might just turn around the day after and say, too bad, we are coming back with all the same sanctions, and the president is in veto status. what they really wanted was a clarity that we are not going to reimpose the specific nuclear related sanctions provisions as specified and annexed to the jcpoa contingent on them abiding by the commitments of the agreements. so, it is really simply a clarification to them that we are not going to come back and just slap them on again. but that absolutely does not mean we are precluded from sanctioning iranian actors, sectors, or any actions if circumstances warrant. so all of our other sanction authorities remain in place. and iran only said, if you read what it says, that they would treat the imposition of new

nuclear related sanctions as the grounds to cease performing. but they are clear, and we are clear, that we have all other kinds of authorities. and let me be specific on that because it is important for this whole debate to be clear. even with the lifting of sanctions after eight years of missiles or five years or the u.n. sanctions, it is only the u.n. sanctions. we still have sanctions. our primary embargo is still in place. and, i might add, for those things that we want to deal with in terms of their behavior, for instance, has below, -- has below -- hezbollah, prohibits the transfer of any weapons to them. that will continue. mr. flake: i think we got that. i just want to make sure that if we say, ok, what was effective on iran?

the sanctions on the central bank because it is more difficult for russia and china and other actors to help them upgrade the sanctions. if we decided we want to impose penalties to deter them from terrorist activities, and reimpose sanctions on the central bank, that that will be a material breach to the accord. secretary kerry: no. mr. flake: ok, that will not. assuming this goes into effect, we are going to need desperately need a regional security framework. you have touched on and some discussions are already going on. i would just encourage you that i understand the problem with 535 secretaries of state can't have that, but i would encourage you to reach out to at least the relevant committees here as that framework is put in place to make sure that it can conjure longer -- and you are -- endure

longer than just the first few years. we all know to have the best 42 to move ahead, it is best to have congress involved. and there are many points between 535 secretaries of state and proper consultation with the relevant committees, at least -- secretary kerry: i couldn't concur more, senator. you are dead on, we agree. and by the way, i think in the course of this negotiation prior to the passage of the -- of the requirement for the 60 days, which we understand and joined in with working with the chairman and are grateful to the chairman for the cooperation on that, but there were huge numbers of -- of briefings and hearings and telephone calls and meetings and so forth, literally in the hundreds. i couldn't agree with you more about this new arrangement. we are talking about arms transfers, of special operations

trainings, about counterinsurgency, we have a major need here to build capacity in many of those countries. the gulf states spend about $130 billion a year on their defense. iran spends 15 billion. yet you see a disparity in what is happening within the region. that has to be addressed. mr. flake: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. corker: thank you, senator, and i do appreciate you going -- joining in. >> thank you, mr. chairman. let me also just echo what everyone said you i very much appreciate the negotiators and the team and especially give a shout out to wendy sherman. i would also just like to recognize -- i don't think he has been recognized yet -- our colleague, senator of maine, has been sitting here from the beginning.

secretary kerry and secretary lew and secretary moniz this is a very important deal. one based on verification and sound science. those two areas are what i would like to focus on today. as you know, the national labs in tennessee, new mexico, and california have played an important role in a think it is important that we do the best job we can to explain to the american people why this deal means -- needs the scientific workers from preventing iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb. can you tell the committee with a half-life of uranium and plutonium are and what this means regarding how long we can detect its signature in nature and why that is important? secretary moniz: you are creating the urge for a 50 minute nuclear physics lesson. mr. udall: i don't want that. secretary moniz: the half-life of uranium uranium 238, which

is the dominant isotope, is roughly the age of the earth. 5 billion years. and that is why we still have it in the ground. uranium 235 is maybe a factor of 10 less, which is why it is a minor isotope now. plutonium is much shorter. 20,000 years, probably. which is why we don't have any of it naturally and we have to make it reactors. mr. udall: ok. iran can not criticism that he or enrich uranium or plutonium out of thin air. the laws of physics, as you well know, are clear. energy and mass must be conserved. and through the iaea, we will be able to detect illicit use at the cleared sites due to extensive monitoring. to both of you believe that his contact -- correct? secretary moniz: mr. udall: yes. -- secretary moniz: yes.

mr. udall: -- given the half-life of uranium and plutonium and the resources needed to construct a parallel interesting capability, which is a it is scientifically possible to hide such work within 24 days and to you believe we have the technical capabilities to determine if enrichment is being done outside the limits of the jcpoa? secretary moniz: well, yes, once again we have the historical example of 2003, easily finding uranium after six months despite major efforts to disguise it. and in addition, we will have all the containment and surveillance for 20 years of all the sensitive parts of every machine that they make. mr. udall: and so people that have used the analogy, like in a drug crime, you flush it down the toilet and we will be able to find it that is, in fact, been proven out. secretary moniz: if they try that, we will find it. mr. udall: good.

our nuclear experts at oak ridge, los alamos, they have given technical support throughout these negotiations. i think confident that these verification measures, both the enhanced measures and those in the additional protocol, will enable the iaea to detect an attempt a sneak out in time for the international community to our -- react? >> let me say, they were on constant call for literally hours turnaround at the end of the go shading sessions -- at the end of the negotiating sessions. at los alamos has played a major role in the detection arena. so the answer is, yes. in fact, those of the people who have invented many of these esco technologies. -- these safeguard technologies. mr. udall: so it sounds to me like iran could break the rules of this agreement, but they cannot break the rules of physics.

and the international community has the know-how and expertise to determine whether or not iran is abiding by this deal and the nonproliferation treaty not only during this phase to agreement but into perpetuity under the nonproliferation treaty and the additional protocol to the ntp. would you agree with this assessment and with the panel agreed that if necessary the u.s. and the p5+1 would then have the ability to snap back sanctions and deal with the iranian violations as appropriate in order to prevent them from acquiring a nuclear weapon? secretary moniz: well, yes. again, we will have much greater transparency from day one to forever than we would have without the agreement. that is a fact. and then the sanctions, i think the answer -- i will venture the answer is yes. [laughter] mr. udall: thank you.

and finally, secretary kerry one of the keys here is implementation. how are we doing -- are we going to do implementation, so i ask in the broadest possible way, how it is going to be done, who is in charge, how reagan and make sure that when we get to the implementation phase that we really do what needs to be done to make sure this is a success? secretary kerry: well, we have already created an implementation office and we have somebody managing that at this point in time. it is teamed up but will be even more so as we go for it. this is going to be a full-time operation. it is not going to be left to a normal bureau. there will be a full-time iran agreement implementation effort with experienced and competent personnel staffing it. secretary moniz: and i might

just add that we will have our own team. you will see a working group of the p5+1 on the iraq reactor redesign etc. we anticipate, obviously playing a leading role in that group and making sure that the new reactor does only what we have laid out and the parameters are in the material you have. mr. udall: good. and i just can't emphasize enough in terms of the national laboratories, especially the two in new mexico, but all of them that they have worked on this these kinds of activities and studied nuclear issues, since the creation of the atomic bomb. and that is why they are in such a position to be able to give the technical advice. secretary moniz: if i could just to be enforced that, i think it is very important. this is a page now for the national labs that this is not

the capability you invent overnight because you needed it with us a negotiation. it has to be a consistent investment in our core nuclear capacity, and that is what we have been doing. secretary kerry: and let me just emphasize, people like me, who obviously don't have that background, understood our limitations and there isn't any decision made in this agreement none, where we didn't go to our teams. in fact, there were days when we were delayed because we had go back to the laboratories, get the laboratory's input, get our experts'input and make a judgment on whether or not a judgment we made would result in whether or not we would get what we were seeking. and there is not one technical decision within this agreement that hasn't been worked through the entire system in that regard. mr. udall: thank you. >> i thank you for -- mr. udall: i thank you.

>> thank you for your time and testimony. i would like to start talking about a number of individuals who, by 2023, -- i hope you can discuss several of them. what can you tell this committee about -- is it correct to describe him as the father of the iran nuclear program? >> i would defer to secretary muniz, who is the father of the -- >> [indiscernible] >> that term certainly has been applied to him, yes. >> is it accurate that the united nations lack listen him thousand nine for being in a and working on iran's nuclear -- blacklisted him in 2009 for being in and working with iran's

nuclear program? >> -- any step to remove sanctions that are related to the nuclear program will involve individuals and organizations that had been involved in iran's nicola program. >> -- iran's nuclear program. >> -- for his role in supplying centrifuge components. is that correct? he receives -- secretary lew: i am reluctant to get into individual names. >> why would you be reluctant? secretary lew: because as a group, they all have the same characteristics. >> which is what? secretary lew: which is that there were designated because of nuclear activities. and to the extent that a man keeps its agreement -- iram keeps -- iran keeps their agreement, we will be not -- we will be releasing nuclear sanctions.

>> what message does the centimeters around the world? secretary lew: the message is if you violate the rules and develop nuclear weapons and we and the world take action against you, it will have significant consequence. but if you reach an agreement and you unwind to nuclear program, that will also have confidence -- consequence. mr. gardner: could you provide a list of americans were have been released as a result of this negotiations? secretary lew: we are happy to follow up on you. >> thank you. to secretary lew following up, the iran sanctions act, under the jcpoa as you understand it if that act were something to be extended, the change -- date change to 2018 -- is that something that congress would pass? is that acceptable under the jcpoa? secretary lew: we have obviously

gone back-and-forth on that if you times. the -- the reimposition of nuclear sanctions is something that if they comply with the nuclear agreement has a very different character than that they don't comply. i think that right now, they have agreed to take serious actions. we need to work towards implementation of the agreement. without time to say after the back-and-forth with senator menendez, we have a host of very powerful sanctions. we have tools -- that are mr. gardner: i heard you explain that to senator menendez. if you don't mind, running out of time here. if congress were to pass an extension, obviously the national security waivers under this deal was still be in place. with the president veto that legislation? secretary lew: i think this is not the appropriate time to be discussing extending a lobby for we have even had to the implementation period begin on this agreement. mr. gardner: do you think that

makes the snapback provisions week or stronger? secretary lew: i think these not back positions -- snapback provisions are extremely powerful. mr. gardner: you are prepared to have a snapback without the iran sanctions back in place to echo secretary lew: i think it would be -- back in place? secretary lew: i think it would be very powerful with or without it. mr. gardner: secretary kerry you stated -- you're it ballistic missile's activities continue under the agreement. how do our sanctions if united states stands alone, slow down the ballistic missile programs? secretary kerry: well, the fact is that, regrettably, they have been pursuing certain things without recourse. and one of our determinations here is to up -- i think the president said this in the east room in his press conference the other day. for instant, they have been

transferring weapons for 20 years to lebanon, to hezbollah. and there may be as many as 70,000 to 80,000 rockets. now we all know the threat to israel. we need to, all of us, be engaged in a stronger effort to prevent the movement of these weapons. mr. gardner: by lifting the sanctions in year eight? 's israel safer today under this provision? secretary kerry: there is absolutely no question whatsoever that israel is safer. mr. gardner: with the embargo lifted, israel is safer? secretary kerry: oh, you're it, no. see, what you are not looking at, senator, and what everybody needs to take note of is we have separate u.n. resolutions that apply to all those other activities and we have separate regimes that apply to them. her instance, the missile control technology regime is a very powerful instrument.

the security proliferation -- mr. gardner: i understand. i am running out of time here. secretary kerry: -- we could all run out of time. mr. gardner: with the united nations' language, do you believe israel is safer than it is today? secretary kerry: there is no question in my mind. mr. gardner: you mentioned an article in the "washington post," how the iran deal is good for israel. do you believe prime minister netanyahu knows what he is talking about? secretary kerry: look, i respect and know him very well. i consider him a friend. and he and i talk regularly. we are still talking, even in the mist of this agreement. -- midst of this agreement. i completely understand the prime minister, a state like israel, which has been under siege and threatened all of its life. this is also a big challenge.

and i understand the expressions of concern that he has voiced. we just happen to disagree about the impact of what is going to happen here. and our ability to be able to safeguard israel going forward through the mechanisms that have been put in place. there is absolutely no question whatsoever, indisputable, you can argue that taking a break out time from two months to a year taking a 12,000 kilogram stock pile 20 -- mr. gardner: you do not include him in this -- secretary kerry: -- you have to look at that. mr. gardner: you believe he is -- knows knows what he is talking about? secretary kerry: he knows as prime minister the fear that he is expressing. absolutely. mr. gardner: secretary moniz a former deputy director of the

iaea -- we have talked to -- a lot about the iaea today -- his -- he stated, quote, a 24 the engine to get a time i reduces detection probabilities exactly with the system is weakest detecting undeclared facilities and materials. is he wrong? secretary moniz: the 24 day thing is explicitly for undeclared facilities and i have already expressed the use of nuclear materials in those facilities, we are very confident about detection. we have to know where to look, and that is of course the traditional role of intelligence, hours and our allies and friends. -- ours and our allies and friends. mr. corker: senator murphy. mr. murphy: thank you very much. one comment on the situation and to questions.

the iranians are worried that we are going to reimpose nuclear sanctions under the cover of some other excuse. thus your discussion about the sensitivity of when we make reauthorize the iran sanctions act. i just note that what we are talking about here then is motive. whether or not to be a genuine in imposing sanctions for a non-nuclear related activity or whether we are doing it under the cover of time to get around the agreement. i don't think there is any way to avoid the fuzziness of that section of the agreement because ultimately there can be a dispute over modems, but i think we all have to understand that there is going to be a lack of clarity on that question given the fact that the dispute ultimately is not going to be about the letter of the law that we passed, but about the motive that stands behind it. i think we can certainly defend

instituting new sanctions on non-nuclear activity, but there is going to be a difficulty in trying to define that motive. my question, though, is -- first question is continuing on this subject of inspections. secretary moniz the iranians have made a commitment here that they are not going to engage in any research and development that quote, under item 16 could contribute to the development of a nuclear expose of device. we have talked about the eyes we have on them. we know we have eyes on the. i chain. but there are a host of nuclear related research activities that could occur at other research sites that don't involve material that runs through the supply chain. how do we have an assurance that there are no r&d activities

occurring, given the fact that there are going to be sites that we want even be asking about frankly, and there are research activities that tinsley could happen that don't involve that nuclear material that we see in the supply chain inspections echo secretary moniz: as i said -- inspections? secretary moniz: as i said, there are a number of activities that are listed there that will not involve nuclear materials. clearly, again almost by definition, for any undeclared site, it becomes a question of intelligence acquired in one way or another. we have obviously, nationally, a lot of means, as do others. so, went to have the right pointer, then it is a question of getting in there and there could be some smoking guns in some cases, for example, around neutron initiators, that we would detect. in other cases it would be more

in the context of the declared activities don't make sense with what we see in their -- there and these other become additional indicators for our intelligence. but i think our intelligence people will say very straightforwardly that clearly in the end, these non-nuclear activities will be more of a challenge than the nuclear materials activities over which will have very, very strong handle. mr. murphy: l i wanto to ask secretary and secretaryu -- i want to ask secretary kerry and secretary lou about the consequences of voting down the steel. i heard the senator upon frustrations -- senator's frustrations that there is no choice. in fact, i hear the very opposite. this is not, in fact, a referendum on the deal. this is the choice between two sets of consequences, consequences that flow forward

if we approve the deal and a different set if congress rejects this deal. and so, as i look at that second set of consequences, that we have to be fully cognizant of is the united states congress rejects this deal, i sort of see it in five parts. and i want to give this analysis to you and ask you both to tell me where i am wrong or where i might be right. first, the sanctions are going to fray. initially, the russians and chinese will continue to sign on. and over time, likely will fall apart. second, iran is going to be able to resume full operation of a chick of the program as it gets closer and closer to the breakout time. three, the inspections that have under the jcpoa disappear and legal blind again inside iran. fourth, this administration's ability to do nuclear diplomacy frankly ends for the next year and a half. there is no legitimacy with the clear indications that congress will support any agreement that this agreement enters into it

fifth, the potential that internal he's rejection of the deal will be a major victory for the hardliners, making it much less likely that the moderates will win in the next election meaning that there may not be anyone to deal with should we get back to the table and the next administration. that is a very severe set of consequences, but this ultimately isn't a referendum. this is a choice and if you reject this deal then you have to be pretty apocalyptic about how badly this deal will go down if you accept those broad parameters as the alternative. so, tell me if this is how you read the consequences of congress rejecting this deal. secretary kerry: senator, i think you have hit the nail on the head with a series of absolutely -- clearly and his available consequences. and i would agree with what you have said. this is not a case of no choices. there is a choice.

and as senator murphy has said, each person can make a judgment about the consequences of their choice. but the choice is really between the assurances we have that come with this agreement, the certainty that comes with a 90% reduction in the stockpile, from the limitation of 3.67% of enrichment for 15 years, you can't make a bomb with just those two items. let alone the reduction of centrifuges, the limitation on what is spinning the intrusive inspections. all that goes away. that is a choice. but what else happens as a result of that? well, i urge colleagues who haven't done it to spend time with our intel community and ask for the analysis of the supreme later and of the state of politics in iran. the leader highly distrusts us

and we highly distressed him in return. it is all a matter of verification. but the supreme leader has felt in the very beginning, i cannot deal with the west because i cannot trust them. i tried it before and nothing happened. and then there were some small discussions that took place in afghanistan with ambassadors. nothing came out of it. i could give you i am not going to go through the whole history, but there is among history of mistrust. the whole context of the revolution, out of which the regime comes. so if we say no after saying in good faith we are here to negotiate we can come to an agreement, but we walk way from it, not because we chose to but because you chose to, they will know who to deal with. we certainly aren't going to be dealt with. a lot of other people don't know who to deal with. but more importantly, he is not coming back. there is no way people who say

get a better deal. no way. when they believed to have given up rings and made proclamations for no nuclear weapon and they are willing to be subject to ntp. we have 189 nations that live by it. we would be turning away from thenpt -- the npt. basically saying we don't like the npt we are not going to do this. so the consequences of this are even more than what you have laid out, senator. and here is what us will happen. i have been around politics long enough, i have a pretty good sense. a lot of people are out there -- a lot of people were opposing it before they read it. so i know what we are going to hear in the context of this. if this agreement is not passed, not agreed to, it doesn't meet

congress' approval, and the sanctions are gone and a man goes back to enriching, you can hear the human cry right now. people will be saying, well, what can we do about it? you will hear the prime minister of israel, time to bob. -- bomb. what are we going to do deco that is why learned people -- what are we going to do? that is why learned people say that is probably the alternative here. when they are enriching like crazy and we have passed of the nonproliferation treaty, what is left to us to enforce this? i know there are senators here who are uncomfortable with the fact they may have an industrial enrichment program. so what is your plan? knockout their entire capacity? arrays their memory? totally go to war? i heard somebody mention iraq earlier, that we had huge -- you know -- ability to know what is

happening in iraq. folks, that was after we invaded the country. yeah, then we had anywhere, anytime. that is the only place in the world we chatted. no country and the world has anywhere, anytime. so i just ask people to be reasonable. there are more consequences than those laid out by senator murphy, but each one of the once he laid out a pretty consequential. >> if i could just respond on the sanctions point, i agree with you that sanctions would fray. but in addition, we have had a lot of discussion about iran's reserves. we have to remember that those reserves are not sitting in the united states. there are sitting around the world in countries like india and china. and if this agreement falls apart, our ability to keep that money from iran will also fall apart. i think the concern is they get the money and there is no nuclear agreement and all the other consequences. so that is very real. with regards to comment on our

ability to reimpose sanctions, i totally agree with you. if it is seen as a pretext for putting nuclear sanctions back in place, the agreement. but we have reserved the ability to put sanctions back in place on terrorism for other reasons. >> and my only point on that is there is inherent fuzziness. secretary lew: it is a matter of interpretation which is why people say they have different views, but this is heavily discussed in the negotiation. it was not as if this was some accidental. >> cabinet officials are back on capitol hill this week. on tuesday, the house foreign affairs committee hears from secretary of state kerry, energy secretary ernest moniz and treasury secretary lew. we have it on c-span three. the senate dabbles in and just about half hour from now. to continue work on the highway

bill that would set the federal portion of mass transportation projects nationwide for the next six years. funding runs out at the end of this month. senators voting on two amendments, one that would bring back the import-export bank, and another that would repeal the health care law. we have live coverage ready to go, that debate beginning on 2:00 eastern live on c-span two. the kind of thing you're a news conference -- we plan to bring you a news conference. senators chris murphy of connecticut, tammy baldwin of wisconsin, round of ohio, and casey from pennsylvania. that is live at 2:30 p.m. eastern right here on c-span. and while we wait for that news conference, let's take a look at the latest pluto photographs and findings set -- sent back to earth. nasa's horizon team revealed silhouette images of pluto indicating that levels of hayes

are -- haze are much higher above the service than originally thought. showing evidence of flowing ice and mountains. this is just over one hour. >> good afternoon, welcome to nasa headquarters in washington. nasa's new horizons search team is back to reveal even more unprecedented images and signs that continue to be returned from the new horizons spacecraft. to set the stage for today's briefing, please welcome to the podium, astronaut and head of the nasa messenger accurate, one of almost 100 transmissions and a director portfolio dr. --

>> thank you very much. this week has been just a phenomenal week. on monday, we released the first image from the epic imaging camera on the discovery mission. this is our first, you know, true blue marble of the earth since 1972 when the apollo 17 astronauts took the famous blue marble image of the earth. and it really paints, i think an incredible picture of our home planet and how, you know lucky and precious planet earth is, especially when you compare it to the amazing views we recently have gotten from the dawn spacecraft, which is a somewhat serious, hostile world. we have just announced yesterday a discovery of sort of a parallel, a cousin solar system to that of our own solar system, with a star much like our sun, a

little bit older, and in so planet that is about 60% -- an exoplanet that is about 60% larger than the earth. the images that we have been getting and assigns we have been getting from pluto is really just been more than amazing. and proves definitively our scientific theory that signs never sleeps. and if you look at our panel here, they actually look pretty cheery for a group of scientists that have not been sleeping until the last few weeks. but they are here to tell us about the most recent, amazing results from the pluto new horizons mission. and i am just thrilled to be here to hear those results. >> [applause]

>> ok. let me -- so, we have -- before i introduce our panelists for this afternoon, obviously, the nasa council media buzz with this mission and the resultant images , you can follow the accounts on twitter, youtube facebook, and other nasa accounts. and send in your questions at #asknasa. keep them coming in. and you can follow the conversation, and there is still a lot of conversation all over the world, at #plutoflyby. all the information today and in the future can be obtained by going to www.nas

a.gov/newhorizons. first up, you will hear from jim green. director of planetary science at nasa headquarters. allen stern, new horizons principal investigator in boulder, colorado. michael sommers, new horizons investigator, george mason university, fairfax, virginia. kathy -- new horizons deputy scientist, also at the southwest research institute. and william mckennitt, washington university in st. louis. with that, i will turn it over to jim. >> thank you very much. july 14 was very historic for nasa with our very successful

flyby of the new horizons spacecraft. and we are just 10 days from that, and yet we have only had about an opportunity to see about 5% of the data. as many know, we stored that data on board as we flew through the system and it is just now starting to come back. each and every day, the science team has been huddled, looking at the data as it comes back and is always surprised and it is just quite a pleasure to be part of that team, to look at the data when it comes in, and see the new discoveries that are coming out. we are looking at some of the data that has come in within the last few days. it is also data that happened and was taken on board stored prior to the encounter. and it's post-encounter, after the spacecraft had an opportunity to apply to this pluto system and look back to pluto as it is hurtling away at

more than 16 kilometers per second. these are just amazing discoveries. and so without further a do, let me turn it over to the principal investigator, allen stern's. >> thank you, jim. as jim said, last week, the united states through our project to nasa, explored the farthest frontier ever explored by humankind. the pluto system. we cannot tell you how happy we are just to be back as a team and tell you what we have been discovering. we came back last friday gave a first report about just the first couple days of data downloads. now we are 10 days out, 7.5 million miles from pluto, we have had more time to think about the data set that are on the ground and equally importantly, we have about three times as much data on the ground now. as jim said, it is not very much. we have about 4% to 5% of the data back.

95% of eight or 96% of it is still on the spacecraft, so we are only scratching the surface. and we have some great discoveries to tell you about. besides the data sets, there is one other thing to note that we have really done exploration, we are on the other side of pluto and that is this bumper sticker that is inspired by our deputy assistant engineer that says my other vehicle explored pluto. it has a nice picture of pluto made by horizons in the rearview mirror. that is how you know. [laughter] i want to say a few things that i want to call up my first graphic, which is just a hauntingly beautiful image of the planet system, with pluto on the left, this was made a few days out an approach, with true color added by our instrument. as i tell you a little bit about where we are in the mission just feast your eyes on this. we have never been to a double planet system before and it is turning out to be a really

scientific wonderland. we have now finished the next phase of downlink. that was an intensive 10 day period in which we sent down data sets to wetter at the site and tell us the basics about the pluto system. -- report on some of the most important findings we have already made in these few days. we are no amusing -- we are now moving into a second phase of downlink. we will be transmitting home now a lot of engineering data from the flyby, as well as data from our plasma and other instruments.

-- we are really happy about the amount of interest in this mission. we are going to do some of that right now. we are going to get right into the sides. for some of you, if you are seeing a cardiologist, you may want to leave the room. there are some pretty mind blowing discoveries that we are going to talk about. if i could have my second graphic, i want to show our two by two mosaic. this is at twice the resolution of the previous best global image of the approach. and really, it is just mouthwatering. the level of detail is spectacular. this image has a resolution of about 2.2 kilometers per pixel. and i think just looking at it you can tell, as our science team can, that pluto has a very public it is joy to tell.

pluto has a very interesting history and there is a lot of work that we need to do to understand this very cuddly kitten place. i want to stress that, i want to drive it home by showing you this image attire magnification. we are going to look at just the northern half of that image. and we could easily blow it up even further. and you can see across the northern terrains are, which includes the north pole, by the way, this is a true color image as your i might to see it -- eye my to see it, a whole range of geographic expression. i will not steal their thunder but just let your eyes gaze from the left on the western part over to the east and you can see different geological units different kinds of features, telling that cover getting -- telling that, get it straight again.

and if you go to the south, a dark region with the heart of pluto. and what looks like a massive tectonic features, both radially emanating from there, as well as others that run it north-south. you hear more about that later. i do want to tie you about one more aspect of the interpretation, and looking more carefully at the imagery of the heart. like a real hard, it has two lobes. on the left and on the right side. the left is the western side and i think even to your eye you can distinguish between the two. the right lobe looks like a much thinner deposit. and our interpretation of that material in the right lobe, as well as the material emanating to the south below the western lobe is that in both cases, we believe the source for that material is the western lobe.

that the material, bright material, probably nitrogen snow, is being transported off the source region of the western lobe, perhaps by winds, perhaps by sublimation and re-condensation, or perhaps buy presents we have not thought about. but in any case, we think we are coming to understand this feature just a little bit. it is the early days. bill may have a little bit more to say about that. what i want to talk about next is our next time step, which is a false color image, which has really been stretched to show the dramatic differences in color units pluto and how they correlate with the geology. this is pretty mind blowing. kathy will have a lot more to say about it. but as you can see, for example the western and eastern lobes that i was just talking about have different colors. they are telling us something in that. soon we will have composition specter -- specter graphs to

support that. you can see that the polar regions have a different color still. and as we get down into the dark equatorial regions, there is still even more information. the geography and probably the composition seem to be correlated. this tells us that the tale we brought to bail -- we have tremendous data sets with high-resolution colors than this. and a spectacular data set with compositional information with over 64,000 pixels that would put on the surface to get a spectrum at every location. we are going to be able to tell the story very well over the next year. i'm going to move onto the next time step. tell you a little bit about atmospheric sciences. this particular view graph is to illustrate something about our ultraviolet occultation of

pluto's large moon. this was an experiment we decide use ago to look for in atmosphere around pluto largest -- pluto's largest moon. speculating about how it could have an atmosphere. we just got the summary data down and the last few days. we don't yet have the full spectrum of data set. but if you look at that -- that time step, you will be able to see the little yellow line representing the path of the sun as seen from the state -- spacecraft moving behind the murder. and you see it just puts the northern regions of the moon. that is exactly what we planned exactly how we plan this trajectory to go. and just as you clip on either side of the body, you can see in that red and white graph that the light level from the sun just plummets straight to zero. it doesn't look anything like the solar occultation data that

we should do last week for pluto, you could clearly see a refractive signature, a slow decline in light levels. here it is just basically a square wave, telling us that the moon has much less atmosphere than pluto, if any. we really can't put strict bounds on it yet as we don't have a spectrum. we will be able to do that when we get out to september. for now, all we can say it is a much more -- is it is a much more rarefied atmosphere. we are really looking forward to seeing just how verified that is. they may be that there is a thin nitrogen layer in the atmosphere , or method, or some other constituents. but it must be very continuous competitive pluto. the sizing just how different these two objects are despite their close association in space. i went to us as to another part of our atmospheric science which is the fact that we now have on the ground some of the

radio occultation data for pluto. where the deep space network transmitted a powerful signal to arrive just as the spacecraft was behind the planet. as you will hear more from mike we got it, we got the data. beautiful data. and they have a wonderful scientific surprise. the pressure in pluto's atmosphere measured at the base of the atmosphere for the first time in history is lower, substantially lower than predicted. and that is probably telling us a story. i would like to close with one more time step. this is really a spectacular image. this is a silhouette of pluto looking back after the flyby. i think this is just fantastic. this is our equivalent under horizons of the apollo earthrise photograph that proved, we were there. you can only get this image by going to pluto and crossing to the far side and looking back.

as striking and spectacular as this image is a mostly, it is also representative of a huge scientific discovery because you see above the dark disk of pluto a band of light, which is actually telling us that pluto has a haze layer in its atmosphere. >> ok, thank you. good afternoon, everyone. i'm going to talk about two new results that are basically changing the way we think about pluto's atmosphere. we have to start from scratch to understand what we thought we knew about the atmosphere, the way the weather work and the way the climate and the evolution worked. if i could have the first timestamp, please. the first graphic, please. this is one of our first images of pluto's atmosphere. now, this was the image that is done the encounter team. for 25 years, we have known that pluto has atmosphere.

but it has been known by numbers. this is our first picture. this was the image that almost brought tears to the eyes of the atmospheric science system and the team. the next step, please. ok, what i want to tell you now is what you are seeing here. this is the atmosphere backlit by the sun and the light, the crescent that you are seeing, a sunlight scattered by small particles in the atmosphere. and these particles constitute a haze layer. the inset is a cross-section of that haze layer, showing structure. be colors have been enhanced, jesse can see that there is structure -- just so you can see that there is structure. there's an argument going on in the team, -- the real answer is that this is our first peek at whether -- weather in pluto's atmosphere. could i have the next timestamp? there is a hint that there is

either a layer of haze at 30 miles, 50 miles, or a combination of layers and ways in this region. -- waves in this region. that is going to tell us about the details of how the atmosphere actually works. but the haze is extensive and extends at least 100 miles above the surface. that is a big surprise. that is five times further than our models predicted. models predicted that particles would form low in the atmosphere where the temperatures are cold but it is forming high in the atmosphere where temperatures are hot. at least hot from pluto six -- -- from -- from pluto's perspective. the haze is pretty. but it is a piece of a big story that we are trying to understand. and that is how the atmosphere

and the services are connected. so i have an animation to illustrate one aspect of that connection. could i have the next timestamp please? this shows how methane in the upper atmosphere is broken apart by ultraviolet radiation from the sun into chemical compounds -- radicals and small compound that react triggering chemical reactions that make hydrocarbons. as time goes on, these buildup they become supersaturated, and they should duplicate -- nuc leate, and eventually they will get big enough so you see a haze layer and they will fall to the ground. at some point in the cycle those haze particles are chemically processed to produce chemically altered hydrocarbons that have a red color. and we think that that is how pluto's surface that its reddish

hue. in a minute, kathy will talk more about the color and the composition, but this is just one piece of that story. it is not a cohesive data set. as i said, we don't understand why there is a haze layer up to 100 miles altitude. it really is a mystery. ok, the next story regards surface pressure. our just give you a little bit of context here. the surface pressure at any level is a measure of the weight of the air above that level. and weight is gravity acting on mass. so if you know the surface pressure of a planet's atmosphere, you can get a pretty good estimate of the total mass of that atmosphere. this is important because this is a way of quantifying the global state of an atmosphere. could i have the next plot, the next graphic, please? ok. this shows service pressure on

pluto as a function of time. the units might be a little bit strange to you. my crowbar is one millionth -- microbar is one millionth see pressure on earth. what is interesting here is that in 1989, pluto is at its closest distance to the side. and now, pluto is moving away from the sun. as it moves away, it should be cooling. the nitrogen should be condensing onto the surface. and the maps should be decreasing. but we don't see that. we see the exact opposite. that has been very interesting nonetheless. we had been trying to figure this out. what i'm going to share you down is a new data point. it is just one data point, but i do want to say it is significant and we are going to have to figure it out. this is what rex, the radio

science experiment, has conservative. you get a point that shows that the surface pressure is at most 10 microbars. so the math of pluto's atmosphere has changed by a factor of two in about two years. that is pretty astonishing, at least for an atmospheric scientist. that is telling you that something is happening. now, it is just one data point. we have more get a coming, and -- more data coming, and there is more to the story. but it is a mystery that we will have to deal with. ok, now i will turn it over to kathy who is going to talk about the color and composition of pluto's surface. >> so, i'm going to tell you about the color and composition and try to tie this together so you can understand what we know from this color. the color is really an indicator

of different surface compositional units. so if i could have the first timestamp. this is that same house color image that alan showed. i'm going to talk to it and tell you what we are seeing scientifically and some of the things that we know and we understand from looking at this image. first of all, you can see the dark region down at the bottom of the region. that is near the equator. if you remember, there are dark regions all around that area. even on the other side of pluto. and they just above it, it is a little bit brighter and a little less red. and then at the north pole, you see the bright -- brighter areas. putting this latitude and longitude grid on the image allows you to help see, draw your eye to that banding pattern. i want to talk a little bit about it because it goes to the complexity that mike was just talking about. about the atmosphere and the

surface. pluto has a very complicated seasonal pattern of transport. it takes 248 years for pluto to go around the sun. and pluto has a very eccentric orbit. sometimes it is much closer to the sun than at other times. also pluto's north pole is tilted over at an angle of about 120 degrees relative to the plane that it orbits in. all of these factors together cause us -- powering the sublimation of the isis from the surface into the atmosphere. we have got a different pattern as you can see manifest on food appeared we understand from modeling of the seasonal

transport of vices. there is one glaring difference in the pattern that i just called out. next time step. tom clearly interrupts the pattern of latitudinal variation of colors. one thing i should add is the darker regions in the story i was telling, that mike was describing that were raining out from the hazes following from the atmosphere and the hazes. what is special about the region is we are seeing methane nitrogen, and carbon monoxide there. this is telling us something we need to understand. we see methane and nitrogen and not carbon monoxide. maybe what we are seeing is a source region for these specific isis that complicate the story

of the seasonal transport i was telling you about. we have a small bit of data down we have got some great images him -- can i have my first graphic? we will be looking at our fabulous hemisphere. you can start the animation. we have now is a full seven frames of what will ultimately be a 12 frame mosaic, a high resolution. not even the highest.

this area in the next slide this covers more or less flat and i seaplane we have informally been calling it is pretty big just about the size of the state of texas. all around our geological wonders and i would like to share them with you. can i have the next slide please? i would first like to look at the orange box, a rectangle that you see at the upper left of the mosaic. please this is the northern town jury is about 200 60 miles

across in kansas and st. louis a city i picked completely at random. ok. next slide. i'm our something here to help this guided tour. this is famous for having a segmented or cellular structure. you can see this well where you move to the left side of the image for the contrast shows up. at the top of the picture, it is really different. something that to a geologist i looks like something that has been very deeply and extensively eroded. we can tell it as old as well because you can see with your own eye various impact craters of large size. what is really interesting to us is the actual interaction between us but in a can the

rugged terrain to the top. if you look carefully, at the image, you can actually see a pattern that indicates the flow of ice toward the cliff boundary on the rugged terrain. we call these streamlines. when you look at them, which are marked with the curved arrows you see there we interpret them to be just like glacial flow on the earth. i do not have to you that glaciers on the earth are made of ice. but water ice at pluto's temperatures will not move anywhere. it is immobile and brittle. on pluto, the kinds of vices we think makeup a planet, which kathy just talked about, nitrogen ice and carbon monoxide ice, methane ice these are geologically soft and malleable even in pluto conditions. they will flow in the same way that glaciers do on the earth.

one more thing, we can see solid nitrogen ice partially filling in the interior of the critter. we knew there was nitrogen ice on pluto. we have known this for years. we imagine it was condensing in another place. to see evidence for recent theological activity is simply aging come true. when i say recent, i do not mean yesterday. i mean geologically recent.

-- we can see them going around what looked to be barrier islands. just to get back to the age, it is only a fraction of the total in the solar system, probably no more than a few tens of millions of years. what we know about nitrogen ice coming from the interior of pluto, there is no reason why this stuff could not be going on today. let's go to the next timestamp. we will go down to the bottom and let's low that up.

it is a very busy scene. it is a bit bigger than the one i showed you. this one is 400 miles across. taking a drive from l.a. to phoenix, though it is a bit colder than that, i suppose p the next timestamp. at the very top of the image you can still see sputnik its polygons, and at the bottom, this ancient, black, heavily cratered region. at the right of the image, at the image, at 3:00 position, our group which we discovered last week -- in this picture, you can see in the center if you go above in the center and toward the left, another arrangement of

wound -- mountain blocks. these are actually somewhat similar. we have given informal name to the new mountain blocks who first summative back in 1953. the scientifically fascinating thing about the picture to me is that the sputnik, mobilizes seem to have moved and surrounded and they seem to have covered up not just the mountain blocks, but they extend all the way down and just seem to feather out onto the edge -- when you look at it in detail, there is a lot of

fine structure that is different from the scale then apologize polygons we have seen. it tells us that the ice in the intervening region is substantially thinner. if you look to the edge, you see these craters that have this nitrogen ice in them. let's put this all together and take a flyover from one to the other. if i could have the animation please. we will start at the north. we will careen over the cliffs. there are the ice flows around

the islands down there. there are the polygons, well delineated, and as we move into the interior, it seems like they disappear, but they do not. if they look carefully, they are still there. in fact, we basically are approaching the region that is super rich and the carbon monoxide ice that cathy was just talking about. anyway, it's a long flight all the way to the south, so we will skip over that part and rejoin our tour here. we are sweeping across them. big blocks, small blocks, the dark asphalt cone surface, ancient surface on the right and one of those big craters with the big ice pond is coming into view. crater itself is about the size of the d.c. metro area -- that crater itself. the screen has gone dark, but there's a whole lot more we will learn about pluto and its moon. most of our images, most of our

data are still on the spacecraft outbound from pluto. we will be downloading this for months and in fact almost a full year ahead. with that, back to you, dwayne. mr. brown: thank you. now we transition into questions and answers. we start here in washington and hit the phone lines and social media and come back. frank, i will give you the first question because your expression, it's pretty cool stuff, right.

>> "aviation week." for dr. mckinnon, i have a couple of questions about things i saw in the new disk image. it looks like a copyright bar just to the west of the plane. it's a big crater with some concentric circles. if you have any idea what that might be. also, just to continue on the ice flows. do you have elevation data as to what is making it flow? dr. mckinnon: that's a couple of great questions. are some security features i did not particular point -- there are some circular features i did not particularly point out to the west and north of sputnik planum, and those are probably impact craters of some scale maybe 150 to 250 kilometers wide. some parts are probably at least fundamentally ancient, though

they may be active. that is another crater -- not really showing on my graphic but another one of these craters that has ice in it, but also a central peak. it is sticking up through a bright ring. your other question is elevation. we measure the elevation by measuring shadow lengths, and if not, another technique which is determining the relative slope and we integrate, and we get some estimate of height. we can see on sputnik planum that the individual cells are -- by a few meters. the primary technique we want to use is called stereo imaging, and we do not have data yet to do that analysis. we are going to get more frames of that mosaic, and then get a covering of the whole of pluto and he will have a beautiful stereo view of on the whole whether sputnik planum is high

or low. the one thing we can count is the north, the planum is lower than the cliffs, and in the south, it seems to on-ramp onto cthulhu regio. mr. brown: we will go here, and then the phone lines. >> if i could follow up, you speculate about what could be driving the flows and also how the source region got there to begin with. there have been debates whether these are ices that have accumulated from above, or whether something is allowing ices to well up from within. can you explain how this spot right in the belly of the planet got to be there and what is driving it? mr. mckinnon: you sort of answered your own question. we have a vast region that is a reservoir. we described it as the beating heart of pluto. it may be the supply for the entire atmosphere for a lot of geologic activity.

how it was formed, you can imagine. you can imagine it was an impact basin. we see on the south there is highly deformed topography. we know activity beyond the flows have deformed the crust. we have only seen these seven images close up. when the rest comes down and we get this uncompressed on the ground, we will get a complete story. you can imagine with any reservoir, it could be filled in from the side by glaciers going into it, from below, you could imagine inside the icy crust nitrogen would be a liquid because it would be warmer, and this reservoir of liquid nitrogen could supply the planet. these are interesting ideas, and it is very early days and we are enjoying a great deal of animated discussion. mr. stern: nothing like these images existed a couple weeks ago. what we are learning and fundamentally is on pluto we have a much more intimate and intricate interaction between geology and the seasonal climate cycle. they are forcing one another feeding one another, and creating a layered story about

planet history. it is rare in the pantheon of objects in the solar system that we have seen this kind of an intricate and complicated story. i am reminded by titan, but few other examples that are so dramatic. it is brand-new. mr. mckinnon: just you wait until the rest of the images come in because it will be great stuff there. mr. brown: let's go to the phone lines and then comes back here for social media. phone lines. ken from "the new york times." ken: remind me of the temperatures. what is the temperature of the surface and higher up with hazes? >> the temperature at the services 38 degrees kelvin, 480 degrees below fahrenheit. mr. mckinnon: even if 38 kelvin, solid nitrogen can creep, and below ground nitrogen will warm up and it is very sensitive to temperature. there is nothing physically implausible about the glacial flow.

mr. stern: nothing like these images existed a couple weeks ago. what we are learning and fundamentally is on pluto we have a much more intimate and intricate interaction between geology and the seasonal climate cycle. they are forcing one another feeding one another, and creating a layered story about planet history. it is rare in the pantheon of

objects in the solar system that we have seen this kind of an intricate and complicated story. i am reminded by titan, but few other examples that are so dramatic. it is brand-new. mr. mckinnon: just you wait until the rest of the images come in because it will be great stuff there. mr. brown: let's go to the phone lines and then comes back here for social media. phone lines. ken from "the new york times." ken: remind me of the temperatures. what is the temperature of the surface and higher up with hazes? >> the temperature at the services 38 degrees kelvin, 480 degrees below fahrenheit. mr. mckinnon: even if 38 kelvin,

solid nitrogen can creep, and below ground nitrogen will warm up and it is very sensitive to temperature. there is nothing physically implausible about the glacial flow. >> if there is a modestly deep flow, you get down to that, the pressure from the overburden of ice can change the properties of nitrogen because it is getting warmer because it is less viscous. there may be conditions where you can get liquid nitrogen flowing below. we have a lot of work to do to say that with any confidence. mr. brown: next up, reuters. >> i heard you say the surface pressure measurements show that figure atmosphere had increased by a factor of two in two years.

can you tell us what the 2-year-old data set is how that is compared to what you are getting from new horizons? mr. summers: it is based on stellar occultations. we have to use these to extrapolate down to the service to get a surface pressure. that is what was done for each of those data points you saw. as far as we can tell, those are accurate measurement of this where the stellar occultations occurs. the thing that is different about rex, you can go down to the surface. and the data looks good. this should be our best measurement of the surface pressure on pluto. this is early, our first data, first retrieval. we have more studies to do on

this. taking it at face value, it appears the atmosphere has changed by quite a bit. >> all those data occultations are observed from earth. we are detecting what may be a significant short-term variation in that atmosphere that might be a turnaround. we will have to see. >> what will help is the most recent observations from sophia, which is one of our 747's, a fabulous telescope, that most recently in june raced down to new zealand and chased pluto's shadow and got a very beautiful occultation. that is a very recent occultation compared with data for which it might help the interpretation of previous observations. mr. brown: did you have a follow-up? >> as far as the reddish hue

what would that look like if you are on the surface of pluto particles being big enough to see, like snow, ice, fog -- are they universally distributed, or something else happened on the surface? this is putting together a puzzle when you do not have pieces, but it is curious what

your thinking is on that right now. mr. summers: there are several questions. we're talking about a very thin haze. we only see it when we are looking at long slants through the atmosphere, and this is the way we get that image. it is distributed over a very large region. it appears to be 100 miles or so high. in terms of the conversion of those particles to tholins, we do not know the exact details in that. tholins encompass a range of different chemical substances that appear to be altered hydrogen hydrocarbons and compounds, irradiated, so it is not any particular chemical substance.

without having more detail, we cannot test the exact mechanism. we know these substances are around. we see them on titan, and the reddish color is distinctive. >> i can address one part of that question. i believe there is a question about the hazes falling uniformly on the surface, and that probably does happen. we have a lot of work to do to find out the rate of seasonal transport reveals why we see this thing, different patterns with these latitudinal bands and it has to do with those

tholins that will absorb more light. they will be deposited on the poles and cover up the tholins. these are pieces of the puzzle that will speak to the production of the tholins and the deposition of it. >> i have another question which may be too early to answer. based on the data you have gotten, can you say anything about the exact mass of pluto and any changes in the models of what the interior may have? thanks.

mr. stern: i will ask bill to chip in. we had not been able to attain a new estimate. before the flyby, data already gave us a very accurate mass. in order to constrain the interior properties, the uncertainty was in knowing the radius so we could get the volume and convert to density. what new horizons was able to contribute was to discover the radius was 1187 kilometers. we had uncertainty that ranged over 70 kilometers, plus or minus 2, centered around 1186. it is somewhat bigger than what we had expected. that will lower the density and will have implications to the interior properties. mr. mckinnon: everything alan said is pretty much the case. we had good sizes for both pluto and charon. in the years past we thought charon was very icy and didn't have much rock. now they are much more similar. pluto seems to be a bit rockier. in terms of what the inside of pluto is, without gravity data it is hard to be absolutely definitive.

that is one way we test our models of planets when we fly by them. everything we see, all activity we see is consistent with the idea it has a massive rock core surrounded by huge icy shell and that shell is probably -- it raises, increases the probability there may be an ocean way down under a single layer of ice. that is something to keep in mind about pluto. one of the things we learned not just the size of pluto, but it was close to spherical. we cannot detect any oblateness in this body. pluto probably was spinning very fast after what we believe to be a giant impact that led to the formation of its satellite. after that, pluto and charon are close together and tides have locked them up the way they are.

pluto does not show any evidence from its shape of this fast rotation. we think it must have been warm enough that no residual shape could be supported. it is still too early to say exactly how hot, but that is the thing we will be applying our research tools, theoretical models, and going to scientific conferences and writing scientific papers and either coming to conclusions or not. that is how it goes in science. mr. brown: kevin beatty, "sky and telescope." mr. beatty: because the

atmosphere density is higher you expect it to be, can you tell us about the possibility that argon is playing in the composition? mr. summers: it has gone the other direction. we believe the atmosphere has shrunk. i am not sure that says anything about argon. i do not believe there is anything we can say about argon. >> this one goes out to alan. mr. beatty: because the atmosphere density is higher you expect it to be, can you tell us about the possibility that argon is playing in the composition?

mr. summers: it has gone the other direction. we believe the atmosphere has shrunk. i am not sure that says anything about argon. i do not believe there is anything we can say about argon. >> this one goes out to alan. you called pluto a double planet. considering that pluto is larger than previously thought, what do the findings say in terms of how we define what the kind it actually is? there is a bone of contention for those who have followed pluto for a time. mr. stern: we called the pluto

system a double planet for a very specific technical reason because the two objects are close enough together and their mass ratio is sufficiently strong the balance point between them falls into free space. that is analogous to the way we define a double star system, when the balance point, called the barycenter, is not within either of the two. i do not think there is controversy about the double planet moniker. there has been this controversy where astronomers and planetary scientists have been on different sides of this.

it is hard not to call object like this in this level of complexity, with complicated seasonal cycles, and certainly the big complicated system of moons, a planet. >> we are going to leave this program for a news conference with senate democrats talking about today's 02 -- the fourth care act. this is life coverage on c-span. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] >> good afternoon, everyone. welcome to the capital on a sunday paradigm glad to be joined today by senators baldwin, brown, and casey. we will vote for the 16th time today in the senate alone to repeal the affordable care act. he put that together with 60 votes in the house either repeal or partially dismantle the affordable care act, it is prettily -- pretty clear the republicans are still --

addicted to litigating a law that is working across the country. it is clear we are seeing signs that the floor of the united states senate is being turned into event -- a venue for republican presidential politics to be litigated. i think this is a sign of a trend line that will increase as time goes on. the result will be the same as the other 15 votes in the senate. the result will be the same as the other 60 plus votes in the house. this amendment will fail today. there is something change in that puts the republicans increasingly at risk for a continued strategy of attacking affordable care act area it will care act has worked every state across the country. it is undeniable that today we

have 10 million americans who have private health insurance because of the formal care act and another 10 million have medicaid because of the formal care act. the uninsurance rate has declined. it is equally to undeniable the satisfaction rates are through the roof. people are more satisfied with their coverage under the affordable care act than they are with private -- it is undeniable the rate of spending growth both publicly and privately are at historic lows. we have never seen this kind of long-term slowdown of health care inflation since we started recording the numbers. that is due in large part to the affordable care act as well. quality is getting better. serious declines in hospital readmissions piers morgan more people have coverage than ever before. the cost of health care has been stabilized and health care is getting better.

poll after poll shows the american public oppose repealing the affordable care act, why this vote will lose again. this is not the last time they will vote on this in the senate. it is clear the senate will just be a showground for the republican presidential candidates, and you will see a little bit of that today as some of our colleagues come down to the floor to force show votes in order to build constituencies in the republican primary electorate. thus, the formal will increasingly be at risk. i will make one last point to show you how the ground has shifted. during the last days of king the bitter -- king versus burwell republican senators are quietly hoping the government won the case. why? because they knew there -- that

it would be a political liability to them the affordable care act disappeared. i understand they will continue to force vote after vote. increasingly, republicans in the senate know that this is not just that policy but really bad politics for them. it is unfortunate we're back here again with another political vote on the affordable care act. 60 plus in the house. it will not be the last year the american public will have something to say about this. they are sick and tired of the senate and the house continuing to talk about repealing an act that is increasingly an unquestionably working. with that, let me turn it over to senator baldwin. senator baldwin: my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have a habit of pointing out to people that they are not scientists. i would like to direct them all

to famous words of albert einstein. "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. " with less than one week before america faces the gridlock of a republican highway shutdown, majority republicans want to spend time playing politics with yet another attempt to repeal the affordable care act. repealing the health security afforded to millions of americans by virtue of that act. just over one month ago, the united states supreme court ruled the affordable care act was the law of the land, rejecting what was it politically motivated republican lawsuit aimed at dismantling that health care reform. it was not the first time the supreme court ruled in favor of

the law. it was the second time our highest court upheld the law. the republican majority just does not seem to get it. over 60 times, congressional republicans have tried to contact the clock, 50 million americans were uninsured. we cannot go back and we will not go back. we will not allow the party of the past to take us back to the days where seniors were paying higher out-of-pocket costs for their prescription drugs, or back to the days when insurance companies wrote their own rules and jacked up e-mails. back to the days when insurance companies deny coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions, and, in too many cases, dropped people's coverage altogether because they got sick

or got older or had a baby. it is past time to move forward. so we're going to move forward because the affordable care act is working. it is working to strengthen and improve the economic security and health security of our families across the united states. in my home state of wisconsin, the affordable care act is working and people are realizing the benefits of health insurance reform every single day. it is past time congressional republicans start listening to the voices of the hard-working middle-class families who have's purity, finally, with this law. instead of listening only to their tea party political base. it is time they drop this obsession with repeal and realize the affordable care act is providing access, affordability, and quality across america.

it is time to join america in our commitment that health should be a right guaranteed to all and not a privilege reserved for the few. that is what we have 54 and will continue to fight him -- fight for. i would like to ask my friend and colleague senator brown. senator brown: thank you. in just a few days come out nation will celebrate the 50th anniversary of medicare. president johnson journeyed to missouri. president johnson in 1965 was successful. there was opposition to medicare. we call the same group of people today the tea party. in 1965, more than half

republicans in congress, the house and senate, voted against the creation of medicare. george h.w. bush called it socialized medicare -- medicine. wild reagan warned us we would set us spend our sunset yields -- years telling our children what it once was like when, in america, men were free. of course, we know things turned out differently. republicans today like to reassure us, almost tripping over themselves, telling us how much they defend medicare. they change their tune because medicare works just like the a formal care act works. medicare will cut the poverty rate in half among seniors. the aca has met -- some 12 million -- 12 million americans including half a million in my state have access to affordable coverage, many for the first time in their lives.

more and more americans are benefiting from the aca and seeing that it works here it is becoming part of the fabric of american life. in 50 years, history will not look kindly on those who stood in the way, republicans threatening another shutdown to take a lay health care. make a personal for a moment. earlier this year, i spoke with charles, a cincinnati resident who suffers and is unable to work. after ohio took -- chose to expand medicaid, he qualified for health care coverage and was able to schedule surgery. thanks to the life-saving surgery and thanks to the's coverage of the affordable care act, he has returned to work. a repeal would take away coverage for a highlands like him and for several hundred thousand ohioans. it would mean young people could not stay under the parents health care plans. it would mean a rolling back of

consumer protections that have protected so many families with pre-existing conditions. it would mean the cost of their truck coverage for somebody seniors would go up. republicans should take this 50th anniversary of medicare to learn from the past and stand on the right side of history. senator casey: thank you very much. senator baldwin in her remarks used the word of session and i think that is a good word for what republicans are demonstrating. it is a maniacal obsession with not just the issue, but repealing it. that maniacal obsession leads them to take actions like today and so many other times they tried to wipe out the law taking actions which are truly

detrimental to the american people the people they represent. you represent a state, you represent both and all parties all the people of your state. when you consider one number, a lot of numbers, tens of millions of americans have coverage. hundreds of thousands in pennsylvania. just consider one number 30 keeps going up. this may not be the most current, but eight .2 million seniors. 8.2 million seniors have saved more than $11.5 billion since 2010 on help with a nice way of saying seniors do not have enough money to pay for prescription drugs. i really do not understand it but it seems we are making a little bit of progress. it may be incremental and just on friday, senator cruz in his remarks on the floor talking

about senator mcconnell, at one point, he stopped and said that he agreed that this vote was a charade or whatever it was coming he agreed that he thought senator mcconnell could have been more helpful when they were making the real attempt back in the fall of 2015. i guess he was referring to the shutdown. even now, you have republicans who vote yes on the deal, agreeing that it is a meaningless exercise. it might be a waste of time and a purely political theater, but the intent of it, and the goal here is unmistakable. it is not neutral or nibbling around the edges. what would happen if they were to prevail is that those seniors would not get help with prescription drugs. those children who have a pre-existing condition will be

barred from coverage and treatment, without a doubt. the power over a child's life goes back to the insurance company. that, i think, is an abomination. but it is about real people. i will just give you two examples in two ends of our state. south eastern pennsylvania jenny and david his family has two sons in college. jenny is a cancer survivor. they were spending $10,000 per year for health care coverage and now paying $3000. because of the aca. on the other end of the stay in pittsburgh kathy went into bankruptcy due to her son's heart condition. she is back on her feet and so is her son. at least another kathy down the road will not have to worry that

i could see because of a health care condition that a health care condition could lead to the heart and pain of bankruptcy. this is real life. this is political theater today and every time they do it it has real consequences were they to prevail. we should never allow it to happen but we should be very clear about at least with today's vote is all about. it has just been another political game on a day we are debating. thank you. >> what you make of the [indiscernible] lower that threshold [indiscernible]

question using reconciliation is no less of a charade than what they are doing today. the play lasts a little bit longer, but in the end, it is still fiction. the president will veto an attempt to use reconciliation to feel the formal care act and the veto will be sustained or all they will be doing by using reconciliation to appeal the affordable care act is bogging down the senate for another series of weeks or months on a series of show votes. notwithstanding the fact that you cannot repeal the end -- the entirety of the formal carrot using reconciliation because of that budget rules do not permit you to do it. so yes, i think it would be a real sad day if they use reconciliation to repeal health care because it would signal they are continually not serious about using the senate floor to debate real issues.

>> think as election day gets closer this time next year people who now have health care who do not have before, when seniors who are getting various kinds of preventative care, physicals from the doctor with no co-pay, with noted that getting, in essence, free preventive care when people who are 22 years old realize what republicans are doing would actually mean they lose their health insurance, i think then politics does not work so well for them. a lot of house members will realize as they start hearing from constituents, why are you taking these benefits, consumer protection, these physicals i am getting at no cost. a low income 70-year-old, i think the equation changes.

>> a question about the participation rate, the formal care act. [inaudible] >> to the extent that people were caring for their sick

children, -- the formal carrot provides for stability to the extent that someone wanted to go out and start a small business but could not because they could not go without a job or income for a series of months due to health care job block, the formal care act provides a benefit. by not having to be locked in to a job that allows people to make decisions that are better for their families and better for long-term economic prospects, i do not think that is anything to lose sleep over. ultimately, it leads to a better quality of life. >> thank you, everybody. >> thank you. >> senators are scheduled to hold at least two foes this afternoon, 18 amendment -- and amendment of the highway trust fund bill and the other would reauthorize the export import. more voice -- more votes

possible. watch the senate live on c-span two. loretta lynch -- loretta lynch -- an indictment, federal hate crime charges that accused the charleston, s.c. shooter that killed several people s month during a bible study at a church. she took questions about this and other topics. it is 20 minutes. >> good afternoon, everyone. i am joined here today by the head of the department of civil rights division and marginally on oh, the deputy director of the f. we're here today to announce a federal grand jury in south carolina returned a 33 count indictment against doing, for

killing and attempting to kill african-american parishioners at emmanuel african methodist this kabul church in trust in, south carolina, because of their race and in order to interfere with the exercise of their religion. set forth in the indictment, several months prior to the tragic events, he achieved his goal of increasing -- 4 -- seeking retribution for perceived wrongs he believed african-americans have committed against white people. to carry out the goals of fanning racial flames and exacting -- exacting revenge he decided he would murder african-americans because of their race. an essential element of his plan was to find victims inside a church to ensure the greatest notoriety and attention to his actions.

he set out to carry out the plan and rove to the emmanuel after american episcopal church in carolina, known as mother emmanuel. it was his destination specifically because it was a historically after american church. on that summer evening dylan found his target. african-americans engaged in worship. welcomed by the parishioners, he joined them in a bible study group. the parishioners had bibles and dylan had a 45 calendar -- caliber and eight magazines -- dylann roof had his .45-calendar glock pistol and eight magazines loaded with hollow point bullets. and as set forth in the indictment, while the parishioners of mother emanuel were engaged in religious worship and bible study, dylann roof drew his pistol and opened

fire on them, ultimately killing nine church members. as you know, the state of south carolina is also prosecuting roof for the murders, attempted murders and firearms offenses that he's alleged to have committed. we commend the south carolina state authorities for their tremendous work and their quick response. it is important to note, however, that south carolina does not have a hate crimes statute and as a result the state charges do not reflect the alleged hate crimes offenses presented in the federal indictment returned today. specifically, the federal indictment returned today charges roof with nine murders and three attempted murders

under the matthew shepherd and james bird hate crimes prevention act. this federal hate crimes law prohibits using a dangerous weapon to cause bodily injury or attempting to do so on the basis of race or color. the shepherd-bird act was enacted specifically to vindicate the unique harms caused by racially motivated violence. roof is also charged with nine murders and three attempted murders under a second federal hate crimes statute that prohibits the use or threat of force to obstruct any persons free exercise of their religious beliefs. finally, roof has been federally charged with multiple counts of using a firearm in the commission of these racially motivated murders and attempted murders. for these crimes, roof faces federal penalties up to life imprisonment or the death penalty. i note that no decision has been made on whether to seek the death penalty in this case. the department will follow our usually rigorous protocol to thoroughly consider all the factual and legal issues

relevant to that decision, which will necessarily involve counsel for the defendant, roof. in addition, consultation with the victims' families is an important and vital part of this decision making process. and no decision will be made prior to conferring with them. the family members of those killed and the survivors were informed of these federal charges earlier today. i would also note that this indictment contains allegations, is not evidence of the defendant's guilt. now, as will you recall this indictment follows an announcement that i made on june 18 of 2015, that the department of justice was conducting a hate crimes investigation into the shooting at the church. immediately following that shooting, the experienced prosecutors from the u.s. attorney's office in south carolina along with experienced attorneys from our civil rights division began working closely with the f.b.i., a.t.f., state and local law enforcement officials, including the south carolina law enforcement division or sled. the charleston police and the solicitor's office for the ninth circuit of south carolina in thoroughly investigating these crimes. i would like to thank the many state and federal, local law enforcement officials for their

dedication, for their hard work to ensure that this investigation was conducted thoroughly and expeditiously. i would also like to thank south carolina u.s. attorney bill nettles for his and his office's tremendous efforts on this case. as well as the dedicated attorneys from the department's civil rights division. in particular, i'd also like to extend my thanks to charleston solicitor scarlet wilson, for being a cooperative and effective partner in this matter. we have a strong working relationship with solicitor wilson and her office and we look forward to our continued collaboration as these parallel state and federal prosecutions work their way through their representative court systems. thank you for your attention. any questions? questioner: who will go first, south carolina or the federal government? ms. lynch: that hasn't been determined yet. we're working cooperatively with solicitor wilson. both cases will proceed through the court system. we'll both work however to reduce any unnecessary burden to the families. questioner: what factors go into that kind of decision? deciding who goes first? besides burden on the families. ms. lynch: there are any number of factors. we'll see how the judges are

reviewing the case, state of motion practice. both are in early stages and have yet to have motions. at this point it's difficult to say how that will impact on the schedule. questioner: the definition of domestic terrorism, were domestic terrorism charges considered in this case? can you elaborate on that? questioner: the definition of domestic terrorism, were domestic terrorism charges considered in this case? can you elaborate on that? ms. lynch: there is no specific domestic terrorism statute. however, hate crimes, as i've stated before, are the original domestic terrorism. and we feel that the behavior that is alleged to have occurred here is archetypal behavior that fits the federal hate crime statutes and vindicates their purpose. we have here a defendant who was