To stop the Lords Resistance Army, a group in Central Africa and their leader, joseph kony. Live coverage here on cspan. Them alive this morning, a reefing on capitol hill, the tom commission, rights countering the Lords Resistance Army in Central Africa. We expect to hear from the group invisible children and the crisis commission. The cochairs are governor Massachusetts Governor of massachusetts, and joe pitts of pennsylvania. Sarah hi, im the washington director at Human Rights Watch. I am very pleased to be here today to moderate this Briefing Panel on the Lords Resistance Army. A quick thank you to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and to all of you for showing up what is relatively early during your recess. Lets introduce our panelists, all of whom ive known for quite some time. Way. Ll go down this directly to my right is paul ronan. He is the cofounder and oversees the Organizations Research and policy development. Multimediared a platform that demonstrates atrocities in real time. He oversees the collaboration with Civil Society leaders in all four countries. Worked with invisible children since 2006. She started as a roadie. Give her an opportunity to bring attention and education to the american public. We are going to have to get into that a little bit and find out what that means. Please to have you here. Great lakes region and lra. Definitely a busy man. He is executive director and cofounder of the Grassroots Reconciliation Group. He used to work at the Global Witness as well. I want to be very brief today and take a little bit of my moderators prerogative at the beginning. Looking at a rebel group that has been around for more than 25 years. We are in a very different point than we were the last five years. The question we gets is why does this still matter, wise the u. S. Governments role still important . If i could take you back, the tide seemed to turn into thousand eight and 2009. We have seen the lra with ongoing brutality and a ongoing invasive form with a lot of chatter in u. S. Government but not as much engagement. 2008, 2009 some of you may have remembered or read about the Christmas Day massacres, which were some of the most atrocities the organization, the rebel group committed. They basically waited until the holidays when people were together so they could get them andat once you the scale scope of the brutality of the killings was incredibly massive. Thiswas note about operation is it occurred 10 days after uganda be get an operational Operation Lightning thunder, which was an attempt to eradicate the lra. But we saw time and time again would respond by slaughter and massacre. Human rights watch did some pretty remarkable research. My colleagues did some pretty remarkable documentation on exactly what happened. This one topped the charts in terms of the nastiness. Sitting on the senate and working on the fourth draft of legislation. Some perverse way it was that massacre that enabled us to finish, finalize, and build momentum for the main 2009 lra build lra bill. More than 200 here in the house. I dont think anything has passed in africa with us many cosponsors. It was a very exciting bipartisan effort. There was a lot of momentum within the executive branch and aggressive level and aggressor level. Many americans were engaged in passing the bill and moving to realize it be implemented. Just very quickly to run down the timeline, we passed the legislation in 2010. 2011 the president did what that legislation required, which is submitting strategy. Not just a military effort but a comprehensive effort that looked at diplomatic intelligence and to address the lra at the leadership level. The bill we drafted was very partisan and comprehensive in dealing with the problem. It is very small and flexible and nimble. There is one state Department Liaison on the ground. Wanted to find one piece of legislation that i look that last night. I have a very strong memory of going backandforth over the language in that bill. Really there has been a focus on catching kony. When we drafted the legislation we set that only apprehend or remove kony and top leaders from the battlefield, the we talked about disarming and demobilizing the mobile fighters in the same sentence. Catching kony, removing him from the battlefield is what we all want to see. Theres a lot more that needs to be done with u. S. Engagement Going Forward. What we looking at is the comprehensive solution. How do you get the pentagon and even congress, as well as international, to continue working on this Going Forward . The number of fighters within the lra has changed dramatically. Nonetheless they continue to be a threat not only to those civilians a attacked but also basic fundamental develop it and governments fundamental developments and governments. None of which are particularly stable at the moment. I think i will end that note why should weion, keep it up . Lattice u. S. Engagement still matter . If my panelists onto a good job of letting you know that we will figure it out by the end. That i have good faith. Paul, if you want to start. Im going to try to keep to five to 10 minutes. Can then engage in some questions and answers. Paul those a very modest introduction. What you did not say is if it wasnt for your work in 2009 and 2010 the lra bill would not have passed and we would not be here. Lantos like to thank tom Human Rights Commission as well for giving us a chance to talk today. I have been going to the affected area since 2005. I just returned from my most recent trip a few weeks ago. What im going to do here is outline a few key trends and lra activity and the lra response. The first slide here just shows the number of combatants within the lra. When president obama came into , approximately 800 troops. When the bill was signed into tony kony had half that number. Thanks in large part to the military operations and the defection campaigns supported by u. S. Troops in that field, there are only about 190 through 200. Roops left i want to focus in on the defections being supported by u. S. Military out in the field. Uganda and in in congo are doing a fantastic job of getting messaging out to promote lra groups. Use leaflets and loudspeakers that are mounted on helicopters as well. I would like to point out the role of the field representatives of the state Departments Bureau conflict. We have a member here today for inir really key role bridging the link between the u. S. Military and Civil Society groups. These campaigns have succeeded in encouraging dozens of fighters to come out of the rush. The most high profile one was in when washis year indicted by the in 2005. Dropped to other lra groups to encourage to defect as well. I think there are a couple of reasons why the focus is really important. The more defectors that we get, the better intelligence we have. Most of the combatants within the lra were up ducted when they were young. We have a moral obligation to try to bring them home. The core of the group are fighters from uganda. Operate anymore. Test that is an irreplaceable loss that is in a replaceable loss. We wont underestimate kony. He is a master survivor. Some former bodyguards that are fiercely loyal to him. He will do whatever he can to maintain his iron grip on the structure. He executed some lra officers for disobeying his orders. In 2013 and 2014 we didnt see a from hismbatant immediate group. There were a few signs that the iron grip is eroding a bit. s was helped by one of kony bodyguards. It was a sign that of fear him as much as they want it. You will see seven defectors are konys blood seven defectors are konys bodyguards. Instead of just going a nearby town, they can they walked through the entire month to the town where they knew that u. S. Troops were based. That was a clear sign that what we are doing out there was having a positive impact. Troops in the field trying to conduct these campaigns are not adequate. She seeks to double the saturation and geographic scope. We are doing a lot. If we are doing more we can really break this open. That is a little too much good news for now. 2000 and one the till was signed there was a decrease in tax killings and abduction as well. Created ayears that of a reversible progress of your reversible irreversiblef progress. Unfortunately will we have seen in the past year is an increase lra attacks. S shows a map. E attention tow your the gray area in the upper left. That is a disputed area army. Lled by the sudanese the Sudanese Government is not cooperating with the u. S. Or its African Union partners right now in current lra efforts. Giving seniorere lra officers safe haven there. They have been doing this since 2009. It continues to begin issue. Definitively denying we will continue to have briefings like this on the ec, and throughout asking ourselves every year why this is still an issue. The next slide i want to show real quick is a photo of a meeting between members of the and a rebel movement. This is another example of the lra exploiting ungoverned space. What the lra is doing in these areas is basically glinting gold and diamonds. And then they trade them for food. Way tome an important continue to survive. At times they most evolved into a criminal gang. Community ando a they wont attack them, even if they are just given food. Is a photograph that weree defectors shown. In the previous photo, the defectors look like fierce rebel fighters. Here you see a much different perspective. It was a few weeks later after they were able to return home to uganda. Im not sure if that is a cultural thing. I want to call your attention to , when i met with them all i wanted to talk about was about how such they were to go back to school. The guy in the red jerseys very keen on becoming a famous musician. All of them told me again and again, very few people left and actually want to continue to fight. Withbody is disillusioned the ideology that the leadership within the lra has been trying to propagate. This point because i think an end to this problem is achievable within this congressional term. This is not an issue we need to be dealing with with dealing with for another five or 10 years. I dont want to underestimate the challenges we face. At the end of the day we are dealing with 200 combatants, most of whom want to come home. Is not just about reuniting them with their families. But if we can mobilize the lra then we will be able to allow hundreds of thousands of displaced people to return home. The u. S. Will not just sit back to back and allow them to operate within that community. I think we can have a full conversation on the defectors. Lisa i want to thank the Human Rights Commission for hosting us. Im going to try not be to speech he. As a representative of invisible children, i wanted emphasize supporting the recovery of affective communities and seeing this crisis come to an end continues to be a very important issue to thousands of americans. I think celebrating the members of congress who championed the lra registration, we cannot catalyzing and sustaining u. S. Efforts to see and and this crisis. Curious how many people in this or involved in activism at the lra. Im just curious, this is a young crowd. Over the course of that time i have seen young people rally in the streets, sleep on the concrete, right to their members of congress, come to the sea to meet on the hill, mobilize their schools, or because they care so deeply about this issue. The kony 2012 phenomenon made him a household name and took what had been a very neglected youngian crisis people continue to engage their members of congress. When cnn and buzz feet moved on it was younglines, people that kept on engaging policymakers on this issue. Just as a few examples people are familiar with the kony 2012 campaign that galvanized a lot of people at one time. People came to d. C. , marched around the white house, and lobbied for the passage of legislation. That legislation passed just a andmonths later throw 2013 2014 high school and College Activists were writing letters and phone calls to get appropriators in congress to secure funding to support the recovery of lra affected communities. Over the course of 2014 combined, these young people is now 20 million that in the pipeline to support the recovery of community affected by the lra. Years there same were grassroots campaigns to get members of congress to sign on to a letter. And to continue withs efforts to cn end to the lra crisis. House signed the on to that letter, only to be with 76 the next year members of congress. Thanks to the leadership of people Like Congress of people who helped organize this briefing. Right now we have activists lobbying their members of 394. Ess to cosponsor it not only urges president obama to sustain the current support to regional forces, but also addresses key gaps in the mission that are hindering success. And it calls on the administration to invest in planning and implementing a. Oncert recovery strategy needless to say the constituency who cares about this issue and and peoplevernment who have been doing activism on this. I will argue in light of how far we have come, we heard some incredible progress that paul had mentioned. In light of how far we have come and how close we are seeing this inflict ended, also keeping mind the dangerous consequences if we were to reign in our efforts preemptively and gives joseph kony the room to be room to rebuild his forces. A really remarkable victory for the Global Community could be in the near future. Paul and sasha both are going to cover key gaps and dismantle the lra. As an organization operational in affected areas i wanted to most of my time on the civilian impact of the conflict. Not only the remaining needs but notopportunity so we are only dishing out all the needs that we can talk about the opportunities available to us. Many of you will skip through we believe right there. This photo is a group of women it is a handful of the group among 33 women and children that were released from the lra during a time where there is a wave of women and children that were essentially shed by the lra. I was preparing for this briefing that i realized the day these women and children were released was august 10, 2014. It was really eyeopening. The sad reality given the track isord in the region is it very likely these women and children and the dozens of others that were released with them likely have returned back to the villages where they are from with very little or no support to help deal with the trauma, the sexual violence, the physical abuse, and the stigmatize asian that comes with their experience having been lra children mothers of that are fathered by lra commanders and things of that nature. For communitybased holistic reintegration support. Im sure many of you have heard the stories about the kind of experiences people have, witnessing or even being forced to execute horrific violence. Girls and women who are ,orced into sexual slavery various forms of physical and mental abuse. Theres no question that even if they have only been in captivity for a short window of time have they experienced severe trauma. Societyhow to reenter and even just the vocational and practical skills earning a livelihood for themselves and their families. There are standard operating theedures on paper part of United Nations strategy to address the lra. Even on paper there are gaps. Certain demographics of returnees are left unserved. Paper, thed implementation of these standard manyting procedures had gaps, and those gaps are ratinging as donors are and funding lra affected communities. Historically it has been untold males that have received very little if any support. Is their group that healing need it actually creates a dangerous opportunity in places like south sudan and other armed groups to exploit very traumatized angry young men. The opportunity to constructively enter back into society. In addition to adult males, we are increasingly seeing that funding has tried up for women and children coming out to the lra. Programs to support them across the region have shuttered. They have received very minimal if any support. Slide, i stolext this from him. Lra attacks have increased over the past year. That has resulted in an increase of displacement by 40 . Not only has this trend been something i think the International Community has necessarily been aware of, but because of donor funding in previous years that have decreased, because donors assume this is just a slow dissolving of the lra, funding was drastically reduced. International ngos {is like northeastern combo. Northeastern congo. There are now maybe three. It may be too invisible children. A time when displacement has increased, humanitarian need has increased, there is a fraction of the humanitarians humanitarian assistance available. Understanding, studying, doing assessment of humanitarian needs , and then ensuring there is support is another need i would highlight. The last need i would highlight is the need for a postkony recovery strategy for the region. I think it is very likely that it willas kony is off be hard to keep people engaged in this region. The security presence that has been in this area is likely going to very quickly we have to expect it will be leaving went up lra is off the field. In order to mitigate the very in the flow of armed groups and the exploitation of disenfranchised communities, we need to invest in the recovery of these areas, both from a reintegration standpoint, micro economic opportunities, as well as bigger infrastructure development. It has to become a priority now while the International Community is invested in this area. Im going to skip through to encouraging opportunities. This is a gentleman i meant just a few weeks ago. He was the chief of a community that was displaced out of where they were located. He has taken on the role of teaching tailoring skills at a Community Integration center that is helping those come out of the lra. Their message would be to policymakers in the u. S. , and they said basically said what us and be able to help our. Rothers and sisters people like him are ones we can get behind. This is from south sudan. They are incredible humans and inn investing very heavily trauma workshops and counseling to help people recover from the horrific experiences. Haveible children should the opportunity of flying these to Central African republic, where they all speak the same language. They led a trauma healing workshop for Central African community leaders. As you can see the response was so incredible. About how meaningful and powerful it was. Trauma andthem about how to address trauma in their own lies. Another opportunity i want to highlight is the fact that there are 20 million in the pipeline. Is an Assessment Mission going on right now to a dress, to look at the needs in the region, how has it this far been going, what is needed moving forward. Is a very important that Assessment Mission moves forward in a timely way, that their recommendations are implemented in a timely way. It doesnt get soaked up by the bureaucracy and big operations of international ngos. I will end by my three recommendations. One news cosponsor House Resolution 394. Secondly the foreign operations for fy 16 actually includes another appropriation for 10 million for affected communities and includes a requirement for affected areas. That is not affected in the house version. An or can help make that happen. Wherever congress can help engage u. S. Psyd can engage and get the additional funding , effectively and strategically as much as it hits the ground. I will and my last 30 seconds that im very grateful that the nature of my work has allowed me to interact with a wide for righty of stakeholders on the. Ra bravely and was they have been verys very resourceful. A high school and college was taken the first step. Members of their congress and staff dedicated on this issue. An incredible coalition of people from every walk of life and every layer. Seeas come together to help this through. We are so far along, we are so close to seeing this ended. You can do to keep your boss is committed and be sure we stick this out so we can celebrate a victory for International Justice and our affected communities. With that i close. The language and the senate, in the event and fy 16 appropriation bill doesnt actually pass congress, which i wouldnt think that could happen, but in the event it didnt happen there was the continuing resolution from last years bill. It would be really wonderful to see that language added into the continuing resolution. There were Larger National security concerns that get added in. I am just sticking that out there now that this would be a small one to get into any continuing resolution. We can make the argument that when that is channeled towards communitybased efforts, a smaller amount of money goes so far. It could have a massive impact on the ground. Thank you to the Human Rights Commission. As well as senators bozeman and durban on the senate side. I will blame paul for making us be one of the only two people in the capitol hill in a suit and tie during the august recess. Deeply concerned about the new Economic Activities and its ability to regenerate itself Going Forward. Administration counter lra mission has been a large success welding on the legislation that sarah and everyone here has led. Having worked on the lra for 12 years and worked in uganda and this Grassroots Reconciliation Group and worked on policy since then, from my observation they have been one of the most resilient rebel groups on the planet the face of adversity. It would win any survivor tv show. The lra is increasingly poaching elephants for tasks and trading that ivory for ammunition, supplies, and food with the likely complicity of the Sudanese Government. The covert will be story of next Months National geographic. The lra is starting to trade gold and diamonds in Central Africa republic as well. It has a safe haven in sudanese controlled territory. An area that joseph kony has rarely left since 2011. Over 130 elephants were poached last year in the democratic republic of congo. One group is permanently stationed in the National Park of poachingress aim elephants and trading that for ivory. Transports that ivory in Central African republic to sudanese controlled territory and trades the ivory near armed forces garrisons. There used to be 20,000 elephants there and that population is down to less than 3000. If the lra and poachers are not dubbed with effectively, the elephant population could be eliminated altogether. As palm engine, there are only less than 200 core fighters. There were over 130 elephants poached last year. They can garner up to 25 boxes of bullets. Defectors come out with fresh ammunition. Kony has also ordered his son to move diamonds and gold from the Central African republic. I would like to know how you got that 40 how you got that photograph. Lra and ability to regroup. Kony is still in command and still central to the organization. As long as he is there you can abduct new fighters. It has continued to object fighters continued to up. Fighters. The lra has enough weapons to survive. As well as alluding from as looting from battlefields. Finally it does have the space to operate. Now it is able to operate in the hinterlands, in northeastern drc, in sudanese controlled territory that have dense forest folksthat u. S. Military have totally looks like a broccoli forest. Very difficult to track lra groups. The time to double down on the counter lra mission and really help end their horrific atrocities once and for all. I have personally interviewed andreds of x combatants preferred to not it doesnt just last for a couple of weeks or months. Basically killing friends and trying to loot for survival. This will be done at a relatively low cost. It is really important to reauthorize the u. S. Advisors to the African Union mission. And also to make a primary cool of this mission, bringing kony to justice. He is central to the organization of the lra. Colleagues, very important to deal with the scars of the war. As well as providing an left pursue the lra leaders. The u. S. Needs to take a leading role in addressing the sudan question. U. S. Advisors together with the African Union mission should be soloyed as close as possible that proper intelligence can be gathered in that area. Area, difficult to read on the screen. Secondly to press the African Union to get city and to expel and operating on those areas. A special envoy is in sudan, pressing the Sudanese Government on this issue. I would argue it is critically important to help shut down the ivory trade. In congo and the ca are, as well as ramping up efforts. It is roughly a threemonth walk with a lot of opportunities. For you here in the audience, i would echo the call to make sure your boss signs on as a cosponsor to resolution 394 in the senate. Thank you to paul and lisa and to sarah for all your efforts. I didnt even have to send you a note. You packed in a lot there. Before we turn to the audience, i want to pick up on two things. Are looking at u. S. Government and engagement in this room. Neededtioned things that to happen regarding the. Rafficking of ivory and gold since my work in the senate is really the newest piece of this puzzle, it is clearly the lra that has squashed and look for ways to continue its existence. What specifically can the u. S. Be doing when it comes to interdiction . Of three of us have talked about recovery. Thisu were to be on mission or to make recommendations, what would you want to see as part of this Recovery Mission . Governance institutions and functional government. We are a long way off even if the lra crisis never happened. Putting theng at affected communities and a much larger bubble of recovery. I would say construction in many cases. What are some of the key things u. S. Should be focused on . When it when the magazine comes out there will be more attention paid in terms of combating the trade, the number one support to the park ranger is severely under capacity in terms of tracking the poachers. In the northern part they tell us it is very difficult to get people up there. They have one helicopter they were able to take out sometimes and that is not nearly enough. The lra is one of the poaching groups. Thosel efforts to support right where it is happening. The route from which from the can also be tracked. It also goes through south sudan. There is one group that travels in that corridor. More efforts to track those groups and stop them where they are tracking the ivory. They dont hang on to it. Who is going to do the tracking . Its not easy. I will leave the military question to the military folks. This was seen as a priority area. There are satellite possibilities. We have contracted a Satellite Company and did a report on predictive analysis from where activity willing take place. Just add on to that point real quick. It is important to look at how we can get the by m the buyin for community surrounded by these parks. Some of the park leaders in the congo and Central African republic beginning to do this a lot better. Even then trying to share information when they see poachers going into the park. The u. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been doing innovative things in the park and in other parks to try to create a network of protected serve tot cannot only protect but also cut the lra and other armed groups off a key source of revenue. Useful to know what they can do. Do you want to take the recovery question . Im providing initial thoughts here but i think there are people more equipped to answer this than me. Whileing i would say is there needs to be recognition thatthere is this area they three countries, that collectively are experiencing at theng pretty unique, same time there needs to be a grasping of recovery in lra affected areas and that are being drastic. Think the southeast that has been the historically affected area has been marginalized. Areas are far from their respective capital. Exposesmoving and marginalized nation, lack of connectedness, lack of infrastructure that was a there. As the u. S. Is working on addressing the car more broadly. Making sure that the lra folks are traveling and working on the broader country strategy and vice versa so that those are integrated. On that note i would say that what we found in our work is that the issue of lack of connection, these communities being very isolated, has so many negative affect. I would say that where we can creatively address the lack of connections issues, the creation infrastructure, we and some usaid partners have in developing radiobased earlymorning networks in response to the christmas massacres where they were able to move from one town to the next in the next over multiple days, killing dozens and dozens of people. The next community did not know what happened to the Community Next door. To help ensure that that cannot happen having an infrastructure in place. Beyond that, something more sustainable, like cell phone towers and investing in an fm radio, increasing the build building capacity in the region, building roads is not as a some not necessarily something that usaid would do. Engaging other donors to invest in this one of noxious stretch suchad that because it is that in such disrepair it goes to a town on the very edge that connects the market towns in south sudan. That road is in such disrepair has easyheastern car access to humanitarian distance and if they ingested and that would have exponential positive effects on the region. Addressing how these communities are isolated is another thing i would point out. To emphasize the remoteness, i remember 2009 talking to a woman on Human Rights Watch and how shed had to get on the back of a moped to try to get from place to place to see what happened during the christmas massacre. I spent more time that youre talking about the potential for building cell phone towers and i have in my life. It was something we had seized way to bring about that communication and trying to figure out the role that usaid could play in this public partnership. Was that initial realization of just how isolated those communities were. Lets open it up to the audience. Ask that you ask a question, not make a statement. I also ask that you let us know who you are and where you are coming from. [inaudible] office, connecticut. Ofquestion is, in terms touching on the institutional ,eakness and that whole region why should we sort of why we should put one or 10 more into this region, one with such instability . Those gains can be washed away so quickly with the redistribution of the continuing conflict like weve seen in the south sudan. Confidence inhave our development and investments . We are experiencing such a shortage in donations and funding for refugees and displaced people right now. What about the other affected regions, like the middle east and Southeast Asia . I will just touch on that very briefly. Responding to that question is exactly why when we ite working on the 2010 bill was about a comprehensive response. Hand you are right, it is very difficult to envision continuing to invest in recovery if we are going to come in and attack communities, to prevent them from going to their fields or going to markets. Thats thats thats why we focus quite a bit on why we have tried to remove the lra from the battlefield. That people can have a chance to go about their livelihood. Peace. R livelihoods in there is this misconception that people in these areas want to be dependent on aid, or even want aid at all. Every single displaced person i have talked to in these areas have always said we are sick of aid. Just get rid of the lra. Help us with these few things to get us going and we will be fine, we will take care of ourselves. Into the question of why this area, the alternative is that we do what we have been doing for the past 20 years. We continue to bring up torgency humanitarian aid keep people alive in refugee and displacement camps. Whereas i think that when there is a response that could succeed in both getting rid of the act of violence and in helping people to go back to their fields and restart their livelihoods, i think that these thes will really have opportunity to thrive. I just, i mean, lets also be clear. Nobody is looking to turn it into beijing. We are not trying to help transform a very remote part of the world into a city of that nature. Engagement on the issue is, i have to say, one of the comprehensivee, that do notpolicies include direct to National Implications unless you look at the atrocities prevention capabilities. This is where you really see president obamas commitment to prevent atrocities combined with an approach to address the lra and also bring about development. Greater development, greater Communication Infrastructure might enable communities to ensure that they are not attacked by the lra. It will also enable them to resume their livelihoods as they are not quite as honorable as they were. In geomet fix everything. You can get a lot further with a little bit of money if you are talking about the refugee population in syria or the displaced people in iraq, we are looking at a much larger scale engagement. I will also say that it makes good sense to have the local or National Governments engaging in these communities. In many ways this is what the u. S. Has been trying to do, get them to implement strategies for north uganda. Get the congolese invested in eastern congo. Some of that foreign aid budget coming from the u. S. And other countries so that they have a role to play, there is a push to have National Governments or Capital Cities engage as well. Its not just the u. S. s job to do this, but there is a globalization issue that comes into play where the u. S. Has played a leadership role. Im glad that we got a skeptical question at the beginning. Thats great. Look, the lra is the main source of instability in the area. This is about finishing the job and making sure that our investment does not go to waste. Inre has been 90 reduction killing and the core fighters have gone down by half. This is about making sure that this is actually finished while actually addressing a critical other goal. Trafficking, increasingly important to congress, the administration and the american public. We are not trying to make it into beijing, shanghai, or new york. That is centuries away. Cana little investment definitely go along long way and we have already put a lot of effort in. We can take a couple of more questions at once. When you guys mentioned the average rate and how the ugandan government is likely included , howother trading efforts are we combating that corruption in the ugandan government . How can we have better efforts to do so in the surrounding countries as well . Let lets take one more question. [inaudible] [laughter] does this offer an opportunity to the United States [inaudible] lets take those. I am going to start out with the third question, the easiest answer. I think that with the lra, you know, the lra is really identified with coney. His personality and background really represents just a very identifiable persona for people to identify with. I think that there is a danger of conflating the lra with coney to too much of an extent. At the same time, they are not a rebel group. If you take out the top leadership, they have a kind of organic presence in these communities and they will be able to reform. Its much more kind of coherent now to think of the lra as a criminal gang that exists for the top leadership. More than a rebel group that exists as a manifestation of a particular ideology. Coney that to say that if was captured by u. S. In ugandan troops in the next week or had a heart attack and died, i think that the lra would cease to exist as we know it now. With only about 200 core combatants left, most of them want to go home and i think we destruction ofid the lra. It would not necessarily be pretty. It would take months. I do think that coney is the cornerstone of this group. I think the you would have to have that kind of approach, trying to focus in on him as well. Maybe i will probably not sufficiently answer any of these questions but offer a couple of fact. Sudan interest in yemen, i cant speak to that. Ofan speak to our analysis pushing sudan to no longer allow thishaven for coney at point. It should not have to take that much. Kony and the lra have been an asset khartoum. They have been wellpositioned as a force to have destabilized sudan and i think the lra would have had a lot to offer at a highly political level. It seems that at this point the and the of the lra relationship going on there, while maybe the government is turning a blind eye to it, the sense there is that to potentially these Sudanese Armed forces in the area that are getting ivory or some kind of opportunistic relationship there as opposed to the lra being a really attractive prophecy asset to the Sudanese Government. Thats the sense that we get from looking at the situation now. I cant necessarily speak to the kind of yemen angle, but i think that for us we would say that if u. S. Embassy in khartoum, they were to engage sudan and put a little bit of pressure on them to make them uncomfortable, even slightly uncomfortable with an awareness of konys presence in the controlled territories that it could be enough for them to spit him out and sit tight there. I feel like what i can say about regarding the ugandan government engagement in ivory tracking, i havent seen the like data on it. I think that i would put that in the same camp as we would put human rights issues in uganda, for example. We would not ever want u. S. Partnership with uganda to be at other Human Rights Concerns or concerns of violating International Laws of ivory trafficking. We would advocate as the u. S. Government is continuing to work with uganda and other regional , there wouldhe lra be diplomatic efforts to promote human rights more broadly in places like uganda and sudan. I dont know what that would look like specifically, but putting Something Like any evidence of ivory tracking there in the same boat. Point. Raise a bigger the u. S. Has cooperated for many years with the ugandans in particular and has paid less to the domestic situation there. This is a balancing act that has been done at times that plays into the other in the terms of whats happening at home in uganda and how that happening through engagement or if they are willing to send some of their better troops out to fight the allies in somalia but keep on the nasty guides at home so that the police to the other that are quite abusive and in violation of domestic and international law. This is a top place for the u. S. Human rights watch where they havent seen a pickup on domestic issues in uganda. We would like to see more, but not at the expense of dealing with the lra. This came to the four and the question was what does the Partnership Look like . How does the u. S. Push on all fronts to help uganda be a more productive partner . Obviously the president without any term limits, that seems to be an issue that the u. S. Has yet to take up but they seem increasingly in a position to do so. I would add that the main government has been the Sudanese Government. We dont have much evidence yet of the ugandan government being involved in trafficking from these areas. On that front there are important steps that need to be taken. First of all, i would urge the Treasury Department and other u. S. Investigators to track the ivory trade better. We are trying to do so through the private side. We will be doing that forensic investigation on these areas. Traders andthe buyers who sell the tusks on on word onward in asia, that can put on the financial angle that sudan has on this, as well as the global marketplace for this. Are there any other questions . Raise your hand. We fixed it, right . You guys have your marching orders. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] we will have more live coverage on cspan today. We will be hearing from the former u. S. Ambassador to syria, robert ford, on the effect of the Iranian Nuclear agreement on status in the region and other countries. We will have that live in about 40 minutes. After recent suicide bombings in cameroon, a look at boko are wrong, which is active in several african countries and has ties to isis on cspan two. This afternoon the plan from the epa to revise existing air quality standards for groundlevel ozone expected to be finalized by the first. You can watch the house hearing at 3 00 eastern. The chambers have been closed until further notice for renovations area the architect of the capitol says that workers found an unknown material behind the fabric wallpaper that they are checking out. Changes are also being made to the flooring and seating in the press galleries and other areas. This look at the renovation comes to us from the Senate Senate budget Ranking Committee working for bernie sanders. A few of the people in the chamber when they gather back in in september . Bonnie watson and mike lost bost. Towill be introducing you the 12th district africanamerican woman to serve in the delegation, who has served as a family progressive activist. Owner of a beauty shop, volunteer firefighter, he talks about his time in the legislature, his impressions of d. C. And his reasons for serving. Ke we welcome congressman mi bost. I see that there is a marine corps flag on there. How does a former marine firefighter and beauty shop owner want to run for congress . Representative i have 10 grandchildren. I was not happy with the things ive been hearing about, from obamacare to overregulation on business. The trucking business for many years. My grandfather started in 33. The frustration of dealing with all of that. And then talking to the family, it took a lot of prayer and decisionmaking. I could have just thrown my hands up and said im done with politics, but then i thought i would try to make things better for the kids. Run fordid you try to the house . It would have been in february of 2014. Right after the other election. You defeated the incumbent Democrat Bill enyart, in what was reportedly one one of the most expensive races. Rep. Mike bost it is. The paducah, kentucky, market is less expensive, but you go to st. Louis, it is like 600. Host so your district reaches all of the way up that far . Rep. Mike bost my district goes up to alton, almost st. Louis, but not as far as grafton. It is 1. 33 counties. Host how did you do it, from the standpoint of raising the money . Who helped fund you . And what about beating him . Rep. Mike bost we had Jerry Costello there for many years. Jerry was a conservative democrat. He represented the area well. The concern that had come up was that this congress or bill enyart was not keeping in touch with the people. They had become used to Jerry Costellos style, which was constantly in contact. They knew him. All over the district, and in a short period of time, i realized that was not occurring. I actually talked to a democrat state legislator who said, i do not know him, and he was in the district, and that is not what these jobs are about. They are about servants positions, and i was able to look at that and then springboard on some of the other issues out there. Of course, we also have a videotape that was from my experience on the floor as a floor leader that we did not know whether they would use it or not, but we had to try to figure out how to build our name recognition. Host this is the one that got you the nickname of rep. Mike bost meltdown mike. It is the second greatest rant according to cnn, so, basically, what had happened is right after here in congress, they had passed obamacare, and the statement had been made, we have got to pass it, so we find out host 2010. Rep. Mike bost yes, i am on the floor, and what we have been working on is the illinois pension problems, and we had been working on it for a year and a half, and i am one of the leaders, and i come on in on the morning that we are supposed to pass it, and i say, i need some information on the bill, because there are some hangs i need to talk about, and he said, they changed it, and i said, they changed what part of it, and he said, all of it, and i said, who changed it, and he said the democratic speaker, so things went on. They actually moved the bill in a partisan manner out of committee, and they were bringing it to the floor. My job as a floor leader is too full. One is to protect the members, and two is to argue our point. But this was more than that. It was a case of were 30 years plus of having the same speaker bypassing rules, and basically what happened is i had had enough, and i threw the bill in the air, and if you listen to it, there were specific arguments. It was odd, but there were specific arguments that i was talking about. Host and this went viral, and in the end, you think it helped your campaign. The media and other members may be criticizing you. Rep. Mike bost right. You wish that it was not a case where you had to do that, but sometimes, what we have discovered with this is the majority of the people who contacted me after it happened and in the campaign as a matter of fact, they say you do not want to send someone like this to washington. It will make the federal problems worse, and the answer we got on the street was, no, we want some it is like this in washington who will stand up for us and who will say, no, things arent right. Host what have you found so far . Is it different . Rep. Mike bost it is quite a bit different, and one is the controlling rules as far as your debates, everything like that, after being a floor leader in illinois, where we did not have to address the chair. The chair was kind of the moderator, so it is different in that respect. Just the level of work and the amount of subjects you need to be a breast of, and the sheer size of the job. Host we talked earlier about Jerry Costello keeping in touch with the district. How do you do that . Rep. Mike bost we do that by social media, and when i am back in the district, when people say, well, you are home. Well, my population base is quite away from my home. For example, during easter, we were there one week before and one week after, and all of those 16 days we were home, i slept in my bed four, so the day you do that is to make sure youre out and in constant contact, everything from town hall meetings, but also we have listening sessions, where we go out and meet with different leaders and with the general public, and they know we are out there, and we are getting comments on that all of the time, that we are out there everywhere. Host you do not have duties anymore about being a volunteer firefighter, but you brought a helmet. Tell us a little bit about that. Rep. Mike bost that was a gift from one of the fire departments, because i often carry the language, but i was a firefighter with murphysboro, and you get to do all of the things that your mother does not want you to do, running into buildings that other people are running out of, getting dirty, getting wet, and people like you because of it. It really was one of the most exciting job i ever had in my life. Even with the marine corps, this was right up there. Host you were a volunteer. Rep. Mike bost i was actually a fulltime firefighter. And paid for call. 1988 until actually even up until the time i was in the state legislature, until 2008. Host you talk about the busy schedule on capitol hill. What committees are you on . Rep. Mike bost small business, veterans affair, and ag, which is appropriate for the district. Host does that sound like a lot . Rep. Mike bost it is. They told me you probably do not