as well as representatives from the department of defense. so we're sharing information. we're vfry transparent with each other. the information ranges from top secret sensitive compartmented information to unclassified information. we're finding that these partnerships having everybody colocate and working together is helping strengthen not only our

situational awareness, but getting solutions to issues as they come in. we are working together to secure and make our infrastructure more resilient by leveraging the activities of the ncic. we have come a long way in the last couple of years. as we look to the future the legislation that's proposed and activities that have already occurred are making us -- >> the division i would like to see expand not just to 16 critical infrastructures but really to the private sector so sonys of the world could participate as well and i think that's the vision and personally i like the idea of the privacy groups came out so strongly in support of not only my legislation but also your efforts, sir, at the dhs because there is a robust privacy office at the department of homeland security. i want to just close, we had the sony attack and we had yesterday an attack by cyber jihadists

purporting to be on behalf of isis at centcom saying american soldiers, we are coming watch your back. isis. this is disturbing as vectors develop, china russia normal winnings iran becoming more sophisticated. with the jihadist groups we've seen attempting to get this technology and type of malware actually being successful hacking into your centcom military isis. this is severely disturbing to me. we don't know how to respond to these things. proportional response, what does that mean. active warfare, what does that mean? mr. chairman, i would like to work with you on a cyber agenda on this committee because it is outside the lanes of my

committee in terms of what do we do with other countries? do we have a nato alliance with cyber? one country is hit with the other. what is the appropriate response when a nation-state hits our infrastructures and in this case when a terrorist organization hits our military. general? >> thank you very much sir. to address to address the points, the first one, about the attack and attribution it got into the centcom networks first of all this was a commercial space a twitter account. there is no compromise and there is no evidence of any penetration into government and specifically the military computer systems. rather it was a commercially facing bulletin board as it were through the twitter account. certainly anytime there is compromise of any account it's serious business and talking with my partners in the

department of defense and the fbi last night, they are investigating it, with all due vigor. and i will be getting an update from them later today. >> so we close, i think, mr. chairman, we have the opportunity to work in this committee on legislation that could deal with the defining what is proportionate response, how other countries should respond with us. what is going to be the response of the united states of america when our companies are attacked when our departments are attacked, when our military is under fire? with that i yield back. >> thank you. by the way mr. mccaul i would be happy to work with you. i was working with mike rogers on a piece of legislation and maybe we can work together on cybersecurity and i appreciate you bringing it up and look forward to working with mr. engel as well on those concepts okay? we go to jerry connolly from

virginia. >> thank you, mr. mccaul and mr. chairman. if you're looking for democrat i will be glad to work with you as well. cybersecurity is big issue in my district. so i would be delighted to help in anyway. i thank the chairman and ranking member for holding this hearing and welcome to our panel. your last comment general, i think underscores something though, i mean, the distinction between the private sector and the public sector when it comes to cybersecurity really isn't a helpful distinction. 85% of the critical infrastructure in this country, for example, is controlled by the private sector. that doesn't mean we don't have a public sector interest in it. and the interface between social media, and other things, we may be doing in the public sector, is often almost seamless because they are so connected. so that's why it seems to me we've got to be concerned even with the kind of attack that occurred the other day in social media and pentagon and better

understand where the boundaries are or even if we want to ren there are boundaries. and i think, mr. mccaul was pointing out too we really need to be rethinking the codification of cybersecurity attacks and severity and what it means from our point of view, not only u.s. law but frankly what it should mean in international law. when, you know if you have a cyber pearl harbor is that an act of war? i mean at what point does the intensity and severity and magnitude constitute an aggressive act that has to be addressed? >> thank you sir, for that question. and the magnitude and severity of the rubric of crossing that line, when does it become an act of war is when it has been hotly and actively debated for many

years. currently the administration is working to put together, codified construct the priorities and the prioritization and taking a look at it from a risk management and consequence management standpoint. that is still a work in progress but ultimately through our congressional processes and our constitutional processes, rather you know, we'll be making those determinations. >> right. i fully appreciate that is going to be a work in progress. but i think one of the tasks our government faces and international community faces is looking afresh at the legal codification of this subject because we're really at a very early stage. and i think that's, we want to make the international law serve as a tool and an ally and in protecting. i'm going to try to do this real quickly. mr. ambassador, does my memory serve me well that a few years ago probably the north koreans helped shut down much of the

banking system in south korea for a day or two? >> at that there was a cyberattack on the south korean financial system. >> do we believe that was generated by the north? >> we believe some more importantly the south korean authorities have indicate that -- >> and that was, think about it. the virtually entire banking system went down. >> i don't recall the exact extent but it was a serious attack. >> the south korean, economy, for example ranks where in the world? >> 10th or 11th. >> yeah. so the 10th or 11th largest economy in the world had its banking system shut down by a cyberattack and i think that is real warning in terms of what the north's capability is and vulnerability of a whole sector not just south korea's economy but frankly our own as well. china, how, how helpful do we think -- you mentioned in your opening statement that china has

been more forthcoming and we want them to be even more forthcoming but the chinese themselves are enpaged in -- engaged in a cyber security attacks in a systemic way sponsored by the pla. that is state-sponsored cybersecurity attacks. so how reliable do we think the chinese are going to be in trying to rein in the north koreans in their cybersecurity malfeasance? >> i'll defer to the general for part of the question. >> to whom? >> to dhs colleagues for answer to your question. >> all right. >> more generally, i do believe that the chinese cooperation on the north korean issue, all dimensions of it, has improved in recent years. i would point to their cooperation in the u.n. security council for passing a resolution after the north korean nuclear teslas year as an example how cooperation has improved. i think it can improve much

further and we're going to continue to work on persuading the chinese when they think about their strategic interests, unconditionally defending north korean misbehavior -- >> yes, but my question, we're limited in time mr. ambassador. i understand all of that in general, but when it comes to this topic cybersecurity their hands are dirty. why would we why would we count on them to help us rein in north korean cybersecurity attacks when they're engaged in it with all for paws and snout? >> when they saw the saw sony pictures attack like this, in a destructive manner it should been a wake-up call to chinese that chinese are subject to irresponsible attacks from countries like north korea. >> i'm sorry, we're running out of time but thank you. general, did you want to comment? >> as we take a look at information sharing and the

common threats and vulnerabilities that are out there. when we have a common threat and as the ambassador had mentioned some of the things that were observed could just as easily threaten the chinese. so it is in everyone's best interests to address the issues and make sure that everyone is a responsible member of the world community. >> well, mr. chairman, just a final observation. that sound very noble and boycott-like, but the fact is the chinese have been stealing military secrets from us, including weapons designs and bypassing r&d stage, for quite some time in a very systemic way. the pentagon knows that because the pentagon has been one of the biggest victims. it seems to me, i wouldn't rely on the chinese in that respect on this subject, given their record. and, it is a problematic aspect of with we're talking about today. thank you, mr. chairman. >> we go to judge poe of texas.

>> thank you mr. chairman. thank y'all for being here. globally there seems to be among the many bad folks in the world three main countries. you have to the syria. you've got iran and you've got north korea. i call them the sik access. because they're in different parts of the world and they're a little sick. i understand the official definition of nuclear weapons from our government is, you have the bomb but you have also differently system. i want to divide that definition and talk about the weapon, the bomb itself. does north korea have a bomb of some magnitude? ambassador? it is just yes or no. >> i wish i could just give awe simple yes or no answer.

>> can you say yes or no? i just need a yes or no. either they have got it or they don't have it? >> we know they continue to work on nuclear capability. >> do they have a bomb, mr. ambassador. i need an answer. >> i'm not sure i can say that. >> mr. glazer, do i have an answer. >> i would defer to the state department. >> you don't know if they have a bomb or not. >> as ambassador kim stated well north korea conducted nuclear tests. >> they sent satellites into orbit. >> they have conducted nuclear tests so i think -- >> general, are you going to pick a horse and ride it. do they have a bomb or do they not have a bomb. >> sir, i do not know. >> you don't know, all right. now, i personally think they have the capability to make one paved on hearings -- based on hearings we've had in this committee. looking on the other end the delivery system the president of north korea said he wants to

develop intercontinental ballistic missiles and for some reason he says he wants to first intercontinental ballistic missile to go to austin, texas. i take that a little personal since i'm from texas. what is the status of the delivery system, if you know? general? >> sir i do not know. >> mr. glaser? do you know? >> really not a treasury department issue. >> i understand. how about you mr. ambassador back to you? >> i will be happy to provide awful briefing in a classified setting on their capabilities both on nuclear and missiles. >> we had some open hearings. they have the ability i understand, to develop and make it as they call it a scud in a bucket. are you familiar with that mr. ambassador, a missile that can go from north korea to south korea? do they have the capability to

do that? >> yes. >> all right. the united states used to have north korea on a state sponsor of terror list that was removed in 2008. based on what you know, you think it might be a good idea to put them back on the state sponsor of terror mr. ambassador? >> sir, there is, as you know there is very clear criteria -- >> do you think they should be back on the list? i'm asking another yes or no question. >> my personal opinion -- >> that is what i want to know, is your personal opinion. >> there is a criteria there is a process, sir and we're constantly evaluating all available intelligence and information to determine whether north korea -- >> how long is that evaluation going to take? after all they're hacking into our cybersecurity of the united states. do y'all have a time limit how long you are going to take? >> i understand your concern and frustration, but as a the mare of law the secretary of state must determine the government of that country repeatedly provided

support for acts of international terrorism and we're in an ongoing process to determine whether the north koreans meet that criteria. if they do if they do -- >> i'm reclaiming that my time. do you think hacking into our system is an act of terror or not? >> i believe that is beyond my -- >> so you don't have an opinion? general, you got an opinion? you're in the military. is that an act of terror or not? people are afraid to say it is, act of war. i'm wanting your opinion. >> i think sir as we take a look at this, this is something that should be part of the public debate and we should have a conversation not necessarily constrained to this particular incident but as we take a look to the future for any cyber incidents, we should have a public conversation as our next step. >> that is the diplomatic version i assume but seems to me that is an act of terror. we ought to strongly consider

putting north korea, these outlaws on state sponsor of terror list. i don't know why we are so timid doing that. seems like the right thing to do the logical thing to do. i hope the state department eventually makes up their mind before more of these attacks occur against the united states. i agree with mr. connolly when he said that the line is very thin between an attack upon the government of the united states and an attack on private industry in the united states. that seems to me to be an act, an attack. it is a terrorist attack. i yield back, mr. chairman. thank you. >> very good. we go to brian higgins of new york. mr. higgins. >> thank you mr. chairman. the nuclear and cyber threat of north korea is profound. now the question is how is the united states respond to north korea's cyberattack on

sony? an attack to punish sony for making a movie that humiliated the supreme leader. the united states options are very few. counterattack, to weaken north korea's political military and economic assets. highly ininefectual. number two, relisting north korea as a state sponsor of terrorism with new sanctions. and in that we don't have much of an economic relationship with north korea, that too would be highly ininefectual. the serious threat posed by north korea far. >> seeds cyber attacks. north korean cyber attacks i think are indicative of future intent. intent backed by considerable capability. there is only one geopolitical option equal to north korea's threat and that is to work with our allies both new and old to end north korea's existence as an independent entity and

reunifying the korean peninsula. north korea's nuclear threat. north korea has four to 10 nuclear devices and hundreds of short and i intermediate range missiles. they have an active uranium and plutonium program. and it is not inconceivable that north korea, in time will have a nuclear capability to reach the united states. north korea regime is a proliferation threat. a decade ago it was helping to build a nuclear reactor in syria. and it is a potential source of missiles and nuclear materials to rogue states including terrorists. north korea has a serious convention military which is a threat and existential threat to the region. as a population of 25 million people, and fourth largest army in the world. north korea's army is two times

that of south korea with its population which is half of south korea. there are 28,500 american troops in south korea. further aggression by north korea would bring the united states into a major costly and dangerous war. north korea is a threat to its own people. their crimes against humanity, crimes against their own people include extermination and murder enslavement and forced starvation. 100,000 political prisoners held under horrendous conditions. north korean sigher attacks against sunni or against, sony are not new. north korea regularly attacks south korean banks and businesses. also there is a changing view of north korea by its neighbors and only economic sponsor. china and south korea changed their views. the south korean president used to be lukewarm to talk about a

unified korea. today the south korean president speaks openly of reunification and of the enormous economic benefits of that unification. china is frustrated that north korea ignores its requests to freeze or dismantle its nuclear program. with a nuclear armed north korea, south korea and japan will want or need to develop a nuclear weapons program. china increasingly is viewing north korea as a strategic liability. not an asset. china views north korea as a growing threat to china's stability. and china's ties to south korea have flourished. china is south korea's leading economic partner and china's president, regular visits south korea and not north korea. so while the discussion here is centered on cyber attacks think

there is a larger discussion that needs to take place. your thoughts. >> thank you very much congressman. i think you're absolutely right about china's evolving improving relations with south korea and this is relevant to one of the points your colleague made earlier. what is china's strategic perspective. i don't think we can continue to assume unconditionally defending north korean misbehavior is in china's strategic interest. i think there is an ongoing serious debate going on in the beijing on future direction of the north korean policy. one of the reasons they see future relationship with south korea, major trading relationship huge flow of traffic, students, tourists business people and i think that is where the future is for china on the korean peninsula. this is one of the reasons why we're starting to get more forthcoming cooperation from the chinese with regards to dealing with north korean misbehavior.

>> gentleman's time has expired. mr. duncan of south carolina. >> thank you madam chairman. north korea has a history of cooperation with a wide range of other rogue regimes including syria, iran and cuba. although i don't guess it is political correct to say cuba is a rogue regime because i will keep them on the list because i don't believe a tiger changes its stripes that quickly. let's make some connections. north korea. north korean ship was seized by panama in july of 2013. it was found to be carrying cuban and soviet-era weapons from cuba. it actually sailed through the panama canal through cuba. turned its transponder off. went to havana and loaded with aircraft parts, mig 21s and other aircraft and military hardware covered with sugar. taken back to the panama canal.

seized by panama. found, discovered the weapons in the ship. 32 crewmembers were released. the other three are still being held i understand. so you've got the cuban-north korean connection there. let's talk about venezuela. venz ven is cuba's largest and best ally in the region especially in the post-soviet-era. venezuela, if i look back to i guess december of 2011, venezuela's top diplomat in miami was linked to an alleged cyberterrorism plot against the u.s. in collusion with iran. there is another rogue connection with iran and there have been flights from tehran to havana to venezuela i believe. so you've got venezuela involved in cyberterrorism possibly against the united states at least alleged. you have got a cuba connection with north korea. and we have got now, north korean cyberattack on an

american company. continues a lot of rogue nations involved in cyberterrorism and other things. so i've got to ask, ambassador how and what extent is north korea engaging with allies china russia, iran syria, cuba and possibly maybe just by association venezuela? and the connection to cyberterrorism there? >> generally speaking we're all deeply concerned about north korea's relations with the countries you mentioned. i don't have specific information with their cooperation with cyber attacks you but we do know north korea had relations with a number of the countries you mentioned and it is something we monitor very closely. the ship interdiction you mentioned is one important example of how international cooperation can yield results on the sanctions front. i think this is a very important point because the congressman

mentioned because of limited dealings with north korea directly we need international cooperation to make sure that sanctions, both international and unilateral sanctions actually can be effective. and that the situation you mentioned is a perfect example of that. >> treasury, are you tracking money? is there any evidence of money going from north korea to iran to cuba, to venezuela, any of these connections? are you aware of any of that? >> well yes, we spend a lot of time obviously working closely with the intelligence community that does the real tracking. to try to identify north korean financial networks. wherever they might be. whether it is with the regime such as iran or institutions in iran in asia potentially, in south america. to be honest with you i think when it comes to trying to apply financial pressure on north korea, we shouldn't take our eye off the ball and the ball is asia. that is where north korea gets its primary access to

international financial system. asia broadly. certainly china specifically. that is as we devise strategies to try to put pressure on north korea -- >> all right. well, thank you, very much for your patience. and for coming today. as you know, i'm ton a hoe president of the chamber. just a few minutes ago i annual look at the economy and business and what we might expect from others and what you could expect from us this year. if you missed it there is a copy of the speech they're giving you as is always the question but not the case but

not last year because he was in the hospital scared the hell out of us, is bruce johnson who is our executive vice president of all things we do with government and related matters. a number of our senior advisors are here that handle many of these subjects. so they're over there and they're over there. you can catch them all at the end of your questions and pursue some of your issues in more depth. and as i said in the peach -- speech, the chamber believes the state of american business is improving and the economy is gaining momentum. we expect growth to be in the 3 to 3 1/2% range at least through the middle of the year but when we look beyond that, when we look beyond the near term the outlook is less certain. business faces a host of challenges and uncertain at thises including economic weakness abroad which is very significant by the way.

an unprecedented regulatory onslaught here at home and new cybersecurity threats among many others. and while things are improving the current policies of tax, spend and regulate aren't cutting it. and in fact we have eroded our economy's long-term potential the rate of growth of the economy because of some of these factors. so instead of taking a victory lap the administration, the congress, and all of us have got to heed the lesson of the last election. work together to advance jobs and growth and raise america's take-home pay. divided government is not an excuse to dog. it is an opportunity to work together. it is to everyone's benefit. we know it won't be easy but with new people in congress with a president who hopefully will be tending to his long-term legacy, we think we can get some

important things done for working and morn and american people. we want to rally around a bipartisan cause, stronger and deeper economic growth in order to create jobs and expand opportunities for all americans. the chamber will be pursuing three very quickly i will say things to help achieve that. first we're going to aggressively advance our jobs growth and opportunity agenda that capitalizes on the extraordinary potential we have in trade, energy technology and infrastructure. second, we're going to build support for a government reform agenda. this is not an individual regulation or something. it is reforming the agenda. how we make regulations. that eases uncertainty and supports growth by improving

immigration, the regulatory process, the tax code entitlement programs, the legal system and very importantly, our public schools. and third, the chamber is going to vigorously defend a set of fundamental american values that define who we are as a people. and what made us the most free the most prosperous and most compassionate country on earth. i'm talking about the right to speak, the right to due process under the law the right to participate in a free enterprise system where you can take a risk, you can work hard and achieve your dreams. and we should all be concerned by the steady erosion of these rights and freedoms on a federal and state level. most of all we'll fight to preserve the spirit of enterprise in america. this is the real economic populism. we're all talking about economic

populism. well we have a set of economic populisms we really believe n it is reflected in more than 28 million businesses of all sizes in every community in this country. americans, america's enterprise system is not perfect, we want to say that right up front but it is built on the most successful economy in the history of the world and it is built, it has been been built from the bottom up. this is populism that really works. last two thoughts populism based on trickle down government with an ever growing power accruing to washington can not work because with it our economy can not grow. instead we need policies that support, expand and celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit and make sure that it thrives not just in business but in everything we do in this country and with that we'll take all your questions. wait a second. i have to tell you the rules of

engagement. you have to tell us who you are, and know if it's a really tough question i will let bruce answer it. okay. >> thanks so much for having me. i'm lydia wheeler with "the hill." now you mentioned in 2015 that the chamber will have this renewed push on regulatory reform. can you describe or talk about that strategy? >> well, as you know, in the last session of the congress, we passed a three-part, we didn't pass it, the congress passed it with our encouragement a three-part reform of the regulatory process and it, it dealt with questions of sue and settle. it dealt with questions of permits. it dealt with the fundamental issues of how the process of regulation was going to go forward and by the way, it was voted on a bipartisan basis and i think it will be growing

sentiment to move this forward and we've had a lot of indication in the senate of interest for this reform process. remember, i said in the speech that the last time we reformed our regulatory process harry truman was the president. i remember him but most of you don't and we think there is a sentiment for doing this. i'm not worried about the president's suggestion he is going to veto it. that is part of the negotiation process and you know, the white house, always comes up with the things they may veto of the let's see what's in it. let's see what discussions bring and see how many people vote for it. >> [inaudible]. >> all right. you pick them out. i will answer them. to ahead. >> tom, thanks. brian with "bloomberg news." this is kind of a three-part question. >> you always have three-part questions. >> yeah. you sort of tempered your language a little bit on the oil exports issue, on the energy exports issue whether there

should be reform. i wonder first if you're calling or outright end to limits on oil exports and if so should that be coupled with the keystone pipeline legislation? finally we have pretty much free oil exports with canada. i'm wondering if that should be granted to mexico as well? thanks. >> i will dot last part first. mexico is a long way from getting its energy industry, oil and gas, so on, organized the way canada has but they're moving in a very thoughtful way to do that. we think it is good for the nafta relationship, the three countries that are together on many trade and investment and security issues. so we would hope we would treat them the same way. second, the keystone pipeline i'm going to behave today right? i mean that is a political joke.

we have been through this thing in every possible way. everybody knows it creates jobs. the labor unions are vigorously for it. everybody knows, with all the studies it does not create an environmental problem in this country. and the thing that really bothers me, the country that has been our friend, our partner, our supporter and in every way for as long as any of us can remember, is canada. and we're treating them very badly on this issue. and i think that is a mistake. on the question of exporting oil and gas, you really have to look at it in two circumstances. you know, we had a circumstance what, 120 daysing ago, where the prices were higher. and there was good surplus here in the united states. now, it may go down some because of invests as the prices go

down. but there is plenty of opportunity us to export oil and gas, if they want reasonable regulation, that's fine. for the advantage to the american economy to create jobs, and, to help stability around the world. and you know you can just think about the issue in the ukraine. there are a lot of opportunities to look at the stability issues as well. thank you and that is the end of three-part questions. you picking them or am i? all right. >> hi. andrea gresham from "national journal." looking ahead to 2016 i have two questions for you. do you think the chamber will be as involved in gop primaries and do you have a ballpark what you think you guys will spend? >> primaries are created in two ways. one, people decide not to run or

people locally decide to challenge someone. and we've already, beginning to see folks that are looking at whether they think running is a good idea. so i think there will be more opportunities. now, it is a long way to then. so some people will temporarily assume those jobs or be appointed, or even elected but that creates an opportunity for primaries. and i think, i don't know we had a conversation one day about, we could even have primaries on democratic side that we would be interested in. we think, here's our fundamental, one-sentence deal. we believe candidates matter more than anything else. we're looking for people who want to govern. who want to come to washington, to join in the debate and the process and the responsibility of governing on behalf of their fellow citizens and we're going to support them.

how much we'll spend, i have no idea. it basically comes down to how much we do and how much we need. who's up? all right. >> hi, good morning i'm with the ap. many thanks for doing this. i would like to ask what are the chamber's goals this year for cuba that you haven't mentioned in your speech. you also said in the speech that immigration reform could be possible this year but we see today that the republican the house is about to vote on a bill that is blocking executive action by president obama. could you please elaborate a little bit, how you see the solution possible this year and what specific initiative that the chamber has on immigration. thank you. >> well the immigration thing what we're interested in is what i said in the speech. we need workers. we're a country with people without jobs and jobs without people. we're working very hard to find jobs for the people that don't

have them. and we're working very hard to find people for jobs that need specific skills. it is why our hiring heroes out of military program works so well. and we really believe that an immigration program that provide people at both ends of the spectrum, people going to our great universities and people that work in everything from hospitals and nursing homes and resorts and agriculture. we need a way that companies can know who they're hiring and there is a good process in place there that seems to be ready to be put in fuller use. we need to deal with the borders and it has got to be a reasonable thoughtful process. and, and we have to figure out what to do with people that are illegally here and give them some process to having legality and moving forward. and i believe the sentiment is growing across this country to do that. on the question oh, by the way,

on issue of what they're voting on today, has got not a lot to do with immigration. it has a lot to do with the constitutional prerogatives of the president and the congress. i think it is fine they go about that. but there is a very simple way that the members of the house and senate can solve this problem. go pass an immigration bill, send it to the president and let him sign it and that's the end of that problem. on cuba, we are, we've been involved in the cuban issue for a long time. we believe that the agreement and the decisions by the president on this are a good start. we are we only have three sentences to say about that right now today. number one, no matter what you're doing, if you're doing it for 50 plus years and it doesn't work, you ought to find something else. number two if you look at the tenure of the current government

and what their plans are, one of the major changes will be, if you look at all of the people from countries all over the world that are developing the economy over there, it is time for us to move and number three, after the last time i was there in the two weeks following, putin, and then xi, the president of china were there and i much rather we were deciding what we're going to do in cuba than them deciding what they're going to do. thank you very much. >> i write for tax notes. hi tom. i'm going to start with you since you gave the speech. it took you about half an hour to get to tax reform which i and you were it seemed like you were a little tepid when talking about it. you didn't seem to have a lot of confidence it would happen this year which is really unusual

because i think everybody else i talk to think it is definitely going to happen but i also want to ask yeah -- >> did you say the people you talk to think it is or not. >> i was joking. it is not going to happen. >> okay. >> i want to go to bruce on this too. what's your, what's your take on that? i mean it's a serious issue. there has been talk of compromise but, you seem to have very low expectations. how are you guys approaching that issue? >> i will answer that question. bruce will talk to you about the tax deal. if you look at sequence of things we talked about, they're not, they're importance is not in the order which they were done. you know i'm very passionate about the last things i talked about, and by the way, we are realists about taxes. we're realists and bruce will tell you what realism is. >> so i think what tom tried to do in his his speech highlight

the fores foremost opportunities for outcome. if you look at trade legislation and energy legislation and technology stuff and infrastructure which in part gets you to tax reform. i think first off we have two new chairman of the tax writing committees. neither will pick up where the last person left off. they're going to start aye knew. i think -- anew. in the house, chairman ryan would be hard at work what he describes process reforms that are needed and necessary to facilitate achieving tax reform. some of that deals with dynamic scoring. some of that deals with budget issues. chairman hatch is at least close to if not 700 pages of outlines of tax reform. i have been up and met with both of them and many others on this. i think tax reform is very hard to do. i, there has been a lot that suggests that the administration and tax writing committees in both chambers and both parties are roughly on the same page to

about 70 to 80%. that's good. of course the other 20 to 30% is the really really hard stuff to do. jacob blue had a meeting yesterday with some small business groups trying to ref this up. i think the difference here we began last fall a campaign on comprehensive tax reform. . .

>> you said the president is going to have a fight with members, round up support in his own party to get tpa prove. i just wonder, what is your sense of how many democrats are needed in the house to make this a bipartisan effort? and are you concerned that there might be a large number of republicans who would be loath to vote for the bill because they don't want to give obama the authority? >> well, every president since jerry ford or something has had trade promotion authority. and our reading of this having been all over our teams all over the congress talking to just about everybody is that there's plenty of support their.

we further read that the president has begun to make it clear, first of all, of his own team that he wants a cabinet and others up there working on this. i'm hopeful that he will be very aggressive on it in the state of the union. he knows and he had some meetings just recently organizing the white house and others. he knows that they're going to have to have an effort to deal into areas. one with the necessary number of democrat's line and that means giving with the labor. and he knows that in fact he's got to spend some time assuring republicans of what it's going to lead to. but we believe that the are plenty plenty of votes to get this done. i believe we will get it done. and i'm very encouraged that this could be the first step in

a three or four step process that would strengthen the economy of the united states for a long time to come. >> quickly add to your question. if i remember correct, i think only about 25 house democrats voted for tpa the last time. i'm not sure all 25 members are still in the house this time. innocent if i remember correctly it was about 21 senate democrats who voted for it. i believe only six of them are there. point is you know there has been a lot of trade votes, not a lot of members of congress who understand tpa. and now we have to add, don't forget, taa as part of that journey to accomplish tpa. i agree with tom. this does get done, the president of is clearly could have some challenges on his side of the aisle in and outside of congress. he's going to have to work to

bring some democrats with them. but let's not overlook the republican leadership in both chambers is on the same page with the president wanting to deliver tpa to him. >> victoria cross "the wall street journal." i was hoping you could give us some more specifics about the legislative priorities you have regarding financial regulation, for instance you mentioned fsoc but do you think congressional action is needed beyond what fsoc itself is doing? and also on cyber what specific legislation do you think is needed? >> let's do the cyber first period as you know, over the years there's been efforts to seek out a piece of legislation that would help us deal with what was at the time a problem that people were sort of spending time looking at and we

never quite got there. and one of the reasons was that there was come in the government, a view that there should be a law that told everybody how they had to react to cyber difficulty. well, it would take about every 12 minutes, we would change how we respond to those things. so we challenged that. by the time they wrote the law and wrote the regulations would've changed 1000 times. but right now what we are saying, and there's a much, much more educated understanding of the subject than there was years ago, but what we need now so that companies and governments at home and abroad, let's say american companies and governments at home and abroad because we have companies overseas have to be able to exchange information with the

government, and in some instances, between and among companies that have similar problems, so that we, we the american economic system, the american system of governance is in a position to defend itself instantly, and to learn from the problems of others. and we believe that a bill that addresses the issue that provides legality for companies to do that, within appropriate limits, is very, very important so that we can work together to avoid the really difficult things that you have seen. and you can multiply those out as being far more. on the issue of financial regulation, i mean i think the first thing to understand, in fact i want to say three things. the absolute frustration of running a bank or a financial

institution and having a half a dozen regulators in your building telling you what you're supposed to do everyday, and then being an absolute conflict with one another is not a good way to do business. and there has to be some strengthening of that process including some oversight by the congress. the second thing is all this time since dodd-frank, we still of the third of the regulation that have not been completed. and only, you know we can only begin to imagine what that's going to do when added to what's already here. and last thing i think is very, very important is that the regulators are going far beyond where an overkill law already went. and if it doesn't exactly fit with the want to do, they decide, they will decide what the law is.

you have noticed we've been in the course of some of those issues quite successfully. and our issue we were lucky that we dealt with the derivative issue not for people that were outside users, you know, a cup race not the financial institutions but we are going to more of that. you're going to see places. and why would you not? i mean, you write this thing. it's still two or three years in getting completed. it was written in anger and it was written in a hurry. and if you think you'll need technical corrections or discussion and explanation, then we are never going to get anywhere. you guys know a lot about the an hope you will write on it extensively because it's a real problem. >> i will just add to quick comments that we continue to be concerned about the cfpb, okay? this is an agency that just as one person running it doesn't have anybody surrounding it basically an unlimited budget,

isn't under congressional oversight. if you look at the fsoc issue and take that life example this is an example what time is mentioned in his speech about the need for government reform and regulation. so here you have a group of regulators who couldn't identify let alone define what the systemic risk behavior was in the interests. they couldn't decide over here but was a systemic risk activity. and then they name for companies as systemic risk outside of banking. and one of them is obviously a guy correctly challenge that because definitionally if you can't identify the behavior how do i become a systemic risk institution? so if something is awry in the slow process of how we are racing to regulate. >> hi. ashley with seeming. could you talk all a bit more about the 2016, i see the presidential race shaping up?

and also could you specifically address the fact that mitt romney is thinking about getting in the race? >> well, i'll be glad to make a couple of comments but i have to first have all my disclaimers. we don't actively participate in the presidential election. we have caused comment during the process on the policy issues involved, and we are interested of course on who all the candidates are. just think about it. every morning in america, about 25 or 30 people it up and look in the mirror and say the morning, mr. president good morning, madam president. it's a great thing about the american system. it's a great thing. and it's going to have you name the time, six months from now? we thought it would be but now all of a sudden a lot of front pew but it's going to have an effect on what we're trying to do on the other very important

policy regulatory legislative issues that need to be addressed. and by the way on the global issues we are dealing with. on romney, not talking about him as a presidential candidate he's a skilled businessman. he's certainly got some experience on being in the presidential business. and i think he is a talented guy, but i could say the same thing about a lot of people men and women. i think it's going to be fascinating. but here's my deal. i think the american people in the elections in the house, elections in the senate, elections for governor and therefore, election for president of the united states are going to look very, very carefully for people that share their values, but bring confidence and experience to the process. if you went to look at all the

polls that was of great concern in the last election, would people go to washington and govern come into the of the conference and the expense to do so? >> good morning, tom. good morning bruce. if i can just get you to go further on 2016 and maybe throw a slab of red meat and ask you to talk about elizabeth warren. >> i think there are lot of economic populist running around in the congress, and out of the congress. elizabeth warren is a person who has some views we don't share. now, she's a member of the senate. that's what i'm talking about right now. the idea that people should not be confirmed to serve in the government because you have experience in the subject for

which he would be a sign is a very unique idea, isn't it? it may work in the senate but it sure doesn't work when you're doing complicated financial issues, for example. second the idea that enterprise and american companies should be more vigorously regulated by the government and in fact controlled by the government is a view that we don't share. very pleasant woman if you you know, sit down and have a cup of tea with her, or a drink. but we don't share her views on the economy and on where the american economic system ought to be headed. and i don't think if she runs for president, i don't think the american people will share her views either.

>> rachael harris with inside health policy. you mentioned it briefly in in his speech but i was wondering if you could expand on your health care approach this year, and if it's impacted at all or shape at all by the pending litigation and if that's kind of is that they signed towards review and replace strategies or kind of the smaller tweaks like the 40 hour workweek and things like that? >> bruce is going to enlighten you on that. i would sit beside that health care is 17% or 18% of our economy. and so legislation of high significance in terms of many changes in the system, it's very difficult to implement. and very difficult to rationalize it and the president and the white house have been

basically rewriting it as we go along, which is sort of a unique perspective for us. but there are going to be changes, because it is so omnipresent in everything we do that we've got to find out what works and what doesn't, and we will be a part of that. >> a couple points. first come on health care legislation, as tom pointed out it is about the overall economy. there is no magic wand in this space at all. we think there are some serious structural issues with the law. that's been enacted. our members have to deal with them, so our objective and our role and responsibility on behalf of our members, so that runs the gamut from the 30-40 hour deal. interest in medical liability which wasn't mentioned.

we are interested in a whole host of things that make this a little easy. we have objections to the employer mandate. we are not involved at all with the litigation. but i think the litigation depending upon what the court does decide could have a huge impact on the law. going forward because of subsidies and who gets them and how to get them and all of that. medicaid isn't really a business organization issue per se. tom mentioned, i think there is a bipartisan support for repealing the medical device attacks. i think we have expressed concern and interest would health insurance tax. they do nothing that makes this whole process more expensive for everybody to get into the system. but look there are 60 votes in the senate to pass the repeal bill. president obama is the president. he's not going to sign a law if it ever got to his desk that repeals his signature

achievement, quote-unquote. so we are not working for repeal, even though we are actively working to defeat this him ever becoming a law. but now the objective is it is a lot were four or five years into this thing and we've got to continue to try to improve it at every turn. that's what we're going to do. >> i would just add one other thing that it's a very interesting to watch our friends and neighbors and family try and deal first with the existing system, and now with a changing system which causes them to lose, reapply for their health insurance, find out their co-pays have changed. and i'm not making a value judgment about the content. i making a value judgment about how difficult it is for everyday americans. and i'm not talking about that guy that worked on the suggested they weren't very smart. i'm suggesting they are smart

but they are uninformed because he tried to pick up that stuff in the explanations and try and inform yourself you are lucky if you work for a company that takes care of arranging your health insurance. if you have to do it herself it is one of the scariest things you can ever imagine. >> hi. i'm susan cornwell with reuters. and the obama administration says they're going to unveil new rules today that aim to slash methane and missions from oil and gas production. i think by up to 45% by the year 2025. so i know you sort of touched on this in your speech, but i wonder what you specifically thought about this proposal to regulate methane gas? thank you. >> bruce?

>> we just talked about it. >> first off first, just so you know where we were so we haven't had a chance to review it, but from what i've stand, you're right, it's a 45% reduction by 2025. i'm told it doesn't define how we would ever achieve that through regulation. yet over you on the other side of that is another reality that says about the last five years u.s. industry has reduced methane emissions by about 11%. by the way fracking by greater than 70%. all of what epa had previously forecast as undershot many the private sector has exceeded emission reductions voluntarily far beyond what they had hoped to achieve. so you're kind of stopping right away wondering wait a second term we are moving forward with pretty significant reductions massive on the fracking site. and that the ministrations comes up with another kind of one size fits all regulation that's going to have an impact on one of the

most innovative industries in the country without any definition of how you achieve. so we are concerned. [inaudible] >> hi. i am from japanese tv network. on cuba can you tell us what kind of benefits u.s. business community can get from possible u.s.-cuba commercial exchange? and are you planning to visit havana begin this year? thank you. >> i think the benefits should be measured sequentially. the first benefit comes to the united states of america. cuba is 91 miles off the coast of florida. there are people from all over the world down there. they have built one of the most modern ports to handle all those ships coming through, the new ships through the panama canal,

a for by the brazilians, the dredging paid for by the germans, the cranes and the computer technology provided either chinese. there's a major oil drilling and refining operation, gas and oil which is a joint partnership with the canadians and we are not there except on food. the second, and very, very important thing that's critical to the united states is national security and geopolitical reality. we don't want to go back to a point where others who don't wish us well, or who are competitive not an economic sense but in the geopolitical sense set up shop 91 miles from one of our major cities. and we've been on top of all that there are extraordinary

opportunities for american companies there. you have all seen the pictures. now, it's not the biggest population in the world but there's a chance to do two things. want to sell a bunch of cars and two going to the car business of antique cars. and, and by the way, there is an unbelievable demand by the people living in cuba for consumer products, technology, and other things that someone is going to sell the. it's not going to be all of us because look at all these countries that other companies in their already. but the bottom line is it is now time for us to do something here. and by the way, you all notice that the dissidents were released yesterday. >> hi. i mark from investment news. going back to financial regulation. how exactly do you see it

unfolding? for instance, the technical corrections bill that's going to come out of the house today do you think the senate is going to embrace it in a form that comes out of the house or take a different approach and want to go to regular order and do those things one by one? how do you see that unfolding? second in the majors real quick what are you going to do to try to stop the deal off the fiduciary build? >> the senate might be motivated to take the bill estimate if it passes and gets better. mitch mcconnell has said he wants to do everything through regular order as you all well know although he has pointed out the xl pipeline issue, it's not an open in regular order mean he's not going to let perpetual and then it's in the hundreds go on forever. i do have a clue what the senate is going to do on this, and it's hard to predict. i would assume pass it or come close to passing it. it seems to me that the concern and effort in both chambers

right now is to try from the leadership of stage to build as much for parsing support to move these things as quickly as they can, but the president decided what he's going to do. >> remember, the end of the week, leaders and the members of the house and the senate will be together for their meeting. and we are hoping that when you put together the regular order in the senate and and a cooperative relationship between the leaders in both houses, that we would get to some of these issues. in terms of the fiduciary issue out of labor, we are deeply concerned about a lot of things coming out of labor. remember, labor sets the rules for how you hire people, how you pay benefits, how you pay them, what you have to do in the regulations on the workplaces and all of that and there are lots and lots of things cooking

over there that we're going to have to deal with. and we hope to deal with them with logical arguments. we hope to deal with them with compelling facts. and when we finally get through with it and a lot of those we will have to do with them in a court of law, and gene we are really good at it. >> dana milbank from the "washington post." if you look at the current rates of growth, it seems to be hard to make the case that obamacare and dodd-frank and the other policies of this administration distorted the free enterprise system. do you think those warnings of your some a few years ago were overwrought or do you think things would be fundamentally and significantly better now? >> destruction of the free enterprise? your crazy. >> you find one place that we projected the destruction of the free enterprise system and i will buy you lunch. >> where are we going?

>> your call. you are paying. guaranteed. >> we worry about people going after the enterprise system, but we don't project its destruction. and i think it's a very interesting to look at how the government and the united states has gotten its deficit down to where it has with the 98 billion out of the fed with hundreds of billions all the time out of extorted settlements out of companies and other issues, but when you look at where this stuff is going in just the next years, and the governments own projection of how huge that deficit is going to be most of it by the way huge amount of it tied into entitlement i think you've got to be really careful -- oh ma by the way they want to do more tax increases.

certainly the cost of these regulatory changes are extraordinary, but the bottom line is very simple. we need to be alert. we need to understand the challenges and the predictable crisis that we face and we need to do something about or we will pay a price for it. >> hi. came from a political. i had a few questions about the gas tax. first of all are you guys attached to the gas tax as sort of the funding source for the highway bill, or do you think texas or something like that? secondly in your speech you said, i'm not sure if you are using rhetoric or something you were posing one or two times the savings would come from falling gas prices. 20 cents seems to be a little bit higher than what most of the people have proposed for a gas tax increase, so is that actually -- >> there was an or between the first and second time or and. listen, this is a very simple

issue. we have gone three years since we've increased -- 23 years since we increased the federal fuel tax. during that time everybody in this room has gone from having a car that goes x. miles a gallon to having a car that gets many more miles per gallon, which means you, which means you are driving come and same thing in the trucking business which i know a lot about and the bottom line is we are driving as many miles or more miles on the road and we're collecting half of the funds that we work to repair the roads and the extent of the road where it needs to go. and the bridges and to take care of transit your and everybody thought about all the ideas where they could hide the quote gas tax. we could put in something else inand make believe it didn't happen. we can have and infrastructure

bank. yeah, you can but you can't have an infrastructure bank if you have a poor system that allows you to pay for it. we've watched four to six states the year increased their own gas tax, and it's a two-day story. what's needed here is the realization that there are a lot of holes in the road, a lot of bridges in this country that don't work, and pretty soon we will have a crisis. and we need a way to pay for this because we're going to do it. my recommendation to the leadership is that this is a hell of a lot simpler than a lot of other things you are talking about. >> if you think about this issue, so you had a recession which reduced consumption to get have a vehicle mile increase that tom mentioned, which has been rather dramatic. you've got another thing of molly meals not necessary driving cars the way, say my generation did so there's a lot of factors and forces that have done what?

they have driven down the receipts of trust fund close to 30% since about 2007. it's clear the direction it is going to repair and renovation cost, by the way land labor materials et cetera are going up rather dramatically this isn't free to be paid for. the people that complain about it being a quote tax increase, let's not forget that congress a year ago did on the other side of the coin entirely raise the inland water fee tax okay? 9 cents. so at some point reality begins to hit. i think it's encouraging more today, from the vehicle mile tax which has been discussed to this, but you have more members of the house and senate right now saying maybe we ought to take a look at this. mable got to take a look at the tax, made a look at indexing. you didn't have those conversations even a year ago. so that's a big improvement to this isn't going to be done for free.

>> david woods inside epa. i have questions on the regulatory reform issue. first, you talked about a bill for crafting and regulations. are you looking at a particular legislation for the other prongs of that agenda? and on the side of reforming enforcement of existing rules you talked about some practices you want to see stop. can you go into more detail on what agencies are using those i guess you call them underhanded enforcement tricks? >> to you want to go on the first -- >> the bills that tom mentioned was regulatory accountable to act which finally is designed to reform the administrative procedure act which is the single statute on the books from 1942 or 46 that guides the rulemaking and regulators in a regulating process. considering it's 2015, we think taking a good look at how you modernize that in today's world

is probably appropriate. bipartisan group of the house and senate members agree with is based upon cosponsorship. the permit streamlining come it shouldn't take 12 15 or 20 20 years to get a permit for anything in this country in which is kind of what it's been taking. we've kind of modeled off of what they've done on the highway side. so all comments should be heard everybody should be considered but there's a timeline where you make a decision to this just can't go on and on forever. the third piece of that is the suit and subtle gang and this is one where we think some organizations have taken unfair advantage of a legitimate legal process which is called sue the epa. the courts are deferential to epa in this case. they always settle. treasury writes a check, okay and then reimburses. this is almost a self-funding mechanism for some of those groups. >> and the worst part of that is you can't challenge it the same way you could a regulation.

so the person or the group that initiates the suit makes a deal with the epa, they get what they want in the decision from the epa. then they did paid for it, and then she can't challenge it. the same way but if it were a regulation. >> we think that kind of gang needs to stop. now, the general counsel of epa kind of agreed with us and i started to release some of the information which by the way for years they wouldn't release. part of the repertory reform concerns we have had on some of the standard setting were epa says our analyses in science tells us come and we say can we see the sights? and again is no university did a. we don't own a. you go to the university of basic we did it for epa we are not permitted to give it to you. we are like a ping pong ball going back and forth. we are saying in those instances, epa should forthrightly bring forward those

analyses and studies. we would like to see in them real cost-benefit analyses over all in terms of the entire impact on the economy. i think you guys and gals know we did a study over several years on this sue and subtle game and permitting and identified more than 350 prizes. by the way interestingly over half of which were for alternative and renewable energy infrastructure projects that stopped because of this sue and settle game. so there's a lot going on in this space that the enemy and needs to be peeled back a little bit, and dba needs to be a lot more transparent. >> andrew with the "national law journal" and corporate counsel. over here. 2015, reforming the false claims act a priority for the chamber? >> yes.

>> could you talk all a bit more about what you're hoping to a copper? >> let me hook you up with matt webb who i think is here. >> and not we will get it spent we'll get him because i know the other people in the legal reform institute are not here today but matt is here. we think there are some concerns with the practices in terms of how the foreign corrupt practices act is being used to go after companies. >> talking about the false claim space the false claims act definitely going to put you to matt, okay? somebody get that down here. we will give him to you. >> financial advisor magazine. to question. tom, are you threatening a lawsuit -- [inaudible] >> no. i think we will be working on lots of the other options debate. if we go to normal order in the

senate. there will be opportunities to have hearings and look at the issue. if it comes down finally do something that was dealt with before and if we have to go to court, we will but we don't threaten people with lawsuits. we just sue them. >> what parts of dodd-frank do you think you can repeal in this session of congress? >> we are not out to repeal all sorts of parts of dodd-frank. what we are interested in doing is making the technical changes finding some rational center between the conflicting interpretations that we are getting from the regulatory agencies, and dealing with those things that were written without understanding of how it affects what's happening in the rest of the economy, what happens in our

business around the world. look dodd-frank is here. it's not going the way, but it is so big it is so perverse as that we've got to make those technical challenges. and by the way you go pick every piece of met major legislation have ever seen in this country, and that's exactly what has to happen. look at what's going on in health care. it makes what's going on in dodd-frank look like not very significant. but we're going to be there. we will work on those changes, work on interpretation and we will work very, very hard to make sure that there is some we or drink without it is regulated by whom by one by two, by 10, but it doesn't agencies all and conflict. that's got to stop. let me just say one thing because we cannot take any more questions. we have a lot of our staff here that deal with the issues you are interested in and you know many of them and they are standing over there and over there and they will be very

happy to talk to you. i want to thank you for coming, and what to wish you a very happy 2015. [applause] >> [inaudible conversations] >> [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] chamber of commerce president and ceo tom donohue delivering his state of american business address before this news conference which just wrapped up. you can see his address, state american business address later on our program schedule. also both a speech in the news conference will be available on our website c-span.org sometime this afternoon. president obama travels to cedar

falls today, iowa to speak on broadband access. is expected to outline steps to increase across the country. cedar falls is the first city in iowa where gigabit internet service is available. live coverage begins at 3:40 p.m. eastern. on that topic the hill today has this. senator bill nelson who is the ranking member on the senate commerce committee will soon introduce a data breach notification bill that closely resembles a proposal the president called for during a speech on monday. the bill would require for each company to notify consumers that their information has been exposed within 30 days. companies would also have to report to the government on security breaches of a certain magnitude. also coming, apple live there today at seven eastern terry mcauliffe will deliver his state of the, will address from richmond virginia. that is right here on c-span2. >> here are some of our featured

programs for this weekend on the c-span networks. on c-span2, saturday night at 10 on booktv's afterwards, bret stephens argues our enemies and competitors are taking events of the situation abroad created by the u.s. as a focuses on its domestic concerns.

>> now a sub from today's "washington journal" and we will show you as much of this as we can to bring you live coverage of wyoming governor matt mead state of the state address set for about half an hour from now at noon eastern. >> joining us now, scott perry of pennsylvania serves on homeland security committee and also is a member of the foreign affairs committee. good morning. where do you stand on today's vote on homeland security funding bill? >> guest: i was a yes. nothing is perfect but in the greater context i think it's a move in the right direction. certainly we want to fund homeland security. there's a fair amount of increase is because we understand we're we are in a troubled world.

at the same time we must get you and the people demand that we get to the constitution, the extraconstitutional foray by the president as many americans and myself see. this does that. it's going to be touted to be about immigration, it's going to be touted to be about hope i security as much as it is that it's about the instruction book for our country and to either accept this or you don't accept it. you don't pick up the part you like that's what the part you don't like and that so many of us and myself see us what has happened. we need to remedy that. this is the opportunity post back you started by saying it's not perfect. what did you mean? >> guest: there will be some republicans to vote against the because the be something center they find unpalatable and imagine some democrats who will vote against it for the same reason that everyone understands we must find our agencies and understanding it is waste, excesses and abuses. that's what i mean when it's not perfect. you try and get to everything in due course and to do time at the

same time to keep moving forward because the world keeps moving forward. we work within the context and the timeframe we can but everything is not exactly what you would do it if you had everything under your purview. >> host: is it because the amendment and seven attached specific on the efforts of deportation efforts? >> guest: for some absolutely. we have to do something special with young people that came your without any they didn't have any choice in the matter. they are here illegally. the bigger issue is the constitution. and to me that is the issue the constitution. if we don't uphold the senate, we each took an oath week a half ago to uphold and defend the constitution. there are a lot of issues. the president, to me this issue was chosen to be selected by the president but it could've been any issue. taxes, a whole is issues to get an extra constitutional forward. this one was chosen and this is one went to do with. that doesn't mean it's because this issue that we shouldn't do

with it. it is to me about by the constitution more than anything else. >> host: amendments to deal with the dreamers and everything else that you said you had sympathy with the ones that are to put those things together? >> guest: these are difficult decisions. we are paid and elected to make difficult decisions. if it were easy everyone would be doing it. it's in perfect but you have to look at the total sum and say is it better than its worst? for me if we just disregard the constitution come it doesn't matter at some point what the issue is. the constitution is where it really comes down from the. >> host: you probably have a sense of where this will go should have the senate specially some republicans are expecting criticism about this effort. your thoughts? >> guest: they have their job to do as well but i think as a member of the house and house and particular needs to get it work and not be so concerned with what the senate might do or what they might say. we need to do the best we can and send it to them. if they can approve it, make it

better that's great. god bless in. >> host: if it ends back on the speakers desk and has to be cement the same without the amendments, where would you stand? >> guest: i don't think it would be okay because it doesn't have certain deal with what many people see in myself see as the president extra constitutional action to we must deal with that some of. i don't expect it to come back exactly the same and we will just have to wait and see what they do. they might add some things that i liked. >> host: what would you like? >> guest: i would like to see homeland tightened up more. there are some excesses and abuses. i've just become the subcommittee chairman on oversight. i would really like us to get into some of that stuff. we really need to make sure that every dollar it spent most efficiently. i'm not sure we're doing that in these cases. >> host: the words the thoughts of our guests, scott perry it doesn't on homeland security committee.

is a chairman of a subcommittee. may have thoughts on this. if you want to make your thoughts on twitter known it's that cspanwj. your party and others will take place in retreat this weekend. immigration is expected to be a big topic. do you expect a consensus to come forward as far as a plan forward when it comes to immigration? >> guest: there could be. i think it's going be different with us and. i have gone to these forums before and it's just the house and it's hard to get consensus just out of house members. you add the senate which has a different view it was a different dynamic. the biggest thing is opportunity for all voices to be heard. we represent 700 some odd thousand constituents in each of our different ideas based on our

constituencies. sometimes it feels like leadership doesn't necessarily hear all those things. this is the opportunity not only for leadership but for your colleagues, and for me as a colleague of other members to do with issues are in the district and why they think the way they do so that when a comprehensive package is put together or a series of bills that deal with an issue, you might not agree but at least you can understand and articulate to your constituents why your yes, no and the other issues that surround. those times none of these issues are monolithic. >> host: on those complicated even by today's vote? >> guest: out to be. because of the narrative, there's going to be people who say this is about homeland. people will say this is about immigration and there are people who will say this is about the constitution. i think it's about the constitution, many people and some of the media will drive the narrative regardless of what we think we are voting for and then that colors everything that follows down the line.

while i think this is about the constitution and to a certain extent, a great extent dealing with homeland funding, we have vowed everyone to get to the other parts of immigration that need our attention and we plan to do that but what happened here and how it is seen might change that process host to which the top priority when it comes to immigration? >> guest: a top priority for immigration is border security quickly followed by the visa program. it doesn't work for working families. it doesn't work for businesses. it just doesn't work for our country. hasn't really been modified to really change with the times as times changed for 20 25 years. to me that has come we need to get to the. >> host: our guest is here for your calls. port saint lucia florida bob you are up first. go ahead. >> caller: all right. i'm so these people keep going in and saying obama is breaking the law and he's doing

everything wrong. we have laws here and we have judges here and we have a police department. why don't they call up have him arrested if he's breaking the law, or shut up traffic bob i appreciate your point. the issue is that because addition is the supreme law of the land but it's unfortunately in some cases kind of up for conjecture or review or opinion. that has to go through the courts. while i think the president has breached his constitutional authority, i believe that it sounds like you believe that but we also have due process in this country and this is the due process. we are going to try and make our claim and then imagine it will go through the courts portion of this. but this is a process by which we have to determine whether there has been kind of a law broken, if you want to say or gone outside the constitutional authority and then seek to remedy at that point and one

robert, louisiana, democrat's line. hi. >> caller: yes sir. drama robert, go ahead. you are on. >> caller: yes sir i'd like to make a comment and ask a question and a comment please try to robert i'm listening to you. >> caller: what i don't understand is why the republicans try to block everything the president tries to do. he's like a bull in a corner every time he tries to get something done they want to step in and try to try to do something to block him. and as far as the homeland security i'm glad they're voting on that. i hope it goes through. but as far as the deal about the immigrants, the illegal immigrants that they call the mexicans i think that's wrong. >> host: thanks, robert.

go ahead. >> guest: some people see as blocking, some people say the republicans because i'm a republican the president is a democrat, they say it is standing for you must stand for something and if you believe in the constitution and that the president has breached his constitutional authority, that you were duty-bound. you've taken an oath and have a duty to stand for something. it's not necessary thing against the president by t. spencer one thing on this occasion and we stand for something else or at least i do. i better not speak for the whole party but i do on this occasion and so i have a duty to my constituents, the people who elected me and said you are a representative and this is what we believe and we wish that you would stand for something in this regard. so it's not necessarily opposing everything he does that stand for something and it just happens to be different, a difference of opinion and then that must be worked out. >> host: spring hill florida. krist up next. good morning. >> caller: hi. i agree with you, congressman

terry. and as far as blocking the present of whatever not voting along with him, gridlock is only a bad thing if it's legislation that you like. if it's legislation you don't like, you are praying for gridlock. that's nonsense. but anyway, it goes to the heart of what i really wanted to say. people have to understand that you as a congressman and 434 other congressmen like you are representing us as our proxy because we can't veto. >> and you are also legislature rights law. not the president. don't people kind of wonder why the president can just override 435 members of congress and another 100 in the senate just by his been? it's a vague as for the executive order and how far he

can go and what his powers are but it's always been an unwritten understanding that this is not what executive order is for. you don't override the legislature. bush tried a long time to get the legislature to pass immigration reform. but he allowed he kept it with the legislature. he allowed them, he didn't take the legislature's power and override all those people who are represented by all the people across the country. >> guest: you are absent a right. this is a frustrating process for americans and for members of congress to imagine it's frustrating for the president. you are elected to solve problems, to find solutions, and there is this grinding against one another and this give-and-take that oftentimes, too many times takes too long. but at the same time if you take an oath and you agree with the constitution you must understand the framers set it up this way. it was supposed to be a deliberative process that is oftentimes slow and inefficient

but we don't want to make knee-jerk decisions because they have unintended consequences down the line that oftentimes can't be seen. so while it's frustrating and aggravating an irritating that you can't provide a solution that looks so pretty in your mind, we have a collaborative process where all americans through this process have their voices heard and the most perfect thing comes out. i'm not saying the perfect thing, but the most perfect thing at that moment based on the constituency and the ideas and thoughts and desires of the constituency in the context of the constitution. that's what comes out if we follow the process. if we don't then we have this issue which is what we have now, the president decided one way and quite literally the congress sang hold on a second. it says right here in the operator's manual that's our job. we are duty-bound to do something about it than what our guest also serves on the foreign affairs committee. no response to store this point

about al-qaeda and the arabian peninsula taken responsibility for the terrorist attacks tragedy i don't think that's any surprise. we heard the shouts from the terrorists that they were affiliated with al-qaeda in yemen. and one of the targets that was hit over there. i don't think that's necessarily any surprise. i think the american people really need to wrap their minds around what this enemy is all about and the fact that we don't deal with an enemy that has a linear border, state-sponsored enemy. this is an ideology that transcends borders and age and culture. this is going to be a different type of warfare unfortunately that while we would like to disengage from, we desperately want to disengage from unfortunately they are bringing this to our doorstep. we either deal with it or we suffer these consequences over and over and over. >> host: to the ring also into the united states eventually do you think? >> guest: if left to their devices they will. no doubt about it. i'm surprised they haven't been

more successful in the united states but that is a credit to law enforcement and the other law enforcement affiliated agencies that monitor and keep track and deter. >> host: including dhs? >> guest: absolutely. you have of course border protection and ice. they are looking at the info folks coming in the secret service that protects the president and elected officials. these are all collaborative agencies that work together. we saw after 9/11 that everybody was kind of stove piped different agencies working in the own realm but not talking to one another. dhs was designed specifically to collaborate or to foster collaboration and cross talks so that the information was crossing agencies. and so the coast guard, they are getting the information on somebody on the no fly list which no fly generally speaking means maybe he is not like but we don't want to come in on a cruise ship either.

they are checking lists and so on and so forth so it's that collaborative nature working together that helps keep all of us safe. i think it works on some of the bigger pots, so to speak where you have multiple people or agencies, groups, whatever you want to call them, al-qaeda affiliated or boko haram or whatever that are collaborating. it works to stop them. it's the lone wolf the individual that's difficult because if they're not communicating with anyone, in these agencies can it's difficult for the processes to work. >> host: what would you like to see for action items to counteract and keep the doorsteps your words? >> guest: visa waiver program in particular i think needs to be reviewed. while we have a very strong program i think in the united states of which i think could be tightened up a bit, but i think some of our partner nations don't have such a tight program. when you look at in france this one suspect they were looking for who was on the no fly list, as a matter fact that two

individuals who conducted the massacre, the two brothers were on the no fly list yet they traveled to yemen and the wife or the compatriot, the companion of the one gentlemen, maybe i better not call him a gentleman. the individual who shot of the market, his female partner traveled just days before through turkey and allegedly into syria. she's on the no fly list. how is that happening? those are the things i think we need to work on with our western civilization partners. >> host: we go next to bernadette in new mexico. democrat's line. good morning call nick good morning. -- you talk about the quote-unquote process. so how much is this process going to cost? what i see is that there's an old saying that says united we stand, divided we fall. the republicans have done

everything in their power to try to divide us. when the world sees our leaders, the president of the united states, whether you like him or not, when they see us divided they see us as weak. how much is this process going to cost? >> guest: picture talk about the homeland security bill i think the appropriations 49 points $7 billion but they're talking in a larger context. with all due respect there's a lot of folks that believe that the president decides with a one that is been the most divisive. i just it is a matter of opinion to all of us want to be united special is a lookup to the rest of the world and want to have a united front. but at the same time we must make decisions together on how to move forward together. there are always disagreements. but for the sake of moving together forward, we just don't throughout the paper with the bathwater and accept things that are unacceptable to your constituents.

asked . .. with national security. guest: that's a fair question but if it is for republicans, how come it's fair for democrats and for the president? he has played politics with national security many would say with his policies and with what is essentially in many people's views an open border. so while i would agree to a certain extent you could say but it's fair on the other side. we are in the same boat t host: you agree with his statement? guest: i agree it's could be perceived as such. if you perceive that as such you can't, i think if it's 50%, there is 50% on the other side as well. host: alana, >> host: brooklyn, new york, go ahead you are on with scott perry. >> caller: how are you,? yesterday i got cut off but they were talking about who would run

for geo b. i personally think alan west loved america whether he is a democrat or republican. he always seems to know what he's talking about, and i think in the near future we should look at what he knows, how smart he is and getting to the job. >> guest: i appreciate that. allen is a good friend and american patriot. he served his nation in combat, but that at the end of the day is alan's decision to run and people will determine whether they agree with his philosophy and leaders of style and vision for america. kind of strange to say we should look into his -- and a strong opinion of alan west i am with you. >> host: should be serve the presidency -- >> guest: it adds to the

conversation which is a great thing. it adds to the conversation and enhances our process. i am not planning to run for president any time soon but i imagine the others will say come on in, the water is warm. >> host: after the primary. andrew, from iowa. brett is next on the independent line. >> caller: how are you doing today? i pretty much agree with just about everything you bring to the table. i would like to bring up a point about immigration. ultimately we have a legal system those that decide to break that are breaking the law. anyone who sympathizes with someone breaking the law whether to make it better for themselves or to make the gains, i don't have sympathy for those people because there are people suffering all over the world and if they are not stealing or

robbing or killing people to make life better for themselves is that acceptable? doesn't make sense to me. these illegal immigrants coming in here and people say it is okay because they're making life better for themselves that is wrong. >> guest: appreciate your input. it is against the law which is the problem but laws are a matter of degree. you don't put killing on the same scale as shoplifting especially if you are starving and that is where most americans are. most americans would agree immigration process, the system is broken and has been for some time and desperately needs review and reform and updating. just because you don't like and acknowledge that it is broken does not give you pause with your congress or the president for unilateral action. we have a system by which laws are changed and if we disregard that on this occasion why not disregard it on every single location and that is the concern. congress has ceded much of its

authority over time to the executive branch in my opinion both republican and democrat and on both occasions should have dug their heels in and said this is our authority by the constitution, it is not yours, mr. executive and we need to retain it. at the same time let's the responsible and deal with stuff. we have been pushed into a corner to a certain extent that that is what it takes to get things done and move forward that is what it takes. >> host: on twitter, why doesn't congress deliberate on immigration? give us the quick and dirty. >> guest: we just got sworn in and this is the first step. we have until the twenty-seventh of february to get to the department of homeland security appropriation taken care of and this process takes time. even the legislative process takes time. once we get this done we heard from leadership and members that we want to get in to immigration and produced a legislation to get to the president's desk and the american people can expect that very shortly but i don't

think they will be able to expect one comprehensive bill on visa reform or border security. different components coming very rapidly but it is a time taking process, information and collaboration's so the american people can see transparently what we're doing and why we're doing and say i agree or disagree and that produces the best product over time. >> host: what is the likelihood that funding won't happen? >> guest: and don't know what will happen in the process. i don't know if it will pass quickly or easily or the president will sign it or if there is going to be some stops along the way but sooner or later it is going to happen and the disdain even if it is there's a partial shutdown. above vast majority will occur, if you say there's a shut down understand the coast guard won't be part of that. is just going to be a small portion which deals with what many people consider the illegal

immigrants coming across and that component of it. that is the only component that is not working. the rest would be fully funded and operational. the small part would be stopped. >> host: you don't see the shutdown as part of a process. >> guest: understand what parts of the shutdown are there. the vast majority will continue to operate because it is what we call autopilot. it has to be funded, has to remain open. that doesn't mean the political narrative and demagogueing won't see the department of homeland security is shut down because of 1% or 0.1% of it is stymied then there are some people who will make political hay out of that saying evolving is and we have about us 7 second attention span in america today and that is what people will year-end think even though it is not true. >> host: scott perry, a member of a foreign affairs committee here to talk to you until 8:30. in from texas on the republican

line, good morning. >> caller: good morning. i feel you guys do a good job in the republican party so far. any time to get all this done. i have one thing to say. these democrats that are calling, they're not informed about the homeland security bills the way it will be not funded. you remember what happened with obamacare, 6 or 7 times on video, people who supported at act, obamacare, is coming again. as far as immigration reform, these people calling and saying it is okay don't have an idea. i live in the south texas area, fraud to the security system for disability benefits to everything that is going on with benefits as far as federal.

and to have this kind of atmosphere and area so they can understand immigration reform they are trying to support obama. i think obama 22 times mentioned he didn't have the power to go unilateral. you know what it was? it was all about latino. someone said earlier it was about the latino vote and that is what it was. i am not a supporter of obama and would never be a democrat. i am a republican by heart, served in the military with honor and i will tell you you guys keep the good work of. >> guest: thank you for your service. members of congress, we represent democrats and republicans and i do wonder about the 27 times the president said he could not. and then he decided to do it anywhere and wondered about the

timing as well. maybe some of these issues at the end of the day this to me is about the constitution. if you take the oath to uphold the constitution and the constitution is stating clearly whose job it is to legislate especially on immigration, you have a duty to do something about that. we represent all use the best we can and it is in perfect but we are going to get somewhere. >> host: what do you think about -- what does your daughter think of these efforts of immigration? >> guest: my mother speaks spanish fluently but she said to my brother and i. you will speak english you are in america you speak english and she didn't teach us spanish. she believes in being an american is what she believes. she has her heritage but she is an american friend for went expected her sons and daughters to the americans as well and expect all americans to do the

same. >> host: the independent line, high. >> caller: good morning, how are you doing? >> . >> guest: doing well. >> caller: i have to say a tremendous job to do. my problem is we have a divided government and when the democrats have the senate and congress, they didn't have thing is done but for that, in a sense the republicans had the right to block all these bills. the bills that get a chance to come up. here is my question to you very simple question as a congressman. as somebody with military in my family i would like to know what

part of the constitution did the president bring the we are now, the security into question with this bill. explain to was. what part of the homeland security bill is connected to this president breaking the law? >> guest: very specifically article i section viii and article ii. those two the congress the legislature deals with immigration law, very specifically. article ii, the president's good faith to uphold and defend the constitution and the law those two things in tandem more individually are what most americans that disagree with his actions are buttressing their claim on. they hold of the constitution and it right says hear it in black-and-white this is the purview of the congress and the

president will faithfully execute the laws. so the two items. that is where the foundation of the argument exists. >> host: congressional leaders at the white house yesterday and part of his opening statement talked-about areas possibly where you work with republicans on a variety of areas a little bit of what he says where you might find agreement. >> i think there is going to the opportunity to work together on trade, there will be opportunities for us to work together on simplifying the tax system making sure everyone is paying their fair share, there will be opportunities for us to streamline government so it is more responsive and done each of these issues i am going to be listening to everybody around this table and i am hopeful that with a spirit of cooperation we can be in a position where the individual will be able to affect that much better off than we were when we started the

year. >> host: any areas of agreement? >> guest: trade and trade promotion authority is something the president is discussing in particular and something he is working across from his party so that is interesting that there might be opportunities -- we have a tax system that makes us uncompetitive with the rest of the world. when he says he's willing to work with us democrats and republicans in the last congress, senate and house really wanted to get tax reform but it was my understanding the president wanted $1 trillion in new revenue to the federal government to agree to something. if that spills fences will be difficult but everybody acknowledges our tax system is broken. i am concerned when he says everyone needs to pay their fair share. i hear that as code for somebody doing well, that has been successful and work hard must pay more because they have been successful. it needs to be fair, period.

that is in the eye of the be holder. all of us can agree and there are excesses in government and we can work together to fix this thing. >> host: on the head of the committee that looks of those issues in homeland security what would you target or what you planning to target. >> guest: we want to make sure every dollar spent is spent efficiently. we understand the government needs money to do the things they need to do and we agree with and homeland security provides for the security and protection of the homeland but when we see the excesses of spending contractual agreement with agreements with the construction of a place called st. elizabeth's which is a new headquarters for homeland security, the amount of money being spent, billions of dollars and some of the things that have been done and are being done, problems with contract thing, taxpayers don't appreciate those

things. the contractors willing to do whatever they are told to do and take the money, doesn't need to be so opulent or doesn't need to cost and that is what most americans would say we need a headquarters appropriate for this agency that fosters collaboration in the efficiency but that is not what we are seeing. we are seeing a pile of money, a few folks and taxpayers being fleeced over long time but that needs to be fixed. that is one thing we will be taking something that happened over the last two years prior chairman mr. duncan looked at that and we will continue down that path. there are gains to be made. >> host: the first hearing will take place on what the topic will be. >> guest: the first hearing under my purview will take place next month and will be reorganizations and right now we are looking at a list of topics we might get into so we are focused on fraud, waste and abuse in that agency and go from there.

>> host: charleston, south carolina car robert you are up next with representative scott perry. >> caller: here is my first one. i see all this all the time. they are wrong, they are wrong, this is wrong. what i don't see is this is what i would do. they can come out and say this is what i would do. it is easy to point fingers and say this person is wrong this person is wrong but have enough nacho to say this is what i would to. this is how i would do it. not just that. here is my second point. this is one that really bugs me. about immigration. because nobody up there in washington wants to admit that we give away 50,000 citizenships a year under a lottery.

>> guest: again i tend to agree we can't just be against everything. you got to see what you are for. if you want to discuss immigration, that is a big topic so i am not sure exactly what question you have for me to answer on that but for me citizenship is very important. should be valuable land it should be earned and i am concerned when we hand away, i am concerned when people work towards it like my grandmother and great-grandmother who came with shirts on their back and turned their citizenship and learned english from spanish and became proud americans. when we put people that come across the border and stay or come in the gully and overstay their visas and just stay, meanwhile other people are going through the process which i would say it takes too long, is too expensive and burdensome but they go through the process legally and we put these people

who have coming illegally in front of them. that is a simple -- that is the simplest -- as simple as putting in wine and you know that is incorrect from elementary school. you don't need to be a grown-up and it doesn't need to be as complicated as immigration reform to understand that is not right. those are things most americans myself included want to solve. >> host: virginia republican line judy. >> caller: how are you? >> guest: i am well. >> caller: my question isn't about immigration but sequestration. the gutting of our military. and benefits that are -- our active-duty members currently receive. try care i am a military mom of four, a military wife and i am concerned about our retirement,

that is my question. >> guest: thank you for your service. when a member of your family serves, as the wife, you serve along with him. probably serve my nation as well. my concern is the same as yours the only thing it seems this administration is willing to say their access is in and willing to cut is the military and as a long-term member of the military started out as a listed member and became an author i have seen accesses as well. it is a big organization and there are accesses and it is appropriate to be scrutinizing of those and make changes. at the same time you got to wonder what is too much too fast for such a large organization, wanting in the constitution where it says we are duty bound to defend the nation. there should be others things that are look that as well. i am not saying the military is not do but there should be other

things that are looked at as well. many of the commanders and top leadership in the military has been put in difficult circumstances because they and to to the president and this is what you are going to get and you have to make it work. they are in a position of trying to protect the nation and the nation's and has diminishing assets and an initial resources when they have to decide where those things will be cut and on many occasions they have come to the congress and said we don't want to cut this operational stuff. we only have so much money so it must come from here. if that is the only thing the president will accept congress is in the corner as well. we need to understand and recognize this is our constitutional duty. is a dangerous world, our military protect us and people make a commitment to serve and give up their lives if necessary and there's another side of the deal of that agreement, that side of the agreement is we will take care of them and pay for the manned once you make an agreement you can't change it. you might change it for once in

the future but not for the ones that made the agreement can you sign on to your end of the board and so i appreciate your position. >> host: representative scott perry of pennsylvania, number of homeland security committee and foreign affairs committee joining us to talk about today's vote. thanks for your time. >> guest: thank you very much. >> more from this morning's washington journal as we wait for miami governor matt mead's 8 of the state address. >> i want to introduce you to a democrat from arizona. a member of the armed services committee who serves as lower lip of the congressional hispanic caucus. good morning. a freshman member, former marine from congress. >> guest: we are always marines. i end up in congress returning from the military, and got really involved in veterans' issues because we were being left behind. you have seen out here now they

used to be even worse back in the day. a lot of us came back, more politically active and dovetail off of the problems we are having in arizona. acts in congress increased and then a run for office and i took it and i ran for state representative for four years and loved the job i did and eventually raised enough for congress and of the opportunity to run. a good opportunity for me to serve a grander scheme. >> host: and you are a number of the armed services committee. >> guest: i am lucky and excited. i have four bases in arizona and the importance to the economy of arizona and happy to be on that. >> host: one of those posts is homeland security today and the larger immigration. give me a sense of the republican bill being debated and voted on today. >> guest: this is really a bill that entirely based and aimed at

placating the tea party base of the republican party. there is no indication this bill will go anywhere beyond congress'. any votes in the senate to pass with the amendments they want which will strip the lot of funding away from any type of action program, or the new program the president has recommended. for us we are frustrated because this is a fun we should be serious about homeland security funding and we have a small element of the right who are taking hostage the homeland security bill for political purposes. we're not going to go anywhere and at the end of the day i think it slows down the wheels of government and it is unfortunate that will happen especially in the first few days of congress with the talk about working in a bipartisan manner. >> host: the house speaker says these are the reactions to the president's overreach and these

issues. you don't see that? >> guest: there are temper tantrums. because the reaction doesn't necessarily mean you have to listen to them and at the same time a lot of people have to realize the reaction the president's actions, entirely because the republican congress never move don comprehensive immigration bill that was passed, that bipartisan group of senators and i do have a lot of friends that are under deferred action, could be received, their paperwork they obtained jobs and paying taxes and a going to school. >> we will leave this washington journal segment as matt mead is about to have his state of the state address in cheyenne. >> thank you, good morning, thank you very much. thank you. thank you. thank you.

thank you. thank you very much. very nice. thank you. thank you. good morning. thank you. a warm welcome. it doesn't get better than that. thank you, very kind. mr. president, mr. speakers members of the 63 wyoming legislature, secretary mary, auditor cloud, treasurer gordon, superintendent bailey, a federal circuit judge phyllis, chief justice burke, all members of the judiciary, all members of the military, fellow citizens, good morning. thank you for being here and thank you for those who are participating by internet or other media we welcome all of you and we are pleased the technology has many benefits including the freedom to be wherever you want to be in wyoming or anywhere else to take

part in these proceedings. i want to say good morning to my family, for those of you that have been here for four years. you have seen some growth and mention the inauguration, one place on the governor's residents wall make sure we get painted before we leave we have marked the height of our children over the years and it is remarkable, and we think they have grown not only in height but in other ways and in many ways they have grown up with this body have seen them grow up but it causes us all to reflect upon one of the main reasons we are here for our kids and grandkids come and i can't imagine being here without the love and support of carol and mary and pete. i thank all of you for helping me get here and helping me do

this job. [applause] >> i think it was my first state of the state before i gave it, people wrote me a nose, and his handwriting, you have to decipher a little bit. he said good luck, dad you will do great, he signed it peach wrote best son ever. i am lucky to have the confidence of my family and confident family. these are exciting times. a new year new legislature, we have new faces in the legislature and leadership in statewide offices. and i look forward to working with all of the. as i told this body in the past we are so fortunate in wyoming to have a citizen legislature. every one of you has made sacrifices to be here, leave your home, your family, your

work, and before we start this session i just want to say to the president, the speaker to all of you, how much i appreciate and how much it means to the entire state at your service and i thank you for that. i am excited about the stage and where we are. as i have done in the past so i can recognize them. we recognize as the state is strong is because individual citizens do so much and have committed so much to our state. the first time want to start with next maxfield who served two terms as state auditor followed by two terms as secretary of state. last year he decided to retire from state service. max serve wyoming with energy, optimism, intelligence, and honesty and civility. max, we are sad to say, farewell but we wish you all the best.

you both have served wyoming making it a better place for us all. your friends, your dear friends. i ask all of us to join me in recognizing max and gala and their service. [applause] [applause] >> we are fortunate to have with us as we had i is the case with

sovereigns of these men and women early in the morning are hugging their spouse good bye. the grandparents are hugging them good bye. sometimes you see a young mother or young dad kissing a young infant good bye. it is a remarkable thing. each one of them stand, raise their hand, and agreeing with everything it takes including their life to serve and defend this country. we have 2800 members and god. men and women are ready for duty

at home and went to the calls to a distant land. the dog fight fires and much more including fighting the war on terror. wyoming's soldiers have been busy, deployed overseas, serving gravely, missing home and family as we miss them and anticipate their return. service and sacrifice, service and sacrifice whether for a single 4 or over the course of a long military career are no small thing to give. and deeply grateful, and wyoming's adjutant general is here and i would say we appreciate what our guard and military members and vets have given for wyoming and america. we want you to stand be recognized. [applause]

>> today this morning it is appropriate we remember john schieffer who served as wyoming senator for 20 years from 1993 until his death last june. his long public service career john served in numerous leadership positions including senate president. he is an advocate for national resources and wildlife trust and among other things was a supporter of education and mental health programs. he brought great intellect and a rancher's common sense to the legislature and had those big strong hands that were representative of his big heart and care for wyoming. he made a positive difference for each of us and made a positive difference for all of

wyoming and i ask you now to join me for a moment of silence in john's memory. i am thinking today also of all of those in the cold and the dark who battled the blaze in doo-wop--and do voice --dubois. the town will rebuild as unique and wonderful as ever. please note that you also are in our thoughts and prayers. i have broken my speech into two parts, two big parts. i want to talk about the last four years and where we should go from here. last four years, we did what we

said we are going to do and got results, that is the way government should operate. we build upon the success of prior governors and legislators and together we made great strides through wyoming. when i took office in january of 2011 wyoming's unemployment rate is 6.5%. state budget has doubled the previous decade end was coming off of a period of government extension. high-speed broadband was limited. only two cities had ethernet at their schools. there was no state energy strategy. no water strategy and in my mind it there was a growing growing need to push back against federal overreach. to set a new course there was no time to waste. nine days into office i announced my vision, i said we would be focusing on the economy, focusing on broadband, infrastructure assisting local

government consolidating state government, education and federal actions that were of response to our state. as part of our focus on the economy we would support the big three industries energy, tourism, we would also seek to diversify our economic base. this was a tall order but this is wyoming and we do not shy away from big tasks so we took this on, all of it and four years later we see the difference. starting with the economy we made a real push for jobs, economic growth divers suffocation and supporting our big three. here are the highlights. we have been able to welcome new enterprises, microsoft searing industries, and oil derails facilities. we have been developing to implement state energy strategy. in the last session provided funding to continue with initiatives in energy strategy. i have and some of you have gone to trade missions to places like

hong kong canada, south korea, taiwan to promote trade and tourism, funding predator control and mismanagement and helping provide relief for drought and flooding. we provide strategic incentive and recruiting hard for data centers. our efforts are paying off. microsoft recently opened an innovative power datacenter. the company is investing to $74 million in data center expansion bringing its investment in wyoming to nearly half a billion dollars. in december wyoming was recognized as a leader in the country for data center recruiting. this is the third year in a row wyoming has received that recommendation. we build our tourism and establish markets, and establish new ones as well. we love telling people of wyoming has to offer and we love to show it to them. two years ago we added a new sporting event in wyoming, the cowboys of adventure race to annual summer activities and for

those of you that haven't seen that it has got to be the toughest race in the world as far as i am concerned. is truly cowboy tough. on july 10th, 2015 wyoming will mark the 1252 anniversary of statehood, another special occasion for all of us to enjoy and invite visitors from near and far. our focus on the economy is pay off. we see its success and national recognition of our success. wyoming received a number of accolades recently including the highest possible rating from standard and poor's for the last four years. we have the number one ranking for 2015 at the state with the best tax climate for businesses. we have been ranked as having the best return on investment for taxpayers in 2014 and the lowest state, lowest local tax burden and the lowest foreclosure rate in the nation and ranked as the second and most pro-business state in the

country. we are third best in economic performance and in 2014 more wyoming people were employed than ever before in the history of our state. these rankings are important not for voting rights but show the progress that we have made in four years. the economy was a priority four years ago and we made great strides. broadband was a priority and we made great strides. it springs opportunities, broadband brings opportunities for schools, businesses and individuals and development of a tech center. i mentioned when i started two school districts had ethernet speeds. now everyone can every school district all 48 have ethernet speed. we have increased high-speed connections to our schools by 1900%. we held summits to move broadband forward in 2012 13, 14 and we will continue to do so. last year as you know, i asked for funding for the unified

network. i am please record this network as of today is fully built. we got it done in less than a year. this network brings higher standards of broadband to our state. more fiber-optic connections and gigabit speeds. the state has been a facilitator helping to provide infrastructure upgrades for schools and government and also they will be available to the private sector. we all, you prefer the ground, but the private sector is delivering the goods. ron mcyou, is president of silver star communications. last yar silver star offered gigabit level broadband to communities in western wyoming. experts like this make wyoming more competitive for tech businesses and people who want to run global businesses from a home-based wyoming. for everyone who uses a computer. gigabit level broadband gives wyoming the type of access

associated with large cities. such access makes wyoming and a leader in broadband and player and attack. we have been called these things in the past we are now. we should be proud of this effort to diversify our economy. we recognize what business leaders like you are doing to make wyoming a leader in broadband and a player in tech. please stand so we recognize your efforts. [applause] >> i talked about the economy and broadbent and other priority of the few years ago was infrastructure. we know for our communities to thrive, for quality of life, economic growth and commerce generally infrastructure is essentials. we have been paying attention to wyoming superstructure, a few

examples. we provided funding for the july madison water project and future funding needed for completion. the $0.10 per gallon gas tax increase that produces $47 million for the state for road maintenance. we funded a new college of engineering, $95 million and $50 million match for construction, provided initial funding for five state facilities that need renovation including the state hospital, live resource center, veterans home. set aside $35.7 billion to start 20 million more from fiscal year 2015. we provided funding for municipal landfills. and the grant programs for community development. we have and should continue to invest and we should continue to save. affect is we have seen record savings and we can be proud of that but we have opportunities again not down the road but this

session to invest in more infrastructure. we do this because we know wyoming, the wyoming we enjoy today was built by those with vision and courage. our forebears did not view the role of government as the bank they were not quarters but builders. as we judge their work, we will also be judged in what we build for future generations. what opportunities have we provided for our children and grandchildren? have we made wyoming of better place. another priority four years ago is assisting local government. what gets done in our cities and towns we know how great it is to live here and keep communities doing better for residents to attract more businesses and visitors and additional funding, provide additional funding each of the last four years and during my

time in office more than once i have suggested logger term solution for funding local government. that included looking at a portion of statutory 1% diversion. added funding always matters and when it comes a year at a time, differing announce or perhaps not at all, this hampers local planning and development efforts. .. we emerged to agencies. we develop a meaningful employee evaluation system.

we have consolidated i.t. services. we have reduced the standard budget by over 6% reducing ongoing spending by over $60 million a year. we begun our rules initiative for state agencies and have reduced rules. some have reduced by almost 50%. we have amended state law to allow further reductions to provide updated database which will get everyone better access to rules. we have fewer employees and now than we did four years ago. state government has become more effective, more efficient. we are doing more with less. also a priority for years ago and now is education. as a state we make sizable investment in education through block grants and school construction fund. in turn such an investment should yield the best education possible for our kids. we started work on education accountability in 2011 and it continues. i note this session we will

consider a bill to improve the states assessment system. we have over the last four years increased a war under the halfway scholarship program. we broke ground for the stamps facility that provides funding for uw science programs and facilities and more is in my budget this year. i ask for your support on that proposal. we join complete college america, cca. we know demands for students to the placenta education is rising. cck is another tool to help while the students get the education, including importantly career technical education they need to succeed. we not stem summits in wyoming. last april attended the rollout of a stem initiative for district one. the fact is s.t.e.m. education is important at every level. i look forward to more events like this. all this work and education is lost without great teachers. teachers like tyler bartlett.

tyler is the 2015 wyoming teacher of the year. he's a math teacher at new castle middle school new castle middle school. he said to succeed a teaching, and loves his job. when he received his award he said, there's a lot going there's a lot that goes into being a successful teacher. sometimes we focus too much on teaching and not enough on learning. i think the real bottom line is students have to be learning. wise words come and tyler puts them to work in his classroom getting students engaged in their own learning. tyler teaches a s.t.e.m. subject and is represented by the excellent teachers that we have in wyoming. tyler, please stand so we may recognize you. [applause]

>> congratulations, tyler. we will keep working on education at every level. early childhood education, k-12 our junior to colleges, and uw to get things right. for the future of our state, we have to get education right. another priority for years ago and now is federal actions that adversely affect our state. i will say wyoming has been very aggressive these past four years in opposing federal actions that affect our state. sometimes we prevail. effect is sometimes we don't. that we know we cannot look the other way because the impacts are two great. we must continue together to stand against federal overreach. one of my first acts in office in fact was asked the wyoming attorney general to join the constitutional challenge to the aca. this is an important lawsuit

and wyoming had to be part of it. many of us, including myself, did not like the result that wyoming did need to be involved. of also been active in filing our joining actions to support grazing rights. we in wyoming know how valuable agriculture is not just to our state but, in fact, this country. it is one thing as a country cannot be able to feel yourselves, it's another thing entirely not to be able to feed yourself. we have to continue to have strong support for ag. in december, we filed a case in wyoming federal district court to require blm to better manage wild horses do we continue to fight for wyoming regional haze plan and it's a good plan for addressing visibility. last fall the 10th circuit upheld the states plan regarding sulfur dioxide. and recently filed on brief in the 10th circuit in support of the states plans as relates to nitrogen oxide. we have as many of you know most frequently done battle with the epa. the reason is, simply epa

rulemaking under president obama's administration has been troubling at best. wyoming is opposing power plant rules, proposed rules for water of the u.s. as well as many other epa actions and we will continue to do. wyoming's fight against federal regulatory overreach will not stop. along with the attorney general along with the support of this body, we must all continue fighting for wyoming. looking back the past four years, there's other matters i will mention but we will reduce the dd waitress. of undertake job initiatives include those for those with disabilities. we will continue our work in this area with unemployment, the employment first concept. at my direction we have appointed a statewide homeless coordinator and will create a 10 year plan to address homelessness. we have renewed our focus on

suicide prevention with a statewide initiative. regarding worker safety, i support and i appreciate the safety alliance is formed by the oil, gas, transportation refinery and construction industries. the state level we've added new osha safety position. we have created a $500000 fund to provide matching grants to companies for safety equipping and training. we have created a program to reduce workers compensation premiums for those willing to participate in health and safety consultations. in addition workforce services has developed annual reporting for better analysis of on the job access. in 2013 we had a better year. we saw improved statistics fewer fatalities and hospitalizations. this was encouraging. we haven't gotten the numbers on 2014, but we have reason to believe at this point that 2013 is going to be a better year

than 2014. we need to continue to look how we do better as a state. to emphasize workplace safety and improve job safety. i know as you will do employers care. we all do a by getting workers onhome safely at the end of the workday. we have been headed in the right direction, that is more progress to be made, and we have to keep at it. we will. for example, one of my funding request is for passing lanes, and that of safety related. finally, in this look back i'm very proud we have passed a law for our veterans. in 2011 we created the wyoming veterans home, the wyoming veterans welcome all day. thanks to this law at the end of march every year we hold ceremonies in communities around the state. this day is especially for veterans like our korean go for and korea vets who perhaps did not receive a proper homecoming after their military service ended. as i go to each one of these

events at the end of march, it's a remarkable thing what you all have done on that welcome home day. because as you see these veterans, and you greet them as you say a few words it's astounding because you vietnam vets, for example who will egregious sometimes just with a nod or a handshake. sometimes with a hug. oftentimes with tears in their eyes saying, it's all i ever wanted is for somebody to say, welcome home, and thank you for your service. certainly -- [applause] certainly that is the least we owe our vets. so i can graduate this body about the wonderful concept. it has been tremendous. and today we have a veteran with us and knows what it's like not to get what you should when you return home.

he served as an army infantryman in the korean war. in 1951, art was wounded in action and earned a purple heart. a few years ago it came to light the medal was never awarded. last november 63 years after the fact the situation was put right. art received his purple heart as ceremony in cheyenne. it's never too late to put things right. veterans initiatives like the welcome home day, special license plates, recognition of service for professional licensing and in-state tuition convey our respect and gratitude. art, we thank you and all our vets, for serving and making sacrifices for our country. art, please stand so we can recognize you. [cheers and applause]

>> to sum up, wyoming has come for these past four years. years. compared unemployment about 6.5% in january 2011 we have unemployment at 4.5% in november 2014, significantly lower than the u.s. unemployment rate. compared to cost of operations the past decade our state budget is staying relatively flat. we've approved state government enhanced technology and infrastructure given x. or

support to local government, develop an energy strategy, grown and diversified economy and tackled other tough issues. so today i'm pleased to report to all of you with full confidence the state of the state is strong, and getting stronger. [applause] this is because of the work you have done. for example creating a great climate for business. this is because of wyoming's national dish natural advantages in minerals and energy resources. above all this is because of wyoming people, our greatest strength. we should not take our eye off the ball now, or foot off the gas. we have built a solid foundation for the future. will move ahead by building on a solid foundation laid, not by standing still. we have been sowing the seeds and harvesting the crops.

if we continue to plant, and stewart are welcome we will leave greener pastures and even a better legacy. we have the fiscal resources, the people resources, then natural resources, and the civic leadership to make a difference for generations to come. we look at the next four years. i look at the next four years with great optimism. and in my second term of a continue to focus on the areas i've talked about today. they had been imported from day one. they remain important and there's more we can do on each. to add to these initiatives, i would add call initiatives come advancing our energy strategy come increasing international trade, forced help, medicaid expansion in implementing our water strategy. again i ask that we take on a great deal but again i say wyoming is always up to the challenge. regarding coal coal is critical to wyoming.

we must assure its future. beyond the call is critical to this country's future. and in my lifetime i have never seen an onslaught against a single industry a single commodity like the obama administration's anti-coal agenda. the epa has had a green light to go after the coal industry and six years later coal is still targeted by federal regulators. the coal industry provides about 40% of electricity for this country. it keeps us warm in the winter and cool in the summer. keeps the lights on. it is, in fact, the fastest growing energy source in the world. here in wyoming the industry provides revenue for schools and infrastructure, thousands of direct and indirect jobs for wyoming workers. in the coming years i will continue to work with bulldog determination on call initiatives, port expansion, new technology and value added products. in the coming years we don't need to let up. we need to double down.

we must assure cole's continuity. to our legitimate opportunities such as the integrated test center project, and we must seize them. we fight for coal and we'll we will fight for oil. we'll fight for gas uranium, and other resources if they are targeted by oppressive federal regulations. and part of that is advancing the energy strategy. last session you funded continued work on initiatives identified in the energy strategy. our task is to go further to advance the strategy issued two years ago this may by continuing to work on initiatives and identifying new initiatives. i mentioned international trade. here's an interesting statistic. from 2010-2013, international trade grew from 983 million to 1.35 billion, a growth of 36%. we want to see the growth continue. and you've added $350000 in by

annual budgets to develop international trade, funding i fully support. we are my office and you all can use this funding productively to continue the progress that we have made. our forests as you know i've been a challenge with beetle kill. and forests are a great resource. they provide homes for wildlife number four industry, in places for recreation. we want our forests to be as healthy as possible and so many have been devastated by beetle kill. i put together a task force to look at the condition of our forests and make recommendations. i support these recommendations and i am including funding in my budget proposal. last session the legislature asked the department of health to find the best deal possible for wyoming under the aca. we have seen over the last four years much more flexibility from

hhs and cms. our department of health was able to craft what we believe is the best plan for wyoming. some in the legislature are looking at an alternative plan and i appreciate their work. regarding the aca, you and i may not like it, but it is upon us. we challenged it but it is upon us. two years ago, not last year two years ago as i said in my state of the state let us try within the law that is upon us to find the best deal the best fit for wyoming under the aca. i feel the same, say the same to date. here's some facts regarding the aca. fact is, small and large hospitals are anchors in our wyoming communities. fact is, businesses made clear to me they cannot recruit new people to an area without reasonable health care.

beyond that they can't keep people in an area without reasonable health care. and the small hospitals close, our rural towns will suffer tremendous loss and opportunity for the future. fact is we have working men and women of wyoming who cannot afford health care. this is true now as it was when both by and the legislature supported healthy frontiers in an attempt to address the issue. the fact is wyoming hospital association reports $200 million of uncompensated care. the number in terms of the actual costs they believe is around $100 million. fact is economic analysis shows medicaid expansion would create about 800 jobs in wyoming. fact is many of us don't like the aca, including me. but here's another fact. our federal tax dollars pay for the aca. wyoming federal tax dollars help pay for the aca.

do we choose to have that support, that wyoming money returned to colorado, to california or to wyoming? eisai wyoming. my plan or yours, or something better. we have fought the fight against the aca. we have done our best to find the best fit for wyoming. we're out of timeouts and we need to address medicaid expansion this session. water strategy. wyoming is subject to seven water compacts into supreme court decrease. water we are not permitted to provide others under these compacts and decrease belongs to us. it is wyoming's water, and wyoming water is key to our future. all of us need water municipalities industry ag and individuals but it is our most important natural resource. water more than anything is tied to everything we do in this state. it's tied to everything we have

done, and it's going to be tied to everything we do in the future. ya wyoming has not had a water strategy. developing a water strategy was one of the initiatives identified in the energy strategy. over the last year or so with wide public input we've put together a very good strategy. it's going to be issued tomorrow and available online and in hardcopy. the strategy includes a 10 and 10 proposal. and small reservoir projects in 10 years. and nine other initiatives including the proposal. the time to protect the water is now. and as a state we cannot afford to delay. supplemental budget gets us started on that. i've requested transfer of about 18.6 million for the water development account 2. i hope you approve this request and the rest of my budget proposal but i also hope you will consider supporting a water strategy in future budgets, as you supported the energy

strategy. budget in general, this is a general session so i have before you a modest $156 million budget proposal. it is conservative supplement to the by annual budget. i believe that positions wyoming well for the years ahead. it strengthens uw and our community college systems, makes investments in strategic areas. the fact is this state has these funds. there are well over $100 million in reversions him money unused by agencies. which together with dollars fully funds my proposal. with your recognition of the reversions can all funding is available. my proposal keeps government operating cost relatively flat. state agencies have worked hard to keep the budget to trim. only 17 million, less than one half of a percent of the standard general budget is increased by my budget. and his for operating an ongoing

expenditures. now, i did make some funding requests that do not add to the future budgets. they are one time proposals. these include $25 million for local government. 6.4 million for the municipal transport program 2,120,000,000 for passing lanes on highway 59 between douglas and gillette and between casper and shoshone. funding for the multitude of sports performance training center unconventional oil and gas reservoirs research. entrepreneurship initiative signs initiative, literacy program, and athletic competitiveness. all of uw and subject to private matching funds. here's the deal. we have one, for your land grant university. in those areas that are important to wyoming such as ag, science, engineering we do not need to accept playing second fiddle to anyone. private citizens are recognizing this. private citizens of wyoming have

been giving many millions of dollars out of their own pockets to uw. and as with engineering the signs initiative has the ability to be transformational making uw a leader. making wyoming a leader. we want important academic programs at uw to be top tier. and the same is true with athletics. i care about as competing. i care about is winning. it's not only brings pride to our state for example uw basketball is in the top 25 as you may know, and this helps recruit students come increases alumni dollars and builds the university. the funding of asking for for uw will serve notice loud and clear, brown and gold is not fading. it will be brighter. we will be leaders in business education, science athletics and many other areas. some of my funding requests may

reoccur but they would have to be asked for and approved again. for example, a new initiative i'm introducing today is called wyoming grown. here's the situation. for decades, wyoming has had challenges keeping our kids in wyoming at the graduate. research shows that of all 18 year olds working in wyoming on any given year only an estimated 40% are still working in wyoming 10 years later. we are losing 60% of our greatest talent. wyoming grown will seek to recruit wyoming computer programmers, doctors, welders, engineers and others who have left the state or continue to build their careers and raise their families here. workforce services will which is a network of employment specialist to connect job seekers with job opportunities. as part of the initiative the tourism office is developing a webpage to highlight the one of

the qualities that our communities have to offer. the initiative is not costly. i've asked for $10000. but it is critical for continued to strengthen our workforce. businesses recruiting people, businesses recruiting people to wyoming know that if wyoming kid will come back, it's a great fit because they are coming home. let's open the doors to get our kids home. another initiative in my budget proposal is for job training and placement. we see with the private sector can do to help people become self-reliant. we have with us today greg fleming. she has a degree and a doctorate in psychology from unc. in 1986 she saw that single mothers needed help reaching independence. with her mother she found a nonprofit organization which provides single mothers the resources needed to succeed on their own. the program benefits mothers, children communities and the

state. it started in cheyenne and branched out to other communities. rate remains the executive director. more than 1600 mothers with nearly 2600 children have been served by this. my request or job training and placement is $1 million is subject to private matching funds. it's intended to allow innovative programs, like a climate wyoming, to reach more people. raye has been remarkable all that you have done. please stand so we can recognize your efforts. [applause] while the supplemental budget gets us started, there are other items in my budget that keep building the wyoming.

these items are a list of the forward-looking initiatives. and here we have to recognize some hard facts. with oil dropping, the raven estimates will be going down. and it should be a concern for all of us. but the fact is it's not something new to wyoming. we have experienced this in the past. some of you have experienced it in the past as well in the legislature. but we are in a better position now than we've been in the past. we have positioned ourselves and with less government, more efficient government, we will work through this. we will be able to continue to build wyoming. the fact is in wyoming we have never spent revenue we don't have in hand. we are not like d.c. and we never will be. we recognize the drop in oil prices, for each $5 drop the state loses about $35 million in revenue a year. but we know safely, we have

220-240 million for the next fiscal year. this ir emission and investment earnings as of december 10 2014, which will be realized on june 30, 2015. this does not come out of savings. it fully funds my supplemental budget as i said and it leaves the money left over for the rest. i will single out a few. as i said in my budget message we need to find a gillette madison and the capital renovation project. i don't view either of those projects as optional. in addition we need to look at industrial parks like the heartland project in canada which would allow companies to cluster, benefit from chile, develop technologies and produce products for more natural resources. they are vital to our economy especially to energy, manufacturing and tech businesses. they will benefit from the

synergies such parts will provide. these parks need infrastructure to get off the ground. the startup costs for a reserve account would be small, a small down payment for big future games. this year marks the 10th anniversary of the wildlife trust. fully funding the wildlife trust would be a one time expense or rather, a transfer to a different savings account. once fully funded the trust will carry itself and will not be any future budget. full funding which show that in wyoming we do not just talk about balancing conservation development. we actually do it. with us today is the family ranch in boulder wyoming for over a century. the range of several thousand acres of private land and also uses federal grazing allotments. brad was the first to sign a candidate conservation agreement with assurances for sage grouse in the first to ask but it's an agreement called cca candidate

conservation agreement useful federal lands. we congratulate him for these verses. brad and his family represent the commitment of private land owners to take voluntary actions. bread, we thank you for your commitment to conservation, and please stand. [applause] ..

our state fiscal policy. why yamane has billions of dollars in various savings accounts. the rainy day fund allowed during my time in office, which is a liquid account is almost double that has $2 billion in the period the trust fund has grown by 55% in my time and off this. last year $1 billion flowed into liquid savings accounts. the crake estimates as we now know do not tell the whole story. and craig does not provide a fiscal policy. there are questions to be asked in questions to be answered. for example, how much should we have been savings? what is the purpose of the rainy day account? can we count earned investment income for planning purposes? in answering these questions, we need to recognize the stock markets can go up and down, but infrastructure has inherent

value. we need a sensible fiscal policy going forward. so we can continue to say and also continue to invest in the future. we need transparency. wait a predictability. we need rarity. only then in good times in an link we provide the best future for wyoming. these discussions have begun with leadership. we've got some great ideas. we must continue this conversation with the entire legislature. as we go about our work we continue in every way to be inspired by people around us and i want to recognize a few of them today. why yamane's 11,000 family farms and ranches give our status special look in a special field open spaces, beautiful views historic ill dance, grazing livestock, we have these things and more thanks to wyoming

agriculture. they make the stick and keep rodeo are states for. russell thank you walter is for people. he started in rodeo as a bull rider and serves as a pickup van for bareback writers. today he manages a ranch north and still have spent his entire life on horseback. the people he met other rodeo circuit got him thinking about a wyoming hall of fame. he carried it through. a hall of fame board pps vice chairman established heisey unnerves to qualify for induction a person has to be more than 45 years old and have spent the majority of their life working on horseback on wyoming ranchers. the first induction ceremony with last fall. pt we recognize you, all cowboys and cowgirls middeck these into the wyoming hall of

fame. you help keep wyoming forever west. thank you. [cheers and applause] there's no chance i will ever be in that cowboy hall of fame. we think always about the importance of education in our state and what it means for kids in your future. walt morte represents our education system beyond k-12. he's been president for the past 10 years with leaders like walt, our university and community college system is getting stronger and stronger.

uw and are seven great community colleges, and they are great are on the same page. they want to provide the best post-high school education possibility or state including what i believe is so important, career and technical education. they're focused on student success as a tea master not competition among entities. maltin retired in june and leaves behind impressive achievements. for example, largest enrollment in college history, he doesn't have programs in add new buildings. walt, and i thank you. we all thank you for your work. you will be missed. please stand so we can recognize you today. [applause]

our predecessors made decisions that put wyoming an unenviable position. it is our job to improve upon them. we are a leader in energy environment and other areas here and we are happy to take on responsibilities to go with leadership now in the future. since i took office, the constant in all my message is beside wyoming strength has been putting wyoming first appeared to leave and our people, local governments, small businesses to invest in our state and future. my faith in the wyoming is as strong as ever. we are small in number, but our citizens have kept the attribute that have made our stay great. independence, entrepreneurial spirit optimism, humor and great. we have fees.

our folks have these. kids grandkids we must keep them in mind when we invest in the future of wyoming. we had them in mind with all the decisions we make. so as we go forward, with kurdish, with respect civility, with motivation not for ourselves, but for wyoming, we make the future bright. may god grant us the wisdom. may god bless our state, our country and all who live in our wonderful land. make god bless you. thank you very much. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause]

[cheers and applause] [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> earlier today come in the u.s. has voted to roll back the president immigration plan in this article and politicos said the gop voted 236-191 to pass legislation fun in the department of homeland security to the department of homeland security to be in a september come with measures attached that would kill the administration's efforts to unilaterally shield millions of undocumented immigrants and deportations. there would also thwart the administration, and administration, and forestall defeat that limited deportations of people who were criminals or serial immigration violators. either way, you can read more about the house did today and

"politico." >> i wrote these books the wheeling family. they are two volumes. the reason i thought it was important to collect these history is wheeling transformed into an industrial city in the latter part of the 19 century and the early part of the 20th century. it is kind of uncommon in west virginia and that the true blood of immigrants from various parts of europe here in search of jobs and opportunity. so that generation that in the current immigration is pretty much gone. i thought it was important to record their stories to get the immigrant immigration and the ethnic culture.

it is important part of our history. most people tend to focus on the frontier history, civil war history. those theories are important, but of equal importance in my mind is this industrial. in the immigration that wheeling had. >> feeling starts as an outpost on the frontier. that river was the western united states in the 1770s. in the first project funded by the federal government for wrote production was the national road had extended from cumberland maryland two wheeling, virginia. when it comes here to wheeling that will give this community, which about this time give it the real skirt it needed to grow. over the next 22 mike 25 the

population of why wheeling. >> of next, a forum on preventing child sex trafficking. senator mccain james robert portman and amy klobuchar in combating child sex trafficking. organizations on the program. for the to write a referral for google hosting this event last week. [inaudible conversations] >> are we ready to get started?

first of all i want to welcome everybody here. i do anticipate some late arrivals. some of you may have heard the red line is running late or incapacitated or something, so we have been getting a bunch of e-mails from people who want to be here who are stop. somebody said they have been waiting for an hour. if people come in a little bit late they have a good excuse. so good morning everyone. thank you for braving the cold to be with us. i am susan molinari. i have to lesher of leading public policy and governmental affairs for google. it is a great honor to host rights4girls today. my italian grandmother would not approve of having my back to half the audience. before we begin as they say a point of personal privilege, i do want to thank senator klobuchar for all the work that

you have done on this issue. you have been really sort of on point in having this conversation and making a difference in getting mad and trying to change things and we're grateful for all the work you've been doing. senator portman, same goes for you. for years you have been on the senate caucus two and human trafficking and to have that bipartisan by gender conversation taking place, where leaders in the united states and senate can enter into this conversation. i guess if i can just say for one second first of all, senator thank you for being here. we are joined during the days i representatives bass, maloney ted poe and wasserman schultz. they have taken the lead in making sure we don't forget those who it is often difficult to think about. i was having a conversation with

judy black before where she said however many years ago when you would read the stories and they would be front page. they were more of a crime section. you would read about some young girl who was somewhat faithless and probably nameless in the story and you just couldn't proceed because the truth about trafficking of human beings in this day of age is slavery. the truth about underage sex workers victims underage victims. when you put it all together, it is some name that those of us cannot imagine the depths of human evil that would allow people who would seek to make money off of it or gain pleasure from it. for far too long the conversation has not taken place. for all of you here today, for c-span for your leadership for allowing us to have this conversation i ain't is the beginning to the end of a very

sad chapter. not only around the world, but particularly around the united states. is not one of the biggest misgivings that this stuff happens other places? we in the united states are so much better than those other countries and in fact it is an epidemic here, too. i also want to thank polaris project for being here today in their leadership. i want to thank you off from the administration to attempt to be be with us today. we've shown how important this issue is by hosting the first-ever white house formed to combat trafficking again another attempt to raise the consciousness of individuals that we all have an obligation to do something to change the situation. google was founded on the belief that technology can solve any of the world's greatest challenges. it is my belief that there a few more worthy aims than any given slavery and trafficking. google was given nearly $50 million in contributions to organizations on the front lines of these titles and these grants have been used to support ongoing work in the continuing

development of new tools. we worked with polaris project, striving international and liberty asia to host the traffic hotline by global hotlines in the number provides better support for and then identifies trends and hot spots which were the first time we have a conversation of how to deal after-the-fact but to prevent. i think that is a great achievement. our ongoing commitment to operation extends far beyond. we work with than i am privileged to on the board of the national federation for missing and exploited kids. google has a resident engineering residents to help on all of these very difficult issues. many of you probably don't know this, the recently launched a new feature with partners like polaris project connecting the ends of human trafficking with organizations that can help. certain keywords are now being used to search. this feature shows hotlines, phone numbers, operating hours and easy to use text short

codes. in other words if somebody's getting the moment on their mobile phone and may have just a second to do what may be not the most accurate and appropriate search that help will rise to the top in terms of their search if that is what they are looking for and we are erring on the side that is what your looking for. i'm proud to say 12 countries now 14 languages and is languages and has led to at least 24 cases between august and november last year. our hope is we continue to come up with these ideas to let those people who think they are isolated and alone but there's a whole world that cares about them and want to help them. in addition to commitments, we have google hold ourselves accountable. we have zero tolerance for an ad that advertise escort services prostitution or other adult services. we do not tolerate employee and supplier conduct that contributes to human slavery or trafficking. i'm proud of the work in rifle for the organization like the mccain is shooting human rights for girls aloud with nick

make an polaris, legislative leaders who were instrumental in the fight to ending human slavery and trafficking. we are humbled by the work you do is strengthen the commitment knowing together we can be a voice for those who often feel like no one hears them. to talk more about this work and an import new campaign, it is minor to welcome two incredible women, cindy mccain and malika saada saar to talk about where we go from here. cindy doesn't talk about this too often. i asked her this is an urban legend or if this is true. she does not only talk the talk. obviously, she walks the walk in making this a priority at the mccain institute. but she saw something once at a gas station in arizona and she didn't think it looked right. so she called the cops and save some young woman's life. can you just have to laugh a little bit about that moment and what it meant to you?

>> it is like anything. i was driving from san diego to phoenix, pulled into a gas station in yuma and i got out of the car was pumping gas and i can see these two girls in the sky kind of off to the side kind of hovering a little bit. not on top and the girls were children. i mean they were young teenage girls is what they were. i knew it wasn't right. i tell people, trust your gut and i trusted my gut. i called the police then i pulled my car out of where they gas portion was then i sat around the other side because i wanted to make sure they were going to do some indoor show. they did show up and i am happy to say the yuma police did the right thing and how they handled it. i never talk to police or anything, but on the scene i would not .. it was really a good dating.

>> back -- seizing the moment i'm walking out of your comfort zone to help. malika you know malika. she is an angel to all of these young boys and girls. again, i want to thank you all for allowing us and we are proud and privileged here at google to have this really strong mccain here with us today and talk about this important issue. lady, the stage is yours. >> thank you so much suzanne. thank you all for being here on this very cold cold day. you know i want to begin eyes and brown eyes this morning and the lives of the children who are five and sold for sex here in this country.

we know that there are at least 100,000 american children who are being bought and sold on our streets. the majority of them are girls between the ages of 12 and 14. they are girls like sonya. sonya is a girl i met last month in a los angeles courtroom. she was 15 years old. she had on her face tattooed the name of her trafficker. her trafficker sold her to at least 10 different men at night. and when she tried to escape he beat and tortured her. the girls like sonya, they are not considered any dating but a

child prostitute. and our public square conversation, in the media and policy circles, the way we talk about sonya and girls like her is as child prostitute. we are here today to change that. we are here to recognize that would have been to sonya and other traffic children is not about prostitution. it is about violence and abuse. and so because of this, we are announcing our no such thing campaign, that there is no such thing as a child prostitute. girls who are repeatedly stabbed one, abused and exploited are not child prostitutes.

they are children who are big guns and divers of child rape. because they are victims and survivors of child rape, they deserve all the services we provide to whether abuse children. and so that is our work for this campaign. that is the campaign we are doing and i am so honored to be able to do this campaign with google and with mccain institute. for those of you who are at google, you know that susan molinari is a source of goodness for those of us working to end violence against women and girls susan is an earth angel and she is our com state champion. i am so humbled to have the

support of google into a mess. not only because google is trying to create a world without slavery, but also, google represents the idea that we can reimagine and reinvent and rethink our world. and that is what the "no such thing" campaign is. it is asking all of us to reconsider and reimagine how we talk about girls who are being bought and sold, to reimagine and rethink how we treat them how we name them, how we locate them. and i am also so honored to do this work with you mrs. mccain. you would in a story that was shared are a voice for that child to have been forgotten the child who has been discarded, the child who has

been individualized. i have watched how you are a constant presence of love and those fearlessness for those who have been most hurt by the world. so i am honored to this work with you and to do this work with google. i want to say that we are here today and each of five as the powers to do so a best part of the campaign. this campaign is about asking you, each review to use the power of twitter social media to be able to say that there is no such thing as a child prostitutes. urge you to change. please join us.

please be part of the absurd to give dignity and justice to children who are being items sold for sex. please join us in giving dignity and justice to the way that these girls are suffering and to be able to name their suffering correctly. there is no such thing as a child prostitutes. their only big dams and survivors of child rape. >> i am very happy to be here with google and rights4girls. this is something we have talked about together within the groups of people that work on this on a daily basis to remind people out there and to try and teach people and make them aware of the fact that this is a human rights issue. this isn't about -- it is about

runaway children, but it's not all about runaway children or bad kids or any such thing at all. the bass line i have heard and what i'd love to hear you say is there is no such thing as a child prostitute. i would like to remind our man at home, with dole by little girls. that is a portion of this issue will be working on in months to come. i wanted to ask for what you do. google, when we first came to you with.then complains that all the things you do when you start out at all of this google was the first one to less than and act on it. i want to thank you or that. this debris in a this internet arena, which is mind-boggling. you obviously are the leaders and play such an important role.

by your thoughtfulness we look forward to being able to hopefully stop this at least in the united states borders. thank you. you have been such an inspiration to me throughout all of this. i know you do. i get frustrated at times than i do want to go kick a door. and so i think of people like you, you and others in this room and the important work that you do when i just want to thank you all for being here. >> thank you. round of applause. [applause]

[inaudible conversations] >> okay. welcome. i am so grateful that two of the most important people on this issue, not only on capitol hill, that nationally are here today to join us for this conversation. i know that within this group perhaps they don't need much of an introduction. but i want folks that will be watching this on c-span and others to know who these people are. senator klobuchar is a woman that is tenacious. she has thought old. she is to rack and she is hard-working on this issue. she and i spent a great deal of

time together applauding, trying to figure out frustrations and also success is and believe me she has had a few successes on this. minnesota is a state that has done really well on this issue and is continuing to make strides and also continuing to break dairy or sonnet. i want to thank you for being here. she is a great travel part or her. she is wonderful. senator portman, we have known each other a long time. i won't tell you the story we just recited out there. >> i have read rob portman and barack obama in the debates with your husband. >> he was so good that i got up and left the room. he was so good at it. i used to get so frustrated with him. it is great. that is not what you said this

evening. senator portman. i love you anyway. thank you so much for being here and i know you are under a time constraint this morning, but your work on this issue has been remarkable. like many people in this room, you are not in this because this is politically expedient for you. you are in is because you believe it. i'm so grateful you join us today. let me know when you have to leave. everything is kind of screwed up today in terms of timing. thank you for being here. first of all what i would like the would like the two of you to do is to specifically talk has about just what is going on on capitol hill where you think we are going to go with the issue this year and what can be done and how we can help you more importantly. and i will start with amy.

>> l., thank you. thank you on a sunday because your leadership is not about helping us what the legislation in congress but the mccain foundation internationally and we appreciate google doing some things. we all know would love the internet but we also knows it's been used by perpetrators in ways we didn't imagine and companies taking possibilities and rising to that challenge is great. thank you malika as well. our work right now is not done in congress. generally that's true, but certainly true in the area of sex trafficking. rob has a good bill and the work he's done with the caucus. we have a bill out of the judiciary committee. senator cornyn and i call this the safe harbor bill and it really gets at changing the way we think about this problem. the average age of the victim in thee in the united states.

we 100000 victims. 80% of th victims are from the u.s. and not is why you see the crime occurring in north dakota we have mentioned which basically says we don't prosecute victims of the crime. we don't have these predominantly young bills. we have worked together, all working with marilyn carlson nelson, the hotels that have really taken us to a different level. best this year our prosecutor got a 40 year sentence against a perpetrator, someone who ran a sex ring. that is something being done on the front-line work in private sector and public sector together. what we did is rent this out to the federal level. senator cornyn and i start these laws. 31 states have enacted safe harbor laws including arizona. not all of them have gone quite

to the degree of enact a safe harbor laws. that is more in the number of a dozen. we want to expand that and give states incentives to do that. it's also a provision for a sex trafficking strategy and allowing them to be eligible for job training programs. one of the bill would want to advance at the same time we are really working hard at the end of the year that senator cornyn asinine one of the cosponsors of this bill, is a bill that creates the victims fund estimated to be $32 million a year by raising the fines on purpose traitors running a sex rings that are prosecuted federally. most of them are prosecuted but the ones that are prosecuted federally led like the one in north dakota you raise the fine, about $30 million the money has been used to pay for shelters and other things happening locally because we know the answer is it just the prosecution. it is also the kind of help the victim of these crimes at to

turn their lives around. i will end with one comment and that is something that nick kristof has done a lot of writing about with his wife half the sky, based on a chinese proverb that women hold up half of the sky they basically if you put your heads in the sand and pretend it isn't happening you are giving up half the sky because worldwide, must our country takes a stand and do some need to clean up our own house, it's hard to be the moral compass for the rest of the world and work with the rest of the world. when more women we have more democracies, more progress. this is about victims of crime but also the future of these countries are working hand-in-hand to solve this crime. >> senator portman. >> first sydney, thank you. not just for this, but what you do in so many ways. cindy has been very often refugees and their settlement

anorectic conditions around the world. and now she is focused right here at home and it would do shocking to most of mike tissue and to hear that there are 100,000 young girls and sun myung boys being trafficked and then it happens in every majors at the every rural committee and our country and it's a great feeling. i've got involved in part because we have an organization in cincinnati. gotten more human and but really a parochial school in toledo ohio contacted me my first couple here four years ago in the senate that would eucom talk to wes about the sex trafficking. these girls have looked into the

issue and found out toledo, ohio was number four in the country in terms of prosecutions, other criterion. that is not necessarily an indictment of toledo. it shows they have focused on the issue and i need to be careful when i say that because some cities, including toledo have been wrongly identified. yes there's problems in toledo but i congratulate them for not being in denial and rather accepting this as a problem, focusing on prosecutions, allowing the data to get out there nationally. so i couldn't go but i did a video for these girls and because of that i got into the issue and was so emotional. they had identified their fans that the more you looked into it, the more you realize this is just a classic example in our country are we sometimes went overseas, where there's lots of

obviously examples of this. in fact, trafficking of human goes along with so many other who work the crime soars these including terrorism and that works. but it is happening right here too. that kind of opened my eyes to it. senator klobuchar has been a leader for many years along with the woman thought senator koren and kelley ayotte and many others. to answer what is going on in congress is there's more awareness now. thanks to malika and things to the senator for missing the next way to children, things to others on the wii have been able to raise the awareness of this issue. i think that is the most important than we've done and we have several conferences to bring acts or is that they now i think it is fair to say in pretty much every office on the senate side and i'm not as familiar with what is happening on the house that you will hear more later.

somebody in the office who understands the issue and is able to deal with the issue both at the federal level and will talk about the alleged nation that amy mentioned but also back home to get members of congress engaged in what is happening in their state. i believe ohio is one of the cutting-edge states. we are trying hard to be an example for others as minnesota is. i want to thank you for your work insert to google's work in this will take it to a new level as google tends to do. and i know you've got a personal commitment to definite passion are the issue. whatever google patches, it will not be something to talk about with exposure and raising awareness. this is obviously a great way to do it. you know the internet is a mixed blessing. i think that was also something. am i allowed to say that a google client

[inaudible] amy said it well. a lot of the research we're doing indicate how much been done on mine and my grandma and horsemen and ohio and elsewhere are now doing a better job of identifying the problem. there's been some horrific stories and you know them. recently there was a man arrested in trickiest ohio who solicited a young girl online. happen to be a police detective in his 40s. when they met they were able to arrest him and stopped one more predator. so that is what this is ultimately about. on legislation, two quick thoughts. along with amy and others who then tried to get legislation to do with the issue that we know who these kids are. i don't mean all of them. i think malika said it well. in fact the senator has said one out of every nine missing child is likely to be a victim

of sex trafficking. so we are trying to do more. we have legislation that we've introduced. we have committee and it would help to do with this issue. let me give you an example in ohio. there have been asked to seven young people in ohio who have gone missing in december 1st since last month, 67. we only have photographs for the minority of those kids. or he one of those 67 kids we have no photograph for. so that is part of what the legislation does nationally to say what have photographs for all these kids. let's do more to get this data out so people can know who these kids are in these kids are in help to find them. sunday's story has been repeated all over the country. i was with some catholic nuns. we have done roundtables around ohio and you hear from these

victims and it's heart-wrenching. this is a nun whose five feet one inches tall. she was at a gas station and is catholic nuns want to do, she walked up to the car and luckily there were police officers not far behind. but you know this is happening. keep your eyes open. another piece of legislation along the lines of knowing who these kids are getting better or mission is the data and risk on. the data report things to people in this room and amy's helping others, we actually got passed in the last congress. this is something we can point to as an example of success. the rest of the legislation really relates to the issue of how do you deal with children who are trafficked? what is the attitude? are the criminals are the victims? in this legislation and as malika talked about earlier, these are victims. anybody interested in talking to

us make and is here for my office, we would love to talk about it and work on it. finally, there was a new piece of legislation coming out this week. this month is a month where we have to hold this issue i've been so this week, senator feinstein and i are introducing the combating human trafficking act and it focuses on the demand side, not so much identifying kids, but increasing penalties and working on the demand side. amy has been working on this too. [applause] there are some good things going on. when i first elected four years ago, there's been a significant shift both in terms of the awareness of the issue in specific legislative work that amy and others have been working on. i've got to run now. i am unfortunately in the first mark of the new congress is scheduled after the scheduled, but at the same time. >> i am sure you see one of her chief cosponsors is here.

senator mccain has arrived. >> my gosh i had idea. >> i told to me this morning i approached my colleague, senator mccain, to say what cindy wants cometh in the cats. of course i'm coming. i feel the same way about it. [laughter] >> i kind of felt the same way when i asked him to get on the bill. >> well, as i said earlier, cindy has been on these kinds of issues for so many years and for john decades. >> thank you very much for coming. thank you. [applause] thank you so much thank you. you know, one of the issues i wanted to raise in you and i have talked a great deal about it that is the word and prostitution and victim. with all the work having around the country is still but up against huge groups of people that say what are we going to do

about these child prostitute. a whole language change. i know we've been frustrated together on this issue. >> when you think about it, the average age is 13 not even old enough to go to high school prom or drive a car. to think that you would think of that person as the one you should criminally prosecute makes absolutely no sense. if anyone has read these stories about victims they tend to be victims. they have tough lives growing up. they get promised a bunch of things. a girl in minnesota just ran away from home and this guy took her in and promising species this lonely girl out there first time running away from home and she becomes a victim. a lot of times they get them hooked on drugs. they are clearly victims. the other way practically a few go after the people running these rings if you go after these bad guys, the only way you

do it is to get to the victims to testify. he won't get them to testify could put them in jail. if you give them a new life and get them an education and try to help them turn their lives around. they have something else to go to the sides back to the bad guy. it is really that simple and that's why we've seen this work in our state and other states where you catch much more cooperation if they feel you have given them a safe harbor, if you have given them a place to live in a place to get an education. that is why this bill that we have includes not just the idea that you don't prosecute them and don't call them a prostitute, but a chance to be in job training programs and find some fun through increasing the fines and help find them shelter. >> it is often an argument for shelter in public private as

well. that is something we are really pushing on right now. we don't have much of the way of victims services in arizona right now. we have a few things, but not nearly enough. of course funding is the biggest issue. we also have a little bit of resistance to just what you said. even though we have enacted safe harbor, but still these kids broke the law. they are prostitutes. it is this whole poulter will change within those of us who can do something about it. >> the other thing when you came to minnesota in sydney did a great job of speaking on this issue you saw one of the interesting things local prosecutors are doing is they have a john school. when people are arrested not for running the ring, but for buying sex they make them go to this john school which is topped by a woman who herself was a victim and now runs a huge shelter and

she's really passed. they have to sit there and listen and hear about the stories of these girls and meet some of them and that is part of the approach. it's really kind of taking them on and saying this is who you have as victims. this is the kind of guy you are. in our state some of the jurisdictions have a whole number ratios we can get to. and so there are things you can do to kind of shift the culture to show the real perpetrators are and who the real victims are. i also wanted to commit cindy for the work she's doing in the super bowl in arizona and working with the nfl to really call attention to the issue because we know that is not the only sporting event or even convention including political conventions where these things go on. but we do know it is one of the biggest events of the country and of course these perpetrators

gravitate to these kinds of things that we have seen in an reason as for super bowl specials and things like that and she has been working really well with the nfl with the upcoming super bowl in arizona and that is something else to keep an eye on. >> we just stumbled on an advertisement for models, the need for models in arizona during the super bowl. i packed to the fbi guy yesterday and they got in. they got the guys. it was amazing. anyway, we are making headway out there. one of my favorite topics, at page.com because it is obviously affect did by the internet clearly. but he was just purchased by an overseas company. >> no, i didn't know it. >> of for example what we talked about coming out of usability to go offshore with

this whole thing. i would like to hear about your opinion of organization like back page. it is the biggest that they take the most heat for this. >> a lot of it is his first amendment rights although we have issues when people try to introduce laws and you run into legitimate issues on that ground. the key is to try to figure out when things are criminal and to work to try to get this out there because they are literally advertising these kids and that is why we appreciate what google is doing into a positive thing to make it easier for law enforcement and others to go after these cases to get the information they need. >> you know also, i am getting the five-minute mark over there. one of the things that we had talked about on this is whether or not offering a spot for back page and other publications like that essentially do away with tears services section, much

like what craigslist did. that comes into play because they hide behind it on this particular issue. many of you in here now let's go offshore and talk about mapping for a minute. the ability nowadays with use of the internet and other entities is to hopefully be a lot to map these cards held and not only what they are doing, where they are doing that, but then be able to predict. you and i talk a great deal about that. >> a lot of you know that it comes rodden noted that victims of sex trafficking and other things. so the mapping been able to figure out where these victims are and what is happening can make a difference because what

we saw in mexico, for instance is the mexican government has heightened awareness and they are starting to prosecute more cases than they have been a huge help in working with victims in the u.s. a lot of times girls who came to mexico were able to work and give us information. that kind of mapping, which also involves talking to our major airline talking to our major hotel chains and getting employees up to speed. it is also about figuring out where the international cartels are. it is the private public art mayorship and awareness of employees than having eyes all over the world in employing the technology to use eyes all over the world and get the information together. this is really a combination of changing the culture in our mindset, jean demos which i am

convinced we are going to do this year. we are very close at the end of last year and i would note a version of this bill passed through the house. we want to see an upgrade of a little bit of back to our original senate version. we worked well with a house that's now the issue with some last-minute niggling at the and and we need to get this done in the first six months of the year so we can set an example in our country not as to the rest of the countries, but showing our private sector partners and we are serious about this. >> and i guess we have time or one more. one year i would like to hear from you is not that we get through this boarding season in arizona, we are packed with events going on in >> i thought you meant congress at the end of the year. >> we are done. continue on.

anyway. >> so what do we do? is there a way that we as citizens and activists and groups around here can really encourage these large conventions and build large, large events that occur to not put up with anything to help stop it before it starts. >> i love your idea, which is looking up this as a criteria when groups are looking out where to locate their conventions. look at the criteria of whether or not the local line horsemen and states have this as part of their law enforcement team. when you look at where you have a convention you know that this attracts some of the sex traffickers. so if you are the organization deciding where your convention is going to be, look at what the laws are and how involved law enforcement is. you don't have necessarily a

black or white criteria of how it looks the simply how you look at it. the local chambers and tourism bureaus go why don't we get a law in the books on this. it will make conventioneers and other people feel better about coming to our cedar city. >> exactly. so i want to thank you. i want to thank you so much for coming. i just want to say i am really proud to be able to work with senator klobuchar on this issue and a few other little things, too. i will let you know how we survived the super bowl in arizona. >> remember that it is coming to minnesota in 2015. when they really try to bid for the super bowl minnesota, and they kept talking about how warm new jersey west. they didn't mention the temperature yesterday when the windchill was below 20 below zero. i won't note that it is the week

of the super bowl coming up. it might be warmer in arizona. the thank you so much thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] good morning. we are going to start our second panel in just a moment. if you could all take your seats. thank you all for being here. i am 79 as policies were right

or as i had the enormous privilege of working with islamic or steering washington tech vulnerable children. today we are joined by some of the key members of congress who are really leading the effort to protect vulnerable youth by combating child sex trafficking. one of our members we are waiting for congressman dave reichart but we are honored to have with us today, congress carolyn maloney of new york, congressman ted poe of texas congresswoman karen bass of california and congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz from florida. thank you for being here. i first wanted to give numbers -- we are joined by congressman reichart. thank you so much.

welcome and thank you so much for being here on this very cold day. i first wanted to give our panelists an opportunity to talk to you all about why this is such an important issue and one that commands our tent. so i thought that we would get things started with you, congressman wasserman schultz if you don't mind. [inaudible] >> thank you both to google and rights4girls for hosting this discussion and thank you for your leadership. i want to congratulate you on being such an incredible product of the university of florida and give you a hearty go gators. always bleed orange and blue. this is an issue that is something i have been passionate about and i have had the privilege of working on all the way back to my days as a state legislator.

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but very few have good ideas that end up coming out. we are able to use the appropriations process effectively to make a difference not only through appropriating dollars but also by combating language to ensure we have agencies that are federal -- i hate to use the term but bureaucrats the people

helping us fight these crimes are moving in the right direction. to give you an idea $42 million for department of justice victim support missing and exploited children's fund and a requirement that doj and fbi prioritize trafficking prevention. because, yes, in the calm the bus that language was there. we need to effectively work together through the authorizing and appropriations process so that we can make sure we achieve reachable goals and a targeted way. and so and so it is a privilege to be a part of this. >> let me join in thanking google and rights4girls. often we talk about dysfunction in congress and what we do not do.

i think this is a a perfect example of an issue that is a bipartisan issue and where everybody on this panel you no we have worked together and passed significant legislation in the last congress and i look forward to doing the same in this congress. the particular focus i have is the intersection between child trafficking and the child welfare system. let me sum it up. a young woman many of us have encountered said this to me many years ago and they just ever stated me. she said, you know, being, being a foster child prepared me to be trafficked. and i just looked at her stunned. i did not no what she meant. she said, well, you no one you moved me around every few months so i was never able to attach to anyone, and everyone in my life was paid to be in my life.

so what difference was it when a pimp the pimp came along? in fact, the difference was he was the 1st one who said he left me. i was stunned. think about what she said. our child for what -- our child welfare system the average kid is moved multiple times. i made an 18 -year-old who had been in the welfare system since she was 18 years old and had been moved 66 times. how could she attached to anyone or anything? child abuse and neglect is defined in our country as the abuser or neglect or is a caretaker or parent. where does a pimp fall in that? this is an entire population that falls through the cracks because they are not defined in our child welfare system. the piece of legislation

that passed out of the house on a unanimous vote was a bill that said, we need need to look at our child welfare system and make sure it is prepared to deal with this system. it is overwhelmingly girls but their are boys as well. just as my colleague here said we should not view these girls as prostitutes we should also not use the term john for a purchaser. that person is a child molester and that is how they should be used -- how they should be viewed. that is something we need to take care of. >> well good morning. my name is ted poe i am a member of congress from texas. in my other life i was i was a prosecutor and criminal court judge for a long time.

saw a lot of outlaws at the courthouse. in congress i am aware as you are of what is taking place in our country the selling of america's youth across the nation. trafficking their are two types. i 1st came in contact with this issue when i was in the ukraine several years ago, more recently in central and south america. i've met a girl named lily in honduras. she was ten years old, and she was a trafficking victim many of those young women in the americas and other places and up in the united states. we have international trafficking of children in the us. we also have the issue of american children being trafficked across the country. i am from houston. unfortunately houston texas

is one of the hubs in the nation for the trafficking of children because of our location and demographics. we we have been working on this issue for a long time trying to get our hands around what the problem is and what we can do about it. the problem generates of course, with the trafficker. there are three entities involved: the trafficker. i call them that slave master because that is what it is modern-day slavery and its worst form. then we have on the other end the victim. of course, that is victim, victim, not a child prostitute. society needs to understand and especially law enforcement that when they

arrest a child for prostitution they should be taken to a shelter where they are taking and treated as a victim of criminal conduct because that is what they are. there is an issue that society has missed, the person in the middle and that is the demand. there is a demand for this trafficking. the days of boys being boys is going to be over in the united states. [applause] they will be treated like criminals because they are criminals, and that is why this is all going on. those three entities are booked for both -- dealt with in a bill that carolyn maloney and i sponsored last year that passed the house. carolyn maloney and i do not agree on a lot of things. after we got through the language barrier -- she is from new york. she thinks i talk funny.

we got together to deal with those three entities. the trafficker strong punishments against them. treat the victims of crime as victims. rescue, restore help them. statistics i'll give you one. the humane the humane society says there are about 100,000 animal shelters in the united states. good. we need them. i have one of them from operation rescue but their are only about 300 beds for child trafficking sex victims in the united states. states. we have to change that, provide them places to go. in all fairness to police when they arrested child

there is no place to take them, so they put them in a secure place of the juvenile justice system. so we must change that as well but also the person in the middle, the demand, we will let the public member they are. we will send them to jail and they we will pay for the crime they have committed. committed. hopefully when the bill comes up again this year because it is not the law this -- not the law yet we will add a provision to make sure that judges have the option also to impose stiff fees because a lot of these people have a lot of money. let's take that money away from them because it is money that was gained illegally. that money then needs to go to a fund for child trafficking victims to provide them resources shelters, and attention that they need make those

criminals pay the rent on the courthouse, courthouse, pay for the crime they have committed and to provide an avenue for victims to receive compensation and help. so -- [applause] we are going to send this message and are working together in a bipartisan way , a unanimous way, and american way. thanks for y'all for being here. america's kids are not for sale. thank you. [applause] >> thank you so much. i am pleased to be here with google and the mccain institute and the rights4girls. i want to mention my good friend from the new york city council. google is now hosting the 1st class that we will be the 1st high tech school just

for high-tech where we will graduate the next geniuses to go to work for google and other high-tech firms. i am pleased to be here with representative poe. we introduced our bill yesterday. karen brings great experience as the leader from california and has already offered many important bills in sex trafficking. and i can say that debbie wasserman-schultz is a fine person. i am proud of her work and have always wanted a chance to get to no you better. we will have a good time. but really sex trafficking is the worst crime, the modern-day form of slavery such a horrible crime that you do not want to believe it exists.

sometimes when i talk to other members about sex trafficking, they do not want to believe it happens in the united states of america. there are startling statistics. rating foreign countries on how they treat trafficking and whether they treated combat it, and try to stop this terrible crime but their numbers are roughly 600 to 800,000 around the world. we really do not have good numbers in america. america. we need to put more pressure on the justice department to come up with good data. i am glad to here we have 300 beds because when i i did my survey three years ago we had 50 beds to treat victims of trafficking. i have a bill in that would help and fund more beds for

people that are trafficked. along with our important bill that shifts the focus away from the victim and on to who is causing the crime the molester of children this is an important step forward. i have a bill that i absolutely love. it costs no money it makes money and it gives tools to the irs to go after traffickers and put them in jail and fined them and take those fines and put them into building beds for young people who have been victimized and abused. we do not want to believe that it even happens in our own country and the numbers are staggering. but it happens domestically too. often times foster care children are trafficked and

when they come to you and tell you the stories you do not want to believe them. so the crime is out there. we need to work harder together to stop it. i became involved in 2,000 when there was a constituent of mine in queens called big apple tours. norman would advertise even have brochures to go to thailand, the philippines and have as many young girls or boys as you wanted. just come with me. five, ten i mean, just outrageous. i wrote a letter to the district attorneys in my district and really to janet reno.

their response was, we do not have the tools to put these people in jail. it was not really a a federal crime. this was always a unifying issue. deborah pryce did a brilliant job. i have difficulty getting hearings now. but in any event we passed a number of bills that made it a crime. now you can go to jail for 30 years for going across the world to victimize a young child. the the 1st protect law was written in 2,003 had a bill signing with the president of the united states, then states then bush and has been a strong bipartisan bill because it is such an outrage.

caves more tools. in tools. in previous bills i tried to put in the language that is very strong that goes after child molesters. i think we we will keep the language in. i feel so strongly about this issue i even wrote a book about it and have a whole chapter on it. one picture haunts me and inspires me to work every day on this issue. mugshots of young girls who were convicted of prostitution. they are young and beautiful and you see their personalities and strengths. they are then convicted nine other times and in each progressive shot you can see the humanity leaving their face, leaving their body. in the last picture they are

a shell of a tortured, destroyed person. it is haunting, true and in its own way it is inspiring for all of us to spend some time each day each week working to stop this horrible crime against humanity. i want to thank the sponsors for bringing us together so thank you very much. it is my honor to be here. >> well, thank you for inviting me to be here and i want to thank the sponsors i am going to make a confession right off the bat i am nervous and i will tell you why. i i am afraid i will not be able to get through this. let me compose myself.

those pictures threw me off. maybe some of you no my background. i know you do. i am so excited to have these people sitting on the day is with me and all of you in the audience and those viewing across the country because now we are shining a light on this. people can see that children are losing not only the dignity and their hope and freedom but in some cases that have lost their lives.

so for those of you who do not no i am an old cop. people think that i have been in congress for four years, but i have been here 10. 10. i was a cop for 34 years. part of that was a 19 year effort was a a great team of people to track down a killer who murdered 70 to 80 young girls pled guilty to 49. we closed 51 cases, closed 51 cases the most prolific serial killer in the united states but you do not here much about him, and i will not mention his name.

when i was working this case when i started i was 31 years old 6-foot eight, 240 pounds and had dark around hair. this is what happens. but i work member about that case is meeting the families and working with the families. they still call me today. one of the mothers lost a dear friend a few weeks ago and called me on the phone to cry and just you know i i was there to try to console her. in the last two weeks i got emails from young women who were working on the street back in the early 80s. one had the opportunity last week to meet my grandson at a church a church event and is now a counselor for young women. she met caleb and started to cry and hard time because

she said he looked like me. i don't know if that is a good thing. your poor kid you look like your grandfather but she felt that connection. you know, i cried because i remembered he cared. and i know all of you care. my focus in congress, let me just say this 1st. i was a runaway. i know that part of the story the physical emotional, sexual abuse, kids being driven out of their homes looking for love and they find it in the

wrong places on the street and not knowing what love is. getting trapped in the life. we have a responsibility especially focusing on those who are runaways and in depth in foster care. we just passed a bill last year that came out of my community the subcommittee on human resources that focuses on foster kids. if you if you are driving down the street and saw ten young children standing on the street corner 66 out of ten of those would be foster kids in our system and our states across this country that we have responsibility to take care of them and they are not. we are not.

and i talked to them on the street. i talked to a younger one week in the next week her body is being recovered. give her a warning get off the street. people out here we will hurt you or take your life. once they are in the life it is hard to get them out. you all no that. the bill that we passed tries to focus on or does focus on those foster kids antarctic at them out of the street into permanent homes, not bouncing from foster care home -- from foster home to foster home to foster home from school district to school district to school district and it

helps create an atmosphere for kids to have a normal childhood where they can participate in events after school feel a part of the school community. it is hard to believe the way the laws previously, kids could not participate in athletic activities. the law also collects data and trying to find the services that really impact foster children's lives to get them out of the lifestyle. when we asked them to testify they told their

stories and in my hearing so we try to focus on what those young girls and women have been through the system and new what services worked and what services did not work it is great to here from the directors of the social services across the country that is valuable information, but the most valuable information comes from those who lived it. that is what our legislation was based on. they are working on additional legislation and we need to continue this battle. our goal -- i was on the domestic violence council as the sheriff and the goal

was to end domestic violence not to reduce it to end it. our goal in human trafficking is not to reduce human trafficking but to end it. and i could not agree more with what has been said. the judge i think, said it best. the cooks need to go to jail these guys are raping young girls. they need to go to jail for a long time. we need to send a strong message. we will not be tolerating people that take advantage of these young women and young girls and we we will not tolerate the pimps either. so i thank you for the opportunity to be here today and share my story. i got a little emotional

when karen showed the pictures. i wrote a book also that goes to the charity called the pediatric in care center. it is called chasing the double. all the money goes to help drug addicted babies. one of the things i've always are the photographs of the dead bodies, the dead young women that i collected of those years. i can close my eyes and picture those remains each and every one of them their names and the sites and their families. that is our motivation, ladies and jerome and. remember the faces of the young women that carolyn

showed you and the faces of those young women that have died. thank you for having me. [applause] >> thank you all so much for those powerful remarks. ..

>> one of the primary pieces of legislation we are pushing through the judiciary committee that i'm on. and we want to get it passed out of the house in the senate and signed into law and we think this will happen very, very soon. ad may be more provisions to make it stronger but this is an issue that both the senate and the house agreed in total principle that this has to be passed, needs to be passed for all the reasons that have been stated. so i think everything is going to pass this year, i think this will be something that passes out of the house, the senate and becomes law. i'm very optimistic. >> i want to actually thank both of you for your remarks about, and many of you mentioned the demand. i know that when we talk about combating child sex trafficking, often our attention immediately

goes to the trafficker. and oftentimes the role of the buyers are overlooked in how they are not only the sex trafficking market but also for the culpability in the crimes they commit against children. so i thank to both for your leadership with the justice for victims trafficking. >> cannot wait in on that? >> absolutely. >> i've always got something to say. texas, you know. the number one criminal enterprise in the world that brings in the most filthy money is the drug trafficking. we all know that. but close and second behind is the sale and trafficking of people, primarily women and children. why is it such a moneymaker? one, because drugs are used once. children, like debbie pointed out, are used hundreds of times.

second, the laws don't punish the trafficker the demand, as much as you get punished if you're a drug dealer. and third the risk of apprehension is so much lower than it is for a drug dealer. and that's why it's ever growing money enterprise. it deals with a lot of kids but it's all about the money. and that's why this bill that carolyn maloney and i sponsor go after the root of the evil, a child abuser who is paying for that child. >> just to follow-up on what ted said. there is as i mentioned really an under the radar piece of this, and that is the ability to

traffic and promote trafficking exponentially because of the internet. previously before you really had the internet, it all really had to be done in person. it was very difficult for the buyers to get access to feed their habit. because of the internet, law enforcement, and because of our advancements in being able to identify who are the victims and actually who are the perpetrators law enforcement has been able to identify nearly 500,000 individuals trafficking in child pornography over the internet. before you glaze over on chocolate hocrisy what we have to remember is that this is a different element of child trafficking. everyone of those photographs is a crime scene.

is a victim who is being victimized by someone who is raping them. and then that is a whole commercial enterprise by itself, beyond the selling of children. you have the selling of the photographs of those perpetrators, and actually one thing i want to do just to interrupt myself is cindy mccain is comeback in and i want to congratulate you on the incredible work of the mccain institute and that you particularly have engaged in. we are here in part because of you and your leadership on this issue has been absolutely remarkable and we've made so much progress because your of your involvement in it, so thank you so much. thank you. [applause] >> as much as were able to utilize how much of this is going on on the internet because of the lack of resources, law enforcement is able to investigate less than 2% of these crimes. the protect act we passed a few years ago has increased, we been able to appropriate $185 million specifically to be able to give

the internet crimes against children task forces the ability to investigate more. we know that they have the ability to logically to identify and go after -- technologically and find them online, bust out these child sexual predator crime rings. and we've been able to make since the passage of the law 45,000 arrests. ted, you are absolutely right. it's amazing to hear a republican -- i'm going to repeat it because he also said it's about money, which you rarely hear from a republican. oftentimes we gloss over that people like to say in the appropriations come in the legislative process you can't throw money at it. this is one thing that if we put money into this will be able to get more criminals. but the other thing where to put money into is the best way to do with this we been talking about,

arresting people, going after the buyers, making sure that the girls don't get arrested and instead get into services. that's all after they are trafficked. we have to invest in the vulnerable population of girls to prevent them from being trafficked in the first place because we know who they are. there are programs like the pace center for girls in my district the most amazing program. i want to get you all information about them. we been able to get them appropriations, grants. and what did he is a married therapeutic services with education and other programs because they have a vulnerable population of girls that they know are the girls that would likely be trafficked. but you get them into a life and on a path towards having self worth and recognize that they should have self-esteem and that they don't have to travel down that unfortunately to well-worn path, and so we have to invest there, too.

i hope to double to work with all of you to make sure that we can do that, too. >> i also wanted to connect the dots because what judge posner was saying which, of course, is right in terms of the most lucrative criminal activity being the drug trade and also connecting that up with child sex trafficking because there is the intersection there. one of the things that's happening around our country is certain happening around the los angeles area is the intersection between street gangs who were selling drugs and still are selling drugs, diversifying their criminal enterprises and now because of the reasons that judge poe said are not trafficking in girls. so if we look at it just as betty was saying on the prevention side, we really do have to look at transforming our child welfare system because we are fueling the number of kids that are trafficked because of child welfare. i do have to say that sometimes

there's also foster boys that are involved. one being trafficked but also as traffickers, and we have to stop that. we know how to prevent this. in the child welfare system, nhl that has really taken from old is our responsibility. we become the pair. we meaning government becomes the parent and so we shouldn't be neglectful or abusive. we should make sure that we take care of the kid on the front in big you're talking about a population of about half a million shows that are involved in the child welfare system in our country. i will give you a good example in the los angeles area we have a court system called the star court, and it is a specific part of the dependency court that focuses on girls that are trafficked. and i went to star court one time and it was amazing experience because before going into the actual courtroom, we were with social workers, educators, treatment providers,

child welfare folks all sat around the table and discussed each and every girl. so when we went into the courtroom, that girl was not treated at all as the she were a criminal, but you and everybody from all of these different agencies, all of these different sectors embracing the child. but we also do it to recognize and i believe my colleague dave was mentioning thatcome it is difficult for these girls to break out of this cycle. the number one reason it's difficult for them to break out of the cycle is because they have nowhere to go. judge poe referenced the fact that what happens is we wind up incarcerating them. so 300 beds. we need 300,000 beds. we certainly need the shelters and we have to understand that just like an addiction the girls have to make the decision on their own. and so we have to be open in addiction. you have to understand that it's the disease of relapse. well these girls relapse.

they go in and they go out. we cannot give up on them. we cannot say we give you a chance, you didn't take advantage, so to heck with you. we have to continue to have our door open to have those resources and to embrace these children. [applause] >> i'd like to once again thank the making institute and google for their work in tracking the media partnership in this. i have been a member of many high parts and letters in congress against backstage that advertises the exploitation of children. the village voice has a whole section on it. they never stop. and one young woman who was trying to get out of the profession came to me and she and her pimp she was drugged in a nightclub, she woke up with her pimp and anyway she became a prostitute. they have their own business just running ads in newspapers.

where people which is called them, just -- so the use of the medium to advanced the exploitation of children is outrageous. and i heard that drugs were the worst, and i thought selling guns was the second. now the selling of the human body over and over again usually until they die has become the second most lucrative crime. this one bill, when we finally convicted al capone, it was on tax evasion. this bill uses the irs to go after john's and traffickers and pam's for their tax evasion and puts them in jail and uses the money to supply more beds. i think that's a good approach to move forward. but one of the problems we confront is that hollywood sometimes makes it look glamorous. a song called the pimp song won the best song of the year one

year. pretty woman makes the prostitution look like it's a pretty profession. it's anything but. it kills people and even have a paintball in new york. can you believe it? wear the pants get together and have a big party. i think we should all go and demonstrate against the pimps, do something to stop this sort of glamour approach to the profession that you see sometimes in the media and in movies and other areas. it is exploitation, it is murder and it is slavery and its horrible and we had to combat internet away. so once again thank you for bringing us together. >> one of the other issues that was raised by some of the panelists is a factor that has come to light in recent years, and that is the fact that many if not the majority of child sex trafficking victims in the u.s. have had previous involvement in our child welfare system. congresswoman i know you have legislation in the last congress

that would seek to reform child welfare. can you talk a little bit about strengthening the child welfare response? >> specifically with the bill calls for is training child welfare social workers to recognize this. there was one department in my region where i called and asked about trafficking, and they actually were not aware that it was going on. but yet i had met with fbi innocent loss task force and they said that this particular geographic area was where it was highest. they estimated, and they believe it wasn't undercount, that the under age girls 60% of them were in the child welfare system. so our system as a whole needs to be prepared to do with it. we need to train child welfare workers, we also need to begin to have the data to actually document it. as i mentioned we do have this problem where girls who are not abused by their parent or caregiver are not cared for in

the child welfare system so we don't have a part of our social safety net that's even prepared to deal with this population. so that's why we have to look at it from those three areas. and then what is the of the problems in the child welfare system is that technically to access federal funding you need to break up the family, you need to remove the child from the family. what we need to do is have a more flexible way to deal with the funding so that you can actually prevent the problem from happening to begin with. now, one aspect -- [applause] >> one aspect of the foster care system that is the most affordable our girls that are in group homes. because they are not even in a family setting at all. so the group homes really become targeted very specifically by pimps. they know where the group homes or they will go and recruit specifically. and sometimes they will get other girls to do the trick the other place where girls are recruit are in juvenile

detention centers where girls will recruit each other. but given that we know all of this information we absolutely can prevent this from happening. but we do have to fundamentally change part of the child welfare system in order to do it. >> congressman, what to congratulate you on the passage of the legislation the prevented the sex trafficking and strengthen family and. you talked about that legislation. i wonder if there any other plans in the committee for expand on the amazing work that you all able to do? >> well, i've moved on from the chairmanship of that committee to the tax committee. so i -- so what i'm going so i will be the chairman of the revenue subcommittee on ways and means. but charles will be the new chair of human resources. he and i have already met.

we've talked about welfare reform and human trafficking. and what we want to do when you talk about tax reform is that you want to humanize tax reform. you want to really show people what happens when you cut this tax or you raise this tax it when you apply it to the social services world, you cut home services, home visits, for example, which are critical and rebuilding and connecting families together. home visitations are not a new thing, been going on since the '70s. i started as a police officer in 1972 at 21 years old. and those home visits were critical than ever your critical today. in keeping families together. so when you talk about prevention, we will be working together on that so there are plans. but i want to touch on

prevention. cops know a lot about prevention. the frustrating part for me is an old police officer coming to congress is that there is a tendency by politicians and the experienced this working as the sheriff as councilmembers in seattle is that there's this tendency to put out brush fires. there's some political expediency political value in that for them immediate value in saint look what i've done look what i fixed but it hasn't fixed a doggone thing. they've just spent money that could've been spent in prevention. so when we think about how we're going to solve this problem and it's already been said but i see this so clearly from my past profession. if we can understand that putting our money up front to address these issues to families

together, define loving families for the foster kids to expedite adoption processes and get these young kids into permanent homes, we're going to lose this battle. we will never win this battle if we don't focus on prevention. each and every one of the witnesses who came forward in human resources subcommittee testimony, who were young ladies who have more than survived but they have excelled and been named, you know, most important top 100 influential people in the country, or was it the world? i don't know. gets an amazing feat, yeah, the accomplishments they have made. but if we don't understand

prevention and put our money there, because at the backend what will end up doing is and what we are doing is we are paying for mental health counseling. we are paying for drug and alcohol abuse counseling. we are paying for traumatic you know, what's called -- help me out. yes. ptsd. we are paying for those things versus paying up front keeping kids and families. when i was working on this case i just had to say this. in the early '80s collecting body after body after body day after day in some weeks 68 bodies in a week i wondered who cared. and you need to know cops care. in this world today where police officers are being attacked you

know, as the people are out there trying to hurt people are the bad police officers? yes. but are there good police officers? there are a lot more good cops out there than there are bad cops. we need to support our police department. because what they're doing out there for our young kids and i think if you talk to someone foster kids, the young kids on the street, you will find out they didn't know those police officers to protect them. they counseled them and i just had to say that because there are some big hearts out there on the street that was a badge. [applause] >> so i wondered who was out of there. we didn't get the support that we thought we needed to we weren't getting the budget. we weren't getting the money to investigate those cases back then. and today, in congress what i've

discovered is, and will come the message today that we can deliver across this country is that there are people who care. they are in this room, there in the audience across the nation and sitting on this stage, and there's a lot more support in congress and in the senate. and i think -- i thank the mccains for their support and involvement and leadership on this issue also. so we've got to get the prevention of thing. got to focus on helping these kids giving them permanent loving homes. the one question, identify got around to mentioning was how did you make it? what made the difference? what was the one thing that we can point to that made the difference? and everyone answered, this way. somebody loved me. i had a family that loved me.

so we can talk about programs all programs you want, but these kids need love and they need a home. thanks. [applause] >> i think that's a really profound note to end on. i want to thank all of our panelists for joining us today. i know it's such a busy weekend we really are grateful for you taking the time to be here with us. so thank you so much. appreciate it. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> hey, everybody. we're going to try to come back together for our last panel. i know it's been a wonderful but long morning, but this is a wonderful part of the morning, because we are able to look at what is working. so often we talk about

technology right, we talked about how bad actors and illicit networks have used technology to further entrench and advance the scourge of trafficking. that is true. there is a way that the internet and technology has created more of a marketplace in the selling of bodies within this country, and across the globe. but what this band is going to be able to give voice to is that as we are in a place of modern-day slavery the efforts that are happening among these three organizations represent the underground railroad. that the technology and innovation that is being done by each of these organizations on the panel represents the underground railroad that is saving children and adults lives who are being trafficked, and also holding accountable and finding and punishing the

traffickers and the buyers. so i want to start by allowing each of these organizations to give voice to the work that they are doing. these folks are heroes to us and so craig if you can be can talk about the work that polaris has done. >> sure, thank you. thanks everyone for the opportunity to talk about what we are practically doing with technology and trafficking. i did have some slides prepared and it looks like they will be here. that's wonderful. so my name is craig heckman. i work as a data analyst at polaris, many of you are likely familiar with polaris come with the largest programs that we have, the largest program with is operating the national human trafficking resource center hotline. we will talk of bout that a little bit because of the fact that technology plays a giant role in the operation of the hotline also indicated collection and data analysis were able to do with information your here's some information for those of you who may not be aware, or for those on the web

would like to learn more about the national traffic and resource center is a 24/7 government funded hotline for victims to call in to receive referrals to service or support a case of trafficking that they're involved in order that they may be aware of. it's a 24/7 deal. since 2007 we have had around 18,000 cases of human trafficking report on the hotline and so from that were able to learn a lot about where trafficking is happening the details of what, how it presents itself, the victims are, the traffickers are, at what the trends are so we can really understand how moving for we can better communicate with those who may be in trafficking situations. so when a call comes in on the hotline, the operator of the hotline through the technology that we have used in the hotline is able to very quickly understand what resources would

be available for a victim in a given locality. so if the caller is calling from a certain part of ohio, you can see in ohio we have several different protocols with the different regions in ohio, and the representative on the other side of the hotline can click on the region and see the relevant law enforcement contacts and service provider context for the region and can connect the caller with those relevant people in a way that's very quick and efficient. and not only is this a path for some to report the case can be referred directly to services or law enforcement, but because of the fact that we gathered data about these calls metrics about the calls come demographics of the victims, we are able to map out where traffic is happening and how it is presenting itself at this gives an example of a heat map showing the geographic dissertation at the trafficking calls we receive. this is just one example of how we can slice the data to learn things that we wouldn't otherwise know in the field which can be incredibly

valuable. beyond that something we're beginning to investigate and started work on is doing additional network analysis on high-risk industries. what i mean by high-risk industries is business industries where we gets in trafficking cases reported to us. as an example with no details of course but what we can do using information from her hotline but and also other data sources we're able to find on the web and elsewhere, be able to paint a larger picture of who are these traffickers into are the people surrounding the trafficking ecosystem, what can we do about that? not only to deal with it immediately but also to understand how we can try to stop any future. and so here's an example. we have a business that is at a certain address. through public business records were able to identify who the owners of those businesses may be. and then using all sorts of things on the web some of them enabled by google are able to find other places that made operate at the same address or may have operated at that

address and as. and each of those people may or may not be the owner of other businesses. those of the businesses may or may not be involved in the trafficking situation as well. beenbeing able to understand the relationships is important. on the end of each of those endpoints with all of these businesses operated other addresses owned by other people and we start to see this network. another interesting angle that has had a lot of luck in the past with certain industries is holding landlords accountable for the behavior of their tenets. any commercials and. so we were the people who own the properties where these things are occurring, into the own other property and is that activity happening at other properties as well? and then who owns the businesses, so on and so forth. you can see quickly using all sorts of freely available information on the web, you do have to go find it, organize it and put into a system that for us is enabled by relationship we have with -- it is a separate in

to see the trafficking ecosystem in an entirely different way that we don't think it's likely being done very often. one more thing is the idea of being able to derive information from advertisements that are online. a lot of places have to advertise. as information that could be gleaned from those advertisements that could lead to connections that were not known about otherwise. very addressing. this gives you 90 of something we're just beginning to -- gives you an idea information from the web to paint a larger picture. the next piece of technology or program in our office that is enabled by technology is the idea of doing global data sharing. here in the u.s. we operate the national hotline put there so many needs for other type of hotlines in other places. so through a grant given to us by google we have begun to develop this global hotline network in an attempt we can replicate the success that polaris has had in the united states in other places that have

need. being able to take our database system, salesforce platform and share that with other organizations is incredible useful. being able to find ways in a very protective and data privacy conscious way share information about trafficking that's happening across borders. because every time we add new data to our system we find we get an exponential increase in the amount of knowledge and links we can drive between these cases. one more thing is the work we've been doing just recently in creating a global modern slavery directory and we can find more information about that on our website, but the idea is being able to map out geographically anti-human trafficking resources all over the world. it's a fascinating attempt to do that and making that that in public on the web for those who may need it. so one more time, here's the information on the hotline.

i think is was adopted to show that about how technology is enabling us to do our job of serving victims, connecting them with the resources that they need. and we look forward to continuing to discuss with other practitioners and others in the room, around the world about really interesting novel ways we can repurpose technology specifically for serving victims and identifying those who are perpetrating them. thank you so much. [applause] >> thank you. my name is staca shehan i'm in the division in which we operate the child sex trafficking team. i have a couple slides here that will come up in the second for those of you might not be where the national surfer missing in our children opened in 1984 and we operate as the nation's

clearinghouse on issues surrounding missing and exploited children. over the past 30 years 30 plus years now we have really changed and expanded and evolved over time and currently we are authorized by congress to operate various or 22 specific programs and services to support and assist law enforcement families and professionals that serve them. a big part of what we do is related to the intake case management technical assistance, analytical services and recovery planning for missing children. and it is through these cases that we are able to identify trends and patterns going on specifically related to child sex trafficking. the data you're seeing now is 32013. we're still working on finalizing the 2014 data but i can tell you i've gotten a peek at some of it and it remained consistent and it is showing

unfortunately and increased in a lot of these areas. what we do know that will remain the same regardless of whether we include 2014 or not is the largest percentage of missing children in this country are endangered runaways. those kids are the most vulnerable and those kids are the ones that are being targeted at a higher rate for trafficking than any of the. within the population itself, it is those kids that are missing from child welfare system that we are seeing the trends show were being targeted at even increase rates. you can sit up on the screen that in 2013 it was one out of seven. to you before that it was one out of eight. it's quite possible looking at the plenary data that they will be one of six or one out of five from 2014 of the endangered runaways that we're seeing also be victimized through trafficking. through looking at these cases we are seeing malika mentioned the bad actors underneath using technology to recruit and control these kids.

more often than not -- more often than not we're able to see all the toys tech dodges being used in a positive way to be a will to come back, to provide services to these victims to locate these victims and to target the traffickers and the buyers of these children. we also operate the sniper tip line which is one way in which technology is being used for good. the sniper tip line started in 1998 and is the congressional pressure porting activism for all types of child exportation and that includes child sex trafficking as well as child pornography, child sex tourism and online enticement which a child sex sex abuse crimes committed a sometimes overlap with child sex trafficking. through the cyber tip line we've we received over 3 million reports to date. and forcefully last year was a banner year in terms of the number of reports we received over 1 million reports in one year alone.

to show that unfortunately this crime is not going away but we're providing a mechanism for the public for all of the city had to be vigilant and to make reports as well as with electronic service provider community such as google and others that are active reporting. we have analysts on staff using tools and technology every single day to add value. so there set up to law enforcement with the goal of with the hope that if there's anything there that they can utilize them they're going to possibly investigate these child sex trafficking crimes that are occurring throughout the united states. in 2003 we joined the fbi and the department of justice child exploitation obscenity section to great initiative. one of the main programs or main parts of the innocents lost initiative have heard about or seen an immediate surrounding is the operation cross country. this has evolved over time and more and more children have been

recovered over time. our role specifically is to support the fbi as the lead of this operation nationally. this past year it was one week in length 24/7, in 106 cities and over 168 children's were recovered and over 281 pounds or traffickers were arrested. -- 281 attempts. as asked for assistance will use it to develop it further and provided back to them so they can use it on the ground. technology allows us to do this summer headquarters in alexandria, virginia, with the support the entire country while they're doing this operation 24/7. the last thing i really want to talk about is just specifically the role of technology and remembering that it really is the opportunity to harness this technology and this opportunity for good, for combating this, for helping to identify victims and to support law enforcement

efforts to target those that are responsible, which are the traffickers and those that are buying these kids. specifically just as an example related to the victims themselves, law enforcement, we heard earlier when they're talking to these kids and when they're encountering these children, they are not often disclosing that, one maybe they are a minor, or two, that they are being victimized. we know those of us in the room know that it has to do with a lot of the extreme abuse and violence that they have suffered at the hands of the traffickers after the exploitation but it's understand why they would not disclose that information. law enforcement when they're encountering these victims will often reach out and ask for our assistance. are the ways we can use information they know about these kids? are there any physical identifiers that we can search against multiple data sets using tools that have been donated by google and others to see if it happens to match a missing child

that is known to us? are there ways we can then link that information to other kids that have been reported missing and may be under the control of the same traffic or? when it comes to investigation law enforcement, they reach out asking for assistance using to take on the tools we develop information about these traffickers. specifically maybe they are having and information has been posted public we online starts to show a pattern of where these kids are being trafficked from where they're being controlled, if there's multiple kids under the same control of one trafficker and the crystals with access to can help us start to piece together the information is like following bread crumbs. does one piece of information lead to multiple online ads which leads to multiple child victims all coming back to one specific trafficker? one thing we all know is that this crime would not exist if it were not buyers. if there were not people who are willing to purchase another

human being and specifically a child for sex, this crime would not even exist. so attacking fires -- buyers and demand is crucial. it may not be happening as much as we like but we know and we heard the senator mentioned it earlier, that there are law enforcement agencies out there who are posting ads, they're seeing as how there. he mentioned a guy who should've think is going to be purchasing sex with a child and that segment the adult male law enforcement officer instead and when these are occurring there's often little known about those buyers. law-enforcement will reach out and ask for our assistance we use the tools we have internally to further develop information. can you take that phone number into public records or other publicly accessible information on the internet to determine who that person might be. in some cases they may be a convicted and registered sex offender. we will use the tools available to add information to a law enforcement already knows and

what they're looking for our assistance with. to specifically for using technology to support both the victim identification as well as assisting with the law enforcement investigation into traffickers and buyers is to link analysis and image analysis trying to tie together pieces of information through very large data sets but i mentioned 3 million cyber tip line reports. say we have a phone number or an e-mail address or screen name our presence in and it appears in several cyber tip line reports. it appears in several profiles are online ads. been able to collect information and tie together to provide law enforcement has been really useful. looking at these images seem have photos are a big part of this crime and how it's taking place on the internet and how the internet is being misused to sell these kids, we're using that information and using technology tools to further digest those photos look to see if there's multiple victim pictures, look to see if there's any image identifiers, physical

identifiers that can be linked back and provide that information. i'm not going to talk too much about these last few two but i do want to release point out that technology is being used in amazing ways related to education. today this is bank light streamed. so even more people are aware of this and what's going on and are more current on it. but also through prevention education. we know that the tools and internet is being used to recruit and control, but we can use that same technology to empower kids with the information they need and the tools they need to be able to avoid and to thwart victimization. i did want to point out to the education and prevention positive. i think both the google, the making institute and rights for girls for putting together this event today. -- rights4girls. i appreciate being part of the discussion at a been at the national center now for over 15 years and i can honesty say that i see technology being used

every day. more for good and it being misused for beth and i really look forward to being part of this discussion as it continues to evolve in the future. thank you. [applause] >> is this working? i'm julie with four, digital defenders of children. and i want us all to imagine just for a moment how the reality of how technology plays a role in trafficking. so tonight and a hotel room here in washington, d.c., let's take it out of its a national problem as it is here within probably a mile of where we're sitting, there will be a child who was in that hotel robe against their will. a child who two years ago could not imagine that that would ever be where they were. but probably has always had a hard life, probably in and out of foster care, and they have

chosen to run or may have just chosen to take the offer from someone who said they can give them a better life. and that person is either in the room with them or in the parking lot and has told this girl, she needs to make the quota tonight. and so just like any of us have ever marketed something, she's going to go online and she's going to post her add on back page or another site, and when it slips too far down on the page below the fold, she's going to go online and read of it. and maybe her task is doing it for but very likely she may be responsible for doing it herself because she doesn't want to get eaten when she comes home. -- beaten. she wanted every half hour, hour between their customers to make sure she makes the money she needs to make to be safe when she goes home at night.

so that's how technology is playing a role in the marketing of this child who will be victimized again and again tonight, and it will happen tonight. but that child also probably has that same experience a few nights ago a few weeks prior and then it happened in d.c. or it may have happened in virginia, or it may have happened in another state. now, what we look at at thorn is technology is playing obviously a negative role in the exploitation of trafficking but what it's also doing is giving visibility to a crime that before we may not have had that depth of visibility to. so how do we take that data to be more proactive in finding that child quicker and connecting her with help? when an officer a year ago

would start an investigation they would see one moment in time. that is her ad at this point in time. what is more helpful is was the experience of this child over the past year where have they been how has the phone number changed? and we know that she is not using her real age. because an escort can't be under 18. may not be using her real picture. if she is, may not be showing her face. so the question of the role of technology is kind of the hot phrase of the day big data. well, there is a lot of data. our role at thorn is that you take that data and make it actionable so that the response to these children is quick and fierce? we know that oftentimes these children will come in and out of the life multiple times before they're able to find a safe place to stay and rebuild their

lives. what we say when we use technology is, how do we use of data and technology to make those points in time quicker? let's not make five, seven times touch points with help over here and have. let's make that within just a few months, that the minute they go back out on the street because they have nowhere else to go we find him and we get the back connected with help. so that is a project that we're working on right now with the support of the mccain institute, and with google. is using all of the available data in a more proactive and intelligent manner to find these children more quickly and connects them with help. a second area of focus for us at thorn is the role of deterrence in both child sex trafficking as well as child pornography. and i'm happy to say we work with both these organizations very quickly or very closely.

our mission at thorn is to drive technology innovation to fight child exploitation so we consider ourselves experts in technology and we partner with experts on the front lines at the issue deploy any manner that is hopeful. but when you look at how companies can use advertising or other online means to change our behaviors, i don't know if if you shop online the minute i hit a site i can't get away from that site. they know exactly what product i looked at. they know when i was on that site. and i can't get away. well then, why don't we know who are shopping for young girls online? why don't we know who's looking for child pornography? and make sure they can get away either. and so that's an entire strategy of our organization, a program that we've had up and running for three years now. through our child pornography deterrence prague ram, we have

reached over and again people and have actually created 17,000 instances of people seeking help for what they know is that activity online, and seeking help to get counseling and stop those actions. that type of program will then move on into john deterrence as well. we know indian demand is a big aspect of this, and i'm not saying online is the only tool. it is one toolkit toolkit. but if targets can reach me everywhere -- if target can reach me everywhere i go, i don't believe that people who are looking to buy a child victim for a night should be able to be free from that either. and so that's the second area of focus for us. the third area of focus for us is the work we do through our technology task force. so we run a technology task force that includes 25

companies, including google, who's been a founding member for four years now. and the idea that is channeling the best and brightest minds in technology to think about this issue, and to collaborate further. so the publishing of a sound practices guide or from learning from the expertise of top companies and making sure that the startup companies that are moving so quickly that often they don't think about child safety have tools in the toolkit from the beginning to implement practices that can reduce the likelihood that their platforms will be used for trafficking and child exploitation. and then the fourth and final area is the research we do. really making sure that we understand directly from victims and survivors what their experience was with technology.

we run right now the largest national survey of child sex trafficking survivors to her directly from them what the role of technology was in their exploitation. it was a few years ago that brad from players came to us and said hey, we are thinking about how we can expand the hotline to have greater reach for victims but it was at the same time we were hearing through our survey that most of the children are primarily texting to a text with a trafficker. the text whether john. that's how they set up appointments. and also logically, kids text right? so when we talk to them about calling a hotline they said i probably wouldn't call a hotline. for a variety of reasons, the most obvious being my trafficker standing over my shoulder. and so we worked with polaris to launch to ip free text short code, which was away for victims and

anyone who wanted to interact with the national human traffic hotline to text instead of coal. and what we are excited to see is that we are achieving, i will say we have achieved, because i always believed there's more work to be done but we are achieving what we originally set out to achieve which is give victims a more direct and accessiblaccessibl e way to reach out for help. so we know that about 9% of calls that come into the hotline offer victims themselves, and nearly 20% of the text that come andin a from victims themselves. our objective for this year with effort we're undertaking is to increase that percentage to launch marketing programs that speak directly to the victims themselves and get that number in their hands. so those are just a few of the ways that we think about the role of technology and combating trafficking and child exploitation overall. i think, i think both of you

said we fundamentally believe yeah, technology is agnostic. it is not good or bad. it is whose hands it is in in which it realizes its potential. and we always say again, because our mission is drive technology and innovation to fight child sexual exploitation. you educate more of the brightest minds and technology about these issues and about the ways that people are using technology, and you'll have an army of good fighting against it. that is what we aim to do. and quickly tools enhance the people on the front lines like malika and staca and and 50 not polaris. and so thank you for having us here today to the mccain institute, to google, to malika for having as being a part of this conversation. it is a our topic that we all work on, but i think our team often says we get motivated and inspired by the potential we see

in what can be done when you motivate forces and kind of the brains and talent in this room and in technology in general. [applause] >> thank you so much. you know, i just want to drill down a little bit more on what each of you have presented. craig campbell in question i have for you is that in light of how we are able to collect and unearth all of this data what are we learning? and in particular what are we learning about child trafficking in the united states? and the networks of buyers and traffickers operating within our borders? >> sure. great question. so polaris has been dedicated to collect information about this and in making it as publicly available as we can while keeping in check all of the privacy considerations.

we do publish regular reports regarding the statistics of our hotline. so if you want specific details and specific numbers, those are the best sources for the rather than me trying to throw off memorized figures. one of the most interesting ones that i think is the big difference, as julia mentioned of the number of calls relevant to a specific trafficking situation versus the number of text relevant to a very specific trafficking situation, it's really, really interesting. we can slice and dice the data according to however many dozens of different fields that we track to get new interesting things. but my recommendation would be to reference those reports specifically to get the best data. >> so first, i need to just say that we started out this morning by talking about the no such thing campaign that there's no such thing as a child prostitute.

i just want to acknowledge that the national center for missing and exploited children on day one of its existence recognized that these children were not children who were prostitutes. these children were victims and survivors. i often tell the story of having a meeting between ncmec and child welfare workers and caroline was in that meeting and these were good people who cared about the children and they kept referring to the girls as delinquent's come as bad girls. and caroline said, no these girls are victims of crime. and i just think it's important that we come full circle today in recognizing where ncmec insisted we be years ago and where we are trying to be day. i just want to ask you, staca, you know, often when we talk about the need to go after

demand and the buyers, the response is but it's so hard to go after the buyers. it's much easier to go after the traffickers, from a technology perspective, and law enforcement perspective. and if you could just talk about that a little. if you could debunk for us how in fact, technology, if harnessed correctly does allow us to effectively go after buyers. >> i think technology when we're talking about going after demand and buyers specifically has been a game changer. the way that this crime has evolved and the way technology is being integrated into this crime has opened up the opportunity for it to be more public and it to be more accessible for law enforcement, for analysts, for everyone to play a role in highlighting the

instigator of this crime, which is the buyers. and when this crime is taking place via come as julia craig mentioned, sometimes short conversations, text messages between the victim and the buyer themselves, technology is being used to have that conversation which then provides an avenue for law enforcement to have that information about what took place. and in the instance of making and debunking a little bit of the idea of going after buyers and targeting demand being too difficult, we are seeing, and many of you have seen probably news articles about it being public that long for the is conducting stings. they are seeing a positive ways that technology can be used to go after this. so to debunk it, technology is really the key and it has been a game changer. what we've been able to do in to help support law enforcement efforts with that is to again use technology.

they often don't know who this person is that they might be meeting with. abaya think they are about to meet a 14 or a 15 year old boy or girl. the law enforcement officer may only have a phone number to go on at that point. they may reach out and ask for our assistance, and what are we going to again turn to? technology. to further develop that piece of information to try and develop some info on who that person might be in real life. i mentioned it earlier it's about following the breadcrumbs. a piece of information from this search of maybe some online social networking sites, a piece of information hear from her internal system, a piece of information from public records. and when you tie that altogether you are able to a much more comprehensive idea of who law enforcement will be interacting with that evening. >> so, julie because you're so wonderful i'm going to ask you two questions. the first is could you just talk a little bit about the

difference in using technology to go after demand for child porn versus demand for child sex? and then also part of what i'm excited in the work that you are getting started to do is around child welfare. if you could just talk a little bit about the work that is ahead of thorn and looking at this intersection between child welfare and child trafficking. ..

because it is more black-and-white the child sexual abuse content. when you work online you have to have indicators no keywords. with child abuse their are certain things that allow you to target and intercept people more clearly. when it comes to child trafficking and child victims it is masked in this perceived legal framework. so trying to find and communicate with people who are seeking children or even a participating in that and you want to educate them the realities of the sex trade and how children are

involved, it involved, it is more complex, and you have to have a deeper understanding of the language that is used and what online behaviors are. has taken a bit more care and time to understand, but i will also say i think with reducing demand and deterrence there is a cultural shift that has to happen. most people we will say buying sex from a child is wrong. i don't think everyone we will say buying sex is wrong. so we have to, as a country have an open dialogue and discussion about the fact that children are caught up in this and this person who presents as 19 is probably 15. that is where it is about a cultural shift and dialogue in the country about the

realities and some of these people are adults. we are talking about children and so i think john deterrence, you have to have more of an open dialogue in society about the realities of what is happening and to these children are and how it presents not on space bar you of what it actually is. that that also gets into what the messaging is online your message to someone who you encounter through a a demand effort is very different than the message you are giving to someone looking for child pornography. and so those are the differences. to your 2nd question about foster care and vulnerable youth at a much higher risk

so we are convening a group earlier this year of leaders in the technology community with leaders including malika in foster care and vulnerable children to talk about what the world could be in creating a stronger safety net for kids. they are again are ways where you can either educate people who are supporting these children and create a stronger network of people nationally that allow the stronger safety net. net. there are ways where you can provide technology tools to the kids themselves so that they have a way to reach out what is that way where when the kids are ready they can reach out and it can be

quick and direct? i also think, you know, when you here the statistics their are some counties that have done studies and 90% of the kids are coming out of foster care systems which is just shocking. so there has to be a role to create greater transparency connections. also, if you have data around these children like fun numbers or other digital information and you marry that with what is happening on escort pages it speaks to my original.of being much more strategic and much quicker at finding these children when they run and get into a vulnerable bad situation. so it is an area of exploration. many people have been doing a lot of work outside of technology for a while. while. we're trying to bring these two worlds together.

>> it is a needed conversation, and i know the child welfare community is excited that there is a conversation around technology. too many of our child welfare children have become our lost children. i children. i want to thank each of you for your tremendous work and for being part of this panel. >> believe this recorded event now to take you live to cedar falls, iowa with the pres. president is giving a speech about broadband access [applause] >> thank you. it is good to be back. a big round of applause for the introduction and the great work he is doing. i also want to thank the whole team here at cedar falls utilities for hosting us here today. a big round of applause. we have our commerce secretary here as well as

iowa congressman table sack and attorney general tom miller. and i was reminded by the president that we have to give a shout out to a top 25 basketball team. [applause] the president was lobbying me about putting them in my bracket. i said it is a little early. the 2nd half of the season. you know the panthers are putting together a heck of a season again. i think i think most folks find a few years ago you do not bet against uni. unfortunately my good friends are not giving me time to grab a beer i

understand the mayor said he brought a bud light for me. he is trying to sneak it around the secret service. obviously it is wonderful coming back to iowa even during the winter. these folks in washington cannot handle the cold. we know how to handle it in the midwest. here in iowa on a cold january caucus night we talked about change and said that it was time for us to move this country in a new direction. obviously a lot has changed. changed. i am much more gray for example. as a country we fought through the worst financial crisis and recession in our lifetimes. the american people showed a lot of resilience and resolve and there is no doubt about it thanks to

the steps that we took early to rescue the economy to rebuild it on a new foundation, america is coming back. last year was the strongest year for job growth since the 1990s. unemployment -- [applause] unemployment fell in 2014 faster in any year since 1984. businesses have created more than 11 million jobs in the last 58 months, 58 months the longest stretch of job growth in american history. since 2010 americans put more people back to work than europe, japan, and every and every other advanced economy combined. and -- [applause] you know -- [applause] a lot of folks talk about some of the jobs are being created in the service sector not paying as much.

the truth is, american manufacturing is in its best stretch of job growth since the 1990s. manufacturing is growing faster than the rest of the economy. meanwhile, america is now the number one producer of oil and gas in the world. [applause] and by the way way, you are saving about a dollar $0.20 a gallon at the pump over this time last year. so these past six years we are trying. it has demand a lot of hard work and sacrifice but as a country, we have a right to be proud about what we have to show for it. the american resurgence is real and we are better positioned to succeed. on on tuesday i will deliver my state of the union address and i will focus on how we can build on the

progress we have made and help more americans feel that resurgence in their daily lives higher incomes and rising wages and growing middle class. since i only have two years in office (i am kind of in a rush. i have been traveling across the country plans to make more students be able to attend community college, plans to make more workers find good jobs in high tech manufacturing and in the 21st century, in this age of innovation and technology so much of the prosperity that we are striving for, so many of the jobs we want to create depend upon a digital economy our ability to connect and shop and do business and discover and learn online in cyberspace.

this week i have been laying out new proposals on how we can keep seizing his opportunities these opportunities while at the same time protecting security and privacy and prosperity and values. on monday i announced new steps to protect american consumers from identity theft. yesterday i spoke at the department of homeland security about how we can work with the private sector to better defend american companies against cyber attacks. today i am in cedar falls to talk about how we can get faster cheaper broadband. and i am not telling you anything you do not already no. today today high-speed broadband is not a luxury but a necessity. this is not just about making it easier to stream netflix to scroll through

your facebook news feed, although that is fun. it is frustrating if you are waiting for a long time before it finally comes up. this is about helping local businesses grow and prosper and compete in a global economy getting the entrepreneur the small business person on main street a a chance to compete with the folks out in silicon valley or across the globe about helping a a student access employment opportunities that can help her pursue her dreams. that is why through the recovery act when i 1st came into office and we were trying to make sure we prevented the great depression we built or improved more than 113 miles of network infrastructure and up to circle globe more

than four times. we offer tax credits to help spur businesses. we hooked up tens of thousands of schools and libraries and medical facilities and community organizations and then launched something we call connect and which trains teachers and spurs private sector innovation and disconnecting 99 percent of american students to high-speed internet. but -- and this is why i i am here we still have a lot of work to do. 98% of americans have access to the most basic levels of broadband which is a good thing but that does not look quite as good when you look at the speed that we need for the apps and video and data and new software that is constantly coming on the market. we have to keep pace and be

up to speed. right now about 4,545,000,000 americans cannot purchase next generation broadband and those -- that creates connections that are six or seven times faster than today's basic feeds. only about half of rural americans can log on. if folks do have good and fast internet chances are they only have one provider to pick from. today tens of millions of americans have only one choice for the next generation of broadband. we're pretty much at the whim of whatever internet provider is around. when there is no competition you are stuck on hold waiting and waiting and waiting. meanwhile you're wondering why

hong kong, tokyo, paris, cedar falls. [laughter] right to back. [applause] that is the company you are keeping. you are almost 100 times

faster than the national average. one hundred times faster. [applause] and you can log on for about the same price as some folks paid for a fully loaded cable bundle. some businesses serving clients worldwide. google named you the best city in iowa for e-commerce. you do you do not have to be the biggest community to do big things. you have to work together and we are seeing that elevation and energy and foresight in communities across the country. in lafayette, louisiana companies are bringing jobs to the city. the people of yuma county colorado voted

overwhelmingly in favor of a community broadband network. this is not a partisan issue folks just want to no that they are at the cutting edge of this new economy. folks around the nation want these broadband networks. they promote efficiency and competition. here in cedar falls, if you do not want the highest speed package you can choose between the utilities for options like media,. it is not like you do not have choices. that is how free market and capitalism is supposed to work.

here is the catch. and too many places across america big companies are doing everything they can. we have laws on the books that stamp out competition and make it difficult for communities to provide there own broadband the way that you do. in some states it is virtually impossible. today i am saying, we have have got to change that. enough is enough. [applause] not long ago i made my position clear on what is called that neutrality. today i am making my administrations position clear on community broadband i am on the side of competition and small business owners like mark.

i believe a community has the right to make its own choices. no one will force you but if you want to, to, if the community decides that this is something that we want to do they should be able to do it. if there are laws in place that prohibit or restrict these efforts all of us should do everything we can to push back. i believe that is what stands out about america this belief that more competition means better products and cheaper prices. it is just common sense. that is why why leaders from 50 cities and towns across

the country have pledged to bring next-generation broadband to their cities and towns and i am announcing additional efforts to encourage communities to follow your lead. slow the expansion of broadband limit competition. the department of commerce is here and will work to offer support and technical assistance to communities that want to follow your lead. usda the department of agriculture. this summer i will host mayors from across the country to chart the next steps we need to take. that that is what we we will be doing. [applause]

the good news is, we no that it works because of you. you took a chance and made something happen. you are supporting the jobs of the future. i want to leave you with a story of another community that has done this as well chattanooga tennessee was once called the dirtiest city in the nation. they were hit harder than most places, but that did not stop them from building america's 1st citywide high-speed fiber network. just as fast as what you have in cedar falls. a new generation has moved down to chattanooga

businesses have set up shop. it is unleashing a tornado of innovation. the city is testing out innovation. it is like being the 1st city to have fire. [laughter] we don't no all of the things that we can do with it yet but think about that. that. when you are 1st and something you may not no all of the applications right away but that is the spirit of america, imagining what might come next. we may not always know what is around the corner, but we no that we we will figure it out as long as we are bold and work together. we have been through hard times.

we did not always know that they were coming. we pulled together relied on each other and figured it out. we are blessed with the greatest natural resource in the world, not corn. [laughter] but the ingenuity and the willingness to take risks of the american people. i am confident if we give americans the tools that they need, help lay the foundation and allow them to access the amazing opportunities and technologies of this moment in world history they are not going to continue recovering from a battery a battery session but ignite the next generation of american innovation, and it we will start right here in kaywun. thank you. god bless god bless you. god bless america.

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>> pres. obama wrapping up his visit to cedar falls, iowa. earlier today the house passed legislation to fund the homeland security department including several immigration amendments including one that removes protections for immigrants brought illegally into the uss children. here is here is part of the amendment debate between congressman. >> i just want to go back one moment so that we can be very clear about this because i think we need to understand the difference between the rhetoric of today and the rhetoric of one year ago.

one of the greatest founding principles of our country was that children would not be punished for the mistakes of their parents. i did not write this. no one on our side of the aisle wrote this. i wish i would have. i'm sure we would have been proud to have been co-authors are cosponsors of the statement. what happened? what happened? you just gave up the principal? it does not mean anything anymore? you think children should be held responsible for the actions of their parents? that is precisely what you are saying today. 600,000 yen people came forward and did exactly this it gets better because you said and we were so happy because without we were moving forward without the republican party was finally turning a page. it is it is time to provide an opportunity for legal

residence and citizenship for those who come to this country as children. what happened? i want one of you to deny this is not one of the principles you took and your conference last year. it is what you took. one year later. what happened. you always say the same thing the church is at the last 2nd. what excuse do you have today? you thought this out. let me tell you about one number, the other 600,000 the number it takes to elect the president of the united states.

>> the gentleman's time has expired. the chair asks they direct their remarks to the chair. the gentle lady from tennessee is recognized. >> how much time is remaining on each side? >> two minutes for the gentle lady, and the time has expired. >> thank you, madam chairman let's talk about a couple of these things. the democrats like to say mdm. say, madam chairman, that this is radical. let me ask you a question let me ask my colleagues in question. is it radical to support the rule of law radical to some 25 radical to fight for american workers are going to lose their jobs to illegal aliens? is it radical to prioritize, to prioritize, to prioritize legal immigrants who are coming to this country radical to try to protect children that are in this program the year the office of refugee resettlement.

democrats are saying that republicans are playing politics with national security. let security. let me ask you another question, why were they saying nothing this summer when the southern border was being overrun and all sorts of trafficking human trafficking, sex trafficking weapons trafficking, drug trafficking? here are the facts. daca became effective. released 53,000 53,000 unaccompanied children in the us. it is a magnet. 75% of americans reject the obama amnesty. amnesty. 80 percent do not want foreign workers taking jobs from american workers. those are the facts madam chairman. to my colleagues, those of

other reasons we are here. we either a nation of laws or we are lawless. unfortunately this has taken democrats from the party of, yes, we can to acting like the party of because we can. >> that debate from earlier today on the house floor. the the chamber went on to pass that amendment and for others. the bill now heads to the senate, but president obama has already threatened to veto the measure. right now on our facebook page we're asking you what you think about the republican majority using the two authority.

dozens of waiting with their thoughts including bill says come here legally and obey our laws. i forgot you think obama is king. phil feels differently. republicans continue to find ways to waste money and time trying to make pres. obama look bad. we would would like to here from you to. post your thoughts and join the conversation. coming up later today:

>> andorder. statement from secretary. >> thank you mr. speaker. with permission i would like to make a statement about the terrorist attacks in paris at the threats we face in terrorism and the united kingdom. it will take some time for us to learn the full details of the attacks last week but the basic

facts are now clear. 17 innocent people were murdered in cold blood and a number of others were injured. the terrorists who attacked the jewish supermarket claimed his actions were carried out in the name of isil. report suggests the brothers who attacked the office of charlie hebdo were associated with al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula in yemen. the same al-qaeda affiliate that is been in contact with the men who murdered rigby in 2013. as the appalling events in paris run a story unfolding of this house with of this house with the bank the government's counterterrorism and security built at the threat level in the united kingdom. which is set by the independent joint terrorism analysis center and remains at severe. this means a terrorist attack in

our country is highly likely and could occur without warning. three serious terrorist plots been disrupted in recent months alone. nearly 600 people from this country have traveled to syria and iraq to fight. around half of them have returned. there are thousands of people from across europe who have done the same. as i said during the passage of the counterterrorism bill and on many repeated occasions, the government will do everything it can to keep the public safe. as soon as the attacks in france took place, the government increased security at the uk border. office from a tour de force, the police and other organizations intensify checks on passengers, vehicles and goods entering the uk. we offer the french government all assistance in this area, including the focal operation of our police and security and intelligence agencies. on sunday before i attended the piece rally in paris i held

talks with my counter talks in europe, the united states and canada to discuss what action we can take together. it was from support from all the countries present for new action to share intelligence, track the movement of terrorists, defeat the ideology that lies behind the threat. it is important between -- we now deliver on those talks and my officials, the security minister and i will keep up the pace, in particular when it comes to passenger name record with other european member states. on monday, the prime minister, defence secretary and i held a security meeting with senior official to reduce the terrorist attacks and the risks to the uk of a similar attack. of course, we have long had detailed plans for duty with these kinds of attacks. the house will recall the attacks in mumbai in 2008 we terrorist armed with assault weapons and explosives took the lives of more than 150 people. since 2010 and learning the

lessons of that attack, we have improved our capability and the speed of a military response. we have enhanced protected securities where possible through a range of other measures. we have improved joint working between emergency services to give specifically with the gun attacks. specialist joined police and fire teams are now in place in key teams across england with equivalents in scotland and wales. they trained and equipped they are trained and equipped to manage casualties in the event of this kind of an attack. the police and other agencies carry out exercises to test the response to a terrorist attack, and these exercises include scenarios that are similar to events in paris. we will ensure future exercises reflect specific elements of the pairs attack so we can learn from them and be ready for them should ever occur in the united kingdom. in addition i should tell the house that the police can call on appropriate military systems

when required across the country. the attacks in paris were enabled by the availability of assault weapons. although there's obviously a number of illegal weapons in the uk, we have some of the toughest gun laws in the world and as a result, only make up a small proportion of those crimes. the types of firearms used in the attacks in paris are not unknown in the uk but they are extremely uncommon. however as the prime minister has said can we must step up our efforts with other countries to crack down on the illegal smuggling of weapons across borders. in particular the member states of the european union need to work together to put beyond use the vast number of weapons in the countries of the former yugoslavia and disrupt the supply of weapons from other parts of the world especially north africa. mr. speaker, the measures were taken following events in pairs or in addition to the substantial work the government has undertaken and continues to

undertake to counter the threat from terrorism. last summer parliament approved emergency legislation to prevent a sudden and rapid loss of access to communications data and the ability to intercept communications where it is necessary and appropriate to do so. and parliament is of course scrutinizing the proposal in the counterterrorism and security built as we speak. this important legislation will strengthen our powers to disrupt the ability of people to travel abroad to fight and control their ability to return here. it will also in the house -- answer the to do with those in the uk who pose a risk to a particular will announce the relocation of people subject to investigation measures to other parts of the country. in addition the prime minister has announced 130 million pounds over the next two years for the agency's police and others in addition to the more than half a billion pounds spent on counter terrorism casing of the year. and, of course, this government has done more to confront the

ideology that lies behind the threats we face. i have excluded more hate speech of any home secretary before me. we deported -- we've reform to prevent the studies that tackles nonviolent extremism as well as violent extremism, and we've invested more time, resources and money in counter narrative operations. mr. speaker we've always been clear that the police and security agencies must have the capabilities and powers they need to do their job and following the attacks in paris the prime minister has reiterated that commitment. unfortunately, it comes to communications data and intercepted communication, there's no cross party consensus and, therefore, no parliamentary majority to pass the legislation to give the piece and security agencies the security they need. but let me be clear every day that passes without the bozos and the committee patient data bill, the capabilities of the people who keep us safe

diminishes. >> here, here. >> and as those capabilities diminish, more people find themselves in danger, and yes crimes will go unpunished and innocent lives will be put at risk. this is not as i've heard it said letting the government snoop on your e-mail. it is allowing the police and the security services under a tightly regulated and controlled regime to find out the who, where, when and how to mitigation but not its content so they can prove and disprove alibis, identified associations between suspects and i suspects and victims to specific locations. it is too soon to say for certain but it is highly probable the communications data was used in the pairs attack to locate the suspects and established the link between the two attacks. quite simply, mr. speaker if you want the police and this the police and the secret service to

protect the public and save lives, they need this capability. >> here, here. >> last weekend people of all nationalities faiths and backgrounds came out onto the streets of france and other countries, to demonstrate their opposition to terror and to stand for democracy and for freedom. we must stand in solidarity with them, do all that we can to confront extremism and terrorism in all its forms. >> yvette cooper. >> here, here. >> thank you, mr. speaker. the attacks last week in paris demonstrated the savagery with which terrorists seek to divide us. the murders and tolerant bigotry that they pursue him to spread fear and also to sow division that they believe exists, us against them. perez has not let the terrorists win, and we ought not do so either. the french police have been praised for the action that they

took. charlie hebdo is being published today. faiths have united a boring the anti-semitism and grieving for the victims of the attack on the supermarket. muslims across the world have condemned the attack which is not islamic and does not in the name of their religion. and the brother of the french muslim police officer has said, my brother was killed i people who pretend to be muslims. they are terrorists that's it. the prime minister and the leader of the opposition rightly attended the unity rally in paris, along with the prime minister, and i joined people saturday. in the attack the terrorist targeted other peaceful religions but they targeted those whose job it is to keep us safe. in other words, they targeted both liberty and security. and the response of the democratic governments everywhere to these sorts of attacks must be to defend about.

governments need to keep our people safe so the we can enjoy the very freedom that our democracy depends on. let me return to the specific issue in the home secretary's statement but i am concerned about the way the home secretary's made a statement today as i did not see the statement before coming into the house, and i hope that she can set out what the reasons were what has changed in the home office position this morning that meant that the statement was a changeup such late notice but i welcome the action taken by the intelligence agencies and police to support their counterparts in paris, and i think the whole house will want to pay tribute to the work of our security and intelligence services, at the counter terror police could do so much to keep us safe. it is important that they have the resources they need, and i welcome the resources the home secretary referred to today. as she said about government counterterror bill going through part of the ripeness which was supported and continue to

support, and which includes restoring the relocation powers, terror suspects that she abolished four years ago as we called for to be reinstated. she will know that the agencies have appointed to the threat in this country the ongoing threat posed by the estimated 300 people returning from the conflict in syria. could she tell us whether any of those estimated 300 have been prosecuted? could she also confirmed that none of them are curly subject is to either these powers are supposed to be pretentious suspects? activity need to be restricted to keep us safe. can she tell us whether the security service and police are now reviewing all of those cases to see whether it could help them a special with relocation powers restored or whether there was anything further that needs to change to those powers which are different from the previous control orders? could she also tell us how money of the estimated 300 have

engaged with the channel program, and does she agree that we should not make that compulsory for those returning which is something that counterterror bill does not yet do? on the issue of access to dangerous weapons to also know there's concern about reduced custom and border checks, what action is she taking to increase border checks for dangerous weapons? mr. speaker, the home sector also raises the issue about communications data. technology is changing all the time and that means the law needs to step up both in terms of capability of the agencies to get to the final intelligence we need and in terms of the oversight that we need. in july legislation and should be agencies and police could maintaining vital capabilities. and this month they supported axing those powers to ensure that ip addresses are covered in same as telephone numbers. and in july all parties agreed to support the review i david anderson from the independent reviewer of terrorists into both

the powers and the oversight needed to keep up with changing technology. the home secretary referred to the previous communications data built. that was rejected three years ago by the joint committee that was established by the government to scrutinize it because they said then that it was too vague, too widely drawn and put too much power directly in the hands of the home secretary. they recommended that new legislation needed be drawn up in a far more limited way and that the government should provide more evidence and clarity about what they wanted to achieve. since abandoned the home secretary has not come forward any revised proposal but she has not come forward to meet to discuss them or put forward are postals to parliament. parliament. even though we have said would happen to discuss details with her. given the urgency she says there now is can i ask her why she did that come forward with revised proposals after the conclusion of the joint

committee three years ago? in july she was happy to agree to the review by david anderson which is due to report for the election. today she has not mentioned that review. hashing out and started that statutory review or will she be waiting for its conclusion? this is an extremely important issue, and the details matter. the details about the powers that for our intelligence agencies need, but also the details about the safeguards and oversight that are needed as well. we agreed that the police and agencies do need to get the intelligence to keep us safe and lead updated legislation, and we also need safeguards and strong oversight to make sure the powers are effectively and appropriately used. but i would strongly caution the home secretary and the liberal democrats against setting up a caricatured argument between them about security on the one hand and a liberty on the other.

because we need to protect both in our democracy and we need a responsible debate on getting the details right. the terrorists on that first they targeted both -- police officers. charlie hebdo editor have police protection to protect his freedom of speech, that shows strongly between our security and our liberty in any democracy. mr. speaker, we know the most important thing to keep us safe in any democracy is making sure we have a cohesive community that prevent hatred is pretty good with supported extending prevent onto a statutory footing but i hope the home secretary will also now listen to the consent we have raised over some years, but more needs to be done to community led programs to tackle the hatred, to challenge the spread of extremism including through social media as well as in local communities and organizations. i hope she will work with local

government to that effect. and can also ask her if she's working with the committee safety trust on tackling anti-semitism? we need to tackle all forms of extremism. terrorists try to silence us to cower, and to divide us. harris has shown as millions marched as we stood in solidarity with them that we will not be silenced but we will not give into fear and we will not give into division as we defend our democracy. because although some were targeted in paris, we know this is about all of us. french[speaking french] >> may i apologize to the shadow home secretary for her late statement, and i apologized to her privately before came into the gym and i'm happy to redirect that apology on the floor of the house. can also joined her in being treated to our counterterrorist

lease entity all our police but also our security and intelligence agencies. i think we cannot say it often enough that these are people who are working day and night to keep us safe and to protect us. and many of them unseen and unknown, and for obvious reasons that are part of our security and intelligence agencies but we are grateful to them for the work that they do and they think we should assess a public -- a public recognition of the important role that they play. she asked me a number of questions covering a number of issues in this area. can i tell her that in relation to review, there is no suggestion so but because the review was not mentioned in my statement that we have anyway sidetracked that review. david anderson is doing his work. he's undertaking as far as i'm were a number of discussions with relevant parties about the issues that he's looking at. alongside our own parliamentary intelligence security committee is conducting its work in looking at the questions of

privacy and civil liberties, and security. and these key reviews i think will come forward in a time that will enable this has to be take account of those reviews when it does the job which will be necessary for it to do which is at least looking at the legislation which has a clause for 2016 but wanted to take accountable the aspects of come forward in those two reviews. in relation, of course government does publish on a corner basis the number of people who are under keep in and the question as to whether somebody should be put on that list is a matter for security service to initiate a request. i look at the request and if i agree that request there is then a judicial, a court process which has gone through in order to ensure that decision is reasonable. and as that this is a matter for security service to come forward with a proposal on the. the right i believe asked of making channels in the lead of

the opposition also raised it in prime minister's question. we do believe channel does the does do important work and prevent does work with community groups. but i'm relation to china, i think that is the as to whether an individual should be put into a channel program is one that should be taken on a case-by-case basis. we are clear and have been in the discussions on the security built in relation to the exclusion order way would be possible to ensure that people returning from syria are returning on our terms what that is about to be appropriate. but it may be that actions may be thought in relation to those individuals in the uk but that does did on a case by case basis as to what is appropriate for the particular individual concerned. in relation to the question of firearms i think there is an issue for us working with others and european union to look at the threat of firearms across the european union just the

european union. with some of the toughest gun laws in the united kingdom but we have already seen major exercise is being undertaken by the national crime agency primarily in looking at the question of the of firearms in the uk and that has started before we saw these terrible attacks take place in paris. on the communications director bill, there is a difference of opinion among policies in this house as to what powers should be taken by government. we did in fact respond to the proposals from the joint committee and we did in fact provide revised proposal in relation to those measures. i am clear the transfer is clear that this is an issue that does need to be returned to come and it is important i believe that we have the right powers that are available to be able to do with these issues. and, finally, she asked me if we speak to the cft. of course, we do speak with the cft on a regular basis and i had a number of meetings with them but also of course the

police had meetings with them, discuss with them the whole question of the protected security that is available and protected the security had been stepped up once, when the threat level was raised which has been stepped up further. >> as the been a various press reports that the director general of mi5 in his speech on the eighth of january called for new powers of surveillance for the agencies, will be home secretary confirmed that that is not, in fact, the case? that in a speech which the home secretary and as well as i attendedn personthe main concern expressed by t .. communicate are making it harder for the agencies to maintain the capability to intercept the communications of terror. is that not indeed the prime requirement at the present time to ensure that the agencies are continuing to be able to exercise the capability that

they have enjoyed for a number of years but which because of new technology is increasingly being denied to them? >> my ride of a friend is absolutely correct in his description of what the director general of mi5 said in that speech but i think it is unfortunate that very often people mix up some of these aspects of communication data and sometimes people believe that what the government is trying to do in the communications bill was to expand the powers of the agencies. this is not the case. and, indeed as the director general of mi5 said come in the ability of access communication base is quite vital to our ability to protect national security, and unless we make it is capable of our ability to protect the country will be eroded. in maintaining that capability that was what the communication data bill was about and that's why we and others as evidenced by the quote think it is so important to do so. >> thank you, mr.

>> >> there has been a revolution in communications over 60 years as i introduce the proposal for the investigation in 2000. with the argument the legislation data has to be revised. would the madam secretary agree with me there is a serious debate about the extent of the powers is not helped by the policy from a charter? to handle so with the distance between the two main parties is very narrow on this issue. to have a collaboration that

the secretary is speaking for. so we can answer -- to ensure the police have the capabilities today and tomorrow that they had in the past under legislation by this house. >> the gentleman is of some of the right with the debates on this issue. the facts have them properly presented and the arguments properly presented. said they the terminology has been used to of the data bill to me us new passage people running which are not accurate that does not reflect what is being proposed. so it is important to look at this matter calmly and carefully to consider the powers that the agencies need to maintain which

otherwise as they degrade make it harder to keep us safe. >> mr. speaker there was a proposal for no on-line communications that could not be intercepted the city's huge implications for banking our online shopping touche jeopardize relationships is that with the home secretary wants to do? the show wanted joined with the iran or belarus. >> i have to say to my friend that we're determined there should be no safe places for terrorist to communicate. i would have thought that should be a of a principle of you or the upper five minister that reiterated. what have helped when daschle to with the panel principal told by everybody in the house of commons.

as far as i am concerned the manifesto will make it clear to introduce legislation immediately and use all legal powers available to make sure where appropriate the peace and security of the intelligence agency have a maximum ability while ensuring the intrusive techniques are properly overseen. >> of course, of security services must have the tools for the job but to speak up for stand-up and where necessary a confront islamophobia and confront racism and racist groups and they're derivatives that spread the poison also the prejudices' that are far too many representatives.

>> the gentleman is absolutely right we need to stand up to send the clear message from everybody in the house we stand for freedom, freedom of the press, democracy and oppose the views that lead to that sort of behavior that we saw in paris and to recognize in this country that we have seen a number of terrorist attacks over the years and the most recent of course, 2013 resawed -- free saw the murder also love muhammed and the mosques in the west midlands that was by far right extremists. we are against terrorism and extremism in all its forms. >> one good day has is the affection of the hour british people for friends

and between the two parliaments, i would like to extend a fraternal greetings and support for our french colleagues to say that now our two nations stand shoulder to shoulder against tyranny. >> we agree with the of commons my honorable friend has made a. we do stand against terror and for freedom and for democracy. in i have to say it was a very moving experience to be part of the march that took place in paris on sunday to see so many people i think 4 million and 2 million in paris itself but the reaction of the people along side the march was expressing constantly for all those standing for freedom of the press but also freedom of our

democracy. >> we did want to join in the sector in culmination of those terrorist attacks that also goes to work so hard to keep our society safe. the secretary in her statement went into detail about the incorporation of european partners. she did not have the opportunity to update the house on the cooperation of other jurisdictions with the united kingdom that is so important for all of us to speak to that just since last week pitchy update the house and how you keep government plans and the administration? >> the official level taking place at the bell pepper paribas of the attack -- of

the preparedness of the attack. and in particular with the scottish government last year imperforate -- preparation and some joint work and i have to say that cooperation between scotland and in new england wailes is good with a long range of matters that will take place it is very important and we will continue to talk. >> is the secretary aware when the profit muhamed moved from mecca to medina to establish the first islamic state he did not set up the sectarian counter state that is set up now but rather he had them multi phase a society where jews and christians would worship

to reclaim their faith. >> i am grateful to my friend to point that out. and bring that back to the house but it is clear, the attacks are not about islam. the voices we have heard from the united kingdom and france and across the world are very clear that these attacks were not undertaken in their name. >> the home secretary are you satisfied with the fire and rescue service to any of wages that may occur with the closure of fire stations including that is an area

with major hospitals, a major railway stations in major tourist attractions that very well could be the targets of terrorism. >> a great deal of work has been undertaken to lookit emergency services in the event a terrorist attack should take place. work has been done in to bring together specialists teams fire and police across scotland and wales and wilson introduced the joint emergency services interoperable of the program that is about insuring all the emergency services will work together in these circumstances and we will continue to update and revise where necessary the protocols the way they are conducted to ensure emergency services are able to do the job that we all

want them to. >> i sat on the communications data a joint committee three days ago that lasted six months and it was abundantly clear through resources that this communication stated is crucial and it will save lives for those who threaten suicide or children at risk or other types of incidents for those including terrorist. when the police commissioner said it will save lives. >> but cut to the chase. i want to accommodate everybody. short question and answer.

>> the labor party has not made it clear that they would support communications >> i am grateful to my honorable friend who pointed out the significant number of people they are aware with the necessity and as indicated would hope everybody in this house would understand and appreciate that there are no safe spaces for the terrorists to communicate. >> in the case of the bombings or the brutal murder but from being in paris last week with

investigations that were undertaken. will the secretary give a commitment with the security service of how we could get smarter but those to appear on the periphery of previous investigations. >> the gentleman is correct. it is the matter of which already had discussions with security there is a number of issues of those groups

also links between potential terrorist than a criminal activities. >> those with that capability to keep pace the changes of technology but can also invite the home secretary to use this as a case study for what the jury is the finishes up does the terrorist and how low do we get inside the process? >> looking at the works that we do to prevent people from terrorist activity but we

look at the factors when someone does become a terrorist gore is radicalized. of course, these are issues that are already looked at and take it or we can learn lessons to identify for the individuals to better insure that they're able to prevent that radicalization. but i also say this will be complex with many factors involved there will vary from individual to individual. >> from the security gaps with police forces across europe to try to track down on-line terrorist, and terrorism has international boundaries are you confident about the structures in existence are sharing of information across europe for the lentic?

and what action is taken by the internet companies? like the internet watch foundation to deal specifically with counterterrorism. >> the question of sharing intelligence or inflammation between countries or across europe is what we discussed at the meeting that was held and convene tight by the french interior minister on sunday. people have looked to europe and we did that but also to make sure to get maximum benefit from the sharing of information and that takes place so we can have the maximum possible ability to insure that they do not take

place some of mecca i.m. keen it to accommodate so what i am looking for now is people who alaska's short question and without a preamble. >> with the iraq war would there agree that the outrage key not against those to take away? ltd. is entirely right to look at a very careful a and i say that is precisely what the prime minister has done with the comments we have made. >> i am sure they're pleased to hear murdoch said over

the weekend all muslims were to blame but those so-called terrorist experts insulting ever were else. >> i agree with the young lady that lead to reiterate the message it is not about is long is a perversion of islam to be in this country and other countries around the old world to condemn the acts of terrorism they are being heard in increasing number and sending a very clear message. to also say that freedom of the press means freedom of the press. >> with the extremism to be

assimilated into society bear in mind to support english to be part of the british citizenship. and in particular i believe that if emancipated could pacify young man who maybe tended to have extremist behavior seen some of graphically in paris last week. >> of course, the government has increased the requirement for english capabilities for those coming into the united kingdom. mentioning the role of women i share a few it is important and i can commend those who have spoken about this issue and i attended

last year and is operational even to and the #touche take a stand for rolla of the country that they wish to take a stand those trying to radicalize within the community. >> will you join me to reject the new imperialism we scheerer which seeks to condemn the killings but excused the actions by blaming ourselves that somehow there i unnecessarily provocative? that we cannot continue to engage in terrorism of their responsibilities and must agree that the responsibility for these actions lies squarely with those who kill innocent people. >> the only ones responsible for the terrorists

themselves they're criminals and we should never let anybody forget that. >> can i welcome this statement that i welcome her words cannot the extreme ideology but to be mindful of places of worship to not be marginalized and then with the extremism but with the ideology. >> i share with my honorable friend a concerned where are

they? >> the gentleman for the comments you have just made it is important to make that very clear message about terrorism and none of us support terrorism we did at the time indicates where we are making changes and that is all of the cummins the

joint committee made. >> it is syria with the safety and security and we need to promote integration over the division of multi-cultural is of. and it is important that our borders are properly strengthen. >> my friend is right with the immediate response to the attack to take appropriate steps to increase the security to intensify the checks taking place to maintain that a program level of security at our borders here in the u.k. and elsewhere. it is also important that we

recognize there are people love a variety of faith and in the face but what is important we all except and tolerate people of different faith and recognize those who have different beliefs if we disagree then that is another discussion fit the freedom to worship in the way that they wish and to follow they want to follow. >> not just an attack on france but peace and freedom and islam. with a clash of civilizations of fight between right and wrong and humanity and to cool off urge caution is you cannot

defeat extremas some the for a true muslim who lost his old life protecting the freedom of the publication and his tragic story the freedom is the right to be wrong to but never the right to do wrong. >> as the secretary pointed out in response says day brother of a policeman who was murdered that is a dignified response that we can all recognize and support this important the people that carry out these attacks are criminals and terrorists not doing it in the name of any religion and we should be very clear about the message that we give.

>> is a secretary concerned she will be inspired by the patriotism such as the head of t. levin and avoid any consultation with the deputy prime minister who put it over national security? >> it is no surprise to anybody in the house the prime minister and i have a different opinion of the communication stager issues soared data. i believe it is important to maintain those capabilities and i reiterate that is not the of the chancellor. >> but what we saw in paris last week in the long run that will make us safe is to

be able to reach out in this country and to suggest education it did not become a fishing grounds for hatred >> the reasons why people have become radicalized with various and complex that we try to understand those we are looking at the issues that matter and for everybody around the country their issues like availability of jobs, the education, public services and those that we consider for a rickety -- everybody.

>> with the host the longest-running in the english-language in the magna carter of the peabody commemorating does the secretary agreed that the survival of recent events demonstrate set properly defended can be of sorts? rebecca i am honored to befriend with of links he has with the document is right we celebrate the anniversary of that document this year and we can recognize the importance of the words in that document that it has survived over the centuries is indeed a testament to the fact but also the response to the attacks and murders of those cartoonist and journalist at