one of the most important in the history of the 20th century in the united states. he was a reforming governor. he defined what progressivism is. he was one of the first to use the term "progressive" to self-identify. he was a united states senator who was recognized by his peers in the 1950s as one of the five greatest senators in american history. he was an opponent of world war i, stood his ground advocating for free speech. above all, bob la follette was about the people. so he spent the later part of the 1890s giving speeches all over wisconsin. if you wanted a speaker for your club or your group, bob la follette would give a speech. he went to county fairs, he went to every kind of event that you could imagine and built a reputation for himself. by 1900 he was ready to run for

governor advocating on behalf of the people. >> we're sitting in the first studio of frank lloyd wright. wright was actually born in richland center in wisconsin which is not too far from here. and he was, his family took him first to massachusetts for a time, and then they returned to madison. and he grew up in madison, spent his teenage years there and attended some of, very briefly, a few years, at the university of wisconsin before he decided to take off and find his fortune in chicago. decided he should come out to this part of the country which is where her family was, the lloyd jones, welsh pioneers, and spent his summers here. so he spent his teenage summers in this valley and on these hills, and that's where he got two things. he got his love of nature and his understanding of nature, and he also got his understanding of

the topography of these hills. >> watch all of our events from madison saturday at noon eastern on c-span2's booktv and sunday afternoon at two on american history tv on c-span3. >> here on c-span2, we're arrive at the national press -- we're live at the national press club. fcc commissioner jessica rosenworcel along with members of congress will start off the conversation, then we'll hear from leaders of various organizations representing minorities. you're watching live coverage on c-span2. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> and this discussion on work force diversity should get under way shortly here on c-span2. the u.s. senate is out today. heard a lot of discussion this week on the keystone xl pipeline. they will resume work on that

next tuesday. over in the house, moon while, today -- meanwhile, they will vote on bull cassidy's bill, the congressman from louisiana, that would immediately authorize construction on the pipeline. look for coverage, as always, over on c-span. in the meantime, while we wait for this discussion to get under way, we're going to bring you some of the comments this week from senator mary landrieu of louisiana. >> i was hoping to catch the senator before he left because i wanted to ask him -- and i'm not sure he's going to slip back in here -- but i was going to ask him if he thought maybe, because i agree with him, that that new approach to bipartisanship could start today. i don't think we have to necessarily wait until january. there are some of us that have been ready, that have worked in a bipartisan way literally for years getting really important things done for our nation, and i'm sorry that the senator

slipped away. i'm sure he's got some other pressing business. because i wanted to ask him and absolutely agree with him on the priorities that he just laid out. i think he just said that the american people want us to act and act together in their interest. i think i heard him say that in the top of his list that he was particularly anxious to work on was the keystone xl pipeline, the expedited export of natural gas. i think he said it was important for jobs in america, helping strengthen the middle class, sending a very positive signal to them that we heard them in this election, that he was troubled about the falling median household income and wanted to do something to raise it. and i think i heard him say that he was concerned or that he was, how shall i say, he was thinking

that some of these things would really push putin back on his heels. i've been one of the ones sanctioned by president putin, and there are a few others that are on that list, so i've been of that mind for a while. i think he also said and referred to ted kennedy, one of our dear friends and mentored many of us not just democrats, but republicans as well with his straightforwardness, his honesty, his passion, his capacity for extraordinary work and his willingness to work across party lines as the senator from pointed out, called up the great partnership with senator kennedy and senator hatch and talked about the 80/20. let's agree on 80%. we might not agree on everything, but let's move forward. i think what were his words on the 80%, that we do agree on. so i want to come to the floor today to ask senator cornyn from

texas particularly and senator mcconnell and senator reid and others if they would join me in moving forward on the keystone xl pipeline. this has been a project that has lingered far too long. it is clearly supported by 60 or more members of this body. it is a piece of legislation that has been endorsed by the new majority leader, to-be majority leader. he is a cosponsor and a leading cosponsor of the legislation. there are a significant number of democrats on that legislation, and i believe with a push, significant push in the next few hours, that we could actually get the votes that we need to pass the keystone

pipeline. now, in an hour or so at the request of the minority, i'm going to wait for about an hour, and then i'm going to propose a unanimous consent to do exactly that, to set up two hours of debate tonight after the vote and then have a vote on the keystone pipeline tomorrow. i believe it is time to act. i believe that we should take the new majority leader at his word and stop blocking legislation that is broadly supported by the american public and has been for quite some time. i want to say yes to majority leader, new majority leader mitch mcconnell. the time to start is now. the public has clearly spoken. and i believe that we can move forward on several important

pieces of legislation. senator reid mentioned the marketplace fairness act. that is another very important piece of legislation that i believe needs to be moved through, and with a little push right now, it could get tone, and it would be a significant boost to business and retail that are being hurt every day by our inaction. but my comments today are going to to be about the keystone pipeline because i am chair of the energy committee for the united states senate. and i'm going to do everything in my power here and at home on the campaign trail where i'm still in a runoff, as you know, to get this project moving forward. one of the extraordinary facts about the keystone pipeline is

not what it is -- and i'm going to talk about this in a minute and what it does -- but one of the most extraordinary pieces of argument for why we should pass it is the unprecedented coalition that supports it. now, there are other bills that have a longer list of supporters. there are pills that have pages and pages -- there are bills that have pages and pages of list. but this particular bill has a relatively short list of organizations, but they are extremely powerful, and they are extremely diverse which makes it compelling, and i think it makes us or should make us want to stand up and respond to this coalition. i'm going to read their names, because i've got some time to do

this before i call for unanimous consent to pass the original hoeven-landrieu keystone bill which is a stand-aa loan keystone bill as originally introduced with 45 republican cosponsors, every member of the republican caucus is already a cosponsor of this bill. and we have on that bill about 12 democratic cosponsors. and i am confident that we have the additional votes necessary to pass it. the american chemistry council, the american concrete pipe association, the american exploration and production council, the american highways users' alliance, the american petroleum institute, the american road and transportation builders, american truckers

association, associate general contractors of america, association of oil pipelines, concrete reinforcing steel institute, distribution contractors association, independent petroleum association of america, industrial minerals association of north america, institute for 21st century -- 21st century energy, international brotherhood of electrical workers, laborers' international union of north america, and let me stop there and make a point. many bills that pass here or are attempted to pass here either have a list of all business organizations or all labor organizations or all environmental organizations or all, you know, highway contractors. this bill has such an extraordinary, diverse group of some of the strongest business leaders in the country, and i

want to underscore to my democratic colleagues that are supporting this piece of legislation tremendous support from labor unions. because labor unions, like business leaders, want jobs. they want profits. they want success. they want more investment in business creating good middle class jobs. and the difference between the oil and gas industry, which i've been pleased to be a strong advocate for in many, many different facets, is that this industry does produce the kinds of jobs that americans really want. not minimum wage jobs, not just slightly above minimum wage, but jobs that in my state -- the senator knows this because he's well aware of this -- start at 60, 70, $85,000 for a young man or a young woman coming out of high school or trade school, let

alone college. these are very important jobs. that's why labor unions are represented here along with portland cement association, the plastics industry, the united -- >> senator landrieu on the floor this week talking about the keystone xl pipeline bill which will come up for debate in the senate next tuesday. it'll come up for a final vote today in the u.s. house. look for coverage at noon eastern over on c-span. here on c-span2, we're waiting for this discussion hosted by politico -- hosted by politic335, rather, on workplace diversity. they'll hear from a number of members of congress and fcc commissioner jessica rosenworcel and that should get, this discussion should get under way shortly. we'll have it live for you here on c-span2. in the meantime, a day ahead of the start of the second year of open enrollment for the affordable care act, we focused

on that this morning on "washington journal." we'll show you some of that discussion. >> host: jayne o'donnell is with "usa today," a health care reporter for that newspaper. open enrollment begins tomorrow. is it going to be ready? are the sites going to be ready? >> guest: well, i think it's going to be as ready as it can possibly be. all the work's been done. we're all waiting to see, and i'm sure the folks in the government are nervous but probably not as nervous as they were last year because there's been so much more testing. it's incredible. i think it's weeks and weeks compared to ten days. >> host: it's march 23, 2010, that the president signed the aca. >> guest: been a long time ago. >> host: what's the consensus on its success? >> guest: boy, it's still pretty divided. there's, certainly, listening to your callers and talking to people regularly, people are pretty divided. it's very politically polarized, as you well know. i hear from people, you tend to hear from people that are

unhappy more than people that are happy. i've heard from a certain number of people that even if they're unhappy with certain aspects like the difficulty of finding the doctor that they really want in a plan that they can afford, that's a big concern. but some people are getting care they never could have gotten, so i do hear from a fair number of people that would be bankrupt if it wasn't for the law. i do tend to hear from people who are unhappy about how much they're paying out of pocket. >> host: new republican majority, house and senate. how is that going to affect the aca? >> guest: you didn't hear it as much on the campaign trail this year. it wasn't the big, hot button issue that some expected maybe a year ago it was expected it would be. i don't -- what i'm hearing is that there isn't going to be the mood to or even the -- it's not likely to be repealed. there are probably going to be changes made. there are probably changes that everyone would agree should be

made, certain loopholes closed. but you'll be hearing some about it, but i don't think it's going to be the priority it wasn't was. >> host: supreme court. what's going to happen up there? >> guest: goodness, i certainly don't know that. certainly, i would tell consumers even though the supreme court is going to look at whether the subsidies are, in fact, legal, if you're a state that didn't set up your own exchange, the -- everything's going to go as it is now. no matter what the supreme court does, the consumer shouldn't do anything different. they should still, what is it, about 80 percent of people are eligible for sub cities that buy on -- subsidies on the government exchanges, so people should still pursue those subsidies. >> host: is that the only case on health care that the supreme court is going to hear in the next session? >> guest: boy, i'm not a supreme court reporter. that's the only one i'm aware of. that's the big one -- >> and now, jayne o'donnell, before we go back to calls, i want to point this out. "usa today" has devoted a page and a half --

>> guest: right. >> host: -- to your story this morning, and it's on rural hospitals. rural hospitals in critical condition, this is the front page of the "usa today" this morning. is this because of the aca? >> guest: well, some of them say it's a little bit of the last straw. it certainly isn't because of the aca. rural hospitals have been in decline for a number of years, but it's been accumulation of things, just kind of the death spiral they've been in. some of them, one of the hospitals i went to, richland, georgia, right up the street from plains, georgia, and their little hospital there the owner said that the electronic health records were kind of the last straw which are required under the affordable care act. but it largely, you know, the populations that they're serving, they're serving very poor populations that are on medicare or medicaid and, of course, georgia's one of the states that didn't expand medicaid. expansion of medicaid would probably make a big difference, but it wouldn't save a lot of these hospitals. >> host: and you have a chart in here of some of the hospitals that are closing.

let's show this. it looks -- is it centered down in the south? >> guest: it certainly does seem to be. there is a lot of it in the south. of course, the south is also where there's been the least medicaid expansion. there were a lot of these hospitals. it's really -- i've covered health care just over a year. i've been a reporter for a long time, but there are just so many issues that go into this, and you just, you feel it can be rather depressing, and i've covered a lot of depressing things in my career, but there's so much that needs to be done in these areas. people's health so bad, and they're not getting the care they need. so they certainly need to be getting some preventive care and healthy lifestyle changes, frankly. >> host: jayne o'donnell -- >> i'm crystal hye, cofounder and editor-in-chief of politic365.com. today in addition to the release of our second blueprint policy report, we'll embark on a conversation about some of the policies and best practices that should be implemented and, in

some case, replicated nationwide in order to insure greater economic opportunity for people of color and young people. following my introduction, the report will have some remarks from members of congress. we're joined right now by congresswoman donna edwards who we'll be hearing from soon, and we'll also have the opportunity to do broader conversation between all of you here today, and so we thank you for coming. you know, as our national landscape shifts, we find that people of color and young people play an even more critical role in dictating the socioeconomic health, vitality and global competitiveness of our country. we thank you for joining us today, and we look forward to parsing out some ideas and strategies for better positioning our communities and our country for greater opportunities and future successes. so a little context. four and a half years ago politic365 launched just ought months before the 2010 midterm

midterm -- just eight months before the 2010 midterm elections. our goal was twofold. first, we wanted to create a place where people of color, especially our youth and young adults, could go to understand the key issues of the day and how decisions made by our elected and appointed officials impact their lives. second, in addition to demystifying what can admittedly at times be a mind-numbing political process, we wanted to create a platform that uplifted leaders of color and helped them better serve their constituents by empowering people with information relevant to their lives and livelihoods. so we fast forward to today. and while we remain ever faithful to our founding principles, we're even more committed to engaging, educating and empowering young people and people of color to become more active participants in the policy decisions that shape their daily realities. particularly in view of changing

demographics, it is neither prudent, nor practical for this nation's growing majority of young people and people of color to sit on the sidelines while other people whose interests and outlook may not be our own or whose vision does not align with the greatest hopes and aspirations that we have for ourselves to dictate the political victories and policy outcomes that create the america we live in each day. and so in 2012 politic365 set out to be not just a media outlet, but an advocacy platform for the issues that matter so much to our communities. in march of that year, we held our first blueprint forum where we assembled policymakers, academics, civil rights leaders, social justice advocates, lawyers, business leaders, thinkers, movers and shakers. our goal was simple: determine strategies to enable young people and people of color to leverage the momentum being created by america's changing

demographics to improve their social and economic standing. and so thus begun our quest. after a year of conversation and workshops and research and dinners and forums and surveys and meetings, we released our first blueprint report highlighting policies which, if adopted and implemented effectively, could help benefit our core demographic. our recommendations then, as now, focused on nine high-growth sectors of the american economy where substantial opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship and investment are being born each day. these sectors -- banking and finance, broadband and technology, defense, energy, health care and pharmaceuticals, hospitality, media, retail and transportation -- all comprise a significant portion of u.s. economic activity, support millions of jobs and house profound amounts of innovative potential. we released our first blueprint report in 2013 and set forth a

high level policy agenda outlining critical issues that need to be addressed in order to both increase the participation by people of chor and young people -- color and young people in our key industry areas and also create a better pipeline for success once we become more active in these spaces. in so doing, a few key themes emerged across all sectors. first, enhanced opportunities for educational attainment and academic achievement in s.t.e.m. in particular is a must. second, we live in an increasingly connected society in which the internet is becoming the epicenter of all things social, economic and political, and digital literacy skills are required in order to excel in this 21st century economy. third, more needs to be done in the way of creating and implementing forward-thinking work force development programs that are able to prepare people of color and young people for the types of jobs available in

these most high-growth sectors of our economy. fourth, we cannot turn a blind eye to the lingering effects of racial discrimination that impact full participation by some in the economic life of this country. especially when it comes to things like pay equity, access to capital and the ability to tap into networks of influence. and finally, there's a critical interplay between regulation and the ability that firms -- whether large corporations, small business or entrepreneurial ventures -- that they have to thrive, generate jobs and further opportunities to advance the public good. economic opportunity, as we see it, is a two-sided equation that involves both access to jobs, critical resources and investment potential on one hand and the presence of an ability to adopt and use affordable products and services on the other. with today's release of

politic365's blueprint for universal economic inclusion, best practices for building a more diverse, inclusive work force, we outline the current demographic situation for people of color and young people, propose some specific policy approaches and highlight industry best plaqueses -- practices that coalesce be in what we think is a recipe for opportunity. this report explores changes in policy that has mirrored changes in demographics, changes that find america becoming younger and more diverse at a time when too many achievement gaps persist and stand in the way of our growing majority becoming full and active participants in the economic promise of this country. a few demographic trends to note. between 2000 and 2010, u.s. population growth was driven almost exclusively by racial and ethnic minorities. by 2042 people of color will

make up the majority of america's population. each as people of color -- even as people of color become the majority, jarring wealth and employment gaps threaten the vitality of our communities. the median wealth for why is households is 20 times that of african-american and 18 times that of hispanic households. though the overall unemployment rate fell to under 5.9% in september 2014 for the first time since 2008, unemployment for african-americans was 11.7%, 7.3% for hispanic-americans and 14.3% for youth. though higher educational attainment is often associated with higher earnings, high school dropout rates for african-americans and hispanics are higher than they are for white americans. 17.7% of african-americans and 13% of hispanic-americans hold a bachelor's degree or higher

compared to 29.3% of white americans. and by a variety of measures, african-americans and hispanics tend to enter college less ready and prepared than their white and asian counterparts. what's more, despite the growing importance of s.t.e.m. degrees, african-americans and hispanics pursue these fields at a lower rate than white and asian-americans and only comprise about 5-7% of silicon valley's work force. on the upside, buying power for african-americans and hispanics is steadily increasing with each group maintaining a spending power of $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion respectively. also broadband adoption and technology use is up among african-americans and hispanics, especially when it comes to mobile technologies. so bearing these trends in mind, we've outlined some key policies and best practices that will be integral to our ability to turn the tide on the various achievement gaps facing america's growing majority and

better position people of color and young people for greater economic opportunity. first, regarding banking and financial services, whether we're talking about paying for a house, saving for retirement or putting our kids through college, we rely on banking and financial services to support the very fabric of our economic needs. at the same time, almost six million people are employed by this sector, and the wealth generated by the financial services industry contributed nearly 6% to u.s. gdp in 2009. increasingly, participation by young people and people of color in this space requires direct pipelines to opportunity, mentorship and a meaningful investment in diversity. we cite jpmorgan chase, goldman sachs and master ceard for their -- mastercard for their efforts at diversity recruitment and retention, as well as efforts to support s.t.e.m. preparedness, job creation and training and financial literacy. when it comes to broadband and

telecommunications, the private sector has invested in excess of $1.2 trillion in deploying and maintaining broadband networks since 1996. and in aggregate, the broadband sector contributes about $900 billion annually to the u.s. economy and supports roughly ten million jobs. broadband is not only an engine of economic opportunity, but it provides the backbone for innovative educational and health care applications and is a platform for the free expression of ideas and entrepreneurial activity. ..

rightfully content plates a potential rewrite of the telecommunications act of 1996 to better accommodate the reality of the 21st century furthering the potential in this space requires flexible rules of the road which the federal communications commission can create using the 706 authority that both protect consumer interest and incentivize investment in the space. turning to defense sector which is both critical to the national security and economic future,

roughly one sixth of all spending goes to national defense and the sector directly supports more than 1 million jobs within direct support of twice as many contributing to 2.25% of the nations gdp america spends between 500 billion a 750 billion on defense each year. as issues like energy security, cyber security and bolstering the nation's defense system raised in prominence, so do the opportunities for young people of color to become active participants. northrop grumman has workplace diversity that ties executive comp addition to the hiring and retention and lockheed martin includes inclusivity and establishing high plains and the boeing focuses on the power ship among its ranks.

in proving participation by people of color and young people in this space requires enhanced attention and resolution of issues that could result in unnecessary cuts to defense spending. turning to the energy sector which is among the largest contributors to economic growth in the country and employees well over 1 million people with more than 600,000 working for private utilities additionally, tens of thousands of new jobs are being created as a result of the renewed focus on the energy production and in total energy expenditure is comprised about 9% of the u.s. gdp. part of the economic opportunity creation for the energy sector involves the creation of new jobs like those that are sure to come as a result of utility scale solar objects launching across the nation and by the same token to modernize the electric grid and improve energy

efficiency savings through programs like the low income housing energy assistance program as well as yield economic benefits to people of color and people who pay disproportionate amounts of their a disproportionate amount of their money each month to their energy bill. companies like pacific gas and electric, duke energy and chevron in place stem participation and mentorship and also large-scale energy should the efforts that you limit debate could deliver back to the communities. turning to healthcare pharmaceutical sectors in that stayed in the implementation it comprises healthcare spending accounting for 18% of total gdp because the cost is expected to double by 2020. technological innovation and growing demand. the participation should be

especially to people of color who disproportionately suffer from chronic but curable illness like heart disease and diabetes. if our workers are ill not only do they create financial burden on the healthcare system to accommodate the treatment they also lose valuable time from working on the entrepreneurial endeavors that can further prospects of the communities. the association of medical colleges has been front and center on the recruitment at the collegial level of the diversity and inclusion. and the hospitality sector which employs 14 million people hotels and restaurant industries have become the reliable higher standard promoters of people of color into the number of african-american owned restaurants jumped 188% between 1987 and 2007. compared to a 36% increase

during the same time period while the asian owned restaurants grew 60%. to increase process. increased perception of color and to advance economic opportunities, mariotti developed an interactive english assistant or program that also provides scholarships to the hispanic college fund and the united negro college fund to allow employees. mcdonald's food focused their efforts on supplier diversity and mentor training making it possible for people of color to access critical entry points to the employment process. for the media of which encompasses radio, television, music, books and more it's one of the most dangerous industries in the country and adults on average spend five hours and

nine minutes and four hours and 31 minutes in front of the television which means the rising popularity and sophistication of technologies of new media is creating exciting opportunities for people. even questions of media ownership persists there is a tremendous opportunity for the demographics to be active participants. the value created by having people of color and people actively participate companies like 21st century fox, cbs and walt disney are supporting the alliance's and mentoring and training programs to find and promote diverse talent. after several years of downturn, they have rolled back to the prior prominence with more than 3.6 million retail establishments in the u.s. which support ron in for jobs or 42 million working americans.

it contributes to the gdp each year year -- consumers people of color have a growing spending power which numbers into the trillions in as employees we represent a percentage of retail workers and as employers we are taking new ownership opportunities to new heights so some of the largest retailers, target and wal-mart for example are engaging more with their communities and invest in the minority and women-owned businesses and supporting programs that help their employees and finally nine sectors. the transportation sector encompasses every means of people from place to place and it is expensive is what supports millions of jobs that have generated so much potential and companies like american airlines and amtrak continue to focus

efforts on pipeline programs and inclusivity. so the demographic shift into these are lots of numbers the demographic shift has provided a catalyst for those to create new pipeline programs and to get get the traction going to the underlying goal is what should we be doing to increase for for younger people and people of color and that's what we are here to talk about today. the report lays out a variety of sites of the institute acts and practices that we are privileged to be joined by two members of congress who will share with us some of their thoughts on how we can move forward and i would first like to ask the congress woman to come up and then followed by virginia wilson. [applause]

>> as i was skimming through the report this morning one of the things that stuck out was the link to the technology sector into and the gap that kristol expressed and that is born out of the number of young people that are trained for and going into these sectors so i thought i would focus on that and by sharing my experience. when i came out of high school i was very a debt of science, technology, engineering, math that there was never anyone who's had by the way you should

go into the seals. no one did that despite the score at the top level of the sat tests and math. i came out of the undergraduate school majoring in english and minor in spanish and i thought that was great and i kind of worked my way into the lockheed corporation. lockheed ended up going that i have that capacity and they sent me to school and trained me and i ended up working in the space program at nasa but from my way of thinking there was a gap of almost a decade during which i

could have been doing those things but for having been trained and mentor and develop and sadly that was years ago and it is still happening. so as we look through each sector what strikes me is the gap we are experiencing particularly among young people it means that it with means that it will increase if we do not stem the tide. i think it's helpful to have pointed out some of the corporate good actors. we point out the bad actors but it's helpful to point out the good actors who are trying to engage in matching the diversity with the demographic shifts that are happening in this country.

i wanted to know note one of the important facts is how connected our people are to technology. they are mobile broadband users and although that hasn't translated into the home is -- it isn't a fact of people being able to access technology at home so they can be better students but the reason is because as we move towards the future it is increasingly going to be the mobile broadband applications that are more valuable in the workplace and in these growing sectors but it can't be lost. it has to be translated into workforce development, training and opportunity in the economy. the other thing that strikes me

are the increases in population of all communities of color and in the last cycle what it means in the policy perspective is that we have to embrace and not fight by making those opportunities available and into these sectors. over the last year i overtook to the historically black colleges with a specific purpose of exploring their staff programs. my take away was the recognition

that the overwhelming majority will be educated in these institutions and while they are trying on their own to expand the applications and opportunities in the universities, it isn't matched by an investment. when you don't have the institutions which research is being invested you don't have institutions over a period of time that can continue to attract the most talented students and faculty and develop the programs so they become workers in the economy so it seems to me there's a place for congress and the state legislature and investing in research capacities of our historically black colleges and universities and minority serving institutions that would

be a good investment that would pay off in the long run and it also occurs to me there are interesting things. but it can spill over into the larger economy. i recall some interesting work going on around agriculture enhancing technology that it requires an infusion of an investment so that you connect that federal resources whether that is true national institute of health or the department of agriculture and other unsuspecting places to the work going on in that institution and then i will say as well they started a challenge a couple of

years ago very few members participated in that challenge and the goal is to like the competition that goes on to encourage young people in the schools to participate in developing interesting applications that demonstrate their capacity but very few members are participating and that is a fault because it has a benefit and i think particularly for the members of the black caucus and hispanic caucus it could have the benefit of elevating the importance of investments in the areas please send a policy response but it is a public education response which is needed as well. i've been very interested in trying to figure out a way that we can use our tax code to

encourage investments in smaller businesses that are doing things like innovative research and development. very often the tax credits go to larger businesses and it's not that there's anything wrong with that it's just for the minority on japan orders -- entrepreneurs they can't corrupt or corporate treasuries into developing and when you are a nation that doesn't invest in research and development you are a nation that doesn't invest in the future and so i think as we move into a discussion about the tax code lets expand the discussion so we are figuring out how we can encourage investment in research and development technologies in the smaller firms that would have the benefit of providing greater opportunities for minority businesses and women-owned businesses if we just trigger

the tax code at the highest income performing areas and then i think it's important for us to broaden their reach science technology engineering and math and what do i mean by that clacks everybody wants to use it but nobody has put the wherewithal into helping us understand how it is that we began to encourage young people to be interested in the fields. most make a decision by an adult fourth-grader that they are math or science students and when a judgment is made in fourth grade that that's true, virtually every other decision about education flows from that.

most of the programs target high school students and even students who are already in the colleges and universities so what that means is that you've lost about a decade or more in attracting the best and brightest to do things they are completely capable of doing because we focus all of our energy developing programs and a higher education level instead of targeting at elementary and fourth-grade. so the interesting things that younger people young people are excited about doing that connect them and their lives to the technology and i think that we have the capacity to do that we also have to reach unsuspecting places it for me that is not

about an education system that creates specialized schools for these things. it's the way to do education is make sure there are investments made in a bunch of different schools and neighborhoods and environment because you never know when you are going to find those students. there is a school in my congressional district. it's not a science school and get it has a whole bunch of students with a lot of great educators who are invested in making sure they understand the technology fields so what they've done is partnered with the high school and those students learn from each other and many of them do it on their own time with guidance from their parents and from their

educators but from what i've learned about that students no matter what neighborhood they are and have the capacity to learn in these fields and the more that we engaged them, the better capacity our employers have been investing in those communities and schools and i will conclude by saying when i look through the report and i saw a number of the employers who were named as having the programs let's not call it diversity but call it inclusion but it's the demographics of the nation into their workplaces so many of the names didn't surprise me that the reason is because those are the same partners that i have in my congressional district when it comes to things like job fairs,

investing in education so many of these employers are the ones doing that now. what we have to do is translate this good word and example into a broad spectrum of the workplace so i thank you very much for the opportunity to be here this morning and i look forward to continuing to work with so many of you because there are opportunities for our young people we have to help them see their connection to the future and then when it comes to an election cycle and we are asking people to participate in elections it isn't far from them because we've connected what they need and their opportunity to the public policy development to a job in their community and

neighborhood to investing in them and their children and families and communities and so i like the idea of the name politics 365 because politics and public policy isn't just labor day to november can't try to popular belief and popular practice. with politics 365 we are going to change that concept and stop just visiting churches after labor day and start investing in our communities january to november. thank you very much. [applause] thank you congresswoman edwards. i would like to invite congress woman wilson for some remarks

that i would like to thank politics 365 and the editor in chief for inviting me today. i'm an educator by trade i just happened to be a member of congress from miami florida. i started out as a schoolteacher and i was the education coordinator for head start and when they were trying to take it out of the school districts i had to come to congress to testify saints head start and then i became a school principal and it was just on the cusp of integration in miami on the

80s. i was the first black principle of this integrated to school and they had to actually bus the african-american children to integrate the weight was one third african-american and one third hispanic and one third anglo. a very early on very early on in the school year i realized when you're from miami and you leave 80 degrees and come here, that's a problem. [laughter] very early on it was apparent to me that the little black boys in my school for different.

so i began to meet with them every wednesday in my conference room and have lunch with them because every single time i had a parent conference it had to do with a black boy if it was for suspension, expulsion, homework, alternative education, exceptional education, discipline, report cards, whatever it was even though the school was integrated it was always these boys so i began to meet with them and my conference room and i would say what's the matter with you where you so why are you so angry and why can't you just sit still, pay attention and listen to the

teacher why are you always in my office? talk to me. as i started making visits and listening to them and it was clear to me that these little boys had a little cool in their heart that even i could into her and i loved them and they edwards me. it was because there wasn't one successful mail in their soundings were family. they didn't even have a grandfather or an uncle that they could emulate so i said this is a problem. i would say he cds please everybody is beating about you but one thing that i found out it didn't matter how poor they were, it didn't matter if they

would tell me that he would get a check on a friday and come home and give the money to mom and then he would go out with his buddies and he wouldn't come back home until saturday night and he did the job he was with the family and it didn't matter. so i reached out to the men i man i had gone to high school with and i said i have these little boys in my school and you've got to help me. when i reached out to them they came by the hundreds and they can to help them and these little boys began to change. so these were the students that were going to become the president's, i presidents, i made them the ambassadors of the schools sector separate an

integral neck ties from first grade all the way to kindergarten and when they would come to the school they would stand at the door to greet everyone and at the end of the school day i would make rounds and i would take all of them with me so that we could ask the children what happened today and if they would be that they would be able to say the same thing so they became the leaders of the school simply because of inclusion and because of an opportunity that i gave them. the government to about a composting plant across to the street from my school and i asked for help from the school board that nobody helped me so i left the school, i redesigned. i took a 60,000-dollar cut in salary and i ran for the miami-dade county school board.

after winning the school board, those little boys stayed on my mind. i caught up in called them the 100 african-american role models and their role was to help these little boys and as they grew up. my last days at the schools everyone was crying, it took all day for me to leave. i cried, the parents cried at the children cried, my clothes were backed, my custodian came and said i think that everybody's gone, you can go home now and it was 9:00 at night so he pulled my car to the back of the school and when i got outside there was a little boy laying across the hood of my

car. when he saw me he jumped up and he said you can't leave. i said what do you mean? he said you can't believe you need to stay here. my brothers will go to prison if you leave because nobody cares about these bubble boys like you do. i said what do you care you are in high school now. he said that i'm talking about the ones in the school. when i got to the school board i began to visit all of the schools and i saw a mirror of skyway elementary and i saw that they were not afforded the opportunity and i was going to give an example people probably never even think of god by living this on a dalia basis and i still do because i started the program countywide and every

school in my district is a program that addresses the needs and issues of little boys of color. so as i have this glass of water here i'm a teacher and little children in my school, little white girl, little boy came up and bumped it and it fell on the ground and the teacher would go down to the ground with them and help them pick it up and put it back and say okay. the little black girl walked up and knocked it down then the teacher would say pick it up and she would pick it up and put it back. if a little black boy would knock it down she would take you don't have any business up here what are you doing up here

anyway. this is so true you have to see it to understand the situation as it relates to these children. so these kids are in the school system who we have brought into the fold. the program is 22-years-old and we have given over $10 million in scholarships. once you enter the program in kindergarten, you are in were in it until you graduate high school. the teach them respect for women come out to solve a conflict without resorting to violence, how to feel like you are somebody can help to dress and interview for jobs, how to behave and respect authority and

how to deal with the police. when the police speak or stop you, freeze and do not move. so the entire school district and the entire community, public defenders, judges, state attorneys, all of our doctors and lawyers and hospitals, colleges, universities come together to give these young men the opportunity to move forward. when i first started the program and i was on the school board and i would go to different schools these girls would say to me you're always doing something for the boys. when are you going to do something for the girls and i would say to them you might

think that this is for the boys but this is for you. i'm building you good strong husbands and good strong fathers for your children. then as i served on the legislature and i would be challenged on that issue because we formed something governor bush called the commission on the social status of black men and boys and we did all kind of studies to find out why black boys had difficulty passing standardized tests and why they were the first to drop out of school and all sorts of socioeconomic issues that do not infect anyone else with all kinds of things we have seminars

and you find a children in middle school and its high already. we make sure peace children got the kind of opportunity they needed and as they we moved forward people would challenge me and i would say when i see a little girl walking down the miami-dade county public street street with an ak-47 in her hand looking for another little black girl who has an ak-47 then you can help me but there's such a difference and we are losing so many of these children to prison

because it's an industrial complex. we have laws that say we must keep them in full or the state will be penalized if they are not at 90% capacity so our little children to our little boys of color are the ones that are being shuffled past the opportunities, auto mechanics, whatever their iq or their objectives are they are moving past that into prison. if we don't realize that and

stop that we are spinning our wheels. when a president obama announced, i was there and i was cheering saying i hope the nation understands these children are different. they are different because their socioeconomic status and because of the perception that america has of them. they don't even want to give them a second chance. we were just talking about a congressman who has a record they couldn't believe, stealing cars. he then congress right now.

if he were a black little boy doing that he would be in prison. so there are so many things to address to the sentencing guidelines become access to drugs can help you get into the community and the opportunities that we do not afforded them, the men in the community that has lost or have never been present and those that are there and i think they should be responsible for their children. i really feel that way but i also know that there are children who do not have responsible parents because they don't have responsible parents responsibility of the communities of my message today and i live and preach and thank

you so much for this opportunity. thank you. [applause] when we start talking about the blueprint forward for the communities and we have been tremendously blessed when you talk apartment worship and modeling what it is we need to see and then the interplay between the democracy and opportunities and needing to make sure that we are filling those gaps through education outreach efforts or making sure that diversity matches the demographic shifts these are the type of things when we talk about the solutions that we need to start digging deeper on so the policy can mirror practicing

all these things come together with a multi-stakeholder process. we will get into more dialogue in the audience but we've also been graced with the presence of the congressman and i would like to invite him forward to deliver some remarks before we go into the conversation. [applause] >> i'm going to be brief so that we can interact with the audience but let me say on one level we have the responsibility to make sure those who are qualified get an opportunity to participate. it's like the jackie robinson approach the people can play baseball but when they are locked out because of the various prejudice of people who were the gatekeepers we have that challenging to the other

challenge of people that have the potential but need to have the preparation so that they can get ready to participate in the world's wealthiest economy and that's where education and job training and job readiness to the legislation part of the urban jobs bill which is critical to reach those now and what is referred to in the business as multiple barriers to employment training and accents they have a circumstance where they have a criminal record and which they've been disconnected from the workforce but we need to get them into the swing of things but we also have people congress woman wilson was speaking about the need to intervene early and create through a proactive approach a

process that gets them where they are potential can take them so when i established the program that is now 32 million people we knew if that we had a conversation with people and help guide them in a direction we could have a positive impact and it's been no more successful effort nationwide for young men of color, young women of color and we know what differentiates by about $1.5 million when you break this cycle of poverty you do it not just for that young person but for their children and on and on and it's not about whether the kids go to college but rather bomb or dad and it changes the whole dynamic so we

have work to do and i love the report because it talks about the universal application that is we know how to do this and it's a matter of bringing to scale what we can desire in terms of the stem education or an infusion into some of the hard sciences like energy and other activities so i just wanted to come and say how much this is appreciated and we get a lot of political rhetoric but we really need programming and policy development that letter we changes the circumstances on the ground and that's what is the focus of this so i want to congratulate you and i am happy to be here. thank you. as to make one of the privileges

of being a moderator among so many people with so many ideas is that i get to come along for the talk. there were so many touch points that were raised and i wanted dig into something something congresswoman edwards was talking about and this is creating the space for greater opportunity so we don't always know what success looks like when it comes to technology telecommunications and one of the success stories we spoke about his love for grain management which is the largest minority held equity firm and they've been doing some really innovative things so i would like to invite the president and ceo of the telecommunications council and get some ideas

around how that even works and how were they able to and what model might be there that we can learn complex thanks for having us at the telecommunications council. we are very deeply engrossed in these issues because telecom is the sixth largest industry in america and as crystal said to you it's responsible for 900 billion annually and then another 10,000 jobs so it's important as we think about politics we think about how we create a world that includes diverse ownership of that area so we are always back at the ranch working on how we can create more diversity and i think that the management is a wonderful example but to give

you a little bit of background it is no secret if he were a woman owned business or person of color that had a business in the telecommunications industry you were pretty much walked out if you were not a well-funded company this was in the area for you but the fact of the matter is that in america we have a legislative imperative and a policy mandate and certainly there is the business case for why they have to open up for the diverse ownership so not just big companies all in the traditional way but when men and people of color because they serve america as a whole. this is also important because people of color index very high on the use of mobile technology so if we will be the highest users we also need to be owners in that space and so section 309

asks them to make sure they avoid an excess concentration of licenses and they have to disseminate among a wide variety of applicants that includes small businesses, telephone companies and businesses owned by members of minority groups and women so in the context of the fcc, these minority owned businesses and the telephone companies are collectively known as designated entities. the new president i have to use these technical terms so that's not regular conversation lost. you're hearing them talk about the initiative and/or like what is that but it is designated entities and it refers to the telephone companies, minority

owned businesses and women owned businesses and as you can imagine when they have auctions to give out that space it's harder for those businesses to compete with businesses that have been around for decades so they created these mechanisms to make it fair so these businesses could get a piece of the space because they serve our communities and they are representatives just like those little boys they want to see somebody that looks like them and we want to make sure that the ownership looks like everyone so one of the things they used to do and this is from 1996 to 2006, the fcc's whole the greatest increase in the minority ownership that minority ownership and the reason is all that is because they implemented participation that allowed them to have credits and it created a

wonderful world of diversity. it was a big start in something that had been a long-standing barrier to entry but unfortunately after that. a week went back to the old way and they took away the tax credits and all the things that made the difference and so we have been fighting hard to bring those things back to to the attributable material relationship will and that prevented small businesses and minority owned businesses from participating if they at least 25% more of the spectrum. this was a barrier to entry and that is set aside for the businesses that are cutting the designated entity designation.

it also needs to increase the credit so that more people can participate in these auctions and incorporate diversity in the public interest analysis of the mergers and acquisitions as well as secondary market transactions so here they petitioned to have a waiver and he was successful and numerous groups supported that because it is a minority owned industry and it is trying to get some of the space and this space and i am pleased to report the deal is significant because it is the largest transfer of spectrum from at&t and verizon. you should know that represents

a very small portion of the spectrum so a lot of people were pointing out that these and roads can be made by people of color. people of color are the highest index. everybody has a smartphone and we don't want you to be lost on the fact we need to promote the use of broadband because if you have a child you already know that if they don't have access they won't be able to do their homework. why why do we index the deal that gives an opportunity to have ownership in that space and

we were part of the deal to make that happen and also with connection with that radio stations are transferred in similar manners that when the companies ease off their portfolio we try to solve them to the owners and we are very successful with the station in detroit owned by its first hispanic broadcasters. this is urban america in its highest form. that's a wonderful thing to celebrate, but again it's a big deal but it triplets where we should be as a nation so we are excited about the deal because it shows it can be done and the

people that have the skills and expertise to be in this space but we have work to do and applauded them for recognizing the grain management could step into the space and take the appropriate action but there's a lot more that needs to be done. we need to make sure the diversity and inclusion is at the heart of what we do because if they get or what they're supposed to do in your schools when they look up and look at these opportunities, they are there for them and they know that they can be owners, not consumers but owners and then we also have to work to make sure digital divide doesn't just happen but should also have access to broadband.

thank you so much for this opportunity to share my thoughts and we appreciate you greatly. thank you. submitter is an important interplay between the economic opportunity when it comes to engaging young people and i would like to bring up joanna is the executive director and they executive director and they are an organization that focused on empowering people through a variety of mechanisms to get a feel for how that all works together. how can we put in place poverty and good practices that take democracy and fuel that opportunity for the greater economic participation. >> thank you for what you've

been doing the last few years we are so grateful to be a part of yours. i'm going to take a slightly different way and call out what we need to be doing better there there's a lot of things we need to be doing to empower them. in order to build a more inclusive workforce what we are doing is helping americans vote into office those who support legislation and ensuring equal to be for all americans and this country in general as we often say you either write the menu where you are on the menu but either way dinner is being served. whether or not someone making the decision for them and policy requires leadership that both their interest and can't currently and i'm so grateful because we want to talk directly to you we want members of congress to understand there are

93 million americans who will be of the voting age by 2020 in the 2020 election's and ignoring them it's not only negligent for the largest most diverse generation but for the economy as a whole. effective officials need to do a better job taking them into account and prioritize them through the technology which is where they are living at ten hours a day right now so there will be more to become a larger part of the solution. the questions are who out there, with members try to ensure that all americans can afford to go to college or better yet follow the example of germany and others ensuring citizens can receive a higher education for free we need to be doing that here in america. it's amazing we are not there yet and if you are lucky enough to receive a college degree what is your pathway with over $30,000 in student loan debt

that is the pathway to getting a job and it's really difficult still in and around the nation's capital and sharing those that are not privileged and have the opportunity is entrepreneurship as i know you focused on so much should be encouraged in grade school and all the way through higher education and reward young americans doing their part to build new businesses and also those that do national service and improve the environment. why are there hundreds of thousands of people especially of color behind bars for nonviolent, non- criminal offenses such as smoking marijuana. it's imperative that we put it through now to ensure that they receive an education and are not limited job opportunities have

become contributing members of society that is crippling our economy where we spend millions of dollars on the present system instead of investing in america. but we are here to do every day is educate or the 93 million will be of the voting age by 2020 and certainly the over 45 million able to vote in the previous going about 70,000 to come. we will educate young americans and i'm making it my personal mission to go to every member of congress and explain to them that they need to do a better job of putting together the policies that will reach an effect on the millennial generation as well as communicate with their living living and technology online on an average of ten hours a day. ..

i want to bring up doctor reggie smith quick, chair emeritus the u.s. district court association. conversation has been at about education, about this pipeline and that we leverage technology to make sure we're creating more effective outcomes. can you talk to us ensure some remarks about that? >> had to scroll up some notes

real quick. began a represent the united states distance learning association which is a 501(c)(3) and with chapters around the country really working in the online education space. everyone here is about phoenix, cow palace, all these schools. we also work with historical black colleges as well. one example of that is really bringing out dr. wilson. so when he was head of the initiative for historical black colleges, we worked with them to really educate historically black colleges regarding online education, doing the same with doctor cooper. but online education is we see it as a critical leg in the future of america. it serves to educate, train and retrain. it is critical. we also do monitor the bad actors in the field. the or a ton of good actors but we do monitor that actors and

would push the bad actors out and we highlight them. i wanted to give you a quick example of where our association is plugged in, in particular to congresswoman edwards, she mentioned the store coal black colleges. we work with norfolk state which is one of the largest the store coal black colleges, and help them to attend the quality certification for online education. they were the first in the country to obtain this certification. it is the rigor of an accreditation effort. and so that provides equality for the students, engagement, the support to make sure that those students complete and graduate. there are a lot of to to do not graduate from school, and so trying to help build the pipeline is important to i'll give one more example where we're working with a local here in maryland, nonprofit.

to help them build for the department of defense a virtual world competition. and tying that competition to certifications that are in the modeling simulation industry. hasn't really been done. so much of that meeting will take place towards the end of this month but we are pushing to really get the kids engaged. need to start early and wait, five to 12 to get them to engage in the stem programs. we push any post that gets in the way of that because quite frankly the dropout rate in this country is unbelievable. i think our investments are off-track. i think cnn noted one time, you look at new jersey and $45,000 a year to incarcerate someone. $38,000 a year to send them to princeton. it's cheaper. it's cheaper to send someone to get an education.

there was a report of the university of chicago that cited foster care and cannot have children to do not complete high school and do not complete college. do you know where they go? i'm not saying all go to prison. that would be careless on my part, but we are, the united states, is the largest, has the largest incarcerated population in the world. and the large majority of those folks are people of color. that's what our focus is going forward, dealing with the hard issues and dealing with all the technologies. thank you. [applause] >> i like to invite up reverend louis come if you would. it's like you are strong. i know, strong. had to make sure you were all on your toes this morning. but reverend lennox who is

president executive director of the hip hop caucus to kind of give us remarks intellectualize, we talked about energy being a really key area for opportunity for young people and communities of color. i know this is a space you work in pretty tirelessly, so would love to hear some brief thoughts from you about what we can be doing to kind of better inform and mobilize people in this space. >> i think she was doing a precursor for me to come in and mix it up a little bit. that's okay. i'll take the fighting analogy. first let me thanks politic365 for the support i think it's such an important document and conversation that she has been

continue to put forth, particularly for the hip-hop community. definitely doing positive for new generation. i think it's important of this type of discourse. let me just say briefly, energy and particularly climate change are very important issue to young people and communities of color. i do want to just say, the democracy component that's important in the past election. i've been very involved in that and we did see a drop to young people to young people in 2012 were probably taking% of the electorate and that dropped to about 13, 12%. this past election. that means about 14 million young people were not engaged in the process that they were in 20

oh. that's a serious drop that we are seeing. we did see an uptick though in terms of color but not a big uptick but it is a gradual uptick that we did see. it is important that the communities of color, young people are engaged in democracy, either to the ballot box or in the streets which we see with eric garner to michael brown. now, in regards to the report, i'm very happy to see the report. i will send one thing that's important, and i definitely, the greens -- green jobs sector is critical as far as a means for getting young people jobs and getting into the energy sector. we would prefer it would be the clean energy sector. we believe that there should be a transition from fossil fuels to clean energy, but this is the way it needs to be. but with that being said let me say this because i think

congressman wilson made a comment that i think, and i heard this constant theme regarding young people and young boys and young african-american girls come and this kind of thing to let me just be clear that young people in general, people of color are aware of the political process. but they are also aware of is the shenanigans that go along with a process, and so they're speaking out. what it means by that, let's go to richmond, california. getting but watch the movie coach carter? okay, coach carter was this great movie about his african-american coach who came to richmond which is really hard to press community and debate. he came in there and he did all the things that congressman wilson mentioned. in that process, what took place in richmond, california, was that he didn't allow the team to

participate and people went off and things got shut down. it's a great story about bringing young men up and all these kinds of things. it was important the coach carter's in our community. what's also important is that chevron is also in richmond, california. in 2012, chevron of the largest refinery explosion that sent 15,000 people to the hospital. to this day has created asthma throughout the community. and so while we have the coach carter which are important, yet chevron which is literally, did not have a cap on pollution for that community. and literally threw that explosion sent 15,000 people to the hospital. fast forward to this past election, chevron didn't get the nod. they were out raised by what happened in 2012. by senator citizens and committee members to the hospital. instead what chevron did in 2014, they put forth politicians

in place, put forth a serious ad campaign because they were afraid of the local politicians in that community. they were so smart, they beat everyone of the chevron politicians in this past election. i know that wasn't headline. how will the key points from 2014. people were sick and tired of being polluted, sick and tired of having asthma and cancer they were sick and tired of this. now fast forward to this, because if you go to the cdc, the past cbc, congressional black caucus, one of the key sponsors of that organization of that gathering was chevron. so what you have now is money in politics. what you have is a situation where the community isn't clear what you need to do to create changes. but instead the politicians are not making the policy changes that need to be made. we need to understand, policy or

policy will shape you. and they are dying in the streets. the policymakers are making the containers that need to be made. so until we have the courage to really deal with politics 365, and the policymakers who aren't on the one side taking money from corporations like chevron were polluting, and in know that there in the book and hope that crystal ball add that peace to this wonderful report -- that kristal will have to. while the giving of money away, they're also killing our committee. so that is refrained by how we can make them good corporate citizens. and so that's where we are right now. we are at for us doing what climate change in environment and energy. this is our lunch counter moment. for the 21st century. we've got to move forward and move forward quickly.

thank you. [applause] >> fire and passion to you got to love the. fire, passion and energy. so before we start to come to a close, i want to take an opportunity and just see any quick hands, input, conversation points but because this is almost like a collective brainstorming session. what always happens with the blueprint form is where time and space to share ideas and engage and then we can move forward and act, activity around. i want to see any quick questions and comments. >> hi. i'm a reporter. one of the underlying themes through this morning has been capital and the fact that there needs to be a better job of getting access to capital to communities that of traditional been locked out in terms of

age-old investment and even traditional banking. if you could, or anyone who is here, we be willing to address that and perhaps point out where that's going right, that would be wonderful. thank you. >> i'm going to, if there are no takers, so my to people who are which shoot you would be david smith was with you as black chambers inc., and then if you want to follow up, doctor. >> as. actually what i was going to say was a bit different, but a good place where we can start is to look at black businesses where they are currently. we have 1.9 million black owned businesses in the country, and of that 1.9 million, 1.8 million arsenal to partnerships or single entrepreneurs. the challenge is growing businesses to steal. we found in 2008 all the sba loans to black owned businesses

was at a .2%. now that has fallen to just 1.7% of all -- stomach no. of the amount of sba loans given to black owned businesses. that's just a one at 1.7% of the total sba loans. but we are hearing the challenges, the small business are getting the loans because they're too small and not able to grow to size and scale. what we wanted to start the conversation around mergers and acquisitions at a smaller stage. we've noticed that now 2014 we're living in an era of mass mergers and acquisitions from comcast time warner -- [laughter] you know, all the airlines and what have you. it's important to know that the air of small businesses kind of just getting by and working

their way up by themselves are long gone and we need to start changing the conversation to see how can work with you, to know how my distribution company can work with your marketing company or your restaurant or however so that we can go these businesses to size and scale to compete with other large owned businesses to get hi this privae equity and exited capital that we are looking for. >> i want to piggyback off of what you left off, david, and dovetail some with your question, and go to this idea that size and scale is something that we see as being more viable, more possible in a text centric and business model. i want to get some comment on how we can make sure that investment is directed towards and benefits committee of coal and young people. i would go to jason, you're

from, senior fellow at rutgers university, communications and information. >> so -- >> do you want to come of it because we can't see you. >> as i think about the question, i don't think we have a good model that we can point to where communities are accessing capital in an equitable way. my friends in washington, d.c. have taken that question where we're trying to take some old school kind of cooperative finance model to put money together to go out and do things. so we started just by putting together like no finance loans to the whole group, about 12 of us, and they will expand it to go in and invest in -- [inaudible] spent a group of friends. let's not go naming people. but i actually think to address

the problem it really takes a very community oriented solutions. i don't think any of us in the room, one of the smartest people it's sitting right over there. i don't think any of us can point to a good working model, a great case study or place any community where it's really working well. >> on the flipside are there things that could let me say disincentivize the little bit of investment that is there, especially for our communities? what are some of your thoughts about, if it's all about holes in practice, how does that work? >> i think all of us who follow the issues, a lot of conversation has been around the opportunity and technologies based to all of us that follow these issues have called for principle. one is great a policy environment that maximizes investment across the entire internet system. that means policy has to both continued investment, kristal talks with tens of billions of

dollars go into the broadband economy every year. and policy has to keep that going. estimate very community oriented solutions that create opportunities to increase people of color as investors, owners and entrepreneur's. it's got to be both. >> great. >> i think one thing just to add, a positive point in a case study we have is one of our members, members of chambers of commerce in beaufort, south carolina, they been given a grant by the u.s. department of agriculture to give microloans to the businesses in their community. and they've been successful for the past two years they have given these microloans to these small businesses in the range of 5000-$50,000, which is oftentimes just what these small businesses need to expand their business or potentially higher one other employee. all other loans so far have been lent out. nobody has defaulted, and that's just one case study.

we are actually trying to advance and make viable of our chambers in 2015 microliters to make the small business loans to the businesses that they know and are firmly within their community. so be on the look out for that but that's one case study that is a positive. >> and i believe we have title here it was with the national urban league. and you all have been very active and i was a kind of time policy to economic impact. can you tell us a bit about -- >> no question. as you guys know the national urban league is a historic civil rights organization. kyle williams. [laughter] the urban league is a historic civil rights or session focused on economic empowerment. and we know that the impact of the great recession

disproportionately impacted african-americans. however, we are truly excited about the market shift. so we know that african-americans, latinos or three times more likely to be steered into subprime mortgage products as a result we were 70% more likely to foreclose on our properties. african-american of ownership rate was at 43%. strike that, 50% in 2004. currently at 43%. however, there is a market shift happening. part of that is because web director watt those the contract of the federal housing finance agency was a regulator fannie and freddie. he is implementing some progressive policies that will actually open up the credit box and allow more african-americans and latinos access to the traditional housing market. so pretty much we know that, so

he's making progress of policy moves also. the market is moving in a certain way. refinances were a big part of the banks bottom line since the great recession. so for my 2009 intel recent, most of the banks money in the housing industry has come from refinances. however, those have dropped tremendously. most people have interest rate, they have the lowest one. the original need for them to get a refinance. so banks are going to have to, in order for them to make money they will have to open the credit box. they are doing at by allowing lower fico scores, allowing lower down payments. these are all good things because down payments am a low down payments and lower fico scores to that caused the crisis, which is there's this big, big myth out there that black folks, latinos bought homes that they could not afford. that was the case. over 60% of the loans, over 60% of the subprime loans that were extended between 1998-2006 were

refinances. that means people were already in their home and get decent enough fico scores to duplicate those liar loans what he did have to tell you what kind of income they had because their score was high enough. the people, so that's what caused the crisis. it wasn't people in prince george's county to get the biggest homes. it was people who were already in their house four years. so we are happy to again that there is this market shift happening. the banks have to make money. they say seven out of 10 net new households will be minorities, african-americans and logistics the african-american population is increasing as well. it's not just latinos. seven out of 10 net new households will again be minorities. the banks are going to have to find a way to make sure that those folks have access to the market. a couple things, one major thing is white folks are going to have to sell their home. at some point they will sell their homes. who are they going to sell them

too, right? is minorities. the banks have to find a way that minorities have access to the market and that's why we're excited. >> also really, really quick. i'm here on behalf of my boss, chanel party, and i'm reading this statement today on behalf of chanel hard, vice president for possible -- national urban league washington bureau. for more than 100 for your special urban league has worked with powerful partners such as politic365, federal civil rights or position, economic developers, federal, state and local governments and the private sector. again, we thank you, kristal high. >> as we close out i would be remiss if i didn't invite some final thoughts from doctor lee was been one of our biggest champions and supporters over the years and has been an important part of the brain trust that really helps to put all of these pieces together. so dr. lee, a few words.

>> wow. first of all, can you all say that this is a fantastic report? thank you, kristal high, for actually doing it. [applause] i think i've been at every report released that she's had in washington, d.c., and thank jason for his kind words in terms of the background that i have in this area i want to disclose a couple thoughts of what i think this conversation was very important today. last week was a representation, an indication of what our democracy is shifting. and in that it was also a clear example of how more global populations are continuing to be disenfranchised in our society if we don't speak a. also spoke to the fact that across all the verticals that are mentioned in this report where we should be doing better and we're actually not. we have to take a handle on why that is the case and have the research that is behind that to ensure that where the right narrative to move forward.

embedded in this entire report which is critically important is how african-americans and other people of color are faring in these areas but how we spend, how we educate, we communicate with our friends and family members, how we actually consume the energy that keeps us warm at night. all of these articles are part of the daily habits and experiences of people of color. if you look at the statistics, we should all be disheartened by what they reveal about the state of black america. as look at this report, it's blueprint365. what does this holy grail look like going forward for african-american communities? how are we going to change the narrative? how i'm going to empower the stories that came out of members of congress to do the right thing so we can ensure that we live in a democratic fight that i think most americans showed in their voting last week.

i would just as we talk about angel investing in others, we can talk about technology but we've got to do with the 4% rule, the fact that major companies we consume facebook, twitter and others higher less than 4% the people of color. we could talk about energy but we've got to deal with what reverend talked about in terms of environment and the fact that we are disproportional impacted by the toxins that can do our committees and neighborhoods daily. we can talk about banking but as was discussed with the to talk about disproportion and disparate impact of predatory lending and spending and targeting that happens in our community. we can talk about health care but if we don't talk about the chronic health disparity that has plagued us in this country we will not solve the problem but we need people affordable health care. so i say all this to say at the end of the day that our society is changing. i'm so proud of kristal high and which is done to taking the

fight for the african-american community. we always say we can't have one people represent us, but we better have somebody write about is the and thank you, kristal high, for your organization politic365 of assuring that the narrative of what it looks like in our communities continue to come out in a way that we as policymakers can use it, and those that are watching and those that i can actually understand why they wake up every morning and try to figure out how to be much more integrated and involved in democracy which was a. so i encourage everybody to read the report. i read it. i'm ahead of you. so if you got here today, it's online, send to friends and family. i'm not going to suggest because that would be too cheeky to wrap it up as a christmas present i give it to you folks. what am going to say it is a critical document as a pathway blueprint moving forward that we should give politic365 in for taking a step out of not just report the news on their

national website but to also inform you that we are educated and knowledge to on the issues that affect us. thank you, kristal. [applause] >> without the, you know, there isn't confirmation we could have. when you look at this as a first step, i'm starting to parse out and take fourth this blueprint and say what is it that we can each do collectively and individually to push forward and respected industry that has been addressed in this report. we highlighted some good things that companies have done, and there's a lot of work still yet to do. hopefully we can use this as a tool to make sure that we're more valuable partner in making sure that the right things get done. thank you again so very much for joining us today. on behalf of politic365, we appreciate you. [applause]

[inaudible conversations] >> scheduled for noon eastern time today, live on c-span2, a hearing on the future of energy in africa. officials from the state department, agency for international development and the energy department are all among those scheduled to testify. we note the use house plans to vote on the keystone xl pipeline approximately at noon today. so that could push back the start of this hearing as committee members vote on the house floor but we do plan to cover it live on c-span2. later on at 2 p.m. eastern time it's a forum on opportunities for fiscal reform in the next congress. specialist with