Transcripts For CSPAN3 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20240622

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Org or download our cspan radio app. Next, a discussion on a recent state Department Report which rates countries across the world on efforts to combat Human Trafficking. From washington journal, this is 40 minutes. Were back with mark lagon tt talk about Human Trafficking worldwide and also in the uniteu states. The state department with their latest report out on it last wh week. Why diddo they do these reports . Whats the intent and hift rye r here . Congress decided in 2007, really interesting time that congress was working more functionally than today when senator Sam Brownback on the st right and on the left were working together in a coalition to fight sex trafficking. it created the state departmentf office that i got to head. Whats the intent of tracking this . Really to try and deal with the problem. Peoples autonomy is completely removed and its attractive to see that still they want to fight that slavery problem. How big of a problem is it . Give our viewers an idea. Its a massive problem. Lets take not a u. S. Source bue u. N. National Labor Organization and a conservative estimate. About 21 Million People are forced human labor and trafficking victims. Thats about 3 in 1,000 people. E so any o 1,000 people in the world, 3 of them are Human Trafficking victims. Thats a lot. Where does it happen the ns r most, and what are the conditions under which it happens . There are many forms. The it can be sex trafficking of children, adults, Migrant Workers who are construction workers in the gulf. Ver cr people who never cross a bordere like many peopled who are the disadvantaged casts in india by the millions or a brick kiln. When im asked where is the biggest problem, there are three ways to answer the question. South asia and india. The persian gulf, where the mos, acute problem is and if you area a woman or migrant you arent c likely to haveto access to oth justice. East asia. It has both sex trafficking and labor trafficking in large numbe numbers. Explain whats going on es there. Theres controversy. It some of the most controversial grades given in this report are about countries in this region. B theres been a debate in the atf congress about the Transpacific Partnership at freedom hour, were ath human rights organization. We think thepaci Transpacific Partnership would be a good ideg but thisoo question of whether some countries like malaysia, vietnam, thailand, are they going to be good in the soft pass, and theres a question whether malaysia has been given a light touch in this report. Er malaysia was upgraded if you will. Explain the tier giv process any malaysia was given an upgrade. Unique among the human rights reports that they make the statb department put out, this one gives grades. It make s countries change thei laws. It does change their behavior. Tier three countries are the lowest. They arent making any effort a all. Tier two are making some progress but are sliding. Tour two countries are making an effort but have a long way to gn and tier one countries meet most of the standards in the u. S. La and u. N. Treaties as well. So malaysia was upgraded. It was in the cellar. Y tier three is still very problematic. Lets take this from theer wordc of the state department ffice, officials. The under secretary of state who oversees the Trafficking Office. Very serious Foreign Policy coe specialist. Shhae ind the press conference had last week on july 27th citen six things she was still disturbed by in malaysia that pn they havent implemented changeh to their law, havent issued regulation, that their Law Enforcement is weak, their convictions are remarkably low for human traffickers, despite i the large scale of the problem,e thatta victims are being detaine by the government in malaysia and passports of migrant workerf are being confiscated. And they still got an upgrade. Talk about the map. U. S. Trafficking. You said the upgrades and are th downgrades. Green and orange countries received an upgrade. And the red, yellow countries are ones downgraded. The ones that disturb me, Freedom House is also an organization outside of government that grades countries and looks at this sort of thingt my former students at georgetown joked i seem to like reports atj that giveum grades to countries. The ones thats jump out to me are the drop in slovenia and europe. Lets not leave europe dro out the picture. Ct tha it dropped from the top rating to the lowest, even though slovenia is a strong cannountry terms of press freedoms and Civil Liberties. Northern africa, egypt, subsaharan africa, ghana, and costa rica dropping in Central America. In that whole area of all the violence that has led people to migrate to the United States, one of the examples of more solid rule of law has been costa rica but apparently not in Human Trafficking. I would just say there are s what i would call four howlers in terms of where it seems the e state departments Trafficking Office lost in the bureaucratic battle. We talked about malaysia. Saudi arabia has got to be in the gulf one of the worst in tht worst ins terms of migrants anl women being treated as less than human. Uzbekist uzbekistan. People are mobilized into forced labor in cotton picking. Our slavery was cotton. Its going on in uzbekistan. And the other one perhaps ing politicized is the upgrade of cube. Id be happy to talk more about that, if youd like. Lets get to some calls. Jed in san francisco, republicans. Go ahead with your question or comment. Caller you all have been. Talking about Climate Change and all kinds of other stuff. The most pressing question for me is what about the squirrel that died on well go on to art in clearwater, kansas. Do you have a question about Human Trafficking . Caller i do. I sur we have to as a nation take a lead by example. Ur a little concerned about whats going on in our own country in the Seattle School district where they are giving iuds to children. Id like to know how anyone can define thatdo as anything other than child sex trafficking. I wouldnt agree necessarily with that characterization about the policy in seattle. I need to know more details but i felt very strongly that the e United States neededd to be an example. E we were doing a good job and continue to do a good job to promote efforts to fight this d problem. Not we shouldnt sweep under the rug whats going on. Your caller emphasizes child sex trafficking. Theres a substantial problem of child sex trafficking. Those kids who are runaways and. Throwaways from broken familiesn are in danger within the first n 96 hoursge of being recruited io sex trafficking. Gone and when we tell other countries that they need to help their ild victims and survivors and reempower them, need to remember that in the United States, we ie often treat a child in ld b prostitution as someone who should be arrested and jailed. Under the law and under international norms, thats a u. Human trafficking victim. Ne we need to treat them as such. How do you define sex r trafficking and good question. Labor trafficking. Labor trafficking is pretty a straight forward. If there are conditions of rosin coercion, forced fraud. And that person is a human an trafficking victim. Ant they may even be a migrant who crosses borders undocumented. If they didnt have the intent if they were recruited or ey wou involved in fraudld or subject force, then theyd be a Human Trafficking victim. The one thing everybody accepts anywhere is that someone who is a minor in prostitution, whether theyno crossed a borderr not does not have informed consent. They are a sex trafficking victim. Whats interesting is that as weve movefod toward focusing me on labor trafficking being the s bigger problem, its become he politically less attractive to look at the adults. Peoples heart strings are tugged by children. Everyone accepts a kid in prostitution you dont need to s get a into the details whether there was volition. Some people feel the early Human Trafficking movement and my buh the bush in administration, john miller, were singularly focused on sex x trafficking. I think its very important we look at both problems. I and that was my small contribution in two years to wht look at both problems. End of j lets hear what the secretary had to say at the end of july when this report came out. We want to provide evidence c ande an facts thats will help people who are already striving to achieve reforms to alleviatet suffering and to hold people dea accountable. We want to provide a strong incentive for governments at every level to do all that they can to prosecute trafficking and to shield atrisk populations. A in conveying these messages, lei me acknowledge that even here ie the United States, we americans need to listen and improve. Like every nation we have a responsibility to do better. A better job of protecting thoss who live within their own borders. St whose passports are taken away u from them. What did you make of the secretary a comments . It reflects the traditional t americanhe focus on prosecutionr the law. Even the u. N. Treaty formed in 2000 emphasized prosecution. Its important for us to worry t about the victims. And not just finding them, which is hard and getting them shelter but how they might reclaim their lives and dignity. Gnity. About how they could d to h becomeel employed. He properly talks about the problem at home. T i think its really important et for the use to tell the facts about whats going on here in the United States and even though the report gives the United States the highest un possible grade, tier one countries are by no means perfect and especially since they tend to be rich, they have. Means for addressing the problem. It provides tools to prevent trafficking and authorize the establishment of federal agencies to assist in the accordination ofs he antitrafficking efforts. A. Lets hear from aaron next, republican. Hi, aaron. Caller hello. How are you doing, maam . Doing well. Caller im the supreme courl is talking about some stuff with microsoft and with Oklahoma Health care. Theres a lot displayed on re the im not sure where youre ts this but were talking about Human Traffickinga worldwide in this country. Good morning to you. Viduals your question or comment. Caller yes, theres some individuals rescued from situations it is just so many steps to f t getting anfa individual to be cognizant of the fact they have rights. And how do you rescues how do this the great thing is how do you get them out . Ow where how many steps are involved . Is that your organization . I think you know where im goins with that. Freedom house works on humane rights w broadly around the wor. I previously headed one of the u. S. Projects. E who those steps of reempowering someone who is a survivor of Human Trafficking are many in number. Empo its hardwe to find human n traf trafficking fivictims. They are told by their labor trafficker that if you go forward youll be treated like an illegal immigrant or that you are at fault. You got yourself into t is prostitution. And all too often that is actually true that theyll be blamed. Then even once you found them they tend to get housing but they sometimes dont get the full medical care they need. E bi theyca dont get follow care bu they get the trauma. The best way someone can job reclaim their dignity is to have a job. If you dont give them the opportunity to get are a job or get training, they slide back into the old life or never really prospir. Ims of are they h deported . One of the really good elements of the trafficking is e we have a humanitarian visa. Yon if you find someone who is a Human Trafficking victim and yor determine it wasnt their fault they came to the United States m undocumented, that they were a Human Trafficking victim subject to force, fraud, coercion, violence, they can be given a visa and stay hiere. And one of the reasons is to allow them to testify against the bad guy which is doubly fort justice. Putting the bad guy away and ho also them getting access to justice themselves. Foreve and allowed to stay forever u and arerc there really j they stay for a while. A j . And one of the reforms that is necessary to deepen is the ability of fepeople to become ce citizens after a natural clock starting on their ability to become so. Calowell is next in virginia republican. Caller hathanks for taking g call. Att i have a friend who has brought all of this to my attention in the last six or seven months. Theres a lot of it going on in virginia, which i was er completely did not know. How do you discern. Im in fredericksbrg. Are there things look that happening in fredericksburg . Theery are. I live in northern virginia. Neb theres a problem. I my church has a partnershil with a local secular antiHuman Trafficking organization. There were sex trafficking in victims in my own town of arlington, virginia, found in a bust in a hotel. There there are gangs connected to Central America and transnational crime that pursued this. In virginia . In virginia. And in northern virginia. Throughout virginia there are cases of sex trafficking. Even peoplere recruited out of their high school. Lor and sometimes people of color and minorities. Sometimes even not. Li and then its more prevalent other in places like florida or apple pickers in washington e pk state. But therewa some are migrant wok workers for whom the conditions are sohuma severe that its actw Human Trafficking. Whats going on in a state like virginia that theres thish sex trafficking trade happening . So the dirty little secret in that men who buy women and girls for sex create the problem. Ion i know that theres a distinction between prostitution at the adult level. And the most coercive forms of i humanng trafficking or child prostitution. T frankl but frankly, its not cool and its not okay that males buy females for sex because that market creates a magnet for the traffickers and we need to deal with that demand. Weve learned from sting operations and subtle and in fact the existence of a larger sex market slides the male buyers down to wanting to buy hr children. Its notgoes only sort of the k, hardened sickos, the pedophile, the people pulled into that by the existence of this rampant market. John, independent. Caller hi. Yeah, im just calling to say that were pretty hypocritical as a country on this issue. I mean, i dont know much aboute it, about whats happening. Some of them are winding up here on visas that certain wealthy people will say and powerful people and they can pull these strings with the immigration system and they can get the women from thailand or whatevero over here and places like vermont. After a while you can figure ouo whats reallydy going on. Akeawa somebody boughtys them basicall. One is the United States to not be hypocritical needs to look at whats going on inside its own borders. Secondly, i think its very important to pdistinctiguish undocumented workers from human traffickers. Its important to realize theres a category of fact, undocumented workers who are in fact, Human Trafficking victimss we need to distinguish between l the two and not sweep them all under the category of illegal aliens. Your caller alludes to people h who are rich and privileged and can afford to bring people here. Sometimes people, haitians or people from some african cultures are so used to having e domestic servants who cannot leave the home and they can subject to violence and coercion that they bring the problem here to the United States in some cases. And the last thing which is truly revolting, and i tried to work on it, are diplomats to usd diplomatic immunity to shield their mistreatment of domestic o servants. There are many diplomats who. Have been taking a person from a third country and abusing them. There are gangs or groups bi thatng exploit the visa system d use it for bringing large amounts or more than one person aer toan this country . There are. Roblem there are two different criminal problems that are related but not the same. Human smuggling, the actual moving of them across borders and Human Trafficking which is the coercion and violation of l. The human rights problem. The language isnt very helpful. And in spanish, the its trafico and trata. Its very ambiguous. Of th its helpful to think of this as modern slaverey. There are gangs that move people across borders. When those people dont know th that theyey are breaking the lar or theyso may be aware they are moving as an undocumented person but subject of coercion, then they become a Human Trafficking victim. What role has the internet et placed in Human Trafficking, specifically the dark net, and how do you counter that. In the sex trafficking area the internet has become the pla platsform early in the effort on after the traffic victims protection act was enacted in 2000. Aex focus on sex trafficking th krd on the street or in brothe brothels. The t platform for selling people hath is on the internet. Its harder to track down. But the good news is the internet canning used as a method for helping people. Eople there are apps and places that people can contact. Its not only that a hot line is a place you can call or email but there are means for using the internet or texting. Mike, independence. Hi. Thank you cspan and mr. Lagon for coming on. My question deals with the fact that when we say sex trafficking we include as you mentioned earlier sex workers as well as those folks who have been is t trafficked both willingly and ne unwillingly. And is there a problem when we conflate those two . Many sex workers get into the sex field because they lack inb resources. They are veryy. Poor. Abject poverty. And my question is when we put those two things together, are d we taking resources that should be diverted to the sex trafficking part of it . And putting it to the sex workers who, although they do need help, are not as acute as the sex traffic child or sex es traffic individual. A grea this is a great question. And i just i havent quite figured out the clear line e bad selling of a female and bad selling of a female for sex. It includes force, fraud and coi coercion foron it to be sex trafficking. Lets think about the analogy to labor trafficking. If there werent a demand for bu very cheap labor and very cheap. Products, then there wouldnt be forced labor or the worst forms of child labor. T many of the people who get into that are wooed into it recruited into that because of poverty an desperation. Is it a meaningful choice for women and girls who are pulled into the sex trade and end up being coerced . Sex trafficking . I will put my reputation on the line. In fact, the existence of the sex trade in which the guys who buy sex are whether they are inm cambodia or in the united statem typically not punished for it. U thats part of the problem. Oble. How hard is it to prosecute sex traffickers, labor traffickers . Its hard to prosecute the tf traffickers in largefi part because we have tended around the world to rely on the testimony of a traumatized victim. A victim who is scared of the ms trafficker. Sometimes have a stockholm syndrome luke their pimp, their daddy has been cultivating their relationship. They dont want to turn on them. A victimcentered approach requires thinking of ways to geg evidence like the Financial Transactions of the buyer or other witnesses so you dont rely on this traumatized persono whost should be our first goal t help. Does this conversation help . The spotlight put on this . The report by the state department . Sn cnn is doing documentaries. I wa since i was a bit player as a staffer, weve moved a long wayp i kind of shake my head when people talk about awareness. Awar wereen getting there on awareness. We need the action and ave enforcement. There are all these people where they have laws on the books to fight Human Trafficking but they arent being implemented. Gether cnn put this together on their website. Seven ways to spot someone as being trafficked. Do you recommend people alertint the authorities, seeing something thats happening in vy the airports . Its very easy to jump to conclusions that something thats not Human Trafficking is Human Trafficking. But we need to look for it. Theres a campaign that the u. S. Department of Homeland Security has been running. Ggests the Blue Campaign that suggests that the Human Trafficking victim may beding blending into background. When you go into an ethnic restaurant and see people working in the back and you ping realize they may be sleeping there, they may be a Human Trafficking victim. Its worth doing your best. C polaris project runs a center. Theyve had a record of saving people. People themss have called or d o people who have spotted a potntial victim have called and have been able to mobilize Law Enforcement in less than an hour to get to a victim. Er maria in new jersey, independent, youre next. Caller good morning. I would like your guest to comment on something that i reag that with the minors that are coming recently, over threequarters of them are male over the age of 12. And if they state they were thr helped to get into the country by a coyote, they are called victims of Human Trafficking and they are not asked about any iml criminal record they r might ha had or gang affiliation. A lot of times if they arent adjudicateded, they are dispe e dispersed across the country maybe to join other drug gangs. What is your thought about n strengthening our border and cracking down on just accepting peoples word on it without investigation . Thank you for a good to d question. Theres some important things to draw from that. One, there are male Human Trafficking victims and male we kids. We tend tof gi think of girls. There are some. We should be careful that we tip have a system in which we can identify people who really are Human Trafficking victims. But lamar smith, the republican congressman, has was in the n original legislation skeptical. He worried that people would get the humanitarian visa as a humau trafficking victim, gaming the system when they were re near undocumented workers. Weve never come near the ceiling he insisted being put in the original legislation in ing terms of Human Trafficking at victims. There gaming of the system. There isnt evidence there. Freedom hour, were concerned about lack of rule of law around the world. The problem is Central America having enormous violence and corruption and that leading to people not only looking for Economic Opportunity in the a. United states but fleeing the violence. We need to deal with the root problem. Freedom house, what is your central goal . They are about to celebrate their 75th anniversary. It was formed in 1941 to get ang isolationist publicht focused o the nat zee threat and prepare people to get into world war ii. Formed seven weeks before pearl harbor. It has put out its own reports giving grades to cannountries om political, Civil Liberties, press freedoms. Ie bulk of what we do is working s programatically arounr the world to assist Civil Society organizations puni s pua their governments to reform or deal with auto krats who are squeezing their voice. E on t he silvia, a republican, you on the air. Wonder caller in hello, yes. I was wondering can you hear me . N yes, we can. Caller i was wondering whether the nsa under the patriot act was able to help you . I dont think the nsa observation can help. For Freedom House, not on the Human Trafficking issue, i n remain concerned our counterterrorism policy has become an excuse for the winnowing of Civil Liberties. Thats another example where thn United States nids to be an exemplar in order to promote human rights around the world. They should worry about who holds the data. Can a violation of your civil rights be a human right abuse . Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absol its a basic view of Freedom House that Civil Liberties not only exist here and around the world and if they are breached, thats a human rights abuse. When i started Freedom House in january, what portrait or picture to put up at the entrance to my office. Were focused on human rights around the world but we have a photograph of Martin Luther king and john lewis as civil rights leaders convening a meetding in Freedom Houses headquarters. I put that up to remind us of me the long road from slavery to the Civil Rights Movement to ty human rights as we work internationally. Killeen, tex aindependent, good morning. Caller good morning. I wanted to ask your guest what his organizations stance is on legalizing prostitution. Al prost its never going to be eradicated. Its the oldest profession in fo the world. So thats it can be regulated ud and there can be some rights duy given to the sex industry workers. We dont have an but i institutional perspective, but ive been long on the record since i game ambassador for Human Trafficking in may of 2007 that i am not for the legalization of prostitution. But let me be very clear. Im in favor of a system that they used in the nordic states where you dont punish the person who is in the sex regul industry. Thats wrong. You should punishar the trafficr or a regular pimp, but you needa to punish the people who are buying the sex. If you do not hold to account the source of the demand youll never deal with the problem. I dont think you should punish the women and girls in the sex sometimes the males in the sex industry, but i think im not personally in favor of legalizing prostitution. A lot of questions about the sex trafficking part. Let lets talk about the labor. The Human Trafficking there. How big of an issue is this . How hard is that to prosecute . Yf its very difficult to ou loo prosecute. If you look at the number of prc prosecutions around the world, there are many more prosecutions in the sex trafficking area. People are littpolitically motivated. They havent devoted the resources to it. Devot it has been harder for american Law Enforcement to get their ir arms around those prosecutions theyve begin to make progress. One of the contributions during the time i was Human Trafficking ambassador was beginning to track the prosecutions and convictions for sex trafficking versus labor trafficking around the world. It is striking that in the worl. Entire time since we started introducing that those more statistics in 2008, theres never been more than 20 of the prosecutions for human r area in the labor ing area around the world. There are many more victims of Human Trafficking for labor than for sex around the world. Fact f heres a basic fact for your viewers to take away. Both sex trafficking and labor. Trafficking are very important. There are many more labor esafficking vm inking victims. Perhaps threequarters of the victims around the world are actually labor trafficking victims. But more money is made on the sex backs of those who are in the it sex trafficking industry. If this is about changing the b yai ratiyoo of profits to risk of being punished, you have to look at that. If you look at cambodia or thailand you see both problems. X more labor trafficking and more money made for sex trafficking. Clearwater, florida, audrey, a republican. Clear good morning. Audr welcome to the conversation. Caller good morning. One nu i was given this telephone number because i could tell you have i am against voting for je bush. Im aioti republican. I come from a very patriotic background, and i would not choose to vote for jeb bush because he has decided to not pm onlyan get his education but to spend many of his business years in living in mexico and in caracas, venezuela. What does that have to do with Human Trafficking . Was not calling about that. And then im going to move on. Im talking with mark lagon. An expert on this who served as ambassador from 2007 to 2009 at the state department. Well move on to james in chattanooga, tennessee. Caller hi, how are you. Good morning. Caller well, i think its important to have jobs ready for people when they do turn up. Gram we have good programs at chattanooga state where people can learn about Technical Skills and get a certificate and get on the roadca towards getting a career after theyre found. Gest but i think the biggest questios i would have for the gentleman is, isnt this trafficking related to the actual drug , the t drug pushing . You know, that goes everywhere. the drugs are being sold everywhere . Its a good question. Different forms of transnatio l transnational areat comminglo what happens is the Ha International criminals look for which thing is easier to do ando has higher profit and is less looikly to be caught. Weve seen evidence documented that theres been a shift from solely focusing on drug u. S trafficking. Theres another dimension worth thinking about including here in the United States. The degree to which drugs are involved in keeping kids and women docile and they actually sort of selfmedicate because of the trauma of the violence and 15 customers a day. Mark lagon, appreciate your time this morning. Go to freedomhouse. Org for more information. Thanks for having me on. On the next washington journal, Stephen Dinan of the kw Washington Times talks about a recent article on the 114th congress that examined congressional gridlock. And then myron ebell and Jeremy Symons look at the obama administrations Clean Power Plant which calls for a 30 reduction in greenhouse emissions. Plus your Facebook Comments and tweets live on cspan. And now back to washington journal for a look at president obamas announcement of new rules that would limit power plant carbon emissions. This is 40 minutes. Autz, joining us is jason plautz lo with nationalut journey to talk. About president obamas new Climate Change regulation. What did the president announce on monday . Yesterday he announced pls finalized the first Carbon Pollution standards for power plants. The total 8 standards will cut 0 million tons of Carbon Pollution by 2013. Thats ath 32 cut compared to 2005 levels. Going its set up to transform the power sector. Its going to encourage more eni renewables, discouraging some coal and really just changing the energy mix entirely. What does it mean for statesn gets their e individual goal. They canan p do that by producing more renewables, putting in Energy Efficiency standards. There are a whole suite of doin options available. Each state will have to at al determine the best path for them. Which states are looking at doing more and which are saying were not going to do that at all. Weve seen a lot of states saw were not going to do xas anything at all. Oklahoma, indiana and texas have said theyll not comply or t considering not complying. We saw Mitch Mcconnell encouraging governors not to comply with the plan. Ther s itsta not legally sound. Hed like them to opt out. You have other states who are farther along. Meeting these goals. Ional states in the northeast who are part of the Regional Gas Initiative are pretty well equipped to comply. Whats been the reaction from lawmakers in washington as well as those that are running in 2016 . Its about what youd expect to see. Democrats who are very supportive of this plan want to see it go forward and then republicans on the other side who dont want to see this go t forward. They seeri this as overreach. Its going to raise electricity produces. Mcmcconnell has urged covers not to comply. He and john boehner were talking about plans to stop the plan. Whether thats through spending bills. The congressional review act. Nvn and the Senate Environment and a public works committeey is goi to mark up a bill that would allow states to opt out. Well look at what the sterda majority leader had to say the yesterday on the senate floor. Projected to cost literally billions. They threaten to ship good middle class jobs overseas and l make it harder to maintain reliable sources of energy to if meet demand. Theyll likely result in higherc energy bills fortr those who ca least afford them. Raising electricity rates by double digits for people that i represent. All of this, mr. President , and for what . For what . T not only will these massive regulations fail to meaningfully affect the Global Climate but h they could end up harming the environment boo oy outsourcing Energy Production. They may also be illegal. Thats why i wrote the governors suggesting they take a ting t responsible wait and see he approach andessa allow the couro weigh in before subjecting their citizens to such unnecessary pain. When will the president s rules go into effect . States will have to start complying in 2022, which is a twoyear delay. In submitting of 20 their plans in fall of 2016 but they can get a twoyear so co extension. 2022, whoever is the next president. Can they with the stroke of a h pen gelat rid of this . Certainly the next president has a large role to play in as d umplementing and seeing that this rule moves forward. Hillary clinton has said shelll uphold the plans. In the first piece of her Energy Agenda shed like to increase lh the roleav of renewables. Side, and mart on omalley also said hed keep it in place. I dont think weve seen any ho republican candidate say anything nice about this rule. Should a republican take the white house we can see them simply not implement the rule. And we can expect to see this move through the court system. Should a court say this rule has to be rewritten, its up to that administration to rewrite it thf way they see fit. Sociat hal quinn writing the opposing view in usa today s saying this epa plan offers all pain, no gain. States face tougher targets forn replacing Affordable Energy with more costly energy. It will lead to less reliable ue electric sgrid. how is industry how are the Different Industries responding . As you said, the national no Mining Association not pleased with thus. Yesterday they asked the epa to put a stay on the rule. R of that was day one. Weve seen fossil fuel groups, coal groups, actualities in joint lawsuits to try to stop the rule before it was in final state. That court case had Laurence Tribe petitioning on behalf of the industry. Industry groups are not surprisingly going to try to stop this rule. They see this as reducing the use of fossil rule going forward. And the view of the usa today editorial board. Obamas power plant plan helps protect the planet. If the plan survives legal and political salt, a big if, carbof dioxide will be 32 lower in l 2030 than in 2005. Will all this solve the Climate Change problem . Power plants are the largest source of Greenhouse Gas emissions. The akadministrations plan wou take care of about onethurd or about oneninth of domestic emissions. Weve already seen the president take a number of stepl on Climate Change. One of the largest and overlooked steps was fuel economy standards for light dutt cars and heavy duty trucks. Also a number of efforts to promote clean energy, Energy Efficiency. The president set an overall goal of reducing emissions by 2025. That was part of the agreement o with china. Get t its been a very large and vast agenda. Riley is up first. Georgetown, texas. You are on the air. What are your thoughts on the president s epa rule. Caller the ignorance of the democratic and also shown by ts reporter here on Carbon Dioxide. The statement shows it all in that Carbon Pollution would o reduce as attached. Now, every person breathes out more concentrated c out. Thats how we live. Earth, and c e on 02 is the emission transfer of life giving carbon to the plants, we eat the plants, and we live. For so thats life on earth. In for someone to come along and dictate, which obama has done, that c02 is a pollutant and takes action, long before the talk of al gore, no problem, now theres action to double cost o. Electricity, to increase s transportation, to affect peoples standard of living. Lets take the point. Is the whats the impact of this on consumers potentially . We could see energy bills go up. The ouldepa said overall this wt reduce energy bills in the long term by bringing on states can bring on more energy nsumer. Efficiency, using less energy, in that that will help consumers. The white houses website, save the average American Family nearly 85 a year on energy hos bills in 2030. Save enough energy to power 30 million homes in 2030 and save i consumers 155 billion from 2020 to 2030. Do people disagree, what do they say . Of course they are. They say it raises rates and in the short term as these changes happen, its hard to know what will happen. Its not like consumers bills o drop or rise tomorrow based on the standard. The president , though, yesterday at the white house in the afternoon warned against inaction on this issue. Heres what he had to say. Most of the issues that i iss deal with, and i deal with some tough issues that cross my deskh by definition, i dont deal with issues if they are easy to solve because somebody else already solved them. Some of them are grim. Are fru some of them are heart breaking. Some of them are hard. L with a some of them are frustrating. Most of the time, the issues we deal with are ones that are of u temporarily boung d and can anticipate things Getting Better if we just plug away at it. Even incrementally. This is one of those rare issues, because of its magnitude, because of its scope, that if we dont get it right, we may not be able to reverse, and we may not be able to adaptm sufficiently. There is suchoh ast thing as be too late when it comes to white Climate Change. At the white bama house yesterday making an ll of announcement about this epa rule. Thats the discussion with all of you this morning. We go to eric next in maryland, an independent. Taking good morning, m eric. Caller yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I believe that the intention of the president is good, its a very, very nice intention, but its note realistic either. Its completely unrealistic because the problem with carbon emission and all this pollution is that pollution does not have any bother. You cannot enforce pollution here in america when you have china, india, and when you have the developing other countries who are getting in there right r now, so what if we are complying here in america and china is no compliant, not only we have an advantage in term of production, but life is miserable for us, ad and now the electricity going up because even already the bills a have now are too high, so justs imagine now going green a the president is saying, so l unless they have everybody on bo the table, and when i say everybody, i sayag all the big nations, sitting down, and everybody agree to cutting effectively, because theres one thing to pledge and another to implement it. I dont think its a good idea. T thank you very much. Om a all right, eric. E whit thats a great point and h something heard from a number of critics. The white house has tried tnao make efforts. They reached a deal with china in november last month, reached another deal on Renewable Energy with brazil, and well see the r u. S. Really tryis to take a leadership role as the United Nations meets in paris in december to try to strike a deal. This plan alone and u. S. An alone will not solve Climate Change. By u. S. Is trying to show taking these big steps, other countries can follow along and everybody can Work Together. Host and these steps, how big are they compared to other countries . Guest its hard to say. We havent seen i think the u. S. Has said that what they are doing is larger. We, obviously, saw china take significant steps reaching a deal in november as well. All right. Dan in california, a republican, mckinleyville . Caller yes, it is. Thank you, cspan, you do great service. You know, im 67 years old. I remember back in the 1960s when i was attending college, and a stanford wrote a book called the population bomb all the range in the scientific and academic communities at the time, and in his book and lek chu tures, he warned of the catastrophic consequences in store for we humans by no later than the turn of the century if we did not take immediate steps to check our population growth. He predicted such dire consequences as mafamines, seve energy shortages, lower standards of living. Turn of the century came and gone, and none of these disasters happened. As a matter of fact, Energy Production never higher than today, and standards of living have never been higher than today, particularly in the worlds most populated countries, china and india, and so the academic and scientific communities have now moved on to a new cause, which is Climate Change. Even though our climates our planet climate history is repeated ice aged followed by periods of global warming, what do these people think caused the glaciers to melt after the iej age . Too many fires . The Combustion Engine was not invented yet. We got the point. There is this body of people in this country and others that do not believe what the scientists are saying, that do not believe that there is Climate Change or global warming, whatever. Certainly. We saw the president go rather aggressively against them yesterday. We heard he said that this is the last chance we have to take action. You know, the overwhelming majority of scientists agree Climate Change is happening. We are already seeing its effects. We have 14 of the 15 hottest years on records. Were in the last 15 years, so, you know, in setting the standards, they are trying to solve the problem that Scientists Say is in front of us. What influence do you think that the pope will have when he makes the visit in september, likely to be brought up when he talks before both chambers of congress and meets with the president . Absolutely. The pope who is cyclical on Climate Change, we have already seen tremendous impact on that, brought up a number of times, and, yes, it is certainly something that hes going to bring up in prompt of both chambers, could make leaders uncomfortable, john boehner who is a catholic does not agree with the position. Weve seen a number of prominent catholic republicans saying its not an issue for the pope to take on, but its certainly something to be brought up before congress and definitely at the white house. And jodi on twitter says this is the first generation to know enough to know Climate Change is reality. The next generation must be the ones to address it. Looking at twitter. Look at what some of the lawmakers and others have been saying about the debate. Speaker of the house tweeting its an expensive, arrogant insult to americans who struggle to make ends meet, and you have the u. S. Chamber saying the epa is stretching its authority beyond recognition, and also steve danes, republican, saying the obama administrations war on American Energy is a war on American Families and a war on american jobs, and also senator Maria Cantwell from washington state, the Clean Power Plan puts us on an unrealistic pathway to reduce more. Shes a democrat. And democrat from massachusetts, Clean Power Plant will grow the economy, protect Public Health from dangerous Carbon Pollution and act on climate, he says. Senator Patrick Leahy serves as a Judiciary Committee member, 14 of the 15 of the hottest years, thank you to the president for common sense action on Climate Change. The ad min straiter tweeted this out to midler. Thank you for the support, you are the queen air beneath my wings. Most exciting thing to happen in years, president obamas unve unveiled tougher climate plan with his legacy in mind. Reaction on twitter for you. Back to the calls. Hi, anthony. Caller hi, thank you for the call. You bet. I have to preface my call. Im working on my ph. D. Mechanical engineering, and whats lacking in the past where Nuclear Power is concerned. Of all the clean energy we have out there, its the most reliable and High Energy Density fuel. What part does the president see the Nuclear Energy plan within the economy . Thank you. As i said, every state has its own pathway to meet its goals. The Nuclear Industry was not pleased with how it was treated under the rule, saying they were not doing enough for plants under construction and rules would discourage future production. They have now plans that are under construction counts towards the final goal, not the initial target. Industry says that will help encourage more states to put plans under construction. Dan, republican, hi there. Caller hi, there. I have a comment and question. My comment is i believe we should go after the countries that are the biggest violators to start with. More government control in the United States is something we dont need. My question is for jason. Do you think that Nuclear Power plants is the way to go, but the amount of waste generated from the Nuclear Power plants, where are we going to store this stuff . Since its so radio active for so many years, the build up of it and possibility of a serious accident in a Nuclear Power plant one of these days could just wipe out where people live. I mean, whats the bigger problem . I think theyre overlooking that. What do you think we should do . Thats, obviously, a may squlor concern with Nuclear Power, and thats why weve seen it be such a controversial issue, the waste issue, the safety issue. Its all something that the industry and government has to contend with. What does this mean for sources of energy that are dominating current streams as the wall street journal from yesterday. These are the sources of u. S. Electricity and generation, Electricity Generation and millions of megawatts per hours. Look at where the power was coming back, coming from in 2005, its changed in 2015, most notably, natural gas making up a larger portion than it did in 2005. Coal is still on top, but natural gas splits where we got splitting it with coal compared to 2005. Right. Thats, obviously, the biggest change in the Energy Sector since 2005. The shale boom really brought natural gas into the mix. That was a concern for some people in the initial proposal. They said this is going to bring too much natural gas online, burns cleaner than coal, but not as clean as wind, solar, and others. The epa says that natural gas, rather than a rise by 2030 under the rule, its expected to remain more or less dplat compared to a business as usual scenar scenario. How is that . What are they doing to ensure that because coal under this scenario is relied on less, and natural gas does not take over. They put more in place to encourage wind and solar. Thats going to take up a larger share. Theres a new Incentive Program for states that bring wind and solar online before the rules take place in 2022. They can get pollution credits that can then be used as part of a trading mechanism to encourage states. Will we see a cap and trade program, and how will that work . Will it just be within a state or something to cross state lines . Thats a great question. The rule does encourage cap and trade, and, actually, in trusting line, says a carbon fee or tax could be used. We dont know exactly what thats going to look like. There is, as i said, the regional greenhouse Gas Initiative in the northeast set up a cap and trade program. Other states considered this as an option. I think as they start to write their implementation plans, well see how it takes effect, whether its simple states banding together, states set up a mechanism where utilities and Power Generators trade credits. It remains to be seen how thats going to come online. Our guest this morning with the National Journal energy and environment correspondent talking about what the president had to say yesterday on the new epa rule, getting your questions and comments, chris in raleigh, north carolina, a democrat, youre next. Caller yeah. They were talking about a republican caller talked about government control, and we dont need it, but the problem is that we dont have a democracy anymore, but an ag gar ki, and the people who have their hands on the Energy Production, they dont want to see change. We have unbelievable potential to solar, and this things a concluded fact. We dont have the government is supposed to be the people, so Little People dont have a voice, and its obvious to everybody that this exists, drowned out, and republicans are basically an insane party that do not want to believe the facts. Its my its going to take miami and the east coast to go underwater until these people wake up. You know, its just incredulous this has gone on for so long that the people are worried about jobs and we could just ship jobs to infrastructure, installing solar panels. The potential is unbelievable for this. It would change the whole economy, but they dont want the economy to change. The koch brothers, done with Citizens United ruling, and until thats reversed, money out of politics, we do not have a democracy, and the peoples will cant be done. Chris, talk about the players in the debate. Who is on the side of opposing . What groups . What the president wants to do . Who is in support of him . Well, i think we are largely seeing the fossil fuel industry against him and Congressional Republicans as well as 14 states coming together to sue the epa over the rules. That was against the proposed rules. It was rejected by the courts because the rule had not be beenizbeen finalized. On the other side, theres governors, Congressional Democrats coming out in support. Itll be interesting to see how it plays out on capitol hill. The house already passed a bill that would allow states to opt out. The senate has not been able to move on that, and they are going to see democrats really stand together, try to recruit moderates from the other side to protect the rules. Will environmental groups put pressure on these moderate democrats, independents, and possibly republicans up in 2016 . Oh, certainly, theres a lot of pressure on them. I wrote this morning somebody like kelly ayott in the senate has expressed concerns about Climate Change in the past. Were going to see environmental groups likely put pressure on her up for reelection in 2016. They want to see her not just talk about Climate Change, but vote to protect these rules. Willis, texas, rob, independent caller, good morning. Caller hello, thank you. Actually, a lot of Carbon Dioxide is produced to make solar panels because to purr my the silicon, 900 degrees f. They actually have a very high carbon foot print, and that needs to be told honestly with the megabucks behind them, so dont call them low carbon. The aluminum frames need a lot of electricity to make them so dont say that they are low carbon either. Electricity was produced by anything other than some hydro or whatever. Also, turning 40 of the corn into food when, like, 28 Million People a year are malnutritioned is a major factor in their deaths from World Health Organizations numbers. My big complaint, but i might callously say methane is emitted from decomposing bodies, but whats an acceptable body count . Leave it there and talk about solar panels, the point about them emitting carbon emissions, there is, you know, some impact on the environment by alternative energy. Im not an expert on manufacturing of solar panels. The point comes in Power Generation where, opposed to burning coal or natural gas, the solar panels are not emitting anything. Right. Moving on to eric in deer park, new york. Democrat. Caller yes. It should be required viewing for the movie called cool it, a documentary by a danish professor, environmentalist, who believes in Climate Change. He has all the solutions, and none of it is presented here. If everyone was required viewing, wed have solutions. The movie came out in 2010. Watch it. Take notes. Present it to everyone to the congress, president , and whether you believe in Climate Change or not, its cost benefit Analysis Solutions and what the president proposes does not work according to the movie. Phil, florida, a republican, hi, phil. Caller hey, how are you doing . Thank you for the forum. Good morning. Caller first thing, i want to talk about the irony of why iran called a done deal by senator john kerry, can have nuclear cape ability saying its for energy when they live in a dese desert. They have abundant sun for solar. They have wind. They could have windmills, but they want nuclear. Talk about that irony and i want to say that i think that this whole thing about saying that, well, what is the rest of the world going to think with the done deal, and we kaemcant wal away now. Well, we need a better deal. I think the rest of the world thinks that too. Thank you. Jason . Its up to each country. He was talking about the nuclear deal with iran. Its up to the country. Were going to see, as we have seen, the u. S. Try to use bilateral talks or international talks to put pressure on other countries. We saw this with india, president obama was over there, trying to encourage them to get more solar. In the lead up talks in paris, prauchlmentes it legacy issue for him. He has to put pressure on other countries to reach a conclusion in paris. Whats the epa in this administration done other than what we saw yesterday. What other facts did the administration take up until now to shape the president s Climate Change agenda . Absolutely. Well, they took a number of steps. As i mentioned, there were fuel economy standards that were going to double the fuel economy. Theyve taken action on heavy trucks as well. We saw them, theres a number of steps, and solar, wind, and really trying to change the energy mix so that it emits less pollution. And ed in danville, virginia, independent, youre next. Go ahead. Caller i want to remind this person year, mr. Jason, about Climate Change was here before this. In the 60s, global warming, then an ice age. Theres a little thing on the internet, temperature sensors, noaa, go and look at the temperature sensors they use to measure temperature to see if the climates changing, and they were next to heat sources, smokestacks, airport runways, and these sensors were supposed to be out in plane view not to be influenced by surrounding conditions, and one last thing, if Climate Change is a big deal, please explain to me why obama dpli dpl flies all over the country and world in the dirtiest aircraft there is, putting out all this pollution, but he doesnt care about that, but only us Little People having to do without. Okay, ed in danville, virginia. What does it mean for someones pocketbook . I mean, do we know yet on a monthly basis . You know, when people look at the utility bill, are they going to see a big difference . Well, we dont know. As we said, its going to take a long time for it to play out, and states look at it in different ways. We see, based on the energy mix in the state, your utility bill, might be different based on energy use. Your utility bill is different. Varies consumer to consumer, but as you said earlier, the white house has said this will save consumers on their industry bills in the long term. Way cross, georgia, louis, republican. Caller yes, maam, i think that electrical grids are very insufficient, and they have to be defined areas, how we use electricity. First of all, we lose half our energy through transmission. Its very inefficient. Were also susceptible to weather events and cyber security. We need to be looking at alternative other forms like pine tree resin to manufacture steam. Its flammable. Planting long leaf pine trees, and you get two components with that. You get c02, sequesteration from the tree. You also get pine cones. You can manipulate to grow cones by attacking it. Okay. All right. Lets take the point about the electric grid. Theres a number of steps. Both the house and energy and Commerce Committee and Natural Resources committee have each moved what they call comprehensive energy bills that would look at grid reliability. We also saw in the rule the epa set up what they call a safety valve where, if there is some reliability concern, there are allowances in there that will just give it a little more flexibility. Dave said they do not anticipate needing to use that, but, again, it is there just in case. Legislation likely to move on this and get a vote in the house and senate . On the comprehensive bills . About the electric grids specifically. Its been a priority. We saw the Energy Natural Resource Committee in the senate pass their bill to bipartisan bill, so that move the out of committee and the chairman would like to bring it to the floor. In the house, its just out of subcommittee. People want to see the bill go further, worked on over the rece recess, back in the fall, and then, who knows. What about yesterday in the epa . Well see on a number of different fro fronts. States will sit down, talk amongst themselves and each other about what they do. How did they comply with the plan . Whats the best, some of the states will opt out. Well see them look at what options are available for them. The epa said that if a state optings out, they have a federal plan to implement on that state as well as federal plans that state can use and move through the courts. There was a lawsuit against the proposed rule. I dont think its long before theres several lawsuits before the final rule. All right. Go to nationaljournal. Com, energy and environment kor responsibility for them. Thank you for the time this morning. Thank you. On the next washington journal, steven dinan of the Washington Times talks about a recent article on the First Six Months of the 114th congress, examing a congressional gridlock and myron ebell and jermy symons looks at the Clean Power Plan calling for 30 reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions from power plants, and your phone calls, comments, and tweets. Live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern ton cspan. Hear testimony from under secretary of state, wendy sherman, the lead negotiator for the u. S. , see comments live at 10 00 a. M. Eastern here on cspan 3, and after that, more about iran with replarks from palm and American University in washington speaking about the Nuclear Agreement as he continues to argue for congressional and public support on the deal. The president begins live at 11 00 eastern on cspan. Well feature programming weeknights on cspan2 beginning at 8 00 eastern, and at the end of the summer, two booktv special programs, september 5th, live from the Nations Capital for the book festival followed by our indepth program at the American Enterprise institute. Booktv on cspan2. Television for serious readers. Now testimony from health and Human Services secretary on her departments policy priorities. She spoke last week in front of the house education and Work Force Committee for a little more than two hours. Good morning, secretary. Good morning. Thank you for joining us to review the policies before us. As is often the case when a cabinet secretary appears before the committee. We have a lot of ground to cover in a short period of time. That is especially true for a department as big, powerful, and costly as the department of health and Human Services. At the end of the current fiscal year, hhs is expected to spend nearly 1 trillion administering numerous programming affecting americans like child care, health care, and Early Childhood development. In a time where families are squeezed by a week economy, theres a responsibility to make sure we operate efficiently and effectively. It is the responsibility we take seriously which is why this hearing is important and why we intend to raise a number of key issues. For example, learning about the changes to the child care and Development Block program. Last year, the committee championed reforms to the program to strengthen health and safety protections, help the parents, and improve quality of care. This helped countless moms and dads provide for the families, and hope the department is on track to implement changes quickly in line with congressional intent. Another Vital Program for many low income families is head start. Earlier this year, the committee outlined a number of key principles were strengthening the program like reducing regulatory burdens and promoting local innovation and discussion with parents. There was feedback to turn it into a legislative proposal. It was in the midst of the effort to reform the law that the department decided to launch a regulatory restructuring to the program. Some of the departments proposed changes help ill prove the program, but the sheer cost and scope raises concerns and led to some uncertainty among providers who serve the vulnerable children. Strengthening the laws is a better approach than those of a regulatory fiat and urge the administration to join us in the effort. These two areas alone fill up our time this morning and have not mentioned Services Provided under the well form reform act, and as you expect, on the minds of most members are the challenges the countries continues to face because of the president S Health Care law. Fames, workers, employers learn more and more about the harmful consequences of the law. For example, nations have access to fewer doctors, controlled cost estimated that insurance plans on the Health Care Exchanges have 34 fewer providers than nonexchange plans including 32 primary care doctors and 42 fewer oncolog t oncologists and plagued by abuse. A nonpartisan Accountability Office used Fake Identities to enroll 12 individuals in the subsidized coverage on health care exchange. This month, jao announced 11 of the 12 fake individuals are enrolled and receiving taxpayer subsidies, and more than 7 million individuals paid a penalty for not purchasing government approved Health Insurance, 25 more than the administration expected under the worst case scenario. According to the associated press, 4. 7 million individuals notified their plans were cancelled because they did not abide by the rigid man daytodays under the law. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the law results in 2. 5 million fewer fulltime jobs reflecting what we heard over and over again from employers who have no choice but to cut hours or delay hiring because of the laws burden mandates. Prices skyrocket. Health Insurance Companies are seeking rate increases of, quote, 20 to 40 or more. Markets are still adjusting to the quote, shock waves, set off by the Affordable Care act. After nearly 2 trillion in new government spending, its estimated more than 25 million individuals still lack basic Health Care Coverage. Yet, just last month, president obama said the law, quote, work the out better than some of us anticipated, close quote. Of course, for those who oppose this government takeover of health care, this is precisely what we anticipated and preciseprecise ly why the American People deserve a better approach. In closing, madam secretary, thank you for joining us this morning. It is our responsibility to hold you and the administration accountable, and we believe the country is moving the wrong direction. However, there are areas where i believe we can find commonground and advance positive solutions. Tonights hearing is a part of the efforts and look forward to the discussion. With that, i yield to Ranking Member bobby scott for opening remarks. Thank you, chairman, and welcome, secretary burwell, and thank you for being with us today. I look forward to your testimony. Well hear about the president s fiscal year 2016 health and Human Services Budget Proposal from the departments budget priorities. While the budget was released months ago, pleased to see the word priority is included in todays title of todays hearing. Budgeting requires tough choices, and a budget is reflection of prioritieprioriti. We decide what priorities are and how to best invest in the country. Pleased the president s budget request was reflective of many important priorities like protecting access to Health Care Insurance for all americans, giving all children a chance to succeed, and reducing inequality around the country. Many areas, i believe that weve made great progress on priorities, for example, the passage of the Affordable Care act has given millions of americans access to health coverage, some for the first time in their lives. The aca is also helped slow the growth in Health Care Costs, close the donut holes of seniors, and encourage and approved access to Mental Health services and preventative care. Just weeks ago, the Supreme Court decided in another case pertaining to the Affordable Care act in king, the legality of subsidies for those obtaining Health Insurance through the federal market place instead of a statewide marketplace was upheld. The Affordable Care act was structured and designed to improve health care cove ran and access across the entire country, and it has, and now those living in virginia have enjoyed access to insurance subsidies like someone in minnesota and because of the outcome of the case, they will continue to do so. I want to thank secretary burwell for efforts and departments hard work and implementing the aca, recognize the challenge that your agency faces in implementing the law with limited resources and unlimited attacks, but despite challenges, the aca is working. I was pleased to see it placed priority on giving all children a chance to succeed by ensuring robust funding to increase both access to and quality of Early Learning and child care programs. The republican budget adopted by the house earlier this year is not reflective of the shared National Priorities despite Research Showing that showing for every dollar spent on early education, there is a return of 7 in reduced costs in other parts of the budget. You must invest in quality Early Learning programs because all children deserve to enter kindergarten with Building Blocks of success. Decades of Research Show properly nurturing children in the first five years of life is instrumental in supporting enhanced brain development, cognitive functioning, and emotional and physical health. All too often, low income families lack access to childhood education, and these children tend to fall behind. In addition to this achievement gap, children who do not participate in high quality Early Learning programs are likely to have weaker educational outcomes, lower earnings, increased involvement in the criminal justice system, and increased teen pregnancy. Affordable high quality child car is not just critical for children, but for working parents because child care is a two generational program. Parents of Young Children need to have child care to go to work or school, and in a lack of stable child care is associated with job interruptions and job loss for working parents. Child care ought to be a National Priority for americans children and to grow our economy. Just two programs outside just two programs throughout the bulk of the federal roll and early education, head start program, and the Child Care Development block grant. Unfortunately, because of limited funding, too few children have access. This unmet need continues to grow. Only four out of ten eligible children have access to head start, and one out of six federally eligible families receive child care subsidies. We have decades of evidence that investing in programs like head start and child car Development Block grant work. The time is to invest in the programs and ensure we are giving all children the chance to succeed. Lastly, its past time for congress to raise the sequester level Discretionary Spending caps that are starting the progress we can make as a nation in important areas like health and education. The caps threaten nearly every program under the jurisdiction of the committee from low Income Home Energy assistance programs to Older Americans act and others. The sequesters led to woefully inadequate investment in Critical National needs and puts us on a path to another government shut down. In coming back to the ideas of priorities, investing in our nations future should be congresss number one priority, not Corporate Tax breaks or lowering the estate tax, but focus remains on investments that strengthen middle class and help hard working American Families get ahead. So thank you, mr. Chairman, and secretary for being here today. I thank the gentleman. Pursuant to 7c, all members are submit written statements and remains open for 14 days to allow such statements and other extraneous material referencesed in the areaing to be submitted for the hearing record. Its my pleasure to introduce our distinguished witness. The honorable silver matthews burrwell, secretary of health and Human Services, and prior to joining in 2014, she was the director of the office of management and budget where she oversaw the development of president obamas second term management agenda. In the clinton administration, she was Deputy Director of omb, deputy chief, and staff director of the National Economic counsel. Welcome, madam secretary. Ill now ask the secretary to stand and raise your right hand. Thank you. Do you swear or affirm the testimony youre about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth . Let the record reflect the witness answered in the affirmative. Before i recognize you to provide your testimony, let me briefly remind you or more importantly, my colleagues, of the lighting system. Five mimnutes for each witness o present, but i will be flexible on the timeline given youre the only witness and a cabinet secretary. I ask you, though, to limit remarks, because we have a lot of members with questions, and i will be strictly enforcing the five minute rule and perhaps the four minute rule. The secretary has a hard stop time at 12 00. Well honor that and ask the colleagues to be patient. Again, on the lights, when you start, and well put the timer on, but you can effectively ignore it if youd like. Its green, and then yellow with a minute to go, and red when the five minute mark is over, and that applies only to the secretary. To my colleagues, when the five minutes is up, its up. Now, youre recognized, madam secretary. Thank you, mr. Chairman and Ranking Member scott, as well as members of the committee. Thank you for this opportunity to discuss the president s budget for the department of health and Human Services. I believe firmly that we all share common interests, and, therefore, we have a number of opportunities to find commonground. We saw the power of commonground in the reauthorization of the child care and Development Block grants and Development Block grants that happened last fall as well as bipartisan sgr repeal earlier this year. I appreciate all of your work to get that passed. The president s budget proposes to end sequestration fully in 2016 to match dollars for the department of defense. Without further congressional action, this will return in full in 2016 bringing discretionary funding to its lowest level in a decade adjusted for indplags. We need a whole of government solution, and i hope that both parties can Work Together to achieve a balanced and common sense approach. The budget before you makes critical investments in health care, science, innovation, Public Health, and Human Services. It maintains our responsibility stewardship of the taxpayers dollar. It strengthens our Work Together with congress to prepare our nation for key challenges at home as well as abroad. For hhs, the budget proposes 83. 8 billion in discretional budget authority, and this increase will allow our department to deliver impact today and lay a Stronger Foundation for the nation for tomorrow. It is a fiscally responsible budget, in tandem with accompanying other proposals save taxpayers a net estimated 250 billion. The budget is projected to continue to slow the growth in medicare by securing 423 billion in savings as we build a better, smarter, healthier delivery system. To provide americans to affordable, Quality Health care, we build on historic progress in reducing the number of uninsured and improving coverage for families who already have insurance. The budget supports our efforts to move towards a Health Delivery system that delivers better care, spen dollars in a smarter way, and puts the patient at the center of the care to keep them healthy. The budget also improves access for native americans. To support communities throughout the country, the budget makes critical investments in Health Centers and our nationS Health Care work force, particularly in rural and other high need areas. To advance our shared vision for leading the world in science and innovation, the budget increases nih funding by 1 billion to advance biomedical and Behavioral Research among other priorities. It invests in precision medicine. A new effort focused on developing treatments, diagnostics, and prevention strategy, tailored to the individual genetic characteristics of a patient. To further common interest in providing americans with the Building Blocks of healthy and Productive Lives, this budget outlines an ambitious plan to make affordable quality child care available to working and middle class families, specifically the budget builds on important legislation passed by Congress Last fall to create a continuum of Early Learning opportunities from birth through age 5. This change would provide high quality preschool for every child, guaranteed quality child care for working families, grow the supply of working families for kbrouYoung Children, and eve based Home Visiting programs to keep americans safe and healthy. The budget strengths public and Health Infrastructure with 975 billion for domestic and International Preparedness and invests in behavioral Health Services incoming more than 99 million in new funding to combat heroin and other abuse. Finally, looking to leave the department stronger, the budget invests in our shared priorities after addressing waste, fraud, and abuse. Initiatives that are projected to yield 22 billion in gross savings. The budget addresses the departments medicare backlog with a coordinated approach. The budget makes a significant investment in the security of the Departments Information Technology and cyber security. I want to conclude by taking a moment to say how proud i am of the hhs team and employees that work on ebola. Their work every day and commitment every day. I assure you im personally committed to a responsive and open dialogue with members of this committee as well as your colleagues. I look forward to working closely with you, and i welcome your questions. Thank you. Thank you, madam secretary. The light did not even turn red. [ laughter ] im unprepared now. Im at a loss. Seriously, i want to thank you, madam secretary, for your ongoing efforts to keep us informed about the departments progress and implementing the child care and Development Block grant act of 2014 as well as opportunity for Committee Staff to communicate directly with your staff. Can you update us briefly on the timeline for the release of guidance and proposed rules in accordance with the act . With regard to, i think, our staff had an opportunity to go back and forth, and i think thats helpful in producing the guidelines, and hopeful that i think that im not sure which particular piece you are referring to, and i want to make sure and can follow up on that, but we have made progress and hope to get them out. One piece with regard to the implementation of the authorities you all gave us, theres an important piece of the budget related to the implementati implementation, and one of the things that we were told with regard to the authorities improve the quality, improve the safety, and, also, improve our ability to serve communities that sometimes are not served such as parents that work in different hours, and so theres funding in the budget were talking about today on discretionary side that i think is important to do that, and i do want to raise that as a part of the conversation, part in doing the implementation, there is funding to do that. Okay. Im not sure thats exactly what i was getting at, but thats good. Ill get the specifics of the timing. Happy to come back. Just trying to get a feeling of the timeline. Very much appreciate the exchange between staff, very, very helpful. I want to take remainder of my time, no doubt, and trying to be brief; but there is an issue having to do with the Affordable Care act thats just sitting out there, that really, really needs to be addressed, and that is the max amount of out of pocket limits for cost sharing im sure you heard about. I heard from several employers recently about this unilateral change the department made to cost sharing, maximum out of pocket limits, and we cant seem to determine where this is coming from. The statute is pretty clear. There are two separate and distinct types of coverage, selfonly and other than selfonly coverage, each with respective out of pocket limits. Before this new rule, any combination of family members out of pocket costs count towards the maximum out of pocket family coverage limits. Now the department declared starting in 2016, the individual out of pocket limit applies first before the family limit applies. That means the cost of the employer coverage will increase because insurance will pay 100 of the out of the pocket costs sooner. I understand that youre aware. Ive been led to believe youre aware of the concerns as im sure that employers have raised this issue directly with you and your staff, probably many times. They certainly have with us. Wed like to understand under what Statutory Authority you did that, and then id like to enter into the record letters from the industry committee, the American Benefits counsel, National Coalition on benefits convey grave concerns the departments new embedded maximum out of pocket rule. The letters also convey compliance not possible by 2016 given employers plans are already set for next year and not until may that Additional Guidance was issued that large employers knew the change applied to them. Real confusion out there, madam secretary, and, again, im fairly confident youre hearing some of this directly, but i want to make sure you heard from me. Can you commit to at least delay the impact of this really significant rule change for at least a year . If not, why not . So with regard to the issue of the question of the delay, we are now hearing and receiving feedback and will take and incorporate that and determine what to do to move forward. Its important to note why the change was put in place, and the change was actually put in place about the consumer, and the fact that when one consumer in a family hits that individual limit and the question of should they hit that family limit, and whether you should aggregate or the individual. I think, actually, when consumers purchase and how the consumer thinks about this issue, i hear and understand and are hearing from the companies in terms of how they think about the question of the maximum out of pocket limit, but if youre an individual in a family, do you think that limit is your individual limit, and then theres a broader family limit for all, and so once youve hit your individual limit, what happens is you would keep going, and so you would not have those things paid for, and you signed up in a place where you thought your individual limit was your individual limit and your family limit was for all members of the family. So thats how the consumer has tended to think about it, and at least what we heard from the sturm side of it. So that is why we have gone forward. We are hearing comments, and we want to incorporate comments and understand if its implementble. I understand the point of the view of the consumer here, not making light of that, but the statute, we think, is pretty clear, and so because there is so much confusion out there, and there is the uncertainty and arguably the inability to com y comply, we are hopeful that you will commit sooner rather than later to the delay of the rule changes. The light is red for me, but mr. Scott, you are recognized. Thank you, secretary. I want to ask questions about the Affordable Care act, and thank you to the outreach, particularly the regional director in my area just been outstanding, and i would reach into the community, making sure that people know about it, and during the sign up period was all over my district, so im sure she was all over the region. Can you say a word about what the Affordable Care act does for people with insurance in terms of preexisting conditions and job lock . So two Different Things that i think it does. With regard to preexisting conditions, it creates a situation where anyone with a preexisting condition is able to get insurance. So whether its the people that i met traveling across the country concerned for their children as their children get older, a child who has asthma or other conditions or one who had cancer is now well, their priority to know they will not be locked out. Its known to create health and financial worry for people in the system, and with regard to the lock out and job loss, theres many people who would not make changes because of a fear of losing coverage, and that is a part of the numbers that the chairman stated in terms of the changes that occur because with regard to the prior based market, we have not in the two years that the Affordable Care act has been up seen that shift from employer based coverage in temples of the reduction in percentage of employees, in employer based coverage, we have not seen that shift, and some of the estimates are about, though, people who choose to make a decision to go do something entrepreneurial to start a business or make other changes in their lives, and so the lock that was created because they were fearful of losing coverage does not exist because they have an option, and that is option is through the marketplace. And what happened to the growth in healthcare costs since the passage of the aca . With regard to the growth of Health Care Costs thinking about it in terms of weve had some of the lowest priced growth per capita that we have seen in 50 years in terms of slowing of that growth. I think when discussing the question of growth and cost growth, while its a hard thinged to do and recognize, one needs to look at historical growth and what growth is, and so if we look at what was released recently in the Medicare Trustees report, which is reflect on the Public Sector cost of the growth. What we saw is growth of 1. 2 over the period of the last four years. What we saw in the period before then was 3. 6 growth. So what weve seen is a slowing in a lot of different places, both the public and private, of that growth. And the programs under jr. Jurisdiction, can you say a word about the effect of the sequesteration, if we do not do something about the sequesteration . Looking at the issue of being funded at the lowest level in a decade when one accounts for inflation, it is across the entire department, and whether thats an issue of head start or child care well focus on in this committee, its also in places like the nih in the research or the cdc whos been so active this year in so many ways whether thats ebola, measles, or in places like the fda who are doing things like making sure our food is safe and that we are watching and taking care and that our drugs and diagnostics are safe. Its across the entire department, and also, another place that this particular committee is interested in, i know, is the Older Americans r and the programs that we have there to support those Older Americans around food and transportation as well as elder justice. Thank you. Head start is not in the department of education. Its in the department of health and Human Services. Can you explain why its important what the services that low income children get by remaining in health and Human Services that would not be available in just an Educational Program and why head start is so important . So i think that the program of head start, we have it as part of our continuum at hhs starting with Home Visiting, and thank you to all of yall who supported the Sustainable Growth rate bill with the extension of the Home Visiting, and evidence based programs that starts with the care in the home, visiting the home, and helping start children on the right track. We believe that continuum as well as the changes in the authorizations in head start that you all have done to push to improve quality is all part of the continuum and that the continuum is related to the issues we work on broadly at hhs and whether thats starting the mother on the right trajectory with regard to Maternal Health so the child is born in a certain environment thats taken care of for nine months, continuing early care, starting learning early and brain development. The science we know in having a 5 and 7yearold of how quickly neurodevelopment occurs and how fast they learn, sometimes it surprises me, but it is what we believe is a continuum of both health and the Building Blocks of healthy Productive Lives that we use at hhs. Thank you, mr. Chairman . I thank the gentleman. Dr. Fox. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and, madam secretary, welcome to our hearing. I appreciate you bringing up the Older Americans act. We are looking at the the committees looking at ways to promote best combat elder abuse. And i wonder if you could talk a little bit about how the department is working with other agencies to protect vulnerable elders. So working across the department and, obviously, the department of justice is a partner with some of the work that we do. But most recently, whether its with our department and states as well as other stakeholders, the white house conference on age, we took an approach this year where we actually went out to communities across the country and this was one of the pillars and issues that we focused on and used that as an opportunity to bring in the engagement and involvement of both why is s why ises as well can implement better as a department. Those are stakeholders on the ground and states. Many are implemented at that level. And would you discuss a little bit those delivering models of the Older Americans act and what makes them work well. You working with other agencies, im sure, does is the right thing to be doing. But are there ways to implement these similar delivery models across other programs, across the country . And how is the department providing leadership to do that . So i think two, there are many things but ill just focus a short time on. Two things that i think are important in this space. And one is actually the awareness of the issue. Elder abuse is something that is creating a greater awareness of it i think is an important thing to do. Also, knowing justice is served. We need to continue to work with state and local officials on that as well as federal. And i think one very specific example of that is the recent takedown that was done on medicare. You all probably know that our most recent takedown, a joint effort with us, doj, the fbi, hhs, oig, and cmf, it was over 700 million in false billing. Many were around elder justice issues. Patients were being told they were treated for dementia and were simply being moved from one location to another, being charged for that. And medicare was therefore charged. I think it is the combination of those things we try and bring together. Thank you very much for that. We know that you are scott brought up headstart performance standards. We know that headstart is the Largest Program we have at working with Young Children. But we are concerned about the impact of the regulations that you are putting out there. We wanted you to not reauthorization of 2007 required you to have regulatory revisions not result in the elimination of or reduction in quality of scope of services. But you are talking about a reduction of 122,000 childrens slots, elimination of 10,000 teacher jobs. How can you ensure that the revisions you are proposing are in compliance with the 2007 law . We have done three issues of regulations with regard to implementing the law. This is the third of those. The first in terms of we make sure they are serving low income communitiesment the other making sure there were reviews. People are had to reapply for the money, the grantees. We set standards. This is the third part. In this part we are using evidencebased studies to improve the quality and safety, which we believe that the authorization is what it told us to do. One of the things that the chair mentioned is we got rid of onethird of the guidelines in terms of simplifying and making it easier. With regard to some of the things youre referring to, youre referring to the extension of the day and the year. And the evidence that we have seen, all the Scientific Evidence shows moving from three and a half hours to six hours is an important effort to provide the quality that we need to provide. And the summers, having two children right now going through their summer, what they lose if they do not have is that kind of continued education. We propose the amount of money it would take in our budget. We hope we can move forward on that. If they cant meet that, there is waiverability. Thank you. The gentlemenladys time has expired. Thank you, chairman clyne. And Ranking Member scott. I strongly support the health and Human Service budget request and ask that we Work Together to forge a consensus on how to ensure that your families continue to have a access to Quality Health Care Coverage and Adequate Funding for head start. We can invest in our preschool programs today or in juvenile detention tomorrow. Wont have heard pope francis deliver a very strong message all over the world urging leaders like us. The pope says we must make the right amount of investments to address poverty found in older senior persons and children in low income families. Thank you for your testimony on the aoe normal act we have made since the enactment of aca. Today my congressional district, because the Affordable Care act there are over 100,000 individuals who now have Health Insurance. And 88,000 seniors who are now eligible for Medicare Preventive Services without paying any copays, coinsurance or deductible. We know that another program, head start is a Crucial Development of program in my congressional district. This program serves between 15,000 to 20,000 children and families. Head start has made a Significant Impact on improving the opportunities for eligible children, especially our nations latino and africanamerican youth. Thank you for your strong budget support for this program. My first question, what is at stake for our nation if we ignore the ever growing body of research and we fail to sufficiently fail to invest in Early Childhood learning. We discussed the head start portion of it. But theres also the child care proposal. And part of the child care proposal on the discretionary side comes to part of the chairmans question in terms of implementing the authorization. Thats on the discretionary side. The broader proposal that we have, which is a larger mandatory proposal is about making sure theres access on this continuum. So what we do is take care of that child from the moment of that Home Visiting and the pregnancy through those early years of education and we do that both for those at the lowest level of income. Head start is focused on that. But child care. Thats a part of what wire processing child care for working families. Theres supplement so they can afford that up through the school age. What we are trying to do is create a continuum, which we think is a part of the authorization some some of the concepts of the authorization. This budget funds it fully. We believe its one of the most important priorities. As we review the budget and put it together, its where we make choices, prioritize and put a lot of our dollars. It is important to the longterm health of those children and the wellbeing of our society. I agree with you. And i recommend that you consider asiding more on early reading and writing in children from cradle through the fourth year so they can love books and improve their vocabulary and be able to stay at grade level and do well. In my district the majority of the uninsured population falls under the medicaid coverage gap and does not qualify for assistance in the health care marketplace. According to the Kaiser Family foundation, up to 950,000 uninsured people would gain Health Care Coverage if the state of texas decided to expand medicaid. What justification, if any, have you heard or received and how has hhs responded to discussions that you have had with the governors like abbott in texas . So with regard to the conversation with the governors, i spent the weekend at the national governsors association and the year before that i did as well. In terms of any concerns governors have, we want to expand the program in a way that implements the statute, which is about expanding access and doing it for low income populations so it is affordable. We want to do that in ways that work for states. I think in terms of answering concerns and questions, whether its the negotiations we did with governor pence and i personally participated in a number of other governors so we can make sure we do this in a way a that serves the citizens, the state, that may have different needs. So in terms of one of the issues that comes up, i want to clearly arctic want to work with governors in their state. Thank you. I yield back. The gentleman yields back. I will yield to dr. Rowe. I want to give members a headsup. We are looking at a clock and time. I will recognize dr. Rowe for five minutes. And probably ms. Davis, maybe mr. Wahlberg and a after that we will have to start dropping down. We will go to four minutes. Im trying not to go to three or two. But i want to give everybody a chance to be involved in this conversation