of asian americans and pacific islanders during the school year. observing asian american and pacific islanders contributions highlights their importance of building our america. for example, chinese immigrants played a significant role in construction of the first transcontinental railroad which was completed on may 10, 1869. asian americans and pacific islanders have contributed to this country through the arts, commerce and every other aspect of american culture since they first arrived in the 19th century. whether it is in the arse or government or science or -- arts or government or the science they have played a fundamental role in our nation's technological and economic expansion. as well as the every other fabric of life we can think of. their accomplishments are too numerous to count. their influence is felt throughout our country. the month of may once again gives us the opportunity to thank and honor asian americans and pacific islanders and recognize them for their many contributions. now, in the past and certainly in the future. thank y

country and the asian pacific american community have traditionally come together in the month of may to celebrate and commemorate asian and pacific american heritage. that all began back in 1977 when representative frank -- representatives frank

timothy keating discussnary's nuclear test and missile launches and the threats they may pose to the asian pacific region from the atlantic council of the united states, this is about an hour. >> this is terrific. more stars and bars in this room than we usually have. ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the atlantic council i'm fred kemp president and ceo and welcome to this evening's commander series with the commander of the united states pacific command admiral timothy keating. i know many of you have attended our commander series on a regular basis. let me just say a couple of words about what this series has been about. we have created with this and i must say it's one of the most popular things we have introduced a public platform for senior u.s. and global leaders to share their views with the washington audience. the programs become an authoritative opportunity for military leaders to shape the security debate in washington and beyond. since the beginning of this series, we've had the commanders of uconm, northcom and two of the most recent commanders in afghanistan. it's a flagship program f

the tri-caucus is made up of members of the black, hispanic and asian pacific american caucus is. this is about 45 minutes. >> good morning, and thank you all for being here. some of us may have to leave for markup, but we will make your statement and we will be coming and going as schedules permit. but i'm barbara lee. i represent the ninth congressional district of california, also the chair of the congressional black caucus. and i stand here before you today as a very proud, original cosponsor of the health equity and accountability act of 2009 with my colleagues who have worked on this bill for many, many years. honkers woman christensen, this year will lead not only the efforts of the congressional black caucus but the congressional tri-caucus in terms of our health disparity elimination efforts which began actually three congresses ago, but also represent our collective commitment, the tri-caucus is collective commitment to ensure that health equity is an integral part of health care reform. it represents our unwillingness to forgive those who have been left out of the healt

evans riviera is the president of the three a society and former deputy assistant of east asian pacific affairs. if leon sigal is professor of social science research council in new york and author of disarming strategy is, of a agreed framework, and that nancy lindborg is president of mercy corps and work inside the north korea to help deliver food aid to women and children in many parts of the poorest parts of the country. they are greatly appreciated for their expertise being here and i just introduced ambassador bosworth, as many people know he is one of our most distinguished veterans of the diplomacy in the united states. served in many different posts. i had the pleasure and senator lugar did also way back -- way back in 1986. i were two recklessly with ambassador bosworth and senator lugar was then chair and worked very closely with him on the philippines and we had many meetings in many visits to the philippines as we transition to the democracy from the marcos regime and it was a really astounding transition. i will say again as i have said previously in public that we were lu

prosperous future -- recent nuclear test and missile launches and the threats they pose to the asian-pacific region. that's life from the atlantic council 5:30 on c-span. madoff was sentenced 150 years in prison for engineering a $65 billion fraud scheme. manhattan federal court judge called the fraud unprecedented and staggering and said the message must be sent mr. made of's crimes were extraordinarily evil. and the state department secretary hillary clinton addressed the military's overthrow of the country's president over the weekend. in a briefing with reporters, she stated the action taken against the president should be condemned by everyone. she went on to say that honduras must embrace the principles of democracy and respect constitutional order. >>> how is c-span's fonted? >> publicly funded. >> donations may be? i have no idea. >> governor? >> c-span gets its funding through the taxes. >> a public funding thing. >> maybe, i don't know. >> how is c-span's fonted? 30 years ago america's cable companies created c-span as a public service, a private business initiatives. no government

disparities requestor of the congressional black caucus, along with of course my conduct as chair of the asian pacific american congress and congresswoman glossal whitson chairs the hispanic caucus, we are working on healthcare disparities bill, closing the disparities, and you know the problems. you would knowledge them, but i am wondering in this overall healthcare debate that is taking place, we don't hear much in the debate about this being a critical element of the healthcare reform package, whatever package we come up with so i went to raise that with you because i have raised this with the white house several times in just know that in this debate, this is got to be front and center for many of us because our communities of course are the ones to are you know, the unfortunate beneficiaries of the terrible beneficiaries of these disparities. secondly, with regard to single-payer, i note the realities of single-payer as it relates to what ultimately will be the type of healthcare package that we come up with, but i hope that single-payer is on the table for discussion. i don't think we need a hea

one is on boy scouts of america day and a bill on celebrating asian-pacific american heritage, a bill on market oversight and a bill about the u.s. flag. also a bill on a wounded veteran job security. we take you now live to the floor of the u.s. house. it looks like they are just about to come in. live coverage here on c-span. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father coughlin. chaplain coughlin: lord god, you are eternal knowing all our days. teach us how to discover the best use of our time. being here in congress is a great opportunity to make a difference in the complexity of today's world, help members of the house of representatives to make the very best decisions,  to strengthen our country and to foster lasting stability at the fault lines among nations. may all who serve this noble institution by assisting this body of lawmakers, seize the tasks at hand and accomplish their work with dedication and your blessing. this nation relies on your wisdom and love to guide us now and forever. amen. the speaker pro tempor

i'm here as somebody who has spent much of the last 40 years working on the asian pacific region much of that on the two koreas, china and japan. i'm also here as someone who's been a long time advocate with diplomacy with north korea and through several u.s. administrations during my career as a diplomat. i made the case that diplomacy, dialog were a lot more likely to yield the results that america sought and to yield at a more acceptable cost than were policies based on confrontation and i base this judgment on years of studying north korea and on hundreds of hours over some 12 years of negotiating with north koreans. and through this experience i came to understand what motivates the north korean regime, its strengths and its weaknesses and my advocacy of negotiations with pyongyang has always been based on two principles. the first that north korea's possession of nuclear weapons represents a direct threat to u.s. national security interests and, two, that eliminating this threat requires a concerted diplomatic effort. and an effort aimed at determining whether north korea was pr

at specific subpopulations, so we face collecting data on native american and specific asian-american and pacific eye rander subpopulations as well as some hispanic populations across the board, but from the data we have seen over the past two or three decades, we have seen a continued confirmation of the existence of health disparities in minority populations. so what is the cause of these disparities? well, it's certainly multifact tomorrow, and i can tell you as a policymaker that i've seen the full spectrum of impact just in diagnosing specific diseases within minority communities but looking at this on the population level as well. and it is certainly related to the interplay between socioeconomic, environmental and individual factors as well as other social determinants of health. you'll hear more about these, but as we look in terms of the ideology of health disparities, it's important to realize there's definitely a multifactorial process in terms of these diseases on minorities. individual factors include things like poverty, behaviors as well as lack of health insurance or underinsuranc

for the cost of european empire to maintain a a major naval presence in the pacific is extraordinarily high. the cost of the asian power to maintain the atlantic presence is extremely high. but the cost for the united states to maintain both, while high, it is not extraordinary. therefore i would argue north america became particularly with the fall of the soviet union and the end of the centrality conflict in the same way that europe had been the center of gravity for 500 years from 1482 1/3 1991 when the soviets collapsed almost exactly 500 years europe had been the. >> . now to become north america and as it happens, the united states is the dominant power from this century in north america therefore it is the center of gravity. that does not necessarily mean it is the eternal or that it is powerful by itself just means by the geographic facts the way the world works, it is in the right place. it is also an extraordinarily powerful country because it dominates a united continent, it has no continental enemies, it is not in the 100 some odd years have a domestic war to devastated to which almost differentiates

asian and european partners to address the global on a crisis. if north korea, i do not have to say much about that. security developments in the pacific such as the developer of a long-range ballistic missiles and backed the debate on missiles in europe. i think this link has been apparent since the u.s. entered world war ii double in europe. the council will continue to flood of boat as well in the pacific. and now want to turn the podium over to the hon. walter slocombe, vice chair of the atlantic council and former undersecretary of defense for policy. he will introduce our speaker and later a moderate the q&a session. he's now with kaplan and was a pillar of the atlantic council. he provides me into the rest of our leadership strategic advice as well as sound legal advice and is still free walking around and have not yet been incarcerated. that is because of wall slocombe. i am grateful for your service, and we're delighted to have a distinguished former pentagon official moderate this evening's discussion. [applause] >> thank you. it is a great honor to be asked to introduce that roe keating. he has that kind of resume that mere