>> airline pilots association conference continues with sessions are risk-management, security and new aviation technology. you can see live coverage on c-span2 beginning at 8:00 eastern. now a discussion on issues with the latino americans. a panel of federal officials

discuss health care and veterans affairs. we will hear from the director of the domestic policy council. this is an hour and a half. >> thank you for joining us. i am honored to continue this conversation. and focusing on issues related to the latino community on education, health care and veterans affairs. what me begin by introducing my panel. deputy assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs, john garcia, a proud veteran himself,

and the department of veterans services. and veterans affairs. and in business champion of the year in 2006. . as a member of the u.s. army fourth infantry division. and with us today. and health and human services. and coordinated and timely implementation and public health and prevention and health care work force policy provisions of the affordable care act. and the center for american progress. she has had the honor of working for some of the true greats in our legislative business notably

senator dick durbin who was here recently with a group of dreamers talking about implementation of the dream act process. she has worked for them. congresswoman scalise and barack obama during his time on the hill. and charlottesville at the university of california berkeley. rodriguez serve in the white house domestic policy council as special assistant to president obama for education and was chief education council and u.s. senator edward kennedy and worked extensively on all education issues and the senate health committee on settlement -- prior to working on capitol hill where worked as senior education specialist. we conducted research and analysis for education reform

issues as well as development and evaluation of community-based education programs. he is from grand rapids, michigan. we are honored to have these incredible champions with us today to talk about this set of issues and we want to start with an overview. and what is the current state of affairs. what are the most important steps going forward? >> the center for american progress to address this issue. any veterans in the audience? and speaking to a lot of veterans. and uncle or grandfather or family members? let me just first of all begins by if i am a couple clothes and

give you a general review and try to focus on some of these. lop lopez, 21 years of age from new mexico, broken english and the rio grande river, all of a sudden in the trenches of france fighting in the trenches and writes a letter to his wife. i found this letter in the archives and he says how proud he is to be wearing the american uniform and what an honor to serve under the american flag but he went on to say not to worry about me. it is better to die a poor man with honor that rich man with no honor. very poetic. it came from the heart. during the territorial days, memoirs were recently found in

colorado springs by his grandson and he wrote on first page born in poverty the only americans i have our legacy of honor. the legacy of honor tradition that has been handed down to less and whether we got here four days ago or 40 years ago or 400 years ago. we have been here for a long time. we have contributed to the growth of this country since the early formation of this great country over forty million men and women in american uniform are soldiers, sailors, marines, coastguard. over a million have died in combat for 185,000 have been listed as pows listed in action. twenty-three million veterans in the country today. that number 1.three million. and again many of us -- we have

chicano and mexican american and spanish american and puerto ricans. whichever fits is what you feel comfortable with. we are as burst as we are. the common thread is our language and culture. we have been here for 400 years. the first citizen soldiers named places like arizona and new mexico and colorado. some said they went as far as way up north and on the map they put -- and they call it canada. a smart group. foundation of the dna that serve -- what's serve president

lincoln to care for those who won the battle for widows and orphans. that is catch on the cornerstone the day across the country. many challenges. speaking of a vietnam veteran. you could not put on your resume. and college came out, raise the hand and if you're a veteran of vietnam, or on popular to be a veteran. meet us behind the hole. so i went and there were 12 other vietnam veterans. i couldn't find work or a job.

no reason -- a big american eagle on it. an elderly world war veteran, out of service. and five of us. vietnam, new mexico was number one. it was a 4-man's world and west virginia and tennessee. he hired me because he believed in the mission oriented team environment. we leave no veteran behind and said if you do what i say in two years you have your own store and all platforms own retail stores.

not too many believed and us during this time. we learned from the past not to do. sons and daughters and grandson's and daughters. i am telling you as a vietnam vet, new things from my bench. and this administration, as a vietnam veteran, and welcomed me home. this administration believes as i do. if a man or woman raises his right hand to defend the constitution as many of us did. and on the front lines, believed

and died for it. i believe this administration does, and for jobs and education, and that is what this administration is about and what is happening to my veterans today. today there are 1.3 million hispanic veterans of a proud heritage. 5.8% of nation's veterans. they were awarded the medal of honor. the highest award in the country to give to any individual and hispanic community received the highest number of metal on recipients. if you believe me i believe that deserves applause in itself. to the formation of a country.

i just wanted an old view. most people see it as a large health-care provider. and health care system in the country. 8.4. eight.4%. 60% of veterans are not viable. and for the benefits. but be a expanded itself. and new facilities being built and 152 medical centers across the country. and the administration. and the compensation pension.

and veterans filing for benefits, you file for these benefits. you can take a horse to water but can't make it drink. and bear about 10% or 100% disabled. and active-duty service members, 90% satisfactory rating. and service members and veterans, and the closure rate of 2.2%. honors of 120 local family members. and $10 billion annually. we also provide critical brands to states. the va has the largest budget we

ever had. $140 billion in states. $8 billion of their own money. veterans coming in. and a growing number of members. the homeless are minority veterans. the unemployed, women and black and hispanic. what is happening that did not happen before. it is not just a the eighth issue anymore. and the administration, going out there. an effort that is happening out there. they told me to get there at 8:00 since 1970. not because they didn't want

that. and anything else. and an honor and privilege to serve and there are benefits out there. and many veterans going back to school. many of these are minorities and latinos going in after high school. they never file they resume before. and try to get the employer to see the training they got. to hire them. they want to hire my veterans. recently they did a job fair in detroit. and 1300 got jobs. and they got the resumes and a

lot of things happening today. business opportunities. twenty-six million -- how many are veteran known to. generating $1.7 trillion. veterans are solutions. not a problem. they're a solution to the problem. we have to look at it like that. there is an effort on hearing that and all the things going on. there's a concerted effort to focus on my veterans. this isn't happening today. we have a lot of new challenges and the greatest challenge is getting 65% coming in to the the a and leaked out to them in rural areas. it is remote. to get them to file for their

benefits. it is not just addressing the veteran. you have to address the family. got to find the white and children. it could be 30 years. the reason i came into the va was my wife's that i am trying of chasing a dragon with you. you have to go to the va yourself. i said why didn't you tell me that earlier? that makes sense. i went into the va only to find it was a very different institution and my father came home to. there are people not just the va, commerce, fda that are reaching out to the veteran community. one of the strongest resources we have in this country today. with that i will turn it to the rest of the panel members. on want to give you a general picture of the veteran community. and we can target specific issues. thank you. >> thank you so much for your service to the country and continuing to serve all those who are in uniform. many questions i want to ask

following up on that. i want to set the stage by moving on to the issue of health care. say something about the current state of affairs in the latino community. specifically steps that suggest progress. >> or. first unlike to send -- thank the center for american progress for allowing me to be here today to talk about insuring the ladder of opportunity for the latino community and all americans. from the department of health and human services are looking at each of our programs and policies, insuring the ladder of economic opportunity is a part of every one of them. if you look at our goals as a nation it is about creating jobs. building stronger communities. how is a component of every

goal, fundamental to that conversation. when you think about individuals, opportunity and not feeling well. if we have been managed -- we can't pay our rent or groceries if we have a back of unpaid medical bills and no health insurance. one effort to improve efforts for latinos across the country is the affordable care act. before i go into components of the law. how they will impact the latino community is important to emphasize sins the president came into office health has been a fundamental component of his agenda. one of the first pieces of legislation he signed was reauthorization of the health-insurance program which is a lifeline for millions of families across the country particularly latino children that make too much money for medicaid but can't afford private insurance and need somewhere to go for coverage and as a result we have more

children health insurance programs to date and before the president came into office. the latino campaign. one of the most successful efforts to target childhood obesity at disproportionate rate for the latino community because of his leadership and the first lady's effort to focus on childhood obesity and not the traditional health care sector and how we target childhood obesity but expanding that and looking fat our schools and communities and families to figure out what we could be doing more. over three years ago the passage of the affordable care act spoke volumes. if you look at the latino community one in three of us have access to health insurance. one inch we to have access to a doctor. as a result of that we don't get the care we need to stay healthy. we get diagnosed at a later point in the disease and as a

result more serious and expensive not only for the individual facing the diagnosis but the system as a whole. with the affordable care act four fundamental things improve health care for the latinos. the insurance company, we try to make health insurance more affordable. we strengthen the medicare program for beneficiaries today and tomorrow and we improve access to care. you could be kicked off of your health insurance plan because you made an accidental mistake and your paperwork. you could be told you have a lifetime limit on your insurance policy and forego a treatment for fear of brushing against the lifetime cap. children with preexisting conditions could be turned away from private insurance and have nowhere to turn for treatment and care because they don't have health insurance and the private market. now because of the affordable care act we are leveling the playing field. you could have access to health insurance that could be affordable and dependable and your health insurance will be

there when you need it most. an important provision is the opportunity for young adults to stay on their parents' plan until the age of 26. many of us know young adults to graduate high schooler college and their first job doesn't offer quality affordable health insurance. they have been able to stay on their parents' plan until the age of 26. if they're married or don't live at home so long as their employer doesn't offer the insurance they have somewhere to go for coverage and today over 900,000 latino young adults have held concerns because of that provision. if you think of preventive services one of the import barriers to make health care more affordable is reducing cost of health insurance. it is a chronic disease. the president mentioned it earlier. any chronic disease like diabetes or asthma or heart disease or cancer but latino community is often hardest-hit often because we don't go into the doctor to check up on how we

are feeling and what we're doing. we're dealing with the other day today priorities families face whether it is taking care of your children are buying groceries or paying your rent. when you have to choose between fundamental priorities for your daily lives we are going to the doctor justing case they have something you automatically know what it is going to pick. they will put their family's needs first. the law does away with those requirements so you don't have to be eco pay or deductible. recommended preventive services. colonoscopy screenings and mammograms and stay informed of the health care status and be able to be more -- and access to preventive services. think about how the health insurance premiums has written over the last few years and we see health insurance premiums grow at a rate three times --

american families can't keep up. health-insurance is too expensive and as a result dropping coverage. that is terrible news anomaly for the health of the family but long-term costs of our community. we're doing with the health care law is keep health care costs down. it is rate review. how many times have we seen in the news or heard from people we love that their health insurance premium went up 20% in one year or 40%. eighty% in one year. huge increases, now because we are setting some light on an industry that used to operate under the cover of darkness. any rate increase of 10% or more the health insurance company has to justify. we are not saying they can't raise 10%. there might be legitimate reasons the health insurance premium has to go up. you as a consumer can have the information you need to better

understand what the practices of your insurance company are doing to you and your premium. as a result of that we're seeing the health-insurance premium go up or go up at a slower rate and they are across the country acting on premiums go down. second we are trying to make sure health insurance companies are spending your premium dollars on health care services. prior to the law health insurance companies spent almost half of your premiums on things that had nothing to do with health care. overhead, marketing, ceo salary, not health care services. because of the law we have a new requirement called the 8020 rule where insurance companies have to spend $0.80 on every premium dollar on actual health-care. as a result of that we are seeing tremendous changes across the country. this summer alone twelve million people receive over $1 billion in rebates.

earlier this week my sister called me and said i got a letter from my insurance company that i am getting some money back. i want a premium. it is an exciting opportunity that everyday americans are starting to feel impact about what this what is. no longer a piece of legislation being talked about on news channels. it is hitting people where they needed the most which is their pockets and the ability to keep them and their families healthy. as our numbers are growing and more and more impacted communities across the country and it is fundamental to insuring their economic opportunity for the future and in the future nine million latinos have access to health insurance because of the affordable care act for affordable tax credits and better expansion of medicaid and opportunities to enroll in health insurance and be more empowered and take control of their health. it is an exciting time to be part of the obama administration as we look forward to ensuring

that more latinos and more americans know the benefits of the law. >> perhaps there is no more universally accepted driver of social mobility and the american dream than education. where does that dream fit for america today and the latino community, the promise of quality affordable education? >> let me begin by saying to you in the killing my colleagues, thank you for hosting today's conversation. an exciting time for education in our country. it is a time for change. the president has set forth a path that drives ambitious change, seeks to spur reform in our schools because we know we need to do better if we are going to reach this goal of

providing the middle class. and some of the reforms being put into place right now -- let me step back a moment to the president's address to a joint session of congress when he first took office and identified education along with health care and energy as key pillars for moving our country forward. education and strengthening our education system is a key pillar for individual opportunity and individual mobility. it is the key prerequisite for individual mobility but beyond that we also know that education is a key economic driver which is something the president continues to return to because we have an economy shifting and changing and growing and demands greater skill, deeper knowledge, more creative and well-equipped knowledgeable work force moving forward and education is the key

to get there. when you look at the nexus between education and the latino community, collective success as a country depends on the success of the latino community and requires we do more to drive educational attainment in the latino community and you need to look at the numbers here. if you take a look for instance at growth of the latino community and the latino community will account for 60% of the labor force moving forward by 2050. in four years we have 40% of our jobs that require some type of post secondary education and training and 30 of our fastest growing occupations require bachelor's degree in. it is clear the latino community has been a central part of the fabric of our history and the fabric of making this country great and moving forward. the latino community will

continue to be the central part of that fabric but educational attainment is a key element of that. we need to be doing a better job closing the achievement gaps and providing a clear path way for each and every one of our young people in a latino community to graduate serve the president's focus on broad goals providing competitive education for each and every one of our students from cradle for a career and that requires that we do more to spur change and drive reform in our schools because we know the status quo in our schools and our educational programs right now and higher education system demands change and greater opportunity and greater focus on outcomes for the latino community. with the state of the latino community for every 100 latino

kindergartners 63 will graduate from high school, 32 will complete some type of post secondary education and only 11 will complete a bachelor's degree. .. >> and we know that there our schools readiness gaps that loom as large as 60 points,

kindergarten entry between low-income children and their more afford. those gaps begin at early sh three we started the early vocabulary language literacy gaps across our society and across the country. so when you take that combined with the fact that latino children are the largest segment of our child population in the country today, and that we know that they are the largest growing segment of our young population, and yet are less likely than their other appears to be able to participate fully in a high quality early childhood education program. we know that they are less likely at age two, our latino children, to express vocabulary skills compared to their peers and that manifests itself action at kindergarten entry as well around language and mathematics knowledge, social and emotional development, other key indicators.

so it's critical that we do more to expand a high quality earl -- early childhood education. the president begin that work by really investing heavily in our current federal framework of programs through the recovery act. the invested over $5 billion to expand key programs like head start which serves about a third of our children in head start today our latino children, to expand programs like the childcare and develop an block grants, expand programs like ide a to do more, to advance from visiting. and all of this is driven to doing more to really expand and strengthen the network of current federal programs that serve our children under five. but we also have to do more to really challenge states to establish a more coordinated, integrated and focused system of early childhood education. focused on one key goal which is to really close the school

readiness gap. so through that the president has launched the race to the top growth learning challenge and this is an initiative that secretary duncan and sibelius have worked to shape that. now we have nine states that are moving forward with plans to establish high standards of quality and a rating system for all other programs so that regardless of where children's -- children spend time, we know that there are opportunities for them to move forward, to participate in higher quality programs and ultimately focus on doing more to expand outcomes to close the school readiness gap. we have nine states that have persisted in the that were announced just last december. go be another additional five states that will take on this race to the top early learning challenge act. by the end of this year. and begin to move forward with that state level reform that is so needed. because in early childhood education we are really just

decades behind our k-12 and higher education students in terms of spring to change an opportunity that her kids need to exceed. in k-12 reform are trying to do more to really open the doors of opportunity by raising expectations across our k-12 system. expectations for students, expectations for the adults in the system, expectations or teachers, for our principles, for school superintendents, for are decision makers, community leaders, policy makers at every level. we simply have to of our game when it comes to elementary and secondary education at payment. when we look internationally we have fallen behind and that manifests itself in key subjects like science and math. but also manifests itself as we look at our college attainment rates and we see that we have slipped from first in the world, just a generation ago, the 16th in the world and the number of our young people who hold a college degree relative

to other countries like south korea, canada, japan, others that have raced forward. and are using education as an engine to drive the economy and the country forward. that entergy brings us back to the need for change in k-12 education, and there we've launched an ambitious race to the top with less than 1% of the total amount of college that is spent on education. we've said if states are willing to commit to a comprehensive systemic plan for reform in their schools, to really improve the effectiveness of their teachers and to focus on making sure that the teachers have the support and assistance they need to succeed, and we are focusing on outcomes of the classroom to really evaluate and advance, determine or teachers that are most effective, use them in new ways to take on new roles and responsibilities, determine those teachers that are least effective, do more to help them succeed. if they are not able to succeed, asking to take out a new profession because our kids can't wait. we can't afford another

generation that falls through the cracks here. so race to the top is also doing more to raise standards, to college and career readiness. under the no child left behind act with over 15 states that actually lowered their standards in reading and math because of some of the accountability incentives in the law. no child left behind had great potential, and i think some really, it's really important things around accountability, and around establishing advanced standard reforms. it didn't provide incentives to states need to be able to raise their standards. so through race to the top we said if you're willing to ration stamps, went to focus on teachers effectiveness, you are willing to do more to expand innovation in your system and to turn around your lower performing schools we will provide a grant to help your state move forward with their systemic reforms. we saw over 36 states respond to this challenge by making some level of change in the policies

and their practices, many of them raising standards. we at number 45 states and the district of columbia have raised their standards to college and career ready level. in part -- with 19 states, in part response to raced to the topic with 19 states now that are moving forward with this call to race to the top. that covers a third of our latino children across the country. millions of our latino student going to benefit from those reforms to the other challenge we have in the k-12 level is around the dropout rate. in our latino communities the dropout rate, again, i mentioned will have a 67 of 100 of our kindergartners that actually successfully cross that finish line in high school and continuing. but in many of our neighborhoods, many of our communities, that dropout rates looms even larger. we are losing half, sometimes

60, 70% of her students we are losing to this dropout challenge. it's a crisis of the lack of engagement in our schools, and engagement of that youth. it's a crisis in the lack of providing an effective level of instruction for those kids to be able to make sure that they are successful and staying on track to college and career readiness. and for too long too many of our schools have really languished behind and we allow that to happen. so when you look nationally, you have about 1700 high schools that account for over half of america's dropouts. three quarters of our latino dropouts can be traced to these schools. so the good news is, if we have the will and we have the resources and we commit to turning around the schools, we can essentially help to curb the dropout rate and turnaround performance. and that's what we tried to do.

$4.5 billion investment the president made in the nation's lowest performing schools. and across the country now there are over 1300 schools who are embracing new reforms, who are taking on new challenges, who are looking a staffing in the schools really trying to get the most effective teachers and leaders in those schools, and in front of our young people, revamping curriculum, providing a level of comprehensive services, wraparound services for our students, engaging parents and families, and that ultimately will have tremendous potential. now, with some early results in from that work the show that some places we are seeing even double-digit gains in math and some of the schools, that historically have been left behind in some of our lowest performing schools. then finally in higher education we have done more to really advance affordability and access and attainment in higher education, toward the

president's goal to again lead the world with the highest proportion of college graduates by the end of our decade, by 2020. and the key part of that equation has been the passage of the health care and education reconciliation. what did that bill do? that bill close a loophole that had been going to banks and financial middlemen to originate student loans. it closed that loophole, which we could not afford in the country over 10 years, that was subsidizing that industry at $68 billion. it reinvested over $60 billion in higher education opportunities for our young people. that means we've grown the pell grant by over $900 maximum award of $5550 for our nation's students. we have doubled the number of students are taking advantage of the pell grant. over the course of those

reforms, that means will have over 2000 more latino at -- that's a lifeline. it means we've invested in community colleges. that's a central hub for the higher education pathway for millions of americans, and in particular for our latino students. we're disproportionately, we disproportionately use community colleges as a stepping tool towards higher education. and through efforts that are secretary of labor is leading, through the taa program we have done more to fortunate industry partnerships now across all 50 states by investing $2 billion in our community colleges and in the potential to partner with industry. because to really open career pathways for our young people and for adults returning to career training and education. we've also done more to make

sure that our student loan programs are more generous, and the president talked about the importance of making sure students are able to manage their students after they graduate. student debt is not outpaced credit card debt. we've seen tuition spike across the country, and that's been really crunching the middle-class, in particular crunching our latino community families and households. so we're trying to do more to address that answer new efforts that the president has announced, we will now have a new program that will have the monthly repayments for student loans at 10% of a students, undergraduates income. so they will be able to upload -- afford those. and scratches decide to go into public service after 10 years the remainder of the student loan balance will be forgiven. that's a huge boom for our latino community. is a really important step forward. finally, come we're trying to do more to make sure that we're taking on the investments that

are needed in our hispanic serving institutions, minority serving institutions. over half of our latino students in education are at hsi. the president has invested over $8 billion just to help support that framework of colleges and universities, to help move our latino graduation rate forward. we also have to focus on attainment. we don't just want a conversation about access and affordability, but we need to make sure that all of our colleges are putting in place the reforms they need around persistent and completion for our students. and so the president has announced new efforts and proposed a new race to the top that congress is looking at around higher education to help states focus on college completion goal. as well as the new first in the world fund that would really help spur innovation and drive innovation in our higher

education, across our colleges and universities. we believe a lot of our college presidents have wonderful ideas to help move that sector forward. we just need to do a better job of identifying what works and scaling that up, shining a bright light on those strategies. so these are just some of the efforts that are underway but ultimately it's all hands on deck propositioned education reform, we don't have a go it alone attitude here at the federal level. we believe that families need to purchase but in the process, parents, students need to purchase they. states need to participate. we all have this collective responsibility to our latino communities to really raise attainment at every level, and that the collective responsibility we have and there's a moral imperative but there's also a strong economic imperative moving forward. >> thank you so much. i want to talk about veterans unemployment. you spoke very powerfully about

the difference between our complete failure as a nation and embracing returning veterans, like yourself, from vietnam. and in so many ways i think that this administration, this country have major that that's not happen with our afghan and iraq veterans. and one of the most powerful voices for that has been the vietnam veteran stem cells but i know what i served on the veterans affairs committee was the most powerful voice for demanding that we live up to this problem. and you talk about some very powerful ways in which we're doing that on mental health, on health care in general. and job fairs that you mention. we've seen the percentage of the army, that is latino doubled since 1994 and we are a stronger nation for, but we also see high levels of unemployment for returning hispanic veterans. what our specific challenges in the employment area for hispanic veterans, and what can be done

to solve the problem? >> let me first say, you know, when you go in the military he put the american uniform on, you serve the american flag. a that is a that is if it. and a veteran takes care of that. when you take that uniform off and you fall back into your community or in the rural mountains or wherever you're from, you fall back into some of those rights that you have. many of the veterans that are going into they are right out of high school. every one of them has an education. they have an opportunity to go to school. whether they use it or not that is the challenge, but one of the most effective bills behind this administration, post-9/11 g.i. bill that has encourage our veterans to go back to school. right now with 17 points

$5 billion post-9/11 g.i. bill benefits, more than 710,000 veterans in and in rome for 2012, 420,000 individuals went back to school. of the challenges for some of the veterans is that, and it's been a partnership before it is to be let the va take care of you. and the va wasn't in the land of finding jobs. it was dol, they're all teaming because the now a nuclear has come onto the. because of joining forces led by mrs. obama and mrs. biden, it's a collaboration of the private sector team he was the federal government and helping find veterans jobs. and so right now the u.s. chamber of commerce is teaming up with the communities and states to do 400 job fairs across the country. but what the va has put in place that complements that is va for vets. one of the biggest challenges

that's not funny for veterans, it's getting the veterans put on its resident what is killed or training were, getting to understand how to translate that and have the h.r. person can read that 11 b. and who knows what 11 b. is. i told you i was 1 11 be in the military. that means i was infantry. and you said what can infantry do? well, critical thinker, able to solve problems quickly, team oriented, able to work in a hard environment. to me that's a very critical kind of employ that you want to hire. there are other skill sets -- that's what we are working on with dol and va on commerce and within the va. but i think some the challenges are, is to get the word out in the community. getting the word out bilingually, getting the word out in spanish.

i don't see who sees a lot of ads or marketing pieces to the latino community about filing your benefits, or able to translate it, which is your form you can when you get out of the military. and send it in. let me give you a case in point that is difficult to find a vet. it's not that they're not showing up. it's the percentage that are out there that are not come into file for those benefits, to receive them. and that's the challenge. in my state has a state director, up new mexico, we would send out a welcome package to veterans coming home. everyday i would get a form and i would send hundreds of welcome home packets, 65% of them would come back address unknown. i don't know where they are at. so there's no discussion to get dod and the va to link together to talk. and the states to link is but i

should be able to say who my veterans are that it's coming out of the military are coming back to my state. but one simple act that we requested on the form online 19 b., and i'm sure when you're on the health of veterans affairs are probably came up, and that's just to add on the form that young man or woman, his e-mail address. notches his own mattress, his e-mail address because that's what they are using right now. when i came home from vietnam there was no e-mail, okay? my home of record was my address. but i didn't return back to that home of record actors, the va couldn't find me. when 9/11 occurred, when the twin towers collapse and the va was inundated with vietnam veterans, came out of the woodwork with a new gulf war vets now the iraqi vets. then there's this issue of backlog, the asia backlog is because we're doing a good job

of outreach and getting more veterans now to try to file. they haven't done enough. so we are getting out over 1 million applications but yet we're getting over 1 million more in. so it is outreach that it's communicating in a cultural lies environment to my latino veterans in that community, making them aware. but also more importantly, making their families aware. making that family, that wife or mother or father aware that there are benefits that that veteran has earned and he is entitled to. but getting that veteran to say yes, i want to fight for those veterans, those benefits. >> utah education in the states, i've got to tell you this case in point him in my state, new mexico, i did a case study to find how many veterans were rolled in this high earning -- learned that i know i had 30,000 iraqi, afghanistan veterans back on that gaming. in my state. i knew they were back, thousands of them. so we did a survey.

we found 4000 enrolled in institutions of higher learning. that meant that 26,000 are not enrolled in school. everyone had a 30-35-$40,000 education package. $500 million floating around. so we had to sit with her education higher ed and political to say look, i've got $500 million floating around the state, so their eyeballs opened up. how do we think of capture that and bring them to the university? now the university president wants to put together student vets on campus. create a student vet office. legislation is dropped in passed to encourage in state tuition for veterans because they see this as a money market now thing. when i went before my legislative guys and i said my veterans need education, housing, jobs. they said john, all your vets want our license plate. they show up on veterans days with hats. that's the perception. we say military come to think of

a young man or woman. but today they're young, individuals right out of high school. many are latinos and other ethnicities that are coming out of the military, trained by the world's greatest country with great job skills. so when we talk about education i just want to tell you, develop a conference of job package, this administration has put together 12 sup once. if i could just highlight a few of them. passing a tax credit for veterans your increasing hiring veterans in -- first responders and law enforcement officer, putting veterans to work preserving and restoring america's land and resources to developing online employment, increasing as six for redeployment services. challenging the private sector to hire and train veterans and spouses. supporting veterans entrepreneurship. 3.6 million veterans have got down on to note training program going on to get these men and women back in to open up companies.

because do you know what they're going to do? they're going to hire vets. f. i 3.6 million veterans company owners and ask them to hire, what did i just do? we solve the unemployment problem by unemployed vets. so this president recognizes that. that's why you're seeing the u.s. chamber and these corporations engage in it because now it becomes a win-win situation. so these are just some of those initiatives that are being put in place, making federal government a model employer, the interagency council, 200,000 veterans have been hired right now within those systems. expanding small business opportunities for veterans, and the creation of a military license task force to many of our veterans have been trained as medics doing battle applications, saving men and women that gnome should have died in the battle. out give you a case in point. tammy duckworth he was with these va's, assistant secretary, lost both her legs.

she told the story that when they found her after her chopper crashed they threw it in the chopper with the others. but i met it saw a little bubble, a little blood bubble. he realized she was alive and he saved or. she became assistant secretary and she is running for congress right now. there's a lot of these kind of stories. one of the case was, normally i congratulate is to understand these case in point. i met walter reid hospital, and i see a young man sitting in a chair, good looking hispanic young man that you women which is love. big old brown eyes, good looking guy, after looking kind of guy, very energetic, very articulate. and he's excited because i went up to him and his mother was standing next to them. she's a latina woman that you would see and a restaurant or hotel making your bed or serving you the food. he wouldn't give it a second thought.

she didn't speak any english and she told me how she brought her son to this country when he was two years old. and he join the military so he could get his citizenship. and he was so excited to tell me a story of a joke than the purple heart on them. but he was more excited because he got his citizenship papers. but as he told me that, he was sitting in that wheelchair with no legs. he gave his legs up for this country to get his citizenship papers. and we are arguing about immigration? when i have men, latino men and women serving this country. you know, for the honor and distinction of wearing the military uniform. i met walter reed hospital in and the keyboard. i meeting with a young man who got his arms in a brace and cast. missing one arm and one leg. he wanted me -- of which he shake his hand real gently, and so i should get real gently.

i was afraid to shake it hard. he said are you a vietnam vet? i suggest that you. he said shake my hand like you meant it. okay. and sitting next to him was a latino girl, a young attractive lady. and i said boy, your boyfriend is a pretty tough guy. she said that's not my boyfriend, that is my son. she was 36 usual. but she said his grandfather is a vietnam vet. what? you know, we don't see ourselves like that. but the point of want to make is a truly hit me that the -- the torch has been passed a new generation and it is our duty, there is a collective effort of change going on and it's occurring in this administration right now. some the things, those 12 steps, those are new initiatives set out to help these veterans find jobs. the key is to get the word out, get them to come in, to file for benefits because they don't how they will not give them.

so that's what's happening right now. i think the post-9/11 g.i. bill is an indication for that change. it's one of the greatest tools we have. the montgomery g.i. bill, educate a whole new generation when our fathers got back from world war ii. they elected legislators, congressman judges and mayors but today i guarantee i can go in the house and senate and ask him events and i will find maybe only 10% of the body. but we've got to elect more of our veterans that are coming back, strong, and they are intelligent, bright, and many of them are latinos and the keenest of serving. that number will increase 55, what, millions of hispanics now in the country. over a trillion dollars buying power. you've got to be kidding me. we are there. so many costly is my house. and it is still cost now. let's everyone share and create a level playing field to i think that's what you're hearing now. i'm just so excited about that i

may not answered it but i think there are some opportunities efforts out there right now, more so than there's ever been before for my veterans. so we just work together on it, we will find that there are a lot of issues, problems. we have a long ways to go. we have a lot of work to do, but a lot has been done. >> we're going to open up for questions from the oddest of one question for ms. alvarez first, going to the strongest the most a row among us, to the most normal, you talked about many aspects of the affordable care act. one i wanted you to touch on before which would open is the question market remains which is the issue of -- what would be, what are the stakes right now for the conversation about states implement the medicaid expansion and particularly for the latino communities. spent absolutely. for those his mother with the medicaid program, they say it's a light side for millions of the

most vocal in our committees, particularly poor americans and americans living with disabilities. the affordable care act provide states tremendous opportunity to expand medicaid program to even the more vulnerable community amongst us. so prior to the law, medicare generally covered certain categories of people. say have a pregnant woman, or a parent of a child, and in some states, at a very, very low level of poverty, sometimes 12% of the poverty level or 18% of the poverty level. what the law did is create a safety net for all americans to be able to rely on the medicaid program. based on states that choose to expand their programs, those categories will go away. so americans living below about 133% of poverty, which is about $12,000 for an individual, regardless if they're pregnant or a parent, will have somewhere to go for coverage.

again with a supreme court decision we left the decision up to the states. but from the departments perspective it really is an issue of opportunity and what the federal government is doing for that expansion for states. for the first three years of the expansion, 2014, 15 and 16, the federal government will pay every penny of that expansion opportunity to states won't have to put any new investment in carbon from our most normal. that determines a particular states of money on the table and to also care for their most vulnerable. then in the future the federal assistance will go to 95%, and that goes down to 90%. so the bulk of the financial responsibility of that expansion would fall to the federal government. and that really does rest on the fact that caring for the uninsured, caring for the most vulnerable, stealing a line, it's not just a moral imperative. it really isn't economic imperative for americans across the country.

all of us to have private insurance today, we pay about $1000 extra each year to come say for the uninsured. the uninsured that are going to our emergency rooms at the last minute, the uninsured that don't have a medical or don't have a committed health benefits and recommend and going to the emergency room, and, frankly, are raising the cost of taxpayers in the community. by having a more insured population we are able to focus on health of the committee and on the economic well being of americans in general. so it's an exciting conversation that we're having and we look for to continue to work with them so they have the flexibility they need to implement the medicaid program. >> a lot more questions for mr. rodriguez and others by what others to have a chance. so if you want to raise your hand, a microphone will be brought out.

>> we represent the federal trio program, the 19% of our students are hispanic latino, and my question actually is more a request for your assistance, and generally, you mentioned how a lot of the agencies have started to work together to try to provide access to services and more copperheads of services for our veterans. we have recently learned that our veterans programs is going to be at least a month late in delivering. that means that our programs can all of them are going to shut down at the beginning of the academic year. just when the veterans will need their help the most. so i guess my question is to solicit your help and funneling that gap and getting his programs through so we can continue the pipeline of services. you are dealing with better to come back. they have been out of school for a long time. if they've been to school at all. there's a lot of discouragement, a number of reasons for them not to go. so we don't want government

processes to become another factor. >> you're asking for a collaboration of help, and i think anyone of us us would be glad to do that, given this institution would be glad. i think it would be vitally important right now, and that's what i think that joining forces is about. it's raining all those resources together and giving them -- it's bringing all those resources together and going out to the committee to at how can we reach out to the latino community, national hispanic chamber of commerce, the g.i. forum, your organization. a lot of organizations out there that are doing good work need that kind of support. i think it's identifying those groups. whatever i can do to help you with a, and everyone who would be glad to do that. >> we are happy to know. just to build on john's

comments, too, i'm glad you raised the question because our trio programs are important investment in this broader effort to really boost college attainment and completion, and ultimately they are great lifelines to be up to help are first generation college goers, some of our lowest income students the able to successfully complete their degree and find a job. so whether it is up or down or talent search, veterans upward bound is a tremendously successful and important investment and program. out upward bound math and science program, all these programs are an important part of this broader effort to really get more of, whether it's a returning vet or some of our young people even start as early as 19 or 10th grade, the education that they need to be able to come at the pathway they need to be able to successfully complete a degree. >> next question.

>> good afternoon. i work in the environmental field, and i really appreciate all the information you've given us about the services and information that can go out to latino community. i would like to turn this conversation a little bit on its ear in the spirit of create a dialogue. in my field which is sustainability and environment, i have observed over the years that there's a great deal to be gained from the knowledge and experience of a latino culture and latin american immigrants who come to this country in terms of agricultural experience, foodways, cultural kind of insights into resource use. rather than always talk about what we can bring him to our latino residents and friends in this country, i want to ask you what is your perception about how can the latino cultural experience, especially in the area of environment and resources, informal our general conversation and policies

related to sustainability in particular? >> well, i can begin by commenting, not a specific on environmental questions certainly, those are important questions as well, i will say when it comes to the endeavor of education, the strength of our system really is dependent on the participation and contribution of our latino family. and of their experiences, and other expectation, and the cultural norms to educational attainment. when we look at parents and we do surveys, for instance, of latino households around the country. you find that education often is one of the highest ranked priority among our latino families. because i think there's a real acknowledgment that it is such an a port and part of our ladder

towards the middle class, towards economic mobility, and ultimately toward truly fulfilling the american dream. so the participation of our let you know parents and families and their schools is an important part of the quality of schooling for our kids. and what we are focused on and the administration, what more we can do to really facilitate that collaboration between our schools, for instance, and our families so that all those families feel welcomed, regardless of whether they're working two jobs or they may not speak english well, there's a clear pathway to be able to really engage schools and help students succeed. i think if you look at some of the attributes of our spanish language and our latino culture in curriculum and in program design, when you look at, for instance, some of our successful bilingual education programs, we

have successful dual language programs where our children are in classrooms learning english and learning spanish, becoming by literate and migrate six that are outperforming their monolingual peers in terms of their language and literacy language develop and. so we have rich culture and a rich fabric that makes up our communities and our families and our neighborhoods. and i think every endeavor in our public policy process can benefit from that, those great attributes. >> i couldn't agree more. i think a lot of us talk about having the cultural competent workforce, and sure that we have better training and be able to better understand people that coming that might not come from the same culture. i think one of the clearest ways

to build a culturally competent workforce is to try and ensure that your workforce reflects the community you serve. one of our strongest ways to make that happen has been heavily invested in by the obama admission from that's the national health service corporate for those not familiar, is an opportunity to give scholarships and loan repayment programs to students that are interested in pursuing health profession. what we ask is for in exchange for two years of service in an underserved committee across the country. i could be an inner-city, a rural area, a tribal community. in exchange for those two years we will pay two years back of your health profession school, medical school, nursing school, social work, different professions where we know that we need to do this, dedicated to the field and one note that we conserve our most underserved communities by having this exchange. as a result of that we are able to invest in creating a stronger health care workforce that

oftentimes is much more diverse than the traditional health care workforce. think of positions in general. if you look at the make up of the physician workforce, less than 5% of physicians in this country are latino. when you look at the physician workforce in the national health service corps, 20% are latino. it's clear that this financial incentive, scholarship loan repayment is making a tremendous difference for latino medical student, nursing student, physician assistants. and that opportunity is going to help diversify our health care workforce and, therefore, be able to be more culturally competent. not only with the patients themselves but with her colleagues as they work in oriented facilities, and being able to meet the diverse needs of our community. i couldn't agree with you more that there are truly so many lessons to learn, that are from diverse backgrounds and i think it only adds to the experience what it is health care or energy or education if we invest in those community and ensuring they are a part of our

workforce. >> just quickly because i know you're running close on time, but because you want to turn it on the isn't a thing, one quick thing. out of this war, tbi is a signature injury. the second is tedious the. post-traumatic stress disorder. tbi being dramatic -- >> traumatic brain injury. to me, ptsd as post-traumatic spiritual disorder. it's a damaging of the spirit. when you talk about what the environment can do or health care, there's a need to address ptsd -- the military is great in turning the switch on but not all. in many latinos, very macho. in a, my wife and my two daughters gave me a module exit a long time ago. i was able to transition easily. but many of my latino veterans have a hard time of dealing, in letting it out or expressing themselves. so through nature therapy,

acupuncture, yoga treatment, fishing, all of that, that is an environmental base heating process that is being recognized right now. and i think it's something that we're going to keep looking at and growing with a partner. there is a need to create a national ptsd while the center. and we created the vet centers, the vietnam vet centers, for veterans to talk to each other, therapy, that worked at to me, and then it institutionalized itself. personally i think the next evolution will level as well the street set for veterans. to deal with ptsd. post traumatic spiritual disorder, but not just veterans, rape crisis victims, first responders. the whole country suffers from

ptsd. i think looking at the time and wellness can heal a nation also, and help heal my veterans when they are coming home. so the area you're touching on i think can really be looked at and expanded. you said you wanted to put it on its ear. that our models out there that is doing that. >> as we invite up the next special guest, please join me in thanking this wonderful panel for their public service and for the comments. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> a program that focus on changing demographics and implications of that for our nation. i'm very excited to have you with us today, the director of the domestic policy council at the white house, which coordinates domestic policymaking process at the white house. prior to this role she served as deputy assistant to the president and director of into governmental affairs which she oversaw the obama admission relationship with state and local government. before joining the obama administration, she served as a female vice president for the office of research advocacy and legislation of the national council of the rosa. the nation's largest civil rights organization. to supervise policy staff covering a variety of issues important to latinos. our particular area of expertise is immigration policy. i also have to tell you that she is a fellow -- very proud of

that. any was, i will invite her to come up so we can start our conversation. >> so, we heard about a lot of issues this morning. very important issues for the health care, jobs, small businesses it and wanted to start off our conversation by the fact that in this administration we've seen so many latino appointed officials throughout. of course, having you there in the white house is important but we still lack in terms of latinos in the federal workforce. what is being done? not just for the federal workforce overall but also in the senior executive service which is a very important position. >> it's a great question and it's a long-standing challenge. as latinos were underrepresented in federal service, especially under rep said that the most senior levels and i'm happy to say that the office of personnel

management which is run by our human -- -- he understands the problem very deeply and is very committed not just to increase latino participation but, in fact, diversity and the federal workforce overall. at it is an entrance challenge that requires changes at opm. and requires changes at the federal agencies but it's the place where we are beginning to make progress. john has sort of dedicated a task force to work on these issues in each of the federal agency is responsible for developing a strategic plan to make sure we're engaging everybody, from cabinet secretaries to the people who are making the high decisions, and the process of making sure that we are ramping up diversity and the federal government. it is a challenge that we in 10 to be successful in, but it's also something that i think as a

federal government, we will also be sort of helping and support in doing, in the years i've been doing employment policy issues, one of the things we learned is that people end up in particular positions because of network. and so one of our challenges is making sure that we connect to networks in the community so we are driving applicants to the jobs. we have to be both working at what the federal government does and we also have to be working at the committee's understanding of what is available, people's preparation for the jobs that are available to we're coming this problem from both directions. has a deep commitment of the president and returned to see some progress. >> speaking about preparation and just being ready to take on those jobs, we know that the high school graduation rate for latino is that what needs to be. a huge problem not just in terms of our own community but looking for ethic about future workforce. and outlined a number of

initiatives this administration has intimated, but what, is there hope to turn things around? and what are some the specific things that you're excited about in terms of both closing the achievement gap, make sure kids graduate but go to college and graduate from college. >> this document that is in the back of the for people who are here and that will be on the white house website tomorrow below are not in the room. it's an update of report that outlines the various priorities and accomplishments of the administration with respect to the latino community. the reason i raise now is because a big chunk of this has to do with the work that we're doing on education. and i know that roberto talked about it in detail but i mean, i wouldn't you say that there's a sense of urgency. it's almost beyond a sense of urgency. the way i like to describe education secretary arne duncan is someone who is literally on fire with a sense of urgency about making sure that we're

preparing our kids and by that he means all kids, for the challenges in the 20 century economy. so you have, what we learned issue have to do that at every level. you have to make sure that we're doing everything we can to make sure kids are prepared when they enter kindergarten to we have a lot of work to do with k-12 and the net to continue to higher education education. then you can't come at various points in my career i have watched folks kind of spoke of some passionate focus on particular parts. what we learned how to be excited about all of it. you have to be spurring reforms simultaneously. so the race to the top model is something that we are excited about because we bought a lot of reform with the money that we invested in a race to the top program. destruction that program the way we did, we didn't just say all right, these are grants available and the grants are

going to produce changes. because states are going to get money and implement changes. rather, we asked the states to compete for the grants by making them eligible for the only if they put together particular reforms, and 46, 47 states do that. so whether i'm not they got the grant, they ultimately move forward with reforms and the reforms are designed specifically not, to close caps, to identify specifically whether our disparities and make sure the states are really invested in putting forward and implement policies that are about addressing those achievement gaps. so it's an encouraging sign. it's an important model. we're beginning to see signs of change through those kinds of investments, turn around schools, where we're starting to see some real results. and then applying those successes on the mall to the early childhood concept where the race to the top model, we're trying to do the same thing for higher education where we use

the race to the top mall to promote reforms among other things that will bring college costs down. we have to be doing all of it at the same time. we have a great sense of urgency about the matches at the white house but in the department. >> the cost of college, a huge concern for our communities, not on just getting hours to college but how do you pay for the. especially around student loans, debate we just had, what are some of your thoughts on what needs to happen? >> this is part of that whole pipeline we talked about, the president talked about this, and again has a great sense of urgency about, making sure that the college education doesn't become a luxury that only a very few can't afford. that is completely inconsistent with who we are as a country, with the way we build the american economy and how we're going to continue to grow the economy for the future. so while we just want a battle to keep the student loan rates,

only for you, that is one small piece of a broader agenda. so as i mentioned, use the race to the top model to create a program to encourage reforms and competitions that aimed at driving costs down. and the federal government is doing its part by expanding access to pell grants, which are serving about 150,000 more latinos under this administration than previously. and the american opportunity tax credit. that's part of the federal government peace, but the federal government also can't do this by ourselves. we need the states. and when the president visited with the governors last february, this is where he spent his time as you wish for money for them that 40% of them had kept education budgets, and that if we are going to be keeping college costs down we can't end up in a situation where we're providing resources to students and their states and colleges

turn around and up their tuition rate as a result of that. so states have a role to play, and in the colleges and universities themselves have a role to play. and so i've been part of an the sector has been part of a lot of roundtable conversations with leaders in higher education sector, university presidents, to talk to this and talk about how to create incentives for them to push costs down. and expanding the value proposition. so we would the consumer financial protection board developed is so that, and i can say this as a parent of one colleges and another what he was about to be, so that families like ours can be making informed decisions, where we're getting ready to write those big checks and take out those loans. and so we've got colleges representing more than 1 million students so far as to agree to use these materials so that as a parent and as a student you can look at the information, figure

out what the is a great, what is a low, what will my payments look like. and what is the value? like, how many students does this college place in jobs? how many are able and not able to repay their loan? loans -- those are all pieces of the puzzle all of which have to be place to try to college costs down. the other thing i will add is that of the policy innovation which were very proud of, pay as you earn system. so that if you're a student on the other end of the higher education process and you are struggling to manage your college debt, you can sign up with the department of education to pay back, to manager that you're only paying 10% of income and loan payment. that's for if you go into public service for example, that's a huge benefit. so that is the department of education is doing an excellent job in making that accessible to people. >> that's important for all families across our nation, but going off that, obviously the

president's announcement in june about the dreamers. of course, we talk about college and talk about youth, was such welcome and important news for our community. and i wanted of course, we are all went to see how this is going to work out, and i want to ask you what are you worried about insurance of the process itself? >> so this process starts on august 16 and u.s. i guess just announced last friday the parameters of with this process will look like. i think our three is the more information people have, the more equipped you'll be able to make the decision about whether to come forward to ask for action and be prepared to provide for the materials. one of the big worries, and i know that there are leaders of the caucus out to talk about this, whenever there's new kind of immigration issue, there are folks out there from our own community who prey on our own. there have been advertisements, pay me 1000 bucks and i hope you

thought your application. there's no need to do that because there's a process where information is a fable for people to do this on their own or to get legal help only if they need. so one of the big challenges is making sure that the people who are affected by this body are with information. so that is a major worry. i guess they're doing quite a good job in keeping with this sort of unauthorized practice of law issue, while simply making solid easily understood information available to people to get into the process to that hopefully will go a long way to make sure that it will be successful. >> i know we're running out of time so i will open up her health care and then q&a from the audience. but you heard her very about -- [inaudible] being upheld by the supreme court issued an important. the exchanges at the local level are very important to what is

content to make sure that our community understands the process so that they can access change is? >> this is a big question. latinos benefit more from the affordable care act argued we than any other consistency because we're more likely to be uninsured than any other constituency. so we have an enormous challenge in making sure that those benefits are realized in our committee. so one of the really important mechanisms that we are using is health care.gov in english and in spanish which actually we have been, traveled around the country, going o on to read, meeting with committee groups talk about this, to make sure that they know what tools are available so that they can help have this conversation around the country. it both explains what's of able under law but it also helps secure the health plan that helps you make apples to apples comparisons come you can dial up and down your coverage, and find

a plan that is affordable. it is an extraordinary internet tool. we just had to make sure people know about it and feel able to use. so that's one piece. but we're also doing a lot of work with community health centers. doing a lot of work with doctors and nurses and health educators. a lot of media in english and spanish to just kind of break through the noise but as we all know there's a lot of -- health reform and the affordable care act. and i sort of picture us here in washington as being kind of on one side of a layer of shouting that we have to break through in order to get to the folks on the other side, the rest of the people in the country. so we need support and help in doing this. so we try to make tools available that just provide accurate, easily understood information. but we're going a lot of voices and a lot of their fans to help people understand preventive care as of able up with a and company insurance, that your kids can be on your health plan until the age of 26, that in

2014 if you don't have coverage now he will be able to sign up and participate in an exchange either because your state has set when or because there's a federal exchange available to you. it's an enormous task, but this is a good challenge to have, to make sure that we maximize all the tools that will not be available under the affordable care act to make sure people have care. >> that's great. .. >> this message is getting to the political appointees, the

assistant secretaries, the managers who, in fact, will then cooperate with this message that hispanics need to be a priority in the work their doing? -- they're doing? >> this is a great question, and this is something, you know, as an advocate for all those years we puzzled oh. and now that i'm on the other side of the world and working within government, among the things i've learned is it's really important to make sure that you hire the right people x you bring in -- and you bring in peopleo whom you don't have to explain why this is a priority, because it's self-evident. and one of the many delightful things about me is that i work for a president who understands that deeply, and he hires people who understand that very deeply. so having spent decades doing, you know, what we all know is kind of latinos 101, right? you explain to the executive branch, and you explain to people in congress and other people like who we are and that we didn't just all arrive yesterday and why our success is important to the country's success, um, i haven't had to do

latinos 101 once in the three-plus years i've been in this administration because this is an administration that understands, and that includes the cabinet, but it also includes the folks up and down the food chain. which is not to say we don't have work to do, but the sort of fundamentals, the basics are in place, and it's our job to maximize what we get out of that for the community and for the country. >> great. go ahead. more questions? >> my name's hal hand doe -- [inaudible] -- alejandro -- hi, cecilia. >> former colleague. >> hi. earlier a white house colleague informed us, i was very impressed by the figures cited of home ownership. again, it was 453,000 during the past 12 months, and that's more than 53 -- actually, 53% of the total increase. >> uh-huh. >> at the same time that there was a decrease of at least 600,000 for white households.

so where, what are the driving agents -- we're the driving agent. he also mentioned the initiatives the administration has undertaken to encourage the making of principal reduction loans, and even a lot of lenders are beginning to do this on their own. what do you see ahead in terms of the cycle? we make such a big part of the construction sector. the construction sector drive cans housing, housing drives the economy, and we form a very big part of that economy. >> yeah. this is a great question. i mean, it's -- what we've learned, in fact, we get regular briefs from the council of economic advisers, and we're obviously paying very close attention to the various things driving the economy. what happens in the housing sector is very important. what happens in construction is very important, and they're obviously related. and part of our job is to make sure that as these things come back, they come back in a way which maximizes access to

housing, access to jobs, right? as a community, we're involved in sort of every part of this pipeline. and our job is to make sure that we as we rebuild, we're doing it in a way that is, um, deliberate about the communities that were hardest hit by the housing crisis, the communities that were hard hit by the loss of jobs. we're making, as you know, we're making tremendous progress, but we're not where we need to be, and we have a deep understanding that we're not where we need to be. and so, you know, as we come back from what is really an epic recession when you think about it, right? when the president arrived, the month that he was inaugurated we lost over 700,000 jobs. we were in a freefall. so as we fight our way back, we're now at, i think, 29 straight months of job growth, we've created four and a half million jobs over that period. but we have to make sure that we're being deliberate so that

the jobs are also coming online where they're most needed, in the communities that have been hardest hit. and and as the housing market is reinvigorated and that happens in a way that provides people with access to construction jobs as well as to homes, affordable homes. again, we have to do all of it at the same time. >> great. i think with that we'll end our program. thank you so much for being here. >> thank you. >> i want to point you to our web site, american progress.org. and we hope to continue this conversation in the next few months and on and on because these are issues very important not just to latinos, but to americans in general. so thank you for being here. >> thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> this weekend on booktv's "after words," -- >> i think we have this myth it's two guys in a dorm room, they crack the code, and it all falls into place and they end up with facebook. you don't see the winklevoss twins lying on the side of the road not having achieved success. >> edward kennard looks at the causes of the 2008 recession and explains how lower tax rates leads to investment and economic growth. saturday night at 10 eastern, part of booktv this weekend on c pan 2. c-span2. >> well, the library of congress has a new exhibit. it's called books that shaped

america. 88 books were selected for their influence on america and american culture. here's a brief interview about the exhibit and how you can join in on an online chat about the library's list and what books you think should be included. >> we actually call it books that shaped america as opposed to changed america because we think that books slowly have an impact on american society. so many books have had such a profound influence on american culture and society, and inteed inteed -- indeed, the very essence of what america is. the earliest book is actually ben franklin's book on electricity. and, of course, thomas paine's book that really kind of sparked or shaped the american revolution. many of them identified who we were becoming or the as pragues -- aspirations we had as a nation. others told about experiences

that we had uniquely as americans. we also thought that it was very important to look at nonfiction and books that either were self-help or kind of broke barriers of certain kinds. we looked for many books that were innovative, that kind of showed america as an innovative country that used books and stories to inspire going to the frontier. and that could be with literally or intellectually. >> if you would like to participate in an online discussion with roberta schaffer, associate librarian of the library of congress, one that we will then air on booktv, we'd like to hear from you. e-mail us at booktv@cspan.org. >> good morning, everyone -- >> and live now as the airline pilots' associations air safety forum takes place again this morning here in washington. it's the largest pilots' union, represents pilots in the u.s.

and canada. first panel will discuss security involving travelers who are considered high risk. this is just getting underway. >> we appreciate your support. [applause] please mute your cell phones and other electronics and keep them muted while you're here in the hall. thank you. i don't think i'll get an argument from this statement: nothing has changed any airline industry more than in the past 11 years than aviation security. whether it's the tsa striving to improve techniques for passenger screening, installing secondary barriers to better protect airline cockpits from ruthless assault or initiatives like known crew member program. tougher security is now a permanent component of today's aviation dna. the big question is, has our security network just gotten harder to get through, or has it gotten smarter?

we're sport starting this morning with a discussion on the risk-based concept, how to make the process more efficient, incruising the throughput and finding the bad guy before they can hurt us. moderating this panel is captain fred eissler of federal express, alpa's aviation security chair. captain eissler. [applause] >> thank you, chuck. chuck, thank you very much. i'm captain fred eissler, i serve as the aviation security chairman, and i fly for fedex express. it's a pleasure for me to welcome each of you to our conference today and to our panel discussion on the need for weeding out evildoers through risk-based security. this discussion is intended to delve into numerous aspects of risk-based security initiatives and programs that are applied throughout the aviation sector by government and industry. we are pleased to be joined by

distinguished government and industry subject matter experts. who will provide us with their organizations' perspective on the use of risk-based security measures and protecting the iowauation domain. their bios are included in your conference packet. please, feel free to read them at your leisure. we have put together a topnotch agenda and expect that it will generate a great deal of interest and questions. time has been reserved for a question and answer period at the end of the discussion, so please, hold your questions until then. i will kick off the discussion by offering some though about alpa's perspective on the need for risk-based security and cite some examples of our efforts in this regard. following my comments, we will hear from if each of our distinguished guests. a risk-based approach to problem softing in the -- solving is not a new concept. this strategy has been prevalent in air safety-related matters for decades, and its use has

become more prevalent over the years, particularly in the identification of precursors to accidents and incidents. it is clear that the way forward in aviation security is through an intelligence-driven, risk-based approach. the vast majority of people and cargo transported or commercial aircraft pose no intended threat to aviation. knowing this, a one size fits all approach to screening does not make good sense, nor is it most effective use of our limited screening resources. in fact, adopting a one size fits all screening aroach in the aviation environment wastes time and resources and reduces achieveable margins of security. alpa has advocated for the need for risk-based security strategies long before the e events of 9/11. for example, in the mid 1990s, our association was a major contributor to the development of the original computer-assisted passenger prescreening system or caps

program. capps was developed as the methodology for prescreening airline passengers in order to identify those persons considered to pose a higher degree of -- early last year alpa published a white paper onn risk-based security which advocated the kinds of changes tsa had made or is presently making. following the 9/11 attacks, our nation witnessed the creation of the department of homeland security. we also saw the reinvigoration of the federal air marshal service. alpa enjoys a close working relationship with maintaining ffdo or federal flight deck officer program, and we are pleased to have the director, mr. bob bray, with us today. another of the early post-9/11

programs that alpa strongly promoted is the cockpit access security system or cass. because of legitimate security concerns stemming from the 9/11 attacks, traditional access to the flight deck was severely limited by government regulation. these restrictions had a noticeable, negative impact on airline industry operations. cass resolved those concerns by affording reliable means to positively identify a pilot's identity and current the status in the realtime. facilitating flight crew members and faa-authorize thed personnel to ride in the cockpit jump seat once again. beta testing of this program began on august 10, 2003, and the full implementation was approved in june 2004. cass is in use today and has

proven to be a remarkably effective program. speaking of the pilot screening, alpa has advocated for all airline pilots to be subject to risk-bagged methodology that is different from traditional checkpoint screening protocols. to remedy this program, alpa conceived a crew pass, crew personnel advanced personnel screening system. crew pass, it was presented to tsa in may of 2007, favorable consideration by the tsa resulted in the program being implemented as the agency's first risk-based aviation security initiative in 2008. at three airports this occurred, bwi, pitt and columbia, south carolina. crew pass has been replaced by a new system called known crew member or kcm. it's a rapidly-expanding program cosponsored bilal pa and airlines for america with the

support of the tsa. as of today, known crew member is operational at 18 airports and is planned to be in mace at 31 -- in place at 31 airports by the end of calendar year 2012. it is now accompanied by others such as precheck, passengers under 12 or over 75 years of age, honor flights and use of behavioral detection officers. we are grateful to the tsa administrator john pistole for spearheading his agency's focus on implementing risk-based screening protocols, and we are extremely pleased to have doug hofsass, tsa associate administrator for risk-based security, with us today to elaborate more on tsa's perspective on its risk-based security efforts. among those other government agencies adopting risk-based security programs is customs and border protection, cbp. we are grateful for cbp's

efforts in this regard such as the global entry and u.s. visit programs which are designed to reduce delays associated with international travelers prior to their entry into the united states. its participation in the national targeting center, the customs and trade partnership against terrorism initiative and other risk-based programs, cbp spareheads to protect -- spearheads to protect our nation's borders. we look forward to hearing from carey davis who is joining us today as cbp's representative. along with us today to provide insights on the increased application of risk-based security strategies and the off-cargo world is the airlines for america cargo service director ms. liz shaver. liz will talk about the election of the aerocargo advance screening system and both the passenger and all-cargo environments. thank you for your kind attention, and tow i'd like to bring up our distinguished

panelists one at a time. we will begin with tsa administrator, assistant administrator, robert bray, and then follow with associate administrator doug hofsass, then ms. liz shaver followed by mr. carey davis in that order. bob, thank you very much for being with us here today. >> good morning. i'd like to thank the great introduction by captain fred eissler and the invitation from everyone at alpa to speak to you today and to join this forum as we continue to build our relationship between tsa and alpa. today i'll talk about risk-based security and the federal air marshals' service and some of the layers of security that tsa uses to defeat terrorists. as the assistant administrator of the office of law enforcement, i joined this panel of distinguished guests to discuss a top ec that is of primary -- topic that is of

primary portion to all of us; aviation and risk-based security. tsa under the direction of administrator john pistole, recognizes the importance of risk-based security in the aviation domain and has taken several steps to implement new programs supporting risk-based security and to continue our progress towards our efforts of being a leading counterterrorism organization in the federal government. i'll talk a little bit about the history of the federal air marshals' service because i think that gives you good context. the federal air marshals' service was started in 962 after a -- 1962 after a series of hijackings, sworn in by attorney general robert kennedy in 962. from 1962 until september 11, 2001, the fams had a roller coaster budget cycle and history of the number of people that were working for them. on september 11, 2001, there was

only a handful of federal air marshals, and they only flew international missions. obviously, all that has changed since then, since the tragic events of september 11, 2001. and now we are a large, robust organization. but now, like most federal agencies, we face budget challenges. in order to meet those challenges, about a year ago we started work within our organization, in fact, within all of tsa to look at our staffing and headquarters across the nation. within the federal air marshals' service at headquarters, we've gone from five operational divisions to three. and now we're starting to look at where our field offices are and how they're staffed, and that's part of the process you all know probably better than i, that in the ten years since 9/11 the aviation industry has changed significantly with how you fly, where you fly and what you fly. and we need to be, we need to

change also. so we're in the process of looking at that. federal air marshals' service is also involve inside many other aspects of aviation security with our primary mission always being the flying fam working on your airplanes. but our reference in programs extend trout the transportation domain. federal air marshals are in-flight law enforcement presence offering a flexible law enforcement response b to emerging threats with the unmatched capability for deployment anywhere in the transportation domain. the federal air marshals' service has always been utilizing a risk-based concept that assesses risk as a function of consequence, vulnerability and intelligence. we recognize that not all flights are created equal. every u.s. carrier flight is categorized based on the risk of that flight. like other security components, the federal air marshals'

service must utilize our limited resources in this an effective and efficient manner. you all know that there's about 25,000 commercial flights nestically in the united states every day. it's seasonal, it varies somewhat. but then we also focus on those flights, international nighs, so we have -- flights. in order to utilize a risk-based model that's intelligence driven, one of the essential elements of that is the information that we gatt every. gather. on current threats and the intelligence environment throughout the world. the federal air marshals service information coordination section works with tsa office of intelligence and analysis and other federal agencies. we have personnel assigned to many different federal agencies here in washington, d.c. that focus on intelligence. we gather that information and then use that information to build our risk-based mission scheduling system.

a very large part of our information coordination section and our information role is our transportation security operations center here in norb virginia. that's a 24/7 operations center that was my first job within the federal air marshals' service was to help stand up that organization. in the tsoc, we have people working there 24/7 from other federal agencies, so we have a joint effort there. we have people from the faa, department of defense, many other agencies that coordinate the gathering of intelligence on events and incidents that effect the entire transportation domain. and the essential element of that is to gather the information and then push it back out to all of our airports, all of our 450 domestic airports and also our stakeholders so that we never have another incident like 9/11. we have incident awareness on events that occur in the entire transportation domain now. and that's the responsibility of

the operations center. another element that we have as far as our information coordination is that every day the tsa senior leadership team gets a briefing from the tsoc on events that occurred previously and the intelligence that we have received through the tsa office of intelligence and analysis. so we take all that information, and we use that to guide us through our strategies, through our event planning and through our responses. another important aspect of the federal air marshal service is the flight deck officer program. the ffdo program plays a very important role in the safety and security of commercial aviation passengers and cargo aircraft through the thousands of pilots who on a voluntary basis participate in this program. ffdos are the last line of defense and complement the

holistic, risk-based approach that tsa uses in providing a random presence throughout the aviation environment. nor those of you in the audience today who have chosen to participate in this program, i want to express my sincere grad tuesday to you for your -- gratitude to you for your dedication and service to our country. the ffdo program is also facing rapidly-changing budget. i don't know what the numbers are going to be. there was some possibility the budget was going to decline, now hopefully that has been resolved, and we'll be able to grow the program next year. but that's still not fully resolved, so we'll work on that. the other program we have to defeat terrorists is the ability to conduct joint accessibility investigations at airports. we have the fams, the domain awareness, the ffdos, but then

we work in the airports to keep the evildoers outside the airport. we look at the physical perimeters of that, we work closely with the finishing bi on -- fbi on how we can improve airport security. another program we have is based off all the work, we've done a lot of work with heathrow airport, the united kingdom, learned a lot from them, and now we have a very robust vulnerability assessment we do at domestic airports, and at the invitation of some foreign airports, we go over there and do that to raise awareness for the locals in possible areas where they should have concern. another program we have is the visible intermodal provision and response program. that's an essential element for us because when you study terrorism and look at what happened on 9/11 or the train bombings in london or madrid or even the mumbai incident, you

look at the number of preoperational surveillance that was done by the terrorists themselves to conduct and pick their targets. so the vipir program is a random intelligence-driven program to put visible and covert personnel into the transportation domain to detect, deter and defeat these terrorists. i think it's important to understand the global reach of terrorism. when you look at mumbai, and we study all these terrorist events, about the people, the americans -- david headley who participated in the preoperation surveillance for that attack in mumbai. as i said, the vipir program utilizes a risk-based deployment model, and the state and local officer also have responsibility for the domain. they're strategically positioned throughout the nation to identify and mitigate threats by augmenting local assets. vipir teams are mobile and can

communicate rapidly in response to specific, credible intelligence. there are -- these are some of the risk-based intelligence-driven programs we use to prevent, to detect, deter and prevent terrorism. i am sure my esteemed colleague, doug hofsass, will talk about others. but at this time i'd be remiss if i did not thank each and every one of you in the audience today who directly support the security efforts within the aviation and transportation domain. each of us, every one of us, as a result of our specific role is responsible for the safety and security of the traveling public. we must work together, and without your assistance and support everyone in tsa and the federal air marshals' service who are dedicated to the mission could not be successful. we are many this fight together -- we are in this fight together, and it is my promise to you that it will remain that way. thank you for the invitation today and, please, stay safe.

[applause] >> well, good morning, everybody. it's great to be here with our friends with alpa again, and my personal thanks to captain eiss eissler for inviting me. we've enjoyed the opportunity to move the working relationship with alpa to a strategic partnership, and i often get asked the question of what's the difference between the two. and the difference between the two is a strategic partnership is different than a working relationship when you share the same vision and the same goal, but you also have an understanding, and you're able to embrace each other's limitations as organizations. and so over the last couple of years we've really enjoyed the opportunity to move that working relationship towards a strategic partnership, and we're committed to continue with that effort with alpa.