and, setti, i give you a lot of credit. your fearless leaders, and ralph, a ton of credit at really martialing the team and making the case this year. and when you go from 1.6 billion in the house bill to 3 billion, that is a real victory. i'd love to see us back up where we were a few years ago, but it is a real victory in the times that we're dealing with. but i also think it's important that we show that we're thinking in innovative ways, creative ways, that we're looking at common sense, smart reforms to these programs that will help us make the case even better. and so this past year -- and many of you were involved, but particularly new folks may not have been aware of this -- we started a dialogue we called moving cdbg toward where we had 20 different listening sessions with all of you, with grantees, with other stakeholders to get your ideas about smart reforms, how we can streamline, simplify the programs, make them work better. and make sure that we can make the argument that we're using these dollars in as effect

i want to thank you, setti for your leadership.i am always impressed with what you are doing in your town, too. i see lots of familiar faces around the table. see some new faces. congratulations to all of you that are just stepping into your roles as new mayors or relatively new mayors. before i jump into the work that hud does, i want you to know a little bit about me. i come from where you all live. what i mean by that -- my job prior to working for the president was working for a mayor. i was the housing commissioner in new york city and one thing i understand tom a one of our says there is no republican or democratic way to take out the trash. i understand that whatever we may do or not do in d.c., and there has been a lot of not-doing lately, you have to get your jobs done. i want to show you, i am wearing my new york city manhole cover cufflinks today. cufflinksy favorite because they remind me why i am here. worke sewer system doesn't in your town, if the trash doesn't get collected, if the , thingss not get plowed do not wo

i want to start by thanking setti for his leadership. we have gotten to spend a lot of time together not just through his leadership of this committee but also i will get a call from him saying i found this innovative thing. he is not just talking the talk. he is walking the walk on doing things that are intivateive and new. i want to thank you thank ralph baker as well. you have done wonderful things. i have lots of familiar faces around the table. i see new faces. and congrats to those who are just stepping in as new mayors or relatively new mayors. before i jump into the work that hud does i want you to know a little bit about me. i come from where you all live. and by that, my job immediately prior to working for the mayor was working for the city. one thing i understand is there is no republican or democratic way to take out the trash was said by a famous new york mayor and i understand what we do or don't know in washington, d.c. you have to get your jobs done. you are where the rubber hits the road. i want to show you i am wearing

i give you, setti, a lot of credit and your fearless leaders for marshaling the team and making the case this year. when you go from $1.6 billion in the house bill to $3 billion, that is a real victory. it is a real victory in the times we are dealing with. i think is important that we show that we are thinking in innovative and creative ways and are looking at commonsense reforms to these programs that will help us make the case even better. this past year and many of you were involved but the new folks may not have been involved. we started a dialogue that we called moving cdbg forward. we had 20 different listening sessions with all of you and other stakeholders to get your ideas about smart reforms, how we can simplify the programs and make them work better and make sure we can make a argument we are using these dollars as effective as possible. unfortunately and you may be aware of this, we had a series on the home program that was very unfair but cost us because it is so easy for these programs. we could do 100 good things and the one thing that isn't working as well gets through t

jaw pab has watched as china has become bolder and they are locked in a battle over islands and up settietting alleys like the philippine looking to the u.s. for help and see john kerry spending more time in the middle east. when administration officials back pedalled and stopped calling it the pivot and talking about the rebalance they wondered if president obama changed his mind and opting for a softer approach and u.s. and china are top trading partners after all and china has not welcomed the pivot considering the strategy circlement. >> chinese have almost a paranoid view and whatever we do we attempt to encircle them and you can layout the ways in which we are not encircling you. >> reporter: they have a chance to put the asia pivot back on track. >> the united states has a profound stake in what happens here because we need and we are and we will remain a pacific power. >> reporter: it's one thing to move ships to sea, the hard part of the pivot strategy is not with military affairs but with trade, president obama would like to see an asia pacific free trade zone, those negotiatio

my name is setti warren, i'm the chair of committe of the commitn housing for the u.s. conference of mayors. i want to welcome you all here joining us, our committee members as well as those who are joining us outside of the committee and also want to welcome the c-span in to a meeting. we are very pleased that we're able to talk to a wide audience this morning. we have a few items on our agenda this morning. i want to begin with secretary donovan in just a minute and then went going to hear from city, to develop director and we'll hear from kerry searle grannis from the brookings institute, all three speakers this morning have very substantive presentations and question and answer for this morning. before we begin i want to make sure you know who are vice chairs power, can't i think will be joining us momentarily. so i'm going for start with secretary donovan and then will move to our agenda this morning. just one note because you all know how important cdbg funds are for us before introduce the secretary. and i want to get this out before we start the meeting. we are