we have been doing that in the industry. we have an earlier conversation was very interesting on the first panel, a big conversation around spectrum. it has always been a critical resource when it came to defense. the defense industry was providing mobile communications 60 years ago, and we were always in the context of contending in the spectrum. as we have to contend, our military forces have to contend in that military spectrum even more so, we're going to have to rely more and more on the technologies and capabilities that come from the commercial sector to help solve those

problems? this is a very stuffy and firemen. there will be a need for explicit military capabilities. more and more, as we have over the last decade -- last decade, we were dependent on that resource, so we will be more dependent on that commercial solution. at the same time, we have to leverage the fact that we can exploit some technology that may not be as critical today as it may have been 15, 20 years ago, and i think our technology

export policies have lagged the speed at which technology, not only comes available, but becomes relevant, and not relevant. and so, i think as an industry, we have encouraged government to review their policies, review the critical technologies that represent a future threat as opposed to what may have been a threat to 10 to 20 years ago. let's just talk briefly about education. many of you know an icon in our industry. still is today. there was a warning order on our education system and the state of their technology -- our

technology-based work force, and that was recently updated, the gathering storm, and he categorizes that we are no in a category 5 environment. the issue is not how many people are graduating with a technical degree per se, it is how many u.s. citizens are graduating with a technical degree. it is one thing if you're going to develop code for an ipad or apps for apple. it is another if you're trying to design electronic warfare systems or material sciences for stealth, very, very difficult, and in the most part, the nature of that demands u.s. citizens. that is what we demand. it is encouraging to see the amount of interest there is today around educating young

people and getting them motivated in science, technology, engineering, math, getting them motivated early enough in their lives to fight through the discipline that comes from taking algebra and calculus in high school, the discipline that actually says, gee, i am going to suffer through physics when i in 17 years old so i can actually be qualified to take technical courses in college. a lot of us in the industry have put a lot of emphasis on higher indicated -- education at the industry level and other. but it starts somewhere between dinosaurs and puberty. if you do not catch young people's imaginations, like mine was captured when my dad was in nasa, during easter break,

watching rockets go up in the air. i thought that was qaeda cool. -- was cool. data -- watching the university of auburn. we had several hundred thousand young people from the age of 6318.

they will be participating in robotics competitions throughout the country. -- from a 6 through 18. -- age 6 through 18. we can walk through our gymnasiums, instead of seeing the basketball championship, see something like we won the regional first competition, won the national competition. we start creating a cultural shift. that is exactly what needs to happen.

it has the best chance of changing culture. that is my shameless shout out. by the way, if you have somebody going to college these days, thinking of this in an economic sense, in the end up in your basement after they graduate, -- and they end up in your basement after they graduate, you have to ask whether or not that is a good investment. we can hire virtually every graduate. the fact is we're going to need to hire a lot more of them, so i would certainly encourage that. that is one of the critical issues facing our nation and certainly facing the defense industry. >> thank you. again, i was actually able to research for some for my book, and i find it interesting that

it is looked at as a sports competition, but bill gates said if he was a young today, he would not go into computers. he would go into robotics. these are the next bill gateses of the world. mike i wonder if you can handle this question. how it might apply to the broader economy, but also these issues. >> thank you. is a real thrill -- it is a real thrill. we had sean penn on, but this reflects my biases and prejudices. it is great for me to be part of

it. very briefly, one thing would be to pick up on what was said a little bit, and emphasize to remind ourselves of our strengths, because we have a lot of challenges, with adequate science and technology. and all of these things to present challenges for our country. but it is important to remember that we do not need to throw up our arms in despair and think we're beebe and the 21st century. -- that we are being beat in the 21st century. it is true that by most measures, most independent assessments, we have some of the best universities in the world.

we need to incentivize more graduates. this is a pretty good place from which to begin. in terms of aggregate research and development across the economy, and i including the defense and nondefense sectors, this is still the research and development center of the world, and it may seem a little funny and counterintuitive, but in terms of where most innovation happens, or at least a large fraction of where it happens, the united states still outdistances the european union in aggregate or, let's say, east asia, in aggregate, and there is some concern. the trends are towards convergence or towards losing our edge, but it is important to remember what our strengths are, because if we get too depressed about how things are going, it might seem that it would be better to go and be lawyers and

entertainers and let someone else go into this stuff. i just say this as a reminder. we need significant course correction but not a radical change. we must not forget what the strengths are either. now, i want to talk about more with the defense sector. this is a little bit of a shout out to our colleagues on the panel, and an audience, and, again, it is not necessary to drop perfect conclusions about the future, but this is to remind you all of how much the defense and non-defense sector is benefit from each other and have done so historically, and i am just quickly going to go into the areas in which defense has really spun off technology and the last 50 or 60 years,

especially in the cold war. , and this give a chance to respond directly to the question that was posed to me. first of all, as you all know, and peter mentioned this, defense has done a great deal to drive the history of innovation and development in sectors like aerospace, including rockets. they basically were invented in the defense world, and this is something we have seen in the 1940's, 1950's, 1960's. certainly, the development of radar.

the advancement of laser technology. little things like air bags in cars, benefiting from some of the censor technology. there are some impressive ones. it was not just the defense sector, and this has been interesting.

they drove a lot of the innovation in rocketry in space. that is one other big area. this just proves the point that defense can do a lot, but for those of you say we are talking about ancient history, we even heard of a about that from a defense see no a moment ago, about how we have to keep looking in the defense circles for benefits in the commercial world, and that is true, but a lot of the innovation is still coming out of the defense sector, and the companies represented on our panel can exemplify that, and i am sure that the panelists can explain that in even greater detail. cyber security, now so central to much of our economy, and whether defense and others are doing enough to drive innovation and drive technology. it continues to be true in aerospace.

certainly in terms of innovation, innovation with trying to make engines more efficient, transport aircraft. certainly, boeing and many other companies involved in the aerospace sector continued to work in these areas and drive a lot of progress, and certainly ssaic and -- saic and honeywell, as well. they have gotten good at doing real-time data fusing. certainly, the commercial center is good at this, too. it has a lot of incentives to get better at this, do not want to suggest that this is a 1-way street. where the commercial industries are benefiting as recipients. it is certainly a two-week process, but just how much real

time information, dissemination has happened with in the military as we have taken the time to identify the target, which used to being labeled in days. we had to fly out our flight plans overnight to carriers, and they would have to, to some extent, on imagery taken days previously, and this was about the point in warfare, our data. our cold war data was based on long-term intelligence gathering, delivered over months and years, with a nuclear war plans, maybe revising them once a year, but by desert storm, you were trying to revise things in a matter of days, and then when you got into others, it was maybe a delay of hours or maybe

one hour between spotting a new target and you could attack it was somebody else, and now, it has gotten to the point where it is almost minutes. this is very interesting and important in the defense world. it is not just the technologies, but it is the linkages between the technologies and the people, and here, let me give a shout out to general stanley mcchrystal and many people down range, who have figured out ways to flatten our corporate hierarchies and benefit not only just from new technology but from teamworker, and i think here, the defense sector broadly defined, not just industry, but some of operators in the field in uniform have taught a lot, and that could probably be a benefit for corporate america and others, so i have just begun to list some, and i will stop here. >> thank you.

if i want to give you a chance to weigh in on some of the comments that have been made here and comments that you may want to react to. >> yes, i am enough of a sports fan that, i would like to see this hanging next to the state championship in basketball, but i would like to reinforce walters point. i wanted to buy 40 of high- school class reunion a few months ago. yes, yes, you can give the grief about how old i am now. one of the things i said is that one of the things that struck me as i saw the spirit awards, and i saw the anti-bully and posters and the exhibits in the art classes, and nowhere in my own high school did i see anything having to do with math, science, competitions, awards, or anything like that, and it bothered me, because thinking back, i think we did have some at some point, and we do not anymore, and i agree that is a

fundamental dynamic that we have to change. second item, i think we can look at defense more broadly than just how to defend ourselves against attack. one of the ways to prevent attacks in the first place is by building trade ties. some call a commercial advocacy. i am a big believer that to the extent that you can keep the discussions commercial and arguing about currency, that is a lot better than try to figure out what you need to send ships, and there is a lot of simple things you can do. china is the one that everybody likes to be nervous about, and you can ask, are they a partner? are they a competitor? are they a supplier? are the a customer? and the answer is, yes, they are all of those. we have to have a more nuanced, thoughtful process for how we think about china, and i will give you a good example. chinese companies buying u.s. companies. we should be in favor of that,

because to the extent that you now have a chinese company bet in beijing saying, "hey, hey, what are you doing? i have a lot of money of their." -- over there." histrionics and hyperbole. when you go back 20 years ago, when the japanese bought rockefeller center, and the outcry that you saw in the press and politicians and others, because they had the audacity to by rockefeller center, and what a threat that was to the u.s.. now, you only have to take a moment to think about, how big is this threat? what are they going to do with it? ticket to japan? nothing. -- take it to japan? now you have the land and the

money. greater trade ties, keeping a commercial discussion rather than a military discussion. i believe this can do a lot, and just kind of person in michael's point a bit on how we do the a lot of strength, we do, but when i think about the three h's, it seems that democracies are uniquely suited to putting of the traffic light after the fourth accident. we have already seen the first accident. and as people start screaming and getting attention, i swear, it is tough to move a democracy, and unless we can start using some of these three h's, i do not know if we can get this country to move. we really start to mobilize more to build on the strengths. >> would you like to weigh in on something not using the three h's?

>> let me go to what michael was saying about the innovations that come out of our defense industry. many times, they are kind of below the waterline in terms of visibility in the public. the command and control the we apply to sovereignists margaret processes are almost identical to the nature of command and control that we saw with knowledge based applications of targeting and weapons, right, and so, there is a lot of new ones in the leveraging of technology for defense. there was a question earlier today, and had to do with privacy. that came up in the conversation in the panel on i.t., and how do we have what i will call information assurance around this vast network that is now ubiquitous in everything that we do. well, a lot of the more what i

call exquisite submissions to the problem have been worked on for decades within the defense industry. the intelligence community or the .mil community or even the .gov world, and they could migrate into the .com war, and i can assure you that is what is going to happen. i can assure you that when at&t as an internet service provider thinks about securing the network, right, to solve the problems of privacy and to solve

the problems associated with information assurance, they are going to look for many of those solutions to adaptations of solutions we have created in the defense industry. >> great, thank you. we have a little time left for conversation, and, actually, we have got our first hand back there, and if you can wait for the mike and then stand and identify yourself. >> the international trade commission. i am here asking a question on behalf of the national center for women in information technology. the whole question about innovation and the fact that we do not have a pipeline that is supplying those jobs that you said are going begging, particularly in the computing science, information technology area. my question goes to your panel as the defense panel, it is

national security has always been our democracy. it managed to tom a lot of issues. and out of -- it managed to trump a lot of issues, and out of darpa, there was a lot of innovation with money spent on training and education. my question is, what should we be doing today, 2011, in terms of the defense department? the office of naval research, as a understand it, has kind of been ahead of the game -- as i understand it, has kind of been ahead of the game. and in this tea party period, i am wondering whether we are going to be able to tackle this

innovation deficiency through the education.door and whether we might need to go through the defense door. i am wondering if you would comment on that? >> yes, i will be happy to comment on that. the defense industry and our seceded partners and government, i think, are equally committed to that initiative, the initiative of how to incentivize or these recognize and help through training and development. we certainly do it in the military, right? it is probably the most intensive training environment of any profession, and we certainly do it was supportive capabilities. i think distinction is, what active role does the department

played versus what supporting role does the department play? -- what active role does the department play? i believe that is the role of the dod, to support the initiatives that we take in industry and partnership in our communities, right? at the same time, i'm going to use the example i know. there are bases and schools that can adopt this kind of programs, and as long as they are encouraged to do that, i think that is an appropriate role for the department of defense as opposed to the department of education. >> ok. >> if i can add to that, i know that government efficiency is everyone's oxymoron, and it goes to the stem programs also.

i tried to get to the bottom of this in some of the work that we did, because and the and i in particular have a lot of discussions koran about how it the same time we need to reduce expenses we need to invest more in infrastructure, not just roads and highways but education and everything else. when you get to the bottom of all of this, there is something like 110 stem programs. none of them coordinated. and nowhere is there a measure of effectiveness on are you getting something for the money you are spending? nowhere. and i tried for a month or two to get this kind of data, and we actually and others trying to get us data. nobody measures this stuff. we need a more thoughtful process again, a discussion, and it seems like if he tried to talk about -- if you try to talk about stem, they will say, "you

are against education." no, i am not against that. there is still a lot of opportunity in stem in particular to get more measurable results than we see today. >> i want to give an answer that might help answer that, as well. we look at the idea of cloud sourcing, which is done in social networking, and the example that is often pointed to is the darpa grand challenge, where the pentagon spending billions of dollars was not able to build an autonomous robot. it put out a $2 million prize, to people outside the dod, and to them, it seems like a lot of money. four people inside the dod, that is the copy machine budget, and $40 million, they got hundreds of high school and university

teams to compete in the program, and it was won by a team from stanford and mit and also the i.t. department of an insurance company from louisiana, $40 million, and what is interesting is that that stanford team that won, the technology is not just being used in technology today, it is also being used by google and also by the various marquard programs -- the various smart card programs -- smart car programs. let's get another from this side of the room. but there. >> this is for you. -- back there. >> i am with a consulting firm, and my question is, i guess for anybody, but it may be most appropriate for most -- mr. singer, and one of the question

that seems to come of, what exactly engineers and what exactly these people interested in defense and get their appropriate occasion, what should they be doing? engineers doing what? i have a lot of friends who are andking on their ph.d.'s, that is a question, "what exactly am i applied my degree for?" -- what exactly am i applying my degree for?" this is why we stand and why we are doing what we are doing, but there seems to be less of that, so i am curious, when we talk about china, for example, which talk about other countries. what is the stuff that we are looking at -- we talk about other countries. the two questions are, do we need engineers to do what, and what should we be thinking about as ugly, politically, and etc.

-- what should we be thinking about ethically, politically, and its central?" >> -- and etc.? >> i want to go to our panel. >> two things. solving hard problems that are of national interests. in the context of the aerospace and defense industry, solving hard problems that protect our freedom. those are really two simple values that you can relate to young people. you're going to solve problems that are of national interest. no matter how much you pay them, a basketball player at miami is

not going to find a cure for cancer. it is not going to happen. if you want to find a cure for cancer, you had better understand science and mathematics. that is a compelling issue, even for young people. that is a hard problem. keeping our nation safe is not a trivial issue either. and so, whether it is saic, northrop grumman, lockheed, others, fundamental to what they do is to solve our problems of national interest -- solve hard problems of national interest or of global interest, and those are the compelling conversations i have with a 70 -and -- 17- and

18-year-old. we are creating the next global infrastructure. we're going to figure out how to the next one better. and everyone in this room knows there is a better metro to be built, right? that is what they are doing. >> real quickly, the priorities that the military has today, connected to the broader priorities that i think we see in the economy and the nation as a whole, whether it is the demand for green energy, which applies to the military, because it is the biggest spender in the military, the ability to fuse data and make quick decisions, which the military needs to do,

which a manufacturing company needs to do. we have time for more question -- one more question. >> i am involved with an effort to create some telephone apps in emerging in developing countries, but my question to this panel is, and he hinted at it a little, but knowing what you know without giving away any confidential information, are you willing to speculate on sort of the next generation of products from the government that are going to be, let's say, able to be commercialized in this area? >> not me. [laughter] >> anyone else? >> i guess you have stopped us. s -- tumped -- stumped us.

>> yes, i think you will see some censor technology. there are some advancements, and when you hit google earth, the nature of the overhead censor that delivers that picture that is google earth, that was have -- that had its genesis in the defense industry, and i think whether it is a full range of the electromagnetic spectrum, where the defense industry excellus and the development of technology and capability, you will start to see those new kind of a sensors. in maybe the three-dimensional view from space. that is out does itself -- it

may be the three-dimensional view from space. i think the sensor technology will continue to spin out in commercial applications. using those applications in your gps. "gee, i wonder how that works." -- you see those applications in your gps. everything from the display itself, right, the up and down wings, to the satellite that correlate -- the up and down links, to the satellite that correlates, it is all government-invested technology through the defense industry that migrated to, frankly, migrated to the commercial sector. i think you will see more and more of that. >> the quick answer i would give on that is the adjective

"smart." we heard mike talk about smart weapons, and we heard previous panels talking about "smart grids." i think with the sensors, we are looking at smart sensors. this has been a very smart and in -- discussion, and at brookings, we are told to drive home not the three h's but the 3 i's, including intelligence and independence, and i think this panel has shown that it has been a good antidote to the threeh's. [applause] >> i apologize if i hijacked the conversation. >> tonight, improving the business climate for innovation

and meeting rising demands for the broadcast spectrum. the communicators on c-span to. >> every weekend on c-span3, experience american history to be, 48 hours of people and events telling the american story. here historic speeches and eyewitness accounts for events that shaped our nations. top history professors and historians go into the american past. all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> on the anniversary of the board of martin luther king jr., use the c-span's library. there are hundreds of programs

on the life and legacy of the civil rights leader. find a program, watch it, clip it, and share it. >> president obama and his family marked the birthday of martin luther king. they painted walls and a junior high school in washington, d.c., where the president spoke about the bet. they sang happy birthday to first lady michelle obama, who turns 47 today. >> ♪ happy birthday happy birthday happy birthday happy birthday happy birthday ♪ [cheers and applause] >> all right, let's get to work.

>> all right, we will shake some hands first.

>> there you go. >> things. >> i am just going to say a quick word to these folks. -- thanks. this is just an outstanding program an example of what the martin luther king birthday should be about. i want to thank all of the mentees and mentors. dr. king obviously had a dream of justice and equality, but he also had a dream of service, that you could be a drum major for service. you can lead by giving back to our community, and that is what this program is all about. that is what these participants are all about. michelle and i and the girls are very proud that each year on martin luther king's birthday, this is how we celebrate, making

sure we are giving a little something back to the community, and with all the projects that are taking place all across the country today, getting similar attention, because this is what america is about, and after a painful weeks, where so many of us were focused on tragedy, it is good for us of what this country is all about -- after a painful week. this is about what is best in us, and we are thrilled with everybody who is participating. all right? >> tonight, the head of the consumer electronics association on improving it innovation and meeting rising demands for broadcast spectrum, gary shapiro. "the communicators" on c-span2.

>> go to c-span.org to where it -- read a bill on line and into the conversation on the c-span twitter and facebook pages. >> i believe the best way to carry on dr. king's work is to reach out to someone in need and to make an ongoing commitment to the community of service. >> on the anniversary of the martin luther king birth, there are hundreds of programs on the life and legacy of the civil rights leader. find a program, watch it, clip it, and share it. >> doctors in tucson, ariz., congresswoman gabrielle giffords is doing better. in an interview, her husband said today that he might be willing to meet with the parents of the alleged tucson shooter, jared laughner.

this is about 15 minutes. >> good morning. we have been the faces for surgery and trauma. they sent an entire team, including trauma surgeons and vascular surgeons, nursing staff and the operating room and icu, and anesthesiologists and many, many others. resuscitating is the first phase. rehabilitation is the third phase. in the first phase, they dealt with the initial injuries, and then on saturday, the second phase was restoring the patients' clinical conditions.

there has a terrific program been built here at the school. umc. last saturday, the teams performed on congresswoman giffords the placement of a feeding tube and repair of a fracture in the right eye. the doctor will be available for comments as to the details of the procedure. the other doctor is a professional society meeting this morning, and i'm asked another to speak in his stead as the assistant director of the trauma program. i would also like to take the opportunity to update you on the other patients. we have two more in good condition in hospital and still one seriously injured patient in the icu, but we are pleased with the outcome, one week after this tragic event, and we really appreciate all of your support,

not only from you but from the community and that people across the country have given us, and now, i will let the doctor talk about the details of the procedure on saturday. we call it a minor procedure. it took about two hours, and he will tell you about the portion of the general surgery. >> good morning, and so, what you're hearing is another team effort, and i want to give the credit to those who assisted at every phase, particularly in the repair of the orbital refraction. the doctor to my right participated. so let me take you back to the operation and describe exactly what we needed to do. if you recall, from the first comments when i mentioned the initialswoman's injuries, i mentioned that she had bilateral roof fractures,

and that was indeed -- in the eye socket. in the right, it was pushing down on the eye and the eye socket. that day, we had to perform a very quick releasing incision, but we did not want to do the full repair at that time. the patient, as you know, was in very, very critical condition at that time, and we did not want to take the chance to further exacerbate brain swelling and of the things that could have been adversely affecting their, so we put that off until such time as we thought she was through that critical -- critical period, and at about the weak market, that is when we thought it was ok. -- about the week mark. we wanted to avoid repercussions. it did require a craniotomy.

that does include making a window in the skull. we were removing the bone fragments to take the pressure off, and moving with the doctor, we are able to close up. we did this all through an incision just above the eyebrow, so we did not have to risk the left side of the brain, and we wanted to minimize that as much as possible. i am happy to say that within a few hours of the surgery, she was waking up, and through the weekend, she came back to the same face like she was at before the surgery, that same level of interaction she was having with us, and that is very good, and at this point, we are hoping to continue to tie up the news and and go towards rehabilitation, the third phase -- tie up the loose ends. >> prior to dr. lemole's

procedure, we prepared procedures that are very common for brain patients that allow us to expedite their care, provide them with adequate nutrition, and manage them in a much more comfortable manner. therefore, the tubes that were in her face are no longer needed, and it reduces the risk of other problems. she tolerated those procedures well. in fact, we did the right before a doctor lemole finished his procedure. >> we are now ready for questions. this will require a detailed examination when she is even more interactive with us. our suspicion is that she can see something, but at this point, a detailed of theological examination has not been performed. -- a detail an ophthalmologist -- a detailed ophthalmologic

examination has not been performed. >> the tracheostomy does not allow her to get air past her vocal cords. she cannot vocalized, but she could search mouth words or something like that when she is ready to do that. >> what does this say about the kind of progress she is making? >> well, there is a lot of inference there, but it does imply that she is recognizing him, and that she is interacting in perhaps a familiar way with him. >> and what does that mean from a medical standpoint and from a recovery standpoint? >> again, those higher cognitive issues are somewhat

observed here. >> she was opening her eyes. more complex movements. is she doing that? >> yes, she is back at that same base line that she was before the operation. >> how do you describe it? >> the n-word still holds very well. -- that word is still holds very well. the next major step is the graduation to rehabilitation, and that skull repair is many months down the road, so we will not cross that at this point. our key is to get her to her next phase of recovery, rehabilitation. >> this is a decision we make to the different disciplines. she is working regularly with therapists.

also with the family. this is a decision that the family is very involved in. we certainly have a potential for that sometime very soon as long as things progress well. usually, tracheostomies stay because they have a lower risk of aspiration. it can actually changed out to a smaller size tube or to something so that she can get air pastor vocalize -- passed to vocalize. -- past to vocalize. it all depends on her, as your level of alertness improves and the ability to follow commands continues to improve, those are decisions we make every day. is she ready to have the tracheostomy removed.

>> in terms of her rehabilitation, what is the next milestone, something that would be a milestone for recovery? >> the day she leaves the hospital. that is when she starts rehabilitation. >> and when will rehabilitation take place? >> the family is looking at their resources. they have all of the country at their use. also, proximity to family is very important. >> to leave the hospital? >> it could be a matter of days to weeks. it is a matter of getting all of that information from the therapists, making sure she is ready to move forward with but -- with that. >> these are basically about

stability, and there are certain levels, blood pressure the same, not making any changes on a day- to-day basis, not requiring surgery frequently, and she is off of the ventilator. that is a huge move from critical to serious, and also went to make sure about the family looking at how soon this could take to go to rehab. that depends also on our assessment, and getting her out of the unit will also decrease a risk for complications. >> so if she does not have the breathing apparatus on her face, issue registering anything emotionally? smiling? >> -- is she registering anything emotionally? smiling? >> occasionally. her husband has told me. i was not there. mark to me thinks he may have seen a smile. we are optimistic.

sometimes we see things we wish we could see. but i buy it. that is up to her, her healing process, and how she responds to therapy, etc. you're asking about a very advanced things, and we are not at that point yet. >> able to move some part of her body. >> again, i will be real cagy with you. the family does not want to go into great detail on this at this time. >> they're very close to get into a rehab service. they are very close to being able to discharge to rehab. it could be within days, yes.

there is always the risk of infection. there is always a risk of infection, a risk of pneumonia, a risk of a surgical wound infection. it is temporarily related to the time of surgery, and then it exponentially decreases, but she had a surgery. >> it looks as though we are through that window for the maximum brain swelling. every sign on the cat scans suggest that we are going in the right direction at this point. >> we will continue to issue medical bulletins. many of the questions are, of course, speculative in nature right now, and again, like infections, there are steps that

need to be taken. i think we are all happy to tell you that she continues to make progress. we will keep you updated over the next couple of days. if things remain stable, we may not have another press conference until she is able to be transferred to the rehabilitation center, but there will be daily bulletins, and we would like to thank all of you. as we move forward, we will keep you updated on both good and bad event. thank you very much. >> starting tuesday, the house takes up the repeal of the health-care a lot. watch it live on c-span, and go to c-span.org to read it online, and continue the conversation on the c-span's facebook and twitter pages. >> it is time to upload your

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current economic situation is affecting budgets. from today's "washington journal," this is 40 minutes. the deputy director of the budget policy decisions. welcome to the program. your group does wrote an article fahey and was updated in december cald the state's continuing to feel the recession's impact. what is the current fiscal state of the states? are they getting better or worse? >> the question is what you do when the bombs drop out? the state and the people that served up in crushed by the national recession and its aftermath. state revenues have never collapsed to the point they have in the past few years. what that really means is people's needs are rising in an economic crisis, and the resources available for states to meet the needs have shrunk

dramatically. peoplere starting to feel that in all kinds of ways, whether it is college tuitions making it almost impossible to go to college d get a good job, or whether it is seniors and health care, cutting off school days or closing libraries, laying off cops and firefighters. at ery level people are feeling this. it is really causing quite a problem. not just for the people but the national economy as well. when the private sector is faltering, state and local governnt spending is an important drive for the economy. to the extent that which this crisis persists, it can threaten recovery and it will persist because the sheer is looking like the worst year yet, even though revenues are said to pick up a little bit. the help the states have gone is almost gone. -- the help the states have gotten is almost gone.

host: tell us a little bit about some ofhe remedies that governors, either democrats or republicans, are trying to come up with in order to set their state fiscal policy right. guest: that is certainly a bipartisan crisis. what has been happening over the past couple of years is first states have cut spending dramatically if. they have cut spending so much they're reaching a point where threatens the economy and threatens the future. mo they have also raise revenue. they have said we need a balanced approach. there is no single way to solve the crisis this serious. they have also been raising revenues. states do not have a lot of options in tough times. they have to balance the budget from year to year. they cannot read monday so there is no either or choices.

money.n not print monethey cant in one state the governor is

saying no new taxes and the otr the governor is saying maybe new taxes if the citizens want them. guest: i think that what governors will find out. a lot of governors ran on the platform of cutting taxes. when you are an office and have to make the numbers add up, traditional you see people take a different approach in realize if they try to solve the problem by cuts alone, you do not make the investments you need and do not eate t building blocks of a strong economy. host: we want to look at some of the state's balanced budget requiremen. unlike the federal government, every state except vermont is required to balance its budget by constitution or statute. states generally cannot pay for ongoing expenditures using borrowed funds. tell us about the exception of

vermont. and guest: i am not sure why that is. require a balanced budget. vermont is the only one that does not have that requirement. host: the states generally cannot pay for ongoing expenditures by using borrowed funds. if they cannot borrow the money, and some are insisting they will not raise taxes, where will the cash come from? guest: they will cut and cut and cut. the quality of life will supper. as i mentioned, states cannot have a lot of options. it revolves around a combination of cuts and taxes in using reserves. most aids went into the recession was very healthy reserves. texas, which has the biggest reserve in the country, so far refusing it. you see a lot of help from the federal recovery act. host: we are talking with john

ure, the deputy director of uthority.'s fiscal acti caller: i heard very little about how the paybacks of the billions have been paid back. what fund does that go into? what was it supposed to do? hos guest: it was supposed to help financial institutions that were in huge trouble, and for the most part it has done that. host: next up as philadelphia, pa., on the line for democrats. philadelphia, go ahead. caller: one of the major issues

is how they have allowed k street to run around. as ip to powerful leadership in washington, oftentimes i hear from them and asked them the question do you think you will maybe see a secretary of commerce or secretary of education or even a deputy secretary that is a regular person that has experience? most of the time they say no, you have to be connected to get those types of positions. i think one of the things -- i think it is one of those things hurting as in this country. guest: they are usually people that have a reputation. i think that the state level you see a lot of people filling

positions that are there more for their qualifications and their connections. not everyone is standing in line to be a stakeout officer at a time when state budgets are in the deepest trouble they have ever been. i can see where you might say that is a problem, but we have to hope for good people. host: we had this twitter message that said this -- guest: that is a good point, and at the state level as well. some of the states that are in the first from right now are states that during the boom years of 1990's decided to cut taxes. one of the things we have to worry about as the recession lifts and finally revenues returned to where they were before is the ability to cut the

taxes again. to cut them, it is kind of like saying to someone at the bottom of the deep hole, i have a shovel for you whenever you need a ladder. you cannot make the problems worse. the national economy would be better served if the bush tax cuts had not been extended. we all know what had to happen for the deal that got worked out to happen. states need to take a look at this and be careful. this is not the time to be failing to make investments. if you start to cut taxes in a crisis like this, you could face the consequences. host: next up the silver spring, maryland. caller: i disagree with you there. i think the millionaires and not be taxed as high as they are. if you look at maryland specificallythey had hundreds

of hundreds of million dollar shortfalls in the budget. that is mainly because we have millionaires leaving our state. they have to remember 5% of a millionaires income is more than the average person's 10%. in you have to keep that in mind. second of all, you have to keep in mind to are the job makers? the people that are the billionaires' are the ones that create jobs in this country. you cannot deny that. 50% of small-business owners makeover $250,000 per year. they will be affected by the tax. we all know small businesses are the top breeders in the nation, so how could you possibly say that raisingaxes on these guys woulsomehow benefit america when ultimatelthey will be the ones making the jobs and the decisions about who to cut in hire? hirand who to

guest: i will respectively disagree. there was a study showing that millionaires are not lving the stage. and they were moving down because of the recession and when it did to their investments there were not millionaires anymore. they're not lving. a lot of studies have shown the same thing, when you raise taxes, some people will leave it. the vast majority will stay in the state and this they will get a huge net gain in revenues that can use to provide public safety in schools and everything else. a lot of people create jobs. i do not want to say because you are a millionaire, you are creating jobs. and you may be investing the money overseas. becausesing jobs middle-class people are getting laid off by corporations whose

profits are increasing. i do not think we can say this as simple as raising profits on the wealthiest people, there will be a downside. host: next up is port charlotte, florida. mike on the line for independence. go ahead. caller: i have a comment that leads to me a question. the gentleman is misinformed about what is going on. here is the thing. how do you justify the tax structure? is there a way to adjust things so there would be a flat tax. i understand this has been proposed before and there was a lot of support for it, b it went nowhere. i believe a flat tax is the way

to go. it would eliminate all of the class controversy, anbasically disruption into what is going on in everyone's lives. secondly, i would like you to address the fact that most state taxes in certain states, and how does that affect your opinion on how this goes as far as states' responsibilities? guest: good question. , but youirness issue ma make a good point. gov. christie said we all have to sacrifice, and then he failed to renew a tax increase on people making over $1 million and raise taxes on the poorest people in the state. you make a good point there.

those states that have an income tax have a graduated income tax. impactlps neutralize the of sales taxes and property taxes, which are not based on the ability to pay. some states have no income tax or sales tax. new hampshire has neither. when it comes down to fiscal responsibility, the bus system is for the state to have a sales tax and income tax. taxes that can gw with the economy. a lot of states that have sales taxes have not updated them in your so they reflect a time when people spend more time on things and the and in services. -- than on services. we found that if states raise their tax rate by 1% and only $500,000 perg $5,00

year, there will be additional revenue. host: our next call for jon shure comes from detroit, michigan. matthew on the line for democrats. caller: i would like to know if vermont has a balanced budget. they're the only one without a mandate. is there budget balance? host: on the front page of "the detrt press" they're talking about politics works that could be cut. -- the holiday perks that could be cut. state workers get paid days off on the day after thanksgiving, veterans day, and the eaves of christmas and new year's day.

what you think about that? if they were adjust that to help balance the budget, how would you feel about that? caller: i think there are better ways than that. i do not think cutting people's holidays are a the way to go, but that is my opinion. guest: thank you for the call. i will be in detroit later this week, so please work on some warmer weather if you can get it. i do not know why vermont does not have the same requirement. they're really in the same situation as most dates. they have seen the revenue collapse and they're trying to deal with it. host: in the article it says the overtime cost of each holiday is about 1.7 $5 million. -- is about $1.75 million.

guest: i like to think that is a lot of money, but in the course of the state's budget, that is not a lot of money. michigan was in a recession before we had a recession. and obviously auto industry caused a lot of problems in that state, so they're having a tough time picking out. host: kentucky on the line for republicans. go ahead. and callecaller: the question is what makes your guest think that revenues will turn to the level that they were? i think we're in for a long line of decline as far as the economy is concerned. we have given away most of our productive ability in this country. guest: i take a lot of issue with that question. usually after recession ends, it kes states to to three years for the revenue to recover. the last thing that it's good again after the recession is

employment. if you are not working, you taxes. paying it usually takes two to three yes after a normal recession. this is the worst recession since the great depression. how long will it take this time? the answer is nobody knows. i have heard people say it will take a decade. we know this will be a really bad year as governors are proposing the fiscal budget that will start july 1. it is an open question as to how long it will take to come back and what it will look like when we do come back. "the new york times" they have this about illinois.

host: what it seems to be saying is that businesses are not necessarily at first to raising taxes, but want a stable environment to do business. guest: when illinois raise taxes last week, some state governors made some smart the comments about bringing business to their state.

what businesses need are trained workers. they need a clean environment. they need a gd transportation system. those are the building blocks for transparency. illinois did take a step in the right direction, and the taxes are so highly competitive with its neighbors. host: more numbers. states have close budget shortfalls over $430 billion for fy 2009-2011 combined to balance the budget. they had to address 2011 gap's totaling $0 billion, or 20% of budget's in 46 states. guest: you cannot make it sound more dramatic than it is. it has really been an incredible crisis. it does not happen isolation. at the same time this is happening, people's needs are

going up. more people are on food stamps and have lost their jobs and health care. never has it been more important to be educated and get a good job just since the recession began, demographics are an issue. 7000 more children in school. you cannot base this crisis only by saying if we tighten our belts. the people who say that it is really be careful what you wish for, because since the recession began, 400,000 state and local government workers have lost their jobs. and that can send a ripple effect of job loss throughout the economy. host: state budgets and taxes, according to your organization, state tax collections adjusted for inflation are now 12% below pre-recession levels and or 30 states have raised taxes to at least some degree, in some cases

quite significantly. guest: that is right. we're starting to see revenues go up a little bit. states are saying our revenues are coming up above expectations. that means they have gotten good at being pessimistic when it comes to estimating what revenues will be. we do think that is stopping. it is kind of like you fell off the top of the building and you have worked your way back up to the second floor, so you have a long way to go. host: jon shure. our next call comes from king george, virginia. on the line for democrats. thank you for waiting. caller: i want to clear up the idea that only rich people create jobs. we have a very small business. we have three part-time workers. we're doing our part, even though we are not rich. guest: thank you for saying that.

it cannot be more important. when people argue for a tax increase, they make it sound like it will hurt a lot of people. small businesses are not always that big. in most states, if you raise taxes on people making over $250,000, you would probably be raising taxes on something like 2 percent of the population in the state. it is a dservice to a lot of people and small business to say they do not create jobs. it is also a disservice to people that work for small businesses. host: there is a twitter message that asks why should the government workers be the only ones immune to layoffs? guest: they are not immune to layoffs. that is the important part. they are far from being immune to layoffs, but there is another

issue that is interesting, because sometimes the undertone is to say people in the private sector do not have the pension benefits they to have, do not have the health-care benefits they to have appeared in the issue there is what is happening in the private sector is a tragedy. people have lost their economic security and retirement. they have lost the health care they need. that is bad for them and the economy. for people to say the way to solve the problem is to take it away from people who are fortunate enough to have it in the public sector, that is kind of like saying if i am sick, i should get well by you getting sick, too. this i not the time to be putting workers in one sector against workers in another. we need to make it better for everyone. host: chris in the bronx on the line for independence. caller: it seems to me like

states like california and illinois pay tremendous amounts of money to the federal government. were places like mississippi and alaska raceme -- received a tremendous amount of money. guest: money comes back based on income. that is all right. money is supposed to go where it can do the mos if you live in a wealthy state and you were upset your money is going to wash in, move to a poor state -- money is going to washington, then moved to a poor state. california requires a 2/3 vote to reduce the budget. sometimes california is trying to struggle against situation with two hands tied behind their backs. host: there is an article in

"the new york times" today. the budget plan was found to be a good starting point. he used a stealing assessment -- a steely assessment. guest: you are right. some of california's problems go way back. they passed proposition 13, which limited local property taxes. that seemed like a good idea at the time to a lot of folks. then the state had to step i

and pay for school costs. the political structure of california, which allows a small , hasity in the legislatoure been a problem. people often say, are other states going to go the way of california? probably not. but california has been hurt by the housing bubble and everything else that has made this recession such a persistent problem. host: bacto the phones. you're on "washington journal." caller: good morning. thank you. it would be a good idea -- i do not know about encouraging t states to lower -- get tax breaks, whether they are large or small businesses. they have a hard time in getting health and pension plans for

their employees. it seems like the government agencies -- i don't know if they get bigger breaks because of the things that they are offering. for example, to mbers of congress, it goes to a federal level. whether congress gets pension plans, it seems it is lopsided compared to what your average american. -- compared to what they get. i wonder how you would respond to that. guest: a lot of the tax breaks that states offered to businesses, the heart -- they try hard to compete with each other. a lot of those tax breaks have been proven not to create jobs. if you run a business, any customer, taxes are a small percentage of what you pay. if your profits are low, your taxes or even lower.

give them a tax break in a bad economy, they are not going to hire anybody because they are not going to sell anything. they need to provide health-care benefits for their employees. the federal health care reform, which the repeal of whi will be debated this week in the house, is going to help small business to do that. it will be easier for them to provide the kind of protection that people ed. host: michigan, larry, on our line for democrats. caller: these people talk about states having betterevenues and everything else. host: go ahead, larry. caller: these people talking about -- everybody is in debt. talk about -- about the health

care debate that is going to the lan. it is a big force. -- about the health care debate that is going too on. gas will it $4, up $5 a gallon $4, $5 perll has will hit gallon. guest: they invest in the future. some of the reasons why tngs are so tough, therere a lot o factors. sometimes, not making investments in the past makes it tough in the future. i hope we can learn from this and make sure we invest in schools and health care and all the things that bring prosperity in the long run. the question is, states making the decisions today, they want to take advantage of prosperity,

or will they not do that and things will get tougher? host: there was a headline in ""the wall street journal." write -- cities are scrambling to refinance tens of billions of dollars of debt this year. guest: we have heard people saying they are not worried about it. there are not worried about it at the state level because they can get the revenue. locally, that could be more of a problem. we have seen some increase in defaults. that is a small percentage of the bonds that have been sold. it is important for the government to borrow money for the right things. infrastructure, buildings, bridges. they have to be carefulhey don't make the mistake of

borrowing excessively. i think that some of the people are overblowing the potential for that crisis. host: ohio, independent, jeff. you are on "washington journal." akron? are you there? co-head -- go ahead. caller i have a question about our governor. our governor campaigned on a jobs, jobs, jobs -- he turned around and he refused almost half a billion dollars for a rail project. i just was wondering if you have any insight as to why he did it. maybe there wasn't deils about it that would cost the state more, or whatever. but it just seemed odd.

guest: thank you. governor kasich said you better get on the bus with me or the bus will run you over. it sells a key prefers buses to rail transportation. it cannot make sense for governor christie in new jersey to turn the money to build a tunnel under the hudson river at would decrease housing of dallvalues in newersey. i hope the issue is not that some governors are so tied up in ideological positions that they do not see the need to invest. this is a crisis of meeting human needs and try to shoehorn your ideology into the crisis is not the most practical way to solve it. st: chandler, arizona. caller: having psychological

crisis, i would like to talk about the cost of war in states. the total cost of war in california is $144 billion. you can go to your city -- host: what are you talking about? caller: the cost of the wars in iraq and afghanistan. a tiny amount of that could cause lasting peace. this amount of money that we're spending on war could buy a lot of health care. if you wanted to fix the health ca problem, we should get in front of it by finding all the allied health education that anyone wants to take. let me finish. host: municipalities are paying for the war? caller: the portion of the de bt that is theirs, i suppose.

guest: you could go back and visit the wisdom over the course of eight years of both funding it war and cutting taxes. never has any president tried to do both at the same time. clearly, there would be more money available that could be assisting states and could be doing other things. i get the gist of what you're saying. -- i get the jist of what you're saying. caller: i would like to ask your guests -- when the government's gear ready to cut and balance the budget, why do they always do this on the backs of the poorest people? medicare, medicaid, food stamps,

they always go to the poorest people. can you explain that to me? guest: the vast majority of the money that states spend is spent on education and health care. a lot of the money spent on health care is for programs like medicaid, which is for people who don't have coverage through their employer or cannot afford their own coverage. you're raising a good point. a lot of the cuts that states are implementing during the course of this recession is in fact hurting the people who are in the worst shape. look at new jersey and now michigan is talking about reducing their earned income tax credit. that helps working people who are trying to work their way up the ladder. the push back check comes when -- the contention it will cost -- jobs and the people will leave the state. there is no question that to the extent cuts are trying to predict states are trying to

solve this crisis through cutting, people getting hurt the are hurting the most. host: this report from center on budget and policy priorities talks about $60 billion in the 2009 federal stimulus and 2010 jobs bill remains to help with 20 11th fiscal problems. if the states are looking for assistance, how did they go about looking to get part of this $60 billion that is left over guest: the federal recovery act that was passed was a big help. help balance budgets. it is beyond numbers. it helped people keep their jobs. help teachers and firemen and cops keep their jobs. last august, more money w

approved by congress. the attempt to make a bigger did not work. congress is showing no appetite for doing it. it would be a good investment. to the extent states are cutting spending that hurts the national economy. states cannot t money into a shredder. they put it back out in salaries and contracts and services. as the government spends more, states spend less. it is like filling a bathtub the same time your opening the drain to let water out. host: john from vancouv, washington. caller: good morning. our governor in washington came on television the other day and she said in order for the state of washington to get out of the problems they are facing, she listed in order what people could do as a state.

you need to rely on yourself. you need to rely on your family. you need to rely on religious groups that youre affiliated with. and rely on the state. the state no longer has any money. i propose the reason the state of washington is in the problem is in it is because she has taken that list previously and slipped it. that is all i have to say. guest: i am not entirely sure i catch what you are saying. the governor called for a balanced approach. she has looked at the revenue side of things. i think she is making the point that everybody needs to help. people are in such tough times. sometimes you hear people against taxes say government should be like a family. tighten your belt. in reality, that family also says, how can we get some more

money to feed a family does not say we have four kids and we are only going to feed 3. persius expressing the frustration that many feel. host: our last call for jon shure from center on budget and policy priorities comes from alabama. caller: yes, sir. everybody talks about fiscal responsibility, everything can be fixed. get employees and have bids for the jobs and employers to do the jobs for the safety or even the federal. except you cannot say, you have to pay so much to do the job or you have to pay $20 an hour because this is a federal -- whatever it is. the lowest bid, that is the b.

you are talking about high-speed rail. if there was any money to be made in high-speed rail, the private industry would have made it. lookt amtrak. amtrak is now -- is losing $30 billion a year. since 1977, when they took amtrak over to government. they have been losing since then. host: we will leave it there and go to jon shure for his last comments. is st: let's not blame th crisis on working people. dollar for dollar, they are not paid more for people in the private sector. to say if thprivate sector could make money on it, they would. there are a lot of things we need government to do that the

private sector cannot make money on. maybe the private sector cannot make money on schools or public safety or environmental protection, but we still need those things. we relyn government to do things for all of us for the common good. there is always a profit in host: thank you very much for being on the program. >> starting tuesday, the house takes up the repeal of the health care law. watch the vote live on c-span and go to c-span.org to read the bill on line and continue the conversation on c-span's twitter and facebook pages. >> c-span's local content of vehicles are traveling the country, visiting cities and communities as we look at issues impacting the nation. we now take you to detroit for the north american international

auto show where we caught up with the michigan senator and the senior adviser on the president's task force on the automotive industry. >> we appreciate ron coming in. he has played such a pivotal role on behalf of president obama in helping us get to where we are now in terms of the automotive industry, but also supporting our companies, that has allowed -- supported ford's efforts to be here. we are very excited about all of the cars here that were impacted by section 136, jobs coming back from mexico, as a result from the retooling loans. we hope to be able to expand those and give our suppliers the opportunities to be able to use

those loans as well, but we are very excited about what ford is doing in innovation, and between the investment -- $2 billion in advanced battery manufacturing, we are the center for the country, and i believe we will be internationally for battery manufacturing. the investments, the manufacturing, tax credits. all of those things, coupled with the incentives to buy these great new vehicles, really are a reflection on the fact that we believe in manufacturing. >> this is about a partnership. there's no question the president stepped forward in an extraordinary way and took leadership, but these companies really deserve a lot of credit. ford, obviously, and gm and chrysler as well. people affected by this, the stakeholders, suppliers, managers, everybody came

together. obviously, the center's leadership has been critical, but this is what government is supposed to do. government lends a hand when times are tough, but it asks in return appropriately that the people that gets the help exorcise some hot self-help as well, and i think this is what the story is about. ford particular was an example of that. they did not rest on their laurels. they went out and work on its own problems. it worked with its workers, with its creditors. extraordinary effort by this company, and we are hugely proud, and 136 helped ford, of course they did, but ford did this, and we are very proud of what they have done and happy to be part of this today. it is nice to be in detroit when we can talk about party or collective market share increase, when we can talk about ford and hiring more jobs, when

we can talk about consumer reports. these other sorts of things we need to talk about, and it is really a good day for the industry. >> i would just add one thing, and that is that as we go forward, one of the things that i'm focused on in working with the administration is how we support the electrification of the automobile. we have a 30% credit in charging stations. we are putting in legislation that we increase that to 50%. we want to make sure the 7 $500 credit works. we want to make sure we are doing other things that are supportive of the major investments and a wonderful technology that has been developed by all of our companies. >> what can the rest of the nation's sea, what can the manufacturing industry learn, what has the government learned about how to support rebuilding

in manufacturing industry out of what has happened here? >> the automobile industry has always been in some ways the center of united states manufacturing. i think the lesson is about people working together. there is a role for government, but it is a limited role. when you are in a crisis like we were, there is a level of intervention required, but the normal course, and you have seen us do it with general motors, you have seen us back off when we could. whether it is helping with the issue that the senator mentioned, or the credit, government is there to provide a measure of help, but the private sector needs really. when you have private sector companies that have their act together, that have dynamic management, that have terrific relationships with their employees, then you've got something that works, and i think the car industry is a wonderful illustration, and the

fact that it is happening in detroit rigid the car industry is going to require innovation to be successful, and this is a company that is innovative and not the only one. others in detroit are as well, and that competition will make ford and better company and will make its competitors better companies as well. that is what america is all about. i think this is a metaphor for the broader question of how we rebuild manufacturing in america. i think it offers us a lot of lessons, a level of intervention in a crisis that was unique, but a broad level of support that we look forward to continuing. >> [inaudible] >> no comments about the future.

>> [inaudible] >> nothing on the future. >> [inaudible] we need to work on getting these things installed. [laughter] >> [inaudible] >> we hope this gives you an indication of how sincere we are. we are only a couple of months into it. we will be evaluating it as the year progresses. we will have to see what the market does, the financial markets, which are going to be uncertain. there's the car business itself, but we are determined to exit as soon as practical, but we are not going to a fire sale, and i

think the ipo gives you a good sense of the balance we struck, and i think that in the remainder of our sales, as soon as we complete the exit, we will look to strike something in the same neighborhood of that balance. >> what do you think about chrysler's plan to pay back the loans later on this year and the ipo? >> if chrysler wants to pay us back, we will keep the treasury open late to get their check. they have every right to pay us back, and we would be delighted if they did. not that they have an obligation to pay us on a certain schedule, but obviously, earlier payment is good. we will have to see if they can make good on those plans. i have no comment on them now, but obviously, it would be good news. if you were in this location a year ago and you had listened to what people were saying about chrysler, i do not think anybody who was not using a controlled substance would have said that on this day chrysler would be talking about repayment

and be taken relatively seriously. clearly, there is a lot of good development. they have a long way to go, and we have no illusion about that and a particular expectation, but if you ask how we feel, they could pay it back -- [inaudible] >> [inaudible] >> i do not think we can predict whether it will be [inaudible] again, a very large transaction for this initial public offering and capital markets in the united states. whether that is the appropriate debt now, i do not think we are going to speculate on that. we still own 500 million shares. you're talking about $20 billion. i have no view on whether or not that is appropriately done. as the mock up comes off, we will evaluate our options. we will get the company's input,

but this will be a secondary sale. we will consult with experts and underwriters and figure out what makes sense. no comments about my future. >> [inaudible] what will be driving the timetable for the rest of the sale? tax payer return? >> i think the timing for the rest of the sale is not a lot different than the idea of timing, which is the president has said, "i want to exit this decision practically." obviously, we have ever demonstrated -- not that i think this was ever in doubt -- i hope we can put that foolish government motor stuck to that once and for all, but that said, we still own a material part of the private corporation, and that is not the ideal role for

the united states government over time. i think it is important for the economy, and i think it is important for us fulfilling the mission that we set out with initially. i think that the practical logic is still alive. 500 million more shares -- we own 500 million more shares than we want to, so we should be looking for a way to sell those shares. >> does gm goes the success -- does gm's success make you more optimistic? >> we are not day traders. the stock market has been strong. i think people are a little more optimistic about the overall economy. i think the tax deal gave people a shot of optimism, but i'm not going to sit here and look at

two or three weeks of stock- market performance and prognosticate. we have to look at the world as we find it. contentn's local vehicles are traveling the country, visiting cities and communities impacting the nation. for more information on our local content vehicles, go to our web site at c-span.org/lcv. >> it is a new congress and a new way to use c-span. congressional chronicle is a comprehensive resource to follow congress' europe. research members, if you session timelines, and find foreign committee appearances. "congressional chronicle" @ c- span.org/congress. >> every weekend on c-span3, experienced american history tv, starting saturday at 8:00 a.m. eastern, with people and events

telling the american story. here historic speeches by national leaders and eyewitnesses' accounts that shape our nation. visit museums, historical sites, and college campuses as top history professors and leading historians delve into america's past. american history tv all week and every weekend on c-span3. >> i believe that the best way to carry on dr. king's work is to reach out to someone in need and make an ongoing commitment to community service. >> on the 82nd anniversary of martin luther king, jr.'s birth, use the c-span video library. there are hundreds of programs on the life and legacy of the civil rights leader. find a program, watch it, click it, and share it. >> attorney general eric holder spoke at a prayer breakfast, commemorating martin luther king, jr., saturday morning. this took place at the shiloh baptist church in washington, d.c.

is about 20 minutes. >> the honorable eric holder is the 82nd attorney general of the united states. he has a long and distinguished resume of accomplishments. i could spend a lot of time trying to tell you everything he has done, but rather than trying to do that, i will simply say that he has a life and career that has been marked by excellence and a commitment to justice and fairness that has earned him the highest respect of his peers and professional colleagues throughout this country and at every level. he is a native of new york city, a product of their public schools, a graduate of columbia and columbia law school. he has worked in the civil- rights field. he was a law clerk at the naacp legal defense fund. he worked at the department of

justice, helping to investigate cases of public corruption. many of you may remember he served as the united states attorney for the district of columbia. he was also a superior court judge here in the district of columbia. he is the first african-american to serve in the position of attorney general. [applause] he was also the first african- american to serve as deputy attorney general, a post to which he was appointed by president clinton. when president obama announced his intent to nominate eric holder as the attorney general, he spoke about his talent and commitment, his toughness and independence, saying that he had everything central to protect the american people, of

cold the public trust, and adhere to our constitution. in 1968, reverend martin luther king spoke about being a drum major for justice, a drum major for peace, and at an event to honor his legacy, and i can think of no better person to honor his legacy but a modern day drum major for justice and peace than our attorney general eric holder. [applause] after this next election, i hope that you will join me in welcoming the attorney general of the united states, eric holder. thank you. [applause]

>> while we are waiting, i would like you to know back the chairman of the d.c. council has visited us. [applause] thank you. ♪

to dreamed the impossible dream to bear the unbearable sorrow to run where the braves their not go bleright the unlirighta wrong to love. chased from a far apure and chaste from a far this is my quest

to follow the star no matter how lonely no matter how far to fight for the right to be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause and i know if i only will be true to this glorious quest that my heart will be light when i am lead to my rest -- laid to my rest and the world will be better for

this to reach the unreachable star ♪ ♪ [laughter]

[applause] >> thank you. good morning. >> good morning. >> hollen like to know who constructed this program and decided to put me on after that young man with that voice? [applause] that is fundamentally unfair. thank you, joshua, for the wonderful introduction. it sounds like i cannot hold a job. [laughter] going through all those great things i've had the privilege to do in this wonderful city. i like to recognize i new city council president, the man i had the pleasure of swearing in a few weeks ago, and he is a guy

i have known for a good number of years. he has always been a leader. i think he will be a great -- not good -- a great city council president. [applause] and lead to this city to greater heights. there are also people -- i once tried -- and not want to pick up people for fear i will miss of you, but another person has done a great deal for the city, especially the young people. [applause] and i see people who live surge with in the u.s. attorney's office, who had been a part of my life in a variety of contexts. i feel like i have come home when i come here. thank you for having me. [applause] as i was telling reverend smith, he never changes. i was here is u.s. attorney back in 1993, i guess.

he looks exactly the same. [laughter] i hope we are related. [laughter] i am really grateful for this opportunity to speak with you, to pray with you, and to join with you on this very special occasion. thank you again for making me feel i part of the shiloh family. in communities across the mayra project across america and places like this when, the spirit of martin luther king, jr. lives on. his memory continues to touch us. his legacy continues to guide us. and his words still have the power to teach and to comfort us. finds us as wecy come together to honor his life, we are also bound by a common grief. one week ago a senseless rampage in tucson arizona remind each of

us that moreland 40 years after his death, his own tragic death, our long struggle to end suffering, to eradicate violence, and to promote peace, that struggle really goes on. in times like this, times of heartbreak and inexplicable loss, the power of dr. king's example and the importance of his contributions are really brought into focus. as we continue to mourn those we have lost and as we pray for those that are still injured, let us recommit ourselves to carrying on and carrying forward dr. king's work. for a quarter of a century, americans have come together on dr. martin luther king, jr. day to do just laughed -- to do that. if we are provided an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to dr. king's vision of racial and social equality. his efforts to expand economic

opportunity, and to the values that were at the heart of those great sermons that we all know. the root of his actions, the core of his character, and the center of his life, all of these things we celebrate on the state. his quest for tolerance, for non-violence, for compassion, his quest for love above all, his quest for justice. today the world is very different from the one that helped shape and define dr. king's life. because of dr. king, because of those who shared his dream and join him in his work, this world, this 21st century america is a better place. but we have not yet reached where we want and where we need to be. that is the reality. we are far from that place. but in the years since dr. king led a march that help to transform his era and to change

today's possibilities, great progress indeed has been made. i wish that dr. king could be with us here to see the america that he helped to create. i wish that dr. king could see the good will and the great work that he still inspires. i wish that dr. king could see this place of worship and that this place of worship continues to be a place of learning, of healing, and of hope, and that the nation he fought to improve will soon honor his memory by consecrating a memorial on our national mall, within sight of monuments to our first president and his great emancipator. [applause] dr. king left this world to send, but each day we remember in -- reminded of the gifts he left behind, word and deed to example -- words and deeds and

examples to go by, and a responsibility that now falls on our shoulders. dr. speak -- dr. king often spoke of the fierce urgency of now. when he saw injustice in the world, he felt the need to act and to do so immediately, purposefully, and collaborative leave. when he looked upon the nation, he saw not only great challenges but also extraordinary opportunities. he sought infinite possibilities. and for every individual to be free, our entire society had to be transformed. despite the odds against him, he was undeterred. despite the obstacles before him, he kept his faith. and despite those who tried to stand in his way, he proved that here in america large-scale, sweeping, righteous change is not impossible. it is not too ambitious.

it is not too audacious. and it is not the province of god alone. we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the swearing in of john kennedy in january who ended his inaugural speech by saying something dr. king would agree with and we should remember, that god's work must truly be our own. each of us have the power to improve the world around us. each of us, i believe, also has the responsibility to do so. this is not easy work and it may be inspired by frustration just as often as by faith. but one of the important lessons that dr. king left to us is that it is fine to be frustrated. it is fine to be impatient. and when progress does not come quickly olwen progress does not come fully, it is fine to be dissatisfied. in fact, being says -- being

dissatisfied is important if it compels us to take action. it compels us to take action. dr. king's strength was rooted in dissatisfaction. it was his hunger for justice, his thirst for peace, and his empathy for others that helped motivate his lifelong struggle to ensure equal rights, equal justice, and equal opportunity. dr. king was dissatisfied when anyone, anywhere, faced discrimination and oppression. he was dissatisfied when people of color were denied access to lunch counters, to educational opportunities, and to good jobs. he was dissatisfied when citizens who loved this country, and who honorably served this nation, people like my father who served this nation in uniform, were not allowed to vote all were forcibly discouraged from taking part in

elections. think about that. serve this nation in uniform and were denied the basic rights of every american citizen. i know this. my father lived it. and dr. king was dissatisfied when in the pursuit of his dream of a just and inclusive america, he was told to wait, to cool off, or to back down. what if he had listened? what if he had given in to doubt, given into cynicism? what if he had given up? just think about where we would be. for myself, i cannot imagine that i would be standing before you today on what we'll -- on what would be dr. king's 82nd birthday, as our nation's 82nd attorney general. [applause] when i consider the opportunities that i have had, i

feel blessed beyond measure. and i feel proud of our nation. i feel grateful for the family members, the friends and colleagues to support and who they continue to chairs. but like dr. king, i am also dissatisfied. i am dissatisfied that here in our nation's capital, there are neighborhoods where young people are more likely to go to prison than go to college. and where kids who have not yet reached their teenage years already have sworn allegiance to a life of violence and a life of crime. i am dissatisfied that in washington today more than 2500 young people are active gang members and that the majority of the city's african-american households do not include a fodder. i am dissatisfied that more than 1.5 million american children have a parent behind bars, and that the majority of america's kids, more than 60% of them, have been exposed to

crime, abuse, or violence. i am dissatisfied that even though crime rates have been on a steady decline for decades, gun related deaths have increased each year since 2002. and i am dissatisfied that over the last 12 months the number of police officers killed by gun violence has surged by more than 40%. so, yes, like dr. king and like many of you, i am dissatisfied. but i am also hopeful. occasions like this, rooms filled with dedicated, determined and partners, make me optimistic about the road ahead. the year before he died, when hit -- the changes he had worked for for finally taking hold, dr. king famously asked, where do we go from here. today dr. king's question is ours to consider.

where do we go from here? it may not be answered quickly and it may not be answered easily but he can and must be answered by coming together, by sharing our concerns and our dreams, and by being clear about what is working and about where we need to improve. yes, there are problems to be solved, but there are encouraging signs all around us. i am proud in particular of the work being done in today's justice department. this justice department. [applause] to safeguard our nation's security, to improve public safety, to protect civil rights, and to ensure access to justice and to opportunities, regardless of your socioeconomic status. i know that tomorrow is a success and our ability to meet our goals and responsibilities will depend on pardners like you.

in the 19th century, the 20th- century, and now into the 21st, congregantsders and have found ways to go to those in need and lift up those in pain. you have never turned a blind eye to suffering. if you have never shied away from challenges. and you have always worked toward solutions. you have brought law enforcement officers and community residents together. you have helped to sow peace in some of this nation's most dangerous and divided neighborhoods. you have advocated not just for law and order in communities but for greater opportunities and more support for local young people. and you have ensured that shiloh baptist church continues to be a strong voice and an effective allied in advancing the cause of justice. this kind of work must continue. so i thank you for your commitment to this work and for

your contributions in determining where we will go from here. the answer to dr. king's question. however long last we will realize dr. king's vision. so may god continue to bless your efforts. may god continue to bless our efforts. may god continue to bless this city and may god continue to bless the united states of america. thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> i believe that the best way to carry on dr. king's work is to reach out to someone in need and make an ongoing commitment to community service. >> on the 82nd anniversary of dr. martin luther king, jr.'s birth, use the c-span video library. there are hundreds of programs on the life and legacy of the civil rights program. find a program, watch it, click it, and share it.

>> now discussion on the corporation for national community service and the martin luther king, jr. day of service. from today's "washington journal," this is about 40 minutes. peeler joins us now. she is the chief strategy officer for corporation for national & community service. welcome. guest: t corporation for national & community service is the federal agency charged with leaving -- leading the service sector in the united states. we enabled millions of americans to become involved in the communities, to work together and to address those issues that are most critical to our neighborhood and to the nation. if i could take a minute t tell you about some of the programs we offer through the corporation. one of are most well-known

programs is americorps. americans commit to taking a year to work in communities and working through community organizations, non-profit organizations large and small. we support almost 400no profit organizations doing the important work in communities. organizations like teach for america, habitat for the manatee, big brothers, big sister, and smaller community organizations, as well. what members are doing, they are helping families in need to secure safe and affordable housing. they are running after school programs throughout big brothers, big sisters. in addition to americorps, we ha a couple of other programs. host: we want to let folks know that there is stimulus money

that was received for this. $200 million to support an expansion of americorps and the americorps vista programs,, funding for more than 50,000 americorps members. where was this money used and how was it used for the expansion of the americorps program? guest: the money was used to go into communities all around the countr in almost every state, this that members and america members were deployed in community organizations. some of the things that members did were hosting job fairs, conducting workforce development programs, conducting financial literacy programs, doing the kinds of things to help americans who were in need get back on their feet. host: what is the corporation for national and community service doing today to get people involved in what is being

called a day of service? guest: today is a day of service. it is the mlk day of service. people should take time out of the day -- today is a day on, not a day off -- to get involved in their communities. get involved with local nonprofits or through informal means such as helpi out a neighbor or shoveling in members walk. they're more than 13,000 service project that areaking place today. more than 1 million people will be taking the time out to get involved, we anticipate. one thing that is unique about today is that in honor of the federal holiday, we are asking people to take mlk 25 challenge. met to 25 axed a service -- commit to 25 acts of service.

host: we're speaking with heather peeler from the corporation for national & community service. if you want to get involved today -- 202-737-0001 for republicans. 202-737-0002 for democrats. 202-628-0205 for independents. you can alsend us messages by e-mail and twitter. our first call comes from williamsburg, viinia. caller: hello this is ray o'neal. i own a small business. it is a mobile fitness facility. i travel from school to public housing, any host orgization that which -- that once fitness component that affords not for profits and schools and other mentors to come in and work with children write in their own neighborhood school or corner.

sally, i find a lot of -- say, i find a lot of not for profits that are unsophisticated and do not have any real tool to reach the children or orleans they hope to engage. so i would suggest that to create new opportuties, america starts social of entrepreneurial programs that will focus on the participant -- with a modest f and challenging these not for profits and government organizations that say they are trying to do the same thing. and show up on those corners and do it for less money with better facilities and data outcome. host: thank you for your call. guest: and thank you for all you are doing in committees. i think you have a good point. in order for nonprofit

organizations to provide their program to do their services, they need support and resources. that is one thing that the corporation for national & community service does. we have motivated individuals going into communities and working with these organizations who are often under resource. this to members are working in that nonprofit organization to help them take a vintage of community resources like randy's programs or others -- to take advantage of community resources. host: todd on our independent line. caller: you have all these job fairs in search helps like michigan works. that is all great. but the problem is the trade agreements -- they are sending jobs overseas. i don't think the media gets it.

i went back to school. there are no jobs out there. don't you get? -- don't you get it? the jobs are gone. guest: i think you are sharing a concern that many have. people are a great need around the country. that is the role of the corporation for national & community service, to support citizens and to enable people to come together across sectors of the government -- the government and private sector cannot do it alone. when citizens can come together and work across sectors, we have the potential to make a difference in people's lives. host: the corporation for national & community service is not necessarily a job placement or job assistance organization. guest: it is not a job

assistance entity. but we do not support non-profit organizations that are doing that work in communities. another thing about national service is that it does have a dual bottom line so that those individuals who are engaged have an opportunity to make a difference in the community, but also change their own lives. through service, individuals are developing job skills, they are developing leadership skills, teamwork skills, the kinds of skills that are attractive employers. host: dallas, texas. you're on the line with heather peeler. caller: i was wondering how you have responded of programs have grown or not grown in light of the recession. i'm a college graduate. i wanted to give back to the community and to establish somethinthat was a common thread.

host: tell us about the process you went through. caller: i went online -- i have a lot of friends in the peace corps and teach for america. i went to americorps and looked at all the programs that they have. i send in my application to habitat and to the americorps website. i heard back in the interview process was very smooth. i'm doing resource development -- fund-raising, marketing, and pr. guest: to life for committing to service and workg in communies to solve problems. your question about how we're responding to needs in light of the recession -- as you mentioned, we have been going through a growth spurt. we have additional resources to

invest in national service so that there are more individuals who are available to work on some of the things that you just discussed. and i think one of the important things to note is the reason why we have seen such support is because i think folks recognized the value that national service breaks to communities. national service members like you are working in community organizations, you are mobilize additional volunteers. your attracting new resources to these nonprofit organizations. the multiplier efft is something that i think makes for a powerful equations and something that is worthy of investment. host: tennessee on our republican line. caller: i am a radical republican. i am puzzled about all of the talk about revelation.

i am aware of 188 that reconstruction ended for those people who were coming out of slavery. my grandfather who came out of slavery, he was a republican who worked with the american society. there was a lot of progress done before 1881 when -- there was a deal with the southern states. we are 100 and nearly 50 years -- nearly 150 years and there is no deconstction with our community. and so i just wanted to make that point.

think it is an important point. host: let's move onto saginaw, michigan. . caller: president lincoln started the civil war. he started all this. how come we don't celebrate his birthday? host: back to our topic on day of national service with heather peeler, chief strategy officer with the corporation for national & community service. she's here to talk about martin luther king day of service and the role thathe corporation plays in implementing public service programs around the country. morgantown, tennessee. ben, you are on "washington journal." caller: poverty -- why is it that democrats and republicans want to cut everybody's so security checks -- social security checks?

the price of food goes up more and more everyday. the gas goes up. host: will leave it there -- we will leave it there. guest: individuals and families continue to suffer, continue to be challenged and making -- in making ends meet in today's economy. the role of national service is really to bring people together. everyday citizens along with businessnd government, for folks to work together to address these problems. host: next up is illinois, sammy, on airline for republicans. sammy? caller: yeah, -- can you hear me? host: do you have a question? caller: my question is for have

their -- heather. i agree with reaching out to the community. the way i see it is, helping people get back on their feet, e economy is bad. the best thing to do is to reach out to the communities. i do not know if you would agree with me. there are a lot of hurting people out there. i think we just need to reach out to the communities and let them know they still have a chance. host: you have been talking a lot about americorps. tell us about the senior coprs program -- a senior corps program. guest: we work with over 500,000 older americans across the country. members are doing a variety of different activities. we have a foster grandparent program where seniors are able to be mentors and tutors for

young children. also, we have a senior companion program where senrs work with home-bound seniors or veterans to insure they can remain living independently in their homes. finally, there is a program. it is essentially a group of folks tt whatever is needed in communities. you'll find them many call centers, food banks, organizing neighborhood patrols, essentially out there working alongside with their fellow citizens to make a difference. host: in april of 2009, president obama served the most sweeping expansion of national service in a generation. explain to us what the act did and how it has expanded your operation? guest: first and foremost, the act asked us to direct our

resources and programs to those issues that are most pressing to the nation. specifically, the act identified a couple of areas where they would like to see national service be mobilized to address. issues of education, economic opportunity, disaste services, tera and military families. environmental stewardship. these are some of the issues that are challenging our nation. the act asked us to be very direct aboutow we are working to address these. the act also laid out paper ps ford for growth for the eration to grow from 75,000 when the act was passed to or to interfere 2000. that growth trajectory -- t ,000.250

to help communities address pressing problems. host: the service aims to provide $5.7 billion over five years to promote volunteerism. guest: yes. one of the benefits of committing a year to national serve is that you ve the opportunity to earn an educational award. members can use that award towards college or they can if they are eligible, pass that a ward off to another family member. the purpose is to recognize the contribution that these individuals are making in communities and also to provide them with a pathway to opportunity. national service enables individuals develop job skills, skills that will be

important to employers. many of our partners intensely work with those individuals who may have challenged backgrounds, who perhaps it might not have that high school diploma. they get involved in national service. the earnest education award and they are on the pathway to opportunity. host: back to the phones heather peeler for, chief strategy officer for a corporation for national & community service. brooklyn, new york. good morning. caller: good morning, heather. i am a c-g because span junkie. i have been under employed for the past two years. i am astounded that this information and these programs and what they do for the community don't get out to the

community more. most people i know don't know about americorps and big brothers and big sisters. many do not have the internet or de matha access to the internet. you gave me an idea about maybe trying to get my officials give this information out. i have been trying to get my elected officials to get hot lines in their offices so that they can be availablto the community. if you're not listening to the story and you're not out there, they cannot to shake hands when they want to be elected and they disappear. we have to come together to make them accountable. host: thank you for your call. guest: thank you for sharing your perspective. this is one of the reasons why mlk day holiday has been positioned as a day of service. we see this as an opportunity to engage millions of americans around the country and to help

people to get on this pathway to service and two civic engagement there are thousands of defense happening all over the country today. if you go to mlkday.gov, you will come up with a list of opportunities for you to get involved in your community. call: good morning. is there -- you answered my question five minutes ago. i wanted to go back to school and take the advantage of whatever assistance was available. is tre a number i could get where i could call? is tre a 1-800 number the maybe i could try to access assistance? guest: unfortunate, i don't have the 1-800 number at the top of my head. if you go to national myspace

service.gov, you will find information on how to apply to americorps to get involved. host: ohio, you're on "washington journal." caller: thank you. i want to piggyback with three of the caller is hitting on the project that i have been working with. we're trying to recognize that the efforts to change the schools for the better and keep studen in and all that stuff are faltering largely because we have not been able to involve the parents. that is a given among educators. junior hight before received my doctote. i see steady deterioration in

this area. many people would like to see things happen. the existing nonprofits are not able to -- i was director of the nonprofit for a number of years. i know how it is to get trapped in the details of your own orgazation a they are and the difficulties in responding to new were supposedly kind of on the edge things and to get approval from the board of directors and that kinof thing. i would like to know if there is a policy that controls what you do in the corporation for national and community services, which says youust work through existing nonprofits. guest: thank you for your question. we do work through existing nonprofits, but through e van the mlkda day e

observance. one option is to identify a local nonprofit in your community. another is to create your own project. is that spirit of entrepreneurship and the ingenuity that our agency is all about supporting. we recognize that the solution to challenges do not come from washington, d.c. the solutions are in communities. one of the important roles of the corporation for national & community service is to provide that, for for people to get involved. host: the last caller talked about education. tell us about the connection between the corporation for national & community service and teach for america. guest: teach for america is a program that takes college graduates, trains them, and deploys them to underresource to

schools, those in need of qualified teachers. all of the participants are actually americorps members. so it is the way in which the federal government can support these kinds of community solutions that are innovative and provide a different way for communities to address these complex sues. but teach for america is only one of the education-related organizations that we support. about 40% of our funding and programs are directed towards addressing educational issues. depending on what community ego to, it could look different. solutions are locally driven. host: how are the teachers in teas for america -- are they paid through corporation for national & community service or through the state's?

guest: they do receive the education award that is available to americorps members. the work with us multifacetedly. the corporation provides that platform for people to get involved and for community solutions and organizations to come together to try different kinds of programs that are really addressing the most pressing issues of the nation. host: if you want to call the 800 number for americorps, we have that. 1-9 =800-942-2677. 1-800-942-2677. caller: thank you from c-span.

i have a question for heather. i am a senior citizen. recently in georgia, we have had the snow that turned to ice. i have been trapped in a my house for six days. i was not able to get any help. is there an organization for the senior corps -- you said they have people that help them get ice out of the trombley so you could get out of your property. is there an organization in georgia that would help people in this situation? my fear is that they are predicting another snowstorm like we had last month. i am devastated by not being able to get out of my house at all. host: do you have a computer in your house? caller: yes, i do. host: you can go to their

website. guest: you'll find information about the senior companion program. host: next up is scott on four independent -- on our line for independencts in new york. caller: oneonta, new york. i know what you do has a great intentions. we do have a need out there. there is something -- a shifting that needs to occur in the country. maybe the triple bottom-line approach. in terms of calculating what the costs for everything is in the country, whether health care or education.

the new served ameca act is out there now. are they trying to address this or trying to break the cycle of people stock without little fair wages? people don't have the access of food through the internet. how do we connect the intentions with the actual reality of people on the ground and what they will be able to do once they put that service in in terms of having a job. it will give them a stake in the country beyond his having the information, how they connect that to a real livable wage and a life beyond that. host: thank you for your call. guest: we have a network of state offices. we work closely with state governors through the state's service commission. if you are not able to access our web site for information, you can contact our state

offices or the state service commission in your community to get more information about the kinds of programs that are available. host: it is not t early to think about kids that are still in school, middle school and high school, what they will do for the summer. you have a program of summer of service that puts young people on a path of service and provides five adult education rewards. and the youth engement zones. tell us about that. guest: these are programs to help young people begin on the pathway. through learn and served america, we work with over a million and a half young people around the country, building upon that concept of service learning. that is when you integrate the curriculum in the classroom with service opportunities. through summer of service or through the programs that we

have the run through the academic year, young people are staying motivated and improving their academic performance while at the same time they are giving back to their communies. you'll see projects that these young people are doing like they are running recycle programs and cleaning up streams, serving as pierre mentors to their fellow students. it is quite amazing -- serving as a peer mentors to their fellow students. they work with their teachers. they funded the curriculum. they identify -- the kids identify the product they want to address based on the needs they find in their community. you could have a science class that is working to clean up local stream. you could have a history class that is working to collect oral histories and a local nursery home. it is a variety of programs, depending on what the interests

of the students, the kirkland, and the classroom they are engaged in. host: heather peeler is the chief rategy officer with corporation r national & community service. caller: i am from st. louis. our city was named one of the top-10 worst places to live because of the crime. where i'm finding -- what i'm finding out is a lot of young men -- this is will we have to understand. we addressed the fact that these laws are not fair. we have young african-american men who are serving 10 years for nonviolent crimes. they let child molesters out in four years. there is a discrepancy in the law. what are these men -- i take applications in the committee all the time. i have men in their 30's.

the first thing out of their mouth, are they felons? addressing the penal system and why we have 70% of our males that are in jail for non-falling crime or drug-related. -- for non-violent crime. host: is there anything for national committee service that addresses recidivism rate among youthful offenders guest: we do have a couple of programs that are doing that. we have programs that are seeking to engage those individuals who are having the hard not life -- the hard knock life. they engage them in seice. those individuals are geing their ged's and developing job

skills and finding a new pathway to a career and to employment. host: douglas, ga. lee, you are on "washington journal." caller: i have a question. is it possible to pay our deb with more debt? host: what does this have to do with a day of national service? we will leave it there. drew in minnesota. caller: good morning. this is a wonderful. -- this is wonderful. we have a nonprofit organization here in minnesota it is called faith in action. they have been growing and growing and reaching out to aging adults, handicapped, and

poor, and immigras. i was listening to a lot of your callers that were calling in. there is a program where they helped shut-ins, they mow their yards and shoulder sidewalks -- and shovel their sidewalks. they help volunteer instead of sitting in jail all day. it is a wonderful program. host: is this tied to the corporation for national & community service? caller: they might get some funds from there. i have been getting on board. i have been trying to help them. host: what to folks out there in minnesota doing today to further the day of national service? caller: i don't know how it is

tied in power we have a love volunteers here in mankato. working with county governments, if those nonprofits were to go down tomorrow, county and state government would have their hands full trying to help all the folks that are being held right now. host: true, thank you for your call. -- drew, thank you for your call. guest: they thrive and be able to provide the kinds of services that citizens need. the corporation enables people like you, me, anyone who wants to get involved through formal or informal means to take aion in committee. if you go to mlkday.gov, you can find a list of different opportunities for you to get

involved and to come tether with your fellow citizens to address some of the issues of the most challenging for us. host: pensacola, florida. caller: good morning. happy martin luther king day. i just want to s and congratulate you for all the great work that is going on for the corporation for national & community service. as a minister, i realize that church has not taking a full stan of opportunities that the government gives because of the generation -- of the separation of crch and state. you have had a clause where you help initiate small nonprofits to get into a special class is. you ask if you're a n

applicant to get funds. because of that, i want to know at you do to help and what will be done and how money would be allocated. it gets trickle-down. what is going to be done and what is going to be done to help the small fire starters to get started and to be effective in such communities? guest: that is a great question. we're doing a couple of things. if you go to our website, we have a resource center that is available for emerging nonprofits that just getting started. you can learn about how to engage volunteers, what are the best practices and so on.

that is one opportunity. second, most of the decision making for o grants here at the corporation for national community service are decentralized through our state offices and the state commission. a lot of those decisions are being made at the state and local levels. that does not necessarily give the large national nonprofits like just a leg up. it aows us to support those emerging organizations that are just getting o the ground. host: next up is morris, minnesota on a democrat line. caller: i'm calling from morris, minnesota. what i wanted to share is an appreciation for the minnesota green corps program. we have a program in minnesota thatas funded through the corporation for natnal community service call the green

caorps. is a statewide program. we have 26 full-time members all across the state, working with local governments, educational institutions, nonprofits, and doing amazing work. i work here at the center for small towns in morris, minnesota. we have five part-time members who are out in rural minnesota, just really helping people. i appreciate the support. guest: thank you so much. you touched upon the fact that there are so many ways for people to get involved. people can make a difference. if you go tolkday.gov, whatever your passion is, whether it is the environment or

helping seniors or tutoring or mentoring use, there is a variety of different ways for folks to get involved. one thing we are seeing is that the country is going through somewhat of a compassion boom. lester, more americans volunteered despite the economy, despite the hardships so many are experiencing. we think that demonstrates that people want to get vault, they want to help their fellow citizens. that is what they corporation for national & community service does. it provides a platform for folks to get involved. host: heather peeler has been >> it is time to up load your video for c-span is studentcam

competition. the deadline is this thursday. kid in your video to win the grand prize of $5,000. the competition is open to students grades 6-12. for details, go to studentcam.org. >> president obama spent part of the holiday are volunteering at a capitol hill middle school. that is next on c-span. then the demons, a prayer breakfast with education secretary duncan and reverend al sharpton on the legacy of dr. king. then the discussion on how dr. king might have approached current policy issues being debated. >> starting tuesday, the house takes up the repeal of the healthcare law. watch the debate and final vote live on c-span, and go to c- span.org to rea