the blessings of liberty must be earned and renewed by every generation -- including our own. this is the work to which we rededicate ourselves today. our democracies must be defined not by what or who we're against, but by a politics of inclusion and tolerance that welcomes all our citizens. our economies must deliver a broader prosperity that creates more opportunity -- across europe and across the world -- especially for young people. leaders must uphold the public trust and stand against corruption, not steal from the pockets of their own people. our societies must embrace a greater justice that recognizes the inherent dignity of every human being. and as we've been reminded by russia's aggression in ukraine,

our free nations cannot be complacent in pursuit of the vision we share -- a europe that is whole and free and at peace. we have to work for that. we have to stand with those who seek freedom. [applause] i know that throughout history, the polish people were abandoned by friends when you needed them most. so i've come to warsaw today -- on behalf of the united states, on behalf of the nato alliance -- to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to poland's security. article 5 is clear -- an attack on one is an attack on all. and as allies, we have a solemn duty -- a binding treaty obligation -- to defend your territorial integrity. and we will. we stand together -- now and forever -- for your freedom is

ours. [applause] poland will never stand alone. [applause] but not just poland -- estonia will never stand alone. latvia will never stand alone. lithuania will never stand alone. romania will never stand alone. these are not just words. they're unbreakable commitments backed by the strongest alliance in the world and the armed forces of the united states of america -- the most powerful military in history. you see our commitment today. in nato aircraft in the skies of the baltics. in allied ships patrolling the black sea. in the stepped-up exercises where our forces train together. and in our increased and enduring american presence here on polish soil.

we do these things not to threaten any nation, but to defend the security and territory of ourselves and our friends. yesterday, i announced a new initiative to bolster the security of our nato allies and increase america's military presence in europe. with the support of congress, this will mean more pre-positioned equipment to respond quickly in a crisis, and exercises and training to keep our forces ready, additional u.s. forces -- in the air, and sea, and on land, including here in poland. and it will mean increased support to help friends like ukraine, and moldova and georgia provide for their own defense. [applause] just as the united states is increasing our commitment, so must others.

every nato member is protected by our alliance, and every nato member must carry its share in our alliance. this is the responsibility we have to each other. finally, as free peoples, we join together, not simply to safeguard our own security but to advance the freedom of others. today we affirm the principles for which we stand. we stand together because we believe that people and nations have the right to determine their own destiny. and that includes the people of ukraine. robbed by a corrupt regime, ukrainians demanded a government that served them. beaten and bloodied, they refused to yield. threatened and harassed, they lined up to vote, they elected a new president in a free election -- because a leader's legitimacy

can only come from the consent of the people. ukrainians have now embarked on the hard road of reform. i met with president-elect poroshenko this morning, and i told him that, just as free nations offered support and assistance to poland in your transition to democracy, we stand with ukrainians now. ukraine must be free to choose its own future for itself and by itself. [applause] we reject the zero-sum thinking of the past -- a free and independent ukraine needs strong ties and growing trade with europe and russia and the united states and the rest of the world. because the people of ukraine are reaching out for the same freedom and opportunities and progress that we celebrate here today -- and they deserve them, too.

we stand together because we believe that upholding peace and security is the responsibility of every nation. the days of empire and spheres of influence are over. bigger nations must not be allowed to bully the small, or impose their will at the barrel of a gun or with masked men taking over buildings. and the stroke of a pen can never legitimize the theft of a neighbor's land. so we will not accept russia's occupation of crimea or its violation of ukraine's sovereignty. our free nations will stand united so that further russian provocations will only mean more isolation and costs for russia. [applause] because after investing so much blood and treasure to bring europe together, how can we allow the dark tactics of the 20th century to define this new century?

we stand together because we know that the spirit of warsaw and budapest and prague and berlin stretches to wherever the longing for freedom stirs in human hearts, whether in minsk or caracas, or damascus or pyongyang. wherever people are willing to do the hard work of building democracy -- from tbilisi to tunis, from rangoon to freetown -- they will have a partner in our nations. for in the struggles of these citizens we recall our own struggles. in their faces we see our own. and few see this more clearly than the people of poland.

the ukrainians of today are the heirs of solidarity -- men and women like you who dared to challenge a bankrupt regime. when your peaceful protests were met with an iron fist, poles placed flowers in the shipyard gate. today, ukrainians honor their fallen with flowers in independence square. we remember the polish voter who rejoiced to "feel the taste of poland again." her voice echoes in the young protestor in the maidan who savored what she called "a taste of real freedom." "i love my country," she said, and we are standing up for "justice and freedom." and with gratitude for the strong support of the polish people, she spoke for many ukrainians when she said, "thank you, poland. we hear you and we love you." [applause] today we can say the same.

thank you, poland -- thank you for your courage. thank you for reminding the world that no matter how brutal the crackdown, no matter how long the night, the yearning for liberty and dignity does not fade away. it will never go away. thank you, poland, for your iron will and for showing that, yes, ordinary citizens can grab the reins of history, and that freedom will prevail -- because, in the end, tanks and troops are no match for the force of our ideals. thank you, poland -- for your triumph -- not of arms, but of the human spirit, the truth that carries us forward. there is no change without risk, and no progress without sacrifice, and no freedom without solidarity. dziekuje, polsko! god bless poland.

god bless america. god bless our unbreakable alliance. thank you very much. [applause] that was the president in poland, he is now in brussels focusing on the crisis in

ukraine. his visit is his second stop on a three country visit to europe and the schedule to attend a dinner tonight followed by additional meetings on thursday and he will does it with and primeking minister. the first lady is in washington where today she will be joined by mayors from across the country to talk about efforts to end veteran homelessness. joining her is shaun donovan and sloan gibson. we are live with that at 1:30. and then a senate hearing on stalking apps on smart phones and other devices to let other secretly track the device's owner. looking into the issue. today is the 25th anniversary of the canavan square crackdown in china and we are marking the event with discussions on the impact it had on china and the rest of the world. the chinese perspective with the

journalist's including the founder of the china digital program, also in that the new york times reporter nicholas kristof, who won a pulitzer prize, spoke this week about the violence going on around the country that spring. here is what he had to say. is justink about it being the square. the worst violence was from the apartments where senior officials lived. just mowed people down with ak-47s, they aimed at people watching on balconies, we officialend, a party who had given his life to the party. workon was bicycling to for miles from tiananmen square.

soldierslders -- shot to in the back and killed him. that was happening in many parts of the country as well. >> see all of that program tonight at 8:00 eastern. chambliss provides an update on cyber security legislation he is drafting with dianne feinstein, saying it is close to being completed. part of aesterday as daylong summit on cyber security. his comments are about half an hour. >> thank you for all of you being here and most importantly to senator chambliss who came here from capitol hill. i know there is a lot getting done right now. i should not overstate things. sorry.

there is important discussions going on with regard to cyber security. you are a critical player in all of this. a member of the armed services committee for some time, someone the country looks to on these issues. thank you for being here. what get to some news of the day. you were having a conversation with your counterpart dianne feinstein in the intelligence committee about some of these issues, visit us at government collaboration with information sharing. you are working on legislation. can you give us an update on the bill? impact. have a big >> first of all, let me say to bloomberg, thanks for doing this. as i will probably say again, trying to get people excited about cyber security, you start to talk about it and people's eyes glaze over. we've got to do a better job of

educating people around the country and you folks in this room can help us do that. so thanks to bloomberg for doing this. i want to thank sam about his comments awaiting me to come speak. one congress has a single-digit approval rating to know that anybody might be anxious to hear -- [laughter] that is pretty good from my perspective. [applause] so thank you, sam. let me preface my comment on where we are in the legislation with two things. first of all, being on the armed services committee and the intel committee, we get regular briefings on any number of national security issues. i daresay that we do not have a briefing on any national security issue where the issue of cyber security is not involved in is not mentioned.

it is simply on everybody's minds today. theif i had to guess where next conflict was going to occur, it is probably not going to be with boots on the ground. it is probably going to be in the area of cyber. because of the fact we have so much activity in the world of cyber security today. what i hopere is does not happen. and sam of looted to this. reactionhas to have a to a bad incident in order for us to enact a comprehensive bill on cyber security. because we know it is there, because we know it is so important to the business incumbent on us to act on it. here is the problem, trying to get the american people involved

has been difficult. the reason is this cyber security is not a blood and guts issue. it is a detailed issue and when a badwe should not have incident took her to get everybody's attention, we had that with the target with nieman marcus and with the others you have heard about. it did raise the profile of the issue in the minds of the public to the extent people are starting to say, hey, this could happen to me. it more and more when i go back home. people know i am involved in the issue. again, that is why it is important for you to help us .ducate people

diane and i have been working on the legislation about a year and a half. the issue is so complex, as all of you know. like we did with the bill a couple of years ago, the democrats come up with a bill, the republicans have a bill that is opposite, and ultimately nothing happens. so diane and i took a different approach. you have a different idea about cyber security, but it is imperative we sit down and have a serious negotiation on resolving those differences. that is what we have been doing a year and a half. we are down to just a couple of provisions we are still talking about. got to resolve before we can bring a bill to

committee. i'm confident we will have a bill come out with hopefully a big vote and it will be a bipartisan bill that senator reed will look at and say that is the type of bill we can bring to the floor to have this discussion. differences we are down to our basically liability of howion and the issue an entity, a private sector , report something funny. our bill says we will create a portal at the department of homeland security and the that private sector entity will report that activity to that portal.

immediate be real-time, that is the key, this is an area we had disagreement we had to resolve. we said there will be a across theharing sector of the federal government that has an involvement and across the private sector that has an involvement. today we had a little bit of a disagreement we've got to resolve, and today, if have financial entity sees something say across and its folks this is not right, they will generally pick up the phone and they will call the department of treasury that they have a relationship. they know the i.t. folks. they will call them up and say here is what i am seeing in the treasury will immediately reacted to it and talk it

through and figure out whether a countermeasure is necessary. they will say keep your eye on it, or whatever. if you disclose that information to dhs at the portal, and it is then and ainated countermeasure is taken, the private sector will have liability because it went to the portal. what they would not have immunity for under that is that outside the portal conversation of the financial entity had with the department of treasury, or whatever. that is a major difference. the reason is because this type of liability has been requested by government entities like the fbi and nsa and other entities

who have this relationship today. we're trying to figure out a way to solve that and i think we will figure something out. we have to figure something out. >> is it fair to say senator feinstein has a different view? >> she does. at the point, peter, where we are counting votes. there are a lot of private sector, excuse me, privacy advocates that want it a certain way. and when you go to counting votes, you've got to make sure on theify both sides privacy issue. she has concerns about that is safe to say. that is where we are. >> getting close. i don't need to remind you, senator, you are not running for reelection. i see the sense of relief on your face. is it something you feel a

certain level of confidence this can get done before you leave? so. think it is a bipartisan bill. that rings a bell. what ought to come to the floor versus the bill that may come out of judiciary committee with a partisan vote. it would probably have no chance on the floor. the bipartisan bill will have a chance. and the need for it. not do it we do between now and the end of the year, and it is thrown over to the house isress, going to have a new influx of the balance senate, of power may change, and you're looking at one year from now and i'm betting you nothing would the done. it is critically important. i know the leadership on both sides understand that.

i think there is a real possibility. >> and harmonizing with what mike rogers is working on in the house side. how difficult is that going to be? >> here is the advantage we've got, senator feinstein and i have a great working relationship or silly. -- personally. previousof us, unlike committees, which had been like this, we have worked very well together. we conferenced all of our authorization bills and other matters like this, we talked through early on. we have been talking about this for months with congressman rogers and we've got some differences. we have a difference on the liability provision and a couple of other major issues. but as of i heard the mike

rogers say publicly, we are confident we can work through it and get it done. for anyone who was suggesting there is not a need for legislation or liability protection, what would be your answer? all, i have my differences with this administration from time to time. youone going on right now all are reporting on every hour. and frankly i was a little bit suspect when i first heard the he was goingted, to issue an executive order on cyber security. he and i had a conversation a year ago. the reason i remember is because we were playing golf. i had a home in one. -- hole in one. [laughter] i just wanted to get that in.

he and i talked about it that day in the golf cart and i told him where i was and he told me where he was. it was amazing we were basically in the same place. hishen the president issued executive order, even though i was apprehensive, that executive order is playing out pretty well. the wings that he did not include was information sharing, which is in our jurisdiction. onre was some other things standards and whatnot he laid out a framework that is actually working. this in theough right way, engaging the private and public sector. >> how about dhs? point ofs the focal the lieberman, and bill -- lieberman-collins bill.

nobody had confidence dhs could administer the cyber security issue with the seriousness of it because they cannot keep control of the secret service and border the list goes on and on. when jeh johnson came in, things changed. not saying anything about the he isous director, but from the private sector. he understands both side of it. he has an appreciation for getting the right people in the right spot and gives me , and a lotwith dhs of my colleagues, all on more confidence in the they are going to be able to do a better job with his issue because we do had thee people that capability of thinking through it. they have the experience of it. we can manage the dhs side of

it. let me change gears a little bit. is title of our discussion keeping the digital trust. that trust has been called into question thanks in part to toard snowden and of course have business and government working together, there has to be a certain amount of trust. what is your assessment of that snowdenship in light of and some big-name american ceos that their businesses are being hurt by the debate over surveillance and if they are seen as collaborating with the federal government, they are paying a price overseas? >> it is interesting you bring it up in that way, peter. we had an all hands on deck in about the briefing guys spending a year and a half ago on the issue of cyber security.

it was all of the power houses, all of the leadership, the white room, dhs, and we met in a and the administration laid out their bill. of athey did, it was kind take it or leave it attitude. i was the first one to say, let me tell you something. what you all have done is you have come in and you have said to the senate, folks, this is the way we think cyber security should be handled than the federal government can do a good job of handling it and you this and and vote for go home to sell it to your constituents. i said i guarantee you if these folks said guess what, we are going to turn the most important totally over today

to the federal government, all of them are going to get voted out of office. they should be. nobody trust the federal government. to figure out a way, this was my comment, to instill trust from the private sector in the federal government and vice versa on this issue. otherwise we are going to solve it. there is a way to do that. bill, it takes a little bit of a different approach from the house side. what diane and i tried to do was the privateze sector to want to participate in the protection they might get. if they do certain things, the federal government will do things. that is a different ballgame from what we have been operating in. it is critically important we build trust on the private sector in the federal

government, particularly in which i'mnowden, totally amazed to some of the things i read about what this guy says and the mainstream press the buys into it as if it could not be different. >> like? can'tl, some things i talk about. i would have to kill everybody in the room. >> we will wait until after the conference. you one example, because i have used this one. the first time i saw snowden interviewed, he he made the comment at phi had had bobo's -- e-mail, iobama's could have monitored all of his e-mail traffic and all of his cell phone conversation. there is no way, no way, that could be true. it is not. belief in the

minds of a lot of people that is the case. he made another outlandish statement the other day that is not true. i think the nsa released e-mails that verify the fact it was not true. there are other things in the middle that are not true. may, we need to make some changes in the way we handle our monitoring of individuals. delicate balance, a very difficult line we have to walk from a privacy versus protection standpoint. closing, say in suffice it to say we have done a good job. the fact we have not had another major attack on domestic soil isd some timber 11 validation the fact what we have been doing has been successful.

we can argue about whether we go to some extremes, but it has worked. flooreparate bill on the is the house proposal to and all collection. there has been a debate to bureau -- brewing in that, as long as -- as well as the judiciary committee. that and youake of suggested you would like to see some modifications. what is it you don't like? >> well, i think actually it went too far on the bulk collection side of it. i wish i could go into the ourer of times that agencies have actually accessed telephone numbers. i mean, it is so miniscule. sense fors it make

more transparency on that issue? >> i think you're going to see that. the way the house approached it is a little bit different. dianne and i are not 100% on this together, but we are close. we take a different approach from what they do. some people would like to see the 215 program eliminated and some of us in kitchen stay as is -- some of us think it should stay as is. can the telephone companies keep these records versus the nsa, we can have an argument over that. i would argue when you need to access it, you need to access it like that. if you don't have that capability, something bad can happen. there are some differences like that that we are going to have to discuss. i'm confident we can bridge that

gap quickly, if we can get a bill out of the senate. it is not going to be easy. folks on both sides of the aisle. this is what is interesting about this. we havees of the aisle, the far right opposed to this and they have their far left. it is going to be the coalition in the middle that figures out what the sweet spot is. would do let us bring it to the floor to have the debate. i want to have the debate. i just had a conversation with rand paul. rand really wants to have a 215 debate. he said we should have the debate. i agree. so hopefully we are going to have that here in >> it is a potent -- that. a potent political

issue, in terms of congress and this is something that taps into something we have seen in our the american people feel strongly about this. the most recent report, they have seen that the nsa is looking at facial recognition. that came up with admiral rogers. what is your take on that? , i am not question sure i can trust my government on these issues. criticized by some of the left-leaning press about a statement i made during all of this disclosure, which reason nobody has known about this, about this program, is that it has worked. it has been secret and people

have not been listened to. i still think that is an accurate statement. again, what i have said publicly and what people back home have thatgood about hearing is if you are a housewife and you are talking to your neighbor about going to the grocery store and picking up something for me, those conversations are not going to be listened to. no conversation is going to be listened to a lesser court determines there is a national security problem and that you are a foreign agent and that the substance of the conversation is something that we need to follow. to have valid reasons

for why you want to follow weight. aich means if you are law-abiding citizen, you have nothing to worry about from the standpoint of your phone conversations being listened to. if you are a bad guy plotting to kill and harm americans and you are inside the united states, you are just as dangerous than if you're doing that outside of the united states. should we listen on those conversations to interrupt any terrorist plot? i think we should. that is the fine line that we and to block and why i say, hopefully the transparency issue will solve this. the number of times we listen in on folks inside the united states is miniscule. relationshiphe between the business community and the government in terms of collaboration versus a year ago/.

microsoft,ar google, venting about the government, what is your take on that? are they overstating this? >> i do not think they are crying wolf. i understand and when i hear that it is costing them business overseas, i can relate to that. and i understand then. that is why we've got to fix it and have transparency. in cyber security, or modernization, and we will have an open hearing on this issue. is, we have got to engage the private sector because the last thing we need to do was do something stupid in congress, and we have a tendency to do that, that has the consequence of harming the

economy. we've got to make sure we don't do that as we go through this sensitive issue. the thing about it is, everybody knows how slow the federal government moves. if we enact something and realize that it is an unintended consequence and we've got to change it, the time it takes to change, if we don't do something will cause a delay in time that will allow something bad to happen. my point is you've got to be able to move quickly. the private sector can tell us how to do that. the government does not do a good job develop dingoes fast-moving targets. the private sector it does it every day. we need to listen to them as we bills anddernization security. >> we had the news about the

indictments against the chinese military agents accused of cyber espionage. at has added a wrinkle to this conversation. do you think those indictments have been a good think? have they sent the right message to china? they has -- there has been a ripple effect. has read therybody report that came out a year ago. if you haven't, you need to read it. that laid the groundwork for these indictments coming forward. was a goodswer is it thing they came forward. are bold and their blatant. they've got a building filled pla that are doing nothing hack into to

computers in the united states, and other parts of the world. only are they going after our military information, for the most part they are going after the private sector to your information that will have such an impact. saying anything new, but that is why these indictments are important. we've got to raise the profile and make the general public aware of why this type of activity has got to be stopped. the'm going to go into audience just a moment. there are some microphones. identify yourself when i come to you. your rolequestion, in as vice chair, you get to hear a host of things you can't share with us that would be unnerving. what is keeping you awake at night as you get sent to leave congress? what worries you most on the cyber front? >> homegrown terrorists.

we are seeing more and more activity. syria asaw last week in u.s. person strap a suicide vest on them and blow themselves up in syria and blow up a bunch of people. i worry about homegrown terrorists. world, i just worry about the fact general alexander said in a speech the other day and otheren dod government agencies, we are getting hit millions of times a day sometimes by hackers. the russians are getting better. the iranians are getting better. those are the three primary activists in the world of hacking. i worry we are so far from a

technology standpoint, we have been able to stay ahead of the curve, we have been able to slow detect it. i worry that we are going to reach a point in time where these companies are getting anxious. you talk about google, oracle, all of them, and rightfully so. if we don't have their toperation, we are not going be as far around the curve as we need to. me go to audience questions. there are some microphones. you answered all of their questions. it is unbelievable. right here in the front. there is a microphone. coming your way. if you could identify yourself.

>> hello, i am morgan johnson with lockheed martin. i have heard information sharing one million times today and the importance between the two way medication. -- communication. whatpoke about leveraging the private sector does in terms of being able to respond to things in a timely manner. can you talk about what the government is doing to make sure that communication is going both ways? >> sure. first of all, an indigenous tree like you are involved in, there -- in ancontact industry like you are involved in, there is daily can'ontact. for two primary reasons, proprietary information that you guys are being hacked on every

these adversaries are attempting to obtain information in those areas. and if we do not constantly engage with you, we're going to fall behind that curve. you are the prime example of the way the government can develop a trust relationship. because you need us as much as we need you. a financial institution needs us as much as we need them. a small business person really does not trust the government, inc. i can do it if the government stays out of my way. what we are trying to do is take the example of our relationship with the defense community and on that sors and that we can develop that relationship with the next tier below the big guys in the

game like lockheed martin. as a practical matter of how we toit, it is very difficult do. we are trying to reach out in various ways from an education standpoint into that next tier. if we don't, we are going to security problem with lockheed martin but one of your contractors that has access to your information is going to be the next one to get hacked. it makes it difficult. >> what is the level of confidence lockheed martin or the subcontractor, how confident should they feel that if the government has identified the next heart bleed, they will share it with the private sector? i would say now

there's no confidence that is going to happen, unless you have a long-standing special with, in the example of lockheed martin, which i'm using as an example, they have a relationship with dod that may include different agencies. they have developed a trust over years because they have dealt with each other. that is not the case with the vast majority of the business world. there is no way in the world is out the group that there that is just as important as lockheed martin from the standpoint of some virus getting in, there is no way you can develop that other than into new to reach out and develop. the government be

obligated to share right away? from a government standpoint, you would find we would be willing to share, but not the private sector, as willing to share information when they can be exposed to extensive liability. that is the key. >> our next conversation with my colleague sandy reback. who is goingthis, to win the georgia republican primary for your seat? friendsare both of my and one of my friends will win. [laughter] >> thank you for joining us. this way. sandy will come to the stage. c-span brings public affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at hearings white house events, briefings, and conferences and offering complete coverage of

the u.s. house. i'll as a public service of private industry. created by the cable industry 35 years ago and brought to you as a public service by your local cable or satellite provider. like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. the white house, michelle obama will be joined by mayors from across the country to talk about efforts to end veteran homelessness. joining her will be shaun donovan, the acting secretary sloan gibson. live on c-span at 1:30. and then they send hearing on stocking apps on smart phones and other devices to add other secretly track the device owner. looking into the issue live at 2:30 eastern. session today.n just a while ago, they advanced to the nomination of sylvia

burwell to head the department of health and human services. 67-28 that vote in the hill rights of the senate will spend the day debating her merits. final confirmations expected on thursday. today is the 25th anniversary of the tiananmen square crackdown. and tonight, we will mark the occasion with a look at what was happening at the time and the impact around the world. we begin at 8:00 eastern and we will show a discussion with journalists including nicholas kristof, who won a pulitzer prize for his coverage through it he talks about some of the acts of courage outside of tiananmen square. >> i remember the night of june 3, some of the troops were coming in and now there is a highway. it used to be a narrow airport road. a bus driver parked his bus across the airport to block the troops coming in.

the first truckload arrived. demand did he refused. the officer pulled out his pistol and demanded he drive the bus and the driver had the keys in his hand. he threw them into the verge, the grassy verge. was not executed immediately. i do not know what happened to him. to do that, to block the troops from tiananmen square, you know, admiring of the courage that night some of which i have rarely seen. today, policeing have been standing by to block any public observance of the 25th adversary of tiananmen square.

that was the day chinese tanks and troops moved in on protesters, killing reportedly hundreds of protesters and onlookers. we are marking the occasion this evening beginning at 8:00 eastern on c-span. on a lonely windswept point in france, the area is soft but 40 years ago the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men in the air was filled with the roar of cannon. dawn, on the morning of the sixth of june 1944, 225 rangers ran to the bottom of these cliffs. their mission was one of the most daring of the invasion, to climb these desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. the allies had been told some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the allied advance.

the rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. the american rangers began to climb. the 70theekend, anniversary of the d-day invasion of normandy, starting saturday morning. watch the commemoration from the world war ii memorial in washington followed by craig simons discussing his new book "neptune." he will take your questions and comments. and a look back at speeches commemorating the day, all on american history tv on c-span3. next, experts outline strategies for responding to cyber attacks and the challenges with info sharing among the government and private sector. a half-hour discussion from a daylong summit on cyber challenges.

much.nk you very getting set up for the next panel here. that was a really good segue to the conversation we are going to have now. i and we have one of the best panels. you're probably glad you stuck around after lunch. if you are outside, you would be drenched. we're going to follow up about information sharing from a governmental perspective. sectoro from the private perspective. we have a good panel. o my immediate right is rich baich, next to him, ari baranoff, in charge of the michaelervice, and then howell, deputy program manager of the office of the director of national intelligence, and at the end is my colleague paul wood, the chief risk officer for

bloomberg lp. we are delighted to have all of them with us this afternoon. i would like to start with rich and then paul for the private sector perspective. you can, inbit if as much detail, the kinds of threats you are dealing with, whether you can describe the type or the scope and how you share information about them with industry and government. >> sure. what we tried to do is categorize the threats. we think about them in four areas. education,, cyber cyber espionage, cyber warfare. crime is straightforward. everyone knows we are a bank. people want to go to a bank because there is money. agitationation --

would be something like there is no theft going on, the inability to actually be able to bank. cyber espionage is about trade secrets and cyber warfare is partesting because we are of the critical infrastructure. there is potential for a nationstate trying to make a practice for diplomacy that could impact our critical infrastructure which could be an issue. we look at those factors then we tried to figure out how we are going to deal with each one of those. in today's environment, it changes dramatically. it is all about getting information. knowing what information gets, getting the information and then taking action on the information. from an industry standpoint, there are many different vehicles for that information. people are familiar with the financial analysis center, our

colleagues in the secret service, the fbi, other potential agencies offer up that type of intelligence. even with all of that, you want your own capability. and the ability to collect the information is critical. that is when we look at what we're dealing with today, identifying the right information, adding it into a digestible format is important. in the past, it was fine to say i have an hour and i have cleaned it. prevented is i have it from happening. where did it come from? who may be targeting me and why? that information so that you can put new defenses in place to prevent it from happening. simplend of as a introduction to how we are looking at the issue. >> paul, is that accurate?

which wek the way in categorize those things are the concerns we have. clearly there's not a lot of money to go chasing after. the other issue i am concerned about is the integrity of the data and how that could be manipulated. because the impact that would have on the wider economic environment and how it would impact our customers. theink that activists, politically motivated, are a threat we have to be concerned about. they are not as sophisticated as some of the criminal groups and some of the host nation states, but they are there and they are present and they are probing and testing. those categories are very much the same way. there is not a difference in how deflect it.

the important part is sharing. there is not enough sharing done today. that is across the private i think there is more we can still do. the said, i think involvements and trust that exists in the environment is incredibly powerful. i think we all know one another inside of the environment and talk regularly.

a great example is the new york electronic task force where there is huge sharing, huge awareness, huge involvement and trying to do our bit to make sure everyone is aware of it. there is still more to be done. let's come back to more sharing. i want to switch to our government colleagues for a minute. threats are you seeing now, and how do you mitigate among yourself now and with the private sector? >> very much so that the characteristics described, i say they come and go. there was a mentioned earlier ofut migration or maturing the threat actors unfortunately. what used to be amateur hackers of nationolution states. a fair amount of transnational .rganized crime

a really well enterprise business if you want to be in the hacking enterprise. highly effective tools readily available to you for a price. somewhat sad that the world we're in. very much aware of the insider threats than you used to be. the federal subjects -- network subject to the attacks you have heard about. of time andt a lot money hardening the perimeter from attacks from the outside. carnegie mellon did a really good book on insider threats that i would recommend to people they said public, private university -- does not matter because people are blind. inherently trusted until and after they do something you really wish they had not.

>> just to build on what my colleague was saying, we have serious concerns in terms of financially motivated criminal after. a tremendous growth interest over the past five years to where they now trust each other with the movement of millions of dollars where as or seven years ago trust in hundreds of thousands of dollars. the second thing is we have seen a tremendous reinvestment of ill-gotten gains into developing new hacking tools, banks and servers used to commit the attacks. when you have that increase trust, things are not looking great. in terms of information sharing, we work on the continuous progress. we collect quite a bit of cyber security information and the investigations. we work airy hard and diligently to push the information through the department national cyber

security and electronic crimes task forces in new york. we are working very hard to get out malware initial findings reports and things along those lines. .> i wanted to get back you raise the issue that there is information sharing now but not enough and needs to be more. why isn't there more information sharing and what has to happen for there to be more? maybe paul started an rich and we can take turns. >> i think the question about the legal framework or how information is going to be used ashat is a topic an excuse for why we're not sharing. that is the real worry for many corporate organizations perspective. i think they would like to see something there but it is not a

prerequisite. think it varies in industry. in the financial services are, i think the natural engagement that happens between chief information security officer across the sector in an formal and informal exchanges in meetings and discussions helps to build the trust that exist in the arena and people share and talk much more freely about those things. i think outside of the financial services there -- sector i do not here and here -- see and hear the level of trust existing. i chaired a very similar structure that existed that was from almost 10 years ago. successfulade a very . the center for protection national infrastructure am a

which is part of the uk's industryservices use with real people are reaching to industry and having a real channel i which they can enhance the communications and meet regularly. they share information. they share sensitive information. insert -- in the infrastructure of infrastructure and critical concern. i think where people are of the concern will be what will be the impact on the law enforcement perspective if i report something and the next thing i know a law enforcement agency is at my door and wants to impound servers, hardware and do all sorts of things that will really disrupt my businesses. perspective, they

have done what you are trying to do now in terms of providing through pieces of legislation .ome protection not necessarily liabilities but certainly allowed for the free flow of information. at the end of the day this is about trust. it is about how the ink unit -- community engages, how it is involved and who the people are. i do not think it is about having -- strong legislative framework. we are all suffering you the same level of tax, threat and we have the same concerns. not the words in paul's mouth, but in some sense the legislation is almost secondary to what needs to happen first is more or less the way i interpret that. there has been a big fight about

legislation going on on the hill for several years. we read dinner last night and heard the same sort of thing. now thate information they are not that worried about legislation. would you agree with that? i will come back and answer that. i want to start by saying let's take a moment and celebrate with information sharing we do today. now let's get back to work. if we rest on what we have today, it is only a point in time. this is a dynamic involvement, we have to revolves significantly. it is fine to celebrate it, but it is not enough. theifically from legislation standpoint, this is a very difficult situation. i will defend our government and say it is very difficult to come up with the laws because they were never written before the

internet. basic fundamental changes to the legal system has to occur to empower the government. i know we're been talking about this for years and lots of attempts but we have to stop to say how difficult it really is this? there were -- there were not laws. there are still laws that say you cannot park your horse in front of your house on sunday. so it is very difficult to get your arms around this. secondly, it is much broader because the laws protect -- potentially impact internationally. what is the cyber incidents? what is good information about anormation.com from international law standpoint if someone were to go drop a bomb on your country, you would probably consider that an act of not to mention the

attribution peace. what is difference -- different about an airplane dropping a bomb compared to cyber is who is doing it. a good cyber adversary will have the attack from your own country. you cannot go in front of the united nations and plead your attack because it is coming from infrastructure in your own country. i think the government and legislation is in a tough place because they want to pass on think that it is very difficult to do because of the constraints around lawless. but specifically around the sharing of information, we have not identified what the right information is. if we were to ask what is the most important information we should be sharing? you will have different definitions. >> that seems like pretty basic stuff. why don't we know the kinds of stuff we would like to share yet?

>> something simple. an it address. even though some people may say there is a legal interpretation, not every organization, not even every government agency would agree with the definition. the fundamental thing is it is somewhat of who the person may be or entity may be. we cannot even get a legal interpretation around that. >> we do not have the ideologues to provide to. >> three need to take certain hygienic steps to help investigations? -- do we need to take certain hygienic steps to help investigations? >> i can only speak from a secret service perspective. prosecution is a secondary goal. i would say i.t. logs are very important. >> great.

i would suspect the secret service to have on their website a listing of great actionable thread data. >> we came out with a new coincidencetoday by that speaks to very basic response planning. come uphing that has today in our discussion and earlier discussions this morning was the notion of trust. one thing to have a legal framework in place. theher to have trust and in private sector, the financial sector and technology sector a be there is not a lot of trust in the government to keep the information they might share secure. you could talk to that from the government's perspective, what kind every assurances can you provide or what needs to be done to recapture the trust? to what iso back challenging in this country

versus doing it in other i goties tom a i don't -- to go to china and figured out they can do things like a we have-- the reason federal agencies and federal state and local government and private sectors, the structure inherent in our country, a strength that is also a challenge. i would take you back to see we have seen this before. he had lived through this post-9-11. through this. we had to overcome the trust. we had to get to the point where federal and private sector would share about terrorist attacks. and we have done that. so what did it take? legal authority is good but you do not have to wait for it. we have plenty of opportunity to act. you have to have a place to come together. we have all kinds of infrastructure now. we have a national infrastructure protection plan.

we have information sharing and analysis centers were public and private entities can meet. the national fusion centers that parade state and local government and the private sector. we have a whole lot of tools at our disposal. the trust bottle has to go through maturation. i know you, who you are and what you do. what you do with me when i give it to you and who else and what he will do with it, you have to i canutionalize it to say do it at scale. all of the national infrastructure and repurpose that. i look at the information sharing and analysis sectors and say what is going on? it is a really good model that the other should try to catch up

to. there is a national council. why aren't they collaborating the sharing.er? tower of babel. there is a really good monitoring -- moderating activity going on right now about share what data? i do not care what system you are using. you do not care what i am using. information exchange, we will have common data elements that mean the same thing with common semantics than the portal conversation we heard about half an hour ago. out isa in and all data in a uniform format. we have done that with counterterrorism. we can do that with cyber data. a modeling effort underway right now to do that. >> if we had a drinking game earlier today, with edward snowden, everyone would be completely sloshed in the

audience. after that incident where it looks too many that the federal government cannot keep control of its own data, what kind of an effect has not had on the trust relationship with the private sector echo i would love to hear from the are as well. they have their house in order among the guy or gal i know in that office, but i do not know what will happen when they send it off to the processing plant and what contractors they have working there and what standards. we are a very small shop. i would agree it is by far the model or information sharing. i think it has come around over the past five or so years. was not always that way. we are sharing a lot of information with them. we hope private industry will come to us and paint a picture

of the larger problem. getting limited reporting, we will not get a sense of what the issue is. he pushed for a national standard of reporting. notiona comment on the -- any comment on the notion of bradley manning? several incidents of the government not keeping the data concern -- secure. is this a concern from the private sector? for cyber threats and cyberattacks i can lower the stock price and affect a lot of shareholders and make the board angry. the reality is the new cyber threat dynamics and reinvestment that we see cyber actors doing is concerning. that is causing most organization to include the government to make reinvestments to what they're doing to address

the threats. as a result of that, i think pretty much any organization out there has come to the conclusion they cannot keep them out. it is not just about high walls but a resilient center and making -- maintaining the goal. making sure you can provide to the customer base the expectation that they have. as a result of that, when information sharing is helpful to get their, but ultimately comes down to having the capability. it is advanced as it is. amount,id a per dollar per i.t. expenditure, you will see big numbers being spent in financial services compared to other sect or's. it is difficult to them. they do not have the same capabilities that most financials do.

you will see dramatically different capabilities. secret service versus the nsa when it comes to cyber. this is a reality that we're going through a monumental shift on what is required to protect ourselves in the cyber environment. organizations and governments alike around the world are discovering they have to do things differently. differently think and you cannot just say i spent a dollar yesterday so it should be good for the year. everyone knows there is risk. my standpoint, i think about a couple of factors. one, vulnerabilities. we are all part of the vulnerability change.

there is always risk. there are things that change like brett. -- like threat. if we go and put sanctions on a foreign country, there could be a result of that that comes back to us from the cyber standpoint times the asset value. there are certain aspects of a high priority will spend more money on. the most important thing is the likelihood. a new zero day exploit coming out, the likelihood of that particular threat or event impacting you changes your risk. i think organizations that get your arm around this from a risk standpoint. >> i would think the trust piece israel. i think it depends upon the data and the information being shared

. i think it varies upon level. , signature,ware data that is not pointing to a consumer or core intellectual value to the organization. much more willingness to share that easily without further consultation. i think when the data starts to get more close to the home of the heart of the organization, then there might be a second question about how much of that you really want to share. equally vulnerable as any other government organization is. i think we should not hone in on the few instances that have happened that should derail the ability to try to make her breasts in the space. i think that is the thing we should be working towards, how can we continue to build the trust? how can we get those standards

and sharing models established that we all agree to and try to avoid lawyers getting involved? >> i think we need to focus on the benefits. the major retail breaches that were announced in the news. a lot of the information collected potentially saved other retail institutions. the benefits far outweigh anything else you can think of. >> the challenges are identical on both sides. you have the crown jewels of intellectual property. there are levels of sensitivity. you actually have a handle on the information assets, you have to believe there are exemplars beste country where practices and working models have been developed to get people clearances to get higher level of access. the kansas city fusion center is an example where they have

critical infrastructure and operators with clearance operators on the floor. i know not everyone can get a top secret clearance and get access. why can't you bring me actionable information screen for sensitivities? screen for sources and methods and form a larger group? >> there is a synergy opportunity for the model if we can figure out how to contribute the benefit. we are stronger together than anyone of us individually. >> is their inventory out there of the public and private sharing? the microphone coming your

way in about 10 seconds. >> [inaudible] >> from my perspective data integrity is a significant issue . how do we both monitor quality check and understand whether the data we are dealing with, many of which is real-time is genuine and real and not being manipulated? a very real threat. the probably -- probably the thing that keeps me up. >> at what point do you realize what you are dealing with. differed?our response

you will misjudge it. we heard about the way target misjudge that information. the factsknow completely and would not want to be hypercritical of that but the practiceo have good management processes, good scenarios you have worked through, tested your organization so they know where they fit in the food chain when the problems are happening and able to respond and act quickly and segment and close all sectors of the network to minimize that from spreading, all of those things have to be

thought through. is that manipulation of data concerned? question was more around media frenzies. of want the highest level assurance. any type of threat is different for any organization. every organization is edited from maturation point. something that may be a threat companywide a be not as much of -- fort for company different companies. get -- dataey integrity, the integrity and resiliency to maintain the dead -- data at a right level is critical. the exploits are changing, the threat is changing. an example of constructive malware hitting organizations. we have reactions to media.

the stock price gets hit right if someone is able to get out there on twitter or something else like that. very much are impactful. those organizations that have the capability to categorize it properly, and then ensure they get the appropriate controls will handle it the best. >> another question from the audience. >> wondering if you can talk about the differences between machine to machine sharing ursus human to human sharing. occurs at different levels, different kinds of sharon's and so forth. one question you asked earlier about the sharing. federal cyber centers have been working for five years on enhancing situation awareness. where it used to be one of them looking at defense, intel and

civilian agencies -- they are doing much better together. what they have done is develop information sharing architecture over the past five years. they are now in the development of the standards for data implement for public sea-based access control -- policy-based access control for pushing against threats of how where incidents and standardized used -- use cases. they can be machine actors or combination of both. the whole idea of a i cannot pick up the phone and call my buddy -- we heard about this in the previous section area we personalut the approach. that is not adequate for more. thinking ahead, why should i not be able to have situational awareness across the detectable devices across a very broad perspective and pulled

information and find everywhere it is happening and not have to call five people to find out. then automate the texan ativities that take ways network speed instead of waiting for human intervention. a lot of times it is too late. we've whined that you found out three months or three years before the horse was artie out now you want to close the barn door. had more time. that has to be the last word. thank you very much. to my turn it over colleague from bloomberg news who covers technology and will talk about market trends and the cyber security business. thanks again. [applause] >> here on c-span, we take you live to the white house where in a few minutes michelle obama ob joined by mayors from around the country to talk about their efforts to end veterans homelessness by 2015. , shaunpected to speak

donovan and acting veterans affairs sloan gibson. expect did to get it -- to get underway right about now. live coverage here on c-span. the acting chief says his department has reached out to all 1700 veterans kept off an official waiting list at the ba would hospital. last week the ba inspector general said they were at risk of being lost or forgotten. the issue of veterans on capitol hill, senator mccain and sanders met this morning on ba legislation. the washington times writes they met this morning to discuss a possible compromise between legislation. bynie sanders introduced senator mccain and others that is looking to fix the veterans affairs health care system. looks like mib a few minutes

before he gets underway. while we wait, conversation from this morning's " washington journal." [indiscernible] and we're back. and we're back. welcome. thank you for being here. get to the details of what we do now about this deal. [indiscernible] . this deal involves a swap between the highest five of the taliban 41 american pow. first,l is we got him and i credit the obama administration making sure we had him in our custody before they let the wheels go up on guantanamo. these guys are in that country a year. for

there are security measures in place. what happens after the year, we do not know. that is the deal as we know it. it?: who negotiated the administration through the state department negotiated it. at this high level it had to go to the state department and perhaps secretary kerry. i do not know. host: what about the rules of the government? guest: they have accepted them. we have to complement them and others who have excepted detainees. 13 countries who have accepted d mahaney's who were not there on -- countrymen who were from guantánamo. -- >> ray -- mayor ralph tucker. chris clinton is.

quentes. [applause] >> thank you so much for inviting me to participate in the white house foreign -- forum homeless veterans. i would like to thank the time to thank michelle -- the first lady for her dedication. as well as the overall efforts, hard work and our reach is undertaken on behalf of of all veterans and their families. veteran andty every every individual should have a home. i am here representing salt lake city, which of course i am proud to do. when i consider how salt lake city is approached and addressed homelessness, and particularly i know that ians

am dedicating people that have focused on providing housing for our homeless friends. the big difference of meeting the goal between a limited mating homelessness between 2016 were 75% of the way there. the great success for our valued veterans should be a additional resources of the ba brought to the table to join us in a singular effort to end homelessness. the me tell you a story of a man i met recently. a man worked in the high explosives unit and the u.s. military. after returning from the military he spent roughly 15

years homeless and salt lake city. battling depression and diabetes. for the past three years he and his wife, marilyn also a at atic, sought refuge local shelter but without an insulin refrigerator and regular health care managing the condition was a challenge. month stacy, maryland and their dog that he moved into a permanent home of their own. our apartment is like a safe haven. sometimes i feel like i am dreaming. administration, secretary donovan and the ba, i salute and thank you. when we can all combine resources and work together, and amazing result happen. we have much to do, so i do not want to leave the impression that we feel like we have completed our task. endingcommitted to homelessness among all members

of the community. with the success to date of veterans, the ways and means are proven. for giving me on behalf of the many dedicated people in the community, an opportunity to be here with you today. [applause] now it is my great pleasure to introduce the gentleman named as the acting secretary administration by president obama on friday. secretary gibson has devoted his life to serving our country and veterans. he graduated from rest point -- .rom west point he was the president and ceo of the uso. has 20secretary gibson years of private sector and nonprofit experience he brings to bear to build an awesome 20 -- 21st century ba.

please give around the applause to sloan gibson. [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor. ending veteran homelessness is one of the a's three agency priority goals. under the circumstances i would be remiss if i did not at least mention one other goal we have and that it's improving veteran access to ba care and service. service.e adnnd [applause] as the president has directed, to getmoving immediately veterans off of wait list and into clinics and taking action to fix the systemic problems that allowed the unacceptable

waits to occur. we demonstrated in the past the ability to tackle tough packages -- have challenges and we are on our way to eliminating the turn homelessness. but that last tough challenge we cannot do on our own. it is a challenge that requires close collaboration between andral, state and federal community groups. ba and hud may have resources but we depend on over 4000 partners to extend service to -- services to homeless veterans. last year more than 40 5000 veterans and family members were housed using hud vouchers. more than 60,000 were saved from eviction because of the ba supported services for veteran families. foundan 45,000 veterans temporary housing through the ba grant and per diem program.

all thanks to the collaborative relationship between public and private enterprise across our country. we have a winning strategy, it is the housing first approach. get veterans into permanent housing, then meet the clinical and other needs. the result is we are not just getting veterans off the streets, we're healing minds and bodies and making better use of resources, which means we can help many more veterans. how does that work? emergency room visits down 27%. inpatient hospitalization down 33%. health care costs down 32%. housing first works, and we know it works best when we have a close collaborative relationship with our partners in cities, counties, community groups and facilities.lth that is why we need local leadership. leaders on the ground in every , marshalltake charge

the available resources, forge the necessary connections among the many partners required to make all this work. we have proven we can reduce veterans homelessness, now let's end it. [applause] a special thanks to the first lady for supporting this effort. as i can tell you for my own personal experience, thanks to all of you for taking up the challenge. we are depending on you. much more importantly on our veterans are depending on you. now it is my pleasure to introduce our leading federal partner, this year's chair of the inner agency council on homelessness, hud secretary shaun donovan. thank you. [applause]

>> thank you. thank you so much. acting secretary gibson, thank you for the kind introduction. thank you for your service to for the workand ahead of us together to house every veteran in this country. [applause] i look around the room and see so many mayors who have become not just partners but close friends over these years. in this battle to end homelessness, you have been our warriors. you have been our partners. thank you for your incredible commitment to this work. let's give our mayors around of applause. -- a round of applause.

[no audio] [applause] other distinguished guest and friend here today, for the past four years it has been my great honor to help advance the goals of president obama's historic opening doors initiative. this is the nation's first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness. it is an effort that reflects our countries most basic ideals and values. fair person deserves a chance to thrive. that we all benefit when our neighbors in need can lift themselves up. and that our country can actually solve big challenges when we are committed and when we work together. proven weears we have can house anyone. now our charge is to house everyone. at the heart of this work is helping our nation's veterans. these brave men and women have given so much of themselves to protect our lives, liberty and

only right that we give back to them. opening doors is doing just that. through the interagency council on homelessness, 19 federal agencies have come together working with all of our local partners tom and we are collaborating like never before to enhance our efforts. we are using a data-driven approach at the national and local level to maximize effectiveness. i drive my team crazy going through the numbers every month. closelyvarying -- very with our partners and embrace likepproaches that work housing first that are particularly effective for chronic homelessness. as the first lady is about to highlight, we have made tremendous progress, and local leaders like you have an instrumental. we have got to keep the momentum going. that is why i am so excited to be here today with all of you.

together we can give our nation's veterans not just shelter and support come a but also new hope for the future. i remember visiting a veteran recently who help -- who we helped secure housing. he was sitting in the first apartment he has lived in in 20 years. he told me when he first walked into the apartment he got on his knees and prayed. he said i now live like a human being. like a human being. he said my future is brighter. every veteran deserves the chance to feel that same way. hud looks forward to working with all of you to give our veterans that chance and give every man and woman a place to call home. thank you for your support, thank you for your partnership. thank you. [applause]

i now have the great pleasure of anroducing chris fuentes, american who served his country with distinction in iraq. after returning home she had her struggles but she did not say down. in fact, after receiving a little bit of help from federal program she was able to lift herself up and now doing incredibly well. she is here today to share her story. [applause]

>> thank you so much for allowing me to share my story. my name is chris fuentes. i have a daughter three years old. i live in philadelphia. i was in operation iraqi freedom after my reserve unit was called into active duty. when i returned my apartment and job were gone. at one point i found myself living in a car while my daughter stayed with my mother. i was all over the place jumping from place to place that had no stability. this really prevented me from moving forward. i knew if only i could have a roof over my head, everything else will fall into place. another veteran told me about the hud grant and said i did not have to be living like this. i did not believe it at first, but i went to the v.a. in philadelphia to try. they took my application and eventually the case manager called me and told me i was accepted. on the day i found out i was approved i cried. it felt like a big weight was

lifted off my shoulders. applye manager suggest i for another program. they held me to locate an apartment and gave me this security department -- deposit and rent i needed to move in. they help me with the furniture for the apartment and helped fix my car so a ticket get to school. when i moved in, i was able to reunite with my daughter. today thanks to the program we have a home again. i am still in the reserves and going to school on the g.i. bill. i think it is very important to spread the word about these great programs. i am going to take every chance i had to tell other veterans they can get help on these programs. just like i did. these programs give veterans a second chance at life and allows them the opportunity to not worry about where they met -- where they may have to lay the head at night. to it is my pleasure

introduce someone who has shown her commitment to family like mine again and again. together with dr. joe biden she launched the joining forces initiative to rally america's businesses, food, hospitals and communities. to reach out to honor and serve our troops. not just in words but with real concrete action. welcomingn me in first lady michelle obama. [applause]

>> thank you so much. day.is a good news thanking start by chris. let's give him a round of applause. [applause] i looked at chris and i say she is a baby. she served our country and the baby. the face of veterans and the face of homeless which is why today is so important. we are proud of chris and everything you're going to do because we know you will keep contributing. i want to thank secretary donovan for his tremendous leadership.

the mayor who we are confident will continue to build on the progress we have been making. want to thank acting secretary sloan gibson. we have done really good work together. i am so happy he is joining us. we're grateful for his distinguished service to our country for so many years. as well as the mayor for doing such good phenomenal work in salt lake city. i want to recognize someone who does not it a lot of attention. that is laura's islander. [applause] -- zylander. today is the first day i got to meet laura. her reputation precedes her. she is the executive director of the agency council on homelessness.

for many of the advancements we have made it as been because of the council's work to streamline and coordinate efforts across agencies. so i want to thank laura and everyone from the council for their outstanding leadership and service. most of all i want to thank the guests, mayors and community leaders, county and several federal employees who work day in and day out to repay the debt to veterans. unfortunately homelessness is something we are all too familiar with. onetimes we see these folks our way to work or walking our kids home from school. we might pass them on the someone as we are strolling through the park sitting on a bench and not even realize that he or she is a veteran. maybe we say hello. offer to buy a sandwich, but

often we just keep on going, rushing off to the next eating -- meeting, burying our heads into our smartphones. it is not that we do not care, it is just that we think there is no way we will ever solve the problem, it is just the way things go. thinking starts to melt away when we better understand the stories of the veterans. the man who lost his arm in vietnam. medicaland his wife's bills cap piling up, they lost their homes. the gulf war vet who injured her back and lost her job and then her house and spent months on the street. the army veteran from the iraq war who survived cancer but when she and her two kids were evicted from their home, they had nowhere to go. these are just three stories. altogether roughly 58,000

veterans are experiencing homelessness in america today. a number that fortunately has fallen sharply in the past few the number,hatever these brave men and women have served this country with courage and grace. some volunteered to serve, many others were drafted. they went off to faraway jungles and deserts and mountain regions. they saw their best friends fall in ambush or because of the werede bombs some of them left wondering why they were the ones that survived. after all of that, too many of them have come home only to find a new battle, the battle to keep a roof over their head. a battle to have somewhere to go when it rains. now, i want to be very clear, the vast majority of our veterans return home in good health, in good spirits. they go on to build good

families, find good jobs. they keep serving this nation in their communities, congregations and schools and neighborhoods and the percentage of veterans who are homeless today is actually .3% of the total veteran population. but even one homeless veteran is a shame. [applause] the fact that we have 58,000 is a moral outrage. [applause] tens of thousands of veterans our sleepinging their cars or next to a subway vent.

we should be horrified because that is not who we are as americans. we cannot just throw up our hands and say this problem is big for us. the truth is it is not. you see that 58,000 homeless veterans are spread across cities and states. even in some of the largest metropolitan areas we are often only talking about a few hundred people. for example, a year and a half -- new orleans and have homeless veterans. in indianapolis the most recent count of bets on the streets was 11. these numbers are still too high because any number of books he wrote is too much. that is why my husband vowed to end the problem once and for

all. [applause] he has directed record levels of funding towards helping homeless veterans. a achieving historic success and getting men and women in uniform and housing. almost 90% of homeless veterans served before 9/11. time anyone has made a government wide priority. we have had in the v.a. and inner agency council leading the way. we are working with the department of health and human services and and department of labor and nonprofits and community leaders on the ground. together we have made some extra ordinary progress. for instance, for instance the housing vouchers that helped her

find a home. that program has existed since the early 90's. up until 2008, it had housed a total of 1800 veterans. this administration strengthen it to historic levels. [applause] i am no mathematician, but somebody did the numbers for me. yearseans in the past few more than 40 times as many veterans have been helped then during most of the program's entire history. the other program chris mentioned, the support services.

low income veteran families from falling into homeless. last year alone served more than 60,000 veterans and their family members and next year we expect the number to grow to over 100,000. [applause] we all know these programs are making a significant difference. even during difficult economic times. the trend homelessness and america has dropped by 24% in just three years. so we are beginning to make real important progress on this issue. nearow we are nowhere finished. as i said before, any number above zero is way too high. we still have tens of thousands of vets without a home, so we

cannot rest, not even for a moment. that is why i am so thrilled. i am so happy to announce a new effort called the mayors challenge to and veterans homelessness. veterans homelessness. we have officials on board already. these leaders -- yes, yes. [applause] these leaders are best equipped to tackle the challenge because they know their communities inside and out and are in touch with service providers who know the veterans by name. so they are not just going to address the trend homelessness in their cities and state, they are going to end it and do it by the end of 2015. [applause]

it is an audacious goal but achievable. it is absolutely achievable. we have seen an incredible success at the local level already. as you heard a mayor, as well as his counterpart in phoenix, mayor greg stanton, they have already effectively ended chronic homelessness among veterans in their state. in new york they have housed more than 2000 veterans in the last year alone. inernor john hickenlooper colorado has been making incredible progress on this issue for almost a decade. governor mark dayton and dan malloy in minnesota and connecticut are also on board as well. we have mayors like chris coleman from st. paul minnesota, mitch landrieu from new orleans and a niece parker from houston