Brookings both for people in the room, who are watching on cspan and i via webcast to the closing event of infrastructure week. So a lot of folks public, private, civic have been involved in designing infrastructure week and pulling it off, and to all of you from brookings, thank you. And also thank you to the foundations and corporations that really have made our work possible. The ford foundation, the [inaudible] foundation, hitachi, aig, ge, rbc, kkr and all the members of our metropolitan leadership council. They really have made our research possible. Now, the timing of this week could not be better. And i know congressman delaneys going to talk about this. There are clearly shortterm federal actions involving the gas tax and the Highway Trust Fund that are critical and really a new way of the National Government engaging. But there really are metaissues that are incoming this week informing this week. Does the United States have what it takes to build and retrofit a new generatio
There still some lingering distrust left over from the housing crisis that hasnt been fully dealt with yet so i think that is what everybody is concerned about along with the somewhat anemic Economic Growth that people are concerned that this housing recovery is not for real or its not as good as it appears to be. So we look at home prices had a very big jump in many areas in and home prices in 2013 but we are starting to see those numbers come down in many markets across the country. Foreclosures which we track are down to nearly prerecession levels. Actually we came out with the april numbers yesterday. There were 115,000 properties with foreclosure filings in the month of april. Thats down from a peak of over 367,000 in march of 2010 and we are almost back before the recession we were seeing about 85,000 foreclosure filings a month so we are getting closer to that level. That negative piece is largely gone from the market. Housing prices are going up but there is what i call a hole
Daunting, but i dont think that they are insurmountable, nor is washington this function an excuse excuse for inaction. From a believe our state and cities, to pollen areas and a pilot to the private public civic institutions that lead them to have the talent and as we have seen dramatic creativity to move this country for in this area and in others. We absolutely believe now is the time deduces of the weakest are building for the next 100 years. Thank you for coming. Appreciated. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] on cs q a. Is a Dina Elboghdady the Washington Post who covers the housing industry. What is going on on capitol hill when it comes to the housing industry not just capital but washington as well . Guest there has been a lot going on the past couple of weeks. Basically there has been a big bill moving through the senate, it got through the Senate Banking committee overhaul fannie mae and freddie mac. Yesterday the Senate Banking committee had a vo
You can continue the conversation on twitter as well. You can send us an email as well. And are some of the stories how they are playing this week. Here is usa today. Fires andure of the california. 100 of the state of california is in danger of fire. The lead story is about the Net Neutrality vote at the fcc yesterday. Battle for the internet begins is the headline. They lead with Eric Shin Seki up on capitol hill. He is grilled over care. The New York Times leads with quiet unrestrkers in cities in east ukraine. Thousands of Steel Workers fanned out on thursday, establishing control over the program and militants who until recently had seemed to be consolidating their grip on power. By late thursday, minors and steelworkers had deployed and at least five cities, including the regional capital. They had not become the dominant force of that they were in the second largest city. The lead story in the New York Times. Wall street journal leads with Net Neutrality. Up tolls proposal sets
There are veterans whose problems have been so acute and not address that they have ended up without homes. If other Services Come through, people do not end up on the street. Each one is a failure. It does not mean people set out to fail, but we have failed those folks coming home somehow. The vfw believes the resources the v. A. Can provide should never come at a tradeoff. The obligations to provide Holistic Services to the assistance,ployment but also health care has to remain a cornerstone. When veterans transition off of active duty, there are a litany of Transitional Resources that need to be made available to them. To deliverhe most of those. Seeould never want to tradeoffs made on how we deliver other benefits. , other t injecting will suffer. Senator moran did not talk about audits, i just one of the theesses to know that was assessment of chairman miller, from the house committee. Jackson. I am not sure how many facilities he is covering. That was his assessment of the audit