don't think we have raised prices but i think we've eliminated some great plans but i don't think prices have gone up. >> i would like to see that. let me just -- mr. chairman, i see my time has expired. i'll just wait for another time. thank you. >> the gentleman yields back. ..

>> i am in favor of one but i have to say i probably don't need to be as delicate as mr. cicconi may need to be. i think the fcc has been a little more slow i would say. so i would like to see them move quickly. and i'd think they would yield useful information but i don't want to see them used over a long time of watching the fcc. sometimes i know when you see things like this they can be used in ways that he lay the ultimate decision making. that shouldn't be allowed to happen in these projects. you started by mentioning the interconnection of transition and i said this in my testimony with regard to vip interconnection.

i don't think -- and i'm just assuming we will have the trial or not. ultimately i don't think the fcc should presume that it's going to regulate these interconnection agreements in the same way that it did. it's likely that there won't be any interconnection problem that hasn't been the case with your ip to ip connection to read they've been very rare that there's been disputes that they've obviously been worked out in a voluntary marketplace way. so, my counsel would be for the fcc to just presume that it's not going to intervene. if it does turn out that there is a problem with interconnection there could be a regulatory backstop but it

shouldn't look anything like the current to 51, to 52 process that physically resembles more of a public utility regime. it should be a dispute resolution process that ultimately depends on mediation and baseball arbitration or something like that. >> mr. feld, anything? >> we support having the well constructed trials. the fcc has been be hitting responsibly however what they've put in so far is more akin to a data test which rather than the time delineated trials with suitable safeguards which are really where we are now. we saw what happened when you tried to put the lawyer center on the failure island this summer. and i'm very glad to hear at&t say we don't want to do that. the issue here is it the fcc

sent a public notice that while the trial is voluntary for the carrier isn't voluntary for the customer. the other point i would make is in a network if something goes really wrong and the one-year centers start to go wrong it can take down other portions of the network with. we believe in being cautious but we think that as with any other kind of trial their needs to be appropriate safety in place and those need to be described and settled before we initiate any trials rather than after we get into it. >> i'm going to yield my time back. >> the gentlelady yields back and it this time the chair recognizes the chairman emeritus of the full committee mr. dingell for five minutes. >> i commend you for this hearing. i also wish to express my thanks for his courtesy to me to i

would like to begin by welcoming the fellow citizens of michigan. his company telling that worldwide offers a valuable services to the businesses of fishing. at issue this morning is a transition to ip based communications networks. as several witnesses have noticed, this transition is already under way and has technological benefits of people. but we need to learn more about the transition means for dhaka future of communications in this industry and how it will affect consumers. they make a valid point that they are required to maintain the networks at great cost and despite the fact only 30% of all americans use the switch networks in 2012.

it's my view that the billions spent to maintain legacy could be more efficiently based and invested an ip based networks that will be the backbone of the 21st century telecommunications. this part will help advance the goals of the 2010 national broadband plan. with that said, understand that at&t has petitioned the federal communications position from certain regulations in order to establish trued geographically limited i peace based projects -- ig project. it will provide an invaluable case studies to consumers, businesses, policy makers and the government about what the transition to the ip-based networks would entail.

i encourage them to work with at&t to said the project in motion making certain that there are mechanisms in place for monitoring and effectively resulting consumer complaints. in addition to the lessons that we can learn from at&t trial project i suggest policy makers also keep in mind several fundamental principles while considering the will of government and ip based communications. as public knowledge has wisely suggested, our focus should be on ensuring universal connectivity, interconnection and competition. consumer protection, network reliability and public safety. those are very important principles to be kept in mind as we go forward. i firmly believe they're exists the need for certain obligations because the communications

purposes make available insofar possible to all and i emphasize all people of the united states to the benefits of the communications systems. that presumption is has valued today as it was 79 years ago. i think you for your courtesy and i back one minute and 24 seconds. i will be happy to yield to the gentlelady. >> i appreciate it. can i pursue this issue of the trial? it seems to me that there is a chicken and egg thing going on between the fcc maybe it's because we don't have a full commission yet. but it seems to me the following. and i could be wrong so jump in and tell me if you think i'm wrong. you will do that anyway.

[laughter] you want the trials and the fcc to approve to go ahead with the trial. it seems to me they are saying we will do a trial but we want the following things in that and there's not in agreement. it does that look anything like you see reality? because time is going on. it's just on the mark. we need to get going. >> i think it may be a function of our timing on this as one chairman is on his way out and another is getting and. the questions were fairly recent and they waited until six months after we filed the petition to ask the questions and frankly,

like a lot of you i've been around town awhile and i took the questions as a way of the fcc saying we are not ready to answer this yet. but i do take comfort in the fact that we have democratic and republican commissioners both on the fcc that said we should. categorically go forward. the principal author on the national broadband plan said he would have said yes to the trials on the number one. could it isn't about us exclusively it is industrywide a and i for one have been reluctant what in the fcc a quote on quote at&t plan for conducting the trials i think it is the job of the fcc to work with all of industry and all stakeholders and frankly state level government as well to define those much like was done

during the transition. and i'm pretty confident once chairman wheeler gets there that is what will happen. >> thank you. >> the gentlelady yields that time to the gentleman and the chair recognizes mr. shimkus for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. i've learned a lot and i love trying to stay as long as i can because you really do hear the counterpoint. but you never miss the opportunity to hear a member bring a personal story. so i'm sure that your staff prepare you for that personal story. [laughter] if they didn't then -- let me address -- and i always get concerned when i agree with mr. waxman. but i do agree we need to move on a test. we need to move forward.

to the comments on google, probably on here listening i would encourage them to come in because my guess it is 251 and 252 why they are not in the voice. that is what my guess is. if you talk to them and they've given you that data but i think there's interconnection issues, it's very informative that they are not doing that and i think that is a lesson that we should learn and find out. having said that, just a blanket statement and i know the fcc is looking into the drop calls in the areas are an issue and that talks about a backstop. that also reinforces an issue of having some type of backstop. so i want to raise that. but to mr. feld and mr. cicconi, public safety is a big issue for all of us here. we work very closely on this.

in this moved, how do you envision public safety being positively or hopefully not - -- we won't accept any negative response on public safety so how do we deal with that? why don't we start with mr. cicconi and then go to mr. feld. >> i hate, mr. shimkus, to sound like a circular reasoning that this is one of the reason we need to have the trials out. we are fairly confident that we can design the system is in a way that takes account of public safety. moreover we fully accept that they have to work well for public safety. we can't have a new technology deployed where 911 doesn't work or other public safety features doesn't work. so i think we all recognize this is imperative and i think we need to stress test it to ensure that it does work and that we can transition at accordingly. but i think we all accept that

the obligation has to be there and we simply can't replace the old technology with new technology unless 911 works. >> thank you mr. feld? >> planning proceeds trials rather than try il's proceeding planning. the thing that has been troubling to me is i guess we will need to have some information double gather in the trial. but before we say let's throw a switch and see what happens to public safety on this stuff i want to know what the recovery mechanisms are, i want to have limited tests first before you move on to the full test. the other important factor is we need to start thinking of how we make it more robust public safety system in our competitive and differently enabled technology universe. there is virtual redundancy. so maybe we don't have to put everything on every network the same way if we have ways in which the networks will work together that are for public

safety. we've seen some things coming out of the hurricanes in the hearings that the fcc has been conducted where we see how different technologies have different strengths and weaknesses and have responded in a different way. and i think one of the exciting advantages of the transition is that it allows us to start thinking about how to take advantage of the structures of the internet which rely on redundancy and flexibility for stability rather than requiring liability from every single network that participating. the last thing i will mention as we have to be wary of new issues coming up. i mentioned in my testimony the public of swatting which is scholar ied that allows people as a joke to send swat teams to other people's houses. that isn't particularly funny joke. and while obviously these are challenges that need to be resolved, we need to be accumulating this checklist of what needs to work as we move

forward. >> let me finish on this. life involved with trying to raise the issue with the fcc with the convergence of technology and i've given up. i don't think we will ever change the fcc. the last question, have you seen in the business sector the cutting of the cord from a land line to cell phone for the business community as we have seen in residential services? >> that's an excellent question. in the business community, it is a distinctly land line oriented business. mobile phones are part of the workforce the way that businesses communicate and collaborate is inherently a land line function. it's because there's group capability going on. you continue interacting with a wide variety of locations perhaps and so forth which is not conducive to how the cellular technology has been deployed which is more about the

individual and how that connects together. if i may on the important argument about security and public safety, the competitive energy already has migrated to for the most part ip based 911 service. it's a far superior solution than currently the legacy one. why? because if on and eyepieces we are trying to get the customers a call to emergency authorities the ip network allows us to see if there is any bottleneck to get the public safety point we have alternate routes and alternate safety plans to get to them or answer it through our own operators to make sure that we connect the dots. for their we've added a cool technology where if somebody picks up the phone and they dial 911, we not only send the call to the public safety organization that we send it to the building supervisor, the provost of the university or if you are a residential user you can go to -- if somebody calls

911 from your home we will send it to your cell phone so that you know a 911 call was made. so we have already made that moved and this thing about the iptip interconnection, yeah. you have to do things in a measured fashion? certainly but when it comes to the networks appearing at the ip basis, that's different than how you are talking to the end user. at bat idp interconnection goes on right now. >> thank you very much. the gentleman's time is expired and the chair recognizes the gentleman from vermont. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. mr. burke, thank you for being here. your testimony mentions a few carriers in vermont investing in fiber. my question, what policy decisions would change the carrier incentive to invest in rural areas and are there regulations imposed on the unnecessary costs that are hindering any of that investment

>> thank you for the question, congressman. i think that it's a very tricky question when you get to how we move out into a better business plan in more rural areas. i mean dollars are dollars. and i guess to call on the predecessor of my own -- i will go back to my grandfather. he was a dairy farmer and i can remember when i was little he said you know why this school has three legs? and i said no, sir i don't, he said because if it had to it would fall over. and i think that's actually what we may be dealing with here. i think we have a potential as we move forward and we are moving their to be able to do it in a better and a more focused way if in fact we use a stool with three legs. the federal leg that obviously

is your responsibility and the fcc, the industry's lagging in how we get out there to make ubiquity part of the process because if it is not ubiquitous, it doesn't really work the way we want it to work. last but not least is the state's responsibility and ability be it with their own funds to help manage to get this stuff out there for the policies to help make the move out for industry itself more seamless, easier and more attractive to their business plan. the states are a vital part of this and without the three legs on must not sure that it has any chance of succeeding. >> mr. cicconi, quickly what actions are required in order to ensure that competition will continue and actually thrived in an all ip world and appreciate it is quick and adc because i

don't have that much time left. i will start with you, mr. cicconi. >> i think you have competition today and i think as the fcc moves forward with a vip transition it all to take a look at what regulations are needed going forward to help preserve the competition that's there today. i certainly grant that, but i also suggest that on a going forward basis it would be a mistake to assume the problems of the present and future are necessarily the same as they were in 1996 or 1934. so i think the notion of taking of the rules and applying them to the technology is something the national broadband plan spoke to and it talked about how applying the legacy rules could actually retard the investments that were necessary and could have unintended consequences of siphoning investments away from the new technologies but were needed. so i think there would be our

main concern is that we not over correct here and so there are problems until we actually know what those problems are. >> it's very simple. in terms of the fcc, we just need the clarity that removes if there's any technological implication in the way the act works. it's technically neutral. communication systems are by their design technical so if there is not technical advancements what are we trying to do to get where we are at and make things better, faster, cheaper, smarter. so my point is the key thing for competition as to count the eraser on the spot that we have a technology underpinning because i was about creating competition. it was a framework to create a market based structure so that we can compete.

>> thank you. back to mr. burke. we have a completion in as far as my constituents and the people that you served as well fixing the problem can't come fast enough. how can ip transition the incomplete calls particularly in rural areas? >> i think obviously you have to take a look as you move forward with where the problems lie. if you take a look at what we will see in the call of completion the order comes out next monday the fact of the matter is the call completion is probably a methodology that grew from terminating access charges and they sensed the terminating in access charges they decided they wouldn't complete the call. we can't get carried away with

innovation. certainly it's given us a lot of good things but i suspect that the innovator like the idle hands can be the devil's work and it wants to be and in fact that may have been the case here how we go forward is to make sure that there is a regulatory touch as well that keeps an eye on moving forward in this transition. mr. cicconi hasn't said that is the right idea. i would point out with call completion that began, and the answer to that began through the states. when the problems occurred i know that you got them, congressman you said you did and i believed then you did with the fact of the matter is most of the time the public service commissioner or office probably got them first as people became unhappy with what they were getting them for not getting in rural america. hopefully keeping those regulations in place will allow for consumers to get the kind of protection that they have learned to expect in their old

network as we move through to a new one. >> my time is expired. >> the gentleman yields back and the chair recognizes the gentleman from louisiana for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. i appreciate you having this hearing and want to thank all the witnesses for coming and getting your perspective on the changes in technology. i am excited when you see the things that people are able to do now as we have a transition to internet protocol you also have coupled with that the upgrades being made from copper to fiber-optic and of course that brings billions of dollars of investment and gives consumers more options to do things with voice and video and sending larger packets of data to be the course the investments that go with it -- i know your company and other incumbents are investing billions of dollars to help build out these new networks and use this new technology and better ways even with the current regulatory

environment. i want to ask your take because some would say the fact you are investing in these billions of dollars proves there is no need to change the regulatory structure. how would you answer that? >> the first thing i would do is refer back to the chart, congressman that opened the hearing that talks about the way the market is set out today whereby the end of this year we will have three-quarters of americans using either wireless only your voice providers as opposed to the circuit switched. we have fewer than 14 million circuit switched at at&t which is a small fraction of the numbers any other provider has out there in the competitive markets. so devotee of the first point i would make. the second point is the investment that has occurred over the last few years in

wireless and ip technology i think is related to the fact these are the least regulated areas of technology. it's not accurate that the 96 act is technology neutral and in fact it penalizes fire line technologies by imposing a lot of extra requirements on them and i think that's one of the reasons and google decided not to offer the service in a city like kansas city -- >> i was meant to ask about that because 96 telecommunications that does impose some specific rules. how does that actually in affect your investment decisions? >> i think on a going forward basis what google peters which shares some companies advocating that we apply it as if nothing has changed to the modern competitive services and i certainly think that is not the act envisions and i think it

would be a big mistake but it creates a regulatory overhang for a company like google in deciding to make the investment decision. now, to the final point we have gone ahead recently and decided to invest in this area and quite honestly it was a difficult decision running fiber to the buildings and expanding the services to millions more americans including in a lot of rural areas. but i think it's a leap of faith it speaks to these issues it's been endorsed by the president and endorsed by the congress on a bipartisan basis and i think it gives us confidence going forward that these regulatory issues and uncertainties would get settled in the proper manner and of course i think one of the reasons we filed for the trial was to kind of spur that a long.

>> i'm running out of time. you've been advocating for the telecommunications act. if you can share with the some of the principles that you would envision and i left my telephone at home because i didn't want to get into that here the cable act which is probably very updated. >> thank you, congressman. that is outdated for the 92 act and frankly the 96 act it wasn't transitional piece of legislation that was good. here are the basic fundamental principles going forward to reading and you have to think about it in the larger sense because obviously i talked about some rigid remax stops and safeguarding universal service and so forth. but in a large sense, a new act should get rid of those in the

present act, the stovepipes and they are not technology natural they are constructs on the different titles and should replace the public interest standard that now is in the act in 110 different places the delegates authority to the fcc to act in the public interest in the determinism standard with a competition based standard that is antitrust. i'm not suggesting that you're going to important -- import all of antitrust but it's good to focus on the competitive marketplace and regulation therefore shouldn't be adopted unless there is a market failure or proof of consumer harm. then finally, what the new act should do is circumscribed somewhat the fcc's general rulemaking authority which now has you know operate in what we

would call the anticipatory faction when you engage in that process would you do by definition is conjecture arms in the future because you're trying to conceive of all potential harms. what happens is generally those types of rulemakings are overly broad so you want to get the fcc to act more in a post hoc capacity acting on individual complaints that say there is a specific problem. with this carrier in this place there's a market failure for some reason. i've got an internet connection problem. you to get into a and adjudicatory context and address that specific problem rather than prescribing a lot of conduct that otherwise might be beneficial to the country. >> i appreciate the answers.

>> thank you. the gentleman's time has expired and the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. i think we can all agree that the ip transition under way is good for american consumers, the economy and the country as a whole so i welcome this conversation. however, we must work with industry public-interest groups and consumers to ensure that as it progresses, these technological of dances do not come at the expense of consumer choice and access public safety competition. some of you know that nearly a year ergo, october 29th of next week my district and the state of new jersey were hit hard by hurricane sandy and one of the many impacts of that was a loss of communications services, power outages and floods disrupted many communications including wireless, television, telephone and internet. in fact yesterday i was with the congressman and you that clark

and we were talking about it on a bipartisan regional basis. i know some of this has been touched upon and i agreed to try not to be repetitive by a understand that traditional copper networks operate even when the power lines go down. so my question is because at&t has a large legacy six akaka copper -- copper how will the new networks handle natural disasters like hurricane squawks we know that the copper continued to operate but what happens now with the new fiber networks dealing with that issue how are you going to deal with it? >> there is unfortunately no ip technology that allows you to power of a lion.

you cannot put power over a fiber connection. it has many other advantages in addition to its internet capacity and one of them as relevant in the off loading zone the seawater will make it unrepairable. it's drizzling and in that situation and so are the wireless networks. we get them running very quickly after the storms and i say that not on what because we are still in hurricane season. >> again i think that we all agree that these communities shouldn't lose the services they rely on simply because they are unlucky enough to be in the path of a storm. there are different consequences from these replacement services with fiber. this goes back to the trial but

what else can we do -- are we going to deal with these real world trials -- how do they relate to the problem that i just discussed? >> i don't want to second-guess a decision made by other carriers but with the trials and in proper planning for the transition would allow is for us to test the capabilities and not have people surprised if to deploy the service and a fax machine doesn't work the same way i do think it is iterative though, the technology will evolves and frankly we can help it if we know what we are trying to do. for example, in our wireless comb phone service we have asked the manufacturers the data capability that came on line this summer. but i think as we go forward over the years i would expect

that the wireless capabilities will evolve and change to meet those needs so that frankly it could be more robust and more reliable and provide all of the same services and more that the copper mine facilities to. >> did you have your hand up? go ahead. >> one of the things we have asked the fcc to do and put a priority is to initiate a separate proceeding for disaster guidance. we had the situation in new jersey and fire island where verizon did not know what they were supposed to do and they didn't want to rebuild their copper networks but they also had no guidance for what they should be doing instead. they need to start a proceeding right now.

we know the carriers are going to want to put in a new infrastructure as they rebuild after storms like sandy. what are the responsibilities and what can the people of those communities rely on in order to rebuild their lives. we've had other organizations join us and asking the fcc to began a proceeding on this and hopefully we will see action on that as soon as the chairman is confirmed. >> with the chairman's approval. >> i would like to point out to make sure that we embrace the market. a lot of conversation focuses on residential and that is certainly important. the chart that i see talks about degradation and copper based on usage of the presidential level that is in the case of the

business level. that's typically the only connection to the copper facility that can handle the power line backup requirements so we often to play where they are working in parallel we have the next generation technology taking care of all of those and then the copper based services which are taking care of all of those other critical functions and allowing that to work as time goes on. >> the gentleman thief of time is expired and recognize the gentleman from missouri for five minutes. >> thank you for being here today. given your testimony, i'm kind of a cleanup critter. if we started with me we could have been done a long time ago. [laughter] the meeting mentioned earlier in the questioning portion that you had read the national broadband plan and being that you have read that, i will remind you that they came to a conclusion,

the fcc's national broadband plan to quote regulations to require certain carriers to maintain plain old telephone service and the highlight of the requirement that is not sustainable and lead to investment could be stranded so if the fcc believes that maintaining legacy telephone service is not sustainable and the investments are at risk of being stranded, shouldn't they change the policies that have caused this problem? >> i do think it's appropriate to move forward and put forth an excellent plan at the congress direction. it's been widely endorsed and it anticipated this issue with the words that you quoted and unfortunately we are four years along and i don't think we have seen the implementation of some of the things they recommended

but i remain very hopeful that once the commission is back at full strength they will do so and again our petition last year for the trial was designed in part to spur along the process that you highlighted. >> let me ask you to elaborate if you will on the types of services that would be available through the internet protocols that are not available on the copper network's. >> i think the transition -- and i met risk of oversimplifying -- i'm the liberal arts major, not an engineer. by and large it is about voice becoming simply another application riding on an internet pipeline. so, as we build out fiber we are

building out internet capability and the voice of them becomes just another application. so, i think what that provides obviously is competitive opportunities for a lot of people but also provides much more accessible to the and allows people to design and enervate so you may bring the voip services through the transition some of the same innovations you are seeing in every other form of internet service. i think you can get a sense of the innovation that is available and i think as we transition these networks towards ip i think we will see the same type of innovation and it's obviously important for the country from any standpoint of economic activity but also i think from a consumer standpoint, too. >> i represent springfield, joplin area in the southwest

corner of the state and i think we can all agree out of the 435 congressional districts i have the best one in the united states. in that area there are 11 counties, ten full counties and part of an 11th so i have a lot of rural areas with springfield, joplin and branson and a lot of my constituents don't have access to the latest medical technology and even the number of doctors that he would find an urban areas. that's another topic but can you elaborate on the types of telemedicine and mobile health applications the would be available to my constituents if they did have the ip service? >> again i think if we are able to get the broadband connections into those areas i think you have an infinite variety of

services that are available but are being actually put together by innovators today to fit i think our entire health care system notwithstanding the current difficulty is actually innovating quite well in terms of making records available and things of this nature. >> can you give me any more specific? >> we can certainly pull something together for you and get that to you. i don't have anything specific i can lay out in the hearing today. >> i have zero seconds. if i did i would yielded back. >> seeing no other members wishing to ask questions this afternoon, i want to thank you for this excellent panel and i am sure that the chair will also want me to extend his heartfelt thanks to you all being here today. without anything else coming before the committee today we

will stand adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> here we go over to the white house. the senate is out today so we will be able to bring you this house briefing when it gets underway with spokesman jay carney. a couple of notes that may be questioned. it's announced president obama has brought in jeffrey to be the lead on fixing that healthcare.gov website. he also led the administration and the cash for clunkers website and the sign up for the latest g.i. bill. he's a former deputy budget director. also making news, secretary kathleen sebelius making remarks yesterday in an interview with cnn where she said the president didn't know about problems with the health care web site until it launched on october 1st. so we anticipate perhaps some questions about that for the spokesman jay carney. as we wait for the briefing to get under way, let's bring you any event from a bit earlier today on the number of house

democrats including the caucus chairman, the caucus chairman met with the senior health and human services department officials this morning talking about those problems with the healthcare.gov web site. and then the caucus members came out and spoke to reporters following the briefing. xavier beccera said someone should be held accountable and democrats are committed to finding out what happened. as we wait for the white house briefing let's show you as much as we can from these remarks. are we ready? good morning. i am xavier beccera the chairman of the democratic caucus traded jul and by and today we've also been joined by two of our colleagues, congressman dina

titus of nevada and mark of texas. we are here to talk about health care and the fact so many americans will now have access to it. we had a caucus meeting today where we discussed a number of issues including of course moving forward with our economic challenges making sure we don't go through the same manufacturing crisis of watching the government shut down and the potential of america desalting for the first time in its history in paying its past debts. we think we can build now after last week's agreement on the types of measures that are necessary to get americans back to work. we heard the some 150,000 americans got jobs in the last month. that's good but not good enough. we want to continue to see that improve because we have to make up from the bush year recession where we saw some eight to 9 million americans lose their jobs and so a lot of progress has been made.

more than 3.5 million jobs created, i'm sorry, 7.5 million created in the last three, three and a half years. that's good but we still have a lot more to do because americans want to know that there's going to be a good job waiting and that helps them with securing the american dream for their families. on the affordable care act, a lot of us want to see this move forward as quickly and as well as possible because for many of us the issue is real about making sure that americans have access to quality affordable health care. it's time for all americans to have the security they need and knowing that a health care bill will not push them into bankruptcy and that's the beauty of the affordable care act. the new health security law makes sure that americans finally can rest assured they would have access to a decent doctor and a good hospital

should they meet either of those for their kids, for their family. so we are here to push as hard as we can to make sure that all americans get to enroll in these new affordable plans that are being made available throughout the country. we are concerned about the process. we are not happy if the process doesn't work well. we are not interested in hearing about witches. we are interested in moving forward. but for us, while the process should not be a problem, our biggest concern is with the product. we want the product to be there for many americans. and you have before you, actually in this case three of the four of us happen to know what we mean when it comes to trying to get americans affordable health care insurance because the happen to represent the three most uninjured

districts in the nation when it comes to american seven access to quality affordable health care. so while the glitches are upsetting, it would be a travesty if we launch in the very first didn't see that americans actually got to start using their health care insurance that was made available in the affordable care act. we want the process to improve but we are not interested in trying to torpedo the process. we want to improve the process as quickly as we can because a whole lot of the folks who are going to need to have a good process and therefore gain a quality health insurance plan for their family live in our districts and i know mr. crowley's district has a lot of americans who are interested in accessing good quality affordable health care. so, we are here and ready to work. we have individuals from the administration come from the health and human services

department come and tell us with the latest was and they told us of all the work being done to deal with the errors on the web site of a improved that, how they are moving forward with more access to coverage to get people access to the information and of course person-to-person communication as well for those interested in applying for the health care plans. we believe that come january 1st a lot of our constituents are going to ask for a quality affordable health plan and we are going to do everything we can working with our colleagues and with the administration to make sure that is exactly what happens because at the end of the day no process chabad down people getting a good product to make sure they have good quality coverage on health insurance for their families. with that let me yield to the vice chairman.

>> thank you. i'm glad i'm not in the top three but there is no question that as well as new york is doing in this process there are still 155,000 constituents in my district who are currently uninsured and they look forward to the opportunity many of them for the first time in their lives to afford health insurance. it's not just about a website. health insurance is about security for millions of americans who've not had the ability to afford health insurance. under the affordable care act that's about to change for them. as i said, this would get millions of americans the access to quality and affordable health care. also what can't get lost is diabetics and cancer survivors will no longer be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions. but can't get lost his medical

decisions will be made by the patient and their doctors and not insurance companies. what can't get lost is that for the first time millions of americans will finally be able to get insurance. and in fact one sign of how much my constituents need this is more yorkers have received an eligibility determination more than any other state. new york is doing quite well. something needs to be done to fix the technical issues, absolutely. but we can't lose sight of the fact it's getting millions of americans options for quality affordable health insurance for the first time in their lives. republicans are looking for problems to exploit. we democrats are looking for problems to fix and find solutions for. we just saw the shot down. the united states government of the united states of america was shut down in an effort to

undermine the affordable care act. they used the threat of defaulting on our debt again to underline the implementation of law. one has to stop to question the motivation behind much of the links that we were seeing with the republican party as well today. with that, i will now turn this over to dina titus from nv's first district. >> i represent the loss of vegas valley. as you heard nevada is one of the top states for the percentage of people who are uninsured. some 200,000 people in that area don't have insurance. but nevada is also one of the states that has its own exchange. the silver state exchange and what has been overlooked in this criticism is that those states are working well. our exchange is up and running. we had about 1500 applications completed 140,000 people have

gotten more information. so we are moving forward. i held a round table this past weekend with different organizations that are also helping us on the ground and that isn't something we should forget. our congressional offices are acting like semi navigators to bring people into the system. you have aarp going after that group between 50 to 65 to be sure they have information. you have campus organizations at community college going after young people. planned parenthood is reaching out to women and navigators in the hispanic areas are going after hispanic women. las vegas has an unusual population that's working but not injured and a lot of those people are women. a lot of them are dancers. a lot of them are in the salons. they do nails and hair and would like to have insurance. we are not waiting for them to

come to the website. we are going after them and then makes a difference. it's important that they have coverage and pre-existing conditions will no longer mean they can't get insurance and that is the word we are spreading and it's being very effective. i would urge you as we look at what's happened with of the web site and we are trying to fix it, don't fall prey to the fallacy. don't forget you can see the forest just don't get bogged down in the trees. thank you. i will turn it over to my. >> thank you very much. representing the third congressional district in fort worth arlington and dallas. i have the highest uninsured rate in the entire country. about 40% of the constituents i represent about to under 65,000 don't have insurance. when you combine the dallas and fort worth together you talk about a million uninsured and contrary to what you may be

hearing from republican leaders in the state, i can assure you that texans particularly in the district i represent in the dallas-fort worth area want the affordable c.a.r.e. to work for them and they want insurance. happy to report that someone i'm well appointed with and i read an article in the paper today she was having trouble on the computer but she went on the phone and was able to enroll in 15 minutes. it's very important that people get injured. as you know texas decided not to opt for medicaid expansion. many consider that to be a mistake by the governor in the republican controlled legislature because of that particular decision, we are still going to have a huge gap that is going to occur in the state of over a million people.

so even with the affordable care act texas is going to have these problems but it's very important that people continue to try to enroll. we feel like the bugs in the system will be worked out. we feel like we are making headway and i know the people in my district are truly anxious for this to work and i'm going to do everything i can. i've already been a part of two different programs with the congressional black caucus to inform people about this and i've been part of town hall meetings in the district and going out into the community to inform people about the act is something that's going to be important and i'm going to continue to do something because i know there have been problems. but i believe that they can be worked out and believe people will continue to enroll particularly texans. estimate as to get ready to take

questions i want to mention in california we do have our own exchange and in california it's called california covered. i wanted to mention that in california we have seen over 95,000 people apply for health insurance coverage in the first two weeks. obviously beyond two weeks that we saw over 95,000 californians apply for health insurance in the exchange. ..

that's probably one of the reason some people haven't had the best of experience but it would help of the local and state officials wouldn't get in the way and we try to help americans get come gain access to what they now have as our right. so it's very disturbing to see that the website hasn't performed as well as we would like to i think it's even more disturbing when individuals intentionally worked against the american people and the rights that they have now secured to access quality, affordable health care. so we would urge all of our colleagues in state and local government who may not have agreed with the affordable care act completely, at least let their constituents back home understand what the affordable care act will provide. let them decide. let everyone of us as americans decide what we want to do. don't hinder the process and then complain that a website is a working as well. let's all work together to

improve the website and make sure people of all the information they need so they can then make their own informed decision. with that, we will take any questions. >> we have heard from the other side of the aisle, they railed against this law. you have had problems with the rollout. some might say they are saying we told you. but what assurances, if any, did you get from the cms officials that things are getting better? >> we heard the insurance is not simply from individuals who are here from cms, we heard them from the president yesterday. he said he is probably the most unhappiest american when it comes to the fact that the website didn't work as well as we all have helped. i don't believe that the president will allow days and weeks to go by without market improvement in the websites capability.

and the ability of americans out to gain the information they need. i know they're working hard as we are told today folks are working hard within the administration and within the department of hhs to make sure they have the resources in the right places. remember as well part of this is congress' responsibility. with to make sure the administration, department of hhs has the resources it needs to make sure that the people and the infrastructure is there continuing, on a continued basis of millions of people actually transition over to getting quality, affordable health care. we will see what happens with that. >> should somebody be held accountable for the missteps that have resulted in this website not performing the way that it has? >> i let my colleagues answer but i would believe somebody should be held accountable. we should find out as best possible where the glitches were and find out what we should do. but absolutely when you hold a position he held accountable. just as i think those folks who are responsible for the government shutdown should be held responsible for having cost

of some $24 billion we're told and economic capacity and generation during the two to three weeks we were shut down just as we sought 800,000 plus americans not being able to go to work as result of the government shutdown. those folks that were were responsible for got shutdown should be held responsible, whatever ways possible. those who might be responsible for the website not working as what should, should be held responsible as well. >> let me add to that the first. yes, one of the responsibility of congress is to hold people accountable. let's not lose focus. what's more important is to get the system working properly, not to be diverse. no diversions year. get the system up and running. there will be ample opportunity in the months to come to look back and see how could've been done better and held accountable those who were not up to par in terms of the immediacy of the rollout. the important thing is to make sure every american who wants to be covered is covered.

that's the prime responsibly right now. ought to be the primary responsibility of members of congress. >> and i want to add, go back to medicare part d when it was passed. there were some incorrect information that was given out to the public concerning medicare part d. it had a very unfavorable rating amongst seniors. and now the kings have been worked out. seniors love that program to it has like a 91% rating compared to 21% rating that it had when it was first rolled out by republicans. the biggest difference and it's been pointed out before that while republicans have done nothing to try to help out and make this even better than what it is, they have just been means the program. democrats, on the other hand, i know democrats went to the districts and they talked to senior citizens, had community meetings and show them how they

could enroll in medicare part d. i think that is what america is looking for, are those sort of solutions on how we can make this program work better for people and not try to tear it down. >> i would say if there is a silver lining to the fact that there's a problem with the website is that so many people went to it. they want this interest. they want to get information. and want to sign up for it. they obviously need the surface so that belies all the argument that you on the other side that people think this is a terrible way to go. it's the perfect way to go. it's the way to provide insurance to so many people who are obviously very hungry for it or you wouldn't have had such a crash at the very beginning of people rushing to sign up and to get more information. >> the republicans came out and said they would like to see the individual mandate penalty either delayed or erased. and also we have heard from a democratic senator jeanne shaheen who says athletes the deadline should be extended.

do you think the deadline should be extended for the mandate? should the fine for not meeting it be erased or delayed? >> first, i'm not surprised somewhat democratic colleagues would try to repeal all or part of the affordable care act. -- republican college. as the bloomberg editorial said not too long ago, our republican colleagues continue to call for the elimination of all these rights and protections that americans have secured three health security law, the new health security law but have never offered a real replacement. so every time they talk about either eliminating all or part of the affordable care act, they should be paraded -- be prepared to tell us what they want to put in its place. americans are longer have to worry about pre-exiting additions. what republicans do to replace those rights that americans have? a child born in this country today with asthma will get coverage in health insurance coverage whether through parents

or otherwise, what with the republicans do to make sure that doesn't change if they try to repeal or plays all or part of the affordable care act? most of us understand the main goal, especially for those of us who happened to represent the district with the largest number of americans who ever they have to fear what most of you don't have to fear, and that is a child getting too sick to be able to afford care. we should be worried about making sure that they find everything they need so they can make an informed decision about their health care. we believe that if we work towards making our information available, that what we will do is we will have americans making the right decisions. whether or not they decide to get the insurance coverage will be up to them, but most of us believe that they will make the decision to get the coverage and what we should be doing is try to improve the process because again, it's not process people are concerned about. it's making sure they have access to the care.

they are willing to pay for it. they just want it to be affordable that they can pay for it. >> it was reported pricing has been getting incorrect. do you have a comment on a? >> recognize what you just said. price estimate. that browsing feature is for the purpose of giving people estimates. it's something i think a lot of americans wanted. they're not sure what they're going to do, especially those who may have insurance and they're trying to see if it might be worthwhile for them to get insurance through the exchange. they're interested in comparing, shopping and comparing. so that browsing feature was for the purpose of giving people a general idea, an estimate of what they might pay. it's not to say that that's the final price they will pay because until the government has all the information, the

exchange is all the information on the individual, you can give a precise dollar amount for the coverage that that person selects. these are estimates, and haitians brace anyone that there is some variation from the estimate in terms of what an individual will actually pay because again it's representing an estimate for those who are shopping. if you like the estimate they may go further down and then they can find out once the plug-in their personal information with the final pricing will be. >> what did you mean by being held accountable? do you think someone should be fired at? >> i think we should find out what happened, why the website were not as prepared as we would all like to have been. like anything else, you are unaccountable for your report making sure you meet your deadlines, you issue your article on time. we all have responsibilities. so, therefore, we have to figure out in terms of how can we continue to improve it to make sure that a vote is getting the information they need. based on that a little accountable for what they did or didn't do.

i don't know if anyone else wants to answer that. >> did they essentially tell you how they want to go forward and improved? >> they did explain part of the process. one of the things that everyone was surprised by was the number of people who went out to the website. and actually back home i've done a few sessions, information sessions back on and i'm going to do a couple more still for folks in my district to get the information they need about the affordable care act, again, the plans they can purchase through the exchange. what we're finding is it's human nature. there's a curiosity on the part of a lot of people. clearly by those especially in our districts who are looking to get quality, affordable health care, but also a lot of curiosity on the part of those who have health insurance who are checking to see might i get a better deal through the exchange. and some folks who are just interested.

so the volume of people, the millions of people who went on the website including those who probably don't need insurance or won't get insurance because of the website. so that the volume created a bottleneck. >> if they knew ahead of time it would crash speed they also explain a lot of these because it's such detailed information and because it has to go through various agencies, talking about homeland security, irs, sba, hhs, many of the different departments that you're not having to tap a lot of different sites. it's unlike when you shop at a department store where that department store doesn't have to check with the homeland security department to find out information about you and then go to the irs to find out more information about you. in because so many people were doing in cory, it didn't really bottleneck the process but what they're trying to do because they expect they will continue to get quite a bit of traffic is expand the capacity.

and also because so many people were just looking at first they expect the blog will reduce some so that we those who are serious about moving forward will be able to access the information far quicker. they have also beefed up their phone service, and people forget you can do this in person as well. they are trying to sure they extend in all the different realms. it made clear. when you are talking about tens of millions of people, they will have to really turn to the best minds and have the resources to make sure they can get to that. >> mr. chairman, i would just like to remind everybody to keep in mind these families. want to talk about the process and trying to get the system to work better, which i believe that it will, keep in mind the families. again, over 255,000 people in district i represent are uninsured. many of those families everyday

go to parkland and downtown dallas and they wait in line. oftentimes by the time they go to the county hospital they already have an illness that could easily have been presented -- prevented and cost a lot less. that's a we all need to be looking towards. i want to remind everyone that they can come regardless of what you think hearing, texas wants the affordable care act to work. texas wants affordable care act to succeed to the calls i've been getting into my district office, people are telling me okay, what do we need to do next? we want to enroll. that's what i would like to leave you with today. >> i would just say that the hispanic population, about 40% of my district, is very interested in this, wants to get insurance. we have special navigators --

>> [inaudible conversations] >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, to i appreciate your patience. a busy day of almost every day is here at the white house. before i get to your questions i had a couple things i wanted to say to you. and the first is that in front of you and to my left ear is peggy, who 30 years ago got a phone call. she was said to be getting the job the the following day at the white house stenographer transcribing the presidents every utterance. the caller informed her the green parrots in the route had been attacked and she was needed immediately. since then peggy, who is a master sonographer, and a wonderful person and a friend of many of you, has been recording the words of five different presidents and unfortunate for her on occasion press secretary.

but i just want to congratulate her on her 30 years and thank her for her services. [applause] >> i also have an announcement that on wednesday, november 20, president obama will award the presidential medal of freedom to the medal of freedom is our nation's highest civilian honor presented to individuals who have made a special meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the united states to world peace or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. additional details about the event including media logistics will be released at a later date but as you know this year marks the 50th anniversary of the executive order signed by president john f. kennedy establishing the presidential medal of freedom as was the

first ceremony bestow the honor on an inaugural class of 31 recipients. since that time more than 500 exceptional individuals from all corners of society have been awarded the presidential medal of freedom. and with that, take a few questions. i think it's out there who the recipients are. yes, yes. i have to say it was a distinct pleasure for me to speak with ben bradlee about the fact he will be receiving one this year. jim. >> thanks, jay. health care, secretary sebelius on cnn yesterday said that the president was not aware of any of the problems with healthcare.gov websites before the launch. we have come to find out since then that there were a bunch of red flags that had cropped up before launch. and so i wonder whether the

president feels now that he should've been made aware of that, should someone be held accountable for giving him that information? if there was somebody getting information, was he misinformed about the status of the launch? >> jim, thank you for that question. secretary sebelius was referring to what i have said and what the president himself has said, which is that while we knew that there would be some glitches and actually said publicly that we expected some problems, we did not know until the problem manifested themselves after the launch that they would be as significant as they have turned out to be. so you know, that was just the and there was some problems anticipated, that we did not expect. by we, i mean broadly, the administration did not expect the scale of problems that we have seen, which is why at the

presidents of direction and these sectors direction we have launched this all out effort, 24/7 with text search of experts, new eyes and is coming in to assist the existing team, to identify and isolate each problem that exists with the functionality of the website. assess what the best solutions are to creating a remedy for that specific problem, and then applying it with its increasing server capacity or writing new code to work around a situation, providing greater accessibility for improvements in the user interface. these are all things that teams currently operating and working on making improvements to the system are focusing on, and they are tackling the problems one by one. they are prioritizing them and they are addressing them. these are technical, logistical problems that require the kind

of expertise that is being brought to bear. but there is the question that we did not anticipate the scale of the problems with the website. what is also important to remember is that the website is not the affordable care act. what has been in place since october 1, and what will be in place for the millions of consumers who want the product, is the vast array of affordable health plans out there because of the market place is set up by the affordable care act. and everyday more and more americans are submitting applications. they are enrolling. they are shopping and they're finding out that they have access to affordable health insurance. and if they are among the 15-20% of the american people who did not have insurance in the past, they are discovering that have options available to them that make it affordable and that will provide them come january 1

security that they have lacked in the past. and while the struggles that individuals they had with the website, are extra and unfortunate and we take responsibly for them, and we are working around-the-clock to fix the website to make that experience easier, those struggles as i said yesterday fail in comparison to the uncertainty that a single mom who is a breast cancer survivor has fille felt everyday that shs lacked insurance, because she can't afford it. she's been priced out of it or injures sensible to return because she is a great system condition. and that is why we have to keep focus on the indigo here, which is making this insurance available to millions of americans who need it. >> you struggle, as you say, jay, are also having a political impact. today, the administration briefs a bunch of democrats in the house. and as they came out you could

clearly sense the frustration that they were having. they were calling for accountability. they were demanding action. they were demanding more answers. and i'm wondering, these are your allies, these are people who you are asking to be out there supporting the health care plan. what is the price that they might have to pay? and what is it that you can do to satisfy their demands for accountability, for answers? >> we are working every day around the clock, the teams, specifically the tech teams on the website problems to make sure the expense is better so that those questions are answered and the constituents of those lawmakers are given the services that they deserve and that they've earned for the affordable care act. so the frustration that lawmakers who supported the affordable care act feel over the fact that a portion of it is

not functioning at the level we want it to function is frustration shared first and foremost by the president, and by all of us. and that's why we're crashing on these problems and applying a high level of expertise and experience to fix it. the politics of this, i promise you, are not the focus of the white house or the administration did and i don't think they are the focus of those on capitol hill who have long supported providing access to affordable health insurance to millions of americans who did not have in the past. their focus is on making that call come true. and we are working with them and we'll briefed them, keep everybody updated. we're going to provide as much information as we can on the work that's being done. i can tell you that beginning tomorrow at the direction of secretary sebelius there will be daily briefings at cms to update

individuals and reporters who are interested on the progress that's been made and the efforts that are being undertaken, both to address the technical problems and to make the whole experience for american consumers better. and that includes making americans aware of the fact that there are four ways to enroll in the exchanges, and that includes not just online but by phone or in person, centers in hospitals or local health centers, or by mail. we are going to work every day to make this experience better, to make sure we're providing the benefits that the affordable care act promises and will deliver, and to make sure that we can't inform you as best as we can about the process we are undertaking. >> one less question. i wanted to ask about personnel matters involving -- sunday.

wondered, does the white house investigate all anonymous of twitter accounts that are critical of the administration? administration? >> you know, i do not have information on personnel matters. i can carry the individual doesn't work anymore. he was and looked at the state department. is no longer here. but i would refer you to him. i just don't have anything on it for you. there are codes of conduct in general, but on specific businesses or other broad question like that i don't have anything for you. >> on the affordable care act rollout, senator shaheen, a democrat, has said -- [inaudible] and the ask the president to consider a delay in the sign up free. is that something the president will consider or is considering? >> what i can tell you is that today, americans have access to affordable coverage, today. that was true on october 1. they can and will and four ways as i just mentioned to jim.

and we are working on the problems that are real, significant and unacceptable that exist in one of those avenues to enrolling, on the website. we are still in the early stages of the open enrollment period. we are in at what, three weeks and two days into this process. so we remain focused on making improvements to one of the avenues through which you can enroll, individuals can enroll, and in making americans aware of the of acces of the access poine to them and making those more affected by increasing staff at the call centers, for example, at peak times or communist, making changes to the homepage of healthcare.gov site clear so that those who visit it know that those other app is our of able to them, that they can compare plans and get some estimates about what interest

might be available to them and what rough cost if they wanted and more information in specifically to enroll, they don't want to do it to the website are having trouble to the website to have these other avenues available to them. we're going to tackle this problem every day and we're going to run it and we will keep running it. we will keep making progress. the important thing is that the insurance that is the core of this program is made available at affordable prices to millions of americans didn't have it. you know, i think we are not making excuses for the serious problems that consumers have encountered on the website, but an element of this is the enormous demand that's out there. we had high expectations for interest levels, but we did not expect what we saw. and what we have seen. you know, that's a challenge to

us, to make this law work for those people who want it to work for them. and that is nothing to do with policy. that has to do with the security of families across the country. there are a lot of stories, and i think you've seen them in the press, of people who have gotten through, have enrolled, or have shopped instantly made themselves aware of the fact that their lives are going to change fundamentally for the better on january 1, because they will have affordable health insurance that they didn't have before, or because they have a preexisting condition that price then out of the insurance market entirely. and you know, it's hard to measure the importance of that in the lives of individuals across the country. >> you address yesterday questions about possible risks of saudi raid or the countries

concerned about u.s. policies towards iran and syria. i'm just wondering whether you've learned about those concerned through anything other than press reports, whether their government there have expressed those to directly spent i think i said yesterday that secretary kerry had been meeting with the saudi counterpart and we had a very close working relationship with saudi arabia, have had for a long time. we had a nose amount of important business that we did on a bilateral basis with saudi arabia. and that his relationship of those friendship and respect. obviously, we have disagreements on some issues, and we work this out in a candid and forthright way, as we maintain the basic foundation of a very important relationship secretary kerry address this at length when you took some questions in the aftermath of those meetings. ..

white house employees are not able to access social media sites like that at all obviously for personal use. so i have that, josh and jamie had officials twitter accounts, but you can't go on twitter and sign up for an account unless it is authorized through white house equipment.

>> we talked to some computer experts. dave kennedy of a security company estimates that about 20% at healthcare.gov needs to be rewritten estimating that to be about 100 million lines of code and suggesting fixing the site could take six months to a year. is that what you are hearing? >> thank you for the question. i can tell you that the way we are -- >> is that wrong? >> what i would refrain from doing is making estimates based on, you know, what you are reading in the press and focus instead as our technical experts are on the specific identified problems that they found and the fixes they are working on applying.

our approach is to look at the problems and try to fix them every day knowing this is going to be a constant effort the end each day we are going to make some progress and each day there will be an improvement to the user experience on healthcare.gov and each day we will work through a variety of means to provide americans theater avenues they can use to get information and enroll in an insurance plan. >> what about specific information with the problems are you told us to talk to computer experts and that is what we are doing. >> that is a smart thing to do. >> is that unrealistic? because if you're talking six months to a year obviously that is going to affect the mandate i would imagine. >> again, from the number one people have been able to enroll and that includes on healthcare.gov.

as we have surged resources and brain power towards fixing the problems -- can i finish? -- that have arisen, the experience on healthcare.gov has incrementally improved and i think that has been acknowledged. so, from the number one people have been able to use the site. the experiences have been unacceptably problematic. we are making changes every day and improvements every day so that more and more people can use it effectively and we are making it clear that there are other ways to enroll because the affordable care act is not a website. it's not like creating protection on the web site would not deliver what the rohrabacher act promises. with the affordable care act promises is a marketplace for insurance products that provide the insurance affordably to millions of americans across the country who cannot get it otherwise.

>> [inaudible] -- i'm just wondering i look at this and that is a long time. is there a possibility? >> again what an outside computer expert might guess about what went with the end of a process would look like i'm not judging it beyond saying that what we are doing is focusing on specific problems, isolating problems for example with signing up, isolating problems that haven't been identified with the transition of information from the website to the individual insurers that has to do with getting the right given information to those insurers so that they can provide the coverage that individuals are signed up for. these specific identifiable problems are with the team is working on and fixing through the writing code, adding

capacitors -- capacity through additional servers and through a variety of other means. the work of constantly improving website will continue. i think a day-by-day. so what i can tell you is that a week from now it's going to be better than it is today and week after that it's been to be much better than today and that is when to continue and continue. so i don't know what endpoint and outside computer expert might be imagining. what we know is today and every day, individuals are able to get important information from the website, they are able to enroll often. individuals experience frustration and delays and that is unacceptable. we are working to fix that the others are succeeding on the web site. others are going to different avenues available to them and we are going to keep breaking rocks on this until, you know, we are satisfied that americans are able to use the web site at a

level of functionality that meets our expectations. >> a lot of computer experts told us that just because of how much code the estimate that to be and that's what we have to go on because we don't have specifics, the city would be easier to start from scratch, scratch the whole thing but that under consideration. >> again i think it's important to note we have technical teams working on specific fixes to the existing system so our belief is that we are making fixes to the existing system work and we are dealing with the volume on the web track on the web site rather the traffic by increasing our band with and improving the site architecture. we are substituting on hardware to make changes that make it more optimized and we are improving the database and queries. there were tests done and there

are going to be more tests done now that we know what we are dealing with in terms of volume. we are listening to consumer feedback and making changes that respond to what the consumers are saying they want so that existing features for example tax calculator or the ability to adjust search for general information about available plans is more prominently featured so that the consumer experience is improved and we are going to tackle this from day by day. we have extremely talented people working on this and that the direction of secretary sebelius and the president of the united states they are going to work until the website matches the president's expectations. >> another question about health

care -- on the immigration what has the president done specifically, what has the administration done specifically after the shutdown and now the obamacare issue? we start in the house a comprehensive immigration reform bill. some connoting of course the shutdown ended about five minutes ago in washington the way it feels really. but only a few days ago and we averted an economic shot down globally only a few days ago. the fact of the matter is the minute that totally manufactured crisis was resolved the president made it clear in the remarks that he delivered that he firmly believes we can get comprehensive immigration reform through congress and on his desk by the end of the year. so the answer to your question is we are talking with members,

staff members in congress about how to move forward. i note the speaker of the house today said he believes it is an important issue that can be and should be addressed. there are a variety of ways to do this and obviously the leaders of the house have to decide how they want to proceed. the senate has passed a comprehensive bipartisan bill. very significant achievement and it doesn't match word for word what the president necessarily would have written, but it meets the criteria that he sat and he would sign it if the house were to pass the identical version the way that as i understand it needs to work as the house has to produce its own bill or bills and that would have to be confident. we will work with the house and every interested party of both parties or no party to try to move this forward because the point president was making when he identified immigration reform and a budget deal and the farm bill as things that could get done at the end of the year he

was isolating them because bipartisan work has been done already on those areas and of course when it comes to the budget there is a conference coming together which is something that we hope and called for all year. although it was suggested in some places and i'm looking at you, somehow he lowered his ambition. if anybody said at the beginning of the year that if we had identified completion of comprehensive immigration reform as the goal to achieve at the end of the year that was somehow small potatoes you would have been laughed at. that is a big deal and we can get it done. obviously it depends on the house -- >> there have been in the last couple of days proposals made on the republican side which seemed to include even a pathway to citizenship. has the white house reached out to those people across the aisle -- >> i don't know about specific conversations on specific

proposals. the president is interested in specific proposals the would move us forward and lead us to achieve a comprehensive solution that meet his criteria on the pathway to citizenship is one of them. the one that he envisioned and the one that the senate passed is a serious piece of business that requires getting in the back of the line and it's a very responsible approach to meeting that challenge and it increases significantly resources for voter security. it addresses the issue, the profound issue especially technology companies and others have identified and that is the need to obtain highly capable talent here in the united states, immigrant talent, people that come here to study at the best universities in the world and have always been able to state to start businesses or go work with american businesses because of our immigration law. so there's a lot of important work that was achieved in that bill that passed the senate that

meets the president's criteria and he believes that there is a bipartisan majority in the house and probably a significant one that would support that similar comprehensive approach. so we are going to work every way we can to get that done. it is in the interest of the country and of the economy. when we talk about ways we can grow the economy and add jobs, pass the comprehensive immigration reform. >> because of what happened with the shot down and nobody trusts anybody anymore is the president going to do anything to try to bridge that trust again by talking to those on the republicans fight? >> the experience that we all enjoy it, and i use that sarcastically, in the shutdown it wasn't going about by republicans in other words it wasn't brought about by all

republicans were supported by all republicans. it was caused by a faction of the republican party in one house with some prominent help by supporters in the other house. there are plenty of republican lawmakers who want to make progress on comprehensive immigration reform. we have had a lot of conversations and consultations at the presidential level. senators mccain and gramm have played the enormously constructive roles in this process and will continue to do so and there are members of the house republican conference who support that kind of bipartisan comprehensive approach. so this isn't about, you know, mistrust between democrats on one side and republicans on the other. a lot of these challenges have to do with allowing the natural bipartisan coalition that kennedy formed and for those bipartisan coalitions to vote on

bipartisan solutions. if that happens, we can get comprehensive immigration reform, we can get a farm bill and even a budget deal. so those are the lofty goals. but they are achievable. major? >> there were several health care ceo's here today. will the president also meet with them and can you tell us who they are meeting with? >> let me do that right now. as you mentioned, a senior administration officials are meeting today with health insurance industry ceos at 2 p.m.. the purpose of the meeting is to continue to discuss open enrollment and ongoing implementation of the affordable care act. the ceos bring in on the ground perspective as we work to implement all and the group is expected to also discuss the ongoing efforts to fix the

technical issues with healthcare.gov and continue to improve the consumer experience. i have a list of attendees that can provide the include the ceos of aetna, blue cross blue shield -- i'm sorry? you want me to read them all? okay. mark, the ceo of aetna. bruce, the cr amana. chet of care first, patrick garrity of blue cross blue shield of florida. jay of health net incorporated. patricia hemingway president and ceo of health care services corporation, daniel jay president and ceo independence blue cross. karen ignagni i hope i pronounced that right, probably not, president and ceo of american health insurance plans, michael needork chairman and ceo, james roosevelt of tufts

health plan, scott, ceo blue cross blue shield association, joseph swedish, ceo wellpoint and brard tyson of kaiser permanente day and as i said that top the discussion will focus on implementation and enrollment. it will focus on the efforts to fix the technical issues that have been identified with healthcare.gov. and one of those issues has to do with making sure that insurers are getting accurate information, the virtual marketplace from individuals so that they can then provide them with the coverage individuals are signing up to get. so obviously these are very important players in this process and dennis and others look forward to the meeting. >> [inaudible] >> i don't have as a participant in this so i don't anticipate that. >> something discussed yesterday to maybe get a little more

specific. the new feature that has been added to the website if you put in your zip code you get an estimate of your costs. as we understand it, if you are 50 and older you get an estimate for someone who is 50-years-old and if you're 49 and under those are the two categories broadly, you get an estimate of someone who is 27-years-old. if you go deeper in the process you can claim from the senate a much larger actual premium cost. older people require higher premiums. is that something you're going to keep? is their anything deceptive or less than clear or candid that you are trying to provide? >> that is a great question and let me make clear to things. number one, these are estimates. we are just trying to provide basic information in an easily accessible way. the idea that we are trying to mislead people about costs is entirely by the irrefutable fact

that premiums or published and provided to the public prior to october 1st and those premiums to the plans were published without subsidies attached to them. so in other words, they seemed much more expensive for most individuals and the cost would actually be. so, but in terms of making improvements to the website, moving this feature into a place that is more accessible for average users so that they can window shop with the changes they've made -- specifically i don't know the changes they will make the they will try to make the user experience better. one thing that's important to know is in terms of the volume that we have seen, could there have been some assertion that making this feature available has something to do with the technological problems that existed, the volumes that began on october 1st was roughly 30%

browsers and 70% of a potential enroll your applicant. since the feature was added, that percentage breakdown has not changed. >> the reason i ask you, some of the statewide exchanges don't have a zip code, they have an age on the front end so you get a much more direct and more rapid explanation on their web sites of the premiums that you're actually going to pay as opposed to an estimate. so as a practical comparison application on the federal website looking at it and incorporating it. >> again i think you're going to an issue that's important and that's about consumer feedback and what's useful, but the underlying assumption here is that we would be hiding the ball when in fact the dreams were published in have been available on the information forever. if you want specific -- this is one of the first experiences we are trying to figure out. >> what has been true from the

number one is you can go on the site and enter in specific information about your age, where you live and that sort of stuff and get much more specific estimates about what your premiums would be. so that has always been available. our interest has been providing as much information as possible to consumers about their choices and the bottom line as was evident october 1st and is true today and will be true throughout the enrollment period is the six out of ten individuals who purchase insurance through the marketplace is could pay on average under $100 a month in premiums. so, you know, our interest is in making people aware of what's available to them and giving them as much information about the options available as possible and as we find ways to improve the consumer experience we are going to make those improvements.

in the new yorker yesterday [inaudible] software project management and he has adding manpower to a software project late he goes on to say it takes so much time for the new code first to comprehend the system they are supposed to be fixing that typically it would have been faster not to conclude them at all. in this case though the writer says there may be some chance the technical surge will work. the project already made discrete part that could be improved by teams working in parallel. i wonder if based on what you know and what you have been briefed on internally do you think the latter scenario is possible and if so if you can explain why -- >> i think it's an excellent shorthand description of what's happening is that there are many areas of the website that can be addressed in a focused way by teams that look at the problems

that have arisen and have been exposed by the launch and the volume that occurred after the launch. and they've isolated those problems and they are isolating those problems and address them when it has to do with a capacity by adding capacity and when it has to do by the code writing new code. optimizing the interface for the users where that helps and consulting technology specialists operating state based exchanges which as many of you have noted have been working at least in many cases effectively on a smaller scale but the share of best practices and incorporate them. it's important to note what we have done is bring some fresh ideas and brains and have that attached to existing teams. we are not starting fresh and asking people to learn the system having lost the expertise that existed as the system was

built. these are new on ase and tech experts who are being brought in at brain capacity with a fresh look as we address these problems. >> it may be part of the things tomorrow so you know all of us here are very hungry for assessments, specific interventions you're doing, things you're seeing, how you are rewriting the code or dealing with capacity. will we finally get this tomorrow with the briefing where we can actually hear and see and tangibly report on these developments? >> the answer is that is the idea. we are setting up a process where there will be regular briefings. secretaries sebelius instigation would try to answer your questions and provide as much information as possible about this ongoing work. it's very technical and process

oriented and its house over there because that is closer to the ground where this is happening. cms oversees the process and the affordable and the department of health and human services overseas cms so that's the idea that we will try to provide as much information as we possibly can. i can't promise you that every question we have won't be -- we want people to answer, they want people to answer right away. we may have to go back and get more information that there will be an effort to give you a sense of what's happening. >> there were reports out of germany that the german government believes that as part of the nsa surveillance the u.s. government was monitoring chancellor merkel's cell phone. can you confirm or deny that? >> today president obama and chancellor merkel spoke by telephone regarding the allegations you mentioned that the u.s. national security agency intercepted communications and the president

assured the chancellor the u.s. is not and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor. the united states greatly values our cooperation with germany on a broad range of shared security challenges. the u.s. is reviewing the way that we gather intelligence and our allies with the privacy concerns that all people share. both leaders agreed to intensify for the cooperation between our intelligence services with the goal of protecting the security of both countries and of our partners owls less the privacy of our citizens. >> when you say not monitoring does that leave the door open to the possibility nsa is part of a broad sweep and picked up the communications but was not quote on quote -- >> all i can tell you is the president of the chancellor. they will not monitor the communications of the chancellor. as we said in the past we gather for an intelligence just like

the agencies, similar agencies of other countries. but we are working to as the president has said to review the way we gather intelligence suite properly balance security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that everyone shares. >> the president this morning's meeting with the pakistani prime minister to read a lot on the agenda. one issue that has come up in the last couple of years is the pakistani doctor put in prison because he felt the u.s. government fined bin laden which obviously the government felt was very valuable. is that something the president is still pushing on -- >> absolutely and i can tell you that our position on the doctor has long been cleared and i'd sure we will make it clear during this visit we believe his treatment is both unjust and unwarranted. he should be released. bringing osama bin laden to justice was clearly in pakistan's interest and the prosecution and conviction sends the wrong message about the

importance of this shared interest. so this is something that we have been a sustained way made clear to pakistan and we will continue to drain the visit. >> jim asked you at the beginning about what secretary sebelius told cnn about the president not been told before october 1st. you seemed to confirm that timeline. i wonder why was the president told though -- was he being insulated from the potential damage -- >> with the president made clear -- and he's on the record saying this well ahead of the launch is that we expect pickups and glitches as you would expect from the launch of any major complex web site. that's what we expected. that's what i think the team's expected. we did not expect or anticipate

scale of the problems that have occurred and that is on us and there is no question testing was done and testing should have been more thorough and therefore we would have been more prepared for this challenge. >> the "washington post" reported yesterday there were simultaneously getting on the side and it crashed. was that not passed on to the president and if not why not? >> we said there were tests done and that while there was an expectation that there would be problems and glitches they wouldn't be of the significance and the scale that we have seen and they would be ones that could be dealt with while the site was operating and operating relatively smoothly, again with the understanding that the longevity with side of this complexity would have initial problems. so the answer is it's absolutely

correct the website from october 1st has not and did not operate as moseley or even close to as smoothly as we anticipated based on the information we have and that includes the people working on the site itself. we are responsible for that and that's why the president and the secretary had directed this significant around-the-clock effort to systematically make changes and adjustments and fixes to the website to improve the user experience. what is true is every day and putting on the first day americans from across the country in the states that utilize the federal exchanges have been getting the information they needed, signing up and enrolling. our goal is to just make that process easier every day and to make it easier on the web site and by making sure that americans know there are three other avenues through which they can achieve the same goal.

>> the president has said in many public forums that he would be willing to make reasonable changes to the health care law. republican marco rubio has presented a bill that basically says delay any penalties until people can foley and roll and until we know the website is fully operational. meanwhile the democratic jean chretien wrote a letter to the president yesterday saying she would like to see the enrollment deadline extended further so that people have more time. are these reasonable approach is the president is going to look like and might even support? >> the address slightly different issues. the fact is we are on the third week and second day of the six month process. from day one people have been able to get information and enroll. the process has been unexpectedly difficult and we are working to fix that everyday. but meanwhile people are getting the information they need and they are shopping and they are signing up and they