.. i think this is important. we need an investment. i agree with chairman, ranking member levin when he said we need intense involvement by the congress, not after but before. we have had serious consequences when that did not happen in the past and it has had

repercussions to now, to today. whoo we're seeing in this difficult trans-pacific partnership negotiation, fearing we could slip back into the old ways of doing business. i realize, that your job is difficult. you inherited and are negotiating with a lost country s that don't share our values and commitment to high standard for labor and environment and we saw a breakthrough in the peruvian trade deal. that was, i think, a pivotal point for the congress of the united states to have enforcement rules, to have countries countries agree best deal is signed, sealed and delivered they will make some changes and do that in a very transparent way. countries should be our allies in that fight are nowhere to be found many times, mr. ambassador. i urge you to stay firm and not go backwards. mr. ambassador, i'm a co-chair of the house textile caucus,

what is left of the textile industry of the united states of america which we've seen dwindle away in the last 40 years. i would like to thank you for your commitment to the yarn forward rule of origin for textiles and apparel, which as you know is of critical importance to the textile industry in this country. my question today is on market access to the most sensitive textile products manufactured here in the united states. can you assure the members of this committee that your negotiators will seek the longest duty phaseout possible for the most sensitive textile items? that's a pretty direct question. we don't need a glossary of discussions here. would you give me an answer? >> well, we're working very closely with textile and apparel stakeholders to make sure we have a full understanding of what the most sensitive products are and using the tools that you mentioned, the yarn forward,

short supply list and staging issues. we're making sure that we strike that right balance between assuring protection for our domestic producers as appropriate and also allowing the importers of apparel -- >> as you heard before, folks are concerned about vietnam's wanting immediate access and i think that is a serious problem. do you think that's a hurdle we can get around, get over, et cetera? >> well, that's very much part of the current negotiation? >> but what do you think? >> we're in the midst of negotiating that with our trading partners. i can't tell you at this point. >> are you making a commitment today to this committee you are going to do what the question entails? >> we are firmly committed to assuring that we have an outcome on textiles and apparel as well as other products frankly that support the maximum number of american jobs in this country and taking into account

sensitivities of some of our key sectors. >> i wanted to highlight a concern about intellectual property. those decisions in canada, in recent years that go against our neighbors international commitments. the canadian courts have ruled that certain pharmaceutical patents, including many belonging to companies in my home state of new jersey, invalid do, what i believe to be an inappropriate interpretation of international patent standards. this is an issue increasing access to medicine to developing countries. canada is well think. it is an industrialized nation. this policy is designed to benefit their manufacturers at the expense of our own. mr. ambassador, we do not need a corporate draft for our trade policies. >> all right. time expired. do you want to respond briefly. on the canadian patent issue this is something we're

monitoring very closely. it is you now the subject of litigation both in the canadian courts and investor state case but something we're monitoring very closely as part of tpp as well. >> thank you. miss black is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you, ambassador for being here. this is such an important conversation we're having here today. i want to go to the issue of intellectual properties which i continue to ask about because i hear so much about that in my own district about our job creators there that do business overseas and how they believe specifically in the asian country s that there's not the respect for the intellectual property. so tpp must contain strong ipr protections to be effective and comprehensive trade agreement. not only are these protections needed to support millions of jobs here in the united states and significant portion of our exports but there are also encouraging american innovation and investment.

the full spectrum of international property rights must be covered, including patents, copyrights and trademarks in all types of services muse be adequately addressed including pharmaceuticals. my will it insure that tpp will contain strong and effective ipr similar to that found in our u.s. law. >> that is certainly our objective in this negotiation and as i mentioned in my opening remarks, we have millions of americans whose jobs depend on innovation economy, on creativity, on our intellectual property rights and whether it is copyright, trademark, side of things or in the pharmaceutical side of the ledger we're working to assure the appropriate level of intellectual property rights. very much based on concepts in u.s. law. so strong copyright protection. limitations and exceptions

consistent with u.s. practice and on the pharmaceutical side, consistent with the may/10 agreement insuring incentives for innovation and access to medicines by the poor and developing countries. >> the other issue right along those lines is the issue of cross-border data flows which are critical not just to service companies but loss the globalized company in any sector. so respecting the differences of those data privacy approaches in country to country, how can we insure that there's a robust protection of those cross-border data flows? >> that is a central part of our new approach on the digital economy in cpp to try to reach agreement around disciplines on regulating the flow of data. making sure there can be the flee proof data. dealing the issue of.

servers are not required in particular country to service that market. when we talk about updating our trade agreements for the 21st century and emergence of additional economy is is those trade agreements precisely what we're focused on. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> thank you. mr. davis. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i do want to commend you for your service to the nation and especially for the outstanding leadership you've provided as chairman of this committee in terms of the way that you facilitated its work. i trust that when you leave congress you will always relish the memory of that. and thank you, mr. ambassador, for being here. and to you and your staff for the great work that you do. mr. ambassador, i come from chicago, illinois. which has been known as the

candy capital of the nation. thousands of jobs in chicago are directly related to the availability of sugar at a competitive price. according to the commerce department to date, in in country, we've already lost 127,000 sugar-using jobs since 1997 because of the trade distorting sugar program. over the last five years, confectioners, bakers, candy-makers and other manufacturers, have suffered through the highest sugar prices anyone can remember. all due to a repressive sugar policy. now that those high prices have brought on greater sugar production in both mexico and the u.s., and a temporary sugar

surplus, big sugar has decided to use more government action to eliminate competition. last friday sugar processors filed antidumping and countervailing duty cases against the impourtation of mexican sugar, allowed under the north american free-trade agreement. mr. ambassador, can we count on you to oppose any effort to restrict access to adequate supplies of sugar from mexico or anywhere else that are needed to preserve good manufacturing jobs in the confectionery industries in chicago and throughout the nation? >> well the andy dumping and countervailing duty case that you mentioned is province of the commerce department and the icc. it is actually a quasi-adjudicatory process in

which usgr nor any other agency is involved. it is being dealt with in a technical way that those two agencies deal with it. sugar is obviously a very sensitive issue in trait negotiations, as has been and we're consulting very closely with stakeholders on the issues around sugar but we're not going to do anything through these trade agreement s that will jeopardize or undermine the sugar program. >> in your view, does this dumping complaint help or hurt our bilateral trading relationship with mexico? this they would buy these cases when they thought there was dumping and countervailing duties.

certainly something that the mexican government and mexican stakeholders care a lot about, but it is the province of our industry, any industry, whether it is sugar or steel or any other industry to avail themselves of trade remedies congress has created. >> as you have indicated there is a long history of trade disputes involving sugar and sweetener trade between the u.s. and mexico. in the past mexico placed restrictions on american exports of high-fructose corn sirup. doctor syrup. did you share my concern that farmers in illinois and other states could be caught up in another cross-border trade dispute that is not their fault but because of a market

distorting sugar subsidies? >> i certainly hope we could avoid that situation. >> well we, thank you, very much. and i thank you for your work. mr. chairman i yield back. >> thank you. mr. young. >> mr. ambassador, thanks so much for being here today. really do appreciate it. i'll begin by noting my colleague, mr. griffin of arkansas, was called away to the floor and he just asked that i convey to you, he will be submitting a letter for your conversation pertaining to tpp and japan's treatment of rice. also pertaining to dumping of steel rebar from turkey and mexico. so he will forward to your responses there. mr. ambassador, i recently working with several of my colleagues helped launch a caucus related to it. tip. this is very -- ttip. this is hope we consummate a agreement between the u.s. and e.u. were we to do so, it is projected exports from my home

state of indiana would increase roughly 33%. there would be net increase of employment up to 13,780 jobs. the largest categories of exports benefit from this agreement we estimate will be pharmaceuticals. so the intellectual property right protections we heard about today is very important to that industry as we work on this agreement. from your perspective, what barriers for ipr intensive trade are most significant as we look at the u.s. and e.u. negotiations? perhaps you could cite areas where there coo be some convergence and other areas where harmonization might not be possible. >> i think one thing to categorize or character is the u.s.-eu relationship is that both of us have strong intellectual property rights regimes so we start from a fairly common perspective in

that regard. and obviously our innovative and creative industries will benefit from that perspective and we're trying to work together through ttip, the u.s. and the e.u., to promote strong intellectual property right protections elsewhere around the world as well. as part of ttip we are working to bring our regulatory systems closer together or to bridge divergences in our regulatory systems without reducing, undermining, lowering our health, safety and environmental standards. neither one of us want to lower our standards. the president spoke quite elegently on at brussels last week. this is not about deregulation. it is about taking two well-regulated markets but market that's are regulated in slightly different ways and those differences create trade

barriers and seeing whether we can bridge those trade barriers by further cooperation on the regulatory side and works closely with the ema in europe to determine what areas of cooperation may allow for more interaction with pharmaceuticals and medical devices. >> so my sense, based on your response which i appreciate that we're still teasing out some of those areas, the thorny areas. areas of common agreement and so forth. we'll look forward to staying in touch with that regard. essentially a development program designed to lesser developed countries of africa that expires december of 2015. we have want to make sure the reauthorization occurs in a way that improves ideally upon the existing program. ustr requested studies from the program and. this committee requested a separate study from gao.

can we agree to share information so that we can work together to improve this program? >> we certainly want to work closely with this committee and others in congress on this issue. we launched a full review of agoa last august precisely to do what you laid out. assess what worked well, what worked less well. what's changed in the african economies, what's changed in their relationships with their trading partners and as we seek the seamless renewal of agoa next we are what needs to be done to update it to make sure it is having maximum impact along the lines it was originally designed. we look very much forward to working with you on that. >> thank you. finally i would just build upon representative pascrell's comments pertaining to intellectual property protection as it relates to canada, particularly important to the pharmaceutical industry and, you'll be receiving a letter from representative pascrell and myself along with several other members pertaining to this issue and elevating to special 301

priority watch list in 2014 because of canada's lack of adequate and effective intellectual property right protection. so we'll look forward to getting your response on that. i appreciate the dialogue today and thank you again for your service. >> thank you. >> thank you. miss sanchez. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and i'd like to begin by adding my voice to that we wish you well. at the risk of my husband taking umbrage, i will say like all good men in my life you are leaving too soon. and whale i say that tongue-in-cheek you're leadership will be missed. ambassador froman, i want to thank you for joining us today. i have two, i have many questions i would love to ask, two that i would like to get to, so i will jump right in. as you know the united states is the world's largest creator, producer and exporter of copyrighted material and jobs

that support industries that are innovative typically are the kinds of jobs that provide benefits to workers and allow somebody to support a family off of the wages from those jobs and innovation. so i think it is incredibly important to not just think about trade generally but to be very specific about making sure that we protect and try to grow jobs in the innovation sector because they typically do also include manufacturing jobs with them. being from southern california i'm sure you can appreciate the livelihoods of many southern californians are directly impacted when there is lack of respect for u.s. domestic industries and intellectual property. some of my colleagues have mentioned canada and india in particular. and i know that the administration's goals have been to achieve quote, unquote,

21st century agreements but the size and the scope of our pending agreements is what concerns me. as members of congress we spend a lot of time, often years and years, crafting federal legislation to try to achieve that goal. and my concern is that in trade agreements like tpp the work that has been done to pass these laws could be undermined if we don't include some kind of incentives and enforcement mechanisms for making sure that we are incooperating standards of u.s. law in those trade agreements. in that same vain, criminal enterprises enable infringement of u.s. intellectual property which further impacts u.s. and global marketplaces and our workers. so i think you're in a pretty

unique position to help address that particular problem by fostering legitimate online commerce. so i'm just curious how are you going to insure that the 21st century agreements reflect u.s. law for all industries and insure that those who are intentionally enabling infringement are held liable for their actions. >> first of all i couldn't agree with you more about the significance of intellectual property and protecting our creative industries and not just, i was in los angeles several months ago, and not just for the actors and directors who may participate in this but for the unionized carpenters and engineers working on the sets and it's a whole ecosystem there that where we want to make sure they're getting benefits of their labor and they're earning the benefits of their labor. that is what we're trying to do in tpp, in our intellectual property efforts, on copyright, on come according, on making

sure that -- camcording. maybe sure there are enforcement mechanisms. we have a notorious markets process where we list websites that are notorious for selling pirated material and getting countries to close them down and getting websites themselves to drop the, drop the offending material, the pirated material, and so that is something that we work on both in our negotiations and in our enforcement efforts and it is high priority for us. >> thank you. switching gears rather quickly and if we run out of time i will just ask for your response in writing you testified before this committee last year that administration will insure that the jones act is productive under our trade agreements. recently i heard report has the european union put forward a draft proposal that would undermine the jones act. i'm looking for reassures that nothing has been changed with respect to the commitment you

made to the committee and you will continue to jones act and other programs to promote u.s. flagshipping will not be repealed or diluted in future trade agreements? >> there's nothing we'll do in a trade agreement that will repeal or undermine a u.s. law. europeans have a lot of priorities in the negotiations. we have a lot of priorities as well and that is what is the negotiation is for. we work our way through these issues and understand each other's sensitivities and how best to address the concerns of each in the context of an overall comprehensive agreement. >> thank you so much for your time. >> thank you, mr. reed. >> thank you, mr. chairman and mr. ambassador, thank you. we're down to the end. i appreciate it. we talked and we met. as your predecessor, ron kirk, you do outstanding job and work you do on this issue and i enjoy working with you. i want to relate to you a large employer of my district informed me you did a tremendous amount of good work for the ita

agreement. corning, incorporated. i come from corning new york. i want to know that which appreciate your work in that arena so kudos to you. last week i was at a hearing with the steel caucus. i also co-chair the u.s. manufacturing caucus here in d.c. and it was brought to our attention repeatedly by many of the member companies there, nucor steel, a large employer in my district. they have a facility in shimon county. u.s. steel was there. arcelor mittal was there. i wanted to stress to you or relate to you, that the theme i heard in the steel caucus there is a real threat from the dumping of steel into the u.s. market. i wanted to see how you thought, especially in the turkey, mexico arena, wanted to see how you thought about their concern that is going on and is there anything you can do or have done presently to try to address the

issue of inappropriate steel dumping into america's market? >> well i have, we have met with the steel industry on a regular basis. it is something that we know is of great concern and therefore we're monitoring it closely. with regard to those particular issues of turkey and mexico and the antidumping cbd cases i have got to refer to you the commerce department and the itc because those are procedures under their mechanisms, their quasi-adjudicatory and we're not. we're not involved in those. but the situation in the steel sector itself, in the steel industry globally is something that we do monitor closely and, want to continue to pursue to see if there are things we can do through our trade dialogues to try to address some of the concerns that the u.s. steel industry has. >> could you give me any indication, any ideas along those lines that you would be considering? >> one thing that's come up in the context of our china dialogue is the concern about

overcapacity. there's clearly overcapacity in global steel sector. something that china itself has flagged in an issue they're concerned about domestically. so having a dialogue with them, with other major steel manufacturing countries about the situation in the market, about overcapacity is, one mechanism at that we're exploring to see if we can make some progress on that issue. >> so it sound if they're engaging in that conversation and there's a willingness, because i am aware of the capacity issue. that was definitely something also referenced in the same steel caucus hering heyering. with that it has been a long day and i have no further questions and i yield back, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. again, ambassador froman, thank you for answering every question the committee put forward to you in your appearance. we look forward to working with all the important issues we will discuss and with that this hearing adjourned.

>> if you missed any of this hearing on trade policy you can watch it anytime online. go to c-span.org. here on c-span2 the senate will be gaveling back in about an hour, 2:00 eastern time. they will be working on legislation to extend unemployment benefits for five months and a headline here in "the washington post." the senate expected to pass unemployment bill but a difficult path awaits in the house of the senate likely to pass a bipartisan bill that would restore long-term unemployment benefits that expired in december. it would restart federal unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless allowing for retroactive payments for about 2 million people. in the house speaker john boehner has said he will not bring up an unemployment

extension bill to the floor if it doesn't include a job creation provision. that again, this morning from "the washington post." a vote is scheduled in the senate for 5:30 eastern time on the legislation. watch the debate and vote live here on c-span2. next the challenges faced by the united negro college fund. last month the group's president, michael lomax talked about its continuing mission of advancing students of color in higher education. mr. lomax is joined in the event by congressman john lewis and danny davis after the q&a portion during remarks at the national press club. >> good afternoon. and welcome. my name is myron bellkind. i'm an adjunct professor of washington university school of media public affairs and graduate of school of political management, former bureau chief for the associated press and the 107th president of the national press club. the national press club is the world's leading professional organization for journalist,

committed to our profession's future through our programing, with events such as this while fostering a free press worldwide. for more information about the national press club, please visit our website at www.press.org. and to donate to programs offered to the public through our national press club journalism institute, please visit www.press.org/institute. on behalf of our members worldwide i would like to welcome our speaker and those of you attending today's event. our head table includes guests of our speaker as well as working journalist who is are club members. if you hear applause in our audience i note that members of the general public are attending so it is not necessarily evidence of a lack of journalistic objectivity. i'd also like to welcome our c-span and public radio audiences. you can follow the action on twitter using the hashtag,

npclunch. after our guest's speech concludes we'll have a question and answer period. i will ask as many questions as time permits. now it is time to introduce our head table. i'd like to ask each of you to stand briefly as your name is mentioned. on my left, your right, mark hamrich, washington bureau chief. bank right and former npc president. troy johnson, wnew, whur, nbc 4. joe madison, siriusxm satellite radio. jerry seremsky, buff know louis news and -- "buffalo news" and chairman of the npc speakers committee and former snags press club for a moment. skipping over speaker. we have the retired speaker committee's them per who organized today's event.

tamika smith of radio one. larry before vince of gannett. retired and former npc board member. and nari wright, msl group and corporate chair of the npc 5-k committee. [applause] they're called historically black colleges and they produced alumni who have made history. from the reverend martin luther king , jr., to justice thurgood marshall, to tony morrison, to spike lee, to congressman john lewis, whom we are expecting to have with us today. i think he is coming right from the hill. all of these graduates of these schools have gone ton to lead in fields ranging from politics, to literature and the arts. for 70 years the united negro college fund has been the financial lifeline that allowed

many students at historically black colleges to thrive. every year the fund provides more than $100 million in scholarships to tens of thousand of students. over the decades the fund has raised and distributed more than $3 billion in educational assistance. and in 1999 was the beneficiary of a one billion dollars gift from the bill and melinda gates foundation. a billion dollars may seem like a lot of money even here in washington but the need is so great that for the united negro college fund, even a billion dollars will run out eventually. and that is just one of the challenges the united negro college fund faces as it enters its 8th decade. here to address those challenges is our guest today, dr. michael l. lomax, president and chief executive of the united negro college fund. native of los angeles, dr. lomax

graduated from moore house college and embarked on a career as a literature professor. he was president at dillard university before taking the helm of the college fund in 2004. ladies and gentlemen, please join me in giving a warm national press club welcome to dr. michael lomax. [applause] >> thank you, myron. thank you, ladies and gentlemen. and great thanks to all of you for joining us today to discuss the current state of educational opportunities for college students of color in the country. and particularly the challenges facing our historically black colleges and universities or hbcus. ace look around the room i feel a certain a great majority of you know exactly who we are at the united negro college fund and what we do. i'm also aware that many americans of diverse backgrounds know us primarily for our iconic

motto, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. without knowing precisely what our role is. let me take a few moments to clarify. uncf was formed in 1944. yes, we are in our 70th year of existence. to consolidate the fund-raising for a group of america's historically black colleges. uncf's core mission has always been to help fund these vital institution that have brought educational opportunities to african-americans for over 100 years. during our 70 years we have helped more than 400,000 students graduate from our partner schools by raising nearly $4 billion. over time we have developed a profile as a premium, well-run non-profit and a efficient manager of donated dollars. this led the bill and melinda

gates foundation to entrust us with $1.6 billion in grants beginning in 1999, to be used for scholarships for all communities of color. today we support more than 12,000 students at 900 schools across the country each year. but our core mission remains our partnership with 37 private, four-year, hbcus and to advocate for all 105 hbcus, a number that includes the state-supported historically black institutions as well. today our member schools are facing a financial crisis as severe as any in uncf's history. pressured by years of rising costs, even though uncf's member schools have operating budgets that average less than 50% of

those of other four-year private colleges. that is to say, they tend to have much lower tuitions and are in many ways, a best buy in education. the irony of this situation is that the financial crisis comes at a time when interest by african-american high school students in attending hbcus has been on the rise for over a decade. between the 2001 and 2002 academic year and 2012 and 2013 year, member institutions saw a 78% rise in applications and a 64% increase in admissions. these numbers are comparable to all four-year institutions but while enrollment at all four-year institutions rose by 21% over that period, enrollment at uncf's member hbcus

remained essentially flat, rising by only 5%. why? the answer is simple. lack of funding for scholarships. hbcus tend to draw students from comparatively low-income families and the need for financial aid is significant. uncf is working hard to meet the strong demand by young african-americans for an education at our member schools but donations have not kept pace with that demand. particularly in the aftermath of the great recession. the good news is that the demand is there. i'm often asked, how colleges that serve an almost exclusively black population can still be relevant in today's world? why, i'm asked, would a young african-american want to attend

one of these institutions? well, for one thing, hbcus do a very good job educating these students. hbcu graduates are laser-focused on getting jobs. that's why they go to college. they understand the critical importance of a college degree in today's economy. most hbcu students major in business or a business-related field like accounting. many are interested in the stem subjects, science, technology, engineering and math. they know where the jobs are. there are deeper reasons for continued demand for hbcus however. i have talked to thousands of students about their interest in attending an hbcu and they tend to raise three points to explain why they want to attend an historically-black college. first they say, that the schoolsfeel like home.

they feel like family. second they believe hcbus will let them explore themselves as an individual rather than as a statistic. finally at an hbcu they feel they can learn more about where they come from. this is a nower set of motivatores that uncf from richard paterson research institute and i believe will continue to motivate students for years to come. desire and high motivation however are not the same as scholarship funding. i have found it personally painful to seat number of applications for the scholarships available through uncf skyrocket while the number of scholarships themselves has grown much more slowly. the ratio of applications to available scholarships is

approaching 10 to one. at uncf we all agree that this has to change. we have redoubled our efforts to increase donations and revamped our operations to better serve uncf members and our students. the reality of these bright young people with dreams for a college education, but desperately needing scholarships led to last year's update of our fund-raising campaign, which we called, better futures. of the we need to raise the level of urgency of our appeal to donors and highlight the impact of a college education for everyone. but particularly for african-americans and students of color. we needed to look at funding for scholarships at hbcus, less an an isolated donation and more as

an investment in the future. it is an investment in the future of young black men and women, an investment in the future of their communities and an investment in the future of well-being of our society. so, our iconic motto, recognized according to research by over 90% of americans has been changed to reflect the urgent need to create better futures. our new motto reads, a mind is a terrible thing to waste but a wonderful thing to invest in. and investing in students through uncf works. our paterson research institute examined the effectiveness of our scholarships and found that an african-american freshman who receives a $5,000 uncf scholarship returns for her sophomore year at a 94% rate.

graduates in six years at a 70% rate, which is considerably higher than the 59%, six-year graduation rate at all our four-year colleges. and sees her likelihood of graduating increase by over 7 percentage points. so let me make this point clear for you. the six-year graduation rate for african-americans is 40%. if we could increase that rate by over seven percentage points, we would graduate close to 16,000 more african-americans with bachelor's degrees each year. that is an investment that pays dividends not only for those students but also to the investors and the country at large. this data and other economic impact research undergirds our

campaign. so we when we talk about an investment in uncf as an investment in better futures, we have the numbers to back it up. feed back on the new campaign from supporters has been positive. and we are optimistic for the future. but the financial crisis at our hbcu members is happening right now. today. it is real, and it has been made worse by changes made by it department of education in october 2011. to the credit requirements for parent plus loans. these loans are one of the most important supports for higher education provided by the u.s. government. and they happen to be a major funding source for college by african-american parents, who are willing to make great sacrifices to help their children realize their dreams of a college degree. we were blindsided by the

changes that literally from one day to the next made many thousands of these parents ineligible for parent plus loans. the impact on students who depended on parent plus fund was immediate and devastating. many who arrived at their college dorms after the summer break in the fall of 2012 were literally turned away at the door. eventually some 28,000 hbcu students felt the shock of the changes to parent plus. many were forced to drop out of school. hbcus themselves lost $155 million in revenue in 2012-2013 alone, further restraining already-tight budgets. it is astounding that this administration that set itself up as a great promoter of

education could have pursued a policy change to detrimental to the education of so many young people. and to make the change with no public discussion. no advance communication and zero effort to give parents and students timely information and potential alternatives with simply -- was simply irresponsible. after more than two years this situation has remained essentially unchanged. . .

situation cfs made a special appeal to our supporters for emergency funding to replace the lost parent plus loans with scholarships for students forced to drop out of school. i want to thank the many philanthropic and corporate donors who have responded to the appeal. let me be clear that both parent plus loans and the more widely used pell grants as well as the other federal loan programs need attention by the government so they will better serve students facing today's realities in college education. draconian the overnight changes are not the way to proceed. what is needed is a more thoughtful and collaborative

process. however we are also aware that in washington, collaboration is in short supply. you know, there was a time when the partnership didn't stand in the way of progress that went -- partisanship didn't stand in the way. coalitions built with members of both parties were able to find common grounacommon ground to mn important initiatives for the public good that we have now entered a time of widespread paralysis in the nations capital. combined with a decade or more of cuts to higher education at the state level that have forced public colleges university tuitions to rise far beyond the affordable level for a large portion of americans. we now see higher education in crisis mode throughout the country.

while uncf will continue in washington we have responded to the paralysis by increasing our traditional focus on the private sector. with our updated campaign and emphasis on donations as an investment, we are sparing no effort to meet and form relationships with individuals and organizations interested in supporting higher education. all we ask is that they believe in our mission and in the reality that the mind is a terrible thing to waste but a wonderful thing to invest in. with that he shared a recent experience related to the new better future is campaigned. as i think it provides a window into just how polarized our world has become. sadly it is a world that puts

politics before a student's education and future. many of you have probably heard of the ad council but may not know what they do. they provide free public service announcement time on television and radio for nonprofits such as the uncf. the time is donated by the station and other sponsors. a number of times last year our psa announcements aired for free on rush limbaugh's program it on the al jazeera network. i bet you can guess what happened. we receive angry letters and calls from all across the country asking how we could possibly support rush limbaugh and al jazeera. the reality is we did not and do

not financially support those that we did want their audiences to hear our message. while i'm not certain that we've received huge attraction or new donors but i do know is our message about the importance of investing in students and students of color should be delivered whenever and wherever there is an audience there should be no litmus test on who wants to support the uncf. ours is not a partisan message is a universal appeal and one that we believe all americans should support. in the end i bet we could get a couple of students at the bottom line is education for low-income minority students must transcend politics if we are to succeed

him. it'succeed. it's important to emphasize that uncf doesn't consider the crisis facing hbcu's as the most important education today. it is simply the one that is most central to our mission. we are advocates for education and a number of areas. one of them if college readiness and the school initiative is designed to make those schools more effective at providing solid learning and preparation to college and careers. research by the testing firm indicates that only 5% -- i'm going to say that again, only 5% of the recent acp test of african american high school graduates measured b by combinig

scores on english reading and math and science benchmarks that only 5% of those tested students are college ready. this has to change. and it can change when students take a preparatory curriculum that includes the core of four years of english and three years each of math, social studies and science. the authors of the acc study say that they have found the students that take the recommended core curriculum are more likely to be ready for college and careers and those that do not. a ct data shows that african-american high school graduates who have taken core or more as they say curriculum college ready benchmarks have much higher rates than those

that do not. this tells me the two nationally adopted curriculum standards in english and math called common core have caused heated debate must be in the form that it gives the students the rigorous preparation and basic courses they need to succeed in college and careers. at the end of the day i go back to how the better futures campaign. we serve our partners to create more economically secure young people into this reverberate through the community and our society. education is the best form of economic development. it is the best pathway to better futures. hbcu's have continued to play a role in the education of

african-americans dating from the time in which blacks were excluded from public land grant universities and most other institutions of higher learning and continuing right through today. when hbcu's that represent only 4% of the nation's colleges and universities account for almost 20% of african-american, bachelor's degree recipients. they've proven their values. we all have a role to play in overcoming the current crisis and ensuring their success and long-term viability. uncf has accelerated and intensified its appeal for donations from individuals. philanthropies and corporations. we need that all who have a serious interest in education should consider donating to

hbcu's through uncf. and please, remember the mind is a terrible thing to waste but a wonderful thing to invest in. i'm delighted to take questions. [applause] ladies and gentlemen please join me in welcoming the honorable john lewis who had a busy morning on the hill. [applause] >> i'm honored to have my congressman of the congressional district of georgia join us and an alumni of the member institution university. congressman lewis, thank you for being here today.

i've got to do what you have to do all too often i have to answer questions i may have to call on you to help me out. >> you mentioned that uncf donations haven't kept pace with demand. why is that? >> uncf donations have been going on but not at the same pace as the demand because the demand is so great. for every scholarship that uncf provided with about $100 million, we turn down 90 students for every scholarship that we award. the demand is 10-1 and uncf is committed to read doubling our efforts to increase the amount that we have to color shifted

the individual students and supporcouldsupport the private y black coaches come and that's why we are here today to put the country understand that there is a crisis at hbcu's. they are there to educate first generation low-income students. they don't have the resources to do it in and those students don't have the financial wherewithal to pay for tuition and they need scholarship support that uncf provides. >> after 70 years of success, the uncf has had leaders go into many fields and has the success of the students translated into significant grants and end element and fundraising efforts? >> we are in the final stages of this year's annual campaign that will end on march 31. when we close we expects to have

between 70 to $75 million this year. we will have a base of tens of thousands of individual donors as well as corporations and foundations that will have hoped us raise that. we will have had almost 50 special events in cities all across the country. throughout the network of support, the alumni in both the scholarship recipient have helped us raise those dollars. the fact is that we get strong support from the alumni and we want it to be stronger but we also have cause to get even more support from america's wealthiest individuals and major corporations and foundations to ensure that we can address the crisis of affordability and resources for students today to pay the tuition to attend the college of their choice and if

we are not able to do that, they will suffer, their communities will suffer and the nation. >> the gates foundation money is substantial. it is structured into an endowment. and if so, why can't it be the demand for scholarships? the bill and melinda gates foundation awarded uncf initially $1 billion in 1999 to a ward 20,000 of the four year scholarships to african-american students, latino, native american, pacific and to date we have awarded 17,000 of those scholarships. we will award 3,000 for scholarships in the next three years, a thousand a year. this is a program that has a strategy that is going to run out although there will be a surplus of about $300 million at

the end of the scholarship. have. i see my chief financial officer shaking his head less than that. they didn't want to be endowme endowment. they wanted this to be a tv prom even $1.6 billion can pay for everybody and so what uncf has done is to share with the nation begin back of the scholarship which by the way the students can say they will make this award are senior year of high school. these are high-performing low-income student students musn the first of their family to go to college. they can take this to the college of their choice for me and we have been attending 900 colleges and universities if they graduate at a 90% five-year rate and we will also support them through the phd disciplines

and public health. so it's been an incredible demonstration of power and impact of scholarships and we would like to see more people step up like bill and melinda gates and support more people as they worked t work to realize tr dreams of a college education. >> the night of stars was always a source of funding. it does this still support uncf's mission? an evening of stars started almost 40 years ago. nancy wilson and clifton davis were one of the first to step forward and create the program. he became the guiding light force for many years. we continue to have the show. however we have made some changes and this year we will

tape it in atlanta georgia, not in los angeles on april 6. it will be broadcast on april 13 and then into syndication and it is returning to its roots as a fund raiser. it was an old telethon in the 21st century we don't do it that way. there will be a 1800 number and there will be a lot of social media, and it is our plan that this will reenter choice to generation around at the critical time of supporting individual students in need of financial support for the college education and historically black colleges which are in crisis financially today. >> why do you think the obama administration has been so unresponsive to the concerns

about the parent plus loans? [laughter] >> it's been a bit of a conundrum to me why the administration has dug in its heels on what is by either their own omission a bad policy and data procesbad process arrivingt policy. i will let the secretary duncan and his team make the case for why they have maintained the policy. but i will make the case today that parent plus federal financial aid programs need a comprehensive and thorough review which is a part of the reauthorization of the act that

creates these programs. my view is that they need to turn the clock back, returned to the policy that was in place prior to the change they made and then have an open process for considering other changes that need to be made. the reality is that there is a pipeline of the loving come first generation students queuing up to go to college. they worked hard and they learned what they were supposed to. they've done what they are supposed to do and they are at the door of college classrooms across the country. they don't have the financial capability of paying the tuition and room and board. we need to find a way for them to get private scholarships.

the federal government needs to get the pell grant said that they actually pay for more of that college experience wherever the students go. we also need to recognize that students are going to have to have skin in the game. and we need to structure the loan programs and other loan programs and the interest rates are appropriate and the repayment plans to take into consideration whether the student is employed and how much he or she is making after graduation. and also finally, the collection of the loans is not on the backs of colleges and universities, but it's undertaken by the federal government itself. in australia if i borrow to go to college, the equivalent of the irs is responsible for collecting my dad.

they know how much i earn and how much i can pay back. today that responsibility is on the backs of colleges and universities across the country. it's a distraction from the work that they need to be doing to make sure the students graduate with the skills and capabilities needed to compete in the 21st century. why they focused on parent plus and made a bad fix and told us a little about it i think they need to defend. the students into the families who are trying to get a college education that's why they are continuing to speak on this issue in the private scholarships. >> one more question about president obama. president obama launched his my brother's keeper initiative aimed at helping more young men

of color facing tough odds to stay on track and reach their full potential. as a part of the efforts do you see this as an area where you can play an important role? >> so, we want a model partnership and civil disagreement. we can disagree with the obama administration and we do on parent plus and we are vigorous on our disagreements that we can also lift up the incredible amount of work to the president, first ladpresident,first lady at are doing to focus on students of color, low generation students who are tirin trying ad nowhere have they done a more important job. and guess we look forward to partnering with them and have

the suggestion recently from the department official that we focus on the success that we have had with african-american latino native american asian pacific islander youth in the millennium scholars foundation because 50% of the scholars are boys and they have a graduation rate almost as high as the girls in the across-the-board graduation rate is 90% and what we demonstrated is when you remove the financial barrier and provide social and cultural support to these people pursuing something which is really hard, going to college and leaving home, leaving the support network if you provide them support, they will soar. there are other examples in the

scholarship portfolio of success with young men and we look forward to highlighting those into getting others to replicate. >> regarding your support for the common core national curriculum what would you say to the critics who say that it's a top down and take over of local education? the common core curriculum which is setting high standards in math and english and writing and reading for understanding was something that was embraced by most of the states governors and departments of education around the country and it's only been in the implementation and suddenly there is then a group of critics who said that this is some kind of a way of centralizing the role of the

federal government controlling what happens in the local education. our kids need to be competitive in the 21st century. they don't need to learn english in one way and one community and english another way in another community and pass another way in another community. these are fundamental building blocks for all of education and i think that our kids can be taught at a highly rigorous demanding level and they can rise to the occasion. the students they are competing with are not just the kids in the suburbs. our kids are competing with kids in china and india in western europe and if they are going to compete in the 21st century they have to work harder and learn

how to exact the rigorous standards levels and that's why i support common core. i will make one other point. for years, the curriculum for loving come kids of color has been dumbed down. it's been a general education courses cover the basic courses that those kids have been exposed to which has neither prepared them for citizenship, career or college. i want low income african-american latino and other kids of color to get the chance not to be low income. the best chance for them is to get the education that will prepare them for college and to get the support that will enable them to graduate from college. that's why i support common co

core. the readinthat reading and writg proficiency and then many high school graduates has fallen in places in recent years. our uncf schools seeing this and how would you write the freshmen today compared with those of ten and 20 years ago? >> i taught freshman composition at morehouse college and i have a pretty good recollection of just how good they were 45 years ago. many of the kids i taught in the earlier generation wanted to go to college, but they have gone to segregated schools in the deep south and they'd gotte then the kind of educational preparation and we spent a lot of time in the 1960s doing every medial work. every student took reading and

basic writing courses and have to work very hard to get proficient so they could move into the advanced courses. today the good news is that we are seeing more young people that have gone to demanding middle and high schools who are graduating college ready coming to the institutions for credit. it's only 5% who are college ready and what they mean is the student has a 75% chance of getting a c. in one of his courses or 50% chance of getting a b.. so they may not be proficient in all four of those areas that may be in three or four of them. we are seeing more kids but no

college is important and are doing everything they can to succeed but always with a preparation that is uneven. i spoke with one college president a year or so ago as we were facing the parent plus loan program and he said that the irony of today i'm seeing students come to us who are academically better prepared and who are financially more challenged. even as we solve the preparations issue we have to solve the financial capability issue come into the government,t has a very important role to play there. >> how has access and the online courses affected the colleges and how do you see online

education affecting the business model in the future? >> we continue to see significant increases in applications in historically black colleges. as i said close to 80% over the last decade. acceptances are down. we don't think -- we think the reason the students don't come is because we can offer them for scholarships and financial aid not that they think there is a better school for them to attend or that they want to go online. today it is a vital and vibrant and growing sector that continues to attract older learners who are already in the workforce is and want to enhance their skills or get another

degree. i don't see them as competitive with hbcu's. i would say there are laboratories for best practices on how to instruct using technology and they had all bricks and mortar colleges and universities would be served partnering with online education and learning how you can construct effectively using that medium. it is not one that everyone understands. one bright spot as many historically black colleges is that vendors of the faculty and staff who are working full-time in the administrative and faculty positions have chosen online universities as places to pursue doctoral degrees. so i would say that has been a

good thing and i think online is here. you disregarded that at your own peril. there is however an important role going on into the future for historically black colleges to provide the kind of nurturing the family supportive environment that many of the first generation high school students are looking for individually find it not online but in the hbcu. >> there has been growth in the for-profit colleges and universities in recent years. what is european of the education that they provide in the cost. >> some are good. some are very good and some are bad. it's the role of the government through the accrediting oversight to determine who the

bad actors are to get them out of the marketplace. >> i know you touched on this briefly in your remarks but some people suggest that a college degree is not for everyone and that trade schools or community colleges with technical programs are better use of funds and provide more job opportunities than traditional four-year colleges. what do you think of that train of thought into how has it had an impact on the historically black colleges? >> there are a lot of answers to this one. one of them is the people that always talk about college is not being valuable in the longer our people but if you ask what they are telling their own kids or grandkids, they are telling them go to college. the college remains the gold standard and the four year

degree is an investment for any young person. they will double their earnings over a lifetime and we have just gone through a terrible recession. and as bad as the unemployment has been in the african-american community, with large it has not been a severe for the college graduates. it is about 8% unemployment when it was about 16%. so, it's been a good buy. college isn't for everyone but everyone should be ready for college. and i think that with that, we shouldn't assume that certain kids are not going to go to college because when we start assuming that we look at the black and brown kids as the one that we assume are not college

material. there are some great jobs out there that don't require a college degree but most of those jobs require a certification or some post secondary education. so if you are going to be an auto mechanic working on bmws, you are going to do that with a computer in one hand and another piece of electronic equipment on the other i it is not going to e your manual labor as we used to think of it. so i would say that we need to prepare all of our kids for the skills that are going to be required in the workforce, and that means some post secondary education, whether it is a certification, whether it is an associate of arts degree or a four-year baccalaureate.

most americans in the 21st century are going to pursue education at historically. they are not all going to graduate from hig high school, immediately enroll in college and complete in four years. it is today the minority of students. the majority of students are going to finish high school, go on and get some college, go into the workforce, decided they need to up their skills and go back and forth throughout their lifetime. so i think we need to think of a different paradigm. we need to have support for those students wherever they are on that journey including financial support and financial programs that recognize that people are going to go in and out and that incentivize them to get more education to up their skills and improve their earning capacity of eight and i think that is the work of the department of education and it's also the work of the

organization's that provide scholarship to support the students throughout their educational journey. universities continue to attract students from around the world to historically black colleges and universities and the international students and in what numbers? >> hbcu's are diverse institutions. if you go to xavier university you will find that there is a large group of the first and second generation vietnamese who are studying pharmacy in that institution. if you go to houston and in austin texas you will find they have a significant double-digit percentage who are mexican-american many of them are first generation. that is the case at the hbcu's

across florida and many of the students are first generation americans. more often than not, hbcu's are attractive institutions to new americans but they are also institutions which have international reputations as places where students of color have had an opportunity to get a good degree and one of the countries that has focused a lot of attention as of late has been brazil with strong programs at howard university here in washington, d.c. with morehouse sending students to study in the u.s. int and those institutionse sending their students to study abroad. there is an international dimension. there is a diverse population of students, and these institutions open their arms and embrace anyone that wants to come there to learn.

>> we are almost out of time but before asking the last question we have a couple of housekeeping matters to take care of. first i would like to remind you about the upcoming events and speakers on march 31, the senator from virginia state will discuss mental health and on april 2, the irs commissioner will be speaking. please feel free to comment. [laughter] now, doctor lomax i would like to present you with the traditional national press club that we get to the distinguished visitors from around the world in the united states. i'm honored to do so. thank you very much. [applause]

thank you so much for coming today. my last question, your iconic motto as you said during your remarks to min the mind is a tee thing to waste. but with colorado i and other states having legalized marijuana, do you worry that more students will be wasted on campus -- [laughter] and that they might waste their education as a result? >> no. i have a few minutes remaining and i would like to ask my good friend john lewis if he would say see a closing remark about e importance of a hbcu education. [applause] >> thank you very much for all of your great and good work. thank you for all that you do.

if it hadn't been for these colleges and universities, i wouldn't be standing here today. first one in my family to finish high school. first one in my family to go to college. education is a pathway to the middle class and it can make us all citizens. for these colleges and universities who had a civil rights movement, maybe martin luther king jr., whitney young, james farmer, julian bond, so many others. the students sitting down, not standing up. these colleges and universities

have brought about a nonviolent resolution. the revolution of values and ideas. i want to take a moment to yield to a friend of mine, a colleague of ours. danna davis on the ways and means committee and i tell you he is a champion. do you want to say a word? [applause] he is a native of arkansas actually, two of my heroes have already spoken. there isn't much else that i

would need for the desire to say except that these schools have provided and continue to provide not only the experiences that john has had, but experience that thousands of young people all over the country. it may not have been at as morehouse. it could have been at arkansas even then or southern illinois, southern university in louisia louisiana. or it could have been all kinds of institutions. please give. you have the resources. i shared when he talked about the u.s. office of education and the struggle that we have with them, and i shared with john

also struggles he has had throughout his life and the fact that he is such an inspiration to all of us, so thank you. [applause] thank you all for coming today and a special thanks to doctor lomax, congressman davis and congressman lewis. this has been a spontaneous ending but i think it is ending on the right. [laughter] i would also like to thank the national press club staff including the journalism institute and broadcast center for organizing today's lunch. if you would like to get a copy of today's program or to get more information about the national press club, please check out our website at press.org. thank you, and we are adjourned.

the senate is about to convene to begin its work week. members will be able to make speeches until 5 p.m. eastern. after that they will turn to the measure extending unemployment benefits for another five months retroactive to january 1. final passage is scheduled for 5:30. coverage of the senate here on c-span2. lord of life, hear our prayers. fill us with your spirit so that we may please you. today empower our law mixer. help them not to have an excessive focus on temporary things while ignoring the eternal.