ask simon gas, who is leading our delegation in the direct talks with the iranians, to say something, but just to set the scene, there has been some movement over the last few weeks. we have seen some movement. there is reason for cautious optimism, signals coming out of tehran there is a desire to try to find a deal. but there is still difficult issues in which there is no movement at all. and you have to make heroic assumptions to get to the point where it is all agreed in the next two or three weeks. but i think compared to where we were when we left vienna in november, i think actually we have made quite significant progress over the last few weeks. but still very challenging. >> well, firstly, on the intervention, i think it cuts in both directions.

you may have seen a spirited reply to the letter which is worth looking at. one of the issues which is a arisen of course in congress over the last couple of weeks, including with the visit with netanyahu is that it probably has made it rather more -- in congress than it was previously. that also changes the dynamic as far as the united states is concerned. the foreign secretary said, we have made some progress in the negotiations, i think there is a willingness on both sides to try to reach a deal, but the obstacles are still formidable. these are about big decisions which are going to have to be reached primarily by iranian colleagues, about the future of their nuclear industry, and the amount they have invested in it. those are difficult decisions. and as the foreign secretary said, there are still a number of them which are critical to success on which we do not have movement.

so as just said we go into the negotiations in the next round of negotiations with the degree of optimism, but we frankly will not know whether we have got an agreement until we have got one. >> would we be prepared to veto a bad deal? >> yes. bad deal is better than no deal. no deal is better than a bad deal. if we're going to agree a deal with iran, it has to provide assurance that iran will not be able to secure a nuclear weapon. it has to respect our minimum position, which has always been there must be complete transparency and open inspection of what is going on in iran and there must be a structure that gives us a guarantee of at least 12 months to the point where iran would have enough fissile material for one weapon from the moment it went rogue from the moment it switched off the axt%ñ cameras and barred the monitors.

that one year breakout time is our bottom line, nonnegotiable, not flexible. the iranians understand that and all the countries are clear that is bottom line, beyond which we cannot go. >> given our discussion with parliament, a minimum of six months, i'm very pleased to hear that. can i put you to the question, mike gates puts you in the ukraine context. the deadline is the 30th of march. and so it is quite possible that the details of this are going to come out after parliament has been dissolved. in a way, the opinion of parliament is even more important here than it is on reaction. there is more nuance to it. how are you going to gauge parliamentary reaction when there isn't a parliament? i mean, i haven't put that question very well, but, i mean, i think -- you get my drift, that -- it can't be -- you consult the opposition when it

comes to a nato article five intervention. how will you be consulting the broad sweep of the current parliamentary opinion when there isn't a parliament? >> on -- >> on iran. and nuclear deal when it comes in -- >> on the question -- i consider we have set out, and i've just done it again, pretty clearly, the parameters of a deal that we would find acceptable. parliament can debate that tomorrow if it chooses to. i do not anticipate a situation wh%lchyq re going to decide when parliamengl uájur but we want to do a deal that is based on six months breakout. that's not going to happen. we have set the red line. it is 12 months breakout. i think these are very technical issues is and parliament would

have to asers do, defer the technical experts on what constitutes a 12-month breakout, what kind of structure will give us a 12-month breakout guarantee, but so long as we are at 12 months breakout, i consider that we have a clear view that parliament would endorse such a settlement. i don't recall ever hearing colleagues saying 12-month breakout time is insufficient. i think the mood of parliament would certainly regard 12 months as being adequate. we're clear for our own reasons, but also from the views of our partners in the e3 plus 3 that 12 months is the minimum we could agree to. >> wouldn't we be enshrined in an international treaty, which would require ratification by parliament? it would be on a motion to support the agreement? >> there would be a detailed agreement drawn up, which, i

guess it would go to the united nations? >> yes, if i may. the first thing i would say is that there will not be an agreement by, say, the end of march. at best there might be agreement on the key elements. it will then take several months of huge detail to make sure there are no loopholes, all the technical specifications have been nailed down. and you may recall that the extension of the interim joint plan of action agreed in vienna actually goes to the 30th of june. my guess is that until you've got to that point, you will not actually have an agreement which you could say, yes, we now have an agreement. the agreement would almost certainly be put to the united nations security council for a form of endorsement. >> do you agree that all the evidence points to whatever the length of the breakout period is, the government is determined to maintain following a breakout the capability of exercising the option of having a nuclear weapon?

>> the iranian government, of course, staunchly denies that proposition. they say that they want to maintain the capability to develop in time an industrial scale civil nuclear fuel program to provide indigenously manufactured fuel for an ambitious reactor building program. i think it is probably not helpful for us to speculate on the motives of the iranian side and i think it is probably the case that there is not a home -- holm homogeneous position. there are different facts within the iranian government as there are in many governments, and probably iranian society, i

suspect, quite sharply divided on this issue. and i think the important point is that we are not assuming good intent. we are working from the assumption that there could be a desire to break out and go for a weapon. our job is to put in place a solution that there is a year's notice. that's how we're approaching the debate. we're not giving anybody the benefit of any doubt. we're assuming the worst and seeking to put in place regime that would protect the international community in the event that the worst happened. >> foreign secretary, that repeats our question, i don't know if there is any notes being passed that you might want to refer to before i wrap things up. >> as it happens, inspiration has come to me on the question of the arms embargo in russia. when the arms embargo was put in place, the fco reviewed all

licenses for russia, and ensured that all those for military items were revoked. there is around just over 100, we think, dual use licenses remaining in place. these are in respect of goods for nonmilitary uses. for example, it security products, mobile telecom products, products which require licenses, but which are not for a military end use. if i may, i'll write to you, chairman, and just confirm the detail behind that statement. >> that would be appreciated. foreign secretary, this is the last time this parliament that you will appear in front of us and we have enjoyed see you over the last year or so and william hague before hand. and so on behalf of the committee, i would like to thank you and the foreign ministers

and thank you and your fellow officials in the foreign office for the cooperation you have given us over the last five years. i actually -- our job is criticism of the foreign office, but it has been constructive criticism done with the best of intentions and i would like to think the relationship between the committee and the foreign office has been a model as a number of other committees and government departments could follow. on behalf of the committee, i thank you all for the cooperation you have given us over the years and it has been very much appreciated. >> thank you, chairman. it may feel look a year, but it is just over seven months. >> our sympathy.

>> most of you who are not involved in journalism really don't understand how journalism works. ow how we gather information,

how we vet information. how we choose our stories. how we write them. how we ed it. you don't know the process. as the the rigorous process. the stuff you see in the media certainly in mainline news organizations is pretty damn reliable. most of the reporters i know are doing it not for certainly the money or the fame or the thrill. even those who go out into danger repeatedly. they are not there for the adrenaline rush. they are there because they really truly believe that it's important. that it's important for them to find and tell the truth as best they can about what is happening in the world. and that you need to know those things. and that is why they go into places like serbia or other

dangerous places. >> and you can see the entire event tonight an c-span starting at 9:00 eastern. >> rudy guthrie is most famous for "this land issed your land yourland. he was born in oklahoma and we are very proud to have his work back in oklahoma where we think it belongs. he was an advocate for people who were disenfranchised. for those people who were migrant workers from oklahoma, kansas and texas during the dust bowl era who had found themselves in california literally starving. and he saw this vast difference between those who were the haves and the have notes and became

their smoexpokesman through his music. woody recorded few songs of his own. we feature 46 of his songs in his own voice. that is what makes the records that he did make so significant and so pornimportant to us. ♪ this land is your land ♪ ♪ this land is my land ♪ ♪ from california -- >> watch all our events saturday at noon eastern. and sunday afternoon at 2:00 on american history tv on c-span3.

good afternoon. again, welcome, everyone. [ applause ] we welcome you to this afternoon's general session. thank you to jimmy robbins for entertaining the crowd. and the city of nashville for bringing him to washington. thank you so much. let's give him a round of applause. [ applause ] this morning we were honored to be a part of a historic event for the national league of cities and its members. i believe this afternoon's session will be memorable in its own right. and very informative as well. we will hear from several representatives from the administration, as well as a

thought-provoking panel discussion on infrastructure and climate change. it is now my pleasure to introduce our first speaker this afternoon. secretary of homeland security, jeh johnson. [ applause ] >> i know from my experience you'll really enjoy him, and we're going to learn a lot. he was sworn in on december 23rd, 2013, as the fourth secretary of homeland security. prior to joining dhs, secretary johnson served as general counsel for the department of defense where he was part of the senior management team and led more than 10,000 military and civilian lawyers across the department. as general counsel of the defense department, secretary department oversaw the legal aspects of many of our nation's counterterrorism policies. he spearheaded reforms to the military commission system at guantanamo bay in 2009, and co-authored the 250-page report

that paved the way for the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" in 2010. secretary johnson's career has included extensive service in national security, in law enforcement, and as an attorney in private corporate law practice. from its role in facilitating legal immigration and enforcing immigration laws, the responsibilities for coordinated responsibilities to natural disasters and other large emergencies, cities recognize the importance of strong leadership in the area of homeland security. please join me in welcoming secretary jeh johnson. [ applause ] >> thank you, mayor. good to be here. good afternoon, everybody. welcome to washington. and 60-degree weather. i know we're really happy about

that. as i was in the back, waiting to come up here, i had a moment of great trepidation listening to the musical segment. someone said to me, well, you know you have to sing. [ laughter ] oh, well, i can't sing. your secretary of homeland security does not know how to carry a tune. i do know a few things about the national league of cities. i'm here to pay tribute to this organization, and to thank you for two very, very major and important positions that you have taken over the last several months. and i have an ask, which i will get to. i have an important ask. first, i have to tell a story. thank you for the wonderful and warm welcome you gave our

president this morning. [ applause ] i recall -- this is a lively group. this is a good group. i'm going to enjoy talking to you. i recall eight years ago, january 2008, des moines, iowa, introducing senator barack obama for the first time to my 12-year-old daughter, then 12. now a college freshman. he walked into the room. there were many cameras. there was a lot of excitement. and my daughter was standing right behind me. and i said to her, follow me, i'm going to finally introduce you to our next president of the united states, senator barack obama. and we pushed forward through the crowd. and i turn around to introduce my 12-year-old daughter to senator obama, and she is gone.

and the reason she is gone is because scarlett johansson has walked into the room. so i found my daughter, i scolded her, and she said, i'm really sorry, dad. and to my 12-year-old's credit, on her own, she pressed forward, through the cameras, through the fans, and introduced herself to senator obama with the words, mr. obama, i'm really sorry, my dad wanted me to meet you, but i had to meet an important person first. [ laughter ] i'm sure you all would agree that our president is an important person. all of you are important people, for reasons that i am going to discuss today. i was in selma, alabama, yesterday, and as i sat through

the almost four-hour church service listening to the speeches and sermons, my mind turned to -- i'm a graduate of morehouse college, class of 1979. my mind turned to our most famous alumnus from the class of 1948, martin luther king jr. one of my favorite quotes from martin luther king is the following. the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of convenience and comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. today, of course, we'd have to modify that to say man or woman. today i'd like to say to you, the national league of cities, the ultimate measure of an organization is not where it

stands in moments of convenience and comfort, but where it stands at times of challenge and controversy. so i want to thank the national league of cities. first, for your stand with the men and women of the department of homeland security as we fought for a four-year appropriation last week. [ applause ] i want to thank you for standing with the 225,000 people in our organization who are members of the coast guard, the secret service, fema, immigration enforcement, citizenship, and immigration services, and i could go on and on, for your courageous and unyielding stand in support of the homeland security of this nation, in support of a full year appropriation for our department, and in support of our people. many people have said to me,

congratulations, you must be happy. and i had to respond, we walked back from a cliff, literally. i would have had to furlough 130 people from our department. mayors, imagine having to tell your own work force, you must come to work, but i can't pay you during the time that you must come to work. so we avoided the shutdown. and we now have a full year appropriation for fy '15. it is a good bill. it is a good appropriation. we are now able to fund our vital homeland security missions, which includes important grants to states, towns and cities like those represented in this room for purposes of homeland security. it is especially important that in these times we work together

on our joint homeland security mission. the reality is that we've evolved to a new phase in the global terrorist threat, which requires that we evolve to a new phase in our counterterrorism efforts. the global terrorist threat today is more decentralized, more complex. it includes a phenomenon of foreign fighters, those going to places like syria, and then returning to their home communities. it involves affected use of the internet, to reach into communities, perhaps your own community, in an attempt to recruit and inspire someone to commit an act of violence. we're concerned about the independent actor, the so-called lone wolf who could strike at a

moment's notice. for my department, and for the u.s. government in general, it makes working with state and local communities, governors, mayors, police chiefs, commissioners, sheriffs, all the more important. we do this through issuance of joint intelligence bulletins, and through our grant-making activity. the reality is, that given how the global terrorist threat has evolved in this country and in other countries, in europe and elsewhere, the cop on the beat may be the first one to learn about the terrorist attack. in 2015, therefore, homeland security must also mean hometown security. [ applause ]

on our end, we're engaged militarily against isil in iraq and syria, along with an international coalition. we're engaged in our law enforcement efforts to interdict and prosecute those who provide materiel support to terrorism. the fbi does a terrific job. i have directed the enhancement of our federal protective service at federal buildings in major cities around the country. we've enhanced aviation security in this country, and at last points of departure airports into the united states. this, by the way, must include working with cities, municipalities on airport security as well. we're moving forward with our preclearance capability to front end at airports overseas. front end at airports overseas. every opportunity i have to

defend the homeland from the 50 yard line as opposed to the 1 yard line we should take. we're evaluating whether more security is necessary for our visa waiver program. for those who would travel to the united states from countries for which we do not require a visa. we're working with our counterterrorism partners and allies overseas more and more. to deal with the global terrorist threat as it has evolved. we are enhancing the effectiveness of fusion centers. those are things that many of you in this room are familiar with that exist in every state. we have revamped our if you see something say something campaign. if you see something, say something must be more than a slogan. it requires and it calls for public participation in our efforts, in our homeland

security efforts. we are engaged in what we call countering violent extremism interactions with communities around the country. i have personally been to places like columbus, ohio, chicago, los angeles, boston, minneapolis to talk to community leaders in communities where there is a potential for young people to turn to violence. in my view, given how the world situation has evolved, it is all the more important that we do that here in the homeland so when i go to the cve engagements very often i'm with the police commissioner, the mayor, the city council member, the sheriff and so forth. the other thing i want to thank this organization for is for your support of our efforts to reform the immigration system.

we would have preferred congressional action, but the president and i identified nine actions we could take within our existing legal authorities to reform our system. we've issued reforms to still tate high skilled workers, something the president talked about this morning. to facilitate the issuance of green cards for high-skilled workers. we've strengthened border security. we've embarked upon a southern border campaign strategy. i'm pleased to report that this january and february the numbers of total apprehensions on our southern border are an indication of total attempts to cross the border illegally. the numbers month to month are now the lowest they've been in several years. because of seasonal factors and frankly because of our efforts and those of our partners south of the border.

last year as many of you know we saw the heartbreaking spectacle of a number of children unaccompanied by any parent attempting to cross the southern border. i personally met with hundreds of children. i'm happy to report that this year, this month, last month there was a 42% decrease in the numbers of unaccompanied children from where we were last year. we are through our executive actions encouraging citizenship through greater public awareness through permitting people to pay for citizenship applications by credit card. we are embarking upon pay reform for immigration enforcement personnel. and we are revamping what we call prosecutorial discretion. we're focusing the use of our resources to deport and remove people on felons, not families. we want to stop tearing families apart. [ applause ]

we're emphasizing national security, public safety, and border security. over tearing families apart. we have created a new deferred action program. for parents. for those who have been in this country for years who've in effect become integrated members of society. there are by most estimates something like 11 million undocumented immigrants living in this country. the reality is that given our resources they're not going to be deported by any administration, republican or democrat. the most striking thing about that number of people is at least half, perhaps more than half, have been here in excess of ten years. so the president and i in november directed the creation of a new deferred action program

for those who have been here five years, who have children, who are citizens or lawful permanent residents and who've committed no serious crime. the reality is we have to deal with these people. we have to account for these people. and we should encourage them to come out of the shadows. as all of you know, our actions have been challenged in the courts. and i thank this organization for your support of our position in that lawsuit in texas. the national league of cities filed an amicus brief that i think says it best. daca and dapa, the deferred action program for parents, will fuel economic growth in cities across the country, increase public safety and public engagement, and facilitate the full integration of immigrant residents by promoting family

unity and limiting family separation. that's from the national league of cities. thank you. [ applause ] from my homeland security point of view, from my homeland security law enforcement point of view, we need to encourage people who've been here for years to come out of the shadows, be held accountable. frankly, the litigation and the decision and the injunction puts us in an untenable position. the judge does not quarrel with the notion that we have the ability to engage in prosecutorial discretion, prioritize. prioritize felons over extremes. prioritize criminals over those who've been here and not committed any serious crimes. i want to take the additional step and encourage them to come out of the shadows so that we

know who they are. the injunction basically prevents us from doing that. we're supposed to somehow leave these people in the shadows. we want to take steps to bring them forward, have them pay taxes, apply for deferred action and apply for a work authorization to encourage these people to be participants in society, report crimes, pay taxes and get on the books. the only thing i'll say about the care, only thing i'll say more about the case is this is what appeals courts are for. so what we say, what we must say to people in your communities who i've personally met with now, don't lose hope. as martin luther king said, the arc of the moral universe is long but it always bends toward justice. those who in this country struggle for citizen ship

struggle to be something more than a second-class person, know that history is on your side. now, here's my ask. we have eliminated through our executive actions one of our executive actions, the secure communities program. secure communities, the reality is, was controversial legally and politically. and we've replaced it with a new program called the priority enforcement program. in my view, working together with mayors, governors, sheriffs, police chiefs so that we can focus our resources on convicted criminals is a public safety imperative. that was the goal of the secure

communities program. but it had become legally and politically controversial. but the overarching goal in my view is a public safety imperative. in 177 jurisdictions, states, cities, counties to one degree personnel in the transfer of criminals for purposes of removal. since january 1, 2014 over 12,000 detainers by our enforcement personnel were not honored. frankly, in my view this state of affairs puts public safety at risk. so we've done away with the secure communities program and created a new program in its place, which in my view solves the legal and political controversy.

we're no longer placing detainers on individuals except if there's probable cause to solve the legal issue. we're replacing that with request for notification. we're no longer putting detainers on people based simply on an arrest. we're now only seeking the transfer of suspected terrorists, felons, convicted felons, those convicted of aggravated felonies, those active in street gangs, those convicted of significant misdemeanors, and those convicted of three or more misdemeanors. so here's my ask. we want to work with you to restore this relationship. we've replaced secure communities with a new program for the benefit of public safety. but i need a partner.

in those in this room, in governors and mayors, county commissions, and so forth. we've done our part to end the controversial secure communities program. now i ask that you and others get with your city attorney, your city council, your police commissioner, your chief, get a hold of the policy document that i issued in november to see how we've replaced the secure communities program. for the benefit of all of toes we serve. and if you're one of those 177 jurisdictions, you will get a knock on the door from me. because we want to work with you to rebuild this relationship. in my view it is a public safety imperative. elsewhere in our department we're moving forward on our cyber security mission. we had legislation passed late last year. the administration has a new proposal for cybersecurity this year which we hope the congress will act on. we're doing a number of things to reform the way in which we do business in the department of

security. department of homeland security. we've filled all the senior-level vacancies. we're rebuilding morale within the organization. we're moving in the direction of more transparency and so forth. so this is a good time right now for homeland security. we have a new budget. and we're moving forward with our very important mission. but my overarching message here with all of you is it takes a partnership with the men and women in this room for homeland security, for hometown security, for public safety, for all of the people we as public servants represent. the last thing i'll say to you is for my part i recognize that homeland security is a billion. it's a balance between basic physical security and our american values.

the things we cherish. our civil liberties. our right to peaceably assemble. our right to travel. diversity. the diversity we cherish. our immigrant heritage we cherish. i'd like to tell audiences that i could build you a perfectly safe city. we could build higher walls. we could interrogate more people. we could erect more scanning devices. we could screen more people to create a perfectly safe space. but it would not be a shining city on a hill. it would be a prison. so homeland security must be a balance between security of our people and the preservation of the things we value as americans. i look forward to working with all of you in the days ahead on our joint homeland security public safety mission. thank you very much, and thank you for listening to me.

[ applause ] >> secretary johnson, on behalf of the national league of cities and its members, i want to thank you for joining us today. i also want to thank you for all of the good work do you to keep our cities safe, our country strong, and our citizens protected. it is now my great pleasure to introduce the members of this afternoon's panel session on infrastructure and climate change. at this time let me introduce our panel, and each of these panelists are incredible folks in what they do on behalf of all of us and their particular focus for us was cities. first dr. ernest moniz, the secretary of the department of energy.

[ applause ] please join me also in welcoming gina mccarthy, the administrator of the environmental protection agency. [ applause ] thank you. and finally, i would like to invite to the stage peter rogoff, who is the undersecretary of transportation. peter, thank you for joining us. [ applause ] so i'm going to ask each of these panelists to maybe just give us a brief comment, and then we're going to go into a series of questions around topics that are so important to

us as cities as well as obviously within their realms of responsibility. mr. undersecretary, to you first. >> i think we're actually starting with the secretary. >> excuse me. >> it doesn't matter. >> okay. mr. secretary. why don't you start? >> well, thank you. mayor becker. and also greetings to my administration colleagues here. i'm not going to get into things that you know very well, like the importance of cities and the importance of cities also in the context of our climate challenge. but let me focus on a few items in these opening remarks. of course all of you have tremendous responsibilities in terms of managing a lot of infrastructure in this country. let me say a word about the quadrennial energy review first installment that we expect to have coming out in a few weeks. this is a study that's been going on for over a year across the administration looking specifically at the issues of

energy infrastructure. transmission, storage, and distribution of energy. that includes electricity. it includes fuels. it includes looking at reliability, resilience, safety, security of infrastructure and as i say, we'll be coming out with that shortly. some of the findings in there i'll just note, things like looking at analyzing risks from storm surges, for example. the modeling there showing that category 1 storms could inundate about 1,000 vital electric substations, for example, over these next decades. heat waves degrading our infrastructure but also increasing things like peak cooling requirements. oil and gas supplies depend upon reliable electricity to operate. but in turn, particularly our power sector relies on natural

gas. a complex interdependency that we have to be careful about. the energy industry, another different aspect is by 2020 we expect to need to fill about 2 million jobs in the energy industry. and of course we need to therefore focus on some of the training areas which we are doing. the -- in addition, some of the outcomes of the quarter are already in our fiscal year 16 budget. so i can talk about those. for example, we will have in there $63 million proposals for state grants for reliability and for energy assurance. so hopefully the states and the cities will be working together to come forward with those planning activities which then in turn can lead to eligibility,

which hope, for what will be major infrastructure project support. also in the budget there's something called the local energy program, and that is $20 million to help cities and counties accelerate investments & in efficiency and clean energy. so these are just some of the items that are in that budget. let me just mention two new things today. we are issuing now a notice of technical assistance for our 16 climate action champions. one of them is seated here at the table. so he's happy. maybe there are 15 more of you out there happy with that particular grant. but also we're also pleased to announce $6 million through our clean cities program for alternative fuel, vehicle market growth projects. this will support 11 community-led projects to reduce

market barriers and improve buyer awareness of plug-in electric and other alternative fuel vehicles. one such project will enable visitors in orlando, for example, to rent and receive information on plug-in electrics. and a whole bunch of other projects that as i say will be announced today. those are just a few of the things that we are moving forward in terms of clean energy, climate, and energy infrastructure reliability and resilience. thank you. >> thank you so much. and i hope everyone's taking notes on opportunities there may be to help advance efforts in your community through these department of energy initiatives. administrator. >> well, first of all, mayor, thank you for moderating and

thank you for being one of the really best mayors in the u.s. it's so exciting to see all the work that you're doing. [ applause ] it's amazing. and he's also finding time to help the epa with our committees and so i thank you for being a great adviser to the agency and a great partner. so first of all, thank you. thanks nlc for letting me be back again. i don't know what i did wrong last time, but maybe i did something right. i know you're dying to get to your questions. and i hope you know we always follow up and w. each and every one of them. thank you for letting me join. i just want to mention a couple of things because i know that communities across the u.s., particularly our cities and towns, have been really wonderful partners for epa. both in identifying how best to spend things like state revolving funds effectively, to look at brownfield's redevelopment, and continuing to support that, look at our sustainable communities' work. our fiscal year budget this year, the president's request,

has really been recognizing what a great partner you are and is looking in a variety of ways to enhance that partnership with additional dollars. so i wanted just to point out a few things. number 1, the o'42% of epa's budget goes directly to local states, communities, and tribes. and the president is looking up to that ante to provide us some additional funds to continue to work together, particularly on climate resilience, so that we can provide you expertise and tools that you need to address your changing weather patterns. the extreme weather events that you're using. but also we know climatically challenging our water infrastructure. what go do about water and waste water infrastructure. what you all invested in 40 to 50 years ago as well as seeing the significant challenges we're seeing on the drinking water side. we're going to continue to work with you on integrated planning

but also the president has requested a significant increase over last year's request in the area of srf. and we're looking at new ways of continuing to support water and waste water infrastructure, not resilience, and green infrastructure, but we have also recently announced the creation of a water infrastructure and resilience finance center. that's a way to have a one place where you can go to think about whether there are creative financing opportunities that will bring private sector dollars to the table. really build public/private partnership. because we know the money we have in the public sector is not going to be able to get the job done. because $600 billion in water infrastructure needs out there over the next 20 years. we have to pump it up and find new ways to finance it. we're also moving forward this year to lay the platform for our center under wifia. that's an important opportunity

to take advantage of creative financing that the transportation agencies have found effective. we want to do it as well. so we're going to be building up that center as well. hopefully we'll be creating our partnership and enhancing it, and looking for every opportunity to understand what your needs are and do that as effectively as we can. and i think i'll stop there. >> thank you. >> well, thank you. first and foremost i need to express my apologies from a former mayor and former nlc member anthony fox. he is recovering from some minor knee surgery but he is just not up and about otherwise he would be here with you today. let me echo gina's observation of what a great mayor, mayor becker is. he and his city have been a great grantee. secretary moniz whatever amount of technical assistance and money you gave them we have given them a lot more. >> it will be a good

competition. >> if they gave me more money, i would win. >> if anthony fox were here he would be talking to you about the absolute imperative that congress move forward and pass the grow america act in the next few months. many of you know last year the administration submitted a long-term -- last year was a poor year -- $302 billion bill. so we can get away from all of these incremental extensions that numbers from 32 separate individual extensions that have just been milking the program along for the last several years. last year we submitted a $302 billion four-year bill. all we got was frozen funding for ten months. this year, under president obama's leadership, we're doubling down. we're going to be submitting in the weeks to come a six-year $478 billion bill. [ applause ] that will bring overall funding to something closer to 60%. and we state precisely what part

of the tax code we would amend to pay for it. where we would get the money to augment existing highway trust fund. we also said to congress that if they do not like our offset to pay for it, we are open to talking about others. but they need to act. why are we pushing the grow america act so hard? we're doing it because we've looked into the future and seen what happens if we don't change our transportation policies. and we don't change our funding trajectory. just a few weeks ago, we at d.o.t. released our draft beyond traffic studies. i would really encourage all of you to look at it. you can see it at www.dot.gov back slash beyond traffic. it's a draft, and we're looking for your comments. but importantly, what this document does is looks 30 years into the future and looks at all of the trends that we're going to experience, both in population growth, 70 million more people by 2050 by the fact

that all these people are going to be locating in some of the areas that have already undergone dramatic growth especially in the south and the west that is already undergoing punishing congestion. frankly, this study has taken on a resonance with the american public far beyond what we expected. we are approaching a quarter of a million downloads from our website of this study. and we think it's taken on this resonance, because people know that something is wrong. they see it in the potholes they're hitting every day. they're seeing it in worsening congestion. they are seeing it in transit service that is increasingly unreliable in many areas. and we've seen that what will happen if this persists for the next 30 years is a form of congestion that we don't commonly know in this country. and one that will absolutely drag our economy down rather than serve as something that's

going to grow jobs to support those 40 million additional americans. we're not asking for increased funding because we like infrastructure investment we're asking for dramatically increased funding and improved policies, because that is what our economy is going to need going forward. [ applause ] thank you. and we do a lot of our growth in the areas that are very sustainable like transit and rail. like the mayor will tell you, in places like los angeles, there is not room for additional highways. so we are very concerned at the current moment that many of our partners in congress are looking to undershoe the target. some want to go into the tax code and only raise enough money to freeze funding for the next six years. the reality is that frozen funding won't even allow us to maintain the infrastructure we have. and for the critical pieces of infrastructure that are 50 60,

70, and in some cases more than 100 years old, they will just continue to deteriorate because we will not have the money to replace them. so when it comes to further funding and status quo policies we are against the policy and we are against the policies. we frankly don't understand the politics. where congress goes into the tax code and raises money for transportation for the first time in more than two decades, only to deliver to the public the existing deteriorated infrastructure, the existing challenges in being able to maintain our system. we think it makes a lot more sense if we're going to dig into the tax code and raise the necessary revenue to really address transportation and our needs going forward, we need to raise enough revenue to provide the growth that the economy needs going forward. that is where we need your help. we need you to deliver that message to your legislators. there are many things in the grow america act that this community should like.

there's opportunities with the increased funding to increase the funds to space and localities by more than 50%. there is more than a doubling of the tiger program. a program that has served many cities, including salt lake very well. but where we are turning down 15 applications for every 1 we can fund. let me encourage you to tell your federal legislators it's time to really address this issue and not tinker on the margins. if we're going to go in and raise money for the tax code to raise money for transportation, we should raise enough to prepare us for our future. thanks. [ applause ] >> thank you so much. to all three of you. isn't it refreshing to hear talk about innovation, about creativity, about meeting the needs and partnering with our communities? really, that was a fabulous three segments. [ applause ] so i have a few questions that i

hopefully will allow each of you to maybe expand a little bit on some of the things that you talked about in your comments. you've noted of course, how our infrastructure is failing. we certainly feel that directly in our local roads and transit systems. and the things that we're trying to do to meet today's needs. tell me what your thoughts may be -- and i know this is true through your grow america act and i've heard it in some of your comments -- but how you think we can pay for that better, in maybe a little more detail. ideas that you have for how we can bring some of our costs down. and in working with cities, ideas that you may have to make sure that some communities aren't left behind. for example it was referenced the tiger grant, and we were incredibly fortunate and benefited from a tiger grant but for many smaller communities

particularly, having the wherewithal to develop a grant application is really intimidating. so maybe you could comment on some of those things and the work that you're doing. and each of you, i think, if you could respond, thank you. >> shall i start? okay. first of all let me start by expanding a little bit on what was said in terms of tiger. i just want to say that the tiger grant clearly way oversubscribes. and the point i really want to make is in our energy review, broadening it out from tiger, i want to note that when we think of energy infrastructures, we think about wires and pipes. but in fact, associated infrastructures like docks -- i mean, ports inland waterways,

rail these are all critical for energy today. and in fact, the energy boom that we are seeing in the united states in oil and gas are severely taxing the infrastructures in many, many ways that we have not seen. so things like grow america and other initiatives that we hope to bring forward on these related infrastructures are very, very critical. just one comment on the issue of perhaps smaller communities. two points. one is as i mentioned earlier, we are putting forward to congress, and again, we hope there will be action, in terms of these planning grants. in these planning grants, $63 million as i mentioned, they are in the budget request. these are precisely to develop plans that can then be fundable. and that should go through all

communities in the states. in fact, we held in developing this qer, we held 13 regional meetings. we had many, many representatives of state local and tribal governments. and we are just hoping that we're going to be able to work with you in terms of developing these planning approaches that would allow us to move forward on infrastructure. the second point i'll make, and i was out recently. this is not a very small community, but in toledo ohio, for example where the city's plans for downtown rebirth, very much tied in to developing novel ideas around energy. and combining power and renewables et cetera. those are areas again through our city's program that we are very happy to talk with communities, and provide technical assistance in terms of

developing proposals that are forward looking in providing infrastructure that's good for the economic growth, but also good for resilience in the face of the threats that we see ahead. >> let me mention a few things, because i think all of you know that epa does not have the zeros on the end of our budgets that these guys do. so we have to work harder. and one of the things i think epa does very well is to provide technical assistance to communities. we have strong relationships with our communities. we don't go in there telling them what our vision is. we go in there asking the question of how do we work with you to make your vision succeed. and i think we have shown that in the work that we do with sustainable communities. it's amazing what a $15,000 or $20,000 technical assistance

dprast cangrant can do for steps forward about how they can change their dynamic. how do they make it more vibrant and economically, and use the funds that the other agencies can bring to the table, to then get a tiger grant. it doesn't take much to build a bike path. but when a community decides they're going to build it we can help with that. but then that changes the dynamic of the community. it makes it more visible, vibrant, active. one of the good things that epa is trying to really figure out how to do better is that learning the lessons from sustainable communities, we're going to be honing our technical expertise in our regions. we have identified 50 communities where our reasons are actively working, with communities, and with our regional partners. our partners from hud from d.o.t., from other agencies that can work with us and go to other

communities and do exactly what they want us to do. listen to them, identify opportunities for funding. and we're going to track those 50 communities and we'll come back to you with our success on those. what did we do. you would be amazed what a brownfield grant does for planning and then for cleanup. it can dramatically change as a result of just the small cleanup of a small lot that makes people feel better about their community, makes it safer, makes it more vibrant. we're looking at how do we expand our opportunities to do that and really track it. now, the other thing i just wanted to mention is that we have a number of -- we have a bunch of work that's going on, which i think you know on infrastructure, is how do we look at infrastructure planning differently. how do we build green infrastructure that makes communities more livable more vibrant in and of itself. but also, happens to be a whole lot better than concrete and building big pipe. so there are opportunities to

actually cure the problems we're trying to cure, in a way that's tremendously cost effective, and also builds up local economies, and grows jobs at the same time. believe it or not, i firmly believe that climate efforts are exactly the same thing. that is exactly why as we're looking at our carbon strategies on power plants, we are opening up opportunities for states to think more creatively and flexible about how to work with you to bring advantage economically in job growth, in the choices they make on how to reduce their carbon pollution. they can do it if they want to. so get active in those discussions with your states. we're actually providing hopefully if the president's budget goes through $25 million directly to states to just help them with this planning and implementation piece. the president has proposed a $4 billion budget line item that actually is trying to establish

an incentive for states that want to go faster and further, to be able to build the kind of infrastructure that you need to make climate reductions work. these are things that we can do together. [ applause ] and so all we have to do is to be really smart partners. epa needs to be focused on providing you the technical assistance, to know how you can meet your environmental challenges in ways that actually promote your economic growth and your job growth. if we can keep our eye on both of those prizes at the same time, we will be the partners that our public demands. the partners that actually can keep them safe keep our actual infrastructure moving, and healthy, keep them healthy and continue to grow the economy. that's what we're all working towards. none of us are in our own little stovepipes. i wish i was, because ernie bothers me a lot. but i'm trying to get over it

and let him talk to me. and then we'll deal with these issues together. because that's what you want. and we're delivering. [ applause ] >> the folks from new england, you can tell. [ applause ] >> let me quickly address the issue about lowering costs. because it's actually embedded in title 1 of our grow america act. it's a very important initiative that we've worked with epa and our other partners in the administration who are responsible for the environmental review process. and that is the whole series of statutory provisions all to allow us to speed up the environmental review process on our infrastructure projects, while getting better results for the environment. and it's not all that hard, but some of it does take statutory change. areas where we could do our reviews coincidentally or at the same time, rather than concurrently, where someone is going through the file for many months only to hand it to the next agency who hands it to the next agency. we're making progress on that.

we think we can make a lot more progress. secretary fox will tell you when he was mayor of charlotte projects would just get 20%, 30%, 40% more expensive just through the passage of time. and initiatives that were affordable can quickly become unaffordable just through the passage of time. so if we could take time off the process, we can get more projects for the money. so we have a series of initiatives in our bill to address that issue head-on. you also asked about, what about communities that will struggle to get a tiger grant. we actually are hearing that message loud and clear. again, because we have a mayor as a boss. who has struggled to be able to put together dollars locally to match federal funds at times. and he had a very prosperous city. so you will see a difference in our notice of funding availability for tiger this year. whereas, we have always

overmatched local communities. we will continue to do so. but also, we'll recognize those communities that cannot provide an overmatch, and make sure that they are fully competitive with everyone else. >> could i mention one other thing that i forgot to mention? i did mention the water infrastructure resiliency finance center, which is a new effort to look at creative financing opportunities to bring in private sector dollars. that is also a partnership with usda. i should mention that they have significant funds for rural infrastructure. and so a lot of the focus if you're a small community, in this center, is going to be, how do you bundle small community projects together to allow them new opportunities to financing. the usda is really on top of this issue. so if you're interested in the kind of work that we're going to be doing we're more than happy to reach out to you, and make sure that you have the right connections, whether it's at epa for srf, or usda for the rural

developing funding. >> as well this is something -- now with d.o.t. quotes collaboration. but the power of these grants that it can allow good planning, a great example that we were involved in, it was with new jersey. and it involved, again, a novel approach to a microgrid to support a resilient transportation corridor. we did some cost sharing to develop the plan, and then that was successful at d.o.t. for literally hundreds of millions of dollars grant to rebuild that infrastructure. so these are the kinds of creative ideas certainly, that we are looking for in terms of new approaches to resilient energy infrastructure in our case. in this case supporting a transportation corridor. >> it's a very very good example. because that one actually grew out of the disaster of hurricane

sandy. and our relief money we got to address hurricane sandy. but importantly, and a lot of people don't know this for many many of the transit tunnels and highway tunnels that flooded under hurricane sandy had just flooded a year earlier under hurricane irene. far less newsworthy. but it makes the point that as we're going to have this increasing frequency of major climatic conditions, when the president provided that money for hurricane sandy he made the point that the taxpayer should not have to pay to clean up these critical facilities time and time again. we need to build them smarter. we need to build them in a fashion that they can withstand the future. and that's part of what the microgrid does. it makes sure that there's actually going to be a power source for the rail infrastructure that's critical for that region, in a way that isn't dependent on the power lines that have been serving us for the last 70 years. >> to go back to the earlier theme about congress needing to act, here's a place where there

are also policy actions congress needs to take to remove constraints on federal assistance to rebuild something only the way it was before. as opposed to building it for the future. >> absolutely. >> critical point. thank you. [ applause ] >> we're just about out of time. but let me -- >> what happened to the questions and answers? >> all right. let me turn -- do we have time for -- >> no? >> i'm afraid not. >> i can hang on. >> listen can they each give you their cell phone numbers and you're happy to call them anytime? no, let me do this. follow up please, e-mails to these folks and their departments and we'll follow up. and i'll say this. isn't it refreshing for those of us who are trying to work with what should be our federal partners, to have the kind of direct conversation, to have the

kind of direct input around issues that we care about, whether it's climate change or infrastructure, and know that we have within these agencies, and really leading these agencies folks who are genuinely looking for ways that they can improve their partnerships to help us do our jobs locally. so to each of you, thank you very much. and we really appreciate you being here. >> thank you. [ applause ]

all right. well, thank you. they were suggesting that i actually give all of you my cell phone number and then i can pass it along. please follow up. it is now my great honor to introduce sally jewel, the 51st secretary of the u.s. department of the interior. as secretary she leads an agency of more than 70000 employees. the department of the interior serves as the steward of approximately 20% of the nation's land including national parks national wildlife refuges and other public lands. the department also oversees the responsible development of conventional and renewable energy supplies on public lands and waters. it is the largest supplier and manager of water in the 17 western states. and it upholds trust responsibility to the 566

federally recognized american indian tribes and alaska natives. prior to becoming secretary, sally jewell served in a private sector. most recently as president and ceo of rei, recreational equipment inc., and she joined rei as chief operating officer in 2000 and was named ceo in 2005. during her tenure rei nearly tripled its business revenues to $2 billion. and was consistently ranked as one of the 100 best companies to work for in "fortune" magazine. secretary jewelle as we know, has become a great partner in the national league of cities in our agreement with the department of the interior, to further a program to connect kids with nature. which she has made her special mission, i think, as secretary.

please join me in giving a very warm welcome to secretary sally jewell. [ applause ] >> well, hi, everybody. are you awake? okay. because -- yeah long enough after lunch, we should be fine. well, thank you for that kind introduction, ralph. and i just had a nice visit with chris coleman. you've got strong past and current leadership. it is a pleasure to be here with all of you today. and i just want to start by thanking you all for your public service. whether you're a mayor, or a city council member or commissioner or whatever they call you in your public service, i have come to appreciate how tough your jobs are and how important your jobs are. so thank you for everything that you do. yes, we can give you a round of applause, that's good. [ applause ] also, i want to express my

appreciation to clarence anthony and the good work he does with the national league of cities. we were together talking about the partnership we've got going which i'll talk about in a little bit. and it's clear that you are very important to this country, because you've had the president of the united states, you've had a good chunk of the cabinet. i think we should have a cabinet meeting. it seems we're all in town for the national league of cities which is great. i want to talk to you about a different dimension than some of my other colleagues. and i want to start by asking you to just close your eyes for a minute and picture the most special place from your childhood. just humor me and do that for a minute? okay. you got it? how many of you for that special place was outside? okay. that's what i figured. pretty good chunk. all right.

so when you think about that special place, probably it had something to do with the place you grew up. or a trip that a loved one took you to. for me oftentimes the special place would be romping around in the hobo jungle behind my house. we called it a hobo jungle because it was a homeless encampment. we used to put pennies on the track and let the trains run over the pennies. i used to camp out in the backyard which was a stepping stone to enjoying the great outdoors. my parents took me to city parks and state parks and national parks. i used to sail little sailing dinghies. i camped 52 nights one year. when i think about that and i think about the trajectory of my career, much of what i have done and where i've chosen to live has had to do with the quality of life of those communities. and that's something that you all care about.

because whether you are from a large city, or small town, or a large county with few people, or a small county with lots of people, you want your future generations to stay. you want them to come back. you want them to say, this is my special place. i want my children to have the same kind of experiences that you had when you closed your eyes about those special places. and that has something to do with how we create an environment around our cities. and a lot of that does have to do with parks and open spaces, and public lands. so when i was preparing for this, i asked a couple of my colleagues, you know what their special places were and what parks and open spaces meant for them. david jao who is here and led my youth initiative at the department of interior, who i brought with me from the outside world, rei, david is the only child of immigrant parents. and parks were where he learned

to speak english. so they were very important to him. emily, also here on my team, is in her mid-20s. and i asked her about that. she said she played in the creek. i can't remember if it was her house, or her grandparents' house, but played in the creek by the king of prussia in pennsylvania where she grew up. in her case there's a lot of development that's happened there. a lot of retail. actually, the rei looks at putting a store because of a retail magnet. but the places like the hobo jungle where i used to play it's all now apartment buildings, it's all been developed. and yet when i made a decision about where to live after college, i looked at quality of life. i ended up in a rural community in oklahoma because i started my career in the oil business. what do we do from there besides going to football game, since i hadn't gone to football games since i went to high school but football is big in oklahoma, so that's what you do. i also went to the wichita mountains, that's when i came

face to face with some texas longhorn cattle while i was out there. i saw lots of lizards and reptiles. the first time i put my feet in the stream, i realized they had leaches there. it's nature. the buffalo river in arkansas was not a long drive. that's where we went to recreate. we went to denver and it was about the rocky mountains and skiing. it was also about theater and life in the community. we moved back to seattle. family is always going to be the most powerful tug that we have. but these are special places. and i think that for all of us as we think about how do we create a future for our families, where they choose to live by us, i'm going back to seattle after this job. i had my first biological grandchild and two step grandchildren, so i know i'm going back there. the tug is very strong.

but what is it that's going to attract your kids to come back to your communities. that's something that i think is very relevant to what the national league of cities is doing right here and doing actually with the department of the interior and the ymca. i also thought about where, when i was running rei, where did we open stores. we about doubled the number of stores over the 13 years i was there. and we put a store in place like greenville, south carolina. why? because greenville is turning its face to the river and embracing its river, which it used to turn its back to the river as many communities did. it made the community more livable. it put parks along that river. and it's very inviting. an eagle scout did a project where there was little brass mice hidden all around greenville. it gets you outdoors, and you see these shops and you buy yourself a doughnut which i did, and that's what makes these communities livable. when you are a business person like i was at rei, you think

about that. pittsburgh, which turned a brownfield site into a great retail complex. and for a city that had turned its back to the river, in fact the river had been a dumping ground as so many rivers were particularly in the east, but really all over the country it turned its face to the river. it put a bike path along the river. rei put its store where people could test out their bikes on the bike path. you have control over the liveability of your city. parks and open spaces and communal areas and community activities really help define quality of life in our communities. and they help distinguish one community from the other. but we all have a challenge. and that is that children are growing up more disconnected from nature than ever before. the millennial generation, young adults, say age 18 to 33 they're a larger generation than a baby boom by more than 3 million. they've grown up very scheduled.

they've grown up trying to jug will competition between schoolwork, which was pretty intense for them, organized youth sports, sometimes which went year long. television, video games, which are a powerful draw. and very little time exploring the natural world on their own. parents were afraid, afraid of strangers. chastised by other parents for letting their kids walk home from school alone. all of those things that many of us did, and thought it was normal. today's kids are not getting to do. and yet it is those kinds of activities that help bring -- build creativity, build independence, build self-confidence. so at the department of interior we launched a youth initiative, david, my colleague, is running it. it's working with all the bureaus of the department of interior to say let's be the solution here. first step let's let children play. how about that. [ applause ] let's let them play.

i was at a tribal school i've been to a lot of native american schools here lately as we work to transform the education. i'll get down with little kids and say, what's your favorite part of school? inevitably they say, recess yeah. which i get. that was my favorite part, too. but play is the first step. letting kids play. giving them the time and space to play and not telling them what to do. but also when they're playing they are playing in, i think the finest classroom in the world. and that is the classroom that has no wall. that is mother nature. of course, that can be nurtured and supported by adults. adults like my colleagues in interpretation, education at the national park service or the fish and wildlife service. it can be a schoolteacher that goes through the teacher/ranger/teacher program, taking what they learned in the summer back to the classroom.

it is a place to learn. so let kids play. let them learn in the outdoors. and let's let them serve. i say that because i've done hundreds of service projects all over the country. when rei opened a store, we would go do a service project. in pittsburgh we got kayaking and floated the river and picked up garbage on the river. in martin luther king, during the holiday we went down with 450 people many of them young many of them from the community around the river in southeastern d.c. and we picked garbage up out of the river and cleared brush so the bike path, which is beautiful, felt more safe. and i guarantee you, every one of those children felt a connection to that place than they never had before. and felt a pride in that place that was going to change their behavior themselves toward garbage and littering and cycling and open spaces, and enabled them to help change that behavior in their friends.

play, learn, serve. and some of them are going to want to work in jobs like mine. and jobs like your parks and rec folks. and wildlife biologists. and scientists that understand the natural world. and we need them. we need them in every level i suspect, of government. 40% of my employees will be eligible to retire within five years. so who's going to replace them? 40%. it's not easy right now to sign up for public service as you know. people aren't clamoring to go work for the federal government. i can tell you that. because we've done a pretty good job of putting down federal employees. and yet they are so critical to what we do. that's what we're doing in interior. and the national league of cities has your cities promoting access to nature projects. and thank you for that. thank you so much for working with the jpp foundation, raising $2 million. helping each other figure out what works. because at a local level that is, like it was for me, oftentimes people's first experience to nature.

the president announced just three weeks ago when he was in chicago, announcing the pullman national monument that we were launching every kid in a park. and that was focusing on 4th graders and giving every 4th grader and their families a free pass to national parks and other public lands that have fees. so we're going to wlendblend that with the program that you have with the effort we've got going collectively. and we will collectively get every kid in a park. because that will shape their lives in a really positive way. and it will shape the way they think about your communities, so that they will choose to come back there and live if they go away to school. so it's about partnerships in this time when there's not enough money to go around. how many of you have plenty of money for your parks and open spaces? okay. i don't see a single hand. okay. that's kind of what i figured. and yet when you put bond

issues, parks bond issues, open space bond issues on your ballots, how many of you have had a pretty good experience with those? certainly not everybody, but people love their parks and their open spaces. so how do we get creative and smart about how we spend our money? and one of the things that we are doing is partnering with you. last april mayor becker who i will say early in his career, was a park ranger at grand canyon national park. and -- yes, give him a hand for that. [ applause ] and st. paul mayor at the time was the head of this organization chris coleman, who did his summers during college as a bartender and a waiter at glacier and grand teton glacier national park and grand teton national park. so it's probably no coincidence that they are great partners for us, and perhaps leading this organization too. [ applause ]

because they care about these places. these special places that make the united states stand out among countries around the world. you hiked in the alps there is no wildlife. you can get a beer on the trail. that's kind of nice. maybe a warm fluffy bed. but there's no wildlife. we have something that's very different. our crown jewels are our national parks our public lands, our historical places, our history our culture. they are the blend of the small and the big and the pride that we have in who we are and our individuality, but also our commonality. so in the announcement in september, with mayor becker and mayor coleman, we had neil nichol, the president of the ymca of the usa. and i will tell you in advance that i've been talking to him for years. at the time he said we serve 6

million children a day in day care. we've got very few programs. we have 9 million people under the age of 18 that are members of the ymca who do day camps and summer camps with us. we have 40000 young people that we employ in our camps. and we have over 500,000 volunteers that serve every day. we thought, bingo let's work together where we have cities that really want to support parks and open spaces we have the ymca that can help harness volunteers and is already serving a lot of young people and you've got the federal government and the department of interior in specific with 20% of the land in the united states, and let's blend these things together and see if we can make magic together. and that's exactly what we're doing. so we are launching later on this week the beginning of a 50 cities campaign, which is taking strong federal presence strong

support from the local community, and strong ymca leadership. we are blending that with the financial contribution we're going to be announcing later this week that will fund it to get many many more kids out playing in parks and open spaces. and while 50 cities is a small subset of what's represented in this room, what i know we're going to do is learn. we're going to learn what works. the national league of cities is going to teach us what works. and we're going to do a better job by working together. so we have a memorandum of understanding together. the national league of cities is going to be providing great technical assistance. the ymca is going to be orchestrating a lot of these efforts. and we are out raising private money to do it. we've got support already for many of our programs to engage young people in service on public lands through companies like the outfitters and coca-cola, and the north face and a big announcement coming later on this week. and what it says is, we don't have to do it all on our own budgets. we don't have to do it all with

our own employees. we can do it by working together in partnership. we can be so much more together than we are apart. so i want to thank the leadership of the national league of cities. to clarence, mayors becker and coleman, and all of you, for stepping up and showing us the way with the work that you're doing. and recognizing -- yes, let's give you guys a round of applause for that. [ applause ] recognizing that we want our young people to stay. we want our young people to come home. we want them to build careers and raise their families, and have as much fun growing up as we did. and we all have work to do. but if we do it well, it will be the gift that keeps on giving. because young people will have a connection to a place that will never leave them. communities will be more fun and more livable. they'll create an environment where people will want to raise

their families. and that will build on itself. so i just want to end by saying thank you for your leadership. thanks for standing up for these things that make your communities more livable. thanks for giving us a chance a big federal bureaucracy to work collectively with the private sector to make this happen. we want to be your partners. thank you. [ applause ] tonight on "american history tv," a ford theater symposium on abraham lincoln's life and legacy. talking about lincoln's dreams of death. steven goldman discusses troops. also jerry alford on lincoln's assassin, john wilkes booth. all of this coming up tonight on american history tv on c-span3.

here are some of our featured programs for this holiday weekend on the c-span networks. on c-span saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, former texas state senator and gubernatorial candidate wendy davis. on the challenges facing women in politics. and easter sunday at 6:30 p.m. eastern, golfing legend jack niklas receives the congressional gold medal for his contributions to the game and community service. on c-span2's book tv saturday night at 10:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, actor and author cornell west on the radical thinking of martin luther king jr. sunday at noon on in-depth our live three-hour conversation with former investigative reporter for the "washington post" and "new york times" best-selling author ronald kezler. he's written 20 books, including escape from the cia, the sins of the father, and the first family detail.

and on "american history tv" on c-span3, saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, on "lectures in history," east carolina university professor emeritus charles calhoun on the obstacles and accomplishments of ulysses s. grant. and historian patrick schroeder takes us on a tour of appomattox courthouse courthouse. national journal recently hosted a series of panel discussions at the museum to talk about immigration and ongoing effect on the demographics of cities and communities around the country. next the mayors of los angeles, aurora, colorado salt lake city, and anaheim, california, discuss how their cities are addressing issues of immigration.

good afternoon. i'm vice president at national journal. i would like to welcome all of you, this is a new setup for us as well as those watching our live stream video at national journal.com to today's town hall. next america population 2043. this event is presented with support from emmerson collective. just a couple of notes of housekeeping before we get started. one, we would love for you to silenceure cell phones but please don't put them away. we would love you to tweet your comments and questions on this event at #nj next america. if you would like to use the wi-fi network, the access code is museum guest. and there is no password. we will also have q&a after each portion of the event. we have standing microphones throughout the room. please state your name and your

organization if you have questions. just a quick overview of the topic today. america is experiencing one of the largest demographic shifts in american history. diversity is deepening, both in cities where it has already been well established, as well as in communities where those currents have not previously been seen. the nation's demographic shifts are creating challenges and opportunities for communities as they grapple with these issues. despite washington gridlock and polarization on immigration issues, state and local leaders are addressing this issue. and in dozens of cities, mayors and local leaders are debating these topics and creating solutions to immigration that could create blueprints for the rest of the country. first we will have mayor eric barseti sit down with ron brown steen brownstein for a key note interview. and a conversation with mayors.

that will feature mayor ralph becker. mayor steve hogan, and mayor tom kate. following that will be immigration and diversity in communities across the country panel. and to close the program we will hear from our immigration in the new year expert panel. i'd now like to introduce ron brownstein and mayor eric barseti. ron brownstein is a two-time finalist for the pulitzer prize and editorial director. joining ron is mayor eric barseti who is the 47th mayor of los angeles whose back to basics agenda is focused on job creation and solving everyday problems for l.a. residents. >> thank you all for -- [ applause ] >> thank you for joining us for the relaunch of play house 90.

i'm not sure. the mayor, who is in fact my mayor, i am a constituent these days -- >> good choice. >> thank you. i want to ask you a little bit to start talking a little bit about the executive order the executive actions the president is pursuing on immigration. there are a lot of political, legal, logistical challenges some of which i want to talk about in a few minutes. one thing we know already is that southern california is right at the epicenter of where -- in fact, los angeles by the estimates have significantly more people than anybody else who would be eligible for this executive order roughly half a million, depending on the estimate. before we get to the challenges of making this work let me ask you, if this does go into effect, what will change in the city of los angeles? >> well, if this goes into effect it will be a huge boon for us economically socially in terms of public safety. i think we should ask ourselves

as americans right now, a head heart and gut check. would we be smart good and brave? in a city like los angeles if this country manages to see this through, and maybe even some greater steps for immigration, this is a very important temporary and interim step, but not the final destination of full citizenship or american integration. we see an economic benefit, about $3 billion we estimate just for the city of los angeles alone. >> $3 billion from what? >> increased economic activity, students that can get scholarships, get the college degrees, graduate degrees. basically the boon to our economy to the entrepreneurship and education and economic benefits that come from full citizenship. >> california in general has passed a series of laws driver's license, in-state tuition, access to financial aid in-state. already pretty welcoming environment for people who are

undocumented. what in practical terms do you think will be different in the way people live their lives? >> let me chal enone piece. you're right more welcoming. i think for a lot of folks there is still a lot of fear out there. while they might hear something from local government or state government, i think there's still a climate of fear that if we come too far out of the shadows, something bad will happen. even as we see a court challenge to the administrative relief right now, i think that's going to send tumblers across the nation, for folks who are right now sitting on the sidelines may not know -- may not speak english as a first language it is still somewhat of a scary environment. for us we're trying to make that less scary what do we do to get people full information, make sure they're not preyed upon as well. but we're looking at planning those partnerships across america. the best part of the state of the union last year the president said if you're a mayor or governor don't wait for washington to take action. we haven't been.

we've been coming together as coalitions of cities coalitions of municipal and state areas that can say, we have power to do things, even though the federal government has immigration policy, as its bailiwick, we can do things in the meantime with driver's licenses, with education, with our school system, community colleges and state schools. and in our public education system, as well as even offering pathways to entrepreneurship. in my town 44% of new businesses are started by aliens. >> i want to come back to the cities in a moment and what they're doing and what they might be able to do to make this work. before we do let me ask you one more thing about the ledger. you talked about the positives providing more people legal status. are there any down sides you can see? are there any costs in terms of increased public services increased competition for -- is there any way you can foresee tensions or pressures arising from a movement toward legal status? >> not in my city. it's opportunities for us both economically and socially as

well. what we wonder even as we're seeing our graduation rates rise in los angeles they're still too far behind. we don't have enough people who feel comfortable participating in the civic life of the city. so the social aspects i think far outweigh, and i'm being very honest when i try to think what are the negative effects, people are working anyway people are here anyway. the department of education say we have to educate the folks who are here anyway. cities don't have the luxury of being able to, you know, determine national policies. we have the obligation to make things work on the ground and that's what we're finding in l.a. >> let's talk about making this on the ground. you've been working with a coalition of cities around the country. one thing that is striking about this executive action is that although l.a. has many more potential eligibles than any other city, it is pretty well disbursed. you look the top 20 counties of

eligibility account for 40% of the total eligible. there's substantial numbers disbursed around the country that could benefit from this. what do you think it will take in large cities and small to have substantial takeup of the executive action? >> i think it requires a dedicated commitment at the municipal level, or the state level, to putting in the programs and the training and the personnel to make this happen. that doesn't have to mean additional cost. give you one example. in the city of l.a., we have something called cities of citizenships, together with mayor de blasio in new york, to help people get citizens and get advice on a whole range of immigration issues. that sounds really expensive to a mayor. we just took our librarians and there's one in every single neighborhood, from citi bank and foundations and others, and trained this cadre of immigration advisers who are

just librarians. they go to them for information all the time anyway to find out about jobs and schools. the librarians love it. we have had 10,000 go through this. they've filled out their paperwork, all of the things that allowed my city to get more money, stabilize -- you know, have more of a role in the economy to play. that was with existing resources. now that these other ten cities came onboard, we're trying to get a template. we've all got public libraries. we've all got school systems. our unified school district in los angeles, we're training a whole group of students administrators and teachers to identify students and their parents who will be eligible for administrative relief. what better army of folks who are willing to do that excited to do that and know these people better than anybody. >> certainly, one way to -- i mean, this is -- you have 5 million roughly 5.2 million potentially eligible around the country. it's a community that's not necessarily the easiest to reach. it is more accustomed to staying

out of the spotlight than walking into it. how important are the schools in the outreach and what do you specifically plan to do in l.a. around that? >> they're critically important. there's not one parent who doesn't care about his or her child or education. they're already engaged with the schools. even if they're engaged with no other civic activities. they'll go to parent night. we do it in spanish, in korean we do it in a multitude of languages. that's very important. you have to use also the language media of that group. but in the schools we're trying to figure out a way that we can institutionalize it, and actually the schools came to us as well. you've got all these students who care a lot about this issue. we see the fellow classmate who may or may not have documents and they want to be able to help them. and have them help their parents. i always said that students are the best environmentalists. they'll go home and tell their parents, why aren't you recycling? they'll take the trash out and sort it themselves. it's sort of the same thing with the immigration policy. parents working with less

education than their kids don't know the pathways, but teach the kids, and it changes the entire family's status. >> you've analyzed it from the city level what is the biggest potential bottleneck here? is it the outreach, legal help for the process, is it documentation? what are the biggest bottlenecks you see? >> so far it's the shear number. i mean to try to -- for instance, we're having now driver's licenses for everybody in the state of california. something our police chief supported, something that will make our streets safer. it was a good idea. in january we started that. just the shear number of people who are lining up to do that becomes a bureaucratic -- i think documentation hasn't been as difficult. but legal assistance is really critical, too. what you do have is a lot of people who will prey on folks saying, give me $1,000 i'll take care of this. they may or may not do it. they don't realize there's free, or low-cost legal assistance out

there. we've done a lot of workshops with our legal aid partners, public counsel who can help people sometimes fill out in these workshops the paperwork while they're there and before they leave. >> in terms of the outreach, is there someone in charge? >> yes. >> you have the cities, foundations, nonprofit groups working. is there a coordinated effort and how does that run? >> i started an office of immigrant affairs in my office. i wish more and more cities had that. mine is dr. linda lopez used to be a dean over the at the university of southern california. we have volunteers who are part of this folks working on their masters. this is an issue that is very hot. you don't lack for volunteers. but it does require having somebody who is a coordinator in place, with city hall. that reassures folks out there who may be fearful, that they will have some sort of protection, and then for the folks that are wondering whether

or not they have to play with you, oh it's the mayor, the mayor's office, now suddenly a librarian, everybody is eager to help. >> you have -- the country we have two recent press dents to engage the this community. one was daca which was seen as pretty successful and the other was the affordable care act which was much more difficult. even a state like california put a lot of money into hispanic outreach still ran into reluctant people to enter the process. any lessons you take from those two experiences about what it will take to make this work? >> yeah, i think it's very important, like i said to meet people where they are. not expect them to come someplace where you are, either geographically or conceptually. what do i mean by that? we have a great partners, for instance, our spanish language are networks who will not just give information out but

set up toll-free numbers people can call into. telemundo. and we've done the same with asian language media and others. and don't ever treat the immigrant community as one group. i mean you have to reach out to canadians, you have to reach out to armenians. you have to reach out to congolese. in a city like my own where we have over 100 countries of origin you can't leave anybody behind. what you find is a small reaching out to one or two leaders in the ethiopian community and suddenly the network that those groups have are very tight and they will pass that information along. but probably nobody's ever reached out to them. >> speaking of health care are you confident that the federal government will hold up its own or have you been briefed? do you have a sense there is a plan to implement this that will function smoothly. >> we feel good. and we actually had -- i think when you asked me to compare the two, our health care experience was quite good in los angeles. we need more young people but that is not so much the immigrant community. we need more young people,

especially of color, to get that health care. we all think when we're young we're invincible. so we've done outreach in the latino community and african-american community. so we have folks out saying you can get sick and health care is a good thing. and we have immigrant community and the lesson there is, if you can touch people on one issue they care a lot about, give them information about other things too. so we've taken all of our city. just like i said with our library, if someone comes in for tax preparation we might tell them about after-school programs like daca and dapa. and how to open up a bank account and qualify that. and if their family needs mental health counseling. i hope we have a time of lesser resources and a recognition that families live all these problems at once. if you're going to attack poverty and see economic development, you have to cluster these things together. one-stop shopping essentially for government services. serve them instead of serving ourselves. >> in terms of clustering

together you talked about it before. california's done a number of things already in state law relating to the undocumented. what are the policies you think are necessary, if any, to wrap around the federal law to create the maximum impact in this community? what are some of the things you think city answer states should look at doing? >> i think if you want massive civic participation either in a selfish way for folks to help their status or to participate more widely in the community first you have to address the fears that people have so things -- we took a policy that ice detainers without a judge we would not respect anymore. if you have a legitimate judge saying there is a bad criminal and we need you to detain, we'll still do that. but these random ones sending fear into the community, you have to establish first i think something which people feel safe. secondly you have to let people know you are there. and you will be close to whether they are. you'll hit them at the school. you'll hit them at the library. you'll hit them at the dmv

when they are getting driver's licenses and that is second. and third, really challenge them in the community step up more than getting something to also give something back. and we've found a whole leadership class government 101 and done it in korean and spanish and chinese and thai. and this is how you get laws passed at the local level. you want to park. you want something to change, take the next step. and that creates a whole army of folks within communities that can help other people come out of the shadows first again for these immigration changes but also for the civic life. that's the american tradition. that is my goal is to truly turn people into citizens. i don't want any more undocumented migrants in this country either. i want more citizens here. and in doing that we figure a pathway that can work. >> cities are coming together. there is alliance of cities. california is a place where you have a lot of potentially eligible people and a state government that is supportive of what you are doing. there are large eligible

populations in states where the city may be active in trying to bring in the eligible and sign them up, but the state may have a very different posture. i mean, some of the more conservative states have some of the more larger potential populations. arizona, texas, potentially florida. do you expect as you talk to your colleagues, do you think that cities will face any resistance and if they try to aggressively sign people up for the order from some of these state governments? >> i haven't seen a lot of state governments try to block them. but you're right. it can be incongruous where the state is pursuing a different path than cities. for instance, the 25, 26 states that have sued on administrative relief were looking to do an amicus brief of a bunch of cities to counteract. and many of our cities are larger than the states they're even suing. but it's interesting for us to look at the way we can coordinate things together. and i found in very red states, for instance, that there are republican-controlled legislatures and governors who

are doing better than some democrats in cities around the country because i think they understand that this is an economic boon to their tate if they get this right. there are some places that may but i think the loudest voices still come from washington against that. though i really do feel like the issue of gay marriage is becoming the shrinking minority. >> let's talk about the litigation and politics. the house voted last week to block it. there is litigation which we'll come back to intended to stop it with 25 states participating. do you think that will have a significant or material effect on the willingness of people to come forward? might they fear it is contingent and -- >> i think it will have a great chilling effect. i think people will hear a court decision that may apply to certain the states. even if you don't live in that state you will think, well, it's not happening. and with it difficult to get enough people to come out even for people who qualify for citizenship who are here legally, whenever these

things happen, the unintended consequence is people just retreat back to where they are. we need more of those people qualified for citizenship today to become citizens but they see the court case and say, well no, not in this country, no, not now. every step back though there is two steps forward and i feel like we're on the right side of history. partially because it is not new history. this is what the country was doing before. it's why i'm here and why so many of us are here in the audience. whether it's ourselves our parent, our grandparents, et cetera. i think america will return to its roots and no place can afford not to. >> if the 25 states are suing, if the court does rule in state's favor and issues an injunction against the federal government in those states or all states, that would not affect cities. >> so would l.a. continue its work, outreach and planning if there is injunction against the federal government? >> absolutely we would. >> and your conversation with

other mayors. >> we can't afford not to. the choice of not moving forward places us in a place again, which say that head heart and gut thing. we have the guts to do this, to be brave. in our hearts we want to be good. i mean, whether it was the images of folks surround buses of unaccompanied mining fors and regardless of where you were on the issue and i reminded people, can we be parents first or a human being first? i would send no child across that border but if a child had gotten across that border what's more ellen tall than trying to find your parents and most important we have to be smart. we have a coalition of folks here. tom tate is a great mayor in anaheim right next door to me. he's republican, i happen to be a democrat. and we're both bipartisan guys. we see the importance of serving all offer people. and if we can't move forward with this, you're assigning us a worse economic condition, worse criminal justice system and less safe streets and less prosperity for everybody. >> so just to be clear, even if the federal court temp rarelyrarily

stops the government, the work will continue at the city level. >> oh, yes. everything continues. the driver's license work, the i.c.e. detainer works. everything continues. we can't afford not to. >> do you have a goal. lovely 11 million in l.a. county. about half that in l.a. city. significantly more in southern california. in l.a. itself do you have a goal of what you think is reasonable to sign up over the next year or so. >> i'm striving for 220,000 which is the estimated population. if that takes us a series of years so be it but we're putting the resources behind this. it pays us back many times over every time we get somebody fully integrated. so it makes business sense and >> you alluded to this before but cities may intervene in the litigation on the side. >> we're looking to do an amicus brief and have a lot of other cities who stepped up saying

they want to be apart of it too. we don't have local government or the federal part of the government saying, oh, we're against this. because if just a few voices decided to challenge we think we can get a coalition of cities much larger and that is an important counterbalance for any court. especially they may win this first round judging by what i've heard about the court it is in. but it will be appealed and it's very important for americans to speak up and out and for cities to be the voice of all americans. >> are you confident that ultimately the federal government does have the authority do -- >> i think so. again, i said in political terms i think history is on our side. if we need to see the progress come through changes in laws as well at the federal level it is only a matter of time because it makes sense across the board. you know, seven out of the ten top new companies started in this country were started by immigrants or children of immigrants. i gave you the stats of 44% of your new businesses in the city of l.a. if we become a place seen as anti-immigrant or shutting off that valve, i was sharing with you a story. i just cam