to be offered. postal service is going to the mailboxes. it is a nice bit of service for the postal service. this he can help fly and move some of the postal service's products around the country. one hand sort of washes the other. on the issue of everybody -- a lot of people keep coming back to and it's the issue of this unflooded liability for retiree health care. and the question is, is it real liability? i think it is. and my last year as governor we just -- we grou upew up with on -- not fedex, but a meeting with the folks from moodies, standard and poor and fitch trying to get a aaa credit rating. and we had done eight years balanced budgets, paid down some

of our debt. strong employment numbers. and we went really made the case my last year as governor for triple-a credit rating. and lowe and and behold, we got aaas. we still have it. they said to us at the time, they said you have a liability that you're not addressing. and i said what is that? and they said we used to have -- when i became state treasurer we had no money in our pension fund for employees, for our retirees, none. we used to sell revenue anticipation of the taxes and revenue anticipation to raise money to be able to pay -- make pension checks every month. and we fixed that. fully funded in ten years. but they said you have all this big liability for health care and you not set aside any money. you said you need to do something about that. they still gave us a aaa rating. and we tried to address that.

it's a real liability. but in order to get president bush to sign into law postal legislation, we had to not only recognize that liability but they had to pay it off over ten years. which is i don't know of any company in america that has been asked to do something that aggressively. when you look at the liability the money that the -- the money that postal service pays into medicare trust fund is greater i believe, than any other employer in america. they pay more money into medicare trust fund than any other employer. they don't get full value for what they pay. and most postal retirees 65 and over sign up for part a. majority sign up for part b. i think almost none sign up for med medicare part d. so the postal service is by

overpaying into medicare they're subsidizing competitors so they can underpay. and my wife required from dupont when she was 65. folks at med quar reached out to her and said, turned 65, she still looks 45, they said you have to sign up for medicare part a., b. d. and they signed her up and the post office can't do that and that is one of the things we can do to fix this issue. to still have the liability and it still must be met but level the playing field and that is part of our enabling responsibility. let me ask a question that i've -- after that diatribe there. let me ask a question about the post office used to try to reduce costs while maintaining fast and reliable service and here is the question how would you, as a member of the board of

governors, try to find the right balance on this challenge maintaining fast and reliable service and growing your business? it is a little bit like the question i asked the rear admiral? >> i think it is the responsibility of all businesses to keep their costs as low as possiblement possible. i also have a strong belief that you cannot cut costs and make yourself successful in the long run. you have to grow revenue. so the concept that we can cut our costs to become profitability, while i believe it is important to cut costs to me is a doomed strategy. you need to be able to look at a growing business to be successful.

and if you can't do that, then cutting costs works in the short run. but you can only cut it so far. and what inevitably costs and it starts effecting the service and the sales go down even more. so my view is absolutely pay attention to costs, be as efficient as you can, but it is not a successful business strategy in and of itself. you have to have a treat that draws the top line. >> one of the things mr. shapira and i talked about on the phone was one of the three round tables that we talked about and we invited people to come in from the post office and other walks of life from the post office and we said what are your ideas and i was delighted to hear how much creative ideas

there are and this was just scratching the surface. it can't just be cut, cut, cut. i think they have reduced by half of the part-time employees and they reduced by half and -- by a third the number of full time post offices around the country and down right-sizing and now there are ways to help them in pays like the preretirement pension to make it fair. but we have some great opportunities and we're going to have to fun fixing this and i look forward to doing that. and one of the best things i learned in life was from my failures and not so much from my successes. and we've all had failures. and when you look at the dissolution and the bankruptcy of your company's former subsidiary, was it farmer --

could you give us onnia of what you -- idea of what you learned from that that might be applicable from here. >> i learned so much from that it would take me an hour. >> well, we don't have that long. >> well, first place i agree with you. i've come to the conclusion, if one is looking at success, however one might define it, that the biggest successes come from having failures and then recovering from them. and one of the things i learned from the farmor debacle, can't call it anything other than that -- was that you can recover. you have to fight your way out of any problem you are and you have to take the lessons that you learn from that and apply them as you go forward in the

future. so just as an example, farmor's failure which not only bankrupted farmor but came close to bankrupting giant eagle as well caused giant eagle to become a much more focused on the bottom line cutting assets and cutting debt and being a much more secure and safe company. so i don't have any doubt that having gone through farmor that that changes the way we managed giant eagle. the second thing i learned, which as an accountant, senator you will know this, one of the things you're always looking for is fraud. and every accountant i've ever talked to, when you talk about fraud, they say if you get a conspiracy of just a few key people it is very hard to

detect. and that is actually what happened at farmor. the whole conspiracy was four people. and so one of the things that i have become more vigilant about since then is looking at the financial statements looking at how they pulled off the fraud at farmor and asking is there anything that is going on in our current company that issing in-- that is something like that? and i've taken that and applied it in a larger sense whenever i am, as a director or a chief executive. whenever somebody goes wrong in a company that is like ours, the first thing i do is i call in the top executives and i say,

first thing is thank god is wasn't us and second place, let's find out what happened and why it happened and are we vulnerable to that. the last thing i learned -- well i learned lots of things, but i've often wondered to myself how did i survive that crisis. i was the chief executive. it was a natural question to ask. did you know? should he have known et cetera? and i know myself when you read about one of the frauds the first thing everybody thinks is the chief executive must have known. i didn't know. i was the one that discovered the fraud, actually. but what i learned is the most important thing is to really be totally honest and open all of the time. and to make sure that when there

is bad news, that you don't make any effort to hide it and that it comes from you. and i think taking that and applying it to the situation at the post office, there is a lot of bad news at the post office. and i think we ought to recognize the bad news and we ought to try and figure out -- i mean, you're never going to deal with it unless you recognize it and then we ought to come up with plans to say this situation is bad, that situation is bad, how are we going to deal with it? and to me, if you identify what the problems are no matter what people's going in assumptions are, if you can get them to understand the problems, you can generally get them to agree on solutions, assuming there are

solutions. but the solutions are often very tough. and require changes that a lot of people don't want to make. so if you want to accomplish those kinds of changes people have to have a shared understanding of the problem. >> thank you very much mr. -- mr. president and general, we've been blessed by the testimony of two nominees that i think are exceptional and i close where i start off and we're lucky that we're willing to do this and cindy is willing to give you up to seven the people of our country. and last thing to say the slaegs that dr. coburn and i worked on focused on innovation and foster and encourage innovation and the other people nominated as presidents to serve a couple of them are good on the

innovative front as well and i hope the legislation that we pass foster innovation and that we'll have a chance to work with you on that and frankly the rest of us. i went way over my time. thank you for your patience mr. chairman. >> thank you mr. carper. i'll tell you one thing right off the bat, the solutions for the post office and the fiscal solutions for this country will not be easy. so i want to thank you for again coming here for your testimony, your willingness to serve. thank you for being an example of a great american. someone serving your community and your state and your nation by doing what americans do. aspiring building something, building something successfully with some adversity. unfortunately in today's society we too often demonize and demo god people and we need to

celebrate success and i celebrate it with you and i want to thank your wife for being by your side here in this service. so again, look forward to moving this nomination through as quickly as possible so we can get the board of governors operating under regular order. they have filed responses to bio graphical and answered questions and had financial statements reviewed. without objection, this information and my written opening statement will be immediate part of the hearing record on file and available for public unspecks at the community offices. this hearing will remain open until tomorrow june 11th, '12:00 p.m. for submission of statements and questions for the record. this hearing is adjourned. >> senator thank you very much. >> you're welcome.

wlr . coverage continues tomorrow when donald trump announces his decision whether to run for president. can you see that live at 11:00 a.m. on c-span 3.

like many of us, first families take vacation time. and like presidents and first ladies a good read can be the perfect companion for your summer journeys. what better book than one that peers inside of the personal life of every first lady in american history. first ladies presidential historians on the lives of 45 iconic american women, inspiring stories of fascinating women who survived the scrutiny of the white house. a great summertime read. available from public affairs as a hard cover or e book from your favorite online store or book seller. actor and screen writer matt dillon talk about his trip to myanmar formerly called burma and talked about the plight of the muslim community there in washington, d.c. it discusses on the row hincka

muslim group, they have been stateless since they were denied citizenship rights despite living in myanmar for years. they are separated from the rest of society. this is about an hour. >> welcome to the national press club. my name is john hughes i'm an editor for bloomberg first word, the breaking news desk here in washington and i'm president of the national press club. our guest today is actor and screen writer matt dillon who will be joined by michelle gabowd an, president of refugee's international. and now i want to introduce katia clem sifta and she helped organize this event. thank you so much. and i also want to welcome our c-span and public radio

audiences. follow the action on twitter. and even though it is not lunchtime. we are using the #n pc lunch. so all of you in twitter land, the hash tag is n pc lunch. now you might remember matt dillon as the star of the francis ford coppola film the outsiders and if you do you might say his appearance with us today is appropriate. 35 years into his acting career dylan is turning his attention and our attention to a group of people who are among the world's ultimate outsiders. the row henga muslims of myanmar. so dillon recently visited the tate and spent two days touring a refugee camp that tens of thousands of row henga muslims

call home. no country claims these people. the row henga have been stateless for centuries. they are descendants of people who live in what is now bangladesh. they are unwanted both in the land of their distant ancestors and in myanmar. this decade the plight of the row henga turned from statelessness to persecution. long simmering tensions between the buddhists and the poor muslim neighbors have exploded into violence. mobs armed with machetes have killed hundreds of row henga proximating more than 100,000 to flee. many thought they would find freedom through traffickers who instead left them for dead floating on ricketing boats on

the sea or in near boats in malaysia and thailand. this might tempt us to look away. but matt dillon is making it his mission to make sure that we do not look away. speaking to the press after his recent visit to the refugee camp, dillon said, i quote no one should have to live like this. they are being strangled slowly. they have no hope for the future. and nowhere to go. dillon is no stranger to refugee issues. he sits on the board of refugees international. accompanying him here today is michelle gabaudan. she has served as the president of refugees international since september of 2010 and he works to help refugees and displaced people worldwide.

now dillon, when he is not helping refugees, has continued an actor career and those have included movies such as "beautiful girls a personal favorite of mine. wild things, there is something about mary and city of ghosts. he picked up an oscar for his role in "crash" selected as the best picture in 2006. he is starring in m knight shamma lan's way pard pines. join me in giving a warm welcoming press club welcome to matt dillon. [ applause ] >> thank you. thank you. i want to thank you. that was a lovely introduction. and i want to thank katia and

everybody here at the national press club for hosting michel and myself. the row henna of myanmar are currently the largest stateless ethnic group in the world. estimated somewhere over 100 million -- i'm sore, 1 million people. at least a million people. and having served on the board of refugees international for the last seven years, i've obviously heard about the ro henna during that time and they've been a great concern going as far back as the early early '90s, but maybe even longer, but it was six weeks ago here in d.c. that the row henna really got my attention.

tune kin, a human rights activist for his fellow was being honored at a refugee's international event and he made a powerful speech. there was an urgency that you don't typically hear from somebody at an awarded ceremony. it was more of an immediate desperate plea than someone sevening a -- accepting an award for something they've done in the past. and the first words out of his mouth were, i don't exist. i learned later at the moment he was making that speech, many row henna were soufruffering, thousands, and dying at sea. my decision to go to myanmar was kind of a spontaneous thing. it wasn't something i planned. i was in tokyo doing press for wayward pines and at that time there was more -- more stuff

coming out about the row henna in the news. pictures -- horrendous pictures of people crammed into hulls of boats like human cargo, stories of human trafficking as was mentioned earlier and ships turned away by countries in the ruthon and i wanted to find out more about why these people were being forced to flee. i'd been on missions before with refugees international and i had met and spoke with displaced people and in the eastern congo and in the sudan and i feel that the best way to learn about what is going on is to go there and see it for yourself. so i called michel and i said i'm thinking about going to burma to visit the camps and what do you think? and he said matt, i think it

would be good. but it won't be easy. because a number of ngos, like msf have been chased out of the camps. it is never a good sign when msf gets chased away. but he said by all means if you can go do it and i think you can make a difference and make sure you take a lot of pictures. so i decided to go under the radar. i met up with a few journalist friends living in the region who are more familiar with the crisis than i am. and we went to sitway together which is the main city in the state. and as many of you might know, the row henga muslims are an ethnic minority. the vast majority of people live tlg are buddhist, who are themselves an ethnic minority within the country of myanmar. in the two days we were there we

visited four displaced idp camps. i was told don't that. i'm not good with acronyms but i get one and i like it. so displacement camps and one just outside of the maintain of citiway and many of the -- many of the inhabitants there, many of the people living there were forced to live there after their homes were destroyed in outburst of ethnic violence over the last three years. the first impression when you visit the camps right away is -- right away is that nobody -- nobody would live there if they had a choice. it's hot, dry there is no trees. people we meet seems to be thoroughly defeated. young men whose spirits were broken. you could see that in their eyes. shake hands with somebody and

there was a politeness but they immediately look down defeated. there were signs of malnutrition among the children. we met people who tried to escape unsuccessfully and spent several horrific months at sea starved and beaten and only to be returned to pay a ransom and lost everything and ended up back in myanmar. there were others whose homes were burned to the ground and watched neighbors being murdered as the police did nothing to stop it. during the two days that we were there, we didn't see any aide workers in the camps. there were signs that they were there. there were plenty of well structured latrines and things like that but we didn't see anybody and that was a lit bit -- a little bit strange because i'd been in refugee camps before and i didn't see

anybody. i didn't visit all of the camps and gep i was only there for a few days. but from what i understand the ngo's are not having a easy time working in the region. the health clinic in the community serviced about 30,000 people with one doctor who comes four days aweek for about two hours a day. so this -- i mean, this is just not enough, obviously. it says a lot about the desire to help theme people. the conditions in the camps are bad, obviously not good. but from what i've been told the situation in the northern part of the state is much worse where the apartheid like conditions are more blatant and you cannot visit easily. you have to go by boat and again the government doesn't want you going there. and this is where 90% of the row

henna live unlike the sitway region to the south, the population is lls entirely row henna but they are treated as second class citizens and completely controlled by the police. i didn't get to go there. it is not easy to access. back in sitway, the last row henna neighborhood in the town is called ang minglar. no one is allowed to enter there. the people that live there are prisoners. their economic life has been shut down, they have no access to services if they want to get out, they have to pay a bribe. and in appearance, as you are driving through, it appears to be like other residenceal streets except there are barbed wire and we don't know what is

going on inside because it is forbidden to enter. i tried to enter it knowing it is off limits and i was stopped by a policeman who was really just a kid and insisted i leave repeatedly and he didn't want me taking pictures. and this went on for a while, he putting his hand in front of my camera and me playing dumb and telling me i have to go and i got the point when i truck pulled up with more police with guns so we left. mingler is a neighborhood that is blocked off and it is literally like the polish ghetto under the nazis where people are contained, trapped. and this is an area of concern. talking to michel and folks at human rights watch, that -- that is an area of concern that if the violence flares up again as it has in the recent past, that

this ang mentionlor will bear the brunt of the violence. the people living there are trapped and they are like sitting ducks where they are. so with all of the news out there about the rowe henga being turned away at sea it has taken the heat off the myanmar government and turned it more into an international issue. a few weeks ago there were media reports that the myanmar navy had intercepted a ship holding 600 refugees off the shore. and the navy then secretly off loaded all of the row henna refugees in myanmar that was the majority there were 300 to 400 row henna refugees they were off loaded in secrecy back in myanmar and then the ship -- the navy escorted the remaining refugees to bangladesh, the

migrant workers. and when they arrived they proved to the international community, hey, look, there are no refugees from myanmar on the ship, you know. and they gave credence to the assertion they are bengali not from myanmar and they don't use the word row henga, they don't acknowledge it exists. they were praised by the state department and the u.n. for the rescue. however, it didn't -- it doesn't really hold water because for me, because i met and spoke to several people who were on that ship including one row henna woman who was desperate to escape with her four children who told us how men boarded the ship and ordered everyone from sitway to get off the boat and the row henna were brought to shore. well over 100,000 row hepga have

taken to the seas in a hopeless attempt to escape myanmar. and the woman with the four children told me she would do it again if she could. despite of three months of misery while she waited it out in the bay of bengal. the traffickers won't leave with the bigger ships until they are filled to the brim. that is when -- it is a horrible situation. young people are tricked into coming on the ships promised a better life. and so she suffered like this out there. but she said she would do it again if she could. that is how desperate the situation is there. it is kind of mind-boggling. and the reason that this is happening and will continue to happen is because the people -- the row henga are stateless and they are unrecognized by the

government, the myanmar government. despite the fact they have been born and raised there and living there for many generations longer than my descendents have been living in this country in many cases. so in 1982, a law was enacted stripping row henna of citizenship and debbieing them basic services, right to health care, education and the right to vote. there are clear sinces of ethnic cleansing. they aren't permitted to travel. they need to get permission to marry. a new law just passed requiring a gap of three years between child birth. which maybe that is not such a bad thing but in this particular thing -- case it is obviously -- it's an indication of ethnic cleansing a way of controlling the population. so coming from that source, it is a bad thing.

if people choose to do that we learn that when i was in south sudan, that is one of the things they try to encourage people, when they are struggling in the camps and the situations, it is hard enough to take care of one child, let alone -- so i understand that. but this is not that. this is a different thing. this is ethnic cleansing. and the feeling i was left with was one offo appreciation of people being trapped hopelessness with no options. but, in fact it isn't a hopeless situation. something can and must be done. and i look forward to hearing from michel on what can be done and then your questions as well. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you very much matt. and good morning.

now it has been widely reported upon the most visible and most recent manifestation of what has been a very long and dramatic or deal for the row henga and i'm grateful that matt went back to myanmar in sitway to see where the problem really was. because the boat crisis has given the impression which has been used by the myanmar government that it is an international crisis, which it is not. and when confronted with the accusation that -- that the result of persecution they say this is a result of violence and when we describe the conditions of the rowe henga in secret, it is not communal violence. anyone faced with violence will seek recommendation conciliation and find compromise and this is not happening. so your visit, matt, was important to give more profile to what is really happening there. i was myself there a year ago.

and the only thing i can say is things are getting worse. the situation today is of total segregation of row henga from the rest of the population. in the north, they cannot move without the village without authorization of the local police station. in sitway and around sitway they are locked in camps that are like ghetto where's aid is given is an ad hoc manner. there are tremendous difficulties to get there. it puts them in the position to beg the government to have more access and as they beg for more access they tone down the criticism of what is acceptable which is the detention in which these people are kept. we have talked about the restrictive policies. the government has enacted now an edict by which the word rowe henga is prohibited. they request the foreigners don't use that name and the rowe henga cannot self-identify and they only consider looking at them if they describe themself

as bengali which is an admission they are not from the country. the laws on marriage and children have been mentioned recently and the gov has withdrawn from those rowe henga who still had some documentation, they withdrew their documentation and now they say we are going to verify, how you verify people if you despoil their documents. we've seen in the country tremendous spread of hate speech promoted by a radical group of monks and that hate speech has been tolerated and even abetted by the government. the monk who promoted that has been promoted as a defender of the nation and there is no attempt to counter the hate speech. and that has spread well beyond the state to create an anti-muslim hysteria in the country and the most radical politician into the attitude to

sort of move the row henga out of their states. so they are faced now with permanent fear. and i remember talking to women who were just completely blind and said when is the next outburst of violence and are we going to survive it. fear, no hope for the children. the economy is completely stalled. the few who still had some homes in sitway were a sign to residents, they could not go out and they could not work and they are destroying their homes putting the wood on the side and selling the wood so they can move into the camps or take to the boats. so we are seeing small slow hemorrhaging of the rowe hinga people which is tant amount i believe, to ethnic cleansing. and if you want proof of that remember that after the vielts in 2012 the president told the

united nations the commissioner for refugees you can re-settle them all. so the president said take the million people out of this country, and of course the commissioner refused, but it did state quite clearly what the government wants. so what can we do? it is going to be a long process. because the relationship between the two community has been made so bad by these hate speech campaigns and the government has vetted that any process of reconciliation will be very long. immediately we want unfettered humanitarian access to the people in the camps and the people in the north so the very basic living conditions are improved. they have access to health, to education, and to minimum of activities that allow them to sustain livelihood. but we also want that -- that cannot be the only objective. if we only ask for humanitarian access we ask for better

temperature of people in detention and the international community cannot accept that. so we have at the same time to push for reversion of the narrative promoted by the government and countering the hate speech spreading out that is going to take some time. but the government has to take the lead on that. and we need to have slowly release the introduction of the movement that they have. and that is difficult. for the time being, they are scared to get out of the camps because they know that the violence erupts against them and nobody will defend them. you need to have straight instructions to police forces to the military that they have to protect the fundamental rights of whoever lives in this country. and eventually, we'll have move towards a process of reviewing the citizenship law and to re-establish full citizenship for the row henga but that will take some time it. will require a lot of

international pressure and sustained international pressure over the coming years. and one last word perhaps before we open for question, is that there are kind states are the second pour states in the country. there are kind themselves an ethnic minority, as matt said, that had legitimate grievances against the central governments and if these are not addressed, of course that will happen. and of course we'll see that they are all good here and all bad here but how do we engage and reduce the impact that the more radical politicians have on their population. a long process. the u.s. has been a leader in messaging the right thing to the government. the diplomatic messaging to date has had no effect and the challenge of the future is what are the next steps to consider to push the government into a much better attitude toward row

henga. and john, on these words, i would fall back to you. >> thank you so much, michel. so we're going to start with some questions about row henga and i think both of you will jump in on those. and then we'll pivot toward the end with some questions that i've gotten about matt and movies -- television. so matt i want to first ask you, and you can just come up, what got you interested in this cause? obviously there are so many causes you could devote your time to. why this one? >> well, i guess the question to the first one is refugees, refugees international that is one question which is -- that is a longer answer. i think with regards to the row

henna, rohingya but rohingya is what i heard when i was there was the speech that was made by tune kim and he spoke and it was a gripping speech that he made and it was different because it was so immediate and such desperation there and he came the next day and he addressed the board and i remembered feeling like i would like to help this guy somehow, if we could -- not help him but help his cause, the people there. because he seemed so desperate, you know. and then there was a lot of stuff coming out in the media with these ships being turned away, the human trafficking and the maskar aids -- mass car aids and i was in the region and this

was something i wanted to do. and refugees international it is a great organization and pleased to be a part of it. i've been on the board for seven years and working with them for longer. >> how did you get involved -- the board in the first place. >> well, richard holbrooke introduced me to the organization after -- robert denero introduced me to richard holbrooke. and i was -- i wrote and directed a movie i was trying to get bob to do it and it was set in cambodia and richard was fascinated by this because he spent time in the foreign service during the war and he said you have to come to one of our board -- our events. and i did. in new york. and i named a woman named eve yet who was an advocate an

amazing woman, an in spiring individual. so my -- that's how i got interested in r.i. i didn't join the board until years later. and i thought it was a powerful organization. and yvette died in a horrible accident in kosovo, her truck went off a cliff. she was doing some work reunited kosovo refugees with their families there on a mission for refugees international. and it was -- i was really heartbroken because i loved this woman. she was a great woman. so she kind of in spired me to get involved. and i'm glad i did. >> and this is for either of you, either or both. but is the ultimate solution with the rohingya to keep pressure on the myanmar

government? in other words is that the party that is in the best position to end this crisis? should the myanmar government be the focus? >> yes. for many reasons. first, there are two -- nobody knows exactly, but hundreds of thousands of row hengas in bangladesh, that they don't recognize, they live on the border in bad conditions and they don't want international aid to help them. nobody wants them. we know they've lived in myanmar, burma, for decades or centuries, some of them. they have all different history. and if you do accept that any country has the power to decide a section of its population it doesn't want what, sort of precedent do you create on this world. i think it is the problem of

myanmar and it will be complicated and have to be helped but they cannot be helped if they don't change the narrative and the language about these people. >> this is a question that was e-mailed into us. myanmar is now a hot spot for international tourism. this is bringing in desperately needed development, hard currency and retch to the country. why not hit them in the pocket book and launch an international call for a tourism boycott until the persecution of the row hengas is fully ended and they are accepted into the full fabric of the country as vital, valued and contributing members of the burm he's society and once this happens we hope tourists will flood into the country again. so what about that? some kind of tourism campaign like that? does that make any sense? anybody? >> well, i would just say that i

think any pressure -- i think that the international community can put on the myanmar government to -- to reinstate ultimately citizenship to these people, that any pressure that can be put on the government to meet these people's human rights, and ultimately change the stateless status, and give them citizenship has to been done and some pressure has to be put on them. i'm not sure about that. mash. michel, what do you think on that? >> well, since myanmar has opened up western countries have business and political

interests in myanmar and there are human rights and humanitarian considerations. so far the pressure on myanmar has been essentially aplieped by the u.s. government in diplomatic and whether it is the secretary of state, president obama, the assistant secretary of state for human rights and they went there and said all of the right things publicly and they probably say stronger things privately so the message has been right but the u.s. has been pretty much alone. the rest -- the european countries, the u.k. have been pretty subdued in addressing the issue of the rowe henga. now if diplomatic pressure does not work the second thing is do you reverse to sanctions being suspended, et cetera this is not for us to decide. this is the tools that the government has. and the u.s. cannot be alone in

addressing that. and right now the urgency is to have more governments toll the line with myanmar which is one of engagement and discussion and not of stratization but with firmer and firmer tools at their disposal. whether the tourist block or something can be done if it is not imposed by the government it will be difficult to be imposed by companies individually. >> this questioner said it seems like the current crisis came after myanmar started democratic reforms. do you see any connection between the events. that is one question. and the other question is, is the conflict based on religion? are they muslims living in a buddhist country and is that the root of much of the trouble? >> well what is happening with the opening up of burma and the

process of democracy is the whole periphery of burma except for the delta, is populated by ethnic minority groups, nonburma. almost all of them have had the issues with government over the past decades. with citizenship, there is an aspiration that they can have a better say in the political life and better returns in the economic life of the country. therefore, there has been more protests and more demands and because the government has lowered some of the strong-arm policies they had in the past these manifestations have become stronger. so i think somehow this is the result of the process of democracy. but what i would say is not acceptable is the language used against the row henga. now the fact that they are ethnically different, most of

the other ethnic groups in burma, are the typical berman stock. the rohingya are more of the indo stock and there is a different and there is a different in religion that may make the narrative more conflictive but it is not good reason enough. a lot of people tell you in the past communities have lived pretty peacefully. there have been tensioned in states for a long time that have been stalked by politicians and by some of the history but i think at the level of the villages, et cetera, there was a much better understanding. i think right now it is being used politically. and one of my fears is that the attempt of the government to try to passify the kind is on the back of row henga and this is something that should be denounced. >> matt, you are obviously

taking your message to the press. are you meeting with anyone else while you're in town and you visited the situation a couple of weeks ago do you have any plans to make any other visits or reach out to any other communities in working on this issue? >> not presently. no, not presently. i mean we're actually -- this is great to be able to carry the message here to the national press corp here. and we're trying to get the message out there. because it is something that is very difficult and vexing and it has been sort of under-reporting. the rowe henga, it something i've heard because i'm on the board of refugees international, but until i heard tune kim speak six weeks ago, i -- i had read

reports of people's villages being burnt to the ground and things like this -- very disturbing. so just wanting to -- i just want to get the message out there, of what i saw. and as far as meeting with anybody else, r.i., i know refugees international, the people better versed frankly in the crisis than i am, will be meeting with and have met with people on the hill and things like that. so that is happening. i'm not doing it while i'm here. because i have to get back to new york. actually we're going to do a few more -- you know, a few more appearances to talk about this crisis. >> michelle have you or your organization tried to reach out

to unsong soaky, the opposition leader, and tried to encourage her to speak out on this issue? >> she's the leader of the opposition and the nobel peace prize. we did field the question when she came to talk at u.c. a couple of years ago which she essentially dodged. she has since then declared she was primarily politician while the rest of the world sees her as a human rights advocate. so she declared herself. and talking for the rohingya is not going to earn you any votes in row henga. but by talking about chi, we divert the speech. we should talk about what the government should do. because it is the government that is responsible. she is not responsible for the policies. the government is responsible. we should address the issues with the government. if she gets into government we'll talk about her then,

perhaps. >> this questioner said myanmar has a long tradition of driving ethnic minorities to become refugees. . in fact more than 100,000 refugees remain in refugee camps in thailand and some have been there there for more than 30 years. do you think their long stay in thailand have left the thai government less reluctant to respond to the rohingya? >> well the thais have received refugees in the hundreds of thousands since -- since the chinese crisis in the mid-70s so i think they are worried to be seen as a country where everybody can find refuge. so it is a factor perhaps in their weariness about the current movements.

>> matt we have some questions about your career. and right now you are starring in wayward pines. which this question air said is a modern day twin peeks. is that a fair comparison why or why not and what is your opinion of wayward pines. >> well on to wayward pines here. well it was a really interesting experience because i hadn't done any long-form television before. it is funny, because i was speaking to one of our board members from r.i. and she is like it is like "the twilight zone," it is not like twin peeks. i agree. i felt the tone of it felt like "the twilight zone" when i was doing it. i could tell you it was an enjoyable experience. at times stressful and challenging for me. i'm not crazy about surprised in

the best of circumstances. and when you are doing television, you are getting new scripts all of the time. and so that can be a little bit tricky you know. because i'm not one to -- if i have thoughts on something, i'm going to speak up. and i did. and it was good. and i think that is what makes the show good. it was an incredibly talented group of people, including the rest of the cast and the directors that would come on board. so it really was a -- it was a different environment in that way than typically on television. >> matt, this questioner notes that it seems you have cut a different path than some of your contemporaries as you've opted more toward indy picks than hollywood blockbusters. was that a conscious decision, and if so, why did you decide

that? >> well the industry has changed since i've been in the business several times. and i never consciously -- i mean, indy picks didn't exist when i started in the movie business. of course they did but not really. there wasn't this kind of indy film division with studio pictures. the first film i did would have very much been a indy film but it was in fact distributed by warner brothers and backed by orian with warner brothers and it would have been considered a studio picture as well. so i don't know. i tend to gravitate toward sometimes more character-driven material. i just look for a good script. i look for a good character. those are the things i've always looked for. >> you have now worked with a wide range of directors, so this

questioner would like you to compare and contrast francis ford coppola with m. knight shamma lon. >> are we here to talk about the row henga? what is going on? i don't like to -- comparisons are never valid. and so i don't want to compare. i thought that knight shamma lon was terrific, as a director. a very talented director with good leadership skills and i enjoyed the experience. i only wish he would have directed more than the first episode because i enjoyed working with him. obviously i learned a lot from francis. any more questions? about the row henga about refugees? >> i do. i have similar movie questions. but how do you see the role of the u.n. in this crisis and

china? and are there meetings with members of congress and maybe you can talk more about reaching out to the hill. but also the role of the u.n., china, other powerful political forces in addressing this crisis? >> i think you should address that one. you're excellent. >> thank you. well, i'm not quite sure about the question about u.n. and china is. this is a huge question. the -- china is a permanent member of the security council so it is a major inference over the political process in the u.n. obviously. but on the -- on the rohingya issue, i'm not quite sure where the question goes. perhaps i can anticipate some of the things we would like to see. i mean given the level of

persecution the rowe hinga has involved and the government denies everything we think a america nix to address that would be to have a commission of in choiry. this is of event. i am afraid that this would be better by some of the important u.n. members and i think that's your answer. >> when conflicts arose in the past particularly in indo china, there have been historical efforts by refugees to find safe havens abroad not only in neighboring countries but also in western counterparts such as the usa, australia and canada. that being said and taking into account the fact that many southeast asian countries have refused the rohingya safe havens, what are your opinions on refugee policies in the western world should it change to accommodate this crisis?

>> well i would just like to say, you know, i mean refugees international started in the indochina conflict during that period of time with the boat people in vietnam and also on the thai-cambodian border. and i think it's not fair to -- i mean, i think it's difficult to say that, you know, southeast asian refugees were accepted and welcomed into the united states and other communities in australia and places like that. i think what i was getting from the question is that shouldn't they in return accept the rohingya? i think that in fact, they're no longer part of those countries. so, you know i don't know that we can -- i think there's kind of a disconnect. but i think the thing that's most troubling and i will say

about the rohingya is that it really -- it seems as if nobody wants them you know? and they're dammed if they do they're dammed if they don't. they're trapped and it's just not any way for anybody to live to be -- they can't move internally and when they've tried to flee on those beats they've been turned away and you know many of them have died at sea. when we came back, there was a report in myanmar newspaper that said there were like 700 some on bengali refugees that had been intercepted on a chip and 50 -- there were 50 people dead on the boat so you can imagine what the conditions were like there. but, again, it was bengali it

was all about they were bengali. there was no mention of rohingya, obviously because they don't use the word. and i know that eventually these bengali refugees will move to an island somewhere off the coast there and that journalists tried to find out more of what was going on and were detained and had their photographs erased and stuff. so they still don't want you to find out what's going on. this stuff is continuing to go on and it's really horrible. i think that whatever pressure -- i think that the answer is more pressure on the myanmar government to change their policies with regards to the state of the rohingya giving them the same rights everybody else has and i think that is a good starting point. that their security their human rights are being met.

>> this questioner is asking about some recent harrowing photos to emerge from the rohingya refugee crisis that were exposed as frauds and these photos were apparently pulled randomly from old pictures from other crises around the world. do you know about this sand this publicity over the fraudulent photos, is that doing any damage to get the message out about the rohingya? >> i don't know anything about it. i don't know anything about it but obviously that's -- you know, that doesn't do anything to diminish the fact that people are suffering in a human rights catastrophe that's happening over there in that part of the world. so if there's pictures circulating, so what? that doesn't diminish the fact

that people are suffering. and we've all seen them. there are real pictures. i just want to point that out. >> so when you talk to the rohingya, where do they want to go? like i said, the one woman we spoke to was stuck on the ship for three months at a time, she was trying to reunite with her husband in malaysia. she hadn't seen him for seven years. i mean, that's what she said. i don't know. i mean that's what she said and i have no reason to think that she wasn't telling the truth. and she said that if she had the opportunity to do it again she would which i found -- i couldn't believe that after what

she'd been through. she'd been beaten on the ship. if she stretched her legs she was beaten, her kids were crying the entire time. they were fed a handful of race per day and a cup of water. horrible conditions. so i think they just want to go anywhere where they have a better shot of living. i mean, one of the kids -- we met these three kids that were tricked into going -- like i said, i just want to go back. one of the things that was going on, a couple journalists told me like a couple years ago the story would have been -- this would have been a freedom trail story. these rohingya refugees fleeing and escaping that in fact it was a good thing because they needed to get away from this oppressive situation. but as the stakes went up and the price went up and so then you had these brokers who

themselves in the camps are rohingya and the traffickers who were piloting these ships would not leave with -- with their human cargo until it was filled up so they would have to then -- so they started to trick people and kidnap people and bring them on to the ships. so a lot of these people that ended up -- a lot of the rohingya who ended up on the ship were kind of tricked or forced into going there and there were negotiations made in some cases to bring them back from their family somehow meeting with community people people with some clout community leaders there and they were able to get them returned but i really think people are desperate and they want to get away and they're willing to risk their lives in this way and it's

really incredible. it's a very grim situation and, you know -- >> okay before ski the final question i have some housekeeping. the national press club is the world's leading professional organization for journalists and we fight for a free press worldwide. for more information on the club visit our web site, press.org. to donate to our nonprofit journalism institute, visit press.org/institute. i'd also like to remind you about some upcoming programs. actor-humanitarian gary sinise will discuss his advocacy for american servicemen and women at an npc breakfast tuesday june 16. and also on june 16 the club will host a news maker debate with experts on whether streetcars are an answer to america's transit problem or a pointless throwback.

and washington capitals coach barry trotts will address the national press club luncheon on wednesday, july 8. i'd now like to present our guests with the traditional national press club mugs. very valuable remembrances of these sorts of events. and how about a round of applause for these two also by the way. [ applause ] now, we have time for one question and in the time remaining, matt, maybe you could tell us a little bit about what's next for you. "wayward pines," you're going to continue on that. are you thinking about any more movies? what sorts of things are you thinking in your near future? >> well, in my near future i'm

not sure exactly what my next acting job is going to be. that's the plight of the actor never sure where our next deployment is coming from -- employment. . however i'm working on a documentary about afro cuban music. about a guy -- a cuban scat singer named el gran feove. documentaries take a long time and so that's what i'm doing. so i've been spending a lot of time really focused on that music, that world and so that's really what i have to finish this documentary, for sure. then you have a few other project, film and television at different things that i'm developing. i've written and directed and i want to -- i very much enjoy

doing that so i want to figure out what my next fiction feature is going to be as a director. thanks thanks thanks. >> michelle, how about you? what's next for you in addressing this crisis. what do you plan as your next steps? >> well the next step to make sure we keep the issue alive. this is going to require a lot of time. there is no quick fix for the rohingya people. but if we think that the boat crisis is the -- is the only thing that we will keep our attention, as soon as the boats stop going we forget about them, there will be no progress so i hope we can remember the boat crisis is just a phenomenon on something much deeper that needs constant attention. . we hope that other governments will come up and this government

will keep on messaging what it has been doing today. so we'll be strong in pushing. we'll return there. we'll keep on working with the network we have of roehingya across the world to make sure their voice doesn't die out. [ applause ] >> i want to thank all of you for coming today and i'd like to thank our national press club staff including the journalism institute and broadcast center for organizing today's event, the research and work that our speakers' committee chairman jerry put in for this event i appreciate very much. and, remember, if you would like a copy of today's program you can go to the web site press.org. you can also learn more about the press club at that same site and keep up to date on all of the upcoming programs.

and to follow us on twitter follow pressclubdc. thank you very much we are adjourned. [ applause ] wednesday, the house arms services committee holds a hearing on u.s. policy and strategy in the middle east. defense secretary ashton carter and joint chiefs of staff chair general martin dempsey will testify. live coverage at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span 3. this summer book tv will cover book festivals from around the country in top non-fiction authors and books. this weekend watch for the annual roosevelt reading festival from the franklin d. roosevelt presidential library. in the middle of july, we're live at the harlem book fair, the flagship african-american literary event with author interviews and panel discussions. at the beginning of september we're live from the nation's capital from the nationa

festival celebrating its 15th year. that's a few of the event this is summer on c-span 2's book tv. now housing and urban development secretary julian castro testifies before the house financial services commit tee on a number of topics relating to the administration's housing agenda. secretary castro update's the agency on the priorities and programs including what they are doing to ensure responsible buyers have access to credit. hud is celebrateing its 50th anniversary this year. this is about an hour and a half. the committee will come to

order. without objection, the chair is authorized to declare recess of the committee at any time. this hearing is entitled "the future of housing in america." oversight of the department of housing and urban development, i recognize myself for three minutes to give an opening statement. as we approach the 50th anniversary of the founding of the department of housing and urban development one can't help but being struck by president johnson's boldness as he launched the great society with these words "we have declared unconditional war on poverty, our objective is total victory." hud was established one year later in 1965 to become the war's main weapon in combatting poverty, rebuilding our cities and making houses more affordable for all. yet by nearly every official measure, poverty and its consequences are as bad as they were 50 years ago. the poverty rate today is essentially unchanged from when hud was founded. millions more americans fall below the poverty line today including an unbelievable one out of five children.

this is shameful. hud states its mission is to "create quality affordable homes for all." yet according to inflation adjusted figures, the median price of new homes have doubled and median rents have gone up by more than one-third. in other words, it's not just poor who find their cost of housing soaring beyond their means, it's almost everyone. this is unacceptable. to make matters worse, to achieve this unenviable record hud has already spent 1.6 trillion in its history and is asking for a 9% budget increase. $1.6 trillion is more than $13,000 for every household in america. it's equivalent to the cost of feeding a family of four for an entire year. meanwhile, one of the greatest threats to our poor continues to spin out of control -- namely, the national debt clock. give to be ago economy of the last six years, clearly taxpayer rental subsidies for the poor

are needed, but it's also an open question whether housing vouchers and public housing projects -- hud's main stay -- are a long-term solution or simply helping to create a permanent underclass. for whatever good hud does it clearly has not won the war on poverty. only economic growth and equal opportunity can do that. in other words, the greatest housing program in america remains a good career path and a growing economy, not a hud program. if we truly care about the least of these among us we can no longer measure success by the number of dollars appropriated to hud. that should be obvious. instead, success must be measured in the number of our fellow citizens who rise from lives of poverty and dependency to lives of hope, self-sufficiency and pride. that's true success. it's time to bring a new focus and new ideas on how to best help the poor in our society on this purpose, which is a moral

purpose, there should be no debate. i've been encouraged to hear our witness, secretary castro, state he believes in "an evidence-based management style." directed to the goal of "giving every person new opportunities to thrive." to give these opportunities, again, it's time to think anew, not to reflexively add 9% to programs that have failed again in the words of president johnson to "not only relieve these symptoms of poverty but to cure it and, above all, prevent it." i now yield three minutes to the ranking member for an opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and welcome back secretary castro. today we gather to discuss the future of housing in america. but, frankly, if left to my republican colleagues, that future looks very bleak for many of our most vulnerable populations. mr. secretary, hud remains a critical part of our nation's

social safety net and it is essential to ensuring that families have a stable roof over their heads. but as we will see here today my scleegs no interest in strengthening our national housing system. their priorities -- that is on the opposite side of the aisle are clearly reflected in the recently passed hud funding kbhil drives investment in this agency down to historic lows undercutting programs which help families reach housing stability. hud provides critical rental and homeless assistance for our country's most vulnerable population, makes important investments in local community development and affordable housing initiatives and helps millions of families achieve the american dream of homeownership. all while ensuring fairness for historically disadvantaged communities, safe, decent and affordable housing is critical to ensuring that our young

people are healthy and successful. studies have shown that children who lack stable housing often fall behind their peers in school and today hud is more important than ever. in the wake of the foreclosure crisis our nation is facing a significant affordable rental housing shortage although private capital has an important role to play on this front, it can not be leveraged without reliable federal funding. to truly address the acute need for affordable rental housing and the epidemic of homelessness, it's absolutely critical that we fully fund and expand the housing and homeless assistance programs that have been so successful at hud. this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of hud and as i think about the next 50 years of housing in america, i believe that if we are truly serious about ending poverty and uplifting all communities we must reinvest in

hud. mr. secretary, i believe these also underlie your vision for the future of housing in america. and i look forward to hearing your testimony today. thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. >> the chair recognizes the gentleman from missouri, chairman of our housing and insurance subcommittee for two minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman and welcome mr. secretary. good to see you again. glad you're with us today. mr. secretary, i want to thank you for traveling to jefferson city to meet with myself and area housing advocates and representatives. the common theme in those meetings was the dire need of regulatory relief. that was particularly true in the conversations we had with public housing officials. i think alan pollock, long time executive director of jefferson city public housing authority put it best when he described the current state of play when he said "the funding situation isn't changing in that you, mr. secretary, you take the initiative to reduce unnecessary burdens so that people can do

their jobs with the resources they've been given." in the last two weeks i've been to sites run by two different public housing authorities and last week mr. cleaver and i held a round table with advocates and representatives to talk about the imminence challenges facing low income housing organizations when it comes to public and low income housing the status quo isn't acceptable. anyone who says there isn't a need for reform or changes in hud isn't listening-to-the advocates, administrators or the residents of public housing. mr. secretary, you've been on the job for nearly a year now, the most significant action you've taken at this point seems to be a cut of one quarter of the revenue for the federal housing administration and as i stressed with your staff earlier this week when we met, i believe that continues to jeopardize homeowners and taxpayers. i've yet to see the changes necessary to build a stronger housing system for the american people. i know you and i had discussions and you have ideas and i'm looking forward to hear about those as the committee continues

to go on but again, i welcome and look forward to your testimony and talking with you shortly. thank you, i yield back mr. chairman. >> the chair now recognizes another gentleman from missouri mr. cleaver, the ranking member of the housing and insurance subcommittee. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and ranking member waters, members of the committee, mr. secretary, good morning. secretary visited the fifth congressional district of missouri not long ago actually visited both the other side of our state with mr. luke meyer and then came to the better side of the state and spent time in kansas city. and so we're here today with the hearing entitled "the future of housing in america, oversight of the department of housing and urban development." it's always important to look to the future and hopefully this hearing will deal with the future more than the past or

otherwise we are like somebody trying to drive a car looking through the rear-view mirror. i think we've got to go to the future, figure out the things that we can do that would be important. but if we look at the past i think it's important for us to think about the fact that when the economy teetered on the brink of cataclysmic collapse in 2008, the housing market was decimated, some families lost generations of wealth and unemployment skyrocketed. home sales ground to a halt. and in the seven years since our economy has slowly improved. last week, as they do every month, the bureau of labor statistics announced the economy added 280,000 new jobs and the 63rd consecutive month of private sector job creation. private sector employment rose hud's april 2015 score card cited the national association of realtors stating sales of

existing homes including single family homes, town homes and condominiums rose 6.1% from february to a pace for 5.19 million, the best since september, 2013. so i think there are some things that certainly we can do better but i am very pleased mr. secretary, that the department of hud is, in fact doing a lot of things well. i yield back mr. chairman. >> the time of the gentleman expires. at this time, it is my pleasure to welcome the honorable julian castro back to our committee. the secretary was sworn in as the 16th hud secretary on july 28, 2014. he has been introduced before and needs no further introduction. at the secretary's request before i recognize him to give an oral summary of his written testimony, the secretary has asked to be yielded a minute in

order to offer a statement of honor on behalf of a hud colleague who passed away this week. so far that purpose mr. secretary, you are recognized at this time. >> thank you very much, chairman hensarling, to ranking member waters, members of the committee. that you can for inviting me to appear before you today and for giving me a bet of extra time to talk about one of our hud family that passed away earlier this week, our chief financial officer brad huther. brad really set the goal standard during his career for public service over a career that spanned three decades. he was a leader whose intellect allowed them to master complex subject matter policy and whose integrity made him a champion for everyday folks who often count on the effective government the most. after a decorated economic development career that included time at the u.s. department of

commerce and the world intellectual property organization, brad came out of retirement in 2014 to join us at hud and although he was only with us for a short period, he made large contributions to our department and to its work on behalf of the american people. he was an administrator's administrator. a man of integrity, folks that all of us respected and had confidence in and his passing is an incredible loss for the field that he did so much over his career to contribute to. and, mr. chairman i wanted to say our thoughts and prayers at hud are with mr. huther's family and wanted to acknowledge him in front of this committee because i know he had the opportunity to work with many of you as well. >> mr. secretary, on behalf of the house financial services family, we issue our sincere

condolences to your colleagues as part of the hud family on the gentleman's passing. at this time, mr. secretary i will recognize you for an oral summary of your written testimony. please note that your written statement, your complete written statement, will be made part of the record. again, welcome, and you are now recognized for your testimony. >> thank you again. mr. chairman, we gather today at a very special moment for hud. this year marks our 50th anniversary. i think all of us would agree that much has changed since 1965, but one thing hasn't -- the important role that quality housing and strong communities play in the lives of the american people. where a person lives often shapes how they live, the jobs that are available to them, the education that their children receive, and the overall quality of life that they enjoy. that's why all of us at hud come

to work everyday knowing that we can make a difference for others. and i'm proud to say we're making an impact in a number of ways. for example, hud, along with our federal and local partners, continues to make progress toward achieving the goals that president obama's opening doors initiative to prevent and end homelessness. from 2010 to 2014 we've seen 21% drop in chronic homelessness and a 33% drop in veteran homelessness and we'll keep working until we reach that day whenever person who needs housing can find it in our great nation. we also continue to make important strides in helping families of all income levels secure a decent place to call home. one example is our innovative rental assistance demonstration which has helped communities leverage nearly $1 billion in private market construction investments to address long overdue repairs to public housing and with an additional $5 billion coming down the pipeline it's clear that we're going to help ensure that public

housing is quality housing for years to come. we're also helping more responsible families achieve their dreams of homeownership through our federal housing administration. fha served as a stabilizing force during the housing crisis and has provided by access to credit for generations of underserved borrowers. we built on this legacy earlier this year by making responsible homeowner ship more affordable by lowering our mortgage premium half a percentage point to encourage 250,000 new borrowers to enter the market while continuing to strengthen fha's financial health. hud is making a tremendous difference across the board and we all must continue working to do more. in fact, under hud's current budget, we're able to serve only one out of every four people who are eligible for our assistance. that's why we're examining our own operations to see how we can deliver results faster and more effectively to those that we serve. i've charged hud's deputy

secretary with making operational efficiency her top priority and she's hit the ground running. the deputy secretary has spent her first six months leading an operational and management review that we call deep dives. with many of these findings in hand, we're now taking action to improve how we do business to build on what's working and to adjust what needs improvement. one area of focus is our procurement process which can take over nine months to complete from beginning to end. these delays are unacceptable which is why we've embarked on an effort to transform this process and reduce procurement days by 30%. in addition by october 1, we aim to reduce and resolve 10 out of the 11 material weaknesses outlined in our fiscal 2014 financial review. we're also using shared service providers to minimize unnecessary back office functions so we can better serve our nation's families and communities. at the end of the day, we know that our work isn't about program names or statistics and

charts, it's about people. no matter what side of the aisle you're on i'm sure that we can all agree on one thing -- that our nation is at its best whenever person has an opportunity to thrive. and the work that hud does does give folks the opportunity to thrive thrive. working with our partners, we've given this opportunity those who wanted a fresh start, to veterans who needed supported a justing to life after service to older americans who deserve to live in comfort and dignity. to families who are looking to buy their first home, put down roots and build wealth for themselves and their children and we continue to look for new ways to extend these opportunities to all americans. our partnership with congress is essential to this work and we look forward to working with you to secure funding that invests in proven housing initiatives to build a better and stronger hud and to help more families achieve their own dreams through the strength of our

partnerships, the power of our policy ideas, and our hard work i'm confident that we can ensure that the doors of opportunity are available to americans today, tomorrow, and for the next 50 years. thank you very much. >> thank you mr. secretary. the chair now yields himself five minutes for questions. mr. secretary i'm sure you're well aware this year doesn't just mark the 50th anniversary of hud it also represents the 50th anniversary of the moynihan report which many historians actually believe provided the impetus for the creation of hud in the first place. recently, the urban institute published a report, the moynihan report revisited. are you familiar with the report? have you had an opportunity to view it? >> i have not had an opportunity to read the entire report. i did see some press about it, yes. >> well, mr. secretary in that report it states after eluding

to the alarming statistics 506 years ago in the original report it goes on to say about those statistics "they have not only grown worse, they've grown worse not only for blacks but for whites and hispanics as well." so you weren't even born when hud was first created, but after 50 years $1.6 trillion you requested 9% increase specifically what is the evidence the statistical evidence that hud has made progress in achieving its original goal of eliminating poverty? >> yeah. thank you very much for that. let me give you two example, chairman hensarling. thank you for bringing up that report. let me begin by saying that i see it differently. i do believe that we've made tremendous progress in the lives of americans because of the investments that hud has made. in fact, if we need proof of

that we can look at some of the committee members who are here who grew up in public housing who have been very clear to the fact that they grew up and had a place to live in public housing is one of the reasons they were able to achieve success. >> mr. secretary i'm aware of the stories and they're certainly inspirations to us all. but the statistics i see show that poverty is essentially unchanged after 50 years. so let's just start off with the statistical evidence. we have statistical evidence that hud has actually played a role in eliminating poverty? >> i'll give you a couple of examples. one example i mentioned in my opening statement is veteran homelessness. we have seen a 33% reduction in veteran homelessness and a large part of that is because of hud vouchers that have been funded by this congress and the president has led that effort to effectively end veteran homelessness. another example -- >> over what time period, mr.

secretary? >> we've seen 33% reduction in veteran homelessness between 2010 and 2014. another example is our jobs plus initiative. there has been research done on jobs plus that has shown that individuals who went through jobs plus which congress has also funded in the past and which we're requesting a significant increase because of its effectiveness we've seen that individuals who go through jobs plus tend to earn 14% more than individuals who do not. >> so why is the poverty level essentially unchanged in 50 years. >> mr. chairman, i believe that the answer to that is much larger than hud and its programs. >> well, let me ask you this, then, mr. secretary, in the limited time that i have. you and i have had private conversations and i've been encouraged with the things we've spoken about but i'm still somewhat unclear at the end of the day as secretary how do you measure success at hud?

how is success measured? how do you define it and how do you measure it? >> we measure success in several ways. you and i have had conversations that we need to continue to get better about not just measuring input, how much investment we make but also measuring outcomes. one outcome is the fact that somebody has a roof over their head. that makes a tremendous difference in their lives. we've seen that for instance on the policy of housing first that tries to give veterans housing first so that they can stabilize themselves and then address other issues to get on the right track in life. however, i believe that we need to continue to measure when we invest in things like jobs plus, family self-sufficiency, the ross program the extent to which those individuals that go through those programs go on and get good job training and get a job to the extent to which they get a good education and that they are able to move off -- >> mr. secretary my time is winding down. let me ask you three specific

questions. in tracking people's right to rise, their ability to succeed number one currently does hud have any way of tracking when an individual leaves the assistance of one pha and moves to another? does hud have any way to track that? >> hud does track who is on the roles of -- >> but do you have tracking if one leaves one pha and goes to another? >> i believe that we do have the opportunity to track that mr. chairman. >> okay, i would like to have you share that with this committee because i haven't seen those statistics. do you have tracking when one leaves a pha and becomes homeless? >> when one leaves a housing authority and becomes homeless? >> do we have any way of knowing if one leaves a hud program whether or not they become homeless? >> i believe that we have a way to track within a continuum of care how many individuals are homeless. as to whether that person was --

>> if you would share that with the committee. and then last but not least since i'm already way over my time. is there any way that hud today can track when people become self-sufficient and stay that way, stay, three years, five years later? do you have that? >> i would be glad to share with you the evidence that we do have on that sure. >> so you can track that? >> we have done tracking of self-sufficiently -- >> for individuals? >> particularly on the family self-sufficiency program. >> well, mr. secretary, haven't seen it so i look forward to receiving it. i now yield to the ranking member five minutes. >> thank you very much mr. secretary. we are delighted that you're here with us this morning and we thank you for the way that you have come into your position and the leadership that you have provided by thus far and i'm very pleased to hear from members on both sides of the aisle how generous you have been

in visiting their communities and how you've been so very, very helpful. i think i want to ask you a little bit about the rental housing and homeownership crisis that we have. in the current rental housing crisis, rent is taking a larger share of income and families are facing greater challenges in saving for a down payment and being able to own a home. this could have serious negative consequences for the housing market. just this week, again the urban institute released a major study that predicts that the homeownership rate will continue to decline through 2030 and that a major rental surge is upon us a surge that we're truly not prepared to meet. the homeownership rate will decrease for nearly all age groups and african-americans will fall further behind all racial groups in homeownership. what is your vision for how we solve this problem and how can

hud, given the proper resources enable more families in this country the opportunity to own a home or affordably rent one? >> thank you very much for the question, ranking member waters. you're correct that what what we see throughout in the united states right now is an affordable housing rental crisis. a good example of this, a good demonstration of this was in our latest worst-case housing needs assessment. what that found was that there are 7.7 million low income households who either are paying 50% or more of their income in rent or living in substandard housing or both of those things. and those families by the way, are families that are not on any government assistance right now. another report was released last week by the low income housing coalition that was fascinating

in what it found. it said that in no decent-sized city in the united states could you afford a two-bedroom apartment, a decent two-bedroom apartment working minimum wage full time. and that in the vast majority of communities, you can't even afford a one-bedroom apartment. so what is hud doing about that? that's why we have requested additional section 8 vouchers, for instance because we lost 67,000 section 8 vouchers to sequestration. it's why we seek to stretch our resources as far as we can through initiatives like rad. it's why we believe in properly funding both capital and operating for public housing and why we look to the innovative and -- be innovative in communities with initiatives like choice neighborhoods and promise zones. we want to take a wholistic approach to making more

affordable housing opportunities possible for americans. and as i mentioned early on right now we're only serving one out of every four people that qualifies for hud services. so we see that there is that tremendous need out there and we want to do something about it. >> national housing trust fund. we have a deficit of over seven million affordable available units and we all know that barney frank worked very hard i worked with him, to get the national housing trust fund we feel don't seem to have much support from our friends on the opposite side of the aisle. we must find ways to fully capitalize trust fund and defend against republican attacks to abolish the program, including the latest attack in that house funding bill. can you speak to this issue quickly? >> yes.

i was glad to see director watt flip the switch on the national housing trust fund. this is particularly important and will be a powerful tool in creating more affordable housing opportunities because it focuses on extremely low-income individuals. these are individuals who are making 30% or less than area median income. sheila crowley testified recently in front of chairman martin luther king meyer that that is the segment of the population where we see the biggest gap in terms of affordable housing opportunities so we are disappointed in the t-hud's recommendations that this be wiped away. >> thank you so very much. i yield back the balance of my time. >> the gentlelady yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from missouri. >> thank you mr. chairman, and again welcome secretary castro,

the jewel of the midwest and the most important area of missouri, contrary to my good friend from kansas city's comment. we had a meeting last week with a bunch of industry and housing officials and they came up with a lot of different concerns but the same message we heard in jeff city that day, the same mentions i heard again last week, regulation is strangling their ability to deliver services. let me give you an example: recognize that you don't have the same amount of funds that you have and figure out how to use what you have more efficiently. the moving to work program works, expand it. regulation is costing too much money, figure out how to minimize it. raise the minimum rent. another one talked about flexibility. flexibility is going to be very important for them to be able to

utilize their assets they have and be able to serve the people they're supposed to. another comment they had was there's an inconsistency between regions of hud's offices, especially with regards to transportation issues. it's hard for one agency one area, to look at another area and see they're getting to do something that you're not. that's a problem within your agency. so i guess my question to you is i know in our discussions you're trying to look for some ways to improve services so these are some suggestions that we have. are they something that you could work on with us? >> absolutely. and let me say i also enjoyed the opportunity to visit jefferson city and to hear from folks in the real estate industry and also some of the advocates, including pha representatives. it was very insightful to hear the concerns of a smaller pha. and let me say unequivocally as i mentioned that day to you

personally we are ready to work with you and the entire committee and congress on some of these issues. i'll give you an example of that. one of the things that was mentioned was this issue of the administrative burden related to income verification why do we require income verification every year for certain residents making the same income year after year? that is a good question because 56% of our households that are hud asissed are elderly or disabled so we're supportive of a change to that that would only require income verification every three years for folks where at least 90% of their income is fixed income sources. and with regard to mtw and the other issues you mentioned we are working on that in this budget, for instance. we've proposed an increase of 15 mtw agencies that would have greater flexibility and we're willing to look at other issues as well. >> thank you for that we look

forward to working with you. you made a comment that there were 67,000 hud vouchers that you said were cut out of the budget. in my discussions with a lot of the individuals in the industry they talked like there was like 200,000 that went unused. is that true? >> i'm not familiar with that. >> they weren't able to access them because they didn't have the funds or administrative opportunities? somehow they couldn't utilize them? >> that may have been true some time ago. however what we saw when we went through sequestration that folks throughout, phas had to pull vouchers back instead of letting them on the street. they had to inform those families no, no you can't use that voucher. >> these are people on the ground and using these and they're saying a lot of them are left unused because of the problems they have to deal with the restrictions, the lack of flexibility, whatever it is that's causing it to not be able to do that. so it's something you should take a look at because if they're going unused we need to

bring a figure out that 67,000 with sequestration isn't going to fly. next question. we had a long discussion with a group of your folks with regards to the income that was cut back in january and again, it really concerns me because according to your report which i have right here you're continue ing toing to take in or lend to a group of folks who are probably more problematic from the standpoint you now are going the 640 to 679 credit scores, which is fine. but by doing that that exposes you to more risk. more risk means possible loss and if you look at the losses, i really have some problems here with some of the loss information report. one place says you've lost $7.5 billion over the first half of the year which means you'll lose $15 billion this year.

another place says your loss ratio will probably go down, which is great but that number doesn't jive with this other one. but the bottom line is there seems to be a continued problem in my mind with regards to the ability of income to cover the expenses and we're going to watch it carefully. i hope the works out. thank you, mr. chairman i yield back. >> time of the gentleman has expired. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from missouri mr. cleaver for five minutes. ranking member of the housing and insurance subcommittee. >> thank you. >> i think it's the other button to the gentleman's right. >> thank you thank you mr. chairman. mr. secretary, i don't know how we are going to be able to erase this stereotype or the misnational seems to be eternally out here in the world

that people who live in public housing move in and there goes to stay for the entire lifetime. the facts don't match the stereotypes. if you have children living in multifamily property, the stay is about 5.14 years. that's about the time that my family lived in public housing. and that ice just so dramatically different than what people seem to want to believe in how it is perpetuated. do you have any idea of how to erase that? and think there's some resentment for those of us who in my case saw my father work

three jobs to save enough money to buy a lot to get a house and other families were doing the same thing. but i don't know how we can get that out. so my father is 92 and if this is on c-span he's probably watching so thanks for everything daddy. but i don't know -- it's an insult to him and a lot of other people. how can we erase this? >> it's a great question. and let me say as well'py enjoyed visiting with chairman leutkmeyer in his district and you in your district, ranking member cleaver. you ask a great question. what we see everyday is that whether it's in public housing or folks receiving a section 8 voucher, we see folks who want to work hard and want to get on the track to a better life. and we understand that our investment in public housing and

hud-assisted housing is a way to get them on that track. i reject the notion that somehow folks who are living in public housing are lazy or that it creates a culture of dependency. the fact is that 56% of the house holds that we serve are headed by someone who is elderly or disabled to begin with and of the rest, a significant number of the folks are under the age of 18. they're children. of the folks who are working age, a decent number of those folks are working and if they're not working, they're required to do some sort of community service or be in school or go through job training. so this is very much an opportunity for folks to get on to the track of a better life that they want to get on. >> i thank you. i agree obviously, with everything you said. it's so frustrating to hear the

contrary. let's talk about fha for just a moment because fha plays a major role for first time home buyers and fha has helped almost a half million people get into homes since 2014 and about one half of them are brown and black americans. is fha -- do you believe fha as we talk about the future one of the agencies that absolutely must be preserved so that we can continue to provide this kind of assistance to first time home buyers as well as others? >> fha plays an invaluable role in creating upward mobility in our nation for people of all income levels. it has been the primary vehicle for first time home buyers to get into a home people of all different backgrounds as you mentioned for the african-american and latino community today about 50% of those home buyers have an fha

ensured loan. over the last couple of years we've seen the mutual mortgage insurance fund raise in value by $21 billion. it's on the right path so, yes we need to do everything that we can to continue to strengthen fha and ensure that it's there to provide that opportunity for folks to reach the american dream. >> thank you. it may be also important to realize that those individuals qualified for the loan. that they were not just -- >> sure i know there's a few seconds left. we have to distinguish between the issue of afordability and access. what we did was we lowered the mortgage insurance premium so we made it more affordable. that did not in any way change who qualifies for a loan. we still have historically a fairly high average credit score for fha ensured loans of 677. the average credit score throughout is 687 to give you a sense of the closeness of those

numbers. >> thank you mr. secretary. >> time of the gentleman has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey mr. garrett sherman of our capital markets subcommittee. >> thank you mr. chairman. mr. secretary, something we can agree on fair housing act makes it unlawful to refuse to sell or rent a dwelling to any person because of race color religion, sex or national origin. and that is the law as it should be. however, hud's disparate impact rule, that allows you, the government, to allege discriminatory practices based not on intent but solely on statistical outcomes and not, as i say, on any discriminatory intent or disparate treatment. the results of that are that cost of litigation is strangling the market. the credit is thereby cut back on lending to potential homeowners, the very same potential homeowners that we hear you say you're trying to

help. therefore what it does to reduce the supply of new affordable housing as builders basically back away from the projects that are vulnerable to litigation from you. you're basically punishing the people that we are trying to help. let's take a look at your agency. in the 2014 fha annual report to congress regarding the financial status of mutual mortgage insurance fund it says "fha indicated that its single family endorsements for that year was 61% to whites, 17% to hispanics 10% for blacks." statistically, is that not disparate impact? statistically, is that not your agency discriminating? are you doing anything about that? first of all, is that disparate impact? >> i reject that premise. thank you, congressman for the question. it's clever but i think it's misguided and i think you know what i'm talking about. >> not the premise.