>> well, quite honestly, the footprint associated with geothermal is a lotless than with wind and solar. it also has probably the highest potential for future development than probably solar or wind as it relates to the amount of public lands that would be dedicated or made available for that type of particular use. when you're kpooting against coal and other energy sources at this point in time, but we do believe that geothermal will be a major part of our nation's portfolio in the years to come. >> are you facing any barriers at this point in time other than money? >> no, we're not. >> thank you, mr. chairman, i think a three-member committee with a three-member board, this works out pretty damn nice. thank you all for your time. >> thank you. senator tester, i want to thank the witnesses for their excellent testimony and for your

skillful leadership for your agencies. i want to thank my colleagues for a very productive and very thoughtful hearing. there may be additional questions. i would ask all of my colleagues to submit them within a week, by march 21, and the gentlemen to respond as quickly as possible to any written questions. if there are any of my colleagues that wish to have statements commit submitted for the record, they will be accepted without objection for the record. once again, thank you and we are adjourned. >> thank you, mr. chairman.

>> our government hasn't caught up with the new facts of american family life. families have changed so why can't washington? new facts, moms working. nearly 65% of all mothers are working. part time, full time, all of time, keeping the family together, making ends meet, making america more prosperous. working mothers need affordable daycare and the pay they deserve. too often they can't get ooit p dth oo either. >> with nearly 13,000 days in congress, mikulski will surpass edith rogers who served in the house from 1935 to 1960.

>> in a few moments, former representatives patrick kennedy and jim ramstad an mental health insurance. and then the agency's impleme implementation of the dodd/frank financial regulations la uh. law. now, former representatives patrick kennedy and jim ramstad in a bill they co-sponsored in 2008 which requires most insurers to provide coverage for mental health care. four years after the bill passed, they discuss how it's being implemented and the challenges for those seeking mental health insurance. this is an hour.

>> good afternoon, and welcome to the national press club. we are the world's leading organization for journalists and are committed through our programming events such as these while fostering a free press worldwide. for more information about the national press club, please visit our website at www.press.org. to donate, please visit www.press.org/institute. on behalf of our members worldwide, i would like to welcome our speakers and those of you attending today's event. we welcome guests of the speakers.

and if you hear applaud, members of the public are also attending so it's not necessarily a lack of journalistic objectivity. our luncheon is also featured on our podcast from the national press club, available on itunes. you can also follow the action on twitter, using the hashtag npc lunch. after our guest speech concludes, we'll have an answer and question segment. i will answer as many questions as time permits.o introduce our head table guest and i would ask each of you to stand up briefly ced.ou from your right, noel waghorn, associated press. keith hill, bloomberg bna. pam hyde, administrator, substance abuse and mental health services administration and guest of our speakers. angela king, the reporter from

bloomberg news. i'm going to skip our guests. we have allison fitzgerald, freelancer and speaker's committee chair. and again, i'm skipping our guest. robert carden, speaker committee member who organized today's event. sherry gleed, assistant secretary for planning and evaluation, u.s. department of health and human services. ed eisley, editor "the hill." john mulligan, providence journal. and tracy jann, "boston globe." washington these days, but it can work. just ask former congressman patrick kennedy, a democrat from rhode island and his friend and one-time colleague jim ramstad, the former republican representative from minnesota. in to 2008, these two

co-sponsored the mental health act to treat mental illnesses as they would treat physical ailments. the legislation is considered a landmark achievement in the arena of mental health. and its passage is alsophafath r father, senator edward kennedy, long a champion of those with mental disabilities. this was a personal crusade for pat kennedy and mr. ramstad. mr. ramstad has struggled with alcoholism and mr. kennedy has been open about his past struggles with addiction. in 1996, then but the insurance companies used loopholes to get around the legislations. the legislation effectively closes those loopholes. both men are making sure all provisions of the act are fully implemented under the administration's new health care law. both ramstad and kennedy retired from congress.

mr. ramstad continues to work on mental health issues and is a board member on the national center on addiction and drug abuse at columbia university. mr. kennedy is currently living in new jersey and is recently married and expecting a child. congratulations. >> thank you very much for that kind introduction. i didn't know you were a democrat, kennedy. i want to thank all of you for being here own behalf of the parity coalition. and especially thanks to all of you who have worked so hard, some of you since 1996 in the very begin on the mental health and chemical addiction treatment parity act. i want to point out one individual. if i started thanking individuals for their co

but i want to point out one national hero who has helped so much in this effort, who has my ways. he's one of patrick's best friends, one of my best friends, one of america's best friends, max cleeland. max, thank you. [ applause ] the reality of this effort is we're not there yet. we're not there for millions of americans suffering the ravages of chemical addiction and mental illness. i remember when paul wellstone

first got me involved in this effort in in 1996. i remember paul saying we have a long, hard road to hoe because we're going to run into very in fact, it reminded me -- i was thinking the other day of my first campaign in 1990 congress. and on election night, i got a little bouquet of flowers with a card that says may you rest in peace. that's the same reaction i had. may you rest in pe puzzlement ie florist the next morning and expressed the fact that i was a little bit confused over this message. and she said well, let me check my records. so the her records and came back a few minutes later and said ramstad, if you think you're puzzled, how do you think the guy at the g t that said congratulations posit. you have a long, hard road to hoe. well, i want to thank you for the parity implement coalition

for hoeing that long, hard road with us. for being there night and day. some of you that i said since the very beginning in 1996. it's about time we treat the diseases of the brain the same as diseases of the body. noo more discrimination against people with mental illness or addiction. no more higher deductibles, no more inflated co-payments, no more limited treatment stays decided by bureaucrats instead of health care providers.'s abo rule that ends this discrimination for once and for all against people with dpzs of the brain. we need to stop this d discriminatory treatment. remember our field hearings back in 2007 when patrick and i went

on the ro ed to 14 states to drum up grassroots support? how many of you attended or participated in one of those hearings? well thank you. thank you very much. we're back. we're back. our strategy worked then and we're back for another round. the parity bill passed congress, largely as a result of your efforts. the people at the grassroots level who called, who e-mailed, who visited town meetings of their members and urged them to vote for parity. you changed vote, you changed minds, you educated members and you made it happen. and we're going to do the same thing with respect to the rule. the parity bill is, as you mentioned, theresa, passed the congress, was signed into law by president bush in 2008. and this is 2012 and we still don't have a final rule. still don't have a final rule. so we need to rekindle a new torch to spark a final rule that

ends discrimination against people suffering from mental illness and addiction. as i said, for once and for all. with members of the parity implementation coalition, aim mee kennedy's husband and i are launching the patriots for parity tour. somebody suggested we call it the parity reunion tour, but we said we're no rock band, believe me. we're just trying to fight for a worthy cause and get the ball over the goal line. this is going to be a nationwide tour to save and strengthen mental health and addiction treatment parity. and i'm pleased to announce today, very pleased to announce that the first confirmed hearing will be in my home state of minnesota july 17 in st. paul at the minnesota recovery connection. we also tentatively have three

such hearings scheduled prior to july, but they have not yet been finalized. the arrangements have not yet been finalized, so it would be premature to make those announcements. but we're going to every corner of this great country to mobilize the grassroots once again, to prove once again that the people are more powerful than the insurance company lobbyists who are working overtime to kill parity. friends, 54 million americans with mental disorders deserve nothing less. 26 million americans with doctoring and alcohol addiction deserve nothing less. but patrick and i cannot do it alone. we need you to help us to get the job finished. please, if you're not a member, if you're not active, please join the implementation

coalition today. attend and participate in our patriots for parity tour. we need you. with eneed you to save and strengthen the mental health and addiction treatment equity act. we also need to work together to keep the treatment equity act in the affordable care law. we still have a long hard road to hoe. but working together, i know in my heart and whatever norwegian intellect i have left, that we can get the job done. thank you very, very, very much. now it's my pleasure to introduce our next speaker who truly needs no introduction. introduction. but i'm just going to say this about our nt kennedy were still

alive, and were president kennedy to write a sequel to his famous book "profiles in courage" there's no question whatsoever that his nephew patrick kennedy would occupy a full chapter of that book. please welme in courage, patrick kennedy. >> thank you, husband. my great friend, jim ramstad. let me just say this about your kind comments about being courageous. i was only able to do what i did because i had my fellows help me. and you were among them. i want to say you have

compassion. if there was a profile in compassion award, jim ramstad would be the recipient of it. thank you, theresa, for welcoming us. and i notice you were born in newport, rhode island, my congressional district. and to john mulligan reporting from the providence journal, we're going to beat minnesota to the bunch. we have craig stening, mike fein and we're going to make rhode island the first hearing that pam hyde attends when she comes up and visits our state. i, too, want to say what an honor it is to have a true inspiration for for my personally, max cleeland here, and i also want to thank

jim moran, a great friend and former colleague for also being here. on october 3, 2008, the act was named in honor of two senators, both of whom knew the personal toll of mental illness, one of whom didn't live to see it signed. the task now falls on all of us, regulators here today, advocates, citizens to complete the unfinished work that this set out to do. to cement in our statutes the rights of the mentally ill and to banish discrimination in health care wherever we find it. i know there's some concern in this room about our role here, jim's and mine, that we're

either speaking too much fohe f the advocacy community. but i see our roles as champions for people who need help who don't want to wait a someday longer than they have to to get the needed treatment. led by sherry gleed and pam hyde we've started down the path to parity. these two dynamic terrific leaders have been forceful advocates for the mental health community. their staffs in the department of health and human services and sampsa are working to translate the law into strong, sensible regulations. they have been both energetic and they've been empathetic. and we thank them for their leadership. pam and sherry, thank you for your great work. [ applause ] already one third of affected employers have modified their

benefits with a vast majority expanding mental health coverage. we're moving towards a system where insurance companies can no longer impose where insurance companies can no longer adjust higher co-pays, deduct iblz, premiums for anything termed mental health. where people suffering from alcoholism or schizophrenia cannot be arbitrarily dismissed from a treatment facility, where insurers must carefully evaluate and compare medical and surgical benefits they offer and provide anyone with mental health or substance abuse treatment at the exact same benefit level as they would for medical or surgical. and where mental health is considered also part of the essential health benefits for all americans, and that is what we are going to talk about today. thanks to the effort of many people who are in this room, we have begun to enshrine these rights into law. but as we know, the current rules and regulations are written in wet cement, not stone.

they are not fully fixed and this law has not been fully implemented. it won't be without strengthening regulation in three key areas: clarity, transparency and accountability. because for insurance companies, concern with their bottom lines, undisclosed and unaccountable too often means unheated by the insurance system. we've made great progress, but right now we have interim final rules instead of enduring inalienable rights. as many of you know, these is dependency are personal for jim and i, but they're also personal for the hundred million americans who suffer from neurological conditions. and they're personal to their family and friends. because these are and mothers, these are our sisters and brothers.

there are sons and daughters h alzheimer's atthere are w increasingly and tragically, they are also our brave men and women in uniform who have returned home never to find peace. these are soldiers afflicted with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress. men and women who escaped the taliban or the iraqi insurgency only to be disabled by the, quote, invisible wounds of war and held hostage by the stigma that surrounds their treatment. the signature wound of these wars have veterans medical p.o.w.s. pentagon officials estimate that up to 363,000 iraqi veterans may have suffered brain injuries and u.s. army vice chief of staff, general pete carelli, the

champion for those in the military who have suffered these injuries, and he's here today, thank you, general carelli, for your service to our country. [ applause ] >> so pete carelli told me, we're losing more soldiers to suicide and high-risk behavior than to combat. staggering but true. and if we continue to view these wounds as invisible, then how are we ever going to prevent their painful, invisible manifestation. adding insult to injury, stigma makes many of them feel, if they've experienced any trauma, all they should do is suck it up and shake it off. so many don't see compensation or treatment through the v. a. because they are now subject to the private insurance market, and that's what brings us here

today. over half of our returning soldiers, many who are guard and reserve, are going to get their treatment for the signature wound of the war, traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress, not through the v. a., but through their private employer provided their private employer stands up and ensures that they get the treatment they need that is medically necessary and does not discriminate against them just because their disease occurs in the organ of the brain. that's why we're here today, to make mental health parody about trying to save our very patriots in this country who have borne the battle and who have come home. it's the least we can do as americans to make sure they're not left behind on the battlefield. [ applause ] >> let's be clear. the work we undertake today is

not merely about health care, veteran's care, science or economics politics. it's an issue of civil rights. when a single person of a particular organ in their body, that's a civil rights issue. when we withhold treatment simply because the malady involves the brain rather than the kidney, the heart or the lungs, that's a civil rights issue. almost 50 years ago, my uncle as president said it in an earlier civil rights fight, quote, we are confronted primarily with a moral issue. it's as old as scriptures and as clear as the constitution. the heart of the question is whether we are going to treat everyone else the way we ourselves expect to be treated. whether americans are going to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities and whether they're going to be treated as their fellow americans. because if one in four americans

experiences a mental disorand r treatment, we have a problem. then to paraphrase my uncle who content to change places and be content with the counsel of patience and delay. who amongst us would accept a diagnosis of parkinson's or alzheimer's and be satisfied with an isolated and fragmented approach to care? who amongst us would stand in the shoes of someone suffering from major depression and be silent as those symptoms are dismissed as simply psychological? and who amongst usldth one of o heroes who is suffering in silence in our country today? we cannot afford that happen. back in 2010, i joined with my

stagland in launching one mind for research, an initiative to unify and focu. one mind, to bring together researchers across the spectrum of brain illnesses, and we deeply believe witll together, breakthroughs through a united mission where we unravel the mystery of the mind together, not individually. and we're setting our sights high. we aim to get all neurological disorders within ten years and eliminate the discrimination that accompanies them. this is a bold turn to none otha four-star general, mp carelli, to lead our efforts. [ applause ] >> manyf health issues

that aren't associated with the mind have everything to do with the mind. it's your eating, your drinking, your stress which leads to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and, of course, asthma. for cancer patients diagnosed with depression, death rates are 40% higher. segregate mental health from overall health? this is a civil rights issue. as real as 50 years ago when my uncle made a call on civil rights to this country, that's separate but equal, was inherently unequal. we cannot tolerate separate standardswn the hall for your mental health treatment. we want mental health treatment in every mental health care provider in this country. so let's banish the lingering

discrimination of a second class citizen suffering from these disorders. imagine a health care system where a checkup from the neck up is as common as taking your blood pressure, is as common as taking your temperature. imagine all the lives we could save. every physician recognizes, and pam hyde herself has said your mental health is just as important to your quality of life, as your physical health, if not more. and when go to the doctor with appendicitis or a broken bone, you will be cared for the same way, with compassion. beyond that, physicians will be trained -- what a revelation, that they're actually trained and treating the whole person, not just from the neck down -- so that we can correctly identify that a broken bone as a result of a drinking binge is as much a symptom as it is a