Guest i was a surgeon in panama city doing your logical surgery, and ive been doing that for 25 years or so. Host and what was your practice, and why did you decide to go to panama be city to open it . Guest oh, is pan that city, my wife and i chose that after careful thought when i got out of the army back in 990. We wanted to go to a place that was friendly to the military, ask you remember and you remember that the country hasnt always been friendly to veterans. It is thousand. But in that area around bay county, all along the gulf coast of florida has always been very, very friendly to veterans of all sorts. And so we felt immediately at home in panama city there. Host and before you left the military, you were a doctor in the military guest yes, thats right. Host tell us about your military career. Guest that is actually fun. I went straight into the military right out of medical school and served this a number of different places around the world and had a chance to do a lot of different types of surgery. Settled, ultimately, on doing kidneys, bladders, prostate, a lot of kidney stones, a lot of Prostate Cancer and became, that became sort of my specialty. And then when the berlin wall fell, they called all of the surgeons in, and they said, go home, find a job. The war is over. And, of course, it was for six months only. [laughter] then went online in kuwait. By then i was ensconced this panama city and had a lot of new friends, and weve been we had a great time raising our three sons there. Theyre all grown and gone now. We have grandchildren. Host well, you rose in the ranks when you were in the army. Guest i did. The medical corps is a little different. You start out as a captain right out of medical school, and then they tend to bonus the doctors instead of prohot them rapidly, they promote them rapidly. So i got out as a major. Host you also spent some time here in washington before guest yeah. Host coming here now as a fresh han in the house of representatives. What were you doing . Guest i was in my residency at walter reed medical center. Hi wife well, i met her while i was doing my residency. She was working as a contractor for the government, so it was fun. She had a very military background as well, so we kind of clicked, and one thing led to another, and here we are 35 years later host and how many kids . Guest three children and three grandchildren. Host and you are from a military family as well. Guest i am. Host what did your dad did your mom serve as wellsome. Guest no, just dad. My father did, her father did and one of our sons. So were, you know, the children of military ousts and proud ourselves and proud parents of a military officer. Host what was your life like with a father that served in the military . Guest so we traveled a great deal, and it was not painful because we thought everybody did it, you know . We just ought, oh, sure, every year here we go. We had foot lockers back then. You didnt have cardboard boxes, and we knew where everything went every years just pack them up and move to the next station, wherever it was. It was fun. Every military familys like that. We it was a very outgoing community. We sort of had to be, you know . New people every year, so you had to introduce yourself, get out and meet them, and we had a chance to go all over the world. We were stationed in asia, Southeast Asia during the war. So, i mean, and my wife was too. She has had, did three years this bangkok. Host did your life growing up in the military, you serving in the military as well, do you think that is what inspired you to run for a seat in the house . Guest it certainly was part of it. And the reason really wasnt because i had been in the military, but it was because i understood what was happening to our military. You know, our military has been gutted by this sequester which we ended just yesterday or the day before. It was great. The sequester has really hurt the military. We have hollowed out the military to aning incredible degree. And i hear people sometimes they dont really appreciate that, but they need to get, to understand how much we have shorted them. And we need to rebuild them. I believe in peace, but i believe this peace through strength. We need to do some work there. Host thats one of your legislative priorities. And what else do you want to accomplish . Guest and its popular in the district, everybody wants to see the military rebuilt. The other thing i heard on the campaign during the course of a year or more was consistently we need to repeal and replace obamacare. It is braching the backs of every breaking the backs of every business. Youre actually only covering about 7 of the population with this insurance, but youre pushing the cost out onto everybody, and its just unsupportable. So everybody wanted that gone. That was a big thing. And, of course, that was something i felt in medicine. We try to solve those problems back in my practice at home, but we couldnt do it. The problems arent there in panama city, theyre up here this washington. And the other thing that we hear again and again is just the regulations, you know . Weve got to get this economy going, get the regulations off my back. You know, the popular refrain was everything you got in washington, i want less of it. And so that, i thought that was, you know, something we could do. And we can, we can make the economy grow. You remember when the economy was growing at 7 and 8 . I tell that to my children, they dont believe me. It never was that good. Yeah, it was that good. We were retiring the debt. We actually took in more money than we spent as a government. Shocking. We can get there again. Host what has surprised you about washington . Guest i think its a little bit jarring to see the, some of the negotiation take place only in the process like two people as close as you and i in a room might not be able to communicate, but they can go out and give a press conference about each other minutes later. Thats a little surprising. Ill tell you the other thing thats surprising, this citys full of a lot of good people, and that isnt always evident when youre 1,000 miles away from washington or rome, as we call it. [laughter] you dont know until you get up here. Theres a lot of great people, really wellmeaning people, serious, intelligent. The gridlock is disconcerting, though, when youre out in the provinces. Host what committees are you serving on . Guest ag, science and v. A. Which actually work out very well for my district. Its just perfect. We have a very agrarian, rural population are. 19 counties. Theres great people, but theyre thin on the ground. And a lot of farms. A lot of forestry. So agricultures perfect for that. The v. A. , theres a huge number of veterans in the district. We have about 75,000 veterans. This is not just the active duty, thats veterans in the district. So one in ten people in the district veterans. And its very, very popular, the military, throughout. And so we get a chance to work with the military as well both through the veterans things and on the Science Committee which is very rewarding. Host why is it that this area of florida attracts active, has active and veterans . Guest its always been friendly to the military, and i think a lot of the farmers and a lot of the rural folks will send their daughters and sons off to the military for a while. Theyll do four years, six years, and they come pack home. Come back home. And, obviously, they have others that put in whole careers and come back home. So its really, its a great culture of, you know, support our troops out there in every corner of those 19 counties. Host the Second District of florida. Explain where that is for our viewers. Guest Panama City Beach in the extreme west all the way around the bend of florida to to ocala, so its 300 miles of coastline as the crow flies. In all those 19 counties down along the water there and a few more up against the georgia alabama border which are, again, very rural, agrarian kind of counties. Great folks. Host i asked you what surprised you about washington. Whats your least part of this new job . Guest just the enormous amount of travel back and forth. When i need to go to the district, i may actually fly to orlando, which is closer to the the [inaudible] of my district than where i live. Fly to orlando, tampa or jacksonville just to drive into my district and kind of work on thats end of the district. Host and the hours . Guest the hours are amazing. Amazingly long. I thought as a busy surgeon you could not be any busier than i was. I was wrong. Yeah, i was wrong. Host when youre working, how many hours out here . Guest ing i have not added it up. Hi wife works harder than i worked as a surgeon. Its a lot of time. You can do theres more things than you can do, and i think at some point you have to say, all right, theres only 24 hours this a day, set aside sick for sleep. [laughter] host congressman neal dunn, thank you very much for talking to us and telling our viewers a little bit about yourself. Guest thank you, greta. Tonight on the communicators, Terrell Mcsweeny of the federal trade commission talks about key issues facing the internet including the recent Malware Cyber attack on some 150 countries, internet security, privacy and regulations. You when we are giving precise location about our spaces it becomes more important to protect that consent so people are aware of whats happening to their information. Watch the communicators tonight at eastern on cspan2. Never let anyone define you. That is the first lesson i want to leave you with. Only you define who you are. Our hearts should be open, not just to falling in love, but to the world. We need to look, we need to care and we need to contribute. Dont ever let anyone tell you your dreams are silly. If you have to look back on your life, regret the things you did and not what you didnt do. Nothing stays still. Things will change. The question for you is whether and how you will participate in the process of creative change. Just a few past commencement speeches from the cspan video library. Watch more on saturday may 27, monday may 29, and june 3 on cspan and sees cspan. Org. Cspan where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies. It is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provide provider. We are alive on monday morning as the center for American Progress action fund is hosting a discussion on womens participation in the electoral process. It should start in just a moment live on cspan2, on. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the morning and welcome to the center for american project. If you can do two things, please silence your cell phones and then we will have questionandanswer time as part of the program. If given the microphone state your name and association and your question. [inaudible conversations] once again live on cspan2. We will hear from Nanette Barragan and pramila jayapal. They are participants in the discussion on getting more women to run for political office. Its hosted by the center for American Progress action fund. It should start in a couple moments. More Live Programming coming up today here on cspan. Healtthe Arms Services committee will talk about military readiness by from the Brookings Institution starting at 11 eastern. It will be on our companion network cspan. Iran held its 12th ever president ial election this past friday. He won reelection to a second term. Its the first vote since the nuclear deal and the council will host a briefing on the results and the implications for the u. S. That will be live at noon eastern on cspan2. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] as we wait for this discussion from the center for American Progress action fund, looking at current political system to get underway. Fox news this morning reporting that X National Security advisor general Michael Flynn has refused to turn over documents under subpoena. President trumps initial National Security advisor will invoke his fifth amendment protection against selfincrimination today, telling the Senate Intelligence committee he will not comply with subpoenas seeking documents. That committee requested the documents as part of the investigation into russias meddling in the 2016 election. Read more about this at foxnews. Com. Good morning. Welcome to the center for American Progress action fund. Im the executive Vice President for policy at the action fund. Really, thank you for joining us today for an exciting event on womens leadership. We have arrived at a moment that has the potential to be a pivotal time for women in american politics. In the past six months, weve had the first female candidate from a major politic