is megan beyer and john lloyd young, who serves on the president committee -- president's committee. you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. ♪ host: good morning, welcome to the washington journal. we will begin with some morning headlines. the transportation security administration has replaced its top security official in the wake of growing lines at major u.s. airports. -- this isk times the second trial of the officers .nvolved in mr. gray's death on the criminal justice front, the supreme court move that georgia prosecutors violated the prosecution -- violated the constitution from excluding

black members of the jury. we want to talk about your confidence level in the criminal justice system. if you are in the mountain , andic, (202) 748-8001 experience with criminal justice, we want to hear your story this morning, (202) join us onu can also twitter or facebook. we will get your calls in just a minute but let's kick off the conversation with president recent weekly address he made about the criminal justice system. some 2.2 million people's behind bars in america and millions more are on parole or probation. papernd 80 billion tax doll -- taxpayer dollars every year to keep people locked up.

many are serving excessively long sentences for nonviolent crimes. 60% have mental health issues and 70% were drug users. the population is disproportionately black and latino. plenty of people should be behind bars but the reason we have more people behind bars than any other country, it is because we have criminal justice laws that need to be reformed. simply locking people up does not make community safer or deal with the conditions that made the criminal activity in the first place. there is evidence that a 10% increase in high school graduation rate leads to nearly a 10% decrease in arrest rates. a 10% wage increase for men without a college degree lowers crime as much as 20%. research suggests the longer

people stay in jail the more likely they are to commit another crime once they get out. is your confidence in the criminal justice system after the headlines this morning out of baltimore in the cases against the police officer that arrested freddie gray? also the supreme court's decision about an all-white jury. what is your confidence level? art in connecticut, you are up first. connecticut, you are up first. caller: the finding of not life beingsomeone's taken, somewhere somehow someone has a responsibility and if they cannot find it, it is horrendous and ridiculous. i actually have some personal ,xperience with a family member

a nonviolent marijuana case and they are talking years for possession -- actually growing a few plants. courthouse, someone someone gets one year. you are not trying to separate nonviolence from violent them,als and protecting it just does not have any rhyme or reason. this bigger case, no, it is ridiculous. someone should be found guilty of something. that was my family member was taken into custody and ended up dead, i would want to know how why does i would want to know why. -- i would want to know why. host: eric in new york, experience with the criminal justice system. caller: i was a person who was

on probation in orange county, new york about 15 years ago. as a result of that, as most people for any type of charge, you have to be subject to random drug testing. i had an experience with being accused of a positive test in 2003. i of course knew i was fully clean and sober and innocent, and i as a thinking person had to figure out how this happened. it was very scary because of the things that can happen, so i began my own independent lead testingquietly, -- bled quite -- blood testing quietly. they were testing may with a saliva test. the laboratories were cutting corners and skipping the more credible scientific and legal testing steps. they were bringing people into

court, accusing them, and when it came my turn when they accused me again for and a half years after i began my own blood testing, the law of averages finally came out. i happen to have my own blood test 33 minutes later and the entire system ground to a halt. host: that was eric in middletown, new york. ryan in houston, texas. caller: i have no confidence and i am from new orleans, so i know the criminal justice system is unfair. withsouth we are dealing people, and it is the shame that they are ruining lives he hide marijuana. people are smoking cigarettes and doing all kinds of white-collar crimes. they are really killing the black community.

they are trying to make it out that people are doing so much, but once you get all of these felonies and misdemeanors under your belt, these jobs are not hiring. the people down south are the most rotten in the world. host: talking about new orleans from houston, texas. there were six officers involved in the death of freddie gray. this is officer edward nero, one of the six charged in connection with the death of freddie gray. there's the officer leaving the courthouse after being acquitted of all charges in baltimore. the new york times reports this -- the acquittal of a police officer charged in the arrest of freddie gray who suffered a fatal spinal cord injury questions whether any of the six of the police officers would be convicted. was the second

blow to the prosecution's sweeping case, announcing that baltimore is still seething. the first trial against officer william porter ended in a hung jury in december. expert says the judge's finding was narrow and did not rule out the possibility of convictions against other officers charged in the case. they said the ruling turned not on a wholesale rejection of ,rosecutors' broad legal theory but rather on judge williams' determination that officer nero was a bit player in mr. gray's arrest. about who is this judge. this is reported by the baltimore sun.

there is a picture of baltimore circuit judge mary williams. they report -- barry williams. since been with the court december 2005. judge williams provided over wednesday's hearing and he is preparing to hear motions. here is more about the judge. highlights, read the --minal court division until litigation counsel of the civil rights division of the u.s. 2005,e department 2002 to and a trial attorney in the civil rights division of the 1997 to 2002. that is a little background about the judge that decided this. elijah cummings, a democrat from

maryland that was in the streets during the rioting after the death, heeddie gray's told a radio station that whatever happens, that would be justice. he says that the judge, barry williams, he called him fair and tough-minded. they did not expect peaceful doonstrations -- police expect peaceful demonstrations outside the courthouse. says, the people of baltimore asked for justice and this is the justice system. savanna, georgia, good morning to you. how are you doing this morning? host: i am doing fine. what do you think? caller: i think that the system

needs to be overhauled all the way around. the justice system is just unbelievable how things like this can happen. if you think about the trayvon martin case, gentlemen get off. if you think about the officers in baltimore, nothing was done. somebody has got to be held accountable to young lives being lost, whether they are white, black, or other. it is hard for the men and women of this country to travel around and understand that a system that is already in place, has been in place for a while, the 1994 crime bill that was supposedly put in place to cut down on some of the balance, we find out things were done wrongly. i do believe that the system needs an overhaul. andcannot take your car

drive time and time again, and not have your oil changed. marijuana is being legalized all around the country in different young, so how do we hold men and women incarcerated for something that is being legalized? we need a system that is fair and honest, but does not take life.age of someone's that man in baltimore lost his life and he should not have. host: a couple things that you viewers,nt to show our first of all about overhauling the criminal justice system. one gop lawmaker says, the senate's criminal justice reform effort is dead and he said it is because many lawmakers think releasing more people from prison will increase criminal rates across the country. the other thing the caller talked about was that no one would be found guilty in this freddie gray death.

this is from usa today. there are more trials to come, six officers were indicted. whosix baltimore officers were charged in connection with the april 2015 death of freddie gray, and the next case coming up june 6 is for officer caesar goodson, the driver of the police wagon where gray suffered critical injuries. second-degree depraved-heart murder, second-degree assault, manslaughter by vehicle. negligence, misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment. on july 5, another trial date coming up for the tenant brian wright -- lieutenant brian wright. he is being charged with involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, this conduct in office, and reckless

endangerment. 6 for officermber grayam porter who assisted onto a bench that did not secure .im or get medical assistance alicia white on october 17, she was one of the officers who found gray unresponsive but did not provide medical assistance. texas, goodt worth, morning. caller: the confidence in the criminal justice system, i think it is a little backwards because the cops are being -- are not being punished. just like the cop being acquitted yesterday, he helped the officers put freddie gray in a paddy wagon and he was charged. he should not have never been charged. our criminals are being rewarded

and our officers are being .unished, and that disturbs me another thing that disturbs me with the criminal justice system is that we have this crime light bill, with it being on felons, they are able to vote. they are able to go out and get jobs without being questioned. we have to get tough on this. we are going down the wrong road. the criminals are being rewarded. host: are you a democrat, republican, independent? caller: republican, of course. republicans on capitol hill are part of this effort to reform the criminal justice system. what is your message to them? caller: we have a lot of republicans who have to get out of office, unfortunately, and they do not represent me.

the same republicans who got us this immigration reform, i'm going to give some names, with the house speaker who just passed this big stimulus bill, he don't represent me. the senate republican that is pushing for leniency for criminals, they do not represent me. when he somebody that is really tough on crime. -- we need somebody that is really tough on crime. newbieet me show you a on capitol hill, mike lee from utah. this is what he had to say back in april. he was standing with democrats at the podium talking about why there needs to be changes. >> if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice. here, making a choice not to reform will make us less safe.

we currently spend about 25% of the department of justice's annual budget on the bureau of prisons and that will increase to 30% by 2020. this is roughly on par with what we spend on the fbi and the dea combined. enact a new time we minimum mandatory penalty, every single year that you lapses when we do not reform our mandatory withnimum mandatory, something that will actually make us more safe, we are making our self less safe. people sometimes ask me why i am a conservative republican and yet i support this. i support this not in spite of my status as a conservative republican but because of it. conservative republicans tend to believe in due process and protecting the individual from an overbearing government. nowhere is the due process of

deprivation more pervasive than when the federal government locks people up for years and decades at a time. this also has a very significant human cost which i think is the most important element. sons, nephewsers, have been locked up for years at a time when often the circumstances do not warrant it. host: mike leigh talking about efforts to reform the criminal justice system. christopher in fulton, maryland, your next. what do you think? about the freddie gray case or the justice system? host: both. caller: it is a terrible situation for america to be in but for the most part, the american justice system is not

justice for minorities, i would like to say. it is focused on keeping the american status quo, which is money at the top and the poor people at the bottom, confused and upset. host: richard, lake placid, florida. welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning. the system has some serious problems. if a person is charged with a crime it goes to court. without a lawyer he is going to receive a more harsher sentence than someone who has a lawyer, and that is because congress is made up of 50% lawyers. another reason is because the incarceration system is their private enterprise. they need to make money so they do that by getting more and more inmates. of course, the local politicians

are more than happy to send people to jail for very minor crimes. we have some serious problems. .ere is another point it depends on your status in society. many politicians and influential people will not go to jail, just like hillary clinton with all the thousands of confidential releasedon that was over public telephone or private telephone, not a secure line. she will not go to jail. many other politicians that commit crimes will not go to jail. look at the housing market. thousands of bankers and market people corrupted the system and broke the law. i cannot remember any of them going to jail. we have a problem here.

do you know how to fix it? host: what do you think about efforts on capitol hill? i think what we need to do is clean house, that is what we need to do. there will never be justice without it. host: if you clean house, what happens to all the experience in by legislators who have made this issue their expertise? stood on the judiciary committee and the have been there four years. they know this issue in and out. what happens if you clean house to that? caller: a clean house will have better judgment. the people will get a better deal. we need to put people in their , the the every -- in there

everyday people, the tradespeople, the mechanics, carpenters, nurses, school teachers, blue-collar people that understand really what life is all about outside of the beltway, outside of washington. that is what we need. michigan.n, warren, experience with the criminal justice system. caller: i work at san quentin for decades and i noticed that human nature seems to dominate everything. you can have roles and procedures, but human nature dominates everything. with theproblem i had freddie gray, michael brown there is zero accountability for the individuals' actions. you cannot blame the justice system for that. host: james in missouri, good

morning. caller: i just wanted to comment on what the gentleman just said in regards to how things are toward the money factor. it is pretty evident. it is obvious when you turn on the news, you see what is going on. people being indicted, knowing they are guilty of a charge and they get time off, probation, where a common person of middle unjustifiable.st ,s far as the freddie gray case all of them cannot be totally guilty of the murder of that man , but there is one person that should be accountable. that is all i have to say. host: we will get back to more of your thoughts. in other news, this is from the

washington post. sanders picks will help shape the party platform. bernie sanders was given unprecedented say in a move that parties hopeful sue the bitter split with the challenger to hillary clinton, and sanders immediately used his new power to name a well-known advocate for palestinian rights to help draft the legislation. debbie wasserman schultz will be able to pick for test four. nameur and sanders will five. -- it says in the washington post the possible committee is among them most popular -- -- theparty bodies

platform is nonbinding, however, and presidents have ignored parts of it in the past. elijah cummings of maryland who will chair the committee named by wasserman schultz. most others named by wasserman schultz and clinton are party stalwarts or when supporters. the veterans affairs secretary robert mcdonald compared the long lines at disneyland to the long lines that veterans experience. his remarks were called offensive and he does not view long wait times and secret wait lists as real problems in need of a fix. commissioner john kosten and has

declined to testify in his own defense today but says that viewed byling of a -- some house republicans as a precursor to impeachment with the house's top investigators saying he defied a congressional order that demanded all former irs senior executive lois be preserved as part of an investigation into tea party targeting. that is happening today on capitol hill. go to c-span.org for more details about that hearing. we sat down with the irs commissioner recently on c-span's newsmaker and he talked about this and irs taxes, etc.. go to c-span.org for details on that. also this morning, the new york

times editorial board happy with the moves that congress is making. congress is finally getting serious about hazardous chemicals in household products and industrial goods. they are expected to vote on a bill overhauling a 1970's law that makes it hard to ban toxic substances even known carcinogens like asbestos. the senate is expected to follow later in the week. the editorial board is happy with congress when it comes to puerto rico. he called the bipartisan legislation a breakthrough. the legislation explicitly preempts conflicting laws and legislation passed by the commonwealth and stipulates that legal challenges will be heard in federal rather than commonwealth court.

a cut to minimum wage for the island of puerto rico, the legislation would reduce minimum wage from the federal level to $4.25 for newly hired workers under age 25. the goal is to attract more businesses to the island. 20 --re roiling from a 12% unemployment rate. bob in jacksonville, texas. caller: thank you. and ieciate c-span appreciate the fact that i finally get to say hi to you. host: that is nice. thank you, bob. not too good at expressing myself so bear with me. bernie.ing, go

i want to comment about the law enforcement in my opinion. bad law enforcement and bad criminal whatever starts right at the very bottom. by that, i am talking about for instance, a police officer that andes a ticket for speeding the person that he wrote the or is to knows someone akin to someone i can get the n toet fixed -- is ki someone who can get the ticket fixed. they broke the law and they should have to pay for it. i know of a case where an officer's wife got two tickets and headed for the third, and all of them were fixed. it is just not right.

, and myds all the time viewers,is to the let's suppose this lady never red of speeding and has a rack and kill some innocent person, whose fault is it? host: floyd from huntsville, alabama, experience with the criminal justice system. caller: how are you? host: doing good. what is your story? number one, there is nothing actually wrong with the law itself. the problem is, is that people do not adhere to the law. when people are not adhering to the law, it opens the door up to corruption, bias, racism, etc.

number two is that the system itself can be fixed when people make, or individuals make a concerted effort to become more knowledgeable about the law and how the system works. or, in other words in the law profession what people call equity, learning what equity means in addressing all the parties involved. there is a personal accountability on the citizen to learn the law themselves, like that gentleman just spoke. a person gets stopped for a speeding ticket. if you knew the law, you would know you are right but if you are going to sit there and aggravate the police officer, then the human element comes in

and that opens the door for lawlessness on both sides. do you see what i'm saying? it is a double take. yes, there is corruption because people play the loopholes in the law, however the citizen is responsible for knowing the basics of the law so they can in turn handle their affairs. host: a couple stories related to what you are talking about. the washington times says the chicago police try to predict who may shoot or be shot. they are keeping a list derived from a computer logarithm that assigns scores. it aims to predict who is likely to be shot soon or to shoot someone. it.thomas was on

the rapper young pappy. what thetally shot in police say was a running gang feud. there's also this from the opinion session of the wall street journal by heather mcdonald, a fellow at the manhattan institute and author she saysar on cops." the nationwide crime wave is building. homicides in the last 12 months after the michael brown shooting rose significantly in cities with large black populations and already high rates of violence, which is precisely what the ferguson effect would predict. a study of gun violence in baltimore by crime analyst jeff showed an inverse correlation with proactive drug arrests. chicago, where pedestrian

stops have fallen nearly 90%, homicides this year are up 60% compared with the same period last year. waterloo, iowa, experience with the criminal justice system. caller: good morning, ma'am, how are you doing? host: i'm doing fine. what do you think? and i: i am a minister have been on both sides of the fence. i had the good experience and the bad experience. when some people say there is not a problem with the justice system -- keep in mind this is an ordained minister speaking -- i think you have it very wrong and a there are people on death rail that have not done anything -- on death wrote that have not done anything. they come back all these years

, they have been -- i cannot think of the word. is, when you see all this black on black crime, they need to stop and think for a minute. they are the ones that make the guns. the blacks do not make the guns. most of the criminals they go to jail, they do not do nothing to rehabilitate them. look at chicago. south, wherewn they preach the word of hatred and instead of rehabilitating, they send millions of dollars elsewhere. they need to try putting some education in. host: that is partly what advocates for changes are saying, there needs to be more focus on rehabilitation so people do not return into

prisons. rockville, maryland, good morning. tell us your thoughts about this. system?what justice that is basically my comment. there is no justice system for people that really need it. and the people that really need it are the majority of us. now we know that the rich people at the top, they determine what justice is. they determine what crime is. they determine what everything is. it is an absurd notion to believe that violence and all these other things are going to stop after these european and asian and other demographics come into black neighborhoods and drained the means for people to have a decent living.

let me show you some of the conversation on twitter. should prosecutors be only about getting crime on someone, including innocent? -- jim says,y be as long as prosecutor and defense care more about winning them the truth, it is an ugly system. the baltimore sun, courtesy of neroew xeon, judge quentin -- judge acquits narrow. -- n. ero from the editorial board of the baltimore sun, they wrote that it is worth remembering what the gray family has said at every step of the way. said whatconsistently they want is not necessarily guilty verdict but the justice

freddie gray was denied. the issue was not whether a particular officer would be convicted but whether the questions of guilt or innocence would be considered fairly and in the full due process the law requires. clearly, that is what happened in this case, talking about officer narrow who was acquitted -- officer nero who was acquitted. trial -- what the trials underscored is that the six officers played different roles and the circumstances surrounding gray's fatal injury. the legal and factual issues in all the cases are different. that is why we have six different trials and not just one. i write in new york, good morning. caller: i have had 46 years of

struggle for justice in this country, starting with the vietnam war. -- mucherience experience directly and indirectly with the legal system, including marching on police precincts in brooklyn for the shooting of unarmed black youth in the past four or five years. , myxperience is that understanding is that the youinal justice system, have to understand its historical context. racist wage differentials make one third of wall street's profits every year. that is why racism will never disappear from america and total capitalism is destroyed and a different type of system that reflects respect for the working class is put into effect. grayfically, with freddie

and with several of the people in flatbush, brooklyn who were assassinated by nypd, who were unarmed, freddie gray was not killed in the police van. that is the big lie to begin with. he was killed when his neck was partially severed at the time they were putting their boots on his face. and crushing his body in a contorted position, that is when it was done. that is the big lie. when they put it into the police van, that was the corn are doing his diligence to protect the police. that is -- it was the corn or -- corner doing his duty diligence to protect the police. host: citing unusual legal theory that they exceeded their authority by moving and searching mr. gray without

questioning and patting him down, essentially turning a lawful detention into an unlawful arrest. prosecutors say they had committed misconduct arresting mr. gray without probable cause, and that any physical contact he made with him while doing so accounted to second-degree assault. normally, defense lawyers, not prosecutors, make claims of illegal search and seizure in court. the questions on monday focusing instead that no evidence showed the officer had touched mr. gray during the critical opening moments of his arrest. morning, youthis might remember the prosecutor. criticized after the officer's acquittal yesterday, probably because of what they said in the

new york times, this legal theory that she went after. john in pennsylvania, experience with the criminal justice system. what happened? caller: it was a traffic stop staying at a red light. that is not a big deal, but they were pulling people over left and right even though they were either going through a green or yellow, like i was. when i contested it, there were a number of people who got nailed the same day and we talked in the waiting room before the hearings. they all basically said the same thing, that it was green, it was yellow, and these guys were trying to make money for their township. when i got in there, both of the .olice lied about the vehicle they got the color wrong. they called it a truck and it was a van, and i was found

guilty. other people were found innocent because the cops did not show up. host: bob in massachusetts, good morning. caller: good morning. i believe police overcharge people. i am very depressed with the justice system because when they arrest someone for even a small amount of drugs and that person will not aid them and they are seeking more people to arrest, they trump up the charges. that person can end up years in jail and of course we all know that the prisons do not rehabilitate anyone, nadine debilitate them. you can take someone harmless and put them in jail and they turn into an animal. times,he washington third us-mexico border hits a two-year high and som -- jeh

johnson dispelling the haven myth. u.s. customs and border control says new figures released monday where the highest since july 2014, most of them on a company children from central america. washington journal will be on the u.s.-mexico border on june 1 and june 2, we will be talking about immigration from laredo, texas at the crossing where mexican and u.s. citizens cross back and forth. and then the next day on thursday, june 2, we will be talking about trade issues with u.s.-mexico relations. we will be at the world trade bridge where 6000 trucks cross monday. be sure to tune in and call in with their questions and comments. there is also this about president obama's historic trip

to vietnam in the washington post this morning. lifted thebama has curb.urve -- the arms out of virginia, the washington times quickly, the governor, donations reported to him are triggering a federal investigation. $120,000 to his 2013 campaign. dale, albuquerque, in mexico. go ahead. caller: good morning. this has been one of the most confusing things i think i have seen on today. right now, they put the officer who was driving the van, who might have done something by the the system hast

changed, he might not understand. they want to put him on trial, but according to what i see on wasvision, the gentleman injured by the three officers who stood on his neck. all you knowng as what because it makes no sense. host: bonnie in riverton, wyoming, good morning. caller: good morning. i do not believe we have justice anymore. there are several things that has happened in wyoming that is not. they cannot be legal but they happened. was, i seethem ,eople who are child molesters they are turned loose.

they make a plea bargain. daughter, the granddaughter that had this happen to her, she is still in counseling, will be for years. herstepfather that molested was never charged with anything. he went back to work. she is the one that is in jail. host: bonnie in wyoming. a quick programming note, thursday, june 2 is the 30th anniversary of c-span's gavel to gavel coverage of the senate. go to c-span.org/senate 30 years for a timeline of how cameras seemed to be in the chamber. you can watch all of our current senate coverage on c-span two and c-span.org. we are going to take a quick break. when we come back we will talk

with democratic representative rick nolan about his support for bernie sanders. and then, representative john florida, weican of will be here to talk about the long security lines at the nation's airports. we will be right back. ♪ q&a,e sunday night on isking about several ansys in the senate. --my colleagues did anchor

-- within a few weeks the house had decided to impeach bill clinton and we got very busy very quickly. we had to do a good deal of on impeachment trials because we had not had a presidential impeachment since 1868. trent lott and tom daschle really wanted to follow historical precedent as much as they could. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific on c-span's q1 day. -- q and a. >> congratulations to the class of 2016. today is your day of celebration and you have earned it. >> your choices will make all the difference to you and to all of us. >> do not be afraid to take on issuesr new jobs or new

that really stretch your boundaries. your -- the specter of summer abroad, and the specter of living and your parents' basement after this graduation day is not likely to be your concern. >> watch can commencement 2016.es from the class of on c-span. "washington journal" continues. host: rick nolan represents the eighth district, a democrat. he said you are going to be a superdelegate for bernie sanders. tell us why. guest: he has a message that resonates with me, and resonates

with many if not most of the people in my congressional district. feel anr one, obligation to be representative of the wishes of the democratic activists in my party, but it is an easy thing to do because his message resonates with me personally. host: what are his chances of becoming the nominee? guest: dr slam, no doubt about it -- they are slim, no doubt about it. he has a message that resonates with the american people. continue forward right up until the convention. it has been a very strange year in politics and you never know what the heck is going to happen . as long as you are close, why not stay in? as long as you are comfortable with your message, why not keep pushing it forward? host: after the chaos in nevada

at the convention, this is what the party chair had to say. i do not think they -- the sanders campaign -- handled it very well and i think they have lost the moral high ground on this. it is very clear now that the longer they stay in this race the more damage they are doing. guest: i do not think that is the case. the american people are convinced the economy is rigged, the political system is rigged. they are feeling some real frustration about that. i think that was reflected in and isppened in nevada, one of the reasons why people want bernie to keep pushing, so that we can have a peaceful revolution in this country as he says. and onstudent of history

a practical level, i am an eternal optimist. minnesota,aying in ap,h all of this course cr there has got to be a horse and i'm going to find it. society and civilizations that do not find a way to peacefully make essential changes that are necessary for their survival oftentimes end up in apocalyptic change scenarios. we do not want that, we do not have to do that. he wants to change the way we do politics and stop raiding the economy, stop raiding the political system. stopgging the economy, rigging the political system. sanders: i condemn all forms of violence. i hope the media does not exaggerate what happened in

nevada. i cannot predict what happens. i will condemn any and all forms of violence, but we are bringing in a lot of new people into the political process, people who have never gone through a convention before, and they hope very much their voices will be heard. the democratic party, leadership of the democratic party has a fundamental choice to make and that is, do we open the doors to many millions of people, often working class people, people , toing two or three jobs young people who have perhaps never voted, do we say, we are excited to have you? this is great for the democratic party. or do we say, you are not really one of us. we are too busy going to fancy fundraisers at $50,000 a plate and you are not what this party wants. that is the choice.

that is the choice the democratic party has to make and i think if they make the right choice and open the doors to working-class people and young people to create the dynamism that the democratic party needs, it is going to be messy. democracy is not always nice and quiet and gentle. >> you think the convention could be messy? messy.ders: democracy is if you want everything to be quiet and orderly and proceed without vigorous debate, that is not what democracy is about. convention behe messy? or should they figure it all out before? democracy is messy. i abhor violence. think bernie has got a

different message, and it is an important one. has hadoney, dark money a terribly corruptive influence on just about any and all phases of our public policies in this country. he has found a way to change the way we do politics. important for all of us to take a really good, hard, serious look at that and see whether some of the things we can do to facilitate that donee, so what he has which is an aberration, so that it can become a norm. add thatle, the stop we have introduced which would prohibit members of congress from coming to washington and dialing for dollars. go to washington and go to work.

it is no wonder we have gridlock and special interests are carrying the day. even taking are not the time to examine good public policy. they are all across the street at republican and democratic call centers dialing for dollars. you do not want congress to become a middle level telemarketer. prohibits back members of congress to specifically ask for money. still be allowed to contribute to campaigns of their choosing. we are speaking to representative rick nolan representing the eighth district of minnesota. sixthresented the district from 1975 to 1981. jack in providence, rhode island, a republican. caller: the congressman made a

comment that irritated me concerning hillary clinton being a good president. she made a mess out of the middle east with barack obama. secondly, she is corrupt to the core and her husband is even worse. her husband is a coward. you got that smirk on your face that bothered me. i like senator sanders. ideally, when i would have liked to see his senator sanders versus ted cruz for the presidency because you would have two man of principle debating, both highly intelligent. ted cruz is a brilliant man. ,enator sanders is very bright but when you mention hillary clinton, please, give me a break. they are something else. host: let's get a response. agree thatand i

bernie sanders is a superior alternative. you are not going to get any disagreement from me over that. as things are approaching now and yet to be finalized, it appears as though the selection we will have is between hillary clinton and donald trump. phrase,inded of the old we are not picking the almighty, we are picking the alternative. in my judgment, hillary clinton is a superior alternative to donald trump. i have my disagreements with her, particularly with regard to intervention in the middle east. i am not by any means in complete agreement with her policies and her approach to many of these issues, but i am when it comes to choosing between her and donald trump, it is a pretty clear choice for me. saying theico

sanders campaign is cleaning up the messy remark, saying it was in reference to the democratic process and not a subliminal message to his supporters to create chaos in philadelphia. kathleen, a democrat. i know you all are passionate with bernie sanders and you are the one whose platform to get on the change that you're seeking. but let me ask you something. if sanders keeps doing what he is doing, talking about hillary is not qualified, talking about the only way to beat donald hillary clinton. hillary, to me, if sanders don't win, he would take -- and do than donald trump. it seems like bernie sanders is

a third party. trumpn has donald blessing him. why? bernie sanders has been running since june. praisepublicans sing his . don't that give you pause? you don't think republicans got something on bernie sanders. boardk he should jump on and forget what these republicans are saying. it is my hope we will come out of the convention united and that bernie sanders will support hillary clinton. meanwhile, we have a healthy and legitimate debate going on thatn the democratic party has brought hundreds of thousands of new people into the democratic party. to the point that he keeps referring to her as not

qualified, is he doing lasting damage to her in a general election? guest: he has made it clear he thinks she is qualified. he made it clear he misspoke. he questions her judgment. i was a strong and vocal opponent of the war in iraq. it has had disastrous implications. it is one thing to be qualified and another thing is your judgment. he is questioning her judgment on some of these things are the war in iraq costs us $3 trillion. host: won't donald trump do the same if running against her in the election? do whatonald trump will he does without regard to bernie or greta or anyone else. regardless of what we say. he has gotten really nasty of late.

bringing up all kinds of conspiracy theories about murder and hillary'sault support of all of that. it will be one of the ugliest and nastiest campaigns we have ever seen. anything bernie sanders has said is more or less a difference in ongment and direction critical and important policy issues and that is what all campaigns should be about aired it is fair to go back and look at pass judgment on critical policy issues as well as going forward. bernie has said, and the debate he has engaged hillary in is the all of usbate that should be having in our coffee ands and our living rooms, not all of these nasty dirt

about sex and murder and conspiracies and all of that. it denigrates the whole process and makes us look terrible in the world. i do not like it. anthony, an independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. thank you also, representative nolan, for appealing today -- appearing today. my question is more of a whyement that goes into hillary clinton has to take bernie sanders on a debate in california. i believe it kind of ties into almost a different way, the black community is seeming to drink the kool-aid, where a lot of people are not aware of what will clinton's policies were, bet senator sanders would

able to almost confront hillary clinton with regards to the three strikes law. many people are not aware of that and they are backing their support and pushing for the street -- the three strikes law, more focused on the minority community. today, she to appear can go after her on many fronts and that is one of them. i feel personally, as a man of color, a fairly educated man, in will -- whenone, you appear to have the solution around you, if you look at their former policies and what they they have not of, been necessarily for the minority populations. rather to build borders

than to accept more people. i think you are right to look at those policies. aree are notions that developed and no one is quite sure how they got there, but one bill clinton was america's first black president. copacetic during the clinton administration. everything was happy and everything was good. careful examination of going backwards and looking through that, you can see a lot of those things were done on intervention, on welfare, on criminal justice, on a wide goingof up policies that

back and looking at that, i think most thoughtful people would say we should not have done it and should not have gone in that direction. those are things that come up in campaigns and that we have healthy debates about. it helps to set the record straight. why is it important to set the record straight? our actions in the past have had just asions for today our actions today will have implications for the future. debate the issues and examine the past and how we want to go forward, i am one of those with enormous confidence in the public. they have confidence in the republican party -- the extent to which the american people know all the facts, it greatly

enhances the likelihood they will come to the right conclusion. report ones in the the bombing of the world trade center and the pentagon, which has an classified, i have read them. financing and the who sent the money and what the bank accounts where and what their names were and how much they sent, and what accounts. it is not hyperbole. it is very factual. we went to war on very erroneous and mistaken notions. the american people went along with it but they were misinformed. the american people need to know the truth. -- they canome very make very good and rational decisions. i have great confidence in the american public and the more we debate the issues, the better informed americans will be. next in new york, a

democrat. james. you are on the air with the congressman. caller: i agree with you and your support for hillary and i appreciate it. with bernie sanders, people say it is not about him, .ut he has crossed the line there is no reason for his people to say no, we will still in the election. get the way we can nomination as he steals votes, which will not happen. he should be following hillary's of trying to go along with the system and go from there. i still think it is all right for bernie to pursue the remaining election contest.

mathematically, it is still possible. there are 500 superdelegates under the laws of the system that are allowed to change their mind. a lot of things could happen in the matter of a month or two. hillary held out her theibilities long after facts were in. should take the platform and use it but not tear the party to shreds. that sanders on the dnc has -- he gets the name five and hillary clinton gets six race on proportionally the votes they have gotten and the dnc will get four. guest: i think that is fair. to theroportional

election contest. those of us who are bernie fans, we will have our representation on the platform committee and the rules committee. nothing perfect -- nothing is perfect but that is getting very close to being very fair. i am ok with that. host: how do i pronounce that? good morning. republican. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i want to say i am proud to be an american. -- ae from animate military family. i never got to meet my father-in-law because he was in operation crossroads, a nuclear bomb testing and died from the radiation. my dad was in the korean and vietnam were. i was born in massachusetts.

was democrat. i was in second grade when jfk was assassinated and that was a but getting back to your original topic of hillary and bernie, hillary a liar.is she should be in prison, and not only is she responsible for the four deaths in benghazi, prior arkansas.s we do not know how many people died there. bernie sanders, we will never have a socialist as the president of this country. i do not want to get into all of those so-called conspiracy theories. think that serves anyone well. i think the campaign should be

based on what kinds of policies a candidate is advocating going forward. that is just my view. we could all conjecture with berniele about what might have done. we cannot prove or disprove a negative. unless there is something that is proven and is factually correct, i do not think it should have much place in the process. host: what donald trump is , bill clinton's past, from the chicago tribune, since foster'suicide very fishy. it comes up in exit polls of trustworthiness.

that in ancerned general matchup between hillary clinton and donald trump, that she could not overcome the question of being honest and trustworthy? to your initial statement, most all of us have lost loved ones due to depression, mental disorders, and suicide. questiony to raise the of what really happened here. matter, those instances should be investigated. in the case of events foster and the others, they were thoroughly it was foundand his death was a suicide. to be raising those questions and continuing that argument, because no one can prove beyond any doubt whatsoever that that

in fact is what happened. but we have a system for adjudicating these things and we have come to a conclusion and that was the conclusion in that case. in my judgment, there is an element of society that, for whatever reason, had a deep dislike for obama, for the clintons, for the democrats. donald trump has captured that group. they are not going to dave are from donald. but there is a larger audience that wants to know what donald are for the middle east, what his plans are for trade agreements that he finds reprehensible, what his plans education, for changing the criminal justice system.

winning a republican or a democratic presidential primary in a caucus contest is dramatically different than winning a national presidential election. do not think it will do donald trump much good to continue along this line. i do not think it will significantly diminish people's views on hillary and 10. orlando valle, alabama, independent. go ahead. caller: good morning. i have to say about mr. clinton, it is not a scandal or nothing like that. i am an inside man who can tell you exactly what happened. withs nothing to do problems like scandals. a machine shopn in alabama and my wife was working in a textile mill.

she was an inspector. worked hard and i worked harder. but anyway, i knew they were wasg to leave because i making machines sending them to philippine and mexico and bangladesh, all these countries after bill clinton signed the papers, and i am not blaming bill clinton, i am blaming the republicans because they are good at exporting jobs as well. muchieve they have just as a part as bill clinton did. he signed the papers. china went in the, ronald reagan would not because he did not love communism and he knows the government would run it and they would be slave sweatshop labor. we made all of those machines. the reason we have so much

economy when bill went in there is because we were selling all of that stuff to foreign countries and we would take a voucher from the foreign country country moving overseas, they give them priorities and give them tax benefits to move overseas. our government has always favored foreign workers. he is a global person and he don't care about the american worker. when we elect american people in office, we elect them to watch out for the nation. host: let's get a response. guest: the caller makes a wonderfully good point. tens of thousands of manufacturing operations were moved overseas. millions of people lost their jobs. subsequent free-trade agreements have continued to exacerbate that. in my judgment, the transpacific partnership would make that even

worse. the gentleman makes a good point busy puttingre together manufacturing and machines in all of the equipment that was basically exporting our future. that has got to stop. i have my own theory and it is all about secret money in politics. why we entero know into these trade agreements, they are winners and they have been be billionaires and multinational corporations. dark, corrupt, money out of politics. you wonder why the rich are not fit -- paying fair taxes, get the money out of politics. au wonder why we cannot have decent or even a consideration of immigration policy, guess what? get the dark, secret, corrupt money out of politics. you can trace almost everything back to the excessive influence that the establishment, as many

of us would define it, as the billionaire super rich lobbyist >>. far greater influence over public policies than a truly representative democracy should represent. democrats and republicans are guilty of that. iserse citizens united probably to prohibit all of this money in politics, probably the single most important thing we can do if we care about trade and jobs and our relationships in the world. put an end to the excessive ,nfluence that all of the dark secret money has that comes out of the billionaire lobbying >>. -- class. host: what are the chances on the republican side that it gets to the floor with republican leadership? what have you heard? guest: i do not think there is any chance it will get to the floor this year.

but it is the first i've say, membersrt to of congress,'s that to washington and raising money. go to washington, go to work. later this afternoon, i have wither press conference congressman walter jones from north carolina and he and i are cosponsoring the first bipartisan effort to launch citizens united. having been in politics for a long time and somewhat a student of history, i am aware of the fact everything has to start somewhere. if you can make a compelling case for it, your support continues to grow. i had a colleague last night say to me, i want to become a cosponsor with you on the stop act. every week, we pick up a few more supporters.

listenersent your agree with what i'm saying here, call your congresswoman and tell them to sign up on the stock -- stop act. go to washington and go to work. part of that is the restoration of regular order. bringing everything up through the subcommittee, the senate, under open rules. with any new idea. back when i served, someone pointed out coming in here, i 1975, the first time c-span was allowed. we kind of came in together.

there were no democratic call centers across the street. to dialwere not told for dollars. we were in committee hearing everyone's idea, arguing them .ntil late into the night that is how you get things done. people cannot offer their ideas, fully aired and fully debated, if they are across the street raising money, what do people expect? of course you will have gridlock. we have got to stop it. order, doingular away with gerrymandering, put some limits on how campaign money can be spent. representative rick nolan in his fifth term. you used to represent the sixth

district in minnesota from 1975 to 1981. democrat, virginia. caller: good morning, everybody. i am calling because i was first going to say, what is the difference between hillary and bernie? think the difference is bernie is an honest man and hillary is it -- a dishonest woman. i am a democrat but i sometimes vote for republican. whoever i feel is the best candidate. the one who called from massachusetts. i will never vote for hillary. if she gets the nomination, people will support donald trump like myself. guest: to be sure, there are differences. one of those is bernie's authenticity.

today that it was 10 years ago and 20 years ago and 40 years ago, that is a virtue that resonates with the american people and it resonates with me. it arguably, hillary, is, on a positive way, a more nuanced politician. more clever, trying to play all sides of the issue. and find the balancing. i will never forget walter, who was my mentor, who ran for several thousand people made the statement that there was no way anyone in ofrica could win the office the presidency and still be deserving of the office. that is a heartbreaking

statement from a brilliant man who had been through the process and had understood how it works. what i wask to saying a minute ago in money and politics. if you do not have the money to get your message out there, if to do not have the money defend yourself, you lose. it is that simple. especially in a vacuum. ultimately toe blame. but we say to our politicians, good luck out there and by the way, you better have enough money to get out your message and defend yourself or you lose, then we get angry with them. the -- to make decisions who are more favorable than what is good

-- they are the ones who have to change it. the american public has made it clear they want to see this thing change. bernie's suggestions should be done through a peaceful resolution through politics. that is what the act is about, about changing the way through politics, changing the way we do politics. that is what we have got to do. that he is not correct in his assessment. there may be more truth to it than any of us want to accept and realize. in louisiana, an independent. caller: good morning. i agree with some of the things you are saying, but there is a lot of what is going on behind the scenes and people need to do

their own research. if you should go on the internet and look at some of the books read about the clintons, that is more than accurate. you can go on youtube. bere's too much that could found easily. there is really nothing there to beat him up on, but the clintons, the bushes, they should all be in jail. guest: i would agree only to the extent there is a lot going on that we do not know about. i had to go all the way up to find out we were financing -- the congress did not know about it. why is that relevant? we armed and trained them and they morphed into al qaeda and the taliban.

were to learn that there 28 pages disclosed from -- not disclosed and classified. i came back to washington and asked my colleagues and no one knew anything about it. -- thereow and in fact were a lot of things and the american people have a right to know who financed the bombing of the world trade center. if there are other groups out there giving massive amounts of and arms and using them against us, the american people need to know that. there is a lot we do not know. putome point, we have to all of our efforts behind getting full disclosure of all things and all facts. the american people are capable of making very good decisions.

when it comes to various criminal activities, and alleged criminal activities, they have to be adjudicated. we have got a good system. i have thought from the time i was used -- youthful, it is by no means perfect but it seemed to me to be better than all the rest. to -- tooint, we work perfect that, but we have to live by it and rely on it and clearly, once a week you can read where the system made a mistake. some innocents are actually guilty of divine large, the system works good and i have not seen anything better around the world, though i see the need to perfect and improve it. thank you. you have a great program and a great audience and i have enjoyed the morning. host: next we will talk to john mica, head of the oversight of

government reform committee. we will talk about long wait times at the nation's air. we will later talk about the president's committee on the arts and humanities. we will talk with megan, the executive director of the committee and a member of the committee, don lloyd young. award winner and best leading actor in jersey boys. ♪ >>adam secretary, we proudly to the of delegate votes next president of the united states. ♪

>> c-span.org is a video rich complement to your c-span viewing. most of our government related programs like the house, senate, stream live on the site. ,ou can watch on your desktop laptop, and even smart phone and tablet. -- archives own these online in the c-span video library or if you missed and at any program, you can

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what is your reaction? we have heard several hearings on the tsa performance. we are in the oversight is not in my subcommittee. it was revealed this particular individual had received $80,000 in a year and a subsequent month of 90,000 in bonuses, plus $180,000 salary. he was at home with the meltdown. know, it has been a disaster out there in particular the big airport here at one of the problems is what was created by a media revelation of a 95% last fall, failure then you have the new administrator come and ordering to crack down, we will bring in and no moreoroughly

exceptions, that brought the lines. we had other tsa folks testify and there was not a plan b. getting huge bonuses -- bonuses. actually make the line smoother. tweeting this out last night, tsa security chief receives 90,000 bonuses removed from this post. >> it is a charge put the hearing and you can see it was getting quite a bit of money. he is only one of thousands of highly paid eurocrats and that is part of the problem in tsa. we have a cap of 45,000 screeners. these guys receive more bonus moneys in a year than every screener out on the line working. they only received a total of

6000 for the country. while republicans are shorting them or not getting the resources, i brought this little chart. every year, the last three years, the republican congress .as given more money to the tsa there is the evidence. we adjusted the fee. we set up a five dollars service theye and calculated that somewhat we thought it would cost to run the system. we adjusted that. we have got airlines operating at the time to commit to that, but we did not anticipate some of the newer lines coming up,

big ones. the size. as far as we adjusted that so the tsa's getting more fees several years ago. it is not a matter of resources but how you use them. big bonuses and you have thousands of people getting $100,000 salaries. studio, 45 miles, 4000 100employees making over thousand dollars a year. then we have 13,000 more tsa people on top of that. we want to get into wasting money and that would take away from the rest of the program.

in, thenistrator came , theygets the information have a 95% failure rate in detecting things that pose a threat. he saysguy comes in and he will crack down. he institutes the crackdown. b for tsao plan whistleblowers. they have at least 10 or 11% turnover every year. the positions they have, in 4000 employees but only hired 373. 30% wash outhired,

within a year. it is like trying to fill the bathtub. 2500 vacant positions. first, they cannot recruit them and you cannot train them. they cannot retain them. and they have trouble administering them. this is turning into a huge bureaucracy. has -- worked for the counter terrorism office. he says the tsa needs to be address hist how to long wait lines. one thing tsa could do is dramatically lower the price of paychecks. only about 2 million people have

signed up for the program. she says continue -- consider a $15 family summer pass. guest: israel does not charge .nything for their equivalent 99% of the people should be in pre-check. the system is not geared to go after the bad guys. down now we are cracking to a 99% of americans struggling to not pose any risk. and pre-check, they are now finding out more people. they chase national since we had our healing -- our hearing. lines are longer than the regular lines. what you need is to get them out personnel business, and into the security business. what we face today, it is not a gun and a knife and people going

through there. you have secured cap pick -- cockpit doors. today, if people on flight 93 was taking place, the passengers and the crusade today, they have done that with richard reid, they did that with the diaper bomber. the public is very alert. impossible and the things -- they concentrating do not vet and screen people who work in secure areas. there are tens of thousands of them. we do not know who they are and do not have passport numbers or social security numbers. these are people working in secure areas. plane wase russian probably an inside job.

that is where some of the threat is today. if you go after people who pose a risk and you do it in a sensible fashion, that is one of the things we need to concentrate on. collecting intelligence. the most disturbing thing at our hearing was whistleblowers told us the office of division and intelligence analysts -- run, poorlypoorly staffed, and not people with the credentials to be doing that with an important task. it is finding out who poses a risk, tracking them in making certain they do not get to the gate. host: the associate press tweeting -- guest: yes, well, the only way you can take down an aircraft at

that level would be catastrophic failure. more than likely, it is an explosion. there is a possibility it could be a lithium battery. this has been a longer flight. the russian airliner went down killing 200 people. you have got the possibility of a lithium battery, some type of .uel we crossed wires and it caused that explosion that came out of the sky. more than likely, this is the insider job from paris. after those bombings, there are 80,000 people at work at the airport here that is the airport richard reid came out of and they have had security problems.

the 80,000 people went in and they took 70-80 batches of have some they might connection or be radicalized. we do not know if they got them all. the investigations have to go is a kind ofthis issue we need to be dealing with. the other thing, they are not going to take down with a knife or a sharp object. they will use explosives. -based bomb,nitrate but one we cannot detect with the equipment out there. you can get the rest of these on the internet. put together these devices that can cause an explosion. new serious threats we need to be dealing with. host: let's get to calls. in virginia, independent, good morning. caller: the first thing i want to say to everyone is thank you for c-span. this is a great opportunity. long-time listener and a

first-time caller. i will try to set the record straight. if we could go back to the assistant administrator, mr. hogan, i want to set the record straight. i think, congressman, you should encourage your cohort to go back and have another conversation with mr. never chirp. things out.w i understand the bonuses are are and that -- but there circumstances i know on good authority why that bonus was received and it has a lot to do with what the administration had asked him to do and then reassigned him at his own personal cost. that was a way to make him whole. this was not a flagrant over government spending. that gentlemanct had a number of years, some

great institutional knowledge and was more than willing to do whatever the administration had asked to do, but he stood up and said a lot of the things you are asking are in fact going to make lines longer. doing i am sure he was the bidding when they found out the new administrator came in and the media had disclosed in 95% failure rate. he was told to do certain things and he did them. he happened to be in charge and as i said, he was only one of the people who may be part of the problem and maybe he was just doing their bidding. but again, a lot of bonuses for the higher-ups and almost nothing for the guys on the line. like you haves knowledge of this, do you work for the tsa? caller: i do not. i would just ask you,

congressman, if you would, please reconsider having a conversation with him. if there is culpability, it is at his level as well. exactly. he came in and met with me and sat on my sofa and told me he would institute a crackdown and he will screen everything. i said listen, you can do that but we need to be focusing the resources where the risk is. 99% of those people do not pose a risk. concerned about things that do not cause a threat. all the stuff they confiscated have notle, they identified one terrorist. they have a behavior detection program. they hired 3000 300 people at the cost of about one third of $1 billion.

the meantime, 17 known terrorists went through eight terror -- 24 times and were never detected. i have the reports of the failure. i only brought a few. these got one foot of back in my office. tsa has failed to do what it is set up to do. it is not to shake down little ladies and innocent americans to go after people who pose a risk. host: should he lose his job? guest: he just started so i am giving him a chance. i said, and i do not mean to be light about it, basically, he comes in and he is the administrator and he has an army of people whose job depends on and -- he like it is, gives the order to crack down. there was no plan b. might have been his

responsibility or someone's responsibility to make sure you prepare. but they cannot hire. they have vacancies and 30% washout once they get on board the first year. john in louisiana, a republican, good morning to you. force: i am a retired air -- i worked for delta before 9/11 and after. he brought up an interesting thing about the tsa. atent through security dulles international airport and i have in my flight day a cockpit door key fastened to a key ring that is a bottle opener. can also open a beer can. the individual pulls it out and asks me what it was. i am old school. we used to call those a church key. i said that is a church key and he said, a religious artifact,

he handed it back to me, and i went through the line. that is the type of people we were dealing with. the tsa. in that is from a position, i was the captain on the flight. i had my uniform on. that is what i observed going through the line. buts not rocket science thousands standing around is what the airline business called the tsa. congressman, you can respond to both. go ahead, adam? caller: since 9/11, the federal government could have just taken over not the security contract but increased their oversight and accountability. instead, they created a bloated they cannot kill. they have created a monster and it is now upon to kill. we keep on dumping money into it here at guest: -- into it. and wei helped create it

wanted to have the federal government to come in and set the rules and regulations are what failed in 9/11 is the ineral government put regulations for the private streamers. they never did. the federal government put restrictions and on what could be carried aboard like box cutters and the sharp razor. they never did. faa actually had a message in the flight directions for pilots andooperate with hijackers when they got to the swiss embassy, that is the kind of government failure that happened. we wanted to have the government involved. i would restructure it. we do very well with a private sector. the federal government must set the protocol. they should do the audits. then they should direct the resources toward the risk.

they do not inspect tsa employees let alone thousands. airports where they screen the employees, they do it in my hometown of orlando, miami, and atlanta. they found drugs and guns. those were not terrorist threats. they were dealing in drugs and guns. now they go through a metal detector. a person told me he says, it is crazy. once i get to a secure area, i have access to chemicals, access to all kinds of things you , hammers and screwdrivers and knives. then you have access to the plane and you can do damage with a pair of pliers and sabotage a plane. we need to be vetting those people and spending our resources there. concern.e job is a we have got to find a better way to protect ourselves.

that is with intelligence and connecting the dots here it every time we failed to connect the dots. host: victor, silver spring, maryland, republican. caller: good morning. i do not fly anymore. us beforeime i flew 9/11. i do not want to be treated like a potential middle eastern type going through all of this, wondering what in my bag will be considered contraband. will it be my dealer in or my shampoo? i do not know anymore and i do not feel like putting up with the hassle. host: is that a trend? well, most americans now are treated that way and that is the way it should be. we should have some profiling, not on the basis of race and religion, but there are a lot of categories. people who have flown for years of thehould be about 90%

population. who go after the people have been in some of these areas. whereave posed a risk terrorism stems. there are a whole host of people upknow keeping the watchlist is very important and they have not done as good a job. they failed internationally to negotiate -- first, we have very few tsa employees around the world at these airports where the flights are coming in. the ones that have been most at risk. we failed at getting passenger record information and negotiations. it has gotten a little better and the europeans are giving us more. data about to know people coming in and if we know more about our passengers, which we have gotten, date of birth and other things, we can check better who it is.

set one billion dollars for a transportation worker, we do not have a thumb, we do not have iris, that has been a disaster for transportation workers. until you know who the person is with a thumb print and iris, the credentials do not mean a lot. even in my backyard, they now use a thumb print and can tell you a lot about people. use their tickets multiple times and passed them on to other people with a simple mechanism. host: long security lines. what about actual airlines? airlines charge bags a hefty unit --a hefty fee. guest: people do not know what they are talking about here. they put more bags in the belly of the aircraft. it is probably where they will send the explosives.

we only have 123 airports with automatic baggage screening. some of those are totally automated and very good and some are partial p we have 450 airports now. which airport would you go through if you were a terrorist? the more bags you check through, they are being checked and we just do not put them on the plants. there are also being screened. you are just moving the problem down to another level and putting yourself at risk because the failure rate of the 300 airports doing the hand check gauge is absolutely terrible. it is a serious problem. you do not want people to be putting something to get through to get to the belly of a plane and blow it up. host: usa today notes that the airport collected -- million in

baggage fees. guest: airports chart you four dollars in -- a passenger fee to go through the airport. i introduced a bill some time ago to limit baggage fees. i did that to show the airlines are not afraid of the increasing of the baggage fees or the service. that is another one. also, the money is taken off the ticket so no funds are going into the airport improvement trust fund. that runs the system. five dollars we have had for security fee. are fair fees because those who use it pay it.

the general taxpayers should not be paying, necessarily. you try to set up a system that was fair. it has been forwarded by the airlines and others. host: ron, republican. caller: i have a suggestion. how about getting our military guys in there and the national guard and maybe even a veteran? guest: when the air traffic control system, they had a dispute, reagan had the military take it out. i think it would be good to have , those coming out of the military, get in. in almosts that era every screener and everyone working in those positions at the airport from israel are coming out of the military. it is not a situation where we have an active military but the most important part is not just the screening.

it is the intelligence, the intelligence, the intelligence. if they get past you, i can for have orderedd i tests done and i have ordered new tests done and i have been doing it longer than anyone in congress. my responsibility is tuesday one step ahead of them. that is what i want others to the resourcest where we are going after the biggest risk, not hassling everybody. host: karen in new jersey, democrat. you are coming in clear. caller: ok. my question is my son is traveling to paris in june to in june-july, and how concerned should i be with the security of a flight from -- he is traveling british airways to paris and then is using air .rance to get to more sigh

how concerned should i be with security? guest: you probably have a bigger chance of being killed in your kitchen at home, if you look at the death statistics. from the united states, you are relatively safe. of course, the latest incident from paris is troubling. but, again, the odds are very slim that they be involved in any kind of incident. all of this has caused more crackdown around the world. more intensified security, going after people who pose a risk. they missed them in muscles. , they thought they couldn't penetrate the system, so they went to the counter and killed people in line. they are looking for new venues.

have gone to cafes and stadiums. we have had the boston marathon, the times square bomber. square bomber, another great tsa success. he bought his ticket on the way phone, paide cell for it with cash, went through tsa and was brought off the airline by border control. but we can't let that happen. that is a failure of the system to get bad guys. host: jeff, an independent color. good morning. caller: from 2011-2015, i have attempted to gain employment with the tsa. the application process is ridiculous. i went on for interviews, submitted my paperwork for times -- paperwork four times. host: what do these agents make

for the tsa? guest: it is a fair wage. i forget the starting. , in that range? folkst think they reward enough at that level. i just gave $76,000 for all the bonuses of the tsa workers. i think if you pay them more -- and i think, recruiting -- this gentleman is talking about a job and there are hundreds of vacancies. that really irritates me. when they can't fill the positions. systemwide,ncy is if you go to los angeles or chicago or atlanta -- you go to these big airports and the

vacancy rate is double that. they have actually trained more withle than they employ the tsa, that is how big the turnover has been. they need some stability. i don't think they are capable of recruiting, training, retaining or hiring. i think the project sector could do that function and set the standards. changing the protocols. i got an e-mail from a hearing of a tsa employee. he said by the time we get information from the tsa about the threat, they give us little information and give it to us late and we see more information on tv. that is tsa's job. to set the protocol. host: the hearing that you referenced, the oversight and

government reform has heard to hearings since april 27. guest: even before egyptair. thursday,ednesday and there will be hearings on the tsa lines. amy, good morning. caller: my question is about cuba. trying to open 10 airports in cuba. they were talking about the security there. the security on people boarding ,lanes in cuba and coming here it wasn't just iffy. there is something that is not right. and they are trying to do this really fast. guest: a good point. and it should get a serious

review before we let any of the planes come in. that is where most of the threat is coming. your diaper bomb or your liquid explosives. that is coming in from outside and that is where we have few tsa -- we haven't negotiated very well our presence at those facilities. some of them have equipment that is not as good as ours. when they come back into the united states, you have to go through our security again, that you may have been at risk flying. i have advocated even giving them equipment to upgrade. i'm not advocating this for cuba but access to some of the equipment and technology, so that people getting on the plane are secure. but it isn't necessarily carrying it on. it is also smuggling it on through workers at the airport and things like that. cuba definitely has not been our friendliest ally, so it does

pose a risk. host: steve, a democrat. you are on the air with the congressman. caller: you had alluded to something that could have brought the plane down, and you said it was a nonexplosive material. i was in the military and navy, and what we used to destroy classified equipment were canister is. they are the size of a cook can. -- a coca-cola can. it starts off with smoke and heat and if you put it underneath the cockpit and the communications control, that could take the plane down easily. what do you think? guest: again, there are new threats. i have been aware of this for some time. most of what we have out there is looking for a nitrate-based,

the walk-through portals that we have can detect that. dogs are trained basically for nitrate. i have had testing with non-nitrate-based materials, and i can tell you that you could take down an airplane. we have to stay one step ahead of these guys. that is my big concern. the behavior detection program has been a terrible failure. the israelis and other agencies can get it right but tsa has not been able to. again, right now, you see what we have done since the disclosure of the 95% failure rate is going after all of the americans who pose no risk and they are not capturing things, like this guys bottle opener or

whatever it was. i saw this morning on television, boxes and boxes of stuff that they have confiscated. if people wanted to get mad, we know that they bought equipment that you could screen faster and it would determine whether the liquid posed a risk. we have that technology. they couldn't train the people to use it so they dumped down -- machine.ed down the to use it so they dumped down -- they dumbed down the machine. they have actually purchase the equipment and not used it. i don't want to get into all of the failures but that is right there. host: in illinois, good morning. karen is waiting period caller. caller: good morning. the airline crash that happened at o'hare in 1979, people died

and i wanted to put that out there, that people passed in that crashing and no one remembers them. host: ok. guest: one of the things i work for since o'hare was the biggest infrastructure project of my career -- redoing the runways. not very safe, we straighten them out and it cost $15 million and it took years to do. three governors went to jail who i worked with over that time. it is one of our primary responsibilities. not just a terrorist threat but also making airports safe. we do remember those folks. host: james in daytona beach, florida. caller: good morning.

e of yourm on constituents. guest: former, if you are daytona. i lost that a few years ago. caller: oh, wow. i read the sunday paper and every day's paper. they have a voting record of our representatives and senators down here. i've noticed that you and john desantis are against the people every time, for the rich and the powerful. host: we are running out of time, give us one example. eek.er: i see it every w i read the bill and it is always against the people. host: all right. congressman? guest: again, i think john desantis and i are on the conservative side. the longer i stay in congress,

the more conservative i get with people's money. last night we worked on public buildings and i feel i am working for the people. rdey are out there working ha and struggling to pay bills, to educate their kids, pay their mortgage, and for me to come up. and waste money or not go after people who are wasting money, it is a shame. i try to save $1 billion a year for the taxpayer. i would be glad to enumerate them. i don't think we vote against the people. we are actually voting for the people. host: one hearing happening today on capitol hill is about the d.c. metro. nment: another big gover program. i am going to complement the manager today. he fired 20 people today, it has

been incompetence management. big government programs spiral out of control. i never finish the answer with why we ended up with the tsa the way it is but it was because of an airline crash in november of 2001. a plane went down in long island. we were set to restructure the tsa is out as much bureaucracy but we allowed the government to take it over for several years, and then airlines would hop down. then it moved from transportation and it mushroomed 16,000-22,000 up to 45000 and now 63,000. seven government agencies are smaller than tsa. we have to get a handle on it. host: a democrat, we will squeeze you in.

caller: i work at dulles international airport. and i worked out of

-- the tony award winner for leading actor in jersey boys. we will be right back. >> congratulations to the class of 2016. today is your day of celebration and you have earned it. >> the voices crying for peace and light, because your choices will make the difference to you

and all of us. >> don't be afraid to take on cases or a new job or a new issue that really stretches your boundaries. >> spend your summer abroad on hips instead of internships. watchoughout this month, commencement speeches to the class of 2016 in their entirety from colleges and universities around the country. from politicians and white house officials. on c-span. richspan.org is a video complement to your viewing. most of our government programs like the house and senate an

congressional hearings stream. so you can watch on your desktop or laptop. c-span archives all of the programs in the c-span video library. so if you lose -- if you missed a program, you can find it online and watch it at your convenience. it contains more than 200,000 heurs of programs and t powerful search engine helps you find programs going back many years. to watch on television, c-span publishes its schedule for all three channels. service on public your satellite provider. check it out. it is on the web at c-span.org. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back. megan buyer, the executive director of the president's commission on the arts and the

byanities, and we are joined a member of the president's committee. let's begin with what this committee is and what are you trying to do? guest: it was created under the reagan administration, the idea that there should be a committee that advises on the arts. i think this committee is a bit of an outlier in that while there have been many committees with philanthropists and art advocates, this one has a lot of artists in it. we have yo-yo ma, john lloyd .oung, chuck close and what was terrific is that when the president was running, he had a platform on the arts and talked about wanting to reinvest in arts education. so when he put together the

committee, that was the first that he had. was produced a report that reinvesting in arts education. and so all of the recommendations in that report were so compelling that they went out and put together and eight school pilot program to prove the program -- to prove the point that the arts are not an add-on. that they can to magically change a school. a critical pull for the reform. host: we will talk a little bit johnabout that but first, lloyd young, talk about how you came to serve on this committee. >> i was a second term appointee to the committee. the pilot program had already started and my friends who were connected to the committee here in washington had told me about it. wmentadvocacy for the endo

for the arts, i discussed my experience with arts education. and it was something i was interested in before my appointment, and probably part of the reason i got involved. so immediately, i was involved with the program and became a mentor to some of the new schools. host: talk about your experience a little bit. where you have been and what you have seen with the turnaround arts program. of us are lloyd young: most not educators, we are artists. i had preconceptions going in. i had two elementary schools in iowa. i assumed that if there was a problem in a school, it had something to do with the quality of the teaching. when i got to des moines, i realized that the school district, their major problem

was not the teaching, but they have a lot of migrant workers going through. there are families that, because of the economic situation, have to move a lot. so what is difficult for that district is tacking the students down and having a sense of continuity for them. the turnover rate is so high that the teachers are fantastic but are challenged by that. host: what were they able to do for the school and the children? given that challenge? --n lloyd young: i found every district is different. i have a school, walker elementary, in florida. they have different challenges. i found that the challenge in des moines, when you look at the classroom demographics, there are kids from all of the different backgrounds. some of them don't speak english at home. there is the language issue. in des moines, the arts are a

way of bringing everyone to the table in an equal way, so that a child is not left behind because of a challenge with language. and everyone can express themselves and become part of the discussion. host: why is it that the government should have a role in arts in a public schools, especially at this presidential committee level? the turnaround program, what are you being told about the program and its efforts? megan beyer: it is about competitiveness in the united states. that was how the president framed it when he ran for his platform. he said the future will be a future that will be inherited by the innovators. america has always been an innovation culture. we have always dominated in those industries that require innovation. he was required -- he was concerned because after decades of this gravitation towards

testing in schools and narrowing the vision of what education is about to a smaller spectrum of academic courses, and he felt that we were missing the idea that, to stimulate the innovation, you need the arts. you need to creativity. what is also interesting is that 60% of the dropouts in america, and the dropout rates are very much tied to our skilled worker pool and the competitiveness, come from the schools that the turnaround arts works in. these schools in the lowest 5% performing schools in america. so to see the kind of results that we have seen in those specific schools shows that there is real promise for improving our competitiveness. booz allen hamilton did a study

of the first eight pilot schools , and found that the proficiency scores for math went up i 23%. the proficiency scores for reading went up 13% and all the metrics on a parent engagement, attendance, holding community in the schools -- all of those went through the roof. so it was a study that has been and education policy makers are starting to rethink how we do education in america. host: we are talking about arts education this morning. is the director of the president's commission on the arts and the humanities. -- is a formal journal just she is a former journalist. she has a responsibility for 23

community colleges. a wife of a guest who has been on the washington journal. and also, john lloyd young, an actor, singer and artist. "jersey tony award for boys." talk about when you knew you wanted to be a singer, artist and actor. when was that? john lloyd young: the very early on. a toddler. i remember getting on the kitchen chair, singing. i think that happens for a lot of artists. but also experiences in school and educational experiences. those were areas that brought a sense of play to the day. and i think that it is easy to forget, when you think about test scores, childhood is a special time.

and everyone agrees that children learn through play. so the arts in school, singing and music and all of that stuff, it is another place for a child to learn through a natural way of learning. you can only do that in those early years of childhood. by the time you get to high school, it is mainly -- it is maybe not so acceptable to play when learning. down atyer: we were walker elementary school in florida together, and the teachers were describing to us what the school culture was like before turnaround arts. and they had a big problem with violence and if your problems. and what we found with the arts, what we do is come in and they get musical equipment. the national association of

music manufacturers provide music. crayola brings in art supplies. and we bring in incredible training for all of the teachers. we reintegrate the entire curriculum. math, science, they teach everything with the arts. paint by fractions. so the kids are actively doing. they are learning with their bodies. it is kinesthetic learning. group of kids, who have been in a school that has been a threatening place, suddenly, it is a place full of art. the old and gray hallways are a backdrop for the incredible artwork. kids are coming in to go to play practice in the afternoon and there is music often down the hall. it truly brings a joy and love and sense of community in a place that didn't have it

before. john lloyd young: to that point, some of the reading scores are improving, the math scores are improving. i think that it is probably useful to remember that we all learned our abcs by singing a song. i know some that -- accomplished adults who still, when they try to figure out the order of where something falls in the alphabet, sing the song. so if you accept that one of the most fundamental basics of reading you learned by singing, it is easy to understand how adding an artistic approach to learning in other areas would be equally effective. host: let's get the viewers involved. students and parents dial-in at (202) 748-8000. educators, (202) 748-8001. all others, (202) 748-8002.

a parent in chesapeake, virginia. go ahead. caller: i am confused in how the money is distributed throughout the school. i have seen, in the past, not too long ago, that your faculties in your sport area get millions of dollars to spend on the stadiums just so kids can get concussions and all of that. why shouldn't it be divided up properly with all of these activities that children have at schools, instead of putting it all into the sports part? where they can get injured and ruin their life forever? host: ok. your thoughts on how money is distributed? is fundeder: it generally by localities. underserved communities tend to

have underserved schools. what we found is that as arts programs began to disappear in america with a greater focus on a technical approach is that particularly underserved communities lost the arts programs. a study said 6 million students in our most underserved communities have no arts program whatsoever. so your caller is right. thegood news is that education bill that was passed is going to make title i federal funding available now at the state and local level. so i would say to every parent out there who has the same thoughts that you have, think about talking to your school district and your mayor about accessing this title i funding. you can use arts integration in your local schools. host: the every student succeeds

act? is that what you are for into? which replaces no child left behind. roger in miami, good morning. caller: i have some comments. the caller that just went was spot on. there is an overarching lack of investment in the art infrastructure in our communities. you mentioned walker elementary school. a lot of the minority-based theaters are disappearing. or have disappeared. arts infrastructure is struggling and i think that is part of the problem. when the kids leave the schools and go home, where do they go to see theater or hear an orchestra play? the libraries are doing what art infrastructure overall is crumbling outside of the school system.

i think that needs to be addressed. host: any thoughts? thatlloyd young: i think there are some interesting points. i don't know much about the art scene in florida, except that i do know that in broward county where we have our activity, it has a good educational program. the performingo arts center and there are some good programs in that regard. the overarching problem that speaks to what the viewer is talking about -- let's talk about sports. everyone can get on the same page as to how and why sports are important to a young person. they build character and discipline, physical fitness and teamwork. y the problem,ed there has to be more of a dialogue and maybe that is on us.

the current committee and leaders in the arts. to discuss how the arts are beneficial so that we are on the same page as to how arts affect a child. i was like to say that you are not likely to learn empathy in a math class. the arts teach empathy. which we can agree as a country is important. understanding other countries -- other cultures is important. even building vocabulary. everyone watches "the wizard of -- i could while away the hours, consulting with the flowers. those are big words. arefor people who interested, we could have the economic argument. there are so many studies. the off-broadway league has some interesting ones about how if

you put a theater on one block and the economy blooms. i think we should think about not just the economy in terms of money but also the economy of feeling and thought. the economy of culture. it improves when you build the arts infrastructure. i agree with the caller completely. that is something that needs to be addressed. but i think people who care more need to advocate in the community. host: we have an educator in indiana, what do you teach? caller: actually, school counseling. i am volunteering for the national park service is in providing environmental education. theme the programs is a -- science, technology and

engineering with an arts component. a big part is to get students outside, engage in natural spaces with the natural parks. we are trying to do that through art, as well as through science. --ing sure you look outside it is biology, because you are looking at plants but it is aesthetic because you are appreciating what is in front of you. you look at the culture. to the previous scholars point point, its caller's is about conceptualizing. art isn't just about drawing and sculptor, and how we interact with each other. humanities. my question is, how can we, in

underserved communities, better advocate to include these as curriculum, when we have so many other incredibly severe problems? i hear you. i see how all of these things do better trying to create cultures in schools and communities. but how do we reach some andricts, the educators administrations themselves? host: ok. megan beyer: i love hearing what you have to say. you are already using the arts to teach because you see the power of it. and i think this study, reinvesting in arts education, is trying to do what your point is about. .his isn't just an add-on

we aren't saying to do an extra arts program. we are saying that if you integrate the arts into the way you teach, and we encourage these schools to create an ecosystem in the community, reaching out to the arts organizations that are there, and bringing them into the schools. you are not only solving an academic problem, you are not just teaching students about the arts, but you are mitigating some of the discipline problems. you are setting students on a path to finish their education. studies show that -- if a student has been involved in arts education and programs, they are more apt to graduate. there are many problems that are solved through the arts. arts are transformational. and as they say at the national endowment for the arts, arts work. they mean that on many fronts. economic, academically, in the education system and many ways.

host: we are talking about art funding in schools. from new york, a student. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am a student, i play the french born. horn. , artsback to the point education is important. to the point that the last caller made, i know that integrating arts into stem really helps to benefit the student. howi see that reflected in math and music -- how

music are connected. it is very much mathematical. next year, i'm going to the university of buffalo to study engineering, and i am also good at the french horn. and i think that is the mix between mathematics and music. host: i want to take that point. john, have you seen that on the ground? when you are at the schools? the correlation between music and mathemati? john lloyd young: rhythm is fractions. ot is also very related t language. tonal, and it is its own language. so what's interesting to me -- thank you for your call -- it's interesting that you are

studying engineering. and i think playing the french horn is really useful for going into mathematics. just on the basis of the scientifically accepted fact a lasteativity creates is is he in your brain. so if you are doing something creative, you are opening the channels for that kind of intuitive flow that you will need when you are approaching something like engineering. i think in a general way, all of the arts, including performing and meomeone like megan and yourself and speaking publicly, or going in front of a group of people to present your findings, leadership in any field -- it requires the experience of getting up in front of other people and creatively making your case. i can'tf the things --

imagine opponents to arts education that there are. it is usually about allocation of funds. i think it is a worthwhile investment because it is engendering leadership skills that we need as a country. and we need to focus on the idea that kind of practice, if you are willing to get up and do a guest recital in front of your friends and fall down, later in life it isn't about building the next generation of dancers were painters, it is about building the next generation of leaders who can present ideas to fellow citizens. host: go ahead. i want to say something about these great artists and how connected they are. when i first heard about the program, i didn't realize how we completely change the infrastructure of the school. themnnect them and get

involved in the community but the artists, what they are doing, josh groveland in chicago did a crowd sourced mural for the front of a school. kerry washington took her school to the nutcracker. misty copeland had her school come to the new york ballet. and john has been in the school so often. misty did a robo call for parent-teacher conferences. so everyone showed up. they have been so creative about the way they have given theselves, and now, artists have made the commitment to stand for three more years. and what is clear to anyone who has been involved, it is not about the president asking them to do something. it is about the kids, the whole time. they are committed and you

should see them light up when john comes in. john lloyd young: every artist. megan beyer: they know these artists. host: we are showing some pictures of the kids. megan beyer: they feel the attention of the white house and also the artists. encourage them and bring in local artists. john lloyd young: can i say something? you gave me an idea. , remember when i was a child the presidential fitness exam. if you passed it, you got a certificate signed by the president. i won't say which president, i don't want to date myself. [laughter] john lloyd young: but i remember in my small town getting a certificate signed by the president and i felt so proud of being an american. it was a reminder that i was a citizen of a nation. and one of the things i take

away from the work with these kids that i see, especially when we going to the communities who are struggling most in the educational system, is that we go there -- josh were open, kerry washington -- we are proxies for the highest office in the land. the president of the united states and the first lady. and these kids know that. they know that their school is being acknowledged and cared for by the leaders of our country. and i think that reverberates through the community. remember,say that i as a child, getting that certificate and being proud of my achievement and that set me up for my whole life of continuing to be aware of physical fitness and wanting to be a strong person and strong citizen. and i think we are setting these children up with the idea that

their country has their back. i say one othern thing happening this week, the first lady michelle obama, everyone has a great sense of her and knows how she loves children. and she cares for them. she has visited some of the around arts is. she has then to the white house for many things, not just the talent show this week. but this week she brings in eight of our schools. they will be performing with many of our artists, and that will be another opportunity for them to connect with the obama administration. host: mark in for genia, a virginia, aark in parent. caller: wow. as far as what john said

earlier, he is right. you have to make the case for why the humanities and the arts are important. but also, as we get more right,hed with left and humanities and the arts have always seemed to be a liberal -- they call it liberal arts. they associate it with more liberal individuals. and i think the funding really trends up that line. the second thing is, as the parent of four, what i notice as , i hado the schools banned from fifth grade all the way through, districtwide. and now you have to pick a school if you want banned or pick a school if you want to do chorus. and i think that is unfortunate. i went to a play that my

daughter participated in and i was blown away by the level of performance of four-year-olds and 8-year-old's -- i was absolutely amazed. i've put that in contrast of going to write children's elementary school over the years, at different levels, and the performances that they have and the plays that they have are cute but honestly, they are not that impressive, as far as talent. so when i saw a five-year-old young lady beating a song and a seven-year-old gentleman lead the tap, i was blown away. there is a talent deficit that is occurring because we have taken out the arts and the music and humanities. host: i have to leave it there

because we are short on time. do you want to address what he said? this being a liberal -- megan beyer: that is why i started with the idea that it is about competitiveness. if you look at competitors in the marketplace, they don't have high dropout rates. we have found through our study that this is a way to curb that dropout rate. it goes to the quality of our work force. we are looking for creative employees. these are programs nurture that. the other thing is that we have very few women in sciences and these fema programs, integrating the arts into math and science, these seem to nurture female students that we need in the workforce. host: from owings mill, good

morning. caller: i am originally from new york city and my children grew up in new york city. we lived in a poor neighborhood but what they did have was music classes. my daughter, she played the flute. my son was in the band. he played the drums. the bongos. ght he woulde thou be a professional musician but he realized his talent didn't go that far. his other brother played -- he was in the chorus. as you said, there is a connection. my daughter is an electrical engineer. and also an attorney. other twor -- the grew up in a poor neighborhood

but all of them are college graduates. and i think the music had a lot to do with it. host: edith, i will leave it there. so i can get in everly, and educator. iller: i am calling because was wanting also -- as well as saying the arts -- host: you have to turn down the tv and just listen to the phone. that is what calls the -- that is what causes the confusion. what do you think about people who see this in their own children and the path that they have taken? john lloyd young: that is the tricky thing. the arts are an intuitive force. and what's exciting to me, because i am not an educator, is to see the committee before i

joined it, had come up with this empirical evidence that demonstrates to those who need numbers what i have always known i whole life. and theough experiences education myself and seeing things come together in my life. i think that is the main thrust, is that now we have the empirical evidence for those of you who need it. and for the rest of us, who understand the arts are a deeply anditive, enriching integral part about what build a citizen. we need to continue to make these arguments and continue to explain. sometimes it is very insular, when you talk about people who buy into this. you have to communicate with your opponents. in ways that they can understand. host: if people want more

information, they can go to the website for the committee. you can find information about the program as well. megan beyer: and if you want to watch the talent show, it will be live streamed on the white house website. it is on wednesday, two men around 4:00. host: what performances will people see? megan beyer: we have eight of our schools. we have paula abdul performing with some students. i'm not giving it away. you have to watch it. host: david in rochester, new york. good morning. caller: i wanted to mention another area that the arts help is the teaching of history. learned from c-span that the -- the "hamilton"

children are listening to the soundtrack and there are lesson plans sent to the schools to help students learn about how our country was formed. it is a good way to learn about history. host: jenny, a parent. good morning. you are on the air. caller: thank you for taking my call. i just have a,. few comments. a fantastic idea. it sounds promising. down tothat it comes the implication. and my own experience as a parent, i feel that there is a -- [indiscernible]

to that end, some of the good ideas were lost. host: so implementation. how do you go about making sure there is follow through? megan beyer: it is a vigorous process to become a turnaround arts school. they are not getting a big grant or anything, they are getting the ability to be part of the program. and what comes with the program is all about musical instruments, art equipment -- the best piece is the professional development for everything will teacher in the school to essentially reengineer the curriculum so that it is taught with the arts. we have teams that go to the schools on a regular basis. we have a summer professional development program. we create a nexus within the

community of support and we have a valuators come in. we will put an art specialist in the school, we make sure they have a play every year. has to be some accountability with this. and they so like being a part of this and having the association with the white house and these incredible artists, it is a great motivation for the schools. that is part of the success. john lloyd young: it is also a model for the schools that are not in a turnaround status, it has worked so demonstrably well. some of the schools in the program, this is their first year and they are already up to speed. so i think that is very important, especially at the government level. it is a leadership model. host: how much money are we talking about? megan beyer: $3 million a year is our budget. about $50,000 in resources

pursed cool. -- resources per school. there is a desire within the school to do it. and having the buy-in from the school district and the nonprofits in that community, the schools love it. host: what is the criteria? megan beyer: you have to be in the lowest 5% performing school in america. you have to agree to do a number of things. a plate every year, you have to have an arts specialist at the school. you have to have meetings with your teachers to talk about test practices. what works and what is not. it is a commitment that we make sure people follow through on. and i think that is one reason we have been so successful. host: pam in massachusetts, good morning.

what is your question or comment? caller: thank you for taking my call. i played the trumpet in high school and was part of the marching band and started a color guard at our high school in the 1980's. my question is, how can we challenge our school alumni to give back to the community and help out with the arts education and funding in schools? host: do either one of you want to take that? [laughter] megan beyer: i think it is a great idea. john lloyd young: i think the answer is you. share the idea with your fellow alumni. that is what we are supposed to do here, right? what i love about this wonderful administration that is coming to a close, it is my interpretation of the leadership from eight years is that it is a type of

leadership that says, we will set the bar and then we want you to go up and achieve it. make us proud. and i think that having the idea and then projecting that over to washington is not the point. having the idea and projecting it to your friends and community and making it happen on that level, and programs like this that are working, our great evidence to bring to your community and make things happen at home. megan beyer: with this new every student succeeds act, there is a title i money, so you can encourage your locality to get title i funding that can now be as oner arts integration of their solutions for reform. dawn, a parent. caller: i love to see that you're are talking about this on the show.

i am so glad that somebody is working on trying to get the arts back into public schools. i have met kids that grew up with schools that had no art or gym classes. it is just devastating. what i wanted to speak to was sort of what that guy was talking about, as far as it is being perceived as liberal. , and theof advancing idea of it not just being for competitiveness, although that is a great argument -- it is also for citizenship. for example, i played the flute and when i got older and moved to a different school, i didn't want to stay in the band and i sold my flute. it was no great loss. but i knew a lot of musicians. host: i apologize, the house is

about to gavel in for the morning session. we have to go, because that is the commitment here. we bring you coverage of the house. megan beyer and john lloyd young, thank you for the conversation. we bring you to the house with live coverage. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] the speaker: the house will be in order. pursuant to the order of the house of january 5, 2016, the chair will now recognize nebs from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate. the chair will alternate recognition between the parti