Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20240622

Marissa mayer is she was hired to be a coder at google. She was hired to be someone who literally makes the programs. Her first big project was supposed to be like googles first ad delivery system, you know . Google makes billions and billions of dollars off of ads, and she was going to make the first one. And it was taking her months and monthses and months to do. Google went out and hired someone named jeff dean and this sort of shocked the industry because jeff dean is a superstar. Hes really known for being one of the best coders on the planet. And he did the project that meyer had been work on in a matter of weeks. And mayer, you know, to her credit sort of looked at this and said is, you know, she loved working at google and she said im not going to make my mark at this company by being a coder. Is so she said what else can i do. So she sort of threw herself at whatever problems the company had. You know she actually got involved in pr and marketing and all sorts of strange things that a coder might not necessarily get into and she ended up finding a role for herself in the following ways she developed a rapport with the ceo, larry page and became sort of his number one lieutenant in the sense that she ran his meetings with the rest of googles staff. And she set the agenda for what is going to be discussed. And to do that, you know, she really had to need to know what his sort of vision for where google was going was. And the other thing she did was she got herself involved in the user interface review process so is that every product that went live on google had to go through this sort of checklist of launch, you know a checklist before it went to launch of design and had to meet her standards which really were googles standards for what a good product looked like. And the final thing mayer did over her many years at google, and this is just a broad picture, was she taught the company how to hire. Her boss for a long time was a guy named Jonathan Rosenberg and he kept bringing product manager, you know, in Tech Companies whats really important is project managers, people who can robe the edge rope the engineers together and push forward create new products. So Jonathan Rosenberg kept bringing people to larry page the thenceo of google, and page kept rejecting them all. And finally mayer said heres what youre doing wrong youre trying to hire mbas. Youre hiring them out of Great Schools and theyre really intelligent people, but page wants technical people inside of the company. What you need to do is hire people like me, people who are technically trained but have a real interest in business, maybe want to be ceo someday. And rosenberg said thats a good idea why dont you run such a program. Is so she created one, and its really its modeled across Silicon Valley now. Lots of Big Companies have this program where they go out and hire technicallytalented people from schools like stanford harvard, mit, what have you and put them in charge of managing groups at a very young age. Its sort of like throwing them in the deep end. This is interesting for mayer because not only was she still in charge of the look and feel of all google products, but also she started hiring googles future managers into the company. As these people went throughout the company, they had traditional bosses that they needed to report up to, but they also individually still reported in to mayer the person who was leading the apm program. So that meant she had a lot of power, at one, you know, what became the worlds most powerful internet company. So thats where mayer was for a long time, and she was doing a great job. And then my book gets into sort of, you know, she was demoted actually, toward the end of her career. But thats how she gained so much sort of influence and power in the world of the internet and technology. Host mr. Carlson, how many years was she at google and how much of the 700 million did she make from google . Guest yeah, thats right. So she was there let me see these figures off the top of my head, around 2000 to about to exactly 2012. So, you know, 13, 12, 13 years. She joined when there was 20 the employees, and she left when there was maybe 50,000. She made 300 million or so from working at google being one of those early employees. And so shes got fabulous wealth. Thats a fact. She lives just she has many moments, but theres two that we know of for sure and one is at the top of the four seasons in San Francisco, and another is in palo alto in a little neighborhood called professorville which is really near where stanfords campus is. Its funny, like many of the very wealthy people in palo alto, shes done this thing where she loves the neighborhood and its homey feel so much that shes decided to buy some of the homes around her just to make sure they stay nice and pleasant. Just like hometown, usa. Host how did she get to yahoo . How did she become ceo . Guest so this was a big upset, a big surprise that yahoo was able to hire someone hike Marissa Mayer. She came to back in so is, first, lets talk quickly about yahoo and the history of the company which actually takes up the first, you know, 150 pages of my 300page, 300pluspage book. So its, you know, what i wanted to explore is, you know, yahoo and how it got in such bad shape before mayer got there and why they needed someone like her possibly to come in and try to turn the place around. And just before mayer got there the company had gone through several ceos in a very short period of time. It had gone through a woman named carol barts, and after that there was an interim ceo named tim morrison and after that a permanent ceo named Scott Thompson who was pushed out of the company for lying on his resume and then theres an interim ceo named Ross Levinson and owl of that happened all of that happened within the period of a year. It was so tumultuous that there was a lot of expectation that is the company would just sort of say lets hire Ross Levinson, this interim ceo hes got a great name, hes been at yahoo for a while, hes got a vision of what to do with the company. So that sort of had been the expectation. And then one july day all of a sudden Marissa Mayer was hired as the ceo of yahoo , and people were shocked. Thats the reason why i got into reporting the story in the first place, because it was such an upset. Behind the scenes, in 2011 yahoo fired its ceo carol barts. She was in new york for a business trip. She gets a phone call theres a scene in the book, obviously, where i tell the story. Shes in new york, and she gets a phone call from the chairman who starts reading a script, and carol barts is famous for her very like, aggressive tone of conversation and she goes shes like roy sounds like youre reading from a script why dont you have the guts she said another word to actually talk to me and do this kind of thing in person. But anyway, she was fired. It was very public and very well known. And so meanwhile over at google in another scene in my book, one of mayers longtime confidants a person who had really helped her career along peter stricker, he came from the world of politic and he was a pr guy at google, and hed made her into something of a business celebrity along with i mean she obviously played more than a role. He helped. Anyway so he said to her gabriel said to mayer, you know, i think you would be a great fit for that yahoo role. And mayer said to him, you know, ive thought about that, thats a good idea. Thatd be exciting, but theres no way im doing that with yahoo s current board of directors. And the reason she said that, its something i detail in the book is that over its many years yahoo had a notoriously bad board of directors. These are people who that continued to hire talented ceos, but talented ceos who were really a bad fit for the company. People who didnt really have Technical Expertise people who sort of along the way prevented the company the from making sound business decision. There was a moment where yahoo had gotten a big offer, this was in the press in 2008 and after where yahoo got this very large offer from microsoft, and the company just sort of fumbled it. And kind of just pushed it off and said they wouldnt do it. And it was because of the board of directors in many ways, particularly a chairman. And so it was just a notoriously bad board of directors. What mayer didnt know in those weeks following carol barts firing in August September 2011, what she didnt know was way over across the country in new york theres a Hedge Fund Manager named dan loeb, and this is another chapter in the book. You know dan loebs job is to be an activist investor, you know . Hes made quite a lot of money doing this. He goes in and he buys larnlg stakes in public large stakes in Public Companies and then he says to the boards, listen, im now a big other than of your company, and i have some ideas for how you should be running the company, and its very different than how youre running the company. And so, you know, and by the way, if you dont do what i say im going to go to the other shareholders, and were going to get you fired speaking to the board of directors meaning basically, you know, Public Companies are in a way shareholder democracies. They can throw out the board of directors, and the board of directors can hire a new ceo who can set a direction for the company. So is dan loeb, what mayer didnt know, was that dan loeb had taken a 5 stake in yahoo and was really gearing up. Hed watched as many people had, hed watched disastrous behavior of the board for many years and thought this was an underperforming asset, and if only the board was removed, someone could be hired into that company and really run it. So dan loeb geared up, invested you know lots of money bought 5 of yahoo and launched whats called a proxy campaign, an activist campaign against the yahoo board and its ceo. And really pushed for it to hire someone like Marissa Mayer. He asked for the board member it is to resign. The board did not listen to dan loeb. They went out and hired a the president of paypal, which is another, its a division of ebay. And they hired this guy named Scott Thompson and loeb was aghast at this hire and actually thompson went into yahoo and all these sort of strange plans for what he would do with the company, a very draconian layoff planned, and he just sort of indicated that hed never been in the Media Business, and yahoo was a Media Business and it was just like the yahoo board once again hiring someone who was a perhaps talented executive but just not a good fit for the company. And loeb sort of said, you know, lets keep this proxy war going. And he eventually found he found that thompson had allowed for a long time there to be a mistake. You might say one might say that thompson lied on his resume about having a Computer Science degree from Stonehill College when, in fact, they did not offer a Computer Science during the years he was there. So loebs style his method of convincing other shareholders and boards of directors to listen to him is to write these scathing letters, what he calls them letters of mass destruction is what he actually calls them. So theres a scene in my book where after this war between dan loeb and Scott Thompson and the board of yahoo is going on for quite some time, maybe a few months its may 2012, and Scott Thompson is, the ceo of yahoo , is in a meeting around a ushaped table with all his executives, and one by one sort of like, you know, the mood of each executive starts to change. Theyre in this long meeting, but all of a sudden theres an electricity in the air and they start looking at their laptops and blackberries to see whats going on. And a reporter had just published a story saying that dan loeb had just published his latest letter, and he accused Scott Thompson of lying on his resume. And in this scene Scott Thompson kind of bolts upright and just bolts from the room and starts dealing with it. He didnt survive, you know, hes actually still got a lovely career going but he didnt survive his job at yahoo . And he was out within weeks. So that left yahoo with a ceo search. They promoted this Ross Levinson person that i was talking about before and he really had this plan for yahoo to make it sort of a media company, just carve it, much smaller that kind of thing. And instead of doing that, instead of hiring Ross Levinson, dan loeb whod been imagining that he would be on the board in short order had been out researching and speaking with people in the valley about what kind of ceo that yahoo needed. And they actually at one point met with a famous investor and the creator of netscape Mark Andreessen. And he told both dan loeb and another future board member of yahoo his name was Michael Wolff, who really led the search for the ceo, he told andreessen told these two what you need is when you have a tech company like yahoo , the product isnt necessarily like a product for a car company which is just, you know, a thing that comes off an assembly line. The thing that you make is innovation, and you really need a technical leader someone who has an understanding of how products are made in this environment, and thats how places like amazon and google and facebook are such Great Companies and apple, for example, as well. And so wolfe and loeb got it in their head was that what they needed was someone like larry page or mark zuckerberg, someone who has a real, like, native understanding of the web in a way that in a way that yahoo s prior ceos did not and that, you know, on their list and it was a pretty allstar list but on their list was Marissa Mayer whos this famous executive from google who had been instrumental in launching many of googles products over the years gmail, Google Maps Google search, thicks people things people use every day. Google products need to be something you use as often as you use your toothbrush. Its sort of difficult to come up with a product that is used that much, but that was googles goal and mayer was instrumental in making several that passed that test. They sort of thought it would be impossible to get her. They hired a recruiter who reached out to her mayer was now interested in the job because loeb had successfully through this letter of mass destruction we talked about, nuked the yahoo board and put himself on it instead. And so is she was interested in the job. She went in, and if theres one thing about Marissa Mayer, she is the best preparer in the world. If she knows she needs to have a set of data understood then she will have it understood and be able to be more than fluent on it. But convincing and so forth t. So she went in, and she completely blew the board away. And while there was some reluctance to hire her on the part of some Board Members because she had not actually run a profit, you know, a division with a profit and loss statement at google ever, there was some reluctance on that part. But eventually Michael Wolff and dan loeb were able to convince the rest of the board that she would be the right hire s. So they made this grand announcement in july, and it sort of shocked everyone. And a little piece of information was that she was pregnant, she was five months pregnant. So is here you have a 37yearold woman who was pregnant and the ceo of a massive internet company, and what how would she do . Thats what the world wanted the know thats what i wanted to know, and thats basically why i wrote the book. Host Nicholas Carlson in page 300 of your book, the honeymoon between maries saw Marissa Mayer and the roughly 15,000 employees lasted about a year. Guest thats right. So when mayer came in, there was an incredible amount of optimism for her. And she also took advantage of it and seemed to demonstrate that all the optimism was worthwhile. She came in, youll recall from the 2008 election president ial election, there was this famous shepherd ferry poster that was made of barack obama and on the bottom hes looking off into the distance, and on the bottom it says hope in capital letters. When mayer arrived at yahoo in july 201, there were poster of her done in the same tile with the word hope written underneath them, there was that sort of excitement in the company. These were in the actual hallways of yahoo . The founder of yahoo , one of the founders, theres two david fy low, met her at the front door and rolled out a purple carpet for her to enter the company on. She comes into the company, and her office is full of things like cupcakes, actually, because shes sort of a renowned cupcake cook enthusiast, or at least thats the impression the world has gotten through media coverage. Its actually not true, but thats the impression that the worlds gotten. Full of cupcakes and balloons, calls on her answering machine calls from the white house calls from jpmorgan, calls from ceos and celebrities of all sorts congratulating her on the job. Be and so there was this humongous enthusiasm and optimism for her arrival into yahoo . And she did great right away. I mean so some of the things that she did that were incredible, she really brought an increased level of transparency into yahoo . The way that yahoo employees learned what was going on at yahoo was not through, you know, the channels of communication from management but through reading reports on the company particularly reports by this woman we talked about before for a second, kara swisher. She would just sort of break news about yahoo all the time, and that was actually how people at yahoo knew what was going on. Mayer came in and said, you know, that needs to end. We need to do a better job communicating with employees. So she instituted this thing that is actually sort of a common thing in the valley now but common because Successful Companies like google have done it, which is a weekly meeting where the executive team, the ceo and his or her executive team sit on a stage in front of all of the companys employees who can either watch the meeting through their computers or in person, and they take questions from employees. The employees ask, you know, quite hard questions. And so, you know, one thing i was astounded by and you can see this in the book how hard the questions were and how candid mayer was in answering these questions. It was kind of amazing. So she brought this level of transparency that really had not been at yahoo . And that alone really immediately raised morale. She also did other things. She, you know, in many ways what she did was she brought yahoo to parity with what the rest of the valley was doing. She instituted free food for employees, so all of a sudden you could go there early in the morning and stay late at night and get three meals a day. Now, this is a great perk, but it also has the sneaky side effect of keeping people around the office for much longer. She, you know, for a long time yahoo employees were out and trying to make tech, you know, web products and apps and things like that for people to use. But at the same time, yahoo executives and yahoo employees were not using iphones and android phones, the kinds of phones that consumers were increasingly using. Theythey were using blackberries and mayer said thats going to have to end so she gave employees new iphones and android phones for free. It was actually quite a big deal. New laptops came as well. She did some things that werent exactly that were a little bit more controversial. The number one being she banned working from home. She said that employees really need to come into the office and that, you know, this is a Creative Company where we need credittivity to flow between creativity to flow people people, and, by the way weve looked at some data, and it looks like a lot of people who are working from home arent actually logging in all that much. So theyre going off and skiing instead of working and things like that. So she said thats enough. That was a very controversial outside of yahoo . People, especially a lot of women who think, you know, who argued that, listen, working from home is a very nice way for me to be a professional and also raise children, and its very flexible for me. They were sort of fended by the fact that mayer who theyd taken to be a feminist icon, was instituting this policy that they regarded as antiwoman. Now inside of yahoo , the policy was not nearly as controversial as it was outside of the company. You know, there was a few people who complained, they particularly complained that yes, mayer was doing this policy that was not helpful for working mothers, and meanwhile, you know she of hundreds of millions of dollars and great privilege and power had built a nursery in her office, literally knocked down a wall and built a nursery so that she could watch her kid during office hours. So people were sort of upset about that. But overall overwhelmingly yahoo employees felt, no, this is a thing that needs to be done in order to get us moving again. We really need to get the place moving again. And thats another thing mayer did, she really got yahoo moving quite a lot faster during her first year there. She, you know, before mayer got there it took yahoo 18 months to launch a new version of yahoo email, that was the amount of time it took for the version of the product that came out before her influence, before she arrived. After she arrived they launched the yahoo email product in six months, and then the next time they launched a new version it took three months. And after that i think it took three months again. Eighteen months down to three months is kind of impressive. She did that in a way that was very different than how most ceos come in and rye to turn around try to turn around companies. Most ceos come into companies and theyll say okay, i have a strategy. Theyll take 100 days to conceive of a strategy, and then theyll sort of delegate it out and ask people to sort of push down the lad or and throughout the pyramid and thats how it gets done. Mayer went into yahoo and, you know, we talked about her having this role at google where she was in the user interface review team, so everything that went through and went live had to go through her. And she actually just went into yahoo and said, okay, im going to do that again. She actually went into the product meetings and this shocked people. You dont see let alone a business celebrity like mayer. You dont see ceos come into meetings like this and sit down. Theres a scene where shes sitting next to the product manager for yahoo mail, and shes, like, looking at him and she grills him for 45 minutes on where hes getting his data from, what kind of surveys hes using, why hes making the decisions hes making, and its sort of like getting her hands on the lapels of yahoo and shaking it and making sure everything its producing is good and up to her standards. And so, you know, she got the place moving again by doing that kind of thing. Now, i mean the problem was and the reason the honeymoon ended is that when mayer decided to join yahoo one of the things she talked about with the board of directors was that the company needed to cut costs that it needed probably to lay off people. Now, she never promised that she would lay off people, but she did indicate she would cut a lot of losses. And a lot of people thought that yahoo , one of the main things it needed to do was go from a place that had 15,000 fulltime employees and a few thousand parttimers spread around the world, you know, who were called freelancers and called contractors but were actually working as much as fulltime employees, just not getting the same kind of benefits. They thought what mayer would do was take this 18,000 strong work force and reduce it down maybe 5,000 people, perhaps as low as that. And, in fact, Mark Andreessen the Silicon Valley star investor who we mentioned before who really advocated for yahoo hiring someone like mayer, he was public saying yahoo needed to fire 10,000 people. But mayer went into the company and she really did not want to do that. She did not want to fire people. She thought that the company, the last thing it needed was to lose talent. She looked at some of the layoff plans that Scott Thompson had laid out and she said this is a disaster, you know . Hes just going to fire hes going to fire people regard he is of their talent, regardless of their specialty. She said i think i can find a smarter way to reduce costs and improve the talent mix at yahoo . So she thought back to her google days where shay had this process where they had this process. They were called objective key results, okrs. And what they were was that every quarter google employee, every google employee meets their manager and between their manager and their managers manager sometimes that employee decides on a set of objective key results for the next quarter. And then theyre held accountable to these goals. And theyre graded, basically on how well they performed against these goals. Yahoo had some review processes, for sure, before mayer got there but she really prioritized and emphasized this idea. She called them quarterly performance reviews. And there was a twist. So the twist is that mayer thought, okay, what we need to do is we need to have these people graded on what they said they would do each quarter and really hold them accountable to what theyre doing, but not only that we need every manager to take all the people on their team and grade them on a scale from 15 on how they did. And not only do i want them to grade on a scale of 15, and by the way these grades mattered. If you have a 5, if you have an average of something above 3 or 4, youre eligible for promotion and transfers, all sorts of things. And this is kind of getting into the weeds of Human Resources but this mattered to people in a way that was really big. Is if you had managed to pull off a 4 for a couple quarters in a row and you got a 2 then that dragged your average score on, and your life was materially worse than it was before because you were not able to transfer into a new department. Now, all that probably would have been fine if mayer had just instituted sort of an Accountability Program and just asked her managers to grade employees. But what she did that really caused problems was she asked her managers to put their employees in a forced curve. Like put them along a curve so that maybe 15 would get a 1 15 would get a 5 and so on. In each bucket there had to be a certain percentage of employees for every group. And this caused a lot of problems because even in a highperforming group, you had managers who believed and understood what that meant to be that they had to give some failing grades to people who maybe were not deserving of failing grades. And this created a lot of confuse. This is really called stack ranking. Stack ranking has a number of problems. Theres been a number of studies about why stack ranking is a failed management paradigm. A lot of it has to do with the fact that people dont want to Work Together as much anymore. If youre a star employee, you dont want to be in the same group as another star employee, because one of you is going to have to have the top grade in the group. So just in general people dont really want to Work Together. They also dont want to transfer to new groups because they dont necessarily know whos on the team and where theyre going to fit into the team, they dont want to switch in the middle of a quarter and be ranked last in the group and be punished and so forth. And so people grew upset about this. They sort of were confused and disoriented and felt like their lives were being worsened because of this program. And finally, you know, we talked about these meetings that mayer would hold every week, they were called fyis. Finally, you know, there was a number of questions over time about this process, the qprs and people being demoralized by them. Theres a scene in my book where someones like are you sure thats a good idea . Host and mr. Carlson, we are going to have to leave the rest for people to buy the book and finish that story. Unfortunately, we are out of time. Nicholas carlson marisa a meyer and the fight to save yahoo is the name of the book. Cspan, created by americas Cable Companies 35 years ago and brought to you as a Public Service by your local cable or satellite provider. [inaudible conversations]. Good afternoon everyone. I am pleased to convene the Senate Subcommittee on surface transportation and merchant marine infrastructure, safety and security for its sixth hearing which is titled, technologies transforming transportation is the government keeping up . Ranking member booker suggested holding this hearing and he and i are excited to bring together a range of issues we worked on together here in the senate. For example, we underscored the Important Role technology plays in our daily lives by collaborating on the internet of things resolution at the beginning of this congress. I was please to see our resolution pass the Senate Earlier this year. We also made progress on several transportation matters related to maritime, rail and highway infrastructure. Our hearing brings our work on these various issues together. Today we will explore the federal governments response to the current Technological Developments in our nations transportation industry. In order to maximize the efficiency and safety gains being made by the private sector the federal government must insure it is keeping up with modern technology. Regulatory frameworks must facilitate rather than hinder Technological Advancements. In some ways our hear something entering uncharted territory because government is generally reactive rather than proactive. Todays hearing is an opportunity to look into the future and to identify ways to make innovation easier so that we can grow quicker safer and easier. Automated driving, for instance has the potential to make trucks more efficient and could result in thousands of dollars in annual savings. Additionally automation has the potential to make American Companies more competitive in the global market. As our stakeholders will testify, a patchwork of state laws is holding back the transportation industrys ability to take advantage of the benefits technology provides. Clearly more should be done to fossor innovation and streamline obsolete regulations. Step one is educating policymakers and innovators what exists and how we can facilitate more voluntary solutions to our transportation challenges with cuttingedge technologies. Technology has the ability to process, sync coordinate Transportation Systems. Make transportation and logistical networks more efficient. Most importantly innovations in transportation offer tremendous opportunities to improve safety. Autonomous Trucking Technology for example, will strengthen driver awareness and reduce accidents on our nations roads. Additionally, we will hear how the increased use of track side monitoring devices and development of robust databases will provide the Railroad Industry with the ability to better repair and upgrade critical infrastructure. In other words the internet of things and big data are identifying the challenges of tomorrow with technologies that we have today. We must also appreciate the role our nations ports play, as centers of intermodal connection in our Transportation Network. To compete globally americas ports are modernizing to drive efficiency and keep goods moving throughout the country. The benefits of Technological Advancements are clear for our economy, for our safety and for the efficiency our Transportation Networks. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about the kinds of policies that will promote innovation. Our country is a leader in innovation constantly creating the next big thing to drive the Global Economic engine. And i would now invite senator booker to offer his opening remarks. Thank you sentor fischer. I want to also acknowledge that senator blunt, good to have you here this afternoon. I appreciate sentor fischer is holding this hearing. We have done extensive Work Together on both technology and transportation and im excited to examine further where government can help and conversely where government could stop hindering and in the meeting the infrastructure challenges especially this is important. Sentor fischer and i have discussed tremendous innovation happening in this country. Were both excited about it and how some of our Government Agencies may not actually be equipped to keep up with this incredible innovation. This is a theme im sure our panel of witnesses will update us on today. Technology is rapidly changing. Everything we do including how we commute and maintain our critical Transportation Systems is changing. Changing how we get to work how we drive our cars an even how we hail a cab. We have an opportunity to harness new technologies to dramatically improve Public Safety, reduce costs, create jobs and address infrastructure problems in creative new ways. The federal government can be a key player to help advance and out advertise developing technologies. Look at safety. Traffic related fatality injuries continue to decline over 30,000 people each year still die on our highways. We continue to see trains that derail too frequently, pour, putting enormous burdens on our firstresponders. In the face of these challenges weve got to understand the opportunity that comes with technology and improving our Transportation Systems. Our country has already invested billions in interstate highway, bridges, rails and ports. Technology can help us to get more out of what weve already built. Today there are exciting marketready Proven Solutions to make our roads safer. From all i can braking to hightech camera technologies to sensors and radar and even Autonomous Cars and drones. Advanced technologies can not awe lert a truck driver even take control of a vehicle if they begin to drift out of their lean or fail to brake with stopped traffic ahead. Technology can enable smartphone using real time information to suggest to the driver the best time to hit the road for their commute or family trip or direct a driver to the nearest available onstreet parking place, something we need in washington. Harnessing technology will not only save time and fuel, the use it will reduce Traffic Congestion for everyone else on the road. Something drivers in my state and throughout the northeast know all too well. New technologies can improve the safety and efficiency of our rail network and our port facilities. It is critical that we reexamine how we invest in our infrastructure, how we plan for the future and make the best use of these technologies. I look forward to hearing from our Witnesses Today and about how the federal government can help existing businesses thrive, how the federal government can be a worldwide leader and help us be a worldwide leader in innovation advance, not stall in, interesting form of innovations. Thank you. Thank you senator booker. I would like to welcome our first panel of Witnesses Today. We have miss susan at, alt seen for Vice President , volvo group of america. Paul meisner, Global Public policy amazon mr. Gregory fox, executive Vice President operations bnsf railway. Michael christensen senior executive, senor supply chain optization port of long beach. Miss alt would you like you to give us your testimony please. Thank you chairman fischer and Ranking Member booker, members of the subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to be here today. Talking about new technologies how they improve both safety and efficiency in our Transportation Network and the role the federal government plays in facilitating or hindering that development. The volvo group is a world leader in Sustainable Transportation solution systems. We build stuff that makes the roads and build stuff that use roads. In the u. S. You produce heavyduty trucks under maim of mack volvo. Volvo marine engines and coaches and novo transit bus of the we subscribe to build where you sell philosophy. We more than 12,000 utz employees with nine manufacturing facilities in six states. Our goal is zero accidents. Im going to comment today from a heavyduty truck perspective because trucking delivers more than 80 of the value of freight that is shipped in the United States. Buyers of heavyduty trucks today can not technology that will keep the driver and other vehicles on the road safer. Things like lane Departure Warning systems or active braking. But on the horizon we see Great Potential for vehicle to vehicle, vtov, and vehicle to infrastructure, v to i technologies. Messages for vtov and v to i applications are sent on 9. 5 gigahertz of radio spectrum. Dedicated Shortrange Communications or sscc. In 1999 the government got it right when it set aside and protected this frequency for only safetyrelated communications. But in 2013 the fcc began exploring using the 5. 9 gigahertz spectrum to support unlicensed wifi users. Proposes have been provided but no consensus yet reached. The concern is that allowing other technologies to be shared on the same spectrum could create a lag or a latency in sending lifesaving communication signals. So let me clarify. Lets say vehicle number one is approaching an intersection with a green light but the view of an oncoming vehicle is blocked by a building. Using a dsrc, vtov application the driver in vehicle number one can be alerted oncoming vehicle number two not slowing down for the red light and alert will allow a collision to be avoided. If there is any latency in that signal because of interference for example, a wifi user watching video the accident would likely not be avoided. So until a solution is found for spectrum sharing the 5. 9 gigahertz frequency we want it to remain dedicated to safety related applications only. Example of where vehicle to infrastructure, v to i can improve safety and freight efficiency is the roadside weight and inspection stations where the trucks stop along the interstate to wait in long lines that can create potential hazards. Volvo group established Technology Using v to i communication from the truck to the weigh station allows moving trucks to wirelessly communicate cree endings didsinspection stations such as if weight of vehicle is below the limit or driver wearing a seatbelt. Keeps trucking moving and allows authorities to focus on condition of other trucks that havent been validated in a program we call trusted truck. Let me end what is probably the talk of the town, Automated Technology or automated vehicles. With on board Collision Avoidance technology. We think the area is very interesting but caution our pace of implementation will be set how safely it can be adapted to the vehicles, to the infrastructure, and to society. Platooning is one example of Automated Technology. This is where there is a lead or a pilot truck, it is wirelessly linked to a truck following behind it. Volvo group and California Partners for advanced Transportation Technology or path, are in the process of implementing a twotruck platoon demonstration at slow speeds that will be extended to three trucks in 2016. Fullscale demonstration yielded 10 fuel efficiency gains by platooning trucks because of reduced air drag. Were developing technologies for connected and automated driving because of their potential to enhance safety and improve product. Increasing the speed of adoption for these technologies could be achieved if we eliminated 12 federal excise tax added to the purchase after new truck and offsetting that with higher fuel tax. Another challenge is that though our products roll across state lines, different states are developing different regulations to promote Autonomous Vehicle testing. Well need a National Standard before these vehicles can become operational. With uncertain funding for the u. S. Transportation, surface Transportation Systems adoption of these new technologies will allow us to move increasing amount of freight for a growing population but it wont solve all of our freight capacity problems and doesnt let congress off the hook to do its job providing federal funding and passing a long term surface transportation bill. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I look forward to questions. Thank you. Mr. Misener, welcome. Thank you madam chair, thank you for having me. Amazon began selling online 20 years ago this month in 1995. Our challenge was to create at scale a new form of warehousing where truckloads of ballots of goods would be received and stored instead of new pallets trucked out to Retail Stores we would shun brown boxes via carriers directly to customers. Thus we pelled pallet in, box out. At first the sales through website were only retail. Now Third Party Sellers are responsible for 40 of the all units sold in amazon and many use our services to weyerhaeuser and fulfill orders of their goods. So thousand we receive not just pallets of good we also receive small brown boxes to be stored waiting for a customer to place an order for the goods. In some of our warehouses which we call Fulfillment Centers support box in and box out. Last december Time Magazine produce ad brief video illustrating this process. Thank you, madam chair for showing it here today. It begins deep inside of a truck trailer parked at the loading dock at one of our warehouses looking backwards as the trailer door is opened. There is sound for this. Thank you. After we receive an item it is stored awaiting a customer order those orange things are robots. They move shelves weigh up to 750 pounds. Once a customer orders an item it is retrieved and sent for packing. Then it is loaded on a truck for shipment. While we continue to improve the efficiency of operations within our facilities we also have developed and invested heavily in more efficient way to hand off boxes to the u. S. Postal service. Rather than give usps an unsorted stack of boxes we have begun operating over 15 socalled sorting centers that provide usps groups boxes all going roughly to the same location. This arrangement as well as amazons package volume benefits the usps by letting make better use of its facilities, equipment and personnel without incurring the cost of building additional capacity its upstream logistics network. Of course we our partners ultimately our customers need government to keep up by providing Adequate Funding innovative policies and balanced regulation. Thank you again for invite me to testify. I look forward to your questions. Thank you very much. Mr. Fox, welcome. Thank you very much for the opportunity. My name is greg fox. Im executive Vice President of operations for bnsf railway. What i would like to do today is really walk through how bnsf is utilizing technology to improve safety and efficiency of our network. Bnsf as most of you know is a large western railroad. Over 32,000 route miles and 47,000 employees. My team runs the railroad. In my 31 years at the railroad i have seen safety improve year after year. In 2014 bnsf and Rail Industry achieved bestever safety results. You can see the trend weve received over the last decade. Technology clearly has played a role in this success. While technology is the focus of todays hearing investment in Rail Infrastructure and an inclusive Safety Culture for all bnsf employees are critical as well to our safety results. Investment in maintenance and renewal of the railroad, the orange bars that you see on this chart, is also an important piece of safety. Bnsf invests significant amounts of this kind of capital into our network to contribute directly to safe operations as well as to insure reliability of our network for our customers. This is the largest component much our 6 billion of capital spend in 2015. The nations rail operations are basically 140,000mile outdoor production line. This scope and complexity means that infrastructure and equipment sometimes fails. Or that human error can occur. Because of this, bnsf focuses on riskbased initiative for all aspects of our operations. This slide shows the categories of incident causes and examples of the kinds of Counter Measures we put in place to reduce risk. Theyre a combination of critical safety processes as well as technology. While youre very familiar with the implementation of positive train control i would like to share a brief video that illustrates numerous other inspection and Detection Technologies we deploy on the railroad to improve safety benefits. These vehicles utilize electronic and Optical Technology to monitor track geometry or the relationship of the rails at one point or over a distance. Rail defect detection systems that utilize ultrason i can technology to detect internal rail defects. Wheel temperature detectors that use infrared technology to identify wheel bearing fatigue and machine visioning systems that inspect freight cars for defects and passing trains. Bnsf is now deploying Unmanned Aircraft systems or drones for supplement visual track an bridge inspections in a variety of conditions. Also earlier this year we were unwith of three Companies Awarded the Pathfinder Program status from the faa for extended range track integrity flights. The d. O. T. Has been a valuable partner in advancing the use of Drone Technology in our safety program. All of these technologies as you might expect, generate a tremendous amount of inspection data leveraging this data through advanced analytics is where were headed next. Bnsf is currently working with ibm on a big data advanced Analytics Initiative to take the information we already use for to detect safety standard deviations to ultimately drive further understanding of factors that cause these deviations in the first place. Our goal is to drive proactive maintenance practices that ultimately prevent derailments from occurring. Lets take a look at one example. I will walk you through how were using advanced analytics to improve Rail Equipment safety. You saw eequipment detectors in the video earlier. Bnsf has 2,000 trackside detect located along our 32,000mile network. They monitor Equipment Health of passing changes using combination of thermal, acoustic visioning system technologies. Today they identify defective equipment and actions taken to address the defects as they are identified. Our goal is to move to proactive and preventative type of response. Well go from focusing on absolute alarms, really to understanding composite alarms that tell us when a combination of factors have been combined in such a way that an unsafe condition could occur. Big Data Analytics will allow us to monitor Equipment Health over time over geography and across railroads and ultimately assist in extending asset life, improving capacity and safety. As you can see the current breadth of technology and potential here is tremendous as long as we have a Regulatory Framework that encourages innovation. Technologies and advanced analytics themselves are complex and evolving at a very fast pace. This means the regulatory focus should be on safety outcomes that they focus on producing. One of the most significant Things Congress can do for us to insure we have the right overall Regulatory Framework for railroads. If it does the Rail Industry will continue to Deploy Technology in support of Risk Reduction and invest adequately in infrastructure maintenance and renew. Thanks for the opportunity today to testify. I look forward to your questions. Thank you mr. Fox. Mr. Christensen, welcome. Madam chairwoman, members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. Technology will help us address the unprecedented challenges that are facing our industry, which i believe are as revolutionary as the advent of containerrization was 50 years ago. Big ships and ocean carrier alliances are game changers. I will spend the next few minutes talking about specific technologies and strategies that were implementing to meet these challenges. Modernizing our infrastructure is the first strategy with, no port in the United States is investing more than the port of long beach through our 4 billion Capital Improvement program. Our 1. 3 billion Middle Harbor terminal is the port of the future. It is the greenest, most sustainable container cargo terminal in the United States that can accommodate the worlds biggest, greenest ships up to 22,000 20foot equivalent units or teus. Middle harbor will strengthen our ability to compete against canada and mexico for the trade that sends car cargo to every Congressional District in the United States and support as million 1 2 american jobs. The terminal, this terminal by itself would be the fourth largest port in the nation and it will boost the capacity at the port of long beach by 20 . Longshore jobs at the terminal will also be modernized and will shift to technical occupations with longshore labor actually increasing over current levels when the terminal reaches its full capacity. Now these advanced technologies will help improve efficiency and reduce air pollution but they will also demand a great deal for electricity. How will we deal with the increased demand for reliable electric power . The answer is our Energy Island initiative. Technology driven strategy for transitioning energy at the port to resilient and sustainable selfgeneration systems and Renewable Power sources. So i have talked about the infrastructure or the lets call it the hardware strategy. What about the software . Well it will not be possible to meet the challenges we face without changing the way the port operates. We have joined our neighbor, the port of los angeles in a Federal Maritime Commission sanctioned joint Port Initiative that will be aimed at enhancing the velocity and reliability of shipments that come through the san pedro gateway and were making progress, with the active involvement of stakeholders which include the full range of beneficial cargo owners, ocean carriers Marine Terminal operators, licensed Motor Carriers that draw this cargo to destination, chassis poll operators, Railroad Partners and labor and management. A few things came out of the joint Port Initiative. Supply chain optimization will be largely be data driven. Highly siloed supply chain suffers from an inadequate data sharing. The San Pedro Bayport authorities are examining new roles to gather, filter and distribute reliable data to the benefit of the entire supply chain. Promising entrepreneurial software is also appearing and holding Great Potential. One example is software, is a software called cogomatic operates on a smartphone. It is uberlike application that is using for pilot study in San Pedro Bay. They move containers from the ports to inland destinations much as a taxi driver would move passengers from an airport. U. S. Department of transportations freight advanced traveler Information System or fratis is information real time and terminals and trucking operations. Stay tuned for much more coming from this joint Port Initiative. In conclusion our supply chain optization efforts are heavily reliant on technology in order to meet our objectives of our good but world class velocity and reliability. As local public agencies, the San Pedro Bay ports are shifting from our traditional landlord role to one of active supply chain participant. We hope to see the federal Government Support us in this new role by enpaging with us and engaging with us and setting effective Goods Movement policy that recognizes the value of seaports and creating infrastructure and Energy Funding that support the land and water Side Investments required to accommodate muchneeded growth in International Trade. We look forward to working with our federal partners this exciting venture. Thank you for your attention. I look forward to answering any questions. Thank you all very much he. We will begin our round of questioning at this time. Miss alt some research on the Autonomous Truck Market estimates that by 2020 to 2022 well is see level three autonomous truck technologies introduced in certain states. And at level three a driver is still required to be in the vehicle but the truck can be switched into an autopilot mode when circumstances permit. When do you think that were going to see trucks equipped with that level three driving technology on american highways . And can you go into it a little bit more on how that all works . You said that you read something that it was going to be able in 2020. So we are, so five years from now. And you said in certain states. Right. Thats possible. There are states that have more flexible laws to allow for testing of course is the products we build go across the states so we need to have some sort of a federal standard. The technology is actually leading the society. The technology for two vehicles to talk to each other where the lead truck and pilot truck is leading the truck behind, that is your level three that technology is not that far away in terms of the actual technology. The challenge is then how can it be accepted . Which roads can it be driven on. And are you going to be comfortable in your vehicle with 160,000 pounds of freight moving beside you with a driver thats not, theyre in control but theyre not fully in control . So i think that the technology is possible. But the societal changes are going to have be much more alerted to us. And then also were going to need a standard across all the nations because our vehicles dont operate in one state at a time. I understand in the United Kingdom they have the least restrictive regulations with regard to the Autonomous Vehicles. Within the United Kingdom theyre not restricted then by the boundaries right . I dont think so. I dont know the answer to that fully, sorry. Do they it is my understanding they dont need special permits or even special insurance in the United Kingdom to be able to do that. I know that Many Companies are planning on doing some testing in the United Kingdom on british roads for that reason specifically. What do you think we need to do here in the United States . Is it possible for the federal government to move forward with regulations if society is not ready for it yet . So it is a balance isnt it . You dont want to be forcing or identifying which technology to use and then putting that into some sort of a federal regulation. You want the market to establish that. But there are, it is a new world that were in. In the regulations, even putting terms like what is a driver . Is the driver the system that is moving the vehicle . Is the driver the guy or gal sitting behind the truck or driving wheel . What is a system . There are some semantics we have to think about differently as we put this legislation into place. What we have to do differently is looking what can we do across all the states so that when we design these vehicles they can operate in all of the states. We need standardization of simple things like the terminology, i think is one step. How close are we . Were a long way away from that. Mr. Fox in january we heard testimony from the up regarding importance of encouraging performancebased standards in regulation and performance standards they moved government away from designbased standards towards a goal of Oriented Approach to a achieving that outcome. For example the fra mandates that intervals between certain types of locomotive inspections. Do you believe that performancebased standards could help fossor innovation and technologydriven safety advances better than the designbased standards . We absolutely believe performancebased standards are the way we need to progress because performancebased standards are really focused more on the outcome versus the methods. By focusing on outcomes were free to inknow straight with technology or process changes. We had great example of working with our safety regulator on performancebased standards through wafers. The predecessor of the ptt system was a example of that on bnsf. It can work and drive innovation absolutely. And how effective have they been . Weve made some progress on waivers, at same time going through the waiver process does take time and at times it is pretty frustrating. Thank you. Senator booker. Thank you chairwoman. Miss alt im concerned that you, first of all im confident you and i share the goals, same goals of increasing nation safety on the nations highways and im appreciate all the things youre company does but im concerned about the your written testimony. You refer to the legislation i was introduced with senator rubio and pretty shocked what i read. It was bipartisan in both house and Senate Legislation our bill places timelines and guidelines in place for the fcc to test the five gigahertz Spectrum Brand in consultation with the department of transportation. Some of this testing has already happened and were excited about that but our bill simply provides further structure for testing alone. I can understand why a lot of people in the industry want to attack this as you did in your written testimony and maybe even mislead people because the industry has been sitting on this spectrum since about 1990 but i want to be very clear about what this bill actually does for you and for others. For over a decade the industry has been working on new technology while at the same time other technologies using radar sensors, radars and sensors have evolved without using dedicated spectrum. Over a billion dollars, a billion dollars of taxpayer Dollars Money has been spent on this r d and our bill simply asks for testing to see whether this limited resource is, Precious Resource that you indicated, can be shared. It is a factfinding bill and that is all. It is not if it is not safe to share, i agree and the bill clearly says thrill will be no sharing but if it can be safely shared now, other technologies are evolving im sure people would agree that it should be. So im disappointed in the portrayal of my and senator rubios legislation in your testimony. Im shocked. Been in the senate for a short time but i never seen something clearly so misleading short time ive been in the senate. I worked closely with stakeholders across the board from secretary fox to advanced safety and as supporters of the vtov technology, senator rubio and i were steadfast advocates of highway safety. Safety should come first. But im disappointed by these exaggerated attacks. So the first question i simply have, did you read your legislation, yes or no. No. So if you didnt read the legislation but yet you say, wifi innovation act would open up 5. 9 gigahertz frequency to access that is not true. That is a false statement. That is very frustrating. And so encountering something, when i was mayor i used to say in god we trust but everybody else bring me data. Bring me the facts. Everybody wants to obscure them but the truth should come through. A factfinding bill simply looks to understand what is the best way that we can achieve the safety goals that youre company puts first, that this senator and im sure the whole panel puts first. So im just curious my last question to you is, i believe consumers should have all options on the table that should advocate safety. Im wondering if you agree our transportation policy should be actually Technology Neutral . That it should be about what is best to insure that policy and safety dont lag behind the best cuttingedge technology. Do you agree with that . Of course i agree with that. Okay. So again may i respond to some of your comments then . You certainly may. I think were on the same page with that. The, the unlicensed wifi doesnt have a governance structure like a licensed frequent does a and ieee, industrial electronic engineers group, that is the group who put two proposals forward. They have not come to conclusion. So our position is that the legislation is simply premature. Miss alt, im sorry i can believe your testimony that you submitted to the United States senate which doesnt say what you just said. It says it indicates you are against this bill because it would, quote, and i quote, it would open up 5. 9 gigahertz frequency spectrum. That is not true and you have agree with that. What the bill does when you read it, which i hope you will, what the bill is simply saying hey, lets begin a factfinding endeavor that bert understands the usage of spectrum and the question this is precious asset, why i know your Company Wants to protect it, can it possibly be shared without infringing on safety . That is all were looking to do. So attacking the bill on clearly false standings is insulting. My time has run out. Thank you senator booker. I welcome our Ranking Member today, from the committee senator nelson. Thank you madam chairman. What about that, miss alt . What about what senator booker said . Well, we have come to an agreement that we do not want to see that spectrum is shared with other technologies until an unless the governing bodies are sure that there is no interference from other technology. Do you think that technology is practical to basically the spectrum, do you i that the spectrum is practical to be used by the Automobile Industry anytime in the near future . I dont know the answer to that. If it can be shared. That is really the position, is can it be shared with other technologies. The governing bodies have not come to a conclusion after putting forward two proposals. There are 4,000 crashes no, there are 4,000 people that are killed each year from serious are truck crashes. How would you suggest technology is used to lessen that . The more that vehicles can speak to each other, vehicle to vehicle, this is trucks talking to trucks and or trucks talking to carries, the more that they can talk to each other to let the other one know, hey im here you need to stop that is a technology that would help reduce crashes. Over last week i met with a grieving mom whose daughter on her honeymoon when the traffic had stopped on interstate 95, and literally come to a stop and her new soninlaw, and daughter were in the traffic, stopped. But a truck with the driver not having had a lot of sleep because of his company requiring a roundtrip within the state of florida in the same day of 16 hours, the truck driver was basically sound asleep. And, so she is a grieving mom because of that truck plowing into the back of all of those stopped vehicles. How would, how would you think technology could address the issue of truck Driver Safety . Yeah, that is a great question. Im a mom. I would grief grieve with her obviously. That is horrible. There are on board systems on hours of service the driver can drive. Perhaps if there was a technology shut down the truck if it went beyond its hours could be something. But requiring that trucks have on board recorders, this technology is available and i believe it is close to being legislated. Those are things that can help. And this particular truck was intrastate not interstate. So what rules that we have up here for, example, we dont allow the tandem trucks in our rules more than 28 feet but they are allowing two tandem trucks on intrastate, inside the state of 33 feet. Which is an issue that will be in front of this committee with regard to truck safety. Let me ask you, mr. Christensen. You all have accommodated the big ships from asia and soon in year or two, when the panama canal is completed in its expansion, they will come to the east coast. You want to give any quick pointers what we could do that you have learned Lessons Learned on handling those huge, huge container ships . Senator nelson, thank you for the question. They are a gamechanger, but the term of big ship is, is a changing term. When i started working in the port about 10 years ago, a big ship was 8,000 teus. In 2012 the port of long beach started handling 14,000 teu ships. About the same time the new locks in the panama canal were going into construction which can accommodate a 13,000 teu ship. The ships were handling now in the San Pedro Bay ports will not fit in the new locks on the new panama canal. We are customers at the port of long beach are now ordering 20,000 teu ships. So it is a very much, a moving target. To our, our colleagues on the east coast, they are already dealing with this ships that are transiting the suez canal. It really has to do with depth of channel to get them there. Once theyre there dealing with how those ships are stowed and how those ships are unloaded and that is exactly the focus of our joint working groups is to figure out a whole new way to operate our ports so that we can deal with a very large amount of relatively unsorted containers coming across the wharf and hitting us in a which we never had to deal with before. The question was what are the Lessons Learned that you can share with the other ports . The lessons were still learning senator and they really have to do with having adequate supply of chassis, which has to do with inneroperable chassis pool. It has to do with working closer with the steamship lines in putting more discipline in their stowage of the vessel which has been thrown aside because of the way that those vessels are calling on the asian ports and the way the shipping alliances are working. And it has to do with working much, much more closely with the communication of data which were again finding extraordinarily siloed within the supply chain being able to provide at Marine Terminal operator with information more than two days before that vessel hits their terminal so they can plan their moves adequately. These are all lessons were learning. Im not sure that we could tell much more to our friends on the east coast as to how to deal with that issue beyond that. Thanks. Thank you, senator nelson. Another cantwell. Thank you madam chair, thanks for Holding Hearing and thanks to the witnesses. Mr. Misener, congratulations 20 years. Seems like yesterday. Definitely the transformation of goods and services has been quite impressive. We didnt, i didnt hear your testimony discussion about the drone issue from a Technology Perspective but clearly this committee, a larger full committee has had testimony on that. It is certainly one area of continuing to move forward on technology and delivering product. And mr. Christensen, loved everything you said except it would have been great if you said it was about seattle tacoma instead of l. A. Long beach. But still happy to hear your description of the Economic Opportunity for the United States. That we actually can increase the cargo shipments because there is that demand and product to be shipped. But we have to continuously make improvements. And this is something we see in seattle as well. That somebody estimated instead of three million Cargo Containers we could do Something Like six. Not out of the question. You described that. You described that would actually be good for longshoremen even though youre making Technology Investments youre talking about efficiencies. My question to you, mr. Misener, anybody else, mr. Fox miss alt, were talking about technology that helps us move to be more knowledgeable we need to make invests in freight mobility from a federal perspective to make sure as those products are being moved around, our technology is not just measuring stuck in congestion and making us less competitive. Well, senator cantwell if that is partly to me i appreciate that very much. Thank you for the congratulations, ive only been here for 15 of those 20 years. Were looking for innovative policies. You introduced a bill with senator booker that proposes such policies. We congratulate you for that bill. If anything it could be broader. It can be applied to more than multimodal freight. That kind of thinking and that kind of communication mr. Christensen mentioned communication of data, there is also need for communication among stakeholders and i think that is a big part of your bill to get the stakeholders talking to one another to figure out innovative solutions. Were also fans of communication of data as mr. Christen send mentioned that is something were doing with uspp. A big component of our interaction with them making sure we get forecast what is were seeing, what were going to be shipping and that is particularly important for sunday delivery so they can use the most efficient routes for driving their trucks and delivering parcels on sunday. Youre a Global Business and mr. Christensen has fixed costs if you will. So he mentioned the magic words as far as im concerned panama and canada. This is about competition. So this is about if were going to make improvements necessary to move our products cost effectively or whether that business will go to canada or via the panama canal. So are you do you support freight efforts at the federal level . Yes. And senator cantwell the, just assurely as were sitting here we see International Trade continue to increase and we are now at levels that are peaking over the prereinvestigation levels of containerized traffic moving in our ports. We will see bottlenecks infrastructure related. As i mentioned in my testimony the strategies are infrastructure efficiency with technology infused along with operational efficiencies and i believe that the legislation youre proposing is timely its its critical to the future of our supply chain optimization to be onest. We hope to continue to collaborate with you and your team on that because it is so critical to be looking ahead recognizing that infrastructure bottlenecks dont go away year after you recognize them. It takes years and years of focus and funding and policy to make them, to solve these bottlenecks as they come up. And how do you, your testimony as i said, i really appreciated it, because you described what the future opportunity was and that it was a Growth Opportunity and jobs as well not just in automation, how do you think we tell the story on a National Basis . Is this data that supply chains from other ports have . It is data but it is fractured data. Right now and as i mentioned in the testimony, it is critically important we bring this data in through a reliable gateway and make it transparent and public. We have, we have challenges ahead of us. Were working on those very, very hard in our working groups and in our joint port effort. As seattletacoma has worked very hard on their joint port efforts as well and we watch and benchmark what is going on up there very closely. So there are opportunities but there is a lot of opportunities ahead of us but there is a lot of work to be done. Thank you. Thank you madam chair. Thank you, senator cantwell. Senator klobuchar. Thank you madam chair. Thank you to you and other witnesses. Accountable Office Report found that the fra face as lot of challenges, rail safety challenges including the fact that the inspectors only have capacity to inspect less than 1 of all railroad activities. I come from a state where we are a bit of an entry port for oil from canada as you know oil from north dakota and products from everywhere. We have increase in rail and accompanying number of derailments. If the fra partners with states to inspect signals tracks, and mechanical operations and in april i sent a letter to the Appropriations Committee to urge increased funding for more rail inspectors. I would like to hear more about what technology bnf uses to prevent redalements . Is there derailments. Is there Better Technology to get us through this. Weve shown as an industry and bsnf we continue to Leverage Technology and the results have clearly been bestever safety results year from employee safety and derailment perspective. Beyond that there is opportunity. There is tremendous opportunity. Again i think as we talk about regulation, part of our challenge today is regulation based on a design standard. As we look at focus on outcomes, again i think that will allow the industry to innovate. Innovate with technology, with process changes. How what kind of technology would help with this . As we look forward, as i mentioned in my testimony i think, i think this Drone Technology very early in, in practice has a real, has a real potential. This Pathfinder Program with the faa will move beyond line of sight to where we could utilize drones to travel along our private 32,000mile network for hundreds of miles a day, taking high speed images, highdefinition images of our network, down to a quarter of an inch accuracy. I see. Post processing that data will help us understand exemptions. Okay. I was just in the last week up in international false, minnesota. This is not a burlingtonnorthern issue, where a i was in trouble. But it is where a bridge collapsed, small railroad bridge, but happens to be rainier, minnesota. Biggest entry point on the Canadian Border into the u. S. And right by International Falls which is a larger town. One of the things we talked about in addition to issues, this was Canadian National rail issue. In addition to the bridge collapsing and issues they have been having with the railroad and workers not allowing us to the cross the railroad the issue was that they have been having a lot of Gray Crossing issues there. I think eight to 10 hours a day the trains are in the middle of the town. So you can imagine that is a lot of time. People have to drive 2 1 2 miles around the town. So, what i wondered about even though this is not a burlingtonnorthern issue, that the Railroad Safety institute at the university of minnesota is studying train delays to more accurately estimate train arrival times at grade crossings. One of the things the mayor of the town could have signal for people as theyre deciding whether to take the 2 1 2 mile route or go into town if trains were on the tracks before they made that decision with some kind of a technology so that it would empower drivers to know what to do, that would be helpful. But i just wondered if you had any ideas of about that crossing issue . Just did an amendment on the rail bill we passed through on this issue. Certainly brought home to me this week why i did it so. And just a bit code, one more question on this track that is driving right now on the ones theyve received our founding for distracted driving grant which we would really like to have changed. A ton of money sitting there and we have emerging problem that is why we have sponsored a bill with senator booker to change the criteria to get the money out on distracted driving. The improver drive their safety at. I thought i would ask you what kind of technology we know that drivers are doing things they shouldnt do. A lot of them had made it two in surveys and its killing people to the point we had 424000 people injured in 2013 and more than 3000 People Killed that we know of from distracted driving. Again, individuals making decisions on their own. Either a new technologies that could be helpful with this . I can speak not from the car companies, the group that i am with we dont make cars. We make everything but cars. In the heavyduty truck side but we do have alerts builtin for a driver to wake them up if their eyes begin to did and it is to read there some vibration in the seat or some lab down. It is from a heavyduty. Of course lots of regulations because they are commercial drivers about what they are allowed or not allowed to do regulatory lay behind the wheel. I think we know and we appreciate your words on trucks, but this is an issue for all vehicles as they figure out if there is anything to create shutdown of technology or when someone is driving that they stop doing it because it is just a growing problem. Thank you very much. Thank you, senator klobuchar. Well have a second round of questions in case any senators are trying to get here to the committee hearing. I would like to begin with mr. Trent reappeared on your video if you could have had it delivered to nebraska or new jersey, that wouldve been a great ending for the little guy. We are happy to do cameos if you would like. We are multitalented appear. As we look at more efficient Logistic Networks out there and how do you think that will benefit consumers . Thank you, madam chair very much. The Logistics Infrastructure along with a more broad transportation infrastructure is important to consumers because it affects how they receive good a purchase online. On behalf of customers we improve this for 20 years. Automation has always been a big part of the amazon solution to this challenge and increasing automation will be very helpful to making sure consumers get goods when they need them. But they have a choice and thats what we provide them. Weve talked a little bit about drones and really the only way we figured out how to get goods to consumers in less than 30 minutes. For longer periods of time there are many alternatives and we offer customers now a slow delivery alternative that gives them additional benefit if they are willing to accept it whenever it comes. If you are ambivalent to whether it is today 30 weeks they can get an additional benefit from us. Its all about providing customers a choice in this applies more broadly to american consumers. Thank you very much. Senator booker. Mr. Misener, how would love to talk to you more about drones. Transformative possibilities but sadly upcoming back to earth to talk about sharks. Your testimony recommends the use of 10 feet longer trucks known as twin 33. The department of transportation came out with a study that it takes 22 feet longer to stop here that if a car length and a half. The larger and heavier trucks are greater destruction occurs when accidents happen. A couple questions on that pier monetize your company done an analysis of the impact of safety, how will longer trucks impact the number of crashes and fatalities . We have been persuaded by carriers that we work with at the 33 trucks will be safer because there will be fewer on the road driving fewer miles. And a policy choice like a balancing effect and im not sure theres any magic over 32 or 34 or any magic to the current number which is 28. What we try to do is find a solution that will improve efficiencies for sure. At the same time if we drive down the number of miles driven and trucks on the road that is a safety improvement. The right balance with the increase in length without increasing the Weight Capacity or total weight of the track because the weight of course goes into the inertia and kinetic energies of the weekend velocity is the inertia, not the length of the truck. It should be the first but also the infrastructure as well. For heavier trucks would tear up more local roads. We also have heavier trucks to be clear. Support is for a longer truck. Not increasing the weight limits at all so increasing should not affect the infrastructure. It can help you because going over a bridge for example, the weight is less concentrated and easier in the bridge. I appreciate that. Another balancing act is a lot greater safety that you want to see the least necessary burden on businesses and how they operate. Big issue of minimum insurance is one i have concerns about and i would love for you to give me your thoughts. We realize the trucks are getting bigger and causing bigger accidents over the last 20 30 years and minimum insurance has not been raised since the 1980s. I am wondering, do you think there is a minimum insurance level increase unit somehow elevated regularly on an ongoing basis . It seems reasonable to me. The carrier we use are directly affected by that tear the carrier is a reputable ones. We would not want products traveling a very problematic or difficult carrier. Im not sure i had to direct answer because that would be directly affecting us at this point. Thank you very much. Maybe out by the capitol with a drone if youd like. Ill be there. Thank you senator booker. The hearing record will remain open for two weeks and during that time senators are asked to submit questions for the record. Upon receipt, witnesses are requested to submit written answers to the committee as soon as possible. I would like to thank the witnesses for being here today and i think my colleagues who attended the hearing. Thank you all. We are adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] next come the Homeland Security secretary trent and i welcomes Peter Neffenger at headquarters. A 30 year coast guard veteran served for the past year as its vice commandant. His nomination was from earned by the senate last night. This is about 20 minutes. [applause] come on up here. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for being here. I see a number of Senior Leaders of the department of Homeland Security across the department. Senior leaders of tsa thank you all for being here. What an important day. A little over a month ago the preliminary results of an Inspector Generals test leaked to the press. The igs test were fairly discrete. Just 70 tests across eight airport. But the results were completely unsatisfactory. The american traveling public was entitled to know air travel is safe and as taxpayers they are getting what they paid for. To put artists in context Aviation Security involves layers of protection seen and unseen as was the case here our ig who is the of an insiders knowledge routinely conducts tests of various isolated part of the system. Without passing through all of that like the traveling public mustard. Nevertheless, upon receiving the preliminary results of the ig tabs, i immediately directed and tsa has undertaken a series of things that cant do today 10point plan to address the concerns raised. Many of these measures are already underway and address concerns raised by the ig test. One, i direct all federal security directors at every airport in the United States be briefed in detail on the Inspector Generals preliminary test results. This has been done. Too, i have directed back to basics training for every tsa officer in the country. Tsa will conduct training for all transportation Security Officers and supervisory personnel to an arm them of the specific owner abilities identified by the testing. Tsa is now implementing this in a phased and layered manner. The first phase began may 29 2015. We project alter you say officers will receive training by the end of september. Three, tsa has increased manual screening measures. Therefore since midjune day or introduced the use handheld metal detect errors in Security Check point across the country. For, we have increased the use of random explosive detect errors. This also went into effect in midjune. Five tsa is retesting reevaluating the type of screening equipment that was tested by the ig across the United States to ensure as expect it. Senior tsa officials deny ive met with the chief executive officer of the manufacturing equipment and the full support and cooperation in the effort. Six, longer term we are assessing the existing performance standards for the screening equipment and identifying areas where the operability of the acquit and can be enhanced. Southend, we have reevaluating the crack this is managed inclusion. Managed inclusion is the process at airports by which travelers are diverted from standard screening lanes to expedited screening lanes along with members of tsa precheck. Eight, we are revising tsa Standard Operating Procedures to address the vulnerabilities identified by the Inspector General. This includes the possible use of tsa supervisors to help resolve situations as screening checkpoints. As part of this on june 26 tsa began field testing Standard Operating Procedures at six airports. Lessons learned will be incorporated into played nationwide later this month. Nine, the Inspector General and tsa will continue when of covert testing to assess the effect of mass of these new actions. 10, i have appointed a tiger team at dhs in tsa officials to monitor implementation of measures. The team is already well underway with his work and Authority Given the status reports and book continued to do so every week. Finally, in addition to the 10point plan i want to take the opportunity to introduce our new tsa administrator confirmed by the senate on june 22. Retiring coast guard vice admiral and vice, didnt pete neffenger. At the second administrator, admiral james loy vice admiral neffenger will translate his maritime skills and experience to Aviation Security. Pete neffenger is one of the most Capable Military officers ive ever met. I know he will be a strong and effective leader of tsa. I salute him for stepping away from a distinguished and successful career in the coast guard cover retiree to civilian life in taking on this very demanding job serving his country. Pete, my charge to you is to be an energetic leader and not hesitate to think out of the box, rethink old assumptions encourage your people your subordinate to raise ideas and point of view and make hard choices when you have to. The 10point plan ive described here today is in reaction to the latest round of tests by an Inspector General and is not meant to be the all inclusive future of tsa. We must continually incomprehensibly reevaluate and reevaluate what is best for Aviation Security. We must question assumptions and never become comfortable or complacent when it comes to Aviation Security. You should also know in my personal the rankandfile of tsa sub with good and dedicated people who care about their important mission. They are ready to embrace you as their new leader and file your directives. Having said all that, admiral neffenger has already been sworn in officially. I would now like to take the opportunity to ceremonially swear in pete neffenger, the new tsa. Raise your right hand. I peter be neffenger do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the United States. That i will defend the constitution of the United States. They make against all enemies foreign and domestic. But i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. But i take this obligation freely. Without any mental reservation or corpus of invasion. And i will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office of which im about to enter. The duties of which im about to enter. So help me god. So help me god. Congratulations. [applause] mr. Administrator, over at du. All have to get used to that. Thats a new title for me. Thank you for being here. Thank you mr. Secretary for the privilege of serving in this position and for the honor of having you here with me. Thanks to all of my family and friends and my colleagues from the coast guard with me today and the ones who did the real work standing against the wall over there. It is really truly an honor and privilege to be here today and thank you for extending that honor to my family as well. Im really humbled by the president tries to make him trust in me and i look forward to serving this leadership position. I also thank you for your great leadership at dhs as well as personal support in advancing my nomination. A wiki debt of gratitude to frank taylor whos the acting administrator and really set up on the department of tsa needed leadership and did a superb job and its always good to follow somebody whos done great work. Thank you, frank. The men and women of tsa great to see from my transportation Security Officers. Its an honor to join the ranks and serve the American People and securing our nations Transportation Systems. You perform an incredibly important and Difficult Mission every day but disciplined performance cost of vigilance and sustain a high level of professional respect for the public we serve. I want you to know i have my full support and confidence in the Top Priorities to protect our nations Transportation Systems were people in commerce. This is the mission of tsa. The Security Organization every member of our team must focus on the mission. I will commit myself to ensuring we pursue our vision effective highperforming organization guided by using the multilayer Intelligence Driven approach. Most important i believe that the value of integrity, innovation and spirit. I ask each member to join me in committing to these core values. We commit ourselves to pull army duties with integrity, discipline and professionalism. This remains vitally important for two years after the attacks of 9 11 that terrorist groups and homegrown extremists are today the threat is more decentralized and complex than ever before. Todays terrorists have published an instruction manual and a call for people to use it. Most important to us enemies to Transportation Systems as targets particularly aviation. Thats a persistent, growing and most pressing challenge. And ms. Continually try to defeat us that we must innovate to defeat them in each member must approach every task with integrity and team spirit demands above all else. Too bad and ill insert each of us a tsa Headquarters Service that supports the officers come inspectors, marshals, employees and private sector partners on the front lines of tsa each and every day. I talked with quite a few officers in preparation of the job and they told me how much they care about the mission in a batsman to support them in accomplishing the mission. Ive heard them and ive heard you ive heard he appeared at wilshire officers are trained, developed and supported that our culture and morale are a direct result of consistent bond trading, recognition and accountability and i will work hard to deliver on these for tsa in all of you. We try to continue to focus on security to build a culture of adaptation and constantly with the plans and processes to field new performance standards and capabilities. Finally with an Effective Security system and sustain confidence of the public are disciplined performance and professionalism very tough mission for taking the and preserving liberties we cherish our task. I am confident in our ability to succeed. We will make the necessary changes. We will reassess old assumptions and make tough choices that our commission demands. Thank you her confidence and great support of tsa and thank you again for being here today. Im honored by your presence and i wish you all a great day. Thank you. [applause] the president is here. Weve got time for a few questions if anyone is inclined to ask one. I see the hands going up. Yes, sir. Right here. I like to take the opportunity to ask about an arch in a situation of the woman killed in San Francisco and she was killed allegedly by somebody who had been given sanctuary by the city of San Francisco. Talk about to what extent sanctuary economics it difficult for Homeland Security to secure the nations borders and prevent criminals from being on the streets. Let me answer this way. First of all, the death of this young woman in San Francisco is a tragedy, a real tragedy. The alleged killer has been apprehended as you know and in my view, this type of situation highlights the importance of the direction where we are headed. Direct or saldana and i who is sitting right here wants to focus on removing deporting criminals, convicting criminals than we want to demonstrate to Law Enforcement the importance and effectiveness of our new Priority Enforcement Program. This is a program we announced in november to replace the old security Communities Program. A lot of local jurisdictions were resisting cooperating with secure Communities Program which is enough for to get out of criminals who are behind bars so that they can be deported if they are undocumented here. The program has become controversial. Weve replaced it with a new Priority Enforcement Program and sarah and i and others, the deputy secretary and i have gone around the country including california talking to state and local officials about the new program and how the new program will promote bond enforcement. It will promote and facilitate our ability to get out the threats to Public Safety who are behind bars so when we go to a local jurisdiction and say you have an undocumented senior jail his dangerous. Cooperate with us to hand them over to us. That will happen more and more. Unfortunately a lot of jurisdictions have resisted that around the country with the old program that was at the new program in place which i believe because the political and legal obstacles and objections that have been arising. We are headed in the direction where we want to work more effectively with state and local jurisdictions to get at people who are threats to Public Safety undocumented who we should be focusing research be focusing researches on deporting. That is my overall observation. We are headed in that direction and everyday we take a step in that direction. Yes, sir, in the back. Reassembly [inaudible] do you believe we are too far away also organized to ensure the border and combating criminals . Wouldve a great working relationship with our mexican Homeland Security Border Security bomb for cement counterpart. A very important relationship to me and other officials of this department and our government. Ive been pleased by the level of cooperation weve seen in my time in office and the secretary i hope and expect that will continue. Time for one more question. Yes, maam. Right here. [inaudible] [inaudible] looking at this right now we want to arrive at the appropriate balance in a thoughtful way and we are in the midst of that review right now as i mentioned in my remarks. I do believe that this is an issue that should be studied. As we have progressed with tsa precheck which is a terrific row graham, we have seen longer and longer short lines. So why a vast tsa to take a good look at whether we have the right approach in that regard and they are doing that right now. Okay, thanks a lot, everybody. In 1961 i never wouldve imagined that in one year this past year, much education and information sharing could be so accomplished. Not only the u. S. But throughout the world, because its been we have been heard. This 2015 conference on aging has maximized the opportunity for interaction between the professionals in our programs and the people that we are hoping to be increasingly more involved and active. Certainly the younger generations, the thousands and thousands of baby boomers are going to be coming into our in scope and going to be looking to us to have shape that period of time in their lives that they will be proud to have participated. Well, thats enough information just background. [laughter] you know far more than i whats going on today. Its time that we get to work. So its my honor distinct honor, today to introduce the Senior Advisor to the president barack obama valerie jarrett. [applause] and that was wonderful. Thank you so much. Were going to help you get down. Spin im really not just bad often. [laughter] hardly, hardly. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. What a pleasure it is to welcome you to the white house. And thank you for the a terrific opening. Your leadership and your dedication and your spirit at the ripe young age of 93 is something we should all emulate so thank you. Lets have another round of applause. [applause] you have and continue to inspire generations. I am thrilled to look around and see so many friends in the audience. Of course, like to recognize congressman engel and congresswoman engel who are here today. Thank you so much. [applause] true champions both of them for the issue is were going to be discussing. And to all of you who here today, welcome to the white house. You are joining us during a pretty exciting year i have to say. Weve already made a great deal of progress in 2015 but as we know this is also a year of some rather important landmarks. Medicare and medicaid are 50 years old. Around applause for that. [applause] and Social Security just turned 80 a rather important landmark. [applause] these three programs truly symbolize who we are, and to reflect our countrys values. They reflect the fact that we are our brothers keeper. We are our sisters keeper and we understand that were all in this together and that we important have a responsibility to each other. And because of our steadfast commitment to these programs, americas leading longer and healthier lives. And as we recognize that americans are regularly living 2030 is beyond the traditional retirement age, we must reshape what it means to age in america. And weve you are changing demographics as an opportunity and not a burden. Older americans like all of us want to be defined by our abilities and not by our disabilities. Thats why president obama and his entire administration has consistently worked to ensure all americans are able to look forward to healthy secure, and fulfilling lives after they retire. Thanks to the Affordable Care act, seniors are saving a fortune on prescription drug. Are taking advantage of free prevented benefits in higher numbers than ever before and we are prohibiting Insurance Companies from denying coverage to people because of preexisting conditions. And thanks to the United States supreme court, aca is here to stay. [applause] president obama is also working to strengthen Older Americans Financial Security and to reinforce the basic american contact that hard work should be rewarded with the dignity and stability in retirement or in the case of disability. We are also working to protect Social Security and reject all calls to privatize it. Amen. A man. [applause] the future of hardworking americans should not be dependent upon the fluctuations of the stock market. Today we look forward to exploring future strategies for how we best empower all americans as our population ages. And as Older Americans continue to live fuller, healthier, and more vibrant lives as bernie demonstrates. It is Conference Provides a final opportunity for leaders and advocates and experts from around the country to share best practices, and identify those individuals and collective goals for the next 10 years. I learned firsthand from my mother, barbara, a vibrant and independent 86 year old mom, who has no plans to stop working anytime soon by the way the potential of our elders as we provide them the support they need to lead full and productive lives. This is a very important day for the playstation, and for all of you, for the future of our country. We hope this conversation will move our country forward and the older generation upon whose shoulders we stand will be able to look towards a brighter future. This years conference is the most exclusive in history and increases in history. We are beginning to join we will be joined today by 600 watch parties around the country watching online and engaging with us and we want of a broad engagement because we want everyone to participate and what other solutions and suggestions that we have that we can put in place both immediately, over the medium and the longterm. We welcome all of you who are here today and everybody who is doing an online. Your vices will be heard as well. We hope today will be a productive energetic session as bernie also said. So thank you very much for being with us. Thank you for everything youve done that has led us updated at the very importantly thank you for the very hard work that we will engage in it together going forward. So now i would like to turn over our first panel to a tremendous acting talent and an advocate, david pearce, who will moderate our first panel. David hyde pierce, come on up. [applause] good morning. Good morning. I am honored to be in this building and on this panel. I 56 years old and did ask to be part of the conference on aging is slightly bracing. But on the other hand, i was in leesburg virginia two days ago buying a bottle of want to first time in 20 years i was carded, so the lord giveth and the lord taketh away. But it made me think about how we define ourselves and how some of these words that we use become fixed and calcified, including words like aging and caregiving. I think we need to shake up some of these definitions. Something thats been happening in this country i feel this bad weve been able to recognize and see beyond and in some cases take down the barriers and the divisions that weve sometimes artificially created between ourselves. I think these words, aging and caregiving, are two of those words. They almost come wearing cozy sweaters and leaning on a walker. I think we all have had very different experiences of those words. My familys experience with caregiving came under the shadow of my grandfather and my dads alzheimers and dementia. Theyre both diagnosed in their 80s but the burden and the honor of caring for them was shared by many generations. My grandparents, my parents, my siblings and even their children. And even the role of caregiving my grandmother and my mom were their primary caregivers for their spouses, and the toll, the physical toll on their health ultimately made it very difficult to separate the sufferer from the person who was caring for the sufferer. We feel like alzheimers took all four of them. So theres definitions become very fluid and i think my hope is that this amazing panel that we have here today, their different perspectives will help shake up our calcified definitions and remind us that to age is to live, and to care is to be human. So let me introduce this wonderful panel. Starting at the far end secretary robert mcdonald. Robert is the sector of the is department of veterans affairs, a position he has held since july 2014. He prayed served as chairman, president and ceo of procter gamble. Next is the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and codirector of the kerry across the generations campaign. Shes been organizing immigrant women workers since 96 and in response to the growing call for caregivers in the home she helped launch carrying a cross generations to address two of the major social issues of our time to widespread unemployment and the need for care of the nations expanding aging population. In 2015 she published a book the age of dignity. Next up is Frank Fernandez who serve as Vice President of Government Programs and president and chief executive officer of blue cross for blue cross and blue shield of minnesota where his role focuses on blue cross medicare, medicaid and the federal employee programs. He was elected president and ceo of blue cross and 2010. Harry leiter is a general internist with over 20 Years Experience as a Physician Executive and the pride of organizations and purpose of the chief medical officer and group Vice President of walgreens your is responsible ensuring enterprisewide health and while this service and outcomes are provide custom about and improved patient lives. And, finally, sitting right next to me this britney for and. Shes a 30 yearold chemist, works fulltime at a chemical plant, she received her bachelors degree at grambling state university. She is also a single mother of a two year old and a primary caregiver for her 90 year old dad, a veteran with alzheimers and dementia. And she lives in shreveport louisiana, so please help me welcome our distinguished panel. [applause] sir, let me start with secretary mcdonald. I served on a panel a few weeks ago where it was a very moving interview with the woman whose husband as a veteran and she spoke a lot about the services at about the services at the Veterans Administration provided and i just wonder if you could tell us about how to be a Caregivers Support Program fits in with all the work going on at the Veterans Administration to support veterans . Thank you, david. And thank you for moderating this important panel. If you think about the veterans, the department of veterans affairs, we are the largest integrated Health Network in the country. And as a result we tend to be the canary in a coal mine for medical issues for the United States. And aging is no different. If you think back to the crisis that occurred for the va in 2014, most americans would think that was because weve been fighting a war in afghanistan and rac for over 14 years. The reality is that aging of the veteran population was one of the primary if not the primary reasons for that crisis. The year i graduate from west point in 1975 we had about two main veterans that were over the age of 65. In 2017 will have 10 million veterans over the age of 65. And quintupling of the number of veterans over the age of 65 means that our number of disability claims has gone up by 50 in a very short period of time. And it also means the number of items per claim, in other words, a number of chronic illnesses occurring has more than doubled. So this has put tremendous stress on our system and a system which went to build capacity. Obviously, as veterans age the need for caregivers dramatically increases. So what are we doing for caregivers . First were providing support and education. We have things like webinars workshops, facetoface training telephone training. Since being a caregiver can lead to isolation we also have peer support programs which are very important to linking caregivers and also identifying best practices. Secondly weve opened a National Caregivers support line. Its a phone line in 2011. The number in case any of you would ever need it is 18552603274. 18552603274. There is licensed social workers will answer the phone and provided counseling and information for caregivers. To date weve had over 190,000 calls and we provided 33,000 referrals. Third, we have a program theres an acronym for it many things that the and in government have acronyms its called reach. It stands for resources for all caregivers health. Its an evidencebased Clinical Evaluation Program used to teach caregivers of veterans with dementia problems how to solve problems and how to get things done. As part of a national alzheimers project act the works with the Indian Health services as well to assess whether r. E. A. C. H. Interventions are effective and can also be the needs of those in tribal communities. Theres a Fourth Program its called may be a communities and this is a very recent one. Were just establishing may be a communities around the country. This is an opportunity to bring together local veterans, better support groups, service providers, caregivers and advocates through Community Driven networks that weve established, and these are cheered by local leaders not my va employees, to bring people together to talk about common issues and make sure we are applying the right resources chaired to get these issues resolve. We have launched the first of these this month and we hope to have a deep by the end of the summer and over 100 by the end of the year. I can think of no more Important Group that we can care for in the va and the caregivers. No more generous group, no more kind of group. And we are working hard to do that and to share our knowledge with others. Thank you david. [applause] thats fantastic. And its true the reach of the work goes far beyond veterans. We are all taking advantage of what youre learning and exporting it to the wider committee, so thanks for that. Okay britney. So as we said you are a mother of a small child and you are taking care of of dementia. Thats the definition of the sandwich definition by the way caught in the middle. Im just wondering what it was like come with a diagnosis and theand aprocess for dealing with your dad was like and what your daily life is like . My daily did it come on . Okay, sorry. My daily life is very difficult time balancing a 12 hour work shift, also a very, very, very energetic two year old [laughter] and my dad who can be stubborn at times because hes so used to being independent its very difficult. For our medical appointments. That are prescription general things like Grocery Shopping even going to the bank. It has been very difficult for me but he is my father and hes been a great father so i do it. [applause] are you pretty much on your own handling this . Dirty much. My mom helps when she can but shes also suffering from arthritis. So she helps when she can but its dirty much of me. How old is your mom . My mom is 62. Youre going to get me killed. No, no, no. No, im not. And so how personal, how is she holding up under this . I know for a spouse they can be very traumatic. How issue holding up under her husbands illness . Shes doing pretty well. I help him and her, so its really difficult but we get through it. Shes doing pretty good, pretty good. And finally i have to ask here you are, thank you, its amazing you are here. Who is taking care of the fort . How did you manage this . My mom has my son now youre my mom and my brother is helping as well, and i was conveniently off work for the next couple of days so that was easy. [laughter] great. We are lucky to have you. Thanks. [applause] a question for Frank Fernandez. Frankly, minnesota is amazing. Its really a role model in terms of what its been doing. Its in the forefront of care and taking to care of people, especially with alzheimers and dementia and. Youve made Great Strides in minnesota as with Dementia Friendly Communities Initiative and is wondering how the program works, whether its a program that would work elsewhere and could be exported, and also because its such a Diverse Community that you have in minnesota, whether that enters into how these communities are formed and what part of the process that is. Thank you for the question. As david said at the heart of whats going on in minnesota, the dementia Friendly Communities. These are critical in terms of supporting People Living with dementia and their caregivers. They ensured that those expressing dementia can continue to live in the community but not just live but to thrive and to continue to be part of the community. And do the things that britnee was taught to but in terms of being able to continue to go to the Grocery Store or go to the bank. In minnesota to act on alzheimers collaborative has developed tools and resources and a kindred Engagement Process that includes Technical Support that is fostering 30 for dementia Friendly Communities in every region of the state. Those communities are rural urban, suburban as well as communities of interest that are often more highly impacted by the disease such as the Africanamerican Community and the latino community. The Dementia Friendly Community is informed, safe and respectful of individuals with dementia and their families and caregivers. Provides options and fosters a high quality of life. The resources that are being developed provide a process tool and National International dementia friendly practices that help communities convene stakeholders from all sectors of the community. Such as Law Enforcement, government businesses, legal and Financial Service providers, government and health care and faith communities. And these very different segments of the Work Together to develop dementia friendly practices. And, in fact david to your point, the exciting part about being here today is that its a great pleasure to share with you that theres a huge desire to replicate an excellent this work across the country. And so its my great pleasure ibm to announce the launch of a National Effort called dementia friendly america. And initiative is a collaboration of nearly 50 organizations with a shared goal of supporting dementia Friendly Communities across the United States. We are going to pilot a teen dementia Friendly Communities across the country in 2016 with the hope of ultimately supporting any willing Community Across the country. At this point in time there are six communities ranging from rural and metro communities come and including cities counties, and even ended our state. So the communities that are leading this effort right now our Denver Colorado knoxville, tennessee, tempe, arizona, Santa Clara County california, prince georges county, maryland, and the entire state of west virginia. And so we are so proud to share this information with you today. We are really excited and we want all of you who are working to make an impact on this disease join us and be part of the effort. I did what at all but about what youre talking about david in terms of the communities who, unfortunately, suffer disproportionately from the disease. We have been working really hard in minnesota to ensure that we are paying attention to those cultural differences whether they are linguistic or other issues that create barriers to seeking care and so forth. Weve added Health Equity subcommittee in place and weve been working on some of the basic things translating information, but of the ways in which we can make sure that the communities are traditionally underserved have access to the tools and support that are necessary in order to be successful in caregiving. Thank you. [applause] its fantastic, it all boils down in a weird way to one word, which is awareness. Wendys communities are made aware, when Law Enforcement is made aware, when they are made aware of what the issues are what the possibilities are competent as the whole country is made aware of what we can do that its possible of between what you guys at the va are doing and minnesota veterans, as extraordinary. Thats what all this is as well raising awareness. Going back to the salvation of the categories and names we tend to think of caregivers as being they are either family members are paid professionals. Is that right can make that distinction, or do you see people in both roles or do you see that the combination of those roles that can be had . What is your sort of vision or pressure book called aging with dignity and how does that include caregivers speak with i actually think, david the first former the former first lady Bassam Carter said as. People who are caregivers or will be caregivers, and people who need care or will need care. And many of us experienced those identities in overlapping ways and even within caregivers there are many family caregivers who become official caregivers, and most professional caregivers also have families who they are caring for. And thats just the truth of it, that we are a caregiving nation. We are a nation of caregivers, even as we speak to our 50 million of us who are either karen s. Family caregivers are as professional caregivers for our growing, aging population for people with disabilities. And those numbers are going to double by the year 2050. And so the challenge and also the opportunity ahead for us is really to put into place assistance to really support and value our caregivers, both our family caregivers and our professional caregivers. And just a word about the professional caregiving workforce, this is a workforce whose job it is to support the dignity of the people we love every day. And they do it with incredible skill, incredible patience, hard work and the average annual Median Income for home caregiver in this country is 13000 per year. This is to care for the most precious people in our lives who have cared for us. And so when we look at the future of caregiving and the opportunity i had to put into place a whole new system to support our families and to support living well across generations, it has to we value care, and particularly support goodquality caregiving jobs so that we can have a sustainable strong, vibrant, diverse and dynamic caregiving workforce for the 21st century to support come to be a part of that care force for the future were going to need in this country to live well. [applause] , i keep hoping that capitalism will catch up with they need, because these people come weve all had the experience when you find someone who is so dedicated and who work for so little. The people who last as these professional caregivers of people with the biggest hearts and the strongest backs, and, right . The best caregivers in this field, so important. So true. All right. Harry, walgreens is everywhere. It has thousands of stores with a presence in every Community Just about in every state. So how do such a big and powerful organization played a role in supporting not just Older Americans health but also the health of caregivers . Well, david, thank you for the opportunity. I do want to thank the white house for the opportunity to participate. Before and to your question caregiving has certainly touched my family this year as i watched my wife a struggle to support to elderly parents with dementia. So its an honor to be part of the dialogue today, so thank you. I think the way that we support caregivers in particular seniors, is based on three factors that provide this unique opportunity. The first is really around convenience. As you mentioned we are everywhere. We have over 8300 Walgreens Stores across the country, and theres a really interesting statistics about convenience. About 67 of americans live within three miles of the walgreens. So when youre a caregiver britnee, like you when you get a prescription filled and you need someth