Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20160713

Our veterans had an average of 2200, 90 for clinton over the last 43 months have saved 206,885. Is are Homeless People that come to us. 124 participated and saved 259,000, a quarter of 1 million. The uptodate and agreed to child support, starting in the Second Quarter of the program. Did not go back to the life environment they left. Move into permanent housing, move into permit housing 86. 4 . Move into permanent nonsubsidized housing, 74 . And family reconciliation, that works out sometimes. They can do is homeless and penniless. Lets do a comparison. Federal prison, average in 2014, 30,619. State prison in a new york, 60,000. City of new york, jail, 167,731 a year. We should just put them in the waldorf. Life recovery, 22,900 a year. To ask you which one is better, 30,000, or 23, or 167,023. News bulletins. 48 year old white female serve a tenyear drug sentence, probation, and our program 15 months is working part time three jobs, say 2850 in because she got a match from another program, paid cash for car and her furniture purchases i will not be returning to prison and working towards reuniting with her daughter. This is not a giveaway. This is a program would have to work to what you were doing in the program. 8 probably will not make it. 92 can really change their lives. 86 have been stabilized condition and 72 can be in permanent place with a permanent job. This is the reality of rebuilding a life. I think youll see all practitioners had been successful as you have and that you have, have discovered that it takes comprehensive and with the same approach. With our customers, but the issue is the money, the funding for Antipoverty Programs do not follow this approach and it takes an organization to step back from the contract and say we have a model and we will find the money and use the money to follow our model, not, we will not be an agency that implements a contract. Government contract, the Antipoverty Programs that exist in this country are not designed at all in any of the ways you heard the three of us talk abo about. And they are not in any way measuring success or breeding success. Theres not one government contract to operate that requires an outcome. And operate 70 million worth of government contracts, and none of them require one outcome. So i have taken those contracts and put them on the side burner and use them as tools and bent them like beckham in order to make us work, and help people change their lives. And apply them when they are appropriate. For example, and not just use two very brief examples, if i can, section eight housing, subsidized housing is extremely useful tool. So if you dont tell so if they cannot for the rest of their lives. Which they can put you dont. You dont tell them that. You set out the right time in the right way and destruction the way it was designed to be originally that has become a crutch that allows people to just live in poverty for ever, as you said. And the other is Energy Efficient which would go to Great Lengths as an agency to help people develop sound financial practices and to establish good credit and many seniors on fixed incomes are going for Energy Assistance for the first time in their lives and they are applying and in order to get in new york state the full Energy Assistance which isnt going to carry you through a winter anyway, youre going to have to default on your bill. In order to default youre going to ruin your credit and when they default Energy Company comes and shuts off and charges everybody a shot off the Big Energy Companies dont lose money. They go to the Public Commission and say we lost money lashkars we were raised our rates. The taxpayers paying for the subsidy for the person on Energy Assistance without defaulting to get the full benefit, and that is costing taxers more because the rates are going to come up because the Utility Companies are paying more money. All you have to do is take Utility Company to give eligible customers to subsidize energy rate and cut out 10 layers of bureaucracy. And stop putting people into default. Just small examples of every Antipoverty Program that exist. Every single one of them is flawed and needs to be reworked and needs to Work Together but they are all operating in government silos and it takes an organization operates either many times in housing programs were many times ive Antipoverty Programs to be able to step back and take that approach. That was a great, great beginning. I think we will transition, we will make a few comments on whether as we get the congressman to come up. Come. Seemed to be weird about work requirements, coordination among programs, serving the whole person as opposed to just one aspect of the person, we heard about the federal role. It seems to me its clear that there is a federal role in helping americans and people on the frontlines recognize that, providing resources and money and assistance. And then finally we heard about local control, ability of localities and local leaders to structure the programs the way they want. I also think i heard from the three to come will come back to these issues come is a willingness to accept evidence an outcome measurements to hold you accountable. For the second part of our presentation today we have three distinguished congressman from the house of representatives come and going in order, ma congressman barr, congressman reed, congressman walker. A member of the committee on Financial Services, he is committed to great a better environment for job creation and Economic Growth, is presented with the Economic Growth to increase wages for kentucky families and restoring fiscal sanity to washington. Tom reed after congressman barr will go next. Is serving his third full term in congress representing new yorks 23rd district and is a member of the house ways and means committee. He is engaged in the house of representatives at our efforts as well as tax reform, Energy Security and manufacturing policy. Before his time in congress, he was a Small Business owner working in law and real estate. Has great Public Service began in 2008, was a successful mayoral run in his hometown of corning, new york, which by the what is in the finger lakes. Thats where my mother grew up. Congressman walker represents north july 6 district in the house of representatives. He is serving his first term in congress serving on the House Committee on oversight and government reform, Homeland Security and administration. Is a member of several caucuses including the Bipartisan Congressional Historically Black College and universitys. Before he is elected he served as an executive pastor, music and worship pastor and lead pastor we are pleased to have you here. Congressman barr, your first. Thank you to the American Enterprise institute for hosting this important forum, to my colleagues and to our constituents who have come to share their stories and their successors in combating poverty in particular there at like to thank dean hammond and bill gray have demonstrated a real successful and innovative model of combating poverty and helping people recover from addiction. I come from a Congressional District like some other members of congress that features urban poverty but in the far eastern part of my Congressional District we have a number of counties that are designated safer but economically distressed as part of that regional commissioner theres a lot of rural poverty not just in my Congressional District but throughout appalachia and throughout the country. After 50 years of the war on poverty and trillions of taxpayer dollars spent, i think its her to say washington has failed Many Americans who are most in need. Bureaucratic inertia has crept in to government officials who refuse to give up on failing policies that almost could as dogma. For example, housing and urban Development Secretary Julian Castro who will appear again before House Financial Services committee again this week has pushed Housing First model that are not all of the factors of beneficiaries of obeying or selfsufficiency. Lesson with secretary castro testified before our committee got asked him how he measured success and he responded, getting a roof over someones head and he touted the number of people in Public Housing was increasing. But isnt really an appropriate measure of success . Both private and nonprofit assistance initiatives such as alcohol and drug Abuse Recovery programs focus on the number of people they have helped achieve sobriety or recovery, not how many are currently in the program. I think we need to focus on outcomes as opposed to the size of government or the number of government programs. There will always be a need for safety net programs. And for those of fallen on hard times. To assist those who cannot work such as seniors and the disabled but the measure of success should not how many people struggling in poverty the measure of success should not be how many people struggling in poverty are propped up by taxpayer dollars. Instead should how many people have we helped achieve escape out of, legally help achieve upward mobility in achieving the American Dream. Despite 22 trillion spent since announcement of the Great Society, poverty rates have been essentially level. Debate is about 46. 7 million people, including one in five children who are struggling in poverty. And force measurements of social mobility a pair to be heading in the wrong direction, as business formation of a new ship are the generational low. In some if youre born poor, youre as likely to remain in poverty today as you were when the Great Society are when the war on poverty was announced in 1965. Thats the referrers out the American Dream at all should. So more of the same cannot be the solution because when my colleagues and i working for the republican study committees Empowerment Initiative have produced a comprehensive review of federal Antipoverty Programs to inform legislative proposals to create a new model. This is a better way to fight poverty. Been on housing reform, an issue Financial Services committee. Hud can no longer treat those in need as liabilities. Warehouse for generation and public assisted housing. Our fellow americans want to recognize their full potential to contribute to their communities, to our body politic and to our national economy. And Arthur Brooks with the American Enterprise institute so publicly put it in his book, the conservative heart, when he talked about poor people not being liabilities to be managed by some distant, ma remote government bureaucracy in washington, d. C. , but for people are dormant assets, untapped potential. And we view as brooks does that work is not a punishment that they should be viewed as a punishment. Work is a blessing. It gives people the opportunity to achieve their potential and give back to their fellow human being. Get people back in the workforce, reduce poverty and ease the cost of taxpayers. The more efficiently can be in helping people, the more people we can reach with a limited federal resources. This model has worked before. We are building on the successes of the 1996 welfare reform model which led to Unemployment Rate increasing by 15 and dramatically reduce child poverty. In recent years these reforms have been chipped away and the results speak for themselves with their low Labor Participation rates. The lowest Labor Participation since the malaise of the late 1970s. Our plan approves flexibility for states and encourages this dilution of pilot programs to test innovative assistance models like those demonstrated by our panel. The work of dean hammond and the st. James place this model works but its not compatible with huds Housing First model. We must break down such arbitrary bureaucratic barriers to benefit solutions that would meaningfully improve lives. Warehousing for people is not a solution. Identifying underlying causes of homelessness and dealing with those issues is a better approach. We also should consolidate access to assistance of the beneficiaries can receive unemployment, Food Assistance and housing benefits all in one place well getting their questions answered quickly to avoid being caught in red tape. Our plan would encourage competition. So that scarce resources for section eight vouchers or vouchers for housing would not be simply allocated to one Public Housing authority, but instead those housing authorities out there that are doing a good job helping people graduate into nonsubsidized housing situations would be rewarded for services that are actually working, and it would take on a greater responsibility. I believe we should also open it up to the institutions of private society, dioceses, faithbased institutions, churches, synagogues and nonprofits that have the results and it comes to graduating people from public assistance into selfsufficient situations. Finally, our plan would demand results and accountability no more useless metrics or ambiguous mission statements. If programs administered by state and local governments are not moving people to welfare to work an and selfsufficiency, ad they should that deserve taxpayer support. As we all know one definition of insanity isnt the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Washingtons approach towards fighting poverty has been insane as has been a failure. We ca can and must either to internal american is by the conditions of his or her birth or by unexpected hardship. If we Work Together on these legislators solutions, i truly do believe we can restore the American Dream. Thank you. [applause] thank you very much and thank you to my colleagues, and he and mark, for joining us here today gone into robert and aei and you all go and roberta and in pushing the frontline on this important issue. And taking on poverty. I will tell you im often asked why, why they made this a priority in your tenure in congress. The fundamental answer is just as many of you, i care. I care and im a republican member of congress and i will tell you im told that my mission in life in congress is to penalize people, judge people and usher in a type of compassion for people. I can tell you that my colleagues will attest am i left and right, we do care. We just offer a different way. We offer a different way and i will share with the story of my life with you. I will share the story of being the youngest of 12, eight older sisters, three older brothers, whose father passed away when i was too. I was raised by a single mom. Who is given a curveball in life was either given a choice, either due to develop a chip on your shoulder, not kind of never get back a. Are what you did is you could take that curveball and make lemonade. You can get back up and you can smile and you can count your blessings and treat each other with respect and work hard. Thats the lesson she taught to me. When i was in when i first got out of school of represented kids, law or guardians represent kids interest actions throughout the court systems. I went on in that one my clients for the first time, an eight year old young man in western new york which is a beautiful part, as robert pointed out of the country. Is essential in appalachia. Essentially we have dirt floors. I sat with him in his living room and asked them what do you want to be when you get older, just to develop a friendship, relationship he and his attorney and a court precedent. And the response was eyeopening. The response was essentially, what do you mean . This is what we do. I thought maybe he would stay after that, police officer, cure cancer, Something Like that. Essentially then it dawned upon me. How could i expect that the man who was eight years old, which is 21, 22 to know anything different in the life he was exposed to . Thats the cycle of poverty. I have seen firsthand. When i come to this issue to i e at it from a personal perspective that we must do better. We need to do better. The status quo of the federal government has been taking on the war on poverty for decades just doesnt work. I am influenced by a lot of leaders across the country. And formerly of the country and i see jimmy. His father comes in western new york. Jack kemp is somebody i looked up to and look up to each and every day. What he taught us to be as a happy warrior, to take on these issues and look at people in the eye and recognized the potential that is there. The systems we have developed in the federal government at the state level and the local level just dont do that. The files have been talked about by roberta and others, that andy mentioned, the left hand of government not with the right hand is doing, recognizing under our proposal the better way, that we need to look at the holistic approach. Thats what roberta keller, ive gotten to know her birth over the years representing her in chautauqua county, a beautiful place and she is doing amazing work. I have toward her facility numerous times. She takes the holistic approach because when you deal with poverty, its not a one size fits all solution. When you have policies that not only cause you to be penalized when you work, we also have a lifechanging impact the future take care. You lose your heating assistance. Use it transportation assistance. Our policies need to be coordinated our policies have to look at the entire approach and thats what we are proposing as well as the better way. Rewarding work, standing with people as they go through life. And recognizing that we can be there during that time to offer some type assistance in cash assistance for the crisis situation and politics given individual for a moment. We need to make sure we are standing with him to get the skill set, the education that is going to empower them for a lifetime. Thats caring for people. Its the old adage, you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. You teach a person to fish, he not only take care of them but you take care of their families in the next generations to come. Thats the policies i think you see today is recognizing weve got to break the silence of bureaucracy, stand with workers in other recent while why we are standing with work, all you want to do is penalize people and force them to work. What was taught to me by my mother is work is good. Work is not a good because it gives you a paycheck that i can tell you ive talked with people that it received the first check after going through lifes struggles and its reward their cell. Its touched been here. Its allowed them to have selfworth. Its about them to take pride of ownership and what they were able to achieve. That is what our policy makers and our policy operators lose sight of each and every day come is that by empowering people to earn their own way, to actually not only earn a paycheck, they earn the confidence, that pride in that ability to go on not only for themselves but for the children and the next generation. I am excited to be part of this effort. I hope you join us in this effort, it is not about republican or democrat. This is about us as human beings saying theres a better way because the status quo has failed and we need to move forward in a positive, collective way. Thank you, andy. Thank you, tom. Thank you aei for creating this thing you. I looked into stores from others on the success, not overnight years of hard work and specifically my friend Odeo Cleveland junior. When i begin this process about three years ago not having any kind of political background or experience, what i felt compelled that he was fined people in the community regardless of their political affiliation of people who really were making a difference, and measured difference come and impact on our community. I found a gentleman, had to come that was respected by both democrats, independents and republicans alike. He had been spent on over the years lasting relationships. One of the gentlemen that worked with them is now a legislative correspondence liaison in our office and does a great job. I want to speak specifically on my aspect of the policy side which is education. I want to break it down into place if i could please. One is the system, and the other aspect of it is the public. When it comes to the system, i want to talk about specific piece of legislation that i believe is conducive to building a base level, a foundation that can help curb potential poverty adversaries family structures. I believe that the United States was founded on that all men are created equal. While its not governments job to fulfill our dreams, our goals, as lawmakers we have an opportunity to empower people as opposed to enabling them when it comes to a publishing the American Dream. Every man, woman, boy, child should have the opportunity to escape the poverty and achieve the fullest potential as god has created a person to accomplish. One of the things weve seen over the last couple of years in my long tenure of 70 months in congress is that d. C. Opportunity scholarship program. Some of the great joys that has provided families, 8000 a year. I believe choice plays a huge impact, not just in the scholarship opportunity but if we could zoom out about 30,000 feet, piece of legislation thats part of this initiative called the a act which allows states, local arenas to opt out of all the federal mandates but continue to keep the federal funding to invest and put into the local arena that it seems some success. To me that the common sense approach, federalism at its finest when it comes to empowering the people who are there on the ground, the battle line making that kind a of difference. We need to take a hard look at governments approach for the last five decades. It would be one thing if we had measured the success. I believe we can see through different testing and results that something hasnt worked in our Education System since the creation of the department of education and other aspects. We have created tons of programs and many more different vehicles are created avenues but something isnt working when it comes to the overall testing. The a act allows the school to be able to take those funds and make come and does what has the greatest impact. A great education should not be a privilege available only to the wealthy. Yet sadly millions are trapped in failing schools with no education options. Theres not a lot of flexibility. Im sure everybody is doing with common core and with the push backs was about one size fits all strategy. We want to get away from the. We want to be outlined his teacher to i want to daresay if i were to ask you a teacher that made the most impact in your life, it was probably someone who got outside the box. Someone who were unlucky take the personality and have the flexibility and creativity it would, in fact, that would make a difference as far as your future life. The might of a child is a precious thing. Every child is unique and there is no onesizefitsall solution. Parents know their children the best. Not faceless bureaucrats sitting behind a desk in washington. Let me take a minute if i could talk about families. One of the things i believe that the a act does come it gives us a chance to continue to restore that family. A lot of these are symptomatic issues as weve seen the family dissipate since the 1960s, we were able to do anything that brings the family back in, that puts ownership back on the family, that empowers them. I believe it gives you the best chance for future success. By limiting itself government can expand opportunity when it gets out of the way and paves the road to collaboration between students and teachers. Back to me is part of what i would call the system part of it. A few more things we have done. I dont want to forfeit some of my time unless i talk about also the public sight of this. And to me this is maybe the most important aspect. When we talk about programs, we talk about policies, sometimes with the or neglect to mention the continent of which those programs are delivered. I think to me anprogram succeeds of failures fails based on how it delivers. What you mean by that . Let me talk about relationships. My background is in place of the inner cities of baltimore, new york, cleveland long before there were any political aspirations. I remember specifically Sunbeam Elementary School in cleveland, ohio. We typically about 60, todd our best to refurbish the school. This is first through sixth grade. I remember saying that metal detectors, the playground had one piece of equipment left and it was a plastic little tykes bench, picnic bench dedicated over the years. The lack of hope impacted me to eventually come back and talk about transition from nearly two decades of ministry to be able to talk about what is that we are missing in government . What is it we have bypassed, that we skipped over that are fundamental aspects . I believe it is crucial from the education side that would begin to make those investments. I look at it from a faith perspective, that god created every single individual with unique skills are i believe when the federal government begins to wedge itself into, i think sometimes we do a disservice to the public because we limit the opportunities to achieve for fulfill those woerful things. Sometimes i have had the opportunity to teach postgraduate work at divinity schools. Its interesting when youre teaching these younger pastors because they cant wait to get out there and change everything from the music style to the carpet, you name it. Ive got the plane, its my thesis, im ready to go with it. What has happened to sometimes we have failed to understand it is about putting the relationship first. When you were able to build trust you are then able to make a difference. I see my time is expired i will conclude my remarks there and hope we have a chance to share some more. Thank you very much. [applause] so when we started to decide that we wanted to invite the congressman over to present this report, they said that they did what it could just be about them. They wanted representatives from people from the communities who talked in so much about these issues, and they also wanted some pushback, some giveandtake. They wanted a discussion. We went looking for discussion on these issues. I could apply to better people at a conference in their integrity and wisdom than professor holter from georgetown and Angela Rachidi from aei. I will introduce the two of them and then harry, you go first and then angela come your second. I hope we can have some response, back and forth at a good discussion. I know i have a couple of followups. But let me do the introductions first. Henry holt is a professor. Ihe is a former chief economist the United States department of labor and a former professor of economics at Michigan State university. Is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and Research Affiliate of institute for research on poverty. He is author or added 11 books and Journal Articles mostly on disadvantaged American Workers and their employers, Education Workforce issues. And labor market policy. He holds a ph. D in economics from harvard. Angela rachidi is a Research Fellow at poverty studies at aei where she studied effects of Public Policy and existing support programs on low income families. A former Deputy Commissioner for policy research anybody wishing for the department of social services in new york city, she oversaw a kid and was working on studies that were used to local officials make informed policy decision on her, for Public Policy can reduce poverty improve the Economic Situation of poor families. Just a ph. D in social welfare, policy. Shes written several Research Papers for aei including on childcare, the marriage penalties and earned income tax credit and labor force participation. Thank you, robert and thanks for having me today. When my friend robert are called me and asked me to do this, i had a quick look at the report and i said im going to see a lot of the critical things. He said its okay to just be polite. Thats a little problematic because as some of you may know, polite isnt always my strong suit. I will try but i think to me this was a very blunt report and america did not respond to anything less would be dishonest or alqaeda get the right balance of politeness and bluntness or if i fail to get that right balance i apologize to everybody in advance. To tell you about who i am not a look at at the role, i am an economist. I served in the clinton administration. So i am tag as a democrat but unlike many of my fellow democrats, i part company from the. I think tanf did improve and increase work incentives and some of those are good to create other problems which i will mention enemy. I think stable, twoparent families are the best way to raise children in america. Not every country. That means marriage. I wish we are policy buttons to raise marriage rates but i think conservatives have largely been right about the. I was one of the authors of the brookings poverty report. Robert was another what the i stand by every word in that report. So im used to reaching across the aisle and working with my conservative friends from other about. The paul ryan report, not my favorite but i found some positive things to talk about and to think about. Having said all that, my reaction to this report was pretty negative. With all due respect to the congressman, i found a report to be extremely partisan, extremely ideological. Its nasty in town so people like me who are democrats. It is full of gratuitous slaps at the president obama and president johnson, any of which serve no purpose except to alienate people like me. Its polarizing, its political in many ways. It doesnt have this nice amicable tone i think the congressman tried to strike at this many statements in the report that i believe are demonstrably false. Easy look carefully at the research evidence, the Rigorous Research evidence using rigorous methods, and i will mention a few the. Some of them are granted general statements, some of a specific. I think the american poverty programs have a lot of problems, the files mentioned before are real issues. No doubt about it. It could be much better. All three of you said the Current System is a failure. One of the statements in the opening paragraph, johnsons Big Government welfare state is benefit im sorry. I regard the statement is demonstrably false when you look at the rigorous evidence on these programs, on hester, a job core, its simply that is not what you conclude from carefully looking at the evidence. You can be critical and said evidence is a mixed and see the programs are too costly. You can say the they dont get t the underlying issues which i think its a quick comment by to say its a complete failure at north the positive to fight and a lot of his research anybody wishing literature. If you measure poverty correctly, not using official rate, it actually has declined over time and its easy to link the declines for some of the programs that are demonized in this report. Another, obama has guided the tanf for growth. I regard that as a false statement to the reason why is ron haskins has dolby is false and ron haskins has looked and written on a lot of these rules and you regard those as i trust them pretty much. He pretty much wrote the welfare reform policies in tanf come and i trust his judgment on but i think he disagrees complete. All types of halftruths in the report. We heard a lot about the 799, lets round up and call 800 billion. Thats fine. Half of that is on health care. Medicaid and other schip type programs which to me says tells us more about how outrageously Expensive Health care is an american president overspending on this. All the other stuff, the other 400 billion, may select a massive amount but its 2 of gdp in america. 2 is not a huge massive government when you convert to all of the individual is countries, we are on the low end of what we spend is friday of gdp. And you can prestigious countries, they all have more generous safety net, lower poverty rates and higher rates. So this notion that our program is a generous that its trapping people i think as little pashtun one more thing about this report which is upsetting to me. 42 footnotes, few of them are to the census bureau, Congressional Budget Office but the vast majority of the articles are either papers coming out of right wing think tanks, right wing Media Outlets are right wing conservative political appointees. Not one footnote to a rigorous, peerreviewed article in the rigorous the journal of which theres a large quantity in the social science, not one, which tells me in some sense the information that was driving the. I talk about a few of the programs. I will argue its not that these programs have negatives but the reality is much more complex. First of all welfare reform. Well for him as well for we wont get a lot of good advice 90s. Since then the number of disconnected by this, disconnected from work as well as a welldressed got up dramatically. Ron haskins writes about this with anyone else. Millions of those not on welfare and not working. They are hard to employ and i will get back to that. Tanf no longer raises almost any but out of deep poverty. It does nothing in the recession to combat the rise in poverty that occurred when jobs are disappearing in the recession. On the other hand, food stamps which is heavily demonized in the report, food stands does raise millions of people and families out of deep poverty. Its success are doing that. It did come back the recession the it had a countercyclical role in the evidence that shows food stands raises the nutritional quality of poor children. Thats a clear five cumulative evaluation. Those children do much better as adults and they work a lot more as adults who do those who dont accept. So, therefore, a rise in food stamps, proving that obama has been a failure, it simply another falsehood in my view. The earned income tax credit, the report does have a positive paragraph or two on the earned income tax credit at a total or about all the fraud and the irs needs to be much more stricter in combating from. I have no problem with it. The irs has been so demonized by House Republicans in the last eight years and this fund has been so dramatic that its hard to get in another Unfunded Mandate to do this work. The juxtaposition of those comments strikes me a little bit. Theres a lot written about the marginal tax rates, the notion, i will need all the more time soar. The notion that people face these massive cliffs when their earnings go below that and they come up with one or two hypothetical examples. Cdo wrote a report late last year, on average they are not were not as high as one side in the report. I think i still to why but its expensive to reduce those marginal tax rates and it doesnt always generate the changes in behavior efforts. Theres a huge literature on rigorously evaluated prek programs and cable programs and workforce programs, none of which were cited in this report. You would think that it doesnt exist anywhere. That was troubling to me. Let me talk about what we know about poverty from the research and the underlying, and do we believe suggestions in this report and the many fine efforts that have been discussed but pointed up to the challenge of reducing poverty, especially without more resources . First of all there are lot of adults in this country fit into category of what we call hard to employ, people with multiple barriers. It is often, the often become disconnected, their children, children of the poor and joker up with a lot of what we call toxic stress. Distress, this build of life, resources that were not impedes the Bring Development and consequently both develop their early, imposing more workflows on the forecastle sal that to me devise logic. And then those gaps get reinforced in highly segregated schools, segregated by race, economics. But a lot of the choice programs dont necessarily solve those problems. If you look carefully at the Charter School literature, some are very successful, many others on the. Some choice are successful and many are not the you look at the evidence they make softer status. Lets look at the labor market. Work as a great thing. Wages have badly deteriorated into two or four decades without the. The federal minimum wage working yearround fulltime, its 14 or 15,000 a year. When you add in, you are still below the poverty line for a family of four, single parents. The decline in real wages among less educated than has clearly not what help drive a lot of these but out of the labor force, and driven out of marriage. You can debate the magnitudes. You can make no comment about the level of wages. Marriage, i like marriage. I like marriage but its a great thing. We dont have policy buttons to push. Marriage and the fraction of children growing up outside marriage has gone up in red states as well as blue states, and every time a policy environment. Thats another falsehood. Contraception is different we have strong evidence. Its true the poverty programs wouldve to address the problems. They are very, very hargis all but the notion that the proposals stepped forward in this report are going to solve those deep structural problems come again i find unpersuasive. I will close by saying the following. Im open to a lot of the policies as it was in the aei brookings report are open to consolidating some of these programs and coordinating better. Im open to lowering marriage supper, open to more a candidate and more choice, all those things. However, people have to meet me halfway. They have to acknowledge the evidence that some these programs really do perform positive things and not just demonized these programs. If youre going to extra work requirements, you have to provide appropriate work Supportive Services for people. What conservative scholar called pashtun i think about is he likes to do the same. You dont slip on work requirements and do nothing till people which leads to a principle that we embrace in our report. Nobody should be kicked off a benefit program if they have han offered a Work Activity along with appropriate service and support. I support the principle. We want people to work in large numbers can sometimes the left engage in some job creation. The private market doesnt always get that right as a witness in the great recession, all kind of depressed regions. That caused significant money. The emergency tanf program and this team is built i think some of the others, it was less effective or i will stop the ongoing to meet people halfway and consider the arguments but not in the context of the report like this, that demonizes democrats and demonizes programs and denies every bit of evidence on things that actually worked. Okay, thank you, harry. [laughter] i hope kerr harry will tell w he really feels. I have a few things i like to talk about but we will go to angela first. Angela, five to seven minutes. Okay, thank you. Not quite sure how to follow that up but i will try to. It really is a pleasure to be here this afternoon. As robert mentioned, i studied the effectiveness of primarily federal safety net programs at aei with focus on trying to reduce poverty and low income in america. Also as robert mentioned for about a decade of work for the new City Department of social services as director for policy research, and in a position so how these programs function at the ground level at the people experienced them. My comments are very much influenced by that experience, sort of working more in the field as well as the research that ive done as part of my Academic Work as well as here at aei. I also just want to mention, im very much a realist. I think it comes probably a great extent from a midwestern roots but also spent a number of years a new City Welfare Department which is about as real as you can get a. My comments do reflect some of those experiences. When i read the report either very different reaction than professor holzer the i respect very much. Many of his comments resonate with me but i didnt have quite the same reaction. I feel the plan articulates some broad themes that i think the resonate with the number of people. I didnt look at it so much as a report that was coming out of a scholarly institution. I recognized the report coming out of a political body and we try to articulate broad things. Many of those the resonate with me based on my experience and my research. I think the report or the plan does touch on some issues that often times are criticized as political rhetoric but i think if we are too, if its too easy to dismiss some of them as political writer, we dont get into some of the real issues. So i want to focus on basically three broad themes i sort from the plan. Want is a work which her quite a bit about. Both sides do agree work is critical to reducing poverty but the major question is how do we encourage employment so we can reduce poverty. As was proposed in the plan can work requirements can be an effective way to do that. If implemented properly and fairly. Which to be honest they are not always but i think in general the intense behind work requirements are good intent and as much of what we heard from the members of congress earlier. Too often i also agree with the members, their comments, but too often these requirements are viewed as punitive because theyre seeking benefits when really they should be viewed that way. They should be viewed as an opportunity to build people up and to provide Work Programs and to some extent training for people who may not be connected to those type of services. So the supplemental nutrition assistant program, for example, which does have the work component for individuals who are ablebodied without dependent children, but does have very robust programs for those who are not. To me this seems like a missed opportunity rather than some sort of effort to try to implement measures on those individuals. I agree work promotion activities and work promotion requirements can be a larger part of our other programs such as Housing Assistance, Housing Assistance programs as well as our disability assistance programs and more broadly Food Assistance. Research does primarily callous and work is the best way out of poverty, a families and individuals are work table. It also shows us that work as it was mentioned earlier provides a sense of belonging, a sense of unity, self pride that is critical not only for a flu people but low income people as well, and why would we try to deny that for all americans. Census data show about 60 of poor working age people do not work at all. Those are the people that are denied some of the opportunities that employment can provide. The reasons they give for not working are not inability find a job its about less than 10 say they cant find a job that its primarily illness and disability and home and family responsibilities. This suggests a strong robust economy with a lot of the jobs can obviously give a great deal to increase work but it cant be the whole story, that we need other efforts as well, reasonable work expectations and be a part of this but its not the only part. It has to be coupled with support to allow people to work. Childcare assistance, for example, is a critical component. We cant expect parents to work in exchange for benefits if we are not providing assistance to them in the forms of childcare. We also know the federal policies that have effectively supported work, and we should continue to support those such as the earned income tax credit. But as the report also mentioned, the eitc is problems in terms of improper payments. And again i would not be too quick to dismiss some of those, theres lots of issues with the tax system but the eitc is one area that needs to be addressed are likely aei study a report in the coming weeks that shows that are legitimate and credible ways to address some of these issues, and hope for people that are interested in that you have a chance to take a look at the second area that i think is of critical importance is the family. We didnt talk a lot about that earlier. Its Kenneth Harkin to talk about. People off and on their own values, own personal beliefs when think about marriage from a Public Policy perspective. But if you look at the issue from a purely empirical perspective, the data are pretty clear. To married parents families, children do better than single parent families. Theres a good deal of research to support the. Research has also shown the government doesnt have a good job in promoting marriage. As the plan for the outside, government should not miss a shot in business of making low income parents who do decide to marry, making it a disadvantage to them if they do decide to marry. My own Research Found when it comes to the eitc, ever actual income unmarried parents, the penalty for the eitc can be in the range of 1500 3000 if an unmarried couple decides to marry instead of staying unmarried and even raising a child together. These marriage penalties are real and the need to be fixed. It will cost money, and so thats another piece thats often talked about when some on the right talk about these marriage penalties. To get rid of marriage penalties it will cost money, and it needs to be addressed in the context. The third point i want to make as round experimentation. It gets to one of the report is points from the earlier panel about all these funding streams are together and how they are able to take an approach that is more holistic a lot, the Antipoverty Programs are not set up that way. The plan advocates for more state flexibility to experiment with some of these programs entity think thats the direction we need to go. At least on a pilot basis. States need to be able to pilot programs that streamline these programs together, try innovative approaches. I like to pay for success models mentioned in the plan and this other efforts as well, saving smiles come things like that. States need to have the ability to experiment with some of these things. States may be any good position to do that. We learn from an 1880s and 1990s when states were experiment with welfare programs that changes could be made, and we need that same sense of experimentation today. I do understand the concerns that somehow that states may not be up to the task to do the advocates of risk for poor families but i would argue the federal government needs to take the role of Holding States accountable for this pilot programs, have rigorous evaluation, hold them accountable for outcomes and make a timelimited so if youre not producing the results, the funding goes away. One last point i would make before closing. The final statement in the plan was not the federal governments Fiscal Health and needing to get the Fiscal Health in order. And the need to shrink government. While that is true, it doesnt have to mean just adding safety net programs and it also doesnt have to mean no new spending, for example. In light in a should mean better targeting spending and spending money on things that are going to achieve the goals that we want to achieve. Today weve heard and ive laid out those goals are work, family, and experimentation. So if you are areas that are not effective and you can have less than the company should be realize that may need to be new spending and childcare, for example, i may be paid leave for low income families. Things that are going to support work and are going to support family. Because those are the things are those are the goals that were trying to achieve. Ultimately, again, i served look at the plant a little bit differently and maybe some others did but i see a lot of possibilities in the study committee, the republican study committees empowerment plan. We all will not agree on everything thats in the plan but i do believe theres a lot of agreement on both sides in areas of work, family and expectation. I just hope people will take the plan made a little more as i did, as a broad framework for what can be achieved and try to work towards that. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much, angela. And want to give members an opportunity to comment on anything get hurt and then i think i might have a followup question or two, and you might have a couple of followups to what might want to engage the audience and also our previous panelists. I would like to first start by complimenting professor holzer for his passion. [laughter] but not my politeness. [laughter] speak i think it was perfectly polite. In all seriousness let me compliment him for his passion because every one of us you should be outraged by witnessing people struggling in poverty. There should be passion in this debate and we may have biggest disagreements but what we all should be his passion about this issue because its unconscionable that people in this country, a country built on the concept of the American Dream, cannot escape poverty. That denies the american the uniqueness of the american experience. When i go to Eastern Kentucky, i go to wolf county, i try to actually share in that fashion that professor holzer has. When i meet a young woman named sally who comes up to me after town hall meeting with tears streaming down her face and she says, its august and were going back to school, and my kids, my teacher would have gone out of their shoes and i cannot afford to buy the shoes, i went to walmart and bought them flipflops just to go to school so that they wouldnt be embarrassed going barefoot to school. That deserves our passion. That deserves our outrage. What she said was the reason why cant afford shoes for my children is because my husband was laid off because his coal company doesnt have a permit and he couldnt get a permit. So i would say first and foremost lets not promote Government Policies that actually produce poverty. First, lets not be things that actually affirmatively put people into poverty. With respect to the Antipoverty Programs that we do have, let me come halfway to where professor holzer is, as he requested. I think he gives us to come halfway. Where i would come halfway is that improved, so this Antipoverty Programs that have been around for 50 years have alleviated material deprivation to a certain extent. The problem is that the spiritual deprivation remains and is perhaps even exacerbated. In Eastern Kentucky gets rid abrupt patch where is it lost a job because all regulations or environmental regulations but we want alleys has been to go back to work. We want him to have an opportunity so she can not only buy shoes or her kids, but so she can provide them with a life of greater opportunity. Were not denying we should come halfway. Of course we should come halfway and we should all share this passion to do better in the war on poverty. I will say this. I report discredit president john and in some regards for actually talking about the fact we need to declare war on property. We need things that tackled the root cause and get out the root cause pages to conclusion immigrants who who are trying to do. We are trying to go with the core causes of poverty, not just mask over some transfer payment the symptoms of poverty. Thank you, robert. I too want to echo some of the comments that intimate. I will say this and i guess i am the most Senior Member at pier. The good professor articulated something ethics. , especially in my district with the most right portions of the district. We are a very unique district in that way. Often what i want here is frederick, professor, such as yourself. The kneejerk response to reports in a partisan, political attacking. I can respect that and i respect that opinion. At the end of the day, what we cannot do and i can promise you, professor that im not leaving. I have done this numerous times in town hall meetings. I then yelled out her an hour and a half, two hours. You ready for it, mark puryear an hour and and a half in two hours, what i said is im not leaving because they care about this. We are going to find an area we agree upon. I say not in washington d. C. Its amazing what we can agree upon what we are willing to get through the rhetoric to get to the substance. The professor articulates some of the things we agree with, that angela points out in we believe and recognize and work that is where we should spend our time going forward. Where can we find that common ground, that Halfway Point . Where can we find the issues with the silos that the professor articulates it is a problem . Roberta keller from her district has demonstrated over a lifetime of commitment to break down my list of the left and right hand know what is going on. Where can we promote those training skills that are going to our people for a lifetime. I think the professor from the comments i heard is committed to that. This gives me a lot of optimism here to the people watching us back home, this is what it operates like a the first 20, 30 minutes. When the cameras are often the lights are down, serious legislators like my colleagues here today who have committed themselves, given up so much to be here to get the peoples Business Done better going to continue to do this work because its the right thing to do. I can assure you many times we will meet halfway and we will find solutions to these problems because our fellow citizens deserve that. That is why we are here in my uninspired paycheck comes in the work he did in his career here in washington d. C. Representative walker then i have some questions. Sure, thank you. Its been a privilege to be here today. I do believe professor holzers comments in some places are saturated. Specifically when it died about three Panel Members seen all three of us, i blamed all of this on these programs. I dont believe anybody appeared made the case that all this is based on programs. If you are listening to some of my comment, i dont have should your nose, but i talked about some of the family and some of the things that were part of the issues as well. Not just the program site. The other thing i heard you say if i remember correctly was kids that are on food stamps are better off as adult. I would love to know what report that is based on above to get the information honestly there. The final thing that you talked about, you said would come to school choices. Some is good and some of it is that. That is a pretty broad sweeping statement that doesnt give you an idea one way or the other. I was a visiting conclusion with my thought here. Who is it better to make these choices . Eurocrats her parents. If not everything is measured, i would venture to guess i dont have any concrete evidence but i would do the research how many times those parents make the choice as opposed to my washington bureaucrats. We will get into some more things. Whatever program you want to call it has failed this shot her our mindset when it says we measure success of our progress by how many people with a nonas opposed to how many people we transition off. They are not acting are not add a nonfit others success that got some problems here. Thank you. One of the things we hear in this debate, and thank you all of you. We want to focus on one issue and that is the work requirement issue. I think i heard you say that for an ablebodied individual and food stamps, for instance, this is where it sometimes comes to bear. Offer a job that is declined for a not for an activity that is declined or failed to show up for might engender a response from the agent the providing assistance in an effort to get them to comply or take advantage of what is offered them. How do you react to work requirement, take this activity that is here and is available tomorrow. If you fail to do that, there would be consequences. I am open to certain versions. Some of these people who are caught ablebodied often suffer from priest to be her depression or posttraumatic stress disorder that night cause them not to show out. Whenever you and i talk about programs of work requirements come in the service pieces. The support piece is very strong. Maybe not the first time, but if you have a repeated pattern and if theres been efforts made to be supportive but the larry made health and hassle model, im more open to can be doing some version of that. I would say in the experience i had in new york city where we pushed not for food stamps if they work support supplement low wages and households with the wages werent enough to make them rise above poverty level, that was a good day. It turned out many ablebodied adults, not disabled recipients of food stamps who we thought we were giving work support were working and they werent on tanf. We dont know what they were doing. Failing to address that is an issue. Im open for that design is it doesnt provide. For you guys, you know, brought to you block grants or state experimentation. How do you feel about testing that flexibility first . That is the handout is the handout that weve written an part of some of the proposals that there. The waiver authority, to make sure its not just a blanket block grant them a solution that will be all solutions. Its about having accountability , having flexibility. Experimentation, but the ability, making sure we watch and look for the unintended consequences because this is complex. Its not as easy as lacking light because each case is unique. That is something i learned in this area and every person seen this firsthand. Each family situation, each individual situation is often unique and onesizefitsall work. But i do have them i want to followup on that. Its a microphone coming in that direction . You all talked about federal programs that were a little amorphous to you. You were sure how they were working to where the money was going to why they were coordinated are working successfully together. People who work in poverty programs in kentucky or North Carolina or new york to know what the Food Stamp Program is. You know what the program is. If washington decided in uris date to use that funding soars as the way to care states greater flexibility by the federal government to prevent the benefit through the foodstamp bt card but instead gave give it to the state in your program to find a way to use that money that holistically service the client to serve, would that align you . To eliminate the foodstamp . To retake the Food Stamp Program away and take that money and instead give it to your state and say if you can give them your version of food stamps, but you can also get them at work program for an earnings supplement with this money. You cant get the answer. The thing here, to just pick one thing i cut it off like that i would not agree. The reason being is that grew its flexibility. I really do. That is a super important program. You just pick one and cut it out, weve got a lot more complex problem than taking one of those things. Anybody in this term can pick a program of may it is and that is fine. But this has got to be a lot bigger than not. We have got to go without a state twopronged attack. At another job. I cant buy my shoes. The other part is theres got to look at the future. Weve got to make sure these kids have been educated by matter what it takes to get them educated so when they are 20 they are not there. Do you want to comment on that . I really am scared of block grant. In new york it is one of the largest iraq received in the country probably. When new york is a block grant, the first thing it does is fill in the cracks of its bureaucracy with a block grant to keep its bureaucracy intact and that the drugs go down. Other states and other philosophies. New york will keep its bureaucracy first, that they safely not philosophically believe that children supporting education. For a different reason, locke rants going to different state they have terrible consequences. I think that food and housing and the fishes when i talk holistically with flexibility and for more integration between the services, i am not dead against block grants. I think they made oversight appeared unbelievable accountability. The black them to not hear and the last eight years there has been a lot of oversight on csbg. The Bush Administration and i think headstart is one of the most phenomenal things in the country. These children are coming to school with our web they would be. If you can take the children who burdened by generations of poverty and tummy when they are the fourth grade, they are equal to other fourth graders. You have performed a miracle. Odell, do you want to comment on this . Just real quickly, even though the transparent limeade and i would say no to block grants to the states. When you start looking at getting people internships, a lot of times the employers i like wed love what youre doing with the risk as it relates to someone coming into our company and all the sudden the rules and regulations apply to them. We understand how to relax those rules. People do internships. We understand how to relax those rules. So we can go when they change the legislation or take the legislation so federal governments dont create jobs who will be able to minimize the risk so that if they give someone a chance to intern and it doesnt work out, im just saying come on now. Lets look at it from my days. Those things we can do to help. I do want to ask your question about the tanf and the disconnected moms. There are lots not. They are not really disconnect it from government assistance. The avenue to assist that might not be to change the Cache Program but the Food Stamp Program. They are right there. We know what they are. We could go track them down. Im sure its a significant number. Lets look at the ultimate lock grant program. I think tanf certainly did some good in the labor market was really strong because of the programs that assumes that a strong labor market. I believe the problems are there because its a direct quote in your report. Theres other things did one thing weve learned about tanf and i recommend folks at the hamilton project at routines, which to me is a very centrist out to have a program about a month or two ago on potential safety. Talking about the pluses of tanf and the minuses. What they found is in some ways the flexibility has been abused by some states, much along the lines that state spend a lot of money on things not even remotely related. One of the recommendations, nobody wants to get rid of tanf. We went to still build the safeguards in the oversight to eliminate one of the arguments. There should be some that says some amount of money should be spent on what they called core support, which is cash assistance, child care and things of that nature. That is what we had to be talking about here, not a beall endall. Look at the failures as well as successes on ability and try to come to a metal plate that has some benefits without so many of the costs. In partial defense of the report, there is a letter of the law, spirit of the law. I think there is a sense among people who worked in social Services Programs that an emphasis on work requirement has not been a high priority of the obama administration. That comes through in his tanf administration and its administration of other social Services Programs that dont have them and theyre not interested reading them into play. Another question with the itc. I want to press you guys an irs. And a touch of the work requirement incentives and issues staged by professor. Perhaps the labor market is not in the downtown to accommodate additional jobs. One anecdotal response in areas the labor market with high unemployment for the participation come down historically high. And yet, when you go with tactics that amateurs and h. R. Directors throughout our Congressional Districts, they got little evidence is very strong that there is a huge demand for even unskilled workers. In fact, many plant managers among the district tell me this is a district with elevated unemployment and this is where employers say about, i just made an unskilled worker whose ontime and drugfree. Thats what they need to a little bit of that there are Jobs Available, but there is a labor market paradox there. We focus on ablebodied, not Senior Citizen aged folks for the work incentives. Frankly i believe is the brother of a disabled sister that the disabled can contribute meaningfully and we cannot say that they cannot. Finally, when i would also say if the professor is absolutely right. There are simply systemic problems with work requirements we have to deal with coincident to the work incentives. For example, child care issue for a single mom could asking her to work. We also have to do with transportation issues. The report addresses that. We talk about portability of vouchers so people can escape low Income Neighborhood where there are no jobs. Take a voucher to a place where they can get to work. You want to pipe in on the labor . Just really quickly. Its worth emphasizing the vast majority of poor working age people are not even looking for work. They gave reasons for not working thats illness or disability in home and family was on stability is. It may be that theyve given up looking for work because they are frustrated in the labor market. We have a mismatch in job centers not enough Jobs Available, we are missing the point that there is a lack of looking for work and we need to address those issues that we hope to get more people. The all three congressmen agree that a lot of people dont even show up in the survey segment with criminal records who face huge barriers because theres enormous evidence that employers dont want to hire someone and if they have child support, they sometimes have been tempted. These different problems. Or if the mom has a substance problem. Or posttraumatic stress disorder and depression, that could be its not a nonsense of opportunity. But absence of people. There are low wage Jobs Available and a lot of people left the labor market because they look at the wage jobs. They veered off the path. They dropped out of the labor force. It is a complex problem, but it is not either or. Congressman condit any one of the three of you. One thing we all agree on is that there isnt an approach creator improper payment ratio and the earned income tax credit, which is our largest Antipoverty Program. Food stamps i wanted to depending on the year. 70 billion a year. 20 and 18 improper payment rate. It does reward and incentivize work so many conservatives and republicans like it. If the irs came to you and said we can fix this, that you need to fund us so we can do the things to make sure we dont send these payments out to the wrong people for the wrong reason, how would you respond . The direct oversight and that is that the irs commissioner. There would be an appetite for the conversation. But it would not be okay, we are going to give you more money overall. It could be a conversation as simple as we need to prioritize this. Where can we potentially preallocates real resources within the irs thats not working, then its to be deployed into a higher priority and you could find a halfway ground. That is a conversation that is happening, will happen and what can you do to happen because we recognize as these agents is a bigger and bigger, the resources are a serious question, but not just an endall, beall. As the man in the irs and the sixers have been on ways and means and other agencies across the spectrum. Congressman walker, a curious in your comment, we all recognize the longterm Fiscal Health of the country is at risk, but we also recognize that a bulk of the 800 billion that we spend on low income americans is medicaid. The Health Care Takes batting payment to providers and managed care plans. I wondered how you react to that desire to find ways to spend more and send things from a less on that are less efficient than the total spending for the poor remains about the same. How do you react to the disproportion spending on health care and are you in this in order to find Fiscal Relief for the federal government longterm or is there Something Else at stake is more . It has to be along term goal. Shirts are she celebrated as the circles. One of the reasons we are strong component was to look at this longterm when it comes to some of our health care options, the chip reauthorization program, we felt like that was given as longterm reform entitlement was talked about a lot of time around congress. I think it is very crucial to look at this from a longterm weather to help your site and the medicare side or on the bigger issues to talk about today. The easy trap sometimes is to take the quick solution. There are times, but let me also say this. The reason my fellow congressmen are here with us today to talk about these tough issues. These are not issues that are good, easy fixes. I commend my fellow members here longer than ive been in congress who are being able to tackle something thats a difficult issue. Its easy to make other issues the limelight, the ones that feature a different talk shows. These are issues longterm have to be resolved. I also say the people that are going to be the ones resolving this are people who love genuinely good people we have a chance to represent. I dont want to be cliche to be cliched or cheap when i make those comments. If there is not a genuine heart and tone and spirit, we dont accomplish anything longterm. Not to use this term so much, not to be blunt, but what we said earlier today to challenge the tone and spirit among the panel is an appropriate or not one that i dont believe we can let the reporters through the audience decide at some point that this has been one thats gone right down the middle, where there, native forest this decision at that position made by some in the past, yes. Nobody is bashing the left. Im not even sure the word democrats was used any time. I want to make sure that i had a chance to also address those. We are coming up this. We are looking for solutions. We work in these environments. We are back in the places whether its urban areas, it is something important to all of us. It is worth noting the data shows operator districts have portions of them that are really struggling and not getting better. Motivate a member of congress to want to address the issues constituents are facing. So i am now going to open it up for questions from the audience. Theyve got a 15 minute. Heres the rule about questions. We like questions. We dont like statesmen. You know, or if comment process and then a question and then any of the panelists can address. So lets get some handsets. Where have we got a question . Okay, right here. Right there. Hi, thank you for being here and being here and having this discussion. It is really empowering. I am from South Carolina and its very good to see this conversation going on both sides of the aisle. So briefly, i wanted to give an example in pose the question to you. Early on in my career i worked in transitional housing with to save the world. And that experience i worked with a lot of individuals to do job training, to get them the skills they needed. One example of that was a one man who had come into the trend national health, was doing very well, went through job training. We found an apartment for her. She told her she was offered a raise in promotion. If she took that reason got that promotion, she would lose every benefit that she had. So instead of moving forward, which would have actually been a loss to her, she got fired. You can watch the rest of the program on our website, cspan. Org. We will leave this hearing for biased coverage of the cspan senate senate. The extension runs or September September 30th. The senate will be on summer recess and will be back after labor day. Live coverage of the senate here on cspan2. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Living god, we bless your holy name. We praise you for the abundance of your love and for your peace that transcends understanding. Lord, even in the midst of the cacophonous, you permit us to hear heavens harmonies. Today, inspire our lawmakers to depend on your grace, as they rely on your promises. Empower them to obey your precepts, finding in your wisdom a lamp for their feet and a light for their path. Sustain them with your sweet presence when they walk on weary roads, and continue to bless them with the constancy of your love. Send your spirit to bring quiet and serenity into their souls. We pray in your marvelous name. Amen. The president pro tempore pleae join me in reciting the pledge f allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell today the queen of england will ask teresa may to become the united kingdoms next prime minister. The british have remained with us through the toughest times and remained an ally. David cameron, to whom we also send warm regards today. It was true under the preceding Labour Government governments a. We have ever expectation it will be true under her leadership as well. What i hear is she tough, savvy and seeks to have a strong party in the future. Let me wish her the best in the days to come. Today the Republicanled Senate will have two opportunities to make a difference for the American People by passing the comprehensive addiction and recovery act conference report and the bipartisan, bicameral aviation agreement. Both bills are the results of months of hard work from colleagues on both sides. Were continued cooperation, we can move these measures across the finish line now. The cara conference report is a comprehensive legislative response to the prescription opioid and heroin epidemic which is devastating our nation. By increasing prevention Treatment Recovery and Law Enforcement tools, cara can help prevent more people from struggling with addiction to begin with and it can help foster longterm healing for those already struggling with addiction. It is no wonder its earned the backing of nearly 250 groups from local hospitals like the Kent County Memorial Hospital in rhode island to Law Enforcement groups like the fraternal order of police to antidrug groups like voices of hope in my hone state of kentucky. At a time when drug overdoses claim 129 american lives every single day, its painfully clear that we need to do more and we need to do it now. Thats why this Senate Majority has provided more than double the funding the previous majority provided for opioidrelated issues. Thats why this Senate Majority has made passing this comprehensive response a priority. I particularly want to thank those who made this moment possible, senator portman, senator ayotte, senator grassley, and senator alexander. I also appreciate those on the democratic side who worked very hard on this bill, like senator whitehouse and senator klobuchar. I know they are all proud to support it today. We can also pass the bipartisan, bical rail aviation bill which is an important step to ensuring safety and security for american travelers. Recent terror tax like those at airports in brussels and in istanbul underline the significance of this bill, which represents the most significant Airport Security reform in a decade. By shoring up security for International Flights coming into the u. S. , by enhancing vetting for aviation employees, and by improving security in prescreening zones that are often vulinerm, the Airport Security bill before us will take more steps to protect airline passengers. The bill will also take steps to keep americans safer from active shooter threats by thosing more socalled viper teams. It is also make sure airports are betterequipped to respond and disarm threats that come their way by bolstering resources and training for security personnel. In addition to these Smart Security enhancements, the bill also includes a number of key items to improve safety in our skies, such as ensuring that unmanned ariel vehicles dont intervening and improving Mental Health screening for pilots. It contains a number of Consumer Protection provisions, too, like radio funds for lost or delayed baggage. I want to especially thank senator thune for guiding this critical bill through the legislative process and for his work to include even more security provisions to keep americans safe. Every senator should support this bill today so that we can send it to the president s desk immediately. With cooperation now we can finish our work on these critical bills with continued cooperation in the coming day, well be able to finish our work on other important legislation as well. For instance, yesterday we voted to go to conference on the Energy Policy modernization act, which represents the first broad Energy Legislation to pass the senate since the Bush Administration. By updating and reforming our Energy Policies and infrastructure, this bill can help americans save more energy, produce more energy, and pay less for energy. This muchneeded legislation wouldnt have been possible without the resilient efforts of n. R. C. Committee chair Energy Committee chair senator murkowski and Ranking Member senator cant wrel to move it forward. Cantwell to move it forward. Im pleased that the senate took the next step to advance this bill and i hope we can arrive at a final agreement in the near future. Unfortunately, there are areas where our colleagues have blocked critical progress on issues like zika control funding and support for our veterans. Here was the headline in a newspaper this week reid and Senate Democrats will block zika funding again. Which means, the article explained, there will be no further avenues to combat zika for the rest of the cornel. Democrats used to say that zika was an imminent threat. Now they are threatening to extend the filibuster of the funding for zika to protect Womens Health. Why . It seems clear enough, they think dysfunction works well for them politically, so theyre traig to manufacture some regardless of who gets hurt in the process. Theyve tried to muddy the issue with extraneous arguments and halftruths but they just dont stand up to serious scrutiny. Lets examine afy of the things theyve lets examine a few of the things theyve said about the compromise conference report. Our democratic friends pretend it would underfund zika. Actually, it contains the exact 1. 1 billion funding they just voted for last month. Democrats pretend it contains partisan offsets. Actually, the offsets have bipartisan. Two have explicit bipartisan support. The third takes unspent money that was set aside for health care in the territories but cannot be used and actually uses those funds for get this health care in the territories. Democrats pretend the compromise conference report would weaken clean water protections. Actually, it temporarily just temporarily waives a duplicative paperwork provision that democrats call unnecessary for the protection of our environment and a waste of taxpayer dollars. This temporary provision would only apply to pesticides already approved already approved by the e. P. A. , and it represents the only real way to commence with the kind of antimosquito efforts we need, efforts the e. P. A. Director herself assures us are not only safe but perhaps the most important tool we can use right now as the vaccine takes a period of time to develop. Democrats also pretend the compromise conference report would prohibit funding or deny access for birth control. Actually, it provides more resources for Health Care Including Preventive Care than the zika bill democrats voted for just last month. This compromise bill directs those Health Care Dollars to the very places youd expect like hospitals, Public Health departments, comiewngs Community Health centers and medicaid. Democrats are now upset because a political supporter doesnt get a special carveouts, so theyre demanding an earmark as the cost of ending their tac against Womens Health and their blockade of zika funding. Of course democrats would like us all to ignore the fact that the very same partisan Campaign Organization would not have been able to access these medicaid funds in the president s zika request either. So its hard to decide which of these excuses is the most disingenuous. Maybe it is the false claim that this bill cuts funding for veterans. It actually increases funders d Veterans Fund it actually increases Veterans Funding to record levels. Just as democrats are pushing a bipartisan diploma to provide political cover on zika, it thrill would leave Veterans Funding behind. So, look, i think we get this. Democrats have a partisan interest in blocking critical antizika funding. Thats whats going on here. But americans are asking them to please just put politics aside for once and think of the national interest. Does anyone anyone seriously believe pregnant mothers care about manufactured squabbles over offsets and earmarks and duplicative paperwork . They want washington to kill mosquitoes and they want them to do it now. They want to see a vaccine developed and quickly. They want to see their unborn babies protected from devastating virus that can have lifetime consequences. What they dont want to see, what theyre not interested in observing is one more manufactured partisan excuse from our colleagues over here on the other side. To quote the Top Democrats on the democrat on the appropriations committee, mosquitoes dont care about the budget process. Shes right. Mr. President , the time for games is over. This is our chance to pass antizika funding, and theres only one way to do it vote yes on the compromise zika control and veterans conference report before us and send it on down to the president. Mr. Reid mr. President . The presiding officer the democrat leader. Mr. Reid the republican leader celebrates the opioid legislation and the f. A. A. Bill, but both are missed opportunities. Theres no funding in the opioid bill there were editorials all over the country yesterday about that. I read here on the senate floor it is in the record about the New York Times saying it was really wrong to try to claim credit for doing something with opioids when theres no money to do it. The f. A. A. Bill, well talk about that in a little more detail in a little bit, but another missed opportunity to do what is right, to help the republican leader keep his word. Cara that is, the opioid legislation has no real funding to solve the real problem. Over the last week, democrats have exhausted every avenue to try to work with republicans on a zika funding measure. Democrats had the audacity to expect the republican leader to live up to his promise in april of bipartisanship work on zika. This is what he said, the republican leader, in april and i quote were all very much aware that this is a serious crisis. Well be working with the administration and the democrats. Close quote. But his actions, especially over the last couple weeks, clearly illustrate that he was never really interested in a bipartisan solution. The president offered a meeting with senator mcconnell, secretary burwell and director of o. M. B. , Shaun Donovan to work on the zika crisis. The speaker and the republican leader refused that meeting. We offered to reintroduce the Senate Bipartisan zika compromise from what we sent to the house. Wed do it again as a freestanding bill. That bill had 89 votes. 89 senators voted for that. Weve offered republicans legitimate compromises. That wasnt the only one. In the hopes they would join us at the negotiating table. It is clear they dont want to stay in d. C. They want to rush to cleveland and wave the flag for donald trump. Thats why theyre opposing imaginary on zika legislation. The wall street journal reported yesterday quote Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell today rejected that offer saying the time for such negotiations has passed. Talking about our offer, the latest offer. The republican leader is saying there is no time to work on zika. Well, mr. President , i just suggest that i disagree with that. Starting this friday, right here, july 14, were going to begin the longest recess in the senate in 60 years. 60 years ago, mr. President , there was not much going on in this country, relatively speaking. We had far fewer people, 100 million less people. We had less complicated society in many ways. So there was an opportunity at that time to take a little time off. 60 years later there is no time to do that. There is no time to we cannot say there is no time to work on zika. Mr. President , give us all a break. There is plenty of time. Seven weeks, to be exact. I guess a couple months paid vacation is more important than protecting pregnant women and their babies from the terrible birth defects caused by zika. Theres no reason we cant stay here and work on protecting women and their babies. Republicans are in such a hurry to coronate in cleveland. The republican leader announced that hell be speaking at the Republican Convention next week. I guess the republican leader is rushing for the exit without funding so hell have time to prepare his speech and polish it, because im sure it will really help donald trump a lot in his election efforts. The republican leader cares more about his time off and cheering donald trump than protecting the women in america and their babies from this horrible, horrible virus. Lets be clear, its obvious republicans are choosing trump and some time off over protecting american women from this zika virus. This is a bad, a revolting set of priorities, and every republican in this building in the Office Buildings surrounding this capitol should be ashamed. They shouldnt fool themselves. Every republican in congress should know that if they walk away without funding zika, the repercussions are going to be severe. I cant recall ever having been around here a long time even before i came to congress i worked back here watching a party so willingly move to its own destruction, but thats what the republicans seem to be intent on doing. Maybe they dont like being in the majority. Its hard being in the majority. Were trying to save the republicans from themselves. But they wont let us. We pursued every avenue possible to find a bipartisan zika bill with a path forward to be signed by the president. It shouldnt be hard. Women, children and babies are looking forward to congress to pass a bill before we leave. If republicans refuse, they cant see the writing on the wall, we cant make them read the writing on the wall. Its up to them to open their eyes and read the writing on the wall. Look at the time we have to do something on zika. Look at the time. July 14, all see all these big black lines, were not here. We come back on september 6. July is gone, august is gone. Part of september is gone. Weve got a lot of time to be here and do some work. I say to my republican colleagues sit down with us. Weve offered compromise after compromise. To hear them say i cant understand why they dont want planned parenthood to take care of these women. If there is ever a time we want women to have birth control, how about now . My republican friend says i dont understand why theyre concerned about planned parenthood not being able to take care of these women. I dont understand why theyre concerned about changing the environmental laws dealing with the clean water act. I dont understand. Mr. President , their legislation takes 500 million from veterans that we were going to use to process claims. For them to say were increasing veterans money, its just not true. Everyone knows 543 million they have here is an offset from obamacare. I could raise a point of order right now. It would fall automatically. Everyone knows that. Taking money from ebola not much left there and ebola is still a crisis. We know that. We remember that from two years ago. Mr. President , the thing thats always so interesting, why in the world are this so interested in doing something about this would they stick a provision in their legislation that would reinstate the ability to fly the Confederate Flag at military stphaugs installations. Hows that for a compromise . So, mr. President , the calendar is going to stay here. Lets look at it for awhile and see what time we have left. The Republican Senate is being defined by its unfinished business. Its not just zika. We could go on for quite some time, and ill just mention a couple of things. How about giving serious consideration to protecting americans for funding for our military, our national security, addressing gun violence, providing the necessary resources to attack our nations opioid crisis. After historic inaction republicans are refusing to treat the federal judiciary with the respect it deserves and the constitution demands. The senior senator from iowa has turned a once proud and independent Judiciary Committee, my friend weve been together for 34 years in the congress of the United States the senior senator from illinois, hes a member of that committee. He loves his work on that committee. Hes told me numerous times. But that once proud and independent Judiciary Committee has been turned into a partisan Republican Opposition research operation. The republican Judiciary Committee now has a singular focus winning the white house for donald trump. The Judiciary Committee chairman has wasted millions of taxpayers dollars trying to embarrass Hillary Clinton during her stalwart term as secretary of state of this great country. They failed, of course. Senator grassley wrote countless letters demanding state department documents. He even once went after her a woman who worked in the state department was having a baby. He wanted the records to make sure he could document that. He scoured sensitive records belonging to Hillary Clintons aides. He was obsessed with digging up dirt. He found none. Senator grassley wasted millions of dollars and produced zero. Now senator grassley is questioning the integrity of career f. B. I. Officials calling their investigation suspect. Senator grassleys efforts to elect donald trump dont end with his partisan attacks regarding secretary clinton. The senior senator from iowa has obstructed qualified judicial nominees in the hopes that trump will win in november and we make the judiciary in his image. Oh, think about that. Unlike past Judiciary Committee chairs senator grassley is content to put partisanship above a functioning judiciary. Republicans obstruction is putting them in the history books but for the wrong reason. Last year the republicans confirmed the fewest judges in a long, long time. This year they seem determined to shortchange the judiciary even further. We have a myriad of judicial vacancies around the country. These courts have more cases than judges can handle. And thats more than doubled. Justice is being denied for millions of americans. Under chairman grassley the Judiciary Committee spends its time playing politics, not confirming judges. It seems the only thing deserving of the chairmans attention is electing donald trump and ensuring he gets as many judicial appointments as possible. Nowhere is that more important than the current vacancies on the United States Supreme Court and grassleys obstruction of the highly qualified chief judge, merrick garland. No one can find anything dealing with his education, his qualifications, his judicial temperament, his integrity. Estop of the line, as was he is top of the line as was indicated some time ago by orrin hatch. President obama nominated garland more than 100 days ago. He serves as chief justice of the d. C. Circuit court of appeals. He was unanimously rated as well qualified by the american bar association. Highest rating possible. Judge garland cant make his case to the American People because senator grassley refuses even to hold a hearing on the nomination. Chairman grassley has come up with a myriad of excuses to block the nomination, none of which hold water. The Des Moines Register said grassleys excuses are purely political. They arent being fooled. They know the chairmans real goal is holding the Supreme Court open for donald trump to do with it what he wants. The judiciary chairman has already said trump would quote appoint the right type of people. Boy, i tell you that must be a real stretch. Right people to the Supreme Court. The senior senator from iowa obviously places a high value on trumps judgment which has been proven to be so good in the last year. Senator grassley is holding the Supreme Court vacancies for a man who has accused an indiana born judge unable to do his job because of his racial heritage. His parents came from mexico. Its time for senator grassley to stop playing politics with his committee and give judge garland a fair hearing. Its time for this committee to address the numerous lower Court Vacancies and damaging judicial emergencies throughout the country. The American People deserve a functioning judicial system led by the Judiciary Committee in the United States senate. They have had enough with republican excuses. It is time for senator grassley and the Senate Republicans to do their job. Mr. President , i would ask the chair announce what were going to do the rest of the day. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of the conference report to accompany s. 524, which the clerk will report. The clerk conference report to accompany s. 524, an act to authorize the attorney general to award grants to address the National Epidemics of prescription opioid abuse and heroin use. Mr. Durbin mr. President . The presiding officer under the previous order, the time until 11 00 a. M. Will be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. Mr. Durbin mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from illinois. Mr. Durbin pending before the senate is an important bill. Its a bill that relates to the Opioid Epidemic in america, an epidemic which is linked directly to the heroin epidemic in america and the sad reality of the deaths that are occasioned by heroin overdoses. The prescription opioid and heroin epidemic claimed 28,647 american lives in 2014. 1, 652 in my state of illinois. A 34 increase in just four years. Ive seen this devastation firsthand. I have sat with the pairptses that have lost with the parents that have lost their kids. Ive met with some of the teenagers that were addicted. Some have been able to fight off the addiction. And reality is obvious this narcotics epidemic is not an inner city problem. It is an american problem. It is a problem that not only touches the inner cities of america, but it also touches every other community. There is no town too small, no suburb too