use it, how you consider that chamber and how you survive in that environment, how you impose your will on the other 99 senators. one key is that, like martin gold for the democrats, and the republicans as theirs as well. >> another question right here the microphone. >> has there been a many times when the senate chaplain has made a remarkable difference? >> the nature of the chaplains dog -- job is private. when senator byrd's 16-year-old grandson was killed in an automobile accident, the senate chaplain was having countable

-- incalculable comfort, according to senator byrd. chaplain considers the whole senate including the staff to be his flock. it is pretty much on a personal basis. they lead the senate with a prayer every day and then they are there to be helpful and available. >> i know we have another question right here. have stepped in front of the camera. >> in a search for bipartisanship, as the senate ever entertain the idea of trying to seek people in some way and other ways besides left- hand side and right hand side? instead of whether they agreed with them and not, ranking them by social security number, way

to -- [laughter] charm, any other factor? >> whatever there is a ceremonial session, members instinctively set on their assigned decided as they would be in the current chamber. and then they catch themselves and look nervous and embarrassed, as if some will cross over and sit on the other side, but there's a lot pressure against doing that. in the early days of the senate, there was no party seating. that developed in the 1840's as parties coalesced in the senate. i think that will be on the bottom of the list of recommendations. [laughter] one recommendation was that they have lunch together, the two parties have lunch every

tuesday as our group. once a month, get them all together. who knows how that would work? i think the attendance might be low. >> we have time for one last question. ok, i am going to ask it. [unintelligible] let's get a microphone right here. >> explain the procedure that senator bain is using right now that requires only one person to stop everything -- senator bunning is using right now that requires only one person to stop everything. >> the senate runs on unanimous consent because of the way the rules are constructed. to avoid any hard feelings, and this gets back to the question of the job of the majority leader and the minority leader to organize these unanimous

consent agreements. weather is as simple as having a vote it 5:00 in the afternoon to something more complex, and they spend hours with a lot of staff involved on this. the leader goes then, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to do this. and then at the back of the senate chamber, you hear the two most hateful words a senator can utter -- i object. that is what is going on here. perfectly within the right of the senator to do that. to the great credit of the majority and minority leaders, they try to keep that to a minimum the lot of personal consultation, maybe back scratching here in there, but every once in awhile, particularly in contentious times, it happens. >> tell everyone about the

custom that got started under then-senator jack kennedy, the guidelines for how the senators and the hall of fame were selected. >> lyndon johnson as majority leader in the middle of the cold war, senators were grumpy and they needed to feel better about being in the united states senate. just off the senate chamber is the reception room, and although it is grandly decorated by the italian fresco artists, there were five medallion portraits spaces left vacant. lbj came up with the idea of selecting five outstanding former senators no longer living, who can serve as role models the current senators. they can be proud of being a senator or at least had ideals to aspire to in human form.

then lbj suffered a heart attack in the summer of 1955, so he cannot share -- chaired the committee to make the selections. it fell to john f. kennedy, the junior senator in the middle of writing his book "profiles in courage." he became chairman of the committee but the other senators were much more senior than he. they brought in a group of 160 academics, including harry truman, to send in a less. and i think the list had about 68 major senators. they could always a light five. that finally did boil it down to henry clay, daniel webster, john c. telcalhoun -- no-brainers. but there were two slots for the toy center. the great progressive republican

from nebraska, father of the tva another progress of legislation, that the first vote from the outside panel. but the nebraska senators decided that they were not going to let him brace holes, so they agreed that this would be unanimous. so they said -- they selected a senator from wisconsin, another progress of senator, and then robert taft of ohio, who had been the republican leader for a very short period of time. and that was set. and then in 1999, trent lott looked around and saw some other interspaces. -- empty spaces. so we in the senate office --

senate historical office played that role. we ran a competition and they ran up -- ended up with one republican and one democrat. there were more space is available on the walls there, and so that is for future generations to decide. but it was a good exercise by saying, what you mean by outstanding? no one would agree with best, but outstanding -- why did they deserve that credit? and there they are in the senate reception room, hopefully in spiring senators as they go about their daily work 3 >> richard, thank you for this great evening. we appreciate you being with us. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010]

>> tomorrow, clark kent ervin talks about airline security and that do not lilas. don edwards discusses democratic efforts to target an open house seats and vulnerable gop house members and 2010. and william minnix looks at the current need for long-term care. "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. the white house hosted a conference wednesday on workplace flexibility. the event includes a panel with the ceo of campbell soup and others talking about the economic benefits of added flexibility. president obama talk to the participants at the end of the day for 15 minutes.

-- to halt to the participants at the end of the day for 15 minutes. >> ladies in judgment, welcomed mr. john barry. -- ladies and gentlemen, please welcome john barry. >> thank you, and thanks to each and every one of you for taking time from your busy schedule to be with us at the white house here today, a brainstorm how we can increase productivity and the resilience of our government by making our workplaces more flexible. at the start of another transformational period in american business, andy grove of intel said there are two kinds of businesses, those that use e- mailed and those that well. -- those that use e-mail and those that will.

workplace flexibility is the new e-mail. there are those that have it and there are those that will. [applause] as an h.r. practitioner is clear to me that helping our workers achieved their life and career goals together make sense for all of us. when we allowed a new mother or father to work from home part time, retain their valuable skills and keep on getting a return on investment for the valuable training that we have made. we promise you that we will take it as exciting ideas back to our federal workplace, and judging by the buzz the has been in the rooms and workgroups today, the ceo's and the labor leaders here will also take them back to their workplaces as well. with little encouragement from a corporate voices challenge that

valerie jarrett mentioned in the opening session. flexibility and will work when we define the results that each worker and team is responsible for, and then hold them to account. we've already started in my agency, and i'm very pleased to announce today that opm has signed up two of the leaders in our flexibility field in the country, the creators of the results only work environment, and i asked them to stand and be recognized. they started in the private sector with best buy, but then they wrote a book on why work sox. and how to fix it. since then, they have branched out, bringing this to other companies, and beginning today,

the federal workplace. over the next eight months, they are going to work with us to implement this for 400 workers at the office of personnel management, including my own staff. so i will be watching, as well our independent evaluator. if it is not working, we will go back to the drawing board. but if it does work, and i believe that it will, it will become the cornerstone in our effort to make the federal government the model employer for the 21st century as well as make the president's -- meet the president's challenge to make government cool again. [applause] success will send a powerful message, because if flexibility can succeed in the federal government with the unrivaled

importance, complexity, and variety of our mission as well as our red tape, quite frankly, it can succeed anywhere. our next speaker knows something about telework and the culture we're trying to create. connected for river he goes, he is able to work from ohio in the morning, washington in the afternoon, and on the plane in between. he and his staff expect to be reachable anywhere so work can go on wherever they are. and he still has time to watch his daughters play basketball. so now to speak a little more about the importance, especially in our challenging economic times, all on nipissing the benefits of the flexibility revolution for both productivity and work life balance, it is the highest honor and privilege of my life to introduce to you and man i like

to call our telework er in cheek, a man i could not be more proud to have as my boss, president of the united states, barack obama. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, everybody. hello, hello. thank you, thank you, everybody. please, please, have a seat. first, one caveat -- i will not be as good as it should -- as michelle. so keep your expectations lower. i want a first of all acknowledge john berry for the extraordinary work he is doing here and for helping to organize this. thank you, john. in addition, we've got secretary hilda solis hear from our

department of labour. dr. christina romer, who is the chair of our council of economic advisers -- where are you? right there. valerie jarrett, a senior advisor and chair of the white house council on women and girls. melody barnes, i actually saw her run off to the garden. she was on my left, the chair of our domestic policy council, but she is not here. karen mills, who is the administrator for our small business administration. and martha johnson, administrator of the general services administration. so i understand you've had a wonderful session. i heard all about it.

all of us here today know just how wide that gap has grown. and who we are all familiar with the economic and demographic changes that have brought us to this point, how over the past generation or two, as costs have risen and wages have lagged, many families have found they can no longer survive on just one income. and at the same time, we've broken down barriers and lifted up opportunities so that more women have entered into the workforce, bringing home paychecks that are critical to supporting families. today, 67% of american families with kids are headed by two working parents or a single working parent, and the result is the rise of what one expert refers to as the "juggler family." for these families, every day is a high wire act. everything is scheduled to the minute. no room for error. if the car breaks down or

someone gets sick, or there is a problem at school, that begins a cascading domino effect that leaves everybody scrambling. and i have to say that this is something that michelle and i have struggled with in our own family. as she told you earlier today, it was not that long ago that most of us work -- both of us were working full-time outside the home while raising two young daughters. i was away for days on end with my job, and michelle was working hard at hers, so lot of times we felt that we were just barely keeping everything together. when we were at work, we worried about home. when we were at home, we worry about work. we both felt our overloaded schedules were taking a toll on our marriage. and we had it relatively easy. we cannot afford good health care, we had a wonderful mother- in-law, grandmother, who could help out. we had a shipper into the white house. -- we had to ship her again,

even into the white house. we both had jobs where we could rework our schedules in an emergency without risking being fired or having our paychecks docked. the most people are not that lucky. particularly in today's economy when many people are working three jobs to get by, or working longer hours, or they are out of a job and cannot be choosy about things like flexibility and benefits. and this disconnect between the needs of our family and the demands of our workplace also reflects a broader problem, that today we as a society still see workplace flexibility policies as a special perk for women rather than a critical part of a workplace that can help all of us. they're still this perception out there that an employee who needs some time to tend to an aging parent or attend to a parent-teacher conference is not fully committed to his or her job, or that if you make a workplace more flexible, it necessarily will be less profitable. it is true that women are still

disproportionately affected by this issue, something michelle always reminds me of. another reason why it is of great concern for me. but plenty of fathers out there wish they had more time to spend with their kids. plenty of sons wish they could do more for their elderly parents. plenty of workers, both men and women, which they could go back to school so that they could be up their skills and advance their careers. and there are plenty of communities that desperately need the new jobs we can create when we embrace teleworking and mobile workplaces. and how this affects the bottom line, a report by the white house council of economic advisers that we're releasing today found that companies with flexible work arrangements can actually have lower turnover and absenteeism, and higher productivity and healthier workers. so let's be clear -- workplace flexibility is not just a women's issue. it is an issue that affects the

well-being of our families and the success of our businesses. it affects the strength of our economy -- whether we will create the workplaces and jobs of the future we need to compete in today's global economy. and ultimately it reflects our priorities as a society, our belief that no matter what each one of us does for a living, caring for our loved ones and raising the next generation is the single most important job that we have. i think it is time we started making that job all easier for folks. many of you here represent companies and workplaces that are already doing just that -- embracing telecommuting, flextime, compressed work weeks, job sharing, flexible start and end times, and helping your employees generally find quality childcare and eldercare. and if you are doing this not just because it is the right thing to do, but because you have found that what is good for your workers and is good for your families can be good for your bottom lines and your

shareholders as well, then you need to spread the word. my administration is committed to supporting efforts like these three our budget for next year includes competitive grants to help states launch their own paid leave programs. it increases funding for child care in nearly doubles the child care tax credit for millions of middle-class families. and it provides support for folks caring for aging relatives, and for seniors who want to live independently for as long as possible. we are also both committed to practicing what we preach and serving as a model for the policies that we are encouraging. john has been all over this three that is the purpose of the pilot project that john just told you about. that is what john is working with our chief technology officer, aneesh chopra, to provide opportunities for federal employees -- here in washington but also all across america -- to telework on a regular basis. where regulations are in the way, we will see what we can do to change them. where new technology can help, we will find a cost-effective

way to install it. work training is needed to help managers and workers embrace this approach, we will adopt best practices. we believe that all this is not just about providing a better work experience for our employees, but providing better, more to person service for the american people, even in the face of snowstorms and other crises that people -- that keep people from getting to the office. i do not want to see the government close because of snow again. [laughter] it is about attracting and retaining top talent and empower them to do their jobs. and judging their success by the results that they get, not how many meetings they attend or how much face time they log, or how many hours are spent on airplanes. it is about creating a culture where, as martha johnson puts it, work is what you do not where you are. and in these efforts, we will be

looking to all of you for it by some ideas, and we plan to continue this conversation in the coming months, holding forums and roundtables in communities across the country, so we can seek out more good ideas and best practices that we can adopt and promote. i thank you for being part of this forum and look for to hearing about what you came up with today. and i look for to working with all of you in the years to come. thank you very much, everybody. [applause] >> here's another winner from our studentcam competition.

we asked do this to give us the five-eight-minute video on one of our country's greatest rings or i challenge that the country is meeting. today we meet laura henry from sarasota, florida. congratulations. tell us, what made you pick this topic? >> i picked the topic is a really important issue for people my age especially, but it also is for adults that are driving as well. a lot of people think that it is only teenagers that are taxed again driving, but there are a lot of people doing it and it is a danger. >> what do you do to stop from taxing and driving? >> my friends and i have a designated texter. usually the person in the passenger will text suit you can

drive. >> what was your reaction to interviews that say that they silk text while driving. >> i was shocked by the people who are still doing it. our shot by a lot of the young people that say that even that they got into an accident, they do not think that they would stop. there are several bills that i talked to that text and drive as well. the lawyers do you think the government is doing enough to stop people from texting and driving? >> no, i do not think it is on the top of their lives. there are 14 states that have already enacted laws but florida is not one. >> you think that these laws are helping to prevent this problem? >> i do not know. i think that it would. i think that if there were a lot, that a lot of people would

do it. a lot of my friends said that if there was a lot, that would stop. it would at least reduce the amount that they do it. >> what was the hardest part about making this video? >> it has gotten easier over the years as i learn the software. the most difficult part would be using parts of video that i wanted to include. making an eight-minute video was a very difficult. i had at least two hours of footage and i had to watch it several times to see what parts of wanted to use. if i could have made the documentary twice as long, i would have. >> what draws you to this? >> the first time, i love photography and i was trying something new.

i found that after i completed that, i enjoyed the political aspect and making documentaries. working under pressure, too. i found that i enjoyed doing it. >> congratulations, laura. now let's watch a portion of for video. >> on the way to work i was sending a message when i steered across the center line and struck another car. in this other car, there were two man who were both killed on impact. two men that were fathers, were husbands, and their families wanted the best for them. because of my choice, i took their life. i change the lives of their

families. i change my life forever. >> as you can see, -- you can see her entire documentary and the other winners at studentcam.org. >> next, "q&a" with michael lewis. then tony blair speaks to labour party members. and another chance to hear about senate history from senate historian richard baker. a discussion on conservatism and the new capitalism, and a look at what free market systems must do to survive in today's global economy. that is today at 5:30 on c-span.