Cohesion. But weve always had people who have understood how to overcome those differences. And so to kind of reflect on this question about what does enable us to overcome the distinctions in any kind of free society, we are delighted today to be joined by oscar munoz. He was appointed in 2015. He is a true american success story. And well talk about that a little bit. Growing up with eight siblings in california. First member of his family to go to college. Hes had a number of rather remarkable leadership roles, worked at at t, cocacola, pepsico prior to joining united, president of the cxx corporation which moves a lot of heavy stuff around the country. But the focus of this discussion will be oscars focus on people. As i prepared for this discussion, the consistency with which the descriptions of your leadership have been kind of just anchored in both your employees and your passengers as really kind of shone through. And i think, you know, im particularly interested in a field that is technically complex, logistically capricious, to say it pleasantly. The fact that we dont get scared flying is remarkable. Weve taken whats right and wrong and jammed into these aluminum tubes. Its a pretty remarkable thick that we do. The fact that youve been able to at that moment to really change the culture of the company while achieving more than a 50 increase in stock price sounds pretty cool. And so were going try to explore that a little bit. I should disclose the introduction by acknowledging how pleased we are to be able to have this series in the honor of the Extraordinary Service about bob and elizabeth dole. Bob dole is one of four founders. Again, they are proud partisans. These are not folks who go lightly anywhere they travel. But they are people who in their careers understood how to overcome real adversity, and how to build the kind of trust that is necessary to move the country forward. And so, this is the oneyear anniversary. We launched this series on bob doles 95th birthday. Its been a really great experience. And we are dedicated. I think were going to have our 12th event this thursday. Were going to have five female freshman members of congress to come join us and share their experiences. Lets jump right in. I think there is a cliche in leadership about whether leaders are made or born. My conclusion to the answer is yes. But i guess my question is if we had your eighth grade teacher here and we said so who is oscar munoz, who with that person would say of course. Whats the famous quote, im the sum of all the pars that i met . She would be honored. When did you start to find yourself in leadership roles . First if i could thank you very having me. The concept of bipartisan bridging the gap, communicating, conversing. Many points of view but have meaningful debate and discourse is just something that feels like we have lost. In a world thats become increasingly divided, i always choose united. Solid. Im done. [laughter] but your point on the fact that its even more of an honor is the fact that its the dole leadership series. All of us remember senator dole standing up with assistance at the funeral of mccain one of the most touching moments. Just really encapsulates the world that used to be in politics. That is always a meaningful thing. So i thought it was a great possibility. We think that the members of congress are very good people with very bad incentives. Talking about leadership is hopefully part of that process. But so, look, reflecting on the life you know, over a friendly conversation is not a fair challenge. But, you know, do you think that have there been some moments in your life when you look back and think about your philosophy leadership. Do you look back at any particular people or instances that have affected your approach . I would go back to the fact that you are who you are, a product of your environment. The people that you met along the way, the people that you allowed to come into your life and influence, certainly our parents, our loved ones. But increasingly in my world and has always been a cross of people that have been to hold up an exemplary life. I had a grandmother i get emotional talking about her. She lived until 96 years old. Was a maid at a hotel for a long period of time. And worked well into her 80s with debilitating arthritis. And the one thing about her i always remember, not a single ever a single bad word about anyone or anything. She went to work every day. And ive come up with this concept that says proof not promise. And it is in her sort of giving sort of recognizing her. Because when she retired, she was, again, a maid at a hotel, so nothing meaningful, but the fact that not only her coworkers showed up but management and even Senior Management from a different city showed up at her retirement just for me exemplified the fact what kind of person she was. And so you you aspire to be the same kind of person. And it is those kind of things. I could tell you 20 other stories of people that have caught me along the way. My high school counselor, mrs. Duckworth who caught me in a hallway one day, not quite when class was out. And so i thought i was in trouble. And we had just taken the s. A. T. s, the preliminary s. A. T. s. She stopped to ask me where i was thinking of going to college. Again, i grew up in a relatively low income household, bluecollar, where the concept of college and further education wasnt part of the conversation. So my answer was at the time, what is a college . She helped me through the process, which got me to go to school. Again, the environment i grew up in with my latina roots wasnt yet a prominent thing. One of my guiding missions in life is that i dont want to be the damn exception to everything. I want to be the expectation. Right . We should have people of all colors and races and sex in positions of authority. We shouldnt question or wonder, like hey, why are you in position. So those are the things that drive me. Its always been another human being around me somewhere who has influenced that education. So i give credit to them. I call that my duty to care. We just try to instill in people that it is important to care for others. Of course, i work in a world where caring for you, our wonderful customers in this room, is really, really meaningful to us. We are going to get there. You gave a long preamble. Thank you for joining us. I want to acknowledge senator dorgan and senator glickman. We got some keys in front. I know you have to run. Youre hanging out by the bar. Crown and just a private guy. I could tell stories. He was wonderful at a time in my life. Meaningful, ballot support, but it was worth while. It was a wonderful experience. So before we go more into kind of the company. And theres a lot i want to talk to you about that . I mentioned its a little bit of a cliche. This is the American Dream story. This is story that we all imagined that this country is about. But the reality is that it really isnt so much. Right . If you look at the recent data, social mobility in this country is at a lower point now than its been in generations. I think the chances of moving from the bottom fifth of our economic status to the top fifth is about 7. 5 . It doesnt happen a lot. Productivity has increased almost double since 1980. I want to talk to you as a ceo just in general, not even just united. You indicated i got a good quote from your wonderful staff. You want a company that is both profitable and principled. So how are you helping people move up that social ladder . And is that an obligation of a ceo . It is a complete and total obligation. Its so easy to in this day and age to give that responsibility to others. Not my job. All of it is true. But it is an absolute obligation. Social views, philosophical concerns. We sit in my role over 100,000 people worldwide. Our vision in life is to connect people to the things that matter most, and the second part is unite the world. That comes from our 90,000 people. That is not a phrase i made up. And that gives me a lot of clarity and support and confidence about having an obligation to do all the right angst. We take strong stances on sustainability, diversity. You cannot find a more diverse set of Board Members and leadership then you have at united. More importantly, they are incredibly valued, high performing individuals, all chosen on merits and meritocracy. I have lived my whole life under this idea you have to work harder because youre different. And so i did. And when i counseled folks whether its the latino or any diverse space, i just said, you know the facts of life is we do have to work harder, plain and simple. And work harder we shall, but increasingly more and more people are getting into the position that look like me, like a standard ceo, who are beginning to see the value of the diversity. And it is making a meaningful difference, so the obligation is to continue to use the word but more importantly, to put people in place in positions and in charge of things that are meaningful and watch them grow and then we have the kind of,. You said 50 . I think we are closer to 90 stock appreciation. It makes a difference when you have success. This concept of profitable but principled along the way is meaningful. Theres a damn serious obligation. Lets talk about washington that little bit more. When i had the pleasure of talking to a lot of ceos on these basic questions of shareholder versus stakeholder. Milton friedman, every 90 days maximize profits, or is it my community, my country and liberty . People basically said, look, im with you. But you know, wall street is an aggressive partner. And when you took over the company, i think one of the things that you were thinking about differently was executing a lot of those labor agreements that had been open ended for a while. Let me talk about why that instinct. So just explain, the stakeholder shareholder question. I was wondering what you think about it. This is where i think people mistake the emotion and drive and purity around principles as being too touchyfeely and soft. We are just going to have to treat people well and that is all we are going to do. We from day one, we have had a definitive, structured, Strategic Plan of attack about what we needed to accomplish to get to where we are today. So you have got to have that plan. That takes care of all your constituents, not only your community, customers, but also wall street. Sometimes not everyone understands what you are doing because in this world theres no good deed that goes unpunished. And so having a plan, we all hear it come in order to take care of your customers, you have to take care of those people first, right . How many books have been written about that . Well, our team said, you know what, they said heres the problem in our company. We have grown disenfranchised, disengaged, and therefore we need to regain the trust of our employees. One of the things about regaining the trust was ending long contract disputes with our flight attendants. Who touches you more as a customer . Your flight attendant. We havent treated them like a meaningful, valued part of the family. So you have to fix those things. And yes, theres the cost to it. Wall street wants to know the return. You fastforward to where we are today and here is the return. We have a better customer experience. We have better profitability. We are able to invest in things like sustainbility. Talk about things like diversity, meaningful proof and how to accomplish that. It is not this willynilly, feelgood thing. We laid out a plan last january about our growth strategy. Youre talking about wall street going crazy, they went crazy, but we put together a team at united that knows exactly what we are doing. We vetted that plan for months on in. When we launched it, we had every expectation that its going to do do everything. Nobody else knew. You have to have this conviction about everything that youre doing with a fairly strong laid out plan. So its not just about hoping its going to well. We worked very hard to work to get to those things. Talk a little bit how youve seen the sweep of the company. It seems to me that the role and the expectation of c. E. O. Is changing quite dramatically. The expectation that you are a public figure, that you have views on policy issues. As you have been in the last rolls over the last decade, do you think that is a fair assertion . Do you feel like the public expectations of year old is different than it would in a decade ago . You get accountability, transparency that have all increased heavilyly. You know, we all grew up in a different world. Being a ceo in the old days, you look back fondly on those times. It is different today, but i dont look at it askance. I just look at it as the new reality, and an important one. I think most of the folks who sit in our roles today have embraced it as well. It is the right thing to do for what we have developed as a social community here in the u. S. One of the places where we have seen a change is the expectation that companies are Public Policy agents. You are not just about air travel. I guess Peter Drucker said management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things. You and delta took a pretty strong position after the parkland shootings, which everything about that was controversial. But, you know, why . You are an airline. What role did you have in that Public Policy issue . So the facts behind it all are very simple. One of our pilots lost his daughter in that shooting. I mean, that puts a whole different aspect on anything you are talking about. I actually flew down to miami to see them a few days afterward. We had our annual meeting the following week. In the stands we took is that there was a big dinner Party Convention and we were offering discounts like we do to any large crew. I think we felt this was not the appropriate thing to do given the circumstances that just happened, so as an industry to a certain degree we banded together. I was the first one on the podium to be asked the question because the nra took a strong stand and accused me of political bias. I dont have a political view. I love a family member. Plain and simple. So it did become personal. The media picks it up saying munoz said it was a personal decision, which wasnt the full context of it. But it is on those kinds of issues where you have to do the right thing. We have the separation of children. Remember, my vision is unite the world. What part of unite the world allows separation of children from their families, regardless of the circumstances . In fact, we went a step further. We ended up flying people to reconnect people that have been separated. So those are the kind of things are important. If you look at the broad nature of our United Family and ask about these decisions, they are fully supportive. They gave me that clarity, conviction, and confidence was they came up with this that says we unite the world. Lets talk about the world and an issue you have been very focused on, environment and Climate Change. United made a commitment to reduce emissions by 50 by 2050, which is a tough thing to do if you are fighting gravity, right . Gravity being 4. 5 billion gallons of jet fuel year. Yeah, so talk a little bit about your thinking. The airlines has not been a leading voice in the climate debate. I think rationally because it just does not see a lot of options. Electric planes seem unlikely for the near future. Why were you motivated to do that and how do you think about the ability to achieve a pretty bold commitment . Back to the issue of reality and i heard this and this is not a Political Support or anything, but a former Vice President who is very involved in the area of sustainability, i heard him say these words. [laughter] different environmental issues. The concept was do you believe Climate Change is real . You have to ask yourself the question. There is much debate in facts, but do you believe . Do you see the facts . And if you do or dont, thats the first question. The second is can you do something about it . And all of us can do something about it, because the third question is the most important, where you do something about it . As we faced that question as a United Family, we generally felt the facts are increasingly more obvious that Climate Change is affecting different parts of the world. Can you do something about it . Yeah, but its going to be expensive, difficult, hard, take a lot of time. We will have to make all these changes. The question was, will you do something about it . This is who the United Family is. We will do something about it. So we started with easy with straws and developed the concept of biofuel. So we have taken a pretty big investment, the largest investment in wastetoenergy manufacturers. We are exploring all capabilities. More importantly, us leading the industry and the planet perspective, we have more traction. I believe delta has come out recently with a similar pledge. We are working with the International Association of airlines. And we are working that. And just as we are beginning to do that, this concept of esg is beginning to rear its head. Its wonderful to be ahead of that with known focus, no lines in the sand. Its an important topic for us. So we can only bury our heads so long. Again, we have to be mindful of 4. 5 billion gallons of jet fuel that i burn every year. I know everybody appreciates it and we like to get to our places, but we have to do something and move forward. That is what we have been doing. You dont think the Green New Deal will be a giant boon for amtrak . No comment. [laughter] we will turn to this question of people. You have 90,000 or so employees, 160 million passengers, and you made a strong point, you thought the ethos of the company and the airlines was out of whack. You said the focus on safety and efficiency had led to protocoldriven culture and had driven the humanity out of the process. You came up with these core four principles, the second being caring. This has been a central thesis. But talk a little more about when you joined the company. What were you perceiving that had been lost in what have you been trying to do to bring it back . I think its a big operation. U. S. Customers, if you think about your last flight or next flight, you think about one thing. Is it going to leave on time and get where i want . That reliability is very important. We dont, until recently, think a lot about safety, because we expect that out of the training, safety, the regiment, the great Regulatory Oversight we have with regards to that. And so over time we run these really big operations like we do, we cant have anarchy and chaos. We have to have order and process. You cant jump up and go to the airport and go to whatever line and everybody says just get on the airplane anytime you want. I think southwest tries to do that. [laughter] but we dont have quite that luxury. So you need policies and procedures to ensure, again, your safety and security. That is why we do that. Once we have taken care of the issues of your safety and security, then we have to learn to put the customer at the center of everything we do. How do you feel about flying . How do we take into account the things you want to do . You want to fly with a sixfoot peacock, but the answer is going to be no. Someone brought in emotional support peacock on one of her we stopped that well ahead of the gate. Im told someone brought in emotional support dog for their emotional support monkey. Yes. [laughter] its only unclear if it was for the monkey for the dog or vice versa. You cant make this up. And so, because as you think about the logistical things that have to happen to put a flight in the air, we have a lot of rules. Right . If you sit outside and watch the gate as the plane is being boarded, you were here people come up with, hey, can i sit next to my friend . Can i bring this 30pound bag . Our answer is and has to be to a certain degree, no, not because we dont want you to but because somebody is already sitting next to your friend. If we move you theyre all those practical things, but over the course of time we lost that caring feeling. Where it is like, how do we tell people know and explained to him in a meaningful impactful, personal weight, but at the same time create an environment where we dont always have to say no . We are Building Digital tools in all these different things, but the heart of the matter of the interaction you have with us is with another human being, and how they treat you and react to your question, how they answer your question is a really important part. And that comes from the core. So giving our folks this cour four principles of always safe first, and the other two are dependable and efficient which you would excite the company to say, but the second most important thing is caring. So when you see a mother of three running down the terminal to make a connection and it is the last flight of the day, but your policy, our rules, my procedure says 5 30 and the gates are closed and she is close by, but i will get in trouble if i dont close it at 5 30. That is when care comes in. I am a mother of two or whatever, i will wait. And allowing that in a culture that has been so fixated on rules and procedures, that is why we put that into place. It is a constant affirmation and education an explanation of what it is. We have become so entrenched in policies and procedures that people wanted to know how many minutes can i care for . Right . Is it two minutes, six minutes . But again, that bread another thing called connections matter. We build technology, big data ai kind of thing. We know where the aircraft are going. We know the wind pattern. So we know how long a plane can delay and still make the further connections. In a plane of 160 people, most are on board. The family of three is a small number compared to the rest. So our priorities are less the masses get to its points on time, but if we have room, lets wait for the plane. That hurts us because our ontime metrics will decline. And you will read from the press that Airline Service degrades. What we have been doing in two cities today, we have saved 25,000 connections. That may not be a lot in the world, but if youre one of those 25 thousand people, you care a lot, because it made you feel good. Somebody was waiting for me. We are averaging 4. 5 minute delays, and we are always getting there on time. We know when we can fly and it helps you as a customer and thats right thing to do. The metrics we have to educate the world that the metric alone does not tell the whole story because connections do matter. Two anecdotes. I have a seared memory of seeing a door close with two kids and two strollers. It was not a united flight. I will not mention who it was, but we have not flown on them since. I actually just was on a flight last week from denver to d. C. With my 13yearold and 11yearold. And she generously shared her ear pads with him so he could listen to the same video. He managed to drop it in that invisible depth between seats. We dont keep what we find. Its creating a generational fissure between my children. And one of her flight attendants saw this happen and she took the seat apart and managed to do it in a way that my daughter was not humiliated. It was a remarkable thing, in my children still love each other. [laughter] you told me the story earlier and i will reiterate what i said then. That flight attendants decision to assist in that manner did not come from a digital tool, an investment or a class we sent them to. That came from a pure, unadulterated personal desire to care for someone else. Allowing people to be that, to care for others, is the meaningful part of our core four. Just give people the freedom to care about someone else. Its a meaningful thing and its exciting to see and hear those stories. Youd be amazed how many heroic stories my friends are here and we hear this all the time. We are trying to publicize how important the industry is and how much good we do for so many people. In that story times 1000 every day it happens. But we dont hear about any of those things. You hear about the ants or whatever it is. I clicked the four stars. We will open up to questions in a minute. This is the kind of question on leadership in crisis. I know you get asked this a lot. You had a heart attack shortly after becoming the ceo. And as the story goes, you had to have a heart transplant. You had a meeting with your staff and said i will be out for a few hours, at which point you went and had a heart transplant. Obviously this is a huge i dont mean to make light of this incredible experience, but im interested in it as it relates back to her imagination of leadership. One of the notions of leadership is this presumption of invincibility. A lot of politicians and ceos like to create this aura of being above it all. Your mortality was put in front of you in a dramatic way. Has that affected your leadership . Has it affected your approach to your job . I think in my case, there is an effect there has to be when you go through Something Like that, but i am pretty much the same person i was before. Again, this sum of all parts i talked about at the opening continues to drive me, but it has helped me understand not just mortality but the importance of, as an example, not invincibility, what is a good word for it . We will all face obstacles, all going to face issues. Some see so deathdefying and in disasters that are life goes topsyturvy. What is the right level of support from family and loved ones, the right mindset about these things . During that whole health crisis, i never once thought anything bad was going to happen to me. In that is not invincibility. That comes from a lot of peoples hearts and minds. My family was amazing. The quick story is i was only on the job for 37 days before i got stricken with a pretty massive heart attack that would have killed most people. In the level of support from the United Family was immense. Again, 37 days, but the amount of mail and gifts and flowers that came in from that community for so many months. My children opened bags of mail and read it in the morning to me. That, for me, coming back from that event was never a conversation and a question, but it does help me help other people. I go to a lot of hospitals and i speak to a lot of patients. Its important for them to see someone. Running around and doing what i do, your life does not have to be narrowed down to something just because you have a transplant. Its an amazing process. I will tell you all that the psa i always give to folks is really simple. There are so many, many, many symptoms of heart attacks. In the difference between men and women are immense. But the advice i got from someone by the way, i used to run marathons and triathlons. I was a vegan when i got mine. So, your lifestyle i dont recommend any of those things. [laughter] but one of my mates who happens to be a cardiologist always says some of the youngest and fittest people have symptoms they never sort of manage. If you ever feel anything weird or strange, and we know what that is, immediately call for help or assistance. Him and he said that, which makes it obvious. But he said something that was stuck with me. He said, when you call 911, immediately tell them where you are, ok . That makes sense. Because you may not make it past the phone call. I remember exactly where we were when he said it. This was two years before by event. And so one morning a chicago by myself in my apartment i worked out and i felt something weird. My legs gave out. His words came rushing back to me. He said get to the phone, call 911, and tell them where you are. Im on the 50th floor of a highrise in a big city. In most of the deaths occur when people say i will jump in the shower. I will feel better. I would just lay down. I told this story so many times. I constantly tell it because we have received literally thousands of notes have come back from people who have heard this story and responded. I told that to my dad, my brother. Ive had people stop me at airports in tears telling me how meaningful that was because just like it help me to make the decision to call 911, i tell it to you. It must give you some perspective on the crisis if you bring back tomato juice or not. You have thought about airlines a little bit. Ive put over there, if you want one, but secretary glickman . Let us know who you are, please. Complement in the question. There is no question your service has materially improved in the last couple of years. And that is not just because i want my Global Services renewed. In truth, there is a remarkable difference in how people are treated on an airline. All the carriers, but i fly united more than anything else. I would like you to comment on the elephant in the room, the 737 max 8 and how you as an airline responded to that when you are so reliant on getting these new airplanes and that they were certified by the faa, and how you have dealt with that particular crisis. Because it has probably been the most serious crisis affecting the Airline Industry in many years. Yeah, this is where things like the core four and the general industry trend is towards Flight Safety in particular. There is no disagreement on how important that is. Any airline, certainly in the united states, its immediately dealt with. I mean, once we had i think the decision process was do we have facts and data that support ground data. Thats important because to return an aircraft to flight you have to use the same facts and data. There was a lot of emotional issues around the world. Soandso did it so you should do it as well. I think the faa did the right thing, as we have always done. We have the best Safety Record in the world with the faa. They were doing their analysis. Once we learned the right facts and data to do this, we have had that airplane grounded in five minutes. That is how we dealt with it. How do we deal with that going forward, this aircraft will a flight at the right time at the right level of support from not just the u. S. , the u. S. Airlines, but around the world, so everybody feels comfortable. Its important for people to feel comfortable. Yes, we take a hit. Remember, profitable but principled. There is no bigger principal that you would have us have other than your personal safety. [indiscernible] this is sort of a bipartisan issue that started with obama and goes on with President Trump now regarding Golf Airlines flying into the u. S. I just flew to jfk on emirates. It has air italia for now. Qatar emirates has a controlling stake in air italy. How big of a problem is that for you . Also, the second part of the question is, do you think we should get rid of our forward ownership barriers and allow crossborder mergers . All my peeps are like, dont go there. [laughter] i think the ongoing debate with the qatari and the emirates have been chronicled well. We dont mind the competitive playing field. When it is so and even with subsidies, that is what we have in working with. I think the number was 50 billion over a decade those airlines have been subsidized. People disagree with the number. And i cut it in half. Its still a hell of an amount of subsidization. There is a reason no u. S. Carrier fly to gulf carriers. Its impossible from a financial perspective. We will continue to have those conversations. Surrogates, we think that is cheating. We have been very prominent in those debates and conversations. That conversation will happen again. The qatari government was here last night did not get an invite to that dinner, but nevertheless. With regards to the broader issue of ownership, thats an issue for governments to deal with. We have our views certainly. But fair and balanced competition and open access is something we all actually support. What else . Hello. My name is maria. Ive come from spain. Sorry for my accent. Thank you. First of all, i would like to thank you for the amazing conversation. And i would like to ask you, as you come from a company that i love im working at the Cocacola Company for 23 years. You work now in a company that i also love, because it brings me to my country directly. I have to jump when i go to spain, but now i can go next week with united to spain. The question is what did you learn from cocacola to bring it to the airlines . Thank you. Thats a great sort of one of the things i missed after i left coke and did a couple of other jobs is that direct consumer branding capability. What i envision for our united, and more difficult issue, is the same emotion. You see her smile. When you think of cocacola, you get all warm and gushy about it. We all remember the old ads, a coke and a smile and those things. Thats the kind of feeling we want to bring to your flying experience with united. Those of the things i learned. How important are consumer is, how important our brand is. We did not become the family skies overnight. We have learned that over the last couple of decades. To live up to that, thats the standard, thats the drive we are working to regain, so thank you. One or two more questions. Im going to ask one on behalf of congressman crowley. She is leading one of our infrastructure efforts. On the question of Nexgen Technology in the partnership between the government and the private sector. You know, i know it is probably apocryphal, but the assertion there is more navigational capacity on my iphone than some airplanes is probably a little bit of an exaggeration, but how can we not figure this one out . What is it going to take to bring modern navigational capacity to the air Traffic Control system . Everybody faces this dilemma in the city about how we move things forward that have meaningful improvement and meaningful advancement to our way of life. Air Traffic Control in our world is so outdated and so obsolete in some degrees. It is still safe, but we have to slow everything down. We talk about sustainability. You know, the big manufacturers are building aircraft that are the equivalent of ferraris, but then the air Traffic Control is the equivalent of making them run around on gravel roads. You take away all the joy. Fuel savings and fuel efficiency in those big aircraft, you have to slow them down and you burn all that fuel. I think would happen before, and this is probably the solution, is that it has become politicized. We started using the word privatization. So nexgen is the next generation of air Traffic Control that allows it self with 65 other countries that use it, we are behind the 65 other countries just to put it in perspective. The word is privatization. We tried so hard to fight to say that should not be the word. The objective should be modernization. That is what we are trying to accomplish. How best to we accomplish that as a nation with support of both sides of the aisle . And that is where we failed. It became too politicized. It became a point of debacle when it went across party lines. I said to certain leaders, great, you won. Now what . We still have the problem. So we have to just keep at this. It is on our to do list here at the policy center as well. Its your show, i forgot. Michelle . Do you have another question . I run the Infrastructure Project here. In thank you for your comments about publicprivate partnerships. I have been waging a battle for a couple of years and now. More specific to the d. C. Area, we are getting a metro out to the dulles airport. I understand you are doing a lot to enhance the airport and potentially make it a northeast hub not northeast, but midatlantic help . Can you tell us about what you doing it dulles . Tel aviv. It is a great way of explaining what we are doing, connecting traffic for our community to come into that hub and fly internationally. It is improving to the point where it is one of our most profitable hubs. We have grown significantly, i think 7 or 8 the last couple of years. We are doing it that airport what you need is to do, what you want us to do. Give me places to go and aircraft i want to fly. Our business is simple. Unfortunately the aircraft is very expensive. We want to fly to many places immediately. We have introduced a lot of differences. You will see more of that and tel aviv is a perfect example of a flight that matters to a lot of people in this community. In the infrastructure at these airports i wont use the term i want is not up to par. It is mature, certainly, or nonexistent. All of us know what dulles is about. Everyone is trying to do a nice job, but we have a train that goes nowhere. We have the same rental facilities that were generated 20 or 30 years ago that are still there. We never connected them to anything. All of that has to be done. Unfortunate that requires a lot of money, a lot of money that is local. Infrastructure is a big thing for our country. And then we have the broader debate about infrastructure for our country, roads and bridges and such. I dont support that the thing we have to fix is airports. We have to fix all infrastructure. It comes back to publicprivate partnerships to Work Together to accomplish modernization. The last time we fixed the highway system was in the 1950s or 1960s. So there is so much stuff for us to do. We are a great nation with great capabilities, but somehow, again, we have become divided. I will end where i started, we choose a world that is united. Thats a great way to close us out. In a true demonstration of servant leadership, they will not give the door open for him. [laughter] i really want to thank you for sharing your thoughts. It resonates with all of our experience and it says a lot about how we want to make this country work better. And so i appreciate it. Thank you. [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. 2019] [indiscernible] tomorrow morning on washington journal, a conversation on the 50th anniversary of woodstock. We talk to historian david farber about the threeday festival in new york that attracted 100,000 people. Mr. Farber is author of the book the age of great dreams america in the 1960s. You can watch live at 9 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan and on cspan