I am going to have to call time. I just want to ask one single question, which is, one thing that happens after snowden for journalism. If you could wave a magic wand and make it happen, what would it be . , i will let you go first. An International Norm or agreement that safeguards internet freedom, number one. I would follow that thought, but an International Norm or convention that defines privacy rights and empowers people to control what they want to control. More Great Stories to cover. [laughter] i was really worried they were all going to say world peace. I do not want any journalists to prosecute. Journalists will not be prosecuted for doing their jobs. [applause] amnesty for snowden. And world peace. I am sorry i failed in my job as chair, but it was such a great discussion. I cannot can i think a lot can i think all of the panelists . [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] in a few moments, american profile interviews with Heidi Heitkamp, a democrat from north dakota. A little more than an hour, transportation secretary anthony foxx. Morman, thecharles head of the Norfolk Southern railway. A couple of live events to tell you about tomorrow on cspan. Forbrookings institution him on the syrian refugee crisis that is affecting millions of people. They are scheduled to include ambassadors from lebanon and iraq. 3 00 p. M. , the Heritage Foundation focuses on road tests in venezuela. Protests ins venezuela. Announcing the opening on thanksgiving day of the 22nd annual sale of christmas. This universal declaration of civil rights may well become the international magna carta of all men everywhere. When ratified, it will not be an instant solution to womens problems. I tried to find my way through it and figure out how best to be true to myself and fulfill my responsibilities to my husband and my daughter and the country. They may not imagine, looking at the white house from the outside, is that it is actually a very normal life upstairs. To bring a little bit of Michelle Obama into this, but at the same time, respecting and valuing the traditions that is americas. Watch our final twohour program in the series first website, or see it saturday on cspan. Cspans american profile series, a conversation with senator Heidi Heitkamp. Wasnorth dakota democrat elected to the u. S. Senate in 2012. She discusses her family, life in the senate, her battle with cancer, and how she approaches her job in washington. This is 30 minutes. Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a democrat from north dakota. I want to begin with one of your campaign ads. You describe your mom as a janitor, your dad as someone who never finished high school and you are one of seven. What was that like . We did not think it was all that rare. Back then, a lot of people in the world war ii generation did not finish high school, who had to help out on the farm. An eighth grade education was considered the most you could ascribe to. For us, it was not odd. Our dad was always a Community Leader and so we never thought about education as being what you learned in school. Education was what you did and how you learned in real life. My dad was a Community Leader and my mom was the protector of the undergrad. Underadvantaged. The worst thing you could commit from my mother was to pick on another kid. When i was born, my mother had 4 kids and the oldest was 2 and they had no twins. We came in rapid succession. By the time my mom was done, my brother, my youngest brother, joel, my mom had seven kids in nine years. And this was before disposable diapers. Life was interesting. To give you a sense of our family, we did not have a lot. We knew that we were not going to college. In the 1960s, the program started becoming available not just for veterans, but for all kids. That has had a huge impact in my life, a huge impact in the life of my entire family. So we were education, education, education. When my mother was asked what she was most proud of, i thought it would be that we all went to college. She said no, the thing i am most proud of is that they are all each others best friends. And that is still true today. We are all very close. Your dad passed away, but your mom is alive. Is s she like . She she unfortunately has advanced arkansans, so she has had to live in a nursing home. That has been tough for someone who has been independent her whole life. She has given us so many values that we carry forward. One of those, for me, is the ability to stand among a group of people who do not at all agree with you and say things that are unpopular. My dad was much more of a crowd these are, much more of a sit back, listen, see how you can persuade quietly. My mom was the in ahead was full speed ahead. She never took a deep breath and never paused in telling someone what she believed. How many boys and how many girls . Sisters, five of us girls. The advantage is, i was right in the middle. The other advantage is that i was not the same size as my sisters. Whoar as sharing close and got to wear what, i escaped all of that. My sisters are all very accomplished and quite capable. To give you a story, and i know a lot of people do not believe this, but when i first introduced my husband, i brought him home for the weekend and we were dating. When we got into the car to leave, he said, if you would have told me you are the quietest person in your family, i would not have believed it. A very opinionated but funloving group. Husband asribed your a shy farmboy. Is he . Absolutely. He just does not like the limelight. Theres not like being out. Very shy and unwilling to put himself out there. This. Tell you one of the things that happened with my husband my husband is very bright. It could have probably done almost anything with his life and chose to go into Family Medicine rather than surgery or something where there may not have been as much interaction. Medicine, overly the years, i have seen him develop the personal skills that you need to be a family physician. You really honestly, his patients love him and one of the reasons he is not here is that we promised the stations that we would not be moving to notington to washington be moving to washington dc if i won. Where did you meet him . He was working as a researcher in a Nutrition Lab was and i was finishing college. Did not really like him the first time i met him. He was friends of my roommates boyfriend. They were playing cards and this piece of art, i thought it was quite lovely. Weaving. Ke an offloom he was playing cards and he said, are you the one doing that . And i said, yeah. He said, if you are going to put that much work into it, it should at least look good. At was it. I was done. I actually came here first semester and worked on the hill. When i came back, i had other friends who also knew him. Got to know him a little bit better than that one experience. Have you forgiven him from that line . Well, it was true. [laughter] it was hard to feel really bad about it because it was not attractive. So he has a firm grasp of the obvious. But he could zip it up and not say it out loud i thought. Two children children, a boy and a girl. Alicia ruth, 28 years old, and mason dennis. They are both really active. Great kids. Both currently redheads and great personalities. They are fortunate that they have the sense of humor of my husband, which makes them interesting people, i think. Your legal name is mary kathryn. How did you get heidi . I grew up in a very small catholic community. When i was growing up, the two was firsthether it and second, third or fourth, all in the same classroom. At that time, there was a small group of girls, and a lot of marys. Mary beth and she was betsy. Mary ann, mary jo, and then there was a mary kathryn. My parents never call me mary. My name was kathy. But my best friends name was kathy. She decided in the third grade that she would rename me. She was a voracious reader and had already read hundreds of and of her favorite books and she gave me the name and it stuck. How did your parents change it from kathy to heidi . Well, they resisted. I do not know that they adapted all that well even when i went to college. It was a matter of what of whether it would be kathryn or something easier to work with and it just stuck. I live in a Small Community where nicknames are really common. I could talk about the kids i went eyes go with and tell you that most of them, to this day, they would still be known by their nicknames and not their christian names. You first leave north dakota for vacation, a trip, an internship . The first time was 1976. I came here to do an internship in congress and spent a semester here when i was a junior in college. When did you first think of a career in politics . Lot about a think a career in politics. What i was interested in was public policy. I was interested in how government worked, being the person who worked in government. On capitol hill for something called the environmental study conference. I am sure some of your listeners would remember that name. Day, very moderate republican from new york, but very active in the Environmental Movement in the 1970s. I worked with that group then it was more of a think tank. They did a lot of research for members. Back then, there were not as many staff people so you had these study groups that would provide the strategic to members who joined the group. I worked for the environmental study conference and thought, ok, the federal government, i saw how it worked. This is pretty exciting. I went back to college and wasnt hurt and was encouraged to do an internship. Inecame a legislative intern 1977. Saw for the first time that state politics actually provided a real avenue for discussion, a real avenue to get things done. And that it was important. I had a very influential professor who reminded me that there were three branches of government and state and local were very important as well. Realized that i probably wanted to work in state government, which is why, when i moved i north dakota after going spent a smalland time here, went to work for camp conrad, his attorney, and when he was elected to the senate, i was appointed. Let me ask you about the race that you won, but first, the race that you lost. You ran for governor. What did you learn from losing . I have a whole list of things that i have learned through losing. A lot of folks may recall that i was diagnosed with stage three Breast Cancer in september of that race. Over, i got a was lot of invitations to come and talk about how cancer changed my life or what it was like having cancer. In the middle of a race. I said, that was not the thing that had a huge impact on me. What had a huge impact was losing a race. Thinkingtrajectory, this is the job i am going to be doing, and all of a sudden, you get up on january 1, which is when the transition happened, still attorney general until december, and you no longer have a place to go in the morning. Thatind of introspection happens between all of that. First, i would tell you that i think politicians in general have a real need to be liked. With all due apologies to sally field, i used to call it the sally field syndrome. You like me, you really like me. At the end of the day, you have to like yourself. You have to believe in what you are saying. That maybe is not as important that everyone likes you. I used to win races by 56 . 66 . I would wake up the next morning and wonder why the other 34 is not like me. You get over that. You have to take positions that people do not like. As long as you know why you are doing it, it is easier to live with yourself. I also learned that people are fundamentally good. Race, i know that the majority of people in north to send menot vote to the statehouse, but they all prayed for me. I would not be there without those prayers. It has made me very appreciative for the goodness of people. Let me ask you about your health. Before the diagnosis, did you have any suspicions . Not really. When you are in a Campaign Like that, you just start you are not even paying attention. What is the next think . What do i need to know for this meeting . What do i need to and do that what do i need to do that day . It was not until one night that i noticed a lump under my arm and said, whoa. Saidto the doctor and they it was probably an infection. Take some antibiotics and come back in a couple of weeks. I am not very good at routines. I would go a couple of days and realize i had not taken any antibiotics. I said, it is better to get a biopsy. Even from the time i was wheeled in to get the biopsy done, i did not think i had cancer. It was kind of a shock. But i never, in the whole while that i was dealing with cancer, i never thought it was going to result or that it was terminal. My husband, who knows more than i do, said to me once, you know, you just need to know that you are in denial. You are in denial about how serious this is. To which i said, so what . What do you want me to do, wake up in the morning and say this is serious and i have to you know, it just seemed like a better course to assume you are going to be ok. I think that i can tell very funny stories about going through chemotherapy and losing your hair in the middle of a campaign and what that means for trying to manage that challenge as well as all of the other challenges of a very competitive governors race. At it as ar looked real Serious Health challenge. Because of that, i think i was able to just kind of put one foot in front of the other and actually survive the disease. We all know people who have been touched or rectally or indirectly by Breast Cancer. Directally or indirectly by Breast Cancer. Trajectoryook at the and see this massive increase in diagnoses, it is starting to plateau. What we are seeing in that diagnosis is more and more stage one and stage two Breast Cancer. These screenings are working. We are catching the disease much earlier. In the later stages, we still have a fairly high mortality rate. That is one thing we know, that the treatments are Getting Better and better. Because we are catching earlier, i think we are seeing that huge increase and i think it will plateau. We also have to unlock the to see of why we seem more and more cancer in our society. And we have to confront i include myself in this what being overweight means, what lifestyle means, what diet and have it means. All of those things are playing into effect. In the cancer rates. You see it internationally as well. It is absolutely critical that we continue to research. There is a huge study that involves hundreds of thousands of women. One of the challenges here is we havetend to think got to cut spending. We made all of this investment and all of this research. We are right at the point at which this research can actually reduce Health Care Costs and then we quit funding. We have to push back against that lack of investment in Health Care Research because it is absolutely critical and we soe to put more emphasis that we can live a healthier lifestyle. Are you cancer free today . No one can ever say you do not know that you are cancer free. So i never say that i am cancer free. I say that i am healthy and i have no reason to assume that the cancer has reoccurred in a way that would have to be treated. Let me ask you about your brand of politics. How would you describe Heidi Heitkamp . I think i am straightforward. One of the reasons i am here, being from a state where the president lost by 22 points, i said, number one, i started out with a very high name id. Most people know who i am and they know me from name from years of working in the state of north dakota. Came, heidis heitkamp is this or that, people shrugged her shoulders and said, we know her. She is not that. State with a lot of voters and you have a chance to have a personal relationship, i think it is really hard for that tactic to win. Atone of those ads, you are a batting cage with a wink at the end. What was that about . We were just having fun. I am just getting started, right . You play softball . I did. The whole family played softball. My dad started out coaching amateur baseball and we transition to softball, mens and womens. He had 4 daughters. Girls in town with time on their hands and my dad ticked up a that and a ball and said ball and a bat and a said get out, we are going to play softball. That started our Softball Team and we were very competitive and played four years. Is in theholly softball hall of fame for north dakota. 3000u one by fewer than votes. Besides the name id, what do you attribute your victory to . I would say that the message. Approach that i took to how i am going to do this job. People are tired of partisanship. They are tired of bickering. A are tired of people coming here to do politics and not fix things for the american public. That i wasised is never going to put ideology or politics ahead of the citizens of north dakota. I think people believed it and i would like to believe that same bipartisan attitude, the same believe that we are here for, the people that we represent, is i am enjoying the job and why i am here doing the job. If your dad were here today, would he be surprised or say, i think she is going to be in the u. S. Senate . I will tell you a story about my dad. Andad never let you relax pat you on the back. It was always, what are you going to do next . This is a man with an eighth we all have eighth grade education, but that was his terminal degree. When i went to law school, that was pretty amazing. And decidedmaller to go to law school, girls did not go to law school. That is one of the reasons why i went to law school because i was told i could not. I graduated from law school and i was expecting, way to go. He said, you still have that test you have to take, dont you . It is calledah, the bar exam. He said, well, you really are not a lawyer yet. In north dakota, we have a great tradition. A beautiful woman calls every person who passes the bar exam and tell them. Exam,i had passed the bar i called and told my dad. It in his voice, he was trying to figure out the next thing to tell me to do. He finally stepped back and said, congratulations. Today, i think he would say you really have not getting here is not a compliment, doing things while you are here is the consummate. He would be excited to get the farm bill passed. He would want to know what we are going to do for veterans. He started the smallest chapter in the history of the dfw. He along with other veterans in his era. I think he would challenge me to do the job and not just be proud that i have the job. On the issue of the background checks, you came under some criticism from bill daley, the former white house chief of staff. He contributed 2500 to your campaign. He was upset and said he wanted money back. What did you think . We sent the money back. And it goesed back to what i was talking about. I did not fool anyone. I had an a rating with the nra. Not to say this is about the nra. That vote was about what i thought would actually work. It is unfortunate, in this country, that we have not focused on the things that i think matter. Number one, until health and how we will get more help for people with Mental Health and people who do have episodes and have proven that they are dangerously mentally ill. Get on a registry so that they are not able to get guns. That is a whole issue that we can talk about surrounding a lot of the shootings and have these folks legally got them. There was not one background check that would have changed outcomes. The other thing i would say is that i believe that i was sent to represent the people of north dakota. In spite of what National Groups would say about what the attitudes are of the people of north dakota, they do not think that people should be burdened ause of the bad action that a majority of people should be burdened because of the bad actions of a few. About thee to hear vote and i continue to believe it was the right vote. We continue to have on point dialogue. I do challenge people and ask them, the department of justice, just a few days after that vote, came out with a report. They do it periodically. They asked people in state penitentiary is an prisons where they got their guns. Less than 1 got there gun from a gun show. They get it because they steal purchasesg straw after someone else purchases it for them. And strawrafficking purchase bill is one i supported. Why is Heidi Heitkamp a democrat . At the end of the day, i believe that the Democratic Party has the better solution for the Economic Future of the vast majority of our citizens. By that i mean you look at social security. To illustrate it the best, if you look at the ryan budget, and i have no reason to doubt that people are very principled with that budget, but there is very little in the ryan budget that i can support. Reductions in infrastructure, reductions in research. You take a look at voucher and vouchering or doing a different way with medicare expenditures. Overall, it is not in the budget, but a push towards privatization of social security. Is the blueprint. Measured against that blueprint, that is not an agenda that i can support. North dakota is a state that Many Americans have never been to. How would you describe your state . Stunningly beautiful. And it is full of people who believe that there is not anything they cannot college if they were together. I say that is the biggest difference that i see. Here, if you tell somebody an idea and you think you can work, they will say, that is a good idea but that cannot happen. I do not think that will happen. Dakota, if you have a good idea and a lot of enthusiasm behind it, it seems manageable. We can get it done. You are sitting at the coffee table with democrats and republicans, Green Bay Packers fans, lutherans and catholics, they may not agree on the issues of the day, but they figure out how to get the Christmas Lights up at christmas and the roof on the fire hall, and how to solve problems that people at the very heart of it depend on everyday. That is north dakota. A couple of pictures in this room of your two children. What are your kids what do your kids think about you being in the senate . From the time they were little, i was tax commissioner, after ally i was was born almost. Nathan, except for the 12 years that i was not serving in public life. So there early experience in life, i was an elected official. I think they see this not from the standpoint of being in the senate, but mom is off doing that work again, as tax commissioner or attorney general. One of your colleagues said a compliment. He is an amazing co lleague. I have not always agreed with senator corker. He is fighting every day to change the dialogue to we got to get it done. I have enormous respect for him. That picture behind us. What is it . You cannt see it . It is the sweetheart of the rodeo. See his bootsa . . I do. He is writing a bu riding a bucking horse. It is done by an artist who comes from a ranch family, rodeo family in north dakota. He made a name for himself doing amazing art. He is a very dear friend. It has meaning beyond that, though. This picture started out in byr on dorgans office. He was walking to minot state campus where walter peele works. He sought in the library and some place on campus and announced it should be hanging in the halls of his office, and congress and so byron brought it here. Camp inherited it. And i inherited it after camps retirement. This is a wonderful painting done by a wonderful,ardworking north dakotan who that has been hanging. And every day when i look at it, i think not only of walter and his values, i think of the values of the west and i think of camp and byron. What is this like coming to washington . Frustrating. People get into how is the rare fied air . I did not come here to be a senator. I came here to do a job. It has been frustrating at times. The low point had to be when we went to the brink on the debt limit extension in october. I was shocked