trying to put their friends on the opposition delegation. iranians are tri-ing to put some of their friends. and frankly the turks and saudis are trying to put some of their friends. syrians are not in control of this. that to me spells disaster. especially if the really serious armed opposition guys, who accept the political solution, if those serious armed opposition guys are excluded from the negotiation, i can't imagine they'll sustain their support for a political deal. there's been a lot of talk about getting acease fire, you know, the picture of the saverbing -- starving people, medalla had a cease fire, you can see what a cease fire looks like. if you're in an area where start a cease fire you to criticize the regime, don't want to appear in their television spots, your food gets cut off.

that's not to say we it only works if there's pressure on all the sides. i do mean pressure. on all the sides. >> in terms of pressure, are you suggesting -- mr. ford: i'm not saying that the united states should be bombing the assad regime. i've never advocated for that. but i do think there are people in the syrian opposition who accept the need for a political sligse and they need more support -- solution and they need more support than they're getting. they always have and they still do. mr. o'rourke: you think some additional support will get us to where we need to be? mr. ford: absolutely. mr. o'rourke: it will create the pressure? mr. ford: let me give you an example. when the russians intervened, started bombing, suddenly moranity tank missiles appeared on -- more anti-tank missiles appeared on the battlefield. that's what i'm talking about. it's not that the opposition's going to win a military victory. that would take forever and destroy whatever is left of

syria. not that there's much left. but the point is, to inflict enough pain on the assad government and its supporters that they will negotiate seriously at the table. mr. o'rourke: what syria is missing right now is more pain? there hasn't been enough pain in the last few years? mr. ford: there hasn't been enough pressure put on the assad regime to accept major compromises. mr. o'rourke: what -- is there -- with everyone on the panel agreeing that assad should go i think he should also go, but i think you also said that should be a decision of the syrian people. would you be willing, do you think the united states should be willing to accept his staying for some short period of time in order to achieve some of our other goals? there's no perfect solution to the situation right now, that's at least within our control. should we be willing to concede some things, including assad's presence in order to get less suffering, more peace, more stability, serve our interests in the region?

i'm out of time so i'll take that response for the record from the panel. thank you, mr. chairman. mr. coffman: thank you, mr. chairman. i served in iraq with the united states marine corps in 2005 and 2006, in al anbar provinces. i recall the 28% of the population of the sunies who were ruling elite in the -- sunnis who were the ruling elite in the country and didn't see any path to being equitably treated. then you have later on -- i think we gave them this path and then maliki i think pushed them out again and created an opening for isis. o i think that in looking at a post-isis iraq, that there needs to be some kind of political accommodation for the sunnis. and what i remember is the curds had gotten a provision within the constitution,

whereby they could form a semiautonomous region and they've done so. wouldn't that make sense, if we look at the areas that have fallen to isis, they are all sunni arab areas, wunalt that make sense that -- wouldn't that make sense that there be some sort of push in that direction, to show the sunni arabs that there is a path, a political accommodation, where they could co-exist with the shi'a-dominated baghdad government? i wonder if any of you could nswer that question. mr. ford: this is exactly what i was talking to sunni arabs, when i was in iraq last october . and there was a time when they wouldn't have accepted it. but they've changed 180 degrees. so i think it would have to be negotiated, obviously. and there are provisions in the iraqi constitution, the same one that the united nations and the united states helped them draft, but there are provisions

to do that. given that it's constitutionally possible and political stars are sort of starting to align that way, i can see. that of course, there is a real fear, congressman, among iraqi shi'a that if you just arm a bunch of sunnis, they'll come back after us again. that's not an entirely unreasonable fear. and so that's why i say it has to be negotiated. i would hope that the american embassy and our people here at the state department are keeping an open mind about this eventuality and are prepared to engagen to. if that builds enough sunni arab support, that then we will have more sunni arabs in iraq going after the islamic state. mr. coffman: would anyone else comment on that? it's a vertically integrated form of government, where without that regional autonomy,

all decisions are made from baghdad, even down to whether it's public education or it's local police or any decision. i think there's no teeth in terms of proinvention or municipal power at this point. and i think that when we talk about the sunnis pushed out of the government, that just really -- the current structure really exacerbates that. i have a question about -- it seems to me that the targeting is fairly limited. and one thing that was discussed earlier was the fact that the greatest revenue source for isis is their ability to tax economic activity within the territories they control. it seems to me that those -- that things like these trucks that move the oil, the crude oil, those industries that are controlled by isis, that we should have a broader target

, which simply to hit is a direct asset to the regime, like, saying, the selling of crude oil, but also to understand that quite ankly -- [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. 2016] >> a number of hearings on isis held by congress you can find online. we're going to leave this here. take you live to pentagon from defense secretary ashton carter and other leaders. mr. mccarthy: i want to thank you all for the hard work -- mr. carter: i want to thank you all for the hard work to keep us safe. that includes fighting isil. but also building a more secure future in afghanistan, countering iran's malign influence, maintaining security and freedom of navigation, and much more. chairman dunford and i are here

for discussions with two of our nation's finest leaders. general austin and general votel. to discuss our accelerating military campaign to defeat isil. and how to accelerate it yet further. the military action that we recommended to the president and that he approved in the fall have allowed the campaign to gather further momentum umand to apply pressure -- momentum and to apply pressure to isil in iraq and syria in more fronts than at any other point in the campaign. this pressure is having an affect against isil. it's also generating additional opportunities to further accelerate the implementation of the campaign. yesterday at fort campbell, i described to our troopers there, who were about to deploy, the three key objectives of our campaign.

first, to destroy the isil parent tumor in iraq and syria. and collapse its two power centers in raqqa and mosul. second, to combat the isil tumor worldwide. and third, to protect the homeland. i also laid out the operational concept behind our campaign, to enable local, motivated forces to defeat isil and sustain the defeat and to do that enabling by providing on our part a clear plan, american leadership, a global coalition, and the wielding of the incredible sweep of capabilities we have, ranging rom air power, special forces, cybertools, intelligence,

, uipment, mobility, logistics training, advice and assistance . i described the coalition military campaign plan at some length yesterday, but also the fact that it must be accompanied by equally strong and integrated efforts from the diplomatic, intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security and other parts of our government. these two are necessary -- too are necessary. i and the rest of the national security team will be updating the president soon on the progress of the overall strategy to deal isil a lasting defeat. i also described yesterday the need for members of the global coalition to do more. and i'll be traveling to paris next week to discuss that with my counterparts from france, australia, germany, italy, the netherlands and the united kingdom.

now, today we're together discussing the details of the implementation of the campaign and specifically how we can accelerate it yet further. it's gathering momentum and we're taking advantage of every opportunity we can. i want to thank each of these commanders for their dedication to this mission. and i particularly want to thank general austin for his exemplary work as centcom commander and throughout a long and remarkable career. much of which has been spent defeating threats and developing solutions in centcom's area of responsibility. the epicenter for much of the world's conflicts and tensions. he has spear headed our military efforts in iraq, syria, yemen, at sea, in the air, on the ground, in the cyberdomain, all with incredible skill, vision and talent. in 2003, general austin led the

invasion of iraq and the capture of baghdad, earning the silver star for his personal valor. he showed extraordinary skill during the later surge in iraq, and in managing security in iraq during his years as overall commander there. he commanded at multiple levels in the army's 82nd airborne division and commanded the 10th mountain division, all with honor and distinction. just listen to that. listen to that roster of accomplishment. few have brought that kind of depth and breadth of experience to this critical command. the level of experience that helped him lead centcom with distinction, skill and the confidence of the nation's leadership during an extraordinary and complex period. it is this depth and breadth of experience that allowed joe and me to always -- i meant joe dunford in that case, i'll get

to the other joe in a moment, to all we safely rely on lloyd, including now when we face an enemy such as isil. the opportunities and challenges in afghanistan and iraq and throughout the region are always changing. but one thing hasn't changed. general austin's limitless commitment to his troops and to his country. now general austin's long tour in this job will soon come to an end. the good news is, i'm supremely confident that the man the president will nominate to take general austin's place when his work here at centcom is completed, very confident in that man and that is general joe votel. he has done a superb job as the commander of u.s. special operations command. but that's only one part of the reason why he was my only recommendation to the president to succeed lloyd.

in addition to his purely military experience, general votel has a wealth of in depth political military experience, that is working with foreign governments and militaries, and is therefore well equipped to handle the complex challenges of centcom. additionally, his experience in the middle east region will serve him well, and that is extensive also. his background in every domain of warfare, air, land and sea, as well as special operations, give him the perspective and knowledge to lead the many soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen operating within this crucial command. so with that, i want to turn it over to general austin for his additional thoughts on the ampaign.

mr. austin: thank you, mr. secretary, for those kind words. and thanks to you and the chairman for coming here to centcom, to have spent a little time with the team at the headquarters. joe, it's always good to see my neighbor, i often joke that joe and i see more of each other in foreign lands than we do at home. although we live next door to each other. let me quickly say how proud i am to lead and work alongside the outstanding men and women of central command. they deal with tough challenges on a daily basis. in fact, there isn't a tougher set of challenges in the inventory, in my opinion. and over the past almost three years, we've been focused on afghanistan and pakistan and egypt, iran and lebanon, yemen, and of course iraq and syria. and a host of other countries that make up the central region.

soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coasts guardsmen and civilians of this command, along with our coalition partners have done and continue to do an absolutely outstanding job. again, i could not be more proud of them. there's a lot going on in the central region. and as the secretary just talked about, foremost on all of our minds is the fight against isil and the crisis in iraq and syria. it is an incredibly complex situation, arguably the most complex situation that any of us have ever witnessed. and what i would tell you and what you just heard the secretary say, not only here but certainly as he spoke at fort campbell yesterday, what you heard him say is that, as you look across the battle space, you see real progress being made by the coalition and

principally the forces on the ground, in locations that include places like tikrit and snia and sinjar and ramadi and syria and along the line north of the city of aleppo in northern syria. and in a number of other locations. we are in fact doing what we set out to do and that is to put increased pressure on the enemy throughout the depth of the battle space. and he is feeling the effects of those efforts. there's no doubt about it. a few days ago, we conducted a strike on a bulk cash storage facility in mosul. it was a good strike. and we estimate that it served to deprive isil of millions of dollars. it was not the first strike on a storage site. we struck several other cash storage sites in recent months and we will continue to go

after the enemy's finances. combined with all of the other strikes that we've done on isil's gas and oil production and distribution capabilities, and strikes against his economic infrastructure and the various sources of revenue, you can bet that he is feeling the strain on his checkbook. isil needs those funds to pay their fighters, to recruit new fighters, and to conduct their various maligned activities. we said from the outset of this campaign that to defeat isil we're going to have to take away his ability to resource himself and we're going to have to curb the flow of foreign fighters coming into the theater. in addition to attacking fielding forces and taking background that he once held in iraq and syria. and together with our coalition partners, and in support of the indigenous forces operating on

the ground in both countries, we have done and we continue to do all of these things. and we're doing them with increasingly good effects. the momentum against this enemy continues to build. and again you heard the secretary talk about that yesterday as he spoke in fort campbell. more and more opportunities have developed over time and we have actively pursued each and every one of these opportunities. these opportunities are the result of increased movement on the ground, a better understanding of the battle space, and a better developed human intelligence network. as we gather more information and as we continuously refine our approach based upon that information, and based upon lessons learn, we are able to conduct more effective operations against this enemy. all together, our different

efforts, targeting isil's forces, targeting his leadership, targeting his infrastructure, his gas and oil production and distribution capabilities, his economic infrastructure and the various sources of revenue, altogether these efforts translate into devastating effects on the enemy. indeed, isil has assumed a defensive posture in iraq and syria. and going forward, we can expect to see him rely increasingly on acts of terrorism such as we saw this , k in baghdad and in turkey and most recently in djakarta. we can expect to see more of this type of activity, in part because isil wants to draw attention away from the growing number of setbacks that he is experiencing. however, it is important to understand that these terrorist

acts don't necessarily mean that isil is getting stronger. isil by its nature is a terrorist organization. and by conducting these attacks , he's attempting to produce an image of invincibility in the wake of setbacks. so, overall we are making progress. that said, the fight against isil is far from over. as i tell my troops often, we've got to keep our dukes up. and we will. we're going to continue to do what we've been doing over the course of the campaign, we're going to continue to work closely with our coalition partners, and support and enable the forces, the efforts of the forces on the ground. we're going to continue to pursue opportunities across the battle space, and i am confident that as we do this,

we will be successful and we will defeat these -- this enemy. mr. secretary, thanks for the opportunity to provide a couple of comments. mr. carter: i think we have ime for a few questions. mr. ioner: [inaudible] austin: we do know that because we have greater activity along the syria-turkish border, by the turks and by our forces, the forces that are supporting

us, that we've been able to slow down the flow of foreign fighters, foreign terrorist fupefighters coming into the theater. at the same time we've been able to increase the amount of pressure we're putting on the enemy with great effect. and we've done that through increasing the activity of the maneuver forces. so, you see what just happened in ramadi, prior to that, near simultaneously, you saw what the peshmerga were doing in northern iraq, to take back the town of sinjar. you see up in the northeastern part of syria, the activity of the syrian democratic forces. that have continued to push down from north to south. and really placing a lot of pressure on isil's capital, raqqa. we also see a change in

techniques in terms of what the enemy's doing on the ground. his ability to counterattack is diminished. d he's much, much less effective in those counterattacks than he would have been several months back. i hope i answered your uestion. questioner: the secretary talked a little bit about the forces on the ground. there's obviously been a lot ore emphasis on -- [inaudible] i was wondering if you could talk about how you foresee the next year and what role your orces will play over time. >> i think special operations forces provide a unique capability in the way we do things. i think that's what you see us trying to leverage there.

that said, i would just tell you that special operations forces, u.s. or otherwise, aren't in this by ourselves. we are very dependent on our conventional forces. we couldn't do anything without the conventional force support that we get from general austin and the rest of his components there that is absolutely vital to the things we do. we don't go out and do anything by ourselves. we're one part of a bigger team. we're glad to bring our capabilities. to the second part of your question, i think, yeah, i would anticipate, as we've tried to do in the past, we would continue to look to our partners and try to bring their apabilities to bear as well. mr. carter: let me add to that, the last point that joe made, which is, this special operations forces, and the things that they bring, is one of the capabilities that we're asking others to bring to the fight. that's not just traditional soft partners.

the united kingdom, australia and so forth that i mentioned earlier. but this is an area where we've asked some of the states that are in the region to become more active. and then with respect to the expeditionary targeting force, which is a very important tool, but i want to emphasize one of many tools. but we were just talking about that together. the four of us will be talking about that, among other things, in the coming hours. but that's a very flexible tool, i've spoken about that before. we won't be able to talk about everything that it's doing but it has a very wide range of apabilities. uestioner: [inaudible]

mr. carter: i think this much is clear. there was a navigational error of some kind. all the contributing factors to that we don't know yet. and we're still talking to those folks and we'll find out more what combination of factors led to that navigational error. but they were clearly out of the position that they tended -- intended to be in. we're very glad to have them back. just add that. this is the kind of thing that, , all of us standing here we're very, very grad to have

our sailors back. and we're still talking to them, we're still learning about exactly what happened. but this much we do know. as i said before. there was a navigational error. but what combination of factors , we just don't know yet. we'll continue to inform you as we learn more. uestioner: [inaudible] mr. carter: i don't know the particular circumstances, we're still learning this from the indonesian law enforcement. so we don't know exactly what the conditions of it are. to me, the fact that we're even

talking about this shows that -- e taft sis of isil metastasize of isil is a global concern. the countries of indonesia have expressed that to me personally. that tells us a couple of things about our campaign, that are essential. one is that we have to go after ses. etasta but job one also has to be to destroy isil in iraq and syria. that's not sufficient, but it is necessary. because it's necessary to show that this movement has no future and this movement is not something that should be attractive to somebody far away , who has a cause or somehow wants to link up with it. so both of those are important. that's why our campaign encompasses both. to this specific event, i just can't add anything.

you'll have to wait and see what the indonesian law enforcement people conclude bout that to know. >> next question from the local press. hit the microphone button. questioner: mr. secretary, couple of questions about intelligence. some local, some down range. are you confident that this point that you're receiving unvarnished intelligence from centcom, this is just one piece, and then, with the expeditionary targeting force, are you looking at what some of the successes were back in iraq and afghanistan, 2006, 2007, and 2010, where you have the flying fix finish, that kind of high tempo, you know, movement where you melded operational and intelligence cycles? mr. carter: let me do the second part first. absolutely we -- what we learned from our wars in iraq

and afghanistan has been of operational value. so some of that trade craft you were talking about. turn of es and a rapid the intelligence execution cycle. absolutely, we have forces that are extremely good at that. and one of the reasons for that is they had some practice, some of them. had that practice. over time. and to intelligence, i'm very demanding of intelligence. i demand that we get it straight and know that everybody standing behind me is -- we can't win without good intelligence. i'm not satisfied that i have all the intelligence i'd like, you're never satisfied you have all the intelligence you'd like. i'd like to have more in iraq and syria. you know some of the issues associated with that. this is a group that's very clever about using social media and hiding technologically and so forth.

so we're constantly pursuing that. and the intelligence community is all in with trying to get to the bottom of this, so we're not surprised by isil, which we've been on a number of occasions. and so forth. but -- and i should say that for me in this, and i'm sure it's true of the officers standing behind me as well, i count on intelligence, but i get lots of other kinds of information. we have forces on the ground there. they provide incredibly valuable information. we have diplomatic presence. a lot of this involves dealing with governments and the complex political-military aspects of what's going none iraq and syria. and then in today's world, the media is out there. so you learn things. i make sure i listen to all sources of information that might give me insight into how

to conduct this campaign. i'm shufere what i'm say something true of the folks behind me as well. questioner: mr. secretary, thanks for your time today. i wanted to ask you, i guess on messaging standpoint, with the incident in the persian gulf with the sailors. you've got video of sailors kneeling down on boatses with their hands behind their head. that's been played over and over again over the last 36, 48 hours. from a messaging standpoint, from a propaganda standpoint, on the iranian side, what's your reaction to that? i guess from u.s.a. point of view, how should we respond? mr. carter: well, obviously i don't like to see our people being detained by a foreign military. i'm very glad they're released. i'm very glad they're safe. what we don't know is the full

context. remember, what you're looking through in those, the lens of the iranian media. so i think we need to give these guys the opportunity to tell us what was really going on and what the overall context know. re we can really questioner: mr. secretary, evan from fox 13 in tampa. thanks for being here. one follow-up to his question. is there any way of saying yet, are you able to say whether this is propaganda and whether that violates the geneva convention against that sort of propaganda? and then i do have one other question. just to follow up. mr. carter: i have said and i'll see if general austin wants to add anything. again, we don't know everything that was going on in the circumstances. we have every reason to learn it. because we have our guys back

and we want to talk to them. but i want to give them a chance to describe what the overall circumstances are. mr. austin: that's the point i was going to make. it would not be a good thing to speculate on what may have happened or not happened at this point. we'll know a lot more after we finish debriefing our sailors. and we're in the process of doing that now. again, this is going to take a bit more time, but i think it's the right thing to do, to get the full context of the situation. questioner: then one question about the general kind of effort here. you see 500 troops next month headed to iraq and kuwait, another 1,000 or maybe more headed this spring. a lot of people just kind of, in military louns like, this, -- towns like this, who wonder if this is a steady drip of operations that are coming down the line, if this isn't taken care of right away. how do you respond to people who just wonder whether we're kind of in this?

mr. carter: i was just with folks at fort campbell yesterday who are deploying to this theater. let me remind you that from postcamp stations, bases, air, naval around the world, all the time we've got people deploying. n the hundreds of thousands. general dunford had a previous assignment commanding our troops in afghanistan. let's not forget, we have troops there in afghanistan. all throughout the middle east. europe, where we're putting more forces in because of the kinds of threats that russia in the , as you saw issues with respect to ukraine. in the asia-pacific region we're deploying more because of what we call the rebalance,

which is really a strengthen of our role in a region that -- strengthening of our role in a region that isn't our responsibility, but half the world's people, half the world's economy, so people are deploying all the time. with respect to particularly sent com, particular -- centcom, particularly the counterisil campaign, we will be doing more. our operational approach is not try to substitute for local forces. but to enable them to win. and the reason for that is quite simple. which is that somebody has to keep the victory after the victory is won. and that has to be people who live there. so part of the process of getting a sustainable victory has to be to work with them. that's our overall strategic approach. >> quick last question here. michael of the "new york times." questioner: you guys know there was a navigational issue. can you provide us with any sort of timeline about what happened with the sailors?

about sort of what we do know up to this point? mr. carter: i think that we'll know a lot more when we're finished talking to them. i'm not prepared. i want to give them the chance to tell us what they saw and make sure that we're able to absorb that and to understand all the factors and all the information we have. of course, the lion share will come from them because they were there and they'll tell us what happened. but there are other sources of information too. we have the two vessels and we're looking at them. nd so forth. let me ask general austin, if there's anything he wants to add. mr. austin: i absolutely agree with what the secretary said. i think in order to get that detailed information, we really do need to talk to or debrief all 10 sailors and then lay out the sequence of events as things transpired. i think we'll have a much better, much clearer picture once we've done that. it would be ill advised for us

to publish a timeline prior to having completed that process. questioner: was anything removed from the boats? mr. austin: again, they're going through inventories right now. the gear st part, that we deployed with was largely there when we got the boats back. whether or not there is singular pieces of equipment missing, we'll determine that once we've completed the inventories. >> thank you, mr. secretaries. mr. carter: good. thank you all very much. i can't do it if the teacher doesn't let me. >> one more quick question from the local media, please. just about the refuelers. thank you. k.c. 46, on the short list for that. questioner: do you have any

insight as to where we stand with that in our area? and the importance of the refuel mission to the current mission? mr. carter: i can't say much more about the first part. that will be an air force decision and they're looking actually nationwide for what the optimal locationses are. for the kc-46 and obviously this is one of the candidates for that. i certainly can speak to the importance of the kc-46. our replacement tanker for the kcland 135 that you see on the ramp here, the workhorse of our refueling fleet. and that is the way -- one of the ways that america has tremendous global reach that we have. we alone can get anywhere within hours. the reason is that we can carry ourselves through those tankers. it's a very important program. it's generally proceeding very

well. i'm pleased about that. it's a very important program. >> thanks, everyonement -- veryone. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national able satellite corp. 2016] >> on capitol hill, representative from virginia, scott rigell, has announced he seek re-election. in his retirement announcement, he said among his proudest accomplishments was helping decrease discretionary federal spending. you can read more at the virginiapilot.com. meanwhile, republicans are at their retreat today and tomorrow in baltimore. c-span producer tweeting this --

harry reid says republicans in the senate should have to vote on the g.o.p. presidential frontrunner's policies. after they've refused to say they would not support trump if he wins their party's nomination. on monday, the british house of commons plans to debate whether or not to bar mr. trump from entering the u.k. after he made his comments on muslims. the petition to ban mr. trump has received more than 560,000 signatures. the debate on the measure will be open to any member of parliament and you can watch the debate live from westminster hall right here on c-span, monday morning, tarting at 11:30 a.m. eastern. featured this weekend on american history tv on c-span3. saturday night at 8:00 eastern, on lectures in history, arizona state university professor

brook simpson, on the president's war time role, including wars waged without formal congressional declaration. >> the court could argue, it's the president's job to educate. to explain to educate. the president would say, i know you don't understand this. there's not really any reason you should have understood this. it was in a place far, far away. with people speaking a different language. and so i'm going to explain to you what american interests are . we'll let people in congress respond to. that i'll let opinion makers respond to. that members of my administration. i'm going to educate you. then you can help make a decision. i'm going to ask you to do this, i'm going to explain to you why i think this is a course of action to pursue. >> and sunday morning at 10:00, on road to the white house rewind, the 1996 campaign of former republican tennessee governor alexander. and his walk across new hampshire to greet voters. and later, at 4:00 p.m. eastern

on real america, a 1963 interview with reverend martin luther king jr. on his nonviolent approach to civil rights. his comments on president kennedy's civil rights bill. and how ma hat -- gandhi influenced his work. >> several years ago when i first studied the gandhian philosophy and the method of nonviolent resistance, i came to the conclusion that it was the most potent weapon available to oppress people in their struggle for freedom and human dignity. and i would say that this overall direct action movement with its sit-ins and its stand-ins, its wait-ins, its kneel-ins, its mass marches and pilgrimages and all of the other elements that ended the struggle have been patterned a great deal after gandhi. >> for the complete american history tv weekend schedule, go to c-span.org.

>> according to gnaw report, more than 50% of college campuses last year reported they had zero sexual assaults. the findings were announced earlier today by the american association of university women who say this statistic alone raises flags on the needs to address the issue. and men. both women >> ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the aauw news maker for the national press club. i am tony gallow with the news makers committee. the national press club is the oldest professional organization for journalists and news makers. mr. gallow: if you are interested in joining, please see me afterwards. our membership is open to professionals in those fields. we're very of the to have two of the leaders at aauw.

mr. gallo: these are lisa and andrew:. lisa is the top lobbyist at aauw. she leads several organizations, including the equal pay organization. -- organization coalition. previously she worked for congresswoman carolyn maloney. she is a graduate of ohio university. and has several degrees from ohio state university. d hedge -- anne is the governor's manager for the association, which by the way has 165,000 members, 1,000 chapters and 900 universities, colleges participating. quite impressive. she is the voice on capitol hill to communicate with legislation to members of congress. she is a graduate of davidson college and has a degree from

george mason university. with that, i've spoken long enough. turn the show to lisa maattz. one more thing. after about -- after they're finished, we'll have questions from the audience. please identify yourself and speak loudly. we don't have an extra microphone. ms. maatz: thank you so much, tony. gork, good morning, everybody. what a great crowd. thank you for coming out today. it's an important topic and it's something that aauw cares about. i think cares so deeply about you could even say it's in our d.n.a. campus sexual assault. as tony mentioned, we have actually about 170,000 members, over 1,000 branches and 900 college and university partners. clearly this is an issue that affects our members and affects the issues that we care about. we're really pleased and excited that the press club invited us to be here today. and we're here today talk about campus sexual assault. now, my work on this issue is informed by my 13 years with aauw, as well as my tenure as

executive director of turning point, a domestic violence program, recognized for excellent by the ohio supreme court. i also worked at wittenberg university, where i was a hall director and ran a women's senlt that are responded to incidents of sexual assault. so i can personally attest to the fact that this issue is not new. this issue is not new. what's new is the spotlight that's been put on it. what's new is the amazing outspoken survivors that are telling their stories and speaking a little truth to power. what's new is a white house task force on campus sexual assault. what's new is, i think, re-energized office of civil rights at the department of et educations that has responded to a national clamor for better enforcement and technical assistance. in many respects, a perfect storm. if you will. it reminds me of when i was working at turning point, doing

battered women's work. the o.j. simpson trial came through. and the first violence against women's act was passed. and there was kind of this national teach-in about domestic violence at that point. and it feels very similar now. i'm really very glad to see us talking about sexual assault on campus. out loud. and with a real sense of being able to do something about it. when campus environments are hostile because of sexual harassment and violence, students can't learn. it's that simple. and it's that devastating. schools have an important and necessary role to play in addressing this epidemic. why would that be? because students' rights to an education free of sex discrimination are on the line. and while some schools have risen to the challenge, others have not. and some clearly are not in compliance with applicable laws. we've long identified the need to end sexual harassment and violence on campus.

our own research showed that nearly 2/3 of college students experienced sexual harassment. many of you may be familiar with the one in five stat in terms of how campus sexual assault affects women. what you might not be familiar with, what's less known, is that one in five women at college also experience physical or sexual abuse or threats of physical abuse from an intimate partner. in fact, college-aged women experience the highest rates of intimate partner violence in the country. we've long identified the need to talk about this issue. the issue impacts both men and women, students from all walks of life and all types of schools and for all kinds of reasons are all grossly underreported, both to schools and law enforcement. title nine and the cleare act provide schools -- tools that schools need to improve the climate. passed in 1972, title nine is the gender neutral law that proibt pro-hints sex discrimination in federally

funded education programs. this included evaluating current practices, publishing anti-discrimination policies and implementing grieveance procedures providing for a prompt and equitable resolution of complaints. schools must also provide accommodations to students such as adjusting housing aments or changing class schedules and providing support. all schools should have a title nine coordinator to oversee these activities, as well as monitor patterns and address problems. it's important to know that these requirements are not new. as i said earlier, the issue isn't new. neither are the requirements that schools address them. in fact, they date back to the law's first regulations in

1975. aauw was instrumental in passing the 1972 title nine itself. and also instrumental in urging the administration to finally do the regularationlations. it took more than three years, but it got done. since then, over the course of republican and democratic administrations, the u.s. department of education has continued to provide technical assistance and guidance that promotes compliance with the law. schools also follow a consumer protection law known as the cleare act. it requires colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs, there we have that link always to federal money, always comes with strings, right? who get that federal financial aid to disclose crime statistics and security information. originally passed in 1990, congress updated the cleare act just recently. in 2013 it was part of a bipartisan re-authorization of cleare amendments within the violence against women act. these updates require schools

to report additional crime statistics and to provide ongoing sexual assault prevention and bystander intervention training campus-wide. this public report of a school safety effort is valuable to students and parents and president pro tempore:s insights to the schools who are working to improve their campus safety programs. the most recent regulations for the cleare act were adopted through a negotiated rulemaking process of diverse stakeholders. now, that sounds very wonky, negotiated rulemaking. but the key to remember here is that it was a very diverse group and they did come to a consensus. that is unusual. so, the fact that we had campus police, survivors, campus administrators, advocacy groups together doing that work and coming to consensus i think speaks well in terms of overall concern for this issue. they worked through these complex issues and came to a consensus which went into effect on july 1 of last year.

2015. this new cleare data is now available and that's part of the reason why we're here today. we look forward to the positive impact this is going to have and the lessons that we can learn from the implementation. these reports are incredibly useful. they're useful because they help schoolses to design adequate responses and build programs that address gender-based violence. schools that aren't robustly taking advantage of this report are short changing their entire campus. title nine and the cleary act are long standing complimentary laws that work together to ensure that students and schools have a clear course of action when sexual violence occurs. and despite some claims of overreach, these requirements are not new. appropriately schools are not in the business of imposing criminal pun inner am -- punishments. these decisions are best left to authorities in charge of criminal investigation and prosecution, if a survivor

decides to go down that path. the school's civil rights proceedings and any criminal investigation represent parallel yet equally necessary paths. laws and legal precedents spell out clear requirements for schools to be prompt, fair and impartial. in all disciplinary proceedings. and title nine echoes these due process requirements by reminding schools to be adequate, reliable, impartial and prompt and include the opportunity for both parties to present witnesses and other evidence. this is in whatever process,ed a misk setting or hearing process, that the school would put together. similarly the cleary process requires that school processes be prompt, fair and impartial. and that both parties receive timely notice regarding the outcomes of proceedings. so the data in many respects is part of what we're really interested in today. because with that new regulation going into effect on

july 1, this fall we have the first reporting under the new regulations on campus sexual assault, as well as domestic violence, dating violence and stalking. the first data. it's always important when a new law goes through, how is it going to be implemented and what information are you going to get? because the whole point of the data is to give us a sense of what we might be doing better moving forward. now here's the rub. the top line finding from an nail sis that aauw did of the cleare act data and new data that just came out was that 91% of campuses disclosed zero reports of rape. let me say that one more time. 91% of campuses reported or disclosed zero incidents of reported rapes. now, we know that defies reality. it defies the research. what's really going on?

there's more here obviously than simple data. and for that, we're going to turn to my valued colleague, anne. ms. hedgepeth: thanks, lisa. aauw's new research also took a look at a few other categories of crime that are disclosed every year by every school as a part of the cleary act requirements. so where 91% of campuses certified that they did not receive a single report of rape, we also looked at new categories, including dating violence, domestic violence and stalking. these additions, as we mentioned, they're new for 2014. they're in the database now for the first time. and they were a part of the violence against women act re-authorization in 2013. collecting information about dating violence, domestic violence and stalking, in addition to rape, matters because we know that students are not immune from these forms

of sexual harassment and sexual violence. college-aged women generally experience the highest rates of intimate partner violence and many women are sexually assaulted during college and research shows that at least one in five college women experience physical abuse, sexual abuse or threats of physical violence at the hands of an intimate partner during college. in addition, many college women experience dating abuse including physical, sexual, verbal or controlling abuse. it's clear that students experience this violence. this is happening at schools every single day. and now for the first time, we have a set of information about the scope of the problem on every single campus. what aauw's research found was that similar to rape, only about 10% of college campuses disclosed a reported incident in these new categories in 2014. again, having such a low proportion of campuses with

reported incidents of dating violence, domestic violence and stalking does not square with the wealth of information that we have about how many individuals are actually impacted every single year. aawu -- aauw's research also did a quick look at the 4,000 main or primary campuses of colleges and universities with enrollment of at least 250 students. and why we did that is because these overall numbers we have are about every student. and i really want to stress that every student matters. and that's why the cleary act data is so valuable. at community colleges, in small programs, all the way up to some of these bigger schools that maybe we read about all the time. looking at just those bigger, main or primary campuses, though, we still found that reporting was out of line with what we know about the incidents of these crimes. about 76% of those campuses disclose zero rape reports in

2014. this is a problem. a silver lining in our findings, though, is that campuses that reported one type of sexual violence often disclosed other types as well. to us that suggests that some schools have and report survivors and report the statistics to the department of education. hers with across-the-board quotes have not. what can we draw? schools have a lot of work to do. many schools do. what's particularly frustrating is something i want to echo what lisa said earlier, our scrutiny follows several years of increased attention to campus sexual violence. this is the anniversary year. and as lisa mentioned, we seen increased prevention from department of education taking

off more recently in 2010 and 2011 and 2013 re-authorization of the violence against women act and a task force. schools have been put on notice and given many tools to improve their support system, their policies and procedures to respond to sexual violence. the 2014 data that we'll send to you that far too many schools are not taking this on and many may not be following the law. some schools have seem to be welcoming reporting and disclosing it here in the collection. in that, i want to drive home an important point. many of us know this. every one in the event is too many, we know it is prevalent on college campuses and we should expect schools to have reported incidents to disclose annually. zeros are the red flag and i

think we have to keep that in mind in looking at some of this data that comes in every year. so how can schools rise to the challenge? they should be because doing so helps everyone. getting the cregget numbers in the annual data collection helps college leaders allocate resources to improve prevention and response. think of that in domestic violence and stalking. if that is prevalent that may be the type of prevention work. and counting these numbers accurately reflects that the assaults were counted and that is equally as important. while we do hope that schools are reporting accurate data and what i mean there are numbers that reflect all of the reports they receive. if they are not, they need to take action to change the procedures quickly to verify and validate the data they are

sending to the department of education every year. but another thing they need to be thinking about beyond the accuracy of the data is that the numbers disclosed in the cleary collection are from reported incidents. so obviously a big gap we need to close is between the number of actual incidents and the number of reported incidents. we know that there are many survivors on college campuses who do not disclose rapes to college officials or law enforcement. this will help close the gap between actual and reported incidents. the first thing is to develop policies, procedures and campus-wide training to ensure the proper handling of reports. if students don't know who to go to or schools have confusing policies and if no one is trained what to do when they receive a report, the environment is unlikely to encourage survivors to come

forward. i say that because it's smart for a school to do this but also in the law. title 9 in the cleary act requires schools to be doing these things. do public education around reporting options, making available online opportunities to report, providing a hotline for students. these things can make reporting as easy as possible which can be critical to closing that gap again between the actual number of incidents and the reported number of incidents. i want to mention something that we think could be a gamechanger for schools and climate surveys and there are tools. you don't know what you don't know. by asking students about their experiences, about whether or not they reported and why, schools can improve their campus climate. they can learn from the experiences and make changes. schools can target efforts and

ensuring the campus needs and what students are telling them. ultimately this work can bring the school's attention the number of actual incidents instead of benchmarks for improving reporting through the cleary collection while working to prevent sexual violence. there is a wealth of research out there that is telling us more and more about sexual harrisment and violence on college campuses. it may seem like common sense. senator mccaskill released a report that schools were surveyed. 16% of those responded were doing fine with surveys in 2014 the year of the cleary collection. about half of the institutions are reporting easy by having a hotline option available. to eradicate the overwhelming number of zeros that we saw in

the cleary data collection, these practices have to change. this can tell a very powerful story. another example of that is over the past month we have seen stories about new research regarding the incidents of sexual violence around division one football game days. it goes up dramatically. understanding climate issues may contribute to the issues of sexual violence can help a school tackle sexual violence. much like the data that was used in that research, the cleary collection data can help drive those solutions, for schools, for students, for the community and for policy makers. data is a friend in these prevention efforts and we want schools to use it. all of this research overlaps with the findings and tells a

story that we have a lot more to do on prevention, on school processes and policies, on reporting and on data collection. one thing we wanted to speak to today and we mentioned this morning is that these findings joined but contrasted to long standing research into victimization. 91% of schools reporting zero rates with what we know has been validated. between 1-4 and 1-5 women are experiencing sexual violence during their college years. we have seen climate surveys that are finding similar numbers in that ball park of 1- and 1-5 and we saw the findings in a "washington post" national survey. with their research, with the keizer family foundation, found 20% of young women say they were sexually assaulted and many more

endured an attempted attack. it is this overwhelming story about how many individuals experience sexual violence during college casts an alarming light on our findings that so many schools report zero incidents. and lisa can add to this point with additional research that aauw has conducted in the past and what we are seeing across the country. ms. maatz: it happens to menace well as women and that is important to remember. it does not happen as often. it is not necessarily as harmful in terms of the outcomes for their college education, but it still is a problem. one of the things that we have

seen in the national surveys is that 7% of men, of young men suffered some kind of sexual assault on campus. what is interesting about that does it , not only underscore the continued need for title 9 to be gender neutral, but there's evidence out there that says a man is more likely does it to be sexua assaulted than he is to be falsely accused of such assault. and i think that is a very important point to make. a man is more likely to be assaulted himself than he is to be falsely accused of that crime. the next step for aauw and congress and communities to take to assist schools and students in their efforts to end sexual harassment and violence. we know it works on a continue you umh and starts early and

going to look at solid prevention strategies, we need to be talking about this in kindergarten and talking about relationships and look at bullying and harassment such as bullying can have a gender component. further n interrupt it down, you run much less of a risk of it escalating into sectional assault, rape and unfortunately, even murder. we know that young men themselves are feathed by this and there is also a you unique lgbt component to this particular problem and space needs to be made in terms of how policies are written and applied to understand everybody's lives in this particular instance. we also know that the time immediately following an incident is critical for

survivors. they need access to a safe space, to medical or counseling care and information about their rights. they also need to have an idea where they can seek traditional support. schools don't have to do this alone. most communities have some kind of domestic violence or sexual assault hotline, counseling and even prevention programs so there are local experts who are eager to work with colleges and universities to do this prevention work and provide the kinds of services that are necessary to help survivors. schools need to ensure there is a confidential adviser that is available to connect survivors with these resources. schools need to talk about what the students' rightsr whether they want to report to police or not and what their rights are on campus, what services are available. a se are all things that

survivor in crisis, particularly a young woman who may now just be removed from her family, removed from friends and church and other support groups, this is the kind of things she needs. s.o.s. campusrted act. schools nsure that take these critical steps. in addition, these climate and victimization surveys can help schools better understand the dynamics between reported and unreported incidents of sexual violence. schools are hesitant to do these climate surveys because they are viewing campus sexual assault as a public relations issue more so than a safety issue and as a civil rights issue. one of the things we need to remember when we are talking about campus sexual assault, it is a civil rights issue as it

may be a criminal matter. schools have a responsibility through title 9 and through the cleary act to make sure that this behavior, this climate is not getting in the way of someone's right to an education. that public relations issue is key. i want to be clear there are good actors out there. schools have been concerned that if if they have a safety report that reflects the kind of crime that might be on campus that somehow it's going to be bad for business. parents and students will look at those reports and wonder if she should attend that school. today's reality, and so many people are talking about this issue and so clearly present in our national conversation, schools need to get past that p.r. concern. if i had a daughter going to college, i would much prefer a university that stands up to the microphone and says, you know

what? we have a problem. it happens everywhere, which means it also happens here. here's what we are going to do about it, here's how we follow title 9 and make sure we are doing everything we can as an administration to support our students. that, to me would be comforting. you don't need to gloss it over and pretend it doesn't happen. address it right up front. and that could be revolutionary. these climate surveys help us understand the dynamics between reported and unreported incidents, but they help assess administrative and cultural factors on campus that can undermine reporting and reporting. these climate surveys can't be stressed enough. far too many schools don't do them. one of the benefits of the surveys is the longitudinal of them. you can see how things are

improving. you can see if your prevention efforts are working and see if students are learning about the processes and the rights that are available to them on campus and if they're not, you can address that. you can come back and figure it out but you're not going to know unless you do the survey. schools need information in order to combat this epidemic and this information, this accurate cleary reporting is going to provide them the data they need. these climate surveys provide transparency and also the kind of transparency that's crucial to student safety as well as to help schools fine tune their response. there isn't necessarily a one size fits all solution. yes, you have to follow title 9 and you have to follow the cleary act. but the climate survey can find out what your specific problems

are on your specific campus so you can design specific solutions. it would require surveys in this school. the surveys were something recommended through the white house task force that this particular bill would require schools to do it and fully in support. we urge congress to provide additional resources to the department of education to support schools, support title 9 coordinateors and other stakeholders on relevant laws and best practices. one glimmer of positive motion moving forward is one of the things the office of civil rights department of education recently released is the first ever i will call it a tool kit for title 9 coordinateors. title 9 has been around for 40 years. but for the first time ever we have a tool kit that tells them what their job is that reinforces that they can't be retaliated against for doing their job and talks about the

depth of title 9 and not just athletics but talking about sexual vial earns on campus and access to stem classes, all the things that title 9 can be useful for. this is a huge deal and revolutionary. and our members across the country are printing out these new materials and hand delivering them to title 9 coordinateors at colleges and universities and schools. part of the reason this is important we found through our own research that not only do a schools not necessarily have a coordinator appointed, but many of the folks who are appointed don't know it. you call and ask for the title 9 coordinator and -- great story when i was at a conference, i had a woman come up to me because she was excited about this information. at the break she called her

president at the university of a small school and called him right up and said i'm so excited about this, he said who do i need to talk about. who is our title 9 coordinator so i can share this information. and the title -- and the president said you are. that can happen. we need to make sure they have this information. and i'm proud of our members getting this information out because it could be revolutionary in terms of how we address things. there are schools that are working diligently to respond to incidents of sexual violence. more attention to sexual violence and seen an uptick in complaints. we need additional funding as well as the office that happenedles reporting and complaints. there are schools that are under investigation regarding their

compliance or lack thereof with title 9. the office of civil rights needs additional funding to provide technical assistance to schools and the bad actors accountable. let me give you more detail because i think these numbers are astounding. the u.s. department of education office for civil rights which is responsible for enforcing title 9 and civil rights law currently has staffing levels that are lmost 15% below levels years ago. nd 50% below 30 years ago when we are seeing an uptick in complaints and the complexities of the issues. they need the resources not just for the enforcement practices but for the technical assistance to help schools to comply so they don't have to worry about an investigation. a single incident of sexual

violence is one too many. it adds insult to injury. but we have tools to make a real difference. and aauw is stemming the tide of sexual violence as congress works to re-authorize the higher education act. i don't know if this is something that will get through. they just did pass the elementary and secondary act re-authorization. those committees are kind of tired right now. are they going to the do the higher ed this year? if they do, they need to address sexual assault. these bills on capitol hill have attracted bipartisan attention. something that is all too many unusual these days. if we can find some consensus as well as the will to do a higher education bill we can put

additional protections, programming and requirktse, following on our 2013 re-authorization. thank you very much. we are now going to stand for questions. [applause] mr. gallo: just had two superb presentations and i will be calling on people. please give your name and identify what organization you are with and if you are with aauw, proudly say aauw or private citizen, say that. ma'am. can you speak loudly. we didn't get an extra microphone. audience member: i haven't read -- he research but on [inaudible]

audience member: what data are you using to show that they may not be reporting, climate urveys, other kinds of data. ms. maatz: i will have my numbers guru. if the statistics were accurate, they would be very much something to celebrate but the reality is that we know that they're not. and what we don't know is why they are not. maybe students don't feel safe in reporting. maybe campuses don't have a process in place to support survivors. we know from very clear research that has been reinforced over the years that campus sexual assault is happening. to have 91% of schools disclose no reported incidents of no

assault defies the imagination. why and what can we do about it? that is a critical question and part of the reason we worked so hard to get that into the re-authorization a few years ago, we wanted additional data that we could use to not only address prevention issues and see how we're doing and schools are doing. if the data was accurate, i would be doing a happy dance for you. [inyou had i believe question] ms. hedgepeth: what is important here when we say it's not accurate, we are looking at the difference about what we hear in terms of incidents level. several of them that are often referenced came out of the department of justice but in

1980's, one of the research studies looked at students at 32 colleges and up through the most recent national survey that the "washington post" did which was representative and found that number around 20% and what our findings that 91% of college campuses reported that they had zero reported incidents of rape in 2014 that doesn't match up with the surveys and detailed research and long standing research that when we ask students about their experiences as many as one in four and one in five women are experiencing sexual assaults. i do point to some of the more recent ones coming out of the department of justice and national survey from the "washington post" as good places to start. we have been excited to see some schools release their information from their climate

surveys and i mentioned that as well that several found numbers in that ballpark in terms of asking the he incident level and reported. and even go to release as much data as they can, it provides a wealth of additional information to this conversation. and we would encourage schools to be transparent with that data. a great example, we did see m.i.t. release their information and people were able to say, did this question get at what you wanted it to. that is one of the differences, looking at the different questions they ask. but at the end of the day it comes and comes to the point we want to make. we asked students about their experiences, they are not being borne out in the reported numbers and that has happened yet again when we look at the cleary data collection of the

eported numbers in 2014. audience member: does the aauw recommend going toll local police rather than using campus police and may campus police have a conflict of interest? ms. maatz: if you are a victim of sexual assault on campus and the campus has a police force do you go there or go to local lice and what interest might campus police have in terms of how to handle campus sexual assault. one of the things we need to remember when it comes to criminal reporting there are very good reasons why this crime is so underreported to police. victims don't necessarily want

to come forward and they are revictimized when they do, services aren't adequate. police and prosecutors are not receptive or helpful when survivors come forward. there are reasons why they might not come forward. what's interesting now and you saw this with bernie sanders who stumbled over an answer over campus sexual assault, he said we should be telling the students to go to the police and not letting universities cover it up. and i think he meant well in the sense that he was viewing that not encouraging students to go to the police somehow meant that it allowed the college to handle it in its own way and sweep it under the rug. the college can't sweep it under the rug. they have to keep track of those civil rights protection and have to have title 9 incidents and

you want a situation where you are providing the survivor with information, with access to resources so that he or she knows their rights and then if they choose to, they can make a report. the key here is not to make that report mandatory. if you want to ensure that not another survivor comes to the police, make reporting mandatory. you can't do that. you can't take that power away. that needs to be their decision because there are all kinds of ramifications to reporting. then to get to campus or local police, they are going to toss it to the one who has jurisdiction. so you might not necessarily have a choice as far as that goes. but the other thing to keep in mind with the cleary data collection, this is a place where they are supposed to be working with local police to collect data and there is a lot of room for better collaboration

and better conversation to make sure they are doing the best hey can for victims. audience member: can the public see the cleary information before they go to school. ms. maatz: yes. and anne has that information. ms. hedgepeth: the question is how can we find that information of a prospective parent or student. one of the best things of the cleary act, it is a transparency-oriented law. all of the information that schools collect, report, put together under the cleary act has to be displayed in a few different ways. first and foremost, they put out an annual security report. it should be easy to find on their website. go to a school you know and type in annual security report and see what shows up.

that's a wonderful place to start. when it comes to the actual numbers, the reported incidents every year, the department of education collects all of them from schools and puts them in a data base and make it possible for anyone to look up to compare schools and do something with it and that's on a website that the department of education makes publicly available. we can make sure that you have that url afterwards and way you can slice and dice that data. that's what we use, the publicly available data to find this information and it means that anyone can do that in a community with a school they are interested in or a group of schools they are interested in. i want to stress that the cleary act covers more than sexual violence. while we have been focusing on rape, domestic violence and

stalking, there are additional crime statistics there. there is information about hate campus and a number of other things that schools do. this is a comprehensive look at the safety of students on campus. at least one eighth of it. and when these things occurred, what occurred and what schools are doing to respond. we hope people will use it in that vein and push them if they have any questions. [inaudible question] ms. maatz: talked about one of the best ways and look at the annual security report. it's much more than statistics and in fact part of what we did

in the 2013 re-authorization with the cleary amendments to that statute was put in several different requirmentes that need to be added to this security report and students, staff, faculty kl all look at, interested alumni. and let me tell you a few of the things. now they have to add hate crimes . that will be in there. there is a lot of research of vial ins against women depending to be a hate crime. they have to update their annual security report to include the stitution program that are available. so in other words within that report, they should be detailing what prevention programs they're doing to address this and that will give you a sense of the

scope and whether you think they are adequate or not. they have to list the procedures, the steps, the time lines that the institution is going to follow when one of these crimes is reported and you can see that they have thought it through and they have the policy and have the process. all the sanctions that the school imposes and you could have a sense of what direction they're going. one of the things we have seen unfortunately as we have gotten into this national conversation about sexual assault that some schools are providing ridiculous sanctions. book reports for people that have been found in an administrative setting to be in violation of a student code of sexual and violation of assault. schools need to use that opportunity for the changed agent it can be. they need to provide clear

options to students who report one of these incidents. within that report used to be able to see who they are referring people to. what kind of services do they have on campus. students know for sure. if that is not fleshed out, you need to ask them because they need to have those services available. schools are required to give survivors the information about the options they have to report it, whether it's a title 9 report or a police report. again, that's part of what they are supposed to be talking about. and lastly, schools have to provide information on how they'll protect the confidentiality of survivors as well as notify them about counseling and other services. what we are doing with the cleary report, this is all about campus crime in general not just sexual violence. in addition to these stats, what are you doing? what steps are you taking? what processes do you have in

place? if that's done well, that could be a gold mine for someone to hold a school accountable. you need to ask questions. audience member: when you were talking about the cleary report, title 9, cleary act, title 9, two words jumped out at me, timely and prompt. are they in the law? or the schools determine what is prompt and what's timely? ms. hedgepeth: the question is timely and prompt. i think the most important thing here is something we mentioned earlier is that our laws are not necessarily one size fits all. they are meant to work with

schools' policy but provide a framework. the department of education has given some guidelines to help schools do the things they are supposed to do under these frame works that the law established. schools have resources under both title 9 through guidance and the technical assistance and the information that is available to title 9 coordinateors to help them work through the processes they have to in a prompt manner. they have some opportunities to be clear with students that there will be delays or things going on, those are outlines that they can make that happen and we encourage students if schools are not being prompt, then that is something you can do something about. and we have seen an increased number of complaints coming to the department of education of tools that many people didn't know about for a long time. when or if you are involved in a response, sexual violence on a

campus and feel your school hasn't acted appropriately in the law or the guidance that has been provided you have access to complain to the department of education and they may investigate what you have reported and we encourage people to report that. they may need to bring it to the attention. but one of many tools that are available that helps provide a framework to ensure that students have their civil rights protected. i'm just ember: curious, can you talk a little bit about the implications of that unfortunate jackie story at u.v.a. and what that does to efforts like ours. ms. maatz: the question was to talk about what the impact of

the u.v.a. story may have, the one that was in "rolling stone." that is a difficult question and a good question. one of the things we are concerned about is when rapes, sexual assault or violence is reported, how are the survivors treated and if they're not treated well, despite whatever circumstances jackie may have been, what survivors will say was she treated well. and that's something we have to be concerned about. people don't want to come forward if they are going to be tried in the media. at the same time, we also know that folks who don't believe that there is a campus sexual assault and people who don't believe title 9 should be addressing these issues and it has been addressing it all along would like to use that as an

example. how we are overreacting. part of why i wanted to stress that earlier statistic that not only does campus sexual assault affect men, 7%, that's not a small number of when you think how many folks are in college but men are more likely to be sexually assaulted than to be falsely accused of it. there is a myth that there are tons of false rape reports and the reality is there aren't any more there than any other crime. if you highlight those instances, it's a way of trying to downplay what's welly happening. that hole incident was regrettable. i think people of goodwill could have differing opinions of how it turned out in recent articles, but the reality is we want to make sure people can come forward to report and

people understand that false reports are not common, they're ot the what is fueling the survivor and the advocacy anger about this epidemic on campus. awe awed american university. one in five are sexually assaulted, what is the definition of sex all assault? ms. maatz: every survey is different in terms of the medthoddoling but i'm going to let a nmp ne answer that question. ms. hedgepeth: we can sfol up with you about the different questions and how they are answered with the different surveys.

there are differences. in many cases what you are hearing in these questions what students have asked is unwanted sexual contact often with the definition of that. and for schools it may not match their policies. maybe that will be in line with the criminal code. maybe that includes on the spectrum of harassment. but behaviors that impact women's access to education. it does depend on the survey and something we can dig in deeper. but the big picture of what this is telling us is that sexual violence is prevalent across ampuses and over time. audience member: if we could have copies of the climate survey.

ms. hedgepeth: the white house department of education, the task force we mentioned on sexual violence put together, there are instructions how to do a climate survey and information about how to do one. there are collaboratives to figure out what the best questions to ask so we could have standardized questions across our surveys and see that in some of the surveys that have been released to individual schools. one of the long standing surveys is publicly available to that the university of nutch has done. it's a place to look. but there is a public resource from the white house and department of education at otalone.gov. audience member: you mentioned there are a number of good players out there. what is aauw to encourage and recognize the good players?

ms. maatz: there are good actors out there and we mentioned that and what is aauw doing to encourage or highlight those folks that are doing a good job. the best way to respond to that is to say we always try to mention that because there are a lot of hardworking title 9 and cleary reporters. number two, i would hesitate to single out one particular school in doing everything right. u can find this in notalone.gov, you say they need the processes how to collect the data. they need to have a good agreement with local police if how they are going to collect that data. we recommend they involve students, heavily in their prevention programming and the preparation of that and in the delivering of that.

there are best practices out there that i think various schools illustrate. mentioned new hampshire having a climate survey and that's the one we point to for that. if you look at the resolution agreement, there is a lot of good information there that any schools who wants a road map can use. that's part of what we are trying to get through here. there has been some pushback saying this is new, this is too much, this isn't what schools should be doing. it's not new. it's been around for 40 years and we are holding you accountable in a much better way. that has to do with social media and survivors and advocates but we aren't expecting anybody to do this. they have information and don't have to re-invent the wheel and it doesn't have to be rocket science.

audience member: falls church aauw. a couple of years ago i was at a meeting and speaker suggested alma ople go to their mater's website and look at what their college and university has been doing and then speak up and when you meet people from the university. and so -- mine was george mason and i went there and i was very pleased to see the policy and how well it was publicized. and then since then i touched base with them every once in a while and i'm pleased with the efforts they have put in. it's an ongoing program starting with the president. ms. maatz: wonderful aauw and

one good way to hold folks accountable, go to your college or university and say how are you doing, what are you doing, is it working and potentially how can i help. when you talk about a potential p.r. problem and you have one writing in and having concerns, that's a big issue. so it is important to go to the schools that you have been to to look at that information and to send a quick letter, to send a quick tweet, to post something on facebook in one of the school's alumnae pages and being clear but you want to see improvement over time and see that they are doing work and constantly refining and improving what they are doing in terms of prevention and response so things will actually improve. ou can see -- say why i love

aauw members. we will hold you accountable. mr. gallo: delightful presentation. i may be repeating, but our next newsmaker is with the head of the selective service system and registering women and immigrants with the selective service system. this is something new. it's new territory. on february 8, i will be hosting he new presiding bishop of the episcopal church of the united states. michael curry. he is the first african-american to hold that position. with that, we thank the audience. let's give the audience an applause. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by

national captioning institute] >> tom morning on "washington journal," will discuss the conservative approach to poverty. covenant miley, the with black america examining the plan of action to address issues facing the black community and phone calls, facebook comments and tweets. live tomorrow morning at 7:00. house and senate republicans started their two-day retreat. senator thune and representative kathy mrs. mcmorris rodgers briefed reporters and reacted to nikki haley's state of the union response. his is 15 minutes.

mrs. mcmorris rodgers: good morning everyone. this is our second annual house-senate retreat and we are here as the people's representative to engage in a competition of ideas as we think about the future of 2016 and beyond. so on tuesday in the state of the union, we heard one future based upon president obama's legacy and a top-down government knows best approach and we are here to put together a different choice for america as we head into this year and beyond. a future that is built upon solutions really from the bottom up that trusts people to make the best decisions for themselves, families, students, small businesses, seniors, having the ability to pursue

their own dreams and people are not defined by where they come from but empowered by what they can become. we would like to think of the house and the senate and this time being a think tank of conservative policy and this retreat has been set up to foster that discussion among the realms' representatives. through the day, members will be in thought-provoking discussion on initiatives, jobs and the economy, national security, health care, rethinking out poverty programs and our constitutional role within article 1. we need to rally around a common vision for america and the best way to move that forward. thank you. thune thune thanks, kathy and i elcome you to baltimore.

we're very excited to be here with our house colleagues. when we met here last year, we had a new majority and were in the process of trying to get the senate functioning again to work with our house colleagues to get things done for the american people. and we have at least if you look at the record of this last year have done that. rst balanced budget, first meaningsful reform and social security reforms since 1983 and first multi-year highway bill since 2005 not to mention cybersecurity and a number of other things we were able to get through the senate, keystone pipeline which ultimately was vetoed and repeal of obamacare and things that the senate got done this year. we have restored the senate

where it is functioning it again and we will build upon that success and lead to more accomplishments. this session is really about getting our members together talking about our ideas as kathy mentioned it is a competition of ideas. we are the party of ideas and the party of innovation and the party of economic growth and opportunity and party of compassion and so the sessions today are focused on that. we have a panel of people that will talk about economic growth and innovation. we have a panel that is going to talk about the future of health care. we have a panel that is going to talk about how to keep the country safe and fight terrorism and we have a panel that's going to talk about how to update outdated poverty programs. so that's what the session is all about today. very much focused on policy and focused on the agenda for this

next year. it's an election year which makes it more challenging because people tend to go into respective corners and there is a presidential campaign going on at the same time. but as a congress, as republican majority, we want to be driving forward putting ideas out there, creating an agenda that we think is good for the american people that will lead to greater prosperity and greater security for our country. that's what we are here to do these couple of days and pleased we have a good representation of the members in the senate to u.s. ur colleagues in the house of representatives. awed reporter: nikki haley got a lot of attention this week, dements directed at donald trump and had to avoid the temptation to follow the siren call and some

people think you have to be the loudest voice in the room. that's not true. do you agree with what she's saying? senator: i think she did a very good job and impressive in her remarks and delivered very, very well and presented a voice and face for our party that is what we are all about and that is growing our majority and reaching out to more people, presenting ideas that are compelling and attract people to join our vision. and we have different people have different ideas and different ways of communicating and different style and tone, but i thought she did a nice job at least of reflecting what many of us here are talking about this week and that is pro-growth agenda for the american people, one that reaches out and tries to attract more people to our cause. reporter: she is talking about her concerns about what we are hearing on the campaign trail.

and do you share those concerns that the rhetoric on the campaign trail and will that impact her ability to keep the majority and win back the white house? senator: in a presidential campaign the rhetoric gets high. that is just inevitable and we can't control what presidential candidates are going to say and do. and what we do as individual members of congress. we want to make sure both house members and senators are well positioned going into this election year to talk about a positive agenda and talk about record of accomplishment which i think is pretty self-evident from last year and run their own campaigns. what happens on the presidential ballot, we don't control. you try to control what you can control. we want to articulate a clear, positive agenda for the future of this country and the

presidential campaign when we ve a nominee will be able to sync up with them and their agenda but our meems need to talk about to encourage their voters to give them another opportunity to represent them. mrs. mcmorris rodgers: there is a lot of frustration across the country and that is reflected among the members, too. and part of the reason we have dedicated time while we are together to look at the question of article 1, the power of the purse, how we restore the rightful role of elected representatives of the people and the decision making processes is on the fover front of our minds -- forefront of our minds and goes to the fears and frusstrages from people when more and more decisions are being made -- the president, the

executive branch or judicial branch that don't reflect the will of the people or are not voted on by the people. we want to be focused on that and it is fundamental to who we are as representatives and as a reflection of the people through representative government. reporter: follow up on your point, you said hopefully we will be able to sync with their agenda, is there concern with the front runner that republicans might not be able to sync if it is donald trump and the speaker and others have repudiated what he has said. if that doesn't sync up, isn't that a problem for the g.o.p.? senator: we are a big and diverse party. lots of ideas out there and people are different in terms of

the style and tone in which they convey their message. and i assume at some point, i don't know how soon it's going to happen, but we are going to have -- people are going to start voting in the next three weeks and the primaries are going to start ticking off. the debate is going to engage and people are going to start looking very seriously at these candidates and i think the candidate that is going to be successful is going to have to tap into as kathy said the frustration being experienced by the american people. people want those who they want to appeal to their hopes and articulating a hopeful vision, a clear agenda is going to be critically important. whoever that candidate is has an agenda they want to talk about, there will be areas where we

will find common ground. but what we want to be prepared to do is see our members both house and senate are positioned well going into this election year to make their case to their voters about why we need to retain a republican majority in congress. the record of this last year, the things we want to do this next year, the ideas we want to put forward i hope are going to provide the necessary wherewithal for our candidates to do that irrespective of what's happening on top. reporter: i agree and that's part of why we are here today is because we are a broad diverse group of people. mrs. mcmorris rodgers: we welcome the competition of ideas and it is important as we head into 2016 that we are articulating as representatives in the house and the senate what are those specific policy solutions so people in this

country know what we as republicans believe are the specific policy solutions that will help grow our economy and get people back to work. and skills and training to get this economy growing at a faster pace. what is the future of health care? the republicans believe there's a better future than what's currently offered to americans, better solutions. so we want to present that as a choice to the country. we believe it's very important that the safety and security of this country is first and foremost. and that also is going to be a focus today and moving forward and rethinking these outdated poverty programs. we think that as the members of congress, it is important that we're presenting that choice as we head into this election so people can know what we would like to accomplish.