captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, president trump's "hard power" budget proposal slashes funding to the e.p.a. and state department among other government agencies, while major increases go to border security and defense, a look at his efforts to restructure government spending across the board. then, the high stakes surrounding the president's revised travel ban. two federal judges freeze the new executive order hours before it was to take effect. and, while people with disabilities are still systematically sidelined for jobs, why one company is making an effort to hire more. >> as opposed to possibly a neurotypical person that may try to slide in at 9:10, the folks

that are on the spectrum will say, "hey, i arrived at 9:02 today. do i need to work until 6:02?" >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> it's hard not to feel pride as a citizen of this country when we're in a place like this. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century.

>> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the well-being of humanity around the world by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at rockefellerfoundation.org >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: much more for the

military, much less for many diplomatic and domestic programs. that's the upshot of president trump's first budget, unveiled today. john yang begins our coverage, at the white house. >> yang: it runs just 53 pages, totals more than $1.1 trillion, and embodies stark changes in federal spending priorities. budget director mick mulvaney: >> we had america first... an america first candidate. we now have an america first president. and it shouldn't surprise anybody that we have an america first budget. >> yang: the big winners in the white house budget request: the pentagon, with a proposed 10% increase $54 billion. the department of homeland security, with a 7% hike, including $4 billion for the mexico border wall. and the department of veteran affairs, proposed to increase by 6%. >> we're $20 trillion in debt. we're going to spend money. we're going to spend a lot of

money but we're not going to spend it on programs that cannot show that they actually deliver promises they made to people. >> yang: the biggest losers would include the environmental protection agency with a proposed 31% cut, eliminating funding for international climate-change programs and for cleanup efforts in the chesapeake bay and great lakes. the state department would be cut 29%, mostly foreign aid and u.n. peacekeeping. and the department of health and human services, is being asked to take an 18% cut. while the white house wants congress to cut justice department spending by 4%, it wants more money to target criminal organizations and hire immigration judges, at the expense of civil rights programs in tokyo, secretary of state rex tillerson said the proposed cuts in his budget are fine with him. >> i think clearly the level of spending the state department has been undertaking in the past, in particular this past year, is simply not sustainable. >> yang: president trump tweeted

that his budget request "puts america first must make safety it's number one priority." overall, his plan represents the biggest military buildup since the 1980's and the most sweeping reductions in other programs since world war ii. democrats immediately condemned the budget request. house minority leader nancy pelosi said it takes from the middle class and gives to the rich. >> this budget is not a statement of values of anyone. president trump has shown that he does not value the future of our children and working families. this budget is really a slap in the face of the future. >> yang: the administration wants to eliminate funding for 19 agencies, including the national endowment for the arts, americorps and the corporation for public broadcasting, a major funder for public radio and television. other points of contention are likely to be calls to eliminate community development block grants, and, cut billions of dollars for teacher training, after school and summer programs

and almost $100 million from the rural business and cooperative service. house armed services committee chairman mac thornberry said today he wants even more money for the military. house speaker paul ryan said the president's budget is just an opening bid. >> we'll have a full hearing about how priorities will be met. but do i think we can cut spending and get waste out of government? absolutely. >> yang: today's spending outline doesn't address taxes or entitlement programs like social security and medicare. those are to come in another budget document in may. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang at the white house. >> woodruff: a federal judge in maryland became the second in as many days to block president trump's revised travel ban, nationwide. the other ruling came last night, in hawaii. both judges found mr. trump's public remarks suggest it's still intended to be a muslim ban. the white house vowed to appeal. we'll explore the court rulings,

and what comes next, later in the program. bipartisan leaders of the senate intelligence committee are the latest to dismiss president trump's claim that he was wiretapped by president obama. they said today they've seen "no indications" of that. house intelligence leaders said much the same thing, yesterday. but press secretary sean spicer argued today nothing is clear, until the justice department reports next week. >> the d.o.j. asked for an additional week. the statement clearly says that at this time, that they don't believe that they have yet to go through the info. the d.o.j. has not supplied this. >> woodruff: spicer also said the president still stands by his claim. the house budget committee narrowly approved the republican health care bill today. three g.o.p. conservatives voted "no", putting dissent in republican ranks clearly on display.

for the first time, house speaker paul ryan acknowledged parts of the bill may have to change, to shore up support. >> clearly the main parts of this bill are going to stay exactly as they are, but we're making those improvements and refinements based on the feedback that we're getting from our members, and the president of the united states is the one who's been mediating this, the president of the united states is the one who's been bringing people together, sitting around a table, hashing out our differences so that we can get to a consensus document. >> woodruff: in a fox news interview that aired last night, the president said of the bill: "a lot of things aren't consistent. but these are going to be negotiated." european leaders congratulated dutch prime minister mark rutte today, after his victory over anti-muslim lawmaker geert wilders. in a victory celebration last night, rutte called it a victory for stability and security. >> ( translated ): this is also a night when the netherlands after brexit, after american elections, has said stop to the

wrong kind of populism. >> woodruff: wilders' party finished second, but the other dutch parties have said they will not work with him or include him in a governing coalition. pirates in somalia have released an oil tanker that they hijacked on monday. they say they were not paid any ransom. the release came hours after a gunfight between the pirates and local security forces. secretary of state rex tillerson urged north korea today to abandon its nuclear and missile programs. tillerson was in japan, starting his first asia trip. at a news conference with his japanese counterpart, he called for a new strategy but offered no specifics. >> i think it's important to recognize that the diplomatic and other efforts of the past 20 years to bring north korea to a point of denuclearization have failed. in the face of this ever- escalating threat, it is clear that a different approach is required.

>> woodruff: today was the first time tillerson had publicly fielded questions since assuming his post in early february. back in this country the head of usa gymnastics, steve penny, resigned amid allegations that he ignored sexual abuse of girls training for the olympics. the organization faces a brace of lawsuits charging that a former team doctor groped and fondled girls in training. they say penny and other officials knew about it and did nothing. and on wall street, stocks ended the day with little change. the dow jones industrial average lost 15 points to close 20,934. the nasdaq rose a fraction of a point, and the s&p 500 slipped nearly four. still to come on the newshour: congress weigh in on president trump's budget priorities. halted again-- what's next for the white house travel ban. previewing tomorrow's meeting between chancellor angela merkel and president trump, and much

more. >> woodruff: reaction from lawmakers to president trump's "america first" budget ranged from strong support to tough criticism. we turn now to two members of congress with two very different views of the president's budget proposal. first up, democratic senator chris van hollen. he's a member of the budget and appropriations committees and he joins us now from capitol hill. >> well, this budget tells me that donald trump is already getting very out of touch with the american people. it's the kind of budget you might expect from somebody who jets off to mar-a-lago every other week, and by the way, that costs taxpayers $3 million each time, which is the amount usually in the budget for the meals on wheels program to help feed over two million elderly. he wipes that out of the budget.

and if you look at the overall budget, it really is an attack on working people and on educational opportunity in the country. it is a recipe for dirtier air and contaminated water. it's really a bad deal for the american public. >> woodruff: the president tweeted, senator, you probably know, that this is a budget that puts america first. it's a budget that makes safety the prime consideration. >> well, actually, it makes america last in terms of investing in our people, investing in our economy, investing in our national infrastructure, something that candidate trump talked a whole lot about, yet they cut the infrastructure budget here by over 13%. so a lot of what he talked about on the campaign trail is actually under attack in this budget, including, i have to say, important economic development programs and

infrastructure programs for rural america. he does dramatically increase pentagon spending, but he cuts the funding for the state department, and the state department funding is designed to help keep us out of wars and to save lives and money, and that's what secretary mattis, his own defense secretary, has had to say. so this does not help america. in fact, it really erodes american influence around the world. >> woodruff: well, what they're saying is the pentagon budget, the defense spending in this country has been cut back so much that the united states is vulnerable and that this is a critical moment for the united states to restore the spending for defense that should have been there for the last number of years. >> well, actually, that's just another alternative fact coming out of this administration. we've had robust defense spending. i can support additional investment in our national security, but we just saw a few

months ago reports out of the pentagon about over $120 billion in wasteful spending. in fact, donald trump has talked about the huge cost overruns on pentagon projects. so we'd be much better off managing those resources better than simply writing new checks to the pentagon, which, by the way, is the one federal government agency that has not been able to pass an audit. i'm all for investing on national security. we have to do it, but we also have to recognize our national strength includes making sure our kids get a good education, and he cut the department of education by close to 15%. it includes making sure we have a healthy population, and he dramatically cut funding for medical research to help develop cures and treatments. so this is really something that's going to hurt most of the country, you know, the folks at the very top who just got a big

tax cut as part of the trumpcare plan aren't going to be hurt, but everybody else is. >> woodruff: senator, again, i'm sure you know, this but i heard the budget director making the argument today, he was pressed on these cuts, for example, education, he said the administration has looked very closely at so many of these domestic spending programs and he says where there is no evidence that people are actually being helped, these programs cannot continue. >> well, we certainly should not be asking taxpayers to fund programs that don't help, but the reality is that the after-school programs to make sure kids are in a productive environment after school hours and not out on the streets, that actually is an important program. it's been underfunded in the united states. there are other career and training programs that have shown good results, and they're cutting them. the same is true with respect to some of our manufacturing programs. i mean, here's a president who

says he wants to restore american manufacturing, and yet he cuts manufacturing extension program, which helps take innovations and make sure that they're available to industry throughout the united states. so this is a very short-sighted budget. i have to say that donald trump said he was going to be there for the forgotten people. in this budget, he forgets those people. i mean, they're not even an afterthought. >> woodruff: senator chris van hollen, a member of the senate budget committee. we thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> woodruff: for an opposing view, we turn now to representative todd rokita, a republican from indiana and vice chairman of the house budget committee. congressman rokita, welcome. i think you just heard at least part of what senator van hollen said, and that is in this budget proposal, the president is forgetting some of the very people he said he wanted to be elected to help. >> yeah, i heard that, and chris

is a friend from the house budget committee. he was ranking member when i was vice chairman there last congress, and i heard some of the same rhetoric. he's a good man, but let me just say this: the president with the budget that he put forward today, recognizing that it's his request, it's not the budget. we still have our article 1 powers under the constitution, and we'll use them as congressmen and women to reconcile different priorities and make sure that we're marching forward for the american people. but i would say the forgotten man that president trump campaigned for should be proud of what was done in the budget. first of all, the one thing, judy, that the federal government does constitutionally and does well is our national defense, and i will quibble with mr. van hollen if he says that our national defense has been taken care of. it only makes up about 20% of our budget historically, but it took 50% of the sequester cuts.

fair is fair. we're getting back to rebalancing that. otherwise, judy, this is a traditional, as you would see in a economic textbook of some kind, traditional guns versus butter argument. for eight years or so we've been doling out a lot of butter, a lot of domestic programs. what mr. trump is suggesting here is that we rebalance and put a little bit more into our guns to make sure that we're protected from a military standpoint, that we're safe, and... >> woodruff: well, let me interrupt you there, if you don't mind, because i want to ask you about that. we did hear senator van hollen say, yes, it's good to spend more on defense, but he said there are problems with defense spending. he said we haven't even seen a serious audit. but i do want to ask you about some of the domestic cuts, education down 15%, medical research, major cut, a 20 some percent cut in the environment, 21%. what are these cuts?

what is going to be cut? >> i have within in a budget hearing all day repealing and replacing obamacare, so, you know, i don't have all the details, and i didn't write the document. like i said, we'll digest that all in the budget committee. from an overview perspective, what i'm seeing so far is that what is being "cut" are really programs that shouldn't be in the agencies they're in. we see this throughout government, 10, 20, 30 programs that pretend to do the same thing but don't do it well. so that's what i see mr. trump and mick mulvaney, the o.m.b. director doing here, really streamlining government. he's also making good on other campaign promises. the 12th grade education committee chairman in the house. we're see manage trump making good on school choice, the idea that the property of parents, the tax dollars, are following the child more to a school that suits them, not being shackled

to a school that doesn't work for them. that's an important point. that's not new money. that's reprogrammed money. so it's money being reprioritized. and that's exactly what a budget is about, and that's what he's doing. >> woodruff: so the cuts in medical research, for example, and i didn't mention cuts in agriculture. we heard senator van hollen speak about extension programs inning ary culture. you're comfortable with all the cuts the administration is proposing in. >> like i say, i have looked at the whole document. i've been in an eight or so hour markup on obamacare, but we'll look at that. what i'm saying and what i'm comfortable with is getting rid of the due processlycation, getting rid of -- due duplicati, i'm for the president keeping his promises to the forgotten man and all the rest. that's what i'm seeing in the budget so far. an we'll go through the budget process. the president's budget is just a budget request. the real budget will come

through the house budget committee. it's -- it doesn't even have to be signed by the president. it goes into effect without his signature. so that's our article one powers. you can be assured we'll look at every item because that's our job and we'll do it no matter who the president. is. >> woodruff: and that's a reminder of the way the process really works. representative todd rokita of indiana, vice chairman of the house budget committee. we thank you. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: another piece of the trump agenda is getting attention today: the president's revised travel ban, which hit a roadblock in the courts. hari sreenivasan has more. >> sreenivasan: the first ruling came yesterday in hawaii, where a federal judge blocked parts of the executive order, that would have barred refugees, as well as nationals from six muslim- majority countries, from entering the u.s. and overnight, a federal judge

in maryland issued his own block on the six-nation travel ban. for more on all this, we turn to devlin barrett, who now covers the justice department, and national security issues, for the "washington post." devlin, this is supposed to be the executive order designed to skirt around the legal challenges that first one had. what were the problems? >> well, first one basically foundered on due process problems. basically the federal appeals court ruled the order had not been written to give people a fair shake in the system essentially, particularly people what had visas or green cards. so they changed that part of it and they thought they fixed that problem, and in a sense they had, but what you saw in the last two rulings by federal judges is that now there's a conflict over the real meat of the argument, which is is this a muslim ban or some partial version of a muslim ban, and what both these judges came down saying, yes, it was essentially a violation of the first amendment rule that you can't disfavor a particular religion. >> woodruff:>> sreenivasan: thet

any explicit terms in the new executive order that say "muslim" or "islam." it seems they put a lot of the administration's words in there. >> well, right. the trump administration has struggled in the legal process to separate itself from what the campaign has said, what the president has said, and even what some of his top advisers have said in defending the order, and those statements have all been thrown back at them by the judges, and it's really frankly remarkable the extent to which the travel ban, both versions of it, have been suspended at this point based on the words of the president and his senior advisers. what is the justice department going to do? >> every indication is they are going to do. notices of appeal could come as soon as tonight in the two new rulings. there is a third case where everyone just sort of waiting to see how the judge exactly handles that, but the expectation is there will be more appeals over this, more

fights over it. and frankly, i think, this set of legal challenges will really be an argument about the basic issue of the term "muslim ban," and is that an accurate description of what this executive order does. >> sreenivasan: what's the likelihood then in this executive order to challenge perhaps in other federal districts, other regions and have to be reconciled? >> well, it's growing every day. so, for example, last night we saw two different parts of the country in which federal judges ruled on it. that means that assuming the appeal goes through you, will see appeals courts ruling in one part of the country and another part of the country and oftentimes just the way the court system works, those rulings don't match up identically. when that happen, it increases the likelihood that something will go to the supreme court. that all depends, of course, on the notion that both sides still want to fight, but every indication right now is that whoever wins or loses at the appeals court round, the other side will want the keep fighting. >> woodruff:>> sreenivasan: all.

devlin barrett of the "washington post," thank you so much. >> sure. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: when hiring people with disabilities can boost profit. and "exit west," a new book about stepping into a foreign world. but first, german chancellor angela merkel has her first meeting with president trump tomorrow at the white house. mrs. merkel is seeking reelection later this year. tops on the agenda for the two leaders: the nato response to a resurgent russia, and the stability of the european union after brexit. i sat down with germany's ambassador to the u.s. peter wittig and asked him about the importance of this high stakes meeting.

>> this is an important visit personal relationships for us in the u.s. policy very strong tradiition strong basis that >> woodruff: we know trump's been critical of nato

>> neither is the bedrock of our common security. after russian invaded ukraine and fueled the conflict in eastern ukraine, it is on a new mission against a newly assertive russia and facing challenges from the south of the nato territory in the middle east, for instance. but there is this discussion on burden sharing. we're ready for this discussion. it's an important discussion. germany is committed to do more for the defense to increase our defense spending incrementally. last year, for instance, we raised our defense budget by 9%. and we want to go forward on this path in an incremal way. yes, europe, and also germany have to be more active in

defense. >> christa: you mentioned more aggressive russia. we know president trump has spoken about... the suggestion he would take a more conciliatory approach to russia. if that's what this president does, what will chancellor merkel's response be? >> she has a lot of experience in dealing with russia. she has spoken so many times with president putin over the last year. i think we are pursuing a double-track approach, strong dialogue, keeping the channels of communication open, but at the same time being very resolute about our defense, keeping in mind our security interests, especially in the eastern part of europe and beyond. so i think we would welcome a new chapter of the american and russian leader in their relationships, but on the basis of a very clear idea where our strategic interests and our

security interests are. >> christa:>> woodruff: do you t that to come up? >> i expect to talk about russia and the ukraine conflict, about many things, judy. >> woodruff: we spoke about nato. the president has also been critical of the european union. he was one of the first to argue that great britain should leave the e.u., so-called brexit. what is chancellor merkel's plan the change his mind on the e.u.? >>europe is our home. it's our neighborhood. we are strong supporters of a strong and redill -- resilient european union. we deplore brexit. we respect the vote of the people. we want to have close relations with the u.k. even after they left the european union. but we will do everything to keep the european union as a strong and resilient economic and political union. and let me add this: i think it

is also in the strategic interest of the united states to have a strong and resilient european union in the face of the challenges from the east and from the south of our continent in europe. >> woodruff: one can presume those are arguments the chancellor will make to the president. >> i assume so. >> woodruff: finally, i have to ask you about some of the comments president trump made about the chancellor herself last year with regard to her refugee policy. he called it, among other things, a sad shame and a disgrace. he went to far as to say last year, and i'm quote, "the german people are going to end up overthrowing this woman. i don't know what the hell she is thinking," he wrote. does she believe she has president trump's respect? >> the situation two years ago when the refugee crisis emerged was totally extraordinary. it was the biggest, largest

movement. of people since the second world war, and it was an extraordinary humanitarian crisis at our borders. now the situation is different. the numbers are dramatically down. the refugees that came in are properly registered and vetted. so it's gone back to an orderly and regular process some the situation has changed since that time. >> christa: what about the comments the president made about her and her policy in does she think he has his respect? >> the chancellor i think is interested to build a strong, constructive, forward-looking relationship with president trump, and she has said many times she will not go back to the campaign but will want to engage with him in a constructive manner. and i think that's what we want to see tomorrow. >> woodruff: we'll be watching

tomorrow's visit. germany's ambassador to the whites, peter wittig, thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: we often hear about, and cover, the struggles that many americans face when they try to land a good job. if you have a disability, the challenge to getting hired or even getting a face-to-face interview is significantly harder. our economics correspondent, paul solman, explores why that's still happening, part of his weekly series, making sense. >> good evening. my name is ami profeta. >> reporter: ami profeta has cerebral palsy. he's been looking for work for over a year. >> people have hung up the phone. they don't respond to my emails. >> reporter: profeta's job hunt may be more challenging than most.

the unemployment rate for those with a disability is more than double the rate for those without. we interviewed economist douglas kruse, himself a paraplegic, via skype. >> it's not just a matter of people with disabilities, you know, staying at home and collecting disability income, it's a matter of people who want to work are not easily able to find work. >> reporter: in a 2015 study kruse's research team submitted 6,000 fake online job applications for accounting positions. one third said the applicant had a spinal cord injury; another third, asperger's syndrome. and one third did not mention a disability at all. the results? >> people with disabilities were 26% less likely to get expressions of employer interest. >> reporter: what's going on do you suppose? >> there's a lot of discomfort with people with disabilities. i think, apart from that, there's a lot of uncertainty: oh jeez, someone with a spinal cord injury-- i'm not sure they're

going to fit in here. >> they refer to it as fear of the unknown. >> reporter: mason ameri co- authored the study. >> how do i know if this person can do the job? how do i know the cost? so all of these unknowns ultimately compel an employer to express no hiring intent. >> reporter: even though the americans with disabilities act bars such discrimination for firms with more than 15 employees. nicole ellis returned to the job market after the bank she worked at went bust. but she decided to leave off her resume the fact that she is legally blind due to ocular albinism. >> i didn't think that i would be able to get my foot in the door. >> reporter: it still took three and a half years to land a job. here at liberty resources, a philadelphia non-profit which promotes independent living for the disabled. >> i would get the calls back, i would go on the interviews, and once you start discussing, because i have to let them know that i'm going to need these accommodations.

like software that enlarges font or enhances speech recognition. so, once you start talking about those things, it, it kind of becomes like dead silence, almost. >> reporter: really? you can feel it. >> you can feel it. they'll give you some other scenarios, as far as, what, what about, let's say, if it snows, are you going to be able to get into work? >> reporter: but you can understand? or can you not understand why an employer would be concerned about all those sorts of things? >> i do understand but, on the other hand, i've worked around people who do not have disabilities who do not come to work and do not work! so i mean i understand the doubt and the question but you are discriminating just based on the what if's of someone's disability. >> reporter: liam dougherty has a master's in public

administration from the university of pennsylvania, and ataxia, a condition marked by a lack of muscle coordination. >> the way that disability affects, affects employment is more more insidious, more subtle, more insidious, my resume has all these gaps in there. so, i think an employer looks at that, and they see you know, like why has this guy not been working? >> reporter: so, the gaps in your work history, and the kinds of work you haven't done, are kind of signals, you think? >> definitely. >> reporter: dougherty, like ellis, also found work here at liberty. bill krebs says employers have always underestimated him because of his intellectual disability. >> at one time, it was the 'r' word. we got rid of the 'r', it means mentally retarded. my i.q. was mild, so i was an i.q. of 70. when you're labeled with a disability, it's like hitler did to the jews, they put a tattoo

on your arm, and that stigma stays with you the rest of your life. >> reporter: so once you're stigmatized, then? >> that's it. >> reporter: you're out of the game. >> you're out of the game, no matter how hard you try. >> reporter: until he too found a niche at liberty, where disability is a commonplace but what prompted this story is a second and more surprising finding of the kruse/ameri research: early results show that when they sent applications just for jobs in data entry and software development... >> we found no evidence of discrimination. >> reporter: none? >> none, at least not with the preliminary data >> reporter: and why might that be? we went looking for a case study in the real world and found one in philadelphia, at an accounting firm. >> we make a concerted effort now, we're going to universities speaking to the people responsible for their students with disabilities. >> reporter: steve howe is managing partner for "e-y" americas, formerly ernst and young. in a pilot program, it's pushing

to hire more people with autism, a group that has had, up till now, an estimated un- and under- employment rate of between 70 and 90%. but, says sam briefer... >> we all bring something to, to the table that a lot of people cannot. we are very detail-oriented, we analyze things in a very specific way. >> reporter: briefer is one of four recent hires here with autism spectrum disorder. >> there are others that are very more detail oriented than, than i am. and are much better with numbers. >> reporter: well, it's an accounting firm, i guess being good with numbers is probably a good thing. >> it is. so, it puts us all at a, at a huge advantage. >> reporter: but of course people on the spectrum typically have trouble socializing, communicating -- an obvious handicap. were you nervous about taking the job? >> i was. yes.

i first thought that i would be, com-, communicating with a lot of people at once which is something that i always get stressed about. but knowing that i'm, i work independently a lot, makes me feel a lot better with where i work. >> reporter: when things do get stressful, ey brings in a job coach to help. the team's regular manager, jamell mitchell, got neurodiversity training ahead of time but he's also "learning on the job." >> they're very specific and very clear, as opposed to possibly a neurotypical person that may try to slide in at 9:10, the folks that are on the spectrum will say, 'hey, i arrived at 9:02 today. do i need to work until 6:02 today?' >> reporter: and your reaction to that? >> don't worry about the two minutes. we're okay. (laughter) >> a lot of people on the spectrum tend to be, or at least initially, more, more rigid in their, in some of their thinking. >> reporter: but, says program participant stan hwang, this

form of rigidity has a major upside. >> it also tends to make them want to be more honest. i think. what would be the point of like, lying about something or being deceptive... >> reporter: because you're more naturally just straightforward? >> yes. >> reporter: managing partner howe recently gave the team behind the pilot program a" better begins with you" award. >> well thank you very much! >> reporter: but look, this isn't about feel-good inclusivity so much as boosting the bottom line. howe hopes to leverage the special abilities he's seen in his workers with autism. >> we've learned from technology companies like sap, microsoft, hp, who have hired people with these kind of skills. we think it's a rich talent pool, and we're gonna expand this now from this exercise in philadelphia to three or four other cities in the next year, and scale this up.

>> reporter: and that means more job prospects for people on the spectrum like stan hwang. >> no matter uh, what kind of functionality a person may be, everyone wants to be treated like a human being, and everybody deserves an opportunity. >> reporter: and at long last, in certain jobs, they're getting one. but for those with disabilities who don't seem to provide a profit advantage, many still seem to be on their own. >> employers do not respond. >> reporter: this is economics correspondent paul solman, reporting from philadelphia. >> woodruff: one more note: paul's team reached out to several major groups representing employers large and small to hear their take. some did not respond, others said they will start to consider ways of tackling this problem.

>> woodruff: and we'll be back shortly as jeffrey brown looks at a novel that might have been taken from today's headlines, about living in a city under siege, finding love and perhaps an escape to a better world. but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station.

>> woodruff: next, a most unusual take on the refugee experience now and in the future. jeffrey brown has this latest addition to the newshour bookshelf. >> brown: an unnamed city in the muslim world is plunged into violence and two young lovers are forced to flee becoming a small part of the mass migrations of our era. but they travel through time and space through magic doors. "exit west" is a novel combining the very real with the almost surreal, imagining individuals behind today's headlines. author mohsin hamid has spent parts of his life in the u.s. and europe, he now lives in his native city of lahore, pakistan. and nice to see you again. >> nice to see you. >> brown: this is in one way a very up to the minute look at the dislocation of individual lives, but of course, it's not journalism, it's art. it's a novel. tell me how you thought about what you were after.

>> well i've been moving around my whole life. california, pakistan, london, new york, pakistan again, and i wanted to write about the experience of migration. and i also felt this resistance to migrants was growing and i wanted to write in response to that. >> brown: so saeed and nadia, the two young people in love, they see their city fall to pieces, the violence that we've all grown familiar with i guess from newscasts, right? they're experiencing first-hand. they leave, but they leave through these magical doors. and it's a little like the chronicle of narnia, right, which i read was one of your favorites as a child. >> that's right. >> brown: tell me about the doors, what are they? >> well, i think the doors sort of already exist. distance is collapsing in our world. we can travel by stepping into an airplane as i did coming from pakistan to america. we can skype or go on video calls with each other. and we can open up our phones and surf the internet and be in china or antarctica. and i think in our world distance really is collapsing. people are getting pushed together in new ways, and the

doors are a slightly magical way of capturing that. >> brown: but there- but that's not what we see in, you know, the typical migrant story. i mean, you're describing a kind of globalized world in which you and i might travel around- >> yeah. >> brown: but these people are refugees. >> they are, and i think it can be a mistake to focus too much upon how they move. you know, crossing the rio grande, or crossing the mediterranean on a small boat. those are dramatic stories but the bulk of the migrant or refugee story is, what made you want to leave home? like, what was so bad that you left and left people that you love behind? and then, what happened to you in the new place? and those two parts of the story are the parts i wanted to focus on. >> brown: it's interesting to me cause you use a kind of magical realism but it's a-- you don't write it as fantasy, is a very unembellished language. and it's in the same tone as the rest of the story. so was it interesting for you, hard for you to mix these kind of real and surreal genres? >> it wasn't hard, i sort of believed in the doors and then- >> brown: you believed in them? >> yeah. i mean it-

>> brown: one can just find a spot in your city and walk through and you're in mykonos, you're in london, you're in- >> yeah, well, you know, i mean as a writer what you do is you make up characters that don't exist and you believe in them. and so the doors are a little bit like that, i thought, you know, it often does feel to me that the movement between places is almost instantaneous. and you see people popping up in cities and you wonder, how is this person here? so the doors are not described in detail but the effect of the doors is huge because millions, billions of people move. >> brown: you also wonder, i mean, as you follow them through to these very real places where they meet up with some kindness and also some trauma, some nativist reaction against the migrants, there's a kind of meditation going on about "what is a nation?", "who are people?", "who's the insider?", "who's the outsider?" >> absolutely, i think that we're all migrants. if you lived in the same town your whole life and never move and you're 80 years old, that town has changed completely. you migrate through time, your

school has been- >> brown: wait a minute, you think of us as, i mean- even if you've never moved you're a migrant just because wherever you are has changed. >> the novel in a way is about how human life in transient. stuff changes. and the attempt to hold onto things that don't change, and to pretend they don't change, is a mistake i think. >> brown: because you're talking, you could have written much of what you're telling me without us seeing everyday people in boats and rafts and in great danger. >> yeah, i didn't, i mean, in some ways it feels like world events have taken place the way that the novel suggested they might and i anticipated them. i didn't really anticipate them, but, when i moved back to pakistan i encountered so many people who wanted to leave and having just lived in london and encountered so much of how people didn't want people to come. i felt this tension between these two ideas and the novel expressed that. >> brown: well, what do you see happening today, because i mean on the one hand we're having a discussion, you're what we could call a "global citizen", you and i can get on planes and we can travel around to different parts of the world. in some ways, the world much

smaller and open, but in many ways much more polarized and closed. how do you explain it? >> well, i think there's been a failure of imagination. everywhere around the world people are having difficulty imagining a future. people are going to move, things are going to change, and yet all of our leaders seem to be telling us to go back to a previous time when things were better, you know, in britain it's go back before the e.u., in america it's "make america great again", in much of iraq, iran, pakistan, it's you know, go back to the caliphate of 1,000 years ago. the danger is that we're not imagining futures, not imagining something where we can go to that's different and progressive. and that's i think part of the job of a novelist is to start imagining those futures. >> brown: meaning what? >> meaning to make people comfortable with what i think is the inevitable reality of a world where billions of people are going to move in the next couple of hundred years. you know, climate will change, sea levels will rise, people will move. and if we can't find a way to be hopeful and optimistic and find beauty in that, we're in real trouble.

>> brown: alright, the new novel is "exit west." mohsin hamid, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> our tradition has been to take care of mother earth, because it's that that gives us water that gives us life. the land is here for everyone. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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