Transcripts For CSPAN Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20150520

Lundquist and Safety Community help agencies go through that. There is a Police Accreditation coalition that brings tremendous resources. Some organizations do not have the capacity to support accreditation itself. Those help to help shepherd organizations. Should we require departments to develop a plan to reach accreditation . It is a pretty good the sort of Gold Standard of policing, that they aspire to. But should we rather than just encourage it, should we consider some system where we require departments at least to articulate a plan to get this way . I think a requirement is important, but also the way it is structured to review agencies, does not have investigatory authority, nor are we seeking that. In some ways, if you require it becomes regulatory, which i think prevents the integrity of the process from moving forward. I want to be cautious. I think incentives to support organization is important. A few things. I wonder if any witnesses have any suggestions on how we might encourage or incentivize departments to really transformed themselves into this Community Policing model. I know ms. Ramirez, you talked about the institute. But no one has mentioned, we have to figure out ways to encourage or require Police Departments to ensure they reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. We have too many departments that dont look like the people they serve and the value of people coming from the neighborhoods to understand the cultural traditions and social mores, different parts of the neighborhood are parts of the community and returned back to the neighborhood after working his valuable. I dont know if weve heard enough about how do we ensure Police Department century the diversity of the community they serve. In my experience, the most important thing to go into a career of Law Enforcement is to have a personal connection to someone is already a cop. The way you get that is by Building Community trust. I know it is a very popular thing to say officers should live in the communities they place they police. In my county most officers cannot afford to live there. Its not realistic. But when you assign a deputy or officer to the same neighborhood for a long time, those connections grow. When the officer is rewarded for participating in the community not just enforcing the law but also participating that connection grows. Is the anonymity that really is the enemy here. Ms. Ramirez . This is on Police Department i just wanted to add a fact. Have a fullservice system in massachusetts where every Police Department chief has tried to diversify the Police Department. The top scorer in massachusetts the person who got the highest grade on the exam to be a police officer, was 328th on the list. The reason is a whole series of preferences. Mostly veterans preferences. I think a lot of the Police Chiefs are trying to figure out how they can reform the Civil Service system so they can efforts by the Police Department so they can diversify the Police Department. They are stuck. They need an Inspector General a state Community Justice institute, or some factfinding process that can look at to what extent there are challenges for Police Chiefs who are trying to diversify the Police Department. Thank you to the german from rhode island. Now the gentleman from texas. Thank you, im over here on this end. I think all of you thank all of you for being here. Im a former judge. I spent 30 years in the courthouse. I have tried people who assaulted and killed Police Officers both as a prosecutor and judge and also Police Officers who have killed individuals in violation of the law. I have seen both sides of this perspective for a long time. Sheriff, i will start with you. Do you have any idea how many arrests, felony arrests are made a year by Police Agencies in the country . No, i dont. Would you care to yes to guess . No i dont have any idea either. Does anyone know. . It available to the bureau of justice statistics and the fbi would probably have data as well. You will find that out then. Would you say or not the vast majority of those encounters with the police and a citizen are done according to the rule of law from the part of the peace officer . Without a doubt. How many would you say are not . Some violation of the law, some violation of the rights of the accused in those felony cases . Sheriff clarke averages is what im basing that on. I wouldnt care to assign a number because i dont know. A majority or minority . Sheriff clarke its very low. It seems to me that any Police Agency needs to have a plan for all circumstances. Would you agree with that . Some type of response to Community Policing . A protocol, whether a 101 arrest i will give an example. Im sure youre familiar with the event that took place in waco. The town of the chairmans, modern baylor, where you have five motorcycle gangs three of which all assembled together in a place. Trouble ensued, shots are fired and a dozen Police Officers are there. Nine people are killed. Others are wounded but the shooting stopped, the police made a rest arrested 170 individuals. Do you think that having a plan to respond to that type of situation is important for a local Police Agency to have . Apparently they did, they had some plan. Sheriff clarke without a doubt but i also think that in the moments leading up to that, what kind of intelligence they had or information that this was going to go down is the question i have. In terms of the rival groups coming together. After they had lots of intelligence. Thats part im sure they had lots of intelligence. Thats part of a plan, to respond based on the intel. Sheriff clarke right, and part of that response needs to be the preplanning, prestaging premarshaling of resources when you have that many individuals come together you cannot just have a handful of officers. You dont have to wait you cant have time to wait to calling resources. Planning is huge. No matter what the situation is, whether a big event or small event, Police Planning and response so that the rule of law is followed, no matter the circumstances, is a good idea for policing, is it not . Sheriff clarke it is critical yes. How many officers were killed in the line of duty last year . Sheriff clarke last year, they added 238 names to the wall here at the national. Some of those were previous years, though. I do know that its up nearly 90 so far in the First Quarter of this year. 54 officers killed in the line of duty. The exact total i dont have. Sheriff clarke i have more questions and i will submit them in writing. Thank you. The gentlelady from texas has a unanimous consent motion. May i just say one or two points, mr. Taman mr. Chairman. First of all, let me ask to have unanimous consent to enter into the record the following documents and statement from the aclu, statement of the National Urban league, executive order 136 88 which provides federal standards for acquisition of military equipment a letter from mr. Scott and colin requesting a hearing for myself, im sorry. For mr. Scott and mr. Cohen. And an article entitled, Law Enforcement warrior problem to be added into the record. Without objection. And if i might make one simple comment. That is i want to express to all of you, the significance of your testimony. That the Judiciary Committee through our chairman and Ranking Member, are very serious about coming forward in this. Of recognizing the pain of an officers death and the pain of a civilians confusion in apprehension about police and maybe even their death. I frankly believe we can find a common ground. I hope you will allow us to inquire, i hope you will make yourself resources as we go forward to address a mothers pain, and as well find that even place. In my remarks i and my remarks by quoting a philosopher. Treat people as if they were what they should be, and you help them become what they are capable of eating. If you are to keep democracy there must be one command. Sheriff clarke , i think this is what you are speaking of. Thou shall not ration justice. Everyone deserves justice. We do not deny your officers justice and we have to let the civilian population, no matter who they are, know that they will get justice. That is what this committees purpose is. I hope we will have more provocative hearings, maybe those who have lost loved ones, maybe in people who are raising the signs because of their passion of lack lives matter black life in matter, hands up, lets give all of those people dignity. This hearing is want to give all of us, including all the men and women you represent. I yield back. The gentlelady yields back. I want to thank our panel of witnesses for your expertise for your experience, life experience, your perspective and collegiality with one another and the members of the committee. I could not help but think while judge poe was talking and mr. Jeffrey, that we are all in part beneficiary but also part prisoner of our own background. Prosecutors may not have the benefit of the judicial view like judge poe. Or what cedric described growing up is something i would not have experienced. I think it is a good idea for us to the extent we can, to rely upon the experiences of other people, wellintentioned people. There are a lot of issues raised, all of which are important. The issue i hope we can have another Committee Hearing on, at some point i think you touched upon it. To cooperate on that and impacts the prosecution of Police Officers who have done wrong. I have seen a daily or to cooperate in the faces of moms and dads who are trying to get justice with her murder young people. Other witnesses would not cooperate. I think we all want a Justice System that is respected in fact we have to have a Justice System that is respected or we will not make it. I hope this is the first of many hearings. On behalf of all the other members, we want to thank you for your participation. This concludes the hearing. Without objection, all members who have submitted additional questions or materials for the record, thank you very much. We are adjourned. President obama has signed a bill creating a blue alert system to communicate threats to Law Enforcement officers nationwide. The village named in honor of to new york city Police Officers who were killed in december 2014. Here is a look at the bill signing ceremony. President obama at some of you are aware, several weeks ago, we lost two of new yorks finest. Officer ramos and officer liu they were serving their community with great honor and dedication and courage. All of new york grieves and the nation grieves as a reminder of the incredibly difficult and dangerous work that so many of our Law Enforcement officers are engaged in every table day. I had the chance to meet the families. It is important for us not only to remember but also important to make sure we do everything we can to help ensure the safety of our Police Officers when they are in the line of duty. This legislation, which has been sponsored on a bipartisan basis by people like representative richert, represented think the best of a bipartisan support for Law Enforcement. What this legislation is going to do is to initiate a blue alert system so that when we know there is an active threat against Law Enforcement, that the alerts are going out in a comprehensive, expeditious way that prevent the possibility that other officers may be caught by surprise. And it ensures that appropriate steps can be taken as quickly as possible. I want to again thank the members of congress that have come together to put this legislation in place. Most of all, i want to thank the families who obviously are still grieving from a terrible tragedy, but have worked hard to make sure it is translated into something concrete. We are very proud of them, particularly of the children here who are obviously grief stricken, but we know they will do a great job. With that, i would like to assign legislation. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Coming up on cspan, wrote to the white house coverage continues. With Hillary Clintons remarks in iowa on the rack and the economy. Later, the house debates a shortterm extension of funding for highway and funding highly and Public Transportation programs. On the next washington journal, medical Health Caucus cochair tim murphy of pennsylvania joins us to talk about the state of the u. S. Mental health system, and his legislation to improve access and care. Then new york congressman charlie wrangle discuss the ongoing trade debate in congress and relations with cuba. Later, spotlight on magazines continues with bloombergs susan barfield. Q a look on her recent article on the tourist babyboom and articles feed the process. Visa process. The new congressional directory is a handy guide to the 114th congress, with color photos of every senator and has member plus ill and Contact Information and twitter handles. Also, district maps, a foldout of capitol hill, and a look at congressional committees federal agencies, and state governors. Order your copy today. It is 13. 95 plus shipping and handling, at cspan. Org. Now, Hillary Clinton continues her president ial campaign in cedar falls, iowa, part of her second visit to the early caucus state as a candidate. This also marks her first briefing with reporters in three weeks. She answers questions on iraq and her state Department Email it we will have that following this roundtable with local Small Business owners. It is just over one hour. Hillary clinton hi, everybody. Well, first let me thank all of you in particularly, our roundtable participants for being with us today. And thank you for what payment for welcoming us to this facility. Im delighted to talk about Small Business. But i want to begin by saying a few words about what is happening more broadly with the American Economy and american. I have always believed fundamentally that when families are strong, our country is strong. We have come back from very tough economic times, i dont need to tell anybody that. Our economy and our country are in much better shape today. In large measure, because families worked so hard. They took extra jobs, they skipped vacations, they scre imped and made it work. But the deck is still sex for those at the top. You are not getting it there shake your something is. Somethings wrong when ceos earn more than 300 times than what the typical American Worker earns. When Hedge Fund Managers a lower tax rates than Truck Drivers or nurses. Im running for president because Everyday Americans and their families need a champion and i want to be that champion. I want families to do more than just get by. I want them to get ahead and stay ahead. I want to make the word middleclass means something again. Small businesses like this one and once you will hear about today, have to be at the heart of that effort, creating jobs driving growth, giving millions of americans the chance to live up to their own godgiven potential. I did not learned this from politics. I learned this from my father, who was a Small Businessman. He had a very Small Business. He printed drapery products and sold them. My mother and my brothers and i and occasional day laborers would help out with the printing process. That is what put food on our table, and is what gave us a solid middleclass home. Today, Small Businesses all over our country had worked himself themselves back from the perfect storm of crisis when sales and credit together dried up. And businesses are starting to sort out how they can grow again, how they can add jobs, and planning for the future. But i think the debt is back as well. Ask any Small Business owner, as i have, and they will tell you it is wrong that is so easy for big corporations to get breaks, but so hard for Small Businesses even to get a loan. It should not take longer to start a business in america than it does in canada or france, but that is the fact. I want to be a Small Business president. The president who does make it easier to start and run a Small Business again in america. It seems less like a gamble and more like an opportunity. We have to level the Playing Field for Small Businesses. First, we need to cut the unnecessary red tape that Small Businesses are costed time and money and keep new entrepreneurs out. We should describe federal regulations to find responsible ways to make life easier for Small Businesses, and we should offer incentives to state and local governments to do the same. That is where many of the obstacles still live. Second, we need to simplify tax filings and provide targeted credit and reductions for Small Businesses, not just the big corporations that can afford lawyers and lobbyists to find every loophole. Third, we should use technology to expand access for Small Businesses into new markets whether it is across town or the state or across the world. That is what i did in partnership with ebay in upstate k new york when i was a senator. We started something to help Small Businesses that had never sold young the local Community Reach customers very far away. Fourth, and i want to emphasize this, i will fight to level the Playing Field for Small Businesses so they can get the financing they need to build and hire including, women and minority employees who face extra barriers. This morning, a big headline. I love ranks last for womenowned iowa ranks last for womenowned businesses. This could not be a more timely article for our discussion. Although it says iowa has made some progress, it saw the lowest growth in those businesses by women from 1997 to 2015. And womenowned companies had the least economic clout in iowa compared to all other states and washington dc. So, this is a very important issue for the whole country, but especially important for our friends here in iowa. Access to credit can be as important to growing a Small Business as it is for the big ones. You should not have to be a fortune 500 company to get a loan. These loans have always come from Community Banks Small Businesses with deep local ties. Today those same banks are being squeezed by regulations that dont make sense for their size and mission, like endless examinations and paperwork designed for banks that measure assets in the billions. When it gets harder for small banks, it gets harder for Small Businesses to get loans. We can ease the burdens for Community Banks without harming consumers and without letting up a one bit on wall street. We should not apply the same restrictions on Community Banks as those needed to regulate big banks. Lets be clear. It is not banks that need relief from washington. It is small banks and Small Businesses. We should be doing more to rein in risky behavior on wall street and too big to fail banks, not less. I fully support regulations on the big banks. But, we should pass commonsense Community Banking reform right now. However, the republicans in the congress insist on using this issue to give relief to Community Banks as a trojan horse for rolling back protections for consumers, and rolling back the rules on the biggest banks. As we are seeing right now in legislation the republicans are introducing, we should call this what it is. A cynical attempt to gain the system for those at the top. Our goal should be helping Community Banks serve their neighbors and customers the way they always have. To make it easier to give out responsible loans to responsible Small Businesses, so they can n do what they do best, to create jobs and help families stay ahead. Im very eager to hear the ideas from everyone around the table. I see some of the elected officials and im eager to hear their ideas as well. We know they are obstacles. We want to know how we can overcome them. We want to know how we can help Small Businesses grow and what we can do to help Community Banks to get back on their feet to be able to do with they want to do most, which is to help businesses in their Community Grow and expand. Take it away. My dont we start with introductions . Im fred johnson. And privacy so many people here today. Im from an ice cream shop. Im gone, im the chair of the trust board of directors and im pleased to be here representing the many Community Banks, not just in iowa, but the nationwide as well. Im very happy to be hosting not hosting but actually moderating and be a panelist which is hard to do. Why dont we start with some questions. Well, i just need to say after hearing you talk about the Regulatory Burdens, i can not tell you how enthused all of us many the Community Banking world are excited to hear this 88 of the banks many this country are Community Banks. And we are losing those at rapid rate unfortunately, about 10 every year in iowa and part of that is because of the Regulatory Burden that have been placed upon us. You know, we exist to support Small Businesses. Small businesses are the bread and butter. We go hand and hand as a partner with our Small Business customers. And the burdens that have been placed on Small Business owners from a documentation station point those things impact us as well big time. It creates extra expense for us. I think the annual salary for a Compliance Officer is 73,400 which is an extraordinary burden on smaller banks. Believe me, we need to be regulated, certainly. We need to be regulated. Our customers and employees, everybody can trust us with their money. We have a responsibility to do that. We should be regulated. But the regulations as you suggest need to be allocated appropriately for risk profile business models, size, geography, everything else. My Immediate Reaction to what youre saying is yay on behalf of the Community Bankers. If i could just follow up on what you said because i think people forget they often look at our Banking Industry and see the great big banks with their many, many billions of dollars, add them all up trillions of dollars of absence and they think thats what represents american banking. But 88 of our banks are still banking. Ive been talking to board members, officers and what they said what was meant to rein too big to fail has fallen harder on them and thats why they need relief because they were not part of the problem. And yet theyre in some way saying a disproportionate price for our efforts to try to restrain the behaviors of the big banks. Is that fair . That is right on the money. And we as Community Banks do not create any systemic risk. We are not too little to fail. So we thats exactly right. The regulations again, we need be a regulated industry. However, they need to make sense for the difference size, risk profiles that i mentioned earlier. Thats very, veried news. We want to loan money. But what i see happening which is why i mentioned it at the end of my remarks is that Community Banks are paying the price in two ways, paying the price for being regulated as though you were large banks that present systemic risks and paying the price because its the trojan horse idea that i mentioned where republicans are now claiming they need to make all these changes in dod frank and bank regular lay doddfrank and bank regulations. We ought to keep the regulations where they belong on big banks and provide relief fire fighter the Community Banks. Isnt that doable . Am i right about that . I dont know why it wouldnt be because its certainly doable in our economy and regulatory environment. Weer yrks yes that has a meaningful impact. Coup give us a break so we can loan more money. Go ahead. This makes me very happy. And i started my First Business at the age of 15 because the local banker knew what i was doing, knew i was a hard worker, found me peddling on the streets in the school. The Bank President knew me, knew my work ethic and believed in what i was doing and knew that this was something the community needed. A large bank never would have done that. Hillary thats an amazing story. So you have the intepreneural genes. You were like 15 and you were going place to place selling baked goods and then at 20 you decided to start a restaurant. I didnt know about it at the time. It was a fun hobby that kind of just kept growing and growing. Hillary when you started goldies how old were you then . I was 20. Hillary so you were 20 i bought an ice cream shop from a lady that had retired. At that time they hadnt had one in years. And now has grown to a full scale restaurant that does over 700,000 in sales. Hillary how many employees . I have 30 employees. Hillary thats exactly what we want to get moving again the economy so that more young people in particular have the chance to do what you did right now. As you began to build your business, did you encounter obstacles and problems and i think you were also, you know, in the middle of the Great Recession while you were trying to put this together. Can you talk about some of the realities that you had to overcome . You know, starting right out of college, i thought that i knew everything, you know . So i opened a restaurant and ive been doing food service for a few years. I didnt know as much as i thought i did. It was a really tough hurdle to get the expenses rein in. It took more four years and i lost a lot of money. Fortunately my banker was very patient with me and saw the potential and was able enabling ling me enable me to get the funds. Hillary he has the ambition and the work ethic and the ideas and youre able to continue to take a chance on him because of that . Absolutely. We know his story. We know our local market. And we know something about his background so we are able with local Decision Making to extend his credit maybe on more favorable terms because were neighbors. And thats, i think is the difference. But i wanted to throw something in. You commented, brad, that you kind of dont know how to get started. Thats a very interesting and very common thing when we see entrepreneurs and talk to her bankers. They dont understand about financial statements, about pledges about financial projection. They just want to throw out there that there are a lot of free resources in this country available plays out differently in different areas but four, you know, the retires executives that have a wonderful free resource. I know a lot of our Community Colleges have different programs that are available to new Business Owners and entrepreneurs. Chambers of commerce and economic organizations can help too on that point. Its a wonderful story about one of those resources through the Small Business development certain. Yeah, those are great. As i was trying to figure out ok, i have my debt is growing. My sales my income isnt paying all the expenses but im lined out the door. What am i doing wrong . Im always busy but im not making any money. I had a great set itch to get me some great avenues. Heres the thing to work on. These are the resources that you can work on for health and assistance and counseling. It was greet have that. Because in it was great to have that. Because it was great to have that connection. Hillary how gid you find your way there . I went to the city manager. I said it should be working. I dont know what im going to do he connected me our county Development Office which then led me to hillary thats great. I think thats a very important point. Even if youve got the drive and the ambition you may not have all the skills or the experience and the more you can rely on different people and resources to help you get over those hurdles, the better. So and you do a lot of that. Dont you do a lot of connecting people up through your business . Why dont you talk about your business and what it does to help. Actually i started consulting a business in 2007 providing Technical Assistance to Small Businesses. That grew out of a passion of being able to give back because i believe that as you said Small Businesses are the engine that drives a community and when we can take that and bring that into a larger ecosystem of caring an compassion and and compassion and sensitivity not to discourage business people. I think the policy might not be intentionally discouraging people from starting businesses but there are policies in place that do. Hillary like what . Give us an example. One of the things that ive done in the past is work with Small Businesses that are low income individuals. There are a lot of challenges there. There are a lot of pathologies there. And so when you think about people in fact, i have a question for you from someone that kind of expresses some of the issues of people who want to start businesses but they dont have the credit. They might have challenges that will follow them for years and years an years and sometimes forever. Heres the question. Do you have any plans to make funding loans more available to young entrepreneurs in . Will you change the language in the law that prohibits people with criminal backgrounds the ability to access these funds, these loans or do people who have made mistakes in their past not matter in society anymore . Yeah. So i work with people who were in some of those situations. And some of the policies policies of not being able to vote. Hillary right. Or policies of credit, you know . Its great when you have credit and you have access and you can do things. But some people have made mistakes. And those challenges have caused them it hasnt taken their dreams away, you know . But it has made it more difficult for them to pursue those dreams in a way as brad did using the resources. So Technical Assistance and having those counseling agencies those intermediaries that are available to have. Some of those have policies. A good credit score. What does that mean . What does this mean to a person who is who has a dream but has gotten off track. Credit worthyness. Give me an opportunity and ill show you, again, what i can do. Ive grown. Dont penalize me. We are were human and we grow. We learn from our mistakes. And so thats kind of hillary i think thats a very fair question because people always wonder why some communities in our country are so hollowed out. They dont have Small Businesses. They dont have Economic Resources an there are a number of reasons for it but one of them is exactly the point that youre making benita which is many people in the community because of where they live because maybe they did make a mistake and they dont get your Voting Rights back which i totally disagree with. I think if youve done your time so to speak and youve made your commitment to go forward, you should be able to vote and you should be able to be judged on the same basis. You ought to get a second chance. But in a lot of communities there are resources but they cant be put to good use because too many people cant get access to be able to build those dreams in reality. I think we have to take a hard look at that. I think two, brad was saying you went to college. Did you come out with any debt . I actually, i come from a family where i went to Community College on a pell grant because my my one of my high school businesses, i had i lost. I had negative income. So i went to college with a negative net worth. Hillary yeah. Brad if it werent for pell grants it would have been difficult. Hillary people who try to further themselves and go to school and wipes out their credit score. So here theyve done what they think theyre supposed to do. And certainly i see it all the time reading the stories about the ads, come to this college or this school an get these skills an youll get a job. People borrow money to do that and they dont get the job but they still oh the money owe the money and they are considered noncredit worthy even though they try to do what we want them to do. Its a complicated issue of a lot of mixtures. Particularly low income communities one of my goals is to provide a good base for selfgenerated entrepreneurial activity, Small Business formation and growth. And we know that thats difficult but its really whats at the core of trying to turn around a lot of communities if we actually focused on that. So thats a very good question on that. Grant, tell us about this wonderful bike shop you have here . Grant well, we moved in about two months ago. Still trying a little bit. We talked about using resources. This was actually going to be a parking lot. And through Community Efforts an our local mainstream organization we were able to discover grants, start tax credits that made it possible for the Development Group to make it ready for us to move in. And our main street group on top of Small Business development certains that we used in the past has allowed us to make use of educational training, make us aware of upcoming technologies that we can use for our businesses, having that local resource as they really nice beyond main street. Its turned what used to be a derelict community into one of the main streets in iowa and a thriving business community. Hillary did you have a preexisting business that you moved into this new space . Gran grant yeah, we owned our former location on main street for nine years. And then we moved this over here when this became available. Its going to further our growth as we move to our next 20 years of our business. Hillary good for you. And how many employee doss you have . Right now we have five employees. We hired three additional employees. Hillary you have bikes, bike parts grant service. We do a little bit of everything. Its our staffs passion of bikes and riding in the community. Hillary i wanted tim to Say Something because yesterday at one of my events, the senator was there. And we were talking about how we can enhance through the use of technology the capacity of Small Businesses to do even more work for themselves or at least to keep it local. And bill, do you want to just stand up and explain what you and i were talking about yesterday . Come around here. Bill this is an actual core from a 3d printer and to be correct we call it Additive Manufacturing because youre adding material. And if youve had a block of a, lets say an engine block or a part from a bicycle and you wanted a machine and you drilled a hole in it thats sub strackive manufacture. This was a technology that was impossible until the print of 3d printers and this is a mold gas yune. You can see that this is free inside here. And they would have to make a variety of different pieces and put gaskets and bolt that together and any time youre dealing with compressed gas they had a place where you could have a leak. Its dangerous. But now through this 3d technology this thing with the 3d printer actually and ive got a picture. Ill show you later, would lay down what theyre saying all the way across and another one comes across and it lays down a binding agent. Then the university of Northern Iowa at their metals lab is doing research to improve these products. So this isnt just for business business. Dearin company they use it they can take a traditional manufacturing process of making a mold to make this and go from three months just for this one mold to over night. And the cost is incredible, the savings. This is just an example where they printed this not on the mold. This isnt a mold. Its an example what you can do. But eventually theyre going to go in dealing with sand technologies but theres Metal Technologies so they can direct print parts. You know, you can take a drawing of a bike part and print it on metal or you can do polymers a lot of our brake handles and shifters. Theres a whole line of different items on a bicycle that you can do yourself once you have the design for i. So we think that additive manufactures is going to onshore a lot of jobs to not only iowa but across the country. This morning i stopped in at the tech work. And not only are they doing work for companies but the most important thing i think is what theyre doing is educating the new workforce. And what i hear from Small Business people across iowa they all are fighting to get talented and skilled workers. So as we advance these tech nologies we have to advance the workforce to help. Youre in culinary, you know, you need great chefs. You need people with the technological bikes. We use to spin down the road. I bet you did that. Hillary i did. Bill the Technology Part of it is so big but the workforce is big. And the university of iowa is working to try to develop individuals that can hannle this because its an explosion of technology of future 3d printers will go to mars. Theyre going on all our ships out at sea be able to fix everything. So its just an amazing thing. Hillary well, i wanted bill, to explain this because here is an issue of potentially profound implications for business particularly Small Business. Its american technology. We need to get ahead of it. We need to be using it. Thinking about it. Training people for it but also making sure that you know, suppose in a couple of years brent decides he wants to have his own 3d operation here so you dont have to send an order and wait for a part to come. Youve got somebody trained on your staff to turn it around you know within hours if not a few days. We have to be looking for every Competitive Edge we can get. And we have two potential future scenarios. One is robot 3d technology all of the advances that we can see happening and even dream of happening will displace workers, will lead to more loss of jobs and we will be once again struggling to find ways to give people the dignity and purpose of work. Or we can start right now which is something i want to do as president , start right now with a Publicprivate Partnership trying to figure out how were going to get ahead and stay ahead of the technology quhanges a particular emphasis on what that can mean for Small Business. Thats what the tech work hillary this is what we got to do. Training people and bringing people theyre working with 80 companies right now. They cant find time to hardly do research. Were working on getting more and were going to have the largest 3d training Printing Center in the United States by this fall. So were pretty excited about it. And Small Business Development Centers. The federal government has slowly cut back on the funding and states that are struggling to try to keep up because i know i fund the Small Business Development Centers to my budget. And we hear your story over and over in iowa how they help Small Businesses. You guys are on it. Thank you for the opportunity to say a few words. Hillary thank you so much. That fits right in with the whole business agenda. I feel passionately about. As i looked at where we are in the economy, how we can gain competitive advantage, this is the sweet spot. The more we can do to general frustrate the bottom up Small Business activity, training people for those Small Businesses, does that make sense to you, bret that that could be somethinging in the nuche would actually enhance your Business Opportunity . I would love a 3d printer. Hillary yeah, yeah. And the other thing we should think about doing. We have two other elected officials here. We should think about how we create centers so that every business doesnt have to buy their own. Thats a big front end investment. You can buy time on i. It should operate in my view 24 7. Shouldnt be a 9 00 to 5 00 job. It should be youve got the machine. You should opener around the clock so that your bike shop in a year or two is ready for this you can sign up for the time and you can collect some of the parts that you need to do and maybe once a week you get it for a few hours. You get to reproduce them. We have to start thinking differently. And this kind of communal cooperative approach is something that ive seen work in other places. Theres been some studies done about how it can be effective in northern italy where you a group of Small Businesses. Each one alone cannot afford to buy a machine or to hire a certain expert. But together they can. And then they share that and they each get their part of i. You know theyre still in competition but they have lowered their cost in a way that makes it sensible for them to corporate. Don, is that something banks would be interested in looking to fund . I think banks are looking to help Fund Anything that helps our Small Businesses grow. Without any question. I kind of wanted to add on to some of the comments when it comes to funding things that help fund Small Businesses because i think people are fairly familiar and you have to work with the Small Business administration before. But the Small Business administration makes loans through banks to help Small Businesses. You know, there have been challenges on occasion with funding, you know, the government funding the f. B. A. And if they put a ton of money into the f. B. A. During the financial crisis which was huge and wave some of the fees that Business Owners hesitate and access those funds. That was huge. Now were back to normal time. And whats interesting there are no guarantee fees if the loan youre applying for is less than 250,000. One of the things we hear from some of our Small Business clients is how nice it would be and helpful it could be if maybe that 150,000 limit that threshold could be raised, you know even up to 250 and some of our enthusiastic Small Business lenders would like to see it raised 300 maybe 500 because its intimidating when youre working with somebody on a Small Business loan there are the issues of the complexity, the paperwork as we kind of talked about before in the regulatory side and the time it might take. But also they pull back. A lot of people will pull back because of that fee. Yeah, that puts them off, doesnt it . It puts them off and then theyll stop. If theyre as you going through some of these issues, if it would be a way to consider that that would help Small Businesses. Hillary one of the arguments made by republicans is that its a Government Agency and it displaces banks which is a total misunderstanding of how the Small Business administrations work because you work hand in hand. The money basically goes through you. You are the ones who have to make the hard choices about who should get it, under what circumstances. But you have to obviously follow the rules. And youd have more flexibility. We really wanted to jump start more Community Bank lending in our community, part of what we would do is exactly that. Raise raise the limits to avoid the upfront fee. Absolutely. Its a partnership. We make the loans. We make the loans. The government just helps with the guarantee. That would be great. Hillary i think thats important. I want to go back to the workforce job creation issue. That was another question i got about asking you where do you stand on Trans Pacific partnership. The writer said that other trade deals have actually resulted in jobs going overseas. And when people lose their jobs , they have they have lower paying jobs so it decreases their customers. So what would you do to insure that jobs are staying in the country . Hillary will, this is obviously a very hot topic right now because a procedural vote is pro siding in the senate. Ive been very clear on this ive said over and over again, any trade deal that i would support must increase jobs, must increase wages must give us more economic competitive power around the world to sell our products and must be good for our national security. And there are questions being raised about this current agreement. It hasnt been fully negotiated yet. So i dont know what the final but it needs to be very strong on health and environmental rules. It needs to try to address either directly or indirectly manipulations of currency by countries that would be trading partners and tried to ring that in. That has been a big source of us not being in as competitive as we want to be. We also have to address a provision in this, we are told that i warned about in my book, that gives corporations more power to overturn health and environmental and labor rules then consumers have. I think that is a problem. I have said, i want to judge the final agreement. I have been for trade agreements and against. I have tried to make the evaluation depending upon what i thought they would produce. That is what im waiting to see. There are some amendments being proposed in the process right now that would direct the administration to cover certain issues are to negotiate a certain way or to a negotiate a certain way. Ii wanted to also ask if either jeff for timmy wanted had wanted anything you wanted to add about Small Businesses. Thank you. I think it is important to notice partnership. If the government cant do anything right but it has to be limited. This building is a perfect example. The senator found capital in the budget so the building would not be torn down. It is actually a historic building. It has a historic tax credit which is one of the most Successful Economic Development programs in iowa. The Program Agency pays for funds to improve the building. And then we passed in iowa last year, or two years ago the largest commercial property tax credit in history that went to Small Businesses predominantly. So we can do things that our partnership can help grow the local economy. Im glad that you brought that up. It is wonderful to be a local elected official. But you mentioned the access to capital and technology for Small Businesses. John deere is a fortune 500 company and they havent even invested in 3d printers. Today, when that 3d printer got installed and up and running, it has been running 20 47. And john deere is one of the major users of it. Even a fortune 500 Company Needs us to help them go into the future. In their case, they are doing what they do well now, but they will not make capital. This is a pub perfect example of Publicprivate Partnership were people need tools to be able to do that. I think it will be wonderful if the federal government became a partner in that economic growth. We are seeing those examples in iowa. Im happy to see it. Hillary clinton we are at a very interesting point. Im not saying this is why they had not invested, but a lot of the companies also are pulling back on new investments in research development, new capital equipment, because it does not show up in their bottom line quickly enough. There are under so much pressure to keep putting out as high as that of earnings as possible to try to get credit with financial markets. Im looking very hard at how we can change the tax code so that more companies from small to very large, are incentivized to make the kind of investments for the future that right now, they have to really worry about making, because they will be punished in their quarterly return. Again, im not saying that is what is going on at john deere but ive seen enough to know that is a problem for even the companies. Timmy, you want to add anything . I want to thank you because last night there were several people who got on my facebook and twitter and they were excited that we had someone who is actually in bringing energy to iowa. They are excited to be seeing the future a little brighter. I think that is very important here it its nice to see people in the audience saying, this is exciting. It is good to have that energy back because we kind of lost the energy. I and my husband we shopped all local Small Businesses as much as we can. The quality is better, service is better, and we feel like we are helping the community. But you are bringing them back to the light. I think we are showing Small Businesses, and we want to get behind you and encourage our communities to take advantage of our Small Businesses. Popcorn had been is one of my favorite places. There are lots of gems out there. I think you are bringing that to light for us and i appreciate it. Hillary clinton that really means a lot to me, because my goal is to help set the table so people can begin to solve problems again. And not get caught in ideological debates and namecalling and fingerpointing. It doesnt help anybody. It does not start a Small Business or educate a child here it. If we begin to really put our Heads Together about what works and build on that, there is no limit to where we can be in the 21st century just as we were in the 20th. Everyone who talks about how america cant do this and we are behind, or their in decline, they are just wrong. Anybody whos ever bedded against america has lost. That against america has cost. That doesnt mean we can assume it will work out. We have to work hard, and we have to stay ahead of the curve because we do live in an increasingly competitive world. We have so many other countries and companies and workers who want what we have. I dont fault them for that. It is our fault if we dont stand up and really push back and push ourselves forward. That is exactly where i want this campaign to be. Not about me but about us, about what we can do together. He is, i dont care where they come from. Lets get them out, make sure they are real, and see how we can implement them and provide better opportunities for more people. With that plug about popcorn had eaven, you have to tell us a few things about your business. I started in february 2014. It is a local company. We have grown fast. We have a location in south carolina. We have one in waterloo and vermont. Hillary clinton wow, you are expanding. You are we are expanding fast. Hillary clinton did you have experience in running a retail store before you started . No. Hillary clinton how do you go to the bank with your idea and make the case that they should fund your business . I have been talking about the business with other Small Business owners. He had a relationship with a bank and he believed in me. And they believed in him, so they helped him. Hillary clinton that is often the way it works. And she pays all employees 12 an hour. Hillary clinton that is great. How many do you have . Asterisk it. Congratulations. Good luck. Keep going. Any other Small Business stories before we wrap up . Go ahead. I started a Small Business. Everybody says, you are young, female. They said, we will let you know in six months. [inaudible] it was frustrating. Hillary clinton thats another part of the points i made about the excess in regulations and paperwork. Given where we are with online everything we ought to be able to do much more of this online. And we ought to be able to slim it down. Everybody is always trying to protect themselves, so they ask a million questions when can we do. Ten would do. I think we need the right ten questions. That should be adequate that we need to put our Heads Together and figure out how to do that. There are some interesting lending programs online right now. They are providing funding much faster, based on total online transactions. Right, and thats a real issue, one of the burgeoning issues for us in the Financial Services industry. The nonbanks, which there are a variety of different types lending tree. What would be from a bank perspective, the very helpful to us would be to have a little bit more level playing yield in terms of how the banks and nonbanks are treated regulatory lee and from a taxation standpoint. Some are under regulation under regulated and some are not regulated at all. Everyone is aware of credit union. It started with the best of intentions for lower income people, of modest means. A natural Affinity Group to pull resources and lend to each other. Have just exploded, and are not for the little person any longer, but there i think there are 200 Credit Unions larger than 1 billion. That is bigger than 90 of the banks. That is tough for us. It is tough from a competitive standpoint to be a bank that pays taxes to compete with a that kind entity, but there are literally billions of dollars of taxes that where a fair environment would be paid. One statistic to throw out from this state, the average iowa family of four paid 11,400 in federal taxes 2. 5 billion in credit union with 38 million in profits, page zero. To add to that, paid zero. Add to that,\ to add to that, the Poverty Level is 24 thousand dollars. When you take 11,000 from 24 . I mean, im not good at math. Another note. When we talk about taxes. One thing bicycle retailers across the nation, when we deal with Community Banks, is we are starting to see more and more people shopping online. We are disadvantaging the brickandmortar retailers that pay sales tax that fund the city governments, Police Officers and firefighters. That is an unfair tax burden that brickandmortar people have to pay, where he keeps the money local. Hillary clinton thats a good point. Maybe when i finished talking to the people here. I will put it on my list for due consideration. Yes sir. I have 10,000 people. One of our Biggest Challenges is broadband internet. One of the challenges we see is we dont have gigabytes. In those towns. But also, in rural towns and on farms, there is no internet other than dialup. One of the things we want is if we could do a little cooperat ive, if we could do the same thing for wireless. Hillary clinton and for rural air and everywhere. And even some urban areas that are not considered attractive enough to have the kind of highspeed internet that you are talking about. I agree with you completely. In the weeks ahead, i will be talking more about how we have to come become more f competitive. The perfect example of a Rural Electric cooperatives here and when we electrified the country, it became clear we would do a pretty good job in larger metropolitan areas. There would be a lot of business there. But it will be expensive and not that attractive from a profit perspective to put the lines into going to rural america. That is where the Rural Electric cooperatives came in. They said, we are going to provide a Utility Service that will connect the entire country. It took until the late 1960s to get every single part of the country electrified, at least the lower 48. I think your point is really a smart one. If we are going to be competitive globally, and there are lots of smart people in rural areas you have good ideas. When i referred earlier to the partnership i set up with ebay when i was senator in new york, upstate new york near the canadian border, around the adirondacks, they had a lot of Small Business people with great ideas. But they did not have a big market. What we did was to connect them and help them do it website, get them on ebay, help them advertised all of a sudden, the man was making exquisite flyfishing rod and only selling one every couple of weeks, could get orders from scandinavia. We need to do that everywhere. So that you can sell your product wherever you are, and sell into the global marketplace. That is where i think we can do more than what we are doing. And we cant do it without highspeed internet. 12 we are coming well, we are coming close to the end. I want to thank all of the panelists for being here. That we are going to have let you have a closing summation. Hillary clinton i want to thank all of you and everyone who came. This conversation is another example of why i love doing this. I always learn something. I feel like we need a conversation in our country again where we are talking to each other, taking each others opinion, even when we dont agree we are listening and learning. And we try to figure out what the best solutions are to the problems that we face. I have gotten an enormous amount of good ideas, good information from doing these roundtables. I want to thank all of you for participating in this one. What we want to do now is maybe take a picture and then maybe have our elected officials come and join. And we will be able to do that. And then i might, if i could learn something, i might come over and say a few words and take a few questions from the press. Maybe we can get bill and jeff to join us. Can you get us all in . Ok. Thank you for this. That is quite a thing. It has movable parts, pretty amazing. Lets get everybody. Is popcorn heaven up here . Class i wanted to show you a picture. It is a largest 3d printer in all of america. They are in the process of putting that part into the computer so they are going to print that out. And then that is the table when it came out and unloaded it. So hopefully you get an opportunity to. Hillary clinton yes, i would like that. This is part of what i would like to promote. Hello. [chatter] Hillary Clinton lets bring some order. Secretary clinton the regret delayed the Clinton Foundation handled foreign donations when you are secretary of state . Your opponents say foreign donations and private emails were examples of the clintons having one set of rules for themselves and another set of rules for everyone else . Hillary clinton i am so proud of the foundation. Im proud of the work it has done and is doing. It attracted donations from people, organizations from around the world and i think that goes to show that people are very supportive of the lifesaving and lifechanging work it has done here at home and elsewhere. I will let the American People make their own judgment. Secretary clinton. Give us given the situation in iraq, do you think we are better off without Saddam Hussein in power . Hillary clinton i know there have been a lot of questions about iraq over the last weeks. I have made it clear that i made a mistake, plain and simple. I have written about it in my book, i have talked about in the past. What we now see is a very different and very dangerous situation. The United States is doing what it can. But ultimately this has to be a struggle that the Iraqi Government and iraqi people are determined to win for themselves. We can provide support, but they are going to have to do it. On your income disclosure recently you are invented top echelon of earners in this country. How do you expect Everyday Americans to relate to you . Hillary clinton obviously bill and i have been blessed. We are very grateful for the opportunities we had. But we have never forgotten where we came from and we have never forgotten the kind of country we want to see for our granddaughter. That means we are going to fight to make sure everybody has the same chances to live up to his or her own godgiven potential. I think that most americans understand that the deck is stacked for those at the top and i am running a campaign that is very clearly eating, we want to reshuffle that deck. We want to get back to having more opportunities for more people so they can make more out of their lives. That is exactly what america is looking for. Can you explain your relationship as secretary of state with Sidney Blumenthal . There was a report you exchanged several emails. Should americans expect that if elected, you would have that same type of relationship with old friends . Hillary clinton [laughter] i have many many old friends. I always think that it is important when you get into politics to have friends you had before you were in politics, and to understand whats on their mind. He has been a friend of mine for a long time. He sent me unsolicited emails which i passed on in some in the instances, and that is part of the give and take. When you are in the public eye you have to work to make sure you are not caught in a bubble and you only hear from a certain small group of people. I will keep talking to my old friends, whoever they are. Secretary clinton we landed in the state Department Might not release your emails until january 2015. A federal judge says they should be released sooner. Will you demanded they are released to and followup on the question about the speeches, was very conflict of interest in the runup of your nothing for president announcement for running a president . Hillary clinton the answer to the first is no. And i want those emails out. Nobody has a bigger interest in getting them out than i do. I respect the state department but anything they might do to expedite that process, i heartily support. I want the American People to learn as much as we can about the work that i did with our diplomats and development experts. I think it will show how hard we work and what we did. For our country during the time i was secretary of state where i worked extremely hard on behalf of our values and interests and our security. The emails are part of that. I have said publicly, i am repeating it here, i want them out as soon as they can get out. Will you demand it . Hillary clinton theyre not mine. A blonde to the state department. They have to go through that process. They belong to the state department. They have to go through that process. As much as they can i hope to expedite the process. Do you regret the 32,000 emails, mrs. Clinton . [chatter] president ial candidates often released books to introduce themselves to voters. Here is a look at recent books written by declared and potential candidates for president. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton looks back on her time serving in the Obama Administration in, hard choices. Florida senator marco rubio outlines his next plan to restore economic opportunity. Mike huckabee gives his take on politics and culture. And in bluecollar conservatives, potential president ial candidate Rick Santorum argues the Republican Party must focus on the working class to retake the white house. Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren recounts the events in her life that shaped her career as an educator and politician. Wisconsin Governor Scott walker argues republicans must offer Bold Solutions to fix the country and have the courage to implement them. And kentucky senator rand paul, who recently cleared his candidacy, calls for Smaller Government and more bipartisanship. More potential president ial candidates with recent books include former governor jeb bush and immigration wars. He argues for new immigration policy. In stand for something Ohio Governor john kasich talks about traditional values. James webb talks about his time in the military. Bernie sanders recently announced his intention to seek the democratic nomination for president. His book is a printing of his eight hour long filibuster against tax cuts. In prompt in promises to keep joe biden looks back on his role and explains principles. Former Texas Governor rick perry explains government has become too intrusive and must get out of the way. Other politician who has expressed interest in running for president is former rhode island governor lincoln chafee. He recounts his time serving as a republican in the senate. Carly fiorina former ceo of hewlettpackard, shares lessons she has learned for difficulties and challenges in rising to the challenge. Bobby jindal criticizes the Obama Administration. Finally, another declared president ial candidate texas senator ted cruz, recounts his journey from a cuban immigrants son to the u. S. Than it. Look for his book in june. Coming up wednesday on cspan3, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on the future of u. S. Cuba relations. Senators will hear from the lead negotiator for reestablishing diplomatic relationships between the u. S. And canada. See the hearing at 10 00 eastern. Then at 2 00, the u. S. Capitol police chief appears before the House Administration committee. He is expected to address multiple recent incidents involving capital Police Officers including unattended weapons as well as a civilian suicide and the landing of a gyro copter on grounds. Max keith joins us. He is a staff writer. How is the Current Program funded, and why is congress fated facing this deadline . Keith the problem is the gas tax isnt bringing in as much as historically. Transportation advocates say what we are spending now is barely enough to maintain the system we have. They would like to see some sort of increase. There has been resistance to the idea of raising the gas tax. Why this deadline now . They passed an eight month extension. You write that the house and senate are considering a fix. What happens if funding is not extended . The Transportation Department has said they have enough money to cover spending throughout the summer without having to come up with additional money. There had been talk of doing an extension until the end of the year. That would require about 10 billion. There was no consensus on how to pay for that. They stuck with the deadline. What is the status with the longterm funding in the house and senate . Congress hasnt passed a transportation bill longer than two years since 2005. There have been 30 extensions. Transportation advocates are pretty unhappy. There is an amendment discussed for the house version of the temporary extension from democrats that would have said it would have prevented any extension passed. Where does the white house stand . They have a bill that says could be paid for by repatriation. They are focusing on overseas revenues and using that to replenish the trust fund. Some republicans have supported that as well. Some have disagreed on the rates and whether participation should be mandatory or voluntary. There is some discussion that doing it as a tax holiday would cost the federal government more than it would bring in. It would still only provide a onetime solution, not a permanent solution like raising the gas tax. You raise comments that ray lahood made about how crazy it was to not raise the gas tax. Why is it not an option . Where else would the money come from . The political reality is it is difficult to get through this congress or any congress. Even ray lahood did not come out in that position until after he left office because the Obama Administration said they are from a gas tax increase. I want to touch on a tweet you said about the democrat. His district is portland oregon. He says essentially he does not want to see anymore shortterm patches. What is happening here . Keith he is offering an amendment that would ban any extension after this one. This one expires in july. He would prevent any extensions that are not a sixyear longterm transportation bill that would end the cycle of temporary extensions we have been on for a decade now. Does he have supporters behind him . Keith he has supporters and the desire for a longterm bill, but i think there is a realization the only thing that can get through is this temporary extension. We will have your tweets. Thanks for joining us. Keith thanks for having me. The house just passed a shortterm highway spending bill. The vote to keep mass transit projects funded for another two months. Prior to the vote, members debated shortterm extension and talked about rail improvements and safety. This is about an hour. I call on the bill to provide an extension of Highway Safety transit, and other programs, and ask for immediate consideration. A bill to provide motor carrier safety, transit, and other programs out of the Highway Trust Fund. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to House Resolution 271, the bill is considered as read. The gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Shuster and the gentleman from oregon, mr. Defazio each will control 30 minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Shuster. Mr. Shuster mr. Speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore first the gentleman will suspend. The house will be in order. Members please remove their conversations from the floor. The house will be in order. The gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. Mr. Shuster thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise today in support of h. R. 2353 the highway and transportation funding act of 2015. This bill will extend federal surface transportation programs for two months through july of 2015. H. R. 2353 is a clean extension of the surface transportation programs. Funded at the authorized amounts for fiscal year 2014. No transfer of funding to the Highway Trust Fund is necessary because the trust fund will remain solvent during the period. However, we will more than likely have to pass another shortterm patch before the august recess and take steps to ensure the trust fund remains solvent. I hope all of you will support h. R. 2353, but i have to say shortterm extensions for the end of july was not our prefer path forward. Our hope was to extend the Surface Program through the end of the calendar year that would have ensured reliable funding for states through the construction season. A longer extension would also have allowed us to focus on finding a longterm funding solution within the context of tax reform without the distraction of needing to address a shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund later this summer. Unfortunately, we were unable to reach an agreement on a sevenmonth extension and so we are left with a twomonth patch. We have an immediate critical need to extend the current surface transportation law. If Congress Fails to act, over 4,000 department of transportation personnel will be furloughed and the states will not be able to be reimbursed. Transportation projects and jobs across the country will be at risk. I appreciate chairman ryans attention to this pressing issue, as well as his commitment to addressing the longterm solvency of the Highway Trust Fund. A longterm reauthorization bill will continue to be a top priority for this committee. I look forward to working with chairman ryan, Ranking Member defazio, and others to achieve a longterm bill. With that i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Defazio well, here we are again yet another shortterm patch. Its the heck of a way to run a great nation. Our systems falling apart. 140,000 bridges and national highway system need repair or replacement. 40 of the surface national highway system is in such bad shape we have to big up the roadbed and resurface. We have an 86 billion backlog in transit to bring up the existing transit. Its so bad we are killing people in the Nations Capital unnecessarily because the state of disrepair of the metro system. It is embarrassing. The United States of america has gone from number one in the world unparalleled in terms of its infrastructure in the eisenhower era and through a good deal of the latter part of the last century to 26 and falling fast. We are investing less of a percent of our g. D. P. In infrastructure repaired and maintenance let alone building out a new system than virtually every nation in the world. We are down around 1 . There are many developing nations who are investing much, much more because they know they have to move their people and their goods more efficiently in a world economy. We cannot continue to kick this can down the road. The road is at a dead end. Today we will reluctantly go along with a twomonth patch because if we do not act today on the at the end of this month, the first of june 4,000 people will be laid off at d. O. T. And all federal funding for surface transportation and transit would stop. States that had bills pending couldnt be paid and states that would want new commitments wouldnt do it, a tragedy at the height of the construction season. So 60 days should be enough time to negotiate a longterm bill. Today we introduce the grow america act, written by the administration. It has many many good points to it, especially the spending levels. We need to enhance spending. We cant pretend, oh, were going to do more with less. Were past that point. Look at what has happened to the purchasing power of the gas tax which hasnt been changed since 1993. 2 1 2 times faster, road Traffic Volume is going up than were dealing with the funding issues. So we are in a huge deficit situation, and there are many, many ways. Many have been proposed on a bipartisan basis to deal with this. We should be able to work that out. But more importantly this committee writes the policy. We introduced the bill that sets the levels 487 billion. Its an increase in transit to deal with the backlog, an increase in highways to deal with the insufficiencies there, a new dedicated program for freight and it puts more money into rail, Commuter Rail in particular to deal with positive train control and other issues. So we believe that this is the last wakeup call to give congress time. 60 days is more than enough time to write a longterm authorization, and for the ways and Means Committee to figure out a way to fund it. With that i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. Mr. Shuster mr. Speaker, i now yield two minutes to the chairman of the subcommittee on highways and transit mr. Graves. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Graves thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Speaker, i also want to thank in addition to this patch, i want to thank chairman shuster and chairman ryan for their hard work towards a longterm reauthorization of the federal highway bill. Mr. Speaker, my home state of missouri has nearly 35,000 highway miles and over 10,000 bridges that are practically begging for our attention. As chairman of the house subcommittee on highways and transit, every single day i hear about the need to improve and repair our roadways in this country. As you can imagine this is not a simple task this is a job thats going to take years to complete. It requires the hard work and cooperation of thousands of men and women. And most importantly, though, the task of this magnitude requires that those responsible for planning each project, the state and local governments are able to do so with confidence. It needs certainty, not only in this years budget, but about the budgets in the next five or six years. This twomonth extension does not come under ideal circumstances, but its going to ensure that states are reimbursed for their expenses on federal projects and its going to give us time to craft a bipartisan longterm reauthorization that we so desperately need. Longterm reauthorization is critical for everyone who plays a role in improving our nations highways and bridges and too often theyve been forced to work off shortterm extension after shortterm extension. This congress we have a huge opportunity to secure a longterm highway bill thats going to improve, where he build and modernize rebuild and modernize americas highway systems. I hope this extension gives us time to come one that agreement that we need and with that again, i want to thank both chairmen for their hard work and i look forward to finalizes the longterm reauthorization. I yield back the balance. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from pennsylvania reserves. The gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Defazio i yield 2 1 2 minutes to the Ranking Member of the surface subcommittee, ms. Eleanor holmes norton. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman is recognized. Ms. Norton i thank my good friend for yielding. By july when this new patch expires, mr. Speaker we shall have spent a full year since the last patch, not even trying to make progress toward a longterm authorization bill. Weve acquired a dangerous habit, 33 cents the last longterm bill of patches that create no urgency to get a longterm bill done. The ways and Means Committee, the Funding Committee for this bill is holding its first hearing next month. The frustration in the states has accumulated as fast as the untenable backlog of projects. Another construction season has already been sacrificed. The reason we are here today is a comment on congressional neglect of the nations infrastructure. States have slowed down their request for reimbursements from the trust fund because of un because the unreplenished fund together with the shortterm patches make it impossible for states themselves to even begin projects of any size. Mr. Speaker, the states have already scaled back their plans for 2015 that would have created many federal employees in my district and thousands of others throughout the country. If Congress Fails to take action by may 31, many federal employees will be furloughed, federal reimbursements will stop and the highway and transit programs will shut down. The hidden cost are even worse. The many Economic Development projects in the country that cant be started until roads bridges and transit to accommodate them are done. Today, the democrats on the transportation and Infrastructure Committee have introduced the president s grow america act. Were putting a good bill on the table. Change it or do your own substitute, but do not leave the nations infrastructure twisting in the dust of another delay. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman yields back. The gentleman from oregon reserves. The gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. Mr. Shuster thank you mr. Speaker. I now recognize for two minutes the gentleman from arkansas, mr. Crawford. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Crawford thank you, mr. Speaker. First, let me thank chairman shuster, Ranking Member defazio for their hard work and to the rest of the committee for the hours of work already done on a longterm transportation bill. I rise today in support of h. R. 2353 to prevent the shutdown of funding for infrastructure improvement. I believe theres shared commitment between the transportation and Infrastructure Committee and most of the members of the house to pass a fully funded multiyear highway bill. With the debt crisis we continue to battle, its becoming more and more difficult to deal with our most critical needs. That leaves few options at our disposable. Members of both the Transportation Committee and the ways and Means Committee will have to take a closer look at potential funding alternatives and be creative in how to finance a reliable and modern infrastructure system. And at the same time we need to work towards getting our country back on the path of fiscal solvency. As we work on a longTerm Solution we need to prevent finding ourselves in the same position over and over. A consistent funding mechanism paired with a more transparent system that demonstrates effective use of taxpayer dollars will put us in a better position to fund Critical Infrastructure projects and instill more confidence on the part of our constituents. I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting h. R. 2353 so we can continue work on a multiyear transportation bill to ensure our nations growth. Failure to act threatens our general contractors and their employees, suppliers and puts at risk the jobs that are both directly and indirectly supported by these projects. Mr. Speaker, if we want to keep our folks in business and continue any meaningful growth in our economy then we must find a reliable, longTerm Solution. With that i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from pennsylvania reserves. The gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Defazio i yield two minutes to the gentleman from new york, mr. Nadler. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from new york is recognized. Mr. Nadler i thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, i rise in support of this bill but with reservations. The last surface transportation bill map21, expired last fall. At that time we passed an extension to the end of this month to give us time to work on a longterm bill. We have known for months that this day was coming and yet we have made no progress finding a solution to fund highway transit and other important surface transportation bill. Map 1 itself was only a twoyear bill. Breaking the tradition of Congress Passing five or sixyear bills to complete longterm capital plans and projects that require a commitment beyond one fiscal year. The last longterm bill we passed with safetealu in 2005. That was 10 years ago and that bill was underfunded because of the resistance of raising the gasoline tax or identifying new revenue sources. For over a decade we have failed to address the funding challenges necessary to break the cycle of underinvestment and put this country back on a competitive path with the rest of the world. Today we spend about 1. 7 of g. D. P. On infrastructure while china spends 9 , europe 4. 5 to 5 . We used to spend 4. 5 to 5 also. There is a 800 million backlog. Public transit has an 6 billion backlog of critical maintenance and repair needs which increased by 2. 5 billion each year as bus and Rail Infrastructure ages. While infrastructure crumbles around us, we dont fill the gap in the Highway Trust Fund just to do a longterm bill at current levels. But this week they will put on the floor a tax extenders that will cost 182 billion over 10 years completely unpaid for. Im concerned that we will pass this twomonth extension and be right back here in july having the same conversation. I will support this extension but only with the understanding that we must spend the next two months once and for all making transportation funding a priority so that our citizens dont have to risk unsafe transportation, so we can invest in our infrastructure and we can be competitive in our economy going forward. I thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from oregon reserves. The gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. Mr. Shuster thank you mr. Speaker. I now yield two minutes to the gentleman from ohio, mr. Gibbs. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from ohio is recognized. Mr. Gibbs i thank you, chairman, for yielding. Mr. Speaker, i rise in support of 2253, the highway and transportation funding act of 2015. Although we must construct a longterm highway bill, this legislation is a compromise that will provide states of certainty through the vital summer construction months. By extending the Highway Trust Fund to the end of july, states will not have to worry about reimbursements from the federal government while they are in the middle of the busiest construction season of the year. Following passage of this extension i look forward to working with my colleagues on the transportation and Infrastructure Committee to construct a longterm highway bill which is a sustainable funding mechanism. Upon its enactment in 2012, map21 consolidated federal Highway Programs and streamlining the approval process. The next highway bill should build on map21 success to cut red tape and ensure Highway Trust Fund dollars are spent sponlly. We must also be good stewards of taxpayer dollars tone sure that the next surface transportation bill will create jobs and keep our nation competitive. My constituents and the hardworking people all over this country need reliable roads and bridges to commute to work, take their children to school and get home safely at night. Unfortunately, the president s funding proposal is not viable and i believe will encourage more inversions or takeovers of american companies. I urge my colleagues to support h. R. 2253 and encourage them to commit to crafting a longterm fiscally responsible highway bill that will provide the muchneeded certainty to states, industry and the American People. I thank the gentleman for the time and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from pennsylvania reserves. The gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Defazio at this time i yield two minutes to the gentleman from oregon, mr. Blumenauer. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Blumenauer i appreciate the gentlemans courtesy and i appreciate his leadership on this matter. He hit it right on the nail. We are in a situation im sad to say having listened to my colleague a moment ago the states will still have to worry. Two months doesnt give them a straight shot at a construction season and theres still uncertainty. I could have dusted off the speech i gave last summer where i said wed be right back here in the same spot with uncertainty around the country and the local governments the state governments, the contractors dont deserve that. But its not the problem of the t. N. I. Committee as much as ways and means. You cant craft a bill unless you know how much money youve got to spend. I am embarrassed as a member of that committee that in the 55 months my republican colleagues have been in charge we have not had a single hearing on transportation finance. We hear certain things are off the table, not acceptable. Its interesting, we havent raised the gas tax in 22 years but six states, six red states have raised the gas tax already this year. Utah idaho georgia south dakota. These are not flaming bastions of these are people who looked at the problem and decided they needed to step up and they stepped up, not to take the place of the federal responsibility but in anticipation that at some point the federal government would meet its obligation for almost half of the Major Construction projects. Id respectfully request that we dive in and see what we can do over the course of the next couple months but that ways and Means Committee spend one week listening to the men and women who build, operate and use our nations infrastructure, spend a week, look at the items, consider maybe what Ronald Reagan thought was a good idea in 1982, raise the gas tax. We can pass that bill out of committee in one week, and you can have the next couple months to give america the bill it needs to rebuild and renew this great country. Thank you and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from oregon reserves. The gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. The speaker pro tempore the the gentleman from nevada vedged. Mr. Hardy thank you mr. Speaker. I rise today in support of a longterm highway funding. I will support the bill on the floor today. But lets be clear, this is a longterm problem that needs to have a longTerm Solution. We gather in hearings, we gather in meetings to discuss the various options we have for revenue. We now have to gather to make a decision longterm decision. We were elected in congress to represent our constituents and to make difficult decision that is will help us guide our nation forward. Its time for us to accelerate and produce a solution to our highway funding problems, our highways and our bridges are falling into disrepair. Before i became involved in Public Service i was a contractor in nevada. Where i worked on roads, brings bridges, and dams. I know the wear and tear of our infrastructure that it is experiencing. I know the uncertainty that states are facing when it comes to highway projects. Our inaction has created a difficult environment for the states to make decisions. So i stand here today to support a longterm funding. Its a longterm problem that requires a longTerm Solution. Thank you. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from pennsylvania roists. The reserves. The gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Defazio with that i yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from texas, miss johnson. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman from texas is recognized. Miss johnson thank you miss johnson thank you very much ms. Johnson thank you very much, mr. Speaker. Let me thank the leadership of this committee for getting to this point. Im very, very sorry this is another kick in the can down the road, but we dont have much choice. But to support the bill before us today. We have missed a Major Construction season already. Bridges are falling. Accidents are happening. Traffic jams increase because of the crumbling infrastructure. This is all very costly. And its more costly when we have a winter just the way we have had it that hits already crumbling infrastructure. We must address this costly negligent neglect of our infrastructure around the country. It is not partisan. There are no democrat and republican bridges or streets. We must address our responsibility to this nation. Sensible large projects must have time to plan the longterm projects. We cannot do that. No city or state can do that kind of planning without knowing whether we have a longterm source of funding that will keep it going. It is unwise for us to continue just to put this off. Weve got to pay for it no matter when we do it. The time is now. We have extended this time too long. The nation has suffered too long. Traffic is jamming, accidents are happening. And it will not get better until we take on our responsibility. I would urge all of us today to support this shortterm bill for the last time. It is time for us to have a longterm infrastructure bill for this nation. Thank you. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman yields back. The gentleman from oregon reserves. Mr. Defazio i inquire of the balance of time remaining. The speaker pro tempore 19 minutes remaining. The gentleman from oregon has 19. Mr. Shuster how much minutes do i have . The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from pennsylvania has 22 minutes remaining. The gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. Mr. Shuster its now my pleasure to yield for two minutes to the gentleman from texas. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from texas is recognized. Mr. Speaker, the funding and authorization for our federal Highway Program expires in just 12 days. This is a deadline that congress the department of transportation, and the American People have known about for almost a year now. And the bill before us today is not the long solution that we were hoping for, but it is the necessary step forward at this time while we continue to work on a longer Term Solution for our highway funding. I appreciate very much the attention that chairman shuster has given to this important issue. Hes taken a very keen interest on what we need on a national level, and many of us from the houston area appreciate him coming to our part of america to learn and see what our needs are in the state of texas. Im confident that the chairman and those of us on the relevant committees in the house and senate will come together and deliver a longTerm Solution for our Highway Programs and strengthen them for every texan and every american. And while this bill before us isnt ideal the choice is very simple. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting yes on this bill to keep our state departments of transportation on the job through the summer building months and Congress Working on a longTerm Solution. I thank you mr. Chairman and yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from pennsylvania reserves. The gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Defazio i yield