everyone of us. we don't know how we got here, we just got here. so, i am hoping we can do something different in the future, mr. chairman. and i have written legislation that would create a $3 billion publi public emergency health fund, kind of like fema. hhsould allow the cdc and to use those funds to address global health threats. and it would allow them to go in. they would notify congress. we could overrule them if we didn't like it. but we wouldn't put politics in the middle of this thing. i am, you can see, a little worked up. and i apologize. maybe i'm a little too worked up. but i share my friend, the chairman's view on the zika thing. we are sitting on this and we have to get off sitting on it and do something about it. thank you. >> thank you, senator boxer. we'll begin with our testimony with miss garber, secretary garber.

>> thank you, chairman rubio, ranking member boxer and members of the subcommittee. we really appreciate the inortunity to testify today the state department's response to the zika outbreak. with regard to the current situation, 40 countries and territories in the western hemisphere are experiencing active mosquito-born transmission of the zika virus. several countries and territories in africa and asia are also experiencing outbreaks for the first time. since this epidemic began, science and medical experts, my colleague, dr. frieden foremost amongst them, have discovered the truly heartwrenching impacts that this virus can have on its victims and particularly on developing fetuses. as you mentioned, mr. chairman, this is a silent outbreak. we do not see hospitals full of ill patients, hear ambulance

sirens across the street. across the hemisphere, pregnant women and their partners are living in fear. fear that their child may be born with severe developmental defects. in addition to the tremendous emotional and health toll on families, the demographic and economic consequences are still emerging. the cost of lifetime support for children affected, as well as adults experiencing guillen-barre syndrome or other effects could tax national health systems. areas with high poverty levels and dense population are most vulnerable, but least able to manage the consequences. the u.s. government is committed to helping prevent, detect and respond to the zika virus, both at home and abroad. countries around the world look to the united states as a leader in global health security and we are working with countries in the americas and beyond to provide support. many countries in the region have governments and a strong public health systems capable of mounting a response to the zika

virus. countries such as brazil, panama and colombia, host respected research institutions which with we're partnering to develop counter measures. panama health organization and the organization of american states, the u.s. government and our neighbors are leveraging our collective expertise to share best practices and identify innovative tools for vector control and disease diagnosis. in countries such as haiti, el salvador, guatemala, honduras, we are responding to the zika virus threat. our embassies are working closely with these governments and the world health organization to find gaps and priority. you was voluntary contributions and other support to our original and multilateral partners enable us to amplify the impact of our efforts. in addition, private/public sector partners can help respond in areas where the u.s. government has limited access or resources.

and today, at the state department, we hosted an excellent private/public partnership event on just this topic. the state department is committed to protecting the safety and security of all u.s. citizens. it also means working with other governments to attack the zika virus outbreak at its source, by cooperating with our countries on response and planning, we help build a stronger global response to protect u.s. citizens and the international community while contributing to international stability. if we can control an infectious outbreak quickly, either at home or abroad, we help to limit its impact on u.s. citizens. we're working with other governments to increase to cut off the transmission cycle, pushing out across multiple platforms, information needed for our citizens and nationals to make informed travel decisions and help to protect them from contracting zika while overseas on the basis of cdc guidance. this is particularly true in the

case of the olympics in brazil, where we expect over 100,000 u.s. citizens to attend. brazil is working very hard to protect the health and safety of all athletes and spectators attending the olympics and paralympics, including through its own public awareness campaigns and vector control efforts. zika, like ebola before it, has highlighted how connected we are as a global community. we have a window of opportunity to address these urgent needs now before we are put at further risk by working with our international partners and reaffirming leadership in the region. as secretary kerry said at the global health security agenda summit in 2014, in an interconnected world, we invest in global health, not simply as a matter of charity or as a matter of moral responsibility, but we do it as a matter of national security. thank you for your consideration. and i welcome the opportunity to answer any questions you may have. >> thank you. dr. frieden? >> thank you very much, chairman rubio, ranking member boxer, members of the committee.

with your permission, i'll submit a written statement for the record. the cdc works 24/7 to protect americans from threats. we use the best of modern silenc science. zika is both unprecedented and tragic. never before have we known of a situation when a single mosquito bite could result in a devastating birth defect. the top priority in the response is to protect pregnant women. we are literally learning more about the zika virus everyday. and in the six months of our response, we've learned and done a number of things to protect americans better. we wish we had a more rapid and robust support for funding to do even more. i will go through those 10 things very quickly. first, the zika response is extraordinarily complex. we have almost every center at c dc involved, more than 1,000 of our top scientists. this involves our birth defect center, vector control work, our laboratory work, obstetrical work, information on sexual

transmission, mosquito control, viralogy, laboratory production to identify the best methods in each community to protect pregnant women. second, it is now definitive that zika causes both microcephaly and other severe birth defects and does so whether or not the pregnant affected woman had symptoms during the pregnancy. literally within days of seeing the first zika virus within the range of infants who died from the zika infection and to provide guidance and education to providers and women of child-bearing age and their partners. with additional resources we would be able to better understand the mechanisms of that harm and full range of that harm. we don't know what happens to infants born with normal-sized heads to mothers who were infected with the zika virus.

we need to begin those studies now. third, as mentioned, asymptomatic illness can cause birth defects. that's why we have very detailed guidance for what doctors should do for testing of pregnant women who may have been exposed. fourth, zika almost certainly causes the guillen-barre syndrome. we'll know more soon. variety of infections caused beyond guillen-barre syndrome, it would not be surprised for zika to be associated with that. the really new thing about zika is the connection to birth defects. as a result with the other parts of the department of health and human services, we're planning for an increase in the number of cases in puerto rico and possibly elsewhere. fifth, we recognize that diagnosing zika is hard, that we have made lots of progress. cdc laboratory experts have created tests being used in more than 100 laboratories around the united states and nearly 100 countries around the world. we've produced nearly 1 million test kit materials for testing. and we have identified more about how to do that more accurately.

however, testing is difficult. viral loads tend to be low in serum. and we've learned that more is needed to do a better job testing. there's currently no test that can determine whether someone hash zika infection months or years before. we need to accelerate work on that basic question. fifth -- sorry, sixth, vector control is even harder. the mosquito that causes zika is difficult to stop. we see that in puerto rico, the mosquitos are resistant to just about all of the common insecticides used. it's critically important that we strengthen mosquito monitoring and control in the u.s., in territories and learn more about how to do a better job stopping mosquitos from spreading. this is something which additional resources would be very helpful in. seventh, there are other routes of transmission. it's also the first time we've identified a mosquito-born disease that can also be sexually transmitted and that

has implications for the sexual partners of women who are pregnant. so, we've had additional guidance there. it's also clear that it can potentially be spread through blood. we've worked carefully with the fda, with the blood banks of the u.s. to ensure that the blood supply is safe in this country. eighth, puerto rico is being singled out by the mosquito. today in puerto rico, dozens and potentially as many as 50 additional pregnant women will become infected with the zika virus. puerto rico has been dealt a difficult hand because of its environment and it's critical that we do everything we can to protect pregnant women there now. ninth, urbanization is driving the spread of zika as well as yellow fever and other diseases. it's the latest in a series of unpredicted and unpredictable health threats. what is predictable is that we will have new health threats and we need a way to respond rapidly and robustly, to identify problems where they first emerge

and stop them when they first come out. 10th, we have seen a remarkable capacity within the cdc for innovation. we have new laboratory tests and mass mosquito control methods. everyday, we are discovering better ways to protect, detect and respond to zekea committed to ensuring that the american people have the most accurate, up-to-date information and i look forward to answering your questions. >> thank you, dr. frieden. miss koch? >> thank you, chairman rubio. chairman boxer, and distinguished manner of the members of the subcommittee. i want to thank you for your continued leadership and commitment to this issue. i will submit a written statement for the record. today i would like to briefly describe usaid's work with the regional international partners to address zika. our aim is to minimize the negative pregnancy outcomes associated with zika infection. our efforts are focused on countries at risk for adverse outcomes from zika that have relatively weaker government capacity to respond to zika and where we expect that governments will want support from the united states.

our top tier priorities include haiti, guatemala, el salvado, honduras and the dominican republic. our strategy has four different interconnected lines of effort. vector control, social and behavior change, service delivery, child care and family planning and innovation. in vector control, our activities aim to improve and expand vector efforts in zika affected or increased risk countries to reduce mosquito populations. we will implement houseful and control, helping those at risk to learn to eliminate sources of standing water, in which the mosquitos breed, scrub containers of mosquito eggs and apply larvaecide to sources that cannot be easily eliminated. prevention and management of the disease and are of critical importance, give people the tools and knowledge to adopt personal protective behaviors, including the use of repellants,

long sleeve clothing, condoms and seek care with community response. our service delivery approach begins before a woman becomes pregnant to ensure that women in zika-infected areas who may wish to delay or eliminate future pregnancies can access family planning services. for women who are currently pregnant, providers must be trained to counsel them and their partners through condom use. once a woman becomes pregnant, or has a baby in a zika affected area, usaid is committed to ensure she receives cost effective, quality health services with the emphasis on pregnant women and infants with suspected congenital zika syndrome. we are improving our ability to detect and respond to these feature infectious disease

outbreaks. while we are utilizing all the tools in you are tool box to mitigate the impact and spread of zika virus, many of those tools have limitations. ad had a new challenge combating zika threats. we believe we have some very exciting options. we expect to begin making awards by the end of this month or in early august. so far, in our programming efforts, we've completed a new interagency agreement with cdc and transferred $78 million to enable them on critical surveillance and research activities and we have obligated $18 million to partners to work primarily in service delivery and behavior change areas. we are also working with unicef in the region and with the world health organization in geneva to address growing needs on a global level. as well as outside of the western hemisphere. by the end of this month we expect to begin vector control activities. and in august and september, community engagement activities will be rolled out. we have designed our efforts to

ensure they solidify the legacy usaid's 50-year history with health assistance gains in the region. usaid is committed and strengthen capacities to ensure that this threat will be mitigated as much as possible. thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. i'm happy to answer any questions. >> i want to begin with secretary garber. brazil's new health minister said there's an almost zero risk of athletes or spectators contracting zika during the olympics. is the threat in brazil truly almost zero? and what advice do you feel -- let me ask this. should our athletes or spectators feel fully safe in traveling to brazil for the olympics, given what we know about the situation there? >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. we are putting out the guidance based on the cdc guidance and pushing that out through all available platforms to make sure that travelers and the over 100,000 americans that are planning on attending the olympics can make informed decisions.

we know that the government of brazil is working very hard to address this outbreak through its own very aggressive public information campaigns and vector control efforts, including through many in the army, hundreds of thousands as well as public health officials to work on vector control. but i would defer to dr. frieden specifically on the assessment of the risk. >> dr. frieden, the chance of contracting zika in brazil almost zero for athletes and spectators? >> we recommend for any travel , that pregnant women not go to areas where zika may be spreading. we would recommend for the olympics, as we would for any other travel, that pregnant women not travel. for others, reasonable steps can be taken to protect yourself. historical data does suggest that viruses spread by this mosquito are less common in the period of the olympics. but we think the key issue is not why people travel, but who is traveling.

the key message to get out there is that pregnant women shouldn't be traveling to areas where zika is spreading. if they're present in those areas, should take steps to protect themselves. >> let me ask it another way. should athletes or spectators traveling to brazil at least think about it before they go, given what we know how rapidly it has spread there? >> all travel involves risk, maybe from a motor vehicle crash , maybe from infectious diarrhea, maybe from dengue or other diseases. we don't think the risks outweigh the benefits of travel , except for the group of pregnant women. that is why after identifying zika in the brains of infants, we recommended pregnant women not travel to zika-affected areas. also for men who have sexual partners to use condoms when they come back from zika-affected areas. >> what is a reasonable timetable to expect a vaccine? >> we are told by the national institute of health that they hoped to be in clinical trials in september. that would mean that in the next couple of years we could have an

approved a vaccine that is both safe and effective, but only time will tell whether that happens. it is very promising. the immune response to zika is robust. so, it is certainly theoretically quite possible, but these things take time. >> you touched upon it in your statement earlier. a lot of the focus on zika, rightfully so, has been on the impact it has on microcephaly. but let me ask you, i know there is a study ongoing with the colombian government to study the link between zika and guillen-barre. is there anything you can share with us on your pool of an area findings? i saw in your statement you said you most certainly believe that will prove there is a direct link. >> we have seen several studies published. we have work from brazil. we expect by the end of the summer to finalize that work. i expect that that link will be proven, given the patterns. we don't yet have two really strong independent studies determining it. that takes some time. we've had excellent collaboration, both in brazil and especially in colombia,

where we're really working side by side with long-term collaborators there. >> just to be clear, anyone who might be watching this now or later would understand, the guillen-barre link is on everyone, anyone infected by zika runs that risk beyond what we're talking about now with pregnancy, correct? >> that is correct. it tends to increase with age , but anyone can be affected. canan cause paralysis that be severe. it is usually temporary and can last from weeks to months. this phenomenon has prompted usaid to graduate many countries from global health programs. some groups have come to us that are concerned that haiti, countries in the caribbean and northern triangle of central america may be unequipped to handle zika cases, as well as possible complications. what support, if any, are you planning to provide these countries? >> thank you very much for that question, senator.

we do very much, as usaid has a long history of supporting countries in the region. we did graduate our assistants from many countries. that was following a very deliberate effort, working very closely with the governments and local partners to move away. as you noted, it was partly because of the progress that had been made in many of those countries and the capacity had been developed. haiti is still a country where we have a robust health program in all areas. and so we believe haiti needs additional support. but as part of our program, they've already been able to move some of the resources they have with the usaid program to get a little bit ahead and start to respond to zika. similarly, one of the things we are doing in central america, which is where we have a number of priority areas, is identifying where some of those completelyzika was undetected. and it does present a threat as being discussed here today. where we can fill those gaps and provide support as needed.

>> any countries that have graduated from the programs, been graduated in their levels that nonetheless have appeared to need additional support as a result of zika? >> some of the countries we prioritized, including honduras and el salvador and the dominican republic, are countries we have graduated assistants from. those are countries we believe need additional targeted support. >> senator boxer? >> thank you, mr. chairman. earlier this year, el salvador issued a nationwide call for women to avoid pregnancy for two full years. now, one can debate how real t hat could be, given what we know. but setting that side, other governments in latin america also called on women, not on men, on women to avoid pregnancy. in other words, they didn't tell the men that they should work with the women. very typical.

other governments in latin america and the caribbean issued similar directives, including colombia, ecuador and jamaica. so, those countries said, "w omen, do not get pregnant for two years." my question to any of you on the panel, who is most expert on this, is, do you believe these countries have the health infrastructure to give women in these countries who have been told not to get pregnant for two years access to free contraception? >> thank you very much, senator boxer. it's an excellent question and one we very much share the concerns you raised in asking this question. we are very committed to ensuring that women do have access to all the information, support and access to services. there certainly are gaps. and i think very much part of -- >> that's not my question. >> yes? >> i asked you -- forget us.

do those countries who have told their women not to get pregnant for two years have the infrastructure to get free contraception to these women of child-bearing age? forget us. i'm asking you. they're the ones in charge of their own countries. they're the ones who issued this directive to their women. do they have the infrastructure? >> i think it's a mix. part of our graduation strategies in many of these countries is to make sure there was a strong family planning program in place. >> do all these countries have the ability to get free birth control to women of child-bearing age? do they have the ability to do that? >> in most cases, they are. >> they have it? >> they have. but the issue of making sure that you're not telling women that you must use family planning or, as you put it, putting the ownness on the women -- >> i'm not asking about that. i'm asking you if they have the infrastructure and the ability to get contraception to the women that they have told that they shouldn't get pregnant for

two years, or do they need our help getting that birth control to them? >> we believe the issues are mostly around supply -- the delivery. and that's where they do need some help. they don't need help on supply -- on buying the contraceptives themselves. >>, so they have the contraceptives? >> they have the contraceptives , but delivering and making sure that the most at need and marginalize have it. >> how are they doing it, the ones you say are due to good job? how are they getting this contraception? >> if i could provide two examples, senator boxer. and that i will refer back to maureen, if possible. it does provide universal access to birth control. there is a delivery system in place to allow for that. and i was just in el salvador last week and did meet with the minister of health there and talked a little bit with maureen's colleagues from usaid about how to prioritize the

assistance we're going to be giving them. one of the things that the minister of health emphasized tremendously was trying to be able to get out access to -- >> so, what is the assistance we're going to give those countries who have told their women not to get pregnant for two years? what are we doing to provide them with free birth control? >> we're doing a couple of things. one is to make sure that the supplies that are in place are actually getting to the people that need them and that there is full access and that information is available to the women so they can make the choices themselves. there is some policy work also to make sure the statements that you described are -- it's not necessarily going to help give access. and that's one of the concerns we have. >> okay. so, how many cases are there in el salvador? >> we would have to get back to you with the exact number. >> would you do that? >> we know it is only a small number of the total cases that have been diagnosed. >> good. what about colombia, ecuador and

jamaica? do you have those stats? >> offhand, no, but reported numbers in most countries are a small fraction of the total cases, since 80% of people have no symptoms at all and testing is not widely available. >> how many babies have been born with anomalies in those countries? do you have that data? >> in brazil, where the epidemic started, you've had the largest number of pregnant women with infections in the first trimester, which appears to be the highest period to come to term. we have seen between hundreds and thousands of babies with microcephaly. those are still under investigation, in terms of confirmation of the diagnosis. we have an investigation collaboratively with columbia. we're following a group or cohort of women who appear to have had zika infection and over the coming months, we will be able to determine with more

certainty what the prognosis is. >> could you get back to me on the numbers of those countries where the countries have stated -- they've given this directive to the women and girls not to get pregnant for two years, those countries i mentioned. how many cases of anomalies they've had? and i was telling the chairman i heard a report on one of the radio news shows that -- and i just don't know if this is anything you're involved in, or we're involved in. that for the young men and women who are going to brazil, that they're going to be tracked afterward and followed to see what happens with their health. do you know anything about that? w>> we have a memorandum of understanding with the u.s. olympic committee, providing technical assistance, our outreach. they're also working with a university in the u.s. to do a study voluntarily for athletes

and members of the olympics and paralympics who want to know before and after whether they might have been affected. that might have been what that was referring to. >> okay. well, let me just say, if we know this is dangerous, so dangerous that we are asking for these people to volunteer, we better talk to these people, one by one by one by one by one and let them know how serious this is. i feel very strongly about that. i don't want our people being used as guinea pigs. come home and we'll see if you have this or not. if you have any babies with microcephaly. that is not right. i would close my frustrating comments here today by saying that we can't have one hand tied behind our back by saying, as the house said in a completely partisan way, none of this money could be used for nongovernmental entities to help provide birth control, which is so critical. and it is wrong.

a country thinks they solved the problem when they just tell the women in the country not to become pregnant. there's something wrong about that on so many levels. i hope we'll let them know. lastly, for our young people who are going to brazil, where there are all these problems -- and i understand they are spraying and doing everything and i am very glad about that. there's a whole other issue whether it's even morally responsible to have the olympics. that's not our job to discuss. but it's happening. and we're now going to track our people voluntarily to see whether they get this disease and -- there's something amiss. and i would just encourage us to reach out to these athletes, very clearly. if the risk is so great that you're going to spend money following them, maybe they ought to know it. >> just before i turn it over to senator isaacson, are we providing our olympic athletes a basic kit of repellant and

whatever they need to take with them in order to prevent, the contraceptives, whatever it is? what are we providing them? and are we working with the olympic committee to do so? >> yes, we're working with the olympics committee to provide information and materials for the athletes, for each of the different sports that are participating, each of the different associations. >> okay. >> senator isaacson? >> thank you, senator rubio. and thanks to you and senator boxer for calling this very important hearing. i want to issue an invitation for the four members who are here. in recent weeks i've had the chance, with dr. frieden's courtesy, to host two members of the cdc in atlanta. i would encourage you to spend an afternoon and i'll spend it with you, to see the research that's done and the reach that cdc has, particularly with regard to zika. and i want to underline, cdc is referred to as the center for disease control. but it is a five word title, not a three word title. it's the center for disease control and prevention. we are at a critical point on

zika where prevention needs to be where we are focusing on because controlling it does not help you when these numbers start to multiply. the urgency of this matter is this. are 1,133 6, there zika cases in the continental united states of america and 320 are pregnant women as of june 30. is that about correct, dr. frieden? in u.s. territories, 2,534 cases and 279 are pregnant women. this is a crisis of major proportion. and time is of the essence. i've made two or three speeches on the floor talking about the need for us to pass this. it will be professional malpractice on our part if we leave here for seven weeks and have not dealt with this because dr. frieden and center for disease control and prevention need the funds now to prevent what could be a major worldwide crisis in terms of the zika pregnancy. as a georgian, just as an anecdotal piece of evidence, an employee of mine attended the briefing that dr. frieden took

us through a few months ago. his wife was in an early pregnancy. after the briefing, he moved his wife to colorado where mosquitos don't exist, just to be sure she's in a safer environment than georgia during the term of her pregnancy. the two mosquitos that carry the zika virus are both indigenous to georgia. this is something that is priority one, as far as i am concerned. i think it is critical that we get it done now. i walked my dear friend, senator boxer, whose passion i have seen illustrated on thousands of issues as we work together as co-chairs of the ethics committee. but when you came in, you mentioned the confederate flag. as chairman of the veterans committee, i saw to it that the senate took out the house provisions and there is nothing in the conference report at all that deals with the confederate flag. i see tim nodding his head. i can tell you, i have the jurisdiction. i took care of that. >> okay because i was just informed it's in there. so, let's go look. >> as chairman, i'm telling you, if it is in there, somebody went over my head. i'm the one that made sure the

senate provision prevailed, which was no provision at all. [inaudible] >> the zika bill we're talking about. it is not in there. >> i'll double-check. >> i appreciate it. >> i just looked at that time today. >> this is about prevention. we can have our differences on a lot of things. we need to do everything we can to get the resources in the hands to prevent infection. they demonstrated with ebola -- the thing about ebola that they get so much credit for, and should. people developed ebola and got out there and treated people with ebola the the number of deaths was minimumized, although significant. the reach of cdc around the world to teach people best practices stopped the epidemic in about 13 to 16 weeks, if i'm not mistaken. that's what we want to see with zika. we don't want to just deal with those who have it, but we want to deal with those who don't have it and make sure they do not get it. this funding is absolutely critical to see to it that that

happens. senator rubio calling this hearing today and focusing on the need to do it is important. i hope we can ratify the congress report and thanks to all of you in health care to help protect the pregnant moms in america and the citizens in my state against what is a real threat. and the problem is, it is a delayed reaction. you find out today they're pregnant. nine months from now, you find out if there's a problem. nine months from now is too late. we need to prevent every terminal pregnancy we can today and that is why i want to focus on they need to pass this as quickly as possible in the united states senate. i yield back. that wasn't a question. that was a speech, and i apologize. [laughter] >> it was a good >> senator one. cain? thank you, mr. chair. i'm going to do some speeches and some questions. you know, this is such a serious problem, but this is also an illustration why people hate congress. they hate congress. and this is nothing bad on my senate colleagues. we had some differences of opinion about this zika, how to

deal with it. and so, we voted on three different zika provisions. there was a democratic provision to zika that didn't get enough votes. there was a republican provision about how to deal with zika that didn't get enough votes and then , there was a bipartisan provision on how to deal with zika that did get enough votes. there were probably some things in it that once i did not like and some other things the others side did not like, but we got 68 votes. it was a clean bill. it was a bill about one thing, fighting zika. that's what it was about. when it comes back to us, the bill is not about fighting zika. frankly, it's about fighting planned parenthood. and paying for it by taking money out of the affordable care act. so, we've got this massive public health challenge and the american public is worried about it and we're supposed to fight zika. that's what the senate did. we fought zika. but the bill comes back to us

planneds "let's fight parenthood." that's more important than fighting zekea. "let's take money out of the affordable care act." that's more important than fighting zika. this is why people hate congress. this is why people hate washington. no slight on us. i think we actually reached the right compromise, but then the fighting zika bill becomes the fight planned parenthood bill or fight the affordable care act bill. and it is my hope that we will get this thing straightened out. i know everybody here on this desk wants to. and i would second the point that senator boxer made in her comments. the right way to do this probably down the road is budgetarily to treat infectious diseases like we treat fema. we have a funding mechanism for fema. we don't know where a hurricane will hit. we don't know where there will be a forest fire, where there will be a flood, but we do know from experience that there will be these items. and so, we budget for them and then we deal with them. we don't do that with respect to infectious diseases and then that gives people the ability to play games and hold people

hostage to try to ride their pet hobby horse, instead of doing the thing we're supposed to do. couple of questions. i'm curious on the transmission. if people -- since you can be infected and asymptomatic, if you come back into the united states and you have been in an area where there's a lot of zika, with respect to sexual transmission, you're telling males for example, to use condoms. how long are you doing this? is it four months? is it for weeks? what's the advice you're giving people, when they return from zika-infected areas? >> our current advice based on the best available information, which we continue to accrue every day, is that for men whose partners are pregnant, use a condom for the duration of pregnancy. we don't know how long that man may remain infectious. those studies are under way but they will take six to 12 months to finalize. >> what advice are you giving, if any, to men whose partners are not pregnant? >> for couples who are trying to conceive, our current advice is,

if they have no symptoms of zika infection, they should wait at least two months after leaving a zika area. if they did have symptoms, because they might have more virus with that, then it would be six months. >> here is another type of transmission i was not aware of until recently. if you come back to the united states and you have been eaten by a mosquito there, your blood could have zika infection so if you are bit in the united states that could be a blood transmission to mosquitoes here. what advice are you giving people about avoiding mosquito bites in the united states after they return? avoidencourage people to mosquito bites by using deet. that you outline is exactly the scenario that we think is most likely to spread

zika in the u.s. where diseases -- dengue have seen the other is transmission and blood transfusion transmission is possible if the blood is not screened, which it currently is being screened. more than likely the way it would spread in this country is the way that it spreads around the world which is primarily by mosquito bites. >> when someone returns from an area with a heavy zika challenge, how long are you suggesting is important for that person to avoid getting bitten in the united states? >> three weeks. i what to ask you about the vector control. vaccine is going to take some time to develop. a numberrstand it is of different kinds of solutions. it is spraying and figuring out how to do spraying.

i understand there are proposals for different mosquitoes that will not reproduce. talk about the range of vector control solutions that you're looking at. about reducing the density of mosquitoes that would be carrying this. cockroach of mosquitoes. they live indoors and outdoors. develop existence to insecticides. the control measures i would put into two large categories, one is proven, safe and effective methods but they have not been put together in a way that is effective to stop the mosquito and we need to figure out how to use existing tools better and new tools like experimental things were you release sterile males to crash the population.

we are to try the different methods out there and see how rapidly and quickly we can reproduce the mosquito in an integrated vector management approach where you reduce andding water, larva pesticides to kill the adult mosquitoes on a longer time frame like the vaccine or longer than that are the new tools. we need new ways to control mosquito populations that we have to move forward rapidly. >> one last question. on both of these, developing the vaccine takes a tremendous investment but the vector control solutions both to research and determine what our best and to deploy them broadly. that takes a significant investment. >> think you mr. chairman, i

apologize that i will not be able to use my full-time here. that might not need an apology but i will have to go preside on the floor soon. wanted to talk to you a little bit about the cdc work. fort collins, colorado is home to the division of sector borne diseases and -- vector-born illnesses. i was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit the work concerning zika virus including going into look at the life mosquitoes, larva and what was happening. i learned at this time about a chemical that the cdc was working to reclassify as a biochemical pesticide active ingredient. natural was a ingredient found in citrus-like grapefruit oil. it might be in cedar trees as

well. many may recognize this from their shampoos. epa has to evaluate natural tick repellents and pesticides before they may be used by the public. as your agency have heavy corrugated with other agencies to expert at the approval of various products to make sure the become available? youenator we are delighted had a chance to visit every unit in fort collins, colorado. their innovation has been terrific. they have come up with a new and increasingly available laboratory test to diagnose zika and they have overseen the work in the dengue branch. you refer tothat under investigation for

years at fort collins and we recently licensed it to several companies. we are working closely with the epa so it can be brought to market as quickly as possible. it appears to be as effective as deet. without a good reaction to get it to market as rapidly as possible. with the diagnostic test we have had excellent collaboration which has approved for emergency use the diagnostic test we have developed. butave to go to the floor, are you familiar with the legislation that the senate is considering from the house on the zika funding russian mark -- funding? are you familiar with the details at all?

>> yes. >> ok. because i hear people talk about funding of planned parenthood, and i just want to make -- i have a question for you on this funding. does the house bill take money away from planned parenthood? >> i'm not familiar with the exact funding allocations in that bill. >> i believe the answer is no. and i would love if you could get back to me on that. thank you. >> senator kaine. >> just one brief follow-up, advice for all of us. tell me if this is right. i understand that the mosquito that carries zika breatheseds in -- breeds in containers, not necessarily in standing water on the ground but more swimming pools or, you know, like the depression and the cover of my grill that ends up with rainwater on it or a dog bowl in the backyard, a wheelbarrow, i've got one of those, i've got a canoe that gets water in it. one of the things we can all do

in our neighborhoods if we can reduce the population of this density of mosquito is to make sure there's not water standing in containers in our yards and neighborhoods. am i generally right about that? >> yes, you are, senator. and one of the challenges of controlling this mosquito is that it can breed in tiny amounts of water, the amount in a bottle cap. so to eliminate standing water really means to eliminate all standing water. that's why it's been difficult to do it to an extent you actually see a large enough impact on the number of mosquitos to make a difference. but different communities are different. in one community birdbaths were found to be one of the important sources of mosquito breeding

water. that's one reason why it's so important that communities in this country and around the world have the tlsoo to track the numbers of mosquitos and see if their mosquito control activities are succeeding. >> thank you. >> the bigger question is why do you have a canoe? we'll get into that later. senator markey. >> thank you, mr. chairman. can i go to the pesticide issue? and what breakthroughs we might be making in pesticides. are there new pesticides that might be effective?

that can supersede the need to use deet or other pesticides? can any of you talk about that? >> thank you so much, senator. first off, let's divide the different types of repellants and pesticides. so deet is a product that we put on our skin. there are several fda approved products that are effective. i mentioned that there are some more products down the road which may be available in the future that may be more pleasant to use. and just as safe and effective. there are also products that can be used in an area, what i refer to as spatial repellants, the things you might burn in your household or spray in your household. there we're trying to get better products available. and third are materials we would use to control mosquitos in a community, so insecticides or pesticides. one of the really interesting things that's happened in recent years is the refinement of ultralow volume spraying or ulv spraying. it uses tiny amounts of the pesticide and a very different particle size to penetrate more deeply, waft down more slowly, kill mosquitos more effectively

at a lower dose. what we're seeing with those ultralow volume applications is the ability to control mosquitos with less pesticide but more efficacy. so one of the areas again is using our current tools more effectively, or tweaking them if you will. the second is developing new tools like new classes of insecticide. it has been decades since we've had a new class of insecticide available. that's why funding to develop new types of insecticides ensure that they're safe and effective is so important, that's why we're so excited about the chemical that senator gardner mentioned because it is nontoxic

food grade. and there are also new experimental methods, sterile male or gene drive that are truly experimental that we might be able to crash mosquito populations. we'll have to see whether those are scaleable, effective and safe. but we won't know unless we study it. >> now, this ultralow volume insecticide, have you used it in puerto rico? >> that is currently under consideration. >> and what would be the

question that you would have to answer before it's use? >> the spread of zika is so rapid and so extensive in puerto rico that it is likely that to have an impact it would have to be applied by fixed wing aircraft or aerial spraying. that creates a lot of concern in puerto rico. and there's been very vocal concern about that raised. we think there is a gap of information, and we're working hard to get valid information out and to confront some myths about this. >> so the contention of the cdc or the u.s. government is that this ultralow volume spraying can't be done without any danger to human beings, but yet play a good role in helping to control the zika fly? >> we believe it can rapidly reduce mosquitos in both cdc and the epa have indicated that it can be done without risks to people, animals or the environment. >> uh-huh. and so down in puerto rico right now you're saying that's being resisted because of kind of just a generalized fear that something can be done that harms other children, i suppose, with

those kinds of insecticides being put into the air? >> there are a number of concerns, a number of historical factors, current events that make it a big challenge to do this there. but from a technical standpoint we think this is the most likely way you could reduce the number of mosquitos substantially and quickly. >> now, if an outbreak occurred within the continental united states, would this be one of the methods that you would recommend be used, let's say, in the first community that had an outbreak in order to try to isolate it quickly? >> it very much depends on the conditions in the community. but this is something that is done routinely in the u.s. in fact, the state of florida each year uses ulv aerial application in about 6 million acres. it's done routinely in tampa, miami and other places. it's unfamiliar in puerto rico and therefore the eating childrn who have contracted microcephaly, or other diseases related to this epidemic, the united states is now going to have long-term responsibility for the care of these children. and it's going to add millions if not billions of dollars over time to the budget of our country. and so this is to me a classic example of where working smarter, putting the preventive tools in place up front will then protect us against huge balloon costs that could last 30, 40, 50, 60 years with something that we could have prevented from exploding into huge numbers. so even the children in puerto rico are americans. and we have responsibility for them for years to come. so not spending the money there now is something that ultimately we're going to pay a price that's hundreds of times higher in the long term in terms of oviding medical care for them. could you talk a little bit about that?

>> our birth defect center has documented that the care of one child with a severe birth defect can be up to $10 million or more in their lifetime. >> uh-huh. >> so there is personal tragedy, a family tragedy, but also an economic cost for not preventing preventable cases of birth defects. it's very rare to have birth defects that could be prevented in the dozens, hundreds or thousands. our staff from our birth defects center tell us that in the 30 years they've been working on birth defects, this is the most urgent situation they have faced. >> so the old saying is a stitch in time saves nine. but here a billion dollars now could save $10 billion later because of all the children who would not ultimately be born with this disease. that we would have a moral responsibility and a legal responsibility to take care of. so i think that's something we should all think about in terms of puerto rico or any of the other places that could ultimately be affected by this disease. even if it's not something that happened inside the continental united states. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. i, as you know, i've supported the president's request that $1.9 billion i thought we should err on the side of caution. i supported the 1.1, even though

it was less. i've been trying to urgently get us to do something to move funds to begin to address it. i was wondering if you could discuss and perhaps this applies simply beyond the cdc, but what happens if tomorrow congress adjourns for six weeks for the conventions in the summer, and no funding is forthcoming, where are the shortfalls? what will not be happening as a result of the inability to do something about this? >> i'll start, and my colleagues may want to say more. we will do the best we can. but this is no way to fight epidemics. it means we can't begin the long-term projects to figure out how to protect women more effectively, to come up with better ways to diagnose zika, to accelerate mosquito control

strategies because we haven't been able to invest in those things. we also won't be able to repay the money we borrowed. we borrowed emergency money from states throughout the u.s. so that we could allocate it for zika. not because that money wasn't important or needed, because that was the only money we had access to that we could use rapidly. and we have a gap in resources to fight ebola in west africa, because we have dollars that we had planned to use starting october 1 to continue to keep ebola in control in west africa. we're continuing to see flares of the embers that are burning from the epidemic that's over there. and all of those resources are at risk. that's why passage of a supplemental is so important. and it shows us, again, why having some sort of an infectious disease rapid response fund is critically important so we don't have to go through this the next time there's a global public health emergency. because without a doubt there will be a next time. >> yes, i would like to thank

you very much, senator. if i could just add to that and would certainly echo dr.friedman that we will do the best we can but with the resources we have be able to support the countries that i've noted for a period of time for several months during the next year, but we certainly won't be able to do much to expand to other countries or deepen the impact of our programs. it's enough to pay for activities running through several months, but we can't expand. and we do believe we need to expand. it can't just be the five countries. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, for that question. it has impact for the state department activities as well. we hope to use the money from the supplemental for targeted support for u.s. citizens such as repatriation loans, assistance may be affected living overseas. as a former ambassador, one concern is if current trends of

our medical evacuation of pregnant women as employees or spouses in our posts overseas continue at the current rates, we don't have sufficient money for those medical evacuations throughout the year. that was part of the targeted money for that. and i think we have to take care of our own people. that's extremely important. and we're asking them to sacrifice big going overseas. we also hope to use some of that money for improving on communications plans in many countries and out to u.s. citizens as we've heard in so much the testimony today getting the information out is so critical. and whether that's to u.s. citizens or help our embassies

being able to help other governments get the information out can do so much in the area of prevention. and also last but certainly not least it enables us to make contributions to international organizations such as world health organization, countries look to the u.s. for leadership. if we're able to make those contributions, we know it will stimulate other countries to do the same. >> so just to summarize, if this money doesn't happen tomorrow, we're facing all the work going in to get ahead of this we'll not be able to move forward in addition to the risk of ebola or other outbreak happening somewhere in the world and the depletion of the emergency funds

at the individual state level. we face the inability to fund the work we're doing with partner nations in the region who have dramatically impacted will ultimately impact us because some of those cases will migrate here in search of medical care and so forth and on a humanitarian basis. and as i've heard from you, secretary garber, you're saying we may well run out of funds to actually bring our people back home from being -- who are deployed abroad serving in our embassies and consulates around the world. dr. frieden, you talked about the screening of blood in puerto rico. are we screening blood now in the mainland as well? >> the food and drug administration oversees blood screening in the u.s. there are parts of the u.s. that have undertaken screening, other parts are waiting until they have local transmission or possible local transmission. already parts of texas and elsewhere where they had dengue before have screened. the screening tests are highly accurate in blood, so we want to ensure that we keep the risk as close to zero as possible. >> well, i ask in the case of florida, obviously central florida, all of florida in general but central florida in particular has a very strong link with puerto rico, with the

island. do you know if central florida is screening its blood supply? >> i would have to get back to you. also, already the blood banks had as of several months ago began a policy of people who have traveled to a place with zika should defer donation. so that's an added level of safety so people come from puerto rico for example will be told not to donate blood and will be asked specifically about that during that time. >> here's the last question, dr. frieden, if someone contracted zika, in most of these cases they're not symptomatic. if you are symptomatic, you're going to present at emergency care or doctor's office with what looks like the flu in a lot of cases. for example, if i were to contract zika the way i would manifest if i had symptoms at all would mimic that of a viral infection or flu, correct? >> yekt. >> even if i've traveled abroad, unless i reported it or if i show up, i know the symptoms at 45 years of age, i've had the flu a number of times, i get the shot, but what have you, you know what i have, i'll go through it. the chances are i might not go to a doctor, much less be tested, because as i understand it the screening for zika is still not widely commercially available. it would require a referral to a department of health to look at it specifically. it's not the kind of thing you see in a panel written up in a doctor's office, is that correct? >> yes, that's correct. >> and so the reality is that it is very much -- it is quite possible and perhaps i would dare say even probable that there is already a mosquito infection that's occurred in the united states and we just don't know it because that person has not yet been tested. what we know is no one who has not traveled abroad and has not contracted it sexually has not tested positive yet.

but we don't know if somewhere in the united states there is someone who contracted it from a mosquito bite in the united states, but because they're not pregnant or because they're not symptomatic or they weren't tested because they thought they had the flu, we don't know it was transmitted by a mosquito. >> so, yes, it's certainly possible. let me also say on your blood donation question, i want to validate the incident i gave you before and get you more information on that. but on testing because as you point out 80% of people have no symptoms, those with symptoms have symptoms that are relatively mild, there is the possibility that transmission could occur without our recognizing it. that's why we're encouraging health departments throughout the u.s. to follow up on all known cases of zika and to encourage doctors in those areas where zika might spread through the local mosquito to be alert to the possibility and also to test contact family members with illness to see if they have zika. we've also been working to transfer methods to the private sector. they're not there yet, but we've made progress toward that. i think the scenario you outline is certainly plausible. we anticipate it will be very difficult to identify the first locally transmitted case of zika.

this is why we need better diagnostics. this is why we need better mosquito control programs throughout the u.s. >> obviously you can't speculate entirely about the future, but do you have personally based on your expertise, do you have any doubt that we will see a mosquito transmission in the u.s. in the mainland united states at some point? >> i think it's likely we will see mosquito born transmission. we don't have a crystal ball, but the best predictor is what has happened with dengue. and with dengue we've seen clusters and isolated cases in various parts of the country, particularly florida and also

texas. so if since zika is spread by the same mosquito, we anticipate the same type of pattern may occur in addition to the unexpected sexual and potentially other means of transmission. >> and my last question with regards to this is, does it make any sense at any point in time from a medical perspective to add a test for zika to the normal screening or panel that would be administered to someone the way you would put some other infections or other diseases or other viral infections on a normal panel for a blood test? >> at this point, probably not. for a variety of reasons. if in the future we were to have

a test for prior infection with zika, that might give us some useful information. but we know that if you have a test applied with a positivity rate is low, you'll have a large number of false positives even if the test is a good test. >> i'm sorry, there is no -- the only way to confirm a zika diagnosis is through a blood test? >> blood and urine. >> so it also appears in other fluids. >> there are two -- broadly speaking there are two types of test for zika. one that looks for the actual virus. and that can be found in blood or urine for about the first two weeks currently after infection. or a test that checks for the body's reaction to the virus, the antibodies. and that becomes positive within the first week or two and generally stays positive only for about eight to 12 weeks. >> the reason i ask only is because i was wondering if at some point part of the research being done it's possible to create some sort of quick, painless i suppose if ideally point of entry test that could be applied to travelers coming into the united states, but obviously if it's blood you're asking them to submit to having blood drawn, which is -- and having someone undergo a urinalysis at an airport is not the best way to welcome them to the united states. >> we have about 40 million trips to and from the u.s. to

zika endemic areas and perhaps 200 million -- >> that's a lot of tests. >> theoretically speaking if a few years from now we have a good test for prior infection and a vaccine, you can imagine a situation in which travelers leafing the u.s. would want to find out if they have immunity and if not potentially become pregnant and run a vaccine. >> we've run long. this is my last question. if someone has traveled abroad to one of these countries where zika is present and they've either had relations or have been bitten by a mosquito or think they might have been, how would they get tested? could their doctor order a test? >> any doctor in the u.s. can contact their local health department. we've already distributed our test and trained and supervised labs around the country so that most state health labs already can do this test. and those that don't can send it to cdc labs to have done. so, again, in the first two weeks there's one type of test. from two to 12 weeks another type of test, if people, particularly pregnant women are concerned they may have an infection, they should be tested. and people with symptoms of zika who have traveled should also be tested. those tests are available as you indicate if we could get them into the private sector, they would be more widely available. and we're doing that as rapidly as possible. we actually got food and drug

administration approval to do that within the past week. we've already shipped the materials to private labs. and they're now undergoing the validation so they can be comfortable in doing this and providing results. >> well, i want to thank all three of you for your time and for being here and from the attendance today. obviously, on the subcommittee there's clearly an interest both among our members and the general public. before we conclude, i'd like to include a study conducted by the university of florida, the finest learning institution in the southeast united states, from dr. glenn morris, part of a hearing record. that was a point of personal privilege. and the record for this hearing is going to remain open until the close of business on friday. and with that the meeting is adjourned. >> [inaudible]

[inaudible] [applause] hard-fought 2016 primary historic over, with conventions to follow this summer. >> florida. >> texas. >> ohio. the delegation stomach the first woman ever to head a major political party and the first non-politician in several decades. to have a front row seat every minute of both conventions on, c-span, all beginning

monday. >> on your screen is as ash who is the rules committee chairman for the republican national committee here. . he is joining us from cleveland to talk about the convention ahead. particular, the rules going into the convention and efforts -- the donald trump "stop trump" movement. they give for joining us. guest: thank you for having me on the show. host: you serve as the national committeeman on the rules committee. what is that committees responsibility heading into next week's convention? guest: the great question. years, thet 3.5 standing committee on rules has been for making changes and making recommendations to the rules of the recommendation republican party. that will be implemented going

into our convention. some of those rules that we made in the past 3.5 years are already fixed under rule 12 that came out of the last convention will book. makingt of them will be recommendations -- we passed our recommendations yesterday. this afternoon in the general session, republican national convention will debate and adopt the changes that we have made and present them to the rules committee who meet beginning late this afternoon. and thursday and friday, they are completing that work and ultimately, voting on the package and sending it to the convention floor for presentation on monday. host: i want to remind our viewers that we will have live coverage of the convention rules committee meeting. tell us about the interplay between your standing rules committee and the convention rules committee that decides on

the actual rules of next week's cleveland convention? how much do they have to adhere to what you have already passed? guest: good question. something i get asked frequently. they are not bound by any of the changes that we have made. but this is my second term as rules committee chairman. in the standing committee. a lot of our changes are implemented in the final. most of what we did was grassroots empowerments and delegates rights. the precinct committee rights. the upcoming presidential cycle. a lot of those hapless and lamented but there will be a rules illsonvention that way are likely to see active. there will be republican national convention interest amendments that are proposed.

there will be some reform amendments that are proposed as well. and we're also going to see some that campaign amendments will be thrown it into the hopper. obviously, the presidential candidate wants to make sure that their ability to help control and run the party as effectively as possible once they are elected -- it is important to them and important to the rest of the party. coming into the convention, which candidate did you support? guest: as the rules committee chairman i have never talked my feeling. including to my wife. i support donald trump as the presumptive nominee andy has my confidencereserved and support in the upcoming election. host: one of the reasons we have

bruce ash on this morning is to talk about the repeated efforts in the public a party, the "stop trump" movement. republican national convention committee accuses donald trump -- they write that an official is rebuking his own party, it accusing it of empowering anti-donald trump figures to play a key role in this summer's convention and potentially dislodge trump. ash three page letter, roos , laces into the organization for appointing establishment minded figures who he say could overturn trump some a nation at the convention. when did this begin, did you begin to notice this? why is this continue to be an issue that concerns you? guest: great question. i was part of the convention process in 2008 and 2012.

john mccain and mitt romney. thesort of resistance to presumptive nomination of those two candidates was quickly swiped away i republican national convention officials around the country. and by no means were mitt romney and john mccain consensus candidates across all members of the republican national convention or elected officials around the country. there had been a lot of silence with respect to support of donald trump. my concern initially developed when the chairman of the republican national convention, -- whopriebus, selected had been a strong romney supporter in 2012, and wasn't supporter, he was the point man for mitt romney

going intolead up the campaign of the general election. myself and my colleagues felt that was unusual. that began a series of conversations that we had amongst ourselves related to that choice. and really the outside political forces that came into play -- governor scott walker telling friends in a speech that perhaps he also supported the conscious movement. .hese are long-held principles it isn't that they have no ability to exercise their conscience. they exercised their conscience when he became elected delegates to the national convention.

they pledged that they would support the candidate that they were committed to. in a sense, there really wasn't a full throated defense of the nominee as we have had in prior years. previous andrman we talked about it. there's been a lot of talk about it since then. the trump campaign has come together, about a week after the , iter i sent out took place have seen a real coalescing that has begun to happen, a lot more working together. we have been working closely with republican national convention officials and all of our staff people across the country. that is the big story here. they have come together in a much more unorthodox way than we have seen before but i think it will be an effective way to handle the general campaign. like it has sued

over from a statement of yours --late june that said published by the washington times -- highlight do distrust the leaders. why do i distrust? because as the republican national convention standing rules committee chairman, i asked for a public lunch to support our presumptive nominee. i asked this from reince priebus, his leadership team and i never heard back from anybody. have you heard back from a number of those people? ago, theout a week chairman of the committee on arrangements and the committeeman from wisconsin and sent a letter to all of the republican national convention members expressing a full, complete and unreserved support of donald trump.

and wanting republican national convention members to stand in opposition of any of the conscience, "never trump" movement. reince priebus has spoken about this. paul ryan has statements coming around to support donald trump. and we have ted cruz speaking out at the convention. things are beginning to come together. be a little bit of a push. i wanted to make sure that our party, the party that myself and the committee i chair, we have worked so hard to make sure that all of the candidate play by the same rules. now that we're so close to the convention, i want to make sure we are all making sure that the presumptive nominee, donald trump who has more delegates named toeeds to be

nominee, we want to make sure he is off to a good start. to make our convention a celebration. bruce --, chair of the rnc's standing committee on rules. democrats, (202) 748-8000. , (202) 748-8001. .ll others, (202) 748-8002 we start with a question on twitter. will any of the new rules change the way the primary is run? one of the things we have talked about his closing republican primaries to republican voters in 2020. there will be discussion about this. this has been a discussion for a long amount of time.

and probably states will be given incentives or more delegates as a result of having a closed primary. perhaps moving them up in the calendar to give the greater importance. let's go to federal way, washington. a republican caller. caller: i have a couple of questions for you. i want to know, what is the republican national convention going to do about donald trump inciting all of these violent rallies that have been happening? i know there have been protesters who have gotten violent but he kind of started hisviolence towards rallies. i feel like as republicans, i am not going to support donald trump. i am saddened at the situation. what are you guys going to do for people who are republicans

who just want to vote for him? peaceful republicans? what are you guys going to do for safety at the convention? guest: thank you for your question. in this country we are all super sensitive to the issue of safety right now. we will havetion, a lot of law enforcement in place. there will be security perimeters around the venue. there has not, been enough security around events for clinton, as well as trump. there is a great deal of anger in this country today. there is a feeling amongst many that things haven't been going so well. people are frustrated and angry and we're seeing this all over the world. we saw what happened in the u.k. with the brexit vote,

government's changing in england and australia and canada. the rise of the party in france. the new president in the philippines. there is lots of change and turmoil coming out of politics but it need not erupt into violence. we cannot accept that in this country. president george w. bush's comments yesterday were very appropriate and soothing and healing. because you california with sam on the independent line. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. please forgive the ignorance of my question, but my understanding is that the primary process in the united it's for to select -- two private parties, the republican and democratic parties. to privately select a candidate. private then why is

public money used for the primary elections? guest: a great question. in our state, legislation or has of theublic money out selection process. we have a publicly funded presidential preference process for several cycles but it will now go to a state party caucus in 2020. overall, a lot of states handle both their presidential and thece elections local primaries at the same time. so these are combined in the same election cycles. that is what we often find in holding the contests together. of theack to the issue dump truck movement -- this votes, the 28 votes to unbind delegates. over the weekend, the daily wire had the opportunity to speak

with kendall andrew. he is a member of the rules committee at the republican national convention, and a leading advocate for a vote that to unbind the delegates from the candidates to which their state primaries are pledged. does that situation stand? guest: it is hard to say. until you have people who are actually signed on a document willing -- we don't know exactly where they stand. reports we have hardly had any in our party. you have to go back to 1976 to see much activity in this area. that aly what happens is lot of the delegates who attend the convention who are part of the rules committee don't have a lot of experience in this sort of work. it is a high charged and exhilarating experience.

sign ontopeople things before they understand the full applications of it. the sign on and they sign off. there is a brief amount of time to file these reports. sometimes they don't get filed in time. we aren't sure where that stands right now. i suspect that there probably of the rulesembers committee. we will be working together and we have been trying to id them. we think that the numbers are far lower than what he has to say. host: let's go to michigan, good morning. air?en, you are on the yes, this is mississippi? host: you are right, go ahead. ,aller: i had a little comment

i just am glad to see the rules committee and the powers that be there are getting their stuff together for next week. have agreed to include building a wall along the entire mexican border. ruleswith a very strict for prison time for anyone caught coming back in after we kicked them out. and some of them said, donald trump will never build a ball. and i will tell you, it can be done. it can be done if you cut off financial aid to mexico. and brace for the consequences. use that money to build a wall. wouldn't that be mexico paying for it? ash, and is talking about the meetings that have wrapped up on the republican platform.

point, in terms of the platform, how important is it for the platform and set of rules that the republicans establish going into this convention that everybody be on board with what the candidate wants? well, the track campaign largely approved of the platform package, which was approved yesterday by the committee. a minority report in a couple of areas. i doubt it has much traction against the delegates. this is a conservative platform. ofy much so in terms immigration and traditional values. i know that this is a platform which is going to have increasing jobs, increasing jobs

and making it a job friendly country. repatriating capital back to the country. lowering taxes. in terms of being together, i think the donald trump campaign is right on with respect to the platform. and i think that based on the context that we have had with campaign, theyp will make their pool on the report by the end of the day on friday. host: bruce ash is the chair of the rnc's standing committee on rules. you have proposed a change to one of the standing rules, will number 40. concerning nominations. tell us about that? what are you proposing, and why? guest: yesterday, i did something i haven't done in 5.5 years -- i left the podium.

i have always felt it was best for me to be impartial and not show my favoritism to any particular issue that we might be discussing. we were at the end of our cycle. for the entire my last meeting. and i made a suggestion that we to make sure that we close whatever small window there might be regarding bindings. .ighting back to 16 a the court case in virginia the other day that took place there, that was a great political message. it should show that binding is legal and constitutional. imposeh parties can't binding, state parties can i that is what the virginia party did. they were entitled to do that. and the judge did a great job

outlining these issues. so my efforts coincided with this. the committee yesterday decided that with the convention rules meeting so soon, best to leave this issue to them. i will bring this issue up again thursday or friday, hoping to get approval. that40 came from a problem occurred at the 2012 convention. you might remember that some candidates names were not read back by the recording secretary. we think every candidate's name should be read back. have ay names that nomination of eight states that taken majority. there was concern that all of that nomination got the candidates after spending -- was the dollars nominating speech. it has never been that way. we want to make sure that we are

securing the party rules. so you will just be another delegate to this convention rules meeting on thursday and friday? guest: yes, i'm very excited to be a part of an effort to reform our rules and to give greater to alle empowerment voters, making sure that all votes count and making sure that republicans are involved in our presidential selection process. remind our viewers that we have live coverage on thursday and friday. let's go to texas to hear from michael. caller: yes. i was concerned that you all said you were going back on the past. going straight ahead, talking about what he is going to bring to the new republican party. thing your opening said that the platform is set over here and donald trump does

this and other people -- and then they come out with that. which one will you stand on? the republican national convention or the donald trump pledge? guest: a good question. and actually it's a bit of everyone's. certainly i think ted cruz's campaign and his supporters have something to do with the platform we have adopted that the committee. the trump campaign also had a rate deal of input into the asument that exists as well people who have been active within the rnc. it's a collective process. it's a collaborative process. a lot of giving and taking andts with subcommittees then goes to the general committee. it's an amazing process. maybe the document is a little too long or short.

it is not the length. it has to do with the content of it. it does rely upon the values that have made america great, but it also talks about the making america great again also. it is a combination of those that i think will make it a great platform. something for all of our candidates to run and win on. host: back to your comments on possible changes to the primary follow-up 2020, a tasks, aren't 40% of voters independent? is the intent of a closed primary to disrespect the influence of the independent voter? guest: oh gosh, no. we would encourage independent voters to join our party. there has been a lot of

disaffection among voters because they have not felt that republican public officials govern the same way they campaign. and really the phenomena we now see with donald trump taking over the republican party has had its roots with a lot of problems that started in the voters0 when republican started turning away. we want to bring independent voters back into the party. give them an incentive. hopefully donald trump will be a great president and bring more independent voters back into the sway. gives primaries republicans a chance to listen to republicans. i have never seen an independent party office. there is no independent party chairman to go complain to about their elected officials. they come to the republicans if they come to the democrats. we want more republicans.

and i'm sure democrats would like more democrats as well. host: republicans, your line is (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. all others (202) 748-8002. here is george in ohio. caller: yes. i've got a question. do you know you are going to lose the -- you are going to lose seats in the house next year? you're going to lose about 18 next year and about five in the senate. isn't that going to be sweet? guest: well i appreciate your question. we don't know how that is going to turn out. republicans have never held more elected office in this country than they do today since the 1920's. we have lost presidential

elections because we have not had either the right campaign or the right candidate. it's hard to say. presidential elections are cultural elections. donald trump amongst many things is a cultural icon in this country. people have known that name and that persona for almost 20 years. he has talked about running president before. nobody believed him. or 3% rating when he first came on the national stage. there is a strong donald trump showing in this election is likely that he will have good coattails. we will retain our white majority in the house. the senate is going to be a lot more difficult to maintain because of the number of republican senators up in 2016.

because of the victories we had in the 2010 election. there's a couple of close ones everyone is watching very closely. donald trump is also faring very well in the polls. so we are encouraged. our convention yet. i think you are going to see a lot of activity and a lot of changes. donald trump coming out ahead right now in florida, colorado. the number of states we need to win in 2016. missouriblue springs, on the independent line. caller: good morning, gentlemen. i want to make a comment. my comment is that every time there is a tragedy, a mass shooting in this country, it seems like the republican party stresses more guns, that we needed more guns in the theater, more guns in orlando. so my question is, why are guns

banned at the republican convention? and that's all. guest: that's a great question. it's a national security event. i feel very comfortable knowing there is secret service, local sheriffs, local police officers there protecting us. there shouldn't be these kinds of threats inside of a national security event such as this. host: next we go to albany, new york. david on the independent line. david? caller: yes. to -- as youlates mentioned donald trump came on the scene a year ago without a clue. breadth ofair's chance of winning anything. and the republican party has had a year to defeat this gentleman before the convention.

it didn't happen. i'm hoping and praying that sober heads prevail at the convention. and just election a man -- elect a man. because if you don't, the party is done. guest: that's a great observation. obviously when we observe our party rules, donald trump is the presumptive nominee. he is going to be the nominee. him at hisupport for convention, anything to deny him the nomination would not only flow of the convention, it would crater our party. and perhaps we would be looking at a much different kind of situation. it would most likely lead to a loss in the presidential election. we cannot afford to ignore the culture and the rules that have made the republican party a party of fools. we have to respect the will of the voter.

26.1 million people turned out republican candidates in this election process. that's more than any other time in u.s. his you donald trump received about 14 million of those votes. he was the overwhelming vote getter and his nearest competitor got 50% of his vote count. he deserves to be the nominee. and i predict he will be at the podium with the balloons coming down and the sons playing -- songs playing and giving the thumbs-up. name mr. trump expected to his vice presidential selection in the next day or two. appearing yesterday with indiana governor mike pence. this headline says that trump wants an attack dog as his number two.

he said he wanted a seasoned government leader as a running mate. but in interview he added a new criteria. he wants an attack dog. " i'm getting attacked from all sides." the relationship to the structure of the convention and the rules -- what sort of changes may be ahead for how the vice president is nominated or how that nomination is handled on the convention floor? guest: we will have some meetings today talking about that. there are many great choices that donald trump has talked about as his vice presidential pick. level grade is not at the where i know which direction he is leaning at the present time. certainly mike pence who i have known personally for about 11

years would make a great vice presidential candidate. there are several others who have expressed some interest. senator tom cotton from arkansas is also a great possibility. the vice presidential candidate will be selected by mr. trump. i'm sure he or she will be vetted completely by him and will be approved by the republican national committee. maryland, republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. the stock trunk movement. i would like to know why you all just to test the middle and low income people in the united states. trump and allald you have done is fight us the entire time. because you rich people don't want him. and according to the

constitution, we have a right to life. to be clear, mr. bruce ash is not in the stop trump movement. he is the chairman of the rules committee. caller: can i ask a question? agree with you. voters in this country who have not necessarily identified with the republican party identify with donald trump. they are looking for greater job security. they want their kids to have a better life. they want to government who is in the life business. they want to protect our country. the interests of the every day man has to be at the high point. frankly this election should not be about businesses and businesses making more money. it ought to be help workers make more money. how more people are employed.

helm more keep all have a chance to live and receive the american dream. americans thrive when they are working. we want to work. we are a hard-working country. donald trump has captured that as he has traveled around the country i have been talking about this in arizona for many years to we focus so much as a party sometimes in our campaigning on business success and small business success. how about the workers? that is what donald trump has plugged into better than any other candidate since ronald reagan i'm very excited by his prospects. host: a businessman from arizona. whitfield are you in -- what field arguing? -- are you in? guest: i'm in the real

estate is this. -- business. host: politico with the headline this morning, trump has edge in key states. justonald trump really surge past hillary clinton into the most important battleground? new polls show trump leaving clinton in florida and pennsylvania and tied in ohio. to a race much closer than the national polls. that's from politico this morning. let's get a couple more calls for bruce ash. n south carolina, it's mary. good morning. caller: i have been hearing about the stop trump bill.

-- theple that do this people that voted for mr. trump will stay home in november. and the liberal democrats can have this country. think of the supreme court justices that's going to be the first fourg years of the new president. and hillary clinton can do it. so we will have a crook in the white house. and it's all because of elitist republicans think they have a right to tell us who we want in the white house. host: bruce ash, a caller in south carolina reflecting that other caller. donald trump was the overwhelming winner both in the total number of votes and when the campaign got going, it got going at the right time. well over 50% majorities in many

of those contests. donald trump is an electrifying candidate. he's going to beat hillary clinton. .'m sure that what the caller talks about -- the republican party has supported donald trump. we now have to support the voters all across the country. host: florida, democrat line. vanessa. caller: yes. oh my goodness. mr. ash. you republicans who support donald trump really need to find your conscience and your principles. i don't know how you look your grandchildren in the face when you support a man who openly mocks disabled people, who calls the war crimes of our soldiers in the theater of war, who says that pows should be ashamed of

themselves because they were captured. he retweets anti-semitic messages and is proud of it. i am proud of the stop trump movement because at least those republicans have principles and a conscience. and you should be ashamed and hopefully the stop trump movement will persevere. but donald trump says he loves the poorly educated. so have fun with your new racist anti-semitic republican party sir. jew, ivanessa, as a take some offense to the remark you made about him making anti-semitic comments. there is no such thing -- donald trump's daughter is jewish. they have decided to raise their kids jewish. i will have a grandchild around the end of the year this year and i hope i can look him in his or her eyes and be able to say

granddad did as much as you could possibly do to help win this election in 2016. i think a lot of people in this country believe that the future of our country is at risk. eight more years of barack obama is not what i think the country is looking for. and hillary clinton doesn't just represent that. she has moved democratic party far to the left. the platform meetings that are going on with the democratic party have really been frightening to witness. the length and depth they have gone through to turn this country into a leftist state is truly horrified for a lot of republicans to consider. host: the headline, aren't committee will take center stage -- rnc rules committee will take center stage in cleveland. taken part --

theseve taken part in talks. have they ever gotten this much attention? guest: they have never gotten this much attention. we had half a dozen cameras yesterday. this rules committee meeting we're going to have over the next couple days ought to be very interesting. onare going to be commenting -- at the end of the day there will be enough lawyers in the room to get the language right. the idea is to create rules that are fair for our party to select our next president. that's what we are doing. we're making sure our rules are cohesive. host: let's get one more call from michigan. andrea on the democrats line.

caller: hello. trumped to say i am a supporter. i am an african american female. i am a registered democrat. i tried to change my registration and they said they didn't -- for whatever reason. stop trump people, why don't they just hand over their responsibility to somebody else and just don't vote? i think they should have to stick to the rules and support our candidate. one thing about the liberals. you've got to say. they don't eat their own. donald's battle would be much less -- these people have sour grapes. host: we will get some final thoughts from mr. ash. there's lots of ladies just like andrea all over the country that say they are going to vote for donald trump. it's refreshing to hear it. i'm glad she called and had a

chance to express yourself. host: bruce ash joining us from cleveland ahead of the convention next weekend. thanks for >> c-span's "washington journal," live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up this morning, the former senior adviser to the 2012 romney presidential campaign, peter wainer. he'll join us to discuss the race, the gop platform, and the republican party as it heads into the national convention. he'll also talk about donald trump's candidacy and his potential vice presidential nominee. then democratic new jersey congresswoman bonnie watson: will discuss democratic efforts to push gun-control efforts, the recent violence of police involved shootings, and the 2016 campaign. be sure to watch "washington journal," beginning live at 7:00 a.m. eastern, coming up this

morning. join the discussion. >> our room to the white house coverage continues today and tomorrow as the republicans determine the rules for next week's convention in cleveland. live coverage on c-span,, c-span radio at, and c-span.org. >> at washingtonpost.com, the last stand for the never trump movement. they're meeting thursday and friday. joining us from cleveland is ed o'keefe. thank you for being with us. >> great to be with you. >> rarely have the sessions generated so much interest. walk us through the various scenarios, what we can expect when the rules committee gavels in. >> remember, this is a 112 member group with two representatives from each state, responsible for setting the rules of the road, not only for how the nominee will be nominated next week but also,

potentially, the groundwork of rules that will be used in 2020 when we have to do this all over again, or perhaps when donald trump is being reelected. so essentially, what the trump campaign and rnc is hoping for is smooth sailing. toething that allows him become the nominee with as little controversy as possible. but there are delegates on this committee that are seeking to change the rules, to at least make them bleed before it happens. what they are trying to do is to officially codify that delegates are not bound to the results o f the caucuses and primaries. out until such made that the

delegates elected to a convention were the only folks who made the decision. comparing it to the stockholders or the board of directors of an association being the only ones who can make a decision. of course, the rnc and chairman feel otherwise; they say, these people participated, you are bound to the results, that's the way it should be. beyond that, there are a few other ways. a roll call vote next week on the floor of the convention. that would require everyone to show face, to get a sense of how many delegates are with and how many are against. there would be a moment where to voteht try against embarrassing the party and donald trump. the reason these folks don't like him is not necessarily the way he has comported himself, the way he has talked about different groups of americans. for a lot of these folks, theyh're generally upset that he's not a conservative, on

social issues especially, on trade policy, on tax policy. he did not adhere to party orthodox. in the last few days of process play out where they write the party platform. trump and his team stayed out, seeing it as a way to let the conservative elements of the party do their thing, blow off steam, and unite around him next week when it is his turn to be nominated. >> yet the question continues to come up, if not him, who? if they unbind these delegates, there is not an alternative. there's not one candidate saying, i'm available. >> there isn't, but if you follow the rules that existed in in2, which technically hold place until a new set of rules is passed this week for 2016, there is someone else who could be placed in the nomination be qualified -- ted cruz. he won at least eight states, and the rule is you have to win

eight. cruz has said, i don't want to win it. i don't want to have my name in the nomination. but what is stopping any of his supporters? you would have to come out again to say, please, do not do it, i don't want it, you are officially relieved of your duties of voting for me, please vote for the nominee. the group that wants to unbind these delegates conceives, their argument is anyone could get it, especially if he doesn't have the requisite delegates. what's to say that someone like john kasich, mitt romney, or marco rubio suddenly emerges? none of those people want it, none of those people are campaigning, but in the scenario they have in their heads, they believe that is how it could happen. thenother debating point, issue of the possibility of a minority report. what could we see? committee,- on this

you have to get at least half, 56, to vote yes for your proposal to make a change. youou can get at least 28, could bring forth was called a minority report to the full convention, which is a way of saying,, look we talked about this, it passed, let's open it up, what do you think? that would require then getting 28. the folks pushing for unbinding want 30. so presumably they could force the issue monday afternoon, once the convention formally convenes. likea tricky, c-span-esque move that they have to do, that pollsters get excited about. the committee has to reconvene once the formal convention has cranked off. they'll do a loading dock or suite somewhere, and in that room, those members, 28 have to

say, yes, i want to do a minority report. if that happens, they have to go to the committee. they would then present their proposal and they would have to put it to a vote. thathere, again, you cross threshold, more than half. this group leads us to believe, steve, that they have the delegates needed to make the change, the wallet have to transpire between now and monday to make that happen requires a level of sophisticated coordination that we have never seen from this kind of grassroots or renegade, outside the party kind of movement. i'll tell you this -- i just came from an office down the street in cleveland, down the street from the convention center, and they have rented office space, going over the details.

they are going to list the delegates, and they seem to think that, if all the scenarios play out, there's a way for them to force the issue and forced trump to show on the floor that he has at least 1237 delegates. >> there is at least at some point a level of uncertainty. >> yeah. and the way i put it is that there always uncertainty around likelihood, but never before has it been more likely to happen, just given the fact that they are getting themselves organized, somewhat organized, to try to do this. we haven't seen it in the modern era. we have nothing to compare it to. but given that they have been coordinated for over a month, it suggests that they may be able to draw blood and make the first few hours of the convention uncomfortable. >> we will be following your

reporting online. at o'keefe, joining us from cleveland, thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> president obama met with civil rights leaders, law enforcement, and elected leaders to talk about public safety issues. after the meeting, the participants spoke to reporters. >> all right. i'm joined here with fellow elected officials, with police officials, union officials, community activists, academics, and others that joined the conversation with the president today. i think this was an extremely urgent and important conversation today, and a space that was badly needed, at a time when we are talking past each other. this convening allowed us to hear. not to agree on everything, but to find a place where we could

make sure our voices were heard, and most importantly, with some common humanity reestablished between us all. the president spoke about the work that remains, how we can sustain this long beyond the conversation and what has preceded what happened today. how we can institutionalize it, not just at the national level, but in local communities, where these things happen, where officers are grieving from the tragedy in dallas feelthe presie pain,hat where families who have lost their young ones at the hands of police officers feel the same pain. i think it was important for us to look at the structural ways we can move forward, not just to feel one another's feelings, but also to take those feelings forward, to make sure we have police officers who feel safe and secure in communities, but at the same time the people feel close to those officers. we talked a lot about that, whether it's collecting data, programs and training, finding the right people to make sure they are keeping the communities safe, and hearing and protecting the rights of protesters to be

able to be a part of this democracy and take their voices to be heard in a way that doesn't escalate and make the problem worse. so i won't speak for everybody here; i just want to say from my perspective, from los angeles, as a big city mayor, this work is as urgent as we have. i hold out los angeles as a place that has gotten better but is not perfect. we went through the pain years and decades earlier, when we saw tragedies on video long before we had them on smartphones. we have learned from those, to make sure that there is an agenda for justice, economic justice, with better policing and th more accountability. i want to thank the president for establishing it as part of his legacy, that he continues to bring us together in these painful moments. we are not judged and easy moments, in these moments when it is hard. to you want to -- a let me just say that it was

very -- to me, a very interesting meeting, that many of us don't agree on many things, but agreed that it was important that we have this dialogue. tomorrow will be the funeral services in minnesota. of one of the victims of the week. on friday. that will be the funeral in baton rouge. i'll be speaking there, and others will join in mourning. saturday, there will be a march commemorating the second anniversary of aragon in staten eric garner inr can garne staten island. two victimsing to of police killings and commemorating the first of these

last two years, showing us the reason why law enforcement elected officials,, civil rights leaders, protesters, all of us needed to be in a room and talk bluntly to each other. this nation is at a very serious point, and this is not a time to have an amen choir in rehearsal. this is the time we need to talk frankly to each other, convened by the president of the united states. that is what happened, and i think we were able to say to law enforcement, they said what they felt, protesters with they felt, those of us who have been through this before, those that have never. the president giving leadership and guidance. i think we learned a lot about each other's real feelings. i think we learned a lot about the shocking emotions that police have for the work every day, and they feel our pain of

having to tell our children be and theof policemanen, pain of having to constantly be called by families that my son was killed. we are called in to these places, as we were in staten island and ferguson. three and a half hours of the president of the united states. we leave here not an agreement on every issue, but agreeing that the dialogue is important. it must lead to change. we cannot keep having these things, where we feel that some will face the letter of the law and others will not. we wanted to say that the police, with all of these cases, they can't be right every time. weh all these situations, can see people just walk away unaccounted for. they're saying, we can't have a situation where police feel they are hated by the community.

community is not anti-police. we need that dialogue. i think -- >> my name is cornell william brooks. president of the naacp. what strikes me about this meeting is that while it occurred at the white house, it occurs between tragedy and grief. we, as a nation, grieved over the loss of five police officers in dallas. the loss ofve over 500 people at the hands of the police. thus far this year. we as a country are reeling between those emotions. the fact that at this precise moment the president convened this conversation, young activists, old activists, legacy organizations, millennial organizations, police officers, police management, mayors, people from diverse walks of life, coming around the table of our common humanity, a

conference table to talk about solutions and what we can do in real-time with a real sense of urgency. there will be more protests. there will be more demonstrations. there will be more cries and pleas for reform. we are calling upon congress to do what they need to do. we are calling upon all americans to come together and to reach for a real solution. representative, the president of the paternal order of police, the international chief of police, we are all committed to doing something in real time.this is bigger than a presidential election . it is bigger than anyone's race for any kind of office, because it has everything to do, everything to do, with people literally living and dying in the streets as they seek to democracy.s

>> chief cunningham wants to say a few things -- >> good evening. i'm terry cunningham, the president of the international association of the chief police. a couple comments. first, i spent over two hours of the president on monday, the same discussion but with a smaller group. as they said here earlier, the president spent over four hours. you cannot question his commitment to this issue. whatever site you are on, whether you agree with his policies or disagree with his policies, the man spent over six hours personally on this issue, meeting face-to-face with the people who will make a difference in this. from a law-enforcement perspective, we here at, we understand it. wehink that too often comment about statistics. it isn't about statistics anymore, this is about emotion, about people's lives, about fear in the community. it is our job to make sure

people feel safe. that's our number one commitment. he saw that exemplified in dallas this past week, when you saw the five officers rushed to that shooter while the other officer stood there and protected the protesters using their bodies as human shields. you cannot question the committed by the law-enforcement profession as well. we stand ready to make change. thank you. a communitycollins, organizer. i work with the young people in baton rouge, louisiana, with their protests. i'm also recently elected school board member. but i had to speak primarily in my capacity as a mother of a 19-year-old, a 20-year-old, grown men. it came down to something one of my son said. if we could just figure out how to act humanely with each other,

then that would alleviate a whole lot of what we are experiencing today. if we could operate in love and compassion and not so much rooted in fear or rooted in our differences, then that would solve a lot of problems that we have today. that's all i want to say. latino.he ceo of voter today, i think the president coalesced a years worth of work when it came to bring a different communities to solve real problems. voter latino participated in the original task force with crowdsourcing suggestions from our community, to see what are the biggest issues. 86% of latinos deeply believe in law enforcement. 67% of them are afraid of racial profiling. this is an epidemic. in the last six days, there have been five young men that have been killed by police in questionable circumstances that have not been elevated in the

latino community or the media, but it is something that the community fears every single day. what he did was elevate these conversations in a tough environment, in a way that we are looking for solutions. i believe that he realizes, as we all do, that there is an urgency of now. whether one is law enforcement or any other american, that is one lost too many. i appreciate that people were thoughtful, and i appreciate the president gave us homework. he said it is up to us to make sure we are finding solutions locally and having this frank conversation, that we are coming together as americans to recognize we need to turn down this temperature and to make sure that this is long-term. thank you. >> good afternoon. good evening. mayor of north new jersey. i want to say that i was privileged to be invited to this meeting. i think he laid out all the

points that needed to be laid out earlier, but the president was very courageous in calling us all together. the demands made on everybody are the demands made on the public, the police unions, police officers, mayors, legislators, the president himself. i think it was courageous to bring everyone together and have an open dialogue about what should happen, not just now but as we go forward. i think the most important step is not just what we talked about, what happens after. i think all of us in the meeting has been committed to making sure our voices are louder and our actions are bigger in terms of what we do after, and i think the president is committed to making sure that every american is treated as a human being, feels like a human being, and thinks that the police department is there to protect them and not to be victimized. this was incredibly fruitful for me. i thank everyone who was there. . the dialogue was rich

thank you. >> thank you. i'm john carley, chief police of north carolina, and also representing the california police chiefs association. there's a lot of america that is uneasy right now because of the emotions being stirred up because of events we have seen in the last week. law enforcement across this country is grieving along with each community, and the value of a chance to get together from all cross-sections today at the white house, with the president, an opportunity to share the feelings and emotions and not just leave it with that sense of loss and grief,?but what are we going to do about it what can we do? there is no question that the policing in america is being questioned. there is no question that the police chiefs and their leadership around the country are taking steps to

ensure that the 21st century policing recommendations are being implemented. in california, i can speak for the fact that there are standards and training issues that come up; they were talked about today, about how we can do things and be more professional. the job as a police officer in a policing profession is complex. we are hearing the narratives, not always communicating with the right words. today was an important opportunity to have a dialogue, to understand what we can do to be more involved in the community, what we can do to be more professional. i'm proud of the work done every day, but there is always work to be done. it's a great partnership, and today was not the end. it wasn't just a conversation, it was truly looking at, what are the strategies, what's working, where do we need to put resources? today was a day of embarking on what next steps look like and not to get caught up in a motion. thank you. >> good evening, i'm charlie

beck. i work for the mayor. the's second-largest city in america, with the huge history thatlice use of force, and was the igniting point for 92 civil unrest and riots. that had a lot to do with los angeles police department. and its break away from the community, its lack of trust. we work very hard to restore that trust. we have a long way to go, but we have made much progress. we got to share some of that with the panel today. it was an incredible experience to have the president spend all that time with 45 people, and every one of them got to have their say. every one of them, from youth organizers, to activists, police governors,ors,

everybody got their say. all of us got to hear positions we haven't heard before. all of us got to walk in each other's shoes. all of us agreed that the pathway through this for america is empathy. it's understanding the fear of being stopped by police officer when you see the things that have happened and the way they have been pretrade in the media, or the fear of a police officer walking up on a car in the dark street. these are the kind of things we learn from each other, and discussions we have, and the important thing is that we came together for this discussion. the president of the united states deserves full credit for that. this has been an issue that has been so polarized that there has been no discussion. there has only been a monologue, people putting their position

fourth and not hearing the others. that all ended today, and it will end in the weeks following, and everyone in the communities represented here -- one of thing s the president task us with was to take the show on the road, to make sure our communities had a chance to talk through this, to deal with the issues that are at the root of mistrust of the police and at the violence epidemic in america. thank you all, and thank you for your attention. >> [speaking spanish]

>> can you tell me what the breakthrough -- what do you feel the president's role is moving forward? >> one thing i felt was a oneent that brian made -- individual started, an activist, turning to the police and saying, i'm sorry for your loss. i feel the pain of those

officers who died, saying that the power of us to say that to one another is not a program, it doesn't mean the work stops, but it has to start their. when you spoke about your son -- to me, it was a breakthrough moment because you talked about remind it was for me, to us that this isn't led by people of fancy titles. this is being led by people on the streets. that rookie cop and that activist stepping out to lead the protest, that's america, not just us who have the titles, but those reaching out across the bridges. to my with regard experience as a mother -- my sons are 19 and 20 years old, and in baton rouge, i have southern heritage. a lot of times we think about southern heritage and we think

about white southern heritage, but i come from southern heritage as well. one of the things that is very prevalent is that you teach you young boys to stand up for themselves on the playground. somebody messes with you, you put them in your place. it's a matter of establishing respect for yourself, ok? because if you don't, and you don't have that respect for yourself, others on have respect for you. in the black community, there is something very tragic that happens once your sons reach adolescence, and they aren't cute and cuddly anymore, and they are maturing, their bodies are literally perceived as a threat. you go from saying stand your ground to saying hold your peace. let go of your dignity. you want to live to see another day. and that is very painful in the black community. we began to share things on a very personal level. yes?

>> thanks. appreciate it. >> we just had a productive meeting with president obama and senior administration officials. meeting was 4.5 hours, and importantly we talked about a host of issues, ranging from policing and use of foreign policy to also making sure that there is real accountability with the police department. this is one of the most candid conversations i have heard -- police chiefs talk about the need for change, but also talk about the challenges they have. the last thing i offer is that president obama was incredibly solution-oriented in this conversation, and pushed people to think about the concrete things that the ministration can do, that law enforcement and

activists can do, to make sure that we address the issue of police violence had on and that communities are safe and we have an expansive understanding of safety. i thought this meeting was incredibly productive. here for the meeting of civil rights leaders not too long ago, and we also had a candid discussion. this one, today, really set a new bar for the administration's commitment to addressing criminal justice issues and the issue of police violence. >> that first meeting i had here was december 1, 2014, right after ferguson, in the oval office. over the last 22 months, the evolution has been reflected in his statement. have seen a level of candor increase, in people taking responsibility. union folk, police chief, people all around the table recognizing that the issues of police violence are deeply rooted in

our history, and that we all have to take responsibility to move forward, especially those in the point in positions of power and to our public servants. we know public servants should be held to the highest standard, and i heard a lot of people in that it's aing standard they have to hold themselves to and the people they work for. i was incredibly pleased to be a part of this work, as a member of the 21st century task force on policing and an actist. we are hopeful that the structure will continue, because we recognize that a meeting is only a meeting if we do not continue to engage in sustained work. i testified in front of the 21st century commission, and members had been raising their voices over and over again all around the country, as we see these killings of unarmed black folks and wait for response. i do believe that meetings like important,credibly

bring people together from different walks of life to have constructive conversations. the president took a lot of time, and one of the things that really resonated for me in terms of solutions was his openness to looking at the levers that the federal government has in terms of funding. that is something that we are calling on. unless we actually change the incentive structures, the money that goes into law enforcement from federal government and starts making real shifts in terms of how practices are done at the local level, we will be here five, ten, fifteen years from now. in terms of practical solutions, data being another area of work we need to look into -- those are key areas that are important. i just want to say that we have this framework we work on, that we can't mistake presents for power. is meeting was presence and that is important, having these

conversations and members of congress always being willing to listen is presence and that is important, but we have to change the written and unwritten rules, and that is about power. it is about seeing black folks as important and being nervous about disappointing them. that is what we will continue to need if we will ever have a type of change that the community deserves. grimms with black lives matter minneapolis. today was extremely powerful. we just came off one of the most difficult weeks we have seen an america in recent history. there were hundreds of thousands of protesters all over the world, over 400 people arrested just in america, protesters, and to see obama bring us into the room and have a conversation shows he is paying attention, that he wants to see something happen, that he's ready for productive change. he spoke about having only six months left in office and how he

wants to continue his work after he leaves and make sure this continues at the white house. i think that's a great step forward for us in general. , we need to keep pushing these things because change isn't going to happen overnight. we have a lot of work to do and a lot of conversations, because it seems like the divide is so wide. i believe that this was a great step forward, and i am grateful to have been here. did you see any breakthroughs in the meeting? one person said there was a reach out to police chiefs, who said i'm sorry for your loss and your pain. this that sound -- familiar, accurate? does that involve any of you? i think what was present in the meeting is that this was a

different -- it is unlike any meeting i have been in before, and we have been a lot of meetings about police violence. this was the first meeting that community, academic that brought police chiefs, mayors, states attorneys, activists, to one table. the president really pushed it. i have been in another meeting, where people went around and talked and gave feedback and he asked several questions. i this meetingn, he was challenging people to show up with solutions. there was much more back and forth, and he was pushing and prodding people to get people toward what solutions would look like. i just came out -- we had been in there for four and a half hours and that was important,. my perspective is that the conversations are the beginning. if we talk about it and have these amazing conversations and the outcomes don't change, in the conversation doesn't matter.

but i think the breakthrough moment today was that we heard people that we had not heard before. people got to put a name and a face -- i was just in baton rouge, had a less than pleasant experience. was interesting to hear the governor of louisiana and the state police talk about what change looks like, but also reflects on what just happened in baton rouge. again, the composition of this room was incredibly powerful, because the conversation was so powerfully needed. of particular add breakthrough for me was that there was a lot of truth, and it felt heard. there was truth on all sides, and often we have that conversation where we speak our truths, and yet we feel like the other side is not listening. to me feel like they are not affirmed, not heard, that the things we are experiencing are somehow imaginary to other people. people really took

responsibility. i think that's a critical step in moving forward. because we came into that space, everyone came in with no predetermined ideas about how we can move forward, about what people might say. that allowed us to be in a space where we sat equitably with one another. i think there is work that will continue to propel us forward, but i know that we all took a spirited protest to that space. we have all been on the streets in various cities, ferguson, baton rouge, minnesota, new york. what's critical is that we recognize this marriage of policy and protest. that's an american tradition. conversations give us an opportunity to shine a light on the criminal justice system as a whole. the president and members of the staff continue to talk about the limitations of the federal government. i just want to say that in the last meeting, i brought up the

role of district attorneys and what other groups are doing to hold district attorneys accountable around the country. i talked about that again with him at the end of the meeting, when i had some time with just the two of us about the work we are continuing to do. while there is work that we have to do at the federal level, there is work all around the country that we can't leave. locally disabilities can't be hook, as we come to the white house and have conversations. absolutely. >> [indiscernible] absolutely. >> [indiscernible]

do you think there will be a difference on when you are approached? >> i certainly hope so. i talked about a teenager i stood next to in baton rouge on friday night, when she said, as she was crying, she kept looking at a police officer in saying, why do you have a gun? stories not only into this space and to people with flashpoints, but also for the president to hear that story, to be told on the backdrop the white house, i think it helps remind us of our humanity, to recognize that for so many young people deciding to participate, that's a powerful thing, whether they do it in a voting booth or on a protest line. we need to respect it; we need to embrace it. >> there were decision-makers in today that will

probably view the movement differently. but by and large, we have a much bigger situation than an individual person in the room feeling is differently. we have a power imbalance. we have a lack of power and lack of ability to hold institutions accountable the way we need to hold them accountable. we have a lack of laws and the lack of letters. room arelks in this able to channel any kind of new understanding into the ability to change that, to change the imbalance of power, and that is going to be a benefit to this meeting. but as protests continue, as rallying and lobbying and all the pushing that is necessary to change these rules happens, we have to understand that no single meeting is going to change the way that people are living. kids not going to change the viral videos we continue to hear. it's not going to change the harassment that black folk continue to receive from the police officers. what will change is when we change the power structures and the incentive structures and the accountability structures, and

people believe that there will be a price to pay when you devalue black lives in this country. >> the reality is that the progress is not just a productive meeting; the protests are where the trauma and's when systems of structures become equitable. i believe meetings like today get us closer to that, because we have a candid conversation. what's different about today is that it was heavily focused on solutions. it's not a meeting about understanding the problem, that was talk about the problem in so much as it helps you think about what the solutions look like, and put solutions on the table. president obama was really thoughtful about eggs like x -- about things like funding used to keep police department accountable. as you know, britney and i were both in the street in baton rouge, mica in st. paul.

the protest don't and because we had a meeting. >> the movement continues. it will continue until the trauma is done. y woke button.y >> was there any kind of [indiscernible] comments, ored some other issues? >> i had a tense moment or two. [laughter] >> yes, in the meeting. >> reverend al sharpton talks about how we really need to get to folks as it's happening. we had a lot of solutions on the table, probably have to get to what is the reason why people feel the need to be in the streets, and if we can't discuss with that is, if we keep talking around that issue, we are never going to find a solution. i think it's easy for people to talk about community mistrust

because it's a nice way to have this conversation, but when we get down to it, we are talking about people dying and not being held accountable for who would is doing it. we need to have happen. >> in regards to unions, all of us brought that issue of. because of this issue of accountability, and the way we finally discovered that the hidden part of the equation of injustice are all the things hidden in police bill of rights, union contracts, that often go under the radar. preventing immediate we need to have happen. >>interrogations, ensuring that police do not have access to evidence before they are interrogated, this shadow justice system, a shadow justice system that sits in the contracts that allows for police officers to engage with the justice system differently than everyday citizens. that was something we all brought up, because it is something we know has to be solved, urgently, in order for us to see justice. >> and certainly, we all didn't

agree on everything. we all route different perspectives to the work, given our different vantage points. what's important is that we listened, and like britney said, we all felt heard, even by the people who are not our natural allies. i think president obama, to his credit, created a space for that today, because it was not a share out. it was a space where he challenged people to show up with solutions that made people -- this is my experience, this is what i'm thinking, pushing them to say, how do we solve the problem? that was different. we had the time to do it today, because given the large number of people -- i think this was a different type of meeting and i am hoping that this will lead to some concrete action. we went in there about 2:30,

2:45. >> thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> he steps down less than three weeks after losing the campaign to keep britain and the european union. mr. cameron's last question ime is next. we will hear from britain's new prime minister, theresa may.

discuss the i-16 presidential race, and the republican party as it heads into next week's national convention. we will talk about donald's candidacy and his potential vice presidential nominees. democratic new jersey congresswoman bonnie watson coleman will discuss house democratic efforts to push gun control legislation, the recent violence of police involved shootings and the 2016 campaign. be sure to watch washington journal beginning live at 7 a.m. eastern thursday morning. join the discussion. >> the hard-fought 2016 primary in his final appearance as british prime minister, david cameron took questions from members of the house of commons. this was his 182nd question time appearance as britain's top legislator. he was asked about the future

of the u.k. after the nation leaves the european union and about his own future. theresa may takes over as britain's prime minister replacing mr. cameron. >> order. questions to the prime inister. >> question 1. >> i know the whol house will congratulate me on the stunning uccess at wimbledon. this morning i had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. other than one meeting this afternoon the rest of my day as remarkably light. >> thank you very much.

may i echoed the prime minister's congratulations and to all the other winners. we think the prime minister for all his hard work and his eadership. and particularly his commitment to the union and to northern ireland. i am told there are lots of english -- of leadership roles. on top dear, even across the big pond, a role that needs filling. but if i can go to my subject, brexit -- thank you. brexit really threatened the union.

with the prime minister work with his successors to ensure we have some body that will pull together all the countries of the union and the overseas territories and make it so we'll work together. >> let me thank the gentleman for his kind remarks and fascinating suggestions for future jobs. most of which sound even harder than this one. i do believe northern island is stronger than it was sixers ago. 58,000 more people in work. the full evolution of justice and home affairs livid under this government. i care passionately about our united kingdom as i know he doesn't always do. we do need to make sure that as we leave we worked out to keep the benefits of the trouble rea. also there public of ireland and that work needs to

quicken. >> thank you. i would like to pay tribute to all the hard work he has done. my honorable friend's lasting legacy -- for having visited eshmerga and there are irstrike -- strikes. the risk will be reduced with additional increment. we could provide some beds for the most seriously injured. this is a relatively small investment that would make a huge difference to our lives and our common fight against the evil of terrorism. >> let me say thank you for his kind remarks but also he is right. the kurds are incredibly brave fighters and are doing valuable

ork against daesh. the queen hospital has excellent facilities. our army is providing medical instruction to help them deal with the situations but we will look and see if more can be done. the strategy is working. daesh has lost 40% of the territory it once had. financing has been hit. desertion has increased, and the flow of foreign fighters is up -- fallen by nine -- 90%. this will take a long time to work in iraq and syria but we must stick at it and we must stay the course. >> thank you. could i start by joining the prime minister in paying true to the british work -- winners in wimbledon? also i think it would be nice if we congratulated serena

williams on her fantastic achievement as well. mr. speaker, it is only right that after six years as prime minister, we think the most honorable whitney for his service. i often disagreed that there are some of his achievements and want to welcome and pay recognition to today. one is to help to secure the release from guantánamo bay and legislating to achieve equal marriage in our society. i am sure he would like to not -- acknowledged that it was labor float -- most to help to et it through. perhaps he expressed some concern on the way that homelessness has risen for the past six years and looks like it will continue to rise in this country. >> let me thank him for his kind remarks. i will join him in paying ribute to serena williams.

can i and kim for what he said about -- thank him for what he aid. we are pleased that it has been resolved. i would thank him for what he said about equal marriage. there are 30,000 gay people who have been able to get married. some said i am not that interested in politics but thanks to you i am able to marry the person i love this weekend. that was one of my favorites. as for homelessness it is still 10% below the week that we saw under labor but the key is building more homes. we have built 700,000 homes, that is how i became prime minister. we need to put in the case on that key to building homes is programs and the key is a trong economy.

for example carefully to what home secretary has been changed. she said it is harder than ever for young to buy their first house. does the prayer minister think this is because the record low has -- or the relief that 450,000 pounds are -- is an ffordable start? >> let me say how warmly i congratulate the home secretary. when it comes to women prime ministers i am pleased to be able to say pretty soon it will be 2-nail -- nil. and not a pink bus in sight. on the issue of housing and homelessness, as i said, 700,000 -- 700,000 homes of been delivered. this is absolutely key.

because of what had happened to the mortgage market first time buyer often needed to have as much as 30,000 pounds to put a deposit down. because of the combination of help to buy and shared ownership some people are able to get on the housing letter as little as 2000 pounds with love -- low mortgage rates. e're making good progress. >> the malaise seems a little eeper still. talking of the economy she said it really does work for everyone. it is apparent to anyone in touch with the real world that people do not feel our economy works that way. isn't she right that too many people in too many places in britain feel their economy has been destroyed in town syrian because the industries have gone, there are high levels of underemployment. don't we all need to address that question?

>> if we are going to talk about the economic record, let's get the facts treat. there are 2.5 million more people at work and there are a million more as this is. 2.9 million apprenticeships have been trained under this government and when it comes to poverty, 300,000 fewer people in relative poverty. 100,000 fewer children in relative poverty and to be accused of sloth in delivery, let's take the last week we have been having these leadership elections. we have rested nation, nomination, competition, and coronation. they have not decided what the rules are yet. it would take a year to work out who would sit where. >> democracy is an excited --

exciting and splendid thing and i am enjoying every minute of t. the home secretary, mr. speaker, talking of the economy she said many people find themselves exploited by unscrupulous bosses. cannot imagine -- but in his discussion, mr. speaker, in his hand of her discussion with the home secretary could he enlighten us as to whether or not there is any proposal to take on agency britain by banning zero hours contract, clamping down on umbrella companies, repeating the trade union act or all three?

i.t. is right that democracy is a splendid thing. i have to agree with him about that. let me answer direct we on titian in the work place. it is this government that introduced a national living wage. if this -- there are record fines for businesses that do not pay the minimum wage and prosecution is taking place. all of those things have changed under this government. the can afford less than one in 40 people in work. six -- 60% do not want to work more hours and it was this government that did something the labour party never did which was to ban exclusive zero. 13 years of labor but it took a coalition conservative government to do it. let me say something about the democratic process of leadership elections because i did say a couple of weeks

ago. i am beginning to admire his tenacity. he has reminded me of the black night in monty python's holy grail. he has been kicked so many times with the says, keep going, it is only a flesh wound. i admire that. >> mr. speaker, i would like the prime minister to address another issue that the house voted on last week. i have a question from ina. it is a question from someone who deserves an answer. she says i would like to know if there is any possibility that a european union citizen who has lived in britain for 30 years can have the right of permit residents revoked or deported depending on the brexit negotiations.

there have been no clear answers to this question. it is one that worries a large number of people and it would be good if at question time the prime minister could offer some assurance to those people. >> let me reassure you, there is no chance of that. we're working hard to do what we want which is to give a guarantee to eu citizens that they will have their rights respected, all those who have come to this country. the only circumstance i could ever envisage, a future government tried to do that guarantee would be if british citizens and other european countries did not have their rights respected so i think it is important to have reciprocity. we have been trying to give that guarantee assumes we can. i have got an e-mail as well. i got this, i am not making this up. i got this on the 16th of september 2015 and she said this.

please keep the unity during the first pmq's. she said tom watson is a very ifferent kettle of fish. he is experienced and for more dangerous in the long-term. she goes on, let him create his own party disunity. i have to find judith and find out what happens next. >> mr. speaker. had the pleasure about being -- there are 179 questions. there are more to come to the successor. do not worry about that. but before i ask him the last question, could i just put him on record and wish him well as he leaves this office.

and also to wish his family ell. we should all get nice that many of us enjoy our jobs. it is the loved ones nearest to us that make enormous sacrifices that we may be able to do this. i would like to pass on my thanks to his mum for her advice about ties and suits. it is extremely kind of her and will pass that on to her. i have one rumor that i want him to do with. as -- there is a rumor going around that his departure has been carefully choreographed so he can slip seamlessly into the vacancy created this morning on his departure. is that his next career?

>> first of all thank you for the kind remarks and the good wishes by my amazing wife samantha and my children who are watching from the gallery today. he is right. the pressure is often hardest round those we love. i have a bit errors -- i have done a bit of research. i have answered 5500 questions. i will leave it to others to answer the rest. i think i have done a record of 92 hours from this dispatch box as well as some appearances and ther things. i will certainly send his good wishes back to my mother. she seems to have taken her dvice.

it gives me the opportunity to put a rumor to rest as well. even more serious than the strictly come dancing one. his cat is particularly famous and the rumors are somehow i do not love larry. i do. i have photographic evidence to prove it. sadly, i cannot take very with me. he belongs to the staff -- the house and the staff love him very much as do i. >> is my right honorable friend aware that in 30 years in this house watching prime -- five prime minister's and extra -- and x prime ministers i have seen him achieve a mastery of that dispatch box unparalleled in my time. not just because it -- his command of details, he commands the respect of friends and fellow like to know that he is driven not just by legitimate political ambitions and ideas ut by a sense of duty.

which he -- leads him to make his country more prosperous, more solvent, more tolerant, more fair, and more free. he will command the respective generations to come. those words mean a lot for my right honorable friend. it is a special place and theatrics does have a purpose. it is a time when they prime minister has to know everything that is going on in whitehall and things to stop pretty quickly. politics is about public service and that is what i tried to do. the session does have some admirers around the world. i met mayor bloomberg and we walked down the street and everyone knew him and said you are doing a great job.

no one had a clue who i was until eventually, someone said cameron, prime minister's questions, we love your show. fix i joined the prime minister in paying tribute to all the winners at wimbledon. this week we mark the 21st anniversary of the enocide. it is one of the few political causes that the prime minister and i both wholeheartedly support and i hope he will be impressing on his successor the importance of supporting the remembrance of the organization and all the good work it does. i genuinely extend my best personal wishes to the prime minister and to his family. i wish them all the best. however, the prime minister's legacy will undoubtedly the that he has taken us to the brink of being taken out of the

european union so we will not be applauding his premiership. what advice has he given his successor on taking scotland out of the eu against the wishes of scottish voters? >> let me join the right honorable tillman and playing to view to all those who lost their lives and making sure we commemorate this event properly. this year there will be a service in the foreign office where commemoration will be event, where testimony will be read out and we should think of it alongside the terrible events of modern history such as the howard -- holocaust. it reminds us as we debate in this house there is a price for intervention but also sometimes a price for nonintervention and we should remember that. in terms of what he says about scotland and the u.k. and europe, my advice to my successor, is that we should try to be as close to the eu as we can before the benefits of

trade, cooperation, and security. the channel will not get any wider once we leave and that is the relationship we should seek. it will be good for the united kingdom and scotland. >> is very known -- it is known this is likely to be him posing against the wishes of the eople. she said she planned to plow on ith brexit regardless of the effect that scotland voted to emain in the eu. how does the prime minister think that all this will go down in scotland? >> on the brain family, she came on a student visa to study her scottish history

degree. her husband and son came as dependents. i very much hope that will happen that they put in an pplication for a visa. many people in scotland support this. 143,000 more people and work in scotland. massive investment and the renewable industries in scotland. he two biggest warships ever built in scotland. a powerhouse element, a referendum that was legal, decisive, and fair. and the scotsman winning wimbledon twice when i was prime minister. nevermind indy 2. time for andy 2. xxx xxx

xxx >> thank you, mr. speaker. i would like to thank the prime minister for the leadership he has shown in support of women within the conservative party. the prime minister's legacy for me however and for fellow cancer survivors is the personal support that he says shown for the cancer drug fund. however today i would like him to -- i would like to ask them to show that seem support for those who have been affected by the contaminated led. and update the house as to whether they too will have a legacy. >> i think my honorable friend. it has helped many families and people. she is right to raise this issue of contaminated blood. we will be spending the 125 million pounds. those affected will receive a regular annual payment including all those with hepatitis stage one who received 3500 hounds a

year. for those with hepatitis see, annual payments will increase and will enhance the support for those who have been ereaved or those who will be in future. significantly boosting the money for the discretionary payments. last year i apologized to the victims on behalf of the british government. i am proud to provide them with the support they deserve. people should know that coming to constituency surgeon -- surgeries, campaigning as these sufferers have done, they repeatedly came to my surgery and say this must not stand. not everyone will be fully satisfied with what is being done. >> the prime minister came to office promising to keep the aaa ratings and to stop his

policy banging on about urope. >> in terms of the economic record 2.5 million more jobs, the deficit cut by two thirds, 2.9 million apprenticeships, a growth rate that has been at the top of the developed world, all of that because of the choices we made great we have been able to back our nhs with a 10% funding increase, over 10 billion in real terms in this parliament. we have to settle these issues and it is right when you're trying to settle a really big constitutional issue. you do not just rely on parliament might you ask the people as well. we made a promise and we kept a promise. >> i am sorry this turns out to be my last question but i want to thank him for everything he has done for my constituency

where every school is now good or outstanding and the jobless rate is down 64%. as he prepares to leave downing street, can i encourage him to return to the big society agenda and can i ask him if your members saying before becoming prime minister politics are a mixture of egotism and altruism and you hope the right one wins out. it seems to me that he stayed on the right side of that divide in the last six years not least in the manner of his departure. his country will miss him a great deal. >> can i think my friend for his very kind remarks. when it comes to education there is a very strong record to build on. 1.4 million more children in good or outstanding schools than in 2010. we have seen the free schools movement take off with 300 schools. i visited one that is outstanding. one quarter or outstanding which is an amazing record. i think we should build on that

record. as for the big society, we should use a stronger economy to build a bigger and stronger society. one of the things we're doing is introducing national citizen service, 200000 and people have taken part in that program and i hope by the end of this parliament it will be the norm for 16-year-olds to take part. we talk about the soft skills that are necessary to give evil real life chances. many people do not get that and national citizen service will help them. >> thank you, mr. speaker. can i think the prime minister for the courteous way he is always answered questions i have managed to ask him. i have always listened carefully to his answers but until i had to i operations i was not able to see him very clearly. if he is concerned as i am about the newspaper reports that people who are entitled to cataract operations are -- not entitled to codirect operations are jumping the line and having

perations? >> can i thank him for his kind remarks. i have tried to answer questions from his dispatch box. it is difficult when you have not seen the specific story and i have not seen the story here. i recall that we are still investing in these cataract operations and the number receiving them are going up and i will carefully this afternoon at the question about the danger of queue jumping and get back to him. >> thank you, mr. speaker. under your leadership and mike constituency, unemployment has dropped to 1.9%. that is something to be proud of and when i would like to thank him for. this he agreed that this is only possible thanks to his

focus on jobs and a strong economy and investment? >> the figures are remarkable. that is close to full employment and it is a remarkable record. what we have run with apprenticeships, and in her 500,000 already in this parliament were the target of 3 million in this parliament which i am confident if we were carter can achieve it and we should think these are not just numbers on a page. they're real people who have experience of the workplace who are learning a trade and taking the first steps in their career. when they get that here not only do we have the national living wage but we also make sure that people do not stop paying income tax until they are earning a good wage and we have taken 4 million of the lowest paid people out of income tax altogether. that is a record to be proud of. >> thank you. this week is black country

week. yesterday, black country manufacturers were in parliament demonstrating the high-quality product that are exported worldwide. will the outgoing prime minister impress upon the incoming prime minister the huge importance of maintaining access to the eu single market during brexit negotiations? in order that we can maximize the black country three contribution to export, activity, and jobs. >> i agree with the honorable gentleman. what we have seen is 173,000 more people in work under this government and we have seen something of a renaissance in anufacturing particularly in the automotive sector. it is vital for the industry that we have ever access to the single market and he is right, this will be one of the things we have to focus on.

i want automotive aerospace, these high-quality manufacturing firms to go from strength to strength making sure we get that vital ccess. >> 10 years ago today i was a -- applying to become a candidate for labor and my right honorable friend was uniting the opposition. i entered this house in the week that he became prime minister and since that time, unemployment in worcester is hard, up under ships have doubled. we are beginning to receive funding. wages are up and taxes are down. can i think my right honorable friend for his service to our nation and for the legacy of improved life chances he will leave behind? >> can i thank him for his kind remarks. we are seeing unemployment fall in all these constituencies. we have seen the claimant count go down. we see 450,000 fewer children

in households where no one works. the effect of having a parent or loved one in work helping to put food on the table and provide aroma will for their children, that is what this is about. i thank him for his kind remarks. > thank you. etween brexit, and -- pon of mass destruction -- the prime minister has done more for scottish independence than many have ever hoped to do. so as he contemplates the future, could the prime minister make his commitment to scottish independence official y visiting

>> what i would say to all the smp members of parliament is when you have lord smith himself saying that the valve to create a powerhouse parliament was cap, the smp should pay attention and recognize a promise was made and a promise was delivered. i have talked many times about creating this powerhouse parliament. what i have not seen is the smp using any of the powers they have got. >> mr. speaker, can i first of all join all of those in thanking the prime minister for the statesmanlike leadership he has given to our party and to the country for the last six years and to thank him particularly on this occasion for the debating eloquence but also the witch and the humor

that he has always brought to prime minister's questions on wednesday. can i ask that is no doubt he will have some plans for a slightly more enjoyable and relaxed wednesday morning and lunchtime, he will still be an active participant in this house as he faces a large number of problems over the next few years. as no two people know what exit means at the moment, we need his advice and his statesmanship as much as we ever have. >> can i think my right honorable friend for his kind remarks. ireland were one of the toughest conversations i in politics was when i was leader of the opposition and i was trying to get him to join my front bench and he was on a birdwatching holiday in patagonia and it was a most impossible to persuade him to come back. not many people know his but his first act as chancellor of the exchequer was to fire his special adviser. i am very proud of the fact

that one of my first acts was to appoint him to my cabinet and the coalition government and i know that then deputy prime minister would join me in saying he provided great wisdom, great thoughtfulness, great talents at a time of difficulty in the advice he gave us. he is not always the easiest person to get hold of. tory modernization has never got quite as far as to get ken clark to carry a mobile phone. he did free have one but he said the problem is people keep bringing me on it. i seem to remember we had to move our morning meeting to accommodate his 9:00 cigar. but i will watch these exchanges from the back benches. i will miss the were of the crowd. i will miss the box from the opposition but when i say winning you on, or just willing on the front bench, defending the manifestoes i helped to put

together but we need all of you on because people come here with huge passion for the issues they care about. they came here with great love for the constituencies they represent and also willing on this place because we can be pretty tough and test and challenge our leaders. perhaps more than some other countries but that is something we should be proud of and we should keep at. i hope you keep at it and i will will you on as you do. the last thing i would say is that you can achieve a lot of things in politics. you can get a lot of things done and the national interest, that is what it is all about. nothing is really impossible if you put your mind to it. as it went said i was the future once.

[applause]

>> british prime minister even cameron delivered his final public remarks for heading from 10 downing street to buckingham palace where he gave his official resignation to the queen. mr. cameron thanked his supporters, spoke about some of his successes, and posed for a final portrait with his family before leaving the downing street residence for the last ime as prime minister.

>> good afternoon. when i first stood here in downing street on that evening in may 2010, i said we would confront our problems as a country and lead people through difficult decisions so that together, we could reach better times. it is not been an easy journey and we have not got every decision right. but i do believe that today, our country is much stronger. above all it was about turning around the economy and with the deficit cut by two thirds, 2.5 million people in work and one million more as this is, there can be no doubt that our economy is immeasurably stronger. politicians like to talk about policies but in the end it is

about people's lives. i think of the people doing jobs who were previously unemployed and businesses that were just ideas in someone's head and today are making a go of it and providing people with livelihoods. i think of the hard-working families paying lower taxes and getting higher wages because of the first ever national living wage. i think of the children who were languishing in the care system who have been adopted by living families. i think of the parents now able to send their children to good and outstanding schools and including free schools that did not exist before. i think of over 200000 and people who are taking part in national citizen service, the fastest-growing youth program of its kind in the world. something that was not there six years ago. i think of the couples who have been able to get married who were not allowed to in the past.

i think of the people on the other side of the world who was not have had clean drinking water, the chance to go to school, or even be alive were it not for our decision to keep our aid promises to the poorest people and the poorest countries in our world. we have used our stronger economy to invest in our health service. when i walked in there, there were 18,000 people waiting over a year for their operation. today, it is just 800. to many, still too long, but our nhs is a national treasure and one whose staff performed millard kohl's as i have seen every day. we strengthen our nation's defenses, the summaries, destroyers, and frigates and aircraft carriers rolling out of our shipyards to keep our country safe in a dangerous world. these are the choices and the changes that we made. i want to thank everyone who has given so much support to me personally over these years.

the incredible team at number 10, the civil servants whose professionalism and impartiality is one of our countries greatest strengths. and my political advisers, some of whom have been with me since the day i stood for my party's leadership 11 years ago. i want to thank my children nancy, ellen, and florence to whom downing street has been a lovely home over these last six years. they sometimes kick the red rocks is full of work. florence, -- once climbed into one before a foreign trip and said take me with you. no more boxes and above all, i want to thank samantha, the love of my life, have kept me vaguely sane and as well as being an amazing wife, mother, and businesswoman. you have done something every week in that building behind me to celebrate the best of voluntary service in our country. we will shortly had to buckingham palace to see her

majesty, the queen where i will tend to my register -- resignation. i invite teresa may to form a new government. the new prime minister will be a woman and once again a conservative. i believe to -- she will provide strong and stable leadership in fulfilling the conservative manifesto on which we were elected and i wish her well in negotiating the best possible terms for britain's exit from the european union. let me finish by saying this. the spirit of service is one of this country's most remarkable qualities. i have seen that service day in, day out and -- and the incredible work of our armed forces, intelligence agencies, and police. it is something i always knew but as premised are you see it so direct the that it blows you away. and of course, writing those heartbreaking letters to the families who have lost loved ones is a poignant reminder of

the profound scale of what these men and women give for us in the defense of our freedoms and our way of life. we must never forget that. in a different way i have seen the same spiritual service in the amazing contributions of countless volunteers and communities of and down the country. who are making our society bigger and stronger. i am proud that every day for the past two years i have asked -- used the office in a nonpolitical way to recognize and thank almost 600 of them as points of light whose service can be an inspiration to us all. for me politics has always been about public service in the national interest. it is simple to say but often hard to do but one of the things that sustains you in this job is the sense that our politics are full of argument and debate and it can get quite heated, but no matter how difficult the decisions are, there is a great sense of british fairplay, a quiet but prevailing sense that most

people wish there prime minister well i want them to stick at it and get on with the job. i want to take this moment to say thank you to all those who have written letters and e-mails offering me that support. people who i will never get to meet and never get to thank personally. it has been the greatest honor of my life to serve our country is prime minister over these last six years. and to serve as leader of my party almost 11 years. as we leave for the last time, my only wish is continued success for this great country that i love so very much. thank you.

>> teresa may delivered her first remarks after receiving her appointed to the position by queen elizabeth ii. the conservative party member said she looks forward to working with her colleagues as the nation prepares to exit the european union. she is the u.k.'s second female prime minister.

>> i have just been to bucking ham pal lan where the queen asked me to form a new government and i have accepted. i follow in the footsteps of a great modern prime minister. from the introduction of same sex marriage to taking people

on low wages out of income tax altogether, david cameron has led a one-nation government and it is in that spirit that i also plan to lead. because not everybody knows it but the full title of my party is the conservative and unionist party. and that word unionist is very important to me. it means we believe in the union. the precious, precious bond tween england, scotland, wales, and northern ireland. but it means something else just as important. it means we believe in a union not just between the nations of the united kingdom but all of our citizens. everyone of us, whoever we are and wherever we're from. that means fighting against the burning injustice that if you are born poor you will die on

average nine years earlier than others. if you are black you are treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you are white. if you are a white working class boy you are less likely than anybody else in britain to go to university. if you are to state school you are less likely to reach the top professions than if you are ed kated privately. if you are a woman you will earn less than a man. if you suffer from mental health problems there is not enough problem to hand. if you are young you will find it as part -- harder than ever before to earn your own home. but the mission to make britain a country that works for everyone means more than fighting these injustices. if you are from an ordinary working class family life is in harder than many people west mince ster realize. you have a job but you don't always have job security. you have your own home but you wory about making your

mortgage. you just about manage but you worry about getting your kids into a good school. if you are one of those families, i want to address you directly. e now you are working around the clock. i know you are doing your best. and i know that sometimes life can be a struggle. the government i lead will be driven not by the interests of the privileged few but by you. we will do everything we can to give you more control over your lives. when we take the big call we will think not of powerful but you. the e pass new laws to mighty but you. when it comes to taxes we will prioritize not the wealthy but you. e won't entrench the fortunate few. we will do whatever we can to help everybody whaverbr whatever your background to go as far as your talents will

take you. we are in an important moment. following the referendum we face a time of great national change. and i know because we are great britain that we will rise to the challenge as we leave the european union we will forge a bold new positive role for ourselves in the world and we will make braten a country that works not for a forgive f privileged few but for every one of us. that will be the mission of the government i lead and together we will build a better britain.

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>> the virus.zika

florida senator marco rubio chairs this senate foreign relations subcommittee hearing. >> thank you. good afternoon. book come to order -- this hearing will come to order. the title of this hearing is the westernthe hemisphere, risks and responses. dr. tom frieden, center for disease control and prevention and maureen cope. she is the acting deputy assistant administrator. we thank you all for being here today.

we apologize for starting late. the senate gods decided to schedule a vote right at the time we were supposed to begin. but we appreciate your time and your dedication. i also would like to thank all of those who worked alongside my staff to make this hearing possible. today we face an issue that's already affecting many countries in our hemisphere, including our own. it's not partisan in nature. the growing threat of the zika virus is a full-blown public health crisis in the united states, it is a clear call to action. just look at the statistics. as of july, 65 countries and territories have reported evidence of zika transmission. what's more troubling is four countries are classified as having possible endemic transmission or local vector zika infections in 2016. as much as zika remains a threat on the international stage, it poses a real and timely threat to our country. that means in these countries the disease that has already spread rapidly and made its way into the population. we're seeing this as well in the island of puerto rico and puerto

ricans, as you all are well aware, are american stitcitizens -- are american citizens and puerto rico is an american territory. according to the statistics from the world health organization, the united states is one of 11 countries with evidence of person-to-person transmission of the zika virus. that means our neighbors, our friends, our families are already at risk even without mosquito-born transmission. though that is likely coming as well. as the threat of the virus continues to grow here, i will continue to state the importance of moving quickly in response. i strongly believe that inaction on zika is simply inexcusable and i am optimistic after the facts in the hearing from the experts today, it will reinforce this fact and the fact that something needs to happen quickly. it's taken far too long already. the effects of the zika virus are alarming to say the least. pregnant women, or women who have become pregnant and have contracted the virus and are at risk for having babies with microcephaly. that is a birth defect that causes severe neurological

abnormalities, which can include a small and deformed head. it has an impact on the baby's neurological system and quality of life. those born with microcephaly may experience seizures, hearing and vision loss as well as a number of other horrific symptoms. it is our responsibility to the american people to take action when public health is in jeopardy. although the mainland of the united states might not be word about zika right now, there are 1,133 cases and they were found in 45 out of 50 states. just last week the cdc reported that they are currently monitoring in the united states 320 cases of zika and pregnant women. the cdc director, who joins us here today, called zika a silent epidemic. as of now, many predicted what would happen during the summer if the spread of the virus accelerate. the friday before last, federal health officials confirmed the largest number of new cases in the state of florida with ten new cases. that was a short-lived record.

it was broken last weekend when florida confirmed 11 new zika infections. that time, in six counties, including lake county florida, which had never had a case before. that record was broken again on monday of this week, when 13 new infections were reported. so, you get the idea. the problem is not -- is only going to continue to accelerate. this is not the first time i have spoken on the growing threat of zika. in late january of this year, as i was somewhere outside of florida, i saw a headline in the "new york times" that stopped me in my tracks. it said "report of zika-linked birth defects rise in brazil." health authorities in brazil said wednesday reported cases of conditionly, a rare in which infants are born with heads, had small ahead climbed 7% from the previous tally last week. and it stopped me in my tracks for a number of reasons.

first was the staggering number and the breakneck speed with which the disease was spreading over just the course of a week. it also made me pause because for those of us who live in south florida and travel through miami international airport, we know very well that what happens in brazil impacts us in the united states, especially in florida. a couple of days after that, i reached out to the u.s. customs and border protection to express my concerns and asked what they were doing or could do about this. given miami international airport's standing as the gateway to the americas, with more flights going to and from brazil than any other state. i called for action from my colleagues, urged support for fully funding the president's request for dealing with this virus. i have supported every single zika proposal that has come before the senate, every single one. but nothing has gotten done. the problem is only getting worse. it is our duty to act now wh while we can still get ahead of this disease and before it is to

o late. i believe we have a constitutional responsibility and moral obligation to confront the zika virus. it's my hope that today's hearing will further call attention to the seriousness of the situation and what more we can do in the western hemisphere to help fight it. this challenge we face is emblematic with how connected we are with our neighbors. these global health crises do not respect international borders. the negative impacts of these problems from the economy to political instability can easily impact us here at home. the links between our country, especially florida and other nations of the western hemisphere, are obvious. i already covered brazil. but for example, the first baby born in florida with zika-related microcephaly was a mother who came from haiti. last month, 1000 pregnant women in columbia were reported to have contracted zika. it's already a u.s. health emergency. it's only growing by the day. and the links between our nations make this a hemispheric public health crisis. once again, american ingenuity and innovation in medical

sciences must lead the way if we hope to save lives, including countless unborn children. we must begin to meet the zika virus with a sense of urgency we not seen up until now. listen to the experts around. it's time to enact serious solutions. i am proud to stand as an advocate for any legislation that would provide funding to combat zika as soon as possible. we cannot rest until we've taken action to ensure the safety and health of the american public. thank you. with that, i recognize our ranking member, senator boxer. >> thank you so much, mr. chairman, for this hearing. thank you to our witnesses, our guests. few issues pose as immediate a threat to the health of americans as the zika virus. the virus has caused severe birth defects in thousands of newborns. these defects include brain damage, blindness, it is devastating to mothers, two families, to communities. in some cases, we have seen the premature death of children.

rareika virus has caused a disorder in adults and which the body attacks its own nervous system, causing paralysis. also linkedus is with another autoimmune disorder that resembles multiple sclerosis, which causes a swelling in the brain and spinal cord. we only have to listen to public health experts to get a clear sense of the virus' danger. the world health organization has said that the zika virus is, "spreading explosively" in the and threatens to overwhelm almost every country in the western hemisphere. the center for disease control and prevention said the disease is "scarier than we originally thought." hereika virus is already in the continental united states. over 1,000 people have already contracted the disease either through travel or sexual conduct.

as the disease travels northward from latin america and the caribbean's, up to 30 states are in danger of local outbreaks from mosquitoes carrying the virus. 30 states. this includes california and the chairman's home state of florida. we need to act now. it is a real threat and it is dangerous. here is the great news. the great news is the senate has bipartisan legislation, which is what you have when you have an outbreak like this. it provided the administration with less than what they wanted, but nonetheless, $1.1 billion. when the president requested $1.9 billion, the senators negotiated and the best they could come up with was $1.1 billion, but the compromise would have gone a long way

without having poison pills and ridiculous riders that could endanger the american people included in the legislation. what happened to that wonderful bill that my chairman voted for, that we all voted for? it disappeared down the black hole of partisanship. the republicans in the house had a conference and they did not allow any democrats into that conference. not senator mcculskey, a woman who we revere around here on both sides. not senator murray, who has worked across the aisle on so many issues. no, they left them out. and you know what they came out with? a bill that actually restricts funding for birth control in the united states and in puerto rico. even though they know, they k now, that zika can be

transmitted sexually and birth control should not be controversial and it is part of the first line of defense. there's no room for politics in this. listen, the report also overrides the clean water act. and i know about this because i am the ranking member on the environment and public works committee. that was passed by republicans and democrats, it overrides it. it allows the uncontrolled pesticide spraying. that is near water supplies that we drink out of and our children swim in. pesticides that could poison our people. now, you may say, this is an emergence the. shouldn't we be able to spray. under the clean water act, you can't. -- under the clean water act, you can.

you don't even need to get a permit. the clean water act understands this. it says during an emergency, you don't need to get a permit, go ahead and spray. spray the amount necessary off the approved list and just notify the epa. just notify the epa. but you don't have to get approval. that was not good enough for my friends over there. i completely took away that section of the clean water act. that means there's no more right to know if somebody goes next to your house and sprays some horrible pesticide that causes cancer that is not on the approved list. you have no way of knowing that has happened. and the clean water act is smart. once the emergency is over, they sit down with local agencies and they figure out a way to maintain it. so, here we have a circumstance where the house republicans, without any consultation from anybody, completely of a

serrated the clean water act. so, you might not get the zika, but your kid could get cancer by swimming and water that is latent with pesticides. you can't just say, i am speaking for myself. you can say, i am not going to vote for any bill. because what if the bill does as much harm as it does good? we're legislators. we have to be careful what we do, what we vote for. so, they took out the possibility for nonprofits to do birth control, which is the defensenuteline of against the zika. they completely eviscerated the clean water act, which makes it dangerous for our people. they even put something in there about the confederate flag, which my colleague, senator cain understands -- was explaining to me. he can do a better join job of explaining it, but essentially,

it overrode another bill where we said you can't fly the flag at veteran cemeteries. they did away with it. in the zika bill. so, it's discouraging. and i call on all of us who voted for that bipartisan bill, and it is all of us here as far as i know, bring back that bill. keep out the bad stuff. it is that enough they cut funding for ebola. that is horrible. but these things are added, if thewill, insults to american people, thinking we are doing something good when we are doing some bad things as well. i just wanted to say quickly in closing, i am so disgusted with the situation, as we all are, everyone of us. we don't know how we got here, we just got here. so, i am hoping we can do something different in the future, mr. chairman. and i have written legislation

that would create a $3 billion publi public emergency health fund, kind of like fema. hhsould allow the cdc and to use those funds to address global health threats. and it would allow them to go in. they would notify congress. we could overrule them if we didn't like it. but we wouldn't put politics in the middle of this thing. i am, you can see, a little worked up. and i apologize. maybe i'm a little too worked up. but i share my friend, the chairman's view on the zika thing. we are sitting on this and we have to get off sitting on it and do something about it. thank you. >> thank you, senator boxer. we'll begin with our testimony with miss garber, secretary garber. >> thank you, chairman rubio, ranking member boxer and members of the subcommittee. we really appreciate the inortunity to testify today

the state department's response to the zika outbreak. with regard to the current situation, 40 countries and territories in the western hemisphere are experiencing active mosquito-born transmission of the zika virus. several countries and territories in africa and asia are also experiencing outbreaks for the first time. since this epidemic began, science and medical experts, my colleague, dr. frieden foremost amongst them, have discovered the truly heartwrenching impacts that this virus can have on its victims and particularly on developing fetuses. as you mentioned, mr. chairman, this is a silent outbreak. we do not see hospitals full of ill patients, hear ambulance sirens across the street. across the hemisphere, pregnant women and their partners are living in fear. fear that their child may be born with severe developmental defects. in addition to the tremendous emotional and health toll on families, the demographic and economic consequences are still emerging.

the cost of lifetime support for children affected, as well as adults experiencing guillen-barre syndrome or other effects could tax national health systems. areas with high poverty levels and dense population are most vulnerable, but least able to manage the consequences. the u.s. government is committed to helping prevent, detect and respond to the zika virus, both at home and abroad. countries around the world look to the united states as a leader in global health security and we are working with countries in the americas and beyond to provide support. many countries in the region have governments and a strong public health systems capable of mounting a response to the zika virus. countries such as brazil, panama and colombia, host respected research institutions which with we're partnering to develop counter measures. panama health organization and the organization of american states, the u.s. government and

our neighbors are leveraging our collective expertise to share best practices and identify innovative tools for vector control and disease diagnosis. in countries such as haiti, el salvador, guatemala, honduras, we are responding to the zika virus threat. our embassies are working closely with these governments and the world health organization to find gaps and priority. you was voluntary contributions and other support to our original and multilateral partners enable us to amplify the impact of our efforts. in addition, private/public sector partners can help respond in areas where the u.s. government has limited access or resources. and today, at the state department, we hosted an excellent private/public partnership event on just this topic. the state department is committed to protecting the

safety and security of all u.s. citizens. it also means working with other governments to attack the zika virus outbreak at its source, by cooperating with our countries on response and planning, we help build a stronger global response to protect u.s. citizens and the international community while contributing to international stability. if we can control an infectious outbreak quickly, either at home or abroad, we help to limit its impact on u.s. citizens. we're working with other governments to increase to cut off the transmission cycle, pushing out across multiple platforms, information needed for our citizens and nationals to make informed travel decisions and help to protect them from contracting zika while overseas on the basis of cdc guidance. this is particularly true in the case of the olympics in brazil, where we expect over 100,000 u.s. citizens to attend. brazil is working very hard to protect the health and safety of all athletes and spectators attending the olympics and

paralympics, including through its own public awareness campaigns and vector control efforts. zika, like ebola before it, has highlighted how connected we are as a global community. we have a window of opportunity to address these urgent needs now before we are put at further risk by working with our international partners and reaffirming leadership in the region. as secretary kerry said at the global health security agenda summit in 2014, in an interconnected world, we invest in global health, not simply as a matter of charity or as a matter of moral responsibility, but we do it as a matter of national security. thank you for your consideration. and i welcome the opportunity to answer any questions you may have. >> thank you. dr. frieden? >> thank you very much, chairman rubio, ranking member boxer, members of the committee. with your permission, i'll submit a written statement for the record. the cdc works 24/7 to protect americans from threats. we use the best of modern silenc science.

zika is both unprecedented and tragic. never before have we known of a situation when a single mosquito bite could result in a devastating birth defect. the top priority in the response is to protect pregnant women. we are literally learning more about the zika virus everyday. and in the six months of our response, we've learned and done a number of things to protect americans better. we wish we had a more rapid and robust support for funding to do even more. i will go through those 10 things very quickly. first, the zika response is extraordinarily complex. we have almost every center at c dc involved, more than 1,000 of our top scientists. this involves our birth defect center, vector control work, our laboratory work, obstetrical work, information on sexual transmission, mosquito control, viralogy, laboratory production to identify the best methods in each community to

protect pregnant women. second, it is now definitive that zika causes both microcephaly and other severe birth defects and does so whether or not the pregnant affected woman had symptoms during the pregnancy. literally within days of seeing the first zika virus within the range of infants who died from the zika infection and to provide guidance and education to providers and women of child-bearing age and their partners. with additional resources we would be able to better understand the mechanisms of that harm and full range of that harm. we don't know what happens to infants born with normal-sized heads to mothers who were infected with the zika virus. we need to begin those studies now. third, as mentioned, asymptomatic illness can cause birth defects. that's why we have very detailed guidance for what doctors should do for testing of pregnant women who may have been exposed.

fourth, zika almost certainly causes the guillen-barre syndrome. we'll know more soon. variety of infections caused beyond guillen-barre syndrome, it would not be surprised for zika to be associated with that. the really new thing about zika is the connection to birth defects. as a result with the other parts of the department of health and human services, we're planning for an increase in the number of cases in puerto rico and possibly elsewhere. fifth, we recognize that diagnosing zika is hard, that we have made lots of progress. cdc laboratory experts have created tests being used in more than 100 laboratories around the united states and nearly 100 countries around the world. we've produced nearly 1 million test kit materials for testing. and we have identified more about how to do that more accurately. however, testing is difficult. viral loads tend to be low in serum. and we've learned that more is needed to do a better job testing.

there's currently no test that can determine whether someone hash zika infection months or years before. we need to accelerate work on that basic question. fifth -- sorry, sixth, vector control is even harder. the mosquito that causes zika is difficult to stop. we see that in puerto rico, the mosquitos are resistant to just about all of the common insecticides used. it's critically important that we strengthen mosquito monitoring and control in the u.s., in territories and learn more about how to do a better job stopping mosquitos from spreading. this is something which additional resources would be very helpful in. seventh, there are other routes of transmission. it's also the first time we've identified a mosquito-born disease that can also be sexually transmitted and that has implications for the sexual partners of women who are pregnant. so, we've had additional guidance there. it's also clear that it can potentially be spread through blood. we've worked carefully with the fda, with the blood banks of the

u.s. to ensure that the blood supply is safe in this country. eighth, puerto rico is being singled out by the mosquito. today in puerto rico, dozens and potentially as many as 50 additional pregnant women will become infected with the zika virus. puerto rico has been dealt a difficult hand because of its environment and it's critical that we do everything we can to protect pregnant women there now. ninth, urbanization is driving the spread of zika as well as yellow fever and other diseases. it's the latest in a series of unpredicted and unpredictable health threats. what is predictable is that we will have new health threats and we need a way to respond rapidly and robustly, to identify problems where they first emerge and stop them when they first come out. 10th, we have seen a remarkable capacity within the cdc for innovation. we have new laboratory tests and

mass mosquito control methods. everyday, we are discovering better ways to protect, detect and respond to zekea committed to ensuring that the american people have the most accurate, up-to-date information and i look forward to answering your questions. >> thank you, dr. frieden. miss koch? >> thank you, chairman rubio. chairman boxer, and distinguished manner of the members of the subcommittee. i want to thank you for your continued leadership and commitment to this issue. i will submit a written statement for the record. today i would like to briefly describe usaid's work with the regional international partners to address zika. our aim is to minimize the negative pregnancy outcomes associated with zika infection. our efforts are focused on countries at risk for adverse outcomes from zika that have relatively weaker government capacity to respond to zika and where we expect that governments will want support from the united states. our top tier priorities include haiti, guatemala, el salvado, honduras and the dominican republic. our strategy has four different

interconnected lines of effort. vector control, social and behavior change, service delivery, child care and family planning and innovation. in vector control, our activities aim to improve and expand vector efforts in zika affected or increased risk countries to reduce mosquito populations. we will implement houseful and control, helping those at risk to learn to eliminate sources of standing water, in which the mosquitos breed, scrub containers of mosquito eggs and apply larvaecide to sources that cannot be easily eliminated. prevention and management of the disease and are of critical importance, give people the tools and knowledge to adopt personal protective behaviors, including the use of repellants, long sleeve clothing, condoms and seek care with community response.

our service delivery approach begins before a woman becomes pregnant to ensure that women in zika-infected areas who may wish to delay or eliminate future pregnancies can access family planning services. for women who are currently pregnant, providers must be trained to counsel them and their partners through condom use. once a woman becomes pregnant, or has a baby in a zika affected area, usaid is committed to ensure she receives cost effective, quality health services with the emphasis on pregnant women and infants with suspected congenital zika syndrome. we are improving our ability to detect and respond to these feature infectious disease outbreaks. while we are utilizing all the tools in you are tool box to mitigate the impact and spread of zika virus, many of those tools have limitations. ad had a new challenge

combating zika threats. we believe we have some very exciting options. we expect to begin making awards by the end of this month or in early august. so far, in our programming efforts, we've completed a new interagency agreement with cdc and transferred $78 million to enable them on critical surveillance and research activities and we have obligated $18 million to partners to work primarily in service delivery and behavior change areas. we are also working with unicef in the region and with the world health organization in geneva to address growing needs on a global level. as well as outside of the western hemisphere. by the end of this month we expect to begin vector control activities. and in august and september, community engagement activities will be rolled out. we have designed our efforts to ensure they solidify the legacy usaid's 50-year history with health assistance gains in the region.

usaid is committed and strengthen capacities to ensure that this threat will be mitigated as much as possible. thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. i'm happy to answer any questions. >> i want to begin with secretary garber. brazil's new health minister said there's an almost zero risk of athletes or spectators contracting zika during the olympics. is the threat in brazil truly almost zero? and what advice do you feel -- let me ask this. should our athletes or spectators feel fully safe in traveling to brazil for the olympics, given what we know about the situation there? >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. we are putting out the guidance based on the cdc guidance and pushing that out through all available platforms to make sure that travelers and the over 100,000 americans that are planning on attending the olympics can make informed decisions. we know that the government of brazil is working very hard to address this outbreak through its own very aggressive public information campaigns and vector control efforts, including

through many in the army, hundreds of thousands as well as public health officials to work on vector control. but i would defer to dr. frieden specifically on the assessment of the risk. >> dr. frieden, the chance of contracting zika in brazil almost zero for athletes and spectators? >> we recommend for any travel , that pregnant women not go to areas where zika may be spreading. we would recommend for the olympics, as we would for any other travel, that pregnant women not travel. for others, reasonable steps can be taken to protect yourself. historical data does suggest that viruses spread by this mosquito are less common in the period of the olympics. but we think the key issue is not why people travel, but who is traveling. the key message to get out there is that pregnant women shouldn't be traveling to areas where zika is spreading. if they're present in those areas, should take steps to protect themselves. >> let me ask it another way. should athletes or spectators traveling to brazil at least think about it before they go, given what we know how rapidly it has spread there?

>> all travel involves risk, maybe from a motor vehicle crash , maybe from infectious diarrhea, maybe from dengue or other diseases. we don't think the risks outweigh the benefits of travel , except for the group of pregnant women. that is why after identifying zika in the brains of infants, we recommended pregnant women not travel to zika-affected areas. also for men who have sexual partners to use condoms when they come back from zika-affected areas. >> what is a reasonable timetable to expect a vaccine? >> we are told by the national institute of health that they hoped to be in clinical trials in september. that would mean that in the next couple of years we could have an approved a vaccine that is both safe and effective, but only time will tell whether that happens. it is very promising. the immune response to zika is robust. so, it is certainly

theoretically quite possible, but these things take time. >> you touched upon it in your statement earlier. a lot of the focus on zika, rightfully so, has been on the impact it has on microcephaly. but let me ask you, i know there is a study ongoing with the colombian government to study the link between zika and guillen-barre. is there anything you can share with us on your pool of an area findings? i saw in your statement you said you most certainly believe that will prove there is a direct link. >> we have seen several studies published. we have work from brazil. we expect by the end of the summer to finalize that work. i expect that that link will be proven, given the patterns. we don't yet have two really strong independent studies determining it. that takes some time. we've had excellent collaboration, both in brazil and especially in colombia, where we're really working side by side with long-term collaborators there. >> just to be clear, anyone who might be watching this now or later would understand, the guillen-barre link is on everyone, anyone infected by zika runs that risk beyond what we're talking about now with

pregnancy, correct? >> that is correct. it tends to increase with age , but anyone can be affected. canan cause paralysis that be severe. it is usually temporary and can last from weeks to months. this phenomenon has prompted usaid to graduate many countries from global health programs. some groups have come to us that are concerned that haiti, countries in the caribbean and northern triangle of central america may be unequipped to handle zika cases, as well as possible complications. what support, if any, are you planning to provide these countries? >> thank you very much for that question, senator. we do very much, as usaid has a long history of supporting countries in the region. we did graduate our assistants from many countries. that was following a very deliberate effort, working very closely with the governments and local partners to move away.

as you noted, it was partly because of the progress that had been made in many of those countries and the capacity had been developed. haiti is still a country where we have a robust health program in all areas. and so we believe haiti needs additional support. but as part of our program, they've already been able to move some of the resources they have with the usaid program to get a little bit ahead and start to respond to zika. similarly, one of the things we are doing in central america, which is where we have a number of priority areas, is identifying where some of those completelyzika was undetected. and it does present a threat as being discussed here today. where we can fill those gaps and provide support as needed. >> any countries that have graduated from the programs, been graduated in their levels that nonetheless have appeared to need additional support as a result of zika? >> some of the countries we prioritized, including honduras and el salvador and the dominican republic, are

countries we have graduated assistants from. those are countries we believe need additional targeted support. >> senator boxer? >> thank you, mr. chairman. earlier this year, el salvador issued a nationwide call for women to avoid pregnancy for two full years. now, one can debate how real t hat could be, given what we know. but setting that side, other governments in latin america also called on women, not on men, on women to avoid pregnancy. in other words, they didn't tell the men that they should work with the women. very typical. other governments in latin america and the caribbean issued similar directives, including colombia, ecuador and jamaica. so, those countries said, "w omen, do not get pregnant for

two years." my question to any of you on the panel, who is most expert on this, is, do you believe these countries have the health infrastructure to give women in these countries who have been told not to get pregnant for two years access to free contraception? >> thank you very much, senator boxer. it's an excellent question and one we very much share the concerns you raised in asking this question. we are very committed to ensuring that women do have access to all the information, support and access to services. there certainly are gaps. and i think very much part of -- >> that's not my question. >> yes? >> i asked you -- forget us. do those countries who have told their women not to get pregnant for two years have the infrastructure to get free contraception to these women of child-bearing age? forget us. i'm asking you. they're the ones in charge of

their own countries. they're the ones who issued this directive to their women. do they have the infrastructure? >> i think it's a mix. part of our graduation strategies in many of these countries is to make sure there was a strong family planning program in place. >> do all these countries have the ability to get free birth control to women of child-bearing age? do they have the ability to do that? >> in most cases, they are. >> they have it? >> they have. but the issue of making sure that you're not telling women that you must use family planning or, as you put it, putting the ownness on the women -- >> i'm not asking about that. i'm asking you if they have the infrastructure and the ability to get contraception to the women that they have told that they shouldn't get pregnant for two years, or do they need our help getting that birth control to them? >> we believe the issues are mostly around supply -- the delivery. and that's where they do need some help.

they don't need help on supply -- on buying the contraceptives themselves. >>, so they have the contraceptives? >> they have the contraceptives , but delivering and making sure that the most at need and marginalize have it. >> how are they doing it, the ones you say are due to good job? how are they getting this contraception? >> if i could provide two examples, senator boxer. and that i will refer back to maureen, if possible. it does provide universal access to birth control. there is a delivery system in place to allow for that. and i was just in el salvador last week and did meet with the minister of health there and talked a little bit with maureen's colleagues from usaid about how to prioritize the assistance we're going to be giving them. one of the things that the minister of health emphasized tremendously was trying to be able to get out access to --

>> so, what is the assistance we're going to give those countries who have told their women not to get pregnant for two years? what are we doing to provide them with free birth control? >> we're doing a couple of things. one is to make sure that the supplies that are in place are actually getting to the people that need them and that there is full access and that information is available to the women so they can make the choices themselves. there is some policy work also to make sure the statements that you described are -- it's not necessarily going to help give access. and that's one of the concerns we have. >> okay. so, how many cases are there in el salvador? >> we would have to get back to you with the exact number. >> would you do that? >> we know it is only a small number of the total cases that have been diagnosed. >> good. what about colombia, ecuador and jamaica? do you have those stats? >> offhand, no, but reported numbers in most countries are a small fraction of the total cases, since 80% of people have

no symptoms at all and testing is not widely available. >> how many babies have been born with anomalies in those countries? do you have that data? >> in brazil, where the epidemic started, you've had the largest number of pregnant women with infections in the first trimester, which appears to be the highest period to come to term. we have seen between hundreds and thousands of babies with microcephaly. those are still under investigation, in terms of confirmation of the diagnosis. we have an investigation collaboratively with columbia. we're following a group or cohort of women who appear to have had zika infection and over the coming months, we will be able to determine with more certainty what the prognosis is. >> could you get back to me on the numbers of those countries where the countries have stated -- they've given this directive to the women and girls not to get pregnant for two years,

those countries i mentioned. how many cases of anomalies they've had? and i was telling the chairman i heard a report on one of the radio news shows that -- and i just don't know if this is anything you're involved in, or we're involved in. that for the young men and women who are going to brazil, that they're going to be tracked afterward and followed to see what happens with their health. do you know anything about that? w>> we have a memorandum of understanding with the u.s. olympic committee, providing technical assistance, our outreach. they're also working with a university in the u.s. to do a study voluntarily for athletes and members of the olympics and paralympics who want to know before and after whether they might have been affected. that might have been what that was referring to. >> okay. well, let me just say, if we

know this is dangerous, so dangerous that we are asking for these people to volunteer, we better talk to these people, one by one by one by one by one and let them know how serious this is. i feel very strongly about that. i don't want our people being used as guinea pigs. come home and we'll see if you have this or not. if you have any babies with microcephaly. that is not right. i would close my frustrating comments here today by saying that we can't have one hand tied behind our back by saying, as the house said in a completely partisan way, none of this money could be used for nongovernmental entities to help provide birth control, which is so critical. and it is wrong. a country thinks they solved the problem when they just tell the women in the country not to become pregnant. there's something wrong about that on so many levels. i hope we'll let them know.

lastly, for our young people who are going to brazil, where there are all these problems -- and i understand they are spraying and doing everything and i am very glad about that. there's a whole other issue whether it's even morally responsible to have the olympics. that's not our job to discuss. but it's happening. and we're now going to track our people voluntarily to see whether they get this disease and -- there's something amiss. and i would just encourage us to reach out to these athletes, very clearly. if the risk is so great that you're going to spend money following them, maybe they ought to know it. >> just before i turn it over to senator isaacson, are we providing our olympic athletes a basic kit of repellant and whatever they need to take with them in order to prevent, the contraceptives, whatever it is? what are we providing them?

and are we working with the olympic committee to do so? >> yes, we're working with the olympics committee to provide information and materials for the athletes, for each of the different sports that are participating, each of the different associations. >> okay. >> senator isaacson? >> thank you, senator rubio. and thanks to you and senator boxer for calling this very important hearing. i want to issue an invitation for the four members who are here. in recent weeks i've had the chance, with dr. frieden's courtesy, to host two members of the cdc in atlanta. i would encourage you to spend an afternoon and i'll spend it with you, to see the research that's done and the reach that cdc has, particularly with regard to zika. and i want to underline, cdc is referred to as the center for disease control. but it is a five word title, not a three word title. it's the center for disease control and prevention. we are at a critical point on zika where prevention needs to be where we are focusing on because controlling it does not help you when these numbers start to multiply. the urgency of this matter is this. are 1,133 6, there

zika cases in the continental united states of america and 320 are pregnant women as of june 30. is that about correct, dr. frieden? in u.s. territories, 2,534 cases and 279 are pregnant women. this is a crisis of major proportion. and time is of the essence. i've made two or three speeches on the floor talking about the need for us to pass this. it will be professional malpractice on our part if we leave here for seven weeks and have not dealt with this because dr. frieden and center for disease control and prevention need the funds now to prevent what could be a major worldwide crisis in terms of the zika pregnancy. as a georgian, just as an anecdotal piece of evidence, an employee of mine attended the briefing that dr. frieden took us through a few months ago. his wife was in an early pregnancy. after the briefing, he moved his wife to colorado where mosquitos don't exist, just to be sure she's in a safer environment than georgia during the term of her pregnancy. the two mosquitos that carry the zika virus are both indigenous

to georgia. this is something that is priority one, as far as i am concerned. i think it is critical that we get it done now. i walked my dear friend, senator boxer, whose passion i have seen illustrated on thousands of issues as we work together as co-chairs of the ethics committee. but when you came in, you mentioned the confederate flag. as chairman of the veterans committee, i saw to it that the senate took out the house provisions and there is nothing in the conference report at all that deals with the confederate flag. i see tim nodding his head. i can tell you, i have the jurisdiction. i took care of that. >> okay because i was just informed it's in there. so, let's go look. >> as chairman, i'm telling you, if it is in there, somebody went over my head. i'm the one that made sure the senate provision prevailed, which was no provision at all. [inaudible] >> the zika bill we're talking about. it is not in there.

>> i'll double-check. >> i appreciate it. >> i just looked at that time today. >> this is about prevention. we can have our differences on a lot of things. we need to do everything we can to get the resources in the hands to prevent infection. they demonstrated with ebola -- the thing about ebola that they get so much credit for, and should. people developed ebola and got out there and treated people with ebola the the number of deaths was minimumized, although significant. the reach of cdc around the world to teach people best practices stopped the epidemic in about 13 to 16 weeks, if i'm not mistaken. that's what we want to see with zika. we don't want to just deal with those who have it, but we want to deal with those who don't have it and make sure they do not get it. this funding is absolutely critical to see to it that that happens. senator rubio calling this hearing today and focusing o the need to do it is important. i hope we can ratify the congress report and thanks to all of you in health care to help protect the pregnant moms in america and the citizens in my state against what is a real

threat. and the problem is, it is a delayed reaction. you find out today they're pregnant. nine months from now, you find out if there's a problem. nine months from now is too late. we need to prevent every terminal pregnancy we can today and that is why i want to focus on they need to pass this as quickly as possible in the united states senate. i yield back. that wasn't a question. that was a speech, and i apologize. [laughter] >> it was a good >> senator one. cain? thank you, mr. chair. i'm going to do some speeches and some questions. you know, this is such a serious problem, but this is also an illustration why people hate congress. they hate congress. and this is nothing bad on my senate colleagues. we had some differences of opinion about this zika, how to deal with it. and so, we voted on three different zika provisions. there was a democratic provision to zika that didn't get enough votes. there was a republican provision about how to deal with zika that didn't get enough votes and then

, there was a bipartisan provision on how to deal with zika that did get enough votes. there were probably some things in it that once i did not like and some other things the others side did not like, but we got 68 votes. it was a clean bill. it was a bill about one thing, fighting zika. that's what it was about. when it comes back to us, the bill is not about fighting zika. frankly, it's about fighting planned parenthood. and paying for it by taking money out of the affordable care act. so, we've got this massive public health challenge and the american public is worried about it and we're supposed to fight zika. that's what the senate did. we fought zika. but the bill comes back to us planneds "let's fight parenthood." that's more important than fighting zekea. "let's take money out of the affordable care act."

that's more important than fighting zika. this is why people hate congress. this is why people hate washington. no slight on us. i think we actually reached the right compromise, but then the fighting zika bill becomes the fight planned parenthood bill or fight the affordable care act bill. and it is my hope that we will get this thing straightened out. i know everybody here on this desk wants to. and i would second the point that senator boxer made in her comments. the right way to do this probably down the road is budgetarily to treat infectious diseases like we treat fema. we have a funding mechanism for fema. we don't know where a hurricane will hit. we don't know where there will be a forest fire, where there will be a flood, but we do know from experience that there will be these items. and so, we budget for them and then we deal with them. we don't do that with respect to infectious diseases and then that gives people the ability to play games and hold people hostage to try to ride their pet hobby horse, instead of doing the thing we're supposed to do. couple of questions. i'm curious on the transmission. if people -- since you can be infected and asymptomatic, if

you come back into the united states and you have been in an area where there's a lot of zika, with respect to sexual transmission, you're telling males for example, to use condoms. how long are you doing this? is it four months? is it for weeks? what's the advice you're giving people, when they return from zika-infected areas? >> our current advice based on the best available information, which we continue to accrue every day, is that for men whose partners are pregnant, use a condom for the duration of pregnancy. we don't know how long that man may remain infectious. those studies are under way but they will take six to 12 months to finalize. >> what advice are you giving, if any, to men whose partners are not pregnant? >> for couples who are trying to conceive, our current advice is, if they have no symptoms of zika infection, they should wait at least two months after leaving a zika area. if they did have symptoms, because they might have more virus with that, then it would be six months. >> here is another type of

transmission i was not aware of until recently. if you come back to the united states and you have been eaten by a mosquito there, your blood could have zika infection so if you are bit in the united states that could be a blood transmission to mosquitoes here. what advice are you giving people about avoiding mosquito bites in the united states after they return? avoidencourage people to mosquito bites by using deet. that you outline is exactly the scenario that we think is most likely to spread zika in the u.s. where diseases -- dengue have seen the other is transmission and blood transfusion transmission

is possible if the blood is not screened, which it currently is being screened. more than likely the way it would spread in this country is the way that it spreads around the world which is primarily by mosquito bites. >> when someone returns from an area with a heavy zika challenge, how long are you suggesting is important for that person to avoid getting bitten in the united states? >> three weeks. i what to ask you about the vector control. vaccine is going to take some time to develop. a numberrstand it is of different kinds of solutions. it is spraying and figuring out how to do spraying. i understand there are proposals for different mosquitoes that will not reproduce. talk about the range of vector control solutions that you're

looking at. about reducing the density of mosquitoes that would be carrying this. cockroach of mosquitoes. they live indoors and outdoors. develop existence to insecticides. the control measures i would put into two large categories, one is proven, safe and effective methods but they have not been put together in a way that is effective to stop the mosquito and we need to figure out how to use existing tools better and new tools like experimental things were you release sterile males to crash the population. we are to try the different methods out there and see how rapidly and quickly we can reproduce the mosquito in an integrated vector management approach where you reduce

andding water, larva pesticides to kill the adult mosquitoes on a longer time frame like the vaccine or longer than that are the new tools. we need new ways to control mosquito populations that we have to move forward rapidly. >> one last question. on both of these, developing the vaccine takes a tremendous investment but the vector control solutions both to research and determine what our best and to deploy them broadly. that takes a significant investment. >> think you mr. chairman, i apologize that i will not be able to use my full-time here. that might not need an apology

but i will have to go preside on the floor soon. wanted to talk to you a little bit about the cdc work. fort collins, colorado is home to the division of sector borne diseases and -- vector-born illnesses. i was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit the work concerning zika virus including going into look at the life mosquitoes, larva and what was happening. i learned at this time about a chemical that the cdc was working to reclassify as a biochemical pesticide active ingredient. natural was a ingredient found in citrus-like grapefruit oil. it might be in cedar trees as well. many may recognize this from their shampoos. epa has to evaluate natural tick repellents and pesticides

before they may be used by the public. as your agency have heavy corrugated with other agencies to expert at the approval of various products to make sure the become available? youenator we are delighted had a chance to visit every unit in fort collins, colorado. their innovation has been terrific. they have come up with a new and increasingly available laboratory test to diagnose zika and they have overseen the work in the dengue branch. you refer tothat under investigation for years at fort collins and we recently licensed it to several companies. we are working closely with the epa so it can be brought to market as quickly as possible.

it appears to be as effective as deet. without a good reaction to get it to market as rapidly as possible. with the diagnostic test we have had excellent collaboration which has approved for emergency use the diagnostic test we have developed. butave to go to the floor, are you familiar with the legislation that the senate is considering from the house on the zika funding russian mark -- funding? are you familiar with the details at all? >> yes. >> ok. because i hear people talk about funding of planned parenthood,

and i just want to make -- i have a question for you on this funding. does the house bill take money away from planned parenthood? >> i'm not familiar with the exact funding allocations in that bill. >> i believe the answer is no. and i would love if you could get back to me on that. thank you. >> senator kaine. >> just one brief follow-up, advice for all of us. tell me if this is right. i understand that the mosquito that carries zika breatheseds in -- breeds in containers, not necessarily in standing water on the ground but more swimming pools or, you know, like the depression and the cover of my grill that ends up with rainwater on it or a dog bowl in the backyard, a wheelbarrow, i've got one of those, i've got a canoe that gets water in it. one of the things we can all do in our neighborhoods if we can reduce the population of this density of mosquito is to make sure there's not water standing in containers in our yards and neighborhoods.

am i generally right about that? >> yes, you are, senator. and one of the challenges of controlling this mosquito is that it can breed in tiny amounts of water, the amount in a bottle cap. so to eliminate standing water really means to eliminate all standing water. that's why it's been difficult to do it to an extent you actually see a large enough impact on the number of mosquitos to make a difference. but different communities are different. in one community birdbaths were found to be one of the important sources of mosquito breeding water. that's one reason why it's so

important that communities in this country and around the world have the tlsoo to track the numbers of mosquitos and see if their mosquito control activities are succeeding. >> thank you. >> the bigger question is why do you have a canoe? we'll get into that later. senator markey. >> thank you, mr. chairman. can i go to the pesticide issue? and what breakthroughs we might be making in pesticides. are there new pesticides that might be effective? that can supersede the need to use deet or other pesticides? can any of you talk about that? >> thank you so much, senator. first off, let's divide the different types of repellants and pesticides. so deet is a product that we put on our skin.

there are several fda approved products that are effective. i mentioned that there are some more products down the road which may be available in the future that may be more pleasant to use. and just as safe and effective. there are also products that can be used in an area, what i refer to as spatial repellants, the things you might burn in your household or spray in your household. there we're trying to get better products available. and third are materials we would use to control mosquitos in a community, so insecticides or pesticides. one of the really interesting things that's happened in recent years is the refinement of ultralow volume spraying or ulv spraying. it uses tiny amounts of the pesticide and a very different particle size to penetrate more deeply, waft down more slowly, kill mosquitos more effectively at a lower dose. what we're seeing with those ultralow volume applications is the ability to control mosquitos

with less pesticide but more efficacy. so one of the areas again is using our current tools more effectively, or tweaking them if you will. the second is developing new tools like new classes of insecticide. it has been decades since we've had a new class of insecticide available. that's why funding to develop new types of insecticides ensure that they're safe and effective is so important, that's why we're so excited about the chemical that senator gardner mentioned because it is nontoxic food grade. and there are also new

experimental methods, sterile male or gene drive that are truly experimental that we might be able to crash mosquito populations. we'll have to see whether those are scaleable, effective and safe. but we won't know unless we study it. >> now, this ultralow volume insecticide, have you used it in puerto rico? >> that is currently under consideration. >> and what would be the question that you would have to answer before it's use? >> the spread of zika is so rapid and so extensive in puerto

rico that it is likely that to have an impact it would have to be applied by fixed wing aircraft or aerial spraying. that creates a lot of concern in puerto ro. and there's been very vocal concern about that raised. we think there is a gap of information, and we're working hard to get valid information out and to confront some myths about this. >> so the contention of the cdc or the u.s. government is that this ultralow volume spraying can't be done without any danger to human beings, but yet play a good role in helping to control the zika fly? >> we believe it can rapidly reduce mosquitos in both cdc and the epa have indicated that it can be done without risks to people, animals or the environment. >> uh-huh. and so down in puerto rico right now you're saying that's being resisted because of kind of just a generalized fear that something can be done that harms other children, i suppose, with those kinds of insecticides being put into the air? >> there are a number of concerns, a number of historical factors, current events that make it a big challenge to do this there. but from a technical standpoint

we think this is the most likely way you could reduce the number of mosquitos substantially and quickly. >> now, if an outbreak occurred within the continental united states, would this be one of the methods that you would recommend be used, let's say, in the first community that had an outbreak in order to try to isolate it quickly? >> it very much depends on the conditions in the community. but this is something that is done routinely in the u.s. in fact, the state of florida each year uses ulv aerial application in about 6 million acres. it's done routinely in tampa, miami and other places. it's unfamiliar in puerto rico and therefore there are some concerns there. >> can i take just a little bit of time just to talk about the cost of now treating children who have contracted microcephaly, or other diseases related to this epidemic, the united states is now going to have long-term responsibility for the care of these children. and it's going to add millions if not billions of dollars over time to the budget of our country. and so this is to me a classic example of where working smarter, putting the preventive tools in place up front will then protect us against huge balloon costs that could last 30, 40, 50, 60 years with something that we could have prevented from exploding into huge numbers. so even the children in puerto rico are americans. and we have responsibility for them for years to come. so not spending the money there now is something that ultimately we're going to pay a price that's hundreds of times higher in the long term in terms of oviding medical care for them. could you talk a little bit about that? >> our birth defect center has documented that the care of one child with a severe birth defect can be up to $10 million or more in their lifetime. >> uh-huh. >> so there is personal tragedy,

a family tragedy, but also an economic cost for not preventing preventable cases of birth defects. it's very rare to have birth defects that could be prevented in the dozens, hundreds or thousands. our staff from our birth defects center tell us that in the 30 years they've been working on birth defects, this is the most urgent situation they have faced. >> so the old saying is a stitch in time saves nine. but here a billion dollars now could save $10 billion later because of all the children who would not ultimately be born with this disease. that we would have a moral responsibility and a legal responsibility to take care of. so i think that's something we should all think about in terms of puerto rico or any of the other places that could ultimately be affected by this disease. even if it's not something that happened inside the continental united states. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. i, as you know, i've supported the president's request that $1.9 billion i thought we should err on the side of caution. i supported the 1.1, even though it was less. i've been trying to urgently get us to do something to move funds to begin to address it. i was wondering if you could

discuss and perhaps this applies simply beyond the cdc, but what happens if tomorrow congress adjourns for six weeks for the conventions in the summer, and no funding is forthcoming, where are the shortfalls? what will not be happening as a result of the inability to do something about this? >> i'll start, and my colleagues may want to say more. we will do the best we can. but this is no way to fight epidemics. it means we can't begin the long-term projects to figure out how to protect women more effectively, to come up with better ways to diagnose zika, to accelerate mosquito control strategies because we haven't been able to invest in those things. we also won't be able to repay the money we borrowed. we borrowed emergency money from states throughout the u.s. so that we could allocate it for zika.

not because that money wasn't important or needed, because that was the only money we had access to that we could use rapidly. and we have a gap in resources to fight ebola in west africa, because we have dollars that we had planned to use starting october 1 to continue to keep ebola in control in west africa. we're continuing to see flares of the embers that are burning from the epidemic that's over there. and all of those resources are at risk. that's why passage of a supplemental is so important. and it shows us, again, why having some sort of an infectious disease rapid response fund is critically important so we don't have to go through this the next time there's a global public health emergency. because without a doubt there will be a next time. >> yes, i would like to thank you very much, senator. if i could just add to that and would certainly echo dr.friedman that we will do the best we can but with the resources we have be able to support the countries that i've noted for a period of

time for several months during the next year, but we certainly won't be able to do much to expand to other countries or deepen the impact of our programs. it's enough to pay for activities running through several months, but we can't expand. and we do believe we need to expand. it can't just be the five countries. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, for that question. it has impact for the state department activities as well. we hope to use the money from the supplemental for targeted support for u.s. citizens such as repatriation loans, assistance may be affected living overseas. as a former ambassador, one concern is if current trends of our medical evacuation of pregnant women as employees or spouses in our posts overseas continue at the current rates, we don't have sufficient money for those medical evacuations

throughout the year. that was part of the targeted money for that. and i think we have to take care of our own people. that's extremely important. and we're asking them to sacrifice big going overseas. we also hope to use some of that money for improving on communications plans in many countries and out to u.s. citizens as we've heard in so much the testimony today getting the information out is so critical. and whether that's to u.s. citizens or help our embassies being able to help other governments get the information out can do so much in the area of prevention. and also last but certainly not

least it enables us to make contributions to international organizations such as world health organization, countries look to the u.s. for leadership. if we're able to make those contributions, we know it will stimulate other countries to do the same. >> so just to summarize, if this money doesn't happen tomorrow, we're facing all the work going in to get ahead of this we'll not be able to move forward in addition to the risk of ebola or other outbreak happening somewhere in the world and the depletion of the emergency funds at the individual state level. we face the inability to fund the work we're doing with partner nations in the region who have dramatically impacted will ultimately impact us because some of those cases will

migrate here in search of medical care and so forth and on a humanitarian basis. and as i've heard from you, secretary garber, you're saying we may well run out of funds to actually bring our people back home from being -- who are deployed abroad serving in our embassies and consulates around the world. dr. frieden, you talked about the screening of blood in puerto rico. are we screening blood now in the mainland as well? >> the food and drug administration oversees blood screening in the u.s. there are parts of the u.s. that have undertaken screening, other parts are waiting until they have local transmission or possible local transmission. already parts of texas and elsewhere where they had dengue before have screened. the screening tests are highly accurate in blood, so we want to ensure that we keep the risk as close to zero as possible. >> well, i ask in the case of florida, obviously central florida, all of florida in general but central florida in particular has a very strong link with puerto rico, with the island. do you know if central florida is screening its blood supply? >> i would have to get back to you. also, already the blood banks had as of several months ago began a policy of people who have traveled to a place with zika should defer donation. so that's an added level of safety so people come from puerto rico for example will be told not to donate blood and will be asked specifically about that during that time. >> here's the last question,

dr. frieden, if someone contracted zika, in most of these cases they're not symptomatic. if you are symptomatic, you're going to present at emergency care or doctor's office with what looks like the flu in a lot of cases. for example, if i were to contract zika the way i would manifest if i had symptoms at all would mimic that of a viral infection or flu, correct? >> yekt. >> even if i've traveled abroad, unless i reported it or if i show up, i know the symptoms at 45 years of age, i've had the flu a number of times, i get the shot, but what have you, you know what i have, i'll go through it. the chances are i might not go to a doctor, much less be tested, because as i understand it the screening for zika is still not widely commercially available. it would require a referral to a department of health to look at it specifically. it's not the kind of thing you see in a panel written up in a doctor's office, is that correct? >> yes, that's correct. >> and so the reality is that it is very much -- it is quite possible and perhaps i would dare say even probable that there is already a mosquito infection that's occurred in the united states and we just don't know it because that person has not yet been tested. what we know is no one who has not traveled abroad and has not contracted it sexually has not tested positive yet. but we don't know if somewhere in the united states there is someone who contracted it from a mosquito bite in the united states, but because they're not pregnant or because they're not symptomatic or they weren't tested because they thought they had the flu, we don't know it was transmitted by a mosquito. >> so, yes, it's certainly possible. let me also say on your blood donation question, i want to validate the incident i gave you before and get you more information on that. but on testing because as you

point out 80% of people have no symptoms, those with symptoms have symptoms that are relatively mild, there is the possibility that transmission could occur without our recognizing it. that's why we're encouraging health departments throughout the u.s. to follow up on all known cases of zika and to encourage doctors in those areas where zika might spread through the local mosquito to be alert to the possibility and also to test contact family members with illness to see if they have zika. we've also been working to transfer methods to the private sector. they're not there yet, but we've made progress toward that. i think the scenario you outline is certainly plausible. we anticipate it will be very difficult to identify the first locally transmitted case of zika. this is why we need better diagnostics. this is why we need better mosquito control programs throughout the u.s.

>> obviously you can't speculate entirely about the future, but do you have personally based on your expertise, do you have any doubt that we will see a mosquito transmission in the u.s. in the mainland united states at some point? >> i think it's likely we will see mosquito born transmission. we don't have a crystal ball, but the best predictor is what has happened with dengue. and with dengue we've seen clusters and isolated cases in various parts of the country, particularly florida and also texas. so if since zika is spread by the same mosquito, we anticipate

the same type of pattern may occur in addition to the unexpected sexual and potentially other means of transmission. >> and my last question with regards to this is, does it make any sense at any point in time from a medical perspective to add a test for zika to the normal screening or panel that would be administered to someone the way you would put some other infections or other diseases or other viral infections on a normal panel for a blood test? >> at this point, probably not. for a variety of reasons. if in the future we were to have a test for prior infection with zika, that might give us some useful information. but we know that if you have a test applied with a positivity rate is low, you'll have a large number of false positives even if the test is a good test. >> i'm sorry, there is no -- the only way to confirm a zika diagnosis is through a blood test?

>> blood and urine. >> so it also appears in other uids. >> there are two -- broadly speaking there are two types of test for zika. one that looks for the actual virus. and that can be found in blood or urine for about the first two weeks currently after infection. or a test that checks for the body's reaction to the virus, the antibodies. and that becomes positive within the first week or two and generally stays positive only for about eight to 12 weeks. >> the reason i ask only is because i was wondering if at some point part of the research being done it's possible to create some sort of quick, painless i suppose if ideally point of entry test that could be applied to travelers coming into the united states, but obviously if it's blood you're asking them to submit to having blood drawn, which is -- and having someone undergo a urinalysis at an airport is not the best way to welcome them to the united states. >> we have about 40 million trips to and from the u.s. to zika endemic areas and perhaps 200 million -- >> that's a lot of tests.

>> theoretically speaking if a few years from now we have a good test for prior infection and a vaccine, you can imagine a situation in which travelers leafing the u.s. would want to find out if they have immunity and if not potentially become pregnant and run a vaccine. >> we've run long. this is my last question. if someone has traveled abroad to one of these countries where zika is present and they've either had relations or have been bitten by a mosquito or think they might have been, how would they get tested? could their doctor order a test? >> any doctor in the u.s. can contact their local health department. we've already distributed our test and trained and supervised labs around the country so that most state health labs already can do this test. and those that don't can send it to cdc labs to have done. so, again, in the first two weeks there's one type of test. from two to 12 weeks another type of test, if people, particularly pregnant women are concerned they may have an infection, they should be tested. and people with symptoms of zika who have traveled should also be tested. those tests are available as you indicate if we could get them into the private sector, they would be more widely available. and we're doing that as rapidly as possible. we actually got food and drug administration approval to do that within the past week. we've already shipped the materials to private labs. and they're now undergoing the validation so they can be comfortable in doing this and providing results. >> well, i want to thank all three of you for your time and for being here and from the attendance today.

obviously, on the subcommittee there's clearly an interest both among our members and the general public. before we conclude, i'd like to include a study conducted by the university of florida, the finest learning institution in the southeast united states, from dr. glenn morris, part of a hearing record. that was a point of personal privilege. and the record for this hearing is going to remain open until the close of business on friday. and with that the meeting is adjourned. >> [inaudible]

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the gop platform, and the republican party as it heads into next week's national convention. we'll also talk about donald trump's candidacy and his potential vice presidential nominee. then, democratic new jersey congresswoman bonny watson coleman will discuss efforts to push gun control legislation. and the 2016 campaign. be sure to watch c-span's "washington journal" beginning live at 7:00 a.m. eastern coming

up this morning. join the discussion. >> it's always a special privilege having grown up in chicago and the suburbs to be here in the state capital and in

the historic place filled with special meaning, not just for illinois, but our country. and i'm delighted to have this opportunity to talk with you. s about the state of our country today. nearly 160 years ago, abraham lincoln gave a speech in this that marked a turning point in the political life of our nation. some people believed our country would never be truly united and at peace. so on june 16th, 1858, when mr. lincoln kicked off his campaign

for the united states senate, he delivered an address on how slavery was tearing our country apart. and that it must go. some thought that he ended up losing the senate race because of that speech but then he won the presidency and some thought, it was because of that speech. president lincoln led america during the most challenging period in our nation's history. he defended our union, our constitution and the ideal of a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated all men are created equal. his legacy included laws and amendments that enshrined those

values for future generations. they protect and guide us still. i'm here today in this place because the words lincoln spoke all those years ago still hold resonance for us now. remember, he said, a house divided against itself cannot stand. i believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. i do not expect, he went on, the union to be dissolved. i do not expect the house to fall. but i do expect it will cease to be divided. it will become all one thing or all the other. the challenges we face today do

not approach those of lincoln's time. not even close. and we should be very clear about that. but recent events have left people across america asking hard questions about whether we are still a house divided. despite our best effort and highest hopes, america's long struggle with race is far from finished. in just the past week, we saw black men killed by police and five police officers killed by a sniper targeting white police. there is too much violence and hate in our country. too little trust and common ground. it can feel impossible to have the conversations we need to

have to fix what's broken. and despite being the richest country on earth, we have too much economic inequality. and that also undermines the foundation of our democracy. lincoln understood that threat, too. he deeply believed everyone deserved, in his words, a fair chance in the race of life. he saw it as a defining feature of the united states and believed it was vital that hardworking people be free to enjoy the fruits of their own labor. it's one of the reasons he was so strong -- because it violated that entire notion. and as president, he took pains to use the tools of government

to create more economic opportunity for americans at every level of society. so, too, must we fight inequality and create opportunity in our time. not just for some americans, but for all. so i come today as a mother and a grandmother to two beautiful little children, who i want them and all of our children to grow up in a country where violence, like the kind we saw last week doesn't happen, again. and where the american dream is big enough for everyone. i'm also here as a candidate for president who is deeply concerned about the divisions that hold our people apart and our nation back.

i believe that our future peace and prosperity depends on whether we meet this moment with honesty and courage. that means taking a hard look at our laws and our attitudes. it means embracing policies that promote justice for all people and standing firm against any attempt to roll back the clock on the rights and opportunities that so many sacrificed so much to secure. and all of that starts with doing a better job of listening to each other. we need to listen to the families of loved ones that have been kill e killed by police. alton sterling is just the

latest of a long and painful litany of african-americans dying after encounters with police officers. we remember laquan mcdonald killed in chicago a year and a half ago and sandra bland who grew up in illinois who died one year ago today. time after time, no one is held accountable. and surely, we can all agree that's deeply wrong and needs to change. and yes, we do need to listen to those who say black lives matter. to many black americans, especially young men, feel like their lives are disposable and they worry every single day about what might happen. they have ever reason to feel that way, and it's absolutely unacceptable. everyone in america, everyone deserves to be treated with

respect and dignity. surely, that is something we can all unite behind. we need to acknowledge the five latinos who also lost their lives in police incidents last week. their stories didn't get national media coverage, but their families and communities are mourning. and at the same time, we need to listen to the dedicated principled police officers working hard every day to rebuild trust with the communities they serve and protect. our men and women in blue put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe and keep our democracy strong. remember what michael smith, lauren erins, rent thompson were

doing when they died. they were protecting a peaceful march. they were people cloaked in authority making sure their fellow citizens could exercise their right to protest authority. and there is nothing more vital to our democracy than that. and they gave their lives for it. david brown, the dallas police chief said that when it comes to overcoming systemic racism and so many other problems in society, we ask too much of the police and too little of everyone else. i think he's absolutely right. this is our problem. and we all need to work together to solve it. we also need to listen to the families crying out for relief from gun violence.

president obama's trip to dallas yesterday was the 11th time he has spoken to a city in mourning after a mass shooting. the wrong people keep getting their hands on guns. and not just any guns, military weapons, like the kind that the dallas killer had. which allowed him to outgun the police. and the vast majority of gun owners agree, we have to come together around common sense steps to prevent gun violence. if we're looking for common ground, this is common ground. and i hope that we will from washington to springfield to everywhere across come to agreement about that. now i understand that just saying these things together may

upset some people. i'm talking about police reform just a few days after a horrific attack on police officers. i'm talking about courageous, honorable police officers just a few days after officer-involved shootings in louisiana and minnesota. a country where just talking about comprehensive background checks and getting assault weapons off the street gets you demonized. but all these things can be true at the same time. we do need criminal justice reform to save lives and make sure all americans are treated as equals in rights and dignity. we do need to support our police departments that are trying to get it right and honor the men and women who protect us every day.

we do need to do more to stop gun violence. we may disagree about how to do these things, but surely, we can all agree with those basic premises. and i hope and pray the past week has showed us how true they are. now, these are the issues on many of our minds right now. and if we stop there, that would leave us with plenty of work to do. so i wish i could say that was everything that we must address. but these events are taking place against a much broader backdrop of fear and anxiety. i think we have to face all of it. we do need to make sure our economy works for everyone, not just those at the top. the changes that have roiled our economy over the past few

decades are not just numbers on a page that economists study. they are real forces that families are dealing with up close and personal every day. not long ago, i met with factory workers here in illinois whose jobs are being sent abroad and heard how painful the consequences have been for them and their families. i've talked to workers across our country who have seen good jobs lost to technologies who keep being told to get more training even though that often doesn't lead to a good new job on the other end. these economic disruptions have stripped too many people of their sense of security and dignity. and that can have devastating consequences. we have to ask ourselves, why are drug addiction and suicide

on the rise in parts of our country? that's not just about economics. it's about something deeper that is connected to economics. a sense of dislocation, even a pessimism about whether america still holds anything for them or cares about them at all. that's why i've pledged that in my first 100 days as president, we will make the biggest investment in new, good-paying jobs since world war ii. we need more jobs. you can support a family on, especially in places that have been left out and left behind. from coal country to indian country to every place that's been hollowed out when a factory closed or a mine shut down.

because everyone in america deserves that fair chance in the race of life that president lincoln described. now, i realize that our politics have contributed to the sense of division that many americans feel right now. in the middle of a hotly fought political campaign, i cannot stand here and claim that my words and actions haven't sometimes fueled the partisanship that often stands in the way of progress. so i recognize i have to do better, too. i'm running for president with the belief that we need to face up to these challenges and fix them in order to become a stronger, fairer country. and in times like these, we need

a president who can help pull us together, not split us apart. [ applause ] that is why i believe donald trump is so dangerous. his campaign is as divisive as any we've seen in our lifetimes. it is built on stoking mistrust and pitting american against american. it's there in everything he says and everything he promises to do as president.

it's there in how he wants to ban muslims from coming to the united states and toyed with creating a database to track muslims in america. it's there in the way he demeans women. in his promotion of an anti-semitic image -- and in the month he spent trying to discredit the citizenship and legitimacy of our first black president. last night, in an interview he said he understands systemic violence against black people because he says and i quote, even against me, the system is rigged. unquote. went on to say, i can relate. even this, the killing of people

is somehow all about him. it's there in his proposals on immigration. he says, he'll round up 11 million people and kick them out. he's actually described a special deportation forest that would go around america, their homes and workplaces, pulling children out of school. i got a letter from a mother the other day who said her adopted son asked her, with a shaky voice, if president trump would send him back to ethiopia. when kids are scared by political candidates and policy debates, it's a sign that something has gone badly wrong. and we see it in the violence

that donald trump encouraged protesters in rallies. and the strange things he's said about the violence that will occur if we don't elect him. he says, if he doesn't win in november we and, again, i quote, won't even have a country anymore. america's not going to continue to survive. we do not know what he's talking about. i do know we don't need that kind of fear mongering, not now, not ever. he's gone even further than that. he's taken aim at some of our most cherished democratic solutions. he wants to revoke the citizenship of 4 million americans born in this country to immigrant parents and

eliminate the bedrock principle enshrined in the 14th amendment that if you're born in america, you're a citizen of america. he said that a distinguished american born in indiana, a judge can't be trusted to do his job because his parents. he called him a mexican judge over and over, again. he knew the judge had been born in indiana. but it was a cynical, calculated attempt to fan the flames of racial division and designed to undermine people's faith in our judicial system. why would someone running for president want to do that? and even that's not all. he says as commander in chief,

he would order our troops to commit war crimes and insisted they would follow his orders even though that goes against decades of military training and the military code. he's banished members of the press. is there any doubt he would do the same as president? imagine if he had not just twitter and cable news to go after his critics and opponents but also the irs. or for that matter, our entire military. given what we have seen and heard, do any of us think he'd be restrained? last week, he met with house

republicans in washington to try to assuage their serious concerns about him. one member asked whether he'd protect article i, which defines a separation of powers between congress and the executive branch. here's the answer, he replied, article i, article ii, article xii. well, here's the thing, there is no article xii. not even close. that was a serious question from an elected representative. and he either didn't care enough to answer it seriously or he didn't know where to begin. even the republicans were alarmed by that and as well we should be. the very first thing a new

president does is take an oath to protect and defend the constitution. to do that with any meaning you've got to know what's in it. and you have to respect what's in it. i do wish donald trump would listen to other people once in a while. he might actually learn something. but he's made it clear, that's not his thing. as he has said, he only listens to himself. this man is the nominee of the party of lincoln. we are watching it become the party of trump.

and that's not just a huge loss for our democracy, it is a threat to it. because donald trump's campaign adds up to an ugly, dangerous message to america. a message that you should be afraid. afraid of people whose ethnicity is different or religious faith is different or who were born in a different country or hold different political beliefs. make not mistake, there are things to fear in this world. and we need to be clear eyed about them. but we are each other's country men and women. we share this miraculous country. this land and its heritage is

yours, mine and everyone's willing to pledge allegiance and understand the solemn responsibilities of american citizenship. that's what indie indivisable means. even if that's not always easy. so let's think better of each other. let's hold together in the face of our challenges. not turn on each other or tear each other down. put ourselves in the shoes of police officers kissing their kids and spouses good-bye every day. and heading off to a dangerous job we need them to do. let's put ourselves in the shoes of african-americans and latinos and try as best as we can to

imagine what it would be like if we had to have the talk with our kids about how carefully they need to act. how carefully they need to act because the slightest wrong move could get them hurt or killed. and yes, let's put ourselves in the shoes of donald trump's supporters. we may disagree on the causes and the solutions to the challenges we face. but i believe like anyone else they're trying to figure out their place in a fast-changing america. they want to know how to make a good living and how to give their kids better futures and

opportunities. that's why we've got to reclaim the promise of america for all our people, no matter who they vote for. and let's be more than allies to each other. let's take on each other's struggles as our own. my life's work is built on the conviction that we are stronger together. not separated into factions or sides, not shouting over each other, but together. our economy economy is stronger when everyone contributes to it. and everyone can benefit from the work they do. our communities are stronger when we all pull together to solve our problems and restore our faith by doing so in the promise of america. our country is stronger when we work with friends and allies to

promote peace, prosperity and security around the world. this is an idea that goes back to the founding of america when 13 separate colonies found a way despite their differences to join together as one nation. they knew they were not stronger on their own and neither are we. i've had the great delight of seeing the musical "hamilton" and i hope more people, at least, get a chance to listen to the score and to hear the words. there's a great song by the character playing george washingt washington. that was true then and that's true today.

if we do this right, and if we have the hard conversations we need to have, we will become stronger still. like steel tempered by fire. now, don't get me wrong, fierce debates are part of who we are. they started at my dinner table with my father. and have continued ever since. it is who we are. you're reminded of that when you read history, when you think about the lincoln/douglas debates. debate over the right way forward. and sometimes, we have to balance competing values like freedom and order, justice and security, complementary values of american life. that isn't easy. previous generations have had to

overcome terrible challenges and no one more so than abraham lincoln. but in the end, if we do the work, we will cease to be divided. we, in fact, will be indivisible with justice for all. and we will remain in president lincoln's words, the best, last hope of earth. thank you all, very much. ♪ this is my fight song take back my life song ♪ ♪ prove i'm all right song ♪ my power's turned up right now i'll be strong ♪ ♪ i'll play my fight song and i don't really care if nobody else believes ♪

♪ because i've still got a lot of fight left in me ♪ ♪ losing friends and i'm chasing everybody's worried about me ♪ ♪ in too deep say i'm in too deep ♪ ♪ it's been two years, i miss my home, the fire burning in my bones ♪ ♪ i still believe yeah, i still believe ♪ ♪ and all of those things i didn't say, wrecking balls inside my brain ♪ ♪ i would scream them loud tonight, can you hear my voice ♪ ♪ this time, this is my fight song, take back my life song, prove i'm all right song ♪ ♪ my power's turned up right now i'll be strong ♪ ♪ i'll play my fight song and i don't really care if nobody else believes ♪

♪ because i've still got a lot of fight left in me ♪ ♪ a lot of fight left in me like a small boat on the ocean ♪ ♪ sending big waves into motion like how a single word can make a heart open ♪ ♪ i might only have one match but i can make an explosion ♪ ♪ this is my fight song take back my life song prove i'm all right song ♪ ♪ my power's turned up starting right now i'll be strong i'll play my fight song ♪

♪ and i don't really care if nobody else believes ♪ ♪ because i've still got a lot of fight left in me ♪ ♪ no, i've still got a lot of fight left in me ♪ ♪ this is my fight song take back my life song prove i'm all right song ♪ ♪ my power's turned on starting right now i'll be strong ♪ ♪ i'll play my fight song and i don't really care if nobody else believes ♪ ♪ because i've got still got a lot of fight left in me ♪ ♪ losing friends and i'm chasing sleep ♪ ♪ everybody's worried about me in too deep, say i'm in too deep ♪ ♪ it's been two years, i miss my

home, because the fire burning in my bones ♪ ♪ still believe, yeah, i still believe ♪ ♪ and all of those things i didn't say, wrecking balls inside my brain ♪ ♪ i would scream them loud tonight, can you hear my voice this time ♪ >> the road to the white house coverage continues today and tomorrow as the republicans determine the rules for next week's convention in cleveland. like coverage on c-span, the c-span radio app and c-span.org. >> it's a hard-fought 2016 primary season is over with historic conventions to follow this summer. >> colorado. >> florida! >> texas! >> ohio! >> watch c-span as the delegates -- as the first woman ever to head a major political party. and the first nonpolitician in several decades.

watch live on c-span. listen on the c-span radio app or get video on demand at c-span.org. you have a front-row seat to every minute of both conventions on c-span all beginning on monday. >> "washington journal" is next. we'll look at today's news and take your calls. the house is back in at 9:00 eastern this morning. they'll finish work on 2017 interior department spending with amendment votes and a final passage vote today.

>> health democratic efforts to push for legislation. you can run the conversation on facebook and twitter. [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] ♪ good morning everyone, house and senate lawmakers are wrapping up to legislative business for the week ahead of the republican convention. next week in cleveland, democrats will follow the week after in philadelphia. senate democrats will here today from the presumptive nominee when hillary clinton comes to capitol hill. look for all of our coverage on c-span.org. stationras are already in cleveland this week. we cover the platform hearings earlier. today kicks off a two