Transcripts For CSPAN3 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20151117

Your series continues next monday with the supreme courts 1954 decision in brown versus board of education. In that case they struck down the separate but equal. In brown the court ruled racial segregation in Public Schools is inherently unequal and unconstitutional based on the protection clause of the 14th amendment. Find out more next monday lye at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan, cspan3 and cspan radio. You can learn more online by going to cspan. Org landmark cases and from the website you can order the landmark cases book featuring background, highlights and the legal impact of each case written by on the any morrow and published by cspan in cooperation with cq press. Landmark cases is available for 8. 95 plus shpg. Watch live korng of the house and senate on cspan 2. Watch us online or on your phone at cspan. Org. Listen live anytime on our cspan radio app. Get best aspect behind the scenes by following on twitter. Stay with cspan, cspan radio and cspan. Org for your best access to congress. On the next washington journal, congressman rob bishop of utah, a member of the Armed Services committee and chair of the Natural Resources Committee Talks about the paris attacks, recent threats from isis and the expiration of the land and water kons ser ration fund. Then more on the attacks in paris with Bonnie Coleman from new jersey. Later, a way to make the internet more secure. Washington journal is live every morning at 7 00 a. M. Eastern and you can join the conversation with your calls and comments on facebook and twitter. Ma lythis is just even 30 minutes. And for the next 40 minutes we devote or conversation to young voters and came pain 2016. Matthew seeing sl back with us. Hes the cofounder of our time. Org, an Advocacy Group for Young Americans. I want to start by getting your reaction to the protest movements that have on the College Campuses in recent weeks. What should young people see as the lessons from the events at mizzou, yale and other colleges . Racial sensitivity by all means. Were the most racially diverse millennials born roughly after the year 1980. Our multicultural, many come from immigrant families and we want to see our leaders, we want to see our College Administrators be cognizant of the racial tensions in america and create a more welcoming and inclusive environment on College Campuses for all different races, creeds and types. What do you make of the concerns by some that in these events free speech is being sacrificed to Political Correctness here . I think everyone supports free speech but its about a spirit of inclusiveness. And when peoples people can create an environment where people dont feel included, thats where things get complicated. We are not a liberal generation, but were also a generation that does not want to be learning in an environment where we feel oppressed. So i think is not such a black and white issue. And people who have boiled it down to millennials hate Political Correctness are by all means oversimplifying the issue. Glen reynolds had a piece in usa today, i dont know if you saw it, how can students too spoiled to tolerate debate weigh opposing arguments. In that he talks about raising the voting age because of what weve seen at the College Campuses, raising it to 25. To be a voter one mous be able to participate in political discussions. The 18yearolds today arent up to the task. Raise it to 25 an age at which one hoeps that some degree of maturity should have set in. Its intolerable to be governed by spoiled children. For those that dont know, harlan reynoldss is a university of Tennessee Law professor and author of the book the new school, how the Information Age will save American Education from itself. Well thats a ridiculous assertion. Immaturity in voting blocks running every generation. Ignorance runs the gamut of every generation. And i think to suggest that 18yearolds can assume the responsibility of fighting for our country in wars and not have a say to the political process within we solved that issue back in 1972 when the voting age was lowered and that debate is over. If you want to join the conversation this morning, were talking to Matthew Segal, cofounder of our time. Org. Its an Advocacy Organization for millennials. He helped start the Media Company attention. Com. Its a Media Company for millennials. Hes our guest. Democrats hu e2027488000, republicans 2027488001 within independents 2027488002. Are they speaking to millennials in the 2016 cycle . Some are trying to. But its been still a slow start for one in the first several gop debates, attention. Com, the Media Organization i work at wrote several articles about the fact that few republican candidates addressed or even mentioned student debt age College Affordability which three out of ten young people cite as the number one financial concern they have. There is also alack of focus on youth jobs, Youth Employment and career opportunities. Economy issues rank number one for millennials. We want to hold our candidates accountable on that topic. Pi was pleased to watch the debate this last saturday and see the minutes spent debating College Affordability. So when candidates focus on these economic matters like how are we going to alleviate the student debt burden, how are we going to create jobs and National Service opportunities for young people, and how are we going to build income and build wages that have remain flat, thats what gets young people excited first and foremost and then of course social issues. Were the most socially progressive generation which means that we support marriage equality. Which means that we support drug reform. And ending mass incarceration. And rhetoric around those issues is definitely going to inspire and motivate young people to show up at the polls. And i should note we had a special line in the segment for young people, 18 to 29, 2027488003. Well keep that number on the screen. Want to hear from you in this segment of the washington journal. Going to show some voting parties rates. 18 to 29yearolds, 45 of them participated in the 2012 election, that compares to 60 of 30 to 44yearolds, and 72 of 65yearolds and older. If those older voting blocks are so much more reliable, why should those running for the president feel obligated to speak and spend so much time on millennials when they can get the other segments to turn out . Because its a cynical way to govern. If you want to govern by only going after the likely voters, were not going to see many changes. You have young people today that are the future. If you truly want to represent the future, then you have to reach out to a generation that feels both disenfranchised by the current gridlock in washington and has great ideas and new world views that we want to see brought to the table and represented. So we need leadership from politician to reach out to us. But we also make the case from our time. Org and from attention, the Media Company that young people definitely have have to help write the mean you were otherwise theyre going to end up on the mean you. Thats a case were making and educating people around. Weve failed young people in schools today. Weve dropped Civic Education from curriculum. We blast young people for not voting and participating when they havent been educated to do so. So merely to blame us rather than the cull chur and sociological systems that have engendered voter apathy is looking at the issue in a myopic way. I want to ask you about the political leanings of millenn l millennia millennials. Theres a pugh poll that came out that found that 51 of millennials identified as democratic or lean democratic, just 35 identified as republican or lean republican. Does that sound about right to you . That sounds about right. Whats most striking about millennials is there was a previous poll that said roughly 4 out of 10 young people identify as independents. Theres liberal ideology, theres libertarian ideology, theres some conservative ideology that permeates our generation and our world view. But by all means, were not a generation that grows up as has grown up with strong party loyalty. Were much more inspired by issues and particular candidates than we are by just being good democrats or good republicans. Lets get to the calls. Richard is waiting. Line for democrats, richard go ahead. Hello. Ive been a democrat for a lot of years open u didnt change my Party Affiliation yet but i voted Straight Line republican the last couple of times. Heres my question to mr. Segal. Do you consider yourself a conservative, a moderate or a liberal . And i have a followup. I now am working at a Media Company. I cover things journalist cli i would consider myself an independent. Caller i appreciate that. You spoke earlier about civics no longer being taught to the young people of today and i agree with you 100 . The only problem is you got to ask yourself on how did we get away from the basic fundamentals of education in this country and ill tell you how. Its because of the liberals. Now if youre 18 years of age, you are of fighting ang, you can go into the mill tear and yes you have a right to vote. Of course you do. But my only problem is, and you see it every day when young people are interviewed, theyre so uninformed. Now, im ignorant about a lot of things. Im not a brain surgeon. Im an old retired pipe fitter. But i make it a point to try to find out whats going on, at least locally in this country. Our young people, they need to be better informed about the topics, the subjects and where this country and where this globe is going. Last but not least on that point can i ask you, do you think social media has contributed to helping keep people informed or made people less informed . Youre talking to an old pipe fitter. I barely can turn on my computer. But this social media, if its done properly can do some good things. But this young man, if he goes out and interviews just some average 20yearold somewhere and ask them about the deal with iran, they wouldnt have a clue what hes talking about. Thank you so much. Good job. Matthew segal, jump in. I definitely think that there is a lack of Civic Education, like i just previously stated that has contributed to an underinformed disposition that many young people possess. But yet again this is not an issue thats unique to millennials. Its an issue that runs throughout the entire country. We have a severely underinformed electorate and a lot of it is driven by a culture that focuses on entertainment much more than it focuses on sober Public Affairs programs like this one. And i think if more people place an emphasis on a culture of being informed and parties pa toir rather than being entertained, a lot of that would change. Low Voter Participation is driven by so many factors. Its driven by a system where weve seen education change, its driven by a culture, by your parents if you grew up in a household where your parents taught you the importance of voting and learning about the political system. Its also driven by our Current System of Campaign Finance which has so much money pours into the political process that young people feel like they cant affect change because their voices dont count as much as the voices of people that give Large Campaign contributions. So i think the conglomeration of those factors has driven low voter turnout and a lack of knowledge around the political process and a lack of concern about the political process because people have become disenkpanted. Thats something every day im working alongside my friends and colleagues to new york. Its at t n. Com if you want to check it out. Our time. Org, two websites that matthew seeing sl involved in. We have the line for the 18 to 29yearolds who want to join us. Nater is on that line. Go ahead. Caller i just wanted to i think you may have touched on this before. But from one of the first questions that opened up the segment about millennials being spoiled and not really knowing the topics and they shouldnt be able to vote. I mean, you know, we really have had this issue and this has come up every generation that the younger class is not informed within they dont know what theyre talking about. This is not the first time its ever happened. But what is the first time about this generation, what is unique to the millennial generation is we are worse off for the first time than the previous generation. Not only is our nation as a whole worse off, we have the largest debt that weve ever had and all of these external issues we have to deal with. Student debt is higher than its ever been. We were ranked last i checked i think 23rd or 27th compared to other industrialized nations. We have not taken care of our children for years, for decades. And this generation is now just a product of that. We have to deal with many more problems than our parents have ever had to deal with and we will be worse off. And its that reason that i feel like millennials have the biggest influence or the biggest reason to go out and vote and be a part of it. Yeah, maybe millennials arent as informed. But just as matthew is saying, its not just millennials. Everybody is misinformed. But at least we have the age of technology where information is readily available. I would like to argue that i think this generation of 18 to 25yearolds is probably a little more informed than the previous generation just because information is that readily available. Thanks for the call. I want to let Matthew Segal jump in. Go ahead. The caller is absolutely right. The question is whether we take the social media and the information apt our fingertips and translate that to Voter Participation. A big reason why you see a disconnect between being informed and actually turning out to show up at the polls is a disenchantment with gridlock. Millennials have grown up in a culture where we have instant results. We can Google Search for something and get instant an ap and have a car waiting for us, instantly. There are all these incredible technological features that give us intants gratification, but when you look at washington, d. C. Andkrvxp the political lio change is slow, and sloggy and sometimes it doesnt even happen pofr decades. So i think there is a disconnect between our culture and our legislative system that inpatient young people. And inpatience is good in certain circumstances. But inpatient young people have a disconnect in understanding and reconciling. And thats why being informed doesnt always translate to Voter Participation. Do you support free college and getting rid of all Student Loan Debt . Both personally, i support free college or debtfree college in particular, and certainly, the majority of our readers at attention. Com in polls on our site support debtfree college. I think the fact that college has risen in cost about 1200 in the last 30 years is unconscionable and has created a system where people emerge into the workforce in a hole, that they have to drag themselves and dig themselves out of, and it is counterproductive. Obviously, we immediate education, we feed a more educated society, but we have to look at the way we finance college and rethink it. We didnt always have this system. We had a system before the mid 1980s where College Students received more grants than loans. But weve relaced the grants with loans, and Interest Rates have become progressively higher, and as a result we have this 1 trillion student debt crisis. Its not sustainable. And unless we fundamentally rethink college and hold colleges accountable to maintain their costs, its not just all the governments job. Its colleges themselves stepping up. Were not going to solve this problem. Were talking about millennials and campaign 2016. A special line pour those who are 1829 years old. Me mikes on that line. Caller thank you for discussing such a very relative topic. I cant agree with you more regarding the worse off Economic Situation of millennials. And that plugs into how we participate as a generation and in our political system. You definitely mentioned some key points. We are worse off economically, and that plugs into how millennials exercise our political participation. Parties, democrats and republicans have not realigned to address some of the new concerns that are brought fort to our generation, especially as you mentioned, Student Loans, the environment. And if we are not economically table, economic stability and political exercising of ones rights and participation are directly linked. So us millennials, i myself have 120,000 worth of Student Loans, attending a Top University here in chicago. And is that undergraduate loans or undergraduate and graduate degree . Caller thats undergraduate and graduate. Its very difficult to get ahead. What are you getting a degree in, if you dont mind my asking . Caller dual in Political Science and international relations. Im an economic migrant. Ive lost my job twice because of the recession, even working as a public worker, and ive moved around the country as a result to get a job. So how am i to be stable economically or with my family, my Family Structure is unstable of and its tough to get car loans, home loans today. But then again, there is to political stability if there isnt any economic stability. And secondly, another thing you mentioned is new sources and performs of media. Clearly our society has become so much more complex. And we wrestle with so many forms of media, that we have yet to incorporate into our mainstream discussions of politics. I work in the political field, and i can tell you right now that all teahese technologies a topdown based. But for someone as a political consumer of information or someone using social media as a way to plug themselves into the system, there is always that disjuncture. Thank you for the call from chicago, illinois. Speaking to mikes first point, which i empathize with greatly, the debt burden, whether from college or Student Loans or from a lack of employment and still having to pay for necessities is something affecting tens of thousands of millennials in every state in the country. And i think the biggest risk of it is actually the threat it poses to entrepreneurship. Because if young people are already in debt, how can they start businesses or take risks when they have so much capital they already owe of how can they put up their savings if they dont have any to start businesses and innovate so that the American Economy can grow. So i think when we look at the debt issue, we also have to look at it from an Economic Growth standpoint and how much were risking toward our free market and our economy by not allowing young people to really unleash their creativity and their ingenuity. So thats also one of the biggest parts that concerns me with all the debt that young people, my generation, millennials, have today. And i dont think its something that gets enough coverage in terms of how debt will affect innovation for millennials. Lets go to richmond, virginia where mike is waiting on our line for republicans. Go ahead. Caller i really like this young pan, hes very perceptive. But i think some of the things hes saying are missing some parts of the picture here, and ill try to keep it short. As the Student Loan Debt, of course im an older man. When i was a kid, we didnt have this type of problem. We had debt, but nothing like it is now. The difference between then and now is that we didnt grow up with the idea that it was a guaranteed ticket to failure if you did not get a College Education. This is something that the kids have been sold from the time they were little, and their parents, too, that if they dont go to college, theyre tombed to fail. The result is this, it creates a huge depend for diplomas, coupled with the federal government messing around with the financing of Student Loans, it creates a powerful incentive for the colleges to endlessly raise their tuition, because they foe they have a feeder system developed where the kids are coming to college for two reasons. A, theyre afraid to fail if they dont have a College Education, and b, theyre not considering the idea that success doesnt necessarily depend upon bunch theres a heck of a lot of people who are very successful in business who do not have College Degrees. They came out of high school, some of them, of course, were the children of entrepreneurs of but the thing is that theyre not being taught that college, that entrepreneurship is mott something that really depends on the College Degree. People arent going to trade schools all that much anymore. Young people dont come up with the idea that they want to be plumbers, that they want to be truckers or they might want to start a Small Company putting roofs on houses or Something Like that. They come out thinking theyve got to sit in a cubicle in front of a computer and at that this College Education is going to pay a lot of money when those jobs dont exist in those numbers anymore. I dont know if you can see it, but hes nodding his head for several of your comments. Go ahead. The caller definitely made some strong points. The only point worth acknowledging is that part of the reason that the depend has increased for college so consider bring is that statistically speaking, your lifelong earnings if you have a College Degree are significantly higher. They are between 500,000 to 1 million more throughout the course of your lifetime, depending on which studies or figures you want to use. But if youre earning between 500,000 to 1 million more throughout your lifetime and pretty much every shred of evidence shows that going to college will increase your income long term. Now in the short term, were seeing massive debt, which is problematic. But in the long term, people are still pour the most part pulling themselves out of the debt and being resilient and getting out of the situation and prospering, college is definitely a wor worthwhile investment for most. Does that mean everybody should go to college . If somebody has the ability and wants to create a company, thats their right, absolutely. When you look at the demand for college being so high, its because of lifelong earnings. Kens up next, spartanburg. Go ahead. Good morning. The idealism of your john racial is both good and bad. The bad, you make widesweeping statements that sound good on appearance, but create serious problems, like your decision or thought that everybody should get a College Education or technical education. Well, im here to tell you i didnt say that. I said people should have the free will and choice. Caller if you havent said it, pretty much mr. Obama has said it and many democrats, and what that produces is people who arent prepared for school to be in school. Because ive seen this first hand. And then what you also do is make more burdened depend on mae staff, the more brick and mortar everything that goes behind a college, the costs go up, the loans go up, and then you lambast the republicans for not doing something about this when it tends to be democratic policy more than anything, and when i went to school, i just studied. I didnt think about social issues on campus as much. And i lament that theres racism on campus, but the point is that liberals are also engrained in colleges in making colleges do more for social things, and that increases the cost too, and this increases this debt problem youre facing, and, again, you turn around and blame the republicans for not doing something about a primary democratic issue that ive seen first hand that what youve done to college is to increase the burden on them, and theres other issues i could give you, too. Lets let Matthew Siegel respond to those. Look, ill be intellectually honest with you. Just as there is a military Industrial Complex and prison Industrial Complex theres a college Industrial Complex and the caller has some merits to his point that colleges keep building brick and mortar buildings that increase costs and dont always focus on the core of learning. They worry about their ranking. Colleges have to be part of the system of accountability to drive down tuition costs as well. It all cant come from taxpayers, and it all cant come from the federal government or ta state governments. Everyone has to play a role. So i agree on that point. But let he rearticulate that part of the reason demand is up for college is lifelong earnings and job availabilities are still much better for college graduates. Irish eyes on twitter writes older generations are traditionally living in the past while the Younger Generation lives more in the present and future. It sets up inherent conflicts. Don is in ormonth beach, florida. Caller as a recent graduate in health care, i did do Student Loans for a degree, but not for the other. And my contention with the elitists is that people who cant figure out how to get to college, and get it paid for on their own without having somebody give it to them for preare not the people that i think are likely to thrive in college or thrive after college, and they are coming from a background where college probably hasnt been prized. They would have been provided for by their parents or directions in finances in one way. So all were doing is deluding the idea of a College Degree because the admission requirements are going to be decreased along with the financial responsibility. So i think you should still have to earn your way through college on both fronts. I take a little bit of issue with that in the sense that if it was not for the g. I. Bill, if it was not for the pell grant and other scholarships and aid available to low income students we would not see nearly as much socioeconomic opportunity as we do today. And we still have, by the way, a much longer way to go in achieving that. But without the g. I. Bill, without pell grants, we wouldnt see so many lowincome Business Leaders and entrepreneurs who, thanks to those loans and grants in particular grants, are around and prospering today. Ann is in warwick, rhode island. Go ahead. Caller im calling to support the concept of all young people making it their business to vote. When i turned 21 in 1968, Robert Kennedy was assassinated of a. And i didnt vote, being devastated by that event. And i totally learned on early on, that was a devastating lesson of living with a president who lied and was a disgrace. When i had my son, i taught him always to vote, no matter what, both in the primaries and in the general elections, because voting is the way we can express our our preferences for how this country is raised. A and i was raised with a parent who made huge, huge contributions to the American Psychological association because of the g. I. Bill. Well, ann, were running out of time. Real quick here i want to give Matthew Siegel a chance to respond before we end this segment. So go ahead. Im all for voting. I think that voting and getting young people out to vote will help reshape this country of i think it will create a more empathetic country, a more socially progressive one and one that thinks about the future and not just the present. If you want to check out Matthew Siegels work you can go to attention. Com, attm. Com. Hes cofounder and editor in chief tare. He also works with ourtime. Org. Cofounder of ourtime. Thank you so much for joining us from new york city. My pleasure, john, anytime. On the next washington journal congressman rob bishop of utah, and chair of the Natural Resources Committee Talks about the paris attacks. Then more on threats from isis and the u. S. Strategy in syria with representative bon eye Watson Coleman of new jersey. Later a way to make the internet more secure with patrick trainor. Washington journal is live everyone morning at 7 00 eastern. And you can join the conversation with your calls and twitter and facebook. Attorney general Loretta Lynch heads to capitol hill to testify. On technology and Law Enforcement and the release of thousands of inmates from federal prisons. Thats live tuesday at 10 00 eastern here on c span 3. Millennials and their role in todays economy was the topic of a republican policy meeting on capitol hill. The task force is chaired by Elise Stefanik who at the age of 31 is the youngest member of congress. This is about an hour and 15 minutes. The House Republican policy meeting task force on millennials will now come to order. The committee is meeting today to discuss the essential role of mill epials in todays economy. And though were meeting on that important topic, couldnt start todays hearing without mentioning that our hearts and minds are with the people of paris today as they deal with the horrible tragedy over the weekend. We want them to know that we hurt as they hurt. And we all understand together that we have to be united in standing up to these terrorist thugs threatening our waive rife and ultimately douefeating them. I will recognize myself for an opening statement. I want to thank everyone for coming today. Its an exciting day as we host the second Millennial Task force to discuss how the millennial generation is shaping our economy. Today millennials are the largest generation in the workforce, and by 2020, just five years from now, they will represent 50 of it. Now think about that for a second. In just five short years, millennials will make up half of the american workforce. Thats exciting througnews, but also creates a number of challenges. The writing is already on the wall for many p millennials. Student loan debt has risen]iui 1. 2 million. Increasing over 50 . Wages have stagnated. Young people are being poursed to live at home longer. And the president S Health Care law has shifted the cost from the old to the young. Millennials arent asking us to give them a prepass. Theyre just asking us to give them a fair shot. And weve got a long way to go. But the good news is that even though government pea hamay hav helped create this mess, it can also help fix it. As Ronald Reagan said, there are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We just have to have the courage to do what we know is morally right. The first praise lace we can st getting out of the ways of businesses that are fighting to give millennials a chance. There are companies that are rewriting the rule book. These businesses have taken an uncommon approach to fixing common problems, and by doing so, they have truly changed the world. For instance, when was the last time that you opened an encyclopedia or had to walk miles to find a cab . These businesses are changing the way our economy works, and for the future of the millennial generation, we can no longer allow government to get in if the way. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, the youngest woman ever elected to congress has been a tireless advocate in the halls of congress for millennials, and we are pleased to have her leading this task force today. For those of you in the audience or watching online who pea have questions for our witnesses, you can tweet your question using the , gopfuture. And we may ask your question, time permitting, during this hearing. I now recognize the gentle lady from new york, the chair of the policy committees Millennial Task force, congresswoman stefanik. Thank you chairman messer, and i would like to take the opportunity to thank our distinguished panel of witnesses for taking the time to testify and share your knowledge and expertise with us. It is a distinct honor to chair the task force and lead todays hearing as we continue our discussion on how i would as legislators can greatly empower the millennial generation. Id like to take the opportunity to revisit our previous hearings. This is the third in an ongoing series where we have explored and discussed the millennial generation. In june we held our first hearing and we had the Manhattan Institute laying out the demographic break down of americans between the ages of 1834. We reviewed Current Trends and polling data that showed this generation is different in many ways from their parents and grand parents. For example, millennials are the most highly educated generation in american history, yet they also feel the most politically disengaged. In august i held a field hearing in my distribute where i heard from millennial constituents representing a diverse set of backgrounds, they shared real world examples facing a john racial that will soon comprise half of the american workforce, problems such as regulatory issues that hold back farmers. Things that prevent the next Small Business from opening and a government that is slow to adapt have left these Young Americans feeling stifled. As we come together once again we have the privilege of hearing from Industry Leaders who represent the cutting edge of fresh thinking and adaptive policies when it comes to the modern workplace and economy. We will hear how companies are attracting and retaping millennials to their workforces and gain a better understanding how technology is empowering our constituents to support themselves and giving them the flexibility they desire. Millennials have now surpassed generation xors as the largest generation in the labor pours. One in three American Workers today is a millennial, and this percentage will rapidly increase in the coming years. For companies to stay competitive, they will need to be able to harness the talents, experiences and energy of a generation that currently includes 80 million americans. With this new generation, as with all generations come new ways of doing things and fresh outlooks on the world around us. Past generations have looked for stability and certainty, whereas millennials look for flexibility and fulfillment. I brief these shifts will make the United States stronger and more competitive. I look forward to a pro ducktive dialog. Other members of the task force may be recognized in the future when they come in to share statements, but i will move on to introducing the witnesses. I will start with maisie clark who is a Government Affairs analyst at google, working on their advocacy efforts on a wide range of technologies. She has worked at google since 2010 in the people operations, sales and Governmental Affairs divisions. Prior to google, she worked at kiva. Org. She graduated from Harvard College in 2009 with a degree in history. Terry mcclemens is the washington metro managing partner for Price Waterhouse cooper. She leads a practice comprised of over 4,000 professionals serving public, private and government clients and is responsible for all Client Services in the washington metro area. She previously served as oust Human Capital leader and global tal. Leader. During her tenure as oust Human Capital leader, her strategies were recognized and she was recognized by the womens Business Journal as one of the most powerful people in the greater dc. Area. She was also recognized by the National Council for research on women as a trail blazer. One of those who contributed to significant change in the lives of women and girls. Our last is the policy leader for uber. He is responsible for advocating ubers progrowth, marketdriven Business Model to all stakeholders and interested parties. Prior to uber, he served for kevin mccarthy. In this role, he was responsible for coordinating outreach to key organizations that were interested in legislation being considered by the u. S. House of representatives of brian began his career in washington, working for congressman dave hobson and served as a political appointee at the u. S. Small Business Administration and as a Vice President of affairs for independent electrical contractors. He is a graduate and lives in arlington, virginia. The chair recognizes maisie clark for five minutes for an opening statement. Hello. Im going to start over. Thanks. Hi, everyone. My name is maze eye clark with google. Its an honor and pleasure to be here with yall today. I worked at google in a variety of different roles in the past five and a half years. As you poe, the recession has disproportionately affected millennials. I graduated from Harvard College in 2009 at the height of the recession and i did not have a job lined up on graduation day. I took an unpaid internship for five months as i searched for aen gaua engaging and salaried position. Recruiting wasnt exactly the career path i imagined i would pursue when i was in college, but i really mighted needed to money and move out of my parents house. I couldnt ask for a more rigorous and engaging experience. This is because of the way google focuses on its people. It positions itself in many ways to hire and retain millennials, but four themes unite them all. A culture of flexibility, trust in our employees and a constant pursuit to have an inclusive workplace. Countless surveys about what motivates millennials, including deloittes 2015 Millennial Survey show that a mission they believe in is the most important factor for millennials. Googles mission is to organize information. Our mission is distinctive in its simplicity and scope. Many focus on Customer Experience and improved operations and shareholder value, google is focussed on purpose rather than business goal. Mill epials also care a great deal about having flexibility in their careers, both in their day to day work but also in their career trajectories. Work hours at google are flexible. And as long as you get your work done the company is happy. We also allow 20 projects where they can spend 20 of their time working on projects which they think can benefit the company or delight customers. Gmail launched in 2004 and is now one of googles most beloved products. Google always encourages us to keep learning. Googlers can receive an Educational Reimbursement for courses they take outside of work. If a Software Engineer wants to take a course in medieval literature, google will pay for one third of the cost of that course. If its like learning a new code language, google will pay for twothirds of the cost. They offer yearlong rotations to experience what its like to work in another department or another part of the world. My colleague is in south africa and is gaining meaningful experience and cultural exposure as a result of it. Trust in our employees is also an enormous cultural pillar at google. The code base, which contains all the source code that make our products work is almost 100 available to newlyhired engineers on their first day of work. By trusting our employees with confidential information we are treating all people including millennials like the valued, mature people they are. They hold a company wide meeting where they take questions from any employee about products, leadership decisions and the direction of the company. It allows each employee to make his or her voice heard and have access to the top of the company who are making important decisions for the business. This creates a meaningful connection that has a positive motivation for their loyalty to the company. They place an emphasis on bringing our whole selves to work and respect the differences of others. Our lack of dress code is a large appeal but it goes far beyond that. Google has invested a great deal of resources of combating unconscious bias, which is the capacity to give preference to others. They work to brake down the bias to make sure were assessing in the most objective way possible. We also have a number of employee resource and Advocacy Groups. Mission, transparency, trust and inclusion have paved the way for google to be considered a top employer by mill epials, and we strife each day to retain this incredibly talented john racial of technologists. Thank you, ms. Clark. The chair now recognizes mrs. Mcclemens for an opening statement. Thank you, congress stefanik, congressman messer and other distinguished members of the congress for inviting us to talk to the task force hearing. We are delighted to share some of the Innovative Strategies weve implemented to talent attraction, development and retention of a group of people often misunderstood, millennials. Our workforce is streakingly young. By next year, mill epials will account for approximately 80 of our peep. So the issue of how we attract, engage and develop the youngest members of our organization is something weve spent a lot of time thinking about. They are often stereotyped as being selfabsorbed, lauzy or quick to shift loyalties. Weve found that to be unfounded. And when we started paying attention to the Millennial Workforce motivations and interests, we ended up with a fresh perspective on the Work Experience for our entire firm of in 2012, pdbc collaborated with researchers from Southern California and rlondon business school, what motivates them and how to keep them engaged. What we found were real generational differences among older and younger hires. One of the main take aways from our study was understanding how much millennials and even our experienced people valued flexibility in their schedules and their careers. In many cases, millennials are willing to give up the opportunity to make more money or climb the corporate ladder to find a role that offers them the flexibility to work from home or time to follow their passions. We use this information to rethink what kinds of flexibility we are offering all of our people. In january 2013, we launched a contest, which we called plan to flex, where we asked our managers to work with their teams to find a way to achieve flexibility by supporting each other during one of the busiest times in our Business Cycle january through march. The goal was to focus on clients and have time for things that matter to the individual. We had more than half of our people participating. In early 2014, we took it one step further and rolled out yearround flexibility for the entierp organization. Were finding more unique ways to offer flexibility and balance. We recently launched our flexibility scare tquare talent network. Weve had professionals enroll in medical school during most of the year and come back to us for the busy season. Another professional started their passion and started a bakery. Millennials are also reminding us about how to engage in communication. Its a myth that younger people only want to communicate through electronics. This insight pushed us to take a fresh look at our Performance Management practices, which, at the time, were largely paperdriven, process driven, back ended and often focussed on assignment of compensation as opposed to career development. In 2014, we replaced our old process with a new Leadership Development experience, grounded by our pdbc framework which emphasizes the competencies necessary to solve important problems in an everincreasingly complex world. We are creating a real Time Development culture, emphasizing frequent, informal, in the moment feedback to help our people every day. We developed an app that charts progress to facilitate morrow bust career conversations. Millennials also want to know that theyre valued and appreciated for the contributions theyre making. It can come in the form of real time rewards or for finishing a project. It can also be expressed more subtly in the way we talk with each other and express appreciation. Have you use just one of your seconds to say thank you . Thats appreciation. It takes about a second, but the value of giving that feedback can be impactful and longer lasting. It used to be that the promise of one day becoming a partner of pbdc was the reward for slogging away at the office to matter of the other demands one may have outside of the work. But today, pbdcs goals honor purpose, our reason for being, our millennials take that purpose to heart. Theyre even willing to leave if what were doing as an organization doesnt align with their core values. Weve invested time in teaching people about our purpose, how we build trust in society and solve important problems. We have spent time looking at pdbcs commitment to social issues and sew sigh tal trends to make an impact. Weve taken an active role to promote literacy and support the needs of our veterans and be involved in our own communities to take time away to engage in something meaningful to them. This issue of purpose and meaning has led to one of ou newest projects. Wife looked at the recent debt, there are currently 1. 3 trillion in outstanding loan debt in this country. Most of that debt is owed by millennials. We saw this as a sew sigh tal issue that we could have impact on by helping employees at pwdb. Some in our firm will be able to receive 7600 over six years to repay Student Loans. In closing, one of the biggest Lessons Learned is to embrace the opportunity to learn from anyone offering a fresh perspective. Our research into millennials has breathed new life into a number of policies. We are not afraid of millennials. Of a and were getting results with higher overall Employee Satisfaction and retention rates. Lastly, i would add that our job is never done. We need to constantly think about its rating our talent practices. Thank you for having me today. Id be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, mrs. Mcclements. I appreciate your giving me an opportunity to be here today. I want to alk about this a little differently if i can. I dont want to talk about uber does for fulltime employees like me, because its just as good as what youve heard so i dont get fired its better than what youve heard from the other two companies. Weve heard a lot about flexibility and what a value millennials place on nextbility. I think we all do. And what uber does, and what that means for people as consumers and people who are drivers on our platform as well. When i have this conversation about uber, its somewhat ubiquito ubiquitous. But five years ago the company just got started. Six years ago the technology didnt exist of the phone battery would drain when it was plugged into the drivers car. Now the technology exists, and we take this for granted. Who knows what the next year would bring or what the next technology is or the next app on our phone saying i cant remember what it was like not to have that on my phone or not to be able to do that. So thats where technology is moving and its changing the way people interact. Its empowering individuals to not have to go through a big chain store to deal with, were dealing with the person were having the transaction with. When youre a uber ride, youre dealing directly with the person whos paying you or providing you with the service and you get to rate them afterwards. Its a very empowering thing. There are a lot of appbased companies that provide this kind of interaction and cut out the middleman. To give you a smap shot, id like to give the committee a snapshot of what were talking about and how this impacts and what it means economically. Right now on uber platform, we are in more than 300 cities around the world. Pour tan 70 countries. United states, we are in more than 200 cities here. We have 400,000 plus active uber drivers in the United States, people on the platform driving, these are people who do more than four trips a month. Globely, that numbers excess of 1 million. 23 of the drivers on the uber platform in the United States are 29 or younger. 49 of the riders on the uber platform are 49 and younger. And this is something i want to talk a little more about. The way this is changing the way the millennials get around and the way they move aroundsd  ci or move in cities now as opposed to living out in the suburbs. Its changing the way cities are shaped and the way people move. If i can give you a couple more numbers that speak to the flexibility of this platform and the flexibility of the technology allowing peep. More than half of the uber drivers drive fewer than ten hours a week. More than 40 are below eight hours a week. Theyre picking up, whether its a weekend. The first uber ride i took i went to headquarters, go to the joint giants game. My driver stays home during her day with her child. She says if my kids sick, i dont get fired. If my husband works late i dont have to go out. If i can, i go out and make a little extra money. For a lot of people, thats a big deal. Thats a make or break thing or the difference between going on vacation or paying down your student debt. So providing people with that flexibility without locking them in to what we traditionally whe consider fulltime jobs is empowering for individuals. And these Technological Developments are allowing. This wasnt possible ten years ago. This wasnt possible when i was in the mill epial cohort, which im no longer in now. Its a real tunes that technologys provided to people. The other number i want to throw out, so far in 2015, drivers on the uber platform in the United States have brought home 3. 5 billion in earnings. Thats an exciting thing as well. As the product arts starts to g and expand, and this isnt just new york city or boston or san francisco, this is going to be upstate new york soon. Theres more potential there for people to take advantage of this flexibility to fit into their own schedules. So the next thing i want to talk about if i could is the way this changes how people move. And this is the other thing about when you talk about the 49 of the riders on our platform, people who take rides are in this millennial cohort and 29 and younger. This is the way theyre moving around their cities of it talks about how a story about urban revitalization but economic opportunity. We compared yelp, we use yelp data with our own trip data and showed that 31 of our trips begin or end at an independent business. It wouldnt be a chain store or chain restaurant. You go to china town, all the things around are big box, big chain because thats expensive real estate. Its the guy five blocks away, bar, own boutique, whatever it is. Ubers making it easier to get to those businesses. We presume and hope when they get to those businesses they spend money. We know those independent businesses are the drivers of our economy. Thats an exciting data point we like to throw out there. That will bare more fruit and well be able to show you more data like that for the cheecono impact on our cities. Something else that people like to do at bars is drink. Weve seen dui reduction, incident related reductions. Weve got data to back this up. We work with local Law Enforcement in certain places. We have breathalyzers set up so you can take a test and decide its best to take a uber home, but that has an impact as well. You have a large sew sigh tal benefit. There is no excuse to say i can have one more and drive. You dont need to do that anymore. You have a convenient, easy way to get yourself home or heave your c leave your car if you need to. People get around their cities, people are more yaapt to go out. Another thing id like to talk about is a trnd that baffles me, but this is the idea that people dont want to own cars anymore. I dont understand thacht im old enough to remember how old i was when i got pmy first car an the makes and models of my friends cars. People i work with at uber, some of them dont even have a valid drivers license anymore. They carry their passport. They dont want a car. Its a generational thing. I dont understand it, but i accept it. If youre not going to have a car, youve got to have a means of getting around. That brings you to uber. A lot of this is that first mile, last mile. I live five miles from the metro. I take a uber. Some of it is debtigetting stra from a to b. This is uber pool, a carpooling function. And, again, talk about something i dont understand how they make it work, but the app now can determine whether multiple people are going along the same route to generally the same direction. We both volunteer, we both ask for a ride on uber pool. It picks me up, picks the next person up, plsplits the fare automatically. Instead of having two cars take wou two of us somewhere, you have one car do the same thing. You look at whether its a large at this or small area, sitting in rush hour traffic, congestion downtown. Youre talking serious mitigation of traffic, which obviously has infrastructure benefits of but then youre also talking about, again, youre making it easier for people to get around. Theyre more apt to be out, spending money. This is the kind of thing its okay for me to work from home i can get in there quickly and conveniently. Maybe it is something im allowed to work from home. And i think thats a benefit more and more companies are seeing for employees. Were chaping the way people move around their cities. And with that, the thing id like to caution folks about or encourage them, i go back to the fact this being a five year old company. Who knows what well be talking about a year from now or two years from now. I think the positive impact this is having is Something Congress should look at as something they should nurture and encourage and not something they should try to hug so hard that they strangle it. So with that appreciate the committee having me here and happy to take any questions. Thank you, mr. Worth. I now recognize myself to ask questions, and my first question, i will ask of ms. Cras clark. So you mentioned google 20 plan which allows employees and members of the workforce to folk on e focus on the company. Can you give us an idea on how that could work in a more traditional setting. How might the government be able to implement a system to our processes which seem woefully out of date . I would say just being flexible enough to allow people to come up with these ideas and perhaps having an interm system for people to sure those ideas, you could use crowd source, people could vote on whether or not they think the idea is something that the group of people could pursue. And then its really just about empowerment at the end of the day. The technologies exist to allow this to happen. But i think, you know, having staffers come up with great ideas and having all the different offices support allowing them to have time on these ideas to update older processes i think would be wonderful, and its been amazing at google. I, myself, got a wonderful trip to london out of a to p20 proi did on journalists how to use a google tool to expose Money Laundering around the world. It was very impactful. And i thinksourcing those ideas would be wonderful. Thank you. Mrs. Mcclements, you referenced how pwc is constantly reaching out to get feedback. Can you talk about how that has impacted the Office Culture and does this create a sense of motivation and ownership as youve noticed the difference as you started this program. Thank you. Wonderful question. So we have a culture whereby we are constantly seeking feedback. So theres two things a we do. Weve moved from an annual survey process from our people to get feedback on the environment to more quarterly surveys on the work environment. That is something that we call real time feedback. So each and every day, with every major interaction, were seeking and asking for feedback. Both upwards and downwards, so that with every new assignment, every new client, every new conversation, the next time that we have it we will be better equipped to have a more strategic conversation with our clients, with our stakeholders and the community. So weve got this concept of real time, in the moment paid back, supported by periodic surveys that we call listening, learning and adapting so that were constantly getting feedback to adapt our processes. My next question is for mr. Worth. You talked a lot about millennials moving to urban areas and the increased ridership in underserved neighborhoods. Do you think an increase in types of Services Like uber could help attract millennials to more rural areas across this country in. Sure. As this becomes more common, weve seen this in the difference between large cities and midsized urban areas, it does become do you want to be that city, do you want to be that area that attracts, and its not just about uber. Its about access for people. And i definitely think this is something as the technology, papds and becomes pour widely used, this is absolutely something uber will be in more places than it is now. It will be much more commonplace. It will attract people. It will be something people look towards. If youre used to having that and that convenience, thats what this is about, flexibility. Youre not going to want to give that up if you go somewhere else, its going to be something you factor into that. Thank you. I now recognize chairman messer. Great. Thank you. Can i have maybe a more direction questidirect question about policy. You know, maisie, i have to talk about when you talked about being an intern at google, i cant help but think about the internship where they were defeating unconscious bias. Those who dont know the movie, vince vaughn and owen wilson were a couple of washedup 40 somethings who had an internship at google and became fairly successful. For those of you closer to my age, think revenge of the nerds for this decade, but really kind of a fascinating movie. But could you talk a little bit more about this principle of unconscious bias and the way its out rit utilized in the . I will note that i was an extra in the movie. We do have an Employee Resource Group for older googlers. They call themselves graiglers. Older is what, 45 in. I would have to look it up, but its probably woefully low. Theres been a big push specifically about magoinabout everybody recognizes the differences of others in a way that doesnt hinder them to have the best dialog and to review employees, you know, for performance and promotion, making sure that everyones evaluated equally. And theres, we have a bunch of reinings, we have inperson trainings that weigh have. We times do them externally as well for people. So we have trainers who, thats either part time or pulltime job for them. And then we have an Online Training thats available to all employees, and ive taken that myself and found it really informative. So weedd love to bring that to the government, make it more widely accessible so we can follow up on that later. Now carrie, sort of fascinated to hear this number that 80 of the workforce at pwc is millennials. Could you, one, expand a little on how that happens . And then maybe talk a little bit about some of the opportunities and some of the challenges that come from that makeup of your workforce. Sure, great. I think part of the why we get to 80 so quickly, when the workforce is literally going to be at about 50 is our Business Model in terms of how we promote and develop people. With the add developmevent of o leadership experience, we want to be the developer of talent. So whether people decide to stay with our firm long term or whether they decide to go to pursue a ua career in another , we want to be the company where they want to come to grow and develop. And i would love to share the fact that we are second behind google in terms of recognition from campus, in terms of the brand where business students see their destination to go, which is fantastic. So then, as to the second part of the question, looking at the opportunities and the challenges that perhaps exist, we see it as opportunities. We saw the fact that many areas im a boomer with the influx of the generation helping us see that there were different ways to do what we were doing, delivering our services internally and externally from a talent perspective. So we took advantage and through Innovation Challenges several years ago to get ideas from our people for ideas on how we deliver our products, we see all upside. And brian, real quick, its amazing to hear that ubers only in year five. When i think of the story of uber, im reamedy f z that the s quo is a fierce fighter, and you have been through regulatory challenges, as those that are vested in the preexisting structure sort of push back against the Disruptive Technology that uber represents, could you tell a little bit of that story . Some of the challenges that ubers faced or in dealing with sure. Absolutely. And a lot of this comes from, you know, uber being something so new. Were not a transportation provider in the typical sense. The app connects someowith some wanting a ride. We were going city by city, duking it out with the taxing industry. And now its expanded so much. I mentioned more than 200 cities in the unit, we do something that frankly for myself as a republican and for most business seems odd, we should go and ask to be regulated. Dont let us be crammed into this old box, theres something new out there. You need to treat it as something new. You need to have some floor of regulation to allow a company to operate with stable. From a business standpoint, it makes total sense. You need that kind of stability and structure out there to operate your business, but its been fascinating. Weve watched from the inside from this fight were having, whether we should even exist, whether we should be allowed to operate to now uber can operate, but how do we treat it . How do we tax it if how do we regulate it, how do we do all these other things. Its something where i think we might be starting to grow up as a company and getting away from the startup phase. When i talk about the nature of how it connects with the person youre riding with, whether youre the rider or the driver, it has allowed uber to win these regulatory fights at the state and local level. The constituents, whether its the state legislators, the constituents want it. They say yes, i know exactly what its like to not have that, and i want to have it and you as my lawmaker need to figure out how to make it work. It has been fascinating to see that from a grassroots standpoint. Its one of the most tra significanceal pdiggsal products that we boy. Its amazing to see the grassroots of this product. I want to start with you, ma maze eye. Why do you think millennials find having an Engaging Mission so important to their careers . Its a really interesting question. I think it has a rot to do with being raised predominantly by the baby boomer generation. That was a very idealistic, strongwilled generation in its own right, and we were instilled with those values by our parents of certainly the case for me. And i think at thats true pour for a lot of millennials, and incorporated into education that it wasnt quite 60 years ago. I think thats the predominant reason and a great thing. So just to follow up. In terms of googles mission, its very unique in that it can never truly be complete, as you mentioned. It constantly needs to innovate. And many occupations and businesses aim to accomplish a very known and clear task, whether its providing a ride from point a or point b or what pwc does on an annual basis. How do you think companies in professions such as the trades or outside the technology, i would ask you to start. Its just about wording. I think companies such as pwc and uber are constantly innovating and could frame their missions and probably do to a certain extent frame their missions in ways that are very forwardlooking, long term, and i think that thats something very special about googles mission that i think it is really helpful, and its a big hallmark of the Tech Industry in general. So, if i think about our purpose, right, and is to build trust in society and solve important problems. And you can think about that broadly and say what is that . What does that mean . And our millennials care about that. So if i think about that, whether its Building Trust in society and solving problems from the work that we do to Financial Statement audits or the reports that we produce so that investors are making good decisions. Whether we turn to other sew sigh tal issues where people are working on better ways to analyze data, that might help reduce suicide rates for example, those are the real kind of projects that were working on for society, for businesses, for our government. And so our people look at that and say thats real impact. So our people have been pleased to have the opportunity to spend a lot of time visiting our Public Sector practice in the kind of work theyre doing, supporting the United States and our people know the mission. They know the mission theyre working on. And theyre excited about deliverings really how we brint to life and giving understanding and feedback on that purpose as well. Uber, i think the onus is pretty clear. Were change the way cities move and the way people move. Most of my colleagues who are doing the really great stuff, weve got uber eats, uber pools, different areas of the uber product that perform different functions. Thats the exciting part, thats the mission that what were doing is scratching the surface. This is being a better option than a cab is the easy part of that. That was the lowhanging fruit. Thats what keeps driving people. The mission of this company is literally to change the way people move all over the world. Ms. Stefanik can talk about your district. The town front in western ohio with 20,000 people, that could have uber and i think it will at some point. Thats the mission to continue to build on this great thing weve got on this Great Foundation and keep building it up. I yield to chairman messer. I have to admit im a dead square gen xo eorxor. What other products have been developed by googlers during their 20 time in put me on the hot seat. I know they are wide ranging. Ad sense. Thats one of our advertising projects thats a very big moneymaker for google. So its a big revenue generator for us on the advertising side, and that was something that was an it 20 project very early in the companys history, so not only are they things like gmail for free, but things that are revenue generating. And the next one, can you talk about how it has incentivized drivers to drive during surge hours . Surge pricing. Its what it is. Everyone keeps calling it surge pricing. Were sticking with surge pricing, and ill get punished when i get back to the office. Surge pricing is basically flexible pricing for the rate of your uber ride. Theres a base fair but the rate will float up as demand rises