mr. brooks: mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 5345, the american leadership in space technology and advanced rocketry act, otherwise known as the alstar act. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman move to pass the bill as amended? mr. brooks: yes. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: a bill to designate the marshall space flight center of the national aeronautics and space administration to provide leadership for the u.s. rocket propulsion industrial base, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from alabama, mr. brooks, and the gentleman from texas, mr. veasey, will each control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from alabama. mr. brooks: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and xtend their remarks and to include extraneous material on h.r. 5345, the bill now under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: with

mrs. brooks: thank you, mr. speaker. at this time i'd like to recognize another member of the indiana delegation, representative hollingsworth, who represents the ninth congressional district in southern indiana, a gentleman who has done business for many years and with that i yield him up to five minutes. thank you. mr. hollingsworth: i thank the chairwoman for hosting this very important special order and i'm so glad that we are talking about the tremendous benefits that we've seen from the tax cuts and jobs act passed just over six months ago, during the last six months we have heard a lot of impressive statistics about the national economy. we've heard about unemployment being down to 3.8%. we've heard about second quarter g.d.p. being projected at an excess of 4%. we heard about there being more available jobs than there are available workers in this country for the first time since the labor department has been keeping that statistic. it is really impressive what the national economy is doing over the past six mont

mrs. brooks: thank you. i'd also like to enter into the record a study on biodefense that was sent to dr. cadlick with a very detailed seven recommendations to improve our biodefense posture. mr. harper: without objection. mrs. brooks: among those was the need to improve coordination with state and local partners. and to address problems that have existed in the past. can you tell us how aspr plans to engage with state and local partners once it assumes control of the stockpile? which is of great concern to state and local partners. dr. bright: dry that it is an essential part of an effective -- i agree that it is an essential part of an effective enterprise. the state and local and tribal and territorial partners are the front line. they are the ones who are distributing and administering the vaccines and treatments. so we are dedicated to working with them, making sure they have a voice in the structure, in our system, to understand how they need those medical countermeasures and how they need them to be de

mr. brooks. mr. brooks: i am concerned about the perceived transition process away from the format of the international space station. there has not been enough substantive public debate on what this transition involves. with that as a back drop i have a question directed at ms. chaplain, the nasa associate administrator. first has nasa come up with a definition of what commercialization of the international space station means? ms. chaplain: we have not been doing work in that area and i don't believe they have yet, but i'll let steve -- >> let me tell you where the more detailed planning is. for t a solicitation industry studies on transing to some sort of collaborative or commercial enterprise and geting the proposals back in this week. and what we asked for in those studies are the capabilities that they think can provide us and what we need in the future. technical approach to achieving tholes capabilities and third is the business plan. what is the business plan, although we don't have a rigorou

mr. brooks. mr. wolf? >> thank you, bruce wolf speaking for myself just on this particular issue and i think that the problem that started with all of this was that uber and lyft and the others went to the state. i think that it would be good if maybe you think about drafting some legislation to push at the state level to bring it back to local control. so i would urge you to do that. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. and any other people of the public that would like to see some public comment is now closed. i believe that we don't need to take an action on this item. is that correct, mr. clerk? >> i defer to miss stricter on this. >> yes, i understand that the executive officer is looking for direction to proceed with the study and so i think that a motion to allow him to proceed would be appropriate. >> supervisor fewer: all right. is there a motion to authorization our executive officer to do this study on emerging services and partnering with the transportation authority. so moved. great. seco

mr. brooks? >> yes, eric brooks again. good afternoon commissioners, speaking for -- i think i'll just speak for san francisco green party and our city san francisco. back in the day when all we were doing was cleanpowersf, it did make sense to give that money back to the city. commission fewer, you as a supervisor have been in on a hearing on public broad band which raises a lot of question about whether the direction we're going is the right direction, and we may need a study that probably would cost around $20,000 on public broad band in the near future to make sure we do it right and it's a true public internet system, not an internet system controlled by a corporation. and likewise, i'll highlight you again, commissioner fewer. you were at a hing about bayview-hunters point and treasure island and the tock objectionic waste out there and how that impacts our facilities like transit and plumbing and electricity, etcetera. we may need to do a study on treasure island because that's -- treasure island and bayview-hunters

mr. brooks said which is that nancy miller, our prior counsel, was not a resource to us. we paid a lot of money to their law firm and, you know, contrasted miss stricter is responsive and local and has been so valuable over the last year as our commission has changed. but miss miller was our representative for many years from that same law firm. and i found it very difficult to reach her. i wasn't -- my emails weren't responded to. and i was unsure whether she was representing lafco, the body that was paying our bills, and, you know, whether or not she had a conflict of interest with the city and county of san francisco. so that is something that is -- is troublesome. and so while we have miss stricter who has been quite, you know, wonderful and just a delight to work with, i think that it really does matter who our, you know, who our dedicated counsel is from that law firm. so i think that is something that we should take into consideration. i agree with mr. gibner that an r.f.p. is something that we would to do. and revisiting this every year and extending it, even with

mr. brooks. are there any other public comment speakers for this item? seeing none, public comment is know closed. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor fewer: there's no action to take on this matter. madam clerk, can you please call item number four. [agenda item read] >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. mr. gobel, i believe you have a presentation for us. as you take up, i'd like to take a moment to acknowledge our new financial officer, mr. brian gobel. you've hit the ground running and i'd like to tell you we're looking forward to working together in this body. miss calvillo provided tremendous support to this commission in the last ten months since losing our staff position, and i'm so grateful for her work. with that, mr. gobel, i'll turn it over to you. >> thank you, madam chair and commissioners. i am here to present your final lafco budget for fiscal 2018-'19. before i get into the final budget, though, i just want to review your expenditure status. a lot of these numbers with similar to the numbers presented to you at the last two meetings by former

mr. brooks gave you numbers. i'll tell you what's not good policy, investing in funding industries that are killing and brutalizing our communities. you know, fossil fuel industry and the gun manufacturing industries, and the prison industries. it is good policy to -- to use our money to benefit ourselves and our communities, and i would also just like to say that the solution -- you know, i just want to ensure that the solution is a public bank, a municipal bank. and i'm -- and i'm -- whether -- you know, i understand that's going to take steps to get there, and i don't want everything at once. i understand that, but i want the end outcome to be a public bank. as commissioner pollock said, i've been with the sfd fund apo as billion, after four years, we got to that meeting at sf'ers, and i felt like something was going to happen, and we just came out of there with another plan to make a plan, and it just infeweriated me. like you said, this should have happened a decade ago. we need to make this happen. we need

mrs. brooks: hello. susan brooks from indiana 5. i am holding a picture of arron, a young athlete who also had an injury, who got addicted to opioids and died of an overdose. what's amazing about him, his mother, justin philips, started an organization called overdose lifeline and it raises funds to try to ensure that first responders and others, including family members, have narcan, that naloxone to stop the overdose. and in indiana, we passed what was called air aaron's law, -- called aaron's law, named on behalf of aaron symms, because we need to make sure that we provide that narcan and all of that hope for those families and those addicted to prevent that overdose. mr. carter: hello. buddy carter from georgia. currently the only pharmacist in congress. i have a unique perspective on this particular situation, having practiced pharmacy for over 30 years. i saw this epidemic evolve. i saw it evolve over years. i've seen the impact it has had. i've seen lives ruined. i've seen careers ruined, families ruined. i know the impact th

cory calcanye and mr. brook ann hantz and mr. dale robert jankowski. on behalf of supervisor safai for the late sister patricia ann claherty. on behalf of president breed for the late miss eileen o'sullivan, and on behalf of president breed and supervisor ronen for the late miss barbara brown lopez. and at the suggestion of supervisor ronen on behalf of the entire board of supervisors for the late supervisor harvey milk. >> president breed: thank you, madam clerk. is there any further business before us today? >> clerk: that concludes our business for today. >> president breed: okay. we are adjourned. thank you, everyone. everyone ready? would everyone please rise to the pledge of allegiance? i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> president stansbury: mr. secretary, roll call. bridges present. casciato present. cohen is expected. driscoll present. quorum is present. >> president stansbury: great, we're going to be

cory calcanye and mr. brook ann hantz and mr. dale robert jankowski. on behalf of supervisor safai for the late sister patricia ann claherty. on behalf of president breed for the late miss eileen o'sullivan, and on behalf of president breed and supervisor ronen for the late miss barbara brown lopez. and at the suggestion of supervisor ronen on behalf of the entire board of supervisors for the late supervisor harvey milk. >> president breed: thank you, madam clerk. is there any further business before us today? >> clerk: that concludes our business for today. >> president breed: okay. we are adjourned. thank you, everyone. >> supervisor peskin: good morning and welcome to the san francisco county transportation meeting for today, tuesday, may 22nd. could you please call the role? w -- [roll call] >> supervisor peskin: thank you. i will give the chair support. colleagues, at this time, please ensure the news of several major state -- state branches received from the real capital program and california transportation commission. senate bill one, competiti

mr. brooks. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i am concerned about the perceived transition process away from the current operational format of the international space station, there has not been in my judgment, enough substantive debate on what this transition involves. with that as a backdrop, i have a question directed at miss chaplain and the director contracting the national securitiag security acquisitions, gao and first, has nasa come up with the definition of what commercialization of the international space station means? >> we have not been doing work in that area and i don't believe they have yet, but i'll let steve. >> so let me tell you where we are with i would say the more detailed planning of station transition. so we released a solicitation not too long ago for studies, industry studies on transitioning space station to some sort of collaborative or commercial enterprise. we are getting proposals back in this week and we'll evaluate those and what we asked for in those studies is the commercial that they think th

mr. brooks for five minutes. >> forgive me for from diverging that each of you has persuasive influence over space command headquarters. we have a lot to offer. related space command the following activities, aviation and missile command, research development engineering center, missiles and space, united states army missile command, and army forces strategic command, missile-defense agents agency missile space intelligence center marshall space flight center which is the home and birthplace of the space program and a wealth of intellectual talent engineers, the highest concentration of engineers in the united states of america physicist, mathematician scientist, and in conclusion i hope you will concur that space command seems like an excellent fit now with that sales pitch behind me let's go to the substance of this hearing. i do appreciate your indulgence i know you all have persuasive influence on the outcome of that space command location. i know department of defense has done work with the faa on ssa. with respect to the space renaissance act from the last congress the one stop shop at

also tonight, author and gun rights attorney steven hall brook talks about the second amendment and talks about the long island federalist society. mr. hall brook has successfully lobbied with the supreme court. you can see this on c-span 2, on c-span.org or listen with the free c-span radio app. >>> tonight on the communicators. american cable association president and ceo matthew polka and tds telecom ceo andrew petersen. >> we serve so many areas, 35% of americans do not have access to a traditional cable provider, very rural in scope, so in many instances, tds is the only access they have to bring broad band to customers that didn't previously have it or have adequate broad band bring them more robust broad band in the future. >> i think it's important that the fcc and congress considers infrastructure like proceedings and other concepts that broad band is and has been determined to be a matter of important inf infrastructure to our country and to natioicy and athat's change, because typically we think of infrastructure as roads, bridges, railways et cetera, which are all very important and need to be helped. but you cannot surv

mr. brooks for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. forgive me for diverging from the primary focus. it appears to me that each of you have significant persuasive influence on where it will be headquartered. and that vein i hope he will be a finalist in the debate. they have a lot to offer. we have related to space command , or related a little or a lot, the following space command activities. united states army efficient missile command, aviation missile center, missiles and space, united states ours army in his command. united states missile defense agency, defense intelligence agency missile and space intelligence center, nasa's marshall space flight center which is the home in birthplace of america space program. a wealth of intellectual talent, engineers, we have the highest concentration of engineers in the united states of america, businesses, mathematicians, scientists, in conclusion i hope you will concur that we seem like an excellent fit. with that sales pitch behind me, let's go more to the substance of this hearing. i do a

mr. brooks at the new york times, who wrote a cogent political essay.ion unauthorized immigrants in this nation. every past administration has used some discretion on targeting whom to deport. today, discretion and humanity out.eing steppe stamped people like stephen miller are not steeped in conservative thinking and do not operate with a conservative disposition. we go to the conservative thought this morning of our kevin cirilli in washington. an extraordinary debate. what will kevin cirilli try to listen for today in our culture war? duen: what will paul ryan to unify the republican party in terms of getting a legislative fix through congress. there was a remarkable scene last night about dinnertime in the united states when president trump to meet with republicans on capitol hill, walking arm and arm with house speaker paul ryan. is no question that despite president trump's that republicans have all the power. a super't have majority, but they have all the power on capitol hill. democratic members of the hispanic caucus on capitol hill standing in

from indiana is mrs. brooks: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to urge my colleagues to pass h.r. 5329, e n center network enhancement act of 2018, a bill that re-authorizes the national network of poison contl centers. as we heard that offers free, confidential, expert medical advice 24 hours a day, seven days a week. we heard during a energy and commerce health subcommittee hearing that this past summer the georgia poison control center was the first public health entity to detect and respond to a deadly opioid kour where yellow pills were being sold stamped with the brand percocet, but they in fact contained substances chemically similar to fentanyl. without these calls to poison control centers to report this drug, these pills could have gone undetected indefinitely. ison control centers are dealing with 192 cases a day of opioid abuse and misuse. they are essential in combating the opioid crisis because these are the centers that compile the data that can be used to discover hot spots for opioid abuse and misuse and save lives.

mr. brooks for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. forgive me for diverging from the primary focus of this hearing. but it occurs to me that each of you has significant persuasive influence on where the new space command will be headquartered. so i'm going to touch on that for just a moment. in that vain, i hope you will help make a finalist in the space command headquarters debate. red stone arsenal has a lot to offer. we have related two space commands, either related a lot or related a little. the following space command activities. united states army aviation and missile command. aviation and missile research development and engineering center. peo missiles in space. united states army space and missile command. army forces strategic command. the united states missile defense agency. defense intelligence agency missile and space intelligence center. nasa's marshall space flight center, which is the home and birth place of america's space program. a wealth of intellect talent. engineers. we have the highest concentration of enginee

mr. darrell west vice president and director of government studies at brookings institute. welcome to you all. and pursuant to committee rules all witnesses will be sworn in before they testify. if you would please rise and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the whole truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god? thank you, you may be seated. the record should reflect that all witnesses answered in the affirmative in order to allow time for enough questions and answers, i would ask that you limit your oral testimony to five minutes in your entire written testimony will be made part of the record. there is a clock in front of you. if you will just press the red button and speak into the microphone, mr. kovacs we recognize you for five minutes. >> chairman metals, -- meadows, thank you for ordering this hearing and providing me the opportunity to discuss official time in the federal workforce. my name is trey kovacs and i am a policy analyst at cei. it is a nonprofit public policy organization

brooks. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and this issue was one that is important and timely for this subcommittee and last week the health subcommittee had a discussion on the pandemic preparedness act authorized by brooks and eshew. and we heard firsthand about the biological threats to our nation and input on the legislation. the panel is known to us and they're all experts. i look forward to hearing from our witnesses and i thank the chairman and will yield to miss brooks. >> maybe with unanimous consent. >> 30 seconds. thank you, mr. chairman and thank you to our witnesses on the work. we held a hearing how we best combat biological threats, i'm pleased we're once again examining the state of our preparedness. as everyone knows it's not a question of if we face a threat, it's a question once again when we face a threat and we have been reminded by the stories that we've heard here today that these types of incidents have already happened in our country over the last decade and a half. created in '99, the national stock p

brooks. >> thank you, mr. chairman remembering and this issue was one that is important and timely for this subcommittee, and last week the health subcommittee had a hearing on the discussion draft of the pan pandemics preparedness act. we heard from witnesses with experience and received input on the draft legislation. certainly with this panel today is well-known espouse they are all expects. i look forward to hearing from the witnesses and i thank you mr. chairman and i will yield to miss brooks. >> maybe with unanimous consent. >> 30 seconds. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you to our witnesses for your work on this public health national security issue. last february our subcommittee here healed a hearing conditioning how we best combat biological threats and i pleased to examine the state of our preparedness as we prepare to reauthorizes the law. it is not a question of if we face a threat, it's a question of, again, once again, when we face a threat, and i have been roo mind its -- remind that these t

brooks & dunn. y'all say hi to mr. alan jackson.

mr. west? do you have anything from brookings that would prove that? i would venture to say you do not. what do you have? i will look at the numbers. what do you have to back that up? >> i mean, my sense is if someone is working 100% -- >> i'm not asking for your sense. i'm asking for real data to back up your claim. >> we've done a lot of research through our public management center. i've spent 40 years kind of looking at governance questions. we do a lot of work on federal agencies and how to improve their performance. and if supervisors are proving this, then there's accountability. >> you spent 40 years. do you have any quantifiable data to suggest that someone who is on 100% official time has the same accountability to their management as someone that is on partial official time? >> if they are helping their colleagues file grievances, resolve disputes, communicate with management, there's accountability there. >> you answered a great question i didn't ask. i asked do you have any quantifiable data to support that hypothesis, mr. west? after 40 years, do you have any data to suppo

brooks. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and this issue is one that is important and timely for this subcommittee, and last week the health subcommittee had hearing on the discussion draft over the pandemic preparedness arizona authored by representatives brookses and eschew. we hear from witnesses with first hand experiencing in combating the threatses and received inputs on the draft legislation. certainly our witness panel today is well known and they're all expects. i hook forward to hearing from be witnesses and i thank the chairman and yield to miss brooks. >> maybe with unanimous consent, the leadership role on this. >> 30 second. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you to our witnesses for your work on this public health national security issue. february our subcommittee here healed hearing examining how we best combat biological that'ses and i'm plead we are once again examine thing states of preparedness. as everyone here knows it is not a question of if we face a threat, it's a question of, again, once again, when w

meltzer who's a senior fellow in the global economy and development at the brookings institution joins us live now from washington d.c. mr meltzer welcome to the program everybody of course talking up their game are we heading for a trade war or is it just posturing and we will get agreement in the end. we're probably not at a point where we're going to be in a trade war but i think clearly the u.s. has fired the first shot in what might be described as a skirmish and other countries of going to retaliate and so i think we're certainly at the beginning of what chord laid in something that is more serious and this is back to the war response certainly from from macro untrue and rallying the support of the four other nations that will form the the so-called g. six against the one which is the united states do you think this time it will work that they will sway donald trump i don't think we're going to see any change in the u.s. position coming out of the g. seven and i don't think that any of the g seven leaders expect beck to be the case but i do think what's happening is a recalibration in terms of how these leaders int

mr. hogue. it was during this period that hole brooke and i had our knock down dragout sessions that left for donna in tears. it's temperature communications had been preare per funk tori in the weeks since, their kind of chill was routine for those who worked for richmond holbrooke year after year, i counseled hid closest assistants in tearful low opinions in his equally volatile relationships with him. in the final days of november as the first conversations with arod came together i ran into holbrooke in the hall weaponeer the cafeteria, growers leaving? i've just been sworn into the new york barclay had been studying for. don't practice. that's a whole lot of nothing. he smiled at me, deep lines creasing around his blue eyes. anyway, you're just getting warmed up. on december 8 he killed in a favor. his friend, james hogue, was being honored at an event that night. he planned to roast him. could i find an article from, quote, sometime in the 1970s making fun of him for being too handsome. his memory was, as u, -- after several hours hassling staffers at the library of congress i tracked down an

recognizes the chair of the house ethics committee, the gentlemen woman from indiana, miss brooks for five minute. >> thank you mr. chairman. if could pass that binder over, that last page has a chart that i want to enter into the record, it's the budget report for fiscal year 2016 through 2020, a large percentage of the cdc stock pile budget appears to go to a category entitled nonprocurement costs, in an effort to inform the discussion, we asked the cdc to provide a breakdown for what is in the nonprocurement but we never got it, please share with us what makes up the nonprocurement spending for the strategic national stock pile. >> as you know, it has an inventory $7 billion. the annual appropriation is just a piece of that, most of the dollars in the non procurement go for sustaining and operating, that's the rental space, the security for the wear houses, the staff that work there as well as the clinical expertise that is helping with the guidance on helping to use the products. >> could we get a written breakdown of what that is. >> that should be on its way to you. >> thank you very much. >> doctor bright,

i want to ask the chair, i submitted the record from brooking institute on how their prolonging segregation. >> thank you mr. courtney. mr. banks, you a recognized for five minutes. >> thank you madam chairwoman. >> as mrs. reese is well aware, national association of public schools is ranked indiana charter school law as the best in the country for three years in a row. as mr. richman was aware, the association of charter school authorizer's charter the best the nation. is from the data that the study found that students in indiana charter schools gained 36 days of learning and reading. year end 13 days of learning in math, both above the national average. i was proud to be involved in the effort to expand access to charter schools during my time as a state senator by sponsoring the bill that created the indiana school board and allowed private universities to authorize new charter schools. i believe the success of schools can be treated to the ability of multiple authorizer's to start charter schools that maintain the autonomy to innovate. at the same time, the schools are being held to the highest academ

mr. president. this as michael cohen faces potential criminal charges in new york. we'll discuss his legal strategy. you are watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. ♪ let's fly, let's fly away ♪ ♪ just say the words ♪ and we'll beat the birds down to acapulco bay ♪ ♪ it's perfect for a flying honeymoon they say ♪ ♪ come fly with me ♪ let's fly, let's fly away ♪ ♪ come fly with me ♪ let's fly, let's fly away ♪ these are the specialists we're proud to call our own. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. expert medicine works here. learn more at cancercenter.com but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember. it's just a burst pipe, i could fix (laugh) no. with claim rateguard your rates won't go up just beacuase of a claim. i totally could've... (wife) nope! switching to allstate is worth it. (male friend) thanks for the invite! show me the movies. (anna) front row? nobody puts baby in a corner. i'll pre-order what she's having. wax on

afternoon, but it's important to point out, brooke, the lawmakers who were sitting with the president as he was uttering the falsehoods did not butt in to say no, mr. president, that comment is not right. >> which is noteworthy. jim acosta, thank you very much. stay on all of jim's points about the decision from the supreme court. with me now cnn chief legal cn legal analyst, a former federal prosecutor at the department of justice. so hello to both of you. >> good afternoon. >> and okay, on acosta's point about this decision and reading the majority opinion from the chief justice, talking about trump's statements, his words, is the takeaway that in the end trump's words didn't matter? >> yes. that's -- and in fact, the chief justice says that explicitly. he says, you know, you can tell he's uncomfortable with those words. he draws a contrast between what the president, what president trump said, and the more sympathetic words that president bush had about muslims after 9/11. >> yeah. >> he said look, this executive order, this travel ban, does not address muslims specifically on it face, it doesn't say anything about muslims and it is at the core

brooke, thanks for having me back. you know, the relentless nature of stormy daniels' legal attack and that of her attorney michael avenatti continues. this lawsuit opens a new front. mrm appearing in the new york matter related to the cohen file. so what he's done is he's gone to court in california, he's sued cohen and stormy's former lawyer, davidson, in state court there, and he's revealed a lot of communications between davidson and cohen that seem to suggest that instead of helping stormy, her lawyer was working with cohen. that's the allegation. so he's opened a new front in the legal battle. and we're far, far from the end of this war. >> right. so two things. one, let me just read this statement. this is from stormy daniels' current attorney michael avenatti. he said the text messages show the prior denies by mr. trump and mr. cohen relating to what mr. trump knew and about the honesty of my client were absolute lies. there was a significant coverup here as part of an attempt to deceive the american people and mrs. trump and we intend on getting to the bottom of it. before we continue on, just big picture and m.j., you were reminding me, keith davidson, the o

want to have submitted to the record a report from brookings institute, how charter schools are promoting segregation. and i yield back. >> thank you, mr. courtney. mr. banks, you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, madam chairwoman. my home state of indiana is a great example of the ability of charter schools to create opportunity and lift academic achievement. as mrs. rees is well aware, the national associate of public charter schools has ranked indiana's charter school law as the best in the country for three years in a row. as mr. richmond is well affair, the national associate of charter school authorizers has consistently ranked indiana's charter school policies as among the best in the nation. this is clear from the data. the 2013 national credo study found the students in indiana charter schools gained 36 days of learning and reading per year and 14 days of learning in math, both above the national average. i was proud to be involved in the effort to expand access to charter schools during my time as a state senator by sponsoring the bill that created the indiana charter school board and allowed private universities