you will see very clearly how our fatesare intertwined. so we must show up for each other. the task force in 2011 we sent organizers not just to alaska, where in a few short days we're facing a ballot measure on non-discrimination, but also sent staff to mississippi, to work on the personhood measure, we sent staff to maine to secure the vote for people in maine, and we sent our staff to build a base of anti-death penalty voters for a future fight in california. all those issues affect lesbial, gay, trans gendered and bisexual people. pick something, pick something that doesn't have to have do with your life. with your family's life. and show up. write a check. participate in a phone bank. volunteer for a campaign. reach out and bring someone with you, and next time, ask them to

come and work on something that does affect your life directly. i believe we will make a difference. second, i want to talk about love. i am definitely a half glass full girl, and i do believe that love will win out. and at the heart of the lgbt movement is love. started thousands of years ago but more recently at the stonewall inn in new york city. where a bench of drag queens and gay men, sissy boys, and people of color said enough. we will love who we want to love and we will fight for it and i believe that love will win out. and i have great hope for this in the future of love. and the future of our ability to marry each other. in states like maine where we can make history this year, where they are putting the first pro-active marriage measure on the ballot and we need all your

help to win, this will make history, the first time we've ever won on pro-active ballot measure. [ applause ] >> i hope in the future in particular because of children. we have a young daughter, elementary school, when margaret and i got married in the brief window of time with 18,000 other people in california in 2008, we went out to california our daughter came with us, she was telling her friends and we prepared her. for what her friends might say. because we didn't know, right? two women getting married. it was fascinating, because first of all, they already thought we were married. we have a house, a kid we have a dog, we drop her off every school, sometimes we forget her lunch have to run it over, we were married to these elementary school children. when they found out we had to get married, many of them congratulated us and the only

negative comment was from one of our daughter's friends who is very jealous she got to be a flower girl, that was it. that was it. but i'm reminded we have a long way to go. because at the same time, we're driving through virginia, my daughter and i, she says to me, "can people get married in this state"? and i really didn't know how to answer because i don't think that any child in this country should have to ask if her parents can get married. that should not be a question on the lips of any child in this country. to the high school students in this room, i promise you we are doing everything we possibly can so that this will not be your fight when you're 45 years old like i am, you will be fighting for something else and we will stand with you, but we will not have marriage be your fight, i promise you. [ applause ]

>> finally our voice. this has been touched on a number of times today. but we must make our voices heard and right now we are facing a huge threat in voter suppression. it is the number one threat, i know i'm supposed to talk about marriage, i wouldn't be from the task force in i didn't push the envelope a little bit. voter suppression, literally out of the jim crow playbook some of the stuff going on. we have to fight voter suppression. and if you look at where our ball on the measures overlap in states across the country, guess where we're seen ballot measures? in all the states where issues are at play. what is true is that it used to be possible to mobilize the

right wing base on hating the gays. anti-women ballot measures. anti-immigration ballot measures. anti-affirmative action measures. what is happening in the country that not one of those are trump cards anymore can they are losing, they are losing, they are losing. so what do they do they have to go deeper than that, they have to strike at the very ability for us to cast our vote. that is offensive, anti-democratic and we must stop this threat to democracy in our country or none of us will win. [ applause ] i believe we can stand together because i've seen it before. again and again, many of you have shown up for us, and our families, and i will show up for you. i promise, we will continue to

do that. but we have to stand -- and let our voices be heard. thank you. [ applause ] >> i'm hoping we have time for q and a now. so we have some mics i believe, help me point them out. they are on some tables or -- yes, the people lining up, oh, yes. please, go ahead while we have our wonderful panelists. >> hi, everyone, my name is melanie kerl i'm part of the unite women team the maryland state chapter. so if everyone could come out and rally with us on april 28th in every state. i just have a question, maryland is a pretty blue state, and looking at the congressional voting records that we're passed out the previous forum you can see that senator barbara

mccluskey has 100% measures on those listed, so i just have a question specifically for megan darby of planned parenthood, with everything that is going on in states like oregon, montana, texas, with the ultra or the trans vaginal ultrasound bill, what can states like maryland do? what can voters and resident does to help out from the sidelines, i guess because it's easy for us to sit back and rest on our laurels, because in our state things are relatively okay. >> that is a great question. so i guess the first thing to tell you is educate, and talk about it. that is the most powerful thing you can do. back to mississippi we were very fortunate that not only it picked steam up nationally, because people were outraged and knew about the issue and talked about it.

i could tell you facebook feeds were full of talk about mississippi, and that is how it really gets the ball rolling, and that really can help. now donate, because everything, this is expensive fights everywhere. i would also say locate the people that you think are are working on the issue and call them and say what can i do, can it be a house party, can we have a phone in to texas day, whatever you can do, number one talk about it and make sure people know about it. a lot of times they don't. >> can i -- weigh in on that? i think we kind of heard that from the mom, that you could do a lot with the internet now, because you can talk to people all over the country just by using the internet. i'm from maryland, too, we send people to pennsylvania, to virginia, to do labor walks, so when we know there are problems in those states, maybe even

doing labor walks in states where you know you have a problem. >> i also want to throw the feminist majority foundation two cents in here. i'm one of the campus directors for the choices campus leadership program, this election year we're putting a call out to all college students, recent high school graduates, if you feel like interning with us or planned parenthood, or the national gay and lesbian task force, all of us are going to be active especially battling these initiatives, colorado, california, all across the country. if you want to intern with us and take a semester off from school this fall and have the experience of a lifetime, we do encourage you and i'm happy to speak to you after this session or go to maine and work on passing marriage equality. these are opportunities available here and now in addition to the world of

cyberspace. thank you. >> anyone else? >> i actually do not have so much as a question but a comment. i want to thank you, you're the first person to say transgendered, i want to thank you for coming out and saying transgendered, getting people notariety other than lgbt, so thank you. [ applause ] >> i'm going say transgender so i'm the second person. yes. >> my name is kinita with unite women here in the state of we don't have a state, i'm representing the dmv, the great evidence dc and metropolitan area. one of the things i would like to bring to the attention is that when we talk about women being disproportionally affected, whenever we say women are disproportionately affected, you can double that number when you talk about minority women

being disproportionately affected. and one of the things i would like to say i find i don't have maybe i don't have the tools, but i find it a little difficult to galvanize that minority voice and bring it in the greater fold at times. if you're in for instance seattle, washington, someone in your group should be speaking, there is a large somali population. latino, someone speaking spanish, there is a large latino population there. so i wanted to say to the greater group and i've said to my group if your group looks just like you, maybe only you live in your neighborhood but i doubt it so there needs to be a greater outreach, i also would like to know or find out how through the difference consortium of organizations maybe classes how to reach

across sometimes cultural borders or boundaries, so that we understand each other, so that we are able to communicate well and address each other's needs. [ applause ] >> do any of the panelists want to respond or should we move on? >> virginia armstrong, president of the league of women voters in south hampton roads virginia. i have one comment and one question. for the woman from maryland who h doesn't have any particular needs related to maryland, please come to virginia, we are in one hell of a mess! [ applause ] >> secondly, with the league of women voters, we are especially

want to focus on voter suppression, and do you have any specifics for us that would be helpful? >> a couple of things. unfortunately there are so many choices, to get active and i think naacp has done so much work on this, both on their own website, in other arenas in identifying which states are experiencing voeter suppression laws now, the opposition thinks we will be asleep in 2013, we think 2012 is bad, just wait until 2013. what i would encourage you to do is google it, voter suppression or naacp voter suppression, in many states they are starting to ramp up campaigns or the local naacp chapters may start doing some activities, but there are a number of organizations starting to do those and a lot of us are

trying to also kind of in the midst of ballot measures that are specific to some issues, reach out to people who are interested in voter suppression to make sure that we're partnering together as we work on these because we're going to have to turn around and fight. look for campaigns in your local areas. >> all right, thank you. >> i just want to say i have been doing this 25 years, and suddenly i realize what we have to do, women, there are a lot of us, money some of us have it. the power of the men all have, we have to take over their offices, we have to run for the fucking senate, house of representatives. [ applause ] >> and i say that word all the time, i hope no one is offended. and you've got to do it in the states, too, where so much of

this. we have to do it otherwise 25 years from now, i will not be here, i promise, we're going to be saying the same thing. >> thank you. that is a great note to end on. we need to flood the ticket and hopefully everyone will consider running for office or helping support an excellent woman for public office. thank you and we're on to our next concluding session. >> do i have a peg yorkin for senate campaign? >> thank you. all this week in prime time on cspan 3, american history events. tonight, beginning at 8:00 eastern, orange county, virginia james madison's montpelier. at 8:30, old sturbridge village, visit a living history museum depicting early life from

1790-1840. at 9:00, inaugural gowns and white house china. learn more about the influential role of first ladies in presidential administrations. this weekend marks the anniversary of the bloodiest battle to be fought during the civil war, up to that point, the battle of shiloh with almost 24,000 casualties. we'll tour the battlefield with chief park ranger stacy allen, sunday night at 7:00 the angel of the battlefield founder of the red cross, clara barton, operated the missing soldiers office in a washington, d.c. boarding house until 1868. join us as we rediscover the third floor office as it's prepared for renovations. this weekend on american history tv on c-span 3. the house sub come mep might tee

heard -- chairman jon leibowitz talked about the new con fumer financial protection bureau, staffing and office space considerations, internet privacy and enforcement actions against debt collectors. he was sworn in as commissioner in 2004 designated chairman by president obama in march, 2009. >> this is the first hearing for the financial services and general government sub committee this year. and thank you all for being our first witnesses. last year the committee faced many challenges, but achieved significant accomplishments. we enacted appropriations bills to fund the federal government for both fiscal years 2011 and 2012. and i think while no one was happy including me, with all the outcomes in the 2011 and 2012 bills, we did accomplish our constitutional duty. reduced spending and more importantly enacted bipartisan bills. between fiscal years 2010 and 2012 our sub committee allocation has been reduced by

11%. however, all our financial problems are not resolved and in fact some in many ways some appear to be getting worse. secretary geithner is projecting the federal government will reach its $16.4 trillion debt limit before the end of the calendar year, so we really have to scrutinize every single dollar appropriated. i would like to welcome back our sub committee members. particularly my good frend joe serrano, rodney alexander, i'm interested in your input and hope we have good attendance at all other hearings. we'll follow the five might rule for questions, except for ranking member cerrano who can take as much times as he likes, i imagine will be getting into more discussion of the cardinals and yankees, as the baseball season progresses but that is always coincides with the beginning of our hearings.

for everyone else, keep questions and comments to about five minutes. and i want you all to know, particularly rodney, i won't cut anyone off in the middle of a sentence. recognize members in order of seniority based on who is present at the beginning of the hearing, going back and forth between the parties, and for late-comers, we'll recognize them in the order they arrive. while i'm sure we will not always agree on the issues coming before the committee, all members and witnesses will be heard and respected. i would like to welcome our witnesses for the first hearing of the year. chairman leibowitz and commissioner rush. the ftc is responsible for protecting consumers from unfair and deceptive practices as well as regulating anti-competitive business behavior. the ftc's jurisdiction affects american consumers and touches wide ranging sectors of the economy. i'm interested to hear how the ftc is reigning in costs in this

time of fiscal belt tightening, also interested in learning more about how the ftc will coordinate with the new consumer financial protection bureau, to make sure to make sure that our resources aren't being used on dupe duplactive efrts. i'm looking forward to hearing from both of y'all. welcome again and thank you for being leer today. let me recognize my good friend and colleague, for any opening comment he would like to make. >> let me keep up with tradition by congratulating you on the cardinals world series win. >> thank you very much. i'm hoping that we'll do it two years in a row. >> don't get carried away. the yankees have pitching this

year. we're in good shape. in the federal trade commission to this hearing. your agency plays an important role in our daily lives by maintaining a competitive marketplace for goods and services and by ensuring that businesses do not engage in unfair practices towards consumers. during this hearing i'm interested in learning more about how you set your priorities in many areas of responsibility. issues ranging from get rich quick schemes to consumer privacy among many others. the budget request for the coming fiscal year is $300 million, which is a decrease from the current year. i look fard to hearing if this allows for adequate staffing to cover your many responsibilities. i would also like to hear about how your priorities will change as we emerge from this economic

downturn. we can expect that even more people will have regular access to the internet through computers and mobile devices. and i'm interested in hearing about your efforts in this and how they interact with other areas. one of my interests has been making sure that all people in the united states are working equally. i'm pleased to see you're working towards this goal by providing your materials when appropriate. i'm also interested in making sure it doesn't affect how they are treated. i will be interested to hear what steps you take to ensure that the people of the territories have a fair

marketing, just like those who live in the 50 states. i look forward to discussing your plans for the current year. >> thank you, thank you, joe. i now want to recognize chairman for your opening statement and would appreciate if you keep your statements to five minutes. >> not much more, i promise you. it's a pleasure to be here with my friend and colleague tom rush today and thank you for inviting us to testify and for the kind words. to protect the nation's consumers and to ensure competition as it shapes the economy. we blooe we punch above our

weight. while we require less money, overall. we are seeking modest additional moderating funds for needed technology and staff. of course, we would need considerably more funding to move us out if our long time headquarter were to be enacted. last year we returned $258 million to consumers that seems to be a pretty effective return on investment for taxpayers. so the agency is going to continue to tighten its belt. but congress has tasked us with the responsibility to enforce an

ever growing number of laws including the children's online privacy protection act and the telemarketing act which give us the authority to create the do not call registry. we are concerned the quality of our work may become strained by the quantities of demands placed upon us. especially if undergo sequestration. our priorities include protecting privacy and ensuring competition in the health care, energy and technology markets. all of these issues were discussed in the written testimony. so i'll just touch on a few of them now. first, on the consumer protection front, the commission has continued its focus on protecting americans from frauds. since 2009 the fdc has brought more than 90 cases against scammers government grants and work at home opportunities. in coordination with other federal and state partners. we are participated in sweeps

resulting in another 400 law enforcement actions. and we don't just take on small bottom feeders. in 2010 country wide now bank of america settled that the company overcharged consumers behind on their mortgages or in bankruptcy. a few weeks ago bank of america agreed to reverse the refund another $36 million in overcharges to the same group of 450,000 consumers. second, the fdc remains at the forefront in protecting consumer privacy. . they call it the most effective government program since the elvis stamp.

if you promise to protect consumer privacy, you have to honor the commitment. the fdc recently announced a proposed settlement with facebook to resolve companies that they told consumers they can keep the information private but repeatedly allow the information to be shared more broadly. the facebook settlement will protect the privacy of the $100 million facebook users in the united states and the $850 million users worldwide. third, health care computation will remain very high on the fdc's agenda. we push back against rising health care costs, which are nearly 18% of the gdp and increasing faster than the rate of inflation by a variety of ways. and fighting restrictions on health care goods and services. as you know chairman, especially

egregious practice is the pay for delay pharmaceutical agreement. they delay medicines into the market and cost americans dearly in higher prescription drug prices. fourth, we try to ensure that these deals don't lead to higher prices and we open an investigation among gas refineries last year. and it continues to this day. finally we have long believed. they need to be reviewed to ensure they are up to date, effective and not overly burdensome on businesses. more than a third of the rules and guides under review or recently reviewed.

to ensure that it keeps up as online technology and our kids able to manipulate it speeds ahead. we revised the rules, to ensure the cases move expeditiously the process. this is virtually unheard of in federal courts. but i have heard enough. i'm going to turn it over to commissioner rush. thank you very much.