Zeke J Miller

In 1994, TIME picked 50 people to keep an eye on

Exactly 20 years ago, the the Dec. 5, 1994, issue of TIME made a gamble, predicting the 50 people who were the most promising leaders for the future.

The magazine’s editors selected “50 for the Future”: 50 people under the age of 40, from the worlds of politics, science, activism, business, media and the arts, who seemed poised to take charge of America’s next steps. They had, David Van Biema wrote, “the requisite ambition, vision and community spirit to help guide us in the new millennium.” We decided to see just how well that group has turned out. Whatever happened to that Bill Gates guy, anyway?

Tundi Agardy, then 37 and a marine biologist

The World Wildlife Fund scientist made it to the original list for the way she used her hard-science chops to advocate for conservation. During the past two decades, she has continued that work, founding the marine conservation organization Sound Seas; leading the Marine Ecosystem Services Program at Forest Trends, a nonprofit that uses business ideas to protect the environment; and participating in the United Nations-led Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.

Helen Alvaré, then 34 and an antiabortion leader

The self-described “pro-life feminist” lawyer was the U.S. spokesperson on the subject of abortion, on behalf of Catholic bishops. She left her job with the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2000, after which she began teaching at the George Mason University School of Law. She has received several awards for her service to the Church, and continues to consult for the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

Marc Andreessen, then 23 and co-creator of Mosaic

Andreessen’s Mosaic browser and the company he founded, Netscape, landed him on the cover of TIME in February 1996. In recent years Andreessenn, 43, has become one of Silicon Valley’s most successful venture capitalists through his firm Andreessen Horowitz with payoffs from Twitter, Facebook and Skype. He is now one of the tech industry’s most visible leaders. He is on Twitter at @pmarca.

Evan Bayh, then 38 and Governor of Indiana

After two terms as Governor of Indiana, Bayh, 58, served in the Senate for twelve years until 2011. The Democratic lawmaker flirted with running for president in 2007, but ultimately endorsed then-Senator Hillary Clinton. He is now a partner at DC lobbying firm McGuireWoods.

Dr. Regina Benjamin, then 38 and a rural health-care provider

With an M.D. and an MBA, Benjamin took advantage of a federal program to fund her practice in coastal Alabama. After continuing to work in healthcare in the region during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, she was named Surgeon General of the United States by President Barack Obama in 2009. She resigned in 2013 and was appointed to an endowed chair in public health sciences at Xavier University.

Henry Bonilla, then 40 and a Texas Congressman

The Texan was a frequent surrogate for President George W. Bush, but redistricting made his seat more favorable for Democrats, and he lost re-election in 2006 after serving seven terms in the House. He is now a partner at the Washington government relations firm The Normandy Group.

John Bryant, then 28 and founder of Operation HOPE Inc.

Bryant continues to serve as the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Operation HOPE Inc. In 2008 he was appointed by President George W. Bush to be vice-chair of the President’s Council on Financial Literacy. President Barack Obama appointed him Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Underserved and Community Empowerment for the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability, where he focused on forming local financial literacy councils in cities across the country.

William Burns, then 38 and a foreign-service officer

After 33 years at the State Department, Burns retired in November 2014 as Deputy Secretary of State, the department’s number two, under Secretary of State John Kerry. One of the most decorated diplomats of his time, Burns continues to play a role in the P5+1 Iran nuclear negotiations. In February of 2015 he will become the next president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Stephen Carter, then 40 and a law professor at Yale University

The William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale Law School, Carter is a renowned fiction and nonfiction author of titles like The Violence of Peace: America’s Wars in the Age of Obama and The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln. He has taught and written extensively about the law and ethics of war and is also a columnist for Bloomberg View.

Sean Carroll, then 33 and a molecular biologist and inventor

A co-founder of Ophidian Pharmaceuticals, Carroll (not to be confused with the CalTech theoretical physicist of the same name) also used his non-commercial side to study butterfly wings in order to investigate the relationship between genes and evolution. In addition to contributing to the Science section of the New York Times, Carroll has written several books about evolution for popular audiences. One of them was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award for non-fiction. His latest, Brave Genius, was released last year.

Christopher Chyba, then 35 and a planetary scientist

His research on comets and asteroids concluded that Earth was unlikely to be majorly damaged by a collision with one, and he worked with the White House to make sure that planetary damage wouldn’t come from unsecured nukes either. He received a MacArthur ‘Genius’ grant in 2001, and is now director of the Program on Science and Global Security at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

James Dimon, then 38 and president of Travelers Group

Back in 1994, about a decade after founding the New York Academy of Finance — a program that prepped underprivileged kids for Wall Street jobs — he was considered one of the stock world’s top 10 figures. Now, as CEO of JPMorgan Chase, “Jamie” Dimon has since become even more recognizable in the Wall Street world. Though the bank has not had a completely smooth run in recent years — the “London Whale” mess cost it billions — he is credited with helping JPMorgan Chase get through the financial crisis with minimal damage. He has been a frequent honoree on TIME’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and currently ranks at #18 on the Forbes list of the most powerful people in the world.

Chaka Fattah, then 38 and a Pennsylvania Congressman-elect

About to enter his 11th term representing parts of Philadelphia in the House of Representatives, Fattah is the ranking member of the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies and the Vice Chair on the House Gun and Violence Task Force.

Bill Gates, then 39 and co-founder of Microsoft Corp.

Gates was already America’s richest man in 1994 (TIME estimated his net worth at $9.35 billion) — but Forbes now estimates his net worth at a whopping $82.1 billion. And while Microsoft continues to chug along, he now dedicates much of his energy to the major philanthropic organization that is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which he and his wife launched in 2000.

Dr. Pedro Jose Greer Jr., then 38 and an advocate for the homeless

Not content to provide healthcare for the homeless by visiting them on the streets and in public parks, Greer had founded four free clinics to make sure they got the best care possible. Since 1994, he has continued to provide healthcare for underserved populations in Florida and teach at the Florida International University School of Medicine. His autobiography, Waking Up in America, was released in 1999, and in 2009 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

John Kaliski, then 38 and an urban architect

Kaliski used a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to research L.A.’s urban sprawl, to help avoid mistakes as the cities of the future were built. In 2000, he founded the architecture firm that carries his name, and he is a co-author of the book Everyday Urbanism. He continues to design award-winning projects throughout California.

John F. Kennedy Jr., then 34 and a health-care entrepreneur

In 1995, JFK, Jr. founded the short-lived political/fashion magazine George. He died in 1999 after losing control of his Piper Saratoga airplane in a crash that also killed his wife and sister-in-law.

Randall Kennedy, then 40 and a Harvard law professor

A nationally recognized expert on race issues, Kennedy is the Michael R. Klein Professor of Law at Harvard Law School where he continues to write about race, discrimination, and the law.

Alan Khazei, then 33 and co-director of City Year

By co-founding the “public-service entrepreneurship” that had, by 1994, helped hundreds of people find yearlong jobs, Khazei recruited corporations to help pick up the tab. City Year also inspired President Clinton to start AmeriCorps. Since then, Khazei also founded Be the Change, a nonprofit of which he’s now CEO, which promotes service among an even wider swath of the population. His runs for Senate in Massachusetts, however, have proved unsuccessful.

Ronald A. Klain, then 33 and chief of staff to Janet Reno

Klain was chief of staff to two vice presidents, Al Gore and Joe Biden. His role in the 2000 Florida recount was immortalized by Kevin Spacey in the HBO movie Recount. He is now serving as the White House’s Ebola Response Coordinator and is rumored to be next in line to be President Barack Obama’s chief of staff or senior advisor.

Wendy Kopp, then 27, Founder of Teach for America

In 1994, Teach for America was active in 17 districts and received a few thousand applications for 500 positions. Kopp’s organization has since become one the biggest movers in the education. In the 2013-14 school year, according to TFA’s numbers, 750,000 students nationwide were taught by 11,000 TFA teachers. The organization has also expanded to include Teach for All, a global education network, and Kopp has written two books.

Samuel LaBudde, then 38 and a biologist

A video LaBudde shot while undercover on a Panamanian tuna boat helped make dolphin-safe tuna a national issue. He has continued to work for environmental causes in the years since.

Winona LaDuke, then 35 and a Native American rights activist

A two-time vice presidential candidate on the Green Party ticket, LaDuke is the executive director of environmental non-profits the White Earth Land Recovery Project and Honor the Earth. She has worked extensively to raise the political awareness and clout of Native American tribes.

Maya Lin, then 35, a sculptor and architect

In the last two decades, Lin’s art and architecture projects have continued to make news. About five years ago, Lin, who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., announced that a new project called What Is Missing? would be her “last memorial”: the project memorializes environmental loss with a web site, art installations and a foundation. She will be working on it, she has said, for the rest of her life.

Roderick von Lipsey, then 35 and a Major in the U.S. Marine Corps

After 20 years as a Marine Corps Aviator, during which he served as director of the National Security Council and as a senior aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, von Lipsey is now a Managing Director at UBS Financial Services, Inc. in Washington in the firm’s private wealth practice.

Jonathan Lunine, then 35 and a planetary astronomer

Then head of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Committee, he was studying whether it would one day be possible to send a manned mission to Mars. (By 2030, maybe, he guessed.) He has continued to advise NASA — he worked on the 2011 Juno mission to Saturn — and he teaches at Cornell. (Manned missions to Mars remain an idea of the future — but Lunine may yet be proved right.)

Frank Luntz, then 32 and a Republican pollster and analyst

The GOP messaging guru who popularized terms like the “death tax” and “global warming” and the man behind Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America has worked extensively in American and international politics on behalf of conservative candidates. In 2010 he branded the Affordable Care Act a “government takeover” of healthcare, a talking-point used extensively by Republicans as they retook the House of Representatives. He is also a prominent commentator on Fox News.

Wynton Marsalis, then 33 and a Jazz musician

Not content to be a virtuoso trumpeter, Marsalis was also an ambassador of jazz, dedicating his time to visiting schools and introducing the music to a new generation. Since 1994, he has received the National Medal of the Arts and a Pulitzer Prize, and has been appointed a U.N. Messenger of Peace. Jazz at Lincoln Center, the program he helped found, is now one of New York City’s leading jazz venues, and Marsalis remains one of the genre’s most famous players.

Fred McClure, then 40 and a corporate consultant

Now the Chief Executive Officer of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation, McClure was an aide to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Then-Governor George W. Bush appointed him to the Board of Regents of the Texas A&M University. He was previously a managing partner of the international law firm, SNR Denton.

Cynthia McKinney, then 39 and a Congresswoman from Georgia

McKinney served six terms in the House of Representatives, become a vocal critic of the Bush administration and the Iraq War. She gained notoriety for accusing the Bush administration of having advance warning of the 9/11 attacks and allowing them to take place, and has since become a vocal critic of American interventions overseas. She was twice defeated by Democratic primary challengers before abandoning the party. She was the Green Party’s presidential nominee in 2008.

Wayne Meisel, then 35 and founder of COOL

After leaving the foundation he helped found, Meisel, who is a Presbyterian minister, served as Director of Faith and Service at the Cousins Foundation in Atlanta. Earlier this year, he became the founding director of a new center at the McCormick Theological Seminary, focusing on the intersection of religion and public service.

Nancy-Ann Min, then 37 and a White House budget official

Nancy-Ann Min DeParle served as President Barack Obama’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy from January 2011 to January 2013 after a stint as director of the White House Office of Health Reform. She coordinated the administration’s efforts to pass and implement the landmark Affordable Care Act in 2010. She is currently a Partner & Co-Founder at Consonance Capital Partners, a healthcare-focused private equity firm.

Albert Mohler, 35, and president of the Southern Baptist Seminary

Only about two years after becoming president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, he returned the school to older traditions, by forcing out the school’s first female theological professor—and he promised to spread his values throughout the Baptist community. He remains president of the Seminary to this day.

Susan Molinari, then 36 and a Congresswoman from New York

After three terms in the House, Molinari quit Congress to take a job at CBS News. She later became a Washington lobbyist and now runs Google’s Washington, D.C. office, where she is Vice President of Public Policy and Government Relations.

Charles Munn, then 39 and a conservationist-zoologist

Munn turned a love of birds into a career in conserving their tropical habits, particularly by encouraging ecotourism and promoting land-management by tribal communities from the areas in question. One of his more recent ecotourism ventures was a jaguar-focused photo-safari center in Brazil.

Jim Nussle, then 34 and a Congressman from Iowa

Now the president of the Credit Union National Association, Nussle served in the House from 1991-2007, where he was chairman of the House budget Committee. In 2007, President George W. Bush selected him to run the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Ralph Reed, then 33 and Executive director of the Christian Coalition

The conservative political activist became one of the leading evangelical powerbrokers in Republican politics, despite a brief fall from grace in the late 1990s and ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Reed now runs the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a nonprofit organization whose conferences are regularly attended by Republican presidential hopefuls.

Condoleezza Rice, then 40 and Provost of Stanford University

During the 2000 Bush campaign, Rice took a leave of absence from Stanford to serve as the then-Texas governor’s top foreign policy advisor. When he won the White House, she was selected as his first National Security Advisor, a position she held until 2005 when she was nominated to be the first black woman to serve as Secretary of State. After Bush left office, Rice returned to Stanford, where she is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. One of the first two women invited to join the Augusta National Golf Club, she also serves as a member of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee and is frequently mentioned as a possible successor as commissioner of the National Football League.

John Rogers, then 36 and a mutual-fund manager

Notable for his relatively frugal lifestyle, the stock savant was the first African American president of the Chicago Park District and helped put dozens of inner-city students through school. He remains Chairman and CEO of Ariel Investments, the company he founded, while serving as the chair of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans, which councils the President on how to work toward future economic stability by educating young people about how money works.

Jeffrey Sachs, then 40 and an economist

The director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Sachs has put his economics background to use as an advisor on developing countries across the globe. The author of books like The End of Poverty, Sachs is one of the leading thinkers on sustainable economic development and has twice been named to the TIME 100.

Bret Schundler, then 35 and Mayor of Jersey City

As the Republican lawmaker of a Democratic city, Schundler drew acclaim as a reformer until he left office in 2001. He twice unsuccessfully ran for governor of New Jersey and briefly served as Commissioner of Education under New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in 2010.

Tavis Smiley, then 30 and a radio talk-show host

These days, Smiley does television too: his eponymous PBS talk show is in its tenth year. He’s written more than a dozen books and, in 1999, started a foundation focused on mentorship and leadership.

Lawrence Summers, then 40 and Treasury Under Secretary

The outspoken economist quickly rose to be President Bill Clinton’s final Treasury Secretary, where he led efforts to deregulate the financial sector. After leaving office, he became the 27th President of Harvard University, where he had a tumultuous tenure. After President Barack Obama was elected in 2008, he selected Summers to be Director of the National Economic Council, a post from which he helped lead the administration’s response to the global financial crisis. He left the White House in 2010.

Terri Swearingen, then 37 and an environmental activist

Concerned with a hazardous-waste processing incinerator too near her local elementary school, she devoted herself to the environment, went on a hunger strike and ended up influencing national environmental policy. In 1997, she was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize. She has stayed out of the news in recent years.

Urvashi Vaid, then 36 and a gay-rights advocate

She was the first woman of color to head up the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Her first book came out in 1996; she has written or edited two more since. In 2012, she helped launch the first lesbian political action committee, and since 2011 she has been the director of a Columbia University project that examines the role of tradition in the success or failure of gender justice advocacy.

Fidel Vargas, then 26 and Mayor of Baldwin Park, California

After a successful career in private equity, Vargas is now the President and CEO of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships for Latino students to succeed in college.

Kevin Vigilante, then 40 and Founder of Community Outreach Clinic

After a failed run for Congress, Vigilante returned to treating female HIV patients in Rhode Island. He now works at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he consults with government clients about public health topics.

Rebecca Walker, then 25 and co-founder of Third Wave

The Third Wave Foundation continues to be dedicated to encouraging female leaders of the future, registering female voters and making feminism work for women of color. In the last two decades, Walker has also written or edited more than a half-dozen books. She teaches memoir writing, and in 2009, she co-founded Write to Wellbeing, a business that helps writers improve their lives.

Oprah Winfrey, then 40 and a talk-show host

Her talk-show business was making her more than $50 million a year, and her openness about her own past had helped get the National Child Protection Act through Congress. Twenty years later, her earnings, her power and her media empire are even bigger. She remains, in short, Oprah.

Naomi Wolf, then 32 and a feminist author

The author of The Beauty Myth was credited with bringing feminism “back to life” when she accused the cosmetics industry of hobbling advancement for women. Wolf — who has also worked as a political consultant and in the nonprofit space — continues to inspire conversation with her writing, as with her 2013 book Vagina: A New Biography.

Read the full 1994 list of 50 future leaders here, in the TIME Vault: A New Generation of Leaders

Former Secretary Chuck Hagel declined to attend the ceremony

President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Ashton Carter as his next Secretary of Defense Friday, to replace current Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel, who resigned last month under pressure from the White House.

Obama praised Carter, the former Pentagon No. 2 under Hagel and a respected technocrat, in a small Roosevelt Room ceremony, before an audience of administration officials and selected lawmakers, saying Carter “brings a unique blend of strategic perspective and technical knowhow.”

“With a record of service that has spanned more than 30 years as a public servant, as an adviser, as a scholar, Ash is rightly regarded as one of our nation’s foremost national security leaders,” Obama said.

In a brief statement, Carter thanked Obama for the nomination and promised to provide candid advice and to ensure that military commanders can do the same. “If confirmed, I pledge to you my most candid, strategic advice, and I pledge to you you will receive equally candid military advice,” he said.

In an awkward turn, Hagel, who was scheduled to attend the announcement, backed out of the ceremony Friday morning, leaving Obama to quote Hagel’s praise of Carter from a year ago when he resigned as Deputy Secretary.

“Secretary Hagel will not attend today’s ceremony at the White House,” a defense official said in a statement. “The Secretary believes strongly that this day belongs to Ash Carter and his nomination to be the next Secretary of Defense … The Secretary is proud of Ash and of their friendship and does not want in any way to detract from or distract the proper focus of the day.”

Obama closed with a call on the Senate to swiftly confirm Carter to the post.

Similar effort to Republicans' post-election autopsy in 2013

A month after its midterm election drubbing, the Democratic National Committee has selected a panel of party leaders, allies, and operatives to examine where it went wrong in 2014.

DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced the formation of the “Democratic Victory Task Force” Thursday to conduct a review of Democratic Party and allied organizations operations in the 2014 cycle, when Democrats lost control of the Senate and saw defeats in House, gubernatorial and state legislative races across the country.

The committee is made up of Democratic fundraiser Naomi Aberly, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, DNC Vice-Chair Donna Brazile, political operative Maria Cardona, party lawyer Marc Elias, former Obama digital guru Teddy Goff, marketing and event planning veteran Maneesh Goyal, Colorado Democratic Party Chair Rick Palacio, AFSCME President Lee Saunders and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Democrats maintain a structural advantage in presidential cycles, when a larger and more diverse electorate goes to the polls, but they have suffered in two consecutive midterm years from lower, less diverse turnout, as well as frustration with President Barack Obama. The committee will review areas where the party needs to improve both its midterm election operations, as well as areas where it must act to gear up for the 2016 presidential campaign.

“We are proud to announce the members of the Democratic Victory Task Force, and are eager to work with them to build on what we’ve done that works, identify and prioritize challenges and ultimately improve our party’s performance in future elections,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. “This diverse group of Democratic Party officials, strategists and advocates will each bring with them expertise from their fields to collaborate on a holistic review of the Party’s past performance and present actionable areas for improvement moving forward.”

The panel follows a similar effort by the Republican National Committee after its 2012 defeat. The “Growth and Opportunity Project” recommended operational and policy changes to the Republican Party when it released its report in early 2013.

Wasserman Schultz said the group will report its initial findings at the DNC’s winter meeting in February 2015 and make final recommendations by mid-2015.

Poll confirms findings of GOP "autopsy" on 2012 election

Immigration reform is a threshold issue for most Hispanic voters, a new poll out Thursday finds, putting the Republican Party at a disadvantage heading into 2016.

The poll conducted by Democratic and Republican pollsters for the Michael Bloomberg-backed immigration reform group Partnership for a New American Economy, finds broad support for immigration reform among the Hispanic community, in particular providing a path to citizenship for the more than 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

The poll confirms many Republicans’ worst fears, including the party’ own autopsy into the 2012 election results which warned that the GOP “must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform” in order to win national elections. House Republicans blocked a bipartisan Senate-passed comprehensive immigration reform bill this Congress, and the prospects of a similar bill passing in the Republican-controlled Congress beginning in January are slim to none.

Illustrating the problem for the GOP was a hypothetical matchup between a liberal candidate opposed to immigration reform and a conservative candidate who supports it. While Hispanic voters have consistently voted with Democrats, 51 percent of those polled said they would support the conservative who supports immigration reform, compared to 31 percent who would support the liberal. In practice, Republicans won’t have that opportunity, with likely Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton supporting comprehensive immigration reform.

Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, is the most outspoken potential Republican candidate on immigration issues, but his calls for reform have put him out of step with his party’s primary voters. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who backed the Senate immigration bill, has since cooled on the issue. Other Republicans have either remained silent on immigration issues or opposed immigration reform efforts.

The poll found that jobs and the economy are still the most important issues for Hispanic voters at the polls, but that opposing immigration reform could be an immediate disqualifier for a candidate.

Nearly twice as many Hispanic voters in the battleground states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, and Nevada would vote for the Democratic nominee over the Republican, 52 percent to 28 percent, if the 2016 Presidential election were held today, with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton holding even larger margins in head-to-head match-ups with likely Republican candidates.

The poll was conducted by The Tarrance Group and Bendixen & Amandi International nationally and the five battleground states from November 16-18 and surveyed 1,684 Hispanic voters. The poll has a margin of error of ± 2.45 percent.

The poll results are below:

He says Ferguson could be a seminal moment for the national conversation around race

Attorney General Eric Holder made the announcement at a church where Martin Luther King preached

—The U.S. Department of Justice will announce stiff new protocols to curtail profiling by federal law enforcement in the coming days, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday evening.

Speaking at an interfaith service and community forum at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta following last week’s grand jury decision in Ferguson, Missouri, Holder previewed the long-awaited announcement, which would be the first change to federal law enforcement guidelines on racial profiling in more than a decade.

“In the coming days, I will announce updated Justice Department guidance regarding profiling by federal law enforcement, which will institute rigorous new standards—and robust safeguards—to help end racial profiling, once and for all,” Holder said at the first of several planned regional community discussions in the aftermath of the Ferguson grand jury decision. “This new guidance will codify our commitment to the very highest standards of fair and effective policing.”

President George W. Bush banned the use of profiling for race in 2003 through the Department of Justice’s Guidance Regarding the Use of Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies, but left loopholes for national security investigations and border security. In his 2001 Address to a Joint Session of Congress, Bush said the practice is “wrong and we will end it in America.” Those guidelines, which have been under review by the Justice Department for years, only ended profiling for race, not religion, sexual orientation, national origin, or other factors.

Holder has spoken previously about having been the subject of profiling, even when he was a federal prosecutor in Washington. Speaking to students at a St. Louis Community College in August after the death of Michael Brown, Holder told of being stopped by a police officer as he ran to catch a movie in Georgetown, a predominately white neighborhood of Washington, as well as unwarranted traffic stops and car searches on the New Jersey Turnpike.

“I remember how humiliating that was and how angry I was and the impact it had on me,” Holder said at the time.

Holder’s comments Monday evening come as he is has become the face of the Obama administration’s response to the Brown shooting and subsequent community unrest. Obama tapped Holder in August to take steps to bridge the trust gap that has emerged between law enforcement and the communities they serve, particularly in minority neighborhoods.

“We are dealing with concerns that are truly national in scope and that threaten the entire nation,” Holder told the thousands of attendees. “Broadly speaking, without mutual understanding between citizens–whose rights must be respected–and law enforcement officers–who make tremendous and often-unheralded personal sacrifices every day to preserve public safety–without that trust, without that interaction, there can be no meaningful progress. Our police officers cannot be seen as an occupying force disconnected from the communities they serve. Bonds that have been broken must be restored. Bonds that never existed must now be created.”

Earlier Monday, President Barack Obama announced executive orders to create a Task Force on 21^st Century Policing and to order a review of the federal government’s support of state and local law enforcement purchases of military-style equipment. The White House also announced a request to Congress for $75 million over three years to help put 50,000 body-cameras on state and local police officers.

Before a meeting with Georgia community, faith, and law enforcement leaders, Holder said the situation in Ferguson, while tragic, “presents this nation a really unique opportunity” to address “issues that have for too long been ignored.”

Holder appeared to signal that the new guidelines would not eradicate profiling in every instance, but would further curtail its use, though how was not clear Monday. Department of Justice officials declined to further preview the official announcement.

Minority and civil rights groups have long called for the Obama administration to stiffen federal profiling rules, particularly in response to the use of profiling against the Muslim community. They have also called on the department to impose the guidelines on state and local jurisdictions that receive federal funding or work in concert with federal officers.

Speaking at the packed church where Martin Luther King, Jr. preached, Holder assured the audience that the Department of Justice’s investigation into Brown’s shooting death by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson and its inquiry into the practices of the city’s police department are “ongoing and active.” Acknowledging that federal law sets an “extremely high legal bar in these types of cases,” Holder reiterated that the investigations would be “conducted both thoroughly and in a timely manner—following the facts and the law wherever they may lead.”

But Holder also spoke out against protests in Ferguson and other places that have turned violent at times. “It is deeply unfortunate that this vital conversation was interrupted, and this young man’s memory dishonored, by destruction and looting on the part of a relatively small criminal element,” Holder said.

President will also expand use of body cameras

President Barack Obama is preparing to issue an executive order to calling for additional oversight of various federal programs which provide military surplus equipment to local law enforcement agencies, senior administration officials said Monday, but will stop short of banning the transfer of heavy gear to police forces.

The government’s transfer of surplus equipment came under scrutiny this summer following protests in Ferguson, Mo. following the shooting death of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson. Obama ordered a review of the government’s programs in August after clashes between heavily-armed officers and both peaceful and violent protesters. The president is discussing those findings Monday afternoon in a Cabinet meeting, officials said, where he will order his aides to draft an executive order seeking to standardize procedures for the five government agencies that support local law enforcement acquisitions.

But beyond calling for additional oversight, community engagement, and training, Obama will not act to curtail the transfer of military-style weapons and vehicles to local law enforcement, officials said, adding that wasn’t even the subject of their review. “Ultimately these were programs that were authorized by Congress, and so congressional intent is really at issue here,” one senior administration official told reporters before Obama’s announcement on the condition of anonymity.

Obama will also announce a three-year $263 million package to increase the use of police body-worn cameras and expand local law enforcement training. The program, modeled after a similar program for bullet-proof vests for officers, would provide $75 million over three years for the “Body Worn Camera Partnership Program.” Administration officials said it would provided a 50 percent match for body-camera purchases by state and local agencies, enough for 50,000 new cameras. Officials said they hope to secure about $70 million in funding for the effort as part of a government funding deal that must be reached in the coming two weeks.

The review of law enforcement acquisitions programs found “a lack of consistency in how federal programs are structured, implemented and audited,” the White House said. Obama’s order will direct the Departments of Defense, Treasury, Justice, and Homeland Security, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which all provide or support the acquisition of equipment, to work together to unify standards, including developing a consistent list of military-style equipment that can be purchased by local law enforcement. The White House said the agencies will consider whether to require civilian review and authorization of purchases of “controlled equipment”—like armored vehicles, weapons, and aircraft—before transfers are authorized, as well as whether to require specific training and use-of-force guidelines in place before those purchases are completed. Obama will order the agencies to develop their specific recommendations within 120 days after consultations with law enforcement, community, and civil rights stakeholders.

Additionally, the administration is considering requiring the filing of after-action reports for federally-provided or -funded equipment involved in significant incidents.

On a call with reporters, officials defended the Pentagon’s 1033 Program, which came under the most intensive scrutiny this summer as being a key vehicle by which local agencies are provided military surplus weapons and vehicles, saying 96 percent of the equipment transferred by the program doesn’t have military attributes, including surplus office supplies. It was unclear whether that figure was determined by the purchase price of the items, or just the raw figures of what was transferred. According to the Pentagon’s Law Enforcement Support Office, $450 million worth of property, by original purchase price, was transferred to local agencies in 2013.

“We found that in many cases, these programs actually serve a very useful purpose,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday. “And what is needed, however, is much greater consistency in oversight of these programs, primarily in how these programs are structured, how they’re implemented and then how the programs themselves are audited.”

An official added that the White House has no opinion on congressional efforts to ban the transfer of Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles and other military-style gear to law enforcement agencies. “We haven’t reviewed any specific legislation so I don’t have a specific position for you,” the official said.

Obama is also announcing the intent to issue an executive order to create a Task Force On 21st Century Policing,chaired by Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, and Laurie Robinson, professor at George Mason University and former Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs. The Task Force will report its recommendations to reduce crime and improve trust between officers and the communities they serve to the president within 90 days

Stand in contrast to GOP senators likely to run in 2016

At the Boca Raton Resort & Club last week, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his entourage could hardly walk 10 yards without getting stopped. Mobbed by lobbyists and operatives in the opulent hallways and by donors in ornate meetings rooms, the outgoing chairman of the Republican Governors Association was crowded by well-wishers expressing hope he’d run for president after raising $106 million and picking up seats in Democratic states this November. Each time his response was some variation on the same: “Thanks, I’ll get back to you.”

For now, that might as well be Christie’s campaign slogan. While 2016 presidential hopefuls such as Sen. Rand Paul and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are moving ahead with White House runs, Christie and other Republican governors are biding their time. None will declare their campaigns before the New Year, and most are looking even later into 2015 to announce.

That doesn’t mean they’re standing still. The six governors looking at White House runs are doing their fair share of thinking and talking about 2016. Christie, Ohio’s John Kasich, Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, Indiana’s Mike Pence and Texas’ Rick Perry are all openly flirting with presidential runs.

Behind closed doors at the resort’s yacht club and meeting rooms, the would-be candidates are mingling with donors and lobbyists, as staffs keep careful eye on the potential competition.

To be fair, the difference between running and not running can be hard to parse. Only former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb has officially announced an exploratory committee to run and he’s actually doing much less campaigning than candidates who coyly say they haven’t made a decision.

But the contrast between the approach of the governors and the rest of the field is striking. Two of the three senators eyeing the White House, Kentucky’s Rand Paul and Texas’ Ted Cruz, have been frequenting early states for months as they work to hire staff. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has promised a decision in weeks.

The governors, meanwhile, have largely kept to their existing team of advisors, and while they’ve traveled to the early states, have not as aggressively recruited operatives on the ground.

Veteran Republican operatives and the potential candidates themselves described little rush among the six governors to dive in the 2016 race. “If there was 2016 news here, it was how slow they’re moving,” said one operative at the meeting after conversations with multiple governors and staff.

“For senators, it’s easy to run for president,” said one veteran presidential operative currently sitting on the 2016 sidelines. “They just have to decide how to vote in between long recesses. For governors, their jobs likely make them better presidents, but make it harder to run for president because they’re managing massive organizations.”

The reasons for their delaying are myriad: finding space to run in a crowded field, the need to build support among skeptical donors, and doing their day jobs.

Donors at the meeting told governors they were in no rush to open their wallets after more than $1 billion was spent helping the GOP win earlier this month, according to several individuals involved in private meetings at the conference.

“I don’t think any governor is in a hurry to start the 2016 campaign,” said Republican operative Henry Barbour. “And even if you are somebody who was thinking about running in 2016 and were out calling donors right now, all you’re going to get is pushback. Very, very few people are willing to sign up at this point.”

The 2016 GOP nominating contest is poised to be the party’s most divisive in recent memory, with no less than 15 Republicans seriously contemplating bids for the White House. One key reason for the slow start to the governors’ primary is that they’re jockeying among each other to find a rationale to run that’s different than their colleagues’. “To me they’re interchangeable,” one veteran GOP operative said on the condition of anonymity because he is advising multiple candidates. “They fill the same space.

“They need something beyond I’m a governor and I get stuff done, because that’s what they’re all going to say,” the operative said.

Hanging over their heads is Jeb Bush’s decision, believing he will instantly attract many large-dollar donors. But his candidacy appears increasingly less likely.

Five of the six governors must present and pass budgets and handle legislative sessions next year. Multiple governors told TIME they would wait until after their legislative sessions conclude before making any final determinations.

Wisconsin’s Walker has proven to be among the most enthused about running for president after surviving a close re-election battle this fall. He said he too will wait until the late spring to make up his mind, but he is already discussing broadening his staff and expanding his federal operations. “Walker is leaning into this thing far more than people expected,” said one person familiar with his plans.

And Texas’ Perry, who will leave office in January, must first sort out his indictment in a long shot abuse of power case against him.

But just because they are taking their time announcing, that doesn’t mean they aren’t already plotting against the completion.

On a panel of governors contemplating a run for the White House, (except for Christie, who sat out the Chuck Todd-moderated event), Kasich cast himself as the moderate reformer, embracing the Common Core education standards and expressing openness to a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. He and Walker repeatedly quibbled over history, which Kasich lived as a member of Congress, as the Ohio governor corrected the younger Midwesterner sitting to his right on the details of the 1995-96 government budget fight.

At a press conference last Wednesday, Christie was asked about the potential for drama running against five “colleagues.”

“No, no pacts,” Christie said, joking about the potential rival sitting to his left: “I haven’t seen Pence in the corner making any pacts with anybody, but I’ll be watching. … I don’t think any of us has a secret handshake or a blood oath for what we will do and what we won’t do.”

President Barack Obama will hold meetings Monday devoted to reforming and improving law enforcement across the country, a White House official said Sunday evening, months after the police shooting death of an unarmed teenager in Missouri ignited nationwide protests.

“Recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, and around the country have shined a spotlight on the importance of strong, collaborative relationships between local police and the communities they protect and serve,” the official said. “As the country has witnessed, disintegration of trust between law enforcement agencies and the people they protect and serve can destabilize communities, undermine the legitimacy of the criminal justice system, undermine public safety, create resentment in local communities and make the job of delivering police services less safe and more difficult.”

The White House announced that Obama will convene a meeting of his Cabinet on Monday afternoon to discuss the review he ordered of the Pentagon’s law enforcement support office, which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars worth of surplus military equipment to local and state law enforcement units around the United States. The initiative, known as the 1033 program, came under scrutiny following alleged heavy-handed tactics on the part of law enforcement in response to protests following Brown’s shooting in August by now-resigned Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.

The official said Obama would discuss the actions his administration is taking to reform the program.

Obama plans to meet in the Oval Office with young civil rights leaders to discuss how to heal the divisions between law enforcement and communities of color. He will also meet with elected officials, as well as community, civil rights and faith leaders and law enforcement officials from across the country, to find ways to restore trust between police and the communities they serve.

Later Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder will travel to an Atlanta church to convene a meeting with youth, law enforcement and community leaders on the first stop of a nationwide “Building Community Trust” tour.

Speaking last week after the announcement that a grand jury declined to indict Wilson in Brown’s death, Obama said anger at the decision was “understandable” but urged calm as protests broke out in Ferguson and across the country. “We need to recognize that this is not just an issue for Ferguson,” he said. “This is an issue for America.”