relationship with planned parenthood? >> as we've said before, girl scouts usa does not have a relationship. we, again, are focused on what is important to girls and that's what we've been doing for over 100 years. >> there are many media representatives here today. what role should the media play in enpowerment for girls and women and how are women and girls portrayed in the media today? >> well, we've had a lot of studies that talk about the issues impacting girls. we've actually hosted media panels throughout the country and i was stunned recently to talk to some ladies in the media who are girl scouts and they came up to me and said, anna, we want to help, some way, somehow, to show the girls that it's okay to be themselves and you don't have to do computer generation to change the way you look. and so on one particular female

newscaster actually did something live on television with no makeup. and it created havoc. can you imagine? but it was her way of telling the girls, it's okay. we don't need all of this to be the professional person standing up and doing what we need to do. this is our job. again, we've had some amazing media partners and i want to specifically thank all of our media partners here today and across the country who have been working with us during our 100th anniversary to spread the good message of girl scouting. and they have. we have gotten over 70 million media impressions in the last six months. and it's because, again, our media partners understand at the end of the day we're one community and they can help -- they have a powerful voice. they get to the girls through tv, through magazines, through radio, and they can help us spread some really great messages and encourage the girls to stay on their path.

>> the boy scouts have been talking publicly about struggling with the membership numbers. how is the girl scout enrollment doing and what are you doing to keep it up and boost it? >> of course, we are actually up in membership. we are proud of that. and other nonprofits that we use and we've all been struggling because of the economy. you know, when a family sits back and says, wow, we've just got to make rent. or a parent loses a job so they come back to the basics. what do we really need? a lot of us did lose that membership. and ill tell you part of it is, too, girl scouts. we are the best kept secret in the united states. if you talk to any woman, for the most part, they were touched by our organization. but we don't tell our story and part of that is, again, telling

the story so more girls will join. they can't buy something that they can't see. and so, again, that's why we're out there. and you will see and i think you've probably seen in the last six months more stories about girl scouts than ever. talking about the great work they are doing, changing lives. and so for us it's about going external. sharing that external story so people will invest in girls, people will advocate for them and people will sponsor girls. >> how realistic is it to expect that you can achieve gender equality and leadership in one generation when it has taken centuries for girls to get to where they are today? >> well, i think it's an economic imperative. it is. i used to work for the sba. a great organization. and i learned there that one in four people are employed by a small business. so i always think about economy and sort of really where the jaws are being generated and they are going to need employees. they are going to need skilled,

trained employees. and so from a business perspective, you've got to invest in girls to get them on that path. and so if we sit back and say, well, let's do two generation of girls, or maybe three, we're going to pass a whole opportunity that these girls are going to give back to their communities and to this country. and so it makes sense for businesses to step up and help. say, absolutely, we want to support girls t makes sense for government to invest in programming around leadership development for girls. again, with 59 million living alumni of girl scouts, by spreading the message, they are going to come back and they are going to say, how can i help? i can't camp but i'm a business owner, you know, or i can camp and i'm going to take the girls rappelling. so i think everybody is going to get involved. >> how do the girl scouts work to build girls up on their own rights rather than simply get them to their own benchmarks and

counterparts? >> i think you're right. it's always a discussion that, again, men are in these roles. we've recently looked across the top ten job sectors across the country to the military, nonprofit, ak ka deem yeah and only 70% of the leadership positions were held by women. why is that? i think it completely goes back to -- and this is my personal opinion, being a leader of a national organization that, again, it's about what you see in front of you. you know, for my mother, she was so wise because she wouldn't tell me what to do. she would just kind of lay out the issue and she'd kind of walk me through, well, anna maria, what are you going to do about that? as a 10-year-old, i figured out how to get there. girls need that same opportunity. they need adults to say, well, you found out that there's no recycling program in your school. what are you going to do about that? let the girls dream about that. i think as we engage more girls,

as we engage more adults in the opportunity, i think we'll be seeing it. again, sort of the balance of leadership was created over many decades. so we can't do it today, we can't do it tomorrow but we can create awareness of these issues and make a difference for girls. >> to get her there appears to address getting younger girls involved in scouting. does it extend to graduating girls in terms of helping her get a job or a connection. >> well, we serve girls all the way to age 17. so a lot of girls think that they can't join because they are in high school. actually, the girls i've spoken to love being in girl scouts even as they grow older because they then see the connection between what they want to do as an adult. and so for girls working towards their silver and then, of course, their gold award, they are being involved in issues impacting their community. they think, wow, maybe that's

what i want to go to go to school to study. i want to be a lawyer or an engineer and then figure out, wow, wow, there's a lot of girls working in this community. and what i've learned, teresa, honestly, i've asked them questions. as a national ceo, i sit down with a lot of them. when i was a local ceo in san antonio, i had a teen kitchen cabinet of girls. they would say, you've got to do this, you've got to do that, because that's the way we've always done that. thank you very much. i agree with that. and then i'd sit down with the girls. okay, girls, ten of them, all teenagers. they would say, okay, what do you want to know, anna? i would say, girls, how are we recruiting? is is that working for you? and they noticed the door was shut and we were alone, they were like, okay, wait. eagle one, it's not working.

first of all, if you think you're going to go into high school, put out a table with a little green thing on it with a box of cookies, that's not going to work for me. tell me how this is going to help me. tell me how i can get back to my community. and so sitting them with them, literally, we created a program called gamma signal girls because i was told that older girls would not join girl scouting. girls are not interested in becoming a girl scout when they are older. i don't know, i talk to a whole group of girls and they like being a girl scout. we did. we sent out a message. 25 girls at one high school. literally, almost overnight, we got every single high school in san antonio, independent school district to become girl scouts. so so ten girls, 25 girls in each school became girl scouts. we actually blue tblew the cap n one school. we had to let extra girls in.

what started happening is they got involved, ran for student government and i met a girl recently -- actually, through that experience, in san antonio and she told me that girl scouts had changed her life because, again, a lot of people told her, as she got older, well, you shouldn't be involved in this, girl scouts is not that. she joined and all of a sudden she had girl scouts friends and sisters and they started doing community service projects and started joining student government. what i found out was, this young girl had been homeless all her life. she had been in like ten schools. and she immediately was grounded in girl scouting and with her sisters in girl scouting. she went on actually to speak nationally on the issues impacting teens and homelessness and she's now gone on to college in a full ride and she peaks eloquently about how just in one year as a junior in high school girl scouting completely changed her opportunities.

so it's never too late, girls. it's never too late, parents, to join girl scouts. >> when do you think we will see a female president and will she be a girl scout? >>. >> well, teresa, the odds are that she's going to be a girl scout. the odds are there. even you look at the current cabinet, president obama, you know, hillary clinton, again, secretary of state, girl scout, supreme court. they are in these leadership positions already. for us as a community, of course, we would love an opportunity for a woman to serve. she will serve as a leader. she will serve as somebody who wants to make a difference. the fact that she's a woman is an added bonus. but, again, a lot of people say, how can you do that? and it's -- we are making our way. we are in schools. we are making the grades, doing the internships, taking the hard

jobs and assignments and making the sacrifices so give them a chance to fill that critical need in this -- and in the white house. >> before i get to the last questions, i have a couple announcements to make. first of all, i'd like to remind you on june the 4th we have the gerald r. ford journalism awards with guest speaker chris matthews, host of "hardball" on msnbc. on june 9th, before you head down to the mall, we have our 15th annual beat the deadline 5k race that benefits the journalism institute and you can run a 5k, eat pancakes, and head to the mall. secondly, i'd like to present our guests with the coffee mug.

have you learned the flash mob dance for rock the mall? >> i'm a little stressed about that. but, you know, i've been told -- i have a beat. so i'm going to pick it up, you know. lydia is a little scared. i may break out on the stage but i'm ready for the challenge. >> do you want to try any of it? >> i hear you're a good dancer. >> what is your favorite cookie? >> oh, man. wow. you saved the toughest question till the end. all right. i will tell you what my answer used to be but after i gave -- i gave the answer. it was a little political. as the national ceo, i love all cookies. and that day my husband happened to be listening to the radio interview and i get home and he says, anna, stop it. you got a cookie. say the cookie. so, yes, in front of everybody,

my favorite cookie is the samoa. i embrace it. i embrace it. but here's the thing. girls get to choose their favorite cookie and we actually have an iphone app that will tell you, based on your cookie, we can tell you a little something about your personality. >> how about a round of applause for our speaker today. thank you for coming. thank you to the national press club staff, including journalism institute and broadcast center for organizing today's event. as a final reminder, you can find out more information about the national press club at press.org. thank you all. we are journ adjourned. adjourne. we are journ adjourned. adjourne. . .

coming up this afternoon on c-span 3, a hearing on railroad and highway security. that's followed by a discussion of this month's presidential elections in europe. the runoff is june 16th and 17th. a look at nuclear nonproliferation between the united states and russia. on the other c-span networks, the atlantic council holds a

hearing on europe's financial crisis and how to get out of it. the ceo of deutsch bank will share his thoughts at 5:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. president obama is getting a little help from former president bill clinton at fund-raisers in new york. they will speak at a private home and then headline a gala at the wall dor if historical hotel. the two will end the night at an event dubbed barack on broadway. wisconsin voters go to the polls tomorrow to decide whether to remove scott walker from office. he's facing a recall election two years into his term and he's being challenged by the democratic governor. over the past four years,

david maraniss has been researching and writing his tenth book, barack obama, the story. speaking with the president's relatives in kenya and discovering his african an seft tree on the shores of lake victoria. he toured the family's homes and sites in kansas. that comes out in bookstores on june 19th but book tv will give you exclusive look, including our trip to kenya as we traveled with the author in january 2010. join us on sunday, june 17th, at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. later, at 7:30 that same night, your phone calls, e-mails, and tweets for david maraniss on book tv. now a house homeland security subcommittee hearing focusing on the tsa's security

inspection program created in 2005 to oversee the safety of rail and highways. changes are needed to improve efficiency. witnesses representing the association of rail roads, american trucking association, owner-operator independent driver's association and greyhound bus lines also testified. this is about an hour and a half. >> the committee on homeland subcommittee on transportation security will come to order. the committee meeting is to receive testimony surface transportation inspection program. i want to thank all of our witnesses for being here. i know it took a lot of time to prepare for it and i do appreciate your willingness to do so. it's very helpful to us. less than 2% of tsa's $8 billion goes towards surface. there are two primary reasons for this. aviation continues to be a major focus of our enemies. secondly, our surface enemies and have to remain open for many

reasons, not the least of which is to keep our economy on track. no punt intended. having said that, surface transportation is a very attractive target and since we can't screen everyone and everything that gets on a train, truck, or bus, detection measures are extremely important. there's been a long list of devastating attacks against mass transit systems worldwide and a number of plots against our own transit systems. thankfully, the work of our intelligence committee has helped disrupt these plots. but that does not mean that we can afford to lose focus. regardless of its failings and providing aviation security, tsa's role is more clearly defined in that environment. on the other hand, level transit agencies and local law enforcement take the lead in providing security for surface transportation and so far tsa has done a good job of making sure it stays that way. unfortunately, it's not been

well received or well managed. at a hearing held by this subcommittee last year, industry witnesses voiced their concerns with tsa's surface inspection program. their concerns sparked our hearing today. over the last several months, staff has conducted oversight and there are five other problems that we know about. number one, most have no surface transportation experience or surface background whatsoever. many surface inspectors are promoted from screening passengers at airports. number two, these inspectors report to the federal security directors, at the local airports who commonly also do not possess any surface transportation experience. number three, at least one local tsa official indicated that he is always looking for things for his inspectors to do to occupy their time. number four, most surface inspectors have two things to look for in a typical day, whether a transit system is reporting incidents to the tsa and whether there is a security person on duty. and finally, the work of these

inspectors may not be as robust as reported. according to one former inspeck be for, tsa management encourages inspectors to record more activities to make it look like they are busier than they really are. these findings are disturbing to me. where is the security benefit? in the last five years, the budget for this program has quad drun peled and only one situation has resulted in punitive fines across the entire country as a result of these inspections. now, i've already stated that tsa has a limited amount of time and there are some great programs out there this allows local law enforcement agencies to fund counterterrorism teams and other successful initiatives. we owe it to the taxpayer to look close at the tsa inspector's program and determine whether this is good use of limited resources or if

this funding would be better spent on other surface initiatives designed to prevent an attack. keeping in mind we all want the safest and most secure transit possible, how the tsa can do a better job with the security resources, no one has more invested in this than you do. and normally right now i would yield to the ranking member. i'm told that she's tied up in the intelligence committee and when she arrives we'll return to her for that. now i want to go back to -- go ahead and get started with our witnesses. i will advise other members, if they have opening statements to submit them for the record. we're pleased to have several distinguished witnesses before us on this important topic. entire statements will appear in the record. our first witness is chief john o'connor, currently serving as chief of police for amtrack. he has responsibility for development of security

strategies, the implementation of counter measures and delivery of uniformed investigative and special operations for amtrack and chief o'connor served as chief of patrol for amtrack's metro pal tan development. before joining in 1998, he served as the long island police department and commuter railroad in the u.s. for 25 years having risen through the ranks he retired as chief of police. the chair welcomes back chief o'connor and you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you and good afternoon, chairman rogers and committee members. it's an honor and a privilege to appear before this committee. in my opinion, the threat against surface-based transportation systems is as high as it has ever been. all too often we hear news of

another overseas attack or a foiled attack in this country. the manetta tut detailed the tax on transit systems since 9/11 and resulted in over 3900 deaths and countless injuries. in 2012 heritage foundation report states that in the u.s. alone more than 50 terror plots have been foiled since 9/11. many of them targeted that surface transportation systems. we know that al qaeda continues to urge even more attacks through its magazine inspired and skillful use of the internet. we must therefore make every reasonable effort to remain vigilant because the threat is real. amtrack's approach for providing the security of those who depend on our system is one of prevention, partnership, and

participation. on the prevention side, we deployed hundreds of uniformed officers at more than 30 locations around the country. these efforts are overlaid by special operations forces which include one of the most skillful canine units in operation today. many of the canines have been trained at auburn university which has developed a technique for detecting the movement of explosives through large crowds such as those found at train terminals. however, no one department can handle the enormity of the transportation security task at hand. thus, our emphasis on partnership. based initially on a northeast coalition first formed by nypd, ray kelly, amtrack has worked with the tsa to coordinate the efforts of more than 200 agencies in over 40 states to protect amtrack and local transit systems.

amtrack has also been accepted as an associate member of rail poll, a network of european police agencies sharing best practices to protect our respective systems. additionally we partnered to conduct thousands of joint baggage screening efforts and viper deployments throughout our system. we have turned to our 19,000 employees in the public to gain familiarity with our system. through public outreach we have given our employees and public both the tools they need to identify suspicious circumstances and the means to share their observations with a proper authorities. i would like to say that the tsa has been a good federal partner and amtrack's partnered with the tsa has produced significant improvements in transit security. the tsa has been at the forefront in many important developments, including vipir deployments, joint baggage screen for explosives,

establishment of a peer advisory group for police chiefs, assisting and directing funding for operational security searches and administration of a base program to assist agencies in the application of their security efforts. this is only a partial list but it's a substantial one. that being said, in today's tough economic times, i think it would be prudent to ensure that all of the tsa efforts make the best possible use of their respective budget allocations. one program in particular that i agree is worth a close examination is the surface inspector program. amtrack's experience with this program has been somewhat mixed. on the one hand the program has been helpful to us in the assessment of the northeast corridor. on the other hand, amtrack has encountered difficulties by different tsa field offices. informal inquiry has resulted in missioning confusion and

disconnects with headquarters at times today the program is partially over seen by some 58 security directors who often have airline security as a higher priority in their view of their responsibilities. it is not clear to amtrack but this is the best structure for surface transportation and it is also unclear whether the program as funded and structured continues to add value to the overall security efforts. our preference would be that the program take on a more operational focus. in closing, i ask that -- i think the tsa deserves high marks for its transportation security efforts, not withstanding improvements that could be made to the inspector program. i have submitted a written statement for the record and appreciate the opportunity to share these remarks and would be glad to answer any questions that the committee may have. thank you.

>> testifying on behalf of the tsa subcommittee, mr. elliott worked for consolidated rail corporation, conrail, in a variety of capacities in the police, safety, and environment. chair recognizes mr. elliott for five minutes. welcome. >> good afternoon, mr. chairman. i'm skip elliott and i've been a railroader for 25 years. i currently serve as vice president for safety and in that role i'm responsible for the environment hazardous material transportation safety, our railroad police department, homeland security and industrial hygiene programs. i'm pleased to be here for you today testifying on behalf of

csx and on the transportation security administration surface transportation inspection program and on the topic of industry and remain deeply committed to rail security. immediately after 9/11 and well before there was a tsa or dhs, our industry moved rapidly to address the new threat environment and implemented a highly regarded unified risk-based approach to security. on the topic of transportation inspectors, tsa has enacted formal regulations and we support full compliance. that said, we have several concerns regarding the tsa surface transportation inspection program. first, csx is troubled by the lack of consistency on the regulatory requirements for moving hazardous materials by rail. we frequently encounter provisions of the regulations in different s.