Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20140602

Democrats, 202 5853880. Independents, 202 5853882. Wante retired military, we to hear from you as well, 202 5853883. Join the conversation on twitter. Us,can also email journal cspan. Org. The front page of the Washington Times has this headline. Republicans challenge obama tactics in prisoner exchange. Republicans challenge the obama insistence its did not negotiate with terrorists in securing the soldiers release and say the move was illegal and could embolden terrorists around the globe. The front page of usa today the deal saved bergdahls life. [video clip] we had information his health could be deteriorating rapidly. We found an opportunity, took the opportunity. I will stand by that decision. I signed off on the decision. The president made the ultimate decision. We spent time looking at this. The president has made clear he wants to close one,. Close Guantanamo Bay. Not let anyone out of Guantanamo Bay and i will not sign off on a detainee coming out of Guantanamo Bay unless i am assured and our country can be assured that we can sufficient mitigate any risk to americas security. Chuck hagel on meet the press, talking about why they decided to go after Bowe Bergdahl and deal with the taliban to get his release. Usa today says the pentagon did not give congress the three for the to release. Bowe bergdahl has not spoken to his parents yet. On the release of Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five president s held at Guantanamo Bay. We will get your thoughts in just a minute. We will get your phone calls and you can tweet us. You can send us an email as well. There is this headline the idea that u. S. Will not deal with terrorists is hardly true. Any president s have had many president s have had to negotiate, but it is usually kept quiet. Refrain we do not negotiate with terrorists is repeated as mantra more than fact. We have long negotiated with terrorists, despite the ledges never to do so. We should be tough on terrorists, but not on our countrymen who are their captives. Hoffman lists a series of high profile instances when u. S. President s have negotiated with terrorists. There was the iran hostage crisis that started in the 1970s and led to the release of 52 americans, or to the iran mid1980s,r of the when the u. S. Government sold arms to iran partly to win the release of u. S. Hostages. Smallscaleale negotiations with terrorist groups that the public and many of the congress dont know about. [video clip] this was an individual held by a terrorist group in another country. We know that to be true. Across northern africa, the number one way that al qaeda raises money is by ransom. Kidnapping and ransom. We have now set a price. We have a changing footprint in afghanistan, which will put our soldiers at risk for this notion that if i can get one, i can get five taliban released. The way we change our footprint means we get less intelligence. That is already starting to happen. That is why so many of us are so concerned about what really is a great with u. S. Policy of not negotiating with terrorists. Rogers seen on state of the union yesterday. We will go to john, a republican caller. I think me five released prisoners are working for the cia now. They will be used to infiltrate we are going to be. Host herman, what are your thoughts . Caller good morning. I like your program. Deal is an answer to gods prayers. This is how god answers prayers. We do not know how he does it. This is an answer to gods prayer. John, a republican caller, youre up next. Caller the idea that we do not negotiate with terrorists does not fly. I do not know what people in iraq, trust me, those guys were not all sheepherders. The israelis do it for specific reasons and we did it to get back these guys. There is some concern this may have violated one of the congressional laws, but the idea that the taliban and and anybody we oppose want to get a hold of a u. S. Soldier is crazy. They would do it whether or not read release this guy. That is the way it is. I do not buy all of the stuff we heard yesterday on some of the talk shows. Host do you think it was a good decision . Decision that a probably had to be done and if it were our policy is going in afghanistan. It encourages the taliban and to get more into the political process, that is a bonus for us. Who knows. Is a way ofink this starting to positively deal with the taliban and and these militant groups . Caller i am more concerned with dealing with the taliban. They are not al qaeda, even though they associate with al qaeda. Somehow, they have to be brought into the process. Since we are pulling out, this is a better way to bring them into the process than other ways, which probably would not work. That is maybe too optimistic, but it is the way we got our guy back. At least we are giving an opportunity for people who if they want to get into the political process, there is a start. Are in arlington, virginia, what do you do for a living . Caller i am retired. Host were you involved in the military . Caller no. Host albert, chicago, democratic caller. Like the previous caller said, the taliban is not al qaeda. Want to makens the qaeda in order to president. Host we will keep taking your phone calls. The release of Bowe Bergdahl is that a terrorist deal or a duty to the soldier . We will have you weigh in on that. First, Tony Lombardo is joining us to talk about how this went about. When did these negotiations began between the administration and who did the negotiating . Guest good to be here. Were very rapid and very quick. The discussions have been going for three years. Sooneason it had to happen is part of what has the of republicans upset. Host who did the actual negotiating . Guest that is not clear right now. Obviously the defense secretary was involved, but as far as on the ground, we are not hearing yet. Host you said it was on and off for three years. Takingo chuck hagel over, lower the negotiations like then and what was the administration saying about an exchange of Bowe Bergdahl for Guantanamo Bay prisoners . The taliban has one of the release of some of the folks in Guantanamo Bay. There has been no wiggle room from that. They would not negotiate for anything else . Guest correct. Host how did it go down . How did it happen . The Actual Exchange of mr. Bergdahl. Were a large number of special forces troops meeting with members of the taliban. This was something that has not happened. This was a peaceful exchange. Bowe bergdahl was whisked away the f helicopter via helicopter. It was a very emotional rescue. Idea of whatave an resources this would have taken and the cost . Guest that is a great question. I am sure people will be asking that. Host we do not know a lot of those details . Guest correct. Host who are the five that were released from Guantanamo Bay . What do we know about them . Intelligences an deputy minister. There was one with reportedly ties to al qaeda. A third gentleman like and these two pardon terrorists who had the blood of americans on their hands. What indication do we have that these five will go back into fighting . Guest that is a great question. These are older members of the taliban, so it is unlikely they inht the in they might be active fighting. Thing is keeping eyes on these people if possible. Host how was i going to be done . Was that part of this deal that somebody is going to be watching over these five to make sure that doesnt happen . This that is unclear at point, but defense leaders are stressing that is an imperative. Host what was the role of the qatari government . Guest they were the go between. Said we were not negotiating with terrorists. Were basicallys the go between. They helped make this happen. Released ande were there were reports of seeing the five yesterday. The responsibility of the qatari government . Guest for one year, is my understanding. Host there have been a lot of discussions about whether or not the administration broke u. S. Law. What is the law and what does it say . Guest that is a good question. Congress is saying that they that theye days needed 30 days that detainees were going to be released. That is what they are challenging president obama on. President obamas staff is saying that his health was deteriorating at such a degree it was a matter of life or death to get him back. Tony lombardo is the managing editor of army times. Thank you for your time. Back to your phone calls. Santa cruz, california. What are your thoughts on this . I think there is a duty to the laws of the United States. If we do not follow the laws of the United States, what good are the laws . If you have an executive breaking the rules, you are never going to have the Supreme Court rein in the executive. Out, we did not just let terrorists. It is going to do us harm. Let me get host your spots. There is a quote we did not have 30 days to wait and had we waited and lost him, i dont think anyone would have forgiven the United States government. Caller in that case, congress should repeal that law and get rid of the law. That laws on the books regardless. Executive we have an doing whatever he wants. Host george, eastview, kentucky. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. Caller what i am saying is the republicans they are like chicken hawks. None of them serve. These people do not care about the service. They talk about it. They prorate obama for trying to help and they do not care they burn rate obama for trying to help and they do not care. John mccain, i give him credit. He is a great hero. Sometimes. See it he is always looking to attack people. He has to stop that. Host george, eastview, kentucky. Rice was asked about whether or not the administration negotiated with terrorists. Heres how she responded. [video clip] if we got into a situation where we said because of who has captured an american soldier on the battlefield, we will leave that person behind, we will be for thele new era safety of our personnel. Because it was the taliban who had him, did not mean we had no obligation to bring him back. This is not a judgment question. It is just a question. You had to negotiate with terrorists to secure the release. We actually negotiate with the government of qatar. Handsback safely in the of the United States. That is a great thing. The question is, you point to the kind of warfare we are having, that no longer can it be said that the u. S. Does not negotiate with terrorists. That at all. T say when we are in battles with terrorists and terrorists take an american prisoner, that prisoner is still a u. S. Service man and woman. We have a sacred obligation to bring that person back. We did so and that is to be celebrated. The sunday rice on talk shows yesterday, laying out the argument for why the toinistration made the deal release five u. S. Prisoners from guantanamo may in exchange for Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl. The ranking republican on the Senate Select committee of intelligence said the administration assured him six months ago that they would not consider the release of the leaders without consulting congress. That is from saxby chambliss. From mike rogers, a republican from michigan who chaired the House Intelligence Committee earlier. Committee would be doing a review of the details and thehis release chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Said he would be holding a hearing as well. There is more to come on capitol hill after president obama, on with bowestanding bergdahls parents, announced that the administration had made this deal and that Bowe Bergdahl would be released by the taliban. A lot of details about how this went down. We will go to steve, haymarket, virginia. Why would you have susan rice on . She has no credibility whatsoever. She is a waste of electricity. The big picture is we have been cut off by china because they have devalued our money so much. We got a prisoner back and we got accents access to lithium. Lithium is what you need to get these hybrid cars going. Host michael, washington, d. C. Independent color, what are your thoughts . Caller, what are your thoughts . Caller he walked away from his post without a weapon. He was not a prisoner. He was a deserter. Host do you think there should not be a duty to get him . Caller i do not believe they should have got him. They should have waited until the end of the conflict and then try to retrieve him. Host some are saying because of the drawdown, if you did not go in now, you would have no negotiating power with the taliban. As the president announced last week, he will be pulling troops out of afghanistan, your window of opportunity to get Bowe Bergdahl closes. Caller theres a lot of the story we have not heard. I think it was a political ploy by the democrats. That is all i inc. All i think. Host democratic caller. A plain,f you are american citizen, who has , there is aliefs guy in north korea, a guy in lady whothere was a was a christian american in another country. Are dispensable, but a deserter is not . I do not get it. I am embarrassed at this president and angry he has done this to the rest of the. If you are an american traveling abroad, you are absolutely screwed. Ast do you think this poses threat that the taliban could capture more americans . The talibanet just and spirit anyone and everybody in a terrorist country is going forget just the taliban. Anyone in a terrorist country is going to get nabbed. Bergdahl is believed to have slipped away from his post in afghanistan on june 30, 2009, after growing disillusioned with the u. S. Militarys war effort. He was captured by enemy forces and held captive by insurgents affiliated with the taliban and. Devotedime, weeks were to searching for him. Some troops consider bergdahl a deserter. This is what they report. He disappeared from a military post in a war zone without authorization, only results in one of does coke criminal one of two criminal charges. Mixed reaction to bergdahls recovery by some of the servicemen. Apparently n is this is what the Washington Post says. Series of tweets or posted saturday night. Posted saturday night. The writer says he believes bergdahl plan his escape for days, leaving between 3 00 and 30 a. M. , when there was the least amount of light. Here is one of the tweets sent out. While searching for him, ambushes and ieds picked up tremendously. Nme new we would be coming. Enemy knew we would be coming. Tweet. Another how many other prisoners have lasted five years . I arean and haqqan ruthless. Was sent outt about seven hours ago. Bedtime, big day tomorrow. Possibly more to come. Post tried ton reach out to him. Leaveaid the tweets enough information to potentially be credible. David, glen cove, new york. Republican caller. Caller good morning. I have a question and a statement. If they are worried about what the people think, how come they did not ask us before they made the deal . Why didnt the president discussed this with Congress Like he was supposed to. Why is rice on tv . Why did she still have her job. Why didnt she help out the people in benghazi . To sandy and go lexington, kentucky. There is more to this than meets the eye. Whenever obama is in a jam like the v. A. Scannable coming up, v. A. Scandal, he throws out Something Like this. When the soldier escaped, why didnt the taliban and kill him . This is another example of obamas disregard for our congress and laws. He did not follow our own laws when he got the Health Care Mandate passed. He changed it and changed it like 30 different times. He disrespects this country. I cannot believe he has not been impeached. But lies. D nothing whenever he speaks, i do not believe a word that comes out of his mouth. Host we will go to jerry, north carolina, independent caller. Caller good morning. This is a huge mistake, turning terrorists loose. The sky was a deserter. He walked away from his unit in civilian clothes. He did not deserve to be gone after. These guys are going to go back on the battlefield and theyre going to kill more people. More americans are going to die. The blood of our americans are going to be on obamas hands. Has done so much damage to america. I cannot believe the american not demanded barack obama resigned. He is such a liar. You cannot believe anything he says. He has hurt this country so bad. I do not think we will ever recover from it. The articles in the paper saying this is nothing new. Other countries have negotiated with socalled terrorists and sometimes you have to do deals with the devil . Not other are countries. This was a policy we have had in place. We do not negotiate with terrorists. Was so set on getting somebody out, why didnt he go to mexico and get the marine released . He got out of the marines with an Honorable Discharge and they have not gone down there to help this guy. Host we are going to keep taking your thoughts here. Keep calling in or send us a tweet or email. You can join the conversation on facebook. Joining us on the phone is the Energy Reporter for national journal. He is talking about headlines on clean energy. Lets begin with what is being announced today. Today, the white house and the epa is announcing what is the central pillar of the term globals second warming agenda. It is the most ambitious thing they have done on the topic. They are announcing a draft epa proposal that will require reductions in Carbon Monoxide emissions from power plants. Specifically, coal plants. The is a big deal because creation of electric power creates about 40 of Greenhouse Gas emissions. This rule is going to acquire require a cut of about 30 percent by 2030. Epa is asking states and companies to give them options to achieve this rule. They can do things around energy andncy and using switching to natural gas. This is going to spark a large political and legal battle. What about the proposal . You said it gives states flexibility. This reduction of 30 by 2030, epa is doing something that is different from a lot of other Clean Air Act regulations. A lot of time, regulations say an Industrial Facility has to reduce the amount of pollution coming out of it. Saying isrule is states and Power Companies can employ a wider array of to meetto reduce this reduction target. They can use emissions trading in order to get those reductions. We have seen stortz doing this in the northeastern and middle antic, as well as california. Are going to see legislation. They crashed and burned in 2010 and has remained with no real chance of emerging at a national level. To is using its authority say in order to meet these regulations, states can employ this mechanism to do that. Host what is the fallout of this, given that the 2014 elections are around the corner . Guest it will be huge. You will see republicans and certain business groups, including the u. S. Chamber of industry,nd the coal what they are going to do with their Political Activities is try to turn this into a vulnerableor some democrats who come from conservative or purple states. One thing people will be looking for is how quickly vulnerable i would expect them to distance themselves from what the president is proposing. You will have more liberal partyats, the core of the , i think they are going to come out with an embrace of what the president is doing. Done . What can be the court ruled that the epa has the authority to do this. A landmark 2007 decision from the Supreme Court gave epa the authority to regulate Greenhouse Gas emissions. That anyonet mean mechanism they use or anyone regulation is going to pass muster under the Clean Air Act. The epa has been doing well in the courts lately, but every regulation faces legal challenge and this idea that epa is allowing is going to say, to comply with this rule, you can do these things to meet these reductions that flexibility is also a vulnerability, because for organizations and companies that do not want to see this done at all, they say that what epa is trying to do is illegal under the Clean Air Act. Not because theyre trying to regulate Carbon Dioxide and nations emissions. It is going to be something critics of the rule are going to attack, especially in the legal realm. Epa has been doing pretty well and the court system lately. It is going to take a little while for the legal challenges to work their way through the system. Host we are going to have that debate tomorrow morning. A roundtable discussion about this announcement from the administration. It is not the president who is going to be announcing this. It is going to be coming from the epa administrator. Why . The epa administrator will unveil the rule later on this morning. The white house has been pretty involved here. It, we owney put this and we are proud to own it. You saw this over the weekend when the president devoted his address to the topic. The president is going to do a phone call today with the American Lung association. That is going to be open to the press. You are right that the president is not going to be at the epa, he is going to be around as he does this. Of white house optics and pr push around this is interesting. If you look at obama went to the National Childrens center talking about asthma. Hear a lotu would more about asthma and other types of respiratory problems from pollution. Isis interesting because it not the Carbon Dioxide creating these Health Problems from smokestack pollution. It is the stuff hitching a ride with the Carbon Dioxide. Thatparticulate matters lodges in peoples longs. Combat globalto warming, and we will have these healthecific nearterm benefits. We will be cutting carbon omissions and reducing all of these other pollutants that come with it. That is interesting on a lot of levels. What the white house has realized is if they can frame their message around public health, especially issues that confront so many people like asthma and other breathing problems, that is a way they can marry that message. Geman, you can follow him. Thank you very much. Back to our conversation with you. The release of Bowe Bergdahl. A terrorist deal or duty to soldier . That was the debate on sundays talkshows. On twitter here are a couple of tweets. Prisoners for one, free him so we can convict him . Im confused. Is a way toaybe it show we bargain in goodfaith. Open the door to other negotiations . No weapons involved so that is bad . I was happy to hear this news and i am glad we are releasing these five prisoners of war who have been detained for 10 years now. I am excited to hear that theyre going to be able to go home to their families. I am disappointed they will have to spend a year in qatar. I wish they could go directly home. I am sure they are happy to be out of Guantanamo Bay. Host rodney, indiana. Go ahead. Caller i would like to say that i heard, most of your republican callers are just like the congress. They do not do anything but go on recess. If we give them 30 day notice, they would not have gotten nothing done anyway. I am happy he is home. I think they ought to reinstate so that our young men and women will have to serve for two or three years. That includes all of the rich congressman, their kids, see where they would be if it was their child over there being held for five years, not knowing what theyre doing to him or if he is alive or what. They are, as far as i am donothingthey are a congress. They are heartless and immoral. A republican congressman was on the sunday talk shows. Here is what he had to say. [video clip] it is obvious we have never done this before. Set a precedent the president has set a precedent. Law so manyted the times. We have concerns about this. He has said they are going to close Guantanamo Bay. Congress has passed a law and he had signed a law saying that he will not close Guantanamo Bay, whatever his desires are, that does not conform to the law. He is the chief administrator of the nation and should uphold his obligation to follow the law. The law states before anyone can be released, congress should be notified at least 30 days before. Parse words. G to they let us know that something might happen. They are not following the law. They know they are not following the law. It has been a day and they have not told us the details of what is going on. We are getting our information, other than very brief notification, we are getting most of our information from the media. Host that was chairman but mckeon buck mckeon. News, with ukraine crisis cooling, obama sets off to soothe european friends. Said he would use the trip to meet with the new ukrainian president and to reassure central and Eastern European allies. Thatrticle goes on to say mr. Obama arrives in warsaw on tuesday to meet with polish leaders and leaders from throughout the region who will converge there. He will meet with mr. Porosh enko for the First Time Since his election and then address a public rally celebrating 25th anniversary of the elections in poland. Later, he will meet with counterparts from britain, france, germany, italy, canada and japan. Mr. Putin is unwelcome in brussels, however he will be at mr. Obamas next stop in paris. President Francois Hollande plans to host mr. Obama for dinner on thursday and mr. Putin separately the same evening. No meetings are scheduled, but aides did not rule out an unscripted conversation. He will be marking the 70th anniversary of normandy. On the situation with the veteran affairs department, heres the Washington Post. He plans to introduce legislation in the senate that would allow those who are waiting for care to go to a private hospital or outside the v. A. System. Also, the front page of the Washington Times, this picture. A march in hong kong to mark the ianamenniversary of tn protest. Caller i believe it was duty to soldier. We do not have a draft and acted. He enlisted to serve this country and he spent five years being detained. It is very insulting that people will politicize the fact that one of our american soldiers was released. The first thing you say is he was a deserter. If he was a deserter, let that be know what that the proper time. Right now, we should be rejoicing that one of our soldiers has come home. As far as the other gentleman has said we have no congress. They have done nothing in the last four years. They have done nothing in the last for years. If they go against them, what they do is they primary them. We have no congress. Especially this republican congress. Switche are going to topics. Were going to talk to the formal transportation secretary, ray lahood, on the cost of americas infrastructure. Later, Derrick Morgan on the impact of Immigration Reform. We will be right back. From a policy perspective, the way this should work, congress should appoint an agency that has the authority to manage the spectrum resource of the country. That way we can continue to support all of the functions and needs of the industry for continued innovation investment. Eastern onat 8 00 the communicators. 8 00 includes a journalist. Michael lewis. There are real, structural problems. I am not an economic forecaster. Everything i read suggest we will be living with a high level of unemployment, a lot of pain from over indebtedness. It is not a great depression. We are not reprising what happened in the 30s. It is a version of that. Conversationof our. Now available for a fathers day gift at your favorite bookstore. For over 35 years, cspan brings Public Affair of events directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house event, briefing and conferences. We offer complete gaveltogavel coverage of the u. S. House as a Public Service of private industry. By thecspan, created private tv industry 35 years ago and brought to you as a Public Service by your local cable or satellite provider. Washington journal continues. Host we are back with ray lahood. Building cochair of americas future. A recent headline, quoting you, saying america is one big pothole. Why did you say that . Guest we had one of the most brutal winters anyone has experienced just about anyone in america. Local governments do not have the money to fix the hundreds of potholes that exist all over america and the federal government is doing absolutely nothing for its part to help cities and states fix the roads and bridges. We have crumbling roads and ,ridges that are not safe although people are still traveling on them. We have the worst infrastructure anybody can remember. We built the interstate system. Our interstate system is falling apart. Local roads are one big pothole. Bridges are falling down. This is not the america that helped build the economy that we have had in the past. Foxx said, earlier in may, he was talking about this. [video clip] i would like to be here celebrating the work that is happening around our country and reinvigorate our nations networks. Unfortunately, this may be the the americanoment Transportation System has faced in decades. The highwayugust, trust fund, the account that pays for repairing and building our roads will stop checks. Roadwork, bridge building, transit maintenance, all of these types of projects may be delayed or shut down completely. Freight will not move, trade will slow, businesses will not hire. Your morning commute will be longer because the roads you are driving on will crumble and no one will show up to fix them. Happens if this deadline is not met . Guest i think it will be met. I served in congress for 14 years. We passed transportation bills. Congress only passed a twoyear bill. Happened during the time i was secretary of transportation and the money began to run out, congress will take money from the general fund. They will extend it through the election and come back here in november and december and try and figure out what to do. A lame way of running a Transportation System. This is a very serious problem. To do ourthe way Transportation Program in america. Host why not . What is bad about taking it from the general fund . We could fill all of these potholes, but we could give money to the government to the states to work on projects that need to be worked on, whether it is extending a road or fixing a bridge. Approach patchwork that will not continue to keep america number one in its provide the infrastructure to provide economic opportunity. Every other country in the world is doing better. China is building multiple airports all over the country. Highspeed rail all over the country. America, theyh are building rail and roads. You go anyplace else in the dubai what in is going on there is roads, connecting their countries, the way we used to do in america. Host when did the decline begin . Guest after president eisenhower signed the interstate bill. What is vision. Between president reagans first and second term, after he was reelected in 1984, a Democratic Congress with a conservative republican president passed a sixyear transportation bill and increased the gas tax. The last time the gas tax was increased was 1993. That was during a time when president clinton worked with a Democratic Congress to figure out a compromise to increase the gas tax. We have not raised the gas tax since then. In someates, states, 95 of the referendums passed. People are ready to fix up roads and bridges. They are tired of potholes. They are tired of flat tires and having to take their cars into to get fixed because they hit a pothole. Host what about the political you do not want the campaign had to say you raise taxes. Guest they should take a page out of what is going on in the country, where they have referendums where 95 of the referendums to raise the gas tax or sales tax to pay for infrastructure, 95 have passed. Politicians should not be afraid to raise tax. If they do, people in their districts will know that money will go to the kind of infrastructure repair that is needed. Host how much do you increase the gas tax by . Galloni say . 10 a and index it. If it were done the last time, we would not have this debate. It would be adjusted for the inflation, or, or however you want to say. That would be a good way to do it. Upget a good start on fixing americas infrastructure, probably . 10 a gallon. Host is that what you advocate it . Guest i was part of president obamas team. They advocated using part of the funds that were not being used for the war in iraq and afghanistan. Ae idea that we did not have proposal is not accurate. We did. The idea was to take the money from the surplus does not being used for the two wars. Host is raising the gas tax a longterm solution . People say the Highway Trust Fund, the way it works right now, it is not sustainable when you have people driving less and you have people have fuel efficiency standards and do not consume as much gas. Aest it has to be part of program. The pot of money that built america the pot of money that taxpayers see being used to help roads or bridges has always been the Highway Trust Fund. Replenished. Be that is what built america. That is the pot of money people have been accustomed to paying into, where they can see results. You can do tolling. Some states have done that. Vatecan do publicpri partnerships. There are loan programs and other opportunities. You have to have a significant resource. That has been the Highway Trust Fund. We should not let that go away. We should not. With ae are talking former transportation secretary. We want to get your questions and comments to him. Buffalo, new york, youre up first. Caller thank you for taking my call. First of all, i think you are a patriot. You put your country before your party. That is not the easiest thing to do right now. I have a quick question. Where do corporations tie into this, the ones who have to ship between states . It seems they have been silent for the longest time and they use our roads and bridges the most. Corporations pay a lot of taxes. Thank you for your comment. I enjoyed my 35 years of Public Service. The best job i ever had was secretary of transportation for four and a half years. Corporations pay a lot of Corporate Tax and they pay a lot of taxes and part of those go the coffers in d. C. Transportation system here in america, we need traditional, but also use an innovative approaches. That has held us in good step for a long time. About a user fee . Guest certainly Trucking Companies. Ge trunking Companies Large Trucking Companies pay a lot of tax. It goes into the Highway Trust Fund. There are many that contribute to this fund. We need to replenish it to give people the idea that we have a vision. And not paying attention to our crumbling infrastructure. At one time, america was number one. Now, we are way down the list, particularly compared to other countries. When you do not have good infrastructure, you cannot attract business, and become the kind of Economic Business community and states want to be. Where is the evidence . Where were you briefed about concrete evidence that this is a competitive issue for the United States . Time we served here and served on the Transportation Committee as a member of congress, we passed two strong bills that helped contractors all across america. Arel businesses of america the contractors. The people that hire people to build roads and bridges, many have gone out of business because there arent resources in states to fund the projects. This is not only bad for communities and infrastructure, it is bad for small business, bad for the opportunities for contractors and those who build roads and bridges to have the opportunity to work. We also invested a lot of our into transit and light rail and streetcars and highspeed rail. The nextese things are generation of transportation for america. For the factacking there is not the funding there to continue to do what we have been able to do. On twitter, increasing fuel increases the cost of everything transported to market. Most people, now, have become accustomed to the fluctuation in gasoline prices. Said is if you increase the gas tax, most people will not notice the difference. Particularly as we come into the summertime, we know there are environmental rules and regulations that will increase across part of america. We do not think it will impinge on the budgets of common ordinary citizens, particularly if they know that money is going to create jobs for friends and neighbors who will build infrastructure, roads, and for the bridges. Is part of putting america back to work. This is part of friends and neighbors who know how to build roads. The businesses, Small Businesses that can really be affected. Does more infrastructure lead to more consumption, Greenhouse Gas emission, and more severe Climate Change . No administration has taken initiative on Climate Change than this administration then president obama. Telling the epa to come up with higher standards, the gasoline standard for all trucks would be 54. 5 miles per gallon. The epa will announce another very strong proposal to deal with Climate Change. Of raising the gas tax, people will drive more, is not quite accurate. A lot of people are using transit, light rail, streetcars, and we see it all over america. Is that separate money than what we are talking about . Preprocessed by the president includes those caller,io, republican youre on the air. I believe ray lahood has something wrong there. Take familynot even gastions because of high prices. You do not understand america. He just proved himself yesterday he is destroying our country. What a mess we have. I agree potholess a mess with and bridges falling down and infrastructure crumbling. Some of us will continue to speak out to make sure we have resources so you can take that vacation. What has been happening in recent years with these transportation bills . In the past, how long have they passed . The last one was only two years. They run at the end of the fiscal year. That is a terrible dilemma and a terrible mess for america. In the years ive served in billsss, we passed two and they were funded robustly and helped rebuild america. 23 last bill passed with extensions was a twoyear bill. To contractors, no opportunity for people to plan longterm for big projects. It is a stopgap measure. They have passed a sixyear committee in their committee a sixyear bill. Getting it back is critical for certainty, the vision, planning, longterm credibility for america. From twitter is a good question. A lot of bureaucracy was short allow for projects to be completed on time. There were good for visions in the last bill that allowed for big benchmarks. Not as much bureaucracy involved. We will go to write next, independent color. Caller i would like to make a comment about taxes. Everybody who goes on the road knows in the last 15 years, probably the traffic has doubled. Gas used has probably doubled. For failing wages, everything has to be a union job. When a book of pennsylvania turnpike, it took them three years to put in a northeast extension. Today, that would be a 20 year project. It would be delayed. New jersey a few years ago theed to sell bonds to fix roads. Every cent of the gas tax was squandered in the administration. Clean out all these highways and get them back on the roads. To getto be a union their contributions back to the politicians. All right. Class the federal gas tax is . 18 per gallon. Now, states have imposed their own gas taxes. Perhaps in pennsylvania, it might amount to . 50 a gallon. I do not know precisely. The federal gas tax, which has not been raised since 1993 is . 18 per gallon. We haved, shortcircuited a number of the bureaucratic stumbling blocks that cause projects to take forever to complete. Those are good provisions, but we need a longrange view on this. Host a tweet guest the people that build the bridges are people who are welltrained and well prepared to build this kind of infrastructure. Some folks do belong to unions. Another tweet nin been raiseds not since 1993. States impose their own tax. The price of gas has gone up. The federal government does not raise gasoline prices. That is done by old companies. Host token caller. Alaska. Good morning to you. Caller why dont we make the contractors that do the highways guarantee their work for a hot a number of years. We have been doing the work over and over again. Thank you. That is my comments. There are provisions in some of these contracts that there andto be a quality of work a time when the contractors responsible. It is not for the life of the project or the life of the roadway. Host we are talking with ray Congress Ford seven years, republican from illinois. In anderved in 1994 begin the 16th secretary of transportation back in 2009 and just left office in july of 2013. What is building americas future . An organization that promotes infrastructure and construction and the idea that, if were going to have a Strong Economy and put people to work, if were going to have the kind of infrastructure america has been known for, we have to make invested investments. Cochaired by the former mayor of new york and a former governor of pennsylvania and mayor of and myself. It continues our opportunities to use a loud bullhorn to promote infrastructure and what is good for america and promote jobs in andber Development Economic development. That is my goal, putting people to work and making america a place where people want to live and travel to. We have to have the infrastructure to do it. Class who are the names of the companies behind it . Is funded primarily by mayor bloombergs foundation. That is where the lions share of the money comes from eric two emails in. How do we know money from will not begas tax put in general fund and spent on Something Else . Thet will all requires money be spent for infrastructure. Someess will have to take money from the general fund, but spelledry specifically out in the authorization how the money will be spent and where and how it will be distributed to each state. Democratic caller. Caller i would like to hear your opinion on why you think Chris Christie knocks down the tunnel in new jersey. Another thing i want to say to the woman who called and and did not like the five to one deal for the prisoner. I wonder how she would feel if it was her fun being released sun being released. Her son being released. Office,hen we came into we were confronted with the election of a new governor in new jersey, Chris Christie. There was a project that had been worked on for a number of years and another of transportation professionals. Rea professionals. It is very congested. Right now, theyre using infrastructure that is very old and needs to continually be prepared and fixed up. Couple of new tunnels that would have allowed for a lot more capacity for people to get into new york was very appealing. He didr christie felt not want to use taxpayer money to do that. He turned the money back to dot for doing huge fine that. Host on the broader issue of tolls and crossing from one state to the other, the white house Corporate Tax reform included allowing states to impose tolls on interstate highways. What is your take . It is something governors would like to have the ability to do. The reason the present president included in its budget, they do not have the resources. Being raised the kind of revenue inneapolis of those resources are diminished and pretty much gone. The states have to have the ability. Ofallows for this kind towing. What about the role of private sector . Could it not be done by companies . It could. It isnt some areas. Particularly when you get projects when the private sectors, venture capitalist want to get some, the state government, so it is a great private partnership very strong provisions across america for doing that. It is a matter of finding venture capitalists who want to invest. Not address the pothole issue we were talking about earlier. The bridge in new york or other bridges around the country could be used with public and private money and built with public and private money. It is a very good approach in the absence of the kind of resources it takes. Projects 300 billion to build a bridge today. Good morning. Caller thank you for your service. Recently, i do not know how this country can go forward when you have a new Republican Party and their main goal is, they are not not in theheyre white house, to stop all progress in the country. I think it is obvious they are constantly on the political mode if their man is not in power on the white house. So nothing gets done. Now ane really is opportunity for congress to Work Together with the crisis being faced by the transportation infrastructure system in america. The Highway Trust Fund will be broke in august, late august. The highway bill, the transportation bill we are currently operating under, will and at the end of september area some real vision and real leadership could step up. Transportation and thete committees worked on Water Resources bill, which passed over 100 votes in the house, over 80 votes in the senate. A very bipartisan bill and it changed the way ports and our waterways are going to be utilized. Congress has the ability to do it. They need to step up and do it on our Transportation Program. No earmarks on that legislation. That bill passed but unfortunately, it was just a twoyear bill. Here we are again debating it. Next in texas, republican caller. And a a comment question. Seems to me the amount of money that has been bailed out of this nation, that every road in this country could be vehicle the equivalent of an autobahn. Host what is your point . The amount of money bailed out in this nation, every road in this country could be the equivalent of the autobahn. Acrossican trucks coming to not get any inspection, and yet the american justice the white glove treatment. This is done on purpose. Quest he is referring to the mexican truck agreement that was part of an agreement several years ago. On behalf of that president Obamas Administration during the time we were in the dot position. There are very strong inspections going on and mexican trust coming into america. That was part of the agreement. The trucks are inspected and there are rigorous guidelines they have to follow and drivers have to be properly licensed. They are inspected at the border before they come across america. We will go onto randy in iowa. Democratic caller. The guy theree with call from pennsylvania and the lady from ohio. They have an exact right. No one wants to argue the roads do not need to be fixed and infrastructure does not need to be improved for the country. Great for the economy and jobs. But where is it written that it has to come from the gas tax . Why not tax the Koch Brothers more. Rebecca on washington journal on april 15, she made the argument about regressive tax much better than i can. If you would only listen to her, she has a that the right. The governor is a democrat. I do not know why all the regressive taxes keep slipping in. He he wants to raise the gas tax. Georgia doe to have it for a teen sex how can i last did it for six cents a gallon . We are . 19 in iowa and they want to raise it more. It is a small part of peoples budgets, but it hurts. There are other ways to do it. We do not have to raise the gas tax to fund the stuff. The person who said the gas under books under bush was 1. 87. When he left, the gas was on record high prices. The governor of iowa is a republican so i do not know where the idea that you have a democratic governor i have like illinois and most midwestern states and cities, you will not be able to fix up your roads a must you have the resources to do it. His is really what people want what about this argument that it hits middleclass americans when you raise the gas tax but it is a regressive tax . A lot of middleclass americans build roads and british bridges. This is a Jobs Opportunity that people do the work will likely be middle income people. This is a way to get america working to build our buildtructure and roadways and economic engines that create jobs all on the way. Interstates are a classic example. Think of Small Businesses located along interstates. They employ a lot of lower and middle income people. Quest we will go to frank, chicago. Out in have lived Glendale Heights for years. In the 1960s, we built a toll from somewhere along north avenue. It acrosstheboard line. Crossed the border line. The thing islater, still charging tolls. The one from chicago every other week, there is a whole they are fixing, tying of at least one lane. That is a toll road, never been paved. Going to do we are it, take all the tax money and give it to the states and let them handle it and get it away from the government up in washington telling us what to do. I have been watching you for 35 years. You never hold it against a tax increase. Thank you very much. I do appreciate you when you were in charge of the tolls. Thank you. Illinois, i from know a little bit about the system there. The money that is collected from the tolls for the toll roads in illinois is poured back into the toll roads. These are some of the best roads in the country. You do not see potholes. What you see are good and expanded roads. More lanes. Unfortunately, during some administrations over the last 20 years, some of the money was diverted to pay for the state some law to pay for enforcement along the toll roads. Really gottenave back to the idea that the tolls are to be poured back into the toll roads system in illinois. The case. Ot always next in north carolina, a republican caller. Good morning. Quest good morning. Caller good morning. I have a question. We spent almost 1 trillion in a stimulus package. 100 billion for infrastructure. Jobs. E all these it was not long until he was sitting on tv laughing said, shovel ready. But the jobs were never done but the money went. Where did it go . We received 48 billion as the result of the economic stimulus. The bill was 800 billion. We received 48 billion dollars. We spent all the money within two years, which is what Congress Asked us to do. We created about 15,000we projes and about 65,000 jobs during that two year. Real boost to the economy and a number of states. Every state in the country receive money for projects to rebuild roads, rebuild bridges, to fix up infrastructure in america. Some of the money went for transit. Some of it went for highspeed rail. But the money was spent correctly and a lot of people went to work. It was well worth it. We had no negative stories written about it. Spentey was not incorrectly. It was all done by the book and the way congress wanted it. We are proud of the work we did during that first two your time, spending the 40 billion. Host from texas, democratic caller. I would like to thank you for your impartial views here this morning. That is a pleasure to hear. We have horrible rates here. I am from houston, texas. But we have a wonderful mayor. I am quite sure if everybody works together, they can get that situation taken care of. I mainly called to say that i appreciate your attitude and it is a pleasure to hear. You do not hear much of that from cspan and i thank you. You very much. Ive worked with your mayor. She does a great job and we have. Orked on a number of projects when i was at dot. I appreciate her leadership. On to walter,go republican caller. Good morning. Quest good morning. I wanted to ask the former secretary about the use of Construction Materials like concrete instead of asphalt. A lot of callers are interested in the dollars allocated and lastsnability, concrete longer, and it is not as adversely impacted as hard winters, i have always read. The federal government does not necessarily mandate this or states would not like it. To the issue speak of sustainability and concrete . Guest it really depends on the roads being rebuilt. Interstates and toll roads, they use concrete. What is going on in Northern Virginia with the construction of the number of additional lanes along the corridor there, a lot of it is concrete. The asphalt really comes into primarily for the resurfacing and the ability to resurface, you can only do it for a certain time. It is a lot cheaper than using concrete and a lot cheaper than. Aking up concrete i think asphalt is really used to resurface roads. It does not have a Life Expectancy beyond four or five years. Thank you for talking to our viewers. Coming up next, we will talk about imaging reform and the potential impact on the economy. Later, our weekly your money series continues with a closer look at the 1. 7 billion jobs program. I think asphalt iswe will be bar a short break. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] from a policy perspective, the way this should work is appoint anould agency that has the authority to manage the resources of the country and look at the highest best uses of the resources, so we can continue the National Security functions that also drive the spectrum needs of the industry for continued innovation and investment. Issues facing the tough industry tonight at 8 00 eastern on communicators. Cspans new book sundays at eight includes the financial journalist, michael lewis. Quest were living through a dramatic. There are real structural problems. I am not an economic forecaster but everything i read suggest we will live with unusually high levels of unemployment and a lot of pain from over indebtedness is not a great depression, we are not reprising exactly what happened in the 30s, but it is a version of that. Read more of our conversation. Now available for a fathers day gift at your favorite bookseller. Quest for over 35 years, cspan brings Public Affairs events from washington directly to you, andng you in the room offering complete gavel to gavel coverage of the u. S. House, all as a Public Service of private industry. Industryy the cable tv 35 years ago and brought to you as a Public Service. Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. Washington journal continues. Host were back with Derrick Morgan, the Vice President over at the Heritage Foundation. Is the topic. Form what are the prospects for Immigration Reform before the november 2013 elections. Guest it is clear there will not be a comprehensive bill like passed in the senate. Even those pushing for it have recalibrated their expectations to get something much smaller done. Even that will be a difficult task in the republican house. There is just not a lot of trust for president obama on immigration or many other matters. Prospects are dim right now. The Homeland Security secretary was on capitol hill last week. We talked about the deportation policy. What are they looking at right now and what impact do you think it has on the debate . Lookingepublicans are for a president who will enforce the law, follow letter of the law, and when looking at deportations, consider things like to report that just came out in immigration studies. More than 36,000 permanent aliens had been released from custody, including people with serious released for other programs instead of being deported for the deportation will have to be multifaceted. Any on the left think deportation is bad. On the other side, republicans will have to see a willingness to enforce the laws. Quest the administration said they would put it hold on releasing the view. To give john banner more room to work on Immigration Reform. Cynic in me says it coincides with google calendar. Subside, the conventional wisdom goes at that point, republicans will be more likely to sign on to some form of Immigration Reform. The Republican Party seems to be a bit torn over Immigration Reform. Some are saying we need to do Immigration Reform. You have got other people saying, you have got to get the border first before you tackle Immigration Reform. From your perspective, what does Immigration Reform due to our economy . Immigration is generally a good thing for the United States. We get the best in the world to come to the United States. However, immigration is not only economic. Vein, we have to be sure those who are coming are following the law. It is a matter of fairness. The president advocated for an amnesty approach for those who came to the law and are undocumented. He decided to push that in fact they would be allowed to stay. It is not fair to those who follow the rules. One quick anecdote. In mexico, a poll was done by and they pulled you in mexico who would consider, to United States. Just under half of those who said they would said they would not do so without authorization. You have millions of people who would like to come to the United States that do not. If we provide amnesty, we are not fair to those people. Treated out. Without immigration, the u. S. Will grow slower and age faster. Without embracing americas population would start growing and age faster. Immigration is important for democratic reasons. Not quite the silver bonnet bullet, but it does increase operations infertility now. United states is under replacement. Without immigration, we would lose population. Legal immigration is important to the country. Some argue we need Immigration Reform for the economy to grow. Immigration, usa, they put out less than five percent of High School Dropouts today are willing to do physically demanding, low skill work. The u. S. Will need 3 million workers to fill these low skill jobs. Million new workers, skilled and unskilled, will enter the force in these years. This really points to a larger cultural problem. I talked to many people about this and they see the same thing. They are denigrating the value of work itself. Hard and demanding physical labor is honorable work and should not be looked down on. An adviser to a president one said he we need Immigration Reform because he did not want his son picking tomatoes. That is denigrating work here they are serving all of us. We need a conversation about the value of work as a whole. One more example, there are about 80 different means tested welfare programs today and only one or two does have a worker i met and president obama skilled those back. We need to talk about the value of work and encourage it. What impact do immigrants oring to the country legally illegally have on our Government Programs . This is a question we are curious about. The nations top welfare experts calculated how much pays undocumented workers and how much benefits they received and he edited up over the lifetime. We found a significant deficit. That counts expenditures at all levels of government. , state schools and roads, things like that. They found a 1 trillion deficit. We are talking about the Economic Impact of Immigration Reform. We have a fourth line from Business Owners. We want to hear from you. Fredericksburg, virginia, a republican caller. Caller thank you for taking my call. What should i do . I am always out shopping for things as i take care of my family. People handle these cards and i will have a basket of food in the baskets are much larger than mine. They use this card and they get free food. When they do not have enough on the card, they pull out a wad of 100 bills that is often difficult to get out of their pocket. Then they peel often they are all laughing. What is this have to do Immigration Reform . Caller all of these individuals are Illegal Immigrants. Host how do you know that . Caller they do not speak english. They are usually reluctant when they see a guard. They are shunning away from them. I could be wrong. Face of righthe versus wrong. Thank you for taking my question. Guest if you are an illegal immigrant, can you get food stamps . Withere is a lot of fraud food stamps. Some think it is easier to commit fraud now. Know, but the fact a lot. There is one of the things we would like requirements for food stamps. You shall not work, you shall not eat. We should require work and encourage people to work for food stamps. Thank you for taking my call. We are overrun with illegal mexicans and illegal russians. Like the guy before me, the way very shiftyhey are when it comes to the law. English, andeak no like i said, they have a food stamp card. They work our jobs and do not get paid with a check. They get paid cash. On top of getting paid cash, i know this because a Company Hires all of these people and they keep out illegal illegal people and then they have americans and theyre doing the jobs. , and i knowmigrants this because i was there and have seen this with my own eyes. Host what is the impact on your local economy . People work our jobs and kick the American People out because they work for low wages. Get loans and start businesses, they get loans to buy land and build houses here and they talk about it. There are immigrants that. Ome to this country legally to become a legal immigrant, you do not have to speaking bush. Guest that is right. You do not have to speak english. That is right. One thing she said that struck me is this concept of workplace enforcement. Was promised in 1986 when congress decided it would pass amnesty at that time and wiped the books clean, we have people illegally. Lets make them legal. In exchange, we will we will secure the border. The American People are still waiting for those promises. Businesses that employ illegal labor have not faced the consequences they ought to under the law. We will go next to georgia. Thank you. You just hit the nail on the head. The whole problem comes from the republican administration. The reagan administration. They granted amnesty, straight out amnesty. They say three, but it was more like 10 million. Those are the ones here. What im trying to say is you now have a problem where you have the Republican Party against immigration. They are against anything they used to before. It is killing this country. They messed up the country. Reagan messed it up and reagan should have been impeached but because he has a house also hours this [indiscernible] immigrants, illegal or legal, came from reagan, the administration that granted amnesty . Looking back to the 1986 proposal, it was kind of bipartisan. Resident president reagan did sign that and i think he later regretted it. An attorney general who works at heritage has explained that president reagan thought that was a mistake. Granted amnesty, to see how that works, clear out the population of see that over again. If we try that again, it would be a shame on us at this point. You mentioned about 3 million. Fraud rates show some studies up we are nowaudulent. Looking at a population of over 10 million workers. No one knows exactly, but we have a good idea with census data. A lot of people think the estimates are actually short of the number of Illegal Immigrants. Know there are at least Illegal Immigrants. Class on our website, it says guest there is not a whole lot i disagree with their. Somewhat. Immigration, done right, can be really good for our economy. We are admitting fouts folks who have great talent in the world. They come to the United States. Because of our rule of law and economic freedom, they can be really successful and Start Companies like google and others. We would like to increase the high skilled toigration in the country encourage these economies to form. Where i potentially disagree is the fact that you do not have to do amnesty to get the benefits from stock strong and legal class how do you get the factor into the economy without a pathway to citizenship . Admits mored States Residents than the rest of the United States combined. Not many have that immigration system. We can come from anywhere in the world and become an american ear you can become an american and that is great. Most people do not realize we are talking about a billion Illegal Immigrants in a year. Is a good debate to have, should we increase the amount of skilled immigration and reduce lower skilled immigration . Everything is being held hostage to the question of what we will do with those held here illegally now. That is holding hostage any of the reforms we can do. Host independent caller. Caller i have two quick comments and then a question. Lets see what you can do about chamber hashe absolutely no credibility on this issue. They have pushed for cheap labor and do not care if it is legal or illegal. Talk about it as ilLegal Immigration or immigration is good. Of course it is good. The country is made up of it. The chamber has no credibility no credibility. The biggest incompetent thing i have seen in my years here as a citizen is the fact that the one thing the government is supposed to do is protect orders and defend our nation. Reasons whyillion they are completely inept from doing that. Here is my question. We have 19 million Illegal Immigrants. Had has there ever been a discussion about, why dont we set up a refugee camp in mexico and sleeps through the nation and get everyone into a u. N. Refugee camp . Because we obviously have a huge problem. It undermines our labor prices, etc. It is amazing. We have had callers from each line animated on the topic area it is really a lot different here inside the beltline. To haveere all want Immigration Reform and they want large increases in Legal Immigration and amnesty for Illegal Immigrants. It is good to talk to the American People and hear from them. In terms of protecting, i could not agree with you more. We have written about how we can do that smarter and involve the local Law Enforcement who know the area. It is more a matter of wanting , andcomplish the goal fixing and sticking to that goal. Frankly, at some point, if we could have a guest worker home,m, and then return that would help us secure the border better. There are a couple of Common Sense Solutions we could use on border. Politicians right now are not wanting to do that. Host there is a poll for march 15. When they asked republicans only guest it is eyeopening when he see the difference between the two. People want fairness and they want to know there is a set of rules and we will follow them. They do not want washington picking winners and losers in immigration anymore than energy policy. This administration has decided to support some ventures that have ended up failing. They are picking and choosing and we do not like that either. We like to have a set of rules that like to compete. Dont have those illegally who jump in front areathey are pickg and we do not like that either. Back to that poll, they asked independents the same question. 41 said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate for u. S. Congress to support a pathway to u. S. Citizenship. We will go to frank in california. Good morning. I came to california with my wife and a small child. Illegally. Y i worked the first day i got here in construction. I got all the free benefits any union member gets. Now receive a pension. Most of the time in america, my wife and i did several businesses in construction. Very profitable. What i believe and is the situation we have now had to be contrived by starving computerization programs that contrive to keep manpower off the system. To lead workers illegally, and yet, there is no staff to do the policing. It has gone out of control. Business not ruin any to such a degree that the immigration system has been destroyed, without eating tried peoplecials, controlling and general lack statistical affect in the country at large. You can put it between north and south korea, effectively, protect all over the world, because i can intensely reduce the situation we have got now with illegal aliens who will work for any price at all. I work in union. In san francisco, all of the workers at the time were union. Everyone had a High Standard of living. Care through the kaiser systems is the day i got here. My children have grown up healthy due to that fact. You could not have a system like this if you tried any harder to do it. Guest thank you for that call. One of the interesting things is the change among union leadership. Guest they used to really scare share your sentiments, frank about frank, about immigration and illegal workers. Of late, they have joined a coalition with business and others to push the and is the first approach. One of the things that really came to mind, your call, is the fact we have Business Owners who are trying to compete and trying to hire legal workers and trying to compete. Compete to hiring illegal workers. That is why it is important to have a system like verified to consistently check the status of potential hires. Have the system now as a voluntary basis. A big help. Host republican caller. Caller i want to call about a few calls before the date in georgia. Reagan, for all the good he did, he did one bad thing and admitted it was a mistake and the trustee amnesty. Did so much good. You have a guy who does not know what he is talking about and does not know how to speak english the right way, and may not the man for trying something. Getting back to nowadays, something, the politicians assessed to figure something out to work the right way because this is ridiculous. And itre too many people has ruined the economy and that is about it. Thank you for your all. You are right that politicians do need to figure this out. It is up to the president of the United States. He has already implemented deferred action. He has a deportation review now. I do not think he will be a more vigorous portion of the law. He needs to demonstrate that portion of the law. What is the point of doing that amnesty when it turns outvigorot couple decades later, here we are getting with the same problems. We need to fix the problem first and then we need to get to the more difficult questions later. Host on twitter guest it is part of what we prioritize third we want to be careful to disrupt our land borders we need to figure out who is coming in and how long they will stay. 40 of immigrants came here illegally but overstayed their visa. We need to have the means to track those who have visas. It is more a matter of willpower. Many other countries are able to do it. Immigration works usa puts together this, that nearly 57 of phd engineers are foreignborn. Seize halfn students of advanced degrees in science, math, and engineering. Talk about the Economic Impact of this. Class which amends boost for the economy had a great thing for the United States. Studenta large foreign population in a heavy emphasis on Computer Science and mathematics. I have students from all over the world who are my classmates and it is a wonderful thing. The sad thing is, after we have educated this group of people, a lot of times they are leaving the country because of our Legal Immigration system being broken. Instead of fixing that small problem, washington decided we have to do a comprehensive approach and fix everything all at once and do amnesty. I would say skilled immigration is a great thing for the United States. Host independent caller. Est caller maybe we need to put more people in office. Another thing, [indiscernible] leave when the americans came over [indiscernible] who are they to make laws now . Host the first part of their comments there . More i think were seeing diversity now in the United States than ever before. That will be a great thing. It is a good thing. Evenve great officeholders on the republican side more and more. Parents, his immigrants to the eyes states. They can offer great insight. They can offer at least one immigrant to the United States as well. Our immigration has to work for everybody. That includes following the rules. The rules are cumbersome and not we need to dohat to grow our economy. We need to recognize granting amnesty is really unfair to those who came the right way. Host robert in maryland, on our line for independents. I am a sheetmetal worker from maryland. My question is, from what i see in my perspective, a lot of they have aies, Talent Agency and they hire these people. They choose a lecture visions for example. Electors is another country tell inm, you can get scale america. They ship them to america and people are making a lot less wages in their country. They turn around and pay this Talent Agency a fee per month. Law,is a loophole for the and i do not see anybody looking at that were whirring about that. But that is not right. You you bring out a point that proponents of massive increases in immigration of amnesty say that the economy will be bigger and it will. It will be larger and that is we also know there will be winners and losers. Particularly, those that compete with foreign labor will see lower wages. That should be part of the conversation as well. Kentucky, on our line for democrats. Caller my question is this i am in the plumbers and pipefitters union. Union companies have to hire document. Itizens or i see nonunion Companies Hire anyone they want and violate all the safety rules. I like your answer. Especially being people like you from the Heritage Foundation that hire these people, corporate america. Thank you, have a good day. Guest we are a nonprofit corporation. Individual00 americans write us a check. We were talking for corporations, we may be more in line with some of the other business groups that are more corporate focus. We need a system that works for everybody. Fact you brought up the that rules are being broken. I am not surprised. If you are breaking immigration laws, you are speaking volumes about the rule of law. Whoo not have a president seems concerned with upholding the rule of law. Things like the Affordable Care act, where he has decided he will not do the employer mandate, even though it is in the law. It starts from the top down. Great ismade america that we do have rule of law. Is what are the rules we have agreed to as a country and lets follow those rules. Host this email if the immigration process were better, people would not take 10 years to complete the process and maybe that would reduce the number of people who are inclined to come here illegally. Guest he is right. Our Legal Immigration system is broken and a lot of ways. It is cumbersome, frustrating, and reforming that makes a lot of sense. There is a program called the e2 visa. They are coming here and buying a company and hoping to turn it around or they are starting a new company. They have a special visa. As their children reach adulthood, they have to leave the country. There is a place we ought to be thinking about reforms. Louis, what isy, your business . Guest i own a restaurant. Heres my question. If you allow these people to become legal immigrants, they thenot going to want lowpaying jobs. Also, if you start jobs and 2000 people from each state round up all of the illegals, they will create jobs, allowing these people to become legal immigrants would be a security risk. Owneryou are a restaurant. Could your restaurant operate the hispanic community, without legal people work in my place. Host what you mean about legal immigrants will not take the low paying jobs. Caller once they become americans, they will not take the low paying jobs. Host what kind of jobs are you thinking about . Caller any kind of job. The Illegal Immigrants packed their country, you will have more jobs for the homeless, people who cannot find their jobs. The politicians are scared to Say Something or do something about it. Did see washing we the wages of those who were toocumented increase from 8 numeral 10 . Anhink you would see increase of those undocumented. Some may decide they want to work in a different field. There are some fields that are more difficult to work. May shift jobs and increase wages. He is probably right about that. I think we want to be careful not to paint with too broad of a brush. People who come here from all over the world are able to start businesses and our productive in the economy and actually help there is a portion of immigration that is complementary to u. S. Workers. We want to be careful not to go too far on that. Tj, on our line for independence. Independents. Caller i hear that republicans are against immigration. There is a difference between an illegal immigrant and an immigrant. Tons of people want to come to america. Legally. To do it we need to figure out a way to get all of these Illegal Immigrants taking up tons of jobs in america, while so Many Americans are sitting at home trying to find work. We need to find a way to round them up and throw them to the back of the line. , so ite to do it legally is fair to those that cannot find work right now. Guest the fact is, we admit about one million legal immigrants to the United States a year. It is a good thing. We could have a debate is that too much or too little . Most people agree we need to have a limit on the number of immigrants coming to the United States. Because we are a great country and enjoy our freedoms, there are untold numbers of people that would love to come to the United States. We cannot afford to have everybody come here and wants. It needs to be fair to everybody. The people who are jobless, you are right. There are two things that washington can do that do not involve immigration. Ist would be a job spill reforming our tax code. Increase investment so there is more places to work. Also, energy. We have a great Energy Renaissance happening. It is exciting. For those who are listening and wanting a job, they should look in north dakota. I am from texas. There are excellent Job Opportunities in texas. In north dakota. There are a lot in texas, too. Renaissance is booming. The Obama Administration is going to announce reductions in the Greenhouse Gas emissions that will do nothing for the climate and her jobs. And hurt jobs. Bob. Caller derek, i am glad you are sitting down. I am a democrat and i am about to give you part of the answer the country is looking for. With Workers Compensation insurance and business liability insurance. Insurance companies, every Insurance Company in the United States are paying claims for the incidents and accidents involving undocumented workers. I am talking about Workers Compensation insurance. I am talking about business liability insurance. Change in theome exclusions of insurance policies and business liability and Workers Compensation, that allow the insurance companies, i do not know if legislation to be passed to allow this, but exclusions. I am sure you are familiar with insuranceions of policies. You exclude the incidents and involving undocumented workers and the Business Owners , wills country, overnight lay the liabilities that they would have in workers that are not supposed to be here. This sounds more like a republican notion that coming from a democrat. I think you touched on an important point. We are not enforcing workplace enforcement long. We are not. I could see a few complications with the idea, but you have put your finger on an overall important point, Business Owners have to take responsibility. That isa program relatively unburden some, that is relatively easy for them. Numbers oute some there for this conversation. What is the racial composition of the immigration population . 48 were sent reported their race as white, 9 as black, 25 percent as asian, and 16 as some other race. Are ofy immigrants hispanic origin . In 2012, or be 6 immigrants reported having hispanic or latino origins. We will go to janice in massachusetts. Good morning. I would like to turn the conversation back to visas. My brother passed away in 2010 and going through his papers, we found a divorce degree. Decree. He married anna legal woman from columbia. Me, iwere to come back to would give him a hug and i would punch him in the mouth. A gentleman called from the dominican republic. He came on a tourist visa and the moderator asked him why he stayed past his visa. He said he had a job by then. It seems to me visas are being passed out to liberally. People come here and have no intention of leaving. Guest about 40 of undocumented on a visa and overstay their visa, we think. We would have the problem of people who overstayed their visa. That is one of the problems with the conference the senate bill. They increased the number of visas. Because of that, the Budget Office found you will have millions more Illegal Immigrants over the next few decades because you have so many people overstaying their visas. Glenn, lancaster, california. I would like to talk about the President Campaign on immigration. He campaigned on fixing bva. He has worked really hard on immigration, which is illegal. He took aAmerican People to protect the citizens. We have 11 Million People out of work in the United States of america. Tariffs andaise buildings here in the United States by american citizens. Remark, i think every caller was unanimous in being against this uniform immigration proposal. Hopefully, washington is listening. Point about terrorists, i would take a slight issue. Theink free trade helps United States and foreign nations. It is a free flow of goods. Will sayarian friends why not the free flow of labor. Labor involvest people. We cannot just have open borders. Milton friedman acknowledged that. You cannot have open borders in a welfare state. We cannot allow everyone in the world who would want to come to United States to come to the United States. It needs to be fair to everybody. You for your time. Coming up next, we will be taking a look at the nearly 2 billion job force program. Joining us is David Fahrenthold. We will be right back. From a policy perspective, the way this should work, congress should important appoint an agency that has the authority to manage the resources of the country and uses of thosest resources so we can serve the important functions and also drive the spectrum needs of the industry for the continued innovation and investment. Issues facing the Telecommunications Industry with greg silliman. Tonight on cspan two. We are living through a traumatic. Traumatic period. There are structural problems. I am not an economic forecaster. Everything i read suggests we will be living with an unusually high level of unemployment. A lot of pain from over indebtedness. A quarter of the country is on food stamps. It is not a great depression. We are not reprising what happened in the 1930s. It is a version of that. Of our conversation with michael lewis. For over 35 years, cspan brings Public Affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings come a white house events, briefings, and conferences, and offering complete gaveltogavel coverage of the house area and we are cspan, created by the tv industry and brought to you as a Public Service by your local cable or satellite provider. Washington journal continues. Last every monday in our hour, we take a look at how taxpayer dollars are being spent. We are focusing on a frontpage story in the Washington Post. The Job Corps Program has changed lives, but it is it worh the cost. Joining us is David Fahrenthold. He wrote the story. What is the job corps or ram . Youth, students school,ped out of high the government had to take them in, take them away from their homes, to someplace in the city it is sort of like a college. The government also teaches you a trade. Like nurseshings aide, very skills, plumbing, electricity. Radical intervention. The government intervenes and tries to change the course. Under lbj, howd has it grown over the years . Has it ever not been continued by congress . Guest it survived. It has gone through rough patches. Nixon scaled it back and tried to get rid of it. Reagan tried to get rid of it. It is even in a time of so budget,ort to cut the it is in one of its safer places than it has ever been. Money, 1. 7 billion, 37,000 training slots a year, 45,000 is the estimated cost per person. Room and board is provided. About 60 complete their training. Of money spends a lot per person because it takes people in, gives them food, clothes, wages, and provides places for them to live. It only handles a small portion countrys jobless. It helps a small number of people and does not even help all of them. Out, leave,m drop dont like it, or they graduate and find they cannot get a job in the field the Government Train them for. Host who enters the Job Corps Program . Guest 16 to 24. A lot of them are High School Dropouts. Or ninth at the eighth grade level, people who do not have a lot of training in any particular skill. They do not have to be unemployed. They can be employed in things like fast food, where no skill is required. Host where are the Training Centers . Guest all over the country. Our son puerto rico, oklahoma. It is a mix. Some of them would be like the ccc work camps. And beuld learn a trade edified and purified by working in the country. Some of them are in the middle of nowhere, but a lot of them are in the middle of big cities. Host we are talking with David Fahrenthold. We want you to weigh in on this topic. 1. 7 billion is the price tag for the Job Corps Program. What are your thoughts . Republicans, 202 5853881. Democrats, 202 5853880. Independents, 202 5853882. This is the headline on the jump page of your piece. 1. 7 billion, job corps, few benefits outweigh costs. Costs . Benefits outweigh did you get an answer . Guest a study tried to figure out if the effort was worth the cost for society. If you factor in things like the graduate sees less public assistance, they go to jail less, the benefit to society was not greater than the cost. The cost was greater than the benefit. Bar that pretty high the benefit has to out rate outweigh the costs. In this case, it does not. For some individuals, it does change their lives. Them, their income was higher than the people who were similarly place to did not go to job corps. Incomeour years, the gained disappeared and they were back in the same place. I think it is safe. Is leading a review of the job Training Programs we have. They have passed the skills act that will overhaul a lot of these programs, but leave job corps in place. It reaches a part of the population no one else knows how to deal with. It helps them more than any other idea anybody had. Also, it is a program that is widely spread out. It is popular in a lot of places. Host how many people are we talking about . 30,000 training spots here. The actual number of students is more like 60,000 because so many leave in the middle. Programs training handle millions of people every year. Underemployed of people is many millions. This is a small population. Tag for thosee 37,000 slots versus other jobTraining Programs guest much higher. Ae cost per enrollee is couple thousand a year, a little bit more than that. It does not go as high as 45,000 a year. Those things are much less radical interventions. You come to this Onestop Center and we will help you look for a job. Adultse usually aimed at who do not need a lifestyle change. They do not need social skills or be given a high school education. Those students are further down the road. It cost less per student in those programs. Host and, new port richey, florida. I have a common any question. I will be brief. I am an older person. My mother works for the job peace Corps Program under kennedy and the lbj administration. There were policy changes to separate those two out. The reason i am calling is there was a enclosed in your article about how those jobs are designated by stay. She was in testing so that people could be placed in job course that would best suit them. Earlyhe years, in the 1970s, in the late 1960s, some of those requirements were educationatching Testing Programs with a person who could work for the job corps and have a successful track. Math part was my question. Host we will let you go. Mapt it is easy to find a that shows where all of the locations around the country are. They try to find people a center close to where they live. In oklahoma, there are four total Job Corps Centers and there is one Placement Center. You call this Placement Center and talk about what you want to learn, because they teach different trades at different places. You talk about where you live and where you will want to live. That is how they place you. I read about Treasure Lake, which is the worst Job Corps Program in the country. It was remote enough that there and elk and cattle wandering around. The trouble is, they feel alone and isolated and it is not anywhere near whoever is going to employ them after they come out of job corps. The ones in cities do better because if you are going to be employed in a particular union get closer to a trade union who will help you get a job. One of the best is called treasure island. It is in san francisco. Oft place has had a lot success lacing students. Location matters. They are left with a lot of legacy programs in the middle of nowhere because that was a focus of the program in the 1960s. The ones that work better in the ideas that work better are places where the jobs are in the cities. , if youey have a map are interested in finding one of these job centers. They say they are currently training more than 60,000 students at 125 centers. That number of students goes up and down. Guest the difference between students and students lost is important. There is only space for 37,000 students to go a full year. Thank you joy sense of how many students come in for a few you a and that gives sense of how many students come in for a few months and lay. And leave. Job corps reaches many underserved citizens and should be expanded move funds from the war department. Departmentlabor funds this. You have the situation where the Forest Service is training people how to be cooks or electricians. The money always funnels from the department of labor. Host shouldnt the business sector take the lead on designing job training that is relevant to current labor needs . Guest they are trying to do that. They involve trade unions, like the union of painters and things like that. The idea is that the union will trade you train you and help you get a job. , inthe one i went to oklahoma, where the Forest Service is teaching you how to be a plumber, there is criticism that it doesnt align with the jobs when you get out. They have trouble measuring the number of people who come in and come out with a job in the field they were trained for. In the past, job corps has gotten in trouble. If you have a job in culinary skills and got a job and pest theyol, for a long time, counted that as a job in your field. That made the numbers look at her than they were. Host who decides who gets into the program . The low success rates suggest an admission issue. Guest it is run by contractors. There are qualifications you have to meet and often it is a judgment call. Some of the judgment calls have been stretched. Placed with ae contractor or counselor who says what you want to do and where would you like to live and they match you up with a center. Host david, welcome to the conversation. Caller good morning. Seemse thing i think it never gets addressed as it relates to education in children and kids is the fact that we tend to overlook the behavior aspect relative to the children. It seems to me certain things build up in children over time that never get addressed. This person with a Major Behavior issue or lingering behavior issue is told if i get you a job, everything is going to be all right and the reality is it is not. There are social skills you need to learn. There are other barriers you need to learn. On the other hand, the other part is that while we spend so much money in education, it givings if we are not children the best we can give them it is like we should to contract kids who are good in mechanics, have these children tracked so they have hope at each part of their development. We seem to not have that. Everybody is involved with doing something that appears to be doing something, but the root of it is a money profit situation. What you said about behavior is a good point. That is one thing job corps uses no justify its expensive livei model. They teach social skills, how to manage your anger, how you behave at your job if you feel slighted. I talked to people who graduated in Treasure Lake in oklahoma. A lot of them said that was one of the more valuable things they learned. They went in not understanding how to get along with other people, especially people of other races. They were forced to make those kind of relationships and have that kind of relationship skill. That is what people praised a lot. It is hard to quantify. They learned those relationship skills. The other side, Treasure Lake, they were almost teaching them the wrong kind of skills. People describe it as a chaotic environment and a lot of rule breaking. One kid liked the training he got, but he described his roommates making prison wine. They would get a trash bag and sugar and peels and it and leave it in their locker. Learn the good skills, but a lot of bad habits as well. Host georgia, republican caller. I joined job corps in the early 1970s, around 1970 or 1971. A friend told me about it. I had an epiphany that i needed to do something with my life. I had only finished eighth grade. I was a dropout. To mt. Hood, national forests. The nearest town was portland. I signed up for Building Maintenance because i already had knowledge of electricity and how to work with it and install lamps and switches and wire telephones and i had a mechanical inclination. I did not finish the program officially. That is why i think you should look at the official stats of how many people do not make it. Certainhere for purposes and i achieved my goals, which was a ged. I knew i needed that to get into the air force. I was already thinking about that, although the job i was thinking about was getting on with bellsouth. Months andere six learned about boilers and all that stuff. How to fix windows. After six months, they let you go home on vacation. If you dont stay that long, you can go by bus. Home and i decided i did not want to go back. I had achieved what i needed. I called my supervisor and he said thats fine. I taught you everything i can. I could not get all bellsouth because they had a big layoffs. Surveyor and a then i decided to join the air force. My dad had to sign because i was still only 17. Three months later, in november of 1973, i joined the air force. Guest the path you are describing sounds like a success. I think it is hard to measure job corps was statistics because there are cases like yours or someone did not officially graduate but got all the training you need it, got the start you needed in life and that you you got your ged and put you in the right place. There are some that seem to make the place look like it is failing and there are other successes that are not captured with the numbers. The point you make about getting ready to join the service, that was one of johnsons, he did not say it publicly about the program, but it was big in his mind. He taped every conversation you ever had. There is a phone conversation he has with the Dallas Morning News when he is rolling out the Job Corps Program. He had been saying it was like a State University program were going to get them great jobs. If you look at his private conversations, he said vietnam is going on right now. What we need is a program that will get them ready to serve. It will also make them physically fit. Willthing else, maybe we teach them to be a truck driver or something. Clearly, he was thinking of using this to get them into the service. That is a path of success for a lot of people in america. But getss that only, you ready for the military, that is an important accomplishment. Host did that work back then . Guest a lot of people do go into the service now. It didnt work the way johnson wanted it to back then. I have not seen numbers, but certainly, now, job corps town set as a success in its metrics. It happens to a lot of people. Host is there a military presence at the Training Centers . Guest generally not. It is like the experience of living in the army. Terms of yourn afterhours freedom, but there is not a direct military presence, but a lot of people see you can get your ged as a path to the military. Host did you go on to the air force . Caller yes. I want to make a comment about the social situation. Aboutcenter, there were 260 job corps entries like me. This point is i think it is important. Two caucasiany people. Me and one other guy. Problem. Had a single none of that junk about liquor or doing things that were not good was going on. That is probably because of the times, the early 1970s. We were not supposed to leave the conservation center, but we took trips out through the forest and ran across some rattlesnakes. We got lost one time. Host was it run like a military in some ways . Caller no, maam. E had dorm houses we had beds in a row, like in boot camp, but we had our own nobody tried to interfere with anybody or anything like that. Storea job running the that they had, where we would buy things. They talk about paying you, it is not a lot. It is like 22 every two weeks back then. What is it now . Guest i dont know what it is now. It is a nominal salary. And classrooms are paid for. The salary as part of the experience of earning money in exchange for work. It is not meant to make you rich, it is meant to create that paycheck relationship where people see a correlation between how hard they work and the money they get. Host is there a goal to teach Financial Literacy . There is. Hink there is not a lot of need to save money when you are there. Host california, democratic caller. You assess the value of the investment, are you considering the idea of they will be future parents, potentially and you have broken povertye for the when you are also assessing if it is a half noble investment. Hard thing to measure because it is hard to know how people will turn out and how their kids will turn out. This program is much better study done most of programs. Started a program started in 1994, a huge group, they got some people who were equally positioned to go to job corps, they track what they were doing later in life. They try to quantify the social withits and they ended up the cost being greater than the benefit. For the students, the benefit was greater than the cost. For them, it works out great. For society, it is a choice for us to say if it is enough. Congress has decided it is worth it. Spent inrly 2 billion 2014 on this job corps training program. That is our topic here with David Fahrenthold. We will go to lee, annapolis, republican caller. Caller i am one of those Success Stories. I thank god for job corps. I went in in 1983 and graduated in 1985. I accomplished everything that i wanted to accomplish. It is a very good program. Host what did you get training in . Caller carpentry. Host did you get a job . Caller yes. Host heavy stating carpentry your whole career have you stayed in carpentry your whole career . Caller yes. It is an excellent program. I hope it will remain. It is very helpful. Host what years did you go . To 1985. Rom 1983 host how did you hear about it . Actually, at the time, when i was young, i did not know what i wanted to do with myself. It was my aunt. My cousin was in there. I had no idea he was in there. My aunt told me about it. My mother took me in and signed me up. It was difficult. It is not easy. As long as you stay focused, then you will accomplish it. Host you got a certificate in carpentry. What was your salary when you started out and what are you making now . I cannotarted remember what 10 or something an hour. 26. I am making that is pretty good for what i am doing. Guest that is great. That is an example of how this program has stayed so popular. In some peoples lives, it makes such a difference. The older you are when you go to job corps, the more likely you are to succeed when you come out because older people are more mature and serious. Theyre are more focused on making something out of it. They go in with a different mindset. People who go in between the ages of 20 and 24, those are the most successful people who come out. One person i talked to for this story, a person came in in the late 1990s. It was run by the International Union you got trained by the International Union of painters. He took it because he was interested. Couple of years ago was to repaint the top of the capitol dome. Works is an inspector who with the state of massachusetts. Stories in lot of job corps who make a career in the career they were trained for. In other cases, the social skills is what changed them. The most famous graduate of job corps is george foreman, the boxer. He came in as a brawler, somebody who thought himself a hoodlum. He talks about how he learned to channel his life and skill at beating people up into a different direction. He says it changed everything about him. Host other names that people would know . Guest not ones that people would know. The courthe head of of appeals for the state of idaho. Insaid he was likely heading the wrong direction and is now at the highest level of the legal profession. There are a lot of people like that. The question has always been how many Success Stories are enough to justify the program and how can you make it so the other stories turn into Success Stories . People like lee, how can you make it so more people have those experiences . Caller good morning. Host good morning, marlene. Say i just wanted to my daughter was not the most diligent student and she dropped out at 16, but joined job corps at 19. She went in there, hoping to not have to flip burgers her whole life. She worked at mcdonalds, burger king, never really held a job. She got her certification for phlebotomy medical assistant and ekg. She went from being lazy to being a student counselor while at job corps. He graduated two years ago she came out and is now waitressing nights at waffle it fired her up about learning. Iust got her bachelors am sorry, her associates in Business Management and she is going all the way. What they did teacher was discipline, they taught her how to feel good about herself. I think that is important for these kids, coming in, to learn how to, like david said, move in the right direction. What job corps does is a lot more than just teaching trades and professions. They teach kids how to be a better person. Guest that is a great story. That is the sort of Success Story job corps will want to hear about. People fromseveral the place in oklahoma who said that about this experience. They had a similar track. They got trained in carpentry or now they mow lawns. Even though they did not end up advancing in their career that they were trained for, they thesed the experience for responsibility, discipline, and the workplace skills they learn. Even if they are not directly out into the profession they were trained for, their life is on a different course now. That is a wonderful story. I wonder,weets what are the number who joined the job corps and end up completing it 100 . Guest i think the number of completers, the people who complete their ged there are two tracks. There is the ged or their jobtraining skills. I think the percentages somewhere in the 50. It is not a huge majority of the people. Among them, about half of those people get a job in the field they were trained for. Average 43,000 year to incarcerate a prisoner. How much does it cost per student . 45,000. It changes if it changes somebodys life and it turns them into a selfsufficient, productive member of society, that is obviously worth it. The key is making sure you do not spend it on someone whose life is available00 slots are. About 60,000 students go through the program, according to the job corpss website. 45,000 is the estimated yearly cost of a person. Remember warning is provided. On twitter if Silicon Valley is a did requesting additional visas, is there a problem with our system . Guest i am not sure this would be a good replacement for that. The people looking for highly and engineers, not that those people at job corps could not become those eventually, but job corps has a lot to do. Between ninetay and 11 months. You can stay up to two years. Theyre trying to get them to a point where they can have a lowermiddleclass to land tree job. Those are two employment problems in our country. Host sandy, democratic caller. Caller hi. They areg to having problems with longterm unemployment. I was listening to your show about job corps. How come they havent made a program like your job corps to help the longterm unemployment. I am one of those people looking for a job myself. Is intensiverps and expensive because it is aimed at young people. Unemployedt been along. There is a lot of work the government does to address retraining or job help in those groups. We can argue about whether or not they work. As the government approaches them, the group of people does not need the intensive social skill that job corps gets. It could help, but the governments aim has been to focus on less aggressive policies. In a new skill if their old skill is off. Host brian, reno, nevada. Go ahead. Morning. Ood i am a teacher at job corps. I have been a teacher for about eight years. And is Great Program very rewarding. We help a lot of students. I hope everyone listening continues to support our program. Host what do you teach . Trade. The security students come in with me, maybe 45 a year. I teach them about crime scene investigation, criminal justice, they dont want to work security events, they go on to college or military, or they will go to advanced training with me. When they come in, they may be without training or location or a career, by the time theyre done, maybe four to six months, maybe a year, it depends on the student, by the time theyre done, they are employable and they have a career path set up. Host what is the starting salary for the folks coming out of your program . Unarmed, our caller maybe eight dollars to 12 an hour. Am ex military. I do push military a little bit. I give them these options and they try to make these decisions. Go into to 15 military from my program. The rest going to college. I push college a lot. 65 go into work and the other 20 into college. Did you get involved in the Job Corps Program . How does it benefit you . My salary is comparable to the National Average for teachers. It is on the lower end. Forve been lobbying increased pay and benefits through the department of labor, job corps office, my senators, and other agencies. It is difficult to organize on our level. There are about 126 centers nationwide. There is little or no collaboration for the teachers or representatives. Lefte left to whatever is to offer. The benefits are great. There could be some investment in the teachers and structures. One thing in particular his student loan forgiveness, where amount of Student Loan Debt removed after so many years of teaching at a low income school. And gotten some response and support. Hopefully this gets it out there. I just wanted to comment on the student loan forgiveness issue. I have been trying for years to get it out there. Ost David Fahrenthold guest that is the kind of person job corps relies on. Someone who is going to have a lower salary. This is more than showing up and teaching skill. It is about mentoring student and changing the way they think about work in general and the trade you are teaching them. It sounds like he is doing a good job. It also relies on there being subject matter that matches. , congressr job corps is pushing this way, too, in a lot of ways, it is still the ram it was a few years ago. Theyre trying to make it adaptable in terms of closing low performing centers and measuring better what works and what does not. Host one last phone call for you. Ruth, independent caller. To say i was calling that i went to job corps in knoxville, back in 1992. It was a wonderful program. I got my ged. A tommy life skills and i was a single mother they taught me life skills and i was a single mother and i was pregnant. They taught me skills i could my to better myself for kids. They also pay you extra money when you finish their program and you get a job in the field that you study. They give you a bonus check for doing that. Guest that is wonderful. We are talking about all of the great innings that job corps can do. The interesting thing about the debate over job corps, i talked how manyrson that said souls do you have to say to make the program more . We have heard a lot from people who have had their lives changed. How do we make the experience more common and how to adapt job corps so we are not spending more money than we have to. It succeeds in some cases does not justify any level of spending. I think there is going to be a debate about matching better with job corps does well and trying to identify what it does not do well. It has been 50 years since lbj began this program. There have been a lot of things that have not worked well but have stayed because of inertia. We may be entering a period when job corps tries to adapt to do more of the things it does well and less of the things it does poorly. Congress. Ome work in house hasican led passed the skills act. I think that is not the controversial part. I think it is the things it does to other jobTraining Programs. Thesenate does not support bill, but there could be a compromise in the middle of where one of the outcomes is that job corps becomes more nimble. Coversavid fahrenthold congress for the Washington Post. Host the ap reporting that the Supreme Court will not interfere intervene in the case of journalist ordered to testify about cia leaks. We will be back tomorrow morning. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014]