sophisticated communications. but there are so many ways to disrupt an attack that if you can hack into a system it could really be devastating. you don't have to take down everything. you just have to take down one component so the downside is you are all relying on something and the phone system goes down you can't live without it part of the training also. but again he is right. i only have worries and not have a lot of solutions because it's such a new threat to its keeping a lot of people awake at the pentagon and they are putting a lot of time and money towards it but it's always my view that until you see something actually used in the battlefield it's very hard and you should worry about predicting the impact of that. that is my default position. >> host: on her line for democrats rose in new york. >> caller: thanks for taking my call.

engaging in war with less than perfect information. based on what you have researched what is your opinion on your own realization that current military technology in preparation are geared towards specific types of existing military factions and does that tell you anything about the decisions involved in waging future war? >> guest: i think the idea that people are always training for the last war and preparing for the last four and they get blindsided by the next one is almost true. a failure to understand the best equipment will be. the mrap story and humvees and

donald rumsfeld as secretary of defense being lambasted for saying you go to war with the army that you have. he was absolutely right. it sounded callous at the time but would you have to do is remain flexible. one of the things i had run into in researching this story and doing the story was if other opponents know that counterinsurgency is difficult for us and we are moving away from that and not applying mraps mraps will they adopt the strategies to hit us in our weak spot. it's absolutely true. for that reason i think a lot of the lessons that were learned in iraq and afghanistan despite some distaste for warfare need to be maintained. i'm not a big fan of getting rid of all but mraps that we spend tens of millions of dollars on. we may need them again but the idea that you are training for

the last war at least in this case is not what they are doing. they are trying to train for what they think would be another war instead of a small war or counterinsurgency. i would like to think that they are flexible enough to be able to do both to preserve those lessons but the really scary emerging threats are happening on this larger level and cyber and missiles and we need to brush up on those, to to face losing face a large standing army because in the last decade we have been concentrating on the exact opposite. in this way we need to rebalance and again some of the new weapons systems and new tactics that go along with those weapons systems hopefully would be useful in both. we have one of the most experienced armies in the world over the last 10 years. on the rifle level and in the

air, they are incredibly experienced and very seasoned and i think with that experience comes a lot of lessons that they won't part with very easily. i think that is institutional knowledge will remain there so you can build an and counterinsurgency into the big war strategy and have the melts between the two because that's probably what you will be facing in the field. but you have to have both. that is what the exercises all about, making sure that if you are facing an enemy with tanks that the commanders have come up only fighting insurance -- insurgents would have that skill and mindset to be able to face that what they call high-intensity combat. that is sort of where it is. >> host: all right, robert in massachusetts independent color. >> caller: good morning. my question concerns funding. we spend about 12% of our gdp on military funding which is

probably the lowest it's been since the beginning of the second world war. do you see this sequestration, do you see a large defunding of r&d in the near future? >> guest: yes. i think that there are smart ways to cut in some ways to cut that sequestration is not a good way to cut because it's so indiscriminate. i'm not sure that congress and the pentagon is able to discriminate and do that. i think that is one of the reasons why sequestration is here to begin with. but yeah the fear is that the big weapons systems that we have got going now the f-35 is a $200 million for an airplane and the osprey was a costly development and for all of its

virtues it's a beast to maintain and cost a lot of money to maintain. i think it's $70 million per plane and $11,000 per flight hour. operating these systems is going to take up a lot of money and these are already things that there is enough costs that they are going to want to continue and the strategy depends on them. if that becomes a priority than the future r&d really becomes a place where it would take a big hit. and to cut some of the benefits for servicemen and women it's a terrible thing for this economy so our india through easy to say we don't need that program and that railgun maybe not so much. so that i think that's a very ripe area for cuts and another generation you will see the

effects of that. you we don't feel the pain of that now but you will see it in the future and that is a dangerous cycle. i think the caller is absolutely correct. that is one of areas where they are cutting the deepest. sequestration cuts from everywhere but that ability to do that may not look at r&d. >> host: joe does the r&d come from inside the pentagon? who is directing and who is overseeing this new type of technology and tactics that you are talking about and how do they go about to enter quickly because the house is about to come in but how do they decide they will put the resources into the osprey versus something else >> guest: yeah, i can't answer that in a short amount of time but there a lot of different areas that do a lot of different research. you have to darpa which is the blue sky stuff which is the farthest out timewise and

intellectually and then you have got the office of april research which does a lot more midterm kind of things and then they graduate the technology from one to the other and try to sometimes convince the services that they would take up the reins for this. a lot of times you develop a military technology to a point where it works and it's been proven that then you may need a service to adopt it and so a lot of times the r&d money kind of falls off because no one wants to spend the money to adopt the program and bring it into the field. an example of the program that's going to be adopted for sure is that unmanned stealth aircraft that recently landed on the aircraft carrier. >> host: okay, i'm going to interview and i apologize but

the house is about to come in. and joe pappalardo with popular mechanics, the cover story the future boy. thank you for joining us on c-span's "washington journal" as part of our spotlighted magazine series. appreciate it. >> guest: thank you, greta.

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up next the presidents of carnival cruise lines and royal caribbean international -- [inaudible conversations] >> my cochair representative danny davis is in a markup and will be with us when he is able to be free. we think trayvon benjamin martin's father, tracy martin, former congressman kweisi mfume who was chair of the congressional caucus as well and

we welcome them back to the congress. dr. michael eric dyson and executive director david j. jones at the white house initiative on educational excellence for african-americans , for the public service they are offering today in this inaugural event of the congressional caucus on black men and boys. in establishing the congressional caucus on black men and boys earlier this year representative davis and i sought to raise to the national level beginning with the congress serious issues that we and other members of congress are grappling with in our districts, along with state and local officials and especially parents and relatives and and/or african-american community itself. the issues are spread across the spectrum of the life of black

males in america today, the closed in stereotypes from their years as a ways, as toys as youth and family as men. we seek a society that does not define black men and boys but allows african-american males the opportunity to define themselves as individuals. today's event entitled the status of luck males -- black males cannot drill down to the entire multitude of issues that require remedies and candid discussions within the african-american community and with the larger society. the way to begin we believe is

with an event and the nature of an overview offered by three distinguished and knowledgeable african-american men to introduce the subject. each discussing a stage in the life of a black male in our country today. we are particularly fortunate that mr. tracy martin the father of trayvon martin and founder of the trayvon martin foundation agreed to come to today's event to give opening remarks. the loss of 17-year-old trayvon has focused attention on black males as nothing else has in

decades. overlaying the disappointment of african-americans and the verdict in the zimmerman trial are many issues that trayvon's death brings into sharp focus. with the loss of trayvon attention is understandably focused. with the loss of trayvon attention is understandably focused on a civil rights cause of action by the u.s. justice department. whatever the justice department decides we hope that today's event focuses us as well on a lasting legacy for trayvon martin. today, trayvon helps the caucus

brings black man and a ways to take on the challenges facing our men and boys and we ask our fellow americans and african-americans to do the same congresswoman frederica wilson vice chair of the caucus to offer remarks. >> congresswoman wilson i represent miami-dade county, the same county that trayvon martin represents. i am happy to have today his father and also the attorneys mr. benjamin crump from tallahassee foundation. i want you to know that there is nothing more important that could be happening today in this nation then what is happening in this body. in 1992, i had been the

principal of an elementary school for 12 years. i resigned from that position to run for a school board seat. my parents thought it was crazy. i had three children to send to college. i was a widow and they said why are you doing this? are you crazy? is that i'm doing it cause i want to save african-american boys from the school to prison pipeline so i hit the ground running. at the first school to school board meeting i introduced a program for african-american boys and they miami-dade schools. i called for a reparation for them and i won of the school district to wrap their arms around them and lift them up and let them learn how to be good men in society. the program is 20 years old now. and trayvon's older brother

jafar is as this a member of the program. he wears the red tide that empowers him so in our school district we have the staff of 10 people who operate this program and what we do is we take our little boys in elementary school, middle school and high school and they are mentored in school. they don't have to go to the church, they don't have to go to the boys and girls club. they go to tallahassee and they are coming to d.c. this summer. we have to train them because there is no one to teach them how to be good. in the school school system k-12 we have 5000 men judges, police officers and firefighters all kinds of men who have sworn to

raise these boys up to a higher height. my goal when i was elected to congress was to make sure that if we can do that in miami-dade county public schools every school system in this nation should have a program specifically identified for african-american boys. if we don't do that we are just spinning our wheels. i am so glad that tracy and sabrina are starting a foundation to help make some of these visions reality across this nation to help these black voice. these children are angry. all kinds of social logic will issues that i am so familiar with. i'm hoping today when we leave this room we leave with a

commitment that they are not to be feared. they are to be loved. they are to be lifted up and made to feel proud so that they can stay in school, obey the law and listen to their parents, listen to their teachers, graduate and then we send them to college. $10 million in scholarships to children in the last 20 years of black boys. they are all in this this capito i say to you thank you for coming. this is so important and trayvon's murder has brought this to the forefront. trayvon will go down in history as the martyr who brought to the forefront the causes, the

struggles, the suffering of african-american boys. thank you. >> thank you very much and now we are going to ask mr. tracy martin if he would say a few words to us. you started a foundation in the name of his son, trayvon martin foundation. mr. martin. >> good evening. first of all i would like to thank the members of congress for having me here today. it is certainly an honor and a pleasure not only to me but to my family is well into the martin family and the fulton family. this definitely means a lot. first of all i would just like to take the time to let everyone know some of the things that they really didn't know about trayvon. first of all when we talk about one of the greatest gifts that a

man can receive from a woman i think that greatest gifts would be a son and just to have your son's life taken away from you when you have molded him in becoming an upstanding citizen of this country is heartwrenching. that is something that you can never get over. i always say that trayvon was my hero. he saved my life and not to be there in his time of need is a real troublesome not to be able to save my son's life. and to have his name slandered and demonized i think as a father i think it's really important that my message to the world is that we won't let this

verdict sum up who trayvon was. i vowed to do everything in my power not to give up the fight for him, not only the fight for trayvon but for so many other young black m. brown's boys of this country. i think the point that president obama made 35 years ago that this could have been him was so important to the american people because obviously the most influential man on the planet is weighing in from an african-american perspective and just to have the president of the united states, and on our situation, it really touched home. comments such as the president

made, it sparks the conversation in every household over the dinner table in that conversation is what can we do as parents? what can we do as men? what can we do as fathers? what can we do as mentors to stop this from happening to your child? i think that is what -- where the conversation begins. a lot of our energy that we channel, if we take the negative energy throughout this whole process we have taken that negative energy and we are trying to turn it into a positive. a lot of people will tell you that nothing positive can come out of death but i disagree. i disagree wholeheartedly because what we can do tomorrow as a nation and as a people to

stop someone else's child from being killed is certainly a positive, and that is why we are putting a lot of our energy into the trayvon martin foundation. the foundation is here and we are going to advocate against senseless crime, against senseless gun violence. we are going to have mentoring programs. we want to try to educate our communities on the florida statutes and the florida laws that really we need to understand how these laws apply to ourselves. there are so many positive things that can and will come out of this incident and that is why we are here. we want the members of congress to hear we are the voice for trayvon. there is nothing we can do to bring trayvon back but if there

is something that we can do as a foundation to help other families than we are here. >> thank you very much mr. martin. you are very kind to come with mr. martin, the man who so ably represent him mr. benjamin crump. he worked -- we are pleased that you could be with us as well. the cochair of the caucus has arrived and i should ask him if he wants to give opening words at this event. >> thank you very much. the only thing that i really need to say is to thank first of all all of the members of the caucus and i want to thank you

for being the inspiration and part of the reason that we have established this conference. i want to thank all of the members of the congressional black caucus and other members of congress who have joined in and in fact are attempting to have the caucus function in such a way that we end up with not only looking at problems but generating results. then i want to thank our esteemed group of panelists who have joined us particularly the two gentlemen that i have worked with for a number of years and a former member of this body, former chairman of this caucus actually the honorable kweisi mfume and of course my good friend from chicago. he has moved to a lot of different places but i still think he calls chicago home and

that is dr. michael eric dyson who is also with us and i think mr. johns who has the responsibility of guiding an initiative that deals with education and african-american historical institutions and of course mr. martin we thank you so much for being here with us this afternoon. we also commend you for the dignity that you have displayed, you and other members of your family throughout this ordeal and you are a guiding principle for many of us and for many people in america. who love their country but they also love justice. they love their country but they also want equal protection under

the law. so with that madam cochair please go right ahead. >> thank you mr. cochair. my cochair has been a leader in this congress and particularly on black men and boys and other issues facing black men. we want to start at the beginning with black boys and then move up and have three distinguished men talk about their lives. so we begin with david johns. we are very pleased that the executive director for african-americans for excellence , for african-americans has joined us from the white house. he has worked for obama for

america. he was a senior education adviser for the senate committee on health, education labor and pensions. i am very pleased to begin with david johns and thank you for coming. to testify before us today. >> madam madam cochair for 2k would like to yield five minutes of my time to mr. crump to ask a couple of questions. >> excuse me? >> if it's okay would like to yield a couple of minutes of my time for a couple of questions to frame our discussion. >> by all means. mr. crump. >> thank you madam congresswoman. mr. martin invited us to start the conversation i think the conversation starts with two critical questions. the first question is to the department of justice to ask the

question can a private citizen with a 9-mm gun profile our children, get out of his car and follow where children and confront our children? the u.s. supreme court does nathan let the police profile based on race alone so we need to have that question answered so we know what to tell her children. if that answer is yes, we need to know so we can tell her children and if it's no, then we want to know especially mr. tracy martin will the killer of the trial be held accountable for the civil rights violations on sybrina and tracy's son and finally the foundation is working to ask the question of the trayvon martin at and that is a very commonsense legislation.

we believe there should be an amendment to the "stand your ground" law that simply says you cannot be the initial aggressor. you cannot start the confrontation. you cannot take pick the fight and then shoot the person and put your hands in the air and say i was standing my ground because there is it precedent set that will have a terrible effect on whether black boys if we don't speak to the issues. i know we have a stable experts to help us but these are two questions that are heavy on the hearts of the parents of trayvon martin. thank you. >> thank you very much. some of us believe that "stand your ground" law's are a danger to african-american boys and man and we roll back these laws beginning with the state of florida. i understand the difficulties in

florida but you ask profound questions, some of them with underpinnings. i'm going to ask mr. johns if he would testify at this time. >> i want to begin by thanking you congressman for your leadership and vision of establishing a big congressional caucus on black men and boys and for convening this groundbreaking hearing. the members of the congressional black caucus continued to explore the tough conversations and engage in the hard work required and as a result of their collective leadership and dedication we are a better nation. i am humbled and not to be included on the panel that includes mr. martin mr. michael eric dyson and mr. kweisi mfume. i stand on the shoulders of committed ancestors who toiled and struggled and pioneered and died to enable us to gather here today. we meet to discuss developing programs policies and practices

that among other things increase entrepreneurship and employment and leadership development opportunities and change private thoughts and negative public conversations about black boys. if the former black caucus member working for congressman rangel and now serving as the executive director of the white house initiative on educational excellence for african-americans i have the responsibility and opportunity to insured the administration is a thoughtful partner in supporting african-american learning and development. the worker initiative has never been more important as we consider opportunities to ensure we no longer avoid tough conversations about investing in our children and protecting them. particularly our most vulnerable and often the most neglected. while my remarks here today will

focus on early education initiatives mandate to close the achievement gap for all american american -- african-american children requires attention to the education continuing through early adulthood. studies show what conventional wisdom suggests that children will accompany him i sent black boys in particular are least likely to have access to high-quality early education. they're least likely to enter elementary school prepared for success. consider that by the third-grade children from low-income families who are not at reading grade level or six times less likely to graduate from high school than those who are proficient in reading. high-quality early education provides a foundation for black boys to be successful in school and in life to become strong black men. i want to underscore the point that learning begins at earth and a per person per learning starts well before birth. we cannot self employment or education crisis facing black boys and men and america without

first ensuring that they all have access to high-quality early education. not only must we work toward providing black males with access to high-quality early education we must make concerted efforts to provide support for them inside and outside the classroom too extending to college completion and career. in the united states those most likely to begin kindergarten at an academic disadvantage are -- and research tells us that those who begin school behind at the tendency to remain behind throughout their careers. we must understand the importance of educating and developing young black boys before prom stories and there's a tremendous amount of work it must be done as early as birth to ensure they develop academically socially and emotionally which includes developing positive nurturing and protective relationships with parents and adults including educators representatives of the criminal justice legal systems male

mentors and peers. allow me to share a few facts to help put my comments into context. the of the mortality rate for black babies as 13.2% compared to 5.3% were white boys. that is double pivot property rate for black children is 36% three times the rate for white children. 24 months of age black babies scores lower on cognitive assessment and at about age four, 20% of black children are proficient at letter recognition compared to 40% of white kids. 55% of black children are proficient at number and shape recognition compared to more than 70% of white children. from the time of conception to the first day of kindergarten development proceeds at a pace exceeding any subsequent period of life and his harvard professor reminds us nurturing interactions that provides a solid foundation for learning behavior and health. simply stated access to

high-quality early education for afghan american boys especially can be the difference is in a pathway that leads to the white house and one that leads to the jailhouse. high-quality early education can be used to overcome cognitive and not cognitive challenges facing busboys including the absence of a father exposure to violence and disproportionate representation of detention in special education programs african-americans who participate in early headstart have higher vocabulary is displayed less aggressive behavior and score higher on math and reading in those who do not participate in the program. children who attend preschool programs are more likely to graduate prepared to take full advantage of the global 21st century marketplace after successfully completing college. parents families and communities benefit from high-quality early education. african-american parents with children to participate in in

high-quality programs that better language and literacy environments emotionally supportive parenting and show high levels of support for education at home. the first step towards assuring black boys grow grow into strong man is getting access to high-quality early education and to accomplish this initiative in the faith-based and early education and advocacy communities to raise awareness among parents and families about the importance of investing in the most critically as they were working with community-based organizations to which her parents and families can identify and have access to high-quality programs and are undertaking efforts in technology science engineering agriculture in mathematics early and often. we are also working with publishers to produce books and content that reflects the language culture and heritage of black kids to make sure they develop vocabulary and pre-literacy skills to make the critical transition from learning to reading to them.

the critical opportunities we have to invest in early opportunities for black men. the first is home visiting. voluntary programs match parents with professionals to provide support during pregnancy and throughout the child's first years of life. home visiting programs lead to fewer children as social welfare and juvenile detention centers as well as mental health facilities and provides considerable cost savings for states. with the support of congress we have invested $1.5 billion to expand programs that can provide poise with the services and educational support needed to improve health development and ensure their ability to learn we must invest more. home visiting programs provide support to young expecting women like my sister needed a council in support of professionals who could assist her in my mother and creating the type of the marmot that optimizes early life opportunities for lung -- young children. by supporting african-american mothers fathers and communities in understanding important as we invest in young children beginning at earth and equipping

black families with information and a source -- resources needed we can make sure that early steps black boys take her paradigm for a life of success. in the united states more than 11 million children under the age of five are in some type of childcare arrangement each week that on average children of working mothers than 35 hours a week in childcare and allow parents opportunities to work during nontraditional and traditional work hours. childcare is an essential work support which provides opportunities to develop foundational skills in young children. however the extreme costs associated with high-quality childcare results in lost opportunities to develop the tools needed to begins cool ready to learn. by age five, 56% of low-income kids are not prepared for kindergarten and these gaps widen when black boys miss out on early opportunities. unlike the k-12 public education

system which is financed by state and local government the cost of childcare sorts of by parents and families and economic crisis high cost of childcare frequently leave many parents to pursue noncenter-based methods of them from a care such as leaving their babies with grandparents families and other caring adults. for those who pursue center base facilities the cost advantage is is -- the average cost of infant childcare exceeds the cost of public college tuition and related fees and 36 stage throughout this country. nationally the cost for full-time child for full-time childcare for intense ranges from seven to 16% of the median income of a married couple. for single parents the cost of center base have been care receives more than 10% are there and come. more must be done to subsidize the cost of high-quality childcare for parents who cannot afford such programs because they are unemployed or underemployed working jobs that don't provide them with the opportunities for advancement. in addition to cost and accessibility the following must be addressed to ensure more like

boys have access to high-quality programs and services. improving safety, increasing apprentice and parent family engagement to ensure that parents especially on parents have the information they need to access these programs and adjusting federal reimbursement rates to account for the actual cost of providing care while increasing federal state and local support or generally. the third is headstart and early headstart. headstart early headstart circumvent the high cost of quality early education by providing federal support to programs that serve low income disadvantaged children and their families. the program covers costs for families needing income eligibility criteria perfectly families who would otherwise fail to enroll children in progress data reasons that he he found the program had a positive statistically significant impact on children's preschool experiences school readiness language and vocabulary schools schools -- skills. black whom are reported to have

produced inattentiveness fewer problems with structured learning peer interactions or teacher interactions and they'll have better relationships with teachers and while what the long-term effects of headstart programs ability to close gaps for kindergarten is difficult to deny. for decades now headstart has improved life opportunities for black voice and while we celebrate the success of headstart is imperative we give more kids access. 2012 headstart surplus imported% available children roughly 300,000 black kids. of headstart currently serves fewer than 4% of all eligible infants and toddlers. see mr. johns are you nearing the end of your testimony? >> much more needs to be done to increase investment in this area and while i have summarized some of the challenges facing black boys during the early to supply the that want to ensure conversations are focused on underscore in the opportunities we had to make the best success for black men and boys. in the coming months the

initiative will facilitate critical conversation of the following areas. raising awareness and increasing opportunities to access programs that enhance education employment and entrepreneurship for black men and boys. we need to increase the number of educators especially that impact social and cultural -- trauma and stress and strengthen relationship that parents and mentors have the students and schools to improve achievement and support development. we will ensure that all caring adults are engaged in supporting black male success with the voluntary activities to provide black boys with the opportunities to develop academic or social skills. we are leveraging technology to make sure -- development opportunities. finally we will take on the essential task of changing the way that we talk about voice in public and in private as we have modeled here today. we must ensure that we that what

we say and how we demonstrate our support for black men and boys along with ensuring that they are and that they feel valued, supported and protected and while we must be careful not to generalize this is just that all black boys and crisis all black men can benefit from knowing that they are loved, valued supported and protected especially at home and in their communities. to do this we must ensure we are doing all all they can to develop their skills to create protective safe environments and this requires correcting myths that black boys cannot achieve extremely high levels despite generations who have done exactly that. we must dispel myths that there are more black men in jail than in college. changing the merit or around black boys requires telling stories about everyday examples of achievement and success of

resilience and grit. it should not be a case that we celebrate single events like -- not only because educators -- but also because there are countless schools to nurture and support but is that we should tell stories each and every day about the many ways the boys are excelling giving support to their families schools and communities. we must talk about opportunities to optimize the chances for black men of all ages to support each other and support boys younger than they are and we have to continue to have conversations in public and in private about opportunities and obligations we have as a nation to be inspired by the grace of the trayvon martin family. we have to talk about it and we have to support programs that people in our community who are doing the work of saving our sons beginning early. beyond simply talking about it we must ensure we -- ensure that these gains are made. as we do this work it's also

important that they not neglect their daughters in the process because her black girls and women need our care love and support too. these are a few of the ways in which the white house initiative on educational excellence is engaging and is working to wear to identifying ways we can work further to support black men and boys throughout this country for generations to come. our boys need us to do this work and collective economic social and national security of our great nation requires it. thank you. >> thank you very much mr. johns. [applause] our next presenter dr. michael eric dyson who is american book award recipient to times naacp and one of the most influential and renowned public intellects. he has been named one of the 150 most powerful african-americans

by "ebony" magazine. philadelphia weekly contends that dr. tyson is reshaping what it means to be a public intellectual by becoming the most visible black academic of his time. dyson is also edited 18 books pertaining to african-american leaders racial profiling and racial relations in america. currently dr. dyson is a sociology professor at georgetown university and previously talked to some of the nations most prestigious universities including brown chapel hill columbia and the university of pennsylvania. primarily on topics regarding issues affecting black youth and the future of the black community given the current social economic and political conditions. dr. dyson. >> thank you so much. i want to thank -- is the son?

i want to thank congresswoman gordon and congressman davis for convening this panel. even before the verdict was announced and with that press and in that kind of insight about why we are confronting the issues that we are confronting here today. and to all of the distinguished colleagues here in congress and of course to mr. johns for his great comments and attorney crump and mr. martin for their courage and their valor and mr. mfume for his sharp insight. i want to talk about young men, teens and youth. i myself was a teen father, lived on welfare for three years. i didn't go to college until i was 21 so i understand some of the existential drama that attaches to black voice, males

and men who have been particularly subject to the arbitrary stigma and mythology that attaches to young men and american society. but leave aside the valor and the vitality of their struggles to claim decent spaces in american society. what the teens and black male space in our culture? let's be honest there's a cultural backdrop. all black people live under suspicion. trayvon martin is as -- to the suspicion for which we are subject. black humanity has been suspected from the beginning of our sojourn in american society. i don't need to tell you the history lesson about that. the great thomas jefferson the architect of monticello and the declaration of independence wrote notes on virginia where he

questioned the cerebral ability and the intellectual acuity and the reason of black people even asked at night retiring from his study engaged in relations with the young woman whose loins strapped his logic so that the reality of our humanity being under suspicion is critical as the backdrop to understand the unfolding and evolving perception of black people in america. our humanity has been questioned and our intelligence has been questioned. as a result of that, teens inherit a culture where the suspicion and skepticism about their humanity and their intelligence are part and parcel of what we deal with on the daily. this is why for instance to echo mr. johns we only talk about

black male stereotypes of talk about black female stereotypes. had rachel dentel had the representation that articulates her as somehow subhuman and not just from white americans the black too, skeptical about what she is speaking three languages perhaps her testimony would have been believed at the outcome of the trial could have been shaped because black women are under vicious assault as well and as a result of that mothers mired in poverty help young black men come to receive the slander of this culture. young teens inherit a culture that unconsciously and consciously engages in the skepticism and suspicion of their existence. the educational system into which they are thrust expels them at a rate 2.5% times greater than their white peers so if you are in school when you get kicked out for stuff that your white peers don't not only

that they are subjected to tension and also put in special education programs that target them specifically as being less capable intellectually. what happens then is that they are also subject to the criminal justice system through nonviolent drug offenses. even though the self reporting of young white people suggest they do drugs about the same rate if not a little bit more then to black and other kids it stands to reason you have more time and capacity and ability to engage in nefarious activities. the point is that white kids are doing drugs in the same way black guitar but white kids are not being put in jail because they are not suspected and because they are not viewed as likely to engage in that kind of behavior. they are not profiled and so young black man, teens in general are profiled not just by the police department.

where they go into stores, retail profiling. i have a placard and yet i'm profiled. the point is we are subjected to that kind of racial and retail profiling. the disproportionate number of black males were put in the criminal justice system suggest to us that there is a targeting of african-american men particularly teens beginning in the 14, 15, 16 year age range that makes them subject to adult penalties in the criminal justice system. many of these kits are tried as adults and the book so to speak against them even for first-time offenses. and then even more broadly stereotypes are black male and youth identity. we could have an empirical crutch to verify the assault of the state upon vulnerable black people but i want to tell the story to make you feel the

compelling character of the assault on young black teens. the reality is the stereotypes are out there. he even noted "washington post" columnist say let's be honest, the hoodie is the uniform of the criminal. not two mark zuckerberg, not to bill o'reilly, not to geraldo all of whom are the exception of mr. zuckerberg have assaulted black people and black teens for being engaged in the south perpetuation of the legacy because of withholding what they wear. this profiling, this clothing profiling suggests that black people can't even dress with the same kind of freedom than their white peers to and in this case young black teens can't because they will be automatically assumed to be -- some people say it's your problem and its hip-hop culture. hip-hop created this. before the rise of culture black

men were being profiled. inclinations to be criminal so excuse me that's not the case. has some element of hip-hop culture glorified and reinforce the devaluing of black life? of course it has but it's also spoken against it. tupac said, those same cops on the beat get major pay. jc says god forgive me for my irrational every but i remembered vividly what the streets did to me. picture me on allowing these clowns to admit that at me so they are combating the vicious misrepresentation of black masked identity by resorting to violence critical to american culture and the sense of machismo that young black people appropriate has been given to them by a culture that creates laws like stand your ground. ..

>> when we can look at most

white people who have these challenges that need to bathe articulated. 86 percent are murdered by whites people what do we talk about that to save america? we're facing a state that stigmatizes or demonizes are the pop culture that expresses the intent to be greater than the are but enforces the of all the abilities slices just the educational system has to be taken seriously for the battles we need to wage. how do that? stop stigmatizing in demonizing our children and

create all to the structures multiple forms of hurting people learned in multiple ways. a normal high school graduate there is a difference between learning and education but schools are the institutional matrix to educate each other and hold each other accountable and learning is to want to be educated for lifetime so in some instances we have to figure out ways to college our children's learning styles. said them to jail if they have a challenge and figure out ways not to put them in detention that is a beating sale -- sulfur jail in the warehouse for present and second, reduce the penalty for a zero tolerance policies.

[applause] we are not here to have affirmative action and so to speak but everybody ought to be taken in the same way to jail or everybody should be given a break. the president of the united states in his brilliant memoir talks about having marijuana if he was caught and put in jail and stigmatized even him i'm sure he would be standing on the sideline to say i could have been president. the reality is to stigmatize our youth so he must not unduly or disproportionately stigmatize those children.

third, with a remarkable statement on race, it is good that the president stood up. it was a result the pressure. we and the stand that. he said initially i said trayvon martin could have spent my son but look at the shift that he made but he said no, i could have been trayvon and now let me interpret that. [laughter] [applause] because they are providing mr. obama in the white house. [applause] asking about your transcripts question the new , in a very serious and vicious fashion so they asked you for your birth certificate as if you are not american and you went to columbia and graduated hard

-- harvard law school and cannot be about a hoodie. is about the way in which black masculinity expresses a menace and a threat in american culture consciously and unconsciously that needs to be decoupled in the collective imagination of america then finally, when we see these as structural problems, when we see young girls are demonized, a poet imprisoned more often as well and subject to the stereotypes that i talk about with racial profiling in with the boys are the recipients of the a rages in dignity to be assumed not to be intelligent and not to be human. so as i close my plea in prayer if we craft social and public policy we ask the white house to once again be the bully pulpit. he wrote one of the most

brilliant memoirs on race that we have like michael jordan and the white house but could not talk about basketball. mr. obama is acutely sensitive and keenly informed about the complicated matter and the speech he delivered the of the day was the beginning. now we need him and others to use those spirits and spaces in this culture not only to edify the conversation and informs the analysis but at the end of the day to recognize that young black teenagers are children of god who deserve every protection because if those women of the jury understood trayvon as their child they may have felt his blood calling from the the ground where george zimmerman laid him to his rest. [applause]

>> thank you dr. dyson. it is my pleasure now to introduce to you -- and who taught as a professor have morgan state university of baltimore. it was in baltimore of his dreams of impacting society and to help shape public policy. at the age of 38, he was elected to the united states congress to join the presidencies of reagan, president bush sr. and to as a member of the house he served as a member of the committee of the vegetation to impact

commerce matters as a senior member of the small business committee. mr. mfume also served as vice chair and later chairman of the congressional black congress. mr. mfume left his congressional seat to become president and chief executive officer of the naacp of february 1996 after being unanimously elected to the post he served there in this capacity for nine years. during that time cogressman mfume is significantly raises a national profile of the naacp while helping to restore its prominence among the nation's civil rights organizations and university. cogressman mfume. >> thank you very much congresswoman.

my thanks to all who have gathered here. i really want on to purred -- put a personal privilege to the full caucus that throughout the course of time would travel the world and fight with issues together and i fervently believe that this group is one of the most able group of legislators this nation has produced you serve a viable service and having worked with you and fought with u.s. side by side on a number of issues, i have nothing but absolute respect i really appreciate this opportunity and the convening as a father of six men and a grandfather of four boys, i have a particular sense of brotherhood with tracy

martin. we all know a parent's worst nightmare is to bury your child. it is supposed to be the other way around so i want to say on behalf of parents everywhere, you have really taken this and have kept your grace, your dignity dignity, your manhood and that you and sabrina it ought to be commended. [applause] [applause]

is the apparent connection and my blood flows a and you are here because of me and i want to see you grow up one day and what you to believe the world has changed that parents every day get up with a and through the eloquence of your example that parents everywhere regardless of race under stated differently as you do about what it is like to have something tragic happened. while it has not happened to us we all stand with you. madam chair i want to thank both of my panelist for their presentations michael and i have known each other a long time and i cannot think of a better person to come down to share this and i really do mean that. if i might i know the

evening is starting to roll lot but i want to talk about childhood and boyhood and adolescence and manhood i would do a disservice if i did not simply say that color for me, manhood i grew up like some of you may be in a different kind of america. it was very segregated i sat on the back of a bus. that is the way it was. if my family needed is in which we were on the road we would go to the back of the restaurant and they would handle something in the brown bag and it was considered formal. when i needed shoes my mother had to put my foot on

of brown bag to cut it out because they would not let the black kids into the store to try anything on i went to segregated schools and drove by the white schools of though way to those that were dilapidated and run down. lot has changed since then but the one thing that hasn't changed is the color of my skin and his people have their own preconceived notions about me back in the '50s about who was there when i would become that unfortunately is why we are all here today when emmitt till was first on negative viciously murdered i was in first grade. the first time i was ever called the word tea three from the back of a pickup truck when somebody threw something at me and laughed as they went by. what pains me is that i fear

one day even my grandson's will be called the same thing not because they have done anything at all but unfortunately people harbor these feelings it in those days why i wanted to say what i said about mr. martin we were taught basic values that if you work hard and play by the rules and cherish your faith and comport yourself in the way that it says you have the dignity about we are and you care about what goes on like my mother she died in poverty my father died and lived in poverty my sisters were taught well be live there it should never be within us there was a way to tap into something different we see that in young people every day. they just want to be able to live on so that can be

magnified so they can improve their lives to do with the have to do. my mother could not get health care had a number of diseases and died in my arm 16 years of age. did not find out my real father and tell that same night i dropped out of school tweks later tried to find a way for my sisters to a younger than i to survive i was angry like a lot of black men and with the get the tv screen to see ozzie and harriet and it turned off to look at at the room that i lived in six by nine that anchor is with us because we have not provided to young people why there is -- circumstances are so different were there is a great energy and a belief that everything is well the

yet we know everything is not well. the same teen-age parents joined a gang to remain angry at a society that i could not understand and i only wanted to tell you this because we all have the testimony when you are my age but unfortunately it you are black in america we have the testimony and a story so if we get through childhood and boyhood and the adolescence how we are castigated by a society that does not know us then we realized we have made it to manhood then when we get there we realize there are things that automatically happen. realization, reaffirmation and reclamation the

realization will hit all of us says it did fast because you realize you've made it through you could count on your hands and toes like you did not they were a part of your generation and for whatever reason in the criminal-justice system facing life, a hospital ward unable to take care of themselves or they are dead and when you realize i made it you also realize i don't have the luxury of failing and we know that unemployment for african-american men is that 19 percent if it was that for any of their group in this country people would try to close down the nation's capital to find out answers you know, better than i. and you have said this why is that

unemployment among african-american teenagers is that 40 percent? un heard of unacceptable and people say we just don't understand and white kids to realize this is the opportunity society? our public schools are overcrowded and ill-equipped and sometimes drug czar more available than textbooks and if they are being to the point where they need to be to arrive on graduation day was all dressed up and no place to go. higher education and thinks the caucus for fighting for the parents plus program they need to be able to provide a way for those kids to get an education i am working with 700 freshmen now at morgan state university to the biggest fear the other 700 could not make it because their

families could not afford it because things happened with parents less than the high rates of finance attached to the loans and college. we have mandatory minimums that take away judicial discretion and people are getting crazy sentences because judges are locked in legislation to mandatory minimums we just have to say -- send somebody way and you have got to do this and do that we all know about the disparities of crack cocaine of the marijuana bust had you get a sense if you do so did to a black person or someone else. so the realization fits and -- in that i am lucky in blessed but what do i do?

the first thing that happens is we have reaffirmed to ourselves when we get to that stage intel thought -- and of the day-by-day it -- the day i die i will make my body a bridge so somebody can it run across it. [applause] we reaffirm we have no other obligation except to make it better for the group coming behind us and we have to reaffirm working in our community to stand up as men then something called reclamation sets in the what we're talking about earlier revenue just decided unitary lee you will reclaim your spirit, your dignity, your honor, your grace and personhood no matter what is going on in this nation

nothing will take that away from you. when you see men turn out to all over the nation to bring about a sense of justice they are reclaiming for themselves a little bit of time we all may have left that ought not to be stripped away. for a race of people who have suffered into third and survived three centuries of slavery, oppression deprivation degradation denial we see things through different lenses and we say to the nation and others walk a mile in my shoes before you judge me and did you see the same things i see that work with me to change the nation to prevent the tragedy is and until we do that we will not go very far we can't ignore what is going on and then i know

will not ignore in those women who stand but i will not ignore it. so the question is to be revisited in 22 years? what is going on? was it rodney king and trayvon martin and emmett till. we cannot do this and we ought not. thank you very much. [applause] >> now we know why we miss him so much in the congress. we are going to ask the vice chair is to ask questions first baby make your question a minute and a half. so that answers can come. i have a list in the order of arrival. let me begin with a question for mr. martin or others, to

be candid, i have been in search of a tangible legacy for trayvon martin. this hearing, this event is an example, but it will pass and i would like to see how uc the channeling of all that energy of their. of course, everyone is focused on the justice department. that may or may not be in our hands but some say organizations should decided they should go to florida which has the stand your ground laws. that will not take their conventions and money to florida. they said essentially the police cannot profile if you

can catch them they cannot profile because that is state action. a civilian is not state action and the answer is that a civilian can profile if your in the "stand your ground" state. so another tangible legacy that occurs to me when are we going to let the "stand your ground" loss stand it is a clear and present danger to every black man in america. those are two things that occurred to me. i will ask the panel if mr. martin has given any thought to a tangible legacy of any kind. so that energy does not dissipate with the next month when we go onto something else. >> i think the energy that

we will channel into this discussion is very simple. as american citizens, we cannot stand by and let a not guilty verdict dictate what the legacy becomes. 50 years from now when i am dead and gone i would like to see that trayvon martin name is attached to some type of statute or a mental you cannot simply profile our children, issued them in the heart and killed them to say you were defending yourself. 50 years from now it will not be just trayvon martin.

this will be kids and communities all across the country. so as i said the question is what can we do as parents or african-american men to ensure our kids you don't have to be afraid to walk beside your house or go to a the store to get a bag of skills and not make it home. the next time your parents you you are dressed in white in a futile and no parent should never have to go through that i will end this with everything that i have left we will try to make sure that his name will not be dragged through the bet and his legacy will be that the trayvon help to bridge some gaps of america. i think that is something we're working hard at even

with all the obstacles thrown at us with the help of congress we can make tremendous strides. [applause] >> thank you very much. >> i with like to address my question to cogressman mfume image in you work with 700 college students who are struggling so suppose these were 714 or 15 year-old african-american boys what would you tell them about growing up for the development in the polls

that they can play? >> it is a very good question congressman i know the first thing i would tell them the matter rather they are from it is not how you start in life and how you finish we all have a birthday and i negative and a first date -- to the death date but that means and what contributions we made so when i work with african-american men and that want to commend all the organizations around the country doing this without a lot of fanfare to try to give them a sense of pride and purpose than commitment to know the history to begin with because if you don't know where you have ben from you to know how to get there they have to learn basic values if they don't have them and many already do and

we have got to just fire up the belief of all children they can be whatever they want to be your do whatever they want to do or do great things and that they themselves are great people but they often get depressed then you have issues of this team our job is to take the lid off of that to allow their spirits to soar and work with them day in and to take out i mean this as a slant to any woman anywhere but some of you know, that the quickest route to a young black man is to the older black man when you look at him dead in the eye and speak from your heart there is a connection there that doesn't allow for a lot of wavering. we all got back from somebody who got in our face and we knew they cared about us and i cannot explain i really cannot except it is

different kind of connection that keeps young black men on a greater course and i say that with all due respect because i was raised by a woman but yet a man grabbed me one day to say look you will do what your mother said you will do with your family said andy will be somebody no matter what. doesn't matter if i was a high-school dropout or teenage parents and arrested 13 times by the age of 19 but what connected with me is something i never felt before and i am getting it straight and unfiltered so it has a lot to do with young men and women trust me i appreciate all the comments i have heard about that but that is where i would start. start with the basics and start with love. [applause]

>> we have been joined representative, vice chair will send has suggested we ask the vice chair richmond if he has a question. >> i would quickly say to the last comment from. [applause] who was my commencement speaker at morehouse by the way i went to one of the best public schools in the country and when people ask you was my mentor, a favorite teacher it was the head custodian but he was a strong black man who found me every day to make sure i was doing right and i set high expectations and he had high expectations for me. i guess my question is this tragedy is unspeakable and you cannot start a fight then claim self-defense when

you lose. but what we do as members of congress is an act policy and to set priorities for spending and the white house should do the same so my question to you all as members of congress to look at the plight of our black men and boys mandatory sentences, exposed in rates rates, what is it you would like to see congress or the white house to do with this issue? it is hard to people to understand and i think i did a bunch of things right to get to where i am the one i am home, sometimes on the elevator in the building without my member pin, i am still just a young black

dude that probably is not supposed to be here. so how we invest resources or pump that into our communities and raise those expectations to give them the sense of self worth and deal with acre at the same time that when someone does that to me i can't act out? i have to do like jackie robinson in the movie 42 to suck it up even though i am a member of congress and the person that treats me like that most of the time is not. that is my question so what do we do to help develop those things? >> i will just speak to the of seeing your ground the law congressman -- "stand your ground". >> it is suggested that you

control the purse strings to document these statistical data of how to stand your ground if it had been applied if it is the black as the victim, the defendants are careless, are they exonerated and if it is blacks claiming "stand your ground" are we exonerating? i think obama ask that rhetorically that if trayvon was of age and had a gun to defend himself against a strange man following him, would he have been able to claim "stand your ground"? you can give that statistical analysis to say

if it has never been applied fairly then we will look at how we give out the financial allocations to the states that have "stand your ground" because everybody has concluded it is so arbitrary how the law has been applied and the sister of jacksonville convicted -- convicted for 20 years. >> i'd like to work with the box office -- caucus it should come as no surprise what we know for every single dollar be footed we would expect a return between seven and $13 a does not make sense to waste money every year to remedial students when we could start to make solid steps to make

sure they are on solid ground for the course of the lifetime but recruiting a better preparing educators as can be applied to individuals who represent the criminal-justice system to make sure every adult in front of children regardless of the cheetah type understands how to put the work is required to support them to exceed their dreams with dawson make a concerted effort to recruit more teachers in particular so when we talk about a statement it has everything to do with how it is and a footnote is this is not just a black-and-white problem so we need to of a national conversation about race and how we see our kids in the

system and also focus on fatherhood as the and this member of the panel your grace has been meaningful to me in ways that i still don't fully realize it is important to rick knowledge the relationship this man has with his son to talk about it creates opportunities for other men who have family relationships in those you're just there because they care or how it is we provide better opportunities sometimes when brothers cannot of a correctional facility we need to have those conversations to make sure those barriers don't exist eyelet forge to a whole lot more. >> by china and on those excellent points that the employment situation is pretty devastating for young

black men and black adults one added to black men are unemployed there is not that many of these -- lazy people in america so the stigma is there is no jobs but if you look at the disproportionate employment among african-american people in general and when we take those categories that the black men and boys have not been introduced into a world of work you lose out to get up on timer set your alarm clock or get a paycheck how to show up a and be rewarded because there is nothing more thrilling, very few things, and having done its job well done for your employer to understand if you most especially to know you did an honest day's work you got paid and counted as

worthy so behind the statistics about escalating black unemployment and we have to do that. we know you don't go to the hospital to get medicine if you have the hangnail you get aspirin with diabetes you get insolent you have to have targeted specific medicines for the ills that he and we have to be unafraid to say american citizens who happen to be black the the bully pulpit of congress in terms of the law as the you can create to enhance sap. when i was a kid the neighborhood youth corps that was big stuff because i am from detroit michigan and we had tremendous and escalating rates of crime and social hostility introduced into the fabric of our existence but yet the

ability to work was extremely important and secondly these neighborhood block parties able to buffer and sustain local communities and the president was a community organizer he knows this by the back of his hand but to be evolved from that role to become a politician so enhance the that is extremely important and thirdly the fatherhood initiative should not be a lecture up to be a better daddy by resources to enable us. i was at teen father i had to go to court to see my child. i had to force the state to allow me the opportunity to see my son who is now 35 years old warehouse graduate like you. it is extremely important

not just jews stigmatize the black fathers because most non-residents fathers are involved in the lives of their children that we don't hear about bad and what can the white house to? i think they can set the tone with the president spoke yesterday he is called, rational reasonable he says it in a charming and the magnificent manor that that communicates the kind of anchor and passion righteous in this country there should be articulate and he chance that -- translate that into a town that others may be able to hear but we need more, not less he was humble when he said politicians can lead or you can be involved but me involved because the president of united states says your skin speaks before your mouth opens the dignity

you present as the most powerful person in the world gives you beverage justice use been unafraid to go to our house to challenge those black men in public be unafraid to stand up for the rest of america to challenge them so we can have the equivalence between the bully pulpit of the whitehouse in the authority of that magnificent office for mr. obama to say not just to defend black people that my brothers and sisters have to come to grips with things as well i see the majority of white institutions. wednesday to be cool has no copyright and black communities. [laughter] number two jugs' reside on

every campus not were i went but they have the best labs. [laughter] don't go to jail or get stigmatized see you are penalized of the crimes on the campus you're not subjected to and thirdly the adn that we are so much different wheel of the same thing if the president could stand up to remind america he is not the only person who was brilliant and bold and particular there are millions more that you know, nothing about and he has the power to educate and challenge ministry takes the hit on the jobs bill he is out there right now to tell the truth about the economy he takes a hit for everything this is another hit but it can impact larger society as well and that is

critical. >> we'll try to get as many questions before people go to vote. >> if i could just have a second to respond to decide what to think rather richmond for his point in question what can we as a congressional body do specifically? i have three things of that will be very succinctly. number one there ought to be a trayvon martin law which is the anti-"stand your ground" federal piece of legislation to supersede state law the way federal legislation does in certain instances to make it illegal to profile pursue a cost then eventually kill somebody so as that goes to the hearts of that deals

with the number of issues with "stand your ground." fifth did judiciary committee to look at mandatory minimums and a more broader way that gives us some direction as to where there ought to be federal legislation to change those because it does away with discretion for judges and the black kids if you are poor black or white or latino mandatory minimums perch you and if the caucus of his own way could consider the your ben marshall plan that is not new spending but it would direct existing resources and existing appropriations to urban investment and employment and education so we're not asking for new money but to directed

through the appropriations process to have it ought to be spent and where it ought to be applied that will help alleviate some of this and also went to a knowledge congresswoman waters and was a real fighter and thank you for being here as well. [applause] >> let me thank the panel for being here. also let me say to trace to martin -- tracy martin of your home town of st. -- east st. louis of illinois our support is behind you. let me get to the point that dr. dyson brought up about

the educational system it seems as though it has done a disservice to our kids a and he pointed out some good points as far as teaching diversity i have been involved with education for about 30 years as part of the scholarship fund and we encourage young black men into those scholarships also i am the father of a 12 year-old son it has been some tough weeks the last some tough weeks the last two weeks explaining to him our has long dash in our history.

should we take control at the local level of the school districts or blowing up and start over? the whole educational process? if it is doing such said disservice to the young people, where do we go? >> yes, sir, i just want to acknowledge when you said you have a 12 year-old son and i assure you became an instant hero for them in midway's to speak about that child and the school system is pretty buffeted by several forces of dwindling resources you could be in the suburb for the children get twice as much money per capita in the student in the inner-city so the defunding of the institutions where

big shiny new computers and access to the internet than with inner-city you have second and books that nixon is still a the president. we have to close the disparity to generate alternative structures of funding were people who are interested or organizations or it institutions begin to find and invest with urban education because everybody cannot go and then it is of lottery so much to those people feel like? and an even with that lottery and number two yes the investment and involvement at the local level where school boards and parents become much more it invested one of the

things they were saying is it is extremely critical of a lot of teachers in our schools spend their own money for supplies to do interesting things with their students if mcdonald's or pepsi-cola would redirect the capital to adopt these schools the could bring their resource base and thursday the investment of local level in terms of controlling the curriculum to make sure when they meet with the local school board that adequate preparation is going on in those who are informed and responsible a lot of kids are subjected to the teachers who have no idea what their lives are and

unfortunately have a negative impact does taking control of our education break up the pipeline? >> every documented survey shows educational intervention there is a decrease of those ultimately end up brushing up the criminal-justice system fear their the intervention the greater the possibilities of early childhood education what we do before is important some of this really gets down to parents making sure you telling your six kids the right way to be then circumstances like this

get out of control so there is a parenting side there is the oversight aside that is wise talk about directing appropriations but we do need directions so those are funded and held accountable and make a difference. >> the next to be to leave to catch a plane battle ask others to remain we have a boat's going summer coming and come a -- coming back so we can get it as many as can come. thank you so much i cannot thank mr. martin e. duff for coming to this hearing you have enhanced it in ways that we cannot imagine. thank you very much.

>> if i could also respond demitasse stir frequently says. >> please do not interrupt the hearing if you wish to have words, please leave and go into the hall so we can continue with this event of an interrupted. mr. johns, a just a second. please don't stop. [inaudible conversations]

>> please let mr. martin exit. [inaudible conversations] ñññ

>> the korean war helps the south period unify themselves in a way that was not there before.

when the communist came down they turned against the communist of the north where is a sense of national cohesion and identity but it is possible the south would have disintegrated on its own.

>> with his endless parade of distractions with cody scandals washington has taken its eye off the ball. i am here to say this needs to stop. [applause] this needs to stop. this moment does not require short-term thinking having the same stale debate our focus has to be on the basic economic issues that matter the most you come to the people we represent that is what we have to spend our time and energy and focus on

and as washington prepares to enter another budget debate everybody fighting to get into the middle class it could not be higher those countries in the face of a global economy will lose the competition for good jobs are high living standards that is why america has to make the investment necessary to promote long-term growth it rebuilding of our manufacturing base and educating the work force upgrading our systems. [applause] upgrading information networks. [applause] that is what we need to be talking about. that is what washington needs to be focused on. that is why over the next several weeks with towns across this country i will

be engaging the american people in this debate. [applause] . . that is what we need. [applause] that is what we need. [applause] that is what we need right now.

[applause] that is what we need to be focused on. last year president obama sent a letter to fund highways and mass transit and other surface transportation programs. thursday transportation secretary anthony foxx was among witnesses discussing the law before the senate environment committee. this hearing is an hour and 45 minutes. [inaudible conversations] >> welcome everybody. mr. secretary, welcome. please have a seat. we are going to do opening statements and as soon as the last senator appears as people come in and out we will then turn to for your comments and we

will ask you some questions. so we are here today to conduct oversight of the tibia program which we greatly expanded in 21. tv is supported by groups ranging from the u.s. conference of mayors and that secretary foxx remembers well to the u.s. chamber of commerce to the afl-cio and that is quite a coalition. the program provides direct loans, loan guarantees and lines of credit to surface transportation projects at favorable terms and the recent the terms can be favorable is there is a steady stream of funding between -- behind those loans that we can count on so the cost here to us, is very very low and we can leverage these funds. map-21 bills on the already successful tifia program by expanding it tenfold and i want to thank my colleagues on both

sides of the aisle who understood the potential of this program. we spent about $100 million a year on the old program and it has expanded this year to 750,002,013 and goes up to a billion dollars in fiscal year 2014. so according to the federal highway administration every dollar made available through tifia can mobilize up to $30 in transportation investments. the additional funding for tifia map-21 including leveraging will support 1 million jobs so we are talking about something that is very important. since its creation the tifia program has provided over $11 billion in credit assistance for 34 projects totaling over $43 billion. however in recent years the number of applications for tifia assistance has greatly exceeded available funding. for example in fiscal year 2011,

the highway administration received requests for $14 billion in credit assistance for projects totaling over $48 billion in infrastructure investment. before passage of map-21 the tifia program could support less than a tenth of that demand. the newly expanded tifia program has experienced an incredible demand from cities and states. according to the fhwa 31 projects totaling over $42 billion or seeking assistance under the tifia program so colleagues we did the right thing by expanding this program. states and cities are stepping up to the plate to provide local transportation funding to accelerate projects through this program. the initiative and los angeles counties is an example of how the program was called 3010 originally. the intent was to build in 10 years with two via -- tifia what would otherwise take 30 years and we were able to step up and meet that need in

los angeles. i have to thank former mayor of los angeles villaraigosa. he thought took it to the national level and explain it could be replicated across the country. we believe that here in this committee and we started the expansion of tifia. in los angeles they approved a half cent sales tax dedicated to transportation and that is the stream of funding that is behind the tifia loans that they got from the federal government. with the greatly increased resources that congress provided in map-21 it is critical mr. secretary that tifia funds be used efficiently and effectively and responsibly and i have total faith in your leadership to make sure that is done. we had a good meeting in which i said, you were in there for one day even before the vote on your nomination and i said mr. secretary please check on this because we have got to get those dollars out the door and

make sure they are the right dollars but get them out the door because we need the jobs. so today secretary foxx will testify about how d.o.t. is implementing the changes to tifia included in map-21 and what steps the department is taking to ensure the funding is being used in ways that stretch our resources effectively. then we have our second panel transportation experts and stakeholders were share their impressions of the improved and expanded tifia program and discuss the opportunities that the program creates across the country. so i am very excited about this. this is our first hearing after map-21 to take a look at the tifia program and now of course our next challenge in the next bill is to find the funding source to be able to continue not only this program but our basic infrastructure program so we are going to be working very hard in map. with that i will turn to ranking

member senator vitter. see thank you chairman boxer and members of the committee and secretary. this is an important hearing i've been looking forward to and i want to especially welcome the secretary and congratulate him on his nomination and confirmation. i am happy your first committee appearance the secretary is here at epw and it's our hope that this is the first of many appearances as we work together on important programs. certainly ensuring that america has a healthy comprehensive infrastructure network is a fundamental responsibility of government. our transportation infrastructure is a critical component of our economy and way of life and its fundamental to communities and to promote and sustain economic growth. over the course of the next year the committee will need to not only ensure proper implementation and oversight of map-21's reform but also work towards a new reauthorization.

needless to say we have a lot of work ahead of us. that is why it's really important we begin that process today with an examination of map-21's reforms to tifia. while many pieces of map-21 are still being put into place for tifia got an early start as well into implementation so that gives us an opportunity to do oversight now. since tifia was first established in 1998 it's been an essential tool for many states and communities. with proper implementation of map-21 reforms tifia can and should build success. it's a powerful flexible investment tool designed to leverage taxpayer dollars and encourage both private sector participation and efficiencies for critical projects. map-21's reforms to tifia have

increased transparency by broadening access and refocusing the program on project financial liability -- viability. quality infrastructure means something different in every part of the country. for years understanding this concept and empowering it into our federal policy is what is made transportation infrastructure such a bipartisan issue. that is why proper oversight of tifia is critical to making sure that the program not only follows the legislative intent that is equipped for tomorrow's challenges. there are already areas of concern, including the management of tifia's ruling application process, the potential use of improper discretion in the project approval process and the functionality and ramifications of tifia's definition of rural projects seeking the. [roll call] financing structure so i hope this focuses on those areas of

concern in particular as we do appropriate oversight. as we have seen over the last several years of uncertainty causes real disruption for states and communities in the planning maintenance and delivery of transportation infrastructure. making sure these uncertainties are addressed and that the program operates as promised will go a long way in settling back the landscape. as we move into more comprehensive discussions of our transportation infrastructure needs it must be noted that while tifia is an essential tool to invest in infrastructure certainly does not replace a sound sustainable highway trust fund. i want to make that point as well. i again i thank the chair and the witnesses for all the work brought into this hearing and i look forward to the testimony and discussion. >> senator sitter i agree with every single thing you say. >> do we have that on the record?

>> i've put it in the record. i agreed with everything you said. we are going to go by the early bird rule so that is gillibrand and cardin and boozman. see thank you madam chairwoman. thank you for holding such an important hearing. secretary foxx thank -- congratulations. i look forward to working with you over the coming years to address many the transportation needs that new york has. my state of new york faces a diversity of transportation challenges ranging from highly dense urban areas to high levels of traffic and congestion major bridges over the hudson to rural highways that need to be maintained to ensure that congress and ogre culture orange disrupted. as you know much of the transportation infrastructure is rapidly aging and and it need of repair in some instances needs replacement. as others have pointed out the american society of civil

engineers once again gave gave her to structure a dismal report card. our nation's bridges were rated the mac plus and 60% of new york's

i am proud of the work they did coming together on a bipartisan bill map-21 and a provision that significantly expands the tifia program. this will result in enhanced ability to leverage federal dollars at the local level in order to support capital capital investments and transportation projects. smart investments like this we can harness the potential of the sector to create good-paying jobs. my colleagues may be aware of the project currently underway in new york at the tappan zee bridge. the project was selected by the abundant is a project of national significance. this bridge is an integral part of the northeastern interstate highway system of vital transportation artery critical to interstate commerce the carries about 133,000 vehicles daily. that is 40% more traffic than the bridges original design.

they tifia loan has long been considered an element to financing the tappan zee bridge to reduce overall costs and the potential toll increases that may otherwise be used to finance such a large infrastructure project. the full cost of this significant project should not be borne by the residents of new york state alone or dramatically increased tolls on the bridge. mr. secretary thank you again for agreeing to come before this committee for this oversight hearing today. thank you for your willingness to serve our nation at such a critical time. thank you madam chairwoman. >> senator inhofe. >> thank you madam chairwoman. let me start off by saying i can't think of anyone who would have nominated anywhere in america who is better qualified and will be easier to work with with -- work with then secretary foxx. i think a lot of that is misery loves company and you and i are both, we were both mayors of major cities and we know what a hard job is, don't we?

i would also mention that gary rigby is in the audience. he has probably had testified at the table where you are right now before this committee more than anybody else has and he is mr. transportation in the western part of united states. as i said before a if believe the federal infrastructure spending is one of the primary purposes of government. given our enormous infrastructure needs it's difficult to imagine the next highway bill could ever meet these needs. not only do need to get the most out of our federal highway dollars but we also need to incentivize the state and local government and the private sector to invest as much as possible and roads and bridges. this hearing is an opportunity to examine the progress with the most important financing tools in map-21 which is essential in leveraging the finite federal funds. now i have three long paragraphs following this talking about the tifia program which i will not

repeat because they are precisely what chairman boxer said in her opening statement. i agree with your statement in this rare case. [laughter] unfortunately, since the passage of map-21 last august there've been tremendous criticisms of the inefficiency of the administration of the loans we are trying to promote. there is no point in providing almost 15 times the funding provided in safety loop for tifia if it prevents resources from being used for their intended purpose. it's essential that we address institutiinstituti onal obstacles currently preventing optimal use of tifia and other other -- and any ideas are distinguished panel has and how do we overcome these challenges. finally even with the fully optimized tifia program we have got to inevitably turn our attention to the shortfall in the highway highway trust fund. cbo has said in april that adds

an additional revenue in the trust fund we will be faced with a 92% cut in highway funding meaning most alto sundry seats will be used to reimburse states for projects that are already under construction. although i would prefer that we successfully identify sustainable funding source i have suggested in in the past that it's reasonable to resort to general funds as we have over five times in the past when faced with new -- no alternative other than a series of short-term extensions and i want to say this because we have a lot of my conservative friends. first of all i know you are aware mr. secretary i've been ranked the most conservative member as much or more than anybody else has but i am a big spender to areas defense and infrastructure. if you read the constitution that is what we are supposed to be doing here. i was upset with some of my conservative friends who would make statements on the floor

trying to get this bill passed a little over a year ago. that were really not right. in fact the conservative position was to do a reauthorization as opposed to doing extensions. extensions you could argue take 30% off the top or 20%. we know it takes a lot of the money out of the system. you can't plan for it and it doesn't work. you can't put an reforms. we have more reforms in our bill in our billy yuriko than all other bills combined. you don't get that with extension so we are going to be faced with this thing and i would like to -- the only conservative group is the american conservative union who correctly use the statements i used on the floor saying the conservative position is to come up with a good healthy reauthorization bill and start doing what the constitution says we are supposed to be doing. i just know that we are going to do the best we can and we are going to work as a team and we

are going to make this thing happen. of course we rejoice in having your capabilities to work with us and look forward to that process. thank you madam chairwoman. >> senator inhofe i am breathless. senator cardin. >> madam chair it's always a pleasure to come after my friend from oklahoma. we are good friends and came to congress at the same time and senator inhofe has been a champion on this issue as senator boxer has been. it's a pleasure to have you as secretary of transportation and we are honored that your first appearances before this committee which has a reputation of working across party lines to get things done. it's not always the case for secretary before it hit -- a friendly committee that has the objective of getting the tools

necessary to modernize our infrastructure and you are following on the footsteps of secretary lahood who did an incredible job in service of this country and had a wonderful relationship of the members of congress. as a result they got good things done for the country so we look forward to a similar working relationship between you and this committee and the congress and welcome. tifia was a pragmatic way to leverage more transportation funding and it certainly is accomplishing those purposes but as many of my colleagues have pointed out it does not deal with the fundamental issue that we have and that is how do we finance long-term commitments to modernize or transportation in this country? i couldn't agree agree with moore was the previous speaker the previous speakers that we need a long-term robust transportation program. senator inhofe is difficult to look at how we can get that from the general fund so we don't

have enough general funds to balance the budget so i don't disagree with you philosophically that i think is a practical matter we have to tackle the issue of where we are going to get the revenue necessary to fund the fundamental functions of government and yes i agree transportation is a fundamental responsibility and that we need to have funding for that. i would hope -- see sin to mention my name but me just respond. i don't disagree with that at all. i look at the things in the general fund and i think in terms of funding of our infrastructure is more important than a lot of those things. that is my choice. i would rather have a long-term funding source that you mentioned that we don't have that yet. i am saying this has that kind of a critical effect on me and what i would be willing to do. >> my colleague and my friend i would point out that some of us

are prepared to make the tough decisions that we have the revenues necessary for this country and there have been members who have said just that the carbon tax on a pollution tax as a way of not rolling dealing with energy policy and environmental policy but perhaps also having revenue to deal with the long-term transportation program. i think we need to look at those types of proposals in a way to accomplish our mutual objective of being able to finance modern transportation in this country. let me mention two other issues that i need to point out when we talk about tifia. one is that many of the states that are utilizing tifia to build new roads have a long backlog on repair and maintenance of their existing roads. secretary gillibrand, senator gillibrand mentioned the problems in new york on the bridges. if you take that nationwide the backlog on repairs of our

bridges and highways it is close to $3 trillion so as we are building new roads ,-com,-com ma which is important, we don't have the funding to maintain the existing roads and i think we need to look at how we can put a priority on the safety of our existing transportation infrastructure. the second one i want to raise in regards is tifia is not helping us with repair and maintenance. the second is whether we have the right mix of transportation programs within tifia. it's my understanding before% of the tifia funded programs go to highways. i would suggest that if you represent a state like i do in maryland and you look at our number one transportation challenge, the washington metro area has been rated as the worst traffic congested area in the nation. so we need help on transit projects and transit projects are having a difficult time

getting tifia funding. we have a need in this region for expansion of the metro system of the baltimore metro system and yet when we take a look at the transportation bill that is on the floor today the appropriations bill it doesn't have the type of robust appropriations that give us great hope that such projects can move in a timely way. so secretary foxx i just really wanted to make those comments and talk about tifia and recognize we have broader issues. this committee and the senator looked toward working with you so we can accomplish our mutual objective of modernizing or transportation system that will not only improve the quality of life for the people who live in this country and provide a cleaner environment to help our connie grow. >> senator boozman. >> thank you madam chair and it's good to have you here secretary foxx. i really enjoyed our visit in the office and getting to know you and i think you are going to

do great things for transportation. as the committee is going to be supportive. we have some concerns and we have a couple of major interstates that we would like to work really hard to get completed. i 49 north-south corridor, we don't have very many of those running through the country and also the ie 69 project so we look forward to working with you on that. the other thing is i hope the committee, we are in the process of sequestration and it is here now and it's here for the foreseeable future unless we figure out a way to undo that and we can make it such that we don't have the across-the-board cuts. but again i hope you can work together to manage sequestration as best we can for the department and hopefully we can do that and provide you some help in that regard. also working with the faa to

improve the certification to make her aircraft manufactures and internationally competitive is very important. in regard to tifia just ensuring that the medium-sized and rural states have an opportunity to participate in i think that's very very important. and then too promoting what we say cooperative federalism, working together as we face the challenges we have talked a lot about today. we agree we just don't have the funding that we need. trying to think outside the box and working with the states and working with a private entities to try to get some of these things done. and then also something that is very very important and i think after visiting with you i know it's important to you reducing the bureaucracy and reducing the roadblocks so that we can get these projects done in a timely

fashion which would save a tremendous amount of money and be very helpful in a variety of different ways. again we welcome you on board and we look forward to working with you and appreciate your testimony today. thank you madam chair. >> thank you senator boozman. senator whitehouwhitehou c. >> thank you chairman and welcome secretary foxx. i'm delighted you are where you are and i look forward to working with you on these issues. we hear a lot of talk in washington about our nation's deficit and we have a very serious infrastructure deficit as well as a fiscal deficit that gets much less attention but it is probably more immediately important to the american people when bridges aren't safe and highways aren't smooth, waters and cleaned properly and the services we are accustomed to in other areas are not provided. i really think we need to work

on this. i'm a big fan of the tifia program that my rhode island director of transportation mike lewis tells me we have got nothing that qualifies for the tifia program. we have plenty of highways that need to be repaired and plenty of bridges that need to be repaired. we have an enormous amount of work to do and aging infrastructure on the waterside which is not your problem. it's equally serious and i think we have $600 billion a year in water infrastructure that we are behind on and our water resources bill was trapped in the senate because the house can't legislate so it's a frustrating circumstance to bn. just when we get to the queue and they are want to ask her thoughts about what are the other creative ways in which we can go forward and particularly to help states like mine where tifia doesn't apply because we don't have the toll roads to upset. i welcome you. this is a big issue. infrastructure should be something republicans and

democrats can agree on. everyone in america is entitled to save highways safe bridges and safe water disposable and cleaning water and that deficit gets nowhere the attention that it should. thank you chairman that i think the ranking member for focusing on this and i look forward to the hearing. >> thank you so much senator. well mr. secretary the floor is yours. >> thank you chairman dr. ranking member vitter and members of the committee. ..

>> this includes projects like the recently closed corridor improvement project in riverside california. at the beginning of this month we provided a $421 billion loan to the 1.$3 billion project that is expected to reduce traffic delays to create more than 60,000 jobs. it is also the multi modal program.

surface transportation projects including highways, transit, railroad intermodal freight index's projects are eligible for assistance increasingly we see of broad interest in tifia for innovative projects with nontraditional sponsors and we see interest in states across the country taking advantage of the program each year. tifia is a filling the at the fundamental goal to have federal funds by attracting private or non federal investments of critical infrastructure improvement projects to improve the nation's orchestras rotation system. in short tifia helps stretch our dollars further. this committee recognizes the power of tifia as a tool to leverage resources and your comments reflect that. with that bill the past

included a significant expansion of the program including tifia funding more than eightfold. the leverage ratio is more than 30 / one meaning that $1 a budget authority will release -- have $30 of infrastructure investment pat that level tifia will stimulate as much as $30 billion or more with the infrastructure investment in 2014 alone the demand for tifia is high in the last years we have received $50 billion of request for assistance. the issue is a different the department of transportation has received 15.$8 billion of request to finance 31 projects across the country. thinks to the strong bipartisan support and the of late -- leadership in the

ranking member in the rest of the committee, we now have the resources to meet the demand for tifia. with since it went into effect we have a working hard to disperse this money quickly with a hundred million dollars for 18 projects and in total we have 25 projects progressing through the tifia pipeline right now and to put that in perspective that is two-thirds the total number of projects that tifia has financed since 1999. we're streamlining the way that we manage the program and continuing to spread the word developing a series of love and ours for those more interested to access tifia. transparency and accountability are high priorities and deity is working to keep stakeholders' informed throughout the credit worthiness evaluation process which is a rigorous but highly efficient effort that loans are likely to be

repaid and the taxpayers are protected. we're also committed to oversight as is all request. under the obama administration the credit council has strengthened its focus requirements inc. lessons from the financial crisis to make sure they're not over leveraged or financed and i think i am out of time. >> we will give you another two minutes. >> above all tifia is a highly successful way to leverage federal dollars to help communities with a large-scale infrastructure projects we need to be successful in the 21st century. and today it has expanded more than $11 billion of credit assistance to support almost $44 billion of highway, bridge, rail, bus projects. there to activate tifia

funds and 2014 promises to be busier. we look first to work with you with the infrastructure needs and i'm happy to answer any of your questions >> we stuck our necks out and decided together this was a program worth expanding. what i wanted to ask you you, did you make any changes of people like this program? to handle the of funded program? >> thank you for the question. i will say we're focusing very much to help the of

projects moved to the pipeline that was one of the first orders of business coming in to the department having a conversation with you and others in the committee and we are making progress. we had to projects that moved in the lawsuit angeles area. >> have you had to make changes the way tifia is handled or reducing your predecessor, who was terrific, did he put people in place you need more help? >> with staffing we are expanding. you can expect we will add 16 additional people to help us move projects through the pipeline. >> it is important. you point out at the same time you want to get the money out of the street also make sure they are safe investments for us why tifia is so effective because it is very low risk to us.

in addition to the funding it had policy enhancements broadly supported by outside organizations including the ability to provide master credit agreements for " projects an increasing share of the cost covered by tifia. can you explain those changes and allowing us to take full of vantage of these provisions? >> we had one request by a community sponsor to pursue paymaster credit agreement and even in the course of pursuing that comment that i believe it is not a good fit the flexibility is very important because potentially it allows us to pull the projects by the sponsors to have the overreaching credit agreement available. that is important but that is as far as it has gone to

my knowledge. >> host: but you are prepared. >> absolutely. >> but to make the system is more practical and usable particularly rural areas. would be doing to educate those potential applicants and how they can benefit? particularly in the role areas. >> a very good question i think one of the things our staff is working on is a series of outreach to local communities all across the country. some have been through web dinars their other efforts to make this available i also want 2.0 the changes to the program to allow for a lower limit for assistance to rural communities has been very important we're looking to make greater use of that flexibility.

>> again, a figure for being here. as the chairman noted we dramatically expanded tifia part of that deal was also to streamline and simplify the criteria used. we try to make a real simple eligibility and credit worthiness because we want to increase transparency and really get the program backed to its original intent some of us are concerned with the dot application there is a new term in their public benefit asking for a description of public benefit. why is that inserted? that is not what we want to

get back to with the eligibility you are eligible are not and concern is something like public benefit is completely subjective and would reassert tremendous administration discretion which quite frankly we do not want to do we want this to we rolling first come come, first serve to have clear criteria so why is that term in your material and the application process? >> let me say at the outset that may be a comment i may need to come back to after the hearing but i can tell you i don't know of any request for a letter of interest that has come that has been excluded as a result of some concern a public benefit. in other words, every project that has come through our doors our staff is trying to work with the

project and that is consistent with the view the you had and to get the projects. >> i would urge you to look at that and supplementary answer because if that is true, and i hope it is then it is useless in time consuming issue so why not take it out and make them answer another question that really does not have to do with the two criteria that we laid out. related to that, we demanded -- radically expanded tifia we want to be a first-come first-served process so with that in mind how many projects have received assistance since the -- since it was issued last year? >> i know of one project that has made it all the way through there are several projects in the course.

i think there are five going through the credit worthiness process and have been invited to apply for the program. you would recall one of the things changed we are from voting a lot of the effort of the credit worthiness so when we get to the application phase we can move faster and that is the case. i believe by the end of the year you will see several projects that will get through and 2014 will be even more expansive. >> again the concern is that there is a dozen pending the there dozens pending the concern is there will be picking and shoes rather than moving the eligible projects through.

>> my instructions to our staff is to get a yes on every application it should be the allied air would we can -- cannot there may be some issues as credit worthiness that don't work but even then we will try to figure out a way to help make it work that is ryan coming from. >> let me back up by not suggesting we should not vendor break rules of eligibility or credit worthiness is simply should not take and shoes subjectively no one including the administration and if you can get the pipeline moving to illustrate that you are not i think that would build confidence because right now there is a lot pending and that is the concerned. as was mentioned another

issue coming up is there world car out of the threat that sun may get a project that meets that criteria could gobble up the money and could you address that as you move for word? >> i think the flexibility this committee in congress provided to be a little more tailored to roll communities has been extremely helpful. it is one of the reasons why we have been consistent to keep the 33% amount that is contributed to projects solid across the range of what has come through because it leaves us with the ability to use that capacity to do projects in rural america and other parts of the country. i come from a state with urban and rural parts and all of those are part of america and we'll keep working to make sure we

build every part of this country to this program. >> as i mentioned in my opening statement mr. secretary you was significant help the replacement of the tappan zee bridge and it has been announced of the stage presence and we have now received the update of the current status could you provide me with an update? >> thank you. i appreciate the significance of this project is of national significance and a bridge that continues to be highly trafficked as you have pointed out. this project has gone through several phases and is still in n credit worthiness but by the way it is the largest tifia request

we have ever tried to work through. i expect this project will continue to make its way through the credit worthiness review and i will say a certain point there was some concern about the appropriate percentage level with the t. ted mound there was an interest to have to be higher than 33 percent but it is now agreed by the parties to keep debt at 33% and i think we'll see that project move its way to the system. >> are there other mechanisms over alternative funding including tax exempt or financing, or other partnership programs? >> there are. by america bonds and other tools we have been the toolbox and the president has proposed the

infrastructure but all of which will be helpful to help us build our system but as has been pointed out across the committee there is still a tremendous need for infrastructure across the country. >> how you plan to utilize the high with federal administration delivery as you address the stations infrastructure needs? >> we're seeing some examples of some pretty innovative project delivery today that high wage ministrations started a program called every day council that is to speed project delivery because many shave time offer project without compromising safety we actually save money to help the dollars go further so what they have

denis is in some situations when you build the bridge the components can be put together on the roadside then moved into the thoroughfare to make the bridge get built faster real looking at ways to do that and also the process and other requirements to see if we can streamline those to get projects done quicker. >> is a helpful to work with other agencies like commerce or energy to help streamline of additional partnerships? because as he looked at the idea of the infrastructure bank or the authority w providig financing but streamlining streamlining, are there ways the department can do that? what is your approach?

>> there are ways and i think the president has put on the table some very good ideas in the hope we can see some activity but again even if you have the $10 billion infrastructure bank matt to vatican city for repair or maintenance across the country it is a huge step to get it there is more private money involved to build the infrastructure but we have a great need beyond that. >> in terms of streamlining to think that is the right approach? >> i do. it is essential and in some of the activity with the epa and hud we could work together to make them more impacted at the local level i can speak to that as having been a bear and as we

start to think about the reauthorization for instance one of the policies right now is the freight policy designed to look at the economic data that comes from commerce to help us begin with the end in mind as marie bill that infrastructure real or highways so we are collaborating a great deal the devil looks for ways to help us collaborate to make our transportation system even more so. >> i have talked to many investors who would be delighted to invest in a high-speed rail line especially the high frequency corridors up to montreal from albany and niagara they are highly traffic routes that to be financially lucrative if done properly many investors say we don't need financing

or loan guarantees what we need is streamlining and the ability to do the project in a timely manner on negative mannered because it is affordable for the investor it cannot be done. is that something you have looked at and how to be creative? >> there is a lot of conversation about the building of infrastructure whether real or something else. i have yet to see the private sector to agree out of benevolence but having said that to engage in the private sector how to streamline the process we see that in some parts of the country to bring the private sector money to the

table to help pick the projects that will provide the best return but also the best benefit so i think we should continue looking to that but the larger point is well there are some projects that are great candidates for public-private partnerships there are some better simply part of the public good and will never qualify for a public-private partnership but are important because of that. >> figure mr. secretary. >> we're very happy to see you we're excited to go after the next problem and figure at a way to move forward and now we stand ready as he put together the

next bipartisan highway bill >> i look forward to working with you. >> i am sir forgot the wanted to question. i am sorry. >> quickly, one thing that i would request with other projects would ask you and i believe that i said this in the opening statement to have more reforms sorel ask you to do is look at all these reports to be sure that they are carried out

putting into logical use which should be very helpful so if you would do that i would appreciate that. the question i would ask is is, i was serious when i said people here in washington and the united states they don't know what a hard job is that i know what it is like so we in understand that. so we neglected the infrastructure and what kind of experience and did you have as mayor of charlotte charlotte, north carolina with infrastructure? >> thank you for the question senator. it is hard to be in there right now not to have a lot of experience with infrastructure.

we had guns here period of 30 years of expansion as a result of our ability to anax and then it became clear to me that we were not going to be able to aniks anymore because the laws have changed. >> that is the same situation but yet we were experiencing exponential population growth, in fact, the largest fastest-growing mature region in the country. our transportation system have to do several things at once to move things and people and enhance the ability to make good land-use choices and hopefully provide people with a reliable way to get somewhere. for us, it was

highways, transit, bypass and sidewalks and bridges, when those things all work together, what happens is people have choices and when they have traces they feel empowered and ultimately that is what transportation does to empower people to have good jobs. >> so there is no better training ground. so that currently the ave a is involved in the lawsuit so that is why wanted to visit a little bit here. this event is the largest anywhere in the world. the revenues generated for the faa, as soon as the chairman dismisses you maybe

we can give the answer about that in the backroom. >> thank you so much. we'll afford to be with you and we will ask our second panel to come for word. . . we are going to go across the

table and we are we are very interested in getting your views today on tifia and what you feel about the program, and he reports back from your perspective since you are really on the ground. mr. james bass, secretary, chief financial officer texas department of transportation department of transportation. >> thank you and good morning. i would like to thank you chairman boxer for holding this hearing to discuss the tifia program and it's my privilege to provide a states perspective on the program. while i have the opportunity i would like to thank the committee for map-21 as we consider consider to the most significant surface transportation legislation passed over the last 20 years. since its passage texas has worked diligently to implement new provisions and of note to texas litigation recently passed legislation permitting texas to assume some environmental reviews for transportation

projects. we have worked -- look closely at the success california said with this program since 2007 we are hopeful we can replicate the same success in texas. we will continue to implement the new elements of map-21 in the second year of the bill and we look over to updating the committee on those efforts in the coming months. today i am before you to discuss one map-21 information in particular the tifia program. map-21 solves several key challenges that are at least on paper that held that the tifia program. we were very incurs by the substantial increase in funding for the program, the increase to share project cost provisions for rural projects and the congressional desire to make the tifia program more efficient however map 20 funds are not deployed to projects that are ready the program will lose momentum and congresses objectives will have not been fully achieved. since tifia's inception in 1998

as part of t21 texas has been a frequent user of the program. in fact we viewed tifia is a critical component in the delivery of all of our larger scale projects in the state. within the last 10 years or legislature in texas has enacted several financing initiatives that can be used in conjunction with tifia to to deliver this project sooner and more efficiently than traditional methods. to date projects in texas have received $3.4 billion in tifia assistant which when combined with state local and private investment have helped to deliver over $11 billion in transportation infrastructure. because of the way the office of management and budget scores tifia the federal budget impact for these projects is estimated at only $343 million. compared to the traditional federal funding tifia help save the federal government over $8.5 million to deliver the same projects and tifia is a great example