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tv   U.S. Senate  CSPAN  August 24, 2011 12:00pm-5:00pm EDT

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the whole train stops on august 2nd is fiction. now, sooner or later it's going to run into trouble but the best way is to give them the evidence and that's to go a day or two longer and which is almost certainly going to happen and very little will occur as a result of that. republicans will learn to be able to say, see, you know, look last time it went over a couple days and nothing happened and i think that will largely solve the problem. your focus on language is entirely justified and i share it. it's what i'm working for. >> i have a bone to pick with one of your comments. the president said it's only fair that the most fortunate contribute and i heard you saying something having been grown in a good family. i don't feel lucky. i feel i worked hard and i was born in a good family and that's
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a reflection of my parents and my grandparents working hard and so i'd like your comments. >> great, my parents and grandparents and everybody worked hard as well. and we were born poor. it turned out it didn't matter in an opportunity society. opportunity comes largely on the basis of hard work, merit and virtue. i agree with that. but i dost recognize that there's some people that in more unfortunate circumstances. >> one of my jobs is to create more opportunity. i want to create more opportunity for people who have less. why? because i want to convert them to the opportunity society. i want them to have the opportunity -- the optimism that you and i share. i don't want them to be claimants and wards on the state. now, i can do that by just saying that's an idiotic philosophy that you have but that doesn't have as much traction as when i help set up an entrepreneurship program in the inner city. not nearly as much as when i try to substitute foreign aid for small business development in
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third world countries. and all the stuff that we believe in when we believe in market. we believe in the inherent creativity on these things so i take your point. there's a ton of work that goes into this and it's usually assumed away, easily by the president of the united states and we can't stand for that. but at the same time, let's say we do believe that certain people need help. and let's give them the right kind of help. welfare checks not the right kind of help. the right kind of help is giving people what we've enjoyed the most and what's led to our success the most, such that their kids and grandkids can say, one of the reasons i'm okay today is because my father or my grandfather pulled our family out of poverty. thank you. >> back here. >> back here. >> sort of concur with your decision to recommend to us that we use the liberal's own terms. and that we win that way.
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i have one example of that and then i would like to you speak to the terms that you're talking about. i helped start a sexual abstinence program nationally. as soon as we changed it to a poverty prevention program we began to make headway because it is that. so give us more examples of the terms we should begin to own as conservatives that the liberals are using against us, please. >> sure. i mean, it's always a winner to say -- it's not that we're against sex it's we're against poverty. that sounds like a pretty good winner to me on its face. i'm kind of off my game here, man. [laughter] >> look, anytime you hear a liberal talking about the fact that the poor stay poor or are
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stuck in this society, it's time to turn their language in on itself. anytime you hear them say that what we need is for people to pay their fair share, you say that is absolutely true. people should pay their fair share. that's the reason we need a flat tax. right? [applause] >> when you say we need rich people to serve others more, you say that's exactly right. that's why i'm proud to live in a country where largely the wealthy and the middle class as well band together to give $3 billion away to charity each year which is the entire gdp of sweden. that's something to be proud of. that is the rich serving the poor and i'm deeply proud of that. you can talk about that, too. you can talk about the fact that virtually everything in the left wing moral scheme is actually coming true. and the reason it is, is because the free enterprise system.
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where are the poor richest? the poor are richest here. where do the poor have the greatest opportunities? they have the greatest opportunities here. have the rich gotten richer because the poor have gotten poorer? of course not. we know a point of fact if you're going to be born poor, you're check just shot is to be in the united states. incidentally that's why people are struggling to get in here. because they want to be poor here. right? and that actually says something, right? and we can -- we can invert everything that they say. but we have to be creative about it. and we have to have the courage to not just go back to the materialistic inquisitive language. thank you. [applause] >> all right. i got one over here. >> yes, i have a question for you. it seems like a large majority of americans now understand that our moral values come in part from god's ten commandments. it's well-known and my question
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would be in terms of a moral argument, is there any positive value in arguing that the ten commandment that thou shall not covet our neighbor's property. we have a culture to say it's okay to want someone else's property even if we do it indirectly through government. >> boy, that's a good point. that is a really smart point. the problem with redistribution is that it's trying to build society on the basis of envy. in a society on the basis of spite. you and i both know -- you know, this is the difference between the united states and europe. there was a survey about five years ago when bill gates was still the richest guy in the world. that asked, what's your opinion about bill gates? do you have a warm feeling toward him or -- do you have a gold feeling toward bill gates, okay, and they asked citizens in a bunch of different countries and what really struck me was the difference between the united states and france. and i'm not going to give you the data.
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let me cut to the chase. in the united states, people basically said, i hope my kids are the next bill gates. in france, they basically said, let's take his stuff and burn his house down. that's the difference between an envy-based society and a mobility-based society. the difference between spite and opportunity. now, the only -- the only way that we're going to be able to maintain that is through the concept of fairness. if we don't change the path that we're on, we will be an envy-based society. that's not just the basis of a lot more redistribution and a lot less entrepreneurship and a lot lower economic growth rates. that's an unhappier country. that's bad stewardship to leave to our kids. one more and then we're -- john says we're done. >> before you leave, now, i need to tell the audience, you witnessed history being made just now, friends. i've heard arthur brooks speak a number of times. i've seen him on tv.
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i've heard him on the radio. arthur, i enjoyed interviewing you on my radio show a couple times. i've never known this man to be at a loss for words in the slightest. [laughter] >> you saw rendered speechless and he did it to himself. [laughter] >> i just ask you to watch for the new aei bumper sticker. this could sweep the nation, arthur. arthur brooks, thank you very much. have a good trip back. >> thank you. [applause] >> a gala dinner that kicks off for a memorial honoring the reverend martin luther king, jr., is being moved to a different building after the east coast earthquake damaged the original banquet site here
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in information. the invitation-only dinner was to be held this evening at the national building museum but due to damage to the building caused by the earthquake yesterday, officials say the dinner will now be held at the washington convention center. you can still see live coverage event at 7:00 eastern here on c-span. the official dedication of the memorial for the civil rights leader by the way is scheduled to take place this coming sunday. president obama is scheduled to speak and we will have live coverage starting at 11:00 am eastern on c-span. >> "washington journal" this week is featuring an in-depth look at the medicare program and today former administrator of the
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>> for politics and public affairs, nonfiction books and american history, it's the c-span networks. it's all available to you on television, radio, and online. and on social media sites, search, watch and share all our programs anytime with c-span's video library and we're on the road with our c-span digital bus and local content vehicles, bringing our resources to local communities and showing events from around the country. it's washington your way. the c-span networks, created by cable, provided as a public service. >> colorado christian university centennial institute held its annual western conservative summit at the end of july. and one of their keynote speakers was democratic pollster
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and fox news contributor pat caddell. he advised jimmy carter, job, gary hart and jerry brown and over the next 45 minutes he talks about culture wars in our country. >> thank you very much. >> first of all, let me say how glad i am to be here. and everyone has been quite wonderful here to me. some people wonder why i'm here. i thought to myself, there was a scene in the wizard of oz where dorothy turns to toto, a character that i identify often with. saying we're not in kansas anymore. i guess that's why she went to the denver international airport. don, don't get me started. john andrews said -- i'd like to know democrats and republicans and i promise to do some of both. so some of you may not like --
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sometimes i get -- some people don't like it and i had a little bit with hugh hewitt on sean hannity. if you want to see more of that, you can. let me just start off by saying a little bit about my journey quickly. yeah, when i left politics, i swore one thing to myself when i got out of being a political hack, which is what i was and that was i would never again not speak in my own voice or say what i believed and to hell with it. and i don't often -- i'm often i know wrong but i always at least, you know, i think if you see me on tv or when i commentate, i do and some of you have seen me on fox.
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i have a show we're working on and hopefully it will be broadcast -- we we do every monday for those of you who are real political junkies. i do online for fox live on -- it's streamed live on mondays at 11:00 for those of you who are interested. i left politics because i started when i was very young. i'd done a presidential campaign when i was 21. teddy white said at that time i was the youngest person ever to be a major advisor to a presidential campaign in american history. i spent 20 years in politics and began to be very disillusioned with it and leave. i went to hollywood because it was like going on methadone. but when i left it, i was very bitter. i really never really wanted to deal with it again.
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i thought it had -- that i helped make it that way, a profession i was not proud of, particularly among what had happened to political consultants and then something happened. my daughter gave me three grandchildren. one right after another. libby, who's 5, travis -- patrick travis my name sake who's 4 and janie kate who's this year and i moved back to south carolina so i could be down the street from them. and then suddenly i found myself facing a question about what i would do -- how could i stay out of politics and i'll speak to that in a second. but i've been working on a book and it's called "america is too young to die" and the thesis of it is rather simple. that every generation in our history faces a test. the test of whether it will earn the right to call itself american. before there was a united states, there was an america. and the right -- and in that america, the moral -- the ultimate moral commandment was
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simple. you give your children better than you had. you give them more opportunity, greater freedom. and it was the test of honor. and for each generation who's had to face that test, whether they meet their destiny or whether they betray their responsibility. we're in the first generation in history that stands in the precipice after 21 generations who's successfully us all to stand to be the first generation to fail that test. and it's not something -- you know, i watch these politicians in washington talk about our children. they throw it away like it's a line somewhere between potholes that they're going to fill and taxes they're going to give you back. it is not. it is a moral issue that defines each and every one of us, in our own lives. [applause] >> let me tell you something. if we fail our children, if we fail to pass them on to a better
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america and that issue is in severe doubt, america will die. there will still be an entity called the united states but there won't be an america anymore. let me tell you, if that moment happens, it is something history will not forget and god will not forgive. [applause] >> when i face the question of having to suddenly realize i needed to get back into the political sphere, it came to me one day because i realized that my three children who call me dada which is irish for grandfather. we're good irish. i thought to myself, if i'm fortunate that god allows me to live another 20 years, or 15 or 20 years to see my children -- grandchildren grow up to young men and women, what am i going to say to them when they look at me and say, dada, how did you
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let all of this happen to us? it's a question that every one of you and everyone in this country should be asking themselves, not where their next paycheck is coming from. not where their next donation is going, but how are they going to answer that question? [applause] >> let me tell you something and i say this in all the events i speak to -- if someone -- if your children or grandchildren were in back sleeping one night and an intruder started to break into the house, enter the window to do them bodily harm, what is it you would not do to protect your children and grandchildren? is there anything you would not do? well, that is the equivalent of what is happening right now. they are being robbed. their future -- their rightful heritage and future and what -- which they are owed, which we owe them because it was honorably passed to us is being taken away. and it is happening now.
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what's going in washington, this unbelievable exercise of politicians out for themselves, always worried about their politics and i don't care -- they're all that way right now. the president, the republican leadership, the democratic leadership. what they are doing is bankrupting this country, talking about cutting debt down in 10 years, we know what they mean which is they will never stopped spending. that's what whthey do. they spend money. and the republicans are a little worse than the democrats. and the fact is they never cut spending. they raise taxes and waste money. they never stop the waste and they never take responsibility. all you have to do is remember you forget last spring when they passed the -- you remember john boehner got up and said oh, we're going to pass this $60 billion in cuts. we cut the budget and it turned out to be 300 million. because they think we're all
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idiots. the economy in this country is in the worst shape of my lifetime, and it's getting worse by the minute. the president hasn't a clue what to do. no one in washington -- you know what? washington has the highest real estate values in america. it is awash in corrupt money and these people don't give a wit what really happens. all they're looking for is a talking point. nobody cares the fact -- and i was out last week and i was here in denver one of the three cities tampa and columbus talking to americans and focus groups about what they were doing and i'll tell you the resilience of the american people is unbelievable. they're willingness to face up to the number of jobs and they have no faith in the government. they have no control they feel with the government but what they have to do in their own lives and i'm thinking, and you hear the stories -- they don't tell about themselves. they tell it about their families and friends and what prices are being paid. people losing their homes because we have an economy that was looted and the people who
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did it are august around free walking around free including the president's chief of staff and his national security virus from fannie mae which is a subject i'll talk about in a moment. and all of this continues to go on and one policy you've heard today from frank gaffney who i have great respect for and friendship with. you heard the discussions -- you see what's happening with the chinese. i don't know how you think you're an independent country when you're on your knees to your banker and your banker is a communist who oppresses his own people, yesterday in the "wall street journal" there's an article about how they are repressings. the churches are trying to fight back. churches are trying to bring god to people and have now been termed to be enemies of the state. and we have business people in this country who can't wait to do business. they don't care what the moral implications are.
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iran, we see what iran and this administration promised. they get nuclear weapons does anyone doubt they are going to use them against israel? we're a business negotiating with the muslim brotherhood in egypt we have a president who seems to be impervious to understanding our responsibility to the state of israel and -- it is nighttime in israel as i speak now. israel is in great danger and with it the united states and no one speaks out about it. the chinese military is building up -- we've given up space to the russians and the chinese. all of this is happening. but i have an urgent faith in the american people and it comes from my experience. i have never -- the american people as i've often said before, i've had my heartbroken but i have never lost confidence in their judgment in wanting to do the right thing. there is a great majority in this country, and it does not
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identify itself by party so much as it does by a simple definition of being american. i personally belong to a party of memory, a democratic party, as you've heard being described and you heard foster this morning -- by the way, i couldn't believe foster was as good of shape after the night he and i had last night. [laughter] >> discussing the fact that all the line of democratic presidents and truman and jfk -- jfk by the end of his inaugural address saying that on earth god's work is truly our own. fdr, if you ever have heard actually hear or read his speech, his prayer on d-day to the nation, i use it for my friends who are democrats who claim we shouldn't have religion in politics and i pretend it's george bush giving the speech and watch them go crazy. [laughter] >> president carter who was a
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man of great faith, and i was privileged and honored to work with and ronald reagan by the way when you saw the -- the demonstration on the display by frank about when he took on communists when he was a union president, remember he was a democrat then. we have two parties in america. we have the corrupt party and the stupid party. they have a lot of in common with each other. but they tend to be -- that tends to distinguish them over and over. i'm not going to tell you which is which 'cause you know. you know, i started -- i've been a democrat all my life. my father was a democrat and my grandfather before him and my great grandfather but the democratic party i belonged is not what they have done -- what they have turned the democratic party into. and i have to tell you, i'm making a stand -- i'm not leaving my party. i used to -- i used to -- to
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quote ronald reagan, i didn't leave my party, my party left me. in recent years i've really begun to appreciate that more. but i want to tell you where i stand. my classmate at harvard -- a couple of weeks ago in the hamptons and doug shoney he was at a party and he went up -- doug and i write together. i went up to him and doug wrote a piece to the public in which in front of a number of people and senator schumer explained that doug and i couldn't describe ourselves as democrats because we didn't use democratic talking points and he said you were required to use those talking points even if you don't believe in them. it is my reaction to that was what woodrow wilson said in 1916 in nebraska that i love the democratic party but i live
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much, much more. the democratic party becomes -- the democratic party becomes an end into itself i rise in dissent. i rise in dissent. [applause] . >> the party of the voice of the common man position been taken over gi george soros and a elite overeducated people -- [applause] >> who have decided that their job is to be dictators to the people, to the common man. to tell them what they must believe and what they must believe even when they're not living up to it themselves. i know a lot of these people. as i've said before they seem to cause a reaction. i said i remember them when we were serious when i was young and in politics we never let the people in the room and while they weren't looking they took over our education system and they are now taking over this government. if you knew them the way i knew them, you wouldn't sleep at
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night. we also have what i call -- and i want to say something about president obama. when he announced, i started in politics not in the antiwar movement. but in the civil rights. i was a southern young white southern boy in jacksonville, florida, my family was from south carolina. i was involved in civil rights in the '60s and the early '70s. i was responsible for helping elect all the first wave of black mayors across the country. when president obama the day he announced i was holding my granddaughter libby in my hours who had just been born and i was -- and tears running down my eyes to see a blackman -- a serious black candidate running as a candidate for president, not as a blackman but as an american, as a democrat. and then, of course,, however, i've been through politics and i'm a little bit more cynical by the spring it was clear to me that what he represented most of all and has as president has a kind of certain chicago way of
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life, of politics. and as i said, he has piddle his administration with crooks and near crooks and he has been basically protected by a press and i'll deal with this before who protects him. on the other side we have the stupid party. and i want to give equal time because they certainly deserve it. anyone who watches what they did with obamacare, you know, they won the house of representatives on the issue -- the republicans did two-thirds of the 60 members who were elected because of their opposition -- the country's opposition of obamacare. i described obamacare the night it passed on fox as a crime against democracy. it was 2,000 pages of trickery and lies and deals. it passed never in the history of the country have we ever passed a piece of entitlement with the social security and
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medicare that was by 85 by both parties. it was passed by doing deals with the drug industry so they would be exempt from it. and with lobbyists in the aarp and others. it was shameful and then finally we had to buy senators, in full view of the country. and then the 2,025 pages nobody read when they voted on it. now we find out by the waivers. we find out every day about the higher costs. and they actually get up with a straight face and try to say, it will make health care less. i mean, i don't care who they think they're talking to. when the day it passed, there's not been a week a rasmussen poll where -- every week but one a majority has favored the repeal of obamacare but the republicans just as tucker said this morning, oh, they were giving all the tea party people just basically throwing a bone. they're not interested in it. when they found out by the illegal funding or i licit
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funding secretly buried in that bill, this spring, what did they do? they refused to make it an issue. there are republicans who have come and spoke to you who, in fact, went and told major donors not to worry. it wasn't important. one major part of the republican leadership went and told members, hey, except for some individual mandates, you know, we basically like a lot of what's in this bill. now, i want to tell you something, do you know that the republicans -- and if you don't believe me go to eric's website and 95 billion republicans voted from a bill left over to nancy pelosi's speakership to extend money for veterinarians we don't have enough money for people. and the republicans did that. they are part of a washington political class and the leadership have that party and
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our job to flog the people when we come. i'll tell you another story and i'll get back to the other things, about the shari'a law that frank talked about and about the problem with muslims. .. >> who chuck schumer defended and protected from having to pay the taxes you pay because they
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gave him campaign money for the democratic party. talk about hypocrites. molly norris was a paper in seattle. she was a cartoonist when the cold thing of drawing mohamed was a crime and to be punishedded by death around the world. she was outraged in the name of freedom of speech, she suggested they have a cartoonist day, and now the head of al-qaeda issued to have her killed. the first came to her in seattle and told her it was a serious threat and she should hide, but the fbi would not protect her. she had to change her name, give up her job, go into hiding because on american soil would not protect her. the attorney general with the support of many republican senatorring, just an outrage, nobody ever calls for his
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resignation, but he's put the united states, a muslim woman in chicago for the first year teacher decided she wanted to have a leave of absence to go to mekkah, and she wanted to be paid while she was doing it. the school board said you're out of your mind. we don't let any first year teachers pay leave of absences for anything. she filed suit. the united states government entered the suit on her behalf. you'll pay for her argument that she should have the right. that's what's going on in this country. no republicans talk about it. ask the friends who meet with him why they don't. when molly norris' story came, there was a close senate race in washington. the incumbents were neck and neck. the incumbent had after 9/11 had actually said, "we should not forget the good things the humanitarian things that bin laden did."
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okay? he's running, losing women, two and a half to one in washington state. i couldn't understand why no one would make an issue why they didn't make an issue of molly norris who was in hiding and challenge this incumbent on that basis. it would have won. his washington consultants, the corrupt core in both parties who've corrupted american politics told him he could not do it. that was not the agenda, and neither was the mosque. the political corruption is unbelievable whether it's tea party express operating, pretending it's tee parties to richen the political parties and loses three states to the republican party, whether it is the democratic corrupt consultants robbing widows and orphans is they are all in the business. you people don't know how to fight. you don't know how to fight.
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it's unbelievable to me. wisconsin is happening now, organized labor is putting everything in there, and a lot of people raise a lot of money and a lot of people aren't doing anything, and that issue will have great impact and the results in a recall in another two weeks will decide a lot of what happens in 2012. i can go on with california and gay marriages. to me, the issue is -- whatever i feel about it morally, the issue to me is a pragmatic and real one and a legal one. we saw what no-fault divorce did for the country. sounded like a good idea. we have 30 years of evidence overwhelming that now the communities say that it did. we open the door -- when we changed the law about families not mattering, first you heard late last night by concept, now it's the issue of what makes you happy. well, if the issue of marriage or the law should be what makes
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people happy, then would someone pray tell why it's limited to two? why not three? why not four? i mean, polygamy has a greater history in both this country and worldwide than does gay marriage. i mean, what i'm amazed by is conservatives have never gotten as these family in utah is now suing in utah to move to massachusetts in 2004 and apply under the equal protection of the law for the right to marry. if you think the country may be divided over gay marriage, let me tell you, it is violent on the issue of polygamy which is an abuse of women of the first order. none of the conservatives know how to fight. they sit around and come pain. the -- you talk about the access, it is not between democrats and republicans or liberals and conservatives. it is about a political class in washington, and the mainstream of america. there is a majority of 70-75% of
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the country that units around fundamental con cements i'll underline because that's what i'm working on, and a quarter of the country, 20% or less that we have devised a scale called the political class. the political class is in power now and dpermed to hold -- determined to hold on of power at all costs. they rig the system and loot it. 85% of the american people believe that members of congress now do nothing but serve themselves, and 60% believe the congressperson is that. 70% say most of the members of congress are somewhat corrupt, and 46% say most of them are corrupting inning their own congressman, that's 61% of people with an opinion. what i like are the two most important questions. when asked whether or not the government in washington operates with the concept of the
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governed, 23% of the american people say yes. 60% say no. that's about 72% of those who have an opinion. members of political class, 79% of them say they rule with the concept of the governed. 75% of the mainstream america says they do not rule with a consent of the governed. that's a 154 point margin difference. might as well be in different universes much less the same planet. that's the basis of the revolution. the question i asked was asking people whether or not they thought the distance between the governed and the governor, how did it compare to the british and the colonies in the mid 1700s? 55% of mainstream americans by a margin of more than 20 points said they believed it was worse, just equal or worse than what it was when the colonists faced the british.
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no members of the political class believed that. about 150 point difference. we are discussing here what i used the term "a prerevolutionary moment." the political class in this country, washington, and the sad traps, lobbyists, and money, and the crony capitalism, they rot this country for themselves. they are determined at all costs to hold on to power and privilege. even if it means the country goes to hell and fails. let me tell you something, the motto i use that could be attached to john milton wrote in paradise lost as the devil said, "better to rule in hell than serve in heaven." that's the political class, and that's why i have no use for them, and after this display over the last few week, if you don't think the conditions of
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1992 would have produced a winner in ross per row if he was not crazy, the country was ready to elect him. those conditions were great. you saw what donald trump was talking about. independent against these parties, something is going to happen. but the one thing i want to talk about is principles. i'm involved in an effort, one in foreign policy called secure america now, get the grass roots involved in the messaging and to the argument of foreign policy on the basis that the average american has better sense than the experts do on foreign policy now. if it's a non partisan effort. the other is an idea i'm working on and principled i developed for my book. my motto is simple. we don't speak democratic or republican. we speak only american here. [applause] the principles of it quickly because i know i'm running over -- the first is the american exceptionalism, that we are the exceptional nation and
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must be. we have a generation of young people who don't believe it because they were told not. we have a president of the identification who sits in the oval office first time ever who does not believe that. you saw -- we voluntarily abdicated and venderred our supreme sigh in space years ago to the russian and chinese, and nobody said anything in washington of either party. you know, i could go on with the other things like that. the second great idea is that the core idea of america is simple. it is freedom. you know, americans need to act like they are free people, you know whether it's the tsa, this idea we are sheep and should be treated that way or that the government is now -- there was a "wall street journal" piece in the front page yesterday about how ordinary people are caught up in federal laws that are being intensified over minor offenses that no one could possibly know about. it is a government prosecuting
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its people to keep them in line, and i urge you to read the story. it should shake everybody who believes in freedom. that's going on every day. the third i talked about was the generational commitment. the fourth i want to mention is that we must have truthful discourse that unless we can be honest with each other and tell the truth, we cannot survive as a democratic republic. all we are fed are lies after lies. we're also told there's no such thing as right and wrong or personal responsibility, moral relativism, all the things that will undermind this country to its core in which 75%-80% of the american people don't believe. that is said not to be a political issue, but it is a political issue. unfortunately, the lying comes from everyone. the belief is if they get away with it, we'll take it. until we demand something different, that is a problem. the next is the great poisen
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killing the country is corruption. it is entered by corrupting the political system which is what holds this country together in idea. we corrupt the every institution. you do not any wall street could have done what it did to america if politics hasn't been corrupted first. they allowed wall street to buy both parties. republicans were the stupid ones to defend wall street, the democrats raised money and attacked them, raised more than republicans do, but they can't do better. fannie and freddy, the greatest single scandal in the history of the united states and combined all scandals together, they would like like a teacup compared to fannie and freddy which likes like when we had the gulf, the well blown out, that's fannie and freddie. we passed a 125-page law called the dodd-frank bill which is what i call the equivalent of
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washington's washing oil off the birds' feathers. every republican in congress agreed to call it that. i call it the dodd-frank bill the akadilleger, aka, capone-dillenger. republicans didn't not stand up in public saying no bill passes from us. were those people right? not a thing was done with fannie and freddie. they did everything but that including sanctifying the bailouts, the one issue that units americans outside the political class from the far left and right is what bailouts did, the looting of america in order to pay off the people $16 trillion. you trouble didn't see that story last week. $16 trillion the fed secretly went to every bank during the
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crisis. $16 trillion. only because bernie sanders, whatever you want to say, there's one thing about liking a socialist when he wants to find out facts, he forced into the bill they had to do an audit that the fed opposed. no one in the mainstream media covered it. $16 trillion. even this week the faa is -- we're not picking up taxes. what do the airlines do? the taxes that you pay for your airline tickets that i pay here, they are keeping the money, changing the prices. hey, that's what we are here for. we have lobbyists. we can do whatever we want. you don't have to believe in free enterprise to be against looting. that is not free enterprise. [applause] my next principle is the issue -- the primary ideology in america is not certainly not liberalism, and it's not conservatism. there's a major rism, and that
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is common sense. we have to restore that principle to which we look at. every one of you know what i mean when i say the word "common sense" and every day you are offended by what you read of the abuse of common sense in the society. the seventh is one of the most important in my principles. it is the power residing exclusively in the right in the hands of the people. the ultimate sovereignty of the country is with the people. you are responsible for what happens to the country. all of us are responsible. i am, and every one of us. we didn't get here by accident. every one of us closed our eyes or did something. i did things -- i didn't mean for it to be what it did, but it messed the system up. we are responsible for how we got here, and every one of us is morally responsible for getting us out of here. the notion that the political class wants to tell you is two things -- they are two things. you will have no power, and you're wrong. the truth of the matter is you're right, and you have all
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the power and you have all the numbers. [applause] it was said this morning, and i invited someone to come here because it was important for you to meet. i was amazed. i met this person at cpac when i was speaking on national security there. lady asked a questions talking this morning about getting information, and she said, well, no, you have to learn how to share it and you have to learn how to evangelize the information. the press was not going to give it to you. that's the next point. the fact of the matter is i don't know where you are, alice, this woman is a mother of three, was never in politics until three years ago. she has turned texas politics on its head by getting people to social media, having do boot camps to train people like you how to communicate and use the tools there to restore democracy. that is the future of america. those of you, it's not the politicians parading around
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pretending to be nontea party people who believe in the idea that people should rule, but people who tell it. that's the next to the last principle which is simple, freedom of the press. we have freedom of the press is begin to this country for one reason. it was a deal. the only institution in the constitution that has no checks and balances is the press. that was not done because the founders liked the press. they hated the press, but they did it because they understood a country could not be free unless the people were protected by a free press that would protect them from the government, and from power, and the deal was they would have no checks and balances and the commitment was they would protect the country. we have a press for the most part that has abandoned its role as the watchman on the walls of freedom. they have abdicated that role. they have decided that it is their job to be outriders of one
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political party or the other, now basically one. they believe it is their right to tell you who you may vote for and not vote for and believe worse what truth you may know and what truth you may not know. i want to tell you -- [applause] that in doing so by deserting their sacred responsibility, they have made themselves by choice the enemies of the american people. [applause] until we restore free information, we will not be free. lastly, my last point is that i'm working on these, a simple one, what this country needs is a good dose of what it believes it, real free enterprise and democracy. so far, we don't have much of either one, and we need them back. i want to end by saying, i know i went on, but i want to say this. i believe we're at a critical moment. i've spent a the 4r0 of time since i left politics studying history.
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i love history. robert kennedy spoke, and he died in 1968, and he said before he died, he said, you know, he said our future may be beyond our vision, but it is not beyond our control. it is a shaping impulse of america that neither fate nor fortune or the irresistible tide that determines the future, but rather the work of our own hands matched to reason and principle that determine our destiny. he said there's pride in that statement and arrogance, but there's also great truth. in any event, it's the only way we, as americans can live. abraham lincoln in december 1862 after he announced the emancipation proclamation before he would actually write and release it on the first had a statement that he had on for the congress. in those days it was called the -- you didn't have state of
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the unions, but they were called messages, written messages. it's one of the most famous. i'll read the ending to you because it says everything we should be about. he said, "the dogmas of the quiet past are an adequate of the stormy present. the occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occasion. we must think anew, act anew and save our country. fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. we will be remembered in spite of ourselves, no persons significant or insignificant can spare any one or another of us. the fiery trials of which we past white us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. we say we are for the union. the world will not forget we say this. we know how to save the union. the world knows we know how to save it. we even here hold the power and bear the responsibility in
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giving freedom to the slave, we assured freedom for the free, honorable alike in what we give and preserve. we shall save or mainly lose the best hope of earth. other means may succeed, this cannot fail. the way is plain, peaceful, and generous and just, a way which is followed and the world will forever applaud and god must forever bless." i'll close on one last thought, a hero of many of you people and someone i became to know and like a great deal, president reagan, who i tried to defeat twice. one of my favorite stories of his was about what happened with joseph warren, one of the founders you never heard of. joseph warren died in bunker hill. he was the president of the massachusetts congress, meaning he was the commander in chief of new england amy of seizing the british, but he served as a soldier in the ranks and would be killed, one the last people
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killed when the americans ran out of ammunition. he was the person that revere and the others road out to warn -- rode out to warn when the famous ride of the british were coming. he said when they gathered there, "the country that we love is in dire danger, but do not dispair because upon you rests the future of generations not yet born. act worthy of ourselves." that is the question i have for all of us today is to agent worthy. the road is not easy, but it is a road of honor. if you walk that road, when the end of that road you'll stand in front of your children as your parents stood in front of you, our grandparents stood in front of them and speak the sacred words we kept the faith. thank you. [applause]
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[cheers and applause] >> pat, magnificent. >> the new martin luther king memorial has reopened after the earthquake closed all monuments due to the east coast earthquake. a handful of buildings are closed today including offices of homeland security, agriculture, and interior departments. the tonight's event honoring global peace leaders has been moved to a different building. live coverage seven eastern on c-span. the main dedication ceremony with president obama and king family members sunday, the park service is watching hurricane irene predicted to blow through the area sunday morning. still planning live coverage on c-span sunday at 11 eastern.
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>> now a dipper he'sed by the u.s. capitol historical society in honor of the health and financial services committee. the keynote speaker is michael oxley, the republican from ohio. he said the american people stopped trusting the financial markets because of the 2002 and 2008 financial crisis. this is about an hour. >> ladies and gentlemen, if i may have your attention please. please continue to eat and enjoy your coffee and dessert. good evening. i'm ron, president of the u.s. capitol historical society an a former member of congress from connecticut.
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our celebration of the financial services committee is possible because of the ongoing support of society members and for their generous additional support of several donors. they're listed near the end of your printed program. thank you, all, for advancing the mission of the society. [applause] the committee we honor tonight produced landmark legislation over the past 146 years. the glass act, the national housing act, and so many more. the committee has also been chaired by members of congress whose names commonly appear in history textbooks. carter-glass, louis, and henry stegl. it's a privilege to introduce the current members of the
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committee, chairman baucus and ranking member, barney frank. [applause] chairman baucus who represents the 6th district of alabama served on the committee for 18 years. he was ranking member for four years before becoming chairman of the 112th congress. he is the second member from alabama to chair the committee. the first being henry s stege l who became chairman 80 years ago drurg the great depression. as ranking member now, chairman baucus grappled with the financial crisis of the recent recession. he's also worked to improve living standards for impoverished people around the world. his dedication has been recognized by ox-fam america. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome chairman baucus.
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[applause] >> thank you, ron. i'm -- when i was discharged from the army, they wanted 20 give me a disability for hearing loss, and i told them that i didn't have a hearing loss, and then i got to thinking, well, maybe i would like to get my pension or something if there's disability, so i said, what would i have to do. they said you have to wait three weeks. i said i'm out of here. [laughter] i didn't get my disability for hearing, but i do have a hearing loss and the cannon as you notice, the cannon, this room is one of the toughest as far as hearing, but what i heard of that introduction, thank you. [laughter]
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[applause] i've enjoyed talking to ron. ron, thank you, and thank you to the capitol historical society for what you do, and this is a wonderful crowd, and i know many people work very hard to put this dinner on. it's a wonderful opportunity for linda and i to be with pat and mike oxley. i would not be chairman of the financial services committee or even ranking member if it were not for mike oxley who gave me the opportunity to advance through the committee. it's great to honor you, mike, and pat -- great to see you. also, barney frank, he and i have a mutual agreement if we get in trouble in a campaign, we'll go to the respective states and campaign against each other.
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[laughter] so -- but he and i and our staffs have an excellent working relationship. we -- our press offices don't have a good relationship. [laughter] you know, but it is -- i have enjoyed, and i don't know jim leech probably suspect here tonight, but growing up, jim was kind of a model person to chair the committee as was mike, and i actually enjoyed -- learned a lot from barney frank. we didn't always agree, but i was always impressed with his professionalism. let me say this. this is a recognition of the committee not of any one person, and a committee functions well
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or not well based on the staff, and we have got many staffers here today, many under jim and a few under henry gone -- gonzalez, and i'd like all our staffers to stand at this time. [applause] >> when i say staffers, i saw former staffers. i meant former too that didn't stand up, but half of the former staffers did not stand, but they are out there, and i think mike and barney, you would agree that a lot of our success and a lot of the hard work is based on what the staff's done. also, i would like to say that the most wonderful thing about
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being a member of congress, you are -- it's kind of a ministry. you get to help people, but you get to meet some wonderful people. you know, if i go home and tell people i was sitting next to the chairman, the ceo of grant thornton who headed up the chinese operation for nine yearings, i mean, people are very impressed with that, but i'm very impressed with that. [laughter] we talked for a few minutes about our ideas about china and the one-child policy and to have that kind of conversation to interact with people of knowledge and have such experiences in different fields is an incredible thing. it is an enriching experience, and it is just a wonderful thing.
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i'd also like -- we've got several members of our committee. i know that democrats and republicans, if you're a committee member, would you stand? [applause] we really -- you probably by listening to fox news or msnbc you would think we all hate each other. [laughter] but we really don't. mel watt and i and our wives are friends, and we'll be going to russia next month, and i'm really looking forward to that, and maloney and we worked on issues together. the fact act, one of our greatest successes, came out of committee.
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it passedded with flood insurance with no, no votes, mike. we, from time to time, manage to compromise which is a good thing, and it always feels good when you can get an agreement. no one always gets everything they want, but it -- anyway. i'm going to close by telling you a quick story. 2001 mike oxley -- to start before that, i was on a committee be newt gingrich and david dreier and about five others that decided we're going to reorganize the committees, and we were going to make an a-committee out of financial services, and part of how we were going to do that is that we had billy townsend and mike oxley were senior on commerce, so mike was going to move over to financial services, and i was
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going to help it come about. well, it was going okay, and then denny who is in energy and commerce became the speaker, and the energy and commerce committee persuaded him and others to pull back on that and not to give us a lot of jurisdiction, so they decided to put is to a vote of the conference, and you can imagine john ding l -- well, he's on the democratic side, but we talk the majority so it was up to our conference to decide, and the day before mike oxley said to me, he said since i'm on energy and commerce, i'm going to let you give financial services -- you're going to give the speech for financial services. it was billy and i, and we got up before the conference, and the day before the speaker and
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others were working it for the energy and commerce committee -- the night before -- this shows about good staffwork, and the staff said to me, look at the stf on energy and commerce website, and this was a start about, you know, internet. what you put on the website is there. what it said was it was the most powerful committee in congress. there was not one issue they didn't have jurisdiction over, and they could do basically -- they basically any issue they exercised jurisdiction of, and they actually had examples. they laid out examples. you might think that jew judiciary was in charge of wiretapping, but, no, we took that over. [laughter] you might think pork bellies are agriculture, but, no, you'd be wrong. it's energy and commerce. [laughter] they went down the list. i got up at the conference, we
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didn't know who was going to win, and i started saying, and i said, now we have new freshman here. i want to quaint you on the jurisdictions of the committee. who do you think has pork bellies, and they said agriculture. i said, no, you'd be wrong. it was energy and commerce. i was going down the list, and finally billy townsend got up and said this is all funny and everything, but it's just not true. i don't know where he gets this from. [laughter] we passed out the information from their website, and we got all the votes on everybody else including six members of energy and commerce. [laughter] [applause] mike was one of those six votes. [laughter] thank you very much for honoring
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the committee and its staff and let me recognize two people that are important that i want to say. larry lavender, my chief of staff -- [applause] stand up, larry. [applause] if you don't think this guy is really extraordinary, he -- i'm not going to tell you exactly his age, but he has a 7 month old baby at home. [laughter] somebody didn't leave it on the doorstep. [laughter] my wife, linda, who is my best friend -- [applause] and if anybody wants to do advertisements of a grandmother with five grand children that's very pretty, pat and linda are vital. [laughter] thank you very much.
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[applause] >> congressman, thank you very much. the thing that has been proven tonight is that larry lavender has beat me. [laughter] i have two boys. one is 12 and the other is 49. [laughter] and he has a child that's 7 months old. >> how old? >> 37 >> and another one 37. i recognize my master. [laughter] now it's my pleasure to introduce my friend barney frank. congressman barney frank is the ranking member of the committee, was its chairman from 2007-2010, and he, too, has tackled the difficult economic and financial issues facing the country in
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recent years, including the subprime mortgage crisis and the financial regulatory reform issues. congressman frank has been singled out as the most eloquent member of congress by capitol hill staff in surveys continued by wash tonian magazine, and they noted his great wit and humor. congressman frank represents the 4th district of massachusetts. ranking member frapping, we look forward to hearing 2r you. ladies and gentlemen, congressman barney frank. [applause] >> that humor thing is judged on degree of difficulty. when you have to make jokes about derivatives, it's a little bit harder. [laughter] than other subjects. i'm glad to share this with
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spencer, and there's areas in which we work together. he did mention he has a hearing defect. i just want to say i will acknowledge i also have a hearing aspect that's a severe disadvantage to me. mainly, i sit there as chairman or ranking member, and i can hear everything people say. let me tell you, that is not the most desirable condition that i can think of. [laughter] i would be glad to borrow a blockage from time to time. [laughter] it's very good to be here, and i do also want to particularly follow spencer in the thanking of the wonderful people who work with us. the staff director ever since i was ranking member and spepser mentioned, i just want to make this point -- i think it -- one of the great things that the american people don't know is
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what a bargain they get from the extoured their talented -- extraordinary, talented, dedicated people who work hard jobs here for much less money they could make elsewhere and have to put up with all the stresses. [applause] and i got to say -- [applause] i'll be a little bit political now. my colleagues want to wear old clothes and talk about how we are denying ourselves things, that's fine, but leave the staff alone. they deserve better than to be the objects of political cheap shots because they work hard. we have staff here, and we have former staff here, and there's one difference. the former staff are richer than the staff. [laughter] i don't begrudge the former staff. i resent the fact we are unable to treat the people who work for us and work for this country better than we do. spencer was gracious in
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acknowledging jim leech and mike oxley. let me acknowledge also the willingness of the state legislature of new york to agent against its own state's economic interest. if they didn't screw up redistricting in 2002, i would not be here. [laughter] why the number one industry knocks out the guy who would have been chairman of the committee, i don't know, and i'm not questioning it. i'm just a beneficiary. [laughter] didn't seem smart to me, but what do i know? the other thing i would note, and did not in the thing -- we had one president who is chairman of the committee, james garfield, the second shortest tenure of president, but he still was president, but we have a distinction. i don't think any committee ever had before spencer sits on a republican side that has three declared presidential
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candidates. ron paul,my shelly bachmann and thadieus. the committee's work is obviously challenging, stimulating, and important. we are grateful to the people who are here, who help us figure it out and keep it going. i do have one other story and i know mike oxley is here, and when he was chairman and i was the ranking member, what i'm proud of is that mike hired a parliament, hard job, important job for the committee, served tom bunker had been in the house parliament officer, and i asked tom duncan to stay on. he decided to retire, but we would have had that i think that speech well for the committee that we would have had from the
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republican and democrat as a sign of our commitment to honest procedures. spencer told the story about how the committee was formed, and mike oxley had a major role as hi said. ron told the old joke that any one of these events there's jokes with seniority, much less the members about people taking mike oxley's first name. i told mike, john dingle doesn't take his first name. [laughter] he thinks his name is that, oxley. [laughter] he credits mike with having divided the committee. that's where we are, but it's extraordinary interesting committee. i have to say that the -- it's a combination of some of the most difficult political issues that we have and some of the most complex intellectuals getting the financial situation right is
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a very hard thing to do, and, yes, it is complicated right now by the fact there's ideological divisions, but spencer is right, it does not on the whole get in way of personal relationships, and with do work to try and reach agreements. we did it on flood insurance and trying to do it on others. in the end i think all of us would say, spencer i know agrees and mike and jim who was a great chairman, of all the people i served with, i must tell you i was most profoundly effected by a great man, chairman of the committee whose passion for fairness in this country was so enormous. i will tell one jim story. when paul was clearly no longer going to be head of world bank, alan greenspan asked me to join
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him, and he had a lot on his mind, and it didn't seem to me -- as some know, he invited me and every one of his staff said he's the ranking member, you better invite him. it seemed inviting me was a better idea when he invited me than when i showed up. [laughter] i did not feel i was getting the full focus of his attention, but then i said, you know, alan, what i think would be a good idea is why don't we see if we can get jim to be head of the world bank, and he immediately brightened and generally is guarded, but he slipped and said, oh, that's a great idea. now this lunch is worthwhile. [laughter] but as we -- we didn't quite get there. if he was president of the world bank at the time -- no, take it back. between him and -- [inaudible] but the bush administration was pretty much sure that jim held
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as many of you know a demographic district. he went democratic, and they did not want to have a speculative action in which democrats won a seat in the republicans. it's too bad because i think jim would have been a great president of the world bank, but to get back to the subject, it's an extraordinary privilege to be able to serve the people of the country here and be the chairman of a committee as mike knows and spencer and i, it's a great honor. it is an honor that is only possible because so many people, our colleagues, our staffs, our families, and many of you who are in the business are so supportive, and we are having our problems now, but this country will get to -- it still works well, and to be a part of this process is a great honor. thank you, and thanks to the members of the capitol hill his --
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historical society for letting us be reminded that yes, we have our day-to-day issues, but we do that within the context of this great democratic experiment that's gone on for so long and continues to inspire the world. [applause] before i introduce mike oxley, i would like to ask a gentleman to come up here to say a few words, and that gentleman is paul, united states senator for maryland, former united states senator for maryland, chairman of the senate banking committee, a 30-year veteran of the united states senate, and also i'm pleased to say a colleague of mine when i served in the house of the representatives. paul? [applause] ronny, thank you very much.
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i apologize for intruding into the house program. you always have to be very careful, but i'm not in office anymore, so it doesn't matter as much. i very much wanted to come. actually, i have over the years had the obviously worked with the house comet on so many different occasions, and it was always very pos positive and constructive. my problem was more on my side of the capitol than on this side of the capitol, but i know my name sake was going to speak here tonight, and i wanted 20 come and hear mike oxley. people in ohio wondering where he changed his first name to sarbanes and people here wonter why i have a hyphenated name here at the end of my career. [laughter] are you going to tell that other story? all right. i won't tell it. all right. i just set it up for you.
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[laughter] mike's got a great story coming, so i want you to be on alert to listen. [laughter] i want to affirm and emphasize the remarks that were made about the staff of the committee. we depend very much on our staff, and, in fact, going tomorrow morning before the senate banking committee to introduce marty who has been nominated to be chairman of the fdic to succeed sheila. he started on the house side and served for many years on the staff of the senate banking committee, and now he's going to become the chair of the fdic. when marty went down there first, george bush appointed him because you have to have a balance on these multi-member
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commissions, so only a certain number can come from the same party. that's true of the fcc, true of the fdic. marty got down there. he had only be there three months, and the chairman, don powell, a friend of president bush's, stepped down to go to texas to run the disaster recovery efforts going on in texas, and marty became the chairman, acting chairman. then about four months of getting to the fdic. i'm reading the american banker the next morning. i don't do that anymore, but when i was in -- [laughter] and i read there that marty's the acting chairman. i called him up and said i just read in the paper, you've only been down there four months. you're the acting chairman of the fdic.
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is that right? he gives an embarrassed laugh and says, yes, it is. i said, marty, is this a great country or what? [laughter] i do want to underscore the remargs that were made both by spencer and barney about the staff. they do a terrific job. they are incredibly dedicated people. a lot of the abuse that the members takes spills off on the staff regrettedbly, and i just want to thank them as they have already been thanked very much for the contributions they make. you know, i served in the house for three terms, and i didn't really run for the senate to get out of the house like some members do. i like the house actually. i really did. i look back on those days with great fondness, and i'm pleased
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to be back with you this evening, and i'm looking forward to my name sake and his comments here tonight. thank you, all, very much. [applause] >> paul, nawng very -- paul, thank you very much. it's my pleasure to welcome mike oxley as the keynote speaker. he was the first chairman of the financial services committee when it was established in 2001 with jurisdiction over all financial service industries. from the beginning, the committee had a full agenda. during the first two years they conducted hearings on terrorist financing, insurance regulation, internet gambling, and corporate accounting practices just to name a few. the committee produced landmark legislation. the sarbanes-oxley act is a great example. the consensus is the sweeping reform has been successful in
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curving accounting fraud, making financial statements more transparent, and holding corporate executives and directors accountable. despite the demands of the job, mike found time to have fun. he was the manager of the republican congressional baseball team for eight years, and boasted a winning record of 7-1. the annual -- [applause] the annual competition was held last week. i won't mention the score. [laughter] but mike, the republicans need you. ladies and gentlemen, congressman mike oxley. [applause] >> ron, thank you very much, and welcome to all of you. it's just wonderful to be here, to see so many friends. this is -- it's kind of like a high school or college reunion. you know, without having to look up the pictures in the old
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yearbook. [laughter] particularly, i want to thank spencer and barney and paul sarbanes for the nice remarks. it's tough to follow particularly spencer and barney because they are known as two of the funniest guys in the house for their wit. they are well-known and to follow them is quite a burden. before i forget because i do sometimes and even though i'm not in office anymore, it's a faux pas nos to introduce your lovely wife, and pat, it's good to have you with us. [applause] she's obviously -- somebody turned the air-conditioning way up. [laughter] i also want to echo what spencer said and also paul about the staff. i know we introduced the current
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staff. let's have all the former staffers stand also and be recognized. we got a lot of oxley alums out herement don't be bashful. [applause] don't be bashful. [applause] what they said i could echo. the staff is just terrific, and those folks who have been here and gone on to other things i think still comes back here many times for camaraderie and remembering what a wonderful experience we had while we were here. following sarbanes, particularly, i want to tell a couple stories. when we started this process, it became known as sarbanes-oxley. it started in the house, and we were the first committee to have a hearing on enron. they were the 7th largest
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corporation in america, and all kinds of -- they were pictured on news magazines, all the leaders of enron, it was voted the best company to work for. the company of the 21st century and on and on and on, and a lot of people bought stock. as a matter of fact, most people who were selling stock were brockers did not recommend enron. they would have got sued for malpractice in those days, so it was a very popular company. early in 2001, they came out with what they called the strongest code of ethics of any company in the history of america. by that summer, they had filed a restatement of earnings, and by december, it filed bankruptcy, and our committee, we were in a lame duck session, and had the first hearing on enron, and we came back early in 2002, we introduced a bill that we called
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the corporate accountant act. it never quite caught on like sarbanes-oxley did. we passed a legislation, but now remember the -- then we later had a hearing, if you recall, on world com, and world com blew the lid off because enron was the story, of course, for a long time, and world com came along four times larger than enron, and bernie, the ceo, the only time that i had to file or sign a subpoena was for bernie and scott to appear before my committee. they took the 5th amendment, and barney, i remember, helped bail me out of a very particular situation when bernie evers started to give a speech claiming his innocence, and then
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decided his 5th amendment right, and i think a lot of our members on the committee were very furious as i was and some were going to challenge him he waived the 5th amendment right. we both felt that under the circumstances we wanted 20 keep our -- to keep our eye on the ball and not get into a side show whether he violated his 5th amendment rights. ..
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>> sarbanes-oxley was passed in haste and overnight. it was eight months. you can ask the staffers that worked on it, that was a long eight months. now, congress admittedly that's pretty fast by congressional standards but there was something in "the wall street journal" and other periodicals saying it was rushed through. but we had a lot of fun with it. we really i think worked very hard on it. the outcome has been that we haven't had a major accounting scandal in nine years since the act was passed and signed by president bush. we are really proud of what we're able to accomplish with more transparency and accountability. well, i've got to tell this story first, paul. paul tells the story when the senate of course as you know is the greatest deliberative body in the world. and they do it very well.
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[laughter] and paul was very meticulous about holding hearings, and held a number of hearings on the issue. for accounting fraud. and one of the hearings was on accounting principles. and he had like three panels talking about accounting all day long. if any of you have been a witness or a member sitting in a third panel know what i'm talking about, it's the closest thing to help you are going to find. [laughter] and paul tells the story about this last hearing was droning on and people talking about these arcane accounting principles. and one of the senators forgot his microphone was live, and he kind of site and he said this is most boring hearing. [laughter] i've ever been involved with. at which point mike in see, the sender from wyoming, a freshman and the only cpa in the senate
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came to the microphone and said i beg your pardon. this is the most on i've had since i've been in the u.s. senate. [laughter] so i guess, where do you -- where you stand is where you said. then i had a chance to go to the world economic forum about, that next year, 2003. the winter of 2003. and i was speaking at a dinner and had a reception ahead of time. and this young -- we had our name tags on and this young fella came over. he was kind of short and he kept staring at my name tag. and he finally came over and he offered his hand, and he said, he kept looking at my name tag and he said, i want to shake hands with sarbanes-oxley. [laughter] and i said well, why do want to shake hands with sarbanes-oxley? he said i never got to shake hands with glass-steagall.
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[laughter] honest to god and that's a true story. [applause] true story. but we had a lot of fun. and that was one of my special memories. ron, let me thank you and u.s. capitol historical society for putting this on. you and tom and suzy dix, says he was the one who invited me, bless your heart. we are old tennis partners. and she brought along our good friend norm tonight. norm, it's good to see. people ask me if i miss this place. and i tell them, really truly, i only missed two things. i in this basketball the house jim, and i miss the congressional baseball game. very much. that was one of those eyed partisan fun nights that we had. but one thing i won't miss is norm dicks after making one of his rare baskets running down to the other end screening huskies.
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[laughter] gotcha. the capitol historical society is done great work, and our own but brown from ohio -- what your predecessor, right, ron? i just let him the other night and wanted to pass along his best wishes to all of you come a just a great friend and a colleague. and one of the reasons i got on the energy commerce committee the first time was because bud had retired from congress and was running for governor of ohio, and it opened up a spot on the commerce committee for a republican from ohio, and i just had got elected. so we are glad to invite, we're going to be invited an old war horse to talk about the good old days, and how great we were in
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the legislative arena. but it is truly a wonderful experience to be here. i know that the speaker was going to be here and say some nice things about me. [laughter] john boehner and i have been friends for 20 years. golfing partners and opponents for that long. i trust him when he said he was going to say nice things about me, but i will never know, will i? [laughter] and boy, he has nothing else on his mind and you could come and introduce his old buddy. but i'll understand. and it would be worth a couple of strokes on a golf course the next time we played. i will put a guilt trip on him. but i have to say a word about john. his demeanor, his conscientiousness, his good humor, his steadiness, i think he has and will continue to be a great speaker. i don't know how many members
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i've talked on both sides of the aisle and respect john, who don't necessarily agree with him all the time, and i certainly never did, but at the same time recognize that he is the best interests of his constituents, the state of ohio and a nation at heart. and he's doing a tough job in a very difficult situation. and i just wish he was your psychic tell it to him in his face. thank you. [applause] >> i was just thinking what barney, when barney was speaking about the committee, and i remember one of the times when i was chairman, barney was ranking member. we had an interesting variety of members on the committee. and, for example, on my side we had ron paul. on barney's site we had bernie sanders. so here we had the far right and
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the far left, as a matter of fact, i think to this day bernie is the only admitted socialists in the congress. and ron paul, we all know what he is politically. well, i can remember party when we're talking about, i think it was the privacy issues, that ron paul and bernie somehow met each other around the bend. [laughter] and barney and i were like, we were just stunned they had actually agreed together, and the rest of the committee was kind of in the same phone. we couldn't figure out what was going on. so that truly made an interesting committee, needless to say. and that was a big committee. i think it was wise to shrink the committee a little bit and it was wise, i could never get denny to make it to the committee. but to their credit to barney's credit and to speaker pelosi,
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when the democrats took over they did make it in inclusive committee and that continues i know for the freshman. i think that's a good thing to do. so a smaller committee, but it's also committee that has enormous breath -- breath of background, of regional areas, virtually every part of that, of our great country is represented on the committee. it was kind of a microcosm of the house, and i was very, very proud to be a member, rv chairman of that committee for six years. and one of the things i tried to do early on, and i've been chairman of the subcommittee. a lot of you know i was the chairman of the house subcommittee of energy and commerce on finance and hazardous materials. do you remember that one? that was a cache in trash committee. [laughter] we had jurisdiction over insurance, the financial
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markets, and hazardous materials. old and the commerce committee would you see that kind of jurisdiction. and so the big grand bargain i ended up taking, the cash part, left the trash with energy and commerce, thank god. we got into this big argument on interstate waste. you remember when not large was full of garbage -- i think it was your district, wasn't it, caroline? [laughter] yeah, it was going up and down east coast trying to find a place to land. and i went out, goes out to sea for about two weeks. can you imagine how bad it smelled? and our committee had to get involved in that thing. and i found out later that they were sending dead horses from central park into landfills in ohio. you can't make this stuff up.
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[laughter] and as susan molinari thought that was a great idea. [laughter] well, anyway, i finally chalked that and took over the committee. and so it was over, that committee across the hall, couldn't bring himself to say the financial services committee. i've got a trivia question for you. who do we have from the committee on a famous alumnus who ended up winning the presidency? this is your trivia question, jeopardy question. you don't have to give it in the form of a question, by the way. that's good because you wouldn't do that anyway. this banking committee chairman became president of the united states. [inaudible] >> james garfield. james garfield was chairman of the banking committee, and then
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10 years later, ascended to the presidency and was elected in 1880. and, of course, a buckeye. [laughter] are you taking notes, norman? [laughter] by the way, the house, i've been doing my homework, wrong. the house greeted the banking committee in 1865 right after the civil war. interesting enough, the senate deliberated on the possibility of having a banking committee, and they got right to work on it. and 50 years later we needed a banking committee in the senate. [laughter] literally, you can't make this stuff up. well, i couldn't resist poking a little fun. but it's funny, the biographer for garfield recounts some of
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the issues that the banking committee had when he was chairman after the civil war. there was a massive national debt as a result of the war, but at the same time a fund for reconstructive was needed. the wartime system of high tariffs had to be overhauled, monetary policy and inflation had to be addressed, and specifically how much paper currency and coin silver out to be issued by the treasury. when you're financial services committee chairman is sort of saying it's kind of like just another day at the office. well, the banking committee chairman garfield based a pre-federal reserve a version of the monetary policy debate as it essentially continues to this day. again, from the biography of the garfield biography. quote, ohio was an important battleground state in this political conflict between supporters of hard and soft
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money. garfield concluded to the dismay of the soft money supporters that greenbacks should be reduced in quantity. when we were talking about issues of chairman garfield's time, the mortgage crisis or the national debt, the central questions still remain about my and currency. so some things really never change. shirley in the jurisdiction of the committee. people taking advantage of those less sophisticated or more trusting than in themselves. our nation's to do the work, they pay their bills and deal honestly with their international partners, and with their own people. what do you achieve real growth that is not simply an inflationary bubble? what policies address the recession? we have a tendency to think that the creation of the fed, the federal reserve, solved all of those problems, when we obviously know that's not the case. too often we think of the early history of the country as a
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series of bank runs and panics, land speculation and irregular currency. it all went away with the establishment of modern financial regulations. well, all of us know that's simply not the case. we actually have economic and fiscal crises quite regularly, as we all know. just think about the past few decades and what we have been through. most of you look like you are adults during that period of time. just think about the past. we had the one day market dropped in 1987. remember that day? we had chrysler, the chrysler bailout. the mexican bailout of the peso. long-term capital management. remember all those smart guys were putting together all those nobel prize winners? the s&l crisis. some of you were here, were on the banking committee at the time, remember how difficult
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that was. and, of course, the bursting of the tech bubble. then during my chairmanship, the tragedy of 9/11, not just the human tragedy but the economic loss we had to our country. the nasdaq index stock exchange were closed for four days. longest time in history of the country. just think about that. we had to try to help get back. i was proud to go back, go up to new york and oakland the nude stock exchange and the nasdaq when they opened that next monday. a lot of people worked very hard to get that done. but everybody was in shock. and then, of course, we lost a million jobs almost immediately as a result of that. and many of those jobs really never came back. and, of course, the recession that followed 9/11, and, of course, enron, worldcom, adelphia, tyco and all the other corporate scandals. it was our committee that was
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right in the middle of all of that. so we should be proud of all of that. after all, with our current jurisdiction today, including banking, housing, insurance, securities and monetary policy, the committee is just over 10 years old. quite a burden, quite a challenge for people like spencer as chairman, barney as ranking member, and, of course, barney had been chairman as well. and so, the committees changed really made a lot of sense. not just because in the political sense you had to computing committee chairs for a couple of committee chairs, but more importantly the changes taking place in our country in the financial realm. when i started congress in 1981, the financial sector represented 9% of our economy. by the time that we dealt with
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worldcom and enron, and some of the of the challenges we had come it had grown to 30%. so 30% of the economy had grown from 9% was in the financial sector. people were investing. we created a new era of investing. we created and investor class in our country. people who heretofore put money in savings accounts were investing in america. and they wanted to feel that their investment was part of growth where they could put some money aside and see it grow. and maybe do a vacation or retire or send their kids to college. i know the members here would probably think about, and i do, when i would go home and talk to constituents, and i would ask are they invested? i would go into a company. i would say are you investing in your copy? oh, yes, i'm investing a little
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bit every month. i'm putting -- what are you putting away? well, my kids, i want my kids to go to college. they would be the first in our family, first generation to go to college. so they were counting on those investments. and imagine that shocked with enron, worldcom, and the loss of faith in the market. and at the end of the day in these markets are based on trust. people put their hard earned money into a stock because they think that everything is on the up and up. and i'm afraid with what's happened nine or 10 years ago, and what's happening the last couple years, that that trust has been broken. and you can see it in the numbers. you can see it in the loss of the number of individual investors in our country. and that's a shame, because the potential is so great for them, but they have to feel that they're getting a fair shake.
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and too many of them simply felt that they were being taken advantage of, and the big guys, the insiders were taking, whether insider trading or backdating stock options, or whether it was just out and out accounting fraud, that they simply didn't want to play that game anymore. it was rigged against them. that's really what the financial service committee is all about at the end of the day, is providing that kind of fairness, that kind of understanding, and try to restore faith in our country's investment. and so, the basis for socks, you know, transparency and accountability to restore investor confidence. that's really what that was all about. and so we continue those battles. is always going to be people who try to take advantage of the system, but at the same time the committee i think has stepped up time and time again for what we wanted to do and wanted to do it right. i just want to say, finally, how
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much of a privileged -- barney mentioned, too, how much it privilege it is to work in this great institution, the congress of the united states. only a few thousand of us over the history of our country has been fortunate enough to be elected by their friends and neighbors, their constituents to serve at the highest level at the federal level. and people who give their longest years, many cases their potential highest earning years to stay here in the congress to make a difference, i've always admired. norman dicks is just one example of many, many. barney, spencer and some of the other members, some of the new members, you can learn a lot from these guys. doesn't make any difference whether they have id on a shirt or an art. they have been here.
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they know the process. they respect the process and they want to get things done for this country. that's what it is all about. mike was a new member of my committee. i wanted to getting started the right way. as you know we had some problems with the credit rating agencies during sarbanes-oxley. all decide that jurisdiction, we would deal with it in a separate bill, and we did. and i invite this country a freshman at of the philadelphia area to introduce that bill, and we got it passed. and he got the experience and nobody worked harder than mike, and he learned the process. he learned what you have to do to move the bill forward. and it's a very important piece of legislation to provide more competition in that arena. and it's worked incredibly well. we've had eight new entrants since that bill passed. one of them was a japanese company. so we've made a lot of progress
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with that. so the financial service committee continues to roll on. all of you who have worked with us, whether you're lobbyists, whether your media, whether you're stuck, whether you are members, all have a special part of the history of this great institution. i think we went back to 1865 and we're still fighting, still winning, still represent the american public. i'm just proud to be here and i thank you so much tonight, ron, all of you for the historical society. thank you all very much. [applause] >> before you leave an and, therefore, everyone else leaves, let me present something to you. and that is a mantel clock made out of the marble that came from the capitol steps, the east front of the capitol where the marble steps were removed. and that's what this is, and that's for you. >> thank you. appreciate it.
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[applause] >> and before everyone leaves, and for spencer and barney, we have a gift as well. chairman spencer bachus, apprentice, a few of washington, a "kiplinger" print. and that is for you, sir. and for barney, the same print. [applause] >> one thing i would like to say, senator sarbanes, when i was out there, i've a tremendous amount of respect for senator sarbanes. one thing that i did say during sarbanes-oxley, is i saw two people reach across the aisle in the house and the senate, and two gentlemen really worked together to put a bill together that mike reminded us today has made us a better country.
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but senator sarbanes, it means a lot to us on the side of the aisle for you to be here today. [applause] >> i just want to say that sometimes people, mike oxley mentioned the title of the subcommittee he chaired when he was energy and commerce. do you think they knew at that time that financial services would turn out to be hazardous materials? [laughter] [applause] >> on behalf of u.s. capitol historical society, i want to thank you all for coming. and for each of you this evening, there is a gift. on your way out, please pick up the copy of the latest, the 16th addition of we the people, which is our capitol
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guidebook, and the 2012 calendar, our annual calendar which has a factoid from every day of the year, 150 years ago during the civil war. so on your way out please pick them out on the desk. thank you very, very much for coming. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> the national parks service is the new marvin luther king jr. memorial seems to be okay after yesterday's east coast earthquake. they are still looking at cracks at the top of the washington monument and other historic buildings. tonight scale which starts off the week of mlk tribute was removed from the historic national building museum to the much newer washington convention center. you can see live coverage tonight starting at seven
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eastern on c-span. the main ceremony, sunday when president obama and the king family is scheduled for sunday, and c-span will have live coverage at 11 a.m. eastern depending on hurricane irene what is possibly going to blow through the area on that day. >> "washington journal" is featuring an in depth look this week at the medicare program.
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>> finalists from the 2011 exploravision contest appeared before the house science committee recently for a hearing on science technology and engineering and math education.
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exploravision as a competition where teams of students research a particular technology and predict uses for that technology in the future. this hearing is about an hour and a half. >> the committee on science, space and technology will come to order, and say to you very cheerful good morning. and you have a right to say good morning back if you want to. i want to welcome you to today's hearing. it's entitled s.t.e.m. education in action, learning today, leading tomorrow. and by gosh, we have a lot of leaders in front of us. every one of us from i write to my left and all those here are very proud of all of you. i recognize myself first for five minutes for an opening
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statement. and then will recognize mrs. johnson who is the leader of the democratic participants here, to my right. and ms. johnson and i are not only close here physically, our districts are separated by a thin line. we work together and i've known her for many, many years and i've always admired her. i'd like to welcome everyone here today for what's the first in a series of s.t.e.m. education and action learning. the purpose of these hearings would be to highlight various science technology engineering and math, that's s.t.e.m., education activities across the nation, their role in inspiring and educating future generations and their contribution to economic prosperity. federal government investing several billions of dollars on s.t.e.m. education activities, primarily at the department of education and the national science foundation. also never agency under the
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committee jurisdiction to cover numerous companies, foundations, nonprofit organizations and other groups who are doing their own part and on their own dime to successfully promote s.t.e.m. education and inspired next generation of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and our leaders. two days bearing focuses on one of those successful an impression of initiatives, the toshiba national science teachers association. exploravision competition. this competition is open to students in grades k-12, students are asked to research any science technology of their choice and explore what that technology will look like in 20 years. our witnesses they represent four of the eight winning teams who is a part of their prize receive an expense paid trip to washington, d.c.. we welcome you here and we are happy you received that. i congratulate, and all of us can gradually, all of you.
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congratulations to all the teams for your extraordinary a competent a first or second place in the national science competition that attracted over 4000 entries. all of you are an inspiration to students, teachers and parents all over and all around this country from one ocean to the other. from 12:30 and took to 30 today all teams will have their projects on display downstairs in the rayburn foyer. i encourage all of my colleagues to stop by and spend time talking to these incredible students about their impress his award-winning project. this nation has always been the leader in innovation and our children and grandchildren like the ones in front of us today are the key to our future success. i look forward to getting to know more about each of you, why do move to do the project she chose, and what all of you students, parents, teachers learn by participating in this competition. at this time a recognize mrs. johnson for opening
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statement. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. and good morning to all. i want to start by congratulating the students who are here today, and welcoming you and your teachers, parents, to the committee. i was reading about some of the winning science fair projects, and i must say that i am truly impressed about this outstanding work that you have done. and i know that you are proud. unfortunately, there are to me students across the country who do not have the opportunities to participate in inspiring s.t.e.m. activities, or to receive a high quality s.t.e.m. education. the most recent national assessment of education progress, the in aep study, found that less than half of our
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nation's students of demonstrating solid academic performance in proficiencies in science. and this is a startling statistic when you consider that the many recent experts report warning that competitive edge will be lost if we do not vastly improve our s.t.e.m. education in this country. no one entity can solve this problem alone. there is a role for all of the key shareholders and stakeholders, including federal and state government. local school districts, higher education, and in formal education organizations and industry. i'm pleased to hear today about the work that they have done to support this. exploravision competition. and there are many other companies. my hometown companies, texas instruments is one of them.
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also at at&t. so i know that there are many that helped participate. i also want to emphasize the importance and the unique role of the federal government in improving s.t.e.m. education. many federal s.t.e.m. programs, including those supported by the national science foundation, and the department of education, are really making a difference in our universities, our community colleges and k-12 schools across the nation. there are also many valuable programs being funded through other federal agencies such as nasa, noaa, and the department of energy. these agencies are filled with thousands of scientists and engineers who make a difference. in their own communities and for students across the country. as working professionals, real-life work that they do
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using s.t.e.m. is so inspiring to our young people. but the federal role is more than that. the national science foundation is a premier s.t.e.m. education research organization in the country. for decades, the nsf has been a leader in improving our collective understanding of how students learn and how we can develop the most effective and inspiring curriculum, and train the most effective and inspiring teachers. this isn't about the federal government taking over curriculum. our teacher certification -- or teacher certification. it is about contributing expertise in making such sure that our teachers are well prepared and our students are really learning. i would be interested in hearing from the teachers on the panel today about your own training, and how they have helped you to implement using best practices
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and teachings s.t.e.m. in their own classrooms. while today's hearing is about a nonfederal program, there was some discussion in hearing charter about federal programs and spending in s.t.e.m. so i just wanted to make a couple of comments about that. i hope you're not too quick to judge based on numbers alone. the ostp in response to the act is leading an effort to inventory current pro-grams across the government to improve coordination and develop priorities going forward. many of the individual agencies are also responded to recommendations from outside advisory groups and restructuring their education programs and management. while this committee should continue to be vigilant in ensuring that our limited s.t.e.m. education budgets are being used as widely as possible, as we have been for many years, i want to express my
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own confidence in the coordination efforts currently underway. i believe we should let them play out for the next several months before we rush to judgment about what we should do, or should not be spending on s.t.e.m. education. and, finally, i hope the committee will have an opportunity to review the ostp report and other agencies s.t.e.m. efforts and hearing what the administration issues. today the i look forward to hearing from the student winners about what initially sparked their interest in s.t.e.m., and what role their teachers, parents and other mentors have played in helping them to reach their goals. this is an issue that i take seriously. and you can take -- check my record. i've been interested in working in it since 1974. this is an issue that is a serious one. we have an education crisis in this country, and there's a very real possibility that we will lose our competitive edge and
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that our children will no longer have the opportunities that we had if we do not remain committed to investing in and improving s.t.e.m. education. so thank you again for being here today, and i look forward to this very interesting discussion. i yield back. >> the gentlelady from texas yields back. if there are members who wish to submit additional opening statements, your statements will be added to the record at this point. i ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from texas and a jump from michigan be allowed to sit with us, with the committee and participate in hearing. is there objection? the chair hears none. at this time i would like to introduce our panel of witnesses. and i yield to managed to my good friend and fellow texan, mr. hinojosa to introduce our first team. >> thank you, mr. chairman. as the representative from the
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15th congressional district of deep south texas, is truly an honor for me to welcome the discovery montessori school of edinburg texas to the house science and space technology committee. as the ranking member of the subcommittee on higher education, we work closely with this committee on science and space and technology because together we hope that by 2020 we can be able to generate and accomplish a goal that we set out by the president, and that was to have an additional 100,000 engineers here in our country. i am delighted to be here to congratulate all the students being recognized from throughout the country, but especially i congratulate the students, teachers, parents, coaches and administrators of the discovery montessori school for winning first place for grades k.
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through three of the 2011 toshiba and sdk explorer -- exploravision science competition. what an extraordinary accomplishment. they're winning project, intelligence streets, reduces intersection accidents by using smart translucent film installed on windshield that receive signals from either traffic lights or satellites or this clearly demonstrates that students in the valley of south texas can become the scientists and innovators of tomorrow. we in texas are extremely proud of the discovery montessori schools dedication to academic excellence, and for creating a learning and violent for children that fostered the development of high order thinking skills, scientific discovery, exploration, and creativity. today we are fortunate to have three extraordinary individuals with us from that school.
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pablo vidal, soon to be a fourth grader. is a resident of mcclellan taxes but we also have the pleasure of saying that he started school at the age of three at the discovery montessori school. he is extremely passionate about science and math, and belongs to the bronx aquatics swimming team. this impressive young man is a role model for his peers. we also have veronica martinez, the teams coach, is a graduate of university of texas at brownsville and serves as the primary and lower elementary montessori teacher. ms. martinez has a profound love for teaching young children. dr. lozano, pablo's mother, serves as the endowed chair of the mechanical engineering department at the university of texas pan american.
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dr. lozano earned her doctorate in mechanical engineer, engineering and materials science from foundations, one of our nation's best, rice university in houston and has received numerous awards for her extensive research and exceptional teaching. really caldwell from the national science foundation visited that you keep an american and said, and praised her as one of the best professors in the country. we welcome all of you today, to today's hearing and thank you, mr. chairman, for allowing me this opportunity. >> thank you, sir. and you yield back your time? >> i yield. >> i say to those out there who have mr. hinojosa as your congressman, you're very likely. he represents his district well. we are proud to have him come as we are you. jack, we are pleased you brought your mother with you today. actually, our second witness,
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ms. conwell-dudley a company by her son, jack, they are representing the first place national winning team for the fourth through sixth grade age group. they're winning project, heads-up helmet cam is a military helmet designed to protect soldiers on the battlefield. joining jack and his mom today are his teammates, abby porter and -- and sydney from belmont ridge middle school. jack is homeschooled and attend virginia virtual academy. we are also welcoming the teams coach from the academy, mrs. penny harrison. the i now yield two minutes to the gentleman from michigan, mr. peters, to introduce the
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13th of witnesses. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it's my pleasure to be here today to introduce two of my constituents, claudia cooper and her coach and teacher, amy attard. claudia is an outstanding student at west hills middle school in west bloomfield, michigan, and is joining us today because she's part of a winking and exploravision science competition. her teammate, samantha, is also here as well as teacher, and i would like to welcome them to this hearing as well. the exploravision challenge students to envision new technologies that will make our society healthier and safer. claudia's team designed a surgically implantable disc called the intro trachea breeding system. the disc will improve the quality of life for millions of americans who suffer from breathing problems and debilitating respiratory conditions. claudia's work demonstrates how the application of scientific concepts can improve the quality of our life and meaningfully impact our society.
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in addition to her scientific pursuits, and excellent academic achievements, claudia played three sports, and the oval. participate in theater and devotes time to charitable pursuits such as working with children with special needs. amy attard is in her sixth year teaching seventh grade at west hills middle school. she holds an m.a. in educational technology and a bs in elementary education from the university of michigan-dearborn. in addition to teaching science she is involved with extracurricular live in west hills and is committed to promoting very positive culture and morality within the school. she sponsors and mentor students in the student leadership club which organizes community service projects and also leads the cabinet and club which teaches anti-bulling intervention strategies and self-esteem building. she serves as the grade level team there and as is a member f the schools budget leadership and social committee.
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when i speak to school groups back home i always tried to stress the importance of our young people in pursuing careers in science conditioning field. it's important for their future but it's also important for our country future, and we should be doing all that we can to encourage our young people's interest in these careers. claudia and samantha are great role models for their peers and i wish him the best in their future scientific endeavors. claudia and amy, thank you so much for testifying here today, and thank you, chairman hall, ranking member johnson, and front mission college year, mr. clarke, for allowing me to stop by the committee unwelcome west hills middle school. thank you for being here. i yield back. >> and i thank you for giving back. and you for the good visit with these youngsters. i know you're proud of him and i know they're proud of you. our fourth witness is mrs. anne manwell, accompanying her student, ms. alison reed from the high school in your. they represent the 12th grade age group with their second place winning project, a kidney
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bio printer. would also like to recognize alison's tina, david and noreen chan. typically, i would have recognize our first witness, but before i do, i would also like to take a moment to recognize the other for winning teams that are joining us today, and to also will be showcasing the winning projects in the rayburn foyer following today's hearing. the silver team from countryside montessori charter school in atlanta, the blindside team from plainview, middle school in new york. subway smart system team from bronx, new york, and the bionic auditory prosthesis team from hopewell valley, central high school. you are all to be congratulate and commend for your hard work
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and present project if we look forward to visiting more with you after the hearing. and before i ask unanimous consent that jennings made a part of the record, let me just tell you that you must be the cream of the crop. you are leaders. and it might be of some comfort to you to know that your chairman, i'm from texas, and we have every type leader here. mrs. johnson is a leader in the medical field. she's outstanding in the nursing field. we have all types of folks that are skilled. but we look to you all to give us testimony to write our testimony, to write our records, and what you say here will be recorded and be read 100 years from now, a look back on this fine young group that came here. but maybe the sundays to be here to know that your chairman was such a bad student, one semester i made four s. and a. d.
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and my dad with me for spending too much time on one subject. [laughter] i ask unanimous consent that their names be made a part of the record. all of you. as her witness should know, spoken testimony is limited to five minutes so we won't just told you to that. try just as much as you can. we are so honored to have you here. if you want to give us back a little time, we will accept it. after which the committee will have five minutes each to ask questions. i now recognize the first witness, dr. karen lozano, and master pablo vidal. i now recognize mrs. brenda conwell dudley and master jack dudley. >> okay. thank you very much. thank you for the introduction.
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thank you for the introduction. i guess as congressman hinojosa mention i'm a professor activity of texas pan american, and growing list of info that is underrepresented, you know, by females. i was the fifth woman to get a degree in 25 years since the universe had existed at the time. in mechanical engineering. and when i went to rice i also realized i was on the fifth woman to a doctoral degree, you know, in mechanical engineering. so i knew how engineering wasn't something that kids would look after. so i started doing a lot of committee service to try to encourage, you know, engineering with kids. so i was very happy when jessica, one of the former teachers asked me to participate in the exploravision. and exploravision is just very well prepared. the guidelines everything is just an absolute program.
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it's an amazing program. and the kids go from coming here, they learned teamwork, history, ethical issues. it's amazing how when i sit with him and i said okay, come up with ideas. you need to think of something that will make the world greater over will help people that are suffering. you know, they come up with amazing ideas at our level, as sometimes we'll think of. we can find all sorts of obstacles why that is not possible. so once this finding i did a great it is possible, then we move into, you know, okay now let's study the technology, let's study the history. the technology, i explain to them concepts on how we think it's possible. sometimes maybe i even think that it might not work, you know, but we have to explain
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everything behind the idea to them. and it's just amazing how they learn, like you can ask about the electromagnetic spectrum and he goes, the radio waves. it's just amazing how they grasp ideas and alcohol program you know helps them develop at the passion to pursue science and to learn about what is around them. go around and just think what is it they can improve, how can they be, how can they develop the technology that will benefit society. so they are engineers. and i guess we're all born engineers. we all played with legos. but i have seen, working from k-12 how they get around fifth grade they start using that. you get great ideas, fifth grade and then they cannot start tapering down. then it kind of goes around. and i have implemented exploravision guidelines within
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my college classes, the senior level classes. and i asked the students the same thing that i said you will follow exploravision guidelines. this is your final project. they have to come up with whatever class is doing, either plastics or nanotechnology or whatever the topic of the class is. they have to come up with a project that is nonexistent that could be here in 20 years from the. and it's amazing, out of the many, many, many projects i have seen, the little ones, they still have bright ideas. than my college students, they do an awesome job explained the technology in technical terms and all that, but as far as the idea, you know, i guess the younger the kids, you know, the ideas are far better. so we can't afford to lose that creativity. so within the school it's a good idea to give them that freedom to explore, you know, give them that, just maybe implement something like the florida
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vision within the classes, with the teachers can implement something related to exploravision. it allows the kids to innovate, it allows the kids to explore, and keeps them engaged, unicom and finding out. because once they learned they can look around and find something that will work better, that's a process they will keep on for the rest of their lives. one of the teams that i sponsor several years ago, now the kids are going into high school. and all of them, they were fourth graders. all of them are going into the science area. most of the kids. so it really leaves a very good impression on themselves. and they want to keep on doing next year, they will try again to do the competition, the high school kids. so i think it's a great model, you know, that can be followed for science education. thank you. >> i congratulate you.
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you're right on the dot, five minutes. now, jack, is it okay if i recognize your mom? okay. brenda conwell-dudley, we recognize you for five minutes. >> good morning, chairman hall, ranking member johnson, members of the committee and all to all the finest teachers, mentors and organizer of the toshiba exploravision national science competition. on behalf of our sponsors go, the transcendent, our coach and her team i would like to thank the committee for inviting us to this hearing. this is my second year as an exploravision teen mentor for the fourth through sixth grade age group. i heard about exploravision from a mother at one of my sons like football practices. about two years ago. her son joshua was a player on the team was critically allergic to many foods and much of his surroundings. he had flat lined in an emergency room that summer and had been brought back to life using intubation without anesthesia after one particularly bad reaction. he was nine years old.
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he was being treated at the national institutes of health in bethesda for his condition. while receiving treatment at the nih, joshua met another young boy named colby. colby as a member of the 2000 exploravision second place national ranking and he and his teammates designed and at the watch. the small wearable computerized watch that contains special codes and micrometers the answer to deliver painless doses of app enough and when the wearer suffers an allergic reaction. after hearing about colby's project and after visiting the exploravision website, i was so impressed by what young children could invent that if the opportunity of a rose i promised myself i would encourage my son to participate. not more than a week later his school post a notice in the student newspaper they would be sponsoring teams for the first time. i.e. merely merely asked my son about participating. he agreed and invited three of his friend from fifth grade to join. is 2010 team designed a good
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pointing detection device, and it was lightweight, portal and could be used to detect dangerous pathogens in food. now we like to present background information on the team and our project for members of the committee. our team is comprised of four students who came to know each other through swimming. an important distinction with this year's team is that are for students represent three different schools. jack was homeschooled using virginia virtual academy's online six grade public school program. abby porter and others attended fifth grade and sydney attended six grade at belmont ridge middle school. i'd like to take a moment to thank virginia virtual academy for sponsoring our team and for giving us an unparalleled opportunity to work together. male and female students, elementary and middle school students, homeschooled and brick-and-mortar public schools students. i think our team represents the best of the collaborative spirit and as we all know collaboration in the field of science is how society will find solutions to complex and very serious problems that confront us as a nation.
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starting last september our team began meeting every week for two hours but the team read news articles and news magazines to become fully with current events and advances in science and technology. the team brainstorm and discuss multiple ideas over several weeks. 15 community with our coach, mrs. harrison using elluminate live!'s program. it proved to be a great resource for our science team, too. our team brainstorm several projects, and then jack saw the picture a specialist robert warren in the "washington post" did specialist warned suffered traumatic brain injury from an ied while serving in kandahar afghanistan in may 2010. jack select the idea create a helmet to protect u.s. soldiers from traumatic brain injury due to roadside bombs with a device the team called the heads-up helmet. the teams design features overlapping polyethylene plates, sophisticated air pressure sensors, bullet and shrapnel stopping gels and a 360-degree
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neck collar that inflates to protect the brain and neck in case of a bomb blast. .. >> thank you very much. >> well, thank you. you two are right on the dot. might have set a record here today. i now recognize amy attard and ms. claudia cooper for five minutes, thank you. >> good morning, chairman hall
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and ranking member johnson as well as the other members of the science committee. i want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to share the amazing experiences that students at west hills middle school have the opportunity to take in and be a part of in the science classroom. the explorer vision program has become a tradition here at west hills. this is my sixth year being a sponsor of the program, and every year it evolves and gets better and better. this year along with claudia cooper and samantha, we also in addition to the second place title had nine hon national mention teams as well, and back in 2008, i had the privilege and honor of coming back to the explorer visions weekend, and i was also the coach of a team back in 2008 who also took the second place national title. the explorer vision program is near and dear to my heart. overtime as i carried out the program with the students,
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changes have been made to make it better, increase the amount of science skills, math skills, verging skill, and this year we focused on the process of the program and decided to create an interdisciplinary unit where myself, as a science teacher, along with the language arts teacher decided to work in tandem with the students this year to make it more meaningful for the students and bridge the gap between science education and the language art classroom. in science we focused on the design cycle, part of the international baccalaureate program where the students had to investigate possible invention ideas. they, then together as a team, had to research the positives and negatives of their invention, and they had to decide and reflect on which invention they wanted to choose out to carry out on the project. in science they worked as a team n. language arts they worked together as a team, but more at
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an independent level. in language arts, the teacher focused on teaching the research process as well as note taking, citing sources of information, and in science, we focus on the collaboration and communication that needs to take place in order for a team to be successful. the question to get the ball rolling for students was how can my creativity impact society? we wanted this project to be meaningful for the students so they would have the buy-in and be engaged in the topic they researched. we posed the question what technology do we currently have today. we look at current technology, how it's changed and evolved over time, and we also looked at famous inventers and what they have contributed to our society that we still use and benefit from today, and these questions that the students had kind of set the structure and framework for them to get the ball rolling in terms of what impact did they want to make, who did they want to improve, who was their audience?
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again, this was more about human ingenuity, the creativity where the possibilities were endless and there was no limit to the research as long as they learned at the same time and the process they went through in terms of reflecting and going back and starting the process all over again if they found that, you know what? my idea didn't work or the technology is not possible, so from our end, from a teacher's perspective, yes, the project was amazing, but it was more about the process. how did you get from point a to point b to build this wonderful innovative idea? in addition to the explorer vision program, we also offer other competitions, science competitions to spark stem education that involves the dupont science, the detroit engineering fair, and the poster contests. from a teacher's perspective, we have homework that we can check. we know, we work with the parents for the support that
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they give the school district and they help their children, but going through programs like the explorer vision and the other science competitions allow the community whether it be the local community or the global community to be able to see what is really taking place in the classroom and all the wonderful things that students are now doing today, and it's a great way for them to showcase and highlight their own successes. explorer vision is a great venue for differentiation allowing students to reach their maximum potential. the students who wanted to learn more about one area of technology had that opportunity to do so. students became experts based on their own invention that they chose to do for the projects. at the end, we were able to come back and collaborate at the same time. along with the human ingenuity, we have to strive for lifelong learners and have students
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become inquirers. my goal as a teacher is to make students want 20 ask questions, ask me questions. i don't want to force feed them information. it's more meaningful if they have the perm buy in and engagement in science education. through these science competitions, we are moving in that direction, and as a teacher, to see my students smile every day when they come in and say what are we doing today? i can't wait, what are we learning today? can i look at this and talk about this today? to me, my job's easy. they are the ones who are coming in with the inquisitive mind set of wanting to learn more about science, so thank you for this opportunity to share my passion as a science teacher and the importance of enriching and engaging students in stem education to become lifelong learners and successful parts of society today and from 20 years from now. thank you. >> thank you, and you were just
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almost on time, by gosh. [laughter] you really express yourself well, and it's interesting everything you said, and we thank you for it. i now recognize ann manwell to present testimony. >> good morning, i'm ann manwell, and i've been teaching at specialize the new york city high school for science and technology for 14 years. all the students took a qualifying test to be offered a seat at the school, and we have a very rich history of student research and success in student science competitions like intel science town search, and the engineering fair. we boast four nobel laureates among those who are alum nee. the schools like stuyvesant and
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others in the state do not operate like a vacuum. we need the farm teams like you heard about earlier today. i want to take this opportunity to speak to you today about the roll of competitions like the explorer vision plays in developing the students with the skills necessary to participate in our programs. we at the school found these competitions allow students to be credittive, think about the world around them, work in teams, develop time management skills and take ownership of a project. knowing now what we remember when we were part of the 10th grade research curriculum, but it was probably very close to 1992 launch. the current chemistry teacher is samantha days and have continued to use explorer vision as a powerful motivating force to develop student skills in thinking, scientific thinking. as you heard, the explorer
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vision competition requires teams of students to take a current technology and push it 20 years into the future. in this stage, teams bounce ideas out of of each other, broaden sections, consult online sources for the choice of current technology to develop. the three teams took an article film by alison's mother be by yo planted combined with doesn't stem cells and molecules and began to see into the future. critical at this stage of students' development, they divided the project into smaller tasks, established a timeline for the completion of various stages of the project. the team recognized their different skill sets and divided up the labor accordingly. alison was the artist, david provided overall organization, and loreen did background research. they knew they could consult on
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various faculty members, especially research coordinator for leads to more detailed information or to clear up any technical questions they had. they finally put it all together and sent it off. on the day of the awards were made, at brown school, around the computers at sculle, there were 10th graders waiting to see the results. they did quite well. they placed first in the northeast region and both dr. lee and the research chemistry class had numerous hon national mentions, and there was many hon -- honor mentions with the project. the team and their classmates were pleased with the performance, but the difficult part just began. the team had just four weeks to create a website site to show it off. they had won a tobisha compute
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loaded with software, but had little experience using it. consul at that particular times were needed. paul, class of 67, helped with the initial website design and later digital resource incorporated, a company headed by ali son's father was enlisted to help with 3-d imagery and website orchestration. after many after school hours, on weekends at school or the digital resources, the project was submitted. a few weeks later, they were surprised at school by representatives announcing their second place national position in the senior decision. they now had to build a prototype, develop materials, materials chosen, dimensions measured. scott thomas, the chemistry physics chair taught auto cad so
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she could program our very real 3-d printer to print parts of the print corners for the control in the future printer. finally, they had to fashion a clay kidney to represent the innovative project, a new kiddny formed by the own patient's bone marrow stem celled stimulated by various molecules to develop into kiddny specific tissues and have it assembled by the printer. they pushed existing technology for future uses, worked as a team, recruit experts to help them, had to articulate their problem and innovative solutions clearly and accurately. they had to complete their project on time and had to do a deal with unfamiliar technology and tools. all these skills will serve them very well if they continue in the stem disciplines or for ma
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matter, any discipline they follow. i hope you have time to see the prototypes and listen to the students talk about the ideas that they brought to washington and for which you so graciously have provided a national venue. thank you. >> thank you for a good presentation, and i thank you all for your testimony in reminding members here that committee rules apply to us also with five minutes. chair at this time will open the round of questions, and i yield myself five minutes. my first question will be to alison. alison, i think you're the senior member of all this group here; is that right? >> yes, it is. >> that means you're the oldest; is that right? >> yes. [laughter] >> if you feel good to know i'm the oldest guy in the house or senate, so we have something in common. [laughter] >> great. [laughter] >> i picked you to start with.
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you're what they call a rising junior, does that mean you're going to be a junior next time? >> yes, i am. >> i think i was a junior three years. [laughter] do you and your teammates know what you really want to study in college yet? >> i'm actually not sure what i want to do. i feel like i have many options and pathways to go down. i know that some are interested in becoming a doctor. i think she definitely wants an overall liberal arts education and wants to explore every possibility and so does david, and david is very interested in becoming a writer. >> well, i'm going to ask you this is when in this competition have any barring on your decision or hastened your decision? >> yes, it has. we had so much fun and it was so interesting to research and develop our idea, and i think that getting more involved with
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science and our project has refuel opened up that area to us, and made it more available and more interesting to -- so i definitely really liked it. >> okay, so we thank you. i'll ask students this and you can give a loud yes or no and we'll determine by the -- we have a noise tester up here. [laughter] did you like science and math before you started your project? yes or no? [laughter] >> this thing says yes wins by eight to ten. >> claudia says no. >> another question, do you like it even more now? >> yes. >> that's yes going again. all right. i have some time left here. let me see what else i have. i might ask to all of you students, anybody that wants to
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suggest an answer. what did you enjoy the most about your project and what did you like the least? who wants to answer that? hold up your hand. jack, you want to answer that? i've been doing business with you ever since you've been here. [laughter] >> the prototype. >> typing the prototype? >> yes. >> that's a yes. okay. anybody else want to say? >> yes, claudia. >> hi, i'm claudia cooper, a 7th grader at west hills. i think the most enjoyable part about the project is when samantha, my partner and i first started, we had no idea, honestly it started as a required curriculum activity -- not activity, but assignment that was proposed to us, and when we got our inspiration to
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help people who are suffering from respiratory insufficiency, it really was -- i guess cool to know that we can help people and to see what our generation is capable of, and to know that there is possibility of someone out there with ideas and mine to think of them. yeah. >> okay. thank you. to all of that, let me ask you this. you commented on how impressed you were with the ability of your teams 20 come up with novel ideas such as integral peace of this competition that you're in. can you talk about how you helped the students to drill down on their broad concepts or how did you have to then them do that at all? perhaps it was a natural part of the process. anybody want to answer that? yes, doctor? >> we started by reading newspaper articles and newspaper
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magazines. i felt it was important for the children to become aware of the news around them, to look at what was going on in current events, and so we started brainstorming from that, and that's where we got our ideas, and so they were based in fact and relevant issues, you know, current to today's ongoing problems that's how we started. >> you read anything about any of the current activities of any of us congressman? [laughter] >> of course. >> okay. [laughter] anyone else care to -- yes, ms. manwell. >> yes, and after the kids come up with the idea, you have to ask them if it's feasible? what do you know about it? where does it take you? what do you need to know in order to go forward? >> all right. ten seconds, and i thank you all for the good answers you gave me. at this time, i recognize
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mrs. johnson for five minutes. >> thank you very much. it has been imformative to listen to the testimony. as mr. hall indicated earlier, we're both texasians, and in texas, we have around 1100 school districts, and we pioneered some in distant learning, but i'm becoming more and more concerned about the cost of the administration of all these school districts and have wondered whether or not we could substitute some of the administration with distant learning, so i'm interested in trying to get information from you of how you feel that using distant learning could be successful. i wonder because we have home
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schooling involved here and perhaps i can ask you about your experience in feeling that it could be successful. >> well, as i mentioned, we -- we're sponsored by virginia virtual academy out of virginia, and we use the online public school program this year to -- for jack's 6th grade schooling, and we felt very fortunate that they were willing to sponsor a team and we used what's called imlym nate live, a cor responding program to team up with our coach who actually lives in colorado. it's how we did the schooling and how we ran science meetings, and we would send things electronically, send attachments, upload the presentation, she looked at it in advance, and when we had our meetings, we would, you know, share information that way, and,
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well, here we are. it worked very, very well for us, and it was very fun. i felt we were on the cutting edge of it. there was little or no cost involved, and it was fantastic. >> now, were you home all the time with jack? >> yes, i was. i was his parent coach, and so this was a temporary option for us. jack will be in a brick and mortar school next year, but we did this for personal academic reasons, and we were thankful 20 use their program. it was outstanding. >> okay. thank you. jack, how did you like going to school with the camera? >> it was fun, and i learned a lot. it was good having somebody actually there to work with you one-on-one, in this case, my mom, to help me with all of my
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studies, and i think it was a great curriculum. >> have you compared that to being in a classroom with other students? >> well, we live in a neighborhood full of children to go to public and private school, and i have to say i think my son's education was on par or perhaps even better in some respects. >> oh, i'm just thinking -- i'm not trying 20 criticize, i'm seeking information. jack, did you miss having sphiewnts sitting next to you or you felt you got that through the virtual experience? >> i missed having students around me, but i just got a lot better learning experience because my mom can just work with me with nobody else asking questions. >> uh-huh.
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thank you. you have a wonderful private teacher. [laughter] my time is running out quickly, but in the biography i read you were the first mexican-american woman in 70 years to receive a ph.d. from rice, and the first woman to get a ph.d. from rice in mechanical engineering and materials department. the unrepresentation of women is apparent and with minorities. are you wondering to see any breakthroughs or whether you think it still takes a lot of outreach effort? >> you mean for girls in general? >> girls in general. >> you know, girls somehow are taking over, you know, in college, in most of the majors. where they were, you know, i don't know like a lot of the
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liberal arts and business. there are now more girls than boys enrolling in college. >> college in general, but -- >> but in engineering, it's still no higher than 17%, so still in my classes of like 60 kids, i have like maybe five girls and 55 boys, so still, you know, haven't seen any change since, you know, 10-15 years ago, so it's still girls make a lot less. it's a very severe cultural stereotype. when you ask boys what mechanical engineers do and everybody imagines a hat and oil and boots and like a dirty type of profession, and in reality when i take them into my lab, i do a lot of tools for a thousand schools in my lab every year, and they are surprised to see, oh, you deal with prosthesis
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with the hip and knee? mechanical engineering we also do regeneration and we have to anchor and grow without falling down and the scaffle has to sustain the road. they don't know what engineering is. engineering is around us, but only a small percentage of people know what it is. my son plays piano lovely and he could be the best, but if the surroundings of the room are not well, you will sound awful, and engineers are around all of that, but you don't see them. you go to the doctor and you see the x-rays and mris and everything and you see a doctor, but you don't see the engineer that was behind all that development, so it really never see what engineers do, and every time i went to barnes & noble
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and went through books and everything and i found engineers are either the ones that drive the trains or in the kids books, you know, or there's this astronaut and they said astronaut and there's two guys carrying a case that says engineers. it's a man, you know, the astronauts are the engineers, so really the profession has not been attractive to kids, so we still have a lot to do. this is engineering, the creativity with innovation, that's engineering. be creative, use science knowledge to benefit society, so -- >> thank you very much. my questions were within five minutes, mr. chairman. [laughter] i didn't promise the answers would be. [laughter] thank you. >> the lady's 10 minutes is up. [laughter] now, i recognize, and thank you for good answers.
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we would attempt here saying please start slowing down, but thank you for a good long good answer, hon norble ans. gentleman, chairman of the judiciary committee from the state of texas. >> thank you, mr. chairman. dr. lozano thank you for making the trip up from south texas. we don't mean to pick on you, but those of us from texas ask you the questions first. i'd like to do so, but ask the other witnesses to comment as well. i have a general question with a specific question and component to it, and the general question is -- well, you provided part of the answer because i understand you developed a science and magic show for k-12th grade. i wish you could have shown that to us today. that would have been fascinating i'm sure, but it seems to me that's one of the answers to the overall question about how do we
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attract young people to become interested in science and math. the figures have been mentioned, but we have about half as many young adults majoring in science and math today as we did 20 years ago, and the trend is not good, and other countries are picking up the slack, and we want our own american students majoring more often in those subjectings. the real question is how do we inspire young people? how do we get them interested in the subjects 1234 you showed us in a number of ways how that's possible. let me go on and ask a more specific question you might want to address as well as the general question, and that is, to many e -- to me, one the barriers we face is one of false stereotypes that maybe children from broken homes or from lower social economic backgrounds or whose parents don't speak english well or girls who are oftentimes thought not to be good at math -- those are the types of false
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stereotypes that need to be broken down to allow the young people to achieve their potential and give us millions of more young people who might major in the sciences and math, and i think part of the answer is better mentors and frequent tutors and inspirational and better teachers, more money dedicated to those subjects and so on, but do you want to answer the question most regimely as to what we can do beyond what you already mentioned and also how ce with counter the false stereotypes? >> that's a really hard question, but i guess one of the things is to get, you know, leaders into the classrooms, professors, you know, science teachers, you know, get them into the classrooms, and i think national science foundation does an awesome job. you know, every gland, top researcher gets from national science foundation, in order for you to get it, you have to have
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the broader impacts and outreach within it. you have -- if you don't have that section filled, you know, you don't get it. that forts, you know, everyone with the the scientific community for outreach k-12. that's the beautiful model, you know, what nsf does. you know, i think a lot of kids go into high school, and they have never asked congressman -- it was mentioned have never -- women have never been given the opportunity to see, you know, what's beyond, so when they, for example, tour the lab or when we go to the classroom, they give you thank you letters saying that you know, i wish i knew you four years ago and i would have made very different decisions about my lives. >> yeah. >> i think we just need to go back to the community and do a
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lot of that. >> okay. >> there's no other way to, you know, get kids, you know -- >> hard work, dedication, commitment from all the adults involved. >> yes. >> do you have anything to add to that? >> yes, i would, thank you. we live in loud county, and i can't speak to the counties that the other schools represent or reside in, but there's a lot of interest in science and technology, and one of the things that pains me as a parent is -- and i'll give an example -- i've been attending open houses for the academy of science which is a program in the county open to all county high school students, and i have been for the last two years, and have been amazinged that every spot in the parking lot is full with open houses. it's heartbreaking and you get to the auditorium, and it's standing room only, but there's only 60-65 spots in the academy
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of science, and yet there's hundreds of students interested in going. i look at auditorium, these are not kids drag out of bed in the morning, but there with their parents deeply interested into getting into the program, and yet they can't get in because the competition is so great, and there's only one program in the county that addresses sciences and math in an advanced way, and it's the academy of science with 65 spots. looking at the 16 middle schools feeding into the program, that's an opportunity of four kids per school. >> so more programs? >> more programs whether it's joining up with business partnering and businesses. look at the county and all the businesses in that area, aerospace corporation is one that my husband works with, but boeing and north or maybe i'm misremitting the names because they merge siewfn, that i can't keep up, but there's engineers
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in businesses located within our areas who could partner with the schools to bring science into the schools, to make it more readily available. >> good idea. thank you, thank you, mr. chairman. >> gentleman's time has expired. i recognize -- [inaudible] >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, and thank you all for being here. let me congratulate the contest winners, you should be proud of your accomplishments. i hope you pursue some career in the stem field, we need you, and i'm looking for great things from each and every one of you. i thank the chairman for holding this hearing which clearly demonstrates the need for federal reform and investment in stem education. the schools remitted here are home to brilliant young students, but they represent form of privilege or lack of
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accessibility. a private school in texas, and virtual academy while free to students in virginia is a modern form of home schooling and requires parent environment. most are single parents who can want stay home with students because they have to work or two parents who must both work. schools like this are not an option for low-income families. westfield school in michigan, though public, has less than 1% of students eligible for free or reduced school lunches. in my district, take the city of east cleveland, that number is more than 85%. finally, stuyvensen has to take prep tests. it puts low income students at a severe disadvantage. as a new york city school, only 2.2% of students are african-american. this number is incredibly low especially considering that
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across all public schools in the city, # 2% of all students are african-american. the numbers are more drastic with hispanic students. clearly, this is not a level playing field, and i believe that it is our job to ensure that all students in this country have access to quality education and the opportunity to win a contest like explorer vision. now to my question for ms. conwell-dudley. the virtual academy is effective in getting kids familiar with technology and interested in science. do you think that there is some part of the curriculum which you use now in your home that can be transferred to students in the classroom setting to have the same kind of an effect? >> absolutely. i think the illuminate live conferencing program could be
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used widely in the schools. i don't see why it couldn't. it worked well for us. i'm not that smart, but smart enough to know our kids have to be smarter. you know, i'll do everything we can and i think this program and the web conferencing program would be a great thing for schools to use. >> thank you. i want to again congratulate all of the brilliant young people sitting here today, young men and young ladies for the work you have done. you have accomplished a great deal. i hope that some day you're sitting on this committee talking to young people just like you. keep up the good work, and to all of you who have assisted and mentored and encouraged, thank you as well. thank you. i yield back. >> gentlelady yields back. at this time i recognize mr. bartlett, gentleman from maryland. >> thank you very much. i want to use my brief five minutes to emphasize the importance of teachers and
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seconded need of the country to dramatically increase the number of our students including to science, math, and engineering. it was a teacher who changed my life. i went to college in 1943, washington missionary college in maryland to become a medical missionary. my first degree was in theology which is serving well in congress by the way, because i love the sinner and hate the sin. [laughter] i was going to be a medical missionary so i had to take courses in medical school and i had a great teacher and took his courses and others ha that when i graduated in 1947, that i had a major in biology, minor in theology, a and a degree in chemistry and got a doctorate in science and taught for 24 years. our youngest son of ten chirp was a terrible student, didn't
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pay attention. finally, it was a teacher in the 6th grade, a science teacher in the 6th grade that turned him on. ross graduated number one in the class of 140-some engineers. he is now a -- he's not five children, ph.d., returning 20 maryland, thankfully, and he works for one of our big government labs. here are two lives turned around by teachers. thank you very much for what you do. you know, we listen to the news, and this morning i was reminded again of our priorities which i think are pretty darn distorted. the vancouver team lost. i don't know who they are. i tune out sports because it's the equivalent of gladeuaters and rome, and we know what happened to rome. [laughter] their team lost, and they turn over police cars and break
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windows, and the riot police try to quiet them down. i watch the white house and the people they invite there and slobber all over, and they are not scientists or academic achieves. they are athletes, and entertainers. this year, the chinese will graduate seven times as many germings as we -- engineers as we graduate, and half of the graduating engineers will be chinese students. by the way, they don't stay here unless because there's good jobs back in china so thigh are going there. we are representing less than 5% of the people in the world, and we have a fourth of all the good things in the world. i have a huge concern that we are not going to be able to retain our position as the premier economic and military power in the world if we're turning out one-seventh as many scientists, mat ma tigses, and
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engineers as our competitor is. what can we do as a country to change the culture? because you know, you get a culture, a community, a society gets what it appreciates, and we just don't appreciate our bright young kids in science, math, and engineering. when i was a kid, they called us squares. that's an old term. now it's geeks and nerds now? pretty girls won't date a bright boy, and a girl, a really bright girl plays dumb to get a date. this is a sad reflection on our society. what do we need to do to capture the imagination of the american people and get more of our young people to go into careers of science, math, and engineering? i know you can't give an adequate answer to this in the minute and seven seconds we have remaining, so i would encourage you to please write for the record something to help us so we know what we can do here in this committee to do a better job of turning on our people and getting our young people more
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willing to go into science, math, and engineering, and if you want to respond, please, please write us something. >> the gentleman's time has expired. you have any figures on how many lawyers they are turning out over there? [laughter] >> oh, actually, i go to groups of young people, and i ask them what they will become, and, you know, they are going to become lawyers and political scientists. now, we have quite enough of both of those, don't you think? [laughter] we need to turn that around and society gets what it appreciates, and we just don't appreciate science, math, and engineering, but that's what makes the world -- that's what the wheels go round. if we do not get around it, we're not going to be number one. >> your point's made, thank you, sir. [laughter] we have more votes 23415 -- in 15 minutes. gentleman from michigan, i
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recognize you for five quick minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'm from the city of detroit. i represent metropolitan detroit. i'm on this committee at the recommendation of representative peters who was right here who is your member of congress, and i just want to thank west hills middle school for making us really proud in michigan. just a little personal story. this is really to claudia and samantha. i was growing up in elementary school, one of the few kids who had asthma so i went back and visited the elementary schools and as a elected official i asked one class, anybody raise your hand with asthma, and half the class raised their hands, and when i was raised, too, we have an incinerator right near us, a few blocks away, and we had plants there. my dad worked in a plant, so a
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lot of people have breathing problems because of the contamination and pollution because we smoked cigarettes, and my dad smoked them without filters before they realized it was a problem. this is a long time ago, but the fact that you have created a prototype of a way to provide people with oxygen who need it without having to carry those big tanks, that's going to really give people a lot of freedom because a lot of us, more and more people are growing older and living longer and will likely have to live with these chronic breathing problems. my question, and if i could, mr. chair, i'd like to just ask this to claudia and also samantha. i know you're not sitting, but after claudia responds. what did you either een joy the most out of developing this trachea device, enjoy, or
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learned about the most or what you got out of it? just curious because -- here's the reason i'm asking you this because in your answer will probably be the -- the actual value that other students would get and that would probably encourage them to do this type of research that you're doing right now that can actually save people's lives. at least giving somebody a better quality of life as they grow older. >> well, thank you, mr. clarke. our inspiration actually came from my grandma who was dependent on that for the last few months of your life. it weighs down your freedom, and this device would restore that freedom and let patients do what they want to, and i think -- say that it's -- the sheer joy of knowing that there are possibilities out there like i said before and that our minds, our generation can do that.
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i think working with samantha was one of the most amazing parts of it because she's so funny and she's very bright, and we couldn't have done it without her. i think just opening our minds because neither of us were very into science before this competition, and when we first heard of it, it was just an assignment. it was not anything that we wanted to do necessarily, but wops we started going, we saw how incredible this competition can be and how great this is, 10 -- >> wonderful. if possible, samantha, if you could just come up and share with me your experience about doing this research. >> well, i would probably say the same as claudia, but i learned so much from this competition because before this i was not into technology, and i
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was not -- yeah -- and i was so much from this and learned so much about the invention, and i really like helping people, so that's what i say 1 the most. >> this is wonderful. i'll yield back my time, but we got the answer. all the students now watching this, you don't have to be into science or math or technology, but if you want to help somebody, you see somebody you know has a problem, could be in your family or a friend of yours, this is a way to really help them and help a whole bunch of people fast is getting involved in these projects. that could be it. let's not worry about the science, the math, the technology. let's try to help people, and that way with e can help our country. thank you so much, and, also, last point. i wanted you to testify so you get used to this so when you are up here if you choose to do this, you already have the training. >> gentleman yields back. thank you, claudia and
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samantha. they call you sam or samantha? good testimony. at this time, i recognize the gentleman from california for as much of five minutes he wants to use. >> well, thank you very much, mr. chairman, and let me just note that i did not do well in math and science when i was a kid. [laughter] i wish i would have, and i think that if i had done better 234 math and science, i wouldn't be here today. [laughter] but i want you to know the only good side of that story is that i did not become a lawyer. [laughter] in fact, when i ran for congress, the first time, my most effective slogan was vote for dana, at least he's not a lawyer. [laughter] i want to segue the kids with this. the bottom line is this -- kids
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can see what our priorities are in our society, and they notice that lawyers are the ones with the nice houses and nice cars and a lot of times they see the engineers as not having such a nice reward for this profession they've chosen. i believe that the way we get more engineers and more scientists and such as we pay them better, and how we pay them better is just make sure we especially make sure our own children have the opportunities to do, to get in good jobs that pay well, and i'm sorry to bring up other issues, but the fact is we seem to be bringing people in from all over the world in order to depress the wages of our engineers and our scientists when instead we should be elevating the pay of those people who are teaching science
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and those people who get into science and engineering, so that's just a couple thoughts. i also am a little bit concerned that movie stars and athletes, you know, they make huge amounts of money, and everybody knows that, and people will begrudge an inventor, the money he gets from a patent. i mean, the fact is it is a good thing for someone to invent something that changes the lives of so many people and for that person to benefit by making a lot of money from a patent is a good thing, and you would not believe how much we've got here where the powers that be are coming down on these small inventors for insisting they get a royalty for what they invented. there's a big patent fight looming now in congress where some of us are trying to protect the little guy, the small
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inventor and other people with a lot of interest here who are, you know, preacing the interest -- protecting the interest of some big corporate leader who started off as a lawyer, of course. [laughter] with that said, i think that we can make scientists and inventors cool, and i want to ask the kids whether or not our, you know, engineers and scientists and people who are engaged in these types of things, are they considered cool by your fellow classmates now? no, they're not, seeing heads shake. [laughter] you are -- somebody your classmates look at someone as a scientist as someone cool or is it what? >> well, as my mom was a magic show, but engineering, my class is like, oh, well, that's so
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awesome. >> oh, all right. there you go. hey, dude, that's great. >> yeah. [laughter] >> jack, what about you? what do your students think about it? is it cool? >> my dad, he's an aerospace engineer, and when i tell my friends about it they are wowed about that, and they thought it was really cool i was able to see a rocket launch, and they thought engineers were actually pretty cool. >> that's great. okay. all right. claudia? >> well, you know, i'm in that squirrely 7th grade time where it depends what you mean by cool. [laughter] i guess this is hard when we first started the unit showed us inventions that we created and we were asked if we knew who the inventors were, and we said that's cool, and before our time a little, but she showed me the
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first bill nye the science guy tv show. i think that's what triggered the minds and bringing the competition into the school set off -- i mean, people went home, googled, binge, and typed in who invented the microwave and came to school the next day and shared with everyone. i guess it's kind of cool. >> all right. alison? >> i go to a high school that's a very science oriented high school, and we're kind of nerdy -- [laughter] so i don't know if we really represent everyone, but to become an engineer, a lot of kids aspire to be a scientist, and a lot of our parents are scientists or engineers or doctors, and everyone admires their parents so much, and i think everyone admires and think science is cool. >> that's cool. being admired is cool.
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[laughter] let me just say i admire oche of you, and my heros are people that have come up with things that have changed people's lives for the better, and too many times kids here, only the negative side, how horrible things are getting. well, you should also know and be taught about what great opportunities we have to make things better, and you're the kids who make it better, so congratulations for participating in these wonderful projects and all the good things you'll do now for the rest of your life. thank you. >> the gentleman's time has expired. in defense of this, i'm taking a quick story. i hate the lawyers, they are all geeks, and the guy in the crowd says i object to that. he said i didn't mean to orched you, and he says are you a lawyer? he says no, i'm a geek.
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[laughter] >> thank you, mr. chairman and to the ranking member. i feel there has to be redemption because as my colleagues know, i spent several years as a systems engineer working on the space lab program at doddard space flight senator, then became a lawyer, and now in congress. there's a lot of redemption going on out there. [laughter] i'm excited to see all of you here. you're educators, your mentors, your parents, and of course, the students. i think when we ask ourselves, you know, are we going to be okay in the next generation, the next decades, i think we look at you young people, and we know we're going to be just fine because we'll be in your hands and so thank you very much for your participation today and your testimony like the ranking member and our chairman, education in the stem fields is really important to me. i mean, i see, you know, all
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across the country that it's really clear that the challenges of the future are going to be solved by us grabbing a hold of technology for the 21st century and the way we do that is to educate in our stem fields, and, you know, although i know that some of my colleagues have expressed concern about whether the same kinds of things can take place in public school settings versus a private school setting, i think it takes the collection of that to happen, and i think as parents, and i know as a parent that my goal is to just find the best place for my child to be educated because i always described that our children are not science experiments, but they are works in bro depress, and what -- progress, and what works for one child may not work for another. i recognize the vast majority of this country's children are educated in public schools, and
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we have to figure out a way to get that right in the stem fields, and my congressional district of my state, we are home to, you know, some of the best science and technology supported by government and our private sector any place in our country, home to the space flight sebter, nasa's premier program around the earth science, and noaa that helps us figure out our weather and climate across the country and around the world, the national institutes of health and the maryland where so much good work is coming out of there and the national institutes of standards and technology, and i know i look to all of these agencies and the various private sector corporations that develop around there to also have a robust relationship with our school system and with our young people because i think it's important for us to figure out how we take
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some of that private sector energy that you mentioned, dr. lozano, and we channel that into a relationship with our schools, and that's not always an easy relationship because sometimes we create barriers that make it difficult for those who are in the stem fields and professions to participate actively in the school system, so i think we have to figure out ways to better encourage those things. i just really have -- there's a bell, but i'm not out of time yet. just one question for the students, and i wonder if each of you can me the other things you do in addition to your work around science that contributes to your learning whether it's arts or music and sports that means that we're really developing whole children. go right ahead. >> i do swimming one hour a day,
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monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, saturday morning all the time. i just finished the soccer season, so now i'm watching tv. [laughter] >> jack -- [laughter] jack, what about you? >> i play piano, take chinese, occasionally i play flag football and my swimming season is just about finished, and me and two other teammates are on a robotics team. >> congratulations. claudia? >> i go to summer camp in the summer. i do a lot of acting and musicals and i play a little tennis, do a lot of extracurricular stuff at school, a lot of community service, and i do a little bit of circus performing arts too. >> excellent. , alison? >> i do a lot of art, and that
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helps me visually and helped me on the project with the realizing what everything looks like and how to structure it. i play sports, i play tennis, swim, play the piano, and, yeah. >> thank you all very much for being here, and i think what that indicates is we have a lot to do to educate the whole child in addition to what we're trying to develop in the science and stem fields, thank you. ..
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>> and all the rest of you that i have not learned your names, you have been really smart -- sparked in my life this morning. we struggle so hard to try to pinpoint what direction we need to go to make sure that this quality education is available. and you are letting us know that you are some examples of what we strive for. and so i want to thank you, thank all the teachers and parents who are here. we really honestly do depend on you to carry our future. and i just want to thank you for what you are doing, and keep it up, and encourage many more to join you. thank you. >> well said, and thank you. the gentlelady yield's back her time. let me remind everyone that the science fair and all these teams
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and the projects are in the rayburn foyer -- that's on the first floor. i'm going to be there, and i'm going to try to ask jack if you missed the girls more than he did the boys or the boys more than he did the girls. [laughter] so i have some good questions to ask you, jack. i hope i see you down there. the witnesses are excused, and this hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]
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[inaudible conversations] >> damage from yesterday's earthquake is forcing officials to seek a new site to martin luther king by morris commemoration services. service was to be held at the washington national cathedral this coming saturday but that church will remain closed as a precaution. in the meantime the new more here on the national mall is opened to the public today after being closed yesterday after the east coast earthquake. a ceremony tonight was moved out of the national historic
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building museum due to possible earthquake damage, but we will have live coverage when it does get underway at the washington convention center. that will start at seven feet and. it will be on c-span. the main ceremony sunday is scheduled to start at 11 eastern, the same day hurricane irene may blow this area. president obama is planning to be there. will have live coverage at 11 a.m. eastern also on c-span. >> "washington journal" is seeking an in depth look this week at the medicare program.
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noticed the color of the bourbon, that amber color that you see is all coming from the char on the inside of the barrel. this char is where bourbon gets all of its color and a lot of its flavor. currently they discovered over 200 chemical flavors just in th
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oak and the char from the""  barrel. spent this weekend we highlight frankfort, kentucky, on booktv and american history tv. throughout the weekend look for the history and literary lives of kentucky state capitol on book tv on c-span2. stop by the third, the old state capitol. booktv and american history tv. and frankfort, kentucky, this weekend on c-span2 and three. >> former health and human
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services secretary louis sullivan says the u.s. health system needs to be more efficient and less bureaucratic. his remarks are a part of a two-day health equity summit hosted by the institute for the benefit of multicultural and minority medicine in honor of the dedication of the martin luther king jr. memorial here in washington. this is about 50 minutes. >> i hope you're enjoying your lunch. we like to go ahead and get started with the next phase of the program. we are so honored and so pleased that dr. louis sullivan has joined us today. as you all know, dr. sullivan served as the secretary of the u.s. department of health and human services. that was from 1989-1993, where he took on big tobacco and the scourge of hiv. dr. sullivan also founded the prestigious morehouse school of medicine in atlanta.
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dr. sullivan earned his doctor of medicine degree at the boston university school of medicine in 1958. he completed his internship and residency at new york hospital cornell medical center. he also did some work at the new jersey college of medicine while teaching at harvard medical school and researching at the thorndike memorial laboratory. that was before becoming the codirector of hematology at boston university medical center. he also found the boston university hematology service at boston city hospital. that was until 1995. that's when he founded the medical education program at morehouse college. dr. sullivan has received dozens of honorary degrees, and has been honored by many diverse organizations, such as the southern leadership -- southern
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christian leadership conference, and the national association of minority medical educators. dr. sullivan and his wife, ginger, have three children. i would now like to introduce to you honorable dr. louis sullivan. [applause] >> well, thank you very much for that generous introduction. and let me say, it's a great pleasure and honor for me to be here with all of you to see where we are in terms of health equity. and i have thoroughly enjoyed the presentations thus far today. i think they are very important. and coming during the week when we look forward to the unveiling of the sculpture in honor of martin luther king jr., i think this gives us, this conference
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special significance. i happened to have been about 10 feet away from martin luther king jr. in 1963 when he gave his talk here at the lincoln memorial. and for me personally, the other part of the book and was when my wife and i were here for the inauguration at the other end of the mall the first african-american president, mr. obama. so we have made significant progress in our country, but as already has been noted, we still have a lot to accomplish. and that depends upon a lot of people, but it depends particularly upon us to indeed put the issues before the country, to lobby for those things which need to be done, to indeed lend support to those who have ideas that we think are important. indeed, to see that those individuals are put in position
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of authority and power. one of the comments made earlier today about getting politics out of medicine, i agree with dave satchel when he said that's not the issue. the issue is getting the right political decisions made. because in a democracy all it takes is in transit to our system, but it means we must have individuals who indeed know the issues, who are committed to improvement, and who are willing to commit their leadership, their reputations, their energies to solving the problems. so that's what is important. let me, before i begin, make a side comment. i want to thank roger bolger for this book on paul rogers that was here when we arrived today. because he represented one of the things we lack today. that is, a leader in congress who has the capacity, the
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intellect, the commitment, and the political will to make things happen. there are a number things that happened during his tenure as a member of the congress, and what we do have our friends in the congress now who are interested in health, we don't have the individual in congress who make that their number one primary priority, were able to convince their fellow members of the legislature that this is something that is not of self-interest, but it is something that is important for the nation as a whole. health touches everything. and if we do not have a healthy population, everything else is secondary. and so we are very concerned about what is happening, or not happening, in our health care system. so we need to have more people like paul rogers to really help in the decision-making process, both in the congress as well as in the administration.
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the title of my talk is indeed a america's journal, and journey to health equity. and what is is an overview of what's happened over the past century. where we are now and what our projections for the future. we are at an inflection point in this gives us an opportunity to make such a comment. the next slide come you've already heard about martin luther king's comments that he made in chicago in 1966, about the inequality, that lack of health access imposes on our citizens. the next slide shows where we are as a country today in terms of our spending on health care. what this shows is that we outrank all other nations by far, in the dollars we spend in our health care system, with some 16% of our gnp. when they came to washington in
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1989, it was 11% of gnp. we are spending $1 trillion in 1989 from both public and private sources in our health care system. this is not in excess of $2 trillion, plus 2.4 troy endorsed that we're spending on health care, some 20 years later. [inaudible] >> thank you very much. so, so we are really having a problem with runaway costs in our health care system, as shown by this slide. and comparing us to other nations. and yet we don't have the best health outcomes in our country, comparing us with other countries in the world. and as i was saying, those costs
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are escalating, and now some 18% of -- 16% of gnp compared to 11% of gnp in 1989. and it was 6.5% of gnp when medicare and medicaid were instituted in 1965 or so you can see that we have tripled the percentage of gnp going to health services, since over the last 50 years but yet while we do have something to show for it, we have fallen far short of what our needs are. this slide shows compared to other nations we do not do well in terms of infant mortality. we are outraged by most other western countries. so it shows that spending money alone is not enough. we have to have the infrastructure. we have to have participation our population. simple thing such as pregnant mothers coming to see their
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obstetrician in the first trimester of pregnancy. so we have to have not only trained individuals and a system that works, we have to have individuals who know the things that they must do in order to preserve and enhance their health. this also shows that the disparate between white population and the minority population contributed to almost 900,000 excess deaths over a three-year period in the nation. and more than that, this cost our nation some $50 billion in lost productivity, as well as the cost of health services. the study from the joint center for political and economic studies. this slide shows what's happened over the past century, that at the time of .de be devoid in 19 -- major cause of death for infectious diseases, of various kinds. tuberculosis, pneumonia, various
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infectious diseases, and malnutrition. but by 1985 the time of the heckle report you see these infectious problems has been replaced by chronic diseases. cancer, carrier -- party of the -- cardiovascular disease, et cetera. and similar patterns exist today in the report help the united states from the cdc in fear 2010. we have made progress in our mortality rates, but note the fact that while it has been improvement in mortality by all segments of our population, including our minority populations, what's striking is the way these lines really don't cross, where as the black mortality has declined, notice that we are about 30 years behind the mortality of the white population.
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so the disparities that existed some 30 or 50 years ago still exist, the all of us are healthier, but this means that we must do better with our minority populations and the poor to address those things that contribute to mortality. the data for the hispanic population and asia pacific islands and native american population are less complete, having been collected in significant amounts only in the last 30 to 40 years. but you will see errol improvements in mortality rates in all of these populations. similarly, life expectancy at birth has improved over the course of the 20th century. but here again the lines are parallel and don't cross, where as in the year 1900, life expectancy was some 47 years for whites, and less than 40 years
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for blacks, compared to today where as it is approaching eight years for white females, and almost 70 years for black males. you will see a bat while all these lines have improved, you don't see much closing of the gap. some slight closing, but much more remains to be done. the report from the public health service in 2010 on health care qualities and disparities show that while access and quality, they are sub optimal, especially for minorities and low-income groups. quality of care is improving, but access to care is not improving. so we must be more. many things in pension on this. one of the things that we haven't talked about very much today is health manpower.
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we are going to bring 32 million more people into the health system with the successful implementation of the health reform legislation passed a year and half ago by the congress. we need professionals to take care of those individuals. we have seen in massachusetts what happened when we do set up an insurance mechanism so that people haven't insurance card to pay for care. but in some communities in massachusetts they are now waiting lines, some six to seven faces a primary care physician, because of inadequate manpower to address the unmet health needs that were unleashed by passage of legislation in massachusetts. if we don't address this issue nationwide, we will see similar issues, people having health insurance card but then having difficulty getting health services. so we need to address that.
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i'm very pleased that we're getting more attention to prevention and health promotion because it is my view that we will never engage, if we never engage our citizens in prevention and health promotion, we will not solve the problem of cost control, nor will we see maximum improvement in the health of our citizens. so we must first of all have a system that works, having trained individuals, having facilities, all of the things that are needed. but in addition we must have that does proper nutrition, exercise, childhood immunizations, all of those things that they must do if indeed we are to achieve maximal health. well known that the higher level of education attainment we see in the population, the healthier that population is. poverty, poor health, lower education all go together. we must address them all
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simultaneously if we are to see improvement in the health of all segments of our population. this slide simply gives a view of the various reports that have been issued over the years, concerning health equity in the united states. the first thing the publication by w.e.b. du bois in 1906 when his professional -- professor of sociology at 11 university where he indeed was the first scholar to draw attention to the very close link between health stands and poverty come when he was looking at the health of asking americans in the population. he emphasized the role of poverty and affecting health. then the report issued in 1985 by secretary heckler, black and minority health. make a comment on secretary heckler's report, because as was
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mentioned earlier today, in march of 1983, the association of united health professions schools, representatives, met with secretary heckler and presented to her the report called blocks in the 1980s. black health professionals in the 1980s. a national crisis, and a time for action. that report was written by ruth hamp, an analyst for the association, and that report was the stimulus for secretary heckler to the point her own departmental committee, headed by tomi lotta was then deputy director of the national institutes of health, and senior african-american in the department. and that committee that tom malone shared then issued the report, this report which came out in august of 1985, almost two and a half years after we met with secretary heckler and
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got her commitment to address this issue. and we are very pleased that that happen. as a result of that report being issued in 1985, she in deed to establish the office for minority health in the office of the secretary, and, in that same year. other reports that are important, certainly i'm pleased that bryce is here, certainly the institute of medicine's report on an equal treatment, -- unequal treatment, sure that when you correct for differences in socioeconomic status, african-americans still receive less optimal care than of whites. showing bias in the system often unconscious bias without affect the quality of care that individuals receive. then in 2004, the report from the commission that i chaired looking at health manpower issues an issue of diversity, that report called missing
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persons, minority in the health profession, pointing out that while we have made progress in the '60s, '70s and '80s, in the '90s we plateaued and we are showing signs of slipping back in terms of minority representation in the health professions. where we particularly looked at medicine, nursing, dentistry, public health and psychology. a number of other reports have come out i would draw your attention to the last two on the lower right. first, the memoir by doctor augustus white, who as you know establish the orthopedic service during his career. i believe that was in the late '80s or early '90s. but dr. white has become very committed to addressing the issue of health disparities. and in this well-written memoir of his life, talking about health disparities, i recommend that you all of you because i
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think it summarizes many of the issues that we confront in the system now. and it shows how he, growing up in the segregated confinement in memphis, really became one of our nation's outstanding physicians and leaders in orthopedics and now one of our thought leaders and eric of health disparities. and then the final vote on the right, recently issued by dr. richard williams, enters at ucla on health disparities come at the affect of health reform and addressing health disparities. so there's been a number of publications over the years to address the issue that helps keep the attention focused, but we need to action by our leaders, both in the government as well as in the private sector, to address this. the next few slide simply summarize some of the things that have happened over the years, and addressing the issue of disparities in, disparities
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in numbers of minorities in the health professions, and lack of health insurance. all of those that haven't hinged upon the disparities and health status that continues to exist today. during the second half of the 20th century, because of the very active civil rights act committees, we did see some improvement in many areas. first of all, legislation enacting medicare and medicaid in the '60s, improvement in the percentage of minorities entering the health profession. so far from what was hoped would be achieved. we did see some improvement. and as i note on this slide, in 1983, we met with secretary heckler, presented her with this report that led her to have her own internal departmental committee, to study this issue and come up with the heckler report in august of 1985.
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we saw also the first forum established, then in 1989 it was my honor to be appointed secretary of health and human services. and in 1990, i was pleased to establish the office for research in minority health at nih. doctor ruffin was brought to my office by doctor ruth christine comes in the acting head of nih. doctor ruffin was appointed to head the office and he is continued in that leadership position to the current time as the office been was elevated to the 10 in january 2000. some 10 years later. and then this past year and the year 2010, with the passage of health reform legislation, the center was elevated to an institute. we met -- [applause] >> thank you.
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several of us met with dr. francis collins about the desire and needs and competitive to elevate the center to an institute. dr. collins response was well. the center has all of the prerogatives and abilities that an institute has. so why do you need this. and our response was welcome if it has all of those authorities and responsibilities, it is an institute so why not call it an institute? [laughter] so congress agreed with us and, indeed, passed legislation to establish this national institute for minority health and health disparities research. so we are very pleased with that. it was not too long ago that we had a first minority surgeon general, doctor antonio the ballot previously been deputy director of the national institute of child health and human development at nih.
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so the first woman and first hispanic to serve as surgeon general. and as doctor ruffin has noted, doctor healy was the first woman to serve as director of nih and established the women's health initiative at that time, and really helped to indeed show that women suffered from heart attacks, stroke, et cetera and other diseases where they were thought to be somewhat immune on them. so dr. healy did a number of things to address women's health, but also minority health. she appointed the first african-american director, one of the institute at nih, doctor kenneth odom was appointed the director of the national institute for environmental health sciences. so that as was her support of the office for research in minority health, she contributed quite a bit.
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we will comment briefly on -- i've already commented on the sullivan commission's report. what we noted in september of 2004 when the issue this report, which was supported by the kellogg foundation, was that while we have made progress in increasing diversity in health profession, that progress was far from what we had expected would occur during the '60s, '70s and '80s. in 1950, 2% of america's physicians were african-americans. well, by 1990 that was 4.3%. so one could say that one had doubled the percentage, but we double from a very small base. so where as african-americans represented from 12% of the population, they still fell short of their representation in the general population. why is that important? it's important because the
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doctrine of college at the everett of california san francisco reported in the new england journal of medicine in 1996 that black or hispanic physicians were three to five times more likely to establish their practices in the ghetto. they're much more likely to have high medicaid populations among their patients, much higher nonpaying patient population as well. so it's not, the question is not so the numbers but the kind of physicians that we serve. in other words, she shows the practice pattern of minority physicians were different than white physicians to if we are serious about doing everything we could to address the health needs of our minority populations, we have to be concerned about quality of the input into our system, the kind that individuals who are in the system if we're going to see all segments of our population are will serve. there's been a number of studies since that time confirming those
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findings. this slide shows the 10 great public health achievements of the united states as reported by the cdc. you can see many of them, one questions what does that have to do with health? motor vehicle safety, for example. we have four to five times as many cars on our roads today as we had 50 years ago. but the number of deaths from motor vehicle accidents has not increased, or increased only modestly. that's because cars are designed not to be safer, seat belt use is not increased. when i went to washington in 1989, an average of 47% of drivers use of seatbelts. legislation and activities in various states were under way so that now that is close to 90% of drivers using a seatbelt.
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so that indeed if someone is in an accident, in a car, they're much less likely to be killed or the entry is much less severe. so in motor vehicle safety, is one of the things that contribute to improvements and health. safer workplaces. the effect of the environment that we live in, where we have clean air and water, et cetera. so all of these are important as recognized by cdc during the 20th century that have helped to improve the health of our citizens. this slide really is a commentary on medical education system. as you know, in 1908, abraham flexed her was commissioned by the carnegie foundation for about all of the medical schools in the united states. in the early part of the 20th century, we had a number of proprietary medical schools.
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there was no uniform standards medical education. over a two-year period he visited each one of these schools and with a report, those of you have not read it i would committed to. it makes very interesting reading. usually he describes the medical school in perhaps the page or page a half half or less. and some of the language is very colorful. such as never in my experience have i seen anything so disgraceful masquerading as a higher education institution as this miserable example. [laughter] its trustee should do the public a service and put it out -- and put it out of its misery. because of flexner's report which got plenty of a 10, the number of medical schools by 1925 had decreased to 80. accreditation standards were begun in the year 1914 and 1950. the number of other things happen. but among the things that happened, there were seven
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predominately black medical schools in existence. only two of those survive. howard. the other schools were considered to be subpar. many of these schools have been operating for profit by their owners, many of them were physicians. so the process of improving medical education started very dramatically with flexner is report. but flexner also during his time trying to justify support for howard and meharry by saying we need to senators to take care of health needs in the black community, such things as tuberculosis which could be passed to the white community. and we need to have these sanitary and spirits of his justification for predominant black medical schools was protection of the health of the white population. while i would love to get into the might of doctor flexed or what he's doing this for political reasons or whether he really meant what he said, i think is not known.
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at least howard and meharry were indeed preserved among the nation's medical schools after that time. johns hopkins was a model that he held up as the model for medical education. admissions requirements were that you have to have at least a high school diploma, preferably one or two years of college education to enter medical school. and they also had a curriculum structured with signs of being taught followed by the clinical sciences. so that model which is to call today the flexner model, improve the quality of our medical education system in the country. so that by the middle of the century we can say with confidence that the u.s. had the strongest health professions educational system of any country in the world. where you draw people from all over the world who come to our country now for training often
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not available in their own countries. that was the establishment of the national institutes of health. we can say the same about our research enterprise. that's reflected by the fact that during, throughout the course of the 20th century, more nobel prizes in physiology and medicine have come to american laboratories and in the rest of the world combined. so we've had leadership in science from institutes of health, and leadership in quality medical education. but as you can see, as you can see from this slide, we still are underrepresented in the over all health professions population. you can see more than 3% of u.s. population is either hispanic american, african-american, native american, or asian pacific island. but when you look at the health professions you can see that
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only 12%, or 12.3% of physicians come from one of these groups. 11% are nurses, 10% are from assists and 7% are dentists. as we look forward, the u.s. census bureau has projected that by the year 2042 there were no longer be a white majority population in our country. we are going through a rapid demographic shift in our country. and it has been emphasized, shown that cultural competence among our health professionals is important. we have to have individuals who are scientifically well-trained, but we also must be sure that they can communicate this knowledge in a way that is understood, that is trusted and is acted upon by their patients. so that i often say that we need to have both well-trained scientists who operate very well initial sell system, having the knowledge a low and not being able to utilize it effectively is not sufficient. we need to have both, good science and good sociology among
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our health professionals. this slide simply shows the percentage of our physicians by race today. it has improved but we still lack the kind of representation that's needed. the same with medical school faculty. we have an even greater shortage of minorities among our nation's health professions faculty get we need to have much more diverse faculty because mentoring, counseling and the role models of these individuals served within the educational system. so that is a very important consideration. and finally, you heard about the recent article published last friday in science magazine. this shows the outcome of that study. this study by professor kenji from university of kansas, but
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also with the former deputy director of nih. this is what they found when they looked at the likelihood of success of various applicants for graduates from nih. you can see that for whites apply for the first time, 29% were successful. but when you look at african-americans you see roughly half as many african-americans were successful with first time applicants. and as you've already heard, the percentage of those applicants who didn't apply for second time, for grants, is much lower among african-american population. i think there may be a number of reasons for that. one is that many of the scientists come from institutions that if those applicants are not successful, the institution doesn't have the resources to support that individual to try for a second
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time because that process can take up to a year. so those individuals then have to seek other ways to support themselves. and i think that that is one of the reasons, as well as the fact that with a number of minority already being concerned as to whether the system is fair, they often will take a turned out as a confirmation of their suspicion that indeed it is not fair and they decide that well, why try again. and may indeed pursue other fields. this slide simply shows the progress we've made over the last 50 or 60 years in the percentage of african-americans graduate from u.s. medical schools. you will see that starting in late '60s, and this is after the assassination of martin luther king jr. those of you who are old enough to remember, in 1968 following king's assassination, universities and various
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colleges and professional schools examined themselves as to where they were. i was on the faculty at boston university. i graduate in 1958 as the one black student in my class. so 10 years later, being on the faculty, there were three black students in the class. and i thought as a member of the faculty, you know, you may call this progress but this is really not the kind of progress that's going to really get us anywhere. so there were a number of things that happened that universities all over the country. and so the result of that was the improvement in the percentage of minorities, african-americans, hispanics and others, being admitted to medical schools. with special programs we developed at boston university. for example, thanksgiving weekend in 1968 we have a program with 20 for black students, one from each of the total black colleges in the
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south comfort long weekend to boston where we had representatives from the medical schools, harvard, toscana university of vermont, boston university, university of massachusetts. we tell those students we are three much interested in your coming to our institution. giving them all of the information, et cetera. so the following year rather than one, we had seven entering freshmen. similar express with the other medical schools. similar kinds of things were going on all over the country. but something like this needs to be sustained. you will see where things plateaued. again, the project was implemented. in the late '80s. we saw some punk there, but you can see primarily since the late '70s we have really drifted sideways. so we need to really do much more to address the issue of diversity in the health professions.
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well, what about the challenges for the 21st century? there are many. but i summarized some of the major ones. first of all, improve access to health services for all. the task is not over. with members of congress know who have tried to undo what has been started with health systems reform. we need to be sure that we don't lose ground. we need to build on what has been done. what has been thus far is an imperfect bill. many improvements in need to be made that we certainly need to move forward from where we are. the emphasis on health promotion is very important, as i've mentioned. we need a our citizens participating actively in this process. we need to have a more diversity of our health professionals, including primary care providers in the city and rural areas. but also mid-level providers as well. we must undergo a reshuffling of responsibilities among our health professions if we're to
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see that our citizens do get adequate access to health care. we also need to have a more efficient health system that is less bureaucratic. that's very challenging, because congress and state legislatures and others often put various regulatory issues on the health system in an effort to try and do good. but it really causes problems and expenses in the health system. we've already talked earlier about political issues. as i say we need less political ideology and fewer legal intrusions into the health system. one of the great challenges now is the overlay of liability risk in the health system. and so we need to address that in ways that we can assure our citizens that everything will be done to give high quality care. but we are dealing with biological beings. we cannot guarantee a perfect
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outcome. if something goes wrong it doesn't automatically mean that someone did something wrong. so we have to really find ways to address that to see if things are done the right way. if they're not done, see that there is a appropriate discipline but not have a russian roulette type of system that simply tries physicians and hospitals to try and cover the waterfront with every possible test done they can think of, not for medical reasons, but really for liability reasons. that adds cost, bureaucracy, inconvenience to the system. we need to really address that. we also need to continue to address the highest ethical standards in our system. we can do much more today than we could 50 years ago. that also means we have to be much more careful as we tend to friends and some ethical issues or people's personal or religious beliefs. so that's an ongoing challenge that we will have going forward. and, finally, as our technology
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grows in the health system, we must not lose our humanity. because ultimately part of the healing process is relationship between the health professional and individual services. and i still remember a second year clinical pathologist laboratory medical student showing the power of the placebo, where one of my laboratory partners received an injection of this clear liquid and, of course, we're just and lectures about the autonomic nervous system. he was convinced that he was getting adrenaline and he had all of the sentence. rapid pulse, sweating, nausea, et cetera. he disappeared for three days. [laughter] we had to call to make sure you still alive. the next week we came back and uncover the various samples that we had, rather than giving, having gotten adrenaline, he had isotonic sailing. so the point is that there is
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value added by the relationship between the health professional and the provider. if the individuals trust the health professional, individual believes that that person is knowledgeable and has his or her interest at heart, that can shoot to the healing process. so we must never let technology replaced the humanism that is involved in health care system. so that is something that we have to guard against it but as we go forward into this 21st century with our current technology, growing ethical issues, we know that if we are successful in maintaining humanism in the system, as well as incorporating actions by our citizens themselves, then 100 years from now hopefully the kinds of data we're looking at today won't exist and will have a healthier, more prosperous population. thank you. [applause]
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>> dr. sullivan has kindly agreed to take a few questions. so if we have any, let's go ahead and just ask from the floor. serve. sir. [inaudible] you also show our disparities are not narrowing or not narrowing in sufficient quantity. we also know that health care mandates is 25-30% avoidable, is unnecessary. can you envision a system where the savings in the health care system can be captured and redirected to the determine of health so that they can be systematically addressed? as if it was part of a whole
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integrated system. >> thank you very much for your question. the answer, short answer is yes. as has been commented earlier today, we have a system is dysfunctional in a number of ways. first of all, i forgot to include this morning, so many, if you continue doing the same thing, you'd be surprised by getting the same results. one of the things we have today right now is a shortage of primary care physicians. i maintain that one of the reasons for that is this. we try to recruit bright young people to become physicians. but we put them in a position where they have to go into debt so they graduate owing 150, $200,000 because because we made a change in a system in the mid '70s. in the '60s and early '70s there were many sources of scholarships for our students. but it was decided that health
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professionals, because their high honors and a population, should pay for their own education out of future earnings. therefore, are went to go to medical, dental or other medical professional schools. so that's why today, the national defense loan program, the exceptional financial need program, the national health service corps, others. because it was recognized that we as a nation need to invest in the manpower we needed to address the needs of the population. well, that change really is a good example of the law of unintended consequences. because what's happened is that we have loaded the expense on our students, so those who are successful going through the system are faced with we paying 150,000, $250,000 in debt. and we say bright people make rational decisions. when they finished training,
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they are trying to establish an office. may have a mortgage, they have the family. so we say go into the rural areas and to primary care. where they might earn $120,000, when their college to go into orthopedics could earn $750,000. so i have personally had many students say gee, i would love to do primary care but i cannot afford it. that's a systemic problem that we have set up a system that operates that way. beyond that, i'm convinced on the basis of an informal survey we did a decade ago at morehouse school of medicine come we set up a system after that frightens away low income students. at the time at which them income of african-americans in the country was about $23,000. the average income of our entering class at morehouse, african american is 48,000. that said to me we were not getting really poor students. we were getting those students
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who really decided that maybe this is a real possibility. this is not a field. okay, i'm supposed to take out loans but what if i don't make it to medical school? how do i pay them that? i'm one of five children in a family earning $50,000. how can expect my parents to support me? so that's one of the systemic problems. high loan debt, low compensation for primary care physicians. that says to our country, since we are a capitalistic system, that we tend to attribute value to income, or income capacity. this is the primary care is less value. so that is something that needs to change. we need to report for cognitive-based services as well as for procedurally-based services. said this morning that we set up a system to pay for procedures. we should really be paying for good health outcomes. so those are some of the
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dysfunctional things in the system. so if we address those, and if we also do a better job of informing our citizens, of those things that they must do, simple things such as regular exercise, proper diet, et cetera, vaccinations for the children, et cetera. because when i was secretary, i started, i was going to run to philadelphia, fresno, california, dallas, san diego, talking to groups where we had measles outbreaks in the death because of failing of immunization of our children. we had the vaccine. this is where the science was there but the understand in the community was not there. so we need to really -- that's what i mean when we so we have to make sure our citizens know those things they must do themselves. if we can do that then the savings indeed can go into other areas. what we have now is unsustainable in terms of cost
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escalation. so we have to make those changes. >> let's take one more question, please. >> i'm a country doctor in mississippi and i'm proud to say i'm an osteopathic physician. we have a new school in mississippi, which is a baptist university. the first year we received about 1200 applications for 100 seats. this year, the second year we have received 1700 applications for the same 100 seats. they need is there. that people are willing. as a side note, as a physician training doctors in my office, they have got to learn how to do that good physical examination. because you will -- the unnecessary deaths exactly because you know how to examine a physician. excuse me, the patient. the third case of this is the
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college president of the mississippi william geer university that houses the school, came to the dean and said, how many democrats do you got in this year's class? [laughter] and the dean said, sir, we don't take political parties into consideration. he said, you know, democrats like obama. we happened about 10% black students at that university that first year. and that's what dr. king, dr. king happens to be the president of the college. that's what he was getting at. still there. >> that's an example of the fact that we have made good progress in some areas, and many other areas we haven't. and so we have to indeed address those kinds of issues. so where as there have been improvements, there's still many challenges, and, unfortunately, some of those are going to take time and demonstrate through the
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population that those students at your school, outcome your services to the committee, help improve the community, then that kind of thought process could change. one other comment i would make, too, is i'm very intrigued by i'm sure many of you saw the article in "the new york times" a couple weeks ago about the rural medical school in kansas where the students are being trained in rural areas with the hope and anticipation that they will stay in the rural areas. but one of the future of that school was there was no tuition. so that they would not load onto the students a heavy debt burden that again might draw them away from a rural area to an urban area where the income potential could be much greater. so we are following that story with interest. and so told me, i've forgotten, i guess cleveland, cleveland clinic i believe i was told will start a new medical school
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where, again, there's no tuition for the students. so that's really something we will be followed with great interest. because i think we as a nation made a serious mistake i simply letting the tuition issue it out of control, the same time we have undercut students financial aid, and then expecting our students to behave in the way we want them to behave, rather than behaving as rational thinking human beings who happen to -- their years in health professi profession. >> dr. sullivan, it's been more than a privilege to have you. thank you so much for your service. [applause] >> sunday marks the anniversary of martin luther king, jr.'s "i have a dream" speech. 48 years later, doctor kings by morrill will be dedicated on the national mall. the 30-foot sculpture of dr. king stands alongside a 450-foot
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granite wall with more than a dozen of dr. king's quotes. we will bring you live coverage of the dedication ceremony on sunday starting at 11 a.m. eastern. >> "washington journal" is featuring an in depth look this week at the medicare program. ..
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>> the heritage foundation released its report on obstacles to the u.s. security this week outlining 35 recommendations for improving homeland security under tight budget constraints. this discussion about the report is an hour. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> thank you, goo. morning and thank you for joining us here at the heritage foundation. it's my pleasure to welcome you to the auditorium and welcome those joining us on the website and remind viewers questions can
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be submitted at any time by e-mailing us at speaker@heritage.org. in house, make the last curtesy check that cell phones have been turned off as we proceed. we'll post the program within 24 hours for everyone's future reference. hosting our panel this morning is michael frank who oversees the expwrowt reach here in the branch and served as director of communications for house majority, dick army of texas, and prior to that, directer of heritage relations and served in the office the national drug control policy and as legislative counsel for former representative william dannanmyer of florida. please help me welcome him. [applause] >> it's a nice august day, and as you know on september 11,
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2001, the u.s. experienced the worst terrorist attack any country suffered in modern times. it's about ten years later, and the country underwent several changes in how we safeguard the homeland. there's a number of successes to be celebrated and chief among them this 9/11, plots have been dwharted and we can attribute that the citizens and law enforcement investigations that preempted planned atrocities. however, significant challenges remain. if we are to remain ahead of the terrorists and build a healthy enterprise capable of tackling threats before they manifest themselves, we have to assess where we stand on a number of fronts. homeland security 4.0, the third in a series of these studies overcoming centralization,
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complacenty in politics. the first, centralization is centralizing power and decisions 234 wash. power just does not protect us here in washington, but recognizes the reality that state and local governments press the resources and experience to protect us from physical threat. the second, which we'll talk about today is complacency. if the united states is come place sent or focuses on the past, it pays a heavy price. among other things, we must do a better job of identifying emerging threats, tapping into and encouraging private sector innovation and breaking down bureaucratic barriers that prevent us from connecting the dots. third area is politics. political considerations caused far too many policy decisions. this is wasted billions of dollars in homeland security grants, created oversight inefficiencies and left america
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less secure. we can do better. today, we are privileged 20 have two experts in the field of homeland security who are the authors of this study who will discuss the findings and go into much, much greater detail. first i'll introduce james, he's the deputy director of the shelby institute for international studies. he's a historian and writer and focuses on developing the national security for the united states, protecting for economic growth and preserving civil liberties. he's a weekly coal imu.s. and his articles ran in every major paper and appearances on the
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major cable networks. he's also authored six books including a textbook he co-authored on homeland security. he joined heritage in 2003. he's a 25-year vat ran of the army, served in europe, korea, the united states, head speech writer for the army chief of staff. before retiring, executive editor of joint force quarterly. he's a graduate of west point, doctorate from georgetown and masters degree in strategies and war college. when michael, the homeland sciewrt secretary was appointed by the president george w. bush early in 2005, he said the homeland security, 2.0, the original in the series was the first report he read in his new position. why? because it was the shortest. [laughter] matt mayer is a visiting fellow
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here at heritage, former u.s. security official in charge of a projects evaluating how each state met the modern threat of terrorism. he's the preimminent expert of the roles of state and local and federal governments play. he's the president of the buckeye institute in ohio which is the premier free market think tank in ohio. he serves as a senior official in the department of homeland security under secretary tom ridge. he advised the department leaders in policies and operations and the terrorism office charged with meeting the demands of post-9/11. he's authored a number of studies in the area including the 2009 book for heritage called "homeland security and federalism, protecting america from outside the beltway." before joining buckeye, he was a
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consul at that particular time with clients of elected officials. he taught a course on varied responses to terrorist threats among america's allies. with that, turning it over to jim first and then matt. please join me in welcoming james carafano. >> well, i want to thank mike for hosting us, and thank you for coming. i want to go first to talk about how we got there from here because i think that's important in terms of understanding what's in the report. i'm actually very proud of hawrnlg. hawrnlg was -- heritage was one of the first think tanks to take security seriously and the first report dealing with homeland security after 9/11 came from the heritage foundation, and i'm like a lot of institutions where there's a lot of sunshine patriots, everybody did security after 9/11.
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many organizations have not state it had in a serious way, but heritage dedicated the resources and staff to be serious on this issue, and i argue that we published more on homeland security issues and research than any other think tank in the world, and we've done it in a sustained manner over a decade, and i'm very proud of the men and women that work on this and the support that we get from folks like mike, and i think this report reflects in that tradition, 10 this is a third report that we've done. the first two were in conjunction with the center of international studies, and they were great partners. we did that for a specific reason because we thought homeland security is a bipartisan effort, and the first issues we dealt with were really inside the beltway. the first report was done i believe in 2004, a year after the department was established, and like any organization created by congress, it's going to be a mess. it's a compromise; right?
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compromise is the enemy of efficiency. unlike the creation of the department of defense after world war ii, the first thing they had to do was reorganize it, and so we took a hard look at the organization department and we made some very clear and strong recommendations about the need, the imperative to reorganize and strengthen various elements in the department, and that was caused dhs2.0, and secretary did indeed when he was appointed to replace secretary ridge and they brought in a big, you know, here's all the stuff you have to read before you hearings, he looked at that, and he did take that issue very, very seriously, and he did what was called a second stage review, and i think matt was in the department then in which they made a serious effort in improving the organization department and addressed many of the recommendations we made in the report. we then did a second report a year or two later called homeland security 3.0, and there
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was a clear distinction there between dhs and hls because the argument was this is not just about the department. homeland security is a national enterprise with international components to it, and we really wanted to make the case that we needed to look at this as a holistic enterprise, and not just, you know, focus on the department and its strengths and short falls and weaknesses, and the idea of 3.0 was to say in order for the department to really play the leadership role it needs to play, what does it need to do and what kind of partnerships and stewardships does it need to take on? one of the recommendations of that report was to do an analysis, an assessment, much mountain way the department of defense is required to do in assessment of the defense needs. we've been doing that review for several years now where every four years the department reports to congress and says this is what we think our national security needs are and this is how we meet them going
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forward. we thought that was appropriate for homeland security, and that's the first recommendation acted on the report. house established a requirement for homeland security reviews, and that review did take place, and many of the ideas and concepts that we argued for in homeland security 3.0 are reflected in the didn't's security review, and we are very proud of that. this report is different though. we think that the main issues are not really inside the beltway issues anymore, and there are very critical issues in terms of the roles of state and local governments, individual communities, our international part partners that required attention. we went beyond the beltway and really engage with the stake holders outside of washington who are out there doing this every day and really understand
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their issues, frustrations, their concerns, their ideas, initiatives, and really make sure that washington had a clear understanding of what this enterprise, this what community really wants from them. the other thing that is different about this report is, and that we know a lot. i mean, this nation has been doing this seriously for ten years now. you know, this is like ten years into the cold war. we know about what works and what doesn't work, and we really need to start paying attention to that. we really need to stop doing things that are stupid and wasteful and counterproductive and just blowing money out the door for no payback and things that actually have kind of worked where, oh my, god, we got something right. we need to strengthen what works right and stop ding the stupid things. i'll leave it to matt to tell you what's in the report.
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we worked on this well over a year. matt's done an amazing job, jenna was a key researcher, did amazing work and outreach in this, but, you know, there's really three things in particular we focus on laser-like in the report. one is disaster preparedness and response. today we have what could be a class four hurricane bearing down on the east coast of the united states. for those of you who don't know what that is, the definition is catastrophic destruction will result; right? if we need a reminder to take it seriously, we may get one if we're unlucky by the weekend. the second issue that we focus on is immigration, and just last week we had the administration come out and make a major, major statement about immigration policy, enforcement, and deportation, so that's never been i think more timely, and then, of course, the final issue
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we focus on is counterterrorism, stopping trrls attacks before they happen, and just last week the homeland security said they are concerned about the run up to 9/11. these are issues that are, you know, front and center. today we are talking about libya and the state of the economy and whether the french banks are going to collapse, and if you have seen the american idol tour. these are not necessarily on the front burner of our minds. the headlines tomorrow or the next day could be different. there's never a better time than to think about the homeland security enterprise and make it be the best it can be. i would like to add before turning over to matt, we're also concerned about counterterrorism strategy, the flip side of protecting the homeland, the idea of stopping the terrorists before they get close to the shores, and in short order we'll also be releasing a alternative
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counterterrorism strategy arguing against what the administration has done, and done by our counterterrorism task force, and that paper should be a second in the series that will be out shortly. with that, turning it over to matt to talk about the report. >> great, thank you, and thank you for having me and those of you for being here today or watching online. it's nice having folks interested in this issue we're talking about. i would be remiss if i didn't say jenna, who was at heritage a few weeks ago, and jessica who did a lot of work to make this report happen. i want to thank them before i get going. it is the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and that's a point of reflection and influx for us. it's been eight years since the department was stood up. there's a lot been done and a lot to look back on and what to
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do right. i've been with heritage for four years as a visiting fellow. hard to believe it's been four years, but my role really has been to try to get out there, outside the beltway and talk with lots of state and local first preventers and responders to hear what they think is working and what's not. we have done town halls all across the country, multiple sur -- surveys. i have traveled to tons and tons of states to get their feedback and listen and hear what they have to say, and over the course of the last few years, we built upon that knowledge base and res reports from time to time and really coming to i think what is the culmination of that effort which is really this report here that we're talking about today. the report has 18 specific findings. they are all in the report if you have a copy with you or it's online at
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report.heritage.org/sr0097. there's 18 findings covering a range of issues with 35 recommendations. we broke through three sections as talked about. it's making federalism work. we hear federalism in an ideological view of the 10th amendment. there's states and local governments out there, and i think, mike talked about how it's more than that. we see it as more than a constitutional doctrine or principle and see it in this context of homeland security as the best way for us to protect america, and that's because when you look at the resources that the federal government has, it does not have a personnel across the country. there's 40,000 maybe fbi and cbp personnel across the country. add in ice there's more and fema, and there's a couple more. the vast majority, a million-plus really reside in work force state and local government, law enforcement,
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fire service, emergency management, public health, and those are the folks who are the tip of the speer and have not just numbers in terms of personnel or resources 234 terms of money -- in terms of money and equipment, but one of the most important things which is experience, people who have been walking precincts for 30 years, know their communities in an intimate way, know where critical infrastructure is so when something occurs or is brewing, they are the ones most likely to really detect it, prevent it, or frankly respond and recover in the most effective manner. we have, i think, have lost sight of that as a country over the last ten years when, you know, as to be expected after 9/11, we took that government response and the federal government rose up to respond. it's expected, but the pendulum probably swung way too far into washington and outside state and local governments. this report is to reflect we have to shift the pendulum back and get mayors, governors, fire,
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law enforcement, managers to take back the roles they had for the first 200 years of our country's history and reassert themselves and be back in control and be true partners with the federal government this this initiative to keep america safe. the kind of -- some of the key findings that we made as jim talked about really talk about, you know, the policymaking apparatus. here in washington the way policy is made is washington makes it, and they send out copies of proposed policy to state and local folks to comment on, but they can ignore it at will and issue what they want to issue. that's not the right way to do this. if we truly respect the resources at the state and local government, they need a seat at the table to be sure they are heard, not because they are expected to do something, but they have experience and can really weigh in as policy is being developed that make the
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policy better. it's not national policy because somebody used that word to describe it, but it truly reflects a national con consensus, a national product or development that allow us to do a better job and have better policy, that actually doesn't get ignored, that actually works and people follow. immigration is another area. you know, we continue to see this battle between the states in washington on immigration and the reality is, you know, we said this many a time, the idea that immigration is wholly federally responsibility just doesn't have any basis in history. the reality is you can't say to a mayor governor short of committing a crime, you with powerless to the millions of people in your jurisdiction. 245 doesn't work. we have to realize there's a shared responsibility not to determine who is a citizen, to not necessarily sit at a border, but there's a way to deal with a
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way that reflects with the reality that the cost and all the issues occurs within states and cities, and not here in washington and reflect the reality of that. we have to make sure disaster response doesn't become a federalized entity. i don't know -- many of you may have seen the great chart we put out every once in awhile updating the declarations from fema. that number is accelerating. we already, this year, the obama administration broke the record of declarations issued. we have not ended the year. there's not been a single hurricane or earthquake over 6.0, and we issued more declarations this year than any other year in the history of fema. they are pace to break the record they set last year on major declarations, and there was 80 last year, no hurricanes or earthquakes, but massive numbers going out. we have hurricane irene who is
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barreling down upon us, and, you know, i was reading the "usa today" because it noted a hurricane has not hit the u.s. since 2008 and we're on pace to have more declarations issues despite we have not had the naturally catastrophic events that is the role of fema. again, not an academic issue. states and locals have shifted resources elsewhere and have then become dependent upon this declaration process to shift the costs out of their states, budgets are tight, and ship them off to washington, federal money. states have to take responsibility for this to keep their management capability strong and deal with routine disasters that happen every year and are retune and are going to come. fema and the federal entities for truly catastrophic events like i rein, but katrina, north
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ridge earthquake, 9/11, things like that that have massive ripples across our economy. counter terrorism -- i spent time with the top counterterrorism experts in the country, and none of them live in washington. they all live outside of washington. people like michael downing of the lapd, folks in new york that really have done this long before there was 9/11, back to the l.a. olympic games and things like that. they have experience after experience and shake their heads and wonder why we do this from a fed stand point. we need those folks and make sure they're informing what's going on here in the country, and then the second area is combating complacency; right? it's natural as time moves on, people grow apathetic and the interests move. we understand that. we understand that. we've been very fortunate that we avoided or because of dumb luck not had a successful attack on a domestically here in the u.s. since 9/11, and that's a
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good thing, but that also means we are come place sent and take advantage that folks are keeping us safe, and that's the wrong way for us to realize that here on 9/11 it only takes one big strike for us to see a massive, massive amount of destruction and death here. we have to keep our vigilance high, and we do that by doing some changes; right? we got to get passed this inner agency squabble that occurs here in washington at a high frequency where departments battle each other, the executive white house elements battle the departments and everybody is building their power. that's human nature, but we have to rise above it in this instance because it really means life or death in many situations. we have to have an intel framework that makes since, coherent, and reflected the resources we have in state and local governments that allows us to bring in international partners, but really gets beyond looking down and say, well, just send us your information and
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throw more and more hay up on the hay stack and makes it harder to find the needle rather than saying just send us the really relevant stuff after you analyzed, and we'll share stuff back down to you which does not happen enough as well, and then within the inner agency, sharing that information so that what you don't have is another commission that looks back after the next attack and says we continue to create silos between intelligence and investigation and things didn't get connected that were apparent in hindsight. we have to make sure we see those things before they happen, and then finally, you know, in this area, one of the things to highlight is the science and technology director at dhs continues to remain a completely broken organization that is not doing what it was chartered to do, what it could do and do really well, and so we have to get back to that requirements focus really serving as a resource for the department and their agency that allows us to utilize technology, to do pilots and test beds so experiment and
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leverage the safety act for all the great things it potentially has and get that unit of the department operating in a way that makes sense. the third area is taming politics. we're not naive. it's washington. politics happen in washington. i just think in this area, let's make it happen less. we see this way too often. nobody gives up their turf, they want to send their press release to the hometown newspaper to say what money they got from the department, and that's got to stop. that doesn't keep us safe. oversight, there's over 108 committees that have some touch of the department. that means the poor men and women who staff the department spend god awful amounts of times on useless bureaucratic report issues, question, answering instead of focusing on their mission and keeping congress up to speed on what really actually matters, not whether we can play, you know, this game or that game, got you here or
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there, but focus on what matters and the big issues that confront us. on the homeland security grants, there's an announcement in the next day or two tore this week on these. again, a pork barrel nature to the grants. we're happy to see the obama administration frankly adopt an approach we were the lone voice on for many years which is get rid of cities eligible. it plew up to 63 cities. that's absurd to say there's enough high risk there to use federal resources to help the cities when the risk has to be very minimal compared to city 90 from city 63. we are excited to see this year the department cut that number down to 31 which is, you know, from my days when i had a security clearance was closer to where the risk curve was visible. that's a good move to allow us focus on places where the risk really is probable and we have to have capabilities to deal
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with the issues. finally, we really got to stop doing things that don't make sense from a security standpoint. jim called this duck doing stupid things. i try to be more polite. really, this means, you know, again, you saw the pictures; right? the 4-year-old boy patted down, the grandma, you know, the elderly person wetting themselves, and this does not make sense. i understand there's civil liberty issues to be mindful of, but we can do a better job allowing us to make sure there's security on the air system without doing this current model we're doing. i remember back in i think it was 2005 and somebody in the audience i know probably knows bet better than i do, but the time we took all the raiser blades and shaving things and everything and i remember we stopped doing that and the reason was because tsa agents spent 75% of their time

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