classified. if we develop ways to minimize that intelligence collection loss to have this debate. thank you. >> thank you. i want to thank the chairman for this hearing and his legislative proposal. to each of you, for your extraordinary contribution to our nation and the thousands of others in the intelligence community who have thwarted and stopped terrorist threats to this country which, all too often, i believe, have been ignored because the efforts to stop them have been so successful. the debate, as mr. cole has termed it, is important.

search and surveillance have a role. what we are trying to do is define how to reconcile the secrecy of search and surveillance which necessarily have to be so, with five ac civil liberties and all the other constitutional guarantees that make us unique among the nations of the world and the greatest nation in the history of the world. i have been a litigator for 40 years. i have never doubted that the scores of judges that i have litigated before have a commitment to rights and privacy and all the constitutional rights. i have no doubts about the fisa judges pushing back and having a

commitment to the law. in appearance, the system is failing fast. it is failing to maintain the trust and credibility of the american people. they want to be protected from terrorists, at the same time, also protected from the degradation of constitutional rights. i'm changing the appointment and selection procedure so that the appearance and reality of diversity of you and aggressive protection of constitutional rights is maintained and enhanced. i'll introduce this bill tomorrow. it will involve circuit court judges in the appointment process with the continued involvement of the chief justice. it would change the fisa court of review process. i have found that, in my years, one of a judges worst nightmares is an incompetent counsel. the reason is, especially in a criminal trial, the inc.

competent counsel or lack of counsel means that the record is weaker and that the test and clash of litigation is diminished in quality. that is a principal that should be involved in some way in the fisa court. a second bill that i'm proposing is for navigate to be involved in the proceedings. at some point, when there are significant issues of law, different sides are presented. challenges are made. a judge or panel has the benefit of contention that is at the

core of our court process. our courts insist and thrive on the clash and testing of different point of view. cross examination is that the essence of our litigation process. in appearance, if not reality, the current design of the fisa court stacks the deck against civil liberties. it can be improved and enhanced without sacrificing speed or security. special advocates can be cleared or security purposes. they can be involved after the fact, if necessary, on appeal to the peak -- to the fisa court of review or the united states supreme court.

i hope, to lead to my question, i hope that you would join in this process of trying to improve the current structure and i would like to know if there is active consideration of changes in the selection procedure and the involvement of a special advocate or independent counsel of some kind in this process. >> i think, at this point, there are is an active consideration of a range of issues. they want to make sure that the process works as well is a can. national security and civil liberties. we want to make sure that it is transparent enough to maintain credibility with the american people about these programs. these are difficult issues, as

we have discussed today for several hours, to find the right place. it is something under consideration. >> thank you. >> mr. cole, i will question -- i have a question. the government says that every domestic phone record is relevant to a terrorist investigation and can be obtained under section 215 of the patriot act. i understand the court agrees with this interpretation. you put some restrictions on that. i do not understand the limits. could you of oak -- invoke section 215 to get all commercial data.

how about our credit card records? how about what sites we go one on the internet? what we may bookmark? all medical records that we have on the computer? we keep our firearm records. all those things are available? >> there are two points. first, the only way the court finds those relevant is within the context of these restrictions. you had to take all of those features of the phone record process into account. how can it be done? how reasonably can be done question mark what is the need for speed? was the need to integrate all the records coming together? only when you are looking that entire mix, that entire program

operates with these restrictions. you have to make a showing for the need for this breadth. >> if our phone records are relevant, why not our credit card records? wouldn't you want to know if we're buying fertilizers for bombs? >> i would need everyone's credit card data. the phone records allow us to look at the connections. as someone is buying things for bombs, what we would like to know that. -- if someone is buying things for bombs, we would like to know that. >> is there any legal impediment to -- to expanding the program for cell phone location --

location? >> it -- a ruling has not been issued. the legal impediment is not the only thing that you take into account. >> one of the few non-government lawyers to appear before the fisa court -- a letter from reggie walton had questions. a letter from the coalition of communications companies advocacy group for transparency. a letter from a coalition of civil liberty and privacy groups. a group supporting the fisa accountability protection act.

these are all being placed on record. if there are no further questions, i think all four of you. i know you spent a lifetime preparing for this i know you have a lot of other things to be doing. thank you for taking this time. will start on the next panel. -- we will start on the next panel. we will stop until 1230 -- is 12:30. senator blumenthal will come back. we will call up the northern

district of ohio. george baker. i thank you all. >> on c-span, the director o [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] before they left the amount those to change the fisa court. some of the biggest changes since it was set up ready five years years ago. richard blumenthal of connecticut, ron wyden of oregon and tom udall were involved. toy want a special advocate argue on behalf of the privacy before the court when the government is seeking an extraordinary request. want to diversify it politically and geographically. this is also a topic on newsmakers. was our guest. he talked about the zip cream court decision and the voting

rights act as well. here is a little bit of what he had to say. >> taxes made changes to hours in court came down it was open and gauche nation. everythingking sure they had with bloating could be fixed. they are shopping to buy it. they understood this a lot better. there are hundreds of hours. the overwhelmingly voted in by republicans. and by people who said you must got it wrong. we're going to change it.

.ven then the chief justice have a voting rights violation. senator'sch the remarks in their entirety tonight at 6:00 p.m. eastern. before, civil rights leaders talked about the voting rights act. we will show that again at 5:30 p.m. eastern tonight. misconduct among tsa workers is up over the last three years. that is according to a new report by the government accountability office. there was a hearing on capital hill. with the tsa administrator john belinski about that misconduct. >> they are protecting the nation's vital networks. they must adhere to the highest standards of conduct. integrity, professionalism, and hard work. they are more of the principles

to guide this behavior. they are the expectations we have for every tsa employee. the overwhelming majority are good people doing good work they take appropriate action. accountability is a vital. our representation is tarnished and it fails to live up to the high standards of conduct. , excellent inre the workplace begins with a dedicated professional work force. it is regarding the consistent application of the disciplinary process. to address their concerns, they

established the office of professional responsibility to ensure that allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated and that discipline is appropriate, consistent across the agency. has brought greater efficiency, timeliness, and objectivity to the discipline process. to complement these fundamental is publishedthis and available to all tsa employees. greater offering efficiency by implementing and tracking timelines associated with adjudicating allegations of misconduct. with recent improvements tsa welcomes recommendations on how we can further refine these efforts. a recent audit revealed a total of 9600 cases over three years were individuals failed to meet the standard of conduct. the majority involve administrative issues such as

issues associated with not following management directives. in instances threat were less than .0 .7% of our total workforce. this accounted for less than one/and 1%. cases are toose many, the agency investigates all allegations of misconduct and takes appropriate action. it can include referrals to law enforcement and termination of employment. tsa useserious cases, an expedited removal process. as gao noted, tsa response to misconduct or a series of actions ranging from letters of reprimand, suspension from work and removal from the tsa workforce. aspectsgnizes that all of its employment system must be

reviewed including the ability to monitor the misconduct. is undertaking these efforts to achieve those object is. some of these are discussed in greater details in the statement i have submitted. toward the end, they directed the office of inspection to begin conducting covert test in airports around the country. the tests are ongoing. since december the office of inspection has conducted more than 640 integrity -- integrity test. only three employees have been caught stealing during the office of inspections. were subsequently terminated within 24 hours.

many employees have the opportunity to do the rod -- the wrong thing but only three did. it provided security for the traveling public. the public has every right to expect the workforce to adhere to the highest professional standards. on a personal note, we remain minimum-- maintained a policy. it strengthens the quality of our work force. i look forward to answering your questions. >> thank you. thank you for inviting me here today to discuss the result of our misconduct report released yesterday. i think this is a timely hearing given recent accounts of these event and also the recent efforts to adjust them. it is important to note that the essay manages transportation

workforce of 66 thousand spread across 450 airports. in some ways it is a difficult work or stew address. it also underscores the need to have clearly defined inconsistently applied procedures not only to investigate and adjudicate. today i would like to discuss two issues highlighted in our recent report. the first was the magnitude of the problem. insight on how tsa investigates and adjudicates these obligations. theyding the number, adjudicated 9600 cases over the last three years. that is an average about 3200 per year. caseshalf in these focused on two areas, attendance and leave as well as security and screening. is interesting when you look at how the responded to these

aboutof the 9600 cases half resulted in letters of reprimand. 41%31% resulted in suspension. the employeesn removal of tsa. tsa has taken some positive steps to address these issues recently. for example, they established the office of responsibility and also rolled out a new training program for airport staff. we highlighted and reported yesterday they still need to enhance the current process. they need to verify airport comply with procedures of .djudicating these cases once they reviewed some of these misconduct cases, they either overturned or wrote that -- rolled back in 15% of the

cases. looked at over 800 of these cases. to suggest needs for more consistency in the process. a second key point, the tsa needs to do a better job of reporting the results of adjudication. sevennd, when we visited airports, five of the airports we interviewed, the staff were not using the integrated database to record all of the incidents. theseing the outcome of cases is important, especially when employees move across airports. you need to know their track record. tsa needs to do a better job tracking the time it takes to investigate the cases and adjudicate them. i called at the start to finish time. we need more awareness of how long it has taken to close the cases. ,t is interesting to note

while tsa has standards, it expects its staff to comply with, it does not really track performance against these standards. we think this would really give ifagement good insight on there are any special issues or what types of cases are problematic. we finally recommend the tsa establish reconciliation procedures. once you complete an investigation, you need to adjudicate it. we have noticed they did not close the loop on a few cases. we looked at 50 and found two that were not fully adjudicated. that is a small number but given the numbers involved, we thought that could be symptomatic of a larger problem. as we highlighted yesterday, the tsa still needs to take key actions and this will help instill greater public

.onfidence in over 450 airports as some members already noted, you do not want them misdeeds of thew bad apples to sully reputation of a lot of dedicated employees. is tsa endorsed our recommendation. we will work with them closely over the next few months to see how they implement them in practice. chairman, this concludes my statement and i look forward to responding to any questions. thank you. >> thank you. i apologize for mispronouncing it earlier. outten-mills. >> thank you for the opportunity to testify. to protect the american people

in their homeland, it is para monde -- paramount. to investigate allegations of employee misconduct and fraud. other departmental internal affairs units investigate .llegations of ms. conduct the allegations generally relate to administrative manner. 2004-2012, they received 130 cell death 130,000 allegations from various internal affairs offices and we initiated an investigation on about 10,000 investigations. a hotline staff processes all complaints. when oig declines the case, it for furtherback

inquiry and investigation. unless specifically requested, oig does not track what happened. within tsa, the office is responsible for conducting internal investigations of misconduct. this operates under a blanket waiver. the waiver was based on our ops -- observation it we had -- we had excepted about three percent of these allegations and of theed support for 10% cases. in fiscal year 2012, oig 16,000d approximately complaints of misconduct. of these cases, 1358 were related to tsa. an investigation

for approximately 90 cases and complaints.ut 1200 none of our work focuses right , butly on tsa's challenges we identified reports that may provide insights into efforts to address allegations of employment misconduct. october 2000 12, we issued a report, personal security in tsa's legacy and credentialing office to determine whether personnel had sufficient be determined within the legacy office, there has

been a pattern of poor management practices and inappropriate use of administrative processes to assess and address misconduct. leaders sought to a dress allegations through training and informal administrative processes, but efforts were not successful. employee complaints channeled were managed and documented appropriately, but not all employees had sufficient information. recommended the tsa for a themum of two years at legacy office referrer all personnel complaints and grievances, disciplinary acts and inspections to appropriate primary oversight responsibility. we also recommended they provide the website and they establish an independent review panel through which assess the review.

we also assessed the review of .llegations of misconduct in 2010, allegations were reported of misconduct and a discrimination allegation. our review did not find retaliation, we identified consistencies in hal feel officers handled, the severity of the misconduct, and timeliness issues. we recommended tsa provide about the incidents reported.

that they provide clarification about discipline actions and develop a comprehensive tracking system. this concludes mythat they provn about discipline actions and develop a comprehensive tracking system. this concludes my prepared remarks. i welcome any questions you may have. >> thank you. retaliation, we identifiedwe will begin the queg portion. i recognize myself for five minutes of questioning. i understand the tremendous challenge tsa has in keeping americans safe as they travel through the nation's airports. also, americans expect the tsa will practice best management practices and their officers will experience some sort of consistency in disciplinary actions. it is what we owe to employees of tsa. last year, you gave your word the tsa would take appropriate actions. of that half the misconduct cases have been closed. do you feel that is an appropriate action? about last year

is that if we could improve an individual is stealing, taking drugs, intentionally subjugating the security system, and we can prove it immediately, they are out the door. what happens if we cannot is we give prove it them the due diligence and the american is able to get through due process. we look at the circumstances and recommendation is made for punishment, if it is appropriate and that has best that individual has an appeal process and that is taken into account. if the individual is given a letter of reprimand, it means we could not prove he did that and he is innocent until proven guilty. it is important to know, if there are x number of allegations of theft, if i can prove they are stealing, we will walk them out the door. if i cannot him a we will run an

investigation. we have to let an investigation run its course. that is how we do business in this country. if there is a recommendation, it means we could not unequivocably prove they have done that. --there were circumstances that means he was not stealing. in all the cases of misconduct we are talking about, we label this over one third of the cases, time independence, people showed up late for work. we classify it as misconduct. we have a very good workforce, we investigated if we cannot prevent. i give you my word, if a dealing, doing drugs, and i can prove it, they are out. we have taken those actions. the rest of the time, what we have to do as americans is give them the due process and let

them go through the investigation process. workers want to see a set of guidelines. they want to see some consistency and disciplinary action. when you come up with a set of guidelines, that this is the disciplinary action that will happen for x y and z infractions, there has to be a consistency with that. americans see a slap on the wrist as not enough action being taken. aing forward, implementing lot of the things recommended is the right thing. i appreciate your comments that you are working for that -- on that. according to gao, four percent of misconduct cases involve

sleeping on duty. some of that may have been in the break room and on break. i get that. but officers sleeping on duty and those who just fail to show up for work on time, that frustrates americans. if an officer tells to show up or call their supervisor to say, i am taking a family day, it takes x number of persons who open up a checkpoint. any ole of someone not showing up on time or at all calls -- causes a delay for american workers. go forward with that idea, that we have got to have employees show up on time and if they do not, and they fail to let their supervisor know, that

is the importance of american safety and security. what is the disciplinary action you would take at that point? >> it starts in education. we have put in our office of ethicsg a very robust and integrity training program. that is how we get to an efficient workforce in the future. we have put together a very extensional required training that all have to go through. >> how do you train someone to know to call their supervisor and say, i may be late? >> it is common sense. i would tell you we have ethics training, integrity training, situational training, on video for our people. have to do their job and they have to be trained. they have the training on an annual basis.

we stress it. .e put out messages on the issue of hardness, you're right. i will not disagree with bill everyone should be on time when they come to work. if they are not, they can be disciplined in the case of tsa. i do not think it is an offense they need to be fired for unless it is the third or fourth time. hopefully the first time gets the word. a letter of reprimand means you are not going to get a bonus that year. you are not going to get promoted. it will stay in your jacket. it is a serious thing and it escalates for their. a suspension is serious and we take this seriously. if you look at the numbers and the percentages, i have a large workforce and i cannot control the behavior of everybody. we can train them and hold them accountable and that is what we have been doing. our people take an oath when they come into service, same oath as you take as a

congressman. we raise our right hand and commit. year in and year out, there is that federal employee service they have. you know what we are every year? 80% and above, believe in our mission. we will have people that do stupid things. i was a marine for 25 years. we had knuckleheads that do stupid things. that will happen. we will hold them accountable. i told you that and am committed to it. >> i look forward to hearing how they are held accountable going forward. i am out of time. since we do not have the ranking member, we will go to mr. thompson. >> thank you. i hope i pronounced it ok. last fall, you reported on the mishandling of the equal opportunity complaints within

tsa legacy and credentialing office. in response to allegations of favoritism and violations, inspector recommended the tsa establish an independent review panel, to which employees could request a review. the inspector general believe this recommendation was important? >> was that for me >> during our review, we found there was favoritism being shown for various different employees.

we found there is a formal tsa process in place for handling allegations. 4g text, they had developed a system that circumvented the formal process, where many of the employees were not even what the tsa's former process entailed. as part of what we found was happening in the t-test, and fleas were being removed from -- employees were removed from their position. tsa started in 2010 a restructuring and realignment, which included legacy tea tax employees. in paste employees who years had been downgraded, when their position descriptions, and their current roles are iniewed, it might result

downgrade. our recommendation, what we wanted to address, was the fact that there could be seen no favoritism, there could be an equal playing field currentwing tea tax, positions and the roles, and that there would be fairness in the system. >> can you tell me whether or not since that recommendation was put out, have you worked with tsa and have some of your -- your concerns been satisfied? >> we have worked with tsa and the formal written response they provided is responsive to our recommendation to create the independent review panel. what we are rating -- waiting for right now, we are monitoring what tsa are doing.

the response to us did -- did address our concerns. what you just heard, is that basically where you are? >> yes. , the t-like to say also test does not exist any longer. that organization was integrated into our office. the individuals at the senior level no longer work for our agency. we took the recommendations on board and we have worked with tig on this and have continued to work on it. we did go through a restructuring transformation within our headquarters, where we have done desk audits of individual positions. we think that is in line with government policy and that also met the requirements are not particular case. particularm that

case. >> thank you. i also want to talk about sensitive security information. in july of 2010, a training manual containing sensitive security information about screening practices were stolen after private security company employee removed it from a san francisco international airport without authorization. what is the recommended penalty for a tso that ms. handles sensitive security information. range from a letter of reprimand to a 14 day suspension. is a range in between from 14 day suspension to a letter of reprimand. >> what is the recommended

penalty for a concept that ms. handles sensitive security information. screener, weract do not deal directly with the contract street -- screener. could beacting company fined for that particular type of incident. >> you find the company but do not deal with the employee. >> no. >> we recognize the chairman of forsecurity subcommittee five minutes. >> thank you. one of the things in the report that concerned us was the idea of staff not complying with procedures. becausen overturned staff -- whose responsibility is it to review misconduct cases at

airports? >> let me give you a two prong answer on that. it depends on the severity of the case. i also want to say the security officers have the right to appeal. there is an incident and it is tardiness for work, the process is handled at the airport at the local level. if it is a more severe case, it will be handled with our office of investigation and looked at through our office of professional responsibility. if it is a serious case, a recommendation will be made and then the individual has a right to appeal that. as weis one difference mentioned earlier. our tso's, do not have the appeal.r ms pb we have created to ensure their equity is in process, that we have given them the ability to appeal to our board.

it was mentioned about 15%, there was a turnover of those appeals. that is roughly the same percentage. we believe we are in line with that. we have to give people an appeal ross s. we put that in place. there is a process, and we are putting into place most of the floor recommendations they have made. we feel they will become elite in september. we welcome gao to come back and see what we have done. it is a tighter system with more oversight. >> right. the role would be to determine if this violation is important enough to take it upstairs. ok. what steps have been taken to remedy the problem of the failure to document correctly these incidents. >> one of the things we had to do was clean up the database and

make it a more efficient database. sometimes you run into government where you have multiple databases. we combined it into one. we made it a much stronger process and we have professionals trained to him put it in and then there is oversight to make sure it is being inputted correctly. fieldo have our legal counsel their to help him put those offenses into the system. our office of investigation is responsible to do audits. we asked they do a regular schedule of that and increase that. we think that will fix the problem identified. >> great. include airport

personnel and what are the qualification they look for and has just evolved over time? has is changed? >> we use a variety of methods. we use the normal usa jobs, to recruit our personnel. let me talk a little bit. in the context of this hearing, what is important is how we hire our personnel. they are fingerprinted. there is a check, a federal criminal record check that is done. a credit check done before they come in. and there is an interview with the manager. also be an will interview by our personal security people. we want all to recruit our personnel. let me talk a little bit. of our people to have the potential to hold a security clearance. that being said, at the you -- as you have seen, we will have people who sometimes do stupid things. when you have security

clearances or anything else. we believe we do the due illegitimacy through two ,ifferent types of interviews credit checks, to bring people on board. >> i thank you for those answers. i will go ahead and yield back and hopefully we will have a second-round opportunity to ask questions. thank you. >> the gentlelady from indiana for five minutes. >> thank you. i understand there is a table of all the provided to supervisors, that sets out appropriate suggested discipline for offending penalties for conduct cases. the report indicated there have not been. it has been fairly inconsistent in the manner in which it is used among airports. can you talk about that lack of

consistency and they use of this table? >> yes. it is important, when he came in, he created the office of professional responsibility modeled by the office and the fbi. we have built the table of offenses and penalties based on many systems that are in the government and other agencies, not just within dhs am but other outside apartment -- departments. it goes back to the seriousness of the offense. what you have is a range of options. what is the offense it may go from this level to the most extreme level. if it is a serious offense, it is taken out of the hands of the local airport and get into our office of investigation, which is then adjudicated. if it is an offense, such as, you are out of uniform when you come to work, you are late to work, you may have mouth off to

a supervisors, then it is handled at the fst level. what is important to remember is before we had this table and opie are, the tso had no appeal rights in any case out there. now they have the right to appeal and they can go to that appeals board and say, i believe, based on my time and service, by my clean record, by the evidence i provided you, that i should not be held accountable for this. there is an appeal process based on that and it has been a helpful tool for us. >> my concern might be, and i u.s. attorney and walking with the o usa, if there were any discipline issues with respect to my employees at the time, they often wanted to compare what our discipline attorneyso other

offices, and that is important when you have large agencies like tsa. the concern is, how often are they issuing penalties and how are you keeping track? that opens the agency up for a lot more problems beyond the appeals ross s, the inconsistency of penalties. areour knowledge, how often reports wavering from that table? >> what we are trying to do from that process recommended is we have made a stronger database so we can track the information now. one piece i think that is important is the ability to do trend analysis. you are talking about one area -- one report not doing things similar to another report. we believe we will have the capability to do trend analysis. the key is oversight. we have our office of investigation and our office of capital dedicated to that type

of analysis and those audits, which are very important. is that how you determine if people are not using the integrated base you -- you referred to, part of the report was that some airports are not using it. >> yes, ma'am. what we found was, and if you go in, and i can be corrected on this, but when you went in, it was not that they were not using the system for serious offended -- offenses. what we found was a lowering of the defense. we need to have the information so if someone moves across airports, we can keep track of that. in some airports, it was not being done. weisn't that did when inspect our airports. i would add one other thing, which is very important. our office now puts out a newsletter every month. it lists for our entire workforce what the offenses

were and what the actions were and what the adjudication was. we included the number of covert tests we do for integrity. it is important and it sends a signal to the workforce did you do this and this is what it -- is what happened. it also sends to the workforce we have consistent the across the board. >> that is a great way to communicate with your workforce and i applaud you. i yield back. >> i recognize the gentleman from florida for five minutes. >> thank you. i want to thank you and mr. hudson for holding this hearing. i had been an original requester of this report because, again, having been involved in creating tsa, i was concerned some of the reports of misconduct were mounting and this report does in that tsa employee

almostuct has spiraled to an unbelievable level and that is dairy disappointing. you instituted two offices. >> the office of professional response note and the office of training and workforce. >> when did he institute those? >> approximately two years. >> in the last three years, you reviewed this. what is the increase and incidents over the three-year time? 27%. >> i viewed 26. 27%. maybe we should go back to not having an office? we were probably doing better

before. you instituted that these two offices, and we have had a 27% increase. him of the incident have been totally embarrassing. embarrassing to be thousands of employees that do a good job every day. , onedo airports featured of my local airports, and employee was caught in this neediest thing stealing computer -- stealing a computer. washer case in your report of left there. we have the new work situation, so embarrassing, the supervisor was advising the tsa employee ofdy steele contents passengers and luggage. again, this has been a totally embarrassing experience for everyone.

members on the other side said this involves about x employees given the 9000 incidents over three years. that is the figure used by the other side. not to mention, how many criminal incidences and arrests of employees, which is not acceptable. the other thing this report identifies and we gloss over it, it is just the 32% of offenses that leave unexcused absences. is that right? are not just missing a day or two. these are more extensive offenses. is that correct? >> i think it varies. it doesn't include -- >> the problem you have is you do not have standard reporting,

which are reports said, is that right? >> yes. that was one of the issues. >> i think the number of incidences reported probably under reports what was actually taking place. within the inappropriate assumption? >> that was one of the issues we identified in the report. >> it would indicate they were not all reported. it does not sound like much of an impact, but it throws the whole system into chaos. not show up for work. how do you properly screen folks. record, he is shaking his head in the affirmative. >> it depends. it does have the potential to disrupt screening operations. >> do we still have a national screening force that we send

great taxpayer offense where we do not have screeners? >> we do have a national screening force. >>, and millions of dollars does that cost us a year? can you answer today? >> i can today. i would tell you the screening force has been reduced to approximately 250 personnel. >> what is the cost. for the record. i would like in the record the cost of the national screening force, if you could provide it to the committee for the past of three years. it is disgraceful that people do not show up for work. there aren't great costs to the taxpayers. great disruption. , closingof quick comments. are you still recruiting people from ads on the tops of pizza gass and ads of discount pumps for employment? >> no.

stopped.as and the fingerprint check and all of that, i will put in the record a letter from one of my that twoat notified me people he dismissed for misconduct, he found the employee at the daytona beach airport. if you would, i would like that ade part of the record. >> without objection. a second round of questioning here. the other side of the aisle was talking about private companies doing security screening. is there an incentive for private companies to keep folks employed that have stolen or notinue to show up at work on time. >> i do not think there is an incentive if you have

problematic employees. >> he testified a few minutes ago there is a financial penalty -- penalty for companies that someone in their employee has stolen or shown up not on time. if -- there is a disincentive for private companies to continue those practices. many of the offenses the employees have been accused of could have led to severe security risks. is there any evidence that due to an employee's direct or indirect illegal actions, and airport was breached? , 20% of thetion cases we looked at were labeled security and screening related. we believe those cases do have some nexus to security. it all depends on particular circumstances of the case. those are more serious compared to the cases related to time.

of unauthorized taking, 31 of the fifth and six result in termination. 11 resulted in reprimand. 11 resulted in the suspension and one resulted in a resignation. penaltythe recommended range, not including determination, deputy currency told us last year they took it seriously and if they could prove it, the agency would terminate those who could steal. do you see that happening? >> a good question. under the updated guidelines, there are mitigating. a letter of reprimand is one possible option. depends on the circumstances. there is leeway. >> i understand extenuating

circumstances and the appeals process. americans would be frustrated continuing to see letters of reprimand and i want to make sure the tsa makes sure to follow through with her recall. i will go back to the private screening and private contractors issue. i came from the private sector and there was an incentive to do things right and also to have customer satisfaction with people we did business for to apply the best management practices. there was a disincentive to fail to do what we said we were going to do. there was a disincentive to me if one of my employees to not show up to work on time and we were unable to conduct. we were not able to conduct auctions in the time we said we were going to and there was a delay on the prompt and.

appropriate action and consistency is very important. that is what your report points out over and over that we need to be can this in. you seerivate sector, when companies do not provide consistent the with regard to disciplinary action, that opens them up to the possibility of lawsuits. in a personnel situation, you have to have consistency. you cannot show preferential treatment from unemployment to -- one employee to the next. i do not have anything further. >> what i want to do is make sure we keep it in the right lane. my only question dealt with sensitive security information, not time and attendance or anything like that in the private sector.

sensitive security information. kind of information, we all agree, is something far more serious than someone not showing up for work. sun and skiot mr. within the contracting tsa, with private contractors, because you did not have the personnel deal with found guilty of that. have you now changed the to tsa tog document get you to where you need to be? >> yes. we have changed the contracts for airports. that is a clause in their

requires them to report any type of contact -- conduct activity in the reports. if an employee is identified with misconduct, and appropriate action needs to be taken by the company. >> will the german yield? collective you find misconduct on employees? >> i do not believe we do. i could get you a more thorough answer. i am not annexed bird. i will get you one on that one. >> thank you. tsa a lot.ked about

what has been your analysis in reviewing other components with respect to claims of misconduct? is it higher, lower, in the middle, or can you provide direction to the board? can you -- >> the body of work we have conducted at this point has not focused. what has been your analysis in reviewing other components on md allegations, even with the tea tax job and the project we conducted, we basically looked at pre-adjudication. the policies and procedures in place to make sure credible allegations were able to enter the process as far as how agencies -- >> you really cannot. ok.

to the increase in change the did you matrix for review or is it the same matrix all along? >> i'm not sure i understand your question. you had a 26% increase? >> over threes -- over three years. that is what the data shows. yous that the same generally do? >> we did not do the analysis but it is important to recognize all of the costumes of border per section. they have different organization set up here it will be difficult to make direct comparisons. for the purposes of our report,

we did not include the information. it was outside the scope. >> prepared to come in for work, that is any agency. >> i thought you meant screening and security related violations. i have no comparative data available. to anybody, would you do time independence as part of the review? >> definitely. >> so you have not, in your capacity, performed at any of those reviews? >> we have not done that currently but we would be interested in working with your staff on a follow-up review. christ i am concerned about the increase. if this situation is peculiar to other agencies, i would like to know also. >> understood.

>> i yield back. >> thank you. the chair will recognize the gentleman from north carolina. >> thanks. of the amount of time it takes to go through the entire adjudication process, what has been done to streamline the process? oft is the a maximum amount time an employee can remain on the job while the case is being investigated, for example if the screener was accused of failing to follow standard procedures. would they be allowed to continue to work or would they be given up -- other responsibilities? >> it depends on the seriousness of the offense. about ane talking offense on the administrative side, then the local airport will conduct its investigation and take statement and put the

evidence together. it is not a long process. we are not talking about an investigation where you go in and it takes months at a time. the more serious offenses that ourhat is when you go to office of investigation. we have made great strides in the area since last year. in those cases, we are running in more than 50% of the cases under 90 days to conduct a full investigation on these folks. ones in one of these serious investigations, are they reassigned? >> yes. while they are on status, they can be put on ledge -- put on leave, they can be put at a different part of the airport in a non-screening role. the allegations are serious enough, they are moved out while the process takes place. >> ok. how many employees are currently on leave for a process

like this? >> i do not have the number. i will get back to you. we do not like to put anybody on administrative leave because they are getting paid without working. we try to find other duties for them. i do not know the number offhand. gears, the policy, if a screener fails the test, the screener is retrained and allow to continue. if the screener fails a covert test, they need to notify right away or pull off the line. in both cases, the screener does or receive a suspension another penalty. i recognize there could be a variety of reasons but in certain cases, it would be appropriate for a screener who fails the test to be suspended.

the sole purpose is security. as tsa makes its headway toward risk based security, i am concerned this could set us back tremendously. it would only take one mistake to get the bomb on a plane. the confidence of the american public is fundamental to the success of security. would you agree to revisit the policies? >> yes. let me talk about covert testing. the numbers are over 6000 covert tests we have done. the other thing about covert testing, like any organization, you know exact he where the weaknesses are and build the difficult make it as

as possible. i will not go into a whole lot of detail. i will address your question because we keep that classified for a reason. they pay attention to what we do and use it against us. we have seen it consistently. when you have someone who fails we take them off the line and try to do immediate quality insurance. if we see a trend, we understand people can make a mistake. ineone put a test device the groin area and it is a small device, and they do a pat down, and it is clearly not a pat down to find the device, then we take immediate action to tell that individual, you need to do a better job on that pat down. we will look at that and i will tell you anybody who fails a test consistency -- consistently, will be in trouble. >> i appreciate that.

one failed pat down could lead to a horrible in failure for the public. >> it is important to recognize we have a system of security with multiple layers. it is a -- it is in-depth. we have to have that. if we only have one point and we base it on one point, it is a single point of failure. that is why we have our dogs. that is why we have an intelligence system before hand. defense in have a depth. it is like football. if you've only got one person on the line and you do not have linebackers, you're going to be in trouble. that is what we have. andry to overlap that ensure the one failure does not happen. every single day, one .8 million times a day. >> i appreciate that. time is expired. >> thank you. i welcome back the ranking

member. >> thank you. i would like to ask you a few questions about the procedures that were addressed or referred to in the recent report. proceduress not have to identify allegations of misconduct that has not been adjudicated. there could have been allegations never resolved. can you say how many there are remaining that have not been egypt -- adjudicated? secondly, the average length of time. how does the agency plan to address this issue going forward? >> to the best of my knowledge, we have taken what gao said to heart. we have made those changes and i do not believe any of those are outstanding. the process we use now is automatic. with a centigrade database, if

you go through the process, there is a system of checks and oversight by our office of investigations and by our office of professional responsibility. when a case is closed, the system now automatically goes back to every one of those offices so everyone understands the case has been adjudicated and it has been put into their records. we took that to heart and we made the correction and it is in place. >> the standard procedures now in place so we have what we hope is not arbitrary or fair across the board, actions being taken, can you say what a one strike and you are out looks like? >> yes. we catch an individual. let me go back to covert testing. we have a screener on the line. one of our testers as an ipad he decides to put in his pocket.

the vast majority of our people are good people who do not do ,hat. but when that happens and we have absolute proof he stole that item, 24 hours, he is out the door. we have put that into effect. drugs, another case. on the spot, we can put you out and we have done that. if it involves an investigation in drugs, if i cannot immediately prove it, we have to do do jill jones for our people. they are innocent until proven guilty. that takes a little bit of time. but we give them the benefit of the doubt in those cases until the proof shows otherwise. >> what does the infraction have to do with putting the public at risk, covert investigations, someone came through with an explosive, is that a one strike you're out? >> if someone is intentionally trying to go against security

practices, intentionally trying ,o bypass the system, yes, sir it is. we have had incidences of that in the last year and those people have been removed. >> let me go to a different aspect of this, and this is an issue we have raised before in other hearings and that is the concern i have and the public has about transparency and accountability on behalf of of the department. i am really concerned about how ands, we have transparency ensuring the public these matters are investigated. i realized personnel restrictions are privacy concerns. now, people have a right to say, it is not good and what are we doing about it. what can the department do to ensure security?

>> we are a very large organization. probably organization in the public eye more than any other government organization right now. 24see that traveling public hours a day. we have very good people and do a good job every day. every single time, one knucklehead says -- decides he will do something that will tarnish our organization. over 10 of our tso's last year saved people's lives either at the airport through cpr, by helping accident victims, by talking down a pilot and an aircraft. you never hear those stories. you hear them. i think that is important when you are talking about image and transparency. you have to take the good with the bad. when you look at the percentages, they are low and in comparable.

i have my people on the line 365 days of the year. they know if they fail, someone could die. thean i make sure we have answer to the question about parents it -- transparency echo -- about transparency? what can you do to ensure the american people that the issues raised in that study and report have been properly dealt with? transparency in that regard is what i was referring to. >> i appreciate that. what i would tell you is what i said earlier, we absolutely embrace it, aid by the gao. andre in the process almost completely have taken those on board and completed them. we believe they will eat complete by the end of october. there is one piece we are working on. trend analysis. i am telling you we embrace it and we will do it. pajamas time has expired.

the gentlelady from texas for five minutes for any questions she may have. >> let me thank you very much for what i think is a vitally important hearing. click some breaking news from the state department which says it is extending the closure of embassies in the middle east and north africa, indices that were closed because of possible threats by al qaeda and its affiliates. those indices are scheduled to be closed through saturday. in the statement, the state department says since the indices and consulates would be closed anyway for most of the week for ramadan, they have extended those closures. not an indication, the statement says, of new threats. that again from the state department. one embassy that will not be included is the u.s. embassy in baghdad. it along with a few others have

been authorized to open for normal operations tomorrow. and here on c-span, texas wendyatic state senator davis will be speaking at the national press club luncheon tomorrow. in june she launched on more than 10 hour filibuster against the texas antiabortion bill. we will have live coverage of her remarks beginning at 1 p.m. eastern. and new jersey democratic senate candidates will be debating easternt 7:30 p.m. time. that is at 7:30 p.m. eastern, also here on c-span. next a look at immigration policy and legislation in congress with republican senator john mccain and democratic representative javier buzz era becerra.

this is half an hour. [applause] thank you very much, terry. let me welcome senator mccain back toressman becerra the afl-cio. we are grateful for you to take a few minutes out of your busy schedules. this is a subject that is important to you as well as the 11 million immigrants in the u.s. it is a matter of living a life with the protections that the rest of us take for granted. let's get right to our questions. senator mccain, the passage of immigration reform was in no small measure due to your bipartisan efforts to read what are the chances you think that

congress will pass the bill that includes the pathway to citizenship? >> first of all, thank you for .eing here and to congressman becerra. i thank him for his articulate advocacy for comprehensive immigration reform. i must say it is nice to be back here amongst old friends and enemies. [laughter] august is amonth of very important month. the members of congress of both house and senate, in this case, the focus is about the house of representatives back in their districts. they are spending their times consulting with, meeting with the various groups they represent, ranging from organized labor to be chamber.

a lot of it is depending on the makeup of their districts. i think it is very important that as is our constitutional right to petition members of congress -- if they are elected representatives, that is in the constitution -- should be members ofh our congress. i intend in arizona to travel throughout the state, meeting the various interest groups ranging from evangelicals to be chamber to various hispanic andnizations throughout town hall meetings to convince my fellow citizens of arizona the importance of acting on this legislation. say, i just finally think this ball is very important -- this fall is very important. it is important because we get

into 2014 and we are back into an election cycle. i think the issue has ripened to a point where enough americans are aware of its that they are either going to act or not act, and i would point out that every poll i have seen emma and i have seen 100 of them, indicate well over 70% of the american people supports a path to citizenship, provided that -- and i'm going to give you some straight talk this morning -- provided that they pay back taxes, learn english, and get in line behind those who came to this country legally. that is an important aspect of gaining support of the vast majority of american people. finally, the reason why the vast majority of american people supported is because they realize, and they have grown more to realize since ted kennedy and i fought this battle an issue that this is of 11 million people who are

living in the shadows. who are deprived of rights, who cannot live normal lives, and they are not going back to where they came from. amnesty.facto those who complain this is trying, this bill we are to get done, it is already de facto amnesty because they are not leaving. live in the united states of america without the protections of citizenship, then and in -- then some of them maybe many of them are exploited and mistreated in a variety of ways. that is not what america is supposed to be all about. became. you, senator the same question for representative the sarah. the gang of eight -- the gang of seven now in the house. what do you think the chances are that the bill will make it to president obama? let me start by saying i

agree with everything senator mccain just said. so you would have to conclude the chances are getting much better these days that we will pass a comprehensive fix to the immigration system. if i could just say we would not even be at step one had senator mccain not stepped to the plate. it is so important because we are not going to do this unless it is a bipartisan bill. and we no longer have senator kennedy with us, who was a champion on so many issues. but we are fortunate that senator mccain was still with us. we saw the result. 68 votes. they found a way to do this bipartisan. i do not think we can talk a lot without first recognizing those who stepped to the plate. there was the risk of losing to do this. and i think a tremendous amount of history will be written once we do this, because i do believe

we will pass it, about how john mccain from arizona acted not as a politician, but a u.s. citizen. so i think we owe senator mccain a great deal. [applause] bill, i also think we are going to pass this because -- is there any difference between that superstar and any other superstar who wants to be a leader for america? no. is there any reason why we would want to contain a superstar like to shine being able , but forfor america this country. if we put aside party and think of country, if we recognize the benefits of fixing immigration

for our economy, as cbo has said to us -- i hope you can understand better than most what it means when the congressional budget office says we would have hundreds of billions of dollars added to our economy. hundreds of billions of dollars of deficit reduction. and if you recognize that everyone agrees we must tackle border security as well -- well, then this is good for our country. there is no reason why we should not do something that is good for our economy, good for our country. and finally left millions of people come out of the shadows. you just whack it out of the park every time. so, i firmly believe more than i have ever felt in the 20 years i have been privileged to serve in congress, this is the year we are going to do it, so long as capitol putn the country ahead of party.

>> thank you. the gang of eight have disappointed you on a variety of subjects. it is fascinating to watch. they all seem to agree that the pathway to citizenship had to be part of the bill. how did that come about? >> i think if we look at the where there are large numbers of people who came, in this case, from north , who weren enclaves never part of society, who never had a chance to have full citizenship and participate in those countries, you see bad things happen. people have to have the ability to become -- the greatness of america. many of the things i say are obvious to all, but the america, waves of emigration. which is made as the most unique

and greatest nation on earth. whether they be the irish or the italians or the jews or the polls. what ever it is, our country has been enriched. and that is the case with the latest wave of hispanic citizens. by the way, just an interesting item -- i had a meeting with an official from the french government. they are tracking over 100 french nationals who have gone into the fight in syria as jihadist. it has a tendency when people be partnot allowed to of a nation to polarize the individuals who live there. that is an unacceptable situation in my view. , he is an economist that is trusted more than anyone i know by both sides of the

aisle. i think you will find his fax, and they are facts, not conjecture about the effect on our economy, this legislation could be very important. finally, let me just say sometime today or in the next in southernmewhere arizona, the border patrol or local authorities will come across some dead bodies. they will come across some dead bodies of people who crossed our .orders this is not acceptable. this is not acceptable. this is not acceptable to have this kind of exploitation of people that leads to the most miserable kind of existence and even death. there are so many aspects of this that appeal to our judeo- christian principles. i think we have a good sense of convincing our fellow members of the house of representatives.

becerra, how do you think citizenship is faring in the house, and do you think the house will pass a bill that contains a definite path to citizenship? billll, i think if the that the senate passed a few weeks back were to be placed on the floor for a vote, it would pass bipartisan link -- bipartisanly today. we may end up working on a bill that is a house-derived version of immigration reform. but i do believe it will include the path to citizenship for all the reasons senator mccain just said. wesense is in the house what have to do is figure out a way to navigate to the date of that vote so we can bring together the bipartisan majority that we need.

nowink there are right the republicans necessary in the house to give us that bipartisan majority. as many p all are working with our colleagues -- as many people are working with her colleagues on the republican side to get to that point, what we're trying trying to do is give speaker boehner the opportunity to open that door. it has been tough, on occasion, to get there because of some other voices that have been out there. at the end of the day, i think in the house, we see what the senate has done, really a chance to fix this broken immigration system. but for the reasons senator mccain said, i do not think this country is ready to go back to not just the 20th century, but the 19th century, talking about having a second class in america. i do not believe you will clear the decks for those who live in the shadows where you give them

a temporary status were they come out of the shadows, register, have a temporary status where when that expires, they will have to leave, there families, everything they have, become undocumented again. you might his way -- you might as well stay undocumented. the only way to get folks to come out of the shadows is to give folks a path. and by the way, once you are able to clear the decks of those in the shadows, the only folks who will stay in the shadows are those that we really want to prosecute. the folks that stay in the shadow are the ones that want to sell our kids drugs, the one to want to game the system and violate our laws, and they are to -- we wantve

to make sure anyone stays in the shadows, we want to make sure we have every tool that law enforcement has so we know we can protect our country. also mentioned, of all the legislation i have been involved in over the years, i have never seen a broader coalition of support than i have seen on this bill. whether it is evangelicals and the cap yurt, the chamber of -- and the catholic church, the chamber of commerce. perspective than any i have seen in my political career. i think if we can galvanize all those disparate parts of america, whether it be the religious community, the business community, labor, whoever it is, i am confident we can prevail. so far, i have to give you some straight talk, we have not done as effective in job as we are going to have to do.

watching laws in washington be made is often compared to -- >> the way sausages made, yes. >> sausage is tastier. >> what will it take to get support? >> the path to citizenship is obviously a fundamental element. the rest of it, i think, could be adjusted. in the weeks and hours of discussions we had, compromises are made. that makes certain elements of it, people really having to swallow hard. i know labor did. i know the chamber did. we, now with these months of review of legislation, look at areas that could be adjusted. again i will give you a little

straight talk. we do not need 20,000 additional border patrol agents. what we do need is to use technology that has been developed where we can surveilled the border more effectively. today on the arizona-mexico border, it is probably 120 degrees. people did not do well for a long time under those conditions . whereas we could have surveillance capabilities that put 20,000 additional border patrol, and again i voted be it so front of mine would confident we are secure on the border, but the real securing of the border is technology as opposed to individuals. although we do need individuals. everyone says, in 1986 we promised to re-secure the order. well, we really didn't, if you really looked at it. the fact is in 1986 we had 4000

border patrol agents. -- we have 21 thousand 21,000 border patrol agents. the border is secure. anyone who says it is not, i would like to take them down and show them some stuff. toit as secure as we wanted be? no, but i think technology can make a significant contribution. >> the same question to you, .ongressman becerra what has to be in the bill? >> i think we know what has to be in the bill. we have gone through this for years. what we need most is to make sure in 10 or 15 years were not coming back to the american ?ublic and saying, guess what we have to fix the broken immigration system again. bits andt do this in pieces. because the machine is broken.

you fix one part of the machine. all you have got is a machine with a will bunch up roque and parts and one that works ok. it will not make the machine work ok. arehave to give people that working, living, graduating as valedictorians in the shadows, you got to bring them out. everybody agrees on exactly what that means. you have to have workplace enforcement. you have to convince the american public we are going to get it right. unscrupulously hiring folks that do not have a right to work -- and if you do those three things, border enforcement, work is enforcement, and you deal with the undocumented, you only have one thing to do. the legal system. so you don't have people who wait 10, 20 -- you know, if you

are mexican and you have youtives in the u.s., if are the sibling of someone in the u.s. wanting to come into this country, it your way be about 140 years. got some newve drug, you're not going to wait for 140 years. legalve got to fix the system for families and for employment. if you can do that, then you will have a system that works in all of its parts. this is one important aspect of this. senator mccain mentioned it. for americanstive to work every day with their hands, building construction. by father was a construction worker. i was a member of local 185 in sacramento, california, working in road construction for myself for a time.

what terry and all those in the building trades did was something courageous. they took a chance that senator mccain and the senate could arrive at a decent deal. they are looking at more people coming into the country to take jobs while you have some 20% unemployment in the construction industry. what they did is reached a common sense compromise with the u.s. chamber of commerce with how to deal the future flow of workers. i won't call them lower skilled. i did the work.i know how much skill is involved. it takes a lot of energy and talent to stay out there in the sun doing the work with those tools out there. they compromised and reached a deal for the good of the country. if you deal with all four aspects of immigration reform, you will have a system that works. >> i didn't answer your question very well. by the way, congressman becerra

went from honest work to politics.[laughter] e verify is so important. one of the least talked about aspects of illegal immigration is 40% of the people here illegally didn't cross the border illegally. they came on a visa and overstayed the visa. we have to have a system where employers have to have a verification system where the person they are hiring is in the country legally. i can buy a birth certificate for about $40 today. so we have to have the e verify system so that the employer also have to know whether that person is a legally -- can be legally hired and if the employer hires someone who is here illegally, they pay a tough penalty. the agriculture worker program,

there are jobs american citizens will not do. i will show you that. it is tough. new immigrants always grab the bottom running on the ladder and thank god they move up. we need a program that will work and finally to stem -- the majority of students who are taking advanced degrees in those majors, advanced degrees, the majority of them are not american citizens. so we want to give them the opportunity to remain in the united states and work here rather than go back to china or india or wherever that they came from. that is one reason why the high- tech community is so supportive of this as well. those are other elements, but i want to emphasize again the e verify. unless that employer has a way of ascertaining whether that person is in this country legally or not, then obviously that we cannot -- we're going to

have to make sure that that magnet is drying up. >> i know you to get back to capitol hill, but one final question, if i can. polls are showing growing support for comprehensive immigration reform including citizenship. officials have their own sense of pebble beach opinion. given your experience, where do you think the public is on immigration reform and especially on the question of citizenship. senator mccain? >> i have great faith in the american people. i have a great confidence that the american people, good, decent, judeo christian nation who are willing to work and sacrifice for this nation. i don't know why i mention it but one of my dearest friends and heroes who i was in prison with passed away the other day.

he inspired so many generations. by the way, i would like to point out among the many wonderful things hispanic contributions have made to america is when you look at the percentage of hispanic citizens who served in military. so i believe in america. i believe at the end of the day we're going to do the right thing. we're not going to talk about people with cantaloupe calves. we're not going to indulge in we are going to talk about the greatness of america. if i could just mention one story very quickly to you. in 2007, senator graham, leiberman and i were in baghdad. petraeus organized a reenlistment ceremony and asked us to speak at that ceremony. 200-something brave americans had decided to re-enlist and stay and fight.

also some 80 who were green card who had joined the military in order to have an accelerated path to citizenship, as we all know how long it takes today. i looked there were four empty seats in the front row with boots on who were supposed to be part of that citizenship ceremony who had been killed in the previous 48 hours. nothing is more moving than to know people who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to become citizens of the greatest nation on earth. that's what america is all about. that's why i believe we can pass this legislation. >> thank you. congressman becerra?

>> bill, i think the people have been way ahead of the politicians for a long time on immigration reform. but at the end of the day, it is going to be the courage of some of those americans to step forward. i think all the folks who work on behalf of working men and women for believing that we could actually reach a decent deal that could protect the rights of workers in this country. because in many ways, those impacted by immigration have been american workers. i have to shout out for the dreamers. there is just no way we would be where we are today if it weren't for the dreamers who had the courage to get out in front of the camera and say i've been in this country without documents for sometime and i dare you to

tell this american that he or she has to leave the country that he or she has grown up loving and working so hard. the courage of a john mccain and some of the other senators to stand up to the politics and to some of the hateful rhetoric, and i find that everything that senator mccain has said that i agree with. this is not a panel of a democrat and a republican. it is two americans for a system that should be producing goods for america and not producing chaos. we have always done this. think about our history. we have always done this. i feel it most from my parents. i'm the son of immigrants. my parents are originally of mexican descent. and i always mention this story. i'll just say it very quickly.

because you have probably heard it about three times from me. my father, when he was a young man, recounts when he was young working in this country, he would walk by the restaurants that had signs that said no dogs or mexicans allowed and he did and he worked and he worked. he picked every crop you have eaten. the grapes on those railroad cars. he canned the tomato in the soup that you drink and he said most of the time worked as a road construction worker building the highways that intersected our states when we were in the boom of building freeways in the 1960's and 1970's, but he remembers that he could not walk into a restaurant after building this country. well, if he could not walk into a restaurant, he could sure make sure his son got educated and become the first in his family to get a college degree from stanford, university. he didn't have to worry about walking into a restaurant. because of his son, he could

walk through the doors of a white house and that is what it is all about. having courage to just work, even though you couldn't go into a restaurant. a belief in passing a bill with a bipartisan vote. saying i'm an american. let me prove to you that i love this country. we're not going to undermine our own jobs and find a common ground to get to a good bill. at the end of the day, it is those maces i think most about. while we hear those vile words from some, the people so far ahead of the politicians that we're going to get there and it is because of the courage of the american people. i think we're going to do it this year. >> could i say we're not going to do it without your active involvement and engagement, and please treat your opponents,

those who disagree with you, treat them with respect. we want to keep the high ground in this debate and i thank you for all you're going to do. >> thank you, senator mccain. congressman becerra. your life story -- your life stories inspire us every day and the work you do on capitol hill honors everyone in this room. please join me in thanking senator mccain and congressman becerra. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013]

tomorrow, a panel on the future of islam in education politics. and wendy davis will speak at the national press club luncheon. in june she launched a 10 hour filibuster against the texas antiabortion bill. it eventually passed in july. we will ring you her remarks live at 1 p.m. eastern, also here on c-span. last week, civil rights leaders met with president obama and attorney general eric holder. they talked about the supreme court's decision to strike down the voting rights act. after the meeting they spoke to the press for about half an hour. >> we had a very candid and very significant meeting with the president and the attorney general around voting rights. this is a broad coalition of

civil rights and voting rights organizations, as well as attorneys and legal groups. our concern was to protect the right of all americans to vote, given the decision of the supreme court in terms of section 4. there was a certain amount of alarm around the country for those concerned with voting rights and civil rights and state legislatures. we have been assured by the president and the attorney general they they will continue to aggressively fight to protect the rights of all americans to vote. they are open to many of us on to and in you to use the voting rights act, it is not dead, and to be resources to bring them information of any violation of voting rights to wreck this.

we have been greatly encouraged by that. thee is willingness in voting rights act. we intend to use the information that we have today to ensure our constituents that we intend to aggressively fight to protect those rights in all communities, which is why everyone, be it communitiesn, black , were represented in this meeting today. as we head to the 50th anniversary of the march on , we are having not a commemoration march, but a continuation march. because we are under assault in many areas. we will emphasize voting and we will launch a huge voter mobilization and voter registration tried on august 24

-- drive on august 24. we informed the president and attorney general of that. i think the multiracial, multiethnic, and the expertise demonstrated was something the president noted emma and i think it was very important. -- noted, and i think it was very important. this administration's commitment to making sure every american has fair access to the polls and the right to the boat is holding and his absolute. that is what the conversation centered around. one, all of the historic organizations assembled in front of you are prepared to go to work, and we will be doing more education than ever. because the bottom line -- while there are a number of adverse

efforts being used to undermine the right to vote, it is really our job. we will be able to make sure people retain access. the conversation centered around what is going to need to be done. we also have partnerships with mayors across the united states. going to bees are acquired in order to set the oford for the kind discrimination we believe is afoot in the united states of america. and you cannot cannot rely on these organizations to respond without being well sourced. >> as you can see, there is a anad commitment and inclusive coalition that is supportive of the voting rights act. by thea very meeting led

president and the attorney general general and the new secretary of labor who has assisted the attorney general, a broad commitment to support the voting rights act. this andry invested in we have worked very closely across this coalition to support the voting rights act. broad support by this coalition to work on other issues like immigration reform. we marched in alabama together against voter suppression and the anti-immigration laws. i think the strength of this coalition represents a strong unity and commitment that everyone must have that right to vote. we are here, working together, committed. >> i'm the president and asianive director of the americans advancing justice and

i am very pleased to be here. thes important to preserve right to vote for all generations. it does not matter if you have been here for five generations or five years. the right to vote is what being american is about. the asian-american communities are honored and i stand with my coalition partners to say this is a fight by americans for all americans. >> thank you very much. , it was at our annual conference in philadelphia that attorney general holder announced he was taking action against the state of texas. in today's meeting, there were a number of things i think are important to emphasize. one, the president and the attorney general's reaffirmation of the viability of the voting rights act. struck downcourt

one provision, not the entire act. the president and the attorney general reaffirm their commitment to support that act. secondly, the president and the attorney general reaffirms the federal government's overriding responsibility to protect democracy and the right to vote for all americans. our discussion was in the context of that. thirdly, as the coalition here, we recognize there is important work to do. but i have had the opportunity to participate in the 2006 reauthorization and was actually a capitol hill staffer when the voting rights act was reauthorized in 1982. in both of those instances, if you go back to the 1975 reauthorization and the 1965

reauthorization, the rose broad bipartisan support. in 1982, i remember then senator bob dole playing an important role. signed, president bush the bill on the lawn of the white house with members from congress from both parties there in large numbers. we reaffirm our commitment to a ill -- to build the same type of coalition for the necessary response to the supreme court's action and we reaffirm our commitment to do that today. >> hi, i'm waiting henderson with the leadership conference for civil and human rights. i want to it knowledge of the leaders who are here today to take part in this important to my constructive meeting with the president. the naacp legal and education fund, the president of the lawyers committee, the civil

rights under lockdown switch by celebrating its 50th anniversary having been founded by president kennedy in response to violence against registered voters in the past -- the president of the mexican american legal defense education fund, wringing real lawsuits in -- bringing real lawsuits in the area of voting rights violations, laura murphy who represents the american civil liberties union, washington national office to remind all of us of the importance worked the aclu is doing. bringing over 300 voting rights cases currently. the chairperson of the naacp, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. there are state legislators. we have state legislators in alabama, from

georgia, from florida. i mean, this is really a broad and diverse group. blacke the national coalition of civil participation. i want to underscore something about the importance of bipartisanship. and the president himself alluded to that. we recognize the voting rights act in the past has enjoyed strong bipartisan support. we are counting on that by partisans of work to continue the great tradition of ensuring every person, every american citizen has the right to vote. this is such an important meeting because the president underscored that right that all americans believe in. that thehe emphasized right to vote for all will be adequately protected. enforcement efforts that were announced last week by attorney general holder were so

important, but it is also important that we educate the public and that we mobilize our constituencies to lift their voices about the significance of this issue. that is why the 50th anniversary of the leadership march on washington will be so important. myh that, we invite colleagues to give the closing remarks. >> yes. i thought the meeting was really excellent. it was great to have not only be president, the attorney general -- i thought it was important that we have a real conversation. it was quite constructive. the president was impressive in his knowledge of this issue, his thinking about it, and his commitment to making sure that every american is going to be able to have the right to vote unfettered. i was also very impressed that the department of justice has been giving -- and the

administration -- has been giving thought to be full array of voting rights laws including the national voters registration there areke sure rights accorded to everyone to vote. the president also alluded again on long linesion and we are awaiting that report. i think that report will be informative or this effort. thank you. oh, and i should have mentioned the lawyers committee also -- we will be working very closely with all the groups here and others to conduct hearings across the country in order to help congress develop the record that is needed and be a big part of that. we look forward to doing the litigation that is necessary. three me mention our last

speakers -- sherilyn eiffel, tom perez -- hello, i'm sherilyn eiffel. i am the president and director of the legal defense fund. we are part of the lawyers who would a gated the shelby case and argued the case before the supreme court. since that case, appliance and americans all over the country have been deeply concerned about whether we are going backwards on the right to vote. this meeting was important to have the president of the united states, the attorney general of the united states to affirm we are not going backwards. nearly 150 years ago, the supreme court of the united they said the right to vote is preservative of all rights. are in is nott we a moment about african- americans, about latinos, about native americans, about asian americans. this is moment about america and democracy, what you stand for, protecting what defines us as

citizens of this country. what the president affirmed today is he will stand for it, he will stand behind it, that he will do everything in his power to insure all americans have access to the right to vote. he also the same views. we do not believe that we in this country in in 2013 should be fighting to make sure that people have access to the bulls -- to the polls. we should find ways to broadening the franchise, to ensure greater participation, to encouraging our young people to participate in the political process. we think it is unfair, frankly, we have to engage in this kind sure that oure democracies remain open. and yet we take up the challenge. those of us who litigate to get the challenge in court. using left the remaining features of the voting rights act. we are so excited by the strong coalition of individuals from so

many groups who recognize this as a watershed issue in this country. all looking forward to august 24 and the march on washington. this is an opportunity to see how this affects millions of americans all over the country, how they feel about this right. as the naacp legal defense fund, we are continuing to talk to communities about voting discrimination and what is happening. we will not rest until we ensure all voters have equal access to participate in the voting process. we are happy the president is focused on this and thrilled that he and the attorney general were willing to meet you all of us to reassure their commitment to preserving the right to vote. thank you. >> thank you. -- one of the

organizations currently litigating in texas. this presents an immediate opportunity to use one of the main tools in the voting rights act of 1960 five to ensure a jurisdiction with a long- standing and continuing history of discrimination in voting is subjected to appropriate review of his voting processes. this makes the meeting with the president particularly opportune. the coalition that met with the president is simply a demonstration of how critically important this issue is to all america. all americame for to come together across community lines, across experience lines to ensure the precious right to vote belongs to all of of us is vigorously defended and vigorously asserted . at the end of the day, we know

that no supreme court decision, no matter how wrongheaded it may be, no supreme court decision denies this most precious right to every citizen who has earned it. trade martinez from texas. >> thank you, again. i lead the oldest and largest latino caucus and the -- and the country. we have been pursuing legislation. i think it is refreshing to hear from the president of the united states that when republicans and americans toht for vote, america wins. we know that does not happen overnight. we have to make sure that this coalition can work day in and day out to in short that every

american has the right to vote and every american has a place to go when they see shenanigans at the polling place. in addition to the effort of the department of justice to retool wake ofioritize in the the supreme court decision, it is refreshing to learn that section two and section three will be strictly and vigorously applied by the doj. there is litigation at happening discuss section two implications as well section three to give america an opportunity to see firsthand how and why it is so important that not only we have the right to vote, but that we fight to protect that right. that is what this coalition represents. i'm glad to see everybody in washington come together and put our arms around this difficult issue. i am encouraged by the president.

his words thaty they will not let one election go by without having proper vigilance. >> thank you. thank you and thanks to all who have joined in this meeting today. a couple of questions -- 50 years ago, there were marches. there was a lot of activity on the ground. what is the battle like today in texas and critical states in the south? >> in texas there is a lawsuit pending right now. we have an opportunity to display just how important it is to have section two and section three. what we fight, we demonstrate the importance of the need for a votingto give us rights act for all americans.

>> we have representatives from georgia and florida who are here. both of those states have engaged in activity and have been working to preserve the right. i will let them speak. >> i am the president of the national black caucus, 50 legislators in 42 states. we've seen a lot of action as a result of the voting rights act. we just heard a situation where the voters approved a bipartisan election in city elections, but now there is a supreme court ruling and the legislature has changed it to a nonpartisan election. that is just one example. i think what is important about today's meeting is we have this trickle down theory. those of us at the state level now have to look over the local school board level, the mesa

valley area, and those levels were the voting rights act can bring disruption. we look not only at the state level and federal level, but also the local municipalities. >> we also have alan williams from florida. >> today was an opportunity to hear not only from the attorney general, also from the president. they have a full and broad coalition supporting what we buildings a critical block of our democracy and that is the voting rights act. each and everyday we we know that folks have wondered if they have the right to vote. we want them to know that that right is protected. and what the department of justice is doing in texas is critical to ensuring that right post the shelby decision. in florida, governor scott has led and has started to begin to purge voter list. we have a mission to continue as legislators in that state to

make sure the rights of citizens in all 67 counties are not violated. the shelby decision, but also post the zimmerman verdict, we know that next year will be the first year that trayvon martin would have had an opportunity to vote. this as something very sacred. it is not lost on us. we want to make sure that everybody has that opportunity. we will protect that. >> with the voting map -- [indiscernible] what are you guys looking for for this new voting rights map, and what will it look like? what do you like ingres stooge wrought with this new map? see what do you want to congress draw with this new map? candidly, it is too early.

think what theto legislative response is going to be. there are some very smart lawyers, experienced voting withs litigators working the justice department and outside the justice department and on capitol hill in order to do what is necessary to respond. it is too early. and i think also that speculation would not be helpful to the ultimate goal. the ultimate goal, which is to ofs on a bipartisan basis legislative response. the attorney general reay formed this. we saw him utilize section three. he is seeking to bring protective clearance in the enforcement regime. they are monitoring opportunities. there are resources being shipped into section two. there are other tools in the

justice department's toolbox to protect the right to vote. at what i would encourage you all to do is to keep a close eye on action of the state legislative level. these state legislators in the last 24, 36 months, there have been a long list of bills introduced in states across the nation, particularly in the south, but not exclusively in the south, that fall into the category of voter suppression. only those which actually passed are those which would challenge, garner public attention. because there were efforts inside of these legislators -- legislatures to stop these things. i think this is one of the places where attention on the states, attention on the states -- no longer can we wait,

stateslarly for the old -- to pass whatever they want to pass and go to the justice department for preapproval. we really need people to understand this is not an isolated law here. efforts been a concerted , particularly in the last 24 to the six months, to have this kind of voter suppression legislation and new discriminatory methods and many of the states. from thest comment is chair of the naacp. >> i agree with mark. what to early to see policy will be in place now. the naacp is really about educating across the nation. we have a campaign called summer heats. we are engaging our membership to look at city and local and

state elections that are happening. 2014 is a critical time in this nation. we are so pleased the president called this meeting along with attorney general holder, the broad coalition. we are committed and we shall not be moved in our pursuit to ensure the unfettered access for the right to vote were all americans in this country. we say the purge will not skip this generation, but the right to vote will not skip this generation and we will continue to work with coalition partners across the country and we will mobilize 50,000 voters, new voters, to vote in the midterm elections next year. we know the power structure in this nation happens at the polling place. and so we want to ensure that everyone who has a desire to vote and to be part of the civic process of this nation has an opportunity to do that. because too many of our fathers

and mothers have died for this franchise. >> thank you. with that, we will end this press conference and we will stay around in case you have further questions. >> wendy davis will speak at the national press club luncheon trade she launched a filibuster against the texas senate abortion bill. it eventually passed in july. we will have live coverage of remarks beginning at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. later in the day, new jersey democratic candidates will debate live from the campus of montclair state university. rushan watch cory booker, holt and frank pallone and new jersey state assembly member sheila oliver@7:30 p.m. eastern also on c-span. >> joining us on "newsmakers