collapses and hopefully are a democratic country is restored in that part of the korean peninsula. i think that would be a sense of what president obama and president bush was trying to do in north korea. >> and so is dennis rodman a diplomat? [laughter] you know, in the strangest way, yes. [laughter] my daughter found this show on one of these hundreds of cable tv channels out there that these guys followed dennis rodman in north korea, and turns out that dennis rodman, basketball player, is the only american who had a decent conversation with kim jong un. i guess he loves basketball and the chicago bulls. who didn't love the chicago bulls when dennis rodman and scotty. -- and michael jordan was playing.

if he has the slightest positive view of the united states because of dennis rodman, we'll grant him as a diplomat dennis rodman. [laughter] >> he certainly has an imagination. [laughter] what role can diplomacy play in the post arab spring middle east? given the chaotic environment that exists there, and also the tendency toward more strict islamist government? >> i think you'll see a combination of dip city and the government being the answer for at least how the united states approaches the middle east. we're going don't safe guard israel's existence. we should do that. israel a great friend, and lives in a violent neighborhood. that's our military aid to israel will continue. interestingly enough our military tide egypt must also continue. it was the camp david -- that brought together israel and egypt and made for peace in

sinai. it's the desert that stands between israel and the major part of egypt. and the egyptian keeping the peace in sinai defend the border. the advocate to aid is the israeli government. they want the egyptian military to be strong because it safe guards israel's secure fip i also think you'll see american military assistance to qait, bahrain and, and saudi arabia. those countries are absolutely opposed to the buildup of iranian power. the greatest is hope is iran. you'll see at love military activity and assistance, which i think is positive, in the main, we have to figure out how do we get along with the new military leader in cairo, that is a diplomatic our job. bill burns, no relation to me, but a good friend. has been in cairo the last

couple of days trying to talk some sense to the egyptian leadership. and figuring out what is happening to syria. a lot will be military aid to the rebels. much will be humanitarian and political. so again, the united states has to juggle our diplomatic and military arrows and olive branches to form complete policy. >> given the increasing commitment to super fishialty and conflict. do you think the news media thwarts diplomatic efforts? >> no. i don't. i'm a great admirer of the state. they keep everybody in government honest. they have a constitutional role in our system. they translate government for the american people. they educate us about the world. listen to pbs at night or npr or there are a lot of great journalists who are instrumental, i think, in giving us a true sense of the world. i don't think they complicate

diplomacy. i would say that facilitate it. [applause] >> how large is the current foreign service? what it would dos double the size of that dhs, and what would the benefit be of doing so? >> finally, a question i want to answer. okay. [laughter] my numbers are going to be very rough here. think about an active duty u.s. military. somebody in the audience will know better than me. roughly 1.12 million and another million reserve. think about 2 million people in uniform at any one time. any of 6,500 american diplomats. that's it. we don't need as many diplomats as soldiers and sailors. we need many more military. we need more than 6,500. diplomats to staff 280 or 90 embassy and consulate to work in washington and representative us around the world. if you take the state department

budget, the u.s. aide budget and all of our foreign assistance and combine it, it's barely 1% of the federal budget. and the great scheme of things in washington, it doesn't break the bank. and so both condolezza rise and hillary clinton said to the congress, please hire 1,000 more officers. it will not break the bank. and neither of them was able to truly succeed. i supported both of them for trying to do that. i hope secretary kerry will do that as well. >> if the arc of history bends toward peace, in the middle east, does patience and diplomacy imply a generation change in an evolution? what is happening in term of the younger generation in the middle east, and expectations about peace? >> that recalls this beautiful 19th century quote from though door parker.

an martin luther king used this quote in the civil rights movement. the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. it's a beautiful way of thinking about progress sometimes having to take generations or even centuries in the case of african-americans in the civil right movement. and that may be one framework for us in the middle east. it's going to be a long process. these countries have not known pluralism or really the rule of law and most of them have not known democracy. and so overnight -- january in 2011 where 0 a fully functioning democracy like ours is not going happening. it's going to be generations, i think. if you pick up thee door parker and martin luther king. if you believe perhaps at the end is justice is economic prosperity and democratic

freedom. haas what we need to work for. we need insert ourself along the continuum as we can for u.s. aid, through attention, through friendship, through tough love and right now. we need give the egyptian government at love tough love. they have shot too many people on the street of cairo and al sand rei ya who are merely demonstrating not act -- acting violently. we have to pick and choose along the way how we intervene because at the end of it, we and they want to see a better future. here is another image that help me to understand. think of a play, think of a five-act play. the egyptians, syrians, jordanian might be at the end of act i of a five act play that doesn't end for thirty or forty years. we have to have patience and stay with those people who

support freedom, democracy, religious pluralism. that's important for us. we should have a little bit of humility. because remember, between 1783, and 1789, so between the end of the revolution when we signed the treaty of paris and the beginning of the george washington administration, we tried the article of confederation. we didn't really have a central government. we didn't have a national bank, we didn't have a currency, we didn't have an army. disaster. you can see that all of our history up to 2013 is trying to perfect, you know, the more perfect union that jefferson talked about. we just gave forty years ago fundamental political rights to african-american. just forty -- fifty years ago in the civil rights and voting rights act of '64 and '65. we have a long way to go on religious tolerance in this

country, and rights for gay and lesbian people, for african-americans. we are still building our union, and 237 years to it. that kind of more patient framework will allow us to stay with the people of the middle east, maybe. over the long course of history ahead. >> okay. the closure of the embassies though, you think about the work of most of the people in embassies, it's to get out of the embassy it. to meet with people, talk about economic activities, to help people form volunteer groups, to influence the creation of society, and yet in many of the countries where it's really important that that infrastructure get built, we have genuine safety issues about members of your service being out doing that level of work when that level of work is exactly what they need. so what is your feeling about that? how do we get beyond that? >> yeah. we were talking about this before we came on stage today. i don't remember anything like

this. we have been battling terrorists globally for about thirty five years. it was part of what we did overseas to protect our people. protect american citizens too. we sometimes close embassy if there was a threat. to close 19 embassy for an entire week, i fully support what the administration has done. i would assume they have a good reason for doing it. and they are diplomats and citizens be safe in the country. it's brings us back to today's lecture. i'm for diplomacy. i'm also for our military. there's one way to undercut terrorist groups and undercut them target the moral argument because they are species and evil. and outflank them economically, and try to build diplomatic coalition. another way is to fight them. as president obama continues to do, on the afghan p.m. border in yemen. i sport him doing that.

we have to employ our national strength to feed the threat. it's not one threat. lots of different groups. that's why apparently we close our embassy in 19 countries. >> can you comment on diplomacy and curving illegal immigration our wall that the border really effective? boy, that's a tough question. i would say obviously part of the diplomacy that we have with canada, our largest undefended border in the world and in mexico is to regulate the flow of people, citizens, visitors, visa holders, illegals across both border. the big part of what homeland security does is what we do. i have never seen immigration as a problem. in fact it's the heart of our country. and i really hope that congress will be to be agree on a

bipartisan basis on immigration bill that legalize 11 to 12 million largely mexican-americans in the united states. [applause] we should see them as people who are already building america. because they live with us. their kids are in our school. and our kids are our hope for the future. so, yes, our diplomacy and our diplomats have an obligation to defend our borders. we don't want to see illegal immigration. we should try to stop illegal immigration. but the immigration bill deals with the people already in the country. >> ladies and gentlemen, knick -- nick burns. [applause] thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] former illinois congressman jesse jackson, junior was

sentenced in thirty month of prison today after pleading guilty to spending $750,000 on personal item. an mother-in-law hearing in federal court in washington jackson said he failed to separate his personal life from his political activity and quote, could not have been more wrong. his wife was sentenced to a year in prison. for nearly twenty five years. most of the time for the "baltimore sun" and covered ten presidential electionses. here he is in october of 1988. >> those of you wise enough to buy my column know i'm big on caveat. totally unforseen circumstance it happened. when it doesn't happen those totally unforseen circumstance. and so i like to tell this about a foolish horseplayer bets

number off parking tickets and license plate. he's awakened by a dream -- five flashing in the sky. he looks at the bedside clock it's 5:55. it's degrees. out -- [inaudible] and 555 fifth avenue. he can't take it. he jumpses to the taxi cab and said take me to bell month. he goeses give me five ticket on number five. he finish fifth. [laughter] [applause] which tell you can draw totally erroneous conclusion from evidence. he was also known for

appearance on the tv. he just finished a novel about a reporter which is being published on friday. he was 85. microbe are single organism that live in the plant, air, and human beings. today a conversation on government and private research on microbe and the role in human health. our guest is richard of smithsonian magazine on c-span2 this evening at 7:00 p.m. eastern. and booktv in prime time continue today with three or authors looking at the future the author of "scatter, adapt, and remember ." tonight on c-span's encore

presentation of first lady. s. >> it's unusual that somebody should -- but she certainly did. i think it was her youth and her -- [inaudible] and she was -- in a rather stiff loyal -- [inaudible] and i know in having read about her she was a very happy girl. and she gave her the official title of an official title which would only be given to a niece. it would only be given to the wife of the ambassador. the encore presentation of our original series "first ladies." continues tonight. at the forum last week journalists who cover the supreme court said the court

justs ises are reluctant to allow camera in the court on a fear of become mocked. the discussion is about an hour and a half. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> okay. all right. thank you for coming. we're going get started. welcome to the wonderful panel and welcome to our c-span audience as welt. we're being televised this afternoon. we have five topnotch political journalists who do things a little bit differently. i'm excited to the panel. i'm from the university of vai. vice chair of the a.j. committee on professional freedom and responsibility brooks here with us. board member marine carden and other folk. we are sponsoring the panel. it's a special session from us.

more politics on tap tomorrow. we have freedom sings is coming to to also a very excited about being terrific. and also giving our first amendment award this year to the the first amendment center. which is based. it's going a great programreatgm tomorrow. you have nothing else to do. please come for that.if we're going go ahead and getse t started. we're going do it informally. we're going ask questions andhie bounce around some answers. and panelists will share theirnu thoughts and open it up and iane hope we have a great share discussion. i know, you have got some good . questions as well. i'm going go in the order in which they are seated. which theyflip through the notes here a little bit. first is bill adair.ir bill is the knew nightessor of t professor. you probably know him better as the founder and the editor ofprc politifact.ti the fact checking website i know you know.

many other accolades and thethe gratitude of us all is a pulitzer prize winner. next to bill is rachel smol smolkin. she's, currently deputy managit editor of "politico." she served as a white house editor overseeing coverage of amazing stories. the supreme court decision upholding the health care reform act. laden election cso know her from the great work with the politicshert team at "usa today" and before that, as the managing editor of american journalism review. vi rachel. journalisre next to her is jen bendery who is not on the program. i apologize for that. originally camille was going to be here. but she has gone over to the goe main stream and now working fore cnn making her ill eligible forh the panel. jen very kindly agreed to stepdy in. she's the white house reportert.

for "huffington post." covers the leadership on capitol hill for huff post.r the hugt she joins us a couple of years ago. she spent four years covering both branches of governmentago p legislative and executiveecutive govent forf government for roll call. "roll probably a walk in the park.prob she started out covering the texas state legislature in austin. i'm sure moving to washington knead easier. stepping in for camille. thank you for that. next to jen is john stanton who has role call roots. after seven years there he joined buzzfeed. the bureau chief of buzz feed in washington. r' described him as a reporter'e reporter with i ink running ins hes vein. he's a former bouncer as well. at the end of the table is alex muller. three of our panelist have roll call root. he's currently design editor.

itor, so us agraphic perspective. he has a background in graphic design and journalism. web design and production. is current career is making our legislators look at least interesting online and in print. i'm sure we envy him.least instn that's our panelists.re we a great group. we are happy to have them here. and again, i asked them not toe. kind any kind of presentation. mercifully none of them broughtg powerpoint. i thought we would throw out some questionses. jump in. panelists jump in with each other and talk about whatever panewant to talk about. other ant i would start, i guess, with a broad one.whatev i want to hear their view on "the washington post and its kind of transitional state it'sh in now. i want to start out by asking the panelists to talk a littleio bit or say a little bit how do things differently. what do you do that is differeng from the way traditional mediaoe would cover politics. how do you define your role.

and a little bit how that works. somehow it effective in communicating about politics to the public?mmunicg >> i'll be happy to go first and say we threw out the mold inoule terms of a story form when weld in t created politifact. we decided that the story, the traditional news story invertede pyramid was not going the way that we inform people about politics that we were going tomi do it thngrough a different for of journalism. dierent g that was where the information was communicated and both through an individual facth check article but also through the collective, so go to michelle bachmann. she's been checked 50 some time and 50 or some raided false. so pants on fire. you learn something aboutre. michellebackmen the collective

tells something as well as theas individual article. i think as w te --ic as we said at politifact for our obamaer. we would not be slave to the old form of journalism, and would create something new.ould cree o >> i guess, we'll go in order here.>> and so i work for "politico."in. which is an all-politic publication now politics andticf policies that we have expanded w little bit in the past couple of years and continued to expand.et but we're very much directed at being fast, being smart, trying to think of the story that the post and the "times" and others might keep for the next day.pose we do it quick and sooner. mig we have a terrific team ofave a reporters and editors who work to makes look smart. we're directed very much at influence makers, inside the at inuence maand out. it's been a for me i worked atge

"politico" i was at u.s. -- "usa today" it's a mass publication directed at explaining things to all people including those not familiar to politics. it's ban shift to go to are toea the more inside perspective. we want to be interesting and tosessable and written in a wayt that is punchy andn in a conversational.s we spend lot of time thinking loout tone and style and how best to grab readers and tell a compelling story. >> so i work at the "huffington post." you probably know what it is. you know, if you go the huff at is. post front page website it's kind of like a screen of all kinds of issues all thrown upofe there together. but for me, covering politics for them is great for a couple of reasons. one, because we can take an issue in the daily grind of news and do it a little bit differently.of new we have ability to run a wire

story to get the daily, you stoe know, this is what is happening today. but we can put that up and, separately question actually go do something related to it thati not the way somebody else is going report on it. for example, one thing we have been focused on is sequestration, and the issue itn seems to have kind of lost a lot of ithes wow factor. and power, you know, in this town, it's not something you hear about that much anymore xccept for side comment we neede do something.ments. something we have done at huffington which has been unique for me what we can do is really focused on the subject. we try to write on it all the wa time.ve othe we interview janitors that gotte laid off at the capitol. on ke talk to families in tennessel who, you know, are struggling because their kids are cut out e of head startss programs and dot know how they're going to get bw every day. it's related to the daily news ily newspic. it's a different angle. i like to think as more inject u

more human aspect to some of these broader policy issues that kind of hit you over the head all the time in this town. so i guess for me that's one of the main things that i feel liki makes huffington a bit different from a political reporting standpoint. >> buzzfeed is obviously sort of aimed at the youth, you know, 18 to 40 or so. pretty broad rake -- range of people. people. coming from roll call to here the thing i found interesting is one, we focus on telling the stories in a way that will be weral.al. we consider twitter to be front page or facebook. we consider our readers in a way to be our front page.be our and sofr that requires us to fid ways to explain stories. particularly congressional stories that, you know, the average person may not understand or have any kind of

real reason to care, they avink. h and so we define ways to tell them the stories. and, you know, it's been an interesting challenge, we find -- it's en we don't write stories, fort instance, about the, you know, commodity news kind of stuff. today this happens on the hill. we try find ways to get the stories in a different manner. pick a person write about them and their involvement in it. find interesting things people are saying and doing as a way te tell the stories. and, you know, i think everyone has seen the site it's a general news and entertainment site, which is obviously veryentertaiw different than "politico" or tho roll call. the opposite way of going from'o big to smaller now try to find g way to tell the average persondo who may not know who eric cantol eo. p or why he and john boehner are t having a fight hetoday.e having that's been sort of the interesting thing. we are sort of trying to usethir

social media as a way to broaden people's understanding behalf ie going on india politics. >> so at roll call our bread and butter has been focusing onn't story that most effect capitol hill. we have been doing that sincee 1955. we have sort of built relationships on the hill, and we look at broader issues, likea piggybacking off the sequestration earlier. focus on .. get into the visitor center and things like that. are broadening our web presence right now and doing a good job of that. we are always focusing on the stories that most affect the people who live and work in capitol hill.

>> you talk about the audience and we have done that as we go along. do you find you're using different kinds of sources than you use in traditional media? gap youou bridge that are referring to of we are we needhe beltway, but to help people who are not inside the beltway understand why this matters to them. does that affect your sourcing? >> we are very conscious of what people are talking about on reddit,come a facebook, and sites like that. if we see something pop up, we will report on it. after the trayvon martin verdict came out, for and since, there was an acknowledgment among white people that there was a thing that got termed black twitter. did a story on black twitter and the power the black

communities found in using twitter as a way to communicate things to each other and the broader national audience. those kinds of things happen in other areas. we used it to look at things like the election and people talked about a particular story or video someone put on youtube of a townhall, let's say or something like that great we definitely use it as a source, but we are still trying to have these very traditional notions of being a reporter in this new world. staff,talking to members, the interest groups and people outside of the beltway it is a new tool to find out what people are interested in in a way to investigate the things they might already have prayed >> not just the use of social

toia sites, but since moving getting from usa today, people who are in the room, , if there is acy leadership fight some of these are abstract examples that all happen and we want to talk to lawmakers in the room and we want as much detail as we can possibly give. we did that at usa today but we were more likely to rely on a professor who could tell you and overview,mics we want to get to the action as close as we can as consistently as possible. , our the case of politfact rule is when reporters have defined original sources, it's

not enough to renew a story that for thisnd so voted bill, we require the reporters to actually go to the rollcall vote and look at the original rollcall vote. we put a heavy emphasis on original reporting, unlike some of the other panelists. as metabolism isn't quite feverish. thorough fact check. sometimes it takes a day, sometimes it takes a little longer. our goal is to take a political claim and check it and be as thorough about it as we can and doing so to rely on original more than secondhand sources. we have a lot of flexibility to decide on the way we want to do our coverage. can is fun for me is we walk into the senate press area,

i can walk up to marco rubio and ask how we are supporting the immigration bill and how this is upsetting people on the far right. this is like our tried and true can walk outside and there's a huge rally outside the tea party happening outside the capital and a colleague and i spent the afternoon talking about what we think about marco rubio's role in the debate. do they hate him now? by and large they were unhappy. you probably can imagine what the responses were. those were separate stories that addressed the fight from a different perspective and from a sourcing standpoint, some of my favorite stories are talking to people struggling with the kinds

talked up int get this town and feel like they lose meaning, but when you talk about people not in the bubble here, you can get some great stories. they are real people and i think huffington has been really good , not justurcing people in the bubble, but they've got millions of sources. why not talk about them? timewouldn't let too much to buy without asking what's happening this week at the "washington post was quote and how you might think they will change. andg bought by jeff acis someone who is very much into audiences and engaging audiences and serving audiences, will they change or will it be a different kind of competition for you or player in washington? will it

role?ue the >> i think it is inevitable they will change. i think bezos has shown as jim brady put it, head of the digital first media, that he was able to see the future and build amazon before people knew they wanted to order things online. that is what has been needed in journalism, somebody who can envision the ways people are going to want information a few years down the road. i think it is a great thing for the post and i know there are a lot of people who are apprehensive about it some but i think he said all the right things. the letter to the employees of the post was pitch perfect in terms of the balance between his commitment to the great

journalism the post has always done, but 20 of clues for futurists who wanted to see what he is going to do. invented almost internet commerce. so much of internet commerce has been affected by what amazon did and i think he could have the same role at the post. i think it's a very positive thing. >> one of our editors made the washington post subscription with every candle sold. it's a lame joke but if you howk about it, you wonder that is going to affect others and how that's going to affect local news coverage because the local news has been incredible at covering the d.c. reach and you have to wonder how they are going to evolve in the upcoming years with the new mindset of digital first.

up readingal growing the post, i'm a little apprehensive. i think the post for a very long time seemed their core audience was not people in the city but sort of an upper economic group. they have started to change and have a great columnist is a fantastic writer. move little concerned that toward a more focused within the city, focused on a younger demographic may or may not be helped or hurt by that. but i think there is a utility for families who live in those cities. who lives indy california or wherever he lives and whose mind is not about

local at all. some reservations about what it will mean for coverage of crime and life in washington and even sports in washington. tothey continue to be to go place to read about the redskins or the nationals? does it become a bigger focus? these are questions that are not going to be answered for months, if not years as a result of this sale. , i do believed the post has been struggling a all the big newspapers have been struggling with such aomebody creative online commerce can help create a new renaissance for the post and all of the old guard newspapers, which is very important. . don't think they should die

i think they play a very important role in our society. institutes that hold what journalism should be on all levels and the beats of journalism. if someone can come in and find come in andem to find a place within the new digital environment, that will be great. much to add.ve i also grew up around here and i have friends who worked there people are kind of excited. people have to change. we don't know how long it will take to show what's going to happen, but something had to give. we will see what happens. >> i think it's hard to say how seismic this feels in the

industry and the graham family has been such a wonderful store of journalism and their names are synonymous with watergate and the pentagon papers and the kind of journalism that inspired a generation to come. dramatic feels like a turn in the industry representative of the time we live in. around what built our publications do differently than traditional journalism and this is a sign there is no more traditional journalism in the sense we are used to thinking about there is not web versus friend anymore because we live in a digital age and you have to think about good journalism delivered to people in a way they can absorb it and get excited about it in a way that they wanted. for big metropolitan papers like the "washington post" and the "boston globe" and others that in the newspaper

facing circulation decline and pressures, on profitability, they have to find a way to thrive in the new space if they are going to remain viable. we all watch the post and want to see it produce the excellent journalism they have for so many years but at the same time, there is a need to transform for them to succeed in the new world. the question i will have watching them move forward is it's easier to come into a wholly new space and create something from scratch that is to take a existing institution with proud traditions and an entrenched uropathy and figure out how to make that move into a new space. that will be an interesting process for them.

>> it will be interesting. they are coming from a very different place and dealing with a long-standing institution. mentionedyou have all going along the line here is getting people outside the beltway to care and see how sequestration matters to them. what if we could go deeper than that and offer some examples of things you have done that have worked really well in engaging your audience. how do you do that and what do you do with that feedback and how do you use it moving forward? becauseestled with this there had been some fact checking before. i'll a cell like it wasn't your vegetables herbalism. if you are in a newsroom, has to be done before an election.

somebody do a story on the candidates decision on education story andhey write a hardly anybody reads it because it's not appealing to people. theame up with the idea of truthometer. we go out and do in-depth research and get together and have a methodology for this and come up with a rating. eventw it is very affect doing this because it drives people crazy. go bonkers about our ratings and the wonderful thing is, as they are talking about our ratings, they are having substantive discussions about policy which i guarantee is not happening with the long 20 inch fact check. you may not agree with our rating on any particular claim, thathe great saying is

it's giving you a snapshot of our work and our best judgment of what the relative truth of it is and you can disagree. i think that is what is needed and one of the problems as we made the transition into the expectationis this that the old construct a easier vegetables will work, and i just don't think they will. >> that's a terrific point great we all spend time thinking of how to make journalism interesting and engaging. we're way past the world where how can involve today and we can expect anybody to care about it erie it we've talked a lot about how to punch through. you probably all heard driving politico drives

so much. talk about ways to measure if you are reaching your audience and what we do look at, is it being talked about by lawmakers and policymakers and hopefully in a respectful manner but we do use that as a measure. sometimes it's a committee publication, all of those measures we look at on debateinside the fiscal to the talks we do so many of and do them very well and we cover all aspects that there will be delays or employers on the obamacare mandate trade we did that for many topics and as we expand into more policy areas, are we looking at the best way to meld them with the core mission of e as well --

.ission of politico as well >> the huffington post has always prized itself on engaging with the communities. with blogs on the site and have very engaging comment sections for most of the stories. engaging is a euphemism for something else. there is a lot of interaction with the non-mobile community. ,ne thing that's a real success when the senate voted down the background checks bill, there was an outcry and a lot of people couldn't believe it who don't live in bc and don't follow politics a by day. backgroundpass a checks bill? we of our projects was

clicked something on the site that said if you have a personal story about being affected by gun violence, send it in. here is a phone number. call and leave a message. we got hundreds of people who called. thatny people had stories were horrible. all personal stories of losing a friend, son, daughter -- people that were killed and gun violence. a bigger response than i would have expected. one of my colleagues went through and found a dozen of the stories that were project really compelling. us their names and where they lived. huge splash on the front page. it was like 10 images on the front of the page that were just people.

it was just people who have been affected by gun violence and really sad ways. when you hovered your cursor over one of their faces, it would take you directly to their story. you could hear it. you could hear the audio. you could hear their voices shake. morehen they would get worked up as they were talking. that was one of our proudest moments, because it is directly engaging the public on the issue that infuriated some of the people and letting the people tell the story that resonates much more broadly than the failed bill in the senate. that is the kind of thing that huffington has been very good at doing, telling people to tell stories that in return d.c. has to read about. it connects to world in one way.

worlds in one way. >> in mid-december during the fiscal cliff fight, i originally read a story about how members were not feeling that much pressure, which is a very traditional motion. that interest in politics drops of red after the election. we went in and looked at the data from the web sites. i compared the point in the fight with that with the debt ceiling fight in 2011. the thing we found is more people were reading stories about the fiscal cliff at that exact point in that debate than they were in 2011, despite the fact that they had just gone through grueling election where no one wanted to talk about politics. it was right before christmas.

that thereprised were not many people. i think it is indicative of a thet that is going on in public. i do think people are more engaged in politics than they have been in a few years. probably because they're frustrated. partly because they are able to see the people they see with and agree with and that keeps them more engaged. becomehts right now these life-and-death sort of deals. that gives me a lot of hope that we're finding a white, even if we do not understand how we're doing, it, people and keep them engaged with what is going on. i think one of the things that we try to do that helps with that is to try to find ways to make things a little bit more personal.

a lota story that has had of traffic to illustrate this. that wasof mine working for the defense department as a contractor and the sequester started, and he was your average american, lots of credit card debt, the house, divorced and had kids. he took a new job here thinking it would help him get ahead and anda handle on the finances then the sequester hits. it sounds like a 2 percent cut, but it can be 20 percent of your pay in some cases. that reality forced him to reenlist in the military. they go year without having to pay taxes and they get all these benefits by putting yourself in danger of dying. and a lot oftory

people read this, an average american being forced into this terrible decision because of sequester. the other one that i think that very well that illustrates this is we did a story about the chief justice for fis the court. one of the highest-ranking black judges in the united states. we found this great essay he had done about being racially profiled and what that meant for a justice and how he viewed the legal system. we just broke the spirit and this is a guy in charge of one of the most powerful courts in the world. a lot of people read it. an interesting way to look at the debate.

i think it puts a human face on this otherwise impenetrable government bureaucracy. no one understands exactly. >> i agree with john when he says people have been more plugged into politics than they ever have been here yet that is in part due to media analyst covering politics on capitol hill. sort of what you see is people are only going places that reinforce their already held opinions. it is important to provide an independent look at what is going on. simplified enough for

the common person but still the ones be enough that you are not boiling it down to something where we're not getting anything out of it. talking about roll-call does the 50 richest list which looks at lawmaker wealth on capitol hill. we just revamped its this year to create this fantastic online database. when you talk about the fat cats in washington, now you can see easily just how fast those cats are. conversely, we also read about the least rich lawmakers. some people who are not worth anything actually owe money. it is an interesting snapshot of who is making the decisions that affect you every day. you can look and see a lot of the people who have been on capitol hill the long this are the richest,, reject what

committee they said on and how well changes from year to year. assets their money is wrapped up in. you are providing this fantastic resources for people to look at their own lawmakers and see exactly how much money this you canas and whether make your own call on whether that affects the decision making. resource to learn information about the lawmaker. that is the sort of resources and reporting that we pride ourselves on. and >> i remember joe biden always came in dead last. least rich on capitol hill. made $200 on his book last year.

[laughter] >> i know everyone has questions. each team has worked somewhere else. some of you have worked in more traditional places compared to where you are now. can you tell us how that is different for you personally, what you feel has been a change for you perhaps in moving into the work you are doing now. we're also interested in how you help students prepare for this environment where there are all of these opportunities. what do they need to know to take a vantage of opportunities that are out there? i think they need to learn how to code. as someone who has worked for a newspaper for 24 years, the

last six of that running p oliticfact. i am struck by the tremendous opportunity for opportune it -- opportunity for students that can understand the fundamental of journalism and understand understandience, on htm html and want to take the curiosity of record a list and put it to work on the web. >> i will push back a little bit on that from my own interest and say i do not know -- do not care if they know how to code. i want to find students who are smart and curious. i was on a panel and talking to students in st. i think curiosity is the most important factor. i want to see the wheels in

their mind returning all the time. we finish a moderator says are there any questions? a whole group just sits there and look at us. someone asked as a question. question. i think we get so focused on social media and the bag of tricks we forget that journalism in the most fundamental way has not changed. you still have to be able to ask the smart questions and do this more reporting and be able to write a story that it's interesting, coherent and draws people in. i see young journalist be too reliant on the new tools. could email my source or send them direct message. of office to get out

and have coffee with them and look in their eyes. many new tricks of the trade, that is wonderful, but not at the expense of the most important things that we do. fifth >> i have to completely agree. i asked for questions and it is silent. one of the first questions i have gotten is is it worth it to get into journalism? there will kick off all of the hits the industry has taken and it is depressing. you do not make a lot of money. other than that, it is great. it is a great job. the teachers to organize the class suggested they should not go into it. i am like what are you doing? no names.

are you interested? are you curious? happening inething your community that does not seem fair or right? someone disempowered that seems stomp all over by people of power. basic questions like that that need to be told because that is how it works. i have a friend who told me once that he loves his job so much because the only job in the world where your actual -- your actual job is to tell the truth. at the end of the day you are supposedly here to tell the truth. you cut through all and you tell the truth. put it up for everyone to see. good story, that it's like the best feeling in the world.

there are friends leaving jobs because of newspapers holdings and things like that, but it is the initial excitement of these that are wrong and telling people about it. that is our job. we look for people who are not necessarily i believe frederick to want to come to huffington and get into this world. we look for people that are created in want of different ideas because they are curious. that is the most important thing i would say. i would agree with all of you. to learn the coding and things like that is very important and you half of the course set of values. i would say if you could teach them how to run a lead is awesome. my view of this is

increasingly a lot of the kids i thesometimes, you read other stuff, everyone is cause quasi-nist logge-- columnist blogger. thate boys is something seems completely foreign to the millennial generation. we all had the idea of what was a movie. did not understand that they

built that movie off over originally very boring stuff. a local crime story no one wanted to cover. they built the store that way. now it is more and more like a notion of understanding. it is a weird thing. i think that is the thing i have noticed with younger reporters sometimes make it frustrated by pierre did they feel like they're not getting ahead as fast as they feel they should. that is a shame because a lot of them are very talented and maybe they have tempered their notion about what they will learn on the job, they would be better off for it. i thinkame time, because of the 24 hour news

cycle, because of twitter and facebook and the ability to push things out, they have an ability that i do not know that we had what i was 22 or 23 and wanted to work all day long, all night loan -- all night long and never complained about it. they just do not. that is an amazing thing. every reporter i know is more than willing to drop what they're doing on a sunday afternoon and spend three hours working on a story. that is a credit to them. think it is a born for young journalists to look for ways to evolve their storytelling, whether that is increasing the media or looking for ways, working with other people in the news from to create resources to complement your story.

i think you should have an idea of what coating is a you can work with someone else in the newsroom to create a package that shines and hesitates the .erm " -- go viral you could be writing the best story, most important story, but no one sees it -- there is a so much competition out there right now. it is always important to be looking at ways to make your product unique. as editors we oftentimes need to learn how to learn from them. that ise, but a world foreign to me. i remember when pages for a new thing. kids come up and they have had laptops with wifi for a much

their entire life. they do not know world without e-mail or all these things we did not know. i am constantly amazed, the reporters are work with that have a different way of seeing the world. different ideas about how to tell people what is going on in the world. i ams that i look at and like that is crazy. it has been an eye opener to work with the folks and my outlet because i have embraced twitter. i thought it was this silly thing. i really have learned it is a valuable way to talk to people. if you can write a good, solid lead on 140 characters, i think you are doing something very bright. it takes me refer to figure out how to write a tweet that is not terribly misspelled and books

right. they do it everywhere it was bleak. >> i would make one more point to piggyback on one of these comments. we've been talking about building a brand and the younger journalists seem to know instinctively. they are born with that in their dna. they note to do all of that, but i think there is a little bit that has been lost. paying your dues is still viable. there are some opportunities now for young journalist to cover congress, even the president before they have covered a zoning meeting in chester county, which is where i started out. thatnk that is something is important to emphasize. get ahead and take all the opportunities but did not miss the thing that you were when you covered with it when you cover

the school board hearing and the county planning meeting. you learn how to deal with people, not be afraid of sources when they're yelling at you and how to tell sources at top story is coming and things that will ultimately make you successful journalist. the feel like we're in don't take stage of the panel. kids today. i have more questions but we have such a nice audience. i will ask if your questions and also at the panelists at questions of each other. let me ask the panelists, is there anything others have said that you would like to follow up on? when you work creating politifact what was the

conversation around dealing with the fear that maybe you were watering things down or simplifying it enough that it was easy for the layperson to understand but not losing any of the details of the overall conversation and discussion. it started on a word document. from the beginning it was a meter. that gave us confidence this was not going to be seen too much. there was a willingness that this thing was a going to revolve.

there was a willingness to invent overtime. enough and i've heard from other speeches and panels the willingness oi f the other sp stick th it.f the tampa bay times to stick with it and show the courage this is going to and stick with this and let us to invent it, recognizing there would be mistakes along the way and what ever. i think it is a really cool story of creation. and also a cool story of team work. did the word who

doc scutched but the staff filled in the blanks and made it work. talking about writing today. i have to teach writing to these kids. iknow how to do it, but notions were created in 1973. has there been a definite change in how the writing style should be? the rise of logs -- blogs cause the softening of writing. it caused a little bit of softening for a time where people that went from being

bloggers to reporters. the notion that you do not to talk to a bunch of people. does is great, but not exactly hard news and reporting. he has some opinions and read about it. a lot of people thought that was being a reporter, and it is not. there is a difference. now there is a shift back. it is tough to tell. when i was a kid, when i was a dumb reporter, i could not write my way out of a paperback. i spent hours being screamed at by my editor about how much of an idiot i was. i learned and got beat up said the head about how to follow a

lead. a little bit of it is the speed of journalism, a lot less of that. say theyften times will not spend the time to browbeat the reporter and explain why this is wrong, which does not do the reporter a whole lot of good. the need someone to say this is how you do it right and wrong. we get caught up in the speed of it and it does have an effect. as a reporter is incumbent upon them and on us to be much more careful with our riding, at least the top of the story. >> the matter of the medium, the pyramid is timeless. you are not dealing with linked issues, space issues, but people leading the

way. so if you have the attention span issues now. still important to get your best information at the top of the story. i have noticed the trend, mainly that some of them are pretty good writers and also pretty good reporters. we throw them in the capitol building like here is congress, a figure it out. you have to start somewhere and get screened out -- his grain at a lot. one thing i have notice from the here and there stories i take a

look at that the interns are doing, of some of them are great writers and really good reporters, but it is the lead. they seemed to vary the lead. you are like what? he said what? think maybe can help with that is for whenever my advice is worth, just talking through a story before you write it. ishink what sometimes there a pressure to write everything you have and try to make something up tops down created by you are missing the content. where is the nagging that is the news? is the news/at

? >> i absolutely agree with that. i do not want to hear any throat clearing at the start of the story. tell it quickly so i do not have to wade through to figure it out. i would much rather see someone who can write a good, strong news lead. we're talking here a lot about the style of writing, but the other thing i would say is accuracy is more important than ever. yes, you could fix your mistakes quickly but a lot easier to make a mistake because it is not let me write this story and go up and eat lunch and have a talk

with people and come back and fix it. you want it as accurate as possible the first time around. >> you did long form journalism. takeover politico is now launching a long-form journalism. i think the future of that is fantastic. i think the future is less great for journalism in the middle. more and moreorm, than ever. we're all talking about tellalism that can really us something that we do not know. a lot ofhere is exciting experimentation in the industry with how you translate it to the web. do you put it on a continuous green? how do you tell it best with video and promote -- formed journalism on twitter and facebook and the other places

you might do it. i think the future is extremely bright because we're looking for ways to set journalism apart from others and make a difference with our stores in think that is the best way to do it. >> i agree. of speedd long reads and has done extremely well. -- buzz feed. we did a long story about david lee roth's a couple months ago. it was fantastic. a lot of people read it. he reminded you of the old days sitting down with a magazine. part of that was there was this push on the internet to make everything fast, get it out first. i think consumers of news are

starting to shift back a little bit. they are saying there is 5000 of you and all of you are posting the exact same for sentences of a democrat at the same time. as editors we are saying i want more than that. i think the content over speed is driving this resurgence of long read journalism. i think it is very good. >> i agree with that. launching a long form initiative. for long formp pieces. they are specifically who want to read it on their candles or whatever. to me, it is repackaging the way you present it. i feel very excited and hopeful for it.

we do the really fast stuff all the time, but it is encouraging if we have ideas about long form pieces to go with it. we can work with the design team on certain pieces. we can have video that goes with it. not to distract you, but to put it all together that works where you are engaged with it. a field there is a lot of potential that has not been fully tapped. togo before we go on, i want mention design. are there things you do that and engage people with that kind of journalism? to video orack nt the storyo accept read a piece and you can click to watch the

interview with the individual or they have just set up a camera during the interview and you can watch that as an addendum to the store you just read. that provides a different aspect of what you're looking for. you can see reaction to the questions and get a real feel for what the actual conversation was like. it is important to provide images. whether you are reading the newspapers or journalism or person writing it, a lot of gray can be very daunting. interesting to see you are all launching -- read products that are in a specialized location.

you want people to know there is a place where they can go that they can read along the peace about something they might be interested in. with a they can sit down have a long commute and plan ahead because they see something interesting bit like instead of accepting a clicking on it, putting it away and saving it for later and forgetting about it. it is interesting to see how that has evolved. here, and then behind you. this lady here. >> could you talk a little bit more about how marketplace pressures affect the work your organization does? years ago there was a camel news hour. today there is more instances of advertising masquerading as journalism.

>> trying to get us in trouble. take a like sponsor contents -- >> likes bonds are content, that sort of thing? >> what challenges your organization has faced, and either keeping that at bay or trying to do something with it. differenta little bit than a lot of organizations because we do not have advertisement. we did not have banner advertisements, pop up advertisements, things like that. the advertisement done on our website is sponsored content. it is very much in line with how we do things.

because we do viral marketing. i do not know whole lot about it. and could be they are in a different part of the universe. i did not know if anyone does any advertising. that is how it is. i do not know. that is how we do it. i feel pretty separate from the people that make those decisions. i know when i see the pages, the story, there is an advertisement here or video advertisements here. i did not even notice them honestly. >> i think there is a very strong desire to keep

advertising separate from the work they do. every news room i have bitten is focused on the separation. that remains critical to the success of the business. having said that, i think there .s a little bit less there is the fear of i cannot think about business because i am on the editorial side. i do not think there is a greater level of comfort. i think editors and general crop -- across the business, papers probably interact more with the business side than they used to, and as long as that does not integritye expense or

of the journalism, it is necessary to keep it healthy. >> we would never elect the roll-call influence what we're reporting. we do have a web site run by a boeing. it is set off to the side and very of front about it not being at -- roll-call is not writing this story. it is material. they pay us to advertise on the web site. it has been well received in industry and a testament to the industry -- to the editor. the outlet saw this opportunity and ran with it.

i think we will probably start more blocks like that. it was a new way to build revenue for the product. the unfortunate reality is you have to do it somehow. decent content. politico is an interesting aspect. they also provide content as the political side. i do not think any standalone site is making enough advertisement to pay for the bill for reporters. the news organizations do it because it is great content.

fortunately, i think the little politifacts is viewed as a public service. we have gotten money from foundations. i think that is another avenue. >> a lot of people have questions. i think will -- we will ask the panelist one or two people to respond unless you really feel you need to respond. i have a question about legitimacy and this may go more

to huffington post. first of all, michael hastings .eath this delegitimized him in the journalism he did and what has been done. and then also, questioning of bread -- glenn greenwald and the david gregory questioning whether he is a journalist or not. strange today is we're still fighting the battles of who is a journalist and who is not and we are questioning people that are doing really good journalism. how do you go against these

areas of going against what she wants to say that day. >> people say that? --ode well, on the topic of >> well, on the topic of "the example times" it is an of what is not journalism and was terrible. so there is that. on the broader question, but people saying it is the content, i always point back to the 1930's and this trial of the silent movie star accused of murdering and having sex with an underage girl. it was on the front page of every single newspaper in the united states for like a year and a half. it was the biggest story.

during the depression. during the worst economic time in this country's history, this was a top story. we have created this motion in my mind that for some reason, journalism, there was a decade- long time of very serious news kardashian's back end was not something anybody read about and suddenly in the past decade it is all right about, and that is wrong. the history of the profession is both of those things -- both of those savings are talked about. they want to know what is going on with tim kerr-jan. if they want to know what is going on with sports teams, but they also want to know when a general is acting like a crazy person answering bad things about the commander in chief. i have never understood the notion that those things cannot coexist together perfectly well,

or the idea that there are that do thisalist other stuff. i have tried to write a story several times and very difficult to do. takes a lot of time and skill. you have to have an eye for what will make people want to read it and continue to read it. take out i read the top 20 things about growing up in the 1980's that was awesome. loved it. >> requires you to have a depth of knowledge and understanding of how to relate information to your reader. those are exactly what made a good journalist in any part of the business. so that is my take on it. >> i have thought about this,

and there is a difference between being between journalism and people -- things people want to talk about. to me, they are both valid. we have what is maile cyrus doing to her hair? she is almost all now. those things are there now. i am not sure you would call it journalism, but they are there. people want to talk about all kinds of stuff. to me, that is fair. it is the way it works. then there are stories that are next to the stories that are well reported pieces of journalism. it is the way it works of huffington. cyrus storey and kitcat pictures are like catnip. they come to the site of like clicking on them, but hopefully while they are they're clicking on the fun things and our board at work and do not want to work

anymore, they will notice this story next to a about the latest fight over closing abortion clinics in texas or something, a real substantive issue to be reported on. left their house and wrote a really good piece. that is journalism. to prettycomes down basic stuff. then there is journalism. does that mean they're not worth reading about? i think they're fine. i like those things. i read heavy stories and i like to look at the cutis cats born in 2012 but i also want to know what is going on in texas. if it is a well-reported peace, it is journalism. and it is a fun read. not that hard to

differentiate. i think it is great because this together. in the end, it is human interest. if you like those, 20 reasons why john stanton should be in the 20 most beautiful people in washington. i have a question about the archiving of your content. a lot of you are born digital and only think about digital. as someone who thinks about capturing content for the future, what, if anything, could you go back and get from years ago or that is continuing on in the next 10 years is someone going to be able to get content from today 10 years from now? >> that is a great and important question. as someone who is moving on to academia, i cannot tell you how

many broken links i have found in the past two-three weeks. it is so frustrating. when we created this, we said it was going to be as important for people to be able to look things up as it is for people to see the latest fact checks. there has been a commitment from the start to archiving. the commitment was that we would .lso give the content to nexis it is preserved in both places. you just want someone to put some energy at every news organization to go put energy into fixing the link.

some of these will time out. a news organization will say this could only be used for two weeks. is a really big issue. take a more and more organizations are posting their news library. what used to be the place responsible for collecting and archiving is gone and those functions have not been absorbed by other people in the news organizations. especially troubling for the born digital publications. is a great question. theoretically it should be on the internet. over and over.es as the news story developed throughout the day, we call it more times, depending on what the news dictates and then switching to the analysis piece.

i find myself more often telling editors let's start and won because i want to preserve the original story for the people looking for it -- start at new link. >> there is no protocol for that at news organizations. i am putting things on the new own shooting and trying to find the early news stories and they have all been written through. there is no protocol in journalism for how you do that? how to use signal to a reader that this is an old story. if you want to correct one, go to this. we have not sorted it out yet. is something that is new,

we will put up data of the top. the original version is not there anymore. that is definitely something we are very actively thinking through a minister right now. much do you discuss the finding your role and defining the presidential field for 2016? we hear about man -- grand paul and mark rubio. >> we just wrote about this today. this is actually it -- we have a debate about it all the time, almost every story. i feel like our reporters are very reluctant to become part of the cottage industry of the next presidential election the day after the last one.

we will stay with that. but, the reality is we all do it. i sank right now, i have been trying to not get too far ahead of ourselves end allowing us to interview the players. paul ryan is not doing anything to make it look like he is really running for president. i feel like he probably is, but he is keeping a lower profile than save and paul is. pretty good about keeping it to the limited. >> we start off early in the discussion talking about implications for the buyout of

the washington post. one of the things we've been able to do is whistle-blowers. let's say a word snowed and best friend comes forward. he believed he wants to blow the whistle on government mismanagement. how does your organization handle that if they want to come to you because you are not the washington post? >> we would handle it the same way. i think they have done a very good job of being good stewards of information. there are tons and tons of information. .ay more than anybody realizes said we're not want to use this for whatever reason, it will put someone in danger or whatever. i think they have done a much better job than some of the legacy u.s. papers. the new york times has erred too

much on the side of caution in some cases. i think there is a model of how to handle that frankly. in an era of citizen journalism, he chose to go through traditional journalists. he could have very easily posted that of the website somewhere, and he did that need journalists, but he did. it would be fascinating to talk about this because i've -- because i would presume if he posted on the website it would be shut down but if he could and if journalists that they would give credibility and protection to him. so it has been a fascinating episode, and yet, he really did

not have to have them and probably had he put it up, wikileaks would have taken a snapshot of it. >> an organization that could go to bat for you. especially some of the smaller small citizen blockers would back away from that in a heartbeat. >> we had a series on ecuador. the government enlisted the outfit in spain to put the screws to us and get the documents we have gone taken down from file-sharing sites. a few of them agreed.

there was never a question. there was never a question from the top-down that we would protect not only rosy but the story and make sure the website put the information back up. we pushed back hard and they did. i have worked roll-call and work here and i know both of them and i feel like all of us come from that same place. think we have all work that organizations were the top leaders are very respected journalist and what not back down from a fight if they felt it was the right one to be having. handle it similar to greenwald said approach of handling this. >> time for one more question. one more question? anyone? >final thoughts. tell us one thing that has been

the most fun for you in this new endeavor. give us a lead. >> in this panel or in life? i think the new media world creates great opportunities for invention, and in my previous job, i loved working with people to invent. sitting int fun meetings coming up with stuff. in my to reject new job i am looking forward to a new and different things. ofank invention is a time invention. i think there is a great spirit of journalism to do that. >> i agree with that.

i think the creativity and the adrenalin of the new media world are incredibly exciting. a time where is practically everything we are covering feels like a first. the debt ceiling, brinksmanship or anything else. i feel like we're living in historic times and have a new way of covering this to get the news out. time is of very exciting to be a journalist in washington i have fun every day. it is fun. it is fun to be a journalist right now. this frees me up to take all kinds of different approaches to stories that previously i probably would not have been able to write. really quickly, i am thinking of one now. i ended up in a twitter exchange with republican congressman about gay marriage. we went back and forth back and

forth. in the end he said he did not think we should have the defense of marriage act. but that was actually a news story i wrote afterwards, and threw my tweets and his tweets into the story and published it on-site. random people were jumping into the conversation, too. five years ago i couldn't have done something like. that it is really fun right now. >> i think the gay marriage fight and sort of the broader emphasis we have been putting as a sight on the lbgt community and the issues affecting them has been the most fun for me. it is something that has been a major focus for the site. we now are dealing with the russian olympics and that kind of stuff, and i find it to be deprat feingold -- gratifying

to be at a news organization that is focused on something like that right now. that moment you get to say yes, in 30 we were working on this, paying attention to it, and it was an important thing. for me that has witness the best thing, i think. >> i agree with everybody. you stole all my answers. >> you have to be last. >> it is interesting to see the role social media is playing, like you were talking about creating a story, or mining social media for storylines or sources. it is an exciting time to be a journalist, especially in d.c., because we are seeing history being made right now, and it is incredible. it is truly -- like it is an important time to be paying attention to politics, and it is exciting to try and get those stories out there to as many people as possible. >> a perfect note to end on,

alex. thank you so much. terrific. >> you know, i don't want to volunteer their team, but if anyone wants to, they can. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> the united states strongly condemns the use of violence against protesters in egypt. we extend our sympathies to those killed and gyred. we repeatedly call on e --

on the egyptian military and government to show restraint and respect the universal rights of citizens just as we urged protesters to demonstrate peacefully. this violence makes it more difficult to move egypt forward on the path of lasting democracy and runs counter to the pledges by the interim government to per sue reconciliation. we also strongly oppose a return to a state of emergency law and call on the government to respect basic human rights like freedom of peaceful assembly and due process under the law. the world is watching what is happening in cairo, and we urge the government of egypt all and parties in egypt to refrain from violence and resolve their differences peacefully. with that opening statement, we'll go to you for the first question. >> thank you, josh. these are the statements made for six weeks, calling for calm,

anything else the united states should do to apply leverage here? is the administration reconsidering its position on labeling this? we're still sending, you know, $1.3 billion to the military. is will anything we can do to get them to modify? >> as you know, over the course of the last several weeks, senior officials in the obama administration have been in touch with the counterparts in egypt reaching out to a number of calls secretary kerry has done with counterparts in egypt, described a number of calls between hagel and his counterparts and military leadership in egypt. deputy secretary of state burns was in egypt last week joined by his counterpart from the e.u. and dip mats from the uae and qa tar as as well. and senator graham and mccain traveled to egypt last week. there's open lines of communication between the united states and egypt, and it's the

statement that i read makes it clear that our view that the government should respect the basic universal human rights of their people is an unambiguous. we've been very direct about that. we also will continue to hold the interim government accountable for the promise made to speed transition to a civilian democratically elected government. that's what we would like to see in egypt not just because of the firm belief in yiewn veeral human rights, but also because it's the will of the egyptian people so we will continue to be in touch with our counterparts in egypt and continue to urge them to follow through on their commitment to transition to a democratic, civilian government and to do so in an inclusive process, and those messages are unambiguous and sent on a regular basis.

>> reconsidering the position whether or not this was a coo? >> as i think we talked about a couple weeks ago, we determined it is not in the best interest of the united states to make that determination, but as we've also said throughout the process, we are on a regular basis reviewing aid provided by the united states to egypt, and we'll continue top do that. >> just, finally, how is the president kept updated, monitoring this overnight? >> well, i can tell you the president has been briefed on the violence that occurred overnight in egypt. as you though, the national security adviser, ambassador rice is traveling with us this week, and the president will continue to stay updated and asked to be regularly updated as events warm. he is closely monitoring what's happening there. >> josh, you called for an incollusive government in egypt for weeks now, why, after what happened here, should the muslim brotherhood be prepared to talk to the egyptian military rulers? >> uh-huh.

well, part of the conversations burns and others had with egyptian officials 1 it's in the best interest of all sides to per sue reconciliation, end the violence, respect human rights r and put in place a government that reflects the will of the egyptian people. that's the clear view and something, as you pointed out, urged them to do for quite some time now and in the best interest of the egyptian people, hopeful that you take the steps necessary to effect that transition. >> [inaudible] >> are working on the details, and i don't have those to share significantly at this point.

they are trying to get clarity on what happened. >> when you say you hold the interim government accountable and in what way? >> well, just what we are -- they made promises. when the government took control of the country, they promise it was an interim step to transition promptly to a civilian democratically elected government, a promise made and one to encourage to keep. when i say, "hold them accountable," we remind them they made the promise and encourage them to keep it. major? >> can you give us anymore specifics about the mechanics and times of the president's briefing when he did the national security adviser see him this morning, anything that requiredded him to be awakened overnight? be more precise how it happened? >> he was briefed this morning by ambassador rice, i don't know what time that occurredded. he was briefed on this situation

this morning. >> this situation building, he was moving in the direction, any last minute efforts at any level in the united states government to warn them, urn the government not to take violent steps that did not result in so many deaths? >> oh, i don't have any specific conversations to highlight for you, but all along, me, jay, and others and senior officials urged the government to respect the human rights of the people. there's no ambiguity what the position is of the government, but, of our government, the united states government, about the importance of respecting basic human rights like the rights of the peaceful assembly and protest, and that is a message communicated directly to the egyptian at a range of levels, and that is my position.

>> how anxious is the administration that this schtion is not just violence, but pitching for prolonged civil war? there's two episodes, assembly, gunfire, dozens of deaths of their membership protesting peace. how can this end up in reconciliation and not head towards civil war? >> the statement eluded to this concern, violence makes it more difficult to move egypt forward on the path to lasting stability and democracy running counter to the pledges of the interim government to per sue reconciliation. there's no question about the violence seenover night is a step in the wrong direction, indicating they are not following through on the promise to transition back to a democratically elected, civilian

government. they are not committed to an inclusive process. it's time for them to get back on a bath of respecting the basic human rights of their people, to include a variety of conversations for the future of e just a minute. it's important not nos for the importance of republicking the basic human rights we, in the united states, hold so dear, but it's important what the people of egypt are demanding. >> i'll make the statement, and then jen will stay to take questions and broaf everybody. the united states strongly condemns today's violence and bloodshed across egypt. it's a serious blow to

reconciliation, and the egyptians' peoples' hopes for democracy and inclusion. in the past week, in more than the past week, we urged the government to respect the rights of free assembly and free expression, and we have also urged all parties to resolve this impasse peacefully and underscore that demonstrators should avoid violence and invieghtment. today's events are deplorable, and they run counter to egyptian aspirations for peace, end collusion, and democracy. the egyptians inside and outside of the government need to take a step back, calm the situation, and avoid further loss of life. we also strongly oppose a return to a state of emergency law, and we call on the government to respect basic human rights

incoming people, the peastles assembly, and due process under the law, we believe that the state of emergency should end cubes as soon as possible. violence is not a solution in egypt or anywhere else. violence will not create a road map for egypt's future. violence only impedes the transition to an inclusive civilian government, a government chosen in free and fair elections that governs democratically consistent with the goals of the egyptian revolution, and violence and continued political polarization only further tears the egyptian economy apart preventing it from growing, providing the jobs in the future that the people of egypt want so badly. the united states strongly supports the egyptian people's hope for a prompt and sustainable transition to an inclusive, tolerant, civilian-led democracy.

deputy secretary of state burns, together with our e.u. colleagues, provided constructive ideas and left them on the table in the talks in cairo last week. for mine, many phone calls with many oh gingses, and i believe they know full well what a constructive process looks like. the interim government and military, which together possess the power in this con fron cation have a you sneak responsibility to prevent further violence and offer constructive options for incollusive peaceful process across the entire political spectrum. this includes amending the constitution, holding partment -- parliamentary and governmental elections, which the interim government itself called for. all of the other parties, all of the opposition, all of civil society, all parties also share the responsibility to avoid violence and to participate in a

productive path towards a political solution. there will not be a solution through further polarization, only a political salacious bringing people together with a political solution. this is a moment for all egyptians. the past towards violence leads to greater instability, economic disaster, and suffering. the only sustainable path for either side is one towards a political solution. i'm convinced from the conversations tads with a number of foreign ministers, including the foreign minister of egypt, i'm convinced that path is, in fact, still open, and it is possible, though it's been made much, much harder, much more complicated by the events of today. the promise of the 2011 # # revolution has simply never been fully realized, and the final

outcome not yet decided. it will be shaped in the hours ahead, in the days ahead. it will be shaped by the decisions which all political leaders make now and in these days ahead. the world is closely watching egypt and is deeply concerned about the events witnessed today,. the united states remains at the ready to work with all of the parties and with our partners to have a peaceful, democratic way forward. jen will be happy to answer any questions. thanks. >> again, at least 149 people killed in egypt when military police swept away two

encampments of supporters. we'll hear more about egypt in c-span's town hall this evening and taking calls and tweets about the affordable care act. live two-hour discussion begins at 7 # eastern. he's a look at what you'll see. >> i don't think you understand the law you're in charge of executing and end forcing. the claw back, as you describe, limiting how much a person pays back, that's just a perp eligible for subsidy if their income changes in the year in which the the sub -- subsidy is in place. if a person gets a subsidy they are not eligible for, which is the case if the tool is not in place, the law requires you claw back 100% of the subsidy to which they were not entitled to. >> i apologize. that hypothetical had a lot of moving pieces, but you're correct. the question i have is we

discovered that this individual got an inappropriate subsidy. we made some connection with their employer to learn that information. >> which will be 2015 at the earliest. >> would be in 2015, get the official employer report in 20 # 16. either way, we make the efforts to validate -- >> all right, two years. >> for each individual receiving a subsidy. >> somebody gets two years of a subsidy they signedded up for up knowingly we got, not eligible for, you have to tax it back in two years i'm to all of it. that's the law; correct? >> we'll help the individual at the front end with filling out taxes and navigating through the exchange to understand whether there's an employer provided plan. >> you answered the question. if you don't have an employer mandate or the tool in the data hub, which you claim you have to have to verify there, there's going to be a lot of people getting sue reconciliations ssh subsidy that are not supposed

to, and then there's a big tax bill. i yield back to mr. nunez. >> this part of the c-span's town hall tonight with a look at implementing the affordable care act. we'll check in on congressional town hall meetings and questions members get about the health care law and your calls and tbeets. c-span's town haul live tonight from seven to nine eastern. >> this is a place where you have to know what you're about. they don't have the best interest in mind. that's where a survivalist manhood becomes insistent about being what i am and fixed to what i am. an open question is, you know, how much, you know, is that unique to prisons? is that how most americans are who are strangely, and the one true truth, but i recognize your

right to a wrong truth? i don't know the answer to the question. >> sunday night at nine on "safe words, part of booktv this weekend on c-span2. now from the american institute of architects, a discussion on responses to humanitarian crisis. this is an hour and ten minutes. ♪ wow, first of all, i thank jacobs, the entire aia for inviting me to seek to you. i mentioned this at a live event yesterday that the last time i spoke was in a side room, and 25 people showed up. this is kind of overwhelming because we have 2500.

, and i know this is on c-span, and you are used to political debate like watching paint dry. as architects, when we get to the point in the building, that's the exciting bit, so, you know, we'll diverge away from the political conversations and talk about impacting communities. today, i'm going to talk a little bit about obama administration, but -- organization, but something that matters a lot to me, how architects see things. when you're in an area hit by a natural disaster, post conflict, or blight of poverty, people see dispair, no hope, and when architects go there, there's an opportunity to change. they see an opportunity to resurrect a community, to find new ways to live as community members, and it's this value that we have that can truly

transform a nation and transform a profession from one that just skins buildings, which is what we are seen as, to one that transforms communities. when we look at the environment, this is just in new jersey, an architect has a look, has, well, you know, this is the wetland area, post superstorm standee, reclaim the area, implement some natural vegetation, transportation, a beautiful place where people can gather while be protected. this is what architecture brings to the area that we often overlook. this is a value to hold true to ourselves, and, today, the question i want to ask everybody from within and from without the profession is what is the true value of architecture? i hope today that i'm able to answer that. back in 1999, the incredible

architects, talking last week, in the office, in the san fransisco firm, and she mentioned, you know, that she had just been licensed, finished architecture school, and mentioned, oh, yeah, well, like, i graduated high school at 12. that's why i did it early. that made me feel, like, oh, my goodness, the next generation is going to go to the next level, but there i was feeling like it's funny to be in denver where a speech was made a number of years ago by a guy who said, you know, i was a skinny kid with a funny name, given the opportunity. well, i used to be a skinny kid, still have a finny name, but i came to america with this idea, this dream, grew up in a poor neighborhood of south london, and area where they didn't just invent the word "hooliganism," but practiced it on a daily bay

ace. as a young child at five or six years old, i played with legos, and i would try to reorganize the town to make it a place where people would feel good about living there, like, how could we create places, and it was that drive that said i wanted to be an architect. i find myself years later in the united states working for various boutique firms, large firm, and that value of what can architecture do to improve lives in communities stuck with me. we started architecture for humanity, the third competition we did was for returning refugees in kosovo, and we had a jury -- amazing they were recognized, and first i called from the media was bob ivy saying, hey, i'm a 23-year-old kid, what do you think? he thought i was crazy, but hundreds of architects said it's

crazy, but we can make a difference. back then it was just, we were running out of 380 square foot studio in new york, a couple volunteers, and with had a dream that architects could make a difference by inputting creative and professional services. fast forward 15 years, and we have offices across the globe, currently working in 27 countries responding to both natural disaster, post conflict areas, and areas of blight and poverty. over the course of that time we housed 2.is million people, and cal chapters. have we seem to be following the aia convention. we have a washington, d.c. chapter, a denver chapter, and a chicago chapter doing enviedble work, and matched with them is the of 0 plus chapters where over 6800 building professionals volunteer their time remitting

the largest architecture firm in the world dedicated to making a difference in the community. it's magnificent body of work by the creative individuals. work has a global and national response, and i'll show that, but what's historic is the local response, and right here in denver, we have aia denver. any denver people? [cheers and applause] we had an after party last night and hosted the open bar part, so that may be fewer than i hoped. [laughter] what is amazing about them is they not only design incredible projects for communities in need in denver, but funded it the themselves, doing the kick starter campaigns, a designer came up with a crazy mustache necklace, raising 3,000 by making mustaches. the most entrepreneurial people

i know, right here in denver, incredible designers giving back. our building, our headquarters is in san fransisco, it's a lead gold building, practice what we preach, on the corner of 8th and miner in san fransisco. it's the heart of san fransisco humanity. that's not the truth. the heart is its people, over 81 building professals working around the world, hundreds of firms contributing, and they are coming together as the multidisciplinary team of building professionals, providing professional design services, a very important point, and this is not volunteer. this is not a friday build. this is taking the skills that you learn in college, that you honed as a professional, and bringing it to communities that never even imagined the idea of an architect, planner, or junio- engineer coming to help. to add on that, when given the opportunity to work in communities, you have an

obligation to build. what makes it incredible is we just don't design solutions, but we build them. when you build the solution in the community, it's transformative, so our commitment to the communities that allow us to work with you is to kind of create this change through the built in environment. we also have to think about the future and the present, two very different projects that we did a couple years ago. one was a 60-foot cat ma ran made from 16,000 plastic bottles like the coke and pepsi bottles. we did that, one to raise awareness of the oceans, but the idea was to invent new materials from waste products to be sound, strong materials, use as a positive? forget net zero, let's create the consumption waste we're producing and use it as a strong sound material. that's building research does a part of the organization.

on the other end of the work, working in the valley of pakistan, one of the most dangerous areas in pakistan, and after flooding had displaced over 3 # million people, this is the power of the network sm i get 5 phone call from the clinton found thanking for the work in supporting the efforts. the first thought was, what? we don't have any -- of coursings you know, to be a great leader, you have to bluff your way and say, absolutely, you know, it's been an honor to help you, and the first thing i did putting the phone down is call the chapter saying, what's going on? in the first few weeks, they not only cleared out hundreds of homes, but worked with a number of groups to build sound bamboo construction, and these permanent homes are half the cost of the u.n. ten. what's remarkable about that is we got a grant to build three villages, temporary villages, and through the technology developed by the first female

licensed architect in pakistan, incredible individual, hipped build three villages, and so part of that is about stainability, and when we talk about that, it's not just about material energy. it's about social and economic stainability, but we have to protect the heritage. we can't go in the community and say we have a led titanium building, the best for you. we have to understand that culture is an element of stainability, and by ignoring that, we are discrediting the needs of the community. we embed architects. they are ph.d. mcgiveer, incrediblebly smart, but blow torch like no one's business. they are young, emerging professionals dedicating their lives. up here, there's eric who ran a haiti office. the reason i love the picture is

because this is his carry-on luggage for american airlines, and he was not finedded. anybody who can do that gets hired by me. these are architects working, just using cell phone communication after the typhoon hit myanmar years ago, and an architect from hawaii decided to not only dedicate a number of years of her life to rebuild in india, but she brought her entire family, and she -- so she's not only making a professional choice, but a piment for the family to move over there. right now, they are in mongolia building incredible work way beyond architecture humanity. it's part of the thing, and i harken bark to the rural studio, a great, great man, saying that once you get snake bit, you can't go back. i think when you start doing public service architecture,

it's hard to say, well, i'm done within building. you understand the power. we partnered with local professionals means we're not going in the community and discrediting local architects and engineers, but partner with them, there's an architect on record on all projects and going through the projects. in the world, we are that benchmark. people look to us to say, well, how do we build? look, there's architects here, what are the standards we set? when we go in there, we are not saying put shelter over the most number of people to help impact numbers. we say, is how can we create the most relevant and effective structures that can be replicated in the area? that's a part of the engagement process. we are not designing for the communities, but with them. i think once of the greatest comments i got was from one of the clients in new orleans, and she said, to be honest, architects are like the wind beneath my wings allowing me to

sore. -- soar. that is the power of architectture, work hand-in-hand with someone, and take their dreams and realize it. the other part of it is we create jobs, we're a massive job creator. weaver not just repairing an air, but we're generating an economic force and the great thing is you work locally. we're not shipping in, you know, fema trailers and structures built overseas, but working directly with the community. integrating craft, the beauty of craft. it's amazing the marriage between ethics and as thetics. when you build a beautiful building, people love it, and the most sustainable building in the world is the one loved. that's what we do best. it doesn't matter how many points you have or how many energy you put on the building unless they love the building, they will not take care of it.

it's our responsibility to make sure that we have the most beautiful, gorgeous structure that will be loved by that community. [applause] so this is the only nerdy slide i'm going to show, but this is an economic development plan where architects take the lead. we don't look at it as donations as money given, but talk about it as investments, setting up a studio locally, bring in the technical expertise. that's you guys, marry that with construction capital and develop all construction financing and the contracting. part of the architecture is not just to deliver design service, the services, but to do construction management. we take your innovative ideas and make them real, and so we make sure that we hire locally, create jobs, and there's skills training. it's like an economic recovery act. it worked well in haiti, and, you know, we doweled it here

too. finally, this is what makes it significant. by having the community involved, so engaged, so empowered, you transfer that ownership to local community leaders. this is in mississippi. the incredible architecture led the recovery effort, and what he did was didn't say we're rebuilding your community, but we're coming in to rebuild with your community, and that rebuilding center is now an economic development center. is us in a nutshell; right? this is when people ask what do architects do? this is us. the reality is that it's value. i'm going to go through a bunch of projects quickly to talk value. what value do we bring? the value of safety, anyone in a tough neighborhood understands what safety and security and security brings. here we are.

the roughest neighborhood in south africa with the highest instance of violence murder, rapes, and violence crime. ddpu, rather than saying, hey, we want to do a do-good project, but -- put it by the highways. there's a tactical approach of urban planning, seeing where the areas were, and that's where we go, doing urban a.q. puncture -- acupuncture. we ended up in a park that has -- basically a park where women were raped, murdered, and dumped for decades, and it was across the street from the school. that's one of the most dangerous places to be, and we said that is where we put this and make change. working with architects, our design from them to develop health, education, and sports as

a mechanism for change, funded by fifa, after the world cup, to create a magnificent building. the sustainability with economic and environmental and cultural creating jobs, the building was off grid, and involved local artists to be a part in creating the building. this was hiv/aids program, and 18 thowrs children in the first year went through the program. 200% increase in perceived safety. when somebody says, you know what? 16th street in denver is a safe area, they bring their kids. see safety as important as safety because when families arrive, it becomes safe. what that did was a massive decrease in the murders and violence assaults 234 -- in that area. using statistics, using basic data to show that architecture and design can make an incredible difference in

creating safe, strong places for people to live. on the other side of africa, we worked in rwanda, working with a group to bring together children who were born after the genocide that have to live with the baggage and heritage of something that was truly tragic, and imagine being born after that, to know that that's what happened, 800,000 people killedded in a month. this is an incredible center bringing together groups, they have two games, which they love. the one which is this no ref fees, and the kids have to agree on all the rules, and if there's foul, they have to work together to go through conflict resolution, and the other game, which i really love which is a gender equalitity game which is only the goals of women count meaning you always got to pass to the woman before you score. incredible, incredible program. [applause] as you can see, they are beautiful. you know, as architects, no one in ark architecture says we can borrow ideas, but we kind of

borrow ideas. as they have an amazing hospital that mass design did, there's a little window you see just here that reflects the window there. it's a tip of the hat to another great design impact firm. we've done 20 of these just in the last two years helping over a quarter of a million children and created an incredible impact whether it's health, education, or conflict resolution. that's just one program. i have no time for this. i'm not going to show it. we did a skate park in kabul, afghanistan where children started skate boarding, and wherever they skate boarded, neither the u.s. or taliban were fighting, and block and block, they created peace by stating the streets starting with six kids, 60 kids, and 600 by the end of the year. they are amazing. to go to the park, you have to do two hours of after school education, both english, computer science, and other classes.

end of the first year of the project, 50% of the people were there to get the extra education, not to skate board. it's really interesting that kids know when they get access to things like this, they take advantage of it. ♪ okay. got no time for this. i'll go, thanks, heather. you know, i have this clock here. i did this talk two years ago, and it's like an ominous clock. it does the slides for me. [laughter] so, you know, it's funny. i had a talk a few years ago in chicago, and, like, this elderly lady gave me a donation, love what you do, you know, just like buck minister fuller. i was, like, really? he's amazing. she said, no, you just kept talking and talks and talking and wouldn't shut up. [laughter] i was like, okay, i get the point. education is vital, education is vital around the globe. we have over 70 million children who don't have access, and after a disaster, it's tragic.

if you don't have anderson cooper showing up with a tight t-shirt, chances are you're not going to gather the response that you need. so areas like in peru, three years after, half the schools are like this, working with incredible groups, we were able to bring in architects and transform this within nine months to a working school, hundreds of kids back and a safe haven to learn again. .

and so he is it doing this. if you have any firms that need an architect, i can pass. i will just send this to my dad to let him know that, like, you know, i don't need a job in chicago. [laughter] that's okay. [applause] who thinks giving is going to be fun this year. thises and the cause incredible project. 10 percent of chinese labor is micro. mendes' are micro construction workers. men and women who were urged to buy work on large buildings in shanghai and beijing. you might have seen them. and the labor camps did not have schools for kids, so working with this group called compassion for my grandchildren we helped build these very quick

and simple classrooms that can move with the children. yet the debt -- idea that education goes with them instead of this constant turnover in turnover. incredible fast project that has been incredibly successful. in kenya we have done vocational channel working with the foundation to figure out ways where world kids can find work locally so that they are not running to the slums of nairobi in finding out that the streets are not paved with gold. again, looking at rural and agricultural based economies. in kenya, again, we realize that the cost of a water well, you could actually build -- build a full-size basketball court and collect enough rainwater's to not only bright clean drinking water for tough talk -- 1200 is but the kitchen with access where you could give to the community. this building was built by greg is littered during the commencement speech at north dakota state, and i said, does anybody want a job in kenya? it was like -- this guy is

really burley. he ran, like literally ran into a theater to tackle most of his friends out of the way to give me is resonate. a few months later he finds himself in kenya building this magnificent building. what is incredible is now this is not just a place where kids gather for sports in the air, but it is what -- where people get married. the cultural center. and here in the united states -- i know i am supposed to be wearing a jacket. sorry, mom. we are on c-span. i thought i should put a jacket on. so the other thing we are doing is investing in green schools and sustainability here in the united states. i have traveled the world looking at educational facilities, but the most shocking places are on their reservations, most shocking places are in inner-city america. the richest country in the world and we cannot provide adequate -- adequate class for our children.

it is shameful. so we need to be looking -- [applause] and it is not about pro bono, for profit. it is about dignified architecture. public and our children we say, we will give you the best opporunity possible so that you can be competitive. why are we 27 than the world in math and science? where people not understanding what their resilience and climate change? let's give them spaces that can empower and is about -- inspire them. that is something we are doing with on the universities are in the united states divvied we did this thing called guerrilla greed which is like march madness versus inability where we give money to high-school students to kind of practice cool green. it was amazing. hundreds of kissed a governess school in green their schools just in the hopes of winning is $10,000 prize, creating massive change. very simple program. super inspiring. the value of brazilian places. i have 25 minutes, going to go little quicker, if that's a kent

. so we're looking at disasters again. it's like the anderson cooper moment. even sen, a tight t-shirt. look what happened. is not about being a first responder. is about being the last responder serious about the first person of the other hand up to help, but the one he shakes the end of the community when is built for. that is what architecture is is there for. it is not glory of the federal law but to make sure that kennedy is transformed. and so when we look at places after wreak -- reconstruction there is a rule of four. four days response to announce that you will help. put a plan that that is tangible, real. you have then four weeks, believe it or not, 80 percent of the funding and a post disaster situation is raised in the first four weeks, so you have four weeks to resolve the funding for the next four years. you have for months to mobilize your team can get them on the

ground, work with local leaders, or put the local aia and make sure that you have a design studio that is ready to support the community. when you're working with the community you say, we are committed. vienna leaving until the school is open. rea not leaving until the community center is full. that is our commitment to you, and that is a true commitment of architecture. we don't show up to say hi. we stay and make sure it is time . [applause] why architecture? well, natural disasters don't kill people, buildings do. poorly built building skill. in the case of haiti, it killed hundreds of thousand people. for me it is quite personal. i have been to haiti before the quake and was there to look at the rebuilding of the disaster after the flooding. and actually a reporter came to

me and ask me what did i think of the housing stock? not knowing this seismic dangers of that island and said, this is a recipe for disaster. if this place it said everyone is over. and sure enough, a few months later, a tragic earthquake hit 80. the other picture that was taken was the day i arrived in haiti after the quake. this is a picture of me leaving the empty hospital. the people at the gate, the parents of the children who have just lost a limb because of bad buildings. what is worse than not responding is telling you could have. so we made a commitment, not to invest in building buildings, but to invest in professional services. we would bring in the architects, engineers, planners, find the local professionals, partner them up, and invest in putting together a rebuilding center that would compete and

compare with anything that was done by international aid of large ngos. a recipe for success. this is probably the largest number of architects and the island of haiti. we currently still have the largest number of architects working under one roof. for those of you that are under 30, we use this analog system. it is simple. it is like an ipad, that mechanism that you use, and the beauty in that is that we can very clearly talk to our communities and say, no, you are not going to get a house next week. we have to the foundations, planning. they conceded stages of a construction and understand where they are. also, they see their friends. no, my neighbors are here. you're also helping them, and begins to be this ecosystem of

support that we are providing. the most magical moment for our architects and designers of when they finish a project they get to do that. the type the name often say, we're done. that is really incredible moment. not only looking at construction but doing constructive of construction training. every contractor the works of those buildings that collapsed is still working there. there is no building code. we said, okay. part of our responsibility is to insure good training, that we have to five and we will utilize the funds that we have garnered for housing in the schools that train up to the haitian construction professionals with skilled jobs. we're also going to like making sure that haitian architects and engineers have access for international jobs because what was happening is an international fund would come in and say, where are your cad drawings? and architect who has been working there for 30 years might not be using can't.

it could be just trying drawings but did not know can. we partnered, ordered a lab and trained anybody who wanted training to make sure that they had access to the tools that they need so they can get that work and make sure there was this intended to have this process that we took everyone through. but, of course, when you estimated is what they want, number one is shelter, number two is jobs. will share a quick video, making jobs. ♪ [speaking in native tongue]

[speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] >> i was not used to the earthquake aspect of this life, just total chaos. more to the building site, a construction site that people have overseen. thinking is okay. and we are so driven to create

jobs in teaching the locals have to do right. [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] >> the most amazing thing was the last segment you saw there, he actually dropped out of school and is building his collegiate tough. so it is not just the education of the architect that is

changing that the education of the entire building ecosystem. and the commission as divisions within the building profession. a vcr cells as partners year. some price to will lead. some projects we want. your brothers and sisters who are engineers, planners, construction professionals, they make you look can get, and you have to work alongside them to make sure to help them. hear what is going to surprise you is 50 percent of our funding for haiti came from high-school children. across the united states 19 other countries, children donated $5, $10 to help us rebuild. we think of our founders as investors. through this group we asked them what you would like us to build. they said, well, could you builds school for kids our age. refocused on a school building program that has been magnificent. when you look at the schools that may seem very rudimentary schools.

this one, the river rock comes from less than 5 kilometers from the site. what is show the community is that it did not have to import materials from overseas that would be three times the cost that could work with the materials around them to create a dignified, beautiful structure for their children. the other thing to note, it is not just the earthquake that kill people. it was the way things were built. this was one of the schools that we saw that was partially destroyed. the thing i want you to like it is the feeling. children had no time to escape from those classrooms. when the asteroid strike those blocks fell. to go back in there and say, i don't care that this building withstood the earthquake. this is a death trap command we are not willing to allow future children to die because we overlooked an issue.

many to be pre-emptive. our role as a profession, if we see something that arms others we have an opportunity to make sure it never happens. working with that committee, this is what happened, the most beautiful school in haiti, colors developed by the children, local artists who did this steel doors. instead of flying in steel doors from the u.s., we worked with local artists in manufactured this beautiful our work so kids can say, you know what, this is haiti. i am proud that our artists, our schools, and they can really find pride in our rebuild country. historic preservation with preserving the first all grow school in haiti right now and they might be -- magnificent project, marriage between new technology and historical. and then housing, working with habitat for humanity we built over 500 homes, beautiful, small structures, but that urban agricultural based economies

making sure the economic lifeline school, expanded that within port-au-prince for a new 2,000 homes under construction. architects looking not just at strong homes for the families, but making sure that was strong water management and infrastructure, beautiful parks, open streams. you see this as a simple $15,000 project. what you got no is where you work and develop the month is absolutely packed. you cannot get real estate. one of the chores and jobs will need to do is make sure we have storm water runoff systems and sewage systems to prevent cholera. want to have prevention through architecture. funnily enough when you put a sport still down people give real-estate for that. kids have a plastic plate. this is not a basketball court or sock record but a storm water runoff system that runs underneath the sports facilities. figuring out how to use sports as a mechanism to access that

real-estate so we can ensure help the lifestyles for the families that live there. in the market with a community to do an entire urban planning strategy, pocket parks and small areas to make sure that we would prevent violence against representative -- women and children and save space is for people to gather. construction. not just focusing on schools and housing. the lifeline of the community at the economic expense making sure really get the mom-and-pop business as -- so that people have jobs and rethinking about the way downtown port-au-prince did its commerce. 80 percent of haiti our entrepreneurs. ignore the economic lifeline of the country. just letting you die. making sure we did not see that outside of our mandate. if he is my building, you want to talk about leaders, look at

the man, patient architecture decided he would give up his firm in new york, go back to the country that he called his home and dedicate his lives to ensure there were not only small buildings, but a small architectural engineering construction practice. we should not overlook that we have a number of quiet heroes who have made us look incredibly good at what we do. so i have 11 minutes. we will go through japan really. what we learned from haiti and katrina was it is not just about how we built but have relief series of implementing an exit strategy like we're going to come in to your community, figure out the help and support we need, figure out a way so that we don't stay, so that exit strategy was part of our thinking as we started working

in japan. what is amazing about the north is most people thought that the tsunami hitting kind of, you know, people who live in tokyo, you know, hip, cool, moonwalking and made designers. let me tell you. the only way to describe it is like angry new englanders. these are blue-collar fisherman heaping business and ngos, people telling them what to do, and they are incredibly resilient. the polite version of this sign says crew you, we're coming back. it was all over. we realize that we could not just be handing out designing construction services. we had a partner to give access to sports and education and welfare as well as economic development. again, children came out an incredible rates. we headed down a that caulescent said i'm going to down at -- donated dollar for every one a kid sense to us.

we just put it on twitter and facebook get through this students rebuilt website then said we want said raise $100,000 a month in trying to elect 100,000 papers find and use this as part of the rebuilding effort. what do you think happens? 4 million cranes' showed up. fortunately the dollar had put her address and that the anc headquarters. let's say she is persona non drat to 5% 9 brockovich ups. literally millions of kids came out and said we want to help. they came from all walks of life. bangladesh, children from bangladesh raised a rigid thousand dollars. children from haiti raised thousand dollars because they said this is one small act that i can do. this is a 40-foot by 40-foot sculpture made by the unions of just 100,000 of those.

so just demands in our storage issue. what we are able to do with that is taken number of those, taken to japan, create murals, work with the kids, all the schools we have been working with to hand them out so that this direct relationship between donor and recipient said that the kids to read messages are actually communicating with kids who are now getting schooling. we started small. urban acupuncture as a way to get into the community. when we talked to residents in villages they did not want a house. there were too busy worrying about where their work -- what they have lost. did not want the prepackages stuff. so we took a bunch of jerks and turn them into a mobile ramen noodle shops and went around and delivered on metals. that was our community center. began to find out all these

communities that have been affected. this one had been completely devastated. by serving a few bowls of hot noodles and began to understand the need. from that we realize the community center does not say the word to me is center on it. is where people gather. so using construction we hired contractors from the book she mother did not have any work using traditional construction techniques, community marketplace where sushi, saki command beer was served, the most popular community center in that village. i have learned that having lakewood support in your community center stops. so be it. another group of fishermen set we have no work. one guy was lamenting, we are just sitting on a bus during nothing. he came up with this idea, why don't we use now making techniques to make hammocks out of all of the leftover debris that we could find.

they said this micro business to start a helmet factory. the cheap tester for the fishermen's and a company. we also found that in these transitional housing units they have been done on tiered systems, and elder residents could not actually get out of the transitional shelter because there were up high on that tier. simply putting in housing to another to connect and as small conversations. these are five, $10,000 projects. $10,000 projects making sure that the kids have access to sports. in the studio destroyed 30 percent of the kids perished. and the instructor asked kids, we should just pack it up. no access for kissed have a place to play.

the soccer coach happens to be an asparagus farmer. he really did not want to grow any more because he was worried about future residents and the effects of the nuclear fallout. he had donated this field tests. using telephone poles that have come down. we hired the fisherman to do the netting. wood and stones, able to do this feeding area. what was gneisses i adopted this and decided that i found out from the kids, their uniforms have been handed down from generation to it generation, father to son, mother to -- mother to daughter. reworked with our founder, nike, to produce milles paradise which is the green on green. so we began to realize that it

was not about providing structures. it was providing a system where architects and engineers could help that community to recover. working with provincial we hope the business in an economic recovery sent to that brings in ideas from the community, but some it with the architects and engineers, both those in business advisor supporting the gives them access to private capital and funding we provide and build new business and jump-start an economy that has been lagging. these are our clients the come from all walks of life in the next few years it will be doing incredible work. i also want to announce some of the projects that we built. a marketplace, women's cooperative, my favorite client, i'm going to run over, is that okay? and sorry. you have to keep it in time. they have to get there. they have to get their learning credit. they have to go. i was like, you know, i am just

going to put up -- put up pictures a devastated communities. i want to see them walk out. i'm kidding. and getting. abcaeight. i'm good. >> i will cut my short. >> you don't mind. so -- or i could just announced. no, i won't. my favorite client in japan. i love this guy. in his 60's. he is an enigma. this guy is the worst fisherman. the worst. i talked to everyone. he is terrible. working there for 20 years. he can face. a great fishermen. he knows where the fishes, but he does not know where to tie knots. get the fish and tie knots. what happens is every time you would come back to port he would put his boat into port, tie it up, go and have a few beers and then it would be like, your boat is in the middle of the board.

could you just tie it up properly. for 20 years never telling him, learn how to tie your butt of. well, he came back, tied his bout of, went home. a wave and 90 feet high 200 miles-an-hour slams wiping out 90 percent of the town. every part of the port, but destroyed. many of you probably saw the footage on television. he gets a phone call three days later. do you have about? yes. we have about 4 kilometers inland resting on a train tracks, and we cannot get the trains operational because its dressed in their with the scratch. his bill had been lifted, moved, and carefully dropped on the train tracks.

he is now head of the fishing cooperative. his first act which he was looking for fishermen because he is needed. his first was in may he was looking for was a not tire. let's start a small business. get back in good fishing, but have an opportunity actually feed all of these people that will come. so working with him we developed this oyster see we bar said they can sort out their fish and that the end of the day sell the oysters and have a beer and talk. so the beautiful, beautiful project. that first village that we meant. the one that was destroyed with

the romney will shop working with japanese firms. a licensed professional architect or firm partnered with us. not about taking work. we are about expanding work. with this from that came to japan they came up with an incredible, beautiful system. think of an origami house that could come together and assemble. you could see on the inside how beautiful the structure is. looking in a budget that is tens of thousands of dollars. you can realize that good architecture does not cost. good architecture is about caring. that is a difference. so i want to announce our latest project. a young and emerging architect called -- you may know him. we will be incredibly fortunate.

faugh looking for architecture would like to help us rebuild sports facilities and it centers. one of the applicants was tory alito and associates. as part of his trip is done incredible work. one-on-one with families, thinking about the rebuilding. his release should be dedicated not just for his body of work, but the fact of when disaster struck this country said, we need to work together, bring community together, and have architecture the conversation in rebuilding this community. new york. come over by eminent. sandy. that is where we were born.

everything i believe in, everything that i love about design, everything that i think about when i talk about responding to communities happened in new york city. so when sandy was coming, those of us better in their resiliency and reconstruction world knew exactly what was going to happen . it could have been much, much worse. certainly the most high-risk areas are usually those that the most in need. many of them, downtown new york lost power. they lost their lifeline. it's up to us as architects and engineers, and building professionals say, we're not try to let this happen again fish. you have already met our regional program manager.

up here just earlier. we are incredibly fortunate to have just amazing staff. we have three emerging professionals. work with either our chapters or organizations. and they are dedicated is seeing how architecture makes a difference. we're helping. as you can see, in new york and saw the devastation is pretty rough. it's not what you shot in the coffee shops. breezy point. the rockaway. this is a building disaster. this is where we can really respond. some readers a couple of things. announcing very soon that we will be preparing in building

three sports facilities for new york city's schools. already a concept designer. we will be looking for a couple more firms. to one of the most bizarre fund-raising events ever did. it was bizarre. i will not go into it. we are focused on a number of community projects be incredibly good coming together to look to ways to help rebuild for the economic lifeline. our chapter in new york city has been working with the number residents and small buildings, the volunteer firehouse. built in 1906 and should be. when my favorite projects, bernie owns the half of my

restaurant. two sons are firefighters. counterfeits gerald. he lost that sun. few months later a plane crashed a block away from his restaurant. when sen became a devastated what was the heart of my community. the restaurant was basically a cheers, where everyone just hung at and talked. being incredibly resilient. picking of blocks outside his restaurant sam will build this back and certainly this is one of many, many structures. it is not just international disasters. there were tons of international research and programs but are finding ourselves more and more working in the united states.

we work locally. working with the town, figuring out ways to build the resilience of the community. it got us thinking. the way that we find and operate is very pinpointed. maybe we should start thinking about disasters as being one town are one neighborhood. rather than waiting for the town to be destroyed it would be to think of resiliency. they've reached blush a u.s. disaster resiliency fun. we of already made great steps both the day. redone and number of disaster resiliency around the country. working with a global initiative of a number of programs, looking resiliency. three colors of the strongest, said his country in the world which approve it. we should prove it with seven

brazilian places. i came to this century for those reasons. because it afforded me the freedom and liberty to do what i believe in. we have an opportunity to make sure that we do that. so we need to think about disasters, not as a reactive thing. of people say, well, what do we do in this high-risk area of seattle are vancouver or san francisco or l.a. they say when needed team of architects and planners and engineers that can think smartly about building. we still need to go forward. these are more projects. these are all just the last few years. this is so hard it is. adobe housing for women in mexico, when many of the men have moved up north, there are villages populated by women with no jobs, figuring of construction jobs for women to the rebuild communities.

in the united states right here in chicago, we have food deserts', some of the richest cities in the world don't have access to fresh vegetables. catherine, another emerging professional, a fa chicago campus idea of mobile organic grocery stores that would actually john brown and deliver fresh vegetables into those food desserts. they worked with fresh foods and this organization behind this, basically being sold out every single day since they opened these buses. now cities like new york, l.a., san francisco, seattle, has seen this program and sake we should actually instead of building these brick and mortar grow trees we could actually utilize our transportation network to make sure that we get fresh, clean, and healthy vessels to those communities that are without it.

in bangladesh, in portugal taking basically all decommissioned military sites and transforming them into the ocean and coastline consolation centers. in mozambique we used architect decide that rather than using modern construction techniques there were actually to a stabilized spoilt -- soil baca would create jobs. here you see not just a significant building but 50 new business owners that can actually got there and use the system to create building. but i love most about this is in the arches and when the waste, they ended up using coriander, i believe. so apparently the buildings, at the coolest design feature. to walk in and be like, wow.

i will spend a little time on this. the stock about health. ♪ >> made a time change, i would invent something new. >> it's a long time. >> i would bring my uncle back. >> i would get more hamsters. >> i would probably want to go looking for matter. >> i would think about making a helicopter, like a wind helicopter. i don't have any would.

>> zero ee teach my sister. >> i would try and in men something that lets you left at light speed. >> and i have five more extra. ♪ >> it turns out that we build cities, towns that create inactivity and that we have a health care crisis in this country where children under ten

will die five years gendered and their parents. i have a six year-old doctor. it turns out that what you -- is not just what you put in your body but the places to live. the idea of having an active lifestyle. seventy organizations came together to look at the idea of how we tackle obesity through solutions, not problems. does not classified obesity as a disease, single people out. let's figure out how to transform the communities that we live in to create the most active citizens that we have. and so what we have been doing over the last year is figuring out how cities across the united states can implement an urban acupuncture strategy that will allow an activate america. rea seven out of ten americans that are currently obese are overweight. we spend twice as much on health care costs that we do an education. this is a cycle that is not

going to get better unless we act now. and we think about disasters let's not just think about the fast one. let's not just a gut the visual one. we have to think about the ones that are coming. health care, as you know, is a huge one. and one of the assets that came out of this. there were two main ones that came out of the study. the second was, how do we create actors basis? is this not a design problem? is this not work for you? how we can transform the cities and towns. we have shown over the last decade through our chapters that we can do this, create these at this base is, whether they are urban spaces are natural spaces or neglected spaces, that you can look at the five key areas, open spaces, urban design and land use, transportation, schools and the workplace. and in five areas. these are key -- key areas are

we can make massive strides in creating if active communities and 16 together with these basis so rather than seeing a city as a destination, that see it as a community and figure out ways that we can build and transform the city's. this is not about doing good by doing right. i'm going to end my talk now. al as the question again, what is the value of architecture? less than 3 percent of the world use its services. less than 3%. the pro bono work, architecture humanity, design court, mass designed and public architecture do, we of the bottom 45%. now, of that 3 percent the public on the nose a dozen or so architects which is the .0001 percentage who are actively known her. the value of architecture is our ability to translate the

solution based approach we have. right now 71 percent of the world are in dire need of decent design, good, well thought, meaningful buildings. desiccant do it? to all of you? this should not be a single architect of work in the united states that are looking for dignify shelter and strong communities in the recession they pulled over 150 jobs. it turns out that architecture was dead last when it came to the number of people who get laid off. we have highest percentage, 700% layoff compared with other professions we are both financial analysts. the guys to raided people's

pensions are regarded higher than architecture, we have a value proposition problem. we need to position ourselves and say, if you want to solve some of these big issues we are the profession that can do it. we have to look at it that differ way, the value of collective change, yes, we are all individual firms, large firms, small firms. collectively through it is not natural it is built and if it is built it is done by an architect. collectively we can make these changes together. the value of tangible and packs. don't talk to committees of design strategies. don't talk design communities about ideas. talk to them about the impact. talk to them about how we have made a difference. change the conversation from will we can deliver to what we're going to build. but the sustained growth. twenty years of houston? and we look collectively, we are building a building our school

or on, what are transforming the natural environment tour work. of broader strokes of the impact here making. the value of honored our own. an incredible impact to communities. we look back and honor that impact we do it with equity, honor, and we do it because we are proud of what some of our greatest architects have achieved. finally the idea of how we respond, not why. i want to see a show of hands of people who care -- care about others. i don't have to explain to people that architectures -- they have the solution.

written about the value we bring. we should talk about the solutions that we make. of course i can't end without a pitch. you have to support our value. turns out that less than 2 percent of our funding comes from the architecture profession, but 80 percent of our funds go into implementing architecture. i would really love that if i can hit that 3% ratio. so today it turns out my co-founder who, an incredible person who transformed the organization is the netting something called the well on design and l.a. and both at the same time are announcing a challenge to the convention that i think that the architects and raise more funds to get architects to make a difference then l.a. designers and home furnishing people. so go up to our booth. we are at 1226. go online.

you can -- we figured out a costa hundred dollars to have a licensed professional spend an entire day working with communities. you can donate a day of design. renta a piano and toyo ito. as a calendar there. by the end of the conference tomorrow of want to see every single thing bought. your birthday, your spouse's birthday, his or her anniversary are present. i bought you a day of design. and not sure that we go down too well actually. if you feel like investing in our future become a community builder airbus transform our communities. thank you so much for your support, and i am looking for to designing. ♪ [applause] ♪ >> today a conversation from washington journal of government and private research on microbes and what their role in human

health is. a tiny single cell organisms that live in plants, the air command human beings. we will hear from the smithsonian magazine. see it today at 7:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span2. about congress is now congress recess, others have written books on the future. >> c-span town hall continues tonight with a look at the implementation of the health care law. earlier this week the obama administration announced a delay

in that section of the law covering less to out-of-pocket costs for consumers. congressional members are currently in their home districts for their august recess and are holding town hall meetings with constituents who continue to ask questions regarding the health care law. here is more about the implementation with house budget committee chairman paul ryan and daniel were full of the irs on insurance subsidies. >> i don't think you understand the law you are in charge of executing and enforcing. the clawback, as you describe, are you limit how much a person pays back and and that is only a person uses color to -- is eligible for a subsidy if their income changes in the year in which the subsidy takes place. if a person -- this is your lot. if the person get the subsidy, they are not eligible to my which clearly would be the case of your major enforcement tool, the employer mandate, is not in place, the law requires you clawback 100 percent of that subsidy to which they were not entitled to.

>> the hypothetical that you gave had a lot of moving pieces, but you are correct. >> they're not eligible. >> the one question i have is, we have discovered that this individual got an inappropriate subsidy. we have made some connection with their employer to learn and information. >> which will be 2015, at the earliest. >> we could learn in in 2015. we will get the official employer report in 2016. either way will make the effort. >> all right. >> two years. >> validate his. >> as someone will get two years of a subsidy that they signed up for unknowingly that they got to morse the law does not make them eligible for. you will have to tax that back in two years' time, all of it. that is the law. >> we are going to help the individual at the law to the front gym where they're filling out taxes in navigating through the exchange understand whether they have an employer project plant. >> said the you've already answered the question. if you don't have an employer

mandate in the tool and the data which you claim you need to verify this you're going to have a lot of people getting subsidies they're not supposed to get an annual at them with a big tax bill and about two years to call it back because the law requires you to do that. i yield back. >> that was a portion of a recent capitol hill hearing looking at the implementation of the health care law. that is the topic during tonight's town hall meeting, and we will take your phone calls, facebook comments, and tweets. it all gets underway at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> tonight on c-span encore presentation of first ladies. >> it is unusual that somebody should come to queen victoria in such a way, but i think it was her youth and hurt as the lessons. and she was such a change in the modest nest of royal court. and i know, you know, having

read about her, she was just a very happy girl, but certainly queen victoria thought she was wonderful. the official title of -- an official title which would not normally be given to a niece. it will only be given to the wife of an ambassador. >> the encore presentation of our original series, first ladies, continuing tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span. >> last week the reserve officers association held its three day national security symposium here in washington. this panel was reserve chiefs of all the military service branches, focusing on the impact of defense spending cuts on military readiness. they also discussed combating sexual assaults and a drawdown in afghanistan. this is an hour-and-a-half.

>> ready? the next four hours of this program -- [laughter] -- will be, i think, one of the most beneficial of this national security symposium simply because it is really most relevant to the current state and future of our force. we're fortunate to have with us today the commanders of each of the reserve services and the chief of the national guard bureau and representatives from the army guard. to moderate this panel we are not going to have the typical panel where everyone stands up and does five minutes about the

wonderfulness of his or her service. we're going to have is an interactive discussion of the top issues facing the reserve forces. to lead the discussion, as we had last year, we have the perfect interlocutor, marine major general retired colonel panera. he has been the director of reserve affairs for marine corps a general officer, the deputy commanding general of marine corps combat development command, commanding general of the fourth marine, the fighting fourth marine division of which she was rivet -- really privileged to have as assistant division commander. [laughter]

actually, i had that job twice. escorted at the first time. marine corps university, notably he was the staff director of the senate armed services committee and the chief of staff senator sam nunn. there are few people in this city of washington d.c. who are more familiar but having lived the reserve life in the military and on capitol hill. a combat veteran of vietnam, bronze star. purple heart. previously wounded in vietnam. end after that -- this is the

other intersect, lieutenant davis was that training officer of my basic class at quantico, virginia. the general lee discussion of the issues facing the reserve forces for roughly an hour and then we will open it up for about a half-hour of questions from the floor. again, right your questions down and you can pass them up and we will get them to the service chiefs. without further ado. >> thank you. i can say, there is a block in the marine corps fitness report called supply discipline, and you went on wait too long. i would marquis down in that area. appreciate the great introduction. secretary defense hegel has said we aren't a strategic inflection point. nothing could be tour, as you gather here to discuss the

future of our national security and as our great leaders here on this stage are involved in the course of august and into the middle of september, though the braces and what we call the program objective memorandum for fy15 in the future your defense plan. all the key decisions about the size of our military, weapons, active components, reserve component makes, these things are being decided as we speak right now. they are being decided in a world of increasing threat and decreasing resources. and this comes at a time when the coalition that supported a strong national defense as far back as i know when my years on male and years in industry, that coalition is severely fractured, if not a blessed broken. i say that -- i don't share the optimism that the chairman has not the solution because if you look at the body politick, the

deficit cut talks and the spending cut talks have more votes than the defense stocks, and that is just a fact of life. when you operate in a democracy like we do, when i was running the staff of the armed services committee, if he had the votes you wanted, you did have the votes. and right now and the congress we don't have the votes. maybe we can get them back, and we need to all work on that amount of right now we unfortunately, in my view, are stuck with a sequester at least through the obama administration which will force all of us to think smarter, not richer. this is why secretary hagel has a panel with something called the strategic forces and management review, this camera. the secretary that is trying to get out front of almost every issue, whether it was drawn operations are sexual harassment, many issues. he said, look, we don't like it, i agree with it, support the sequester. even chairman levitt has been a true leader against the

sequestered. everybody in uniform, every chairmen and ranking, bipartisan basis, of the titans of industry opposed to it and get it did not move one vote. we are stuck with it, ladies and gentlemen. you know, think smarter, not richer basically is forcing the department's to figure out how we program our resources and a $500 billion less than we planned for a year ago, about an 95-10% cut. that comes on as a 10 percent cut that is already occurred previously to the physical 12 future year defense plan that brought us down to the budget control act levels or the b.c. a cap which was another 489 billion. a defense department to essentially in the course of the last couple of years is looking at thinking about a trillion dollars out of the planned spending of a the next ten year time frame. ..

>> they presented with two options, option one was maintaining a very large fore structure on the active side, but one that was probably not as well equipped and well trained. some people call that a hallow force, but maintaining capacity and not capability. option two that they presented,

let's have a much smaller force active in some smaller guard and reserve, but make sure it's well-equipped and well-trained, so those were the two options presented. to me, one of them is just a total nonstarter of maintaining what i call a hallow force, but, also, i was disappointed, and i know others were, there's another option that they ought to look at. i call it the middle option. when they consider in the next six weeks to two months, you know, where to come out between these various options, i think they ought to put a middle ground option on the table which is looking at the size of the guard and reserve. if we're forced because of the budget to reduce the size of the component, i want to be upprompt. i'm not one that has or will advocate we ought to be cutting the sides of our active components r and number two, even though i grew up in the rereceivers and spent my -- reserves and spent my life

there, i'm not one advocating increasing the size of the guard and rereceiver -- reserve at the expense of the active components. however, they are going to drive the active force to the smaller and smaller and smaller whether we like it or not, and the building is certainly going to do that. what we ought not to do in that circumstance is not take advantage of the tremendous capacity and capability that you can marry up. it's not going to be a hallow -- in the guard and reserve, we have great young talented youngsters that will be coming out of the guard -- coming out of the active force both at the junior officer level, many don't want to leave, have the option of keeping them in the guard and reserves. i hope that that would be an option that the skimmer and secretary and others take a look at and put back on the table. this middle ground option is not new. it's a balanced concept

supported by previous analysis, commissions i chaired, independent think tanks, and many think tanks talk about beefing up the guard and rereceiver, and it's best business practice analysis. by the way, to continue operational use of the reserves is in line with the guidance. that's what the guidance says so my argument or proposition would be that we should not reduce the size of the companies just because the actives are having to reduce their size, and so this notion suggested by some of proportional cuts or fair shares is flawed. why do that? what sense does that make? if we continue to go down the path of the two options, everyone gets smaller together, but to what end? that's the strategic end that is where we ought to be focused, and in that way, a also, as we think about that in the guard and reserve, maintaining the incredible capability of

ten-plus, 847,000-plus mobilized in the think smarter, not richer, as chairman levin said. look more at seamless integration, take advantage of working closely with the actives. this is not and should not be an us against them, but a hand in glove situation. we're in this together. they bring tremendous capabilities to the component, and we have to look at that as we dissh this capability is not at their expense. we also need to be very careful, and i would say to any of you that have ideas about, well, if only we had this additional benefit or that additional benefit, we should not increase the cost. we are a bargain for the taxpayer, analysis shows that, fully burden costs in the rfpb shows that, but if costs are slowed up, we're less of a bargain, and we have to push for octoberive and fully discussion of the fully burdened cost. i would say that we are

fortunate to have in ce key positions right now people that i think are very thoughtful and objective on the subject. the acting undersecretary for personnel readiness is the honorable jess wright, retiredded major general army tag from pennsylvania, debby lee james nominated to be secretary of the air force. we worked on the hill. he was assistant secretary for reserve affairs in the carter administration, worked with me in my business capacity, known her for 30 years, a very knowledgeable on matters, pro-guard and reserve, and rich wrightman, the acting ra, heard from him yesterday, do a tremendous job, and to be honest with you, i had opportunities to talk to senior leaderships, and secretary hagel asked carter, the vice chairman, very, very supportive of the guard and reserve. to be honest, we shouldn't expect wright and those to advocate for us because they used to be in the guard and reserve. it ought to be on the mirror, use of objective facts.

if we can get the objective facts on the table, our arguments are going to prevail because they make so much sense. a lot of times, unfortunatelily, the things never get up 20 -- to that level so the challenge is not to have these things arm wrestled out to departments, particularly, if they go the wrong way. ro8 plays a role in ensuring the debates are escalated to the highest levels of the pentagon and congress if need be, so, and y'all do a terrific job of that, but you're going to have to keep at it. with those, let me introduce the panelists. as drew said, you got the bios so i wont give long introductions. first, the order i was begin, and the chevre of the national guard bureau, a members of joint chiefs of staff, former commander, and many other commands, general frank grass. [applause]

>> well, -- >> i think what i understand was maybe we have a disconnect and let -- you are the deputy, the assistant division commander, so i think we wanted each of the chiefs, i was told to make a few comments and go to the q&a. that all right with you? >> absolutely. >> if not, we're going to do it anyway, but go ahead, frank. [laughter] >> thanks. first, thanks to everyone in the audience, whether you are currently serving, served in the past, we have the best military, the best reserve components we have ever had in our history, and, of course, took a lot of work to get there, so i want to applaud all the retirees. you have outfitted us, especially us now in the leadership positions with just a tremendous leadership cast across the services, and as i look at, and i get a chance to

look at the young men and women that served in the national guard, army and air gourd, i can't tell you that when somebody says they use it too much, i don't see that. i don't see that. these young men and women expect to deploy. they joined since 9/11. they know what they are getting into. they want predictability as much as possible, but they want an opportunity to deploy, and so what i think we have to do, and we have to figure out what is the right active component reserve component mix the nation needs for security, strategic hedge against a very uncertain world, and how do we maintain an all-volunteer force, both, you know, active and reserve component balance, and then not break faith with our people? our people, our warriors do expect to deploy. i was just over the weekend, a number of different states that i met with, and i would have 20-30 in each group, and each

time i would ask, how many people deployed, anywhere from quarter to a half of the group would always have already deployed. how many wanted to deploy in the future? every hand goes up. every hand. i think, though, there's a balance here in the deployment that we have to look at. we have to continue to engage in the operation services. for me, that's the army and air force. we have to look like the army and the air force, and we have to have missions that get us into the fight so we continue to grow leaders that can be ready at a moment's notice anywhere in the world. we have to get the training focused back to where we were in the 80s and 90s when we did combat training center rotations for the units and enablers with that. we got to do overseas deployments, a number of cancels. we have to keep that. in the 80s, we deployed on humanitarian missions, and just

engineers, logistics, dental, veterinarian. that paid benefits in the 1990s and 2000s. we need the money to have dynamic training to keep people in and atrabtive in the -- attractive in the guard. we are pushing this hard right now, we have to have the opportunity to fill vacancies that the active may have whether it's critical chart fall for three or four weeks or two or three years. we have folks who can get away from an employer, has the family situation is right that they can go plug an active duty building for a time, especially in the joint world, getting those opportunities. i think that's really what we got to focus on, but it starts with getting the active component, reserve component, forestructure right for the future. >> thanks, frank. lieutenant general rich mills just left, and he's headed down to the commander of marine

forces, commander of the first division in combat, commanding general of the larger organization, first expedition their farce, first marine regime to lead combat. general mills. >> thank you very much. as a new one on the panel era, i'll temper remarks saying that i come to the work now with the reserve component with the greatest respect because of what i saw on the battlefield both in iraq and afghanistan. i think one the challenges for us is going to maintain momentum in the years ahead, that we don't, again, break that bond that's been forced with blood and steel out in some very strange places. i was privileged to have rereceiver forces both organized units and ia's under me in afghanistan, and they just did a magnificent job. i realize it's good training, through well-organization, and support and resources. as the marine corp trims forces,

and we shouldn't do that, we come out of the war, our goal is to maintain the reserve force, the levels they are at, maintain the level of supports they are given, and, again, keep that bond in the reserve and active. it's very, very strong. do that through training together, operations together, deployment as they go overseas, rotations, and individual august augmentees where they are needed. it will be a good opportunity for the us to continue to shine. >> thank you, rich. robert braun, chief of the navy reserve force, commanded at every level throughout her career, admiral brawn. >> thank you so much. good morning, everyone, and thank you for your service. the navy reserve right now is forging ahead. we have taken over all of the -- or in the process of taking over all the individual augmentees

serving in afghanistan and forward deployed, and so at this point, we're at about 70% reserve component, about 30% active component, and looking to take over all of those missions so that the active component can get back to sea. our reserves are serving across the board, you name it, medical, intelligence, lo gist ticks, fields, unmannedded vehicles, over in afghanistan right now, and for next year, we anticipate 3500 mobilizations, and i'm proud to say that even after 12 years of war, we still have about an 80% volunteer rate, and i think that really shows you the commitment and dedication of the reserve force that we have right now. our challenges is we're in the middle of the drawdown of expedition their forces, and so in palm 12 and 13, the navy made hard budget decisions then and

decided to reduce forces in the active and reserve component in expedition their -- expeditionary components. there's 6,000 who serve in battalions, cargo handling, and lo gist ticks as well as -- logistics and maritime security, small boat teams. we are just beginning the drawdown of the 6,000, and next month, and so our focus right now we have to find homes for 6,000 to be displaced, and we have to do a study where the forces are and where they live throughout the united states, and we tried to replace that so they are not completely displaced. we know we'll have over manned units, but at this point, we're trying to manage reductions through normal attrition, normal retirement, and reducing the asessions into the navy reserve. going forward, we got new

missionaries that we're very excited about, especially in cyber and unmanned vehicles, and that program, looking to grow, and so there are new and excites capabilities out there for the navy reserve with the challenge over the next couple years with sequesteration looking at the proper active and reserve component mix. we think we have a great opportunity to shift some capabilities from the active component into the reserve component without taking too much risk, and that's what we work on every day in the pentagon. >> thanks. we have brigadier general, mobilized as a special assistant to the director, general clark, of the international guard. general? >> yes, thank you, sir, and being the youngest member, i'll

keep remarks appropriately short, but on behalf of general clark, i look forward to discussing the issues on behalf of the 6,000 dedicated airmen out there today. thank you, sir. >> great. [laughter] boy. he gets an a. [laughter] make a note of this man. [laughter] >> he's putting you in a tight spot here. [laughter] >> lieutenant general jj jackson, also commanded at every level. jj? >> chairman, thanks for the comments. first off, i want to say i have to keep it shorter than that, i tell with ya. thank you very much for being here, thanks for roa for putting this on. there's fiscal pressure not to have these conferences, and thank you very much for the member that you support it, and i want to go back and thank the commanders, also, for letting you attend. it's hugely beneficial and of great value to the air force, reserve, and total air force: thank you very much for being here. a couple things to pile on with

the chairman and a couple comments made. the things we are focused on right now have to do with moving capacity and capability into a more efficient and effective forestructure, and that will be the international guard and air force reserve. we have an opportunity right now, and the chairman had mentioned the skimmer, i, personally, i was disappointed that the skimmer did not have more discussion regarding the reserve components. i believe the qdr is the place to have that discussion, so given the support of your organization and given support of the members that the chairman mentioned within the office of the secretary of defense, i believe we can get discussions raised into the qdr and have proposals put forward to the secretary. part of that discussion has to do with, obviously, forestructure, and what we're attempting to do in the air force reserve right now, 18-month process until completed is to do a stray -- strategic review of the missions. what we've done is take all the mission sets that support the

total active duty air force, and we wracked and stacked those in different priorities to see where the mission sets will be of most value to the nation into the air force reserve. the bottom line is that we are trying to find out how we can best equip and effectively produce combat power for the air force to fight from now or the year 20 # 23 because that's what chief walsh is focused on now, shaping the force to meet the fight in 2023. we are attempting to do the same thing, make decisions based on where we want to be, and try not to get caught up in the fy15-16 when it comes to sequesteration cuts. we'll be smaller, but we also know the air force can benefit from having capacity my grated and look forward to making those arguments. there's great work in the rftb report put out by gymny stuart and the chairman. if you have not read that cover to cover, i ask you to do that.

we need all support to make the argument at every level. >> great, thanks. general andersen, a great member of the rfpb, chairperson of the subcommittee on continuum of service. >> thank you, mr. chairman. on behalf of what senator general, who regrets not being with you today, i want to send my personal appreciation for your attendance. i'm a live member of roa, and i, not too long ago, was a captain in one of those seats, and this demonstrates jr. dedication, not just to your civilian career, but to your professional, military education, by your attendance here today. i thank you for your attendance. on behalf of the 205,000 members of the army reserve who together comprise the majority of the logistics, enablers, engineers, medical, legal support for the army, i want to say, again, thank you for attending -- for

being here today. the army reserve wants to continue to be a part of the national defense strategy. we believe that our ability to participate in the war fight across all stages of the war fight adds immeasurably to the army's capability, and like the other member services here today, we believe that having a strong reserve component is key to our national defense. again, i look forward to the debate and discussion here today and to your questions later on. thank you. >> thanks. admiral steve day is acting directer of reserve and military personnel policy in the coast guard, another great rfpb'er, and mobilized more than anyone i know. we turn around, and steve, throughout the career, called on active duty. >> thank you, and pleasure to be here to be amongst friends. i just want to tie up all the comments made by my respective

reserve chiefs, three words. in 1991, the coast guard reserve came out, and the shield is preparedness, professionalism, and patriotism, and under preparedness, i look at all of us, us on the stage, you out in the audience, there's one common bond we all have. we all took an oath, and we're expected to uphold the oath so we need to be prepared, regardless. desert storm, one of the first to land on the ground in september, and since that day, guard and reserves have been called up continuously. we need to be prepared so i really hammer that with my fellow coast guardsmen that are reserve vieses. be preparedded. second point is professionalism. professionalism, i experienced that through a lot of joint scores. one of my shipmates in the audience was the colonel in

charge when it was established, and we maintained relationships throughout the year, but more importantly for me, it's an important thing, one of the expeditionary war unites in san fransisco in u.s. p12. we're professionals, around a great many professionals, and we choose to wear the uniform. my last point is patriotism. i experienced, you experienced when i go through the airport, people come up and shake my hand and thank me for service. that's great they recognize me, but i don't consider myself the patriot. i took the oath. i agreed to go in uniform, but i do want to remind all of us as guards mep and reservists, this is my opinion, i believe our families are the patriots, and also i believe our employer is a patriot. i've been fortunate to deploy because of good employers that

understood what the mission was and what requirements were, but i didn't stay any longer than i had to because the employer needed me to get back to work. i just raise that point. i think we're all meeting the prepared rnses, all professionals, and i throw in the families and employers on the patriot side. >> thanks. let's start the round table discussion. i want to put out on the table and try to deal with the two issues either together or in stair yaw tum. one is the option of the middle ground option discussed. the size of the active components, the size of the reserve component, the relationship between the two, the mix, and then at the same time, i think we should talk about the nature of the reserve and guards component in the future, the operational, when i chaired the national commission guard and reserve, we looked at it two and a half years and

asked the question, can we sustain and support what was then the operational reserve? we concluded we could. those are now argues that maybe we ought to move it back to the strategic reserve of the cold war era. those are two issues we have to talk among ourselves, and as we do that, we have to talk about the myths that have been put out there, and i mentioned one, and, again, we want to be careful. i'm very -- mean it when i say it's not us versus them, but there are those that are saying the gourd and reserve can't get there in a timely fashion, too hard to get to, take too long to mobilize, and so the one antedote, and they should not determine outcome of arguments, objective facts should, and in the aftermath, the immediate aftermath of the bombing at the boston marathon, the first picture i saw was in, like, 15 seconds. every tv across the world showed

these two individuals in army digital camouflage right there on the scene within seconds helping the wounded, severely wounded victim. i i thought to myself it's convicting they have the dr. spoke transporting themselves to help the wounded right there within seconds of it happening. isn't that amazing? i said, oh, wait a minute, that's not the 82nd airborne, but the massachusetts national guard. ladies and gentlemen -- [applause] members of the marine corp, national guard, first on scene. as we talk about the issues of the mix and operational i hope to dispel the fact is not

available to basically carry out mission, and what i pose to the group is is this middle ground option that i highlighted earlier, is that something that ought to be seriously looked at? the best way to go about doing that, and then what's the thinking about, are we in danger of moving too far away from the reserve? if so, what do we do about that as well? go to the right here, the most senior member, throw those out, and get the discussion going. >> thanks, and thanks for your salute to the massachusetts guards men, and i had a chance to meet three of them there, two that you saw in the news. they just completed the 26.2 miles. they were there volunteering, and when the bombs went off, they ran to the sounds of the guns and i was able to pen medals on them with governor patrick and the general, but you meet these, you know, three

young soldiers, and they would tell you that they didn't do anything different than anybody else would have, and i totally believe that no matter what reserve component you serve in, you know, what rack you are -- rank you are, folks step up to the challenge, but i think it says a lot, too, about where we are for the nation, and, really, looking at two missions, and why do we need this middle ground? why do we have to have the operational force? there's a lot of threats against the homeland, and we don't have geography. look at the manmade threats today in terrorism, and look at the increase, and read any scientific study you'd like, but the increase in the number of more complex catastrophes coming our way and how are we going to respond to that in the homeland if we don't have trained leaders, and part of that trained leaders is going back to forestructure, and we grow, command, and control through our hometown units and dispersed for the guard alone, in over 3,000 communities, so we can respond

quickly. why in boston? we lived there. not only that, when we do go to war, everyone knows someone. you bring over the population on the federal 10 side, and i look at operational from a reserve component, from a national guard today, every day, and i look at the numbers, and, today, we have 3800 and 35 guardsmen doing missions in the homeland on various pay statuses, but they are doing missions from state active duty side from the title 10 mission, and the baseline right now is about 4,000 a day. take the average in the homeland, it's 6,000 a day that we have in guardsmen and women responding somewhere in the homeland. deployed today? 18973 deployed overseas. in every operation of our active air force and army are in, we're side by side with them. we want to maintain that. i think we have to if we're going to sustain the force. >> great.

marcia, i know jeff would want to jump on that. same question to you, the operational mix and nature of the reserve? >> there's a strong argument for the fact we are concerned right now about whether or not we're going to assume risk reducing the size of the armed forces, and i think that the counterpoint of that argument is by increasing your capability in the reserve component, you mitigate that risk significantly. ..

in our reserve component and will perhaps grow and can grow. >> do you see a push of a friend using the army reserve? we know the army guard with software ampersand missions they've been doing successfully for the last 10 years inside manco said though. do you see them into building on the army site or somewhere else is army reserve back to the strategic side? >> there have been, but because we have a civil affairs capability and send specially in

ability, there is a demand signal from combatant commanders. i would think senator levin, but is already laughed. but 12304 is going to enable the combatant commanders under 12304 b-bravo to utilize a reserve component not for long duration type activities, but for some of the short duration missions they had a novel fit nicely into our two or three week increments than they might need a concentrated spot capability to support security cooperation or some other part her of building capacity. >> jj, what is your take on these two issues? >> operational reserve. the operational capability would bring every single day, so the comment areas we need to remain tear when ready within the air force in a different between the services. we get to that level that allows

us to bring every single day to the site. the second part we like to put in is the search capacity. you have to have the tier one readiness to did a search capacity, but in addition, why pay for everything every single day when you can put it in a reserve component and have it when you need it. simulate that type of approach. the third has to do with the strategic capability. whether you talk about the inactive reserve are fighting the big conflict, that's a strategic requirement. once again, we've got to plan for that, but has the capacity and capability every single day. when it comes to the next part of it, i am pretty happy with her chief of staff, general welsh because he has this mapping combatant commander requirements come using all 600,000 airmen, carter razorback gave to meet the requirement and see what we can use for the

reserve component to do a number of program against the environment to see what money omn is going to require to do that. i'm optimistic we are heading down a pathway we want. i should mention i think general welsh, i think you've got, as you mentioned really very open-minded leadership, where we hopefully won't repeat the food fight that happened between a air card you reserve than that if air force, i think 24 years in the congress, all four committees to the two authorizing committees and defense that committees not just rejected the proposal in the budget, but soundly rejected it in a way i had not seen before. the general welsh, he said very, very thoughtful objective individual. before we jump to the next area, two inhibitors want to jump in?

>> the coast guard is pretty unique in the operational uses expect it by the operational force. we do not have reserve units. we did away with them in 1895. fully integrated with our act of duty fours. just as an example, both barrier commanders, admiral parker in the paddock area are very instrumental in making sure that reserve forces ready. the commandant and i have talked about this. today, right now i can show the commandant that we have about 5000 forces ready to go out the door for a title x or title 14 contingency. we have a tse is approximately 1000 of our 8100 ports. during the expeditionary warfare, 301 will be going out the door very soon to replace the unit and gitmo. so we'll have to get my mission for as long as we have prisoners down there.

the more important thing is has been prepared and ready to answer that call like the deepwater horizon of which we recalled about two dozen resurface for that incident under title 14. so we are very much integrated with the active-duty command. they expect it can't plan for it and will be part of their plan all the time. >> rate. a question from the audience that i think really is very, very important and phrased this way. could you have a reserve force of happiness operational strategic. before posting to the panel, we need to understand because there's a lot of myths about readiness and you've unfortunately seen the readiness of all of our units have been deteriorating under sequester. if you look at the active-duty force at any, it's different for each service, but for the most a third of that forces operational probably either out on the

planet, on the ground in afghanistan, kosovo, sinai, wherever they are tear training so that there is absolutely 100% unfreedom sedge. the site probably just ready to go do something. it may not be a deployment, but in a state of readiness, will be a tape below. and then a third of the aforesaid and i will come back to deployment. for example, if you're a carrier battle group and he came back on the six to nine month deployment , the things are put into maintenance. no one expects that to be ready to go do anything. the notion that all of our active-duty forces are 100% ready every single day of the week, 365 days, we couldn't afford it and it's just not the way it is. so the issue for us on the reserve side is we don't propose to have 100% of our units

operationally ready every day. for what is the percentage? again, and hidden agenda when people talk about the strategic reserve, maybe the new figures by thinking a bit differently. when i hear the word strategic reserve, i think of the marine corps reserve in the reserves i knew in the late 70s and early 80s, where we had no equipment, no training, no money and things like that because in the peak of the cold war, a lot of reserves would have 180 days, even longer to mobilize. it's a really serious question that has been posed. that little bit of background could you have a reserve force that half of the units operational and have strategic. again, i will turn to you first because of any one point leading up to 9/11, the guard actually had over 60,000 card personnel on active duty doing something somewhere. so even in peacetime in the air force reserve, all the reserve

component were on active duty a lot more than people realize. so i showed this for the whole group. again, this issue of how much is operational and how much should be strategic. when we say strategic, are we talking about a new definition of a strategic as? >> we look back in the 70s and 80s and even the 90s, especially on the army side. we had enhanced for. their research the different levels. what i found is even though we trained the enhanced brigades and the short deployers and enablers, we gave them more resources. at a tiny cut down the hometown america, that is being balanced debate. >> although we hope those others to a higher standard. what i found that was the one

third that was in the bottom of the time usually with their divisional unit. you created a mind that that that's all they expected less clear-cut slope we are going to stay until the war that we have 180 days to get ready to go. i think one of the best things the army ever did was adopt the rotation. that model has done so much for every functional area within the guard. not just combat forces, but all the enablers. everyone is in the cycle and i love model. people do need a break from that tempo, so my recommendation is to continue in a cycle to figure out the right amount for the different functions. >> i think there absolutely is room for more operational forces and more strategic forces in the navy reserve. we see that with cds who are involved in rotation, squadrons were operational. in the end, there needs to be

room in the reserve for people who can only do 38 days a year, who can do your twelve-month drill weekends and major 14 days of et. basically that is how they can get because of their civilian job or family situation. but yeah, they are trained and ready so when they need them, they can come and serve. so i do think there is room for both because there are so many different nations and it may be reserve. >> is chairwoman of our subcommittee, you are looking that model in the continuing service. >> just to echo a little bit of a general cry said in his remarks. the predictability is important, number one. number two, i agree with admiral braun. you have people who have to be ready to go at a moments notice. in the first 60 days, you have people who are in the army

reserve who have to get there to prepare for the follow-on forces. so you're going to have to have more operational and strategic. to your point, you have people who can commit more time, so we need to give them the opportunity to do that and that's where you have to have -- it's smart how they go about it, but we need a mix support staff. >> i think it's a little narrow of a focus as if the reserve components are the only ones that can be half-and-half. you have to look at it as a total service. the active-duty could probably afford the downtime ratio so altogether the active-duty, reserve and guard together, but they force and all the different service core functions that we have with recovering and recuperating with intention throughout the forest. >> is the total force concept marine corps.

it's a major crisis, but also being a bigger part of our rotation of forces during peacetime operations in order to give us more time to our components so they can come off of their. with the categories it more as an operational force that plays directly to the support of a total force concept in peacetime and wartime. for all of us as we look at all of our structure is getting smaller, the military requirements, you've got to have a reserved its ready enabling trained to go out the door fairly quickly. it may be the forces that come into a crisis. the tenants are relatively short overall. you've got to maintain operations.

>> the operational reserves, strategic reserves. what's required their unmanly do the search capacity because we've got to help and then we have strategic depth at the end of that, whether that participates only 38, 40 days a year, we can bend it those face and look about the need. i think everyone has had the same thing but there's a temporal aspect to this. so whether it is good to the site for training on a daily basis, there's an opportunity for the total force to go ahead and have that across all three components to look at that aspect of it. >> when i seen a reserve officer i propose the concept that aren't in tsu spirit they are under many of the units the fellow chief surrender. he's very enthralled with that. we're hoping we can institute

that. if you take once ready to go but if this is your year, it requires the five-year period to make them ready to go. >> one must question the session. as i mentioned earlier, we are stuck with -- by the way, we're not going to give up writing a successor. they came up with the ballots compromise that chairman levin talk about and that's really the only way we're going to get out of it. no one is giving up, but so far we will keep working it. let's assume unfortunately we may be stuck with the lower level resources. think smarter, not richer. what are we doing to what can we do want the rc site to tighten our belts a little bit and what missions might be candidates for increased or decreased rc

participation? i am going to hit jj and then marcia because frankly the air reserve and army reserve are caught up in some of these issues right now but the headquarters. i was there with you. >> like i said in my opening comments, you can see what's going on in the next two years. and with general welsh of the technology can go into the anti-access type of environment to the high-end site and how do we get there to provide the global vigilance on a daily basis. so i say that throughout our nation safe and we are very diverse jury every single one of the air force active duty service core ftions, some of those are little enclaves of excellence that even don't have the capability to move out from the senior enlisted ranger the senior office range.

so we are looking at those to determine what is being used, what is a good strategic type of capacity that we need to retain and what it does need to be moved into higher priorities such as fiber, isr. >> before you turn it over to general andersen, can we save money by merging the air force reserve and the air guard? >> no. [laughter] [applause] >> marchetti. >> thank you, mr. chairman 14. in terms of looking out our structure, we recognize in the army reserve do we have a structure that needs to be repurposed. i'll put it that way. we are looking closely at some overtraining structures to see whether they are fully utilized. so we can find some savings in terms of force structure, but we also want to sacrifice their ability to be responsive to

cocom commanders and any contingency requirement. >> great. i say if they turn it back over from her questions from the audience, obviously you can see we are very blessed to have these talented and engage leaders in a time of critical decision-making in the department. number two, the reserve force policy board next meeting is september 5th. all of these leaders have been tremendous participants in all of our session quarterly meetings. we found out a lot of hard-hitting aces to secretary haeckel, a number of which have been adopted here we have an opinion on september 5th in arlington. it is open to the public. we're going to have many of the same leaders participating. we will hear from the vice chairman. so many of you interested in attending one of the sessions, we really need to get the info from the field. we are statutory, independent

reports directly into the secretary of defense. i think you've gathered from our conversation this morning and are members are not shrinking violets on any subject. i think it's important for the people at the top of the decision-making chain. there's a thermal layer at the pentagon and a lot of things that are happening at the deck plates never make it up to the top. we want to make sure that secretary haeckel and ashcroft are an admiral benefield are getting the objective information that they need to make some of these critical decisions. the thank you for your continued support of our reserve component and i look forward to your help and thanks again for allowing us to be here. with that, takeover. >> great discussion so far. we now have a number of questions from our members and attendees at the symposium.

let me kick it off by continuing the question that general punaro offered on the marcher of the guard and reserve. or it emphatically from general jackson, general andersen. [inaudible] >> there might be some efficiencies gained. we are talking about that across the department of defense. he believes that the guard and reserve bring capabilities to the table. so that's all i'm going to say about that. [laughter] >> i will defer to my boss. >> this is actually my next question for general graham. how do you handle this issue as an honest broker of the joint chiefs? as an adjunct question to that,

is there any way sent to the idea of rotating your billet with a reserve officer? >> let me start -- i came into the shop of september. but of the first things is you got to establish a position about combining the guard and reserve. i thought about it and elected everything getting ready to go into the process followed by the skimmer process and everything going on. my first thought was that got to stay tight as a reserve component here. i think this decision is not forestier. i think this decision is a policy political decision that has to be made and comes up about every four or five years. the decision is made that we have seven reserve components. so my position has been going to stay focused on keeping the strong reserve component and the

army and air guard or a part of that. we worked together as a team. >> how about the idea of the billet? >> i think if you look to the future and you think about how we do business as a nation, the governors and what we do every day in support of the governor's in the states. we've made some minor changes that are pretty major when you look at how they impact our response capability without being able to use the reserve under 12304 alpha. it lends it to thinking about that for the future. but then, how do you get beyond the title 32 discussion? you have to bring these forces together if you are going to into the future. i think everyone from the business case if you think about it and you're in business, you

wouldn't have seven separate organizations and a number doing the same thing. politically and for all the people in this room, you each bring a different capability to the fight. and a different way to get to you. all of that has to be t. complected if were going to try and bring them all into one. you have to rotate the position. you have to have time at 32 authorities. >> seriously, just like general grassley -- senator crass said, one of the good things about having three components. at this point in the foreseeable future, but the outgoing secretary and the chief has said there's good news and value about all three components which is our total air force. that allows us to bring another

opportunities for discussions on statuses and things like that would allow us to say where can those deficiencies and capabilities of the enhanced? when i go over to the hill, i tell them it's good news for the appropriations. chairman punaro can speak more eloquently than i can. when the air force part, one third of them like senator levin talked about, the guard and reserve did not because we have three appropriations by congress gives to us and keep the active-duty members current qualified on the mobility are for site by using appropriations to keep those folks ready. so we mitigated some of the effects of this trichotomy and cut because we do have three appropriations. if you combine that into two or even all into one her first appropriation, you wouldn't have been there. that's my closing comments on that. thank you. >> general mills --

[laughter] during the earlier part of the discussion, we talked about the potential for accessing service members into the rc as we have a reduction and ec forces. at the same time i had a question from the audience about how do we manage the outflow of reserves so we can get rid of the nonperformers, those who are overweight who are progressing, not showing up for drill. how do we pick the right people coming out of the ac to fill spots that open up from the outflow. general mills. >> i think we're going to enter a cold area of being hand picked other talented individuals who

are leaving services for whatever reason or because they've been through the excitement of the past 12 years and go on to pursue other things. i think we can have a large talent pool coming in. the challenge will be to attract them and make sure they understand the importance of the good training they're going to receive and they'll be able to work with the good leadership that they'll be receiving. i think the opportunity as they are. we've to make sure it's an attractive alternative to the other aspirations they may have. the marine corps side of the houses never been a pool of junior officers. so talented, so experienced that we have right now. it's going to be ashamed. we have some very, very good people, combat leaders off the rolls that would be foolish not to take advantage as they

reentered. >> i agree. i think this is important to not do across-the-board equal cuts between the act of a reserve component. this is a perfect time to look to see what missionaries we could move into the reserve component as we draw down on the act of components that can take advantage of those great sailors who are leaving the active component and bring them into the reserve component. it's very important to do that. those are some discussions we have right now in the navy because there are people who say if the act is cut 10%, the reserve should be cut the same. i think when you look at it, why get rid of those capabilities on the act of component? but keep them in a part-time status and take advantage of the training and experience they've had over the past five to 10 years. >> there is a pca for that also. if you keep a citizen airman for life, you retain that half a

million dollars investment over the first six to seven years of the training. it doesn't make a lot of sense. so you can't bring them in if we don't have the division to do it. >> general andersen, if you would also talk about ways that we can streamline the process for getting rid of the debt would. >> i think we complicated matters by the fact we currently have 30 different to the statuses for the reserve component. a number of studies have overwhelmed and they said we need to reduce that number to as little as six to provide the kind of ability to move back and forth between airman for life, sailor for life, the continuing survey of these to be a little more attractive. this can be difficult to transition from active duty to a reserve component. to your point about shaping the force. the army is looking at it. they have tools in place now. but i think we can add to that discussion and be engaged with

them and helping them find ways to shape those tools better. many tools are designed simply to call folks in the forest and not really targeting some of the unique skill sets that we need in the reserve component. i think is a reserve component, we have a duty and obligation to be engaged in that discussion and help our services come up with really good shaping tools. >> we have a number of members of the association from the medical mls and received a number of questions about quality and availability of medical care for reservists. obviously, when you're in that duty or mobilizing the reserves, if you are within the bible of the station for medical care were more closely tied to the military medical system.

when we are back in reserve status, we are spared from alaska to puerto rico and often removed from either va or quality military medical care. and then there's the added tragedy of suicide rates that separation may contribute to. comments on improving, sustaining the quality of reserve medical care and medical readiness. >> i would just comment on the sense of family readiness that one of the lessons we learned as we activated reserve unit to go to the site does have a good family readiness officer at each location who could serve as those left behind to steer them in every direction whether whether for medical care for any issues they had.

now with the cutbacks, there is a propensity state is not going to be doing as much. perhaps we can save money by cutting some of these programs and reach out. we have to resist that to the greatest extent possible because in some ways, some of the unit will have problems to extend into the future with ptsd and things like that. this is an education process to ensure the reserve community understands how they can get back here. >> how to leverage that that time and distance? other comments on that? >> one of the things we do within the air force's standing up basically a case management at the air force organization in san antonio. for the last 24 months we've been working this issue to go ahead and say how do we take care of title x and title 32 members that have to have continuing service and is going to take her the individual member when they go back to

another location it's not available. so we came to a conclusion that we need to stand up for the line of duty and met come orders or the air force is going subtype of reach out and touch the case management office to these numbers. we've only got it about 50%. the best solution we've come up with and trained to handle part of that. >> any other comments? >> one of the things that concerns me today on the medical site and of course suicides are tremendous, tremendous problem and is an epidemic in our society. i think there was a note this week in the early bird about 50% of the suicide never deployed. this is a problem society has to deal with the we reached out to health and human services and they're providing us research money that we are going to look at how can we join forces in the community using some of the assets of the volunteers we have

out there that the doctors are providing in the medical health professionals. i think there's some opportunity and we have to get after that. about 100,000 come out of the army, the marine corps and they come back to our home towns across america. there's going to be medical professionals that haven't dealt with this at the level we've had to do with it. i think somehow we've got to use the reserve component, armories to make that happen. what concerns me today is the same money we need to do that is the money that's drying up. that's the money, which we use for soldier readiness process and airman readiness processing has taken us to a level that is higher than it's ever been. so how are we going to sustain that in all these competing demands? part of this is the compensation discussion. what portion can we continue to afford across all accounts? been a member of the joint chiefs, we talk about this all

the time that every program that we send up to the hill do you want to curtail, not really cut it, you want to curtail the spending to look to the future to save an example of the race. it's hard to sell that on the hill. you've got to get after it if you want to maintain the strong all volunteer force are some pointers salaries, compensation, there's a study that says if we don't do anything separate from budget control, if defense does not change compensation, race benefits more night of the civilian world, if we don't, by 2021, 80% of the total obligation authority will be going to salaries accounted the shin. >> we had a couple of questions about the new primary gene missions for the reserve and mos for the reserve forces. a couple examples where cipher,

and somebody brought up uavs. what are each of your services doing to prepare for these new battlefields in the future? >> we are looking at cyber. i was at the cyberguard exercise two weeks ago. there's a real interest in having coast guard assigned to the cyber command, work in that issue. the other piece that is an interesting one for us is the arctic. we see the art it gives an opportunity worth doing those times when they've got our forces up there, active-duty forces is to utilize the coast guardsmen that have the skill sets needed. we are looking into that this point. nothing definitive at this point. >> i mentioned earlier within the air force to develop the mission sets.

but no surprise and a cyberappears in the top third of what we think would be a good fit. the discussion within the air force is how we are going to fill the requirement for cybercon. it's in 1800 manpower position which the active-duty cannot fill. we talked about capacity and capability in the air national guard to apply that requirement. the other position is this will be a specialized skill set that has to be on the cutting edge every day and this is a building you do that. either way, civilian company will do most of their training required, too. i take that on when you don't have to? we are pushing to build for structure. currently we have 10 squadrons put together a super first operation sabre group and actually put together a peer made to support that requirement. >> we already have some cyberstructure in the army reserve. as you just alluded to, those are some perishable skill sets. if you don't exercise those on a

daily basis, they kinney road. i think the reserve component is ideally suited to have more cyberaccess because there's things you do in your day to day civilian profession that can only enhance that capability. >> the challenges because the long training cycle takes to get a cyberwarrior ready to go. i agree with you that the reserve community has a lot of talent that could really apply directly to what you need on the challenges we find that you have to bring those folks on active service and it's a long training cycle before they even are useful to you. so there's a balance here you have to strike. >> what about the kids in the ponytail with the garage. >> i wish i had one. >> civilian contact is very attractive. >> i was talking about the

reserve. >> you have to get that higher paid haircut. >> out that this means the cyberguard exercise, the cyber command, washington guardsman with air and they were the educators and they worked for microsoft or they worked for the software companies. my take away from that experience was to get with my federal reserve and interested in what the competencies are that she needed for cyberfolk and believe it or not there's another admiral, a cyberguy with me said get those competencies and then we went to that does this too was the realistic thing do with 36 days of training for a reservist to do that would take the skill sets than the civilian and put them in there. so that's what we're really looking at. >> true, we have a test scores looking up data.

search perchlorate is a great businessman in this area and kind of looking at the future. general mills makes an excellent point. you look at the amount of money and they train them up among the services and unfortunately, what do they serve six years active duty and we have a huge investment and then they decide they don't want to be in active-duty anymore. so one of the thoughts is how do we then come inside of this and that talent to the department of defense because i guarantee you the microsoft, google is the world will be able to pay them a lot more than donate from years next to year 12 in the military. the camera, but the reserve construct, where we do is general mills said train them up, give their time, do what they are supposed to do. even though they too keep them on the active side, how to

restructure our reserve components, where they can come into this units and this is another challenge that was mentioned by general grass and others we've got these incredibly talented youngsters and young company grade officers that the period in the reserves, how do we get them in there? maybe we have to not take as many non-prior service personnel. maybe we have to get a little picture. maybe we have to spend as little more time because to get the kind of talent we are going to be paying for us taxpayers in these critical skill areas like cyber, it is great disservice to the war fighting skills and taxpayers who in the active component altogether and not have an opportunity to continue to serve. we won't point out any particular units, but i know in the marine corps reserve it would be open-minded enough if they want purple hair during the week, as they get a cut high and tight b'nai, drill.

>> we actually had short hair wigs in the early 1970s. >> may be in some unit usurped in. not in my unit. last night's >> i was going to save the cyber, we programmed of the setup for cyber. but we found was because of the growth in the act of component and reserve component, the throughput and are cybertraining courses not there. we do not have the capacity, so we are looking how to mitigate that right now because there's such a huge demand that we need to grow that training capability, so that is what we are looking at. we're looking at unmanned systems supporting fire scout and triton. right now the challenge for us is because of sequestration in the budget challenges, we are not sure when those systems are going to come online.

it's tough to program when you don't know if you're going to have to push the program out another two or three years. it's exciting when you look at potential. so we're working on it, but at this point we can't say how soon it will come online. >> i want to say there's room for everybody on this one to talk about cyber. i was at the cyberguard exercise we participate in every year at fort meade. we attacked to curt reserve. we teach us, fema, department of energy, department of transportation and since you can't really determine at any given point with the cyberproblem resides come you've got to have those partners. but general alexander and i talked about, the governors are interested in he would like us to maintain the authorities we have said that state government can do some things. we have cyberwarriors in this

case going out and doing vulnerability assessments on state emergency management networks because if something pops mistaken we so got to function, even though it may be a civilian.com we are dealing with at the state level. we got to keep the dialogue open and keep that capability to get in and work. we have a test case we are working with the.edu issue right now. if i think about the active component, every weapon system on a cyberexpert. talk about the f-35 and was going to come out of that. then you've got the national and international piece of that. but we are investing in right now, we have 12 unit in the guard, some of them already working cybernetworks or squadrons, for example, that are scattered across the states. if something besides close to major picture posting area that has the skill sets and they are

doing very well. so now what we want to do is look at how the air force and army are going to create the doctrine for the future, create the structure and training. but if we put in a traditional reserve unit has got to look like the service can be trained and certified that we don't create something ad hoc that we can take anything from the state mission to the guard to the federal side. >> we have a hard stop in five minutes. i would like to talk to each of you, a tough question brought up by senator levin and that we will turn it over to general punaro for last word. that is the misconduct issue. what if each of your services doing to address that? >> number one priority -- [inaudible] constantly reinforce that almost every flag meeting if needed. it is his top priority if you were to ask him.

>> what are you doing on the drilling level? >> on the drilling level, we are integrated. we require is that commanders responsibility that goes through the areas covered through the district commanders down to the field level. when he speaks out on hands come he looks of a handset is reserved in active-duty and make sure you sharing the same expect tatian and accountability is taken into consideration. >> the air force has set up. in this austere times i'm aware doing this anywhere else. general woodward is on that and of course the priority once again is to fix this. there's too many reports, too many instances and they will fix it. the air force including us in the air national guard took a stand on to have that discussion and pushed out tools that

commanders can use. so that's what we've been doing. >> the commandant is very concerned about it. we had a stand on day throughout the marine corps. every three-star had to address all of his commanders and senior enlisted. i flew down to fort worth, texas, to address the reserve component. we are stressing three things. first of all, if we emphasis on the those training at every level, entry-level training from continuing to enlisted and officers to talk about expected conduct, to each recipient of warrior and ethos of treating everyone with dignity. the last thing is we take a hard look at being able to harden the target by getting supervision back in the barracks and reserve component in getting supervision into places like hotels, where they spend their time during drill weekends to ensure the proper level of supervision is there and the folks that would

come to do harm are identified quickly and separated. >> navy. >> navy is doing the exact same thing as the marine corps. we are very much into the barracks, into where our sailors are on throw weekends and throughout the week. we found that about 50% of the report has to do with alcohol. so we are pushing a campaign of keep what you love, basically keep the rank that you own. trying to curb the alcohol use in the incidents we have, not only with sexual assault with alcohol involvement, but also duis, all the misconduct that comes with too much alcohol. so i think they really we had done a number of stand downs in the navy and navy reserves. and so, when this last round -- we do a stand down.

everybody really have the opportunity to realize this is my responsibility. every sailor knows that it's their responsibility to help turn this around. every commander knows that it is their responsibility to help fix this. so i think that we finally have gotten it down to the individual level to say not my navy, not my service. a sickly and part of the solution to this. but i do think that alcohol is such a big factor in those do we really have to continue to push the responsible drinking is important if they are going to do that. so that's really where the navy is right now. i do think that the opportunity to get out into hotels is good for reserves are staying on the weekends. that's important to do. the good thing i think is that

we are seeing increased reporting of events that happened years ago. months ago in your sicko. i think that shows people are feeling more comfortable standing up in reporting must have been. there's a lot of bad past incident reporting right now. >> the army is doing much the same thing as the other services. we have had a standout and i think there's a lot of enhanced tools on our website devoted to this. leaders from the very senior level all the way down to come any levels can utilize in their unit. it is definitely general odierno's number one priority. to speak to your point, admiral braun, the increased training for schools, young soldiers and old soldiers as well that we are all members of the team. we have to respect one another. if you see something coming me to say something. that speaks to the increased

reporting. people for comfortable whether they benefit about harassment or assault or they know something is going on and they have a responsibility to report it. >> national guard? >> a few months ago, the president called of the joint chiefs and that the senior enlisted and secretaries to talk about this problem. he wanted to understand and what else could he provide defense to tackle this input is focused on that? since that time, secretary haeckel meets once a week with all the services. he has a series that he looks at that he gets briefed on. at the macro level he expects all of us to be working below that level. i guarantee we all are is a top priority. but we've done in the national guard is we've taken two hours out of every conference we have now that we do it once a quarter and they bring in experts from the field to talk about the

problem within the society to talk about how to translate to her current men and women and also what's happening within the court system and how we make can affect this case out of some of the ones who may not be a little prosecute otherwise. we are also doing a standout across all army guard -- air guard armory's family have to have the strip horseback that everyone's been recertified as recruiters and medical professionals be used and everyone is briefed in by the end of september we have to fight back. i would tell you that the herd or for us in the guard and i'm not sure if the other two with the same issue, but the title 32 issue with something occurs in the know u. cmj in that state. we had to turn it to local prosecutors. as the chairman said, if there's alcohol involved, and local prosecutor won't touch it. we are pushing the state don't

have a title 32 u. cmj too prosecuted. across the board the train 71 special investigators. every prosecutor won't take a company will a sense not even from that theater community to do the investigation and if nothing else, if we can prove that guns or prove the case, we can administratively process. >> closing word. >> you've heard about a lot of headaches and positive opportunities. each and every one of you here today in a representative democracy at this great nation can make a difference both individually and collectively. i use as a prime example our colleague, my colleague from the commission on the guard and reserve, colonel john stockton who is playing the strachan's everyday and keeping us honest. those of you and uniform can erase your issues to the chain of command.

you have the opportunity to speak to your elected representatives. the people in this country have always made a difference. if you don't speak out, if you are not engaged, you also have a commend this talent as you've seen on this age here today. the military leaders of our guard and reserve, working these issues, they are carrying the fight every day in the building and they need your support and your active engagement. the bottom line is if we don't want these things to go in the wrong direction, each and everyone of you can and should make a difference. but thank you for being here. but thank you for the opportunity to visit this morning. thank you very much. [applause] >> we have valuable thank you

kids are way better under the threshold. please holger sees after a hand these out because we have some important notices that we need to post with you. >> generally understand. why is that bigger? >> thank you, sir. i'm not [inaudible conversations] general punaro. general mills. why don't you guys get together. >> thank you. >> general jackson, thank you. [applause]

>> i don't think you understand the law you are in charge of executing end of forcing. the callback as you describe would you limit how much a person pays back as only person is eligible for subsidy if their income changes in the year in which the subsidy takes place. but if a person gets a subsidy

that they are not eligible for, which clearly would be the case if your major enforcement tool, the employer mandate assigned place, the law requires to callback 100% of the subsidy to which they are not entitled to. >> i apologize. the hypothetical u.k. pet a lot of moving pieces. but you are correct. the one question i have is we've discovered that this individual caught in inappropriate subsidy, so we've made some connection with their employer to learn that information. >> which will be 2015 at the earliest. >> we could learn in 2015. look at the employer reporting 2016. either way, we are going to make the efforts for each individual receiving a subsidy. >> somebody will get two years of a subsidy they signed up for unknowingly, which the law does not make them eligible for. you have to tax that back in two years time. that is the law, correct?

>> will help the individual when they're filling up taxes in navigating through the exchange to understand whether they have a required plan. >> if you don't have an employer mandate, which you claim you need to have two verify this, you will have is a lot of people getting subsidies they're not supposed to get in the no-hitter with a tax bill in about two years because the love requires you to do that. i get back. >> is a portion of a capitol hill hearing look at the implementation of the health care law. that is the topic during tonight's town hall meeting and we'll take your phone calls, facebook comments. it all gets underway at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span.

>> this is a place where you have to know what you are about because there'll be other people who want to tell you what you are about and those people don't have your best interest in mind. that is sorry survivalist manhood becomes insistent about being what i yam and been fixed to what i yam. ..

the air and human beings. continues. from richard con houriff from "smithsonianast magazine." >> host: this week is the recent edition of "smithsoniantn magazine." here is the cover. inside the magazine is a piecesi by richard conniff who is joining us from new haven, connecticut this morning in the piece is called the body ebbingk " let's begin there. what are microbes western mark guest?

fungi, the viruses, but in particular they live all around our bodies and th in our bodies. we have never known before what they do and how they affect us? except for one way, we know they cause disease, so we tend to think of them as the enemy, and that has changed. do humans have? what kind of information do they hold? people have started to research over the past 10 years and it is startling because it puts out what it means to be human. we have about 10 trillion cells that are certifiably human cells, but then we have 100 trillion microbial cells. genes that are human genes that determine our behavior, but we have 8 million microbial genes.

they do things to us. they help us digest food. they tweak the immune system. they affect us in all kinds of ways that we have never really understood before. yet you call it big science in your article. why is that? guest: what happened in the late 1990's is that researchers developed technology that enabled them to identify every microbe in the human body for the first time. before that, they were only able to identify the ones that happened to be happy in a petri dish that could survive there in a culture, and you are looking at thousands of species in the body all at the same time, all of them with multiple genes, and trying to make sense of that and make sense of how they interact with each other so that the data that comes out of this is just overwhelming. it overwhelms supercomputers. it is hard to deal with. each individual is also a

friend, so that is a lot to digest. host: who is doing the research? what group? guest: the thing that has made the micro biome a really hot topic is that about about five years ago the national institutes of health began something called the human micro biome project, and this was an effort, a collaboration with about 80 universities and other institutions around the country, about 400 scientists, and a budget of $173 million. the idea was to study first of all 300 volunteers, healthy volunteers, to look at different parts of their bodies and find out what microbes lived there. so they looked at five basic areas -- the nose, the skin, the the genital area, and -- the skin, did i say? five areas, and then they

created a baseline of what is normal in humans, and then they looked at the connections in humans to health and disease. host: so it goes beyond universities and government study best. -- and government that studies this. capitalists got involved. why? guest: the government was hoping to, what the nih was hoping to do, was to bring the role of a microbe -- of a micro biome to the general public and the attention of the pharmaceutical injury -- the pharmaceutical insert -- the pharmaceutical industry and venture capitalists for application in everyday human medicine. host: for what purpose? what are they trying to achieve? once you understand what these microbes do, you can tweak them in all kinds of ways and get them to perform

things that you want them to do and not things you don't want them to do. even if you could understand what they are, you can use them in diagnosis. a standard problem now is that a mom will take her kid to the doctor with some sort of skin rash, and the doctor would prescribe an antibiotic. the doctor basically has to guess which antibiotic is going to work. two or three different antibiotics to get to the right one. meanwhile, the kid is suffering -- there isand is often a lack of compliance because they don't trust the antibiotics. if you can identify what are causing the problem at the start, the doctor can give the right antibiotic at the right time and get the results much more quickly. ," he "interesting fact says, "the majority of the

microbes in your body are nonhuman but other microbial species." guest: that is true. there are about 10,000 microbial species in the human body, and they are weirdly distributed, so i think there are about 140 different species that live behind the ear? why? i don't think anyone knows. i don't think anyone knows. the majority of them live in the human gut and our there for digestive purposes and to tweak the immune system. but altogether they weigh about microbess -- that is, altogether weigh about as much as the human brain, about three pounds. you say this will turn around 150 years of medical thinking. why is that? guest: the germ theory has dominated medical thinking since about the 1880's, and that is the idea that pathogens make us sick and that therefore all microbes are the enemy, and

that we need to be antibacterial, use antibiotics liberally, and it has given us this idea of the ideal antiseptic world. now we realize that that is a mistake, that it is not just -- ,hat microbes are not the enemy they are also essential allies. so we have to learn how to live in balance with them and control the ones that are threats but also encourage and not destroy the ones that really help us to function. host: what is destroying the ones that help us function? what is the role of antibiotics? not just is antibiotics. it is all of the bacterial, antibacterial things, putting on the hand lotion every time we walked down the hallway to kill microbes. but one of the most interesting things out of all of this is -- an understanding of the destructive role of antibiotics.

we have seen antibiotics as our salvation for the last 60 years since they were introduced in world war ii. you can understand why we think that way because they do save our lives from incredibly destructors diseases. i remember when i was a kid that every mom worried about blood poisoning. people don't think about blood poisoning anymore. it is like it never happened. but the problem is that we have become so dependent on antibiotics and we tend to think of them as the remedy for everything, that we use them all the time come and the effect is camilla truly destructors. so the average kid in the developing country gets tens of -- 10 or 20 courses of antibiotics by the time they reach 18. that used to think that -- you went into the doctor and you asked for an antibiotic because your kid was screaming,

sick, had an ear infection. we knew that that might be bad for society over the long-term because because it might encourage antibiotic resistance, but you want to have your kids feel good now. so we all wanted to get those antibiotics. what we did realize is that we might be harming the kid now. what happens with antibiotics is that they destroy the body's , and thecrobial life microbes don't just bounce back, they actually struggled to come back. so when you get those 10 or 20 doses over the course of childhood, you may seriously impair the micro biome, and the result can be affecting our health in all kinds of ways we did not suspect before. host: according to your article, the most recent research on microbes found that infants exposed to antibiotics in the first six months are 20% more likely to be overweight as toddlers.

and then a lack of normal gut microbes early in life disturbs the central nervous system in rodents, may do the same to humans. and starving children might lack the right digestive microorganisms to fix malnutrition. guest: yes. that was a study done in africa this year, him allowing -- in malawi. they looked at kids in the same households, with the same diet. one had a severe form of malnutrition and another did not. the kid who did not have the disease did fine, the other kid did not. he would do fine for a little while, at them and go back to being malnourished what they found was that if you manipulate the micro biome and give these kids the right microbes to digest the food, they have a much better chance of recovering from malnutrition.

host: we are talking about microbe research with richard conniff, his piece in "smithsonian magazine," "the body eclectic." let's go to charlotte. caller: good morning. i was curious as to, how does the body pick up its microbes, and if we are constructed by our dna, do we carry dna to make these microbes? thank you. we picked thete, microbes up from the world around us right from the start. one of the most interesting studies has to do with cesarean births. about 30% of kids in this country are born by cesarean, and they found that kids born that way have a consistently different -- have a completely different micro biome in early life, dominated by a skin

bacteria. where is kids born vaginally pick up microbes from the mom's earth canal, and they turn out to be healthier as a result because that rich micro biome early on in life is essential to a lot of things, including the development of the immune system, possibly the development of the brain. so the tendency for those kids born by cesarean to have more allergies and other conditions. the lack oftwitter, " certain microbes, germs, is associated with allergies and probably autoimmune diseases as well." guest: that is right. question of this research by the nih, they did not actually say x causes y. a is difficult to say that group of microbes causes a condition, but they found lots of correlations, lots of cases where children lacking certain

micro biome's or children who have been through certain things like cesarean birth then had a much higher incidence of things like allergies and healymunity, obesity, act disease, all those kinds of problems that have become epidemic in society over the last 20, 30 years. robert in tennessee, republican caller. you are up next. -- t: i caller: i am overwhelmed what i hear this morning, and there are millions and trillions of them. as a young man, i thought all reality came about by chance, and this is a deeper level of reality i never thought of before. i am coming more to the conclusion that there is a great designer of all that is out there, and i lost my atheism way back there, and it seems this is such a help to me to hear all this competition in my human

cannothe microbes, i even grasp it. i am just so grateful for what you are saying this morning. , talkrichard conniff about the complexity of this. guest: let me tell you how i got into this in the first place. i generally write about wildlife behavior, and i was writing a book about the discovery of species in the great age of discovery, the 19th century. i was writing about words, butterflies, monkeys, that kind of thing. i was hearing about the micro biome at the same time, and i was describing this whole world of astonishing discovery, yet i was completely ignoring this other microbial world, this in visible world. there was a period of discovery that has been starting in the last 10 years and i am sure will go on for quite a while that as -- that is as astonishing discovering new worlds in the 19th century.

finding these new worlds inside of us come and that is amazing and complex complex, and it changes our idea of who we are. host: richard conniff has a blog, and you can follow him on twitter as well. to patricia, new york, independent caller. help me with the name of your town, patricia. ticonderoga. hi, richard. i want to comment on the previous caller. it is comforting to me as well to understand that there are complexities that we have a lot of questions about as human beings. i am not an advocate of taking antibiotics inappropriately. i have never taken many of them over my life -- a few here and

there. this morning there was a report on the news about relief of lower back pain and long- standing through the use of a 100-day course of antibiotics. i don't know what antibiotics were being used, and i do think that the 100 days is an interesting figure. theink it kind of reflects complexity of the kind of engineering or tinkering or whatever you want to call it, that we have to do with these microbes. i just wondered if you would comment on that. guest: i have not seen that study, so i cannot comment on it. what is promising is the idea that you won't necessarily need to go to antibiotics in the future. they will understand how to encourage beneficial bacteria

and bring about a balance between the good and the bad bacteria, and the good bacteria will often be able to control and minimize the effect of the bad ones, and that is going to be a much more successful and less destructive way of handling a lot of medical conditions. the example that comes to mind is an epidemic condition now cdif, a gut microbe. when you give a person repeated doses of antibiotics, it can microbialhe normal life in the gut, and this one destructive microbe starts to take over and it causes really severe unpleasant conditions, chronic diarrhea, and they try to treat it with other antibiotics, and that often makes it worse.

there is a treatment for this now that sounds incredibly disgusting, and yet it seems to work, and that is fecal transplant. what they do is, they take donor material from a relative and they injected into the person' : colon and tried to introduced a more balanced microbial if innity to keep the cd i check. autism may be a lack of good gut flora in mom, that baby inherits, and unable to recover from inoculation of salt." i think we have to wait a long time before people get conclusive results about what role microbes may play in autism. it is way too soon. host: and it brings up a point

that you made in the article, promising too much too soon. there is a researcher at the uc -- university of .alifornia at at davis people are so excited about the discoveries and the incredible implications that they are promising all kinds of things. they are promising that microbes can prevent croke -- can prevent stroke or cure autism or do any number of things. really all we have now or -- are correlations. we have these interesting connections between changes of micro biome and changes in a person's health, but that does not mean that x causes y. to get to that point of x causing why takes a lot of scientific work, and to get to the point where we can take that ,cientific work and apply it that is a big step and it will take a while. host: what about the probiotic

industry? you write that it is up 22% over last year. what is it, and what are they promising? live: probiotics contain bacteria, and people have taken probiotics pretty much forever. they are generally harmless. people also tend now to think that because the micro biome is good and you want to have a rich, diverse microbial community, that taking probiotics is going to be the answer to everything. they take massive doses of row sy alex, and those probiotic are not typically and carefully regulated by the government. the idea that as one of the scientists i talked to put it, that something is a cure-all for everything probably means it is a cure for nothing. so i think putting too much confidence in probiotics can be dangerous. on the other hand, we do get to

understand how microbes work and do develop beneficial microbes that are precisely targeted to specific conditions. at some point in the future, we will have probiotics that we can apply to very specific medical conditions and make a real difference. we are not there yet. host: we are talking to richard conniff of "smithsonian magazine," about researching microbes. primarily, he writes about nature and has a blog. swimming recent book, " with puranas at feeding time," richard conniff. , "as a ohio said medical person i am outraged and

these refuse to do sputum and throat cultures before giving out antibiotics." caller: my question is this. over the years we have seen a large rise in corporate farming, and then we see the sustainable growth organic movement where the soils are filled with microbes and filled with life, quite frankly. so my question is -- is this going to lead to a more sustainable life for us with sustainable farming? guest: so let's talk about the corporate side of farming. these large concentrated operations. they are one of the areas where antibiotics have been used most heavily and indiscriminately, so we know now that 80% of the antibiotics in this country go not to medical purposes, not to

human medical purposes, but to food animals, the animals that we eat. they go to promote growth, but more particularly to enable animals to stay healthy in much and crowded conditions, the result of that is that we have much cheaper meat than we would otherwise. on the other hand, the result is that we have antibiotic resistant bacteria on practically all the meat that we buy in the supermarket. so in addition to medical overuse of antibiotics, i think we are coming to recognize that this agricultural overuse of antibiotics is extremely disruptive, and i think that will change pretty quickly. it is already changing because consumers are reacting so strongly against meat that is tainted with antibiotic resistant bacteria. microbes webout the get from other people? we talked about it earlier, or

get from what we eat? it depends on how you cook your food, but there is antibiotic resistant salmonella and e. coli and bacteria on basically all of the supermarket meat that you get from standard industrial production methods, and you have to cook it thoroughly so you don't feel the consequences of that. but even handling that meet, having it around the kitchen means that we are picking up those antibiotic resistant bacteria, and bacteria do this weird thing. instead of passing on their capacity just to their offspring the way we do, they can swap it from side to side with the microbes around them, so they can swap antibiotic resistance within our bodies, and the consequences of that are

frightening to think about. host: what are they? guest: one of the reasons that cdif is such a problem is that you have bacteria that resist treatment with antibiotics. we just cannot deal with them. you have e. coli in the standard urinary tract infection that is often untreatable or difficult to treat because they have multiple antibiotic resistance. i believe e. coli infections kill 800,000 people worldwide. you have an antibiotic resistance crisis in this country that i think the number is 63,000 people a year die as a result of antibiotic resistant infections in this country. so those are pretty big consequences from this kind of giddiness that we have had about antibiotics over the last 60 years. author ofard conniff, "the body eclectic." next caller, go ahead.

caller: i have a 21-month-old child, and i wonder if there is any kind of testing that can be done on this? guest: i don't think they are doing much testing in terms of treating individual patients at this point, but the one thing that people said to me repeatedly as i was doing this research is, let your kid play in the dirt. let your kid be a kid. open windows, go outside. in't try to lock a kid up this sanitized world, because the consequences for that child's health could be more serious than you imagine. sonja in howard, ohio, a republican caller. go ahead. caller: good morning. i think that is great that you are doing something very important. i had a question regarding the microbes inside the body, the way that the cells decay. if the cellsng,

are alive and regenerating, do they feed off of that in any way? the main question, the white blood cells, they destroy the -- d and it think of the worl sound like an idiot. host: you are doing fine. caller: they destroy the bad cells that make you sick, and i wonder if there is any way that they feed off of that, regenerate themselves in that way my car body does. the line and i will have richard conniff respond. guest: i am not sure i can answer that question. it seems to me if you are saying -- asking if the bacteria are feeding off each other in the body, and if that controls the bacteria, and honestly i just know that. when doctors try to control bacteria like cdif when they do

fecal transplants, they are introducing bacteria to out- compete them, to occupy the spaces and niches in the body, not because they think the microbes will go in there and cdif.e i am not the one to answer the question. did the pre-penicillin sulfur compounds have the same negative effects on good microbes?" the first antibiotics came in in 1935, and they were the only ones available until 1944, and i don't know if they produced the same amounts of resistance. but as soon as penicillin came in, by 1945 you are saying coming up resistance because of the heavy use of antibiotics. it was being heavily used because it had such great effect. within world war ii, it saves tens of thousands of soldiers

lives from d-day on because antibiotics prevented these horrible infections from wounds so people did not get gangrene, they did not have their limbs agitated, they did not die. so it was a great thing, and you can -- did not have their limbs amputated, they did not die. so it was a great thing, and you can understand it -- people doctorsd seriously, discussed broadcasting antibiotics into the atmosphere to control microbes, to control these enemies. but in fact we realize that i chrome's are not the enemy, they are also our allies. marlene, democratic caller. caller: i was calling because when my daughter was 10, her appendix burst. she was treated with triple antibiotics. then discharged, but returned because returns later

of infection. i have often wondered, because it took her a very long time to recover her strength, and she often still feels tired, more tired than my other daughter because of going through that. i often wonder, is there any kind of long-term effect? guest: i don't know that. sorry, i cannot help you with that. i know it is incredibly debilitating when it happens, and it is sometimes fatal, but i don't know how it affects people after that over the long term. ryan says, "what percentage of bacteria cannot be cultured, and what implications for health does this have?" a pretty small percentage that could survive in a petri dish and be studied. the dnay started to do sequencing and seeing all the rest of the things going on in our body, it opened up a pretty big new world.

and we are just finding out what the effects are on our bodies. host: richard conniff, we have about 10 minutes left ear. what is next in this research question mark what will we hear about? guest: first of all, the nih has completed that initial program. they spent $173 million on a five-year pilot program with the idea of bringing the micro biome to the attention of the general public, the industry, the medical community. they really did bring that to everybody's attention, so readers -- to research has taken off. the nih is going to continue with a $15 million program over the next three years, and they will be looking at some of the functions of the microbio, something that specific microbes do and how we can manipulate them. so we will start to see that filtering out into our everyday

lives. you will see it in doctors offices. we have drug companies that are researching microbial treatments for diabetes obesity, allergies. those things will start to come on the market, they be five years, i don't know. and you also have, in addition isthe $15 million that nih spending on the next phase of the human microbio project, you have other parts of the national institutes of health that to ramp up their research on the microbio, and they spent $180 million a year. so that will bear fruit and show up in our lives in all kinds of ways. i think the first thing we are going to see is people are going to move away from antibiotics because they will understand how destructive they are. they will be a lot more cautious of that. it is hard to predict. host: you talk about the peace

that -- you talk about in the piece that toothpaste companies are doing research on that. why is that? ,uest: there are 700 or so maybe up to 1000, different microbes in the mouth. it is a question of establishing a balance within the mouth so that the ones that cause cavities are kind of outcompeted by the ones that are beneficial, and i think toothpaste companies are looking to see if they can take advantage of that to make their products more effective. host: venture capitalists are also getting into the game. do we know how much money is putting into this research on the private side? guest: i don't know the numbers on total venture capital investment. him atalk to one company second genome, in california, and is looking to put a product on the market for also rate of colitis,l siulcerative

and there are others. i suspect there are more that i did not run across in the course of my research. gaithersburg, maryland, republican caller. go ahead. caller: if we are kind of in the beginning of this process, the nih is already pulling in going toapitalists, want to make products and applications. is nih doing anything to detect the universal i.t. that is out there for this? what the nih set out to do was to create a kind of template for how to do this work. they wanted to create protocols for how you do sampling, order calls for how you analyze the data -- protocols for how you analyze the data onto computer programs that will handle all the data.

but, you know, if you are whether people will start patenting microbes and trying to privatize them, i don't think that is the nih's -- i think that is a question for the courts and i don't know what is going to happen with that. host: bakersfield, california, on our line for independents. caller: good morning. i would like to ask if he is aware of omaha beef. they irradiate all of their beef so they don't have that problem with e. coli getting to the customer. guest: i don't know that particular company, but most companies, and also the raise their food animals by more old-fashioned means without relying on antibiotics can get away from this problem pretty easily. it is not inevitable that we

have meat contaminated with antibiotic resistant bacteria. it just seems that way because that is how the industry chooses to do it at the moment. host: mark, a lego, new york, democratic caller. caller: good morning. your wildlife studies do see new species of microbes, mutating species, or are we losing species of microbes? guest: we are losing species within our own bodies. one of the things that is most alarming, they call it the process.ing microbiota the overall diversity of microbes in the gut has steadily gone down over the past 60 years, and this may be having lots of negative consequences in terms of allergies and digestive

disorders and those other things that we were discussing earlier. a kind ofhere is possible ecological crisis within our own bodies that is a real source of concern. host: matt smith says, "can our ,uest link recent studies experiments linking stomach and gut bacteria to mood and motivation?" guest: that study of rats suggested that rats that don't ine a rich diverse microbio the early stages of life -- micro biome in the early stages of life can have different serotonin levels in the brain, and that is scary stuff and stuff that needs to be studied. but, you know, what can we can do about it now, how we can change our lives, that is not

known. it still needs to be researched. host: don in new mexico, independent caller. caller: good morning. mary roach has written a new adventures of the alimentary canal," dealing with our digestive system and how it works. are you familiar with that particular work? guest: i have not read it. caller: my second question, there has been a recent study done on children who have pacifiers in the way mothers deal with those pacifiers -- when they drop to the ground, whether they pick them up and give them to the child or whether they put them in their mouths and then given to the child and introduce that bacteria in their children. are you familiar with that study? a story in that was "the new york times" asked the other day. this is the exact split personality over microbes.

the impulse to take the pacifier and put it under hot water immediately and clean it may be healthier to put it in your mouth and rinse it off and give it back to the baby. so this idea of the mom and the child exchanging microbes early on, and this being an important thing for the child to develop its microbial diversity, that is -- when i was visiting these scientists, researching the story, all of them would be talking about how important it was to have a rich and diverse me, and then out of the hallways they would have those purell dispensers for the antiseptic washing of hands. so we have this split personality would have to get past and think of microbes as a much more subtle and nuanced thing then we have thought about them in the past. host: sheila in connecticut, independent caller.

caller: hello, richard and greta. i question is about roe biotic -- about probiotics. my doctor lets me get away with getting off of them if i can because i get all these side effects. s, theye probiotic introduce bacteria into the system. i wonder if we can protect ourselves by doing this because there are so many antibiotics out there. --rs ago i came upon a book years ago i came upon a book and sidney wolfe was one of the contributors. i call that my bible. i don't have access to it right now, but i have to get another one. c, but it ish a causes -- it causes different things like tendinitis and different things with your bones, so i am very leery of

antibiotics. i put myself on probiotics, and i wonder if that is safe to introduce into the system every day. would that be helpful on counteracting -- host: if i could add to that, there is an e-mail from thatand -- from maryland validity thate a taking probiotics replaces the good bacteria in the human gut providing that the probiotic has been manufactured in -- i don't -- in my guest: in the article i describe the micro biome as being like a symphony, different parts that are interactive playing together, and adding the playing the like

piano solo with your elbows. on the other hand, introducing an antibiotic is like laying the piano solo with a two by four. you are doing damage and destruction. avoiding that is certainly something to do if you can. when you can, you should. meanwhile, you're not going to hurt yourself with probiotics, and eventually there will be probiotics that will be a real help. host: richard conniff's piece thethe body eclectic," in latest edition

tonight authors who have written books on the future. booktv tonight in prime time starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern. tonight on c-span encore

parennation of plated -- presentation of first ladies. [inaudible] she was -- [inaudible] and royal court, and i know having read about her she was a very happy girl. she was wonderful. he gave her the official title of an official title which wouldn't normally be given to a niece. it would only be given to the wife of a young master. the encore presentation of our series first ladies continuing tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span. the obama administration is condemning the state of emergency law.

deputy prez secretary read a statement today at the briefing in martha's vineyard where president obama is vacationing. >> the united states strongly condemns the use of violence against protesters in egypt. we extend our condolences to the family of those who have been killed and injured. we repeatedly called on the egyptian military and security forces to show the strength. and the government respect the universal right of the citizens as we urge protesters to demonstrate peacefully. violence will only make it more difficult to move egypt forward on a lasting stability and democracy. and run the directly counter to the pledges by the interim government to pursue reconciliation. we also strongly oppose a return to a state of emergency law, and call on the government to respect basic human rights such as freedom of peaceful assembly, and due process under the law.

the world is watching what is happening in cairo. we urge the government of egypt and of all parties in egypt to refrain from violence and resolve their differences peacefully. .. there is probably 13 to 15 major

laws that have spanned the whole 20th century really to the present time that talk about who can take it how much every year how to share it and our relationship with mexico and the border as well. the colorado river is about 1450 miles long. it's not the longest river in north america by any means nor does it have the most slow. it's probably about number seven in terms of size but it drops 8000 feet or so from the source in the rockies and it used to flow all the way down to the gulf of california into the ocean. it doesn't reach there very often anymore. only on rare occasions as a get that far. there is seven states in the united states that depend on the river and two in mexico so you have wyoming, which probably has the least amount of water but it also has most of the source

tributaries along colorado and nevada, utah, in new mexico and arizona and california. the basic waterfall in the west is the west as well because the law of prior appropriation. it differs from riparian water bath which is in most of the rest of united states where water rights are connected directly to land and if you have land that has water then you have a right to that water. if you sell land to conquer you sell that water. you can't sell the water without selling the land that's attached to it that there's just not enough water out here to have the law operate that way. so the minors very early in western history in the early 1800's coming to california made up their own sort of agreements with each other. whoever got there first had the right to direct it whereever they needed it and sometimes

that's a very long-distance that you have to send water to where it's needed. so this law of prior appropriations as it evolves over a few decades becomes law which basically comes down to first in time first in rights. if you get there first to have the most water. whoever comes next gets what's left over. there is one caveat to that law and that is the caveat of beneficial use. you have to put your water to beneficial use to have a right to it. in other words people can't simply go to a river river and claim it cannot use it so if you are using it for some beneficial purpose then you got there first and you have the right to that water. all of us here in the colorado river basin or watershed and we are talking about somewhere between 35 and 40 million people now in the united states and

mexico as well, they all depend, we all depend on the the colorado river is their basic water source. there is groundwater and their other rivers but most of the rivers in this area are simple tributaries that are part of the colorado river in deep and we need it for everything. we need it for municipal use to drink. we needed for our houses and for industry and for our mining and most importantly in the biggest water user out here still agriculture. we can't grow anything without it. the land is very fertile and the growing season is very long so it's a good ways to do agriculture even though it's eye round make in the desert but you have to bring water here and that is the reason why we use the colorado. it's how it was first seen as an important source in this whole region was first settled because people recognize that they could tap the colorado river and redirect its flow and bring water to the desert. the federal government regulates

the operations of the dams. there are seven major dams on the mainstream of the colorado river and a dozen or so others on this tribute stories and the ear of reclamation which was warned early in the 20th century as part of the reclamation act in 1902 is a body within the interior department that is in charge of overseeing dam operations. they also operate them some other rivers as well but the colorado river is almost exclusively the bureau of reclamation's domain. that is where the federal government gets involved. at the same time you have lots of competing interests. the states themselves have a certain amount of right to control how their allocation of water is used in distributed. they fight amongst themselves. the longest supreme court case in american history was about the colorado river, and throughout most of the 1950s and was finally settled in 1953.

a big fight between arizona and colorado over water, how much do they get an they get and how much do they have a right to? there have been a few lawsuits prior to that time by arizona and california. the major argument was that california believed hoping to get as much water as possible come, california believed that they were entitled to more than their 4.4 million-acre share. that's how we measure the water out here in terms of how much water cover in area of land one foot deep and the largest share of the river. they believed they were entitled to more and that certainly arizona was not entitled to a full 2.8 million acres. there is not as much agricultural usage of the river going on at the time of the compact back in 1922 which remained law and which remains law governing who gets how much water. california said they need need to give us some of that water. they shouldn't have all of that

because one of the largest tribute stories of the colorado runs all the way to the states so the water from the gila as well as the saltwater a major source of water from mesa is all part of the colorado say we have to subtract that amount of water and what's left is their share of the main stem of the river. area sown of course that are you kidding, no and refuse to sign the compact for a lot of years until just before the treaty with mexico. arizona signed the compact but the disagreement was still there. california was saying no. arizona can't go back and now that they to build and the federal funding was blocked for its because california believed that would take away water that they needed. hence the lawsuit. once it finally was settled the judgment did come down in favor of arizona. the decision said no you can't count the chevy terry's in arizona. they are entitled to the full

2.8 million feet acre of water in that they can build the canal big enough to bring if they can do it and california had no choice but to accept that judgment and understand that they had to live in the 4.4 limitation. but, what happened after that was interesting. as soon as the decision is made and of course arizona starts with the canal but you have to have federal funding for a project that large. so they tried to find funding in congress for it and at that point california once again works to block funding. funding. and they and arizona has to almost give up some of its gain in this lawsuit. yes, it was granted the full 2.8 million-acre feet but in order to persuade congress to give them money for the central arizona project can now arizona at that time had to bring -- we had the most junior ice canal that would be cut off first.

arizona knows this and they are not happy about it. there has always been in anger at california about them having that her rights and more priority rights but it was seven southern california the interior valley that began to divert the water first so their water rights are much more senior than ours. however, that the good news is for arizona, the good news is everyone realizes we can't just cut arizona off. we hope that they realize that. but in the research for my book i found lots of examples of attempts to make agreements about sharing shortages. it's not been an easy thing to do. just this last november in 2012 there has been some progress. we give mexico about 1.5 million-acre feet and that's a treaty between the united states and mexico so arizona has

the most junior right to the colorado feels upset about that situation saying well why should mexico always get their 1.5 million-acre feet because of the treaty while we have to have a shortage while less water will run down to central arizona project canal. they do have a plan in place for shortage and arizona would still take the first cut but they are negotiating to try to minimize that. california understands it has to share in some of this. if you just take prior appropriation law for away it is laid out arizona would simply suffer and then there may be somebody next or whatever the most junior right is. probably in colorado because some of those projects are much more recent weird utah as well as nevada. las vegas would really suffer that california has the most senior rights so that is part of the stress between arizona and

california over the years. california has understood that it will have to give up some of its water in a time of drought. california gets the bigger share of the colorado river even though a lot of that water is pumped out of the water should to los angeles throughout the valley for a huge agricultural breadbasket of america. they will have to cut back but it's not really clear as yet how that's going to go smoothly. the good news is we are talking but that's about as far as it's gotten. their interim guidelines for shortages. the bureau of reclamation back in 2003 said to the state's, okay if you don't come up with an agreement than we will make it for you. you don't want us to decide who has the shortage and who doesn't or how we are going to manage this. all of you get together for one to sit down and negotiate. that is what has really started the process of profitable talks

between the states. that has been very helpful and i think another good thing is that finally we are bringing next to go into the conversation. we left mexico out. we liked like to think that in the earliest -- earlier 20th century the river started in the united states nevermind that it used to flow into mexico. all all of us willing to have to sit down and talk. it's really unfair how they shortages will really play out but i think everybody understands it's only fair to share and we will try to do that. this book has been a fascinating project for me and i have been interested in reverse for a very long time. i grew up on the banks of a river in looking at the importance of this river in in the southwest has been a fascinating experience. it's an odd sort of river. it's like a big garden hose really. if you want to think of it that way. we have but lots of straws into

it to tap the water so that's a fascinating story. it's story over time and the human relationship of that river can provide a microcosm i think of a very much larger picture of the human relationships of the environment. we have no choice here in the southwest. we have no choice but to figure out how to create a sustainable relationship with the colorado river without the hoover dam we wouldn't be here. without the canals that bring the water to us we wouldn't be here. this is the desert. certainly the great megalopolis that has grown here in phoenix and los angeles all of those areas wouldn't have the growth that it has we don't pay attention to the importance of using the river in a more sustainable way. that has been a huge challenge and i looked at 100 years of the

river's history and i have only seen some real hope toward the end of that 100 years and beyond in the 21st century we are starting to pay attention. it's almost crisis before we actually look for a reasonable solution. looking at the whole picture, looking at the whole history of the river hopes us understand yes why we exist the way we do in the southwest. it also helps us understand the role of rivers and surface waters in arid regions in other parts of the world. but it also gives us a larger picture, a piece of a larger picture of how humans relate to the environment and the stresses and strains that come along with it, the political fights that hamper creating a sustainable relationship, all of the barriers that stand in the way of making better use of our natural resources and we can look at what didn't work --

plenty of that but we can also look at what did work and what is working now and what kind of changes we can make. i think it's going to be a fabulous example for river watersheds throughout the world. up next science writer annalee newitz recounts the mass extinctions that have taken place in the earth's 4.5 billion years system's and how the earth can survive the catastrophic disaster. this is an hour. [applause] >> thanks so much for coming out to hear about the end of the world.