like with any agreement, you need to look at a particular agreement and ask yourself the question, is this good for the american economy? is this good for american workers? is this good for american wages? the ttp did not meet that standard for a variety of reasons, including allowing mine countries to under environmental protection laws, and i opposed the fast track and i opposed the previous multilateral trade agreements. you have to look at each of these on their own merits. tom proud in the selection have been endorsed by the united auto workers. we are very interested in expanding manufacturing in maryland. we have a manufacturing plant in washington county. we need to bring more manufacturing here. have theird to support as well as the support of another organization that is

on the cutting edge of workers rights, which is sciu, which membered congress edwards early in the campaign and is now supporting me. i was in annapolis fighting for paid sick leave at the state level. just as i put that forward as part of the democratic budget at the federal level. historyud of my of fighting for workers rights, better pay, and collective bargaining. rep. edwards: let's go back to trade for a minute. it is true that my opponent has supported nine of the last 11 trade deals, including the korea agreement, which in the three years since the agreement was inked and you voted for it, we have hemorrhaged jobs and the trade deficit with korea has actually grown. i don't think that that is the kind of trade deal that the american people were american

workers deserve. the tpp would have been nice over this last year and a half while i, and a group of colleagues, have been working to try to improve a transpacific partnership that mr. van hollen , but he wasf that absent until this election. vote for these free-trade deals and all the other hand say you support american workers. i am pleased to have the support of the hotel workers and the inmsters and a laundry list the organization. free-trade has to be fair trade. our next question is directed to mr. van hollen. anne: the national debt has and obamader the bush administration and the national

deficit is almost $500 billion. what would you do to address the budget deficit and reforms to entitlement programs? rep. van hollen: it is important when we deal with any agreements that we read those before we come out against him. like the tpp. i think it is important we see the product and our constituents expect that. i chair, i am the senior democrat on the budget community. -- budget committee. i have been leading the battle in congress to put forth a plan that will grow our economy, invest in places like the national institutes of health, but also reduce long-term debt. the way we can do that is not by touching social security and medicare. way we can do that is by getting rid by a lot of the special interest tax breaks in the tax code that favor hedge fund

managers over hard-working people, school teachers, bus drivers, and i put forward proposals to do exactly that. if you look at the special interest tax breaks that have accumulated in the tax code, they are trillions of dollars. 17% of the benefits of all those special interest tax breaks go to the top 1% income earners and only add to economic inequality. i have been very focused on reducing the long-term deficit in a way that protects social security and medicare. when it comes to medicare, we can save money by requiring we negotiate for drug prices. that is a way we can save money. vic: we go to ms. edwards. rep. edwards: veterans and seniors pay into social security . it is an earned benefit. i think that they are entitled to have a benefit that is paid out to them and not have that

traded away by politicians who in front of the camera say one thing and behind them do another. unfortunately, mr. van hollen wasn't exactly that position in his leadership position. when he was on the simpson bowles commission, he supported for as a general framework reducing the deficit. the problem is that it was a framework that was cut social security benefits and also raise the retirement age. i think that is not an acceptable position for us to be in. social security is an earned stand by seniors, especially women who are left at the end of their lives by themselves and only have social security. they don't have a 401(k) plan. they don't have a pension. they only have social security. in you wanted to traded away

an effort to cut a deal. i think there is no deal to be cut on the backs of our senior citizens. vic: thank you very much. rep. van hollen: maryland voters deserve the truth, and congresswoman edwards is not telling the truth. i have been leading the fight on behalf of the democrats to protect social security and medicare as recently as two weeks ago. my colleagues unanimously voted for me to carry their standard and make sure that we upheld those values in the budget committee, including congresswoman edwards supporting that effort until we got on the campaign trail and now she is misleading voters. this is exactly the kind of thing that voters hate about politics. i am 100% rated from the alliance of retired americans. the one difference between us on this is i have been in the

trenches leading the fight to detect social security and medicare. congresswoman edwards has not been part of this battle. she has not been part of it until this campaign where she decided to play politics. i think voter should be very disturbed. vic: our next question comes from dan roderick's. in 2015lege graduates left campus with an average of $35,000 in debt. it increased to more than $10,000 in five years. what role can the federal government play in improving college affordability? rep. edwards: i know something about that. i finished college and law school with almost $100,000 in student debt and i know it really constrains what young people can do with their lives, whether they can move out of their parents homes, whether they can start a business,

whether they can start families. i think we have to start doing something about this. we have $1.4 trillion of college debt hanging out there. that is why that a strong component of that free college, ideas for having community college, two years be paid for so students only have to pay for the other two years to fill out their college careers. i think there are a number of ways we can do this. we have to look at the way colleg private institutions are encouraged to spend their endowment so students do not leave with a lot of debt. as soon as i finish paying for my student loans, i started paying for my son's college and that is a circumstance that many middle-class families duvets. i believe it is important -- families do face. i believe it is important because it should not be more

than what the prevailing interest rate is for other kinds of loans. we should look at ways that we can reinforce students being able to go into jobs that are coming out at the economy, so that they are being trained for jobs they will actually get when they get out of school. thank you. rep. van hollen: i have a record on this issue. banks, wallhe big street interests, or making huge profits off the student loan program. eyelid the fight to stop that. we still have a long way to go. arestudents who out -- who out there who have big debts from college, i support efforts to pass a bill that elizabeth warren had pushed which would allow people to renegotiate at lower interest rates. as a leader on the budget theittee, i put forward

proposal that the president has, free committee college, seeing that hbcus are affordable and don't get hurt in that process. with respect to kids going to college now, we need to use federal leverage to incentivize colleges to reduce their tuition and we need to push forward even more on in home-based repayment. right now we have moved in the direction of saying the amount you have to repay for your loan will be based on how much you earn and pay. nobody will be too stretched. we need to build on that because we know this is not just hurting students. it is hurting communities because students start behind from the beginning. they can't rent an apartment or buy a home. i have a record of fighting on this issue and not just someone who talks about this issue. rep. edwards: mr. van hollen

says someone who talks about it all the time. college students who are like me coming out of college need someone who talks about the debt they are facing and puts ideas forward how we reduce that debt. i strongly supported the budgets that have been offered, but we have not done anything about it. i think today's college students, especially the first-generation students -- i have had an opportunity to have a college fair for 8001st-generation students and to help them understand what it means when they are going to college about the debt they are going to incur and ways they can reduce that. we have an obligation to that and i think mr. van hollen has ideas about that and so do i and i am looking forward to being in the senate. vic: our next question comes from andy greene. andy: what is your view of the

criminal justice reform movement? do you believe our sentencing practices need to be amended? rep. van hollen: i do believe we need dramatic criminal justice reform. we have a scandal in this country of mass incarceration. we need to be spending more on schools and less on prison. i am part of an effort, the main legislative efforts in college, to actually do something about act, whichustice would get away from treating nonviolent substance abuse as a criminal matter, and address those issues as a health care and addiction matter. we have seen the consequences of this failed policy because we have so many nonviolent abuse offenders in jail, not just under federal law, but state law.

it is important that we also address these issues at the state level. along with important questions of police accountability and transparency and ultimately getting at the really deep issues of chronic poverty and inequality in our economy. these are all things that have to be doubt with together and i have put forward proposals together with colleagues on criminal justice reform, as well as wellness plans, to address the huge income inequality in our country. of a are part in parcel larger issue and we need to do with them on a systemic basis, because we have seen systemic racism, we see other systemwide consequences that we are seeing in these policies. before i came into congress, i supported efforts around the country, looking at the deep systemic problem of incarceration and imposing capital sentences, particularly

on young black men and brown men in this country. i have a long history that goes back years on criminal justice issues. supporting efforts to make sure that those who are indigent have the ability to get counseled. in the congress, i have led on these issues. i have convened in my congressional office groups working on reentry from all across our congressional district, montgomery and prince george's county as well. we look at how it is we can get people into productive work so they don't go back into prison. it is the reason i introduced the real act. this would restore pell grant eligibility to those who are incarcerated. i met alfonso at prison. when he first started getting an education, he thought about his life differently. that is why i have been a leader to give people an opportunity to rebuild their lives and that we

do things unlike what mr. van hollen did, which is to support imposition of mandatory sentences. that is what he did in congress in 2005, escalating sentences to 30 years in cases at a time when we knew that these mandatory penalties contributed to behind carson ration rate and i think that is a crime. rep. van hollen: thank you. broughtwoman edwards this up about my state legislative record. she distorted that. yesterday, state senator john carter conway and state senator dolores kelly wrote to congresswoman edwards and said, cut it out. quit distorting van hollen's record, which he did. congress, we to were dealing with violent crime from ms13, who were committing

brutal murders. we were putting a package the other that included enforcement, but also my fork us -- focus has been on prevention and intervention. when it comes to mass incarceration, it did not even pass. this is another example of a gross distortion. trying to accuse me, who has been a leader on major pieces of criminal justice reform is just upside down. again, a bill that did not even pass. let's get the truth. vic: i apologize. time has run out. last year's unrest in baltimore following the death of freddie gray highlighted inblems that there are 2 -- federal cities. rep. edwards: thank you. i have had the privilege of being able to meet with so many families across the city in vulnerable communities and i

think we have to take a multi-pronged and simultaneous approach. i think about harold, who i met in a male mentoring program in the hood. harold said, i like math and i like school. i am afraid in school. we have to make sure that we have law enforcement that is transparent and accountable, that works with communities, in partnership with community, because that is the best way to fight crime. we also have to make certain that we invest in education and opportunity. it should not matter what zip code you live in that you should go to a good school. we have to make economic development targeted to neighborhoods that are most vulnerable. i supported those ideas in the united states house of representatives. we have to make sure that we invest in research and development so that we restore domestic and you factoring so

people -- domestic manufacturing so people can grow into the middle class. rep. van hollen: i love baltimore. this is a great american city. my dad's family is from baltimore. the other reason i wasn't one of baltimore is my dad went into the navy. i worked for governor schaeffer. he was focused like a laser beam on baltimore, and i worked at the federal level to get more funds to invest in baltimore, whether was transportation, the port, other major engines of opportunity. we know today that baltimore is a tale of two cities. you have the glitzy inner harbor. blocks back, you have a very different set of neighborhoods. we need to address this in an urgent manner. i believe that we need to dramatically increase the incentives, tax incentives and other incentives, for businesses to move to other neighborhoods.

the state senate took important steps yesterday. we need to build better pipelines between city colleges and institutions of learning and employers. institutionsve big to do more to purchase and hire locally. we need to build better transportation ask between where people are neighborhoods without jobs and the jobs and the surrounding areas, so it does not take four hours of commuting. these are all important things and need to be tackled on an urgent basis. baltimore is our largest city and in maryland, it baltimore is not doing well, it means our state is not doing well. interest have a vested in making sure that baltimore succeeds.

in theaking certain congress led by the senate that we get those federal resources down to the community level where they are most needed. we have a lot of big federal dollars that come into the city, but they are not targeted to vulnerable neighborhoods. i would like to see a portion of that be supported in the congressional black caucus budget, supporting a portion of every federal dollar targeted going into communities. this is a way i think we help rebuild the city and rebuild confidence in the city we all love. clear from a number of reports that government at the state, local, and federal levels failed to protect the people of flint, michigan, from contaminated water. it has been nine years since the

baltimore school system switch to bottled water out of concern of lead contamination. more, ore epa have even full authority over the nation's unesco water supplies? rep. van hollen: yes, i do. democratic budget now,sal on congress right we are addressing these issues and trying to find the resources not to just the people of flint, but to people around the country. it should never be the case in america that where you live or what your income is or what your braces determines whether you have clean air and clean water -- what your race is determines whether you have clean air and clean water. this is part of a larger issue of environmental justice. this campaign has been endorsed by the sierra club, which makes

environmental justice one of its key platforms. i have been fighting on these issues for a very long time. to a this on an urgent basis. right now i am working with congressman elijah cummings, who does a great job representing baltimore city, to make sure that victims of lead paint are not harmed twice when they get a settlement for being harmed the first time and someone goes out to try to get them to sell that in a way that hurts them. this is an issue that we need to address on an urgent basis. i put forward to specific proposals to deal with it. environmental justice is part of the fight for equal justice and equal rights. just a few weeks ago i had the privilege of cochairing a policy hearing with our leader nancy pelosi on the flint crisis. looking at what happened at

every single level. particularly concerned not just with the fact there was a disinvestment in the water structure itself and diverting poisoned water into homes, but what would happen in terms of because it if, long-term cognitive success of those children, some 9000 children. that is the same circumstance we face in baltimore. when a child is poisoned with six, iter the age of impacts their cognitive ability over the course of their lifetime. i think that in addition to the heart infrastructure, make those improvements, we make sure we have resources available for education over the course of a lifetime. we are starting to see relationships between the incarcerated population and lead paint poisoning. when those links are made, it is important for us to make adjustments early on so we can

have some mitigation as to what might happen with young people down the line, so that physical resources, but also the other sorts of education and other services that are needed to have people get as whole as they can be. vic: any rebuttal? rep. van hollen: no, only to emphasize that this has been an issue where being left to the states in many instances, we see what happens when you have governor like the governor of michigan who has neglected his responsibility to all the people of michigan. that is why i do believe it is important for the federal government to take more responsibility in this area and certainly to step up our efforts to modernize our water infrastructure and make sure those are going to where they need it. when i put together the budget, i worked closely with the congressional black caucus, and

adopted their proposal as part of the budget to make sure we do a better job of targeting resources to areas that need them the most. that is an important function of the federal government and we need to pursue it in this area. vic: next question comes from andy greene and miss edwards ll be the first recipient. andy: in recent years, and number of corporations have moved headquarters overseas in order to avoid u.s. corporate income taxes, which are higher than in most other industrialized nations. corporation stashed means of dollars -- billions of dollars overseas to avoid taxes. should be lower the tax rate? rep. edwards: what we should do, and i am joined with our democratic colleagues in the congress in saying that what we need to do is to enforce our laws, but also save

corporations, you are going to be taxed on your assets here. if your company is located here, you will be taxed in the united states. mr. van hollen has worked very dutifully on these inversion issues. , as do support that work most of our democrats in the house of representatives. i think we also have to incentivize corporate companies to bring their business back to the united states. i have created a tax credit tied to domestic manufacturing so we begin to bring those corporate headquarters and the businesses that have located internationally back to the united states of they can be fully covered under our tax code. rep. van hollen: i have been leading the fight on this issue. it is called inversions. these are company that are based in the united states but just change the mailing address and

end upunch of lawyers to escaping their responsibility to american taxpayers. when they pay less, it means all the rest of us pay more. we need to pass the legislation i have introduced. i had in working with the president. the president has been taking he can through executive order, but we need to finish the job. this is just one example of the broken tax code i was talking about earlier. we have a tax code that encourages american corporations to move their jobs overseas. not enough to enforce the law. these companies are using loopholes in the law which is why we have to change it and we have to make sure that we take away that incentive. i put forward a proposal on that front too. take the money's are being parked overseas to state taxes this year and invest them in places like baltimore maryland, to a great -- to create incentive for manufacturers to

move back here. implemented a ceo employee paycheck fairness act. businessesgeous that deductions for ceo bonuses when they are cutting employee pay. the ceos are getting bonuses, your employees need to beginning arrays as well. rep. edwards: i applaud the congressman for his efforts on behalf of all of us as democrats on these issues. he has been leading that fight. we have all joined him. one day, we hope we will have a president that can find that into law. we want to go back to where maryland's future is. assets here in our state. i think it is time for us to talk aspirational he and do the advanced of bringing

manufacturing job back to the united states by incentivizing that research and developing and tying it to manufacturing, the way it was for the better part of the 20th century until we got away from that. when we do that we will create jobs throughout baltimore, throughout maryland, and all across our country. vic: this will be our last question. it will come from dan roderick's. dan: after listening to your answers in this another candidate for an ash can do forms, some voters may wonder what distinguishes between the two of you. between your views on government, how are you different from your opponent in the coming primary? rep. van hollen: as you say, there are not huge differences in the voting records, but there are big differences. when i talked to my constituents and hear the issues they bring to me, i take action.

a woman by the name of carol price lost her son, john, in an accidental gun shooting. i teamed up with her to make marilyn the first state in the country to prohibit these things. we had a family with a child who had down syndrome. they want to make sure when they are gone that they have economic security for the kids. for four years i worked on a bipartisan racist to pass legislation. beeness woman edwards has member of congress for eight years but in many cases she has not been there for her constituents when they are in need. people come for help when they need it most and they are not there. most recently the baltimore sun whorted on nasa employees

came because they believed they had been discriminated against. he did not believe that they got a fair hearing. in all of these hearings, the question is, when you hear of a problem, what kind of action do you take? when people walk into the office to address these issues she has not been there. that has been widely reported in the washington post and other places. sen. edwards: thank you for the question. when i first came to congress in 2008, the first thing i did because i've been working across the state were kids have been receiving free breakfast and lunch, i added the afterschool supper program. today, tends of thousands of students received breakfast, lunch, and dinner at school. a nutritious dinner. i know that contributes to high achievement rates and low dropout rates.

i also know it is not a headline because those are children. i'm not interested in making headlines, i'm interested in making a difference in the lives of the people i represent. as interested in making sure thate led, making certain investment in water, resources and development, transportation -- let me say this about constituent services. i think that i serve my constituents well. the 30,000 who come to job fairs and housing foreclosure prevention and all of the things you come to a congressional office with. i take these allegations very seriously because it means something to me especially around discrimination, these cases are some of the hardest that any congressional office faces.

we have been working for more than a year. they will tell you that they have been well served. >> in the interest of time, there will not be a rebuttal. will move to our closing statements. there was a coin toss to determine who would have the last word. on that coinen w toss. miss edwards, you will have one minute. rep. edwards: 30 years ago, when barbara mikulski ran for the theed states senate, political establishment told her she could not do it on her own without inheriting the seat from her husband. years ago they told me i didn't look the part and today the part looks like me. i put 26th, we have the

opportunity to make history again and at a perspective into the united states senate that reflects the vision of who we are. fighte the opportunity to for that young man or woman who would just like to rebuild their lives and needs and deserves a second chance and for those senior citizens every single day. i have done that and will continue to fight on behalf of -- let me just say this in closing, it is a tremendous point of pride to represent the people of the great state of maryland. hollen.ards: mr. van -- >> with van hollen. of. van hollen: when i think senator mikulski, i think of someone who were presented all marylanders. we need to make sure that

everyone gets the very best start in life and the best education. we cannot rest until we have an economy that works for everybody, not just the 1% until we end the scandal of mass incarceration and the scourge of gun violence. to identifyough these as big challenges and issues. you have got to put forward solutions if you want to move the country forward and i am the only candidate who has put forward solutions on all of these big issues. is not in the to talk the talk, we have to walk the walk. one of the things i'm saying is that the world needs dreamers in the world's -- world needs doers. support in this election. >> candidates we appreciate your time here today and your airing of the questions and issues important to the voters here in the state of maryland.

the university of baltimore and all of our staff here at w jay-z tv. your moderator for the evening -- wjz tv. i am your moderator for the evening. we want to remind you to vote on april 26. [applause] >> coming up on c-span, a discussion of the history and future of infectious diseases. >> to stay on c-span, a discussion on whether student loan debt has reached crisis

status in the u.s. and who is most impacted by the issue. -- thepants include codirector of the education policy initiative at the gerald ford school of public policy at the university of michigan. watch it at 8:00 p.m. here on c-span. now a panel on emerging infectious diseases and the next pandemic. it is moderated by sonia shah, author of "pandemic: tracking contagions from ebola and beyond." the new york academy of medicine hosted this 90 minute event. ms. shah: thank you all for coming. i usually do not like to stand at podiums because i am kind of short but i will get up on my tippy toes for you. when i first started writing this book a few years ago i did nopredict we would be living

through a pandemic of a new kind of pathogen washing over the americas right when the book came out. yet here we are with the zika virus washing over the americas. that is not my talk, hang on a second. over the past 50 years, we have had over 300 infectious pathogens either newly emerged or reemerging in places where they have not been seen before. the zika is really just the latest one in a plethora of pathogen's have been doing this. we had ebola in west africa where it had not been seen before. a new virus that came out of the middle east. new kinds of avian pathogens coming out of asia.

and the whole range of airborne of mosquito borne pathogens, dengue, chikungunya, and zika of course. so the question i wanted to ask is how do microbes turn into pandemic-causing pathogens. you think of an microbe is a little thing with no locomotion, but it can cause these huge amounts of death and destruction. the way that i wanted to look at that was a two-pronged approach. first i looked at the history of one of our most successful pandemic-causing pathogens. that is cholera. it has caused seven global pandemics since it first emerged. the latest one is still going on off the coast of florida and haiti. i coupled that with reporting from places where new pathogens were coming up.