the u.s. house and senate. we will take you to key events as they happen without interruption. andh live on c-span on-demand. listen on our free c-span radio app. coming up tonight on c-span, today's white house medal of freedom ceremony. a look at the challenges of running a technology firm's legal department. a conversation with some of federal governments top technology officers. next, president obama awards 21 people with the nation's highest civilian honor at the medal of freedom ceremony at the 2016 class includes bill and melinda gates, kareem abdul-jabbar, bruce springsteen, and thence scully. this is just over one hour.

>> ladies and gentlemen, the recipients of the medal of freedom. abdul-jabbar. [applause] >> ellen degeneres. [applause]

>> robert neal. >> bill and melinda gates. [applause] >> tom hanks. [applause]

>> lawrence michaels. [applause] [applause]

[laughter] >> robert redford. [applause] >> diana ross. [applause] >> bruce springsteen. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, the vice president of the united states. [applause] ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, president of the united and mrs. michelle obama. [applause]

>> we've got some work to do here. it is not all fun and games. welcome to the white house. extraordinaryrate americans who have lifted our spirits, strengthened our unions, pushed us. i have always loved doing this event. this is a particularly impressive bunch.

we have innovators and artists. rabble-rousers, athletes, or mound character actors like the guy from space jam. [laughter] we pay tribute to those distinguished individuals when our nation's highest civilian honor, the presidential medal of freedom. let me tell you about each of them. first we came close to missing out on a bill and melinda gates incredible partnership because apparently bill's opening line was do you want to go out two weeks from this coming saturday?

[laughter] he is good with computers but. ortunately melinda believes in second chances and the world is better for it. the gates foundation has worked to provide life-saving medical care to millions, boosting water educationimproving for children, and riling effort on climate change. cutting childhood mortality in half. the list could go on. these two have donated more money to charitable causes that anyone ever. many years ago melinda's mother told her to know that even one because breathed easier you lived, that his success.

by this and just about any other method, few in human history have been more successful tn these two impatient optimists. frank gehry has never let reversed his refers t optimism. for better or worse, i thrived on it. poor jewish of anagrams he group in los angeles and embrace the spirit of the city defined by an open horizon. he spent his life rethinking shapes and mediums, the force of gravity itself, the idea of what architecture could beam. , repurposeto upend thing every material available. he is inspiring our next generation through his advocacy

of arts education in our schools. his helmet in santa monica caused some consternation among his neighbors. frank's building show they can lift our spirits and broaden our horizons. when an undergraduate from appalachia was put on the national mall, she was trying to figure out a way to show war is not just a victory or a loss about individual lives. she considered how the landscape might shape that message rather than the other way around. the project earned her a.b. plus. and a permanent place in american history. so. all of you be plus students out

there. the vietnam veterans memorial has changed the way we think about monuments, and about sacrifice, and patriotism, and ourselves. she has given us more than just pace -- places for memories. places for us to make new memories. each reminding is the most important element of art architecture is human emotion. three minutes before armstrong and aldrin touched down on the moon apollo 11 lunar alarms triggered. a rationalist and not have much time. thankfully they had margaret hamilton, a young m.i.t. scientist and working mom in the 1960's. she led the team that created the flight software that allowed the eagle to land safely.

at this time software engineering wasn't even a field yet. there were no textbooks to follow. to bewas no choice but pioneers. luckily for us she never stopped pioneering. she symbolizes that generation of unsung women who helped send humankind into space. it echoes and countless technologies today. her example speaks of the american spirit of discovery that exists in every girl and boy who knows that somehow they can look beyond the heavens to look deep within ourselves and figure out what is possible. , then hopperlight -- more in 1906. she followed her mother into .athematics and earned her phd