Transcripts For CSPAN QA 20160620

Brian jo ann jenkins, ceo of aarp, why did you take that job . Jo ann it was unexpected. I have spent over 25 years in Public Service in a number of Government Agencies and i had the opportunity to come over and be the head of the Aarp Foundation. And i spent two years there really trying to institute and constitute the foundation to have it solely focused on serving the needs of the low income of 50 plus across the organization and as a result of the success that we had and the foundation, the ceo asked me if i would come over to their side and help develop a strategy for 2020 to make sure aarp was relevant to its members in the 21st century. As part of that transition and building strategy, the opportunity and opening came to be the ceo of aarp. While not planned, it was a wonderful transition for me to be able to move from being an initially a board member for the forprofit and are running the company. Im the only leader who has worked at all three organizations. Brian some of the details, how big is your membership . Jo ann aarp has 38 million members. We are close to the largest Membership Organization in the world. Our members are very diverse, one third republican, one third democrat, 1 3 independent. Very vocal about the issues important to them. We are in all 50 states and guam, puerto rico, urgent Virgin Islands and growing every day. There are about 110 Million People in the United States were over the age of 50, which is our membership. 38 million of them are members of aarp. Brian is the main aarp a forprofit company . Jo ann the main aarp is a c4 nonprofit. It is a nonprofit, Nonpartisan Organization whose government is to serve in a nonpartisan, nonprofit across the country. Brian are you allowed to lobby . We have in the past. We are on capitol hill in state legislatures across the country. Brian is that inside the company . Jo ann inside the association. We have a c three which is a nonprofit charitable arm which focuses to serve the low income and we have a asi services which is a for profit opening that sells travel, insurance, discounts, restaurant coupons, whole host of products and services. Things that appeal to the 50 . Brian what happens to the profit, where does it go . Jo ann we have an agreement with the irs that the profits, 95 of it is turned back into aarp for the nonprofit space. To do good for people across the country, members and nonmembers. That is unique about aarp. The social impact work we do in communities across the country, regardless of whether you are in aarp member. Brian how big is the board . Jo ann we have a 21person nonpaid volunteer board who works with us on developing all of our policy positions. They come from all across the country. They can self nominate or be nominated by another board member or any citizen. We have a process that our Board Members turn over every two years we have a new class. Not total, but about six members turning over every two years on the board. It is a nonpartisan, nonpaid volunteer board. How people work for aarp . We have about 2300 employees who work in all 50 states. We augment that with about 50,00060,000 volunteers who work in helping to do Program Delivery in her advocacy work across the country. Brian where is headquarters . Jo ann washington, d. C. Brian in your new book, disrupt aging a bold new path to living your best life at every age you talk about your father and mother in law. Why did you mentioned them and how did that impact you . Jo ann what is so wonderful about my motherinlaw, she was here in washington dc, she lived by herself. Very independent. Gets up every day, leaves the house, take the bus to the metro, take the metro to wherever she has decided to go into where she can walk safely, had lunch, brings back the lunch, calls my husband to say she is back. Her mind and spirit is as young as she was when i first met her several years ago. I think she is a wonderful example of living your life healthy at a young age and the importance of exercise and staying active. My dad, who i just came from visiting is in alabama. He is 87 and will be 88 next week. So independent in caring for others. He is at this point in his life where a number of his friends have either gone on, passed away, or he is caring for them and i think what gives him his will to continue is that passion for helping others around him who may not be in as good health as him. I thought it was important to mention because, both of those are in their 80s and 90s and i think that is an important aspect of the aarp membership. Years ago, you are probably a member for 20 years but now, it is likely that you could be a member for brian can you join five decades. Brian can you join before you are 50 . Jo ann we have a junior membership that is for 40 year old. We dont advertise it. Brian how long has it been 16 year . Jo ann it is still 16 a year and it has been that since the i have since i have been associated. At least for the last 10 years. Brian i bet you know the number one reason why people join aarp . The magazine. They love the discounts that members get. Brian how many magazines do you distribute now . Jo ann the last count i heard, 25,000,00035,000,000 people every two months. It comes out every month. Every other month. The thirdlargest writing circulation in the world. It is one of those magazines that you read at home but we have four people in the household read it. The exposure is much more than average. Brian where were you raised . Jo ann 16 miles southwest of mobile, alabama. Brian what kind of family did you have . Jo ann my dad was a merchant marine, my mother was a housewife, i had two brothers. And one sister. They were 810 years older than me. I tell people all the time that i was both the youngest in the family and a single child. When i was growing up in my high school, teenage years, my brothers and sisters were either gone off to college or married. Brian what did you think in high school you do for a living would do for a living . Jo ann i like doing these programs. I was president of student council. I was the morning announcer and at that time, i always thought i would like to be a news anchor. Brian what happened . Jo ann i came to washington, got involved in Public Service and this is the closest thing i will probably get to it. Brian what was your first job in washington . Jo ann my first job after i graduated, i came up and worked on the Reagan Campaign in the summer of 1980 and then worked the reagan inauguration. Ended up going into the department of housing and urban development where i was congressional relations, have the southern delegation, which was nice to me because i was from the south. From congressional relations to legislation was more on the legislative bill side of the house. Was promoted to work with the federal Housing Commission at the department of housing where we were addressing issues around multi family and Single Family housing. Part of the Public Housing sector that in the 1980s. Thinking through, how do we build affordable communities all across this country . I spent 45 years the department of housing and urban development. I had a keen sense of how important it is for us to have Affordable Housing and to build communities, Livable Communities that has mixeduse and affordability. Brian what does aarp do for people with housing problems . Jo ann some of our foundation work, we get involved in trying to address at the local level, we know the four things that low income people face. The hardest challenges our hunger, housing, income, and what we call isolation. We know that if someone is in a home, it is a much more stable household. Many people, we find out, are houserich and financially poor. They cant afford to live in the house they may have inherited or that they grew up in. We can do a lot of work on the nonprofit side and advocacy work on the hill trying to get state legislatures and communities to speak about building accessible housing so that people of all ages, whether it is someone who needs some kind of assistance coming in the front door who might need a walker or realtor or a young mother getting a stroller into the house. I would say to the staff, who came up with those steps rather than having a flat incline . We do a lot of work around advocacy and building and planning designing and communities that need to be accessible regardless of age. Brian how does aarp find all those addresses of people about to turn 50 . Jo ann i cant say i know all the details of it. We can almost find anyone out there now. What we try to do is six months before you turn 50, to be able to send that letter of invitation to you. My mantra is that i hope it is worth making aarp such a place that people want to join it that when they turn 50, they say, yes ive earned the right to become an aarp member. Brian is there an obvious place with it addresses are . Jo ann there are lists out there that you can buy. I cant say i know specifically how they do it, but i know there is a combination of a number of following information and contact data about individuals getting ready to turn 50. Brian if you add up all the budgets of the foundation and aarp and the forprofit group, how much money do you generate in a years time . Jo ann on an annual basis, we billion that. 5 2 goes in and out. Very similar to the federal government, we turn over the budget and use it to drive our social impact agenda. Brian as you know, aarp can be controversial. I want to show you some video of a man named paul ryan who spoke to your group in 2012 and i want you to tell us what this is all about. [begin video clip] speaker ryan the first step to a stronger medicare is to repeal obama care because it represents the worst of both worlds. [booing] speaker ryan i had a feeling it would be a mixed reaction. Let me get into it. It weakens medicare for today seniors and puts it at risk for the next generation. First, it funnels 760 billion out of medicare to pay for a new entitlement we did not ask for. Second, it puts 15 unelected bureaucrats in charge of medicares future. [end video clip] brian so, 2012, was not speaker of the house. He is now. You say in your book, by the 2020, there will be 64 Million People in this country on medicare. How do you get through this . Obviously, people are unhappy about what he said. Jo ann what he is saying, aarp is a Nonpartisan Organization and if i recall correctly, i was not the ceo at the time but i was associated. Speaker ryan, he came in his role as running mate and aarp traditionally invites both parties to our National Convention to show up and i give speaker ryan great credit to coming to speak to our members to share his view on medicare. Social security and medicare is so important for the survival of people who are 65 and older. We know that Social Security is not addressed in a meaningful way. We will lose 25 of what the value or benefits will be if we dont make meaningful adjustments. Social security and medicare turned 80 this past year. We think that we need to try and make changes in the system so that we can start capturing some of the control of the costs. Not just for medicare, but the whole health care system. We have to do that in a meaningful way by hoping that republicans and democrats on the hill in hospitals and doctors and patients are all working together to do that. Aarps position has been that those cuts cannot come on the backs of the benefactors. The people who depend on it every day should not have to carry the burden when they paid into this medicare system and Social Security system. As i said, i give speaker ryan great credit to come in and speak his piece and to share with us what he would be doing on those programs. Brian if this town continues to be divided and continue to have one side that think obamacare is the greatest and the other side thinks it is awful, how will you get this job done and get compromise . Jo ann i would hope more reasonable minds would get together to be able to address. One of our big issues has been around Social Security. We have a Platform Campaign out there. Take a stand. We think that it we are going to get to the Social Security solvency, it will demand president ial leadership. Our campaign is about going out and saying anyone who is running for president ought to be able to tell us what their position is and what their plan is on solving Social Security for the next 80 years. We have a website up called takeastand. Org where we have invited all the candidates to share with the American People how they will address Social Security and let our members decide how they want to vote on it. To be able to make sure that whoever wants to be president understands how important these programs are for the survival of millions of people over the age of 65 in this country. 10,000 people a day are turning age 65 and that will happen for the next 14 years. It is not something that will go away. It will increase. Brian your book is full of statistics on the savings of people in the country, retirement. How bad is it or how good is it . Jo ann i would say it all ties back to our longevity and the fact that we are living another 2030 years longer than our parents or grandparents. So depending slowly on Social Security is not going to be enough to survive on it you are going to live 80100 years old. The Fastest Growing age segment is the people over 85 and the second is people over the age of 100. These programs were put in place with Life Expectancy at 67 or 68. Not only are there more people in the system, they are living longer. We have to look at these programs and make meaningful adjustments that will allow people to live with dignity and over a much longer period of time. Having said that, im a strong proponent that people need to take some responsibility. We need to learn to start saving and planning. I like to say, so that we can live, not to retire. How do we plan to live those extra 30 years of your life that is given to you as a result of medical advances. Living in better health. How do we start working with people all over this country at a younger age so they start planning for their future and not waiting and realizing they dont have enough income to live adequately. Brian what is the percentage, if you know it, of the people who have no money saved and rely entirely on Social Security . Jo ann the last number i saw was roughly 50 of people over the age of 65 have less than 10,000. Brian what do you think should be done . Jo ann i think the polls we have seen, put Social Security at one of the Top Priorities that we should focus on. They recognize saving is important. It is one of the things like exercise. They know if we exercise we feel better, and getting to it and finding the time is another thing. I think that is part of the message that we are try to get through and trying to talk and get people to understand that this is a blessing that we are getting, to be able to live this extra 2030 years. But with that comes a responsibility to start saving and thinking and planning about how you will take care of yourself and loved ones. Brian i think i am right about this, but tell me if i am wrong, in the last six years, three of those years there has been no increase in Social Security checks going to people. You hear this administration and a lot of people in this town talk about how much better everything is. How could everything be so much better if 43 out of the last six years, Social Security recipients has got no increase . Jo ann we hear that from members about how difficult it is to survive. Just last week i was down in alabama, my home state. 57 of those who rely on Social Security, it provides 50 of their income. 30 rely on Social Security for 90 of their income. The average Social Security income the state is 13,000 a year. Not many people can live out of poverty. On 13,000 a year. It is so important that we not only have Social Security, but that people take a personal responsibility to start planning for their futures and thinking about how they are going to live these additional years. Brian talking about Social Security, ted cruz ran for president and had this to say. Put this in perspective. [begin video clip] ted cruz i am 44 years old, is hard to find someone my generation who thinks Social Security will be there for us. The presence a real opportunity to reform it now for future generations and how can we do that . For younger workers, we should gradually increase the retirement age to recognize that people are living longer and give people time to plan their Financial Affairs to anticipate a later retirement age on the Social Security. Number two, we should change the rate of growth and benefits for Social Security so that it matches inflation rather than exceeding inflation. For younger workers, we ought to allow them to keep a portion of their tax payment in a personal account that they own, they control, and they can pass on to their kids and grandkids. [end video clip] brian what would happen if you told your membership you would support those . All three ideas. Jo ann i think there would be a massive outcry. I think that what were trying to do is take a stand and to give candidates like senator cruz the opportunity to let the American People listen to and hear recommendations. And for them to make their own decisions about whether they want to vote for that candidate or not. For us, at aarp, it is not for us to say this is the right solution for you. But for us to lay out the options for the American People to see all the candidates positions. It is critical that we come together, have a conversation about how we can make Social Security as secure and adequate. When Social Security was designed, there was Something Like 2030 to one people paying the system. Today, it is 51 it will only increase as a become a more older population. It is critical that this is the time during this primary process that we hear from all the candidates and listen to all the recommendations and then put them all together to see what will be the most beneficial and help the most people for the longest period of time. Brian if you wanted to find the Social Security trust fund or the Medicare Trust fund, where would we go find the actual money . Is it sitting somewhere . Jo ann the Treasury Department keeps control of the trust fund, certainly for Social Security and medicare. It is an annual preparations. It is in the federal budget. Brian is there money in the trust fund . Jo ann there is money in the Social Security trust fund and we believe it is adequate to carry out the existing structure until 2030. If we dont make meaningful changes in the program, it will result to a 25 cut by 2030. Brian as you know, you are faced with it everyday. You have a c3, c4, forprofit, how do you tiptoe through all these landmines out there so you dont get your profit mixed up your nonprofit . Jo ann i think that what is clear for us at aarp that we are a social vision driven organization to help the needs and wants of the people 50 . Sometimes that will lean us towards the democrats and sometimes republicans. If we stay focused on what is best for the people over 50, i think it helps us stay out of the fray of being leftwing or rightwing in this organization. This whole conversation about what is going on, whether Social Security and medicare, any of those issues. It is something our organization has really focused on being social Mission Driven on for over 58 years and im proud of the work that my predecessors and the stock do every day. Brian here is an ad you have done. All about the advertising of the magazine. Ask howo show it and much you have to do. [start video clip] thats why we celebrate you with provocative content from entertainment and indepth reporting. It is one of the great membership benefits. Aarpo know us at. Org possibility. Clip] brian what happened to retired persons . Jo ann havent used it in 14 years. It was part of the recognition that our members are not retired. Close to 40 of our members are still in the workforce and that continues to grow your after year. Partly because people want to continue to stay active and engaged and probably because people need to continue to work to be able to have Financial Security for the future. Brian is aarp magazine forprofit . Jo ann its a nonprofit organization. It is a membership magazine. I read through the magazine every other month and think it is so relevant. Im 58 and in the middle of all the products and service we offer. It is a wonderful expression of experience in the things that our members are experiencing everyday in their local community. I hope that people feel good about we certainly hear from them about the articles they like and the articles they dislike. And the resources it brings to them. A circulation as high as 25 million, largest relation magazine in the United States, what does it cost for one page ad . Jo ann the last time i looked, 400,000 500,000. For a one page ad. Brian what sells the best . Jo ann i dont know if i know directly, but it is always usually around Health Products or travel. Our members like to travel and have new experiences. They like products and services that make it easier for them to live independently in their homes. Those are a lot of our advertisements. Brian the articles, what are they, what did the most feedback . You said it is difficult to find people on the cover and now people ask you. Jo ann exactly. The information about protecting themselves from scams and fraud and information about health and Financial Products and services and information about how to save better. I would probably put scams and frauds and how to protect themselves at the forefront. Brian how do you deal with politics . Jo ann we cover all of it. We try to be as diverse in presenting articles from all sides. Try to stay out of the political fray, but certainly, we had have had the bush family on the covers and obama on the cover. The reference you made to actors and actresses, we do a program and we started it 1012 years ago as a way to try and get the movie industry to start producing movies that were of interest to people 50 and older. Slowly but surely, we started doing an event in hollywood. It got bigger and bigger and i said to the staff, three years ago, the recipient i remember the comments that im glad i won this and i need to get it out of the billions of people dont know im old and now this year celebrating with those being good about their age. And thanking aarp for making this important gesture of recognizing them for creating good content and movies. We know that people 50 years and older are the ones who still go to the movie theaters. People under that age group tend to watch it online. Through netflix or an online source. So seeing the transition from hollywood and within the actors themselves about the importance of value and experience in recognizing them for the great work they do in film has been a total transformation of the culture. Brian you spent how many years with the library of congress . Jo ann 15 years. Brian what did you do when you first went there . Ann i came to the library of progress as a Senior Advisor and they were going through a number of management issues, a number of class action lawsuits and at the time, congress had mandated that the librarian bring someone to help address some of the management issues. So i agreed to come over on what i thought would be a oneyear stint and ended up being a librarian chief of staff and ended my career there as a chief operating officer. Brian what would you tell us that we dont know about the library of congress . Jo ann the library of congress is one of the most fascinating places to visit in the United States. It is the place of the second draft of the declaration of independence. The first telegraph ever written. The only library in the world that collects in every format of whatever subject you are interested in. They have issues in book, print, film and audio. The only library in the world, and we think, the Largest Library we argue back and forth with the british library. When i left six years ago, the library had over 130 million items. They get in 10,00012,000 items a day into the collection. My job as a chief operating officer was to run the library. The library had over 4000 employees, primarily in washington, d. C. , but also in seven International Offices around the country. My focus was to do the running of the daytoday operations so the whole Library System of United States. Anytime a book has a copyright in it. That means one of the Library Employees has read the book, catalogued it and pushed it out to libraries in the u. S. And abroad. It is the home of the law library of United States. And congressional research. Over 800 people who do nothing but research for the congress. In addition to traditional library work. Brian how many people work there . Jo ann just over 4000 when i was there. Brian your own personal interest, what would you do if you went back to that library . What room would you go to or what area would you study . Jo ann my favorite room, outside the jefferson building, which is the big, open a tourist area it would be the geography and map collection. I think that is fascinating and talk to the curators who work in the geography and map division and you can go back to the early 1400s and 1500s and have them tell you stories based on the map transitions. From my own place of birth, the curators actually went back and found my hometown when it was not an island, when it was still part of the mainland of alabama but through hurricanes and a whole host of other things have broken off in the late 1600s. It is a fascinating place. The curators do a terrific job. Brian what role did you have in creating the National Book festival . Jo ann it was a wonderful time for us when laura bush went to the white house. She is the first librarian to ever be in the white house. , we wentrian and i over to meet with her to talk about how we might use her first ladyship to enhance libraries across the country. She had put on the texas book festival when she was the first lady of the state of texas. She had this idea that she would like to replicate that into that in washington at the National Book festival. I remember saying how may people ithow many people doing would be a success . And she said, if we can get 5000 people. Overirst one we had was 15,000 people showed up as well as the Fire Department who thought we had over occupied the building. Eight years later, through her time as first lady, we were over 100,000 people coming to the national festival. David rubenstein has endowed the book festival and it is a 2day event. Brian is this your first book . Ann it is. Through the encouragement of the staff at aarp. We were talking about this whole idea of what does 50 look like. I often say that 50 is not the 30. 50 is the new 50 and it looks good. And its ok. People ought to own the age. We ought not be talking about being over 50 as decline. How do we start encouraging people to feel comfortable with being 50 or 60 or 70 . I came up with this, i dont want to accept the fact that im 50. I want to disrupt aging. I want people to understand that it is ok to say im 58 and feel good about it. I think that was part of this rallying cry. How do we start changing the conversation in this country. About what it means to grow older. And how do we use that wisdom and knowledge that has been gained over the 5060 years to help solve the nations problems and get people to start taking personal responsibility about, hey, you are going to live until you are 18 or 90 how are you going to live your life . How are you going to focus on the things you want to do . The idea of, maybe we should do the book on this. That is how this came about. Brian how much of a tour are you going to take on this . Jo ann the book has been out a little over a month. We have gotten good responses about it. I just came from my tour in alabama. We are doing one in new york. I think we are going to like our state offices decide if there is an opportunity for us to go out and speak about it. We are signed up to do a number of National Conferences this year for the next 56 months to be able to go out and start this movement around getting people to see disrupt aging not just for 50 and older, but all ages. You know, how do we stop letting h define what we can or cannot do. Brian as you know, aarp is controversial in some worlds. I am going to show you an ad of a guy who started an organization in 2007. I dont know if you consider the guy, competition. His name is dan weber. I want to ask how much of this is going on because they dont like the political positions . In 13 years, Social Security goes off a cliff. If we dont do something now about Social Security, it is going to be ours. 25 cut in benefits if we dont act now. People are living longer. In 1935, the Life Expectancy for us was 65. Today, it is closer to 85. We want to add a supplement to Social Security so people can have a lot more money. Between a quarter million and half a million more. [end video clip] brian he has a million members now. Do you see him as competition . Do you see any problem with your membership going . As long as he stays focused on the needs and wants of the 50 plus, there are 110 million folks out there over the age of 50. A lot of them turning 50 every day. I think there is competition out there but not the biggest. Brian who is the biggest competition . Jo ann depends on what area. If we look at products and services, probably costco and amazon. In the advocacy world, it depends on the issue. We go up on the hill trying to fight for common sense language around the judiciary role, the right to information from Financial Advisors in the best interest of the investor, not from the financial advisor. It just depends on the issue. In the health care area, we have competition from other advocacy groups out there lobbying for different types of programs around health care and financial. It changes every day. Brian what you said about Financial Advisors. How much fraud out there is there . Among Financial Advisors . Jo ann the last statistic i saw, on an annual basis, investors lose close to 17 billion in bad financial advice. This language we have been trying to work with the department of labor on is about making sure there is plain language given to the consumer about the advice they are being given by financial providers. That they know up front how much the advisor is going to gain from giving them that particular advice. Brian how do you find out . Jo ann it is in the information contracts. It helps to go out there and get advice from a good financial planner. We have information on how to go out and do that on our website. Also with other Financial Institutions and places, you can find information. Brian what are the Chances Congress would pass anything to further regulate Financial Advisors . Jo ann i certainly hope we can see some movement. I think there is support there. Our latest poll we did a week ago says Something Like 95 of our members want us to be up there lobbying to make sure they can get this clear language advice. It is something that we will be pushing hard on. Brian there is a lot of suspicion you are behind obamacare. I dont mean you personally, the organization. And some people say they dont like the Politics Today of aarp. What do you say to them . What you know when your membership is upset with you and how upset were they with you about obamacare . Jo ann as i said earlier, we are nonpartisan. Our Membership Base is about one third democrat, republican, independent. We supported the aca because we thought, we think that Insurance Coverage is very important and vital to our members. That preexisting conditions should not stop you from having access to health care and a whole number of other provisions. When we supported president bush on Medicare Part d, people thought we were too leftwing with health care. Im sorry, too rightwing with health care. Think were too far to the left. As long as we are focused on what is best for our numbers, i think we are ok. Brian why did they not include in the bill the opportunity to negotiate prices . Jo ann i cant really say what the details were, i wasnt there at the time. But as you know, there are huge opportunities every year to improve every law that is made and i think there are opportunities to make Additional Advances in improving aca. We know our members are burdened by the cost of the medications they take. Many are paying 50 of their income on Prescription Drug costs. We only to our members and also to the American People, for them to be able to have access to these drugs at a reasonable cost. We will Push Congress in any meaningful way we can to bring down the cost of prescriptive drugs. Brian since you have been ceo, since you have been with the organization, what have you started that you are the most proud of . And will make the most difference . Jo ann one of the things im most proud about is the work i have done around hunger. When i was in the Aarp Foundation, as president , we started issue to raise awareness of hunger. There about 10 Million People over the age of 50 who go hungry every day in this country, in the u. S. 10 million over 50, not counting those under or children. These are people who are over the age of 50. Part of our getting involved in shone a spotlight on this issue of hunger in this country. Im proud to say that in five years, we have served over 33 Million People over the country and raised money to give to local food banks. Around addressing these needs. We know that it is so important, not only for people 50 and older, but for children. People cant learn if they are not eating and have the nutritional support. So i would say that. Brian how have you as an organization served 32 million meals . Jo ann we do meal packing events and deliver those meals directly to food banks. We try not to get involved in picking one food bank for another. But we developed a relationship with nascar. Jeff gordon was our spokesperson for what we call the drive to end hunger. Getting involved in going after communities and giving cash donations to food banks to purchase food in bulk. We know that it is easier to give a cash donation to a food bank so they can buy larger quantities and for people been asked in providing canned goods out of individual pantries. Any amount or food is good for these food banks. We have also been giving out grants to communities that have come up with Sustainable Solutions to hunger. Building community gardens. We started a pro bono called campus kitchens where we partnered with College Students and local colleges where they would grow the gardens, prepare the food, and deliver them to Community Centers around the country. I think we had about 1314 of those funded at colleges and universities around the country. Getting engaged in how communities can help solve the issue of hunger in the local community. In the United States, we dont have a food shortage, we have a distribution shortage. Food Stores Like Walmart are very open to giving food that they might have to dispose of because of an expiration date. But there is a distribution of how do you get that food from that local store to the community so that they can use it . Part of the work we have been working on with the Aarp Foundation is about the Sustainable Processes that allow people to continue to have nutritional food. A lot of this around food deserts. In a city like washington, d. C. , where most of the residents in the innercity are actually going to the corner store that may not have fresh fruit and vegetables, how do we provide access to good, healthy nutritional food and communities regardless of where people live . Brian for those who dont know jeff gordon, heres an ad to see what he looks like and what he does. [start video clip] jeff, after you retire, no one will remember you. You want an aarp card for identification. You do get discounts at movie theaters. You have to buy your popcorn. Playtime is over. Ryan where did the idea come to have a nascar driver . It was a good partnership. Jeff at the time was looking for a sponsor and we were looking for a vehicle to really address the hunger issue, particularly in the southern states. 10 of the hungriest states in the country are in the south. That isso happens that where a lot of the nascar races are. If you think about nfl football season, nascar has about 100,000 people at a race for 38 sundays a year. It was a great audience and platform for us to raise this issue around hunger with a very giving audience in the nascar community. Once they understood what the issue was, we got a number of food drives at the tracks. Got them to make donations to their local food banks and jeff was a great ambassador. Brian you say 38 of the fortune 50 companies are moving into some kind of health care. Is it they are selling health care stuff or what are they doing . Jo ann well, what we are trying to do around disrupt aging, is get rid of outdated beliefs about aging and sparking new solutions. So that more people can live and age better. We have seen the beginnings of this recognition from the private sector that there is value in this 7. 1 trillion worth of economic value of people 50 plus. You are starting to see Companies Like amazon try to focus on products and services that address the needs of the 50 plus. Starting to see Companies Like airbnb and uber look for drivers who are 50 plus as a way to supplement their income. Both with uber and airbnb and some of those other companies. It is good that it is recognition that there is a market in the 50 plus and they need, we need new products and services that may not be aligned with where we were living 20 years ago. A perfect example of this was aarp got into the market with this in a small way. The example is a real pad. Much like an ipad but with additional features like larger fonts. Easier access so that anyone would be able to recognize it. We got into the market and during the course of that time, other tablet making companies started addressing the needs of the 50 plus. We were able to transition out because one of the things that we had said in our product and services is that we want to drive the market. If the market wont come up with solutions in particular areas. This is a wonderful winwin to get some of the other companies to start developing products that make it easier to use for the people who are 50 and older. Brian you told us earlier there are 38 million members, how many were there when they first started and what year was it when you first started . Jo ann our membership is stagnant. It is an annual membershipbased so you have two up and renew to do that. I dont know if we have been higher, but over the course of the last two years, i think we have gone from 2428 million up to 35 million. Up and down at times. During 20082010, with the economy, we saw a drop off. Brian you point out that only 11 out of 145 medical schools have a geriatrics program. What are you doing about that, if anything . Jo ann we are trying to encourage schools and students to have an interest in geriatrics. There is not enough, as you think about the aging population and the need for care, i think directly around caregiving. Last year, there was 450 billion in economic value of family members caring for someone else in their family. If we were paying for that service, it would be 450 billion. We know two things for certain, that you are either going to be a caregiver or need a caregiver. How do we start thinking about this enormous cost . The average cost of putting some one in a nursing home if the u. S. Is 87,000 a year. If you have to stay in a nursing home 510 years, not many people in this country can afford to do that. Thate same time, we know our members want to live in their own homes. So how can we come up with solutions whether it is products or services from the private sector to help people live independently longer in their own homes . Brian if you decide to live in your own home, what is the cost to live in your own home if you need care . Jo ann it depends on the quality of care. Whether it is once a week or every day or 24 7. It is certainly less expensive, at least half the cost. Brian one minute left, what one thing would you want to accomplish more than anything else for the rest of your term as ceo of aarp . Jo ann i really want aarp to be in communities all across this country, working as partners with communities on things of interest to people 50 plus. To move us from a National Organization to a nationwide organization. The name of the book is disrupt aging a bold new path to living your best life at every age. Our guest is the author, jo ann jenkins. Thank you very much. Thank you. Announcer for free transcripts or to give us your comments about the program, visit us at q a. Org. Programs are also available as cspan podcasts. If you enjoyed this weeks interview, there are other programs you might like. The Fortune Magazine editors at large and their articles on the u. S. Economy. The Washington Post reporter on the book ud and old age. A guide and living with parkinsons disease. You can search our entire library on cspan. Org. Next, your calls and comments on washington journal. P. M. ,ive at 12 50 combating terrorism. P. M. , theat 2 00 Veterans Affairs secretary Robert Mcdonald outlines efforts to improve Veterans Health care. On tuesday, the federal court of appeals for the District Of Columbia upheld the fcc rules for treating the internet like a utility. Dividing internet providers to treat all traffic equally. Tonight on the communicators, are campbell and matt would on either side of this decision to talk about their views. They are joined by the Washington Post technology reporter. Now that the fcc has gone said thatan that and would applies to the monopoly Telephone Network applies, that opens the door for a bunch of additional regulations that was never part of the Net Neutrality debate. Toif you think of returning treating it as a Communication Service and a Transmission System and making a distinguishing distinction. North carolina representative mark meadows discusses efforts to impeach the irs commissioner. After last weeks vote to censure him. Texas congressman marc veasey talks about his objections to the voter identity geisha and law in his state and his efforts to update the Voting Rights act. Washington post assignment editor Marilyn Thompson looks at the president ial Election Campaign fund. As always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on face book and twitter. Washington journal is next. Host it is the washington journal for june the 20th, the senate votes on four gun control amendments today. They are not expected to pass, but you can see the debate on them on the floor later on on cspan two. Those votes on those amendments planned to take place about 5 30 today. Jamesw york times reports hamilton will begin meeting with potential Vice President ial candidates for Hillary Clinton possibly as early as this week. The Republican Convention is less than a month of a