entirely, i think the three major publishers would have the market power to demand whatever they want. for licenses. they may or may not be able to efficiently license the nondigital pieces of the market like restaurants and bars and cafes and that could be a big mess as well, but just looking at the digital side, i think the issue is that you know i come from the recording side of the business and we see that there in the major labels when they license uses that are not governed by stat torrey licenses. we've seen them get large lump sum advances. which they will, it is reported they will often say that that's not attributable to the artist contract, so it doesn't go down to the artist at the end of the day and then the independent labels say that the majors get royalties that are more than their share of the market. so much so that some of the independent labels are asking for more licenses, which is a

pretty telling example of what the state of competition is there. so, i think that the publishers would be able to begin to act like that. because they have similar levels of market concentration and for partial withdrawals i think the danger with partial withdrawals over just disbanding the consent decrees entirely is that we have seen how the pros and ascap act when they think they can partially withdraw and it resulted in a lot of competition problems and my concern is that if the doj was to then say have you seen that now you can partially withdraw it could be even in add ver tently be seen. >> mr. miller i really appreciated your testimony. just as a reminder of the creative individuals who are in many ways at the beginning of this conversation, although miss griffin reminds us consumers are

critical. there's a lot of different folks involved. a lot of different stage but mr. miller, not all song writers want to have some of their performance rights pulled out of pros and do you agree or disagree? >> that does cause a lot of hypotheticals. my take on partial withdrawals is if that is the only way the song writers can achieve higher rates, then yes, it makes sense, but we are accustomed to our share being paid to us through our p.r.o.s. that has worked efficiently and stable. they have recommended they pay the song writers directly under partial withdrawal so i think from that standpoint, it makes sense. if the end game is we find a way to revalue the copyright and get out from under the government restrictions that say it is

worth micro pennies in the digital space, then i think it's a win for the song writers because we're in a situation now where millions of spins in the digital space equals tens of dollars. that's what it comes down to at the end of the day at my house for my family. >> thank you. >> thank you. it's now my honor to recognize my friend and distinguished colleague who happens to be an actual song writer. senator hatch. >> don't hold it against me. let me just, we're happy to have all of you here and pleased with our leaders that are holding this hearing. but let me yus ask this to the panel. last june, senator whitehouse and i wrote to attorney general holder about the consent increase and bmis licensing practices. i would ask you for that to be placeded ton record at this

point. we encouraged the department of justice to modify the consent decrees to allow for competitive benchmarks and rates. licensing flexibility, arbitration that's in alternative to lit dwags and bundled rights. some of you have argued that modernizing the consent decrees would be a bad thing and that they need to be preserved in their current form to prevent anticompetitive conduct by p.r.o.s. why would allowing for arbitration in lieu of expensive litigation trip the so-called antitrust wire? i'd really like to know that or why would allowing all performance rights organizations to bundle rights disturb the free market? these seem like common sense changes to me and maybe we can start with you over in that end. >> thank you, senator hatch. we agree with you. these are common sense changes. to be clear, we are not asking

to terminate the consent decree. we are merely asking for the changes that senator hatch just referenced. our request for alternative dispute resolutions seems to be a win win for everyone. we should be able to reach consensus without time consuming incredibly costly federal litigation that gets repeated again in a second rate court proceeding with our competitor bmi with a different federal judge, which oftentimes leads to inconsistent decisions. bundling also seems to be a win win for people. services often require more than one right. not just the right of public performance. if we could offer to be a one stop shop for them that seems to have a procompetitive and efficiency benefit for everyone. partial brand of rights. i'm hearing concerns regarding transparency. and you should know that ascap fully supports transparency.

we believe licensees have the right to know what they're licensing and from whom. >> all right. senator, i think the concern i would have about arbitration, at least the way it's been characterized so far is that it would be mandatory and binding. there's often significant sums at issue. when the radio music license committee settled its disputes with ascap and bmi in 2012 the radio music license committee estimated that agreement was going to save them a billion dollars over the following seven years. for someone who's litigated rate cases and currently in the rate setting with bmi, i understand how expensive they are, but the protections with the federal rules of evidence is what allowed pandora to discover the behavior the judge concluded was

coordinated and that the benchmarks that ascap introduced as allegedly competitive benchmark, weren't. without those protections, my concern is that we choose the cheap answer, not the right answer. >> well, i'm not a lawyer or litigator, but as a small business person, i know enough to know that when lawyers and litigation enter the business process, things slow down and get costly, so anything that moves us away from that environment makes it easier for me to plan for my business for the long-term. >> senator, thank you. we our experience has been through the license committees that we have that arbitration, which we've had to resort so with report to csack from time to time prior to the antitrust suits that have been filed is not any less expensive or time consuming, frankly, and what u you give up is the expertise that the rate courts have on

these issues. there's deep and broad experience in these rate courts with these issues and they understand the lay of the land. it's also been brought up by mr. harrison, you have protections within the federal court system these are proven venues and have been relied upon for a long time by both parties as they resorted to them. ascap and bmi have gone to these rate courts by themselves many times over the years and i don't think that throwing the baby out with this particular bath water would be a good thing to do. probably under the scenario of be careful what you wish for. >> thank you for your championing of our song writer equity act. speaking as a song writer and not a lawyer all i can say is these issues just show how hour back is against the wall. we have little say. we had no say in what got us to

where we are today as far as the rules are written and it seems like certainly when we get into lawsuits and you know, we need all the relief we can get as far as that goes, but as we get pound ed pounded quick, because we're the smallest guy in the room, so i think yes, these do seem like common sense asks t. also that we're asking for something to be done about 1941 regulations. i don't know what other businesses in america are as constrained as we are by something that happened during world war ii. >> thank you. >> i think for especially considering bundling and arbitration, my concern is that both would ultimately increase the power of the largest players at the expense of the smaller ones. frek, for bundling if the pros were allowed to require

mandatory bundling, that would make it hard for smaller holders to license those rights separately. for arbitration, there are a lot of transparency krped for me on that side. in order to have a true free market, we have to know what you're buying to figure out how much it should cost and on the song writer side song writer's guild, they have brought up concerns about transparency because it might lead to issues where the artists themselves don't know what their rate is or how it was decided. >> i think my time is up mr. chairman. >> thank you. senator franken. >> thank you mr. chairman, for this hearing. mr. harrison, you talk about this $150,000 fine that could be imposed for infringing. have you ever paid such a fine? >> no, sir.

>> how many times has that fine in your experience, been imposed? >> well, in the context of pandora, i mean, it was not -- >> just in the whole ecosystem of this. >> there's -- hundreds if not thousands of copyright enfringement cases going on right now. pha rell williams is in a lawsuit over marvin gaye's estate over blurred lines. >> go back to the question. how many times has this $150,000 fine been imposed? >> the maximum 150,000, i can't give you an actual number. >> okay, because it was bought up, you brought that up. >> yes, pandora was threatened by music publishers by their youds counsel. >> i want to know how real a threat that is.

miss matthews. in your testimony, you say section 114 i of the copyright act prohibits the rate court setting fees for the performance of musical works looking at fees paid by those same services to the recording industry for the performance of sound recordings leading to rate despairties in favor of sound recordings on the order of 12-1. i think this is why mr. miller is saying that on the digital area, there is just an imbalance. and i don't want to get into this is about pros today and but it seems very ironic that the in terrestrial, which is what we've been living with since 1941 the

performers get nothing and the copyright holder the song writers and publishers, there's an imbalance for them obviously and here we've just got the exact reverse. where the performers do very well and the song writers get next to nothing. this is, this is why we're here. is it what's going on in the digital space. that's why i think we're here. big reason why we're here. digital space, it's nothing. practicely nothing. adds up after billions of plays to little something, but this ain't no way to live a, earn a living. i think that if you want to use that, mr. miller, this ain't no way to earn a living, i would -- >> it will be demoed by the end

of the week. >> and i would get what? >> half. would you like to know what that's going to equate on a stream. >> on a stream, ooild like to know. three plays. can i talk to the whole panel here about this issue? and i know it gets into something we aren't really discuss discussing, which is the right of the performer, but what would it entail to try to address this? where you would sort of equalize and i know that you know, the performers would go, like, oh, great. we've been doing radio for 70 years and now, you want to equalize this. what would that entail? besides looking at these consent decrees? what would this all entail? anyone want to handle that? how would you sort of knowing that we're going more and more and more individual and this is going to kill the song writer

how would you equalize this? anybody? >> mr. franken, if i may you should recall that the largest record label in the world owns the second largest publisher in the world and the second largest record label in the world owns the world's largest publishing company. at the end of the day, if rights holders believed there was a different distribution of the royalties, the $450 million in 2014 that i referenced pandora paying f the rights holders themselves wanted to distribute that money differently, they're controlled by the same corporate parent and could make that, or frankly, in the best position to understand the relative value of the influx to our service. >> does that sound right to you guys? >> if i may -- >> first, mr. pincus. >> i'm a music publisher who does not share a corporate panel with a record company.

in one good example of where there's a free market for these two rights, the rights are 50-50. they're equal. >> okay. >> mr. pincus is referring to the market for audio-visual sinkization and outside of the united states, those two copyrights versus the copyright and the musical composition are equally valued, so our proposal would be as part of copyright reform, we have platform neutral technology neutral laws and we'd like a free market decide what the allocation of value should be between those two rights. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you senator franken. senator hatch is the chairman of the finance committee. we're going to let him take a few more minutes before he has to leave us. >> i appreciate that mr.

chairman. i am in the middle of a big hearing on taxes and all of you will be very interested in that, i'm sure. let me ask miss matthew this. the notion that copyright law probts the judge from taking into account evidence of what other rights holders are faced with the same piece of music, that doesn't make much sense to me. that is why last week, together with senators whitehouse, alexander and corker i introduced a congress writer equity act. it would ath rise the rate court judge to consider rates paid to other rights holders such as performers as part of determining a fair market rate. do you believe this reform makes sense and how will it help the rate setting process? >> i do believe this reform makes sense. i think it's a step in the right direction. we believe it would be helpful and directionally incredibly important for a judge to be able to have all of the information

about how the money flows. >> thank you. mr. harrison, in your testimony, you expressed support for the creation of the single database with all music copyright information to enable services to identify on a catalog by catalog bases, the owners of the songs they perform. this sounds like a good idea, but how much would that cost and who would pay for it and who would manage the database? >> all excellent questions, senator. i think the best answer is pandora and services like pan dor wa dora would be willing to bear their share of that burden in creating such a database. because it's vitally important for the transparency that currently lacks in the system. and so, we'd be more than happy to contribute to its creation.

>> thank you. the ascap and bmi consent decree are 70 years old and have only been amended only twice. in light of the significant technological advancements in the musical industry in the last 70 years do you support making any modifications to the decree? >> thank you, senator hatch. i think we have to be a little bit more mindful of the fact that the nature of the music services and the distribution models may change. there may be modifications that could be undertaken to address those types of issues. but the actual anticompetitive nature of the p.r.o.s and the market power that they wield in this space doesn't change. and the nature of the rights really that they're administering doesn't change. so even if you have to address

new technology, the actual underlying problems still remain and so any changes that would be proposed have to keep in mind that it has to be within a construct that allows and enables the market to function. if you take it outside of that construct, you're going to have a difficult time having an efficient system. >> thank you. >> again can you tell me what your experience has been with the rate court process and how does that process impact song writers? >> since 2001, ascap has spent approximately $86 million on court litigation. in the pandora litigation alone, we discovereded more than 75000 documents. we deposed more than 35 individuals. these rate court proceedings sometimes last years and sometimes require an appeal process to the second circuit.

we think any other form of alternative dispute resolution is better than the process we have now. for every dollar we spend that goes to outside counsel, to lawyers, those are dollars coming out of the pockets of the song writers. >> all right. let me go to mr. harrison again. compared to the 48% of revenue that you pay for performances of musical works is paying 1.7% to song writers the amount you proposed to the rate court judge. is that really an ek wit bable rate for song writers? >> it is the rait that trust for radio pays to song writers to publicly perform their works. we compete most closely with terrestrial radio both for listeners and ad dollars so if we're going to have a distribution neutral royalty

structure, the 1.7% of revenue would be appropriate. >> thank you. mr. chairman, could i ask just one more question? i apologize to my fellow senators, but i got to get back to the income tax matter. some song writer groups have expressed concern over the lack of transparency in direct license licensing deals. the terms of which are often subject to nondisclosure agreements. under these arrangements, song writers and composers don't even know the details under which they are supposed to be paid. do you have any ideas on how to address that problem? because it's a big problem as far as i can see. anybody want to take a crack at that? >> one of the roles they play

with providing transparency in the market in the same way, so, i think having the pro play a constructive role in administering digital agreements would be a very good way to withdrawn rights. >> senator hatch one of the things that pandora did last year was launch its artist marketing platform. admittedly, it's geared towards recording artists, but it allows any to sign on to the service and see the number of times it's performed, who their audience is, where their audience is. there's nothing that would prevent us to provide the same kind of visibility. it may not allow a song writer to track the dollars but it would enable them to see how their music is performed on the service and whether they're getting the money they believe they deserve. >> i think the one thing given that miss matthews has applied

on this, the one thing we could all agree with is that if the consent decrees are modified, they should be modified in a way to create better transparency throughout the system. both for licensees, for song writers, the p.r.o.s for that matter. we ought to know what it is we're licensing, how much is being paid. by whom and to whom. so that this is all public. it's all available to those who are participate ng the system. i think we can all agree that transparency is a really big issue and if anything comes out of this hearing, it should be that. >> thank you, chairman hatch and we wish you the best of luck as you reform our tax code. >> a lot of luck. >> senator purdue. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'd like to thank you and the ranking member for raising this meeting. thank you panelists for being here. this is an important topic

today. in the recent years georgia's played a prominent role in our nation's music industry as one that moved from nashville to atlanta, there's a lot of music activity in atlanta. but i think everyone can agree that the music marketplace has really changed and undergone radical changes in the last few decades. since bmi consent decree was made in 1994, a year in which by the way, the billboard top 100 singles had singles by bryan adams and boys to men. only my two kids know who they are. i'd like to start with a policy question. in '79, the department of justice revised the consent decree policy and mandated that in such extraordinary circumstances, all decrees would contain a sunset provision. these provisions would terminate the decree within ten years. this was in preresponse to congressional action for violations.

so, for more than 35 years of doj policy shaul not be terminate in under a decade unless exceptional circumstances are present. the policy was of course per spekck specktive, but i think the rational is worth considering in the context of the consent decrows we're looking at today. i'd like to get each of you to respond. for those witnesses who support continuation of the decrees, can i get a quick description regarding the characteristics that trump dojs presumption and for witnesses who favor do you believe the sunset presumption applies here? would you like to start, miss matthews matthews? >> today, ascap is not requesting a determination of the consent decree. while i think it's inappropriate to have some reasonable pathway to consider regular modifications to the consent

decree possibly eventual sunset. today, we are only asking for a few discreet changes to save licensing. it's not a hypothetical. this will happen if we don't make these changes and it is our greatest fear for the song writer that we are running out of time. trz. >> senator, i think the key issue what makes this exceptional and and suggests sunset isn't appropriate, is midwest most of the time, the behavior that gave rise goes away, so it's no longer needed. what ascap and bmi are horizontal sales agencies. they take publisher ago gait

them together and fix a single price. ls unless that behavior changes, it doesn't seem appropriate to do away with the protections that are provided licensees for there to be abuse of market power and super competitive rates. >> there are many, many digital service services that operate without the -- and the market thriving. as to transparency, my understanding is that the majority of publishing data is current available on a voluntary basis by private actors so i think where the market is more free in this particular area, it becomes more competitive. >> thank you for the question. as mr. harrison said these are very unusual decrees. the department of justice entered into these not as it usually does to prevent and deter anticompetitive conduct.

they entered into these to enable within a construct that it could be regulated. that makes them very unique. and it makes them necessary if we're going to continue in the world and have ascap bmi, see sack and all of these others, plus the large publishers they represent, if they can operate as a collective the way they do, there has to be a con construct where they will engage in anticompetitive activity. >> what we don't want to see is we don't want to destabilize our agencies because it's just too important. so we hope we can find ways to modify it. it's just crucial to what we do now and the relationship with the p.r.o.s and writers is good. my wife of 23 years as i was running some of these

technicalities by her looking for a little bit of wisdom, she says i don't know what any of that means but i do know this. the only days i circle on my calendar every year are the four day s days your bmi check is coming. do whatever you've got to do to keep that. >> i agree that the decrees have been in place for a long time because these are unusual circumstances here. i don't think anybody at this table would be happier than i would be if we found the silver bullet that created competition and made the con zest unnecessary. that is not the world we're living right now. especially since we've seen increasing consolidation some of which was justified because we had the consent decrees as a backstop and we have this federal court case where a judge found the publishers had the opportunity to compete and they

koort nated with each other, we should be reevaluating as we go forward. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i think i'd like to start with mr. dowdle in this round. i think as has been mentioned today, a distinguishing characteric of any free market system is that two parties negotiating have the ability to walk away from the negotiation if they can't achieve a mutually agreeable outcome. and yet, it's been suggested that music services and broadcasters in particular cannot, they cannot walk away from licensing negotiations with the publisher or with the pro because they don't have total control over what music they

publicly perform. so, let me just ask you that question. can a broadcaster remove a specific license catalog from its service? is that possible? >> theoretically possible, not practicely possible. here's why. we have various types of programming that we put out over our air waves. some of that, we produce. for that that we produce we identify the music, we are able to do that. exactly. but for a very large -- >> identify the music you can then who holds a copyright. >> exactly. if we can't come to an agreement with them, we can cut that music out. the program we produce such as our local news, local magazine shows, things like that. but for a large portion of our programming, we don't have the ability to do that. part of our programming is cleared through to the viewer, so we don't have to worry about

that. but all of our syndicated programming, all of our commercials and a lot of the stuff that comes in between, we don't have that editorial control. we couldn't do it if we tried. therefore, we're at the mercy. literally, of these p.r.o.s. everybody that's going to come to us and say you don't license for me i'm coming after you, we have no way to avoid it. >> would any of that change if the broadcaster were provided with an updates list of songs in the catalog and issue? would that change? >> it wouldn't change in the sense that the prude eroducers, they don't identify for us whose music their using. i don't know that it's within the realm of possibility to have every producer that's going to provide music to us provide music. if you can do that, it's possible, just not practically going to happen.

>> you'd have to have the ability to see the future. if you had that superpower then a lot of other things would be better, too. >> if we were king it would be a different place. >> miss griffin, i believe much of the pressure on the department of justice to make changes to the consent decrees may well stem from the threat of full withdrawal by the publishers. which would seriously threaten the current blanket license scheme that we have in place today. if the blanket license framework is truly at risk of falling apart, what in your view is the best alternative to the consent decree system when it comes to ensuring robust competition many the marketplace for performing rights licenses? >> in terms of alternative structures, other than an antitrust consent decree we have licenses for certain uses in copyright law. if we can come up with a license

that also protects competition and provides transparency helps artists get paid directly, we would support that. but at the time, we don't have that for these kinds of uses so i would be concerned about dismantling the protections in these consent decrees until we have the new structure set up. >> can you tell us whether you think it makes sense to have this you know, regulatory system that's essentially a regulatory system administered by a handful of doj regulators and a couple of judges? you know should congress consider legislature setting up some other type of regulatory structure and if so what would that legislature look like? >> so, we do have other structures as i think was mentioned earlier. we have the copyright royalty board for licenses, but in terms of consent decrees as they are now, i would say that the department of justice has very deep antitrust expertise and

expertise evaluate inging how markets are working. which is very important here and for the federal judges, they are impartial. they understand the law and they through the discovery process, are able to obtain all the facts, so i would say that i don't view that as a bad system, but it's not that we can't consider new ones. >> thank you. time's expired. senator klobuchar. >> thank you. miss griffin one of the things that we know is that regardless of the consent decree review, some of the other possibilities if we didn't have the consent decree and i think you said there would be a problem not to have it from your perspective, from a consumer standpoint. but enforcement of the antitrust laws. even if doj isn't pursuing competition issues private parties can still seek to address the issues in the courts. do you see downsides on relying on private enforcement?

>> yes, my concerns would be that the parties bringing the cases could likely be much smaller or at least it could make it relatively easier for a large company like a pandora or a large broadcaster to bring a suit although that itself would be -- but the little guys, it would be near impossible for them because of the expense and also, i would say that transparency plays an issue here. it's difficult to bring an antitrust lawsuit against somebody you don't know that they are coordinating. >> very good. mr. donald, you want to weigh in on that at all? >> frankly, i don't know if there's a construct that we can come up with. certainly, it's problematic for a small broadcaster like us. we're not very big. frankly. for us to be left with a private antitrust enforcement against an entity such as ascap and bmi is not very appealing. it's talk about expense and

that's not an expense spread over an industry. that's our expense and i just don't think we could do it. not even talk about the little broadcasters that are much smaller than we are. it's not even a practical possibility for them. i don't think that's a really workable solution. >> that has been thrown out. and do you see any changes to the consent decrees that you think would work with the concerns that have been raised here? >> well, i mentioned transparency. i think that's a huge, it's been mentioned by everyone, adpreegreed upon. it's been a real problem. i know that because i used to license all of the music used in intel commercials before i came to bonnville and among other things. finding song writer and finding the record label that actually controls the rights was a real problem and without better use of availability of data and use

of that data across the system, i don't think it's workable. >> okay. thank you. mr. pincus? >> well a couple of things first to transparency. i agree like all of the other panelists that's that's a very important issue. i think the market is solving that issue. there is more data available on music publishing copyrights now than there has been and it's getting better on almost a daily basis. also at the major level. and just quickly to another point about the blanket licensing system. many of the arguments that are being put forth here are a very good reason to preserve the licensing system. i agree with mr. dowdle that the television licensing system should operate on a blanket basis. the problem is that it's attached by the courts to the digital licensing problem. digital licensing is much easier done on a direct basis than

television licensing. that's a good argument for why partial withdrawal ought to be able to occur. >> mr. miller. >> well, it's one of the million technical questions that's probably beyond my pay grade. i will say as far as things such as transparency that could be relevant to maybe part of your question. if i have a hit song, a million plays on raiddio is o kind of a threshold. they send us a plaque at a million plays. if i have one of those every now and then, i'm raising a family, we're doing okay and now, we get into the situation where we see these numbers on digital of 50 million and 100 million spins and the song writers are shaking our heads going what are you talking about? we can't even comprehend, you know, and i understand it's a different medium and we can talk about the internet we can talk

about technology but a million plays, we're smiling and taking the kids to movies, 100 million plays is worth a few thousand dollars? now, we get transparency on that. we see those numbers. quite clear. so i think that's where we can't emp sis enough, where is the middle ground. under those numbers if you move that ledger around just a little bit doing what i do is a very profitable business potentially because apparently, music is more popular than it's ever been and i think everyone will tell you that. >> all right. >> i think it's important as mr. miller talks about million spends on terrestrial radio versus the internet and noted it's a different technology, internet delivery is a one to one delivery mechanism. it's not a one to many like broadcast, so, if you look at if you wanted to do a real apples to apples comparison, if

you were to take a million spins on pandora to reach a million people on say z 100 you'd only have to play that song 16 times. if you wanted to reach that same million person audience in los angeles, kiss fm, largest radio station in los angeles, you'd only need to play that song 21 times. so it's important to know what a million spins on pandora means. >> thank you. >> senator blumenthal. >> thank you, senator lee. i have a question for mr. dowdle. in your testimony, you talked about i think both the value of the consent decrees generally and about the harm that would with caused if composers and publishers could withdraw from some of their rights. without withdrawing all of their rights.

you didn't address i don't believe the two changes that ascap and bmi have proposed to the content decrees, bundling of additional right and arbitration. could you give us your view of these proposals? >> yes, thank you. i gave my i think you were out of the room, i did address arbitration. arbitration is a or if even a second choice of very poor second choice to the system that we have now for these reasons. with an orb traitor, you don't know who you're going to end up with, whether they know anything about the industry and what you know with the rate courts we have is that these courts have deep experience and a lot of history with these consent te krees. they understand the underlying dynamic that's going on. that's first. second in the federal courts, you have a lot of tools available. mr. harrison talked about this. in discovering information,

getting that information in front of the tryibunaltribunal, having both sides able to engage in that process freely and openly so that the full panel of information is in front of the tribunal with an arbitrator, you don't necessarily have that. and i think the substituting arbitration for what we have now is is not really a good solution in my opinion. as to other licenses from my standpoint, i mentioned earlier i'm a member of ascap, have been for over 20 years. on music companies. and i think there is, there's maybe something to look at there in allowing these pros to administer additional rights. their competitors are certainly doing that. csat's able to. global rilgts is able to. they're going to compete going forward. we should take a look at that. >> let me ask miss matthews.

if you had your choice, would you abolish the consent decree or just make reforms to it? >> i'm sorry, if i had my choice, would a -- >> eliminate the consent decree or just reform? >> so in a perfect world i would eliminate the consent decree. sadly, we don't live in that perfect world, so our immediate concern is keeping high value writers and publishers in the system because if the system goes away, everybody loses. licensees lose because they will not have access to millions of copyrights to clear at once. once the money stops flowing once the songs stop flowing, the money will stop flowing but we are mostly concerneded about song writers because they are simply not going to be capable of licensing 700,000 establishments in the united states and millions of establishments outside of the united states.

which means they will not get paid and their works will be enfringed. >> and why do you think i know i think i know the answer, but why would eliminating the consent decrees be preferable in a perfect world? >> because ascap believes the free market works. without regulation, we think you get to the right result. and as copyright owner, we believe at the core of our laws this principle that you should control your assets. whether it's a real property asset or an intellectual property asset, you should have control as that owner. the consent decrees take that control away. >> thank you. >> thank you. mr. harrison, you made an interesting point about the one to one relationship of streamers

versus broadcast. in your opinion today, i think that mr. miller's concern about being justly compensated. in your opinion today when your normalize in that way, do you feel like the streamers are justly compensating? >> pandora's the highest paying form of radio there is. we pay more in total royalties than terrestrial radio or satellite radio. i think the best performing song by mr. miller on pandora is country girl which was recorded by tim mcgraw. last year, 2014 pandora would have paid around $7,000 to mr. miller, his three, his two cowriters and the six publishers that are listed on that song. candidly pandora would have paid close to $90,000 to mr. mcgraw and his record label. i understand that the despairty is a motivating factor for mr.

miller, mr. pincus and miss matthews so seek to modify the decrees. at the end of the day, if pandora is paying 50% to the record labels an the solution is to pay 50% of the revenue to the publishers, i can't make that up on volume. if there's going to be a, if the despairty is going to be solved, it's goirng to have to be solved by the copyright owners themselves, not on the back of services like pandora. >> i have a general question for anyone that would like to speak up. mr. harrison was talking about this database to increase transparency and senator hatch mentioneded it. in your opinion, is that a xwood or bad idea? what are your concerns or other merits and we can just start with miss maththews and run down the line. >> as i stated earlier ascap fully supports transparency. we most recently made modifications to our own propie

torre system. >> are you feel like your achieving it through -- i'm trying to get a sense for this net new idea and whether you have a specific concern with it and on for what reasons if you do. >> so my specific concern would be practically how one would require cooperation throughout the sector, especially with unregulated actors, our competitors. i know ascap and bmi are fully willing to cooperate. but i worry that if others don't completely cooperate licensees will never have access to the full picture that's required. >> and mr. harrison you mentioned in your opening comments, you have anything you'd like to add in terms of your rationale for it? >> i think the it's the transparency. we know that the database exists. we know that the publishers and

p.r.o.s assign unique identifiers. mr. pincus has made his catalog publicly available. i've already downloaded and sent it to our available and we've downloaded it so we know what songs are controlled by songs but it has to go far enough to allow us to understand that we know the owner of the song but also what sound recordings have been made of that song. >> mr. pincus? >> i think this is one of the issues in which mr. harrison and agree in terms of the open availability of data. my position, however, is that the market is taking care of that problem and where the market can take care of that problem it is better than regulation taking care of that problem. one area if i may, where we disagree is that i understand mr. harris's comment is not paying 50% to each party.

but i would also say i'm not sure that i feel as a small business owner it is my responsibility to subsidize a small business company. >> i think it is problematic, i believe miss matthews it is problematic to get everybody involved. but with aztec and bmi controlling everybody involved. let's start with 90% and if you can get the other actors in piecemeal, let's start at 90% and see where it goes. >> mr. miller. >> mr. pincus and miss matthews can speak much better to that. i will clarify. it is called southern girl, not comfort girl. i got a sixth of $7,000 and that is on a number one song in the united states on tim mcgraw. >> miss griffin on the issue of

a data base, i agree on moving forward on what that would look like and how to get as much information as possible are important. there are details people have been talking about, including the copyright office. i do not think the office is handling that. if you look at the biggest licensors, you could download a list of the songs in a catalogue but there isn't a guarantee that that is what they currently control. at some point this was our catalogue but we will not promise you that is what is on it when you download it and that is big for those trying to buy it. >> that is not the case for me. we are opening realtime basis and one of the majors has

disclosed all of the information including shares. >> thank you all for testifying and thank you mr. chair. >> thank you, senator tillis. century blumenthal. >> i don't have any additional questions. thank you. >> great. mr. harrison, we've got two different types of royalties that end up getting paid in some circumstances. i want to establish under the concept decrees and another established under the crb, the copyright royalty board. those established under the latter as i understand them, are substantially higher than those established under the former. so you've got one set of royalties that go to those who wrote the song and another set of royalties that go to those

who recorded the song. why should there be a substantial difference between these two rates? >> well, senator i think as i mentioned earlier i don't believe pandora is in the best position to value the relative contributions of the song versus the recording. i think that is probably better left to publishers and song writers and artists and labels. having said that, if you go back to the early copyright royalty board proceedings you had executives of companies that owned labels and publishers who argued that those paid to publishers -- executives should be higher than to those publishers because the labels invest significantly more than bringing new music to market. as i said i'm not in a good position to make the relative

value judgments. at the end of the day, the copyright owners themselves have made those arguments. >> now if the department of justice decides to allows partial withdrawal it will likely impose more requirements on the pro's including increased transparency, changes to board memberships, things mentioned in the hearing in your opinion will additional safeguard ss be required for a partial withdraw. >> not just seeing the details of what the suggestions are and the language that is intended to be used it is hard to judge prospectively, but i remain confident that the department isn't going to do things that result in less competition in the market.

>> i certainly hope they wouldn't do that. but do you think those things would be sufficient? >> as i said without seeing a full list of what the department would propose and read what the language is used to implement them it is tough to have an informed opinion. >> okay. mr. doudle whenever we consider a potential increase in prices in one market it is important to consider its potential effect on related markets. in this case related markets might include other music licenses or performance rights for sounding markets, but for restaurants or bars or stores that play music. what effect might increased rates might have for other music

licenses or for goods associated with music? >> i think, as we take a look at what is really happening in those fairly rare instances where actors in the market are negotiating with each other and there are a couple of those reported in the last couple of years, you have one major label who has entered into an agreement that where prices have been at play for many of those things, we don't know all of them because they are not particularly transparent with all of that information, but if the reports that have been received are true, there has been an equalizing in those deals of different prices for different rights throughout that deal. and i think that is very instructive. the market itself, as mr. harrison has alluded to the market when allowed to operate in those instances is able to equalize those rates.

there will be an effect and i can't see what that effect will be. it will be in effect if you unpeg one rate there will be an affect on other rates. it is ironic that the provision in the copyright act that ascap has complained about was placed in that regime at their request. now they want to unpeg it because they don't like the way it is operating presently. but i think if you do unpeg it be careful for what you wish for. >> yep, good observation. i understand were a song writer before your career in broadcasting. and so let me ask you, do you think the consent decrees are written to preserve the benefits of our system or do you think

they could be achieved outside of the decrees? >> what i can say is i believe that the system has worked. now all of the parties have taken their turn in various scenarios coming to the tribunals as they are set up now and taking advantage of their forums and arguing whatever issues they had on the consent decrees, those consent decrees have been proven more or less to work over a period that now spans more than 70 years. playing with taking those systems down or fundamentally changing them is -- we ought to be looking at it very carefully and cautiously. it is a system that has been working. i don't know what we would be looking at. it is hard to say hypothetically whether something that would be replacing them would be better or not. all i can say is they are working, and i hesitate to

change something that has historically be working. >> so somewhat you would say it is not just unknown, it is unknowable whether that could be achieved outside of the decree without knowing what the "it" is. >> that is right, senator. >> i'm going to keep the record for this hearing open for one week. and that will include keeping it open for written questions. i want to thank all of our witnesses for coming today. this is a very helpful hearing. and your testimony has brought a lot of in sight to the table on this important and pretty complex issue. i thank senator cloebklobuchar in helping putting this hearing together and this hearing stands adjourned. thank you.

and the house back in today live coverage when members gavel back in at noon when they gavel back in for speeching and the senate meeting at 3:00. and the house at 2:00. live coverage on c-span 2. mr. lewis thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you for having me. >> this continued posturing here in washington about iran how do you see things taking shape in town this week as negotiations continue in europe? >> well of course this is -- the writers started a fire storm that hasn't gone away. you saw the sunday shows. everybody is still talking about it. a lot of support. and a lot of blow-back even on

the republican side. there are senators who signed it who seem to be regretting it and walking back some of the support for signing the letter to the iranian leaders. now the question is how will this affect legislation on the floor. this goes back to the sanctions debate and this was the bipartisan push. there are democrats on both sides of the aisle who want tougher sanctions and ignoring obama's calls not to use the legislation while he was still negotiating. that all changes when boehner asked benjamin netanyahu to come speak and when the politics of that invitation got involved especially in the senate, the democrats said if this will become more political we'll stop pushing for the sanctions to allow the space for obama to negotiate. and mcconnell is saying he wants to bring something to the floor. we're in the middle of the debate over human trafficking

and the loretta lynch nomination for attorney general and we're not sure when that bill will have time to come to the floor. but there is this conflict now between do we do sanctions while the negotiations are happening and do we give obama the space and it is becoming a bipartisan issue when it was not. >> and you mention loretta lynch and we thought a vote or a debate was coming at this week maybe mid-week but the majority leader changed course over the week and the headlines say this human trafficking stands in the way of the nominations. are these two bills related at all? >> not at all. two different things happened. the fight over human trafficking, this was a bill that was bipartisan and supposed to sail through last week and everybody thought it would come to the floor and be a done deal and they could move on to the loretta lynch vote. what happened late last week is the democrats, quote unquote

discovered an anti-abortion provision in the republican bill. it wasn't in the house-passed bill and they say they were caught off guard. republicans say it was in there all along all you had to do is read the thing. there is that debate happening. but the crux of it is it doesn't seem like the bill has the 60 votes to pass it through the senate and mcconnell went on tv yesterday and said we're not going to move to the lynch vote until we can break the impasse over the human trafficking bill. and so tough to say how that will end. are the republicans going to pull the language out? are they going to sit on it for a little while and hope they can get enough democrat votes to pass it? we don't know how that will play out. but we'll know soon enough that tuesday morning is the vote on the bill. >> and once the loretta lynch nomination comes to the vote

what are the votes do you know? >> three republicans voted for her out of committee which is a good sign. but the fact there is a lot of good opposition is not good for her at the white house and the reason is that in testimony before the senate committee last month, she was asked very pointedly by a lot of republicans whether or not she supported the president obama executive actions on deportation and immigration and she said very explicitly she supported an the backlash from republicans has been pretty severe and we do anticipate a lot of republican no-votes but probably not enough to sink her. we expect her to become the next attorney general, it is just a question of when. >> mike, let's talk about the budget because we are reading the gop will lay out the budget priority this is week. the annual budget resolutions. what are we looking forward to here? >> well, this will be the big

fight. the senate is controlled by republicans for the first time in eight years. over the course of that time they really went after democrats for not putting forward annual budgets. it became a talking point for them on the campaign trail. and so a lot of pressure on them to bring a bill that balances the budget over a decade to the floor, but to pass it and to unite it with the house-passed bill. and two things to look for here. in 2011 they passed the budget control act set very specific caps on spending on domestic and defense spending. and there is a deficit reduction group on the republican side that really wants to keep these caps in place. thinks they are important for the health of the economy. and then you have defense talks on the republican side who want more money for the military. and so that battle is going to happen internally within the republican party. those people who want to lift

the sequestration caps and ready to deal with republicans. democrats want to lift domestic spending for other problems which is an athem. and the democrats have had control, so they have put forward those proposals. ryan, the chairman of the committee, and he made cuts to medicare and medicaid, and that was part of his messaging strategy. he's the policy holder over there and the vice presidential candidate and there were political reasons for him to do that. we don't expect the senate republicans to do the same thing. they want the top line budget and let the various committees with jurisdiction over the programs to make the specific cuts. i think you'll see a division there over house and the senate in terms of how they go about proposing the cuts. but again this is a bill that

adjusts top line numbers, doesn't go to the president, just kind of an appropriations bill. but we'll see what happens but that is the big fight i think this week -- or the start of the big fight because they do want to pass these things before the easter recess. >> mike lilis, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> the social security records is listed as deceased but she will testify before the senate homeland security that she is alive. and they will hear from the inspector general explaining inaccurate social security records. live coverage starts at 4:00 eastern time. and at 6:00, anthony foxx on the future of u.s. infrastructure. he's expected a 30-year plan to

fix roads, bridging, and airways and their competitiveness abroad. we'll have testimony from u.s. foreign relations. tonight on the communicators. fcc commissioner mignon clyburn on the municipal broadband and the program lifeline. >> what i am proposing that we do is overhaul the lifeline program and make it -- making concurrent and in sync with the information age challenge those provider to give more to their consumers, and the prices and opportunities have been more expensive for the rest of us and it should be for the lifeline consumers and get them out of the information age and that is the number one problem with the not so positive headlines. it is a vulnerability in the

system we need to plug. tonight on the communicators on c-span 2. after two japanese nationals were killed by isis in syria, japanese prime minister shinzo abe told members of japan's parliament the country would never yield to terrorism. he made those comments addressing economic and government authorities. this is about 45 minutes. >> from the on set of this incident, the government pursued every possible means and we feel profound grief that japanese nationals have been victims of terrorism. i express my condolences to the families of the victims. the government resolutely condemns these inhumane and despicable acts of terrorism. japan will never give into terrorism.

the government will continue to take all possible measures to secure the safety of japanese nationals at home and abroad including the enhancement of measures at our borders including humanitarian assistance. japan will steadfastly fulfill his responsibilities to combat terrorism. to take back japan this is the only path forward. these are the words that i have lived by and expanded every effort toward achieving over the past two years. following the results of the recent general election and having been nominated by both houses of the diet, i continue to bare the heavy responsibility of prime minister of japan. press forward with ever more dynamically along this path, under stable political conditions, this is the message of the japanese people which was sent to me in the recent general election. together with the members of the ruling liberal democratic party and the new komeito party who

are with us in this chamber i pledge to the people we will fully apply ourselves to responding to the mandate that we have been granted. economic revitalization, restoration from disaster social security reforms, the rebuilding of education, revitalization of local economies, women's empowerment and diplomacy and security none of these paths for reform will be easy as they will be the most dramatic reforms since the end of world war ii. we must however, press forward with these reforms, clearly reserving a vision of the future for japan. we cannot avoid these reforms. after witnessing for himself the world powers of europe and the united states, where modernization had progresses iwakura one of the buildings of the state remarked as follows japan may be a small country but if the people could work together with a single mind to

build up our national strength it will be by no means impossible for us to be a nation that participates actively in the world affairs. there is no reason why we cannot participate in the world of that era. it is time to press forward together as one setting out on the path before us. let us together dynamically embark on the most dramatic reforms since the end of world war ii. at the end of the war more than 60,000 japanese were engaged in agriculture, today it is one-eighth of that time. the average age of those engaged in agriculture is over 66. sweeping ages of agriculture cannot wait any longer. what is the purpose of such reforms? it is too create a strong agricultural sector and to increase the incomes of farmers. we will carry out the first reforms of the agricultural cooperatives in 60 years.

the current structure of centralized cooperatives is provided under the agricultural cooperatives act is abolished and the central union of agricultural cooperatives will become a general incorporated association. agricultural incorporates will undergo an audit by a cpa and ambitions and drive will work together to combine the strengths to open up a new culture for agriculture including the agriculture for overseas business. this will be at the forefront of future initiatives. for the first time we'll engage in the fundamental agricultural businesses and develop a system by which hard-working local people can take the lead and further accelerate the consolidation of farm land. we'll relax requirements for agricultural cooperation and --

further the agricultural sector. further steps will be taken to relax cultivated acreage and promote produce for which there is high demand. we'll advance structural reforms for which the market is competitive and responsive. change is the only eternal. these words were spoken by one who breathed new life into japanese style painting and engaged in reform during the maga era. agriculture is the backbone of japan. it is for this reason we must implement change now. we will accomplish agricultural reform without fail and create new styles of japanese agriculture in which young generations can open new horizon with enthusiasm and passion. we are aiming for global markets. there is also tremendous

potential in the forestry and fishery industries. last year total exports of cultal forestry and fisheries products set a new record, exceeding 600 billion yen. however this figure is still very small. the global food market is valued around $340 trillion yen. we'll advance overseas to deliver japanese produce to the world. we will step forward boldly into an open world. guaranteeing japan's national interests, we'll work to solidify economic growth. the negotiations on the trans-pacific partnership are in their final phase with an outcome in sight. taking the lead with the united states in these negotiations, the government will aim to bring them to an early conclusion. on the japan eu economic partnership agreement, we will accelerate negotiations to reach an agreement in principal within the year.

in the face of an ever more globalized economy any company that cannot compete internationally cannot hope to survive. this is something that the government recognizes as well. we cannot avoid the reforms required to meet the needs of this more open world. we make it mandatory for all listed countries, companies to comply with the new corporate governance code in align with in the international standards or they must provide an explanation of why they cannot apply. and we introduce the new effective corporate tax rate by 2.5% and reduce the rate of 35% to less than 30% over the next few years. advancing corporate tax reforms that will bring taxation to levels that compare favorably internationally. the government will establish a new patient-oriented medical care system to ensure that top global world class care can be received in japan. responding to the wishes of

patients who are fighting difficult to treat illnesses and based on their application will make it possible for patients to receive cutting-edge medical care in combination with medical treatment already covered by insurance. further, when the safety and effectiveness of such treatment is established, we'll make them available through the national health insurance system. we'll also implement reform medical corporation system and work to enhance management transparency through the introduction of external auditors and further establish a new mechanism to promote cooperation among multiple entities with various specialties enhancing community health care. electric power reforms will soon be entering final stages. the distribution and transmission networks fundamental to the infrastructure will be separated from power generation and retail power, allowing fair access to all. the retail gas business will similarly be fully liberalized, eliminating barriers to market and trade.

we'll work to create a competitive and dynamic energy market. and an inexpensive and stable power supply is needed for the japanese supply. the increase in electric tafrs caused by the dramatic surge is placing a heavy burden on japanese citizens and retails. nuclear power plants will be restarted, paying the greatest attention to scientific and technology determinance. with the support of the national government we will advance work to develop thorough evacuation plans. in areas where nuclear power stations are provided we provide careful explanations to explain stakeholders. our long-term power of reducing nuclear generation remains. we'll mobilize all efforts to

introduce renewable energy sources. through the regulatory reforms of our cabinet, the first steps were made toward realizing the dream of a hydrogen based society last year. we'll accelerate the installation of hydrogen around the nation as well as fuel cell vehicles. we'll strengthen energy measures including energy efficiency standards for large buildings. safety, stable supply, efficiency and compatibility with the natural environment. these are the factors which we will examine thoroughly as we create the best energy mix for japan. we'll also take the lead in measures to counter global warming. looking ahead to the 21st century -- session of the conference of the u.n. of climate change the government will reduce emissions and

formulate an action plan. we will -- to move forward with all of these reforms, we are pursuing administrative reform. we'll transfer parts of the responsibility of the cabinet secretary and the cabinet office which has grown over the course of past administrations to other ministries and agencies to allow the government to fully and flexibility leverage the capabilities of the cabinet to carry out priority policy measures. we'll consolidate 17 existent independent agencies into seven but these reforms are not just about numbers. the purpose of this consolidation is to push forward with our different reforms such as an agricultural policy that raises competitiveness. by introducing inspections by the financial services agency and other measures we'll establish a government system suited to the work done by each of these corporations enhancing their ability to implement policies, in april we'll launch the japan agency for medical research and development.

this will engage in ground-breaking research as the development of new cancer drugs the application in clinical situations of ips cells et cetera. we'll make japan the world's most innovative friendly country to attract the most prominent and talented researchers from around the country we'll create a system for national r&d entities that provide world class research environments and support the kind of ambitious research that can compete and completely transform japan's society and economy in these fields that include i.t. robotics and research and technology. knowledge and action are one. these are the words of yoshita, a teacher who provided action above all and mentors students. we'll follow through on our growth strategy by carrying out bold regulatory reform we'll

boost productivity and raise japan's global competitiveness and step out into the open world and harness the global growth. it is clear what we must do. the question now is will we do it or stay put. what we need here in this diet is not merely the back and forth of criticism. no. we need action. what we need is to carry out reform. i ask you all to join me in implementing bold reforms with an eye to japan's future. the three arrows of economic policy we've pursued over the past two years are clearly generating results. the number of bankruptcies of small and medium size enterprises reached the lowest level in 24 years. over 80% of perspective graduates have begun the new year with unofficial job offers in hand. the percentage of university

graduates with unofficial job offers is at the highest level in six years and is the highest level in 21 years for high school graduates. for the last year the ratio of job offers to job seekers is such there are more companies seeking employ whys than people seeking work. permanent employment is also at its highest level since surveys began ten years ago. we will expand opportunities for permanent employment to temporary workers who desire it. entities that dispatch personnel will be obligated to engage in moving people to permanent employment. including by encouraging companies to employ them directly. we are also working to ensure that temporary workers receive equal treatment as the regular companies to which they are dispatched. we'll create an environment to

which everybody's is dispatched. and we are expanding corporate earnings will lead to wage increases. furthermore it has become easier for small and medium size enterprises to pass on their raw material costs as higher prices. thus sustaining the positive cycle of the economy. government labor and management all agree on this. to break free of deflation we reduced the consumption tax to 18% until april 2017. wage increases will continue in the spring of next year and also the following year. and we will spread the warm winds of economic recovery throughout the country. as a result, the three targets of economic revitalization fiscal rehabilitation and reform will be realized simultaneously. in next year's budget the amount of new japanese government bonds issued will be below 40 trillion

yen for the first time in six years an the budget will achieve the goal of reducing by half the deficit in the primary balance. we're also sticking to our goal of reaching financial fineness by 2020 and concrete plans for this will be drawn up by the summer. although the consumption tax increase was postponed, the results of abo nomics will be used to enhance social security. assistance for medical assistance for people suffering from intractable illness will be drawn. new illnesses were made available for specific childhood chronic illnesses andin tractable illnesses will be widened to 300 illnesses by july. the high medical expense system was revised from last month. low income earners medical expenses will be eased and likewise the burden they bear.

we will promissouri measures to -- promote measures for dementia and create an environment that will allow people with dementia that will continue when possible to live within the communities they are familiar with alongside with the national health insurance system the fiscal management will be shifted from cities, towns and villages to prefectures to ensure universal health care. we'll reduce nursing premiums for houses with low income senior citizens. pay of care givers will be improved by 12,000 yen per month and strive to enhance services. at the same time overall nursing care costs will be held down in order to ease the burden on users that come from premium increases. we will move forward with reviewing the management of

social welfare corporations, clarifying the definition of the -- of the retained earnings and reform them into providers of welfare providers that contribute to the community. we'll assist households raising families. the system for child rearing will be on schedule from april. we remain committed to eliminating childcare waiting lists. pay for people involved in early childhood education and childcare will be improved by the equivalent of 3%. and we'll respond clearly to various childcare needs, including by expanding the after-school kids clubs that utilize elementary school classrooms and enhancing weekend and childcare for kids that are sick. i have high hopes that women who have focused on childcare in the course of their lives will lend support in this effort. we'll launch the professional qualification of childcare supporter. child rearing is also a career.

i hope to see women with their invaluable experiences will take advantage of their strength of childcare supporters. i have firm faith in the power of women. i want to create a society where all women who play active roles at home in the community and work forces can shine with confidence and pride in their lives. we will resubmit the bill to promote women's empowerment and get this passed by the government localities companies and other social actors working together, we'll create an environment in which women can be more dynamically engaged starting this year the percentage of women among all newly highered civil servants will exceed 30%. our goal is to have a society in which women are in leadership in all sectors by at least 30% by 2020. to this end we'll support companies that proactively recruit women, releasing information about the percentage

of women executives and providing vocational training to women on childcare leave. we'll provide diverse environment for leaders and enhance providers of employment. support will be also be offered to expand employment for those with disabilities and those with diseases and other illnesses. if everyone can act with purpose and assume active roles in society, japan will no doubt enjoy robust growth even in the face of declining birthrate and an aging population. to realize this goal, we must dramatically reform the existing work system with its uniform working hours along with our social mindset. the options available for employees will be expanded to allow for flexible and diverse working arrangements tailored to

each person's work circumstances, including childcare and nursing care needs. a new national campaign will be launched to transform summer lifestyles. during the summer when the days are long, people can go to work earlier in the morning and enjoy time with family and friends in the evening. expanded flex time arrangements will allow employees to opt for longer working hours before the summer vacation in order to take longer breaks with their children. in the case of highly specialized jobs a new work arrangement will be established to allow employees to be evaluated based on performance rather than work hours. long work hours will be kept under control by raising overtime rates and other measures. further, we will move forward to prevent overwork and create a society that promotes a better work-life balance.

by the creation of systems that ensure employees can take their full paid vacations. young people will shape the future of japan. i hope that young people live up to their fullest potential and play active roles in society. we will strengthen measures for the employment of young people. over 30% of young people quit their jobs soon after being hired. we'll therefore request that companies recruiting provide employees provide overturn and training and have bureaus not accept job advertisements of companies suspected of a high turn over and provide efforts to secure regular employment of subsidies and there are

attractive of subsidies and make sure people are aware of these opportunities. my daughter is currently working to find a job with a positive frame of mind. i have a 20-year-old daughter. she wrote that her daughter had hads a learning disability from a young age and had long struggled that she was different from her friends. my daughter's self-loathing gradually working. sometimes she cried wishing she would die. her raidiance faded each time she went to school. nevertheless she continued to attend school, determined not to be left behind. the daughter stopped attending school when she was in the first year student in junior high school. however, she then discovered an alternative school and was able to rebuild her confidence and resume her studies. the mother wrote that her daughter regained her courage and is now searching for a job even while struggling with social prejudice.

her letter concludes children are the mirror of adults. unless the values held by adults, bullying will never end. i sincerely hope had a japan strives to become a society that accepts diverse people diverse learning styles and diverse ways of life, a society where people accept and respect each other. this is my small wish as a mother. it is only natural that she should embrace this wish. we adults have a responsibility to create an environment where all children can learn and grow with confidence. the government will support diverse learning styles, including alternative schools. we will refirm the uniform system of compulsory education comprised of six years of elementary schools and three years of years of junior high school and during those nine years which

will not bind students to the class years rather than resignation in the face of failure, we want children to know the joys of success with the collaboration of local people we'll expand no cost learning support such as the use of after school hours at junior high schools to 2,000 locations nationwide. the futures of our children should not be affected by the economic circumstances of their families. childhood poverty is a grave challenge to the fundamental principal of the sound society. that if you work hard, you will be rewarded. we will take methodical steps to alleviate the financial burden that education places on low income households and realize tuition-free education. we'll establish an environment that enables students to advance to high school specialized training colleges. student loans will be expanded.

for university students, we'll accelerate the trend away from interest-bearing to interest-free student loans and ensure in the future all students in need of financial aid will receive interest free student loans and together we can create a environment for opportunities for everyone where everyone can realize his or her dreams. shall we together, let us together create such a society. in a new program will be created that will waive the repayment of student loans for students who have taken up careers in local regions. nearly half of teens living in tokyo seek to move to such regions. this is an encouraging number. local regions contain opportunities. we'll strongly encourage support for young people as they take on their challenges. we'll eliminate the practice of

in sifting on personal guarantees which means if you fail once you lose everything. we'll see to it that financial institutions and enterprises eliminate this practice. in government procurement we will give precedence to companies that have been in business for less than ten years and increase opportunities for new enterprises to pursue new businesses. further, we will support companies that find opportunities in local regions. tax support will be provided to companies that relocate their headquarters to these regions and expand investment and employment. we'll provide support for the commercialization of home town specialty goods. and we will also help them in the development of their markets. regional areas will play the leading role in growth. in the past two years the number of tourists visiting japan increased by 5 million and surpassed 13 million, a new record. we'll aim for further increasing

by relaxing visa requirements and undertaking other strategyith measures. i would like visitors to japan to fully enjoy the wealth of unique tourism resources from north to south, including abundant national resources, beauty culture, history and food. we'll enhance customs, quarentiny and immigration services in japan. we'll reinforce the function of the airport the gateway connecting tokyo to the rest of the country. with the understanding of local residents, flight routes will be revised and the takeoff and landing will be increased by 40,000 annually by 2020 similarly, at narita airport, we'll increase flight control functions to increase landing and takeoff slots by 40,000. in okinawa, a hub for flights to asia a second runway will be constructed.

we enhance to secure 300 yen in the budget until fiscal 2021. we'll do our utmost to enhance this budget. we will fully support the ingenuity of localities. this is the main drive of the abe cabinet's mission to vitalize local municipalities. innovative and reform of regions, to expand the home town tax where people can pay part of their taxes to the locality of their choice. through the simplification of home town taxes i hope more people will become supporters of local regions and likewise it will reform the current central government led style of decision-making and allow the pursuit of reforms proposed by the loathal regions for their own improvement. we'll adopt proposals for these regions and transfer authority for them, including the

transform of farm land to other uses. and the special zone system will evolve on a regional basis to carry out regulatory reforms to specialize the ambitions of the local regions. the residents of mountainous regions have retained the beauty of the japan. we'll create small but convenient communities to bring together in one location the necessary daily services such as health care, welfare education, and shopping. these locations will be linked with neighboring communities through public transportation. it is first and foremost important that people lead safe and secure lives. we'll step up our measures to ensure that people protect it against crimes such as stalking and fraud against the elderly. to protect children from abuse we'll establish a 189 national toll free number for children's

counseling offices that will allow them to take early notice of calls for help. drawing on the lessons of the eruption of mountain ontake we'll work with our yeahs to mitigate the effect of volcanic eruptions and including warnings for tourists and climbers and to cope with floods and landslides caused by torrential rains that have increased in recent years and maintain infrastructure and conduct drills and push ahead in making the nation's infrastructure more resilient through the implementation of disaster mitigation measures. last year japan was hit by natural disasters, self-defense forces police officers fire department personnel and other rescue workers performing demanding rescue work during each disaster working night and day despite the danger. it was snowing a lot and we were

scared. last december many communities in toco -- toka she'lla prefecture and children at one school sent a letter to personnel who were dispatched in response to the disaster. we were overwhelmed with appreciation when the force arrived and helped us. we wanted to do something in return to we are writing this letter. i also would like to take this opportunity to once again express appreciation to the rescue workers for their high sense of mission and responsibility. last october the training squadron of the maritime self-defense force returned to japan after a five month intercontinental tour. we must pay respect to all of those who served regardless of

nationality. the training squadron was tasked with bringing home remains of 137 soldiers kept at the canal the site of fierce battle during world war ii. this was made possible thanks to the prime minister of the solomon islands. we'll work to remain that the remains of japanese soldiers many of whom are in other countries are repatriated as soon as possible. this is the responsibility of japanese people today. at iwo jima on the runway next year we'll accelerate the repatriation of the remains of some 12 now japanese soldiers. the peace we enjoy today is built upon the precious sacrifices of those who lost their lives for the homeland and wished for the happiness of their families. the path japan has taken as a

possess-loving nation will remain unchanged. against the back drop of a dramatically changing international nation we'll follow this path even more tenaciously and fully and res luteally protect the lives of the japanese people. to this end, we'll developing security legislation that enables seamless responses to any situation. this year marks 70 years since the end of world war ii. japan has developed as a free and democratic nation based on feeling of deep remorse regarding world war ii and we have contributed to possess and prosperity in the -- to peace and prosperity in the world. taking pride in this, we must be a nation that contributes to peace and prosperity in the world. as we head to future decades we intent to convey to the world the message of our strong resolve in this regard. japan will share with the world our experiences and lessons

learned from many natural disasters at the united nations world conference on disaster reduction. we'll jointly address the challenges unique to island nations at the pacific islands leaders meeting held in iwake and we'll work to make sure there are no human rights violations against women, to realize a world in which all women shine, we would like to invite the participation of women who are active in their roles around the world to convene in japan in the fall. this year also marks 70 years since the atomic bombings, as the only country to have suffered atomic bombings in war japan will lead the international weapon nuclear disarmament and nukts proliferation. this is the founding of the united nations and japan will be a candidate for a nonpermanent seat on the u.n. security counsel. we want to play a role in a

manner permanent to the 21st century. this year japan will raise the banner of protective contributions to peace even higher to be a country trusted by the world. i intend to make this year a year that truly befits the 70th anniversary of the end of world war ii. japan will carry out proactive diplomacy that takes in diplomacy of the world, working with with asean and india and taking on the democracy and the rule of law. the japan-u.s. alliance is the linchpin of our diplomacy. over the last two years the bond of the u.s.-japan alliance have become unwaivering. we'll proceed with the revision of the guidelines for u.s.-japan defense cooperation and further enhanced deterrence and proceed with the realliance of u.s. forces in japan in accordance with existing bilateral

agreements. by the end of march, the west fat emma housing will be returned. i'm strong to return the base of fatten ma. and for this we'll continue to take steps to relocate the base to henoko and continuing our efforts to gain the informationing of the people of oaken owa and we'll continue in engaging the bases in okinawa not through unsub stan sheen ated words but through our actions. japan and china which bear great responsibility for the peace and prosperity of the region are bound by an inseparable relationship. last november i held a summit meeting with jingping and we held

a strategic step toward our friendship from a broad perspective while deepening dialogue and rise to meet the expectations of the international community. the republic of korea is our most important neighbor. this year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of japan-rok relations and japan will continue to engage in dialogue for relations. the door for dialogue is always open. with russia, the reality is that our two countries have yet to conclude a peace treaty. even know, 70 years after the end of world war ii. i have held peace meetings with putin. and i hope to realize his visit to japan at an appropriate time this year. building on the series of summit meetings held this far, we'll tenaciously continue to meet with russia toward the conclusion of a peace treaty while deeping our cooperation in

a range of fields, including the economy and culture. as for north korea, we will continue to urge north korea to comprehensively resolve all outstanding issues, including the abducties, nuclear and missile issues. with regard to the abducties, north korea should conduct issues and report to japan as early as possible. under the principals for dialogue and action for action japan will continue to try to achieve a resolution to the abducty issue. at the end of last year japan launched the asteroid explorer and thus continuing our pursuit of space exploration. this will dig into an asteroid crater to collect examples. the core technology that made this possible was conceived in fukushima. although they were forced to

suspend the activities in the aftermath of the great earthquake, driven by compassion, this give birth to a world-first technology. fukushima will be reform as a region producing research and creating new industries. we will work to build up a cluster robotics related industries in a region along the coast impacted by the nuclear accident. we will proceed with the instruction of interim storage facilities to accelerate decontamination. the government will also stand at the foreof efforts to decommission the nuclear power station and implement measures for dealing with contaminated water. we will revise special measures to enable seamless establishment of reconstruction in preparation for lifting of evacuation orders. we will enhance financial assistance to support those returning to their homes in their efforts to rebuild their lives.

at long last in march, we will fully open the joban expressway, which runs through the disaster afflicted areas. i would like many tourists to visit the tohoku region and hope the reopening of the expressway will serve as a catalyst for the construction of the areas. work has begun on 90% of the projects for removing housing to areas of higher elevation, and 80% of the public housing projects, along with rebuilding homes, we will strive to look after disaster victims who are at risk of becoming isolated. we will provide them with psychological support and rebuild the livelihoods of those in the agricultural and forestry industries. >> after collecting samples from the asteroid using technology, conceived in fukushima, they will return to japan in 2020 i have no doubt at that time tohoku will have undergone a complete transformation. rather, the onus is on us to

transform tohoku. won't you join me in reinventing tohoku as a region of new creativity and potential? in the same year, japan will host the olympic and paraolympic games. we must guarantee that these are a success. with that determination and under the guidance of a minister dedicated to the task, we will proceed full scale measures for counter-terrorism. we will establish a new sports agency to promote the value of sports throughout the world. further we will create an environment in which everyone from children to the elderly, as well as people with disabilities or intractable illnesses can all enjoy sports. we, the people of japan now have a shared goal in the year 2020. last year, the sea of japan, japan led the world in the

successful extraction of full fledged samples of shallow methane hydrate, the so-called burning ice. by 2020 the common sense notion that japan is a resource-poor country may no longer hold true. japan can change. it all depends on our will and our actions. for close to 15 years, japan suffered from deflation. i feel that the greatest issue here was the fact that the japanese people were robbed of their confidence. but nothing will change if we sit by idly feeling sorry for ourselves. if all we do is constantly criticize one another, nothing new will be achieved. people of japan, be confident. these were the words uttered by yoshida, the prime minister who laid the foundation for japan's

post-war reconstruction. the japanese people of that era can do this there's no reason why we the people of today, can't do it. i would like to call once more on each and every one of the diet members here in this chamber, for the sake of all the people of japan, let us work together across party and faction lines to reform the electoral system and reduce the number of seats in the diet. let us deepen public discussion regarding constitutional revision. we will pave the way for japan's future. and to that end, won't you join me in ensuring that this will be the diet to achieve the most dramatic reform since the end of world war ii? now is the time that through our efforts, japan can achieve growth once again. we can shine once more at the world's center stage. we are regaining our confidence. now then everyone.

let us make a new start, right here and now, to turn this budding confidence into full fledged conviction. thank you for your attention. [ applause ] the house returns today after a district work period. members will gavel in at 6:00 eastern to deal with six bills on health care and emergency care. later epa rule making. live coverage of the house on c-span. and the senate starting the week with several executive nominations. they will note this afternoon on moving ahead with the human trafficking bill and awaiting

action is a vote on loretta lynch nomination for attorney general. you can find live coverage of the senate on c-span 2. senate homeland security looking into errors and social security records including incorrect death records. we'll hear from a woman who has been listed as deceased as well as social security and inspector general who has been looking into the agency's recordkeeping at 4:00 eastern on c-span3. transportation secretary anthony fox will talk about plans to improve the nation's roads and bridges and infrastructure's effect on u.s. competitiveness. live coverage on the council of foreign relations at 6:00 eastern. >> tonight on the communicators fcc commissioner on recent net neutrality ruling, municipal broadband and subsidized phone and broadband program life line. >> what i am proposing that we

do is overhaul the life line program, make it concurrent and in sync with the information age, challenge those providers to give more to their consumers. the prices and opportunities have gone down -- have been more explosive for the rest of us. it should be for life line consumers. get those providers out of the certification business. that has been the number one problem that we've been seeing with not so positive headlines. it is a vulnerability in the system we need to plug. >> tonight at 8:00 eastern on the communicators on c-span 2. with live coverage on the house c-span and senate c-span 2, here on c-span3 we compliment by showing you the most relevant hearings and public affairs events. on weekend c-span3 is home of american history tv with programs that tell our nation's

story including six unique civil war visiting battle fields and key events american artifacts, historic sites and discover what artifacts reveal about the past. history book shelf the best known american history writers. the presidency, looking at the policies and legacies of our nation's commander in chief. lectures in history top college professors delving into america's past. our new series real america archival government and educational films 1930s through '70s. c-span3 created by cable tv industry and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. watch us in hd like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter. >> the brookings institutions hosted a discussion on the violence in yemen and libya as well as regional instability. former u.s. ambassador to libya barbara bodine took part in the discussion. it's about an hour and 20 minutes.

>> i've just returned from libya and i can't emphasize enough this is a conflict that reached really dire proportions. since the civil war started last year in may, about 2500 people lost their lives. that may seem somewhat of a paltry sum when you compare it to what's going on in syria, but this is a country with a small population. the other ripple effects of this have been quite dire. massive refugee flows, plummet of oil production. most recently we've seen the growth of the islamic state in libya. how did we get here? we can walk back the clock to the nato intervention failures after that intervention to assist the libyan government but i think what we're really living with is the aftershocks of gadhafi's divided rule policy. this was really a civil war that reflected his 4 year rule of

tyranny, institutions, played communities off against one another. i think obviously the biggest failing of the transitional government period after the fall of gaddafi was the absence of a government that could project its authority, that had the means to enforce its rule, that had monday oppose -- monopolizessation. on force. so we're talking about the cohesive army and police. and led to the proliferation of the my militias we hear so much about. one based in tolbrook and the other faction based in the tripoli. unrecognized. it has an islamist