Abundant and clean energy while here in our communities. While we spend tax dollars on less viable options. I would like to ask favorable consideration on the bipartisan hydro amendment to be offered very shortly. With that, i yield back. The chair the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. Without objection, the amendment is withdrawn. For what purpose does the gentlelady from oregon rise . I have an amendment at the desk. The clerk amendment offered by ms. Bonamici. Page 27, line 13 after the dollar amount insert reduced by 9 million the chair the chair recognizes the gentlelady from oregon. Ms. Bonamici i rise today because of the power and potential of water and in support of a bipartisan amendment that im pleased to offer with my colleagues from pennsylvania. Mr. Chairman, our amendment would increase funding to the department of energys Water Power Program by just 9 million, a small price tag that will yield a huge return. This increase is offset by an equal amount by the Departmental Administration account. The modest increase will support hydropower and the development of innovative hydropower technologies. Development of these new technologies can offer the United States a chance to lead the world in an he merging area. Marine and hydro Kinetic Energy from waves, current and tides unlike the sun and wind, do not stop, is an exciting frontier. Oregon state university, university of washington and university of alaska fairbanks are using federal funding from the Water Power Program to support the program and Research Activities of the Northwest MarineRenewable Energy center which will provide entrepreneurs a domestic location to test devices along with other technologies rather than traveling to scotland. Without continued federal investment, europe will remain the leader. When fully developed, wave and Tidal Energy Systems could generate a significant amount of total energy used in the United States. As congress promotes technologies to lower our energy bills, we must embrace new solutions. With this modest increase, the Water Power Program can do that while continuing to support a federal investment in conventional Hydropower Technology. I urge bipartisan of the bipartisan amendment and i reserve. The chair the gentlelady reserves. For what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seeks recognition . Mr. Perry i rise in favor of the amendment and the chair the gentleman claim time in opposition . Mr. Perry i do claim time in opposition although im not object jectsing. I rise in support of the amendment and see it as a reasonable bipartisan approach and agreement, which has seen favorable consideration in this house in the past and as i said just recently, hydropower is the most reliable, affordable and Sustainable Energy source and seems to me while we spend money time and energy on unproven resources, this is one that has stood the test of time it is one of the beginning of sources of energy, not only in the United States but around the globe. This is one that we know. This is one that is in every community. This is one that is clean. It doesnt create too much noise for people. It doesnt hurt fish. All it does is produce power without doing anything else. Its hard to argue why we wouldnt be in support of this program. With that, i urge my colleagues to vote in support of this amendment. And i yield the balance. The chair the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentlelady from oregon. Ms. Bonamici i thank the gentleman from pennsylvania for his cosponsorship of this amendment and again this is a modest increase in the Water Power Program that supports Hydropower Technology as well as new and Innovative Solutions and i urge support of this bipartisan amendment. And i yield back. The chair the gentlelady yields back. The the question is on the amendment offered by the gentlelady from oregon. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it and the amendment is adopted. For what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee secretary recognition. Mr. Cohen i rise to offer an amendment. The chair the clerk will offer the mr. Simpson i yield to the gentlelady from ohio. The chair the gentleman yields. Ms. Kaptur i want to invite the gentleman from alabama to ohio. I want you to see part of the new Energy Sector. It does involve clean energy. I support fossil based research but i also support coal and tidal energy and wind and biofuels geothermal, all of them because we need them. New investment in clean energy in our country in 2013 totaled 37. 7 36. 7 billion. The leading company in solar is a u. S. Born company, born in ohio, called first solar. You mentioned nonproductivity. Their stock is sold on wall street. They benefited early on in that companys life by photo voltaic research beginning back in the 1970s and 1980s at the u. S. Department of energy. Its incredible to see the future being born. And im hoping alabama can take advantage of that kind of technology. What concerns me and one of the reasons im on my feet at this point is because they have competition from china. The first and Second Companies in the world being subsidized by the chies these Chinese Government are in tough competition with the u. S. Born company. And we cant ignore the fact that Global Venture capital and private equity in new investment in clean energy increased from . 4 billion in 2004 to 4. 4 billion in 2013. The question is where is that going to be invested . In our country or someplace else . So i would just say weve made tremendous progress in an all of the above strategy, renewable sources now account for 23 of all Electricity Generation globally. Thats amazing progress. And were learning how to work in conjunction with the earth. Who would have guessed that ethanol would now consume 10 of what you put in your tank . People said you cant even get to 1 . Now theyre looking to 5 . Its unbelievable whats happening in to 15 . Its unbelievable whats happening in these fields. I appreciate the gentleman wanting to be responsible, i think we are being responsible in providing an all of the above bill including new Energy Technologies that will help our country in future generations so we no long ver to be dependent on imported energy. Which i believe is our chief vulnerability. I rise in strong opposition to the gentlemans amendment. The chair the gentleman from alabama. I rejoice with the gentlewoman from ohio that theres a company thats making money. We should always be about American Companies making money. But theyre making money that dont need a subsidy from the government. We have, id like you to come to alabama. Where coal miners are losing their jobs. Because we have a war on coal in this country. We give lip service to all of the above and the administration has a deliberate policy of attacking coal as a means of energy for our country and putting people out of work. So id invite you to come and see the suffering of our people because of that onesided strategy. Were going to attack coal but give money to alternative energy. Theres something wrong with that i understand the gentlewoman wants to stand up for a Great Company in ohio and id love to come see it because i think an all of the above strategy is good for america. But were picking winners and losers with this money. And the administration is picking losers by attacking coal as a source of energy and a source of jobs for our american people. So i would hope that we would care as much about those coal miners in West Virginia and kentucky and alabama ms. Kaptur and ohio. As ohio as we do about the Energy Programs were subsidizing. No one is subsidizing coal miners. No one is sub diesing families that have lost their means of living. But were going to subsidize other companies. Maybe theyre doing good things maybe theyre not because we have a lopsided understanding about how to do things in this country. Let the Energy Sector go. Let oil and natural gas and coal go. Look what weve done to the prees of oil and the price of gas. Just over the last year. Because they have innovated on their own. They dont need the government to innovate for them. They need the government to get out of their way. Does the gentlewoman want to respond . Ms. Kaptur ohio is a major coal producing state and weve had more coalfired utilities shut down in ohio than almost any other state, i identify with what the gentleman is saying and frankly i think we as a country have to be much more responsive to our miners and to coal country u. S. A. I represent the largest coal shipping port on the great lakes, i fully appreciate what youre saying. I support that industry from the day i got here, i supported researching Clean Coal Program and continue to do so so i just want you to know that. We dont disagree on harming any sector, we need them all. Reclaiming my time, i would just say i wish we could put money into that program like we did into this. I yield back. The chair the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from alabama. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair the noes have it. The gentleman from alabama. Pursuant to clause 6, rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment of the gentleman from alabama will be postponed. For what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Mr. Chairman, i have an amendment at the desk. The chair the clerk will report the amendment. The clerk amendment offered by mr. Mcclintock of california, page 21, lines 5 and 6 after each dollar amount insert reduced by zero dollars. Reduced to zero dollars. Page 22, line 3, after the dollar amount insert reduced by 691,886,000. Page 22 lines 20 and 21, after each dollar amount insert reduced to zero dollars. Page 57, line 11, after the dollar amount insert increased by 2,954,660,000. The chair pursuant to House Resolution 223 the gentleman from california and a member opposed each will control five minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from california. Mr. Mcclintock this amendment is similar to the other one, but it requires all companies to fund their own research, rather than taxpayers subsidizing it to 3 billion. It doesnt affect funds set aside for Nuclear Waste disposal or National Defense projects. For too long weve suffered from the conceit that politicians can make better investments with tax pay money than investors can do with their own money. Its this con seept thats produced a long line of scandals best illustrated by the solyndra fiasco. It doesnt even benefit the common good by placing these discoveries in the public domain. Any discoveries although financed by the public, are owned, lock, stock and barrel by the private companies that receive these public funds. Public cost, private benefit, this is nothing but corporate welfare and thats what these amount to. My amendment protects taxpayers it gets government out of the energy business. Last year, when we debated similar amendments we heard of all the Technological Breakthroughs financed by the federal government from railroads to the internet, we heard promises of future breakthroughs from this massive expenditure of public funds and i freely recognize that if you hand over millions of dollars of public subsidies to a private corporation, perhaps in ohio, that corporation will do very well. Some of these dollars might even produce a breakthrough that will then be owned by that private corporation and then it will do extremely well. But would the advocate what the advocates of these fail to consider is the dilemma between the seen and unseen. We see the company that makes out like a bandit. What we dont see are the sacrifices that struggling families and Small Businesses must make as these taxes are taken away from them. You dont see Small Companies struggle by having to compete against their own tax dollars given to corporate competitors by a doting friend in government. Making investments based on the highest economic return of these dollars. Politicians using other peoples money make investments based on the highest political return of these dollars. Thats the principal difference between Apple Computer and solyndra or between fedex and the post office. These public subsidies in effect take dollars that would have naturally flowed into the most effective and promising technologies and diverts them into those that are politically favored. Dollar for dollar, this minimizes our Energy Potential enstead of maximizing it. For example, hydraulic fracturing has revolutionized the fossil fuels industry and offers us the chance to be energy independent. After the oil embargo, the federal government spent . 5 billion on oil and Gas ProductionResearch Much of it on shale production and a accomplished nothing. The government lost interest. Private investors renew interest and began producing the technologies used in todays boom. Public investment failed miserably. Private investment succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. In short if the technology is promising it does not need our help and if it isnt our promise if it isnt promising it doesnt deserve our help. In either case we have no business taking from the earnings of struggling families and Small Businesses to pay the research and Development Budgets of big corporations. I reserve. The chair the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from idaho seek recognition . Mr. Sitchson i rise in opposition to the amendment. The chair the gentleman is recognized for five minutes in opposition. Mr. Simpson i rise to oppose this amendment. Hydraulic fracking has been going on for 40 or 50 years in this country by the way. We have worked tirelessly to reduce goth spending. The bill already cuts Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy programs by 266 million below last years request and 1. 1 billion below the budget request. The fossil and nuclear Energy Programs you see targeted increases of 34 million and 23 million respectively. The increased fossil Energy Targets advanced research that will increase the efficiency of advanced turbines during Electricity Generation. The increased Nuclear Energy will support security upgrades for the yid National Laboratory to protect the nations Nuclear Energy materials and a range of Nuclear Security programs at the n. S. A. , Homeland Security and other federal agencies. Though any colleague asserts the amendment would keep the government from intervening in the private markets, these apply to these applied Energy Programs are strootiegic investments. I appreciate the desire to reduce the size of the government, agree with him. This amendment goes too far by eliminating the investments we need to make for our future. I oppose this amendment and ask my colleagues to oppose it also and reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from california. The gentleman reserves. The gentleman from california. Mr. Mcclintock thank you. Mr. Chairman i would simply respond to my friend from idaho that hes right to point with pride to the fact that the Appropriations Committee has reduced ie eere spend big 16 . Hes certainly on the right track. Hes just moving a little slowly in that regard. We want to help him by doing what is right and restoring to the private investors the responsibility of using their own money to research and develop these Energy Breakthroughs and leave the federal government to doing what it does best and that is staying out and letting the private sector succeed. The chair the gentlemans time has expire this egentleman from idaho. Mr. Simpson mr. Simpson i yield back. The chair the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from california. Those in favor say aye. Pose pez. The noes visit. Mr. Mcclintock spi ask for a recorded vote. The chair the pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, further pr seedings will be postponed. This clerk will read. The clerk electricity reliability 1,870,000. Fossil Energy Research and development 600 the chair the clerk will suspend. For what purpose does the gentleman from idaho seek recognition . I move that the committee do now rise. The chair the question is on the motion that the committee rise. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. The motion is adopted. Accordingly the committee rises. The speaker pro tempore mr. Chairman. The chair mr. Speaker, the committee of the whole house on the state of the union having had under consideration h. R. 028 directs me to report it has come to no resolution thereon. The speaker pro tempore the chairman of the committee of the whole house on the state of the Union Reports that the committee has had under consideration h. R. 2028 and has come to no resolution thereon. For what purpose does the gentleman from idaho seek recognition . Mr. Simpson i move that the house do now adjourn. The speaker pro tempore the question is on the motion to adjourn. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. The house stands hillary thank you, thanks so much. I am absolutely delighted to be back here at columbia. I want to thank president bollinger and dean jano and everyone at the school of international and Public Affairs it is a special treat to be here with and on behalf of a great leader of this city and our country, David Dinkins. He has made such an indelible impact on new york and i had the great privilege of working with him as the first lady and then, of course, as a new senator. When i was just starting out as a senator, davids door was always open. He and his wonderful wife, joyce, were great friends and supporters and good sounding boards about ideas that we wanted to consider to enhance the quality of life and opportunities for the people of this city. I was pleased to address the dinkins leadership and Public Policy forum in my first year as a senator and i so appreciated then as i have in all of the years since, davids generosity with his time and most of all his wisdom. So 14 years later, i am honored to have this chance, once again to help celebrate the legacy of one of new yorks greatest public servants. Im pleased, too, that you will have the opportunity after my remarks to hear from such a distinguished panel, to go into more detail about some of the issue that we face. I also know that manhattan borough president gail brewer is here along with other local and community leaders. Because surely this is a time when our collective efforts to devise approaches to the problems that still afflict us is more important than ever. Indeed it is a time for wisdom. For, yet again, the family of a young black man is grieving a life cut short. Yet again, the streets of an American City are marred by violence, by shattered glass and shouts of anger and shows of force. Yet again, a community is reeling, its fault lines laid bare and its bonds of trust and respect frayed. Yet again Brave Police Officers have been attacked in the line of duty. What we have seen in baltimore should indeed, i think does, tear at our soul. From ferguson to Staten Island to baltimore, the patterns have become unmistakable and undeniable. Walter scott shot in the back, in charleston, south carolina. Unarmed, in debt terrified of spending more time in jail for Child Support payments he couldnt afford. Tamir rice shot in a park in cleveland, ohio, unarmed, and just 12 years old. Eric garner, choked to death after being stopped for selling cigarettes on the streets of our city and now freddie gray. His spine nearly severed while in police custody. Not only as a mother and a grandmother, but as a citizen, a human being, my heart breaks for these young men and their families. We have to come to terms with some hard truths about race and justice in america. There is [applause] hillary there is something profoundly wrong when African American men are still far more likely to be stopped and searched by police, charged with crimes and sentenced to longer prison terms than are meted out to their white counterparts. There is something wrong when a third of all black men face the prospect of prison during their lifetimes, an and estimated 1. 5 million black men are missing from their families and communities because of incarceration and premature death. There is something wrong when more than one out of every three young black men in baltimore cannot find a job. There is something wrong when trust between Law Enforcement and the communities they serve breaks down as far as it has in many of our communities. We have allowed our criminal Justice System to get out of balance. And these recent tragedies should galvanize us to come together as a nation to find our balance again. We should begin by heeding the pleas of freddie grays family for peace and unity echoing the families of Michael BrownTrayvon Martin and others in the past years. Those who are instigating further violence in baltimore are disrespecting the gray family and the entire community. They are compounding the tragedy of freddie grays death and setting back the cause of justice. So the violence has to stop. But more broadly, lets remember that everyone in every Community Benefits when there is respect for the law and when everyone in every community is respected by the law. That is what we have to work towards in baltimore and across our country. We must urgently begin to rebuild the bonds of trust and respect among americans. Between police and citizens yes, but also across society. Restoring trust in our politics, our press our markets. Between and among neighbors and even people with whom we disagree politically. This is so fundamental to who we are as a nation and everything we want to achieve together. It truly is about how we treat each other and what we value, making it possible for every american to reach his or hear her god given potential regardless of who you are, where you were born or who you love. The inecequities that persist in our Justice System undermine this shared vision of what america can be and should be. I learned this firsthand as a young attorney just out of law school, at one of those law schools that will remain nameless here at columbia. One of my earliest jobs for the childrens defense fund, which david had mentioned, i was so fortunate to work with Marian Wright adelman as a young lawyer and then serving on the board of the childrens defense fund, was studying the problem then, of youth, teenagers sometimes preteens incarcerated in adult jails. Then, as director of the university of Arkansas School of laws legal aid clinic, i advocated on behalf of Prison Inmates and poor families. I saw repeatedly how our legal system can be and all too often is stacked against those who have the least power who are the most vulnerable. I saw how families could be and were torn apart by excessive incarceration. I saw the toll on children growing up in homes shattered by poverty and prison. So unfortunately i know these are not new challenges by any means. In fact, they have become even more complex and urgent over time and today they demand fresh thinking and bold action from all of us. Today, there seems to be a growing bipartisan movement for common sense reforms in our criminal Justice System. Senators as disparity on the political sect spectrum as corey paul and rand lee are reaching across the aisle to find ways to Work Together. It is rare to so democrats and republicans agree on anything today but were beginning to agree on this. We need to restore balance to our criminal Justice System. Now, of course, it is not enough just to agree and give speeches about it. We actually have to Work Together to get the job done. We need to deliver real reforms that can be felt on our streets, in our courthouses, and our jails and prisons in communities too long neglected. Let me touch on two areas in particular where i believe we need to push for more progress. First, we need Smart Strategies to fight crime that help restore trust between Law Enforcement and our communities especially communities of color. Theres a lot of good work to build on. Across the country, there are so many Police Officers out there every day inspiring trust and confidence honorably doing their duty, putting themselves on the line to save lives. There are Police Departments already deploying creative and effective strategies, demonstrating how we can protect the public without resorting to unnecessary force. We need to learn from those examples, build on what works. We can start by making sure that federal funds for state and local Law Enforcement are used to bolster best practices rather than to buy weapons of war that have no place on our streets. [applause] hillary president obamas task force on policing gives us a good place to start. Its recommendations offer a road map for reform from training to technology guided by more and better data. We should make sure every Police Department in the country has body cameras to record interaction between officers on patrol and suspects. That will improve transparency and accountability. It will help protect good people on both sides of the lens. For every tragedy caught on tape there surely have been many more that remained invisible. Not every problem can be or will be prevented by cameras but this is a commonsense step we should take. The president has provided the idea of matching funds to state and local governments investing in body cameras. We should go even further and make this the norm everywhere and we should listen to Law Enforcement looking at measures to prevent crime rather than measuring success just by the number of arrests or convictions. I supported greater efforts in Community Policing along with putting more officers on the streets to get to know those communities. David dinkins was an early pioneer of this policy. His leadership helped lay the foundation for dramatic drops in crimes in the years that followed. And today Smart Policing in communities that builds relationships, partners and trust, makes more sense than ever, and shouldnt be limited just to officers on the beat. Its an ethic that should extend throughout our criminal Justice System, to prosecutors and patrol officers, to judges and lawmakers. We all share a responsibility to help restitch the fabric of our neighborhoods and communities. We also have to be honest about the gaps that exist across our country, the upequality that stalks our streets because you cannot talk about Smart Policing and reforming the criminal Justice System if you also dont talk about whats needed to provide Economic Opportunity better educational chances for young people more support to families so they can do the best job they are capable of doing to help support their own children. Today i saw an article on the front page of u. S. A. Today that really struck me, written by a journalist who lives in baltimore, and heres what i read three times to make sure i was reading correctly. At a conference in 2013 at Johns Hopkins university, vice provost, jonathan bagger, pointed out that only six miles separate the baltimore neighborhoods of rowland park and hollins market, but there is a 20year conference in the average Life Expectancy. We have learned, in the last few years, that Life Expectancy, which is a measure of the quality of life in communities and countries, manifests the same inequality that we see in so many other parts of our society. Women, white women without high school education, are losing Life Expectancy. Black men and black women are seeing their Life Expectancy goes down in so many parts of our country. This may not grab headlines although i was glad to see it on the front page of u. S. A. Today, but it tells us more than i think we can bear about what we are up against. We need to start understanding how important it is to care for every single child as though that child were our own. David and i started our conversation this morning talking about our grandchildren. Now, his are considerably older than mine. But it was not just two longtime friends catching up with each other. It was so clearly sharing what is most important to us, as it is to families everywhere in our country. So i dont want the discussion about criminal justice Smart Policing, to be siloed and to permit discussions and arguments and debates about it to only talk about that. The conversation needs to be much broader because that is a symptom, not a cause, of what ails us today. The second area where we need to chart a new course is how we approach punishment and prison. Its a stark fact that the United States has less than 5 of the worlds population, yet we have almost 25 of the worlds total prison population. The numbers today are much higher than they were 30, 40 years ago, despite the fact that crime is at historic lows. Of the more than two million americans incarcerated today, a significant percentage are lowlevel offenders, people held for violating parole or minor drug crimes or who are simply awaiting trial in backlogged courts, keeping them behind bars does little to reduce crime but it does a lot to tear apart families and communities. One in every 28 children in our country now has a parent in prison. Think about what that means for those children. When we talk about 1. 5 million missing African American men were talking about missing husbands, missing fathers missing brothers. Theyre not there to look after their children or to bring home a paycheck, and the consequences are profound. Without the mass incarceration that we currently practice, millions fewer people would be living in poverty and its not just families trying to stay afloat with one parent behind bars. Of the 600,000 prisoners who Reenter Society each year, roughly 60 face longterm unemployment. And for all this, taxpayers are paying about 80 billion a year to keep so many people in prison. The price of incarcerating a single inmate is often more than 30,000 per year and up to 60,000 in some states. Thats the salary of a teacher or a police officer. One year in a new jersey state prison costs 44,000 more than the annual tuition at princeton. If the United States brought our correctional expenditures back in line with where they were several decades ago wed save an estimated 28 billion a year and i believe we would not be less safe. You can pay a lot of Police Officers and nurses and others with 28 billion to help us deal with the pipeline issues. Its time to change our approach. Its time to end the era of mass incarceration. We need a True National debate about how to reduce our prison population while keeping our communities safe. I dont know all the answers. Thats why im here, to ask all the smart people at columbia and in new york to start thinking this through with me. I know we should Work Together to pursue alternative punishments for lowlevel offenders. They do have to be in some way registered in the criminal Justice System, but we dont want that to be a fast track to longterm criminal activity. We dont want to create another incarceration generation. I have been encouraged to see changes i supported as a senator to reduce the unjust federal sentencing disparity between crack and powdered cocaine crimes finally become law and last year the Sentencing Commission reduced recommended prison terms for some drug trims. President obama and former attorney general holder have led the way with important additional steps and i am so looking forward to our new attorney general, Loretta Lynch carrying this work forward. There are other measures that i and so many have championed to reform arbitrary mandatory minimum sentences that are long overdue. We also need probation and Drug Diversion programs to deal swiftly with violations while allowing lowlevel offenders who stay clean and stay out of trouble to stay out of prison. Ive seen the positive effects of Specialized Drug courts and juvenile programs work to the betterment of individuals and communities and please, please let us put Mental Health back on the top of our national agenda. You and i know that the promise of deinstitutionalizing those in Mental Health facilities was supposed to be followed by the creation of Community Based treatment centers. We got half of that equation but not the other half. Our prisons and our jails are now our Mental Health institutions. I have to tell you, i was somewhat surprised in both iowa and New Hampshire to be asked so many questions about Mental Health. What are we going to do with people who need help for Substance Abuse or Mental Illness . What are we going to do when the remaining facilities are being shut down for budget reasons . What are we going to do when hospitals dont really get reimbursed for providing the kind of emergency cares that needed for Mental Health patients . Its not just a problem in our cities. Theres a quiet epidemic of Substance Abuse sweeping small town and rural america, as well. We have to do more and finally get serious about treatment. Ill be talking about all of this in the months to coming, offering new solutions to protect and strengthen our families and communities. I know in a time when were afflicted by shorttermism, were not looking over the horizon for the investments that we need to make in our fellow citizens in our children. So im well aware that progress will not be easy, despite the emerging bipartisan consensus for certain reforms and that we will have to overcome deep divisions and try to begin to replenish our depleted resivors of trust. But i am convinced as the congenital optimist i must be to live my life that we can rise to this challenge we can heal our wounds, we can restore balance to our Justice System and respect in our communities and we can make sure that we take actions that are going to make a difference in the lives of those who, for too long, have been marginalized and forgotten. Lets protect the rights of all our people. Lets take on the broader inequities in our society. We cant separate the unrest we see in our streets from the cycles of poverty and despair that hollow out those neighborhoods. Despite all the progress weve made in our country lifting people up, and it has been extraordinary, too many of our fellow citizens are still left out. 25 years ago in his inaugural address as mayor, David Dinkins warned of leaving too many lost amidst the wealth and grandeur that surrounds us. Today his words and the emotion behind them ring truer than ever. You dont have to look too far from this magnificent hall to find children still living in poverty or trapped in failing schools, families who work hard but cant afford the rising prices in their neighborhoods. Mothers and fathers who fear for their sons safety when they go off to school or just to go buy a pack of skittles. These challenges are all woven together and they all must be tackled together. Our goal must truly be inclusive and lasting prosperity thats measured by how many families get ahead and stay ahead, how many children climb out of poverty and stay out of prison how many young people can go to College Without breaking the bank how many new immigrants can start Small Businesses, how many parents can get good jobs that allow them to balance the demands of work and family. Thats how we should measure prosperity [applause] hillary with all due respect thats a far better management than the size of the bonuses handed out in Downtown Office buildings. Now, even in the most painful times, like those we are seeing in baltimore, when parents fear for their children, when smoke fills the skies above our cities, when Police Officers are assaulted, even then especially then, lets remember the aspirations and values that unite us all, that every person should have the opportunity succeed, that no one is disposable, that every life matters. So yes, mayor dinkins, this is a time for wisdom, a time for honesty about race and justice in america and yes, a time for reform. David dinkins is a leader we can look to. We know what he stood for. Let us take the challenge and example he presents and think about what we must do to make sure that this country we love, this city we live in, are both good and great. And please join me in saying a prayer for the family of freddie gray and all the men whose names we know and those we dont, who have lost their lives unnecessarily and tragically and in particular today include in that prayer, the people of baltimore and our beloved country. Thank you all very much. [applause] with u. K. Parliamentary elections just one week away, the bbc hosts a special program with the leaders of britains three main political parties. For 90 minutes, a studio audience will question the she embraced the role of first later and look like a queen. Hosting afternoon parties to help her husbands political agenda. And when british troops invaded the capital, she is credited with saving valuables from the white house. Dolly madison, sunday night at 8 p. M. Eastern on cspans influence and image. From Martha Washington to Michelle Obama sundays at 8 p. M. Eastern on cspan three. And as a condiment to the series cspans new book is now available, president ial historians on the rise of fascinating women grading and illuminating and inspiring read. It is available on your online bookseller. A panel of social scientists today discussed the state of black men and United States. The panelists, including the head of president obamas my brothers keepers initiative, talk about the Public Education system. From the American Enterprise institute, this is one hour and 30 minutes. Good afternoon, and welcome to the American Enterprise institute. I am the morgan fellow here at e aei. I am happy to welcome you to our discussion, on the role of economics and policy. Understanding black youth, doing the best i can fatherhood in the inner city. Helping black men thrive. My brother keeper, these are the works of our very distinguished panel. Each guest has produced important work about the issues facing black men in high poverty areas. To be sure, what were talking about today is not the condition or status of all black men. As professor patterson has shown, the influence and contributions of African American men far exceed what you might expect based on their percentage in the population. And we have our twiceelected president of the United States to show the extent to which black men succeed in our country. But as todays headlines make clear, there are very serious problems. Policing, violence unemployment, or schools all are significant components of black life in america. And they are allsso significant facts of american life. To discuss these issues, issues which aei is focused upon, we have a great group of scholars. First, we have professor orlando patterson. Professor patterson is the john cole fester of sociology at harvard. He is the author of numerous papers and works. His most recent publication is the corporal matrix understanding black youth. I recommend it highly. After professor patterson she is the bloomberg professor of Public Health at Johns Hopkins. She is one of the nations leading poverty researchers researching family life. Her most recent work is doing the best i can doing the best in my committee. Robert cherry is the stearns professor of economics at the brooklyn college. His publications include moving families forward. He also authored papers on teen birth rates and his article on helping black men thrive appears in the Current Issue of na tional affairs. And finally, Michael Smith manages president obamas initiative to ensure that all young people can fulfill their potential. Michael, i have to say my heart is with you. As a former practitioner of social services, i have a special affinity for people who are in the game working for outcomes people struggling. We wanted to give you a special shout out. Thank you for being here, i know it is busy at the white house. We are honored to have you. With that, i will turn it over to professor pattison toerson to begin our discussion. [applause] professor patterson thank you for inviting me. And i originally landed to a powerpoint. But with only 10 minutes, i think it is best if i just spoke without it. And i want to talk about what we have learned from this work, which was just published. The cultural matrix. Along with scholars contributing and it let me first say that culture occupies a status in the social sciences. Starting with traditionally most people thought understanding the plight of the poor. And understanding the trials of the rich. Starting about the middle of the 60s, with the publication of the report, as well as academic works in the culture of poverty there was a sharp swing against using culture to explain everything. There are complex reasons why. It is for complex reasons, it deals with racial pride. Fashion, and so on. Im happy to say that that is beginning to change. The reputation has gone through a revival, partly because the predictions are not be quite correct. But i am not here to defend, i want to talk about this issue. Also, how culture matters. A couple of points about culture. There is no such thing as a culture of the poor. Or the culture of poverty. It bothers me that economists especially the behavior of economists have picked up the subject beyond a rational approach. It looks to me very much like a psychology of poverty. They make the mistakes we made 20 years ago. What we mean by culture essentially, is shared knowledge about the world. It is not static. If i make one important point with you, it is quite dynamic. One reason that policy people need to talk about culture, theres nothing you can do about it. Culture can change, and we have dramatic examples of that. The change in attitudes, the civil rights movement, even most recent the change towards gay people. In 15 years, u. S. And a lot. Cultures can change, and we can change it. In every place of the world, we never talk about culture in isolation. It is their culture and there is a deus exex machina that guides you. Culture works in context. In the same cultural pattern, it may have multiple consequences in one context. It never perceives in isolation. Regarding youth and the cold for inner cities again, i want to make a few points i want you to go away with. I want to talk about innercity culture. There are cultures, the innercity is remarkably heterogeneous. There is, and it may come as a surprise you, a middle class there. The shock has been shown that as much as 6. 5 are from families that grew up in the cities. It has a very stable workingclass population, about 60 which constitute the bulk of the population. And of course, it has about 20 living in the problematic areas. This is not entirely disconnected. I want to emphasize this. When you think of the inner cities, including baltimore just remember the great majority 80 , are among the most stable, godfearing group. Most africanamericans go to church. Most are more evangelical than any america. Theyre the most lawabiding of any people. Disabuse yourself of the idea. This is a problem with the baltimore police. They think of a single group a single culture when fact, it is not. Most of the culture and the cities is very stable and godfearing and so on. What you do have though, is a bout 20 , and it varies from city to city, to as much as 25 in detroit that are disconnected. The street people, the street culture. And that is a culture of violence. That is a culture with a strong emphasis on hypermasculinity. And it is a zone of instability. And it creates real problems for people in the inner cities. Let me add here, the brutality and the savagery of the police. Being an Occupying Force, we get something else. And i emphasize this, black americans in the inner cities are caught between a rock and a hard place. Between the rock of Police Brutality and savagery on the one hand, the Occupying Force which profile the entire black population in terms of the 20 and on the other hand, that 20 of street culture types. And it is associated with violence. You heard that the rate of homicide has grown genetically since the 1990s grown dramatically since the 1990s . That is to say that the homicide rate is still eight times the national average. Among teenagers, it is rising again. So we should not forget that side of the problem. They badly need the police. Because the Police Become an Occupying Force, that is problematic. But, you know, i was saying recently the worst thing that could happen to black americans other than having an Occupying Force policing them, is to have no force. That is caught between a rock and our place. A big problem facing black americans now. Those other cultures, their remarkable. Y are remarkable. This matter is not new. The dominant Popular Culture this is nothing more than black culture but in fact, it is the most popular group. That contributed to music, theater, fashion, and so on. Dont forget that. When we say the culture is one of the enormous creativity, one of the things we try to explain is this paradox. Of being socially isolated and segregated but culturally very integrated. Because that powerful culture comes from the fact that there is a dialectic, and interaction. Black americans are very much absorbed into the dominant culture. Even as it gives back to that culture. And this continues to be the case. These values reflect the mainstream in many important ways. In fact, the individual taking responsibility for ones own actions. What bothers me, is when we talk about latin black america, and we have gone through all of the major surveys they take responsibly for their actions. They are among the biggest supporters of the military. In this country in fact, they are essentially a group of people who are about as american as you can get. What we learned about this sort of culture of poverty in the cities, we learn that segregation matters. Segregation matters. There is a long history of how america has treated them. Look at the early civil rights leaders, segregation was a problem. Martin luther king was referring to the need for integration. About the same time there was this group going against the culture there is also a reaction the idea of segregation as problematic. Coming from the black leadership. And the same set of forces, in fact they come from the rise of black pride. To learn and so on. What it did, as well as the most decorated sociologist tried to point out it brings segregation off the table. Let me tell you, it is a problem. To succeed in america, you need not just book knowledge not the knowledge you learn in school, but hope rol capital cultural and social capital. Whom you know is not as important as what you know. Not because you have a superior teaching there are lots of other places where you can get a better education and terms of the content and the relationship between professors and students. What you get at harvard is social capital . If you if you go to Harvard Business school, you can read the case studies. That knowledge is social capital. But there is another kind of knowledge, which is the culture of capital that is acquired. It is one of success in society. Those things you do not learn in school. You acquire them from families and so on. It is that knowledge that has invaded interaction. That is what blacks are excluded from. We find that it enhances and provides protection, we have seen that religion is very important. Up until the age of 14, black men will never go to church again. But it also presents problems. I want to move quickly to the difference between culture and policy. Because i want to Say Something about it. Culture is not immutable. Lets get to the heart stuhard stuff. There is no problem with having many cultures. One sociologist recently argued that no, think of culture not in terms of macro black culture think of it in micro cultures. As we do in the ghetto. What works, you know there are hundreds of programs from local and state governments that start to review the best cases. And what we have found, many of them work and some even showed profit. Ok . The Family Partnership program is an excellent example of a program that works. The National Guard youth challenge, the grand operation as Arand Corporation these randomly selected opportunity programs that do work, there are sums thatome that work but are not effective. Some are clear failures. This administration has helped the families program. There was a wonderful study that shows what is important and what doesnt work. I want to emphasize the culture of elites is as important as the culture of blacks in understanding the problem. Look, for example at the blinders. This is an analysis of why we have such a high dropout rate. It finds that a good part of the problem has nothing to do with decisions, it has to do with the elaborate bureaucratic and academic demands. Obstacles that are put in the way which contributes to the culture of elites. Let me in the mineend and my statement, one of the biggest problems, the fact that recently about 22 of black kids are being born i will even bring up what i call out of wedlock child rearing. The wedlock that is needed between adults. This is true in a primitive society, children require adult supervision. You cannot have a system, you cannot sustain a system that doesnt address the problem of single parenting. Single moms with resources can do fine. But unrestored full single ourceful single parenting is a disaster. I want to say that it is obvious what the solution is. One of the main reasons that kids join a gang and shoot people the answer in every study is family. The gang becomes a family. It is social. A single mom having to work two twojobs isnt coming home. Between 3 00 and 8 00, she is so tired. They find another family that is a gang. The solution is not a matter of saying pull up your socks. The name of the point that i made is that culture cannot be seen in isolation there are economic factors. The problems we face are how can we enhance and motivate people to change . [applause] that is an act to follow, for sure. I just want to tell you a little bit about where im drawing my expertise. I spent eight years doing and ethonography of low income philadelphia fathers in the camden area. I joined forces with mathematica in following 90 men in four cities. I am also, by coincidence, i have been following a cohort of baltimore youth. Who are all born in baltimore public housing. And early article from the study appeared in professor pattersons book. It is a terrific volume. So i am and ethnographer. And you will hear from an economist next. I think when i was asked to identify the biggest problems, everyone knows that the answer that orlando alluded to are jobs education. These are things we know. What i focus on is something more subtle, but possibly equally profound. And i stumbled upon this insight. Some of you know bob lerman was around these days in the 1990s. I studied how mothers made in its meat. Ends meet. I got a very strong sense of what welfare met. It was a sort of separation of pushing people across the road, a way from the citizenship side towards the disenfranchised side. You had to trade your citizenship card in exchange for your credentials. When i moved to boston and was a colleague of orlandos, i looked at the east baltimore office. It is a gloomy, dickensian building caked in grime. Over the door, there are these block letters overseeers of the public welfare. It was a stripping of citizenship. I finished that book with laura and i went on to study the family. I came back in 2007 to study the new welfare regime the eigc. The largest Antipoverty Program in the country. It is the same welfare system, but you get to claim your wages. The dancing taxmen out there 70 get their money from a forprofit tax preparer. What i learned by studying recipients of the new wheree lfare regime, something radically different had occurred in citizenship. Take h r block only a few blocks away from east bostons welfare office. Theyre saying, money in minutes. A popular slogan was repeated i have people. People viewed the eidc as a radically incorporating experience. It was a brand of citizenship. And laura and i wrote a New York Times oped about this. Why was this form of social policy, or social provision so radically different than what preceded it . We learned that it was very important to be tied to the work to get it. Two americano American Values, it is part of a tax refund it is perceived as they return. You get it at h r block, it is a brand of citizenship. Will be argued in our book, which came about two months ago unlike its predecessors, this form of social policy is knitting people into the communities in a way that American Social policy has never done before. If you hear these interviews, people talk in such striking language about being real americans. And how their children are real american kids. We know that the eidc has huge benefits that extend to graduation. And if we believe joe fox these programs might have positive externalities regarding community prec participation. This is not a liberal or conservative idea, it is just plain common sense. I am big on common sense. What this research taught me is that we need to have a new litmus test for social policy. When you think about a solution to the problem of any disenfranchised group, we need to ask ourselves does this build citizenship . Or does it deny . It . What im proposing today is that we propose this test to social policy for men. It is not as hard as it seems. Recently, i was at an International Conference for policy there was a fourpoint platform for how we would help men. I gave him a zero on the litmus test because all four ideas were dissing incorporatincorporating. Child support in all but two staestes, we have what is called taxation with representation. It is almost as if they are snatching the money out of your back pocket. And im in favor of Child Support, i would emphasize that. Without offering any recognition that you must have a role to play in that childs life, and those of us who are deep into the support world were really sickened by the circumstances surrounding the death of walter scott which implicates the system. Taxation without representation, you have the opportunity at your childs birth to demonstrate your value as a parent. Two not only sign up for Child Support, but to assure that your parent time would be adjudicated. Because you have a vital role to play. Extending the program would help celebrate the active e participation. Including the prenatal clinics the dad would need to participate in. I want to draw here because i was trying to think how i was going to convince robert of this. With some basic principles from development of psychology, im sociologist my knowledge of what im about to say is thin. Im hesitant to do this, we are talking about adults here. Status that should be given to equal honor of everyone in this room. Im going to borrow from the terminology to advocate strongly for one. We know that permissive parenting is not good. It doesnt benefit children. And in some ways, you can think of the prewelfare era as permissive. Or maybe as a form of not so benign neglect. Authoritative parenting is bad. This is highend structure but no warmth. In this area, we have been engaging in a lot of authoritative parenting. But we have been doing it in ways that is stripping rather than incorporating. What we also know from child psychology is that the magic bullet is authoritative parenting, where you have both high structure and High Expectations. We do so in a radically incorporating way. So we have to maintain High Expectations. This is going to make robert happy. You have to work in order to get it. But we need to do so in a radically incorporating way. Let me emphasize that i have become in favor of approaches that are really fully in line with American Values. We make this argument, and it is not like i am poor, living on virtually nothing in america that will be out in september. That is why i talk about High Expectations and participation. Ultimately, the history of social policy in america this is the best way forward not only for us, but for everyone. Including the disenfranchised. I spent much of my career documenting the poor and that they shared the values that we do. Orlando pointed that out beautifully. We also need to remember that one core American Values that rings true is that americans along with valuing selfsufficiency and work, desire and have a strong sense of community . Americans want to help the poor, just not through welfare. I want to make one remark about baltimore. As a new daughter of baltimore the greatest city in america and if you do not know i am calling it that, you need to get up there. My conclusion from the last couple of days from watching these events and coping with them, what unites us is far more profound what divides us. The punchline of the oped the laura wrote a couple of weeks ago incorporate, dont separate. And for this audience, include men. [applause] i want to begin by talking about employment issues. The latest data indicates that only 70 of black men from the age of 2534, only 70 at any point in time are working. If you take into account the prison population, they could be some men one month and others in another month. Close to one half of black men in that age group have substantial job idleness each year. So that it is a serious problem. This idleness, and it goes beyond the data may show 20 or whatever in this age group. In my recent work, there was a shorter version of the National Affairs piece. I link that the family. There are lots of reasons why there are unstable families within the black community. And i think this source is jobs. And that is why it is more serious in the white community. You have the same problem in the white timidity, because more white people are employed, dont have it as seriously. A lack of money could lead to family instability. But i think the evidence shows that it is much more the kind of anger and frustration that many black men bring into their relationships that lead to the solutione dissolution of those relationships. You now have a situation where if you look at women who have more than one child 70 of one of tthem have multipartner fertility. You now have a state of flux regarding black men in the lives of their children. Much is written about absent fathers. And that is certainly a serious problem. Only about one half of black fathers see their noncustodial children for a meal once a month. But there is also the issue of child maltreatment. If you look at those rates, they are triple when a male partner is present. Then if a black seeing a mother lives alone. You have very serious dynamics to go on in the family. There are certainly issues of intimate violence. So i think that the lack of jobs has this dynamic. It happens in white families, as well. But white families have much more significant numbers of jobs. And i think that this kind of problem for children ends up in the School System. You see behavioral problems very early. In preschool is nearly three times the rate of black kids being suspended than white kids. You see it, ultimately, in the high schools. Where kids come in, particularly the black boys, with both educational and behavioral deficits. You have situations now in new york city, only 28 of black boys who enter the ninth grade graduate in four years. 24 in philadelphia. You have these very serious problems. And they are just events waiting to happen in the street. But what is going to be done about these problems . Yes, there are things that can be done in the schools. There certainly should be much more of a way of positively intervening or attempting to when kids at an early age show serious behavior problems. There should be more counseling, more psychologists involved in the School System to take a much more holistic approach than suspending kids. And yes, many families will say how dare you . But they are probably a lot more would look positively if this were done. There are certainly things that can be done in the schools. But i want to spend the rest of my time talking about what can be done to generate paths to direct employment. Orlando spoke little bit about the university system, which i am part of. Being an economist, i am probably more elitist the most. Which is this vision of dont close the door to fouryear colleges for all. So that almost every program, even if it looks like it is occupational oriented, like getting people into community college, always make sure the door is open for fouryear transfers. And that means the Academic Skills that are expected are much more demanding than if it was simply preparing them for direct employment. I think that for High School Kids there should be much more of an effort to get yearround parttime employment. In the private sector, that is where subsidy should go. Wthere are soft skills that kids need. Where do they get that . Theyre going to get it because of the segregated housingk , they are much more likely to get it in an employed situation. Where do they get their spending money from . You know, 17yearolds, they see what the world offers . Where the girls getting money from . You look at the black community the pregnancy rate of teen women is one out of ten teen women. That is down from a few years ago. But it is still serious, look at rates of stds. There are serious problems, and employment helps in these situations because it gets the spending money. But it also gets these soft skills. The second thing that i would mention is, there are a number of programs in the high schools to move people in a more vocational way. Bob is here, there are apprentice programs it should be expanded. There are Technical Education programs cte programs that get them into community college. Those are all fine and good. But if we are talking about the people who are at the most risk of not graduating high school, it is really the direct employment. And secondly, finding ways to link up and have partnerships with certificate programs. And very narrow occupational programs. Many of those programs are given by the forprofits. For many people, the forprofits are the worst. And there are certainly examples of them being the worst. But there are some a and you mentioned james rosenbaum. He has some positive views of what might be called the best practices for profits. They do much more counseling theyre much more handson, theyre much more direct in getting the training towards employment. I think it brings them out from the cold, if there are partnerships. You can pick out the best practices, you can pick out the best programs. You can get the counseling to the students to select what is best, rather than penalize them out of existence. Which may work, may not work, but that is where they will go. Who is going to itt or devry . The university of phoenix graduates more blacks than any in the country. Starayer university, yes the Community Colleges have programs, but is about time to bring them in from out of the cold. I would not say this, but i am at the American Enterprise institute. I was a Something Different elsewhere. We have to look much more closely at trying to ameliorate what goes on in this very chaotic and too often abusive family. And that is figuring out how to get some Counseling Services to these families and just not use suspension or something that leaves out what is going on in the family. I think we have to realize that it is unfortunate, but many of these black men bring their anger and frustration into the family. And think should be done about that. Most importantly, we have to figure out how to have more direct employment and pathways to direct employment, while they are teenagers. So they do not end up as part of that 50 2534 group that are out of the work substantially out of the year. [applause] robert, thank you for inviting me here today. And thank you for hosting this important conversation. It is also an honor to be on the panel. I do not have a book that i have authored, maybe when i leave the white house. I thought i would just share a little bit about why my brothers keeper was created. And what has happened since it started. You heard today all of the statistics. You look at latino boys, people from tribal nations asianamericans and pacific islanders, when you look at the boys they are more like the to be born into low income families. To have teenage moms. To attend high poverty or or performing schools. When you look at what is happening in the courts, theyre facing harsher penalties. They are least likely to begin a second chance. We see them more likely to live in communities with higher crime rates. Whether it is reading at grade level by third grade or graduating from high school or unemployment, you see boys and young men of color doubledigits behind their peers. And you have shocking statistics a black when you look at black boys, specifically. You sit back and you pause and realize there is something in our stream. We should do something about it. At the same time though, it is important that we do not forget the framing. Were told you are what you are ineat. And you start to believe that. Young people across the country, it is amazing how much pressure boys and young men of color it seems insurmountable. A few studies talk about what are the positives that are happening. 1 in 4 black men are veterans. 400,000 black men are active serviceman. There are more in college. Seven out of 10, when they are in the homes they are intensive dads. More so than any other race groups. Changing diapers, shuttling kids to school. Nine out of 10 completed high school or the equivalency. We need to think about the solution to realize that we have a generation of young people that have unique talents and assets, so we should think not only about the challenges that we have to face, but the opportunity that we have to engage with the population that is finding itself struggling. In many ways, what let the president to create my brothers keeper this whole idea of an opportunity agenda has been important to the president. A man who saw his family and circumstance change, for the first lady as well. How do you create middleclass for able that our disadvantage . D . The genesis of my brothers keeper it came out in the Trayvon Martin case. It surprised the press briefing core to explain the anger and the angst that americans were feeling, especially parents of young boys of color. And he talked candidly about his own experience. How before he was famous, he would walk by a car and hear the doors locked. The implicit bias that young men of color face. And how we need to bolster them and find pathways of opportunity. But also understand there are barriers that need to be removed. And we need to make sure the kids know they matter. Not facing the negative reinforcements that kids get. That was the summer of 2013, he said i dont have a secret plan. I dont think we are going to create some massive program here, but there has to be something we can do. Fast forward to february of 2014 the president lost my brothers keeper. It addresses the persistent opportunity gaps and hopes to make sure that all can reach their potential. We are looking at cradles to college and careers we are focused on evidencebased intervention. Before i took this job, i ran the social innovation fund. I think when they were looking for someone to run this, they wanted someone who had that appreciation. I am one of a Nonprofit Group that has a theory of change. We have to change the way we think. And for those of us that are in business and have been in business burnout philanthropy, theres something that happens we go completely to heart and lose our head. And we got sustain these organizations that have no impact. That is something i feel strongly about. My brothers keeper is focused on intervention. We are looking at six milestones. Where we know if we can have an impact, it can be transformative for any kid. But certainly for boys and young men of color. We look all the way from zero, looking at kindergarten and maternal health. Reading at grade level by third grade, where he have that shift from learning to read to reading to learn. Graduating from high school and rate for college and careers greeting post secondary training and reducing violence. When you look at the High School Dropout rate, we cant applaud some reason gains that we made. Even for minority populations thank god our Graduation Rate is about 80 . We look at boys of color, were down to 50 . We had a team in from rochester a few weeks back, and a couple of years, a couple of years ago, their Graduation Rate was 9 . I think them work it up to 20 now. We know what education means for your future. Those are the areas where working on. And the president talks about it in three ways. One, there is a moral obligation. If you work hard and play by the roles, we have a responsibility to help you succeed. When you succeed, we succeed. Our neighbors kids are our kids. I grew up poor in western massachusetts. But i grew up in a neighborhood where i knew i could not the door and i ride my bike. Just making sure that we ramp up that ethic that we have a responsibility for each other. The other piece is recognizing that sometimes you can work really hard, and there are barriers we still have to remove. And there is an economic imperative. The stats have disconnected 7 million youths. The vast majority of them have many boys of color. There is a 1. 6 trillion loss to society from a fiscal perspective, and a 4. 8 trillion lost from a social perspective. If we look at a nation that is based on production and consumption, we have to make sure that we have boys and young men of color that are producing the next apples the next big thing,. And we have to make sure they are consuming better job. That is something we are focused very much on. I will tell you a lot about what we have been doing. The first thing that happened, the president created my brothers keeper task force. Almost every single cabinet member and director that has anything to do with domestic policy, they were charged with coming up with recommendations to how we can expand policies and remove barriers that were not working. And in the case of those recommendations, i have been tracking the incredible work ever since. I give you examples. The department of labor has the American Apprenticeship Program that is working on finding pathways to employment and jumpstarting the spirit of apprenticeship. We heard about the National Guard youth challenge. Public private situations like americorps, to make sure that the kids are being served. Getting back to that roosevelt idea of getting kids involved and working and getting their hands dirty. We are seeing the department of education of justice issuing new guidance. There was correctional education guidance. There was an event at an alexandria juvenile detention facility