week, nearly 22 billion dollars for financial services and general government spending for 2017. members also will consider legislation to modify health savings accounts and overturning supreme court decisions on federal agency regulations. now to the lord of the house. -- the floor of the house. house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c., june 20, 2016. i hereby appoint the honorable luke messer to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by the guest chaplain, reverend alyssa lassiter walude. the chaplain: let us pray. almighty and most compassionate god, during this ordinary pro forma session, remind us after

your extra -- extraordinary love. your love for each person working in these halls. we give you thanks for their gifts, graces, and sacrifices of time. be with their families as they are here working for us. your love for the common citizen who may never walk these halls but carries the weight of decisions made here. keep them in the forefront of our minds. your love for those in dire need. use us to speak for those who have no voice. your love for each child in our global family, no matter if they , or do abbah, yahweh not call on you at all. show us ways to work with one another, that we too can represent your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. may your extraordinary love impact each ordinary task this

day. in the name of the one who loves us more than we can imagine, amen. the speaker pro tempore: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1, the journal stands approve the chair will lead the house in the pledge of allegiance and invite others in the gallery to join in. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable, the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message

from the secretary of the senate n june 16, 2016, at 3:52 p.m., that the senate passed senate 2815, senate 2577, senate 2348, signed sincerely, karen l. haas. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant to clause 2-h of the rules of to the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on june 16 at 5:15 p.m. that the senate disagreed to house amendment, senate agrees to conference, senate appoints conferees, that the senate passed without amendment h.r. 3209. signed sincerely karen l. haas. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a

communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on june 17, 2016, at 10:37 a.m. that the senate passed senate 2808. signed, sincerely, karen l. haas. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the house stands adjourned until noon tomorrow

730 thousand more appointments than in march of 2014. 300,000 authorizations for care in the community in march. twice as many as in march of 2014. these authorizations will result in more than 2 million appointments in the months ahead. the clinical workload is up 11% in the past two years, nearly 9% inside the v.a. and 27% with be a community care -- v.a. community care. that means over 7 million additional hours of care for veterans. the results? 97% of appointments are now

completed within 30 days of the veterans preferred date. days -- 86% seven within seven days. monthe wait time last five days for primary care, six days for specialty care and two days for mental health care group but none of those numbers tell the whole story. they are important. what really matters is whether veterans are satisfied with their. the v.a. -- with their experience at the v.a. using automated kiosks at our facility. more than half a million have responded in recent weeks. one of the questions we ask is how satisfied are you that you got today's appointment when you wanted it? nearly 90% say they are satisfied or completely satisfied. less than 3% say they are

dissatisfied or completely dissatisfied. i don't know how patients in the private sector would answer that ourtion, and i suspect results would compare pretty silly with -- would compare pretty favorably. more and more veterans are choosing v.a. care for the quality, convenience, and cost savings. said,re you have heard it if you build it they will come. we are building a better v.a. and veterans know that and they are coming to us for more of their care. so even though we are providing more appointments than ever, some veterans are still waiting longer than they should have a weight. that's not a measure of our failure. that's a measure of our success. we are providing more care. veterans are waiting less time for care and so they are coming to us for more of their care and

they are telling us they are satisfied or completely satisfied with the timeliness of their care. how does that not still success? -- spell success? but until all veterans are satisfied with their care i will not be satisfied with v.a. nobody will. but i am satisfied that we are on the right track and we're making progress and that progress is undeniable. though of course some people are determined to ignore it. some experience running very large organizations and i know you cannot accomplish a major overhaul of appropriations culture and operations overnight. i also know the v.a. has several areas of excellence it can brag about. the american customer satisfaction index has rated our national cemetery administration number one in customer service five times running. has rated our mail

order pharmacy best in the country in customer satisfaction x years running. we are a leader in many fields of research. posttraumatic stress. dramatic brain injury -- traumatic brain injury. for aesthetics, genetics. -- prosthetics, genetics. the first implantable cardiac pacemaker. the first successful liver transplant. the first nicotine patch. three nobel prizes. seven lasker awards. look at what we have done with the backlog of disability claims. all long ago we had a backlog of over 600,000 claims, more than 125 days old. that was all you heard about nba in those days. days -- in in those

v.a. in those days. we implemented an automatic claims processing system and today the backlog is just a fraction of where it was. it down almost 90%. can't beea that v.a. fixed or that we are not fixing it is nonsense. we are fixing it. we are just not finished yet. we still have work to do. forvision, the goal we set v.a. is being the number one customer service organization and the federal government. we are building a high-performance organization, and integrated customer centric enterprise leveraging the v.a.'s scope and scale on behalf of every veteran we serve. to achieve that goal we are applying best practices and standards of customer service is mrs.. 12 of our top 17 executives are new since i became secretary and

all 12 have top level leadership experience in business, health care or government. together we have conceived and organized a transformation initiative which we call my v.a. that's exactly how we want veterans to see us. a ba they are proud of and customized for them. committed to five long-term strategies. first improving the veteran experience. second improving the employee experience. surprise that the best customer service organizations in the world are all of the best places to work. third achieving support service excellence. a culture ofishing continuous performance improvement. and fits enhancing strategic partnerships. for the near term we are focused on quick wins for veterans.

breakthrough priorities for 2016 that support our long-term my v.a. strategies. the 12 are about directly improving service to veterans. first improve the veteran experience. second increase access to health care. third improve community health care. fourth deliver a unified veteran six. . sit modernize contact centers. six to the compensation and pension exam. seventh develop a simplified appeals process. and continue to reduce veteran homelessness. four of the 12 priorities are critical enablers designed to help the previous eight. those are improve the employee experience. staff critical positions that are vacant. transform our office of information and elegy.

chain to our supply increase responsiveness and reduce operating costs. those critical enablers are about reforming internals systems. giving employees the tools and resources they need to provide great service. and consistently delivering an exceptional veteran experience. for employees serving veterans growing a high-performance organization means equipping more teams to dramatically improve care. that's what our leaders developing leaders program is all about. an example of continuous enterprisewide growth spreading best practices across the v.a. last novemberl and have already trained over 19,000 employees. we are also training employees on it and business techniques

like lane six sigma and human centered design. ratingse performance and bonuses are being tied to veteran outcomes, employee surveys, and feedback. growing a high-performing organization also takes world-class collaboration and strategic partnerships. last networks working together to serve veterans. it's why we have enabled a national network of 50 community veteran engagement boards. these are designed to leverage community assets not just v.a. assets to meet local veteran needs. our goal is to have 100 of these are the and of the year. that's why we are capitalizing on strategic partnerships with external organizations to leverage the goodwill resources and expertise of partners such as ibm, johnson & johnson, amazon. university of michigan health

system and many more. that's why we are working collaboratively with world-class institutions like usaa, the cleveland clinic, wegmans, starbucks, kaiser permanente, hospital corporation of america and many others. we have brought together the diverse group of business leaders, medical professionals, government executives and veteran advocates who serve on our my v.a. advisory committee. growing a high-performance organization takes a clear purpose, strong values, and enduring principles supporting sound strategies. we already have a clear purpose. caring for veterans and their families. we have strong admirable values. values of integrity, commitment, advocacy, respect and excellence. they are foundational to

everything we do. growing a high-performance organization also takes strong passionate leadership and we have that. a growing team of talented making innovative changes. the kind of responsive systems and processes we are building, veteran centric by design. we believe veterans should have same-day access to primary care and that new patients should receive a same-day mental health is the smith and immediate care if needed. this could mean a same-day appointment with a primary care doctor or it could mean a call from a nurse with medical advice. or a telehealth or mental telehealth encounter. for a secure message. prescription refill. clinic orlk into a emergency facility. we have put in place a system to ourtify best practices in

veterans hospital administration and implement those best practices throughout dha. we are already doing that. it is based on the shark tank model. we invite employees to submit ideas. we take a couple dozen of the best ideas and then we have employees present their ideas panel sharks. the ideas that survive are assigned to a team to oversee implementation throughout dha. an ongoing effort aimed at continuous improvement in operations during the affecting the veteran experience. nobody else in the health care community is doing it. v.a. is leading the way as it often does. we are improving access to health care in many other ways as well. we are making it easier for veterans on the road away from their regular va hospital to receive care or refill prescription at another v.a. facility. we are making it possible for veterans to enroll for health care on line or over the phone

beginning july 5. we are already calling every new enrollee to welcome them to v.a. offering to schedule an ointment and telling them about other v.a. benefits and services. we have called 200,000 veterans so far this year and the response has been tremendous. thatcreated a mobile app lets veterans schedule, reschedule or cancel appointments on their smart. thousands have tried it and field tests we conducted and we expect to make it fully available later this year. we are creating a single phone number and a single website so veterans have a one-stop source for information rather than asking them to navigate our complicated internal structure. givee also working to veterans more opportunities to provide immediate fee act on the quality of the care they receive.

these channels will be in place later this year and that feedback will help us meet the needs of veterans. we are committed to doing everything we can for veterans advancing along all these lines and many others. but important priorities for transformational change require congressional action. fiscal year 2017 budget request is another tangible sign of his steadfast devotion to veterans and his commitment to transform v.a. the senate appropriations committee approved a budget nearly equal to the president's request. markup proposes a $1.5 billion reduction. let's be clear. that reduction will hurt veterans and it will impede critical initiatives necessary to transform v.a. into the high-performing organization veterans deserve. so we are encouraging congress

to fully fund v.a. at the request level. more than 100 legislative proposals for v.a. are in the presidents 2017 budget and 2018 advanced appropriations request. over 40 of them are new this year. they require congressional action. toe are absolutely critical maintaining our ability to purchase non-v.a. care. in mid-march i testified to congress about the most important requirements to help us serve veterans better. deputy secretary sloan gibson will be testifying for the house veterans of heirs committee again on thursday. monitorcongress is help rising and clarifying the v.a. purchase authorities. above all else is needed to get done to ensure a strong foundation for veterans access to community care. we need congress is help streamlining care in the community systems and programs.

last october we submitted our plan to consolidate and simplify the overwhelming number of different programs and improve access to be a care in the community. we need congress to enact legislation that will allow us to better compete with the private sector to get the best medical professionals to choose to work in v.a. that makes flexibility on the 80 hour pay period limit and compensation reforms for network and hospital directors. likewise we need to treat health care executives more like their private sector counterparts. that means expanding the title 38 authority to vha senior executive level medical center directors and other health care executive leadership positions. then we can hire these employees more quickly with flexible competitive salaries. and operate under strong

accountability policies. we have to be more responsive to veterans emerging needs so we're asking for modest flexibility to overcome artificial funding restrictions for veterans care and benefits. and we have urged ambitious action on our disability claims appeals system. cannot serve veterans well unless we can come together and make big changes in the appeals process. it's a heavy lift. we have met with veteran service organizations and we have gotten their assistance in putting together a comprehensive appeals modernization legislative proposal which we made it to congress in a world and updated earlier this month. respondingongress is chairmannate side, johnny isakson in partnership with ranking member blumenthal

is working on the veteran's act, a large omnibus bill that includes many of the legislative solutions we have been urging. chairman jeffide miller has been working closely with us as well. opportunity is closing fast. we need congress to act on the proposed legislation before they leave town in it to life or their extended election year summer recess. if congress does not act on these transformational changes the v.a. will not be able to complete its transformation and veterans will have to settle for a v.a. that is not as risk wants it to their needs. about that.question if congress acts we will all look back on this year as the year we turned the corner for veterans. points about our progress and challenges. can of argued that the v.a. best serve veterans by shutting down v.a. health care altogether.

they argue that closing vha is the kind of bowl transformation veterans and the families need, want and deserve. i suspect that proposal serves some parties pretty well. but it's not transformational. it's more along the lines of their election. wellesn't serve veterans and it doesn't sit well with me. president reagan gave veterans a seat at the table of national affairs nearly three decades ago. my the is about keeping veterans at that table, in control of how when and where they wish to be served. time you for sharing this with me this afternoon. i look forward to your questions. thank you. [applause]

>> thanks very much. >> thank you, mr. secretary for that fascinating overview of all that you and your colleagues at the v.a. are doing. to take the next step, to modernize the veterans administration. veterans andve our to make all of america proud of the care that we provide to them. challengingrmously enterprise to come into government and attempt to transform and modernize.

and i have some questions for you about that. andme remind everyone here everyone in our viewing audience on c-span that we are live tweeting the event and i am not checking my e-mail from my trends. i am harvesting questions from the twitter feed. you can direct those questions. they have been coming in at my twitter account. @normisen. atwill also take them #vasec. talk about the question i have for you. what has been the biggest surprise for you coming from a distinguished military career and a private sector career good

and bad? the biggest surprise in your tenure as v.a. secretary. not find this surprising and i certainly didn't find it surprising. i think the amplitude of emotion is surprising. that is the ability to do a good thing for a veteran on any given day. go homeo think before i at night about how many veterans did i help today? how many did i help through i did the systemic or transformational changes we are making or even how many called me on my cell phone. i gave out myself for a number to veterans at my first national press conference in september 2014. so i hear from veterans every day. and i enjoy that because i like to listen to the voice of the customer. surprisedt say it was but i think the amplitude of satisfaction is surprised.

surprise on the other side i think is the difficulty, the sheer difficulty of trying to get things done. we have a lot of stakeholders we as i mentioned in my talk put together what i think it an outstanding transformational plan for the v.a. but frankly if we don't get the budget and we don't get the law changes we need from congress, we are going to fall short of what we could otherwise do. we are working very closely. the great thing is we have withine unanimity congress. we are hoping we can get these bills on the floor and passed. they generally have gone through committee. we want to get them passed before july. >> on your amplitude point you remarked in your speech about the new customer service kiosks and you got just under 90%

satisfied or entirely satisfied and just 3% dissatisfied or completely dissatisfied. i will say that every one of those 3% sent me a tweet with a tough question for you, mr. secretary. >> that's a really interesting point. because we run a health care system and there are roughly 21 million veterans in the country, 9 million attached to our health care system. 6 million use it frequently. so 3% is still on except double. -- unacceptable. evene will tell you that one unsatisfied or dissatisfied customer is one too many. that's why no matter how much we transform this is an ongoing process that we need to continue. one of the themes in the twitter question, a recurring theme.

this particular tweet that i'm looking at this from robin mitchell. a recurring theme is your comment that weight times are important but they are not the only measure of veterans experience and that's what veterans are telling you. in the time around which you made that comment you analogized to how corporations measure and you mentioned disney and that created somewhat of a furor. i thought i would give the thertunity and response to veterans. myself as a child of a veteran i experienced some of that amplitude myself. to give you a chance to respond to that point and to the many tweets we're getting on that issue. rightut out a statement away that said, basically if any veteran or any american looked at those comments and thought in any way that we were not taking

access to care seriously, i regret that. what we're trying to do is build a world-class health care system for veterans. access has been the primary focus of everything we have done as i came into office. we have added 4 million square feet of physical space. we have added over 1200 new doctors. we have added over 2300 new nurses. we have added evening hours, weekend hours. we are doing everything we can to get people access to care. one of our priorities for this year is to be able to have to medicalcess professionals to resolve issues. we have done at 34 of our facilities. about 25% of our facilities.

we have a team of people dedicated full-time to figuring out how to do that in every single facility. so access to care is a top priority for us. >> while you answered that question, 15 additional @normisencame in on and #vasec. keep them coming in. i'm going to ask one. that is not perhaps strictly within your purview but because of the commitment to caring for veterans for your fellow veterans that you've articulated, i myself was curious. it jumped out. although the health care needs of veterans are the primary focus of your work, veterans do have a full spectrum additional set of needs. there have been recent studies.

us says there have been high rates of food insecurity among veterans. have you thought about that at general, when there is such critical requirements in the core health care mission that occupies so much of your day, how do you deal with the additional needs of our american vets? >> that's a great question. one of the things we did when i actually started under sloan of,on was a long-term study where do we want to take the veterans hospital administration? one of the thing that differentiates v.a. care from the private secretary is it is integrated and holistic. we deal with mental health, physical health, spiritual health. we deal with nutrition. one of the things we want to do is move care from curing disease

to preventing disease. one of the things that bothers me, and into about 300 v.a. facilities -- i have been to about 300 v.a. facilities and one of the things that bothers me is seeing ob's veterans -- obese veterans. obviously that creates all kinds of bad outcomes. these are individuals who at a time in their life were exercising every day. how did we let them become that way? in can't we work with them order to maintain their fitness once they get out of the military service? we are moving toward presenting -- preventing disease and we have a special medical advisory group chaired by jonathan perlin who is the chief medical officer of hca. he is helping us along with other medical professionals to design a program focused on

prevention rather than cure. i think that's the direction we need to go. mr. secretary, i don't want to neglect the real-life human beings who have filled our room here at brookings in favor of virtual reality. i'm going to ask questions in the room now and i will begin with this young lady in the third row here. yes ma'am. hold on. for the sake of the viewing audience we need to give you your microphone. i will remind everybody. if you don't mind, say who you are when you ask a question. i will say this is the reason i think brookings invited me to be a member of the family here. i will ask everybody to make their questions questions. please limit yourself to a one or two sentence question.

i will be ruthless in enforcing rule. filibuster it may be allowed elsewhere in washington, but not here. >> i'm dr. dana robinson. i would like to thank you very much for coming and spending a portion of your day with us. i also served in the navy for almost 25 years as an enlisted member and as an officer. >> caller thank you for your se. >> absolutely. it was my pleasure. i recognize the importance of modernization. as a primary care provider i know it is important that we stay up to date regarding all of the new standards and best practices. into consideration that more than 600 veterans are committing suicide every single month. to utilize thele

money for modernizing this system as opposed to addressing the problems that are within the v.a. system that are causing veterans to even come to the v.a. to commit suicide? >> it's a great question. obviously one of our 12 priorities -- please, you can sit down. is to reduce the number of veterans committing suicide. as you know we have estimated in the past that about 22 veterans take their life on any given day. are not connected to the v.a. 5 of the 22 are. we know that if we can outreach people the program works. a lot of what i was describing in the modernization was ways to improve that outreach. for example, hiring more mental health professionals.

i talked about same-day access to mental health care. i talked about if you show up at one of our emergency room's we have somebody trained there. our veterans crisis line where we need to add more people and make sure there are no dropped calls. need to make sure that if you call a v.a. medical center -- whereas in the past it would have said if you are in crisis hang up and i'll this number, we are putting in place a system that says if you are in crisis, press 7. the people who run our crisis line that was shown in the h bo documentary that won an award -- outreach is critical to do. we have to make sure the entire population is working together to recognize the five signs. the five signs when a problem is coming.

we can't wait for veterans to get connected. we have to connect them. amilarly i think we have problem in this country. we tend to see national problems perhaps before they get into the news. we are not creating enough mental health professionals in this country. one of the things i'm trying to do is work with medical schools. we train 70% of the doctors in this country through their residency. i don't know where you did your residency. but we've got to create more residencies. if we have residencies, the deans of medical schools tell me they will increase the throughput. and we have to get worse students -- more students to study mental health. increase theto paybackf amount of loan

for people starting mental health. we have to increase the number of mental health care professionals in this country. sorry, that was a filibustering answer. >> well, slightly different rules for the guests. but only slightly. i will go to twitter for another question. on the reform and modernization front. i know i found this when i was advising president obama and had government reform in my portfolio earlier in the administration. there are limits to the innovations, the lessons of the private sector that one can bring to government. you have referred to the need for congressional approval in order to take some of the big next steps. administrations change. you don't have an infinite amount of time. i have a question from aisha cho audry.

do you feel you have to speed up some of your priorities? --so, which ones and how you how do you deal with these horizons moving from the private sector to the public sector? >> that's a great question. as i said it does take time to transfer from an organization. -- transform an organization. that the administration would change at the term of the year is what caused us to take those five long-term strategies and turn them into 12 immediate priorities. notice i said by the end of the calendar year. these are the 12 things we want to get done. what we did, i actually asked for a congressional hearing and i know that's unusual. but i asked and chairman isaacs in the senate had a hearing for me to review what progress we made in 2015.

what progress are we committing to in 2016? what are the veteran outcomes? like having your appeal decided in 12 months. getting more people into community care. these are things we committed to providing we get the budget and we get the legislative changes that we need. so that was the reason we did it. buildingme over to our and i invite you all to come over, we have a room where we have literally by week, by month, the accomplishments for each one of these 12 that we track every week to make sure we are making progress because we want to make sure we deliver. we want to create irreversible momentum for this transformation by december 31. the biggest thing you would say you have brought over from the private sector? setting the benchmarks, using

data? >> i don't know. i think so. this is my first time in federal government other than when i was in the army. certainly that is a practice that we have. we have to set and sharks and goals and hold people accountable to achieve them. go to the back of the room now because i don't want to neglect people who are sitting at the back. i have three great questions from veterans that i'm going to combine into one question for you after i go to this lady here in yes ma'am. julie davidson. can you talk about your decision not to implement the discipline procedures in the veterans accountability act and what you are doing to improve accountability? >> yes. since i have been secretary we over 2900nated

employees, julie. and we are holding people accountable. we think accountability is very important. we think it means more than just firing people obviously. ands providing feedback training and development they need to get the job done. we have taken advantage of the accelerated process for nine senior executives service individuals. what we decided recently is given that that part of the law ,as come under question constitutional question, we did not want to continue to follow the procedure since what we don't want to do is have a on andnt area process go then have it overturned later for a technicality because the laws decided to be overturned. so we are using the old procedure. the old procedure is fine. frankly the new procedure really

just affects the amount of time for appeal. it really doesn't affect the process all that much. the answer to the whole thing in my opinion and i would say in the opinion of at least the senate is what we have in the veterans first act. the provisions that senator isakson and senator blumenthal have put in the veterans first act we all support. ca supports them. the republican party in the senate supports them. the democratic party in the senate supports them. we really think that is the ultimate answer. i'm hoping the veterans first act will get passed soon. it has already gone through committee and it will go to the floor and get passed in this and it. -- in the senate. >> combining three from twitter.

i have one veteran who asks, where do nonprofits that serve to find go to navigate their door into the v.a. bureaucracy which even after your efforts remain substantial? >> let me deal with the first one. >> i hope i remember the other two. >> it's very easy. e-mail me. mcdonald@va.gov. when i took the job i very quickly realized we cannot do this by ourselves. or is a lot of goodwill for veterans. we need strategic partnerships. matt callier who has a very s successful career running companies came in and leads our strategic partnership efforts

and we have set up a number of those. calleds an organization give an hour which is an organization of psychiatrists and psychologists who do pro bono work for veterans. we have set up a strategic partnership with them for the reasons i mentioned earlier. it's hard to get mental health professionals. these individuals can help serve veterans. that's an example. this is important for two reasons. strategic partnerships are force multipliers. they help us fix and our outreach and ability to care for people. but there is a second very important moral issue which is by law we cannot care for people with dishonorable discharges and so if a veteran comes to us and they may have a dishonor discharge and have not yet enabled to get it changed, we have to be able to have those private sector partners who can treat them because we are not able to. >> great.

and that tweet was from @militarysaves. you heard the e-mail addresses. you don't mind if i retweet those later. my thumbs are not very good with all of this. a second question is about whistleblowers at the v.a. the question is because of the importance of whistle lowers for what areility, your plans to improve the situation for whistleblowers? a situation dear to my own hard because when i was like you when i was in the white house i gave my phone number and e-mail to whistleblowers so they would have somebody personal to call. >> sure. we honor whistleblowers in the v.a. who have identified things we need to improve. if you have an organization focused on customer experience especially for veterans you want to know what you are not doing well in order to improve so

whenever i go to a site -- i have been to roughly 300 locations -- i always meet with the whistleblowers separately, privately without the leadership. very closely with the office of special counsel. we were the first organization in government certified by the office of special counsel for dealing with whistleblowers and we taken very seriously to make sure they are. -- protected. many of them have become great advocates for the transformation we are doing. a lot of the transformation we are doing right now -- after the fourth of july we will start enrolling for health care either by phone or by the internet. that was unheard of before but that idea came from some interaction that we had with whistleblowers. to do everything we can. i want to create a culture of continuous improvement.

this is why we are training to you all in lean six sigma. we should have everybody at the v.a. working to improve the systems that they work on. as i was going out and doing town hall meetings which i have done at all the sites i have employees were telling me they felt like they were victims of the system they couldn't control. is say, itrying to do want you to control that system. i want you to change that system. the best high-performance organizations in the world are run by the employees. you are a strong evangelist for bringing best practices from the private sector, but what is the limit? where have you hit the wall and where have you learned that what doesn't work in the private sector just doesn't work in government? >> it doesn't work were there are laws that encumber you.

i went to a bunch of medical centers and discovered we were outsourcing our rooms. to me, outsourcing your emergency room's teams like a relatively poor business. what i discovered is there's law 80 hour work period which prohibits us from operating emergency rooms with 12 hour shifts. sector andhe private everybody works 12 hour shifts. so we are not competitive. we cannot hire the doctors and nurses we need to run in a room because of this law. was not designed for hospital system. it was designed for government. a different part of government. to treat this like a business serving customers or like another art of government? there are other examples. this appeals law i was talking about is 80 years old. we have over 400 thousand

appeals waiting to be dealt with. it would require over five years each one of those to be just cited. we have to change that law. rather than ignoring that, i believe in the part of the west point cadet prayer that i grew up with. we have everybody in the room under the leadership of sloan , veterans service organizations, members of congress. we said, we are going to lock the door and slip the food under the door. you are not coming out of the room until you come up with a new law. we now have the new law but it has to be passed by congress. if we can get these laws passed veteran outcomes -- we said if we can get this law passed as we work down the backlog eventually we will be able to deal with an appeal in one year. not five years plus. it's just a matter of solving

the problem but then you have to get congress to pass the law. ok. coming back to our audience. yes sir. just hold on one second. we're going to get your microphone. >> i would like to say that this veteran -- vietnam veteran thinks you have turned the corner. we are definitely making solid progress. quite thank you for your help -- >> thank you for your help. 630,000 are going to be the most vocal. the question i would like to ask is can you give us the status of data on choice, the choice program which is designed to help those that are further away from the v.a. facilities? >> yes sir.

in the fall of 2014 in response to the access crisis, congress passed the choice act. the idea was to have greater capability of sending people into the community for care. sending all in the community for care. but the choice act was an attempt to make it even more broad. there were certain limitations put on the act. limit,like 30 day time 40 mile originally geodesic distance and then driving distance. i was given some authority if there was a geographic area. what we are seeing is dramatic growth. in the choice act and in the authorization. that we have given for care in the community. dramatic growth. the issue we have had is we have seven different ways of providing care in the community. each one came from a somewhat

different law. each one has different selection criteria. each one has different reimbursement rates. it's very complex. as a result of that confuses veterans and confuses the employees. last october we put together another proposal for change in would take all those different seven ways and make them one. one criteria, one reimbursement rates and make that the new choice act moving forward. we have had hearings on that. there are pieces of it that are part of the veterans first act in the adequate we are thrilled with. the house is dealing with pieces of it. to me that is the ultimate response is how do we make this simpler? we also looked at everything we thought was wrong with the original act. as you work overtime you learn

how to make it better. we have put that in the new veterans first act. we're all if the senate can pass the veterans are stacked and the house can pass parts of it as well -- as well that we will do a better job of the community. thank you sir. >> ok. we are coming down now to the last minutes. so i'm going to ask one from the -- you have been too good on twitter. there are literally hundreds of tweets that have flooded in. i apologize to those of you. the secretary and his team will get them and address the issues and questions therein. shifting again to another one of the non-health care needs because i promised some of the veterans organizations that i would ask about those. financial literacy issues. there have been reports about

the struggles of some veterans aboutinancial issues being subject to predatory lenders and other financial scams. what are you doing to help address financial literacy among veterans? that's a very important point and i am glad we are going to talk about more than just health is one of the.a. largest mortgage companies in the country. we insure mortgages. the g.i. bill is how my father and father-in-law went to college and how i went to graduate school. the ultimate answer to financial literacy is what we are trying to do with the transition. roughlygoing to be 250,000 service now each year. it's unacceptable for them to have a gap in their service from active duty to becoming a veteran with full benefits that a veteran should get.

we are trying to do is take that transition process and push it upstream working with the department of defense and secretary ash carter is a great partner in this. servicemembers maybe 120 days before they leave the service. i have participated in these programs. they are called transition assistance programs. and the commanding general stands with me and says, we're going to help your transition. we train the noncommissioned officers how to help with that transition. we then do a number of things. them the medical examiner they need to qualify for benefits. we signed him up for health care, for the g.i. bill. and so forth. and then at the end of the program we actually have a job fair. we have had tremendous success in terms of placing veterans

right on the spot. so that there is no transition time, in transition time from the time they leave the service. it's one of the reasons that veteran unemployment is virtually at an all-time low of about 4%. mr. eisen: mr. secretary. it's 3:00. for hours. on the fascinating analysis of what you have done in the v.a. and the implications it has for the rest of government in a time when we are approaching transition in the need for approval and other limitations on the model the fire systems to work together. many additional tweak, including one from a whistleblower. i will personally make sure that the secretary's attention is drawn to it. i want to thank everybody in our audience here. everyone in our virtual audience

, on c-span, on twitter, and on social media. it's been a great privilege welcoming the secretary. sec. mcdonald: thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016]

hasell, the supreme court rejected challenges to assault weapons bans in connecticut and new york. justices left in place a lower court ruling that upheld laws passed in response to the sandy hook's shooting responding to the semi automatic weapon in newtown connecticut. seven states and the district of columbia have an active laws banning assault weapons. chris murphy held the senate floor for 14 hours last week in an effort to force a vote on the issue. the senate -- the senate will meet today and are scheduled to vote at 5:30 this afternoon on for measures dealing with gun control. one would block suspected terrorists from buying guns. the 72 hour delay for certain purchasers. increased funding for background checks, requiring them at gun shows. you can watch full coverage of that debate on our companion network, c-span2.

>> with the political primary season over, the road to the white house takes you to this summer's political convention. republican national convention starting july 18, with live coverage. >> we will be going to the convention so strong. >> watched democratic national convention with live coverage from philadelphia. secretary clinton: let's go forward, let's get a unified party. sen. sanders: and then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to philadelphia. >> every minute of the republican and democratic party's national convention, on

c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. >> next, a look at potential vice presidential candidates. first up, some of the people hillary clinton might choose as a running mate. we begin with an interview with "usa today" washington correspondent, who has compiled a list of some contenders. >> paul singer -- based on this week, bernie sanders with his webcast, there does this but hillary clinton in the search for a running mate? >> it has gotten to the point where hillary clinton can focus on the running mate but it is also clear that she needs to be thinking about how to incorporate bernie sanders' movement and followers into her campaign.

one question would be, it to you pick a vice presidential candidate who is to hillary clinton's left? who is from the bernie sanders wing of the party? that is one option available to her. there are a few candidates who might scratch that itch. whether it is elizabeth warren, sherry brown from ohio, very popular amongst progressives. she has some real choices and options that would be a way to tilt to that wing of the party. >> massachusetts and ohio have republican governors. so they will appoint a successor , even an interim successor who will be a republican. how does that confiscate what senator reid said earlier this year? >> that is the question. you have a multilevel chess left goes on when you want to pick the running mate. maybe someone who would help

hillary clinton win ohio. critical for the white house. but the ohio governor -- it might force the ability of the democrats to retake the majority in the senate. so it is a very complicated set of mathematics. frankly, the democrats believe that with donald trump on the ticket and in the last week or two, a have a good chance to take back the majority in the senate and losing one of those would not be the critical wall. >> as you look at the demographics, where is hillary clinton weakest? how does she shore up in those areas? >> it depends on how you ask the question and who you ask it of. the young people, someone who appeals to them. you minority population, it has been very important for her. she was extraordinarily

successful with latino voters and she might get a lot of voters from them to have a black or latino running mate. so maybe you pick someone like -- in new jersey. from cory booker you have the advantage of an african-american who is a young guy. very energetic. he basically owns social media by himself. he has a terrific outreach that way. maybe you pick someone like the congressman who is latino from california. again, as a youth and energy, which contrast with the fact that hillary clinton would be one of the oldest politicians ever elected -- again, this is the mass. which of these things are most important to you when you choose a running mate? >> julian castro, we will hear from him in just a moment and also be labor secretary perez. he is from the baltimore area. what are their chances.

>> he is popular with the labor movement. that might be a choice to recognize the demographics with the national campaign. castro is very young, hispanic, a very charismatic person but he does not have a great deal of background in government. he is a young guy and it might be hard to imagine him being president. the guy who gets mentioned most is tim kaine, the senator and former governor from virginia. tim kaine might help to bring virginia, an important state for hillary clinton and also brings you the white male vote that hillary clinton needs to win and a sense of gravitas. there is always the issue that you want to be all to say, i ready for this candidate to replace me in a moment of crisis if necessary. that is one of the great knocks against sarah palin.

america was not ready to see her as president. julian castro -- >> a long-term friend of the clintons, is he advising her? terry mcauliffe? so, who else has her ear? >> she is talking to everybody. we know she is in communication with bernie sanders. there is a conversation about what he wants and what his people want to see. we know that she is in conversation with seamer democrats across the party. about starting to make a plan for what will happen next in the convention. the convention is partially an unveiling of your positioning. and unveiling of your presidential candidate. so you will have to include building a candidate around that? looking a narrative around hillary clinton as well. i suspect that she is getting input from everywhere.

oh, pick our candidate, pick our candidate. several groups reached out and said hello, remember. >> i will not ask you who you think she will pick but when? do you think it will be after the convention? what is her timeline? >> my feeling would-be after. but there are only a couple of days between. so you would have to move fast. but normally, you want to get a good bounce. you wouldn't want to date -- you wouldn't want to do it the day before the republican convention. my suspicion is that it will be just before the democratic convention. but it is possible to move it back and do it. >> we will follow your work online. >> thanks for having you. >> we spoke with housing and urban development secretary julio castro earlier this month

about his life and career. this is 35 minutes. >> secretary julian castro, what is it like to grow up with an identical twin brother? >> i like to think of it as a blessing and a curse. 99% blessing, 1% curse. my brother and i, to this day, are very close. and growing up, it was like having your best friend there with used for the entire time. he and i shared bunkbeds growing up. we went to school together and law school together. we both went into politics. we were both attorneys. we don't intend to stay together or do everything we can to separate. that in college, there was a set of twins. one of them had shaved his head.

the blessing is that i'm convinced i wouldn't be where i am at if i hadn't grown up as a twin. in every aspect of life, i benefited by having somebody that i was so close to always around me. the 1% curse is that growing up, we used to joke that in high school, i would talk to 2-3 people during the day, and one of them was my brother. i didn't feel compelled to go out and make a whole bunch of new friends because i had somebody in my twin brother who was such a perfect fit. and so that is a little bit of the downside. >> which one is older? julian castro: i am a minute older. if you ask, he kicked me out.

we were a c-section so they just yanked as out. >> i wonder, if you have seen the movie "parent trap." any games growing up? julian castro: when you are a twin, everybody asks you, have you switched places? when we were in high school, in one class, we had a substitute teacher one day and we switched places. just so that we could say we did it. so then when somebody asks, i have a convenient anecdote. >> what were you like in high school? i know that you played a lot of sports. what was your favorite? julian castro: tennis. my brother and i both play tennis. i had played football and

basketball in middle school but didn't play in high school but we played a lot of tennis. he and i used to love to play basketball in the neighborhood. we had a basketball hoop outside our front yard in the street. and we would spend a lot of hours competing against each other. between us, we probably broke two or three rackets. we used to hardly ever actually play a match against each other. we would just volley. because we were just that competitive that we couldn't stand to lose to one another. and actually, it was better when we played doubles together against other people. we were very competitive growing up. >> west point in your life do you think was most transformational for you? julian castro: probably the most transformational time for me was going away to college. i grew up in a community that was more than 60% hispanic. in the public schools of san

antonio where there wasn't a lot of diversity. in a lower income neighborhood and when i went away to stanford, it was a whole new world. people from all over the world, different cultures. many different ideas. and the chance to delve into the ideas. and that was just a time where my eyes were opened up two different ways of thinking. and looking at the world. i just wasn't exposed to that of before. in my neighborhood. >> when you talk about law school and when you debate issues with your brother, who is the fiercer debater when it comes to legal issues or politics? julian castro: a good question. both of us get passionate about issues. generally, my brother is a bit more extroverted than i am.

there is always a little bit of difference. but it just depends on the issue. one of us will get animated. we both went into politics. i loved local issues. and he loved the state legislative issues. so it depends on what we are talking about. >>pr you were raised by your motherep -- >> you were raised by your mother and her grandmother. who was stricter? julian castro: neither one was strict but between those two, probably my mother. my mother and father split up when i was 8-year-old. my mother was a child of the 60's. and she had grown up in a very strict catholic home. with extended family. and had gone to catholic school.

all 12 years. and then to a catholic university. and i think she, as a parent, she decided to bring a different philosophy to parenting. she was very lenient with us which turned out to be good. because i think it helped turn us into self-starters. and folks who tried to discipline themselves. get your homework done, do what you have to do in class. all of those things. we didn't want to disappoint her. but she didn't accomplish that by being overly strict as a parent. >> you are a parent now. who is the disciplinarian, you or your wife? julian castro: i think both of us are not the strictest of parents.

my daughter is seven and my son is one and a half. i think i have some of my mother in me in terms of not being overly strict. neither one of us is. >> brady think the passion for politics came from? you talk about this growing up? was your mom politically active? julian castro: oh, yes. i wouldn't be in politics is my mother would -- if my mother wasn't politically active. she was in the mexican-american civil rights movement. and she ran for city council in san antonio. when she was 23 years old. at that time they didn't have single-member districts. so there were very few hispanics. but growing up, at the dinner table or being dragged to meetings or rallies or speeches,

we were constantly around talk about politics and if you had asked me when i was 15, did i want to go into politics, i would have said no way. but when i went away to college and so may community from an outsider's perspective, that is when everything that i have listened to and thought about with those conversations around my mom and what i saw at stamford and compared the two communities and wanting to do something to improve the chance that other folks who were growing up in san antonio like i had so they could have the same opportunity that i had, that sparked my interest in actually going into politics.

but growing up in a place and a household where my mother taught us that participating in the democratic process is something good, not bad. >> you have talked often about affirmative action. do you think you and your brother have benefited from that? i think it is possible that we did. i was very direct in an interview a few years ago with the new york times magazine. i said that i had gotten a 1210 on my sat score. that was lower than the turkey waiting stanford student. but what was not included in that was that i got a 168 when i took the lsat and was applying to law school. and that was on par with students going to harvard and stanford. it was actually higher than the average stanford student taking it back here. so what i've said is that i

experienced the benefit of this. and i wanted to be direct about it. i think that there is a benefit in terms of diversity, a university experience for students. and it worked. it ended up working in the way that it should with students who had the opportunity to swim in the same waters with others, they were able to get the same experience. and i think that was the case. >> where is your family from, originally in mexico? julian castro: on my fathers died, they have been in texas for quite some time. on my mother's side, from northern mexico. and my grandmother that i grew up with came to the united

states when she was six years old or 7-year-old in 1920 two because her parents had passed away. so she ever younger sister came to live with extended family from san antonio. they grew up there and my mother was born in san antonio. and my father was in a little community right outside san antonio. and that is still there he steeped in mexican culture and german culture because those were the two cultures in that area that helped to shape the development of it. >> and you grew up speaking english and you are studying spanish now. are you fluent?

julian castro: not yet. there is a fascination that folks have that i'm somehow studying it. i'm actually not. i haven't been formally studying it. my daughter is studying it. she is in a bilingual program at school and washington, d.c.. it is something i would like to do to improve my spanish. when i was in middle school, i took three years of japanese. i wish every member that. i know a decent amount of spanish and i can speak some spanish. and i understand it fairly well but i'm not fluent. and so in the whole conversation, it is almost like you are at 100% or there is something in between. i am not fluent.

>> do you remember the first time you came to washington, d.c.? julian castro: i do. i was between my sophomore and jr. year in stamford. i got a white house internship. i arrived in july, 1994 and i flew on southwest airlines into baltimore. i came in and i hopped in a cab to stay in this kind of catholic worker house where my mother knew the person who was running it. and i didn't realize how much it cost to take a cab from

baltimore, washington into the middle of d.c. and so i had $72 in my pocket. and as i am watching the meter run up, i think it ended up costing $80. i got to my destination and i had to tell the taxi driver, i am so sorry. i only have $72. fortunately, he was a very nice taxi driver and he let me off the hook and let me give him $72 but that was the first time i came to washington, d.c. >> so you came to the white house and interned to do what? julian castro: cabinet affairs, coordinating the activity of the cabinet members in conjunction with the white house, to make sure that everybody is on the same page and that the white house is aware of who is announcing what. so you can have a coordinated message and a coordinated force on different issues. >> was that good training for your job now? julian castro: yes, i wish i could say that i had immediate substances -- immediate substance to appear. i think the best thing was to see how people at that level hold themselves. and to get to understand the policy issues that the white house and congress were debating back then. that was the summer of the crime bill. in 1994. it was a valuable experience. that i can't pretend i was in the room making decisions. it was like a lot of internships. a lot of watching and listening. it was the most valuable part of

the experience. >> did you meet president clinton? julian castro: i did. i did. toward the end of the engine chip everyone had the opportunity to visit briefly with the president and take a picture with president clinton. >> over the years, a lot has been written with the relationship that you have had with clinton. he has been a bit of a mentor to you. julian castro: i am somebody who doesn't like to overstate relationships. have a deep respect for president clinton. over the past couple of years, he has given great advice. he was kind enough to call when

i was nominated to offer his advice. i have visited with him over the phone or in person to get advice. so it has been helpful in this job and generally, thinking about the future. >> why mayor and why local politics? and what did you learn as mayor? julian castro: i learned a lot, that is for sure. i learned that there is a tremendous amount of creativity and can-do spirit at the local level. at the local level today, because of the gridlock in washington, cities is where things actually get done, where people of different backgrounds, different perspectives roll up your sleeves and get to work because there is a community spirit, community mindedness that gives you the wind at your back. i got into local politics because when i went away to college, i could see the

difference between the bay area and san antonio. in some ways i like san antonio, very family-oriented city, the kind of place where if two people pass each other on the sidewalk downtown, they still look each other in the eye, there is still a connectedness there can you cannot say that about every big city. at the same time, the bay area had higher income levels, more innovative, more entrepreneurial. and my interest in going into local politics was i had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder about my hometown. i wanted to see her you could combine the best of those worlds and have a community which was more prepared for the future, better educated, more economic development, and was also a place of great character, a city where everybody would love to live. steve: it was a full-time job with part-time pay? sec. castro: that is right. the charter that governed the mayor and council had been passed in 1951. it was a lot smaller city back

then. the job that was definitely a full-time job. however, the pay was basically $50 a meeting, so $50 a week, then one $3000 payment every year. the year after i left, in 2015, the voters actually passed an initiative so that the mayor could make $65,000 or something in that ballpark. you know, i like to think that my work in the work of others hopefully contributed to that. but when i was there it was basically $4000 or so. steve: this white house had considered you for a number of cabinet positions. why hud? sec. castro: there were two things that i was passionate about when i was mayor. one was education to my focused a lot on improving educational

improvement. the other was revitalizing distressed neighborhoods. i focused a lot on downtown and eased cytosine antonio m especially. we had done very well on place-based work. choice neighborhoods, promised neighborhoods, that the obama administration was doing at the time. so, i had a passion for that. hud fits with that passion. steve: any advice that your predecessor gave you? sec. castro: a few days after i got a call to the president, i sat down with henry and he went through the department, the structure of it, the organization, he gave me his advice. probably the best advice that he has given me has been to pick your priorities. in these jobs, whether it is

mayor or hud secretary or governor, whenever it is, ceo, vice president -- there are only certain things you are going to be able to fully accomplish and you can only do that if you focus your attention on those priorities. in his advice was to not let a single day go by without measuring how you're doing on those three or four important priorities. steve: so, what are your priorities? sec. castro: here, the biggest priority has been transitioning this is the department of opportunity. housing is a greater platform despite reader opportunity in people's lives. a good example of that as last summer, the president announced connect homes, which is an ambitious plan to get everyone on broadband. in the last 11 months, we have

grown that from 28 communities, about 200,000 children it was reaching, too soon, probably 600,000 to 700,000 children it will potentially be reaching live in public housing. that is the kind of impact full work that i want to see us doing. and it is my number one priority. steve: when you look at cities like detroit and flint, michigan, and they are seeing population exodus. what is the solution, how do you turn around? sec. castro: different ways. early on in my tenure here at hud, i visited gary, indiana. we had an initiative called strong city, strong communities. basically it was about the federal government stepping up and being a strong partner and liaison to communities like gary and flint, figuring out what they need and how we can help them become more competitive for federal investment.

then also pursue plans for more housing, economic development. so in gary, they're taking an old hotel which was an eyesore, which has not been in operation for over a decade, and turning that around which will hopefully create more job creation and downtown. so, you do it -- you cannot do it just with grand policy. it starts neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block. that is what they are doing in detroit. the mayor is doing similar work in the downtown neighborhood in other neighborhoods in that area. so many people have left detroit

over the decades that you are not going to just be able to get them back within a couple years. it is improving the neighborhoods one by one, offering more housing opportunities, offering great livability, that is going to pull people back in. steve: with all of this, how do you structure this department and your own decision-making process? sec. castro: what are the challenges of the federal bureaucracy is it is fairly regimented by statute. we have the secretary then the assistant secretaries with their own areas of responsibility. one of the things we have tried to do and the administration has tried to do is break through those silos. per my experience as mayor, i see that you need to be collaborative across program areas in order to be effective, and that has been my leadership style and it is one that is consistent with the secretaries of a lot of these agencies. but we try to get these departments to work together more and they get program areas

within hud to work more closely together and approach problems realistically instead of just thinking about what can we get done in this narrow area? steve: you have how many employees in this area? sec. castro: about 8000. steve: how do you motivate workers, how do you get them excited about new projects? sec. castro: number one, provide more opportunities for them to engage. what i found when i got here was, a, two thirds of our employees are not headquarters, they are actually in regional field offices and we had more than 50 of them. engage the employees, find every way you can come in person come online, tell it through videoconference, to get them motivated and feel at the have a voice in what they are doing. secondly, you have to ensure that the priorities of the organization, like turning it into the department of opportunity, do not just mean something to the clinicals at work here, that the career goals have a chance to have input into

the direction of those programs and that priority. so, we are trying to re-empower our employees work in field offices and regional offices and decentralized some of what we do so does not just a set headquarters with the politicos. i think if we can accomplish that, then across the organization, we will have employees that feel more invested in the results in the work that they do. steve: does the president use the cabinet -- sec. castro: i think it is fair to say that the president has been very engaged with the cabinet. there are formal cabinet meetings that happened several times a year by the president is constantly in meetings with different cabinet members. just a few days ago, most of the canet met with the president

about the playspace work that hud and other departments are doing to figure out how we can better collaborate before january of 2017 to institutionalize things like promised neighborhoods, the department of education choice neighborhoods at hud. so, the president is very engaged department by department on how we could do a better job and especially, these days, about how we can break through these silos and as an administration, do a better job to meet the goals we have. i think that if we can accomplish that, that will be a great service to the next administration and to the communities that we work with. a lot of their biggest challenges over the years have been good where work with here in the federal government? is it this person, or this person? if we can take a more administration-wide approach

like the president has challenged us to do, i think it will help those communities get more done on their end. steve: i realize you are focused on this job, but is there another cabinet position which would interest you down the road? sec. castro: right now i'm just focused on hud. for the first time in my life i'm not sure what i will be doing a year from now. i'm trying to make sure that here at hud, we close out strong. that we reach the goals that we have. we have a lot of cool making that's the least be done. i imagine later in the fall, i will think about what his next. i have just always believed that things will work out well. steve: you came on the national stage at 2012 at the democratic convention delivering the keynote address.

how did you prepare for that? sec. castro: you mean after the anxiety, just don't mess up. first, you are elated that you have the opportunity. then you have this moment where you think, oh man, i do not want to blow it in front of everybody. once you calm down from that, you get into the work of laying the speech and preparing for it. the speech writer wrote some of it, and one of the reasons i think the democratic convention back then was successful -- or conventions in general are successful, is they help their speakers prepared. i had an opportunity to practice before i went up there. and, the experience itself, while i was going through it, was pretty much a blur. it was one of those things in life that you look at on more fondly afterward, but was hard

to enjoy it in the moment because you are nervous about delivering the speech, you just do not want to mess up. you walk out in front of the podium and there are 20,000 people in the auditorium and you know that all the networks are on your face, and that you have nowhere to go, and that you cannot mess up. those moments are fascinating because they really do show with somebody has got, what they bring. so, i was just happy to give a good speech and be on my way. steve: can you envision giving a similar speech is hillary clinton's running mate? sec. castro: that is not going to happen. but that is look forward to hopefully, to getting to watch it. steve: would you be interested in the position if she said i want you? sec. castro: i'm just not going

to answer the question because i do not believe it is going to happen. steve: why hillary clinton, why did you support her? sec. castro: i pretty much have to stick to hud business. steve: your wife is moving back to san antonio? sec. castro: my wife and my two children have lived with me since i started here in washington dc. my wife taught for 12 years, so she is going back to texas, the kids are going back to texas or the fall. my daughter will start school there in my wife will start teaching. we are setting up without any assumption about the future and we'll see what happens. steve: how did you meet your wife? sec. castro: i met erica on may 20, 1999, the first day i got back from law school. we went on our first date six

days later, may 26, 1999. we went to a festive restaurant. we dated for eight years before we got married in 2007, so we are about to celebrate in the end of june our ninth anniversary. steve: your son is young, your daughter a little bit older. what do they think about what their dad does? sec. castro: she understands that i'm in the cabinet and i work for the president. she enjoys sometimes when she gets to go to different events or comes over to the office. i'm not sure yet for my son, he is only a year and a half, but sometimes he comes to different events.

steve: let me conclude with this russian. having spent time in washington, what is your biggest frustration about how this town works him and what has been your biggest learning curve? sec. castro: those two are very related because coming from local government, you are used tohings being more nimble, more flexible, because it was a nonpartisan environment, oftentimes you have people who may be ideologically opposed to each other, but in a community minded spirit, they want you to succeed and what more jobs to be created in what the city to do better. so, there is sort of a wind at your back there that does not exist to nearly the same extent in washington dc. so the biggest frustration and a learning curve has been that in these departments, obviously,

there is a lot more bureaucracy, more regulation, more layering, statutory restraints. and the frustration was seeing great ideas, but also seeing all the obstacles to get there. and the learning was, ok, what are the levers you have to pull to effectively get things done within the system. and that takes some time to learn. i would say the first few months i was here was the most frustrating because it was so unlike what i was used to. now, the last year or so have been a lot more rewarding and a lot of the work we have on the table between now and the end of the administration come i know is going to be very rewarding. a lot of the things we have done, like connect home, have

been exactly why i came here to hud. but it is definitely different. steve: what advice would you give the next hud secretary? sec. castro: number one, to have your priorities down very precisely. i would say, secondly, to develop strong relationships within the building and then throughout the ministration, because it is those relationships, oftentimes, that help things get done, as well as relationships with congress. and a third piece of advice would be -- and this is advice people often give but it is hard to do -- is to try and enjoy it, try and have some fun. we are here in a building which was once voted the second ugliest building in dc, but it does very, very important work. and you ought to be able to take a moment and get something out

of the fact that the work that happens here is providing great opportunity to people who need it and deserve it. and that they feel blessed in their lives because so many folks here and in other places are dedicating their careers to this work. so, trying to take a moment and have that appreciation. steve: thank you for your time. sec. castro: thanks. >> with the political primary season over, c-span's road to the white house takes you to the political convention. watch the republican national convention on july 18. mr. trump: we will be going to the convention no matter what and i think we will go in so strong. >> watch the democratic convention on july 5.

secretary clinton: let's return as he unified party. senator sanders: we take our , economic,ocial racial, and environmental justice to philadelphia. >> every minute of the republican and democratic party's national convention on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. >> the fbi has released a redacted transcript of the phone conversation that the orlando nightclub shooter had with emergency officials. thee's a story looking at reaction to the withholding of certain words. paul ryan quickly criticized redaction of references islamic state from impartial transcript of comments made by the shooter, calling the move preposterous.

"we know that he intentionally targeted the og wiki community and was part of isis. the administration should release the unredacted transcript to the public." live ronald hooper -- now, less than one week before -- said -- "doing so might inflame other adherents of isis and are not going to contribute to put their names out front." you can read the rest of the story at the hill.com. story, the supreme court has rejected challenges to an assault weapons ban in connecticut and new york. passed in response to the sandy hook school massacre shooting in connecticut. seven states and the district of columbia have a neck of land -- was banning us -- laws banning assault weapons.

the senate will vote at 5:30 eastern in the afternoon today on four issues dealing with gun control. once a block suspected terrorist from buying guns, the 72 hour delay for certain gun purchases, increase funding and requiring background checks at gun shows. senate watch full coverage on our companion network, c-span2. >> joining us on the phone from capitol hill, congressman paul ryan, the speaker of the house. thank you for being with us. speaker ryan: good to be with you, steve. to begin with some news on this monday. you issue just earlier today saying "the selective editing of the orlando shooter's 911 transcript is preposterous. how so? speaker ryan: i don't think that people should be spared from

seeing this for what it is. not if we are going to fully appreciate, grasp it, and deal with it. unless it's unique to the investigation, i don't think we should try to whitewash these things. the attorney general said she didn't want to give more credence to why he was doing this. speaker ryan: i think we need to see this for what this is and not try to sweep it under the rug. we need to be clear eyed about the threat that we face and americans should be treated with respect for seeing this -- my seeing this for what it is. steve: do you think the administration will change course and released a full transcript? have no idea.i i felt it was the wrong decision and compelled to speak out. steve: you call this the better way, six points of reform for the government. the new focus on your first point, poverty and the economy area how will your approach move the needle? speaker ryan:

because it's of different from the approach that we have been taking, which has not moved the needle. 45 million people in poverty in america. i would argue that the war on poverty has been a stalemate. some things have been done well, more things have backfired. if you stack up a lot of our welfare programs on top of each other, they end up creating a poverty trap. they discourage work. welfare has become a work placement program where the to be -- a work replacement program when it needs to be a work encouragement program. ,ustomized for particular needs measuring success based on poverty and welfare programs based on results and outcomes, input or effort. unfortunately i think that is what our welfare system has become area -- become. success based on how many people are in the program rather than measuring success on whether we

are getting people out of poverty. are we raking the cycle of poverty? are we getting at the causes? those are the big questions i think we need to ask. that's the kind of reform we are calling for. let me remind you of a quote from 1989, jack cap -- is it -- jack kemp -- is his agenda driving part of this? his legacy? speaker ryan: i will make no bones about it, he was a mentor to me. his brand of conservatism is aspirational, optimistic, and focused on the dignity of every person and they he sure they have a chance of reaching all potential. it strives for the equality of opportunity so that people can reach their version of the american idea, this beautiful idea that the condition of your birth does not determine the outcome of your life.

i learned from him. he's the one, more than anyone else, inspired me to public service area -- service. steve: there is growing frustration by the american people at bureaucracy. how do you change that? speaker ryan: it's not just president obama. it's administrations. republicans and democrats have taken over the law of running function from the legislature. we have proposed a very comprehensive list of solutions. go to better. gop. not just smarter regulations. but to reform the principle of government by consent. right now we have these unelected bureaucrats avoiding our rules and regulations. bureaucrats we never voted evil. more and more we are living under laws that we never voted for.

this is the critical principle, laws written for by us for elected representatives. if we want people to have a government that is accountable to us as people, then we need to reclaim these long writing powers to the legislative branch of government. we have put out a comprehensive plan to show how to do that at better. gop. steve: we should point out that your speeches have been on our website. 2004, the republican convention in new york city, here's what you said. [video clip] speaker ryan: by reaffirming our party's commitment to freedom and opportunity for all, these are the economic foundations of the american dream. i ask all americans who share -- share this dream, regardless of party, to join us. to make the tax code simpler and

fairer. so every worker in america has more control over their economic future. talking aboute the bush tax cuts in 2004. as that of a part of your agenda? speaker ryan: i want to go beyond just that. beyond just trimming the code. which is what the proposal was at the time, on the table. later this week we will be offering a very comprehensive overhaul of the tax system. the irs has been far too intrusive in people's lives. losingportantly, we are our edge as an economy. because of our tax code. we will be proposing comprehensive tax code that is good for families, small businesses, keeping jobs and businesses in america. something that i think is one of the crown jewels of our economic package. we really have to take on the issue of tax reform if we are going to help the economy reach

its full potential and help people get ahead. yes, we will be offering something comprehensive by the end of this week. steve: on the issue of repealing and replacing the affordable care act, what do you want to do? speaker ryan: that comes before. this week we will be offering the fifth and sixth installment of the better way agenda. a plan for patient centered health care. everyone knows obamacare, republicans are against it. we have that down. what we need is a good idea for what to replace it with, given people more choices, decreasing cost, not bankrupting the country, giving us a patient centered system. we will have a comprehensive land to replace the act that has become unaffordable. we are also going to offer our own blueprint for tax reform, which we think is critical for jobs in the economy. steve: will congressional

republicans be running on these planks? speaker ryan: that is the whole purpose of this. these are not bills that we will pass and 26 dean with a president who disagrees with us. these are things we offer in 26 been too early the right to offer in 2017. these are the reforms necessary to get our country back on track. so that we can earn from the country this choice. so that we can earn this mandate. and affirming collection to say that this is the solution to get the country back on track, and a better direction. and then we have earned the right and mandate reforms and waste and that's exactly what we are seeking to do. steve: is this your version of the contract with america? call itryan: we could that. we call it a better way, but it is a similar kind of objective.

i have spent many moments meeting with the nominee to make sure we are on the same page. i am sure that we will disagree on this or that detail. that is to be expected. congress always negotiates the final points when it comes to putting things together. on the critical aspects, on the foundations and basic principles, we are in agreement on these things. which is why we are moving forward on this platform. steve: how did you come up with six agenda items? speaker ryan: through consent. through bottom-up in congress. we met and discussed the items that we wanted to take to the country that we think are the critical issues that would help to fix our biggest problems. this does not solve every problem in america. it isn't meant to. what it does is it unites all republicans around common principles and solutions that we think are appealing to people that we don't think of as republicans.

this is not only a unifying and clarifying agenda, we think of this as an agenda that could potentially fix the problems facing our country. ,n urgent need of solutions offering this agenda to the country. steve: do you think that the senate republicans will be in the majority next year? speaker ryan: certainly that is our goal and are intent. i also believe that we will be a stronger majority in the house and in the tenant if we are reelected based on an agenda. on the mandate. that is what we are looking for. steve: do you feel you have settled into the job of speakership? speaker ryan: i do. i had to redesign it to fit my own strengths and style. because i've been able to do that, i do feel i've grown into it as well and basically just make it work for me. i'm a younger guy with a younger family, so that brings different challenges and i've been able to fit the job to my personal issues.

i also prefer being more of a policy maker than typical for his are and i like to maintain that. father'se day after day, have family issues been the biggest challenge? speaker ryan: no, i've always been hypervigilant about managing our schedule. nonnegotiableas a condition. most speakers are empty-nesters whose kids are gone. i can't do that. my other challenge was to make sure that we came together to reach consensus, an agenda together in a bottom-up, grassroots way, and then offering into the country. those are the two critical things i wanted to focus on as a part of host: paul ryan joining us on capitol hill. you for the time. >> thank you speaker, take care.