and the federal government does not fit those criteria. the state can't just pass a law that says we're establishing an exchange and the federal government's going to do it all, because under the statute if they do that the secretary doesn't have any discretion. they are not in compliance with the rules for state-established exchanges and establish an exchange for that state so that will be a federally established exchanges, not a state established exchange. we are talking about a post-halbig world where halbig is upheld. so there are legal obstacles. however, there were legal obstacles to offering subsidies through federal exchanges and they went ahead and did that. so one thing they might try to do, it will be consistent with past practices, to go ahead and do that and issue subsidies in those states that do what you call a families u.s.a. approach and say catch us if you can. now, if halbig is upheld, then presumably an employer or individual in that state who would be subject -- who would face illegal penalties under the individual or

to federal buildings? how can current assessments even be improved for that matter? >> it's our understanding that since m.i.s.t. has been in place, which is about 18 months or so. that fps has once again to do assessments. they have done around 1200 based on the information we have. but they had a backlog when they started m.i.s.t. of about 5,000. that's pretty considerable number that hadn't been done just from the past. and at level three and four buildings, they are expected to be done roughly every three years. so there's quite a lot of backlog that remains as well as pent up demand for new ones. when we have gone in and looked as well, about 9 or 10% of them, hundreds of them, thousands of them, really, didn't have a date associated with them of when the last assessment was. so it's hard to know just how long it's been since many major federal buildings have had a risk assessment to start with. we also know in the last couple of years, that a number of other federal agencies have done their own asses

facilitate federal student loans. i look forward to hearing more about these, including what impact these relationships may have on citizens. with that-- >> thank you. the higher education system used to be full of educate -- exc itement and opportunities. but students are now faced with new questions, such as how they will pay for college, whether they should finally open a bank account and how they will budget their money. banks and credit unions throughout the country serve an important role helping students work through the financial institution -- issues. many entities provide financial literacy tools to help students understand the burdens they are about to undertake. today, i will focus on two issues that impact students and their financial institutions. first, in the student loan market, both federal and private, there has been a growing field of research focused on the high students debt ridden. burden. recently, it was noted that the federal government's share of student debt topped $1 trillion for the first

we don't have federal standards of limits of thc since right now at the federal level any level of thc is illegal. it is a schedule one narcotic. and supposedly zero tolerance. but we have no way of testing that. currently, there is no roadside breathalyzer for marijuana. but technology is advancing, and some countries have started to use a roadside oral test. now, this is -- this is one of those testing machines, and this is used actually in europe. and as i understand it, it takes a swab. i was going to have our -- swab the panelists, but i thought i wouldn't do that today. but you can take a swab with this and it can tell you if anyone has used marijuana within four hours. but, again, we have no standard, we have no acceptable test, and we have no way of tell eing if people are impaired. most of the data we're getting right now is from, again, fatalities. you have to take -- you i they are have to take an individual to a hospital for a blood or urine test or, again, the worst situation is to the morgue where we test their blood. in the past ten years, marijuana was a factor in nearl

money to match federal money. possibilities.me there's a lot of talk about a solution, but there's not much concreteness about that. a senator who d is a democratic candidate for lieutenant governor called for a exas solution and it will be interesting to see how that developments in the months to come. you for the opportunity state rt on kentucky's kynect.wn as connect it been so successful? e are asked this with some frequency as you might imagine. importantere are four factors. the quality of leadership. the system implementation and just a basic demographics we a lot of low income -- or income uninsured people in kentucky. leadership. our u may be aware, governor has been unwavering in support of coverage unabasheded he has taken no criticism on this. he appointed a group of public d, experienced servants in the best sense of out standistanding stuff ho had done big complicated things before. c co- second, the system design is .onsumer friendly aspects first, you don't have to set up an account. reveal t have

stated for the federal?>> i am pointing out to you the crime rates are tied to the state policy because the vast majority of the defendants were sentenced and incarcerated in the state system rather than the federal government so i think the federal government has a very limited effect on the crime rate. >> after the reductions there was no increase in recidivism for those offenders either? >> in texas we have seen the crime rate since 196 1968 and we closed the adult prisons on probation and parole and the recidivism rates have fallen dramatically and it is because instead of building more prisons we took some of that money and put it into strengthening the probation and drug courts and treatment programs. so, i think that the federal government can learn from that. >> let me ask the final question the media chooses how to push away the base of the crying and it can choose the face of a cr m allows one or someon some of coo the law enforcement decides who to focus on. you show me the man and i will find you

there are strongholds of federal support and strongholds of anti-federal supports and large areas divided what we get a sense of from this map has we have been discussing, there was no unanimity surrounding the constitution and this would continue to play out. people who had been opposed to the constitution once it passed they were not necessarily on board with the powers that would then be granted to the federal government. now, as i said, what we see is this new excise tax that is going to be imposed -- and this is really the spark that pushes the whiskey rebels to action. at first what we see is after the enactment of the law in march of 1791, we see that protests break out throughout the appalachian region, really from pennsylvania all the way down to georgia in the western section, the appalachians and west of the appalachians what we see are residents in these areas protesting. they're up in arms, many of these western farmers. the reason is that many of the folks that lived there relied upon whiskey production. whiskey production was a core part of what they did. now, many of these

it set severe limits on public opposition to federal policies. 1790s, many americans still assumed it was legitimate to protest unpopular laws using the same tactics which they blocked the parliamentary measures like the stamp act in 1765. by firmly suppressing this challenge to national authority, washington served notice that citizens who resorted to violent or other extralegal means of political action would feel the full force of the federal authority. what we see is a change. right? that may have worked in the 1760s. but the same sort of actions

just briefly, those task orders are one two, first to cgi federal for development of the federally if facilitated marketplace. that's basically the website itself as well as some back office systems that support the enrollment process, the financial management process, planned management, et cetera. we also looked at a task order awarded to qssi, and that's for the data hub. the data hub is a system that interfaces with other agencies. there are roles that other federal agencies need to play to make this system work, the internal revenue service, the department of homeland security to verify immigration status, et cetera, so lots of agencies have a role here, and the hub data system is that system that allows for communication among all of those agencies. and then the third contract that we looked at is one with accenture. that was awarded on a sole source basis in january of this year for continued development of that federally facilitated marketplace. before i get to our specific findings, i just wanted to make an observation that there really are some common threads that run throug

from the federal government. and then the president -- the president of the united states makes a decision about whether the conditions are such that that state is overwhelmed, and whether it's appropriate to bring federal resources to bear. and when we bring federal resources to bear, the federal emergency management agency is called upon to lead the federal government's response and recovery to those declared events. we declare on the average about 50-70 events a year. we don't do water breaks, power outages, small fires. we don't do the vast majority of what most people -- what you would consider to be an emergency or disaster in your life. a very small fraction of what happens in this country is actedly federalized in terms of disaster response and recovery. when it is federalized, there are three basic forms of assistance available. what we call public assistance, designed to help repair, , tore, and replace entity individual assistance, to individuals and households, capped at about $34,000 a year. not desi

and it produces federal spending by more than $1 trillion in the coming decade. -- it reduces federal spending by more than $1 trillion in the coming decade. i want to emphasize that notwithstanding that slowdown, there will be more people are seating medicare benefits, more than one third more people on medicare 10 years from now than today. even though each individual cost is not going up very fast, it still means a big increase in the overall cost of the program. in addition, there is this expansion of federal subsidies for health insurance under the afford the care act through the subsidies and tax credits and insurance exchanges, and also through medicaid. in the beneficiaries in a program are going up as well. the slowing cost per person is a very good thing for the federal budget. but notwithstanding that, total federal spending on health care is the fastest-growing part of the federal budget. but i have a personal interest. as someone contemplating my my first home, what can you tell me about interest rates and what they will mean for the economy echo >> i cannot give you any

haveny federal ig's overlapping jurisdiction with federal auditors. what efforts are you making to coordinate work with those entities? let me speak to that first. --re are several entities, john and i are very active. they have a role in sharing information, what we are working on, working on joint projects. to dod,that, specific our efforts in southwest asia, we have a well-organized and well functioning southwest asia coordination group where we bring all of the folks in the business of oversight in afghanistan together. actually, we will have a quarterly meeting the week after next. --are looking at auto plants plans for different agencies. i will try to name them. in southwest asia, coordination activity we have the special is director general for afghan activity, dod department of and i usaid, gao, apologize if i missed one or two. come together and we talk about a conference of oversight land, to conflict that. particularly within the federal community, one of the things i was encouraged with were these joint inspections that we have done. my f

federal? >> federal from the fbi and from the defense department, from all of the federal intelligence and analysis at the department of homeland security. >> how often do they meet? >> we talk to them every day. >> and how is that information -- the bulk of your people are contract people, 15,000. how is that information delegated? you don't get to every one of the 15,000, but someone in the chain has to be made aware that a certain threat or risk is occurring and make people aware of what we're looking for. >> yes, sir. what we do is immediately once we receive a threat that information is in package so we can commute indicate that. defending on the threat, it may be classified. if it's classified, we have to figure out how to get it down to the lowest level. >> i have a thousand leos? >> yes, sir. >> are they at each location? is there someone at each location? >> no, sir. >> but there's someone who can get the information? >> yes, sir. we can get those to our folks as well as -- >> how oft

and the federal government does not fit those criteria. the state can't just pass a law that says we're establishing an exchange and the federal government's going to do it all, because under the statute if they do that the secretary doesn't have any discretion. they are not in compliance with the rules for estate-established -- state-established exchanges and establish an exchange for that state so that will be a federally established exchanges, not a state established exchange. we are talking about a post-halbig world where halbig is upheld. so there are legal obstacles. however, there were legal obstacles to offering subsidies through federal exchanges and they went ahead and did that. so one thing they might try to do, it will be consistent with past practices, to go ahead and do that and issue subsidies in those states that do what you call a families u.s.a. approach and say catch us if you can. now, if halbig is upheld, then presumably an employer or individual in that state who would be subject -- who would face illegal penalties un

. >> but the state crimes are far more numerous than federal.ere is a difference so they are simply dealing with the violent crimes that they had very few prosecutors in major cities have time to go looking for things. they cannot find what has already been done you have the defendant and then what can we neil des moines? that is not now the federal prosecutor's work. >> could you rain on this discussion? >> i agree absolutely with dr. baker and assets of the current criminal justice system the biggest dramatic change from when i began to defend criminal cases is the over balance of power. federal criminal defense is all about negotiating risk. that is solid is. gilts is presumed by the prosecution. and those to compel the a guilty plea that isn't even a question. to do whatever you have to do for that treatment that you seek? >> so with the full judiciary committee with those hearings that we have had and what can we take? with the chairman and ranking member where to rigo from your? it is part of the mens rea problem but to fault mens rea with

there are strongholds of federal support and strongholds of anti-federal supports and large areas dividedwhat we get a sense of from this map has we have been discussing, there was no unanimity surrounding the constitution and this would continue to play out. people who had been opposed to the constitution once it passed they were not necessarily on board with the powers that would then be granted to the federal government. now, as i said, what we see is this new excise tax that is going to be imposed -- and this is really the spark that pushes the whiskey rebels to action. at first what we see is after the enactment of the law in march of 1791, we see that protests break out throughout the appalachian region, really from pennsylvania all the way down to georgia in the western section, the appalachians and west of the appalachians what we see are residents in these areas protesting. they're up in arms, many of these western farmers. the reason is that many of the folks that lived there relied upon whiskey production. whiskey production was a core part of what they did. now, many of these

fema, federal emergency management agency, alone has obligated, i'm told, over $80 billion in federal assistance for disasters declared in fiscal years 2004 through 2011. 80 billion. however, the cost to the federal government is not just limited to disaster relief. as an insurer of both property and crops, the government faces additional significant fiscal exposure. for example, since the creation of national flood insurance program in 1968 through december 20 and, fema's debt from insurance payments to that program have totaled approximately $24 billion. and even before superstorm sandy, total debt from payments through the national insurance program was almost $18 billion. the cost of these weather events keep going up at a time when we're trying to bring our government spending down. that is one of the reasons why for the first time the gao, the government accountability office, last year listed climate change as one of the biggest fiscal risks facing our country in its high risk list report. just to remind us all, every two years, beginning of every congress, gao gives us a high

what is the impact likely to be on the federal budget and the federal deficit? >between interest rates and revenues -- >> we have expected upward growth to pick up for a number of years now beyond what has happened. that is thent of shadow of the financial crisis, the housing boom and bust, the damage to househol balance sheets and confidence -- that shadow lasted longer than we thought it would. a verynally, there was sharp reduction in budget deficits over the past several years. there was a reduction in the stimulus fiscal policy provided for the economy. at this point, underlying financial conditions have improved. the fiscal stimulus is no longer being withdrawn so we think there is a stronger case for the pickup in economic growth we have written down. of course, notwithstanding that stronger case, it could -- we could turn out to be wrong for overwriting of reasons. if the economy grows more slowly than we expect, that is probably a negative factor for the economy -- for the budget. it's directly a negative factor in that weaker output growth means weaker

the federal role does matter. that is why they have to shift to feel supported in the federal levels. what's your question was about looking forward. there is a deep and abiding believe among americans that education should be the great equalizer. standards are what equalize education. that is the focus that we need to keep now. states, school districts, individual classroom teachers can decide how to get to those standards. those standards make sure that every student in the country graduates college ready to succeed in college and career. >> thank you. in all of the responses you have talked a lot about the role federal, state, local entities, and about the need of practicing teachers, parents, and students to support the common core. any media now so shall show you the rollout was done not by political leaders but by corporate leaders. corporate leaders don't have much credibility in this area with parents, practicing teachers and students. what can be done from what you see in this poll and your experience to

the federal role does matter. that is why they have to shift to feel supported in the federal levels. what's your question was about looking forward. there is a deep and abiding believe among americans that education should be the great equalizer. standards are what equalize education. that is the focus that we need to keep now. states, school districts, individual classroom teachers can decide how to get to those standards. those standards make sure that every student in the country graduates college ready to succeed in college and career. >> thank you. in all of the responses you have talked a lot about the role federal, state, local entities, and about the need of practicing teachers, parents, and students to support the common core. any media now so shall show you the rollout was done not by political leaders but by corporate leaders. corporate leaders don't have much credibility in this area with parents, practicing teachers and students. what can be done from what you see in this poll and your experience to

government, which is a federal government expense, to the people. in a $525 i live apartment that is small and it is not subsidized. it is nice. i just think it is for the big corporations to get rich, myself. thank you for everything. i do see a need for more housing projects to be built for seniors. host: do you see that need coming, more housing bill for seniors? affordable housing? guest: absolutely. what kinds of forms there should be. , staying in place has addition to the conversation. innovativet means and i think it does innovative actions on the part of local and state authorities to create more flexible zoning and more flexible occupancy is what we are hoping to see out here in terms of creativity. host: kent watkins. we appreciate your time and the conversation this morning. guest: thank you so much. 'sst: that does it for today "washington journal." we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern time with more of your comments and questions. thanks and enjoy the rest of your wednesday. [captioning performed by national captioning

i am the newest member of the federal trade commission. i appreciate the opportunity to appear today and the leadership that this committee is showing on mobile cramming and on cramming in general. i want to thank the other witnesses for their perspective and the collaboration the federal trade commission has received from the state attorney general in addressing this issue. for more than 15 years the commission has been working with congress to stop fraud from being placed on consumer's bill. we began targeting the land line cramming in the late '90s and have brought more than 30 cases resulting in hundreds of millions in judgment. as consumers have migrated to mobile phones we are turning our attention there. sometimes consumers are tricked into subscriber by thirty party merchants who use free concert tickets or 1,000 gift card officers. pretenses ... collect their telephone numbers such as promises of free concert tickets or $1,000 gift cards. in one example consumers were targeted with an ad for virus protection software for their pho

i asked the staff to pull out federal statutes, and these are actually the federal statutes, title 21, and that sets up a schedule, and it classifyies substances and sets really the highest level of narcotics that are under federal jurisdiction and the responsibility of enforcement. so this is the federal law, and that's where we are at this point. but what's taken place is, again, the states have taken action and localities -- excuse me. this washington crud is -- let me have a little drink here. there are is something that comes with the cold weather. but, again, we've heard what the law is, we've seen what states are doing. and unfortunately, there's chaos as it relates to where we're going and what our policy is as far as what's allowed, what's legalized. and now enforcement's going to react. to compound this, in our society we all look to the president for leadership regardless of what party he is, and the current president has made some statements of late. in fact, just a few days ago president obama said, i'll quote: i don't think it's more dangerous than alcohol, referring to

what are the local communities needing the federal government to do. stay with us, this >> al jazeera america presents >> i've been waiting for this... i'm so nervous right now. i'm really scared. >> 15 stories one incredible journey edge of eighteen coming september only on al jazeera america only on al jazeera america >>> welcome back to "inside story". i'm libby casey. you may not think that much about climate change, but the national climate assessment says you should, because it's impacting you now, and it doesn't matter where you live. ,000 mayors signed on to a pledge to limit impact on daily lives. part of today's discussion. carmel and deena major jim brainer, and from houston texos, mayor parker, and rick, the director of climate science watch, a project of the project. >> how do you navigate the politics to get things done? >> it's important to point out that everybody should want to live on a cleaner planet, breathe clean air and drink clean water. i point out to conservatives that the word conserve is the root of conservative, that it was

[applause] >> booktv continues down the former federal prosecutor sidney powell. he talks about prosecutorial misconduct and what can be done about it. this is about 90 minutes. >> good afternoon. welcome to the cato institute. my name is tim weich. today we want to examine some distressing legal trends that are at work in the criminal law area. our guest speaker today sidney powell is just written a new book entitled "licensed to lie" exposing corruption in the department of justice. and the book recounts several cases in which ambitious prosecutors used illegal and unethical tactics to win their cases. before we get to our panel of experts i want to take a minute or two to lay something of a foundation for the discussion that's going to follow but before he do that let me ask those of you who came with cell phones if you would just take a moment now to quickly doublecheck and make sure that they are turned off as a courtesy to our speakers. it includes our panelists. [laughter] okay, thank you. the first that i think needs to be understood is that there is then

federal standards since notof t h c, the federal level any level of thc is illegal, a schedule one narcotic, and supposedly zero tolerance. currently there is no roadside breathalyzer for marijuana. technology is advancing. some have started to use a roadside oral test. this is one of those testing machines. europe.ed in --takes a swab of to swab the panelists. i thought i would not do that today. you can take a swab with this. it can tell you if anyone has used marijuana within 4 hours. we have no standard or acceptable test. we have no way of telling if people are impaired. most data we are getting right now is from the fatalities. to either have to take them a hospital for a blood or urine the worst situation is where we test their blood. in the past 10 years marijuana was a factor in the 50 accidents. i show the civil aviation. i haven't even shown what happened in the commercial market. we have 23 states with medical marijuana use, and 2 states who have not done most barriers. knocked down most barriers. the national transportation investigatedhas the different accidents and thc in at

charge on a federal crime.sort of murder or related charges, that's at the state level. the federal statute that would attach would be civil rights violations. typically, doesn't that only happen after the state as adjudicated or disposed of the case? >> absolutely not. there are cases where the federal government will come in -- there are situations where there's so much unrest, the credibility of the community is so damaged and the federal government makes a decision because it's in the best interest of that community to look and see that it is in the community's best interest and the government's best interest to come in. here we see a violation of human rights and civil rights in this particular case. and in that case where the government cannot -- where the state cannot be trusted, the government has actually come in and taken over the investigation. i think we're dealing with two different issues. when we talk about charging in a federal crime and whether or not it's a civil rights violation, that's a who

the federal role does matter. that is why they have to ship -- shift to feel supported in the federal levels. what's your question was about looking forward. there is a deep and abiding thatve among americans education should be the great equalizer. standards are what equalize education. that is the focus that we need to keep now. states, school districts, individual classroom teachers can decide how to get to those standards. those standards make sure that every student in the country graduates college ready to succeed in college and career. >> thank you. all of the responses you have talked a lot about the role federal, state, local entities, and about the need of practicing teachers, parents, and students to support the common core. show you now so shall the rollout was done not by political leaders by -- but by corporate leaders. corporate leaders don't have much credibility in this area with parents, practicing teachers and students. what can be done from what you see in this poll and your experience to get p

you can be in adherence to state law and violating federal law. >> they are violating federal law.eryone in colorado is violating federal law. the governor is licensing marijuana in violation of federal law. >> is anything happening in congress? >> there is a bill that is relatively serious that would remove a requirement -- there is a requirement that every time there was a call for legalization of any controlled substance, the federal government has to denounce it. which is why the white house issued a statement saying, we were wrong. >> why did they say you are wrong? is it all politics? >> they are required to by law. there is a bill that would remove that requirement. others that say, don't enforce the law. but nothing serious to remove it. what has to happen is the federal law has to be changed. >> is it a winning vote with the public? >> 52% of the people say so. i think it would be winning for the federal government to say, we are getting out of the business and leaving it to states. >> didn't people like bill buckley come out for the legalization years ago? >> partly on th

i held out in the other hand a thatof 26 federal agencies were charged with enforcing conflicting federal law and created a delimiter. .- and created a dilemma today is important. having shared transportation, you see the results of the devastation. on our highways, probably in the last dozen years we have had a quarter of a million americans slaughtered on highways. we have gotten it down. did 40,000.ng that is the talent he's. half of those totality's are related of those fatalities are from alcohol or drugs. marijuana is still a schedule .ne narcotic, and more potent we are going to have more people stoned on the highway. there will be consequences. , and have federal agencies we would hear from the department of transportation to see how they will deal with those. vehicles, commercial vehicles, and i don't know if we can get some of those charges to see the devastation, but the photos, aviation is another area. we having gotten into commercial. we will talk about that. these are civil aircraft. every one of these were involved with people impaired. the way we find out now if they bye

especially on the state level right now, but also on the federal level. it was absolutely a devastation for the universal background check bill to fail. it was a devastation for communities everywhere. it also motivated a lot of americans who otherwise were just sitting on the sidelines who "a" didn't even know that there was a gun show loophole or that you could buy a gun online without a background check, and "b," it angered so many people, including young people, including mill lennials like myself most disproportionately affected by gun violence in america to get up and fight this. i think we're sort of in this turning point right now where moms and students are -- and other sort of demographics are coming together on the grassroots level to advocate against the gun lobby and to prove that average americans can have more political power than the gun lobby and that's never happened before. >> yeah, maybe you could tell us a little -- there's the protect all women movement that's out in washington. in california they have this gun violence restraining o

it would be much more elegant if we could have federal jurisdiction on this matter. it would be much more efficient. your bill would tremendously accelerate our ability to stop bad actors and get good results. >> if i might, one last question. thank you again for your hard work and leadership and one of the sections we worked on was the injunctive relief. if you would explain why an authority like that is important to other companies facing trade secret theft. >> we often run into situations where we find that an ex employee has left and is going to work for a competitor and we find out such that once they turn in their computer that there's been a download of a number of documents which contain highly confidential lilly trade secrets. these almost always have been on late friday afternoon and therefore the best part about the seizure aspect of the bill that's currently pending is the fact that we could go to federal court and in one action kick out an ounce of prevention rather than worrying about a pound of the cure week or two later when we can get the indiana sta

there are and that's just one of these federal criminal statutes. as i said, there are thousands more. the spider web of regulations is now so vast that it's really hard for an ordinary citizen to go about their lives without breaking some rule or regulation. you know, this is just not the same america that we grew up with. a lot of us in this room, i think, can remember an expression when we were growing up, it said something like, you know, let's not make a federal case out of it. but that expression is really losing its force given the growth of our federal criminal code. now, we also have to worry about situations where people have actually not violated any one of these rules and regulations, but have nevertheless been targeted by, let's say, an unethical federal prosecutor. the lives of these people are turned upside down. their businesses fail, their families are shattered, and their life savings ends up going to attorneys and law firms that are trying to defend them. as a matter of fact, their own attorneys often advise them to plead guilty e

with the federal government spending three billion across 13 federal agencies on s.t.e.m. programs we must ensure the government is leveraging initiatives. our hearing today provides an opportunity for the panel of witnesses to discuss what is taking place at business places and for the second panel discusses their personal experiences with these types of in initiati initiatives. i look forward to hearing from all of the witnesses and thank them for their time. i recognize the ranking member, the gentlemen from illinois, for opening statement for five minutes. >> thank you, chairman. i want to thank the witnesses for being here. one reason i joined this committee when i came to congress is i have a strong interest to improve math and science in the community. i am one of a dozen engineers in the house and senate. and my wife was a math major in college and unlike me her s.t.e.m. training led her directly into a career at an actuary. so from my experience and what i have seen from others i am aware of how important it is we engage students at all levels in s.t.e.m. fields.

the federal law. and that's it. because 37 -- >> take that law off the books. >> not the law, i'm sorry, but the classification of marijuana under that law, just delete it. and there are some other ancillary things that have to happen. there is a treaty that is going to be a problem. >> okay, so everybody you said was unanimously in favor of this. there were no dissent. >> no. >> but did you have to in your discussions get past any kind of hurdles, for example. >> yes. >> for a long time people that i know and respect have argued that no matter what you think, marijuana leads you to addiction to other much more serious drugs. >> yes, the very first thing we did, well the first thing i did was make sure my boss was okay with it it because i work for him. and unlike-- arthurs salzberger and unlike the executive editor who is my friend and colleague and doesn't have to care what the publisher thinks, but i do. >> up to a point lets you put it in. >> but the publisher-- i mean in terms of what stories he

i am the newest and her of the federal trade commission. i appreciate the opportunity of appearing today and the leadership this committee has shown on mobile cramming and cramming generally. i also want to thank the other witnesses for their perspective and the collaboration that commission has received from the federal communications commission and the attorney general in addressing this important consumer protection issue. for more than 15 years, the commission has been working with congress to stop fraudsters that place unauthorized charger on the neuters telephone bills. they began in the 1990s and have brought more than 30 cases resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars of judgments. as consumers have migrated to the smartphones and mobile payment systems and turned our attention to the unauthorized charges on mobile phone accounts. mobile scams can take a variety of forms. sometimes consumers are tricked into subscribing services by third-party merchants who use false pretenses to collect their telephone numbers such as promises o

our federal criminal code. we also have to worry about situations where people haven't violated any of the rules and regulations but nevertheless it's been targeted by an unethical federal prosecutor. the businesses fail. their families were shattered and their life savings ends up going to attorneys and law firms that are trying to defend them. as a matter of fact. these attorneys will argue that the alternative is even worse. it's too risky talking about complete bankruptcy if you don't plead guilty early in the process because the case will drag on more and more going to the attorneys and a longer jail sentence if the jury chooses to believe the prosecutor rather than their version of. so these are some of the problems the panelists will be addressing along with some specific cases. the format is going to be straightforward. the guest author is going to speak first on the thesis of the book and then introduced the guest commentators and after the remarks open up and take your questions for 15 minutes before

of the an understanding federal role. they are responsible for setting gets rules and judging who into the program and who doesn't. but how a person who is potentially eligible for the gets from thinking about it to actually doing it requires a lot of work. on theirases, courage part. the kinds of documentation and that is of information being tested, almost through this process, through trial and error, is something that collectively people are learning about. responsibleual is for putting their own application together. state and local role, these nongovernmental actors are playing a huge role. in some ways, many of the service providers are actually shaping the program and shaping what it means to have a successful application, and they are learning from each other. there are some networks that exist, usually within localities and regions. it could be important for places to share that information, especially when you think about more established places like illinois, with strong infrastructure and strong advocacy even