getting true access to healthcare is in fact growing. that's what it is about. one life at a time. through a massive law, thousands of pages, it does have flaws. but, the atros aty is subsequent to that law being enacted, that we, collectively, are not making the necessary changes that we all can easily identify. it's embarrassing, that in the most capable country in the world, in the most powerful elected bodies in the world, that we have done almost nothing to improve the health care of americans, since this law has been passed. >> thanks and recognizes the

vice-chair. it was paid for and now the state has to start putting money into the program, and trying make it work. he's trying make the improvements, where, political hit. he's trying put together a program that worked. i heard him talk about kentucky and i went and met and spent hours with kentucky's medicaid task force and tried to figure out what they are trying to do and make a program work. now, you cited a study we can continue to cut education and move it into medicaid, how are people, going for create healthcare but it's not for long-term sustain ability of our

state. he's trying to treat the exspanlded population of able bodies, not traditional medicaid, and people that are ill, he's trying to take able bodied and treat them like traditional insurance. is it unreasonable to treat able bodies, unreasonable for have a medicaid set up for them. not comment on the status of this waiver request, we are pop for public comment period. >> couple things that i have heard my colleagues, called the poison opinion. able bodies, should pay a premium, up to $15 a month. we heard people talking, 800 at 15 a month.

and if you are able bodied that you have to have an engagement requirement, go to work for 20 hours a week, go to do a service project, or go school for 20 hours a week, because there is a difference, as my friend from kentucky said, one is 25% of kentucky is on medicaid. and, let's create a system and a medicaid program where people would transition off, go to school and become productive and move forward and that's what he is trying to do. should super an inch indication requirement and that's what he is trying to do. i want to switch to one overstate. louisiana, they did expanded medicaid, and they are allowing people, in the exchange, if they want to continue, they can

continue, and if they're medicaid and i have, if i can submit to the record, advocate, and i'll quote from it. the state says that people who bought individual policies, but now qualify for medicaid, can keep their plans, if they prefer them over medicaid, they have to keep paying their premiums. if you qualify for medicaid you can maintain the premium. >> i have to look at the details of that. >> well, when will they explain the rules of the road? how do we know they aren't double-dipping. they could be medicaid qualified and be receiving premiums. i don't think it allows them to do that. >> i hadn't seen that article. that article be placed in the record. >> so moving on, in february of

this year, cms, would check whether exchange are enrolled in medicaid and she said, notices will be, are also enrolled in medexaid or chip and she said notices will be made. has that moved forward. >> yes. >> did that go forward in may? >> it talked about it happening in august. >> i'm not sure of the date. >> and the savings. >> thanks you. >> thanks the gentleman and now the gentleman from new york. thank you. thank you for holding today's hearings. let me say this, in terms of an overview. you know, any major bill that

has been passed by congress, needs to be tweaked, once we see how effective it is. when we see what the problems are. it's true, with medicaid, and, medicare, and it's true with any big bill. that's true with the aforthable care act. the problem is, our friends in the majority, don't want to fix it. they want to break it. so it will go. there's some problems was t. no doubt about it. but if we didn't vote to repeal it, 63 times and vote to improve it, 63 times. i think we would have a better law. having been on this committee when we were first drafting this law, i know that there are many different opinions, and there

are many things, that i, and others thought should have been put into the bill that were not put into the bill. we thought we would be able to negotiate it and then, through circumstances we could not do it. i would say i think, it's a little bit broke, broken, and it can be fixed and we should fix it. so, to echo, i'm mystified by republican attempts to paint a rosie picture, to the insurance market. let's go back and remember what it was like, denying insurance to people with preexisting conditions, and paying rates and applying limits to care. this was standard. it was harmful to our families, friends and constituents and

again not to mention some popular things about keeping your child on having health insurance until he is 26-years-old. so we've come a long way, 20 million have gained health insurance. my state of new york there are some problems but it's going very well. and we can rest easier knowing that a sudden illness will not wreak havoc. >> those with preexisting conditions, can no longer be charged more or turned away, more than 39 million seniors on medicare have received preventive services without copays, and, prevent to services benefit. like any major legislation it's not perfect. but we have made a world of difference for millions, who were once denied coverage. so, you know, i just think that,

we should do right by the american people and stop trying to turn this into a partisan issue. there were a lot of good ideas and when i go back to my district. can't you guys get along? >> thank you for being here. new york provides a good example of what's possible when the federal government has a partner. every county has seen its uninsured rate decline and rates, are almost 50% lower than they were before implementation. talk about what your experience has been in states that have obstructed efforts, versus those that have been good partners. >> yes, i think, there's a

fairly well-documented difference, in the uninsured rate. and, i think reperiods to this, where states that have expanded medicaid have lower rates, and the number of other benefits. i might also just comment, on your earlier comment about working together, my understanding, of the history of medicare, very much falls in line with what you said there were a number of efforts that were required, ahmed care advantage, and, to find the things that weren't working and to amend them, and as a result, i think we have one of the most popular bedrock programs, today, in our country, in medicare. so i think we have the same opportunity, without a doubt and do what we have done and we look forward to working to working h congress on this. >> if i might, thank you, you

noted during your testimony, and they have learned more about outreach, as you seek to reach out, to those who are uninsured. so i'm pleased to hear that they are drawing upon lessons learned, to those. can you talk about why targeted outreach is so important. >> the gentleman's time has expired. >> the chair thanks the gentleman. mrs. he will mers. >> thank you. thank the panel for being here today. i would like to go back to some of the issues with premium increases that are projected for 2017. there's been some discussion here today about the projected cost increases, for 2017, and i

just like to shed some clarity on it. and i know you feel as strongly as we in congress do about france parenty, and, making sure that information to consumers is readily available. in north carolina, one of the top insure ers has projected there may need to be 20% increase. i have heard from some of my colleagues here larger increases. i really do believe this is something that even though we in congress understand it, because we can go to the, to get that information, and our staffs are able to do that. the average american doesn't. so i would like to understand what that process is. in the discussion about the oklahoma increases, you had basically said that you weren't sure that that had been determined yet.

at what point will it be determined? how will the rest of america know each state's increases? >> yes. right now, each state is on a different schedule. they are going through rate review process. each state does it differently. they're in the process of reviewing the rates, and then they'll approve them. most of the states, and i can't think of one that doesn't. most make it public immediately, within their states, as that happens. i'm wondering if you host this information, so that it is available and as far as a date, i know that you said process is being blade out right now.

correct me if i'm wrong, you said november 1st is the beginning of the enrollment periods so will these numbers be known by november 1st. >> yes, consumers will have access to this, what we do, is we open the website up early so that even before november 1st they can get a sense of what things cost and the general public has access to that information. >> just for clarification pumps possess, any american ready to start looking at insurance for next year, they can know that cms is going to have it by november 1st. >> yes. >> i just, for the purposes of making sure this information is readily available, i have dropped a bill, 5960, which is the consumer health insurance transparency act to make sure

that we are making that message known, that wealth love for that information to be out there by november 1st. and i would like to see that happen and i hope that we will be able to do that again. the most recent being humana and others who have discussed t. what do you say to that? if this is working within a manner where only minor tweaks need to be made, and, the colleagues say, we just need to make it better it doesn't seem like it is getting better. what do you say to that? >> one thing we should recognize, it's not only change

for us, and consumers, and, it's change for these insurance companies. the business model is different. they can assess the health, and so, insurance companies are adjusting and it's hard to again rallize and many, many companies are doing that well and many have been public, and have retrenched and even those, are still committing hundreds of millions of dollars of capital. but they're doing it at different spaces. that's the transformation that everyone has to go through. >> thank you. i yield back. >> mrs. brooks. thank you. when you came before the oversight committee, you came to

testify about the sustainability of the state based examined changes, and you test and i had quote, over 200 million of the original granltsdz awards have been returned to the federal government and we're in the process of returning more. and, in fact, there was significant media attention that went out, indicate that go cms had recouped over 2700 million. the committee then issued a report, in may, and following the release of that report you responded to the committee stating that in fact, the cms had recouped 1.6 million from the 17 state base exchanges not the 200 million initially stated during the hearing. you clarified that it was an estimate of funds that cms had de obligate fred states that didn't establish the exchanges. could you explain how cms

arrived that wants take mat when you came to testify in december. it's a pretty significant discrepancy. >> so i believe that, the transcript shows that i was asked a question about five billion plus of funds that were sent out total, and at that time i estimated, 5 billion, was being recovered and it is over 300 million. since that time, got a letter, from the subcommittee chair who said that wasn't the question, he thought he was asking, something different, so we clarified, that he was, in fact, asking about something different. and i will take responsibility for making sure that i'm clear. because when i come before the committees, whether the news is good or bad, my job is to tell it straight. i need to do better.

so there was a miscommunication. >> on funds recovered from aciate did have trouble. so it's more updated than the 1.2 million. so that continues and i'm happy and we do keep the committee updated. >> so it was with respect to character rigs sayings recouping. >> so the recoup meant was 1.6 million at that time. >> it's greater than that today. can you tell me today, and that was my next question. talk to me about an update on the amount recouped from the 17 state based exchanges today? >> i don't have the exact figures. but i know that, it's at least higher by 14 million because we

just received a check back from one of the states, for over 14 million. so but, i can get you -- >> which state is that. >> state of maryland. >> just wrote a check back for 14 million. in addition to the 1.6 million and at the time the 1.6 million. do you have any idea how many states that came from? >> 3 or 4. >> so, the other -- twelve or so states, can you talk with us about what is being done with respect to the recoup meant of the fund says in. >> which fund says in. >> that we initially began talking about. are you expecting to receive additional funds from overstate says in. >> so we expect to recover funds that are improperly spent, and we, with the help of the o.i.g.,

who has been helpful, go out and look for and assess when funds have been improperly spent. but, we do recover and we also, i should say, review many funds before they are spent. and so, we don't need to go through collection process, if we require an approve process. >> the 14 million that maryland just returned was that for improperly spent funds. >> that was for a, their technology vendor was -- the state got into a dispute for overcharging them, and, they settled the lawsuit, and the 14 million was the down-payment on the federal share of that funding. i think the total number will come in 32 million based on that

specific thing. >> i would be interested in the committee receiving a report on the status of where the recup meant of funds is. >> we will update you. >> i'd like to clarify that he made the 200 million dollar estimate in his opening statement, not in response to a question. that concludes the first-round of questions, members present, we'll go for one follow-up perseid and i'll start recognize myself. five minutes. to follow-up, on mr. griffith's questions about risk quarters, you said that, there is an obligation to make insurers whole. how did cms plan to pay for the risk obligation to make insurers

whole because, there are no appropriate preeighted funds to do so? >> i can't speak to that directly today. this is as you know, the subject after lawsuit. i think that will -- >> this is into the question for doj because, not all inshorers are in the litigation. and so, the question is, how do you plan to pay for the obligation with you there are no funds to do so. >> i'll get back to you. i'll consult with omb. >> thank you. another question, the committee's investigation into the co-open failures examined the negative impact of the 17 closures, and, what they had, on individuals enrolled in those health insurance plans and the closures created uncertainty as

individuals were forced to find new health insurance coverage. in some cases, individuals, had to act fast, in order to avoid gaps in coverage. based on this find mooring one of the recommendations from the committee's report, released today, is that, the individuals be exempt from the individual mandate penalty if their coverage is terminated due to the failure of the co-op. we believe this is common sense as we should not be punishing individual whose make a good faith effort to comply. as a result of their plan no longer being oafort d. does cms agree with this recommendation. >> we didn't receive it until late in the evening. so i haven't had time to tud decide. but we will. >> will you please respond to that question? >> yes.

>> thank you. >> that's all. thanks, and i have two issues, one my colleague from denver, colorado earlier mentioned the g.a.o. study, if you listen for the questions, you would think the people are up in arms, about how bad the act is. but the study, that was was was there studies in colorado, north carolina and vermont, and consumers, concluded, mostly customers are satisfied, despite understanding, issues of out-of-pocket expenses, and access. is that something that the g.o. would want to comment on? >> in what sense?

>> one, why you only did five states. a lot of us would like to see the consumer feelings on the act, of course we trust the g.o. for your work. >> i was not responsible for running that engagement, that resulted in that report. but we'll be happy to get back to you in writing with an answer >> okay. >> we wasted hours, after it's failure. we should be using this time to build the law successes by improving it now, and available to our constituents, and, applaud the work to implement the law. i know your agency has taken steps to make fixes. but some of the fixes require legislative action. unfortunately, they are only

interested in repealing the law. what steps has the administration taken to help insure the long-term success, but more importantly, i would like to ask if you know what steps should be taken by statute , for congress to do, to help make it moving forward, and to be more successful? i don't think, 2, 3 minute that's you have but, i would be glad if you could get back with us, and, list what cms has done. but then say these are issues that you have, that, congress needs to act on them so we can fix it. >> we'll be glad to do that. >> mr. chairman, thank you. i yield back my time. >> the chair thanks the gentleman. that concludes the questions of the members present. we'll have some follow-up questions, in writing and other members who maybe were not able

to attend may have questions in writing. we'll provide those to you and please respond. members should, they have ten business days, to submit questions for the record. so, members should submit their questions by the close of business on wednesday, september 28th. another very i productive hearing. thank you very much for your expertise, and, without objection, the hearing stands adjourned.

>> president barak obama delivers his 7th and final keynote address at the black caucus dinner and hillary clinton will be there and receive the trailblazer award in recognition of being the first woman presidential nominee. live coverage at 7:30 eastern.

>> that is grand rapids and the grand river which, divides the city. this week the city's tour, will explore the life and history of grand rapids michigan on c-span2. olson, author of the book, thin ice talks about it. and then we'll take a tour of the author, of smith, as he shares with us, how and where he works, and his newest biography and talks about the life of attorney hamilton and his role

in the early civil rights movement. >> people understood the role of charles hamilton houston. but you cannot have a conversation about the civil rites movement in the united states without an inclusion of the work of charles houston. >> on american history t.v., grand rapids residents talks about the letter she wrote to ford, bringing artwork to public places. and then we'll visit the grand rapids public museum and find out why the city is nicknamed the furniture city. and the exhibits at the ford presidential library and museum. >> a new car pulled up and stopped in front, and this big fellow stepped out and stepped into the entry way, and paused there, for a long time, and, staired at junior, ford asked

him if he could help him and man said, you're king junior, and he said no, i'm ford junior, and said, well, you're my son. i'm your father and i want to take to you lunch. >> the city's tour, saturday at noon eastern on c-span2, and sunday afternoon at 2. >> this is about 90 minutes. >> good afternoon.

>> welcome. that is response. good afternoon. >> okay. thank you for your patient -- as you all know we have a very strong commitment to latin america here at the woodrow wilson center. it is a second oldest program we pay enormous attention to the region. they are incredibly important for the future of the united states. it's worth saying today you're very fortunate also to be working with the american a dialogue thank you very much.

they are here on behalf of the american dialogue. the project and kevin is here as well from the dialogue. wherever you are. great to have you here. eric also the director of the national american program is here as well. and so welcome to all of you. the complex handling of migration has emerged as one of the defining issues. virtually every program at the wilson center is wrestling with this issue and how to confront it it's become a major focus particularly with the respect of young people in the work in a number of other colleagues there as well. i want to recognize a few at interesting wrist efforts. there he is.

costa rican ambassador. good to have you here again. and please welcome back to the center and andrew. she is with us as well. on the back it's good to have you here. delighted you could all join us and everyone else i apologize if i'm leaving anyone else out here. it's a wonderful audience. it has become acute. large groups fearing a more restrictive policy on the part of the united states have flooded across the border trying to reach the united states. to the north nicaragua has closed its border to discuss this crisis and other issues it's my great pleasure to introduce the president he is

the 47th president of the republic of costa rica and was elected in 2014 on the ticket of the citizen action party. he is both scholar and a diplomat. he has been a professor of history and clinical science and vice dean and he's also been long affiliate with the local american faculty. as chief of staff he helped negotiate the central american peace plan. he became ambassador for central american affairs. he is the author of ten books and if none of that has kept him busy he is his also the proud father of six children. following the most important works i am sure. please join me at the podium to present your remarks.

[applause]. six children is a lot of children. i'm ask if i mormon or christian democrat i have to say no i'm just a very fortunate man of having so many children. i want to thank the inter- american dialogue for holding this wonderful occasion to meet you all i want to thank you for coming. especially in a money -- monday in the summer. i hope that my remarks will be of interest to you all. i want to begin by saying how pleased i am after holding a very successful meeting with president obama and vice president biden at the white house we've been talking about security issues in central

america we've talked about migration and energy questions i think the long-standing friendship and cooperation has been strengthened quite a bit in fact the white house has just announced a significant assistance program to combat organized crime which obviously includes trafficking in and of itself. a big challenge for all of the countries in the caribbean region. yes last october we started to see a flow with cuban migrants coming in from costa rica. we received just between october and march around 8,000 of them all of whom were

transferred ultimately after numerous diplomatic negotiations all of which i'm very grateful about. as you know the kievan migration has that in and of itself. it is privileged by the united states and by a series of laws in the ministry a ministry to measures and until those measures are somehow changed it will continue to be very attractive circumstance for cubans to leave the island it was also favored by the fact that ecuador had issued a universal citizens policy and explains why a big number of them were able to reach ecuador without the need of visas.

some people talk of tens of thousands prior to this. when this happened all of a sudden 1500 cubans appeared and said that led to the authorities to begin setting the situation and then the flow became obvious we provided faces and names to something that have happened for a number of years and this called the attention of everyone into the phenomenon. now, migrations obviously occur everywhere but we have not had that experience in costa rica ever. during the 1980s we have refugees which is a different category as most of you know migrants we have refugees coming to costa rica running away from more in the northern triangle.

this is a completely different phenomenon. somehow to get to the united states. it resembles a phenomenon you see elsewhere in europe and asia. they were mainly cubans. but around february or march we started to identify what we thought and so were they called extra continental migrants. at the time we thought that most of them were african or asian. a number of them coming from western africa into costa rica.

but you very soon when we started providing them with the services that were supposed to be aimed at muslims and africans we realize that even when all of them claimed to be called mohammed ali we realized that the french they spoke most of them are coming from haiti so now we now know around 80 to 85% of the migrants haitians that are coming towards the north from brazil and upon researching a little bit how the flow could be explained we realized that these were haitians who have been invited by brazil to become special revit -- residence in the company after the earthquake. as many as 50,000 we were told

who were able to find jobs in brazil because at the time they were preparing for the soccer world championship. after that the olympics. there was plenty of work they have friendly governments in brazil. and the economy of brazil was thriving. that changed. as it changed they started moving north. and now we have this huge amount of haitians that had traveled to the north we still have the extra continental's mixed with them they cannot come to the united states. they had issued very clear indication that their neck and be received if it all possible we have a problem again. they cannot easily travel to the north.

they are doing it nevertheless. unfortunately as it happens with most of it a good part of it is taking north. what we've tried to do in costa rica is to provide them safe passage in our territories so were given up to 25 days to be in costa rica there had to fear our authorities. they don't need that to go through costa rica moving north. and clearly it's not the case once you reach the border where they are prey of these networks unfortunately. the situation is complicated because it is very, located issue not only because they are to be guaranteed they have to be there guaranteed to

process it means that each case has to be individually handled by the denigration authorities but also in the case of cubans they could resort to legal conditions within the country that led to a number of petitions to the supreme court that ruled that they could not be deported to cuba because our lives could be threatened. we cannot deport cubans and then we could deport them. it's very difficult to do so. we should know who they are to begin with that person is not called that. we have to find where he comes from the country of origin has to admit that person back which is something that's not happening the government is becoming more receptive but

still they resist getting his individuals back. they don't want to go back to their countries because they are basically seeking to re- patriot ten to voluntarily. so of course the overall picture has become pretty difficult to administer it because we do not have the experience we do not have the resources. i was just sharing with some of you a few months ago that for example the health services that we are providing in and costa rica are the same services everyone else has received in the country. we are giving them that same treatment but we don't have

the mandate to do this nor the money to pay for it. it's done in a humanitarian basis but has a cost in the medical services and needs to be taken care of summer and by someone. it is going to be the central government of course. they are on very serious financial stress at this time. a new tax law with congress and as it is the case with every congress it has been very difficult to achieve that. so that is one issue in the other issue which troubles us very much and some of you who are human rights activists would probably know better about this is the fact that many of these migrants are accompanied by children. and we don't know if the children are theirs. so some authorities are requesting dna samples to

prove that these individuals are the parents of the children they carry a bigger question of where the analysis will take place if it's true the children are also part of human smuggling. in according to the law. into the end to allow dialogue with you all i don't take any more time. the networking of irregular migration i don't like to say illegal migrations the

informality and the networks themselves resembles very much the networking. and probably they aren't related. they all operate under the same logic. and we are committed to doing this. has to be seen as a humanitarian challenge. this is how we like to see as challenge it. if the see them and help them to understand a phenomenon they've never experienced before and it's not easy.

we are challenged by the social economic conditions in the poorest of the poor. and they question is us why are you giving foreigners support that you are not providing us and i think it's a very human thing to ask. it's very natural that they ask these things. we are all learning in this process and believe me if you have any ideas if you can give us guidance does of you who had had experience with this we would very much appreciate your letting us know and ways in which we can handle this. nothing in life is easy. it's another challenge i hope we can respond to. and with intelligence for the national politics. thank you very much. >> think you for the colleagues i want to recognize

a couple of additional people who are really critical to this event. we are truly grateful to you and to all of the people from around the center and the dialogue who are lending a hand today. i was wondering if i could open with a question that follows up more broadly on some of the points that you raise. costa rica is obviously in some costa rica. it has been focused on the northern triangle. and on the crisis with the accompanied minors. they had been fortunate in that the levels of violence and insecurity had been way below anything seen in the northern triangle. could you just discuss a little bit more how costa rica is being impacted by the difficulties in the neighborhood and whether you

feel the international community not just the united states are responding to the changing scenario as a result of what is taking place in the region. i think it continues to be a big challenge for central america in general. but clearly the situation is much worse in the northern triangle. we've been getting we've been getting thousands of central america in the past few years just from el salvador. it is a lot of people. these are people who are coming to costa rica and staying here. completely different from i just described. and have the rights and we understand the situation. but this is also happened with people from honduras.

and numbers from guatemala. what we have done in order to handle this with an interesting program which was just announced a couple weeks ago which would start as early as september which will bring into costa rica people from the northern triangle who are being persecuted for different reasons. or whatever. business people. they will come costa rica. they will be preselected in the countries of origin. but by the high commissioner and refugee and the u.s. government. they will come and they will

stay up to six months and then there will be taken to the final destination mostly in the united states but maybe in other countries if they're not suitable for refugee in the united states. in this way we could handle what's already happening and it's can be under a un mandate. it is the program of the high commissioner. in this fashion we control our solidarity with our brothers and sisters and at the same time to be consistent with the costa rican policy of human rights respect and other things that we've done in the past. it is clearly something that will continue to happen in central america as long as we have the violence going. >> in terms of insecurity and organized crime so so far the numbers have risen

unfortunately but this has happened as a result of the increase in narco activity coming from columbia. the traffickers are not going through costa rica they are leaving their stuff behind. this is generated a very, get anything to handle which is the small smith street sales basically. they're given very small quantities of drugs but to a fast network of sellers and it has been very detrimental to our security because what happens is you have the local cartel killing each other so the numbers have risen from last year and i think we will lose this year as well. i'm not optimistic about the numbers because of the

infighting among the cartel. one thing i like to ensure is that we do this. to prevent these kind of formalities to extend whether what we can handle. with all the operatives working very hard in order to limit the actions of the narco that is present. they are not coming from the other countries i want to be clear about that. and people who live in costa rica and i want to say that there been angels it's clearly something that were getting because of the enhanced traffic in the region which we had been combating very effectively. was very little support have been more efficient combating that than the authorities of

all of the other countries including mexico. it's something i would like to stress. it has been a significant effort that we have made so far. >> they had one of the largest i wanted to follow up a little bit on that. five or ten years from now the increased in 2010 for example mexico is intercepting about

11,000 africans coming from that part of the world. costa rica was about 50 people. we also see an interesting phenomenon which is at the majority of people that are coming are some of the most fragile dates of the world. one tender minors. so when you see costa rica in that context. have something that at something that they will continue to do. or new phenomenon of that. unfortunately nevertheless we've been thinking about this.

they were now saying it's completely different. it is not going away. we are preparing for this. in the number of institutions including not only the security ministries or those in charge i don't want to criminalize migration which is something that can be very tempting to do. especially because of the security measures and the challenges that you just mentioned. and only takes one terrace to go through coming from our country and that's it. it is a scenario i don't want to think about. i've instructed these ministries to start preparing a long-term program to deal with this issue for the next few years. i will be president only for a

couple more years but this is can go on. i would like them to have the possibility to count on this plan at the same time we are thinking of short-term measures to be prepared to get a significant number of migrants all at once. were getting from 100 to 150 migrants per day in the border with panama. and probably 30 to 50 are leaving every day from the northern border. it would work to get 500 of them a day. it would be impossible to handle in our agencies would collapse. ..

>> in the northern side of the country where we could handle the new arrivals and better conditions than the ones we have now. obviously this is going to be very important to deal with this in a long-term perspective. intervening is going to happen. that is that is quite all right. we all come from somewhere. my great grandmother my grandmother came from jamaican early 20th century. i'm i'm not going to forsake migration and say were not going to tolerate that, that's below me. we all know that is not going to happen. they get through. you can put the most powerful army across the border and they will come through. we have lots of examples. it's happening in europe. but having said that we also

have obligations with our own people and we are going through tough times. so the feeling they have that we are somehow neglecting their rights is something that we have to take into account. i am not willing to abandon that responsibility for which i was elected as well. so as we deal with this migration issue we have to be also be thinking in economic development. we have to be thinking otherwise. i sorry i'm going to take more time, but this is important. when we started getting what we thought were extra continental migrants, the reaction we saw on the people of costa rica was quite interesting. they had accepted the cubans quite well. but they look like us, they almost eat the same things that

we ate, they spoke the same language, we knew for sure that they had a christian background. call it whatever, but they had a christian background. all. all of a sudden to have these people who look different, who do not eat the same things, who do not want the women to be touched by the police force, not even by other women. and so they were really pretty aggressive. so i requested a friend of my who is the e mom of the only some community in coaster rica to go there. he doesn't speak french, he speaks arabic, and he went there to talk with them. the minute they saw this guy they calm down. but this was extraordinary. he cannot stay there we don't have too many people we've been having translated not to french we have a lot of french speakers

but it's not the same thing. there's a situation that is not the situation to speak with cubans when we have a funny accent and they don't. so all of these things are part of a culture of relationships, human relationship and otherwise that will have to be taken care of. for small country like ours we it is five times of new york city, how do you have presence of thousands of foreigners, all at once it makes it different very difficult to handle. at a given point at the end of last year there were more cubans in a little town, the last time then coaster weakens. in that small town. and that says something of the long-term challenges that we have.

>> i'm sure we'll continue to address questions of migration during the q&a. you mentioned in your opening remarks and you touched on the theme of the tax reform that is currently before congress. costa rica has long headed the list of human development in the season in the region, the levels of health and education spending have always been high and inclusive. because i think in large measure because of that costa rica has also scored so high and all these measures of democracy and support for democratic government. and yet, the, the country for the second year running has had a historic level of fiscal deficit according to the costa rican central bank. so there are a lot of people calling for fiscal reform. your government is trying to get through congress. what are are some of the issues that are being discussed in the parliaments and what aspects of

tax reform do you see as the most viable given the division within the congress among all of the distant parties? >> most of what we have had come the last were administrations have tried to pass the fiscal reform. none have been able to. because of different reasons. we have a fiscal burden of 13%. compared to 20% at columbia, 25% in brazil. it's so central american that it just staggers. it is too low. businessmen of costa rica say that is not the number i should use because we have a social security burden. but that is not the way to measure the fiscal burden. so we have to be very careful about that. the truth of the matter is that we are having resistance and what i am telling them is listen, my administration is

willing to pay all what it takes to for that fiscal reform. blame it on me. were having elections having elections in a year or two years. we are willing to pay the price of this reform, but if if we do not have the fiscal reform costa rican deficit is going to race from 6% today to 8% by the end. impact is going to be financial, yes it will be very serious but it is going to be more serious impact that is going to have on the credibility of the costa rican political class, which is what has a number of risk agencies very uneasy. i mean this government is going to flunk again. and the big debate, but i think it is an excuse, bad excuse and anyways is that we are asking for fiscal reform without doing

enough under the spending side of it. including we have had -- since the 1950s which has been very successful and very big and expensive. but democracy is expensive in general. not all it democracies are expensive but all good democracies are expenses expensive. not all expensive shoes are good but all good shoes are expensive. i say that of democracy. we have a big state and we are trying to cut that state but we have to be careful because if not. let me give you an example. we are now probably the second largest producer of medical supply in latin america, devices

in latin america. that is because of the capacity of the workforce, the talent of the workforce we have. that. that is the result of 150 years of consistent investment in public education. i'm not going to forsake that. our constitution mandates that is much as a% of our gdp is invested in public education. it is not going to be a teacher like myself, the president that doesn't respect that mandate. i'm going to keep that even if the congress doesn't approve the reform. because i think the consequences of not investing in education or for that matter in public health would be disastrous for costa rica in the long term. some of the problems are having today with our educational system which is not as good as it should should be and i grant you that has to do with decisions that were made 20 years ago who

cut investments in education. i'm not going to do that. but people in congress they were not doing enough with expenditures. and i took two years and i said for the presidential campaign i said i'll take two years to be certain that we will do everything we could to cut our undue expenses in the government. and i think we have done that. we have listen, the collection of tax collection 10% laster, 15% will be this year. we have cut everything we can. or we could. and still 95% of the government expenditures are determined by law. so when we have 5% to deal with and that percentage has been handled as much as we could. so the debate, this this is why i say it's an excuse because sometimes what i hear is not

what i know is happening. there's lots of sectors that don't want to pay taxes. nobody wants to pay more taxes. they're imposed on people. so i'm conscientious of the problem. but we have to have that reform. it is a question of given viability to a question that is doing well and every other indicator, economic indicator at this point. the only flow which we have is to. one is the fiscal deficit and the other is employment. particularly for young people. but still within unemployment is still in the range which we have had for many decades from 9%. we've had anywhere from 8 - 10% when i became president, it is 9.2% at this point. but the fiscal reform is fundamental. if it's going to be fundamental to deal with the migration issue another issues including fighting against organized crime because the deficit we have and

police officers another things is increasing. >> one of your when you came to government one of your things was corruption. >> corruption is in a. we have not had any corruption cases so far. nonoaud. >> it's on time. there's a symbolic bridge called -- it's we tried three times a year and it is 60 meters long. it is the ultimate proof of

costa rican's incapacity. we are changing that. it is going to be finished in january. it took two more years but it's going to be finish we hope. i think the infrastructure problem is a problem. it's an accumulated problem. over 2000 bridges thousand bridges that need to be intervene. but on corruption so far, i'm i'm very proud of my teen they have been very dedicated to preventing that. in fact costa rica's opening up as much as we can with open government initiatives so that we reduce corruption. >> on education you write is not an issue of money, but quality. >> we are insisting with the teachers unions that we have to be more rigorous with teachers. they don't want to be examined for example in order to have their contracts validated. as a professor i think they ought to. but it is very difficult to convince them of the situation. we are also putting more

emphasis on technical education so we will lessen the impact on the budgetary impact on universities for example. but on the other hand, again if they have to pay a price i would rather pay a price for exceeding our supportive education then a being called as i have been called in the government has been called because of funding with universities and educational system than the opposite. but we have to do better, i agree that there are many things to be improved. >> let me follow up on that, costa rica is seen throughout the region as a model model of many things. of the quality of human capital because of the expenditures and education, because of environmental preservation and you can speak more about this and he can also address this.

what would it take for costa rica drying on its human capital and the strength of its educational institutions to become also distinguished for its capacity for technological and scientific innovation. to convert itself not only as a hub for central america but also maybe as a central american representative joining the other technological innovation hub like buenos aires and others. >> first of all we have a policy we have a policy dealing with academic centers of excellence in the united states and europe. we are seeking more alliances to this regard. the smithsonian was probably among the first ones to come but it also the agricultural center that is financed but it is been

there for over half a century. we have a university we have other centers of this nature that would like to expand in the association with universities from the united states. we are already already doing that. we have become another hub that deals with innovation that bringing u.s. universities there. this is one way to do it. and the other one is moving away from the old model the free zones into more sophisticated areas. such as the ones that we now have. we are beginning to see investments coming from costa rica in search of these other opportunities. free example intel is one good example of that we use to process their microprocessors that were sold to china mainly.

now that intel took away part of that money for the manufacturing facility to vietnam but they have brought into costa rica a concentrate concentrated lab to test the product before it leads the market. so so that's an upgrading of this investment in freezone which has been very important for us because it entails more research and development. now we are still not in the, we in silicon valley, but i would like to see more of that happening and that is a combination of investments and policy regarding this academic centers into the country. and laboratories which are also very significant. this is a particular important in the medical pharmaceutical industry. we now have the laws that would allow for testing and costa rica which is something we need. >> last question and then we'll open it up. >> just have one more question

what is costa rica's strategy of zika? >> i always considered myself to be one of the few costa rica -- we been called all sorts of names regarding our commitments to central america in terms of being the british of central america because of our reluctance to admit our central america. >> we do have representatives of panamanian ambassador. >> no part of it is in central america and for all practical purposes i like to think of it

as the enhanced central american region including the caribbean. it makes a lot of sense to me that the dominican republic is present and eventually killed by other countries because you have to look at the bigger picture. that brings us to an interesting discussion of what the place would be for the caribbean coast of the united states of mexico, colombia and venezuela. i think in that sense with the association of caribbean states makes a lot of sense. but i am frustrated because we have not been able to move forward with enough strength during the last couple of years and we have to take that also personally because of this commitment that i feel with the region. i was very upset and this is the way i would like to say i was very upset by what i thought was lack of solidarity of some of the south american countries during the difficult moments of our cuban migration.

i understand the reasons, i understood the reasons why some countries were reluctant to allow the cubans to go through their borders when their own nationals were not being admitted to the united states. when the political pressures brought about our understanding. but we were in need. and we felt that we deserve, not as a country but as a region a more regional understanding of a regional problem. that didn't happen. so i decided that i was going to remove costa rica from the political instances of zika until this issue of zika reform and i took the honduran presidency six months to put together something that resembles a bit the kind of reforms that i think the system needs.

it is not a question of institution it's a question of vision. what kind of central america do we need. and clearly what we have today is not what we need. among other reasons because this was a system that was created in 1991, before everything else happened. it was almost happened at the same time of the end of the cold war. so we have not touch the agreement ever since. it's going to be very difficult to produce a an agreement to be opened up. there's certain countries that are not going to touch it, were not going to lie you to change the basic treaty of the central america and immigration system. but i still think we need reforms. next january costa rica will reside over its and i have bowed that we are going to take this and move ahead with this issue

of reform as it heads been agreed to in the last meeting of the system in honduras. so we're going to move ahead. but it is faltering. i hesitate to say this is only our fall. it's only happening in europe. when you can see the integration notion is no longer as strong as it was ten years ago. but we need central america and integration. the world is moving towards larger books. unless were able to position central america is going to be difficult to deal certain issues and pick one, climate change. that's a huge one. and we think of climate change in regional terms and it's going to affect, one of them the leading scientists and experts in that field, we need a regional approach. is going to affect all of our coast all of a problem with our

water sources for example. so this is something we have to do costa rica is back it's under the nicaraguan presidency at the end of the year and we'll see how we can push it forward. it is not going to be easy everything is going to be solved in six months but i hope that we will provide the adequate conditions of all the members of the system to feel free to think out-of-the-box and maybe find ways to enhance the influence. >> great. we would like to open it to your questions. a a lot of hands. we'll take rounds of three please wait for the microphone also been name and affiliation

will start here and then go to the back and then to the center metal right there. >> hello i am have a question does that mean costa rica will be a part of the plan? >> thank you very much. you have talked in the beginning about the privileges that cuban migrants have when they come to the u.s. and i understand that you wrote the letter back in april to the u.s. president saying they should deal with the

laws and i was wondering if this came up in your conversation today with the president biden and president obama and what was the answer to your questions, was the situation. was that conversation anyhow the situation where the president in nicaragua, is there any question on that if they were worried or if it came out? >> and then we had the gentleman -- yes this gentleman here. >> thank you. i work for the pan-american -- actually what you refer to security you talk about drug trafficking, trafficking,

violence, and everything interrelated. i wonder if the issue of public health related to migrant is one of the issues that your government is looking at? particularly helping migrants from areas in which we know that there have been cases of yellow fever for instance and that this is also permitted by the say excuse that we are dealing with and relating to other diseases. so i wonder if you have anything to prevent this? >> on the question of costa rica being part of -- no, we're not part of the initiative. the government of the united states has been very clear about

this. also the pta program to use costa rica to bring refugees to the united states was a costa rican high refugee commission for refugees program. so no, not for the resources that are going to be use. i understand they're not part of more than triangle resources. but costa rica rica is not joining the northern triangle as part of -- on the question of the laws in the united states, i mentioned the issue during the conversation with vice president biden, but clearly the laws that

would require the changing of the laws would be required with this preferential policy towards cuba to take congressional action. and i understand this is not likely to happen in an electoral year. there are other actions that would be presidential or executive in nature that i think the united states would have to consider. this is something i have very respectfully submitted to the government of the united states and there is very little that i can do in order to influence that at this point. particularly because of the context in which the situation have developed. not only because of the electoral contacts but also because of administration

will soon leave in a new administration will come. this think will have to be discussed in a wider perspective. this entails discussions that only in washington but with different communities but it's something that will have to see. yes, i mentioned to the president and to the vice president are concerns about -- in nicaragua. we have have been on the record and publicly mentioning considering the binds of what we consider were equipment in nicaragua. something that concerns costa rica. i've said that i do not expect these resources to be used against costa rica. it is not likely i think necessary nor a hypothesis of conflict but we are not

comfortable. that is the right countries have like to say that we respect the decision of any country to deal with their armed services anyway way they think. but it is not comfortable nor is it comfortable to see a government such as nicaragua getting so much power. but again we are respectful of the opinion as any other, just like the conditions of the nicaraguan legal regime. on public health, yes this is a very significant and important issue. i mention i mention the social security service of costa rica is taking care of and the right crosses taking care of the different cases that we are saying. fortunately we have not identified anyone with yellow fever or even with -- it we were

surprised. in fact the government has indicated that there are silencing or vaccinating some of the migrants but to get to panama already through the region which is particularly undergoing particular serious conditions, for us i mean if a country doesn't deal with the public health issues that the migrants bring in, very soon the migrants are going to be confuse of everything they do not bring. so we don't want that. so we are taking care of this very, very carefully. we have identified two cases of tuberculosis. we have dealt with them, again again the problem is they go

away very fast. so sometimes they disappear and we are not able to follow up on these cases. but it will entail long contacts between individuals to pass it on to others. we have not seen that. there are other healthcare issues that are complicated to deal with. sexual practices among some migrants. we have our women's institute looking into aggressions. we are concerned about rape and providing enough security so as to lessen the risk of raves and i hate to say domestic violence but violence among migrants.

i don't know how you say -- in english but they are crowded and confined when a lot of people together and that also brings in a lot of stress. so this is also something that needs to be taken care of by psychologist. again it is a moving population. this is very difficult to handle. with the cubans some of them were up to five months in costa rica. so so we had to provide recreation facilities for them and they played baseball and beat us up and we played soccer and we beat them up, their waste to handle this from a perspective. but it's been been difficult. but yes, the public health issue is central in the migrant. >> and you want to call in the next three questions and take another round.

>> thank you for being here. as you are mentioning earlier, clustering kittens are not angels, right. being a migraine here in the u.s. and as a costa rican i become painfully aware of many of the prejudice that costa ricans have to work with nick larkins. that unfortunately is part of the reality. do you think this is a historical moment of migration and unfortunately the program that you just described, the un program and think has been unfairly criticized by some of the local media. is this an opportunity for us costa ricans to be educated in tolerance and compassion? >> two more questions. >> wait for the microphone please thank you. >> hello.

i wanted to follow on that question and ask you more broadly about nicaragua migration to costa rica. if they keep coming, how it is right now migration from nicaragua what is the relationship because of that migration? and as we see also coming from nicaragua to costa rica may be also or from other countries of the region. i mean you can talk more about these united nations and the perception of the 200 people per day. >> stephen and donna where is costa rican specific to their

alliance process. there is a lot of talk about trade in the u.s. political system right now and costa rica has some of its own concerns about trade. >> thank you all. costa rican nicaragua relations are special just like any bordering countries we have our issues. we joke and costa rica say we do not have two seasons a year. the rainy and the dry season, but the dry, the rain, the dry season in the season -- with nicaraguans. and i think it's the same thing with nicaraguans but we don't have the right to divorce ourselves. we came together in history we will stay together for the rest of history. as i see it discrepancies are not amongst people but mostly about governments. yes, there are prejudices in central america and this is a two-way street. we have hours, they have theirs and unfortunately sometimes we do not agree on the same

perspectives. but i think in terms of the migration flows, the costa rican population has been extremely generous. we have hundreds of thousands of nicaraguans living in costa rica and even with those prejudices they continue to be absolutely essential to our economy and to our household management. so much so that we have i don't know how many thousands of nicaraguan women race and our children. this is the case for years in the past. so there you go. talking about prejudices when you have these women taking care of their children in your house is something to think about. but you you are right, there are prejudices. we have all to deal with them. if you see the statistics we have not had true serious conflicts with the nicaraguan,

lunch population throughout the year. some have tried massive deportations and that did not work out. all because the wives and children of the decision-makers of their husbands would say the thing, don't go there because what's gonna happen with crops. what's can happen with buildings, they are very important. costa rica and nicaragua have a mutual relationship which is extraordinarily important. nicaragua is the third or fourth trade partner. over 700,000,000 dollars hundred million dollars per year. and nicaragua is receiving from costa rica millions of dollars in remittances. i don't know what the numbers. i am family expert on this issue. but we need each other. and even if we didn't we are there, tied, tied together by these bounds of transborder associations. so i think that there is an awareness issue and again, when

i gave this vision of what happened with the cuban migration once again the population of the northern part of costa rica was exceedingly generous in receiving them in their homes and in their communal buildings. and by and large even with the new waves of migration the costa rican population has been resistant more than what the cuban population but not the bird the less they have agreed and we have not had expressions of hate, race hate or whatever with the haitian population. but they are tired. and i think it's very human, they have a challenge they are not used too. this is something that has not happened in the country, ever. the continuous passing of people who behave differently from what we're used to. talk about public health, is

told the other day that by the president of the costa rican social security institute it was an instant and at antidote. we have an african woman who gave birth to an african costa rican citizen the other day and she was breast-feeding the child in the women's ward of the hospital. she took off all her clothing and she was breast-feeding naked. all of the other ladies were scandalized looking at this child i think it's beautiful, but costa ricans are not used to this they are more private in the way they do this. and they were very uncomfortable with this. so we have to get used to these things. it is is not easy. it is a cultural change. and the numbers are very large. when you have people moving around some of them doing their physical needs in public as they

do in their own countries, there there is something that people do not appreciate. so compassion yes, understanding yes, but it takes time and it takes an effort in schools. since we do not have the possibility of integrating anybody because they're moving on all of the time the process is going to be challenging, at least. in terms of nicaraguan flow, the flows continue. this is a historical. we go back and forth. with nicaraguan workers work on our orange plantations, they work on coffee and sugarcane plantations and construction. they do things that costa ricans don't like to do anymore. many of them were working in panama during the enhancement of the panama canal that is finished. in all likelihood they'll come back into costa rica. the costa rican economy is growing. 4.2% per year, gdp. this is twice as much as the

average latin american growth which is very good. in all likelihood we will see more need for labor and it is probable that we'll see some of that be nicaraguan. i think that we benefit from that relationship. sometimes we are more critical of it then what we should and i think people in they talk about a million costa ricans in the country. we talk about nicaraguans be involved in international crime, that is not true either. less than 1% are nicaraguan, most of them are for costa ricans. but, it is true that there is a certain tension there. on children, we do not have that

problem unless what i mention about children being brought in by these migrants are the colleagues were continental which are basically haitian. the program the pta with the united states does not deal with unaccompanied children. we're talking about families that will bring their children with them and his children will be certified children of the family they claim to be. so we are going to get them but we don't have a problem with unaccompanied children. as a matter of policy i have voice my concern about unaccompanied children during the last two general assembly's and i have criticized that very much. i find it extremely perverse to be in a situation where children are forced out of their country

because of the conditions in which they live in that country of origin are so bad that the parents have the illusion that they should risk them in such as what we see and send them to another country. i find that to be unacceptable. and excuse my -- but i have to be candid about this. it is unacceptable. i find that to be extreme problems. as a human community. but not because we are suffering of that problem. the alliance, i was in chile for the last meeting with president and i have said that costa rica cannot ignore the fact that with the kind of economy we have which is highly open, it is one of the most open countries in

the world for train. we cannot ignore the fact that the pacific alliance is a very important for that sector of the economy. almost 90000 jobs are provided by the direct investments in the country. but we also have to be able to realize and this is something that previous governments did not acknowledge, that there is another part of the economy that legitimately feels that free trade agreements have hurt them very much. and i have. we have been saying for over 15 years now that somehow we are going to neutralize that and we have not. so when the pacific alliance comes in we have free trade agreements with all the pacific alliance what they tell us is listen, keep the same conditions

as in the free trade agreements and we will agree. it is already there. there. you have to remember that we are already members of the free trade -- so most of that's already there is going to happen regardless of a negative effect, they're going to happen anyway. they're very much resisting this. what i have said is listen, if we do not have, and i am not conditioning it, if we do not approve the fiscal plan it is going to be impossible for the country either to use the benefits of the pacific alliance and/or utilize its negative space. so until i can see and i have the certainty that we will have an economy that can withstand the pressures of a globalized world that requires that fiscal reform, i i'm not going to get into it.

i've been very frank, i told this in the presence of the pacific alliance. i said this to the state of the union address last may. i continue to be on the record on this issue. i will have a meeting with the sectors that feel are going to be affected by this on thursday of this week, and three days. they they are very aggressive. what i'm telling this, i want to always - when agreement on the spray but it requires a national understanding of what we're talking about. the first thing i want to see is that discussion to be opened up but i don't want for us to extend the kinds of divisions, national divisions we suffered. so we are going to put it all on the table. i want it to be discussed openly, i want

everyone to partake of it. i don't want the government taking sides on it. the official position is that we're not going to do this or that until we have the fiscal plan. in the meantime let's talk about it. let's do it deeply and seriously. and not without these positions of extremes that we have had in the past. >> to have time for one last round? were little out of time. we are blessed to have an overflow room so in all fairness i will take two questions from the overflow, i think both are related to foreign policy that are very important as we discussed globalization in costa rica's role in the world. one question has to do a costa with costa rica's new and expanded relationship with china. what type of chinese investments have been given priority by your

administration? another picks up on a point that you raised in your talk and in your response to the question which is, the expected impact of the columbian peace accord on costa rica. specifically what to expect in terms of what you have alluded to be in an increase in trafficking. and i will take one more from here. i see someone very -- yes in the back. please wait for the mic. >> thank you i'm julia you mentioned the recent announcement about costa rica taking about 200 refugee seekers from the northern triangle and starting in september. when. when that was announced from the u.s. side in january their plans to see as many as tens of thousands of migrants come in through a similar program did the u.s. ask costa rica to see more refugees through their

country and why agree to only 200? >> costa rica's relationship with the republic of china was established about we've had relations with taiwan up until then which is the case with all the other countries of central america at this time. obviously some countries countries like panama have a very strong relationship with the people's republic of china government but the official relationship remains with taiwan. most of the investments have been in trade he said the trade relationship to grow is benefiting china of course. there has been investments in infrastructure one of the most important roles that will be in

the next five years, i hope less than that, but in the next five years the road with the caribbean port where the dutch company is building a huge terminal. it's been a very important one. so the chinese are building that. they would like to see i think they because where in the process of working out new concessions in the chinese investors are going to participate in that. in infrastructure, transportation and energy issues. on the impact of the clinton peace agreements, i hope the what we are seeing in terms of the increase activities of organizations is not related to

the changing conditions in colombia. but we hear this is probably one variable that could be generating the fragmentation of historical cartels and the enhanced activity in the region and relocation of some of these cartels. we are looking into it carefully. we have our intelligence agency dealing with it in a regional fashion. so we think that we have to work and we work very closely with the colombian authorities. we are grateful with their support and counseling because of the specialty. will the panamanian government and we now have the capacities in hand to deal with that. we received a number of raters and patrol boats, covers, we have new aircraft to deal with this. so we hope that will be able to

deal with it. but clearly, so, so far we have seen a relationship there that are struggling. now on the pta the united states did not ask for more than 200. the number came with what they got. six months at the most i think that it was a very good number for us to handle. we can deal with 200 individual clearly with the condition of the pta is a different then what they sell elsewhere in europe and other places. but as president obama told me, it's a signal of what they would like to see in which some of the issues are handled. in an orderly fashion, in a

secure manner so that we are at least 100% i'm not going to say hundred% but in a very good proportion. certainly those that seek asylum are legitimate asylum-seekers. i feel very comfortable with this. and i think in those numbers we can handle the incoming potential and refugees and blend them into the community. we'll have them live of costa rican families and the country where there will be relocated. and this is probably going to be an added value so i think it is completely consistent with our

humanitarian traditions. and also a very positive one for the migrants as well as for the other countries and i continue to say we need a sure solidarity and this is one way which we can sure solidarity. >> you have been generous with your time thank you for your insights. thank you for your cooperation. thank you all for attending on a hot autumn afternoon where the temperatures are falling a little bit. and all of your staff with you from coaster rica, we are are delighted. please join me in a round of applause [applause].

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>> politics personally has changed and very substantial ways. the kind of natural shape of politics based on class and clear ideology has become more disruptive and all over the western world we can feel the big traditional visual mainstream party is under pressure.

>> president obama delivers his seventh and final keynote address at the annual congressional black caucus foundation dinner tomorrow night hillary clinton will also be there and received the trailblazer award in recognition of being the first woman presidential nominee of the major party in the u.s.. live coverage on c-span at 7:30 p.m. eastern. >> at today's pentagon ceremony for prisoners of war and those missing in action retired captain jerry coffee who was held for seven years in vietnam at the infamous hanoi hilton,.