that's how many mortgages are touched by fannie and freddie now in the mark. if he puts in place a policy that might change mortgage rate or might mean you can't get a bigger or smaller loan, that's going to affect people who are trying to buy a house. >> it's difficult for the public to react to his speech. there's other constituencies have voices. how did they react to the thing he laid out? >> i think people were generally impressed with the thoughtfulness of the speech. there are areas he didn't go into. some people may have been disappointed about that. people hoped he will do more to help troubled borrows. i think the interesting question here, if congress can't get to an answer which increasingly look like while they won't, while barack obama is president these companies are out there. they have employees. there's a lot of uncertainty

there. what is mel watt going to do to end the conservatorship. to put fannie and freddie in position for whatever comes next. he made it clear he shouldn't substitute his judgment for congress. these are companies that don't have capital. i think the big question here is, how does he view his mandate to run conservatorship. >> for now, he's made it very clear, he only wants to talk about what these companies can do right now to stabilize the housing market that's a little bit fragile. if these companies are in limbo, he may need to be talking about their future about whether to invest in them and how they're going to proceed. >> last question -- he did say about changing the construct win

way -- one way to reduce the footprint. did he set up a framework to encourage that? >> fannie and freddie have done these. right now fannie and freddie are mortgage guarantors. they don't make mortgages. they buy loans. they sell them back to investors in the form of securities and they provide guarantees to those investors. that has created a very deep liquid mark for mortgages in the company. fannie and freddie take all the credit risks on the loans. fannie and freddie began to sale pieces of the mortgages, derivatives that fannie and freddie do not guarantee credit list. you begin it see companies wind up those sales so that private investors are standing ahead of fannie and freddie. that's probably the most significant way now as we look at reducing the taxpayer footprint. >> thank you very much for your questions for direct watt this week. >> thank you.

>> can you remember who first influenced judith. >> it was my father and mother. i was so impressed by it. i put in the book called "17 traditions." it was conversation around the dinner table. there was no looking at tv or listening to radio. we talked. they challenged us in a nice way and asked us questions and needled us. the bottom line was, freedom requires responsibility. you can't say i want freedom. most people think they're free because they are personally free. they can buy their own clothes, make their own friends go wherever they want, eat whatever

they want, that doesn't mean they're specifically free. you have to engage in democracy. my dad used to say, if you don't use your right, you will lose your rights. >> ralph nader tonight on "q&a." >> a bill is on the legislative agenda for the house this week. the house rules committee meets tomorrow to determine the rules for debating the bill. we'll have that live on c-span 3. >> you had boxes. you had a box for broadcasters. a box for telephone companies.

a box for long distance, cable, satellite. we had to come in and try to eliminate the lines of demarcation and demote competition. believing competition there will be more investment and consumer choice. i think the result has proven us correct. that's exactly what happened. when the 1996 act was written he focused on telephone services. we focused on cable tv service and we wanted to take the steps to make that market competitive which we did. the primary focus was really what they called pot. plain old telephone service. today the landscape is fundamentally different. the fcc has managed without clear direction from congress about how the transition from

the era of telephone service to the time everything is delivered over the interpret should take -- internet should take place. >> evaluating the 1996 telecommunications act. >> next george washington university forum examining the possibility of human exploration of mars. you'll hear from nasa administrator charles bolden. his remarks are half an hour.

>> i want to thank explore mars and the gw space policy institute. i'm just going to leave that slide up. i'll talk to it every once in a while. i thought i let you get used to it. you can refer to that. with mars making its closest to approach to earth last week and currently appearing as the brightest body in the eastern sky during the month of april, this is an ideal time for this. as red planet draws near to earth, nasa with your help, is drawing near to our goal of sending humans to mars. sort of artemis, i'm surprised you remembered, we did talk last year about my three

granddaughter, my number one granddaughter who wants to be a rocket science. she talks about going outside the solar system. i told her one thing at a time. during the next three days you're going to get an update on nasa steppingstone approach to mars from some of the leading experts. we'll be listening and learning from all of you as you share your thoughts on the best path forward. let me set the stage by reminding us of why we're all here. while humans have been fascinated with mars, since the beginning of time. there are a number of very tangible reasons why we need to learn more about our closest planetary neighbor. for one thing, mar's formaking

and evolution is comparable to earth. we know at one time mars had a condition suitable for life. while nasa has been on path to mars for decades. a critical national policy statement in support of our strategy was on april 15th 2010 during a visit by president obama to the kennedy space center. where he challenged the nation to send humans to ans an -- an over the past several years, nasa hasoqc42ñ$rñr been develope capabilities to meet those goals through a bipartisan plan agreed to by the administrationet @3

congress b in a 2010 authorizatn act and embraced by the international space community in the 2013 global exploration road map. while robotic explorers studied mars, nasa's plan for the human exploration mars begins in lower orbit aboard the international space station. our spring board to the exploration of deep space. even as we speak, astronauts aboard the i.s.s. are helping us learn how to safely execute missions into space. this means an expanded market for private space companies, more ground breaking research in science discovery and microgravity and opportunities to live, work and learn in space over longer periods of time. as most of you know, we're working to return both cargo and

human launches to the i.s.s. to american soil. the president's 2015 budget supports the administration's commitment that nasa be a catalyst for a growth of a american commercial space. already 2013 -- two american companies are making it to the space station. we had easter sunday delivery. while the russian federal space agency remains a strong and reliable partner. later this year nasa intends to select from american companies competing to send astronauts to the -- we believe we can do this by the end of 2017. our next step in deep space where nasa will send the first mission to capture and redirect

an asteroid to orbit the moon. this experience in human space life will help nasa test new systems and capabilities. such as solar electric compulsion will need to support human missions to mars. begin in 2017, nasa's pour space launch systems will enable proving ground missions to test new capabilities. i made reference several times now to earth and the proven ground and your here to talk about mars. just sort of reference to my chart.

we today are earth reliant. we're depending on being on this planet. we are not a multiplanet species yesterday. buzz and i agree on a number of things one of them it that only multiplanet species survive. here in the western world, we think very short sighted. we think about the time in which we're going to be on this earth or our kids or grandkids. many other civilizations think much longer than that. we need to start thinking that way. we need to remember that we're depending on a star. the sun is a star. just like many other stars that we study, many of you who follow the hubbell space telescope also daily get a picture of a star.

if this species is to survive indefinitely, we need to become a multiplanet species. one reason we need to go to mars, so we can learn about living on another planet. mars is a steppingstone and steppingstone approach to other solar system and galaxies and things that people have dreamed of but frequently don't talk about. we're earth reliant now. our steppingstone is the international space station. i hope i don't need to remind this audience that i will take advantage of it anyway because i find that sometimes people don't remember. we have now been on the international space station continuously without interruption for almost 14 years.

everybody is excited right now because of what's going on in ukraine. although i'm cautious, i'm cautiously optimistic. we went through this when the russians went into georgia and stationed continued to operate the way it is now. we continue to operate just as we always have today with cosmos and the canadian space agency and our partners. the i.s.s. continues to move on. the proving ground is where we need to go. we're going to present our case to you. hopefully you will have questions. i'm having trouble with the lights. michelle, are you down there. there is michelle on the third row. michelle gates is here. there are all kinds of ways we

can go to get to mars. we don't think we can just go. we need to take a measured we've chosen an asteroid in lunar orbitas our ground. mars. i tell people, give them the example when i was an young snotty nose astronaut. i was one. i remember going to the johnson space center, they said you will have a class in orbit mechanics and go over to the simulator. i said piece of cake. i've been flying airplanes for

14 years now. i had over 7000 hours. all you got to do is put your nose on the airplane you want to run and just go. the instructors, they didn't push back. they just said okay, another little snotty nose kid who think he knows everything. i got in a shuttle mission simulator. off into the shuttle to rendezvous with space station or something. i didn't come within hundreds of miles. it was because i was flying an airplane in the atmosphere that didn't have to worry about orbital mechanic. it seem like the more i fought to get there the farther i got away. then i learned about orbital mechanics and how you have to do stuff. when we go to mars, we're going to find the same problem. it is not like flying flying in

orbit. we're going it use rendezvous and approach to an asteroid in lunar orbit to try to figure out how do we maneuver. we're gong to step in a steppingstone and go out and probably maneuver around the moons of mars and then figure out, how do we finally get down to the planet safely with human beings. that's sort of what we talked about the proven ground and then on to being mars ready. we think right now, with some modest increases in nasa's budget over the years, we're going to be able to get to mars in the 2030's as president obama tell us. the mars science laboratory,

curiosity rover, measured radiation all wait to mars and is sending back radiation data from the surface today. this data will help us plan how to protect the astronauts who will explore mars. future missions like mars 2020 rover seeking signs of past life, also will demonstrate new technologies that could help astronauts survive on mars. engineers and scientists around the country is working hard to develop the technologies astronauts will use. this conference is bringing together the best minds to share ideas about the path ahead. it's important to remember that nasa sent humans to the moon by setting a goal that's seen beyond our reach. with mars as our focus, we are building the capability to enable human missions to mars. the challenge is huge. i don't want it fool you. if you don't think so, then please listen up as we talk over

these next three days. we love huge challenges. we're making real progress right now as radiation monitor on the curiosity rover records the radiation environment. advance entry, descending landing technology needed for landing on mars are ready for we're counting on the support of congress the scientific want -- community to help us realize that goal. the future is bright, but it will be up to all of us to bring the rest of the world along on thiss great adventure. with that i'll finish my formal

comments and then -- do i have you have. i think, they told me they have mikes that way and that way. if you all will come down, i'll try to answer questions that you have. if i can't answer them, trust me, there are enough people out here in the audience that i'll let ask. there are two mikes. >> my question is not directly about mars. it's about human access to space. congress was not -- last time you testified before congress,

they wanted a contingency plan. space x think they can do it by 2015. i think a possible contingency plan if we could give them additional fund sog they're not flying their own crews. >> it's one of the providers, then i would be able to do that. we haven't selected a provider yet. they haven't provided any human rated vehicles yet. but they're in competition. there's a blackout now. i don't know how they're doing. we're going to set the potential providers and then we'll go with them. they may be ready for 2017. our goal now is to be ready by 2017. as i told the congress two

weeks ago, the contingency plan for having a capability is $850 million next year and three years away. there is no instant access to space on american rocket. it aint going to happen. because we didn't pay attention -- >> that was part of congress fault. >> i don't want to get in position where i'm blaming congress alone. it's been a number of administrations. i'm going to help people here who don't remember history. the decision to start this path in came in 2004. when we lost columbia, they gave a report. i'm going to accept every recommendation in that report.

whether that was wise or not, i don't know. but that was the decision that was made back in 2004. we started on this path. i think we kind of picked it up. we picked up the pace. we only talked about commercial cargo. we now have it. we only talked about commercial crew, we had no money that the administration put toward it. not even a proposal. when the president came in, i think the first time we candidate and congressman wolf corrected me, the first time in the budget, we asked for $500 million. we got $312 million. i don't care what congress says or what staff said or anything, $312 million is not $500 million. it's not more than $500 million. we have never gotten what the president asked for commercial crew. we really need the support of congress.

it is my intent to get down on my hands and knees and beg and plead and he them understand that this nation need our own capabilities to get human into space. we can do it. >> we have no experience what so ever with gravity 38% gravity as we have on mars with any biological system. previous conferences i've heard american folks, europeans and russians all say, we need to put a fusion on space station. do something with mice. why don't we see nasa doing that? >> back when the space station was invented. i wasn't here so i will tell you what i heard. although the plan was for a fusion to be on the international space station. it fell victim to the budget. it just fell out when we looked at how much money will be available.

we're looking for alternative ways to do it. if you look at that chart, the proving ground, we're going to be orbiting in cyst lunar. we will be orbiting the moon. that means that, some people will hopefully take an opportunity to drop out of lunar orbit to the surface. we have commercial partners. we have international partners who are saying we can't do it on our own. if you can help us, we think we can get to the surface of the moon. we have challenges going on right now to see if commercial companies or entrepreneurs can put things on the surface of the moon. the u.s. government can't do everything. i said, our plan to go to mars is based on a budget that we propose today with some modest increases in the outyears. we are not going to get four

percent of the federal budget. in this group, if you are serious about wanting to go to mars, then start thinking about reality and reality is the budget. we are not going to get four percent of the federal budget to go to mars. i think we can do it. you all may not agree if you feel we've got to have apollo era funding level, then forget it now. don't even spend your time in it conference because we are not going to get that. people told us we couldn't see commercial cargo. anybody in here who works in nasa will tell you five years ago, people say it won't happen. i'll give you $500 million, that's all you're getting for commercial cargo.

we took $500 million and we now have commercial cargo. just saying, we got some smart people too. we do listen to you. so that's really what we want to hear in the three days of this conference. given the budget realities today, how do we make that happen. no, we won't have four s.l.s.'s out orbiting. the pieces of this chart -- truth be told, sometimes even we are not real good at charts. s.l.s.'s don't go much farther than orbit. they do like in first stages or second stages. they do end up in the ocean.

don't let me talk all this time. >> yes, sir, two questions. question one, what do you say when the public when they say nasa is dead. that's question one. question two, please speak to do to help get your message out to kids? >> people talk about nasa being dead. i wish i can agree with you. we're working really hard to) keep curiosity moving all over the lunar surface. we've got orbiters that are orbiting mars now giving us data. we got juneau on the way to jupiter. we got pluto horizons to pluto. we put orbiters around mercury. we are working with our international partners. there are 15 nations contributing monetarily to life on the international space station. we now have commercial cargoes

that's going back and forth to the international space station. we have three companies to carry crew to the international space station. we hope to make an announcement some time in the end of summer and early fall. .....