year, communities already have the ability to handle the response. we can come in not just our team. they're not waiting for others to show up. >> does your department have all the tools and resources it need to keep america safe? >> well, look -- [ applause ] >> -- anyone can come up here and say, i can always use more, and yeah, that's true. but i think the key thing is do we have and will we have what we need to maximize our ability to protect the american people? i think by finding new resources, consolidating and coordinating those better, i

think we can do the job we need to do for the american people and with the american people. >> on border patrol, in canada, the beyond the border agreement includes a pilot project for pre-clearance on cargo on the canadian side. when will this pilot project be award and had will there be a project like the bridge project considered? >> let me tell you what pre-clearance is. that's basically doing the whole customs process abroad. and we have that in several locations around the world. it is an important tool that we can use. it is expensive. so we can't do it everywhere, but in certain places we can, and we think we'll be adding some more pre-clearance locations in 2012. in canada, i think we're moving. the issue with the peace bridge

is one that's associated with that, but that's something that we're working on very hard with the authorities there. we seem that the next great threat will come in the form of a pandemic or other biological related crisis. can you tell how it would correlate with other branches of the government in case of such a catastrophic event? >> first of all, i want to make sure you all wash your hands carefully. don't forget. one of the first disasters i managed as a secretary was the h h1n1 pandemic, and we didn't know what kind of flu it was going to be. was it going to be deadly or was it not? it took a few weeks to get that sorted out to see what the mortality rate really would be. in the course of that coordination, we learned a lot of things.

one of the things we learned is that a lot of the security emergency response community across the country is not necessarily linked up as tightly as it needs to be with the public community. we continue to work with and other partners to bring that more tightly together. we work as well on diagnostics. i think that would be a key area for us. many people don't know, but we actually have a science and technology director within the departmen department. we run some very important laboratories, including the laboratory at plum island which looks at large animal, among other things, diseases and vaccines for those. and we are working with other labs across the country. the international aspect of this is key. if there is to be a pandemic, it will by nature be international. and so working with our partners across the globe, we also have a

unified effort there. suffice it to say, i think lessons learned from h1n1. there were some. there always are after an event. not only have we learned from them, we've deployed them, we've the ised them across the administration, so we will be even better able to respond should there be another pandemic. >> sometimes more than one federal agency responds to an event orca -- or catastrophe and respond toble to respond. local commanders? >> i assume this is a criminal scene. it sounds like it is. normally the first responder to most crimes is going to be your local police. they are the front line on most things criminal. but on things that cross over into the federal government,

we've worked very closely with the justice department and with the fbi, particularly on the joint terrorism task forces. that is the fbi, criminal investigative side on terrorism, and next to the fbi, i think we ha agents assigned to those. so there are times when it seems like there are duplication or redundancies or what have you, but i think are being worked at on the ground or in the field. >> despite, most of the skmernz businesses they work for ignore how can you paredness. encourage preparedness planning? >> well, i'd be interested in some of the media strategies some of you all might be familiar with, because it is constant message iing.

every year we're pushing that have your bag, have where you are if you're separated from the family, that sort of thing. we still have surveys and the like that the majority of people really don't have those things together. one of the ways we're dealing with that, quite frankly, is doing more education in the schools themselves, educating young people, because not only will they hopefully urge their parents to be prepared, but also as they grow into adults themselves, hopefully they would have instilled those values. we're always looking for new ways to press that message and also new ways to deliver the message. one of the things we've been example, is a much greater use of social media. why is that? that's because that's a way a

lot of people receive their information now, and we need to get to information ways in which they receive it. we will continue to use schools, social media a& think, boy, if people would take the time to prepare and think through, then when there is a major disaster catastrophe, we can take ours onto those who are toeltsly disabled. >> i think in the public, the most difficult of the ds. we see it everywhere from the campai campaign. >> if you see something, say something. this is our campaign that really reflects the shared

responsibility. everybody can be aware. if it a sea something or -- we have sar, suspiciousy reporter calling. it's really about how you can b involve local law enforcement in the area. it started with local transit authority in new york. it's now spread across the country. you hear it on buses, see it on metro. all have adopted see something say something hopefully . it's just a very straightforward

way. because somebody could say something, we lessened the chances of hurting others. >> do you find that's a problem and what are you doing about that? >> my view, and realize, i come to this from a prosecutor's point of view. i've been there and i've been an attorney general. my view is profiling is not an effective law enforcement because it is not necessarily intelligence driven. and you can -- it dweriverts resources away from things that are more effective. so i think within our shop, within our department of justice and other elements of the federal government that are involved in law enforcement, keep sending that message that profiling is not the thing to do and provide the training and supervision that helps guide us

in our efforts to those who really are opposing the greatest risk. and we have matters on which we spend a lot of time, we have our civil rights and civil liberties department. they helped us think this through, our private offices helped us think it through. and our faith-based community and other leaders have helped us think this through, how best to maintain safety and security without resorting to profiling. >> you said, though, that the eve everyday traveler doesn't pose the same threat. how do you determine that if you're not using profiling. what do you base it on? >> i'm not going to tell you all of it. but, for example, we may have

information that leads us to believe that certain travel routes are problematic and we can see that from a person's travel history. we may have information that we are looking not for all people from a particular country, but certain males who may have traveled here, here and here and are the ages 22 to 50. we could be looking for that. it's really taking the intelligence, the information derived from around the world, analyzing it and putting it into a format that gives us something to look for that, as i said in my talk, really confines the size of that haystack. >> do you think the terrorists will try to abuse the tsa prescreen function, and how can you prevent that? >> that's a question i'm really glad someone asked, because, you know, tsa gets a lot of pressure. why don't you just turn this stuff on, and why are you doing

what you're doing, anyway. the plain fact of the matter is in today's ever evolving environment, aviation remains a target. and the aviation sector is so critical to the global economy, not to mention facts of life. so as we move to a risk-based jat ji, it's important that we do it carefully, we pilot things. we just finished, really, the pilot for pre-check and now we can move it across the rest of the country. i think you have it in seven airports now. just added. but we go slowly so that we make sure that security values to have something that most travelers will find very, very

easy to use. we have to get the balance right. >> what information gathering technologies for cargo does the federal government find most dependable. >> it depends what kind of cargo we're talking about. i think we will see, over the course of the next year as we keep working on the global supply chain strategy internationally. we will with the world customs organization, the organized civil liberty negotiation. be able to reach standards about cargo, how early in the shipping process they are provideded and that information sharing more than any other sense you active type advice, that will probably be the best thing we have near term.

>> we'll someday be able to wave a wand and see what's hazardous or not. but that information sharing part, again, as i said earlier, that information sharing part made robust and in clus i have. gives us the best way to mitigate threat. >> do you think foreign policy in helping you? >> actually, one of the things that surprised me when i took over at dhs, as i mentioned, i'm only the third secretary and i've gotten to build on what tom ridge and michael chernoff did, and they did yeoman's work to get this department up and running. but we continue to evolve and matured over the last few years

is the international reach of the department. we have people now in 75-plus countries. i spend a lot of my time on international work, and what i spend my time on is exactly what the question is about, which is forming these international that allow us to do things like screening as far away from our physical borders as much as possible. so over the course of the next, security with a number of countries. we will be partnering with some and we have some pilots going on directly with, the pre-clearance issue that i described for you adds an international partnership.

the nation has an interest in making sure that the people's remains is safe and that the taking advantage of this kind of joint is kind of the sweet spot where trade and inner security enter secretary. >> can you tell us how to guard our borders that aren't guarded. >> the southwest border is a combination of record tech nolz that border patrols can put off to work. right now the languages, but we can shut down beneath our ports, but the ports themselves, where

the cargo is being a prird. when you talk about san ysidro no gallon once we get that trade going through. it's bigger, it's much more sparsely populated. the river, okay usually -- it's the aim kind of thing proebt aus. and then in terms of the pacific -- and when i say the pacific and the at lant is, i existed since the 18th century. they are charged with protecting our nation's coastlines they work a lot with state and local

officials railroad also in that our maritime environment remains a safe one. >> can you perhaps elaborate and kind of pat yourself on the back and talk about how the u.s. customs sees the -- >> you talked about making therl and -- well, ork. i shouldn't do that. i think, because it's not my work, it's the work of others, i get to stand here and describe it. but it's the work of . >> which is the -- it's basically a very robust and specific information sharing agreement that allows us to monitor and track the shipments of the kind of chemicals used in manufacture of ieds and to make sure that as that commerce

moves, and some of this are chemicals used in agriculture, for example, they have legitimate uses as well as illegitimate uses, so being able to separate those out and making sure the recipient and the right recipient getting the right amount as properly described is what this information sharing agreement, how it works. and the way these agreements can work even better now so you are ability to connect data is so much morro bust than it was ten years ago or, indeed, even three years ago. our ability to united different kind of databases so we can make the kinds of queries necessary to say, hey, we want to know how this particular chemical is moving and where. >> do you believe the united states shares responsibility. i think the issue with mexico is

they are our trading partner. there are thousands and thousands of jobs in the united states that relate to our travel and commerce with mexico. they have been engaged and embarked upon a valiant battle against cartels, particularly in northern mexico. they manufacture narcotics that are shipped north in the united states and some in canada. we have wanted to partner with them and share with them in any way that we can our efforts. there is a joint interest in making sure the battle they are fighting is a successful one. we will continue to do that. obviously, i think, if the question is referring to things like fast and furious, i think everyone has acknowledged that mistakes were made there. the key question is making sure the mistakes are never again

repeated. >> earlier, you mentioned that the nation's current immigration laws are out dated and in need of revision. what one priority and how would you change it? >> i think when you work in this area, there is, time and again, i'll go to meetings with businesses and they can't -- they are coming up and saying they cannot get visas for the workers they need. i'll go to the meetings with the agriculture community. they cannot get people to help harvest crops. i'll go to meetings with communities and hear about families that have been torn apart. i think if you have to pick in the whole area one segment would be young people who brought

here -- usually small children -- brought here by adults, they have been raised here. they may not speak the language of their country of school in t united states. they have done well. they played by the rules and as they reach adulthood, they come into contact with immigration and all of a sudden, they are in line for deportation for removal. these are the so-called dream act kids. if you have to take just one element out of the whole universe of immigration, that needs to be fixed. should be fixed and came close to being fixed by the congress last year. it would be that category. >> what is your vision for dhs with the national security programs to remain on schedule with budget reductions that are coming? >> well, i think, you know,

to y element of the federal find ways to do what we have to do more efficiently and in a more cost effective manner. we have been looking for these ways for three years. we have done, we call the process efficiency review. it's everything. it's, you know, it's cutting down expenses related to procurement. it's doing certain things with i.t. to cut the costs of that. eliminating subscriptions to unnecessary periodicals. not from any of those represented here. you know, it is a whole host of thing after thing. as we find them and we are getting a lot of good ideas from employees. we solicited them. where can we cut costs? >> as we do that, we are finding we can get leaner and maeaner. we will keep trying within the

structures that we have and the requirements we must accomplish. we will keep trying to be as lean as we can be given the fact we have one of the most complicated set of missions of any department. >> we have some students here today from georgetown university. one asked a question. as a woman in national politics, do you think your gender has given you a unique perspective? what advice would you give to a woman seeking to enter government service? >> run. [ laughter ] >> i mean, you know, one of the things that i found -- first of all, i think public service is a great calling. you can do wonderful things in a public service career. a public service career can take many different forms. but as someone who has been in elected office, one of the things i encourage, particularly young women to do, and young

men. everybody to do. look, running and holding elected office is a privilege. it is serious business. it is something that also has a certain amount of joy to it. the whole process of meeting the people and working with the people you will represent. so, i wouldn't, you know, unfairly to oneself say you are not going to consider running in your own right. everybody in this country has the ability to do that and ought to consider it. it is a wonderful experience with its ups and downs. truly rewarding. >> we're almost out of time. before i ask the last question, we have a couple of house keeping matters to take care of. first off, i would like to remind you about the up comings. on february 21st, we have danica patrick. nascar driver. she will discuss her career in

preparations for the indianapolis 500. on march 14th, we have former representatives patrick kennedy and jim ramstead. on april 4th, we have the founder of the chopra foundation for well being. i would likeur guest with the traditional npc mug. >> oh, boy. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> and i have one last question. you talk about all of us should be prepared. i would like to know what you have in your ready bag. >> i have the king of ready bags. i have, you know, my set of clothes. first aid equipment. extra batteries. extra chargers. a couple of good books. the phone number and e-mail

address of everybody i'm going to have to be in touch with if i ever have to use that ready bag. all of you should have a ready bag as well. all right. thank you. [ applause ] >> i want to thank all of you for coming out today. i would also like to thank the national press club staff including the library and media center. here is a reminder where you can find out more about the national press club on our web site. if you would like a copy of the program, check out our web site at www.press.org. thank you very much. we're adjourned. tomorrow on washington journal, florida republican

sally bradshaw on her state's primary and who she expects it win. then more about florida's primary with hotline editor in chief reid wilson. he will look ahead to primaries in february and march. then after that, stewart powell on the future of nasa funding and how space policies are being discussed this election cycle. plus your e-mails and comments and tweets. live tuesday at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. tomorrow, the senate intelligence committee holds the annual hearing on global threats to the united states with james clapper and died pat-- david petraeus. c-span's road to the white

house political coverage takes you live on the campaign trail with the candidates. >> you will find more and more people who recognize the massive opportunity for change in trade. if i'm president of the united states, one of the things i will do in my first 100 days is begin an economic initiative is drawing latin american businesses together. this is not a massive opportunity of charity, but opportunity. it will help lift both parts of the world. >> this is about building a new grand coalition of americans who come together because they want to create a country where we unleash the spirit of the american people and rebuild the country that we love. that is what 2012 is all about. [ applause ] >> how are you? mayor white. >> you don't remember me. >> good to see you, sir.