mcconnell. [ applause ] >> well, thank you very much, e1 tim. it's great to see you. had an opportunity to hear from two of our finest in senator perdue and senator james langford, and i'm pleased to be here with you today this year once again. when the american people elected añi new republican majorityxd i 2014, they called for the senate to get back to work. as james pointed out, the previous majority didn't do much.i] at 15 roll call votes on amendments in an entire year.qók they wanted an end to democratic dysfunction. they knew it was time to go in a new direction, and that's what we've delivered since taking office in january of 2015. we passed the most important k q through 12 education reform in more than decade.e1

and parents first. it gets rid of no child left a-i behind and its one size fits all mandate.cñi it prevents -- prevents washington from imposing common core. [ applause ]t( you're amazed that obama signed it. right?i] he didn't have any choice. it's a conservative whim ?; described as the largest evolution of federal control to1 the states in a quarter century. passed the most important long-term transportation reform in nearly two decades. it reveals our nation's highways and crumbling infrastructure. reduces waste.xd it gives local communities =o control over how funds are actually spent, and it doesn't raise taxes by a penny. we enacted permanent tax reliefd for families in small

businesses. we replaced several washington a annual kick the can exercises with meaningful refor) we even brought an end to the job-killing self-imposed oil embargo from the 1970s. many of these issues have been , tangled in gridlock literally for years and then a new majority came along. now, each of those is actually law.nbq no everything we passed received a presidential signature, as yod can imagine. we voted to build the keystone pipeline which would have created 20,000 jobs. he vetoed it. voted to end the pain of obama care.e1 put it on his desk. he vetoed it. we voted to defund planned parenthood. [ applause ]

but, of course, he vetoed it. we put measures like these on the president's desk after year1 of harry reid protecting him from tough choices. he never got those kind of bills esk.ever got those kind of bills it shows what's possible if we elect a new president next year. it's another demonstration of what's happening today in the senate that not only back to work but back on the side of thd american people. it also shows what's possible with perseverance. i take the comprehensive anti-human trafficking law passed last year.ok this will be hard for you to believe, but countless innocent1 victims are bought and sold into modern day slavery every year in our country. too many have nowhere safe to sleep.fá too many have nowhere safe to turn. too many are abused and made to feel invisible. and many are just children. finally bring justice to these % victims. we thought it was time to finally bring voices to the lp voiceless and hope to the suffering and the shadows.

so we passed the justice for victims of trafficking act.fáe13 you would think that would be easy, but it wasn't. it wasn't. democrats actually filibustered this anti-slavery legislation for over a month.xd the far left wanted to fight over the hud amendment.r over the hud amendment.e1 you know what that is.çóe1 the long-standing principle that says federal tax dollars shouldk not be used for elective es@r(to abortions. a victory in federal law for decades.xd it actually enjoys bipartisan / support for decades, but some on the far left wanted to change e1 and that andxt =u filibustering an anti-slavery bill was the appropriate venue to get their way. we were determined to fight this effort in order to preserve the% hud amendment and eventually overcame this shameful q filibuster and the hud amendmend was intact when the president e1

finally signed the bill. we eventually passed critical, compassionate and comprehensive legislation to help victims of modern slavery and, of course, the president had to choice at that point but to sign it. this republican-led senate is dedicated to fighting human trafficking, combating sexual t1 assault, and helping protect e1 those who suffered from these t( heinous crimes. that's why we passed -- [ applause ] -- that's why we also pass add bill that helps victims of child pornography get restitution from those who profit from their pain. crack down on the so-called pass the trash practice of schools. shipping child predato'u that's why just last month we were not -- we not only çó reawrñr authorized the adame1xd

act, but we also provided additional rights and protections for victims of sexual assault. s getting a lot done. and that progress continues thi( day. this actual day. in fact, we just left the floor within a few, within that hour, the senate took an important step towards passing the most sweeping reforms to the defense department organization in a xd generation.i] the national defense authorization act that will soon pass finally. we had a big step about an hour1 ago, is legislation that will modernize our military and provide our troops with more of the tools they need to confront the threat that we face. [ applause ]e1xd and as you already know, the ok chanñ9 everything from isil to iran, to russia to china, and they are complex. as henry kissinger put it we face the most diverse and complex array of crises since world war ii. if only president obama were as serious about confrontins@xese 1

threats as they are about confronting us. he still hasn't put forward a credible plan to defeat isil. his deal with iran continues to reveal the significant flaws every passing day. and if you allow me to paraphrase jimmy carter, i] something i rarely do, it's hard to think of many places in the d world where our relationship is better off since president obamd took office.p,ok mmy carter on barack e1 president obama's going to leave a lot of problems to his successor. what we can do today is help prepare the next commander in chief to face these challenges. this pro-reform, pro-innovation, pro-modernization defense bill will help us do that, and the senate will pass it very soon. the young men and women who sign up to de& ask for a lot.qñrr but our nation certainly asks a@

lot of them.i] when deployed they deserve the equipment and training necessary to actually do their jobs. [ applause ]é@u and let me also mention when they come back home they deservn 9ñ don't they?e1q [ applause ] t( pass the most sweeping overhaul of the military health system i( a generation. passed legislation to support wounded warriors, veterans who struggle with mental health challenges and earlier this week to support female veterans in particular who need our help. [ applause ] this is also why we voted to enhance oversight and what we've seen at the v.a. in recent years is a national disgrace. a national disgrace. and it's hardly the only scandal

we've seen over the course of this administration.e1 just this week the irs was e1 finally forced to hand over a fá list of organizations it had targeted for their political p,q views. there were hundreds of conservative groups on the list. the obama administration's con% scandal shocked a lot of americans when it first came to it was brazen. it's why we passed reforms that1 will help prevent another lois lerner.ñ here's what's clear from looking the majority i lead has got a e1 very different set of priorities from the one we replaced, and e1 between being in the majority and being in the minority. when i became the majority leader instead of the minority leader i said to people, i'm now the offensive coordinator.ñr

i used to be the defensive coordinator if you're a football fan you know the difference. the offensive coordinator calls the plays has a better chance of putting points on the board. the senate majority leader sets the schedule. the schedule i've set is dramatically different than whaá harry reid was doing for the çó senate in the past.q [ applause ]fáe1e1w3 so what we're interested in is a better economy and more opportunity for the middle class.q we're interested in a stronger 1 national defense at a time of countless global threats. and we're committed to defending the first amendment. congress is your first line of defense when it comes to lp protecting this fundamental constitutional right. the supreme court is the last leçjqq#ense.e1 the "new york times" recently ran a headline declaring a supreme court with merritt garland would be the most liberal in decades. if judge garland is confirmed

speculated áa=u1 ideological balance to create the most liberal supreme court in 50 yeaái] that's why president obama is trying to airdrop another e1 supreme court justice on his war out the door, and in the middle of this election.(açó he thinks he can get away with it, too.fxtr(t&háhp &hc% if his nominee is portrayed as some kind of moderate. let me tell you, president obami calling somebody a moderate does not make him a moderate.e1 he's clearly not a moderate. america's largest organization d of gun owners examine the record. what it found -- ñi a judge who does not respect our fundamental, individual right to self-defense. america's largest organization of small businesses examined his record, too. what it found. a judge who nearly always sides with regulators, labor unions and trial law&]!mhu$e expense of small businesses.e1

so let me say this once more and let me say it clearly -- barack obama will not get a supreme court justice in the w3 11th hour of his presidency on the way out the door. e1 we're right in the midene of a presidential election year.e1ok the president we're in the process of selecting will make this choice, and will either turn the court in the right or d wrong direction depending on thf outcome of this november's e1 election. there are many reasons why the senate should knock this year. you've heard me lay them out before. in 1992 in the middle of a presidential election year when he was chairman of the judiciar3 committee said if a vacancy occurred they wouldn't fill it.

been a very useful quote. so, look, we clearly disagree with the democrats on this issue. but it doesn't mean we can't continue to find other areas of3 agreement, which i've been talking about. so that's what we've been doing with the new republican majority.w3q we know we have big differences, and on those we've put it on the president's desk like obama q care. he's vetoed, defunding planned parenthood, he vetoed it. but americans expect us to work] on things we can agree on and u we've worked to find common 5tho ground.b. gotten significant things done u for the country, even though we have a president with whom we r differ on a large array of t( issues.5a where we've had our differences a president from the same party by pointing out he vetoed these bills, a republican president would have signed them.u so we're continuing to make

progress today. the senate is back to work. the senate is back on the side f1 osenate is back on the side i couldn't be more proud to lead this new majority and i couldn't be prouder of all of you. thank you for coming today and for having me here to give my ñd remarks. thank you. [ applause ]ó[5%fzfái]5a >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage faith and freedom coalition national fielá director john+ harvison it's great to be here with you all this morning. as a citizen of _ alabama, i'm proud and i have a distinct privilege and honor this morning to introduce to you my senator, senator jeff sessions. [ applause ] senator sessions as we know in alabama, he's a steadfast conservative. he is an advocate for the rule

of law and his unwavering ñi support of america's men and women in uniform. he grew up in rural alabama, worked his way through huntington college in montgomery, alabama and went to the university of alabama law school. president reagan appointed him as a united statesl]$eujt+hr' the district in alabama and we are so proud that he is our okx] senator.e1xdi]okxdt( join me in welcoming senator çó1 jeff sessions. [ applause ] >> thank you. thank you, john, and for the good work you do, and all of you do, to advance faith and freedom. it's a cornerstone of american democracy.xd our success as a nation, and we have to maintain an unders)5rerh realvyr of this country and these issues, why they're so important. i'm glad to follow mitch mcconnell and he mentioned the supreme court vacancy. this i)s@r(tfi.hp &hc% an important issue. i may talk about it for a minut; or two, but when justice scaliai

one of the great justices ever to sit on the supreme court -- [ applause ] -- a man of exceptional legal brilliance and a man of deep religious faith, and understood1 how it all came together, fá understood and loved the america that we've been bequeathed, when he died i thought, i said, you know, maybe i should call mitch, and ask him to say right away, don't wait, just say right away, we're not going to move anybody this year. it's too late. we're going to let the american people decide in the next e1 election who should sit on this1 4-4 supreme court. [ applause ] and before i could get around to you that on the question of the1 courts of the united states and the legal system and on good law

from the criminal element, mitch mcconnell is absolutely rock solqdw it's a pleasure for me to serve with him, time and again he stood up to even members of our our congress to promote the kind of judiciary that you and i believe in. well, you know, i told our colleagues a couple of years ago -- maybe i'm a little warped in the brain, but i told the american people aren't happy and i'm not é i don't know about you, but i'm on their side. you know? people don't feel good about the economy. they don't feel good about a lo1 of issues facing us. they don't feel good about the hostility to religion that they feel out there, and they're not happy about it, and the polls show that the wrong track is exceedingly high, and it's ok remained that way in poll e1 question after poll question.e1i

people saying this country is on the wrong track. ane"i think it is. i think the american people are fundamentally correct, and i believe that it's right and moral and just and biblical tha1 we have a lawful syst immigration for the nation state that we serve, and i know, and we've had economists come and testify before our committee, that is harvard professo]écq! world's leading expert on it, that you bring in more labor than we can absorb, poor people have their wages go down. poor peoblg have their job prospects go down. things aren't going good out there for the american people, and one of the reasons is that the extraordinary unprecedented rate of immigration into our country, particularly in lower k skills, and it's hammering good and decent people who need to be able to raise a family and take care of their children, and they're not able to do so effectively, and i believe we [(jt4h!etter on that.xdxdp,ñi i know that we can. permission to come home and the king let him go, and he went

home. just a little bit of a humorousd joke. i don't intend -- to do what? to build a wall. he went to build a wall in jerusalem. [ applause ]koe1ñi and it wasn't to keep the peopl] in.çó you know?xd give me a break. so i just think that we need to understand that we in the government of the united states represent the interests of the american people. we can't do everything for everybody in the world. we are a nation state, and nation states act like they're supposed to. when paul said, be loyal to the state he was talking about the % pagan wrong.fáñi he wasn't talking about, you know -- jewish theocracy. i just would say to you, when °ejurq' nehemiah came onv

countries, and the king gave itf to hill.jf joshua, remember?xd when we came into the holy landu he asked permission to go through, i guess, moabites or -á somewhere and they wouldn't letu him. we'll pay you money.xd no.lp we'll do all this. go our way around? no.ñr so he went around. so the idea that nations don't set laws, establish who can and can't enter is not biblical in my opinion. nations do that, and they've done it since time in memorial, there's nothing wrong with i4xd ó+i%ust need to have a fair system that gives people an equal opportunity to apply and those who meet the standards can don't excessively exacerbate the wages and incomes of poor americans. i truly believe that of all races and ethnic groups.

particularly minority groups that suffer the most from that. one more thing. you know, jesus talked about the poor a lot.i] and we should think about that. and give real thought to it. in my view, i've changed.fáxdñr i've supported virtually every trade agreement that has come ep forward, but i do believe that á trade agreements aren't serving the american people effectively. [ applause ] i know the ideals and belief in( free markets and that, but our competitors, business allies, but economic competitors, they don't operate on a same way we do, and so it's not a purely xdó level playing field. when president obama signed the korean trade #-11:)háhtjt friends in south korea, he promised we would increase exports to south korea by $11 çk

billion, $12 billion a year. last year since 2011 when it wai signed, last year, we had about a $20 million increase.i] we've had no increase in our ñi exports to korea, but they had a $12 billion, $15 billion increase to us and the tra!a deficit with korea, because it ó is hard through all kinds of mechanisms to export to china, korea and many of our competitors, but we open our manipulated through currency to1 make them less expensive than p]"táupáes.e1fát(he united r often subsidized, part of a american industry often, so i just say to you it is time for us to understand that this has consequences, if we -- these errors we've made. it's not working the way it's been promised, and we found the

their computer models, they lay out these positive projections, and it's just not a right thing. so i think we need to listen to the american people about this.1 there's nothing wrong with having a lawful system of immigration that serves the ñroá american people. nothing wrong with saying, trade agreements shouldn't just benefit the corporate elite, but also ought to give a fair chance for manufacturing plants, the american worker to have a good 3 job in this country. [ applause ] now, the supreme court is 4-4. just unbelievable we've had thi3

years.e1 so many of you have followed it1 closely and you understand it çs very clearly and now with the eó loss of often the fifth vote, justice scalia, we are facing ai crhvical time. ralph reid told me the other day, he said, you know, it's like this. we actually have two branches of government at stake in this election. don't we? however, so the courts are at risk here, too. i was a ranking republican on xd the judiciary committee, and to handle, lead the republican highly accomplished women up for the supreme court. and we tried our best to do t>ma

job with integrity, with fairness, but with rigor, and i felt like so many of you. the court hasn't been performing in a way we would like it to. so what is at stake here? and we got a lot of complaints and issues that were raised, but and issuhink defines who we are. and defines the challenges we face, and it's something that you in this room -- need to understand and really kind of commit ourselves to being successful on. justice sotomayor, we found, and she had given a number of speeches over a decade in which she discussed the court and the ñó[7(pr(t&ho she quoted a philosopher, a u legal writer in this way, and she favorably quoted him, and the -- she would always say, u there is no neutrality. "no objective stance butp.ññr series of perspectives." that still makes the hair stand up on the back of our neck. a judge, to say there is no xd objectivity. just a series of perspectives, and that the aspiration to impartiality is just that. ost-modern, rá's directly ñr contrary to the founding of our republic.

if you look -- u -- why do we have free speech? because we believe in debate and expression of ideas. truth could be ascertained. we believe that there was a truth, first of all, there is one. there's a god, creator in heaven, who ordered this universe with moral laws just as well as gravity laws. [ applause ] and so we -- our system was set up to allow public discussion of issues, and the freedom to express your views. it wasn't to print child xd pornography, but it was to alloa free debate on the important issues facing our country, and then you have congress, and the senate had unlimited debate, and you could talk as long as you wanted to. so congress could debate all of the issues, bring in all of the facts that people chose to bring in and then make a truthful, e1

honest decision on what was the best interests of the united states.u and what about your trials and you have the right to express yourself through the opening statements and the lawyers' statements. witnesses are compelled, even if they want to, to come, testify under oath to the truth.xd and juu

not what my perspective to is. you know, this is a dangerous philosophyc(j we are and a problem with the courts. once they take that philosophy, they're no longer bound. a professor -- bound by the words of the constitution -- wrotexb constitution ends it begins with we the people it end we with put forward this constitution. not the one the judge wished had passed. what the constitution says there is no principle subject that lpó system is really important and the real value and battle we're engaged in here is one to reaffirm that there is objective truth. it's not all relative. [ applause ]e1çó and that means some things are right and some things are wrong1 and we're getting too far away from that in my opinion. it's not healthy for any country and it's really not healthy for a democracy like ours that's built on the rule of all. thank you all for what you do.ño

be a part of this.t( hopefully we can try to put thi] hopefully we can try to put thi] and i think we'll get a lot better towards that end if we ñr listen to what the american people are trying to tell us in washington. thank you all and god bless you. [ applause ] >> please held me welcome to thr stage executive director, kendra bartlet. >> thank you. it's my privilege today to be able to introduce the next ok speaker. when i was asked to introduce representative louie e1lpgomert called our state director and said, ann, tell me aboutp

representative gomert. she said he's a sweetheart. means we really like him. representative gomert has represented the first district of texas since the year 2005. and we -- one thing you can e1e1 always say about representative gomert is he will always do the right thing. so please welcome representativó louie w3gomert from the first district of texas. [ applause ]xdok >> thank you. wow, it's great to be here with you. i love being at faith and e1 freedom event, you know, ralph ( keeps having me.a@f i just told him, i hope you get to have one next year after i finish speaking.oke1 we've been in the trenches fighting together and i love being in the trenches fighting with him. he's a great, smart man. even though he does talk with a

southern accent. and as jeff foxworthy said when people hear a southern accent e1 points from how smart they think you are. from some of the e-mail and nasty messages i get i think entioned justice scalia. aren't we grateful that god allowed antonin scalia to be on the supreme court.t( what a blessing he has been.a5á and i can tell you, i counted 5a him as a friend.ó[ i hope he felt that way.htjfñr but where we are in the country right now, we didn't deserve ." him.r he was a man of principle. but, of course, i love both his principle, plain spokenness and] sense of humor.u

there was no better memories i've had, some unpleasant ones u in washington, than to sit down at a meal with justice scalia and swap stories and jokes. stories. i told one -- it's tough when people like jokes to find one they hadn't heard before.5a anyway, he said how about this one, this probably happened back down in texas when they used hanging. he said a defendant just the worst of the worst, he murdered, he had done the worst, most sentenced to hang. on that saturday morning tv%- brought him out, two or three thousand people gathered to see it. the sheriff brings him up on the gallows and says we have a q tradition in our town before we hang somebody, we give them a chance to address the crowd. would you like to do that? he said, no not really. i don't think you understand you're about to go meet the supreme court, the supreme judge your maker. most people think it's a good ask for forgiveness.e1 you have victim's families out people you've murdered and harmed.çó done things to. don't you think you ought to apologize before you're hanged.

not really. at some pointçóe1 in the audien yield? >> he looked at the sheriff and said i don't know what that means. >> the guy that yelled that that's our local congressman. that's congress talk for you to give him your time to speak to the crowd. he said can i do that. the sheriff said i guess you ñr could. ó[lpxd do you want? he said yeah, i guess soxibf yo1 hang me first.lp so anyway that was justice scalia.w3çó what a delightful man who cared deeply about the constitution. i'm going to get to something right now -- this apparently is1 what i'm famous for and it drives the left nuts.xdlp but i'm going to talk about something that enough people are and what happens when a very important issue is afoot and e1p

good people, smart people don't talk about it. then the wrong people get their ways and they do great harm to this nation and to the individuals in this nation. you've heard of something called transgender. we got to talk about it.lpe1 okay?e1 this is not me speaking, you may have seen i brought a manila w3 i never done that before.t( i always have a little card thaá has my little outline and i look has my lo get back ok and i look here.táh _=iñ i say i've not done this but i wanted you to hear this f2zipá one transgender man said is the leading expert -- he said in the world when he was ok talking to me. i think he's the best in the r world.

but he was the head of u psychiatry at johns hopkins medical facility.w3 and i vaguely remembered reading somewhere that back in the 60s johns hopkins was the first hospital to start doing sex change surgeries. i read that. maybe you have. but i did not read anywhere until walt hire directed me to dr. mchugh's article in wall street journal. they stopped doing this years ago, the sex change.ño' let me tell you what dr. paul mchugh, he's now retired as the head of psychiatry, but he stilr associated with johns hopkins. these are his professional ok views.e1t( just in the last couple weeks for kirby anderson and i had dr. mchugh on. his article, you can find this on watt street journal, may 13th. he said policymakers and the media are doing no favors to the public or transgendered by treating their confusions as a right and need of defending rather than a mental disorder e1 that deserved understanding treatment and prevention.e1

this -- i] yeah.w3e1 this intensely felt sense of céing transgendered institutes a mental disorder into respects. the first is that the idea of mistaken. it does not correspond with physical reality.q the second is it can lead to/d grim psychological outcomes. he says the transgender suffer 1 disorder of assumption like other disorders.o7o it's that the individual differs from what seems given in nature. one's maleness or femaleness.okq other kinds of disorder xdxd aukus(tions are held by those who suffer from anorexia or belumia.lp where it's the belief that the

dangerously thin or overweight.r he goes on discussing that. for the transgender, one feeling of gender is a conscious 5at( subjective sense that being in u one's mind cannot be questioned by anyone else.xde1ok9 just society's tolerance of this personal truth, but an affirmation of it. here rests the support for transgender equality. the demands for government payment for medical or surgicalp treatments and access to all sex based public roles and privileges. he says with this article advocates for the transgenderedd have persuaded several states, q including california, new u jersey, massachusetts to pass laws barring psychiatrists, even with parental permission from t( striving to restore the natural gender feelings to a transgend2n minor.s7u

the government can intrude into parents' rights to seek help in guiding their children indicates how powerful these advocates have become. now, he is saying that psychiatrists must challenge this and he makes the great point i brought up on the radiop show, what an incredible irony ( that states have passed laws u that say you can't take a child( to a psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor for what is only in 0l their head to get them help forq only what's in their head.e1 no physical manifestation.q5a and as he says here, the ordersr -- disorders of consciencenessñ after all represents psychiatry's domain. declaring them off limits would eliminate the field of psychiatry.e1 doesn't t#i+ he says you won't hear it from those cham)]?9%9 equality but controlled and xd

follow up stupxqáh)eveal fundamental problems with this movement. when children who reported fá transgender feelings were tracked without medical or surgical treatment at both lp vanderbilt university and london's portman clinic, 70% toq 80% of them spontaneously lost those feelings. 20% did have persistent feeling. what differentiates those individuals remains to be discerned.ñr holy smoke. think of the damage we're doing to kids.xdlpçó not just the poor girls or women that have been sexually abused, having a man walk into them in d their most important privacy.w31 that's bad enough. but what about the damage to thq s ó%qq1 and we are not allowed to help that confused child.lp he points out that 2011 study ad the institute in sweden produced

the moste1 illuminating results yet regarding the transgender. evidence that could give advocates pause, unfortunately, it hasn't. but he says the study up to 30 years followed 324 people who had sex reassignment surgery, r the study revealed beginning about ten years after the surgery, the transgender began to experience increasing mental difficulties, most shockingly fá their suicide mortality rose 20i non-transgender population. this disturbing result has yet no explanation but probably reflects the growing sense of isolation reported by the agingá transgendered after surgery. the high suicide rate certainly challenges the surgery e1 prescription. i didn't read this but it turns out johns hopkins, the'imq hospital in america to duex change surgery quit doing it years ago.

helping and we're probably hurting so we should not -- as they've said be cutting up e1 normal organs. unpleasant to talk about.fá that's why so often we lose. people are afraid of being t[ka-%9 ñazy or phobic of some y'all, i have one phobia. an&huhat's a god phobia. i have a fear of god and we're told that's the beginning of wisdom. i got a long way to go, but that's the beginning. [ applause ]p, he finishes his article. he says at the heart of the problem is confusion over the nature of the transgender sex change is biological,vw)áh impossible. this is the guy that knows more about transgender. he's saying sex change is çó people who undergo reassignment?

to women or vice versa. they become feminized men or masculinized women claiming this is civil rights matter and encouraging surgical p!mç collaborate with and promote a mental disorder. when i was interviewing him, i said well the new dsm-v the degree -- diagnosticse1 statistical manual that over the years, it changes and evolves and it has what is the accepted diagnoses that a physician can prescribe or list. and they've cha

disorder. you know what euphoria. this is an an at this -- jf antonym.5a it means that you have a general feeling of dissatisfaction with something, in this case being with your female or masculine gender. it's a generalized sense of dissatisfaction. and for that you want to cut off organs and destroy people's lives? and now this administration says we're going to have the va do fá sex change operations. really? do we not have enough veterans committing suicide without you [ applause ] enough is enough. and we have to stand up for our veterans. we're the adults. we have to stand up for our let me give you this last final story. wow, even when he was a judge he made international headlines.g

i had a guy come before me for rm

and then once you've been informed of all the risks you e1 have to sign a statement of fá informed consent that you fá understand those risks and you otherwise, the doctor is liable to you.xde1 i said i got to thinking about this and i said i don't know where you got the hiv virus and for our purposes, it doesn't matter. but i bet when you became hiv t( positive you wished the person that gave it to you had told yo( i%m-m having sexual relations.r and so here's one of your conditions of probation. you will not have sexual relations with anyone unless yor first advise them in writing that you have aids, that they could get it and they could dies doesn't that sound fair? he nodded, yeah, that seemed and everybody thought that seemed fair. and then we had all of these gay rights groups came after me,

grievances filed, aclu filed an appeal, all this stuff. it made international news. a gohmert relative in europe. anyway, they read about me in a. anyway, so i had judges across d texas say, wow, that was really1 smart. i love what you did.q i said oh, you want the forms? are you crazy i don't want the grief you've been getting. anyway, that was i believe in 1994.t(e1xde1 now most states have made it a crime if you knowingly -- if you have aids and you knowingly expose other people to that. somebody had to stand up at the beginning and be called crazy and a homophobe.e1çó and all these other things. when all i was doing was caring1 about the people that could be harmed if i didn't speak up. folks, we've got to do the same

thing. that's why you're here. that's why we've got hope.xde1 because we we know the source fr=ui my time is up. but your time is not."-let's st our voices heard. thank you, god bless you. [ applause ]w3xd the democratic national committee is in the process of shaping its platform ahead of next month's national convention. members of the platform drafting committee meet tomorrow in phoenix for a hearing that will include testimony from former laborxd secretary robert reichj1 actress and activist, patricia arquette. you can see it tomorrow at noon eastern on c span. ♪ ♪ with the political primary season over, c i]span's road to the white house takesko you to this summer's political conventions. watch the republican national

convention starting july 18th with live coverage from cleveland. >> so we'll be going into the convent1o >> and watch the democratic national convention starting july 25th, with live coverage from philadelphia. >> let's go forward. let's win the nomination, and in july let's return as añi unifie party! >> and then we take our fight for social, economic, u and environmental justice to philadelphia,lpe1 pennsylvania!p >> every minutelp of the republican and democraticñr parties national conventions. on c span, c span radio, and c span.org. at "washington u in saturday's "washington post," ed o'keefe writingw3 dozens of republican delegates launching a

ñ push to halt donald trump. great for you joining us. a key point in your jfstory. these< are not talking heads. these are not party operatives. these are delegates. >> exactly. and that i think is what's important for anyone rolling their eyes hearing about this to focus on.q finally we're finding evidence of the people who will be empowered to nominate formally any candidate taking it uponxd themselves to do something. we've heard so muchu disaffected republicansó[ about why condition5a we do somethingo slow hislp momentum and force se concessions from him. a bunch of these delegates have been trying to do that the last few weeks and they have5a final found eachñr other and they hav really mirrors the initial activists of theñi tea party movement started doing a few years ago. they are mad at hell and they

anymore a$ññ they are going to o something else. they are now getting together and hoping to across the country in enough states to make something happen. >> house speaker paul ryan in an interview that will air sunday on nbc's "meet the press" saying he would never tell anybody to do something contrary to their conscience. now, he has said that he will vote for donald trump. how significant were his remarks? >> well, remember, he is the official sort of titular chairman of the convention. so he has to remain sort of above the fray when it comes to all of this. but what he's essentially signaling there is i'm not going to put my thumbs on the scales one way or the other, which is to say if you want to try to do something and you can build the momentum to do it, then go ahead and do it and bring it forward. by using the word "conscience, " though, that's going to warm the hearts of the folks that are trying to do this because what they are trying to do is propose what they're calling is a

conscience clause. they will take it to the convention rules committee the week before the convention convenes and propose instead of being bound to the results of your state's caucus or primary, a delegate should be allowed to vote for whomever they would prefer, to vote their conscience. in some interpretations of the republican convention rules, that's already the way it's supposed to be. but reince priebus, the rnc chairman and other leaders have been running around and saying no. delegates are bound to the results of what happened in their state and must vote that way for a certain number of rounds. if you've been paying attention to this over the last few months, you probably saw explainers on how this works and in the first one to four rounds, the state may be bound to the results. after that, delegates can do whatever they want. what these people are arguing is, no, they can do whatever they want from the beginning because as an organization, it is they, the delegates who choose the nominee, not voters in the states because they were electing delegates after all and not a candidate directly to the convention to figure this out. >> your piece includes a statement by donald trump saying

he won almost 14 million votes. quote, i have tremendous support and get the biggest crowds. who specifically -- which delegations are behind this effort, and how do you think this is all going to unfold in terms of momentum? >> well, no one full-blown delegation is behind this, but there are members of different delegations who are. no state has decided en masse, we're going to do whatever we can to support a conscience clause. but you have members especially in colorado, which was a state that ted cruz, the texas senator, used to organize supporters as early as last summer to go to their state convention and get him the delegates needed. they're one of the few states that didn't hold a caucus or a primary but instead relied on a convention. so that team that won him the convention there has essentially banded together to continue this in hopes of getting trump to not be the nominee.

so their home base is in colorado. there's people in louisiana, washington state, iowa, some here on the east coast as well, and they anticipate that in the coming days, the numbers will grow. part of the reason why they can now sort of start to figure out who's would and who is in support of this is that this past monday, the states and territories had to turn in their final list of delegates and alternates to the republican national committee. so, in essence, the dye is cast, and it's now known who has to go. the problem is the rnc at one point was telling everyone they would release the list of the delegates and the alternates, and at this point i'm being told at least that they may not do that for whatever reason. so this will require them to go out, call each state party or find a like-minded delegate who can then pass along their list, and they'll have to compile the phone numbers and e-mails that way and reach out and try to find people. if there was one master list available to everyone, they could probably determine this by monday morning. but it's going to take a little while longer. and, you know, incredibly throughout this whole thing, steve, you've got people who

tell me they've been finding each other on facebook. they've been finding each other through direct messaging on twitter, trying to do this in a very quiet way and subtle way, perhaps to avoid scrutiny of fellow republicans in their own state or even fellow members of their delegations. i had one delegate tell me that the chairman of their delegation had threatened them that if they don't vote for trump, they were going to have their credentials removed. they'd be kicked off the floor. an alternate would be put in their place. this was in a state that trump had won. but this delegate believes he should be able to do whatever he wants, especially if he has concerns about the conservative politics of trump. >> and finally, ed o'keefe, we're a month away from the start of the convention in cleveland. how significant have been the last two weeks for donald trump, whether his remarks, his comments, or the latest polling numbers? >> all of it is significant because it is beginning to cause a lot of worry for these delegates who say, look, his numbers are tanking in a head to

head matchup with hillary clinton. he has said and done things that suggest he is in this for his own personal gain. i was struck that a few of them said, you know, i'm disturbed by what he said about that federal judge in california, not only because he was raising concerns about the judge's ethnicity but also because he was essentially threatening to use his political power that he has now amassed and threatened potentially to use the power of the presidency to single out a judge because he didn't like something that he had done. and to single this judge out not because that judge had ruled against the will of the people, but because he was ruling against the self-interests of trump himself. so he's abusing his power in essence. the other thing, just this week trump's calls for new gun laws about -- in the wake of what happened in orlando was a red flag to a lot of conservatives very quickly who said, hold on a second. you know, to us, the second amendment is settled. there's nothing more that needs to be done to it. don't touch it.

so they're very concerned by his comments this week. it's again exposing him as someone who is not necessarily sufficiently conservative to most republicans. so all of this together is what's inspiring these people to kind of do something and see if there's a way to stop him at the convention. and they make very clear they're not doing this at the behest of any of the vanquished opponents of mr. trump, and they don't necessarily even have a preference just yet on who it would be other than trump. but they are eager to try to do something to stop him and feel that they can do it in the next month. >> the most organized effort so far to stop donald trump from becoming the gop nominee. the reporting of ed o'keefe, who is joining us from "the washington post" newsroom. his work available online. thank you for being with us. >> anytime, steve. take care. c-span's washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up saturday morning, philadelphia enquirer city hall

reporter tri sha nadolny talks about tax on sugar sweetened and diet beverages. the first such tax imposed in a major u.s. city. financial times surks economics editor sam fleming will discuss what came out of this week's federal reserve meeting and the overall outlook for the u.s. economy, including the potential impact of the brexit referendum. then joshua horowitz, executive director of the coalition to stop gun violence will talk about his group's position on new gun control measures in the wake of the orlando nightclub attack. plus a look at u.s. efforts to combat homegrown terrorism and extremism with seamus hughes, deputy director of george washington university center for cyber and homeland security extremism program. be sure to watch beginning live at 7:00 a.m. eastern saturday morning. join the discussion.

on american history tv on c-span3, this saturday starting at 1:00 p.m. eastern, we're live from gettysburg college in gettysburg, pennsylvania, for the annual civil war institute summer conference. reconstruction in the north, and post-civil war career of yew list seize s. grant. also here conversations on the return of the confederate veteran and the origins of the lost kaus. with the approach of the anniversary of the smithsonian air and space museum in july, real america will showcase a series of nasa films. this weekend we'll look at the 1966 film "science reporter, suited for space." >> you've got to see some of our earlier models. here we have the al shepherd's suit. this is the mercury suit. after the mercury suit, it's the gemini. >> this looks familiar. >> this is a suit very similar to this.

in fact, identical to this was worn by white in his extra vehicular excursions. >> this does look quite a bit different from that gemini suit that we saw. >> it is. this is one of our earlier models of the apollo suit. >> tracing the development of spacesuits from the mercury program to the apollo moon mission. and sunday evening at 6:00 on american artifacts, curator jeremy kenny takes us on a tour of the smithsonian national air and space museum to show some of the museum's one of a kind artifacts in the quest to go higher, faster and farther during the first half century of aviation. >> this airplane in may 1927 flew the 3,600 miles in 33 and a half hours from new york to paris. flown by charles lindbergh who was an unknown male pilot. his goal was to one the orteg prize of $25,000 for the first nonstop flight from new york to paris. and so that was the impetus for this flight. but what it represents in the history of aviation is part of

the telling of the airplane and this transformation of the airplane from what the wright brothers created and how it transitioned over the 20s and 30s to what we would call the modern airplane. >> for the kpleem northwestern history tv weekend schedule, go to c-span.org. the democratic party's platform committee is holding a forum in phoenix to hear testimony on what should be included in the party's platform ahead of next month's democratic national convention. the platform committee is meeting saturday at noon eastern, and you can see that live on our companion network, c-span. and then sunday on c-span, conservative activist steve lanagan and bon vander plaats on the 2016 presidential campaign. both were supporters of ted cruz before donald trump clinched the republican nomination. news makers is sunday at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span.

retired air force colonel morris davis was formerly the top prosecutor for terrorist suspects held at guantanamo bay. colonel davis spoke at the national press club recently, explaining what he sees as the problems with the military trials at guantanamo bay. >> all right. good morning, everyone. is this on? can you hear me okay? sure. okay, it's a small room. i'm loud. good morning. thank you so much for joining us. i am molly mcincludeky. i'm a member of the board of governors here at the national press club and a freelance journalist, and i'm so proud to welcome colonel morris davis to this newsmaker this morning. during an election cycle that has seen an increasing crackdown on press freedoms and an administration that has also become known for censoring its

critics and journalists alike, i can think of few more relevant guests than colonel davis to join us day. now, morris davis was the former chief prosecutor for the guantanamo military commissions, and he later spoke out publicly against the treatment of inmates in prison there. and he recently settled a lawsuit against the library of congress, which have fired him for writing newspaper op-eds criticizing the obama administration's decision to resume the use of the military commission system. now, colonel davis will be speaking for a few moments, and then we'll open the floor to questions and answers. i'll kick off the q&a session and we'll open it up to the audience at which point i'll ask that you identify yourself and your organization before asking a question. ladies and gentlemen, colonel davis. >> well, thank you. i'm very grateful to molly and to the national press club for inviting me to come speak today. i'll be perfectly honest. i think i envisioned a day where something like this would happen. in fact, i may have envisioned

standing right here. what i didn't envision was it would take six and a half years to get here. so it's been a long and interesting trip from walking out of the library of congress carrying everything i had in a copy paper box to standing here today. so thank you for inviting me and giving me the opportunity to do this. i think when i look back on it over the last six and a half years, when people ask me how did it feel, i remember when i was a kid, i was about six. and one of my neighbors and i were playing, and there was a big oak tree in another neighbor's yard. and we climbed up in the tree. we were probably maybe 8 or 10 feet off the ground and my feet slipped and i fell out and landed on my back. it just knocked the breath out of me. that's kind of the way this felt, getting fired by the library of congress for expressing my opinion. to have my government do that to me, like it knocked the breath out of me. but rather than it going away in six and a half minutes, it took six and a half years to fight this battle.

so i'm really happy that i can be here today and that this chapter is finally coming to a close. i'm back working for the government again, so let me give the obligatory disclaimer that what i'm about to say -- because i don't want to be back here six and a half years doing this again. so let me make it clear that i'm expressing my personal views, not the views of any government agency, and i'm on leave today on my own personal team. so this is strictly me speaking on behalf of me. so if you're here, you probably know generally the chronology of what led up to this moment, but let me just briefly go back over it. if we had several days, we can go through it line by line, but we'll do the 30,000 foot view and go over it briefly. as molly mentioned, i was in the air force for 25 years and i spent -- towards the end much my career -- two years at the chief prosecutor for the military commissions at guantanamo. if you followed kind of my

story, you know i started in september of 2005. i was the third chief prosecutor for the military commissions. general martins who is the chief prosecutor now is the sixth chief prosecutor. but during my tenure, we had a policy or i had a policy that we would not use any evidence that was obtained by what i had to refer to as enhanced interrogation techniques. you know, the pentagon was always good at having terms that made things sound like something different than they really were, and enhanced interrogation techniques are what most people would call torture. or back then, i couldn't use the word suicide. i had to use the term self-injurious behavior. but my policy had been we wouldn't use evidence that was obtained by the enhanced interrogation techniques because quite frankly it wasn't necessary. shake mohammed, his trial is still a work in progress. i recall in september of 2006, after president bush had made the decision to transfer the detainees from the cia over to

the military, and the plane landed at guantanamo and 14 men got off that day. that was in september of 2006. it was almost a decade later, and that trial is still -- no firm date set for that trial to take place. but with khalid sheikh muhammad, there's ample evidence to establish his guilt without using a word he said in custody. which did not make what we did to him right. but at least in a court of law would make it irrelevant in bringing criminal charges against him. so that had been the policy for about two years during my tenure as chief prosecutor. towards the end, some of the people that were appointed above me retired and moved on and they were replaced by political appointees. for example, general john atten berg had been a career military officer and served for over 30 years in the army, had a distinguished career. i think he was truly devoted to trying to do this in a credible

way. general all tenberg left and he was replaced by susan crawford who never wore a uniform a day in her life, but she had been dick cheney's inspector general wh . in my view, that was the beginning of the end for the credibility of the military commissions with civilians began to get involved. suddenly by the cemetesummer of i was being told that president clinton -- president bush says we don't torture. and if president bush says we don't torture, who are you to say that we do? all that evidence you're not using, you need to get it out, dust it off, get into court and get these guys convicted. that was, for me, kind of the law straw. i lost confidence in our ability to make sure we were going to have full, fair and open trials. so in october of 2007, i resigned as chief prosecutor of the military commissions. which then leads into the next chapter of my life. i decided at that point i was approaching 25 years in the service. like many in the military, i had joined planning to do four

years, to serve my country and then get out and get back home to north carolina. next thing i knew, four years had become 25 because i truly enjoyed my time in the military. and in my view, it's the most ethical practice of law you're going to find anywhere. i think a lot of the practitioners that had been involved with the military commissions will tell you that they came into it were a jaundiced view of military justice and military attorneys and that they've changed their mind. that they've been very impressed by the ethics of the people that are involved. so i really enjoyed my time, and if i was yunoung enough, i'd go back and do it again. but it was at a point to decide what i was going to do. if i was going to stay in the military, it was time to leave for another assignment. if not, it was time to require. quite frankly, i think people think i chose to retire because of guantanamo. the truth is it was because of the housing market. i moved here in 2005 at the peak of the housing market and by 2008, we were so far underwater, i really couldn't afford to leave. so i chose to retire.

in fact, i'm still underwater, and i don't know if i'll ever live long enough to get back above water. but i chose to retire and stay here, and i began looking for jobs. one of the places i had applied in the spring of 2008 was at the congressional research service. i was invited in for an interview for a position that spring, met with the director of congressional research service, dan mulholland. and i was interviewed for a position there. i got a call from mr. mulholland several weeks later, around april or may of 2008, saying that there was someone else they thought was better qualified for the position, but they had been impressed by my principal stand that i had taken on guantanamo and the leadership i'd shown in the military. and he asked if i would be interested in other positions that he thought might be coming open in the future. and i told him that i would. fast forward to july 30th of 2008. now, remember the date specifically. i was coming up on retirement.

i had to go to walter reed for some testing. so the 29th, i checked in at walter reed. i was discharged the morning of the 30th, put my suit on, went to capitol hill, and testified by the house armed services committee about guantanamo. in my view, that we had screwed this process up so badly that we couldn't recover from it. and so when i came out from testifying at the house armed services committee, i turned my phone on, and i had a message from mr. mulholland's secretary asking that i give him a call. so as i'm walking from having testified about guantanamo before congress to the metro, i called and mr. mulholland said, there's a job coming open as the head of the foreign affairs defense and trade division here at crs. we'd like for you to apply. and i told him that i was interested, and they asked if i would come in in a few days and meet with his deputy director to talk about the job, which i did. the job wasn't advertised for another month or two, but when it was advertised, they called and said, you know, submit your

application, which i did, and ultimately i was hired. again i went for the interview, and a lot of what was discussed in the interview was what my role as chief prosecutor, the testimony i had given before congress, and those things. so december 20th of 2008, i began my tenure at the congressional research services, head of the foreign affairs defense and trade division. if i could back up just a step, you know, in the military we don't get involved in partisan politics. so for 25 years, i had participated, you know, as a voter and staying informed as a citizen. but as far as being directly involved, i didn't do that. so when i retired on october 1st of 2008, for me it was the first time in a quarter of a century that i got to actively participate in the political process. so i put an obama sign up in my front yard, and i live in a gated community out in rural virginia. one of my neighbors at some point in the night doused my obama sign in lighter fluid and set it on fire. so i put up another one, and i

worked for the obama campaign in prince william county, making calls and going door to door. and i don't think anyone was more excited than me when i was elected. so december i start my new job. january, president obama takes office and what's the first thing that he does? actually the first thing he did is he signs the lilly ledbetter act. the sing thing is he signed the order to close gaun taun know. so january 2009, i don't know there's anyone in d.c. that was happier than me. i had retired from the military. guantanamo was closing. i was in a job that i liked, working with people that i respected and liked. it looked like it couldn't get much better. things progressed. thing still seemed to be going well until the fall of 2009, and that was when rumblings began to emerge that the president was not going to close guantanamo, that the military commissions may be revived, and that was when i began having concerns that this whole hope and change

was not going to take place as it appeared it was at one point. there was an article, an op-ed in "the washington post" by former attorney general michael mccasey where he basically says if we bring detainees from guantanamo to the u.s., life as we know it will come to an end. that led me to write a letter to the editor, rebutting what mr. mccasey had said. that same weekend in november of 2009, i also wrote an op-ed that i submitted to "the wall street journal." i have written a lot of pieces and i'd say the vast majority of what i've written has never seen the light of day. often when i would write something, i'd have to shop it around and edit it and make a lot of changes and eventually somebody would take an interest and publish it. but for the first time ever on a sunday afternoon i hit send twice, and by tuesday, hi two articles, one in "the washington post," and one in "the wall street journal." the next day was veterans day, so we were off work, but i had an e-mail from mr. mulholland, the director of crs, expressing his displeasure that i had

expressed these opinions and questioning my suitability to serve at congressional research service. that's when the whole six and a half year odyssey began that veterans' day in 2009. ironically, i guess in a sense, you know, when i was the chief prosecutor at the human rights orgszs and groups that are generally viewed on the left didn't particularly hold me in high regard. one of the organizations had -- that i don't think was terribly fond of me was the american civil liberties union. they would send a representative down to guantanamo to observe the proceedings, and i would meet with the representatives and we would talk. and we had a cordial relationship, but i don't think they were particularly fond of the positions i was taking, advocating for guantanamo. when word got out that i was getting fired for having expressed my opinions on ga guantana guantanamo, one of the first calls i got was from anthony romero at the aclu, who said what can we do to help? and for six and a half years, they stood by my side and

represented me throughout this process. we went to court in january of 2010, seeking a temporary restraining order to stop crs from firing me pending the litigation of the lawsuit on whether the first amendment protected my right to express my opinion. mr. mulholland had called me in before he gave me the letter of termination and wanted me to admit that what i had done was wrong. he wanted me to apologize, and he said that it appeared that i put the constitution ahead of my -- the good of the organization. and i said, that's true. i do. i can -- i could sit here and tell you that, yes, you're right. i was wrong. the counstitution doesn't apply to me. but i served in uniform for 25 years to defend the constitution, and if i told you it didn't apply to me, i'd be making a false official statement, and i'm not going to do that. so i got the letter of termination saying i was fired, which again was somewhat ironic

because i was fired for exercising my right of free speech in the james madison building, the author of the first amendment. so i stayed on until january 20th. we went to court trying to get a temporary restraining order. the department of justice argued against granting the restraining order. there are several elements you have to prove in order to get a restraining order. judge reggie walton was the judge in my case for the entire six-plus years. judge walton found that we met all the elements. you know, it was likely that i would prevail on the merits, that it was within the public interest. but the one element that he found i did not establish based on the government's argument was i was unable to establish irreparable harm because the department of justice argued in that hearing that if i prevailed on my first amendment lawsuit, that they could write me a check for back pay, which would make me whole, if my claim was

validated. and judge walton agreed. and so i was not granted the restraining order, and that afternoon, dick elke, the deputy director, walked me out to the parking lot as i carried my cardboard box with my stuff, and i left. a few months later, the same attorney from the justice department argued that that had been a mistake, that the back pay act doesn't apply to the legislative branch and that there was no possibility of getting back pay. so at that point we began fighting to get me reinstated to my position. we had also filed suit against mr. mulholland in his personal capacity. we litigated that in the spring of 2010, and the government argued that mr. mulholland as a government official had immunity and couldn't be sued for action he took in his official ca pass its. judge walton denied the motion and said if the facts as alleged were true, then no government official could have believed

that it was appropriate to fire someone for exercising their constitutional right. at that point the government appealed, and we went off on a detour to the d.c. circuit, which added another about year and a half to the case. at the d.c. circuit, my case was assigned to a panel with chief judge sintel on the panel, judge henderson, and judge rogers. if you look back, you'll see that was the same panel, if you recall the case that valerie plam brought after she was outed as a cia agent. and her case was dismissed by a 2-1 vote at the d.c. circuit with judge sin tell and judge henderson finding she had no cause of action. not surprisingly, i got the exact same panel, and i got the exact same result. so in a 2-1 decision, the d.c. circuit ruled that i could not bring suit against mr. mulholland in his personal capacity. they did that because they say congress had enacted the civil

service reform act, which provided a comprehensive remedy for government employees. and the fact that they exempted the legislative branch, they exempted themselves from the coverage that showed they had considered legislative branch employees and had chosen not to include them in the coverage. so even though i had no remedy, the d.c. circuit said i couldn't proceed on that ground. so we went back into court, and we spent the rest of the time fighting for reinstatement to my former position at the congressional research service. again, i guess one of the things i've learned from this was i was extraordinarily fortunate that anthony romero called me when this all happened. had i been just anyone else, just an average guy on the street in a similar circumstance, i would have had to throw in the towel a long time ago because the government tactic, the justice department seemed to use was delay, defame, bankrupt, you know, to try to

litigate this case. so over the six and a half years, the american civil liberties union spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting for my right of free speech in an effort to get me reinstated to the congressional research service, to the position that i was fired from. i thought it was interesting, too, that eventually the arguments that i had made in the op-eds that i wrote, if you go back and look at the testimony i provided to congress in july of 2008, it was essentially the same thing i had said to this notion that somehow congress would be surprised that i had a strong opinion about guantanamo, that ship had sailed before i was ever hired at congressional research service. but the obama administration's position eventually became the position that i had advocated. if you recall, attorney general holder later said that in hindsight, it had been a mistake to give up on federal court and to revert back to the military commissions because as he said, khalid sheikh mohammed, had he been tried in federal court,

would have long since been convicted and sitting on death row. in fact, i mentioned the 14 men that got off the plane in september of 2006 at guantanamo. there there was only one of those 14 that has been tried, convicted, sentenced, and his case has been through the appellate process to the supreme court, who denied certain. the case is over and done. that's ahmed galany. ahmed galany is the only gaun taun know detainee that was brought to the united states and prosecuted in federal court, where he was convicted and got a life sentence. the other 13 men that got off the plane with him in september of 2006 are still waiting for their opportunity to have their day in court. so i think it's interesting. i was reading on the way over how congress now, the house has passed a measure that would further restrict president obama's ability to transport detainees out of guantanamo. but, again, the only person that's been convicted, sentenced, and the case through the appellate process

successfully has been ahmed galany, who was convicted in federal courts. so eventually after i was terminated, judge walton during the discussion about irreparable harm said with my qualifications -- you know, i had a b.s., a j.d., and two l.l.m.s and 25 years of military service. it would no problem finding a job. i had already aggravated the republican side when i quit over torture, and now i had aggravated the democratic side when i criticized president obama for his policy on guantanamo. and in d.c., when you've managed to alienate both the republicans and the democrats, it's not an enveeable position to be in seeking employment. so rather than having no problem finding a job for the next six months, i'd like to thank the citizens of the district of columbia for the unemployment checks that i got because i applied for over 200 jobs with government agencies, with private organizations, with non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, you name

it. i applied. places that had offered me jobs a few months before, suddenly i was no longer a good fit with their organization. as one human rights organization said, we totally agree with everything you said, but we just think you're too toxic. you know, the administration is going to hold it against us. so for six months, i collected unemployment as i couldn't find a job. i'm very grateful because up until recently, for four years i was an assistant professor at howard university at the law school. kurt smoke, former mayor of baltimore, was the dean of the law school. akeener dark was the vice dean, and the two of them were willing to take me in when no one else would. so i owe a huge debt of gratitude to howard university for giving me a home where they made me feel welcome and gave me the opportunity to go out and do things that i couldn't have done otherwise. if you followed along again, you may have seen a did a petition

on change.org to close guantanamo. and a quarter of a million people signed that petition. i couldn't have done that had i been in my -- in the government job that i was in. it gave me the opportunity to go out and speak and write and do things. there are pictures where i participated in several protests outside the white house. i did draw the line at putting on an orange jumpsuit and stuck with a coat and tie, but it gave me the opportunity to go out and do some things that i probably couldn't have done otherwise. and then a little over a year ago, i went back into the federal government, an organization where i feel welcome and i work with people that i respect. and, you know, i consider myself very fortunate. just a couple things. you know, i'd like to mention that i've learned over the last six and a half years. i'm going to begin with saying the library of congress and the congressional research service are incredible institutions with some remarkable people that do

great work. what they've lacked is leadership. dr. carla hayden is apparently going to be the next librarian of congress, and i wish her the best, and i hope she brings the leadership to the organization that it's long needed. the librarian of congress, you know, if you go back and look at the case, i think there's three published opinions in my case, two at the district court level, one at the court of appeals level, and a couple other decisions that weren't published. but the title of the case is davis versus billington. and billington was dr. billington who was at the time the librarian of congress, who recently retired. i believe in the wake of his retirement, congress has now changed the rule where the librarian of congress can only serve for 15 years because dr. billington served for in excess of 30. mr. mulholland, who was the director of crs, has also retired, the person that fired me. both of them, you know, i have no doubt love the organization. but i think they love the

organization the way j. edgar hoover loved the fbi, where there was no divide between their personal view and the official written regulations. the library had a regulation that said employees are encouraged in speak and write about areas that are outside their area of official responsibility. that was the official published policy. the unofficial policy was no one should say anything outside the walls of the office. so, again, i think it's an incredible institution, organization. particularly i think in this environment that we're in, crs plays a vital role. for better or worse, there was this proliferation of think tanks and organizations that didn't exist a half century ago, and depending on your persuasion, you can find an organization that will provide what looks like research to support whatever position it is you want to take. the one organization in this town that will give you the unvarnished story is the

congressional research service, where one of the disputes that we had during the course of my lawsuit is this notion that crs provides non-partisan advice. that's not what the statute says. it says crs will provide advice on a non-partisan basis. so it's not the advice that's non-partisan. it's the provision of service. so if someone called my office -- and this happened quite often -- where usually an aide would call and say my member has a hearing this afternoon. can you give me three points in favor of this bill? and we would do that. we may get another call in 15 minutes from another member's office saying, my member is opposed to the bill. can you give me three points in opposition to it? and we did that on a non-partisan basis. but to have people that have spent their lives with ph.d.s and a lifetime of work and expect them to not have an opinion on the issues that they cover, i think, is totally unrealistic. also this notion that the taxpayers spend over $100 million a year on crs, and

you can go online and often you can find a copy of their reports for free, or in other cases, you've got to pay someone who has taken that report that the government generated. now they're going to sell it back to you. there's no reason that the crs reports aren't made available to the public because those reports do not take a partisan position. now, we often did that for a member. if a member wanted a memo that looked at a particular angle, crs would do that. but the reports themselves, we used to refer to crs as the place of a thousand hands. if you've ever read a crs report, you'll see it will say, on the one hand this, on the other hand, that. it never stakes out the right or wrong answer on a particular issue. but they're great reports that provide a lot of very useful information that the public, i believe, has a right to see because they're paying a lot of money to produce it. i certainly wouldn't argue that the memorandums and the internal work that's done on behalf of a committee or a particular member

should ever be made public unless the member or the committee choose to do that themselves. but the reports in general, i think ought to be made available. i guess another lesson i learned from this is the government is firmly -- will stand up firmly for your constitutional rights as long as you don't use them. it's kind of like integrity and a lot of other terms that people are very fond of throwing around and they're all for it in theory, not in application. and that's what i found here, that i think out in the public, people like to think of the constitution as being carved in granite. in fact, it seems to be carved in sandstone, where those rights aren't as strong. i mean i spent 25 years in the military. we take an oath to defend the constitution, and you want to view it as this unbreakable document. but then you get here, and you see that the government, you know, says that in public and then when the lights are off, they take an entirely different

view. you know, i think it's important that people stand up for those rights, particularly the aclu. again, i couldn't have fought this battle without the incredible assistance that they provided. so it wasn't the government. after spending 25 years in the military, it wasn't the government that stood up for my constitutional rights. it was the aclu standing up against the government to make those rights mean something. and i really am eternally grateful to them for doing that. again, i'm really disappointed by the department of justice and the attitude that the attorneys from the department of justice took. one of the things i've tried to stress to people that worked for me when i was a senior attorney in the military and i had young prosecutors that were zealous was even if you're prosecuting somebody, treat them with respect. and i felt that throughout this

process, it was a very disrespectful. as i said, it was delay, defame, spend to try to make this as painful and difficult as possible. one of the issues that sidetracked us for another year was when i left crs, i did the same thing i had done after every military assignment. my last day, i copied the files off my computer, and i left. it took two years before they actually looked at the computer i used. when they did, they discovered i had taken all the documents off it. so suddenly i'm being accused of theft of government property. i've been following this whole e-mail debate in the presidential election because doj didn't have a cavalier attitude about me taking my e-mails off the government computer. they said it was government property. they insinuated i could face criminal charges, and so i had to go out and get a criminal defense attorney to represent me when suddenly i'm being accused.

if i had been just a regular guy off the street, i would have been crushed by the government's effort, and i would have had to have given up a long, long time ago. the other thing i learned is this notion of free speech. there's nothing free about it. it's very costly to speak. as i said, i applied for in excess of 200 jobs and couldn't find one for a very long time. we went to court at one point. c.r.s. had an opening for a position that was comparable, same level position i had been in. and we tried to get them -- have the court order them to instate me into that position pending resolution of the lawsuit because i was earning about $100,000 a year less than i was

making at crs. and judge walton said that losing $100,000 a year was not substantial harm. so i'm not sure that we are in the same financial circle, but i found losing $100,000 a year was pretty substantial harm. and, again, the back pay act, congress exempted themselves from the back pay act, so i wasn't eligible for back pay. so even though it eventually settled, and a got $100,000, i lost about $100,000 a year for the five years that i was out of the government. so free speech cost me about $400,000. the government, in my view, i think the, a clu and i have a bit of a different opinion. i believe the government does have a legitimate right to regulate the conduct and the speech of government employees if there's a significant government interest that justifies it. again, when i was in the

military for 25 years, i understood that i couldn't go out and, for instance, campaign for someone running for office. it was in black and white. it was in the rules. i think the government has the right to regulate speech and conduct if there is that compelling government interest and if they make it clear to their employees. as i mentioned, the library of congress had a regulation that said employees are encouraged to speak and write. that's what it said in black and white, and when i did it, i got fired for doing it. so if there is a compelling reason that there should be a limitation on a government employee's exercise of their rights, i think that's okay, but there needs to be clear guidance, and that needs to be clearly communicates, what the lines are on what the employee can do. finally let me just say a couple of thank-yous. coy stand here for an hour and name all the people that participated, but, again, particularly the aclu, anthony romero, when i called on day one, i don't know that you knew what he was buying into, that

its was going to be six and a half years of fighting the government over my job. but lee roland was the last attorney from the aclu who represented me over the last couple of years. part of the deal when we were negotiating the settlement, i have a sub rosa agreement with lee because after talking to an attorney from the aclu every week for the last six and a half years, i couldn't go cold turkey. part of our deal is he has to call me for at least once a month for the next year to kind of wean me off from dealing with the aclu. lee did a remarkable job. also at times jamil jaf row and ben wizener that stood up for me and for my first amendment rights. from the aclu national capital region, the one attorney on my side that was there from day one till the bitter end was art spitzer, who was been with the aclu here in washington for a

long, long time and stood by me faithfully for six and a half years. the law firm of goodwin proctor here in d.c. over the last couple of years they offered their services pro bono to assist as we moved towards court. so john mccaucus and matt riththy at goodwin proctor did a ton of work as well and fought hard for me. there are a number of former colleagues at crs that stood up for me. lou fisher. mort rosenberg, dick grim et were all career crs employees that at various points in time testified or did declarations on my behalf. i was disappointed in congress, and particularly in the last couple of days, there's been a lot of debate in congress. there is concern about protecting the second amendment rights of people suspected of terrorism. you know, their right to buy a gun. i only had one member of

congress that had a concern about me and my first amendment right to speak, and that was senator lindsey graham. i'm not one of his constituents. my congressman from my district said this is a legal matter, and i can't get involved. senator graham did. he wrote a letter to the librarian of congress that was included as a declaration when we went to court, and i'll be eternally grateful for senator graham. we don't agree about guantanamo, but he did a declaration saying that what i had to say about it and my perspective having been the chief prosecutor was an important voice to be heard. so the one member of congress that stood up for me and fought was senator lindsey graham. and then finally, and i guess what's really relevant to this group, is the media. it was interesting. again, the two articles, one was in the wall street journal. one was in "the washington post." neither one of them ever said a word. the two organizations that did, "the new york times," and the los angeles times, their editorial boards did editorials on my behalf.

again, when you're taking on the government, those kind of things mean a lot. so, again, that's just kind of a 30,000-foot view of the last six and a half years of my life. i'm really pleased that it's behind me and that we can move forward. and i hope that other government agencies look at this and think twice before they ignore the constitution. and i hope government employees, particularly in this time when we have an important election coming up and there's this notion of decredentialing the media and stifling people that have contrary opinions, that's not what we're about. so there are a lot of people in government that i think have valuable opinions that the public ought to have the benefit of hearing. so hopefully they'll take some comfort that sometimes it's worth fighting the fight. [ applause ] >> don't go too far. you're going to need to be back up here in a second.

i have to ask. thank you so much for sharing your story and your perspective on this, and we spoke a little bit about the costs, right? the financial costs, the job search, i'm sure the emotional and psychological toll that it took over the years. we have many op-ed writers in the room with us today. so of course on their behalf, i have to ask, would you speak out again? >> you know, i have thought about that quite a bit. i would. i think i would. even knowing, you know, the consequences. i wrote the op-ed six and a half years ago. it still as important a topic now as it was then. i wish i could say that what i invested led to bringing this issue to closure. it hasn't. hopefully it's contributed to the conversation, but i think this is still an important -- to me, guantanamo, the military commissions, and those issues, you know, as early on, if you recall back in -- i think it was

john mccain early on back in 2001, 2002, during that period, said this is more about us than it is about them. and it continues to be. i'm really disappointed. i saw where congress is trying to make it more difficult to close guantanamo, but it's a -- you know, i debated a lot of people about guantanamo. it's expensive. we're wasting money. you know, millions of dollars a year to detain individuals. what are there 80 left? 30 of those -- you know, we're spending a couple of million dollars a year on each of those detainees that don't need to be there. where i think the supermax, where amead galany is serving his sentence i think is about $35,000 a year. so if senator prox mire was alive, i would hope he would present a golden fleece aword to the government for spending money needlessly on guantanamo. there are 2,000 troops stationed temporarily devoted to detainee operations. 2,000 of our troops tied up to guard 80 people, 30 that we've said don't need to be there.

you know, it's squandered our credibility around the world. we hold ourselves up being the bright, shiny city on a hill. still, it's not just our enemies that throw guantanamo in our face. it's our allies as well that express skepticism about us. so i think, you know, we have long since gotten past the day that there's any way to redeem guantanamo. so i think it would be worth saying it again in those circumstances. >> okay. and you mentioned earlier the terms that the poonentagon requd you to use. you couldn't say torture. you couldn't say suicide. if the government and the military called things as they really are, i mean we are a firm believer in the power of language here as communicators and journalists at the press club, as clearly your lawsuit has shown you are as well. if we actually used the language that was appropriate for the things that were happening, do you think the opinion would have turned or turned earlier, or

would it not have made a difference? >> i think it would have made a difference. you know, again, it's easy to look back in hindsight and see different places where maybe we could have done some things differently. one of the things where i think the obama administration, i think, made a huge mistake was not using the bully pulpit to educate the public. i think the public by and large has kind of written guantanamo off and forgotten about it. i bet if you went outside on the street and you stopped ten people, nine out of ten still believe that worst of the worst narrative, that all these guys would chew through the hydraulic lines on the airplanes to kill americans on the way to guantanamo. we've got to have this facility for people. we capture the enemy on the battlefield. all that's true, but it doesn't apply. i mean, again, if you look at the notion we've got to have this facility and this court process for people that our g.i. jds capture on the battle field, you could count on your fingers the number of detainees that were captured by a member of the u.s. military on anything that looked like a battlefield. almost all -- i can think of

omar cotter, for instance was apprehended after a fire fight with the u.s. armed forces. that one, it fits. but if you like at the high value detainees, all 14, not a single one was captured by a u.s. g.i. on a battle feel. they're like khalid sheikh mohammed. you remember his hair all messed up when he was rousted out of bed in pakistan and then turned over to the u.s.? so this whole faulsz narrative that's been presented i think was a huge disservice, and i think the administration -- i thifrn honestly when president obama signed the order in january of 2009, he kind of said that's it and didn't anticipate the backlash. but yet the other side, who immediately said, our goal is to make him a one-term president, so i think -- i've said this several times. i think the best way for president obama to close guantanamo is to say he loves it and is going to keep it open forever. then the other side will say, the hell you are. i don't think he anticipated the push back. remember john mccain when he was running said he was going to

close guantanamo. it was a non-partisan issue. george bush said he wanted to close guantanamo. but when barack obama said he was going to close it, the other side, no, you're not. i doejt think he anticipated that. you had to look at the times. the economy was in a death spiral. health care reform was his top priority, and i don't think they were willing to expend the political capital to make it happen. you had people like dick cheney and others going out and telling these horror stories that just weren't true and the public bought and they weren't getting the other side of the story. i've often said i think if the public knew the truth about guantanamo, they would insist that it be closed by dark today. >> please state your name and outlet before asking your questions. bob. >> bob wiener, wiener public news. we're among the op-ed writers that you're talking about. we've written some in the plain dealer on this subject. i wonder what you would say is

the lessons of guantanamo. you say you quit over torture. general jeffrey miller, who was director of the questioning at guantanamo, then sent to abu ghraib, and people said he gitmo-ized the questioning at abu ghraib. now we hear brennan on television saying that he won't quite answer if we're still sending people to foreign countries for torture. the united states, we stand on our values. but then he swings right around the question, and you can track four of those statements that he's made that simply don't answer that question. have we learned the lessons from guantanamo, and is the torture still going on in other countries from -- you must be following this because you're an expert in this. is it still going on today through other countries or through cia contractors? >> to be honest, i've retired

from the military in 2008, so i'm -- don't have the access that i did back in the day. i would -- i haven't seen any conclusive evidence that we're continuing those practices, but i certainly wouldn't be shocked if we are. and i think the answer is, no, i don't think we have learned the lessons that we should. i hope that's -- that's something i think the media can do that would be extraordinarily valuable to the country is to not let this die. to, you know, keep telling the story and letting the public hear the truth. i mean you still get the -- when i go out and speak quite often, people still make the argument about torture, that it worked, and it saved lives. and, you know, what would you do if the guy was at times square and going to set off a bomb? number one, that's never been the case. there's never tually been a guy going to blow up times square and you've got to flknown the next two hours where the bomb is. that's never been the scenario. the to me the best argument that shows torture doesn't work is

the iraq war. you remember when colin powell went to the u.n. and kind of final straw was we had this source that said the connection between bin laden and al qaeda and the weapons of mags destruction, and it became clear that was not true. they went back to that source and said, why did you lie? and he said, well, you guys were torturing me. i wanted you to quit, so i told you what you wanted to hear. that's what happens with torture. it's great to make people talk. it's not great for making them tell the truth. when we're going to take actions like start a war with another country, i think we ought to know the truth and not just have someone that talks. so i don't think anyone on the other side can point to anything concrete that torture has done for us. but i think you can look at the iraq war and see what torture did to us. and i think we really lose our credibility in the eyes of the world. you know, we led the effort, you know, to pass the convention against torture. kind of like we led the effort to create the international criminal court and other things where we're really good about preaching.

we're not good about practicing. and so i think as long as until we officially condemn torture, until we hold people accountable for torture, then, you know, we're not -- you know, we're talking the talk, and we're not walking the walk. >> yes? >> excuse me. i'm henry cohen. i am retired after 34 years at the congressional research service. >> can you speak up just a little bit for the mike. >> yes. >> thank you. >> i am retired after 34 years with the congressional research service, and i have -- i believe that what is wrong with gaun taun know mow is the denial of process, men who have been there up to 15 years. the sight of the denial of due process seems to me less important. would moving these men to the united states increase their access to due process?

>> that's a really good question because if you recall back in the early days of the obama administration, the plan was to move the detainees to i think it was illinois to a prison that's sitting empty there. closing guantanamo, just moving detainees somewhere else, has just made a new gaun taun know somewhere else. you're right. it's the legal principle, not the location that's important. i mean i think you have to go back and look. why did we open guantanamo to begin with? i mean these were people that were picked up over in the afghanistan area, and we flew them halfway around the world. you know, while we had detention facilities there. we detained people by the tens of thousands. why did we, by the dozens, take people halfway around the world? it's because there are people that thought guantanamo was a law-free zone where you could do anything to anybody, and there was nothing anybody could do about it. that was why guantanamo was picked. that's kind of a sad comment about our country, you know,

that we're this shining city on a hill but we're looking for a law-free spot somewhere on the planet that we can exploit people. kind of my attitude when ie1xde[ that we'reok doing to someone else, would we say it's okay? and if we wouldn't, then why is we do it? and i think certainly if we had americans that had beenheotained for, you know, 14, 15 years and 5=vpsq)icans that had been detad for 14 or 15 years and the other government has said, we don't need to detain these people, like the 30 that are sitting there now that are there for no reason other thanasftheir zintship, most of them are from1 yemen, i think americans would pitchcyñ fit. soc i#3e1 oke1it's not suitable

happens to one of us, it shouldn't be suitable for us to do it tofá somebody else. >> i work for the gray sheet. one of the things injfe1 the journals of industry that we're very concerned withjffá is when president obama came into office he said he would have the most transparent administration in history and so far i think we've seen somewhat of the opposite. at least in the journalism industry. from your experience working with crs, could you speak a little about what kind of changes you may haveq seen or what kind ofçó abilities you ha to talk to news media? because i know when i've contacted crs for information, questions usually end up in a black hole somewhere or if you ask for a congressional report, your answer is çóusually, go to this specific office at

congress. so could you speak a little aboute1 what your relationship with the press and what kind of pressures wur getting from the administration? >> again, think it's important dcrs works forñi congress, not for the president. so i think it was more of a function of -- well, let me back up justñi a bit. at least i had a very limited window into the first year of window ihink they came in with optimistic ideals of the change they were going to make. and i think the act of governing was a lot more difficult than i think many had anticipated. 1e -- int( that first year there were a lot of idealists that wanted to make this a different administration than the past administrat9o' been. certainly i thinkxd time has shd that, you know, in many respects it's been noticeable improvem t improvement. with crs, one of the problems + i think they're so problems

concerned aboutg somebody over on capitol hill that they just don't want anybody to say anything. in fact, you may have seen lately where there'sq this debad about using the term -- there's a term now that congress is insisting that they use versus another one. i can't recall exactly what it o was. but there was v3t back when i was there, the division i ran, that was when the issue about allowing gays andñr lesbians to serve in the military, the actual policy, the regulation was theñ but -- was concerned thate1 a couple on the hill thought homosexual was a derogatory term. how do we write something when the title of the policy is this and we can't use that term? i think there's just so much concern about doing anything that might offend someone onfá capitol hill. the example that was cited often, there was the office of technology assessment, which was kind of a sister organization to -- there's gao, e1crs, and o.

the perception was that they came out with some positions that were contrary to what e5(zngress wanted so congress h shut down the organization. i think there was a lot of crs, we'veç(tu to tap dance or congress maye1 just shut us down, which again i think a lot mtepds to go to the organizations that are going to give them the opinion that supports their preconceived notion. i think crs could play an important role in providing that independent nonpartisane1 assessment. but it's always been a very focused on congress and not the public and certainly i think your experience is not -- i reaction from lpcrs when they a

for information. >> i'm witht( sputnik international news. twot(e1?; questions, the first yesterday cia director brennan testified on táathill.c he said that individuals were held accountable for -- i just want to getlp this

commission. so your thoughts on u.s. role i1 establishing these conventions on torture and human rights and then e1disallowing the u.n. owe will official. >> right. well, again, it's disappointing. i'm not -- as you said, he didn't go into a whole lot of detail. certainly no one has been prosecuted for engaging or permitting or sanctioningxa torture, which is literally what the convention against torture requires. also, another requirement is if someone is alleged to have been a victim of torture it require that's there be an avenue for them to seek redress, to be compensated for their injuries. and the obama administration has fought every torture case that has been brought in federal court so you've yet to see any person who was an alleged victim of torture -- they certainly haven't gotten a settlement.

they haven't even gotten their day in court. to me, i think one of the most egregious examples is the can a canadian citizen, if you ever saw the movie "rendition," it's roughly the story. we took him off the plane at i think laguardia or jfk and eventually he ends up in syria. the guy we're debating whether we should be launching military strikes against assad. a few years ago we were sending people to assad as we did with -- who spent about a year in syria in custody being tortured until eventually the syrians realized that this guy is not a bad guy. and they sent him back home to canada. the canadian government apologized and gave him monetary compensation for their role in helping us send him to syria to get tortured. we have yet to say we're sorry. when he tried to file suit in court, the administration asserted i believe qualified immunity or states secret

privilege which was successful in blocking him from having his day in court. so until we're willing to give people the opportunity to pursue their cases in court, until we're going to hold people accountable criminally for engaging in what you know, we would consider a war crime if anyone had done that to us. we're really good about assisting others in the prosecution of other leaders who engage in -- in fact, you've seen recently there have been convictions in south america and in africa as well for leaders for acts that happened a long long time ago. so i'm hopeful at some point that there will be accountability for what we did because we can't just ignore it and pretend it didn't happen. >> so we'll have time for one more question. but before we do a little bit of housekeeping. colonel davis has joined us today as part of the newsmaker series. and the series brings prominent speakers on news worthy topics

year round to the club for q&as and comments such as this. so visit our website at www.press.org and follow us on twitter using the hash tag npc live. and one last question for the colonel. no? well, i've got one. so as you know and as we've discussed the congress has been unwilling to accept the guantanamo detainees on u.s. soil so our allies around the world have taken them. has that helped or hindered our relationship that our allied friends are now cleaning up some of the mess that we created? >> yeah, again, people i know that have been involved in the efforts over the years to try to repatriate some of the detainees, one of the arguments you get -- i think we've been to just about every country on the face of the earth to try to get them to help us out. and the first thing they say is, how many have you taken? and the answer is none. you know, we have begged eged a

bribed everybody else to try to undo -- fix the problem that we created when we've taken none. if you recall, we wept around -- the uighurs are probably the best example, we scooped them up and sent them to guantanamo and quickly realized they were no threat to the u.s. china said they'd be happy to take them. of course, the weuighurs wouldn have maefd it until dark in china. we were going to other countries that said, help us out. then somebody said release them into d.c. it was like, oh, my god, we can't have these people coming to america. we eventually got them going to several other places. several went to bermuda. we're spo ezed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave, you think we could be as brave as bermuda. and we just haven't done that. so i think it really hurts when we go to other countries and say, we created this problem. you help solve it, when we've been unwilling to do anything ourselves to undo the harm that

we caused ff that's all we have time for. thank you so much for everyone who joined us today. we look forward to seeing you again very soon. thank you very much.

c-span's "washington journal" live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up saturday morning, "philadelphia inquirer" city hall reporter trisha nadal ne talks about philadelphia's new 1.5 cent per ounce tax on sugar sweetened and diet beverages, the first such tax imposed in a major u.s. city. "financial times" u.s. economics editor sam flemming will discuss what came out of this week's federal reserve meeting and the overall outlook for the u.s. economy, including the potential impact of the breck sit referendum. then joshua horwitz executive director of the coalition to stop gun violence will talk about his group's position on new gun control measures in the wake of the orlando nightclub

attack. plus a look at u.s. efforts to combat home grown terrorism and extremism with deputy dreshgt of george washington university's centeror for cyber and homeland security extremism program. be sure to watch watch c-span's "washington journal" beginning live at 7:00 a.m. eastern saturday morning. join the discussion. the democratic party's platform committee is holding a forum in phoenix to hear testimony on what should be included in the party's platform ahead of next month's democratic national convention. the platform committee is meeting saturday at noon eastern, and you can see that live on our companion network krn c-span. then sunday steve lonegan and bob vander platts on the 2016 presidential campaign. bong were supporters of ted cruz before donald trump clinched the republican nomination. newsmakers is sunday at

10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. i often say that 50 is not the new 30 and 60 ask not the new 40. 50 is the new 50 and it looks good and it's okay and people are to own their age and we ought not be talking about being over 50 as the period of klein. >> sunday night, joanne jenkins talks about the health and financial challenges older americans face and what aarp is doing to assist them. she's also author of "disrupt aging:" a bold new path to living your best life at every age". >> the fastest growing age segment is people over the age of 85 and the second is people over 100. when these programs were put in place life expectancy was 67 or 68. and so not only are there more people in the system but they're

living longer so we have to be able to look at these programs and make meaningful adjustments that's going to allow people to live with dignity at a much longer period of time. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. the dalai lama spoke at the u.s. institute of peace in washington recently about the role of youth leaders in resolving conflicts. he opened his remarks with a moment of silence for the victims of the mass shooting in orlando, florida.

>> let us some silent prayer. okay.

>> thank you. although one monk who quite skeptical about effects of prayer. change or effect come through acti action. then while we carry some serious action continuously despite in difficulties, a lot of obstacles without losing our

determination, our courage, and make effort. then on top of that some prayer is okay. no harm. otherwise, without action, just to sit in prayer prayer prayer prayer -- i'm quite exceskeptical. thank you. >> thank you. your holiness, thank you everybody for joining us this morning. we are gathered with a heavy heart after this weekend's events but with a conviction that the mission and the vision of a world without violent conflict is more important than ever. my name is nancy lynnborg. i'm the president of the united states ins statute of peace. usip was founded by congress 30 years ago with the vision of a world without violent conflict and dedicated to the proposition that peace is possible, that's

practical and that it is absolutely essential for our global security. and we are very honored to have been able to work in partnership with you, your holiness, with bringing a group of 28 youth leaders from 13 different countries that are affected by conflict to a dialogue in darm saleh with your holiness. his holiness, to talk about what are the ways to maintain, to build, to find the inner peace and compassion to keep that conviction of peace building going even as you live and work in a troubled world and i think the events in orlando have underscored for us how important that is globally. thank you for joining us this morning, and what i'd like to do before asking you to make a few comments is show a quick video, if i might, that gives everybody

a sense of those who participated in the dialogue in darm saleh and the importance of that kind of journey to find the inner peace that enables one to go forward. so if we could show the video. ♪ >> so i got nominated and i read the word dalai malama and i was like, this is a junk mail. let's just ignore it. >> this program is different from any i've ever seen, an extraordinary moment where 28 youth leaders from conflict zones around the world came together to be mentored by dalai

lama in how change happens. >> i want to learn how to forgive and i want to learn how to love. >> so i was shaking for about 15 minutes or more and when his holiness walked in, it was just a great moment. >> when his holiness entered the hall, i just feel like a dream. >> be optimistic so no matter how difficult it is, we should be more optimistic. >> if you were a bunch of young people who had experienced deep tragedy and lived in regions of conflict and they chose to use that energy, that conflict, that fear for their own life and turn it into something incredibly constructive. >> in tunisia we're facing an identity process. >> actually, violence is signs of weakness.

forgiveness is signs of strength. >> how can we utilize this good friendship or trust between people and religious leaders like you to bring peace between the tribes in my country? >> we should be active in the building of society. >> i feel empowered that the dalai lama was really interested in you. >> what he said was how encouraged he was by meeting with these young people. >> not only his holiness but also the participants in this program they all inspire me. they are peace will building. >> after meeting his holiness, this give a kind of energy that it's as we should build our country. it's as we should make the changes from inside. >> what you have here is a group of determined, passionate, committed, action-oriented leaders who are building peace

who have been deeply inspired by our two days. >> i really got encouragement so very, very encouraging. >> now i feel like my soul and my spirit is enriched. >> he built so much confidence in us that he is our voice, our actions can make a difference. he believe in our abilities to make changes. >> now that i met the dalai lama, i am going to share the compassion he has shared with us, the love he has shared with us in my community. [ applause ] >> your holiness, that was a

powerful and transform atif dialogue that we shared with you in darm saleh with some remarkable leaders from many difficult khriz. we're joined here today with two of our youth leaders, victoria and sakana who you greeted and wel)éb+e michael gerson with us who was also part of the trip from "the washington post." you know, we've talked a lot about your vision of the 21st century as being the century that is free from violent conflict. this is the usip vision and mission as well. it is how to find the tools, how to reach the people who will be the builders of peace for this next century. and we are very honored to have you here today with us to continue that dialogue and to continue that search. and we'll ask our youth leaders and michael to make a few comments, but we'd like to first ask you to share some reflections with us.

>> over the years i have serious discussion with scientist and also educationist. i want to share as one point, on one occasion some scientists mentioned according to experiment very, very young infant child only 5, 6 months old, language not yet develop. tend to such infant child

showing some -- one to young children helping each other. another cartoon two children with negative attitudes. so their response, the first cartoon, the infant child, i saw smiling, showing cheerfulness. the second cartoon show the same child with negative resentment like that. so then a day -- so these scientists concluded basic human nature is more compassionate.

when i heard that, i really feel now there's real hope and also only experience when you have trouble. i think except those infant child. everyone have so many problems. so we -- the experience of problem is solved. i call experiences due to that problem, some kind of fear, some kind of anger common experience. however, makes big differences the mental attitude like in the system. if your immune system strong

then virus don't disturb you. immune system weak, then small virus create a lot of trouble. similar similarly, meantal attitude is healthy, then these problem, see, adver some disturbances ing anger, fear. but will not disturb the deeper level of your mind. so that very helpful to maintain your physical health. so just i think -- i also mentioned just yesterday -- i

saw my friend and then my friend expressed, you see, judging your face it looks still early 60-year-old and he asked me, what's your secret? and i just told him that's my secret. i don't share. then i told, my life, you know, at age 16 i lost my own freedom age 24 lost my own country. and a lot of sadness because of the situation a lot of problems. after we become refugee also you

see a lot of work to preservation of our own culture, language. so many problems inside tibet also a lot of problem. and inside tibet very much sort of hoping to me, a lot of hope on me. so a lot of problem. but my mental level quite peacef peaceful. may i say so the peaceful mind or peace even side some problems, not i think because of me. >> that level of -- >> not something like --

>> not out of darkness. >> my mind quite sharp. many my friend, many scientist they appreciate sharpness of my mind. so you see -- but still i can keep deeper level peace no matter this difficulties. so i told him that's my secret. peace of mind makes differences. so i go opn my own experience. same human being i never consider i'm something special person. we are same. same human being mentally

emotionally physically we are same. so someone who can carry that kind of practice then why not kindle that. so that i think confirmed our meeting in darm salah. some individual story really terrible, really desperate, such desperate moment you develop some sort of determination to do something for peace. wonderful. so that goes to show we all have the same potential like that. so therefore peace of mind is very, very useful for individual interest. that peace of min more

compassion of mind. sometimes people say, people feel compassion is something good for other but not necessarily oneself. it's totally wrong. the practice of compassion first of all benefit to oneself i often mention my story. one time in germany your neighbor, you italy. i think italy more sort of -- like that. german hardworking, serious. anyway, one meeting one late

evening quite dark. and i passing through road as my own nature or habit when i met some people on the street. i just usually smiling. so passing through the street one young lady coming down. as usual, i smile, show human brothers, sisters spirit. then that lady seems to develop suspicion. why? why this person strange with the dress or strange hat and smiling? she may have felt oh, something -- so she sort of

looks something uncomfortable. so that shows my compassionate attitude, myself happy, feel easy. but the other person that lady get more suspicion. learn that. so the practice of compassion, first the benefit go to yourself. and constantly go that way you really get peace of mind. and then no matter how troublesome your life but still you can keep peace of mind. that brings more healthier and also obviously more peace of mind, more compassion of mind, you get a lot of friends. we need friends.

so therefore you see compassionate mind is really very, very helpful for health also and creates friendship. friendship entirely based on trust. trust based on if you show genuine concern, then trust come. >> your holiness, i would like to -- >> so i really admire these people, at least you see you really showing interest. so now with your interest you should implement as i mentioned earlier. you should carry action. personally your own server, then you see one individual you see share with your own circle ten people. then each carry effort. then 100 people. then 1,000 people.

then 10,000 people. that's the way to change humanity. >> then to 7 billion people. >> yes. >> i would like to invite michael gerson to come up and say a few comments and i also want to note for those who are watching us online or using twitter that it's hash tag dalai la llama usip. we're streaming over social media right now. michael gerson. >> your holiness, thank you. almost exactly 50 years ago one of my heroes robert kennedy went to the university of capetown and said, each time a man stands up for an idea or acts to improve the lot of others and strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistan

resistance. it was an extraordinary experience for me to spend time with 28 centers of energy and daring. as a writer, i found their individual different stories from south sudan and nigeria and afghanistan fascinating. but what they hold in common is most impressive. each in one way or another has witnessed horrors, all have refused to be each bystanders or combatants. instead, they have chosen to be instruments of healing, asserting a common humanity in the midst of conflict. during our time, we saw them develop a sense of community. those who stand for principle at least at the beginning can be alone. they can work for many years in relative isolation, and it was moving to watch these men and women find the shelter of one another. but it was also inspiring to

watch them be inspired by someone who has known their struggle. it they are ripples of hope, his holiness is a boulder thrown into a pond. i don't think anyone will forget the generosity of his attention, the depth of his insight, his good humor, and his tireless focus. the participants were interested in the techniques of movement building, but the dalai lama's primary message was spiritual. how the practice of tolerance and compassion requires a healthy mind and body, how a genuine smile, not what you call a diplomatic smile, can express respect and build trust. it is hard to describe what happened before us, but for these young people it was a graduate level seminar in loving kindness, a master class in being fully human.

i'm involved in a lot of think tanks, sponsoring a lot of conferences, and they are fine in their own way. but this work by usip was what really influence locks like. i saw the passing of wisdom and passion to the next generation of leaders, leaders of movements, even future leaders of their own countries. they came away changed, and i was privileged to witness it. thank you. >> thank you, michael. [ applause ] >> and we have with us one of the youth leaders, two, but first sakana who is here from a morocco who joined us in darm saleh. >> hello, his holiness. >> it's on.

it's on. >> oh, yes. >> i'm from casablanca ma iraq co-. i work at a community center that was created in 2007 in the largest slum morocco. in 2003 and 2007 the city of casablanca was shaken by horrific terrorist attacks and all the terrorists came from -- our center was created in 2007 to give the opportunity to at-risk kits and vulnerable youth to become good citizens through art, culture, education, and various trainings in peace building and conflict

resolution. and then came my experience in darm saleh to deepen our work. now ladies and gentlemen, let me share with you what i learned from my experience in darm saleh. my experience in darm saleh helped me look deeper in my soul, sparked new things that didn't exist before, and fed the flames that were burning already. by sharing my story with his holiness the dalai lama and youth peace builders, i learned how to share things that terrify me so i can grow, experience, and flourish. i learned to be more honest with myself to see the weakest, most fragile parts of myself and that

only acknowledge in them but owning them. i learned that we don't have to be afraid to peel back our layers and open ourselves to love because we are all the same, members of the same human family as his holiness said. i learned that love, peace, gratitude and compassion are not ready made. it's not something we do. it's something we are. it's at the core of our existence. we are love. we are peace. this is why we are here, and it's what we all need and want. it's what brings us richness, meaning, and fulfillment to our lives. i learned that courage is only real when it's shared and now i know that it's our duty as peace

builders, young peace builders and citizens of the world, to build a generation of people who choose peace, who choose peace every day and who choose peace again and again. thank you. [ applause ] >> wonderful. wonderful. >> thank you, sakany. i'd like to invite victoria who is joining us from nigeria who was also with us in darm saleh. >> his holiness, my name is victoria and i come from nigeria. in november 2013 i started an organization to help tutoring it for my community realize their true self-identity and work for peace. this was deeply inspired by

my -- from eye violent community and living in the community as a vulnerable girl child. so our project is to teach children on self-identity, self-regulation, to help them realize that even though they come from violent communities they have the choice to choose to work for peace and also that make the choice to change the situation of things around them. our time in darm salah was indeed an unforgettable experience for me meeting his holiness and learning from my fellow youth participants. his holiness taught us that we the youth are the heart of the community and we have a deep role to play to ensure that the world becomes peaceful and sustainable. it was deeply inspiring hearing the stories of youth from afghanistan, iraq, nigeria, kenya, tunisia, and many more. this shows that we can continue to work for peace as young people and we the youth have a role to play to encourage our

peers to walk for peaceqr&ñ and put an end to violent extremism. peace is very possible. peace is essential. like the world of -- and i see it as a joint effort if we all come together to change the narrative. it takes us starting from our communities, starting in our families, starting from our workplace, using religion to promote peace. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you. >> wonderful. >> thank you, victoria, sakana and michael. these were the voices that gave us so much hope in darm saleh. and we would like to continue the conversation here today. i have a number of questions from people who would like to ask you -- and i want to once again give you hash tag dalai lama usip. but the first question is from madeline from the state department and marie from action

aid, had the same question, which is, as a self-proclaimed feminist, what message do you have for girls growing up in environments of violence and extremism? and what role do you see girls and women playing encountering violent extremism? >> since many years i devote to you and accordingly i express many -- i think perhaps so the many -- human population quite small and then some communist

ideology they say religion is communi communism. no private ownership. everything they say to use by the group of -- small group. small group. so at that time no leadership. then gradually population increased and the farming system developed. then the poverty ownership so then some disputes or some crimes also happen. so then leadership come. at that time no education, role of education. so in order to become fiscal standard, that is the start, the

made minutes. even some religious tradition also some kind of effect from that kind of society, that kind of concept. then education come. education brings small equal so some very, very powerful sort of leadership to happen. now existing education not to educate. we must make more effort or warm heartedness so therefore buy logically female have more sensitive about other's people. that comes from scientist to the

investigation to search they found. so therefore at a time we need special effort for promotion of compassion, love, female, more active role. so that's why you see my friend just -- so therefore sometimes i feel about 200 different nations the majority of the leader of these nations female. maybe less trouble. less violence. of course some ladies, females, are exceptional. so equally some ladies, also

some very compassionate. so average i think because of the biological factor so therefore that's my view, neal should take more active, more effort to promote human love. human compassion. so mainly as i was mentioning, now within the present circumstances environment very difficu difficult, like this -- and at

least -- in some cases in the name of tradition. and many innocent people dying. terrible. unthinkable. then when we saw the situation, then each individual can make different so we have to take and we take seriously this sad event. these also some line of recall according to law of cause alty. these are result or syndrome of certain costs. so fundamentals of costs here,

hate, too much self-centered attitude, lack of sense of oneness of human brother/sisters human being. actual actually, human brothers sisters. so we really need sense of oneness or human being. if we have that kind of vision, we are -- then the -- also now each kocontinent their future depends open other. that's reality. more or less self-sufficient and independence. now heavily independent in modern economy. then also environment issue. so now global warming also

create more and more major disaster. so now time come. several human being have to act. united. collectively. otherwise, distant for a century also can be miserable century. so as i mentioned earlier, basic human nature is more compassionate. so we have the hope to build the genuine university love on the basis of the sense of oneness or celebrating human being to education through earnest. so this is not serving god or buddha. it's serving ourself. serving human being. you see?

a lot of problem which we are facing. it's actually our own creation. nobody want the problem but because our mind too much bias, too much short-sided and because of the -- so these through education, through earnest we can reduce these things. so it's through that way if you attempt the younger generation, you attempt now. make effort now. i think end of the century could be more peaceful. more compassionate. i saw bbc broadcast in europe more and more people express their global citizen.

they' they're wonderful. if you truly -- spread the global all same. so therefore i think circumstances compel us now we have to act as one humanity. practically and also morally we have to think that way. so it is quite hopeful sign. ideally suppose i give some sort of eep couragement or something to learn, to teach you. but actually i learn more. wonderful. really wonderful.

>> this builds on what you just said, but we have a number of questions from some of our media guests today, all of which are very related to the events in orlando. and they're specifically asking, especially related to the role of religious hostility, religious ideology especially in the situation where it's targeting our lgbt brothers and sisters. how do we transform that? how do we transform that? >> my second moment is disharmo disharmony. now, 70 years i live in india. so india most populated country,

ancient country. and a lot of problems there. despite that, you know, i think over 2,000 years the religious harmony there. besides homegrown tradition, from outside firstly i think -- from ancient -- then judaism, christianity and islam. one of the homegrown citizen, his family hindu but he didn't really prove to mecca. to show nonsectarian. so india still there is harmony

the there. so once you see such as big nation india still can maintain disharmony so so why not just if you make an attempt to end this, i think we can -- we can reduce sectarian feeling. so this first, education. secondly, was no contact. contacts or i notice indian muslim. same follow indonesian muslim. then arab muslim. you see, they follow muhammad. same teaching.

but indian muslim i think from their childhood did take for granted there are different traditions. and in malaysia, singapore also, there are a large number of chinese who settled there. these, majority of these chinese, myouung people are buddhists and also a large number of indians. so therefore, that makes a difference. in arab countries, it's only one region. maybe some christian. anyway, quite isolated. that's also one factor. so personal contacts is something i think very important. one, through education.

and teaching. ultra dition. you see, making aspects of all this tradition. one aspect is religion. that's, you know, teaching of love, forgiveness, tolerance. same. and i think we witness a number of christians dedicated their life serving other people. actually, some muslims are dedicated. so they act weigh i think islam practitioner should not create any bloodshed. if person creates bloodshed,

then no longer a genuine practitioner of islam. and the very -- [ applause ] the very meaning of jihad is not harming others but your own destructive emotion. that is the real meaning. jihad. so therefore all that tradition instruct us in compassion, forgiveness. then another aspect is philosophy. there are big differences. basically, believe creator. creator. rather, self-creation. so big differences. but then we have to ask what is the purpose of this different

philosop philosophy. same. try to bring conviction aboard. basic quality or practice of love. so to some people, creator. very, very powerful. god as our father, our creator. this very life created by god. we have everything with god. god is infinite love. so we all human beings. children. such wonderful compassionate father. wonderful sort of views. then indian tradition.

you see, nonbeliever, creator, god, creator. if you create good. good means. you get benefit it so different emphasis. but same purpose. to bring more conviction. more compassion. so no problem it so sometimes, this aspect, something like supermarket. like supermarket. so there are a lot of different food. different religion with different philosophy views.

brings satisfaction for variety of people. just one religion like one for the market. one item. then people really aggressiveness. there are more people come like that. so because of the markets, like supermarket, religious supermarket it yeah, differences. different region, different philosophies. wonderful. third aspect. so now one example. i think because of the -- fifth

century b.c. so at that time, you see the gin founder. then after a few -- i think three, four, decades. buddha come. that time, sacrifice immense, even affect the farmer's economy. so such time, such period, the founder. so because of the circumstances like that, so special emphasis.

and don't kill any form of life. wonderful. after that, buddha come. similar of that. like that. so causal aspect, you see, existing circumstances, society circumstances make some influence. so i think under difficult circumstances. the emphasis. like that. in order to survive your own sort of community. then jesus christ come. more emphasis about patience. if someone hit here, show this.

like that. that area. life. so not life. possible. rule of law. like that. so emphasis sharia law. due to circumstances. so that third aspect of religion. then in india caste system. it is quite serious. i met some parliament member. especially for caste law. so we have some discretions. so i told them like this. this is the social sort of

system. at that time feudal system. and then others like slave. so the caste system. which is the feudal system. so feudal system changed. now these certain sort of controversial aspects of religion with the feudal system. now time comes they must change. so for that, the politicians saw even governments cannot do much. the spiritual leader should come out. tell them. according to hindu. all comes from same. creator. so then that spiritual leaders should come out.

not condemned in their own rituals, some prayer. this is not. must come out. education people about this caste system is outtadated. so i told them. they arrange such meeting. then i'm ready to come. i told them. so like that. so these -- see, the causal aspect, all this ine1lpçó egalitarian. >> amongst the action, about 100 action.

the authorities. with himself an exception. [ laughter ] . follow of w3him. you see, [ inaudible ]ñi rules action. >> certain types of rituals that need to be performed as part of life.t( no single person has the authority to -- the right has to be performed collectively. >> of course, not too long. that's why there's some -- feminist from thewfñ --xdxd

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[ inaudible ] and also [ speaking foreign language ]i]( >> lot of discussions about those -- i'm afá student.e1 yet,ñiok it is fact. billion christians there. billion muslims there. millions of people get inspiration, benefit fromñi the tradition.i]ñi over last 2,000 i]years. this tradition is innerqçó peac like that.ñi

i practice that.q showed me -- [ inaudible ] [ cindiscernible ]lp india live together, thousand years. we have to work and make clear. i wish someb. urban countries. some hard liner muslims should be invited.t(xdqfinçfáe1e1

>>t(i]e1e1e1 >>. [ inaudible ]xd this area. i haveko [ inaudible ] together. there are many5a traditions. you p,e1seeyo sit together. eat, see. like that.çóe1 sometimes,t(e1 you see, people

because of different faith distance. that creates some [ inaudible ]e1e1 some & so that word will not have much. mute.c touch each other.fáe1t( thenfá make friend. then we can discuss. settle differences. some similarities. so remain -- i think lotfá of lot of problemñie1 in middle ea.

from america,xd from destinatio. because of september 11ñilpth e. i love president bush as a human being. wonderful person. since our first meeting, we've become6m very close friend. after crisis, ie1 told himfá i you. some of [ inaudible ] . i have e1reservation. he smiled. i think the practical level isx the american force. americans are the majore1 power yes?

can crash. but american major power cannot change other's mind or emotion. only through friendship, through affection then can change their mind. as in one example, tibet is also. hard liner chinese officials they believe in the power of gun.t( suppress.e1 cannot change. only --

>> nothing else. you seexd discuss and you see disunity. what a benefit. distance, what benefit. b&ñdejue1 more fear. makee1 friend. friendship. on the business of -? this person and ofe1 the human siste. i'mjf one of the human brother.

we are same. according to the religion,fá we all children of god.i]e1fá basically, we are same. but this feeling and try to implement as much as you can. seminar, not one lecture but group discussion. what is the benefit? no benefit. eventually impossible one religious group go to mars, one religious group go to moon and then we find some other places, go this. then okay, we fight here and go

different planet. that's impossible. we have to live on this small planet. so much better live horm o harmoniously, happily, sense of brotherhood, sisterhood. so there's no other choice. you see, other tradition impossible to eliminate. we have to live together. religious interfaith service friendly expressing one religious, for example, the christian or 1 billion. cannot eliminate over 1 billion muslim. either muslim cannot eliminate that. we have to live together. that's the reality.

much happier. these bloodsheds, these things. and when we saw television, political killing and particularly those children, women facing starvation. they are our brothers, our sisters. it's impossible. indifferent. we have to as a human being, as a social animal. they are happy, we also feel happy. they're suffering, we also feel suffering. uncomfortable. so no matter we can achieve or

not mentally, we have to think seriously and make effort. whether it's you or not, that's a different question. everybody here, all the -- everybody here and not only here, eventually have to die. then reflect also our life. you made some sort of positive attempt. then you feel happy. if you spend your life more destructively, then at that moment you will really feel regret or unhappy. and then also as a person who really carry life, more compassionate, more sense of helping other people, saving other people. then when that person passed away, then more people regret

and also pray. so that's nice. other hand, if you carry your life, bully other people, cheating other people, like, that then that come people who knows you, then they feel very happy now that it's over, no longer, very happy. so what do you want when you pass away, more people concerned you're dead or happy? what do you want? at least i want -- you see, when i pass away that more people remember me and at least some prayer and i feel happy.

than somebody when i die or my death say oh, now that trouble maker now no longer, oh, how go good, how nice. >> little possibility of that. so thank you, my brother, sisters. we all have no matter, you see -- there are differences. some can do more. some can do less. but we all -- we are part of the humanity. we are part of human society. then particularly in america. i always consider this nation is nation of leading nations of free world. so you can really make some significant contribution for better world. first you yourself, your own

place, you should create certain sort of positive thing. then other people getting the more attractions, inspiration, like that. so please, think serious ly at whatever way you can do, please implement these into practice, into action like that. okay. >> your holiness -- >> do you agree? then the african sister, one time in soweto in south africa i visit one african family. then i told, i express that now south africa, now already get

democratic constitution and democratic election and nelson mandela, you see, become the president. wonderful. now emotionally it take time to change. now the black people they say develop confidence and work hard. then one of the guests told me, oh, we black people, brain level inferior. i thought and i argue no. if you ask brain specialist any differences of brain due to different color, the doctor, specialist, the scientist will say no differences. then my own experience is sometimes some discriminations,

some hard-line chinese officials is make some discrimination. but we, only question of opportunity. opportunity come. we all can be equal, like that. so i explain, explain, explain. then final ly that native africn they would sigh. >> with deep sighs. >> and he respond to me, now he convinced we are equal. but that woman i felt tremendous reli relief. at least i helped, i changed one person's attitude. self-confidence is very essential. so please work hard. some people say black people -- so you also you see accept

that -- it's totally wrong. we are same human being. so therefore, with full self-confidence work hard. that's very important. okay. [ applause ] >> thank you, your holiness. i want to thank everybody for coming today. our deepest gratitude for joining us today, your holiness. we have an audacious mission of envisioning a world without violent conflict. sometimes people say this is crazy talk. you've given us hope and encouragement to continue to pursue this very bold and audacious vision, and we thank everybody here for your

continuing support, engagement, and work on this pathway. i want to just conclude by noting that we're 100 days out from the international day of peace on september 21st and i encourage everybody to join in in taking action, moving toward the international day of peace and making it every day. thank you once again. thank you, everybody. [ applause ] >> now international day of peace i think should create a whole one year, then whole -- >> century. >> whole decade. then whole centery. >> yes. with your encouragement. [ applause ] >> without pay. >> thank you, everybody.

>> ladies and gentlemen, please remain in your seats until the official party departs. >> thank you. see you again.

[ room noise ] >> the opportunity to meet such young people. so i wish more opportunity. so i have the opportunity to see

mo more. the democratic party's platform committee is holding a forum in phoenix to hear testimony on what should be included in the party's platform ahead of next month's democratic national convention. the platform committee is meeting saturday at noon eastern, and you can see that live on our companion network, c-span.

and then sunday on c-span conservative activist steve lon gann and bob vander plaats on the 2016 presidential campaign. both were supporters of ted cruz before donald trump clinched the republican nomination. newsmakers is sunday at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> known as the center of the county music industry, this weekend the c-span cities tour hosted by our comcast cable partners explores the history and literary culture of tennessee state capital nashville. on book tv author and historian david ewing talks about his forthcoming back "the history of the ryman auditorium" detailing how this nashville venue became a place for civil rights events and political rallies and was the former home of the grand ole opry. >> the civil rights movement was very important in nashville, tennessee. a few blocks from here young students from fisk university,

tennessee a & i, now tennessee state university, all did the lunch counter sit-ins, including congressman john lewis. they got arrested here. they challenged the system of what was going on in nashville, tennessee in the conscience of the country. >> and on american history tv visit the hermitage, andrew jackson's home from 1804 until his death in 1845 and learn about the property's history and how the home grew from a two-story log cabin into a presidential residence on par with mount vernon and monticello. and then tour the dylan, cash, and the nashville cats exhibit at the country music hall of fame and museum. co-curators michael gray and pete finney talk about the relationship between 1960s folk music icon bob dylan and country music star johnny cash. the political clash between the two music genres and how with the help of nashville's talented musicians known as the nashville cats the music helped bridge political differences. >> their friendship together had a lot to do with changing

perceptions of nashville, bringing a lot of rock and roll people here. the establishment of nashville, the political, financial and social establishment in nashville didn't really even accept country music. there were a lot of people that would like to have pretended that the grand ole opry wasn't here, that what they saw as the hayseeds, sort of rubes, people in overalls. you can imagine the '60s counterkushlt when there's divisions between the sort of long-haired hippie culture if you will that was coming out at the time and more conservative elements. >> watch the c-span cities tour saturday at noon eastern on c-span 2's book tv and sunday afternoon at 2:00 on american history tv on c-span 3. with the political primary season over c-span's road to the white house takes you to this summer's political conventions. watch the republican national convention starting july 18th with live coverage from cleveland. >> so we'll be going into the convention no matter what

happens, and i think we're going to go in so strong. >> reporter: and watch the democratic national convention starting july 25th. with live coverage from philadelphia. >> let's go forward. let's win the nomination. and in july let's return as a unified party! >> and then we take our fight for social, economy, racial and environmental justice to philadelph philadelphia, pennsylvania. >> every minute of the republican and democratic party's national conventions on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. labor secretary tom perez was among the speakers at the 2016 annual meeting of the national coalition for homeless veterans. he talked about his department's efforts to train and find jobs for unemployed veterans. we'll also hear from representatives of the veterans affairs department, home depot,

citibank, and the governor of virginia, terry mcauliffe. >> good morning. ooh, that got quiet fast. hi, everyone. welcome to washington. whoo-hoo. all right. took advantage of the coffee this morning, i see. good. my name's baylee crohn. i'm the director of the national coalition for homeless veterans. i've seen a lot of familiar faces over the last day. i know because you guys have prevented me from doing things like getting to the bathroom. but it's great to see you. but i'm curious. who's here for the very first time? whoa! [ applause ] well, i want to welcome you to the nchv family. we're like that weird aunt. so just bear with us. i hope you're ready for a slightly w50i8d ride.

for those of you who have been here for once or twice or, you know, 25 times, you know that we have a little tradition we like to do to kick off things this morning. sometimes it involves pink floyd. but this year he even dressed up and wore a suit for us. pretty exciting. todd doctor. i'm going to ask him to come up and give us our opening prayer today. >> yes, ladies and gentlemen, my luggage did come in this year. last year i was wearing a pink floyd shirt. the reverend doing a prayer in the pink floyd shirt. how awesome is that? i do have a suit. i'm switched things. i'm from down in the new orleans area. one thing we say in new orleans is laissez les bon temps roulez. let the good times rule. i hope you have a good time in washington, d.c., get some good information to take back home to serve our nation's veterans. and i'm just gad to be here. thank you, baylee, for asking me to come up. so let's pray and open this up. shall we do that?

heavenly father, thank you for this gathering, and i pray that you would bless and protect all of us during this time. also, thank you for all of our dear brothers and sisters who are serving our homeless veterans. help us to restore honor because they fought for us and we will fight for them. in jesus' name i pray, amen. thank you. thank you, baylee. >> thank you, todd. now, if you have a suspicion that our conference is a bit unique, well, i'm guessing we've covered some of those suspicions and we will over the next couple of days. just you wait. we've got a good one planned for you. before i get started, i want to make sure you all know some of the brains behind this conference and nchv in general. because for those of you who know me well you know it's not me. my team sibdy borden, kurt enniss, anna kaminsky, our intern kayla, randy brown and josh stewart who has disappeared, i just want to

thank you guys for all the hard work you've done. [ applause ] really this couldn't come together without you, and i know we're all running on very minimal sleep and a little bit of whiskey. it's good. not today. not yet. it's 5:00 somewhere but not yet. i also want to say a big thank you to our major corporate sponsors in this effort, the home depot foundation and our major financial institution sponsor citi community development. without your support this event truly couldn't happen. so you all want to thank them as well. [ applause ] . because of their support we try to keep the registration fees as low as possible. they don't even cover costs but we do that to make sure all of you guys get here. and actually, we sold out about a month early this year. it was the earliest for us ever. so if you're one of those people -- i know, that's great. [ applause ] so if you waited until the last minute, don't do it next year

because if you e-mail me i'm not going to feel sorry for you. you've been warned. but in all seriousness, we really thank you for your leadership and your partnership throughout the year, not just at the conference. i also want to thank our other sponsors, tack, jericho project, n.e.f., american g.i. form, enbop, swords to plowing shares for your. and my board of directors for your vision and guidance. i just appreciate you guys and all the work leading up to the conference. [ applause ] now, before you hear from the people you actually want to hear from this morning i'm going to talk for a few minutes about some things that have been pretty heavy on my mind leading up to the conference, and i think you're going to see them resonate here. so let me start off with a quick story about a big surprise. it's about running. so those of you who know me well know the only thing i talk about more than my nephew, my job, and my dislike of bryce harper of the washington nationals -- go

braves. he's the worst. anyway. i digress. is running. i talk about it all the time. so last week i went out to run. and i'm so disappointed you all can't see this because it actually closed down yesterday. but i go for a run. it's nighttime. it's in the rain. it just sucks. i didn't have a plan on where i was going. and i've got my head lamp on and i'm just unhappy because it's raining and i'm running and i should be not doing those things. so i found myself down by the lincoln memorial, which that one hasn't gone anywhere, fyi. but i passed by this temporary memorial called the sworts to plow shares bell to youer. has anyone seen this traveling thing? just me. look it up. the google and their facebook page have lots of interesting information on it. it's described as a, and i quote, 24-foot-tall tower covered with silver wind-blown bricks made with recycled cans dedicated to healing the moral injury of war. now, i don't normally stop running, especially when it's raining, but i did because this caught my attention.

so i walked around this tower in that deep muddy grass and i read the names and messages that were etched into the aluminum. so right here in the midst of the greatness of all these monuments in the nation's capital was this testament to the impermanent lives impacted by war. every inscription was both strong and painfully fleeting. and they were both intimately personal and empowering in their publicness. so if i wasn't supposed to do this, i definitely didn't. but if it's legal, i got out my keys and i wrote in a blank space, "for e.c. and m.c.," the initials of my grandfather, korean war veteran and my father, air force veteran, the same one who -- is sandy miller here? where are you, sandy? she's going to make fun of me. she's back there. i'm going to start to cry and she's going to make fun of me for the next five years like she did last time. so last year i told but my dad, who for the last 25 years has

been present in uncounted moments of darkness with poor and homeless people in culver city as a culver city fireman. and he just last year finally told me you know, i believe in the light you people bring to veterans who are homeless. it was huge for me. so i was struck by this dynamic, this tension i felt at that temporary memorial between these moments of connection that we have that are very deeply personal and this big vast continuum of moments that make up a human story. it was at the same time as big as it gets, these abstract ideas about moving the mark, the arc of moral justice, and as granular as it gets. the moments of fleeting connection between people that remind us we all have value. our currency here is these impermanent modes that positively impact veterans who are homeless in their most vulnerable times. moments that drive forward and propel our movement. so let's talk, you and i, just for a moment about our movement. because i've been hearing your

worries and your fears and your concerns about where we go now that the va's five-year plan has ended. we're actually devoting this entire conference to looking at where we are and defining this new era. when general shinseki moved the needle by declaring we would no longer simply maintain but now end veteran homelessness, our whole collective mission shifted. when he said let's do it by the end of 2015, some of us thought he was crazy. but it gave our work a needed sense of urgency. so we had a deadline now, right? we had an end game and we needed to start working backwards. the u.s. interagency council on homelessness helped to operationalize this plan within the context of all homelessness. don't agree with everything our federal partners say and do. they might say i disagree with mostly everything. sorry, guys. but i think we can all say without a doubt that this period

of resourcing is without precedent and a testament to their dedication to ending homelessness for veterans. v.a. wasn't alone in this. hud, department of labor, agencies across the federal government were invested heavily. so what have we learned? a couple of things. investing in systems is essential. so is local leadership. helping veterans find housing that they can maintain requires a full spectrum of housing resources depending on what someone chooses and what they need. master lists are a great idea. mayors and local officials can't help. income improves housing stability. these just a couple parts that we learned. and over the next couple of days you're going to learn about a lot more. so the end of 2015 came and v.a.'s five-year plan ended. the objective, ending homelessness for each and every veteran who needs us, was always more important than any deadline. what it did was harness some

energy, build unstoppable momentum, and show the whole country that we can end homelessness for veterans. this phase in our collective plan to end homelessness for veterans was essential, but it's not an all-encompassing one. who here has ever had to get a bit creative in helping a veteran with their program going beyond what the local v.a. resources have? if you don't raise your hand, i'm disappointed in you. harnessing my constantly disappointed mother. right there. all right. listen -- getting personal. so the movement that we embody in this room, we cared when no one else did. we grew and we pushed back when veterans were not adequately served by other systems. now the stone the builders rejected has become the cornersto cornersto cornerstone. the movement we built and build every day to end homelessness for veterans sets up models of change to end homelessness for all people. it includes but is bigger than the v.a. and the federal

agencies. so the v.a.'s five-year plan, the federal strategic streejtd plan, various technical assistance and training initiatives, all with different acronyms i'm sure we all know and love, the mayor's challenge, these are incredibly powerful steps responsible for unprecedented growth and resourcing and improvement in systems. but that's not all they are. they're also methods for quantifying and explaining the granularity of the moments that make up your every day. these are tools in your toolbox. they are parts of our movement. built with powerful parts and partners yet greater than the sum of those parts. so how is it greater? let's go back to basics again. the theme of our conference this year. back to a new beginning informed by what we've learned so far. back to those granular moments of connection between people. back to what i felt maybe if it was legal, if not i didn't do it, putting my grandpa's initials into that monument because since he passed i miss

those moments. sandy, don't watch. and i hope that our work here is under his watchful eyes. so that granularity, the moments that make up a movement, it's why we're here this morning and this whole week. it's deeply personal to all of us. so here's what i'm going to ask of you over the next couple of days, the token three things, right? talk, listen, deepen. if you're new, a lot of you are, and you're quiet. i'm doubting very many of you are. make a point to share something new with a colleague. it's okay if it gets personal. share a moment of connection you've had with a veteran that's been meaningful for you and that helps that veteran. and let others in that room help you unpack what it means for the wider community. listen, if you're used to talking, i know some of you are, bear witness to those moments.

when you want to talk, stop, hear. try to learn something new. hear the passion that drives all of us, including our federal agency partners who are here in force this year. deepen. toss out or away some of that heavy burden i know we all carry to make some mental space for something new, exciting, and powerful. those are the three charges that i leave you with. speaking of someone who does something powerful, i'm going to ask our first real speaker to come up and talk to you guys for a little while. i'm going to ask shannon gerber with the home depot foundation to join me. how many people have had an involvement with or have been impacted positively by the home depot foundation and team depot? [ applause ] shannon and the home depot foundation are fabulous partners that have invested over $130 million in affordable housing resources for veterans who are

homeless. their impact on this movement is unstoppable. and we're so excited to have them as a partner. shannon, let me go ahead and get your slides. [ applause ]c [ applause ]xd >> good morning,fá jfeverybody. >> good morning. >> i'll quickly give you a little bit of background on me. i'm shannon gerber and i have the privilege of leading the home depot team. slides. i am not going to be able to speakxdxd to these. . those are steve's t(slides. >> love orange. orange all the time. perfect. >> make it up, shannon, that is how we roll. >> we're all good. ypeyñ perfect. as ij/ said, i amñilp privilege lead the home depot foundation team, just to give yo9 background, i've been with home depot for almost 14 years now and have seen theçó amazingñi w thatçóçó you and the foundatione

done, so when we shiftedñi our focus backxd in 2011 on veteran it was very personal for me, both my grandfatherslxqerved in korea, myñi stepfather it was a navy seal in thefá vietnam war d my step brother has been active the last 22 years as a leader in the u.s.e1 marine corps. so over the last seven months sinceçó i've been this role, i have fully immersed o and ole, i have fully immersed receive this great work andñi i so exl9+of all of the lives so exl9+of all of the lives that y$moi so let's talk about whatlp we'v done together. so over the last five years, we've çóinvested overw3 $138 min in veteran e1t(related causes, building and improvingñi 25,000 272,000 teamñ;deposá volunteers but ourlp foundationn team depotxd --

[ applause ] >> but our foundation in team depot have not done this alone and we know that. we've done this withq 3,800 of the non-profit partners and so we want to say thank you very much for all that you have done. we're able to do what we do and we do it with and because of you. our team depot volunteers work through non-profit partners. our communities and the dollars partners toñr allow you you do 9m9"tqi ut thank you for the pet you serv$4ñ the work you do, an the support that you have for the veteran community. so i would like for you to give yourselves a round of applause,d

majorçó corporateçó sponsor asñ the bigfá annuallp events but t pester them repeatedly throughout the year with all of r(t&háhp &hc%

to thankfáxd them for their longxd standing support od nchv as we think about what the spaceqçó means for the communit agencies that areqó[t(w3 evolvi betteri] meet vetcans needs. i want to talk to natalie some words.nú come upñi her%ñá [ applause ] . and i am incredibly honored to

be here among you today and this is the 5th year in a row that we have been here andlp it is a significantly larger crowd with energy,lp and lots more momentu so we're really happy toñi be pt of this movement and always humbled by the work that you çó, that you do in your communities, you do day in and day out. bailey referenced mye1 colleagu fareed who will be here for the rest of the conference and i to work at citi, compared to running and working in a not for profjsy i applaud you inçó all of the wk perfectñi example of how great e work is+++$6gy

mcauliffe. we applaud him as well. so you know, i don't know what you did on memorial day but where i'm from in new york, it j rainingçó so what does a family do over the long weekend

and i realize that is the vision. a home withw3 dignity, safe and comfort. and that has really shaped our work herejf and hast( really sof guided usok as to how we are shaping citi salutes whichq is our corporate wide initiative at "q)%9ñ executsd(s. theñiñiok employees, and from a the divisions and how they've tried to focus on trying to make sure that ourxd commitment to t military and veteran community is outw3 there. zçó work with servicexde1 organizations in ar of housing, entrepreneurship, financial resilience and

employment and today i'm really because no oneq knowsçót( better than t room because on any given night there, is still nearly 50,000 homeless veterans whoxd are sleeping on the streets in america andqc that is a sad statistic and a sad state of affairs. we want to doxd our part and on of the things that weçó initial did is to partner with localxd initiative support corporation and the nationalxd equity fund the bring them home initiative )ut provides predevelopment fundçó fort+rxd transitional support, temporary and perm independent housing for veterans, service members and families and since the lpw3 inception, the initiative has helped to create 30 developments in sa hundred units of supportive housingñi for homele veterans. saying how terrific it has been to partner with debbieq

burkhardt. we know this work is messy. it is not a simple grant, a simple finance and a building is built. it really is veryt(xdñiok messy you have to haveoágññi the pati. you have to have the fortitude, and you have to have theçó righ guidance to make that work. and so through bring them çóhom, we've been able to support some interesting projects like newçó beginnings in chicago to provid residents and now veterans like maryç garza have access to programs that help veterans reintegrate into communities.d]ó in the bronx, qcáa los +angeles, philadelphia, washington d.c., denver, long island, and more.w3i] philanthropy helps but let me be clear, given the size of the taskha+ead of us, ending veteran

neither the responsibility of ñó way we will ensure the nation's veterans have the shelter and dignity they deserve. government is vital but a partner that does not always get q-q%=9 is the private sector. i put to you allx> in short,ñi when business, policy and community interests i'm fortunate enough to work in a company that does this kind of work extremely well.q citi community capital is the arm of citi that handles

construction and deals and my partner addressed you on this issue. citi has an entire departmentú

housing at theq organizations land marklq7ç building on court 9m this makes it one ofç the largt resourcesfá centers for veteran. this facility also not only does that busá it has ñrmultiple, multiple services. it has supportive housing,q wor for employment, work for computer training, work for lp i]achieve. anotheri] example is home manne three bedrooms and again, families are in three bedrooms. i p when you're doing this kind ofç work. they added a 3 million line of credit and the litax equity under the debt equity partner debbieñr as the fundñi manager.

but we're getting it fádone. 1ñt( real estate owned properties to service organizations for rehabilitation and repurposesing, the donated properties can become home ownership opportunities for veterans and their families. açó special program is administered by purple heart homes,e1 an organization founde by two young veterans wounded in iraq. the organization provides safe, affordable and modified homes to service connected disabled veterans and it helpsi] older veterans age in place by homes to make it possible for themq toi] live there. before i close my remarks today, i want to make one final observation. while housing is critical and is the foundationlp for xdçóstabil employment isñr equally importa and also paves the pqt0 toh0ár% ul&ancial resilience, so once

r(t&háhp &hc% and you have a job, then you can stable and resilient. based on that premise, one of the other things that city hasç been invest saeg añi program calledñr clear point reconnect which is a webxd based financia education curriculum to assist military families facing money [ partnership with leading organizations such as iava, mi,$úp)y corporate network and operation home çó and again, it is a way to provide quality education to provide and make sure that a veteran and their family is capable of managing money and achieving what we all want to achieve which is economic security. so, these examples show how we can end homelessness and provide meaningful new starts as we pool our collective resources, expertise and relationship and

for the sake of the veterans and the country on a whole, we really must do this and do this more than ever before. so thank you and really enjoy the rest of the conference. i know i will. >> good morning. our next speaker is beverly ebersol. beverly has extensive experience building local partnerships to end veteran homelessness. she's held leadership positions in support of housing development and service design. beverly spent six years with the corporation for supportive housing and before that she was the program director of something i think may of you may know, piquette square in

detroit. for the past four years, beverly has been with the u.s. interagency council on homelessness first as a regional coordinator and now director of national initiatives. ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to introduce beverly ebersol. [ applause ] thank you. >> thanks. thank you, chick, and thank you so much, bailey, for inviting me this morning and to speak today and for everything that you do. the list is extensive. i think she's running around here somewhere right now. but appreciate her -- oh, there you are. right in front of me. the list is extensive and appreciate your leadership and work. good morning, everyone. the crowd is big and goes way back. this is so exciting to see so

many faces and i'm excited to get to spend sometime with you over the next few days. my personal -- i won't kind of move to the tears but if bailey cries i'll go with that. i'll cry, too. it's something i can do pretty easy. but i do come from a long line of family members where military service is steeped on both my side and my husband's side as part of our family tradition. so, on behalf of all of us, at the u.s. interagency council on homelessness, i'm delighted to be here with you this morning. i'm particularly speaking with my colleagues who are in the room this morning and several of them who are enroute and will be joining us for the conference over the next couple of days. i believe katie jennings who works with my team and sarah lynn, our chief of staff might be in the room. if you guys are, give a wave or

a -- all right. i see way in the back there. we're really thrilled to have them here, as well, and to to be a resource to you as far as our federal partnership. so we're looking forward to spending the next couple of days with you and soaking in the passion for this work that all of you do. i'm also very thrilled and honored to be sharing the dias this morning with so many of our critical partners. shannon and natalie and the entire philanthropic community, as well. steve peck from u.s. vets, governor mcauliffe, secretary deputy gibson and secretary perez. it's an honor to be speaking with all of you today. there are so many -- these are the people who are absolutely committed to ending veteran homelessness in ts country. their leadership is a constant source of inspiration to me and to all of us at usich as we do this incredibly hard work

together. let me tell you, make no mistake. this work is incredibly hard. i know that the theme of the conference is building blocks of a post-era plan. but let me tell you, we are anything but post-plan at usich. we are absolutely in the thick of it. we are driving hard to achieve all the goals of opening doors, including fully achieving the goal of ending veteran homelessness. and we're taking the lessons learned from the progress on veteran homelessness to help drive greater progress on ending all homelessness. particularly those of us at usich who work out in the communities with all of you. so those of you who don't know usich for me very well that matter, let me just explain. the u.s. interagency council on homelessness is made up of 19

federal agencys that are committed to and are relentlessly working toward the goals of opening doors. agencies like the september of veterans affairs and did department of labor along with hud, hhs and the department of education, our shared goals to end homelessness among veterans, among families, among youth and among those experiencing chronic homelessness. and among all americans. i have 17 colleagues at usich. we're a small but mighty federal agency. so some of my colleagues are responsible for driving action in washington so that federal agencies and our national partners are aligned to achieve those goals of opening doors. but what some of you may not know, there are five of us out

in the field. and we're working to support your efforts in communities across the country. as the director of national initiatives, i'm lucky enough and fortunate enough to head that team and little bit about me. my home is in detroit. i know that there were some detroiters that i saw that were attending. any detroiters in the house? whoo! all right. i see you guys. so, sorry. got my detroit roots just come out. but one of the things i want to say ant detroit and people who know me know i like to talk a lot about detroit, azumi hometown, but one thing i think that's important and hopefully my colleagues from detroit who are in the room agree that folks in detroit know the spirit and the focus it takes to tackle what can seem like insurmountable challenges so, you know, i think we're used to focusing on those things and we constantly look to those challenges and opportunities and we're creating change in our city every day.

little bit more about my team. a huge focus of my team's work right now is to help every community understand and take action on what it will take to end veteran homelessness. so that every community in america has a system in place to make sure that homelessness among veterans is rare, brief and nonrecuring. to make sure that homelessness among veterans is rare, brief and nonrecuring. it's a big job. it's a huge job. and there's no way we could accomplish it without strong leadership across all of our 19 member agencies. deputy secretary gibson and the team at the va have been working hard to ensure that the different va programs can be knitted together into an efficient housing first system in your communities. secretary perez serves as usich's council chair's last

year and he asia hen team are continuing to drive stronger connections between work force systems and homelessness service systems. part of my work as usich is to lead the interagency process through which communities can be confirmed for achieving the goal of ending veteran homelessness. i do this in close partnership with my colleagues at the va and at hud. so, kind of want to get a show of hands if people, do you know of how many communities have been confirmed for ending veteran homelessness? want to see if there's any kind of guesses, i don't want governor macauliffe to answer this one. any guesses? [ inaudible ] okay. here's some shouting around the room. we have actually confirmed two states. virginia and connecticut. [ applause ]

whoo! and we've confirmed 26 communities. and so what i would like to do, how many of you are from one of those communities or states and kind of give ourselves another round of applause? let's see show of hands, too. see some folks over there. great. i think your leadership and the work that you're doing inspires us, as well. all to kind of continue to work towards this goal. and while i want to say is we don't think of it as a race but i would be remiss if i did not mention of those two states, virginia got there first. and governor macauliffe's leadership and urgent focus on the goal was vital to that success. three of our confirmed communities, san antonio, houston and philadelphia --

houston's in the house. they're all in the top ten largest cities in the country. so if they can do it, we know everyone can do it. through the confirmation process, i have to say we have learned a lot about what successful communities are doing right to achieve the criteria and benchmarks. so want to share a little bit of that with you today. first and foremost, they have really strong partnerships across the community. including the coc working closely with the va, private shelters, community service providers. those partnerships are key for building and tracking realtime lists of veterans experiencing homelessness in the communities. a strong, active list is something that also has been critical in successful communities. another thing that we're seeing in successful communities is

their ability to move people quickly through the system. this starts with great outreach, low barrier shelters and permanent housing options available for veterans. of course, as we're doing this work, one of the things i have to say and i think you have heard us at the federal level say, we've never ended homelessness before and we're doing it now. there's people who are actually doing this and it is actually people believe that we can achieve this goal. but one of the thing this is's really important as we're doing this work together that we're still learning and sharpening our thinking around this and so we actually really are looking forward to talking to you about your thoughts over the next couple of days and i want to plant a couple of things we' a' grappling with. first of all, some things for you guys to think about and

ponder at some of the sessions is, how long does a system have to be working well before we can say it has successfully ended homelessness? second, how do we continue to align all of our programs, including transitional housing, to create low barrier housing first approaches across our entire system? and third, how do we make sure that each community system is robust enough so that it continues to perform well over time? and so that we can sustain our progress next week, next month, next year and into the future? answering these questions requires a lot more hard work. i'm in this business, in this work to end homelessness once and for all. i think and know that people in the room are, too. and i'm really hoping that over the next few days this can help us get all better at the work

we're doing and help us achieve the goal together. so again, thank you for the opportunity on behalf of usich. it's great to be here. [ applause ] >> before i begin the introduction of our next speaker, let me just take a second to talk about something that's coming up today, this morning. during the members meeting. i know a lot of folks don't necessarily stick around for the members meeting but this year it's really worthwhile to do it so let me build a little bit on what beverly was talking about.

we're beyond 2015 and much has been learned. by you. much has been done. and there's still challenges as beverly has alluded to with the questions. so let's capture your experience. when's working? when's not working? and what's needed? remember that nchv is your voice. so your insights are going to help nchv inform its policy in the future so i ask you to attend the issue table discussions, the board members are involved in that and i think you will find that they're very, very good narrative example of where we need to go, where we have been and so forth. our next speaker is robert snider, the chief of staff of the department of veterans affairs. i know that your program says

it's sloan gibson. the deputy secretary was going to be here. sloan was unfortunately delayed on travel and beyond his control was not able to make it. but we're very lucky to have bob snider here. he is the chief of staff as i mentioned. he servels as -- before he became the chief of staff, he served as the executive director of the my va task force which i think some of you have heard about. he also led the largest organizational transformation in the department's history which is my va. mr. snider joined the department of veterans affairs in june 2009. he was appointed the executive director of the va dod collaboration service where he saw the development of joint policies and programs between the va and defense. and that is a union that the government has been working on for sometime and it really is important. he's also a career military

officer, army. thank you. mr. snider served as a field artillery officer in various operational assignments. he was also on the faculty of west point and he's also served as strategic advise tore the chief of staff of the army and also the office of the secretary of defense. so, ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to introduce bob snider, the chief of staff of the department of veterans affairs. [ applause ] welcome, sir. >> thank you very much. >> you bet. >> well, good morning, everyone. i know that deputy secretary gibson's disatonighted that he couldn't be here this morning. he had a field hearing in wisconsin and the flight got canceled last night. but i'm honored to be able to

pinch hit in his stead and he does send his best regards this morning. just a couple more notes about myself if you'll indulge me just a little bit. my dad was world war ii veteran. he was a tech sergeant in the army air corps at that time. my father-in-law was an artilleryman. landed at normandy. was wounded about 40 days later. my brother, older brother, is a vietnam veteran. he was in cambodia when president nixon was on tv saying no u.s. troops in cambodia. i'm a 1981 graduate of west point. served as mentioned a little over 26 years in the army and then my son is a 2014 graduate of west point and he is currently a cavalry squadron platoon leader serving in afghanistan. i tell you these things because veterans issues are personal to

me as they are to all of you. and as they are to the vast majority of the employees at the department of veterans affairs. we at va, all veterans and everyone united in this noble effort to end veteran homelessness owe a great deal to the national coalition for homeless veterans. to bailey and the board members, thank you very much for everything that you're doing. [ applause ] thank you for being a great partner in our common fight to end homelessness amongst veterans. i know this is the biggest conference yet and that's a great sign. as we continue our work, we have to continue to grow. continue to bring new partners to the table and look to partners we may never have considered before. organizational objectives may vary from nonprofits to for profits to governmental agencies

at the federal, state and local levels. but there are countless innovative and creative ways to bring myrrh add resources to help veterans who are homeless. i'm talking about collaboration which is going to be the main point of my talk. collaboration. we hear that word a lot. so much that some might imagine genuine, productive collaboration is an easy task. it is not. candidly, when we really start looking at collaboration, we often worry. we worry that collaboration with an organization with goals different than ours might interfere with our work. we worry that it might interfere with fund raising. we worry that our organization might lose some of its own notoriety. but there's something we can all agree on. the interests of those we're serving must take presence dent over the interests of any organization if we're talking seriously about serving

veterans. collaboration dictates that we do what is best for those we serve, service members, veterans and their families. and as we push to extend collaboration with other organizations, organizational sen trick paradigms start to break down. suddenly it is not about your organization anymore. suddenly you realize that doing best for those we serve will be the best for your organization over the long term. and you have to take a leap of faith sometimes. those initial efforts at collaboration may not be perfect. but they're so rewarding. think about how authentic that is for you and your organization. think about the authenticity of being grounded in the difference you make for those you serve. if you focus on what's best for the people you're serving then the world really is your oyster. we can accomplish things for

veterans beyond our wildest imagination. most of you heard jim collins, an expert in on organizational growth. he wrote good to great and the social sectors. one of the things jim talks about is engine that drives the nonprofit world. and the private sector, he explains, there are universal metrics like earning per share and return on equity so you can attract capital. but in the nonprofit world, brand reputation is what matters most. think of this as a virtuous cycle. you get some resources. you go and do good things with those resources. people learn that you did good things with those resources so they give you more. and you start working that virtuous cycle. but how do you measure that? how do you evaluate it all? well, think about processes like this.

inputs, activity, output, outcomes, impact. let me repeat that. inputs, activity, output, outcomes, impact. we're pretty good, comfortable measures what we do with regard to input and activity. how many hours we put this. how much money have we spent. how many grants have we awarded. but the further you go toward the end of the spectrum of outcome and impact the harder it is to measure but it's the outcomes, it's the impact, those are the very elements we need to focus on. outcomes and impact. that's what where we get to authenticity and the difference we make for those we serve. some examples. outcome. veteran homelessness down by 36% since 2010. outcome, a nearly 50% drop in unsheltered homeless veterans. outcome, more than 360,000 veterans and their family

members permanently housed rapidly rehoused or prevented from falling into homelessness. outcome, new orleans became the first major city to end homeless in december 2014. outcome, 26 communities in 2 states and counting have achieved an effective end to veteran homelessness as an indication of how fast progress is being made, my notes this morning before 24. so i'm happy to hear that it's 26. virginia's one of those two states as we talked about this morning. you will hear from the governor in a few minutes. those are outcomes. now let's talk about impacts. impact, a family getting their father back after his combat experience in afghanistan and iraq racked him with ptsd and ended in jail and homelessness. that veteran, rudy, is now working on the batch already of

arts and social work and reports that life with his family is the best it's ever been. impact, children proud of their dad who went from serving his country to sleeping in cars. but now has a job, a home and hope. that veteran lonnie has been setting the example at his new job so now his company is hiring more formerly homeless veterans. impact, after nearly 20 years of homelessness, a veteran working again at a good job, smiling, laughing and being a productive citizen. for veteran and her family, thanks to hud and ssvf, homelessness avoided, a home of their own and a future helping other yvette rans succeed in their education. impact, 130 of the most vulnerable and chronically homeless veterans living in a with veterans with wrap around

services on site at ed lee envegss housing with services, it is the way forward. and all that is not thanks to va. it is thanks to you and thousands of others like you concentrating on outcomes and impacts for veterans. because i've been at va a while, seven years, in fact, i find it's instructive to think about what the federal government looks like from the outside. it's instructive for me to think about what the american people should expect of government. they should expect governmental departments working collabora collaborateively rather than functioning as silos. federal agencies working with states and county in true intergovernmental collaboration. processes engaging nongovernmental organizations and the private sector in meaningful, private/public partnerships. programs tackling significant challenges and providing appropriate support to those among us in the greatest need, goals and objectives based on

measurable outcomes for those we serve. sustained effort and progress reported year by year against those outcomes. in my view, those are characteristics of good government or what deputy secretary gibson calls best in class collaboration. we're talking about bringing a functional end to veteran homelessness. best in collaboration means engagement across service providers, law enforcement, prisons and jails, hospitals, libraries and job centers. we're talking about coordinated grassroots outreach, agencies working together to proactively speak out veterans needing assistance. think about this challenge. good jobs are fundamental to ending and preventing veteran homelessness. when's the answer? collaboration. last year, the overall veteran unemployment rate was lowest in eight years at 4.6% nor veterans compared to 5.2% for

nonveterans. that downward trend's continuing. april's veteran unemployment rate under 4%. you'll hear from secretary of labor tom perez in a bit. the secretary and the department of labor is a principle federal partner and helping end veteran homelessness. they're helping make a tremendous difference. each year across the country the department of labor provides employment and training services to veterans at 2,500 american job centers or hhcs. last year, hhcs served nearly 1 million veterans. hhcs are funded by the department of labor and administered by state level work force investment boards. they're operated by local communities. they're examples of best in class collaboration. think about another challenge. inconsiders ration and veteran homelessness often go hand in hand. what's the answer?

collaboration. veteran treatment courts are helping communities break the cycle of homelessness and incarceration. as veteran justice outreach specialist loretta explains, it's really a community coming together to support the court, to support the veteran. they work closely with organizations, with va homeless staff, with mental health programs, with veteran service organizations, with veteran mentors and many others. in 2009, there were only four or five of these courts. today, there are over 400. over the last six years, veteran justice outreach specialists served over 120,000 justice involved veterans. more than 46,000 in 2015 alone. the proof of goodness in the collaboration is veteran outcomes. two thirds of veterans before veteran treatment courts successfully complete treatment regimens. they experience 88% reduction in

arrests and a 30% increase in stable housing in the year after. another challenge. in tough housing markets where there's a shortage of safe, affordable housing, alone hud vash doesn't make it. one more time, what's the answer? collaboration. i'm talking about some real roll up your slooefrs kind of work and determination. that's what happened in san francisco over the course of about a year and a half. best in collaboration amongst plow shares, mayor ed lee, the housing authority and human services authority, housing urban development and the folks at san francisco va medical center. they took a derelict hotel, a liability and an eyesore for the community and transformed it into an affordable, safe, attractive housing for 130 homeless veterans. homes for heroes at 250 kearney

street in the heart of the city's financial district. that's taking the housing first mod toll the next step. that's truly example of what's possible when people work together, partner, collaborate and innovate. could i ask a few folks to stand from swords of plow shares in san francisco, michael. leon winston. tramesha. are they here? [ applause ] megan owens fought at san francisco human services agency. san francisco va health care system hud vash director. and denitsa. any of these folks here? very good. [ applause ]

thank you very much for that innovative effort. there are many more stories like that out there and i would encourage you to tell them, share them. the people that benefit from those stories are other veterans. tell those stories. organizational change is always necessary. it's about staying relevant in a rapidly changing world. it's about tailoring practices to the evolving changes of the people you serve. at va, we have the transformational change in the history. it's about putting the needs, expectations 0 and interests of veterans and their families first. so we're looking at va from the veterans perspective, from the perspective of those we serve. we call that transformation my va. that includes five strategies. the first two strategies are improving the veteran experience and improving the employee experience. those two go together because you don't get one without the

other. number three is achieving support services excellence. four is establishing a dull chur of continuous culture improvement. number five is enhancing strategic partnerships. that last strategy enhancing strategic partnerships is fundamental to our discussion today. strengthening strategic partnerships is grounded in a sense of authentic humility. we can't do it by ourselves. we need help. in fact, i've learned that there are at least three areas, at least three, where i don't believe any organization can meet the challenge on its own. one is mental health. one is career transition. and the third is veteran homelessness. that's why the work of shannon gerber and the generosity of the home depot foundation is so important. thank you very much for the announcement made this morning. that's why natalie abamarco and city development is so important. that close?

[ laughter ] shannon, natalie, thank you for your work and for setting an example for businesses across the country. it's going to take some best in class collaboration to finish the job of creating coordinated system to ensure there's no wrong door for veterans seeking help. it's going to take some best in class collaboration to set concrete and ambitious monthly and quarterly goals for helping veterans get back into housing. it's going to take some best in class collaboration to ensure shelter is immediately available to any veteran experiencing unsheltered homelessness, to make sure every community has the resources, plans and system capacity in place should any veteran become homeless or at risk. and to identify by name all veterans experiencing homelessness and share that list across systems so that not even one falls through the cracks.

that's what people like make ware at the erie va medical center and his partners in the erie continuum of care are all about. they're using the homeless operations management and evaluation system or homes assessment form for bidirectional data sharing on homeless veterans. is mike here? there's mike. [ applause ] tomorrow mike will share the best practice in detail to apply it across the country. to bring functional end to veteran homelessness takes great collaboration of the program so it evolves in ways that meet your local community's needs.

to provide transitional housing in instances that's appropriate and help veterans swiftly move into permanent housing. and to continue efforts among work force investment boards, homeless services and housing organizations va medical centers and employers so veterans are quickly connected to jobs. in closing, here's the point. there's a lot we still need to do together. and strong collaboration, a commitment to work together rather than stand alone is one of the single most important common denominators anywhere that is -- where there's been success addressing veteran homelessness. so if we're not collaborating, if that authentic humility isn't coursing through our veins, if we are not grounded in the difference we make for those we serve then shame on us. i came to va in 2009.

at that time, we determined that reducing veteran homelessness was not enough. we made tremendous progress bringing down veteran homelessness so far. now let's end it. god bless all of you for your great work and for your singular exemplary devotion to our nation's veterans. thank you. [ applause ] >> i'm back. hello. that was phenomenal. i love this idea of the best in class collaborations because it talks about the word best and not perfect. not none of us are perfect. we can do a phenomenal i don't know in this work and want to thank va for that work. we have an nchv first. we get excited about these on

our team. first time we have going to have a governor of a whole state, mind you, oh good. you're still awake. awesome. we'll have the governor of the state of virginia here to talk about effectively ending veteran homelessness across the state and what that means for their continued investment. under his leadership, virginia became the first state to functionally end veteran homeless. he and the team created partnerships across multiple areas of service to maintain that accomplishment so we're really grateful to have him here today and i won't cry this time but introduce the honorable terry macauliffe, the 77th gover nofr of the commonwealth of virginia. >> thank you. thank you. good morning, everybody!

oh, come on. you can do better than that. good morning. i mean, listen, you should be jacked up. you're about four miles from virginia. you are very close to paradise. so when you get down here in the district, just come across the potomac river and spend a little money. honored to be with you. 1607. let's not have any illusions. 1607, those three ships from england came over to the united states. where did they go? they didn't go to pennsylvania or a rock up in massachusetts. no. they came to the commonwealth of virginia. we are the start of the great nation. it is an honor to be here in washington, d.c. i want to thank bailey crone for her tremendous leadership and the national coalition or homelessness. let's give bailey a great round of applause if we could. [ applause ] i would also like to recognize matthew leslie with the -- right here, for our department of veteran services in the commonwealth of virginia. [ applause ]

i've been out in the hallway with the greatest secretary of labor in the history of the united states of america, let's give secretary perez a great round of applause who's right here with us. [ applause ] and i do want to thank all the other partners of the united states interagency council on homelessness who literally have been so helpful to us and instrumental providing resources and support for our veterans and thanks to partners at the department of veterans affairs for their continuing collaboration with the commonwealth of virginia. the regional veterans affairs centers are also very engaged in our work. i appreciate what they do to help virginia's veterans. lastly, i want to thank all the veterans present with us today for their dedication to our country. let's give a round of applause if we could to all of our veterans. [ applause ] we love our veterans in virginia. when i always say when we say virginia, this means veterans. when we say veterans, this means

virginia. i am the proud son of a world war ii army captain who saw a lot of action in the pacific action. also the proud hear of a newly minted second lieutenant in the united states marine corps. [ applause ] i'm very proud of our military and the great work they do. as you probably know, virginia has the fastest growing veteran population in the state of united states. we have more female veterans than any state in the united states of america. we have 800,000 of a population of 8.4 million. we are very, very proud of our veteran population in the commonwealth of virginia. i believe that it's a tremendous honor and i also believe that that comes with a tremendous responsibility for us at the state level to make sure we're doing everything we can for our men and women who put on that uniform in defense of our great

nation. as you know i was very proud two years ago to be one of the first governors in america to sign on to the challenge to end veteran homeless in virginia. it was a big goal we put out and as you know and mentioned earlier i was very proud to stand in richmond, virginia, on last veterans day announce the that commonwealth of virginia was the first state in the united states of america to functionally end veteran homelessness in our state. [ applause ] secretary castro and matthew doherty came down from the united states interagency council to present the award to us but i understand once we get the great designation within five minutes you have a veteran that could be homeless. it's a great hon knob or the the first and only state to get that designation but we understand the responsibility going

forward. our work has just begun and i think sometimes when individual cities and states get that designation i think some people wonder can they stand down? i would tell you in virginia it was a call to us to service and duty and excited everybody to take it to the next level. in virginia now, we have a whole ecosystem that we have put together to make sure that we move our veterans who are homeless into not temporary housing but into permanent housing and now if you see a veteran on the street, all 211 and we have an operation together to move our veterans into permanent housing so this is a really exciting time to t literally take it to the next level. we have built an operation in virginia, the necessary network to ensure that veteran homelessness is rare, brief and most importantly nonrecuring. we always recognize the ongoing commitment to our veterans. it's not a one-time effort. it's a continuing effort. we have to have continuing

vigilance to do it. when i committed the virginia department of veteran services and my governor's council on coordinating the issues of homelessness to achieve this goal, we were inspired by the work done in such great cities as phoenix, salt lake city, houston and new orleans. let's give those cities a great round of applause for the great work that they have done. [ applause ] and they've set out a real great template. we didn't have to reinvent the wleel in virginia. we developed many of those practices and many of you in the room put this together and i want to thank all of you in this room who are helping to achieve this goal. the national coalition for homeless veterans convened this conference and literally to go forward, share the best practices and ideas and go back to the respective jurisdictions and do what we need to do for our veterans. i urge you to take the opportunity to build upon a more integrated community system so there's no wrong door for our veterans. i want to highlight a few key

element that is led to the success in virginia. first, let me say, you have got to have the leadership of your entire state and local officials. my governor's coordinating council on homelessness representing a broad range of federal, state and community partners took the lead in developing strategies to improve coordination, target those resources and then use data. 5 captioning performed by vitac