mr. joyce. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, a few questions regarding nextgen. i was one of them you're spending approximately the faa spending a billion dollars per year on nextgen, which is we would agree is needed to address future air traffic demand. given that operations are down 12% since 2070 think we should consider differing long-term nextgen plans before implementing furloughs of air traffic controllers? >> there are two dimensions to the response to your question. the first is the nextgen program primarily is funded from our facilities and equipment account, and our research education -- research engine and development account. we do not have flexibility to transfer between those accounts and the operating account which is the account where we are seen significant impacts associate with a fertile. the second one though that i would like to make is that these are investments that have significant long-term benefits in making the system operate much more efficiently, and to handle the expected growth of

. >> mr. joyce, it is nice to hear from you. thank you for joining us. >>> hampton? >> we're starting first, we've got updated stats on at least the faa on the delay picture for yesterday. 4,185 flights delayed for all reasons and were primarily due to staffing. another 975 resulting in weather related delays. om 200-plus cancellations. that's, frankly, worse than tuesday when we had 1,025 delays due to staffing issues. again, 900-plus related to weather. the private numbers we're getting show a different story. from flightstats.com, roughly we're seeing 400 flights a day cancel. 6,800-plus delays. the worst airports, no real surprise -- chicago and newark, around 36% of flights delayed for one reason or another. dallas-ft. worth, about 32%. earlier today on cnbc the ceo of southwest airlines talking specifically about the sequester and the idea that, you know, a lot of taxes are paid specifically earmarked for the airlines and for the faa. well, now he says maybe it is time to start thinking about withdrawing those taxes especially where travelers are c

mr. lustig, welcome. (applause) >> and the mayor and ms. kelly both spoke about public housing. appropriate to that, we have with us today members of the public housing tenants association board of directors, ms. joyce armstrong, neola gans and deirdre smith from the public housing tenants association board of directors. we want to welcome them. p (applause) >> and last but not least, ms. jones from the -- >> [inaudible]. >> the department of aging, ms. jones from the department of aging is with us today. i'm sorry. (applause) >> wanted to make sure i got that one in. with that, i'd like to hastily call forward cheryl smith who has been a tremendous supporter of the society who will introduce our keynote speaker. cheryl. (applause) >> good afternoon, everybody. and happy black history month. i have the great pleasure of introducing today's keynote speaker. we are fortunate to have a speaker whose experience and background exemplifies african-american history. he is the general ed orial advisor to the king legacy, a professor of history, and founding director of the martin luther king, jr., research and educational institute at stanford university. during 2009, he also served as the king distinguishe