Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20151021

Using it. We need to make sure that everyone has the training. The other thing is, this goes across age groups. In 2013 the most commonly prescribed drug was the generic version of viking, not an antibiotic but a narcotic. So with that said, you know, i appreciate all of your comments and agree with the dr. , doctor anderson, we need to address the situation going forward. Can you expand in your experience. Sure. Your microphone, touch the button on your microphone. We offer patients coming in very clearly with the course of treatment that we would recommend at the time of the assessment. A myriad of reference in the National Area if they choose , but we use it typically to detox to get the patient opioid free. With a sufficient period of time which is difficult to achieve in an outpatient setting, but we can begin to use up your opioid antagonist or opioid blocker, if you will, and administer that in an extendedrelease formulation that lasts for 30 days. It is interesting your comments about 2872 since i am one of the ones working on it, and thank you. Were still working through this trying to expand access to treatment. Wewe have a process that would need to continually work on. We should consider money as part of a reason why did you are not to do things as a relates to drug treatment. I understand the practical aspects. I mean, what might you suggest . What would your suggestions be to expand access to outpatient treatment for these problems because clearly as you know, we have methadone, you been offering , and the locks and. I keep confusing the two. Trying to expand access. If you dont think we should make sure that everyone is able to offer all options for treatment medically, what should we do . I may have misspoken. All three should be available and i use all three on a regular basis. We use it all the time. Those of us who have knowledge and board certification, you would not want a general surgeon doing cardiothoracic surgery just like we would want to help our colleagues in primary care by stabilizing and then helping to maintain them over a period of time in that fashion. Bolstering. Thank you, and i yield back. Thank you, mr. Chairman for holding this hearing. We are very fortunate to have you and indiana has unfortunately, one of the statesstates leading the country and prescription opioid heroin drug abuse, quite a discussion that day we purchased 25 appreciated his participation. Their intent to encourage medical and Health Professional schools that was four years ago we are still struggling with getting our medical schools and continuing medical education programs, embracing this concept. Could you pleasecould you please discuss not only your efforts, but i would be curious on the panel, what are we doing wrong . Why can we not get med schools and continuing medical education and other Health Educators to focus on the prescribing practices. Would you please start . This is not a new issue. It was set in 2011. What challenges, obstacles, what do we need to do to get up covers on board with this . We appreciate your interest specifically in this matter. I would say that the need is clear. It is my understanding, as we look we are constantly looking at curriculum which is an important issue. I have had conversations with our medical school dean about this issue, but i know that there are other issues that are in competition for that time, but itime, but i think there is no question about the importance of this education. Certainly as we look at issues around the importance of education and the subscribers around this issue, continuing education is not in dispute. It has been in implementation, particularly as it relates to reimbursement and the logistics around getting it in place. I do not think there is disagreement about the importance of education. I have been involved in Higher Education before coming to congress and understand that there is a lot of discussion and work that goes into providing curriculums. However, when our med schools are saying they get three to five hours possibly in med school, it is simply not enough, and at this point to come up with one set curriculum, i think is a problem. Lets do more. And so i am curious, do we need to be requiring it . Does it need to be mandatory . Should there be certain hours that all prescribers are required to take a year. I am a lawyer. There are some what are the other panelists thinking . This is troublesome for me, not just for physicians, but what should we be doing . Any ideas . What can we do to fix this problem . We have been talking about it far too long, and educators have not resolve the issue. Two very practical possible solutions. Consolidate the efforts of adding to the curriculum for pain and addiction based on the governing body for the National Medical schools rather than having a heterogeneous group of schools come up with there own curriculum. This has been put out there as a recommended curriculum. Is there and available in many locations. But you need to have them mandate that this is a parta part of the curriculum. It is currently not. Unlike my colleague who went through medical school, i did not. Are there other parts that are mandated, or is it all left up to each individual med school . I am certain there must be a lot of mandatory curriculum items. Why would this not be one of them . Every student has to rotate through the core curriculum which has not changed in 100 years. When you look at it, it is internal medicine, general surgery, and the connections between those, pediatrics and you rotate through critical care, inpatient care, and outpatient care. Adding on specialties has always been an option. They see it as a highend specialty. And tell you mandated so that they stand next to someone doing this theyre is no way to glean from a book how hard it is to talk to some of these patients who have had a horrible early life, and if you mandated, they will find it. There is someone Board Certified in pain or addiction to do this. Im sorry. My friends will not like me. Physicians who prescribe controlled substances should have mandated acm. Ii am curious and see that my time is up. I am curious if anyone disagrees with that notion . Absolutely not. No. I dont disagree. Thank you, and i yield back. The chair thanks the gentle lady. Member of the full committee is recognized for five minutes for questions. Thank you. Thank you for this thoughtful discussion. I understand the drug Addiction Treatment act was passed to expand access to Addiction Treatment by integrating it into the general medical study. For. For doctor waller, can you describe how dated 2,000 expanded access to Addiction Treatment services . Yes, sir. Thank you for your hard work. We have good partners. One of the things that it has done is allowed for clinics such as mine, which i work for a medical system. I am an employee of a Hospital System and i open our doors and see patients based upon referrals and deliver the highest quality of care. Both for pain and addiction and all of the psychosocial aspects. From a primary care aspect it allows them to treat in place and especially in the rural part of america, there are no methadone clinics, inpatient treatment clinics, and in my home state we have an Upper Peninsula that is devoid of treatment. This is aa large portion of the population that is left without. Being able to not make this field withfeel like a criminal act, not be fearful of the dea walking into your office while you are seeing a patient for hypertension, and the availability of the medication to prescribe is key. It is expanded in many areas, but we have a lot to go. In terms of expanding, expanded access in some ways, but the law did set certain limits, and it is clear that we have outgrown those rules. Asrules. As you know, 96 percent of the states and the District Of Columbia had opioid abuse or dependence rates higher than the treatment capacity rates. I am concerned that the crisis has outgrown those rules. Could you explaincould you explain how the current of 100 patients has limited our ability to respond to the current Opioid Epidemic . Two areas we have dug in deeply. The 1st year you can only see 30. He isyour certification and the next year you can apply for 100. For that, those of us who are specialty trained out pretty quickly. And so we early within our areas. And primary care we have a large percentage of doctors who have chosen not to write this medication. What it looks like is a large amount of capacity. 400 23 primary care doctors. It is consistent. They do not feel like they have training, support to evaluate and initiate treatment in patients and stabilize them. They feel comfortable with maintenance, but the reason we dont see that is because they do not feel like they have the appropriate knowledge and backup. They do a good job with this. Once they learn about the disease, their ability to treated is good, but it must be stabilized therefore raising the for peoplefor people who do this is a specialty and have board certifications. And then allow us to not have a barrier, seven month waiting list to see patients. If you have an opinion on the current prohibition of certain other professionals that might assist here, nonphysician providers including nurse practitioners, physician assistants, does that limit Patient Access . It absolutely does. I have two physician assistants and my office who are the of my patient evaluation seeing patients as i am sitting here, but we are limited in what that they can do. They are frozen and cannot see a knew patient and start them, even if they are under my supervision, i cannot pick up a phone and they dont have the legal right to write that prescription. Starting in a way which is appropriately supervised so that they have someone to go to for difficult patients and can onboard knowledge and training is important, but to be able to write this for a practical standpoint has to happen. They are moving forward the biggest part of our healthcare system. Thank you, and with that, i yield back. The chair thanks the gentleman, and that concludes the questions of the members were present. There will be other members who have questions and followups that we will send you in writing. We ask that you respond promptly. Members should submit there questions by the close of business tuesday, november the 3rd. Members have ten Business Days to submit questions for the record. Very informativevery informative and important issues we are dealing with. Thank you for your expert testimony which will help us as we proceed to move the legislation, the subject of the hearing, and i want to thank each of you for coming and presenting your expert testimony today. Without objection, the subcommittees adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] on the next washington journal, the gop leadership races and the highway transportation bill. Cspan presents landmark cases, the book, a guide to our landmark cases series which explores 12 Historic Supreme Court decisions including marbury versus madison and others. Landmark cases featuring introductions, background, highlights and the impact of each case written by tony mauro and published by cspan in cooperation with cq press. Landmark cases is available for 895 plus shipping. Get your copy today. Vice President Biden took part of a program and George Washington university. Thank you, and good morning. Good morning. Good morning. That is much better. We will have some fun with this. One of the greatest legacies of the administration is what became known as the modern vice presidency. No two occupants of that office a better represented what that really means than the two gentlemen we have here today. Please join me in welcoming to the stage Vice President joe biden and Vice President Walter Mondale. [applause] [applause] where do you want me . Wherever you want. That is not for me to sit. [applause] okay. Welcome. Can i start here . I want to welcome my old friend, joe biden with us here today. We have been friends for many, many years. I was in the Senate Caucus the day you arrived. I think you were 29. My god. You were 29 and two days early being eligible as a United States senator. Through all those years we worked together, we have been dear friends, a part of the Progressive Network of america. And when you were selected as Vice President we sat down and talked about my experience with the office, and you have taken the vice presidency a big step forward. [applause] aided enormously by your extraordinary experience in the senate, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and Foreign Relations committee. You knew your stuff. I have enjoyed watching how this all works out for the betterment of the obama administration. You no all of these things. I love you. It is mutual. [applause] we will have a great conversation this morning about the vice presidency. A long history in this country, as you know. Unfortunately, it was a constitutional afterthought, really and illdefined office. It was basically an office and obscurity and derision, the subject of bad jokes. That is over . [laughter] i am getting to that part. John adams call the office, the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived. A little wordy, but we get the meeting. Nelson rockefeller called the standby equipment. Other Vice President s called it the 5th wheel of government. I cant say what another man called it. Needless to say, no one says those things about joe bidens best joe bidens vice presidency. He has evolved almost on a daily basis, does not do state funerals, and when he speaks everyone knows that he speaks for the president. In every sense he has come to represent the new modern vice presidency, and it presidency, and it is a great pleasure to have him yesterday. [applause] now, we will talk about how this was shaped, and i will ask Vice President mondale to go back to those days when you 1st talked to then governor carter following the election when you had more serious discussions about how you and he saw the office. One of the key elements what became our special vice presidency i did not want to be involved in the details of the government. And so i tried very hard with the president to try to sell this idea. And not just the surface stuff, but the tough things that could only learned. With the president doesnt talk with those the present talks to. The big breakthrough was in the west wing. I neveri never spent a lot of time in baltimore. Thats good for you. The other thing was to prevent the staffs from dividing up. We tried to blend the two. Two other things that added to your credibility. And the other thing he said based on the unhappy experience. The reporter start writing this question. It really worked. How do you build off this experience. And the president asked me food be bedded. And he said, i need to know right away. I said, i dont want to do this. And he said, how much time do you need . And i said, i dont need any time. He said,said, go home and talk it over with your family. In the 1st person i called was fritz, the 1st person that i called. And i said, tell me about you and president carter, and he wanted great detail and gave me a memorandum. He laid out what he thought were the essential elements to make it work. You all no, the vice presidency is totally a reflection of the president. There is no inherent power, none, zero. And it completely, totally depends on your relationship with the president. When i started off, vick had a great advantage to go back the president and i debated 13 times in 2008 trying to get the nomination. If you look back, the only two people who did not disagree on a single substantive issue were the president and i. We disagreed a degree, but never on a substantive issue so it started off where i knew that i was simpatico the president elect, and secondly, we had a genuine relationship. When he asked me i asked him why he wanted me to be Vice President and he said two things in this order. Number one,one, you will always tell me the truth and be straight with me, there will be no varnish on what you say. Secondly, i need help governing. Thirdly, your experience in Foreign Policy will be helpful. And then i called you again, as you remember. Joan was a gigantic help to my wife, jill, and really extremely thoughtful because that is another very difficult job. It is almost demeaning, the title, being the 2nd lady. And jill was new and young and joan was an enormous help. What you both basically said was, it matters that you have a personal relationship. I do not mean that you partied together or go to the movies together or whatever. It is that you have a relationship built upon a genuine top personal affection. The two things about your administration and hours, i cannot recall a single word being written where barack obama and i have been leaking out of the white house that there is dissension because we did what you suggested. I had an advantage. Most of most of the people for example, right from the outset, i called you about picking the cabinet. And we spent 14 hours a day some days on the 80th 80th80th floor, whatever it was, on a highrise Office Building in chicago putting together a cabinet. And the president from the outset said you have a veto right. He asked my opinion on every cabinet member, and we were in total agreement. And a number of the members i knew better than the president you because i had worked with them for a long time. So we integrated staff from the beginning. Senator kaufman, then my chief of staff is here today with me, ron claimed who had been my chief of staff was there, and a guy named mark can sting letter in a Judiciary Committee. And the three of them sat with his people, and we made every decision together. I was certain from the outset that this would be collegial. And so what happened was that from that point on we had an advantage. My grandchildren and his children are best friends now. They vacation together. My daughterinlaw and michelle are close. It was i warned the president that when he got me, he got the whole family. He thought that i was getting. [laughter] there is a great picture in my office that i should have brought. The night in grant park when we had gotten the call from and he was gracious, by the way. We had gotten the call saying that the opposition had conceded. We were at grant park backstage, and my mom, who was 90 two years old who liked barack, the president is standing with us. Theythey said now, ladies and gentlemen, the next president of the United States, barack obama and that Vice President , joe biden. Biden. There is a picture of my Mother Holding baracks hand and he is saying, is going to be okay, honey. So my mother walks us both out on stage. [laughter] he just looked like, okay. [laughter] here we go. The key has been that we have great trust in one another. And our staffs, at least half of the president s staff for my former staff members. And so it rests upon one thing, defining what it is that you want to do in determining whether or not the president elect he asked me what portfolio do we want. I can take care of cross jurisdictional issues but i dont want to be put in a position where am cutting someone elses grass. Two things. He is president and gets to make the decision unless there is an overwhelming disagreement on principle. He knew i meant that for a major fundamental disagreement, and i get to be the last person in the room and make my case privately, and that is where i think i can serve best and hope that i have. That is what you did, fritz, and what you advised me. So that is how it developed. It was aa long conversation, and he was open about it and made it clear. I want to make clear that when i have a disagreement with you i will flat out tell you, and i want you to do the same in private. So we have had some very candid discussions, like friends do. And probably where you argued a little bit. That is the the healthy part of a relationship between a president and Vice President if it can be established. Would you say you are an acrosstheboard advisor . I do two things. I spend depending upon the season four to seven hours a day attending to the president. But at his request. And so i am the primary because of my years, like you, serving in the United States senate and house. Whenever there is a problem i get sent to deal with it. [laughter] which is a useful use of my time. I really respect to members up there and still have a lot of republican friends and do not think my chief enemy is the republican party. This is a matter of making things work. The 2nd thing he does, governments have gotten bigger since you were Vice President. The pres. President also indicated that i would be given specific assignments. 800 billion. I never had to report to him or question. I have complete authority. Coordinating assignments. Almost all of them had crossed jurisdictional requirements. And so i did 18 Cabinet Meetings. One member said i dont think that such a good idea. Go talk to him. It is okay. And that ended in a discussion. You are speaking for the president and have his confidence. And it is because the secretary of state, but when i go they know that i am speaking for the president. Whatever i say the president is saying. It is a great advantage for president to be able to have that because the job is so big. Does this sound familiar . One of the things that i told president carter, if im going to help you in these kind of assignments they have to believe that they are talking to you. We are partners and i am not just a visitor there. So you have a stake, we have a stake in making that point. This was a new institution, but we did. What you did, by the time it got to president obama i did not even have to ask. He already made that judgment because you really did modernize the vice presidency, and he studied it. The smartest most brightest guys i have ever met in my life, barack obama. He studied it as well and would say, the way he worked , but i, but i did not have to convince the president of anything at all , anything at all and he just assumed i would want an assignment like im sure president carter might have thought with you. Well, you know, i did not. He learned from you. One of the things we had to work out earlier in our administration was what to do about differences. You mentioned how you deal with it. What we agreed to do was i would not disagree with them publicly. A Cabinet Meeting involved, but if i disagreed i would go and have it out with him alone. We did that, and then we would go out together. The object of this was to strengthen the president. You told me that, and it has come in extremely handy. A solid lawton, for the president and i and only two others to know about a lot of fun as early as august. Major players in the cabinet did not know about it until january or february, and so it was something that was difficult for the president to call. We sat in the cabinet room and at the end of the day making a decision, now i want everyones opinion, and everyone went around the room and only two people were definitive. Absolutely certain. Leon panetta said go, and bob gates has already publicly said this, dont go. Some ended up saying go, but it was such a close call. I joked saying they sound like larry summers, the economist. They said, would you do. There is a 3rd option. I think we should make one more pass with another uav to see if it is sent. The reason is i did not want to take a position to go if that was not where he was going to go. I said i told him my opinion but it would have been a mistake. Imagine if i had said dont go or go, and his decision was a different decision undercutting the relationship. So i never on a difficult issue, never say what i think until i go up in the oval with him alone because it is not a good thing with the relationship you have with president carter and i have with the president to be in a position, and sometimes we do differ. You should turn right or go straight and he says, going left. That is the only way it works. Did you want to Say Something . It is your show, you know. Good point. Good point. You talked about how you undertook Diplomatic Missions for the president. And because of your background and the senate Foreign Relations committee in the years you have been on the road traveling. I did not have both of the people recognizing that we have known something about how our system works. It would be a real agreement which helped a lot, and the president would agree with that. On all of the major relationships i we will occasionally be sent to meet with the chancellor of germany or the Prime Minister of england president of france. Met every major world leader in the last 40 years. Dealing with them, and what basically happens is i end up in a situation where for example i no all the Eastern European leaders andthey are satisfied talking to me knowing aspic for the president , but the president does all the heavy lifting, the guy who is the one who to give you an example, with president carter did with you, what president obama did. He and president who at aa state dinner decided she and i should get to know one another, and it was president obamas idea. I spent five days traveling 15, 20,000 miles inside china with president she. He came here is my guest. By the way, he went theyre as a young man. But as a consequence of that ii had 20 to 25 hours of private dinners. So even in the relationship like that, the pres. Manages it, but occasionally occasionally if he does not have time i can be sent. It worked because of the nature of what i had done before. The years that you have spent and congress, i did not spend as many as you but when we had real issues like trying to get the panama canal i remember that. And i was able to go up there and help make a difference. You did more than help. You pushed it over. Everyone in the senate and house for that matter respected fritz, and knew that whatever he told them was stray stuff, and it mattered. And so i think that you did more and there is a similarity between president carter and president obama. President obama only spent four years in the senate. He has Great Respect and good relationships. But just like president carter, he did not know intimately a lot of the folks. Personal relationships matter, particularly back in the day when we treated each other with more respect, when we by the way, the differences the best lesson i ever learned was from senator majority leader Mike Mansfield from montana. I used to have to go see him once a week. When i got there and you and john were helped me get through what happened when i 1st got elected. I did not realize, he would give me an assignment. I thought every freshman got an assignment. It turned out he was just basically taking my pulse. Anyway, on the floor one day a scoria bob dole on the predecessor legislation. I had to go into my meeting with the majority leader, sat down and i guess i looked perturbed. I railed against jesse helms , no socially redeeming, did not care about the handicap and let me go on. The most important lesson i learned, he looked at me and said, what would you say if i told you three years ago a young man was adopted, 14 years old. Id say, i feel like a jerk. He said, well, you did. This is your mo. There is always an appropriateness to challenge a mans talent but never appropriate to challenge a motive because you dont know. It is all about motive up there, not judgment. You are it is all about what people think your motive is an describe a motive. You cannot get to yes after i tell you,i tell you, i think you are dishonest or in the pocket of the industry, and it is hard for us to get to yes. Ask you both the question. You are both new to the vice presidency. What was the greatest challenge you face early in your vice presidency to make it work . He did a lot better. I have never in my entire life had a boss. [laughter] i mean, for real, even when i was a young lawyer, and it was i had to realize that anything i said would be attributed to the president. And so you had to, when asked question, refrain from answering it or modulate your answer or make sure it was in line with the president s. And it took me a lot longer than it took you, fritz. It took about six months and there was nothing nefarious about it. It was just, you get asked your opinion as a senator. This is what i think. Well, it is not appropriate. You have to work out what the administrations position is. I had a tough time, too. The Campaign Getting elected went just fine, but when i sat down and realized i was giving up an independent position in the senate where i was in pretty good shape and could do what i wanted, was my own advisor and suddenly it dawned on me that that had changed quite a bit and that now i had to check in with others, check in with the president. It was several weeks before i felt comfortable. I used to shuttle new cabinet officers. What became air force to come and a couple of times i thought ii thought i would just stay back home on the plane and forget it. It was hard. Even before that in the spring you sat down with hubert humphrey. You said, you know, what about it. I love thei love the senate, independence here, why do i want to do this. And what did he say . I said what you told him, i would just assume stay in the senate. But yeah. I met with humphrey. Humphrey repeatedly had a tough time with lyndon johnson. Reputedly . Really. [laughter] ii knew it. We all knew that it was tough. So i went toi went to see him and said, you know, you have this visible time as vp, were on a roll of the senate, maybe the most respected member and it, several victories and suddenly this came to a crashing halt. What do youwhat do you recommend . And he said take it. I think you will like it. It will broaden you. You can do more in one day as Vice President then all week were all year as a senator, and you will grow and learn. That was the day you opened your mind to the idea. Right. Thank you, hubert. [laughter] thats right. A good speaker. [laughter] as you know, he was my mentor. I miss him. We are speaking to a lot of his friends here today. His heart was as big as his head. He had a prodigious mind. He used to come over when i 1st got theyre to console me. I talked about him i like take cheney for real, i get on with him and he is a decent man. When i went to see him i did not talk to him before. I went to see them after we were elected and that the residents, and he and his wife were extremely gracious , and he talked about how the office worked as related to the functioning of the office. But he had a different relationship and was a powerful Vice President very different relationship with president bush. One of the things that i learned, and it probably sounds like i ami am making this up, but i spoke to this man repeatedly about this job. Vice president cheney had his own National Security team, and it was real i remember when i recommended president jim jones, i knew him a little better as the National Security advisor and will never forget sitting down with jim. Twentytwo folks. And i remember the look on his face. Im not going to keep the staff at all on one condition. I have total access to the National Security council and can task them through you, bring them on and we can do this jointly. You are the National Security advisor, but the entire team you had will not be overshadowed. What it was about the confidence i had in the president meaning what he said in the pres. s confidence that i was not about to try to set up a satellite operation where i was going to take over fine control of any department. The people who were there, so it all worked, but i will never forget cheney, the cheney bush relationship at the outset was more codependent. So cheney had a very different view of the vice presidency in terms of how it functioned internally, but he was extremely helpful and gracious about the office and the legal parameters of the office and everything from the aircraft to, you know, the housing. Do you have some views . A little bit different, i would say. He was kind to me. We visited the home and so on, but he said early on that he was going to take things to the dark side. And i believe he really did, and he created the vice presidency has sort of a privileged sanctuary. Would not respond to subpoenas, stiff the congress on who he had a different view. Yes. And he worked with some of his key guys to bring about the torture memo and so on. I think those were bad days in the history of the Vice President. All the things you set all right, but i have a kind of a i dont disagree with that. A harsh you. I have a harsh view of how the vice presidency, the office was used. But in terms of the actual transition, he was extremely gracious but this there is no similarity. There was a cartoon i was given in cheney is walking down allegedly the basement of the Vice President residents and i and standing behind him he said you might want to make a few decorating changes. [laughter] he said a few minutes ago about the adjustment to adjust to the president s agenda but really theres only one, the president s. That you just cannot exist or function that criticism is that there was a competing agenda at times . But ended up being a competing agenda but on the outside it looks like it was written by a cheney that the president wasnt into. By simply dont know. Immigrated to vintage that i have the great advantage that i have is president obama and i illogically have had no disagreements. None. O. We have had tactical on how to implement or elegance of Foreign Policy or on whether to be more or less assertive but i didnt have a problem and that made it comfortable from the beginning. We served on the same committee together the short time he was in the senate, i spent a lot of time talking to him about his views on all whole range of issues particularly the middle class. So i was confident we had this same attitude of Foreign Policy, use of force , the tax structure to civilrights and civil liberties. People make a big deal and i asked about a marriage and i told the president anything you want to . I said i will not wear any funny hats and i will not change my brain and. We knew we were getting. There was no pretense he was not making sure i had a job and i was not coveting the job. It worked to this day we are sympathetic overcoat in agreement of all issues so it is much easier for me. I have nothing but admiration what you have done. It is not easy but you made it work very well. The obama by an administration solidifies those institutions and it continued to the old system of separate order retry to executive that . We tried that and it worked almost 40 years later and it is working better than ever. Do you think the changes are permanent by practice . I think it has the prospect is more likely to be the and not. What has happened since the breath and scope has increased significantly. They said make up your mind if you want to be secretary of state or Vice President. I would joke with my wife she said i know you rather be secretary of state. He didnt offer me that that was context of Foreign Policy but as Vice President and a travel almost 1 million miles because the of the nature not my consequence or importance but the nature of the job is so immense and ironically even of a polar world. Even though the president did not one of Vice President to do that would have to be delegating more authority to secretary of state or defense there is not enough time literally to return the phone calls. Not enough time. The president can do that today. You think it is permanent . It is likely provide all thank you can be sure yet. They like it a president or Vice President are a bad match and cannot do what we did so it is irritation all along but what we have seen over the last years, this is spectacular obviously the best thing to strengthen the presidency that the next president would be a fool not to try. Maybe they will have to fight through the fact it is not unusual for the Vice President to pick up the phone to call a cabinet member to ask a question to request personnel. That used to be gigantic and he read the book about johnson with president kennedy he was never invited to the oval office. I think those days are gone a matter the relationship but as you centcom it depends of the personal chemistry between the president and Vice President more than anything else to make it work. But what you have shown is an enormous asset to the president to have incredible Vice President. As long as only one is president. Right. Would be assured vice . Make sure before you accept of this there is clear understanding of what the president expects. The only time there is real trouble is when there are different expectations of what you think youre able to do or what you want to do or what is expected in you dont want to do. The last point but the president knows if there is something i disagree with him on privately i will not try to sell it and would never disagree i will support it but Everybody Knows nobody doubts what i say and i say what i mean so it doesnt work to try to sell something so it is important for the president to understand clearly that was expected. Would your advice . Looked at this experience comiccon to likelier understanding you can do that now. When i started it was unclear but now it is pretty clear what is possible. Have yourself if you want to live that kind of life that if the president would be comfortable if the answer is no then dont do it. The most important thing for a Vice President is that regardless of his responsibility they genuinely respect the president it is hard to serve in this office if you dont genuinely, genuinely respect the judgment and character of the man you are working under. One other thing that is important in the transition, many president s look at the Vice President as a suggestion of their place on earth. [laughter] that is a poisonous concept. [laughter] and it takes a president to take a deep breath to say i need this help. I am not afraid to be in that position. Yes i want that person to be ready if that is what happens. Carter did that and thought it through and it made all the difference in the world in our relationship. Thank you very much mr. Vice president. [applause] the Vice President is back with us the chief domestic policy advisor to data founder and president of the Childrens Defense Fund and the chief domestic policy of razr to Vice President mondale. Good morning the topic is Educational Opportunity and social justice there is no set of issues closer to mr. Mondales heart as if i ask you listen to what robert cole wrote about Walter Mondale right off he showed his inclination with a number of possibilities housing and urban Affairs Subcommittee to have the power judiciary of the Armed Services committee of how much needs to be done the United States tell the story of the migratory labor with Indian Education with the select committee on nutrition and equal educational of my best opportunities. He went to work to do something that sounds very integrated today. To fight poverty and discrimination. Concerning the issues of dominating her career to keep unsafe to give a genuine opportunity you had a Remarkable Partnership with Vice President mondale with Early Childhood education. What brought you together . Also the most important elements of the bill that he crafted. And finally to talk about this is not over. What does that say in how could the lives of children and working families be different today if that were enacted . I wish the mondales would come back to washington. [laughter] we really miss him. We say how will they break through . We have done at this over 40 years it is essential to the security becomes as a failure to invest in their children. Of what the country would be like with the Child Development act will of the Child Poverty figures be . The younger they are the poor they are. That will be their undoing. He obviously cares about children we have a lot of hunger back and so coming home from school tried to share the school lunch with his older siblings and was killed. He was a human being and a leader and we are still trying to get back to the standards we ended up 19 years after trying and then we try to get another two years but it took 19 years to get less child care oriented block grant stepbystep to add money to get back to where we were last year and is a constant struggle and i hope somehow we can get the country to come to its senses. Even with all the gridlock with is strongly bipartisan i thought about having a reunion because it did work in this town. And his child focused they were to be comprehensive most parents will not choose to give them health care or food service comprehensive and talk focused and developmental with federal standards. And a big mississippi should be worse than massachusetts and this settles that. But it did have mechanisms to enforce the standards included but not limited to the Development Boom dash developmental the care with the flexibility to have local priorities and with current dollars look what we have done with that then and now. Disadvantaged children was to be based on the bureau of standards of labor level. This was a was universal everybody could find a place they could pay of the sliding scale and 6,500 as of that is more the in, then the school teachers. We were concerned with the port and headstart. The was comprehensive and universal. Parents will have a decisive role in the planning projects like headstart and my initial reason for coming that it is pretty clear to phase it in ways that have the selfinterest in helping. Said to fund headstart and a significant way. It was crafting and with those rights of the services but we did all. And what happened. And then to provide service is for the children 2 billion with the authorization. And that they should do that themselves by the time they saw what theyre doing with pat buchanan and vetoed it and we could override that veto. But it was a marvelous piece of legislation and we will not give up until we do it. To get the child care block grant with up the comprehensive standards but we will get there. What i feel so strongly about was the medicaid expansion. We should build that in to provide basic Health Services there is no better legislative strategy or Coalition Since then but it encourages us to keep at it. If we dont win the country will not win. I that i would be out of business now and i love something that came to my house one day with the words of the anonymous critic the first lesson was dont miss the boat will miss the boat and we made a lot of progress over the last decade if the country doesnt invest in his children in the early years with their education is the key National Security issue 74 percent of our 18 year olds cannot be picked up for health care or cursor ration rates those dont come from without it in to invest in our children and educated to compete the second thing that i love this year all in the same boat with the child population but it is better to have them educated it is a pretty dumb investment policy spending more per prisoner than publicschool how dumb is that . So were all in the same boat. Now they are the majority of the preschoolers and School Population pretty quickly so lets make them educated the research is there to do well later in life with Early Childhood development and that is the standard route like to get back to that. The last two or three lessons is to plan ahead to not understand what the future is now. And we really need to get our educated children in line. The younger they are one of two black babies after transforming this is sad a scene. Him as the urban institute to tell us if they were fully invested they came back the 77 billion we could decrease black Child Poverty 62 and left 97 of the poorest children in america of all races and income groups we have done multiple reports the cost of having to drop out is half a trillion per year. Doing well will see it save us money with a populist. We need to remember that the ark was built by a amateurs and the titanic by experts. [laughter] so many a bus are not getting their due to work through the political cacophony keep waiting for word dr. King to come back that we made some progress in some states that is focused on our children if the children dont get what they need to be educated among the rich industrialized nation all the way behind romania and it is shameful there so much less wealthy. We have done all these things but we have to get back to what will work. It is the foundation for education for consensus and early brain development. A must see how we can clone Vice President mondale. [laughter] [applause] in 1975 coming to an atlanta the congressman to which rely fran and i have went we heard senator mondale speak eloquently of the end of that they took senator mondale back downtown to his hotel he said he may be your man but mondale is my. [laughter] glading we disagree 45 years of marriage. I believe i was the closest person to the Vice President and was always a senior staff person that there be a top aide to president for a whole variety every sense to be the Research Director of course, he said taken the senate seat all the accomplishments we will hear because they built out literally what we now see as the modern vice presidency. And while he was born yesterday in the president agreed to integrate mondale wanted to make sure he had his people in key positions. And i got a call to three days into the presidency from the Vice President but still i would recommend to be your deputy on the domestic policy. Is said now you have two deputies. And never regretted that decision at all. But jimmy carter understood the Democratic Party needed to go on a more fiscally prudent direction. The reason their work so well together is they complemented each other in this respect. Vice president mondale understood the reason the president was elected but at the same time was the sole and the conscience of the administration in the era of fiscal restraint we had high inflation the most disadvantaged people were left behind. And he major the administration was true to fiscal responsibility but also to those who were least able to help themselves so let me give you some examples. A young applicant from the diversity of california at davis contended the program to get more minority was a reverse discrimination the case went to the Supreme Court and he recused himself because he was a federal judge ruling on similar cases the he brought a draft brief was drafted by the best black lawyer in america. I took a quick glance and then mondale looked at that as former attorney general of the state and said morally and legally and utterly repugnant it can take a position against the claim of the university. He then went into action read to see the president to say it is not sustainable so they both believe in that deeply. And what happened before that meeting . Mondale said how this could have been drafted this way i said the draft this he said no i delegated it it was a holdover from the nixon administration. [laughter] that helped to seal the deal [laughter] and we went to see the president we were pushing against an open door but this is a political decision the president was elected because we want every deep south state the base was the base of the south the governor from mississippi put this over the top so this was a very, very tough decision and then we wrote the brief with the justice speaking for the court in a landmark decision distinguish between affirmative action programs and quotas. With thousands and thousands of minority students they have been given access to Higher Education because of this man. [applause] but also because the president had the courage to realize he would go against an important constituent he was also instrumental to create the department of education he realized education and was buried all of those that had to be administered and he was a champion of enforcing the president s pledge with other cabinet officers opposed it and some say lobbied against it and mondale got the president to follow the Campaign Pledge we have a department of Education Today with the major position that has been elevated as a critical feature to sustain a new generation of americans and their country is more competitive with all the appeals were in and ready to be sent to the congress there would come with a list to take to the president within the tough constraint to make sure that basic constituent would have an opportunity with a tight budget we went to the private study not asking for the moon but did but the but with the Vice President suggested. The budget from the time we came into Office Headstart from his new book just came out looking at the index. Lawndale is all the with cookhouse but he did not just forget about that again in a tight budget environment has nearly doubled in Higher Education and secondary education were crucial because this is not an expenditure if you look at the figures between the time with the last budget to have education to go up 70 and he realized part of what you were working on that kids can now learn if they are hungry. In those programs that gave kids an opportunity to eat a decent bill were increased by more than 50 and of the droopy lives of kids get a better nutrition things to carter and mondale. No other bears his imprint more than access of the poor to Legal Services as attorney general he got 23 other state attorney generals to join him with the meet this brief and a landmark case in which the Supreme Court ruled indigents had a constitutional right when he came to the senate have you create an opportunity . In 1974 senator mondale was the leading sponsor to create the Legal Services corporation and he did that in the inclusive bipartisan way he got the American Bar Association to endorse the bill with republican support and then as Vice President president , he major it was headed by top people and the chair was from a lady named Hillary Rodham clinton as Vice President with recommended and major the funding was there. Our funding levels have never been exceeded since. They went up five times and as a result 1. For low income people annually are served and 80 percent of their cases so i want to suggest the only thing wrong today is it should not have been named a living legacy but no Living Legend and that is what you are. [applause] alibi to ask the Vice President this question why have they been so important to you . When i wrote a memoir i had to ask a question and i found myself going back home Religion Without action is dead and the words of the least of these and it was my duty to go out to serve the kids decided to do it in different ways but i would say believing in learning it to shift around a little bit to have the child and Family Services act at the center of the holding there really made a tremendous difference. After the aid to lead us to believe they brought us a long there were two things about that that should bear in mind there were a lot of women whose peoples attitudes were different a womans place was in the home she should not displace a man in the work force amata harder for men to do what they wanted to do. And there was quite a reaction. Second that is all different now. You dont have that horrible hang up which is what we saw but the public was still in the mood. We could not get enough support we got it passed the ones we tried to pass again be guided through the senate one more time but to get it through the house was hopeless so we could never get the momentum again. Now people understand Early Childhood education is still speculative and is now undeniable. The best thing we can possibly do to give kids a chance well have an excuse for ignorance of the more. We know what works. What a breath of fresh air to work with Public Servants those a public life. The delicate the polls but those that though what is right at the core and i thank you for that. [applause] [inaudible conversations] good afternoon. Let me start by setting several years ago senator Patrick Moynihan wife cindy what issues to put together the old schoolhouse of the farmer he wrote his books are talking about the kinship i felt with him the willingness to put the country ahead of the party in search for Solutions Rather than expediency and she sent me this from the Old Farmhouse that said to square pegs and to round holes. Some people say im a republican that became a democrat but i sound like a republican in a room room democrats but i take that as a complement more people call them political independence and that happened to agree with them our country is more important than the label democrats in years past understood this like Scoop Jackson and john kennedy and others. Americans are disgusted of the top of republicans and democrats calling each other the enemy instead of reaching across to find ways to work together. I know an enemy from hard personal contact. Via their party is not the enemy, they are the opposition and in our democracy we are lucky to have an opposition in order to have an honest debate. Unlike countries like china because there are no elections or other societies. For years ive worked with democrats and republicans and the principles of leadership have never changed i served as a republican in the Reagan Administration was serving in the senate as a democrat but we need to be honest the very nature of democracy is under siege with the money that finances Political Parties. Our candidates are pulled to the extremes increase in the out of step with the people theyre supposed to serve. Poll after show poll shows a plurality of americans is neither a republican nor democrat the independence of americans do not like the extremes. I space will hear this so i will be the first to say i know that my views are not compatible with the power structure of the Democratic Party. That party is filled with millions of hardworking americans but the hierarchy is not comfortable with the policies that i have laid forth and i am not comfortable over there. For this reason i am withdrawing from consideration to read democratic nominee for the presidency but does not change the challenges for the country i believe i can provide the best leadership to meet these challenges or my intention is to remain fully engaged but how i remained as the voice or what support will come in the coming weeks as the with all sides of the Political Landscape and i intend to do that. I hold strong wherever country needs to go in order to adopt the Party Platform to get nominated for by feel strongly if i were nominated we would win. With good leaders and capable people from all sectors of society who can bring this country back as a beacon of fairness at home and common sense i am thinking about my options even 40 years ago 141 dash that our power who does not come from the paralysis of a political system and no longer serves the interests of the vast majority. The presidency has gained too much power. The parties and not providing the answers that we can rely on. Represented by the wall street bakers it depends what the Global Economy it is jammed up their respects all sides of the complicated nature how the federal system works to envision the countrys future here at home and four policy to get things done. A havel lot of respect for people who are members of both Political Parties this country needs a new dynamic and respects our history and traditions