9:00 after all the festivities to be here this morning. we're excited about being here. it's great that she graduated and we have two out of the nest now. eric smith, google's executive chairman, i think he hit all students not only in the nose but all the business people and other practitioners in the audience of 20,000 people. he talked about technology as a tool and technology as a tool, you have to be brilliant and innoefb and he says these young people are going to teach us more than we would know as people that are not as digitally native. i wanted to throw this out assist a question and potentially a challenge and an opportunity for the sba. is there a way that we could get people that are doing amazing things -- i know we have a social media that will tweet up tomorrow, but i think it's going to be even more important that

we get people that are passionate about getting on board with technology as it relates not only to generations but marketing, pr, all the different things that really transform not only our businesses but our society. is there a way that the sba can convene a group where we can collaborate and talk and share best practices? i'm a serial entrepreneur in three ceo advisory groups. i think if we had something online with great, young thinkers and maybe old people to come up with great ideas could be very valuable. i'm throwing this out to the sba to do something creative like that. >> absolutely. it's a great idea. all of this, we're going to be talking about it today. we have our sba community and sba.gov which is a perfect forum. there is activities actually already in this area, but what i want to say is this is -- all of

this social media is very, very good news for small business. right? levels the playing field, allows us access and opportunity to very big markets in very targeted ways, how they're cost-effective. you just need to find the way that's right for you, and it's all exploding so fast that it's hard it to keep up. so we're going to take your recommendations on this forum, and we'll get people together in our community and see marine nodding on this. we put it together with some of the things later on already occurring and really try to focus on this, because it's so good for small business. >> i think years ago when i think back, this was health care specific when they were talking about technology and how they change the way health care is delivered using, for example, the smartphone and great

activity between you and your provider. it was a fascinating lecture, and i was there as far as the mobile health side because the question was asked by the ceo of a large health care entity and said, what happens in ten years from now if 50% of all the work that we perform inside of a hospital is done outside of the hospital? things like different ways of you communicating having your heart monitor with you at all times through the smartphone, through home dialysis and through the things like mobile technology, mobile health and surgery that suddenly the dynamics have shifted. how do you respond to that? that's the brentrepreneurial activity to look at the market segment. it's a major driver in all scenarios. >> i'm christie arselon. we launched a business this

month gourmet popcorn company here. we received invaluable support from the washington, d.c. small business development center in helping us put our business plan together and launch our business. the counselor there worked with us for over a year in the process. it's a wonderful program that we support. i'd love to hear a little bit more. one of the big issues we've been having is so much has been talked about access to capital, and we've seen the administration do a lot of things to help business owners, particularly find access to capital. one of the things not talked about is credit, and even though there's a lot of opportunity out there where you hear about a lot of money flowed through to banks or credit unions or even sba programs, one of the things not discuss soldier how your credit comes into play. so a lot of our members are finding they hear about all this money out there, but that can't access it because of all the credit requirements. i'd love to learn more about how someone's credit score or credit comes into play with an sba loan and maybe hear from the business

owners about how they kind of manage the process in terms of their personal credit history and accessing a loan. >> i think this is a question that we get quite a bit. rather than take our time here, because i know you want to get to the other two on a long credit strikes explanation. i'm going to success that or cap access team get together with you, and you can tweet it out for the organization as well. there's a lot of discussion about creating a morrow bust look at credit than just a credit score, and we're actively participating in that. >> i'm from interactive achievement out of roanoke, virginia. let me first say the sba has what was a blessing and help desk from that ten-employee to 20-employee, and just got that

rolling. and my question kind of doesn't quite piggyback off of her question, but it kind of does. because of what happened and god bless us all for making it through the worst recession ever. let's start there. that alone. but what's happened -- i don't know p if everybody else is facing this. it's not just a credit score. it's you have to have assets, and i mean fully paid off assets bringing them to the bank before they're going it to talk to you. whether the sba is involved with that or not. what the sba has done is extend those loans beyond those assets to give you more capital, which was wonderful for us. i know in our region which we're involved and we have a wonderful region down in virginia. there are so many businesses that prove growth, they prove it over time hiring employees, revenues are growing. all those things that we want,

and those don't mean anything anymore to a bank unless it's an asset. unless you have a asset to bring and put onto the table. my question is, is the sba looking toward or looking in the future of becoming that asset for those young businesses that have proved growth over three years, four years, five years, and they're going to be the asset on top of what that small business has already created. >> i think the answer is yes, it's a very good point. in the case of intellectual property, we have a lot of discussions with the patent office about how we can get small companies in their earlier stages started when all they have is intellectual property. that intellectual property is very valuable. our role is to become the backstop when it is that the bank sees you as a young,

growing, successful business, but just can't quite get there on the record that you have. we step in. we provide that kind of wind at your back so that you can get that first set of loans and then hopefully as in my story of taylor, you grow to be marketable credit and we go on to the next small business entrepreneur. >> and i think part of that answer is there are other institutions and people that take greater risks in some of the sbic impact funds combined with some of the private funds. there's ways to be creative, and we can spend a day on the banking side and credit side for sure. one more question, and i think that's all we've got time for. >> hi. my name is donovan, and our company is avasor incorporated.

i wanted to make a comment about the emphasis, it is issues that i think affect us as a small business sxing many others. i know that you're doing a tremendous amount with access to capital, and i want to share one more perspective about the health care issue. i view my ability to provide health care to my employees as basically the most important issue after access to capital. once you get that access to capital issue and think you're past it and are operating a profitable business, you feel your growth is really tied to your ability to provide a really nice safety net for your staff. one of the things that we're finding over the last -- well, since we've been in business is the percentage increases that we see annually from the options we have to provide medical insurance to our employees, they're large, the percentage increases are large.

it's not unusual to have the 15% increase sadly. one of the things that a lot of small businesses have to do, they try to make choices to provide both medical care and short and long-term disability issue and a 401(k) and look at the package and you want to provide all of that. but when the medical plans go through these significant increases, it's challenging to do all that. i had an experience last year where a senior employee in our company had a stroke. it was unexpected. and it came out of nowhere. our long-term disability insurance was able to provide a solution for her, thank god. that was tremendous. but the year before we had had this dildy bait internally as to whether we're able to keep these things. so while she will actually probably never be aable to return to work, she has an ability to receive 60% of her salary until she's age 65.

that's wonderful that we were able to provide that, but there's tremendous pressures every year to do that. one of the things that i wanted to mention to you is i feel that the sba needs to be radically more vocal on this issue as to -- in some ways i feel that our government fails if they allow insurance companies to discriminate against us when one of our employees is the loser in the genetic roulette of their health. this whole issue of pre-existing conditions, but more importantly the ability for an insurance company to look individually at a company's claims and if they've had a few employees sick, hospitalized, had a stroke or something like that, they can find themselves facing in the coming year 100% increase or more. basically an insurance company getting them out of the plan. i'd like to see a lot more from the sba. if you have any comment, that would be great.

>> from my side as an bree prenepr bree prenear and a small business, we know the pains you struggle there. health care is a major issue, and it's debated in the national levels and debated at state levels, but what can i do today in my business? what can i do to help my marketing, to help my sales, do help my other areas? i know i can make a difference and those are where we put as much emphasis as we can. i know that may seem simplistic but that's a reality. while some of the other debate takes place, and i'm sure the sba will do everything they can to mitigate those kinds of challenges. >> i will say that your story, once again, is something we heard from small business owners all arounded country. small businesses pay 18% more for the same cover than big business they don't go in and

they're very much a part of that of the base for the aaffordable care act. i will share with you that small business on owners very early on in this, and one said the same thing you said. she said the day that i was able to provide health insurance for my employees is the day that i called my small business a success. so we're there to help make this happen for small businesses. i think maybe we have one other question, and i am aabliobliged keep us on time, right? >> i had a stroke. i only had a 100-word vocabulary and returned to run my business. obviously i suffered from short-term memory loss, couldn't drive, couldn't write, couldn't

read. you know, fortunately we have such good medical care in this country and such good research, i was able it to put myself back together, and i'm -- i'm happy to share my story with the woman that works for you. i can get well, and i'm a living example. so i happen to be the maryland person of the year, and we developed a mobile app for amtrak. we were instrumental in developing this application for them. so we were the beneficiary of the sba, sbdc, the legislation, the ara legislation so we thank you. we're extremely grateful. you made a difference in our business. our business continued to grow. our revenues as well as our

profit, we tighten things down. so our profit percent increased 190% year-over-year. my question -- i think as small businesses we are very strong, and by the way my company's name is software con sort yum. we are the business person of the year, but what my question is is from a dwooi-- we're look beyond the recession and the global competition. as it relates to our business, what should we be doing to look to athat global economy? what advice do you have, and who should we talk to? >> well, i'm just answer i'm in the manufacturing, as i mentioned, and you know i think it's really important i actually back in 2003 went over to china on my first trade mission and have been over there three times since, been to india and south america. we as small business owners have to grasp that we are a global

economy and get educated as to what our challenges are? what things we can do better with us and better with them? i think we're all hearing there's a lot going on now with the industry coming back to the united states and we need to be prepared for that. it's to educate yourself and reach out to other international groups and find out where your expertise is, where you can blend in with the different programs. >> come to the expert forum this afternoon. >> thank you. >> thank you all. you're doing a fabulous job. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you all for attending. >> coming up this evening former british foreign affairs

testifies before a british panel investigating the culture and ethics of a media. it examines the prirmts of the fire service committee and the u.s. fire administration. later the consumer federation of america hosts a discussion on ways to combat rising obesity in improves school nutrition standards. here's a look at live coverage tuesday on the c-span networks here on c-span3 at 10:00 a.m. eastern. the senate energy and natural resource committee holds a hearing on the role of the federal government and energy ennotice vags. it including for he remember lockheed martin ceo. he leads the american energy innovation council which publish add a report concludes the government has a integral role to play in the process. senate banking committee holds a hearing to the derivative market and the dodd-frank law. regulators are formulating language on a provision known as the volcker rule.

a.p. morgan recently a nounced a $2 billion trading loss. >> people look what happened with jpmorgan and say here's a company that made a stupid decision and did something dumb and lost money and fired the people that were responsible. this is the market at work. this is how it's supposed to happen. why does government need to play a role? >> to some extent that's true, and i take some credit for it. if this had happened five years ago, if jpmorgan had lost what appears to be more than $2 billion, you would have seen much more panic in the economy. you would have seen much more concern. what we did in the legislation we passed and through other things was to require the financial institutions be much better capitalized. one of the things that's a result of the government telling them you have to have more capital you would have had otherwise, that helps give people reaassurance. >> this past weekend,

congressman barney frank spoke about the over $2 billion loss by jpmorgan chase as well as the state of the u.s. and world economies. the dodd-frank law and gay marriage. watch his comments online at the c-span video library. britain's former foreign affairs secretary under tony blair testified before a british inquiry examining relationships between the politicians and the press. jack straw said rupert murder dork had power over politicians and said that the blair government's relationship with journalists was very incestuous. he served for ten years under prime minister blair. >> today's witness is mr. straub. >> thank you.

>> the evidence i shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. >> thank you. >> i'm commonly known as jack. >> your witness statement is dated the 30th of april of this year. you signed and dated it. are you content to confirm its contents are true for the purposes of this inquiry. >> i am. >> thank you very much for your witness statement and the obvious effort you put into it and also for some of the inaccuracies which were precedent. of all the witnesses who have appeared or who are to appear at this inquiry, as i made a clear declaration at the very beginning, i know mr. straub the

best, not merely because we knew each other many, many years ago but because i work quite closely with them in my capacity when he was the lord chancellor and secretary of state for justice. >> thank you, sir. >> mr. straw, in terms of your career, the dates may be relevant for certain parts of the evidence. i will set it out. home secretary 1997 to 2001, foreign secretariary 2001 to 2006. 2006 to 2007, and then lord chancellor and secretary of state for justice 2007 to 2010, is that right? >> yes. >> gentlemen questions, mr. straw, about engagement with the media. this is paragraph 9 of your statement on page 02547 where you speak of the general public interest in engagement between politicians and the media. i'm going to ask you to please explain in general terms of

risks as you see them, particularly paragraph 11. >> the risks are really getting too close to the press. we live in a democracy. free press plays a critical role in our system of democracy. every politician wants to have the best relationship they can with the press, because the press is the prism through which the work of politicians and other people in the public life is perceived or the main prism. but if you get too close, your own position becomes compromi d compromised. more likely than compromising the position of the press and can undermine your integrity. >> thank you. we'll deal with na in small details in due course. the way -- the steps you took to emeal yat those risks, paragraph

14 to paragraph 16 of your statement, these are quotes for me, words of advice we would give to others in which you sought to follow during your political career, is that right? >> i did. i mean, i suppose i -- i learn my trade in the school of hard knocks, but quite early on. in that respect i was fortunate, because the period i spent in the late '60s and early '70s when politicians did things very high profile. front page stuff. it taught me a lot about what to do in relation it the press and what not to do. and then having spent 17 years in opposition, thinking about this a lot. i sort of came to these views over that period.

i also saw the effects of -- on those colleagues and the opposition on the other side who got too close to the press. your share price goes up for politicians of the party. like any share prices, they're going to crash. those who r, as it were, per share and they are puffing the share don't see that, but i think any sensible person can see it. i just took the view -- i may not have always been perfect in following it. that you have to take the rough with the smooth, so certainly as they will tell you, my view was go on and face the music even if it was going to be really difficult. i certainly -- i was always clear that if i was asked to go to parliament, i should do and

do plenty at times when i was arguing with the whip's office to let me go to parliament rather than to sort of hide. and ultimately if you just are as straight as you can be, that would come through, even though you get uncomfortable right on you way. >> the point you made about a rising share price in opposition, it's inevitable in opposition and the politicians have to cultivate the journalists because that's the best way to get the message across. the share price rises. then then have government and the position changes. how or what is the best way to manage that change? the expectations which arise on both sides in your view. >> yes. i mean, the relationship between media and politicians is not

symmetrical as between government and opposition. in opposition what matters is what you are saying. it is -- what you're saying you're going to do, but you can't be tested in terms of your actions. much press media reporting of politics is a copy which is ramed by reference to the government and these days it's part of your culture. most of those stories, i'm looking for stories in one way or another. you get a close, sometimes cozy relationship being built up between a particular journalist and spokes people, and i'm very, very close, sometimes in incestuous. we will have to try and do that. when i was education spokesman between '87 and '92, there were education correspondents that i would work with when i became

foreign affairs correspondent between '94 and '97. again, there was correspondents that you would work with and build up stories and enjoy the results. that has to change when you go into government. i think one of the reasons -- there was a bigger reasons, and one of the reasons why collectively the blair government was too close to some people in the press was because of our experience in opposition, and we had not stopped him for -- hang on. we can't continue to prit in that way gor government. >> i will pick that point up a little bit later, mr. straw. the general points you make in paragraphs 20 and 21, 05248, points which we've heard from other witnesses, in particular the need to sensationalize

really. the truth may be boring, but if you add the spice of a personality clash or conflict, it becomes more interesting. this is paragraph 20. >> yes. >> then the problems of print media are declined. mr. campbell with respect to those matters, are there any points you wish to elaborate? >> two sets of points. one is that there wasn't even a golden age of jr.ism, and indeed before television or radio got going, fshg, the newspapers were even more powerful than they are today. part of the focus of the labor par party. it's about the roll that the daily mail played in the defeat of the second election in '94 when they published this letter suggesting that the labor party receive moss co-gold, which

subsequently but a long time afterwards turned out to be a complete forgery. no question. it assisted our defeat. so that's -- >> you have a long memory, mr. straw. >> not even i was there at the time. my grandfather was, and i remembered it. i remember him telling this with great bitterness how labor had been deprived of the government in the last eight months. but the -- they were more powerful in one sense. they brought the papers and papers at the daily mail and the daily mirror used to report what was going on in parliament as a public service. and that's started to disappear. in fact, i think coincidentally with the televising of parliament. as i submitted,