family a lot because they were living -- you don't want to be in the neighborhood where you're actually your family lives and so forth and so on. so the hardships that he was enduring were very much comparable to those of our soldiers who are deployed away from loved ones in harm's way risking it all together and knowing that they can always count on that individual on their right and left even when that individual is an interpreter. and so we're very pleased to see some of those individuals here. more importantly really pleased to see everyone else who's here because that reflects the kind of interest in what is a very important obligation that we have and that we must meet. thanks, paul. >> we are going to have to do a quick change of scenery. please don't leave your seat unless you have a desperate need to do so. please join me in thanking general petraeus. [applause]

>> thank you for staying for part two. i didn't give you an opportunity to leave so i'm glad you didn't take it. i could not do a very good job of introducing our next two speakers. i can do a it -- i can do it a little bit better with matt.

i will let you tell your own stories. first on my left, salwan al-toki, first one that served as an interpreter for five years. he worked with the u.s. army, the usaid and the u.s. marine corps. he's credited with saving the lives of at least four marines during his service. he's a graduate of the university of baghdad where he earned a degree in civil engineering. he's quadrilingual, i believe, if that's a word. english, arabic, french and russian. he's a native in southern iraq. he served with various american organizations and units. from 2003 to 2011, and he waited two years to get his s.i.v. how did you get involved with these crazy americans and are you crazy as well? salwan: well, i'd like to stand

because i am not comfortable with seats. [laughter] i'm a civil engineer so i have to be on the field. so let me ask you this, guys. anybody accused to be a traitor? was anybody accused to be a traitor? raise up your hand. i am only one here. of course, nobody. my colleague. my other question is, how many of you guys were standing between his fellow citizens and the american, which is their -- of course, not too many people. the third question is, what

makes you sacrifice yourself to the person just eat with him one dish? and you have a good story with him, what makes you sacrifice with yourself to him? you don't know him. just you eat with him one dish and you drink him, right and not like somebody who is sitting in a fancy restaurant with his fiancee, with his girlfriend asking for a date. we are the s.i.v.'s, guys. we did everything. we sacrificed ourselves. we put ourselves in trouble. and then we are here as s.i.v.'s. in may, 2003, some americans

came to visit my shop 100 miles south of baghdad near the iranian border and they were asking for some real food. i told them, what are you eating in the military? \[laughter] they told me, m.r.e., which means rejected by everyone. \[laughter] and this is a message to general petraeus. so anyway, they get involved with me with a speech and they were very interested to have me as a translator. i told them, i don't have any idea about the americans in iraq so i need to see your general. at that time he was mr. jay garner in the beginning.

their intentions were very satisfied and they got involved with the united states. [inaudible] civil affairs group. we got involved, what our station. they use inside engineering skills. we get them involved to teach the young judges. teach the police officers. we get involved in everything to renovate the infrastructure in iraq and to make the local government, elected local government qualified by sending them to training and we trained them also. then, i worked with the united states agency for international development as a program development officer. at that time we were involved to get women centers, children centers, iraqi chamber of

commerce and i was proud that i am the first one who established the iraqi-american chamber of commerce. and then i worked with the company as a subcontractor called e.c.c. which is environmental cooperation company. this company worked with the united states air force and i am a proud -- i was the establisher of the first police academy in iraq. this police academy trained lots of iraqi police and national guard. every six months, about 1,600. that was in the south. and finally, i am here as s.i.v., and thanks for the american people and thanks for ambassador. and thanks to the gentleman.

he was my guest in baghdad and now i am his guest. the only thing is he's getting older and i am getting younger. so, guys, i am proud to be here with you. and last thing i want to say is, i served with the united states to the best of my ability. so i am not afraid of this. we faced death shoulder by shoulder with the united states marine corps and was all americans. but for this reason i am not afraid of death but i am afraid of somebody left behind. thank you very much. [applause]

paul: just before i introduce the next speaker, what did you do when you first got to washington? >> good question. the first thing i did here was to visit the grave of the first civilian targeted of the war. i was working with his unit and then he worked with the c.p.a., which is coalition provincial authority. as a civilian he was targeted and killed and i visited his grave here. in the marine corps cemetery. and also i feel myself proud because i have good friends here like the colonel and others. they supported me. they put me with their families. they consider me as a member of the family. thank you so much for them. [applause]

paul: our next speaker is one who served as an interpreter for the u.s. military in afghanistan for eight years. he's credited with saving the lives of at least five u.s. soldiers in combat. he's received numerous u.s. military commendations for his extremely honorable service. he's a graduate in the university in kabul with a degree in business administration. he's a native of jalalabad and supported the forces from 2005 to 2013. room he spent four years waiting for his s.i.v. he speaks six languages. he'll address us in english. [laughter] can you also begin by describing what got you involved in this dangerous adventure? janis: thank you so much. thank you, everybody, for coming and thank you for having us here. actually, there were a couple of

reasons why i became an interpreter. the first thing was because we just came from pakistan. when the taliban attacked afghanistan, we moved to pakistan and that was the only place where we could hide from the taliban. when we heard that the taliban is no more in afghanistan and there's a lot -- go to work, we go back and support our country and i came back to afghanistan because my english was not that much good because i learned my english from one american movie and that's all. i just went back and got a couple of classes. i became an english teacher for a couple years. in 2005 i decided to go and work with the u.s. military as a translator. and i went there to camp phoenix in afghanistan. i passed the test and i became an interpreter.

the first day was -- i do not remember when i was there the first day but i did my job honestly. as the general said before, the translators were not allowed to carry a gun. i don't know. i was allowed to carry a gun. [laughter] they gave me an ak-47 with an american pistol. i could take it everywhere. because they know that i am one of their trustworthy interpreters and i was in each fight with them shoulder to shoulder on the front line and fighting against the bad people. and one day i was really mad at the american commander. i was like, sir, why you sending me to each war, to each fight? whenever something happens, even if it's not in my team, but you guys are selecting me to go, do

you guys want me to get killed? why? like he looked at me for a couple minutes and said, janis, no, that's not what you think. because we trust you. you are one of our trustworthy interpreters. that's why we are sending you to any danger nation. we know you are a good person and you can look after our soldiers. and i was like, oh, ok. [laughter] and we trusted them because we -- we were waiting for some people to come to our country and save us from the disaster and finally when we heard about the u.s. military and that's why i went. because i could support my country. i could support my people. and the other thing i could get some good benefits, salary, to support my family.

and the first person that i saved his life, i didn't know him. i didn't do him for a reason if i saved his life, he will take me to the united states, that was not my goal to come to the united states. he asked me a couple times if i ever go to the united states and i said, no, sir. i'm good here. i want to support my people, my country and i don't want to go to the united states. when i saved his life, as i say, i didn't know him. i only met him for a couple of minutes or seconds. when their unit came to afghanistan, i just met him for a couple minutes. he said, hi, my name is matt zeller. i am looking forward to you guys. my name is janis shinwari, i look forward to working with you guys. i was at the tactical operations

center. we received a radio call that the unit went to assist. they lost a truck by i.e.d. same thing. i was not in his team that time. somebody said, janis, put your body armor and get your weapons and let's go. and i was like, again, me. [laughter] >> thank god. janis: i got my body armor, my pistol and i was ready for a fight. long story short, after about 30 minutes i got to the objective. first thing i saw from the windows of the humvee, the big truck was destroyed by i.e.d. and the engine was all gone. and i thought somebody is dead in this truck because the truck is damaged. and i jumped out of the truck.

even the driver didn't know, i left the truck and the first question i asked the captain. i was like, everybody's ok? he said, everybody's ok. i started shooting at the enemy direction. i know where the bullets are coming from. somebody called me, do not shoot in this direction. i was like why. we have friendly guys over there. i said, are they dead or alive? they said, we don't know. i was like, i'm going to see if he's already dead, i will bring his body, god forbid. and if he is alive, i will bring him alive. i start moving, and when i get -- i got close to him. like he didn't see me but i saw him from his behind. and if i go because i had a different uniform, if he see me he would shoot me. he would think i'm a taliban or somebody.

i just -- i was thinking for a couple seconds and i thought two things are moving behind him. when i past my eyes, two talibans were coming a couple meters behind him to get him, kill him or get him alive. and i was like, now, i should make a decision. i can't go back. i can't leave my american friend here and there's two more guys that are about to kill him. and i did what i was supposed to do. i just shot at those two guys and i run at him and i was like, brother, you are not safe. let's go back. and he was like, who the hell are you? [laughter] he didn't remember my face. i was like, i am janis, i am one of the translators. you are not safe. long story short, we went back. we came back to the base. i went to the chow hall to get

my lunch. he came with my plate and said, brother, can i sit here? i was like, sure. and he had me -- he said, thank you for saving my life and he said he's going to ask me a question and i was like, what? he said, what i did, what i did to him, he said he was expecting this from one of his own friends, one of his own americans but nobody came. nobody came to rescue him. why i did, why did i put my life in danger and save his life? i looked at him and i said, brother, you know you are a guest in my country and this was my responsibility to look after my guest. and that was my responsibility to save your life and now you are alive. you can go back and that's all i did. that's how afghan people,

generally muslim people are. they don't want their guests to get hurt by everybody. we will put our lives in danger but save our guests. because he was my guest in my country and that's what i did, i put my life in danger and saved him. still, he asked me when he was leaving at the end of 2008, he told me if i come to the united states, he gave me his phone number, email address, everything. i can talk to him. he will help me come to the states. i was like, no, brother. i will be fine because i love my country. i love my people and i want to be here with my people. in 2009, afghan national army, the intelligence officer and said, janis, do you know now the taliban has their picture, your name, your address. and you are not safe here anymore.

you have to quit your job or you have to get transferred from here to anywhere else. i said, ok. let's talk to my american commander because he is my boss. he will -- if he tells me to stay, i will stay. if he tells me to go i will go. we talked to him. he contacted the company. in 24 hours i was transferred to kabul. when i came to kabul i said, now i am in the safest place because the minister of defense is here, the minister of intelligence is here. like hundreds of thousands of troops are here. i will be safe here. but i didn't know those people were coming after me even to kabul city. when i came to kabul city i was a manager. i was managing like 250 interpreters. i started phone calls. like getting phone calls in afghanistan.

said, hey, we are here. we know where you work. we know where you live and we will kill you or your son, anybody from your family. i was a couple miles away from my home but like most, i stayed at the military base because i was safe there. and in the meantime, i talked to my brother and said, brother, now i am in a high risk, what should i do? he sent me a letter and said, submit this. send it to the s.i.v., apply for a visa. i sent everything to the s.i.v. that was in 2010. but i never heard anything back. in 2013 i did my interview but still they told me to wait for your visa.

in this time i received the worst news in my life. one of the u.s. commanders said, this base is going to be shut down at the end of the year. not end of year but in september. and because we didn't get any replacement, you guys should go home because we don't have enough troops to assign you guys with. and that time i contacted matt and said, brother, i need your help. you need to get me out of afghanistan because now i lost my protection and i don't want to die or i don't want my son to get kidnapped and because my friends were kidnapped by the taliban. they were tortured, killed. and they sent their body parts to their family and friends to see and start working with the taliban. and i said i don't want to be one of them. and i want to go because now i'm married, i have children. and my brother, then he will

tell his part but good thing i received my visa after two months. and now i'm here. i'm safe and once again, i am thankful for my brother. he helped me a lot. got my visa, my family. i owe him a couple lives now. and thank you so much. thank you for everyone. [applause] paul: janis, two quick questions. who was the movie you learned english from? it had to be a pretty good one. janis: it was an old one. the movie star is arnold schwarzenegger. the movie is "commando." [laughter] that's how i learned. paul: so how did you get rid of your german accent? janis: still my accent is like schwarzenegger.

like broken english. paul: serious question. i am told your mother had a lot to do with helping the americans. your mother. janis: in a muslim culture, especially in our country, if a mother is not educated, then their sons can go to the wrong ways. most of the -- i'm telling you most of the taliban and al qaeda because in our country, if i go do anything, i will get my mom's permission first to do it. if she says no, it's no. if she says yes, that's yes. without her blessing, we don't do anything. and the one who is like taliban because their mothers are uneducated. they don't know what the koran says. they say, ok, i am going to fight and i am going to kill americans, anybody that works for the government.

because the mother is uneducated she says, ok, go ahead. god bless you, my son. but if i say the same word to my mom, trust me, she will slap my mouth and say sit down. but when i told her i am going to support my country, i'm going to help the u.s. mission in afghanistan, she was like, ok, my son. that's good. go ahead and do it. and that's how i started working with the americans. if my mother said no, i wouldn't be able to save my brother's life. paul: let's hear it for your mother. [applause] so last by no means least, matt zeller. he's the co-founder of no one left behind. he is, as i understood it, abandoned the promising career to take on this mission. hopefully you can accomplish the

mission in the next six months and go back to something else. any rate, whatever length of time it takes. matt, just say a little bit about how you got -- we already know some of your story, but this part of the story. matt: thank you, all, for being here. thank you to ambassador wolfowitz and general petraeus, i can't thank you enough for your time. and to a.e.i. for obviously hosting us and to my amazing team who you all stood up before. the only reason we've been as successful as we have been for the past four years is because the only reason we've been as successful as we have been for the past four years is because of them. they followed me down this sort of crazy endeavor when it was a labor of love. i think -- to understand how this got started, the guy sitting next to me is not only my guardian angel, he's a saint. i'll spare you the long story of what it took to ultimately get him his visa but when he arrived here, we had made such a stink about it in the press that cbs

news sent a prominent journalist and camera crew to cover our reunion at the airport. they ended up showing it nationally on the next day on the tv on the morning program with charlie rose. what a lot of folks didn't see is what happened after the cameras turned off. the camera crew was packing up their equipment. we were saying goodbye to everyone. i turned to janis, i said, ok, brother, let's get the rest of your luggage. tonight you can stay with my family and i. and janis pointed and turned to four rollaway suitcases and he said, brother, this is all we have. we were only allowed to bring one suitcase per person. it has to be under 50 pounds and fit in the overhead flight bin. i realized at that moment that he arrived with the clothes on his back and whatever contained inside those suitcases it wasn't large sums of cash or bars of gold or even perishable items. it was the family koran.

the only black and white photo of his father that he owns in his life. the tangible items of his heritage and culture that are the precious family air looms that will never get -- heirlooms that will never get sold because he and his children cannot return to his homeland. when i realized at that moment they didn't have linens for a bed, they didn't have any sense of what it was going to take to survive in our country and our culture, i was dumbfounded at just about how extensive the challenge was going to be to try to get him and his family integrated. so i turned to look for someone else to help me and that's when i realized it was on me. i was going to have to figure out where he was going to live and find him a job. i'm just not a wealthy guy. i didn't have the ability to do it independently. so i grabbed a news reporter and said, would you do me a favor? would you let folks know i will start a go fund me page and raise money and she said two. i found him a modest two bedroom apartment in alexandria,

virginia. thanks to the generosity of family and friends we got donations of a bed and couch. i had gone over to his house to have chai. every night we used to have tea together and talk about our country and our cultures and i don't know if you ever gotten the chance to play the beatles for someone for the first time but it's cool to see how they take to it. and we went over to have chai and he was so proud to have me in his home. i took out a check. i had been to the bank on his way to see how much money wet raised and what found shocked me. there was $35,000 from complete strangers to support him and his family. i sat down at his dinner table and i pulled out the check and i said, janis, i have here a gift from the american people and it's thanks for your eight years

of frontline combat service. the only difference between me and him is two-fold. one is stupid is that's why i won the birth lottery and he didn't. the second one is the one that's important. i am a one-tour combat vet. he's an eight-tour combat veteran. so despite the fact our difference in service, i happened to win the birth i am a one-tour combat vet. he's an eight-tour combat lottery so i get to go to the v.a. for the rest of my life for health care. if i walk into a wal-mart tomorrow and show him an honorable discharge, company is he gets a job. he has to plea his case and hope he gets considered. otherwise they ask him to buy something or move along. and i just didn't think that lottery so i get to go to the that was right. and so i wanted him to know that the american people were standing with him and that more importantly that money was going to cover the next year of his life. it would have paid for rent and food. and so i said, brother, this is the first night in your life i'm sure you had a chance to rest.

he was born in 1978. the soviets invaded the next year. he's been facing a war ever since. and so i tried to give him this money and he thought about accepting it for maybe half of a heartbeat and said, brother, i can't take this money. i said, what do you mean you can't take it? there is not a refund button. what do i do? he got really serious and looked me right in the eye and said, what about hassan and latif and habib? don't they deserve to be here too? he was naming off all the other translators who were still back on our base in afghanistan. he had a really good point. even habib, who i didn't like, deserved to be here. and he was a good guy. we just didn't get along so well personality-wise. >> he's here now. matt: yeah, he is here now. [laughter] and so i said, well, what do you want to do with the money? will you start an organization? you can clearly find someone a

house and furnish it in a couple of days. i said, yeah, sure. six guys. we can do that for a couple -- over a couple of years. as we found translators, he was robert gates' translator. nobody greeted him except a police officer at the san francisco airport. when asked where to go he was directed to homeless shelters in downtown san francisco. his wife, himself, his 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter walked up the 101 freeway from the san francisco airport to fulton street where we found them four days later where they had remained homeless that entire time. he spent seven years fighting on our behalf, that's a veteran. and on the day he got here we allowed him to become homeless. that's simply unacceptable. when i realize the challenges that these people are facing and there was really no other organization out there that was stepping up to meet that problem, you know, my army training kicked in.

i started calling jason, my -- our c.o.o. who is an army veteran as well as both wars and has been now for a decade and said, can you help me out with that? i called bill and keith. both vietnam era veterans and asked, can you help me out as well? we started putting a team together and here we are four years later. we're in eight cities and helped resettle over 4,000 people in that time. that's just a drop in the bucket. there are still tens of thousands of these people who are left behind. and so our goal is simple. we want to get them all their bucket. there are still tens of visas that they were promised. when they arrive here we want to give them an honor flight welcome at the airport and present them with an american flag and thanks for their service. we want to find them a place to live. we want to pay for it for 90 days. furnish it at no cost to them. find them a car. buy them that car and give it to them because a car is ultimately the most transformative thing we can do. it opens up a world of employment. help them to find and retain a job. and then as we call it, find them first friend, an american

to help mentor and guide them. after we have done this for all the people we made to those in iraq and afghanistan, we don't want to be in business. how many organizations say, we don't want to exist? we want to have d.o.d. to take on this responsibility in future wars. quite frankly the nation solution to this problem shouldn't be a 35-year-old with a nonprofit and a startup phase. but that's what it's become. and i think that, you know, together if we unify as a country and throw some resources behind this we really could help solve this problem because otherwise this is going to be one of those never again moments that we ultimately regret. and all you have to do is ask a vietnam veteran about the half century of moral injury they had to live with to understand what that's going to do not just our and all you have to do is ask a vietnam veteran about the half generation of veterans but -- i'll finish i guess with this. i enlisted first right after 9/11. i am a new yorker. a proud new yorker. and i was a sophomore in college on 9/11. i had no intention going to the

military but i walked up to the first recruiter i saw in a mall a couple weeks later and said, where do i sign and enlisted and went right into the infantry. at the end of a.i.t. there was a recruiter for rotc. the army has seen a lot of leadership potential. we'd like to send you back to school and get a commission. two years later i commissioned as lieutenant zeller. when you commission there is a ceremony you do where you get the first salute from an n.c.o. the general -- he pulled me aside and said, sir, do you know what your responsibility is now that you are an officer and i thought for main, it's to lead. he said, no, it's to take care of your soldiers. you take care of your soldiers, they'll take care of you. that's the best piece of advice anybody ever gave me in the army. 12 years later came time for me to take off the uniform for the last time and my commander at the time pulled me aside and said, do you know what your responsibility was? i thought it was to drink beer and get fat. he said, no, it's to take care of soldiers. just because you take off that

uniform doesn't mean that youed a vow -- and indicate that possibility. it's a job to leave it better for the next guy. the only reason i am alive today is for this man. he believed we keep that promise. what happens to the brothers and sisters like the major sitting in the back who might end up fighting in a future war and say, syria, recommitment back in iraq or afghanistan? is it not our responsibility to make sure that he goes off to war with exactly the same resources that i had if not better? and to me that means locals who are willing and ready to stand with us because they know we honor and keep our word and that's the goal of our organization is to keep our nation's promise, to ensure no one is left behind. [applause] paul: just to give you a

warning, matt, before we end i want to ask you to tell the congressman what you will tell them if they follow general petraeus' advice and come ask you about this act? in the meantime, if i could spring a surprise question on both of you. it's about the vetting process. suppose someone would come to you and say, look, we got this bunch of -- not interpreters who we've through the kind of experience that gives you information, but sort of unknown refugees from iraq or afghanistan, what would be the most important things to find out in order to know whether they were safe to admit? do you have any ideas about that? either of you? it's a tough question. it's what we're supposed to spend this next 90 days figuring out. your chance to offer ideas. >> well, i will -- paul: i'll coach you just a little bit. i heard recently from someone who has a friend in new york who was an immigrant from sicily about 50, 60 years ago.

sicily is the home of the mafia in italy. in order to go to the united states he had to do four interviews with the consulate in palermo. he had the same name as a certain mafia family to make sure he wasn't related. they checked on which of his relatives were communist because at that time meant you believe in the overthrow of the u.s. government. it was a pretty -- this idea extreme vetting wasn't invented yesterday but it's much more difficult to do in a place where we know -- we knew more about sicily than we know about iraq or afghanistan, perhaps. anyway, how would you think about it? >> well, if you want to compare a refugee with a civilian, i think when you call us a refugee, we are not refugees. paul: i am not comparing them, no. >> so we are most -- we served in the united states army. we sailed in the united states marine corps. we served in the navy.

we served under different circumstances. and sometimes we were allowed to carry our weapons. so to be a -- we don't ask for privileges. we don't ever ask for any privileges. and when we were first hired, we didn't ask for any privileges. we just asked that our country will be strong enough after saddam hussein's regime. we didn't ask for anybody privileges from the americans. only keep together, get united and build our new country. i would like to tell a shorter story on this. my uncle said that are you working with the americans? in i told him yes. i will get the last -- maybe they get me work with halliburton or at least the united states army corps of engineers because i am an

engineer. he told me, don't expand your dreams. they failed -- they let us down in 1991. so i told him no, uncle. don't be so mean. 2003 is not 1991. so now i'm in america and i am waving to my uncle from washington. he told me that, if the american finds you a job with 7-eleven, i said, what's a 7-eleven? anyway, we want our friends to be here as soon as possible. i have friends fighting in mosul now. i have friends fighting in some specific and dangerous area in

mosul, fighting isis. so we need them all here. no one left behind. there's someone left behind, our memories left behind, but now we are looking toward the future. >> what's your thoughts about the vetting process? >> actually i don't know what to say about this. paul: that's fair enough. matt has some ideas, i know. matt, my question is, what do you want to tell the congress should be in this new bill? matt: a couple of things. first off, we need to begin accepting new applications in iraq. we have not accepted a new application since 2014, which might shock a lot of people in here because we have 4,800 military troops fighting in iraq and another 7,800 contracts. most of those people don't speak arabic or kurdish and are likely relying on nationals on the

ground who, by the way, once they served with us have fundamentally excommunicated themselves from the community around them. they need a pathway to get here there ast pocket, it's not large but enough to warrant consideration, iraqis who are not able to submit their applications because isis showed up at one point and prevented them ever getting to baghdad to file the application in time. in addition, in afghanistan, the backlog is in the thousands. anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 depending on what month the state department is reporting. there's only a current allocation of 1,500 visas to cover that backlog and we are still accepting new applications. every visa we get out, we receive a new one in its place. if we don't get these people here, they're going to die. we feel the congress ought to restart the program in iraq, remove the cap and say, service, you qualify through your service

and can pass the most extreme form of vetting which we ask anyone to pass, which is what this entails, they ought to earn the visa they have been promised because of their service. finally what we believe is that they ought to be called veterans. we do not have to give them v.a. benefits but shouldn't we give them an honorary designation as veterans. this is not a bridge too far. in world war ii, the quarter million filipinos who fought with our forces in the south pacific were declared honorary veterans. we gave them v.a. benefits and built a v.a. hospital in manila for them. not only would i think the world of philanthropy opened up to support them, but in addition,

think of all the employers who like to pride themselves on hiring a veteran. now they could make a public commitment to doing just that for a population i would argue is just as vulnerable. are -- janis, how many times have you been blown up? six? he doesn't ever get to go talk to anybody about that. he doesn't get to have his head checked our which i'm sure there's probably some linger t.b.i. issue, anyone exposed to a concussion like that repeatedly might have problems with that. there's a guy in maryland who has a bullet in his arm the taliban put there nine years ago. the only way he'll get it out is if he has pro bono surgery. they're coming home with the same injuries of war but no way to help them out. if the congress would designate them honorary veterans that would go a long, long way in changing how our country integrates them and how they're perceived to be fellow veterans of our wars. \[applause]

paul: that's a great note to conclude on. we have to end, it's past 4:00. i think if our interpretters are willing to stick around, our audience may want to come up and ask you questions. thanks, everyone, for coming, it's been a great audience, a great discussion. \[applause] >> coming up next on c-span, "washington journal," live. then a hearing on the affordable care act with witnesses who shared challenges. and after that, governors delivering their state of the addresses. coming up on "washington journal" in just over an hour, a look at the most recent iran

sanctions with behnam ben taleblu. and later, "education week"'s alyson klein will join us to discuss education policy during he trump administration. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016]] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ host: good morning. it's saturday, february 4, 2017. and topping the headlines on today's "washington journal" is a federal judge's order blocking president donald trump's executive order banning nationals of seven countries from entering the united states. the ruling last night by a federal judge in seattle enforcement of that order nationwide and spurred federal officials to begin the process of reinstating as many as 100,000 visas that had been revoked. the white house promise to appeal. meanwhile, governs -- governors are getting their state of the address nations addressing issues they think are most