start adding carrots for goods of countries that engage in willful theft of intellectual property. this is important for us to do and probably the only way to do it. there are a number of other strategies. one thing the obama administration has done is gone after these innovation rules that president hu jintao has sponsored and really does put american company that serious disadvantage if they want to do business in china. that is one thing but when it comes to the actual theft which is another issue i believe the only way to deal with this is sanctions of some sort and probably going to follow the general trajectory of h. r. 2378. >> i agree with gordon chang. we have to avail ourselves of the available world trade organization remedies. we are not always doing that.

they are more limited than we might like but we must avail ourselves of them. we continue to work with european allies and friends so when the case is brought it is not just by one country. that helps. countervailing duties is another potential remedy that would be useful. >> i would like to broaden the implications of intellectual property, links between stealing intellectual property and funding terrorist organizations, a majority of counterfeit goods originating in china and wind up in the border region of south america with direct contributions provided as follows. one entity in paraguay provided $3 million to hezbollah.

is there a way even moving beyond the important nature of intellectual property rights on its own helping to reinforce the severe implications of these violations? >> that pointed away, a response to that. to take a look at the iran sanctions act and with the terrorism nexus, see if legislation can be modeled on the sanctions act that was sanctioned, chinese violators engage in that activity. >> along those lines under the iran sanctions act and legislation we passed last year, by all accounts there are chinese firm that ought to be sanctioned. they have not been. do you have thoughts on actions

taken by the chinese state-owned iran to help them overcome sanctions imposed on other countries? >> you have to get the oversight administration enforcement. if they're not doing the job they are not doing the job. >> we saints and individual enterprises but they are all controlled by the state. what we are doing is thinking of sanctions beyond individual enterprise because essentially what we are doing is going after the people when we should go after the head. >> a remaining seconds on that specific issue how do we go after the head? >> it would be putting sanctions on goods from countries involved in certain prohibitive behavior. this will be difficult for the united states to do. when it comes to iran sanctions or selling arms to the taliban or something else, we have to

think of our priorities. >> thank you for excellent testimony and thank you to the members who participated. thank you to the audience and the briefing is now adjourned. thank you. [inaudible conversations] >> chinese president hu jintao wraps up his visit to washington d.c. today with a speech on u.s./china relations and gathering of businessmen henry kissinger will introduce the chinese president along with remarks from the obama administration cabinet members. live coverage will begin at 12:30 eastern on c-span2. tonight will be live from the

museum in washington. panelists will discuss u.s./canada relations. the public affairs channel and claims magazine are hosting this discussion which will cover trade, immigration and security issues. among the panelists are canadian ambassador gary dorr and white house speech writer david from. live coverage tonight on c-span2 gets underway at 7:00 eastern. january is national stock awareness month and attorney-general eric holder noted the occasion earlier this week with remarks at the justice department. speakers include an illinois team who was a victim of stalking and the national center for victims of crime coasted this event.

>> good morning and welcome. my name is susan carbon and i'm director of the office of violence against women. thank you for joining us to help us commemorate national stocking awareness month and the department of justice. i am very pleased to introduce an attorney with the environment and natural resources division who will sing the national anthem. please rise. ♪ oh say can you see ♪ by the dawn's early light ♪ what so proudly we hail ♪ at the twilight's last

gleaming ♪ whose broad stripes and bright stars ♪ through the perilous fight ♪ over the ramparts we watched ♪ were so gallantly streaming ♪ and the rockets's red glare ♪ the bombs bursting in air ♪ gave proof through the night ♪ that our flag was still there ♪ oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave ♪ over the land of the free

♪ and the home of the brave ♪ >> thank you. please be seated. and thank you. that was an exquisite voice. thank you for coming and sharing your talent with us. once again i want to thank all of you for being here today particularly given the weather we have had but they say you should make your guests feel welcome. this is washington's way of making people from chicago feel welcome here and pleased we were able to join us. i am honored we have a number of special guests with us today who have traveled from illinois just outside chicago. we have hannah carry men and her

mother to take a series -- and karen nelson from the illinois police department. karen is a social worker with the police department. here to share their stories and we look forward to hearing from you in a few moments. we have two other guests i will be introducing later but we have two guests and two special leaders from the department of justice. in my time as director of the office of violence against women i have been so thrilled with and so grateful for the leadership and commitment from our leaders at the department of justice. it is my privilege to introduce to you our first speaker the personal attorney general eric holder. he has dedicated his career to public service in many venues including on the court and he inspires all of us to work harder to help citizens of of violence and prevent violence in the first instance. please welcome attorney-general

eric holder. [applause] >> good morning. come on, folks. good morning. there we go. thank you for that kind introduction and for your leadership in the office of violence against women. this is a special occasion and i am glad to see everyone is here in spite of the weather. the older children are at home. they think it is a great day. it is cool to canceled today. you and your team are doing extraordinary work to improve public safety and to provide much needed support to our neighbors in need and in crisis and i am grateful to you and proud of the great work that you do. this morning i am honored to join with colleagues from across the justice department in welcoming our distinguished guests. i want to thank you for being

here. by recognizing national stockings awareness month, we hope to raise awareness about the consequences of this devastating crime and it is a crime and we are signaling our ongoing commitment to protecting potential victims. in the course of the year, three million people for over the age of 18 are stocked in the united states. that is 3-1/2 million people over the age of 18. stock in effect all communities regardless of race, sexual orientation or sexual hist -- social status. females are three times more likely to be victims of this crime. stocking is defined as conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear. as we have learned more about this crime we have seen it can

lead not just to fear but also to violence. most stalking victims know there offenders in some capacity and, a current or former internet parter. as we are reminded today many are not. we are privileged to be joined by hannah, a high-school junior from illinois who experienced stalking first hand. she was stalked by a girl who lived in her neighborhood who attended her school. it was a terrifying experience. a time when she feared for her safety and ultimately feared for her life. when she was 15 she found great courage to come forward and share her heartbreaking story with the world. she also made a commitment to action. in addition to speaking out she lobbied to change the law in her

own home state and help to ensure greater protection for stocking -- stalking victims. i want to thank her mother and two tireless caring public servants who are present today. detective darrell scenery and nelson who both share her commitment to creating a safer and more just society. i congratulate you all for the courage that you have done. they are here to help shed light on a serious and significant problem. on the affects of stalking crimes and by providing a model for how a tragedy can be turned into opportunity our guests also inspire efforts in meeting the goals and responsibilities we all share. there are many pathways to ending stalking. one is focusing on children like hannah. if we are going to succeed as we

must in breaking the vicious cycle of violence that straggles too many communities and shattered too many lives we have to understand and work to overcome what our young people are up against. the majority of children in this country, 60% of them have been exposed to violence, crime and abuse. 60% of children in this nation. this is an unconscionable and unacceptable. experiencing an witnessing violence can have devastating consequences especially for our kids. is often associated with long-term physical, psychological and emotional harm and children exposed to violence are at a higher risk of engaging in criminal behavior later in life. i am proud for today's justice department reversing current trends and reducing children

exposure to violent -- of top priority. not only are we listening to the voices of our young people, we are working with a broad range of partners to examine, understand and communicate how violent crime impacts them, their families, their schools and their neighborhoods. late last year we launched our new defending childhood initiative. this effort is focused on preventing violence and helping children overcome potentially devastating effects. eight communities have been selected as demonstration sites for testing strategies and compiling research and we are optimistic that this initiative will lead to critical enhancement in our work to protect the most colorful and precious among us, our children. our commitment to public safety to all people of all ages and in

all of our communities and that commitment is the core of today's efforts across the department and the federal government to protect -- prevent and raise awareness about stalking crimes -- stalking crime is. president obama proclaimed january national stalking awareness month and this administration is in the process of developing a comprehensive strategy to improve efforts to empower victims and hold perpetrators accountable to bring them to justice. we can count on your unwavering commitment to make meaningful change. i am grateful to you all and i look forward to all that we will accomplish together. thank you. [applause]

>> i want to thank the attorney general for his thoughtful remarks and his extraordinary leadership that the department of justice and thank you for your support of this event and support of our offices. the office of violence against women. our next speaker is a deeply committed public servant. on many different project i can tel you he has been a phenomenal support not only to me but the mission of our office. he is a brilliant visionary who constantly challenges us to think big and find more meaningful ways for government to work with communities in an effort to strengthen services and meet the needs of victims. please welcome associate attorney general tom pirelli.

[applause] >> thank you for that kind introduction to all our efforts to end violence against women. i am honored to stand with the attorney general and our panel to highlight all we can do to stop the crime and i want to note one thing the attorney-general talked about which is an innovation that comes from the core of him as a leader. he has dedicated his career to protecting children, defending childhood initiative which he talks about a while ago, something he started a decade ago and we have renewed under his leadership but a core element of that is not simply all the policies one man implement as a government but listening to ending date with young people and enlisting them as partners in this effort and this fight. a little over a year ago we did a teen dating violence symposium

where we brought in young people from a number of communities and it was an extraordinary experience to have the secretary of the department of education sit-down and brainstorm as equals about solutions and communities across the country. we are honored to have hannah and her mother to continue that work and help us think about what more we can do. the attorney-general has sent an extraordinary standard of leadership for this department and this administration in the fight to end violence against women and that comes from the president himself. i am glad to see the white house adviser dedicated to issues ending violence against women, domestic violence, stalking and other crimes. that commitment comes from the president on down. last year we spent much of the year commemorating the fifteenth

anniversary of the violence against women act and held events to raise awareness about domestic violence, sexual assault the digital teen dating violence, stalking. we talked about it as a call to action to energize partners to help with the ultimate goal of ending the violence. at the department we are trying to practice what we preach. the attorney general talked about some of these things we are doing but u.s. attorney's offices are aggressively pursuing interstate stalking cases and getting referrals from local law-enforcement partners who are such valuable allies. we're treating our attorneys on the eve of dynamics of stalking particularly cyberstalking and the use of new technology that can be used to terrorize. the office of violence against women find the stalking resource center which provides training and resource material for organizations throughout the united states to help build capacity to effectively respond to stocking. in our effort to end the violence, 2011 is a critical

year. as we plan for the reauthorization of violence against women act we have the opportunities to shine the spotlight on violence that is hidden and ignored and the chance to integrate all that you in the field have learned to new policies for the future. we talk a lot about raising awareness and nowhere probably is that more important than the area of stalking. it is a crime that can be difficult to recognize, investigate and prosecute. unlike many other crimes that occur at a specific moment in time and everyone when they see it happen knows that it is a crime stalking occurs over time usually through a series of the events. it is pernicious and often misunderstood. to some the individual acts of a stalker whether sending flowers or a text message are viewed as not threatening. but because stalking built over time and is a pattern with act after act it is terrifying to the victim. 46% of stalking victims fear not knowing what will happen next. that is a hard way to live your life. 29% feared the stalking will

never stop. for the victim the heart comes not just from being terrorized by being ignored even by the courts who are in a position to help but don't understand fully the pattern that makes up the stalking behavior. you will hear an example of this from hannah as she shares her courageous story with us. today not enough victims get the resources and help that they need. they are not where it is available and orderly -- 40% of stalking victims report the crime. the fear that stalking instils farms not only the victim but family beat the friends and community at large. the statistics speak for themselves. one in eight stalking victims lose time at work due to their victimization. one in seven end up moving as a result of the victimization. put an end to stalking is more than ending a critical activity. when a person feel safer and is protected that person is a better parent, better child and more productive at work, school

because they contrived and are not afraid. this is about making our communities and neighborhood feel like places where people can build a home, business and life free from fear. because our victims need support, because stalking can occur anywhere, and because stalking impact us all is critical we enlist as many people as possible in a fight to end stalking. we at the justice department through advocacy and speaking of all across the country are committed to helping communities, employers, law-enforcement partners and others better recognize stalking behavior, understand it is a crime and provide the tools that they need to help us deal with that crime. i want to thank all of you in the audience and the panel who worked in this field and who support endless advocacy, to daily take on the surge of stockings -- stalking and other forms of violence. i applaud the work you have done and look forward to a successful

2011 for our joint efforts to end the violence. thank you. [applause] >> thank you so much, tom. i am honored to be with you today to highlight national stalking awareness month. we have a leadership of the department, associate attorney general and attorney-general, he has had to leave given the late start tomorrow but i want to thank him for making time to be with us and to be with this incredible panel. these folks at the department of justice lend their voices to raise awareness about a crime that is so often misunderstood in our society, indy all too off invisible. stalking is intended to instill fear in victims. it does all that and more. it is a dangerous and often deadly crime and often an intersection between stalking

and even more violent crimes. research shows those who stop their partners are four times more likely to physically assault there partners. and 6 times more likely to solve their partners. the connection between stalking and murder of female victims is alarming. tragically 54% of victims reported stalking to law enforcement before they were killed. for professionals who work on these cases some of whom are here this morning, you understand how important it is to take the crime of stalking seriously. from my own experience as a judge in new hampshire i witnessed the killing effect stalking can have on its victims. i had cases involving high school students being stalked by a teacher. a young woman whose rapist was being released from jail being stalked by this person from prison. an elderly woman going through a

divorce being stalked by her soon-to-be ex and everything in between. our domestic violence fatality review committee demonstrated many cases where the victim was stock prior to her death. a judge first recognize the connection between stalking and other behavior is and the first to propose legislation in california in 1993. thousands of victims all over the country are receiving services including protection orders through our 21 discretionary and formula grant programs. as we continue to do a better job identifying cases and training professionals about stalking i hope we will get better at designing more specific victims center gravity's for those in need and more importantly begin to do a better job documenting and preventing stop stalking cases in the first instance. many are seeking assistance from

the stalking resource center, at the national center for victims of crime and we are fortunate have rebecca here this morning and we will hear from her in a few moments. you will also hear from hannah perryman and her mother deb who sought help in their time of need from two professionals, law enforcement officer and social worker from the illinois police department who worked so hard to keep hannah perryman and her family safe. her story documents the power of an effective response to stalking. when and when hannah reached out others to chris seriously and worked to regain her sense of safety and indeed her sense of self. when you are stalked your sense of safety and well-being are compromised. your life is thrown into an unpredictable reality. a maze of unsettling events wondered what is around the corner or outside your window or even being subjected to threats

on your life. i am humbled by hannah's courage. i am truly humbled by your courage to stand up and speak out and help shine a light on this insidious crime. it is my hope your story will go along way toward educating the public and all of us professionals as well and engaging the public in continued work to end this crime. it is my privilege to introduce rebecca directy, senior associate of the resource center at the national center of crime. she is responsible for trading law enforcement of the personal prosecutors, victim advocates and other professionals including judges about all aspects of stalking including the use of technology to stalk and the relationship between stalking and sexual assault. prior to joining the center for victims of crime she worked as social worker, victim advocates

and public school teacher. she received her master's in social work from the university of texas at austin and her bachelor's in women's studies from the twin cities. please welcome rebecca directy. >> thank you. good morning. it is an honor to be here today as representative from the stalking resource center. i want to thank the attorney general and associate attorney general for having this year day. on behalf of all stalking victims your presence here and willingness to host this event shows everyone that stalking victims matter to the department of justice and this issue is going to be taken seriously. i would also like to thank you for your leadership and all your hard working staff especially our grand monitor, kevin sweeney for supporting our efforts

across the country. as director carmen mentioned that stalking resource center finds training and technical assistance to criminal justice officials, community members, members of armed services across the country and we have gone international as well in the last couple years. we train individuals and professionals how to recognize stalking because as has been mentioned sometimes it is misunderstood and the dynamics are hard to understand. we work with these professionals on how to recognize the crime and better investigate and prosecute and keep victims safer and most importantly how to hold them accountable. over the past decade since the stalking resource center has been around we have seen great progress in how communities respond to this crime. we have seen more efforts of community coordinated responses including criminal-justice and social service workers, family

workers coming together, probation parole, all coming together to respond to this crime. this january president obama signed the first-ever presidential proclamation designating january as stalking awareness month. we had some tremendous successes for a crime that is relatively new. wasn't until the early 90s that the first stalking law was signed in california and by the end of the '90s of 50 states and territories had stalking loss. there is a great deal of work left to be done. stalking is a misunderstood crime. you heard a little bit about 3.4 million people stalked in this country. given those rates are so high is amazing everywhere i go

communities across this country, how much misinformation is out there about stalking. stalking is not taking seriously. it is seen as a joke or not a big deal, the victims just ignored it it would go away and end but this is not true. stalked -- stalking is a series crime leaving victims feeling isolated and frustrated and evermore ways perpetrators are engaging with their victims and trying to harass them especially through the use of technology that we will hear about later. it has been mentioned stalking is closely connected to other interpersonal crimes like sexual assault, intimate parter violence and dating violence but also homicide is important to remember that the first stalking awareness month commemorated in 2004 was in honor of peggy klinky who for years was stalked by a man across county lines and state lines and finally murdered

by that stalking -- stalker. she reached out for us and asked and demanded that we raise more awareness about this crime and bring greater understanding and have response to assist victims of this crime. we are fortunate today to be able to learn more about experiences from hannah unlike can't tell you what an honor it is to be here with her. we at the stalking resource center work with so many professionals but don't often get the chance to interact enough with the victims and survivors and especially to hear how their cases turned out. i will transition back over here. you are holding the microphone. i think we are all good.

has has been mentioned, hannah perryman is a survivor of stalking. she experienced something no one should have to go through. when she was younger she was insulted by her perpetrator and then tormented by that offender. this defender stalked her for years being a constant nuisance and constant presence in her life. interfering, engaging in behaviors that were a nuisance and fred to your family and i am sure you are wondering what these behaviors were. what does this crime look like? here is what is difficult about the crime of stalking. a lot of times stalking is comprised of non criminal acts. it can be comprised of things that almost any average teenage use can do like writing by someone's house, texting them, sending messages through social networking sites, sending

messages through third parties. if you think about it, sending those messages, giving gifts, riding a bike, that is not a crime. when you put all of those behavior's together in a course of conduct or pattern of behavior directed at somebody -- specific person, meant to cause them harm or to feel fear that is when you begin to have that crime of stalking. so hannah, i want everyone to hear in your words a little more about your story and what happened. would you be willing to share a little bit with us? >> i think it is on. okay. it is hard to talk about.

pretty terrifying. it is terrifying that you don't know what is going to happen next or what is going to happen to you. you are afraid to be in your own home, afraid to go outside, afraid someone is going to hurt you even when you are not looking. you constantly have to be on the lookout, looking over your shoulder, making sure you are safe. even your family. my little sister's i had to be outside with them. if they are outside our would be there with them. i didn't know what this person was going to do. do this back-and-forth. i speak for all of us, we think you were so brave and courageous to be here and share your story with a. >> tell us what that was like for you compared to with your friends might have been dealing

with. this is something that not a lot of youth experience. >> they said what is that? they don't know what happened. i tried to explain it to them and it was kind of hard. i don't think they thought of me any differently but they couldn't believe that i was afraid every day, every night, every moment of my life. it is so scary, i feel bad for you, why? it has been happening for ever. kind of weird that other people are, crazy. i don't feel any different. >> would you become frustrated when you tried to speak out about this? >> yes. it was difficult because i felt

like i wasn't getting any help even though there were tons of people trying to help me. somehow she just kept being out there and going by the house for hours at night when i was at sleep. i would wake up and she would be out there. it was frustrating that she was still there even though there were people trying to make sure that she wasn't. >> i am wondering if we can hear from your mom who has been a good support through all of this. can you tell us in your words with this experience has been like for your family? >> it was a very difficult thing. one of those things you think will never happen to you. i thought i was living a cliche. this should be happen. these things are not supposed to happen. so once you get over that and go i have to take responsibility for what is going on and figure out a way to help my child and

protect our family, it opened my eyes. when it first started happening my husband and i had a conversation. the first assault occurred and this person would ride their bikes for maybe at first fifteen, twenty minutes in front of our house. it was my husband who is said to you think that bothers the girl or should we do something about this? we had this conversation and decided if they didn't bring it up we were going to let it go because what am i going to do? call detectives and say she is writing her bike in front of our house? i didn't want -- it was alarming for us but not to them. we were not going to bring it up. two weeks later at the most, hanna said it really bothers me. i contacted the detectives and i felt right away he took it

seriously but explained to me she is not breaking the law. there is no lobbying broken. there's really nothing i can do. if it continues we will talk to her and see what we can do. all of us were kind of like i think it will just stop. this is a normal kid if thing and maybe not even name that us and it did continue and continued to escalate. we were talking last night about essentially this occurred in december of 2004 when the first thing happened. all of 2005 and 2006, 2007 through october of 2008 this person continued to be in front of our house on the sidewalk. the longest time was six hours. just continuously pacing and riding the bike. there would be swearing, making animal noises, we think so that

-- i am not this person but the idea is we would know that she was there. to make sure to get our attention in the middle of the night. hannah would wake us up and sure enough she was in front of the house. it just continued like that. they would go to our two younger children who would be playing with other kids and things get set back like so exo says they want to try to kill hannah, they would come home and tell us that. until the first thing happened there was nothing we could do. there was -- it was frustrating to all of us. and never felt alone. i never felt of detective syre

-- they all wanted to do something but there was nothing that could be done and something happened so we were waiting all those years for something to happen, something that could help us. we hope it would stop or something would happen. >> what strikes me about that is your language -- your experiences are too common for those who experienced stalking. or intimate parter violence and sexual assault. they continue to terrorize the person by engaging in these behaviors. the perpetration of that original crime to keep that victim fearful.

sometimes it happens that before anything worse even happens there will be these stalking behavior. they want to something to help. something worse needs to happen. talk about how you became involved with hannah and her family. >> january of 2005, dealt with the arrest of the offender in this case, the court for the offender, that was screened out. to the extent of one this

offender's pity asians were, after that initial assault, i made myself available and hopefully conveyed that i was available anytime because i could see the distress in the family and this is a good family and they were trying to do the right thing. they were very hopeful that this behavior was going to stop. as we all were. and initially we were looking for that to happen. ..

>> but this is a classic case as i see it. and i learn more. >> you know, we find at the stalking resource center that's actually common as well, although the 50 states and districts, all the territories have stalking laws, a lot of people -- well intentioned, very hard working people in the criminal justice system and social services system -- still don't really know what to do with this crime or how we exactly address it. and so they find themselves having to educate themselves, but then educate their colleagues. sometimes their superiors. and did you find that that was your experience as well, that you had to do some sort of self-education? >> oh, absolutely. absolutely. absolutely had to do that. but at the same time the laws in illinois were what the laws in illinois were at the time. and that it was unfortunate, but until the offender escalated

their behavior and became vocally or physically -- thank god that didn't happen -- but vocally or physically threatening, there wasn't a lot that could be done criminally. >> i want to just point something out. there was, actually, this -- i remember saying to my husband, do you think that this is stalking? and my husband, no, no way, you know? we live in streamwood, that doesn't happen. and i remember reaching out because i'm pretty tenacious. and i started doing some research about stalking, and that's when i found the stalking resource center. i don't know who -- so i e-mailed the stalking center and said, this is what's going on. because i wanted somebody to tell me it was stalking because i couldn't believe -- but i was pretty sure. then i told my husband, see? it is stalking. it is stalking. they gave us all the resources and how to document things, then i felt more comfortable bringing it to direct syre and saying,

this is stalking. the thing that's good as far as naming it, you know, thoughing it and naming it, that, for us, i think, was one of the toughest things was, you know, you just don't want to believe that this is happening to you. so the resource center was very helpful to kind of initiate that, at least for me and how to kind of deal with it. so i just wanted to bring that up. >> well, thank you. yes, for those who might not know, the theme of stalking awareness month is know it, name it, stop it, and be we'll talk a little bit more about the resources for folks that are interested in reading a little bit more about that. ms. nelson, you were the social worker that became involved with the perrymans. it is absolutely critical that there are victim advocates, social service professionals who work with victims and their families. can you tell us a little bit about your involvement? >> sure. i became involved, obviously, detective syre sort of brought me in and caught me up to speed

on what was going on. so i think initially just meeting the family and trying to provide support to them and ways to sort of deal with and handle the fear and the confusion. you know, the laws in the illinois at the time were very specific to stalking and the criteria and the statutes. so explaining that, of course, and not being able to really provide that sort of support through the criminal justice system was a little frustrating for me being a victim advocate. so i think once it had gotten to the point where, you know, we needed to truly get a court order to keep the offender away from the residents and from hannah, once we did that, i feel like that maybe was a bit of a turning point for them. >> absolutely. and tell us a little bit about what was the most frustrating for you working on this case. >> i think probably the most us frustrating was just not being able to, you know, the social worker wanting to sort of have

the answer and help and be there for them. and the level of and the sort of intense fixation and obsession of this offender, the unusual circumstances this which everything came about -- in which everything came about not being able to get them what they needed and to help them through the process the way that, perhaps, i thought should have maybe been be done. >> absolutely. so you all have, actually, mentioned this quite a bit about illinois' stalking law at the time. and just to sort of let folks know here, hannah, you had a major role in actually changing that law. can you tell us about that? >> i just told my story to my legislators. i e-mailed them first and then i had to tell my story and had to go to springfield and everything. and just be there so that the legislators, they could see that, you know, i was really in trouble, and i needed help, stuff like that. so, i don't know, just kind

of -- >> it just happened. [laughter] >> she's so humble about this, but she had a major role in working with your legislators, working with folks at the attorney general's office to change the stalking law in illinois. and that's a pretty big deal and something that you can be very proud of. >> thank you. >> i think you shouldn't have to take anymore civics classes. [laughter] >> next year. >> deb, what was that like for you all going through? >> oh, you know what? i, i know we make light of it, but seriously, we told our story to representative yes, crespo ad senator nolan via e-mail. their representatives pretty much got on it right away, and they asked us follow-up questions. honestly, it was hard for us to really describe what the hole this legislation was. it was hard for us to verbalize,

so we recommended that the legislators or -- yeah, our legislators get ahold of this, you know, detective syre and also cook county, the state's attorney's office because they understood legally what the hole was and how it had to be fixed. so really when we say that it was really that easy, i mean, it really was for us. i mean, it wasn't easy to tell the story. it was not easy to tell the story, it's not easy especially to go to springfield and testify before the house and senate to get the bill onto the floor. that was not easy. but it was such a small part of what happened, you know? the cook county attorney's office wrote this bill, and it fixed what had to be fixed, and it addressed more victims, and we went down and testified, and i think this six months it was passed, and it was passed unanimously. so i think, you know, as sad as it is, i think that we were the right story to, clearly, show people where this hole was, and

they plugged it. perfectly. and hopefully now more people will not have to endure what we did. >> i think that's really amazing, and you should be very, very proud. you know, one of the things that has come up and that we always stress in this our trainings -- in our trainings is the importance of what we call a coordinated community response. no one agency in the criminal justice system, in social services, community members, no one agency can do everything to keep a victim safe and to hold the offender accountable. so you all worked together. tell us a little bit about how you saw the importance and the good that can come from the system when everyone's working together. >> well, if i may, from my perspective having the law enforcement aspect, the criminal justice system, support system like myself to really be able to

sort of make a coordinated response to provide all of the support and services that they need in order to make it through what really was a terrifying and trying time for them. and without that, with all of the pieces, sort of, and all of the players there i feel like it might not have gone in the direction that it went in. >> absolutely. >> i'll second that. if i could just add that having dealt with this as long as, as long as we had initially, it was just me with the family, things began to really move when i added karyn to the mix. i should have added her sooner, so i would recommend that in the future -- [laughter] but they really, you know, it sped up the process, and it helped the process. and, you know, she's obviously a better person to talk to about some things than i am. and the social workers are awesome working with the police. so that was great as a police

officer. also trying to talk to the state's attorney as well, and as much as you can press the issue, you should do that, and then, i mean, as far as families go for police to work with, you know, this is, this is the ultimate. i mean, great family, great mom, obviously, but dad, kids, everybody. so that just makes it easier as well. >> great. thank you. hannah, did you want to add something? >> i think your mom wants you to add something. [laughter] >> no, i just, i don't want to, you know, i just -- the only thing i would add to that is that they, it was really, it was a terrifying thing, it lasted six years, but i never felt -- i never -- i didn't want to speak for you, is the thing. i never felt like they weren't doing enough. they made themselves so available. i had their cell phones.

i know detective syre responded to some of the things when he wasn't on duty. i got to the point where i would call him instead of 911. >> and i didn't mind it. [laughter] >> you know, there were -- the thing i would have done better, that i should have done better was i should have called every time. because there were hundreds of more things that i should have called and documented. but you kind of feel, i kind of felt like i was bothering them even though they never made me feel like that. i didn't want to take resources away, you know, call 911 and say i have a kid riding their bike this front of my house, i have a kid, you know, pacing in the front -- you just feel silly, you know, doing that. but now in retrospect i really wish i would have done more of that, and that was the only other thing i was going to add. >> hannah, in one of the stories in the local newspaper that i read about you when they talked to you about your case, you

said, i'm just sick of this. i'm sick of this. so i want to ask you sort of what your advice would be to other young people who might be experiencing this. >> tough question. >> i threw you a curveball. i heard you were good at those though. [laughter] >> yeah. just don't do anything to them. that's definitely one of them because if you do something to them, then you're going to jail, and they're just, you know, laughing at you like, ha, got you in jail. i'm not in jail. so it's kind of like just play it cool and, you know, be calm, you know? talk to people especially, you know? get your feelings out. definitely. >> thank you. thank you very much. you know, i want to be able to turn it over to one of our fabulous partners at the stalking resource center. it's an organization who we work with quite a bit, the safety net project at the national network

of domestic violence. we're fortunate to have the founder and directer here of the safety net project. and she's going to talk to us a little bit about what we mentioned before with the use of technology in stalking cases. thanks for being here, cindy. >> thank you, rebecca. it has truly been a fabulous partnership. since 2004 we've done about eight or nine national conferences together, and we're, in fact, hosting one in just a couple of weeks in gulf port, mississippi. next week. very shortly. we'll all be together in mississippi training together. the safety net project at the national network to end domestic violence, basically, looks at the intersection of technology and violence against women. we address everything from high-tech stalking which we are doing trainings, in fact, this week all over the state, all over the country. our team of five full-time staff are out there training. we've trained about 45,000 professionals, law enforcement/victim advocates, and our goal is to help

everybody sort of know it, name it and stop it. we want people to understand when technology is misused as part of stalking, domestic violence, sexual assault or dating abuse that it is still a crime. and, in fact, there's digital evidence involved that isn't there when the stalking is happening only in person because it's harder to have that digital trail. just a bit about some different ways technology is misused. it's misused pretty much p in every way that you can imagine because stalkers, they stalk us where we live our lives. and so if weaver living our lives in part on facebook, that's where the stalkers go. i frequently get asked by reporters, did cell phones cause dating violence? and i try not to laugh. because, no the, we had dating violence when i was in high school with no cell phones, and facebook did not start stalking, you know? i know that's a news flash for all of you, but stalking has occurred for millennium, and what we're finding is stalkers

go wherever we are. they follow the victim, and that's where they perpetrate harassment, threats, anything to cause fear, cause us to be afraid. what we're seeing this terms of prevalence is it's difficult to document. the first national stats that we had looking at the intersection of stalking and technology was from data that was collected in 2006 and came out, and the stalking study just a couple of years ago. and so it's four years old. and we know that technology has changed drastically. the other piece about that data is you can only report to a surveyor that stalking was misused if you know it was misused. so for spyware, which many stalkers put on a victim's computer so they can monitor every e-mail that's typed, every web site that is visited, you have to know it's there to tell a researcher that calls you that, yes, spyware was used. ironically, in 2006 almost a projected 300,000 victims were stalked with spyware four years ago. four years ago, about 83,000

people reported or projected that they were stalked using internet sites. i'm going to hazard a guess that that number will be far higher at this point now that we're all using facebook, myspace, social media at such higher rates. so, of course, that's happening at higher rates now. gps devices whether it be in a phone or on a car, they're being misused. pretty much any new good evening jet that -- gadget that helps us in this our lives can be used by a stalker. i'm pretty sure my e-book reader will be figured out how to use it as a stalking tool. e-mail is still a problem and still a challenge. we talked to a victim of stalking last week who had separated from the stalker. she sent an e-mail to a domestic violence stalking help-seeking organization, didn't realize that when she clicked on the link on her computer, it was still set up with her ex's e-mail account. so she sent a message. they replied, and the reply went to the stalker who promptly

called the victim and said, what are you doing? and so ten years ago when i founded the safety net project it was because a victim of stalking had e-mailed and asked for help. she said, i have to leave. if i don't leave this abusive relationship, i'm going to be killed. so she sent an e-mail and said i'm going to leave on saturday, can you help me? and she deleted that message thinking that was going to keep her safe. she didn't realize the stalker was checking her inbox. he found out she was planning to leave, and he killed her. ten years ago we were struggling we mail and stalking victims, and last week we were struggling with the same issue. so the newest technology is a struggle, but the older technology -- fax machines are still a struggle for victims because when you send a fax, it has the return number on it. so if a shelter sends something to the defense attorney, the return fax number's at the top showing where the victim's currently residing. so these are the kinds of things the safety net project has been

training on. we take calls from survivors, and what i wanted to briefly mention is a few things that you can do. first of all, we've got packets and materials over on the table. we are funded technical assistance provider by the department of justice, and we have created a high-tech stalking tip sheet and an online privacy and safety tips for you. and with some funding from one of our corporate partners, the mary kay foundation, we created a safety planning and technology cd that's both in spanish and english, and it has all forms of technology on it. feel free to take those with you. we do ask that you not give the cds to a survivor to take home because if that computer does have spyware on it, that could be dangerous. other things you can do is trust your instincts. if you know someone who's being stalked and they somehow my stalker knows too much about my computer activities, it's incredibly likely that it's spyware, or it could be that they know the password the victim's using for e-mail or the

computer. for law enforcement we trained many, many be years ago sergeant mark winnarck from montgomery, tennessee, and he came back to his jurisdiction the next week after the stalking conference. a victim came in and said somehow my exknows everything i'm doing on the computer, and he had just learned about spyware, in fact, seen it demonstrated at the conference. so he goes over and interviews the offender. the offender lets him in, says come on in. suave, charming, fabulous. computer equipment, cds all over the living room. so mark says, so, you're into computers. and the offender says, well, yeah. and he looks over and sees e-blaster made by specter which is what we had demonstrated the week before sitting on top of the stack of computer equipment. this stalker was so arrogant that he left his spyware sitting in plain sight of the cop. meanwhile, the sergeant had just learned about it, arrested him and brought it to court in rural tennessee. the judge understood that this,

indeed, was stalking. and so it is possible that whatever's happening around technology doesn't fit the stalking law. so what we tell law enforcement and prosecutors is don't give up. keep looking. dig through that code book because there is a law somewhere using the computer to commit a crime eavesdropping, unauthorized access, hacking. there's lots of technology laws out there that fit stalking with technology when the stalking law may or may not. and so we've seen some really creative charging that works. and often the eavesdropping laws are felonies when a stalking charge might only be a misdemeanor, so definitely dig around. and if you're a survivor of stalking, please, talk to a trained victim advocate, east at your police department or a community-of based victim advocate and safety plan because reaching out for help may be, actually, an escalation point. especially if stalker or is monitoring that computer that the victim might be using to reach out. and for young people we're seeing texting as a new weapon

of stalkers. in fact, in one study it turned out that one in this sixteens reported being texted ten times or more an hour or between midnight and five in the morning. that's not love. that's sleep deprivation is what that is. ten times an hour is every six minutes throughout the middle of the night. and so, you know, there are lots and lots of strategies whether it be changing phone plans, popping the battery out through the middle of the night which i know for young people is difficult, but i get a little twitch when i'm too far from my blackberry, i understand. mine's out in the chairs. i'm doing okay, but this session's almost over. without further ado, i want to encourage you to reach out, get materials, talk to the stalking resource center or the safety net project. we're happy to help in any way, and be i really am just so honored to be up here with all of you because your story is going to headache it better for lots of stalk -- make it better

for lots of stalking survivors. so thank you, hannah, and her incredible team that helped her safely survive a stalking experience. [applause] >> thank you very much, cindy. i look forward to being in mississippi with you next week. we have a web site that's stalkingawarenessmonth.org. really easy to remember. there's a ton of information about how you as an individual can get involved with this cause, how you can raise awareness in your community. and we even broke it down that if you have five minutes, ten minutes, an hour, we have different ideas on what you can do, so i, please, encourage you to check that out. i also want to really thank the perrymans and your great team of folks here. it's really, really wonderful to meet you in person after having talked to you so many times on the phone and then, also, see how you all came together. hannah, you are an amazing, amazing young woman, and i think you're going to do really great. do you want to talk about what's

next for you, a little bit about your scholarship? >> off again. i got a full ride to the university of missouri in st. louis for softball, going to pitch there. then i'm going to go into criminology -- [applause] >> thanks. [laughter] go into criminology. i don't know what kind kind or t i'm going to do, but definitely criminology, helping other people get through stuff like me and, you know, help everybody. >> that's really wonderful. thank you, hannah. and, deb, thank you so much, too, for all the support that you have offered her, and i imagine as an educator for the awareness that you're also bringing to your community around this issue. and i have to say, detective, thank you on bee half of the social workers and victim advocates for being a cool cop because sometimes that's hard for some of us, so we really appreciate you for doing that. and, ms. nelson, just for being an awesome social worker, thank

you so much. and thank you to all of you for your attention here today. >> in closing, i want to thank everybody for being here, everybody for participating. for our panelists, ms. nelson, detective syre, you have shown what a great leadership can happen at the local level and the ability to work together, which is extraordinary. you've made change happen by working with the perrymans and seeing that through your community and now illinois and elsewhere around the country. ms. perryman, for those of you who don't know, is a schoolteacher. and for you to share these lessons here with your school, i think, will be very important. i want to thank you for being here. for han that, maybe we'll see you at ovw some day. [laughter] i really am truly honored to be on a stage with you. your courage is extraordinary, so we are all indebted to you for taking the step and stepping up here to do this, so thank you. i'd also like to thank rebecca dreke and cindy southworth and

for your support and leadership here at the department. and i'd also like to thank so many who are here in the audience. i would be remiss if i didn't thank my for -- staff for working so hard, but also the staffs of the attorney general and also the office of public affairs and maine justice facilities because all of this is a huge group effort. we are indebted to all of you for helping to make today possible. i think we all know that much remains to be done if we're truly going to address stalking in the way it deserves to be addressed. we're inspired by stories we've heard from the perrymans today, and we're reminded then that when you take action, change is possible. hannah, you and your team are the quintessential example of the spirit of the violence against women act, and you show us that when you have courage and you're willing to step up, lives can change, lives can be saved, lives can be improved. and we will take that message home with all of us today.

i want to thank everybody, again, for being here today. i hope you've been as inspired as we have, and i look forward to you joining us in addressing this most critical mission. thank you so much for being here. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> coming up in about an hour we'll get remarks from house speaker john boehner as he gives his weekly legislative briefing. live coverage set for 11:15 eastern here on c-span2. chinese president hu jintao's visit to washington, d.c. comes to a close today with a speech on u.s./china relations before a gathering of businessmen. former secretary of state henry kissinger will introduce the president. live coverage of that gets under way at 12:30 eastern here on c-span2. >> tuesday president obama delivers the state of the union address to a joint session of congress. c-span's live coverage begins at 8 p.m. eastern with our preview program followed by the president's speech at 9. then the republican response and your phone calls live on c-span, c-span radio and online at

c-span.org. you can also watch the president's address on c-span2 followed by reaction from members of congress from statuary hall. >> this weekend on american history tv on c-span3, historians discussed the first age of terror, domestic terrorism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. from the american historical association conference. learn of the century-old traditions of preparing for presidential and military horse-drawn funeral caissons and greg carr explains how former slaves escaped and started new laws. experience american history tv on c-span3 all weekend, every weekend. see the complete schedule online at c-span.org/history, or you can also press the c-span alert button and have our schedules e-mailed to you. >> the u.s. conference of mayors this week focused on jobs and the economy. remarks now from los angeles

mayor antonio ri goes saw and chicago mayor richard daley. this is about 50 minutes, and we'll follow this up with the opening news conference. >> good morning, everyone. i'm elizabeth couts, i'm the mayor of the city of burnsville, minnesota, and i'm the president of the u.s. conference of mayors. how wonderful it is to see all of you here this morning. i'm delighted that this morning we're kicking off the first-ever special session of mayors, business council members and work force development council members focused on jobs. this has been a very important issue for me during my presidency and also for the mayors of america. so it's important that we are here this morning to come together to have this kind of conversation the we're going to -- if we're going to really make sure that we build a robust

metro economy. as we all know, the recession has really devastated our families. double-digit unemployment has dried or really -- destroyed or really created great hardship for families where they've lost their homes and haven't had the resources for their children and to make sure ha they are healthy. and so it is a time when putting america back to work has become the paramount, important issue for us, and work force development has become the key priority for us. as i look to the future and where we're at today, it is important and paramount for all of us to make sure that our

people are trained and retrained for 21st century jobs. and some of the jobs that our people have lost are not coming back. some of those jobs that they were skilled for are not transferable skills, and you know that better than anyone else. so this is an issue that is of great importance to me as president of the conference of mayors, and it is why i made the issue of speaking loudly and roaring like a lion about the reauthorization of the work force investment act not only here in washington, but in burnsville and be in minnesota. mayors want to leverage their work force investment policy in concert with their economic development agenda. so i'm very excited about the

first time interactive session because it brings all of the players together; mayors, business people, work force development professionals to discuss the key ways in which we have been successful in the getting people back to work. and, you see, if we don't come together and have this kind of dialogue, then we are working in our silos, and we're not coming together to make sure that we are speaking the same language, we have shared meaning, and we have common goals and objectives to achieve what we these to do. what we need to do. so we need to dissolve the silos and have this discussion. and so i'm excited about what's going to come out of this, i look forward to the kinds of outcomes that this discussion will produce. and then all of us know that we have to deliver. and one of the things that we can do is to influence the

lawmakers here in washington that we need to create the kind of environment that makes all of this possible. and so i am so grateful that the strength of the u.s. conference of mayors is having these kinds of opportunities. for all of us to come together to have this discussion and so that city leaders in their cities can take what we're doing here and replicate that in the work that we do. so let's get started. i'd now like to turn over the podium to karen sid nick, directer of the office of comoiment development for the city of baltimore, and the current president of the conference of mayors work force development council. karen. [applause] >> well, it is truly a privilege

to represent the work force development council, and on behalf of the wdc, i want to thank mayor kautz for inviting us and for really having the excitement and championing everything we're doing for work force development because i don't think over the next few days you're going to hear a word more frequently used than jobs. it is all about jobs. and to be able to be here today and not only share what the local work force delivery system has in its tool kit, to help put people back to work, but to hear from the mayors across the country, what kinds of things they're doing. because that really is what today's session is all about. it's learning from each other and taking those best practices and figuring out if it's work withing over there in ft. worth, maybe it's going to work in baltimore. let me give that a try.

we're at a place in our, our economy where we really do need to be innovative. we need to be creative. we need to do things differently to get our citizens back to work, and i think today's session is sort of reflecting that. we're going to do things a little bit differently today. so i'm very excited. i'd like to ask the members of the work force development council if they would just raise their hands. these are the, these are the folks across the country that do the work, make things happen with businesses, help businesses get qualified candidates. they're the folks who open doors at their one-stop centers so that every single day thousands and thousands of individuals who are out of work who never thought they'd find themselves out of work have a place to come and access support and help, assistance and retraining if that's what's necessary. so we're pleased to be here

today and share that information, and we're here, also, to learn. so, again, i want to thank the mayor, mayor kautz, and certainly the business council for sponsoring this breakfast with us today. and i'd like to bring up steve coa roan that -- corona, the president and ceo of job works of ft. wayne. he's also the chair of the u.s. conference of mayors' work force development council's resource development committee. steve? [applause] >> good morning, folks. we're going to have some fun this morning. please, continue to enjoy your breakfast. i know you've got a very busy day, and we need to get you out of here a couple of minutes before 9:00. let me restate what we're going to do here. the purpose of our breakfast is to develop a better understanding of our national work force system, the importance of developing skilled workers and job opportunities in your city. now, we believe the best way to

accomplish our task is to understand in in the very short time that we have this morning is to understand what you are doing in your city, what you did well in 2010 and what you hope to accomplish in 2011. now, we're going to capture and share this information using a game show approach, so if you want, you can call me alex trebek or for those of you who have longer memories, wink martindale. [laughter] here's what we're going to do. we have four mayors who have agreed to serve as contestants. [laughter] and i'm not sure if -- i'm not oprah, i can't give away cars or super bowl tickets. sorry, folks. it probably would be wrong for you in your position, but here's what we're going to do. as you walkedded into the room -- walked into the room, many of you were given an electronic handheld device, i call it a clicker.

and so it's going to allow you to answer -- we have four questions about the work force system, and those questions will then lead us to a very interactive discussion. once i give you these instructions, i'm going to walk the floor with a wireless mic and pick up comments from you. so as you, as you are thinking about your first answer, we'll introduce our first contestant. that mayor will then give us their answer. at the same time, you're going to see a screen pop up behind me or on -- i guess the four screens here. and right now we're going to show you the test question to make sure that you know how to use the clicker. although if you have a television at home, you've got to be able to guess it. so here it is. here's the test question, and it is mary had a little -- and if you have the american version of this children's story, you should be able to answer it. i think you see the options

there, one, two, three, four. i think it's, what, dog, elephant, donkey and lamb. so i want you now i to take, those of you who have clickers, punch in what you believe the right answer to be. here's the format as you're doing that. also, by the way, if you believe you've made a mistake after consultation with people at your table -- [laughter] you then can change your answer, and our clicker will then register the last answer that you have recorded. you have to answer before the clock runs down to zero. if not, we'll not be able to capture your answer. so we've got a mayor who's going to give us his answer while you're deliberating. we're then going to bring up another mayor or member of a business council or somebody from the work force development council to give us the correct answer, and then we'll begin to talk about it. so where are we with the test question? >> [inaudible]

>> you can either just press the number and send or just press the number. okay. test question has been up. >> [inaudible] >> three, two, one, end. you'll see a graph as to how you answered and responded to this to make sure. [laughter] now, it sounds like we may need to do some remediation back home. [laughter] now, again, this was a test question. and i can't -- i don't have a monitor in front of me, but i'm guessing that not everybody answered lamb? [laughter] did we have a couple of elephants and donkeys answered? all right. so that's the way it work withs. it's real simple. you'll see the questions posed. you'll then with able to answer. you have 75 seconds. you can huddle with other people at your room -- at your table, excuse me, and as you're doing

that, we'll talk to a mayor, get his guess and then we'll see what you answered as an audience, and then we'll get the correct answer, and then we'll talk about work force development. okay. i'm going to grab a wireless microphone, and we're going to start this contest. it's all about jobs. and so the first question is coming up, and i'm going to -- and so our first contestant is mayor frank ortis from pembroke pines. he -- [applause] some people -- all right. mayor, and this is -- >> i got that right. >> okay. [laughter] okay. let me pose -- yes, this is the right. we're right. okay. mayor. >> yes. >> as a teenager, what was the first job for pay held by that

mow ma -- tacoma mayor strickland? before you answer that, you now have -- and the clock is going to start ticking -- you now have 75 seconds, tables, to figure out what mayor marilyn strickland did as a teenager. so as you're talking, frank, what was your first job? >> my first job was a bag boy in a grocery store in new york. >> how much did you make? >> i think it was a dollar and change. >> can a dollar and change. what did you learn from that experience? >> i learned how to bag food proposerly. [laughter] -- properly. and i learned how to interact. you know, you can't predict the future, but you can prepare for it. never thought i'd be mayor. there i was preparing for mayor by bagging food for people -- >> so you were shaking hands, registering voters. >> yes. >> okay. hopefully, everybody has registered their response. they have four possible answers. mayor strickland as a teenager delivered papers. she groomed horses, she may have been a ticket taker at a movie theater or a cashier at

mcdonald's. and we're down to about 19 seconds. what do you think the mayor did when she was a teenager to earn money? >> ticket taker at a movie theater. >> you sure about that? >> no. [laughter] but that's my guess. >> okay. all right. so, mayor ortis -- >> do i have a lifeline? [laughter] >> no. that's only on real tv. okay. so here is what the audience answered, and you can see the chart -- the graphs. and so it seems like the green graph is the largest. and, marilyn, mayor, why don't you come up here? i think that because you're from the northwest, people think that you did something outdoors. would you, please, tell us what you did as a teenager? >> i was the movie ticket taker -- [cheers and applause] at the box office. be. [applause] >> did you like the job? >> i loved the job. it was a summer that star wars came out. that dates me completely, i know.

[laughter] but it was a great experience with customer service. it was very stressful because the lines were incredibly long, and it was definitely about multitasking, so it prepared me well. >> how long did you hold that job? >> one summer. >> okay. tell me a little wit about your summer -- bit about your summer youth program this past year in tacoma. >> it's really interesting, because we had $2.3 million in 2009. we employed 1300 youth. on average they took home about $2500. they used the money to pay bills for their families, to buy school supplies and do a lot of things, and these were low-income and minority youths as well. >> that's very impressive. >> thank you. >> what are you planning this summer? >> we have to be a little more creative because spund funding has dried up, we're trying to get the business community involved and help them provide internships and work to learn. >> sounds like a great idea. i've got a question for everybody in the audience, as a teenager, did you hold a job? raise your hand if you held a job.

nearly everybody in the room had a job as a teenager. let me tell you today, mayors, that the rate today, the unemployment rate for young people is 25%. so if you can imagine that, and you know this back home, we've got a lot of people that aren't working. and that's a shame. that is a shame. okay. i also want to call up mayor pedro cigara. and, yes, thank you for your answer. [applause] you did it correctly. [applause] you're new in the position, and you've got some great things happening in your city of hartford. >> absolutely. and i volunteered because i know most of you are much more my senior, and i wanted to spare you the embarrassment and, you know, figured it would be a good way to bond with you folks. [laughter] >> this i know that you have a very close relationship with your work force board. i know you've already talked to your new governor. you're very concerned about funding for next year for summer

jobs? >> absolutely. absolutely. we had this past year we leveraged some of our own funding, about a million dollars, along with about $2 million from the corporate sec or to have and from the state, and we are able to employ about 1800 students during the summer. we're afraid that for a city our size which is one of the top poorest in the country which families use the summer job program as supplement, that we might be in danger of losing that, and we want to expand, not contract. >> this is an issue near and dear to your heart. i heard you had a tough upbringing. >> absolutely. if it wasn't for my job in the bronx during one of the worst periods of time, i probably wouldn't be here right now. >> thanks for your input. thank you, mayor. [applause] i want to bring up phil -- as you might imagine, new york city runs the largest summer jobs program in the country, and i know that for the past couple

years you've run programs for youth numbering 40-50,000 folks. no summer job money in federal legislation. what's new york city going to be doing in the summer of 2011? >> well, like a lot of cities around the room, it's going to be a tough year for us, so we'll be lucky if we get to a third of the young people with jobs. we all know the prospects for young people that don't have summer employment, the effects on their schooling, lifelong earnings, so we're engaging our private sector, we're engaging our state, we're working hard at the federal level. but we really want to rally the nation and the city around youth employment. >> other mayors from around, in the room that have great ideas about summer youth programs. show of hands, and we'll walk this microphone to you. right there. back to -- good morning, and identify yourself for us. please, stand up. >> good morning, everyone. i'm mayor linda thompson from the capital city of pennsylvania. what we've done is taken our

parks and rec and enrichment department and made that an opportunity for our youth to be playground instructors, swimming instructors and also mentors for other young kids on our playgrounds. >> so you've taken p the route of developing local partnerships. >> absolutely. absolutely, and we just launched a program called connecting, inspiring and teaching youth so we can get adults in this our lives. they're called mentors now, so we're asking the business community as well to get involved to be able to shadow the young kids and teach them work experience as a shadowing opportunity. >> great program. we're going to take a look at a video, and this is going to highlight what los angeles did this past summer. and you will see one of your colleagues in the video. so let's roll the video. the program is called, "hire los angeles youth." los angeles, california. here's the video. ♪ >> i'm clay, i'm 17. >> my name is eduardo, and i am

17. >> be i'm 17. >> i want to be a nurse in the army. >> i want to be in the biomedics. >> [inaudible] >> [inaudible] show me that i can do it. >> i'm thinking about being a nurse. ♪ >> the benefit of this program is that it exposes young people to work. it nurtures and develops a work ethic. it provides young people with new experiences. >> there's things i learned that -- [inaudible] >> really want these young people to succeed, and you'll never have anybody work harder for you than a young person. and, like, they're being given an opportunity --

[inaudible] >> it feels good, all the hard work. >> me knowing that i'm doing something good is great. put it no other way. >> now you have young people who are attached to work. they're attached the to the idea of working. if they didn't know, they might not ever get there. ♪ [applause] >> 10,000 young people working this summer in the city of los angeles. >> and i think that -- [inaudible] as much as possible that if they work hard, they can do anything. >> i'll have more ability and skills that i didn't have before. >> if it wasn't for this program, i don't think i'd -- [inaudible] >> you get that motivation. if you're watching tv -- [inaudible] when you go out to the community and you get a job, you're like,

i want to do something. >> you get rewarded. and that made me feel good because that tells me i'm going to do something with my life. i'm not just going to sit down and -- [inaudible] ♪ >> and that video e was produced by the youth who were involved in l.a.'s summer youth program. robert sands runs the los angeles summer youth program. what are plans for 2011 given funding cuts? what are you going to do in 2011? >> well, we're going to pray first. [laughter] but in all seriousness, it's one of the mayors top priorities. we're going to put all of our resources with the private sector. we've put about 30,000 young people to work in the private sector with those dollars.

>> in our reading yesterday, he told us the mayor wants as many youth jobs as possible. they want kids working in the city of los angeles next summer, so very impressive. okay. here's question number two. [applause] get your clickers out, boys and girls. here is question number two. again, this is posted on the four television screens in the room. and the question is, what was the unemployment rate in omaha, nebraska, for the month of november, 2010, and our second contestant from the heart of the midwest, st. louis mayor francis slay. and be he is going to -- okay. now, you've got your clickers out, you can begin to huddle. the four options for this with respect to the unemployment rate is, number one, 6.1%. number two, 4.4%. number three, 7.3% or, d, 5.2%. and please understand the last unemployment rate we had for the

country was about 9.4%. so all of these are below that, you just have to figure out what that is. tell me what you're doing in st. louis to reduce the unemployment rate and bring jobs to your city. >> one thing that's very important, as important as creating new jobs, is connecting displaced workers in jobs that are available. so there are a lot of displaced workers. our work force investment agency is working on retraining individuals and connecting them with jobs that are coming into our city. we're also focusing on what we're really good at. >> what is that? >> health care is a big field in the city of st. louis. we have financial services as well as logistics and transportation, biotechnology, life sciences and tourism. these are things that we're really good at, and we're really focusing working with our universities as well as the business community in finding ways to draw i upon our strengths and create jobs in this that way as well. >> what's your answer? what is your answer? >> my answer is 4.4%.

>> 4.4%. okay. let's see what the audience responded to that. and they guessed a majority of the audience, mayor, guessed it was number three, 7.3%. and then the second answer that received the most votes was 4.4%. and we're going to bring up indianapolis mayor greg ballard to give us the answer. and, mr. mayor, what is the correct answer? >> 4.4%. >> 4.4 %. [applause] interesting to note that that was the eighth lowest metropolitan statistical area for unemployment. those folks are doing a little better than we are in the midwest, but i know you had a great year in 2010 in bringing jobs to the city of indianapolis. >> we attracted over 8700 new jobs based on the paradigm we've been using for the past decade.

that's actually 4,000 more than any previous year, so we did really well. >> did you hear that? 8700 new jobs in the city of indianapolis in 2010. now, any particular sector? i know you're strong in biotech, bioscience. >> yeah. life sciences are very strong, obviously, strong in i.t., strong in, like st. louis, in logistics and transportation because of the central area that we have. advanced manufacturing, motor sports, actually, and clean tech also. >> what's your game plan for 2011? how do you keep up that pace? that's a pretty tough track record. >> it was a very, very good year, but we got very aggressive, obviously. also we have a very, we have fiscal stability in the city of indianapolis. we've had balanced budgets the last three years, we have aaa bond ratings, one of very few large cities that have that across the board. lower tax climate. you know, there's a consistent, predictable tax climate. plus other cities try to do, very vibrant arts community. >> mayor, what are you doing for

2011? >> we're foxing on small business. we have a business loan fund we're using to not only support the businesses that are there, but help create existing new businesses through entrepreneurship as well. >> mayors around the room, what are you doing in your city to reduce the unemployment rate? what exciting activities, show of hands and i'll go to you, what are you planning in 2011 for your city? i will note that the lowest unemployment rate for a metropolitan statistical area, i've got it here some place if i don't lose it, was, i believe, bismarck, north dakota. and their unemployment rate was 3.3%. it sounds like what they're looking for are skilled workers which is another part of that element. who else, mayors? what are your plans for 2011? don't see any hands. we're going to go to question number three then. all right.

and get your clickers ready, folks. this one is about national funding for the work force system. and, mayor cooper -- >> good morning. >> mayor joy cooper is going to be our third contestant. and you've not been proo sided the answer. nobody has tipped you off as to what the answer is here? >> no. and i have to plead the fifth because i probably was in high school when this took place. [laughter] >> well, here's the question that we're going to pose to everybody, to you and to others in the room and that is funding. we always talk about money, and here is the question. the clock is ticking. what was the national funding level for the work force system which was jtpa, the job training partnership act, in 1986?

was it 7 billion be, was it 3.5 billion, was it 6.5 billion, was it 5.5 billion dollars? so those are the options for you to answer. let me ask you the general question about funding not only for work force systems, but for your city. how are you coping with funding cuts i would imagine that you're facing? >> uh-huh. well, as a smaller city, we didn't really have a tremendous amount of resources to provide services. we're lucky we have a community redevelopment agency, and we've partnered with one of our largest developers, village gulf stream park at a pari-mutuel casino, and we've created about 3 00 jobs and required them to do job training and actually provide employment directly to our residents at a first come, first served basis in a queue. >> so your solution is to

partner with business. >> absolutely. that's where the jobs are, and our job as mayor is to facilitate that connection. >> okay. so let's get to your answer to question number three. is it number one, 7 billion, number two, 3.5, number three, 6.5, or number four, 5.5 billion? what's your guest? >> if i answer correctly, do i at least get one billion to take home? [laughter] >> if you do, it would have to come from another mayor in the room. [laughter] >> frank, where are you? >> >> okay. what's your guess? >> i'm guessing 6.5. >> okay. let's see what you folks answered, and the majority of the folks in the room, mayor, answered number one, seven billion. let's see, who has the correct answer? i think it's dan -- oh, here he is. dan gill ericsson who is the chair of the mayor's business council. dan is with sprint. dan, what is the correct answer? >> let me also say that being

married 29 years, i would have to say i'm the co-chair, and my co-chair is kim winston who is the business counsel. and the answer is number three, 6.5 billion. >> number three. [applause] here's the -- >> wait a minute! [applause] >> now, here's the other interesting part of that answer is that if you would take that 1986 number from 25 years ago and factor in inflation, those dollars today would come to $12.8 billion, $12.8 billion. and where the work force professionals in this room will tell you is that we are at 3.9 billion. we were briefed yesterday by people from congress who told us the president's budget may try to take a look at additional cuts. we're not very happy about that because that, then, affects services in your cities. is so my question to you, dan, as co-chair of the mayor's

business council as we heard from mayor cooper about partnering with the business community in her city, is that happening in other cities as well? sprint, i know, is big in kansas city. but do you hear of that partnership with cities to try to provide services? >> yes. i do hear of that. it is a part of our business culture. public/private partnerships have to exist, and we do coexist in the cities. and one of the things that all of us from the private sector understand is that our work force is in your cities. so it is the right thing for us to do to make sure that we are partnering with you in terms of feeding into the community from the standpoint of our youth. internships, all the way up through the retraining that mayor slade talked about in terms of the displaced workers. so we are doing that, and we're doing that with different channels of business that we have from our direct to our indirect to our e retail. >> we appreciate the role you play in your leadership position

with the mayor's business council, and we thank all of the business folks and companies that are partners in the council as well. thank you very much. >> oh, you're welcome. and thank you all very much. [applause] >> all right. wanted to go -- thank you. would be interested in knowing from either members of the mayors' business council who are present or from be mayors about unique partnerships that are occurring in your city. and mayor cooper's got something to add, but i see another hand go up. yes, stand up, please. >> i just wanted to take an opportunity, more importantly, to share a partnership as the florida league of cities president that we're sponsoring with the employee support of the guard and reserve. as you know, many of our armed forces are protected under the national statute to have a job when they return. in this economic climate, it is projected that 30-40% of the guard and reserves that are returning home will not have

jobs. we partnered in florida to insure a link on the florida esgr web site. what they've provided is a place for skilled former reservists and people returning to log on to a database. and they're providing that database as a vehicle for corporate partners around the united states to log this their jobs. -- log in their jobs. doesn't cost any money, mayors. i encourage you to go to your chambers of commerce, work with your state agencies and the department of defense that actually facilitate esgr, and i think that is a very, very important initiative that we all can partner. again, zero dollars, just a link and get the word out that we need to also address highly-skilled people that have of served our country in the job force. >> thank you for your leadership role in that in your community. great. and we've got mayor ortis to talk about funding in your city

and some ideas about how to make ends meet. >> well, when we had our meeting with the administration, secretary chu said you need to leverage as much as you can. we took that to heart, and we're doing energy. energy grants, energy savings for new products. and we're leveraging with business now to make that happen and create jobs, green jobs. >> right. >> so that's what we're doing in this our city. >> great initiative there. thank you very much for that. okay. we're going to go to question number four, and we're going to enlist the help of two friends from louisville. the newly-elected mayor greg fisher, and then michael gritton who is the executive directer of kentucky works. so let's go to question number four in our work force quiz. and we're going to bring up mayor fisher to answer this question. and the question is -- and this is a real interesting one -- how many people were served by our nation's public employment system? and this is for the fiscal year ending september 30th, 2010.

excuse me, that's the federal fiscal year. the fiscal year that ended june 30th, 2010. so this is every one-stop in the country, the one-stops that are in your location. and here are the options for you to consider. bring your clickers out. question one option is 5.5 million individuals. number two is 9.8 million. number three is 8.4 million. and the final option is 7.7 million. and interested as people are responding, mayor, to this question about what you hope to do in louisville in 2011 with respect to jobs, job development and skilled workers. >> well, three basic areas. we want louisville to be the easiest city in the country to start a business, grow a business, get through our regulations and also take advantage of our quality place and attract business. we're focusing on our clusters. we think we're the best in the world. we have more companies head

headquartered in the long-term health space, so that's obviously a growing demographic for us. we have a great automotive cluster and usp port is located there as well. we have thousands of companies in the logistics area. so we focus on those areas where we think we're best in the world. >> sound like you've got quite a diversified economy there. >> we're working on that. we want blue collar, white collar and green collar jobs. >> okay. so what is your answer to the question? is the it 5.5 million, 9.3, 8.4 or 7.7? >> i'm an optimist by nature, so i'm going to say 3.8 -- 9.8. >> all right. let's see what our audience decided. they went with, again, question number two, 9.8 million. michael gritton who is the executive directer of kentucky in the works has the correct answer, and it is -- >> 8.4 million. >> oh. close enough. >> 8.4 million, that is an incredible number of people that

your cities are serving with respect to job training, job development activities. 8.4 million in our nation's one-stops. and you've had quite an interesting year with the partnerships in louisville. >> we put more than a thousand people in training in the last two years, steve, in the health care to go exactly in alignment with where the mayor's trying to go, and we briefed our partners with a partnership on construction trade particularly with union apprenticeship programs in louisville. we've been helping prepare new people to go into construction because we've got a couple of bridges that the mayor's planning on building and a couple other big projects on the board. so that's just two examples of using central money to align work force development activities with economic development activities in our region. >> i'm going to go to a couple of our colleagues around the country and turn to tom phillips. excuse me be, from hartford, connecticut. tell me about your one-stop

system, what unique things are you doing in your city? >> unique things in our one-stop system right now is to become really demand-driven in terms of employers, trying to really help small businesses who are really struggling to stay in business. the tanf emergency funds that we had really provided a lifeline to a lot of small businesses last summer to find employees that were unemployed for that temporary period. >> great. where's the city of chicago? they were talking about a couple of programs, and if they could come down, we'd like to talk to them or any other cities about unique programs that are occurring in your location. show of hands? activities? i know that -- and let me -- i don't see, well, the chicago folks are here. come on down. they had a couple of really interesting activities that i thought showed a different approach to serving individuals, and it is an interesting concept in trying to prepare people for the health care industry. and you did something with a

number of hospitals, i don't know how many, but it was school at work, i believe. tell us who you are and a little bit about the program. >> hi. i'm amy, i'm the deputy commissioner for work force development in chicago. and we did a big initiative with 13 chicago hospitals called the school at work initiative. and, basically, it's a grow-your-own-within model earn cowcialging -- encouraging hospitals to become be mentors. it's an incumbent mentor program where we work with entry-level hospital workers, get mentors within the hospitals and have an online curriculum that we purchased from catalyst learning. and we have job coaches in the hospital that really help, and we teach people, get people really interested in going back to college and, hopefully, going on to health care. >> what i understand is that

these are, these are good employees of hospitals who have demonstrated the ability to show up for work every day, have good work ethics, skills but may not be lacking in those higher-order skills to become, to hold, perhaps, a position to deal directly with patients. >> exactly. so it's people that are more entry-level, not in really doing health care, but express an interest. and this is a way to get people interested in going back to school so they can go on to become, you know, an lpn program. and we had about 149 people that completed the program at 13 different colleges, and we had 87% of the people successfully completed the program. we have about 50 that are now looking at going back to advanced college. so we're -- >> great program. i know mayor daley was very

pleased with the results because here's what the mayor gets, he gets people that are holding jobs better-paying jobs paying taxes into the city. so it's a great deal for the city, and i know he's very pleased with that. let me challenge my colleagues sitting in the room to talk about unique, innovative ideas that are occurring through their one-stops. and with a show of hands if i can go to you, if you might be able to share with us a story about what your work force system is doing. don't, don't make me grab you and get you, but here's an individual here. good morning, thank you for standing up. >> joe adame, city of corpus christi. we're partnering with the work source group along with the hotel and restaurant association, the chamber of commerce to p develop with soft-skill training. those people at the bottom of the food chain, we're trying to reach out to them to provide soft-skill training to better their, their job opportunities in the future. >> lots of excitement around the

program? >> there is. you know, how we treat people, how we give customer service is a big deal. >> great. i'm going to call on some folks here from texas, and i want to know what's happening in the state of texas. if i could get susan collins to stand up and talk about how your one-stop system is faring. >> well, we have a -- my one-stop system is ft. hood. everybody knows ft. hood. so we have a great partnership with the military. we've served over 3500 military spouses in the last four years, and we trained them in the transportable skills when their spouses are transferred to another duty station, they have a portable skill that they can take with them. >> great idea. i'm going to go over here to this table. i see a couple great folks from houston and kansas city, and we're going to go to clyde mcqueen and larry green p. tell us, if you could, about what's happening in kansas city with respect to jobs, job development, unique partnerships with the city. and if you could come here, clyde, and tell us what's

happening in the kansas city. >> well, thank you. we're home of the kansas city chiefs, kansas city royals. [laughter] >> now, are they still -- are the chiefs still playing this weekend? >> no. [laughter] >> even though they lost on the court, we won in the game. [laughter] but the chiefs and the royals have provided $400,000 to our work force system for earn-to-learn program tied to professional athletics. there are a lot of jobs other than being an athlete, accounting, jobs, health care, so they're going to do an internship with a $3,000 scholarship tied to the end of it. and that's the other thing. but the biggest growth comeback king in our city is small business. we are getting the highest wage placement, average wage of placement for adults this year is $14 ran hour. and for dislocated workers, it's 21. >> great numbers. >> but small numbers.

the thing is, we've still got a lot of people out of work, so we're having to retrain everybody. and so the other thing we're doing is working with our community college, and we're packaging pell grants when we run out of money. so pell grants are not being used, there's a huge amount of budget left, so i want to encourage everyone to go after pell grants when the budget runs out. >> when so you've got access to federal wia dollars, and then you're also using federal pell dollars to send people to school to get better skills. >> right. and we use as a last report, we go to pell first. for all credit courses we package pell and then we're back in the wia for the other resources. >> again, just a snapshot of what the national work force system is doing serving 8.4 million people last year. let's talk about houston. what is houston doing? and you've got a fairly robust economy down there, larry. >> we do. and we know that there's a shortage in our particular area of individuals going into the engineering field.

so we're now working with use, we've partnered with nasa and shell and other industry partners to really get our youth into the stem career. so during the summers we run these stem camps as well as host engineering competition. business and industries have bought into these particular programs, and can so what we're doing -- so what we're doing from a youth perspective is really growing our next pipeline of engineers. so we're very excited about the work we're doing with stem. >> so if there's a mayor in the room who'd like to take a ride in space, you're the guy to talk to? >> give me a call. we've got you. [laughter] >> folks, you have friends in the room, i just wanted to tell you. st. louis, michael holmes runs the work force system there. what great things are happening through your work force system? is. ..

>> so that is something we're working with every community college and our regional commerce and growth association. our chamber of commerce, we're working with the business to make sure once they're finished their degree they are hired through those companies and we're working with our talent council. >> great job. let's take a look what we've learned today. we've posed four basic questions. we talked about summer jobs. we've talked about unemployment rates and the efforts of mayors in this room to reduce that rate. we've talked about funding. we know if we had 1986's dollars in today's account it would

total $12.8 billion. we're at $3.9 billion. so we're trying to make due with what we have. and finally, with those limited dollars, an incredible number of people served last year, $18.4 million and what you heard this morning are some terrific stories about what your work force system is doing for your citizens. your cities will not grow unless you have skilled workers for positions that you're creating on the economic development side. here is our call of action and here's what the work force development conference wants you to do, mayors. we need you first of all, to help us help you. and that is -- if you're not a member of the work force development council, you need to be. and if you are a member of the work force development council, you got to make sure your person is here. and i will tell you why and i'm going to bring bob richie to talk about something he picked

up at one of our meetings in january of 2010. at that time we still had money and what we heard was that hhs wasn't spending its money on jobs for youth. bob got the message. what did you do that with that information. you're from providence. >> yes, i'm from providence, rhode island. we went back to providence. and the mayor spoke to the state. we asked them for $10 million. >> you got the $10 million? >> and so we learned about the money when jane oats came last january to this meeting and told us you know what? they have money, acf has money. so we took that message and we went back to rhode island and we partnered a subsidized employment program with the emergency money and we put $1.4 million on the street within a few months because you may know it ended september 30th. it had a timeline. >> so as i was reading this

weekend, warren buffett said 90% of life is showing up and that's what bob richie did. he showed up to our meeting last year, got the information that the feds weren't spending money. and that they could spend it in providence. and they did. so thanks for that great story. so again, mayors, call to action. join dwc and get your person to attend as we put together the national agenda on job training to help you and the mayors, we need your support. i hope it's been supportive. a little nontraditional. i'm going to turn the microphone back over to my boss, our fearless leader at the work force development conference. [applause] >> thank you, steve. you know, you couldn't tell that steve was like a tv entertainer, could you? isn't he terrific. thank you, steve. join me and hats off. he did a fantastic job.

[applause] >> and his sidekick, tom cavanaugh. thank you, tom. so we did hear a lot today but there were a couple of themes that resonated, business. business, business, partnering with business and that's where the jobs are and we really need to focus on building those partnerships so that they are more than just coming into a meeting and exchanging business cards. they have you get together and recognize that business has a vested interest in investing in the work force and the work force system needs business because we need to know exactly what your needs are so we can prepare people to meet them. i want to thank everybody who participated today. my colleagues who shared promising practices and you've heard innovative ideas all around the room. and i would encourage anyone, mayors or anyone here today who would like to know a little bit more about the taste of some of

the things you heard today to contact cathy to ask her to put you in contact with who was that person in fort worth that i heard about or that great idea in chicago? to learn more about how these programs can actually be replicated because that's the way we're going to get people back to work. is really being thoughtful, innovative and working outside of the box. so thank you all for being here today. i thank mayor kotts for her brilliant idea of bringing the mayors' business council and the work force development council together and i hope this is just the first of many opportunities for us to talk together. thank you very much. [applause] >> have a great day. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. we're gathered here for the 79th winter meeting of the u.s.

conference of mayors. more than 230 mayors are here. this winter for our meeting. we're here at the capital city. and the nation's capital to stress to president obama and his cabinet and congress that our city are in the middle of a job emergency. that demands decisive and swift action. in many cities and metropolitan areas all across our country, the unemployment rate continues to be in the double digits. so we are calling on congress and the administration as well as the private sector to work closer together with mayors to help us retain jobs? in our cities, grow jobs in our

cities and attract more jobs to our cities. we have presented the nation's mayors this morning with a civility accord. and are asking everyone here to sign that agreement. we believe that this is something that we must raise the awareness, not only of ourselves but our citizens on what it means for us to have civil discourse, to understand that we can have difference of opinion. but we must do it in such a way that we continue to have civility in our society. through this accord, we are encouraging political leaders at all levels of government. the mayors are taking the lead but we're saying to all levels of government, choose words

wisely. and to commit to work together in the spirit of civility for the good of our citizens and our country. we see this accord as an important step forward and hope it will inspire congress to put jobs creation, jobs retention and attraction at the top of their agenda and to work collaboratively. when you look around, you will see that mayors know what collaboration is. we do not know what partisan is. we know about bipartisanship because we are nonpartisan. we work together for the good of the people. they are the ones who elect us to office. they are the ones who are telling us to get the job done. stay focused. make sure you have a vision for the future. include us in your civic engagement discussion. and then let us go forth and

work together to achieve those goals and objectives. prepare for us by global insight, the report shows that the rate of unemployment in our nation -- the rate we are going to, is going to be about -- is double-digit and this is now 363 metro areas. and the unemployment rate is higher than 10%. the nation's mayors recognize that families all over the country are suffering and we need to continue to work together. mayor daley will speak here at this press conference, but in there he talked to us about there are other ways for us to do this and he will address that. our cities and our metro areas are the city of our nation's economy. and that's what we should be focused on. jobs are in our cities. our people live in our cities and so we need to work together and build a vision for our

country to be competitive on a global stage. and, ladies and gentlemen, it is all about jobs. one of the things that i've talked about is that we need to make sure that we put in place an infrastructure, an economic infrastructure that helps our people get retrained for jobs of the 21st century. and then what we as mayors do is to create the kind of environment to make sure that those jobs will come to our city, will stay there and come to our city so that our people have the opportunities. and a pool for them to get these jobs. so, one, we have to create the infrastructure and then create the policies to make sure that those things are accomplished. so i thank you all for being here and for listening to us. i'd like to now call on vice

president mayor of los angeles, villaraigosa. mayor? where is he? all righty. so then i will ask our tucson mayor, bob walker -- here he is. you're here. good. thank you. mayor walker. [applause] >> well, it's a great pleasure to be here today. i cannot tell you -- i tried to briefly kind of cover what the emotion was happening in the great city of tucson over the last couple of weeks. it's very difficult to do in a very short time, but i just want to amplify the impact of the president of the united states and the impact of this great body of mayors on helping our city, which is a great city -- we've been a great city for hundreds of years. we're a great city today and

we're going to continue to be a great city. but it was on sunday, two days after the event, that we really started talking as mayors about the importance of stability. there is scientific proof that there's a linkage between civility and outcome. outcome in our schools, outcome in our workplace, outcome for our people. i mentioned -- by the way, i'm really impressed with mayor daley. and i've got to tell you, mayor, that it's that kind of enthusiasm and energy that brings mayors together because we are the -- we are out in front. it is our job to be out in front. but at that moment, gabrielle giffords, who is the kindest, most loving person you'll ever

meet, ever meet, fun to be with -- she was not afraid to stand on a curb side and say, come, let's talk about government! every single person that was there was a kind and loving person. christina taylor green, the 9-year-old was brought there because she loved gabrielle and she aspired to do what she does. to lead and to understand government. that's why she was there. but there was one angry, mad person that carried a gun. that didn't care about anything or anybody. but i'm very proud of the conference of mayors endorsing and creating the civility accord. but we can't let it stop there. we've got to convert that into actions. how we govern, how we interrelate, let's take it to

the schools. let's take it to -- throughout our community. let's get them involved. our young people in school have got to put down the cell phones. i don't know how many of you have grandchildren -- oh, sorry. or children. [laughter] >> but how you communicate, how can you communicate in a loving way if you're texting, right? there's a certain thing that we must do. we must link this to science to make a change in who we are and how we govern. it's a great pleasure to be here. it's a great city. gabby is on the mend. we have almost everybody out of the hospital. the city is trying to recover. and being here today is very, very meaningful to me and my family and to the city of tucson. thank you very much. [applause] >> and now vice president of the

u.s. conference of mayors, mayor villaraigosa and then after mayor villaraigosa, i'd like to call on mayor daley to come forward. so i know that he's stuck over there, so if he can work his way this way, mayor villaraigosa. >> thank you mayor kautz, first of all, let me acknowledge and thank everyone today. i've been coming to the u.s. conference of mayors now for some five years and i dare say i've never participated in a u.s. conference of mayors event that was as meaningful and timely and important not just to our cities but to our nation and i said to a few people as i walked out that nobody could have done it better than they did it today. speaking from the heart,

speaking to the hearts and minds of the american people in describing what happened in tucson and in calling on our nation's leaders, on our community, on every american to engage in civility, to reach out a hand of friendship to begin a new conversation in america. and so thank you again for asking all of us to sign a civility accord. and i look forward to every single mayor signing on to that accord as well. and, of course, i said -- you know, there was one person i wanted to meet when i got elected as mayor of los angeles. it was mayor daley. >> we'll leave this news

conferences to get live reports from john boehner. >> of the will of the american people. we've begun to carry out this commitment by cutting our own budget and repealing of the health care law. today we're here to talk about another promise that we're keeping and that is ensuring that tax dollars are never used to fund elective abortions. a ban on taxpayer funding of abortions is the will of the people and it ought to be the will of the land. the current law, particularly as enforced by this administration, does not reflect the will of the american people. last year of the american people through america speaking out. they spoke on this issue loudly and clearly. so we included it in our pledge and today we're making good on that commitment. congressman chris smith has introduced bipartisan legislation that codifies the amendments and other several

policies by permanently applying a ban on taxpayer funding of abortions across all federal programs. this commonsense legislation reflects the will of the people and deserves the support of the house. it's one of our highest legislative priorities and as such, i've directed that it receives the designation of h.r. 3. i appreciate congressman smith's steadfast leadership on this critical issue. with that, i'll turn it over to him. >> mr. speaker, thank you very much. mr. speaker, thank you very much for your leadership. i know from having served with speaker boehner so many years, i've been here 31 years defending the unborn child from the violence of abortion is a core as well as for our majority leader eric cantor and h.r. 3 really reflects his and our profound commitment to respecting the sanctity of human life and getting rid of and

making permanent -- getting rid of taxpayer funding for abortion like in the district of columbia but making permanent those policies like the hite amendment and like the amendment i offered back in 1983 to proscribe funding under the federal employees health benefits programs and all the programs in the federal government including in obama-care to ensure that the taxpayer who huge majorities clearly show do not want their money being used to pay for abortions no longer are coerced into using taxpayer funding to subsidize the killing of an unborn child and the wounding of his or her mother. president obama has said that he wants abortions to be rare. the institute which is no friend to the right of life institute the former research arm of planned parenthood has said very clearly and plainly that when there's no public subsidy for abortion, the number of abortions drop by about 25%. if you want fewer abortions take away the federal subsidies. the bill also h.r. 3 will deal

with conscious protection. there was a very sad case of a nurse in new york, at mt. sinai named ms. decarla who was forced into doing -- assisting in a d & e abortion done late term against her will under threats and she tried to sue in federal court and she was knocked down and our remedies also includes a very important conscious protection to empower the courts to ensure that consheenus objectivers, doctors, officials, health care networks, individual health personnel are not forced to participate in the taking of a human life. speaker boehner, thank you so much for your extraordinary leadership. >> questions? >> mr. speaker, you say this is one of your highest legislative priorities. first repeal had he been and now this, why this now and what about jobs? i thought that jobs was the highest priority? >> well, when you look at the

repeal of the health care law yesterday, one of the significant issues was the fact that it's destroying jobs in america. our members feel very strongly about the sanctity of human life. we listened to the american people. we made a commitment to the american people and our pledge to america and we're continuing to fulfill our commitment. >> speaker boehner -- >> when will you have a jobs package on the floor? >> if you look at a lot of the policies that have been enacted over the last two years, it's led to a lot of uncertainty for small businesses and whether it's the health care law, whether it's -- what some of these agencies are doing -- all of this has a tremendous impact on jobs in our country and we will deal with these one at a time. >> speaker boehner -- >> mr. speaker, how would this change the policy that's in the health care law now?

with respect to abortions and restrictions on abortions? >> it will make clear that taxpayer funding of elective abortions will not be the policy of this government. >> that safeguard is in there now? >> they claim it is. but we had an opportunity during the health care debate to include the stupak language which would have made clear in law that taxpayer funding of elective abortion is prohibited. that was -- that did not occur and clearly there's an awful lot of doubt as to where the administration really is on this issue. i think the will of the people will be an act that's clear-cut prohibition on the use of taxpayer funds for elective abortions. >> it was put out in 2010 an amendment to a defund planned

parenthood. how would this affect such a top proposition and would it actually go that far? >> defense bill is also legislation has been introduced. this would not affect funding for planned parenthood. but i and the speaker and so many of us do support the bill because planned parenthood today performs in its own clinics over 324,000 abortions every year. they are the largest abortion network in the world. they derive up to a billion dollars each year from fees and governments including the federal government local, county and federal and state and a huge amount of money comes from the united states government. so this bill -- there's no taxpayer funding for abortion act. it does not deal with the issue of planned parenthood. but certainly the bill. >> on another issue -- >> if the repeal bill doesn't pass the senate or get the

president's signature, is there a plan to attack the provisions that house republicans don't like, like this abortion piecemeal and repeal health care that way? >> well, our goal is to stop the job-destroying health care bill. and we're going to use all of the legislative tools that we have available to us so that -- so that we can, in fact, stop it. if you believe as i do that it's interfering with employers' ability to hire new people, if you believe as i do that the health care law will ruin the best health care delivery system in the world, and if you believe as i do that it will also bankrupt the federal government, you can understand why doing everything that we can do to make sure it's never implemented -- that's our goal. >> speaker boehner objects another issue. i understand that you pressed the president of china on the issue of cracking down on intellectual property

violations. i'm just wondering were you satisfied with his answer and what does that meeting accomplish? >> well, we did have a good meeting with the president of china today. we did discuss our economic relationship. i did express my concerns about religious liberty. i expressed my concerns about intellectual property and the issue of north korea. the president responded. and i would hope that the dialog on all of these subjects will continue. >> mr. speaker, mr. speaker? during the meeting with the chinese president, at any point did you talk about chinese currency concerns? and if so, what was discussed -- >> i don't believe -- i don't believe the chinese currency was discussed in the meeting. >> under the -- you said before that the debt limit can't be raised without spending cutting. has there been any talks how

congress should cut the debt sealy by? -- ceiling by? >> there has not. >> if i can ask the terminology that the bill was a job destroying bill so on and so forth. do you think that democrats didn't hear these calls for civility that we heard references to nazi generals and so on and so forth? >> i think most of my colleagues understand that i believe there's a way to disagree without being disagreeable. >> speaker boehner? >> live remarks from house speaker john boehner. coming up noon eastern, we've got a live update from the university medical center on the condition of gabrielle giffords. she's recovering from a gunshot wound to the head. the a.p. reporting that she could be moved to a rehab facility in houston as early as tomorrow. live coverage of that briefing set for noon eastern today.

until then, vermont democrat congressman peter welch, he joined us on this this morning's "washington journal" to discuss how you democrats plan to challenge the republican efforts to repeal the health care law. >> host: congressman peter welch, a democrat of vermont is part of the leadership team for the democrats in the house of representatives and, of course, all the front page news is about the successful vote yesterday, 245-189 with three democrats moving to join the republicans to repeal health care. what do you think is next for this effort? >> guest: well, you know, there's been some talk about whether this is just symbolic because our reports it's not going to go anywhere in the senate and the president would veto but it's quite deadly serious 'cause the republicans have made it clear that this is step one and step 2 will be trying to defund essential funding for the implementation of health care. and also it will be a frontal assault on any of the regulations that might have to

be implemented in order to carry out health care. they campaigned on repealing health care. they are following through on their promise to repeal health care and they have nothing to replace it. so it's actually a very serious first step that the republicans are taking 'cause they have made it quite clear they're going to pursue this aggressively in other ways as well. >> host: there's also the court challenge we learned yesterday that another six states have joined in. that puts it over half of the states who are seeking legal redress to the new law. so where do you see all of this coming? how do you think this is going to come out in the wash? >> guest: well, i think there's two issues here. i think first of all, we have a problem with health care in this country. that just has to be acknowledged. i mean, we spend the most and get the least. we have excellent quality care but we have 47 million americans who don't have access to care. the health care bill extended access to over 30 million people. the health care bill also provided for some long overdue insurance reforms that american families desperately need.

let me just give a few examples 'cause these are the things that the repeal takes away. our kids now, when they get out of high school or college, when they get out of high school they get an entry level job and they have no benefits. their kids, our kids can stage on our policies until age 26. that's enormous relief of anxiety for parents. it's good for the kids when they get that first job. right now if you have a preexisting condition, under the law we passed, you're entitled to buy health insurance. the repeal says you can't. and 65% of americans according to the "washington post" two days ago do have some preexisting condition. right now if you get -- if you have insurance and you get sick, the insurance company can't dump you when your renewal period comes up which is something under the repeal they'll be able to do. these are a few examples of long overdue reforms that are going to be repealed. and the repeal effort has made

in my view a radical decision to basically throw out the good as opposed to trying to improve the bad. that's the serious question. when we're on a repeal agenda it really gets in the way of an improvement agenda. secondly, on this question of the lawsuit, i think we have to acknowledge we who supported health care have to acknowledge that the individual mandate, in fact, is extremely controversial. people don't like the idea of being made to buy health insurance. even with subsidies to make it affordable. just like in a lot of places, people don't like the idea of being required to buy car insurance. but the question is this, if we're going to have access for everybody, most americans do believe we have to have that, 'cause one way or the other if you have insurance or you don't, and you get hit by a truck, you still end up in the hospital and if you can't pay for it, taxpayers do or other insurance holders do because there's a cost shift on the premium.

if we're going to have everybody covered, the question is, should all of us help pay? my view is yes. many of the opponents see that otherwise. so that's a fair question. but we should engage with the republicans and trying to figure out, all right, if we're going to have a system where everybody is covered, how do we all help pay for that? >> host: i want to get to one other issue before we get to calls. and folks the espn number is at the bottom on the screen you're welcomed to call in with your questions and comments with health care or larger issues about the house and the policy direction under the new majority, what the democrats plan to do to counter their new initiatives all of that on the table with the focus on health care and you can send us a tweet or email, lots of ways to get in touch with congressman peter welch. let me get to the second issue of civility in the congress. we were talking on break and you were a classmate for gabrielle giffords so this is a personal story about her but the national discussion of civility that has emerged in the wake of the tucson shootings.

i'm wondering if you heard that on the house floor yesterday in a change in tone yesterday? >> guest: i did. i've been somewhat pleased but it's not perfect but civility matter. i come from vermont and for the past eight years we've had a republican governor and a democratic legislature. and they had sharp differences but they got along. and the reason civility matters is not just a matter of manners that our parents try to teach us. it allows you to listen to what your adversary is saying and it requires you to have a certain amount of humility that you may not always be right. you mentioned gabby giffords. that was one of the reasons she was or is really one of the most popular members of congress and certainly in our class. she had an ability to be very direct point in her point of view. but she spoke in a way where she was inviting the listener to speak. and then she listened very actively and very tentatively.

so the way she did business is a good model for all of us. >> host: well, congressman, the lines are lighted up so people are anxious to talk after the debate. this is westwood, new jersey. and this is harold who's a republican. you're up first, harold. good morning. >> caller: good morning, everybody. peter, i would like to see every person who has a social security number also have catastrophic health insurance. sadly, the affordable health care law forwards planned parenthood to get even more taxpayer money, which they should not get. under no circumstances should taxpayer money be used to do to a member of the human family what you would not do to a kitten or a puppy. you would not tear the life off or crush the head of a puppy or

kitten before this day is done, planned parenthood is probably doing this to unborn members of the human family with taxpayer money. democrats refuse to remove the proabortion language from the bill. why? >> guest: well, let me just be specific. i disagree with you. you're right wrong about that. the legislation does not allow for the use of taxpayer funds for abortion. >> host: i want to throw a question from twitter. i know people who work only so that they can get health care. they don't need the money. explain how the bill helps them. >> guest: i'm not quite sure i fully understand the question. >> host: i guess it's the linkage between working and insurance. >> guest: well, you know, first of all, a lot of -- you're right. there's an enormous number of people work only because that's the only way they can get health

care access. for instance, if you have insurance now and you want to change jobs, under the repeal, you would not be able to do that without risking losing your coverage at all. and one of the good things about this legislation is that you're going to have portability with your health care. you're going to be able to go from job to job. and not be locked into a job. but the cost to health care in this bill is -- we're providing significant subsidies for small businesses that want to provide health care. we're providing significant help to larger businesses and small businesses that have responsibilities for employee retired health care and, in fact, you're seeing some of the major companies like ge, like comcast, like microsoft that are opting into this plan showing that they've made a hard-nosed business decision that it makes sense. and for individuals, i can't answer your question very specifically 'cause i don't know the income cutoffs that you're talking about. but there are subsidies so that

it essentially is an ability to pay approach that would allow people to be able to purchase the health insurance of their choice. keep in mind, by the way, i was in favor of a public option and was disappointed we didn't include that in the bill but this bill preserves the insurance-based model of providing health care coverage. so a lot of the characterizations by my opponents that if a government takeover couldn't be farther from the truth. it's an insurance company provision that is going to provide the access to health care. >> host: let's listen to a voice from the other side. this is a new chairman of the house ways and means committee, dave camp, a republican of michigan on why he supports repeal. >> the problem with this law among its many fall it puts government at the center of the health care decisions, not doctors, and patients. instead of families deciding what coverage is best for them, this law has the secretary of health and human services making that choice. instead of families and

employers deciding how much they can afford, the irs is making that decision. instead of families and employers deciding if they need health insurance, the government is mandating they purchase it. this is all about the government. it's washington knows best and it's wrong. >> host: congressman welch, your response. >> guest: that's just wrong. first of all, it is going to be you deciding what insurance you want to purchase. it's going to be you deciding what doctor you want to see. it's going to be you deciding which hospital -- if you have a choice of hospitals you want to go to. there's no government control over who you decide to see for your doctor. there's no government control to decide who you see, and which hospital you want to go to that's flat out wrong. and again, this discussion about government takeover, i'm going to remind mr. camp what medicare is. everybody 65 and older has access to medicare. that's taxpayer-financed. we all have deductions from our

paycheck in order to establish a fund so that we have insurance, medicare, when we get to be 65. but each and every person who is on medicare, picks their doctor, picks their provider, as about their health care is between the patient and the doctor and that's exactly what would happen under the health care bill that we passed. mr. camp is either mis -- mischaractering what's going on. i wanted a public option so that you and i would have an option to go into a public plan but we lost on that because of the senate. so now what we have is an insurance-based approach where you or i can decide what insurance we want to buy and then when we have insurance we can decide what doctor, what hospital, what medical provider in any health care decision just as now is between the patient and the doctor. >> host: yesterday one side-bar

debate became house members own insurance plan. >> guest: right. >> host: a few republican members have decided to walk away from the health plan some members of congress are offering this. that became quite a discussion last night. can you tell me how relevant it is the members selecting plans from their employer, the congress, to the debate about the national sense? >> guest: it's relevant in a sense -- a lot of citizens are skeptical of what congress people do. and what's going on in washington and they think the fix is in and there's a good deal for congressmen that isn't going to be available to americans. and, in fact, that was a real concern that in the legislation, when we passed the public option in the house, it didn't survive the senate, we had to become part of that plan. the members of congress, we're going to have to be in that plan. as it stands now, we would have to be part of that plan as well. i think there's a fair question on the part of citizens if something is good enough for a member of congress it ought to be good enough for them or if it's good enough for them it

ought to be good enough for the members of congress. when it comes to credibility, i think having a plan that's available to citizens as well as members of congress makes a lot of sense. >> host: next call is from little rock. daisy from little rock. >> caller: i want to say that the democrats keep fighting for health care reform and buying insurance across state lines is not the answer. i have a cadillac insurance. and i ended up paying almost $10,000 in fees in addition to my insurance that my husband had one emergency room visit. we need health care reform. please don't give up. and another thing i'd like to say -- i don't want to be ugly, but republicans always criticize washington. why do they go there? stay home and fight in their state senates. >> host: comments in both cases

so we can move on. a tweet from linda, representative welch, you didn't lose on the public option, you can't lose a race you've never run. >> guest: i disagree. we did fas in the house. we lost it in the senate. and, you know, we didn't have the votes in the senate and i don't control what happens in the senate but we did pass it in the house and i'm with you. i wished we had been able to get them -- get that passed. i think it would have made a big difference. >> host: you're going to have to help me with your name is it te-anna. >> caller: it's tuwana. good morning. i'm a first time caller. i just have a couple of questions and a question. the first thing is i wanted to know -- i was looking at the repeal, the two-page repeal is adversed to the 2500-page law, i want to know how are they going to give people taxpayer

incentives -- or tax breaks to have health care if people don't have jobs? second thing, you talked about ms. giffords and god bless her. but the thing is -- and i'm not trying to make a point. how many people were victimized that day, how many people had health care? you know and last thing i wanted to mention was, hillary clinton tried to pass health care when i was a teenager. and i remember watching it. it's not an easy thing to do. it's going to be complicated. everybody knows that. but i think, you know, reaching across the aisle is so important in doing this. to actually understanding -- you know, understanding it's a complicated issue and it's not going to get solved in two pages, please. and i'll take my comment off the air. thank you. >> guest: well, you have a very good point about the reaching across the aisle. by the way, you know, in vermont, where we have a tradition of moving ahead on trying to extend access and improve the quality of care through republican and

democratic administrations -- when i was the senate president, a democrat, our governor douglas is a republican, and we were pushing for a version of universal care. and the governor on the republican side was arguing cost containment. the democrats argued access. we sat down and realized we're both right. that the only way you're going to extend access and make it sustainable is by controlling cost. and that's where the republicans and democrats here both have legitimate insights and should be doing as you're saying reaching across the aisle to try to find a way of melding cost containment with the moral obligation to extend access to all our citizens. >> host: the "usa today" opinion page -- their editorial pro and con is on health care today. the paper makes its point on obama-care now gets serious. opposing point of view they chose the chairman on the subcommittee of health of house energy. and here's one argument he

makes. obama-care is creating 159 new federal offices and tens of thousands of pages of new regulation. later on he writes, obama ignores the laws of economics by growing government while promising to spend less. >> well, see, it's just not -- these are rhetorical arguments. health care -- we had no obama bill, none. health care has been -- it's expensive. it's been going on two or three times the rate of nation. the rate of profits. the rate of wages. we have a serious problem in this country that we have this escalating cost to health care in our ability to keep up with it financially is beyond our grasp. and that's true of the american health care system. the volume-driven fee for service approach is a financial money machine. and we have to change that. one way or the other. but that is endemic in the american health care system and not the obama system. and, in fact, the congressional budget office, which is the

referee of how much a bill will cost says that the repeal will actually add $230 billion to the deficit. so mr. pitts has got to address that concretely and specifically. i want to say something -- we had the election, and the republicans won. one of their big campaign plans was to repeal obama-care. and obama-care became an epithet. it was a million different bad things to a million different people. but when you break it down and get concrete, like should people have their kids on their policies till age 26 or should people with preexisting conditions be able to buy insurance or should people who get sick be able to renew their health care policy? americans overwhelmingly support these kinds of commonsense reforms. and throwing everything out for political -- for a political gambit is a bad idea. we are now all elected. republicans and democrats. and the time for putting

political points on the board is over. the time for making pragmatic progress for the american people is here. and that means you improve everything out. >> >> host: on the side of getting serious about health care in the nation. here's what the "usa today" editorial team. those who are serious of hammering down cost cuts have few big options all politically radioactive. restricting use of expensive medical technology drugs and refuse to pay for expensive procedures and protracted end-of-life care or cap the money and patients will have to cut back to charge less >> guest: well, see, there's -- some of those things we're going to have to wrestle with, obviously. but there are more elemental

things that we can do and that we're starting to do in vermont. 70% of our expenses are associated with treating chronic condition like diabetes, like hypertension. and most of those cases are treated in our current model on a fee for service basis. so as you know if you go in the hospitals you get a bill, you get an itemized bill from everything from the surgery room to the anesthesiologist to the band-aid. and if you have a chronic condition, then everything that is done is on this fee for service basis. we establish in vermont called the blueprint for health where instead of paying on a volume-driven basis, we provide a performance-based returns so folks get care that is appropriate so a lot of times folks with a condition like diabetes, they need counseling. they need a lot of access to nursing care. and if you have those patients in essentially a managed program

they are going to get the care when they need at the right provider at a much lower cost and we've been somewhat successful in driving down that cost curve. so a lot of the challenges in health care is moving off of this fee for service volume-driven basis where the peter is just constantly running. >> host: mr. welch is elected to a third term. he's vermont's only representative in the house of representatives. he serves on oversight in government reform and the agriculture committees. i want to talk to you government reform and oversight before we finish up here in a few minutes. shelby is a republican and you are on. good morning. >> caller: good morning and thanks for c-span. i don't know if there's a relationship, maybe you could tell me, between my insurance and emergency room visits. they upped my insurance a little bit from last year. i have a reimbursement account.

i pay around $750 a year of which they will let me use $500 and then i have to pay $1300 before i can get 80%. that 33% they're going to charge me to use my money, i guess. and then the emergency room visit -- my son is a pharmacist in another state. and a young man came in late night because my son worked late shift and he wanted motrin and he didn't have a prescription so my son said you could go to the counter and get a bottle of ibuproven and you can take that instead of motrin and the young man left and he came back with an hour or two with his prescription for motrin. so the state paid for his visit to the e.r. and his medicine because he didn't want to pay a

couple of dollars for some ibuprofinish and somebody had to pay relate to my rise in insurance? >> host: thank you very much for your call. >> related tweet someone is asking if you could please explain what percentage of health care spending the nation is uncompensated emergency room care. so lots of -- >> guest: well, it's a lot. what we estimated -- when we were considering the health care bill is that about $1100 of your premium -- if you purchased health care insurance or you get it through your employer, about $1100 on a family plan is paying for precare for other people like the person who came in here. see that caller has got a good point. there's two issues embedded in that. one is the abuse of the emergency room. i mean, that makes no sense, whatsoever and that cost does get passed on to you and to me and to the taxpayer. so we've got to deal with that

obviously. but one of the ways you deal with it is that if everybody does have access to care, if people without it now have a doctor, then they don't have to go through this convoluted approach of going to the emergency room for really a nonemergency situation. and hospitals in vermont -- we've got 14 of them. they all have emergency rooms. that's a huge expense for them to keep that up and running and going. and every time somebody comes in there's a long protocol you go through. it's a big expense and if they have no insurance, there still is an expense of treating that person obviously and somebody pays and that happens to be the taxpayer or you. so that's a very big deal. >> host: there's another specific question from connecticut, liberal mom on twitter. why do we have medicare d at all? shouldn't it be part of b services and purchase bought at a bulk rate. >> guest: she's talking about, i think, prescription drugs and the prescription drug pricing is very, very expensive and one of the things that i advocated and did include in the house bill but again, lost it in the senate

was price negotiation. you know, in the va program, they do bulk price purchasing and they do price negotiation. you know, if you have a big purchaser and obviously the veterans administration on behalf of our soldiers and sailors who are now home purchase a lot of drugs. they negotiate the best price. so instead of paying for an aspirin like they're buying one, they pay for an aspirin like they're buying 100. we wrote into the legislation in the house that there would be negotiation by medicare to drive down the cost prescription drug to make it cheaper for seniors to have access to the prescriptions they need. so that should be part of the law. >> host: in our final segment this morning, you'll meet the director of the centers for disease control in atlanta. and they have a big new study out about racial disparities and health problems. and what that means for health care costs and also health care

provisions in this country. one last question for mr. welch a democrat from buffalo, jim you're on. good morning. >> caller: good morning. representative, if you could give really specific answers it would be really easy for me. first of all, when you have a preexisting condition or if i come down with cancer or something right now, the insurance company cannot deny me; correct. >> guest: that's correct. under the current law. >> caller: under the current law which i think is good. my second question is this, is there anything in place that prevents my insurance company from jacking up my rates so high because i came down with something that i could no longer afford it? >> guest: well, there is. there's authority to review rates that we've given to the secretary of health and human services so they don't have carte blanche to just run the meter on you. >> caller: 'cause if i come down with something, then my insurance company in buffalo can't say, oh, we're sorry.

we have to cover you. but you know what? we just jacked up your rates $4,000 a month. >> guest: that's right. there's limitations on what the insurance company can do and, of course, that's what insurance is about. when when you're purchasing insurance you're paying the premium during the times when you don't need the coverage but you're doing that because you know there will be a time when you do need the coverage. >> host: you use an auto insurance analogy when people have car accidents their rates tend to go up after that. is there oversight in the car insurance business? >> guest: there is. there is, too. by the way, in the health bill, the rates -- there has to be an acuarial relationship between what total premiums are and what the health care coverage is. so on her time obviously you're always going to trying to calibrate what will will be and affect rates. if more and more people get sick

then the cost of overall health insurance will go up but should you have a system where you're punitively charged because you're the person who happens to get cancer and the answer is no. >> host: is there one thing about the bill that you would like to go retool? >> guest: there's a lot of options. i would like the public option that would save you money and give you more choice. the area in the bill that is the weakest is the most contentious. how do you bring down the overall cost of health care. that's where republicans and democrats should be doing our level best to work together. we're having this argument now as though there's not a health care problem. as though repealing will correct the problems that still exist in our health care system and that's wrong. so there's a lot of room for improvement. and a lot of willingness on my part to work with republicans to improve it but this notion of repealing it is throwing everything out and leaving people out with some of these basic protections is a very bad idea. >> host: last question for you different topic. i mentioned earlier you served on the oversight government committee our next guest is a subcommittee chairman.

what are you expecting from the chairman this year? >> guest: i'm hoping for good things. the oversight committee has a very significant important function and that is to root out waste to impose accountability on our government and that should be the responsibility whether you're democrat or republican. and the leadership for that comes from the chairman, mr. issa, and he's got to make the decision and what he's saying is that he wants to do things that will have a broad benefit to taxpayers and to the concept of accountability. not have political witch hunt. but the history of this committee is yet to be written. we'll see how it proceeds. but as long as we're on the agenda on rooting out waste and protecting taxpayers and imposing accountability, then that will be -- it will be a useful committee.

>> live pictures from the university of arizona medical center. we're here for a briefing on the condition of arizona congresswoman gabrielle giffords. she is still recovering from a gunshot wound to the head. the associated press reporting today that she could be moved to a rehabilitation facility in houston as early as tomorrow. her husband is a space shuttle pilot, and he is stationed in houston and so this will give them an opportunity to be closer together. we expect this briefing to begin in just a moment. live coverage here on c-span2. [inaudible conversations]

>> good morning. i thank you again for gathering for this press conference. i'd like to take an opportunity here again to thank all the people that have been contacting us here at the hospital with the well wishes and the thanks. it's been a continued amazement to see how many people in the country and the state and city really care about this event. what we're going to do with this press conference is i'm going to turn this over to michael in just a minute or so but then we're also going to have congresswoman giffords' husband captain mark kelly give a statement following