Coordination, information sharing, threat information sharing, and information sharing about best practices and best results. Thank you. Yeah thank you. And very quickly we are very open to trying to play a stronger role in trying to assist these conversations across different modes of transportation. I would say that just the first thing weve got to do in each of these modes is get the modes, you know within the modes having the discussion because there will be things unique to automobiles or to rail cars or to aviation that are distinct. But to your point i do think there are crosscutting issues too. And our department intends to play an active role on the crosscutting side of the conversation as well. Id like to thank you for a very interesting and informative session. [ applause ] lets all give the secretary [ applause ] thank you very much. Tonight on the communicators, fcc commissioner minion clyburn on their recent Net Neutrality ruling, municipal broadband and the subsidized phone and broadband program, lifeline. What i am proposing that we do is overhaul the lifeline program, make it concurrent and in sync with the information age, challenge those providers to give more to their consumers. The prices and opportunities have gone down have been more explosive for the rest of us. It should be for our lifeline consumers, get those providers out of the certification business. That has been the number one problem that weve been seeing with not so positive headlines. It is a vulnerability in the system that we need to plug. Tonight at 8 00 eastern, on the communicators, on cspan 2. And a live look at the capitol now. The house today began the week by considering six bills including one to fund trauma care centers. That vote under way right now on cspan 1. On the agenda later this week is a senatepassed resolution disapproving of regulations on Union Election rules. As always you can see the house live on cspan. And the senate you can watch live on cspan 2. The senate today resuming debate on a Human Trafficking bill. The measure has been held up because of a provision that blocks federal funds for abortions. A procedural vote on the bill is expected tomorrow. The outcome for that could have implications on the nomination of Loretta Lynch to be the next attorney general. The senate was expected to begin debate on her nomination this ajority leader Mitch Mcconnell said over the weekend that consideration of miss lynch would only come up after the Senate Moves Forward with the Human Trafficking bill. White house interpret secretary josh earnest was about the delay at todays press briefing with reporters. Heres a portion of the briefing. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the white house on this glorious monday. I dont have anything at the top. So we can go straight to your questions. Darlene, would you like to get us started . Sure. Thank you. I have a couple questions on the report today on the Affordable Care act. 60 million americans signed up since the law good place to start. Well, i thought you were going to start with that. I considered it. But given the late beginning here. Given all the positive numbers in that report, why do you think it is that debate over the Affordable Care act is not settled . I think principally its because weve seen tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars being spent by the president s political opponents to distort the facts about the true impact of the Affordable Care act. This is money plain and simple. And what we have said is that the more that the American People understand the benefits that are associated with this law the more people will approve of it. At least the more the approval of this will show up in polls. But frankly were not concerned about the numbers in the polls. Were concerned about the numbers that demonstrate the impact of this law. And whether its 16 Million People being uninsured people getting access to Health Care Coverage since the law went into effect, thats a pretty good number. The decline in the overall insurance uninsured rate dropping 35 . Thats a pretty good number. The historically low growth in Health Care Costs since the Affordable Care act went into effect. Thats a good number too. So thats what were monitoring. And thats why the president has placed such a premiums among members of his team on the implementation of this law. And were only building momentum, and were certainly pleased by the progress that weve seen so far. But there continues to be a lot of work that needs to get done. And i think probably the best example of that that i can highlight for you is the continued resistance weve seen in some quarters to the expansion of medicaid. There continue to be republicans across the country who are blocking the expansion of medicaid in a way that literally prevents individuals in their states from getting badly needed Health Care Coverage that would be 100 paid for by the federal government. And for the life of me i cant understand why anyone would reach that conclusion but some republicans in this case are quite literally putting their political ambition against the lives of some people in their state. And thats a shame and thats unfortunate. But its consistent with the kind of political opposition that weve seen from republicans to what in many cases is a pretty common sense implementation of the law. The report showed that those states that went ahead and expanded medicaid are doing better in terms of covering uninsured people than those states that havent. Given what you just said about the Medicaid Expansion, do you think the report will somehow encourage some of these other states to go ahead and get on board . I certainly hope so. And thats certainly what the data would show. That there is a positive impact on the health of citizens in these states when medicaid is expanded. There certainly is a positive impact on Health Care Providers in these states because medicare insures that their uncompensated care costs are reduced. These are individuals who dont have access to health care, arent able to pay their medical bills. Automatically those bills are assumed either by the government or by those of us who are paying insurance premiums. But because of medicare expansion you have a role for the federal government to step in and take care of some of those costs and make sure those individuals are Getting Health Care before their conditions get too bad. The other thing were seeing is the cost to states themselves are alleviated by this as well. So whether its health benefits, benefits for the economy or benefits for the bottom lines of these State Governments the impact of Medicaid Expansion is very positive. On another subject we havent heard the white house respond yet to senator mcconnell saying yesterday that Loretta Lynchs nomination may be delayed further. Well, its certainly a disappointment that after 128 days since being nominated to be the next attorney general that Loretta Lynch a professional independent career prosecutor has not yet gotten a vote in the United States senate. Its an unconscionable delay. Miz lynch has submit informed more than eight hours of testimony before the Senate Judiciary committee. She answered more than 600 written questions from senators. To say nothing of the countless other conversations that she has had in more private settings with individual members of the United States senate. She is somebody who has distinguished herself over the course of her career as a tough, fair, independent lawyer. Shes developed strong relations with Law Enforcement because of that reputation. She is somebody who has successfully prosecuted terrorists who targeted the Federal Reserve headquarters in new york as well as the new york city subway system. Shes somebody who has gone after public corruption and has brought charges against Public Officials in both parties. Shes somebody whos secured billions in settlements from some of the Worlds Largest banks, who are accused of fraud. And shes jailed some of new yorks most violent and notorious mobsters and gang members. This is someone with a demonstrated track record of Law Enforcement who is up for the top Law Enforcement job in the country. Theres not a single legitimate question that has been raised about her aptitude for this job. Instead all weve seen is a bunch of political obstruction from republicans that again does not does not speak well of republicans efforts to run the senate in an in effect fashion and certainly not in a way thats in the best interests of the country. Senator mcconnell laid out a timeline yesterday that suggests it could be mid april at the earliest before her nomination goes to the floor. Is that a timeline the white house would be willing to accept . And if not what is the alternative or how do you get her nomination voted on earlier . This is the responsibility of the United States senate, to vote on the president s nominees. And as i mentioned before theres not been a legitimate question thats been raised about her aptitude for the office. So the delay is unconscionable. Its unexplained. And the thing that i will that i think warrants mentioning here is youll recall as i pointed out senator ms. Lynch has been waiting 128 days to get a vote in the senate. The reason that time period has been so long is because the president nominated her back in november for this job. And at that time we saw senator mcconnell himself say that ms. Lynch, a, will receive fair consideration. I think hed be hard pressed to make the case he lived up to that promise. But b, he also said that her nomination should be considered in the course of im sorry, should be considered in the new congress through regular order. So essentially huh senator mcconnell in the position back in november telling the president that he should delay submitting her up to congress until republicans were in the majority. Now, ive gotten asked a number of times since november about whether or not the president trusts senator mcconnell, about whether or not senator mcconnell and other members of the republican leadership, whether their word is good with the president. Senator mcconnell back in november was saying her nomination should be considered in the new congress. But yesterday when senator mcconnell was asked on cnn about whether or not he was going to act quickly to confirm her and to explain the delay he said the nomination hasnt taken that long if you consider when it was actually taken up which was this year. He continued to say the democrat majority back in december had a chance to work on the nomination earlier but decided to delay it until this year. He failed to point out that delay was at his request. And now hes in a position of delaying it even of delaying her nomination even further. Despite the fact, and ill say it again, no legitimate question has been raised about her aptitude for this office. Despite the fact she submitted to more than eight hours of testimony and despite the fact shes answered more than 600 written questions. So there is no question that republicans are playing politics with the nomination of the nations top Law Enforcement official, and it should come to an end. All right . Julia. Thanks. The state department is saying after kerrys comments over the weekend that assad should be included in talks to work out negotiations with syria, that theyre still keeping the same policy policy saying he has to lead. What motivation does assad have to come to the table if he also would have to leave . And what pressure is being used to bring him into such talks . As the state department has said, and i had the opportunity to see some portion of secretary kerrys interview, he was referring to the fact that the assad regime will have to be at the negotiating table with elements of the modern opposition to try to broker an arrangement about the political transition in syria. As far as assads motivation goes, its difficult to understand his motivation. What would cause somebody to drop barrel bombs on innocent civilians . What would cause someone to so disrupt the very fabric of their country that he would allow isil to run roughshod over significant portions of the country that hes supposed to be governing and slaughtering some of the citizens that hes supposed to be serving . So i have a difficult time trying to speak to his motivation. What i can tell you is the United States is going to continue to work actively with the International Community to try to bring about some resolution to the political solution in syria. But what is i think understandably at the top of our priority list is dealing with the threat that is posed by extremists that are capitalizing on the chaos inside syria right now. There is no question that assad is responsible for that chaos. Its a reflection of his failed leadership that we see extremists who are attempting to establish syria as a safe haven to carry out acts of terror around the globe, certainly around that region. And thats why youve seen such a vibrant international response. And ultimately all of this rests at assads feet. And we are optimist thaik as we move forward were going to be able to succeed in working with the International Community to limit this threat, to degrade and ultimately destroy isil as an organization to take out other extremists that may be operating inside syria and you know hopefully that once weve been able to make some progress as it relates to the security situation we can also make progress on the political situation inside syria too. Okay. And on the cyclone that hit many South Pacific islands, we heard from the president on that. Whats his response . Is he going to offer any kind of aid . Let me start by saying that we offer our con donted to the people vanuatu tuvalu, the Solomon Islands and carabas as they cope with the devastating impact of cyclone pam. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their loved ones. In the wake of this cyclone the United States government immediately issued disaster declarations from our u. S. Embassies in the region, and were working closely with our ngo partners in the region on the most effective ways to deliver our relief response. The u. S. A. I. D. Has sent an Assessment Team to vanuatu to coordinate our response. For details on that effort id refer to you u. S. A. I. D. And the department of defense that can provide lojsgistical support in these kind of situations. I want to circle back on the lynch nomination first. Mitch mcconnell said the reason hes holding it up is this Human Trafficking bell. I saw that too. Yeah. Eric was asked about it last week and didnt really weigh in from you guys. So what im wondering is whether you guys have a position on whether the bill should be passed as is. And specifically theres been a lot of controversy over an antiabortion provision in the bill, whether thats something you guys would veto were it to pass the senate. Well, right now it doesnt have the votes to pass the senate. Over the course of last month we spent a lot of time talking about the efforts of Congressional Republicans to pass funding for the department of homeland security. And i observed at the time it was difficult to think of a more common sense measure that should be able to get bipartisan support from the United States congress than funding for the department of homeland security. Well, sure enough a month later i think i found a more common sense that democrats and republicans should be able to get together to support, and that is an effort to concentrate federal resources to stop child sex trafficking. But youve got to hand it to republicans that theyve taken even a measure as common sense as that and turned it into a partisan controversy. That is not a reflection of a flaw in the bill. Its a reflection of inept leadership. That surely democrats and republicans should be in regular order be able to Work Together to advance legislation that would allow us to concentrate our efforts to focus on and crack down on individuals who seek to traffic children. But yet Mitch Mcconnell and republicans in congress have succeeded in turning this into a partisan controversy. And again, i also noted last month that Speaker Boehner and leader mcconnell got together the day after the election and they wrote an oped in the wall street journal. The headline of the oped was now we can get Congress Going. Well, hopefully leader mcconnell can get Congress Going on passing a piece of legislation that would stop child sex trafficking. How are they turning it into a partisan issue . Sn. Hold on. Justin, do you have anything else . Margo . How are they turning it into a partisan controversy . Right now youve got a whole bunch of democrats on the other side of the aisle saying theyre not going to support it because of a provision the republicans have inserted in this widely supported bill. If republicans with are going to be in a situation where they want, to to use their words,