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the worst in 25 years. secretary vilsack came to today's white house briefing to update reporters on on the administrations efforts to help farmers and ranchers affected by the drought. >> thank you very much. welcome everybody to the white house daily briefing. as they think you have had advanced warning of, i have with me today the secretary of agriculture, tom vilsack.

as you know he briefed the president today on the drought that is affecting a significant portion of the country. the president asked for this briefing and i asked the secretary vilsack to join me here today to give you an update, and to take your questions on issues surrounding the drought. if you could, as his past practice, here secretary vilsack's presentation and then ask questions that you have for him and i will of course remain here, ready to take your questions on other subjects and with that i give you secretary vilsack or goes. >> thanks very much. i did have an opportunity to visit with the president he is very well informed on circumstances surrounding a very serious drought, the most serious situation we have had probably in 25 years across the country. 61% of the landmass landmass than they get a is currently being characterized as being impacted by this drought and our

hearts go out to the producers, the farm families who are struggling through something that they obviously have no control over and trying to deal with a very difficult circumstance. there is no question this drought is having an impact on our crops. 70% of the corn crop is now in an area designated as drought impacted. 76% of the soybeans that are being grown in this country also impact it and it also obviously involves other commodities as well. 30% of our corn crop as of today is rated poor and 30% of our soybeans reported very poor in this obviously will have an impact on the yields. right now we have indicated yields are down about 20 bushels to the acre for corn and about three bushels to the acre of beans. that may be adjusted upward or downward as weather conditions dictate. this will result in significant increases in prices. for corn we have seen a 38%

increase since june 1 in the price of a bushel of corn is now $7.88. a bushel of beans has risen 24%. this of is taking quick action to provide help and assistance at the instructions of the president and the first thing we did was to streamline the disaster declaration system and process, reducing the amount of time it takes to have the county designated. that means producers and there is counties and adjoining counties are able to access low-interest loans. the president instructed us to reduce the interest rate on those loans from 3.75% to 2.25% and he also instructed us to open up new opportunities for hating and grazing in their livestock producers are in deep trouble because of the drought. they don't have anyplace for their cattle. they are looking at very high feed costs so we are opening up areas under the conservation reserve program for emergency hating and grazing. normally when that happens,

producers have to return a portion of the crp payments that they receive. we reduced a portion that they have to return from 25% to 10%. our tools are somewhat limited, so we are going to need to work with congress to provide opportunities either through the passage of the jobs bill or additional disaster programs or perhaps additional flexibility in commodity credit corporation to provide help and assistance to our farmers. the question a lot of folks are asking is what will the impact be on food prices. because livestock producers will begin the process of potentially reducing their herds in light of higher feed costs we would anticipate in the short-term food prices for beef and poultry and imports may go down a bit but over time they will rise and we will probably see those higher prices later this year, the first part of next year. processed foods are obviously

impacted by crop yields and we would likely see the increase of that also in 2013. it's important to note that farmers only receive 14 cents of every food dollar that goes to the grocery store, so even though prices on commodities increase significantly that doesn't necessarily translate into large increases for food prices and if in fact people are beginning to see food price decreases now it's not in any way shape or form related to the drought and we should be very careful to keep an eye on that to make sure people do not take advantage of a very difficult and painful situation. there is some degree of uncertainty about all of this. technology has allowed us to have our drought-resistant crops and the spotty nature of droughts and this body nature of brain can sometimes result in utter yields that anticipated. which is going to have to see. as of today 1297 counties have been designated as disaster

areas and that is approximately one third of the counties in the united states. we are adding 39 counties today and the states or new mexico, tennessee, utah, wyoming, arkansas, indiana, georgia and mississippi. we have staff that is now traveling through the 12 states significantly affected by the drought in order to get a first-hand look at conditions and we will do everything we possibly can to help folks but we are obviously we are obviously going to need help working with congress to bring greater pics ability to programs to revive the disaster programs that were allowed to expire last year. in order to pass the food farm and jobs bill. >> thank you mr. secretary. to follow up on the point you made about the tools are limited. is there a specific amount? >> it's very difficult to pinpoint that with specificity because we don't know what the impact could be. for example based on current

estimates today the corn crop would still be the third-largest corn crop and the united states history and the reason for that is there were more acres planted beginning of the year. we just have to wait to see whether yields are going to be and of the meantime we can create a structural system through a revival of disaster programs or the passage of the boom farm and jobs bill that contains some relief for livestock producers or flexibility that we are prepared to move as soon as we know precisely what the impact is going to be. crop producers have the ability to utilize crop insurance and for the most part would provide historically 72% coverage of yields in revenue loss but the livestock producers are in the most troubled situation because they don't have any disaster program and there's no such thing as a crop insurance program for livestock. 's be one of the question. you gave us some specific numbers about crops and prices

that can you give us a macrosense of how this drought will affect the economy? >> right now the rural economies when one of the bright spots. we are seeing record farm exports and seen the expansion of new markets. we are seeing the development of a bio-based economy with record amounts of oil fuel being produced in outdoor recreational opportunities because of more acres involved in conservation programs so it's a difficult to say that the macroimpact will be. one out of every 12 jobs in the economy is connected in some way shape or form to what happens on the farm. we are seeing armed implement and up to this point we saw an increase in farm implement manufacturing so obviously this drought will provide some degree of uncertainty but the most important thing is for congress to take action to provide some direction and assistance so folks know what's going to happen and what kind of protection they are going to have. that certainty is really important and that is where we

want to get to work on the food, farming jobs bill and develop a separate jobs bill, whatever it might be. having that done as soon as possible. >> mr. secretary, to questions. number one you mentioned farm exports as being a bright spot. do you have any estimates on exports for corn and soybeans now, given the drought situation? and second, will there be any epa assessment of the mandate using corner ethanol? >> there's no reason to go to the epa in this point in time based on the ethanol that is currently in storage. there is no problem in that area at this point in time. on exports we would anticipate and expect they would be reduced but again, the area and the amount of production depends on what the yields are and i won't know what those aren't held in fact harvest the crop.

based on what we have today, i would anticipate and expect a small decline but that could be changed next week if the crop conditions continue to worsen or it could be improved if we get the right rein in the right places at the right time and the right amount. >> you secretary vilsack i was told the crop insurance is very expensive, the premiums for some farmers $15,000 a year. what happens to the farmers that cannot afford crop insurance? those small minority of farmers? what are you talking about putting in place to help them through this drought situation? >> that basically reduces and provides emergency loans to get people through a tough period of time and the interest rate is reduced to 2.5%. for those producers located in

counties in a disaster area. at the emergency loan is one opportunity. the second opportunity for those producers would be a situation where congress would provide for reliable disaster programs. we had a program last are called sure that provided supplemental protection. livestock producers had an indemnity program. they could bring those back and create opportunities within the commodity credit corporation to provide financial assistance to those farmers so there's a whole series for right now the only option we have is to reduce the interest rate on the emergency loan and make sure that haying and grazing -- >> right now there are a lot of minority and women farmers. ..

based on what you know today, and understanding it how do you think this is going to compare with the 88 job? >> if we were comparing it today to a potential yield, the 88 yield would have the corn crop being about 25 bushels less than we have today. it would be roughly 5 bushels

left. so we are not at the 88 level. there's probably a larger area of the country that's impacted with the severity is not as deep yet so every day that goes by without rain depending on the state and the condition of the soil and what was planted and when it was planted. the problem we are facing is that of the weather conditions were so good at the beginning of the season that the farmers got in the field early coming and as a result, this drought comes at a very difficult and painful time in terms of their ability to have their crops have good yields. >> sir, could you elaborate on your concerns about the short term elgin or taking advantage of the situation, and at what point in the food chain does that occur? >> every day knows there's a drought and its sevier and everybody knows that the corn and bean prices have gone up in long term. what folks don't know is it does take some time for those prices

and that impact to be felt more to most people realize how little farmers get out of the food dollar so even though prices are increasing it may not translate into significantly higher food costs. right now we estimate the food inflation rate between two and a half to 3.5%. in fact this last month was at 2.7% which is one-tenth of a percent less than the preceding month, so it's complicated. because it's complicated some people could see this was an opportunity to potentially raise the cost now coming and we want to make sure people understand now is not the time they should see higher food costs. if they are going to be higher food costs, we would likely see them later in the year and in the first part of next year. >> what is the agriculture department doing to track this? >> the true number of assistance programs we can kind of keep an eye on what we are spending in

where we are spending it and whether or not it is historic we in the norm, and if it is not, we can take a look at but i think the most important thing right now is for the consumers to be aware and keep an eye on it and began asking questions if they see a dramatic increase in hamburger cost or stake cost they should ask what is in this and if they say it's drought they should push back and say with a minute that isn't the reason we should actually given the herds are being reduced and potentially liquidated we should be seeing a lower cost right now in that pushback. >> you mentioned corn and beans several times. i wonder why the focus because they have such a multiplier effect throughout the economy -- >> not so much that it's primarily the area of the drought is most severe is primarily where corn and beans are raised. we are somewhat impacted. the biggest of their impact is the livestock producers. hay is going to be much more expensive because there's going to be less of it. that is why we are deeply

concerned about the importance of getting action with our friends in the congress to tr to provide some degree of assistance coming and they have multiple ways they can do that. we just want to encourage them to do it as quickly as possible. >> [inaudible] the u.s., so do you expect an increase because of the situation? >> in the short term as the herds are liquidated it could provide opportunities for the lower-cost for us to be even more competitive than we already are in the next market. you know, frankly we are looking at record exports notwithstanding difficulties we are facing record last year and working in the strong this year. as it relates to russia hopefully congress will act and make sure russia enters the wto in a way that allows us to put

them in the process where they are in the rules based and science based system and that should increase our export opportunities in russia, more than just the current situation. >> can you talk about the job itself? is it a very unusual? did anyone see it coming in climate change? is there any way to prepare? >> i'm not a scientist, so i'm not going to opine house to the cause of this. all we know is that right now there are a lot of farmers and ranchers who were struck and it's important and necessary for them to know rather than try to focus on what is causing this what can we do to help them, and what we can do to help them as lower interest rates and expand access to the opportunity to lower the penalty associated with fat and encourage the congress to help and work with us to provide additional assistance. and that is where our focus is. you know, long term we will

continue to look at weather patterns and we will continue to do research and to make sure that we work with our seed companies to create the kind of seeds that will be more effective in dealing with adverse weather conditions. it's one of the reasons because they have done that and is one of the reasons of the impact of the drought in terms of the bottom line because some seeds are drought resistant and tolerant and it may be that the yields are better than we expected because of the technology. >> the input [inaudible] supporting more exports3 supporting more exports. >> the margins for the livestock producers are pretty tight in those margins don't necessarily impact or are affected by

importing more costly feed. they have to make it of decision and a difficult decision, and it's particularly difficult in light of the fact that the disaster programs that were there to protect them under the circumstances to give you a sense of this, the disaster programs that we had under the 2008 farm bill for the producers including livestock producers providing nearly $4 billion of assistance to 400,000 that suffer from the floods and droughts and storms and fires and so forth. so that was a significant help to the livestock producers. we don't have that today. we need something like that. a lot of vehicles to get it. but in the meantime i think the producers will make the decision to reduce their herds that will react to circumstances like this so they can minimize what potential loss they may be facing. >> should we be expecting you and the president will be heading to the areas as it have

to take when you are trying to show the priority? >> i can't speak obviously to the president's schedule, but i can tell you that actually i was in pennsylvania yesterday. we do have the deputy secretary going to georgia tomorrow and we have the under secretary of the farm service association traveling to several states that are impacted. we have a deputy secretary also traveling so we are fanning out across the country to get the sense of what the conditions are. it really is also an opportunity for us to underscore what we have done and what needs to be done in the hope that we need in the congress. so yes, we are going to continue to travel throughout the country. i am scheduled to go to iowa next week to talk to farm bureau members and i will have an opportunity to visit with them. >> mr. secretary, i want to follow on the climate change question. is there any long range

department requires in the heat wave and the rise in the sea levels and now this drought there's something more going on than just one year of bad crops and you need more of the better seeds and the climate change? >> our focus to be honest with you in a situation like this is on the near-term and immediate because there is a lot of pressure on these producers. you know, you take the industry for example. we have lost nearly half of our dairy producers in the last ten years. they are just getting back to a place where there was profitability and now they are faced with serious issues. again, no assistance in terms of disaster assistance. so that is our near-term focus. long-term we obviously are engaged in research projects and we are working with the seed companies, you know, don't just discount the seed companies. these technologies to make a difference and it's one of the reasons why at least based on the field today we are looking at the third largest corn crop

in history. that may be adjusted downward and may be a port depending on the circumstances. even on the difficulties we are experiencing, we are still looking at a pretty good crop as of today. tomorrow it could change obviously. >> one more, mr. secretary. >> governor peery last year had a national view encouraging people. >> i can only speak for myself. i get on my knees every day and i am saying an extra prayer now. if i had a brain prayer or dance, i would do it, but honestly right now the focus needs to be on working with congress. they have the capacity to help the producers by creating the flexibility of the programs providing us some direction in terms of the disaster assistance and those are the kind of things we are focused on.

>> thank you very much. ..

>> it was about those men and women who are almost morbidly injured in war, who because the the huge investment has been made in medical trauma treatment over the last 10 years, that was being saved, an incredible number of being saved. everybody who falls in battle field has saved. i wanted to read about what the site for the lake on these people. having seen some people who were pretty gruesomely maims, wouldn't that have been better off if you are dead? don't they wish they were dead?

>> house democratic leader, nancy pelosi, spoke at a conference today on women in politics. she spoke about challenges facing professional women. she said one of the major issues is affordable childcare. after a brief introduction, see spoke for about 20 minutes. >> our first keynote conversation today is the honorable nancy pelosi, democratic leader, u.s. house of representatives. [cheers and applause] from 2011 -- 2007 until 2000 lavishes served as first woman speaker of the house and first

major political leader in congress. having served from 2003 until 2007. leader pelosi has represented san francisco california in the house since june of 1987. during the 111th congress, speaker pelosi worked in partnership with president obama to pass the american recovery and reinvestment act. she passed a patient protection and affordable care act. other recent achievements have included the lily that letter affordable pay act to fight discrimination and repealing "don't ask, don't tell" policy which prohibited gays and lesbians from serving in the military. a columnist since 2005 in for white house correspondent for "time" magazine is also the first woman columnist said appeared on cnn's capital capital gang for 15 years. margrave. [applause] >> thanks, connie. [applause] >> i want to be honest.

i was the first female columnist at "time" magazine and i was the last. i don't know what i did in between, but it worked out. we evolved as a successful living here today, but to take the time to, want to thank you. in the world of role models for me, you are a standout in that regard. i thought about it yesterday when yahoo! announced its new ceo. if they wanted. but not only is it about men, it is a woman who is at this moment pregnant. now when i was coming up, you wanted to hide that you are pregnant. so i wanted to get back to you. you just celebrated her 25th anniversary. you and our congress at age 46 or something. that is very young. and i didn't wait.

i didn't launch my career at age 46. i was just plugging along, pretending i didn't have a child more or less. but you did it and you got a end now if you're not an speaker, leader pelosi. he went to the mountain tops. so tell me, tell us how did you get where you are? >> well, thank you, connie, to you and to margaret for the opportunity to be here today. i feel it's always a special privilege than i can have an opportunity to share ideas with the young women coming up and many of them already arrived at some very important positions in their what ever come of their endeavor. i did not set out to be speaker of the house. i set out to run for congress. i had five children. the day i brought our children home, our house and about

alexander home, our oldest child, nancy, what is turning that we. and as our fifth child, so i'd important work to do about the future and about our children. and that is what i did. i had an interest in public affairs having been born into a political family in baltimore, maryland. my husband is a native san franciscan. that is where we raised our family. i think if i can convey anything to all of you, it is be ready for whatever opportunity comes along. again, i was interested. i involved in politics in california to the extent that i became the chair of the california democratic party. still volunteer, so the timing would be whatever could happen between nine and three when my children were in school day. but again no intention for

running for congress. i wrote about this in my little book called know your power and that's my message to you. know your power because i'd been reading articles and satisfied result i wanted to be in the congress. absolutely not. when i was a teenager i wanted to rock around the clock. [laughter] but there wasn't any destination that i had that i waited until my children were grown to fulfill or to reach. it was just an opportunity that came along. and i value the experience i had as a mom. it was my perturbation to volunteer in politics because i saw the advantages including love infection and the rest of my own children hind end was in despair over the fact that one in five children in america lived in poverty. so that is what drove my engine

to be involved in that is working to me is to be my motivation every morning and every night i think of those one in five children in poverty. so that is what is urgent for me and that is my passion. but i think everyone should follow their own passion of course. and to reach one of you, your path is the right path for you. five children and then have a turn of events that led you to become the speaker of the house is a very unlikely route. you may have more focused path of a cool that you have in mind. but every step of the way it is important to know your own power and not have your prospects defined by someone else's version of the story.

>> by the way, may i recommend the book to all of you? i went through it quickly. in addition to having a father who led you in politics and a family of your own that was very helpful, you had a great mother-in-law. now that is one of the secrets. i went to the phone book and wrote handwritten letters to everyone with an italian surname. you may not remember this. [inaudible] [laughter] >> of course it's important. i was born into a political family. as i said, this book is just a little -- just to say no i wasn't thinking of this all my life. this is how i got to where i can. it is important. and my father -- of my father was a member of congress, my mother had seven children, six

boys, one girl. i was the youngest. when i was in first grade, my father was elected mayor of baltimore. when i went away to college she was so the mayor of baltimore. so that was a likely lad, the public service and responsibility to the community and campaigns almost all the time. and i liked that. but i didn't want for myself. i wanted to be a normal person who had weekends. not quiet. [laughter] the point being that she had responsibilities and they have priorities. my mother was a very, very important influence in my life. bull market is referencing is when i went for congress which is a very spontaneous and, three weeks before i'd no idea of doing it for congress.

my mother-in-law had what you call the non-upper gate, which my daughter christine writes about in her book. she, throughout all of her fellow non-us together and address these cards to $8 surname battalions and i won 3000 plus posts. that is very helpful me. the point being is that every resource that you have when you run for office has to be utilized. what i would like to do though is to change -- change the environment in which women have to make decisions, will make decisions about how they go forward. for over 200 years we've been playing on someone else's playing field. we have to create our own

environment because we have had incrementalism, whether it's democratic or republican women. i speak about this in a nonpartisan way. we elect kenmare, 12 mark, blues two, game five. kick open the door. and it's incrementalist. it will take us another 200 years to still not only be halfway there to represent the american people and all of the talent and wisdom that women bring to the table. not that we are better. you can make that decision case-by-case. but the diversity -- the diversity of thinking at the table is essential to having something there. so what i would like to see is reduce the role of money in campaign increase the level of stability. i promise you you'll like more

women to public office. and while you do that -- [applause] you have public policies that are more friendly to women, we must -- we must have affordable quality child care and our country as a priority as we have not had. i mean, we just have to do better to unleash the full power of the ballot box in the breadbox to say are connected this way. if you want this policy, it's really in the breadbox to say are connected this way. if you want this policy, it's really in the breadbox to say are connected this way. if you want this policy, it's really to get this policy down in the best possible way. but i'll tell you, back to margaret, we had the women getting the right to vote for 90 years ago. her suffrage has fought for decades and decades and decades to make that happen.

during world war ii we had been in the workforce, helping with the war efforts, getting out of the house, going to a job. i was drastic change. and then we had to higher education of women, women in the profession, when staying home, women having choices as to what they wanted to do. but we didn't take that next step, which was affordable, quality childcare that we could unleash the full power of women. and when we do reduce the role of money and increase stability, we do better in a more civil debate. there's just a question. >> leader pelosi, i have to yield to the questioners before too long. then they ask you a couple of questions. we've had very powerful women in the audience. i've met some of his greenburg today. women in power are more normal and seems to me, as you are. the stability question which comes up instantly, how do you -- you broke the marble

ceiling. how do you deal with say speaker boehner? [laughter] is easier -- i have two questions. one is, how was it to deal with john boehner? let's put that one flight out there. the other one is can you work in this very hostile partisan atmosphere that we read about on capitol hill? can you reach out to women on the other side to get a sound? to have friendships? to get together for dinner? but first to john boehner. >> in any event, i have a good reporter would speaker boehner when he was minority leader and i was speaker. it is not the personality thing. it's a policy thing. that is where we had our disagreement. if any one of our attendees

today. you are right, dear leaders come as so many of them in what they do. the u.s. first woman editor of "time" magazine is very impressive. don't you think? [applause] run for congress, democratic or republican. they want me to do this. they said in a necklace was hitting the mic. guys don't have that problem. [laughter] they don't have a jewelry problem. say you wanted to run for congress. iran 25 years ago. you don't say about to run for congress so i can go there and be a street fighter. now, you say you are calling her to honor the oath about face, take the constitution of the united states to recognize that

people are sent there from all over the country with different points of view, philosophically, geographically, generationally, whatever it is and that you hope to affect the decision that i made and that is pretty much the way it used to be. i was honored february 20th at this year should be invited by president george herbert walker bush, that would be president bush 41 to texas a&m, his alma mater -- though excuse me, not his alma mater, where his library yes, the bush library where he has the bush school of public policy and government to present on presidents' day. it was quite a lovely honor and connected to my 25th anniversary in congress. the work we've done together, i is a junior member of congress he is president of the united

states. but when we had differences of opinion and sometimes we agree that sometimes we didn't, but we were always respectful. and that is that she came to do, not to be into this kind of a struggle that doesn't recognize many other points of view in our country and that they'll have to be respect to, not only for the person elected, but for the people who sent him or her or her or had they. i've never been big on the dinner side of things because i have a district said three earlier than i am. so 5:00 he was 2:00 they are. so you keep working into the night when you're in california representative, so i can't speak with much authority on mac, a bill can i tell you when dinner used to go to? >> tell me.

>> quickly. >> on tuesday nights we used to have dinner. mostly democrats, but it didn't matter. in any event, largely mad because that was what was here. maybe 20 son women, maybe a couple dozen women when i first came to congress. we go to this dinner once a week and barbara boxer, barbara tonelli and i would be the three women who were going to this dinner. and it was instruct even met the guys we just always talk. they never said what you think of this? they all just talk over each other. so if you wanted to say anything, you just jumped in and spoke. it didn't work well when you went home and tried that. people would be like hey wait a minute, that's not how we have dinner around here. but that is how it was there.

anyway, we always used to laugh that they would never think to turn to us and say, what do you think of that? because we weren't likely to do then the way they were jumping in. one guy -- we are all at dinner. they start talking about tonight, it evenings when they had their babies. we were just like, for sure they will say, what do you think? or does this make you uncomfortable? now, it was like i had on this green outfit and the doctor would land in the first time. the lat and the second time. i had my camera. i can show them to you. i went in, but i didn't stay long. i thought was going on and i was out the door. they all have their views.

and the three of us are thinking, we have 11 children among the three of us. barbara has two, barbara tonelli for, i have five. for surely as night occurred to them. a week later we were with john edwards was the florida leader of the era and we were having dinner and we were talking about some constitutional issue to which he said, what do you think of that? we thought my god, john, this is remarkable. thank you for asking. we told them what happened a week before. all the same people were at the table, many of them. and they said, we would have never done that. we would never have done that. we thought, you know, you don't even know what you don't know. you don't have a clue that she was talking about child birth and you didn't even think that was something you could ask ice, do you really want to have this

conversation? it was on par with the floor house, one of them said when we had a debate over family planning, someone who didn't share my views stood up and said nancy pelosi thinks she knows more about having a beast than the pope. [laughter] so not that our expertise is confined to childbirth and all that, but the fact is nobody is asking you -- power, decision-making, all the rest you have to go out and assert it that it is really important to change the environment to more conducive for more women to be in the lead and mmx if it is about the economy and growth. it's about the military and protection of our people. if it's about academics and how we educate the next generation, health care. all of it is better served by

the empowerment of women and the leadership in all of those fields. to know your power and your role. >> i have time for two quick questions. we've come a long way since you weren't asked about childbirth from these men. are we going to get equal pay? we have the lily let iraq. what are we getting? >> here is what i think. as i said, bread talks, ballot box. we have to let people support what you believe in. we passed the lily let other bill signed a president obama, book ended by the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" them in discrimination, one in the workplace, one in the military. during the same time a versatile lawyer who has been a crusader that we passed in the house the equal pay legislation because

the senate requires 60 votes, a majority was not an asset we could not pass it. but i think part of what we want to do in the next congress and the rest is talk about jobs and equal pay. and part of that will do have an agenda and are equal form. i have a tear, disclose, amend the constitution, reform the system. elect people of any party who would be willing to make that change. and when you have to change, you can change the policy. >> as an outcome we going up to fiscal cliffs and a lame duck session? >> we can't. >> are we almost did. we came so close. our debt rating but down. we're not going to do it. the congress is going to come around to be responsible. gas, no? >> i can't answer for

mr. boehner and the rest, but i will save the lesson was learned last year when the threat of not raising the debt limit lowered our breeding. so we have to work together in a balanced way to have growth, to have coyotes, to have revenue, to give a message of fiscal soundness. that is a head wind to our economic growth. what is happening in new york is ahead when. the lack of as much credit as people need as they had when. but what had when we can really do some reading about is a message of fiscal responsibility coming from the congress and that is a decision that we have to make, where the president came to the table, agreed on it, the republicans walk away. i don't want to get partisan here, but it is going to have to take strong bipartisanship, yielding on both sides on these

issues because again, just a discussion of it undermines the credibility and that stability and credibility for it is in a headwind for economic growth. so you'll have to ask them how sincere they are about revenue. we are very sincere about the cuts. >> madam speaker, you are civil. you are normal and you are funny. so i thank you for a match of the audience. [applause] >> thank you all very much. know your power. [applause] >> senator kay bailey hutchison spoke at the national journal conference on women. she was interviewed by susan page of "usa today." >> good morning. >> good morning.

senator hutchison, we are pleased to have you here today. kay bailey hutchison has a remarkable. her great, great grandfather was a signer of the texas declaration of independence. she graduated herself from the university of texas lawn for, but then went to work as a reporter because no houston law firm was going to hire a woman lawyer. she started a small business, became the first republican woman in the texas legislature. she was elected state treasurer in 1990 and 1993 won a special election to take over the seat that was open up to lloyd bentsen secretary for president clinton. she's been reelected three times and is now the senior republican woman in the senate. she is retiring as you know from the senate winner turns up at the end of the year and i suspect the houston law firms would be very glad to have you

on staff. your first office -- her first official office in washington was that the national transportation safety board. president ford appointed as the vice-chairman. in 1976. i wonder if you could describe what things are like for women a pointy and compare with how things have changed or how things have not changed so much in russian and for women in positions of power. >> well, i ain't that there was the beginning of an effort to bring them in and. and suzanne, you and i were talking backstage about and armstrong who had been my mentor. she was the first cochairman of the republican national committee. and my first soirée into washington was in 1969 or seven e. with anne armstrong. she promoted me to president or for this position.

i was pretty young at the time. maybe 26 or something. but there was enough for her. there was enough for it and i loved that experience. it was my first real experience besides an internship earlier in my college career in washington and i got my feet wet. there was a small cadre of women who were appointees of the president and i thought it was great that we were beginning to build, but it was the building time. now i think it's standard. please see moving in the very top jobs. secretary of state throughout the cabinet and we've got 17 women senators and approximately 17% of the house of data are women. so i think things are coming our

way. the 17 women senators now is the relationship among women senators, especially across party lines different from the women among sale on treadmill centers across party lines? >> i don't know for sure what the guys do, but it we do have a bond. the women senators had dinner together last night. we all chipped in to give susan collins who is getting married in august a gift certificate to a spa. we got together and decided to do that for her. hillary clinton gave me a baby shower when i got my little daughter. and so it's those kinds of things. then i guess what we do in our dinners and our social contacts

are just talk about either the obstacles we face are the information we need if we've got children here, information about schools or where to live, how you manage going back and forth to your home state. and we've made different choices. some choose to have their children with them here. some choose to keep them in their environments. very hard choice. so where i was always getting advice from each other. it's a great relationship and it doesn't usually impinge on our voting. we vote our states, we vote our philosophies. we don't assure each other to change something because we all understand that our constituent is our first responsibility. but as far as can moderate and an understanding that not very many women have about the kinds

of obstacles we face, it's really fun and interesting. >> i'm pretty sure the men don't chip in and buy a spa certificate for the one who's getting married, so that's probably different. you have this. if there were 83 women instead of the reverse, what would be different? would things be in the policies good for the tone that is taken, the way the approach that the senate takes towards doing its business quite >> in some ways yes, and in some ways now. we all get elected the same way. we run campaigns. usually they are tough. we have toughened up to meet those challenges. so in many ways, i think men campaigned against women now

approximately the same way they do against each other. and i think that also applies in the senate. i would say our governing styles differ somewhat in that we really do -- i think everyone of us wants to get something done. we want to accomplish things. we want to bring people together and hammer it out. sometimes that isn't the case. in fact, we know that the senate -- the congress generally seems pretty frozen and hostile and polarized along partisan lines. is there a way out of that, do you think? >> well, first of all the senate is a dirty collegial place. i think even more so than the house because we do have more open rules and therefore,

minorities have more power in the senate than they do in the house. and the house, everything is done by the majority. in the senate, the minority can stop legislation that 41 does. and we have a great working relationship with our colleagues always understanding that we may different philosophy. we may differ on the way things are done and understanding that everyone wants to do the best they can for their state and for their philosophy. so some of my best friends are democrats. and also republicans, but i think we do have friendships across the aisle in the senate and we always know and assume they have been a lot in my tenure in the senate. if you're in the majority today, you may well be in the minority tomorrow and so you get along

and you don't break on this. you don't burn bridges. if you lose, you live another day and when the wind come your gracious winner. >> the singer sounds so interesting. how long has that been going on? and how long ago did you get started quite >> it really started when the women senators that with the women leaders of northern ireland. and we started trying to encourage them about their role in trying to bring peace. and we started telling war stories about our experiences and how we were elected and how we overcame obstacles and how we broke into this man's club. and it was so interesting that barbara mikulski, the senior

democrat, and i said, you know, there is work here. we were nine at the time, nine women senators. and we went to bob or not, who is the sort of book contractor for many people in washington, republican and democrat but we said we want to read a book and was you see if any publishers are interested, bottom line we wrote a book called nine and counting. and each of us wrote our own chapter about our different obstacles. and the one charity that we could agree that all the proceeds would go to because most of us have had the experience of being girl scout, girl scouts. we wrote the book and give the proceeds to the girl scouts. and it has banned the book

that's been kind of an encouragement for young girls, or women who have been may be trying to overcome a challenge right now. and it really sold quite well. so that was the beginning. so then we decided to start meeting. so we started meeting every six weeks or so. we enjoyed each other's company and i think have built great camaraderie. >> i'm going to ask one last question. >> there were nine senators that. but the female persuasion. 17 now, i guess that's progress. do you think that you will see a woman elected president quite >> yes, i do. >> when you think that will happen? >> i thought it would have

happened by now, but i do think it will happen. i think we are becoming so much more equal and our experience and credentials that it's less of a fact doing now. and so i think it would have been when the time is ripe for the women's philosophy because i think we are tough enough. i think we are treated in much the same. i think people don't think of us as women candidates as much anywhere. they think about size okay, what you wanted to? what are your plans? what is your platform? and they vote their own insurance. and that's good, i think. >> let's go to the audience. to some another question for for senator hutchison?

>> you know, i have another question i want to ask or so let's pretend i'm a member of the audience. you know, you interview and now senator about 15 minutes after he was won his first election and he's thinking he really have to be in the white house. it's not so much for himself. as for the good of the country. you interview women who've been in the senate sometimes for multiple terms like yourself and they do not seem to make that assumption that the white house is further ahead. >> when general do you think that's true? and lasted men politicians in texas think they should be president have friends, some of them have one. just as sure to texans for the republican nomination, governor perry and congressman paul appeared have ever thought about running for president yourself? and if so, why did you decide not to do it? >> well, yes i have. and i would've loved to have had the right timing, the timing is everything in life.

i adopted my two children 11 years ago. and so, that kind of put me out of the capability. i go home every weekend. so i wasn't here for the same day show to build my identification in the way you would if you were running for president. i haven't been able to do some of the things that we prepared. also, up until early this year, it was kind of a give and that the person with the most seniority and the most logical next step choice would run for president. this year, amazingly, people just popped up and ran for president. [laughter] if i were 15 years younger and my children were already gone, i could have run for president

under these rules back then. i would love to have run for president, but the timing wasn't right. i never saw, like you said, that when i was dead, i was ready to run the country. and with baby lucky? i've met those people in the senate. and i do think women generally are more humble. all of the women who have been elected have had to overcome so much and they've had to mostly deal with one in their homes, having children, the 21st seven experience with that. and then also, on top of that, overcome the obstacle to a woman election, which we've had in the last 25 years. so, i found when i wrote my book

about women trailblazers that the women who were in the first -- who were in the arena fares generally didn't succeed to the highest level that they hope, but they did set the stage and do is to set the strontium women in those fields that it hit the top. and i think in many ways that is where -- i mean the first tranche -- i think the next tranche will be the women president. >> senator kay bailey hutchison, thank you so much for being with us. [applause] >> congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz chairs the democratic committee and congresswoman mcmorris rodgers

spoke about getting more women elected office. [inaudible conversations] >> is going to be lovely. we're so glad that all four of you could join us today. you know, you look at this panel and you would think that women already control washington. we have the highest ranking woman republican woman in congress. we have the chair of the democratic national committee. we have leaders of two powerful think tank that president obama listens to most. and yeah, you look at other numbers nuc 17% of congress is female now. i wonder, do you think the glass is half-full because look at what all have done was the glass half-empty because women's progress is so incremental? congresswoman kumble start with you. >> the glass is half-full. it's an exciting time to be a woman and congressman david to

give the mayo story, but i never trained to would ever one-day ran for congress. i am now a wife, mother, in a family business in the fact i have the honor of serving in congress and that we see more women today running for congress, getting the lack that for congress, yes, granted we have much more work to do, but i look back on the recent elections in 2010 from the republican perspective we had a record number one for the house, get elected to the house. we have nine new. four out of six are republican of the women. it's a great story to tell as were doing that. it's a big part of it as more women see others doing it and doing it successfully, the more look at themselves and say, she's done it i can do it. >> congresswoman wasserman schultz, to just keep at it or do you think it's disappointing? >> well, i agree the glass is half-full because i'm not glass

is half-full person and i prefer to be optimistic about the future and differently than kathy, i did dream of public service as a career choice in the select add to my state legislature when i was 26 years old and have served since that time. but in 2010, women lost in congress and we lost seats in congress for the first time since 1982. so you know, i think we have to be cautious about just celebrating that a woman got elected to a particular office and make sure that we have within who are running and winning, we're going to champion and make the agenda important to women, like equal pay for equal work and making sure that when it comes to fighting for middle class families and ensuring access to birth control and

making sure that health care is a priority and that it's affordable, making sure that access to education in our education is a priority. so acting just anyone and shouldn't be the goal. a lacked any woman who is going to make the issues important to women and families is really should be the focus. i don't know if we've made as much progress on that as we should. >> there was dissent in 1992 that we would have the title of this panel, this program is women 2020. by then things would be different and yet to 17% of congress is female. why do you think the progress is then so incremental? and why do you think it seems to be no more women in congress now than in the 111th? >> you know, i think there are challenges for women branding. i think there are additional burdens.

i served for a long time. i was under the presidential campaign and i do think that there are issues that women face around the position of power that could be a little different for men. i think we are seeing that in some of the senate races being run right now. questions about why women are running when men aren't asked similar questions. just a basic question that women have to overcome about why they are seeking office. you know, often women tell stories about, you know, the reason that running is because of the experience they see in their neighborhood or community and they want to change it. whereas, people just assume they're running because they should run because men run. i mean, i worked for a special

candidate. hillary clinton, first lady, had a different set of experiences than a lot of people. but in her senate race in presidential race there were a lot of questions about why she was running and i think men just aren't asked those questions. you know, there actually are a lot of similarities between 92 and now. my first real presidential campaign was the 92 campaign, dear we had an unprecedented number of candidates. we also have an unprecedented number of candidates this year. so i'm actually hopeful that we will see more women in the senate. we'll see more women in the house and that will make progress. but i do think we should recognize that people see women's leadership in women's power and a different way sometimes and that is something we all have to overcome and that is a challenge. >> just to illustrate which are talking about. when i ran for congress in 2004,

she actually made her whole campaign platform that i was 30 years young, had twins and she would spit out the word and sent if they'd just given words to her third child. she would say you can be a good member of congress and a good mother, you just can't be both at the same time. >> that's an issue that's usually raised. >> ayanna glass is half full kind of person also, but think about it. women are inherently very, very intelligent. if you look and see what happens when you run for office, there is a lot of women i think who will fight with purpose, look back and say why would i want to do that? it was look at the 2008 campaign. if you are hillary clinton and you've got people talking about your cleavage or, you know, you

are sir pao and saying how he be vice president when you have so many children, do you really want to run? how often his female candidate running and you hear members of the media say look at that fat belly and comb-over, never happens. honestly, have you ever seen it happen? you think it, but she never say, but when it's female, it is she married? vitiate children? how will she take care of them? and never read anything, for example about anyone ever saying, how is joe biden going to be a senator and raise his children? maybe it happened. i haven't seen it in any thing. that is a factor women take into account when they decide, do i want to do it this? >> the whole issue is kind of a vanity thing we want women to have more power because we are far superior in every way. but the policies that get

enacted in washington be different if the proportion of women was on par with the proportion of women in the population? if congress would have female, the policies for the country be different? >> i think women bring an important voice to the table. i say about the recruitment team last congress and is interestingly tied to women to women about running for congress just the issues on their minds are a little different because women so often, when they think about running for congress, do you think about their family, career, community involvement and how they fit congress into all of that. forget now if they see the health care issues, economy, challenges of finding jobs, i see more women being compelled to run for office and figure out how to fit it in shoe already therefore plays. whereas in years past, a lot of women waited to be asked to run.

when they needed to be tapped on the shoulder. like two years took the average woman to run for office. i'm excited right now we see more women to step up because they are come held by issues. another point i would make is when you just asked people, you know, how they view women versus men in public office, they view women as better listeners at a time when many in congress, many in america don't think congress is listening. they see them as problem solvers, honest, trustworthy, willing to work across the aisle, get the job done. those are all qualities that are very attractive to a woman candidate and we need to continue highlight that and highly what we bring to the table. >> there's a report in wisconsin. i forget the state senators name. i think its grant them.

there was a discussion in the spring session about wisconsin equal pay act or something similar to that. in discussing in his opinion the demerits of the legislation, he felt perfectly comfortable saying if you think about it and i'm paraphrasing, money is more important to them than it is to women. so i can't help but think if there were more women in the state legislature, even if you actually thought that was an intelligent statement to make, that they would be women legislatures that can explain why in this day and age you can't say that to the single mother who was struggling to raise a family, take care of her children to pay the bills, look her in the face and tell her why what she heard is less important than what her ex-husband eric. >> i think you need to look at nancy pelosi when she became speaker of the house of representatives and the first woman. the agenda and issues that bubble to the top as she made a

priority, increasing access to higher education and making sure that student loans were more available and the amounts of student loans increased, making sure we pass the affordable care act so that being a woman is no longer considered a preexisting condition and you can't just get charged more than a man because of your agenda, which resulted in making sure that preventative care for women was available without a co-pay or deductible like mammograms and colonoscopies and affordable birth control. so just the one fact that we have nancy pelosi, a woman as speaker of the house of representatives drives the agenda in so many ways and so many issues come to the top of the agenda at a man would necessarily and hadn't throughout our history that congress was bad bad man. it's just when you are living through those issues every single day from your personal

experience, the things you put at the top of the agenda is different than what a man experiences. >> neeracoming imagine you worked for hitler transition period in 2000 your policy dirt and then in the general election many people like to know how you made that -- for hillary claim 10, a different? achieve a different presidential campaign. was it different just because she was a woman? was that a defining difference in terms of what the strategy she had to pursue? >> well, we could have like six hours. i think there's a number of ways in which hillary experience is different a presidential campaign than others have dirty been mentioned.

her looks were dead. they'll continue to be decide it forever and where not. her treatment in the media was not totally fair every single day. neither fair nor balanced across panels. but i think to the first question you asked, i think there's been studies and analysis that show women leaders tend to focus, even republican leaders, who may not be seen as particularly running on these issues tend to focus particularly on education, health care, the the kinds of issues women are concerned with. and so, i think that we shouldn't think there's no difference in leadership about hillary running.

she's also focus on the first universal pre-k program. a variety of ways as she wanted to ensure that people could allen's work and family. and i think those issues resonate and resonate with women, but also women's lived experiences determine that were there in leadership roles. >> when you think of women will be elected president? michelle, we'll start with you. >> you know, i'm fascinated by the growth i've seen in terms of what women are capable of doing and i believe will see it in our lifetime. i don't know when, but i firmly believe just as i have seen the nation's first african-american person elected, but i believe while i'm still young and care to die the gray out of my hair there will be a woman elected president of the united states. >> do you have a date?

>> i hope in the next decade. i think lifetime menace setting the bar too high. were so john. setting the bar too low. as the leaders at the world. germany, india decades ago had women prime minister, britain. >> use a decade. >> i hope the next decade. my hope is -- >> 2016 would be nice. >> i hope a democratic woman runs for president in 2016. >> what kind of timeline do you have? >> i think within the next three presidential elections we will see a woman become president of the united states. [laughter] but what is going to be important is that we need to make sure that we have more women in the pipeline of leadership although at the

supply chain so to speak because that is what happens is that because of past challenges and discrimination and an ability to cut through the going network. it means the default that automatically would be easy. fascistic a few examples of president obama has done. we've seen is two choices court justice. that shows young girls like my daughters that anything is possible for them in america. and the only the third woman to chair the democratic national committee and so, it's not only women that can take care of women. we need to make sure we have good man who had the ability when making choices about things being equal conscious of the

fact that that bench needs to have strong women i met who are well-qualified and build their skills so that the bigger the benches, the more likely it is that you have a variety of women that could run. but until then it was just a couple. if you have to roll the dice and, in the moxie of one woman who is going to carry herself all the way, it's too likely. >> in your timetable with that 10 years, 12 years, lifetime? >> well, i tend to agree we'll see you soon you're better than later. on both sides of the political party, republicans and democrats , that's you see women in more and more of these leadership positions. on the republican side mec were governor romney is looking at some of the governor hailey dunn in south carolina, governor martinez in new mexico.

you look at where women are considered furiously for the vice president spot. and i think those are all women that the next year in the pipeline. you see a record number of women serving on the republican ticket in the state legislatures. you know, i was elected in 2004, two with daddy. i was a 200 women to serve in the house of representatives, ever. and today i think what to do hundred 50 and house of representatives. what is exciting to me is that we are cmr that did as government of that is going to see more that are looking at the highest office moving forward. >> buco to questions from the audience. i'll ask you to go down the line

and say you are all such successful women in washington. i'm wondering if there's a piece of advice someone gave you when you're much younger than you are now, do you think has been really helpful, has really been a pricey kept in mind. >> well, growing up on the farm, my god was a role model as far as being involved in the community, giving back to the community and he challenged me to do that as long as i could remember. he said if you don't like what is happening, get involved. get to that position where you can actually impact was going on. don't just complain about what's going on. and that is my challenge -- that would be my challenge to anyone to get involved. >> work hard, seize opportunities when it presents itself. i was elected when i was 26 years old. as the youngest women elected to the legislature in florida and i hope a younger woman beats my record at some point, when the

opportunity presented itself to a million reasons not to do it and that's what happens with women so often. seize opportunities they present themselves. my parents told me my whole childhood, reach for the stars, shoot for the top of your profession. one-time public service as a career path i wanted. that advice told me, okay, i don't have to work to elect other people. the top of my profession are chosen, to help make the world the better places to be the decision-maker. just making sure you were harder than anyone else because that can carry you so far. so many women, the reason we're able to advance further than we might is because you look around you and it's not hard to outwork most of the men on one side or the other. [laughter] >> i have to say, what is fascinating me within my career

and now that i oversee a relatively large organization, you know, the biggest difference between men and women when i see their evaluations, women are very self-critical. they think about the reasons they haven't performed and they almost apologize. they have a ranking system and people my -- the best women drink themselves the hardest, whereas every guy is like i'm excellent. [laughter] ..

blogger than anyone else and i can paint and worked in the white house and i used to say it really showed that i was dedicated and committed and i advanced that way. that was the reason i would say you have to take those opportunities by the horns and you have to demonstrate because, you know, it's not like the network that there for you. >> what advice would you give? >> the advice i would give is the advice given by my parents. the daughter of immigrants, first generation american in this country, and my parents came to the united states from jamaica which is a very macho male society. and their advice to me and my siblings was always number one,

don't be afraid of competition. get in there and fight for what you deserve. be the hardest you can possibly be. always be the absolute best and the one piece of advice my dad gave i want to share with the young woman here we sit my dad gave three daughters first so he could turn his son into a feminist. [laughter] the one piece of advice my dad gave me and my sisters that has resonated with me always he said to us fear no man and you have to remember that do not fear anyone. go for it. >> i wonder if there's someone in the audience. yes? >> [inaudible] all of you have set such high standards and reached such high places, but i know you had to come at a point in your career you had to negotiate or confront

men. how do you bring them into believing that you can do it and the that you are the person who can lead your initiative to the furthest respect? >> thanks very much. who would like to take that question? >> i would go back to leading by example in the path that you are given that you can do the job doing it well. there's many times i've been given assignments that maybe were not worth the ones i would have chosen on my own but going ahead and fulfilling those assignments, those responsibilities and then with that comes their recognition than you do well on the small ones and will lead to bigger opportunities. in the course of my life i can look back and see where it's just been step-by-step where one door opens and it has led to other opportunities for me. >> can i address that also i

went to college here, law school, i went to the whole i'm going to work that can always southern at work and make partner and i need a partner but i have to tell you when you go into that type redmon environment i think i was the second or third african-american in the history of the firm, and at that point in time the highest ranking female attorney came to the law firm and was only allowed to practice law in that firm as long as her client was her husband's business and that was not long ago. so i tell you that to say no matter what kind of environment you might be whether it is washington or elsewhere as long as your work is always the best and what you are doing is completely unassailable, there will always be someone that comes from totally on the expected who will say this is the right person for the job even when you feel like it is the bleakest and you are never going to get ahead there is always somebody watching that understands it is a proper

business decision to ignore what feelings they might have about your gender and get you the job. >> act like the equal that you are, because i know kathy and i won the election in the same way every other member male or female one their election and when you're sitting across the negotiating table no matter who it is, the hard work you make sure that you commit to earns you the respect and you can't act like you don't belong at that table because believe me, they smollett and it the smell and opening that when you were in the negotiation trying to get something done that's important to you, that demonstrates weakness. >> you've got to have a mentor. you have to have a mentor and it doesn't matter whether it is the woman or man that you have to have someone that is on your side giving advice. >> we have time for one more question.

>> i'm a student of lehman brothers and university of new york. my question is how do you see the future of women of color in politics especially latino since the population is growing coming and what are they doing to encourage women to offer us this and get them involved in more leadership? >> thanks very much for your question. i think it is just lagging. the community we have in the course of my lifetime we don't have anyone running for any simbel, a lone women running so i think for a woman of color

there is a time lag but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be pushing and one of the reasons why there is a time line as part of an immigrant community in the first generation we are often just trying to survive and make ends meet, and that means not being able to do the kind of public service that you need to get to run for office and then generation's progress and you can see more and more people pushing. so i do think that it is incumbent. my view is incumbent on both parties to ensure that coming you know, there is real mentorship and i think debbie wasserman schultz is a great example she has mentored coming and i was a before hershey's mentored a lot of women of color to run. she's always encouraging. she's been a great spokeswoman on this issue coming and i sure that happens on the republican side as well and i just think you need to have more of that

leadership to ensure and both people within the community that really pushed for that to get out of the workforce is people think of the communities on health care or business and move in so people recognize that america has a lot of different communities as well should be american leadership. >> i'm so sorry that our time is up and i know that we could go on forever but i went to thank the wonderful panel for joining us, the members of congress. [applause] thank you very much. [applause] >> more from the national journal conference on women with white house adviser valerie gerrans degette she says women need to be there an advocate in the workplace.

>> thank you. we are pleased to welcome valerie come senior adviser assistant to the president. in her role she also chairs the white house counsel on women and girls and oversees the intergovernmental affairs public engagement and urban affairs. she served as the co-chair of the obama biden presidential transition team and adviser to then presidential campaign. and joining the of messrs. she was the chief executive officer of the habitat company. she has also held positions in both the public and private sector including the chairman of the chicago transit board, the commissioner of planning and developing in the city of chicago and deputy chief of staff mayor daley. she also practiced law with private law firms and served as the tractor of corporate mom for profit boards including the chairman of the chicago stock exchange and the director of the federal reserve bank of chicago. interviewing the larry jarrett is co-host of morning joe.

all things at once became a best seller and the second book, knowing your value, which examines the role of women in the workplace reached number one on the best times sellers list for books and spring of 2011. she also writes getting what you want for cosmopolitan a column about and government. prior to joining msnbc in january, 2007 she was the anchor of the cbs evening news weekend edition. islamic thank you so much. how're we doing? i hear that this is a really good audience and very young. [laughter] it's great to be here. i was about to save our real needs no introduction, but she just got one. i have to say it's great to be here with you. we have so much in common in some ways and valerie has been so helpful to me, especially when it comes to putting together the book knowing your value which i hope everybody walks out of here knowing their value a little more after they hear some of valerie's personal

stories about her journey. i know you don't want to talk politics. we can't talk politics, so we won't accept for one thing. i can't help myself. i just want to know why the paycheck fairness act failed. can anyone tell me who was against equal pay? is their anyone in the room against equal pay? please call stand up right now. too looking to the audience first what an amazing group of young women. a few brave men. don't think we aren't going to get to reach out for being here, too. my goodness. that's part of why i think we are so fortunate to have a president fully committed to making sure that women and girls reach their full potential. >> he created the white house council on women and girls and i am so proud to share a couple months into office you have to look at how a person is raised to figure out what their values are and what the priorities are.

raised by a single mom. he lived with his grandparents for a little while on his grandmother worked at the bank and used to train people, men who then leapfrogged over her over and over again. and then he watched his wife particularly when the girls were young trying to balance her career and to giving out how to be a good wife and mother as well and then you've got these two amazing girls he wants to grow up in the world they are competing on an even playing field. and so he believes women should have equal pay for nearly half the workforce. if you look at the demographic now women are grudge with in from college at an increased rate. a graduate school even more. but still, we are only running 77 cents on the dollar and for men of covered is even less. >> there is no reason why congress didn't support paycheck fairness which would have given women another tool that they get equal pay. >> absolutely. >> i will say it again and again on the show as much as i can and

i don't care if anyone would like to challenge me or say i am being partisan thomas, but by and for equal pay and i had my own situation with it and its fixed coming and buying glad about that. [laughter] and i will stop talking about it and i urge you to as well come to talk about money for yourself and what you're worth. you talked about the president's sort of personal journey on this, and the influence, his own family, his wife, his two daughters have on his thinking. you are a close friend of the family. his mother's story. does this make him different? and also, tell us why the white house council on women and girls was created and why it is so important as it retains to the economy moving forward. >> thank you. i think those personal experiences are important. it is what makes us who we are and what gave the president his value on his moral compass, his integrity and his character. he jokes now he still lives in a

home surrounded by women. he's got his mother-in-law on his wife and his daughter bo that is the only guy with him. my daughters and i were looking and we can't find bo. >> not only does he live in a house surrounded by women but he also has made sure that his administration has women and a significantly positions of authority and then he in powers us to go for with priorities and programs and initiatives that improve the quality-of-life and women and girls and he created the white house council of women and girls because he wanted to make sure for the first time that every federal agency and department has a part of this mandate that would be scrutinized each year as we go through the budget process. what are the programs you are doing that improved the lives of women and girls, what legislations, what programs, what initiative and make sure that we are challenging ourselves each and every day to

make this a priority and i think that has reflected well in many of the initiatives that have come out of the administration and also in the appointments made you have women in key positions of power and he thinks that he's going to get the best ideas. he's going to reflect the priorities of the country if half of our country is well represented at the table. >> what is it about obviously a very close friend of the president in the families and his top adviser. what influence have you had on him and helping him evolves and really recognize how important is is in a way that no other president has? >> i'm lucky that he came in pretty good shape. i really am. his family that raised him in still of these values and and and i think it is also a part of how he was raised there was a program of his life his mother had to depend on food stamps because she was trying to make ends meet and she was struggling so she has this sense of compassion on my relationship

with the president and first lady i'm going to date myself seriously but i figured out met them 21 years ago this month just a child, just a toddler really. in a playpen the deputy chief of staff for mayor daley i was trying to recruit to come and join our office she wasn't exactly enjoying it and wanted to give something back to the city that she loved and i had gone through so much as a action working in a private law firm sitting in my beautiful office looking out the swindel ethnic michigan and crying i tell you quite honestly crying because i just had a baby and i felt like i using this wonderful child every day and i'm going to do something i don't feel a sense of fulfillment so one of the things i defer to young people is lined with your passion is coming and it rolls is and always tied into money.

make sure you are paid fairly but don't let that be the sole objective. so at this dinner that i had with of the two of them 21 years ago, they shared the stories and one of the things they mentioned they weren't even married at the time they were engaged they said they were trying to figure of how to pay for student loans back because their combined debt was so high. having a president that makes college affordable because he knows what it was like to have these burdens with debt i think certainly informs his policies and decision making and i think it is more reflective of our country. it's been a key is to probably retain inside the bubble what it was like to be a part of the real world, which i guess we are looking at for both of the candidates right now which one is more a part of the real world. i will just leave them hanging because we aren't talking about politics here today. >> i'm here representing the white house, so i have to let the campaign talk about politics and my individual capacity. >> where are we? you talked about where we are in

terms of equal pay. the big picture problems though with women, so far as to say some of the women in this room especially when it comes to getting from point a to point become even something like for example access to capital across the board, still a big problem. are we making any inroads? >> we are. we travel around the country in the small business is the number one issue they will tell you is access to capital fund and another very powerful woman is in the cabinet had the small business administration and she was expanding her portfolio and ability to provide that vital access to capital to so many small businesses and women are studying small businesses all over the country. they have an economic engine. it's where the growth is in our country so if the president wants to make sure we are doing everything we can to help those small businesses thrive we are looking at providing technical assistance to small businesses. many times they have a great

idea. they have an interesting business plan but they don't really know how to take it to the next level. many of the small businesswomen can be exporting beyond offshore so have a whole export initiative to help them open up the marquette. so access to capital was the number-one issue and it's something the president has made a very big priority. everything that we have done that we hear oftentimes from small businesses is that they are on a shoestring budget. they are going from paying about, getting the money come up paying about and so the federal government decided to do what we could to make it easier for businesses to do business with us and so we are required to pay small businesses within 30 days. now we are paying them within 50 and does this week karen announced she is going to require larger businesses to do the same they passed the money of the subcontractors so within 15 days it doesn't seem like a lot but believe me when you are trying to make ends meet it can

make a huge different. ischemic try to get personal advice from the audience which you think ultimately comes down to self-worth and confidence. but, for example bristol-myers, the new ceo of dahuk who you can visually did yesterday. >> first of all she's an amazing woman with a great story. she drew up an engineer one of the first at google and so i've always been fascinated with her and she is a great job. she is the ceo of yahoo!, this terrific company but also she announced that she's pregnant and what i liked about her board is that they knew she was pregnant. she was due in the fall and they didn't look at the big deal and announce it until after they had collected her as the ceo and so i wanted to just tell her congratulations on being the ceo and this is her first child and my daughter just got married so i'm feeling a little missed out.

it feels like just yesterday she was being born and there's no experience quite like it and the fact she gets to take on these incredible life changing experiences at the same time. i said how are you going to do it? we are going to work it out and i like that confidence and she's taken the time off to be with her baby. >> there's too good stories there. her decision to move forward and work it out on and their decision to of course higher her pregnant, which is it has a lot of messages coming and i think of the women in this audience will think they have to make sure places and there are many choices and sacrifices you have to make along the way, but i think that is a great example of how you can be a vibrant part of the economy and have children. it's very possible. it's not an either or any more. >> but you also have to be very careful with where you work. and you and i have talked about this before. i think my fear is you can have it all, the question is you can have it all not necessarily the

same time. you have to figure out what stage of your life for you and so when my daughter was jury yanna i just simply couldn't have a schedule with no control. and i love to tell the story about mayor daley intimidating anybody that's ever heard of mayor daley and i am looking at my watch and he's looking at me like why are you looking at your watch and finally said what's going on. and i said the halloween parade starts in like 20 minutes and i thought he was going to yell at me and he said what are you doing here? and the belief i felt trying to get to the halloween parade was events. it was important to me to have a boss that recognized i was a single mom, too. there wasn't going to be a halloween party if i was there so it was important that he accept that. and i think when i finished law school which is in 1981 to be just like the guy nobody was ever talking about the family.

nobody was ever saying i have to leave to do something and when the women would leave to go do something back then and even sometimes today people say all right. you should really come at. when the men go to do something with other children -- [laughter] >> i love him. >> give me a break. that isn't right, you guys. >> seeley is, don't do it. but he is walking out to go to football practice with his son say goodyear should be there. >> that is exactly where you should be. do not sneak. if you have to do something in your personal life, make sure he says good because you are going to be a better employee coming and one of the things we did in the study of the economic advisors a couple years ago when we have a workplace flexibility form and they concluded that the work places that are flexible our most productive, they have

less turnover, people are loyal. it improves the productivity of the work environment if you have flexibility and the only way the governments are going to become flexible you have to speak up for yourself and say this is what i need and you can't expect your boss to read your mind. i'm going to work hard and i'm going to be the best and we you ever had what i'm going to show up for the halloween parade. my daughter would still be talking about that if i hadn't been there. >> yes, she would. but, you know, it's always kind of hard to assess what you should do and when. and i am going to now share something that i don't know if it is going to work, but the heck. you know the in murray slaughter article? i knew the decision to stay and work. and i had the similar year as she did. she had a son at home that was 13 and anyone here with a

13-year-old yet? doggett. i'm so sorry. it doesn't get better, does it? no, it's actually gotten better but it was a hard year and you know what i had to do? i decided to stay working even though i was needed somewhere else because i was juggling the fought in my mind that what i am doing here is for her but what she needs me -- it was a hard decision and it's not a popular one. i think the article worked because she stopped. i'm not sure she could have written the same article. and that's something we need to be more honest with ourselves about and more understanding to each other about, and i hope maybe somebody in this room would understand why i made the decision that i did but it was a hard year and there were a lot of times i was doing this, and that's really hard to say. but if we don't talk about the sacrifices that we have to make even of our own kind of sense of judgment of ourself as mothers, we will never get along all money and we all make different decisions. we all stay home and work at home full time with kids and that is as valid and difficult a

sacrifice house working. but the working part is really conflict jewel. if i can make up a word, it is full of conflict in our head and also in the people that read about us. >> particularly for high performers. everyone in this room you are all high performers and i know the first lady used to say she's used to being excellent at whatever she put her mind to but when you're putting your mind to two things that inevitably conflict coming you feel like you are letting everybody down. >> if you don't make the decision on the children at the moment, what are you? >> and they make you feel real guilty. >> my daughter is mad at me right now. >> let's also on the same note and then move onto different topic, but there were great stories that you told me and i wonder if you can share about learning to communicate, learn and to give yourself a leg up at work and either boost your pay or boost your status in the company which i don't think there's always something that

can comfortably to you. >> i think it's a very important point. we said that talking about paycheck fairness and i think everybody knows of the first bill the president signed was the lily ledbetter pay act and the reason why it was so significant is lee ledbetter who's a terrific advocate on who is traveling the country talking about equal pay not because she's going to benefit because her case went all the way it to the supreme court and she lost in her dillinger was she worked in the company for years. she wasn't being paid equally. she didn't know she wasn't being paid equally by the way along was written you only have a certain period of time from the time you actually are receiving lowercase. it doesn't matter whether you love it or not so we said look, you shouldn't have the clock start to take so when you have an awareness of it with the paycheck fairness would due in part is to say can you tell me how much you make so we can't discriminate against that we're

talking about our pay because it is only way you know if you are getting paid equally or not. >> that it's okay. it's okay. i think it's important that we have a president that's fighting hard to make sure the laws are in place so that you can enforce equal pay. so what we are getting it is that you also have to be your own advocate. and women, let's face it. we really don't like to be a roane advocate. men don't seem to have trouble saying how great they are as a general rule. >> i have to help build a little bit with his confidence because he's not so sure himself. the area that i shared before was i had a woman mentor that said to me when i worked for the city and i was happy to be there with so much better than the law firm i felt like was a part of something so much bigger than myself giving back to this city that i love, that my mentor said to me you are sitting in this cubicle facing the alley that

you should be a deputy because you are doing work at a much more senior level and i said don't care but the title. my boss when he figures about he will give me a promotion. she said what makes you think that he wore on his radar screen? go in his office and tell him -- season here now you deserve a promotion. >> she didn't leave it at that. she came back at me which is what the mentors have to do over and over again >> finally i go in there and prepared and said i've been here this amount of time and this is the work i'm doing and i think i should be a deputy and he listened very carefully and he said okay. i said okay. by the way up in the front there's an empty office because somebody just left and i think i would like to move into that sweet because you don't have any women in the front suite and the rest of the deputies are all about the whole floor. he said i don't think you can do that because there's already deputies ahead of even line.

and i said yes but i think you need a woman up there so i took my boxes and moved in that office. it was fun, and i'm not saying everyone gets a promotion when you ask for one. i'm just saying please be your own devotees don't sit around waiting to be recognized. make sure that you have performed. but then go in there and ask. what is the worst thing he would have said is no you are not ready and then i would have come back and another six months. orland but have not had that front office. >> if there is an empty office, take it. as the mechanics of what we have many of you think if you work really hard, like someone will notice anne gurley word you for it? like if you work really hard? okay, you are wrong. don't do that. you have to tell them. this is what i learned from joe. i tell you i learned some of the best lessons. you go in there and make sure they know and don't be embarrassed about it and communicate it in your own way.

that didn't work for me. but i found my own way to communicate effectively and elegantly exactly what it was that i was doing, and exactly the value that it brought to the table coming and you have to learn to do that for yourself. i urge all of you to learn to speak in front of people. to get up right here on the stage and be able to do what i'm doing and by the way i'm sitting bullets. i don't like doing audiences. the camera i can handle. this makes me very nervous which is why i'm here. >> does she look nervous? that's the whole point. >> you got to be able to do it, to communicate effectively for yourself. no one else will. and think about how you are doing it. like for example, be honest. raise your hand again because i'm sure it happened. all of you will raise your hand if you think about it. how many of you in the past week have used the words i'm sorry. i'm sorry to all of you. it's about time.

you are lying first of all. you're not sorry so don't do it. you've got to come to the table looking directly at who you are talking to come completely confident coming your shoulders back, centered, and from there the rest comes out of your mouth. don't come in all covered up and worried with consternation and by the way worried whether the person sitting around across from you likes you. delroy comedy like you? >> i actually do. >> i know you do. >> what's important as i respect the don shom she does on television every day. >> i promise you the most incredible friendships will come out of that starting point. you will get everything you want of a relationship is that it starts with respect. the money thing, the negotiating thing, whatever you are doing starting your own business you've got to be able to establish that when you walk in the door. deutsch dhaka to commend it with the way that you talk and what

to say and you can do it. you just have to. we need to step up because everything valerie is doing really doesn't mean anything unless we stepup. >> that put the exclamation on your story. when i mentioned in the the president and first lady when i was trying to recruit for her to come and join the first time that i thought i was interviewing her but about ten minutes and it was clear she was interviewing me and she was asking me some very tough questions because she wasn't just trying to sell herself, she wanted to make sure she was going to perform well and thrive in this environment and with all of her choice is that this is the best one for her. at the end of the odd deacons interview i offered her the job on the spot. she said let me think about it. she goes home, she talks to her fiance and he says i'm not sure. i'm not sure who was going to have your back your going into

this political environment when you've been practicing law and he says let's sit down and have a meal with the person i'm going to be expecting to take care of you and out of that really was the beginning of a relationship and so it's worth taking the time to get to know your team and to make sure that your team knows you and 21 years later there was a really good meal that i had. >> we have time for maybe two more questions and i am just wondering given the amount to put it very bluntly at this point having the president here and like any woman before you that i can think of in any administration tell me about the sacrifices and the price you have to pay on the way because she makes it look easy. i make my job look easy. that's my job. we don't walk in the room going oh my god i've been up since 3:30 in the morning which is what i do, but it is hard and

there are sacrifices. big ones along the way. it's not easy. islamic everybody looks at the finished product in august to be painfully shy. you have to keep doing things over and over again and that is how you get better at it. believe me there is no way i could have spoken to an audience like this when i first started out i would say what i'm doing right now is the perfect time of my life. my daughter is married. i'm single so why don't have a lot of other demands on my time but i'm trying to balance and i'm really sensitive to the people on my team, men and women that work in the white house that do have young children, because our lives are totally unpredictable. the hours are long. but what i say to them as i don't care what our as you work. make sure you take care of your family responsibilities because you will be miserable and i need you at the top of your game. but it is really difficult and there are many times where the plane gets back lead and you

miss the parade because we just don't have time for the control else i had looking in the city. but you did make sacrifices. i also say this to myself every day i grew up on the south side of chicago and i was the first woman, first lawyer, not women, first lawyer in my family and my parents made a lot of sacrifices in order for me to have a good education and his mother used to get him up at 4:00 in the morning walking 5 miles to school to study and he would complain she would say this is no picnic for me either. i think part of what we shared coming from families that value education where the parents are willing to sacrifice so the children could do better than they did and the president's whole vision is no matter where you are and where you come from if you work hard and act responsibly and everybody plays by the same set of rules you will get that fair shot and he wants to make sure that his administration is committed to doing that.

so, yes, i would have to be traded off along the way coming in and it looks easy when you are at this stage of the game, but there was a lot of balancing and struggling, and so let's face it, we are on a high wire right now. who knows this evening i hope you are saying good things but who knows what you are treating and what one or three sentences or three words can be taken out of context. so that hi lawyer is stressful. on the very end, i pinch myself every day serving our country in this white house for somebody that i consider not only a great president but my friend. >> finally, if this president does get four more years what will the direction of the council of women and girls take and where will the focus the? still on the money? >> every single agency makes this a priority and i want to give you one concrete example

where women and girls are playing into our priorities to get everyone has heard of race to the top kill an important initiative so as a part of our criteria looking at the competition around the country, we said demonstrate to us that you have new and innovative ways of getting girls involved in interesting and rigorous science and technology and engineering courses. that is the job course of the future, so we want figure out how can we set policies of the level to create incentives for girls to go into these important fields, and that is the way the government can really i think helps support and nurture. implementation of the affordable care act is important. that's something we are beginning now and will continue into the future in august. it's very important for all of you women and men in the audience because insurance companies are going to start to provide preventive care for free, and that's everything from screening for any kind of

diseases, wellness visits, domestic violence counseling, breast feeding apparatus and contraception. this is extremely important. [applause] >> my daughter, 26, but when she was 24 and a half between school and starting work, she came on my insurance. that's another important provision of the affordable care act. my mom, already a senior citizen has received an average of $600 to help pay for its prescription drugs. we're talking about our children. anyone that's been a sick child or has a sick child you understand when you're dealing with a sick child -- i remember when sasha was a real prison and said i can't breathe. she got excellent care and recovered right away but we have a book of our children around the country that don't have access to affordable health care, and to know that pre-existing conditions are not going to prevent them from getting the kind of insurance coverage they need is also

important the affordable care act in the months and years ahead we have a lot of work ahead energy strategy, continuing to invest in science and making sure that the government does what it's supposed to do and you have this conversation a little bit on the show this morning because we are sticking up for the president but the point the president was making yesterday that the government has a very important role, and we celebrate the entrepreneurship, we celebrate the system. this is a system where you should be able to have the american dream which is to have an idea and work hard and turn it into the apple of tomorrow. but it doesn't have them out of a government providing the infrastructure that you need whether it is the initial technology from data that led to the internet or the roads and bridges that you take your commerce across or whether it is the school to educate our children there is an appropriate role for the government and we are looking forward to having

that conversation because there are different visions for america. one that is hopeful and believes that we should have a smart government to get it's not a matter of the big government, it is a government investing in a way that the private sector can thrive and grow, and that has always been the american dream and what we are concerned by is that for the first time people are wondering whether their children will actually be better off than we are coming and we are determined that they will, particularly our girls. some of ladies and one gentleman right here. >> thank you so much valerie jarrett and our thanks to the national journal for having us. [applause] >> big round of applause for everybody here today. thank you. islamic on behalf of the national journal i would like to thank google, the american beverage association, a distinguished panelists and the audience for joining this morning. for a video of today's event, go

to nationaljournal.com/events to review our plan to the conventions we will be there. thank you very much for coming today. [inaudible conversations]

>> there has been hostility to poverty. since the war on poverty lyndon johnson was the president of looked at poverty issues and spend money on it and talked about the social service programs. lyndon johnson. let's follow that. i hate to say this but richard nixon is actually the fault of the minority business development. and inside his minority business established small business administration minority business agency used the term economic justice richard mix and economic

justice. >> the former president for women it was about those men and women who are almost mortally injured in the war who because of the huge of advances that have been made in medical treatment in the last ten years now they are being saved from an incredible number of them are being saved. almost everybody that falls on the battlefield is being saved. and i wanted to write about what life was like for these people and i started out with the

question of having seen some people who were pretty gruesomely who named wouldn't it be better off if they were dead. don't they wish that they were dead? senate majority leader harry reid said today that the senate has become, quote, inoperative because of the republicans use of the filibuster. the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell countered that democrats have become a quote come attitude problem. a businea

today, your goal should be to make a profit. there's nothing wrong with that. that's good. millions of hardworking americans, entrepreneurs are the backbone of our economy. and if your company boosts profits by sending jobs overseas, that's your right as a business owner but american taxpayers shouldn't subsidize your business decisions to outsource jobs especially when there are millions of people in this country looking for work. over the last ten years, two and a half million jobs in call centers and factories were shipped overseas. and american taxpayers helped foot that bill. for sending those jobs overseas. every time u.s. companies ship jobs or facilities overseas, american taxpayers help cover the moving costs. the bring jobs home act would end these disgraceful subsidies for outsourcing and comblif give a 20% tax credit for moving back to the united states.

but republicans are filibustering this commonsense legislation. it's no surprise republicans are on the side of corporations. corporations making big bucks sending american jobs to china and india and other places. after all, their presidential nominee, mitt romney made a fortune outsourcing jobs also. so republicans are putting breaks for corporations and multimillionaires ahead of the needs of ordinary americans and what most americans need is a good job, a job here at home and the assurance that taxes won't go up. democrats, republicans and independents across the country agree with our plan. it's only republicans in congress who disagree. yet republicans here in congress in the senate are filibustering the legislation to bring jobs back to america. and they've twice blocked a vote on legislation to keep taxes low for 98% of american families. it was republicans who asked for a vote on the plan to raise taxes for 25 million families and a vote on our plan to keep

taxes low for 135 million american taxpayers. so we offered them what they wanted. we offered them up-or-down votes on both proposals. no procedural hoops, no delay tactics, simple majority votes on our plan and theirs and they refused. so maybe republicans refused our offer because they don't have the votes for their plan to raise taxes on 25 million american families. or maybe they refused it because the majority of americans support our plan to keep taxes low for 98% of families while asking the top 2% to contribute a little bit more to reduce the deficit. even a majority of republicans support our plan across the country. yet still republicans here in the senate are holding hostage tax cuts for nearly every american family to extort more budget-busting giveaways to millionaires and billionaires. for years, the deficit was all they were talking about. they were willing to end medicare as we know it, cut nursing homes for seniors and

raise taxes on the middle class all in the name of deficit reduction. but now the democrats have a plan to reduce the deficit by almost a trillion dollars, simply by ending wasteful tax breaks republicans have given up fiscal responsibility. i say to to to my republican friends. you can't have it both ways. you can't call yourself a deficit hawk and fight for tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires while the deficit continues to increase. and you can't call yourself a fiscal conservative and fight to protect tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs to india or to china. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i indicated to the majority leader before the senate convened today i wanted to have a discussion, the two of us on several items. number one, understand my friend the majority leader last night on msnbc said it was his intention at the beginning of the next congress if the democrats were in the majority to change the rules of the

senate by a simple majority. i wanted to begin by asking my friend the majority leader if his comments at the beginning of this congress on january 27, 2011, are no longer operative. at that time my friend the majority leader said i agree that the proper way to change national senate rules is through the procedures established in those rules and i will oppose any effort in this congress or the next -- or the next -- to change the senate's rules other than through the regular order. so my first question of my friend the majority leader is, is that statement no longer operative? mr. reid: madam president, through the chair, to my friend, the republican leader, as i've said here on the floor, i believe that what took place at the beginning of this congress was something -- was

very important for this body. led by senator udall from new mexico and senator merkley from oregon. they had been here a while and they thought that the senate was dysfunctional. well, they hadn't been here a long time and i was willing to go along with the traditional view, let's not rock the vote here. that was under the hope and i thought the assurance of my republican colleagues that they would not have these continue wal con sensical motions to proceed, filibuster, taking -- through that finally on a piece of legislation and i said in the senate a few months ago that i was wrong. it's hard to acknowledge that you're wrong. it's difficult for any of us to do. especially in front of so many people. but i said that i think they

were right and i was wrong. and i stick by that. i think what has happened the last few years of changing the basic rules of this senate where we have not 50 votes to pass something but takes 60 on everything, i think that's wrong. i think that where -- where we waste weeks and weeks on motions to proceed and i had a conversation with a real traditionalist last evening, carl levin, senator from michigan, where we talked about this at some length. he acknowledges that the motion to proceed is a real problem here. he disagrees with me and someone i have to talk with him personally but that's the way i understood him but i am convinced unless there is an agreement to change honor howe owe wee focus on the motion to proceed and i'll try to end this quickly because i think the leader deserves a full explanation. the filibuster was originally

devised, it's not in the constitution, it was devised to help legislation get passed. that's the reason they changed the rules here to do that. now it's being used to stop legislation from passing and we have to change things because this place is becoming inoperative. mcconnell: madam president, i hear my friend the majority leader that his commitment at the beginning of this congress that we would not follow the regular order to change the rules of the senate is no longer operative. so let me turn to a second area. we both agree that the advantage of being in the majority, the principal advantage is you get to schedule legislation. and of course there are a number of things that can be done with a simple majority of 51. and i would ask my friend the majority leader why it's his view that republicans have somehow prevented the senate from passing a budget which could have been done with a mere 51 votes any time during the last three years. mr. reid: madam president, that's an easy question to

answer. we already have a budget. we passed in august of last year a budget that took effect for the last fiscal year and this fiscal year. it set numbers through -- 302-b numbers in effect. we already had a budget. so the hue and cry of my republican fleendz we need a budget is just a lot of talk. we already have a budget. mcconnell: i say --. mr. mcconnell: , i know the parliamentarian disagrees with his few but let's assume we do have a budget and by judge ask the majority leader why we haven't passed a single appropriation bill. mr. reid: that also is an easy question to answer. the republicans in the house, this is a bicameral legislature, why have reneged on the law passed last august that set numbers. their appropriation bills have artificially lowered the numbers

and in effect violated the law that's in effect here in this congress. as a result of that, senator inouye has marked up his subcommittee bills and we can't -- and i would also say, madam president, the house was not serious about what they do. energy and water which used to be one of the most important subcommittees, most popular, i should say in addition to being important, subcommittees in this body, i was fortunate to serve on that subcommittee for more than a quarter of a century under a great -- under great leaders, domenici, bennett johnson, domenici and i switched back and forth. but the house sent us over here an appropriation bill that has more than 30 riders directed toward e.p.a. type functions alone. i mean they're not serious about

doing sage. they're serious about satisfying their tea party and the ridiculous messages they're trying to send. so -- and i would also say one of the problems problems we have we have to fight to get to anything, any legislation. we have to fight to get that done. as you know, we've wasted -- i said weeks earlier. months. trying to get legislation on the floor. so appropriation bills, i wanted to get these done, i'm an appropriator but it's been with the actions of the house unrealistic. mr. mcconnell: what we just heard, madam president, it's not the senate's house, it's the house's fault that the senate won't schedule appropriation bills that have been marked up in the senate appropriation committee. my concern here is that nobody's taking responsibility for the senate itself. we're not responsible for what the house is doing. typically these differences in what we call 302-b's, that is

what each subcommittee is going to spend, are worked out in conference. we can't have a conference on any of the bills because we haven't passed any of the bills across the senate floor. so the majority leader doesn't want to do the budget. he doesn't want to schedule votes on appropriations bills. then i would ask my friend why don't we do the d.o.d. authorization bill? mr. reid: the answer is pretty simple there too. we have spent the last many weeks working through procedural matters on bills that the republicans have held up. i've spoken to senator levin last night about that. he's the chairman of that committee. i've spoken to john mccain several times on this matter. i know how important they feel this legislation is. and i think it's important also. and we can only do what we have to do. one of the things i think i have an obligation for our country to

get to is cybersecurity. i was asked to visit with general petraeus. i did that a day or two ago. and i think that you don't have to have a briefing by general petraeus to understand how important it is to do something about cybersecurity. there are people out there making threats on this country every day, and we've been fortunate being able to stop a number of them. so we're going to have to get to cybersecurity before we get to the defense authorization bill because the on the relative merits, cybersecurity is more important, one i believe is more important than the other. mr. mcconnell: madam president, it's pretty obvious here the reason the senate is so inactive is because the majority leader doesn't want to take up any serious bills that are important to the future of the country. he mentioned cybersecurity. why isn't it on the floor?

defense authorization, why isn't it on the floor? appropriations bills, why don't we call them up? these are not partisan bills. they're widely supported. they are the basic work of government, including the budget. and i understand his view is that the parliamentarian is wrong, that we really did pass a budget. but the budget could be done with a simple majority. the appropriations bills are not partisan in nature. if there are differences in the 302-b's, they would be worked out in conference, which is the way we did it for years. we have followed the regular order occasionally, and when we have, senators have been involved. they were relevant in the process. i'll give you five examples. the export-import bk mentexport-import bk ..nce, patent reform, f.a.a. reauthorization, the highway bill, and the farm bill were all examples of when

senators were made relevant by the fact that we took up bills that actually came out of committees that were worked on by members of both parties, that were brought up on the floor, amendments were offered and in the end bills passed. the core problem here is my good friend, the majority leader, as a practical matter is running the whole senate because everything is centralized in his office which diminishes the opportunity for senators of both parties to represent their constituents. we all were sent here by different americans who expected us to have a voice, to have an opportunity to effect legislation. i would say to my good friend, the majority leader, we don't have a rules problem. we have an attitude problem. when is the senate going to get back to normal? i can recall my friends on the other side saying repeatedly the difference between the house and senate is you get to vote.

it's not a top-down organization like the house is. it's really kind of a level playing field in which the majority leader has a little more advantage than any of the rest of us and the right of first recognition. but really once a bill is called up, it's a jump ball. and what my friend, the majority leader, is saying is it's inconvenient, it's hard to work with all these senators who have different point of view and want to do different things. well, heck, that's the way legislation is passed. it's not supposed to be easy. and senators are supposed to have an opportunity to participate. and i would argue in the examples that i just cited where senators did participate both in the committee and on the floor, the senate functioned like it used to. and all this talk about rules change is just an effort to try to find somebody else to blame for the fact that the senate has been ruled essentially dysfunctional by 62 efforts by my good friend, the majority leader, to fill up the tree, in

effect, deny senators, both democrats and republicans, the opportunity to offer any amendments that he doesn't select. that's the reason we're having this problem. so it doesn't require a rules change. it requires an attitude change. and i sense on both sides of the aisle -- this is not just a republican complaint, i would say to my friend the majority leader. i've talked to a lot of democrats about this too. they'd like to be relevant again. and the way senators are relevant is for their committee work to be respected and to be important and to become a part of a bill coming out of committee. or if they didn't, an opportunity to offer an amendment, to effect it on the floor. and, sure, we have no rules of germaneness. we generally are able to work that out. when he we were in the majority, we got nongermane amendments from the democratic side, and i used to tell my members the price of being in a majority is you have to cast votes you don't

want to cast because that's the way you get a bill across the floor and get it to completion. so i would say to my good friend, the majority leader, quit blaming everybody else. it's not the house. it's not the senate. it's not the motion to proceed. why don't we operate like we used to under leaders of both parties, and understood that amendments we don't like are just part of the process, because everybody here doesn't agree on everything. that would be my thought about how to move the senate forward. but, at the beginning of this discussion the majority leader made it clear that what he said at the beginning of the congress is no longer operative. it is now his view that the senate ought to operate like the house. ought to operate like the house. a simple majority. i think that's a mistake. i think that would be a mistake

if i were the majority leader and he were the minority leader, which could be the case by the end of the year. and now i'll probably have to argue to many of my members why we shouldn't do what the majority leader was just recommending about six months before. let's assume we have a new president and i'm the majority leader next time and we're operating at 51. i wonder how comforting that is to my friends on the other side. how does it make you feel about the security of obamacare, for example? that i think's worth thinking about. the senate has functioned for quite a number of decades without a simple majority threshold for everything we do. it has a good effect because it brings people together. you have to get -- to do anything in the senate, you have to have some bipartisanship. my colleagues do. we really want the senate to become the house.

is that really in the best interest of our country? do we want a simple majority of 51 to ramrod the minority on every issue? i think it's worth thinking about over the next few months as the american people decide who is going to be in the majority in the senate and who is going to be the president of the united states. mr. reid: madam president, the republican leader has asked a few questions, so i'll proceed to answer them. i can remember reading with great interest george orwell's 1984 book where it came out that up was down and down was up. the republican leader is living in a fantasy world if he believes what he said, and i assume he does.

that's why two scholars a couple of months ago wrote a book. they have been watching washington for three or four decades. they said they have over the years been like a lot of people who are writers. the democrats did this, republicans did this. but their conclusion was what's happened in recent years is the republicans have stopped this body from working. they said that. by all of their shenanigans on these motions to proceed, creating 60 votes when it never existed before. robert karo who is writing the definitive work on lyndon johnson, one of my predecessors, said i had a very difficult job based on how the senate has changed, with what the republicans are doing. now, madam president, we have tried mightily. we've gotten a few things done.

whenever there is a decision made that they want help, a bill get passed, we get it done. but that's rare. for example, the highway bill. that bill took so long to get done. we had one major piece of legislation that we waited four weeks before they could get out of their system that instead of doing highways, we should be doing birth control, determining what birth control women should be entitled to. all of these extraneous issues. important legislation held up for one of the republicans over here decided they are a better secretary of state than hillary clinton. holding up major pieces of legislation. so i can take the criticism that the republican leader has issued. i assume that is constructive criticism, and i accept that. but i would just suggest to my

friend that if a democratic senator, as the presiding officer knows, has a problem about anything going on here, they talk to me. and i don't think there is any reason for them to talk to the republican leader. but if they do, that's more power to them. madam president, there have been volumes of pieces of legislation that have been brought to a standstill here. whoever -- why did we have now a rule that every basic piece of legislation has 60 votes? i had a meeting with senator feinstein, senator tester, senator lautenberg. and in the course of the conversation, senator feinstein looked back and said, you know, i had really a controversial amendment dealing with what should happen to assault weapons. she said, you know, that passed with a simple majority vote. no one suggested filibustering that thing to death.

that's only new. that's new. legislation being used as an excuse to stop things. now, i want the record to be very clear, and i've made it all very clear in all of my public statements about the need to get rid of the motion to proceed. madam president, i'm not for getting rid of the filibuster rule. in 1984 i suggested i think the house and senate should be the same. i do believe when the filibuster came into being was to help get legislation passed. i repeat: it's now to stop legislation from passing, and that's not appropriate. so i'm convinced the best thing to do with the filibuster is have filibusters. i've been involved in a couple of them. i'm sure i i irritated people on both of them. but i did that. one of them lasted a long time. the other one didn't last too long. the first one lasted 11 or 12 hours. that's what filibusters are supposed to be.

not throwing monkey wrenches into decision we're trying to make and then walk off the floor. the rules have to change, i acknowledge that and don't apologize it for one second. as far as how i attempt to run the senate, i do the best i can under very difficult circumstances, as indicated by the two writers, mann and orenstein. mr. mcconnell: most people think a filibuster is to stop a bill from passing. cloture is to end debate. what we've had here on at least 62 occasions while the majority leader was running the senate, for example, the time when senators were not allowed to talk, not allowed to offer amendments, not allowed to participate in the process. cloture is frequently used in order to advance a measure. but as you can imagine, when senators have no opportunity to have any input, it tends to

create the opposite reaction. but what is all of this really about? it's about making an excuse for a completely unproductive senate, much of which could have been done with a simple 51 votes -- passing a budget -- and not even bringing up bills that we all want to act on. all the appropriations bills, the defense authorization bill. and on the rare occasions when the majority leader has turned to a measure that senators have been involved in developing, we've come to the floor, we've had amendments, we've had votes, and the bills have passed.s that's the way the senate used to operate. this isn't a rules problem. this is a making excuse argument. of the senate i sense

on a bipartisan pwaeusdz would like to be -- basis would like to be more productive which would involve the use of senators' talents, speaking ability, voting and debating on the floor of the senate. since when did that go out of fashion? we have a big difference of opinion here about the way this place is being run. and it's not a rules problem. it's an attitude problem. it's a looking for somebody else to blame game. my friend, the majority leader, i think what we need to do is get busy with serious business confronting the american people. where is the defense authorization bill? where are the appropriations bills? don't blame it on the house. don't blame it on us senate republicans. we want to go to these bills. all of our members have been involved in developing this legislation in the armed

services committee, in the appropriations subcommittee, senate republicans are involved in that legislation. we'd like to see it brought up on the floor, debated and considered. what is more important than funding the government? what is more important than the defense authorization bill? why is it on the floor? that's my question of the majority leader. we can have the rules debate later. and apparently we will. but why aren't we doing anything now? that is my question for my friend the majority leader. mr. reid: this can best are answered in not my responding directly but quoting. this is from an op-ed that appeared around the country by thomas e mann and norman j. ornstein. let's just say it is the headline. the republicans are the problem. representative -- i'm quoting. representative allen west, a florida republican was recently captured on video saying there

are 78 to 81 democrats in congress who are members of the communist party. of course it's not unusual for a regular agaid member to say something outrageous. what has made west so striking is that there was a complete lack of condemnation from republican congressional leaders or party figures including presidential candidates, republican presidential candidates. it's not that the g.o.p. leadership agrees with west, it's that such stream remarks and views are taken for granted. i go on. we've been studying washington application in congress -- politics in congress more than 40 years and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. in our past writings we've criticized both parties when we believes it was warranted. today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the republican party. madam president, understand

ornstein works for the american enterprise institute, a conservative think tank. they go on to say the g.o.p. has become an insurgent outlier in american politics. it is ideologically extreme, scornful of compromise, unmoved by facts, evidence and science and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. madam president, i am a legislator, been doing it for 30 years here and for quite a few years in nevada prior to getting here and i've enjoyed being a legislator. this last few years because of what we hear from ornstein and mann has made it very, very unpleasant and for my -- for the republican leader with a straight face to come here and say why aren't we doing the defense authorization bill, why aren't we doing appropriation bills, everyone knows why we're not doing them. they haven't let us get to even virtually anything.

and to be dismissive of me because i say the republican leader in the house has been dismissive of the law we have guiding this country, i think says it all. we, madam president -- i recognize we're a bicameral legislature. we have our own things to do. but we have to take this as a whole, and look at the record. major pieces of legislation, we can't get to. for example, we can't get to something dealing with outsourcing of jobs. we're here flubling a motion to proceed to that. a motion to proceed to it. not the substance of the legislation. a motion to proceed to it. so, madam president, the record speaks for itself. the record speaks for itself. we've been studying washington politics and congress more than 40 years and we have never seen them this dysfunctional. today we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the republican party. the grand old party, the republican party, has become an

insurgent outlier in american politics, it'sed yoa lodgey cli extreme, unproved by facts, evidence and science and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. mr. mcconnell: the reason i'm having a hard time restraining my laughter, i know norm or steern and thomas mann. they're ultraliberals. their problem with the senate is the deputies don't have 60 votes anymore. their problem is the republicans control the house. their views about dysfunctionallity of the senate carry no weight certainly with me. i know this have an ideological agenda, always have and usually admit it although it's cloaked in this particular instance. but the best way to wrap it up this is nobody else is keeping the majority leader from calling up the appropriation bills, from calling up the defense authorization bill, from

calling up a budget. that's his responsibility. he has a unique role in this institution. he has the opportunity to set the agenda. and just because all 100 senators don't immediately fall into line and it may be a little bit difficult to go forward is no excuse for not doing the important and basic work that the american people sent us here to do. it's time to bring up serious legislation that affects the future of the country, that the american people expect us to act on. and not expect a hundred senators to all agree on every piece of legislation from the outset. passing bills is inevitably difficult. but not impossible. and that's been demonstrated on at least five occasions when the majority leader allowed the committees to function, allowed the senate floor to function, allowed members to have amendments, and we got a result.

mr. reid: madam president, in one committee, the energy and water committee led by senator bingaman, that committee alone has had hundreds of piece of legislation held up, can't get out of the committee. what -- you know, i'm sorry that it's an usual thing to have ornstein and mann referred to as liberals but whatever they are, working for the conservative american enterprise institute, one of them at least, it's very clear that they view this body as being in deep trouble because the republicans being dysfunctional themselves. and i think it's very clear that we have a situation here, i understand there's a presidential election going on. i clearly understand that. and i know there are efforts to protect their nominee and we do what we can to protect the president of the united states

but that should not prevent us from legislating. and for my friend, who has been on the appropriations committee as long as i have, to talk about not -- why aren't we doing the appropriation bills, it's obvious. 12 or 13 appropriation bills, we have simply not been able to get to the appropriation bills because --. mr. mcconnell: have you tried calling any of them up? mr. reid: mr. president, i don't think it calls for my being interrupted here. i've listened patiently to his name calling and i don't intend to do that but i will say this, i've tried to call up lots of things, by consent or by filing motions and virtually everything habs stopped. for him to boast about passing five pieces of legislation in an entire congress isn't anything any of us should be happy about. shouldn't be happy about that at all. we should be passing scores of pieces of legislation, like we

did in the last congress. but no, a decision was made at the beginning of this congress to do -- i may not be a direct quote but certainly substantively accurate that my friend the republican leader has said his number one goal is to stop obama from being reelected and that's what the legislation we've tried to get forward has had -- is barrel we've tried to get around continue wally. we're going to go ahead, we'll have cloture tomorrow on another -- one of our scores of times we've tried to break cloture this congress, and move on to something else. we've had 13 cloture votes on motions to proceed in the second session of the congress lien. 13. others just went away because you ran out of time to do those kinds of things. so now as indicated by the republican leader we've passed five things, that's about

one-third of the petitions i've had to file motions to invoke cloture on motion to proceed. not on legislation. mr. mcconnell: the reason it's difficult, we didn't get an agreement with the majority leader to have amendments once we do get on the bill. so the reaction on this side is if the majority leader is not going to let us have amendments, if the only result of invoking cloture on the motion to proceed is he fills up the tree and doesn't offer us any amendments, why would we want to do that? all of this is much more easily avoided than you think. the majority leader is basically trying to convince the american people that it's somebody else's fault that the senate is not doing the basic work of government. and, you know, regardless of the blame game, the results are apparent. no budget, no appropriation

bills, no defense authorization. we're not doing the basic work of government here. and that really ought to stop. and it's within the purview of the majority leader to determine what bill we try to turn to. and just because it may be occasionally difficult to get on a bill particularly when the majority leader won't say you can have amendments is no good excuse for not trying. we spend days sitting around here when we could be processing amendments and working on bills. all we need is an indication from the majority leader that these bills are going to be open for amendments. we've tried that a few times. it's worked quite well. it's amazing how the senate can function when members are allowed to participate, offer amendments, get votes and move forward. i recommend we try that more often. mr. reid: madam president, we are where we are. i think it's very clear from

outside sources -- take, for example, i repeat what caro said writing the definitive work on lyndon johnson about the difficult job i've had is because of how the senate has changed because of what has taken place in the last couple years. we have had bills that we have been able to work things out with republicans and that's pleasant. i'm glad we've been able to do. but most of the time we can't do that. we have one republican senator in tense negotiations with pakistan on a lot of very sensitive issues that wants to do something that's outside the scope of rational thinking which holds legislation up. so we've had -- we've tried very hard all different ways to move legislation in this body but for the first time in the history of the country the number-one issue in the senate of the united states has been a

procedural thing, how do we get on a bill, a motion to proceed to something. that has taken over the senate and it needs to go away. we shouldn't have to do that anymore. mr. mcconnell: the final thing i would say is just last week the chairman of the appropriations committee, senator inouye, said his committee's been working hard to have the bills ready to go. to date, the panel has cleared nine of 12 annual bills. senator inouye has is quoted as saying on july 10, just last week, after putting us all to work like this i expect some of these bills to pass. i would recommend that my good friend the majority leader heed the advice of the chairman of the appropriations committee of his party. let's pass some appropriation bills. mr. reid: madam president, i don't have a better friend in this body than the chairman of the appropriations committee. i've been one of his big fans, he's been one of my big fans. he of course is a national hero, medal of honor winner and

great chairman of the appropriations committee. we work hand in glove. everything that i have said about the appropriation process will be underscored and has been by senator inouye. he supports what we are unable to do. he realizes that. he realizes his counterpart in the house has fumbled with the numbers and makes it extremely difficult to get things done. we understand that. but the main thing, madam president, the main thing, we can't get legislation on the floor because the number-one thing that we talk talk about here in the senate this entire congress is how to get on a bill and that's why the motion to proceed must go away. mr. mcconnell: madam president, a good example of the problem is the bill we're on right now, the stabenow bill bypassed the committee entirely, introduced a week ago, a week ago, placed on the calendar. this is not the way legislation is normally done. it's crafted in somebody's

office, rule 14. brought up by the majority leader. i expect it has something to do with the campaign. we spent a week on it when we could be doing the d.o.d. bill. that's my point. what are we doing here? is the senate a messaging machine or are we doing the basic work of government? we're certainly not doing the basic work of government, but it could change. there are a vast majority of senators of both parties who would like to become relevant, who would like to participate in the legislative process, who would like to do the basic work of government. mr. reid: madam president, one of the most important issues facing america today is jobs being shipped overseas, whether it's olympic uniforms being made in china when they could be made by hickey freeman in new york, made here in america. outsourcing is an important

piece of america that we now have to deal with. and of course we have the additional problem that governor romney has made a fortune shipping jobs overseas. the american people care about this issue. we can sit here and point fingers at, boy, that's terrible, we're now going to have to deal with outsourcing. we should deal with outsourcing. we should have done it before. but we've had a little problem getting the legislation on the floor. i don't want to apologize to anyone for having a debate on outsourcing. senator stabenow has done a wonderful job on that, and we couldn't have a better senator to deal with outsourcing than her. because what we did in the stimulus bill, the american recovery act, is direct jobs back to michigan, detroit, other places, with what we did with batteries, billions of dollars there. instead of importing batteries, now we're making most of them here in america. what we did with governor

romney, we should have let the general motors and chrysler go bankrupt. we didn't do that and as a result created almost 200,000 jobs just in the auto industry alone. outsourcing is important and it's a debate we're going to have. let me remind the republican leader that it wasn't democrats that threatened to shut down the government last year and took most all the time we had. first it was the debt ceiling and after we got through the debt ceiling, they weren't going to allow us to do anything, getting funding to take us through the end of the fiscal year. it was the republican party last year that threatened to default the debts that we have as a country. now they're holding up tax cuts for 98% of the american people. 98%, in an effort to satisfy this mysterious man who i never met, but he must be a dandy, who ha