agents didn't have one of% control of the border. when you have these political conversations without taking into account the importance between significant dialogue between civil society and law enforcement, you would run the risk of undermining the very nature of the nation of homeland security. >> i think we have time for one more question. ..

it grows and ebbs and flows depending on economics and numerous other issues that we have. i'm just wondering, how much of the current problem we're seeing is actually part of that negative cycle that we have in the united states and in europe as well, of actually not seeing the benefits of two actual immigration and what it does? we focus so much on negativity of illegal immigration that it changes cultural identity of indigenous population and brings crimes and negative impacts on infrastructure. we don't have messaging to actual benefits of immigration and even hoist itally and even today. curious how much is part of that trend and how much we focus more on advertising the benefits of legal or immigration period. thank you. >> well, you know i grew up in the san diego border region and

i was was a high schoolkid in early '90s. and then, my backyard, had folks coming through there every single day hundreds of people crossed through the backyard of my home. so we, i'm very sensitive to the importance of making sure that we have a good narrative around about, undocumented immigration into the united states. folks should come erredderly safely. they shouldn't be dying deserts. shouldn't be die negotiate mountains. political conversation of course. here is my point. today there is still b-roll in the news media around folks coming through interstate 5 from 1994 as though operation gatekeeper never existed. all the enforcement strategies of the clinton administration and bush administration and obama administration were never put in place. we have obligation to change the

conversation about immigration in the united states. obviously it is a loaded conversation but i think more than that, it's a conversation about what happens to border remembers dents in this debate. because we're stuck between a rock and a hard place and if border communities are not considered as being part of the united states if we're viewed as being some sort after fringe element within american society in which our constitutional rights are trampled upon, and in which i have to go through a check point to see my sister in l.a. or go through a check point to see my in-laws in the county and i have to get a passport card for my one-year-old son in order to avoid getting harassed at check point those are conversation the if we don't have in, meaningful conversation on that and look at the negative impact that unchecked enforcement has on civil society, we can't even get to the point of the benefits and, negative consequences of

irregular migration. we want, border residents want to make sure we have a safe, orderly and humane immigration system. we are ones most interested in making that happens. again, we lived through that. but, it has been so difficult to have that conversation. paul makes a point. that when we have to, sort of capitulate to having an impossibility, as, a precondition to have a conversation on immigration reform, it makes it very difficult. it is not just about going to the border, and, seeing the wall or having a you know, a speech in front of the border wall but it is really about talking to business leaders talking to law enforcement leaders in the community. that is when you begin to change the narrative. we begin to change the narrative making sure those folks most impacted by unresolved debate over immigration and border enforcement, are brought to the capitol and we have and really

engage in conversations how we get to addressing that important question. >> brian? >> so i'm an economist and i'm an analyst so i always try to step back from the political issues and get to the quantitative analysis and there, immigration, both legal and illegal involved costs and benefits for native-born american households, legal immigrant households and undocumented households. and it is possible to do research on to the economic costs and benefits of, of, both types of immigration. when i was in the department of homeland security in 2007, in fact, i made sure that a study was done on that. and the the economic impacts of alternative immigration policies were quantified.

it is difficult to introduce those kinds of findings into the public discussion but i do think that maybe more of an effort could be made. i had been hoping to see that, more a part of the dialogue that took place in 2013, but, again it is difficult to introduce that in. would just like to make one observation about the narrative on the border. it is interesting to see how the communities on the border themselves fall into the narrative. i was recently in el paso and i saw a t-shirt for sale around the city that that showed a picture of a handgun and it said el paso you're not in kansas. and interestingly enough if you look at the data, the murder rate in wichita kansas has been much higher than the murder rate in el paso for 20 years. so you know. >> i'm going to take the prerogative of the chair. since you asked about analysis and you mentioned economic analysis i will point people to

a study that bpc put out in october 2013 that did macroeconomic analysis was then the senate immigration reform bill and certain scenarios around that, looking at the gdp, fiscal effects, wage impacts on housing. we are working on another study which we hope will come out later this spring that will look at additional scenarios might come, for example, if the house were to move reg legislation. we're doing our part to talk about the economic impacts of immigration and benefits it can accrue. i want you to join me thanking our panelists, thank you for coming and we do appreciate your time. [applause] [inaudible conversations].

[inaudible conversations]. >> both chambers of congress back in session today after a two-week recess the house gaveling at 2:00 p.m. eastern time with votes after 6:30. later this week work on bills reforming tax code and irs oversight. follow the house live on c-span. the senate also back in at

2:00 eastern with a vote scheduled at 5:30 on a district court judicial nomination. also possible the senate could return to work on antihuman trafficking measure after negotiations fell apart last month because of abortion language in the bill. you can follow the senate live right here on c-span2. later this afternoon florida senator marco rubio expected to announce his candidacy for president. marco rubio is a freshman senator who will be the third republican to officially enter the 2016 race. we got some details surrounding the announcement earlier today. >> host: we're joined by mark caputo on the line. he is "politico"'s florida politica l reporter, joining us to talk about the announcement today from marco rubio. tell us about the setting and expected themes marco rubio will talk about that. >> guest: got to give credit for marco rubio announcing at freedom tower. in downtown miami. really iconic building.

was named the freedom tower in recognition in the fact in 1960s it was used as what became called the ellis island ofec the south to process cuban refugees fleeing from cuba. he is using this as a launchpad to announce that he is running for president. marco rubio being the son of cuban immigrants, cuban exiles. it fits within his history and his narrative being, quote, unquote, american dream candidate. stage craft is good. obviously whether the campaign craft will be enough to get him across the finish line will be another matter. >> host: any hints what the message will be? particularly how hes will position himself earlier here defense the announced candidates rand paul, ted cruzuz and even against hillary clinton? >> guest: good question, rubio, up to now has been largely a candidate of ideas and of biography. in many respects he has certain echoes to president obama back in 2008.

so, his exact campaign strategy and tactics of course they won't necessarily say but i have heard the speech a few thousand times. most of the people who covered rubio but nevertheless it is very effective. he talksut about how he is son of a maid and a bartender when heis goes to high dollar fund-raisers see in the back of the room a bartender think back to his father's struggle and being in similar rooms and howte he is the fulfillment of the american dream. so expect to hear more of that. twas the same or similar speech he gave at the rnc in 2014, that is the republican national convention. as for where exactly he will position himself in witch lane of the republican primary almost seemsf like all lanes. he has got a little bit of tea party and a little bit of establishment and i wouldn't say much of ali libertarian lane.of so maybe i should strike saying all lanes. many respects his campaign success has somewhat premised idea that jeb bush has too many

structural deficiencies within the republican party to cross the finish line. and scott walker might not make it d either and he almost rises by default.by so you know, we'll have to see how that plays out. >> host: your piece in politico.com why marco rubio couldn't say no. what were you writing about? guest guest we've been writing pieces how a candidate got to yes. when rube bow looks and his advisors look at his history and his trajectory it was more like, what is the reason not to run? and they really couldn't find one. the best reason not to run for rubio would be to stay in the u.s. senate and run for re-election in 2016. florida doesn't allow you to run for two offices on same ballot. rubio is not fan of u.s. senate. he does not like the u.s. senate and prestige but it really doesn't does anything. you know, this isn't necessarily the most attractive place for him to stay. rubio still has main residence or hisat residence in west miami unlike a lot of senators and

congressman. he didn't move to washington. if he moves from west miami to washington he wants to move to the house lesser degree, naval observatory. >> host: covering the story by marco rubio that he will run for president in 2016. follow mark caputo at "politico".com. thanks for the update this morning. >> guest: you're welcome, thank you. >> we'll have the announcement today, 5:30 p.m. eastern time over on our companion network, c-span. >> tonight on "the communicators," spectrum policy director for alliance science and technology, carl nebia on importance for spectrum for the government and the public. >> the last two administrations have both written presidential memorandum on spectrum. when i first started in spectrum management back in 1979 i came out of the marine corps after being an artillery officer. i didn't know anything about spectrum.

most people that met and oftentimes i worked with didn't understand much about spectrum. now everybody realizes the part of our daily lives, our devices completely rely on it. our ability to communicate and often do our jobs or stay in touch with our family. >> tonight at 8:00 eastern, on "the communicators," on c-span2. >> education secretary arne duncan joined civil rights activist wade henderson recently to rethorrize the elementary and secondary education act signed into law in 1965 giving federal grants to school districts with low income students. this is held at mlk library in downtown d.c. [applause] >> thank you. well, good morning. thank you for coming here on this dreary and cold day when just a couple of days ago it was like 75 degrees. and welcome, to the martin luther king jr. memorial library.

a most bee fitting place to discuss and commemorate the 50th anniversary of the elementary and secondary education act. legislation that promoted equal access to education regardless of income or ability. i am joi mecks the director of communication for the d.c. public library thanking you on behalf of the executive director for joining us this morning. for years public libraries have been the great equalizer providing free access to energy for all. -- information for all. from birth libraries expose children to letters words sentences and phrases through song story-telling and of course reading. as students, children and teens use libraries for homework help, research, to study and to prevent the summer slide when they are on break from school. in recent years, technology has

been an important attraction for students as they can access computers, and wi-fi for free. students visit the digital commons on my right to create prototypes with the 3d printer for school projects. we would like to thank wade henderson, president and ceo of the leadership conference on civil and human rights and the leadership conference education fund and rachel skerritt, principal of eastern high school for joining us this morning. [applause] and i'd like to personally thank secretary duncan, a person i have known for 15 years can you believe that? who has always had a passion and unending commitment to quality education for all. [applause] thank you. and now i'd like to welcome

latoya comewell a student at dunn bar high school, to introduce the secretary. [applause] >> good morning. good morning distinguished guests, fellow students and everyone in attendance today. my name is latoya cromwell. i'm a rising senior at historical paula ends, dunbar senior high school. it is my honor to introduce our secretary of education arne duncan. secretary duncan is our ninth u.s. secretary of education and he has served in this capacity since his confirmation by the u.s. senate on january 20th, 2009. president obama tasked secretary duncan with overwhelming and once exceptional education system and by all accounts secretary duncan has been up to the task. although there is still much

work to be done i believe that we are on our way to reclaiming our true educational potential. in addition to fighting for pell grants finding money for teaching and transforming struggling schools into accountable performance schools, i bet you didn't know that secretary duncan has an amazing mid-rise gave as evidenced at this year's nba all-star game. ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming our secretary of education arne duncan. [applause] >> thank you so much, latoya. please give her another round of applause. [applause] she did fantastic. she said she was a little nervous. i'm nervous before every single speech. get used to it. it is her birthday tomorrow. tell her happy birthday. thanks to all of you for coming here to our educators, civil

rights leaders thanks what you do on behalf of students. could i ask all the students here to please stand. give them all a round of applause very quickly. [applause] it is important for you to know i know we'll have question afterwards, please feel free. all of us as adults here we work for you. to help you be successful we're doing our job. if we don't help you be successful we're not doing our job. to help you take the next step beyond high school latoya and you all have thinking about that is so important. all of us entrusted with leadership and education in civil rights, standing below this mural tells us how much we have to live up to. both an awesome challenge and amazing opportunity. so too this picture of this young girl here. and this is star brown. i, left message with her parents last night. she lives in the north side of minneapolis in minnesota.

it's a pretty tough neighborhood. the four years since star was born, her family faced some huge challenges. her dad suffered an injury at work. her mom became sick with a brain tumor. despite those challenges, they never, never quit working. to make sure that star had every opportunity to have a great future. they signed star up to be part of the north side achievement zone. northside is a promise neighborhood a partnership between schools non-profits community groups modeled after jeffrey canada's extraordinary work in the harlem children's zone in new york. northside team helped star get a scholarship to attend a high quality, early learning center. on first day of preschool star hardly said a word. in someplaces her silence might have been overlooked but star's teachers discovered what may have seemed like first day jitters was a severe speech delay. star struggled to pronounce her own name. her teacher helped star get

access to speech therapy to become more engaged in the classroom. with practice and hard work, star learned to sound out words and name colors and shapes just like her piers. today sar loves learning more than ever. she shows it by teaching others how to spell her name, identifying new words and staying in school often until 5:00 in the evening. star's teachers say she is one of the brightest kids in the room. this fall star will start strong in kindergarten. she proudly wears a t shirt announcing her plans college graduate in 2033. star's story at its heart is not just about overcoming adversity. what it is really about i think is opportunity made real. it is about a child's gifts and curiosity and excitement for learning being given a real chance to flourish. it is easy to say that every child deserves opportunity regardless of race, or disability or zip code or family income. it is easy to say that we expect

excellence from every child but it takes work, hard work to make that opportunity real. if you truly believe that all children deserve that kind of opportunity, then our collective work becomes extraordinarily clear. we know when family and educators and community leaders work together they can unlock the great vault of opportunity of this nation, to echo the words of dr. king from his march on washington. our work is to make sure that opportunity is not just a possibility but a promise. nowhere is that promise clearer than in the visionary law that congress passed 50 years ago today, the elementary and secondary education act. it marks an extraordinary step for education and for civil rights. the fight for educational opportunity and the fight for civil rights always have been and always will be inextricably linked. esea built a foundation under

our nation's schools helping to raise the bar for every child and insure resources are there for those most in need. it's helped to create expectation that no matter where you live in it country when students are not making progress, local leaders will come together to make change, especially for students with disabilities, students who are still learning english students from a particular racial group students who live in poverty or students coming from a particular school. the progress that has been made in those 50 years is remarkable. today, african-americans and latino nine-year-olds succeed in math about the same level as their 13-year-old peers did in the 1970s. today, dropout rates are down significantly for black and latino students. high school graduation rates height an all-time high for all students and gaps are closing fast for african-americans latino, and native-american students. with grad rates up and dropout

rates down, just since 2008 college enrollment by black and latino students has grown by more than a million. that is a big big deal with many of those students being first generation college goers. in the places that have been most committed to change, progress has been dramatic. and in tennessee i'm proud to say right here in desee, students have made unmatched gains, they are getting better, faster than students in other parts of the country. in star's neighborhood in indianapolis, the northside achievement zone all but eliminated gaps for african-american boys. as a nation we need to double down on that progress and do everything we can to accelerate the pace of change. everyone here knows we can not rest because we still have so far to go. why? why do we have so much work ahead of us? because today, a quarter of our high schools, with the highest percentage of african-american latino students do not offer

algebra ii and a third do not offer chemistry. today about 40% of the school districts do not offer preschool programs like the one star attends. because today we have far too many students of color primarily boys being suspended and expelled from school. and finally because today you can search five entire states and find only four girls in those states who took an ap computer science exam. our work will not be doe until we insure that opportunity is not just a possibility but a promise. as every teacher and principal will tell you the esea, now known as no child left behind is long overdue for repairs. it is broken and wildly out of date. we need a new law that does more to support innovation and creativitity by educators in communities and a lot less to stifle that creativity. a new law must stay true to the vision that opportunity is not somehow optional, it is a right

for every child, every child in this country. we can not afford to leave any of our talent on the sidelines. opportunity is a right. it inspires teachers and principals to literally dedicate their lives to empowering our children. opportunities are ripe that encourages parents to expect their children will graduate from college and succeed in life, even if, maybe especially if those parents never had that chance themselves. our work as leaders is not done until we have lived up to that promise, to do that, we need to strong new, esea that fulfills the right of all children to have a real opportunity to succeed. we need a new law and must be bipartisan, both in the house and in the in the senate. quality education is in our nation's best interests. not in any single parties interest. a new law must insure our precious resources go to the students for whom they are

intended. we must not shift funds from the neediest schools to wealthier neighborhoods that makes absolutely no sense. we need to continue making sure that parents and educators and local leaders have the information they need to understand how all students and all schools are doing every year. educators need that information and families have a right to it as well. as part of that, we need to make sure that the assessments students are taking measure learning in meaningful way and offer a dashboard of student's progress. anything else, simply wastes valuable learning time a new bill needs to do more to support our hard-working teachers and principals and insure highly skilled educators are teaching where they are needed most. great teachers and school leaders are critically, critically important to providing true opportunity. our goal as leaders in education and civil rights must be able to live up to the idea that opportunities is the right of every child. so take a moment and talk about

what we can do together to make that ideal a reality. any new law must support the expansion of early learning opportunities, like the one that star is so fortunate to have in minneapolis. we can not continue to allow thousands and thousands of five-year-olds every single year to start kindergarten a year to 15 months behind. not fair to them, to their families or to their teachers. republican and democratic governors and mayors at communities across the country have shown their support for early learning because they know what's possible when schools begin with a strong start a new esea should build on efforts to bring high quality learning opportunities to all children and a new education law must insure action in any school where groups of students are consistently struggling and continue support and bold options in our lowest-performing schools. according to a new report, more

than a million students attend high schools that graduate just 2/3 of their students or less. most of those students are students of color and come from low-income families. that's simply unacceptable and the in the most pros pus nation on earth when education must be must be the great equalizer. we know we can and must do bert. we must build on efforts to create opportunities for moses at booker t. washington high school in miami. when moses started in ninth grade, his school was pretty tough place. only half of the students graduated. unfortunately he was sometimes in trouble. hard-working teachers, fantastic city members and school counselors came together to transform the school in an effort called diplomas now. with federal support for intensive, innovative hands on approach they created real

opportunities for moises and his piers to achieve. they had real time data to track school progress and encouraged moises and his friends every single step of the way. their collective efforts in short period of time are paying off. today, 80% of students graduate from booker t. washington. more than half of them are headed to college. same building, same neighborhood, same families. same challenges. but a very different set of expectations and supports. very different results. . .

to help many more students walk the path to college new law must invest in innovative to improve outcomeses. we most -- another field in medicine and energy and defense, the need for innovation is well understood. when a back scene to a disease is 0 discovered the goal is never to hoard it for a few but to get it out to the public to everyone as fast as possible. but sadly in education, we spend less than one percent of our resources each year on research and deep. despite an outpouring of creativity from local educators

who are helping students beat the odds every day. over the last few years we in the adapt of education have received more than 4,000 proposals for innovative local projects. unfortunately we have only had the resources to find 150 of those 4,000. there's no upside to that. we must put more resources behind great local projects that are changing students' lives. where we have invested in innovation it's often been a game-changer and in rural tennessee, a grant has brought college level courses to more than 25,000 students in 30 high schools, many of which are gaining access to ap classes for the first time in north carolina, a met a young student named eric who will soon be a first generation high school graduate. his parents didn't have the same opportunity to go to high school, but right now he is getting a jump start on college

thanks to a federally supported partnership that has helped eric and more than 1700 of his peers complete college level classes. and eric told us, i want to be able to say i earned everything i have. we should all work together to make sure that all students just like eric and all of you here today have that opportunity to earn their way to work their way to a better future. as you strive to expand opportunities for all children i feel really fortune and pleased that senators lamar alexander and patty murray, the chair and ranking members of the senate education committee released a bill this week and we're lucky to have their leadership and passion. next week they'll begin discussions with lawmakers in their efforts to build a new bipartisan education law. senator alexander and senator murray share a life-long commitment to improving education.

senator murray spent years as a preschool teacher and an early learning advocate for the people in her home state of washington. this work is in her blood it's why she entered politics. long before senator -- senator alexander fought to end a policy of discrimination at vanderbilt when he was the it i e editor of this college newspaper. my father is from tennessee and always had tremendous respect for senator alexander. i hope that leaders in the house of representatives, where a much more partisan process has unfolded, see the value in their leadership and pursue a bipartisan path there as well. as a nation, we simply cannot afford to turn back the clock on students like eric and star and moises. we cannot cut our way to greater opportunities for our nation's children. congress had a chance to create

a new law to help make educational opportunity a promise not a possibility for every child in this country. a new law must build a foundation for 21st century schools by investing in innovation supporting our fantastic teachers and principals, and encouraging every student's progress so that our nation's greatest asset are our children's vast academic and social potential, can be fully realized. that's what star brown and after child like her deserves. a law that says all children in this country deserve a real chance. a law that says we don't have a single child, a single kid, to spare. a law that says woe our children, our teachers, and our schools more support and more opportunity, not less. a law that says opportunity is a promise, not somehow just a possibility. and we're going to continue to work hard every single day to see that promise through. until then, our work is not done.

i know star can graduate from college and 2033, and millions more students like her deserve all the support and all the opportunities that our country has to offer. i look forward to working together with chairman alexander and senator murray, chairman cline and representative scott their colleagues and with all of you to make this extraordinary promise a reality. thank you so much. i look forward to our conversation. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> good morning everyone. >> good morning. >> i want to begin by thanking the secretary for his inspiring words on the 50th anniversary of congress' voting on the "no child left behind." as joy mentioned, i am the proud principal of eastern senior high school here in d.c. and i also work part-time with the department of education as a principal ambassador fellow providing input on their initiatives and their hard work as they really work to improve all of our nation's public schools, 100,000 of them. very honored today to be joined by mr. wade henderson, president and ceo of the leadership conference, thank you for joining us here today, and the real honor is being with all 0 of these beautiful students in front of us from local schools. can we give them hand today for coming out?

[applause] >> so, very excited to begin this conversation on some of the progress to date and also the challenges as we look ahead to the next 50 years, and want to really begin with you mr. henderson, as someone who committed your life's work to issues of equity and civil rights. what real where resonated for you today, listening to the secretary's words and as you're looking in front of you at all these young people, why is this important for them to be hearing today as well? >> well, thank you. good morning everyone. it's really an honor to be here. first, let me thank secretary duncan for the invitation to join him and you in this conversation. it's really an important time to have a discussion like this, so thanks thanks for doing it. thanks the mlk memorial library for hosting this event under the great mural of dr. king, a

powerful symbol of what this conversation is about. i want to salute our musical entertainment this morning, spirit of love. they're pa band here in d.c. i also want to thank the students from dunbar from cardoza, from baniker, the principal from eastern, these are all d.c. schools and is this a century veer moment. i'm from d.c. i grew up in the bloomingdale neighborhood. i went to public schools here. i went to mckinley tech high school. i graduated just about maybe a year from now but almost 50 years ago when the ese and the voting rights act were passed. this is a surreal moment for me because i'm where you are today but i was 50 years ahead of you. and i saw a lot of the changes that we're talking about come to

pass. now, i thought that secretary duncan's speech really hit on one of the great themes of today's conversation. opportunity is a right, it's not just a promise. it is a birthright of american citizenship, and we as american citizens deserve the full opportunity that education provides. secondly this is the 150th 150th anniversary of the end of the american civil war. the single most transformative event, building toward american democracy, second only perhaps to the revolutionary war, and the truth is it was the civil war that put us on the trajectory of becoming a more perfect union. we're still struggling to achieve that goal today. african-americans have long known that the twin pillars of change in this country were voting rights, and education. and so it's not an accident that

50 years ago it was president johnson who led the way on the passage of the voting rights act of 1965, and the elementary and secondary education act of 1965. those issues go hand in hand. when i look at what the citizens of ferguson, missouri, have done dete ballot box, electing new members of the city council that's a sign of progressive change, and i know that 50 years has real are brought change to the district of columbia, just few years ahead of you, up until 1964 d.c. was a segregated southern town by race and by custom and i hated it. i hated it. i chafed at not having the right of citizenship we all are entitled to. so the changes the voting rights act and the esea have brought to this country are really important. but don't kid yourself we have

reached the goal we have tried to achieve. the murder of walter scott in charleston, south carolina, this past weekend, bay police officer, shows you that change is tough. it's not easy to accomplish. and as far as we have come we have a long way to go. so on the education front why i am so passionate about these issues is because i believe they provide the gateway for change. i went to mckinley. i did by undergraduate work at howard. i am a lawyer because i went to rutgers law school, and i'm now part of the change i always wanted to see coming and you can do it, too but you have to have the support of the kind of federal law that secretary duncan talked about. so, yes, i'm pleased about change. but i know that this is not a perfect system. every kid in the this country should have the opportunity for high-quality, pre-kindergarten education, because if you don't

have it you don't have the equal foundation and you're not ready to learn. poor kids start school with thousands of words of deficit because they have not learned the vocabulary of success. and they never catch up. so we want that for our kids. we want schools that have high academy standards because those standards make a difference in the quality of education you get. but standards without resources and support impose a burden on kids that you shouldn't have to bear on your own. high-quality teachers should be distributed in every school in our country, and teachers with the most experience should be sent to schools with the most challenging student populations of poverty and difficulty. we have to overcome the problems of poor discipline in schools but, more importantly the fact we're suspending kids. so the bill that secretary duncan talked about, and the

bill that is now moving its way through the senate with senator patty murray and senator alexander, are really -- is an important bill. and, yes it is a promising start. but there are changes that are needed, guys and so i won't dwell on those here, but i will say that overall the promise that i see in the faces of the young students here from d.c. it's really encouraging to me. but i know that the success that we want for you, the success i've had the success that others like us have had will depend on whether you get the kind of education we want for you and for our own children, and that's really what this struggle and debate is really all about. so thank you so much. >> thank you so much. [applause] secretary, i want to turn to you

right here locally in d.c., you have had the opportunity for a really deep dive the past five to six years nationally visiting hundreds of schools speaking to thousands of educators, an opportunity that not most americans have. opposite they leave school they're not in them as offer as you are. what are some of the points of pride you feel speak to the most recent successes of the past five to six years that set set us on the path mr. henderson eluded to of all students reaching the opportunity for a quality education. >> the fact we have -- is this on -- i think the fact that high school graduation rates are all-time highs is a huge deal and i'm not that old. i was in high school on the south sued of chicago. some friends dropped out. they could work in the stackyards and steel mills and have a pretty good job and own a home and support a family. those jobs are gone from the

south site of chicago. they're gone across the country and they're never coming back. today if you drop out of high school you're basically condemned to poverty and social failure. there are no good jobs. none. in the legal economy. you can try and make it on the streets for a little while but we know how that usual i ends up. there are few jobs if ju just have a high school diploma. and whether it's four-year universities or two-year colleges or vocational training so seeing high school graduation rates up and every group getting better, african-american kids at latino kids, they'dtive american students can student with disabilities, english-language learners, those below the poverty line is hugely encouraging. the challenge is we still have so far to go. we can't rest until the dropout rate is as close to zero as possible, and the goal is not to just graduate but graduating truly ready for the rigors of college work and that's where

high expectations matter. what inspires me, whether it's inner city schools or rural communities or native american reservations are the students. we have amazing students who are overcoming unbelievable odds every day. talked to a young man yesterday native american whose dad passed away whose stepmom passed away. he is a little bit older than you guys not much. 20 21. he is raising his four younger siblings. he is making sure they're in school every day. not fair, not what he signed up for, but he is handle it extraordinarily well. and we just as adults need to meet ore young people halfway, with we do it, you'll make us proud but we have to provide that opportunity and can't just be for some, has to be for all. has to be for the kids who need it most. >> the perfect leadin to opening the conversation to our students. i want to invite either one of you to ask any questions that

you might have of this group as i'm sure they may have some solutions for us as we look to the next 50 years. >> i have two questions. first one is how too we make sure every single young person understands how important their education is? and sometimes i feel some young people don't quite understand what is at stake, and decisions you make 159 and 16 and 17 will shape you for the rest of your life. so, how do we happen every young person know that these decisions are life-changing, for good or for bad. one question. and, two, any advice you have if you were in my shoes shoes shoes or mr. hendersons shoes what you want us to do bet to make sure you get a agreed education. >> i'd only follow up on that. what do you think we need to do? what do we need to do to better help you achieve the goal you have of graduating from high

school either going to college getting a trade trying to pursue some way of developing your own lives. what do you think we can do to better help you? i'd be interested in hearing your take on that. >> who wants to start? >> don't all jump up at once. >> a question around how we motivate each other as peers and also advice or ideas you have for the secretary or mr. henderson. young man on the end. >> over here. >> the question for mr. duncan, i think that for you i think

that all high schools should have a mentoring program, because many kids -- meet per se, i have a mentor, and she helps me stay on track. a lot of kids don't have motivation. they can't look up to anybody because we're -- they're on the same level with someone else. so i think that high schools should have a mentoring program because we need someone to help us stay on track. >> great idea. >> tell you a little story about myself. i was lucky. i had two parents at home who were both college educated so it had a huge value in our house. from the time i was ten years old, a player on the hobble back team was my michael jordan, and i'm now 50, and a man named john rogers, he has been me best friend and mentor0. he has by for the most impact in my life of any adult, outside 0

of my parents and herself never been any decision i made without consulting him. and i had a strong family. so i think how much he changed my life and influenced my life. for kids who aren't lucky enough to have two parents at home for me even that much more significant. a hugely important idea and what has shaped who i am today. >> any other ideas any other questions what? do you think we can do to be helpful. one here. >> hello. i am robert gross. i'm a senior here at car dose sew -- cardozo high school. i have an answer and a question of my own. my school in particular doesn't have a band, and i remember my ninth grade year and being able to get -- that what's first thing that got me into the school and got me to actually want to go to school because i was in the band and because i was out in something i feel passionate about. i feel as if every school had some type of musical outlet for the students to go to, so they

have something to actually do on their mean time or something that actually like, makes them want to actually be in school it would help a lot. my question is, okay, so i was recently asked the -- at the mayor's state of the district address. she said dcps is one over fastest improving urban school districts in the nation. was wondering could you possibly give some insight on how the new or updated esea bill would possibly help this district and others like it become not only the fastest improving but just plainly the best. >> wow wow. those are both -- [applause] -- yeah, yeah. great observation. great question. just as the young lady who posed the question about mentors, great observations. very helpful.

let me go to i guess your first question about the arts. the arts are an essential part of a quality public education. you have to have exposure to arts whether it's music, the visual arts, some ability to tap into your artistic sensibility. i was very fortunate because i was part of a program here in d.c. called upward bound, and interestingly enough -- [applause] -- okay couple people may be old enough to remember upward bound. but it would take you to museums. you get exposure to the artistic side of life. it helps to develop your brain, your capacity to learn, your ability to enjoy the quality of life. and unfortunately, the arts are short-changed in our public school systems today, and they are among the first programs to be sacrificed under the guise of

fiscal austerity. when they in fact should be preserved as an essential element of learning. so, i completely agree with your observation, and to me when we don't have sufficient money in the budget for artistic expression, then we need to have private funds to augment that. but you see too often, that is ignored, and so it goes into your second question. what is the elementary and secondary education act being considered now in congress likely to do for a city school system like washington? washington has a relatively small public school system. of course, we have charter system that is well-recognized and well-respected, but i will say so you when you sacrifice a public school system you are sacrificing the long-term future of our community and so it needs to be preserved. we have chancellor who is doing

very well. the issue is, will she have the resources necessary to implement a program long-term that can help improve the quality of schools? i think you have to have, for example, assignment of teachers to make sure that schools east of the river have the same resources available west. that dividing line the economic dividing line in the city, is as prominent today as it was when i was in high school 50 years ago. so i'm saying to you that an equitable distribution of resources, an accountability system that holds our schools accountable for the success of the students and i don't mean imposing burdens on teachers that are not rightly their own. teachers perform an important function. they're demonized in the politics of today and that's outrageous and we need to stand

up for what they do. having said that we have to make sure your school system and your resources aren't determined by your zip code. you should be able to get the same quality of resources that are available on all schools. so to me i think you have to particularize how the bill will help to respond to those fundamental questions. you can't do that without some federal accountability system that ensures that states live up to their responsibility. you can't do that unless you have disaggregated data about the performance of students in school. you can't change what you can't measure, and if you don't have data on student performance you can't possibly see where that is going, and other small changes are necessary to create a more level playing field. but i think your question, it's a very insightful question. thank you for posing it. and again, you guys give me great encouragement in knowing that students are thinking about what is required for their

success. i give you one last thing. the civil -- the office of civil rights in the department of education issued a report recently examining statistical data about the performance of schools around the country. one of the most shocking provisions shocking dat points, was that in preschools african-americans constitute 16% of preschool enrollment. here they constitute 46% of out of school suspensions. and i citied myself, how could a four-year-old be suspended from school at such a disproportionalitily high rate unless the problem of unconscious bias has come into that system and needs to be expunged. we have a lot of work to do. the bill that you're talking about, my map, can only address a few of these issues. there are problems that are local in nature and that have to be resolved here. and i think the school system is committed to making those changes, and i'm impressed by what i see as well.

>> thank you so much. thick we're going to give the last word and question tower moises. >> mic check mic check. well, i have a question based on the thing she was saying about mentoring, but more of a different aspect of it. mr. derrick moore, part of john hopkins university -- basically my question is, why aren't more schools being implemented with programs like -- as a way for early rising indicators for job opportunities and why isn't it more of a -- >> there are a couple of theme is think are really important in this bill, without getting into the details. one is a focus on equity.

this bill doesn't provide opportunity for every single child then it misses the civil rights heart and legacy of it. secondly, we have to focus on excellence, high expectations for everybody the accountability, but the third thing has to happen is this idea of innovation, and again, whether it's an inner city d.c. or miami or native american reservations, we see amazing work that teachers and principals mentors, are doing to get radically different results, again, take your high school. huge increases in graduation rates in just a couple years. the challenges vent gone away the problems haven't gone away but it's a different set of expect for what you and your peers can do. what we don't do in education is scale, take to scale what works and is a talked about in my speech, we get thousands of an mix can'ts from amazing groups doing faction -- fantastic

things and congress hasn't given us us enough resources to do that. so whether it's miami or rural tennessee or appalachia and ohio and other places we're seeing kids in communities who never had access to college level classes, not just taking them passing them. they're not any smarter. they just have the opportunity. so we have to start to scale what works and none of this is easy. there's no secret formula here. we need to learn and be humble get better faster but we have to start to scale what works. that's why i try to give the analogy and figure out something that can cure cancer we try to disseptember made that as fast as we can. if we can end dropout rate wes need to disseminate that as fast as we can and they're doing a fantastic job but there's still far too many schools and far too many children and far too many communities who don't have access to best practices, and if we know those things work, to

not share it with them is unfair unjust, unacceptable; [applause] >> i thank everyone for coming today. as a principal i feel re-envision rated going back to school and a great affirmation that d.c. is full of students, educators and community members who are passionate about creating these opportunities for our brilliant students and look forward to continuing this work with you all and the support of the department and all of you. thank you so much. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> both chambers of congress return today after a two-week recess. the house gaveling in in about 30 minutes. 2:00 p.m. eastern final, for debate of several bills with votes at 6:30 and later this week, bills on reforming the tax code and irs oversight. watch the house live on c-span, and the senate also back in today 2:00 eastern with a 5:30 vote scheduled on a district court nomination. also possible the senate could return to work on an antihuman trafficking measure after negotiations fell apart a few weeks ago because of abortion language in that bill. for more on this week in congress we spoke earlier today with a capitol hill reporter. >> we are joined by lauren fox who is with national journal. two weeks off. looks like they have a lot to do in both the house and senate in

the coming weeks lauren fox. >> guest: they certainly do i think one of the first things that congressmen and senators will be failed with is many of them are clamoring to comment on this iran framework which the obama administration negotiated with iran. there's a lot of concern about that and certainly that's something that the senate foreign relations committee is going to turn to this week. there's also house members are looking for the senate to pass the medicare doc 6 and we're also seeing here that house republicans have a series of messaging bills on taxes they prepared ahead of the filing deadline on april 15th. >> oo on the issue of the medicare fix, "the wall street journal" headline is senate wrangles over medicare payments fix. just one of a number of unfinished items and certainly the -- among the items to get finished is a budget resolution

from the house and senate moving forward on 2016. what do we know about the time frame for that? >> guest: i think we should note this budget is very important for republicans. this is what they ran on in 2014 to get elected. a republican majority. so it's very important they come out here and prove they can govern with this budget document. i think one of the sticking points here is going to be just these broad disagreements about spending on military items. i think that moving forward that's going to continue to be a sticking point. certainly there are other differences between the senate budget and the house budget that are going to need to be worked out. that is going to be on the top of the agenda. and republicans know this is a must-pass piece of legislation for them if they're going to go home and be able to deliver on what they promised during the election. >> host: its take week the filing deadline, and the house focusing on tax legislation.

broadly, will any of that hey have any traction in the u.s. senate? >> guest: well they -- certainly the house is going through a series of messaging bills here. one that sticks out to me is just legislation to prohibit irs employees from using personal e-mail accounts could conduct official business harkens back to what we saw a few years ago with the scandal that the irs was using special discretion for those conserve tv groups applying for tax exempt status. that might have traction in the republican-controlled senate. have a debate about. but certainly nothing from the point of passing without democrat votes and i don't see democrats willing to get onboard. >> host: on the issue of personal e-mail accounts, the issue of hillary clinton's server came up. certainly as congress is going into recess. what is the status of the benghazi committee and their

request for hillary clinton to be interviewed by the committee. >> guest: they consider do it be dogged. i think we'll have to wait to see what trey gowdy is saying here moving forward, but i think one of the things to remember is that they have to be very careful they're walking a very fine line here between investigating benghazi, which what's they're set up and their jurisdiction is to do and then wading into presidential politics. i think trey gowdy is very careful to ensure the republicans aren't seen on capitol hill as using this as a political statement ahead of the 2016 presidential election. >> host: you can read more of lauren foxes reporting at national journaldom. thank you for the preview of the return of congress. >> guest: thank you. i appreciate it. >> and also this afternoon, florida senator marco rubio expected to announce his candidacy for president today. rubio is in his first term as senator. the third republican to

officially enter the 20 -- 2016 race. we'll have live coverage on c-span. >> tonight on the community indicators spectrum policy director for alliance science and technology on the importance of spectrum for the government and the public. >> the last two administrations have both written presidential memorandum on spectrum. when i first started in spectrum management back in 1979 i came out of the marine corps after being artillery officer. i didn't know anything about spectrum. most people that i met and even those i work with didn't understand much about spectrum. now everybody realize that part of our daily lives are devices completely relying on our ability to communicate and often do our jobs or stay in tough with our family. >> tonight at 8:00 eastern on the communicators on c-span2.

>> at the white house press briefing today, press secretary josh ernest talk about u.s. tax policy equal pay for women and relations with cuba and russia. this is 20 minutes. >> good afternoon, everybody. nice to see you all. a couple of you might have made the trip back successfully from panama. welcome back. do a quick rundown at the top and then get straight to your questions. this week the president intends to spend a lot of time talking about his agenda that is focused on middle class economicses. we believes we have an opportunity to build on the progress we have made so far base owned the simple idea which is that our economy is strongest when it's growing from the middle out and that's why the president is going to continue to advocate for policies that benefit middle class family, and the way it will grow our economy from the middle out.

the stan inside stark contrato republicans who believe they should target benefits and relief to those at the top with the expect addition those benefits with trickle down to everyone else. the best example of this is we see the republicans are trying to advance through the house of representatives this week a proposal that would offer a $300 billion tax cut to -- targeted specifically at that small group of estates that is worth in excess of $11 million. the president for about that same amount of money believes we can actually offer tax relief to 44 million working families. and again, that is a pretty stark contrast in approach. the president wanted the opportunity to make the case about his approach that is focused on middle class and working families, and around the

television interviews he planned for later today at the white house. doing interviews will love television reports from pennsylvania wisconsin, south dakota, ohio and maine, to talk about this issue. tomorrow the president will mark equal pay day here the white house and will call on congress to pass the paycheck fairness act which would strengthen the equal pay act of 1963 and give women additional tools to fight pay discrimination. on wednesday the president will travel to charlotte, north carolina, where he'll meet with working women to discuss the plan he laid out in his budget proposal to help those women who are both working in the workplace but also trying to raise a family. and the context of that visit he'll take some questions from online communities that cater to working women. to talk about this issue. on thursday the president will make a special appearance here at the white house at a champions for change event where he will honor working families and advocates for working families and recognize theirs efforts to fight for things like workplace

flexibility, paycheck fairness and putting an end to pregnancy discrimination. so, a very practical pocketbook focused agenda for this week in addition to a range of other issues. i'm prepared to talk about all that today. so, darlene, do you want get to us started? >> thank you. i have couple of questions on the -- prime minister or iraq. before he left today he said that his country needs more support from the international community to finish off the islamic state group. i was wondering if you're aware of any specific requests from the prime minister? >> i'm not aware of any specific requests that prime minister abadi is bringing with him. the president is looking forward to the opportunity re hall of the so sit down with the prime minister and discuss the partnership between our two countries. the united states has been very encouraging of and even supportive of prime minister abadi's efforts to unite the nation of iraq, to confront the threat they posed, that is posed by isil.

prime minister abadi took office vowing to govern that country in a an inclusive way. iraq is a diverse company and prime minister abadi has gone to great helpings to ensure the diversity of the country is reflected in the die advice tv ogovernment and the security forts -- forces and that will be critical to their success in fighting the threat posed by isil. the united states has been very supportive of his efforts, both diplomatic include and in terms of providing support and assistance to iraqi security forces and we antis pat that pearer inship and that support will continue. >> there have been some reports he is prepared to ask the president for drone aircraft attack helicopters and ammunition. i would wonder if you could characterize the willingness of the president or the administration to fulfill a request like that. >> we're obviously deeply

engaged in even daily conversations about steps the united states and international community can take to support the iraqi people the iraqi government, and the iraqi security forces as they face down the isil threat. it's obviously intentionsive coordination between our militaries. the u.s. military has a presence inside of iraq where we can coordinate our efforts and make sure we are leveraging all of the technological capabilities that our military has to benefit the iraqi forces fighting on the ground. that is part of the strategy that the president hayes laid out for degrading and city drying isil would pleaserred to implement that strategy by working close live with 60 other countries part of the coalition. and if there are specific ideas that prime minister a bad dihas for stepped up assistance we'll obvious consider them seriously. >> what can you tell us about press coverage of the visit tomorrow? will there be a --

>> we're still working to pin down the details. >> one final question on cuba. the president said he was traveling and hadn't had the chance to read the recommendation on whether to remove cuba from the list of state sponsorrer terrorists. do you know if he has gun to study that recommendation and is there any timeline for when he would want to announce what seems like a forgone conclusion? >> for that seems like forgone conclusion has got an lot of attention. in understandably so. this is vow lay significant policy decision that the president and his team will have to make. i do have an update in terms of where the process currently stands. the president was looking forward to the opportunity to reading the recommendation from the state department and the input that was provided through other relevant agencies. i don't have a specific timeline to offer you in terms of when a

decision will be made but i anticipate that given that the process is advanced so far, that you can expect a decision in the coming days. >> thanks, josh. the kremlin said that putin has listed a ban on providing antimissile rocket systems to iran. also coming as russians seem prepared to supply grape and other equipment and oil for goods swap with iran that may position them to have a head start when and if the sanctions are lifted. >> we have seen the reports relating to the possible sale of the s300 antiballistic missile system to iran. the united states has previously made known our objections to that sale. i understand that secretary kerry had an opportunity to raise these concerns once again in a recent conversation with

his russian counterpart, mr. lavrov. i'm not in a position to obviously speculate on the decisionmaking process that russia is engaged in right now. but i do think it's safe to say that russia understands that the united states takes seriously the safety and security of our allies in the region. as relates to the other oil for goods discussion, this is something that -- a discussion that has been underway for several months now. and we have obviously been aware there are proposals involving russia and iran to essentially barter iranian oil for russian goods. we're studying the details and if this sort of arrangement were to move forward it would raise serious concerns and even could potentially raise sanctions concerns. so, we're going to continue to evaluate that moving forward as well. >> could it endanger finalizing

a deal by the end of june? >> well, one of the things we have indicated has been critical to our success in this diplomatic process has been the unity of the international community. and the united states and our partners in europe have been able to work closely with both russia and china to bring on to the negotiating table by putting in place and enforcing touch sanctions and engaging in a negotiating position that has succeeded in getting iran to make serious commitments about limitations and in some cases even specific rolling back specific elements of the nuclear program. so we value the coordination and unity we have been able to maintain throughout this rather long process. in fact we recently even saw that an official from the foreign ministry in russia indicated that the u.s. document outlining the program at thes of

the agreement with -- parameters of the agreement with iran was consistent and did reflect the agreement reached at the table. that underscores the kind of unity around the specific agreement that we believe has been critical to our success. we'll obviously evaluate these two other proposals moving forward, and obviously we have been in direct touch with russia to make sure they understand and they do, the potential concerns we have. >> okay. from darlene's question can't get into specifics about what prime minister abadi may ask for. what can you tell us about deliverable expectations or the goal of the meeting. >> the goal is to continue the obviously deep coordination that already exists between the united states and iraq. this is a partnership that the united states has obviously deeply invested in, and our

success in working with an inclusive iraqi government has been important to some of the security gains that iraq has realized against isil in the last few months. there obviously is a lot more work that needs to get done and we'll continue to work closely with the iraqis and deepen our relationship and coordination in successful pursuit of the strategy the president laid out for degrading and ultimately destroying isil. >> josh, getting back to the nuclear deal and to follow up on the president's comments at the press conference on saturday there is any see anywhere ya in which the president would accept a nuclear deal in which the sanctions are lifted immediately the consummation of a deal in the sense that the iranians seem to want that to happen? would he just rule that out? are you ruling that out that's not going to happen? >> we have been clear about our position. the position is different than the iranian one, which is one that insists upon removing all

sanctions on day one. what we have indicated is the best course of action, is for the international community to provide phased sanctions relief to the iranians in exchange for their implementation of the deal. and that would mean -- i guess that would be backed up, of course by an historically intrusive set of inspections that are more rigorous and more detailed and more intrusive than any set of inspections ever been imposes owed on a country's nuclear program. what we would envision is essentially phased sanction relief in exchange for successful implementation of the agreement and the iranians in a verifiable way living up to economy commitments. >> you're not going to accept anything but phased --

>> we have been very clear. let me say this is a position that the iranian negotiators are very well aware of. this is something that has been conveyed to them around the negotiating table. the second thing is this position about the phased sanctions relief doesn't just reflect the position over the united states. it reflects the position of the international community, and this goes to my response to julie's question, how important for the international community to remain united. that's the way we have been able to maximize our leverage with iran's to get them to make serious commitments and their there continues to be ewan unanimity -- >> the president indicated he perhaps more of a flexibility on senator corker's legislation to give congress a final say on the deal. maybe i was misreading that. that's all i want to ask. does his veto threat still stand

on that legislation or is he perhaps ameanable to working with the senator, the white house work with the senator's office, that committee, and crafting something that is different that might go to the same type of goal of giving congress a final say? >> well, those or two different questions. let me take the first one because that's the easiest. the legislation as it's currently written is a piece of legislation that the president would absolutely veto. for a variety of reasons. one specific example i can give you is a specific example that i offered up for the first time last week, which is there is a provision in the current version of the bill that would make the deal contingent upon iran essentially renouncing terrorism. it would require the administration to certify that americans weren't at risk from any of the terror activities that iran supports. we have been very clear about

the fact that we hope to resolve this agreement in a way that would prevent iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon precisely because we're concerned about the fact that if iran were able to obtain a nuclear weapon, it would make their support for terrorist organizations even more dangerous and even more risky. so we do not anticipate in the context of this agreement being able to resolve all of our concern below roush's terror activities. in fact that's the reason we're pursuing this for example to ensure that iran can't obtain a nuclear weapon and then share either the nuclear weapon or technology or materials with a terrorist organization. so that's why we would continue to strongly oppose that legislation and veto it because it essentially includes a provision that would make the deal impossible to implement. now, what is also true is that this administration has been deeply engaged with congress since the agreement was announced back on april 2nd.

since that time there have been more than -- i mean, exactly -- no, more than 130 telephone calls that have been placed by everybody from the president the vice president, members of the cabinet, and other senior administration officials on down, to members of congress on capitol hill. you recall that congress has been on recess so it means we have not been able to have as many face-to-face conversations as we would like but that's going to change today. what you also know, i believe, is that secretary kerry, secretary moniz secretary lew and some serb officials in the the intense committee will be convening classified briefings with members of the house and senate over the course of the next two days, and again, that reflects the fact that we are at the beginning of the process of helping members of congress understand exactly what commitments iran has made so far, and how those commitments

we hope will be finalized over the course of the next two and a half months. >> but in terms of crafting some sort of alternative is that an al -- could an alternative be crafted that might satisfy your concerns and satisfy concerns of lawmakers to have some sort of oversight role? >> that remains unclear. the fact is the way the legislation is currently written is something we strongly oppose. but again, we continue to have extensive conversations with members of congress on capitol hill. we're going to make sure that every member of congress who wants one can get a classified briefing from secretary kerry who is leading the negotiations from secretary member knees, one -- sect more knees, who is an expert who is involved. secretary lew is the leader of the cabinet agency responsible for implementing the sanctions regime that has been so successful in pressuring iran. also include intelligence officials who can offer an updated assessment about iran's

nuclear program and our knowledge of their thinking so far. so we have obviously got a lot of -- there's obviously a lot to this agreement that has been reached so far. the other thing that will be included in that conversation is the acknowledgment that there are details that still need to be worked out and that's why the president wants congress to ensure that our negotiators have the time and space they need reach an agreement by the end of june. >> you mentioned this is going to be economics week. you saw the announcement video that was released by hillary clinton and her campaign over the weekend, and in that video she features working americans, everyday merges. at one point she says, the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top. she is obviously speak about the economy. do you take that as a criticism? >> i don't. i think the president would raise the same concerns. there's more that we can do to

invest in middle class families to make sure have access to job training and education we know it critical to the success of families and of the country. there's more that we can do to invest in our infrastructure that would create jobs right away and lay a founding for our nation's long long-term strength. changes to the tax code to make it easier for people to send their kids to college and pay for child care and those changes to our tax code are targeted at middle class families and that stands -- those priorities are priorities that are broadly shared by democrats and stand in stark contrast to republicans that are interested -- just to take one example -- focusing tax breaks for not just the wealthy west one percent but the health requestess .1% in terms of those estates that they're proposing no longer be subject to the estate tax.

>> tonight, on the communicators, speck truck policy director for alliance science and technology on the importance of spectrum for the government and the public. >> the last two administrations have both written presidential memoranda on spectrum. when i first started in spectrum management back in 1979 i came out of the marine corps after being artillery officer. i didn't know anything about spectrum. most people that i met and even those i worked with didn't understand much about speck spectrum. now everybody realizes that part of our daily lives our devices completely rely on it, our ability to communicate, and often do our jobs or stay in touch with our family. >> tonight at 8:00 eastern on "the communicators" on c-span. >> both chambers of congress returning today after a two-week recess. the senate back in with a 5:30

vote scheduled on a district court nomination. also possible the senate could return two, on an antihuman trafficking measure after negotiations fell apart a few weeks ago because of abortion language in the bill. 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. immortal invisible god only wise in light inaccessible, you are hidden from our eye