and it was our decision and our conclusion that we as people cannot afford to forget that metal work. there needs to be justice for victims. there needs to be justice for society. and the need to be a just way that people can pay their debts to society and we integrate into the civil society once they have paid those debts. ..

there are group van jones are involved with are somewhere else and then there in the middle is the constitution project which tries to bring these groups together and this panel today really represents a cross spectrum view of this problem and, i will introduce the panel members as we go on but i have to say from the beginning, our representative from koch, represents a group that has been in interested in criminal justice reform from the beginning, families against mandatory minimums was really started with the assistance and support of the koch foundation and we appreciate that. we appreciate all else that i have done. i can say the same if we had some of our very liberal benefactors here because this is something that has attracted support way different parts of

the spectrum. we've got a number about of folks dropping in. so we'll handle this sort of casually. and congressman danny davis is here. i would like him to say a couple word. congressman davis is from illinois. he has served in the congress since the '90s and he has one taken an interest in these issues before others paid much attention to them. congressman? [applause] >> thank you very much. let me say officers first of all how delighted i am to see so many of us here and how delighted i am to see the diversity of experts and individuals and organizations that are involved. all of us are practically aware of the fact that mass incarceration is one of the big

issues that face our nation. that we are the most incarcerated nation on the face of the earth. whether you're talking about proportion of the population or whether you're talking about actual numbers. even countries whose populations are minor compared to ours and of course populations that are major compared. i got interested in the reentry question because i think it is one of the most challenging issues that we face today. fortunately we're able to put together a group who passed something called the second chance act. and it involved democrats of the

house, members senate research groups, university groups, every kind of individual and group we could coalesce. after several years of discussion we managed to pass legislation knowing two or three things concretely. one that 700,000 people come home from prison each year. those that get no help, that are likely 2/3 of them are like to do what we call reoffend. that is to do something that could get them back to where they came from. the level and quality of the help that they get will reduce their reincarceration tremendously. the higher the quality, the greater of reduction.

the more opportunities that they get, the more help. monies have been appropriated, never enough but we have actually had appropriations each year. there are about 600 agencies, groups organizations, who right now are and have received appropriation from the federal government to work on the issues. that's pretty significant. because they have also generated thousands of other entities, who didn't receive money. some of the stalwarts are on this panel who have been pushing it. i always like to mention senator rob portman who was one of the original original promoters of the concept and the idea.

there are others who joined in. there are others who have become a part but i'm just so excited so many of you view this as an issue we need to keep working on. i always say that we've only scratched the surface. we can never believe once we get to the basement that we're in the penthouse. we have much further to go. it is nice to know this forum has taken place today and we expect great things to happen. on the other hand diversity of the interest gives me real heart that things are going to happen and i thank all of you for being here. so thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, congressman. as a midwesterner, i have to note that congressman davis from

illinois mentioned now senator portman from ohio and congressman sensenbrenner is here as well. congressman steps send brenner is from wisconsin as am i, and i think i've known him since he was in high school. and in the years that he served in congress on the judiciary committee and elsewhere he has been both tough on crime and the sensitive to the need to improve and reform the criminal justice system. he is very sense testify and is working today in the area of the intersection of mental health and crime. a few, a few months ago someone observed in every single state in this country, there are more people who have been determined to be potentially dangerously mentally ill in our jails and prisons than in all of the private and public mental health facilities in those states. it is a real problem on inside and outside and congressman

sensenbrenner is working on that and to throw in a side issue i noted today he has legislation on civil asset forfeiture which is a problem that one of my old heroes henry hyde, also a midwesterner, the late henry hyde fought to correct for many years when he was in congress. so, jim. [applause] >> thank you very much, david for that very kind and generous introduction. yes, you have known me since i was in high school. at that time my hair was black. there was, years that have gone by since there have been less here and more there. i guess that the way it is going to be with all of us, but you're younger than i am and you never diddies close to this group where you were when we first

met. i will leave it at that. don't want tmi here. i'm the former chairman of the house judiciary committee. during my chairmanship the first second chance act was passed. we'll have to reauthorize it. we tried in the last congress and didn't make it across the goal line but that's one of the things we'll try again. in the last congress judiciary chairman good late of begin -- goodlatte of virginia create ad task force on overcriminal sakes and made me chair of it. overcriminalization is a affront to personal liberty and expensive and inefficient way to deal with a lot of problems much. there are an estimated 4500 federal crimes on the books and congress is adding about 500 new crimes in each of the past three decades and still many more regulations and rules state that if not abided by can result in

criminal penalties including incarceration. the united states now houses about 25% of the world's prisoners despite representing about 5% of the world's total population. of overcrowded prisons are a costly burden to taxpayers. federal prisons cost taxpayers $7 billion a year and states now spend more than $50 billion a year up from about 9 billion in 1985, which was only 30 years ago. it is the second fastest growing area in state budgets trailing only medicaid. there are smarter and more effective ways to deal with criminals. and, i am about ready to introduce a series of bills that will address overcriminallization. i don't expect any of my colleagues to vote for all of them.

i also don't expect any of my colleagues to vote against all of them. but i think the best way we can get some legislation and hope fullly a lot of legislation passed is to split it up and have different coalitions coalesce around different proposals. first, congress should begin by going through the entire body of federal criminal law, starting with all of the statutes that carry jail time, operating under the presumption that every statute should be eliminated unless it can be justified as a essential. we need to focus on reducing recidivism among federal offenders, reserving prison space for violent and career criminals that insuring government transparency and accountability. we should look at establishing earned credits for supervised offenders. then incentivizing inmate

participation in programs or drug treatment by allowing them to get additional time off their sentence. we need inexpensive evidence based program to and limit what prior drug felonies that can trigger double penalty enhancements. federal prisoners should receive programming that helps improve reentry chances and likelihood of success once they leave the prison and i will soon be reintroducing the second chance reauthorization act which does just this as congressman davis mentioned in his remark as few minutes ago. and finally many states have led the way on passing reasonable legislation that protects public safety while reducing recidivism. it's time for washington to look to the states to explore how it can be smart on crime. now in conclusion let me say

that one of the things that the overcriminallization task force came up with is we were asking specifically how many regulations, those are bureaucrat passed, rather than congress-passed laws carry prison time. and congressman bobby scott of virginia, who is my ranking member and i sent a letter to the congressional research service that asked them to tell us how many of these regulations carry prison time and which agencies promulgated these regulations. we got a letter from crs saying they didn't have the staff to do this. there were some of them and it was so complex. therein lies the problem. and this is something that the judiciary committee and hopefully both houses of

congress can address. so that a 11-year-old who found a hummingbird was injured and put it in a cage in her house for a few days to allow the bird to recover in order to survive in the wilderness does not have her mother get fined and threatened with prison for caging up a migratory bird. that shows how ridiculous some of these laws are and that's why this congress is going to address it and i look forward to your support and helping us lead the way to put sense into sentencing. to put sop sense into incarceration and to make sure that the public is protected from people who want to really do bad things and helping a hummingbird regain the bird's strength so that the bird is not killed when it goes back out into the wild is something that makes no sense and we ought to

get rid of it, so thank you. [applause] >> jim, thank you. overcriminalization is one of the things that adds to the prison population and as well as prison time and jail time for crimes that might be better handled in other ways. one of the things not only the judiciary committee but everyone who has been interested in these subjects has been looking at for some time. i want to recognize senator cory booker who has been here. he hasn't been in the senate lung enough to know that he as a senator should filibuster. recognize his presence rather than ask him to come up and talk and i wants to learn than to lecture. on to lectures. van jones who you know was in the obama administration and cnn and worked in and interested in these problems, as interested as anyone. i would like to ask him because

one of the things he has been doing is studying how we got to where we are. how did we end up with 25% of the world's prisoners in our presson system, and then move on to what can be done about it. but if you don't know how you got there it is pretty hard to figure out how to get out. so van? >> thank you. [applause] >> first of all, i'm sitting at the table. van jones with my new good friend from koch institute. now that should be a headline by itself. just the fact that -- >> dogs and cats sleeping together. >> dogs and cats sleeping together. i don't know that we'll sleep together but anyway. just mentioning it. >> "ghostbusters."

but anyway this is, historic moment. it is, it is funny, but it really shouldn't be. i think we've been talking past each other for a long time. i think we missed opportunity after opportunity for a long time. that's why you have 595% growth in the federal budget and federal incarceration rates, when probably both side know there are better and smarter ways to get where we're going. i come before you because i had a show on tv with a guy named newt gingrich and we show called "cross fire." we fought every day and didn't agree on one thing, except this issue. talking with newt gingrich i realized i made a terrible mistake in my judgment, in my assessment where libertarians were on this issue, where conservatives were on this issue. when you make assumptions about

where people are coming from you missed the opportunity to do good stuff for the country. it turns out that our liberal side with our great passion for justice and compassion is often not seen as being also equally concerned about community safety. and peaceful streets and kid being able to get to school and back. also i think that there was a sense that people on the right were only concerned about being tough on crime, not being smart on crime. and that there was not a sense that the christian values religious values that every soul matters could be a part of this conversation. that we shouldn't be wasting money. newt said, listens prison system is big failed government bureaucracy period full stop. it is a big failed government bureaucracy that grows by doing a terrible job. the worst job it does the more

people have to come back the more money it gets. conservatives shouldn't be for that. i say that to say we've gotten ourself into a insane posture but there is wisdom available. where is the wisdom coming from? it is coming from three places. number one, the juvenile justice system quietly thanks to the casey foundation has already achieved a 50% reduction in the number of young people who are locked up in our country with no increase in youth crime. nobody knows that. we already have in juvenile system a 50% reduction, bringing incarceration and youth crime down at the same time. that is real which is do. it should be reflected at the federal level. number two, at state level, great wisdom, we already have a 4% reduction in the incarceration rate at the state level, while we have a 15% increase at the federal level. so in states like mississippi red states, in states like

texas, red states governors are stepping forward with great courage and producing great results and they're just getting started. there is wisdom at the state level. that should be reflected at the federal level. there is also great wisdom now in the technology sector. you have, from california, got a chance to talk to tech leader all the time. they say the stupidest way to waste money and make a problem worse, they ever heard of. newt gingrich talks a lot about the fact now because of smart tones, we could actually do a much better job of helping people reinforcing people, and monitoring people outside of confinement at a much lower cost, with much greater effectiveness, because we now have technology. we're using 17th century, 16th century technology. every other system is radically changing but this system is stuck not just a decade ago but centuries ago.

we could make positive steps forward. so the question is since the main source of the problem has been a lack of communication a lack of trust a lack of honest discourse and dialogue, about how we can have safer streets better communities, more successful young people, the most important thing that can happen is what happens now. i want to thank, we should give another round of applause to the constitution organization and what it wasn't in headlines when they were laying the groundwork. [applause] quietly laying the groundwork. getting leaders together to discuss this behind the scenes long before you see this big, sprouting this big flowering. the first thing that's happened we had real discussion. the second thing is though we have to make sure that we don't miss this opportunity.

it would be very easy to have big discussions tiny bills, big, big talk big, big, rhetoric very, very minuscule results that is now the big danger. now we can see we had a hearing and if you, if you want to go on youtube hear probably the best speech i ever heard on criminal justice, senator cory booker gave it last thursday of the give him a round of applause by the way. he is one of the great leaders on this thing. [applause] he gave a speech, we had a hearing, a briefing on thursday last week. we didn't understand that when cory booker shows up it is beatlemania. we couldn't actually get everybody in. we literally had to turn away about a third of the people and he gave a speech we just posted on youtube i can't imagine how a single person in the country could say no to him and rest of

us trying to get this thing done. what has to happen is this. this is a time for real comprehensive change. it's very very rare that we have a moment where the stars aligned in this way. where crime is down, the system is clearly broken, and not just conservatives and liberals but libertarians, all three, have come together to say we can do better. now in a moment like this where you already have multiple bills i i want to name check the bills that are out there but you already have multiple bills out there, over there, i have it right here you already have multiple bills in motion on the senate side and now about to have more on the house side. those of you who are here, you have the ears of your bosses. you have the ears of your chiefs of staff, your political directors, the members. they're going to get flooded

with all kind of stuff that we're going to disagree about. this is your opportunity to go back to your office and say, you know what boss, we can actually get something done we can actually get a real result. there will be people in our communities who will actually have a safer, better community better neighborhood, better outcomes because we can actually get something done. i want to praise before i sit down those leaders that have already come forward. first of all again senator cory booker and rand paul have legislation they have put forward. that needs to be taken seriously and supported. durbin-lee here in the senate supported by labrador in the house. smarter sentencing act that need to be supported of the recidivism reduction and public safety act by portman is brilliant and needs to be supported. public safety act, federal reform act cornyn, chaffetz and

scott needs to be supported. expunge mane designed to enhance employment and redeep act, cory booker rand paul act, all these need to be supported. last thing i want to say is this. i love debate and argument. i love ideology, i love ideas i love theory i love being right more than you know. this is the time to put data above demagoguery and evidence above ideology. if there's ever an issue where we've got to be data hive driven and evidence-based, when you're talking about spending public dollars to both take someone's individual liberty, in the name of making community safer, both of which are precious, liberty is precious, community safety is precious, that is the time for

us to put data to one side. demagoguery on both sides. both sides get a thrill that other side is dumb, the other side is racially motivated, the other side plays the race card the other side hates everybody all of that i want to say to you as a partner, and to you as partners and to pat nolan the great leader on this whole thing, you got this whole ball rolling a long time ago, you're not going to hear it from us. there is racial dimension to this. we've talk about it and talk about it respectfully. there is gender dimension to this. we'll talk about it respectfully. we'll lay down all of the demagoguery, tools that we have at our disposal in the name of getting something done to arrive as cory booker always says, to a country that actually has liberty and justice for all. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you van.

actually van said what needs to be said about that, nolan, that pat was in this space before virtually anybody else. you know last year at the conservative political action conference we had a panel on criminal justice reform and one of the panelists was bernie kerik of new york and jenny said, that is the way to do it. take one of these guys lock them up for a few months so they get a look at things on other side and they come out changed. i thought maybe there are a lot of people that ought to be locked up for that reason but people get locked up for all kind of reasons and get abused and mistreated by the criminal just sis system. pat was the republican leader in california in the assembly years ago and did get roped in by the criminal just justice system. learned what it was all about. when he came out here had the opportunity to work with chuck coulson, do something about a

system that didn't work and dehumanized those that were in it. one of the props that we face is that the public hasn't cared much about this because once you're locked up you're no longer part of the human community. you're something else. they don't care or pay attention how you're treated or worry about what happens when you get out or worry very much about the legitimacy of how you got in and van touched on a few of those things. but pat actually has been there from the beginning putting together coalitions. the second chance act that congressman davis and congressman sensenbrenner talked about in many ways a tribute to the work pat nolan has done over the years. so van, you're absolutely right. if there's, if there's a real champion, other than jenny of course, it is pat nolan. pat? [applause]

>> well, that's an introduction. my father would have enjoyed and my mother would have believed. but, really i attribute it to chuck coulson. he is the one that had the vision when it came out. he could have gone back an practiced law, instead dedicated entire rest of his life to calling to attention to the fact of the injustice of our system and the dehumanization of inmates and he offered hope to inmates and established prison fellow shep for that. and i was blessed to work with him in prison fellowship for 15 years and through that my political context among conservatives we helped build on the usual support for issues. and it is interesting because most people assume that

conservatives are motivated for reform by economics and my experience is not that. it's the moral issues that motivate us and van hit on that. the first issue after i got out of prison we were involved in was harry reid was trying to strip prisoners of their religious liberty protection and it was ted kennedy and john ashcroft, pat leahy and dan coats that stood up and said no and beat back that effort and, and then passed the religious -- religious land use and institutionalized persons act which just this last week the supreme court used to protect a muslim's right to have a beard inside prison. that was this unusual left-right coalition. following that gene guerrero of the open society institute said

what are we going to work on next? we thought the second chance act that rob portman went to work on it stephanie tubs jones and john conyers involved in it for year. danny davis frank wolff, again a left-right coalition. the essential message of the second chance act is that prisoners are people we should care about. their future after they leave prison is something that matters to us. human dignity is an important part of it. whether you're religious or not. those of us who are religious know each of us is a child of god created in his image and it is that divine spark, that gives us dignity and government should never strip anybody of that no matter what they have done and yet pipeer has done such a good job humanizing prisoners.

prisoners are continually debased. while i was in prison, a little over 29 months probably a thousand times i was told, you ain't got nothing coming. you ain't got nothing coming. it is said with disgust. it says you are nothing. you come from nothing. you will be nothing. now i came from a good background. i had a great education. i had leadership positions. even those -- i was able to take it. think of a young kid came from abusive household got into drugs at age 13 ran away, didn't complete their education, how will they take something like that, being essentially told they're worthless that they have no future? one of the things, the second chance act did was say, we are going to invest in your future. we're going to put together programs that will help you prepare to live a productive

contributing life in your community. you can have a valuable life. that this is not the end of your life. we worked on the prison rape elimination act. the dirty little secret nobody wanted to take about. yet thousands, literally tens of thousands of prisoners are raped each year. you think about it. one of the reasons conservatives are caring more about prisons is there is no form of government domination greater than in imprisonment. the government takes you from your home from your family, from your community, from your job, strips you of your ability to choose where you sleep, who you associate with what you eat, what you do with your time. the normal decisions we take to protect ourselves, whether it is going with a buddy or going in lighted areas or arming ourselves to protect us from

being beat or raped we're not allowed to do inside prison of the government strips us of the ability to defend ourselves and then leaves us helpless. so we're preyed upon by other inmates. one of the things that brought conservatives to the table teddy kennedy had been fighting this fight for years, but also brought frank wolff to the table, and a whole array of conservatives was the idea that the government has a moral responsibility to take care. if we're going to strip somebody of their ability to defend themselves, the government has a moral responsibility to make sure they're not preyed upon. jeff sessions said it very well. we were standing in the senate swamp. ted kennedy jeff sessions unlikely characters you know cosponsors. so they're in session. said i sent thousands of people to prison for terrible crimes but not one of those sentences

involved being raped. and i it was that moral statement that was so powerful helping us pass it. so we i just want to establish there is a moral basis for this. the economics of it, the plundering of our state budgets. the diversion of money that could go for schools for road for hospitals that instead go into prisons, all that is important. the hole it puts inside of our state budgets eating up so much that's important but it really is, that's that's the thing that allows conservative legislators to explain why they're doing these moral things. why the impact on the budget is there. i have to take my hat off to pew. the data pew has provided, not only the figures but putting it in context, their publication, one in 100. showing that one in 100

americans was in prison or jail and one in 41, those that are under government supervision. that's really something that opened the eyes of conservatives. one in every 41 americans is under government supervision. that is astounding. it comes from overcriminallization as we've talked about. it comes from the government being in charge of so many aspects of our lives. i will leave you with this. an irs agent going through the capitol intimidated legislators in california said to one of my colleagues senator we can carve our paddle to fit anybody's ass. that's frightening. if the government can say, we'll fit you to the crime. but that is what barea told stalin. he was stalin's chief of the secret police. he said, you bring me the man, i

will find the crime. conservatives an liberal need to care that the government has so much power they can create a crime from all these available. i'm so glad that mr. sensenbrenner, mr. davis, that the mr. portman, are dedicated to helping us stem the tide of this powerful government. making sure that our policies make sense, and, bringing together people left and right that care about liberty and freedom and public safety. thank you. >> [applause] >> thank you. you know the problem you face consist of putting too many people in prison treating them badly when they're in prison and not doing much to prepare them for their release and their going back into sill society when they leave prisons.

that is bringing, big problems that have a lot of complications as i said earlier if in terms of the public that wants someone sentenced and goes away, and in the institution, they are as pat said, they are ordinarily treated if they're less than human. as if that's part of what it's all about when it isn't. that was prepared them not for reentry into civil society as self-sustaining citizens and free citizens but turns them into something that will ultimately end up right back where they started. chuck coulson and pat brought faith to the problem. i remember at chuck's funeral i told the story before, i was sitting at the reception and a fellow came up to me and we introduced each other and he said you know i first met chuck coulson when i was in prison. he came to me, he said you know,

god has a plan for you. he said i looked at him i have no doubt about that but it is a really terrible plan. but by having faith and respect for the dignity of individuals whether they're prisoners or not, allows people people to reenter into society. of the not everybody that gets out will go straight. there will always be problems. those taken away by the state to see it that they're treated well as pat said and they have the real opportunity. shining a light on the way people are treated once they go away is incredibly important to this and our next speaker, piper kerman, has done that. through her memoir of the time that she spent incarcerated and the television show, "orange is the new black," which came from that she has shown to hundreds

of thousands, millions of viewers, just what it is like and why we need to do something about it. it is your turn. [applause] >> okay. pat, your word really remind me for every single person who traverses our criminal justice system it is a crucial -- crucible that you have to survive and that changes you in ways that are indelible. so thank you very much for your work and for your word. i also want to thank the members who made this day happen all of them from both sides of the aisle. very grateful and all of you who came out today. spent a good chunk of your valuable time here. fantastic. i also want to say that there are many, many members of

congress, who weren't necessarily part of today who also have prioritized these eschews in their own work. and i'm grateful to them. again, on both sides of the aisle and we know that so much of the progress that has been made particularly over the last decade would not have happened without republican contributions and leadership. so i'm thankful for that. just want to tell you all i made my notes in one of my prison diaries, just to keep it real here. so in 2004 i was sent to federal prison and i was sent for a first-time non-violent, one-time drug offense that i had committed in 1993 and i was joining a very, very large cohort because about 50% of the people in the bureau of prisons are doing time for drug offenses and 25% of the people in the bop, are folks like me, low

level, non-violent offenders. but, unlike me, many of those men and women are doing serious time shockingly long sentences. those are prison terms that i think are a waste of taxpayer dollars. they are a waste of time quite bluntly, having lived inside the bop, that is not time well-spent whether you're talking about on the staff side or the prisoner side. and, those prison sentences are tremendous waste of human potential because there is so very little rehabilitation going on within the bureau of prisons and within many other prison systems. i was so very, very fortunate to do only 13 months of fed time and, when i say fortunate, i don't mean lucky i mean fortunate. i mean that i was able to hire a former u.s. attorney to represent me in court. i mean, that i had, many,

privileges that most defendants do not have. 80% of people who are accused of a crime are too poor to afford to hire a lawyer to represent them in court and, our criminal justice system, the data shows very, very clearly, that our criminal justice system disproportionately pursues and punishes people of color. so i went to bed on that first night in prison and what i was saying over and over again in my head on that top bunk, was, i am so luck kirks i'm so lucky, i'm so lucky. and prison is by design a harsh and horrible place. so it might surprise you to hear i was saying that. i was also saying i have no idea how i'm possibly going to survive this year. i was thinking i was so lucky and here's why. in prison the only acceptable icebreaker is to say, how much

time do you have? you don't really want to ask a lot of personal questions right off the bat. so during those first, let's say, 12, 18 hours in prison dozens and dozens of women had approached me and said hey, kerman, how are you doing, rough day. you know, do you need anything. how much time do you have? and i would quiver out, 15 months. and they would immediately start doing math problems. they were calculating the good time the bop gives. it is 87.2% of your sentence thaw serve. oh keep your nose clean. you will be out of here in 13 months. and, it seemed only polite to sort of squeak back to them well, how much time are you doing? some of them were doing short time like me, but a lot of them were not. a lot of them were doing much much longer sentences than i was. five years, seven years. 10 years. i went to bed that night i can't not even imagine how i

make it through one year in this awful place, let alone 10. as days and weeks and months wore by i came to know those other women really, really well because the bureau of prisons is very overcrowded. so you will get to know people really really well. and as i came to know those women well i came to know their families well. those who were lucky enough to have visits. i saw them in the visiting room with kids, families, their own parents. i came to know those women day-to-day so very, very well in a way only really prison can do. it became impossible for me to believe that those women had committed crimes that were so much worse than my own offense. and the only conclusion that i could draw was that they had been treated very, very difficultly, by the criminal justice system than i had because of socioeconomics, in some cases because of color of their skin. so for me this inequity is the

most fundamental reason to reform the criminal justice system. that's for me personally. so that some day all-americans will really be treated as equals in our courts of law. but you know what? there are other less whyistic reasons to act right now. we know we're wasting a lot of taxpayer dollars in the criminal just sis system and we know longer sentences proven to be counterproductive, not only not supervaluable but counterproductive. we know that the states, many, many states have reduced their prison populations. the ones who have reduced their prison populations the most have enjoyed the biggest declines in crime. we know that reform is what the public wants. the research shows us that americans want common sense criminal justice policies to be

put in place to fix the current system that we have. and i can tell you that i travel all over this country. i sometimes feel like that johnny cash song i've been everywhere, and i am amazed, i have like thousands and thousands of people have come out all over this country you know midwest, southwest, you name it i've been there and they come out and they want to learn more and they want to discuss these issues and they come to campuses and they come to libraries and come to other public forums and they engage with me and engage with each other and it is really really exciting and what i hear from them is overwhelming agreement about very obvious reforms. like getting low-level non-violent offenders out of confinement of prisons and jails so we stop using prisons and jails on those folks. i hear from folks, total

agreement about ceasing to put mentally ill and substance-addicted people in prison and jail because incarceration doesn't fix those public health problems. and in fact it often makes them worse. and finally what i hear from them, is a huge amount of agreement about focusing substantive, to your point van this is already happening but more substantive rehabilitation resources for children in the system, and for young people not 18 and up but still young so we get those folks out of the system because everyone understand that those investments in those young people will yield dividend for all of us. so we know that these things can be done because they're already being done. they're become done out in the states. we've seen so much innovation. we've seen state governments move legislation successfully, so we know it can be done congress.

we've seen them reap reward. we've seen them enjoy reductions in crime. we've seen them enjoy better more mindful spending of taxpayer dollars. so it is time for the federal government and congress to catch up and comprehensive reform is exactly what is needed. here is the thing about the criminal just sis system it is a system. if you go in there and start noodling around with one part of it you're not really going to get very good results. you know, sort of quote, unquote, fixing prisons, if you don't fix sentencing. if you don't access to counsel he is and sixth amendment rights as couple of examples. you have to do multiple fixes to make the system work better for all americans and now is the time. thank you very much for all coming out. [applause] >> thank you, piper.

indeed, preparing people who are incarcerated for the outside world is supposedly one of the things the prison system does but doesn't do it very well and in some cases not at all. i remember some years ago attending a graduation for ged and junior college level graduation at a federal prison and standing next to a couple who had driven 12 hours to see, to be there when their son who was incarcerated was receiving his ge depp. he was prouder than anybody i think i've seen at a graduation on the outside. and they had to get back to work. they drove 12 hours. they stood there. they got back in their car and they headed west back to their home and their job. but at least that that boy was going to have a chance because people cared about him and because he took the opportunity to do what he could to prepare

himself for the outside. i'm not sure the system itself made that easy but that is incredibly important and something that we need to be looking at. senator franken from minnesota was coming by, just another midwesterner interested in fixing the system. so if he is here we would like to welcome him. if he is not i would like to recognize a non-midwesterner who worked on these issues, a former member of congress alan molihan. who -- [applause] and then i would like to introduce mark holden. you know, back when conservatives and libertarians were first talking about doing something about these problems and first recognizing the seriousness of it, koch industries was already involved. they were there when pat was first involved. they're there today. and, so it is a pleasure and i think that what we'd like to have mark do is not only

reflect on what got him and those he works with involved in this struggle. i noticed not too long ago there was a statement from, i don't know if it was from you or -- >> charles koch. >> charles coke saying that this year their major interest was criminal justice reform and that is what they were going to be working on. so it es really a great deal of pleasure we welcome you to the microphone. i see that you and van have survived over there. >> we're all trend now. [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you everyone, i have a coveted speaking spot right before lunch here, so i appreciate that. very glad to be here. thankful. it is an honor to be here on behalf of koch industries and glad to be a part of this forum. more importantly we're glad to be one of many voices and there are many here miss nolan and others doing it for years.

we've only been doing it for the past 10, 11 1/2 years. this is great us cause and so important for all of us and stories you heard, many of you have heard, many have the same experiences, someone you know, someone in your phamly loved one, yourself, who has gotten caught up in the criminal just sis system. i know i can say that for myself of this is a big issue of the this is one, exciting, we all put together to put our differences aside, whatever they might be. focus on doing something that will help a lot of people. that is what we should really focus on. i am hopeful leaders in this room can help us as well. i will start and say the u.s. just sis tim -- justice system is the best justice system in the world of with. we have prosecutors, lawyers defense lawyers, public defenders, they work hard and do a good job but our system still need as lot of work obviously as we're here today. we think it needs to be

improved. so at the bottom line it fulfills the promise of the declaration of independence and the bill of rights. that is what this is all about at the end of the day as americans. and it need to better protect everybody, all americans and especially the most disadvantage and help improve society. as we heard today, and you all know. who gets hurt the most in the criminal justice system are those that can least afford to endure it. that's wrong. we need to fix that. and so over the past six months ever since we had a public announcement about our partnership with the national association of criminal defense lawyers, the nacdl, on a sixth amendment indigent defense project we're working on we're very excited about, we had a lot of people come up to say, why are you involved in this? why is koch focused on indigent defense? why are you involved in criminal justice? i thought i would try to answer that question here today for those of you who might have the

same questions. let me just start by saying, as i said it goes back over 10 years. and first we're drawn to these issues because of our belief in the rule of law particularly in the trugene just of the bill of rights. we at koch, particularly charles koch have a deep and abiding respect for the bill of rights, all 10 amendments in the bill of rights. we believe those rights must be reality and fulfilled promise for all americans. the bill of rights was enacted 220 years ago and still remains foundation or at least it should of our free society and provide a blueprint for a free and prosperous society we still think can work for everyone especially again the most disadvantaged among us. the rights contained in the bill of rights are most important they can not be taken away by the government these are our natural rights unalienable

rights endowed by our creator declared in the declaration of independence and they weren't given to us by the government. that is important point to remember. all things we're involved with at koch philanthropic, public policy, we must do we must be engaged to help all people, everyone of us improve their lives and this is particularly true in our criminal justice system. the bill of rights particularly focused on criminal just sis issue are particularly the fifth and sixth amendment. that's why it says in the fifth amendment before we make sure to take everyone's life liberty and property you have to have due process of law. sixth amendment guaranties due process for all americans. that is the important thing. individuals as governmentees greatest overreach, greatest curtailment and greatest infringement of our rights come through criminal law. they have systems in there to protect that. we need to remember that in the coming months to fix the system that is not working now. i don't need to go into the overcriminallization issue.

he heard it here today. you heard the impact it has on everybody across the board. i wan to talk about briefly why did we come to the table why koch industries? so here's the story. many years ago, what should have been an administrative proceeding with a civil regulatory resolution became a federal criminal case against our company and four of our employees. began in november of 1995. our employees met 0 employees said they would

could what they want to do. case was filed and got out of control. it was due to mistakes, costly mistakes that they made. criminal laws without well-defined standard ever intent. overly zealous prosecutors and some curious activities during the grand jury process where key piece of evidence, the record of the initial meeting with a state regulator had been manipulated to create a false narrative. we were. we were told to cut the employees loose, let them fend for themselves. we could not do that. we did not believe they done anything wrong. we stuck by them, ultimately six years later the government's case collapsed. they did not have enough evidence. the subsidiary pled guilty. after that incident we do what we always did at koch.

we looked internally and externally. what could we improve internally in our processes to make the world a better place or make our company better? what could we do to make the world a better place externally. we fixed our compliance standards and started to work on criminal justice reform and we did that and -- [inaudible] all right, good. we did that. because our view of the world is if we, as a large company with many resources were treated this way in the system we didn't feel we were treated properly. there was doctoring of evidence, what is happening to the average american, what is happening to their constitutional rights. so that is when we found our way to the nacdl and started working on these issues. we started with our experience working on legislation, laws passed trying to get meaningful intent standard put in. once we were there once we got involved we couldn't stop.

to piper's point, everyone of these, everyone of the touch points in the system from entry to exit, they have a negative compounding impact from the next. if laws are overly broad. 4500 criminal laws federal we sit here two years we couldn't name 4500 crimes that should be prosecuted. but you have 4500 laws, you go to the next point with regard to how the laws are prosecuted, grand jury process, how cases are tried when someone's charged then to the next point what happens in sentencing and what happens upon reentry you have to fix them all. it needs to be comprehensive. it needs to be big. and we need to do it. because this will have such a positive impact on so many people's lives. and, about a month ago, there was an op-ed in "politico" by charles koch and me about our views on criminal justice reform and we have five buckets. i think there are handouts here to look at the five different areas we think could be impacted. we all think they need to be

addressed. since then in that last month we received some letters, emails, calls, from people around the country. across the spectrum, doctors defense lawyers public defenders, public officials, educators, hourly workers, law enforcement, inmates prison officials, inmates former prison officials young old urban, rural telling horror story about their family. everybody has a story here. everybody has a story about how the criminal just sis system failed or impacted them. that is study we can work on. that is such a great thing. we have great opportunity here, with all the groups and people in the room. we have great opportunity to improve our criminal justice system and improve society for all americans. and we, you me, all of us here, others out there, we need to try to seize it. thank you very much. [applause]

>> thank you mark. i think that, i think that mark's observations at the beginning on the good job that prosecutors and police and law enforcement try to do within a flawed system is well worth noting. in talking about overcriminallization and the treatment in prison, pat likes to talk about the fact that we spend too much time punishing people who we're mad at when what we should use the prison system for for people we're afraid of. and nothing that we say here shoulding taken from the left or the right as endorsement of being lenient on people who need to be separated from the civil society. but it should be taken meaning that we ought to look carefully at whether or not we're using too broad of a brush in treating people badly. even the worst offenders even if they need to be incarcerated

even if we need to keep them away from the general population, need to be treated and deserved to be treated with some dignity within the system. so i think that was an important point that need to be made. senator franken is here. so i would like to invite him up to say a few word. [applause] i already come menned on the fact that it is midwesterners concerned about these issues. >> you then, van i take it are a midwesterner? >> oh, yeah. >> okay. see how i figured that out? great. great crowd. thanks for warming them up. i want to thank the constitution project for hosting this important event. thank you, david, for that introduction. it's quite a feat to bring together a group of speakers

with souch a broad array of background and perspectives and i think that speaks to to, the importance of this and bipartisan aspect of this and, which is simply about making our criminal justice system fairer and less expensive. i also want to thank all of you for being just being here today and contributing to this critical conversation. as political diversity of today's speakers and crowd makes clear, the need for common sense criminal justice reform, is not a partisan or particularly divisive issue or should not be, again the fact that david introduced me, i think just underscores that democrats and republicans, law enforcement and advocates can all agree that the current state of

overincarceration in the united states is damaging to the health and of our communities and our economy and is a tragedy for. i want to speak about one important aspect of this problem. . . >> local jails are the largest

mental health facilities in the state of minnesota. and, unfortunately, this holds true across the nation. and the burden of the criminal justice system serving as a substitute mental health system goes beyond our prisons. every day our police are called upon to intervene in potentially life-threatening mental health crises and our courts are overwhelmed with cases involving people with untreated mental illnesses. this doesn't make sense for public safety and it certainly doesn't make sense for taxpayers who are stuck with the bill for overcrowded prisons and the costs of addressing mental health needs within the criminal justice system and just the incredible waste including human, the waste of human capital, the waste of human beings' lives and time.

in the face of these reality are -- realities we need to take a comprehensive approach. stakeholders at the federal state and local level must work together to address the unique needs of persons with mental health conditions in the justice system. we also remember should remember that our actions must not stigmatize people with mental health issues as those people are a vibrant part of our communities. that's why i plan to reintroduce, reintroduce the justice and mental health collaboration act or jmhca. jmhca would reauthorize that catchy acronym for the mentally ill offender treatment and crime

reduction act. and it would make improvements to the existing miocra law to address needs within our criminal justice system. my legislation would support mental health courts and crisis intervention training and crisis intervention teams that are proven to save both lives and taxpayer dollars. it would emphasize the use of evidence-based practices in mental health treatment and support programs that are proven to reduce recidivism. it would also provide investments in veterans treatment courts which are instrumental in addressing the needs of veterans, many of whom are likely to suffer from ptsd, tbi, may be involved in

substance abuse to medicate the invisible wounds of war and other debilitateing conditions. last congress we came very close to getting this piece of legislation enacted had the support or -- the bill had the support of 54 cosponsors in the house. i had a republican carrying it in the house had 38 cosponsors in the senate including 14 republicans as well as a coalition of over 250 organizations. again, it was extremely bipartisan. we almost got this done. it was held up by someone who put a hold on it and that person is not, has retired. so -- [laughter]

which is good. [laughter] anyway so -- as far as the bill is concerned. tremendously fine, fine fellow. [laughter] most importantly, this will make a real difference in communities across the nation. a little over a year ago year and a half ago i was in columbia heights, minnesota, which is a suburb of the twin cities to do a round table on crisis intervention training, and that's when that's for when law enforcement or in prisons the corrections officers enter a situation where someone, where there's a mental health issue at hand. and the training trains people to recognize that that's what they're facing and trains them to do what to do. so i was at this the columbia heights sheriff's -- or the

sheriff's office for the county in columbia heights and the anoka county sheriff wasn't there. he was supposed to be there day but he had something else. but the county attorney told me everybody in this office, everybody there had gotten this cit training, and the sheriff wanted to tell me that he got it on a monday, and on a tuesday because of it he did not kill a guy. so i just said, oh, with well can -- oh, well, can you give me a more garden variety story. [laughter] and so there was a policewoman there, and i said can you do that? she said, oh, okay. well let me see, a few months ago i was out on duty, and i heard this woman screaming, and i thought it might be some domestic abuse thing or something like that. and i found her and she was just screaming, and when i started coming, she ran to a railing and hung by the railing,

and she would have dropped not to her death but she would have really hurt herself bad to the playground below and i recognized it was a mental health issue, and i used my training and i talked her off i talked her off the railing. and i started talking to her, and she said that she had been sexually abused as a child and that the abuser had left her life for years but had recently come back. so i said to her i think i can get you some help and she she got her some help. she said, well, a couple months later, two, three months later, i was working a street fair, and the woman comes up to me and says to me, you saved my life. and i said, okay, that's the garden variety story. and she said yeah. and she said i use cit training

every day, practically every day. she said i'll holster a gun maybe once in my career, but i use this every day. so this is -- and you see it all the time if you're alert to it it -- what, how -- i went to a prison in minnesota, a correctional where they get the training, and they say well you know when you watch like msnbc on the weekends -- i don't know if any of you guys ever watch msnbc -- [laughter] but on the weekends they have a prison what's it called? >> lockdown. >> lockdown. >> one of my favorite shows. >> good. okay, it's p one of your favorite shows. [laughter] well the guys were referencing it for me because they said you know when the guys, like the guards have someone they can't deal with and they have to put all this equipment on to go in

and subdue the guy and tackle him, get him down we -- you can avoid all that if you just have cit training. [laughter] and he says very often if you just talk to the guy, you don't get there. and they said, boy, that saves a lot of wear and tear on us. because no matter how much equipment you put on, you can get hurt. so the grants and support programs like crisis intervention training are the only ones that are offered by the department of justice that address mental health issues within the criminal justice system. so the work we're discussing today is incredibly important, and we cannot let another congress go by without letting this congress get across -- without this legislation getting

across the finish line. so i'm really asking you to help me with this. i'll keep fighting. i have colleagues both sides both chambers who are very serious about this. but we need your help to get this bill passed and your support of the effort will be critical in educating other members and assuring that we finally get it done. now i've got to go back to a judiciary hearing but i want to thank you again for having me and for the, all the work that you're doing together, and i look forward to working with all of you to continue our criminal justice system. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, senator franken. staying this the midwest -- in the midwest but moving over to

the republican side of the aisle, rob portman from ohio is here. senator portman in the house and in the senate has really been a champion many this whole area -- in this whole area, and we would like to welcome him to make a few remarks then we've got an announcement from van and then i'm going to let y'all go to lunch. [applause] >> good morning, good to see you. so this is left-right when i see al franken sitting next to david keene, you know, when i walk in. thank you all for being here and for all the passion and sustained effort on all these issues. and i see around the room some of you are on the legislative side, others of you are in the trenches dealing with issues of mental health and drug addiction and criminal justice reform every day.

senator cory booker, i see, is here listening and i love that. we've talked a lot about these issues on the floor of the senate. they are left-right issues, they're issues that i think go to the very heart of how to empower people how to help people when they're in trouble and everything we do on the economic issues, international issues and so on are are important. ultimately, this is about the people we represent and how to insure that they and their families have the ability to achieve their god given abilities. there's nothing more important, so thank you all for being here and for van showing up again, adding a little hollywood flair to the whole thing, you know? the bill senator franken was talking about i'm a cosponsor of. it's an important piece of legislation, and appreciate your help on that. we're going to ask you to help on a lot of things today some of which you are very involved with, others are bills that maybe are legislation you're not directly involved with but we'd

like to keep this sort of coalition together interested. so i'm going to talk a little bit about one that i think we have a great opportunity on a bipartisan and bicameral basis to make progress on, and that's second chance. this is legislation that passed the house about ten years ago. i was the author in the house but worked very chosely with danny davis who was here earlier, and danny took over the bill when the majority shifted and actually got it done. and it's one that we kept bipartisan all through the process and just a comment on that that's sometimes tough for both sides. and it was -- danny davis and others frankly, had to stand up some members of their caucus who were saying this doesn't go far enough, and yet no republicans would support what that approach was, and they said no, we want to get something done here. and the same on our side of the aisle. that's what we've got to do. that attitude has to prevail. if it does we will get this

legislation that will be introduced in probably about two weeks through the process again. this is a reauthorization of second chance. has it worked? yes. it's worked really well. as you know, this is grant programs that has resulted in the blushment around the country -- the establishment around the country of thousands of essentially, second chance or prisoner reentry task forces. this be ohio i think we -- in ohio i think we had a couple of counties that had them, now we have 70 counties, i think. i may be wrong, megan will correct me. and it's really exciting. also ohio is taking full advantage of it $19 million has gone to ohio under this program our recidivism rate has gone down by 11%. we're really proud of that. we don't measure it in terms of those numbers, we measure it in terms of lives safed -- saved people who have been able to get their life back on track. nothing more rewarding than

going to meet with some of these organizations that have used these funds effectively and talking to the folks who have been helped and recently in cleveland a guy named melvin, about my age, in and out of the system about five or six times and, obviously, had a tough time holding a job, has an addiction problem. he's been clean now for four years because of the second chance act. he not only had the opportunity to get some help on his addiction, but also job training. he's now got a full-time job, he's a supervisor in a kitchen, and the most important thing of all, he has a home. and in his home he has a daughter. who he had never ever had under his roof before, and he is raising that girl. and to him that's what makes his eyes brighten and his heart sing, is the fact that he's clean, that's good, he's got a job, that's great he's out of prison that's really good. he was tired of it. but he's able to take care of his family.

and those success stories are all over our country and we can continue at the federal level to play a huge role in this. someone asked me the other day so you're doing this stuff at the federal level, you're a republican. you must think this is something washington can play a key role in. i said actually, yes and no. washington has played a key role, i think, in the last ten years of bringing up the awareness and consciousness of this issue and helping to leverage a lot more activity at the local level but ultimately this is going to be addressed in a successful way at the community level. and i don't mean the state level and i don't mean the city level. i mean like the school district. i mean like people really getting engaged and helping their neighbors and understanding that this is not just about saving taxpayer money from incarceration -- which it is and republicans take note. this is about fiscal conservativism. it's not just about fewer crimes in the neighborhoods, which is it is and those concerned about crime rates take note because two-thirds of these people who

get out of prison these days are rearrested within two or three years. this is crazy. it's a revolving door. and so many of them are nonviolent offenders who have a mental health or a truck problem that -- or a drug problem that this legislation addresses where they don't have the job skills to be able to reengage. in this legislation addresses it. it's about all to. that but it's -- about all that. but it's about our neighbors. and as i said at the outset, it's about what kind of country we want to have. and this issue is one that does bring people together not just here in washington, but back home. i know danny davis talked to you about it earlier to the. we hope to have introduction on both sides. the judiciary committee passed it last year by a strong bipartisan vote. so this has already gone through the process once we hope it can go through the process again quickly. this time hope we can get it to the floor. if we don't reauthorize these bills, it's difficult to get the appropriation. plus we've improved it,

streamlined it consolidated it applied best practices learned what did work and what didn't work. i appreciate megan and my team, and i see jess nichols here who's been involved in this and so many of you. thank you for your work on it. since i've got you, can i mention two others? one of which i think you heard about today because was sheldon whitehouse here, did sheldon come by? one is called the recidivism reduction and public safety act. it's had some success in the judiciary committee. got a little changed in committee, but the idea is take what we've learned in second chance and apply it to the federal prison system to provide credit for people who go through second chance prisoner reentry-type programs s. so it does relate very directly to some of the sentencing reform that's been talked about today. so that's one i hope you'll all be able to work with us on too. we expect to introduce that shortly as well. think about federal prisons and more focus on that which is, again, we at the federal level can play a particularly

important role. and the final one is cara, the comprehensive legislation that deals with addiction, and it is, to me, sort of the broad picture because it has addiction recovery but also second chance, essentially. it goes back into the prison system in that about 80% of people getting out of prison have some kind of issue with substance abuse. and so cara, i think, is a really important issue for us to address as well. we expect to introduce that within the next few weeks as well. and i think diss congressman sensenbrenner come by today? he's been a stalwart on that. this has a really good shot of getting across the house floor and being taken up in the committee here, in the judiciary committee and trying to get it through. it's -- it would make a big difference. in ohio today heroine overdoses are growing, prescription dugs and heroin now the number one

cause of death. and this is true in a lot of our states. i can't go anywhere in my state where i don't hear about it. and sometimes it's a situation that i had in my tele-town hall meeting night before last where a guy calls in and says, by the way, i lost my son to addiction and it was heroin, and i think he thought he could try it, everything would be okay. and what do you say to a guy like that? one of the things i say is we're trying to help at the federal level. but, again, this is about all of us reaching out to our neighbors and insuring that they have the information they need to avoid those kinds of harmful decisions, making the right choices, and at the end of the day we can all of us in this room, make a huge difference in the lives of that family and other families around our great country. thank you all. [applause]

>> van, you had an announcement? just showing that you hang out with other conservatives as well? [laughter] >> very good. by the way, one of the great leaders who's an unsung heroine right now in catchy, give her a round of applause. [applause] she's been pulling this together behind the scenes. all too often our sister heroes don't get the recognition they deserve, so i want to make sure we know -- i have an announcement. on, this is the beginning of a conversation. there's going to be many, many more. constitution project has been incredibly powerful as a leader on this, other forces as well and we're joining forces march 26th. there will be a bipartisan summit. it will -- it's newt gingrich,

donna brazile, pat nolan dan jones trying to bring everyone together for a daylong -- we've already got we can't announce it yet, but we have major celebrities that are coming major athletes that are coming. there will probably be presidential contenders there. march 26th is going to be a major elevation of this entire issue, and i think it's important to also point out it won't just be the big people, there will also be the people directly impacted. i've spent ten years working on this issue in california. we're spending $120,000 a year per kid locked up. in that time we could have sent three kids to yale for the cost of sending one kid to jail. we were able to cut california's youth prison population by 80%. 80%. we closed five youth prisons with no increase in youth violence or youth crime. it's happening at the state level. blue states and red states. we want to make sure it happens

here. i just want to thank you for the opportunity. mark your calendars march 26th. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, van. piper, matt and mark and all the rest who have participated, and thank you all for being here. you know, we talked a little bit about the federal system and about what needs to be done. a lot of the activities taking place in the states a lot of the reforms are taking place in the states, texas mississippi, georgia, new york, places where some might not expect some of these things to happen. but the most comprehensive reforms most recently were in mississippi. bipartisan majority and the governor managed to make some real systemic kinds of changes that will benefit people incarcerated there and will, i suspect, reduce recidivism in that state. there's a lot out there that's

working, a lot of examples of people that are devoting time and effort to making the system better making the country better, and when you -- when we talk about it, there are so many pieces of it but it all goes together, and it's the all important. and i just want to thank you on behalf of the constitution project and on jenny's behalf for being here today because this was, we think, a very important discussion to have. thank you so much. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> in a moment we'll go life to the u.s. senate for continuing work on the keystone xl pipeline today which authorizes the construction of a pipeline from canada through the the u.s. to the gulf coast. there'll be an hour of general debate and then 15 minutes of debate heading into a series of

six amendment votes and a vote to move the bill forward. and then starting at 2:30 eastern more votes possibly on five more amendments leading up to a final passage vote on the keystone bill today. and now to the senate floor live here on c-span2. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. oh lord of our life, you are a shield for america. because of your mercy and power we lift our heads with optimism. when we cry aloud to you during our moments of exasperation you

answer us from your holy mountain. we remain unafraid at what the future holds because you continue to sustain us. lord pour your blessings upon our lawmakers so that they will do your will. begin a spiritual awakening in our nation and let it begin with us. help us to know you better that we might love you more and thus be more useful to the advancement of your kingdom on earth. we pray in your holy name. amen.

the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. noip today we'll have two -- mr. mcconnell: today we'll have two stacks of votes

culminating in passage of s. 1, the keystone bill. senators should be expected to stay close to the floor as these will be ten-minute votes. we'll have five or six votes at 11:00 and four or five votes kicking off at 2:30. the senate will be in session tomorrow morning but no votes are expected. the first vote of next week will be at 5:30 on monday. now, mr. president, in the past few weeks we've really had a whirlwind, but the keystone jobs debate has been important for the senate and for our country. we took about a dozen more roll call votes on amendments yesterday. that means the senate has now taken more than twice as many of these amendment votes on this bill alone than were offered or allowed all of last year.

we obviously had a busy afternoon yesterday and we'll continue again today. it's been an instructive exercise too because we learned about more than just the lesser prairie chicken but we discovered something about this body. we learned that open floor debates and open amendment processes require hard work. they require dedicated members and they require constructive cooperation from across the aisle. i thank senators hoeven and murkowski for their work before. i want to thank them again now. i also want to note the efforts once again of colleagues like senator cantwell. the debate over these american jobs has shown that with bipartisan cooperation it's possible to get washington functioning again. this debate is also proving that the new congress is ready to work and work hard for the middle class even in the teeth

of opposition from powerful special interests. let's notch one more win for the middle class by passing this important infrastructure project. constructing keystone would pump literally billions into our economy. it would support thousands of good american jobs. and as the president's own state department has indicated, it would do this with minimal minimal environmental impact. the keystone infrastructure project has been studied endlessly -- endlessly -- from almost every possible angle. and the same general conclusion keeps becoming clear. build it. we need to build it. so let's make some progress for the american people by voting to pass the keystone jobs and infrastructure bill. the presiding officer: the

assistant democratic leader. mr. durbin: mr. president let me say at the outset while the majority leader is still on the floor that it's true that we've had a constructive relationship during the last several weeks as we've considered this bill. and although those of us on the democratic side don't want to get comfortable in our minority status, we are determined to make sure that it is as described, a constructive relationship. to that end, we have not used some of the tactics that we've seen in past years. we have not insisted on burning 30 hours and 60 hours at a time, causing team who subscribe to c-span to call their cable operators and say why am i paying for the senate? nothing's happening. instead we have tried to use that time to put together packages bipartisan packages of amendment and we've been successful. i hope we can continue in that. and as long as there is mutual respect, good faith and cooperation, i look forward to, in my role, as soon as senator

reid returns as the whip on the democratic side, to do our best to continue this constructive relationship. i've said it before and i'll say it again what we've seen over the last several weeks is the senate i remember, the senate i was elected to, the senate whether it was active debate, and amendments. for some members it is a new experience. i hope in our role as the minority we can work with you in a mutualing a -- feeling of mutual respect to achieve at least debate on the floor and significant legislation. mr. mcconnell: i thank the senator from illinois for his comments and i do think this has been good for the senate, good for both parties good for america. we're getting back to normal and i thank the senator for his comments and for his cooperation. mr. durbin: i thank the majority leader. mr. president, 29 days from today on february 27 the department of homeland security of the united states of america will run out of money. the only way to prevent this is for the congress to pass

legislation to fund this department. we shouldn't even be debating whether we're going to fund the department that protects america from terrorism threats but that's fact. the republicans in the house when we did the budget bill, insisted that we fund the entire federal government through september 30 except for the department of homeland security. and the reason that they withheld regular budget funding for that department was they wanted to make a political point. their anger at president obama for stepping forward on issues of immigration even though republicans refused for a year and a half to cause the immigration reform bill that passed the senate on a bipartisan basis refused for over a year and a half to address any aspect of immigration. in a fit of pique they said we're so angry that president obama is going to do something by way of executive order that we are going to withhold regular funding from the department that

protects america from terrorism. what were they thinking? look at the world we live in today, a world of charlie hebdo a world of beheading of japanese journalists, a world that is in danger of terrorist threat and the united states has felt that danger. we'll never forget what happened on 9/11. and after that experience, we made the department of homeland security a critical, viable part of america's defense against terrorism. now the republicans have said no before we fund this agency, we have to have five riders on the appropriations bill that attack president obama. then we might consider giving regular funding to this department. one aspect of those riders is particularly troubling. it was 14 years ago when i introduced the dream act a simple concept. children brought to the united states by their parents who are

undocumented should be given a chance. simple. children who were brought to the united states as infants and toddlers and had no voice in the decision of their family, who end up here undocumented should be given a chance, a chance to complete school, to be good citizens, to go on to college to serve in the military and then a path to legal status. not a radical idea. at times many republicans have openly supported the dream act. when we couldn't pass it, i appealed to the president, at least protect these dreamers from being deported. these kids did nothing wrong. they were brought here by their parents. why hold these children accountable? and the president agreed and two and a half years ago created did a ca and did -- and created daca, an executive order which says to these people you come forward you identify yourself, you let us make sure you have no criminal record that would be of worry to anyone, pay your fee

and we'll allow you to temporarily stay in the united states as a student or a worker without being deported. it's just that simple. we estimate two million young people are eligible for the dream act. two million. 600,000 have already registered under daca, the president's executive order. so what did the house republicans say? they said before we will fund the department of homeland security protecting america against terrorism, you have to deport the dreamers. refuse to renew the daca protection for 600,000 that have signed up and refuse to allow any new young person to sign up for this protection. i've come to the floor for a long period of time, and i will continue to, because i want people to know what the dream act means. it's something i guess of significance to stand up and give a speech, but it really doesn't touch people until they hear actual stories. the story i want to tell you

today is of a young woman whom i know. i was just with her in chicago. her name is karen via gomez brought to the united states at the age of two. incidentally, that was the same age my mother was brought to the united states as an immigrant. karen was brought here at the age of two from mexico. she grew up in chicago. she was an outstanding student and she always had an interest in public service. in may of 2012, she graduated from the university of rochester in new york with a major in political science. she was not only the first person in her family to graduate from a four-year college because karen via gomez is undocumented she didn't receive one penny of government assistance. she made it through college on her own without any help because as an undocumented young woman that was the only chance she had. just one month after she graduated, president obama created the daca program.

and after she applied and cleared and received daca protection from deportation she found a job as a paralegal at a law firm in chicago where she's been working for the last two years. i saw her a week ago friday. she was in chicago and she is amazing. she served as an intern in my office. she's one of the brightest most engaging people you could meet, and she looked me in the eye and she said senator i'm going to law school. i've just been accepted. she is supposed to start this fall. but if the house republicans have their way this fall she'll find herself being deported from the united states of america. think about it. all that we have invested in her, all that we have put into her life in terms of education not only k-12, but a college did degree now and the house republicans would say to karen viagomez thanks for being part

of america but no thanks, leave. take whatever skills you have, whatever determination you have to make a difference and take it someplace else. america doesn't need your idealism the house republicans say. i couldn't disagree with them more. if they have their way karen will never attend law school, she'll never be an attorney. she'll be deported back to mexico a country which she hasn't lived in since she was two years old. karen got up every morning to classroom just as we do on the senate floor pledged allegiance to that flag. it's the only flag she knows. when she sings the national anthem, it is not the national anthem of mexico. it is the national anthem of the united states of america. karen wants to be part of the future of this country. two weeks ago when she joined me at erie house in chicago for a press conference, this is what she said. daca represents the values and heritage of this country of immigrants. it was the right thing to do. if changed my life by replacing

fear with hope. this executive action gave me an overwhelming sense of relief and hope. it lifted me from the shadows. karen viagomez, one of two million stories of eligible young people who want to be part of the future of america. it's time for the senate to say no to the house on a bipartisan basis. it's time for us to reject this hate-filled amendment process that they engaged in that put five riders on this appropriations bill to penalize young people like karen viagomez. is that the face of the republican party of america deporting karen villagomez, saying to her and others, you're not welcome in america leave? i don't think so. i have many republicans come to me sand say i support the dream act. let's pass the dream act. here is their chance. step up and defeat these

horrible riders that were attached to this appropriation bill by the house republicans. step up and give us a chance. as a nation to renew our commitment to our diversity to our heritage as a nation of immigrants and to renew our commitment to young people like karen whom we've told if you work hard and succeed, we want you to be part of our future. mr. president, i ask the next statement i'm about to be make to be placed in a separate part of the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: earlier this month i had a chance to visit cuba. we met with the cuban archbishop jamie are a integritya who shared the story of hope francis' efforts to improve relations with cuba and secure the release of the american prisoner alan gross. we met with activists foreign ambassadors from many countries, various ministry officials, agriculture telecommunication, science

technology environment all areas of considerable potential for the greater u.s.-cuban cooperation. our visit came a month after president obama secured the release of alan gross and made the historic decision to restore full diplomatic relations with cuba and begin rolling back over 50 years of failed policies toward that island. as i've said many times i'm not a fan of the castro regime. it has a troubling history of human rights abuse and suppressing peaceful political dissent. it has scanneddered are -- squandered the talents of so many people with a frozen political system and refused to provide full and independent accounting of the tragic death of activist and patriot oswaldo palla. i argued our policy toward cuba has failed and failed miserably to bring about reform and change in cuba. our policy towards cuba has hurt

the united states and our diplomatic standing in latin america and the caribbean where many regard our policy as an outdated relic of the cold war. so i was delighted and fully supportive when president obama took this bold move. during my visit i could already see the dividends most notably in the expressions of hope by the cuban people. you you go down the streets of havana and on the cabs are american flags. that would have been unthinkable two months ago. now it is part of their statement that it's time for a new relationship between cuba and the united states. as one cuban activist told me starkly, her talks with others around the island highlighted something she thought had been lost to the cuban people -- a sense of hope. mr. president, we need to do all we can to fulfill the hopes of the cuban people in one easy way is to provide greater engagement with america.

with ideas with energy, with the vibrancy that our nation can offer. i'm going to join today with my colleagues republican senators flake enzi, and moran and boozman, as well as democratic senators leahy udall and whitehouse in introducing legislation that will lift the remaining travel restrictions on american travel to cuba. representative stanford mcgovern will have a similar bill in the house. president obama recently eased these restrictions but we need to do our part in congress. it's not only the right thing for the cuban people, it's the right thing for america. americans shouldn't have restrictions on their freedom of travel. we don't restrict americans from traveling to nations with whom we fought wars. such as vietnam. and we don't restrict americans from traveling to countries with troubling regimes. north korea iran, uzbekistan. and douching the height of the

cold war americans were allowed to travel to the soviet union. so why not cuba? why do we still isolate this country? some say it's a res frommive regime don't want to show recognition to this regime. mr. president, it's just within this week that our president visited saudi arabia to attend the memorial service for their late king of that country. i would dare say there are aspects of the human rights policy of saudi arabia which aren't even close to american standards and yet we consider them a valuable ally. there's also a lesson in history. when the soviet union started to come down, it was cracking on the edges in the politics -- baltics, in the warsaw pact and other republics as they saw the outside world saw the opportunity, saw the need for change. we not have per veiled -- prevailed with isolation. let's engage the cuban people,

let's engage their economy their minding into thinking about a 21st century different than the dark days of communism they've lived under so many decades. i know several of my colleagues here particularly of cuban decent have strong -- descent have strong feelings about our relationship with cuba. i don't diminish that one bit. real suffering has taken place by their families and many others. but i hope we can look to the future and look to the next generation and look to the possibility that we can engage cuba in a positive way. ultimately it will be this new flow of american engagement and ideas that will help hope up cuba and improve the lives of their people. certainly we ought to try something different. 50 years of isolation those 50 years not have worked. today we're taking the first few steps on a path which i strongly support. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order the leadership

time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will will be in a period of morning business for one hour with senators permitted to speak therein for ten minutes each. with the democrats controlling the first half and republicans controlling the final half. the senator from delaware. mr. carper: while senator durbin is still on the floor i want to say i came -- we came toothaches together a few years ago in 1983. we didn't get a rot of time to speak on the house floor maybe a minute every day and we would say, somebody we agreed with, i'd like to be associated with the remarks of the gentleman from illinois and i'd very much like to be associated with the remarks of the senator fromville illinois. we have most favored nation trading status with vietnam today. i'd like to run as i like to work out and run in the mornings and some morning business that i stay down here and i run i run by to the lincoln memorial and come back by the vietnam

veterans memorial and i'm reminded of 55,000 lives we lost in that war yet we enjoy normal relations with that nation. if we can come to this point with vietnam after all the loss of life and the cost, we should certainly be able to move things along with cuba. i applaud what you just said and associate myself with your remarks and would like to be added as a cosponsor when you have room for one on the bill you just mentioned. thank you. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. carper: mr. president, good morning. i rise today to urge our republican colleagues to bring a clean fiscal year 2015 funding bill for the department of homeland security to the senate floor as soon as possible. earlier this month the world watched in horror as terrorists massacred journalists and innocent civilians in and around paris. in december we were stunned as computers at a major corporation here sony entertainment were attacked by north korea. over the past year, as recently

as last week, in fact, we've witnessed brutal executions at the hands of the islamic state of iraq and the lev ant. these illustrate too well the threats faced by america and our allies are real. as a former chairman and now ranking member of the government affairs committee i know this would be to be the case. in the wake of the the terrorist attacks of 9/11, congress created the department of homeland security, we call it d.h.s. to help secure and ensure our nation is protected against these continuing and evolving threats. given the origins of the department the work the men and women there do every day to keep us safe and the grave nature of the threats our country faces, it is shocking to me and disappointing to me that here we are today having this debate. we're now discussing ways we can make the department and its

employees more effective we're not discovering how we can make -- enable them to work better. senator coburn and those with whom we served in the last congress did that throughout the year. senator johnson and i did that just yesterday during our first hearing in the committee on homeland security this year. unbeliefable as we focused on cybersecurity attacks. debating debate whether to give this key national security agency funding for the remainder of the fiscal year. in order for that department to efficiently and effectively carry out their critical role, it needs adequate and reliable funding and they need it now. another short-term budget or even worse a shutdown, would be bad for the department and bad for employee morale. really bad. most importantly though, more importantly it would be a grave threat to our security. inreceived of sending us a straightforward clean funding

bill the house has unfortunately, sent us a bill that includes a number of amendments aimed at undermining the president's immigration policies. many of our colleagues on both sides have significant concerns with these amendments and the president has indicated that he would veto the funding bill if the amendments stay attached to it. thus these amendments jeopardize passage of the bill and they threaten to prolong the crippling budget uncertainty the department of homeland security has operated under. the department of homeland security already has a lot to say great grays over. we do them no favor by playing games with their budget. i understand why some of our colleagues are upset about the president's immigration policies and we can have a debate -- should have a debate about those concerns. but first we should be doing what we have been asked to do by giving the department of homeland security the resources that it needs to keep americans safe in an ever more dangerous world. two of our colleagues, senator

jeanne shaheen and barbara mikulski have introduced a clean he appropriation bill that mirrors funding provisions of the house bill. overall the funding provisions in their bill, s. 272, which i understand both democrats and republicans on the appropriations committee agreed to last year, last december, in fact provides $39.6 billion in discretionary spending -- discretionary funding for the department of homeland security. that's an increase, but this measure is more than just a funding bill. to my colleagues who want to do what we can right now to protect our country from the kind of attacks we've been seeing around the world of late, i say support a clean d.h.s. funding bill. to our colleagues who want reforms at the u.s. secret service, support a clean d.h.s. funding bill. a clean bill would provide the resources the secret service

needs to carry out much-needed reforms in the wake of the fence jumper incident and other security lapses. to my colleagues whose states need to recover from this week's blizzards or prepare for the next storm let me just say support a clean d.h.s. funding bill. we need to ensure that fema and our states have access to nearly $2.6 billion in grants to respond to future disasters both natural and man made. to my colleagues who want stronger border security and immigration enforcement a clean d.h.s. funding bill is what we ought to be rallying around. the clean bill put forward by senators shaheen and mikulski would make -- take additional measures to secure our border and enforce our immigration laws something i know is a priority to me and i think all of our colleagues. in fact, most of the funding increase in the shaheen-mikulski bill would go to border security and immigration enforcement. the bill that our colleagues have put forward contains a

little more than $10 billion for customs and border protection an increase of approximately $118 million above last year's enacted level. this funding level would support the largest operational force levels for the agency in its history. maintaining over 21,000 border patrol agents in support of the new funding level for nearly 24,000 officers. the shaheen-mikulski bill would also enable customs and border patrol to fly more patrols along our maritime and land borders and continue purchasing new force multiplier gear and equipment. it would also increase funding for critical surveillance technologies along our border, especially in the high risk areas like the rio grande valley by some $20 million. as our colleagues recall, last year our nation saw tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors and families from central america come to our southern

border. this clean full-year funding bill would provide immigration and customs enforcement $689 million more than last year's funding to address the additional needs associated with that surge. specifically it includes $3.4 billion for immigration detention and funds 34,000 adult detention beds. the shaheen minnesota mikulski bill would support the e-verify which checks businesses to make sure they are hiring legal employees. homeland security secretary jeh johnson said that to deny his department full-year funding would actually hurt our border security. we cannot continue to fall to short-term continuing resolutions and force the department to cut corners and scramble to fund its highest priorities. as we've learned over these years, mr. president