go perpendicular to the stitch this way. they are drilled out and embedded into both sides of the cast iron, ground down, and epoxied and polyurethaned. >> was the contract put out for bid? >> yes, we advertise our contracts on federal business opportunities website and multiple contractors bid on the job. >> number two, what risk are you seed your plan? nothing is perfect but what are you most worried about? >> when you scaffold such a large building, to me, it is the scaffolding system that is probably the riskiest part of this. secondly, a few of the things we learned on the construction of the first phase of this, the skirt phase, is that the timeliness about which you have

to go about this repair technique -- what i mean by that is after you take all of the paint and primer off the dome, the cast iron of this generation flash rusts in eight hours. the timeliness of the application is important. we have to have those processes down very well so that we don't have to double do work. >> what about the scaffolding gives you mild concerns? >> the fact that it is a massive scaffolding project, i think -- getting that scaffolding here, lifting it up to the roof of the dome, and then getting it installed and taken back down is just a massive logistical effort. that is probably one of the biggest risks on the job.

>> when they did the reflecting pool in the mall, they used fairly exotic technology to keep the algae out and later we saw algae forming. is there any exotic techniques that you will try here that are not tested? >> know, there are no exotic techniques we're using. we tested many, many repair techniques over the course of nearly 10 years to help advise us and test a wide variety of repair techniques. some of those were fairly exotic. some of those were fairly benign. we ultimately found this lock and stitches the most reliable way to fix the cracks in the dome in situ.

>> getting back to the scaffolding, out of curiosity, you said the scaffolding is a monumental project. at any point, did you consult with them in terms of the best way? this is in terms of preservation and preserving the visitor experience. >> we aren't certainly great -- we are certainly great partners with the park service and share our plans with them. we did not consult pacific lake on the construction -- we did not consult specifically on the construction of the capitol dome of the park service but we certainly looked at several other partners, companies and local municipalities, that have done similar work. similarly, after we finished the dome skirt, there have been other dome restoration projects that have consulted us on the repair techniques of our dome. it is certainly a collaborative process. can we get one more?

>> you mentioned 1200 cracks in there now and it could allow water damage. has there been any water damage inside the capital? does the two-year timeline include the scaffolding until spring 2016? >> it does include the planning that is underway. we expect two years from beginning to end from contract award to contract completion. it does include that. >> the water damage? >> there certainly is water damage in the capital today. many of those water leaks you see from cracks, we managed those by capturing that water through a series of water pans inside the exterior dome and shoot that water back out or take it to the ground. we have been working to manage it over the years. some of it does continue to come in. you can see that both in the interstitial spaces between the inner dome and the outer dome

and the rotunda itself. if you look closely, you can see her water damage and water staining. thank you, everybody. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013]

>> all this week in primetime on c-span, encore presentations of q&a. tonight, former ohio republican bob ney and his memoir "sideswiped," in which he talks about his 11 years in congress and his year in prison. then in the c-span year in review, a look at gun laws, highlights on senate debate on background checks and testimony from gabby giffords. that is at 8:00 p.m. eastern. and in first ladies, we looked at mimi eisenhower, first lady from 1953-1961.

we now have secular norms instead of theological norms our acceptance or rejection of the ways in which a or got us can speak to people. david caresses he has insights -- david qureshi says he has insights into the bible that will help you understand the and of revelation better enhance our reading of the end times. that in and of itself does not seem to be a problem, but when it leads to other elements, then that triggers law enforcement concerns as well as press concerns. somebody listening to god and having his followers

do things that are aberrant to the norms, that needs to be policed. >> he argues that religious persecution in america has been prevalent since the 1800s, even committed by the very government that is supposed to protect us from religious persecution. sunday night at 9:00 on c-span2. >> next, a look at strategies and initiatives for reducing food waste, including converting the waste into energy. it was hosted by a san francisco-based organization and included representatives of various food waste organizations from across the country. the discussion is just over one hour. >> ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome you here tonight. the council general, well, that

is me, the organization we have here on the 31st floor of this magnificent building, and we are sorry it is dark outside. i invite you to come back here during the daytime. it is a magnificent view over the bay, but that is not the topic of this night. we will speak about food waste, and sorry to be in front of the panel, but i am afraid the microphone would collapse. let me start with a quote from a dutch ceo from you in a letter unilever, which is one of the

big food retail companies in the world, a big dutch-anglo company. he had been invited by ban ki- moon, the secretary-general of the united nations, and to be part of the goals for the whole world, and in a speech he delivered on december 10 this year, so a couple of days ago, he said there is no excuse for $750 billion u.s. in food waste per year when we only need 80 million u.s. dollars to feed the hungry, and this comes from a businessman, one of the biggest businessmen there is, so he is really sincere. i am very convinced he is. nevertheless, roughly one third of our food is waste, and i think others will have better figures of that, but let's say kilograms or pounds or whatever measurements, but one third, and it gets lost or it gets wasted. this waste causes emissions to

the environment, pesticides, fertilizers, and this is 23 times more of the greenhouse gas than co2, then the food. -- than the food. water, you know agriculture uses loads of water. a fresh water, we have a lack of that in the world, as well. fertile soils get lost, and developing developing countries, and, of course, we are speaking of the early stages of food, which is not the topic of today. food gets lost in the supply change -- chains in the early stage, the cooling, the transport. we could have other meetings to improve that part. i think there is an obligation of us all to help developing

countries to improve that part of the work, but on our side in developed countries, we are speaking about later stages, supply-chain, such as the behavior of the retailer, of the supplier, and of the consumer, so that is us. so, for instance, the united states, the united kingdom, they still landfill with organic wastes. i think it is the second material they landfill. while in the netherlands, it is zero landfill, because it is just strictly forbidden to landfill any organic waste, so sometimes you need a lawyer. i am a lawyer. but, sorry. i am not angry. passionate, i am. yes.

it is time for action. i will say those at the global level, there is a global partnership needed for development. the developing countries, like the scaling up of nutrition initiatives, and that is the topic of tonight. we need action at the local level, multi-stakeholder partnerships, so let's discuss this. let's discuss circular food supply. let's see what our amy can be. how close can we get to a zero waste cycle.

thank you very much. [applause] oh, yes, let me give the floor to the local food lab, michelle and christian. >> hello, everyone. thanks so much for coming today. thank you for the consulate general or graciously hosting us in this space. i want to thank our moderator, who is a partner, as well as food lab for the delicious treats. i am cohosting this event. >> i want to echo those thank you's, and in addition to hosting events like this one, we have also launched a platform that is dedicated to bridging

the gap between the talent and the opportunities in the good food movement, so if there is anyone here who is looking for work in the industry or a startup who is looking to hire intern or full-time employees, we have some input. we have invite codes for everybody here, so please grab one in the back, and thank you so much for coming. i will turn it over to austi. -- austin. >> thank you. how is that? can you hear me? all right, thank you, to all of you, for coming. thank you to the consulate for having the second event that food lab has been able to host here, and i was lamenting the fact that the sun had already gone down, because the view is spectacular, but not so bad now either. i want to highlight some baseline facts, and they are staggering, and i think it is easy to gloss over them. we waste 40% of our food in the

united states. consumers throw away an estimated 25% of what they bring home or eat at restaurants. 64 billion pounds of surplus food is dumped into landfills each year, and that is 2.6 million garbage truck loads, just two sides that in your mind. $165 billion, costing millions to service and dispose of. an american family of four throws away $1600 worth of food each year, and i think you alluded to it nicely, but think about the underlying resource waste that represents. agriculture takes up a huge percentage of our freshwater in california. we are throwing away a lot of energy, as well, so this is a big panel, one of the biggest out there, and we have a good panel, and i am very excited by the breadth and depth of what is represented here, so i will

begin by introducing everyone, but i want to show you this graphic, and i am going to turn this off. i was thinking of how to orient the conversation, and i want to talk about the supply chain in food and where the waste is occurring. in cymer losses represent the vast majority of what we are throwing away, so this is, what you're eating at restaurants or what you're taking home and disposing of. there is also a sizable amount of production loss, and in the middle, there is less loss. it still represents a massive amount of food, but where the bunnies have an economic incentive to steward and shepherd the food, they are doing so. we will talk about everything along the supply chain -- michelle, how do we turn that off? great. i will start by having everyone introducing themselves. i will start.

i was at the stanford business school and spent a lot of time and energy thinking of big issues with food, and now working with michelle and edible startups, we are a blogger introduces entrepreneurship in the food space. we will not flood your in boxes because we do not publish that often, but we are inspiring to do more. i am working on two projects, and one is a food startup, but let's get the focus on the panelists, where it belongs. introduce yourself and tell us about your organization, and then i will kick it off. ashley? melody? she is a public relations person 40 waste energy. >> first of all, thank you for having me and our company represented today. like you said, i am with the zero waste energy based out of california, and we handle waste management with and emphasis on organic waste creates what we are focusing on is our dry anaerobic digestion technology which basically speeds up the natural composting process to a 21 and a batch cycle, so after

about 48 hours, it begins producing methane gas and all of the eye gases, and after 21 days, all you have left is an agricultural quality compost, and all of that gas that is collected is transformed into either electricity or cng fuel, so it is a completely closed loop cycle that we have, and we just celebrated the grand opening of our project in san jose, which is 1.6 megawatts of electricity, about 34,000 tons per year of compost, if i remember correctly, and it is processing 90,000 tons per year of organic waste, so that is just one of our projects, and that is what we do. >> i want to point out that that is the largest facility of its kind in the world. >> yes, it is the largest in the world. >> the energy that it produces is eligible for inclusion in the renewables portfolio.

utilities have to use one third of their energy by renewable sources by 2020, so this is an important component to meeting regulatory goals. >> and i also believe it is a leads platinum certified facility, and it is just one of them, but i move on. >> a cofounder of food cowboy. >> thank you very much. my brother and i started food cowboy along with barbara, and my brother was a trucker, mostly pulling produce, and barbara wrote a toolkit, and we put this together because for about 20 years whenever he had a load of produce, he has called me, and this was before cell phones and internet, and i had a desk job, and i was trying to find a school or a food bank or somewhere to take the food, so we finally got smart and said maybe this could use the match.com technology, being used

to truck food to food banks and composters and facilities like yours instead of landfills, because the problem is they just need to get rid of it and get rid of it quick. to give you a sense of what the supply chain does, all of the food donated to all of the food banks indicated to feeding america, the largest food bank network in america, equals the amount of money they waste in 19 days, so we can do a lot better than that. the government spends $80 billion per year on food stamps. we spend $160 billion per year on food that we throw away as consumers, so there is little ability to interdict that waste postconsumer because of food safety issues and scale issues, but in the supply chain, it is palletized, and what is missing is information, because without knowing where to take the food

likely, because it is perishable, it is expensive to move. you cannot do anything with it. our next step is to crowd source a food source map of the united states. all of that leaks out of the system, and facilities like yours or animal feed manufacturers and so forth that can use the food, because then the charities and entrepreneurs can get to scale by building efficient systems, so we ask for your help with that. >> thanks. from foodstuffs. valley girl foodstuffs. >> i am -- a shaft turned instruments -- insurance agent, turned chef mentoring at risk teens. i guess that is the best way to introduce myself quickly. i started ballet girl foodstuffs about one year ago after volunteering with a nonprofit in sonoma.

it is the teen center in sonoma, and a lot of food was coming and being donated from local grocery stores, and a lot of kids who like to be in gangs or at the teen center, so i started a cooking program there to teach some of these kids how to not get pregnant and not kill people by clicking, and the grocery stores in sonoma were desperate for someplace where they could offload the food that they were throwing away, so we started picking up seven days per week

through the teen center, and i quickly realized that basically what was happening is all of the food was going to the teen center and promptly thrown into the dumpster because they could not deal with the sheer mass of food that is tossed away at grocery stores, and we are not even talking about all of that. you're only talking about the eight percent. my notes said 10%. of the retail that is cost out. however, in california, 52% of produce that is grown, and i know there are people here who grow food, and there are people here who grow meat, and there are people here who cooked, so 52% of food that you see on the produce shelves is thrown away every year, so that is basically what i am dealing with, that 52%, so i was teaching kids at the teen center how to can and bake and ferment and dehydrate and do all of these sort of old-

school skills that nobody knows how to do anymore, although there is a renaissance. i have seen it, and then however, when you work with a nonprofit, it is a nonprofit, which means there is no profit, which means nobody gets paid, so these kids were doing a lot of work for no pay, and they were still showing up every single week to go to the farmer's market with me, as was i. i was not getting paid either, but i had four girls show up with me, and we would stay there until 1:00 in the morning and go to the farmers market the next day, and these girls were amazing, so 1.5 years ago, i decided to start a for-profit business on valley girls foodstuffs. it is not nonprofit, but we pick up food four days per week from whole foods locally, and i distribute that to these nonprofits, and whatever they cannot use, i then take and make food with it with these kids, so there is some in the back. i brought to show people what we

do. there are reasons there that we make from the 80 million cases of grapes that we get every summer, and there is also some quince jam. whence is not a super popular item in terms of people buying it in grocery stores, so when it is in season, i get it, and then we also started this year a farm in sonoma, so valley girl foodstuffs is now valley girl foodstuffs and farm. we are not certified organic. it is sort of a big process, but we do grow everything using sustainable and organic processes, so that is my side job. my real job is still being a state farm agent, so -- >> a very great mission and a very cool operation. we are hoping to hear more from you later. to my right is the cofounder of food star partners and also a long-time investor and founding partner of mindful investors, so i will have him talk at everything he does. >> well, i will not talk about everything, but i will share a few secrets with you of food waste reduction. as austin said, my day job, it seems like a lot of us have a day job, it is with mindful investors, so it is innovative,

breakthrough technologies which positively impact our lives and are a foundational aspect of what we do. the environment is a key area that we are investing in. food, water, and agriculture is another key area, and two years ago, two of my buddies from the food industry saw me at a conference and said, we are working on a food waste issue. this is a huge problem. will you help me with this? and i said, anthony, i help you with everything, and i said the wrong thing, so i ended up getting involved in this food waste reduction business, and when they first look at this, they looked at it as how do we change the world, and how do we reduce all of the waste that is occurring on every side of food, and first starting with animal protein, and we spent one point five years looking at that and considering how we can bring this product, a shelfstable product that was normally going to waste, and bringing it to the food channel, particularly

focusing on taking food that was going to be thrown away and getting it at very low cost and then creating a product that i would say would be a great value for the consumer that would be a shelfstable product, and after looking at that and looking at that, and talking with retailers, we were k early. we realize they easiest place to start was the low hanging fruit, and that was with produce, so we created our business, and we were fortunate to be able to encounter some really smart and people who were focused in this area, and one of my partners, ron, is here. ron, say hello. ron has been working in the food waste business in over a decade, focusing on bringing food that was coming from farms and being wasted and bringing it to food

banks and the not-for-profit sectors, so we have created food stars as a technology company. a for-profit business focused on how can we take this business and not make it be a sort of throw away and let's just see what we can do in a small way. how can we take the 64 billion pounds of food and put it to use her people to eat, and particularly in low income communities is where we are trying to focus, and so we created food start with two specific ideas. the first is ron has great relationships with farmers that are having significant amounts of food that are going to waste. it might be going to animal feed. it may be going to juicing, or they may just not be picked, so we are sourcing and finding those sources of fruits and vegetables and bringing those two we kill markets, and we started a partnership with a company where we do this on a spontaneous basis, so it is not every week or every month.

whatever is excess, we are bringing it to market and are doing it at anywhere of discounts from 75%, 75%, and consumers love it. it is great food, and it is great fruits and vegetables. it has got great nutritional value. the company loves it, and the employees love it, and it has been an incredibly successful program, and we are looking to expand that program with other retailers in the west coast and eventually expanded beyond the west coast. we are leveraging technologies that are created today to use to improve the efficiency of the supply chain. there are a lot of berries sophisticated -- a lot of very sophisticated tools that exist including understanding the entire growing process to looking at transportation, the time the food is spent at a distribution facility, when it

is at your dock, when it is in the backroom, how long it takes getting from the backroom to the shelves him how long it is on the shelf, what is the lifecycle of that food, and is it likely to be going to go bad, and where it will be a shortcode date. we are integrating these technologies and enabling the retailers to become more efficient and reduce their shrink and that waste. instead of putting a bag out ande that has black bananas melons that are completely juicy, getting it before hand and letting customers know it can get great value by buying these products and we have created flash sales. two or three times per week,andronicos has flash sales . we've got bananas, we've got melons, cucumbers, and they are 60-80% off.

consumers have loved it. it is a great product and it is great value to them. we are bringing these kinds of ideas and technology to the retail industry to help reduce food waste. we are interested in bringing more of us to focus on this together. this is a collaborative issue and we need to work together. that is what we are desirous of doing. it is all about you all as well. one thing you talked about is that there are technologies that exist to reduce the 23% figure. we often reduce food waste in our home and there is a lot of ideas and we will talk about that as we go further. i am pleased to see this great interest for all of you to be part of the solution, thank you. friedman. i am kelly and food shift is an oakland-based nonprofit. we have been around for about two years. we are working to reduce food waste. we are interested in doing this

in a couple of ways. the first step is education and action. people need to know about this problem. what we have learned overseas is that many people have no idea about the problem of food waste or what they can do to solve it. about a year and a half ago, we started an education action campaign. you may have seen some of our ads in bart. telling people about the environmental and social and financial consequences of wasted food that we are trying to arm them with tips and tools to reduce it. what do you do before you go to the grocery store? how do you plan your meals? how do you get your family involved? what are some everyday tips and tools to arm the way you are thinking about food and meal planning and storage? how do you better store herbs, where is the proper place to put exit they are from the market or from the farmers market? these kinds of everyday tips and tools for our consumers. we are really excited about the

programs we are launching in 2014. we are currently working with the oakland unified school district to do a food recovery program. we work with parents on site and we help them with food safety and food handling and we take the recovered surplus foods which are perfectly edible but because of federal meal plan regulations cannot be returned to the cafeteria. we help return that to kids in east and west oakland. 98% of the students are using some kind of food assistance. our food program helps supplement their mealtimes. we're working on a program and jobs.rship to create we are inspired by valley girl foodstuff and food star and easy central vegan and l.a. kitchen and people familiar with those in trying to figure out ways to make this problem into a

solution. the first step is food production but food that is going to go to waste because it cannot be resold at a grocery food will not be sulkily customer but is otherwise edible, what can we do with that food and how do we turn that into a positive ?>> we believe we can turn the tables and how typical food recovery happens. how can we use a creative revenue model with food waste ?how do you address consumer >> perfect patricia kelly. >> i am with business development and it is fun watching go around the paddle. i'm at the base of source reduction.

we have been in business for 10 years and have clients in 49 states. we are working in canada and are in conversations with many countries outside the u.s. that are looking for automation. we live by three statements, one of which is you cannot manage what you cannot measure. but you canol pre influence post. that is where my thought process goes. a presentation consists of meat inviting the information and data you have heard so far and then we plugged into if you understand you cannot manage what you cannot measure, let's look at the lean path. lean path keeps and elements of software, hardware, and also consulting that goes with it. been identified have to go to waste, it has the scale. attached to a camera is a tracker. tablet and this tablet

is encased in steel so that it is ready for the durable kitchen environment. we can pass it around. this is how easy it is to work in transact. we have created a user interface that is simple. this is state-of-the-art so we want to make sure that our technology is the best in the world but equally important is that we stop and say nobody will be successful without a cultural change. we do a lot of training and coaching. all of this ultimately allows baseline understanding of metrics and then we established goals and then we work with coaching and working on a day- to-day basis on how that affects for germans, menu planning, production. all of these are part of the system that is created through metrics for management. i looked atize,

their website and there are nice photos but you are selling to food service operations that are preparing large items of food? >> most often, it's commercial 2014, we will of have a mobile app that is a for small owner operator businesses so they can participate as well. what you will see on the website now most often is commercial and and is probably excess of 200 to $2000 spent per year. >> when they are producing food, they can start to measure, capture, and repurpose what used to be food waste in their own production supply chain? >> that is correct. excellent >> we've got a lot of different perspectives here. one common thread is there are a lot of economic danes to be had whether it is him and nonprofit or process -- or for profit. that is the good news. people stand to profit from doing something differently

which is a great momentum driver whenever you talk about making change. talking aboutt by the low hanging fruit. a lot of this is centered on fresh reduce. they spoil very quickly. seafood is another area where there is a love of loss. -- there is a lot of loss. if you want to dig deeper into the topic, the national resources defense council, there was a woman there named dana g under put out a report called " wasted." let's focus on the consumer losses which is over half of the total food waste out of that 40% that is wasted in the united states. this seems to be the area of the greatest promise and share -- in relation to shear volume of food. not exactly the

and consumer but how is your company addressing consumer losses and water the biggest opportunities and challenges? a lot of this has to do with established patterns in psychology. these are mushy areas where it is hard for a company to affect what consumers are doing at home or at the point of consumption? at the place where we are working, there is a lot of opportunity. right now, about 60% of volume is organic waste. in california, there is that is requiring that landfills diverts 75% from landfills by 2020. dealing withok at waste is first you take out your recyclables and then you take out organics and you have that small fraction of trash at the end. he opportunity for the organics is fantastic.

i mentioned 1.6 of electricity thate have smaller plants are generating 100 kilowatts. we have a facility we are working on now that is fuels a oneintoc&g route to picking up trash will create enough fuel for that collection vehicle to run for the rest of the day. opportunities are grand and they are everywhere. what the biggest obstacle is is twofold -- one, getting the word out there. everybody knows that technology exists and that it is economically feasible there are just a host of benefits for it. makes it more difficult is the collection side of it. in some places, you have the green bins and you put your stuff in there but many places don't have that. every waste district, everyplace handles it to friendly.

where weea i'm from put our first facility, there is a restaurant program. a number of the restaurants in the area have signed up and there are special collections from those restaurants. waste is what fuels that smaller facility. it is definitely in collection. isfar as improving it, it all about education but not just education of the consumer. it does not measure -- it is not matter if the consumers educated at the system is not there to take that separation and correctly convey the whole way through to the digesters. it is a whole stream of education along with that is getting the technology in place were it can be utilized for its maximum abilities. let me ask for food shift, how do you address consumer attitudes and consumer behavior at the home or in restaurants? i thought about my roommates.

about half or good at composting and things you had a clear economic incentive to do. the other half did not care. nothing i said could get them to change. how are you reaching out to people who maybe have not heard that message or are not receptive to it, to get them to do things? >> that is perhaps one of the biggest hurdles that we or any sort of education or awareness group faces. how do you deal with different behavior changes? the epa has a "food too good to waste" tool. a big motivator is not the environmental concern, the financial concern, which is a lot of individuals in oakland. it is this in the feeling of sadness when you see wasted food. there is something within us that we cannot name, and it is difficult to talk about. that is something we are trying to tap him as well.

we have different angles. we talk about how 25% of the freshwater used in food production goes to food we never eat. we talk about how one in six people in alameda county do not know where the next meal is going to come from. the majority are children or senior citizens. we talk about the financial implications that up to $2200 a year for the average consumer and what they are spending on food they never eat. we do a lot of different levels. i think the biggest issue is -- it is coalition building, working together. we need macro and micro change. in the trenches, we need more food recovery programs. we need people working on gleaming programs. we need to figure out different ways that in everyday practice we get food from what would be the trashcan and into people's bellies. we also need macro change. we talk about policy changes. we need to evaluate the way food recovery operates.

the other issue we are finding is that, for example, san francisco food runners is an amazing program. 200 volunteers. they moved 15 tons of food a week. they are just making a dent in the food that goes to waste in this city. art of the issue is, they are going for foundation funding. they are in the meyer a lot of us in the nonprofit world are in. you are not able to pay volunteers and cannot provide reliable service. how do we change that? we are working on a job training and job placement program. that way, we can use -- we can train people. we can pay them to recover food, to process food. that money comes back not as profit, but goes back into the programs. we can get another grocery store on board, another restaurant. another program we are working on in terms of restaurants started in brazil. it is similar to a program out of austin, texas.

it is encouraging consumers in restaurants to have smaller portions. for example, you have a restaurant that signs on, and they can offer an entrée that is about 2/3 of the size but the same price. the difference goes toward a local nonprofit working to end childhood hunger. these different tactics made to work together and we need to work together to be able to, when we have a client that comes in or an issue -- you know what? that is not what we do. let me tell you about lean pass, and how they can help a large- scale grocery store deal with waste in terms of production. >> either of you want to chime in? >> that is interesting technology. they are starting to be developed related to oxygen. oxygen is the key factor affecting food. for it to age. there is one company called fresh paper and one called blue apple that have created products

you can have in your refrigerator that you can put with your produce. it extends the shelf life anywhere from five days to up to three weeks. there are technologies that are now becoming developed. there are technologies that are coaching fruits and vegetables in a vegetable-based gel that extends the shelf life of them. there are other innovative practices that forward thinking companies are using. we have a company called organic girl. you may have seen the product in the markets. it is an organic salad business. i have created in their own packaging some oxygen deprivation. it reduces the amount of oxidation that occurs in food. they also are focused on -- as soon as it is picked in the morning, within 24 hours, that project is in your store. there are ways that even the growers can become much more efficient. it is truly economical for them

to do this. for those who want to reduce food waste -- farmers hate seeing this food being thrown away. we all hate seeing the green mike in our refrigerator. there is a san francisco-based company which is using interesting applications for consumers, forgiving recipes. when you have stuff that is aging, you can cut it up. you can make a sauce or a soup. we can reduce the 23% figure, which is so significant. >> i think it is worth tensioning on this topic -- there is a lot of great writing on this. food labels, expiration dates -- there is no uniformity and standard there. it is up to the food manufacturer what they put on there. that anchor may mean something or may not. typically, it would signify what should be moved out of retail. it may have months over for duration life.

does anyone want to speak to innovation in that space and consumer education? >> to your first question, one of the things i can say as far as education -- get some teenagers on board. they will get out there and tell everybody what you are telling them, and make her parents do what i am telling them to do. they are very effective and persistent. they are super irritating when they get on their soapbox. one of the things that i have been trying to work on, as far as -- what do we do with all the food? for instance, i think you were talking about recipes for different things. we see things like bananas will come in. that and salad greens are constant.

once they look a certain way, people do not want them. it has nothing to do with taste or what you can do with the banana. it has only to do with the fact that it has got burned on it. trying to educate people around aesthetics can be really difficult. i would say generational. trying to be innovative in that space with these foods -- salad greens, i have not figured out what to do it. you have to eat them or compost them. that is what i do. with bananas, i have discovered different ways you can use them. part of it is the reeducation process for me is for me as well. i am noticing i have to change the way i think about things in order to create something out of them. i am fine with eating brown

bananas. i think they taste good myself. when you have five cases are brown bananas, suddenly you hate them with a passion. i have probably eight different recipes that i have just figured out. i start with recipes, and there are none. i have the recipes, if you want them. the education process is not just about educating other people. it is about educating ourselves as well. it is about understanding what we need to do. i think i just circumvented your whole question and went bananas. at any rate, the education process really does start at home first. it starts with act -- with asking certain questions about what we will eat. these at-risk kids i work with these are from families where homes are broken. the mother might be in jail

because she did something to the dad, or the dad might be in jail because he did something to the mom. or they shot somebody they were pissed off at because they were drunk. these kids do not always eat that night. what they eat is often what i am bringing them from whole foods, or just donated to me. these are the kids that need food. i will go to the local high school where kids have money, and they do not need food so much. but when you talk to these different demographics, the kids who need food for who you think do not know anything actually are a lot more open to listening to what i have to say than the kids who have food. that blew me away. i did not expect kids who are educated, who come from good families, that they would not want to listen. i do not want to change their habits, because it is too hard.

it is too hard to take something from your refrigerator that is going to keep your food from turning brown. it is hard to move your food from the back to the front. it is easier to just stick it in when you get it. that is the attitude a lot of these kids have. i was like, little punk. i went to the at-risk kids, and they listen to what i said, because nobody had said it to them before. there were not being inundated with media or their ipad or iphone, or their nanny or whatever. it would listen to what i said and would make a change. they would take the tomato they use in their households, as most of them are hispanic, and they would cut the brown spot off of it rather than throwing it away. as they started doing that, their mom started to do it. made be their brother never will do it, but their grandma started to do it. dad would not throw the tomato away, and would wait for mom to cut it. i know we are talking about cultural differences, but the

fact is, behaviors started to change. i am small. i only had eight employees over this last year. i am cycling it through my insurance business to afford it. the fact of the matter is, i did see change. it is possible. the education process does require a lot of work and passion. we can figure out a way to clone my dna. then, we will be able to do it. >> a topic for another time, perhaps. >> i want to move up the supply chain a little bit to food star and waste cowboy. we know losses are less between production and postconsumer. retail is still a problem. this is where you deal with the consumer picking this issue. i know you are both addressing this with their respective operations. is it a pure economics question? if you drop the price low enough, people are happy to take

it? or create value where there was none, the distribution part of the supply chain? what do you see work, and what does not question mark >> we >> we waste around 28% of the >> we waste around 28% of the produce we buy at a supermarket. produce makes up 10% of sales, but 15% of problems. if we were to cut down our produce waste to 14%, we would go from profit to loss. waste is essential right now to america. if we stop wasting food, the entire economy would go into hardier arrest. -- into cardiac arrest. it would be like a longtime alcoholic going dry cold turkey. it would be catastrophic. the opportunity -- if you read dana's report, 10% of freshwater, 20% of freshwater, eight percent of the energy, and 25% of the land. if we, as consumers, stop wasting money, supermarkets

would be laying off people. we did not get into this situation overnight. we need to restructure the american economy. it is a long-term process, but it has to be done because of the resources we are burning through. what we are trying to do here is invest in new sectors. you can recapture some of that energy if you do it right. it is tough, but you can do it. you can use some food to feed animals, to replace chemical fertilizers. that is a lot of displacement of existing investments and lobbying dollars. that it requires organization. the other thing is, we have come to look at hunger as a monolithic thing. that 50 million hungry people number is a result of answering the question, in the last year, did you feel hungry, or did you worry about your next meal is coming from? that creates people on the

streets with long-term comorbidities, with people who just lost their job and will not get another one. what are the behaviors that lead to hunger and the behaviors that lead to waste? for example, senior citizens -- a lot of them are hungry and have poor nutritional outcomes, because when the spouse dies, they do not like to be or cook alone. and who does? there are programs of college students going in, not just dropping off the meal, but sitting down and eating. you can do all sorts of things with social media to put people together. if you look at it simply as a logistics program, it is always going to boil down to a cultural problem. d.c. central kitchen, starting l.a. kitchen, retired marine corps, spent 30 years in the marine corps, i started running the greater chicago food

depository, and brought it up to speed logistically. change the face of the industry. you can have all the freight management systems. ultimately, it comes down to culture. the approach has to build a new economy and a new culture. that is the goal. that is what you do. >> roger is saying essentially this is all about economics at some point. it is really hard for the farmer, for the retailer, to look at this and justify making investments and changing relatively entrenched industries to say, how can we make this more efficient? how can we make this more profitable for us? the key driver we are seeing is more of a moral issue. we want to do well. we want to look at this issue. no one wants to throw the food away.

we approached originally -- our first customer was walmart. we took this idea to walmart to reduce food waste. i am not going to quote the numbers, but it is insanely high, the food they throw away each year. they wore -- they measure every piece of food that goes through their system, and they know what is happening with it. we gave them some solutions. what they ended up doing is realizing there was an opportunity for them to change their supply chain and look at their purchasing patterns and how they take certain of their products. and take it to distribution centers. they probably bought so much they will never have enough consumer demand, because they get so much at such great prices. hold it there, and figure out ways they can take that product them donate that food.

they are donating. the numbers are, once again, so large. they truly are interested in caring. they want to do this. it is going to start with his feel-good basis. the economics behind this are really important and really valuable. it is not just where it is lost, but where there is true profit margin opportunity. as of the tools we are bringing forward, and the partners that have those tools. it shows there are really significant economics and we do not just have to accept the fact that we are going to throw away a certain amount of our food, whoever we are and wherever we are in the supply change. -- supply chain. >> walmart can tell if anyone has a leaky seal. they can read the temperature in any cooler.

most food banks cannot tell you where the trucks are. everyone in the supply chain, 24/7, 365. food banks are open monday through friday. they do not have the money. omar can vary every food bank in produce every day of the week. food banks are the problem. they do not have the resources to move that food. they should be in the composting business, so they are always the answer to problems. i should aggregate it someplace so you can get it in without using more gas than you generate. when walmart says do it, every walmart in the world would do it. the culture is solvable on the business end. it is the nonprofits, the charities, that do not have the iran nonprofits for years. how would you like to do it? at some point, the policy issue is not just food policy or tax benefit policy.

do you really give these people the resources to do what you say you are going to do? it is not just shoving food into a hopper. it is a real question. do we want to make the investment it takes to do it the right way? >> a quick comment. we have multiple business articles, colleges and universities, health care, casinos, hotels -- the ones we have had the most challenging time with our the retail. you obviously have more exposure than i do. first of all, it was a concept of, waste is negligence. therefore, it could lead to job insecurity. there are a lot of reasons. it all comes down to economics. they don't want to see the numbers. they did not want to have to create a solution. we are still struggling with it.

we know there is a huge amount there. depending on how big they are or how small they are, they are receptive. the bigger they get -- it is a thing here. they are exposing me to stuff i had not thought too. i thought psychology was not ready to see that in black and white. >> facts are sudden -- stunning things. i want to invite audience questions. make your way to the microphone. i am going to ask one final question of the panelists, and request short answers. the european union -- they have a common food waste policy across 27 different countries. they have a target of 50% food waste reduction and a 20% reduction of food chain inputs by 2020. that is an aggressive goal. on the heels of the least productive session of the u.s. congress in history, is there

something we can do on par with that, federal or state level food reduction targets? or is there something people in the audience should be asking representatives to do to grease the wheels for your various goals? is there something missing that the government could spur? >> as i mentioned before, in the state of california, there is actually legislation that is pushing the waste sector to deal with organic waste, or a diversion from landfills by 2020. really make people confront that. we have seen interest in other places, where people are realizing there is an economic benefit to do it. we are starting to see that type of legislation in the united states. one thing i would say about

europe as well is, the biogas -- the european biogas association or german biogas association -- they have digesters and are expecting that to increase to 2000 by 2020. they are putting a big emphasis on biogas. we are seeing that in california, and it is creeping up other places. there really will be movement in that direction. >> a section of the irs code needs to be changed to give a credit. that will spur a lot of movement. the federal food waste reduction act is the most hypocritical thing you have ever read. the administrators will require the contractor to take measures to reduce food waste and to recover food. they

said the administrator shall in no way create -- take financial responsibility for those efforts. if that were true, you guys would be able to find yourselves like that. make some change. >> i already said it. get the teens. >> we launched a petition to the epa administrators. there was a project called "the food too good to waste toolkit." it is aimed at municipalities, but expanding. we want them to put their backing and funding behind this toolkit. there are people giving cooking lessons. there are training programs for people who are interested in spreading the word about food may -- food waste and what you can do with that. go to our website and sign that petition, and help us get epa funding behind the toolkit.

>> i am sorry to say there is not any optimism there. to become educated is the process. the more we become educated in understanding what we can do in our own personal life and personal homes, and how we can integrate that. and for the businesses, understand how it is truly an economic benefit for them, whether it is profit driven or marketing, branding, and feeling good about it. that is the approach we think is going to drive the change we need to see happen. >> i am not confident on the federal level, but i have a lot of confidence in the system, dealing with a lot of municipalities that are very accurate -- very active. they are putting bans on local organics in the landfill.

right now, it is very bottom-up. .right now, it is very bottom- up. >> i am very pleased with the level of specificity. we had the tax code cited over there. >> one of the things that i think is very important is how we frame this. we say, there are lots of problems with food waste. there are lots of problems everywhere. but there is not just a problem. there are opportunities now. all of us are in things now that did not exist before. i am sure you are involved in movements that did not exist before. this is not just about the problem of food waste. it is about the opportunities that did not exist before, making sure people are aware of the opportunities. people hear about problems every day. but what could happen there that was not before? that is where we could make headway.

>> are there any audience questions? thank you. own a grocery delivery service company in new york city. kept hitting me about what everybody is saying is that the problem is with retail. other than the really wonderful thing about the flash tales, i'm wondering if the retail system is so rogan, what do we do to create a new way of selling food that does not have so much waste? i would rather see us redesign a way of selling food to people that does not have so much waste then figure out what to do with the waste. let's go back one step in the problem and figure out how we do this. my company is less than one year old and we have between three and six percent waste already. most of that is going to my

employees. that is my question to you. man you might have heard of, he has been in the thelately, doug raul, previous president of trader joe's. he has been focusing on food waste reduction solution and often talks about the short co ding. just because the state is stamped is not really mean that the food is not good or that you have a health risk. there needs to be greater education about that and doug is looking to trying to create a retail store that sells all out of expired or short code to date products. he gets them essentially given to him or sold to him at a dramatic discount and creates a retail store for the common shopper. you can great rises for things that are fine to id. maybe you need to eat them quicker than normal.

you said, the solution is the key issue and there are many solutions we could be looking at. us. really up to we look at the bulk buying we do at costco and sam's club in the amount of waste that can occur there is enormous. i don't mean to take the wind out of them because they are providing great value to us but it often is just too much. we have to think about that and look at how we, as consumers, can reduce our purchasing. service, it's starting to look at this because the economics are so again are donated a lot of their food. was that that was done fidel asked about the food waste reduction issue. they reduced the size of their trash cans. they reduced the amount of trash cans. they saw the food waste be reduced by over 50% by that

simple technique alone. i'm not sure if i am answering your question but i think there are ways we can do this better, smarter, and just accepted. people just say that's what happens. that's what has always been done but the dudes are saying no more of that. the old ways are broken and we will do what we can going forward. we have young entrepreneurs creating new technologies that can enable us to be more educated about our choices and to really take action to be able to reduce the waste. >> i think doug's idea needs a lot of work. food has utility. people waste food. food is notw that just caloric in value. the idea of having food that the rest of us won't eat and have thinkme is heated, i

imports compared to the idea to changing our behaviors, taking care of the environment, reducing food waste is not the duty of the poor. shoveling it to them, i think institutionalizes the problem and i think it ratifies the narcissistic gross value of effect of those best buy sell by dates. i would love to see in the same way that the ease local campaign took often people would go to a local restaurant because they have that local owned business sign, phone that is sometimes along the way of a food warrior would help us begotten places that are working on waste reduction in terms of what they are buying and how they are displaying their food. instead of having amount of grapefruits, put a cardboard box with one third of the amount of grapefruit outside and you have that image of abundance that you don't have all of that food that is going to waste. getting together with these

entrepreneurs and asking how to display food differently. i'm not sure in terms of a delivery service but have people say berkeley bowl is great about taking progress that's about to turn and giving value back. for one dollar come you get huge amount of food that is about to go and i see cap them because they do that. i go to store the as they have the same mindset around food waste. each shift are things we needed. >> there are a lot of points of oslo -- optimism here. andconcept of nudging behavioral economics is a promising area of study. there'll things you can change people's behavior. think about how you construct your own environment or impact your day to day life. thank you all for being a great

audience and thank you so much to our panelists. please feel free to catch them but some have to rush off. there is more wine and beer, i think so stick around and continue the conversation and thank you again to her host. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> all this weekend it is on chorus of our duende program. bob ney is this weekend. he talks about his role in the jack abram off scandal. i went to prison, i did not take my family with me, it was tragic and emotional but i took one current staffer and one who an just quit and went on to operations media firm. those two staffers went with me. then they dropped me off at prison. i went in and walked into the

kiosk and i said i am bob ney here to report and that art came up and one guy said he knew one of my campaign managers. i said ok and got down in there and the guard said here, you have hate mail. it was from california, massachusetts you have mail waiting for you. they gave me the mail and you go to this list -- this most embarrassing part of the strip down. then i got into the intake and walked into prison. i would walk to the courtyard -- and the warden told me the man to get away from me. away -- getuld get around on my own. i was in my new be closed. another prisoner asked me where my escort was. some little't know, guy in a suit yelled foul language. he took me in the back way of

the laundry room and i walked in and a man is sitting there and he said," are you the congressman?"" i said i used to be. he said are you a republican? i said republicans put me in near. he said i was the mayor of east cleveland, welcome, i will get you some close. >> all of that conversation tonight at 7:00 on c-span. after that, look back at some of the traffic -- tragic news and events that led obama and other members of congress to push for changes to the nation's gun laws in our year in review tonight at 8:00 eastern. we will follow that with our first ladies series, influence and image in an encore presentation on mimi eisenhower. middle or high school student, the c-span student convio competition wants to know what is the most important issue congress should address next year? make a five-seven minute video and include c-span programming

for your chance to win the grand prize of $5,000 per it with $100,000 in total prizes, the deadline is january 20. get more info at student can.org. >> in late november, a congressional gold-medal selmer and it was held at the capital honoring the military service of native american code talkers per the used their tribal images to transmit coded messages drink world wars one and two, a total of 33 tribes were recognized at the ceremony and the speakers include house and senate leaders , native american caucus cochair tom cole of nebraska, and joint chiefs of staff . [captions it is just under one hour. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, the speaker of the house of representatives, john boehner. [applause] >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. -- welcome to the state capital. we are honored to be joined by those that made this day possible including dan boren from oklahoma. one of the original champions of this legislation. [applause] we are fortunate to have in congress two outstanding leaders, two native americans of tom cole and mark woolen -- mark mullen. today, we need to immortalize men who were in no way, meeting for the first -- in a way meeting for the first time.

during the second world war, he was a member of the 195th field artillery battalion. one day in 1944, he was walking through an orchard in southern france and heard one of his brethren singing under a tree. he recognized the dialogue and put them to work on opposite ends of the radio. that coincidence brought these men onto the stage of history and alongside the elite band that we call code talkers. i asking all of you to join me in welcoming him here and thanking him for his service. [applause]

edmund and his brothers were at normandy. they were on hiroshima. -- iwo jima. they mobilized the simplest weapon, language, to thwart the fiercest enemy that free people ever known, and they made a difference. after serving with honor, they did the honorable thing, they kept their service a secret, even to those that they loved. so, these wives and daughters and sons aching to give back to those who gave up so much for them dedicated much of their own

lives to unfurl in the truth, not for gain or glory, but just so people would know it is the story that is important, one of them said. many of these families are here today, and join me in applauding their perseverance. [applause] because of them, the deeds that might have well been relegated to legend will now live on in memory. in heroes that for too long went unrecognized, they will not be given our highest resignation -- designation. it has been the custom of this congress to award gold medals in honor of great acts and great contributions. the first recipient was a general by the name of george washington in 1776. many names were put forward, but

few receive the approval of both houses and the signature of the president of the united states. today, pursuant to hr 4544, we will recognize 33 tribes for dedication, valor, and for sharing what may be the toughest code, what it takes to be the bravest of the brave. they say every metal tells a story, but by adding these men to such lofty ranks, we also mean to add their story. one worth pondering today, one worth retelling every day. thank you all for being here. [applause] >> ladies and please stand for the presentation of the colors by the united states armed forces, guard, the singing of our national anthem, and the retiring of the colors.

♪ ♪ >> o say can you see by the

dawns early light what so proudly we hail at the twilight's last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave where the land of the free and the home of the brave

♪ ♪ >> please remain standing as the chaplain of the united states senate gives the indication.

-- invocation. >> let us pray. oh, god, our refuge and fortress, we put our trust in you. thank you for this congressional gold medal ceremony that provides long, overdue recognition to native american code talkers of the first and second world war. we praise you, that you empowered these wind-talkers from many native american tribes to creatively use their native, but -- native town to save the lives of countless thousands who would have perished on distant battlefields. lord, while sacrificing on

foreign soil for freedoms they and their families were often denied at home, they were heroes, proved in liberating strife, who, more than self, their country loved, and mercy more than life. as we celebrate their patriotism, skill, creativity, speed, and accuracy that maiden victory in combat possible in spite of daunting odds, challenge us, oh god, to invest our lives in causes worthy of our last full measure of devotion. we pray in your great name,

amen. >> please be seated. ladies, united states representative from the fourth district of oklahoma, the honorable tom cole. [applause] >> as a native american, and as a grandson of a career naval officer, the son of a career united states air force noncommissioned officer, and the nephew and namesake of an uncle that fought and served honorably in japanese prison camps in the philippines on the main island of japan, it is an honor of me to share this moment with each and every one of you.

in the long history of american rms, no one has fought against an alliance -- in alliance with and for the united states of america like native americans, and that is true to this day. native americans still enlisted a higher level than any other race or ethnicity in this blessed land and they do so proudly with a determination to defend it. [applause] among the most famous of those warriors are the navajo code talkers of world war ii, but in all, 33 different tribes ontributed, pen from my home

state of oklahoma, and three from my district. they saved lives, they won battles, and they did so by giving the united states a unique battlefield advantage, secure communication. all of the first code talkers were americans, but many were not american citizens. hat did not come until 1924. the code talkers of world war ii ere often barred from full participation in american life, that they still served with pride, patriotism, honor, and sacrifice. am proud that congress is recognizing that unique service. i appreciate my friend dan boren's role in that, and by honoring these code talkers, we honor all native american warriors past, present, and future. good luck. god bless. >> ladies and gentlemen, united states representative from the third district of wisconsin, the honorable ron kind.

[applause] >> good morning. senator, my colleagues, stablished guests, 33 tribes that are the recipients of the congressional gold medal today, and most important to our native american veterans and our code talkers, those that were able to make the trip, and those who are unfortunately still at home, we welcome you. we'll you a debt of gratitude that could never be repaid, and on behalf of a grateful nation we thank you for your service and sacrifice. just a couple of weeks ago in his capital we dedicated the

bust of prime minister winston churchill, and during the second world war, prime minister churchill was fond of saying that at time of war the truth is so precious that it must always be surrounded by a bodyguard of lies, but in the case of our code talkers, that was not necessary. you spoke the truth, but in the words of your native language, and it worked perfectly. it was not deciphered, decoded. you did it with the next ring degree of accuracy and speed. as edmund knows, in the first 48 hours of the battle of you which imo, over 800 battlefield -- you would jima, over 800 battlefield communications were given with 100% accuracy rate typically in less than 30 seconds, when it

would take a typical machine of the time close to a half hours o decode messages. it was a remarkable accomplishment that lead to a quicker and to that conflict -- and to that conflict and saved many lives on both sides. they returned home heroes, but without a heroes welcome. the code was so effective that our military cap that classified in secret until 1968, and even then, it took many more years before the recognition started to take place of what our native american veterans and our code talkers in particular did during that time. it is a remarkable legacy that they share, and a remarkable story that needs to be preserved. that is why i am here to make one last request from a grateful nation -- to our native american veterans in attendance, and throughout the country, and to our code talkers here and at home, we're asking you to share your stories and make it part of the veterans history project. it was legislation i help to advance with the help of many colleagues with the intent to preserve an important part of american history, our veterans stories, and what it was like for them to serve our nation, so that future generations will never forget the service and

sacrifice that came before them. today, the veterans history project is housed at the library of congress. we have collected close to 90,000 veterans stories from across the nation during this time. they say it is the world's largest oral history collection, but many more stories are yet to be told. i hope we will be able to follow up with you, edmund, to see if you would be willing to share your story. colonel bob patrick, who heads up the history project, will follow-up with our native american veterans and tribes here in attendance to see if we can get more to participate and share these vital stories. i hope many of you will consider doing so. again, on behalf of a grateful nation, we say thank you for your grateful service, may god bless you and your families, all of our veterans and soldiers, wherever they might be serving us throughout the globe today, and may god continue to bless these united states of america.

thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, united states senator from the state of south dakota, the honorable tim johnson. [applause] >> good morning, and welcome. t is an honor to be here today as we celebrate the military service of the native american ode talkers. i worked for over a decade to honor the code talkers with the

congressional gold medal. it is gratifying that this day is finally here. he real work, though, began 95 years ago, when native americans from south dakota and across the country (homes and joined the military effort -- left their homes and join the military effort in world war i at a time when many native americans were not yet american citizens, but fought valiantly for assured homeland. native code talkers were used extensively in the european and

acific theaters during world ar ii. the use of native languages was a fundamental tactic that saved untold numbers of lives and help to win both wars. over the years, i have had the pportunity to visit with several of the code talkers and learn their personal stories. i always walk into those meetings inspired by the dedication to our nation. these men did not seek the limelight, and in fact, there is a tremendous impact to our military that was kept from the public for half of a century. there is no question their

contributions were unparalleled, and have had a lasting impact on history. most of the native code talkers have passed away, but we will never forget their heroic actions and are forever grateful for their military service. today, we celebrate the lives and contributions to our country, with their families and friends who are with us today. congratulations to all of you. >> ladies and gentlemen, united states senator from the state of oklahoma, the honorable james in half -- the honorable james nhofe. >> we heard first from congressman tom cole who is our native american art of

ongressional delegation. i recall hearing from him before he was in congress and at that time i was in the house, and ntroduced us to this best-kept secret of world war ii and world war i, the code talkers. i look around and i see a lot of people who were very active other than those on the program today, but on the program today we have made mention of dan boren. he is here. i believe wes watkins is one of the initial individuals who reminded us of this best-kept secret. so, for decades after world war ii, people did not know anything about the contributions we started introducing resolutions and it was not until 2008 that we were successful. i want to mention that the speaker talked about edmund of the seminole nation, one of our fellow oklahomans. those of us have been fortunate, those in oklahoma, involved in this meeting today, and one of the reasons is oklahoma has the largest population of native americans and second only to california, and they cheat because they have more people. nonetheless, it became evident to us as to the contributions

made. in his opening prayer, the reverend talked about the lives that were saved. we cannot quantify that but we know they were out there. because of the secretive nature of the code talkers contribution, you cannot say how many, but we know many, many lives were saved by these american heroes. we pay tribute to today, we love you, it will always respect you and remember you. >> ladies and gentlemen, the united states army band and horus. ♪

>> arrive for the flag of the free may it wave as a standard forever remember the day proclaim as they march but by their march they live forever ♪

>> hooray for the flag of the free may it wave as a banner orever

remember the day the claim as they march hat by their march hey live forever ♪ [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the democratic leader of the united states house of representatives, the honorable nancy pelosi. [applause] >> good morning. it is an honor to be here with our speaker, to be here with our native american brother, with ron kind, with the distinguished senator johnson, and senator

inhofe, and we in california take great pride in having the largest number of native americans. in 1941, and of course, with the admiral that we will hear from later. in 1941, a young member of a tribe, charles, joined the u.s. army, one of 17 members of his tribe, he was recruited to speak their language in service to our country in world war ii. even in a nation that has long denied him his basic rights that long refused his people citizenship, that long neglected the challenges facing native americans, charles volunteered. like many of his generation, his fellow code talkers and service members, he signed up to protect

and defend our communities and shared homeland. hat is the oath of office that we all take to protect and defend, and the code talkers honored that pledge and helped us to honor hours, all americans to do so. years later, we save lives using the native american language. as soldiers and marines with codes, no enemy could decipher -- the code talkers saved lives on the beaches of normandy and at iwo jima. they save lives on the invasion on d-day, the battles in the european theater, and fighting across the south pacific. they kept their code secret and safe, as the speaker mentioned. they served with undaunted bravery, part of a band of brothers that defeated tyranny, said a confident free, and

restore the hope of democracy across the globe. the code talkers carried forward the hope of their people committed to the cause of freedom. their sense of duty was never shaken, nor was there a result. their patriotism never wavered, nor did their courage. the bonds of brotherhood were never broken, nor was there ode. for their heroism and sacrifice, the contributions that went unrecognized for too long is a privilege for congress to bestow the native american code talkers the highest honor we can bestow, he congressional gold medal, and by your acceptance -- and by your accepting it, you bring luster to this award. may these metals long and/or as a sign of respect, admiration

and unending gratitude for our native american tribes and the sons and the sons they sent to battle. we all know that god truly blessed america with our code talkers. thank you and congratulations. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the republican leader of the united states senate, the honorable mitch mcconnell. >> it is an honor to join my colleagues today in recognizing the service of the native american code talkers. a little more than a decade ago, congress and president bush honored the navajo code talkers for the tremendous contributions during world war ii. today, we honor the rest of the code talkers whose extraordinary

skill and heroism will be remembered as long as the history of modern warfare is told. rarely has a group of men then so crucial to a nation's military success, yet so little known for so long as the native american code talkers. these heroes, some as young as 15, answered the call when the country needed them, and they perform their task with extraordinary courage and grace. often working behind enemy lines, these men sent messages that once took hours to transmit in a matter of minutes or even seconds, all in the code they were not even allowed to put on paper for fear that it would be discovered by the enemy, and then when they came home, they could not even talk about their achievements. they had to keep them secret so that no one would know about

this new weapon of war. so, we are deeply grateful for their service. hopefully, in the years to come, the deeds of these good men will be more widely known and all americans will know the inspiring story of these native americans who saved so many lives devising and deploying a code so effective that our enemies never broken. it is a privilege to honor these men today, and to thank you -- thank them for their courage and sacrifice. the honor is long past due, but no less heartfelt. gentlemen, america is grateful for your service, and we are determined to honor the memory of your heroic deeds. thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the majority leader of the united states senate, the honorable arry reid.

[applause] >> according to firsthand ccounts from the pilgrims when they arrived on this continent, native americans did not farm the land, so it was not truly their land. according to the pioneers who pushed past the mississippi, native americans were not civilized, so they did not truly own the land. according to prospectors who rushed for the hills of nevada, california, and even nevada, native americans did not speak english, so they did not truly wn the land. strangers had forced the native people from the land, slaughtered their game, stifled the religions, outlaw their ceremonies, and ravaged their

communities. ext, the newcomers even try to steal their languages. in the late 1800's, the united states government forced native american children to attend english-only boarding schools. native children were torn from their families, taken far from home in boxed cars and buggies, iven english names, and forced to cut their hair short.

teachers build the -- beat the children with leather straps when they spoke their native anguage. the government told them their language had no value, but the children held onto their language, culture, and history, despite great personal risk, and in this nations hour of greatest need, the same native american thing disproves you have great value indeed. in the early war -- days of world war ii, japanese code breakers cracked every american cipher, everyone of them and military members needed a code so obscure, so unknown, that even their own decoders could not break it. the perfect secret weapon would e languages all but forgot utside of a few isolated

communities. the united states government ingeniously turned to people whose language they try to eradicate, but why would native american to have been robbed of their land and their culture of greed to use their precious anguage to protect a country hat either neglected or abused them for centuries? here is why. one native american code talker, a young navajo man by the name of chester put it this way, "somebody has to defend this country. somebody has to defend freedom." the matter how many times the united states government had tried to convince them otherwise, the corporal new that the united states of america was his land. this young corporal was just a boy, a high school student, when he enlisted. native americans, like the corporal, were so eager to serve

that many lied about their age to enlist. these brave soldiers, these code talkers had a special gift, their special -- sacred languages, and they selflessly shared that gift with our country, their country. their gifts saved countless lives and helped win the war, and their willingness to share it made them american heroes -- share it made them american heroes. we honor our american heroes today. >> ladies and the speaker of the united states house of representatives, the honorable john boehner. [applause] >> thank you. i want to say thank you to my colleagues for their testimonials, and of course all of those in mid-december the possible. we are now going to present the medals -- made this ceremony ossible. we are going to present the medals, and i am asking you to hold your applause until the end so that we can give all of our honorees their proper due.

>> ladies and gentlemen -- [reading transcribe names] ]- [reading tribe names

[applause]

>> if you could all remained standing, will have the benediction. >> it and gentlemen, the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. >> ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats, and if our wonderful native americans who have received their medals, would like to retire to their seats, i will not make you stand hile i talked. i will say good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and while you might be taking your seats again, allow me to say -- language] -- and i beg your forgiveness if i did not decode my readings -- greetings and i cannot produce greetings for all