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the chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip , but in o five minutes no event shall debate continue beyond 1:50 p.m. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. gallego, for five minutes. thank you, mr. speaker. in my continuing efforts to highlight the 23rd district of texas, i'd like to talk about one of my favorite and one of the most rural parts of the 23rd district, the ghost town of tirlengua. it is located near big bend national park. there is not a lot of ghosts there. there is a lot of history. the population is about 100 people or so. he name comes from tres lenguas or three tongues. it was founded in the mid 1880's. there are many things to do there every day. you can go rafting or kayaking, motorcycling and many, many other outdoor activities, but on the first saturday in november, more than 10,000 chili heads convenes for the chili cook-off. the chili appreciation society international. in the 1970's, as a matter of fact, the chili cook-off also sponsored a mexican fence to bing contest, a parody chain the fence along the texas-mexico border. clay henry, the first mayor elected, was elected in 1986. clay henry was a beer-drinking goat and he defeated a local dog. some of his campaign posters are still around and now they're worth a lot of money. i invite everyone to explore the beauty of the big bend country and the beauty of the 23rd district. and mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from tennessee is recognized for five minutes. -- the gentlewoman from tennessee is recognized for five minutes. mrs. black: thank you, mr. speaker. obamacare is an unfair law that is hurting the middle class and lower income americans across the country. in fact, just this week the labor union, unite here, issued a scathing report on the president's health care law charging obamacare will lead to the destruction of the health care plans for their members and the like and it will make inequity in our nation worse. unite here was the first labor union to endorse the then-senator obama in his race for president in 2008. so even one of the president's closest union allies has turned against obamacare because, as they report and i quote, it will hit the average hardworking american will it hurts the most, in the wallet, closed quote. the president and congressional democrats sold this law as something that would reduce health care costs for the american people. it is completely unfair to force the people to participate in a program that doesn't live up to that promise. this law was supposed to help insure the uninsured, yet it has not been more unpopular for those without health insurance. in a recent kaiser family foundation poll found that 56% of the uninsured have an unfavorable opinion of obamacare. in a recent mckenzie study found that affordability was the number one reason cited by the uninsured for the reason why they aren't signing up. now, the uninsured who can't afford obamacare is going to be hit with another cold reality of the president's signature health care law. they will be penalized for being put into this situation. and the president has the audacity to find hardworking americans for not being able to afford his costly and disastrous health care product. this, despite the fact that he's exempted big business from obamacare and members of his own administration do not have to purchase obamacare plans for themselves. this kind of selective enforcement is unfair to low-income and middle-class families, and it is why last week my house republican colleagues were joined by 27 democrats to pass legislation to eliminate the individual mandate tax penalty under the obamacare for one year. through obamacare, the president is marginalizing the very people he says he wants to help, and now even his closest llies have taken notice. mr. speaker, president obama's labor union friends are right. obamacare is destructive to low and middle-income families and politicians who are responsible for this train wreck must be held accountable. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from oregon, mr. blumenauer, for five minutes. mr. blumenauer: thank you, mr. speaker. hundreds of men and women are in washington, d.c., this week representing america's transit agencies. millions of transit users and the highest ridership in over a half century, 10.7 billion rides. tomorrow they will be joined by over two dozen streetcar cities. this is one of the fastest growing new development and transit tools that's taking place all across the united states. they are here seeking the federal government to step up and do its job. for the first time in over 150 years, the federal government is in restreet on infrastructure. it all -- retreat on infrastructure. it all started with the constitution designating postal roads as one of the first obligations of our new country, and then we were involved with the development of a system of canals to help promote american commerce. 152 years ago, the transcontinental railroad act was passed that ultimately tied america together from coast to coast and led to the finest passenger and freight rail system in the world. later, there were massive water projects in the west. electrification projects that brought the magic of electricity to rural and small town america. the interstate freeway system that began germinating under the administration of president roosevelt during the great depression and blossomed into full flower, signed by resident eisenhower in 1956. mr. speaker, we have established mass transit with ronald reagan establishing a transit account, guaranteeing 20% of the gas tax revenues for that critical function and actually raising the gas tax a nickel a gallon under president reagan. and then there was the legislation in 1992, the intermodal surface transportation fishes be efficiency act that promoted flexibility and large-scale vision process to make the system work. even the much-maligned recovery act, the so-called stimulus, had billions of dollars to help rebuild the country. but we've been stuck now for over a decade. in 204 days, the bottom falls out of the highway trust fund which means the feds are going to have to cut back in transportation funding this summer which means this spring, state and local governments are going to be holding back. i've been working with business, labor, environmental leaders, triple-a and the truckers, bicyclists, contractors to be able to come forward with -- a.a.a. and the truckers, bicyclists, contractors to be able to come forward with a gas increase that will be indexed for inflation so we wouldn't have to go through this any more. in addition, house bill 3638 would explore the new methodology that was used in an oregon pilot project that would pay for road use based on a user fee on the distance traveled. it has the opportunity not just to fund transportation but to transform the travel system in the united states. congress needs to step up. what are their solutions if they don't want to raise the gas tax for the first time in 21 years? maybe we could have a hearing before the ways and means committee on how we're going to finance re-authorization. we can in fact solve this problem. we can put millions of people to work to revitalize our communities and to make our families safer, healthier and economically secure. when these men and women visit you on capitol hill, please be prepared to say if not raising the gas tax, what's your solution so that we don't fall off the cliff in 204 days and retard vital progress. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. denham, for five minutes. mr. denham: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, i rise today to honor the life of one of my constituents, john henry deyton, who passed away on february 9. john was born in california to charles and florence dayton. he was raised on ranch in houston, california, with his three siblings. he attended oregon state university. in college he married beverly jean tack. together they raised two children. after college he moved back to california in 1971. john and his business partner, harold cobb, opened oakdale village pharmacy in the city's first shopping center. they opened additional pharmacies. he was later remarried to susan thorpe. together they raised two children. throughout more than four decades of business in the oakdale area, john earned a reputation as a knowledge, personal personable and trustworthy local pharmacist. in november, 2012, john was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer. he was preceded in death by his father and stepson. madam speaker, please join me in celebrating the life of mr. john henry dayton and all of his contributions to his family and our community. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess >> we'll show you some of what dianne feinstein had to say earlier today on the senate floor. >> based on what director brennan has informed us, i have grave concerns that the c.i.a.'s search may well have violated the separation of powers principles emwodied -- embodied in the united states constitution, including the speech and debate clause. it may have undermined the constitutional framework, essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence activities or any other government function. i have asked for an apology and a recognition that this c.i.a. search of computers used by its oversight committee was inappropriate. i have received neither. besides the constitutional implications, the c.i.a. search may also have violated the fourth amendment, the computer fraud and abuse act, as well as 333 which ive order 12 prohibits the c.i.a. from conducting domestic searches or surveillance. days after the meeting with director brennan, the c.i.a. inspector general, david buckley, learned of the c.i.a. search and began an investigation into c.i.a.'s activities. i have been informed that mr. buckley has referred the matter to the department of justice given the possibility of a criminal violation by c.i.a. personnel. let me note because the c.i.a. has refused to answer the questions in my january 23 letter, and the c.i.a. inspector general is ongoing, i have limited information about exactly what the c.i.a. did in conducting its search. weeks later i was also told that after the inspector general reviewed the c.i.a.'s activities to the department of justice -- excuse me, referred to the c.i.a.'s activities to the department of justice, the acting counsel general of the c.i.a. filed a crimes report with the department of justice concerning the committee staff actions. i have not been provided the specifics of these allegations or been told whether the department has initiated a criminal investigation based on the allegations of the c.i.a.'s acting general counsel. s i mentioned before, my staff involved in this matter have the appropriate clearances. handle the sensitive material according to established procedures and practice, to protect classified information, and were provided access to the panetta review by the c.i.a. itself. as a result, there is no legitimate reason to allege to the justice department that senate staff may have committed a crime. i view the acting counsel general's referral as a potential effort to intimidate this staff and i am not taking it lightly. >> reminder you can see all of dianne feinstein's speech from the senate floor this morning at c-span.org. also this morning the c.i.a. director, john brennan, denied the allegations from senator feinstein that the agency had secretly searched a senate computer system saying, quote, nothing could be further from the truth. he was before the counsel on foreign relations just a short while ago and here's some of what he had to say. >> as far as the allegations of c.i.a. hacking into senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth. we wouldn't do that. that's just beyond the scope of reason. >> she says there are potentially illegal and unconstitutional breaches by the c.i.a. >> well, appropriate authorities right now, both inside of c.i.a. as well as outside of c.i.a. -- >> justice department. >> are looking at what c.i.a. officers as well as staff members did. i defer to them to determine whether or not there was any violation of law or principle, and i referred the matter, myself, to the c.i.a. inspector general to make sure that he was able to look honestly and objectively at what c.i.a. did there. when the facts come out on this, i think a lot of people who are claiming that there has been this tremendous spying and monitoring and hacking will be proved wrong. >> you said at your confirmation hearing you wanted to restore the trust between c.i.a. and the overseers in the senate. gulf.s a pretty major if it is proved that the c.i.a. did do this, would you feel that you had to step down? i am confident that the authorities will review this appropriately. i will deal with the facts as uncovered in the appropriate manner. i would just encourage members of the senate to take their time, to make sure that they don't overstate what they claim and what they probably believe to be the truth. these are are some complicated matters. we have worked with the committee over the course of many years. this review done by the committee was done at a facility where c.i.a. had responsibility the e sure that they had computer wherewithal to carry out responsibilities. if there were any appropriate actions taken related to that either by the c.i.a. or seic staff, i will be the first one to say we need to get to the bottom of this. if i did something wrong, i will go to the president and i will explain to him exactly what i did and what the findings were. he is the one who can ask me to stay or go. >> you'll see all of theevent laettner our program schedule. you'll find it as well at c-span.org. a live look at the u.s. capitol. the senate is in working on several judicial nominations. the house returns at 2:00 but their legislative day begins at 3:30 eastern with a number of bills, including four designed to alter the 2010 health care law, a measure that would call for additional sanctions against russia for its occupation of crimea. live house coverage here on c-span when they return at 2:00 p.m. and at 3:30 p.m. the presidential panel created to help young people become better equipped to manage money d handle -- handle financial decisions held the first meeting yesterday on capitol hill. the speakers included secretary ack lew, arnie duncan, and white house advisor valerie jarrett. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to the treasury department. i'm with the office of national institutions here at treasury. it's great to have you-all here with us for the first meeting of the new president's advisory council on financial capability. also warm welcome to the members of the council. we are grateful that you have agreed to serve. the subject of financial capability is a priority for the administration, so we look forward to the work of this counsel with great interest. in a few minutes, we'll hear remarks from secretary lew, secretary duncan, sill seala munoz, and director rich cord ray. before i turn it over to secretary lew, let me make a couple points about the work of this council. first, the mission of this council in many ways follows from the work of the previous' president's advisory council on financial capability. that council submit add report to the president which it noted the importance among other things of financial education for our youth and drawing on all resources, private and public, state, local, and federal to advance this agenda. hence the focus on youth with this particular counsel. second, while the previous counsel worked on conceptualizing a path forward, this counsel was constituted to discuss and share experiences on the actual implementation of ideas to promote financial capability. the members of this counsel have been leaders in achieving results in this area, and we look forward to hearing from them about how they are working to move the dial on youth financial capability. third, the members of this counsel come from both the public and private sectors, and we also have representation from the federal government and from local government. work on financial capability is a collective endeavor. accordingly, we must do our best to figure out how the public and private sectors and the federal, state, and local government can complement each other to achieve the results we all would like to see. and now i'm honored to present to you the secretary of the treasury, jack lew. >> thanks very much, cyrus. good morning, everyone. welcome here to the department of treasury. i'm very pleased to have all members of the new council here with us today, including director kordray and secretary duncan and cecilia munoz from the white house. i'm also pleased we have so many members of the public here this morning with us. president obama created this council and brought this group of talented, committed men and women together to advise him on issue of profound importance to the future of our economy. the financial capability of america's young people. whether it's teenagers deciding how to spend their first paycheck, college students making crucial decisions about how to repay their student loans, or new parents trying to save for a child's education and their own retirement, helping young americans build a sound financial foundation is not only important for their futures, it can also strengthen our economy for generations to come. that's why the work that we do as members of this council could significantly impact how successful we are at growing the middle class and increasing economic mobility and opportunity for all americans. fortunately, there's much we can do to improve financial capability, and i like the president call on this council to help us identify those opportunities. masters the basics of financial decisionmaking decisions early, will equiple them well in the future. whether to fur two post secondary education, and if so, how to pay for it. further, we need to make sure that work pay is for all americans. not just those who earned a post secondary degree. that's why the president has proposed an increase in the mainly, an extension of the earned income tax credit so all americans who work hard will be able to be economically self-sufficient. but beyond growing jobs and expanding opportunity, there's more we can do to make american workers and their families financially secure. this council should call on employers of all kinds, large and small, in the private, nonprofit, and government sectors to consider how they can help their employees become financially successful. many workers look to their employers as a source of information, even guidance on how important money management matters beyond retirement. employers also play a critical role in providing workers with information and options to plan and save for retirement. these options include traditional retirement plans, new tools like treasury's i.r.a., a safe and affordable way to save for retirement, geared towards workers who may not have access to an employer-sponsored plan. in addition to saving, we should also examine how other tools can improve financial outcomes. as we have worked in recent years to make our financial system more fair and more transparent and to protect against the worst abuses in our financial system, it's become clear that when it comes to protecting consumers, our best defense is a good offense. in the age of smart phones, mobile apps and big data, consumers are now empowdered to make smart financial decisions in real time, allowing them to trade the financial emergency room for preventive care. technology has given us the ability to wholly rethink the definition of financial capability and gives us the ability to reshape and redefine what it means to be financially literate in the 21st century. be it employers, schools, government, private businesses, community-based organizations, or families, there's a role for everyone to play in the effort to better prepare our youth to navigate a world full of consequential financial decisions. the administration has taken a number of steps over the last few years to advance financial capability and expand opportunity. but our work is not complete. i'm confident that this council will continue to build on our efforts and make sure that we are working in concert with other sectors of our economy and society. i ask this council to show us what is working, who is leading, and how we can work together to broaden impact because one approach will not suit all needs. i look forward to working with my colleagues across the administration and our partners outside of government to identify the best new ideas and financial capability and put them to work for the next generation of americans. thank you. >> thank you very much. thank you, mr. secretary. thank you to all of you for being here today. i'm cecilia munoz, director of the president's policy council, i want to start by thanking the newly appointed members of the council for your commitment to help us better understand how we can prepare america's next generation today for the financial challenges they'll i face tomorrow. the work you are about to embark on is to put it simply, an investment in the economic future of the contry. i don't think it's particularly simpletask. you know and i know that the challenges our young people face are very different from the ones the rest of us faced growing up. i learned financial responsibility from my dad who still at age 90 is the guy who faithfully balances his checkbook every months. when i was about to ship my first born off to college, you sit them down to have all the conversations you worry you forgot to have with them, one was the oh, my gosh, i haven't taught you how to balance your checkbook yet. she look at me with that patient look they get right before they roll their eyes, and said mom, i don't have a checkpoint. i have these various pieces of plastic. she does. she's constantly bombarded with credit and bebdit card offers, other leans, numerous other financial decisions on a daily basis that could and will have a very big impact on her life. these are things i couldn't have fathomed when i was at her stage getting ready to go to zool. people across this country are facing these same choices every day and the data indicates that many of them are not well prepared to handle these challenges. they are less likely to have bank accounts and a significant percentage rely on riskier nontraditional borrowing. they are less likely to have money setaside for an messagecy. particularly true for young people of color and those who haven't finished high school. this is our challenge. all young people, no matter their background, should be armed with the tools to create a better future for themselves and that includes financial literacy skills. and this work goes hand in hand with the president's broader agenda, we call it an opportunity agenda, to make sure that we are increasing financial security for all americans. secretary duncan is here. he is deeply engaged in the work of making sure every student is able to go to and finish college. and with his leadership, the administration is working to make college more affordable and providing young people with clear information about the opportunities available to them. we also need to know to be sure that young people have the financial smarts to weigh these options and make informed choices that affect their futures. this will increase the likelihood they can finish college and start their careers on a strong footing. when we talk about the president's opportunity agenda, as second lew pointed out, it also includes initiative we are deeply engaged in like the affordable care act, which also very much connects to financial security. and the effort to increase the minimum wage. but ultimately higher wages around the whole equation. young people need to know about and have access to sound products to help them spend that money wisely and put money aside for a rainy day. so i hope the council will consider all of this and will also consider how its work will coordinate with other initiatives across this administration, including the my brothers keerp initiative, which recently announced by the president to provide more opportunities for boys and young men of color who face particularly tough odds when it comes to climbing the ladder to success. i hope we can align our work and these strategies together. what you are about to embark on is tremendously important. as i said at the start, sometimes the earliest lessons are the ones that stay with us the longest. the most basic financial lesson holds true not only for money butt president's policy for young people. you make investments early and watch them grow. we thank you for your efforts. i look forward to the good work they do together. > thanks very much, cecilia. >> i find already the word that repeatedly comes to mind for thee this morning is amen. we have many similar things to say, i think, but since we each have our own distinct advantage points on them, maybe it's good for us to say them nonetheless. i'm the first director of the first consumer profinancial protection bureau which did not exist when the council was first convened during the president's first term. we are glad to be here and be part of this at this point in time. over the years financial education has become a passion that i pursued at the local, state, and now federal levels. it's a privilege to be invited and to serve on this council. at the consumer bureau we are committed to helping consumers make sound financial choices. we are doing all we can to protect people by ensuring that consumer financial markets work petter for thefment are transparent, reliable, and fair. but we also recognize that the best form of consumer protection is self-protection. which means helping people avoid problems in the first place and know how to address problems when they do occur. but has proven to be a hard problem in our society. although it's important for parents to talk to their children about money from an early age, many find it difficult or uncomfortable to do so, leaving our young people starved for information. so we need to be in by recognizing just how rarely families actually engage in these discussions. this is a fundamental problem for anyone who cares about the direction of this country. young people who lack the skills to make effective financial decisions will find it harder to become productive and capable citizens. they will incur unnecessary debt, missed opportunities to save monny, and develop a poor credit history. these problems will block them from opportunities and resources to improve their futures. we are enrolling them in the zool of hard knocks with no reason to think they will avoid repeating the same mistakes others made before them. we have an opportunity here with this council to see america does better by its children. now more than ever as we emerge from the deepest financial and economic crisis of our lifetimes, people need to know how to manage the ways and means of their life. the choices they face in the financial marketplace with instruments like mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, student loans, credit reporting, and more are increasingly complex. many consumers use the tell your story feature of our website to describe their lasting regret that they did not know more at the time they made important financial decisions. the most obviously way to create a more financially capable nation is towncies on having financial education in every one of our schools. in my opinion this is an imperative we cannot afford to ignore or defer. last year we issued a report on advancing k through 12 financial education. the report presents five policy recommendations that squarely build on the great work already done by many of you and your colleagues on this panel. let me briefly restate them here. our first recommendation is the financial education should begin at a young age, be made a priority of students approach graduation from high school, and continue to evolve through the various stages of adulthood. when we do not teach children about personal finance, about managing household budgets, saving for the future, or making informed decisions about larger investments in and education or home, whether or not it includes balancing a checkbook in this day and age, we are failing them in very shameful and costing ways. we can do this with integrated curricula in our schools so the benefits of compound interest are understood in math class, economic cost and risks are taught in social studies, and essay topics in english class may cover how we use money, protect our money, or take control of our financial lives to achieve our goals. second, we recommended that as part of youth financial education, students should practice financial management through experience learning. whether they are simulating a banking experience, playing a computer game that hones the skills, or following the progress of stock market, they will learn more effectively from the experience. third, we must engage and support those teachers who are interested in teaching personal financial manage. we need to ensure the teachers have the support they need. we want them to have access to training and incentives to take part, such as continuing education credits, and need-based travel stipends. we are developing teacher training resources through the bureau and partnering with others to do more in this area. fourth, in addition to eequipping teachers with the training they need to teach financial skills, we are also recommending integrating financial education concepts into standardized testifies f tests. doing so would increase the opportunity for educators to increase them and track the performs of struents on financial education content. we have working on this issue with those in charge of writing these tests. fifth, providing financial education in schools that is critical, there are also enormous benefits when that education is present in the home. we need parents to be as involved with their children and as their children are in learning to master the concepts of personal financial management. parents help set expectations and research shown if parents engage their children by establishing a saving account for them, these children are seven times more likely to attend college than those without. affecting how families approach financial education will not be easy, but the presentation of financial education in the schools will be a further stimulus to progress. i look forward to working with all of you to help our young people gain the financial capability they need to control and shape their lives. thank you. >> thanks very much, rich. secretary duncan. >> thank you so much. i apologize for being a few minutes late. aim thrilled to be here and i want to thank the council members for their willingness to soy. this is a pretty extraordinary group of people. very diverse. many different backgrounds. i just think what you can do for young people and for the country going forward could have a huge impact. i'm a big believe they're leadership matters a lot. i'm biased. john is my best friend. i think he's an extraordinary chair. this is a lifelong passion of his. in the vice chair. what you have done in san francisco is nothing short of remarkable f we had more local leaders with his passion, his commitment, we would be in a better place right now as a nation. it's a great council. two amazing leaders. look forward to doing whatever we can to part her in with you to drive this agenda. i'm -- partner with you to drive this agenda. i'mals looking for ways to cut throughout traditional battles. i think this is an issue of no natural enemies. whether it's union and management, teachers and principals, public and private sector, i think we can all unite behind the cause of putting our young people in the position to manage their lives and their finances in a much more thoughtful and strategic way han they do today. everyone here knows there is a need. that's why we are here. i was back home in chicago, met with a group of students on the south side of chicago saturday night, tough community, about 40 kids, and i didn't tee this up, literally the last young man to mr. speaker was extraordinary. actually goes to a pretty good high school in chicago. he said, he was getting good grades. he's going to be successful. he asked me straight up, how come no one it is teaching me about finances? i'm going to get a good job. how am i going to be able to manage my money when i get older? it was an unbelievably poignant question that i think far too many around the -- far too many children around the country today can ask. today we don't have a great answer on that. our kids deserve better. they are asking for it. and if we can take to scale what works, if we can work trogget across sectors, across the traditional lines that divide us, i think we can do something pretty special for our kids and country. i thank all of you for your leadership and look forward to working together. >> thanks very much. with that i'll turn it over to the chairman of the council, john rogers. >> thank you. it's great to be back again. great to see so many people here. we really do seem to have a lot of shared values here. the comments we have all had a chance to talk about today. i just want to pick up a little bit on what arne talked about, when we grew up, woo went to the same high school -- we went to the same high school, arne took eight years of german, and germany in one year. i took about four years of french. i have been to france three or four times. if you think about it, the values and things we have to teach to our kids to get kids prepared for life, i think sometimes we have our priorities wrong. we've got to make sure we have robust financial literacy programs starting in grade school that build over time the same way math skills and science skills and english skills build over time. so you're truly prepared to participate fully in our american democracy. i think that's something that is lost. to the question arne was asked the other day was perfectly appropriate. i think it's why when arne was working -- when we were working together 20 years or so ago, he came up with creating a small public school on the south side of chicago. after a couple years up and running, we decided that we needed to have a robust financial literacy program for these inner city kids who were coming from often very disadvantaged backgrounds. which this fits perfectly with the president's mandate where he talked about the importance of financial literacy, in particular in disadvantaged communities. we create add program that was paterned after the program my father had as me for a child. my father was a tuskegee airman, he felt it was important to me to get exposed to the stock market as a child. many of you heard the story every birthday and christmas after i was 12 i got stock certificates instead of toys. of course it wasn't fun going to the christmas tree and getting an envelope. but eventually i bhktotally fascinated and loved the stock -- totally -- become totally fascinated and loved the stock market. every first grade class would get a $20,000 class gift. the kids would watch us management, watch professionals manage it for the first six years, and then the kids would start to pick real stocks with real money in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, and work with analysts, analyst companies, do research, come down o our offices and learn about careers and what it's like to be analalist. we thought that would be something important for them to have that exposure so they could understand what's going on in the financial parts of our economy. then when the kids graduate in eighth grade they would take $20,000 and give it back to the next first grade class. take a portion of the profits, this was arne's identify dee, and create a philanthropic gift for the school or community to teach the kids the importance of giving back because they had given an opportunity. then the kids would have a chance at the end to keep a portion of the profits if their money had grown over the years they had been investing it, and every child that put their money into a 529 program we would match it with $1,000. so the kids would learn the importance of matching. because we all know today as more and more retirement plans disappear, traditional pension plans disappear, you have to be your own financial manager and understand how to get involved until defined contribution plan to prepare for your future. we thought that was very important. it was consistent with some of the research that we had done at aerial with the amiu report that showed when you looked at the defined contribution plans, off people of color, african-americans, latinos, and others would often have half as much saved for retirement as the majority community. even with the same educational opportunity, even with the same job descriptions and job titles, literally would have half as much saved for retirement because of all types of culture reasons, past discrimination, past -- lack of familiarity with the financial markets. we thought this was important for us to make sure kids learn the importance of how to get engaged and involved and becoming their own financial managers once they started their careers. then finally we think this is also important, some of the things that came out today we talked about, but if you want people to participate fully, again in our capitalist democratcy, understanding these issues around -- democracy, understanding these issues around finance is important. we think as time goes on it will help have a fully informed community that can engage in all the kinds of dialogues and discussions that happen here in washington, tarp, or what have you, and have the financial literate societies will help a lot. and finally i think it's so important coming back from the beginning we decided to focus on youth because last time, the last council we focused often a lot. now we realize we can get financial literacy embedded in the core curriculums of public schools will make a difference for our young people. i'm excited for us to have this opportunity to be back to work hard on this important issue and appreciate all of us and our exciting council for coming together today. thank you. >> thanks very much, john. let me now introduce melissa, with the executive director of the council, and also deputy assistant director at treshfoy for consumer policy. >> thank you. really such appropriate and i think in many ways inspirational remarks we have heard so far. now we want to actually turn it over to the council members and hear from you why are you here. what are you doing with respect to financial capability and youth, and what do you want to get out of this council? that's the right way for us to start this discussion. we can begin with ted. if you're ready. welcome back, ted. >> thank you. thanks, melissa. my name's ted beck, c.e.o. of the national endowment for financial education, i also serve as the chairman of the financial jump-start coalition. s background, nefe is based in denver, colorado. we fund research around financial capability. we also provide programs. we have been providing a high school program for over 30 years and educated over nine million students in that program. and six years ago we launched a college program that is actually done very well. it's now in over 700 campuses being actively used across the country. we also work with nonprofit partners bringing financial capability training to their communities. one of the things i think we would really like to contribute not only in nefe but the community we represent, first of all we will be publishing several research papers between now and the summer. actually three that are very focused on the financial capability of young people. so i think that will be a strong support item for the council. also our work in colleges i think has great potential. we are actually involved with over 250 community colleges. and that's a lot of information how we can reach a very important group we think is underserved and really represents cross section of the united states. also nefe and a group of like-minded organizations over the last few years have developed a teacher training program that we are now rolling across the country. we have found that america's teachers are really not trained to teach personal finance. we now have what we think is a very promise -- promising and effective program we might be able to bring into play for this community. finally i think there is a major area of opportunity. if you look at our world, we really don't have quality standards. and any sort of hurdles that we are supposed to achieve if we are going to be rolling programs into schools. i think the work of this council could really do great things to help us set those sorts of guidelinesing and goals for us. as far as the council itself goes, this is a very important group. the nonprofit community looks to this council for leadership in helping identify what are the best standards. what's working out there? and you can really be spokes people for what we need to be doing because the nonprofit community i think will follow this leadership. i'm very pleased to be a member of the council again. i look forward to working with you all. thank you. >> good morning, everyone. it's an honor for me to be here. i work with the national congress of american indians. nor those who don't know it's a 70-year-old organization that works pry plare with tribal governments across the united states. and there are 567 federally recognized tribal governments. we work primarily to protect the rights of tribes much american indian, alaskan native people in the united states. however we do a variety of programming, one of the programs i work on is the partnership for tribal governance. to help tribal governments themselves build the capacity to provide services to their citizens and through that we work with them on a sha right of different areas -- variety of different areas including financial education. and also administers the native financial education coalition, a coalition more than -- close to 15 years old of organizations, nonprofits, for-profit business, government folks who are very interested in improving the financial capability in native communities. so i'm very excited about that. we also have a youth commission. we also are working to set up youth cabinets across the country. and those would be cabinets at tribal governments themselves. we also work very closely with the center for native american youth that's d.c.-based organization working on native youth. i wanted to share, too, that 42% of our population is below the age of 25 in american indian, alaskan native communities. it's definitely a focus to really work with that generation, with that population in a variety of different ways. those of you who may have seen the front page of the "washington post" this morning, know that we have substantial socialy economic issues remaining in indian contry. it was an article about high suicide rate in native communities. and while there are economic successes happening in native communities, we need to do so much more to really promote those kinds of economic successes so that our youth, our children can really feel like they have a future in this country. i wanted to -- i was on the previous council and i feel that this is a second opportunity to really work to elevate the successes in indian contry, as well as the needs for financial literacy. and one of the things i wanted to just end with is really recognizing the role that president obama and the administration has really played in developing a nation-to-nation relationship with the tribal governments in this country. and really recognizing the role of the -- tribal governments and american family of governments. i think as tribal governments are building their capacity really looking at financial education and economic success is one of those key areas. i thank you very much for the onor to be here. >> good morning, everybody. good morning, mr. chairman. i want to thank you again for your leadership. i have been around for a minute. i was honored to play a role in the last committee in the underserved where we stood up next to commitments for 100 local literacy councils. it's nice to see this council's mission is to go into the community. i believe that was certainly a passion of our committee. and have had a role in bringing fema in to the fleck. i'm chairman of operation hope. two million clients, $2 billion in private capital directed in underserved neighborhoods. 22,000 volunteers. important for this council we are in 4,000 all urban inner city low-wealth schools. like chairman rogers, john, this is personal to me. my mom and dad divorced when i was about 5. i remember them arguing over money. numb one cause of divorce -- number one cause of divorce in america is money. no one calls it domestic abuse. it's money. that put a searing effect in my brain. when i was 9 i remember a banker came to my classroom to teach me financial literacy. i was in california. i remember asking the banker, what did you do for a living? and how did you get rich legally? and i was dead serious. i never saw anybody with a suit on before in my classroom. and he talked, he told me he financed entrepreneurs. i don't know what a entrepreneur is, but i want to be one. and that kept me focused. it got my aspirations high. got me engaged. i was homeless when i was six months of my life when i was 18, but none of that got me off track because i was focused on my dreams. why is that relevant to today? i think the real challenge for our dropout crisis we have in america, which is a true crisis, is that we disconnected education from aspiration. and kids are dropping out because they don't see a reason to stay in school. that moves their life forward. le we are going to do something about t hopefully working with this council. we are going to open 2,000 operation hope academies. i won't go into the details of what those are here in my opening remarks, it basically emulates my life experience growing up. and to summarize it's an experience from one of the kids. inner city atlanta, young men were in a rest room, one of my employees were there, the stall was closed. young man kicks the door in, high school student. bunk this mess, he said. he didn't say bunk. this is b.s., he lost a pitch event. you know we should have would be. his friend then said, yeah, but you know, the other group had matching uniforms. another guy said yeah, but the other group they prepared. they had really prepared remarks. and then the third guy said that's all right we are going to win this next time. in order to win next time you got to come back to school. in short i see that's like the high school football experience for every kid. i think that's what we have to do with this group is to find ways to really connect the focus on financial literacy and financial capability with the reality that kids want a good job and a shot at the economic opportunity. we got to reconnect education with aspiration. i think it's that simple. you do that all the lights come on. and so we open 65 locations in 100 days. i'm on a tear to do this across the country. i think that we can do that and reshape america. > i'm kerry with the conorganization yum and employment, better known as pace in los angeles. i am really humble to be asked to sit on this council and it's a great honor, especially when i look around the table and look at everybody's bios. i don't know how much i'll have to contribute to the council, but definitely look forward to engage in discussions around policies with regard to financial education which is a term that we prefer at pace as opposed to financial literacy, because it oftentimes implies that people are illiterate. perhaps financial empowerment ight be a better term. pineapple on a plantation in hawaii where the common term today is in farm worker housing. we were poor but didn't know it because we thought everybody lived like that. i don't remember very much in having any toys, but we had the ocean as our playground. so we would chop down some bamboo and use it for fishing to or use it for spears catch fish. and in spite of the fact that hawaii is paradise, and because it's paradise the richest people in the world buy property, as a result the cost of living gets driven up, the local residents that are used as laborers service these rich people that come into hawaii. so hawaii is a paradise with aloha spirit, the aloha lifestyle, sharing and receiving love and welcoming visitors, there is oftentimes trouble in paradise. then i fell off the pineapple and and ended up in l.a. 1.5 million are asian and pacific islander residents. to put it into perspective, it's almost double the entire population of the city of san francisco and more than the entire population of the state of hawaii. we focused on asian pacific islander communities and oftentimes we get lumped into one category, which we are in the sense -- census, but there are tremendous differences between all of the asian cultures. oftentimes for shock value i tell people that we are blacks and whites have had 400 years of history in the united states to learn to hate each other, japan has had 5,000 years of hostilities with china, and with my ex-wife being chinese, i can attest that the hostilities ontinue. i will try to clean that up. i oftentimes put my foot in my mouth but it does occur. asian and pacific islanders in l.a. are spread out throughout the city and the county and we are -- where we open our doors or a variety of services, we don't exclude others. so as a result a.p.i.'s are only about a third of our -- of the clients that come walking through our doors. .
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