you heard this morning, there are -- there is an aspect of the servicing standards focusing on guidelines for assisting customers who are military service members. >> great. chris, this one is for you. despite all the news on interest-only subprime, we know there is a more on -- there are nonstandard, a typical products that can work for customers and promote sustainable home ownership. if this family's face unemployment or something, despite having the best product out there, they can still face foreclosure challenges. can use -- share with us a little bit more about habitats lending projects -- products, and your specific approach? >> thank-you. thanks to the international housing conference for hiring habitat -- inviting habitat to participate.

we enable our homeowners to be highly successful, even throughout the recession. something we have worked on, partnership. builders today and mortgage lenders. the extent of our partnership is far beyond that. it is not simply a contractual relationship. we understand that we and the families are all in it together. when there is a problem, partner families know that there is a problem. there is a services coordinator who works to the problem with them and come up with a plan. we are fully committed to that. our families and partners are invested in one another. they are invested in the communities they are serving. at the core of that model -- that is at the core of the model.

a particular -- are selection process is an important aspect of what we do. we insure the family has the ability to repay the mortgage, but has that relationship going into the mortgage. another aspect of the mortgage -- it is in no-profit, no- interest mortgage. willamette monthly payments -- we limit payments to no more than 30% of the family's income. we know it will work for them over the long term. we understand that, working with low-income families, there will be even set happen from time to time. the partnerships -- there will be a events that happen from time to time. that partnership helped us move through these with partnerships, modifications. they will bend over backwards to work with a family to come up with a solution. >> thank you. joe just referred to this. one major piece of news of the last few months has been the

settlement. i am sure some of you are very familiar with this, some of you are a little bit familiar with this. mike, can you share with us what are the three or four most principal elements of the ag saddam and what it hopes to achieve? >> the settlement, as most of you know, shows documentation that there was roe signing in the -- robosigning in the mortgage process. they are invested in the process by which many mortgages were settled with rubberstamp papers. more broadly, the mortgage servicing -- an area that fell between the cracks of having standards and oversight. as you know, the borrower cannot

choose, generally, with their servicer is. many of you have probably had the experience of getting a home loan and then, not long after, getting a notice saying, send your papers to this company. that is a right that mortgage lenders have. it is recognized. that is in addition -- servicers are generally connected to national banks under a regulatory structure. states are very limited in what they can do to regulate the activities of those banks. there are some exceptions. certainly there is a situation where there were not a lot of legal standards in place. there were some protections, but they cover just a small part. the settlement went beyond just addressing robosigning.

one key part was addressing the rules of the road for servicers. a lot of servicers are participants in the settlement. the big things that they did were -- of a reformed the servicing requirements and set out, in detail, in a single- spaced pages, the standard rules that would apply to all these major servicers to provide more certainty and more consumer protection. the biggest thing is that, for the first time, services are required to attempt to modify a loan before they go to foreclosure. services did this through the proprietary programs, but now is a requirement as part of this legally binding settlement. the second thing, servicing --

it will engage in the larger demonstration of principal reduction. you've heard a lot about this. the overhang of people under water. how you address that? by helping those far worse -- by helping those boris with the ability to repay debt. -- borrowers with the ability to repay that. the first large-scale test of that is part of the servicing settlement. we'll talk about this later. this will give them the option to participate in various principal reduction programs. finally, as many of you may know, there are still ongoing investigations that will leave for future resolution as part of the servicing agreement, particularly those involving claims that the loans were never securitized. that process did not comply with the legal requirements.

homeowners and investors may be entitled to further relief as part of that. that investigation is still ongoing, led by the department of justice and the attorney general from new york, were those loans were securitized. stay tuned. they will be probably -- to everybody's relief and chagrined. we will see round two of the servicing settlement. >> what do you think are two or three misperceptions in the -- of what the settlement can achieve? >> the two biggest misconception surrounding the settlement are -- one stands around confusion around the consumer relief portion of the settlement. that is, the peace -- the refinancing peace. the other stems from the cash

payment to consumers. a little bit of around what each is. around the consumer relief portion, the loan modification program was designed to help create affordability by utilizing principal reduction. it is done through a loan modification and the existing mortgage. this is under contention with rate-time adjustments at the top of the waterfall. we utilize a principal reduction for some time at wells. on the refinance side, it would be a true refinance. there may be some rate relief, as there is in traditional refinance, but the payoff -- is the existing of the payoff and a new one is put about.

there is no principal reduction associated with the refinancing part of the settlement. it is really designed for consumers who have little to no equity in their home to be able to take advantage of historically low interest rates. the view we get from consumers is that they may be current and are looking for a modification. a requirement for the modification is hard ship. the second piece is customers are looking for how they can get money associated with the recent settlement. you hear about money that may be available to consumers at a certain point in time. the reality is that part of the settlement allocated $5 million in cash to federal and state governments, where some of that money would be used so that

consumers would be paid out money if they were foreclosed. but all that is handled directly by state agencies, not the banks. again, some confusion around the -- that component as well. >> mike? >> yes. it is incredibly complex. it is not that you just need then diagrams, you need a kaleidoscope. first off, that is the first thing you need to know. this is going to be very confusing for homeowners, because it is complex and confusing. let's start out with that. the rules apply differently depending upon who originated your loan. whether it is kept in portfolio or they sold.

investor-owned means to solve the loan to someone else. the rules are different depending upon whether you sold it to one of the government entities, fannie and freddie, versus what you sold it to a private entity, so-called investor private-label security. it depends upon the rules are that private-label security has. they get to decide the rules on how their mortgages are serviced. so you just need to, first of all, prepare people for working through all that. two other things, really quickly, are that many of you have heard about dold traffic. you are working with customers facing foreclosure who, at the same time, are applying for modification. they're receiving notices of

foreclosure. they receive a notice of sale -- or house will be sold next week. that is obviously very confusing and distressing for consumers. that issue was addressed in the settlement. the dual track was not eliminated. it was reduced. there will still be a good number of homeowners facing that getting letters saying the process of your modification and letters saying we are selling your house next week. lots of people did the panicked calls. in fact, it will probably have, in the short run, the opposite effect of stop and foreclosures. there has been a back-up pipeline of foreclosures, people who are far behind. the process slowed down while the settlement was being

negotiated. now this is in place, there will be a large number of homeowners in situations where they are not going to be able to stay in the home. those are being processed in the short-run. we will see an uptick in that. we may swing back around. people are confused about the money because they have been getting separate letters from servicers under so-called independent foreclosure review, which is a separate process, whereby federal banking regulators, the occ, the fdic, the federal reserve, are engaged in a separate process of reviewing loans and taking consumer complaints to see if people were wrongfully foreclosed or wrongfully denied modifications. then the boris can get relief through that office at a much more substantial level.

even over $100,000 if people lost their home. for borrowers, this is all too much in coming confusion. they need a lot of help working through it. counseling is critical and this. >> thank you. i was going to at that point, so i appreciate that. it can be challenging. we are always trying to make sure that housing counselors have as much of the information, especially under the settlement. there are a lot of different moving parts. neighbor works worked with the urban institute in their independent study that demonstrated that foreclosure intervention counseling benefit homeowners. they took a control group of folks in similar situations. they had not talked to foreclosure counselor. they compared the results to those who had.

there's too had had a much less likelihood of trying to -- of going into foreclosure. they had a lower% of recidivism, of becoming delinquent again. they save more than $2,000 a year in their loan modification. that counselor has really worked to make sure there is a sustainable solution, not just to follow the basic role of that spot. the other thing we keep saying is the dam issue. when the independent foreclosure review came out, within four hours, people had been stemmed. the treasury was not yet even a party to this particular settlement. it is endless. i will turn it over to paul, and ask him, as somebody who is not a signatory to the settlement,

what the impact is. >> we are reaching the end of our allotted time. two points. first, we are taking the position that the servicing standards set forth in the settlement and the federal bank regulators orders, albeit somewhat kaleidoscopic, as he described it, will become a defacto industry practices. under our servicing contracts, we have the direct obligation to service consistent with those practices. -- best industry practices. we are not signatories to the settlement, but we are gearing up to ensure compliance john ford. second, i would say that, as chief counselor for my servicing company, having read the legal opinion some years ago that was consistent with our servicing contracts to engage in loan

modifications, a year and a half before the settlement, i am breathing a little bit easier, sleeping a little bit better at night, knowing that our approach has been validated, particularly with respect to principal reduction. >> i wanted to return specifically to our talk this morning about veterans and active duty military. again, i know that habitat has some specific experience here. what are particular challenges facing active-duty military in both home preservation and home ownership opportunities going forward? what are you bringing to the table? >> we have a couple of non- financial approaches that we are implementing towards home ownership preservation. one of the strategies and body in it is the repair corps program, which is very generously founded -- sponsored by the home depot foundation.

that is facing affordability charges for veterans. we have seen a lot of demand. we heard from several people who pointed out demand for repairs. some of that is home modifications due to an injury may have sustained. sometimes it is just a service member who has been in decline and the house as far out of repair. we provide home repair to veterans and modifications to veterans to keep them in their homes. we are providing services to help lower the energy costs for veterans. we know that energy costs, transportation, housing costs, are significant. by addressing that energy cost issue, we are enabling some vast -- veterans to stay in homes. one thing we have learned over the next -- last year of a half -- and a half, a major weakening of veterans stay in their homes is by providing them volunteer opportunities. this was a surprise to us. we were told by the department

of defense and the armed services and the v-8 that the transition back into civilian lives -- there are ways to ease that transition. that might be the best intervention the can provide, allowing people to connect with communities they are returning to. to volunteer alongside other folks. to get back into the mesh of that unity hubs veterans and prevents them from losing their homes over time. the final challenge i will point to is that our affiliate's discovered that they have -- particularly with lower in listed ranks, they are really in need of some serious financial literacy and home ownership training. we have our partner -- we require all our partner families to do this. we had people able to be impacted by the partnership. even if they have a good amount of active duty pay when they are leaving the service, they are putting down payment on cars and boats and trucks and ultimately

that veteran has put themselves in the situation with a debt ratio is such that not even habitat is able to serve them. if there is a way to get to service members as they are transitioning out, that would be a great way to enable them to sustain home ownership. >> my last question, then i will open it up for questions is, helping the housing market recover, one opportunity is to create new homes. we keep hearing that there is a lot of challenge in credit for the housing market, in especially for first-time home buyers. can you, mike, joe, and chris, briefly touch on what you are seeing in the housing credit for first-time home buyers? >> i want to mention perspective. we are seeing veterans come out, particularly younger veterans,

who went to the service right out of high school, exiting the service and not been prepared to participate. not having a credit score. the big opportunity and challenge is house affordability is at record levels. the reduction in house prices has made it more affordable for those buying. the record low interest rates are truly remarkable. the challenge has been getting people to qualify for credit. tighter credit standards and higher downpayment requirements -- house and people walk through that process and realize that they will face a tough qualifying standard. part of that los interest-rate -- that low interest rate is the ability to fully finance. existing homeowners can reduce their payments by 25% or more or

go to a quicker payoff that helps get them out from under water. that program has had recent improvements. there also legislative proposals to project more than double -- over 10 million people -- the number of families that can take advantage of refinancing at record low rates. that would have a huge impact on the housing markets and millions of families. >> interest rates have come down. price values of homes have as well. we have seen stabilization in the markets. yet many homeowners are still -- prospective buyers are still on the fence around, should i jump in? can i qualify for a mortgage? there are questions that are difficult to answer. we are not sure yet what the response for that are. our focus husband getting

prospective -- our focus has been on getting prospective buyers prepared. we focus on credit establishment, making sure they understand what credit is, and encouraging it down the road. the second is a down payment. saving up for a down payment, especially in a tight credit market. decreasing debt, that is a big thing lenders will look at. increasing opportunity. understanding what in comes should show for a mortgage. savings -- thinking beyond the down payment. that is going to be a big focus in underwriting from banks. we are putting a lot of focus on preparing prospective buyers. the big challenge still remains.

this is a big -- great time to buy, but we are not seeing a lot of people jumping in. >> we must -- we might have some questions from the audience on anything related to home ownership, foreclosure, issues related to active duty military and veterans'? >> morning. has there been any additional significant discussion about note buying programs? obviously there is a tremendous amount of foreclosure in the pipeline, and there is still more to come. we have been engaged with several banks who are taking a look at the cost of going through foreclosure and getting some of this inventory into the hands of private capital who can then do reductions to keep people in their homes. it's part of the toll that

discussion? >> for those who do not do this, in the two alternatives for homeowners who are in trouble. one is to go to a short sell that we talked about. the other is the foreclosure is completed and you are left with a property held for the real- estate, owned by the investor in -- -- inventory. the third alternative that has become more interesting is, instead of letting it get to enan reo, is to have an investor come in and buy that note, keep the home owner in place, potentially, and substantially reduce the amount of the note. if you want to touch on what is going on out there? >> there is a lot of interest in that. certain states are pursuing it

as an alternative. so far, it has matched the investing. the majority of loans are held by investors. we have confidence in investors in board is bidding in purchase programs. it puts us in a difficult position. we are certainly looking at that, it makes sense for us to bridge is a. -- participate. is most important for us to figure out a solution for the customer, to keep them in their home. that is where the emphasis has been, rather than selling distressed assets. the concept is getting a lot of momentum, but we are working through it to find a habitat for distressed note sales. >> the only thing i would add is

that, from the perspective of the servicer, a private loan securities might treated as market -- treat it as market and call it agency paper. most of the investor trust that we service prohibits sales of the actual malice, as opposed to the reo route. i'm not a tax lawyer, but i am told it would undercut the tax advantage of the real estate trust, so it would require congress to revise the irs code to permit that. >> the housing partnership network, the national community stabilization trust, they are produced baiting in what they call the mortgage resolution fund -- they are proud -- participating in what they call the mortgage resolution fund.

it has been challenging for them to get wrapped up. there are funds that -- 18 states. the settlement also slowed in sound. to the degree that there were properties in portfolio that now have to get principal reduced, that may be preferable for the lender services investors to do under the settlement, but they are moving forward. there are a couple of other states that are talking with them about using their part of hedge funds as capital for that. we know they will be tracking that, but i do not think we are seeing a huge -- is a good tool out there, but i am not sure we will see it as a major solution, but some learning. other questions or comments or suggestions?

everybody is hungry. if you have any final thoughts -- one thing i wanted to share from the prior panel is how we communicate. this is something you think a lot about -- as things change, as the demographics, the age, everything else about homeowners or potential homeowners or people in fort delinquency or foreclosure -- how to reach out? going to facebook, other kinds of on-line forums versus the old vfw haunts. we really face this issue here in making sure we make information available, building trust in ways. a good friend of mine works at dod with military families. he shared that families in a

traditional spousal relationship, they find that figuring out how to communicate well with partner -- a partner or spouse who is here, who is in the states, versus the one who is deployed, is a way to get a lot more success. the person is deployed and has so much stress. they are >> that is a great point. it is critical to success. looking at delinquent loans, when we are able to contact our customer we do. 80% we do. sometimes we are not able to contact them.

it is significantly reduced. we have unique creative out reach ways. it could be face to face engagement or an out reach the event or leveraging. what ever it may be to try to create many opportunities for the connection point. success rates are very high when we do. >> any last thoughts about how active duty or veterans can help on the homeowner said or a new opportunities? >> just touching on your average. quickly there has been a challenge not just in getting to

the veterans by communicating to them in the right fashion. the often do not see themselves in that way. we've found that our engagements are most successful when they take an activist approach. when we see what is positive there and how we can build on that. taking that asset rather than a need based approach >> the key is that we are on the brink and the real threat to is that a

flood of additional foreclosures would have the effect that this had before. >> even with our best efforts. credit availability is still overly constrained now. there will be a number of policy decisions that will affect various branches of government. we will revamp as many of you know the whole federal involvement and the mortgage

finance system. how that is done will have a profound affect on particularly service members. many of whom are in that early stage of relatively new homeowners trying to enter into home ownership. >> i will cherish you a perspective from the world of service that underscores a need for better communication. we are very pleased with the success of our principal reduction and modification program. we are for giving the it written down proportion in the increments over three years. the result was fantastic. the real fault rate was less than 10%. it is consistent with our obligations to provide positive solutions to our investors.

we offer that program to mortgage honors. the exceptions rate is at an all-time high, but is still at a hundred percent sign. it is at 8% but higher than most programs. many think who in their right mind is not going to take that offer, but we have 20% who are not responding or rejecting. one of the takeaways that i had specifically is for the veterans and service members portion of that remaining 20% we want to cashier. we should devise a more targeted outreach program.

we will step out smartly with that effort. >> i am not sure i have much new to add to that conversation. we need continued collaboration and partnership to create opportunities for both service members and others facing mortgage challenges. they have done a tremendous job and opportunities our out there. continued improvement is needed. that collaboration will certainly help things there. creating out reach awareness that there are options out there is needed. >> one of my takeaways from the other panel as well is that for the folks we see counseling and

foreclosure or a substantial delinquency is loss of income or unemployment and that is north of 60% now. i think as we look particularly at folks coming court subbing in active duty military or partners of spouses here for what the income is there, then helps solve whether it is rental housing or how you deal with the delinquency or a new home ownership thing? housing is only part of the solution and we should think about how we help people get jobs so that they're not trying to address the housing problem. [applause]

>> the key to the panel for another interesting discussion. i want to take a couple of minutes to thank all of our speakers today. i also want to thank the staff of the and h c and the center for bringing this all together today. if i have to reflect on one theme to draw out of all of today's discussions it would be the commonality of interest. we have heard throughout today and for those of you who were with us yesterday it, that there are thousands upon thousands of service members returning home and that presents a particular

housing challenge. it is concentrated in time and in particular categories of need. those housing challenges have much more in common with the broader house intelligence in america than they do the differences of those challenges. it is about the need for affordable rental housing in areas where there are a lot of jobs and people want to live around transit and centers of employment. it is around the need to have housing counseling and foreclosure prevention assistance. those shared needs should be an opportunity for the housing committee and the veterans affairs committee to come together and try to address those needs. as you have seen in all of our material, we are stronger together. in order to make the policy changes, there are large and

small changes to be made. the more we can come together, the more effective we can be. going forward we are looking for new ways to unite those communities through publication and discussions like this to try and find ways we can cooperate and tackle these housing challenges. thank you for sticking through this long but interesting morning. i hope to see you again at feature of fence.

>> this week, the minnesota congressman talks about divisions in congress over student loans. key job training topics. the interest late rate on student loans will double on july 1. both democrats and republicans say they want to move forward on student loans but cannot agree on how to do so. join us this sunday on the c- span.

>> if all of us decide at the same time we are going to tighten our belts and spend less, what happens is we all end up port. this is the kind of stuff we are supposed to know. the attempt of everybody to slash spending at the same time. who is going to tell them the truth. them the truthl and our country fails. we must succeed in this and we will succeed in this. we will reach them through the media and the politics and pop culture. we should not be afraid to get out there and quit preaching to the choir.

watch these online at the video library. president obama said he would not give up the fight for immigration reform. speaking at the annual conference of latino elected officials the president spoke for the need comprehensive immigration reform. this is about 35 minutes. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. good afternoon. [applause] >> thank you so much. thank you. thank you, everybody. please have a seat. it is good to be back at naleo. [speaking spanish]

[applause] >> it is wonderful to see good friends from across the country. it is nice to be at disney world. this is the second time i've come to disney world without my daughters. they are not happy with me. i want to thank secretary hilda solis for the introduction and for her hard work. she is one of the best labor secretaries we have ever had and she is thinking about you each and every day. [applause] >> i want to say thank you to sylvia and arturo. happy early birthday, arturo. i will not sing. do not worry. [laughter] >> welcome to the other side of the hill.

it is especially good to have the ambassador here with us. we are very proud of her. [applause] >> when the senate refused to confirm her hypocenter to house of a door anyway because -- i sent her to el salvador anyway because i knew she would do a great job and she has. the senate confirmed her last week. she is now official. [applause] >> west, but not least, thank all of you. it is nice to get out of washington, get some of florida sunshine, but see folks and devoted themselves to serving their communities, countries, and dedicated themselves to making people's lives a little bit better each and every day, at every level, school board, state legislatures, county boards, and you guys are where the rubber hits the road.

i had a chance to see many of you in your local communities and hear the stories of your efforts, hopes, dreams, and also some of your frustrations and the hardships that are taking place. in all, yesterday, your featured speaker came here and said the election in november is not about to people, or about being a republican, democrat or independent. it is about the future of america. while we have a lot of differences, he and i, on this point i could not agree more. this is about america's future. it is the defining issue of our time -- whether we carry forward the promise fed has drawn generations of immigrants to our

shores from every corner of the globe, sometimes at great risk. men and women drawn by the promise that no matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, no matter your last name, this is a place where you can make it if you try. it is a place where you can make it if you try. whether our ancestors arrived on the mayflower or were brought here on slave ships. whether they signed in on ellis island or crossed the rio grande, their diversity has not only in with the country, it helped to build the greatest economic engine the world has ever known. hungry people. striding people. dreamers. risk takers. people cannot come here and

looking for handouts. we are a nation which a nation of strivers, climbers -- we are a nation of strivers, climbers, the hardest working people on earth, and nobody personifies these american values, these american traits, more than the latino community. [applause] >> that is the essence of who you are. all we ask for is that hard work pays off. that responsibility is reported -- rewarded. so, if these men and women put in enough effort, they can find a good job. they can own their own home, send their kids to college, let their kids dream bigger, put away a little bit for retirement, not go bankrupt when you get sick.

i ran for this office because for more than a decade that dream had been slipping away from too many americans. before i even took office, the world -- the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes push it further from reach, the ticket early for watching the communities that -- particularly for latino communities that had already face higher unemployment and poverty rates. the question is not whether we need to do better. of course there -- the economy is not where it needs to be. of course, there are too many that struggle. we have so much more work to do. the question is, how do we make the economy grow faster? how do we create more jobs? how do we create more opportunities? the question is what vision are

we going to stand up for. are we going to fight for? -- who are we going to fight for? that is what we have to decide right now. that is what this election is about. who are we fighting for? what division of american do we believe in? -- what vision of america do we believe in? if america is about anything, it is about passing on even greater opportunity to our children. it is about education. that is why i extended pell grants that will give an additional 150,000 students in the latino community a chance to go to college. [applause] >> that is why i have invested in our community colleges, which are a gateway to a good job for so many hispanic- americans, americans of every

stripe. that is why in almost every state, some of the calmest -- toughest neighborhoods around, have met our standard by teaching it to a test, expanding creativity, improving curriculum, focusing more on the kids that are hardest to reach, so we give every child a fighting chance. that is part of the vision of america that we believe in. in this country, we believe that if you want to take a risk and a new idea, you should have the chance to succeed and you should not have to have wealthy parents to be successful. latino-owned businesses have been the fastest-growing small businesses, and we have cut their taxes 18 times. we have expanded new loans and credits so they can grow and they can hire. [applause] >> that is the vision we

believe in. in america we believe you should not go broke because you get sick. hard-working people out there, sometimes two jobs, three jobs, sometimes do not have health insurance. if you did, insurance companies were able to discriminate against certain patients. that was wrong. it was wrong to let insurance companies jack up premiums for no reason and have millions of working americans uninsured with the latino community having the highest rate of uninsured of any community in the country. after a sense the the -- century of trying, we passed reform that will make health care affordable and available for every american. that was the right thing to do. [applause] >> that was the right thing to do. [applause] >> that was the right thing to do.

[applause] >> now, we are not done yet. we have more to do. we need to put more good teachers in our classrooms. [applause] >> we need to get colleges and universities to bring down the cost of tuition, to make it more affordable for young people. [applause] >> we need to invest in new research and innovation, especially new sources of energy and high-tech manufacturing. we need to put people back to work, rebuilding our roads, highways, runways, construction jobs -- they can have a huge ripple effect in communities across the country and nobody knows it better than state and local officials. you know the difference it makes. with the housing bubble, you

have tens of thousands of construction workers ready and eager to get to work. we need to give families in the hard-hat housing markets like florida and nevada chance to refinance and save $3,000 a year on their mortgage. that is good for those families, the housing market, the surrounding communities. there is no reason why congress has not already done it. [applause] >> instead of just talking a big gain of about job creators we should give small business owners a tax break for hiring more workers or pay in higher wages instead of rewarding companies that ship jobs overseas. we should use the money and cover moving expenses for countries -- companies that are bringing jobs back to america. [applause] >> on almost every issue of concern to your community, to

every community, what is holding us back is not a lack of big ideas, not a lack of technical solutions. by now, just about every policy and proposal has been laid out on the table. what is holding us back is a stalemate. a stalemate in washington between two fundamentally different views of which direction we should go. the republicans who run congress, the man at the top of their ticket, they do not agree with any of the proposals i just talked about. they believe the best way to grow the economy is from the top down, so they want to roll back regulations and give an insurance companies, credit card companies, mortgage lenders even more power, extending tax cuts, including a 25% tax cut for every millionaire in the

country, and they want to pay for it by raising middle-class taxes and cutting programs like health care, and medical research. that is it. that is their economic plan. when they tell you they can do better, that is their idea of doing better. when they tell you they know how to fix the economy, that is exactly how they plan to do it, and i think they are wrong. i think they are wrong. [applause] >> you know, in this country, prosperity has never come from the top down. it comes from a strong and growing middle class. and creating ladders of opportunity for those struggling to get into the middle class. it comes from a thriving small businesses that over time grow into medium-sized and large

businesses. we need a better plan for education and training, and energy independence, innovation and infrastructure that could rebuild america. what we need is a tax code encourages companies to create jobs and manufacturing here in the united states, and, yes, ask the wealthiest americans to help pay down the deficit. [applause] >> that is what is needed. what is also needed is immigration reform that finally lives up to our heritage as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants, and continues the american story of renewal, energy and dynamism that has made us who we are. [applause] >> think about it -- you and i both know one of america's greatest strengths has been our ability to attract talent and

hard working people. people who believe in this country, who want to help make it stronger. that is what keeps us young. that is what keeps us dynamic and energized. that is what makes us who we are. our current immigration system does not reflect those values. it allows the best and the brightest to study here, but then it tells them to leave, start companies somewhere else. it punishes immigrants and businesses that play by the rules and fails to address the fact there are too many that do not. it separates families. it denies innocent young people to earn -- a chance to earn an education or served in a military of the country that they love.

now, once again, the problem is not a lack of technical solutions. we know what the solutions are to this challenge. just six years ago, an unlikely trio, john mccain, ted kennedy, president bush came together to champion comprehensive immigration reform. [applause] >> i, along with a lot of democrats were proud to join 23 senate republicans in voting for it. today, those same republicans have been driven away from the table by a small pad -- faction of their own party. it has created the same stalemate on immigration reform that we see on a range of economic issues, and it has given rise to a state law -- to state laws that caused more problems than they solve, and are often doing more harm than good. [applause] >> now, this makes no sense.

it is not good for america. as long as i am president of the united states, i will not give up the fight to change it. in the face of a congress that refuses to do anything on immigration, i have said that i will take action wherever i can. my administration has been doing what we can without the help in congress for more than three years now. last week, we took another step. on friday, we announced we are listing the shadow of deportation from deserving young people who were brought to this country as children. we should have passed the dream at a long time ago. it was written by members of both parties. when it came up for a vote one year and a half ago, republicans in congress blocked it. [applause]

>> the bill had not changed. the need had not changed. the only thing that changed was politics. [applause] >> the need had not changed. the bill had not changed. it was written with republicans. the only things that changed where politics, and i refuse to keep looking young people in the eye and tell them tough luck, the politics is too hard. i have met these young people all across the country. they are studying in our schools. they are playing with our children. pledging allegiance to our flag, hoping to serve our country -- they are americans.

in their hearts, in their minds, they are americans through and through, in every single white but on paper, and all they want is to -- every single way but on paper, and all they want to do is go to college and give back to the country that they love. [applause] let's get rid of the shadow of deportation and give them some hope. that was the right thing to do. it was the right thing to do. [applause] >> it is not amnesty. it falls short of where we need to become a path to citizenship. it is not a permanent fix. it is a temporary measure that lets us focus our resources wisely while offering justice to young people, and it is precisely because it is temporary that congress still needs to come up with a long- term immigration solution rather than argue that we did this the wrong way and for the wrong reasons.

so, to those who are saying congress should be the one to fix this, absolutely. for those who say we should do this in a bipartisan fashion, absolutely. my door has been open for three and a half years. they know where to find me. [laughter] >> i have said time and again, send me the dream act. i will sign it right away. i am still waiting to work with anyone from either party that is committed to real reform. [applause] >> in the meantime, the question we should consider is this -- was providing these young people a measure of temporary relief the right thing to do? i think it was.

it is long past time that we gave them a sense of hope. you're speaker from yesterday has a different view. in the speech he said that when he makes a promise to you he will keep it. he has promised to veto the dream act, and we should take him at his word. [applause] [laughter] >> i am just saying. [applause] >> i believe that would be a tragic mistake. you do, too. on all of these issues, the investments we need to grow the middle class, leave a better future for our kids, and deficit reduction that is fair and balanced, and immigration reform, on consumer financial protection so that people are not exploited, whether it is a paid a long shot or their

senator and inspected their family, and all of these issues washington has a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the country. the whole idea behind the dream act was inspired by a music teacher in illinois who decided to call dick durbin, for senator, when she found out that one for students was forced to live in the shadows. even as bad idea fell prey to gridlock in the -- in washington, it gained momentum in the rest of the country. forever it is an -- for every student that marched, for every parent that chose to stand up for them, because these are all of our kids, for every american who stood up, spoke out across

the country because they saw a wrong and wanted it to be righted, putting their shoulder to the oil and moving us closer towards justice -- to the wheel and moving us closer towards justice. that is always move us forward. it is not start with washington. it starts with 1 million quiet heroes who love their country and believe they can change it. we all have different backgrounds. we all have different political beliefs. the latino community is not monolithic. the african-american community is not all of one mind. this is a big country. sometimes in tough times in the country this big and busy,

especially in a political year, news -- those differences are casting a bright spot. when i ran -- i ran for this office because i am convinced that what binds us together has always proven stronger than what drives us apart. we are one people. we need one another. [applause] >> our patriotism is rooted not in race, ethnicity, creed -- it is based on a shared belief of an enduring and permanent promise of america. that is the promise that draws so many talented, driven people to these shores. that is the promise that drew my own father here. if that is the promise that drew your parents, or grandparents, or great-grandparents', generations of people that

dreamed of a place where knowledge and opportunity was available to anyone that was willing to work for it, anyone willing to seize it. a place where there was no limit to how far you could go, how high you could climb. they took a chance. america embraced their drive, embraced their courage. said come, you are welcome. this is who we are. every single day i walked into the oval office, every day that i have this extraordinary privilege to be your president, i will always remember that in no other nation on earth could my story even be possible. [applause] >> that is something i

celebrate. [applause] >> that is what drives me in every decision i make. to try and widen the circle of opportunity, to fight for the big, generous and optimistic country we inherited, to carry that dream for four generations to come -- when i meet these young people throughout communities, i see myself. who knows what they might achieve? i see my daughters and my niece and my nephews. who knows what they might achieve if we just give them a chance? that is what i am fighting for. that is what i stand for. this fight will not always be easy.

it has not always been easy. it will not happen overnight. our history has been one where the march towards justice, freedom, equality, it has taken time. there will always be plenty of stubborn opposition that says no, you can not. no, you should not. try. america was built by someone -- by people that's -- that said something different. that said yes we can. as long as i have the privilege of being your president, i will be alongside you fighting for the country that we, together, dream of. if god bless you. thank you, naleo. god bless the united states of america. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] ♪ ♪ ♪

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>> he said illegal immigration is a real problem in the united states. the single greatest contributor is a burden some legal immigration process. his remarks are about 20 minutes. >> thank you. what an honor it is to be with you again. i've had a chance to speak with you at your conferences, and i know this is an ever-growing group.

i am delighted to be here today. my job is to introduce someone that should be a great source of pride for all of us. "marco rubio, an american son" that is the title of his new book. if you read it, you would know he is one of us. he chose a better life by coming to america, immigrating here -- he is the second generation of that family, a family that worked hard. they were not bankers. they would probably not be at the bank. this banquet unless they were serving at the banquet. -- it probably would not be at this banquet because -- unless they were serving at the banquet. his -- their son rose to their ranks in a remarkable time and frank. his dream of being an nfl wide receiver never materialized, but he did something more remarkable, becoming a young age the speaker of the florida house of representatives.

if i was always proud of him and what he did have such a young age. tour of the capitol when i was up there as the united states senator from florida, and what an honor it is for me to introduce to you one of us, reject -- [speaking spanish] who knows what it is like to work hard, to see your dad go ve chil succe through help me to welcome some and i am immensely proud to have follow me in the united states senate. the united states and junior senator from florida, marco rubio. [applause]

>> thank you. thank you. thank you, senator martinez. [speaking spanish] thank you, senator martinas, for showing my book that is available on amazon for $16.99. [laughter] >> thank you. [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [applause] >> i apologize to those that do not seek -- speak spanish. i was just telling them how i saved a bunch of money on my car insurance. [laughter]

>> thank you. one of the things that frustrates me is when people speak to hispanics and let's quinellas is it all may want to talk about immigration. -- and latinos, it is -- all they want to talk about is immigration. we do not think about emigration all day. we have the same worries, hopes and fears as everyone else in this country. we worry about making payroll on friday, balancing the budget at the end of the month, the schools our kids go to, about whether tomorrow will be better for them than it has done for us.

that is what i wanted to concentrate on today when i came here to speak to you, but i will not let myself to that. both my head and my heart tells me that we are as close as we ever been to a critical turning point in the debate about immigration so i have abandoned my hopes of only talking about the economy and jobs, as important as that might be, for one day, in hopes of speaking frankly to you on the issue of immigration, what i've learned in my year and half in the senate, and what i can hope for moving forward. when i get to the senate, and nobody wanted to talk to me about it. if there were so many stars, too much pain and to many people had been beat up. i tried to raise the issue and people would say i do not want to go there again.

if i tried that five years ago. i tried that three years ago. all i got was grief. that is the impression i got when i came into the senate, and i want you to know, it is not just republicans. it is senators that have been burned by the way this issue has been discussed and approached and did not want to talk about it anymore. that is what i first learned to read the second thing i have come to realize is how truly complicated if this issue has become. this is not a simple issue. immigration -- both sides like to talk about this issue like it is an easy, yes or no answer. it is much more complicated. if those of us involved in the

debate need to recognize that openly. both sides have raised valid points. the people who are against illegal immigration and make that the core of their argument do it as only a law-and-order issue, but we know it is much more than that. yes, it is a law-and-order issue, but it is also a human issue. these are real people. these are human beings who have children, hopes and dreams. these are people who are doing what virtually any of us would do if our children were hungry, if their country was dangerous, if they had no hope for their future. [applause] >> too often in our conversation about immigration, that perspective is lost. who among us would not do whatever it took to feed our children and provide for them a better future? the other side of the debate is equally guilty of over- simplifying it. illegal immigration is a real problem. it is not in a legitimate problem. it is real. it has consequences. one of the great untold stories in america is no community understands that better than ours.

it is lots in taos, hispanics who see the impact of illegal immigration -- locking else, hispanics, who see the impact of the legal -- latinos, hispanics, who see the impact of illegal immigration and with the burden of its costs. we are an extremely generous country. 1 million people a year in a great to the united states legally. no country in the world comes close to that. there are probably 50 million people, including many in latin america, maybe your family members, while waiting to come here legally. every single day in my office people come in and say my mom has been waiting, my sister has been waiting for 15 years. why is our message to them? , legally, it is cheaper and quicker? that is not an answer either. last but not least competent there is this notion that -- least, i feel there is this notion that people are demanding their rights. the truth is there is no right to be legally immigrate to the united states. is not about demanding rights. he is about appealing to the

compassion of the most compassionate nation in the history of the world. why is this simplified? i will tell you why, because it is powerful politics. it is a powerful political issue. i have seen people use it to raise money, take legitimate concerns about illegal immigration, turn it into panic, fear, anger, and turned that into votes and money. i've seen people go in the other direction. anyone who disagrees with their ideas as anti-immigrant and anti-hispanic. that is ridiculous everything is about politics. i am seen it about hat -- ridiculous. everything is about politics. i have seen it firsthand. i started to work on accommodating children who are in this country through no fault of their home on documented, and do it in a way that invites us, not divides us, and honors our legacy as a nation of immigrants, but also a nation of laws.

i propose ideas and the reaction on the left was an immediate dismissal. i saw people say that i was proposing a new three-sith compromise, harkening back to the days when a slave was only 3/5 of a person. i was accused of supporting apartheid. three months later, a president takes a similar idea and diplomats it through executive action, and is now the greatest idea in the world. i do not care who gets the credit, but it exposes the fact that this issue is all about politics for some people. not just democrats. republicans, too. the truth is after actions less -- last week, all the people want to talk about is what this means for the election. what does this mean politically? was this not a brilliant political tactic? if this is what this issue is about to you, maybe it was, but

i was not looking for a talking point. i was not looking to influence the election in november. i was looking to help these kids that i have not care if is a not kids that i read about in the newspaper. -- these are kids that i have met. these are not kids i read about in a newspaper. they came here when they were five. they are valedictorians. they want to be biologists. if we are going to deport them in a country that needs more molecular biologist. that is what we are -- what it was about for me. if that is what it is still about for me. only when it is about that will this ever gets solved. as long as this issue is a political pingpong that each side uses to win elections and influence votes, i'm telling you it will not get solved. there are too many people that have concluded that this issue unresolved is more powerful. they wanted to stay on resolved.

it is easier to influence elections, it is easier to use to raise money. the only way to solve it is a balanced approach that recognizes this is complicated. i think the way you have to do it here is you have to approach it, first by understanding we have to win the confidence of the american people back, the confidence that we are serious about discouraging illegal immigration in the future, and that is why enforcement is important as a part of any reform. i also think we have to reform our legal immigration system. the single greatest contributor to the illegal immigration is a burdensome, complicated legal immigration process. there are millions of people in this country that would go back home if they thought they could come back next year to work in their seasonal jobs. i know of no one that would not rather immigrate legally if they could, if they could afford it. there are some people that are on that status through no fault

of their own. somebody told them they were an immigration lawyer they gave the guy a $5,000 check, and the guide vanished. now they are undocumented. it is complicated it. if we are able to reform and modernize our immigration system, when the confidence of the american people back, which are left with the issue of millions of people better still undocumented, and the great question is what you do about them. . .

but that's not the direction i want, because -- because if i did, if that's what i came here to talk to you about, then i would be doing the exact same thing i just criticized. exact same thing i just criticized.

so is it possible for us to reach that point? let me close by telling you why i think we should and we must. i really rely on the story i recently learned of, i didn't know this story before, i recently learned of it, it's a story of an elderly man who came to the u.s. legally and then decided to go back to his country because he was a little discouraged by the way things were here and decided to go back to his country again. and then after a few years there things were not going well and he decided to come back. now, i don't know this for sure but when he came back to the united states, i think he thought that since he had come in legally once before he was still able to re-enter, but he was wrong. i think he just didn't realize -- i don't know this for sure -- but i think he didn't realize that if you leave for a year, you're not -- your immigrant visa expires and you have to renew it. he's an elderly man and he was disabled. he didn't speak any english. and he gets to the united states and immediately, he's detained and questioned. and he's been told he's got to appear in court where he's

ordered deported. i just think that if you're elderly, disabled, don't speak the language, confronting american jurisprudence, he must have been panicked! but somehow along the way because of the conditions in his country and all kinds of other factors at the time, the u.s. said, you know, you don't have a legal right to be here but we're going to let you stay, because your case, your story tugs at our heart and at our legacy as a nation of immigrants. this story matters a lot to me because years later, that man office is grateful to this country that he -- was so grateful to this country that he would spend hours talking to his grandson about how special america was. what a special country it was. now his grandson serves in the u.s. senate and stands before you here today knowing -- [ applause ]

-- knowing we have in the past been a nation that's been able to balance our laws and our compassion, our desire to live in a nation of laws but also to have a nation of immigrants and so i close by asking you how did we ever get to this point? how can immigration be a controversial and divisive issue in a nation of immigrants? how can a country built by people that came from everywhere else be so divided over who gets to come here now? and maybe the best way to begin to confront is -- it is to remind ourselves who we are and how tightly wound it is to the essence of our greatness. the statue of liberty is often seen as a symbol of immigration. that's not why it was built. statue of liberty wasn't built as a symbol of immigration, it was built as an ode to republicanism, not republican party, although some people claim -- though, i'm kidding! but the reason why it became a symbol of immigration is because

immigrants from europe when they would come into ellis island would sail right past it, the first thing they would see about america is that statue -- would see about america is that statue. in the turn of the century there's a plaque that has a poem there that reminds of us who we were, what makes us different and who we must remain. when i read those words, i am reminded of the journey my own parents took of people who were desperate to provide their children life better than theirs. of making sure every opportunity they did not have would live in the lives of their children and grandchildren. this sentiment exists among people all over the world. but only here in our country has that dream become reality time and time again. and so let us remind ourselves once again of the words of that poem which call to us and say and to answer the simple question of what do we love

more? do we love our parties more than our country? do we care about the next election more than we do about the future? are we still that beacon of hope to the world? are we still the country our parents found when they came here? or will our children inherit a different one? one more like the rest of the world? are we still the nation that believes in these words? keep ancient lands, your storied pomp, cried she with silent lips. give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. the wretched ref tuesday of your teaming shores sent these -- refuge of your teaming shores sent these, the homeless, send these to me. i lift my lamp beside the golden door. thank you. [ applause ]

coming up on c-span, a conference on preventing suicide among veterans. we'll hear first from defense secretary leon panetta followed by military leaders, the personal stories of those that's been affected and health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius. later the debate in the republican runoff race for u.s. senate in texas. join us this weekend for a look at president obama's reelection campaign and political media strategy. we'll talk with chief strategist david axlerod and press secretary ben labolt. they'll discuss operation vote to discuss battleground states. that's sunday evening at 6:30 and 9: 30 eastern here on c-sp

c-span. >> defense secretary leon panetta said veterans suicide prevention is one of the most challenging tasks he's faced since he entered the job. he spoke at a suicide prevention conference in washington. the veterans affairs department estimates that 18 veterans take their own lives every day and the defense department recently confirmed that suicide is among -- among veterans are on the rise. this is about half an hour. [ captioning provided by national captioning institute ] [ captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012 ] [ applause ] thank you. thank you. thank you very much. thank you all for your leadership, for your wise council and for your commitment to ensuring our servicemembers and their families receive the

kind of treatment and support that they so richly deserve. i'd like to express my appreciation to all of you in this audience, appreciation for coming together, appreciation for the work that you've been doing that the three-day conference. appreciation for the focus that all of you are making to try to give attention and energy on one of the most complex and urgent problems facing our military families, the problem of suicide. a lot of people here who have been working with this issue day in and day out and i have tremendous respect for your capabilities. you're the experts in trying to deal with a very difficult iss issue.

i am reminded of the story of the nobel prize winner who was going throughout the state of california. he had won the nobel prize in a very complex area, physics. he was going throughout the state of california giving a very complex address on the area that he had gotten the nobel prize. and he was heading toward fresno one day. his chauffeur leaned back and said, "you know, professor, i've heard that same speech so many times. i think i could give it by memory myself." and the professor said, "well, why don't we do that? why don't i put on your uniform and you pout my suit and you give the speech." and they did that. and the chauffeur got up, dressed as the professor, spoke for an hour on a very complex area of physics and got a standing ovation at the end of

the address. and the professor dressed as the chauffeur sat in the audience and couldn't believe what had just happened. but then someone raised their hand and said, "professor, that's an outstanding address! but i have a question." and he went into a three-paragraph question and included mathematical equations and formulas and then he said, "professor, what do you think about that?" and there was a long pause. and the chauffeur said, "you know, that's the stupidest question i've ever gotten." hauf laugh -- [ laughter ] and just to show you how stupid it is, i'm going to have my chauffeur answer it out in the audience. [ applause ] [ laughter ] so there are a hell of a lot of chauffeurs in this audience when it comes to this complicated issue this difficult issue. and i really appreciate the devotion and the dedication that

all of you are making to try to deal with this issue. i'm particularly pleased that this conference is run jointly by the department of defense and the department veterans affairs. building a stronger collaboration between our two departments is absolutely essential, it's essential to meeting the needs of our service members and veterans. and i'm proud of the strong working relationship that i've dealt with secretary and i agree with what he told this audience on wednesday that our two departments are now working more closely together than ever before. it's essential and important that we build that kind of partnership if we're going to address issues like suicide.

this issue, suicides, is perhaps the most frustrating challenge that i've come across since becoming secretary of defense last year. despite the increased efforts, the increased attention, the trends continue to move in a troubling and tragic direction. all of us gathered here share a very deep concern about this issue and about the trends that we are seeing. we also share a commitment to take action to do everything possible to prevent these horrible tragedies and to support those who have served

our country with honor and with distinction. greatest frustration, greatest frustration is that there are no easy answers here. there are no quick fixes. there are no simple solutions. to the problem of suicide. but that doesn't mean that we can't do more to prevent it from happening. we can do more. we must do more. and together, we will do more to prevent suicides. but first, it's important for all of us to recognize the nature of the challenges that we face in our military and veterans' community.

for more than 10 years, we have been a nation at war. repeated deployments, sustained exposure to combat, tragedies of war have brought stresses and strains on our troops and on their families back home. thanks to advances in protective technologies in battlefield medicine, more of our men and women are surviving combat. however, once home, many grape are -- many are grappling with the wounds of battle, both seen and unseen.

traumatic brain injury, post traumatic stress, the other psychological ailments that could contribute to the risk of suicide. the end of the war in iraq, the beginning of the drawdown in afghanistan will hopefully ease some of the strain on our troops. but that will not solve this problem. indeed, more than half, more than half of those who have committed suicide in the military have no history of deployment. so we're dealing with broader societal issues. substance abuse, financial distress, relationship problems.

the risk factors for suicide that also reflect the problems in the broader society. risk factors that will endure beyond war. for that reason, we've got to develop an enduring suicide prevention strategy. the department of defense is committed to being a part of a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention. we're committed to doing whatever it takes to protect and support our people. building off of the recommendations contained in the 2010 dod task force report last -- d.o.d. task force report last november, we have

established a d.o.d. suicide prevention office. this office will put new resources and a new focus for its implementing the task force's reports recommendations and enhancing the effectiveness of our suicide prevention programs. but i see our efforts having to focus on four key tracks. and let me discuss each of those areas. first of all, this is always critical when it comes to an operation like the defense department and to our military forces. leadership responsibility. leadership responsibility. we are directing military leaders to take this issue head

on. like almost every issue in our military, progress on suicide prevention depends on leadersh leadership. i've made that clear. that this issue is first and foremost a leadership responsibility. all those in command and leadership positions, particularly junior officers, n.c.o.'s who have day-to-day responsibility for troops, need to be sensitive, need to be aware, need to be open to the signs of stress in the ranks. they need to be aggressive. aggressive.

aggressive in encouraging those who serve under them to seek help if needed. they also must set an example by seeking help themselves if necessary. as part of their leadership responsibilities, junior officers and n.c.o.'s must foster the kind of cohesion and togetherness that is a fundamental part of our military culture and can do so much to improve mental health. my wife who is a nurse worked on mental health care issues. she said to me time and time again, "this is a human issue, a human problem.

you've got to look in people's eyes. you've got to be sensitive to their emotions. you've got to be sensitive to the challenges that they're facing. you've got to be aware. you've got to have your eyes opened." the more we can see those problems coming, the more we can do to try to help people in need. to that end, we have -- we have to make clear that we will not tolerate, we will not tolerate actions that belittle, that haze that ostracize any individual, particularly those who have made the decision to seek professional help. leaders throughout the department must make it understood that seeking help is

a sign of strength, not a sign of weakness. it is a sign of strength. it is a sign of courage. [ applause ] we have to all do we can -- do what we can to remove the stigma that is still surrounding mental health care issues. the outreach efforts such as the real warriors campaign which worked to increase awareness and the use of resources such as the military and veterans' crisis lines are also a very important part of these efforts. secondly, we've got to do everything we can to improve the quality and access to health care.

this is the second pillar of the suicide prevention strategy. improving the quality of behavioral health care, expanding access to that care. we now have more than 9,000 psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, mental health nurses, counselors, working in military hospitals and military clinics. that number has increased more than 35% over the last three years. behavioral health experts are now being embedded into line units, and the department has worked to place mental health providers in primary care clinics in order to facilitate access. guardsmen and reservists often

do not have ready access to the same support network as the active duty force. we've got to do what we can to increase initiatives like the yellow ribbon reintegration program that's working to address this kind of problem. and going forward, i want to make sure that all servicemembers and their family members have the quality, mental and behavioral health care that they need, the kind of care that must be delivered by the best health care professionals in the world. thanks to the efforts of so many of you in this audience, we are improving our ability to identify and treat mental health care conditions. and we are working to better

equip our system to deal with the unique challenges that these conditions can present. for example, i've been very concerned about reports of problems with the screening process for post traumatic stress and the military disability evaluation system. for that reason, i've directed a review of this process across all of the uniformed services. this review will help ensure that we are delivering on our commitment to provide the best care for our servicemembers. we have got to do everything we can to make sure that the system itself is working to help soldiers, not to hide this issue not to make the wrong judgments about this issue, but to face

facts and deal with the problems up front and make sure we provide the right diagnosis and that we follow up on that kind of diagnosis. thirdly, we have to elevate the whole issue of mental fitness. a third pillar of suicide prevention is better equipping servicemembers with training and coping skills that they need to avoid or bounce back from stre stress. to that end, all the services, all the services under the leadership of general dempsey and his senior enlisted visor sergeant major bryrck an battaglia, are working to

elevate mental fitness to the same level of importance, we've got to elevate mental fitness to the same level of importance that d.o.d. has always placed on physical fitness. [ applause ] separately, a whole of government effort that has been led by the president and mrs. obam bah -- obama to combat veterans unemployment and boost hiring of military spouses is aimed at helping to reduce the financial stress faced by military families and veterans. finally, fourthly, we've got to increase research in suicide prevention. in partnership across government

and with the private sector, the fourth pillar of our approach is to improve our understanding of suicide. to improve our understand of related mental health care issue yous through -- issues through better and more improved scientific research. i'd like to note the leadership, health and human services secretary kath -- kathleen sebelius on this issue and thank her for addressing this conference earlier. all of us recognize that there is still far too much that we don't know about the causes of suicide, the effectiveness of particular suicide prevention programs and the linkage between psychological health and traumatic brain injury.

trying to find out more about these very difficult, complex issues is not easy but we've got to do everything we can to continue the research effort into learning more about this difficult issue. many of you are working tirelessly to address these ga gaps. as the part -- as part of this effort, the department of defense and the department of veterans affairs are working together to build a data repository that will help us better analyze suicides and suicide attempts and do what we can to spot trends and to get ahead of that. likewise, we're improving program evaluations so that we can better focus our resources on those programs that are proven to be effective. the department is also working

to fundamentally transform the nation's ability to understand and treat traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress. the signature unseen wounds of the last decade of war. earlier this month, the department and the intrepid fallen heroes fund announced a plan to construct state-of-the-art treatment centers for brain injuries, psychological disorders at nine of our largest installations in the country. i'm delighted we were able to break ground on the first two of these centers at fort belvoir and camp lejeune. these centers, these centers

made possible by the generosity of private citizens -- and god bless them for their generosity and what they do. because of their generosity, this will help compliment the national intrepid center of excellence in bethesda and provide cutting-edge evaluations treatment planning, research and education for servicemembers and for their families. my long-term goal for the department of defense is to be a game-changing innovator in this field. just as we helped foster the jet age, the space race and the internet, i want us to break new

ground in understanding the human mind and human emotion. in doing so, we will be drawing on a rich history of military needs spurring innovation in this field. during world war ii, millions of servicemen saw firsthand the need for better psychological services and psychological treatment. in its aftermath through the g.i. bill and the new veterans administration's clinical psychological training program, the entire field of modern psychology has transformed. it really has. for the first time, for the first time, psychology was a

field that was richly funded in training and in practice. and the result has been better treatment and better care for millions of americans. i believe we could help bring about another transformation made possible by the hard work from men and women like all of you. i know that you will not rest and will not be satisfied until we have given our servicemembers and their family members and our veterans the support they need. there are, as i've said, no easy answers to the problem and the

challenge of suicide. but that is no damn reason for not finding the answers to the problem of suicide. [ applause ] we have to keep trying to do everything we can to prevent it, and all of us and frankly for that matter all americans have to always support and care for those who have stepped forward to defend our country in unifo uniform. we are a family. we are a family. and by god, we have to take care of our family members. that's just not italian. that's american. [ laughter ] [ applause ]

we owe it to those who protect us to do all we can to protect them. may god bless and you may god bless all of those who protect this great nation. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> with suicides on the rise among veterans, the defense and veterans affairs departments are stepping up their efforts to address the problem. today, top enlisted military

leaders took part 98 suicide prevention conference cohosted by both departments -- in a suicide prevention conference cohosted by both departments. they discussed the solutions made to the detection and treatment of veterans in their departments. this is about 1 hour and 10 minutes. >> good morning, gentlemen and ladies, please welcome janet kemp. [ applause ] >> i kind of figured you'd knew me by now. but good morning and thank you for coming back. um, this was, um, really my time this morning to give you a few minutes on a, um, a v.a. update. you know, much like the service panels did, um, earlier in the conference. um, but as i, um, laid in bed last night and thought about everything that, um, i'd heard and seen and then thought about over the past few days i decided

that, um, you all probably know by this point all the great and wonderful things the v.a. is doing. and it seemed a little, um, silly to stand up here and talk about them, um, yet again after that extremely powerful, um, survival viver panel -- survivor panel yesterday afternoon so i'm not going to do that, but for those of that you care about those things, the v.a. is doing great and wonderful things. um, but what struck me is, um, as great and wonderful as all of the service branches, um, are and how strong their programs are and the v.a.'s program, um, we have a hell of a long way to go. um, and i think that this is the time to take on that challenge.

so i made some quick phone calls this morning, um, and yesterday during that hour period, um, when, um, those powerful speakers from taps were telling us their stories, 42 people called the, um, the veterans and military crisis line. we know that, um, 28 of those identified themselves as veterans during that time peri period. two of them identified themselves as active service -- duty servicemembers and there were 10 friends and family members who called. and the others chose to remain anonymous, um, and that's always their option when they call the crisis line. we made 12 referrals to suicide prevention coordinators and to chaplains on bases, um, during that time frame. and we made two rescues.

um, and one of the people that called had already started taking pills. and they got there in time. but that left, if you figured all that out, a significant number of people who called the crisis line who didn't get a referral who opted not to do that, who didn't get a rescue because they weren't in immediate crisis or that we didn't know who they were and i suspect for every one of those, there's several of those out in our communities and on our military bases, um, every moment of every day that we don't know who they are and that we're not reaching and we're not touching their lives. i also suspect that there's several people yesterday during that time period who maybe did tell someone that they were in trouble, who did reach out, who did try to get some sort of help maybe even in a half-hearted sort of way, but there's that level of ambiguity that there

was. um and i think that probably, um some of those people were not responded to. so i think the hard part of our jobs, um, is yet to come. i think we've -- we've hit the low-hanging fruit. i think we've, um, we've done the easy things. um, and we need to continue to do those. don't get me wrong, we're making an incredible difference every day in people's lives. but i want to challenge us to take that extra step and to reach into those corners, um, where we don't know what is in there when we reach in. and i think it's all about being there and being visible and contacting people and touching people's lives and not being afraid to say to people, "are you ok? i can get you some help?" and maybe it is scary to talk to a mental health professional and maybe people won't do that

because of the stigma or whatever involved, but they ought to be able to talk to us. they ought to be able to talk to their friends and their neighbors and the people that they work with every day. um, without any fear of reprisal. i'm challenging us to be those people. this week, um, or this year for suicide prevention awareness month which is coming up in september, we've chosen the theme "stand by them!" and it's a call to action for friends and familys and co-workers and all of us -- families and co-workers and all of us to be there for each other to be there for our servicemembers and our veterans, um, to help them get help, but more importantly to stand with them in their struggles, um and their joys and their triumphs. and i guess i'm putting out a call to all of you right now this morning to take that on as a personal challenge, not something someone else has to do

but something i have to do and you have to do and we have to do for each other. so let's stand up now, if you're willing to take the challenge, um, and stand by them for our veterans and our u.s. military servicemembers and give ourselves a round of applause for the great and wonderful things we've done but more importantly the great and wonderful things we're going to accomplish this next year. [ applause ]

i think we're in for an exciting morning. um, we also had a great evening last night and, um, for those of you who went to the poster session, um, i think it was a, um, a wonderful experience to see what everybody's doing. we had approximately 250 participants at the poster session, um and a total of 150 of you actually voted on the best posters, so that was exciting. um, the winners are going to, um receive a package -- pac pact -- packet of fun stuff including the book "tearing through the moon" by dr. richie, "missed by suicide" by doctor joyner and the american journal of public health focused on military families and suicide prevention they also receive a certificate which i'm sure they'll be happy to put on their wall. so the first-placed winner the

practical application track -- and if they're in the room, please stand up -- um, is ann fetter. her poster was entitled "strategies to reach underregistered veterans who are facing post deployment." and there's ann over there. [ applause ] the second-placed winner is from the clinical track, lynn santiago from crisis to recovery applying the recovery model and the prevention of suicide. [ applause ] and the third-placed winner is from the research track, stephanie miller, "thought versus action, differences between suicide idiatoare&suicide attempters in the u.s. military population." and there's stephanie. [ applause ] so thank you, all. it was great. so on that note, i think we'll move right along to our, um, our

first panel this morning. um, and to introduce that panel, i would like to introduce to you u.s. army retired sergeant major walter morales and walt is, um, also the chief of the army suicide prevention program. in addition to all of that he's a good friend, so thank you. [ applause ] >> good morning. >> good morning. >> let me tell you, you're all in for a big treat this morning. this morning you get to see, you get to listen to the most senior and enlisted visors that they have -- advisers that we have to offer across d.o.d. please pay attention because these group of folks that will be up here in a second to share with you their views, um, those policies, um, those programs and services that they have help, um for them tailored for the particular services.

so i will call each one of them to the stage right now. please welcome them with a big round of applause. first, i would like to introduce chief master sergeant of the air force, james roy. [ applause ] did mike leavitt make it? ok. paster chief -- master chief petty officer of the coast guard mike leavitt. [ applause ] the senior enlisted adviser to the army senior general and my classmate, class 50, of the u.s. army sergeant base academy, u.s. major donna brock. [ applause ] ok. sergeant major for the marine and family programs' division, headquarters marine corps, sergeant manager john gilstrap. [ applause ]

the senior enlisted leader for the national guard bureau, chief master sergeant denise jelinski-hall. [ applause ] and last but not least, master chief terry prince. [ applause ] master chief terry prince is the command senior enlisted leader for the walter reid national military medical center. this is how this is going to work today. i'm going to turn it over to the senior enlisted advisers starting with james roy here and then they will provide perhaps three to four-minute briefing on those things they're working on, their themes, policies that perhaps they have helped craft. we'll go through the whole panel and then we'll turn it over for some q&a afterwards, so with that in mind, chief? >> good morning, everybody.

thank you for joining us today. i don't know if you noticeded but when we all got -- noticed but when we all got introduced, there's different levels of acceptance. there's a little bit over here and a little bit over here. the one that caught my eye and caught my ear was master chief prince. he had a special guest here, his wife's over here. welcome. >> good evening. >> as we always say, everybody's got to have a wingman or a shipmate so -- hey, listen, thank you so much, again, for putting this on and, um, and to d.o.d. and veterans affairs that would you come together to make this seamless, particularly as i talk to some folks earlier at this strategic level, yes, it's seamless but it's at the tactful level that it's got to be absolutely invisible and things like this, these types of conferences help in that. i would also tell that you the fact that you're here today, the chair providers -- the care providers even says more so about who we are and who we care for.

and that's our people. so thank you and you owe yourself a round of applause and a pat on the back, because i think you do an amazing job for us. i would like to give you a round of applause. [ applause ] i like the way janet introduced the group this morning. she made a comment that we have a lot more to do. and i will tell you i truly believe that. i think that we've done an awful lot but as a group, as d.o.d., we still have a long ways to go and as veterans affairs, we still have a long ways to go, but we're there. we're ready for the challenge, and we're up for that. you may be asking yourself, you know, in your capacity and what you do each and every day, this is -- this shouldn't be any surprise. quite frankly, when i go out and i talk with airmen in my case, um, what i usually begin with is

"why is this important?" it's very, very simple. it's important because life matters. that's why this is important. i tried to explain to the young airmen that their families are absolutely concerned about them. their families entrust the military with their health and welfare and we're up to that challenge. but we are also concerned about their health and well being. i have to tell you that life does matter and it matters every single day. sure, i can go through a litany of things that the united states air force does and kind of the program piece of this. i don't think that's what you want to hear, quite frankly. i think what you want to hear is what it going on in the field. that's kind of the perspective that i think we offer the most. what's going on in the field? yeah, certainly, the -- the -- the -- our suicide program we have, our

comprehensive airmen fitness, the culture of taking care of yourself and taking care of others is relevant out there today, but what is happening in the field is -- are things like this. things like what i've framed as the art of -- the art of communication, communicating with people not so much digitally, because people do that. that's kind of our culture today but more so this analog communication. and i think that's a piece -- if we focus on how we do that, um and how people communicate with each other, it certainly -- it certainly will resonate with our airmen and resonate with the topic we're talking about today. another area of focus, um, i belief that -- i believe that comes up quite often is this idea of, you know, there's a lot of -- there's a lot of help out there. and we know that. and, you know, our airmen know that, their families know that,

um, but quite frankly, a lot of times they just don't tak take -- they -- they don't take that, um, that -- they take it for granted. they don't necessarily go down that path. for some, they're concerned that it may affect their career and that's pretty prevalent out in the field. you try to talk with a young person about that and it's difficult. it is difficult, because you got to explain to them that, you know, there is -- there are times when we do have to, you know, look at what we call p.r.p. and maybe take the person off the roles for a little bit while they're in recovery. but the fact is we still have them in our roles -- rolls and that's difficult to explain to some people that, um, you know, that's the reason we have to do that, but bottom line is, human life matters. each and every one of them

matter and we're concerned about how this situation is rolled out today and then also all about their families, so i look forward to the questions that you have. i think that's probably the most important part of this, because it helps us take back what we do in each one of our services. >> thank you chief. [ applause ] next, master chief petty officer michael leavitt. >> thank you, sir. good morning, everyone. i think we're dealing -- this is just awesome to have everybody out here talking about some very complex elements that lead to these types of things that actually lead to suicide. in 2010, the commonedant and i -- commandant and i assume the duties in the coast guard. we had a rise in suicides. you say we talk about eight personnel that committed suicide it doesn't sound like a lot comparatively but it's the same of the d.o.d. with the number we have and say the too many.

that's eight too many. we take a look at that and recognizing that at the core of this, we really believe that that's leadership, flip all levels at the core of this we came out with a -- leadership in all levels at the core of this and we came out with a message. at the message, we talked about how devastating these types of things are to our family members and as to our units. it's no different, a suicide is no different than an operational mishap. it's got devastating consequences. so in our message, we talked about this. we also talked about having engaged and involved leadership at all levels on and off duty. we talked about some of the programs we have in place and all the services have certain programs in place. some programs are probably better than others. some are along the line with on-line stuff and all the social media things like that. i think some things get lost in the translation. those are things we have to take a look at. but one of the things we shamelessly stole from the navy and the marine corps is their operational stress control.

what this is is just a guide we piloted a program out in the west coast. what it is is the unit commander is taking a look at their operational stress they have and color coating it, taking a look at how their units are responding. that gives the leadership an opportunity to see how the elements work from a leadership perspective, but it also focuses down to the members to give them a self-look at what these stresses are, how these stresses impact them both on and off duty. what i really like about the program is our coast guard men and women are teaching the program, so when they get this, it's training the trainer and they're getting it from their shipmates that's been through the same type of experiences they're experiencing on both stress levels. the, um, -- our numbers, we had eight in 2010. we've slowly been declining every year. this year, we have two. that's two too many as i've already said, but maybe -- in 2010, one of the things we started keeping track of this is how often are folks hospitalized

for suicide ideations? we thought we should keep track of that are people trying to seek help? are they doing these types of things? in 2010, we looked at the data it may not mean a lot but there's a trend. we had two people go in there are -- for suicide ideations. at the end of the day, we can take a look at our programs and do all of these different things and throw a lot of money -- it's a complexest is issues and it's all about the people -- complex set of issues and it's ball the people, it's about taking care -- it's all about the people, it's all about taking care of the people. we have to understand who our people are at all different age groups. thank you for your time. i look forward to any kaye questions you might have. >> thank you, mr. chief -- i look forward to any questions that you may have. >> thank you, mr. chief. next, chief master sergeant

jelinski-hall. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> there we go. over the past couple of days, i've been deeply moved by the collaboration and the synergy in this room. many people and organizations coming together, working together united in purpose. i've been deeply moved by your good work here. yes, we, too, in the national guard have challenges with suicide. we continue to employ leadership practices at every level from the top down and the bottom up .. as you know, the national guard is in every state, territory and the district of columbia and in every zip code across america. the national guard comprised of our citizen soldiers and airmen, we're community-based organization. we work, live and play in our local communities across the united states and our part-time warriors are the business andhent businesswomen in the cities -- the businessmen and the businesswomen in the cities

and towns across america and they fully understand the importance of developing strong community partnerships. yesterday, there was a speech about individual trust. i was moved by that presentation it really struck me. i gave a lot of thought to that. this is something the national guard has been doing for -- well quite frankly, for 375 years. as health care experts, our directors of psychological health at the joint force haad head quarters and the wings have built -- joint force headquarters and the wings have built trust organizations. we've built trust between soldier to soldier and airmen to airmen this comes from working side by side for years and in many cases for decades. in addition to exercising all of the leadership principles and tools within comprehensive soldier and airmen fitness, an area of heightened importance is building bridges of trust with

institutions or partners throughout the country. we have made significant strides in reaching out to local communities to form partnerships to assist our soldiers, airmen, family and veterans. for example, in maryland, they have partners in care. arizona's national guard total force team and the be resilient program. new jersey's vet-to-vet hotline, the very first of its kind. and the oregon national guard, resiliency risk reduction and suicide prevention program or r3sp. more recently, the national guard bureau has been engaged with joining community forces. the primary goal of joining community forces is to leverage and promote existing state best practices and build community capacity. it focuses on the efforts of local partners that strengthen veterans, family members and

families through wellness, employment and education opportunities. joint community forces is primarily a communications and collaborative initiative providing a platform for exchanging good ideas, resources reference and guidance. it's sort of a conduit at the national level service providers to volunteer their services to the state community forces at that state level, government, nongovernment, nonandrost corporate partners. i -- nonprofit and corporate partners. i commend you on the good work you've done so far. chief roy said we have much to do in that. that's true. and i challenge you to be aggressive in your pursuit of crossing community lines to effectively collaborate and communicate. together, we will succeed in our effort to develop a culture of a warrior mind-set of a zero

tolerance for suicides. i thank you for this opportunity and i look forward to your questions. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you, chief. our next speaker commander sergeant major donna brock. >> how's everybody doing? cool? oh my goodness. ok. at least -- i see a few army folks in here, so i know you guys could at least get it right. let me hear a big hua! >> hua! >> all right, thank you very much. i do apologize i've not been here throughout this whole cosh.s i wasn't able to attend this year -- this whole conference. i wasn't able to attend this year. i will make sure i attend next year if there's another conference. i've been hearing there's been a lot of good information sharing going on, and i really do hope that you've all received something from this. i'm sure that you have. i want to thank each and every one of you for being here. on behalf of the sergeant major of the army, um, i'm

representing him today, so i'm -- he's a little bit taller than me, but he had -- we had the sergeant major graduation going on today and, of course, we have 500-plus brand-new e-9 star majors going out into the army world, and he wanted to make sure he gave them his message, so i'm going to speak for him today. now, after 10 years of war, the army has experienced its second highest year of suicides in 2011 slightly down from t record year we had in 2010. um, the indicators of high-risk behaviors such as drug use, suicide attempts and accidental overdose continue to be a challenge, however, the dramatic increases in suicides at the army has experienced between 2006-2009 have been slowed, unfortunately, we've seen a spike in the last six months. so in other words, as chief roy said, we definitely still have a lot of work to do. um, and by the way, as a side

bar, you know, i -- it saddens my heart -- i just yesterday had a note of a young enlisted soldier, female, that, um, committed suicide and, um, i tell you -- and it happened to be in the a-med, the army medical department and it really really touched my heart because there was no reason we know of why she did it, so, um, the work that do you here is very important. we've got to continue to work very hard at this problem that we have. the army continues to institute a multi-disciplinary, holistic approach to health promotion, risk reduce -- reduction and suicide prevention that accounts for the many challenges our soldiers, families and army civilians face. we have a composition of various working groups from the army staff down to the installation staff that reflect, um, this approach, and it includes a monthly suicide senior review group which actually happens in the pentagon, and i tell you,

they take each and every suicide that happens, um, in our ranks and they just peal back the onion and try to, you know, figure out what we could have done or what happened. also, we have the headquarters v.a. health promotion and risk reduction council and th the -- counsel and the many installation health promotion councils. the key element of the army's approach is ensuring soldiers have prompt access to the best quality behavioral health care, increased screening and documentation of mild traumatic brain injuries and improved leader awareness of high-risk behavior. collaboration and cooperation among the leaders, the medical community and the chaplains cannot be overemphasized. now, in behavioral health, the army has increased the capacity by 18% per year for the past four years and during the same time frame, the army increased its behavioral, um, health work

force in the army medical command by 101%. the army substance abuse program increases counselors by 57% in one year by adding 183 counselors in 2011. we also have a program "strong bonds" relationship improvement retreats. it included almost 98,000 soldiers and family members in 2011. that includes all of our disciplines from active army, reserve and national guard. in response to the increase in suicide and stress on the force, the army has improved its health promotion program to include availability to behavioral health care, implementing a pain management campaign to improve appropriate use of narc pain med -- of narcotic pain medication and reduce pain medications add verse effects, expanded family support programs and implemented an in-theater

mild traumatic brain injury screening. it's also worked on decreasing risky behavior by initiating army suicide prevention and substance abuse training at the bat taljan and brigades precommand courses to expand the leader understanding, improved communication between law enforcement and the units during investigations and we've also launched my prime which is an on-line alcohol and substance abuse risk assessment tool that provides a substance abuse risk assessment and targeted education. the improved suicide prevention efforts that the army has invested in are an aggressive campaign launched to expand the acronym a.c.e. which stands for ask, air and escort. suicide intervention training to supplement the effective training program known as apply suicide intervention skills training which is a.s.i.s.t. we've released the new shoulder

to shoulder suicide prevention training video and have collaborated with the military crisis line with the v.a. to develop the army campaign theme and promote the use of the free service. we have had soldiers subject to investigative or legal actions and are monitored for indicators of high-risk behavior or self-harm and although not specifically part of the suicide prevention program in 2008, the army established the comprehensive soldier fitness program which is geared to bolster the strengths of soldiers and their families by improving their resilience in certain important areas such as emotional, social, physical, and which all have -- it's been proven effective for our soldiers. through all of efforts and many more, to include research efforts, we seek to discover how why some of our soldiers are more greatly impacted by disorders of ptsb and tbi while others are not and why some exhibit suicidal thoughts and

behaviors and others do not. within the army, leaders, medical providers, chaplains and scientists,we're all working together to understand suicide so we can better prevent its devastating effects on soldier families and units. together, we're working -- we're trying to remain army strong. i'll tell you, we are army strong. i look in this audience and i can tell, um, the audience -- i can tell you we're d.o.d. stro strong. thank you, and i look forward to your questions. [ applause ] >> thank you, sergeant major. our next speaker is sergeant major john gilstrap. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. it's my honor to represent the sergeant major of the marine corps, sergeant mayor michael barrett for this cosh.s he deeply pregreats he can't attend this event. this week while i was preparing for this panel, he asked me if i could relate some of his thoughts and sentiments. i'll do that first and then move into what i have to say he sends

continued physical, moral and mental health of all of our marines is at the top of our list. our young and -- our young men and women performed continuously around the globe without pause. it is the price of being always faithful, a price we'll gladly pay. we have expended considerable efforts in building capacity to care for our marines and their families and we'll continue to do more. we'll continue to extend every effort to heal our wounded, support our families and help our young marines and tailers increase re -- and sailors increase resilience. conflicted marines will always know they're part of a core that understands their issues and stands behind them. our major michael barrett, 17th star major of the marine corps. when a marine dies by suicide, the loss of life is felt across the core -- corps. we're dedicated to preventing

this tragic loss of life that hurts our families and hurts our readyness this year, the marine corps published its first consolidated suicide prevention order, marine corps order 17.22. this order directs unit commanders to develop and sustain a unit's suicide prevention program and to appoint in writing a marine to assist the commander in carrying out suicide prevention policy. unit programs must be comprehensive to be successful. programs must strengthen all marines and set a command climate to encourage marines to seek help and ensure detection and proper referral for at-risk marines. marine total fitness a concept recently approved by the commandant, acknowledges the complexity of the programs -- problems like suicide, post traumatic stress and sexual assault. our biggest opportunities and areas for improvement is getting marines to an knowledge problems and get help early before suicide is even an idea. earlier this year, the destress

line counseling service originally piloted in the western u.s.-game became available worldwide. while not a suicide hotline, destress is capable of responding to suicide crisis. its main focus is on solving problems early when they're most manageable when a marine calls or chats on line with destress, a veteran marine or a fleet marine force navy corman will answer the call. the operational stress control and readiness program builds teams within the units which in turn helps commanders build unit strength ree, sill andwrens readiness. teammembers range from junior marines senior marine leadership to what we call oscar extenders. those are our embedded navy, medical and religious ministries personnel. this is one of our greatest assets. that sense of belonging and pride helps us weather the stress of life in the corps and creates a bond from a shared experience.

this year, the commandant ordered all deploying units will remain intact for 90 days after returning from deployment. few prevention efforts are successful 100% of the time, so we need a safety net. our safety net is the award winning never leave a marine behind suicide prevention training program this training prepares marines to recognize suicide warning signs to ask difficult questions like "are you thinking of killing yourself?" to care for fellow marines in destress and escort marines help. ladies and gentlemen, never believe a -- never leave a marine behind isn't just a slogan or title, it's the bedrock of our ethos that stretches back over 200 years. we'll never leave a marine behind on the battlefield. we won't do it at home either. thank you, sempra fidelis. >> thank you, sergeant major. our next speaker is master chief terry prince. >> i hope this thing is on here. i get the pleasure of going last so your starbucks has certainly

worn off by this point. plus, i have the added pleasure of my wife who say behavioral health specialist -- who is a behavioral health specialist who looked out at the health and well-being of marines in camp lejeune and a licensed health specialist to the left. you can imagine what nights are like in the prince household. [ laughter ] there you go, i gave you your plug. thank you. good morning, everybody. on behalf of ballot master chi chief -- on behalf of master chief west, i'm glad to be here. no sailor stands alone. one sailor lost to suicide is one too many. you must know the united states navy is focusing its efforts on providing both leaders and sailors the tools they need to live life fully while re-enforcing that life is worth living. as you know, we're a very busy navy. we have over 47,000 sailors

deployed currently. we know that the reasons for suicide in the navy are complex and as leaders and shipmates, we need to be aware of that relationship issue, career stresses, legal and discipline concerns, financial and health problems are the leading facto factors. our efforts all lead to building lives worth living. we work to give navy personnel that support network, health care and skills to get through trying times and go onto thrive in their careers and their liv lives. we are also building a culture where leaders recognize that getting timely -- support for our sailors and their families are keys to ensuring readyness. -- readiness. the navy recognizes suicide prevention as an all-hands effort, and yet not only utilizing our programs but your science and expertise. we are ready discuss the 1c, care, treat model, our -- the ask, care, treat model.

our brothers and centers of the united states mae -- marine corpsman serve alongside our navy men. our continue -- our continuum of training, our life is worth living on every navy web site that says "click here for your lifeline." fleet and family support centers. our military one-source program. our outstanding chaplain corps and all the family readiness programs they run. certainly the medical professionals that make up navy medicine. the chain of command, the young group of sailors called the coalition of sailors against destructive zutions has done some phenomenal things -- decisions has done some phenomenal thing to get to the root of this problem. peers helping peers. certainly the national helpline and most importantly a shipmate.

we know these efforts may never fully tell us how many lives were saved but we do know we've had an impact. what that impact means is the tragic loss of life avoided. sailors are getting the message. they recognize the commitment that has been demonstrated by the navy and its leaders to develop and use multiple programs that will help them better navigate life's obstacles. we always remember no sailor stands alone. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you, master chief. again, let's give another round of applause to the entire panel. all rightwe have a few minutes q. i see four microphones in front of me right here, so please make your way to one of the microphones and let's get the show started. let's provide and give the senior enlisted advisers some tough questions.

go ahead, please. >> hi. um, my question is for all of you, and it is, how do we have this conversation -- how do we talk about mental help, ptsd, suicide prevention in a way that's authentic but solution-oriented at the same time? so we've talked about the policies and the programs and the research and the proper implementation of all of those that has improved and will continue to improve with the people in this room, but as we've heard this week, this is a leadership issue and it is a human problem. so having this conversation internally in events like this and within families and within units and externally in the larger community so the national narrative and dialogue is responsible, um, is going to be really important and, of course, i have just a couple things i want to add before i give it up to you guys. i think first of all, we have to

recognize that the suck-it-up and drive-on attitude is necessary in a lot of ways. it's what's gotten me through 11 years of being an army wife in lots of deployments so how do we have that part of our culture and also foster the help-seeking behavior and the anti-stigma campaigns that we have? um, in order to build the bridges of trust that you guys talked about, we have to recognize that there's been trauma for this generation of military families. we have to do that before we jump into resiliency and skill-building. there's got to be a recognition that, ok, you guys have had it tough. we recognize that. we're going to give you some skills on how to deal with the trauma and then we're going to jump into teaching you how to be more resilient, because honestly, if we don't articulate that right, it doesn't really come off so hot it just kind of makes us feel like, well, yeah, we're just going to make you guys all stronger and that needs

to be recognized. the new normal that we talk about probably we should call it our new reality, because there's nothing normal about 11 years of war and we have to be careful on what we call things so if i'm calling that "normal" and i can't attain that, that means i'm weak. so i think we have to be careful of that. and finally, if there's a silver lining to 10 years of war, um, it's that we're having this conversation out loud in the military for the first time, and we have the opportunity to lead the way in the larger community how we have with prosthetics and make this a better mental health picture for the entire country. that was the question and a lot of comments. sorry about that. [ laughter ] >> well, thank you, thank you, both, for the questions and th the -- both for the questions and the comments. i agree with most of what you've said. i'll start off by saying that, you know, that's the reason that um, we have conferences like this to talk about this in open,

taking both the -- the what i'll call the art of, you know, the art of leadership, the art of this piece and then percentaging that with the science -- and then merging that with the science pieces as well to say that this is a science project or this is a leadership project, i don't think that's true. i think it's got to be a combination of both. you know, certainly if leadership were to drill down into this, you know, it's just like any other thing that we drill down to, our knowledge base we get from our experts. the experts are sitting in this room. so although i agree with the fact that, you know, the science piece and this being a leadership problem, i think it's all of our problem. it's not one individual entity. it's all of our problem. you had mentioned the resiliency and the stigma and some other things. let me -- this is the way i

would frame it, i believe that in order for someone to deal with a situation, they've got to have the tools to do that. this is what i find, some of them don't have the tools. they've not grown up the same way aads i h in my generation, not to say that i had all the tools, but when we think -- when we think in terms of being able to purely communicate with each other the simple fact, all the things listed up here today, when you talk in terms of simple communication and the fact that we -- and i mentioned this earlier, the fact that we're digital natives today, not everything could be digital. you still have to go back to the analog leadership and have to go back to the analog communication. you have to go ask someone o

or -- someone, "are you doing ok?" and mean it! you have to get in their face. as one young airman told me a few years ago, you have to get in their chilly cheese -- chili cheese. i thought about that for a minute but the point was -- [ laughter ] the point is, you have to get in front of them. you have to have one-on-one with them. i take your point on that but i would also say that building resiliency is one of the things that's essential to attacking this problem. i'll call it a problem. it is a problem, because if the people don't have the skills to work through these situations, then they simply won't. one of the things we started, i'll tell ya, was, was -- that had saved us a lot was this idea of initial resiliency training. we do this not in basic training although we give them the label of it, but we do this after they get to the first duty station,

in other words, sitting them down and walking them through, how do you communicate with each other? how do you have a relationship with each other? you know, if you don't -- how do you break up with someone? not all of us have that skill. we have to work with folks like that. so i take your points and i think it's a combination of both the art and the science have to work together. >> great question. real long question. i get alzheimer's. i'm just a little bit older but there's a couple of things that come to my mind. one of my shipmates down here mentioned about our programs. we call it respecting our shipmates. and, um, underneath that respect we got to really take a look at all of our problems, the hazing, what's going on in regards to that, our sexual assaults, what's going on in regards to

that? discrimination, those types of things. then we have to take a look at programs we have down there to get to the very -- to get to our folks when they first come out of recruit training. we call it individual development plans. there's mixed feelings on both sides that we've been doing these. i'm not sure if all the departments are doing those. we need to talk about the things that could lead to the types of things. at the end of the day, you want people to have successful careers and that will build that trust. i've told you a bit about the operational stress control. one of the key things about this -- and we did tailor it to the coast guard because obviously our missions are a little bit different, 11 of them is -- is that we've had people that have gone through these types of things in all different grade levels. we have master chiefs up there teaching this and saying, you know what? it is ok. these are things i've had to do and as you can see, i was very successful in the things i had

to do but i needed help in a certain point of my career. i didn't understand what was happening to me when these young people see that and hear that from people that have been very successful, they start -- you start earning that trust. they'll go seek that help s so -- but it'll take time. trust is earned. it'll take a lot of time, so, um i'll pass it on down. >> ok, great questions there ma'am. miss christina, thank you. not to be repetitive. you asked a question -- i'm going to focus my comments on the first question is that how do we have those conversations? i believe that we are having those conversations and we've been having them for some time. certainly much work to be done question. they're happening at all levels. obviously as a component of the united states army and the united states air force, go think a little bit than the national guard with some things. one of the things that i wanted to talk about was in the army national guard, we have what we call recruit sustainment program

so as soon as they enter the army national guard, we have them in this program before they get to go to basic training where we are having those conversations -- before they go to basic training where we are having those conversations. these are young men and women right off the streets, right out of high school. they may not have gotten the resiliency skills through parenting at home. we're having those conversations one-on-one with them. and the same for our airmen through our student flight. same concept. as soon as they enter the air national guard, we have them in a student flight and we're teaching them various things that one of them is how to be a resilient airmen. in both army and air, we're doing those things, we're having those very serious and harsh conversations, because quite frankly, they've probably not had those at home in many cases so we need to do that as their leaders, as their leadership at all levels so they may have an instructor that teaches them until they go to basic training in these two programs, but then we also have various level of leadership that rolls through those programs and also has those conversations with them as well.

and that's important. it's important to start right there. for us, it's pre, you know, basic training and then when go to basic training, they get again and all the way through, you know, until you reach a level like this. so those conversations are happening. we have many tools, many resources out there. quite frankly, i think there are probably enough resources. we need to fund and keep those very good programs that are working for us. we need to focus our energies on those -- on those programs and make sure that we have those available for us our people. 10 years trauma? you bet. you bet. 10 years. almost 11! up tempo. primo. mo. demo. reset and start all over again. that's the battle rhythm. that's been the battle are rhythm for every service across. now as we're coming out of iraq and coming out of afghanistan that operations tempo is going to reduce somewhat but we're going to keep going. so that -- that focus in

leadership, striking to the heart and having those conversations one-on-one, eyeball-to-eyeball at the lowest level to the highest level is important. and we're going to continue to need -- we're going to continue to have our leaders focused in those areas and engage all servicemembers and our families, because quite frankly, they're our first line of defense when we come home from the battlefield. they're our first line of defense and to take it a step further for our national guard soldiers and airmen that are part-time, they're employed in the communities we need to get to our employers as well, because they need to be our battle buddy and our wingman in the civilian sector as well they need to understand what to look for, the signs, the symptoms and how to ask those tough questio questions. so we're -- we have initiatives working with our employers as well. i think that's a very important part as well. thank you. >> since i see folks lining up at the microphone, i'm going to

keep this really short, real quick, just to add to the conversation, you've said something about having the conversation, how do we do that and suck it up and drive on? so, um, suck it up and drive on there's a limit to everything, and i'm going to tell you, the star major of the army, he's talking to us as an army and telling us we need to go back to basics when he talks about that, he's talking about getting back into knowing your truth, knowing your people -- knowing your troops, knowing your people, caring about them, letting them know that they're important, um, you know, it's very simple. and we have kind of gotten away from that a little bit because of the 10 years of war and the high uptempo, so getting back to basics and knowing our people, got to know their limitations. so the suck-it-up and drive-on, you're right, some people can do that and others can't. you have to know your folks. having the conversations, got to be able to get in their face. got to be able to have the

conversation. it's just like today, um, th the -- the message i got yesterday about a soldier committing suicide, you know, those examples is what we go back to our organization and talk about. it's not the best-kept secret. it's not a secret. we have to talk about those things and let folks really kind of think about what happened there. so, um, that's just my comment on that just to add to the other folks. >> ok. >> go ahead. >> i'll keep this short really quick, um, i think i'll answer yours a little more on the leadership and the stigma side. we're getting this from the leadership from the top down from the commandant of the marine corps himself when he tells marines it's ok to not be ok, breaking that particular stigma. the way we're breaking that stigma is through education. and continually teaching marines about -- about stress, how to deal with stress, but i think more importantly, um, having that concerned intrusive leadership. it's one thing to just walk up

and ask a person, "hey, how are you doing today?" but it's really difficult -- and i'm sure most you will agree -- the difficult piece about that is looking a person in the eye and literally asking them "are you thinking of killing yourself?" getting that message out there and communicating. i'm going to leave it at that. that's where we're at with that thing. >> back to me. i'll have to say something. um, most of it has already been covered. i have a lot of notes here to answer what was an excellent question and a lot of things that i could go in different directions, but i think the key has been said again and again and again is for leadership and fellow sailors to understand and know their people. as a chief in the united states navy, we grew up in a world where we were taught to in every signature in my charts book, take care of your troops. take care of your troops. take care of your troops. that means knowing them. in my world, having experienced suicide as a li leader in the united states navy -- suicide as a leader in the united states navy and almost in every case the post part in the interview

where people did see signs, they knew the person was having financial trouble and were showing up late for work, intrusive leadership. they're writing down in people's evaluations in the navy. there used to be a term that was taken the wrong way it means any of those leaders needed to get in there like mom and dad -- because our young men and women of the united states navy represent the best that this country has to offer. the best 1% that are available to join the service. but many of them don't come from your typical mom-and-dad home. therefore, their first experiences with their recruiter followed by their recruit division commanders that serve as their moms and dads so boot camp often the problems aren't identified as easily because they're in an environment that's controlled. and it's typically occurring at the a-schools and c-schools when the little freedom part comes. that's where the c-sad program i mentioned comes in and the 10 other phenomenal programs, because we know we've but putt a web of other programs -- we've

put a web off programs today. that with the intrusive leadership and the chiefs getting in there and getting in their face and saying let me see your budget. did you talk to your mom and dad today? when was the last time you took vacation? the things we don't think about because we're at war for 11 years, but all of those are key factors in getting to that program and every case is different. >> all right, thank you, panel. um, i'm going to apologize, um, to those folks who are waiting to ask more questions. let's -- let's hold on right now just for a second on the q&a, because i still have, um, another portion of -- that needs to be added to the panels up here. as i'm bringing, um, another, um senior enlisted adviser to the panel. um and it is my great privilege and pleasure, um, to bring up here the senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the senior

commissioned officer in the u.s. armed forces, united states marine corps sergeant major bryan battaglia. please. [ applause ] >> well, good morning, everyone. and, again, i apologize for the lack of time or the time we ran out to ask questions. we'll make these panelists available after the fact if you wish to come up and address your questions at that time as well. before we wrap this up, i think it's a great place to yet again throw out a much-deserved thanks to the v.a., d.o.d., deco team and also supporting elements and sponsors in making this conference really a reality. thank you, again, ladies and gentlemen, for all of your efforts there. ok, you can see that this is a slight twist to a normal panel format but, hey, there's not a whole lot of normalcy up here any way so it fits in nicely with our scheme of maneuver, i believe and what i'm hoping to do here by speaking on the heels of both of the service

services -- service's comments and the q&a is, one, now that you've heard on both monday and this morning the services' programs and intervention, and post efforts, i'll wrap up it from an armed forces standpoint and then share some thoughts and clarify a few things that i've picked up along the way especially during the course of this, um, conference as well. so my thoughts and observations are not meant to be critical and we're all, you know, big boys and girls and must have, you know, some thick skin but, um, i want to be sure that we help shape and prevent any administrative or strategic [ indiscernible ] in our efforts and in our continuing efforts to reduce ice is suicide in our military. i'm going to -- reduce suicide in our military. i'm going to start by poking myself in the chest. jennifer, if you'd be so kind to

play that video? ♪[ music ] over the years and specifically this year, suicides within our ranks and across the total force are sadly on the rise. as an ongoing effort in the reduction of suicide across our force, one of my priorities is the persistent and continued implementation of our resiliency programs that are targeted toward the servicemember, family unit and organization, working in concert with the senior enlisted advisers of the army, marines, navy, air force, coast guard and national guard, we're confident our various resiliency programs effectively guide us in methods to overcome adversity and sustain optimal performance from private to general, we shoulder an obligation to look and listen for signs and we stand ready to intervene and assist our fellow servicemember or battle buddy in time of need. let's turn this around and reduce suicides in our armed forces. i'd like to project three key

points and want to you remember the acronym n.o.w., n-o-w. no problem is too big that would drive to you use suicide as a solution. we'll find a better way and we can do it again. outreach for help is literally a fingertip away. whether it's pushing a button on a telephone, knocking on the chaplain's door or texting your team leader, help is readily available. lastly, we care. we clearly recognize that as members of this professional organization, you have committed to our country and we are committed to you. now is the time. stay fit. stay strong. stay resilience -- resilient. >> so -- ladies and gentlemen, maybe some of you have seen this before, and if you have, my apologies for, yet, again, putting you through more agony but, i show you this because of that message and acronym n.o.w. it's resonated very positively around the force, but a few have come back and, um, you know,

we're afraid that there's a portion of this acronym that's not being used to its fullest extent. while the o for outreach has got to work in order for us to get on the left side of one's decision cycle. when you hear comments like "i've tried to get help but waited for six hours in the waiting room." or "my first sergeant told me to stop wasting my time and if i'm going to do it, do it right," that means that the o is simply not effective and not working it causes the entire process to break down and raises the risk of -- for potential for injury and sadly death so as chief roy illewded to earlier, we do have work to do. -- eluded to earlier, we do have work to do it's not only educating our force on where to go and what to do, if they feel bad on how to educate our leaders, more importantly in the case of the first sergeant, holding those leaders accountable that take their leadership responsibilities in such a callus, unprofessional and irresponsible manner. those are, you know, he's

probably the exception rather than the rule. nevertheless, let me say that it's pretty easy to pick up on the heavy load of medical expertise within the course of this conference. but i hope you agree that it's going to take a combination, again, as eluded to earlier of both art and science to reduce suicides to maintain readiness, resiliency and wellness across our force. and so i feel that our resiliency programs, that our services have which are designed to provide a lot of the art, line leader engagement, offer those necessary ingredients to a daily menu in which our servicemembers or units or even families, um, build and sustain the toughness and ability to overcome adversity and maintain some degree of optimal performance. as you know, there's no magic one-size-fits-all balance. we're all different some need more than others. it's going to take participation from both the science and the art.

in our military cradle-to-grave life cycle, one just simply doesn't work without the other. jennifer, can i have that pinwheel, please? i cochampioned -- as some of you may know -- the total force fitness program this wheel is somewhat similar to what the services programs are. and as some of you may have seen this, it's what we usea in the armed forces as a guide and hopefully what will become part of our normal culture to maintain that very resiliency and readyness -- readiness throughout the force. as you've heard earlier, our services manage similar resiliency programs using this as the overarching model or template they use some or all of the eight domains you see listed around this wheel of fitness. we don't have enough time to deep dive into the inner workings of total force fitness but let me say that i'm confident that when our servicemembers and units and families and veterans fully immerse into a culture and a behalf behavior of a total force

fitness lifestyle, we will -- behavior of a total force fitness lifestyle we'll see reductions in suicide, divorce, crime, quicker recovery from injury, more use of complementary and alternative methods of wellness and more. i promote total force fitness because i use it. after my times overseas, i didn't know how unfit i was or how fit i could be until i digested this holistic design of resiliency. i and the leaders that join me on the stage here are no different from the average garden-variety servicemember, so if it works for someone like us, i know it could work for the force. let me bring up another topic and talk to you in reference to a few things that i've heard during the course of this conference, and things that, you know, may just not pass the sniff test, because it's important, ladies and gentlemen, that, again, our efforts here are so wide that with the many involved entities that it takes to bring the solutions together, we remained as synced as we possibly can.

since we're sitting below the national average, we as military aren't doing that bad in our quest to reduce ice isside. -- reducesy suicide. that's been a -- reduce suicide. that's been a quotation i heard. we simply can't afford that thinking. i differ from that analysis. -- analogy. i really enjoy the opportunity to talk to anyone who thinks that, you know, this way to try to convince you otherwise, because we shouldn't use the national average as any sort of measuring stick that our program is in any way a success. a failed suicide attempt is a success story. yes and no. yes, of course, because the attempt was, in fact, unsuccessful, and we still had that individual with us alive and breathing and another chance to get him or her immediate help

but, no, because in reality, we were too late. the decision or the act had already been executed and for me personally as a leader, i fail failed. by the grace of god or some other factor, i've been given hypothetically speaking, i've been given a second chance, but simply put, i was too late. so we should really learn from that and not only advise we use this at any sort of accolade to say, you know, an attempt was, in fact, a success. back to the basics, you've heard that several times here this morning and i'm sure you've heard that around the force. i know i have. and i like it, because it's a very catchy phrase. i've even used to myself. and i knew -- i knew what i meant when i said it, but to take it a step further, that's not how it was necessarily received. short answer, coming back to me, sergeant major, back to you.

whose basics? yours? because i don't know what those are. i wasn't around during your basics. some of you, you know, my age and beyond can certainly relate to that. so when we use a term like "back to the basics" let's just be sure that we clearly define what basics we exactly mean so we don't just complicate the matters. you heard on monday, dr. juner, talked about garrison leadership in an environment. that'll be extremely important. this is the environment where most of the basics we're all referring to will be applied and felt that basics could mean something different, perceived than projected. i bring to your attention words mean something. it'll tend to take a path of its own when not clearly defined. what basics are we really stating with regard to suicide reduction? i think we've touched on those pretty effectively. zero tolerance, um, i think

denise up here had mentioned zero tolerance. and certainly not the poke at her but here is a term that's been used even during the course of this conference through day one. and while i think we may understand the context of how it was meant for this specific -- for the specifics of this particular conference, i believe when one says or hears zero tolerance, others tend to associate it automatically with suicide or some sort of crime or in a similar matter with other zero tolerance things we have in our department such as illegal drugs and sexual assault. . .

i think it is largely than that. the community of military life, and the feeling of remaining attached, and the sense of continuing to belong should not stop a separation or retirement. career point in one's were actual ownership of the service now transfers to the veterans administration, but having the va and centers and art reached clinics in cities and towns play a significant role in this connection. -- outreach clinics in cities

and towns play sick of their role in this connection. what really opened my eyes was veterans not keen to this pharmacy orders thing we have been promoting and necessary to provide efficiencies and savings of money but happy and content with the traditional brick and mortar method of acquiring ones medicine. that is the function that brought them to the hospital were other veterans take out. for many the waiting time was a relevant and moot. again, back to the basics. when something is branched off and have a positive in traction, you bet it does. let me close out by saying we are definitely beating down stigma. we will stay after it. it may not be as bad as we would

, as we would like, but we will continue to chip away at it. within the confines of this conference, and in concert with international partners, i am confident, and i think a share this with my colleagues appear, that we will develop additio nal ideas. thank you to each and everyone of you for your longstanding commitment to our men and women in uniform. [applause] >> next, a suicide prevention conference. we will hear from the son of a football player who committed suicide after suffering from brain trauma. this is a little more than half an hour. >> it is a great pleasure to stand before you today. i am not a psychologist,

soldier, military -- military veteran, nor do i come from a military family, so many of you might ask, why am i here? i am here because i believe sharing my father's story is my duty. i am here because suicide is an enormous problem in our country. that is why i am here. for duty, honor, country. >> my father was not a patriot, he was a bear. in 1985, a group that called themselves the monsters of midway defeated the pages of new england in super bowl xx. my father's teammates and brothers were more than just football fans in the city of

chicago. there was group courage and team camaraderie. they epitomized manhood. every man wanted to smoke cigars and dodge tacklers. they embodied things larger than themselves and projected strength even in times of weakness. i would like to share with you some experiences from my childhood. for those of you who have ever been in a football locker room, my upbringing was filled with nfl-isms with my father sounding like a football coach at times. when i was late for church, he would say, urgency, urgency.

when i received a poor grade in school, son, you are only as good as your last play. right now, you are not very good. and of course when i disobey him, son, do you want to be a part of this team jim bank that was my father. a man for whom winning was the only option. his persona of perfection added a heavy burden. the truth of life is that losing is a part of it. we all lose something. our youth, our money. there is no scoreboard. winners and losers come and go. there is always hope. hope is a small word with a larger meaning. for when hope is lost, all is lost. tiberi 17, 2011, was the day -- february 17, 2011, was the day

my father lost hope. he wrote of suspicions of a brain disease and listed his symptoms. memory loss, mood swings, and depression. he asked to give his brain to the nfl. i donated his brain to boston university. i thought it did not share with my family his symptoms, nor did he tell us he was depressed. he hit his feelings, thoughts, and worries by projecting a persona of strength. i wish my father knew that in order to be strong, you have to be weak. in order to be found, you must first be lost. [applause]

this past year for my family has been difficult. it has been a year of healing and a year of reflection. i have found comfort in the words of others, particularly one man who is no stranger to us. robert f. kennedy. moments after the assassination of martin luther king -- he shared a poem. even in our sleep, pain we cannot forgets, until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of god. in times of despair, we search for an instant cure, as if there is a magic wands, formula, or secret.

recovery takes time. each of us has our contradictory. it is filled with ups and downs, leading us on a never-ending road. there is no closure, only wisdom. we will never be what we were. we must focus on what we can be. over the course of my recovery a major part of my healing can do the -- from the scientific findings of boston university. they concluded that my father suffered from a brain disease linked to a concussion. the neurologists were able to conclude that he suffered from short-term memory loss and loss of other executive functions. these findings answered many of my family's personal questions. with suicide, the question of what if it is persistent.

rather than succumb to what if, i am consumed with answering the question, what now? we face an enormous and complex problem. suicide remains hidden in the shadows of myth and shame. those we wish to help will be our biggest obstacle. suicide is preventable. depression is treatable. if only those who are lost would seek guidance. for those who refuse help because of fear, because of shame -- in the battle of fear and shame, the friend, a son, daughter is the best weapon. whenever we reach out to our fellow man in moments of despair, we send for it ripples

of hope. in time, ripples of hope will cross other ripples of hope and build into a tidal wave of love. a tidal wave of love can sweep down the mightiest depression. we must never give in to the dark hands of depression. my father's last message to me was negative boss leads to negative consequences. he left me a verse from my own battle with life. they who wait for the lord shall renew thy strength. they shall walk and not faint. isaiah 40:31. thank you. [applause]

>> thank you, tregg. i am mike turner, the vice president of mental health america. we are the oldest community- based organization focused on mental health and mental health issues in the united states. we are 103 years old this year. we were founded by a gentleman who was in voluntarily committed and was appalled by what he found in the asylum system and dedicated himself to ending stigma associated with mental health conditions. tregg came to our chicago

affiliate and carol called me and said, this guy is great. you need to get us involved nationally. he is our new national spokesperson. he does not know that yet. [applause] [laughter] we are proud and fortunate to have him indeed. we advocated on behalf of those who live with a mental health condition. we educate the public about the harm, often mortal harm, stigma does in this country regarding mental-health problems. we serve 37 states. we are proud of that mission. i our symbol is the bell of hope. it sits in our lobby. in 1953 when they shut down the asylum system, we were sent the

change in shackles that were used to restrain patients to the wall. we had those chains and shackles melted down and forge into this 300 pound bell. we bring it on special occasions because the message of that bell is to end stigma, and it now. statement kills, especially in the u.s. military. we have to address it every day. i want to read you some excerpts from our web site. we have a live web site. you can go on and talk about what is on your mind. there are different categories. i went into the section on suicide and suicidal ideation. these are people who attempted suicide. from a forgotten father in

washington. i had had difficult times with relationships. i keep everyone at a distance, even those i know i can trust. i can count the number of people i trust on one hand. even with those people, there are doubts. from a woman who lost her son in a boating accident. the doctors wrote me prescriptions for medication andfor the first few years. i began to try some of them, but i could not remember to take them. i could not even remember to eat when i was hungry. intermission. reads this to please listen. remember that we are all unique entered -- unique individuals. what is important to you may not

be important to them. listen to your spouse, listen to your co-workers, listen. i did not have anyone to listen to me and no one would have ever heard my voice again. tregg's father bent the curve in the nfl on the seriousness of traumatic brain injury. he contributed things to the sport and his family. nha believes there is a unique opportunity in american history and in our culture that is an extraordinarily helpful opportunity. you can go into any community and go and use the term ptsd and people will know what you are talking about. we cannot blow this opportunity. we cannot miss this chance. we can raise the bar for ever in american society.

mental health conditions are the number one most debilitating chronic condition in the world today. the united states leads the rest of the world. we can really make a difference. the focus is on wellness, prevention, resilience, and recovery. we have something called to the wellness circle. there are three stages, treatment, recovery, wellness. if you are in the green section of that circle, it is ludicrous

for you to point across the circle to someone in the deal -- the blue section with a finger of stigma. it really hopeful aspect of a circle is the fact that no matter where you are in the circle, if you ask the right person can seek out the right help, you can find the path back to wellness. i came on board just under three years ago. a retired air force colonel. i worked with the wounded warrior project before i came to mha. i said, we have to be in this space. there is amazing white noise about mental-health and how to respond in an efficient way. we are not addressing that issue. we have been trying for 10 years to do it we have to try to do this. there are so many players in the space. there is so much white noise in

the space. we cannot simply be another program and another effort and more noise that takes up more resources. they said, let's have a conference. we had a one day conference. we brought everybody together that we could think of who have any stake in this game. the author of the 2008 rand study was there. umdnj of new jersey was there. an expert in peer counseling was there. we start off with what we thought was an effective model to bridge the gap between this need and what we thought were enough resources after 10 years of war to meet that need and the gap in between. we said, we do not have a hidden agenda in this conference. by lunchtime, all 35 people had told us this is the dumbest idea we have ever heard.

after lunch, i said, what are we going to do? he said, let's start over. we started the afternoon with, what do we agree on after that conference, i hit the road and we visited our talked about or examine or studied what we thought were a 11 successful national programs that are addressing this issue with an eye toward what are the best practices. the results of that year of travel have resulted in what we are calling the bell of hope project. it is going to be our signature project in the the military unity for as far forward as i

can see. based on some of the things we have seen at this conference, we believe there is still a gap between population needs and the services that are being delivered. what is interesting is that i think the need is growing in the available services and resources are growing. the resources on either end are getting bigger and bigger. while they are getting bigger and bigger, the center point of those circles are moving farther apart. there is a larger gap between these communities and the military that i have seen in my lifetime. the gap between the circles is roughly the same. this piece in here is where we need the help. let me give you a couple of stories to illustrate that gap. i was in charge of the carrier, france.

we were fortunate to have the care giver project that we spearheaded. we brought 18 caregivers of severely disabled that risk severely -- severely disabled veterans and we had representatives that were familiar with all the programs available to caregivers of severely disabled veterans. all of those representatives talked about all the programs in place to help those caregivers and all of the progress they made to help those care givers. at the end of the hour, one of the caregivers raised her hand and said, i think i speak for all of the care givers in this room when i tell you, we do not have a clue about what you are talking about. some of the senior officials in that room canceled meetings. they talked about, how can we

bridge the gap. the second story happens in october. one of the places we went was the indiana national guard, -- national guard armory. it is about 5 miles up the highway. we had a slot for david and i to explain the project to 200 national guard members and their families. i leaned over and said, this could be a huge thud. i do not want you to get your hopes up. we did our presentation. they kept us 45 minutes after the scheduled one our talk. let me give you some of the comments. the first person stood up and said, we know we have mental health issues.

we are not ashamed to say that. we talk about it all the time. what i really need help with is day care because i cannot find any and i do not know where to turn to get debt -- get day care help. you are defer to organization in 10 years to talk to us about mental health. this illustrates the gap we have to address in order to make practical reality and the wonderful practices and programs i have seen evidence in this conference. we feel strongly that the solution is not a top down solution. i do not know how anybody works in the aid. you are walking around with target all over your front end -- i do not know how anyone works in the va. everybody i have met is professional, world class, top- notch.

[applause] i do not the least -- i do not believe va and d.o.d. should be charged with solving this problem. we are losing this generation from the military community because we have not yet solved this problem. we must ban this curve in a significant way and we have to do it now. i went on the va web site last night. as of 2010, there are 22.7 million vets in the united states. 37% are enrolled in the va health care system. of those enrolled, 47% availed themselves of outpatient care. that means 17% of veterans use

va services. how do we solve that problem? i think it is incumbent on the civilian community to stop putting yellow ribbons on their bumpers and stand up at the community level and start to solve this problem. an interesting side note. 21% of the people enrolled did not know they were enrolled. if everything we have talked about worked perfectly, you have reached 70% of the affected the veteran population. that does not count dependence. another conclusion we have

reached over the last year is that integrated care is the answer. early in the process. we think the best way to respond with a suicide prevention protocol is not to respond when suicidal ideation is indicated. it is when someone stands up and says, i need day care. how do i get that? that is when we stand up and address suicide prevention. only america's communities can solve this.

i have been asking since 1997. america's communities have been trying desperately to do that. they are competing with ever dwindling resources. i have been in the nonprofit business since 1997. every nonprofit is fighting to and nail for every penny we can get. here is what came out of the conference in february of 2011. peers work. does everyone remember the compelling story that was told? it started with a peer connection. peers work. they need to be trained. they need to be certified to a national standard.

hopefully, we will now hold funding from a foundation that ask us to design and implement the first peer training organization. peers work. peers navigate. their principal function is to navigate at the community level. it is not about being a peer specialist or mental health. it is about entering every single need. they need to know what is available in every sector of service. when that member says i need day care, the peers says, i got it. i will get you take care and we will follow up until you get it. local community collaboration.

the community is trying to collaborate and create a blueprint on how you collaborate on community services. it is an important function. retired, active duty. they need to have access to an online resources director in their community that rates the services available. it tells what insurance plans day except, what is my point of contact. are you excepting new clients. i have had 25 people rates this 3 stars out of five. those functions have to exist at the local community level so there is an easier way to find what community resources are available. we need a really aggressive outreach program. the man took his life in 2007. a congressman from new jersey got a bill passed.

i went and talked to the man's wife and said, i want to make sure we do not duplicate efforts and do not solve the problem because we are turning around in circles like a lot of us tend to do. she really appreciated the visit. i went to the vet to vet program in new jersey. it is a 10 minute hard drive from the man's front door. that is only going to be solved by organizations that exist and have name recognition at the community level.

based on our conference findings over these 11 years, we believe solutions should be based on four principles. peer navigation have to lie at the heart of it. peers can overcome the stigma. it is the friend at the front door. delivery of integrated services. measurable outcomes. if i cannot measure it, it is not a success. if you hear about a program in a community -- we get this all the time. people are already doing that. i asked three questions. how many clients that you helped? what are the long term outcomes for that client? what does your client feel about the help you have provided? if you cannot answer those three questions, you cannot claim success. anything you do have to have a measurable and outcome. local flexibility perry it is not one size fits all. it is one size fits one. there has to be skeletal

structure that enables the butterflies to fly in formation. we want to get everybody moving in the same direction in a way that you can pour a unique community resources into that frame work and have them the most efficient. ideally, we would like to start with the military community. this template will work for all social services. americans are ready to hear this message. if i can have the slide up please. this is what we call the community guidon model. they have worked with us to expand it and make it more generic. it is to create a national network of peer navigators' using this model. it is comprised of six ranges of service. you can consider the inner ring

the most important and the outer ring the least important. if you say, have you implemented the community guidon model, they say, no, not yet. the university of michigan has a terrific peer program. they need to be backed up by military technicians. they have mapped every active duty guard, reserve, an independent in every county in the united states. they have also backed military clinicians. they are continuing to do that -- they have also mapped military clinicians. they need to be managed by a database that allows continuous follow-up. the best model we have found is probably community blueprint.

the community blueprint told us it is difficult to get community resources to collaborate with each other. they need to be divided into sectors of service. short-term needs and workforce development. i have behavioral health and physical health. we had to combine that because i realize i was inviting out types of health. let me give you a quick statistic. the peer program's hallmarks is they have great statistics. 78% did not come for mental health needs. they came for a career needs. 73% had more than one sector of can they needed help with.

only 16% initially cut the system for a mental health need. annual community cost without peer navigator, $6.9 million. at a community cost with peer navigator, $200,000. we need to do it at the community level. we need your help and we need your money. this is a compelling need. it will be solved at the local community level, not from the top down. thank you all for your attention. >> now the head of the substance abuse administration who. this is about 20 minutes.

>> good morning. i need to do better about myit is good to be with the department of defense and all the parts of the military who are working on issues that we care a lot about. we are interested in the issue of suicide nationwide and preventing that issue. i want to take just a minute to set a larger context. after two or three days at a conference like this you may have heard most of this. these are 2008 data. i am sure you know this by now. suicide is the 10th leading cause of death of all americans. that is too much. the 2009 data are getting worse. we anticipate in terms of what the trajectory looks like, 2010 is not getting any better.

the tough reality about suicide for us is that it is not just deaths from suicide. the deaths from suicide in our country exceed the deaths from traffic fatalities and hiv/aids. unfortunately, whether for our kids or for adults -- certainly people in the military and their families -- the people who have serious thoughts of suicide and the people who make a plan and the people actually attempt suicide, those numbers are astronomical. 90% of the people who died by suicide have a mental disorder, many times on identified. is suicide rate among people with major depression is 8 times that of people without.

20% of individuals who die by suicide are veterans. those numbers are not precise, but that is too many veterans dying from that cause. we know that suicide is connected to its substance abuse. 32% of those who die by suicide have a blood alcohol level above the legal limit. these are increasing concerns in dealing with those issues. our young people, this is an age group that has bigger issues and less willingness to do something about it or reach out for help.

that is true for the age group of 18-25. between 15-25, suicide is the third leading cause of death. this is a high priority issue for families. the other thing we are looking at is how the health care system deals with people who might be depressed or have anxiety disorders or ptsd or other kinds of issues that may precede suicide. a lot of people go to an inpatient unit and when they leave, they continue to be at higher risk for suicide. the connections are not done. we are trying to think about how we get to people who have attempted suicide one or more times and are leaving our care

systems without good connections to post care. we also know there are missed opportunities. there are a lot of people who go to their primary care physicians. 45% of the people hadn't visited their primary-care doctors within the last -- people had this is it their primary care doctors within the last month. seldom was the question of

suicide or related issues raised. the national action alliance for suicide prevention was launched a couple of years ago by secretary sebelius and gates. the idea was to champion suicide as a national health priority and makes suicide a non-event. we are working on a national strategy for suicide prevention. it was done in 2001 and we are working hard to get the update out by this fall. the public-private partnerships for the suicide action line is senator gordon smith, who is the national association of broadcasters ceo. the national suicide strategy has got four strategic directions.

we are looking at a healthy and empowering families and communities to get the word out and get people to look at community and clinical preventive services. we are looking at surveillance, research, and education. we have a number of federal agencies and departments working with us. one of the task forces are military personnel, their family members, and other parts of the military. we are collaborating on lots within the veterans administration. we are doing a lot of work on sharing resources. the veterans administration has adopted steps in creating a training video. they are updating the suicide prevention gatekeeper training and we are participating in a group to develop d.o.d. and joint clinical practices to prevent suicide.

the military has been a part of the world that is involved in cutting a work that we have been able to use over the decade in communities. we are pleased with that. we also have work going on with tri-care and do some pilots there. there is a lot of work going on between samhsa and the military. i am pleased with the interrelationship we have on these issues. there is much more i can say. but my joy in job is to introduce the secretary. i think i see her down there. secretary, i think we got the memo about the colors today. it is a good thing. i want to introduce my boss.

i have worked for lots of governors and mayors and political leaders in mike lee -- my career. none of them are as focused and committed to the right things as secretary sebelius. she is implementing reforms that have ended many of the insurance industry's worst abuses and it will help americans get health coverage. she is working with doctors, lawyers, hospital leaders, employers, and patients to slow the growth of health care costs. she has called on all of us to collaborate at the federal level with states, tribes, communities, with federal partners to make america healthy and be the most efficient and effective government agency we can be. she is a strong supporter of behavioral health as part of this effort and leads the charge on the message that prevention works, treatment is effective, and people recover. please join me in welcoming secretary sebelius. [applause] >> good morning, everyone.

i am pleased to have a chance to be part of this important conference. i want to start by recognizing what our great health leaders, pam hyde, who leads this important agency on substance abuse and mental health services. as she said, our strategy is not only to look at the cutting edge research and best practices, but actually to collaborate and leverage assets across the federal government. i have been really pleased at the level of cooperation and

collaboration with two of the military partners. secretary sinn secchi -- secretary shinsecki and janet kemp and secretary leon panetta who will follow me because he has a deep and personal interest in this area. i do not think there is any more important work than taking care of those who have stood up to protect our nation. men and women in uniform put their lives on the line for us and we need to be there for them when they return. what we know about being snapshot of soldiers today is that they carry an especially heavy burden and have over the last decade. longer deployments, more frequent redeployments, shorter

blake's -- shorter breaks between. the pressure has been not only on the active-duty military, but on their families. tragically, as a consequence, we have seen suicide rates continue to rise. the defense department and the veterans administration has taken this crisis on and made it a top priority. it is possibility of meeting the mental health needs of our service members lies with the entire country. the people who fight and defend our freedom need help. we all have an obligation to make sure they get it. in 2010, i join secretary robert gates and don mccue -- and the then secretary of the army to launch the the national suicide prevention department. in our department, that has

meant working to make life saving services more accessible to people in crisis. we operate the national suicide prevention lifeline number. a national network of crisis call centers for those experiencing a suicide crisis or in serious emotional distress. last fall, the lifeline recede its 3 millionth call. knowing we had this large network in place, the va reached out to us and we formed a partnership. veterans and their families who called the life line can press number 1 to be connected to the veterans crisis line. it is available in a number of european countries.

in just the first five months of this year, over 85,000 lifeline calls were answered by deep veterans crisis line. our department has also organized a series of academies to bring together a community leaders, and veterans officials to team up and share best practices. one example is a program known as operation emersion, an initiative that brought health- care providers to a national base where they live like soldiers for one day. they eat mre's and meet with soldiers of every rank and their families to hear about military culture, like on the front line, and what it is like to be back home. that has given health care providers an in-depth understanding of what service members are actually going

through and help them provide better care. operation emersion started in tennessee. when organizers brought it to what our policy academies, it sparked a lot of interest. we flew representatives from other states to tennessee where they experienced operation emersion themselves. now a number of them have replicated this program in their own communities. one of the things we are trying to do and will continue to do is find best practices and help them come up the scale throughout the country. are all to goal is to work in support of states together with the department of defense and the betterment administration to create a system where there is

no -- veterans administration to create a system where there is no wrong door. no matter where they go, they get the care they need. we are teaching doctors how to screen for ptsd. we want to give state officials be state -- the technical support they can use to connect service members and veterans to local services like child care, employment, and peer support networks. we are helping community and federal agencies collect in shared data so that we can get services to communities where they are needed most.

the thing that ties all of these efforts to gather is the commitment to care for the whole person. we want to make sure people stop making distinctions between behavioral health and physical health. i know that all of you feel the same way. i am a former governor. i was governor of kansas. my adjutant general was the adjutant general of the kansas army and air national guard. he took seriously the effort to address the mental health needs of returning national guard men and women. he used to talk to me about how when a soldier is going into the field, how he would take his tank and run a check on the vehicle. making sure the guns are operational. making sure they have all of the correct ammo.

we would never send that machine into the field unless it checked out. but we actually were not taking the same care of service men and women who were in that tank and guiding that machine. in this administration, we are committing to ensuring that we meet the full needs of our returning service members and veterans. this is exactly the important, lifesaving works so many of you do every day. we want to help give you the support to keep doing it and doing it well. i want to thank you for sharing your experience and expertise at this conference this week. all were men and women in uniform, veterans and their families, have given so much to defend this nation. by giving them the support they need to stay healthy, we honor their service and fulfil our shared responsibility. at the department of health and

human service, we regard this as a priority initiative and looked over to our ongoing partnership. thank you very much. [applause] >> and minnesota congressman talked about divisions in congress and key education topics. interest rate on student loans will double by july 1 if congress cannot find an agreement. good both agreed they want to move forward on student loans, but they cannot agree how to do so. >> this weekend, details on fast and furious. >> this was swept under the rug.

there are hundreds of innocent mexican citizens who have been murdered as a result of this, but the only thing we knew that the guns from american gun dealers were going into mexico and causing all these problems with the cartel, when the government was sanctioning these and sending them into mexico. >> she is interviewed by major garrett sunday night at 9:00 this weekend on c-span 2. >> the republican u.s. senate candidates in texas are running on a july 31 runoff. the former solicitor who said crews answer david -- ted cruz and david dewhurst face-off. dewhurst is being supported by

rick perry, while cruz is being supported by sarah palin. none of the candidates got 50% of the vote to win the nomination. this is just under an hour. >> i believe the republican party is based on fiscal responsibility and less intrusion in your private lives. >> i want to see is somebody with some backbone, somebody with some spine. good >> liberty is under assault in this country, and taxes are rising up to say no. -- texans are rising up to say no. >> i am the most fiscally conservative governor in the state of texas. >> and why you think i should vote for you?

perhaps welcome to the texas debates, race to the u.s. senate. give we are broadcasting live from dallas and online. i will be the moderator during the next hour as we bring the first debate. ted cruz is a former harvard graduate, and solicitor general. good he is a private attorney in houston. david graduated from the university of arizona and started a successful energy company based in houston he has served as lieutenant governor since 2003. the candidates will be answering questions posed by voters fed up

been following their campaigns. goross ramsey is the executive editor for the texas tribune. thank you so much for being here. we have agreed to some who rules. based on the coin toss, the first question goes to ted cruz. >> more than 11 million undocumented people are in this country. do you support or oppose supporting them. do you support a guest worker program for which a number of them qualified as laid out in the state republican party platform? >> thank you for being here. the question you raise touches on a crisis that our nation is facing. we have a crisis and illegal

immigration. neither party is serious about solving the party. we need to do three things. we need to do everything possible to secure the border. the reason there are ample -- 11 million people here illegally is the federal government has fallen down on its job of securing our borders. i am opposed to amnesty. it is contrary to rule of law and it is unfair to the billions of legal immigrants who waited in line and came here legally. we need to remain a nation that does not just welcome but celebrates legal immigrants who follow the rules and come here seeking the american dream. last week obama implemented a back door amnesty policy. it is lawless, unconstitutional, and wrong. the constitution explicitly -- >> would you like to answer the question? the question was about a guest worker program. >> i do not support a guest worker program. i do not support expansion's unless and until we support -- secure our border. we have been listening to politicians talk about it and

they have not gotten the job done. >> of illegal immigration is a serious problem that combined with dangerous drugs that are coming into taxes, transnational gains. the federal government has done a terrible job in turning to secure our border. i do not support a guest worker program and never have until and unless congress addresses this. only after we have secure our border. i have been recommending we need to triple the size of our border patrol. it is understaffed. by tripling in we would be adding 40,000 more border patrol. that is an opportunity for 40,000 more veterans coming back from afghanistan and iraq to help secure our border. because we have been running search operations in taxes over six years, that will stop illegal immigration.

>> how do you deal with people already here, more than 11 million people? >> we need to do a couple of things. eliminate sanctuary cities. there are cities where these laws are not enforced. i will point out this is an area of my opponent and i disagree. he was responsible for killing the bill that would have prohibited century cities. we need to and the benefits for those here illegally. i opposed in-state tuition for illegal aliens. this again is an area of disagreement. >> neither statement is true. i passed an anti century city bill and i have always opposed benefits in-state tuition for illegals.

we have to address -- the federal government is incapable of doing two things at once. we will have to triple the size of our border control. then and only then should congress address these issues. >> would you like to respond any further to the question about deportation? >> america is a country of laws. we need to enforce all of our laws. >> thank you very much. the second question comes from ross ramsey. >> should the federal government have bailed out general motors? >> absolutely not. the government should be staying out of picking winners and losers. when they do get involved we end up with something like so linda -- $532 million loss. the federal government should be focused on its problems.

washington is broken. texas is a good example of what a good government should look like. i am proud as a lifelong businessman to have come to austin to help create the texas miracle. i want to take that miracle -- the strongest economy in the country. i want to take it to washington and get our country back to work. >> of course we should not have. we have a problem in washington. we have career politicians that spend the tax payer money. that is how we got into 16 trillion dollar debt bankrupting our country. i do not support bailouts. i do not support the bill out of auto companies or banks. they should not be in the business of spending taxpayer money to help private corporations. the role of government is to protect our rights. to secure rule of law and to stay out of the way and let on to print your -- entrepreneurs make jobs. >> what would you have done with the 2500 or more jobs that would have been lost in

arlington had the federal government not billed out general motors? what's at the end of the day we do not know what jobs would have been lost. there may be people who come in and acquire assets and deploy it elsewhere. that sort of question always assumes that the money from the government comes from nowhere. i would ask the same question. all of those billions of dollars -- the $900 billion plan, the money came from the taxpayers. every dollar was not in the private sector creating jobs and across many more jobs that were saved by the bailouts. >> one of the things i am proud of is the texas miracle that i did not do it alone. i played a large role.

taking my business skills to austin and creating not only the strongest economy in the entire country but the fastest growing job base. in a situation where there might be as my opponent had mentioned the -- might be some layoffs, we need to continue to do everything we can to grow our state. to encourage more investment. this model right here in texas works and it will work in washington. >> thank you very much. when we ask our voters about issues important to them, they had strong opinions about improving the economy. >> our next senator, we want him to be concerned with how our future will play out when we are done with school. this candid and said we are going to make it so we can have jobs. >> the government does it, everything it can to reduce

regulation. we do need regulation, but it is crushing business. >> we need to get our economy on a track where we can grow. gartne>> i believe we have a question for our candidate. >> good evening. >> one in three young people are unemployed, and over a third are living at home with their parents. we have over a trillion dollars in student loan debt. what would you do to make sure we can pay our bills?

prices of crisis affecting young people. for the last three years president obama has waged oran jobs. -- now war on jobs. i plan to stop the offshore drilling moratorium, to repeal dog-strength. -- dog-franc -- dodd-frank. dykes just look at the contrast between washington and texas. here in texas, over the last nine years, i have been involved in cutting spending by billions of dollars. washington has increased spending. goowashington wants to increase

taxes. i have balance done whichd out increasing taxes. -- i have a balance the budget without increasing taxes. my first day in the senate i will move to repeal obamacare. >> only 16 weeks of benefit from the beginning of the year. the support more unemployment composition -- compensation? >> i do not. i do not think the answer is to create more people dependent on government. the answer is to get policies out of the way. the problem is we see

politicians, and they talk a good game. what he does not mention is he has repeatedly cut deals with democrats. when he was elected there was a $72 billion increase, larger than inflation. taxes have gone up 49% since he has been lieutenant governor, and all of us are tired of politicians that talk a good game but keep spending more money, and that is what is destroying jobs. >> thank you for saying that. one of your big supporters put out a statement on taxes and said the state of texas leads the country and is exemplary.

i also pointed out the inflation and population growth exceeded the increase in our budget so are state spending has gone down you're a good i am proud of the fact that by cutting taxes you grow revenue, so you have more revenue going int. this is what happened in the 1980's under president reagan when he cut the marginal federal income taxes on -- and the revenues dramatically increase. >> we have been talking to the voters, and they tell us what they want from the next senator is integrity. get let's listen to your good

>> i want to see someone who has integrity common who has a good record of the things they have done to protect our freedoms. >> i want to see a man who does not compromise what our country was founded on. good >> i would like to see character. good or we are known as people of our word. i am not looking for somebody who wants to get along. i am looking for somebody who is going to go to washington to do what the people of taxes sent them to do. >> this goes to doewhurst first. is there anything your opponent has done that shows that he lacks the integrity? >> we need men and women of integrity, that are consistent,

that will do what we say, and i am going to leave that to the voters of texas. i am proud of the fact that we have a record of doing exactly what i say i am going to do. i have never compromised my conservative principles. i have negotiated to try to get the requisite number of votes so we can pass the bills, but i have never compromised my conservative principles. >> i will leave the judgment of character to the voters, but our campaign has been focused on a straight forward comparison of having spent a lifeline -- a lifetime fighting to protect the constitution, and his reputation of compromising with democrats,

increasing taxes. they talk a great game, yet they keep spending more and more money. it was interesting a minute ago when we were talking about taxes, and he said he had cut taxes 51 times. that may be true, but he had one big tax increase, which was introduced under his leadership , jacked up the taxes in texas, was sold to the voters as a way to lower property taxes, get one year later the property taxes were even higher, and it did take 49%. >> is this an integrity issue? >> i think what the voters care about is what the record is of each candidate. i did find it amusing the lieutenant governor is not here to attack me, given that he has spent his own money running false nasty attack ads. my ads were going to stay on the record, comparing his record with mine.

>> let's give him time to respond. >> i am not going to respond to the fact you have your washington insiders and all your washington special interests who spends millions of dollars saying untrue things about me. i think it is important that when we talk about facts -- we should put them on the table. from cutting taxes 51 times and property taxes by 1 1/3. i want to reduce taxes and get the state government out of your way. >> thank you. >> we are going to ask each of you to pose a question to each other based on a coin toss.

>> you have been widely criticized for opposing a state wide wage tax. your response is to call your critics of liars. did you support a payroll tax. yes or no. is that a good idea? >> no and no. i've never supported a wage tax or a payroll tax. >> that is very interesting. we have over two dozen that newspaper artles according to lt. gov. supporting the payroll tax. >> we all make decisions and life. i trust that you respect mine.

when you got out of college and made a decision to go to harvard law school. when i got out of college i joined the air force. i came back and formed a business from scratch. what about your background to you think makes you more qualified to be the next united states senate toward? >> i believe i've spent a lifetime fighting for the constitution on a national level.

we led the nation defending the constitution and the conservative principles. whether it was the pledge of we stood up to the united nations in defending the united states sovereignty. we need a fighter and that is what i've spent a lifetime doing. >> we now have a question for the lieutenant governor. >> social security is out of balance. you either have to increase the money coming in or reduce the money going out. how would you fix it? >> all about entitlements are broken. this is one of our problems with politicians. they will not tell the truth. our unfunded mandates are a 80 trillion dollars.

social security is broken. we need to start funding social security. we need to honor the contract and our obligations. we have to raise the retirement age on a staggering basis. we have to adjust and consider means testing. >> when you say consider that, what are you specifically looking at? >> congress has to take a look at whether or not people earning over a certain amount of money, even if they made contributions to social security, whether they would continue to receive those payments or on a voluntary

basis. social security is bankrupt and we have got to figure out how to make it solvent. >> would you accept social security? >> under the conditions of today, no. >> we have a crisis in spending. the democrats are being grossly irresponsible by not stepping forward to save social security. those on social security or near retirement should have no changes whatsoever. we should honor those commitments. for younger workers, many of us do not think it will be here for us in the first place. three changes can save a going forward. gradually increasing the retirement age, setting the rates of increase so it matches

inflation, and for younger workers, allow us to keep a portion of our security taxes in a private personal account that we control and can pass on to our kids and grandkids. what is needed is leadership to step in and solve the problem. >> what you think of means testing? >> it is one possible solution that should be on the table. >> we need to do what ever is necessary to save the program. >> paul ryan. they were running ads showing him being thrown off a cliff. what we need on this issue and everything else is leaders with courage to stand for conservative principles and to take the vilification of the left.

>> thank you. arnett said will find himself in the battle over health care. >> we need to find free-market solutions for the challenges of the health-care system and set of finding out socialized medicine system. >> i want to see that they make medicare and social security better for health insurance. >> we've got to do something about growth and entitlement spending. >> we have a question now. >> texas has the highest residence for health insurance. if the supreme court overturns

part of the federal health care law, what would you do about this? >> with respect to obama care, it is very likely that the supreme court will leave some of it in place and get rid of some of it. if that happens, it will throw the mess into the laps of congress. the first bill that i intend to introduce to the senate is a bill to repeal every syllable of obama care. i intend to lead the fight to get that done. i think we should repeal it in its entirety. we need fundamental reform that moves towards a market-oriented solutions. we need to allow the interstate purchase of health insurance so we have a national market.

we need to expand health savings accounts and the link health insurance from employment. >> if obama care is declared unconstitutional, of will move to repel -- repeal every single word. it is an unconstitutional bill. it will break the back of every state.

we do a better outcomes and focus on wellness to keep people out of hospitals. we also need to pass throughout the country in medical malpractice reform. we saw our medical malpractice rates decline by 60%. >> we are with a voter who has a question for the lieutenant governor. >> would you do to develop more energy for being environmentally sensitive and limiting the

powers of the epa? >> there are completely out of control. if we can win the white house with governor romney, we can pick up four more republican senators and be on the way to turning the country around. we feel we have a bull's eye on our back because of the epa. we have the opportunity for energy independence from foreign oil. we need to expand drilling.

we need to use it in electric generation to produce the missions. -- reduce emissions. >> we need to be exploring and developing our natural resources. we have the potential for energy independence for the first time because of the incredible the technological advances. every canid it says they support oil and gas. the heart of my campaign has been a proven record.

i represented the chamber of commerce challenging that in court. obama is using the epa to try to go after drilling in west texas. i argued that the endangered species act was unconstitutional. weened a fighter who doesn't just talk but has walked the walk. >> my question goes to mr. cruse. >> they oppose using eminent domain to forcefully route a pipeline through their private property. should they be able to override

landowners by using it? >> that is ultimately a question for state law to determine. i think private property rights are fundamental to we are as americans and texans. the problem is the obama administration shutting that project down with the stroke of a pen. he killed tens of thousands of jobs. now that oil will be spent west and refined in china instead. it will pollute the environment more and we will remain dependent on foreign oil from the middle east and from nations who would do us harm.

>> they are in court right now because they believe him in a domain is a problem. how could you assist them? >> my view is that it should be limited with respect to the constitution and the fifth amendment of the constitution. a few years back the supreme court decided in the kilo decision. they said you could use eminent domain for private purposes. they went all the way to the supreme court and they said that the government could do it to help of private interests.

the lid to the governor thinks that we should be favoring the national gas industry. we should let the market decide rather than letting them pick what energy sources to like. i think you are probably aware that there are a land owners that do not want emend domain the use. what would you do to them or do you support eminent domain in this case. >> i worked for six years trying to approve that. it can only be used when there is a public purpose that provides compensation.

otherwise it is a taking if someone does not provide fair market value. how would you address this situation? >> this is important for the pipeline to sit down with the land owners and negotiate in good faith where the route is going to go. we need to make sure that the compensation that is paid is fair market value. that was the problem with the decision in the past. >> which do you side with? >> you have to look at the alternative routes. if the route goes through

someone's property, i know for a fact that when people have had complaints, they have moved pipelines. there is a lot of opportunity. i have never favored one over the other. i am in the oil and gas business so i see a wonderful opportunity. >> another question for the lead thunen governor. >> violence in mexico is spilling over the borders into texas. how will you keep the gate open for commerce and trade and closed for criminal activity? >> that is an excellent question

because they are our no. 1 trading partner. we have to keep trade going back and forth. this new phenomenon with gangs coming into our cities. i would push for closing our borders by tripling the size of the border control and adding 40,000 more border patrol. at the same time, adding in the federal government in the customs and protection side so we can move trade back and forth. we want to move a legitimate trade into taxes. >> i support free trade.

over 2 million taxes make their business in exporting. we are the largest in the country. there is a crisis with illegal immigration and our southern border. the federal government is failing in its job to secure the borders i was meeting with the texas border volunteers across texas to spend their time guarding the border. the federal government is failing in its job. many are tragically women brought in for sex trafficking. we have to get serious about securing the border.

>> we have a question for mr. cruz. >> my view on military intervention is very simple. we should use military might only to protect the vital national security interest of the united states of america. we should go in with overwhelming force and have a clearly stated objective and we should get out when we are done. i do not believe and nation- building. i think the job of the band and women in the military is to hunt down and kill our enemies, but

not build democratic utopias across the world. unfortunately, a lot of politicians in washington want to stay rather than solving the national security threat and coming back home. >> would you cut defense spending to balance the budget? >> know. i do not think it should be used as a purpose of the balance. i think it should be keyed to what i said, the vital national security interest of the united states. one of the things i am most proud of is that i am representing over 3 million veterans. the defense budget is onion.

members of congress have added spending on top of that. this ought to be subject to heightened scrutiny as not being important to national security >> i think we went into both countries before the right purposes. we were not able to continue what we were doing. we have safe havens in the northwestern pakistan. based on information from

democrats and republicans at the time, it looked as if there were weapons of mass destruction we have troops there who were unable to train forces. there are overriding principles that i focus on. we have to have overwhelming force on day one. we have to have a very clear and well understood exit strategy. >> we need to keep our military as strong as possible.

it is our greatest defense against being attacked. it is interlaced with your march from a different congressmen or senators. >> we have a question for the lieutenant governor.

>> the foreign policy of president obama has been a disaster. it has done that i it unprecedented disaster. they're committing genocide. at the present time, the united states is providing some weapons that are being bought by our allies to be moved to the syrian the freedom fighters. we will need to take a very hard look at the three principles which i laid out. it has to be in the overwhelming of vital national interest of the united states. i do not think we are at that

point today. things may change in the future. >> i do not think we should intervene militarily in assyria. -- syria. president obama has not even attempted to lay out any such argument at the end of the day, but president obama is trying to get us involved because the united nations is leading him. he says he wants to leap from behind. the united nations has no jurisdiction whatsoever. we should be following the constitution of the united states. there is no issue i am better known for than standing up to the world court and the united nations and saying you have no jurisdiction in our country.

the only binding law is u.s. constitution. we should be defending u.s. interests and not the views of the united nations. >> even though york decision is that you should not intervene based on the stated principles, is it difficult to hold to that? >> at the end of the day, the job of the united states is not to be the policeman of the world. but we do not have the resources and it is not our job to intervene all over the globe. it is our job to protect united states interest. none of these questions are hard if you have a firm foundation on

the decisions reached over 200 years ago. george washington famously observed that we should be wary of foreign entanglements. if the violence in a series of began to impair the national security of israel, we should stand with them unapologetically. it would become a national security interest. we should not be intervening and just because obama wants to follow the lead of the united nations. >> we should do what is in the best interest of the united states. even though none of us likes to see what we are seeing on television, children and innocent people slaughtered, our allies are providing arms to the syrian of freedom fighters. this is something we need to

monitor very carefully. i have little conference in the foreign policy capabilities of the obama administration. if there was and the administration decision we would need to have more information. israel is our best friend and only ally in the area and we always have to have their back. if they started firing missiles or attacking israel, we would have an obligation to defend them. >> this question first for mr. cruz. do you support the current psa security system? if not, how would you change them and still provide a high level of safety? >> i strongly oppose the policy

of crow -- groping innocent civilians. it is typical of the policy of the left to violate the law abiding rights of innocent civilians rather than going after the wrongdoers. israel targets terrorists. the united states is too politically correct to do that so instead we look for weapons. that means we do a cavity search of a 90 year olds and none. that we need to defend the liberty of our constitution. in the texas legislature there was a bill to ban the groping. the obama administration threatened the state of texas and the lieutenant governor backed down. he did not want to fight obama.

>> the truth is that i am opposed to the grouping of the gsa as much as anyone. the facts are awful what has happened to passengers. if that happened to my wife or a little girl i would be enraged. that is why i worked with senator patrick, why i asked the governor. to put the bill on the call. that is why i passed a stronger bill than we had before. we passed it out in time for the house to debate it. my recommendation is i would do away with it. let's eliminate the t s f and

privatize it. >> we will go to closing arguments. >> please give us an example of how you might different -- vote differently. >> i believe him to be a conservative. i like solving problems. i try to solve problems within the narrow fairway of my conservative principles. >> with respect to spending and taxes, but the simplest is obama care. there will be an enormous pressure to compromise. the the attack governor is a good and decent man.

if you look at his record, you know for sure that is what he would do. i will lead the fight to repeal every word. we are now at the end of our debate. thank you for this evening and to the panel for being here. think you for watching this evening. you of heard some contrast this evening. over the last four years, but there has been a loss of freedom and opportunity in the jobs in america. i have lived the american dream and i am fortunate. i am a lifetime of businessmen, but i did not inherit anything. my father was killed when i was 3 years old.

i inherited service to country and the heart of a fighter. i have thought all my life. -- i have fought all my life. when this country was at risk, i volunteered and went into the cia. it was a tough situation. i came back to houston and formed a country -- company from nothing. i tried to take my business skills to austin and we created the very best economy and the entire country. we are the fastest growing job creator in the entire company. >> our country is in crisis and

we are going broke. our national debt is larger than the gross domestic product. all over the country americans are standing up and saying they are fed up with the same tired establishment incumbents. they're turning to new leaders. i have spent a lifetime fighting to defend the constitution and conservative principles. we were outspent five to one and we are in this runoff because the party leaders and conservatives came together. just about every major conservative leader nationally has endorsed this campaign. if you think the answer to what

is happening in washington is to send another establishment politician, then you have an easy choice in this race. if you think the answer is to send a strong conservative and fighter, then i ask for your support i give you my word that when we win this race, taxes will lead the fight to stop the obama agenda and restore the constitution. >> thank you for a great debate. we appreciate you coming and to the voters for taking part in the debate. the democratic broadcast will also be available on the line. line. thank you for joining us.

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the picture is brighter in terms of house prices. a lot of people think we are approaching the bottom on house prices. there were bidding wars in southern california towns, but for those of you in cleveland and detroit, you cannot even propose money. that is the big picture we see. >> joe, what particular challenges does wells fargo see for veterans and active duty military for foreclosures?

>> a number of the challenges facing service members are the same facing consumers in general. there are some complicating circumstances and factors that affect service members differently, but, in general, we see people are unsure who to call, when to call, what may be available for them. the big issue out there is collateral value, the property being less than what people 0, treating a difficult situation. the vast majority of our loans are vested with strict guidelines on what we can do. all these challenges applied to service members as well. when you look at stress, the emotional issues of service members that are deployed, the potential separation for months

and years, there are a lot of factors that come into play. there are some circumstances that are more unique to the military customer. one of those could be the need for orders to be given to a servicer in order to apply for protection. it sounds like an easy thing to do, but, coupled with emotional distress and the challenges of being deployed shortly, that can be a very difficult task to administer. there are things that we provide -- we try to streamline the process to facilitate these orders, leveraging the department of defense website as the standard. we try to make the process as easy as possible for our service members. there are a number of supports

that we have put in place for our service members, including customer service call lines, a global application relief program for those under protection. reducing interest rate levels below 6% requirements to 4%. average conducted in collaboration with industry partners to the military- focused customer base. there is a support structure we put in place, that the industry has put in place, that is designed for a different audience. there are still, overall, challenges. but one piece of good news out this week is that -- the announcement regarding short sales on military homeowners paying back loans eligible for

liquidation. as long as they provide an order. this includes those loans that are current. this is a big lift for those in the military. we find that the hardships are typically a retention or one that focuses on a loan modification. as a result, we see that announcement as a big win. >> i want to ask paul, also, about the announcement that came out. besides what joe has said, is there anything you want to share about your perspective on that? >> i agree. it is a big win. they are moving with a creative response to a short sale management.

this alleviates to some extent the very difficult choice that servicemen were receiving orders prior to changing of the rule. the changing of the rule has made it more specific. when there are short sales, by definition there is a shortfall regard to the payback on the amount of the outstanding principal balance. in many states, that action can be the subject of what is called a rejection. in other instances, the gse standing credit cannot negotiate promissory notes with the short-selling homeowner, including military service persons. you have a short sale. it is not a freebie, completely out from under the negative equity situation. they carry forward the short portion in ongoing debt.

it is also subject to credit reporting. so the new rules announced yesterday, they have determined to alleviate the problem of servicemen having to decide whether to short-sale and carry that that going forward in the form of deficiency judgments verse is not short-selling and carrying two mortgages, and having to manage the mortgage from the distant location where they have been transferred. the agency has eliminated the deficiency judgment going forward. while it is not the equivalent of legally putting a write-down on the underwater portion of the mortgage, it is a step in the right direction. >> i remember last year there

was a whole series of articles about families staying apart because of that, which obviously generates even more tension. they were staying in a home that was under water. going back to the bigger picture, the industry has changed as we have gone through this foreclosure crisis. i know that neighbor works works a lot with housing council agencies. we've seen efficiencies and changing practices -- improved treat us, better data. in spite of that, many consumers still with a long time for resolution. i was going to ask paul and joe again, if you could, tell us two or three improvements and servicing over the last several years, and maybe one or two of your main challenges in helping families get to veterans and non veterans, to get to a better resolution. >> sure. a much larger organization joe

is involved with. the name of the game has been increasing customer care. there has been a hiring frenzy, i would say, over the past three or four years, in order to meet the unprecedented spike in delinquencies in the mortgage crisis. subsequent things -- that has led to a recent -- a resurgence of the second iteration of the problem. that is, at this point in time, we are finding that most anybody who has experience in a mortgage call center has been sopped up by demand for that talent. we have to reach outside the experienced mortgage call center employees and hire folks who do not have that experience. they can sell mortgage, but they may not have hands-on experience in a call center.

what we have done to attempt to address that is bring into our service and technology behavioral science research. there are two sides to that point. one, would you rather have the hiring and recruiting of individuals who deal with distressed borrowers day in and day out -- to listen to some of these calls. you can imagine, it is a difficult decision. we have hiring protocols that do not necessarily relate to experience, but rather relate to cognitive abilities and personality profile traits, behavioral characteristics. we have found, through behavioral science, testing, they make for optimal performance in that very difficult position. we have experimented and change

those and adapt those overtime. but we have a philosophy, if i can invoke that, a vince lombardi school of directing. we go for the best athlete available and bring them into our system, provide and the training tools, and hope they can contribute to success for the team. the flip side of that coin, briefly, is -- the delinquency, the psychology of delinquency by our ph.d.'s and concern psychologists that we have on staff. in that effort, the subject of an entire program, we are beginning to understand the mode of communication, right down to the system that works, what phrases, and the ordering this, the ordering, in some case

of words. the dialogue that we attempt to build with homeowners in distress. through that, again, we are testing and refining and building into strips that are generated by the use of our original intelligence to assist the folks in the call center. to better communicate with ultimate results and give them to talk to us again. obviously, if we can get the homeowners in distress to communicate with us, we stand to gain. >> joe, how about you? is there improvement in current challenges? >> the landscape of customer service loans has changed dramatically, as you can imagine. we have invested millions. we changed our entire operation of how we approach this. to staffing alone, we have

increased staffing about 140%. we now have 17,000 people working with homeowners at risk of foreclosure. specifically, process changes, one that i want to highlight is that, back in june 2010, we started assigning one individual representative to a customer as we enter into loss mitigation. working with the customer from beginning to end. that has been expanded, so you have the that. even if it is unavoidable, that point of contact for remain the primary person to work with the customer from the entire transaction. a completely different model than we have ever had in the industry. you'll hear that model refer to

as the single point of contact. it should substantially enhance the overall experience for -- the customer experience when working with our servicers. that approach is implementing the national servicing standards that are part of the recent attorney general agreement. really, this began -- completely overall, this has changed the process of servicers. it focuses on things from legal proceedings to communicating on a daily basis with customers, to establishing much more rigorous discipline in our process and time lines. then, as you heard this morning, there are -- there is an aspect of the servicing standards focusing on guidelines for assisting customers who are military service members. >> great. chris, this one is for you. despite all the news on interest-only subprime, we know there is a more on -- there are

nonstandard, a typical products that can work for customers and promote sustainable home ownership. if this family's face unemployment or something, despite having the best product out there, they can still face foreclosure challenges. can you share with us a little bit more about habitats lending products, and your specific approach? >> thank-you. thanks to the international housing conference for inviting habitat to participate. we enable our homeowners to be highly successful, even throughout the recession. something we have worked on, partnership. builders today and mortgage lenders. the extent of our partnership is far beyond that.

it is not simply a contractual relationship. we understand that we and the families are all in it together. when there is a problem, partner families know that there is a problem. there is a services coordinator who works to the problem with them and come up with a plan. we are fully committed to that. our families and partners are invested in one another. they are invested in the communities they are serving. that is at the core of the model. in particular, our selection process is an important aspect of what we do. we insure the family has the ability to repay the mortgage, but has that relationship going into the mortgage. another aspect of the mortgage -- it is in no-profit, no- interest mortgage. we limit payments to no more

than 30% of the family's income. we know it will work for them over the long term. we understand that, working with low-income families, there will be a events that happen from time to time. that partnership helped us move through these with partnerships, modifications. they will bend over backwards to work with a family to come up with a solution. >> thank you. joe just referred to this. one major piece of news of the last few months has been the settlement. i am sure some of you are very familiar with this, some of you are a little bit familiar with this. mike, can you share with us what are the three or four most principal elements of the ag saddam and what it hopes to achieve?

>> the settlement, as most of you know, shows documentation that there was robosigning in the mortgage process. they are invested in the process by which many mortgages were settled with rubberstamp papers. more broadly, the mortgage servicing -- an area that fell between the cracks of having standards and oversight. as you know, the borrower cannot choose, generally, with their servicer is. many of you have probably had the experience of getting a home loan and then, not long after, getting a notice saying, send your papers to this company. that is a right that mortgage lenders have. it is recognized.

that is in addition -- servicers are generally connected to national banks under a regulatory structure. states are very limited in what they can do to regulate the activities of those banks. there are some exceptions. certainly there is a situation where there were not a lot of legal standards in place. there were some protections, but they cover just a small part. the settlement went beyond just addressing robosigning. one key part was addressing the rules of the road for servicers. a lot of servicers are participants in the settlement. the big things that they did were -- of a reformed the servicing requirements and set out, in detail, in a single- spaced pages, the standard rules that would apply to all

these major servicers to provide more certainty and more consumer protection. the biggest thing is that, for the first time, services are required to attempt to modify a loan before they go to foreclosure. services did this through the proprietary programs, but now is a requirement as part of this legally binding settlement. the second thing, servicing -- it will engage in the larger demonstration of principal reduction. you've heard a lot about this. the overhang of people under water. how you address that? by helping those borrowers with the ability to repay that.

the first large-scale test of that is part of the servicing settlement. we'll talk about this later. this will give them the option to participate in various principal reduction programs. finally, as many of you may know, there are still ongoing investigations that will leave for future resolution as part of the servicing agreement, particularly those involving claims that the loans were never securitized. that process did not comply with the legal requirements. homeowners and investors may be entitled to further relief as part of that. that investigation is still ongoing, led by the department of justice and the attorney general from new york, were those loans were securitized. stay tuned. they will be probably -- to everybody's relief and

chagrined. we will see round two of the servicing settlement. >> what do you think are two or three misperceptions of what the settlement can achieve? >> the two biggest misconception surrounding the settlement are -- one stands around confusion around the consumer relief portion of the settlement. that is, the refinancing piece. the other stems from the cash payment to consumers. a little bit of around what each is. around the consumer relief portion, the loan modification program was designed to help create affordability by utilizing principal reduction. it is done through a loan

modification and the existing mortgage. this is under contention with rate-time adjustments at the top of the waterfall. we utilize a principal reduction for some time at wells. on the refinance side, it would be a true refinance. there may be some rate relief, as there is in traditional refinance, but the payoff -- is the existing of the payoff and a new one is put about. there is no principal reduction associated with the refinancing part of the settlement. it is really designed for consumers who have little to no equity in their home to be able to take advantage of historically low interest rates. the view we get from consumers

is that they may be current and are looking for a modification. a requirement for the modification is hard ship. the second piece is customers are looking for how they can get money associated with the recent settlement. you hear about money that may be available to consumers at a certain point in time. the reality is that part of the settlement allocated $5 million in cash to federal and state governments, where some of that money would be used so that consumers would be paid out money if they were foreclosed. but all that is handled directly by state agencies, not the banks. again, some confusion around that component as well. >> mike?

>> yes. it is incredibly complex. it is not that you just need then diagrams, you need a kaleidoscope. first off, that is the first thing you need to know. this is going to be very confusing for homeowners, because it is complex and confusing. let's start out with that. the rules apply differently depending upon who originated your loan. whether it is kept in portfolio or they sold. investor-owned means to solve the loan to someone else. the rules are different depending upon whether you sold it to one of the government entities, fannie and freddie, versus what you sold it to a private entity, so-called investor private-label security.

it depends upon the rules are that private-label security has. they get to decide the rules on how their mortgages are serviced. so you just need to, first of all, prepare people for working through all that. two other things, really quickly, are that many of you have heard about dold traffic. you are working with customers facing foreclosure who, at the same time, are applying for modification. they're receiving notices of foreclosure. they receive a notice of sale -- or house will be sold next week. that is obviously very confusing and distressing for consumers. that issue was addressed in the settlement. the dual track was not eliminated. it was reduced. there will still be a good number of homeowners facing that getting letters saying the

process of your modification and letters saying we are selling your house next week. lots of people did the panicked calls. in fact, it will probably have, in the short run, the opposite effect of stop and foreclosures. there has been a back-up pipeline of foreclosures, people who are far behind. the process slowed down while the settlement was being negotiated. now this is in place, there will be a large number of homeowners in situations where they are not going to be able to stay in the home. those are being processed in the

short-run. we will see an uptick in that. we may swing back around. people are confused about the money because they have been getting separate letters from servicers under so-called independent foreclosure review, which is a separate process, whereby federal banking regulators, the occ, the fdic, the federal reserve, are engaged in a separate process of reviewing loans and taking consumer complaints to see if people were wrongfully foreclosed or wrongfully denied modifications. then the boris can get relief through that office at a much more substantial level. even over $100,000 if people lost their home. for borrowers, this is all too much in coming confusion. they need a lot of help working through it. counseling is critical and this. >> thank you. i was going to at that point, so i appreciate that. it can be challenging.

we are always trying to make sure that housing counselors have as much of the information, especially under the settlement. there are a lot of different moving parts. neighbor works worked with the urban institute in their independent study that demonstrated that foreclosure intervention counseling benefit homeowners. they took a control group of folks in similar situations. they had not talked to foreclosure counselor. they compared the results to those who had. less's too had had a much likelihood of going into foreclosure. they had a lower% of recidivism, of becoming delinquent again. they save more than $2,000 a year in their loan modification. that counselor has really

worked to make sure there is a sustainable solution, not just to follow the basic role of that spot. the other thing we keep saying is the dam issue. when the independent foreclosure review came out, within four hours, people had been stemmed. the treasury was not yet even a party to this particular settlement. it is endless. i will turn it over to paul, and ask him, as somebody who is not a signatory to the settlement, what the impact is. >> we are reaching the end of our allotted time. two points. first, we are taking the position that the servicing standards set forth in the settlement and the federal bank regulators orders, albeit

somewhat kaleidoscopic, as he described it, will become best industry practices. we are not signatories to the settlement, but we are gearing up to ensure compliance john ford. second, i would say that, as chief counselor for my servicing company, having read the legal opinion some years ago that was consistent with our servicing contracts to engage in loan modifications, a year and a half before the settlement, i am breathing a little bit easier, sleeping a little bit better at night, knowing that our approach has been validated, particularly with respect to principal reduction. >> i wanted to return specifically to our talk this