post and whoever was running the page would take the answers from the form and post them as messages. tobecame an anonymous forum poke about anyone or anything. at the same time i just to a countywide audience. they were just seeing sometimes it was a twitter page 140 characters and asked to make an impression. this judgment was no longer just around the schoolroom but it ofadcast to thousands students across the county. backdrop in the

air, social nastiness that people because of fear missing out feel like they have to expose themselves to. they have to know what was going .n hard to pin down. that are some social norms need to develop around kindness and respect in a general way. pages youmes on these come entertainment value but they are so interested because it is just the thing to do. if it were someone they knew it

would be very interesting was someone they have no idea who it storyanything about the and people are interested. responses to these pagesthe main can submit tohey a google forum and post comments about a specific person. they are not as broad as a countywide page but they tend to to alloweartfelt students to connect or say things they might not otherwise say. it is sometimes awkward to someone you barely know and say ... good today. that comes off as kind of strange and no one wants to do

that in a social setting face to face but and animist page people do not hesitate. i have seen public stones thrown. sometimes people will write a is only -- not who whereis a hashtag students try to ring up mean-spirited issues just for entertainment value. these and itse ends up spreading and more

students are affected by it after a couple kids starting a funny trend. there is only a couple of people. it was face to face there may be 10 bystanders in a tube person argument. this is online. it has broadcasted to thousands bystanders. this is where we need to focus, how to get more people to click feed i do not like what i see people do not realize the poster -- it is stilly out there.

kids understand it is broadcast to a white onions or permanent. soon i hear from a fight that went on down the hallway. they see it happen real-time on twitter. fights jumpstart in the cafeteria. they stir the night before and continue into the cafeteria. us as a faithful are biased and to kids are less likely risk their social reputation. there is proof that that person stood up and that attracts even

more bullying. how can we convert these bystanders? students are not looking for a reason to be mean. they're looking for reasons to be positive. there is much more positivity when you open up. i am not saying that anonymous encourageywhere but that positive spirit that people are willing to enforce. solution a part -- the solution as a part of a place to be. the digital solve

bullying session alone. most adults are not privy to the so-called twitter fights ago on every single evening . students -- adults and teens need to be in constant consideration so that principals can help out students who are being bullied. encouraging those relationships, those partnerships between teens .nd adults the mostuled make headway. thank you. really want to

emphasize the positive. i am hearing that from a lot of think thise and so i is happening. said it is in its infant stage. -- it is inand process but we need to encourage that behavior and very general way. thank you all. [applause] >> thank you. this is the last plenary session and i have the honor of assistantg the deputy secretary for policy in the now thef elementary and

panel. >> would sarah and john me:enbee join while they are getting situated buyers both.ck buyers.

in the range of harassment and discipline issues in elementary and secondary schools. jerseyorked for the new institute of social justice and the -- liberties union and [inaudible] -- we also have robert listenbee. theis the administrator for wellhouses -- to

[inaudible] was asked rental in creating the juvenile defender situation ,' he served as a co chair on the children. on

can we a districte as administrator where is responsible for students reporting century and through .arge sisters were to my panel.tion give us about 30 seconds to one overview about what you think the issues are for -- and how it fits into your

current work. >> what i would say is speaking relationships, the issue is addressing the school climate holistic way. there may be a perception that it effectively is difficult to do while also addressing discipline appropriately and keeping in avoid excessively harsh discipline. in fact when we are at those issues we're looking at addressing them effectively using many of the very same tools, creating a positive school climate will adjust discipline issues and bullying

and harassment issues. >> i would like to say thank you to the last two panels. you are outstanding. the knowledge gained is insightful. my colleagues, let me recognize you. our office provides considerable funding for 4-h and other mentoring organizations. because our knowledgeable and powerful. the youth voice is critical. they are experts on these issues. researchers at the universities and offices like mine may be able to gather data and analyze it and give us a clear idea as to the extent of cyber-bullying that is going on. if we are going to develop the new norms for this environment we are going to have to turn to

young people much more than we have in those spaces. that is my first takeaway. i just learned within the last hour and a half. i wish i had been here the whole time. that is my first takeaway. we have -- at the federal level are going to have to continue to expand our collaborations across agencies. moveone with sam helping we cans was he does -- collaborate more effectively to to beommon tools accessible. a lot of stuff we create is obscure and hidden. when we get everyone together we will have to figure out how to work this issue over the long term rather than doing a short time we have. as a part of that let me flag

, the attorney general and the secretary of education and 2011 started this initiative to address the issues of school climate and problems within school involving suspensions and expulsions. we need to plug them for the work that has happened under their leadership in the private sector with philanthropies, this one is over $50 million to .evelop tools and the departments have worked on new storage evidence, data gatherings also make it possible to gather information about their local school. a situation where she -- we go back to school can look at what the local

school looks like in this area. we have a baseline for figure it out where we will go. >> thank you. the one thing that struck me is the idea of the fight does not start, it did not start in school. the fight started last evening on twitter because everybody was chiming in and school is the place where kids meet up and settle it face to face. means is sometimes and they -- in the neighborhood they can sell it. the real issue for school administrators and teachers is about having a connection and being -- they either are on the their close or

enough to some student in the building or their parent to find out about it and they get the information early enough they can intervene. it really means that their job has become that much more difficult but also that building those great relationships is much more. not because of without them they would never get the information they need. you started talking about the work of the supportive school discipline initiative. could you give us in your opinion in that i will ask share interested what i am in is why this fits in a conversation about bullying. what is the connection between and i think sarah alluded to the idea. we are not necessarily targeting

bullying. we are talking about having safe and supportive environment. could you check about it from that perspective. -- the of the question initiative focuses on the bullying. how do we treat the person who is the only? what if there honor pinching? they want to be a bully for a long time. we have to recognize that suspensions and expulsions are not the only answer. we have alternative programs, we need to get to the root causes

of bullying. and people who have it exposed to violence, who have been traumatized may have their normal developmental residences derailed. we have done many students and say 60% of our children are .xposed to them arehat many of derailed him and no mo processes -- and they end up because weice system have not properly assess their trauma. task force recommended is every child who comes into its one of our schools has

opportunity for the proper kind of assessment that will determine whether that child has been exposed to trauma and if that child has been exposed, we need to make sure that there's more care so the child is not a chance to act out. if you are a bullying let's find the reason why betsey we can find a way to address your underlying issues which may be substance abuse or mental health. we will not have to shut you off into the delinquency system or the criminal justice system to address your needs. the caveats to that is some of our children need to go into the legacy system that can address than -- to you other address the needs. than 1% of parents

with theirthe system children. we have some work. on -- whatk focusing you are seeing is are they addressing bullying in ways that will help to protect children that are being bullied --stantly have over arcing do they have plans that are over arching? enforce a settlement agreement. one of the first things we look for is training and creating

educational programs for the school as a whole. the search of things can prevent or reduce the likelihood by teaching all the students in your school about respect, , getting students .hink about those things getting teachers prepared to respond to an incident if one ready before your face to that situation can help to ensure that there is fox's perfect -- effective. kids can help to be effective lesson is. it is important that when a student is engaging in bullying

discipline may not always be the most effective for sufficiently effective as a response. engaging with that student whether it is through counseling -- yearly interventions early intervention. >> that was really helpful. one of the things that i would also add is the need on the part of adults in the schools to respond quickly. it is in some cases the delayed response allowed the issue to grow. if the response had been quicker you could have -- the situation and allowed up to move on but

because it was a response to it as quickly as possible we see bigger problem so that would be one thing for school administrators that i would suggest. question and then we will take some time to see if we can get questions from our audience. i, are theressd recommendations that they could -- with that would make a difference in their communities, in their cities, or their school district that would be helpful so that people would understand the connection between building a better school climate, helping to prevent bullying as well as the work that we have done around reducing out of school suspensions and expulsions. it seems like it is a counterintuitive argument. in -- i was ins

madison, wisconsin speaking to teachers and administrators and i had to say only talk about reducing suspends -- expulsions would talk about limiting the disparity between different subgroups. why way overladen of those issues with the issue of we want to take that kidding get done of the building and that is not always the right is an. what are two things that we -- what weant to want them to think about. consensus report

was developed based on interviews across the nation. we have spent a lot of money i had tried to make sure that we have good recommendations all folks are involved in addressing issues in school climate. we would like you to look at it and see if there recommendations might apply in your specific area. that would be one major recommendation. the second is going back to where i started. the one thing i have learned every to my go to pallor they are our experts and we as adults are going to have to do a number of things with young people. we will have to recognize that

-- their importance in the process. we will have to develop appropriate institutional touctures that help them talk the language and be the leaders of these issues. bey need opportunity to informed enough and detailed about the issue so they can offer concrete recommendations and became seriously by folks -- ignore them. inhear about youth courts schools as one of the magnet need to have young people help us and work toward him indicating as leaders who have

institutions across the country. doneed to figure out how to that. there are institutions within health and human services that i admire. we need to make this a bigger issue for us and go forward. >> just rooting those conversations is helpful and important starting point. having students involved and participating in reviewing school policies, and prorating expectations about bullying and .arassment students could the involved and

respond the involved after incident made our have occurred. we have had student allison people into develop curriculum -- committees created to develop curriculum around diversity inclusiveness, anti-bullying, really taking ownership for the program that is going to go on in their school. some of the restorative justice type practices that can also be implemented, really giving students ownership for the process in their school is i think critical. the last question i have, and i probably should have asked it a little earlier, so, if an incident of the leading a curse -- because this is like a real, practical, -- incident of bullying occurs, because this is

, real, practical level incident of bullying occurs on facebook or twitter over the weekend, not on school property. kids come back to school on monday. there is distress. administrators and teachers and up spending a considerable amount of time interacting and .iffusing the situation from perspective of all the things we have done trying to reduce out of school suspension and expulsion, to restore the community and have schools be places that are safe and doportive environments, what you think administrators can do if they can resolve the situation if no physical altercation took place but there

was still the issue of bullying? what would you -- it's the thing that keeps me awake at night. no two situations are alike and every response should be school and the context. again, not to hit the point too strongly, but thinking of these howgs ahead of time about your school could deal with these things, what is the response that's going to work. some examples would be making sure there is time in a homeroom or weekly discussion at the start of the day where if there are issues coming up emma there is a point at the start of the day were those things can be

for, making, look sure students know who they can talk to in the school if they are experiencing bullying issues , if they know about something else that's happening, have that be a safe space that's not -- that students are not feeling like they are tattle tailing, that there is a disciplinary mechanism put in place that encourages students to feel that wille sharing enable a more successful response. >> i think that's an interesting perspective. i don't know.

having been responsible for a large district, two hundred schools, maybe 5000 kids, i do wonder how much time administrators have. beo think there need to structured meetings and advisories. wantnd of the day, you adults to have relationships with children to the extent that they can come forward and say i am about to have a problem with someone. we got into it last night, and if you don't resolve it, i think it's going to get physical. sort of the answer most administrators are going with. think student code of conduct in districts talk about things

happening on campus as opposed to off campus as if the things happening off campus don't come strongly, and i would encourage those folks responsible to start thinking about the responsibility they for events that occur off campus that impact the educational environment that require them to spend resources, time, attention. there has to be a way for them to make parents and students , yes, even though this happened at home, it's going to be addressed at school. i think there needs to be a restaurant of -- the restorative process, but i think it is difficult as heck in the middle of the day for school administrators to deal with this. >> let me go back to her, and by some about

facebook. someone said we are at the beginning of introducing our norms into modern social media. think we have to recognize that we have a long way to go and it take us years and years to introduce community values into the social media said. it is not going to happen easily. we have to work very hard at it. provisions we have now say if it happens outside of studentsu cannot hold responsible. i have held suspension hearings an awful lot and i have one happen on did not school grounds.

it happened at the mcdonald's a block away, and therefore my client was not suspended or expelled. on the school climate, we have to think differently about this. we have to grapple with issues of what the new norm should be. we have to recognize the first amendment rights we have for freedom of expression. those things are real and part of our culture and basic, fundamental values, we develop a mechanism for recognizing that there are not going to be any hard and fast issues. the way to develop understanding basis, case-by-case developing over time a new culture in social media. it is going to take a lot of time for us to grapple with this

for many, many years. you and i will have gray hair, or for some of us no hair, and we will be in our rocking chairs before this is worked out. what i heard here today was the curry jimmy enthusiasm to grapple with the issue. grapple with that, if we can transmit that to folks that yes, we have to work hard at it, i think that would be a big success in one of the many successes coming out of the summit. >> we are going to try to take two or three questions. someone has approached the mike here. right here. >> these summits keep getting better and better. , and i30 year teacher work with an urban academy of

842 people on facebook. whatso pleased with facebook is doing. what i want to know is how can we diversify the voices of minorityto include children and parents. this is a pretty white audience. i don't mean any harm, but if you want us to be part of the conversation, what can we do? >> i'm going to take that and i'm going to take responsibility. i know those of us at the attorney general's office and the department of justice certainly want to be as as possible. i think we have to make even the step to make sure we have distributed information to community-based organizations that are interested in this issue that may not necessarily be on that first cut.

mentioned this or even sarah, that a lot of times the audience we pick tends to be long on academic credentials. academics a very focused conversation. i think we can increase the by making sure we have diverse constituents that ,re academically credentialed that have experience dealing with young people who are being bullied, and can offer some experience on that. we do this, you should see more diversity. >> there is a mantra that says

that all behavior is communication. i think we have to intentionally and purposely connect the dots bullying and bullying behavior that takes place in school, and quality of instruction happening in the classroom. if kids are meaningfully and intentionally engaged in the act of learning, we know their behavior decreases. here since this i was here last year at this summit. we have not talked a lot about the quality of of instruction and really saying it out loud. but ink we are doing it, would encourage all of us to revisit it and be very intentional and purposeful in connecting those dots because we know they are completely,

inextricably linked. i wanted to say it out loud. it's a question, not a statement, but thank you for the opportunity. >> you're welcome. and i think all of the educators in the room would admit that the quality of instruction and classroom management helps to prevent student unrest. it however does not solve all problems. some students have experienced trauma in their homes or communities. the best lesson plan that day is not going to deal with the trauma when they saw someone outside in the community shot and killed. it's not going to deal with the gang that is creating havoc or the people saying don't live in our neighborhood, get out. schools really become that place

that have to deal with all students, and i think part of the issue is good instruction takes care of kids that are generally not dealing with those whose or have not -- issues have not manifest. for kids were those issues are manifest, it is about intentionally connecting the wraparound supports and related service to help them be successful. so duly noted. >> so the kid who is tweeting something unpleasant or nasty at night is home with someone. and i am wondering what your andghts are about reaching teaching parents and partnering with parents in this effort. i think it's essential. some of our agreements to include provisions to have errant or community committees

that are involved and reviewinge also in discipline or general school policies, bringing parents in, whether it is at the start of the school year or in other ways to make sure they are all though .ware we deal with a lot of cases where we reached the point where unfortunately we are invest to getting us the full rights violation. in that case, if a minority community has been the target of harassment, we may have a involves folks from the community you're there as representatives of the minority student as a go-between and schoolm officials for whatever issues might come up. those are some of the ways we parentsked at involving

and the broader community. >> let me take a quick crack at your question. the president has made mentoring youth a critical component of moving forward. there is big gap between the young people who have a supportive adult in their life and those who don't. it's anywhere from 10 million-16 million kids do not have a supportive adult in their life. now, whatever teachers may want , and of their classroom course, we always want to give them whatever extra instruction there is also the problem of helping the millions of young children who do not have a supportive adult in their lives as a mentor. my colleagues, the baby boomers, are retiring at high rates, and many of them still want to give to society.

i think it is incumbent on us to find ways to encourage people to give back to millions of young folks in constructive ways that may be just an hour or two a week over a year minimum. i think we need to think about how we do that, because we can ask parents, but the one parent household or the two-parent household were the parents are working three jobs, they may not be able to get that help. we need to go beyond our standard answers to these problems and create movements of folks who are trying to answer these questions. i would add thing is i think rate schools find time in their academic programs acceptableung people uses for technology. i think they then connect and bring parents in and give parents a variation of that.

newink technology is so that young people and parents, everybody needs to be educated. there is some app that you can used that you can send a text editors appears off your phone. -- and it disappears off your phone. part of this is about educating children about what is acceptable and what is not, educating parents about what they should be looking for, and then building -- like bob mentioned, it is going to take us time to incorporate societal norms into this new digital space, but we can do it. ok, i see a few people. we are going to make it quick because we need to close this out. it's friday. >> take a deep breath. that hasate everything

been set on this panel, but one overarching thing i hear is that these approaches are add-ons, right? buy a bullying program. we have an assembly. we are about youth empowerment but kids are kids and we can't put too much pressure on them to be the changemakers in schools. have the research that shows the children and adults who learn social emotional skills live healthier, happier lives, when will policy take place so that all children are learning these skills and teachers are learning them in their preparation programs? >> i'm going to say something that is going to sound like i am a heretic. i don't think it's policy that's going to lead this effort. i think it's going to be practice. i think in schools and school systems all over this country, that realizeple

the social emotional development of their students is good for a couple of reasons. the right thing to do to help children grow and become successful, contributing individuals in our society. number two, there is a strong correlation to students becoming academically successful. happenthink is going to is that practice is going to lead school systems and schools into doing this and them policymakers are going to follow-up with oh, you know what? be a good idea of schools would build really supportive climates and cultures and focus on things like normal childhood and adolescent development because if we do things, we help children to be safe and secure, then we can really sort of build him up with the algebra one and the physics and chemistry and

all of the music and the fine arts, all the other things we want them to get. and i don't think it's policy that's going to lead. i think it's prior to schneier's. .- practitioners >> can you say that again? agree thatdd -- i practice will help them the best practices will be the role models for the education system, but how long will it take for all of these practices to turn into something more formal? >> i am not a fortune teller, but i would say if you look over the next four or five years, i think you're going to see some dramatic improvement, and i think one of the reasons why is that over the six years of this administration, there has been a removings on structural obstacles that make it difficult for young people to be successful.

the release of civil guidance. the release of the civil rights data collection. 8000 children between the ages of three or five for suspended or expelled from public schools in this country in 2012. that's what the civil rights data collection tells us. schoollease has led to districts saying, you know what? doesn't we are going to do? youngw that sometimes kids might have bad days at school, but we are not going to suspend them. the district i was in yesterday has a rule that children from kindergarten through grade three cannot be suspended. that is developmentally appropriate, and i think you're going to see more of that. it is going to take for five years. >> all right, last question. >> this is a good segue from

your last one. this is from one of our viewers on c-span. fulbrightrently of scholar but also a teacher in brookline, massachusetts. she asked what should a teacher when they catch students bullying other students? you're welcome. >> great. i think it is a great question. i thing number one that all teachers, all members of school whether it is the custodian, the lunch line ,erson, the school bus driver any time they find or somebody brings it to their attention, i think they have to stop what they are doing, addressed the

and referrer where appropriate to the next person they can intervene. here is why. if they see it and they see the act of committing the bullying and they don't do anything about it, it sends to signals. one, you got away with it in n adult. a that means you can do it again, multiple times. to the child who is being bullied, who sees it out of their peripheral vision, it says to them i am all on my own. no one is helping me here. i am not afraid of the bully her. i am very concerned about the child being bullied because that

child may become so fearful they i am beingknow, bullied. there is no adult in this building that is here, looking out for me, protecting me. i need to protect myself. a weapon,e to go get and now i not only have a bullying situation, i have a kid in a building with a weapon thinking about doing harm to themselves or others. anybody, any adult in a school should be tasked, charged, empowered by the principle to react to an incident immediately it to the next person to make sure it is handled appropriately, that the theunity is restored, that child apologizes and gets the appropriate support and intervention. i am not talking about sending them home, but they need the appropriate intervention so they

don't do it again, and the other child being bullied needs to feel they are in a place where they are having their educational opportunity protected. that would be my answer. >> a brief answer i would add is simply this. one of the most important pieces of new knowledge we have an hour --ce heidi is about trompe in our society is about trauma. every child who comes into our school system needs to be screened for trauma. and if we find a child has an need to get them appropriate and informed care. if we do that in the beginning when they start school, we will be able to help those children who might otherwise become bullies and who will be in the halls disrupt in classes and disrupting school. studies wen-depth

have done at the department of justice that show that children who end up in our juvenile centers and justice system in most cases have been traumatized. 56% of them have had four or more traumas. we know from the study we did in chicago that only 25% of children who were traumatized received any kind of care for it. if children in the delinquency system are not getting care for it, imagine how much children in the school system are not getting it. we must recognize that, use developmentally appropriate ways of addressing it, and if we do that from a pro active of view, we will diminish the number of kids being disruptive in school and coming into juvenile justice. this is new knowledge, and we need to incorporate it in everyday practice as rapidly as

we can. know from studies that they will have detrimental effects well into their 40's, 50's, 60's. and knowledge is powerful. the research is rigorous. what we know to keep them from having the same problems as adults that they have his children. trauma doesn't leave you if it we knowget cured, and that for a fact. >> let's leave on that note. >> can we give our panelists a hand? i would justut, like to number one say thank you who had the opportunity to either look in online or on c-span, the folks here in the audience. ,s we reflect on today's summit we recognize that it was an opportunity to have a great dialogue.

were asked and hopefully able to answer some difficult questions. most importantly, we have identified some potential avenues moving forward. i also think today was a great opportunity for folks to network and engage with new and old colleagues in the field. maybe you have even come up with new ways to work together and collaborate on some ideas. today was also about sharing what we know about bullying prevention and recognizing that while we have my deas and some we still have many challenges we have left to face. as bob mentioned, we are going to do this over several years to tolly get it right, incorporate those societal norms into this new digital space. we heard from a variety of individuals who represent a variety of organizations, they,

local, federal. haveand you, our audience come together to discuss what is working and what is not. today also provided us the view bullying prevention efforts through the broader lens of school climate, which broadens our focus, and i think one of the questions was about buying this program are that program. talking about a specific program. we are talking about changing the overall climate and culture of school buildings. that kidsbyproduct is are going to do better and when kids do better they do better academically. to get from we hope this, so broadening our focus, including related to disrupt his behaviors, school climate is essential.

it is essential to keeping kids safe and engaged and it plays a key role in their academic performance. this is the key to changing dangerous behaviors. i would like to give a heartfelt thanks to our speakers, audience members, contractors, federal partners and the summit planning committee, without whom there would be no summit. although this is what they gave me and my notes, i have two other people i want to thank. thank david, the director for the office of safe and healthy students. can you give him a hand? i don't know if she is in the room, but sarah, one of david's team members, stand up, give her a hand.

she wrote my notes. ofan tell you the office safe and healthy students, the program in the office of the elementary and secondary great job did a trying to pull this together. it is critically important. with that, thank you for being , thank you for participating. we look forward to the great you you are going to do as move into the community. everybody have a great evening and a great weekend. thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014]

>> if you missed any of the panels from earlier today, you can watch them on c-span.org. america to getng the history of the civil war. the battle of chattanooga and the impact of the union's victory there over the confederacy is not. -- next. >> and send the confederate army retreating to the east. with the union success on november 20 fifth and a brief pursuit on the 26th and 27th, chattanooga is now firmly in union hands, and it will be overd by the union army

the coming winter into a giant --ply base the molar to our similar to our operating bases today. sherman would take a combined group and advance from andtanooga towards atlanta into the military-industrial heartland and disrupt it and destroyed much of it and bring the war to a close in the spring of 1865. of thers at the time in chattanooga believed it was a signal of ultimate union success in the war. some said it was a death knell of the confederacy. c-span's american history tour of the civil war tonight at 8:00 eastern.

book tv, hillary clinton wald.en green whil here are some of the highlights for this weekend. on c-span tonight at 8:00 p.m., and history tour looking at the civil war. saturday, the communicators fair one technology capitol hill. sunday, political commentator and author and former presidential candidate pat buchanan. on book tv, books on hillary clinton, barack obama, and edward snowden. at 10:30 a.m., we tour the literary sites of casper, wyoming. eastern,t 8:00 p.m. the negro league kansas city monarchs. saturday, civil war, the depiction of slavery in the

movies. let us know what you think about the programs you're watching. call us or e-mail us. join the c-span conversation. like us on facebook. follow us on twitter. california congressman xavier becerra recently held a town hall meeting for his constituents. he discussed the economy, the role of the u.s. abroad, and unaccompanied immigrant children. he has represented california's 34th district for 27 years. this was held at the eagle rock community center in glendale, california. >> welcome, everyone, this evening. great evening. another l.a. evening, right? inc. you for taking the time to be here. takingk you for

the time to be here. let me outline what we are going to do. i am very privileged to be in my 22nd year as a member of congress. i think all of you for giving me that opportunity. thank you to so many of you who i have seen in town hall after town hall that we have an. to those of you who participate in a telephone town halls i do from washington when i cannot be at home. and love that you participate. let's keep doing them. formatrun through the again in case anyone is new. most of you i have seen in my town halls in the past. i try to keep it to an hour but we may go over. i will give you a quick presentation of what's going on in washington, the reserve the rest of the time to ask questions. we typically get more questions than we have time to answer. it's not me picking favorites.

putave asked you to your name on a piece of paper and i will randomly pick out names. i ask that everyone can find themselves to asking a quick quick commentke a and i have asked my staff to keep me on the clock to give as and answers i can. sometimes it is tough. you asked good questions so sometimes i have to dig a little meat of thet the mad response. centerou to the eagle and the glendale community. let's give them around of applause. michael is in the back. we want to say thank you for him. let me introduce my staff. make sure you know who

you can connect to directly when i am not here. in charge ofg is this particular town hall. where are you? raise your hand. my district director or in los .ngeles, raise your hand my two field deputies cover the entire district. 700,000 people. raise your hands. the to feel deputies. -- feel deputies. my press secretary. the case supervisor many of you speak to when you have an issue you need resolved. .ichael nielsen ava garcia is my caseworker. many of you have spoken to her as well. two of my d.c. staffers are here

this week. since we are not having votes, this is the best time to have my staff connecting coordinate. my chief of staff, who is new to the position, less than two months, but who has been with me for several years, sean mccluskey. sean is right here. is my new chief of staff. he has been my policy director for quite some time. talk healthwant to care, this is the guy to do it with. he knows as much as you will ever want to know. need to hire mariachi, danny is probably as good at marriott gse is a communications. he has a voice and he plays guitar. he is really good, really, really good. interns.troduce my they get the loudest round of applause because they do tremendous work. they are fabulous college students, and we get them for

free. melissa from uc berkeley. assad from usc. caesar from uc riverside and lily from williams college. wave your hands. thank you to them for their work. to armando florez who is doing to assist those who need help understanding what we are saying. [speaking spanish] who has the ear phones for the spanish translation? . -- right here. i want to thank our guest from the los angeles police department who have been

gracious enough to be here today. if we have any questions particular to the lapd, i know they would be willing to respond. sureare also here to make everything goes well. one of the requirements for members of congress is to make sure we protect your safety as well as mine. we have never had to use them, but it is great that lapd make themselves available. let me introduce you to the .enior lead officers thank you all very much for being with us. ok. having done that, let me just again mention some things about d.c.. maybe to stimulate conversation, but mostly to give you a sense of what is going on. most of you receive the newsletter i just recently sent out.

we have copies here as well. it gives information about what is going on. let me mention a couple of things that are pressing. you may have heard the congress finally was able to reconcile differences in passed legislation to deal with the veterans administration crisis going on with our veterans. essentially, what has been happening is that with so many vets coming in as a result of finishing up their tours of duty in iraq and afghanistan and , but also because the president did something i think presidents should have done before him a long time ago, and the is to re-gauge situation for veterans as far back as vietnam. remember agent orange? remember some of those things? we never gave that's full accountability and credit for their service, having served at

a time when we use things like agent orange. many of them came back and suffered healthwise and we never gave them full credit for the disability they may have suffered due to the fact that they served at a time when we were using chemical agents. you aret obama said getting on in nature. it is difficult to document 100% that your chronic emphysema or whatever it might be was caused by agent orange or something else, but there is a chance it could have been, a good likelihood, and rather than make veterans can only partial service from v.a. for that and then have to go on and find services somewhere else at a high expense, the president that it's time to give service to our men and women who serve and consider it 100%. vetsresult of that, more

made use of veterans health services. you put that in combination with all the men and women coming back from iraq and afghanistan, and it was too much. today's soldiers are surviving what would've killed that soldier 40 years ago in vietnam. think.they are coming -- they are surviving, but they come back with injuries that make it difficult for them to adjust and get work and all the rest. so a compromise to hill said compromised bill said this, for veterans who have been waiting more than 30 days to get into a v.a. system and get their care, or for veterans who live more than 40 miles from a , they are going to be able to go to a health-care provider locally, close by, without having to go to a va hospital or center to get their

services. that is to get them through the door right away. we are also providing additional services for the v.a. to beef up services so they can bring more doctors and health-care providers to provide service to those in the system. we are trying to beef up the v.a. as quickly as we can so we can provide them with the services they earned. they don't just deserve them. they earned them. madison signed by the president, so that will be underway. two, we just passed a bill -- that will be signed by the president, so that will be underway. on, we just signed a bill transportation. in l.a., we have seen major projects going forward. westurple line is moving toward the ocean. we were able to secure funding that will help us move forward with that project, that is costing several billion dollars.

we secured close to $800 million in federal loan moneys. that's about $2 billion to help extend that subway line to the west. we recently secured about two thirds of a billion dollars for what is being called the regional connector line downtown. if you try to travel mass transit downtown on the trains and subways, you often have to get off one to get on another. with the regional connector, it trip.e a seamless it will be a lot more convenient for people who want to use mass transit to get around. fromt a grant commitment the federal government for two thirds of a billion dollars and about another $200 million in loan guarantees as well.

that will help cover a large portion of that connector. we are also going to be doing construction on the 6th street bridge. many of you are aware it needs refurbishing. it is not going to be just a patch job. a lot of work needs to be done. the transportation projects are not done in three months. many are not done in three years because they are very big projects. the difficulty in washington is we have not been able to get consensus, bipartisan consensus on reauthorizing the transportation legislation, the law that makes possible all of these major infrastructure projects for rail, highway, roads.freeways and and we didn't again. weeks, we couple of

passed a patch bill. it moves us forward eight months. that's good because by then the highway trust fund would be so depleted that the federal government would have to inform the money, you know you're going to get from the highway trust fund, we have to take a back. if we gave you the full amount you were due, we would run out of trust fund moneys to quickly. can not gothe state to some contractor who is about to purchase steel for a bridge renovation where the guy who purchases the asphalt and cement to do the highway renovation. just do me a favor. by about four months of that stuff. you don't do it that way. time is money. we have to do what we typically do, and that's about a five-seven your bill on transportation. and majors and cities contractors and no ok, i can

forecast for 5-7 years. hopefully when we come back we will get to work on doing the long-term transportation bill that everyone needs so we can get those tax dollars that when you go to the gas station and pumped gas in your car, that gas money helps pay for those projects. we need to get that money coming back in a smart way. there are any number of things i can tell you about. we can talk about international issues, international hotspots. he can talk about education, immigration, the situation that the border with the kids who have come. we can talk about all of those things. but let me do this. let me stop and see how much time we have. good 45 minutes. wean stay a little after finish because i know sometimes a lot of you want to say a quick hello. we can do that. , we can stickeak

around a little longer. please do me a favor and if you are going to say hello, just make it a quick hello because sometimes people want to unload all of their worries and cares and we have a long line of people who just want to say hello and it is tough. here is the bowl with the names. starting again to see activity. residentially, we have seen housing prices jump again -- i think a little too fast, and i know if you live in eagle rocket is a little scary. it's reminiscent of what we saw before. it's heating up too much. i just told you about the construction projects. i told you about the guys i met with from the building and construction trade. construction had some of the highest rates of unemployment over the last several years.

you had somewhere between 15%-30% unemployment, laborers, , all the engineers construction folks were really feeling it because everything got shut down, essentially. they are starting to churn. they are starting to churn, and they are decent paying jobs. like that, because we need to start the economy. and there are some decent science. -- signs. still tough things are still tough for a lot of families in america, but they have gotten better. last month we had more than 200,000 jobs created by the private sector. that's good. but the actual unemployment rate ticked up, not down. what's going on? a lot of folks during the 2008 crash who could not get to back -- get back to work quickly left

the workforce. they are discouraged workers who don't even get counted in the unemployment rates. now they are feeling better in coming back into the system. plusthough 200 thousand jobs were created last month in the unemployment rate went up in knots because more of those discouraged workers are filing again to get noticed to be part of the system to try to get jobs. which is good. i don't think you can see that very well, can you? .ou can see it some with the lights from the cameras, it is also tough. here is another chart. maybe -- let me hold it up. the red is the beginning of the 2008 wall street crisis, where essentially everything shut down.

i knowquick note -- and i wanted to close, but in september, two thousand eight, democrats were in the majority of the house at the time. of theelosi was speaker house. on a saturday, i remember, i was in california. and she said we need to do a conference call, i just got a call from the president of the united states, george bush. she said he needed immediate action on a bill he wanted to send to us on monday. she asked us all together for a conference call. in the conference call she said this is what the president just said to me. me a billg to send asking for $800 billion and he needs it by monday. if he doesn't get it by monday, wall street will crash and take the whole economy with it. we started asking the questions

about how the money was going to be used. the legislation did not get passed on monday because a lot of folks were saying wait a minute, 800 billion dollars, for whom and for what? it took several times. during that time, if you look back, the market gyrated. it was swinging like 600 points in a day. the, what was going on is beginning of that red. in the beginning of that red is job losses. the bottom of the red lines, those were months in america where we were losing about 21,000 american jobs per day. over 800,000 jobs in january of 2009. time, the red, everything below the zero line, those were all job losses.

we lost over 8 million jobs in that short time. collapsed. you couldn't borrow anymore. small businesses no longer have a line of credit. banks aren't lending. loans,d so many toxic they didn't know who they could lend to and who would pay it back. so when they stopped lending, they stopped the wheels of the economy. four 52 consecutive months, since a little after that crash, we have had job growth. but you don't see any blue line above the zero line that matches anything near the loss of jobs. two hundredjobs, 80,000 jobs a month before, good . but when you lose 800 and one month, you need four good months to just catch up to one month. that's what's difficult. so the president has worked really hard with the private

sector to see what we can do, but that's a lot of making up to do. and that's the difficulty. so many of us believe we still jumpstart the economy, and there are some simple things we can do to do that. we think we should concentrate on mostly middle-class americans right now because they are the ones who have been hit the hardest. if you are a rich, you're not going to feel it. warren buffett loss of major dollars during the downturn, but he is making some major dollars now. low income, we have programs to help you from falling through the safety net altogether. in some cases not enough, but we don't let people die on the streets and suffer that way. to the middle class, try send your kid to college today if you are making $60,000-$70,000. it's very difficult. try to buy a house in eagle rock. it's not beverly hills. maybe in some peoples opinions

it's better than beverly hills. we like our home in eagle rock. things wesome basic can do. one of the things some of us would do is -- to me this was an easy one. if you are a company in america and you decide to shut down some of your jobs, and you reopen some of that manufacturing in another country, you get to write off the cost of sending jobs to that country and hiring people in that other country even if you let people in america go so you could do it over there because the wages are lower. in if you open a new job america in your company, you don't get any kind of tax relief for that. it's a little upside down. if you you tax relief ship a job overseas, but not if you open up a new job for an american here.

use the money we give away in tax credits to countries that ship jobs overseas to give tax credits to companies that create new jobs. net increase. you want to do a net increase? we will give you a tax credit. weekend pay for it by not giving -- we can pay for it by not giving tax credits to companies that ship jobs overseas. a stagnant right now. that's another problem. we are creating jobs but we don't see a big bump in salaries. where do we see a big bump? ceo pay. today if you are a worker in a company, it is not unheard of to watch your president and chief executive officer make about 400 times what you make. kid, when my parents were working hard, the difference between the president of the company and the line worker was about dirty 5-40 ti

-- 35-40 times greater, which is still pretty good money. today it's about 400 times. so let's do this. when you pay salary as a businessperson -- if any of you have a business -- that's an expense. of of your salaries to all your employees or expenses. let's say i make $10 million in profits and i pay myself a million dollars and pay the rest of my workers another million dollars. that's $2 million in business expenses. net that away from my 10 million 10 million dollars in profits, and of making $8 million in profits. what if i have a million and expenses for my employee salaries and the pay myself $9 million. that's a total of $10 million. guess how much i have in profits now? zero. , do i pay on zero profit? zero.

why should we subsidize companies that are willing to pay ceos in the tens of millions of dollars by giving them tax breaks that allow them to write off part of the seo salary when it is so high. if you are going to pay your chief executive more than a million dollars and you want to be able to write it off, then you have to be able to show you have also increased pay for your front-line workers as well. otherwise, you can raise the salary for maybe it'll make them think more about sharing some of the games with those who helped make the profit possible. we cannot continue to see middle-class workers have their incomes stay stagnant when the cost of college, housing, health care goes up. i will stop there. let's take questions. think you offer patiently listening. let me pick a few names.