A discussion of military and civilian National Service programs, from the Brookings Institution, this is just over an hour. 30 seconds. 30 seconds was particularly effective. It is my happy duty to introduce and moderate the second panel. I will begin by introducing myself briefly. I am bill gault, senior fellow in the government studies program at brookings, delighted to be a small cog in the Service Share alliance. And two people in particular, mel sawhill conceding the stand working tirelessly for six months and also john allen, for letting his vast appearance and events moral authority to our enterprise this morning and i think it is a sign that brookings is spiritually aligned with the National Service movement. Let me introduce the question this way. If National Service is the answer, what is the question . And we have heard and i think will hear three very different kinds of answers to that question. It is useful to keep them secret. The first test to do with service as an avenue of personal growth, the expansion of character. The second has to do with actual goods done for others, service and the roots sense. The paper by john bridgeland and john dilulio begins with our broader challenges, with National Service as potential response to the challenge. A decline of mutual trust, the sorts of things called General Social trust and a precipitous rise in divisive partisanship. There is a difference in the party system and partisanship and sometime in the past two generations we cross that line and now find ourselves in an uncomfortable and unproductive place. And third is what i call the erosion solving mentality. The idea that elected officials, and problems with the public is identified, the solutions the public itself cannot specify and the job of Public Services to public ends into public means and i have personally been deeply impressed with the quality of iraq and afghanistan veterans who entered Public Service, they have this problem solving mentality and one of the questions is whether the National Service experience on the civilian side can replicate that kind of we are all in it together foxhole now. How do we find a way to prevail, how will that mentality spread . Or to put it in oldfashioned language it goes all the way back to william james, National Service the moral equivalent of war or is there no moral equivalent of war. We have a fantastic panel to help us address these questions. I will begin to my immediate left with john bridgeland, former director of the White House Policy Council under george w. Bush and currently serves as vice chair of the Service Year Alliance which you already heard and from whom you heard. And john dilulio junior is professor of politics, religion and Civil Society and professor of everything. John also has white house experience as the first director of the office of faithbased and Community Initiatives in 2001 which means they were colleagues, might have been expected. To their left is the director of Government Relations for the Service Year Alliance which means she is where the service year hits the political road which is an important nexus. Peter wehner is Vice President and senior fellow of the policy center and has experience ever speech writer and director of strategery and has a moral voice, few reflected more deeply than pete what it means to have a healthy society. And what our current bills are and whether they can be traced and he will offer some reflections from a distinctively and i would add faithbased perspective on National Service and without further a do, john bridgeland and john dilulio are going jointly to present their paper, will america embrace National Service. One note, there is a broad commitment to shared ideals and goals, we cant get carried away with ourselves. The empirical inquiry matters a lot. It is where we test the feasibility of the ideas we cherish and may have to change those ideas in some respects as a result of what honest inquiry discovers a model of honest inquiry, coauthors proud and associated with. We need packed houses for National Service on across america. I want to thank bill galston without whom america with susan stroud who i see in the back, alan casey, and in the life in the country when president clinton said invest in your country, we will invest in you, it was a galvanizing moment. The social genome product, a host of initiatives, if anything is behind what happens with National Service, now that you are conducting this. I want to thank john dilulio for the greatest years of my life and having the opportunity to serve sidebyside after 9 11. And seeing emergence from the country of people all over the globe wanting to make common cause and make a better country and world together is quite extraordinary. When i came in this morning i met doctor joseph hecht and that is that all . Know. I found that the medical reserve corps after 9 11 and that is the model of what we are trying to achieve for the viewing National Service or Citizen Service as fundamental and foundational. And Civic Education reminds me the people who found that our country, George Washington who we assume the folder did not lay down citizens on adam said to serve the country ends but when jefferson penned the notion of the pursuit of happiness it wasnt just an individual right but governor Duval Patrick reminds us, a collaborative enterprise, i cant be truly happy and not worry about the happiness of the neighbor or someone who is homeless or vulnerable or worried, the spirit of we the people, is the foundation over democracy, we have to rescue that spirit. Why now, why always for National Service, we are trying to do it justice. The first panel spoke so eloquently about our civic collapse but i grew up in cincinnati, ohio just a few doors down from a man named neil armstrong. This very shy reclusive man used to come over for dinner and i was at an impressionable age and he said the audacity of this young president to go to the well of the house to put a man on the moon within a decade and return him safely within ten years, we had no idea how to pull it off and yet 400,000 engineers around the country Work Together to make it happen. I remember being a 9yearold kid on a screened porch watching neil armstrong, can actually address i dont see why we dont have an opportunity in the country to take on education and conservation and poverty and a host of other issues to help address. It is interesting to note what we are doing, Robert Putnam wrote Better Together and the third call our kids. From a historical perspective, social code hes in and social fragmentation, political polarization, economic inequality and civic collapse work in virtual lockstep. If you look at trends from the gilded age through the 1960s, 70s and today, you see them moving to gather. Similar to how we view one another, how we view inequality economically and having a political, cultural and economic nervous breakdown in the country so we see the effect of lack of understanding of the constitution. There was this wonderful book called we hold these truths, the celebration of the declaration that says the highest office in the United States is not the presidency but citizen and we need to remind young people in the country that citizenship is really the wave of the future. I want to talk concretely. A number of audiences all over the country and stand the kristin comes back rallying the court, can we actually pull it off. And widespread public support among republicans, democrats, independents, and the earth conservation corps with a full kennedy and bob nixon and work with most vulnerable kids. And we brought kids from potomac, in the mixing efforts, and have the audacity to ask what politics are you . There were republicans, democrats and even a libertarian. There were christians, jews, muslims and the project they were working on was bringing our nation symbol back to the nations capital, bald eagles who fly over this beautiful landscape day in and day out because of the work of those National Service participants but i want to talk briefly can we bring this to scale and what do we learn from various channels . Interestingly in 1933 Franklin Roosevelt told congress to do an emergency session and by summer has 250,000 young unemployed men in the woods for the conservation corps and by the end of the program, 3 million served, 3 billion trees have been planted, 84 million acres of land had been saved which is the entire acreage of our National Park system today. When you talk to a spiritual experience it changed the trajectory for the rest of their lives and it was run by the u. S. Army and George Marshall organized the ccc camps since 1943, how we marry military, civilian and National Service together is compelling. The peace corps, the thought that we have us policy to send sons and daughters and mothers and grandmothers and grandfathers to remote areas across the world to meet needs in other countries was a bold experiment but with this memo to john kennedy in 1961, didnt want to create a federal program called peace corps, agencies at all levels and peace corps remains small because vision wasnt fulfilled and then came americorps rolling along which actually took that instinct to go to the strength of america to its Nonprofit Institutions in colleges and universities and to give support to those institutions and build the strength of Civil Society and those models are instructive if we think how to marry military, civilian and Public Service and how do we go to where the strength of country is today which is Civil Society. Over to brother d to talk about other elements including mandatory versus civilian National Service. Thanks. Some of you are wondering what these socks are. They are Philadelphia Eagles socks. Go birds. I feel your pain, redskins fans. Go gnats. Im not going to say anything, no comment but i want to thank bill sawhill for inviting me and it is an honor to be here with three dear old friends and bill galston, john virgil and the brilliant and bold peter wehner. You are the one here who is practicing what people is preaching for real so it is a special treat to meet you and be with you. Yield the balance of my time, to talk a little bit about aspects of will america embrace National Service report. It deals with Public Opinion and evidence on benefits of National Service so if you look at the polling data on National Service back to the creation of americorps from 1993 to the present, looking at all the surveys that have been done it is fair to say there is one overarching conclusion, two corollary findings and one caution. The overarching conclusion is most americans do support National Service, that is every demographic description and without regard part of the identification for ideological disposition. If it is voluntary. That is unpaid, not required by law or both and majorities tend to oppose it, mandatory or compulsory, required by law or enforced and administered by the government. One corollary is in favor majorities shrink if voluntary, government supported, by the way government has a nickel and a quarter, . 25 in the dollar, turns a bit. If it is mandatory or compulsory it goes down even more. There is no question the overall finding for National Service. Another corollary is most people believe that service, whether the service is National Community, paid or unpaid benefits the servers. People believe they develop skills and enhance civic responsibility. They believe it benefits the persons, organizations and communities where people served by supplying direct services or performing vital work in the community and benefits the Wider Society and elevate citizenship, helps to model a bridge for socioeconomic, political and other divides. There is one caution here and the caution is for all the polls that have been done, we have a relatively limited universe of polls and they are not all entirely well constructed, there is stratification and sampling issues, interpretation issues. If you compare the polling and survey research, to polling data and survey research on other nontop line issues like faithbased initiatives and so forth it is a relatively anemic survey literature. What is needed there is a tuneup and if youre interested in that, look up the appendix to our report and we have suggestions how to go about a relatively inexpensive good polls are expensive. You might be able to prove the Research Survey research. Let me turn to the benefits of National Service. We could probably fill this nice room at brookings with all the studies that have been done looking at the benefits of National Service and the vast majority of those just National Service works. We need to make a couple distinctions here. We know that volunteering works. Compared to otherwise comparable people who volunteer and do the volunteering have higher life satisfaction, better self rated help or better occupational or academic outcomes, longer lives, and lots of other positive outcomes. On the benefits of volunteering, on the benefits of volunteer programs who are National Service programs in particular. For helping out on ones church or Neighborhood School or Community Elder care, what gets counted, occurs outside the context of any regular commitment or quasiformal or programmatic organizational setting or context. You have to make that distraction. That dooley said when you do look at the research and literature that does address National Service programs in particular the findings are very positive. There was a landmark literature review done in 2004. Nothing has quite been done at that level of sophistication. I looked at 139 pretty good studies and the bottom line conclusion of that literature review on National Service programs was in the vast majority of cases you have National Service program exceeding now or negative affected by 671. Many of the benefits and most of the studies if you say what benefits are documented, the servers skill development, so direct benefits to beneficiaries of the programs, Service Expansion and harder to measure improvements in quality. It is all there. We have made a promising start with respect to benefit cost analyses of National Service programs. There was a wonderful study done in 2013 by clive bellfield, a study done for the franklin project and Civic Enterprises invoices for National Service which found the benefit cost ratio of federal National Service programs of 41 and that is a gargantuan finding. Our benefit cost analyses are surprisingly in their infancy. I hate to conclude with a cliche that more research is needed but more research is needed. And i think that all said, i want to conclude before i turn it back over to bridge that i wouldnt be afraid in this particular area to go with the plural of anecdote is data and let me tell you why this is not in our report. I met one of my former princeton students who went to the Brookings Institution a moment ago in 1999, i have been in the academic dodge for 700 real jobs for almost 40 years and i can tell you that in all those years, running an Academic Leadership and Service Learning program, hundreds of former students, i get letters and emails all the time and they say the best thing we ever did was all those Service Programs like participating in human, physical and Financial Recovery process over 10 years. It was transformational. A laboratory for learning and i believe it. We are close i dont want to say we have proven it but we are getting closer and of the more research. Im not afraid of those data. Bridge, you can go from there. Very good. Into construction with cousin jimmy who turned out to be a professor and we are so glad. Pretty heavy. In the paper will america embrace National Service, an open question, we throw down the gauntlet. We outline a plan of action that we submitted with general mcchrystal, secretary gates, secretary rice and others to the National Commission that joe is leading and after 9 11 we talked about mandatory National Service and it violates the 13th amendment, and violates the fifth amendment, and on the circumstance of the First Amendment on religious free exercise and free speech. We did a study of mandatory National Service in the United States. A lot of people are sympathetic to it and there is a zone of constitutionality. You can structure a mandatory National Service program that would satisfy the constitutional requirements but there is almost 0 Political Support for it. Charlie rangel introduced the lonely bill in the u. S. Congress every year and a few people join onto it and nothing ever happened so politically it is not feasible but what we think is feasible is something approaching mandatory National Service which is largescale universal voluntary National Service. I want to quickly outline what we propose to send to the commission in terms of its core elements. We have done it before, set a National Goal of 250,000 fulltime National Service opportunities for 28yearolds, that is the exact number the Edward Kennedy serve america act that or in hatch, conservative republican orrin hatch who was the first present a me after 9 11 said i am a mormon and did my Mormon Mission when i was young man, did my 34 years of service in the u. S. Senate, it can change the trajectory of young people in this country so we know we can get there historically. We are only at 66,000 fulltime Service Opportunities today. Second, we can link military and civil you National Service together. It might surprise you 70 of the people who apply for the military are disqualified because they are high school dropouts, bad behavior, some are in prison or in poor health. 75 . Why couldnt the Selective Service system be a Conveyor Belt for civilian National Service . And i get my notice 18, learning about the 5 branches of the military, why didnt i learn about teach for america and all these other wonderful opportunities. The military tells us where they are in military recruiting and having civilian National Service opportunities is part of the system for military recruitment. Third the National Service to college access, Jessie Coleman mentioned they are coming with plans. Why is it if you invest in your country your country invests in you, why dont you get a full year of college in the state you are from for attending for every year you do of National Weather service like the g. I. Bill and recognizing National Service is civic apprenticeship. When you finish your year of National Service you get a credential that is relevant to getting a job and employers see the skilled leadership, collaborative problemsolving and social and emotional skills Many Employers think are missing in our workforce. Finally, a big idea is to democratize and open up National Service by creating Service Fellowships that can be called americorps Service Fellowships. But giving it to the individual, the divisional convicted choice about accredited National Service organization they want to serve in. And and you can open up and fulfill Sargent Shrivers and the institution then young people with choice and that is it from us. We worked hard in this paper, please read it. Make it feel better. Back to you. Thanks, john and john. You heard from the best of Academic Research on National Service. Now for some reality therapy. How does this translate into actual legislation and how is that working for you . Can you hear me . Perfect. Hold it really close. Remind me if it might slide a little bit. It is a thrill to be here and great pleasure to be on the panel. Thank you, brookings. Before i talk about what this looks like on the hill and the policy proposals i want to tell you about myself and my commission to service. I lead Government Relations work at Service Alliance and unlike a lot of the panelists i didnt complete a service year, didnt serve in the military, didnt serve my connection to service in a real way started ten years ago when i was working in philadelphia, practicing law into something more meaningful to me and for me that was Public Education and one of my coworkers at the time, for her was transitioning into teaching. And the Americorps Program into the policy side, it was the deep commitment that i saw from her to students that even though she wasnt teaching anymore she was very much involved in their lives. We walked down the street and people would run down and say mrs. Gardner, she was invited to graduation, the prom and sometimes funerals but there was a deep connection that introduced me to service and through my career in philadelphia and dc, the exposure to city year, urban teachers, developed my commitment, and what was interesting is this idea of who serves and who is serving whom and you have people coming within their communities outside the community for different racial and ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic and that is where i got inspired to the revolution and when i had the opportunity to joint service i jumped at the chance to join an organization that wanted to bring service at scale, bring young people and make sure theres a common opportunity. I want to talk about what does this look like . How do we make this happen . Is going to be a large piece. I wanted to elaborate on the federal legislation we are trying to move forward as part of our south america together campaign. We do a speaking of National Service but i want to make sure i clarify once again we dont advocate for mandatory common expectation and opportunity for young people to serve. We drafted a bill that builds gaps. And we wanted to address something that could create a good bipartisan bill. It does four things i would talk about but lay out what that looks like. First and foremost, it focuses on local communities. What we are hearing from communities, how they view National Service and connect military and civilian which is important on the federal level and provide flexibility of fellowships that are named in honor of senator john mccain, for Service Plans and very important to make sure everyone conservative in bring together young people in the Community Serving to form those relationships, bringing people together, what does it look like. What we are proposing is a new Interagency Council that would be managed with dod, department of defense making the connection on the federal level between civilian and National Service, a lot of people interested in serving in the military are not qualified and why shouldnt they be directed to National Service opportunities and the department of defense for joint promotion for National Service, we have a connection on the top level and we have states that want to raise their hand. We see service have a strategy for Meeting Community needs. The Interagency Council would review these local plans developed by states talking how service would be a strategy to meet these needs and make sure every a person has an opportunity to serve, how to bring those young people together through professional developer and activities, crosscultural and interaction between programs and how states would incentivize, not just a federal program so what local incentives could look like and college access, how would states provide individual incentives and flexibilities provided through these, where a young person could get that scholarship and Service Opportunity with nonprofit so that is what we envision. And with the local focus, we drafted it for other legislation, you might have heard of the action bill introduced by great champions, and the action bill is comprehensive and provides incentives and we tried to be deliberate in crafting a bill of confidence and in this testing phase, getting feedback and incorporating feedback into the legislation to get a true bipartisan bill. Before i turn it over, why now . We are in a very tough environment but what is really encouraging to see is despite the proposed cuts as mentioned earlier by barbara stewart. And it is attached and our partners in National Service have done a great job bringing a bill forward. And build upon the infrastructure that we already have and just thrilled to be part of this discussion today. Let me just briefly bridge number three to number four. First of all, thank you very much for a very clear and compelling summary of the piece of legislation that i think most people didnt know very much about until you laid it out. So thank you for that. I also want to thank you for getting an idea for a new service corps. It would be made up of lawyers searching for meaning [laughing] and it would be massive. [laughing] one of our talking point is demand very much i outweigh suy and i can guarantee you that court would be very much the same. Im married to a recovered lawyer so i can say that. Okay. Now peter weiner, we heard earlier that from a Public Opinion standpoint support for National Team Ready Service might be a little stronger, democratic and independent side and has been. On the republican side. That was not nonexistent there. So from your perspective what does the case for National Service lookalike . Thank you. Thanks, ladies and gentlemen, for being here. The Brookings Institution for organizing this composting it, for the colleagues here, two of whom are longtime friends, great scholars, but they are better people friends than their scholars. I do want to say exactly what bill said, which is this report, first, its a short report so you should read it. Its interesting and it is a model of honesty inquiry and thats not always the case reports, but this is here the question here is should america embrace National Service. I dont know, should it . I do know, yes, it should. But often the resistance to National Service is found most on the republican side or the conservative side, as bill was saying. As a lifelong conservative for most of my life, a republican up until about three years ago or so, let me make the conservative case for National Service. The three areas i want to briefly touch on, when is i think its good for the unity of the country. Second i think its good for the people engage in National Service. And third, i think its good for the people who were in the receiving end of National Service, the receiving end of relationships of care and of love. Let me take those in order. Its good for unity of the country and that something that conservatives actually once cared a great deal about in a nation of immigrants which conservatives have traditionally celebrated. They often also spoke about the importance of assimilation. It respected, the belief was we should respect diversity but there was also a a need for a sense of unity that the idea of love of country involved a sense of citizenship. And i think thats right. And i think that needs to be recovered, the model, the american model is e pluribus unum, and i think you could argue theres too much focus on the floor of us and not on the unum these days. I think today there so many sources of social fragmentation and disunity, social media we see it and i think thats an excitement, a driving force, economic inequality, polarization, the rise of identity politics on the left and the right. A lack of trust in institutions, and in one another. The term political tribalism i dont recall that being used much prior to a decade or so ago but now its on the lips of almost everyone speaks about politics. So the centrifugal forces are overwhelming. The. The centrifugal forces in American Life i think we are more flying apart and coming together. I think National Service will help the centrifugal forces to gain strength. And National Service provides shared expenses in solving public challenges. It connects people from different classes and ethnicities in races for Life Experiences in ways that often would otherwise not connect. Im guessing a lot of you know this from your own personal experience, your own lives, which is when people Work Together sidebyside for a common purpose, political differences do you intensify. If theres one thing we can use in America Today is the intensification of political differences. The Panetta Institute for Public Policy did a study and they said reports that participants of all races and backgrounds describe how their service has topped a new perspective that approaches and expose them to groups of with whom it would not have identified in the past. If you ask me what one of my wish list were for the country and for us as individuals, one of them would be help me to see the world through the eyes of others, to better see the world through the eyes of others. Not necessary to agree with them, but to understand their perspective more. Without going too much into the philosophy, modesty has been central to conservatism as i i understood it, so the notion that none of us by ourselves can have anything like a full understanding of the nature of truth and reality. We need other people to gain those things, and part of that is having experiences with people who didnt outstanding in your life to be able to impart those different perspectives. In 1990 bill buckley, who was really the founder of modern conservative wrote a book called gratitude, reflections on what we owe our country, i your voluntary National Service for young people as a way to strengthen their feelings and appreciation for the nation. He said materialistic democracy beckons every man to make himself the king. And republican makes of them want to be a night. He said service to ones country calls for the better angels with our nature and can ever so slightly elevate us from the trough of self concern and self devotion. And he spoke about his own expenses in world war ii and talk about this close affinity that develop between hawaiian beachcomber and the laramie cowboys and the College Campus student in greenwich village. In the sense we become links in a Golden Service chain when a part of National Service. Secondly its good for people who engage in National Service. It benefits the helper as well as the help. I think National Service helps shape human souls. It can help touch the human heart and a think they can advance human flourishing. The premise here is an a a thik this is a premise thats based on data, which is there is loss of connection, a feeling of loss of community in America Today. Got the iphone generation, a lot is been written about that. This report makes reference to the latest findings of neuroscience which is we are hardwired to be in community, to cooperate, to empathize with one another. In a sense National Service aligns with human national, alliance, how we try. It developed ethical skills, furnishes educational opportunities. You go through the data of people engaged in National Service, higher life satisfaction, better academic achievement, lower rates of drug abuse, and school truancy. And it is still an ethic of responsibility and sense of gratitude. I actually think in National Life and individual lives, gratitude is one of most underrated virtues. I think its extremely important, and when you find people who have gratitude, it is radiating effects at work. Third, i think its good for the people on the receiving end of National Service. It helps repair shattered lives, helps broken communities rebuild. It reaches out often to people who are in the shadows of society and creates human connections, which we all need. And it makes people feel like they are the object of love and sacrifice, and that actually matters as well. Another conservative recent i favored National Service is it is doable. It works. It solves problems. John dilulio mentioned earlier that the review of the literature that was done 15 years ago in a book called civic service, 139 139 studies. As you mentioned, the positive outcomes exceeded negative outcomes by roughly seven to one. That sounds pretty good to me, actually. Conservatism in my understanding is negation of ideology. You wouldnt know that often today, but once upon a time thats what it stood for, embodied, and it puts a premium on Human Experience and what works on problemsolving. And to think National Service can help solve problems, not all of them. Its not a magic bullet that i think they can nudge things in the right direction. Ill just conclude by saying i think the public is tired in many ways of where we are. We are tired of the acrimony and the antipathy, divisions and disconnection, the loneliness and isolation, the pulsating anger in the feelings of grievances toward the other, and the pernicious belief that we dont have opponents but we have enemies. And i think National Service can be kind of a civic call for this moment. Ill just conclude one of my favorite lines in poetry is from wordsworth in the prelude, its a very long poem but he has a great line in what he says what we have learned others love. We teach them how. I think National Service can teach people how to do certain things, how to create respect for one another, greater understanding and i think he can help heal the wounds of a wounded land and wounded lies. And i think thats an enterprise that conservatives should be able to get behind, and all americans. Thanks. [applause] that sounded so much like a benediction that an almost unwilling to continue. [laughing] but it is my duty to continue, so let me just make a couple of remarks before we segue to the next phase of this panel. Remark number one is that for those with ever doubted brookings bipartisanship, i would like to point out that weve organized one of the largest reunions of Bush Administration alumni that washington is seen for quite some time. You know, the second point is a little more serious, and it pivots off a piece of what peter wehner just had that jump out at me, and it isnt anything that probably jumped out at any of you, but its what hit me. The phrase, the nature of reality. And it struck me that what liberals and conservatives have in common is a belief in an ascertainable nature of reality, although we may have different views as to the best path to it. What rightwing populist and leftwing host modern modernisn common is the abolition of the idea of the nature of reality. That in my judgment is the real struggle in which we engaged, and one of the great things about National Service is that is intense reality therapy. In addition to all of its other benefits. Now, on this side of my notes i have a long list of riveting only brilliant questions that i was going to put to the panel, but youve anticipated me. Im going to call an audible here. Im not going to do that because we have a large and wellinformed audience of people who have been connected with this move in one way or another, or who have important questions to put to its advocates. And so im going to suppress myself, which, you know, after 25 years felt like. 5 years, 25 hours of yom kippur [laughing] represents a continuation of selfsacrifice because you have been very patient. Its your turn. Let me just take cans as i see them. Please identify yourselves and then ask a question. Yes, sir. Theres a roving microphone thats coming around. Thank you. Carl, retired special agent u. S. Customs. Your reference to lawyers seeking many, i just have to share perhaps enabling document for that organization, the wall for making 50. If anyone hasnt read it it gives new meaning to the purpose of lawyering. But National Service, doesnt qualify as a National Service to seek Government Transparency in all things . Because that something that federal entity will never legislate to support. As a 9 11 responders would just like to share with you the National Service of thousands of architects and engineers as ae 9 11 truth. Org. They dont document that the official start of the collapse of the three towers in new york is not true, theres explosives. Seeking Government Transparency a form of National Service . Let me take three questions, and then ill try to deal with okay, im going to take one more there and then shift over here and that i will come back, dont worry. Thank you. Im retired from bookings but 29 years of of federal service, state department and the military. My question is about mandatory National Service. During the vietnam years, one of the things that aggravated dissension in this country, disunity, was a number of people who escaped the draft to all kinds of devious, nefarious ways. I conclude from that that a mandatory system whereby everybody serves, if youre flatfooted or not, would overcome those differences and those antagonisms. So my question to the group is, wouldnt and a tory, despite its challenges, have that benefit . And now over here. Microphone, please. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. My name is cameron. Im a Research Fellow at Civic Enterprises. My question to the panel is, as a recent College Graduate and a millennial, what are some tools i can use to motivate and inspire my peers to get involved in National Service . Panel . Let me start with that one. So we got a call many years ago from a College Student at yale, and he said im going to start ask not, and ask not chapter at yarmulke target colleges all across the country to create ask not chapters. Barbara talked about the lack of where awareness of all these programs and i want to make young people aware that you dont just had to go into a job or Undergrad School or some other avenue. You can invest the more of your life in service to the nation. So my first reaction would be, in florida, in your community its in the start and ask not chapter and get other colleges to do the same. Second, the Service Year Alliance has created service year. Org which is actually come you can go and put your profile on service year. Org and then fid whole host of opportunity National Service opportunities to connect to. The beauty of that is its driven by choice and reflective of the vision of democratizing National Service and getting all these institutions across the country including colleges to create service year programs. On mandatory National Service its a brilliant point. Thank you for your service to the nation and the state department. We are organizing a u. S. Delegation to israel, because the first question we get in discussions like this is, israel has done to successively at many levels. Its had a profound impact on their society, the economy, entrepreneurship. So were going to learn from israel, components that are relevant to our system here knowing we have a bit of a libertarian instinct and theret of opposition to mandatory National Service. But i will say i having a requirement for 18yearolds to go into the idea and then there are exceptions for orthodoxy or religious views or certain exceptions, disability, it has created this environment where more than 35 of those who are not conscripted voluntarily signed up for civilian National Service. By contrast, in the United States its less than 1 who are serving from these cohorts took so we think it does have a profound effect. Were going to go study the program and learn what we can. Ill let someone else talk about Government Transparency. Thank you. One thing i want to say, i think there is a tremendous need for greater awareness of these programs and so forth, on the one hand. On the other hand, in every year really since the creation of a court there been more people that wanted to do it than there are funds for quick and some years its been a dramatic gap between the number of people who are ready to go through the process, i want to do this, and the funding is not there. At colleges and universities that have the equivalent of ofr plus one programs or at least some degree of fully paid, right, a very practical reality for especially the vast majority of students who dont have names that just take off the year or be supported by family or by trust fund or something, if you offered that although program i referenced, we did summers and spring breaks but we also had a full year of service that we would do, and over ten years of our commitment we must about 50 students do those one year commitment. But we had about 300 students that wanted to do it and if we could find a 300 we wouldve had 300 and we would be running new orleans. And philadelphia. I think there is a need to get how to inspire and engage and spread information on the one hand. But on the hand theres a lot of latent unmet demand that is just about having the human and financial infrastructure, organizational infrastructures to make happen. With regard to the mandatory National Service i would under line what was said. The constitutional questions have been answered. There is a zone of constitutionality. The political question is, i think mandatory service would be great, but the Political Support for it isnt there. Im happy on the transparency question. Yes, i think there is an obligation for government, for transparency but i would say transparency is the means and the incidence of truth and reality. I would say government has an obligation for transparency but theres a civic obligation also to accept reality as well. And to make sure that transparency isnt used to twist reality into things that are not true. One other thing, oncologists, a lot of schools are now looking at making, if you do a service year its actually really relevant to get into the college. When like william and mary has created these fellowships, robert gates is a chance for and believes in these ideas. Advancing Actual Service year opportunities through the college system. So imagine if you had a third of the colleges and the United States crating service your fellowships, real opportunities connected to courses of study. I think would have mutually reinforcing benefit and that something you could advocate to. Before the next set of questions i want to address a question to tai based on what john dilulio just said. He pointed out absolutely correctly, you know, that the problem for service at this point is not on, is not on the demand side. Its on the supplyside. And with regard to governments role in National Service, i can report to you that from the very beginning of a core, theres been a gap between americorps, a gap between the authorization and appropriations process. My question, and this report makes clear that the edward m. Kennedy service act has authorized four times as many positions as that are actually funded. So as you redesign the architecture of National Community service in the admirable way that you propose, you have a strategy proposing that cap between authorization and appropriation . Yes. Hello . That we go. I continued to struggle with the mic. We do and i dont know if its the perfect answer but one of the first things, ways that we look at this is because theres that gap, we do have serviceyear. Org, and programs can certify positions. We marriage the process to create their own service use. We do have a way we can move forward and experience growth even if were not seeing it on the federal level. One of the ways we drafted our legislation, because it is going to be at the end of the date very much tied to a reauthorization of americorps, but the focus on the local community is creating these evidence points at scale and that the man and raising their hands, and also providing incentives at the community level. Incentivize services but. We see that as one of the first steps to get towards that growth. By no means do we have the complete answer but we really think its starting at the local level. And that also growth through our service year exchange. We have time for one more round, three. Im going to take this gentleman, i i promised him, ad then the woman in the aisle and then there are two cant in the back and it only going to take one of them. I will take the children on the aisle as well. Over here come first. Thank you, bill. And hope youre fast was easy. It was not. Maxon for, director of americorps in the last time i was yet brookings was on a panel on the faithbased initiative that both of you had a hand in. Speaking of that, especially for the spam, whats the role of faith in National Service, especially looking forward to the future . Yes, and now to my questions on the island. You have the microphone. Jenny lawson, innovation officer points of light. In my role i work a lot with the business community, so my question is a corollary, which is whats the role of business. I know theres been some demonstration National Service projects but how this Business Plan into solutions for National Service . And then the gentleman on the aisle. Thank you. So that was my question so i will yield to the other hand. Actually might is a perfect corollary. Sean riley with the round roun, whats the role [inaudible] i could not have planned these rations better but but i assure you i did not. Panel, we have three minutes and five seconds to answer these three questions. I will do faith. I think the most important observation to make in the time we have is to note that if a look at all the partnerships, the what partnerships and relationships, those words come up a lot come in the actual administration, the translating of the ideals and ideas of National Service into action, faithbased communities are all over it. They have been, continued to be. Its inconceivable without them. The problem there is a problem of resources and capacity, a problem of doing the needing, undoing the dot connecting. That has long been the problem and without giving sidetracked by things a problem which were making some nontrivial progress in the nottoodistant past. But it but if think a lot of those programs and policies have fallen away. When you start a couple years ago with a proposal to eliminate the corporation for National Committee community service, that means eliminating all that it does in all its partnerships. Thats a bad idea. That also creates a Chilling Effect for the partners out there. You talk to people in the faith immunities across the board, with a big power churches or small tumor defaced congregations or networks, and they worry about getting involved to the extent that is this going to be sustainable, because they know theres tough politics of it. But the faith communities remain i would say if not the primary partners, substantial partner in the cause of National Service programs. I would say quickly on business and philanthropy, the encouraging note is that invest 1. 2 billion for the 1 billion invested by the federal government today and thats really encouraging. Businesses can look at what of the institutional changes we can make to foster at ignite a culture of service, i. E. , highly relevant to get a job at this company or that company if youve done a year or more of National Service, just like Terry Mcauliffe did in state government. If you served your preference to get a a publicservice job in state government. We get every government and the United States to do that we would have every business. Now that the Business Roundtable has redefined the purpose of incorporation in more than 200 0 ceos have signed onto it, which was quite a seachange, including giving back to communities, why not challenge americas businesses to take on large public challenges like at t over a dozen years said were going to move High School Graduation rate from 66 to 90 , and they stuck with the, invested 500 billion billion dollars in, and National Service city year, community and schools and these organizations are at the center providing the Student Support to keep this gets on track. I think issuebased, investment, and then finally impact communities. Why cant they help organize with us in flint and all these communities where our work in, universal National Service efforts where military, Committee Service together. Points of light, your service x extraordinary. Thanks what you do. Any concluding comments . No. Very good. Let me just bridge to the next panel by saying that alan casey whose name was just in both will be leaving it. I can report to you that i learned everything i brought with me into the white house about National Service from alan casey, because of a site visit that it did to the City Year Program back in 1992. And so never doubt the possibility of a small band of determined people making a very, very big impact. And with that come , on to the l panel. [applause] [inaudible conversations] for 40 40 years cspan has n providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court and Public Policy events from washington, d. C. And around the country so you could make up your own mind. Created by cable in 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of the government. A Funeral Service was held in detroit monday for former michigan congressman john conyers who died last week at the age of 90. He served in the house of representatives from 19652017, making him the longest serving africanamerican member of congress and the six longestserving member in u. S. History. Mondays funeral include remarks from former president
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