most of you are much more familiar with the acronym samsa. it is the lead federal agency designed to reduce the impact of substance use and mental illness across this country. he was the first consumer affairs specialist hired by samsa in 1995, he promoted consumer participation and all aspects of samsa's policies and operations ranging from public education--to developing evidence based practices to address the needs of those suffering with mental health conditions. he was also the center for mental health services associate director for consumer affairs where he managed samsa's president setting activities addressing issues such as discrimination and stigma, consumer rights, wellness, recovery and trauma. paolo del vecchio is committed to improving lives of people with mental illnesses and is an extraordinary advocate, one of my boys in be in this position for nine month is to be a partner with people like paolo del vecchio. he is not just a bureaucrat. i myself am a recovering state bureaucrats icahn identified. paolo del vecchio is a genu

projects which was managed in the collaboration is samsa and odcp. its purpose was to use health i.t. to increase timely access to data. the electronic health record integration program was funded by samsa. this complements existing federal efforts by improving realtime access to pmp data into existing technologies such as electronic health records. samsa is also engaged in the efforts to prevent and treat prescription drug misuse and abuse through education programs, prevention, treatment of prescription drug abuse as well as through regulation. we support the education of current prescribers through continuing medical education courses and other less formal efforts such as webinars. the referral treatment program is an important tool for the early identification of persons who might be at risk for opioid abuse and other substance use. samsa provides grants to states, territories and tribal organizations to implement -- [inaudible] for adults in primary care. we have a residency grant program to address future prescribers that include screening for

and samsa, i want to start with you, because you wrote an op-ed before congress went into recess andyou wrote in part, if congress lets interest rates double on july 1st, we'll pay an extra $1,000 each year of college over the life of the loan. my family and i are not sure what other hard decisions we will have to make to continue my education. so again, samson, as you know, the deadline's tomorrow. are you going to be able to go back to howard? >> i'm currently going to be able to go back to howard. what this means to me is i'm highly discouraged at the fact that congress couldn't get the measure passed prior to recess. a lot of people are currently struggling. it feels as if they don't want to help us get over the hump with higher interest rates. >> how much do you owe already in student loans? >> i owe a substantial amount. >> substantial? >> very substantial. >> 10, 15, or are we talking -- >> enough. >> we'll leave it there. >> yeah, that's where we'll leave it right now. the thing is, when you get these loans, you're obviously not in a finance place to pay for the tuition yours