effectively on the web, people who have time, desire and knowledge to go after these folks. a lot of times the people who are victims of these infringements, myself included, people on this panel, would love to do anything we can to empower private citizens to shut down scammers. if it helps the ftc, it might be worthwhile to consider a bounty system funded by the private sector. not locking for new laws or government funding of these initiatives. >> thank you. mr. harrelson, what is your organization doing to stop these third parties from placing ads on websites and, perhaps, those ads that are less truthful? >> well, again, as i pointed out in my testimony, you know, our companies are deeply incentivized to making sure these ads stay off of our platforms. i think having wruz user trust e advertise advertisements they see is

making sure the internet economy survives. when we do -- i mean, our companies have very sophisticated automated filtering systems that look for this kind of stuff and when we do find these ads, they're automatically removed by the systems long before they're served by or seen by users. but at the same time, as we -- as we are notified, we do see bad ads that are on our platforms. they're immediately removed. the advertiser account is reviewed and appropriate action is taken when warranted. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you. >> senator klobuchar? >> thank you very much, chairman. thank you for holding this hearing. thank you to all of you. yesterday i looked up the top-selling weight loss products on amazon and even with the ftc's actions against green c y coffee marketers, green coffee is still a product in the top 20 selling products. the rest of the products are currently garcs garcsenia, camb

related objects which was highlighted on your show, and highlighted as a product that advertisers used to scam consumers by creating a fake website claim to be "women's health magazine." when it was on your show, did you talk about the side effects? i know senator mccaskill has questioned you at length about this. you said this was all two years ago and you're not making these claims anymore, but do you talk about the side effects then and do the deceptive practices coming out of that change how you have conducted your shows? >> i actually brought transcr t transcripts of the different show. we would in each case have an expert who spends their entire life dealing with dietary supplements talk about the different products. they review pluses and minus. in most -- i just leafed through a few of these pages. but, you know, i look at these scripts and i think to myself, i

wish that they'd just play another 30 seconds of the clip they use for the advertisements we often see on the left. the garcenia show, i'm going to say something for everyone here, i don't sell this stuff, i'm not making money on it, i'm not going to mention brands to you either because i don't want you to control. i bring that up, by the way, elsewhere in this segment i talked specifically about the fact if you don't exercise and diet at the same time, it's not going to work. you know, folks, it's just a pill. don't go home thinking it's just a pill that's going to help you. but together with the normal natural things we tell you to do with the foods you eat, or healthy lifestyle, et cetera. so we make those points. you know what the biggest disservice i've done for my audience? it's not the flowery language that senator mccaskill is criticizing me for. it's that i never told them where to go to buy the products. i wanted to stay above the fray and i felt in my own mind that if i talked about specific companies selling high-quality products, it would seem like i was supporting those companies.

and so i never gave them the audience an idea of where to go to buy the stuff. so that opened up a huge market for folks to just make, take stuff, real stuff, doesn't frankly matter and start to use my name to try to sell. i left my audience hanging. thinking i was doing the ethical thing. and i firmly believe if i called it a miracle, again, not a miracle like it's, you know, doing the work every day for the rest of your life for every person. miraculous something like this is out there, we don't know about it. if i told them go buy these four companies' products because they're reputable, it would have killed this off. i blame myself. >> what stopped you from doing that? >> i thought it was commercial. a doctor shouldn't sell products. you wouldn't trust me if you came to me for advice and i said, you know, senator, you got a stubbed toe here, take my version of a solving cream here. it doesn't sound and feel right to me. i really feel that -- in the internet age taking a bricks and mortar approach to it doesn't

work. i kick myself still, maybe i'll do it in the future, i'll just say here are the companies i trust, buy their products. they're not going to scam you or make ild legal claims. if i say it helps you lose a pound a week for eight weeks which is what a trial says and someone on the web takes that and changes it to 40 pounds in 3 weeks, which you can only do through an amputation, it hurts me. part of the reason i came today, this is a huge problem for me. >> okay. as someone that's seen these ads, they're very, very seductive when you're looking through things and trying to figure out a good diet plan to go on. and i mean, you're going to have two choices here. either you don't talk about these things at all that are going it be susceptible to this kind of scam, or you're going to have to be more specific because right now it isn't working, and obviously you're not the only celebrity that has had this happen to them. i guess i'd go back to you on this. is whether or not you think you have enough resources to go

after this, what you think of the idea that you shouldn't just be focused on fly-by-nights. what do we need to do here to get a handle on this? >> the ftc -- thank you -- the ftc does put a lot of resources behind our weight loss enforcement efforts and pursue fly-by-night companies and more established companies. the coffee case i mentioned was a fly-by-night company. we also pursued 11 different companies that were selling acai berry weight loss products. through fake new sites and affiliate marketing over the internet. in addition to sensa and established companies. we look across the board. unfortunately, there are a lot of players in this space. these cases can be time intensive to investigate. we do look at the studies that are out there very carefully. we hire experts.

often the defendants will hire experts. we pay a lot of close attention because we don't want to -- you know, we want to be sure where the science is. we don't want to challenge something as false or misleading if in fact it has real efficacy if the claims are substantiated. the cases are time intensive. we're trying to bring as many of them as possible and get as much money back for consumers as we can. >> do you think there should be more fda regulation of these supplements and kinds of things? would that be helpful beyond the advertising? i know we've had votes on this and discussed this in congress. >> well, i certainly can't speak for the fda. i understand that they have their hands full with, in the case of dietary supplements with adulterated products. they've taken a number of actions against weight loss products that actually contain prescription drugs in them and they're putting their resources there. >> but do you think that we need a bigger approach to this than just looking at a celebrity list or advertisements if people are falsely relying on claims that

aren't true? >> well, i do think it would be helpful for the -- first of all, i think the approach taken by the organization with google and the others is quite helpful. i think if the media could do a better job of screening out these facially false claims and we're hopeful that the bbb will work with us to better disseminate that and get that message across and help eliminate some of the ads at least from running. >> thank you. >> what is -- i know you've taken a lot of action against vary companies, and some of them fly-by-night. but what about the media outlets that run these ads? you all have never gone there. talk about that. is that an approach that you've considered? is that one that you have authority to do? if you've got a media outlet

that is, you know, particularly using a lot of fraudulent advertising that appears to be fraudulent on its face, but yet they're not screening them out, why no enforcement action there? >> well, the media enjoy significant first amendment protections, so there are certainly those issues if we were to attempt to sue a media company for running a deceptive ad. section 12 of the ftc act does actually give us authority to pursue any entity that disseminates a false or misleading ad for food, drug device or cosmetic. but we have really thought it made for sense to work with the media voluntarily, cooperatively, by issuing actually this gut check guide we issued earlier this year was a reissuance of the guidance we first issued back in 2003. we called it red flags and we've renamed it. we had good success at that time. particularly with the magazines in getting them to stop running ads containing these seven

facially false claims. and we think it, you know, makes more sense for us to try to work voluntarily with the media. >> i know you've said that some media have done a sophisticated job in screening and some haven't. who's doing a good job here and who's doing a bad job? >> well, you know, largely varies by the size of the media, but the national broadcast media has historically had very rigorous ad screening programs that you would not see the types as you are showing today on the national advertising part of the media. >> but the national -- the interesting thing is those national broadcasting companies own a lot of the cable stations that these ads are appearing on. >> and the -- >> it's the same ownership. >> and the screening that is done for the affiliates and for the cable channels vary. then when you get down to smaller media and, you know, i

think radio is a good example. i mean, it's a local media. the advertising staffs are pretty small. and i think that's where something like what the ftc has just done with the, you know, seven claims that even an ad buyer in a very small media can just sit and look at the seven claims and say, you know, yes for this and no for that. i mean, you know, a claim that you're never going to have to diet again or eat all you want and take this pill, you know, those claims we still see and they shouldn't be getting on the media at all. >> but satellite radio is not local. and they're all over satellite radio. >> so there have been a number of changes in the technology that the industry needs to catch up with. you're exactly right. >> so you didn't want to say satellite radio, you just waited for me to say it? i do think that there is a problem there.

>> and then i just -- and so there's really two things to look at in media screening. one is the traditional type of media screening that the broadcast networks do. the second is this program that rob, mr. harrelson just talked about is which is trying to translate that to the new media. and look at these claims really not on a tax basis but almost out of rhythm basis, and that's an area that has a lot of promise for real progress. >> talk a little bit about the fly-by-nights. i think the doctor's point that it's easier to go after loxitane and sensa and companies you can find that have buildings and are actually manufacturing something and putting their label on it than these post office boxes. that's one of our conundrums in

consumer protection in this subcommittee. so many hearings we've had, whether robo calls or other topics we've had hearings on. finding the post office box or finding the ip address and taking action against those who are responsible is very complicated in this world. especially when it, you're looking at technology in terms of ip addresses that certainly many of them are not cited in this country. tell me about what kind of resources you may need or that you don't have to do a better job after the fly-by-nights? >> yes, so you're absolutely right. i mean, when you see an ad on the internet, so for us the first thing is to try to figure out who's behind that ad and it's not actually easy to do. what we're seeing a lot nowadays is that some company will be working with a number of affiliate marketers through an affiliate network, and so there's a whole host of different companies that are actually placing the little ads that you see then when the consum consumer clicks on it, you know,

one tiny tip to a flat belly or something like that, one weird old trick to lose weight, something like that, the consumer clicks on that and if they buy the product, then that affiliate gets paid, but that's not actually the company that's selling the product. there's another company who's behind the product and it requires us to send out multiple rounds of subpoenas to the web hosters and netwothe end networ figure out who's behind this. that's what we did in the acai berry sweep. it takes a certain amount of resources. we're able to do it. we have compulsory process authority. we can subpoena the information but it's time consuming. >> have you gone after the middle man,s the ones that are actually the affiliates you talk about that are actually the ones that are movie ining these ads d the internet then they are really a conduit it the actual product company that is behind

the curtain? have you taken action against those folks that are actually placing the one secret to get rid of your belly fat? >> yes, we have. we have gone after affiliates and one of the issues there, we've gone after some large affiliates, but one of the issues there is when we go in, we never know how big the company is. sometimes it turns out to be quite small, they haven't made many sales and it's not worth pursuing. we've gone after the larger affiliates as well, every player in the es ecosystem. >> senator mccaskill, can i add, for small frauds the bbc with 100 offices get complaints and provides where you can go and check and see what types of complaints you're getting. as i said in my testimony, very often these, you know, types of claims are also accompanied by bad refund policies, negative option shipping policies.

you know, even, you know, the st. louis bureau had one of these companies that was billing people sort of randomly for the products. so if consumers will go to before they buy, they'll go to the bbb website and check and see what type of complaint history this company has, it will, you know, help. it won't eliminate, but it would help and help protect them. >> thank you. miss engles, i want to know a little bit more about your recent consent orders as part of the failed resolution. the ftc is now barring defendants from making certain claims unless w they have at least two adequate and well controlled human clinical studies. is that accurate? >> yes, those cases all require the company's end order to have at least two well-controlled studies to support weight loss claims going forward. >> it's my understanding the ftc has also tried to apply that elsewhere, and even know there's

some current guidelines in agency that states that determining whether competent and reliable scientific evidence exists is a flexible and fact-specific inquiry. do you have conflicts or do you -- i guess the question is, are you applying this new standard elsewhere? and is there a conflict in some of the regulations that you're trying to enforce? >> i don't see any conflict. the basic law is companies must have a reasonable basis for the advertising claims they make at the time they make those claims. what constitutes a reasonable basis will depend on the product and the claim. in the case of products that promise health benefits, the commission has required competent and reliable scientific evidence and then, again, what constitutes competent and reliable scientific evidence will vary depending upon the claims. so, for example, a claim that a product will prevent cancer, or treat answer, for example, will require a higher level of

evidence than a claim that a product will, you know, smooth dry skin. in the case of weight loss products in particular, based on the factors we consider and consultation with experts, we've determined that randomized controlled clinical studties are needed in order to substantiate a claim that a given product will cause weight loss. the commission has required two of these studies in its orders. now, it's not -- i'm not saying that if a company came into us and had one good study on weight loss, we would say, oh, that claim is not substantiated, but once we have determined that a company has violated the ftc act, has made unsubstantiated weight loss claims and they're now under order, we have put in a requirement that going forward they should have two studies and these kinds of studies for weight loss do not need to be particular ly long term. they're not particularly expensive relative the amount of money that can be made for those products.

and given the level of fraud in this area, it's important to have extra assurance of a second study to ensure this is a real result, wasn't due to some fluke or inadvertent bias or something like that in the study. >> let's talk about your dietary supplement guidelines. you have not revised that or repudiated some of those guidelines. even though there's some parts of those guidelines that seem or appear to be inconsistent with ftc's current stance as we just mentioned about competent, reliable, scientific evidence. do you see it that way? >> no, i don't see a conflict because the dietary supplement gin guidelines are written broadly to cover the full range of dietary supplements that may be offered and the full range of claims that may be made for them. the guidance is written for broadly. then, again, when we're in the context of a specific case, a specific investigation of a product, we know what claims were made for them. what the ingredients are. and then have a record on which

to base order requirements for substantiations for claims going forward. >> is there any intentions of modifying those guidelines? >> well, there's been some discussion of just looking at them. gosh, they're, i think, 13 years old now maybe. to see, you know, what, if they need to be freshened up. again, i don't think there's a conflict between what they say at all and what we're doing. >> thank you. thank you. >> senator klobuchar? >> thank you. and mr. harrelson, i want to talk to you a little bit about the work you're doing. >> sure. >> i was looking at my twitter account and found four of these ads about these things. how many cups of coffee i can drink in one day to lose two pounds. that was pretty good. and various other things on fat melting and other things. i understand that your member companies permanently suspend advertiser accounts with the severity of the vilgolation of e

ad policy is high. what does that mean? how many ad accounts have been te permanently suspended? are there temporary suspensions? how do you handle this? >> every company in trustedads.org has different approaches and policies in place to address these, however, again, it depends on the severity of the violation or if there's multiple violations. there are options where company, member companies may, for example, work with the advertiser to fix the ad to make sure it is in compliance with the ads policy. there's an option to remove the ads. the third option, obviously for egregious violations is to suspend the advertiser account. but interestingly enough, some of these sophisticated scammers will immediately try to open new accounts and try to push their ads, again, through these filtering systems so it becomes a little bit of a cat and mouse game. >> would you say it's easier to

target vulnerable populations through online advertising? when some of the more traditional methods or, and do you think more online companies are going to be -- sometimes with online they think it's a personal message to them. these are often just from people. >> well, i think that these types of scams a attract the largest constituencies as possible. be it weight loss, hair loss, whatever you name it. and, again, i think we're seeing these types of ads across the board both in print, or in print media and online. >> okay. >> how about the protection of tate to? i mean, more and more we're using data collection, things like the fit. i have my -- i hope that's not deceptive. i think it's pretty good. and, of course, people are getting all their data collected now and through this and it's been actually tsh-- i think it' pretty interesting way to use self-motivation to get yourself

to exercise and other things. and are companies protecting consumer data to make sure it doesn't fall into the hands of scammers? what's going on on that front? >> for example, i'm not familiar with fit bit. it collects the data that's on the device th vivice that's on . i'm a little -- can you repeat the question or clarify the question? >> the question is more and more about the diet data going online. people are entering things in just like they're entering other things in. has there been an effort by your member companies to look at how you're going to protect that data? maybe someone else can better answer that. >> well, again, to my knowledge, i don't believe that our member companies are collecting third-party data particularly to health-related devices or whatever the case may be. so, but i'm happy to -- >> it's a whole other issue of the pop-up ads you get when you start using products. so in a way some of them are collecting it because then you can get pop-up ads about things that related to it.

yes? >> senator klobuchar, there is a fairly broad coalition called the digital advertising alliance that is looking at the question of collection of data across sites. and doing some pretty significant pioneering work. the organization was formed really at the request of the federal trade commission to look at exactly those issues. the specific issue that you're talking about which is special restrictions on sensitive data about health is one of the things that's still under development. that's a fairly tricky issue to get everybody in the industry on board with, but there is an organization that's been formed, working very effectively and looking at all those issues. >> so i'm thinking about all the new money that's being spent on all these products as people are, you know, desperately looking at ways to lose weight and, yet since the 1960s, adult

obesity has more than doubled leading to health care challenges for our country as we know. we know some of these diets are legitimate and well researched and some of them aren't. what really bothers me at its core is while for the first time we saw a leveling out for kids, not really a big reduction but a leveling out of the increase in obesity this last year, we're hoping some having to do with the work of the first lady and the work of some of the school lunch programs which i don't think we should be rolling back those standards, but that's a whole other topic. what do you think we should be doing to get people to spend their money on what works and what doesn't? we have to admit we have a major problem when people are spending more and more money and gaining more and more weight. >> and, you know, that is precisely the advertisers that sell and market products that do work. and one advertiser comes to mind who sells fitness equipment and

the ads, you know, people say when you watch the ads you start sweating while you're watching the ads because it's very clear you have to have a dedicated regime and stick with it. they lose their sales to these, you know, fraudulent products because people say, well why would i, you know, exercise for 345 minute 45 minutes if i can take a pill and never diet again? >> your answer would be to be more intense about going after these fraudulent products. that's why i keep going back to not just the advertising but the fda and trying to get some of them off the market. >> yes. i think there's a big role that the types of self-regulatory programs that this 2/3 of the table is talking about can play to supplement the resources that the government has. because what we see is a lot of cases where when we contact the advertiser, and we do it fairly quickly, they can say, oh, we'll change that claim. we have a fairly high record of

success, and that's that many fewer cases that the fda or ftc have to deal with. >> senator, if it would be possible for me to add, one thing i think that makes it difficult is the fact that a lot of these -- it's not illegal to sell these products. i think when it becomes illegal is when you're doing it under false claims and so for our companies that clearly some of these claims that are fraudulent violate our ads policies, but, again, makes it difficult to substantial ya substantiate the good advertisers versus the bad advertisers because of the sophistication of scammers and the language they're using and ways they're trying to circumvent our systems to get their ads served online. >> understand. very good. well, i think to me it means we need some more standards and resources and we appreciate your efforts trying to monitor them. thank you. >> senator blumenthal? >> thank you, madam chairman. dr. oz, i want to pursue a

question that senator klobuchar raised. i understand that it's not your policy to support any particular brands and that you feel now as you said to her in response to one of her questions that that perhaps is a mistake. so i'm wondering would you consider creating a sort of master list of brands that would be helpful to consumers many? because after all, you have the immense power of your voice and credibility that would be helpful to consumers if you created such a master list of brands that you feel do work and are helpful. >> i would love to do that. i've been speaking to people who i trust in industry about how to go about it. my best estimate is 8o% of the products are high quality reputable products by people who really do their homework and

audited in many different ways. good manufacturing processes and the like. 20% of the products are made by a lot of the companies, theoretically 80%, who really aren't that good. they're fly-by-night. the quality issues are of major concern. the post office box example dr. peeler gave is a good example. i busted these folks in san diego. i went to their listed address. it's a post office box. so you really could never find anybody. so i've been actively looking at that. with your suggestion and support, i think i'm going to do it pand i think it will do a lo to drain the swamp we've created around this area. >> i encourage you to do it. draining the swamp is really very, very important. because in this area as you know and i think in of us know, i was attorney general of the state for 20 years. i did a lot of work in this area, and if there is any area where consumers are most susceptible, and vulnerable to

misleading and false pitches, i think it is this one because their hopes are so high and their needs often are so great. so i think that would be a welcome development. i introduced a measure called the dietary supplement labeling act along with senator durbin last august and would require dietary supplement manufacturers to register their products with the fda and disclose the known risk of their ingredients on a product's label. and i think that this kind of measure is crucial to provide information to chon soonsumers regarding dietary suplements and help the fda identify potential health concerns and as you suggested a master list of celebrity endorsements might be helpful for the ftc to identify and this would create a master list of dietary supplements similar to that one that could cause adverse effects to help

consumers understand the risks. what are your thoughts on that legislation? >> it's a wise place for us to invest resources. some dietary supplements raise great concerns for me. they're often adulterated. that has been a proven way of getting weight loss. put an amphetamine type product in a drug and work, but the side effects are too great to tolerate as a nation. >> that method of weight loss may actually be unhelpful. >> proven to be unhelpful which is why the fda pulled those products off the market. we're at a time in history where we're getting closer to have fda approved drugs that work in this area. we had a few now. we had very, very few for many years. as we get better prescription products that would be effective, more medicine will turn in that direction. given the very basic techniques

we know work, bariatric surgery which we way underperform in this country is very effective but people don't want to go that far. if you're 100 pounds overweight at age 50 you have the same mortality rate as if you have cancer. these are desperate situations with desperate people looking for solutions and that's a recipe for a problem. i strongly support the need to look at whether the products are safe or not and the other side of the equation is trying to find ways of getting people ideas that they can use to jump-start their way back. >> miss engle, let me ask you, would the ftc find that kind of list helpful? >> well, the commission, itself, has not taken a position on that legislation. speaking for myself, i think it could be helpful. i think it could be helpful to f fda certainly in law enforcement efforts and provide consumers with useful information. >> thank you. thank you all for being here and thank you for your great work. thank you. >> i just want to briefly follow

up. i don't know if anyone else has a follow up. i want to briefly follow up. and i want to make sure -- i appreciate, dr. oz, we've covered a lot of ground this morning and a significant part of it was about some of your language you've used in association with products on your show. you indicated the products i talked about in my previous questioning, those shows were a couple of years ago. three weeks ago, i quote you, fbx literally flushes fat from your system. quote, every time you cheat on your diet, i want you to grab one of these tiny itty bitty pills. this tiny tablet can push a lot of fat out of your belly. people want to believe they can take an itty bitty pill it push fat out of their body. instead if you said every time you cheat on your diet, i want you've to take a walk. that would eliminate the problem

that is at the root of this hearing today. that is that your credibility is being maligned by fraud sters and frankly being threatened by a notion that anybody can take an itty bitty pill to flush fat out of their system. in january you called one, quote, lightning in a bottle. and a miracle flower to fight fat. that was just in january. so i really hope -- i know you know how much power you have. i know you know that you are very powerful. and power comes -- with power comes a great deal of responsibility and i know you take it seriously and i know you care about your listening audience and your viewing odd yi ye yens. i know you care about america's health. you're being made an example of

today because of the power you have in this space. and we didn't call this hearing to beat up on you, but we did call this hearing to talk about a real crisis in consumer protection. and you can either be part of the police here or you can be part of the problem and we're just hopeful that you will do a better job at being part of the police. >> well, i came here because i want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. you mentioned fbx which is basically a fiber. and we know that fiber when taken correctly has been a very effective tool for weight loss for the reason i stated. your comments about the language i use is well heard and i appreciate it. i host a daytime television show where i feel a need to bring passion to people's lives about what they can do. and i'm very respectful of the fact that when it's used, and it has been used as a way of defrauding people, that it's a harmful process. i appreciate your kind words about the power i have.

i'm in a situation where i am second guessing every word i use on the show right now. fbx is used by my family. i do think it's important, i do think if you cheat on a meal it's worth including something with fiber. that's why we tell people to eat vegetables when they two out for a big meal because it serves that very purpose. i have things that i think work for people. try them, instead of other things we spend every single day on the show talking about. when i feel as a host of a show that i can't use words that are flowery, that are exultatory, i feel like i've been disenfranchi disenfranchised, my power has been taken away to get people. you don't want to be on a pulpit talking about how passionate you are about life thinking if i use that word it's going to be quoted back to me, yes, the other words around all about doing things right.

i'm very respectful. i told my colleagues at the ftc, i get it. >> okay. good. i'm going to say all that passion, floweriness about the beauty of a walk at sunset. >> okay. touche. >> or how you feel when you get off the bike in the morning. and, you know, no one's telling you not to use passion, but passion in connection with the word mir acle, pill, and weight loss is a recipe for disaster in this environment in terms of the people who are looking for an easy fix and getting sometimes i think delusional about whether or not an easy fix is going to be there for them. so, and i appreciate everyone being here. does anybody else have anything else? >> well, i was going to say we all experience the feeling as elected officials of any word that can be taken out of context. we kind of can relate to this. but at the same time, in addition to being a celebrity, you're a doctor and i just believe that doctors have this duty as we believe we have to represent the people we represent. you have the duty to give them

the best evidence. and owhen stuff is being taken out of context like it has or you admitted making mistakes in how you described a few things, i think you have a duty to correct that record and then be careful going forward because you can use your knowledge and your celebrity status to do good things and right now, to me, it seems like we're going the opposite way here. >> well, senator, just, again, i don't want to rehash this, but as a good example, i did a whole show around how green coffee bean extract, and the way it was described was not the right way to do it. i brought audience members in, did a several month program to sort of see if it worked or not. it has no impact. the things i have said continue to be used as weapons against the public. >> understand. i think that continual debunking of some of this is helpful and the emphasis on what works best and you know it better than us. so we appreciate if you keep focusing on that. >> thank you, all. >> dr. oz, if you ever need anyone to fill in --

>> i know who to call. >> you have a few takers in this body. >> thank you, senator blumenthal. >> thank you all very much. president obama will speak tonight at the democratic national committee's annual lgbt gala in new york city. the white house announced this week that the president will sign an executive order that would prohibit federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. we'll have the president's remarks beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern live on c-span2. and tomorrow, general motors ceo mary barra testifies before a house committee about gm's

internal investigation related to the company's ignition switch recall. in april, miss barra declined to answer many of the questionses posed by lawmakers during hearings saying she wanted to wait for findings of that internal investigation. the report released earlier this month cleared miss barra and her executive team of any wrongdoing but criticized the bureaucracy in which senior managers shirk responsibility and lower-level engineers either concealed or overlooked vital information. you can see the hearing on wednesday, live at 10:00 a.m. eastern, here on c-span3. and throughout the hearing, we'll be interested in your thoughts on miss barra's testimony. weigh in on our facebook page or at twitter using #cspanchat. religion is a powerful identity-forming mechanism. it's, you know, part of human society is figuring out who's us and who's them. right? who is my group and who is the

out group? religion answers that question easily. if you pray like me, eat like me, if you go to the same church as i do, then you're us, and if you don't, then you're them. and you can see very easily how that kind of us/them, in group/out group mindset can very easily lead to extremism, to marginalization. after all, as i remind people, religion may be the most powerful form of identity formation. but just as powerful is violence. how do you know who's us and who's them? well, if you're fighting alongside me, you're us. if you're fighting against me, you're them. so far from religion and violence being these two things that are at odds and should have nothing to do with each other, they have as everyone knows throughout history been much more aligned than we would like them to be. >> religious scholar and bestselling author reza aslan.

he'll take your calls and comments for three hours live starting at noon eastern sunday july 6th. in the months ahead, august 3rd, former texas congressman and republican presidential candidate ron paul. and september 7th, the former chair of the u.s. commission on civil rights and children's rights advocate, mary frances berry. this month on our online book club, amity shlaes' "the forgotten man." booktv.org. book tv. television for serious readers. so the idea behind 250 and 250, instead of telling the entire history of st. louis as a timeline or era by era, we would absolutely miss vitally important things. instead of trying to do that and failing, we decided what if we just gave snapshots of st. louis

history that would give people a glimpse of all the diverse things that have happened here and use their imaginations to fill in the rest? so we chose 50 people, 50 places, 50 moments, 50 images, and 50 objects and tried to choose the most diverse selection we possibly could. we're standing in the 50 objects section of the 250 and 250 exhibit right now. and this is what most people would call the real history. this is where the object is right in front of you. brewing is such a huge part of st. louis' history. it's an amazing story. with lots of different breweries and, of course, the most famous became anheuser-busch, the largest in the world. and in the era of anheuser-busch talking about millions of barrels produced each year, you know, we think they're producing so much beer, this is from an era when things were a little bit simpler and it's fun to show people this object and kind of gauge their response in the days

before they had cans or bottle caps, they put corks in the top of bottles and somebody had to sit on this thing and do it by hand. you can see it's got foot pedals on the bottom, where the operator would push down with his feet to give the cork enough force to go into the bottle and it's got three holes for three different sized bottles. >> this weekend, the history and literary life of st. louis. the gateway to the west. on c-span2's book tv. and c-span3's american history tv. housing and urban affairs secretary nominee hulian castro appeared before the senate banking committee today. the snoan antonio is the twin brother of joakim castro of texas. nominated to replace shaun donovan, tapped to be the white house budget director. the committee also questioned laura worth himer, the nominee to be inspector general at the

federal housing finance agency. >> i call this hearing to order. today we consider the nominations of julian castro to be secretary of the department of housing and urban development and miss worth himer to be inspector general of the federal housing financial industry. as mayor of san antonio, mayor castro has been on the front lines of helping his community reach housing and economic development goals. in his tenure as mayor, he has focused on attracting well-paying jobs in 21st century industries, raising the educational attainment and revitalizing the city's urban core. the department of housing and urban development is a critical partner in efforts nationwide.

mayor castro will bring both direct experience with an appreciation of the important role that hud programs play for families, communities, and taxpayers to the role of hud secretary. miss worth himer is a partner in the securities department to the position of inspector general. she brings her experience representing audit committees and evaluating procedures and compliance standards for financial institutions. it is essential that fhfa have an i.g. providing strong oversight of the fhfa's work relating to conservatorship of fannie mae and freddie mac. the i.g. also has an important role monitoring the fhfa's

oversight of the federal home loan banks. miss worth himer will bring exie extensive experience to the position of inspector general to ensure that fhfa is fulfilling its mandates set forth by congress. i now turn to ranking member for his opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. before us today are two nominees to two very important positions. mayor julian castro to be secretary of housing and urban development. and miss laura wortheimer to be the inspector general . both positions will have strong impact on housing and housing finance in this country. i look forward to learning what the nominees will bring to each of these issues. mayor castro, two of the critical issues this committee has spent expensive time addressing in this congress are among those i want to bring to your attention today. the future of housing finance

reform, and the fiscal solve ve solvency of the federal housing administration. we housing administration. we need to know what your approach will be on both of these issues and whether you'll be advocating on behalf of both of them. within the debate of housing finance reform, current hud secretary shaun donovan has worked very actively with this committee to develop and advocate for s-1217 which recently passed this committee with a bipartisan majority. we must continue to move forward on housing finance reform especially as we approach the sixth anniversary of fannie mae and freddie mac being put into conservatorship. the committee has also passed bipartisan legislation to address the current capital deficiencies in the fha's insurance fund. in this matter, it would be important to hear from major castro that he's 100% committed to getting the capital levels to their required levels and as soon as possible.

miss wortheimer faces a digit but equally challenging task as he's confirmed to be the inspector general of the fhfa. fannie mae and freddie mac represent $5 trillion in taxpayer exposure. the fhfa not only oversees those companies, but is also responsible for regulating the federal home loan banks and the very different business models that they represent. further, due to the conservatorship of fannie mae and freddie mac, the director of fhfa simultaneously acts as regulator, executive, and shareholder of those companies. all of this means that the fhfa inspector general has a very unique oversight responsibility as compared to an i.g. who is not operating under those circumstances. she has the opportunity today to inform us as to how she will handle these exceptional challenges. i look forward to hearing from each f oof our nominees on thes important issues and more. thank you, plchl chairman. >> thank you, senator.

there is an 11:00 floor vote scheduled for them. so to allow sufficient time for questions, the senator and i have agreed to limit opening statements submit an opening statement for the record. senator cornyn will now introduce mayor castro. senator cornyn. >> thank you, mr. chairman and ranking member senator crapo and members of the committee. i don't often darken the door of the banking committee, but it's more pleasure to be here with you today to introduce a fellow san antonian and texas mayor julian castro. he's told me that he's glad to be here and looks forward to your questions. but he especially looks forward to being back in san antonio to help celebrate the victory of the san antonio spurs which is still -- that celebration is still going on and will for a long time. and i know he'll take the opportunity to introduce his

wife, erica, and i understand his brother, joaquin castro, member of the united states congress, is en route. and i hope he will have an opportunity to do that. but my comments are that mayor castro has taken quite a road to get to where he is today. one that's uniquely texan, and i would say uniquely american. i know you'll hear more about his biography, which is compelling. but i will point out that julian and his brother were raised by a single mom in san antonio's west side. both graduated from thomas jefferson high school. then he went to stanford and to harvard law school. quite an impressive accomplishment. when he returned to his hometown at age 26, he became the youngest member ever to serve -- to be elected to serve on the san antonio city council and then one of the youngest mayors in the country. i know many texans are reassured

by mayor castro's example that the american dream is still very much alive. i know if confirmed, he'll have a lot of tough things to do. senator crapo mentioned some of those. as members of the committee know, hud faces a number of challenges. last year for the first time the federal housing administration received a 1.7 trillion -- excuse me. billion dollar infusion of taxpayer cash to cover a shortfall in its insurance fund brought about by many of the loans they had backed that went south. hud also continues to struggle with its performance and oversight challenges as identified by the inspector general. and as we've seen with the recent scandal at the veterans administration, the american people need leaders who will hold folks accountable and restore transparency to government. and while the issue doesn't fall squarely within hud's jury -- jurisdiction, i also look forward to hearing about the mayor's views on the future role of freddie and fannie which i

believe senator crapo alluded to. we know federal housing policy is not sustainable. after meeting with mayor castro, i'm encouraged he would echl employ the same energetic vision which is his tenure, leading texas's second largest city. i want to thank you and the members of the committee for the opportunity to introduce the mayor and to address you today. thank you. >> thank you, senator cornyn. please feel free to excuse yourself at your convenience. i will now introduce ms. wertheimer. in addition to being the partner in the securities department of wilmer, cutler, pickering, hale and dorr, ms. wertheimer is a member of the firm's securities litigation and enforcement practice group. she has advised clients in

securities law enforcement investigations, regulatory and criminal and public inquiries, and cross-border regulatory proceedings. from 1981 to 1983, she was a law clerk for judge spottswood william robinson of the u.s. court of appeals. she received a b.e. from college and a d.e. from the columbia university school of law. we will now swear in the nominees. please rise and raise your right hand. do you swear or affirm that the testimony that you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god? do you agree to appear and testify before any dually constituted committee of the

senate? please be seated. each of your written statements will be made part of the record. before you begin your statement, i invite each of you to introduce your family and friends in attendance. mayor castro, please proceed. >> thank you very much, chairman johnson. [ inaudible ] >> -- fortunate to be here today with my wife, erica, and i know that my brother, joaquin, is, i think, on his way. you'll have to forgive him. he was the second born twin. so sometimes he's late. i'm also very fortunate to be here with some of the hud staff that has helped with briefings and so forth. very appreciative of their work. thank you very much for having me. i look forward to the hearing.

thank you, chairman johnson, ranking member crapo and members of the committee for welcoming me here today. i'm deeply honored to appear before you as president obama's nominee for secretary of housing and urban development. i want to thank president obama for his confidence in me. allow me also to thank senator cornyn. he's a dedicated public servant, a distinguished senator from texas who also happens to hail from the great city of san antonio. and i'm incredibly grateful for his support and his generous introduction. and as i mentioned, i want to express my gratitude to my family and friends, especially to my wife erica and to my brother, joaquin. both of whom join me today. without their support, i simply wouldn't be here in front of you. finally, i want to commend this committee, which has a well earned reputation for working in a bipartisan fashion on behalf of the american people. it has been a pleasure to meet with you and your staff throughout this process.

if confirmed, i look forward to our continued engagement to advance issues critical to our nation's future. mr. chairman, i appear before you today with more than just professional experience in dealing with housing and urban development. i also bring my own personal experience. i grew up on the west side of san antonio in a neighborhood of hardworking families and very modest means. my father at two different times in his life lived in public housing. my mother worked for the san antonio housing authority. and i've seen with my own eyes how talented and driven americans who just want a fair shot are weighed down by the conditions in which they live. and this simply isn't right. all americans deserve the same opportunities that i had, and i've dedicated my career to giving back to the country that has given so much to me. as mayor, i made it my mission to help create a vibrant, economically prosperous urban core that expands housing opportunities for all san antonians.

in 2010 we launched the decade of downtown, an initiative to spark our older neighborhoods. this effort has attracted $350 million in private sector investment, which will produce more than 2,400 housing units by the end of 2014. looking ahead, during my recent visits with committee members, many of you asked about my priorities. if i'm confirmed. allow me to share two of them with you. first, i'm a strong believer in cross-agency collaboration. san antonio's east side is the only neighborhood in america to receive a promise neighborhoods grant, a choice neighborhoods brand, a byrne criminal justice program grant and promise zone designation. we accomplished this by getting beyond the silos and working across agencies to improve housing, educational achievement and overall quality of life. this is the kind of collaborative approach i would like to enhance at hud. second, as a local elected

official, i'm also keenly aware of the value of measuring results. in san antonio, we initiated a process of unprecedented public engagement and accountability called sa-2020. through a series of community meetings, residents spoke clearly about what kind of city they wanted to be in 2020. but we didn't just set a vision. we set precise numeric goals for achieving our vision. we promised the community that we would come back every year and report back on how we were doing. good or bad. with the help of the state demographer, we developed a public report card available for anyone to see on sa2020.org to give san antonion's a realtime snapshot of how we're doing. similarly i would like hud to focus on outcomes, not only inputs. we shouldn't just track projects and dollars spent. we must measure those investments by the impact they make. secretary donovan has built a strong foundation for this, and in confirmed, i will work hard

to make this the norm at hud. hud's role is one of the most critical in government because it directly impacts american families. from enforcing fair housing rights to revitalizing distressed areas, from assisting veterans and finding permanent housing to helping communities rebuild after a natural disaster hits, the department is making an impact in small towns, big cities, rural communities and tribal communities across the country. the 21st century is shaping up to be the century of cities. and i believe there's a reason for that. in america's local communities, partnerships and pragmatism are the key drivers to success. that perspective has guided my efforts. if confirmed, i look forward to working with you to strengthen opportunity for americans through hud's efforts. once again, thank you chairman johnson, ranking member crapo, and members of the committee for your consideration of my nomination. it's an honor to appear before you, and i look forward to answering any questions. >> thank you.