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Mishandling of Sherrod Case; Immigration Fight Goes to Court; Stopping Government Waste

Aired July 22, 2010 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everybody. Live from Studio 7 at CNN world headquarters, the big stories for Thursday, July 22nd

A powerful weather system presenting a possible new threat to cleanup and containment in the Gulf oil disaster.

From villain to hero, What is next for Shirley Sherrod? The former USDA official has a new job offer from the boss who forced her to resign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM VILSACK, AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: This is a good woman. She's been put through hell. And I could have done and should have done a better job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And the United States versus the state of Arizona. The battle over immigration law being fought now in court.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.

Those stories and your comments right here, right now in the CNN NEWSROOM.

All right. Let's see the pictures here.

On day 94 of the Gulf oil disaster, a serious new threat to tell you about, and it is in the tropics. A weather system over the Bahamas that is strengthening by the hour could be in the Gulf of Mexico by the weekend, and there is growing concern it could set back BP's containment and cleanup efforts for as long as two weeks. Right now the containment cap is still holding, but some of the work on the relief well is already on hold.

Let's bring in Reynolds Wolf, who is tracking this tropical system for us.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: And turning to our other big story, the now vindicated Shirley Sherrod deciding whether she will accept a new job offer from the agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack. He has expressed his profound apology for forcing Sherrod to resign over a misleading video which indicated Sherrod did not give a white farmer as much help as she should have 24 years ago. Sherrod tells CNN Vilsack is now offering her some sort of civil rights position in the department's Office of Outreach.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIRLEY SHERROD, FMR. GEORGIA DIRECTOR, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, USDA: He toll me he would send the offer in writing. I haven't had a chance to see that yet.

I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure that going back to the department is the thing to do.

I know that I have lots of farmers and others in Georgia -- I've been getting messages saying, "Shirley, please come back to work with rural development in Georgia." But that's not what the offer is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Sherrod also tells CNN she would like to talk to President Obama about things he could do to advance togetherness in the country. She says she supports the president fully, but she knows he has not lived the kind of life she has lived.

Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry looks at the administration's handling of the Sherrod case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack took one for the team, calling Shirley Sherrod to apologize, offering her a new job, and taking blame for the whole fiasco.

VILSACK: I am accepting that responsibility with deep regret. This is a good woman. She's been put through hell.

HENRY: If didn't get much better for White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. He was vague about the White House's role in Sherrod's firing and put the onus on Vilsack.

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: When the secretary reaches her, he will apologize for the events of the last few days, and they will talk about their next steps.

HENRY (on camera): This is the president's administration. It's bigger than Tom Vilsack or any department. This appears to be an injustice.

Why wouldn't the president intervene instead of letting this all fall on her?

GIBBS: We have a fuller set of facts. A review is taking place, and the secretary is trying to reach Ms. Sherrod to apologize for the exact injustice that you talk about. HENRY (voice-over): Gibbs tried to insulate the president by saying he was not informed Monday night when the tape first went viral, and Gibbs insisted nobody at the White House urged Vilsack to push her out. But that runs counter to what Sherrod told CNN, that Vilsack deputy Cheryl Cook called her three times Monday and told her the White House wanted her to go out of fear the story was about to explode on cable.

GIBBS: I know of no conversations that have happened like that, as the secretary said.

HENRY (on camera): So, no one at the White House urged her?

GIBBS: Ed, I answered your question.

HENRY (voice-over): The president did not get his first briefing until Tuesday morning, and agreed with Vilsack's initial decision. After White House aides saw the fuller context of Sherrod's remarks and realized they were not racist, the president got a second briefing late Tuesday.

Someone at the White House then pushed Vilsack to put out an extraordinary middle-of-the-night statement revealing his initial decision was now under review, though Gibbs refused to say who made that demand.

It was one year ago this week the president slipped up on another issue of race -- the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry. Number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.

HENRY: The ensuing firestorm forced the president to clarify his remarks. He called it a "teachable moment" that ended in a beer summit with Gates and the police officer.

(on camera): Top White House aides are furious about all of the media coverage of this case because it's completely overshadowing the president's big legislative victories this week on Wall Street reform and winning an extension of unemployment benefits. That's exactly how it played out last summer as well when the president's comments about Henry Louis Gates briefly shoved his push for health care reform out of the news.

Ed Henry, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: You know, there was an extraordinary moment in my interview with Shirley Sherrod on Tuesday that, for me, changed the entire dynamic of the story. At the very moment when the world was trying to decide whether Shirley discriminated against a white farmer in a way that made her a racist, the wife of that white farmer, Eloise Spooner, joined us by phone, describing Shirley as her friend. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Explain to me -- I have got a line here that says that you guys picked a bunch of tomatoes?

ELOISE SPOONER, GEORGIA FARMER: Yes. One year, after things kind of settled down, I had a really pretty garden that year, and we were going up to Albany for some reason. So I told Roger I was going to pick Shirley some tomatoes, and I did, and we carried them by to her and had a good visit.

HARRIS: You know, what do you think of the statement that's on the tape? You know, it's undeniable, it is there, where Shirley essentially says, "So I didn't give him the full force of what I could do."

SPOONER: Well, she gave enough that it helped us save our farm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: So that was the moment that resonates the most for me from that interview with Shirley Sherrod and Eloise Spooner.

You know, a lot has been written and a lot has been said since that interview on Tuesday. It is clear that the nation needs a discussion about race.

Here's the thing. In my 30 years in this business, I haven't led or heard one that was remotely satisfying.

If that honest discussion on race is to happen, I'm convinced it's going to have to be led by you -- by you. And if you will do that, if you will have that discussion in your neighborhoods, in your churches, your mosques, or your synagogues, or online, just let me know about it, and we will do what we do best, cover the news you make on this issue.

Shirley Sherrod and Eloise Spooner have provided us another moment to talk about race. Let's not waste it.

My blog page is wide open to you, CNN.com/Tony, or you can find me on Facebook. Just go to Facebook.com/TonyHarrisCNN.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Showdown today in the legal fight over illegal immigration. It pits the United States against the state of Arizona. A judge hears arguments in the Justice Department's challenge to the Arizona law scheduled to take effect a week from today.

CNN's Casey Wian joining us from Phoenix.

And Casey, the judge is hearing arguments in two cases challenging the Arizona law. Am I correct here? CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. There are actually seven cases pending that have been filed against this law. Just two being heard today.

The first one this morning is by a group of civil rights organizations including the ACLU, Latino and other minority advocacy groups, some individuals who are immigrants in this country. They are challenging the law on the grounds that they believe it's going to lead to widespread racial profiling and the harassment by police of legal residents and U.S. citizens who may be ethnic minorities.

The other lawsuit this afternoon is being filed by the Obama administration. And their main argument is that this law is an intrusion on the federal government's authority to regulate immigration law. They say that the state has no legitimate interest in this matter.

Now, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, in her response to the court, says that Arizona has no choice, it needs to pass this law because it will help stop the rampant drug and immigrant smuggling that has been plaguing Arizona for years. The federal government says the southern border is more secure than its ever been, and it's possible that both of them are right.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WIAN (voice-over): On the issue of border security, the White House is clearly on message.

OBAMA: The southern border is more secure today than at anytime in the past 20 years.

JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: I know that border, I think, as well as anyone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think it's secure?

NAPOLITANO: And I will tell you it is as secure now as it has ever been.

SHERIFF PAUL BABEU, PINAL COUNTY, ARIZONA: That's not the case.

WIAN: Just north of the border in Arizona, a different message.

BABEU: We've told people come ride along with one of our deputies, and you will see the situation. The government's response was, instead of sending troops, they put up billboard-size signs that we just passed that say don't come into this area, it's dangerous, warning. And there's drugs and human smuggling.

That shouldn't be the reaction of our government.

GOV. JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: This is an outrage. Washington says our border is as safe as it has ever been. Does this look safe to you? WIAN: So is the border more secure than ever or is it being overrun by increasingly violent drug and immigrant smugglers? Since 2004 the Border Patrol has doubled in size to about 20,000 agents. And it's installed billions of dollars worth of cameras, sensors and fences.

The National Guard is being redeployed temporarily to help. And there are already signs of success. The Homeland Security Department says seizures of drugs were up 15 percent last year, weapons, 30 percent.

Still, apprehensions of illegal immigrants were down 23 percent. But the government also sees that as a positive development. An indication that fewer people are trying to cross illegally. But no one knows how many are not caught.

SHERIFF LARRY DEVER, COCHISE COUNTY, ARIZONA: If you talk to Border Patrol agents on the ground, you'll get answers from -- on any given day, we might catch, you know, three out of five. On another day, we may get one out of ten. You know they just don't know.

WIAN: Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported a record 387,000 illegal immigrants last year. More than a third of them criminals. And about one million fewer illegal immigration were living in the United States at the beginning of the last year than in 2007, according to Homeland Security Department estimates.

Still 10.8 million remain, living in legal limbo. And the government has made little progress on that.

BENJAMIN JOHNSON, AMERICAN IMMIGRATION COUNCIL: The issue has become too important. It's become too divisive, it's become too destructive socially for us to be able to dodge the issue for much longer. It really is -- it's an open wound. And we can't keep rubbing it. We need to figure out how to start healing that wound.

WIAN: Meanwhile, a battle is brewing in an Arizona courtroom over a controversial state law cracking down on illegal immigrants that has only hardened both sides of the debate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIAN: And that law is scheduled to go into effect one week from today unless, Tony, the court blocks it.

HARRIS: OK, Casey. We'll be watching. Thank you.

An Arizona sheriff is expanding his tent city to house violators of the state's new immigration law. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio opened his canvas compound 17 years ago now. It already houses about 1,500 inmates, including 200 facing immigration issues.

The sheriff has opened a new section of the tent city specifically for those arrested under the new law. He says it will hold up to 100 inmates with room to expand. President Obama is signing a bill into law today aimed at cracking down on massive waste. It focuses on improper payments. You might not believe where some of those payments have gone.

Josh is here with that.

And Josh, how big a problem are we talking about here?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Huge. Tony, you've got to see some of these numbers.

We know it's big, but not everyone realizes it's this big. Look at this.

Last year along, this is just the amount that the government has figured out was wasted. Right? We might never know the total amount there. But when all these auditors tackle the budget, look at where some money went, they're saying it was at least $110 billion in 2009 that was wasted.

And as I was piecing through what some of this information is, I want you to see some examples here. Look at this.

They are saying over a three-year period, $180 million federal tax dollars went to 20,000 dead Americans. And if that's not enough, look at this -- $230 million went to 14,000 fugitive felons, or felons who were incarcerated and not eligible to be receiving that money.

Now, what the problem here is, is you've got a giant bureaucracy and you have a system that has allowed a lot of benefits to be paid out to a lot of people and a lot of places that aren't supposed to be getting money. In fact, the government has broken down what the big problems are right here.

You have the ineligible recipients, money sometimes being sent to the wrong person, or the wrong amount, which is sometimes a lot more than the person is supposed to get, or sometimes it's a little less horrifying than that and sent at the wrong time. But when you put all of that together, what you are looking at here, Tony, is massive spending going to the wrong places.

So, what the idea behind today's plan is, is this elimination system. They basically have this law, and they want to do is a few things.

First of all, give auditors an opportunity and a reason and a financial incentive to catch more of these things. And they also want to just build a much larger and smarter system to crack down on these problems.

One thing you'll be happy to here, we hear a lot about contentiousness in Congress. This, pretty much widespread bipartisan. You had pretty much unanimous support for it.

HARRIS: Really? LEVS: Yes. I mean, when you're looking at the specifics of the bill, there is some back and forth. But overall you are hearing both parties supporting the idea behind what's up there today.

HARRIS: Oh, I'm teasing, of course. Why would someone disagree with closing that gap and eliminating that waste? Come on now.

Thank you, Josh.

LEVS: Thank you, Tony. You got it.

HARRIS: In two months this spring almost 20,000 immigration cases were sent to prosecutors. Ines Ferre is investigating the backlog in the courts.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So, late details now on the Gulf oil disaster, day 94.

The final step to permanently sealing the well is on hold for now because of a tropical weather system. Forecast models show it could move into the Gulf. Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen says it could potentially disrupt operations for as long as two weeks.

Other top stories we're following for you.

Investigators looking into the West Virginia coal mine disaster say a sudden release of methane gas overwhelmed the mine the day of the accident. Mine owner Massey Energy says the release was almost three times greater than normal. Twenty-five miners died in the explosion.

And the number of Americans filing initial unemployment claims jumped last week by 37,000 from the previous week. That is much higher than economists expected.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So, a judge hears arguments today in the federal government's lawsuit challenging Arizona's new immigration law. A key part of the immigration debate is border security. A House committee is holding a hearing right now on efforts to stop the smuggling of illegal immigrants across the border. The panel is hearing from the Department of Homeland Security, as well as Arizona's attorney general.

Got to tell you, the number of immigration-related prosecutions is on the rise.

Ines Ferre is in New York with more on this story.

What are you finding, Ines?

INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're finding, Tony, is that the way it works right now is that you've got agencies like ICE and Customs and Border Patrol which detain criminals and illegal immigrants, and then they hand over these cases to federal prosecutors.

Now, in March and April of this year, ICE sent over 4,145 criminal immigration cases to prosecutors. That's the highest for any two months in the history of that agency. And Customs and Border Patrol referred almost 15,000 cases during that same period, and that's the highest since 2008, during the Bush administration.

Now, cases range, Tony, from harboring or re-entry of illegal immigrants, to drug possession, and these go directly to federal district courts. But keep in mind, you also have cases that go to immigration courts -- Tony.

HARRIS: Well, what about those immigration court cases? What's going on there?

FERRE: Yes. Well, there's a massive backlog right now going on there.

At the beginning of this year, you had 228,221 cases pending in immigration courts, and that's an all-time high. And the average time before these people get to go in front of a judge, Tony, 439 days, also a record high. And you have got the top immigration cases that are in California, New York and Texas. Those are the states with the most backlogs in the immigration courts.

HARRIS: Yes. OK, Ines. See you next hour. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Out of fear, some Latino families are leaving Arizona ahead of the state's new immigration law.

CNN's Thelma Gutierrez talked with one family. The husband is a legal resident and the children are American, but the wife is undocumented.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

"CARLOS," LEAVING ARIZONA: Little by little they are pushing us out.

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They would say you're leaving because you want to go. You don't have to go.

CARLOS: I don't have to go but for my family's sake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: We will bring you more of Thelma's report next hour. She also looks at the economic impact of families fleeing the state.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: The landmark financial reform law targets Wall Street, but an obscure passage in it takes aim at the Congo and a resource very important to your cell phone.

CNN's Mary Snow explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, I'm a Mac.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm a PC.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this mock ad, the activist group Enough exposes what it calls a dirty little secret about everyday devices from laptops to cell phones that contain materials from the Congo, recently called the rape capital of the world by a United Nations official.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of this stuff comes all of the way from the Congo, where it has been fueling the deadliest conflict in the world since World War II, five million killed in the past 10 years.

SNOW: The group behind that message successfully fought to get a provision included in the financial reform bill signed by President Obama. It aims to cut off money to militias involved in the civil war. Those militias illegally seize minerals, sell them and go on to make millions, further fueling violence in the region.

The new rules require transparency. If companies are using materials from the Congo, they must disclose their due diligence, ensuring that they are not using conflict minerals.

JOHN PRENDERGAST, THE ENOUGH PROJECT: What this bill has done is basically taken a first step to addressing where these companies get their raw materials, and ensuring that the raw materials don't cause terrible conflict in far away places for our convenience.

SNOW: A big supporter, Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas. He voted against the financial reform bill, but he was responsible for attaching the amendment saying he hopes --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: OK. President Obama now -- let's take the president full -- about to sign a bill into law today aimed at cracking down on massive waste in the billions of dollars.

Let's listen to the president of the United States.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

OBAMA: I said I wanted to change the way Washington works so that it works for the American people. I meant making government more open and more transparent and more responsive to the needs of the people. I meant getting rid of the waste and inefficiencies that squander the people's hard-earned money. And I meant finally revamping the systems that undermine our efficiency and threaten and our security and fail to serve the interests of the American people.

Now, there are outstanding public servants doing essential work throughout our government, but too often their best efforts are thwarted by outdated technologies and outmoded ways of doing business. That needs to change.

We have to challenge a status quo that accepts billions of dollars in waste as the cost of doing business and enables obsolete or underperforming programs to survive year after year simply because that's the way things have always been done. This isn't just about lines on a spreadsheet or numbers in a budget, because when we fail to spend people's tax dollars wisely, that's money that we're not investing in better schools for our kids or tax relief for families or innovation to create new industries and jobs.

When government doesn't work like it should, it has a real effect on people's lives, on small business owners who need loans, on young people who want to go to college, on the men and women who serve this country and are trying to get the benefits that they've earned.

And when we continue to spend as if deficits don't matter, that means our kids and our grandkids may wind up saddled with debts that they'll never be able to repay. The reality is that right now in these difficult economic times, families across this country are cutting every frill and stretching every dollar as far as they can. And they should expect no less from their government.

If folks can book a flight or buy a pair of shoes on line with a click of a button, there's no reason they should have to fill out duplicate forms or endure endless red tape and delays when they deal with their government. So that's why one of the first things we do when we arrived in Washington was to undertake an accountable government initiative. And effort that spans every agency, department and office in our government.

We named our first ever Chief Performance officer Jeffrey Zients, and we're bringing to bear every tool at our disposal, a combination of 21st century technology and old fashioned common sense, to ensure that our government operates as efficiently as possible and provides the highest quality of service to its customers, the American people.

We began by combining -- by going through the budget line by line and proposing $20 billion worth of cuts each year, by targeting programs that are wasteful, duplicative or in some cases just plain ridiculous, like the $35 million that we're spending for a radio navigation system for ships since we now have this thing called GPS. We don't need it.

Or the be $3 million spent on consultants to create seals and logos for the Department of Homeland Security. Their logos and seals are fine. Or the billions of dollars slated to be spent on a fancy new presidential helicopter fleet that I didn't want and didn't need because Marine One is also fine.

We've drafted a budget for next year that freezes all discretionary government spending outside of national security for three years. A budget, by the way, that would reduce this spending, non defense discretionary spending to its lowest level as a share of the economy in 50 years.

This isn't talked about a lot, so I'm going to repeat it. Our budget would take non security, defense -- or non defense spending to its lowest level since JFK. Lowest levels of percentage (ph) of the economy since JFK.

We've gone after wasteful government contracting with a vengeance, working putting an end to unnecessary no-bid contracts and dramatically reinforcing the way government contracts are rewarded. We're now on track to reach our goal of saving $40 billion by the end of next-the next fiscal year.

We are working to sell or lease out thousands of federal buildings which we no longer need and aren't using, saving another $8 billion. We froze salaries for senior White House staff, hence the glum faces. And we've asked Congress for additional authority so that working together, we can move quickly to cut wasteful spending proposals before the money goes out the door.

We've streamlined those college loan forms eliminating nearly two dozen unnecessary questions. We are creating a single electronic medical record for our men and women in uniform that will follow them from the day they enlist to the day they are laid to rest.

We're revamping our social security and citizenship processes, so that folks can book appointments and check the status of their applications on line. We've created mobile apps that provide everything from disastrous systems to product safety information to the latest wait times for security lines at your local airport.

And we've begun and unprecedented effort to put an end to a problem known as improper payments, which is the purpose of the bill that I'm signing into law today.

Now, these are payments sent by the government to the wrong person or for the wrong reasons or in the wrong amount. Payments to a defense contractor that's been disbarred for shoddy work but somehow managed to get through the system. Payments to companies that haven't paid their taxes or to folks who are incarcerated or who are dead.

Sometimes these payments are the results of innocent mistakes or reflect valid claims that were paid at the wrong time but sometimes they result from abuses by scam artists and crooked companies, and all told, they added up to $110 billion.

I want everybody to understand -- just get some perspective on that. That is more than the budgets of the Departments of Education and the Small Business Administration combined. And that's unacceptable.

That's why earlier this year I directed our federal agencies to launch rigorous audits, conducted by auditors who are paid based on how many abuses or errors they uncover. The more they find, the more money they make. So they are highly incentivised (ph). We are also creating a do not pay list, a consolidated database of every individual and company that's ineligible for federal payments. Before checks are mailed, agencies will be required to check this list to make sure that the payment is to the right person in the right amount for the right reason.

And with these new tools, the challenge I'm making to my team today is to reduce improper payments by $50 billion between now and 2012. This goal is fully achievable due in no small part due to some of the great work of the members of Congress standing with me today, particularly Senator Tom Carper and Representative Patrick Murphy who sponsored the bill I'm about to sign and worked with all of the other members of Congress who are here today to get it passed.

I think by the way it's worth noting that this bill passed unanimously in both the House and the Senate, a powerful reminder of what we can accomplish when we put partisanship aside and do what's best for the people we serve.

So this bill will dramatically expand and intensify our efforts to end improper payments, and going forward every agency in our government will be required to conduct annual assessments to determine which of their programs are at risk of making improper payments.

Agencies will be required to audit more of their programs and recapture more tax payer dollars. We now have rigorous enforcement mechanisms to hold agencies accountable for how much money they save.

So, in large part, thanks to the great work of the people in this room. I think we're headed in the right direction, and today I'm pleased to announce that I will be charging Jack Lew, my choice for Director of Office of Management and Budget once Peter Orszag the current- OMB director departs, with building on the good work that Peter began.

I'm entrusting Jack with carrying forward our accountable government initiative in the months ahead. I will be asking him and Jeff (ph) to give me regular updates on our progress in cutting waste and making our government more efficient and effective, and as the only OMB director in history to preside over a budget surplus for three consecutive years, Jack Lew knows a thing or two about making government work.

I'm confident he's up to the challenge of building the kind of government that American people expect.

HARRIS: There you have the president about to sign in just a couple of minutes a bill that will move to eliminate some of the waste, some of the waste in government that you heard the president outline. But you know what? We've got Josh here. And Josh here and Josh what are we really talking about here? We're talking about billions of dollars in improper payments aren't we?

LEVS: Yes. I mean this is true carrot and stick legislation. And as he was just mentioning just there, it is pretty much widely accepted. You have support from Republicans and Democrats for this legislation.

What you have inside here are some systems it try to crack down on government agencies to force them to do a lot more to catch misspending right?. So you've got all these billions of dollars that these agencies spend out every year. Especially agencies, that deal out these benefits to people.

Well later on you find out that tens of billions, and last year's case, $110 billion now went to fraud basically. As he mentioned there are some people who are dead who got benefits, people who are incarcerated, people who are fugitives.

And it goes way beyond that. So what this legislation does is it cracks down on agencies forcing them to do more. It also-as he used the word incentivizes, it pushes auditors to do more by giving them a carrot, it allows some auditors to basically get more money if they are able to find more of this waste.

Two things to emphasize about this one the government keeps saying $110 billion in fraud last year, that's a huge amount. It's also important that we all understand that's $110 billion that they figured out is fraud.

We can't be sure all of the rest of the money was fraud-free. The other thing to keep in mind is he's casting this as a larger part of the way he's tried to trim the federal budget.

We do have to mention this president has plenty of detractors about how he's handling the budget in general. Some say he's spending too much People say he is spending too much

So you know when he focuses on this today, it certainly has bipartisan support but big picture, that argument continues about how the administration handles the budget.

HARRIS: Josh appreciate it thank you sir. BP so close to a permanent fix of the oil well has to stop for now a huge weather system is causing real problems.

(COMMERICAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So a lot of what-ifs right now along the Gulf coast. The tropical weather system could soon be threatening all those containment and cleanup efforts that are underway right now in the oil disaster zone. Now CNN's Rob Marciano with us live now from Gulf shores, Alabama. Rob goo to see you. And maybe you can describe what you're hearing what you're seeing and what's happening there in advance of this weather system.

ROB MARICIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: : Well, a couple things have happened this morning. One we have got this thing that's now a tropical depression, likely to become a tropical storm. I know my colleagues back at the CNN Severe Weather Center are highlighting that and its track which would potentially bring it across the center of this spill So, what we've been dealing with the past couple days a capped well, seventh day for that. All things OK. But we wanted to do this static kill, but that's requiring some collaboration with the relief well which also requires a five to seven day window of good weather, so it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

So my guess is today they will postpone that static kill. My last call to BP said they have no official word on that just yet. So those are the things we're dealing with. Things ongoing are cleanup of the mess in the way of the oil on the water and on the beach and the saving and rescuing of wildlife.

And I had a chance to embed with the people doing just that a couple weeks ago.

Here's a little but of that experience.

MARCIANO (voice over): On my visit, I met Lynn Englebert

She's become kind of a bird bartender are, mixing up bird food slurries to nurse her patients back to health.

(on camera): This is packed with calories and other sorts of vitamins and nutrients?

LYNN ENGLEBERT, BIRD WORKER: All sorts of good stuff for birds.

MARCIANO: What about people?

ENGLEBERT: I will get you a glass if you'd like to try some.

MARCIANO: I'll pass on that.

(voice over): Actually, I couldn't resist.

ENGLEBERT: There you go.

MARCIANO (on camera): It's delicious.

(voice over): It was time to put her drink to a better use, feeding a young pelican.

ENGLEBERT: You're going to hold the upper bill like that. Their lower bill stretches and so does their pouch. You see the (INAUDBILE) in there? That's their airway there. You can not get any foods in there.

MARCIANO: Am I doing okay?

ENGLEBERT: You have to go further. You have to get your hand in there.

MARCIANO: That feels weird. How about that? Is that far enough? Now just squeeze it?

ENGLEBERT: Yes. You're good.

MARCIANO: All right, guy, getting your stuff. Ok.

ENGLEBERT: OK you want to pull it out and then you want to grab both of the bills together, and you're going to grab her neck and push all of the way down.

MARCIANO: That's not hurting her at all?

ENGLEBERT No, she's not fighting you at all.

MARCIANO: Is that good? Good enough?

ENGLEBERT: That's it.

MARCIANO: Oh, wow. That was incredible. I just fed it like a sick baby. I can't believe you get to do that every day. I'm like shaking, that's just an incredible feeling.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: Thanks to Lynn and Jay Holcombe (ph) for allowing me that sort of access. They are just part of the heroes that we've highlighted an hour special that's going to premiere tomorrow night at 8 o clock eastern and pacific time.

People rescuing wildlife. People out here cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico both on the beach and on the water. The name of the program Tony is called "Rescue, Saving the Gulf" and I tag along and we meet the people who are getting it done, to do their part and help this horrible situation.

HARRIS: Hey Rob, did you get a sense of the man hours being put in by these folks doing this great work.

MARCIANO: It's enormous and intimidating. And in the worst time of year possible it is so blazingly hot down here Tony, so you're talking about temperatures that on a daily basis are up and over 100 degrees in the blazing sun with humidity and these guys are working 8, 12, 16 hour days day in and day out, and in many cases not making a whole lot of progress.

And I know I would get frustrated but the attitude of the people that we spent time with, was certainly inspiring and that's one thing I'm going to take away from this experience

HARRIS: I can't wait to see it. Appreciate it. Rob Marciano is seeing amazing stories of survival and resilience. You don't want to miss his new special "Rescue Saving the Gulf" it is coming up Saturday and Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, it is something you will see only on CNN.

Kids choosing between coming delinquents or drug enforcement officers, a positive program that is reaching across the country. We're going to check in with Brooke Baldwin in just a moment

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HARRIS: You know, in just five years, more than half years more than half of all law enforcement officers in America will be eligible to retire and they will need replacements, right? One program is training young folks to take their place. CNN's Brooke Baldwin brings us the story and she is joined by some really special guests. I can't wait for this discussion it's a great story, Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes let me tell you. I may have one of the replacements sitting to my left. First let me introduce my guest. Jarius Mixon, he's a rising sophomore in New York and he's also the captain in his DEA explorer post, we'll explain what means in a minute..

This is Bill Taylor, he is the National Director of Law Enforcement Exploring. And gentlemen, good morning.

(ALL): Good morning.

BALDWIN: You are looking very dapper, Jarius, all dressed, dressed for the nines (ph). Dressing for the job you wan right?. But let's first talk about your background. You come--born and raised in the Bronx.

JARIUS MIXON, CAPTIAN, DEA EXPLORER: Yes.

BALDWIN: Tough neighborhood. Tell me a little bit about that and how you could have taken a very different path in life instead your mom made a phone call.

MIXON: Growing up in the Bronx, it is just like every place else. It is kind of difficult, but you have to have a strong, positive person behind you. I had my family behind me pushing me to do the right thing. So I mean I had that-I had a clear goal at what I wanted to do.

BALDWIN: And so you've joined this post. You want to be a DEA agent.

MIXON: Yes.

BALDWIN: You are 19.

MIXON: Right.

BALDWIN: I mean not a lot of 19-year-olds know exactly what they want to do but you do, why?

MIXON: I guess it was just my family, pretty much. They always told me to go out and kind of look for what I want to do. They didn't pressure anything on me. I kind of found DEA. And I said OK this is something I can see myself doing and not have any regrets.

BALDWIN: And seek a little justice on the way.

MIXON: Exactly.

BALDWIN: And Bill (ph), so you are in charge of this whole thing. And when we say this whole thing this is the Explorer Conference. And it happens--happening this week here in Atlanta at Georgia Tech.

BILL. TAYLOR (PH), NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF LAW ENFORCEMENT EXPLORING (PH)Right.

BALDWIN: And you've been in charge of this thing since 2008. What is it and there's about 2,000 young men and women ages 14 to 21 participating in what?

TAYLOR: Exploring is a career orientation program for young adults ages 14 to 21. We have 12 career paths ranging from aviation to communications. Law enforcement exploring is our most popular career path. We have 35,000 explorers throughout the country annually involved with the program.

BALDWIN: So what are you doing? I mean we are looking at some of video. These are not reenactments, but exercises. In which some of officers, we're talking FBI, DEA, Secret Service, local police departments are all are walking through this young men and women through exercises to help them become --

TAYLOR: Law enforcement officers. It builds team skills -- Leadership skills. All the while during the week we have fun activities as well, we have educational seminars for the leaders. And Jarius was directly involved with these scenarios.

BALDWIN: What have you done this week?

MIXON: This past week I have done two competitions, I've done shoot/don't shoot. Which is basically a simulation on how you would respond to a 911 call. So whether it would be a domestic violence, car stop. It would just test your judgment to see if you would pull your gun, how you would react.

BALDWIN: Are you afraid ever?

MIXON: No. It is more along the lines. Once you walk in, you never know what is going to happen until you cross the door. So you have to be ready always.

BALDWIN: And these are exercises. But you want to do real day do the real thing.

MIXON: My group, DEA, we go in with the mind set like this is real. This life or death, like somebody can not come back. So we can go in focused.

HARRIS: Well Brooke, you asked the question and Jarius is talking about -- you are 19 years old.

MIXON: Yes.

HARRIS: You are telling me you are ready to make a life decision like this to do this work, to be a DEA agent? You are ready to put your life on the line for this country in this way?

MIXON: Yes.

HARRIS: Tell me how you can be so clear about that at 19?

BALDWIN: Good question.

MIXON: Well, growing up in the Bronx, you see different things, drugs, gangs, it is bad because you look at the news and you see 15- year-olds, 16-year-olds dying, overdosing on drugs. And it's like at one point somebody has to take a stand and say, look, you are too young to die from drugs.

You shouldn't know anything about drugs. So, I guess that is where my mind is at, at this point in time it's like somebody has to say, OK, enough is enough.

HARRIS: Wow. Brooke, it is all yours. That's all I have.

BALDWIN: I guess my final question for youngsters watching or perhaps even parents, because I know it was your mom that picked up the phone asking about the Explorers program, these youngsters who very clearly have two choices to make ion life. What is your message to them?

MIXON: Don't settle for the obvious. There is always something out there for you to do, whether it's Explorers or any other extracurricular activity, I mean as long as you remain active and know what you want in life, go for it.

BALDWIN: Stay in touch with us. Let's follow up with you. All right?

MIXON: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Jarius and Bill, thank you all very much.

Tony-- HARRIS: Brooke that's terrific. Don't settle for the obvious and enough is enough.

BALDWIN: Yes.

HARRIS: All right take aways (ph) from me. Got it. Thank you guys appreciate it.

Here are some of the stories we are working on for the next hour of "CNN NEWSROOM". Foster children pushed out of the system and on their own at age 18 when many are not ready to be on their own. I'm talking live with Jermaine and randy Jackson who are helping to bring attention to the problem. The Department of Labor says there are 3 million jobs open and available. We will tell you what fields they are in. We are back in a moment.

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