serve here and make an attempt to work together to bring about some kind of agreement no attempt was made to do that the request was unprecedented that it was a sweeping request made at the beginning of the appropriations process before we had even come to the floor and started working on this night be happy and my friend responded that most assuredly i would ask all of them that you and i look at the record when these proceedings between the two leaderships and if we begin with the work of an appropriations bill and members are in fact offering dilatory amendments there is an effort made at the leadership level to bring about an distinguished colleague of mine from of north carolina with reference to previous all them all periods having to do with whether or not the minority requested time agreements i want thing i've done since i've been in the house of representatives is spent a lot of discussions regard value always allowed full time agreement is just simply not the case the other thing that is ignored is the fact that the majority and the minority meet with regularity i rather suspect it's what what's going on here  nobody i haven't said a word to me about it is that there's been a little bit of a strategy all by my friends on the other side to eschew all among other things all that they will slow down the process and that will we will not be able to get the business of the people done the greatest evidence of that was one of the all transpiration of events year round yesterday now another gentleman spoke my friend from our with reference to the rules committe being up stairs in a small place that's way up was when i got here that's where it is now and i rather suspect when he and i leave that's where it will be but to suggest that the media somehow or another does not cover the rules committe evidently ignores the fact that everything that we say is transcribed by these people that already those that we own the work and abuse well on into the night when we could have been about the business saving taxpayers money by letting them get about their business and all of the staff related around here that this legislative branch bill is about all of what we do is record it in addition to that no reporter is refused to be there and c span often chooses to call the rules committee depending upon whether or not there is a matter of substance that they would want to cover now my friends on the other side had twelve years of r making served on the rules committee in the minority a lot of that time during that period of time you didn't regulate financial services you didn't provide a sensible health care plan you didn't give children what  abused and used in a way that was of the young the pale and yet we come in here and talk about spending what would you say to all of the people that work at a bank the same there are american spending that money in a way that's helping america well what do you say to your communities like mine that are finding themselves in the zation of having to cut services with some regularity and it usually starts with the  disabled they are all americans and somewhere along the line i would ask you the question what would you have this president that's been in office now nearly five months not do would you have him not do health care would you have him not do anything about climate change would you have him not do anything about the fact that you didn't regulate the industries that needed to be regulated appropriately during the time that you were in the majority and this is the resolution that we are here mind i just heard my friends to remember that while they are making up their history they are some of us that remember it well and i can assure you all that the things that i've said can be documented from record i would hope that we would know that this bill on of our history and prepares us for the future it invests in the preservation and protection of the capitol complex and makes more efficient more jan most of previous question members are reminded that remarks and debate are properly directed to the chair and not to others in the second person the questions on ordering the previous question those in favor say aye those opposed no the  gentlemen this is general from california seek recognition yes mr speaker in california what purpose do you i ask unanimous consent that there may be an order today for the speaker to entertain a motion that the house suspend the rules and adopt ho resolution five sixty objection hearing on it is so ordered a gentleman from california general to suspend pursuant to clause eight of rule twenty the chair will postpone further proceedings today on motions to suspend the rules on which recorded vote of the or the order or in which the vote occurred the vote incurs objection under clause six of rule twenty recorded votes on postpone questions will be taken later gentleman from california mr speaker i move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution as five sixty the clerk report the title of the resolution house consulates in five sixty resolution expressing support for all iranian recognizes the gentleman from california mr berman mr speaker every day since or on selection the streets of tehran have been filled with demonstrators and each day this past week the numbers seems to be growing even state run media in iran has put the number of demonstrators in tehran at the hundreds of thousands one british newspaper reports that there were a million demonstrators in tehran yesterday what do these demonstrators want are they simply in favor of the candidate mir hossein mousavi or are they making a more profound statement  about the iranian regime nobody knows exactly we do know one thing though the demonstrators feel their intelligence was insulted and their dignity assaulted by the high men handed manner in which the results of the june twelfth election were handled they want justice this morning the supreme leader offered not it is not for us to decide who should run iran much less determine the real winner of the june twelfth election but we must reaffirm our strong belief that the iranian people have a fundamental right to express their views about the future of their country freely and without intimidation the iranian regime is clearly embarrassed by the demonstrations and has not trunk from using violence to stop them at least eight demonstrators and quite likely a number more have been killed and hundreds have been injured there is emas also tried to ban media coverage of the demonstrations foreign journalists are consigned to their homes and offices several have been expelled from the country cell phone coverage has been frequently blocked in order to limit communication among the protesters and the regime has interfered with the internet and taken down many opposition websites we cannot stand silent in the face of this is solved human freedom and dignity i repeat that we have no interest in interfering in iran as internal affairs that has ended this resolution affirms the universe of individual rights as well as the importance of democratic and fair elections beyond that it simply expresses its solidarity with iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom human rights civil liberties and the rule of law i don't know how many of the demonstrators fall into that category but i many of them this resolution also condemns the bloody suppression of freedom it is not a judgment on who won the iranian my appreciation to our ranking member and gentleman from india for working together on a resolution which puts the house of representatives on the side of the people o resolution to the floor i especially want to thank our republican conference chair and a great member of our foreign affairs committee mr pence who authored this legislation and i rise in strong support of the fundamental universal human rights and civil liberties to which the iranian people are entitled for thirty years these rights and freedoms have been denied again and again by an oppressive iranian regime which uses a sham process with candidates hand picked by the ruling apparatus of political participation there was no election in iran this year there has been no election no democracy in iran for decades candidates in the winners were again in advance by the regime real reform real democracy were never an option this repressive regime relies on so called elections to provide a  of legitimacy but that facade has been shattered by the protests taking place in iran this week the brutal nature of the iranian regime is well documented on tuesday i had the honor of attending with secretary of state hillary clinton the release of the state department's annual trafficking in persons report which again cited iran as a tier three country among the worst as a regime that does little if anything to prevent men women and  children from being trafficked for sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude slavery likewise as the state department's human rights report for two thousand and eight noted iran's poor human rights record worsened and it continued to commit serious numerous numerous serious abuses the government severely limited citizens right to change their government peacefully through free and fair  elections held political prisoners and intensified a crackdown against women's rights reformers ethnic minority rights activists student activists and religious minorities it is a pattern for decades so we must look beyond the past week which was only the most recent demonstration of the regime's brutality and authoritarianism but the iranian regime is not just a threat to its own people we cannot afford to lose sight of the threat that it presents to our own national security interests and indeed to global peace and security iran draws even closer to crossing that nuclear point of no return admiral mike mullen the chairman of our joint chiefs of staff has stated that iran has likely and enough uranium to make an atomic bomb international inspectors also report that iran has enough low enrich uranium to achieve nuclear weapons breakout possibilities and that issues about possible military dimensions to iran's nuclear program remain unresolved yet iran is allowed to continue its nuclear pursuit virtually unchallenged additionally iran continues to develop chemical and biological weapons and ballistic missiles while arming and bankrolling violent islamic extremists worldwide mind when when we determine what is the appropriate response to the iranian regime's policies and actions but today mr speaker we must focus on the hopes of the individual raney and who have been robbed of a better future for almost thirty years by your regime which only promises nothing but misery and malays now is the time for all responsible nations to stand for square with the people of iran as they seek freedom as they seek true self governance at home as well as to live at peace with the world we must send a clear signal today to the iranian regime and all of its proxies and affiliates that free nations will not tolerate further efforts to silence the voice of the iranian people through violence and coersion with that mr speaker i would like to reserve the  whole series of very important issues that i that we and the united states has with the government of iran and she is correct this resolution and the reason i work to bring this up on this quick notice is about what she pointed out at the end of her comments this resolution is not about  those issues it's about an affirmation of something that this house of representatives has done in places all over the world whether it is in tibet or in cuba or in  in eastern europe or in the middle east or any other region to reaffirm our commitment to stand for certain fundamental user versal principles involving human rights participatory democracy and and the affirmation of the rights of the people of any country today it's about the people of iran and with that i reserve the balance sense of humility and a great sense of moment before this body but a great sense of gratitude to the ranking member for her extraordinary leadership in bringing this resolution to the floor a resolution which as the chairman of the committee just stated quite eloquently will give the american people through their elected representatives clear opportunity on this day after a week of violence and  tumbled in the nation of iran the opportunity to express the american people support for all or any and citizens who embrace the values of freedom human rights civil liberties and the rule of law on very much but i am grateful that he demonstrates today public mindedness that i think is in keeping with the best traditions of this institution ronald reagan would say in one thousand nine hundred sixty four quote you and i are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right well i'd like to suggest there's no such thing as left or right there's only an up or down  age old dream the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order or down to the ism the leadership of chairman howard berman today demonstrates that on the issue of speaking a word of encouragement to those who would stand with extraordinary valor for their own liberty there is no left or right in this body it is man as been stated before an extraordinary week in the life of the nation of iran on twelve june just one week ago from the very moment that the presidential election results were announced the international community and the international press called the results in question chief among the reasons for that was that even before the extraordinary demonstrations had begun was that millions of ballots paper ballots had apparently been tallied and counted within a matter of hours the official government results of the election were met with public consternation among the people of iran and while the defeated candidate launched a legal appeal as the western media has reported the what has ensued on the streets of tehran have been the biggest demonstration in the in the islamic republic's thirty year history and most sadly following that election day the actions by the government and the militias that support the government have turned violent pro government forces have attacked demonstrators over the past week causing fatalities resulting in the arrest of dissidents we have heard of foreign reporters prevented from making their way into the public we've heard of the jamming of electronic communications we are for all the world we may well be witnessing at tiananmen in tehran and it seems to me that in this moment the people of the united states of america long to be heard and by dint of resolution five six zero today through their elected representatives the american people will have just that opportunity  that it is resolved the house of representatives expresses its support for all arraigning citizens who embrace the values of freedom human rights civil liberties and the rule of law it also condemns the ongoing violence against demonstrators by the government of iran and pro government militias as well as the ongoing government suppression of independent electronic communication through interference with the internet and cell phones and lastly it affirms a universal ality of individual rights and the importance of democratic and fair elections i have said many times this week and it has been echoed by my colleagues like the republican whip eric cantor but the cause of america is freedom and in this cause the american people will not be silent there is no intention here to pick sides in the iranian election there is an intention  here the subcommittee will come to order i mean first of all so we were trying to make sure we did not run into super schedule problems by setting the hearing and then having i know this hearing is being conducted is one of several hearings that meet the oversight requirements under a rule eleven of the rules of the house of representatives team found one the coast guard civil rights program did not fully protect confidential personal information to the service did not conduct a thorough analysis of the equal opportunity management process was in full compliance and also learn after a subsequent examination that virtually none of these findings was new almost all of these criticisms had been identified emphasize that our oversight of the civil rights programs will not end today i also said because i want to make it very clear that this is a bipartisan effort it is not a republican is not a democratic effort it is an american after today's hearing is just another installment of what will continue to be an active oversight process this is our watch this is our watch native american additional data provided by the coast guard the incoming class of twenty thirteen is expected to begin with two hundred eighty eight students forty four will be minorities minorities will comprise approximately fifteen percent  the very top levels of the navy's leadership and the office of chief of naval operations and recognize that diversity is not a problem to be managed but rather a promised to be realized our nation is one of our greatest comprehensive effort to break down any barriers that is old recruiting methods may have thrown in the way of achievement of its inclusion goals and has initiated new efforts efforts targeted to to reach potential students in every corner of this how the naval academy has achieved its stunning successes and one of the reasons why we invited them here is because we wanted to show that it can be done it can be done the experience of united states  demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt that where there is a will to expand diversity diversity will expand the coast guard is moving decisively to ensure that its civil rights services guarantee equal opportunity to all like the navy the coast guard must also take specific and aggressive steps to ensure that it can harness the strength of our nation's eversley by ensuring that its leadership pipeline reflects that diversity finally it is frankly past time for the coast guard to move to define comprehensive service wind diversity objectives and to require each member and unit of the service including the academy to contribute to the achievement of these objectives efforts to address issues related to diversity within its ranks following our last meeting i joined with chairman cummings to ask the government accountability office to further examine the coastguards office of civil rights while this work has just begun i appreciate the chairman's continued attention to these coast guard programs and how critical they are at our last hearing we were told of several items the coast guard plan to take action on prior to this hearing these items included hiring additional civil rights personnel a centralization of the civil rights program and the identification of proven measures that would improve the workplace climate and could be implemented in the near future i look forward to receiving an update on progress that has been made on each of these items the commandant has long boisterous interest in expanding the services efforts to enhance the diversity of its military and civilian workforce i support the commandant's efforts to widen the scope of the coastguards recruiting efforts to reach americans of all races and in all regions of our country the coast guard must remain centered on the goal of bringing the most talented and qualified candidates to serve in the coast guard i'm pleased the dean of admissions of the naval academy will testify this morning on their approach to increased recruiting efforts to attract perspective midshipmen from nontraditional areas of believe the coast guard academy should examine the initiatives adopted by their sr academy and determine whether or not these or similar approaches should be considered in new london as i said at our last hearing the subcommittee stands ready to work with the coast guard to provide resources necessary to address these issues although we have not received any such requests to date i hope the witnesses will include in their testimony whether additional resources or authorities are required at this time and once again mr chairman i want to thank you for your leadership and i want to thank the witnesses for their continued efforts in this particular area thank you very chairman and distinguished members of the committee i'm terry dickerson director of the coast guard's office of civil rights it's my pleasure to speak with you this morning again to report significant progress in the coast guard office of civil rights i would like to request that my written statement be entered into the record thank you during the april hearing we discuss three topics the current state of the coast guard civil rights program the strategies i had in place to act on recommendations resulting from a functional review and last the benchmark i'm using to measure our progress i'm here to offer you evidence that coastguard has followed up on the many items we discussed first action plans in april i reported that we had subjected to the fifty three recommendations arising from the functional review action plans with milestone dates which enable detailed tracking i stated that ten of the fifty three recommendations had been completed in the ensuing two months that number has grown from ten to twenty nine recommendations now completed in some all fifty three actions are either in the planning stage various phases of execution or accomplished your statements and actions and those of admiral allen have communicated a strong message to our workforce that valid and properly resourced e e o process are vital to mission execution with the momentum you have inspired we are on track to implement all remaining actions as to resources coast guard has taken action i'm pleased to report that coastguard directed five hundred and seventy thousand dollars to emergent current year civil rights needs and authorized six new position and i have filled all six positions consistent with the coast guard commission they represent facets of diversity by grade level race gender national origin that is black hispanic caucasian asian american male and female three were from outside coast guard and three represents succession opportunities within consistent with the precept that nothing substitutes for top leadership commitment your strong support and that of admiral allen's for our offices restructuring and level of resourcing are receiving service wide support i detected this during my visits over the past two months to five of the nine coast guard districts nationwide at each i discussed the centralized meal service delivery model the functional review results and strategic action plans i am happy to report that person now whom i've briefed are overwhelmingly pledging their strong support for our strategy going forward we've taken a giant step forward finalizing our restructuring proposal and that it's now been signed by the commandant i expect full implementation of the proposed restructuring by july or assume the after as union notifications and resulting issues are resolved in my visits to coast guard districts i've met with command codger a field level personnel and other stakeholders and have provided briefs to a wide range of audiences including all hands gathering on tuesday are reported to the commandant that the opportunity to explain the new structure one locality at a time is offering me feedback to improve and engendering strong support among those who are hearing it firsthand they have agreed it reaches benchmarks for a process of youth with integrity and i am extremely encouraged by the positive feedback last outcomes for most we will have a centrally run national program delivered by personnel trained in o statutes regulations guidance policy and instruction this will foster consistency better over site and faster and more reliable service our results will be evident in measures including complaint processing tim consistency of practices prevention of on authorized disclosures and compliance with e o requirements coast guard has been transparent and it's moved to a modern day civil rights program keeping you informed of our intentions in my correspondence with you last year i reported my plan to conduct the review when complete i communicated the results of the review to the you the work forth and the public and i have sent you my plan of action with milestone dates for completion in another letter last month i provided a progress update and i am updating the work force during my visits mr chairman the civil rights program is not only well on track with its goals an action plan as you so eloquently and consistently remind us this is our watch our journey from past day to the future want to force the opportunity for leadership and vision i am proud to be the director of the coast guard civil rights program i sense great moment and our organization that i will continue to harness and drive toward becoming a model e e o program in the federal government again i thank you for this opportunity to testify today and i'm happy to take your questions very much direction very several clifford pearson morning mr  organizational climate that embraces the potential and hansen's the contributions of all of our employees by promoting inclusion equality and respect we're taking aggressive action to promote the full awareness and full and equal access to the entire spectrum of opportunities and we want every american to know these opportunities exist to that end we have established a clear and distinct vision quote recruit pain and support a ready capable diverse and high quality military and civilian workforce and quote the coast guard has completed the initial draft of a news diversity strategic plan that will be finalized by one september two thousand and nine we look forward to sharing it with the committee upon its completion the strategic plan will better define our diversity goals and performance objectives th cascade down from and underpin the commandant's diversity policy statement that explicitly focuses on five strategic goals increase diversity through leadership accountability improve total workforce cultural climate expand outreach and marketing provide equitable career opportunities for all employees and optimize training education to understand the value of a diverse workforce this plan will also align with the coast guard academy strategic plan will task subordinate echelon field commanders with the establ implementation of supporting diversity action plans the plans performance measures will result in leadership transparency and help ensure compliance the plan also requires senior leadership continued emphasis on the importance and urgency of diversity and requires consistent communication to all levels of the service as a guiding document the strategic plan sets clear and concise direction to better position coastguard leaders and staff to make optimal diversity related decisions while we continue to modernize and realign our forces to meet current and future needs the strategic goals outlined in this plan are target levels of performance is driven by a cause for action or mission as well as a regulatory requirements and core competencies moving forward our approach requires an annual review and revision while evaluating an action plan progress on a quarterly basis to maintain focus and continuously monitor our goals we are confident the committee will recognize the value of this plan during previous hearings members of the committee and ask what what can we do to help we ask for your continued support interest involvement in executing our plan you help us connect with local schools and communities we otherwise might not have reached you further challenge us to forge stronger ties and share best practices with our sister services and just yesterday a new york times article pointed out the naval academy's expanded urban recruiting efforts started two years ago that helped a result in their banner year and we hope our similar programs will prove the same and lastly you participated in coast guard outreach events conveying the dedication and importance of making increased diversity and service a reality while our strategy is being finalized we are tracking our diversity initiatives through our tactical level diversity action plan to highlight some of the complements to date we have chartered m d seven fifteen team to improve linkage between our civil rights and equal opportunity programs and all of our human resource efforts these links are crucial to effective change in producing results leading gaps we've identified as needing closing additionally we redirected additional funding in  year two thousand nine hundred hands our diversity initiatives enabling increased outreach to native alaskans increased participation by minority officers in national level affinity group conferences vitally important to career development and progression into senior ranks and leadership roles increasing priest outreach activities at historically black colleges and universities to strengthen partnerships with the national naval officers association and in a way in the creation of an ambassador is program we've just reprogram been zero six captain to serve as a dedicated liaison to the national historically black colleges and universities and predominately black institutions this positions laid be filled this summer will prove the marketing effectiveness of several programs aimed at that towards increasing the diversity of our officer corps an incoming coast guard academy classes we continue to press forward on listed in officer recruiting programs to date in two thousand and nine thirty two percent of our total enlisted sessions are minorities also experienced a four point five percent increase in women compared to the same period last year we refocused our college student preconditioning initiative scholarship c s p i ceased by program to ensure greater visibility minority serving institutions so use by is a proven record of attracting minority officer candidate and it is a success story of the current forty two candidates in the program forty eight are minority and thirty eight percent forty eight percent are minority and thirty eight percent are female projected pool of applicants for this year is also shaping up to have the largest candidate pool of any  selection panel we've ever convened we expect between sixty and seventy applicants and there's a significant increase over the forty eight from last year we've recently hosted a landmark diversity form of coast guard headquarters in washington d c and title champion champeen diversity leadership roundtable designed to bring together national leaders in the field of human resources and diversity additionally the coast guard academy recently released their two thousand and thirteen strategic plan focusing on diversity leadership and character development copy will be provided for the record this plan states our goal is to increase under represented minorities in the corps of cadets from our current fourteen point four percent to twenty five to thirty percent by two thousand and fifteen and faculty and staff by two thousand and twenty incoming class of two thousand thirteen currently has a total minority population of fifteen and a half percent increase from last year's eleven point nine percent we continue to sustain a strong female presence at the academy with more than twenty nine percent comprise in the entering class the highest of any service academy we get or are working diligently to embed sustainable strategies actions in outcomes for several years we continue to invest in those programs and initiatives that will lead to increased diversity including our coast guard scholars program you can use when your academic  reprogram this year's incoming class contains forty six coast guard academy scholars of which forty three percent are minority and next year's prep class is estimated at sixty five percent minority looking eight african american students will make a strong contribution to the composition of the class of two thousand and fourteen you cademy introduction mission known as aim has been revamped and reshaped to emphasize minority student attendance where high school where their high school those students select is aim attendees are provided a fully funded one week experience during the summer after junior year we're optimistic program will increase in roman of african americans and other minorities since nearly fifty percent of the academy's incoming class are typically aimed graduates mr chairman we understand the only way to improve diversity at senior military levels is to grow it up through the ranks in this take some time where we're taking assertive actions to ensure our junior officers and enlisted personnel receive the coaching the performance feedback and mentoring necessary to advance in their chosen specialties since our testimony in april w implemented a plan change to officer valuation system and also expanded the mandated use of individual development plans to help our newer members stay on track for success and individual development plans or roadmap for personnel to reflect their goals and professional aspirations to help with that help with the help of their supervisors we've also reprogrammed base resources descent two hundred ten members to participate in national season national level affinity conferences which continue to prove incredibly powerful as career development tools mentoring and network opportunities created by the presence of our flag officers and senior executives at these conferences further enhances the long lasting connection mr chairman as we previously testified total workforce diversity is critically important t diversity is both mission relevant and an organizational imperative because of our needs the best talent our great nation has to offer it translates into mission readiness and execution because for action is evident the demographics of our nation are changing rapidly in the  proactive and forward leaning or recruitment retention efforts will establish the metrics to achieve our workforce diversity goals and in summary we must continue to do all that we can to make certain every american is fully aware of the opportunities coast guard has to offer and every american has full and equal access to those opportunities is equally important as fostering mentoring and retaining our current workforce and with your continuing support we will achieve our goals thank you for the op testify and i look forward to your questions thank and i say you've been doing this for years now and he's got a produce or you don't have a job and we've got to see results and when i look at the academy's record and it's about just reflecting our society and it's a reflection of the fact that all of our society is paying taxes to create these institutions and i'd only if you don't have enough personnel to achieve coverage ratio when do you anticipate it will be achieved sir the president's f y ten budget for coast guard contains a request for four additional billets in the office of civil rights program we are currently undergoing a man of our requirements analysis later this year we in our office thought that the ratio because of the relatively low number of complaints and the the way our personnel are situated of one thousand to one was about right sized for the civil rights program and the manpower and requirements analysis will validate that number for us we'll get the results of that analysis at the end of nine thirty september thirtieth is our target date for receiving that report and we will act on the subsequent requests thereafter and program any additional billets that we need from that analysis and as to the restructuring ther all of the authorizations or find off on and as i mentioned the unions have been notified and there may be opportunity to bargain ten bargain unit employees are involved in the civil rights chain and so we will have to undergo that process and this soon as all of those clearances have been received we for completion by the end of october and which you provide us with a timetable not a timetable but let me know when timeframe well what i'm saying is that if you have things that are going to be completed say for example if you have something that's going to be completed at the end of august i want to know that because i want to hold you to that and i want to make sure that  let me apologize i had a meeting with an air force general that we could not get rescheduled that's why i was absent from the hearing and you had asked some of the questions i had asked but i'm not sure whether the if you did ask of the fifty three recommendations that were made in the report of how many of the coast guard has fully addressed at this point have you covered did you cover that yes you did ok while got i got it from the record thank you mr chairman the let me just what i to have a series of questions so i'm going to  stopped one person and started that person starts next week and and what what will these people be doing we have just generally i mean the big idea they all do the same thing you know as you know we took on  final agency decision writing for military complaints so one of them is a final agency decision writer and attorney who p and i our office we also have a support person in our office and then for we're program to the field based on the population of a personnel that they'll be delivering services to so one went to our seventh district in florida one went to our eighth district in new orleans one went to our ninth district in cleveland and  virginia was the other location yes in portsmouth virginia was our fourth person we placed fourth person and these will be delivering civil rights services on a full time basis stated that within each field command the commanding officer is considered to be the c e o officer for the particular command what will be the role of the commanding officer feel commands in the civil rights service provision processing for going forward we have taken the collateral duty civil rights officer and eliminated that function across the board as i reported in april for about four hundred collateral duty personnel situated in local units all across the world really across coast guard and the opportunity to deliver training to that ever evolving  people and policy changes and to get performance feedback or to even give it was just not workable and so we have programmed a lot of those functions and they will be going to the the xo which is the executive officer at those units every unit has one we'll be giving you good stories that will be delivering training to them through xo conferences and also we'll be giving them work tools one of the main things that admiral allen an admiral cray wanted to make sure that we had was twenty four by seven coverage so that people could raise civil rights concerns even with they were in an under way status on a ship and so we've added an eight hundred number whereby those commanding officers and executive officers can access the full time civil rights specialist when something occurs and the reason that we programmed it to that position is that the xo is the one who can break the communication silence and and access the satellite telephone for someone who experiencing a problem perhaps on a ship underway for example maybe and in harassment situation that phone will ring be staffed twenty four by seven by military personnel and if they don't answer the phone it rings on my personal cell phone and so we have added that element to make sure that we're not missing any opportunity to deliver services other of the collateral duty roles that were at with those four hundred head are now being reprogrammed to the full time civil rights personnel and when you say services that you right we're going to have to break unfortunately that we have a vote with three three  items that you intend to undertake and supported that goal is to further the versity within the corps of cadets faculty staff and curriculum including achieving a critical more over the next six years what specific recruiting efforts will be initiated and what are your target goals for the class of twenty fourteen for which you are now recruiting it's like mr chairman the approach is to do an extensive awareness campaign as well as outreach we've already begun to get into different market areas than we had previously b including communities of under represented minorities as well as fics cools and i mentioned in my opening statement about programs that we have altered the academy introduction mission aim and how we're going to use that to do it as a basically a scholarship item to fund the travel for particular potential student to travel from wherever his or her home area might be to the academy to have that experience in their summer but it's basically the answer is an extensive wherein is and recruiting campaign as well as i think is an extraordinarily important part of the entire approach is the scholars program those individuals that need a little bit more academic preparation were sent into the new mexico military institute or marion military institute an alabama for one year academic prep additional preparation and that's proven to be very successful over the past few years and particularly this year quite a number of our  appointments were through the scholars program we're expanding that and also i think not only does the scholars program aid in the missions process but obviously we're concerned of the success while at the academy after admission and of the academy but one of the things that she said was that she probably is a small office but she said they were very very much committed to that they were willing to go the extra mile and it was clear from her enthusiasm that this was something that she was truly committed to and i just want to about office what kind of recruitment office have do we have graduates of the academy going out there to do that recruiting because this was a young woman so she could kind of relate to these young  people and i've often said you know we always talk about negative peer pressure with our young people we need to go back to something called positive peer pressure and i was just wondering what i mean what boys doing in recruiting with age and can take the experience that they've received in the coast guard not all of our recruiters are going to be academy graduates but obviously that has an additional credibility that they can speak to their experience while at the academy some of our junior officers that we're using in our recruiting efforts might be through o c s and again the example of the c spy program that i talked about earlier but it's very important as i'm sure that counterparts at the naval academy would say is that the message is important as well as the messenger so while we have senior officers involved in some of our outreach programs again to some of the h b c use we recognize that we need to have more junior officers closer in the a experience a level to the individuals that we're trying to recruit absolutely certain things that is very important to is mentoring what happens too often is that a lot of people don't realize to a place where i'm not going to feel comfortable it's a free free tuition and i'm just wondering what are we doing with regard to mentoring we've embarked upon a rather extensive mentoring program using organizations like the national naval officers association for both coast guard officers as well as the other c service officers and reaching out to our junior officers that are already within the service but also using some of their what we call our ambassador program reaching into the target audience that we're trying to recruit you wrote in your testimony that the coast guard academy scholars program also presents our greatest opportunity for students from applicants to the coast guard academy to a school and another military institution in that's what it is right the scholars program is involved the new mexico military institute marion do fine we just got to get them interested get them in get them ply and then do what we have to do to keep them interested so they graduate  d let me just share this with my daughter went to private school years ago everybody thought she was on a scholarship and because of her color and they wanted to give her some general math and all of all the african american young ladies all girls school they want to take all of them and put them in this gen because she was stormed out in protest with the other young ladies because she knew she was brighter than that and she thought it was unfair and i'm just wondering sometimes i think we can have some assumptions guard academy and i want to get them in so that they'll be a part of the pipeline i want to get them in there so that other young people say well you could have gone to harvard he went to the coast guard maybe i want to go academic preparation and i think part of what i took your comments to be as far as students who are already academically qualified and prepared to go into the coast guard academy we need to find those areas the schools and focus our recruiting efforts in that in those areas and i think we've had a comparatively limited recruiting effort for the coast guard academy and that's one of the areas that we really need to expand into to the markets where we're going to be able to to ivy league and i think part of that is not only trying to focus on individuals in perhaps their junior year or the summer after their junior year but start to progress that clock backwards and find some attraction at a even a sophomore year in high school or freshman year in high  i think there's also perhaps a cascading event that individuals who have someone that they look up to perhaps in their high school or brother or sister who is going to the coast guard academy and conveyed that positive message back to the school the community  the home front i think is also a powerful message that we have to send so the key is exactly finding the areas where we need to expand our recruiting effort center recruiting capital if you will and focus in on those and find the students  obviously i would continue to support the scholars program but i take your point absolutely that we need to focus in on those who are graduating from high school quote this year and if they're academically qualified otherwise prepared we want to find them and  low beyond oh thank you mr chairman i was wondering if the coast guard academy staff consults with their counterparts at the other service academies to share information on their respective recruiting efforts and successes that they may have had have you done that yes or there is a the acronym is kostas chiefs of service academies and our superintendent borough does participate in those i believe that the staff participate with their counterparts as well but from the chiefs of the service academies there there have been discussions about recruiting efforts and i think that's a powerful tool particularly from our standpoint i'm just being just a little bit selfish of where we can find those lessons learned from the other service academies and where they're having success and how we could translate those over to the and our efforts and so on particularly also looking forward to the secondary panel with the naval academy and again find and explore deeper in some of their best practices and how we can perhaps copy those over to to  institution come to our attention somewhat recently the discrepancies that exist in the coast guard compared to with quality of life issues compared to other branches of the military and we're going to make an attempt to deal with that i'm curious i don't have a specific answer i would say that i would suspect it was smaller simply because we're a smaller institution but i would have to provide an exact comparison for the record if that would be acceptable sir well i guess what i'm after is i would i would understand if it would be smaller but proportionate are we disproportionately smaller i guess is what i'm getting at and understand you don't have that information but if you could get back to us because mr chairman that might be might be a part of the problem that been consistent with how we've seen the coast guard treated in other areas that might be able to help out in this area so i thank you very much yes and we will provide that for the records thank you i guess he's got a hard to see but yes i mean with that right you have yes or i am familiar with the coast guard did not provide the numbers put a chart to show how many hispanics and african americans actually completed application for the classes of two thousand and eight through twenty twelve similarly the coast guard academy apparently did not track the number of native americans or asians or pacific islanders explaining what the case is with regard to mr chairman i don't know it is difficult to see up there and i know that for the african american applications it's a comparatively smaller number of completed applications from the initiator applications that would your firm to sir  specifically to inquire as to whether we could continue to work with them to complete their applications you know obviously that becomes an extraordinary resource for him because i would contend that the for example a class of two thousand and thirteen under one hundred sixty two african americans that those individuals obviously are aware of the coast guard academy and have some interest in attending the academy and i would suspect that they probably have you know other competing institutions that they are interested in attending but if we could work more diligently with those hundred sixty two obviously that becomes a significant opportunity for us but again i would emphasize that we do from the academy admissions department specifically reach out to every one of those you know one of the things that is  serving about this chart these charts is that when we look at completed applications classes thousand nine for african americans over fifty five class of two thousand and ten there were fifty delta between the completed in the started application is a large number that provides an opportunity even though we are reaching out to them to try to either find the reason specifically in drilling into the data why we're losing them if we've got an opportunity to change either the message or the again the messenger working with these young individuals to at least encourage them to continue the application process but no sir i don't have a specific reason for the trend and we have we has been a recent addition if you will you may have been provided with information that the class of two thousand and thirteen has five african americans in fact is six young african american female just accepted her appointment know mr chairman we have not we've consistently stated that the coast guard quote needs to look like america and certainly reference the u s census bureau is projections and that becomes our benchmark we have not  answer direct answer your question we have not set a quota for flight board in that area i would mention though again that our diversity strategic plan that i mentioned in my oral opening statement that we're looking to finalize by one figures i can tell you that if my office and i had the goal is to have a diverse workforce she wouldn't be there she just would it would go against everything i believe in and i'm just wondering what do you have any idea that we just leave people in positions to be leaving them there when the numbers are going down or is there an accountability problem from the particular bore on the decision for her to be extended and her existing position provide that perhaps for the record thank you very much  decision on the assignment has not been made he is a very appropriate high flying candidate for that billet the i believe it has been advertised within our system for individuals to basically put in their request for assignment  and we're looking to have that ability filled the summer and then you give us a date so we can you know we had this discussion last time we talked about historically black colleges and universities and we said that there was a  e and up here i'm just curious when do you expect we have a date coming up for that mr chairman i don't have a date for the assignment but i will tell you with all confidence that it will be in the very very near term and i could get you a date and provide that for the record here shortly sir it as i mentioned it is the job is currently being advertised and the process does not take very long after individuals have expressed an interest  before orders are issued on it why don't we just make the date say september for absolutely sir the orders would be issued well in advance of that i can imagine that it e do have as i mentioned earlier we refer to it is ceased by the college student pre condition initiative and we are increasing our quotas in there and we've also changed that program to increase programs for high school students we have one in florida i am in metropolitan area that refer to is mass and there has been some discussion about establishing another one in the middle atlantic region of course have to address these issues but in the time we do have we want to make a difference and there are some young lady sitting out there because of various things that have actually come up in this hearing never gettin in a lifetime and that person who could have contributed to the coast guard and to our country down there have a chance and that's very very unfortunate and i just think that i think i really believe that we can do better i just believe our country's greater demand that we can do better than six sir if i could just say i don't like excuses and i don't want to offer you any at all to the extent that we have passed i will and using that to inform us so that we don't make the same mistakes or get into the same inertia i feel this that we have momentum i appreciate your leadership very much in that in developing that momentum and sustaining it and that of admiral allen's and i'm as you indicated this is our watch i don't hope not to be  transitioning i hope to see this in shepherd this through to completion and i have a vision for how this can come about with regard to the civil rights program and i intend to give it the full force of all my effort and background and training to make sure that we accomplish all of our goals and and really strengthen our civil rights program once and for all thank you sir sir and let me add on the diversity standpoint academy perspective as well we certainly share your view and use of the committee and honestly very much respect and appreciate the efforts that you and your staff have put together with us we share the same view we recognize that we are not nearly where we want to be we also recognize that we're building some of the very i think important foundational elements right now in setting the goals and look to achieving them obviously it's important for our service it's not only an issue of the proper moral direction but i think it's an operational imperative for the coast guard to further diversify from where we are so again sir we share that goal and we're gress of really pursuing it lasted at least perhaps i have spent a lot of folks leave but thank you for  strong support of the navy leadership and by several powers guidance of superintendent that we've made the greatest strides in the last three years improving diversity in the brigade of michigan is our number one priority and there are strong cross institutional support for doing so our initial focus was to understand why we were not doing better job in attracting young men and women of diverse backgrounds with the self analysis of our marketing programs and patterns feedback from parents many of our blue and gold officers our volunteer network some of you in congress and many others we not surprisingly came to a conclusion a couple years ago that our biggest challenge was awareness that is many of the young men and women we were trying to attract to the naval academy simply just did not know about us to reach these youth their parents and their influencers we felt we needed to radically change our approach we decided initially to focus our efforts primarily on under represented areas of the country that had large diverse populations and the high performing schools with large diverse student bodies in each one in each area and school we targeted we tr focus on developing strong personal relationships by maintaining close contact and looking for creative approaches that would gain confidence and support of local influencers and others this is the same approach that is used much like our football coaches do when they go out on the road supporting these efforts has been a concerted effort it's been a concerted build up of support networks such as our global officer programs our loved ones chapters parents clubs and building partnerships with many affinity groups such as national society of black and juniors we have found support networks to be a force multiplier in many communities we also recognize the revamping reorient to reorient  marketing programs and should to be more attractive to minority students and focus earlier in their education in our case we thought is the earliest seventh grade this led to the development of first ever stem program science technology engineering and math program in the summer and several initiatives done by groups of underclass students to various venues at the naval academy including the recent dedicate the wesley brownfield house name for our first african american graduate we are constantly looking for new and creative ways to market ourselves nation wine with yours through the use of our musical groups such as the gospel choir in our band development of new video such as those seen on e s p n during football games or a comic book we call the graphic novel we seek to brand ourselves in order to increase awareness there are many other efforts under way and they appear to be paying dividends at a rate we did not expect them to do so so early as you stated sir both last year's class and the one that is about to enter the naval academy on the first of july will be the most diverse f or supporting the incoming classes are the most diverse preparatory programs in our history and our summer seminar program that just concluded yesterday included over a thousand rising young senior minority students for the first time ever in closing i'd like to say that we've accomplished a lot in a relatively short period of time but we really feel we have a lot of work to do awareness is a very important issue in many communities and among many groups but we know that by remaining proactive persistent and patient we will continue to improve our efforts over time thank you for all you've done to support us in these efforts and thank you for this opportunity to scott's our progress to date i am available to answer any questions you might have for me sir thank you very much jeanne dame tell us how we doing with regard to two women one i did go to the meetings that she twenty two percent the overall applicant pool that is an improvement over the last three to four years back about four years ago we bring about fifteen percent of class we have improved it in the last three or four classes have been between twenty and twenty two percent of the incoming class know how many of the minorities that are emitted to the academy in any given year have attended up a very tory program and how many are coming straight from  school i don't have to give you i cannot give you an exact number but i'll get the number for you and bring it in but it is we are getting more direct from high school and we have i do know that for sure for the first time ever for example this incoming class i have fifty five of one hundred  twenty five african americans are coming direct from high school and we've never had more than about forty to forty five in a given class that have been able to come straight from high school food is improving and we we do see we do see that as we go out and work many of these schools that have very talented young men and women that we are able to do a better job of getting those that can come straight from high school straight into the school how many recruiters do you have specifically recruiting students to the academy and where are they located across the four different regions each one obviously covers a different region the country in addition to those four we have five officers stationed around the country in different locale one in new york one in atlanta one in houston one in chicago and one in san diego of those nine people who specific job is to attract young men and women of diverse backgrounds seven seven of them are men who are naval academy graduate  in most years between thirteen to fifteen people i expect next year will have about fifteen people every application that is submitted is prepared by one of the regional directors that's the counselor majority counsellor  or diversity counselor and those are presented to our missions board for review the missions board reviews every application in a sense even though they're prepared by one person because we have an electronic process every member that board has can do that application file as it's being briefed and in detail and oftentimes there's a lot of i would say it's kind of like a debate at the admissions board where they'll talk about the attributes of the different person being presented and then the board will make a decision on that particular person to the role qualification that includes whether that person on a go to a preparatory program maybe they should go to college for another year or they should be eligible for direct admission and actually as you have achieved diversity rubino initially was asked by the superintendent to help bring that to director along about a year and a half ago with a couple of back with four people helping him at the time kept in twenty barns to sitting behind me now came the last  point to that you've changed since you've been there i think probably the one thing is that there's been some philosophy changes you know i worked i worked in our missions office for about four years before i became the dean of admissions and i think even though we thought we were doing a good job in diversity we were out lee reality i think we were more focused on our brand name the word the naval academy people should know about us but the realization that people don't know about us in many communities in  fact i'm a little bit embarrassed to say when i a couple of years ago when we started doing more to reach out some of the schools and some of the big cities when i went to baltimore there were there were some kids in some of the high schools there didn't even know the naval academy was thirty miles away and that really i have to tell you it was kind of a sobering moment for me because i'm i thought boy i've local kids i don't know where the local schools are but we decided that we were going to sit back any longer we're going to go out and we're going to look for the good kids in these good  schools part of it's a resource issue we don't have a lot of people working specifically at least for this that we just try to you know do the best we could with what we have and i think that's probably one the big things the other things that encourage every one of every one of the folks that work in our office to look for a different approach in every school that they go to because many of the schools the traditional approaches that we've been using really have not worked so for example we have some schools are very technically focused they were looking for help and nationally to help develop an aeronautical program in their school so we use that as an opportunity one of our professors at the naval academy with the school and part of that was to build that friendship that partnership with the school to gain their trust and interest in us to help that that we were there to help them out we've invited many of the students from some of these schools to come down to do overnight visits   those who have shared experiences and that type of thing so they start to see that they this could be a place for them and probably another thing has been the the use of our musical groups the gospel choir in particular has been we've had greater flexibility with support of our superintendent to use those groups to get out an outreach in many of the communities wherever they travel they drug or big crowds and the kids in the high school see these see these young men and women who are at the naval academy and these and they realize that these that could be them in the words they're we're creating an opportunity for them to see that this could be them in that school doing that same thing with their bands who develop repertoires that appeal to young men and came about mainly for a couple reasons number one because we knew we were not doing a good job of attracting are used to a younger age too often we're going to high schools in the senior year and looking for students who are getting ready for call and other schools and i hate to say it like ivy league schools and high tech schools that already had developed partnerships with the schools and the kids already obligato the schools before we ever got to him so we felt that developing a stem program was a way to increase awareness of the naval academy in a much earlier age and in this the other part of his we felt the civic responsibility in trying to do our part and encourage math and science preparation coincidentally that's the type of thing we need to do be for the kids that are coming to our school because we know it's a very technically organ school so if we can get to a kid in seventh eighth or ninth or even tenth grade and say hey can our stem program we'll show you a lot about the name academy but walsall guide you in what you need to do to prepare for college and they'll be better prepared for admission to a school flagship program but we completely reorient to that whole program with a focus on trying to improve representation from a lot of the under represented congressional districts and so what is program this program is for rising seniors those coming on the junior into the senior high school it's a essentially a marketing program were these juniors going into their senior comes in able cademy for a week we have three one week sessions  june in fact the last session as i mentioned just ended yesterday they room in bancroft hall they have they form i'm up in platoons with a midshipman who are just came out of their first year running them and oversight from the seniors  they have an opportunity go to academic workshops tour the facilities learn a little bit about physical education is the way we teach it at the naval academy and generally get an overall impression what the naval academy is all about so again i come back to the awareness issue we thought that if we made the program bigger and we expanded it made him work concerted effort to get in these these areas where we were in attracting young men and women that we could do a better job of getting them interested in the naval academy and the reason i as our track history has been is that if they come to summer seminar that two thirds of the kids that come will follow through on their application the following year and complete the application for mission and that to me has been one of the big keys in improving diversity because getting the kids to complete the application gives you a talent pool to work with that you can consider for an offer of appointment or preparatory program or what have you but when they come in the able can i mean they get sold and their parents who often drop them off or will come  and take tours of the can of me and get briefings by our staff and meet with other parents of midshipman and candidates the parents get sold on the program also so it's a very powerful tool in marketing the naval academy in as i said we took a definite focus on trying to bring more kids in from the under represented areas and we expanded the program out to be more inclusive how do you do with regard to retention of minority young people  surely it's nice to get folks in the door but i like to see young graduate is are we work really hard at the naval academy in general in fact the class of two thousand and that just graduated the minority graduation rates were very similar to the overall graduation rates for the majority counterpart what is it it's about eighty four and a half percent i'll get the exact numbers for the record for you sir eighty one answers about eighty four and a half percent i'll get the numbers for you it's it's  we've done a very good job over time i think what's helped our are several things is the institutional support in two areas number one is the act and we have an academic center a fully staffed professors for that's available for everybody but it's how with many of our minority midshipman been struggling academically to help them keep them on track and succeed at our school in fact our philosophy is really that if if a young man or woman comes our school and they are trying hard and they want to stay at the naval camp and they want to graduate then we will make take every resource available to try and help them succeed there the other thing we've done is we've put more emphasis on many of our mentoring group minority mentoring groups like national society of black and juniors with the black studies club when american studies club korean american club and those types of things and of try to provide more outlets for many of those young men and women to go study with if they don't want to do it in another group they can do with the folks that come from the racial or ethnic background we've been creased of the access to faculty members during the day so if a student has an off period they can go into for example over and to show any hall where we teach math they can go in and it is a profit there that will happen were problems on the board and that type of thing but the overall idea is that we're there to help to help them succeed rather than to help them  clue what is the may whether you are large there i was and i'm up for a contract rule this year but i hope to i hope to be around for a while i have to tell you my personal experiences the more i'm around ninety young men and the more i realize it's all about the opportunity as you stated last week i go and i personally everybody on my staff even though i have a small staff just dedicated to a diversity effort everybody in my staff is very impassioned about what they're doing and they are out actively looking for kids they are mentoring and there they stay i go home most nights between six thirty and seven o'clock at night and after my lieutenants are still there on the phone talking to their kids and their parents they're there on weekends helping the guide tours and do other things and they travel a lot too i don't know how they all do it because they're supposed to know what the navy calls shore duty where they get a little time off after being at sea for a while but they are they are actively they they look at this is their their mantra and their legacy to give back to the academy