 Good evening! Welcome back. I'm Mark, up to grow the director of the LBJ Presidential Library. I want to welcome you all to another season of great programming at this fine institution. This year marks the 50th anniversary of perhaps the most remarkable legislative year in our nation's history, as Lyndon Johnson signed a flurry of laws that transformed our nation, and in many ways created the foundation for modern America. Those laws include the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Higher Education Act, Medicare and Medicaid, the Voting Rights Act, the Immigration Act, perhaps the most sweeping immigration reform in the history of our country, the creation of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Clean Air Act, the Older Americans Act, and the Highway Beautification Act. And on September 9th, on this day, a half a century ago, he signed a bill that created the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Tonight, I know President Johnson would be honored that his fellow Texan, Helene Castro, the Secretary of HUD, is at his presidential library to celebrate HUD's golden anniversary. I much look forward to having a conversation with Secretary Castro on this stage in a moment. But before I bring up President Johnson's daughter, our own Lucy Baines Johnson, who will introduce the Secretary, I want to share this short film on HUD and its history as part of the American story. Very rare and very proud occasion. We are bringing into being today a very new and needed instrument to serve all the people of America. This legislation establishes the 11th Department of our federal government, the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He knew what he wanted to do. He lived it. You know, remember, he was elected to Congress in 1938. In 1938, there was no running water and there was no electricity in the hill country where he grew up for the first 20 years of his life. We can argue or talk about voting rights and we can talk about school rights and employment rights. But one of the things that touches Americans most deeply was housing. Where do people live? A great deal of emphasis was placed on the unrest in cities because there were riots in Detroit, there were riots in Washington, D.C. Cities were burning. So it was a difficult period through which this country moved. HUD is more than just housing. It's education and transportation. It's economic development and a clean environment. It's about giving folks the tools they need to build a brighter future. Fair housing for all, all human beings who live in this country is now a part of the American way of life. I think the Fair Housing Act has taught a couple of generations of Americans, at least leaders, that this is part of the American dream. I mean, it seems so elementary to have fair housing. But HUD is out there day in and day out trying to enforce our fair housing laws and trying to make sure that people get treated fairly when they go ran or by. Well, I came into HUD at a pretty explosive period of time, right? The housing market was blowing up. The world was in the middle of a financial crisis. And HUD's place in history was very important at that time. Without FHA, the devastation that we saw in our communities and our housing market would have been dramatically worse. I have no doubt about that. The men and women that live on our street, it's not them and us, but it's we. It's not therefore, but the grace of God go I, but rather there go I. It's really important to reflect on 50 years of the incredible work of HUD. And the reason I'm saying that is previously, before there was a HUD, it was unimaginable in our country that men, women and children would be homeless. We're just unthinkable. Thanks to President Johnson, the Congress of that era, some of the experts and leaders across the country, they took to assemble all of the disparate pieces that might exist out there, such as FHA leading the way. But then all of the other things we were doing related to urban renewal and community development and rental housing and mortgages and pulled it all together in a department that I think has proven it is an important part of the American story. HUD is the Department of Opportunity. Everything that we do, everything that we do, whether it's working with our local communities to revitalize them or helping to ensure the responsible borrowers can get their first home or helping after a disaster has struck, we ensure that Americans can reach their American dream. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Lucy Baines Johnson. Some of us are exhausted by the great society's 50th anniversary celebrations this year. Can you imagine the energy it took to make these great dreams actually acts of Congress? Today is the 50th anniversary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. There could be no better way to celebrate than with Julian Castro, HUD's 16th Secretary. Julian's family and my own have so many ties that bind. In 1920, Julian's grandmother came to South Texas as a young Latina orphan seeking opportunity. In 1929, daddy needed money to continue his college education and he found his opportunity in South Texas teaching at a poor Mexican school in Catula. Both Julian's family and daddy saw South Texas racial injustice and poverty at early ages and were determined to right the wrong. Julian's mother dedicated her life to creating La Raza Unita, a vibrant voice for Latinos in the American political process and daddy's experience at Catula inspired his lifelong fight for social justice. As head of Texas's national youth administration and later as a young congressman, daddy provided job training for unemployed youth, brought electricity to the rural poor and supported the creation of Austin's first minority public housing. As a young mayor, Julian Castro became a national leader in urban development, attracting $350 million in private sector investment and producing more than four 2400 housing units for his decade of downtown initiative. The creation of HUD was historic, establishing a new department of the government headed by Robert Weaver, America's first African-American member of the cabinet. And 50 years later, HUD Secretary is a descendant of poor Mexican Americans like the ones who inspired my father's commitment to social justice. HUD was formed because of an insufficient affordable housing and segregation's denial of capital for construction and mortgages for minorities. Daddy told the nation, and I quote, our society will never be great until our cities are great. We must seek and we must find ways to preserve and to perpetuate in the city the individuality, the human dignity, the respect for individual rights, the devotion to individual responsibility that has been a part of the American character and strength of the American system. With 8,000 employees and a $46 billion budget, Secretary Castro uses a performance-driven management style to fulfill his mission of creating opportunity for all. Secretary Castro is a supporter of affirmative action. He graciously acknowledges that without it, maybe his SAT scores might have been denied him the access to Stanford. His acceptance proved to be a springboard to remarkable career at Harvard Law and in public life that has benefited us all. After graduation, Julian joined the law firm of Aiken Gump founded by Ambassador Bob Strauss, a magnificent public servant and a member of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation until the day he died. Another young associate at that firm was Daddy's only grandson, my son, Lyndon Nugent. So you can see the ties that bind the Castro's and the Johnson's go on for generations. Secretary Castro's education took him to success in the IVs. My father's chance at education was found at Southwest Texas State Teachers College, now known as Texas State University. Daddy loved to tell the story of a joint chiefs of staff meeting when he looked around the room and he saw graduates of West Point, the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and one lone graduate from Southwest Texas State Teachers College. Then the president, the sole Texas State graduate, Riley smiled and said, gentlemen, the nation's work demands our best. Let the best get to it. Whether a graduate of Texas State or Stanford, the creator and the present secretary of HUD have been united by a lifelong passion to make a difference for those in need. As Lyndon Johnson's daughter and the grandmother of 13, I am honored and proud to introduce Secretary Julian Castro, Daddy's hope for tomorrow and mine. Mr. Secretary, welcome. Thank you very much. It's been about a year and a half since you were last on this stage as part of the Civil Rights Summit and since that time you've become our secretary of HUD. Congratulations on that appointment. Welcome back. We're delighted to have you here. So we saw in the video you describe HUD as the Department of Opportunity. So for those of us who don't know the Department of Housing and Urban Development, how does it create opportunity for Americans? In so many ways. First of all, Mark, thank you so much. Thank you to Lucy. Thank you to the entire board, everybody here at the LBJ Library. Before I took on the role, one of the things that I told myself was that HUD has created so much opportunity over the years that it needs a narrative, I guess in a word that's overused these days and needs a brand. And so we started to call it the Department of Opportunity and it's created opportunity and a lot of it was alluded to in the film in so many ways. First of all, the Federal Housing Administration, the FHA, which is under HUD's purview that has done, has insured 44 million mortgages in its lifespan, made home ownership possible to people of all different backgrounds who are of modest means but responsible families that are trying to get access to credit for their first home. It has helped create millions of affordable housing units through things like community development block grants and home funds. It has meant people being able to go from homeless to housed just in the last several years from 2010 to 2014, for instance. We saw a 10% overall drop in homelessness and a 33% drop in veteran homelessness and Austin is actually leading the way among cities. It's very close to getting to functional zero for veteran homelessness. On top of that, more recently we have begun to invest in things like jobs plus and family self-sufficiency which help not only house but then spark greater opportunity in families' lives so that folks can save money and become self-sufficient. They can get their GED or get job training that is going to make them more employable so they can get a job or get a better job than they have. All of those ways are creating greater opportunity in the lives of millions of Americans. There are over 9 million folks today that are in some form of HUD assisted housing. So you've been in the post for 13 months and you'll be in the post until January of 2017. What do you hope to accomplish during your tenure at HUD? We have several priorities. In fact, one of the things that I've said is that oddly enough, only having a year and a half left is advantageous in the sense that you have to prioritize. It forces you to focus and understand what you can get done and what you can't and what you can lay a foundation for for the future. Some of my priorities at the department include ending veteran homelessness. The president has set that as a marker as part of a plan called Opening Doors to effectively eliminate homelessness by 2020 starting with veteran homelessness. We've seen New Orleans, for instance, reach that milestone in cities like Houston and Salt Lake City and chronic veteran homelessness and getting very close. Same thing here with Austin and a number of other places. So we're starting to see these communities get to where they need to get. We can't wait until the day when the United States ends veteran homelessness. Secondly, very early on in my tenure I said that as much as we had been through a housing crisis and we needed to learn the lessons of the past, we needed to end the stigma of promoting home ownership. In other words, if we're responsible and if we keep safeguards in place that have been put in place over the last several years in response to the housing crisis, so you don't slide back, but you find a strong balance in the middle because whereas a few years ago it used to be too difficult, it used to be too easy to get a home loan for many middle-class families and folks of modest means who have decent credit who under normal times, not in the run-up to 0708, but let's say 15 years ago under normal times would have gotten a home loan, today they can't, they're shut out. And so we want to strike that balance of access to credit and affordability. So in January we just, the president announced a reduction to the mortgage insurance premium at FHA and this year FHA is performing very well compared to the last seven or eight years. And then a third one is what we just accomplished in Fair Housing. We finally put out what's called the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule. I know that that sounds very bureaucratic, but folks I know in the audience who follow Housing and specifically Fair Housing and the Fair Housing Act of 68 will remember that this is one of the unfinished pieces of business from then. It essentially tells communities if you get HUD dollars, taxpayer dollars, then we expect that you're going to use those taxpayer dollars in a responsible way to promote equal opportunity and fair housing throughout your community. And this is an unprecedented set of tools of data to help communities understand where the gaps are in their area. And we're going to work with them, collaborate with them to figure out how they can do a better job. And in those cases where communities flagrantly are not doing what they ought to, we're going to enforce the Fair Housing Act. So making progress on creating greater opportunity in cities in their metro areas is another goal that we have for these next 17 months. Another thing you want to do is bring internet access to lower income housing. How do you do that? We just announced something called Connect Home, which is 28 communities and their public housing within those 28 communities, 27 cities and one Native American reservation. Essentially, we struck up a partnership with private internet service providers to hook up folks who live in public housing either for free or very, very low cost because we found that even though the majority of folks have access to a computer and sometimes small mobile devices, many of them do not have full internet access either because it's not affordable or they don't physically get access, we're trying to change that because we know that in this 21st century global economy where knowledge and brain power really drives it, you need everyone to be on a level playing field and hooking up those communities is a big way to start closing that knowledge gap. A clean energy is another one of your goals, bringing clean energy to our urban areas. Where do you start? How do you start? It seems like our energy paradigm is such that it's going to be very difficult to bring clean energy efficiently to our urban areas. What do you do? There's a lot that HUD can do. I'm very proud that the president has embraced this climate action plan that he rolled out 18 months two years ago, a little bit before I came on board, but the climate action plan is not just about the EPA or Department of Energy doing what they can to conserve energy and embrace renewables. It really is about all of the federal departments and all of our partner local communities and the private sector. At HUD, for instance, we have something called the Better Buildings Challenge for multifamily HUD assisted buildings. The goal is that we get 100 of those multifamily building owners. Now, mind you, some of them may have multiple developments in different communities to reduce by 20% their energy waste. So far, I believe we have something like 89 of them signed up. They have committed to reduce their energy waste over the next decade by at least 20%. Just a couple of weeks ago, the president announced something called PACE property-assessed clean energy that folks may be familiar with. There are a number of states, including California, that have begun to look more seriously at this and some of the northeastern states that have actually done it. But essentially, the FHA has said that it will ensure PACE loans, essentially it's a vehicle for folks to wrap in the cost of installing solar or other renewable energy or energy conservation devices into the cost of the home and it makes it more affordable to do for homeowners. Our cities are growing disproportionately in this country. Our rural areas are getting smaller proportionally. What is driving that growth? Why are Americans flocking to cities? I believe that throughout history, the primary reason that people have come to cities is because of opportunity. Economic opportunity, but also cultural opportunities. I remember I used to read the speeches of Henry Cisneros, who may be here today, I'm not sure if he is, who was also a HUD secretary and mayor of San Antonio, and he had this speech where he used to talk about when you encounter the world's great universities and hospitals and art museums and ballet companies and so on and so forth, that you'll find them in cities. I see cities as sort of this flame and you have a moth-the-flame effect throughout history for people of both this economic opportunity, cultural opportunity, and then also the need of people to socialize, to feel a connectedness with each other. It's ironic when you think about it that our cities are growing again and that over the next few decades, by 2050, it's projected that about two-thirds of the growth that we're going to see will be in cities when, in a lot of ways, people live a more solitary existence with their smartphone that they're looking into, or you're on your iPad, maybe you're on Facebook, kind of interacting, or Twitter, but at the same time, this millennial generation, they enjoy the urban lifestyle of downtowns throughout the United States, so it's almost like in some ways I think people are compensating for this new way that we have of solidarily interacting with information, but then wanting to be around other people and how we live, and that's my pop psychology for the night, but I think it's basically different types of opportunity. You're a former mayor as well as being Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. As you look around the country, is there a model American city? Is there one city you think that's doing everything right in today's America, in terms of being progressive, in terms of being on the mark to grow and prosper? Well, San Antonio, obviously. That's such a layup, that is such a layup question. Actually, and I'm not saying it just because I'm here, you can go back and look at the record, I brag a lot about this city. There's no city that is getting exactly right all the time, and Austin, in my speech today, I addressed, for instance, the issues around people being priced out of East Austin and the challenges that East Austin is having, and that we need to make sure that we invest in older distressed neighborhoods, but we do it for the purpose of the folks who live there being able to enjoy that, and that we maintain this balance between folks being able to live there and newcomers. But I would put Austin among a handful of cities that is doing it most effectively. In other words, now I'm speaking as a former mayor, I was always convinced that you needed to get the economic development right and have the right opportunities. Obviously, Austin is doing that with tech opportunities, now more and more with hospitality, with the perception out there of this is a cool city to those millennials that everyone is after, and then also quality of life. As much as folks complain about Mopac and I35, when you compare the quality of life in this city to a lot of other places, it's very nice. People don't feel like they're on top of each other in terms of the congestion. Affordability is a real challenge, so that is something that needs to be addressed in spades, but it's getting a lot of it right. Other communities that I think are doing that are similar places that have a strong university presence and economic development that is later on top of that, and then artistic and cultural opportunities that go along with it. The third piece of that is getting just the basics of good governance right, having a local government, utilities, water and electric, and then city council that does the basic stuff right. We're half a century away from the creation of HUD. What do you see as the biggest challenge we face in the next 50 years? I'd say the biggest challenge that we face is that you have a congress that simply is disconnected from the reality of an affordable housing crisis out there. You have an affordable housing crisis in Austin, in San Antonio, in Houston, in Dallas, in Portland, in Seattle, in Denver, in Philadelphia, and D.C. In just about every American city, the demand for affordable housing far outstrips the supply. The National Low-Income Housing Coalition a couple of months ago came out with analysis that said in no single community of any size in the United States, if you're a person who's working 40 hours minimum wage, could you afford a two-bedroom apartment? In all but a very small handful, you couldn't even afford a one-bedroom apartment. We have an affordable housing crisis out there. And at the same time, just to give you one example, in this coming year's budget, the governing majority in the Senate, in terms of appropriations, has proposed cutting the home investment fund by 93%. Now, folks who are in housing will know that home is often a gap filler, along with light tech and other means to make development, affordable housing development work, make the numbers work. And without that important tool, it makes it that much harder, not even to keep up, but to chase from so far behind. So that's a big challenge over the next five decades, is when do we come to grips with the fact that there's so many people that are doubling up because they just can't find some place of their own? A lot of people who are in shelters and youth who are staying at another family's house. I don't believe that that Congress has come to grips with that. So if Congress is disconnected, how do you connect them to this issue, this very pressing issue? Well, of course, we do what we can in terms of providing information. The president has been vocal and very straightforward about that and has been a champion for affordable housing. I'm very pleased to say over the years, of course, folks out there, some of the best advocates are folks in the affordable housing development community and in nonprofits and people who are impacted, and mayors, housing authority directors who see these real challenges and have a strong voice in front of Congress. You spoke very movingly today to the students of the LBJ School of Public Affairs about the riots in Watts 50 years ago last summer, this summer. You said today we face a growing gap between rich and poor, between those who have opportunity and those who don't. The issues we saw 50 years ago in Watts are still relevant today, as we've seen in recent events across the nation. So what can we best do to bridge that gap between rich and poor and opportunity and despair? That is a huge question, and no single piece of this is the entire answer. Housing, affordable housing opportunities are a significant part of the answer, but in my remarks, one of the things I said was that, and quoted the president, we need to look at this as a holistic with a holistic eye and not just work on the housing, but work on better educational opportunities for young people, starting from the very beginning, even fairly mundane things like access to transit so that people save money and it's easier for them to get to gainful employment, making sure that communities are mindful of the opportunity landscape within their community, because if you analyze San Antonio or you analyze Austin or Minneapolis or just about any city, there are policies that over time, and a lot of cities have gotten better about it, but over time have advantaged some neighborhoods or some communities as opposed to others. There's also a role for the federal government, increasing the minimum wage and pursuing tax policies that reward work, and so I think you have to take a holistic approach to it. But that necessitates working with other departments, education. Absolutely, sure. How does that happen in a cabinet? One, you're all running your own institutions, how do you interact with your counterparts to ensure a holistic solution? I'm happy to say that after these last seven years of the Obama administration that that's been institutionalized, so their efforts like sustainable communities, which was a partnership among HUD, the Department of Transportation and the EPA, and competition communities competed for funds to plan around not just affordable housing, but also connection to transit and how they're going to do that in an environment that's healthy for the families who live in those neighborhoods. Another good example are promise zones. San Antonio has a promise zone and the idea is measuring educational improvement there, measuring access to transit, measuring reduction in crime, improving affordable housing options, and all of us at the staff level have staff members who do work together oftentimes on the ground in the same place so that they break down those bureaucratic silos and it's not a matter of waiting for the next meeting or something or making a phone call into the Department of Transportation. Those employees are actually working together. Another good example of that was something called Strong City, Strong Communities, sending these teams out into the field to work together to solve problems for communities. That's how we've basically broken through the silos. What was the greatest adjustment in going from being the mayor of a large metropolitan city to becoming the secretary, to a cabinet secretary position? Well the biggest adjustment was that I can't get good iced tea or good barbecue in DC. Everywhere I go, especially in the south, I make it a point to have one of my meals at a barbecue place. The biggest professional adjustment was that as mayor, first of all, you can get things done a lot more quickly. There's something very rewarding about getting to see the fruits of your labor and the labor of the people you're working with and the community of course. The other thing is as mayor you have, there's no other job like that because you kind of, you know, you're at the pin of the needle in terms of this community identity and whether people are Republican or Democrat, most folks still want you to succeed because they have a community pride and they want to see the city move forward and everybody celebrates when there's an announcement about new jobs that are coming to the city or, you know, some other investment or infrastructure that got done. So you kind of have this tailwind to you. In the cabinet, the reward that you get is that the impact that you can make is much broader. You know, it's not just in San Antonio. It's communities all over the place and the neatest thing has been getting to visit now I think over 50 cities and about 30 states in these last 13 months. But the biggest adjustment for me was that there is more of a bureaucracy. It does take longer to get things done. Having to learn, okay, what are the levers that you pull to get things done? And there is a federal language and a way of thinking and an approach that was completely foreign to me when I got there. Still seems foreign sometimes now. But, you know, I'm enjoying the job 10 times more now as we sit here than I did a month after I got there. You talked about the disconnection of Congress. There's also a dysfunction in Congress. There's a bitter partisan divide. Do you think that that divide will deepen or will abate in the coming years? In the near future? Well, in the near future, I think it'll stay probably about the same. I always hold out hope after each presidential election that whichever party wins and whichever party loses, there's a message that the American people send that must have some kind of impact, even if it's fleeting. A good example of this was after the 2012 elections, all of a sudden in the Senate, there was very strong bipartisan support for immigration reform because both Democrats and Republicans thought, well, this is what we ought to do. This is what the American people want and what we're going to need for the next cycle. But I believe that the longer term, the challenges, and this is not breaking any new ground, people have described it more sharply than I have and in more depth, is you have a problem with the way that redistricting is done. That's been said over and over. My hope is that we'll see good results. And by good, I mean people that are open-minded coming out of redistricting commissions like California. You're going to be able to study how that's being done and analyze the extent to which other states should adopt that. I think they probably should. That'll never happen in Texas. But that's one thing, redistricting. Another thing I think is just in Joaquin, my brother who's in his second term has a better lock on this part of it. But the whole culture is, he has said that it's designed for folks to fight. You're kind of in your whole camp socially from the very beginning. And he describes going to orientation when he got into Congress. And you have an orientation for the Democrats and one for the Republicans. And then they sit on separate sides of the aisle literally. And now people go home. My joke around town and my brother goes around telling people that the way to tell us apart is that I'm a minute uglier than he is. And I tell folks that, you know, of the Castro brothers, that I'm the one in D.C. with the real job because he's in Congress. Because they're there from like Tuesday to Thursday. And they were in session in 2014, maybe a hundred days out of the year. They're not there enough to form the kind of bonds that we read about, or, you know, that President Johnson famously had when he came up through the House and then the Senate. It feels like that the human aspect, the connection that people have that sort of lubricated the ability to get things done has diminished significantly. And it's a different question than the redistricting. It's not even as much a political question, but a structural question. How do you, you know, how could you go about encouraging a lot more of that? Is there a solution? You're absolutely right. I mean, I mentioned the laws that President Johnson and a very plant Congress passed 50 years ago. It's remarkable. I can't imagine a Congress being able to do that today. And you're right. I think there's, at heart, there is a human element missing. How do you change that? I mean, honestly, what can be done to add that lubricant, in your words, to the process? I think it starts with something as simple as creating more opportunities, more forums for folks to get to know each other, and to relate on a social level, human level, instead of, you know, they're in the committee meeting or subcommittee or they're on the floor and, you know, everybody is going to go to your neutral corner and you're just performing your duties and you're, you kind of have your partisan hat on. How do you increase the opportunity, the time that they spend without the partisan hat on, and just the, you know, hey, I'm Mary or hey, I'm Joe, and getting to actually know each other. And, you know, person after person who has served, who are former members of Congress, even the ones from relatively recently, will say, will tell you that the biggest difference often was that they had a friendship with someone, that they knew them, they respected them, even if they disagreed with them. And it doesn't mean that every time that all of a sudden somebody that's a hardcore Republican or hardcore Democrat votes the other way, but it means that they may be willing to listen a little bit more on one key element or an amendment or something that makes things more possible. So I would say, you know, not having a grand answer to that, that the beginning would be creating more actual opportunities for people to develop friendships and know each other outside of the time when they're wearing their partisan hat. Right. You mentioned immigration reform a moment ago. And indeed, the last time you were on the stage as part of the Civil Rights Summit, it was on a panel relating to immigration reform. Immigration has now been brought front and center in the presidential race 2016. Donald Trump talked about it as he announced for president. And we see that based on his rising poll numbers that that message is resounding. How do we view Donald Trump's message and how do we view the messenger? Yeah, one of the things, the messenger, not very well. But the message, yeah, I said the other day in an interview that, that I sort of see this on two levels, on one level as someone who has been in politics. It doesn't surprise me at all why he's doing what he's doing. It's no mistake. It's no accident that he's using the issue of immigration to help climb in the Republican primary, because that division sells with that primary base. Jan Brewer did that a few years ago in Arizona. 20 years ago, Pete Wilson did in California. You have Steve King in Iowa, Dan Patrick here in Texas, Chris Kobach in Kansas. So that is a well-worn strategy. My hope is that cooler heads will prevail on both sides of the aisle and most Americans in good polling support some sort of comprehensive immigration reform. Whether that includes a pathway to citizenship or only legal status, polls will tell you different things. But the American people do believe in comprehensive immigration reform. And so my hope is that I don't believe this is necessarily going to happen before the 2016 election, but after the 2016 election that there will be comprehensive immigration reform. And I'm proud of what the president has done in terms of DACA and DAPA. DAPA is tied up in the courts right now. Hopefully that'll get resolved and that executive order will go into effect. And that if the Congress does not address this, that my hope is that the next president will keep both of those executive orders in place until it does get addressed. But the fact that Donald Trump is using this issue, I mean we saw this in Texas with Dan Patrick and that's why I debated him in 2014, because normally I didn't get involved in state issues that way, but I saw somebody that was scapegoating immigrants and doing it with impunity. And I just, I didn't want to let that be the only voice that was speaking on the issue. And I felt like it was one of those times when I had an obligation with somebody in my position as mayor of the second largest city to say something. And so I did. I wish I could say that it had better results in terms of the election, but you do notice that for all of the talk, he actually hasn't done anything. And that's not an accident either. That is not an accident either. And I believe that that's, that's, that move is at the heart of a lot of the frustration that, that, that Mr. Trump represents. That of talking one way to get these folks to vote for him. And then getting into office and, well, we didn't really mean that. That base has that done to them all the time, all the time. And, and that's what Patrick did when he ran. But, but xenophobia seems to me to be an endemic part of the American psyche. We seem to evolve as a society in so many different ways. I mean, look at civil rights. Yes, we might have racial strife today, but we are far advanced from where we once were. We'd have a Supreme Court that just upheld gay marriage. And yet xenophobia still sells in 2015. Why is that in your view? You're right. It's not new to this time. And there are different groups who have been the target. People who have had brown skin, yellow skin, white skin, different groups from different countries. I think it's when, when folks who are already here it's also not unique to America. I mean, look what we're seeing play out right now in Europe when they feel like there's something that threatens how they live and who they are and their culture and the identity of the nation. You know, I mean, on one level, you get why that is. I mean, when things look like they're changing, they're moving away from you of what you feel comfortable with, of the group of people that you feel comfortable with, and how you think of your nation. And I think it's that no matter what group was new, that's the reaction that folks have. You know, Jan Jobba Russell has written a great book about the internment camp in Crystal City that housed Japanese Americans and German Americans, and the reaction during that time to, to folks of Japanese descent and German descent. And I guess the most disappointing thing is that you would have hoped that we would have learned by now. Because the one, the thing that I do believe the United States, and not the only thing, but one thing that I believe the United States is exceptional about is learning from its mistakes and improving, being able somehow to collectively reflect and to improve upon its past mistakes. And so my hope is that we will get past this fever this time period more quickly than we did some of the others. If we can do that, if this can be a much more temporary incitement of these passions, I'll see that as a positive that we got through it without the kind of consequences that you saw earlier on. You head up the Department of Opportunity, but you also talked, as I mentioned earlier, about the growing gap between rich and poor. Will the American dream exist for your children to the extent that it did for you? I believe that it can, that fundamentally it will if we do the right things. If all of us work, certainly those of us who are in policymaking positions, but people in their everyday lives to create and sustain what my brother calls this infrastructure of opportunity. So that folks can go to school, public school in the west side of San Antonio like he and I did, and still be able to graduate from high school and then go on to a good college and become professionals. As long as you have that infrastructure of opportunity, good public schools, good universities, a chance for folks to be able to have decent middle-class jobs, I believe in many ways that we need strong labor, strong unions more than we have in a long time in the United States. As long as you can sustain that infrastructure of opportunity, then the answer is yes, that my children or anybody's children and grandchildren will have that opportunity. If we don't, if that infrastructure of opportunity is allowed to crumble and people really just can't reach up anymore, then I think it's a bleaker future. Sure, but the great thing is that every single day and every week and month and year, we have the opportunity as Americans through elections, through the people that represent us to decide which way are we going to go? Are you going to invest in that infrastructure of opportunity and keep that American dream alive or not? Yeah. Mr. Secretary, let me go back to presidential politics for a moment. Would the Democratic Party benefit from having more challenges for the Democratic nomination? That's a very clever way to ask the question. Well, I told the press earlier that I wasn't going to talk about 2016 presidential politics, but I might as well. I'm just kidding. No, I would just say that, you know, I believe fundamentally that on both sides of the aisle that they ought to have a good, healthy primary. I believe that was helpful in 08. It could be helpful in 2016. And the great thing is that we have the better qualified candidates on the Democratic side this time. I'll be diplomatic. It's a shocking revelation, Mr. Secretary. Shocking revelation for me. Made in such a conservative town like Austin, Texas. The Obama administration will fold up its tent in January in 2017, as I mentioned earlier. What's in your future? I don't know. Honestly, I'm at a point, you know, when I was going through law school, I had this map up on my dorm wall of District 7 in San Antonio, which is where I had grown up and where I wanted to come back and run for city council. Henry had gotten elected when he was 27 and I was proud that I got elected at the age of 26 right after I got out of law school. And then I ran for mayor and I lost the first time and just practiced law and then ran again and served those five years before going to HUD. And for the first time since I was in school, the next few years are not clear in terms of what I'm going to be doing. So I legitimately don't know. We sit in the presidential library of a former president, but also a former vice president. You know where this question is going? Is that subtle enough for you, Mr. Secretary? Although, you know, his time as vice president was not described in the best, you know, that he would have had time. Would you consider a bid if asked to be the vice presidential candidate? Oh, yeah, I've said over and over that I don't believe that that's going to happen, that who wouldn't be flattered by that. But you know, I don't think it's going to happen. And what I do know is that whatever I do after this that I have learned in my life, and I'm sure that the folks in this room have as well, that the best way to create a great future for yourself is not to forget about what's in front of you right now and to do a great job with what's in front of you. And so I'm trying to do a great job at HUD and then we'll see what happens. Right. Mr. Secretary, my guess is while you believe that might not happen, they believe that it is abundantly possible. I will tell you that Mayor Julian Castro was a member of the LBJ Foundation Board for a cup of coffee, I think, just a very, very brief period before he became the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. And I can speak for the Foundation's President, Larry Temple, sitting on the front row when I say that we hated to lose you on the LBJ Foundation, but we sure were glad about the reasons. And I want to thank you, too, for the service you're rendering to our country at HUD and for being here with us tonight. This has been a great pleasure for us. Thank you so much. Thank you, all of you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.