on each visit we speak with state officials during live washington journal programming. follow the tour and join us on january 16 at 9:30 a.m. eastern for a stop in raleigh, north carolina when our washington journal guest is the north carolina attorney general, josh stein. c-span, events from 2017 featuring well-known actors and others discussing issues they care about, including modern slavery, early childhood education and use of and substances in sports. and, c-span cities tour takes you on a journey of the literary world in fresno, california. >> actor ashton kutcher is the cofounder of an organization called thorn, defenders of children. which builds software to fight human trafficking. he testified before the senate foreign relations committee.

mr. kutcher: it is an honor to be here. as a young man brought up in the public school system, i pledged my allegiance to that flag every single day, and the honor, maybe one of the greatest honors of my life today, is to be here and leverage the work that i have done as testimony that may in some way benefit this nation that i love. i would like to start by saying thank you to chairman corker for your leadership in this endeavor and to senator cardin. your leadership has been extraordinary. i would like to say thank you to the rest of the committee that has supported this effort. this is a bipartisan effort, and in a country that is riddled with bipartisan separation on so many things, slavery seems to

come up as one of these issues that we can all agree upon. i applaud you for your agreement, and i believe in you and your leadership and your ability to take us out of it. i am here today to defend the right to pursue happiness. it is a simple notion. the right to pursue happiness is bestowed upon all of us by our constitution. every citizen of this country has the right to pursue it, and i believe that it is incumbent upon us as citizens of this nation, as americans, to bestow that right upon others, upon each other, and upon the rest of the world, but the right to pursue happiness for so many is stripped away. it is raped, it is abused, it is taken by force, fraud, or coercion.

it is sold for the momentary happiness of another. this is about the time when i start talking about politics that the internet trolls tell me to stick to my day job, so i would like to talk about my day job. my day job is as the chairman and cofounder of thorn. we build software to fight human trafficking and sexual exploitation of children. that is our core mission. my other day job is that of a father of two. a two-month-old and a two-year-old. it is part of the job i take seriously. i believe it is my effort to defend their right to pursue happiness and to ensure a society and government that defends it as well. as part of my anti-trafficking work, i have met victims in russia. i have met victims in india. i have met victims that have been trafficked from mexico, new

york, new jersey, and all across our country. i have been on fbi raids where i have seen things that no person should ever see. i have seen video content of a child that is the same age as mine being raped by an american man that was a sex tourist in cambodia. this child was so conditioned by her environment she thought she was engaging in play. i have been on the other end of a phone call from my team asking for my help because we have received a call from the department of homeland security telling us a seven-year-old girl was being sexually abused and that content was being spread around the dark web, and she had been abused and they watched her for 3 years and could not find the perpetrator. asking us for help.

we were the last line of defense. an actor and his organization was the last line of defense. that is my day job, and i'm sticking to it. i would like to tell you a story about a 15-year-old girl in oakland. we will call her amy. amy met a man online, started talking to him, and a short while later, they met in person. within hours, amy was abused, raped, and forced into trafficking. she was sold for sex. this is not an isolated incident. there is not much that is unusual about it. the only unusual thing is that amy was found and returned to her family within three days using the software that we created, a tool called spotlight. in an effort to protect its capacity over time, i will not give much detail about what it does, but it is a tool that can be used by law enforcement to

prioritize their caseload. it is a neural net. it gets smarter over time, better, more efficient as people use it. and it is working. in six months, with 25% of our users reporting, we have identified over 6000 trafficking victims, 2000 of which are minors. this tool is in the hands of 4000 law enforcement officials and 900 agencies, and we are reducing the investigation time by 60%. this tool is effective. it's efficient. it's nimble. it's better. it's smarter. there is often a misconception about technology that in some way it is the generator of some evil, that it is creating job displacement, and it enables violence and malice acts. but as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist in the technology field, i see

technology is simply a tool without will. the will is the user of that technology, and i think it is an important distinctive. an airplane is a tool. it is a piece of technology. under the right hands, it is used for mass global transit. under the wrong hands, it can be flown into buildings. technology can be used to enable slavery, but it can also be used to disable slavery. that is what we are doing. i alluded to a phone call we got from the department of homeland security about this girl who was being trafficked on the dark web. it is interesting to note that the dark web was created in the mid-1990's. it was a tool that was created with the naval research lab. tor, a tool with positive intention for sharing intelligence communications anonymously. it has also been used to help people who are being disenfranchised by their

governments in political dissent within oppressive regimes. on the other side, it is used for trafficking, for drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, and human trafficking. it is also the warehouse for some of the most offensive child abuse images in the world. when the department of homeland security called us and asks for our help and if we had a tool, i had to say no. it devastated me. it haunted me. for the next 3 months, i had to go to sleep every night and think about that little girl that was still being abused. the fact that if i built the right thing, we could save her. so that is what we did, and now, when i get that phone call, and greg, wherever you are at, the answer will be yes. we have taken these investigation times of dark web material from 3 years to what we believe can be three weeks.

the tool is called solis. i will not go into much detail about the tool, but it is being used by 40 agencies across the world today in beta, and we believe it will yield extraordinary results. just like spotlight, it gets smarter and more efficient and more cost effective over time. so where do we go for from here? what do we need? we need money. we need financing in order to build these tools. technology is expensive to build, but the beauty of technology is once you build the warehouse, it gets more efficient and more cost-effective over time. i might be able to present to you a government initiative where next year, i come back and ask for less. to me, that seems extraordinary. the technology we are building is efficient. it works. it is nimble, because traffickers change their modus operandi, and we can change ours as well.

just as efficiently if not more so than they can. it is enduring. and it only gets smarter with time. we are collecting data. we have apis. -- kpi's. we understand that if we are delivering value, we can increase our efforts in that area. if we are not delivering value, we shut it down. and it is a quantifiable solution. one of my mentors told me don't go after this issue if you can't come up with a quantifiable solution. we can quantify it and we can make the work you're doing in the initiatives you put forward accountable. my second recommendation is to continue to foster these private/public partnerships. spotlight was only enabled by the mccain institution, and the full support of cindy mccain, and a man that i find to not only be a war hero, but a hero to this issue, john mccain. it was not just created by them.

there is extraordinary support from the private sector. the company digital reasoning out of tennessee stepped up to the plate and offered us engineers, support and pro bono work. we had the support of companies that often times war with each other, google to microsoft, to aws, facebook, and some of our other technology initiatives, including many other private charities. it is vital to our success. these private public partnerships are the key. the third thing i would like to highlight is the pipeline. you know, we sit at the intersection of discovery of these victims, but the pipeline in, and the pipeline out are just as vital and just as important in addressing, and addressing them are just as important. i would like to highlight one thing in particular. the foster care system. there are 500,000 kids in foster care today.

i was astonished to find out that 70% of the inmates in the prisons across the country have touched the foster care system. 80% of the people on death row were at some point in time exposed to the foster care system. 50% of the kids will not graduate high school. 95% of them will not get a college degree. the most staggering statistic i found was foster care children are 4 times more likely to be exposed to sexual abuse. that is a breeding ground for trafficking. i promise you, that is a breeding ground for trafficking. the reason i looked at foster care is it is a microcosm, a sample set that we have pretty extraordinary data around today, even though we cannot seem to fix it. a microcosm for what happens when displacement happens abroad, the unintended consequences of our actions or inactions in the rest of the world. when people are left out, when they are neglected, when they are not supported, and they are not given the love that they

need to grow, it becomes an incubator for trafficking. this refugee crisis, if we want to be serious about ending slavery, we cannot ignore it. we cannot ignore our support for this issue in that space, because otherwise we are going to deal with it for years to come. the outbound pipeline. there's just not enough beds. the bottom line is, once someone is exposed to this level of abuse it is a mental health issue. there is not enough beds, there's not enough support. we have to have the resources on the other side, otherwise the recidivism rates are through the roof. it is astonishing, because what -- because when maslow hierarchy of needs are not being met, people, the only source of love they have in their life, that is what they go for. we have to address the pipeline out, and we have to create support systems on the other end. it is not an entitlement.

it is a demand to end slavery. my fourth and final recommendation is the bifurcation of sex trafficking and labor trafficking. they are both aberrations, both awful, both slavery, and both punitive, in fact, but the solution sets are highly differentiated. when you look at sex trafficking, a victim is most often present at the incident of commerce. and this provides an opportunity for drastic intervention. whereas in labor trafficking, the victims are being hidden by the manufacturers and the merchandisers, and it requires an entirely different set of legislation, and proactivity, and enforcement in order to shut it down. there is a lot of rhetoric going on in the world right now about job creation in the united states. if we want to create jobs in the united states, i would ask you to consider eliminating slavery

from the pipelines of corporations. because a lot of that slavery is happening abroad, and if we ask those corporations under extreme pressure that if you do not change it, you are going to be penalized, and if you don't clean up that pipeline, it is going to mean trouble. they are forced to two decisions. they can either clean up the pipeline abroad, or they can move the jobs to the united states of america where they can be regulated and supported. bringing jobs to america can be the consequence of doing the right thing, or it can be the consequence of doing the wrong thing. but that choice is up to you. it is not lost on me that all of this disruption in our marketplace is going to have economic backlash. that is not lost on me at all. but i ask you, did you believe that abraham lincoln had to consider the economic backlash of shutting down the cotton fields in the south when he shut

down slavery? because i'm sure that weighed on his mind. happiness can be given to no man. it must be earned. it must be earned through generosity and through purpose. but the right to pursue it, the right to pursue it is every man's right, and i beg of you that if you give people the right to pursue it, what you may find in return is happiness for yourself. thank you. >> earlier this year, michael phelps used his status as the most decorated olympian ever to call for improved anti-doping measures in sports. testifying before the house energy and subcommittee he described a system where some athletes are tested repeatedly, and others are never tested. you can watch this entire hearing on our website,

www.c-span.org. mr. phelps: good morning. my name is michael phelps. i am a retired professional swimmer and olympian. i would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to appear before you today. it is a privilege to be here to share my thoughts on the perspective of the issue of clean sport, which is important to so many athletes and to sport in general. i competed internationally for over 15 years and have a tremendous honor to represent the united states in five olympic games and six world championships. without question, many of my proudest moments have been representing my country in international competition. there is no greater feeling than standing on top of the podium, watching the stars and stripes rise as the national anthem plays. the rio olympics were special to me because it gave me the opportunity to end my career on my terms and do it with my wife, nicole, and son boomer watching. it was also unique because of

increased doping concerns. i watched how this affected my teammates and fellow competitors. we all felt frustration. looking back over my career and knowing how difficult it is to get to the highest levels of sport, i cannot help wonder if the next generation of athletes will be able to do it if there is uncertainty that continues. as a child, i found school difficult. i had adhd, which probably contributed to my restlessness. i will never forget being told by one of my teachers that i would never amount to anything. it was swimming that enabled me to see past those challenges and not be defined by them. my mom put my sisters and me in the pool so we would be water safe. at first, like many children, i was afraid to put my head under the water. by overcoming that fear, i got my first taste of self-confidence. as it turned out, i was pretty good in the water, and i quickly realized that the harder i work, the quicker i improved. i found a focus and purpose i had never felt before. i would set goals for myself and work like crazy until i

accomplished them. dreams would pop into my head whenever i got into the pool. i would dream about becoming a gold medalist, recordholder, i wanted to be the best. i talked to my coach so we could come up with a plan, not just for what i was doing in the pool, but also how i could better myself away from the pool. i made up my mind to do everything i could to make my dream a reality. in school, i had friends, but it was not that social. i focused on swimming. at times, i was made fun of for what i was doing because it was different. i was in love with challenging myself to become the best athlete that i could be. i felt that every single day was an opportunity for me to do something special when i went to the pool. i always felt the kids who worked the hardest got the best results. that's why i pushed myself as hard as i could. over a five-year period, i trained every single day without a day off. i figured by training on holidays i would be able to get that extra edge.

as my hard work and sacrifice began to pay off, my confidence grew. i began to feel that if i could dream something and gave everything i had, anything is possible. the strength of that belief drove me to set goals that others may have thought were unrealistic. that is one amazing thing about competitive sport. it demands you believe in yourself. this is not always easy. there were so many times i could have quit and walked away. sticking with it requires me to dig deep, especially knowing that after all the work and sacrifice, success might be determined by just 1/100th of a second. in those critical moments that you really test your commitment and that can ultimately define your career you need to believe that if you push on, you will get the opportunity to measure yourself, your preparation, your desire, your talent, against others who have prepared themselves in the same exact way.

throughout my career, i thought some athletes were cheating, and in some cases, those suspicions were confirmed. given all the testing we have been through, i had a hard time understanding this. in addition to the test and competitions, i had to notify them as to where i was every day, so they would be able to conduct random testing out of competition. this whole process takes a toll, but it is absolutely worth it to keep the sport clean and fair. i cannot describe how frustrating it is to the other athletes breakthrough performance barriers in unrealistic time frames knowing what i had to do to go through that. i watch how this affected my teammates as well. even the suspicion of doping is disillusioning for athletes. to believe in yourself through sport, you need to be able to believe in the system that safeguards clean sport and fair play. all athletes must be held to the

same standards, which need to be implemented and enforced with consistency and independence. for years now, i worked closely with kids, most of which are not swimmers, but are eager to sit down and talk with me and, always full of questions. it is when i talk about being a kid like them, and how this all started with a dream, you see their eyes light up. we talk about how i did it and tell them they can do it too, and tell them if they do the work, they can succeed. the power to believe in yourself and inspire others through sport depends upon fair play. now that i'm retired, i'm frequently asked if i think anyone will ever win more medals than me in my lifetime. my answer to that question is i hope so. i would like to think there is some little boy or girl out there now with an even bigger dream, and even stronger drive, to work harder than i ever did to do something never done before.

but for that to happen, he or she must believe they will get a fair opportunity to compete. if we allow our confidence in fair play to erode, we will undermine the power of sport, and the goals and dreams of future generations. the time to act is now. we must do what is necessary to ensure the system is fair and reliable so we can all believe in it. thank you, mr. chairman and members of the committee. [applause] >> next, actress jennifer garner spoke at the national governors association on the issue of childhood education. she sits on the board of trustees for the group, save the children. mrs. garner: it is exciting and thrilling to be in a room full of people who are giving their lives to the service of our country. i am honored to be here.

i am grateful to be a part of this conversation. when i started working for this organization nine years ago, the thought of being part of a national conversation was off in the distance. it is thrilling to see everyone here and committed and ready to get to work. first, to let you know how i got into this in the first place, my mom grew up dirt poor with 10 siblings in post-depression oklahoma. she managed to get herself educated, the only member of her family to go to college. eventually mom and dad landed my sisters and me in charleston, west virginia where we grew up middle-class surrounded by rural poverty. the kind where kid's shoes are cut along the front to let their toes grow out. some of my friends did not make it to second grade when i did, third grade when i did, and to

-- and somehow disappeared off the face of the earth in my elementary school mind. and onep one generation holler removed from poverty. awareness and gratitude are powerful motivators and have driven me to think about big things like how did my mom get out and how can i help other kids like the ones i grew up close to? so i hunted down the organization that at the time, and i still believe, has the most efficacy of helping kids get out of generational rural poverty in the united states. that was, save the children. mark and i have had the great luck and fortune and believe me, when you are going into someone's trailer home surrounded by trash with plastic over a broken window with the oven door open to heat the space that is infested by cockroaches,

that has not an ounce of joy in the place, you do feel privileged to be allowed in people's homes, accepted, and welcomed into a place where they could actually just feel shame and not want you to look inside. when we walk into these homes, you would be suffocated by the silence in the room. the children are not babbling. they are not talking. they are not crying. they are not making joyful sounds or anything else. that is because their senses are dulled. their mothers and fathers are so overwhelmed by the stressors of living in poverty, food scarcity, not knowing where they will live, drug addiction, abuse. you all know the drill better than i. the mothers are so overwhelmed that they don't have the capacity to look outside themselves. i'm sure they have not had the modeling that most of us have had with great parents.

they do not have the capacity to look outside themselves and read to their baby, seeing to their -- sing to their baby and speak to and love their babies. they sit their babies in front of a television. i have seen it over and over again across this country. and the child quietly goes to sleep inside their mind. if the brain grows between birth and 5, we are doing these children a great disservice because they have absolutely lost the chance to ever make it ahead in life. if you are growing up in poverty, by four-years-old, you are a year and a half behind developmentally. you are a 2.5-year-old. how is it going to feel when you start kindergarten? 60% of kids in rural america start kindergarten in special ed. it doesn't make sense. we all know that. there is an answer, and the answer is starting earlier and earlier, and earlier. and, as much as i believe and applaud all of you who are putting money and effort into

helping kids at three years old and four years old, i challenge you to look at birth to three, and ask you to think about what you are doing for those newborns. [applause] in the last couple of years i places,ited many governor mcmasters, south carolina, where the programs are needed and the money was cut yesterday, i'm coming out after him. governor bevans for kentucky. mississippi. i am thrilled to tell you that there is so much optimism in getting to a mother and child early. i have a story that i love. i was visiting a family in a concrete home in the heat of central valley, california. there was a little boy, 11 months old.

when i walked into the house, i had a 10 month old little boy. he is turning five on monday. this little boy did not look up, smile, or react to me at all. he was sitting in front of an episode of oprah, and that was kind of where his focus was, and she is wonderful. i hope he got something from her. the mother also looked oppressed, overwhelmed, exhausted, and i can understand why. her life did not look like anything i would want to lead. this little boy was stagnant. the children's court nadir came in and brought something for this child -- the children's coordinator came in. she brought a ball. this boy had never seen a ball. imagine your own children, your son with his first ball.

this kid look at that ball and looked at his mom, and the roleren's coordinator said that ball to your son. she did. she could not believe what was happening. he rolled it back, and the mother kind of sat there. the coordinator said he's playing with you. do it again. do it again. [beep] is that my time? it is like the oscars. you guys are so scary. [applause] can i tell you what happened with the mom and child? the baby made a noise. the baby made a noise. the coordinator said he is talking to you. she said he is not talking to me. he is, it is speech, connection, it is happening. say the same thing back to him. the mother did, embarrassed. the child said it back.

the next thing you know they , were babbling back and forth. i saw a light switch go on. i know, because we visited the week after that, the light switch was turned on just enough that a connection was made here are the mother knew she could play with her child, speak with her child and expect a response. that that child had a chance to go to kindergarten ready to learn. thank you and call on me if i can be a part of coming to your state and introducing you to our program. and governor mcmaster, i will speak to you soon. >> robert davi, an award-winning actor, screenwriter, and director spoke at the conservative political action conference in washington. he described the origins of his relationship with president trump and his support for the president's agenda.

[applause] mr. davi: good evening. i have to tell you, i got the invitation to come here. i said, i ain't showing up. i have something else i have to do. i'm thrilled to be here with all of you. i have to say how moved i am to see how many young people are engaged. you are the future of this country. you have got to be engaged and understand how important this moment of your history is. this nation belongs to you.

i want to ask a question and be honest. how many of you, on the day donald trump came down the escalator, were trump supporters? just raise your hand. how many are supporters today? i write for breitbart. i have done that since its inception. andrew breitbart was a good friend of mine. i met him on the uss ronald reagan. i also have a talk show. bond villain goes talkshow host. i call part of my show after an italian fish stew. politics can be very fishy at times. i want to read something i wrote

for breitbart, the day donald trump made his entrance with melania down the escalator. donald trump could be the presidential candidate who finally provides america with the message grassroots conservatives have wanted to hear. the common sense populist message, while not as poetic as ronald reagan, goes to the gut of an american population ripping it here out while watching the destruction of our republic from within. the compliance and lack of imagination from some of the republican party, the elite, and the aggressive takeover by progressives who are bent every shaping america into the image of europe have brought us to the point we are in. i have not, in my lifetime, seen

such a disparaging portrait of america. it will take a leader who understands how to build, not just govern. we have had years of the blood of political elites who have dismantled america's individualism. we don't need another politician at this time in our history. that was my opening statement in the breitbart article that i wrote the day our president was announced. these are all great political figures, and i respect them all, but i remember watching, and we love all of them, but there are benchmarks for me. the media is one of them. the culture is another. we will get to the media. i've talked about that for years. being in hollywood since 1977, i

did my first film with frank sinatra. i've seen hollywood. i have seen ronald reagan in the 1980's. i talked with a friend of mine a couple of times. we discussed this. when ronald reagan was president of the united states, mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. the wall came down. nuclear detente, prosperity. in 1988, his right hand was a guy named george bush. we respect the bushes, we respect george bush, but there was a shift. there was a shift that was stunning. after being the right hand of ronald reagan for eight years,

seeing the bold choices, the bold moves that he made, much like donald trump how the establishment on the left and right have attacked donald trump through his whole thing, what does george bush run under in 1988? that was 1992. in 1988 he said a kinder, gentler nation. right after he saw what ronald reagan did. george bush is a good man. that was a globalist flag put in the ground. after reagan we had bush, clinton, bush 2, obama. we needed a force of nature. we needed a force of nature to take the ship back, generated by

you, the people. it is your campaign, as donald trump says over again. when mitt romney ran, we thought he could win. another good man. here he is doing a debate. remember the second debate? i am an actor. i am sitting at home. i watched the second debate. the president says -- talking about benghazi. mitt romney was not able to go, this was on cnn, the media, i will tease you for a second about cnn. who is the parent company of cnn? who is it? time warner? is time warner the parent company? remember that. cnn she holds it up.

kenny, get the paper. instead of mitt romney looking at kenny crowley, he said you guys rehearsed this? then saying the american people knew. they were misled about thing causing mr. president. we cannot mislead them any longer. that is the stance that should have been taken at that moment. for some reason the elites are afraid to rock the boat. the third debate, have them bring it up. bring it up at the third debate. i also said, when hurricane sandy happened, have them go. he may not have ever heard it, but i said it to the campaign people. when hurricane happens, when you're are going to be president of the united states, act like it. donald trump did that when the hurricane happened in louisiana. he understands the media.

he understands how to bring a message to the people. do you remember the night he won the election? my 16-year-old boy, for four hours ate his sandwich like this. he was pissed off they did not call florida earlier. finally, when it was called for him, he released. she did not give a concession speech because i know what happened backstage. you have to realize what happened. everyone's hair had to be on fire. in hollywood, they had to be calling him. every hollywood elitist had to be calling.

george soros, what happened? they probably called george soros. he was probably saying what happened? there is a book coming out about it. here is what she said in her speech. to the millions of volunteers, community leaders, activists, union organizers who knocked on doors, posted on facebook, private facebook sites, i want everyone coming out from behind that and making sure your voices are heard going forward. to the young people in particular, i hope you will hear this, i have spent my entire adult life fighting for what i believe in. i have had successes and setbacks. sometimes painful ones. many of you are the beginning of your careers. you will have setbacks too.

please, never stop believing that fighting for what is right is worth it. it is worth it. we need you to keep up these fights. now, a couple of hours later was the first marches. that was the trigger. what is happening now in our country, from the elite in hollywood, the elite in hollywood can fly and work anywhere. i travel the world singing. i am a darn good singer. i can go anywhere, but the makeup artist, the key grip, the dry cleaner cannot get on that plane. they lost touch with the blue-collar america. they don't know. now, a few things more. the parent company of cnn is

time warner. we know the media, the fake media, the very fake media, we know -- i have known for years. i have seen it being manipulated. i respect everyone's point of view. i understand when i see the vitriol and the misrepresentation, continued misrepresentation of certain things. exaggerations of certain things carried to a point they shouldn't be, that is what we are seeing now. every media says the first 100 days. he has been in office for 30 something days and look at what has been accomplished. look what the future is going to be.

anyway, i have to wrap up. i will finish this speech tomorrow. in honor of mike pence i would like to mention another son of indiana. how many of you know of red skelton? on his tv show 1969 he talked about the pledge of allegiance. the remember that? i would like to read what he said, what his teacher said about the pledge of allegiance. the kids were not saying it with meaning behind it. the last message ronald reagan gave to the american people in his farewell speech was the american patriotism. educate the youth with a new american patriotism. the article i wrote in breitbart in november, read it. it is important. president trump in his inauguration address brought up patriotism.

immigrants that have not been assimilated have not been taught it. the pledge of allegiance, i, me, a committee of one, pledge all of my worldly goods to give without self-pity, allegiance, my love and devotion, to the flag, our standard, old glory, a symbol of freedom. wherever she waves there is respect because your loyalty gives dignity. i am sanctified by the blood of our most brave. united, that means we have come altogether. states, individual communities that have united into 50 individual communities with pride, dignity, and purpose, divided with imaginary boundaries and unify to a common purpose. that is love of country.

and to the republic, a state in which sovereign power is invested in representatives chosen by the people to govern. government is the people, from the people to the leaders. not the leaders to the people. for which it stands one nation under god, meaning so blessed by god. indivisible, incapable of being divided, with liberty, the power to live one's own life without threat, fear of retaliation. justice, the principle of quality of living fairly with others. for all, boys and girls, as much your country as it is mine. now, boys and girls, lets stand for the pledge of allegiance. let's hear it. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america

and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [applause] >> former california governor and actor arnold schwarzenegger spoke at a summit on afterschool programs, where he criticized proposed federal spending cuts. he is the founder of afterschool all-stars, a program in los angeles. he spoke about his activism with a cnn commentator. >> let me ask you a couple of tough questions. aren't you spoiling these kids? i will be honest, you, yourself, come from a modest background. no one gave you a big

afterschool program. you figured out a way. you almost invented bodybuilding. you transformed the whole field. you are not just, i need a program. aren't you spoiling the kids? shouldn't they just go do it like you did it? mr. schwarzenegger: i know what your question is, but i have to tell you i was spoiled myself. because today, today we have to organize afterschool programs because both of the parents are working in most households. when i grew up in austria that was very uncommon that both parents were working. i did not ever hear that. very rarely. 5% maybe at the time did that. most of the people, the mothers stayed home and cooked. my mother was a traditional house frau.

a member of the home, and from morning to night, was all about providing food. she would be gardening, growing the vegetables, doing all those kind of things, and then cooking up a storm. in the afternoon, when we came home, she was there and made sure we did our homework. and she was tough. you know, i mean really tough. the ruler, the back of the hand, if you did not do your math. you cannot do that now, but this was the old days. she was there, she helped us with homework. she was well educated. she could help us with the homework all the time. in the afternoon, my father was a police officer. he went to the sports field, the soccer field, and he coached us in soccer. in the winter they would go ice

curling and ice-skating with us. literally, from morning to night, between the coaches and the teachers and the parents, everyone, mentors, everyone was there 24 hours a day. this is why i am here today, because i had that kind of upbringing. this is why i became a fanatic when i was the chairman of the president's council on fitness, i went to all 50 states promoting health and fitness in the schools. i always saw hundreds of kids being sent outside, and they were just standing around. so i've would ask, who is picking them up? they would say no one. i feel sorry for the kids if they don't have someone there helping them with homework. i felt sorry for the kids because no one pick them up and took them to the sports field. there was no want help them with music, art, painting, something for them to do. that is where the idea came from. if i wanted to give anything back to this country, it is one thing i can do to give back.

starting the afterschool programs, the whole movement. >> that's beautiful. my dad was born poor. he said the liberals and the conservatives get it wrong. he said the liberals think you can give someone money and stop them from being poor. if you are poor and your heart, skills, and self-esteem you may not be broke, but you will be broke tomorrow because you have to climb the ladder yourself. at the same time the conservatives get it wrong because even though every kid has to climb the ladder out of poverty on their own effort, the grown-ups have to make sure there is a ladder for them to climb. you are building ladders, and we appreciate that. mr. schwarzenegger: thank you.

we talked about that, how important it is we pay attention to our kids. they need the help. imagine how many kids are falling behind in education, they can't keep up because everyone has different abilities. they don't have anyone to give them a little push. would we do in our afterschool programs, to give them tutoring. if they come to the afterschool program and they are falling behind in math, they get tutoring in math. if they are falling behind in english skills because they are from a foreign country, germany, a latin country am a french country, if they fall behind they need help. we need to help the kids all the time, that is the bottom line. >> when you got into politics, i was jealous because i was in politics for a long time and i

never passed one bill. your first ballot measure you move half a billion dollars, 60% of the vote, embarrassed the professionals. it was not just that you did it, the way you did it. you had the civil rights groups and cops together and we have been fighting with each other throughout the 1980's and 1990's here you got us together. republicans and democrats, young and old. how? it is not fair. the rest of us have been trying. how were you able to pull this off? how are you able to get republicans and democrats to work together? mr. schwarzenegger: there were a lot of people working on this.

the way we did it was it was known that law enforcement was adamant about getting the kids off the street and finding a way to get them to community centers to play basketball or do something educational. they talk about the danger zone between 3:00 and 6:00. the teachers union, i said, can you endorse this? they said that is fantastic as long issue don't create competition for our teachers. i said no, we want to hire the teachers. they said great. i went to organizations, democrats, republicans, and everyone started getting involved. i am a very inclusive person. i don't try to do anything thinking i can do it myself. i felt everyone that is interested in having kids get afterschool programs, i want them to endorse the initiator of we went up and down the state.

i spent millions of dollars of my own money to put on tv and advertise, to promote, the initiative. we raised millions of dollars. that is how we pushed it over the top. i feel passionate about it. i come in for years, tried to get in touch with legislators in california. i told them, it is about afterschool programs. no one wanted to meet. then i got in touch with the governor and he did not want to meet. no one had any interest because it was kids. they didn't give money to politicians. there is nothing in there. they didn't understand the value. i said, i think the next best thing that we can do when you have this great political system where you can go directly to the

people through an initiative process, that is the route i am going to go. that is exactly what we did. when i saw the point numbers, they said we are going to endorse it. everyone started endorsing it, and became part of it, which was great. i do not hold any grudges or anything like that. it was great. everyone worked together. almost 60% of the voters during a recession, may i remind you. arnold: that may have been the last great bipartisan moment in the states. since then, things have gone in interesting directions. i know about you because i got a chance to read stuff and learn stuff about you.

you seem to be a sponge. wherever you go, it seems you are just learning and learning and learning. you have gotten a chance to meet a bunch of folks in this room. you met a bunch of the kids through news programs. what has this community taught you that you want to reflect back to them? arnold: i think every time you do something, it does not matter if it is -- i have been an international coach for special olympics, for instance, for the last 40 years. most people do not know that. i just came from the special olympics in austria because we hosted the international special olympic games for winter sports. and people always say you're really pumping up these guys. the people in the special olympics are so pumped up when you come around. the fact of the matter is, when i watch them, i see the obstacles they have to overcome to perform, and unbelievable races and all that stuff, i -- ice skaters, figure skaters, whatever the sport is, you know, you watch them.

it is spectacular, with all the obstacles and that is really inspirational. they don't look at it as an obstacle. i get inspired by them through the same. when i go around in the community, and i see the way kids grow up, the lack of money there is a lot of times and opportunities, lack of opportunity, it inspires me, creates the fire in the belly where i got to go out and do something about it and help. i was very privileged because i got a lot of help from my parents early on and later on in this country. the publisher of muslim fitness magazines, the king of bodybuilding, he gave me all the opportunities. producers like that gave me all the opportunities to do great movies and all the stuff. i want to do the same thing. i want all of those kids to have the same opportunities. this is why it is important, when you see the way they live and the lack of opportunities they have, it inspires me in turn to go out and to help and

to do something about that because i am a person that does not like to sit in front of the television set and complain. because i hate that. >> that is the national sport, dude. arnold: i know. >> i thought you liked sports. arnold: i have a lesson for people. instead of complaining about something, it is better to go and have a solution and do something about it. just to sit there and say, i cannot believe what is going on in washington. this is terrible. every time we look at the news so there's another problem and they complain. and i say wait a minute, congress has a worse approval

rating than herpes or colonoscopies, or any of those things. i say to myself, that 98% of them that got reelected in this last election. so, i say, you are the problem. instead of complaining in front of the television set, do something about it. listen more carefully to what they say. the whole political system is fixed in the first place. >> nbc correspondent maria shriver is founder of a group called the women's alzheimer's movement. she testified earlier this year for the senate special committee on aging, calling on congress to roll back cuts on alzheimer's research. you can watch this in its entirety on our website, www.c-span.org >> good afternoon. thank you for inviting be here today.

it is an honor to be here with so many extraordinary people. every single person behind me could actually be be testifying -- could actually be testifying and tell an incredible story. i am honored to be here. as chairman call-in mentioned and as some of you may know, i have been here before, eight years ago to be exact. until march of 2009 i sat here and testified about how alzheimer's had taken up residence in what had been my father's beautiful brain. my father was an idealistic, intelligent, and dedicated to -- dedicated public servant. his mind was as sharp as they come, a beautifully tuned instrument that left people in all and inspired. he was an expert at sharing his passion with the general public, thought leaders, and people like yourself.

he also often came here to the hill to increase funding for the war on are pretty programs that -- war on poverty programs that he created including headstart, vista, job corps, and legal services for the poor. he loved working in this building and he was really good at it. he knew every senator and congressmen by name and if he were here today, he would know every single thing about each and everyone of you, about your careers, your interest, your politics, your families, and yes, your soft spots. imagine how painful it was to watch when this walking encyclopedia of a man went from knowing every fact about everything that had ever happened in the history of this country to not knowing what a spoon or a fork was, to not knowing what my name was or not knowing his own name.

two years after i testified, my father died of alzheimer's disease and now i'm back. back again to testify. back again to sound a 911 alarm about the biggest biomedical crisis facing the world today and i say that it is a world crisis. back to focus your brains on this killer ravaging brains and families across this great country of ours. believe me, i wish i didn't have to come back here to testify. it was not on my calendar. when i learned that the funding for nih and alzheimer's research might be in jeopardy, i practically ran here to say this cannot be. wait a minute. there must be some mistake here. i know that this committee is well aware of this crisis unfolding in homes across the country. i know you know about it first hand and i know you note about

it -- you know about it from the people you represent. let me use this moment to remind the committee and the american public just what the up-to-date facts really are and these are real facts. every 66 seconds another brain will develop alzheimer's disease and two thirds of those brains belong to women. and no one knows why that is. a woman in her early 60's is twice as likely to get alzheimer's in her lifetime than she is to get breast cancer. and the statistics are even more alarming for women of color. african-american women are twice as likely to develop alzheimer's as caucasian women, and latinas 1.5 times more likely. on top of that, more than 15 million americans our caring for someone with alzheimer's or other form of dementia while also holding down jobs.

all of those reasons are why i founded the alzheimer's women's movement. i believe the determining why women are more affected by alzheimer's will help us unlock some of the mysteries of this disease. instead of focusing only on the formation of plaques and tangles in the brain, let's also start focusing on women's brains and their bodies, on their chromosomes, on the way they process information. this could help us learn more about alzheimer's progression. i believe studying women and getting more women into cynical -- into clinical trials could possibly lead to the cure for all of us. i don't believe this is sexist. i believe it is just plain old smart. it is smart. thank you. [applause]

maria: it is smart because alzheimer's is the most complex, mysterious, and expensive disease in the united states. it is more expensive than heart disease and cancer. and it's the only one of the top 10 diseases that a means to prevent, cure, or slow its progress. in fact, the death rum breast -- the death from breast disease, cancer, heart disease, are all down, but alzheimer's disease deaths are up, up by a breathtaking 89%. it is bankrupting families and on its way to bankrupting this country. if you ask how much medicare and medicaid will be spending on alzheimer's, the projected total is 259 billion dollars. if the government does nothing, the costs are projected to explode to $1.1 trillion. i hope we can sit for a minute

with those astounding figures. i want to take a moment to thank you, chairman collins, to make a bipartisan resolution to make a plan to effectively treat alzheimer's disease by 2021 is an urgent national priority. right now, it is the most seriously underfunded disease in our country. this, at a time when every alzheimer's scientist will tell you we are at a critical and potentially groundbreaking moment in the history of the research of this disease. so much progress has been made, but now it is stalled. the only thing many of them say keeping us from pressing on to find a cure is federal funding to move forward.

my friend, the scientist at the women's alzheimer fund, is a top alzheimer's researcher who discovered the first gene for the disease 35 hears ago. -- 35 years ago. his lab has found two dozen more in the last decade. he says we have learned from studying the genes important clues about what needs to be done to prevent alzheimer's i -- a decade before any symptoms arrive. but he says laboratory budget constraints researchers like him face is only about 10% on the research and information available. the united states government is better than this. we are letting down the millions who have this disease, the millions that are carriers, and the millions were going to get alzheimer disease and other forms of dementia. right now, 10,000 people are turning 65 every day.

remember that i said that brains develop alzheimer's disease every 66 seconds? by 2060, someone will develop alzheimer's every 33 seconds. we have to fund this disease at the level it deserves. [applause] maria: we have to fund it at the level we funded aids and that we funded cancer, because this is an equal opportunity crisis, us in on me that can crash into any and all of us, republicans, democrats, independents.

and make no mistake, without a federal amendment like you spoke about, we are going to lose this fight. over the years, i have wracked my own brain wondering why alzheimer's doesn't get funded at the level of these other diseases. i asked myself is it not being marketed properly? is it not sexy enough? i wonder if it is because we think it is a normal part of aging, which it is not. or is it because our country is so obsessed with youth and none of us want to grow old? then, i thought maybe it is sexism, maybe because it affects women, that is why i can't tell you how many people have said to me, even doctors, isn't that just because women live longer? no. that is not why women are getting it. are we also terrified of losing our own minds that we want to push this disease out of the field of vision to deny it exists?

the truth is we can't deny it away anymore. alzheimer's is everywhere and it can develop in your brain for 20 years before a single symptom ever shows up telling you that you have it. and what does that mean? it means the chances are that several of us sitting in this room right here today have it right now and we don't even know it. think about that for just a minute. imagine one of you up there, imagine one day turning to someone you have served with and not knowing who they are. imagine looking the person in -- looking at the person in your home you have loved for decades and you can't remember their name. imagine your family being unable to care for you, physically, financially, emotionally, or spiritually.

imagine that scenario. millions of americans do not have to imagine it. probably most of the people in this room don't have to imagine it, because they are actually living it. one of them that i asked to join me here today in this room is 61-year-old pam montana, she is sitting behind me. i wanted her to come here today because she was just diagnosed with alzheimer's. her diagnosis forced her to leave a successful career at intel and forced her husband to quit his career as well so he could care for her. they face an uncertain future and a scary one at that, but i wanted you to see pam, because she is the face of alzheimer's. a woman in her prime, a woman, a wife, someone who had a successful career, who was earning money. this is the face of alzheimer's. and she and her husband have come here to capitol hill from all over this country to use

their voices, to advocate for increased funding, to tell you what it's like to live like this every single day, 24 hours a day. you know, there are so many brilliant minds focused on this issue, so many advocates like those of you on this panel and the 13 hundred advocates fanning out across the hill today, so many like the ones in this room who can no longer accept when they are told we just don't know what causes this disease or what to do about it. for them, that is plain old unacceptable. and for me, as a child of alzheimer's, it is also unacceptable. and for someone at pam's age, it is terrifying. the statement we just don't know needs to be repealed and replaced. it needs to be repealed and replaced with this. we do know, and here is what you can do.

because it wasn't so long ago that hiv/aids was a certain death sentence and cancer was pretty much incurable and now so. many of them are curable. science has turned all of that around, but nobody who has ever been diagnosed with alzheimer's has ever survived it. we can and we will do better than that. when my uncle, john f. kennedy was president, he challenged this country to put a man on the moon. it had never been done before. today, i challenge you to do also do something that has never been done before, give us the first person who survives a diagnosis of alzheimer's disease. [applause] maria: i'm asking this congress

to do what it takes to get our brilliant researchers back up and working at full capacity in their laboratories around this country, doing what they do best, which is a finding solutions, -- which is finding solutions, finding cures. not only that, until we find a cure or have to do better jobs -- we have to do better jobs of educating the public on ways to live a healthier lifestyles. we now know that the brain never stops developing, that is new. we need to educate people on the difference between brain health and healthy diet, how they can expand their brainpower with lifelong learning and social connection.

this is a priority for the women's alzheimer's movement which is why we have partnered with gyms all across this country, determined to get this message out to mainstream america that they can control their brain health, their genes are not their destiny. we also need to get the support of millions of caregivers. we have spoken about them today. the ongoing stress on these families is unimaginable. they need the resources to help them care for their loved ones while also working. and we must also ensure that there is a well-trained professional workforce ready to provide holiday care to the -- provide quality care to the increasing number of people living with alzheimer's's and other dementia who will need facilities.

i have never met anybody in of never met a woman who wasn't good at crossing off of her to do list. i strongly believe that this to-do list is something we can actually do even in this current climate, and perhaps more so in this current climate. the american public is desperate to see democrats and republicans working together. they are desperate to see success here in washington and this is a great place to start. i am asking all of you with the brains that you do have today, to come together, democrats and republicans, and make a commitment. let's do what we need to do to stop the onslaught of this mind blowing disease, because america should be the leader in solving this global medical crisis. we are the greatest country on the planet and finding a cure for this disease will make us be the smartest one. thank you very much. [applause]

>> thank you so much. maria: thank you. [applause] >> thank you. >> actor ryan phillipe joined elizabeth dole on capitol hill earlier this year for a hearing on military caregivers. mr. philippe serves as an ambassador for a group called hidden heroes. he testified before the senate special committee on aging. ryan: my experience growing up in a military family helped me prepare for this moment. both of my grandfathers fought in world war ii during my dad was in the navy during the vietnam war. my uncles were both seabees and infantrymen during the same period of time.

all of the members of my family who served thankfully returned, but each were affected in one way or another. i have had the opportunity as well to work with countless veterans and those currently listed on the area's television and film projects and all of this adds to my deep respect for our vets and understanding that they are our nation's true heroes. these days, i have then working with the elizabeth dole foundation and that's how i learned about a different kind of hero, our military caregivers , hidden heroes. family and friends that care for our service members that come home with physical and emotional scars. if you know anything about senator dole, she doesn't take

no for an answer. she will hold you accountable. she will hold all of us accountable, because our nation's military caregivers deserve it. over a lifetime, caregivers face is tremendous challenges and right now there are very few resources to help them. it is up to all of us to fix this. right now they are shouldering this alone. they don't expect our help, but we owe them purposeful action and lifelong support. something struck me in senator dole's remarks that i want to emphasize. the military caregivers play an essential role in improving the quality of life of our veterans. i quote "the best chance for a wounded warrior to recover him -- recover and survive is to have a strong caregiver. this is an emotional and financial toll on our caregivers." and that's why i am here.

we need to sign into law some very important legislation. for starters, i'm speaking specifically about the recently reintroduced caregivers improvement act. bipartisan legislation introduced in the house and senate to make expanded resources available to caregivers of veterans of all areas. this bill strengthens and expands vital programs to support caregivers nationwide and ensures that caregivers get recognized for their service in tangible ways. for example, pre-9/11 military caregivers would have the same support as we give to our post 9/11 military caregivers. those caregivers not only need but deserve our assistant. -- deserve our assistance. the v.a. caregivers programs should be available to all caregivers. the bill also supports caregivers for veterans who have mental or physical wounds.

it also provides assistance with child care, financial advice, legal counseling, and education, which are all top and currently unmet needs. by signing this bill, you will have a positive impact on the health of our nation's veterans in military families for a long time to come. as a hidden heroes ambassador i , have had the privilege of meeting with military caregivers across the country. and as i talk about it now i can't help but to think about megan and her husband matt. a marine corps veteran who honorably served to notorious and iraq. megan and matt are high school sweethearts. they live in connecticut now. they are a young couple. they are in love. yet, they have a long road ahead

of them. as a result of injuries received, matt now suffers from a traumatic brain injury and pts. megan helps him struggle with wounds we cannot see. invisible wounds most of us in this room cannot imagine. megan explained to me she never pictured herself as a caregiver, especially so soon into her marriage. matt needs her. she is always on the lookout for things that might trigger his pts and all while raising three young boys. she is making the most of things but she needs our help. there were 5.5 million military caregivers across america that can no longer go it alone. they need us and they need you. i ask you again, members of the committee, and all of you are today to give your support to

military caregivers serving our nation. senators, please sign on to the military caregivers services improvement act and each piece of legislation outlined. to everyone here today and watching across the country, please seek out military caregivers in your cities and towns and ask how you can help. thank you. >> the final speaker in our celebrity activist program is law and order actress mariska hartigay. she testified before a bipartisan task force about sexual violence. and the large backlog of untested rape kits. she is founder and president of the joyful heart foundation. >> good morning. i just want to start by saying thank you for your heartfelt comment and your passion this work. -- your passion for this work. i am speaking to you today as the president and founder of the

joyful hearts foundation. i want to think the task force for making the rate kit backlog of your first briefing. by elevating this issue you are sending a powerful message to survivors of sexual assault of their cases matter. you are demonstrating to law enforcement and prosecutors that we must work to do everything we can to hold people accountable and keep us safe. you have my full statement on record, so i would like to use my time today to focus on how in addressingme the untested rape kits backlog. that cannot begin without acknowledging the significant change in the actions of the federal government.

in 2014, congress created the sexual assault kit initiative to , createjurisdictions multidisciplinary teams to prosecute and investigate cases and address the need for victim notification and re-engagement with the criminal justice system. overstated.annot be we have heard from law enforcement and prosecutors that thefunds as well as requirement to create a team to undertake systemic reform are bringing communities together like never before. these focused resources are helping law enforcement get serial criminals off the street, ,asing the burden on personnel facilitating community engagement, and making neighborhoods safer. we have heard the same feedback from victim advocates. funds are helping agencies already stretched thin to implement reform and catalyze changes.

i first testified in congress about the rape kit backlogs back in may 2010, and the national landscape today is very different. then, we had no idea how many untested rape kits were sitting on shelves in police storage facilities and cried lapse. -- and crime labs. the best guess was an estimated 400,000, but that number is disputed. the reality is, because most jurisdictions don't have a system of tracking and counting rape kits, we cannot be sure of the number. however, through public records requests, investigative journalism, grassroots advocacy and state legislative reform, we are beginning to understand the scope of the backlog nationwide. since 2010, more than 200,000 untested kits have been accounted for and 21 states and washington, d.c. have passed

laws requiring audits of untested rape kits. when i testified in 2010, there were no reform laws on the books. today, that trend has shifted. since january 1, 2017, 71 rape kit reform bills have been introduced in 32 states and 10 states have laws. joyful heart has launched a national campaign to reform legislation in all 50 states by 2020. since 2010, 30 states have enacted some sort of reform. through grants, we are also seeing a change in law enforcement's understanding of the impact of trauma on survivors. jurisdictions now understand this important perspective and are implementing trauma informed

and victim centered notification practices that seek to avoid re-victimization and further harm. although we have seen progress, there is still much more work to be done. only eight states have laws that are being tested in the kits. means in most states the decision to send kits for testing is less up to discretion of the individual. trend toeverse that ensure that every kit connected to a reported case is tested. solves crimests and saves lives. legislative districts are not determined the outcome of their case or the right to information.

thank you. on behalf of all survivors across the country i thank you for your attention and i look for to continuing this dialogue. me for reformmend and together we are committed to raising awareness around those who have not. thank you. click sunday night on afterwards, christopher scalia, son of the late supreme court justice antonin scalia a, talks about his book, "scalia speaks." >> it's one he delivered often, it was his stump speech. i was looking forward to finding a written version of that because i thought it was great.

passageded a wonderful where he compared the approach to a television commercial from commercial a prego or someone is heating up store-bought pasta sauce and the husband who says to his wife, you are using the store-bought sauce, you're not doing it homemade? what about the oregano? what about the pepper? it's in there. and my dad would say we have that kind of constitution now. anything that was good and true and beautiful. click sunday night at 9 p.m. eastern on c-span's book tv.