Issues like labor trafficking and hhs and how they allowed kids to get into the hands of traffickers. Government oversight there. Next month we will be combatting looking at the ways to combat isis propaganda and locking at our government response to that for those who follow what we do, that will be something well be looking at next week. Certainly a topical issue and one that everybody is concerned about is how do you stop this isis propaganda from taking more and more of our impressionable young people and radicalizing them. Well look at the opiate abuse issue. And some specific issues we think the subcommittee can provide some additional insights on. We have done tough, significant, important oversight and will continue to. And again, i appreciate the witnesses coming here today and the fact that this process, not just the hearing today, but the investigation has improved some of your individual practices as it relates to the people that we represent. I want to thank senator mccaskill for her work. This is not her first time dealing with this issue. Im not on the commerce committee, but shes done a lot of work on this issue and focusing on consumers there. As we move forward, were going to continue to look at the industry and look at this issue of Consumer Choice and k competiti competition. Thats ultimately the answer to give people a range of choices. We talked about the risk competition, but theres also concerns about having more competition. I think innovation is going to be allowed to flourish and new products will come to market. So well be looking at some of those barriers to that. And well also be looking at other issues that might have come up today. Ill have some additional questions for the record. I appreciate the prompt responses you have given us to previous questions and specifically to the companies here today. I thank you for your willingness to cooperate with us in this investigation. Again, what i think has been a positive hearing to have an honest hearing of some of the concerns on the consumer side. The hearing will remain open for 15 days for additional comments o or questions by any of the members. And with that, this hearing is adjourned. Well go live to president Obama Holding a press briefing on the Supreme Court decision on immigration. Now are going to have to ask themselves and are going to have to answer in november. These are the issues that are going to be debated by candidates across the country, both congressional candidates as well as the president ial candidates. And in november, americans are going to have to make a decision about what we care about and who we are. I promise you this, though. Sooner or later, Immigration Reform will get done. Congress is not going to be able to ignore america forever. Its not a matter of if. Its a matter of when. And i can say that with confidence because we have seen our history. We get these spasms of politics on immigration and fear mo mongering and then our traditions and our history and our better impulse ls kick in. Thats how we all ended up here. Because i guarantee at some point, every one of us has somebody in our background who people didnt want coming here. And yet here we are. And thats whats going to happen this time. The question is do we do it in a smart, rational, sensible way or we just keep on kicking the can down the road. I believe this country dezerser an immigration policy that reflects the goodness of the American People and i think were going to get that. Hopefully weefr going to get that in november. Ill take two questions. Go ahead. Realistically what is the risk of deportation for these 4 Million People . You say cant deport 1 million. Theres a chunk of time here. Let me just be very clear. What was unaffected by todays ruling or lack of a ruling is the enforcement of priorities we have put in place. Our enforcement priorities that have been laid out by secretary johnson at the department of Homeland Security are pretty clear. We prioritize criminals. We prioritize gang bangers. We prioritize folks who have just come in. What we dont do is to prioritize people who have been here a long time who are otherwise lawabiding, who have roots and connections in their communities. So those enforcement priorities will continue. The work we have done with the dream act kids. These policies remain in place. So what this has prevented us from doing is expanding the scope of what we have done with the dream act kids. Keep in mind, even that was just a temporary measure. All it was doing was basically saying to these kids, you can have confidence that you are not going to be deported, but it does not resolve your ultimate status. That requires congressional action. So although im disappointed by the lack of decision today by the Supreme Court, a deadlock, this does not substantially change the status quo and it doesnt negate what has always been the case chrks is if were really going to solve this problem effectively, weve got to have Congress Pass a law. I have pushed to the limits of my executive authority. We now have to have congress act. And hopefully were going to have a vigorous debate during this election. This is how democracy is supposed to work. There will be a determination as to which direction we go in. As i said, over the longterm, im very confident about the direction this country will go in because we have seen this in the past. If we hadnt seen it in the past, america would look very different than it does today. But whether were going to get this done now, soon, so that this does not continue to be this divisive force in our politics and we can get down to the business of all pulling together to create jobs and educate our kids and protect ourselves from external threats and do the things that we need to do to ensure a Better Future for the next generation, thats going to be determined in part by how voters turn out and who they vote for in november. One more question. Going forward questions. Number one, is this going are you going to be anything more at all for immigrants Going Forward in terms of executive action before the election, the next president . And number two, do you in any way take this as some republicans have presented this as a slap at your use of executive authority . And will this circumscribe how a aggressively or forcefully you use executive authority in the remainder of your time in office . Okay. On the specifics of immigration, i dont anticipate that there are additional executive actions that we can take. We can implement what we have already put in place that is not affect affected by this decision. But we have to follow now what has been ruled on in the fifth circuit because the Supreme Court could not resolve the issue. And were going to have to abide by that ruling until an election and a confirmation of a ninth justice of the Supreme Court so they can break this tie. Because we have always said that we are going to do what we can lawfully through executive action, but we cant go beyond that. And we have buted up as far as we can on this particular topic. It does not have any impact on the host of other issues that were working on because each one of these issues has a different analysis and is based on different statutes or different interpretations of our authority. So for example, on climate change, thats based on the Clean Air Act and previous Supreme Court rulings as opposed to a theory of prosecutorial discretion that in the past as every other president has exercised. The problem is they dont have a ninth justice. So that will continue to be a problem. With respect to the republicans, i think what it tells you is that if you keep on blocking judges from getting on the bench, then courts cant issue decisions. And what that means is then youre going to have the status quo frozen and were not going to be able to make progress on some very important issues. Now that may have been their strategy from the start, but its not a sustainable strategy. And it certainly is a strategy that will be broken by this election. Unless their basic theory is we will never confirm judges again. Hopefully thats not their theory. Because thats not how our democracy is designed. Maybe the next time they can if we have a full court issuing a full opinion on anything, then we take it seriously. This we have to abide by, but it wasnt any kind of value statement or a decision on the merits of these issues. Thank you, guys. See this breeiefing with the president on our website at c span. Org. Jack lew said the trust funds are secure in the shortterm, but that reforms are needed to ensure that they are solvent sbo the future. Labor secretary thomas perez joined secretary lew discussing releasing of the reports. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for being here. The medicare boards of trustees met earlier today to complete their annual financial review of these two important programs and approved the final reports. Its been a privilege for me to serve and i want to thank the other members of the boards for their partnership and many contributions on these critical issues. For decades Social Security and medicare served successful. These important programs represent stability and Economic Security for millions of hard working americans who contributed to the program during their work iing years an rely on the benefits into their older years. Ensuring the longterm solvency of these programs for todays retires and retires of future generations is among our nations greatest responsibilities. Todays report confirms that the bipartisan budget act of 2015 addressed the immediate fiscal challenge of the Disability Insurance program. Social security and medicare remain secure in the immediamed term. Future solvency challenges for both programs remain. Last years report the trustees projected a depletion in 2016 of the Social SecurityDisability Insurance trust fund. Provisions in the bipartisan budget act of 2015 combined with updated problematic demographic and economic information postponed the projected depletion of the ssdi trust fund by seven years from 2016 to 2023. They combined the status of these two trust funds. They project that the combined trust funds will be depleted in 2034, the same year projected in last years report. The reports continue to reflect the Affordable Care act on our Nations Health care system. Increases to Health Care Costs have slowed substantially. Nevertheless, the projection suggests that the trust fund will be depleted in 2028 and medicare faces a substantial longterm shortfall that needs to be addressed. Todays reports like those of recent years, show we have some time to address the fiscal challenges faced by these trust fund programs. But reform will be needed. Congress should not wait to address the fiscal challenges given they represent the cornerstone of Economic Security for seniors in our country. In doing so, the first challenge is to ensure solvency for future generations of americans and at the same time we should expand and finance Social Security benefits particularly for the most vulnerable. Thank you and secretary tom perez will go next. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you, the secretary was here and had to leave. Were celebrating some important milestone this is year. Next month it will be 50 years since the first Medicare Beneficiaries were enrolled in the program. We marked 75 years since the first monthly Social Security check was issued. Its no accident that a portrait of an architect of the labor secretary hangs in my office right behind my desk because she was the Gold Standard for all of us who had the honor to serve in this position. She would marvel at its growth. Social security and medicare have become the cornerstones of our Retirement Security policy. They are the heart of the bargain in america. If you work hard and take responsibility, you can enjoy a secure and dignified requirement. Over the years the American Public has grown to rely on the trust that Social Security and medicare are the most stable and comprehensive social safety net programs available to almost all of us. Today over 60 million americans receive benefits from Social Security averaging over 1200 a month. We need to make sure we need to ensure the solvency and make sure retirees can retire with dignity and address these issues so that we can indeed uphold that basic bargain for the middle class. The role of the department of labor is really to make sure that we continue to work and use all of our tools at our disposal to grow jobs, make sure those jobs pay a decent wage and to make sure that we work with people with disabilities to ensure they can get in the workplace. Theres not a lot of people that i meet that say, tom, i want to be a taxpayer. The work that i do with people with disabilities i hear that all the time . And we need to continue our efforts. The economy continues to move in the right direction. We have gone from 10 unemployment to unemployment now that is under 5 . But we can do more. We must do more. And one obvious way to increase Labor Force Participation that would help sustain the health of these trust funds is to enact paid leave and child care policies. If e we kept pace by way of example with canada in terms of female Labor Force Participation, we would have more than 5 million more additional women in the u. S. Labor force. In 2000 our Labor Force Participation rates of women between the ages of 25 and 54 were roughly identical to canada. Now they are 8 points higher. If we had simply kept pace, wed have 5 million more additional women in the u. S. Labor force. If it they brought home the t typical earnings of women working today, that would add 20 billion to the Social Security trust fund and nearly 5 billion to the Medicare Trust fund this year alone. And so those are the things that we need to continue doing at the department of labor. Were continuing to make sure that we also promote savings through our regulatory reforms to ensure that workers who are working to save for retirement can indeed enjoy that retirement supporting state efforts to promote retirement and continuing to work to make sure that all of those pillars of a successful and dignified retirement are indeed enjoyed. Well continue to move forward and with that let me turn it over to the administrator. Thank you, secretary perez and secretary lew. Good morning. Medicare is a cornerstone of American Health care. Its provided financial security, Accessible Health care for our grandparents and our parents generation. When medicare was passed about half of our nations senior hs no health insurance. Today that number is less than 2 . And today with the Medicare Trustees report, we reaffirm our commitment to making sure that medicare is strong and secure for us, our children and for generations to come. Id like to highlight a few items from the report today. First, total medicare expenditures are slightly lower than estimated last year. Second, the Medicare Trust fund is projected to be funded through 2028. This is 11 years longer than projected before the passage of the Affordable Care act. And over the next decade, medicare per enroll lee spending is projected to continue to grow slower than historical rates at 4. 3 . Lower than the growth of National Health expenditures. Some of this reduction in medicare spending is the direct result of payment reforms in the Affordable Care act. This continued slow down in spending and kept medicare on a Solid Foundation in the near term and saved hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars. In fact, hhs recently announced that medicare spent about 473 billion less between 2009 and 2014 than would have been spent under preaca growth rates. We need to continue our broader efforts to a smarter payment system. Efforts to pay for quality of care rather than quantity of services. The Affordable Care act jump started this effort and the bipartisan macrolaw gave us a greater opportunity to drive efforts forward and faster. Third, i want to address one of the reports findings. High cost drugs are a major driver of medicare spending growth. For the second year in a row, we saw spending growth prescription drugs outpace. Through 2025 Medicare Part d per enroll ree are estimated to increase nearly 50 higher than the estimated increase in gdp per capita and higher than the combined per enroll lee growth rate of Medicare Part a and b combined. While we must continue to support innovation, this is why we proposed steps to address these costs and have recently proposed a pilot to optimize beneficiary access to drugs while studying payment models. Theres more we can do and should do and will continue to lock for ways to better address high cost of drugs. Finally, let me address an early view of part b premiums for next year. First, its too early to have a clear view. Preliminary data suggests the provisions in 2016 may apply again. However, the situation is different from last year in the following ways. First, final cost of living adjustment data wont be out until the fall and theres more uncertainly regarding the update and whether the harmless pro