you are recognized. >> my name is ashley harris. we are a statewide nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated exclusively to improving the lives of texas children to policy change. as a former caseworker for child protective services in texas for over four years i truly appreciate the opportunity to provide first-hand account of how this horrible crime impacts foster kids and those guided to protect them. i have to first acknowledge key testimony because i can agree -- i think we can all can agree who the real experts are. thank you for your testimony. toh my testimony i hope offer recommendations for the committee's consideration and opportunities for improvement. i have included additional items for the committee's consideration in written testimony. i will specifically highlight the role that training has on the protection of vacuum. those removed from home -- protection. those removed from home -- traffickingf victims who are reported missing ran away from either foster care or a group home, i have been reflecting on my days a

and miss ashley harris, child welfare texas care for children. thank you for being here. t., so you five minutes, a little more, if you want. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to say thank you to you, the member of the committee, and the human rights for girls for the invitation to be here today. a little bit about my plan would be walker pet grew. you can call me t. i'm 24 years of age and i'm currently a student here in washington, d.c., at trinity washington university. previous to being a student, i was a youth who grew up in foster care for pretty much the first 18 years of my life. throughout that time, from the ages of 10 to 17, i was a victim of sexual exploitation and trafficking here domestically in the united states. throughout the states of california, nevada, oregon, and, of course, your state, washington. i'm here to tell you why i and other youth in foster care are rendered more vulnerable to be sexually trafficked. firstful all, we accept and normalized youthing a as object for financial gain. we experience various people who control and come in and out o

. >> minus ashley harris. we are statewide nonpartisan nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated exclusively to improving the lives of texas children through policy change. as a former caseworker in texas for over four years, i truly appreciate the opportunity to provide a firsthand account of how the horrible crime in tax foster kids and those guided to protect them. i have to first acknowledge t.'s testimony because i think we can agree who the real experts are. those are the former foster youth so thank you for your testimony. i hope to offer recommendations for the committee's consideration an opportunity for improvement. i've included additional items for the committees consideration in britain testimony. because of time i will specifically highlight the role that training, lower caseloads in case monitoring has on the identification and protection of our most vulnerable children. those removed from homes and placed in foster care. censoring the research reports that a majority of likely child trafficking

director of youth care, thank you, and ashley harris child welfare policy associate tex cares for children. thank you, all, for being here. t? you have five minutes or a little more if you want to. >> thank you so much, chairman. i want to say thank you to you, members of the committee, and human rights project for girls. you can call me t, and i am now 24 years of age, and i'm currently a student here in washington, d.c. at trinity washington university. previous to being a student, i was one who grew up in foster care for pretty much the first 18 years of my life. throughout that time from the ages of 10 to 17, i was a victim of sexual exploitation and trafficking here domestically in the united states, throughout the state of california, oregon, nevada, and wash. i'm here to tell you why we are more vulnerable to be sexually trafficked. first of all, we accept and normalize being used as an object for financial gain and experience various people who control and come in and out of our lives, lack opportunities to gain meaningful relationships and positive attachments, and the traffickers

i look forward to hearing from ashley harris who has come up from texas who has worked with the statesenator and other members of our legislature to deal with this problem at the state level. i particularly look forward to hearing from all of our colleagues on their recommendations for what legislative initiatives we can take and how we can work collaborative leak on a bipartisan basis to address this truly serious problem, and i yield back. >> thank you. without objection each member will have the opportunity to submit a written statement and have it included in the record. i want to remind our witnesses please, to limit their oral testimony to five minutes. however, without objection, all the written testimony will be made a part of the permanent record. on our first panel this afternoon we will be hearing from several of our colleagues. it is sometimes unusual in a subcommittee hearing to have the interest of a number of members, so it is really an honor to have the four of you here. we will be hearing from senator t h through video presentation later on. the first panel today is t

ashley: steve, we just heard from harry reid, the extremist republicans in the house again blowing upo kirsten's point can we get something in the house and can we get this all done before thursday's deadline? >> well, look it takes two to tango and you know republicans are being obstinate, no question about it but so is harry reid. i'm a little more optimistic than kirsten is getting this done. i do think it will get done before thursday. it will be ugly the next 48 hours, no question about it. look, the house is saying right now, we can live with what the senate has sent over to us but we want those two conditions. number one, we want to require congress to live under the obamacare law which is a 90-10 issue with voters. and the other one is this medical device tax. that's actually gotten a lot of votes from democrats too. so, yeah, i don't, personally, kirsten, i don't think they're that far away. ashley: what do you say, kirsten? can we deal with those points in place? >> look, i was exactly where steve was last night probably and i just feel that the fact of the house is sort of

ashley parker. i want to start with you, you broke the news of plan d a few hours ago. that was the conference committee plan which seems to be getting the hand from harry reid. is there a plan e at this point for house republicans? >> i think plan "e" sounds like this. the house republicans for a few days will endure a shutdown and feel the political pain. there is a generational divide between members. some younger members elected in 2010 and 2012, they need to feel the pain and come back to the table. >> ashley, there's so many flaws and chinks in the armor with the plans abc, d and possibly erkts. one of the problems is it is a reminder of house republicans rejected the compromise committee 18 times before as hoyer pointed out. it sounds like the democrats will beat the drum as long as republicans propose this committee. >> the first problem with a conference committee is it involves both chambers. the house may want to go to conference but as you pointed out, harry reid said it is dead on arrival. it is unlikely the senate would even go to a conference. it's unlikely the conference will be an avenue for negotiations in this fight. >> robert, where'

harry reid for three years now. all i'm saying is i'll let you vote on yellen when the american people vote on transparency and auditing the fed. ashleyxt? we take it to david asman, liz claman chomping at the bit to get in on this. janet yellen. smooth confirmation or not? liz: when you hear rand paul talking like that, you wonder what will happen. but both have said they are watching very closely and they like the fact that she has voted and spoken more for more transparent fed. ron paul has said i will give her a shot if she is willing to be more transparent and give us an idea not necessarily what they are doing in the u.s. but what they are doing overseas. what kind of deals are they getting to overseas banks? that is u.s. money and going to destabilize depending on how you look at what is going on. david: the chief concern of rand paul is the concern of many like him. the bank has become our central bank is too political. whenever a central bank serves politicians or bankers for that matter, it stops serving the people. it is supposed to be the people's bank, i know we are a representative government, et cetera. that is why the