Transcripts For CSPAN3 Politics Public Policy Today 20150127

Outside the box. I began my education in fort greeley while the School Facilities were a bit rustic the high quality of education i received inside those walls is what i remember so much. I thank each and every teacher who has taken on the high calling of educating our children. While we certainly have room for improvement in our schools, we should also celebrate our achievements. In nevada last month, at one of the toughest High School Wrestling tornments in the country, senior josh roteman won his weight class and earned the tournaments outstanding wrestling award. Josh is the first allamerican athlete from the high school and has been accepted to the u. S. Naval academy. This past spring, kristine fenderson of fair banks captured a silver medal at the United States decathlon super quiz. A competition that attract teams from around the world. These individual successes serve as reminder that the next generation has the talent and drive to succeed. Its up to us to provide the opportunity for them to do so. We need to increase career and Technical Education opportunities in alaska. We can build upon the success of programs like the fair banks pipeline training center. There are other wonderful examples in the matsu valley, anchorage and barrow to name but a few. For those who choose college, alaska is fortunate to have great universities across the state. It is time for the state to develop a different relationship with our university. We all too often reach out to lower 48 consultants without first determining if the same or better analysis can be purchased here within our University System or in our private sector. Arguably, the greatest knowledge of arctic policy studies can be found at the university of alaska in fairbanks. The ted stevens marine insresearch institute here leads. Kodiak serves the state of research, education and training activities. These are fundamental to marine science and the competitiveness of the Alaska Seafood industry in meeting important workforce needs. Last week i held our first Cabinet Meeting. We have renamed the governors Conference Room to the cabinet room and plan to use it extensively and regularly with the cabinet. At my invitation also attending the Cabinet Meeting were the university of alaska president the Alaska Railroad ceo and the Alaska Permanent Fund ceo. This is a standing invitation for these state entities to be represented in Cabinet Meetings. The purpose is to ensure that we are fully harnessing our University Infrastructure and financial resources. I also want to thank this legislature for all you have done on the critical issue of arctic policy. Frkt next two years our nation will chair the arctic counsel. Were it not for alaska the United States would not be an arctic nation at all. For this reason of the estimated 20 meetings the United States will hold, most will be held here in alaska. I have established a cabinetlevel position to address arctic issues. I have named craig flener to the post. As you may know, craig has previously served as a permanent member of the arctic council. He will be a vigorous advocate for alaskas interest as the Council Addresses transportation, navigation, travel issues, Climate Change telecommunications and public and private partnerships for arctic development. Given current oil prices, theres been a lot of discussion about the fiscal challenges here in alaska. While i dont dispute the numbers i do dispute the gloom and doom. To those who say alaskas finest days are behind us, i say theyre looking in the wrong direction. Governor wally hick l used to say before we had money we had guts. Alaska has trillions of dollars of value trapped urn our ground and in our waters. Since taking office december 1st, i have twice been to washington, d. C. For meetings at the highest level to discuss infrastructure and regulatory advances we need to fully develop our resources. The potential for our oil fields and mining prospects are nearly limitless but we cant keep having the same fights with National Leaders and expect a different result. The facts are on our side. We can and we will use them. But we can also listen. Address the Agency Searches head on and forge a path forward. And alaskas resources arent just under our feet but under our boats. Fisheries remains the state top employer and we will work with the crucial sector to strengthen sustainable fisheries. In alaska, every boat is a small family business. We will Work Together with the industry to keep boots on the deck and bolster demand across the globe for our high quality products. We think all these industries for countless jobs they provide and for the solid investments they continue to make in alaskas communities. My goal is to continue to work with them to further develop these resources. We will do it on alaskas time frame and follow the constitutional mandate to develop them for the maximum use and benefit to alaskans. To me, this means having alaskans do the work. I have long been a fierce advocate for local hire. I want a north slope workers to commute from minto, not mississippi. And houston, alaska, is not houston, texas. It will be it will be a priority of this administration to buy alaskan when possible. Whether its professional services, food equipment or just about anything else. I urge all alaskans to do the same. Unfortunately, one of the biggest commodities we export from alaska is our money. Buying alaska is something we can all do in our businesses and personal lives when we make a purchase out of state rather than support local businesses we end the local multiplier effect. This damages Economic Growth and sustainability. Think about which business will be making the Little League donations. The little dribbler donation and the youth hockey donations. Lets help those businesses in alaska, the ones in the hometown that help us. That is part of what alaska first means. When alaska became a state, approximately 50 of the food we consumed was grown raised and harvested here in alaska. Today that percentage is under 5 . We can reverse that. Our administration will have a renewed commitment to manage the wildlife and fisheries population to provide for Economic Needs of alaskans. You know we should be also marketing our vegetables grown in the matsu valley and elsewhere in the state like we market the copper river red salmon from kordova. You know our carrots are eight times sweeter than those grown in california. You spend two summers manning a booth at the palmer state fair and youll learn this kind of stuff. Alaskans, there are challenges ahead but so many of our most significant accomplishments have come in the face of adversity and the times when we have worked together with no agenda but to strengthen and prosper our state. I remember so well alaskans reaching out together to fight for statehood and help those in need after the 64 earthquake. I remember as a teenager driving to fairbanks from valdez to help our friends there following the 1967 flood. Whether its a fuel shortage in nome, forest fires in the peninsula in the matsu flooding on the yukon threat of a military base closure in the interior or a mill in catch can we rise and survive as one when we support our fellow alaskans. When we build each other up and we Work Together nothing can shake us. We persevere. We work hard. We dare to achieve. I urge all alaskans be cognizant of the fiscal situation thats facing us and like my family following the earthquake, do not let yourself become overwhelmed by the enormity of the task at hand. Rather, let us understand the work that must be done. And look ahead toward rebuilding and creating a prosperous future. To the members of this esteemed body, i say to you that yes, the task ahead of us is great. But it will not consume us. Our foundation is one of ingenuity. Comradery and hard work. It is time to put the principles into practice, make the tough decisions, tackle the work ahead of us. The public is looking to us to take action. And we must deliver. And just like those generations before us who so bravely built the great state, we must not seek the republican answer or the democratic answer. We must seek the right answer for alaska. It will be tough. We may not always agree. But im confident we will be pulling from the same end of the rope to achieve the best outcome for alaskans. Lets not focus on party lines but on alaskas bottom lines. Lets honor the legacy of our past as we create opportunity for all who look north to the future. We are alaskans and we are darn proud of it. As the late senator ted stevens once famously said. The heck with politics. Lets do the best for alaska. That, my fellow alaskans is exactly what we will do. May god bless you an may god bless the state of alaska. This sunday on q a, neuro scientist jensen on the discoveryies about the teenage brain athey dont have their frontal lobes to actually reason. The cause and effect consequences of actions are not very clear to them because their frontal lobes are not at the ready. Theyre not as accessible. They have frontal lobes. It is just not the connections cant be made as quickly for splitsecond Decision Making and also dont forget a lot of the hormones are changing a lot in the body of both the young men and women. And the brain hasnt seen these yet in life until you hit teenage years. So, the brain is trying to learn how to respond to these new hormones that are rolling around and actually locking on to reseptember or thes, synapsis of different types and trying to sort of trial and error and i think that this contributes a roller coaster kind of experience that we watch as parents. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern and pacific on cspans q a. National journal hosted a forrum on immigration and the affect on demographics of American Cities and communities. This Panel Includes the mayors of Los Angeles Aurora colorado, Salt Lake City, utah and anaheim california. From the nuseum in washington, d. C. , this is an hour and 20 minutes. Good afternoon. Im johanna, Senior Vice President at National Journal and like to welcome all of you, including all of you. This is a new setup for us. As well as those watching our live stream video at nationaljournal. Com to todays town hall next america population 2043. This event is presented with support of emerson collective. Just a couple notes of housekeeping before we get started. One, we would love for you to silence your cellphones and dont put them away. We would love for you to tweet your comments and questions on this event via njnextamerica. If you would like to use the wifi network, access is nuseum guest and there is no password and we will have q an after each portion of the event. Just please state your name and organization if you have a question. Just a quick overview of the topic today. America is experiencing one of the largest demographic shifts in american history. Diversity is deepening, both in cities where it has already been well established as well as in communities where those currents have not previously been felt. The nations demographic shifts are creating challenges and opportunities for communities as they grapple with these issues. Despite washington gridlock and polarization on immigration issues, state and local leaders are addressing this issue. And in dozens of cities majors and local leaders are debating these topics and creating solutions to immigration that could create blueprints for the rest of the country. First we will have mayor eric garceta sit down with Ron Brownstein for a keynote address and then a conversation with mayors. That will feature mayor ralph becker, mayor steve hogan and mayor tom tate. And then following that will be immigration and diversity in communities across the Country Panel and to close the program, we will hear from our immigration in the new year expert panel. Id now like to introduce Ron Brownstein and mayor eric garceta. Ron will be mod ratding multiple portions of the program today. He is atlantic medias editorial director and joining ron is mayor eric garceta, the 47th mayor of los angeles. His back to basics agenda is focused on job creation and solving every day problems for l. A. Residents. Ron, ill turn it over to you. Thank you. Thank you all for thank you for joining us and cafe next america or the relaunch of playhouse 90. Im not sure which. One or the other. Mayor garceta who is my mayor, i am a constituent these days. Good choice. Thank you. I want to ask you a little bit Start Talking a little bit about the executive order, the executive action for president is pursuing on ill inauguration and there are a lot of political, legal, logistical challenges some of which i want to talk to you in a few minutes but one thing we know already is Southern California is right at the epicenter of where in fact, los angeles by the estimates significantly more people than anybody else eligible for this executive order. Roughly half a million depending on the estimate. Let me ask you. If this does go into effect what will change in the city of los angeles . Well if this goes into effect it will be a huge boon for us economically socially in terms of Public Safety and you know, i think the questions we should ask ourselves as americans right now, kind of a head, heart and gut check. Will we be smart . Will we be good . Will we be brave . City like los angeles if the country manages to see this true and maybe future steps for integration. It is not the final destination of full citizenship or american integration. We see an economic benefit about 3 billion we estimate just for the city of los angeles alone. 3 billion from what . Students to get scholarships. Get those college degrees. Graduate degrees. Basically the boon to the economy of the entrepreneurship the education and the economic benefit that is come from full citizenship and the rights and responsibilities that come. L. Amt is already california in general pass add series of laws, drivers license, instate tuition access to Financial Aid instate and a pretty welcoming environment for people who are undocumented. What in practical terms do you think will be different in the way people live their lives . Let me challenge one piece. It is more welcoming but i think there is still a lot of fear out there and while they hear something good from local government or State Government i think theres still a climate of fear coming too far out of the shadows something bad will happen and seeing a Court Challenge to the administrateive relief right now i think that sends scare tumblers across the nation and for folks right now sitting on the side lines may not speak english as a first language it is still some what of a scary environment. We are trying to make that less scary. What do we do get them full information and on the pathway and not preyed upon as well. Many people prey upon them in this process and looking at finding the partnerships across america and the best part of the state of the union last year the president said if youre a mayor or governor dont wait for washington to take action. We havent been. We have been coming together as coalitions of cities coalitions of municipal and state areas to say we have power to do say we have power to do things. Even though the federal government has policy we can do things in the meantime with drivers license, with education. With our School System Community Colleges and state schools and public education. As well as offering pathways to entrepreneurship. In my down 40 of new businesses are started by let me come back to what were doing that. But before we do let me ask a question about the ledger. You talked about the positives providing more people legal status. Any downsides you can see in any cost in terms of increasing public demand or services increased competition for jobs . Any ways you can see tensions or pressures arising towards legal status. Not in my city. The as release valve for pressures and a opportunity for economic and socially as well. We are seeing Graduation Rates rise inlos angeles. They are still too far bhiechbltd wewe dont have enough young people participating in the city life. People are working anyway. People are here anyway. Department of education requires we educate folks who are undocumented here anyway. The whole argument that administrative relief is somehow causing our schools to be newly filled with students is just false. Cities dont have the luxury to determine National Policies what we have is the obligation to make things work on the ground. Lets talk about making this work on the ground. You have been working with a coalition of cities around the country. And one things that is striking about this executive action is that allahthough l. A. Has many machine potential illegals than other cities it is well dispersed. The top 20 counties in eligibility only account for 20 of the total numbers. There are substantial numbers around the country that would benefit. What do you think it will take of large and small cities to have the take of the executive action. I think it requires the dedicated commitment at the municipal or state level to putting in the programs and the training and personnel to make this happen. And that doesnt have to mean additional costs. One examples in the city of l. A. We have cities or citizenship. Together with mayors de blasio and manuel in chicago we started 13 cities do help them become cities and get advice on a range of immigration issues. We just took our librarians. And there is one every neighborhood. Support from citi bank and foundations and others and weve trained this cadre of immigration advisers who are librarians. People go to anyway. And the librarians love it. And weve had 10000 go through this. And they have become citizens and filled out their documents and paperwork and. That was with existing resources. So now that these other ten cities came on board were trying to get a template that the smallest town and the biggest city can use alike. Weve all got public libraries. We all have school assistance. In los angeles were training a whole group of student, administrators and teachers to identify students and their parents who will be eligible for administrative relief. What better army of folks willing do that and know this better . Talk about the schools. Certainly one way to read this is you have 5 million potentially eligible around the country. But it is a community not necessarily the easiest to reach. More accustomed to staying out of the spotlight than walking into it. How important are schools in the outreach . They are critically important. There is not one parent who doesnt care about his or her child and education. So they are already engaged in the schools even if no other civic activities they will go to parent night. You have to have the multilingual capabilities obviously. We do it in the spanish and korean and a multitude of languages. That is very important. And you have to use the language media of the group. In the schools were trying to find a way to institutionalize it. And the schools came to us as well. Because you have a lot of students who care about. This fellow classmates who may or may not have documents and they want o help them. Ive always said students are the best environmentalists, for instance. They will go home and say why arent you recycling and take the trash out and sort it themselves. But is so teach the kids and they will change the entire Family Status and outlook. You have looked at analyzed from the city level. What is the biggest potential bottle neck here . Outreach . Legal help . Documentation . Which is going on the challenging. What are the biggest bottle necks you see. So far its just the shear number. To try to for instance were having now drivers licenses now for everybody in the state of california. Something our police chief supported and will make the streets safer. In december by the way. I do think that document takes hasnt been as difficult but Legal Assistance is critical too. Notaries will prey on folks oh give mee thousand bucks. Ill take care of this. They may or may not do and it dont realize there is free or low cost assistance out there. Receive gone with legal aid and groups like non profits that can help identify and sometimes fill out the paperwork while they are there and before they leave. In terms of the process is there someone in charge . You have the city foundations, non profit groups working. Is there a coordinated effort . And how does that run . I restarted an office at immigrant affairs in my office. We have more and more cities with that. My is dr. Linda lopez, used to be a dean at university of Southern California. And we have a whole staff behind us and a lot of volunteers. Amer aamer core volunteers. Amer corps. It reassures folks who may be fearful that they will have protection and for the folks wondering whether or not they have to play with you, oh well it is the mayor. It is the mayors office. Now suddenly the librarians and School Districts and everybody is eager to help. Two precedents in trying to engage in community. Was was daca which was seen as pretty successful and the other was the Affordable Care act which was much more difficult. Even a state like california put a lot of money into hispanic outreach still ran into reluctant people. Any lessons you take from those two experiences about what it will take to make this work . Yes i think its very important to meet people where they are. Either geographically or conceptually. What do i mean by that . We have a great partners for instance our Spanish Language are networks who not only give out information but set up toll free numbers people can call into. And weve done the same with asian language media and others. And dont ever treat the immigrant community as one group. I mean you have to reach out to canadians, you have to reach out to armenians. You have to reach out to congolese. You cant leave anybody behind. What you find is a small reaching out to one or two leaders in the Ethiopian Community and suddenly the network those groups have are very tight and they will pass that information a along. But probably no ones ever reached out. Speak of healthcare, are you confident the federal government will hold up t is own. Do you have a sense there is a plan to implement this that will function smoothly. We feel good. And when you asked me to compare the two. Our Healthcare Experience was quite good in los angeles. We need more young people but that is not so much the immigrant community. We need more young people, especially of color to get that healthcare. So we have folks out saying you can get sick and the healthcare is a good thing. And we have immigrant community and the lesson there is, if you can touch people on one issue they care a lot about, give them information about other things o too. So wreefeve taken all of our city. If someone comes in for tax preparation we tell them about afterschool programs and daca and dapa. And how to open up a the bank account. And if their family Needs Mental Health counseling. I hope we have a time of lesser resources and a recognition that families live all the problems at once. You have to cluster these things together. Onestop shopping essentially for government services. Serve them instead of serving ourselves. In terms of the clustering. You talked about it before. Californias done a number of things already in state law related to undocumented. What are the policies you any are necessary if any to wrap around the federal law to create the maximum impact in the cities. I think if you want massive civic participation either in a selfish way for folks to help their status or participate more widely in the Community First you have to address the fears people have. So we took a policy that ice containers without a judge order. If a legitimate judge saying there is a bad criminal and you need to detain well still do that. But these random ones sending fear into the community you have to establish first something people feel safe. Second secondly you have to let people know you are there. And you will be close to whether they are. The school, the library tdmv when they are getting drivers licenses and that is second. And third, really challenge in the dmupt step up more than getting something to also give something back. And weve found a whole Leadership Class government 101 and done nit korean and the spanish and chinese and thai. And this is how you get bast the local level. You want to park. You want something to change, take the next step. And that creates a whole army of folks within communities that can help other people come out shadows for first for immigration changes but also for the civic life. That is my goal is to truly turn people into citizens. I dont want anymore undocumented migrates in this country either. I want more citizens here. And in doing that we figure a pathway that can work. Cities are coming together. There is alliance of cities. California is a place where you have a lot of potentially eligible people and a State Government that is supportive of what you are doing. There are large eligible populations in states where the city may be active in trying to bring in the eligible and sign them up but the state may have a very different posture. Some of the more conservative states have larger potential populations. Do you expect as you talk to your colleague do you think that cities will face any resistance and if they try to aggressively sign people up for the order from some of these State Governments . I havent seen a lot of State Governments try to block them. But youre tight it. Can be incongruous. For instance, the 25 26 states that have sued on administrative relief were looking to do amicus bruf of a bunch of cities to counteract. And many of our cities are larger than the stapts theyre even suing. But its interesting for us to look at the way we can coordinate things together. And i found in very red states, for instance there are republican controlled legislatures and governors who are doing better than some democrats in cities around the country because i think they suns this is an economic boon to their state if they get this right. The loudest voilss still come from washington against that. Em will like the issue of gay marriage it is becoming the shrinking minority. Lets talk about the litigation and polit tigs. The house voted last week to block it. There is litigation which well come back to intended to stop it with 25 states participating. Do you think that will have a significant or material effect on the willingness to come forward . I think it will have a great Chilling Effect. People will hear a Court Decision that may apply to certain the states. Even if you dont live in that state you will think well its not happening. And with it difficult to get enough people to come out especially for people who are here legally whenever these things happen, the unintend consequence is people just retreat back to where they are. We need more of those people qualified for citizenship today to become citizens but they see the court case and think well no not now. Every step back though there is two steps forward and i feel like were on the right side of history. Partially because it is not new history. This is what the country was doing before. Its why im here and why so many of us here in the audience. Whether ourself our parent, grandparents etc. S. I think america will return to its roots and we cant afford not. If the courts does rule in states favor and issues injunction against the federal government in those states or all states that would not effect cities. So would l. A. Continue its work outreach and planning if there is injunction against the federal government . Absolute we would. And your conversation with other mayors. We cant afford not to. The choice of not moving forward puts nus that this head, heart and gut thing. In our hearts we want to be good. Whether the images of the folks surrounding bus of unaccompanied minors. And i remind people can we be parents first or a human being first . No child should be sent across the border but whats more ornamental than trying to find your parents and most important we have to be smart. Tom tate is a great mayor in anaheim right next e to we. Hes republican, i happen to be a democrat. And were both bipartisan guys. And if we cant move forward with this youre assigning a worse economic condition, worse criminal Justice System and less safe streets and less prosperity for everybody. So even if the federal court temp racially stops the government yorks work will continue at the city level. Oh yes. Everything continues. The drivers license work, the iced detainer work. Everything continues. We cant afford not to. Do you have a goal. Lovely 11 million in l. A. County. About half that in l. A. City. Significantly more in Southern California. In l. A. Itself do you have a goal of what you any is reasonable to sign up over the next year or so. Im striving for 220,000 which is the estimated population. If that takes us a series of years so be it but were putting the resources behind this. It pays us back many times over every time we get somebody fully integrated. So it makes business sense and ethical sense. And cities remain in the litigation on the other side. Were looking to do an am mus brief and have a lot of other cities who stepped up saying they want to be apart of item too. We dont have local government or the federal part of the government saying oh were against this. Because if just a few voices decided to challenge. We think we can get a coalition of cities much larger and that is important counterbalance for any court. Especially they may win this first round judging by what ive heard about the court it is in. But it will be appealed and its very important for americans to speak up and out and for cities to be the voice of all americans. Are you confident the federal government does have the authority do i think so. And political sterms i think history is on our side. If we need to see the progress come through changes in laws as well at the federal level it is only a matter of time because it makes sense across the board. Seven out of 10 top new companies started in this country were started by immigrants or children of immigrants. The status of 40 of our new business many the city i gave you. If we become where were shutting off that valve. Im sharing a story. I just came back from asia and when i was in seoul and tokyo and different cities in china, they were all asking how can we get more diversity . They realize this is important for competition in the this Global Economy today. We cant afford a competition that is backwards saying how do we deep these people in the fringes. Because they are going to be there. We need to embrace that and see our populations continue to grow in the u. S. Two final things and then bring in the audience. First you mentioned the importance. The goal here really is citizenship in the end. Not just legal status. And that will require legislation. Do you think this executive action in the long run is bringing us closer or further away from from a legislative consensus on immigration. No question. I think that it is bringing us closer and to use the metaphor from before like gay marriage. Civil unions the sky didnt fall. It was a necessary first step, not the ultimate goal. As i joked whats going to happen when gay marriage goes through . Nothing. The world didnt change. Gay couples get married get divorced. Straight comes too. And any step we can take forward with immigration will show it gets a little better not worse. So what do we have to fear . The argument that somehow this is going to be corrosive to our democracy or economy have not borne out so i think this helps i us get to the place ultimately of the citizenship. And someone today who is stale proponent is dont ask if. Tell us how. Because the alternative is something this country cant afford. The status kwoe is completely broken for all of us that deal with it. And we need you to be a part of that solution instead of just saying what you are against. And that is the challenge i think for the congress. I think that is the challenge for kind of the immigration opponents that are out there right now. Its unamerican but im very hope thafl well move does the magnitude matter . You have the house moving last week to block it. Probably a majority of the senate but not enough will vote to block it. Possibly every republican candidate in 2016 are promise to behavior else repeal the executive action. Does the number of people who get signed up between now and then assuming it goes forward is that a significant variable do you think on whether this stays in place. It is a an important variable but the then you then have to the answer is if you dont like the president didnt have the power do this and will you do this legislative and you as president , will you sign that in . I dont think as the white house this was the preferred mode of action. And i think its a bigger question American People will be asking any candidate any apparent. What are you doing to fully integrate my cousins and neighbors and i think people increasingly recognize who they are. And the importance is when you have been a straight a student, only known the United States gets a scholarship to go to a Wonderful University and conditioned afford it because there is no Financial Aid. Where are they expected i want to challenge. A supporters of the policies. The city, the advocation groups the neighborhood groups, if there are millions of people signed up is this more likely to endure than there arehundreds. Absolutely. That becomes an advocacy group. Most of these families are blended. Here legally and not citizens and folks who dont have any documentation. I think you have the huge constituency. And once people get in the system they should be able to i think with full trust and faith be able to see the end of that as well. Lets bring in the audience for a couple questions. Over here. I stood up here. I guess thats where they want us. It was interesting and thank you for being here today. Very enlightening. Ill boil it down to two questions. Having conferred this issue for many years i realize there is a great deal of fear. And it is not just fear from the government of fear of the government or fear of your neighbor, but when you lined up and seen people cross the rio grande and they are being exploited by the coyotes trying to bring them over there is a fear now that again there thereby exploitation in the neighborhoods as this comes to pass. How do you deal with that is the first question. And then the second one is i run two newspapers and three websites. And i can tell you on any given day if im not tweeting or im not involved in social media im doomed. So how do you take this message to social media and deal with the nay sayers who as the man wiser than me will say a lie makes it way around the world before the truth puts its boots on. How do deal with it in the media age. Its a lot of i think its important not to lose folks and spend time arguing rebuts from folks who may never change their mind but reach those who need help. And that is primarily what were using the media foris to reach out and say come on in. But to the first piece i think you are right. It is a very fair point. Anybody whose pro immigrant or pro citizenship in this argument has to have their hearts break when they see the conditions on the border and cannot ignore that. Like i wouldnt tell any kid in mexico or Central America yeah by yourself try to cross that border. You are putting your life on the line and looking to be exploited etc. Having a smart border is important twogt a path towards citizenship. To these that is very important. What we do in our towns once they get there is i think its very important to create relationships directly between Law Enforcement and the immigrant community. And los angeles has really led the way. Chief charlie beck. Before him bill bratton. We really make sure folks know we have a special order special order 40. So if you come in contact with a Police Officer were not just going to ask for your citizenship or documentation status and then send you over the ice for no other reason. Not just because of a criminal act baugh just because of that. Bewant people to testify and went them to be witnesses and report kriemsz. And krooims. And we is a very Good Relationship now. And helps them feel a part of the civic life too. Peggy ochokski with the hispanic and lifetime southern californiian. I feel that the Hispanic Community whose here legally is going to benefit tremendously from this. But i got a different perspective on immigration when i came here to d. C. And that is that a lot of jobs that especially blacks used to do in this town. Especially construction have been completely taken over by latino contractors who often use illegal workers and underbid the black contractors. Ive talked to many. Ive interviewed them. I appreciate your poly annish view about the good but there is no doubt that illegals do take jobs. And what are you going when can you, how can you face that . Every person i talk to whose going to benefit this, their first thing says they are going to take a better job. They are going to get a better job than they have now. So whose is going to do all those jobs that supposedly the americans dont do. With all respect i dont think it is very poly annish and i think its very practical and a rooted a lot of research on this. And to your question in the construction trades. Its fair to say anybody latino worker isnt necessarily undocumented immigrant. What weve done in los angeles we saw African Americans not being in the Building Trades anymore in the hotels where are there are a lot of employment. We worked on apprenticeship programs that went into the South Los Angeles and worked with Building Trades unions to bring what is now about 3 or 4,000 African Americans that werent becoming plumbers, electricians carpenters etc. To go specifically into that. And we found on the work site if people didnt speak spanish sometimes they couldnt get on to those jobs. So recognize that issue. Weve taken that on and brought people in. Same with the Hotel Industry where we saw a lot of African Americans no longer in those positions. And weve worked with unite here, other unions and weve consciously drawn people now to learn those trades and get in there with good success. So there are ways to be able to deal with whatever issues come up with this. Its easy to say illegals take jobs. People who are here want to work. And thats great. We want hardworking people no matter their color, religion and background. And think there are ways to be able to do. Lets go to the next question. First of all. Thank you for coming all the way over tth best coast. We appreciate your spending time with us in january. Not a good argument in january. Do you feel that individuals who are applying for citizenship should be required to learn english. I do, i support that. I this think has a good thing thr us to say. I think that is the language of success. I think it happens in every language for people to do. Its tough for some once you are past five years old to learn a new language. So you will folks who come in their teens and twenties and till the time they die their primary language is still where ever they come from. People want to. I have never met in my interactions immigrants who county want to learn english but can they work it into o their two jobs. Is there a free way to do it. And it is a big focus to provide those classes and through my office of immigrant affairs. Hello. My name is megan taylor. Representing taylor consulting and networks. Hi mega b. Thank you for being with us. And this may seem a little elementary and i do apologize as i know we typically dont air, you know, White Elephants in the room on public. But do you think that america could benefit at all from going back to immigration, period and reviewing it as a whole . As to really if we want to relegate whose immigrants and who are native do you think that we could benefit at all from retaking that course and even going back to reviewing whether Christopher Columbus even discovered had land, what happens with the indians, so forth so son. That we could actually get an education that allows us all of us to make educated decisions. I think you make a great point that. We should all know our history before any of us say whose brought here willfully, who was brought here in chains and who was here before anybody else was here and when did they even migrate here themselves. I love the line that notebook originally came here. And i think thats always important but i also think we can get so caught up in the history piece about whose right and whose wrong that we forget to solve is prarktal problems. And i love history and trying to untangle the morality. We all have blood ourn hands and we have all been victimized. I think everybody can lay claim to both. Whats america is in need of where do youiant to go. And we other great industrialized nations struggling with even having population growth. Like japan has this struggle now. Ho lu we stay strong when we have an aging population and no new folks being brought up. The difference for the United States has always been immigration to. Keep the economy growing. To keep things happening. Why should we invite so many Brilliant Minds to come here to study and as soon as they invent something we say start your business anywhere but america. Getting pack to that history can help inform the future but i do appreciate you bringing that up. You need to go to the mic because otherwise they cant hear owe you. And one of the things California California is considering would be extending the medical program, the Medicaid Program to the undocumented. Would you support that. We wind up paying in the emergency room. Preventive care is always cheaper. Same with homeless. And we cant afford it. And i say one weekend can cause it 25,000 from one individual going into the emergency room. Just on pure financial terms it makes sense. One final question. Going back to your original question in terms of the Economic Impact, what do you see the Economic Impact of the executive action and potentially eventually comprehensive Immigration Reform on housing and ownership specific. I thank you for that. Los angeles is is now unfortunately the least affordable zi in the country. Or the region. Not the highest rents but given wages and rents that gap. So we want people to able to earn money and start businesses legally. We have a Record Number of jobs in los angeles we think. But not a Record Number of payroll jobs. They are now people starting their own things or off the books. And we need people on the books. That gives more money to pave roads and hire Police Officers and have paramedics. So it economic effects the 2. 8 billion we estimate we could give the city but also the fiscal effect on my city. I cant not to have immigration. We have to pay for that. And same as poverty wages. We often say lets not raise the minimum wage and then we pay for it anyway in the emergency room and food stamps when people arent home to help kid with school work. Lets figure a way for people to become citizens and get a decent wage. Have access to housing and that to me is the American Dream and what im fighting for every day in the l. A. You have given a lot to chew on. Thank you mayor for joining us. Our next panel is new face new places. A conversation with mayors. Joining us is steve hogan. Mayor of aurora colorado. Mayor ralph becomer. Salt lake utah. And the tom tate. And amy sullivan correspondent who will help moderate. Hi amy. Welcome mayors. Let me start and amy and i will take turns grilling you. Let me start with a point we discussed with mayor garsetti. Although we have a lot of cities undocumented by the immigrants. The fact is this is substantially dispersed. Much more than for example under Ronald Reagan in the 19 0s. The top 20 counties only account for 20 of the total pool of eligible population. There is a lot of people out there. Orange county with anaheim. Estimated 150,000 people. Suburban denver, 41000. Salt lake county, 22,000. When we get beyond chicago and new york and l. A. , is the infrastructure in place to work through this process in cities of your size . Mayor . I think short answer is yes. City of aurora is about 350,000 people. We are already a city we are already a city where the caucasians are a minority. 6 asian, 19 africanamerican, 28 hispanic, 1 to 2 whatever. That leaves less than 50 caucasian. And its been that way for a while. And we find ways to get things done. We have no choice. The federal government doesnt work. State government is dealing with many of the basic issues that the federal government used to deal with. That leaves local government to do the rest, and we think we do it pretty well. Certainly in Salt Lake City, we certainly wish we had the resources of a larger city like los angeles, but i think were confident that a combination of City Government, nonprofit faithbased organizations, partnerships at the state level that we are pretty well prepared to be able to house our immigrant population and provide for them. Salt lake city is a Refugee Resettlement city. We have 50,000 resettlement and several languages in our city. We are dealing with folks in poverty or who come to our country or come to Salt Lake City in need. It is a remarkably giving society and community. Were the Number One Service volunteer state in the country. We feel we can address this. Were anxious to welcome new citizens into our community. And how do you feel . Anaheim is the largest city in orange county. About 350,000. Very ethnic. 70 ethnic, i think 55 latino, 20 asian. Were the largest american air populations in the United States. Its wildly diverse. We were listening to mayor garcetti and thinking, man, hes got a lot of resources, a lot of formalized stuff going on. We just get things done. Basically weve been doing it in our city. We treat people as people, and regardless of status. If people if there is a crime thats being committed, our Police Officers go and it doesnt matter whether theyre here legally or illegally or documented or undocumented. It doesnt matter. We treat people as people, i guess. As far as when these programs start rolling in, we rely on a lot of the nonprofits, the charities that do a lot of work with us. Will the city undertake its own effort directly . Dont know. Dont know. We are. Were in the midst of it right now. Probably not, but thats only because were in a fairly unique status. Were actually three different counties and we have five different School Districts, so we end up being more of a facilitator. But certainly there are programs that City Government is in charge of, and as was said, we dont care. We just deal with people and make it work. Director of next economy project joining us. Governor, i wanted to follow up on what you mentioned and if you could talk about your experience in salt lake with the Mormon Church or the Jesus Christ Church of latterday saints working on the Refugee Program youve had. Because a lot of cities, i know, are feeling some financial strain and will need to lean on some local effectors as this project goes through. Perhaps that could be a model of what youve seen already and maybe what you expect in terms of cooperation from some local people. I think our goal in Salt Lake City is to be as inclusive and welcoming as we possibly can be for everyone who comes to our community. Whether its an immigrant, whether someone is homeless, whether someone is wealthy in a new corporation, we really want our folks to feel like we have an inclusive environment. In Salt Lake City and in utah, we went through a fairly unique experience, i think. When the wave of antiimmigration action started to occur in arizona and was literally the wave was sweeping into utah, as you might expect, the leadership of the state, political leadership, certainly the business leadership, the Nonprofit Leadership on every end of the spectrum came together and said, wait a minute, this is not who we are. And over a period of a couple months developed something called the utah compact and said we as a state and as a society want to foster these principles in the way we address immigration. And didnt specify particular legislative solutions but recognized the federal system is broken, that we want to support families not separated, that we want to take advantage and integrate the prosperity of immigrants coming into our society and a number of other factors and said, this is how we want to operate. And it stemmed that tidal wave, almost, that was coming over utah, and it is a set of principals that really has served us well in saying, hey, we are a very conservative state, but we do not want to be treating people in a way that is either discriminatory or in a way that is inhumane, or in a way that doesnt recognize the benefits that come from immigration. So that spirit seems to prevail, and we have incredibly generous folks both privately and publicly that allow us, i think, to get more things done. We at the city level, thats what were about. We could argue idealogy all we want, but when it comes down to it, its serving our community. Let me ask from your own experience but also looking more broadly in your role as chairman of the task force, do you expect any resistance from the state, which is a conservative state, and i believe is one of the states on the lawsuit. If you are out there trying to implement the executive order, do you expect youll face any other state or are there other cities that might face resistance from their governments . There is a continuous resistance in our state. In their sentiments, they are loud and theyre a very strong voice in our state. But so far if youre talking about providing tuition and state tuition benefits, or whether youre talking about providing the basic services that people need, i think our state has been pretty welcoming. The litigation that ron in utah joined, to me it seems inconsistent with the kind of spirit we reflected. I think well have to let it play itself out. I deal in a very idealogical realm and may be appeasing certain views, but im not seeing that reflective in the way were taking our actions. Do you think cities will face any meaningful resistance from states, like some of the more skeptical states . Certainly not from california. That would not be high on the list. Im thinking about talking to your colleagues with the task force and so forth. If you look at texas or arizona or florida, some of these other places, we have large concentrations in urban areas that may want to aggressively implement the order. Do you think any of them will face pushback in their states . As mayors, what brings us together is were allowed to deal with issues and solve problems. That is really where the rubber hits the road. We have to deal with this, and thats why you have a Bipartisan Group of mayors on the task force. We got a letter signed, 150 mayors signed a letter asking for comprehensive Immigration Reform. Also those who come out of the shadows and come to live the American Dream. So you have broad support interest that. Can i follow up real quick given that, do you think the president acting on his own here with his executive action, does that move it closer or further away from a comprehensive solution that youve endorsed . I wish it didnt happen because i think it moves it away. It throws in the constitutional argument. Because this is such a big issue, there needs to be a law, and there needs to be a law that everybody can get behind. It would just make it easier. I dont like how it happened. Does this bring us closer or further away to a resolution . I dont think it matters. Again, cities have to deal with whatever the result is, and well deal with it. Whether it relates to Police Relationships with minority communities, whether its drivers licenses, whether its lunch programs in the summer when school isnt in session, it doesnt matter. We as a city will deal with it. Honestly, i wish it was taken care of, but well deal with it whatever the result is because we dont have a choice. There is no government under City Government. We have to do it. And if defense cant do it or the state cant do it, well do it. On behalf of the National League of cities, this has been an issue the National League has been involved in and setting and vetting within cities for well over a decade. And when the president made his announcement, we were there the next day saying, we support the action. Because it does begin to address the cities. We Wish Congress had taken action, but with congress not having taken action, weve supported comprehensive Immigration Reform. This helps us do our jobs better in cities. Im curious to know how each of you has been thinking about this and anticipating the process Going Forward in the next few months in terms of the on the ground consequences or changes you might be able to see. Im hoping for congress to get together and pass a law that can being signed by the president. That would be the best way of that happening. Short of that, again, same thing the mayor said, well just deal with whatever comes our way. Our job is to serve the people in our city regardless of legal status. So well just keep on doing what we do. Given the large number of people in your community who are eligible, do you think that will make a difference in terms of the character of your community, in terms of economics, the local economy . Anaheim probably has 50, 60,000 undocumented folks. This would affect maybe 30,000. If it helps them, thats all a good thing. It would be better if it helped all the folks. I kind of forgot your question there. I just want to know what the practical consequences will be for anaheim. I think the practical consequences are that it will help the number of people in anaheim. If you think of People Living in Salt Lake City or anaheim, whats going to change in a positive way, and are there any negative outcomes . A backlash any backlash you expect if, in fact, this does go forward . Well, certainly someone who is currently illegal, undocumented, if they are legal, that changes a great deal. Attitude, if nothing else. Not quite as afraid of being stopped for a traffic light. Not being as afraid when you go into a store to buy something and somebody asks for identification. So that will be a good thing. That will be a good thing on a general psyche. I find it difficult to identify any bad things. I mean, the people are already there. They are already living every day. They are already working wherever theyre working. They need help. We find ways to help. I think its going to be a challenge for us. This is not an easy process for us to help members of our Community Work through. And were gearing up to try to find how we can best help people. Well have forms in english and in spanish, but Community Dialogues and assistance as best we can provide it, and were reaching out with our other partners, really Many Organizations within the city and within the salt lake region. But i tell you what concerns me most is the cloud hanging over the organization. If i come forward, does that mean at a future date this might get reversed and i now will be identified and profiled as someone who the government is going to come after . Do you think it could have a meaningful, Chilling Effect on peoples willingness to come forward . Well, something were concerned about. I think well see. Obviously we havent hit the start button yet, and were doing everything we can to try to reach out into the community and invite people in and to provide assistance to people to work through the process. But things were hearing in our Community Today is, can we trust the government in the long term . Not just in terms of our immediate actions, to provide us the security we need to fully be an integrated member of the community and society. Along those lines, thinking about anaheim, what about doca . Was that a positive experience . Are there lessons you can take from that in trying to implement this . What was the doca experience and what can you learn from it . You know, it was in anaheim, what we do is really work with our nonprofits. I guess im fishing there. We direct people to nonprofits for help and things like that. Thats probably the direction it will take. In midsize cities, we dont have a lot of resources. Our resources are spent on keeping people safe and in rec programs, things like that, and there really isnt a lot left for additional programs. One of the things i was thinking of as ron was asking you to imagine some of the challenges is the fact that this executive action does not do a lot of things. One of the things it doesnt do is provide eligibility for health care, for example, for people who are eligible overall. And it strikes me that its possible to kind of set that issue aside when youre just talking about a community of undocumented immigrants. But when you have people who have now been covered by this executive action who are still going without Health Insurance, that becomes more of a challenge and an issue for your communities. Im wondering what the possible ways of addressing that might be and whether that does, indeed, pose a challenge in terms of resources. Again, i think the answer to that, unfortunately, does not lie in cities. We just dont have the authority or the power to solve the problem. We just have the responsibility to deal with the problem. And thats the tough part. In a city like aurora, weve got three major hospitals, weve got another one coming on line shortly. I hope. Its a v. A. Hospital, you never know. But well find ways through the nonprofit community, through the faithbased community, through our own programs that we can put in place, and Mental Health area to try to get services to people. But we cant change the law that says youre going to get Health Insurance. We cant do that part. We can just deal with whats on the ground. I wasnt suggesting changes to the law. I guess it was more as an interim measure. How do you provide health care to, you know, thousands of people who are eligible for Health Insurance . Were doing that now. If someone shows up in an emergency room, they get treated. And its a very expensive way to provide health care, and so to us, and im speaking regionally now, not just at Salt Lake City, if we can find a way to better manage our Health Care Costs and provide Better Health care, were all better off as a community and as a society. So to me, in a way, with this executive order it may not change health care, but its not that were not providing health care today, its just a very expensive way were providing in some instances, and if we can find a better way to do it, we should. California is exploring and has discussed a change in the law. What do you think about the idea of making undocumented eligible for the state Medicaid Program . I think its very reasonable. As people are being treated already, of course, and it seems like i think it would be reasonable. Do you see it as a bridge too far politically, that there might be a backlash, even in california on that, or not . Probably somewhat. But i think people in california understand that there is a problem that needs to be solved. It might not be the way Everyone Wants to solve it, but obviously people need to have health care, medical care. Theyre getting it already somehow. The hospitals are treating everybody who comes, as they should. So this provides some sort of framework. Do you have maybe one more or do you want to bring in the audience . Lets bring in the audience for questions. Two microphones, one on each side. I didnt introduce myself earlier, but im brian careman, two papers here in maryland and prince georges county, maryland. He said something about the court brief being filed. Are your three cities a part of that brief, and if not, why not . Salt lake city signed on just today. That action is something that very candidly i had not heard anything about until today, so thats something ill have to go back and talk with my city council about. We most likely will not be. The Council Voted not to support the action before it happened. I think there needs to be a law passed, and i dont know if this actually helps us get closer to that or not. Over here. Thank you all for being here. Im not sure if any of the mayors are republicans, but my question is, for you or for your republican colleagues, is it more difficult to take an outreach view to new americans because of pressure from the National Republican party . Im a republican and the answer is no. I mean, ive been out front in the community and politically in terms of statements to the press, appearing at meetings. Ive had numerous other republicans in colorado along with me. Im not alone and there is no pressure, no. Im also a republican. I felt a little pressure. Ive chaired the Immigration Task force for the u. S. Conference of mayors trying to get a comprehensive Immigration Reform. No one has ever called me on that or objected. Can i ask a different version of that, broaden the question but with a similar kind of theme for our two republican mayor colleagues . On the other hand by the way, im a democrat. The reality is in todays politics, most urban areas do lean democratic. Most mayors are democratic. Most republicans in the house represent places that are less dense, less urbanized and in many ways, less likely to be dealing directly with the ontheground effects of this demographic change, and in particular, the immigration issue. Leaving aside the question of pressure for you not to be where you are, do you find in the Republican Party less sensitivity, less urgency about solving the problem because many of the people in office are simply representing communities that are less affected by it . I think a lot of it has to do there are two issues, a path to citizenship or nationalization. The other is the border. Probably the Republican Party may be focused on the border first, but the fact is they both have to happen. Otherwise the problem will continue and continue until the border is somewhat unsecure. I found that my republican colleagues, so many agree with me. They know people who come to this country who want a better life, to work. Why would we want those people not to be part of this country . I think to a certain extent, it also depends on where youre talking about. For example, in aurora, eight of the 11 City Council People are republicans. But if you turn it around, 12 of the 14 state representatives and state senators are democrats. And thats the same city. We had a congressman who engaged his opponent in a debate this last election entirely in spanish. So its not as unusual, perhaps, in colorado. He was one of the few who voted against mike hoffa, youre referring to, in aurora. The vast majority of house of republicans did vote not only to block the new executive order but to overturn doca as well. And he voted the other way, but only 26 voted not to turn over doca. That experience that he is representing is very important than most of his colleagues. Even in colorado you think about republicans at the federal level, more rural areas, dominant there. Do you find kind of a gap in discussion perception about what this issue is . I think there probably is a gap, but again, i dont have time to worry about it. Im busy trying to deal with whats going on on a daily basis on the ground. And im im going to do what i think is right for my city and the residents of my city. And ill worry about the niceties of the political philosophy later. Youre in the opposite situation. Niceties of the political philosophy later. Youre in the opposite situation. Youre the island in a very different statewide. Beautiful island. Statewide politics. Talk about the difference between your community where some of this is more immediate and perhaps other places where its more matter of belief principle, ideology . I think its what weve all been talking about as mayors. We deal on the ground serving everyone in our community, making people feel protected. Making people want to participate in our community in a lot of ways and have equal opportunity. And that is a very different dynamic than the ideological discussions we see going on in this city. I walk out of meetings with members of my congressional delegation who i really enjoy personally and know, and i kind of shake my head. Thats not the world im living in. And i have to respect them. They are elected like i am. But are you representing the same constituents sometimes. So washington seems like a very far off place when these kind of discussions go on compared to the every day world we live in in cities. If, in fact this does go forward. Lets assume that the arguments carry and it is not blocked through litigation, congress is not going to be able to block it, if it does go forward does it, the mayor did not think it moved us closer to a legislative solution because you had this added layer of controversy about the president but, if in fact several Million People are granted some kind of legal status between now and the end of his presidency does that bring us closer or further away towards a legislative solution during the Obama Presidency or after it. I wish i had confidence in this congresss ability to act. I do think it moves us closer to bringing more people into the full ability to be part of our community. And if we get half of the problem solved, and it rolls into the next congress maybe the next congress will take it up. In the meantime hopefully well have more people in our community who are paying more tax and contributing more economically and having more opportunity through school and through the normal parts of our society. If all of those things happen, more opportunity, paying more tax, participating in school, owning homes, does it become do you think it is practical to take it away at a later day . Do you think that will happen . No, its not practical to take it away. But, again whatever happens happens. And mayors are pretty pragmatic. We deal with it. We will deal with it. Well find a way, no matter what to make our individual communities better. I guess im curious, talking about members of your states delegations who may or may not understand the pressures that youre under. What you would ask them for in terms of support . What can they do help you with this . I would Congress Needs to get together and pass Immigration Reform, some sort of comprehensive reform. This needs to be solved by a law. You get the entire country behind. You dont have to have this worry about it being overturned in the courts down the road years from now in litigation that gives us certainty and the uncertainty of the current situation, People Living in anaheim, a big issue in our city is trust. We want to build a trust with our police department, with our city. If theres a question of whether they will be able to stay here or even with the executive action, its hard to build up that trust. Were the ones that have to deal with this. So when you do those conversations that leave you scratching your head a little bit what are you asking what could washington do to make this easier for you . Short of comprehensive . I dont know short of previous reform what they can do. This is not, you know, picking up pieces obviously president obama has chosen that course. And we can agree or disagree disagree with it. But hes not saying as the rest of us arent saying we dont need a comprehensive solution. Because if you pick out different pieces of it whether its Border Security or dealing with health care dealing with the dreamers, youre still leaving a big segment of our population thats living in our communities today unaddressed in terms of their status and in terms of their contributions to our community and their feeling of being a part of our community and i think for all of us in cities we want our residents to feel like they are in a secure place. All right. We have a question over here. Yeah. Quick question. Ive been a School Principal for many, many years and what weve done when other students are coming from other places with other languages they would help our kids to learn those languages while our kids in english would help them to learn english and thats been ive been a principal in three or four different places and i want seems to work. And, you know they are learning english and were learning spanish or chinese or whatever. And that happens all the time in aurora. Our five School Districts have students from over 130 Different Countries who speak almost 140 different languages at home. Thats life. And so i mean i was in a class of kindergarten be students about two weeks ago who were learning chinese mandarin. They were responding to the teacher in mandarin. And the teacher was a volunteer. So, we got that kind of community. Its all free too right . Its free. Youre right. That earlier question, if i wanted to ask for something i want more resources with fewer strings. I can sure find a good way to put it to use and it will help the entire community. Not just part of the community. The entire community. This thing about language because of the missionary tradition you taught an unusually large number of people who are fluent in a second language. What role does that help to integrate the community. A huge role. We saw this interpreter base we saw during the olympics and in our every day world provides great benefit. Like aurora we got over 100 languages spoken in our school. We have duel emersion programs. The societal dynamic has changed because of the changing cultures, additional cultures in our community and yet it isnt reflected and were not adapting as quickly to our educational system both taking full advantage of these, of all these cultures in our community but we also arent providing the resources for kids who may be a refugee doesnt know to flush a toilet much less to walk into a school with a new language and new culture. The breadth of the change were living through anaheim and aurora are the majority of public School System are kids of color in all likelihood. What would surprise me i know its true in Salt Lake City as well. It is. That must be something for people in Salt Lake City a little bit to wrap their heads around. It is at the state city. In Salt Lake City were accustomed to it and enjoy it in Salt Lake City its not an issue. At the state level theres a pretty good gap, i think. Particularly when you look at a state legislature thats predominantly white male mormon and elderly, right. Relatively speaking to the population. So they are a generation apart from whats happening in Salt Lake City but increasingly throughout the state. We got a question over here. Go ahead. He asked two questions. I want to ask two questions too. What do you feel an appropriate time is for the pathway to citizenship. I would like to hear each of your individual responses. I ask this because i lived and worked in oklahoma and had friends in the legal system there and had clients who would be in the system sfo iv to 15 years before they were granted citizenship. It was an issue a lot of times on the end of administration paper working lost, names changed, they would have four different last names, a lot of paper work problems not where they qualified and were they sincere and honest in that process. Im curious from each of you what is an appropriate time for that pathway to citizenship. Do you take a position in the letter how long . We didnt address that in the letter. I dont have a strong opinion on that other than there should be one. I guess you can debate whether they should wait behind everyone else has applied legally or not. I just from a city point of view, people need a path to citizenship. Not good to have two classes of people ever. And so whether its it should be certainly shouldnt be forever lets put it that way. Sooner the better. I dont know a specific time frame. I know that the estimates that have come out with the executive order suggest a certain time frame. Certainly we need to provide to go through a process where their criminal background is checked, where we know the condition and the ability of people to live within our society. But this is part of the federal broken immigration system and, you know, i know people today who are trying network their way through the process following all the legal channel having every Clear Pathway and trying to become a citizen and it is a complete mess today. And some of it is just inefficiency of a bigger government bigger agency. Some of it is just kind of outdated mechanisms while everyone is in a standstill waiting for congress to do something. Mayor im not sure i can add anything to what was already said. I dont know whats the magic number. I do know it should not be any faster than someone who is going through the established legal processes, shouldnt be any faster than that. But how much longer it should be, i dont know. We only have a couple of minutes left. Let me ask one final question go back to the schools for a moment ago. You all were talking in a positive way of the riching effect of having so many cultures in the schools and languages. There are challenges in that as well having that many different languages spoken at home and im wondering to what extent the schools at this point particularly in places that are not historically dealt with a lot of diversity are capable of dealing with this enormous change thats going on in School Districts all around the country. In Salt Lake City theres huge desire and equivalent commitment but it is a change in resources. When you have a teacher that has 25, 30 students in a classroom in Elementary School and they are trying to provide for diverse circumstances and then you add on the layers of culture and language and preparation coming in to the School System it puts really an unfair burden on the school teacher. The commitment is there the desire is there, and the resources arent there. I dont want to cast blame but were struggling with that piece it. I can tell you from Salt Lake City side for the very first time in the history of our city were starting to pour resources into the School System that otherwise would be coming to City Government to try to help address the issues. All right. Final thought. Can i just have a plug. Yes. Something that we just ran some coverage of which is a program here in d. C. Its a Charter School that does two generation education and it was started a decade or two ago by some local leaders in immigrant communities so that they could teach children and teach their parents at the same time because so many immigrant parents are working jobs with off hours. They are actually able to come to school during school hours and their number one concern about raising their children was inability to communicate with their childs teacher and to be part of that education to support them. It has become a way to really kind of speed up the assimilation process but also tie them into the larger community. All right. With that, we thank the mayors. [ applause ] our next panel will take the stage. Loretta lynch president obamas nominee to be next attorney general heads to capitol hill wednesday for her confirmation hearing. We hear from miss lynch live wednesday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern thats here on cspan 3. And thursday the Committee Hears from other witnesses about the nomination of miss lynch live at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Loretta lynch is the current u. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of new york. Her current tenure started in 2010 but she previously held the position 1999 to 2001. Miss lynch is a graduate of Harvard University and is 55 years old. The Washington Center recently hosted a discussion on the federal budget and the u. S. Debt. Former officials with the Clinton Administration and senator bill frists office took part. [ applause ] so, thanks everyone for having us today. Ill invite bill oakland up to the stage. Were waiting for our other panelist. In the meantime well get started. Bill is with me at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and you have his bio in front of you. Ill be fairly brief. He has served in a number of different government offices raging from the staff direct jorn the Senate Budget committee where he served for 17 years, i believe. Hes also served, hes one of the first employees at the Congressional Budget Office when it was first founded in the 1970s. And also served as the administrator of the food federal food and Nutritional Service and now Senior Vice President at the Bipartisan Policy Center and oversees a number of projects including the project i work on, the economic project, projects on health care and all things that have to go the federal budget and spending. Thank you very much. Bill im eager to have this conversation with you. Kind of easy to be bipartisan when there is nobody else here. So we will jump around a little bit today. The title of the panel is financing the American Dream which is a pretty broad topic. I just wanted to start with overarching statistics which some of you have probably heard before. The federal government takes in each year about 3. 5 trillion give or take a little under that. It spends closer to 4 trillion at this point. Right now there is a budget deficit of 400 billion to 500 billion which is expected to increase significantly in the coming years. Under this about 4 trillion of Government Spending there are about 15 departments, dozens of agencies and bureaus and then under those agencies and bureaus, hundreds of different programs if not thousands. So its interesting when you sum all these up that about five of those, one of the departments, three of the programs and then another line item in the budget constitute more than twothirds of all of that spending out of those hundreds, maybe thousands of programs. I wanted to give everyone about 30 seconds to jot down what you think that department, three programs and one line item are. Some of you are probably familiar with it. Why dont you write those down and we will ask a couple of you after that. Does anyone want to take a stab . Absolutely Social Security is one of them. That is made up of both Disability Insurance part and the old age part that is probably more well known. That is a big chunk of the federal budget. Medicare and medicaid are actually two programs. Those are the three programs. Social security, medicare and medicaid. Defense is the department. And who can guess the last one, the line item in the budget . Thats the toughest one. It is sort of tricky but the Interest Payments we make on the debt. Even though those are fairly low right now because we have record low Interest Rates the interest we pay is under 2 i think in normal times it is up 4 or 5 or higher. Once that goes back up, that lineitem will get even bigger. It is already one of the five biggest we have in the federal budget. So that just goes to show that out of all of the priorities that we fund through the federal government, a big majority of them is just in those five pieces. And a lot of that goes to retirees, medicare, and Social Security almost go entirely to the older generations. The interest on the debt goes to the people who own our debt and then you got defense, which goes to protecting the entire country and medicaid which goes to specific low income populations. But, bill, i wanted to start on that and get your thoughts as to when were prioritizing our spending and thinking about how good a job we do with the 4 trillion that taxpayers largely contribute to funding our priorities as a nation, what do you see when you think about those five items and the other priorities that we have in the federal budget . Well, first of all, i think that first of all, good afternoon, everyone. Good to be here. I want to just check something out here real quickly. I was talking to one of your advisers at the beginning. Somebody from purdue here, a purdue boilermaker . Penn state . Any penn staters . My gosh, im out of luck here completely. Ill go one more, United States Merchant Marine Academy . Bill only has been to three different schools. One of them, okay, good. Well, let me just pick up where shai is headed here in terms of those are the major spending programs. In fact, i like to say you can go back and impress your fellow students, your parents, your professors by saying you can put the whole damn federal budget for all practical purposes on one hand. It is Social Security, medicare, medicaid, defense, and paying interest on the public debt. You add up those five things, defense being in there, you add up those five things, thats about the total amount, a little off here now, but basically thats the total amount of revenues that we take in just for those five programs. There is Something Like 2,700 accounts in the federal budget. When people and im sure back home most people think, well, i think of the government as transportation, education, research, science, National Academy of sciences, National Institutes of health, the department of commerce, tsa, you think about all of those activities the federal government is involved in and yet almost all of our revenues that come in on an annual basis go just for those five programs. You could do away with the department of agriculture, you could do away with the department of commerce, you can do away with congress, you can do away with the white house. You still would not be able to come to closure given the mismatch here between revenues and those five programs. And as i look forward, Going Forward here, over the next ten years, decade, 85 of the growth in spending will just be in three areas. It will be in already identified it, Social Security, the health care programs, medicare and medicaid, and interest on the public debt. Thats where the growth in spending goes. Those are to me, theyre what we call entitlements. You heard the term. I personally i guess youre the millennials, right . Youre the millennials, you consider yourself to be the entitlement generation. I have to tell you im a post war baby boomer, im the entitlement generation. Im the one that gets the Social Security. Im the one that gets the medicare medicaid. And you dont get it as it is currently projected. Im going to guess here, im a little off on this, im sure, im going to say about the average lets say early 20s most of you in the room here, right . I assume thats close. Close enough, okay. I was doing quick calculations. I presume in your studies so far you identified that Social Security is a what we call a trust funded program. I dont like the word trust funded because i dont trust the government and it is not funded. But it is but the program itself will exhaust all of its assets by 2033. Just doing a quick calculation. If there is anybody that should be concerned, it is you guys, because youre coming right at the time, i guess most of you will be in your 40s and mid40s, thats when the program right now can only pay out that which comes in in the way of payroll taxes. It will go to a pay as you go, meaning the projected revenues, projected benefits that we normally get will be reduced by nearly 20 to 30 . Thats you guys. Not me. Its you. And so you should be concerned about that particular program as it relates to your retirement. As shai mentioned, filling in here, filibustering until my by the way, im the republican, all cards on the table, i work for republicans. My friend joe minarik is the democratic colleague who has chosen to abandon us right now. But i would simply say thats that in terms of Going Forward, we have to find a way, first of all, to address that issue of how do we were not going to reduce expenditures for those in retirement today or close to retirement. I presume youve been meeting with your some of your representatives and some of your senators and your staff. The one thing you that i discovered in my years in this town is you dont take away those benefits when they are paid out. Thats you may try to tweak them, but thats pretty politically charged. What it means is it means changing the benefits before theyre paid out, and that means what you think you would be getting in the future has to be modified, in other words, to make the program solvent Going Forward. However, in terms of priorities, the question, in terms of priorities, i will simply say that medicare medicaid, harvard, harvard people here, right . Okay. I you saw yesterdays new york times, front page new york times, story about health care, the faculty at harvard who had advised on health care, Health Care Fix fixes backed by harvard experts now roil the faculty at harvard, theyre all upset about the changes to health care at harvard. My daughter worked for kennedy school, so i have to be careful about this, very good benefits, what was proposed in health care reform, by harvard professors, now theyre mad at it because it is being implemented, the biggest problem i see Going Forward in terms of spending still remains health care. Even with Affordable Care act. The Fastest Growing component of expenditures over the next ten years will be in the federal exchanges for the subsidies for those up to 400 of poverty that are in that participate. So, bill, as you lined out with the health care growing and the baby boomers coming into Social Security, so thats growing, and potentially the Interest Payments that we talked about earlier growing, a quote you often give me is that this is all crowding out our seed corn for the future. And so what do you think that means in terms of other investments in education or Scientific Research or infrastructure . That portion of the budget, take set aside defense, about onethird of the federal budget is in the what we call the discretionary component of the budget. About 17 , 18 of it is in what we call nondefense discretionary. And that is shai says it is what i consider being a farm boy from indiana, i consider to be the seed corn of the future. That is research. That is education. That is science. That is investment in the infrastructure and growth in transportation and science, technology. And that is capped right now and it will remain capped until those other programs are softened their take on the federal taxpayer. Now, listen, all this could be handled easily, you could say, by just increasing taxes. I think youre here, welcome to washington. Not a popular subject. I do think tax reform is necessary. I do think there are ways to make the tax code a lot more efficient. But were already taking in about 20 of our gdp in federal taxes, not to speak about state, local taxes. It is tough. But at the end of the day, ill have to say i think it is a my democratic colleague here, good, thank you. Going to challenge me on this. Ill just say we cant increase taxes. What a warmup, bill. So, joe, here, just came back from vacation so we cant blame him for being late, i threw this on him at the last minute and he agreed to participate. Joe i consider my utility man because he is the person you go to when you have a question on the budget and almost definitely has your answer. The only way i paid him for all these favors over the years is with free cups of coffee at our office, which i assume he has a mediocre supply of coffee at his office as well. Joe served in a number of different positions as bill has, ranging from committees and the house to the office of management and budget in the administration, and has served as chief economist, staff director and variety of those positions and served with bill on the Bipartisan Policy Centers Debt Reduction task force which came out in 2010, which came out with a plan to reduce the debt, which is inherent in some of the proposals and policies that bill has been talking about up here with tax reform, entitlement reform. So joe youre jumping in the middle here, but we were talking the question was in terms of priorities in the federal budget and the growth in the entitlement programs and Interest Payments and how thats crowding out some of the other pieces. And so what do you think of the federal budget in terms of how it addresses our priorities as a country and where you see it moving forward . Well, i assume that bill probably used this word already three times, the budget is not sustainable. I didnt. Thats first time. Geez. I was getting ready to use that term, though. Okay, there you go. Well, i beat you to it. The budget as it stands now is not sustainable. So is it meeting our needs . I think by definition, no. We have to make changes so that we are not, cue display piece, piling up debt to the extent Going Forward that people like you are not going to be able to pay enough taxes to service that debt and also to do the things that the country needs to do. So that having been said, you look at what the budget does, and you come to the conclusion that there have got to be some changes. Now, among those changes we will need to pay more taxes. There is no doubt about that. And right before you walked in, joe, bill made the point that we could do it all with taxes. I dont think knowing as his republican credentials that hes recommending that and knowing what he supported but yeah, i bill probably also got into this too, and i apologize for being late. Thats mostly down to me, i should have been watching emails instead of playing with my granddaughter. Among the problems that we have on the spending side of the budget is an unsustainably rapid growth of Health Care Costs. Are saying, you know, hosanna, singing hosanna and saying that we solved that problem. I dont believe we have. And i believe in a few years, you know, two, three, four years down the road well see that what we have seen is a little blip in the growth curve and it is even with the most optimistic forecasts now, it is still Health Care Costs are still growing unsustainably. We have to do several things because of the growth of old folks like me, the growth of the number of old folks like me, relative to the population, even if we reduce the rate of growth of Health Care Services per person, the number of persons is growing rapidly enough that Health Care Costs will continue to rise. So we pay more in taxes, we face the reality of a growing population of people dependent upon health care, particularly through Health Care Services, particularly delivered through medicare. And that means that we will need to make adjustments in the other direction elsewhere on the spending side of the budget. So, you know, my usual one sentence answer is were going to have to take every dollar that isnt nailed down and some that are if were going to get out of this nest. And why dont i stop there and we can sure. A component that both of you touched on is we have a room full of millennials here, very relevant issue, given the programs are so im a millennial too, just a different millennium. That so many of these dollars that were talking about do go towards the generation that you are in, and that all of us will eventually hopefully be in, but not towards the us in our earlier years. What do you think of that discrepancy and how that can be adjusted . You look at im sorry, you were asking me . Either, yeah. Whoever wants to jump in first. Go ahead, joe. And then ill i would say the following. We have a lot of problems in terms of the performance of our economy, people talk about the problem of growing inequality. That is a reality, which it seems to me is most painful when you look at the fact that standards of living are not growing as rapidly as we would like. In the very near term, we have we have recently had and looking forward for at least a little while Job Opportunities have simply not been as available as we would like. Eventually i believe we will get past that, but incomes have not been growing very rapidly. If our society is going to continue to have growing standards of living to which, you know, we all aspire, we are going to have to make sure that as many of our population as possible are going to have skills that are necessary to advance in the workforce. That raises issues, all the way from preschool education where we are, even relative to some competitors around the world, sadly deficient, just in terms of access. All the way through the quality of education going through secondary school and into college where interestingly enough the u. S. Population overall continues to be doing relatively well with respect to post secondary attainment, with respect to in comparison with other countries, but thats because of people like me, older people, who have degrees where as our younger people the rate at which we are conferring degrees on our younger population is falling behind other countries around the world. So we need to do a better job in post secondary education and that includes serving first generation, Second Generation americans, there are still a lot of kids out there and please dont be offended if i call you kids, i still call my 40yearold grandchildren kids, we have kids out there who have not had anyone in their families get a post secondary degree or attend at all, which raises a lot of issues with respect to the support they need to get into school, to have a path to paying for it and then to get themselves through. We have people in their 20s who started but didnt finish or didnt start but clearly are capable of attaining degrees. And we need to find ways to help them to complete degrees while they support their families, while they have multiple obligations in time, which makes it very hard for them to attend school. Those challenges are going to cost money. We have complaints from some quarters that our elementary and secondary schools are extremely inefficient. And we could save money that could help us to pay the bills to do a better job there. To some extent thats true. But you cant make that argument with respect to preschool. We dont even have the classrooms, we dont have the teachers, we have to start that from the ground up. And that is not cheap. Bill, joe mentioned in College Education and something we have been working on a little bit at the Bipartisan Policy Center as we have a commission on Retirement Security and personal savings that is cochaired by former senator kent conrad and jim lockhart who is an official in the bush administration. They have been discussing personal savings and the first step of that often is student debt because many students exit college with a lot of debt, some dont even finish and then have the debt carried over and it is sort of inhibiting their ability to save and pursue their career and so talking about some of the challenges that joe talked about, but also the savings issues and Student Loans, what are your thoughts . At the risk of having the millennials out here throw things at me, let me i hope youre accurate. Let me be not disagree with joe, entirely, but let me just i know youre all college students, let me just say not Everybody Needs to go to college. Some of the skills out there, i asked purdue, lane Grant College where i did my undergraduate work, mitch daniels, the president of Purdue University now who used to be omb director here, governor of indiana, had a major study that they conducted with the National Academy of sciences, i believe. And skilled workers, plumbers, pipe fitters, making more than his College Graduates longterm. All im suggesting and here is getting into Student Loans is that while i agree that those who want to go to college should go to college, need to go to college, there we shouldnt by creating certain incentives through a Student Loan Program that makes it creates that debt on you out there, we shouldnt be incentivizing the creation of additional debt, which means that we shouldnt have should have other opportunities besides a fouryear graduate degree and im not taking anything away from what you do and what youre being Good Students that you are, but just recognize theyre out there, there are other people that do not need to go to college and what we should be focusing on from a longterm perspective is developing those skills, Skilled Development is critical. I want to come back to one issue, though, broader, back to