Room that does not see the future of israel through the lens of your legacy. Last year, i had the honor of meeting president peres on a trip to israel with some of my colleagues. It was an incredible visit from jerusalem to ramallah, to galilee, tel aviv. Of all the memorable moments, though, theres one that shines through. And a dinner tel aviv, i met a. She helped one community in particular for years. And without disclosing much of who she was or where she came from. One day she finally let the syrian commander know that she was an israeli. He was stunned. And right then and there, refused her help, calling her a sworn enemy, despite the lives she had saved and the selfless assistance she had given his people. Luckily, she was not willing to be easily deterred. She took it to the community for a vote. If they said go she would pack up. If they said stay she would continue to serve. They begged her to stay. So she did. Mr. President , this is your legacy. Every bit as integral to israel a future as her past. The generations of israeli men and women will continue to put themselves on the front lines of peace no matter the risks or the road blocks. Refuse to let labelslike enemy or adversary influence the direction of their moral compass. Who believe that peace is possible. In no small part because they have a leader by their side for over 70 years, counciling patients, optimism and faith. Mr. President , with a debt of gratitude not only for the history that you carved but for the future that you will undoubtedly shape, it is our honor to come together today to recognize you with the congressional gold medal. And a world still, as you say, aching for peace. For compassion in the face of great conflict and humanity in the face of great suffering, may your legacy light our way. Thank you. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, the United States senator from new hampshire. Good morning. I am so humble to be here in the presence of president shimon peres, majority leader reed, our congressional leaders. So many distinguished leaders and citizens in this room. To congressman kennedy, congressman franks, thank you so much for your leadership in the house of representatives, to ensure that well award shimon peres, the congressional medal. Your efforts helped to make todays ceremony possible. To senator bennet, i want to express my gratitude to you for working alongside with me in the United States senate, to introduce the bill to award president peres the congressional gold medal and i know todays ceremony is particularly moving for you and your family. Were so honored to have your mother here with us today. Suzanne cledgeman bennett is here with us today. She was born in poland in 1938, as nazi forces gathered at the border. She and her parents endured the that si occupation in around warsaw along with an aunt. They were the only members of the family to survive. And unfortunately, everyone else perished at the hands of the nazi. So i know how much this means to you senator bennet. Thank you. I cannot think of a more deserving individual to receive the congressional gold medal than shimon peres and i want to thank the people that came to me, senator bennet and others and all that have worked on the, because this has been one of the highlights of the work that ive had been able to do in the senate and, by the way, if everything were as easy to do in the senate to get cosponsors for as this, can you imagine what we could get done for the country . [ applause ] as one of the Founding Fathers of israel, for 67 years, president shimon peres, has been a selfless servant of his beloved country during times of war and peace. Providing a steady hand, he has been a constant and passionate voice for peace. But most of all, not only is he a great statesman and leader, he is a man who has a pure heart and the depth of his love for all of humanity has made him a drum major for justice, not just in israel but throughout the world. As for america, we have never had a better friend who understands who we are and what we stand for. As president peres said last night, at the israeli embassy, were an exceptional nation whose people give rather than take. Today, mr. President , is our way of saying to you thank you, and to recognize that you truly are an exceptional man who has made israel and the world a better place. Thank you, mr. President. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, the United States army chorus. Ladies and gentlemen, the democratic leader of the United States house of representatives, the honorable nancy pelosi. Good morning. Mr. Vice president , president peres, mr. Speaker, mr. Leader and mr. Leader, mr. Leader, my colleagues in the congress and our friends in the senate, madam secretary, today congress is bestowing a congressional gold medal on a truly historic figure. Every one of us in this room will always be able to boast that we were there when Congress Honored this iconic figure and friend of america. Shimon peres planted the seeds of the jewish state of israel and helped that garden grow. Whether literally in the blooming of the desert or more significantly, in the blow sossg of society and people. A soldier who became a peacemaker. An immigrant who became an institution. A Public Servant who became a statesman, a champion of nonvooi lense and a messenger of hope and a founder of a nation who became and remains a visionary for his and all people. Shimon peress story is a story of modern israel. A saga of daring wisdom. Israel, like america, president pere sechlt once said, was conceived as an idea, born in defiance of history, creating a new world by drawing the values of the past and the innovations of the future. Few alive could claim to have done so much for the success of that idea. And even at the age of 90, farmer fighter, Prime Minister and president continues to guide his nation into tomorrow. Just as an aside, i remember at the white house, we celebrated his 90th birthday last year, he spent his speech talking about innovation technologies of the future. Shimon peres dream has long been and will ever be the dream of a nation free to live peace and security in the homeland of the jewish people. He dreams of a dawn where every man and woman across the middle east may wake up as he says, free to be free. And as shimon peres would surely remind us, if you will it, it is not a dream. May god bless you shimon peres, his dreams and will to the state of israel and the path to peace. May his spirit and the spirit of the entire pioneeri ining genern of israels founders live on in our actions today and in the future. May israel long be recognized as the greatest political achievement of the 20th century. And a beacon of hope, democracy and justice into the 21st century and beyond. May this gold medal always serve as a stirring symbol of our deep respect for shimon peres, our unending admiration for israels people and the unbreakable friendship between our country and the nation of israel. As our speaker said earlier, the first recipient of the congressional gold medal is our founding father, george washington. Today we bestow it on another founding father. Both of them in accepting the award bring luster to the award. Thank you, perez peres for receiving this honor, again, your accepting it luster to the award and shalom and thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the majority leader of the United States house of representatives, the honorable eric cantor. Thank you, good morning. Mr. Vice president , mr. Speaker, president peres, my colleagues and other distinguished guests. It is a true honor for me to be here today to pay tribute to one of the worlds greatest statesmen. President peres you are always a man who has stood for the advancement of humankind. You have been an inspiration to so many of us young and old in your tireless advocacy for democracy. In your belief that it is that which is the best path to peace and security for all. Few people, president peres, have dedicated their lives to the security of the state of israel and the continuity of the jewish people the way that you have. So many of us have been touched by president peres. I know on the many trips that ive made to israel along with my colleague, kevin mccarthy, just a little over a year ago we were there and you welcomed us with opened arms. Delegation after delegation. So many of us found inspiration in your words. So many of us tried to learn how it was that you talk about the importance of the u. S. israel partnership. Of what it means to be tied together by mutual bonds and beliefs. You have said and continue to say, that what makes us in america so unique, is that we are a country that gives. We dont take. And, in fact, if you think about it, our country maintains its security for its citizens because we give of treasure and, yes, we give of blood, to go in search of helping others. Those who cannot help themselves. And that gives us our benefit and our safety and security here at home. That is what makes america at its core, a leader of the world. That is why it is so important that we maintain this Strong Partnership between our two countries. Mr. President , you are worthy of this one of highest honors that america can confer in the congressional gold medal. You know, in the jewish religion, we pray daily for the restoration of justice. We asked god for his guidance, his inspiration to our leaders, that that he may conduct themselves toward that end of the restoration of days of old. And allow us to continue on our mission of repairing the world as it is said. The ikon olam. You are one of those warriors and you are that leader congratulations to you today. Ladies and gentlemen, the republican heard of the United States senate, the honorable mitch mcconnell. For thousands of years, the jewish people searched for a home. For almost 70 years, theyve defended one. The world is marveled at the achievement of this once nomadi people. People who raised a nation out of the sands. With every odd stacked against them. Its an incredible tale. And since the birth of modern israel, one man has been there every step of the way. Standing at the very center of the remarkable drama. Shimon peres. President of israel, the man we honor today. He was there in prewar europe. He was there during the migration to israel. He was there for the war of independence. Hes held virtually every major government post over the span of his nearly 70year long political career. He served under ben gurion. He died with degall. He sparred pass iner is. His tenure in the kineset spans momentous events in lebanon and camp david and the olympics in munich. Hes both seen and stood at the center of so much. From israels earliest years as a dream in the desert, to its transformation to the modern, flourishing diverse democracy of today. Hes been there. A figure of reconciliation and of strength. With his arab neighbors, hes sought peace. And made extraordinary nobelwinning efforts to advance. His historic speech to the german people in 2010 moved and inspired many of us. And we know that president peres put aside longstanding mistrust along political adversaries in order to join hands with those interested in peace. The kind of peace that seemed impossible at the time and that remains sadly, ill lieuive illusive today. And he 457b9 given up and thats not surprising given this man said, for him, dreaming is simply being pragmatic. Its this remarkable approach to life and work that sustains shimon peres for decades in the political spotlight. In just a few weeks, president peres will leave the presidency behind. Hell close the book on one storied political career and hand the reigns to his successor. But what a story it has been. What a story it is. So today, we honor shimon peres, president of the state of israel, for his numerous contributions to public life. We thank him for being such a great friend of the United States over the years. For strengthening the Unbreakable Union between our two democracies and we look forward to the next chapter in his extraordinary life, may it be as remarkable as those that preceded it. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the majority leader of the United States senate, the honorable harry reid. Today were gathered to honor a man whos dedicated his entire life to making the world a better place. I see in the audience senator dick durbin. He was with that group of senators that i led to the middle east and we told senator durbin and others at the time, that they would have an opportunity to meet the man that i had such deep respect and admiration for and, in fact, no one has been more inspirational to me than the man we honor today. Dick and i still talk about that. The meeting we had with shimon peres. And a visionary view he had of the world. But is any wonder, i think so highly of this man, seven decades of public service, should be an inspiration to us all and it is. Weve heard that his tenure of service of 50 years in the kineset, Prime Minister twice, acting Prime Minister twice. Minister of foreign affairs. On three separate occasions. Minister of defense twice. Minister of finance. Minister of transportation. And eight other cabinet posts. And currently, of course, president of the state of israel. This is a man who never grows old. When he came too his first time of being Prime Minister, a lot of us on the internet came, that was for someone else to deal with. Not this man. He wanted to know about the internet and he proceeded to teach himself and have others teach him about the internet. He was the first Prime Minister to go on to the internet and have that worthy position he holds as part of the internet. Hes been educated in the United States on occasion, the new school. New york university, harvard. He speaks hebrew, yiddish, polish, russian, english, french, and authored 11 books. Weve heard hes been honored with the most prestigious awards that can be given to him worldwide. The nobel peace prize. President ial medal of freedom. French legion of honor and today, the congressional gold medal. So you can understand why i was so eager to take senator durbin and the other senators with me to meet this incredible man. My admiration for president peres stems more from just his important positions and his many accomplishments. Winston churchill said, quote, all the great things are simple and can be expressed in a single word. Well, i believe that. The greatness of shimon peres can be expressed in a single word optimism. He said, this man seated behind me, optimists and pessimists die the same way. They just live differently. I prefer to live as an optimist. [ applause ] optimism has been his life and its that optimism thats inspired so many of us around the world. That optimism has guided shimon peres in everything hes done. And the challenges he and his family faced because of the holocaust, to his work for a lasting peace and a secure israel. Is that optimism is hope for the world, his belief in peace which i so admire. President peres has said and i aquote. Two positions of leadership. One is built on force and the other is built on good will. Good will is winning. Reliance on force is losing. Whats the conclusion . That through good will you can achieve more. Isnt that true . Thank you. Hes achieved so much for himself, not only for the middle east or the world. He has optimism and his good will, shimon peres always places peace within our grasp. So i congratulate this good man, a statesman, a leader for the world, for everything hes accomplished throughout his distinguished life. President peres, israel, the middle east, the world are all better because of your optimism and your decency. So, its an more for me to participate in the ceremony today as a United States congress bestows upon you its highest honor and congressional gold medal. We honor you today, the father of your country, at least one of the fathers of your country, and so many different ways, congratulate you for being the man that you are. This medal epitomizes all that youve meant to congress and the people of the United States, american world. Mr. President , you have for these many decades, worked tirelessly to make the world a better place for all of gods children. Ladies and gentlemen, the speaker of the United States house of representatives, the honorable john boehner. nit is now time for the presentation of the gold medal and i ask my colleagues to join me on stage for the presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice President of the United States, the honorable joseph r. Biden jr. Mr. President , congratulations. And with your permission, ill forego the Barbra Streisand serenade. But what i have to say is equally as much in the heart as her most melodic tunes. I heard a story, one us raisrae speaking to the other and the first one says, shimon peres only has three or four weeks left to go in his presidency. And the response was yes. But they are peres weeks. Those weeks have gone on for long, long time, mr. President. You are absolutely relentless as everyone has pointed out, youve been minister, Prime Minister, youve occupied every office there is to occupy. In israel and i would argue, around the world, ive been so, so many conferences in other parts of the world with president peres that youre a force of nature, mr. President. Youre a force of nature. Every once in a while, a people produce someone who is beyond their office. A force of nature. Ive watched you in switzerland, in germany, in england. Ive watched you in the middle east. So many places where ive been present while youve spoken. Theres never, never, never a place ive been and ive known you, mr. President , since i was 30 years old theres never been a place ive been when this man stands up, everybody, everybody listens. No matter what the atmosphere in the room was before he approached the podium. Youre a National Treasure to israel but id also. Fully suggest youve been a National Treasure to the United States of america. Youre a legendary friend. Mr. President , i know you heard all of this a thousand times and its hards to say with all the emotion but we all feel it. I try to picture many times, when ive been with you, you being at the feet of David Ben Guri gurion. You were essentially a kid at the time, his youngest protege and you served continually, since 1948. Its absolutely remarkable. Ive watched how youve expressed your affection for everyone whos ever touched you or your family. Ive watched how you give praise to greek monks who helped to your father. Ive watched how you im told you knowing you, you can probably sing greek songs, too. But i just i just its remarkable to me how your image and the way you live your life seems in private and public, and although i dont know it in any detail in private, has been totally consistent. You spent half your career, the first half, cementing the physical security of the state of israel. As you said, as a small nation, what a great concept. And you almost singlehandedly willed into existence a strong, proud, Israel Defense establishment that we work with so closely today. And ever since, then, mr. President , youve been every bit as in your search for peace. Its sorts of the ying and the yang of shimon peres. Hes always done what he needed to do for his country in the time that it had to be done. Hes always known what had to be done in his country at the time. And almost every instance im aware of, he has almost always been ahead of the curve. Hes always needed for his people. Israel, as a jewish state, a homeland for jewish people, a state a twostate solution where two people can live sidebyside. Palestinians enjoying self determine nation. Mutual recognition and peace. You know, when you think about israel today, at least i do. Ive been traveling to israel since 1972. I was raised at a table by what and shimon peres may not remember my father got to meet him, what you call a righteous christian. We had conversation, incidentally ate. My fair was one of those people after, as a young kid, after the war, how he could understand why was there a disagreement about establishing this state of israel . Why was this the case . Why was there any problem . And in hindsight today, i think most of this, i look at my children quarterback grown men and women and look back and its like, this was all inevitable. There was an inevitability about us rate becoming a nation state. A strong, proud, successful, economically vibrant state. Dont have to look back very far to realize this was anything but inevitable. As a matter of fact, it was opposite of inevitable. Literally, all the odds, all the odds were against israel. Thankfully, israel was blessed with a founding generation that understood what it took to overcome those odds. And thankfully, mr. President , israel was blessed with you. My mother had an expression. My siblings and i heard repeated, god knows how many times. Shed always say, youre defined by your courage. And your redeemed by your loyalty. You are defined by your courage. And you are redeemed by your loyalty. You are the definition of what my mother was talking about, mr. President. You have had great courage and your loyalty has been unbending. Not only to all of your people, but our people as well. It is my friends in the senate and house and excuse me for a point of personal privilege, as i said, ive known you for a long time. And theres if youll for me for quote an irish proverb, theres an old irish proverb that says the good friend is like a four leaf clover. Hard to find but lucky to have. Mr. President , you have been my friend. Youve counciled me when ive asked you for council. Youve been done with me what youve done for so many people here. Youve literally given us the benefit of your wisdom. Ill conclude, mr. President , by saying that i think the one distinguishing feature of you as a leader and because ive hung around this place so long i think i met the vast majority of the World Leaders personally over the last 40 years. Ive never met a person and i mean this sincerely. Ive never met a person with greater eloquence, nor possessed more wisdom than you. If theres anything this world needs badly now, is women and men with wisdom. So mr. President , thank you for what youve done for your country. Thank you for what youve done to our country. And thank you for your friendship. Mr. President , may god bless israel and bring all the our children home. My God Bless America and may god protect our troops. Congratulations. [ applause ] i forgot my job. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the state of israel, shimon peres and the winner of the congressional gold medal of honor. Thank you so much. Vice president joe biden, Speaker Boehner and senator majority leader harry reid, members i am humbled to stand here today in this great democracy. The congress of the United States. Here you give expression to unbreakable spirit of the american people. It was first expressed 237 years ago when your forefathers signed a document who still echos for all time. Our life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those words resonate with much meaning today as they did when americas first patriots were theyve inspired generations of americans to dream of a better america and to inspire peoples all over the globe to dream for a better world. Many people called me a dreamer. I suppose thats why i have always felt at home in the United States of america. [ applause ] america that was given the privilege to carry the dreams of humanity. My own dream was to be a shepherd in kibbutz. It came true, you know . I watched the ship in order not to lose one. At night i watched the south in order not to miss one. The dreams of a young shepherd were interrupted by David Ben Gurion, israels george washington, who called me to serve at the jewish state. I was then 24 years old. He had been going with heavy responsibilities. He made he director general of the israeli minister and he charged me with securing a young nations ability to defend itself. I worked hard. I had little time to study. I didnt know a single word of english. After a war of independence, when he suggested i go to the United States to learn english, study the American Dreams, he told me, thats what you have to do. So i did. I learned that america is not a land for the idle. I learned that america is the home for the American Dream is about hard work. Pioneering spirit, ethical. I learned the two great bodies that steer under the icon marbled dome, the senate and the house of representatives, when timely israel was struggling for life and unbelievable and unbreakable friendship. You helped israel out of her loneliness. You helped israel overcome small size in tough surroundings. You helped us maintain a resilient democracy. To become a Strong Enough to take this for peace. You offered military assistance and Security Cooperation and true and diplomatic moral support you sent us a clear message that we are not alone. On behalf of all of the people of israel i want the thank you. My friend and israels friend, president barack obama with you for sending with unshakeable commitment to israels security. [ applause ] i want to thank each and every one of you, the american congress, for your unwavering, bipartisan and generous support to my people. [ applause ] thank you for helping us weather so many storms and for giving us confidence to face the future. Friends, ladies and gentlemen, the challenges we face are considerable. Together we must fight terrorism, advance peace. Prevent iran from acquiring a Nuclear Weapons capacity. Like president obama, israel hopes that the issue of iran will be resolved peacefully. And like president obama, we believe that iran should be judged by actions, not by words. The artificial structure in the middle east build in the previous empire are now falling a part. At the same time, the rules governing the world are being rewritten. Security and prosperity are no longer mainly national issues. National economies are dependent on global economy. National security is increasingly dependent on fighting global terrorism. And in middle east it is easy to sink into despair. But to have seen too much in my life my life to lose hope. I have seen time and again. I have seen defeat superior enemies on the battlefield and send soldiers to rescue hostages thousands of miles away from home. It has shown it can defend against those that sought to destroy. It will do everything in our pour to bring home three kidnapped boys. [ applause ] i met with their parents, with their mothers. And they asked me to speak before you on their behalf. To ask you to make your voice heard around the world to help bring them their boys, our boys, home. To sound a call across the world against terror. Lets raise our voice together against terrorism wherever it is. [ applause ] dear friends, i have seen the israel make our poor middle east land bloom and turn into a Global Center of technology. I learned that hightech can quench the worlds for water and heal the planet. When increased yields with land. As the rabi bear life in the synagogue in 1942. I know the darkest hour cannot present a new dawn and a next day. It will arrive. My friends, today and together we must tackle challenges we face, terrorism and poverty. Terror knows no borders and obeys no rules. It kills hundreds of thousands, and it tears millions into averages. We see it in iran, iraq, syria, lebanon, libya, gaza, and elsewhere. By sanctioning their suppliers, by preventing the financial aid, we know that terrorists are global. There they should be fought globally. We must fight not only the acts of terror but the roots of terrorism. Not just by military means but by trying the financial supply by their actions. By leaving original net that can catch terrorists and protect the innocent people. It can play a meaningful role in destroying terrorism and tolerance and hope. It can never permit terrorists to hijack faith and terrorize in the name of heaven. We need more like pope francis. We need rabbis, priests and monks to preach respect for god in heaven and life on health. [ applause [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, it is our duty to offer the young generation a vision more compelling, more promising for the future. The population grew five times about the last 50 years. Its economy did not. Poverty soared. An era of silence replace the era of land. We experience it daily. Less water, no oil. We came a nation through hightech and hard work allowing the turmoil of today can provide a new hope for tomorrow. My dream today is that the middle east will become a region as israel became a nation. [ applause ] to make that happen, leaders in the region must do their share to open their societies because without free thinking, there is no new thinking. And without openness, there are no discoveries. Global companies should play a role helping the region become to date and prepare it for tomorrow. The middle east population is under the age of 25. For some, this is a cause of concern. For me is it a source of hope. For business its a great opportunity to invest both economically and socially. Global companies are aware that young people want a different future. They want Free Expression but also selfexpression. They want equal rights including the right to be different. Our two countries america and israel have a unique contribution to offer. We are not the same size but share the same volumes and the same dreams. Our dreams keep us young. Our values keep us true. It is already from experience we want to share with our neighbors. In my decades of having rulers selling my country, i saw how become a thriving democracy, diverse society, leading defense force, cutting edge scientific community. It was done with you. And nobody else could be more helpful than you. A more promising cause through initiative in health education, culture, water and science. I hope to educate myself to this world in the years ahead. As for america, it remains in indespensable. It remains the only country that never tried to become an empire. You my dear friends i present your nation, you became great not by taking. You became great by giving. God bless you. [ applause ] america. America is a focus, a peace. The world is fortunate that america continues to lead it. 60 years ago america looked to the moon to discover a distant land. Today the United States is leading a major scientific effort to reveal secret of the mind. We are partner in that. May i say that in my judgment there may be more into discover in the brain than in the moon. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, america and israel should continue to Work Together to advance peace. Wars can be wage along. Peace calls for a collective effort. Israel went through seven wars in the two peace agreements with egypt, largest arab country, with jordan, longest share. I hope well be able to renew peace talks with the palestinians soon. Israel does not intend to rule over other people. It stands against our values and heritage. We sincerely want peace. [ applause ] israel is committed to bettering the world and making peace with all of our neighbors. President abbas is clearly a partner for peace. [ applause ] there were people that thought otherwise. I feel theyre now closer to my judgment than to their own. Because he spoke bravely in saudi arabia against the kidnapping, against terror, and for peace. But you cannot put fire and water in the same glass. As he is a friend, hamas is clearly not a partner for peace. Hamas fires at our civilians. They support terror. We must not lose hope. There is no better solution than two states people. A jewish state israel and arab state palestine. [ applause ] peace between israel and palestine can forge a regional peace. Israeli Peace Initiative to meet their initiative. My friends, i believe it long enough to see impossible becoming possible. To skeptics, i can say believe me. Peace is the most possible impossibility. In months ill be leaving my town as the ninth president of israel. I never gave up on the struggle to achieve peace. Im young enough to do so. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, im here today with one piece of advice. It is the advice of the boy who dreamed, what never imagined where his blessed life would take him. He said if you win it it was not a dream. He was right. Looking back on life of israel. Our dreams of not to be to be. They were too small because is ral achieved more than i could have imagined. I ask one thing from you, great United States of america, this mighty nation of givers and dreamers. Dont dream small. You are great. Dream big and make the world better. [ applause ] and your wealth will turn those dreams to new reality. For you and for humanity, god bless you all. And god bless the United States of america. And god bless the friendship, historic mold, meaningful operation between your great country and our small nation. Thank you. From the depths of my heart. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen please remain standing as the chaplain of the United States state senate dr. Barry black gives the benediction. Let us pray. Lord of all, we praise and honor you for using president perez as an instrument of your peace. Continue to bless this leader and patriot who believes that security can be found through. May his exemplary life of patience, steadiness, perseverance inspire us to maximize possibilities for doing good in your world. Bless and keep us. Make your face shine upon us and be gracious to us. Lift the light of your count upon us and give us your shillo. Amen. Please be seated. Ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated for the departure of the official party. Until your row is invited to depart by a representative. Thank you. [ applause ] tonight business owners, activists and policy makers discuss the progress, problems and future of the Legal Cannabis industry. This was part of a recent event in denver characterized by organizers as the first summit of its kind. Legalization of marijuana has been legal in colorado 18 months. Cannabis industry becomes legal this week. Well have that at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on our companion network cspan. On cspan 3 American History tv, marks the 50th anniversary of johnson s signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that banned discrimination and job hiring in Public Places and provided public facilities including schools. President johnson signing the Civil Rights Act into law at 8 00. Also a recent congressional ceremony commemorating the anniversary. A couple of events looking back at that time in our nations history. That airs this week beginning 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan 3. Remind your children in this by centennial year when we are the first generation of americans to experience attacks on the continental United States. We are the first generation of americans to have felt what it was like to have our government buildings attacked. Remind your children that freedom is not free. And that our countrys greatness is found in one another. Thats what the star spangled banner is about. Thats what this commemoration year is about. To tell that story and to are lift every voice and to sing. A three day fourth of july weekend starts friday on American History tv including the 200th anniversary of the star spangled banner. Saturday night at 8 00 visit the College Classroom of professor howe. Sunday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern a preview of Jeffrey Angles manuscript of george w. Bush. Next a panel of researchers discusses how their work is being used to improve Homeland Security. They analyze the publics response to attacks, discuss terrorist behavior and highlight vulnerable targets. The discussion was part of the event marking the anniversary at the university of southern california. Its the First University Research Center funded by the Homeland Security department. So each panelist will present a brief overview of their areas. Were sparing you power point. Theyre in your pacts if you so wish to indulge. Lets start with you. Thank you very much. I thought its probably best if i give you some examples of the research that we are conducting and how our research interplays with making a difference and real applications. First im going to talk about measures and by owe terrorism Risk Assessment and advanced protection portals. And i dont know if you remember the time when congress debated whether or not to put majors on all large commercial airplanes to deflect service to air missile a attacks by terrorists. This was one of our first projects, and i liked it because it had the price tag of 35 billion for a ten year time span round estimate. The dhs estimate 25 billion. I thought this cant be a good idea. We did an analysis and innovation. We did what we now call defender attention approach where we model terrorist behavior. We came up to conclusion its hard to make a case that its cost effective. As a partial result of that, the program was cancelled a year later. On by owe terrorism Risk Assessment we were involved in the first study by the department in particular in the area of formal experts. That possibility of threats and unsuccessful attacks primarily from intelligence agencies is now standard use in dhs and combined in other Risk Assessment procedures for example chemical and radio logical and nuclear. Currently were working on evaluating advanced methods for radiation detection. We did the scopic radiation portal that showed it was not a good idea to replace all current portals with new ones but perhaps use them in secondary inspection. That is still under investigation. We also look at new alga rhythms. The philosophies behind it is were very much problem oriented. Were picking problems relative to the department. Policy, technical problems. Do the analysis n. That process we always invent new things in terms of methodology and ll lto. Its a give and take to solve problems and learn for science. Thank you. So im going to be talking about game theory for security in particular computational game theory. So weve heard today about limited resources. The question we are faced with in research. We are thankful for questions he has brought us and partnerships we have formed with the security agencies which allowed us to conduct some of this research. So given limited resources, how do we protect a large number of targets, given that we have an adversary to conductor have a lens and ex employment weaknesses. Game theory is a wonderful tool. It allows us to solve large scale problems. Taking different targets, different value, Human Behavior models. Whats unique about our work, it blends behavioral game theory. Whats interesting is the opportunity weve had to create and deploy this leading to deployed decision age using game theory and whats further interesting is that this is now alga rhythm game theory in the field allowing us to get data back from the field. These are things that are unique and this is also essentially possible because of partnerships weve formed with different agencies. Youve heard today from the tsa administrator, admiral and so forth. These are important partnerships. With their help weve been able to field several applications, protect for the u. S. Coast guard, itemizing coast guard controls deployed on different ports. Boston, new york, los angeles and others. This is also used for stat ton island ferry, coast guard patrols around that. Youve heard about the system for assigning air marshals to flights. What was interesting is itz provided Large Scale Research problems. These topics for our phd students. Many of them are sitting there at the back of the room. Its led to many thesis awards. This has been a fantastic program. This was initially deployed. Weve been looking at applications where theres more reaction of adversaries. Also looking at patrols to our coast guard in the gulf of mexico against illegal fishermen where theres data from the field as well as work getting deployed in uganda Protection Security for wild life security. This is against poachers. Whats interesting here is were bringing together Machine Learning from data as well as game theory. Theres a lot of very interesting interdisciplinary work we can do here. Were happy with the set of challenges that have been brought forth. In agreement with that thank you. Bill, please. Im going to focus on our teams work in the area of how the public responds to various threats and hazards, particularly Natural Disasters. Weve done a lot of work in different types of ooevents. Before i get to that, i want to thank the administer for his welcoming remarks about the fellowship that i did last summer at tsa. In a few weeks ill be in washington for two months. This is important. I spent there two months learning what was important. Getting on the ground, attending meetings, looking at how our academic world really fit into their world and came away with an idea of how our science can actually be done different to be better contributor to the mission not only crate but dhs in general. Im happy about that. If you think about the remarks that we heard in various of the talks and in the previous panel, every one of the speakers at one point or another mention the pivotal role of how the public responds to risks. The public is a major player. Adam did a nice job in his talk illustrating in recent years weve been able to document for the first time the Economic Impact of how the public actually responds. We knew this. If we think about how people reacted after 9 11 we knew there was propensity not to get on airlines and so forth. That added economic repercussion. We drew on the best social science folks in the world quite frankly, brought them into the great team to apply best social science to understand this problem so that we could anticipate, understand public response. Then connect the dots, be able to actually in a rigorous way, viable way how the public responds, what the society and particularly Economic Impacts are. Its important if you think about i echo the comments about how we allocate resources. The other part of that equation is the Risk Communication dimension because that has as we have seen in recent years tremendous leverage to mitigate the overreaction particularly of the public. The public doesnt always overreact. In some cases in response to Natural Disasters they might underreact. We design Risk Communication to address that. Mostly the Economic Impacts come from overreaction. So we have looked at a wide array of different hazards. Adam and i, paul and a number of people designed a dirty bomb attack about three miles from here in the financial district, simulated attack. We engaged our nationwide panel to see how the public might react to this highly disruptive event and put the economic costs. I hope im not stealing your thunder at 16 billion. What was telling was at 15 billion of that came from how the public was likely to respond in an event like this. We have developed capabilities anticipating trying to understand how the public would react. The ability to do experiments. We have used great resources at usc to develop newscasts and videos that can immerse public in a simulated attack. Some say theyre very compelling. Some say theyre even a scary movie to better understand how the public might respond to attacks in the future. We develop capability in the nationwide panel to respond to real time events. We were in the field on the day that the stock market. Actually collapsed. Largest point drop. We tracked the competence across the nation, tracked these people a year to understand what does that have to do with terrorism. We were able to understand from that study how quickly people recover from crisis. That was very important. We were in the field after the Christmas Day bomber within days for a year. Because we were in the field we were able to understand how people responded to the haiti earthquake. We could compare Natural Disasters with the terrorist attack. We were in the field at the time square bombing attempt. At the bp oil square. At the terrorist attempt at the free lig Tree Lighting ceremony. We conducted a study for tsa a year and a half ago where we worked closely to target some attacks that they were quite concerned about. They wanted to see what the comparative response would be. We conducted a Risk Communication experiment that we were able to document for the very first time the economic value of precrisis communication, communicating with the public in advance to bolster confidence. And the as adam mentioned in the presentation, we put the value at 400 million of preventative loss revenue to the Airline Industry for the risk project that would probably take under a million. Theres huge leverage there. We have developed the capabilities now to were fast moving into the era of Computer Science. One of our talented programmers, engineers, helped us code how behavioral science. Were able to code that and create computer simulations. One of them, the version snnow back. You can see. That were very interested in social media. To really understand in real time how the public is likely to respond to various threats. But also as a way to test our communicate and diffuse our messages. Thank you. There you have it. Adam . I would like to summarize how weve modernized what used to be called hazard loss estimation into economic consequence analysis today. Weve done this by several features that were previously missing. First is resilience. That compares how we mute or reduce the losses from a terrorist attack or Natural Disaster after it takes place. We can do this by using the remaining resources more efficiently and recovering more quickly. We developed a metric we applied over and over again, very effectively to gauge that key feature of this new paradigm. Another aspect is behavioral responses. Fear does have a cost. We found this to have enormous cost swamping many of the other types of costs associated with terrorists attacks. To some extent Natural Disasters as well. Weve included remediation in this frame work in a novel way. Theres a big debate about whether the money spent on cleaning up anthrax attack or nuclear detonation, raid logical detonation represents cost or benefit. Youre putting people to work. Rather than getting in that debate, we look at what effect of that action is on the bottom line. What effect it has on gdp. We included mitigation into the frame work. Now we can do benefit cost analysis comprehensively of major counter measures. An important new innovation working with heather rose and others in the behavioral and psychology side to examine spillover effects of counter measures. Counter measures often represent privacy, travel check points. They ever a cost. They may have cost on business economy. Thats not always negative. More cameras and Police Officers make people more comfortable and have a positive spill over effect. These are significant and need to be measured as well. All of this is involved with create affiliates with other oup centers and dhs. Let me explain how these have been implemented and applied. First was bio terrorism Risk Assessment created in conjunction with Patel Columbus developing this frame work for doing consequence analysis in an Automated System so that it could be applied to hundreds of scenarios. From this weve had evolve similar types of methodologies for other cbrn in developing similar assessment tools. Im currently working on expanding the frame works being used at the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office in terms of Getting Better data on the duration and time path of these consequences and for the national bio surveillance Information Center in terms of broadening their frame work to include this comprehensive set of impacts. These tools have been used for major studies we mentioned here today. The 9 11 studies. Cuss tom and border studies on wait time, urban commerce and security study that examines the trade off between the two in an urban area. The delay time may be small per person, but when talk about a city of 10 million people, it quickly magnifies. Tsa issue has been mentioned. Weve applied to cases such as h1n1 epidemic, anthrax attack, chlorine attacks, many Natural Hazards such as stsunamis. First let me say how proud we are to interact with everyone here in one form or another in terms of research were doing. As you already know from isaac and adam and their comments, the work that we are doing at the risk center has focused on the opportunities that insurance presents along with other policy tools to try to reduce the risks one faces. Terrorism being a critical one. Natural hazards ill talk about in a moment being the other. We focus particularly in recent years on the flood hazard that has become a major problem. We continue to use the frame work you outlined at the beginning in terms of trying to link Risk Perception which you heard from adam in terms of role that plays along with Risk Assessment and risk analysis and Risk Management and try to pull them together and try to figure out a way they can be implemented. A frame work that we have utilized to get concepts across comes from a book many of you have read thinking fast and slow by daniel connerman. The reason for that is we are also trying to find out ways to be more deliberate. Ways to think in terms of more systematic analysis like the analysis weve heard about or cost benefit analysis brought up in this mornings talks. Let me give you a few a couple of examples as it applies to the area of Flood Insurance which we have been looking at the last few years in terms of the Decision Making process. Weve been doing experiments on this both in the field and in the laboratory to highlight that along with other people here in this room. Theyre forced to do it. Voluntarily theres a tendency not to buy it. Theres a tendency to say oh my i wish i had protected myself. Theyll purchase a policy for a few years. If it turns out they dont collect or havent suffered a loss, they then say to themselves this is a very bad investment. Look at the money i could have used on premiums to enjoy a few other things. Theyll cancel their policy. One of the real challenges we have here is to try to sort of say how can you convince people that the best return on an insurance policy is no return at all. You should celebrate the fact you havent had a loss. That has been one of the challenges that one faces. In the process of trying to deal with that, what we have really tried to suggest is, ways to develop long term strategies. Maybe multiyear insurance tied to property rather than the individual with short term incentives so that you kind of make insurance attractive. Insurance if it is price correctly based on risks and weve heard the notion we should have risk based pricing. Insurance should be risk based. If you have risk based pricing and take measures to protect yourself, you should get a premium reduction. If you somehow tie the premium reduction with a long term loan for your mitigation measure or adaptation measure, you may turn out to be better off because the premium reduction will be greater than the cost of a loan. Thats the direction were going. Let me raise one challenge as i conclude here. We spent a fair amount of time with the department of Homeland Security and fema in particular trying to figure out ways that we could somehow find policies that would be effective. My colleague whos here and will be moderating the next session has been a critical part of that activity. What we finally the whole group of other people were able to do this was a joint effort by many, many associations and societies. We certainly were happy to be part of that. The flood waters insurance act was passed july 2012. You heard about that briefly mentioned this morning by adam. That act actually was revolutionary because it said insurance premiums should reflect risks. We also have to recognize that there are challenges with affordability if premiums are too high. This particular bill was passed three months before Hurricane Sandy. Our guess is it would never have been passed if Hurricane Sandy had occurred in july. Hurricane sandy did occur and this past march the bill was not necessarily repealed but revamped so to speak. Were now facing a challenge with respect to how youre going to have premiums reflecting risks. Affordability dominated the issue a appropriately so. What were faced with now, how do we deal with short term challenges . How do we deal with issues like affordability . We can use tools that could be effective for deliberative thinking recognizing the intuitive thinking is often driving the kind of decisions that get made. Were now facing this as of march. How do we bring affordability effectively into the picture and yet still have insurance play the role it should play . Thank you howard. The hallmark of the work all five of you have done which is the reason youre on this panel is that youve had youve done Research Impact which is academic, has to be to be done at a university, but also has impact in the field. We have folks in the audience that want to know how we did it and may be other potential partners saying how do we work in such a way to enable these kinds of successes to occur with our agencies. What id like to do is cover the general topic of how do you bridge the gap between research and operational tool development. You had this idea from the beginning. I remember you were interviewing me the first couple of years. You recognized this kind of Research Needed to have near term application. Perhaps you can tell us a little about your thinking of how do you bridge this gap when youre brought in as an expert . How do you balance listening to the client to find out what their needs are and advising them and recognizing the challenge is that you may not be familiar with what theyre doing. What do we know . How did you address those in early years . You characterized it well. I do a lot of listening. I certainly dont do selling. I dont want to sell tools. I dont want to sell analysises. I dont want to sell particular technology. I want to help, make a difference and be useful to whoever is the Decision Maker or client. Thats why i said earlier, id like to start with a problem not with a methodology. At that methodology to the problem was search for the appropriate methodology. Finally, keep an eye on the decision that has to be made. Whether thats a resource allocation decision or funding decision or Technology Investment decision. Because often people obsess about getting the correct data when in fact the decision can be solved with relatively simple tools and relatively simple sets of data even if theyre not precise. I think thats one thing i want like to say in every single application which may be even in the beginning appeared relatively simple. There were Interesting Research questions that came out leading to new developments and in sights. Great. Thank you. You have seen this in many meetings. How do you what was your biggest challenge conveying the results of academic analysis and insights to people in the field who had their own view of whats the right thing to do . Ive been in many meetings we start out with the other folks sitting there saying what do you know about what we do . How do you convey your results . One thing we have to recognize is these are different disciplines. In our case its computer scientis scientists communicating with people who are experts in other professions. Some how we have to have this dialogue. Even within Computer Science to psychology, there are difficulties. I dont know if richard john is in the audience. One of our collaborators was professor of psychology. When we had our first meetings, these are applications for itemized patrolling and so forth, we needed his insights. We would have meetings. Meetings would go on. He would look at data. And after a while we were confused. How come hes not saying anything about how to speed up alga rhythms. He is a psychologist and thats not his primary concern. Hes interested, but thats not his goal. Thats the kind of thing we have to learn when we start working with our partners. We may be very excited about our latest alga rhythms and so forth. What we need to be careful and understand ill turn it around that in many instances it is their communication to us that has really led to some very interesting new thesis challenges. Ill give one example. In 2010 when we had already built the system, we figured out a way of really speeding up our alga rhythm. The rain complication is air martials and stewards make everything complicatecomplicate. In some cases air martials would get on the flight. They would not interfere. Alga rhythm would run fast. We would go and ask if this would work. That would make it run very fast. The answer was youre too obsessed with fast alga rhythms. Thats not the primary concern to us. These are things weve had to learn over time. This partnership has really worked for us. Great. We have many Law Enforcement personnel listening to our advice here. Were going to be on cspan. Even the political aspects of this i notice the Congress Folks have already left. Howard, i wanted to ask you, what are the political challenges in developing long term strategies . I think there are many. We can probably all resinate. We have an acronym we use to respond. Some of you in the audience may know this. Nimtoa. Not in my term of office. One of the political challenges that were faced with is how do you present information in such a way people will Pay Attention. There are two points i could mention. One is stretching a time horizon. Somehow letting people know what are the consequences of something over a long period of time . So if you tell someone theres a one in 1,000 or 1 in 100 chance of terrorist attack or flood attack, theres a tendency of saying its not going to happen to me. Dont have to worry about it. One in 100 chance next year. If you stretch that to saying if you believe the probability remains the same overtime, one in 100, its a one in a five chance that at least one events happening in 25 years. It is interesting people do Pay Attention when you somehow stretch it. The other example is focus on the worst case scenarios. Focus on something that somehow says look if you arent protected and dont take measures today and dont have basis for doing it, heres what could happen to you in terms of the consequences. Rather than focussing on low probability, high consequences. This is a challenge obviously when you have short term kind of concerns. At least its a direction more attention will be paid to these things. Thanks. Law enforcement and congress are fairly intelligence. They dont have preparation in this diverse range of disciplines were talking about. Adam, perhaps you can tell us how do you address the explanation of complex concepts and risk analysis economics or game theory to folk who is may not have a complete appreciation of the subtleties . Researchers at universities gravitate toward increasing sophistication in our work. We really do this for three reasons. One is to identify more causal factors. Another is incorporate complexity and another is improve. First is to explain why were doing this. This is not just an intellectual int exercise. Most can understand the last one. Another way to do this is put our terms in laymen terms. I work with a sophisticated economic tool. These models include thousands of equations and advanced economics. I can readily get across what the tools do when i say its a way of modelling the economy as a set of ingrative supply chains. I often rely on pay theory benefit cost bottom line, basically the analog. I also personalize by talking about concepts that people can relate to in everyday life such as the fear factor. One of the things we came up with in our study of the bomb attack was, if you frequented a restaurant in an area that had been struck by such a device in that attack, would you go there again . What kind of discount would you require . People can relate to that. Finally, we also try to raise the awareness and Knowledge Level of our users. We meet with em thithem, engage in our research. More recently weve engaged in seminars and Short Courses to better a quaint them with what we do. Thank you. In the last 30 seconds i want to talk about the concept difficult in the setting. The handling of data. You handled when we had the Critical Infrastructure we had to calculate priorities for. Bill, you face this head on at tsa. Can you take 30 seconds and tell us . Ive got all of 30 seconds. Trust. The natural tension between academics and people in the private sector or the government sector is that while they may have a common goal and you have to get to that they have certain different priorities around zdata. The currency to publish things. The data in this case the tsa. They want to keep it as close to the best as possible. Isaac is talking about the tsa study. For us to really develop these plausible hazards that were going to then put out to public, we needed to get behind the scenes and be shown some pretty sensitive data. Priorities and things that keep them up at night. Consequences likely of those things. What ends up happening . We have delivered a report tsa with details what we did, how we went about what were doing. Those details are not going to find their way to academic journals. Theyre there for tsa and part of the report. As were now beginning to write up findings, we can lift out the points that are concern to scientists. This is a good thing. The science actually improveed as a result of our close interaction with tsa. If you think about it, theyre allowing us to look behind the scenes, allowed us to develop more realistic scenarios and hence invite more realistic response. Its a matter of trust. It can be worked out. I like that work. I think when youre working closely with folks you build that relationship, build that trust. Eight it allows the successes you see here today. Thank you all very much and thank you panel. My first reaction was surprise because i had worked for mr. Sterling. I coached the clippers in 2000. He invited me to his daughters wedding. I had no idea what was going on. Because of my situation, i know and what he was complaining about. I was confused not knowing which set of facts mr. Sterling stood behind. When his words came out it was obvious and shocking and just disgusting. All of those things wrapped in one. The surprise of it to find that type of sentiment in someone who relies on black americans for so much of his success and public profile, it was amazing. I just couldnt believe someone could have that much bigotry inside and think that it was okay. July 4th on cspan. A look at racism in sports. Just after 11 00 a. M. Eastern. Later, exploring the red plant with senior nasa officials. Later at 8 30 p. M. Eastern, discussions on gun rights and the personality recovery of former arizona congresswoman gabby giffords. Next, housed Natural Resources subcommittee hearing assessing recent advances and new technologies for and the risk of an earthquake in the u. S. Is stilt very real. Other speakers include the director of the Pacific Northwest size mick network, along with professors 23r the university of california and yumpbt of georgia, institute of technology. The subcommittee is meeting today to hear testimony on an oversight hearing of the great alaskan quake. Opening statements are limited to the chairman and Ranking Member of the subcommittee. However, it is the practice to allow either the Ranking Member of the full committee or the chairman to make statements if they are here at the subcommittee meeting. I would ask unanimous consent to make any Opening Statements if sub mitted by the close of business today. Hearing no objection, so ordered. I also ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from alaska be allowed to participate in todays hearing if and when he is able to be here. Hearing no objection, so ordered. I now recognize myself for fife minutes. Today marks the 50th anniversary of the good friday, great alaska earthquake. Second largest earthquake ever recorded with modern seismic equipment. The earthquake caused the greatest amount of vertical uplift ever measured. South earning alaska moved more than 65 feet sea word. Ch maryland of them children that have come down to the doc that was delivering the first fresh fruits and vejs tabs of the year. Two crew members were filming the festivities when the earthquake hit and they captured the tragic destruction on film. For the women, it brings fresh fruit and vej tans to valdez. For the kids, itss always a little like christmas. Its dusk, almost too good for dark photography. But aboard the ship, two of the crewmen are trying to get some pictures of the griming youngsters and dogs on the dock below. Suddenly, the whole harbor begins to empty. Drains almost dry. Out in the gulf of alaska, the ocean bottom heaves a full 50 feet and the waves start racing for shore. He drivers it into thehearted of town. He keeps his camera running. No one on the docket valdez will survive. The long shoreman, the kids or their dogs. The great alaskan earthquake is one of the most studied Natural Disasters. The federal response was significant not only in Economic Relief and reconstruction, but also in research. Geologists from the u. S. G. S. Were some of the first geoscientists on sight. Their findings were covered in a series of six professional papers and the National Academy of Sciences Published agtsd xviii yums of scientific research. Today, Earth Sciences realize it is being sub ducted into the earths mantle along the trench. According to the usgs, knowledge gained from the Research Conducted on the quake has provided the geologic framework for assessing the earth quake and tsunamis hazards around the world. Many others were used that have major ruptures in the past and are susceptible to future ruptures. And tsunami hazards, assessments and warnings. These are all the things we have learnd more about since the great alaskan earthquake. Death and destruction from the tsunamis campus can be greater and more widespread. Earthquakes in haiti and chile have caused massive differences in deaths and damages. Much of the differences are the direct result of efforts to establish standards and mitigation of earthquake hazards. Not a single derailmented occurred as a result of the quake. We are to remind ourselves to not be complacent depending on our individual lens. I would like to thank our witnesses for being here today. I look forward to hearing their thoughts and what we know about advances in earth quake science over the last 50 years. I would now like to recognize the Ranking Members. Its sobering to think that when the earthquake happened, we wrnts everyone familiar enough with the theory of plate tech tonics to understand what was going on. And th takes us, really, to the point. We need then and still need now research and Scientific Development in Geological Sciences and earth quake sciences. There is quite a bit more to learn. Im a little surprised, mr. Chairman that you didnt originally invite the u. S. Geological survey and i thank you for invites the u. S. G. S. To be here. In addition to the general knowledge, im interested to hear more today about other aspects of earthquake science. And, in familiar particular, id like to hear more about induced earthquakes and the con nexts between hydraulic fraction waste water injection and earthquakes. So i understand fraking itself does got cause earthquakes, but it creates a lot of waste water
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