disabilities is what will happen to the children when they are gone. they created the register disability savings plan. it's a great savings vehicle and a generous grant that the government created. under the leadership of the prime minister, sadly they never supported the great initiatives. families can count on them to do the right thing. >> bruce thompson was diagnosed with aggressive terminal cancer. his doctor said he has a few months to live. because he took time off when his father was dieing to help him, he is a few hundred short of the threshold. his claim was denied and his expedited appeal has been denied. bruce won't live through the rest of the appeal process.

will the minster show compassion and make an accommodation in this tragic situation? >> i think the honorable member for the question, we joined mr. thompson and are battling cancer and strength and courage as they do so. and of course there resources available for the individuals. so we encourage the individual in question to pursue the resources available and wish him every best wish. >> mr. speaker, a private enterprise will benefit from the canada decision eliminate home

mail delivery. as shown and 65% of the population spoke out against the privatization of the post ask survey. can they tell us why the public has to pay between 20 and $60 to have their mail delivered to their door? >> the honorable mention -- >> the reality is they don't. canada post is facing a serious cash front and as they are supposed to do under the 2er78s of the statute. indeed mr. speaker, i think it's important to know that the federation of municipalities overwhelmingly rejected a motion brought to the floor asking that the federation condemn the government and reverse the

decision. they said no and they will continue with their plan. >> the number one member. >> in the 2014 report on the terrorist threat to canada, it is written that working with communities, the government is contributing to efforts to prevent the prevention to the radicalization of violence process. >> they can tell us whether it truly exist as in the case of fighting against street gangs. one prevention program for radicalization to violence with a budget to support it. the honorable minster of public safety, mr. speaker. i would like to thank my colleague for the question. canada has a four-point strategy to protect, impede, and react in case of terrorist attacks. with regard to measures to raise the awareness of ethnic and cultural communities, i can

transmit my annual report and the 2014 report on the terrorist threat to canada. we have hundreds of examples where police enforcement bodies are reaching out to communities and carrying out activities to ensure that at the source, we can deter individuals from committing terrorist acts. >> mr. speaker, i support the free trade agreement, but i don't support expensive photo opes when they are in danger of coming in by opposition of powerful players such as germany. can the government advise as to how many tax dollars were used to host the business reception in toronto on september 26th and to fly the two officials from toronto to brussels which we now know was not even necessary and the acceptance may violate the european union's code of conduct. >> the honorable minster of trade. >> i won't comment on the

internal german politics, but this is the most comprehensive trade agreement canada has signed. it is finalized and released to the public. we want the businesses to take advantage now and position themselves. in fact i remind the member that it is this conservative government that substantially reduce the cost of aircraft. presidents baroso, it's no wonder they want to join our to promote that agreement to canadian businesses. >> that concludes the period for today. i would like to introduce the honorable kevin o'brien. persons with disabilities from the province of newfoundland and labrador.

>> the recent passing on september 27th of mr. eric spicer -- >> homeland security secretary jeh johnson made a first trip to canada and while he was there he discussed border security and counter terrorism efforts and an event hosted by the american business council. this is about 20 minutes. >> i appreciate the warm welcome to ottawa and the o hospitality from this business council. i welcome the opportunity to be here in ottawa, your nation's capital. the canadians here. i welcome the opportunity to escape for a short period of time my nation's capital. as my mentor and friend, the former secretary of defense bob gates used to say, any day out

of washington is a good day. this is my first trip to canada as secretary of homeland security. i have been in office for about nine months. i planned to come here for sometime now. i am here top continue to build the terrific relationships that my government and i enjoy with the minsters of this government, given the number of shared interests we have. it has taken far too long to visit my next door neighbor in my new official capacity. but it is hardly my first visit to canada. i recall when i was 10 years old visiting expo 67 in montreal. july 2007, 40 years later, my son who was then 12 years old had a passion for dirt bikes and dirt biking and so his mother and my wife susan is sitting

over there went online and found a dirt bike camp in northern ontario. we flew into toronto and i recall driving the straightest highway i have ever driven in my about 150 miles up to this dirt bike camp in ontario where i left my son off for three weeks. it seemed like three months. he loved dirt biking. when i picked him up three weeks later, he was covered in dirt and had a really good time and enjoyed dirt biking and said dad, i was even knocked unconscious for a whole two minutes. we did not return to that dirt bike camp. speaking of visits with my kids, this past weekend, you may be interested to know i at the last minute decided to visit my two kids who are now in college in southern california. one is at occidental college and the other at scripps college.

i flew out there and i am under orders from my daughter when i visit her on her college campus, can you not be constickuous. the entourage and the california highway patrol. i have a thing about that. i'm just a freshman. i discovered this past weekend when i visited my daughter, my son was with us at scripps. i'm like the ambassador. i was born in 1957. i'm a relic of the past and i learned about something, a social media tool called yick yack. it's for kids on college campuses where they can text each other anonymously and chatter on campus about stuff going on. they chatter anonymously and

furiously. you pick it up on your iphone. within minutes of hitting the scripps campus, yick yack lit up with the following among many other texts. there two secret service agents on campus. what's up? obama is here. obama is not here. calm down. >> malia is here and looking at us for college. >> malia is too young. calm down. then my son got into the act. he couldn't resist. he is getting the texts too. my son jumps into the conversation. it's a vin diesel look alike. why does he need a body guard? finally, no, it's the fake obama. the chief of homeland security. his daughter is a freshman here. hey, those guys have guns.

final text in the conversation. too bad for his daughter. now she will never get a date for the next four years. you can't make this up. in addition speaking to you now today, today and yesterday i am here in ottawa and i have the honor of visiting with prime minister harper, minster rate, minster alexander and minster blaney. my wife and i attended a terrific dinner hosted by he and his wife with a number of minsters here. our discussion reminded me of all we have in common rangeing for our shared interest and promoting trade to the potential threats we face to both our homelands. i would like to tell but the department of homeland security and what we are doing today.

a total budget authority of about $60 billion. they have a broad and diverse set of missions. it is responsible for counter terrorism and administration and enforcement of our immigration laws and cyber security and aviation and maritime security and border security. the security of our land and sea ports. protection against nuclear, chemical and biological threats to the homeland. protection of our national leaders and protection of our critical infrastructure and federal law enforcement personnel and coordinating the federal government response to natural disasters and emergency preparedness grants to state and local authorities. the 22 agencies and components that make up dhs include u.s.

customs and border protection which by itself is the largest federal enforcement agency in our country. customs enforcement and citizenship and immigration services. the coast guard, tsa, fema and the secret service. in my view, counter terrorism must and will remain the corner tone of the department of homeland security's mission. there is al qaeda and the ark rainian peninsula. al sha bab and somalia. the front in syria and the newest al qaeda affiliate, al qaeda in the indian subcontinent. there groups in nigeria that are

not official affiliates, but share the extremist ideology. last but not least, the state of iraq isil known as al qaeda in iraq is vying to be the preeminent terrorist organization on the world's stage. >> that will degrade and ultimately destroy isil. we have asked canada to make further contributions to the effort. to address the threats from terrorist groups overseas, our government has in recent weeks enhanced aviation security and in early july i directed advanced screening at overseas airports with flights to the u.s. ask several weeks later we added more airports to the list

and other countries have followed with similar enhancements to the aviation security. we continually evaluate whether more is necessary without burdening the traveling public. longer term, we are pursuing preclearance at overseas airports with flights to the u.s. i am pleased that we have established preclearance capability at eight airports here in canada. we are aware the potential terrorist threat to both the homelands has evolved in new ways. today both our nations face the prospect of so-called foreign fighters who go to syria. in february i said for the united states syria had become a matter of homeland security. our government is making enhanced and concerted efforts to track syrian foreign fighters who come from or seek to enter our country.

the reality is that more than 12,000 foreign fighters from around the world have travelled to syria over the last three years. we are concerned that not only may these foreign fighters join isil or other groups, they may be recruited by the groups. conduct external attacks. our fbi arrested a number of individual who is tried to travel to support terrorist activity there. we are committed to working with the canadian government and others to build better information sharing to track syrian foreign fighters. this is reflected in the un resolution on foreign fighters passed last week. second, we worry about the potential domestic base homegrown terrorist threat that may be lurking in our own society. the independent actor or lone

wolf. those who did not train at a terrorist camp or join the ranks of the terrorist organization overseas. but who are inspired at home by a group's social media, literature or extremist ideology. in the united states, we got an example of this type of actor last year at the boston marathon. in many respects, this is the hardest terrorist threat to detect and the one i worry about the most. part of the way we are addressing the loan wolf threat is to engage in outreach to communities in the united states which themselves are able to reach young men who may turn to violence. i personally participate in these programs. last week i visited an islamic culture center in columbus, ohio for this purpose. with the positions to touch

those disaffected and you need something or someone to believe in to belong to or worship, we are stressing that violence, terrorism, and groups such as isil are not the answer. >> isil is neither islamic or a state. isil is not defending and not defending innocent muslims. most. people killed are muslims. it's criminals, rapists and terrorists who control territory. there is no religion including islam and there is no guy including alla that condone the violent tactics. the good news for the country and yours, over the last 13

years, they have the ability to disrupt and detect terrorist plots. overseas before we reach the homelands. both are law enforcement communities and in my judgment do an excellent job of identifying and arresting and prosecuting scores before they commit terrorist acts. the bad news is they continue to face terrorist enemies and real terrorist threats. all that said, i turn to another aspect of my job, facilitating lawful trade and travel. when jfk visited canada in 1961, the new american president quoted how geography made us neighbors and history made us friends and economic made us

partners. somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 people cross our shared border every day. as you heard the ambassador say, $735 billion cross our shared borders every year for $2 billion a day or do the math, 1.4 million a minute. the largest market for 35 of our 50 states. they sell 87% of output to the united states generating about 40% of your national income. canada was the third largest source of investment to the united states. totalling $280 billion. in the car on the way over here, they told me that of every dollar of canadian export, 25%

is of u.s. content. the same year the united states was the source of the foreign investment totalling $368 billion. the subsidiaries employ 547,000 workers, mostly in the manufacturing sector. with an average wage of $75,000 annually. the subsidiaries invest more than 500 million a year in research development in the united states. when my country was attacked, our first response was to raise all the drawbridges. the crossing points for cargo. beyond the borders initiative in 2011, our governments are making progress in enhancing security

and the economic competitiveness of our two countries. we are doing a better job and a more sophisticated job of keeping our borders open to trade and closed to terrorists and those who would do us harm. we have achieved notable results that will improve the lives of the citizens, visitors and businesses in both our countries. for example, together we made improvements in an expanded the next trusted traveler program. these improve wants at ports of entry have resulted in a more than 60% increase in membership and participation. since the announcement of the beyond the border initiative. more than million members are experiencing twister and more expedient travel by gaining access to air transport screening lengths. at canadian airports and the

precheck program at u.s. airports. access to lanes and kiosks at a greater number of sport ports of entry and a simplified renewal process. second we developed a u.s.-canada integrated cargo strategy intended to facilitate the movement across border cargo under cleared once, accepted twice. we have also deployed an innovative entry and exit program and it share and become the the record of exit. and permanent residents of both countries. this announces the integrity and will do so more when we expand to cover all travelers. i spoke about the experience of preclearance. we are nearing completion of a

groundbreaking agreement that for the first time will cover preclearance in all modes of border crossing. by any measure, we were partners in success. they draw strength from one another and that makes it more important that we build predictability into the trading partnership. by stream lining the process with electronically transmitted data through a single window. they allowed us to start harmonizing. the shipment of goods between the countries. the executive order signed by president obama mandated this electronic single window. that will make us more

competitive as a region. our shared border. it is the site of 100 ports of entry. doors from one country or the other where the movement of people and goods is crucial to the daily lives of our citizens and the health of our communities and the competitiveness of our economies. the collaboration with our countries today are stronger, safer and more prosperous. i know work remains to be completed on some of the most ark bishs goals of the beyond the border initiative. i like to tell u.s. audiences that homeland security means striking a balance.

in the name of homeland security, it will be a safe city and a prison. i can build more fences and install more basic screening devices and ask more intrusive questions and demand more answers and make everybody suspicious of each other. but it will cost us our privacy and our liberties and our freedom to travel, trade, and associate and our diversity. in the final analysis, these are the things that constitute the greatest strength of our two countries. thank you all very much. >> tuesday live at 7:00 p.m. eastern, watch c-span's coverage of the senate debate. the republican faces a democrat in the race to fill the seat of jay rockefeller retiring after five terms. watch the coverage from 7:00 p.m. eastern. live coverage of the virginia

senate debate. mark warner against ed gilespie. 7:00 eastern on c-span 2. >> the former ambassador to china said the rise of the political professional is one of the reasons washington can't get things done. speaking at the washington center for internships and academic seminars, he said the gerrymandering has a factor in the difficulty of getting things done. this is an hour and 15 minutes. with the politics and what came later, we thought it would be best to start before we introduce the panelists and the special gift with the video of what we are doing at no label so it gives you context to the

panel and questions. ♪ >> unfortunately right now washington is broken. >> we can't attend to any of the major challenges facing the country. >> we have lot of our ability to do anything beyond partisanship and become professional partisans. >> somehow we are able to take advantage of people in washington.

>> certainly there have been fights and arguments and disagreements throughout the history, but there was also a moment in time when someone stepped forward or a group of someone said let's leave. >> the only way forward is by getting the machinery of policy makers at work with both sides focused on solutions and problems. >> everything he did in the 90s. >> we need something like the labels begin laying the foundation of common interest.

>> four big goals we than saw 25 million jobs in the next decades that make america from the 25. medicare over the next 25 years. >> the budget of 2003. >> those are the four big goals. frankly i think they are hard to argue with. we need a viability economy and policy and need a sustainable safety net and can't keep the red ink. >> some look at labels with the ideas to get and work together and all that stuff. for those looking at the labels, they are missing the purpose. of course you have to get people working. that's a no brainer. you have to get them working to something important.

they have to get the critical central kroels. >> whether you are a republican or's democrat or somewhere in between, these are the issues of our time. >> by the time the president kicks off the debates that is happening, we want this to be to talk to your neighbor about it. they go to the west to educate themselves. >> you have a vehicle to help you have an impact. >> one of my favorite quotes is the civil rights leader and we

may have arrived, but we are all in the same boat now. >> i want to put a plug in now. >> college students, you are the imagine behind the movement that you have. there will be people inside and we love you to sign up. give us your name and website and get involved. we will have a very active near ahead and i'm sure they will talk about it. i would like to call up the ambassador and he is truly one of the visionaries behind the washington center. i can't say how long i have known them. he is truly a model of a person who gets involved and under the clinton years and the visionary

behind what is going on here. governor huntsman is something that i met two years ago sore so. i got introduced to him and it took and he has such a distinguished record. he was the a.m. bass do are to chine and the two-term governor with the popularity rating 80 plus to singapore. he ran for president and he is a leader of this next generation and in terms of what you should be watching. is the chair of this organization with senator jim mansion. >> i would like to call the ambassador with a certain

prejudice there. you have these titles like your excellency. your holiness and i try to get my kids to call me by that. they won't do it for political reasons. >> at home everyone calls me hey you. seriously, tell us the difference between being a governor and an executive position and an ambassador where you are getting secretary of state. >> it's a pleasure to be with you and all who are part of the washington center. >> i can't begin to tell you how valuable it is recently. >> when the semester is done, i hope you make it a better place. you are getting schools and exposure to those that are so rare in today's world.

every generation the baton passes, you find the solutions and you are about there. tune in. they take the issues seriously. i started out as a failed rock musician. the fact that i'm called anything other than just the total failure is an amazing feat all by itself. i had two of the best jobs in the world. one is representing your country as the highest most senior accredited american in that country. confirmed by the senate under the constitution. appointed by the president and then you are given the task of being the eyes and ears of the country for the united states. that is to say you protect american citizens and report on things that are going on and help with business and economic

expansion. then you manage all the other things that go on in a bilateral relationship between the united states and the country. in china, you know this from your exciting posting in europe, i can't think of a relationship more interesting in the early part of the 21st century than the u.s. relationship. for me, there all these things going on in the relationship that i thought were so fascinating. here's what i love most. we will get on to the governor. we don't get a lot of good people running for office in the united states. that comes as a great revelation. you wonder where they go. i had the great privilege of arriving to work every morning in an embassy, this is the second largest in the world for china. a couple thousand people. and the young men and women who

populate the embassy and who were part of the foreign service and the military and part of any one of 40 different agencies, they were the best. they were incredible public servants and if i could bottle up what they did and the work ethic they brought in a very patriotic way to serve their country, it would blow away every taxpayer in the country. many complain about the expenditures overseas, and it was a great honor and privilege to work with such dedicated and competent people. governor is a totally different deal. if you can imagine working in the highly compartmented atmosphere of the embassy, that's highly compartmented, you speak a different language and you are working on issues that many americans will never hear about. going from there to an open

campaign. where the most circus-like undertaking of the world where anything goes and it's a free-for-all environment. you have very little control over your surroundings. you are running based upon the issues you believe in. you take the message out to voters and ask for the vote. that's about the most humbling thing i think there is in the world. standing on the soap box and staring down a bunch of people in a meeting and saying will you go for me? it is without question the most humbling experience of my lifetime. half of them are looking at you like you can see it in their eyes. are you kidding? vote for you? the other half are saying i like what you are saying. i could go to work for you and i will dedicate to your cause and we will change the world. because you are asking the voter and many of you say i will run

for office at some point. you are asking the voter for that which you have the most valuable and precious commodity they have which is trust to be placed in you as a candidate. it's an awesome thing. you find that if you work hard enough and go through the primaries and the message, you win the election. i only run for class office in high school. i won one junior class president and lot of two and married somebody who lot of the election too. we came together as losers. i never thought in 1,000 years i would run for public office and you get to the point where you care enough about the issues and you will too. all of you sitting here. i don't care what country you come from. you care enough to go out and do something about it. then you are elected and mandated by the team.

you have a state constitution for what you do. you wake up the morning after the election. i remember it so distinctly. you say now what do i do? i promised the people i would turn it into action and plans and policies and pieces of legislation and go and get it done. >> here's the biggest difference. much of it will be apparent based on the continues in which you work. you are a team player. you are not the singular individual out there on point making it all happen. you are part of a team. you work with the inner agency process and the white house and the state department and a lot of others. you are one piece of a broader tapestry that makes it work.

you get the worst. as governor, it's completely liberating in the sense that there is nowhere to hide. noplace on capitol hill you can go to. you're it. you tell the state where you want to go and try to get it done and stand for reelection. you suffer the consequences. you live the successes of what you have done. nothing more bottom line focus or liberating than being a governor. you really are out there and your ideas and your ability to bring people and work the system and execute and make it happen. that's where the governors, those who have been elected to the senate on capitol hill and let me ask you this. you serve as a republican

governor and a democratic president. you came back to the united states and ran as a republican candidate for the presidency of the united states and yet you are one of the chair men. >> first of all, i did serve a democrat as a republican. i was raced and have two sons in uniform, both in the united states navy. they don't have the luxury of saying what party is my president? then i think i will decide. they go and they just do it. if you are asked to do a jb and

maybe you can help leave it better than you found it, whatever set of skills to the work, you do it. i was happy to serve and i would do it again. no leaders come along. nancy jacobson who was a genius and a mastermind,enancy is what i call a social political entrepreneur. it's almost an oxy moron. you don't entrepreneur in politics. you point fingers and nothing gets done. nancy created a movement that is quite remarkable. i had to adjust it when i first heard about it. i had been in politics and i wasn't quite sure how i was going to use my time. two things were readily apparent about this. kind of then getting off the

ground. one, we no longer have the ability to bring people together regardless of your background for purposes of discussion, building trust and problem solving. if you didn't approach everything with a problem solving ethos, you want to talk about the tax reform and education, have a seat at the table and let's talk and put our best inside out there and move the agenda forward. that's not the way it works. they were bringing this concept of reorienting the whole political construct. the e those of politics from acrimony and finger-pointing that everyone is sick and tired of. that's not the way it was. i hope that we get to a point where you don't have to say that's the way things are supposed to be. that's not the way things are supposed to be. we are broken today. going from that environment to

one of problem solving. people here say you are never going to do that. you can't change the culture of washington. say say nonsense. the culture is always changing and there new breezes blowing and people coming in and things being looked at differently. i worry about the structural dynamics that divided in washington. they are almost intractable to gerrymandering and the rise of the class on k street. you are a professional cal pain strategist and research person. that didn't exist before. you did it seasonably. now it's a professional industry. how do you feel with that as a big challenge. creating that changed culture is very effective. i saw that as something that needed desperately to be done. the other thing that i found appealing having lived in

countries in my life. only one of the four doesn't have a sense of direction. no strategic direction. this one. a great country with 320 million people and scientists and teachers and leaders, you can't ask anyone where we are going and get an answer other than hot hair. words. we don't have a direction. the thought that we could at the grass roots level based on efforts with bowl government and congress come up with a tran cent end direction for the country based upon i don't care if you are republican or democrat, there issues that the american people want to see done. the fact that you can put together such an agenda over the next year and market it and shop it in iowa and new hampshire and through the grass roots of the country where people participate

and what that agenda looks like. i thought it was about the most brilliant thing i have heard in a long while. >> the interesting thing like nancy is, there is no guaranteed out come. if there is no guaranteed result, it is totally based on ideas and grass roots enthusiasm and next generation of people signing up saying i like where this is going and i want to be part of the fix and the solution as opposed to being part of the problem. that's as we approach 2016, the energy will build and we will get someplace. >> i attended the meeting a week ago that the senator conducted. he put with hundreds of people hearing about the labels and what it's up to and how many members of the house and senate, both democrats and republicans. >> almost 100. >> almost 100 now. at the end of the day, there was

unanswered question. it's a tough one and if i don't ask it, i know some of the students will certainly ask it. 95 or 100 members of the house and senate get on a strategic agenda and a piece of legislation that they would like jointly in a nonpartisan basis and yet there were 50 members of the house in something called the tea party will probably block any kind of legislation. how does no labels deal in the long-term, not in the short-term, how do you deal with a group like the tea party that basically has an angst against the government. >> politicians are pretty adept at reading the market place. i have been one before. i hung out with politicians. they are very good at sensing through town hall meetings and reading the polls and hanging

out in the coffee shops in the home districts. the job of the politicians try to get there first. you are not eaten alive with a wave of opposition. if this is done right, the whole culture of problem solving which exists in a lot of states this this country and a lot of cities, we had mayors at this gathering and local government official, they get that whole thing. it doesn't exist here in d.c. when the culture begins to turn more towards anger and division which we all had enough of. that's yesterday's mantra. more towards okay, we recognize the system is broken. we can no longer afford to go another or four years without the basics like a budget, i think the people will demand change. you will not get change in this country when you get a collaborative working

atmosphere, the same that exists in any other realm of life. whether you are building a business or teaching in a classroom. inevitably, that's where we are going to be. we that the american people are going to say we want results. in order to get results, we have to demand elected officials who are going to focus more on problem sol iing than division. . that's where we're going to see the 100 members of this caucus. this has only been a year and a ha half. i never thought we would wake up fall of 2014 with 100 members of congress -- i was in a gathering just a couple weeks ago and some person said, here's the solution. here's what we need. we need a group of 100 members of congress, republicans and democrats, who agree that there's a common set of objectives we need to go

towards. i said, you're exactly right. not enough people know about it. they are increasingly learning about it, but this is a very powerful movement when you can get a tea party person like we had with matt salmon, who was on the stage from phoenix, arizona, and you can get a progressive democrat, same stage, and they are all saying we want to balance the budget, we want to fix entitlements, we want energy security. we disagrees on the pathways, but we all know what the goal es he last time we had a discussion on goals? we don't put goals on the wall. they took different pathways and argued merits of the pathway and they got there they aarrived at the same destination. i'm one that says let's give that a try. that whole creating the goals

first and then moving the machinery towards the goals. >> let's back up for a moment. we have all admitted there's terrible divisiveness in washington. some say it just doesn't work. it's been suggested that the two reasons for the divisiveness unrelated is, one, that the members don't stay in the city. they go home to their states to raise money and see constituents for town meetings and really for money to get reelected. so their families aren't here and children aren't here. years ago, the families lived here, the children were educated here. because of that, they had to get together all the time. that's one reason -- the other reason and here we are on c-span. the other reason people say is because of c-span. and because of gerrymandering. so when a senator is on television, they have to show clearly to their constituents

where they are, and they say things that are not as diplomatic as they might be if they were working together. i was just wondering your thoughts. >> well, we quit seeing ourselves as americans first and foremost. we see ourselves as part of political parties. and the parties have been built up with money and organizers and professional people. you wonder why we can't do the real economic stuff. you have elected professional people and sometimes they get elected to the senate and it creates that cultural or that seepage into the senate that usually was a domain of the house that more cutting edge spirit. and how you then reverse that and get steps closer to what it means to be americans first and foremost working toward common

goals, therein lies the challenge. i think the divide clearly is a result of an america that doesn't seen ourselves enough as americans first and foremost and divided by our individual political tribes. exacerbated by cable television, exacerbated by the amount of money in politics where you have a handful of people who control the campaign financing in this country. and exacerbated by redistricting which now means we wake up to a country that's predictably red or blue without even competitive seats. what happens when you take out competition? it begins s ts to at ri fee. >> you're a great american. you have served your country, you've served your state and it's a pleasure to be with you.

we have grown up historically the two of us in different partyings. but by gosh, we could work together. you have had the easy part of today. the most difficult part is going to come on now because it's time for all our students to ask questions of the governor and we have two microphones there. so if you'd like unand we'll get you as soon as you're ready. >> happy to hear from any of you. >> tell us who you are, where you're from and what you're studying. >> absolutely. my name is alyssa bradley from westchester university of pennsylvania.

originally from new jersey. i'm studying political science with a concentration on public policy. my question is i know you stated that instead of putting in a bid for the presidential elections in 2016 that you'd rather stay on the sidelines with no labels. my question is what exactly are you claiming to contribute to the campaign as it pertains to their labels. >> if i could somehow inspire the next generation, you, to get more involved in the system, mission accomplished. because there's nothing more important than to take what i have experienced in my career, the ups and downs, the successes and failures, and somehow direct it at you because you're just now learning about what that big world might be like. and if you haven't worn the shoes of a presidential campaign or having run for office at the state level or lived overseas as a diplomat, you can't really

begin to articulate or communicate with others what that's like u. there's also a season for all things. you can kind of feel it in your gut if the atmosphere is conducive to what you're good at and what you want to talk about. i wouldn't be willing to e get out and bang my head on the wall talking about some of the issues that you have to talk about in the primary face of the campaign. . you're unelectable in a primary, the pathway to victory post super tuesday, but getting through the primary state, uh-uh. i'll be darned if i'm going to engage in political fundraising for the next two years of my life. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> hello.

>> it seems more and more that -- did you hear the first part of that okay? >> sure did. >> thank you. so my question is can you kind of share some more insight on how maybe pacs and big money are kind of sustain iing the cultur of polarized parties and how do you think we can try to dismantle that to make sincere collaborative law making possible again. >> well, i have a few issues with this generally. one is that more and more money into campaigns and we're going to see probably the highest campaign in kentucky this cycle.

probably more than we spent on a presidential campaign not so long ago in the years of my life. and that means that you're building more and more at the professional apparatus and the permanent campaign class. they u make more and more money. they buld out their offices. they never leave. number two, what i found when i was governor, because i was shocked at the young people feeling disenfranchised like their vote doesn't matter because they kaeblt write out a big check. you want to poison that begins to invade and corrodes the political system, try that one out when young people peel off in their political systems. that's another part that i think. so if you can encourage small

contributions at the grass roots level where more people feel invested in the process, just small contributions, that would be a really good thing. and how you go from a handful of people who pretty much give the money in politics and have a huge say over the agenda to more grass roots participation where people feel empowered, that would be a nice transition to make. it isn't about the net dollars in politics like some have said. we spend in politics like one denominator was what we spend on potato chips every year. that's not my beef. my argument is we don't have enough people who at the very low end of contributing are giving and therefore feeling invested in the system. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> my name is leah from florida southern college. i'm studying journalism. with all of the campaigns and how campaigns have gotten nastier over the past couple of

decades, do you believe that afterwards when everybody has voted, things that have been said in the campaigns have contributed to ongoing partisanship? >> are they connected? i kind of think so. and politics have always been pretty nasty. alexander hamilton who was a former secretary of the treasury was shot and killed by a man after the gubernatorial election of 1804. that was pretty nasty. things have been a little tough. the problem that we have today is we built on a permanent basis this division so the prospects of actually breaking it up and replacing therein a different culture that begins to move us toward common objectives becomes increasingly difficult. but the nastiness also has another unfortunate offset.

who wants to run for office anymore when you have just kind of been through an election campaign and everybody wants to take a shower in this country after these ads that go on television that after you have seen them once or twice or a hundred times, you shake your head in amazement that we're spending money on that level of stupidity directed at the american voter. what it does is it runs a lot of people out of politics. people who otherwise ought to consider getting in the arena. they say i don't want to ruin my family, i don't want to have my future prospects destroyed. so we leave it for someone else to do. as i said earlier, i don't think we're getting a level of real quality people running for public office. i say this everywhere i go. auditorium after auditorium, who

would be willing to run for public office these days? business group after business group i don't see many hands go up and that tells me something about where the poison of politics and the nastiness of politics has taken us. we need to regenerate the system regularly. i believe in term limits myself. that would be a great way to get the deadwood out every now and again and reduce the number of lobbyists that go through the revolving door, which is another big part of the problem. 90% of the incumbents are reelected. so the goofy behavior is rewarded. there's no price to be paid for it. >> thank you. >> thank you.

>> hi, mr. huntsman. i'm so excited to have you here. so the china-u.s. relation is definitely one of the most exciting things in the 21st century and two weeks ago i was in the house of representatives for a hearing in chinese-u.s. relations. it was about the monopoly in china. so i'm always a believer that great leadership are inspired by challenges or difficulties. could you please share with us one of the, in your opinion, the most challenging situation during your term and how that is provoked from that. thank you.

>> i'm from beijing. >> the biggest challenge, we can talk about disputes of various kinds. it really gets down to our ability to build trust with one another. and when we have trust that's been earned by working together as we did even during the cold war, what brought us together in 1972 after an es strangement following the end of world war ii and then, what brought us together is a common objective. how do you bring anybody together? you have to have a common objective. that was a big balance of power goal, which was calling dealing

effectively with the soviet union. that kept us together for political cooperation and intelligence. cooperation. and then we built on that objective and economic goal which was china in the world trade organization, which occupied the 1990s up to 2001. the premier basically cleared the way for china to reform its economy and move, which is a huge deal. and we built up trust. and i would say that in today's world we're slowly burning through the trust that we built up. and that's not a good thing. so this is the challenge that really sits between the united states and china. what can we do together as countries that should have a long list of things together that we're working on to make the world a better place. some things deal with overall regional stability and economic

agenda. how about dealing with human disease in different parts of the world that scientists from both countries can begin to work on to make better? what about environmental issues where we're both the largest emitters in the entire world of co2 gases. a lot of things that can be worked on, but we're not doing it right now. we're not building the trust to carry the relationship into the 21st century. when you get the top two nations that get wobbly because they are not working productively in areas that constitute common interests, that's dangerous for the whole world. but i would have to say to your question, during my time, there's a lot of things that were tricky. and every day there's something in the u.s.-china relationship that's a tricky sensitive issue that needs to be worked on. but the lack of communication between our two militaries was a very dangerous thing.

and when you have planes in the sky, when you have ships on the sea, and people aren't talking about how you coordinate some of the activities and you don't really have a deescalation strategy if something goes wrong, that's worrisome. so we all work very hard no building up a stronger military to military dialogue. and now he's two years into his job as president, as head of the party, and also as chair of the central military commission, which is a first. he went in as chair. so he has an opportunity. even next week of the congress begins to -- because i think he will do. the reading of the tea leaves would suggest he's going to have some impact on the central military commission, how it's structured, who leads it and what he does with the senior policymaking bodies. if it moves more and more toward

recognition for greater stability and more dialogue with people in the region, our allies and friends, that would be a really good thing. we'll see. and you're going to be watching us closely, i'm sure. >> thank you. >> my name is tooyler, i'm a journalist student. i have two questions pertaining to china as well. so i'd like to get your insights into the recent protests in hong kong and what do you think should be the appropriate response by the u.s.? and also my second question has to do with recent talks of removing an arms embargo to vietnam. how do you think that will impact the relationship if that goes forward? thank you. >> so i was in vietnam just recently.

to put it in some perspective, where i found that maybe the safest place in the world for an american as 9/11 was playing out. so i landed in saigon the evening of 9/11 when all hell was breaking loose in new york and washington. i was there as our trade negotiator for the united states. going through some of the final phases of the bta, the bilateral trade agreement. normalizing our relationship. meaning in the reunification palace of all places, this was a bizarre moment for an american. 9/11 was playing out in the background and we were negotiating some final phases and it struck me you who quickly the world changes. what you see and what you recognize in the world today, when you're all doing things on the world stage, it would be different than it is today, i'd walk the streets and people come up to me and express sorrow, condolences about what was

playing out. 30 years before, this would have been the most dangerous place for an american to be walking on the streets. so i watched the relationship diplomatically and in terms of our regional cooperation and things are getting really interesting. so to think that a u.s. naval ship called the u.s.s. john mccain would dock in vietnam recently, that's beginning to send interesting signals about where the u.s. and vietnam are going. trade is booming. there's more talk of military to military cooperation. that doesn't mean they are going to find themselves in the bay any time soon, but there's more in the way of collaborative ticket. of the most sensitive assets of the relationship.

so keep your eye on that. it will be an interesting couple of years. with respect to hong kong, no surprise ats the hundreds of thousands of people turning out. i was there last month giving a speech. i lived for two months in asia this last summer. and it's interesting because the people love freedom. they love their way of live. they want to preserve it and don't want to see it change. they are moving toward what they deem to be greater democracy, which would be a collective commission a council choosing the chief executive, which is like a governor, they like to see a direct election, which is totally legitimate and why not? that would probably best and body the aspirations of the hong kong people. and they are running against

china's objection, so a lot of this would take place in 2017 when you have reform and elections on the agenda. this is going to be a really tricky issue. because i'm not sure he can live with a model of efficient chinese economy on his periphery that's practicing direct democracy. that would be a hard thing. you have taiwan, which has been an interesting example and evolution to democracy. i have been there twice in my lifetime including during marshal law 35 years ago. i was living there when democracy blossomed with the death of their leader in 1987 and the rise of the democracy we see today. i don't think there's any way of stopping the people in hong kong from wanting to express their desires of a directly elected executive. i think at some point, there will be a hybrid model built between how they are planning to

do it, which is via a commission populated by hundreds of people, many appointed by beijing, who then kind of choose among themselves who the chief executive will be. some hybrid between that and more participation by the citizens of hong kong, which is a bustling, thriving metropolis of 6 to 7 million people with a center piece of rule of law that has guided for 150 years. >> do you think the u.s. government should express more public support then for the protesters in hong kong or is it too much of a delicate issue to have a public dialogue. >> the chinese know where we are. you can't hide. there are certain values tied with the united states of america. whether you want toed a milt it or not. and part of the brand is snas.

you can pretend you're not that, but it diminishes our standing in the world. you have to be on the side of those people who are hout there championing a direct democracy. is it going to create intense moments between our u.s. ambassador, whoever is visiting, of course, it will. we have plenty of issues on which we agree, and we have to put them aside and argue the ideas we feel strongly about. i think this is an important example for us to demonstrate our own commitment to democracy. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> i attend governor state university in illinois. i'm interning at pyramid

atlantic. what is one of the most significant changes you felt you made as an ambassador? i know you touched bases on changes. that's my question. >> diplomacy moves at a snail's pace. so the answer to that realistically is in 20 years, i'll give you an answer to that. because you plan plant a lot of seeds and it takes awhile for them to produce anything. but i'd have to say one of the more immediate issues that could yield something shorter term was our desire to connect more of america's leaders and china's leaders at the grass roots level. so we had a program to connect governors and mayors. amazing thing happens -- i went over there as governor as well. you sit down with your

counterpart and you're talking the same language. they are talking about jobs, they are talking about clean air, they are talking about infrastructure. it's amazing how all the stuff we're talking about to deal with the country to country relationship where you can get into some pretty dicey issues at the provincial and state level, no such problem. you get right into the issues that matter most. so it occurred to me as i transitioned, we need to work on connecting more of our grass roots leaders because not only will we find commonty, but number two, the answers to some of the big questions can't be arrived at unless we're working together. some of it is placed on the doorstep. it's a global problem. how can you expect china to deal with this issue unless we're

having a conversation with them? how can you expect better practices on trade. respect for property unless we're working together. that's a by-product as well. and the overall trust that we're building by just working together and doing things that are of a productive nature. so we started that. we nurtured it and i think it's still going on. hopefully building numbers that were greater than what we started with. i have to say that people to people engagement longer term is going to be the most important investment that we make and that they make in better understanding each other in achieving real results. >> thank you. >> something i learned as an ambassador five years, there's an expression that ambassador get on better than their country do. which is an interesting lesson for everyone. it relates to what goes on in

washington today. if ambassador, and i know i have relationships where our countries weren't that close, but we agree d a as friends and ambassador that we could work on the probl if we could import that to washington and maybe people would learn they could work together. i'm sure it's something you saw in china. >> i'm studying political science with a focus on international relations. currently with the american turkish council. for policy, what do people not understand well even to the point that congressmen sort of use cliches with the policy to promote certain ideals, but don't really follow america's

interest? what do you do for those? especially when there's no goal. >> i think you start by framing the issues anding issues in a way that speaks to where the american people want to go and having members of congress representatives who are courageous enough to take those messages back to the town hall meetings. right now we have too much pandering at town hall meetings. you play to the base. you pander. which does no good at all, but it results in a lot of cheap applause. you walk out feeling like everybody loves you, but you haven't accomplished anything. the best way to connect good ideas, good policies supported by the people, you got to have some members of congress willing to talk about the issues. >> as a former ambassador, you have been on the front lines of

foreign policy. often congress and the people don't understand what we go through to do it. it's not brought up often. we have more policies that we pay more attention to. what can we do to convince congressmen to pay more attention to those on the front lines? >> this is where the national strategic agenda is important because we have done through some fairly sophisticated polling. we captured the top issues in the minds of the american people. what you do as you marry those issues with those who are in office -- one of the challenges is foreign policy is nowhere to be found. when we looked at the issues that people really care about, we took the top four or five that constitute the agenda. we want our work to be a reflection of the most important issues in their lives. jobs, balanced budget, emergency

security, securie ining entitle, whether you're republican or democrat, you come together around supporting these broad goals at a high level of support. foreign policy was nowhere to be found. the tricky part here is much of what we have to talk about on the foreign policy side doesn't lend itself to sound bites and doesn't lend itself to one-liners in town hall meetings. and to a conversation where you want to get an applause line. so how do you talk about a situation in syria where u ultimately you may have to bring in parties from the region that nobody wants to admit to. how do you find a successful outcome without sitzing down with iran, russia, china and other players in the region. you can't go out and talk at a town hall meeting about a master plan without getting booed off

the stage. how do you deal with china rationally where it's easy to say what you're going to do in punitive measures. but the important conversation is what are we going to do with china? how are we going to work together? that doesn't produce an applause line. so this is a tricky thing that's going to require some additional courage in our elected officials to take some of these important issues that aren't necessarily the headline issues in the minds of a lot of others back to their hometown audiences, back to their town hall meetings to have conversations that this nation needs to have. >> i'm from india. i'm in my senior year of engineering and my majors are biotechnology. it believes in an extraordinary

approach of problem solving. . so it has called for a national strategic agenda securing medicare for the 75 years is one of its most crucial goals. i want to know what extraordinary approach, no labels, plans to address one of the most important concern and crucial issue for the entire nation that is health care? >> health care was not one of the top issues -- >> i just read that it was one of the most important goals of the four goals that it plans to execute. >> that would be part of securing entitlements, so that would be part of medicare. and when you're elected governor, when you talk about jobs and economic development, at some point you run right into health care reform. you can't get beyond a certain point without reforming the system. when you talk about entitlement, you can't have that discussion

too long before you say, what are we going to do about medicare. you can't talk about the u.s. budget and the way it is divided and the trajectory of spending without getting pretty quickly back to health care. you can't recognize that you have three or four diseases that drive spending to the tune of maybe a trillion dollars, diabetes, cardiovascular, obesity, the drive spending on the health care side. so i chair a cancer constitute so i get to hang out with some pretty smart doctors who are always talking about health care reform. i'm always saying wharks are the things that really need to get done more than anything else to really reform the system. and we're going to know over the next year, we're going to talk more specifically about the policy choices that we have, but i'd have to say the number one issue really must be aside from coverage, we need to get more people covered, which means you

have to have more affordable, portable, accessible insurance policies. we don't today. that's a huge problem. if you have pharmaceutical costs, insurance costs that are beyond most people's ability to grab them, you have some things that are going to have to be addressed at some point if you're going to reign in the biggest challenge of all in health care chr, which are escalating costs. if it's doubling, they are unsustainable. what's the biggest expenditure in the department of defense today? not weapon systems. health care for the soldiers. you get right back to that key issue being health care costs. what are you going to do about it. we can have this debate all day long about how you deal with health care costs. i think ultimately it's going to be a combination of things. we have to have insurance policies that really incentivize

consumers to make wise choices. you make choices early on as opposed to waiting later in the life of the disease. we're spending much of the money. personalized medicine, which is increasingly where molecular biology and research will take us in the health sciences area. it will allow you as a patient to make more informed choices early on. consistent with hippa and all that. your choices are going to make you healthier long-term and take costs out of the system. when i look longer term at the health care challenge, i'm an optimist. because i think science and big data and the way in which the end of the human genome project, which was a pretty amazing thing

to do here in the united states, where that takes us on the trajectory of science relating to health care is extremely powerful in terms of the choices that we'll give average citizens. we're not there yet, but we're going to get there at some point. but most of all since you're from india, it's going to take a leader who did some interesting things now he's been elected prime minister. he's set iting the ♪ and putting the goals on the wall and moving everybody in that direction. and in the not everybody within sometimes impenetrable. >> thank you for coming. it's an amazing discussion. >> good afternoon, i am from

puerto rico. and my question to you is based on your former experience to the peoples republic of china. what is your opinion concerning the islands of the coast of china and japan? and will the situation worsen through time? >> it's a very sensitive issue because it gets to the heart and soul of the sovereignty claims. if you want to know chinese foreign policy, it's sovereignty. what is their goal? their goal over time is to reclaim all of the lost territories. taiwan, mackau, hong kong in '97, taiwan is doing its own thing. and then you have a lot of islands in the china sea. some of them are part of a large swath of geography that goes well into the south china sea. all the way from the philippines

bordering indonesia close to malaysia. they want to recoop the lost territories. the problem is you have about five other countries that claim the same thing. that takes us to where we are today. and what we need in order to address it properly is a code of conduct for these islands. so japan and china are going after the islands in the east china sea. they send in coast guard cutters. they have aerial patrols. some of them get down right dangerous because they are close to one another. at some point, we have to kind of call a time-out recognizing there will be no resolution in the short-term for this issue around island sovereignty, and we must get busy writing a code of conduct. the united states can be a big part of this.

we can be at least an honest broker with many of the players in the region, coming up with a code of conduct for maritime exercises, transportation, fishing, natural resource extraction, whatever else. that's the part that's missing right now. while everybody disagrees, which may last another 50 years, what's the code of conduct governs the geography, the waterways around those disputed islands. that's got to be addressed at some point because you have the law of the seas and the exclusive economic zones that take these claimants way out in terms of what they control. that's going to get problematic. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> hello, sir. hi, everybody. i am from mexico. we are talking about the role of the united states in a changing world, so like you sir, i'm convinced that in political

vocation and i believe if we work together, we can change together. so i would like to know your opinion and what is the next step for the united states talking about the immigrants in this country and will they just have as many chances as the americans have? >> we always have to be the nation that attracts dreamers. people who aspire to a better life. we have always been that. but we have a problem today in that we have created a system on immigration that's now outdated. and we have got a huge backup getting larger every day that makes the problem worse because we have no ability to address the people that are already here. and the prospects of waiting 10 or 12 or 15 years for a

citizenship becomes problematic. i would cite what the president is doing in mexico. i think he's a brave and courageous leader in he's bringing people together who haven't worked together for a very long time. and he's looking at reforms that are going to go quite deep if he can get them done. i say that because part of the overall answer is what kind of opportunities are available in mexico? if you look at the flow of immigration today as pointed out recently, i think we're about a 40-year low. there are people staying for the opportuniti opportunities. a strong and stable growing mexico is a big part of it. second, we have to reform our system. that allows us to deal with people who are already here who are living in the shadows, who are in some cases are into the second generation. they have been educated here, raised here with no sense of

community. and i for one don't think that's a wise place for people to be. and we're going to have to deal with the border security issue. do you build a fence that's 2,000 miles, which is probably impractical. the cost i heard was millions a mile. i have been down on the border. they were putting up lights, they were putting up detection equipment. so it's a combination of fencing certain sectors and using technology for others, which i think is probably not a bad thing. i'd like to see us do this. i'd like to see us defer to the border governors, republicans and democrats both, and say you're closest to the issue. why don't you designate whether or not we have a secure border? whether it's done through technology or through a combination of technology, fencing or all fencing. if you empower the governors to

report back and say, we have checked our border, we have worked with national officials and state officials and we can tell you our border is as secure as we can get it. the talk about border security has to end at some point because it's become one of these throw away political lines. they all just say i want to secure the border. what does that mean? the whole thing? a fence? maybe. but a more practical approach that's achievable is let's empower our governors. republicans and democrats both to help us in defining what that border security should look like u. in the meantime, we need to reform our process because longer term this will be the practical outcome. we will be sending and continuing to send messages to people in all corners of this world that we're not open for business. we're not open for people who wish to seek a better lifestyle who want to come here to work, which has been to my mind less a security issue and much more of

an economic development issue. we bring in folks with ideas who want to work. we have to maintain that. i'm afraid that as this debate, difficult and sensitive as it has been, is turning off a lot of people in the other parts of the world. they means we lose. >> in september, phoenix veterans medical center held a town hall for veterans and families to share views about medical care and experiences. this three and a half hour event contains language some viewers might find offensive. >> these are forums that we're going to be holding on a regular basis. today the secretary announced he wants to do these on a quarterly basis. is that better? and so we'll be doing these on a quarterly basis. i won't be here for the next one, but in dayton, i will be doing them in ohio.

i'm recommending to whoever comes behind me that we hold these out in the community. we'll be moving around the city of phoenix and also maybe going to some of our outpatient cities where we have outpatient clinics and those kinds of areas. but why don't we start off and i will ask everybody to stand. we'll have a moment of silence to send our thoughts to those fighting the war on terror. >> thank you. join me in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and

justice for all. >> thank you. also wanted to take a moment and acknowledge it's the time of year when we think about our p.o.w. and m.i.a. veterans. i didn't know if we had former p.o.w.s or family members here in the audience if they wanted to stand. thank you. we'll keep them in our thoughts. so i'm glen costy, i'm the director of the dayton, ohio, v.a. i was asked to come to phoenix to help out for four months. i arrived july 9th the in end of my tour will be the 6th of november. and it was an honor to be asked to come and help lead the organization as we continue to move forward here at phoenix. wanted to also thank our veterans that came out tonight. this is an important way for us to receive feedback and hear

good things we're doing as well as things you need us to do better on. we're excited to hear your feedback. want to thank the family members that support you. it's a lab labor of love to work with helping our veterans. also want to thank our stake holders because it takes a community of folks to work with all the needs that we have for our veterans. many things the v.a. does. also things the v.a. can't do. we have a nice partnership here in phoenix with many of our stake holders. want to thank them for their support. today was an example we were briefing our delegation and the office was showing us a wonderful veterans resource guide that they have done to list all of the benefits that are available for veterans. those that are offered by the v.a., offer the by the state, offered by the city and other nonprofits. a nice resource that you should

ask for. we also invited folks from the other parts of the v.a. here. i believe we have folks from the benefits office. so the young lady in the back, if you have any benefits questions, we'll be having her try to address them either as a group response or individually if you have those kinds of questions. and also national cemetery administration or service for those that honor veterans upon their death. anybody hear from that group? we thought we'd have them here. any questions, we have the administration to work with. i wanted to give you an update on some things that have been going on here at the medical center and we'll open it up for some questions and feedback. first of all, it's important for everybody to know that the access issues at phoenix remain in a fixed condition. i'm not sure it's the right way to say that. we have solved the access

problem and we now have provided the resources we need to assure we're properly using the scheduling packages and the extended wait list and so far over 7,000 veterans have been contacted who wanted to get care at the v.a. here in phoenix. we have been able to get them scheduled in. we also have been working very hard on the recommendations from the office of inspector general and of the 13 recommendation recommendations that were specific to phoenix, ten have been corrected and we're submitting documentation to the i.g. to support removing those conditions from their report. i also wanted to make sure everybody knew about appendix k in that report. there's an appendix k and that document is a response in writing to many of the concerns that were raised in the report. there's a lot of good information about what phoenix has done in response to those findings.

and also this week we were in washington providing chairman miller's house veterans affairs committee information about the i.g. report. there was almost six hours of testimony, which was really unprecedented and a lot of good information was shared with the committee. so wanted to make sure folks took the time to look at that on c-span. also our secretary mcdonald is working on a plan he's going to be rolling out on veterans day. he's calling it the road to veterans day. every couple weeks, there's more initiatives he's showcasing. we're all expecting to see a wonderful announcement of some good programs that he will be implementing on veterans day. we're also working on the veterans choice act. we had a briefing on that this week that we're looking at early november. probably around veterans day to be announcing some actions as far as how you can use the

choice cards and things of that nature. secretary mcdonald is also emphasizing to i-care. and we are all personally recommitting ourselves to those values and trying to live them every day here at phoenix. locally, we have got some actions that will be happening in the fall. one will be the beginning of a valet parking system we'll have here in november. this will help a lot with the issue with parking at the campus and allow to drop the car off, have it kept safe and we'll deliver to you at the end of your visit. we also have a construction project that's going to begin on a park garage. that's going to begin in the fall as well. we're try iing to lease some parking spaces in the community to help with that transition. so hopefully we'll have some remediation to our parking deficiencies here.

we're also working in the community to lease space for primary care. we hope to sign all the the end of this month a lease in the skaths dale -- scottsdale area. we also have two other leases in the phoenix area totally 50,000 square feet that e we hope to have signed in the first quarter of this coming fiscal year and be able to open them up in the spring and summer. we also have the choice act a very large health care center, a 3 300,000-square foot center that will be completed in 2019. in the meantime, we wanted to try to move on the smaller leases to provide some help for the space problems that we are having here. we also made some progress on hiring additional providers for our patient align care teams. we now have for the first time at phoenix all of our primary care u teams are staffed up and we have six additional teams

that we have commitments for and arrival dates for physicians staffing those groups as well. we are really doing a nice job trying to get the staffing area fixed and provide the teams that we need to to take care of our veterans. finally there's been a lot of concern about our staffing levels at our outpatient clinic. and we are taking care of covering clinic. either with providers or using our tell medicine programs to provide support. we have one provider that we have a commitment from to start working there. we'll also be looking at other nursing practitioners. we're making sure we're covering the veterans needs. there was some rumors about us closing that clinic. i just wanted to make sure that everybody knows the clinic is open and we're staffing it appropriately. i also wanted to make sure everybody saw these comment cards. these are very helpful for me as i try to move the organization

forward. some people are not comfortable getting up in front of an audience and talking about issues. i wanted to offer an opportunity to give me written feedback. we'll find a way to respond to you about any concerns you have or use them as a way of gauging the general feel of any of the needs you all have as veterans. i'm going to turn it over to my acting public affairs officer. he's going to talk a little bit about the ground rules for today's session and we'll open it up for you to give us some feedback. >> good evening. i'm the acting public affairs officer here at the phoenix v.a. medical center. just a few ground rules. short, simple, sweet. we have two microphones set up here. we'd like folks to step up to the microphone. in the interest of time, try to make your statement as concise as possible. we'll take your comments.

if we have answers, we can get them tonight. if not, we'll be getting the answers to you as soon as we can. so the process would be we'll do one question from the left, one question from the right and we'll see what we can do to get through this it evening. any questions for me at this point? or step up to the microphone. yes, sir? usually what happens is tough set some sort of a time on a meeting. we're not restricted to that hour. if it's going to be a little bit longer, we understand that. there's a lot to be said u. and was mentioned, the good news is in the future, these will be a regular, recurring, quarterly meeting at each facility throughout the v.a. so some of the folks are starting to line up. we'll start with the questions. yes, sir. >> thank you for your efforts. i'm sure everyone appreciates an honest effort here and there.

my concern is i've been misdiagnosed. is this your story, folks? i have waited a long time to tell mine. i bet i'm telling some of your stories. i have been misdiagnosed many times through the years at this hospital that almost resulted in my death. i'm facing a situation right now where for at least two years they have diagnosed me as having pneumonia. all at once, they say, oh, we're going to look closer. after two years of this, oh, you have end stage cancer. i tried to address this by going to cancer center of america. their doctors here are behind times. their cancer doctors are so far behind. they are not aware of a corporation called tgen, which is a genetic research for cancer

treatment. when i ask about these new treatments, the oncology doctor here laughed at me and said that's all garbage. i need, in my opinion, i would like and need very much at this critical time in my life, right now, right now, not next week, right now, i need a referral to cancer center of america and anyone that's facing a situation like mine needs the same kind of referral. we don't have time -- their motto around the hospital is i have a carroted artery. we're going to watch that. they haven't looked at it for five years. i have an aneurysm in my stomach. what are we going to do about it? we're going to watch that. so years and years of

misdiagnosed and inadequate treatment has led me to this position right here tonight. i'm darn angry. i'm darn angry. and i would like cancer treatment center of america has given me phone numbers and contacts that they said they would be more than willing to negotiate some kind of agreement with the va. i have those numbers. does anyone hear me? thank you. [ applause ] >> i don't know if i got your name. we need to get your contact information so we can get with you and try to help you. so if i could have one of the staff get -- you got that there? that would be great. thank you, sir. >> also, on hand tonight we have a couple of our patient advocates, and a social worker

that could help some of you, discuss some of the care, your personal care, your family member's care. and that person is -- those folks are in the topaz clinic. if you would like to speak to a patient advocate, or social worker this evening, we'll arrange for that. we'll go to the next question here. yes, sir? >> good evening, sir. my name is william mclaughlin. i'm an army veteran. i have a problem with the va on outsourcing. as you can see, i've had a neck surgery about a month and a half ago, but it took six months' wait to get that surgery. with excruciating pain. and many visits to our e.d. i went through this on july 28th. and i'm having complications on

my left side. same things i had on my right. i saw my surgeon that was outsourced to good sam, just on tuesday. and he ordered a c.a.t. scan with contrast. so i started checking on this yesterday and today. my pcp doesn't have it. e-bases doesn't have it. i called back to the doctor's office, they said it's in their processing center and they have up tod th14 have up to 14 days to process it. i asked why. well, for insurance verification and everything else. i said, i'm outsourced from the va, it's guaranteed payment. well, i can't give it to you, and you'll have to wait. i go to patient advocate. they cannot do anything outside the va, i'm told. the va outsourced me. so if i have problems with being outsourced to another doctor, or another hospital, the va ought to be backing me up.

i should not be the one running back and forth from the va to this outsource doctor, for medications or anything else. i shouldn't be doing the legwork. our fee based section has already expressed unsatisfactory opinions about tri-west. >> okay. >> and i haven't heard anything good about tri-west at all. i was scheduled to go to barrows in the beginning, and had everything sped up. but that rug was pulled out from underneath me when i was told i had to go through tri-west. so the choice of where we want to go as veterans is not there for us. it's not there. so this outsourcing problem needs to be addressed. and we need to be backed up if we're having problems. >> i agree with you. i think we put the veteran in the middle of too much of that, instead of like you're saying being an advocate for you. it should be one stop shopping, one call to the va, and that's

it, instead of you doing all the legwork like you're saying. i agree with you. >> going through tri-west, or the doctor you're outsourced through, and at the same time you're doing is sitting there with a tear coming out of your eye because you're in so much pain. that's not right. i will admit that i am an employee of the va. i'm proud of it. >> thank you, sir. [ applause ] >> steven robert shockame sr., and i'm mad as hell. i asked for a biopsy for 18 months. it took my wife threatening a nurse practitioner with legal action to get that biopsy. your urology department tried to force a treatment down my throat that would have killed me. the whole 18 months they treated me with antibiotics. high doses, which gave me other health problems, and they don't want to take care of it. they didn't want to pay the bill at the mayo for the right type

of procedure for my cancer. i had a heart attack. i waited 45 minutes on the phone for somebody to answer. they said, oh, call an ambulance, we'll take care of it. they still haven't paid the bill. that was in 2010. and i'm madder than hell. i have another question. the urology department, as it was, were they taking kickbacks from a radiation oncologist in chandler? is that why they were trying to force radiation treatment down people's throats? i met six people that had the same problem as me. also, why is sharon hellman still earning six figures on paid administrative leave? isn't it time to stop the clock? [ applause ] >> that's all i have to say. [ applause ]

>> do you want to follow that? >> i don't think i can follow that act. >> my name is jake. on november 17th, 2011, i came here to have my right rotator cuff repaired. during the procedure, the surgeon encountered a solid tumor he wasn't expecting to find. without my knowledge or consent he removed the entire tumor in once piece without first performing a biopsy. the tumor turned out to be benign, meaning it didn't need to come out. unfortunately when he removed the tumor, he caused a severe injury to my ancillary nerve which prevents me now from lifting my right arm. after the procedure, the surgeon refused to acknowledge the injury. he refused to order any tests. and he refused to make any referrals. i saw three nerve repair specialists outside the va at my

own expense, and they all agreed that the injury could not be repaired. we sent the slides of the tumor to ucla, where the chief of pathology found the nerve embedded in the tumor. this injury destroyed my own career as an orthopedic spine surgeon. i filed a claim for economic damages. but your regional counsel sat on my claim for six months and then sent me a denial letter telling me that my current disability is my own fault. i then filed a lawsuit under the federal tort claims act, and the assistant u.s. attorney who was assigned to defend the va has done nothing but attack me personally and professionally for the past year. meanwhile, the surgeon who did this has escaped scrutiny. at the time of my surgery, he was a part-time employee working

here one day a week. earlier this year, the va rewarded him with a full-time job. so i have two questions for you. first, what are you doing about the inadequate care at this facility? wait times mean nothing if the person you're going to see is going to maim or kill you. and second, what are you doing about the process that veterans have to go through when they are injured at the va? because the congress did not pass the federal tort claims act so that veterans who are injured at va hospitals could be further victim iized by your regional counsel and u.s. attorney's office? thank you. [ applause ] >> i don't think i can do better than that. i have a situation here, that

kind of blends between here and claims. >> okay. >> and i've been bounced back and forth. >> turn up the volume, can you? >> god, i'm going to eat this thing. is it on? it's got to be. anyhow, i've been bounced back and forth. i came in here to the facility with a claim for parkinson's, and i don't want to get anybody in trouble here, it's not my intent to get anybody in trouble, but i've been bounced back and forth between the hospital here and barrow neurological. all i keep doing is keep going and getting nowhere, and i keep coming back, and they want to have a test. no, we're not sure. we want to have a test. the last test i got was for what's called the squeeze test. i happened to look it up online. what does it do? it does nothing. it's a subjective test.

how much did it cost the va? how much did it cost everybody here? it cost everybody here a shot in my arm of $3,000. for a radioactive iodine. what happened with that shot? on the note for me to get that shot, it was informed that i am claustrophobic and i cannot lay down for half hour, 45 minutes motionless on a table, i need a sedative. guess what, nobody signed the freakin' thing. where do you think that $3,000 shot went? right down the freakin' toilet. and where am i? right down that damn toilet with it because i'm no closer to getting my claim satisfied. i want to have, if it's possible, to get a referral out of this situation, to mayo clinic. i'm tired of bouncing around between here and barrow. i'm not saying barrow is not good or it's not get here, but this is g