republicans, but low propensity voters, targeting them early, and we will have to do an even better job to win in places >> let's go to them a walkie sentinel journal. -- milwaukee sentinel journal. there are states where you have been winning midterms, dominating midterms, and losing presidential's. 2014what happened in change the size or the challenge for you? saying,s like you are you still have to be purposed to win a presidential campaign. why do you have to be perfect?

what is the nature of the challenge? leaving the candidates aside. >> i don't think we have been showing up enough and hispanic, asian, and black communities over the last several years because when you look at the map , who represents milwaukee? democrat congressman, democrat state senator, democratic assembly person. who is that the hispanic community, democrats. while you can win everywhere in a midterm when you have 2.5 , fourn people voting months later you had 3.1 million people vote and you for great about the performance in the , but if you are not

showing up and working hard in those communities on a year-round basis, it comes back in the presidential and you ultimately have a big problem. the things that we have fundamentally changed at the rnc black,ing paid staff in hispanic, asian communities on a permanent basis to get to know voters, engage voters, register the full about what it is for nfl republican party, open republican chapters across the country. current status and moving forward at the national party -- these are important steps in moving forward as a national party. you are going to see that we have made a lot of gains and improvements because we are showing up and making our case and trying to be better and do

better in those communities. >> you have 20 minutes to go. colleagues know that we have 10 people on deck. we are not going to get to all of them, but we will do our best. aswhat is your biggest worry you look ahead toward 2016? the biggest hurdle? >> being able to continue what we are doing and raising the , in scale, doy to what we did in the midterm in the presidential. i know that it is going to take a massive lift on the ground without the white house helping us raise money to keep doing what we are doing and compete and be prepared when we are going to have a nominee that isn'tno nominee is going to have $100 million and no nominee

is going to be having a year-round field operation. they are going to be raising money for themselves, making sure they win the primary, and it is going to take the rnc to fill the void and it is going to be extremely expensive. clarification. you said executive action would be a nuclear threat. , i'm curious if you share the viewpoint of being thankful to the democrats for sidelining their best message deliverer, president obama? >> no one is in a position to

know. thate heard from democrats they were offended that the democrats sidelined the president during the election. i'm not the person to know. i've not heard anything that disputes that narrative from people i have heard from anecdotally. >> [indiscernible] >> i don't think so. president madee it so clear that his policies were on the ballot that it

really did not seem to matter. i would suppose that if the president was coming into the states that were in play more, the democrats would have done worse. there may have been a couple exceptions, maybe in north carolina, but it is hard to tell. sometimes you just don't know. i think the republicans have to convene about whatever possible options we have, whether it be legislation. i think those options have to be explored. is that we we have really can't believe anything the president says on immigration. we get asked to be so pathetic

and i know you are doing a good job with it, but when you are sitting here like me or someone else and you are hearing for the 100th time that the president is going to sign an executive amnesty bill, i mean, i guess i just don't buy it. -- said sohas had many different things about this that it is hard to know what to believe and therefore, i think it goes in one year and out the other at this point when he makes these threats. but if the president does something like that, essentially he is telling the american people is he does not give a darn about republicans and democrats working together. he would rather stick it to the republicans as much as he can and the heck with getting along and working together in washington. so all the talk about -- and i agree that people are sick and tired of washington and dysfunction -- the president is just throwing up a barrel of

kerosene on a fire if he slams an executive amnesty order. know, the senate map in 2016 is not nearly as favorable to you. you have a number of senators and states that are either purple or blue, some of which you won narrowly last time out. if the headlines or confrontation and partisan votes ,n repeal and potential vetoes how much does that endanger a candidate in a blue state? how fragile is that majority?

>> i don't know. it is hard to tell. things change quickly in politics. knowing what will happen in two years is impossible. we need to lay out a very clear plan. we need to lay out achievable goals. we need to repeat and repeat and repeat those achievable goals that are accomplished so that people can see what they invested in an voting for a republican majority resulted in confidence in washington dc. i would agree with you that if all we get out of this is a ,unch of fighting and bickering

than i would agree with you that that is not a good result. agendable goals, clear is where we are heading. i think you can see it from the comments. they are going to be doing a whole lot of talking over the next month to organize such an effort. >> how fragile is that majority? >> i don't know. it is hard to tell. a year ago, people give us 20% to in the majority of the senate. things change quickly in politics. knowing what will happen in two years is impossible.

>> you touched on polls a lot this morning. several people have said that polls in this election were way off. nate silver not talked on this -- talked on this. do you have any thoughts on why polls were off? >> not as a whole. if you take polling or averages, whether it be the public polling and the averages, we see every single poll in our war room. if i looked at single polls and i was talking to people about what i thought was going to happen, i generally had an idea

because i would review every single poll and have an idea that tom cotton has been ahead in nine out of 10 polls that i've seen in arkansas between 4% and 6%. he ended up winning by a lot more than that but i think the public polling pointed to exactly what ended up happening on tuesday. we were far more confident than a lot of the media was over the weekend. they wondered where the republican wave was. we knew through our data operation and modeling that we were going to have a huge night on tuesday. you may have seen some articles written from reporters that had a review of what we were doing before hand, showing people what we think was going to happen in this state.

we were almost exact. in north carolina, we have better information and what you get from creek as it -- quick exit polling and things like that. you take that universe and you apply the consumer data and the census data and the voter data to that universe and we set various models. we had a make a scenario and a worst-case scenario and we ended up between mid-case and worst-case in north carolina. we knew that in order to get to the worst-case scenario, it would have been a tiny loss, we would've had to get crushed in that vote by 75% to 25% to get to that worst-case scenario.

look at the marquette poll in wisconsin. it was about dead on accurate? i guess i have a view that as a whole i think all of it is collectively helpful to predicting the outcomes. it is hard to tell what happened in virginia. i am not sure what science they are applying to these polls or who is doing them. i'm not sure why the public polling was there. >> we were not shocked that it was close. >> a follow-up question, do you think that mr. gillespie should ask for a recount? >> i don't know it's up to him. i don't know where the numbers

would be right now. i don't know what the latest is there. we are prepared for whatever we can do to help him and he knows that. he will probably make a decision today. >> you said before that the republican party needs to be as close to perfect as possible. you said that candidate recruitment was an important factor of the rnc. how you keep the republican party perfect -- >> you are guaranteed to have a divisive primary with ideologically diverse factions. how do you plan to keep it civil? and do you plan to tip the scales a little bit?

to keep them out of debates if they are low in the polls. too trite to make it a more perfect process. >> the first part of that question, i will tell you that people that invest in the rnc are buying what we are doing and what we are selling. as you saw, in our fundraising over the last couple of years, we have been able to out raise the dnc. anywhere from $18 million to $20 million or more. because our donors understand that what we're doing on the ground matters. it works. what you will see is that the people who have been funding the rnc will double down on our program because they know that investing in mechanics is the way that we are going to be able to win in 2016.

that is the first piece. the second piece is that i understand while i can't always control everybody's mouth, i can have an influence over how long we fight each other. that is why we are providing and working on a reasonable number of debates that allow candidates to make their case. but not so many that it creates an unnecessary amount of fighting and bickering and unproductive activity. and the primary process is going to start somewhere after february 1. i don't see much of a chance of having an avalanche upfront based on the penalties that states would suffer from competing outside the window. and i think the winner take all

contest on march 15 is going to be a pretty massive day. you will have a big primary in march, which will be proportional. and you will have an even bigger march 15 that will be a winner take all. >> in terms of -- even between now and february, that's a long time. june intend to police that up as well? >> first amendment, people can say and do what they want. i think that there is a feeling among the grassroots and many of our donors that are not going to put up with republicans slicing each other apart.

i think there will be a high level of disdain for candidates who spend their time trying to destroy other republicans. i think that there is a high level of interest among various people in our party to employ reagan's 11th commandment. i think you will see people very vocal about that moving forward, and less concerned about getting involved in the middle of candidates. i will be less concerned about my own reputation in refraining from being vocal with candidates that go out of their way to simply just kill each other. >> we have two or three minutes left and i apologize.

>> >> you said that the ideal candidate for 2016 would be somebody people would want to have a beer with. could you elaborate on what you think the best qualities would be for an ideal republican candidate? >> i will probably refrain from that. i will say -- i think midterm elections are judgments on the past as far as performance and i think presidential elections are about the future. i think hope for tomorrow and who is going to provide a better future for our kids is the candidate that wins.

it is not necessarily the candidate that can better articulate how we will combat fair trade with china or what we will do about clean coal and fracking. it's about who is going to provide a better country for our kids, because people want to be hopeful. people want tomorrow to be better than today. people want to believe someone is going to provide a better future for them and their kids. i think hope, the future, and who can best articulate those big themes is the type of candidate that will be able to win the white house in 2016. >> thank you. >> thank you everybody. i appreciate it. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014]

[indiscernible conversation] yu.tonight, christopher >> people who a prose prioritization should take a look at the internet header, which is the magic that makes the internet work. there is something in there called the type of service flag.

different forms of prioritization. that was designed into the internet from the beginning. people say, that is an old artifact. when we redesigned the internet, they not only kept that, they actually included another field to do another form of prioritization. if you actually look at the engineering design and suggest that this was never intended to a littled, i think engineering knowledge goes a long way. it has been designed into the network from the beginning. people are using the network today. completely i.t.-based voice , they all your phone use prioritization. it is the only way to make the call volume. >> tonight at 8:00 eastern on

"the communicators." c-span veterans day coverage begins tuesday morning at 8:30 eastern during "washington journal." gala:00, the annual uso featuring general martin dempsey. with theve at 11:00 traditional wreathlaying ceremony at the tomb of the unknowns. a discussion on veterans mental health issues and selections from the white house medal of honor ceremonies. eve of veterans day, the "washington post" reporting ofthe largest restructuring the v.a. department with changes to access and online registration and at least 35 people to be fired from the v.a. which is -- with as many as a thousand to follow following the

scandal. up airector needs to build case against each person and the judge needs to approve each firing. the v.a. could also see some major hiring. the director said he needs at least 28,000 more health care workers. , sylviaay on c-span burwell will be at the center for american progress talking about the upcoming open enrollment period for health insurance marketplaces. we will have her remarks live in about 30 minutes. that, a look at efforts to and gridlock in capitol hill. this is from today's "washington journal." we will show as much of this as the secretary' remarks. >> william galston had a piece on the washington journal the american

gridlock. have set the roadmap that you spoke about? >> they did break bread together. the issue of hat immigration has the capacity to really fall things up. the question is that given the fact the president has himself to issue it, retreat ably cannot from that promise. he has disappointed this panic -- , hispanic community. the question is whether

republicans will be able to immigration issue and pursue other items on the agenda. all whether it will turn out to be poison on the well. i hope republicans understand they have been given permission american people to govern. governing means dealing with people care about most, particularly the issues that will make difference between a vigourous economy. where are the areas that you and k they can move forward end this cycle of gridlock? there is some areas, election conference

started with ll the items are on top of everybody's like tax reform and trade. interesting very picture, last year they put on conference of tax reform. democrats on the senate finance committee have made proposals his most obama, in recent budget, also made reforms. that is one area of hope. another is trade. views . but ixed

republicans will probably give can of obama negotiating authority. what is the incentive to work together? why should republicans compromise at this point? for the present he had his bill in a healthcare, they are going to try to repeal it. what is on his side to try and meet? >> i am sure the present is thinking about his legacy. go down in want to historyfor not being able to do anything? -- six years is a long time to go. >> republicans might be the

unpopular party in history to win a sweeping election. they have two years to prove they can be something more than the party of no. talking with william galston about washington on the way to move forward. you want a phone, you have all the lines on the screen. puts his obama, if he hand out what it can to stop democrats for going after him for compromising with republicans? >> that will properly happen. a the present will have chance -- choice to make- just like bill clinton.

president have to lead and represent the interest of the country as a whole. above the interest of the party. there are two things give me hope. first of all, mitch mcconnell on a major speech that he was committed to restoring the as a functioning body. with debates were individual senators are free to offer amendments. that will be huge step. i and others will be watching good as his word. the american people shown before that ending gridlock in washington is a very high priority.

as getting the economy going. we cannot get the economy going unless we have a government that works. >> you already brought up one what about example, when he was ears working with democrats on foreign issues? is there a way forward on foreign issues between obama and republicans? constitution gives the president , the power in foreign policy that he does not enjoy on domestic legislation.

presidential leadership is a thing that republicans seniors is something they support. have a ere like to strong presidency for after obama. not think republicans wanted hamstring obama. by patterson support for his issues will be important. washington plan for to end gridlock, is the headline. we are talking about that. for the 35 minute we will take your calls. with john from pennsylvania. >> good morning. a gridlock when

they want to build a billion-dollar embassy in iraq. it comes to gridlock when they need money to build roads, or for schools. they increased depth, so we have no money. see a gridlock when we send money overseas. >> we have spent a lot of money overseas. been at war, non-stop since short after 911. the american people have tended in the belief s terraced we don't get where they are , there will be a bigger threat to the homeland. the embassy in baghdad,

. the argument is that it will target for empting terrorist unless it was reformed. >> you spoke about the politics . what are they? >> in recent months american that e have been bombarded they experienced challenges to their security. isil had taken over some a quarter f syria and of iraq. the horrific executions of americans. then came the bowler, which was experienced more than a domestic threat than it ever was. americans will like it more stable and secure world.

the level of exciting towards the future is very high. >> , let's go to the teresa. >> all the democrats got together after the selection. we voted for republicans to obama and the democrats. do not want compromise, we believe the republicans gave everything obama wanted. we voted to stop obama. the overwhelming majority of not want to compromise.

i don't believe the polls and you're wrong. >> i'll give you a chance to respond. i am sure there were some people who voted for republicans to stop obama. i suspect there are many republicans who have an affirmative agenda that they would like to move forward. stopping obama is not an agenda when you get right down to it. how the newly elected officials on the republican side who are going to washington interpret what their constituencies want. that is a critical part of politics in a representative democracy. you're going to washington. your election it may have been a surprise.

how do you interpret that? constituentsng to and also asking yourself crucial questions. m i just an errand boy for my constituents? ?ave i been elected to lead every man and woman in washington will have to answer that question. >> the color rings up you battlelines being drawn on immigration. immigration, the president was on "face the nation" and he was asked about executive action and efforts i congress on the issue. here is a bit of what he had to say. >> everybody agrees that the system is broken. we have been out about fixing it for years. we need to be able to secure our border. we need to make a legal system that is more efficient and we need to make sure that the

millions of people who have been here for a decade or more and have american kids and are part of our community, they pay a fine, they pay penalties, they learn english and they get to the back of the line but they have a capacity to legalize themselves here. we don't have the capacity to support 11 million people. everybody agrees in that. i presided over a process in which the senate produced a bipartisan bill. i then said to john boehner, let's get this through the house here in for a year i stood back and let him work on this. he decided not to call the senate bill. he could not produce his own bill. time, i've gothe legal authority to make improvements on the system and i would prefer and still prefer to

see it done through congress. wait, we aret i miss allocating resources and deporting people that should not be deported. i am going to give you some time, but if you can't get it , i have to take the steps i can to improve the system. host: is the end of the year and left time? should the president give congress a few more months? guest: i think he has to put congress on notice that there must be action by a date certain or the executive order will go into effect. president, i would do a series of things. one of the senior advisers reportedly said that the requestt should simply

an up or down vote on the senate bill and if there is a vote on the bill, the executive order will not go into place. another possibility is the present would summon congressional leaders to the we are goingnd say to go into a room and were not coming out until we have a reasonable compromise on this issue. show some leadership and indicate that the executive order is his last choice, one he will make very reluctantly if everything else has failed. it would be worthwhile for the president to test that. with we are talking william galston from the brookings as the two. we are talking about the way forward.

robin is calling from pennsylvania on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. i am so confused. and have been my entire life. i am upset about the things that are going on. i can't believe that the amnesty toould give all of these people that are coming here illegally. that is all you hear from him. i just don't understand. the day after the election, the president said he was going to take executive action if the congress won't come together. change my status from democrat to something, i don't even know what yet. does the i have a pen and

i have a phone line work for the president? guest: i think the american people delivered a judgment. there is no question in my mind, i hear the voices of the collars and the distress and the confusion and anxiety. there is no question in my mind what the american people want. they want a system that can act on the issues that they care most about. they don't want one party to stop the other party. they want the parties to get together and act together and to restore a very unfashionable word, compromise, to the center of our politics. country,ly divided neither political party can't

enforce its will on the other for very long. you need a majority in the house , the white house, you need a super majority in the senate to be able to move forward. party is closeal to having that kind of dominance. choices, compromise or gridlock. there is no third choice. people who are some prefer gridlock. guest: you would have to be totally unaware of what is going on in this country for the past 10 years not to know that there are strong passions on both sides. amnesty is a great slogan.

-- does anybody think we are going to roundup 11 million people if we can find them and put them on buses and ship them across the border and dump them in mexico? it is not going to happen. that people get emotional satisfaction out of imagining that it might happen. it is not going to happen. because going to happen there are sensible members of both political parties who are willing to stand up and tell an unpopular truth to the american people. however these people got to the haved states, many of them been here for a long time and are integrated into the community. their children have been born here and are american citizens. there are some principles of

decency and humanity that you have to consider alongside the principles of legality. i think thousands of people listening to the words i just uttered would probably throw stones at me. ok. the line fors on republicans. caller: good morning. is problem with the gridlock it comes down to trust. in 2006ed the democrats to lead us out of this. what did we get for it? ,e got the great recession which is blamed on one man. me, the democrats would be in competent. back to the trust thing, we gave

to get1 trillion infrastructure to build roads and bridges. how many roads and bridges did beget? -- did we get? every one of them illegals took those signs down. that is an american citizens job. we have more things on twitter. guest: what is the choice? has constitutional power.

i am sure that mitch mcconnell and john boehner would be the first to say if they were on the day, at the end of this the bill becomes the law when the president signs it here in aide is a famous story, an walked into lbj's office and gave them a draft of a piece of legislation that he wanted the administration to sent to congress. said,d the outline and the you want an issue or do you want a bill? that is the fundamental choice that the leaders of the congress of the united states have to ask them selves. and the president. do you want to fight? 2016? want an issue for are we actually going to try to get something done?

host: why immigration? thecan't the path forward paved with smaller bills to begin with? there is no question that the bonds of trust in washington have been severely strained and broken. am cofounder of a group called no labels, we want to bring elected representatives together to re-we've those bonds of trust. we have made some progress. there is more work to be done. it is true that a democratic political system that is divided cannot make a lot of progress unless there is more trust than it now exists. trust doesn't magically develop. it has to be created step-by-step. i hope that congressional leaders will be aware of that fact.

the american people want trust-based action. for our viewers who may be interested in no labels, where can they find it? labels.org. is in new jersey. caller: the color before that said we are tired of the democrats, the republicans are in overwhelmingly now. we are tired of the democrats. we are tired of obama. this trusted business that you talk about, the republicans should have done something. when obama first got in, he had the senate and the house. why didn't he passed immigration then?

he concentrated on obamacare that republicans didn't like. he was the king. we are sick of him and the democrats. it is about time that the republicans got in and will make some changes. have ans supposed to -- imeeting and he was don't remember the words, he wanted everyone to get along. withs going to be free letting the people know what is going on. he does what he wants. he acts like a king. we are sick of him. what if the president had started with immigration reform instead of health care? i think he would've been

well advised to do that, in my opinion. this is a debate that will go on among historians and among political analysts for long time. we think we would be farther ahead as a country if he had done what the collar just suggested. that is not a popular view inside my own party. a popular view inside my own building. host: do you think he could've gotten both done? guest: i don't know. perhaps not. host: we are talking about the way forward for washington. georgia onp next in the line for democrats. caller: good morning. like brian williams to

replay john kirby's press conference. people have got that all screwed up about what we are going to do with isis and who's got the authority to do what. if he would replay that some time today, get people to listen to it. host: thank you for the programming suggestion. isis, talk about the congressional reaction to the president's announcement on friday that he was doubling the number of troops there and the debate over the authorization of use of military force. guest: my impression is 's moves againsti

do enjoy broad bipartisan support. the president must be deeply disappointed to be in the process of sending troops back to iraq after working so hard to withdraw them. 275, then 1200, now he has doubled down by sending another 1500 troops. hasink he quite properly notified the congress of the united states that the mission of these troops has changed not incrementally, but fundamentally. he intends to go back to congress and ask congress to authorize these activities which will share responsibility for

the policy. it will make it clear to friend and foe alike that this is the policy of the united states and not just the policy of the executive branch of the government. host: why wait until after the election to do it? why not get them to do before they took their seven-week recess to run for reelection --? ion mark guest: they must have made a judgment that congress likes to get out of town and campaign. there was little or no chance the congress would give these issues the serious debate and scrutiny that it deserved. that sounds right to me, to tell you the truth. think labor day of an election year would've been a good time to demand an up or down vote on this authorization.

it would have given the american people a chance to observe the congress making an important decision and informed their judgment. >> we are talking with william galston from the brookings institute. he is also a columnist for "the ."ll street journal o caller: good morning. 52%president was elected by of the people. he wants to get 100% of what he wants. his policies were never overwhelmingly supported. health care was middle-of-the-road. one of the things that bothers republicans is pressed

favoritism. the press is supposed to be a referee. somebody drove the car into the to helphey don't get drive. when the press didn't call him overhaul, it care was underhanded. instead. applauded it there is a back lat -- backlash. he is doing things that he is not being checked for. when you see some but his hand on the scale, keep doing that. it creates a backlash. i think he has no ability to ever admit that he makes a

mistake. he is right about everything. he is going to have close to 10,000 troops in iraq that he should have left.

the extent to which that affect their daily work is quite limited or in another i will never persuade individuals such as the color that they do not put their fingers on the scale all that much. host: jasper, george's next, on our line for independents. caller: how are you doing? we been waiting on the president to give amnesty to the undocumented people from mexico so we can hook them up with a leadership group in the epa on high treason. the aspen institute videos -- this is high treason. he has become an agent of brazil once he gives them amnesty because we will firmly hook him

up with aspen and suited videos. i know you have seen those videos are you know i'm talking about. host: do you know what he is referring to? guest: i don't. host: guest: ronald reagan did in fact reside over a process that led to comprehensive immigration reform in 1986. now issensus i think that that bill failed in some respects. it succeeded in other respects and there has been a lot of effort among thoughtful people on both sides of the aisle in congress over the past two or three years to reflect on what went wrong with the 1986 bill and guard against that. i think it is impressive that the senate passed on a very strong bipartisan basis a bill that reflected much of that work.

i know that a lot of people happened disappointed that the house of representatives refused it at to bring that bill up for a vote despite the fact that many republicans voted for it or to do something else. in that respect, the president cbs interview was completely factual. the republican party in control of the house of representatives had an opportunity either to deal with the senate bill or do something else and it shows, for reasons of internal republican politics, to do nothing. that in part explains why we are where we are. host: i have a couple of minutes left. he is talking about his column from last week. ramona is next from georgia, on our line for democrats. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. believe thatally

our political system has been hijacked by republicans. so it made of why do they use illegal tactics to suppress voters and close the voting polls early and such things like that? -- i think it's a big lie. your thoughts on voter suppression issues? guest: there is no question about the fact that efforts to -- >> good afternoon, everyone, i would like to invite you and think for coming to the center for american progress for this timely and important for him. -- for him. forum.m -

we begin open enrollment for the aca neck saturday and that will extend for three months through february 15. we are happy to have this opportunity to spend some time with the secretary to talk about open enrollment and other aspects of the aca. before we do that, as i said, thank you for coming to the center for american progress. we are happy you are here. we are going to have a discussion up here and then, later on, there will be questions we will take from the audience. billy will be passing cards around in case you would like to write your question on a card. you will be able to do that and we will have those questions at the end of the hour. the aca is currently providing about 10.3 million americans with quality affordable health

care, individuals who did not help health care for -- who do not help health care previously. million are in medicaid andchip and 3 million more young adults are being able to stay on their parents plan and received coverage in that way. that equates to close to 19 million people benefiting today from the affordable care act. but there is still a lot of work to be done. about 5 million americans fall in the medicaid gap because their governors in their states have failed to expand medicaid. forum and imely want to take a moment to say a few words about our guest, secretary burwell. secretary burwell is the 22nd secretary of health and human services having been confirmed

in june of this year. sher to her coming to hhs, served as the director of the office of management and budget and we had your successor, shaun donovan here just a few weeks ago. secretary burwell has a lot of things. she has been president of the walmart foundation which she led efforts to fight hunger in america, empowering women and reaching millions of people through walmarts community presence. she helps the foundation surpassed the $1 billion mark in total giving. secretary burwell has spent 10 years at the bill and melinda gates foundation in seattle and has also served in the administration of resident bill clinton. we are happy to have you here. we have lots of questions and i'm sure you have lots of answers. i want to begin with an easy question.

friday, the united states supreme court has decided to take a case that many believe could threaten premium tax credits for millions of americans thereby putting the aca in a death spiral as some have chosen to use the term. what do you want consumers to know and should they be concerned as we go into this open enrollment period about the supreme court decision? >> the most important thing for consumers to know is that nothing has changed. the tax credits they will be signing up for on the ones they have for those enrolled will be continuing. as we go into open enrollment, nothing has changed. as the administration has said, we believe the law stated the tax credits are an important heart of affordable health care coverage and that is for all. >> you believe that people

should enter this enrollment period with a high level of confidence, that what the aca promises to them will be there for them. >> that's correct. i think the adminiration has been clear all along that we believe that was the intention of the law and believe that is where we will stay and be. >> i have heard several of the authors of that law in recent days say that was in fact their intention. intended it and the supreme court understands what the intention of congress was, your belief and it ministration's belief is that the court will make the ultimate correct decision and this will no longer be a problem. >> that's correct. it's important that nothing has changed and as we go into open enrollment which will start this saturday and are glad that folks from a number of organizations whether it's in role america or planned parenthood and their

community organizations will make sure that we can and roll folks and nothing has changed. >> we all know that the initial rollout has some problems. but the administration went to work in the ultimate result was more people actually enrolled and signed up and were expected -- then were expected to do so. they had about six months to do that. this enrollment period covers a shorter time. and perhaps a more difficult task is confronting you. let me ask you -- you have been testing the health care.gov leading up to this, how confident are you that people will have a good experience when they sign on organ into health care.gov? >> as i have said, we are confident we are going to have a successful open enrollment.

but we think about that, what is a successful open enrollment? there are really three fundamental elements. one is affordable choice. that is for the consumer. it's the idea that the consumer has the ability to choose and have affordability and we know already there has been a 25% increase in the number of plants are dissipating in the marketplace so the question of choice and affordability. the second thing is we want to continue to make progress on the fundamental number of reducing the uninsured. when we think about talk about access in the affordable care act, we are talking about the number of uninsured and there are three ways to move that number. one is you move that number through people who have employee-based care. we're all for people who get employed and when the unemployment number goes down, that's a great way to do it. we are all for medicaid expansion. we believe that's another great way to expand the coverage and

care and finally, the issue of getting that error number to place. as we think about -- getting that care in the marketplace. the third element has to do with the consumer experience. that consumer experience has two fundamental parts to it. one you touched upon in your question which is -- operational functioning. does the website work and are people able to get on the website? with regard to that, we have been spending and ♪ amazing amount of time t do things differently. the testing was 10 days last year and this year our testing is five weeks. our issuers and the insurers have been testing different things and we have tested load testing, and to end, and have focused on security deeply and major we are bring in the best practices from the private sector and whether that brings our colleagues at dhhs to the best practices in the private

sector which include things like we actually scan every day. in addition to that, we have people try to hack us. ashave people try to do that well as once a quarter, have people do security checking. the last piece of the consumer peace is the concept that the consumer has a better interaction. things are simpler, faster, and more intuitive. for those who are returning to , most of them, 90% of the information will be pre-populated. you don't have to keep entering your address. that information you mentioned last year, 90% of it will be there. that will be easier when you come back to check things out. the second thing is those new folks coming in. for those folks, we will see a situation for about 75% of the people where they have an application that is gone from 76

screens down to 16 screens. in addition, it will be easier to use mobile applications because we know many young people that we are trying to reach use mobile applications. that ability to connect their. those are some of the things we're doing to get us to his accessible open and romans. romans. ed --nrollment. >> many people don't want the acca to succeed. i want to create suspicion or doubt in the minds of the consumer. to create suspicion or doubt in the minds of the consumer. can you tell me that a person who applies does not have to worry about their private medical health care information becoming public? >> in terms of the issue of security. important high priority for us as we work on the affordable care act and the

question of the marketplace. we have been putting in the best practices in the private and public sector. we are applying both teams and added new teams to our existing team and added members from inside the government and outside the government to be a part of this effort and make sure we are doing everything possible to test and try for that security. we have seen it in the public and private sectors that there are things that cannot happen. our job is to put in place everything we can. all the testing i said but then we cannot predict and there are many malicious people out there. tracked ready and have as drills and when something happens, we can act and react quickly if something did happen. is last thing i would say that we are fortunate we have not had a malicious attempt on people's private information. that could change but to eight, we have not had that and have put in place both preparation and an ability to deal. as if you feel as

if you are ready for this open and roman. to begin -- open enrollment. period to begin. are getting help with social security enrollment. i was thrilled and i congratulated john kasich when as a conservative governor, he chose to expand medicaid to the people of my state of ohio so that thousands would be covered. unfortunately, that's not been the case in some other states. that is something that those of us here at the center for american progress are concerned about because their position is every american should have access to high-quality health care. i know that your -- that is your goal as well. that will issue continue to be of concern, will

it not, that there are people are many -- in many states in this country that fall within that medicaid gap and do not get access to coverage? >> yes, one of the corporate ortiz since i have gone to the -- core priorities, we think about the market license the importance of bringing that number down through the marketplace. medicaid expansion is a very important tool. as secretary, i have been focused on this. in july, i went to tennessee to speak with the national governors bipartisan gathering to make sure both parties and all governors would say i am ready to work with you. we want to expand medicaid and we understand different states have different needs. expand in itsania own way and we saw iowa expand in its own way. we saw arkansas expand their own way. i wanted the governors to know

that we understand and respect different states have different needs. i am personally engaged with a number of conversations, the a number of those conversations of been reported on and we will continue to work on that. last week i spoke to the medicaid directors of all 50 states because i want them to know the importance and priority of their work in terms of expansion as well as the work they do every day to innovate in the health care space and deliver on the taxpayer dollar. >> let me ask you this question about the consumer experience and those who have already and rolled -- and rolled en last year. dounderstanding is if they nothing, their enrollment will automatically be renewed. think it's going to be automatically renewed, i should do nothing. it has been pointed out to me and i would like your opinion, that it's important for people who are already enrolled to go

back and look at their options going forward. they may be able to find a plan that is better and cheaper, maybe not, but it's important they at least have that option and understand that option. is that correct? >> that's a very important part. it is important as we talk about staying covered to encourage people to go in and make sure they check and make sure they check to make sure their information is updated and make sure they are making the best choice for them in terms of different options. increase ins a 25% plants, there may be something that would work better for you. that may be in terms of the type of coverage or it may be in terms of the cost of coverage which is something that is very important to people. we know that's something many people are making choices and decisions on. we want to encourage everyone to come back. we hope everyone will do that before december 15. that is the point where the

automatic reenrollment will start happening. we are hopeful people will come in and that window and shop. yesterday, we put up window shopping on the site already so that people can go in. you can enter a zip code and you can go in and see and look at different plants. you can start by cost of premium. you can also sort by deductibles. if you are trying to understand in your region what is it you're looking for -- making that shopping easier for the consumer so that even those who are rre-enrolling can do that. >> it's important for people to understand that because they may have coverage that they are satisfied with, they may be able to get a better deal. it's worth checking. i'm glad you were able to clarify that. let me ask you this --

the republicans have overtaken the senate. some of the leadership is highly critical of the aca. there have already been comments about the things that may be once the new congress the 30 hourgo after workweek requirements, the medical device tax, the individual mandate which is so critical to the success of this program. are these attacks of concern to you? in your judgment, do you believe the last election was an expression of the american people being negative toward the aca? >> i am not an elected official. i'm not a politician.

i will turn to how i think about this question overall. , thereordable care act aren't bipartisan agreements about the three basic premises of the act which is affordability, quality, and access. when i think about the question of parts of this, i believe that we have made progress. quality, 115,000 fewer readmissions. that's a example of quality of care. the question of affordability, whether that is the fact that many were paying $82 and a premium last year or the affordable care act made the opportunity for over 8 million seniors that are part of medicare to save over $11 billion. some people refer to that as the doughnut hole. or it's the fact that the american taxpayer in my old omb spending tomedicare

be $116 billion less so the affordability is there. the last thing is the issue of access. 10.3 fewer adult americans than last year are now uninsured. the idea that 10.3 million more americans are not uninsured, that is the substance. as we think about going forward, that is the conversation we want to have. the precedent has been clear that the idea of repeal of the reportable care act is not something -- of the affordable care act is not something the administration will let happen but we will improve it. wepeople have ideas where can increase affordability, quality, or access, let's have that conversation would would welcome the conversation. with regard to other things, let's measure them. let's measure them substantially against the fundamental premises of what we want to try to improve as a nation.

as far as the conversation, and hope the conversation will shift to a substantive conversation about the three things we can agree on and how we move forward on those. >> well, let me pose another that may be relevant to this discussion of whether or in whate is trust people hear from the administration. what do you say to critics who say you held up publishing updated rates until after the electio because you are concerned that those new rates would equate to bad news for the consumer? >> with regard to the issue of transparency, this is something i've talked about since i have been secretary and whether it's the numbers -- we put out exactly how new letters we sent out whether there was data matching issues and issues around immigration and we said

how many people we were sending letters out to. it was a large number. wasolks may remember, it 900,000 or more. with regard to income, the issues of income, they will put those numbers out. and roman,actuated not the number of people inside of the marketplace but the number of people getting insurance and who paid. newave put out the effectuated enrollment before but go into open enrollment and that numbers coming out of october and that number is 7.1 million. that is number of people currently enrolled and paying in the marketplace. addition, today in terms of this transparency issue, we are try to make sure we are clear. basis, whato is our goal? people want to know how many people are going to be a

effectuated and paid for in the marketplace. we did a lot of analysis around that. we try and give you information we have it that's accurate. we did is hadat to think through and understand and we needed to build what those numbers would be. we had this many people and rolled and now that number is 7.1 million. how many of those people will reenroll? how do you get to those numbers? the analysand insurers had arranged from 70-90%. we talked to a lot of folks and spent time and said that number will be about 83%. that's where we put it in terms of the number and percent as a people reenrolled. how do you get the rest of the number, the total number? it's new people coming to the marketplace. we took the time to size that. the sizing of that has to do with how many people are eligible that are not eligible for medicaid but are in that space. we took that number and created

a range. about 9 that range is million-9.9 million. because i know i will get the questions i might as well answer it now, a range is hard to manage. what number? we looked at a number of different analysts in terms of growth of market. when did these markets whether or medicare part d, when have they gotten to their stabilization point. the cbo had numbers out there, 13 million over three years. we look at that trajectory and we looked at what we have. we actually have data. one of the predictions was that people would move from employer-based coverage to the marketplace. that has been much lower than the prediction so we have that number. we also have what the market did last year who had a huge growth in the market.

settled that the market will grow between 25-30% this year. if you take that number and you at that number, we set around 28. if you take those two numbers, the number we will aim for this year is 9.1 million. to be accurate. we want the numbers to be analytically-based and we want to move as quickly as we can. moving the numbers on those folks who we were writing letters to the might come off system, that's not news that's good for us. >> i was just looking at one of the questions -- the question is so relevant but i don't want to get to it too early -- it's from someone in the press that says " how do you respond to critics saying the administration move the goalposts with today's

enrollment estimate?" i thank you tried to respond to that. >> what i would add is where do people disagree? it's just like the other question about the substance of the affordable care act. do you think that reenrollment should be greater than 83%? is that where we disagree? not about a number, it's about the analytics to get the number. do you disagree and think a market should grow more than 28% in its next year? one of the things i asked the team was to look and see what growth of new products in this space traditionally are. how do you think about it? how i respond to that is i welcome hearing questions and legitimate questions. we obviously spent time with the team down to the members, trying to road test on that. the question i would say is --

one of the things with the cbo numbers and everyone knows i come from omb so i have a tremendous amount of respect with my colleagues at cbo. i work with them in two different administrations. one thing is the question of that line. they suggested that you will accept the 25 million number, they do in three years. what happens if you do it over a different. of time? how do you think about that and the new information we have about what happens in rim roman? -- in reenrollment. i came and asked that team to analytically build this. that is what we have done and this is where we have come out. let me suggest -- this is just my thinking but i'm not sure it's yours -- let me suggest that with the continued attacks on the aca from various

quarters, from individuals and groups that are opposed to it, do you feel those attacks are having an effect or will have an the numbers of people who will choose to try to enroll? is it creating doubt in their minds that the aca is here to stay? what is your personal opinion about the effects of the negative attacks the aca has endured? it looks as if it will continue to endure for the foreseeable future. >> i think there are two important things in terms of this question of the attacks. i think about it in two ways -- i think about the numbers and then i think about the stories. i think those are equally powerful in terms of what is going to keep this moving forward. -- when are being something is fighting against

versus making it better, that's difficult so i will not say anything other than that is extremely difficult. what carries the day is the fact that whether it's the numbers that i went over, 10.3 million people, fewer people are uninsured, the people who are 26, -- under 26 and on their parents policy -- for everyone in this room who had employer-based insurance that now doesn't have to worry about pre-existing conditions, for everybody in this room who had the insurance before but also known as preventative care they did not, blows kind of things and make a big difference. the other thing that will make it kind of differences people's individual stories we are joined by a person who has one of those stores. i would encourage folks - ann came from philadelphia, please raise your hand. she came here from philadelphia and has one of those incredibly important stories of her coverage and what it has meant to her in her life in terms of a

very healthy lifestyle. her mother encouraged her to sign up and she did and ended up meeting the coverage from a health perspective and a financial perspective. with voices like ann, that will carry the day. >> how old are you, ann? [indiscernible] [inaudible] to reach thatwant age group internet of the sign -- in terms of the sign-up period? >> she is in the middle of her treatments. it's that courage that will make the difference. madame secretary, i have been puzzled having been the governor the governorste, and the decision not to expand assume they are acting in good faith basin what they think is best for their states.

ohio, our hospital system, our children's hospital system and the entire hospital system would have suffered greatly at medicaid expansion not been pursued by governor kasich. effect -- can the you speak to the effect of what hospitals have to go through? many hospitals are closing in wirral and other areas -- in rural and other areas. can you speak to that? >> when one thinks about medicaid expansion, it's about the individuals going to be covered which is an important part. it is also about the economics of medicaid expansion. and the pressure that not having that expansion puts on rural hospitals. i am from west virginia where there are many wirral hospitals -- many rural hospitals. many states supported because the indigent care, they would rather have that you're being paid for. it makes a difference to the bottom line.

there are estimates out there from the council on economic advisers that those states that have medicare expansion will have 350,000 more jobs. the economic issues as well as the care and health issues are very important as we have this conversation. we recently saw the most recent state come in which was pennsylvania with a republican governor. people will now be eligible for care in the state of pennsylvania. that as alks know result of many other governor conversations. >> i'm our hospital system in ohio was deeply involved in encouraging this expansion. i have been a little curious because i think people respect their hospitals. i have been curious as to how governors are going to deal with their local hospitals if they

continue to choose not to expand medicaid. it's an economic issue. it not only affects individual person not getting covers but it affects the entire health care system within that state and that's a serious matter. >i have a question here from the press -- " what does the administrations and roman projections say -- enrollment projections say about how it will meet new enrollees? how will he get them to sign up in 2015 after not deciding to in 2014? ?"\ >> the next group of people will be harder to reach and that's true and fair and it's also true we are a much shorter time frame. last time he was six months and this time it's three months. there are two parts to that question. it is demand and supply.

ofterms of the question demand and how we think about the benefits and the affordability and the question of ease of application and speed and intuitiveness. those thgs are things we will do to try to wring those people in. -- bring those people and. there are a number of people in this room or are important to helping bring those people in and educate those people about what the benefits are, what the costs are, and how to do it. the groups that have experienced it last year our working across the nation to make sure. the other thing that will help as the stories. for anyone who wants to, this is the new enrollment. this is the get covered, not the steak covered group. i want to remind everyone because it's important -- you can go to health care.gov

and actually go and find where there are local people who will assist you in your local community, individuals to help you, many of whom are from the groups represented today. there is also a one 800-number. one thing we're trying to do to address was embedded in the question is make sure there are many ways people can do it and there's lots of help people can get and when you do it, it's easy and affordable. >> what are you both concerned about in terms of this enrollment peroiod? >> in terms of this enrollment period, there are many things and many details -- two things that are important that i touched upon -- one is the idea that we have a and we period of time are moving to the next group that may be harder to reach which is a concern. the other concern is this is the first full round. i know everyone thinks this is the second open enrollment but

because of the topic we discussed which is reenrollment, this is the first time you will thisto go through technologically and from a consumer perspective. i think both of those things are challenging when you do things for the first time, it's hard. and you worry. that's one of the things. we talked about the planning and preparation we have done. we have been testing or an extended period of time but i also know that we are going to have things that will go wrong. the private sector and the public sector, when you have a -- healthcomplicated care is difficult and the employer-based market in terms of understanding the different uses. this is hard. we will have things that won't go right. we will have outages and downtime but the most important thing we can do about that is make sure we are prepared.

that is the other thing we have been testing. we run tabletop exercises for what you do when something goes wrong. we do that so it will happen. we need to be able to be transparent and fast and get it fixed. those are some of my concerns and how we are addressing some of those. >> i am a person who already has health insurance. why should i care about this? >> for any number of reasons -- thatrms of the things happened and the benefits that were received when the affordable care act was passed and whether that's the up to 26 euros being on coverage or the bans for there are no pre-existing conditions, the fact that there is more affordability in the marketplace now and that will work for everyone, the fact that as we think about the economics, those are economics we all benefit from.

when there are fewer people who are coming to emergency rooms and having indigent care, we benefit from that in our system. it's about your own personal coverage and it's about your ecomics and the other piece of the economics are the economics as a taxpayer. one part of the for affordable care act that continues to sometimes not be focused on is affordability. it's important for the individual but it's important in terms of some of the changes that of and put in place to try and flow some of the -- to slow some of the road and medicare. >> aren't there provisions in the aca that have nothing to do with someone getting coverage but that offer protections for people who have insurance. if i manage of job in my company goes bankrupt i lose my job and my health care, there are certain protections that apply to everyone whether they are receiving health care through

the exchanges or not, are there not? >> that's right. in terms of making sure there is downward pressure on all premiums. another question we received -- you alluded to this -- " how confident are you that the website will work on saturday.?" you have spoken to that and you are as confident as you feel you can be because you have gone through -- there is another question here end deal specifically with testing. you mentioned more time for end to end testing. can you say more about that? what is it? >> there are a number of different types of testing we have done in terms of the website and even the products.

mentioned, the i shorter application, it is application 2.0 was started as early as late july and early august and we started to test that product we have that out in the marketplace for people part of special enrollment periods. they could be running through and testing the product. the type of testing was occurring so we could see if it was working and make corrections to it. the other types of testing we do -- and to and means -- end to end means different things to different people. it might have to do with passwords or it has to do with identification or how it actually happens when you sign up for your coverage so goes to the insurer. it is all of those steps and we have been working with the insurers to make sure those things are tested. in addition, there is other testing.

one of the things is that there will be more people on the web site at a given time. how many people can the site hold a given time and what is its capacity? we work to increase that capacity. all of these different types of testing have been going on now for five weeks. we use the testing to see if we can catch things. if there are problems or changes we need to make as we go forward. confident feeling that the experience of the consumer will have when they get on health care.gov is most likely in most situations a positive one? >> open and roma this year -- open and romans -- open enrollment has the operational piece but also the consumer

engagement. there will be challenges but the experience overall is one that will be a positive experience. >> one of the things that i think people are rightly concerned about is the cost. about theou tell us projections regarding premium costs. some people say they will skyrocket and others say it will reduce costs. what is the factual information you can provide us? started 40 states have running some form of their information up with regard to the premiums. the most important thing about the premiums is when you can start windowshopping, you can see what the premiums are for you. we think that is the most important thing to do. along, the growth of premiums in this market was as the self-insured market, will

be slower than it has been in the years before the affordable care act. an addition, we will do everything to make sure there is downward pressure on the premiums. whether that is supporting states and state insurers and giving them money to review those premiums that come in over pressure to keep downward pressure on the premiums. those are some of the things that people refer to. those are all steps to help the insurers during this early time that we use in medicare part d to put downward pressure on premiums. >> you have a high level of confidence that naysayers who are talking about skyrocketing premiums are not likely to turn out to be telling us the truth? >> i think what we will see in the numbers and on the website is that most folks especially those who want to reenroll but most of them to come back and

will be able to find something that may be a better choice for them in terms of affordability. >> we talked about many things this morning or this afternoon. we've got a few minutes left. say thatd you like to we have not addressed thus far about what you are facing in terms of the enrollment period and what people need to know or you would like for people to know in order to successfully and make a enroll successful? is the open enrollment and what are the expectations and how do we think about success? that is just three things. what is affordable choice for the consumer. two is a high-quality consumer experience. and three is continuing to make progress on reducing the number

of uninsured. category and adjust as we go into saturday, it's important to have two fundamental concepts -- stay covered and get covered. for those in the stay covered, is important for you to do the five easy steps. go and make sure you have the right plan that's the best one for you. for those coming for the first time, use any of the tools. if you prefer doing it yourself on the website, go there. if you prefer individual help, find out locally where you can go and find somebody face to face to help you. if you just like to do on the phone, that's great, too. there and stay enrolled and get enrolled in things to the partners who are working on all of that. the idea of what we think of as a success. >> i understand you'll be in my home state of ohio in a few days.

are you spending a lot of your time promoting this open romans period traveling and speaking to groups? >> i will be. that is something i will be spending more time on. i will be out in the country in the places where we know there are many people need to stay covered and get covered and make sure i am out there speaking to the issues and the kinds of issues we spoke to today. i am looking forward to getting out to meet the folks who are both assisting in the process but also those who are getting insurance. that is one of the best things and whether it's this job or the other work i have done -- when you can get out in the field and actually see the impact of the work, that is one of the best things to be able to do. i'm looking forward to it and yes, i will be making a few trips over the next three months. >> in conclusion, can i give you some advice? >> i welcome it. fact that the

millions of americans today have health insurance coverage that they did not have previously, younger people can stay on her parents programs, medicaid has literally, some 90 million people have already -- i'med from the aca wondering why there is not a greater cheerleader section. thank you for coming. thank you for answering the questions. i think you answered them candidly and factually. i would just encourage you to continue to be a cheerleader. those of us here at the center for american progress believe that every american regardless of where they live or their station in life deserves to have high-quality, affordable health care. we believe that the aca is a major step toward getting that accomplished.

madam secretary, thank you so much for being here with us this morning. >> it's been a pleasure. . [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] will not sign up millions. it is projected that up to 9.9 million people will be enrolled in what's been called obamacare

and 2015. millions fewer than congressional budget office estimates. you can read more on the hill.com. post" isington reporting on the restructuring of the veterans administration. they are moving forward toward firing at least 35 people after a nationwide scandal the summer over thousands of veterans waiting for health care. a judge was till may to approve each of those firings, about staff are awaiting disciplinary action but the v.a. could see some major hiring. secretary macdonell says he needs about 28,000 more health-care workers in the v.a. including about 2500 mental health professionals. on his facebook, c-span is asking -- do you think a reorganization of the v.a. is enough? you can weigh in at facebook.com/cspan.

on capitol hill, congress is back this week with the house and senate returning wednesday. the houses scheduled to debate 10 bills including updating the presidential records act which would allow current and former presidents to continue restricting accesso records that were created during their time in the white house. on thursday, leadership elections for house republicans, democrats have scheduled there for november 18 and newly elected house members began their orientation on thursday. in the senate, both are expected on judicial nominations and childcare development lot grants. -- block grants print we will see leadership elections on thursday voting for the next majority and minority leaders and you can watch the house live on c-span and the senate live on c-span two. join c-span thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. eastern for a special segment on "washington journal" with the longest tenured house

speaker, dennis hastert. he will talk abo the results of the midterm elections and how he thinks republicans should govern in the coming congress and we will take your e-mails, your phone calls and tweets starting live at 7:00 a.m. on "washington journal." tonight on "the communicators," christopher yu and director of the center for technology and innovation and >> people should take a look at the internet header. that is the magic that makes the internet work. this something called the pipe of service flag. high-bandwidth services and low latency services. that was designed in the internet from the beginning. people say that's just an old artifact. ,hen we designed the internet

they not only kept that, they actually included another field to do another former prioritization. if you look at the engine i designed this suggests that this was never intended -- ray urges asian -- prioritization was never supposed to be allowed, it's a design feature of the network from the beginning and i could talk to the way people are using the network. .hey are using it to deliver based voicely ip service for your phone is called volti and it is always about priority. >> tonight at 8:00 on c-span two. c-span veterans day coverage begins tuesday morning at eight p.m. eastern during "washington journal" with an interview with

american legion executive director verna jones. at 10:00, the annual usa gala featuring joint chiefs of staff chairman martin dempsey and we are live at 11:00 from arlington national cemetery for the traditional wreath laying cemony at the mb of the unknowns. oner noon, a discussion mental health issues for veterans and selections from this years white house medal of honor's surmise. -- ceremonies. . >> a three-judge panel heard a case earlier this month on the nsa mass collection of americans phone records. in addition to considering whether the program violates the fourth and first amendment, the courts considered whether legal can bring a lawsuit against the government if he cannot prove the nsa collected his phone data. a lower court judge ruled the nsa program most likely but only to the constitution and issued a preliminary injunction which was

stayed pending appeal. the oral argument is about 1.5 hours. >> thank you. i am thomas byron from the justice department here on behalf of the government defendant and i would like to reserve 10 minutes for rebuttal, please. the district court improperly enjoined the operation of an important government intelligence program that is designed to advance our counterterrorism efforts by identifying known and unknown contacts of individuals the court's injunction for -- it was improper for multiple reasons. first, the plaintiffs have failed to establish that they had standing to challenge the program at all because they alleged, first, they're only subscribers of verizon wireless but verizon, as the district court acknowledged, is is not the company subject to order of

the foreign intelligence surveillance court and therefore there is no evidence that demonstrates that any information about verizon wireless subscribers have been pursuant to the program. >> doesn't the government rely on the proposition that the numbers are virtually universal ? and if that's the case, is it safe to say that verizon wireless numbers are brought in? let's know, judge. it is -- >> no, judge. it is quite the contrary. we made the footnote in our opening brief, and the foreign surveillance intelligence court said under this program the government does not and never has acquired all or nearly all of the telephone call data records of americans in this -- as part of the program. therefore, it's improper to assume it would be only speculation, in fact, to assume

that the subscribers of any particular telephone company other than the one company, verizon business network services, which has be acknowledged by the united states for a three-month period last year, to have participated in the program that any other company in any particular period had participated subject to an order. for that reason, the district court's assumption that because verizon wireless is a large telecommunications company, therefore, it must have been participating in the program. >> is it the largest? >> i don't know whether it's the largest telecommunications company, judge williams. the district court pointed out, i believe they said it's the largest of the wireless telecommunications companies. but remember here there is no evidence that either verizon wireless or any other provider has participated. and that is important to maintain the classified nature about the details of this prog