Man cannot do it all, his staff needs to be on board, is inspirational. I want to make a note on some of the senator carper i would like to listen to you for the rest of the morning, but i would like for you to hold it right there then we will come back to you in the second round. One of the things that attracted to me to a program was the guy who developed that and implemented it in delaware was from ohio state. It came out of columbus, ohio. It worked pretty well. Mr. Dillard, same question. One great example. Piper has given us one, give us one as well. Mr. Dillard i feel like the work is on the offenders themselves. When i met a lifer who rated difference in my life, throughout my prison sentence i realized how the older inmates tried to encourage the younger ones. I still feel like you cannot leave formerly incarcerated citizens out of the equation. Mr. Ofer i will give two quick examples. There are states that have reduced the risk of solitary confinement without the risk to staff and to inmates. In colorado, 2011 placed 7 of its incarcerated population in solitary confinement. In 2011, colorado place solitary confinement at 7 . Today, its about 1 . We have seen a dramatic decrease in the use of solitary by banning the use of solitary against people with Mental Illness. The second example is bail reform. What weve done in new jersey and what other states are looking at we had 10,000 people sit in jail awaiting their trial because they cannot afford a few thousand dollars in bail. We have completely revamped that system. Now, your bail is determined by your Risk Assessment and not whether you are a poor or rich. That change will lead to three quarters of the 10,000 fewer people sitting in jail. Before this reform, the average time a person sat in jail awaiting their trial with 314 days. People presumed innocent until Proven Guilty being treated like guilty. This is a phenomenon all over the country. This is one of the ways we can dramatically reduce our jail population in the United States. Senator carper i talked about moral imperative we have in this country we also have a fiscal imperative. The deficit is still substantial. Hence the need to find out what is working, do more of that, find out what is not working and do less of that. You mentioned my name i said that jails we jail people to punish and to deter. I also fully mentioned the Mission Statement of the bureau of prisons, to ensure defenders are actively participant programs that will assist them in becoming lawabiding citizens when they returned our communities. I strongly hope that our goal is they are human repair shops. Senator booker. Senator booker solitary confinement can you please describe this . Ive had these conversations with friends and others people think solitary confinement as a result of someone doing something wrong in prison. Why is solitary confinement so commonplace . Prisoners are doing things wrong in prison . Mr. Oder youve seen a dramatic increase in the use of reliance and reliance on solitary we do a terrible job tracking, but there is consensus that it is used in response to overcrowding. Prison officials are overwhelmed and they are sending people to the hole. We have examples from new jersey, around the country of people being sent to solitary for things like talking back. At a new jersey state prison in trenton, an inmate in 2013 was a clerk at the library and he wanted to leave the library to go bring some legal papers to one of the other inmates. A corrections officer said you cannot leave. The facts here are disputed, but the worst facts mr. Washington said mother fer to the corrections officer. What was the punishment . 90 days in solitary confinement. Those are examples we see all across the nation. Senator booker we know the people are being sent to solitary for many different reasons. Some of them have to do with administrative issues and the like. Does it work in terms of affecting the behavior of is there any productive value in the bureau . Mr. Oder some people are sent to solitary for administrator reasons. That is a loaded term. The bureau of prisons and other prisons commonly call solitary administrative segregation. It sounds harmless but it is solitary. People are sent there for really minor reasons. Some reasons are for protective custody. The Lgbt Community faces harassment from other inmates. They will be sent to involuntary protective custody to protect them from inmate violence, yet they are being punished. We see this happening all the time. The bureau of prisons, according to you asked if it actually works. There was an independent review that was released to the public in february of this year by cna that looked at solitary practices in our federal prisons and look at this question does inmate behavior change following solitary . Their response was absolutely no. Senator booker can we have that report in the record . I want to say that not only lesbian and gay, but transgender mr. Oder the report, it looked at the disciplinary record 12 months before being sent to solitary and 12 months after coming out of solitary. We found virtually no change whatsoever. Senator booker lets get to the consensus of medical experts. What is the damage, the trauma the effect on an individual being in solitary confinement . Ive talked to numerous inmates who have experienced that length of more what is the damage done to someone in general and someone who already has a Mental Health challenge . Mr. Oder to use an example that is contemporary i think of Climate Change. There are certain people who deny the science. There is consensus in the Scientific Community. A consensus about Climate Change and consensus senator booker please dont talk about Climate Change. Mr. Oder there is consensus in the Scientific Community about the harms of solitary confinement. It exacerbates the preexisting conditions. Mental illness that existed before is exacerbated. It produces Mental Illness and physical illness. Anxiety, depression, hypersensitivity to stimuli, bipolar disorder. The list is long and long and im happy to provide the committee with citations. Senator booker that would be helpful. I want to say its extraordinary that you are here with your testimony about what the experience of actual people behind bars that is extraordinary. I would like to drill down on something often not talked about, but whats happening as a result of overcrowding. Dan barry was converted into a low security mens facility. You were close to your family. Im wondering what impact does being in prison in close proximity to love ones has . If you could just hit on those issues really briefly. Ms. Kerman proximity to home, family and community is overwhelmingly important for both men and women confined to prison or jail. Senator booker the majority of women in prison have children. The majority of prison people are the number one breadwinners for the family. Ms. Kerman absolutely. Most of those mothers are the mothers have minor children. Who experience a seismic impact when their mothers are incarcerated because a lot of those moms are single moms. The opportunity to touch your children, to hold your children, to be reassured that their mother or parent is ok is incredibly important to parent and child. The opportunity to see your own parents or family members, to maintain ties to the community to which you will almost inevitably return. The vast majority of people in prison are coming home from prison. Those lifelines to the outside community are incredibly we cannot overstate how important they are. To Public Safety, to people safe return home when you cut those lifelines by making visits difficult by placing people far from their families or by making prisons inaccessible in other ways, by making phone calls exorbitantly expensive or many jokes have no contact visits through glass jails have no contact visits through glass those lifelines are cut and the person incarcerated is much less likely to have family support, safe and stable housing, access to networks which might help them gain employment, all of which are primary concerns for successful reentry. That is true whether you are talking about men or women. When we are talking about female prisoners, we know the three things that drive women plus involvement in crime and incarceration are Substance Abuse, Mental Illness and that overwhelming experience of violence. Sexual violence or physical violence. 80 or more in the system report that happening to them before they were incarcerated. The problem with incarceration prisons and jails are harsh places by design. Is that for prisoners who have experienced significant trauma like rape, childhood sexual abuse, Domestic Violence many of the commonplace correctional practices are very reminiscent of some of those abuses. That creates a serious, serious challenge in terms of regular engagement with female prisoners. In terms of their rehabilitation. Senator booker thank you for that. Senator johnson thank you, senator booker. We didnt lose bipartisan agreement. We by and large agree that there has been change. And vaccines work . Is that correct . Thank you, mr. Chairman. I was the attorney general in north dakota. Most of the Drug Task Forces were under my jurisdiction. It was at a time when there was a growing concern in 1992 with the drug problem and more and more Violent Crime as a result, we saw incarceration rates skyrocket because of desperation. I will tell you this we constantly treat the symptoms but never treat the disease. Thats where we are today talking about how do we treat the symptoms and not how do we treat the disease. I will tell you a story about a wise man i did a juvenile justice project. We made it easier to transfer kids into the adult system. I traveled around the state of north dakota with a prison warden. He was a very wise guy. You could interview every prisoner who came into the prison system and he would sit down and he would say tell me about your life. As we talked, they would say my parents were divorced at 11 and i went to live with my grandma. In his opinion, that prisoner was 11 years old emotionally. Thats where we get stuck. A lot of this is related to trauma, a lot of this is related to not understanding trauma and we exacerbate by not only not treating the trauma, but engaging in behaviors that further the trauma, whether its isolation from family, isolation from any human contact at all. Lets be honest about the task society has imposed upon the bureau of prisons. None of this should be any judgment on the bureau of prisons. We have given them an impossible task. They have to maintain some level of security. They are as desperate for solutions as what they can be talking about things that are way downstream. We are not here talking about things that are upstream. The juvenile Justice System is led by a lot of very enlightened people at the department of justice. It has begun a transformation into trauma informed and traumabased therapy. Looking at what we can do to treat trauma, how can we basically prevent a lot of abuse and a lot of abuses selfmedication. A lot of addiction is chemical i get it. A lot of it is selfmedicating for the trauma that has been experienced in peoples lives. I would like to know how we could design the system of prevention so that we do not see more people what would you like to see in communities that would prevent the kinds of outcomes that we are seeing right now in the bureau of prisons . Ms. Kerman there is a tremendous amount of recognition that Substance Abuse and Mental Health problems contribute to peoples bad choices and breaking the law. A significant commitment to handle those Health Problems in the Public Health system as often as possible rather than of the women you worked with and were incarcerated with, how many of them were given a choice of drug court or some kind of intermediate intervention . Ms. Kerman that is very rare in the federal system. Much more common in state systems or county systems. There is a program in new york called justice home where women facing at least a year of incarceration, when the District Attorney and judge are able to agree, they stay at home with their children and face a set of Accountability Measures but also get the Mental Health interventions, Substance Abuse interventions parenting classes, vocational training, what is very whatever is specific to their case to get better outcomes. In york, it costs 60,000 a year to incarcerate somebody. That Program Costs 17,000 a year. If we threw in the cost of foster care, the cost would amount to 129,000 a year. Mr. Dillard thank you for your observation. Trauma informed care is truly something that is needed if we are going to be preventive. I can use myself as an example of someone who had traumas at the age of 1213 years old. When i was diagnosed, i had been severely depressed most of my life. One reason i self medicated was Illegal Drugs had i been diagnosed, maybe i could have been given legal drugs and avoided the criminal Justice System. The fact is, we never look at the cause, we just look at the effect. Many, many, many of these women and men who ive encountered have tremendous traumas. We are working as a Pure Organization to help them work through that. To avoid Walking Around as hurting people because we know hurt people hurt people. If we do not address those early on, further down the road after recidivism, we are still going to be paying a much higher cost. Mr. Ofer i will give a perspective informed by the fact that i spend a lot of my time in newark, new jersey. A city that is plagued by poverty. In certain communities, there is violence. What i see in newark and a lot of urban areas across new jersey and across the country, the only Agency Available in that municipality to address social needs the agency primarily available is the Police Department. To me, that is the root cause of the problem. You have wellmeaning police officers, wellmeaning city officials that literally have no one else to go to if there is minor misbehavior happening on the street that is minor. I will criticize divergent programs. While they are certainly better than sending someone directly to jail or prison, my reaction is this person should not have been in the criminal Justice System in the first place. We need to build up the resources of municipalities and states to have other agencies to go to when they are interacting with people with Mental Illness or drug addiction problems. The stigmatization of that label is something you will carry the rest of your life. It will prevent you from getting Student Loans, from getting a job. It is with a great deal of care that we should ever take that next step because we are in fact relegating that person to a certain quality of life for the rest of their life. Especially given the age of the internet where we can find out anything about anyone. I wanted to make a broader point that we are here to talk about what we are going to do about high incarceration rates. We cannot look at this problem without looking at the broad scope of Services Provided and how we can work more effectively for prevention. Senator ayotte i want to thank all of you for being here. Like my colleague we were both attorneys general in our states. One of the things i have worked on as an ag was Reentry Programs. Im a strong supporter of the Second Chance act in supporting its real authorization. I saw it from attorney general context where even people who were incarcerated for serious crimes, we did not give them any path for success Going Forward because they came out, they had a Substance Abuse problem, the underlying issue was never dealt with, no job, no place to live put your self in those shoes then i dare say that all of us would not be able to put it back together. I saw that your focus is really on Reentry Programs. We saw it in our state get some momentum and then fizzle. I wanted to get your thoughts on reentry type programs and what more we could do to make them more effective to try to end this cycle and get people on to productive lives. Mr. Dillard reentry is a crucial point. If there is planning done and individuals are given different options. I know the federal system, six months in a Halfway House is something i went through that was beneficial to me. I was able to obtain employment and save some money. To be able to rent a room when i was done with my federal time. What i am saying today is young men are coming out of our state and county systems homeless. 17, 18 years old who cant live with their mother because they have been told you cannot go there because subsidies are connected to their housing and they are couch surfing with those who are not doing so well for the antisocials that had an influence in them being placed in the criminal Justice System. In the very first place. Housing initiatives are huge. We are working on solutions in the region im working in nonprofits and statebased organizations are engaging with us in providing housing and an affordable rate. Preparation is huge. Individuals have to identify certain things while in custody in order to have a paradigm shift that this cannot be an option. I had a client tell me that committing a new crime was not his first option. It was not his first choice, but it was his very last option. I know the troubling times he was in, sleeping on park benches, could not go to the shelter for various reasons. He committed a new crime. It was not his first choice, his very last option. The reentry process along with all the barriers, mentoring or connections with organizations that hire formerly incarcerated we are ambassadors. I look at us as being those who can help them through those trying times and pivot points of reentry. Mr. Ofer this is an oversight hearing on the bureau of prisons and the independent reviews that i keep referencing to look at this question of the bureau of prisons practices on Reentry Programming. Here is its finding in one sentence. There is no formal bureauwide Reentry Program. Inmates have limited access to Reentry Programming. The bureau does not do a good job in Reentry Programming. 2000 people a year in the federal bureau of prisons go from solitary back to Community Many of them dont know the exact number because the bureau does not track it come are sent directly from solitary back to communities. That is a terrible practice that needs to stop immediately. There needs to be a focus on Reentry Programming in the federal bureau of prisons. Senator ayotte thank you. I wanted to ask you, one of the things we are saying i saw this when i was ag as well. We are seeing on a devastating scale in our state, opioid and heroin addiction. Ive been working on legislation call to the comprehensive Addiction Recovery act. Im hoping we will take this issue up here i hope the Second Chance act there was some discussion you had about this idea of alternatives. What would you do as you think about this issue . How many people did you encounter that had addiction issues that were underlying why they were in prison . I fully agree we cannot arrest our way out of this. This is a Public Health crisis. Ms. Kerman thank you. Whats happening in New Hampshire is also happening in ohio and all over this country in terms of huge spikes in deaths from heroin. It is heartbreaking. Ms. Kerman it is devastating. It is fundamentally a Public Health question first and foremost. The intersections with the criminal Justice System should be secondary as we continue to see crime rates very low. Violent crime rates very low. People who sell drugs are breaking the law. Remembering that intervening in that addiction cycle is the most important thing and cannot be a couple with a jail cell. We see a lot of people trying lots of different things. I am not a doctor or an expert in addiction, but we see safe harbors in places like massachusetts. They have tried innovative approaches to getting folks the medical health they need and having that be the primary concern rather than incarceration. When we look at states like new york, new jersey, california the states that have reduced their prison populations the most and have simultaneously continued to enjoy huge declines one of the things we have seen in those states is a huge decline in prosecutions incarceration of people for lowlevel drug offenses. A recognition that those that public disorder is a reflection of the health problem. That is the way to tackle it. Senator baldwin. Senator baldwin thank you. First of all, i want to thank our panelists what a tremendous opportunity for us to hear from you and interact with you. I wanted to join the thanks for holding this hearing. Also to the Ranking Member as you said in the outset, this is a very big and very complex issue. I hope we will have additional opportunity im glad that you are recognizing this committees role in that discussion and i hope we can keep that up. Theres a number of things i wanted to touch on. I heard the Ranking Member talking about upholding the models in states that are working. I love to brag about my state, but in this case, im just going to share some of the statistics about Racial Disparities in the incarcerated population in our state. In wisconsin, africanamericans constitute 6 of the state population. 35 of those incarcerated in state prisons are africanamerican. According to a recent study from the university of wisconsin in milwaukee, 13 of wisconsins africanamerican men of working age were behind bars. Almost double the National Average of 6. 7 . The figures were particularly shocking and dismal for Milwaukee County were 50 of africanamerican men in their 30s had served time in prison. 45 of the inmates at our federal correctional facility are africanamerican and 9. 3 are hispanic. I hope as we continue to work on this complex issue that that will be on our minds. I just wanted to mention i previously i was never attorney general. I practiced law in a small general Practice Firm at the very beginning of my career. Mostly general practice. A couple of times, took misdemeanor public defender cases. I was becoming involved in county politics, statelevel legislative office at this time when i felt like i saw the precursors of what we are seeing now being debated. I had the honor of serving as chairwoman of the Corrections Committee in the state legislature for one term. I took our committee to prisons for tours, visits, conversations with people who work there, people who were inmates there. We had legislative hearings in the prisons, we went to the intake facility one of the minimumsecurity prisons, medium security prisons, womens prisons and visited work release facilities. The legislature was talking about should we allow private prisons to be built and run in wisconsin. Should we contract with other states to deal with our overflow issues and have them house are wisconsin prisoners . The counties were doing the same thing because some of the jails of the county level were overflowing. The substantive criminal justice debate at the time, three strikes youre out, limitation of elimination of parole. New crimes being created. There was a love debate about the elimination of prisonbased vocational programs, mandatory minimums were a big topic. There was a lot of debate. You could see all of this in the future. Now that feature has come and it is not going to be overnight that we figure out what missteps we had and how we deal with this in a saner way. I have a couple of questions im hoping you will be willing to submit some answers in writing. You mentioned that women are the fastestgrowing prison population right now. I remember years ago when i was visiting the womens prison in wisconsin, and seemed to me there were gender differences in how they dealt with certain issues. We talked a lot about solitary confinement. Is there a gender difference in how these issues are dealt with in womens prisons . For example i remember being , concerned about over medication of women to deal with behavioral issues as opposed to placement in solitary confinement. This is something we should still be looking at. Ms. Kerman we should absolutely be looking at these of solitary confinement in mens and womens prisons. I echo the testimony that solitary confinement is often used not for the most serious infractions like an assault but rather for very low level infractions. Women are overwhelmingly likely to be incarcerated for a nonViolent Crime and are very unlikely to use violence while they are incarcerated. Womens distilleries facilities do not struggle with violence. Solitary confinement is overwhelmingly used as a punitive measure. Female prisoners are disproportionately likely to suffer from Mental Illness. One of the tragic things that solitary confinement is that mentally ill people have a more difficult time following the rules of a prison. You ceasefire sanctions spiraling sanctions which land them in solitary confinement. A regularly healthy person placed in solitary confinement for 10 days, after 10 days will start to significantly terry deteriorate. Let alone a mentally will person. Mentally ill person. Let me ask a quick question about reentry. Access to vocational and educational programming. You can feel free to elaborate afterthefact in writing. I know i have such limited time. I recall the restriction of any sort of public funds for individualized Financial Aid assistance to those in state prisons because that was something i was looking at closely. I believe that has continued over time and we have additional restrictions once a person is back in the community, they want to seek additional vocational or Higher Education generally. It makes it possible for Financial Aid. You talked about people emerging burdened with debt not related to Higher Education. Tell me about the options for people to secure Post High School education upon release. Mr. Dillard ive seen more opportunities opening up for individuals post release. At one time, there was Student Loans im happy to hear that the pell grant is going on within the federal system. Im so happy to hear that because individuals prior to 1994 came out with Associates Degrees and went on to achieve bachelors and masters. The fact is, 98 of those who get a bachelors or higher degree never returned to prison. That is something we cannot ignore. We should support as far as Higher Education within the system. We do have a second panel. We could keep going on. This has been fascinating. I want to thank this panel we talked before hand, the purpose of every hearing is to define the problem and alter reality so we commit youve accomplished that goal bigtime. We have sold with fear of solitary confinement it might be good to pick one of those articles and hold another hearing. I was just going to get there. This is just a first of a series of hearings. We have a Mission Statement for this committee. Pretty simple to enhance the economic and National Security of america. This issue touches both. We have tried to find the areas of agreement. Weve seen that there is a great deal of bipartisan agreement that what we are going just does not work, not because of a lack of effort by our next panel of witnesses i encourage you and your organization to continue to press for this and work with those of us who want to solve this problem your points on solitary confinement are dead on and we need to fix that. Mr. Dillard, god bless you for having turned your life around and taking your circumstance and offering that to your fellow man to help other people find redemption. And ms. Kerman, your unintended celebrity, you have done an excellent job of raising these issues ive spoken to my staff i like your answer to the question in terms of what are alternatives. From my standpoint, a rigorous dose of community reparation, those types of programs, Community Service is the appropriate for people who have committed crimes we do need punishment and deterrence, but you just might heal in those programs and find that far more effective way of dealing with these issues than locking somebody up and seeing the results of women not working. I want to thank everybody here on this panel. I want to continue to work with you and numbers of the committee on bipartisan basis this is a first of a series of very important hearings. Thank you very much. I will call for the next panel. If you have time, i would love to have you stay and listen to our next panel as well. But you do not need to feel obligated to. It is the condition if you would rise and raise your right hand. These were the testimony you give before thi committee this committee will be the whole truth to help you got so help you god . Mr. Samuels as a director of the federal bureau of prisons and was appointed on december 21 2011. He previously served as assistant is the director of the Correctional Programs Division where he oversaw all inmate management and program functions. He was also responsible for enhancing agencies reentry initiatives. Mr. Samuels good morning. I thank you for your time and focus. Im pleased to discuss and operations of the federal bureau of prisons and on behalf of our very 9000 dedicated correctional workers across the country who are on the job 24 hours a day, seven days a week to support the bureaus Public Safety mission. We provide offenders programs to become lawabiding citizens. We protect society and reduce crime. We faced significant challenge. The bureau does not control the number of offenders into our the number of offenders who enter our system or the length of their stay. We are required to house all federal offenders sent to prison while maintaining Safety Security and effective Reentry Programs. We house offenders convicted in a variety of offenses. Many serving long sentences and many with extensive test drug offenders make up almost half of our population. In addition, we have many individuals convicted of weapons, sex and immigration offenses to include individuals convicted of international and domestic terrorism. The bureau is the largest clerk Corrections Agency in the nation. Our agency began to expand rapidly in the 1980s, due largely to the nations war on drugs. From 1980 to the present we , experienced and a full increase in the size of our inmate population. Crowding in federal prisons reached 40 systemwide and even higher at medium and highsecurity prisons were the more violent offenders reside. The tremendous growth of publishing outpaced staffing resources. Our ability to effectively supervise prisoners and provide inmate programs depends on having sufficient numbers of staff available at our prisons. Recently, population pressures abated slightly. 2014, we saw the first decline in inmate population in 34 years. We protect declines to continue for the next couple of years. Crowding will remain a challenge. Staff safety and the safety of the public and the defenders we and offenders we house is the highest priority. Every day, our staff puts the safety of the American People above their own communities secure. To keep communities secure. Two staffers were killed in line of duty Eric Williams was killed on figuring 25th and the on february 25 and the next day, another was murdered. These tragedies are powerful reminders of the brutal dangers our staff face. To enhance safety the bureau has , taken advantage of technology for contraband detection and perimeter security. We are requiring the use of protective vests. We increased our staffing and highsecurity institutions during evenings weekends and holidays. We have been proactive in addressing concerns regarding the use of restrictive housing since 2012, we substantially reduced the number of inmates in special management units less than 7 of population is in restrictive housing. Very few inmates are housed without another individual in the cell. Our focus is to ensure inmates are placed in richard of houses in restrictive housing for the right reasons and for the right amount of time. We created new secure Mental Health in his this units Mental Health units and i highlevel of supervision to protect them. We look forward to making additional reforms. We have a saying in the bureau that reentry begins the first day of incarceration. We review issues related to criminal behavior, including Substance Abuse, education and Mental Health. We offer numerous programs to target their needs and prepare them to transition successfully to their communities. Many of our programs have been proven to reduce recidivism. Such as the drug treatment program, vocational educational programs. We have programs for mentally ill offenders, including those with a history of trauma. We also have programs for offenders with cognitive and impairedness. We provide programs to help offenders deepen their spiritual faith. The bureau relies on a network of communitybased facilities, Residential Reentry Centers are Halfway Houses and home confinement. Community placement helps offenders readapt to the community insecure housing jobs, medical care and more. Chairman johnson, Ranking Member harper, members of the committee, this concludes my formal statement. Im proud of the work my staff does to keep americans safe. I thank you for your time and focus on the important issue of federal corrections. Our next witnesses michael horvitz. Michael horowitz. The Inspector General for the department of justice. The office of the Inspector General has identified special areas increasing safety and Security Risk for inmates and management of the passionate release program. Mr. Horrowitz the Justice Department faces two interrelated crises in managing the federal prison system. Prison costs continue to rise while federal prisons remain significantly overcrowded. In the era of tight budgets, this path is unsustainable. Since 2000, the bureau of prisons budget has nearly doubled. And now counts for 25 of the departments discretionary budget. The vop has more than any other component. Trailing only the fbi. Health care costs the bop a 61 increase since 2006. In a recent oig report, we found the number of inmates aged 55 and older increased by 25 from 20092013. By contrast, the competition of the population of inmates under age 50 decreased by 1 , including 29 decrease for under age 30. This demographic shift is notable because aging inmates cost more to incarcerate. Institutions lack appropriate Staffing Levels to address the needs of the aging inmate population. For example while social workers , are are qualified to assist aging inmates, we found that the physical infrastructure can not house adequately aging inmates and the bop has not conducted a nationwide review of their institutions since 1996. It does not provide programming opportunities addressing the needs of aging inmates. We also concluded that based on their lower rates of recidivism, certain aging inmates could be viable candidates for early release. A program that congress has authorized area however, authorized. However we found that in just , over one year following the attorney generals announcement of an elderly compassionate release program, the department is only released two elderly inmates pursuant to it. We found that be a Peace Program had been poorly managed and wasnt lamented inconsistently. The bop expanded their release program and has modestly increased number of inmates released under it. In our two thousand 11 review, in our 2011 review, the Departments International the department rejected 97 of transfer requests and transfer less than 1 of inmates to their home countries to complete their sentence. We concluded the department needed to make a number of improvements in the program, including ensuring that accurately determined whether inmates are eligible for the program and we are completing a followup to that report. Another area where costs have increased substantially is for private contractors, which is largely used to house inmates, many of the 40,000 nonus national inmates. The budget for contract facilities is over 1 million over 1 billion and the proportion of federal inmates housed in country prisons has increased from 2 in 1982 about 20 in 2013. In addition to addressing rising costs, the Department Must continue to address efforts to ensure the safety and security of staff and inmates. Prison overcrowding represents the most significant threat to safety and security of staff and inmates with federal prisons at 30 over rated capacity. In every one of its Agency Financial reports since 2006 the department has identified prison overcrowding as they as a programmatic material weakness. Yet, the problem remains unresolved today. In addition to overcrowding, the unlawful introduction of contraband presents a serious threat to safety and security. The unauthorized use of cell phones has proven to be a particularly significant risk. In the gao has reported that the number of cell phones confiscated more than doubled from 20082010. Additionally, sexual abuse in prison remains a serious safety and security issue. In addition, we recently reported on the permits efforts to implement and comply with the prison rape elimination act. Finally, a Significant Management challenge for the department has been measuring the success of its prison programs. An essential Building Block to achieving performance based management is having reliable data. An issue that has proven to be a challenge for the department and the bop. A conference of approach to the collection analysis an analysis of data of how programs are reducing incarceration rates, deterring crime and improving Public Safety will help the department focus its resources and make strategic investments. Thank you for the continued support for our work and i will be happy to answer any questions. Mr. Samuels, let me start with you. First of all i do , not envy your task. I want to thank you for your service. Which has been longstanding. According to your bio, you began as a correctional officer in march of 1988. We have all quoted statistics here that in the 1980s the prison population was 25000 and it is now over 200,000. Can you give us your perspective in terms of what all has happened, what you have witnessed over your career . Mr. Samuels thank you, senator. From my perspective, having joined the agency as a correctional officer in 1988 , around that time the euros the bureaus population was 60,000 when you look at the Bureau Prisons and go back to 1940s to 1980, the bureau population remained flat. In 1980, the primary target for discussion, we as an agency had 24,000 coming into the federal system. We had less than 9000 employees, 41 institutions and we were able to operate the entire bureau of prisons for 330 million. When you look at the increase in 1980 to 2013, we were at more than 800 as far as the growth of the population. Our staffing did not keep pace with that growth. With our mission, where we are tasked with anyone and ended anyone and everyone who is admitted and placed in the care of the bureau of prisons, we have a job to do, significant job. It takes staff to do the work that is required. From your perspective, you have been there what drove that dramatic increase in prison population . Mr. Samuels the war on drugs in the early 1980s had a significant drive on the growth of the population. As a result, having more offenders coming to the system. We have a longstanding practice within the euro of prisons the bureau of prisons going back to the 1930s that our reentry efforts are always in play and that is to ensure we are providing rehabilitation. But the challenges associated with what we have to do is we have to protect the inmates and the staff in our facilities. The driver has been the war on drugs. Has there been any legitimate increased due to a crackdown on Violent Crime . We just appropriately cracked down on that . We did not become a more criminal society. We are always arresting those people convicting and putting them in jail. Mr. Samuels in regards to violent offenses, the department through prosecutorial efforts, there is a mixture of individuals without violence and those with violence. It is safe to say that we have a very violent offense in a population to include a significant amount of gang members. We have more than 21,000 Security ThreatGroup Members who pose a significant threat to the public. Senator if we are talking about gang violence, is that also being driven by drugs . Mr. Samuels it can be driven by drugs. The gangs and those associated with that activity is part of the structure. Okay. Well, let me again strict with samuel. Is there a risk version there . Who wants to be responsible for releasing fort somebody in the public thats goin wg to commit another Violent Crime . My authority is very limited when you look at taking advantage at the various programs that are being you know referenced. We as an agency did thorough review and we determined as we were looking at the number of individual that is would meet the criteria we discovered there were 200 inmates in the bureau of prisons. They have to go farther and making sure. 200 inmates agency wide with the population 228,000 is a very small number. So were talking about early release, release foreign nationals, are you saying that the law or regulation is just written too restrictively and ill be asking you the same question . Weve expanded with the release program to medical to nonmedical. When we look at those cases when youre looking at the criteria being responsible for Public Safety, those individual individuals, with transfer program, we identified through the audit a problem there and we have since that time provided a number of training opportunities for staff as well as educating the inmate population on their rights under consideration for the program and we have seen an increase. However when we submit the application for consideration theres another process that makes place with the Department Working with the various countries who have agreements under the treaty transfer program to make determinations of when those individuals are removed. They would rather have the u. S. Bear the costs. Can you speak as to why some of these programs havent been utilized more fully . There are a couple of reasons, in many of them its not because of bop decision, its the way the program has been structured and restrictions have been placed on use. For n example, elderly release, 65 and older increase in that, use of that program if theres only two we find inmates being released under that program a year plus later why is that . In part of 4,000 plus inmates who are over age 65. They have to meet very strict criteria and both with regard to meeting criteria and as we found in the program and treaty transfer discretionary calls that have to be made. Let me ask, appropriatey strict criteria . Were we found we had concerns with the elderly provisions. For example requiring someone to serve a long period of time. What that meant was for inmates who were the least dangerous presumably had low sentences. They couldnt be released because they didnt serve long periods of times. Thats something that we should take a look at. I dont want to go too over time. Thank you chairman. I actually want to ask you about particular prison in my state thats important specially fci berlin. I wanted to ask what the staffing is in the facility. The facility was staffed at about 290 and 1200 individuals there. Can you give me an update on level and also what the ultimate goal is on capacity. Thank you senator. Right now with the plan for conditions we are working very closely w with staff. So we dont have more inmates in the facility and where very comfortable with the number of staff in the facility, and this hasty continue today progressed. There was a concern where the pool was not necessarily where we would like it. We continue to a good pool for hiring on the individuals. This is an area of our state where people are always looking for more jobs and so to get people from the area that have strong background, one of the issues thats been a challenge is the 37yearold age restriction and the bureau of prison actually reexamined this . But its important that they have an opportunity to live there. We do have the ability for individual who is are applying whoty served to make waiver, to grant waiver and weed are in the process of doing that. Thats good to know, hiring people fromat the community. I know theyre anxious and would like opportunities to work there as well as veterans. I appreciate you doing that. I think youll find that theyre a really dedicated group of people in the area, so thank you for that. I wanted to follow up on the prior panel. There was quite apr bit of discussion and and criticism actually, on the Reentry Program piece from the Bureau Program and the commitment to where we are when someone finishes their time which im interested because, you know, with rate it costs us allot financially and also to the individual to the quality of life that the person has an opportunity to set a new start. If theres not a good system in place for success i wanted to get you comments on this issue. Thank you again senator. I will say again that reentry is one of the most important parts of our mission. Along with safe and security of our facility. Its for all staff all the men and w women to have an active role in reentry effort. On any given day on the Bureau Prisons for educations we have more than 52,000 inmates who are participating in education. We have more than 12,000 individuals actively participating in our federal prisons program, which is our Largest Program in the bureau of prison. Those who participate are less likely to coming back to prison. Vocational training. For those who participate 30 . You are familiar with res idential drug abuse program. We have nine res we are adamant that they are provided to inmates to have them involve. Its safer to manage prison. We are definitely trying to do our part for reduction in this nation that we are taking the lead. For the number of individuals that come into the bureau of prisons, the men and women of the bureau of prisons do an amazingu job. When you look at the specific numbers relative for the federal system. We have 80 who do not return to the federal system. 80 . We have that 20 who eventually end up in state or local. We haveve always known that the over all is 40 . 20 that return to the bureau and the 20 that go into the state system. I would also add that when you look at the bureau of prison and theresha a study thats been done that for the state correctional system in 30plus, when you look at the overall its 67 . I t would still say that we have a lot of goal to do. The goal is to have 100 individuals never returning. As ive already stated for the record, the amount of growth that has occurred over the time period, we are very limited with our staffing. It does not remove us from the commitment to our mission. Ifin our staffing kept pace with the growth over the years, i do believe that i would be reporting that the 80 would have been purpose higher. I want to give the inspector an opportunity to comment and how are we doing on reentry and any work you have done on that. We are in the middle of a review of Reentry Program and use of reentry going to institutions to look at the programs, Education Programs because of the concerns we heard. I cant give you a report on it yet. I think we will have something later in the year. Thats a significant issue. Thats a significant safety issue. What you see first of all by most accounts, federal Staffing Ratio of inmate to staff is worst than many of the states systems, what they have. Thats been capacity theres a cascading of that. The director and staff have to pull people out of the program to do correctional works that they cant be doing all the other programs we are talking about. That, i think has lost time. If you understaff the prisons the t director has to first and foremost make sure the prisons are safe. I hope when you issue this report that youll also give us guidance are best models are. I think your recommendations on the pieceid of whats working best where we should invest would be really helpful. 10,000 out of 110,000 can you just quick describe both of you. It sounds like a very successful program. Why are arent more people engaged in it . I think we reached 45,000 prisoners every year. The 10,000 is in reference to the vocational program. We only have a limited number of opportunities that we could providemb based on the number of inmates in our system, and that goesba back to the crowding with increase crowding, you have waitingng lists in the federal prison system than any other system, and the goal is to try to push many of the inmates through and as we complete classes we bring more individuals in full participation. Thats generally what we are finding. Theres limited resources. Senator. I appreciate the fact that you visited in my office and took a lot of issues and concerns. You have done extraordinary steps. Im grateful that youre here today. It means a lot. I wantan to echo you are part of the Law Enforcement community and yourry officer put themselves at rick every single day to protect the nations and im grateful for sacrifices. We do have officer not just losing theirin lives but also officers who were injured often in a line of duty, and we as americans should recognize that. I would to talk to you really quicknt on confinement. Theres a bipartisan dialogue going on right now about putting real limitations on the use of solitary confinement. Thisou is an issue that effects thousands and thousands of children in america. This is aun very small amount. Ittt will surprise the people that wereop talking about matter of dozens. Children that are tried as adults that are housed in adults facilities and the contracts that you do with state facilities for juveniles as well. Do you think its feasible that we just eliminate solitary confinement or severely limited for children being very specific, fort instance, threehour limit and banning it really for administrative purposes. Is that something that yoube would see as feasible and something you would be supportive of . I believe thats for this issue. In the federal system we contract out the service. The expectation that we have with the Service Providers for us is that at any time theyre considering placing the juvenile in restrictive housing they are required to notice fie notify us immediately. In regardsso to your question with looking at the restrictions that could be considered, i would say that for our purposes regarding this that it would be something that itste definitely that should be concerned and looked at as a practice. If congress were to act on legislation on putting those severe limitations on the practice limitations of just a matter of hours, is that something that you would agree thatdi is feasible . Yes. I reallyco appreciate that and thats encouraging to the discussions going on right now. And frankly its a small population but doing on federal levelon will send signal to our country and its been done in some jurisdictions. You know its been harshly criticized. Theres a lot of data from a the medical community specifically and civil rights communities and human rights communities. A major 2013 report from gao found that the federal bureau of prisons didnt know whether use of solitary had impact. It was said in Previous Panel many people max out in solitary andgh by going into the public. I think these reports are kind of a wakeup call of the seriousness of this issue. Do you know people right now are in solitary confinement beyond 12 months, 24 months. Do you have that data . I can t provide the data for you. We do track those folks that are often stayed in solitary. Senato booker the bureau of prison we do not practice solitary confinement. In my written testimony our practices has always been when individuals are placed in restrictive housing we place them in a cell with another individual, our staff to make periodic rounds to check on the individuals. I also believe this is important im sorry, i just really need toti be clear on that. Your testimony to me is that the bop does not practice solitary confinement of individuals singularly in a confined area . Youry e correct. We only place an individual in a cell alone if we have good evidence to believe that the individualto could cause harm to another individual and or we have medical staff given the evaluation that it would be a benefit for the individual to be placed in a cell alone. We do not under any circumstances nor have we ever had a practice of places individuals in a cell alone. Thats a a astonishing to me. Theres not people that have been held for many, many months a lone in solitary confinements . Its not s. A practice, we have three forms shoes the majority of individuals throughout the country placed in restrictive housing. In the shoeld theyre not individually held . No, sir, on average amount of time thveat the individuals are spending again total is a little more than 65 days. Theres not an individual in a cell alone . That is not the practice in the the bureau of prisons. Never has been the practice. I hope there will be another round. Thank you what percentage of the i inmates that youre responsible for have been convictede of a federal crime Violent Crime in federal courts. Convicted of a federal crime . Violent. Violent crime. Approximately 5 . We have 5 violent and 95 nonviolent. I think the thing that people need to understand, which im not sure that people do, is that the 5 that committed Violent Crimes, you dont even have primary jurisdiction on most crimes in the federal system. I dont think people realize that the federal Law Enforcement system was not designed or ever intended to address what most people think of as crime in this country. It was originally intended because of the nature of them theyrn needed to be handled by the federal government. That would be Crimes Involving the drugs going from country to country, then eventually we started doing bank robbers and then wers started doing interstate kidnappings. Nothing was more whir at a irritating to me. Wend handled murders everyday. When there was a really high highprofile murder case, the fbi would start sniffing around. Frankly, in my opinion had much more expert expertise. Thats an as my question is, how many times have you been brought into the policy questions of who is being prosecuted in the federal system. Nobody calls an fbi with a 911 calls. They didnt call you they called us. The federal system used to pick. They get to decide who they this is not required. Are you ever called in to the policy discussions about the growth of federal Law Enforcement and massive amount of prosecution thats going on and the growth of the federal system because the decisions are being dictated by the department of justice. Are you ever consulted on any of those decisions . Senator, i i would offer that the bureau of prison when the discussions are taken place, we are brought in when needed but ive also would share that for any policy decision relative to who is being prosecuted, that remains with my colleagues in the department who will be more than anyone else regarding this issue capable of responding to that. Letset get into the stuff that you can do. Elderly defender program. The way you entered into some of the contracts you didnt specify home detention versus your detention, correct . In other words, what you did is you didnt you werent able no the pilot isnt this correct,en that they werent able to discern what a release versus thats correct. So youre notn in a position where you cant analyze home detention versus prison would be correct . Well, since that time once the finding we have been working to isolate those costs. How are you doingre that . We put together decisions and staff responsible for contracting oversighret to monitor. Okay. There was 784 of 855 applicants for elderly release program that were denied. 784 out of 855 were denied. Can you explain why they were denied that massive amount . These are all elderly these are not young people. I will take your concern back, but from the knowledge that i have regarding that many of those individuals it was dealing with the issue of being eligible based on criteria put in place. Who sets criteria . The criteria for the pilot . Who set it . That was established by congress. Were the ones that said if if its a lowlevel offender they couldnt go to the a program unless they served 15 months . The department was involved with the final determination but that was something that was done through conversations between department and members of congress. I would love to know who was in that conversation, if you would provide who was involved in the committee. If you have 95 of your population is nonviolent and youve got we know that rate for people over 65 and some where 23 . A rate that any Reentry Program or any Drug Court Program or any state court system would die for. That is an amazingly low rate. I do not understand how we cannot even, were turning 784 for a pilot program. It seems to me that the institution is being stubbornly stuck in a status quo. Stubbornly stuck in status quo. Im so excited that we have mass here somebody thats against i convinced the people in my community and the Police Department that a drug court was a taxpayer factory. The people who went into drug court were on welfare or stealing, they werent paying taxes and all the nonViolent Crimes were because they were drug addicted. It sprea d all over the country and the world because it worked so well. You know what i begged the federal government to participate in the program. I couldnt get them to send us the mules the girlfriend mules. Let me take your cases. Your lowlevel drug offender cases, wouldnt hear of it in the 90s. Ii hope we can all work together. Ive got some questions i would love i have some questions about contract, why in the world are we using a country on a gobetween as a prison contract ande also the criminal alien programs that half of them are immigratiolln cases. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I dont want to put words in your mouth i think were finding another area of agreement here. Young know, the federal government getting involved in something that from my standpoint better left with state and local governments. They are closer to it. They use a common sense approach. I think were seeing a lot of that here today. Not because good intentions, not because people are working hard and sacrificing but thats basically true. I want to be respectful of the witness time. Im grateful. I think were having semantic problems. Solitary confinement mean the state being confine today one cell for approximately 22 hours for day or more alone or with other prisoners. The solitary confinement period this is a common pract practice for the federal system. Inem the shoe, often prisoners in special management units its its common as well and the average stay in that is 277 days and in the administrative maximum prisons, this is a real problem, and more forgive me if my semantics were wrong. When i testified in 2012, at the time we had a little more than 4 00 inmates in colorado, less than onethird 1 of the entire population. Those individuals are placed in single cell and the majority of that population also when you look at their offenses 46 have been involved in some homicide again the reality is oklahoma if its homicide nonViolent Crimes. What are we getting for taxpayers for putting them in an environment where human rights folks consider torture. And so ex excuse me. This is nation that doesnt endorse torture or believe we should traumatize folks. Im coming with a datadriven approach. Just because i want toy stay on thego good side on the chairman, i am going to shift because i have questions that can last up to ten minutes and i dont think i can get that. So just real quick a real quick point, federal bureau of prison houses 14500 women the trauma upon children in those and primary care givers. Those are a lot of issues. In connecticut its an easy reach for visitors from the northeast. Thats going to be changed. The women are going to be moved to alabama to a facility there which is about 1,000 miles, a drive that takes over 16 hours. And so you know, why was the 500policy enacted in which which is a good thing, something i endorsed due to cost of travel, would you commit to revicing the rule to have a presumption of 75 miles if possible. Dodo you understand that . Isha there a chance to revice the rule . When we look atke the change we made every effort to try to make sure for fairness to those offenders who were living in New England States or resident, we had many who were from california texas what we tried to do that we moved those individuals who were not from that part of the country so they could be closer to their families we are taking care of the californians but there are a lot of those connections severed. That is very problem problematic. I dont want you to feel that i was ignoring you in this hearing. Are you concerned about the growth of the private prisons and what are accountable to the public because we have real issues with these contracts which total costing us 5 billion for taxpayers. 33,000bop were held in private facilities, that number has grown over 38,000. Im concerned about oversight and and then theres a lack of reporting information thats just i can get a lot of information easily from the prison that is are being runed by the director, but theres this unbelievable real offensive to me lack of information and data about our private prisons and what is going on there and so i wantis to last part of of that question and im done, wait for the answer, the abuse reports of immigrant detainees. Now i understand these folks are nonamerican citizens but they are human beings and the report of abuse at our private prisons are troubling thousands of men live in 200tenants in some of the facility that is house about 200 men. The facilities are described facilitiy infested, horrible smells constantly overflowing toilets. Im just wondering what steps are you taking for holding them accountable and lift a veil . We are taking several steps focusing on that particularly private prisons some of the reasons were concerned. Staffing you know they have riot. We had concerns about the practices, we made a variety of recommendations at that facility. We looking kansas prieft private prisons as well as bop monitoring private prisons because that is ant issue of concern as the spending has increased. Thats an issue of concern so were doing those reviews several of the contract prisons northeasthe correctional, ohio have all had riots. Why cant i or the public get the same kind of trance per transparency that we would look at prisons that why is more being done to be more transparent about . Thank youin senator booker, i will continue to work with you personally. We will continue to use this committee to highlight the issue and this ighs an important issue. I want to thankmp you for your services for the nation, thoughtful testimony. I think wure really did accomplish my primary goal. Im not saying that we have ready solutions. The hearing record remained open for 15 days. Submission of statements for the record. This meeting is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] becomes president after the assassination of william mckinley. To accommodate the family, renovates. She creates the office of the first lady and changes from executive mansion to the white house. Edith roosevelt on cspans original series. From marta washington to michelle obama. Sunday on cspan3. Starting in about 20 minutes political holds its playbook breakfast. Hell speak with mike alender after that david founder will join the conversation. We have it live at 8 00 a. M. Eastern here at cspan2. Its been several months since republicans janed the majority in the u. S. Senate. Well begin with senator john thune of secretary south dakota. This is 20 minutes. I have a number of my colleagues today many who share key committees in the congress. We want to talk about some of the things we have done in the last several done showing that back to work is more than a campaign slogan. Morethese bills collectively help strengthen the economy protect the most vulnerable among us and strengthen National Security. This year we worked to support military men and women and return education decisions to state and local school boards, give the American People a voice, iran negotiations for transportation, highway bill and we are recorded out all 12 appropriation bills out of the committee for the first time in six years. Senator republicans legislative process pretty much ground to a halt. Most people will agree. So far this year, republicans have allowed more than 165 amendment roll call votes. Both sides are having their voices heard. The senate has been able to past Significant Education reform bill. The bipartisan comprehensive reform legislation puts standards for those who know students best, parents teachers and school boards. Republicans are committed to continue to go move continue to go move an agenda. We have delivered real expert common sense results. We are going to continue to fight for prior priorities. Im going to start with senator hatch who is my chairman on the Senate Finance committee then followed by senator of energy committee, followed by senator mccain and senator in inhofe. Thank you. I have members of the Congress Members say, wonderful we can have amendments again. Likely we have have had a lot of amendments. The senate is back to order. Since the start of 114th congress we have made significant problem. Just last week the senate cleared a bipartisan multiyear highway bill to bring stability to americas highway system, tackle immigration reform, american National Security. Look at the work that were doing in the finance committee. We are assign the task to find the money. We were able to do that. A lot of people didnt think that could happen. We actually found more money than were using. 37 bipartisan bills. These are not just bills these are bipartisan bills. One of our greatest accomplishments enactment. Tpa. We empowered congress and the American People by setting clear priorities the Administration Must meet. Now t benefits of have been tpa back in the books we are seeing firsthand last week, when our negotiators made significant progress toward concluding the partnership, this very same tpa bill will enable to also enter into a trade agreements with 28 European Countries as well. These are significant things. Its being negotiated between the United States and countries across the asia pacific and promises to break down trade barr years barriers. We have to do these things right. Our negotiators know who they must achieve for my agreement to be approved by the congress. They have it very closely to their attention. By that, earlier in this session we pasted the chip bill again. It was very important bill. I had to work on the finance committee for str, we had to go through 18 different patches. This time we accomplished putting on the map as a permanent standing way of solving the fix and that has taken so much of our time in the last number of years. Now, i dont want to take anymore time but when you operate under regular order and you have an opportunity to making law its clear that you have an opportunity to do whats best for the country and an opportunity to do whats right for the country. I want to thank the leadership and the American People for giving this kind of authority and i think well just go from there. Thank you. Let me put that back on. [laughs] i have to do this for you. Let me get that on. I did. [laughs] when i take the mic, i take. Talks about return and regular order good things happen. Committees can work again, when committees are able to work, you get good product. We saw that out of the education committee. Not only worked a bill essentially a rewrite no child left behind in an area that has not been addressed for almost a decade in an area where there are complicated issues, but with good work and good results you get a good product. We moved that bill out of the committee 22 to nothing. Then through the process on the floor and we had seen energy excuse me, education reforms that this country desperately needs. In the energy commit yes we followed that model followed the model of working together. Last week we moved out of the committee a broadxri comprehensive bill taking ideas from members not only from the entire senate. A measure that will move our country forward in terms of policies as it relate to ellen g exports, we have worked and moved through some things that people said quite honestly that said we couldnt. Listing the export band. Moved through the committee and is being now keyed up to advance through the floor. Back to the committee of the session and it was the Keystone Pipeline bill that was the first measure of body. During the first week of regular order of that bill we took up more amendments, voted or more amended than we had in the entire legislative year prior. So we are back to work, we are allowing the committees to work, we are building legislation that is good for the country and good for governments. Senator mccain. In spite of total lack of leadership from senator [laughs] we on the Defense Authorization we on the Arms Services committee have been able to do some very sg nificant and significant ndda and generation we pasted passed in senate. We identified 10 billion. We reinvested those savings and better equipment. This year the committee has confirmed a new secretary defense, new chief of the army hosting committee meetings, americans top military leader will all agree that we face a world thats more dangerous since world war ii and we also brought republicans and democrats together. To Seek Development of strategy to defeat isil, now we are playing a significant role concerning the the iranian agreement. All this was done without any assistance from senator of south dakota. [laughs] thank you. I will, i will. First of all i come for a little bit of prejudice perspective. I read the oldworn out document that nobody pays attention to called the constitution. Thats what were supposed to be doing here. I got in the smitty committee with senator mccain. Republicans were the majority. At that time i was on the committee. We did the highway reauthorization bill and major highway reauthorization bill is very successful. By the time that expired a long term, like the one we are working on now the democrats took over. Now extensions, everyone knows everyone agrees, with an extension it takes 30 off the top. They cant do any kind of stream lining. They cant do any kind of large project because you cant start a bridge on a shortterm extension. We went through eight years of that. In january we became the majority again. I have talked to the house t leadership there and they are looking at our bill now. I am a freshman member of the Senate Appropriations committee. Pretty far down the line. I take up my roll on the Appropriations Committee very seriously and for the first time in six years, for the first time in sixers all 12 Appropriations Bills have been reported out of committee after ready for full committee consideration. We stayed within the budget and every single one of those. Nearly every single one of those Appropriations Bills was also bipartisan. I think this is good news for the American People as senator murkowski said. Good things happen when you work across the aisle and work together. But still democrats put forth a strategy i think to Keep Congress from working and moving us towards a government shutdown. But democrats have blocked the funding to equip the consideration of the funding our troops fighting overseas and to provide care for our military families at home earlier this you. Im sure senator mccain feels very strongly as i do about the wrongheadedness of that approach. I think our spending per is one of our greatest priority. So we are dedicated to keeping the government open and we still have a lot of hard work to do to get to that goal. Plan to get to that in september. The American People are being sent a clear message. They send us your to get things done and we are getting things done. Now we have a chance to debate the bill. Weve heard about the numbers of amendments weve been able to consider. Weve heard about the bipartisan efforts in all committees to salsa really difficult issues. So i would like to see that same spirit to be joined and have these appropriation Appropriations Bills considered have been debated and have them vote on. This is what we should be doing. Weve gotten it out of committee on a bipartisan basis to vote in committee, accusative total of 277. I look for to september with great debate. Questions for our cha