our guest is their public policy director, tim sparapani. >> on your screen is tim sparapani, the public policy director for facebook. can you give us a snapshot of what facebook is? >> one of the fastest-growing communication tools out there, six years old, it could not be more open and connected. we provide people with a free tool whereby they can provide information with anyone, anywhere, anytime. it has turned into a fabulous success. so far we have over 400 million active users worldwide. >> what countries' do not from it -- permit facebook? >> often we are locked in china. regularly in viet nam as of november last year. this is not a company with any political agenda whatsoever. we are a vehicle for communication of users. iwhatever power as users want to talk about, that is what we do, allowed to take place. -- allow it to take place. it is unusual that a country would block their own people. >> how many employees? >> a bit over 1200. a dramatic growth spurt, we still think of ourselves as a start up. a true silicon valley success story. we are part of a long-term process in the v

our guest is their public policy directer, tim sparapani. >> host: on your screen is tim sparapani who is the public policy directer or facebook. mr. sparapani, if you would start by giving us a snapshot of what facebook is. >> guest: facebook is one of the fastest growing new communications tools. it's a company that's six years old, and our mission is to make the earth more open and connected, and we do that by providing people a free tool whereby they can share information with anyone, anywhere at anytime. and it's turned into a fabulous success. so far we have over 400 million active users worldwide. it's really become a phenomenon. >> host: what countries don't permit facebook or block facebook? >> guest: so we are often times blocked by china, occasionally vietnam or regularly vietnam, that started in november of last year. >> host: why? >> guest: you know, it's a remarkable question. we're not sure. this is not a company with any political agenda whatsoever. we are a vehicle for communications of our users. so whatever our users feel like talking about with their family, their f

our guest is the public elsie director, tim sparapani. >> host: on your screen is tim sparapani who is the public policy director for facebook. mr. sparapani if you would start by giving us a snapshot of what facebook is. >> guest: facebook is one of the fastest growing new communications tools. it is a company that is six years old and our mission is to make it both open and more connected. we do that by providing people a free tool whereby they can share information with anyone anywhere at any time. it has turned into a fabulous success, and so far we have over 400 le and active users worldwide. it has become a phenomenon. >> host: what countries don't permit facebook? >> guest: we are oftentimes block by china, occasionally vietnam or regularly via tom. it started in november of last year. >> host: why? >> guest: it is a remarkable question. we are not sure. this is not a company with any political agenda whatsoever. we are a vehicle for communications of our users, so whatever our users feel like talking about with their family, friends or business associates, we we are the interme

tim sparapani today on "the communicators" on c-span. >> yesterday in the house steny hoye are and whip eric cantor talked about their debate on the health care bill and their differences on the issue. this is a half-hour. e gentleman. madam speaker, i think it's been well reported that the majority plans to try and use the reconciliation process to ram through a health care bill through this house and the one across the capitol, and we also know from the reports that it is imperative that this house and the house majority, the members of the majority must first pass the senate health care bill before any other action on a reconciliation measure is taken. the gentleman has announced, madam speaker, that all this will take place next week. and i'd wonder if the gentleman could give us a little bit more clarity as to the schedule and perhaps the need for members to keep their schedules flexible through the weekend and i yield. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman for yielding. first, let me say, no matter how often the gentleman and his colleagues want to say so, we are going to ram through s

. >> tim sparapani on c-span2. >> jose barraso spoke. during the second half of the hour, members' questions focused on humanitarian rights. >> the first question. the floor is yours. >> [speaking french] >> president, this is something that we can experience. we need to have a policy that is worth its name in the international arena, and i think we should be on the right track, but i would ask you that, president. how can we say that 500 million europeans can have their rights defended? it is up to the european union to live up to its ideals and values. the action service has provided -- as provided should be coming into the light of day soon, and we will be involved in its inception. now, the european parliament with counsel will act as co- decider. my group is very keen on the fact that the european service for external action to take full responsibility in terms of budget and policy. i look forward to your comments. thank you very much, -- >> thank you very much. this service will ensure the coherence of our foreign policy. it will a

very quickly, tim sparapani, why is it necessary in your view to have public policy state directorsesome. >> guest: i think it's important at the state legislative level to have people who can talk to state legislators for exactly the reasons we've been talking about with australia. there will be a moment in some state around the country like my state of wisconsin, for example, where an unfortunate incident may occur, and the first reaction will be, let's regulate the internet. the internet has to be not only a national standard, one unified set of standard, but an international standards, and hopefully countries around the world will follow the u.s. lead and have an open and honest internet that shares information freely. at the state level, we have to make sure that open internet starts here at home and that all 50 states are operating under the same rules so that people's communication isn't blocked at the border from wisconsin to illinois or wisconsin to minnesota. we shouldn't have those kind of rules to enforce certain norms on the rest of the country, particularly when they block

tim sparapani today on "the communicateors" on c-span. >> now an event with michael mccallister.he talks about rising costs in the u.s. health care system and the legislation making its way through congress. mr. mccallister speaks before the detroit economic club for about 45 minutes. >> thank you. as the presiding officer, i have been asked to do two things. one is to give a brief reflection on the history of the detroit economic club and then introduce our speaker. when i reflect on the 75 year history of the detroit economic club, i think of my father, a son of detroit, a self-made man, and a member of the detroit economic club. my father was put in an orphanage when he was 5. he ran away at 13. that ended his formal schooling. he got into the peacetime navy, got out, and the only work he could find during the depression was in alaska, keeping a two- mile section of the railway between anchorage and fairbanks a free of snow. during those long winters, my father took out every book in anchorage and fairbanks libraries. he took out every record. he taught himself english literat

. >> with more than 400 million users online, facebook public policy director tim sparapani on cspanminister of greece was in washington was in the united states this week for a visit with president obama. on monday, he stopped at the brookings institution to talk about his relationship with europe and the united states. this is an hour and 15 minutes. >> a good morning to all of you. welcome to spring in washington. we are ready for that. and welcome, especially to the washington diplomatic corps which is particularly well represented today. i might add that the athens diplomatic corps is pretty well represented, too. the united states ambassador to greece, a very dear friend and former colleague of mine and several other people in the room. this is going to be an especially timely event, and it features an especially distinguished guest of honor. americans like to think of their country as a world's oldest modern democracy going all the way back to george washington. will the george who is with us today traces his political heritage back to pericles. the prime minister is a leader

users online, it's the fastest growing website in the world, facebook's public policy director tim sparapani saturday on "the communicators" on c-span. >> "washington journal" continues. host: on your screen right now, "the washington post"'s national bank reporter. you had a story earlier this week talking about overall financial efforts to oversee financial services and to change that. but particularly when it came to something called -- certain, i guess, lenders that weren't covered by the bill. who are those lenders? guest: in america we have sort two of kinds of lenders, a regulated system of banks and then an unregulated system of company that make loans that look like banks but aren't banks. payday lenders, consumer finance companies, auto dealers that make loans on their lots. and the question before congress right now is how those nonbank lenders should be regulated. that's the judge of associations -- negotiations right now between democrats and republicans who had tendively reached a compromise he -- tentatively reached a compromise earlier there week. that deal is now back on the

facebook, public policy director tim sparapani saturday on "the communicators" on c-span. >> "washington journal" continues. host: steve emerson is the executive director of the investigative project on terrorism. mr. emerson, if you could start by telling us what that is. guest: it's an organization i founded in 1995 to track the activities, investigate the operations of radical islammist groups on american soil and their ties to international terrorism overseas. it followed the production and broadcast can of a documentary that i had done in 1994 for pbs called "jihad in america." the investigative project on terrorism, now 15 years old, has amassed a repository of close to five million documents , 50,000 hours of reported video and audio of radical islammist groups gathering conference, as well as many other types of data. host: why did you start this project in 1995 or start 9 documentary in 1994? guest: good question. i had been a reporter for cnn in 1993. and right after the first world trade center bombing in february of 1993, cnn asked me to do a documentary on the roots of that

facebook, public policy director tim sparapani tonight on "the communicators" on c-span2. >> up next the state department release of its annual human rights report. will her opening remarks from secretary of state hillary clinton and the assistant secretary of state mike posner. will sure as much this briefing as we can't until the senate convenes at 2 p.m. eastern. >> every year, the secretary of state hosts a briefing like this one. and while in that sense it may seem routine, this event is extraordinary because of its connection to who we are as a country and to the universal aspirations we seek to make real through our foreign policy. the idea of human rights begins with a fundamental commitment to the dignity that is the birthright of every man, woman and child. progress in advancing human rights begins with the facts. and for the last 34 years, the united states has reduced -- produced the country right on human rights practices, provide the most comprehensive record available of the condition of human rights around the world. these reports are an essential tool, for activists

. >> with 400 million users, it's facebook, tim sparapani. >> today on "america and the court's" todayt 7 p.m. eastern on c-span. earlier this week the house debated a resolution by ohio congressman that would withdraw troops from afghanistan at the beginning of the year. this report lasts about an hour. i yield myself such time as i may consume. mr. speaker, in 2001 i joined the house in votin it has become clear that the authorization for the ice of military force is being interpretted as carte blanche for sir couple -- interpreted as carte blanche for circumventing congress' role as a co-equal branch of government. my legislation invokes the war powers resolution of 1973 and if enacted would require the president to withdraw u.s. armed forces from afghanistan by december 31, 2010. the debate today will be the first opportunity we have had to revisit the 2001 authorization for the use of military force which the house supported following the worst terrorist attack in our country's history. regardless of your support or opposition to the war in afghanistan, this is going to be the fir