that's not hypothetical. what if i am part of the shop in my employers abusing me and those i work with and i want to form a union and i have a right to form a union and so i file a petition with the national labor relations board and the national labor relations board comes anholt election in that union is certified to be my representatives and begins to bargain for me.congress and refr

commitment to make job creation in american competitiveness top priorities. much has happened since we met in january of 2011. unemployment was 9.1%. today it stands at 8.5% nearly 14 million workers were

unemployed, now 1 million fewer. the number of long-term unemployed, those out of work for 27 weeks or more has declined from 6.2 million to 5.6 million. these facts may demonstrate modest progress, but far too many americans continue to face significant hardship in this tough economy. the number of americans participating in the labour force is at its lowest level in 28 years. more than 8 million individuals are working part-time because full-time jobs are unavailable, and 1 million discouraged workers have abandoned their job search entire yearly. simply put we are experiencing the weakest recovery since the great depression. as "the wall street journal" recently noted the recovery of the 1980's led to 18 months of growth greater than 5% in our own recovery of the last two and half years has averaged just 2.5%. the nation should be firing in all yet our economy remains

stuck in neutral. in many ways the current administration has made matters worse by promoting the politics of fear and uncertainty, costly regulations fail to enhance the workers, bureaucratic actions that favor the special-interest the expense of and lawyers and employees and politically motivated decisions that destroy tens of thousands of good paying jobs are part of what governor mitch daniels described as a pro poverty agenda. to restore certainty and confidence the house of representatives has approved more than 30 bipartisan job proposals in the last 12 months. the bills touch upon virtually every part of the economy from labor relations and energy security tax relief and fiscal responsibility. no single proposal represents a silver bullet. no single proposal represents the bullet but each help remove the government barriers to economic growth and job creation. more than 25 past jobs bills

face obstruction in the democratic senate and member for legislative efforts have reached the president's desk. in january i have the privilege of joining speaker boehner on a trip across latin america and putting a stop in colombia to visit with business leaders and elected if officials. things to the bipartisan effort of this condra is working with the president, columbia will soon import duty free, goods and products built by american workers. speaking of our trade agreement with colombia, panama and south korea the prison and stated, quote, american automakers, farmers, ranchers and manufacturers including small businesses will be able to compete and win in the new markets. we need to build on the success and support new opportunities to help workers thrive in the global economy. i am hopeful job training reform is an area in which we can work together to strengthen the competitiveness of the workforce for the nation's long-term unemployed come seven months

without work can feel like a lifetime. effective job-training support can help the workers get back on their feet and back to work. the need for the more efficient workforce investment system has never been more urgent. i was pleased to hear the president called for the reform and instead of the union address and we stand ready to take action. already my colleagues introduced three proposals to lay the foundation for the 21st century job-training system. a key component is the consolidation of dozens of the federal workforce programs and the flexible funding streams. it will offer a better work force and promote better use of taxpayer dollars. the president suggested the need for even greater consolidation and we are happy to consider the irresponsible plan to do that. in fact i sent a letter to the labor secretary this morning that asked for more details about the president's new

job-training proposal. i look forward to receiving a timely response so we can improve the investment system without delay. over the last several years we've seen a lot of the failed policies and broken promises starting with the so-called stimulus plan that created debt, not jobs. i know there are sharp differences in this congress in the house and of the committee. however it isn't enough to criticize the plebeian call on the field. i encourage all members on both sides of the aisle to stay engaged, offer positive solutions and work to find common ground. again i would like to think the witnesses for joining us and i will now recognize my distinguished colleague for his opening remarks. >> good morning mr. chairman, thank you for calling this important hearing on the job creation. and welcome to governor moly and give our snyder. i'm pleased we will be hearing from the two state executives about their efforts to expand

job opportunities. right there where the rubber meets the road. i am pleased we will have an additional panel of experts advised the committee on how to move forward on this important issue of creating jobs. last week in the state of the union, president obama challenge to work together to move the economy forward. i couldn't agree more. job creation is the most urgent issue for millions of families and businesses across the country. in 2008 our economy went over the cliff. the greed was long and deep. almost immediately 4 million jobs were lost. another 4 million were lost before things started to turn around. it took strong decisive action by the last congress working with fi obama administration to allow our country is back from

this. the action made a difference. the private sector created more than 3,000 jobs in the last 22 months. consumer confidence is edging up and continued economic growth. manufacturing employment has grown for the first time since the late 1990's. despite the calls from some who met the domestic auto industry three took bold action and save american jobs. although industry is back on the upswing making and investing in new factories, creating thousands of new jobs all because we intervene. and while the costs have been a drag on our economy we did take action to read we passed the affordable care act. not only do they give the business and health care providers the tools to bring the costs under control, it will expand health care coverage for 32 million americans.

this is an amazing feat. and health care reform is no job destroyer. on the contrary, since the affordable care act was signed into law we have seen half a million new jobs created in the health care sector. this is a much different story than what our country was facing just a few years ago when our economy was hemorrhaging $750,000 a month. and so our nation's economy is headed in the right direction. but of course we all know that there is more action that needs to be taken. now isn't the time. we need to work together for fair and sustainable recovery and rebuild those ladders of opportunity for every american. today's hearing is timely and appropriate - year another year of wasted opportunities before us. i see this because a little more than a year ago this committee held a similar hearing on the

economy and job creation. during the hearing, the governor and economists across put all spectrum agreed rebuilding roads and schools and bridges have significant benefits for jobs on building the economy. on the years that followed the house failed to act on jobs with it the jobs agenda always always the political brinksmanship. the kind of politics that hurts building jobs is shutdown putting thousands of workers out gibber losing thousands of construction workers jobs in the process. a result of the nation's credit being downgraded for the first time in our history. it has jeopardized americans unemployment insurance. it's threatened the extension of the payroll tax cuts. and now we're seeing a highway bill from house republicans our

roads and bridges are crumbling it doesn't contain the buy america provisions of the jobs created are the jobs that can be treated your in the united states the government this comes at an opportune time and i hope will help us turn the corner i urge my colleagues on the other side of the all not to allow another year to go by without action. i read the comments that he wants to use this year to put the obama administration on the trial i hope speaker boehner's comments have a commitment rather to oversight will be will to work together in an effort to grow our economy and create new jobs on the political insight and congressional inaction on jobs. nothing wrong with political differences and policy differences. sometimes we agree with these

and we agree on the other side of the iowa and cases one he sometimes we don't agree with that's the nature of democracy. that's why we have different political parties. but during times we should at least try to work together to develop consensus, not roadblocks were and that's the case tall levels of government thank you yield back. >> thank the gentleman. pursuant to the committee '07 all committee members will be permitted to pursue written statements to be included in the permanent record the record will remain open for 14 days to allow statements questions for the record and other extraneous material reference during the hearing to be submitted in the official hearing record. for introductions of our first distinguished panel of witnesses, i yield to mr. roy byrd from michigan to introduce the first witness. >> thank you mr. chairman. on november 2nd, 2010, michigan

elected rick snyder a successful businessman with no experience in politics. i think that's changed. to lead the state of governor. through his relentless positive actions focusing what he pledged to do governor snyder has delivered one. during his first year in office he worked with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to eliminate the state's $1.5 billion budget deficit and create a $460 million surplus and climbing as a true believer in the private sector uniting not dividing all sectors he's proven his commitment to michigan's future to the support of education and real world jennifer job-seekers and removing unnecessary government made hurdles. these are needed by yearly in

michigan and governor snyder, doing what he promised, an unusual attack has acted quickly to put our state back on the path of prosperity. and for that i say thank you. on a more personal level by the age of 23 the undergraduate degree the nba and it will degree from the university of michigan go blue after spending time teaching and working at the tax accountant, they lit a struggling company called gateway led them to grow from just over 700 employees struggling with great challenges to the fortune 500 company with more than 10,000 employees to read as a fellow from michigan i look forward to working with a governor slider in 2012 as we helped to grow michigan's economy. may i add it's been a pleasure to watch a governor who doesn't believe it can't be done when

it's the right thing to do. and through the relentless effort and relentless positive action he's been able to make an believers believers in the possibility as well as the ultimate opportunity of michigan redeeming its privacy as a manufacturing state and as a technology state and an education state with and the best state in the world leader and do business. we welcome you, governor slider. >> of. >> as we do a lot of the globe to the coke go blue, go read it, it's the education committee we can't stop ourselves. it's a pleasure not to introduce our second witness, copay analyst governor rick snyder. she was sworn into office as the 48th governor, i'm sorry, we just introduced that guy. >> i think i did that well petraeus too we did extremely well. i'm not sure about the go blue thing. governor dan malloy took office

as the 80th governor of connecticut on generate fifth, 2011 per year to his election governor lowry worked as a prosecutor in brooklyn new york, serving four years as district attorney in 1995 and governor malloy served 14 years as the mayor of stamford connecticut. there was a real job, no question about it to the he received his undergraduate degree from boston college. welcome to you both. before i recognize each of you to provide your testimony, let me once again briefly explain our lighting system. you will each have five minutes to present your testimony. if you go over like will not be gaveling you down if i start to get nervous appear you'll hear a gentle tapping. when you began to light in front of you will turn green and when one is left the light will turn yellow and when your time is expired the light will turn red. after everyone testified, we hear members will each have five minutes to have the chance to ask questions and have them

answered from the panel. so at this time, we will start with governor snyder. governor, you are recognized. >> thank you. it's an honor to be here for the invitation and i want to thank the representative for his fine representation of the state along with representative kildee. i'm here to talk up the topic that's most important in the state and i appreciate the opportunity to share that with you which is more and better jobs. if you look for michigan is coming from we lead the nation in unemployment if you go back to september, 2009 the unemployment rate was over 14% and i'm proud to say that december this year it was 9.3%. but as has already been commented, that isn't good enough. the goal is more and better jobs and the opportunity today the way that i view it is innocent to come and criticized the government to talk about how great michigan is but to come in the interest of partnership. we have a philosophy in michigan as the representative said of

relentless positive action which means no blame, no credit, find common ground come off solve the problem and do it in a relentless fashion and that has been successful so i want to compliment the federal government on a couple of programs we've partnered to give iran including the state small business credit initiative. it's been a very successful part and also good work going on the export import bank to do the credit for small businesses. in terms of things in michigan that we move forward with because the more i do better jobs the role of government is not to create jobs but create an environment where the private sector can be successful and employ people and to work to provide the best for the government and have a balanced budget where we actually start paying on long-term liabilities in the balance sheet requirements and i clearly encourage the congress and federal government to look at ways to deal with the deficit and the debt elimination that's required. i would be one of the greatest things we could do for our employers in michigan and the country. we did the tax reform and

eliminated tax credits and a simple fair and efficient tax system. we are doing regulatory reform and we've done unemployment insurance reform workers' comp reform, we are doing infrastructure reform as we speak and the topic of major i would like to cover his talent. the reason i use talent instead of work force is where i believe work force development is very important it is inadequate as a solution to deal with unemployment. work force tends to deal with creating opportunities and giving people skills. it's simply not good enough. the topic is what really matters and there are three c's in my view. there is creating, collaboration and third, disconnecting. we need to do well on all three of those if we are to do our job effectively. in terms of creating talent, that is the topic of the traditional work force development giving people skills and education system, which we don't call it 12, we call it peace 20 that goes through the lifelong learning and it's about

creating an environment to give the best skills possible to the most talented people in the world. michigan and americans. with respect to that as i said, we need to do more. a switch of created a number of programs on collaborating. we've created programs to such as the pure michigan talent and business connect. pure michigan talent is a program more week rejected a portal for the and lawyers to post the jobs they have now and for the future, what skills they need and how to partner together. it's also about the skill trade we've had union involvement of both the carpenters and the engineer is partner with us on these programs, so those are all very good. so, if you go down the list of one of the critical nature that's overlooked often as connecting and i encourage you to go to amici talent bought or a portal that we launched which is to say it's not about jobs being open its about career planning. we have 70,000 open jobs in michigan today. we could drop our unemployment

rate buy almost 2% by filling in the jobs and that wasn't something readily available to the citizens. in helping them plan a career. as a connecting is critically important. there are two specific items i would mention in the committee for your consideration. one of the work force investment act about potentially looking at new ways to do that. too often hear the governors say give us a block grant or you get the traditional model of the federal government and prescott of programs. i recommend a middle ground. we want to be held accountable. we want the metrics and measures to say we are succeeding but that is to be done on the portfolio based approach of the measures not prescriptive programs, more block grants. the last thing i would mention as a critical issue that would help immediately which is on the immigration front. immigration is a very difficult issue. i would encourage consideration of a very narrow opportunity which is to create a green card for ed and people with doctorates and such and engineering and other fields if we can have those people available what a difference of

would make. i have personal experience with this given with startup companies we urge can these people telling them to leave our country. they are job creators and they are broad based opportunities for success. as with those specific ideas in mind i hope you look at them very seriously. i appreciate the dow opportunity to share what we are doing in michigan. we are helping reinvent our state. it is about more and better jobs and we want to be good partners with you and success to respect thank you very much, governor. governor malloy? >> chairman klein, representatives and members of the committee think you for inviting me to testify today to speak about what connecticut is doing to get our economy going. when i took office last january connecticut had the largest per-capita deficit of any state in the nation, and we have had no job growth for 22 years, a distinction that we shared only with michigan. this is an extension i might add. over the last 13 months we made to get our fiscal house in order

we passed a budget that bridged deficit and implemented the accounting principles gap and negotiated the agreement with the public employees will save taxpayers $21.5 billion over the next 20 years and we cut spending by $1.7 billion raised revenue. just last week we announced the commitment to increase the size of the pension payments and move that would avoid the payment of the $4.5 billion in just 20 years and one that will save taxpayers nearly $6 billion over the next 20 years. we set our stand on the road to recovery and while i know we still have a long way to go, we are seeing signs of improvement. our unemployment rate has fallen to 8.2%, the lowest point in two and a half years and by over 1% during the last year. during the last year we also experienced job growth of 9,000 new jobs for the first time since 2008. in connecticut as is the case across the nation, to issue

obviously is job creation. one of the first actions we took on the job front is an initiative called first five. first fight is to attract the development projects by augmenting and combining the state's best incentive tax credit programs with the first five companies to create 200 jobs within two years or invest $25 million create the 200 jobs over the next five years. we convened a special session on jobs and passed a bipartisan bill with only one negative vote in each of the chambers that will move connecticut forward. our jobs bill includes a small business express' program where we are investing $50 million per year to help connecticut small business access much-needed capital. the investment is already paying off. the first company to access the credit is planning to double its workforce as a result of the funding. we enacted the job expansion tax credit program providing the $500 tax credit to employers for each new employee your $900

credit for the new hires it on employees disabled, unemployed or veteran. and i must say i am concerned about helping the returning veterans and especially our disabled veterans find jobs upon their return from service. we expand the capacity of the manufacturing reinvestment account program allowing small manufacturing companies to deposit the domestic growth receive interest-bearing accounts to use for business expenses. but when it comes to job creation, we didn't stop there. early on i announced a plan to develop a version of a research triangle focused on the science. this research triangle was coming to life more quickly than any of us thought possible. shortly after my science connecticut initiative was announced we began to have conversations with the jackson laboratories and the world remind institute that this pioneering work in the personalized medicine. just two days ago in fact our commission authorized $291 million to the state-funded

projects and laboratories, 1.2 billion over personalized madison projects in the campus of the university of connecticut in farmington. the jackson laboratory for the genomic madison will accelerate the development of the new medical treatments tailored to each patient's unique genetic makeup. the jobs associated with facility are projected to total more than 6,000 jobs over 20 years including thousands of new construction jobs. during the coming 2012 legislative session we will tackle the next component of the economic development strategy education reform. in the next few days will announce a set of proposals the will put up my state on the forefront of the debate. from reforming the tenure to address and how we help students in the low performing district's everything is on the table. if our kids are going to compete in the 21st century marketplace, we can't put the reforms off any longer. i'm encouraged and optimistic about the progress we've made in connecticut and the prospect for the future growth. we still have much work to do and i will be tirelessly

pursuing the economic strategies while being in a responsible manager of the state budget. german klein, thank you very much to the members and yourself for allowing me to testify and i look forward to your questions. >> thank you very much, both governors, we really do appreciate your time and your insight. it's fascinating that you share the distinction that may be a lot of people wouldn't want to share but it looks like you are addressing and exciting ways because you have people coming and going and going to defer my question for greta and i understand mrs. boxer has agreed to the first 40 minutes and so i will recognize mr. wahlberg. >> i appreciate the opportunity. governor snyder, again, and you for being here. appreciate your opening comments as you talked about developing

employment talent, the three c's having the beat of the ticket to a system so long that we are concerned with and from my perspective would much rather see the states in bodying these concepts and moving to the talent work force as opposed the federal government so involved so let me ask if you could develop even further your ideas and concerns along the line for the federal education regulations are making it harder for you to accomplish your goals and michigan and in what ways on the positive side can we be greater support and encouragement and comfort to you as a state executive and with the state legislature moving the whole idea developing a work force as trained and ready and expanded. >> i appreciate the question.

it's a real challenge that there are many federal programs and we spent a lot of time on administration over had to read a lot of additional cost to other than actually helping people. in to many cases we are giving people skills and training where there may not even the employment opportunities. and so this is where the connecting part comes in as i mentioned the 70,000 open jobs in michigan, a lot of people that want to find a job but one that mechanism didn't previously didn't previously exist in the clearing house coordinator not a money spender second we should never tell people what the have to study but shouldn't we create a path defined success by giving the information's on this website ferc symbol we have a skilled matchmaker and investment calculator's of people can literally look at different careers to say what they should go into because there's different opportunities and jobs. so again if he were to review the programs instead of making

it prospectively to prescriptive but say we are going to hold you accountable for connecting with jobs if you'll is accountable to see how many are we working within the developing to treat progress with those are all great metrics and then just give the flexibility to deliver and partner with you on doing that. >> in my role as the chairman of the workforce protection subcommittee, we provide oversight to the various aspects of the department of labour. one of those in the primary program with the department of labour is osha to read in the course of our hearings we found out that many states had, like michigan, michigan osha, that is given the primary responsibility for regulating the on site work force protection program working with job providers and employers. in my travels around the district, i talked with many employers who are finding great benefits, a great partnership

with my osha as the inspectors' work with them and in the past have been much more partnering with them as opposed to slighting them and finding them to read in the recent days we have been hearing an uptick specifically coming from osha encouraging my osha to be more involved in deciding and findings. and hearing the concept of regulation as it were. if that has been noticed by you, how are you continuing to focus the partnership that a state regulator can be in helping employers and employees in making sure that while we have a safe workplace we have a work place to come back to the second day? >> excellent question. what i would say is this is something that i found even at the state government because my osha is performed over osha by far but that wasn't good enough. there's too much of a culture even out of lansing because most don't want to have someone show up and say i'm from washington

or run from lansing and i am here to help. no matter what we are trying to denounce create an environment where the goal of our people is to perform the fiduciary duty and to do that very responsibly but it's not to punish people. it's to have people succeed. so the philosophy that we are doing training with all of the work force people, all of our my osha and employees is to empower them more where they feel that you're a value-added contributor in the partnership with their employers and helping most to succeed. the average business person is a good honest person. there are people out there we should go after. but instead of trying to create barriers let's help them solve their problem and in one program i would recommend people might want to look at is something we did in michigan and the agricultural sector it's the michigan agricultural environmental insurance program which is to help farmers actually get recertified to go through a certification program and get the credential to say this means you are doing

essentially best practices and if you have an issue before we can penalize you we are going to review your records on how we can help to be successful before they even have to worry about being punished because they made a good investment being smart and thoughtful. >> the gentleman's time has expired. >> let me thank you. let me ask both of you this question. we know too well that many public schools and community colleges across the country are in desperate need of repair, and the folks who can make those repairs are ready, willing and able to work, very anxious. every governor knows the challenge that we deal with in congress is paying for it. the american straight-backed directly addresses this need with the common sense approach to both fix the schools and put folks back to work. it's a win-win across the board. specifically under the h. h. a. dependent seeks to invest

25 billion in school infrastructure would modernize 35,000 schools putting unemployed americans back to work that both of you support it will. under what aja, governor snyder of michigan would receive nearly 1 billion in the school repairs and would support as many as 12,000 new jobs in your state and governor malloy under the aja, connecticut stands to receive nearly two wondered million in the funding in the infrastructure and will support as many as 2400 jobs in connecticut. i just wondered, starting with you, governor, do you support this act, and governor malloy and perhaps why? >> thank you for that question. but i would say is a couple things. there are infrastructure

requirements we need to invest. our schools and challenges we have other places within the communities they need to invest. a couple things though in an old accountant so i like to measure things in terms of what we are doing but one of the challenges is we have had numerous cases in the past people built capital facilities without how they operate, to actually use those facilities or apply them. so in the many respects we need to be much more tactful about making sure what are the highest and the best asset allocations as opposed to simply making sure we are doing projects? and that they are going to the jurisdictions we have certain school district still would take part in the >> and still really don't need those resources. the tikrit facilities and others under crumbling how can we make sure they are there for maintenance for all those things are in place a one of the great things i found in the budget have been overlooked is proper maintenance for the state

facilities from the prior year's and we're getting caught up on that. >> let me be clear i would be more than happy to take the $200 million i will take part of the governor's billion dollars if he doesn't want any. i constantly hear from the businessmen in my state when the traveler of the best of the world how great the other country's infrastructure is in specific reference many times made to china as always in certain european country there's a reality about the united states that we failed to invest properly and the maintenance but also building the new infrastructure we are suffering from a 25% unemployment rate in some of the building trades. any program that would allow us to the contractors and construction workers back to work would be a good program on its face but the idea of telling that to improve the educational system is an exemplary idea. >> thank you. the american society of civil engineers awarded the united

states in the condition of the infrastructure as you've been mentioning. in 2009, with asce estimate it will spend 2.5 trillion over five years to meet the most basic infrastructure to catch up just the basic need. by the conservative estimates every 1 billion creates 23,000 low-paying jobs. the congressional budget office that could make that every dollar of interest to spend and generate on average a $1.60 increase in amber overall gdp. critical transportation energy projects have even larger multiplier effect. i would like to ask you both how argue partnering with the federal government and leveraging existing public investment and transportation to upgrade the roads at and ports and reinvest in the overall infrastructure in your state?

>> we need to invest more in infrastructure and i have a special message in october of last year on the topic to the state. in the roads and bridges for example i said we needed $1.4 billion more a year in investment in the state and that is an important component. again the issue is how we partner on doing that and i would like to complement secretary lahood for his efforts in the state of michigan. he's been very proactive and good, talking about helping develop a regional transit authority in southeastern michigan that we are now asking for the state legislation to move forward on that because detroit has been lacking in that for decades. so there's an opportunity to partner on that. but i would also say is. they currently do things in the prescription measures that you can find in some of the highway bills compared to giving us more flexibility. we have the mobile situations where we may be thinking a great investment and a rest stop that we don't really need as opposed

to a bridge, and the ability to have the flexibility making those decisions would be helpful to our state. >> let me comment recently the community in our state stafford happens to be my home town received a grant from the $10 million. that federal government support would be matched 5-won by the private sector. i will also tell you that connecticut is spending more of its own dollars and rebuilding its training system on the matching basis than any other state in the nation. i am quite certain that if you send infrastructure investment dollars to the state we are capable of putting thousands of construction workers and private contractors back to work. >> the gentleman's time has expired. >> thank you mr. sherman. thanks for being here and the same to governor malloy to read

this to the book is letcher in indiana has recently -- and this is a state issue taken up right to work which is a controversy of subject as you know. governor snyder, are there any discussions in your state which neighbors lined concerning this type of action at state level? >> it is under discussion. there are a number that are promoting that in my perspective as i've made it clear it's not in my agenda. right to work is an issue that's a very divisive issue people feel very strongly about and as mentioned in the relentless positive action persons we have many problems in michigan that are much more pressing but i want to find the common ground issues we can work together on before we get into the divisive issues and we are showing great success we balance the budget and did the the tax reform. the important items this year i would prioritize include the transportation package i mentioned about infrastructure and we have a package on public

safety. we need to do a better job on that area in the state. so, right to work is an issue that may have its time and place but it's not appropriate in michigan during 2,012th. >> we've had to deal with that issue on this committee as it relates to south carolina. bdy think -- and i now want to put you on the hot seat, but do you think there is evidence to show it helps the states compete not only with other states in the united states compete globally for the businesses do you think the right way to work is helpful? >> i think there's a lot of information out there and one of the things i'm interested is understanding what is factual information and what this kind of perception because in many respects i would use some of the success in michigan as an example the auto industry is a very competitive industry now in terms of the labor agreements

and such, so on the face of it i don't automatically have an answer as i believe it is something that we should take the time to understand before some people kind of reverts to their traditional positions on it. >> i want to make a final closing comment, thanks for your answer. you know, we hear a lot about the united states comparing ourselves with other parts of the world, and that just -- at this point comparing what we do here to europe is not something that i recommend because even though i do have business leaders telling me that infrastructure is better in other parts of the world the financial situation as dire as you know. and in china comparing ourselves to china and a lot of areas realize that they're rebuilding the country on the american taxpayers. right now we are paying tremendous amounts of interest on the debt to china and they are using that money to rebuild their infrastructure.

so i think until we can honestly address on an understanding programs in this country and have an honest discussion about the direction the country needs to go in financially we're going to continue to find that we struggled to find money for things to all of us agree that we need to spend money on including our infrastructure guinn. islamic thank the gentleman. >> hispanics before, mr. sherman. i thank you for being with us today. the governor, you mentioned 70,000 job openings in michigan. have you reviewed these openings ascertained in the work force to the educational or the qualifications for those jobs or whether the investments need to be made in education so they would be the match between the work force and the job openings? >> 70,000 opening jobs i would emphasize to you and encourage

you to look. most of these are good jobs, talking like nurses, computer programming, accountants, these are well paying jobs and the skilled trades when i talk about as a welder. if you are a welder in michigan you can get a job and about 20 minutes in any corner of michigan. so there are a couple aspects. one is this is the missing element from the work force development that's why i call that talent and a connecting. we want to be with amitalent.org because there is a mismatch people were not aware of. the second thing is the site is just not tall transactions which is about finding the jobs of career planning and go to your point about saying if we give employers signing up to participate in this program that they see there's a lot of demand and we are not seeing those still we should be working with our community colleges in particular and skilled trade unions and other brands to say how can we get an alignment to get those people the proper training so that we can succeed?

>> i would like to comment on that. it's clearly for a long period of time in the country that we fail to properly to on the replacement work force for their aging and anything we can do to try to support our community colleges in particular and the fastest turnaround as well as the ability to offer the certification programs would be greatly appreciated. >> we are finding that and players can't find people qualify for the job openings? >> i think in the precision manufacturing, and i think that the governor would agree that is a particular problem, and unfortunately, few of those schools became invested in training that replacement work force. >> and so investments, what i'm hearing is the community colleges to make sure that our work force can qualify for the job openings for the aspect of the committee work. >> i believe that is true as

well as the vocational programs at the high school level as well. one thing i would add as i would encourage you to look at the two programs we have in michigan. one is called shifting gears, the new version is called shifting coke so these are for the experienced workers that were in the large companies. shifting gears was for people that were built level and higher in terms of professional and technical and large companies. our goal is to encourage entrepreneurship. so we created this program that has been very successful to say you can't ask someone from a large company to join the start up overnight and have a chance to succeed. so it is almost cultural adjustment training because they have all the skills they need to be successful but be more entrepreneurs are part of small startup companies. we've done that with the start of years and is gone so well we are operating one called shifting code because there are computer programmer jones readily available and this would work well for people that are my age very experienced people and to get them successful of a new

career. estimate we had the recovery act that gave a lot of money to the states the only way they can balance the budget is to fire people for the funding projects someone else can fire people. can you say a word of how much money each of your states, and what would have happened to your state budget had you not gotten a on the recovery act? >> in my case the money flowed to the state in the state of connecticut did too little to respond beyond using those funds having said that there is no doubt that we would have the fewer teachers in our school system today if we hadn't received those funds and we would continue to process long under way shifting the burden to the local communities to rely

almost exclusively in or stay on the property taxes to survive. it's one of the reasons that balancing the $3.5 billion deficit which was structural in nature because all of the surplus funds for the past year were being used as well as the money to displace the state expenditures i had to take a different kind of approach to balancing the budget. >> what i would say is in my view too much of the dollars were used for the replacement dollars for operating government as the fact of the matter we faced a billion and a half deficit when i came because they were not there and we cut the deficit. what i would have preferred to have seen is the dollars could have gone to the infrastructure or other investments that were treated as funds that could have made a difference. >> he would have had the budget more if you hadn't had those funds, right? >> again if you look back at the prior few years in the fourth opportunity to respect the gentleman's time is expired.

>> thank you so much, mr. chairman. and thank you to the governors for being here today. we appreciate your time and we know it's valuable. governor snyder i want to talk a little bit about medicaid switching gears to health care and as we know it expands medicaid and it's printed a real financial burden not just on the federal government but of course on the states as well and it's significantly underfunded and many of us are concerned states cannot afford to devote to the scarce resources to the medicare programs. i'm just curious if you can comment on any particular consequence is that you see the health care law having in michigan from your perspective and the state government and how are we going to pay for these increased costs not just on the federal level but how or the states going to be able to handle this and have you talked to your other colleagues as well

about medicaid expansion and the tax that it's not just going to have on your state but all across the country and with about i will listen to your answer. >> i appreciate that and in the two dimensions in particular i did a special message on the health and wellness last september because it is important. it's critically important to the quality-of-life of the citizens and it's a huge societal costs and what it is doing to the budget situation in terms of the growth of health care costs. there are things i don't believe have been a trustee enough in medicare and medicaid in particular the toole eligible situation. there's one where if people were working better to get it is an opportunity to provide better care of a much lower cost if we had more flexibility or partnered better with the federal government. the simple thing i say on the health and wellness people overlook is the personal responsibility and wellness. i watched a program called for life for and to be the ones i signed up to lose 10 pounds, i

gave all of my statistics the one-to-one blood pressure and cholesterol and if you ever want to see your blood pressure in the middle of a conference, it does go up. the point was really if you look at it in the state of michigan, we have a dashboard where we show 32% of the population is obese. if we brought that down if we dealt with obesity and the basic things on health and wellness that we have personal responsibility for we could cut our health care cost in the country by half. 11 should be focused on doing and so we can all do together and plan a clearinghouse for the leadership and not a spending bill. >> in the state budgetary process of where you are knowing that this is the current law of the land, what direction are you headed in preparing for the impact of these costs are going to have him despite the broad base that we know for the responsibility there are specifics that can be done as

well and i just trees i'm from the state of alabama and this is a huge concern for us, for our governor and state legislatures they moved into the next legislature on this negative impact it's great to have on the state budget. >> that is the major question because again it goes back to the concept of the unfunded mandates and a cure that from the local government. so it is that food chain question. and we are struggling with that because it is like we have to make choices and we have to be fiscally responsible for the long term because that is really the question now. to help deal with that we have a lot of reforms that essentially the with our long-term liabilities like the medical and other costs. but again this will make it more difficult for us to operate. >> mr. chairman, i yield back. >> the gentlelady yields back. ms. mccarthy believes the knicks before mr. treen and for having this hearing. i think it's been an interesting hearing from both of the governors. you certainly agree on an awful lot of things and the we then

you both have been working to get your people back to work and looking at the different initiatives very honest with you that is the initiative that we need to see here and i hope that as we go into the new year that congress can work together to get things done for the country not for the political party. and i think that both of you are perfect examples of that. governor slider but i think one of the things you want on constantly was to have the flexibility of the work between your state and the federal government which is important coming and i know that, you know, we have been hearing an awful lot on some of the resources that we gave out to try to bring this recession backed has been working. so my first question to you on the flexibility point, do you believe that the federal government, the intervention in the auto sector infringed on

this principle, the principal meaning about flexibility and working together in the partnerships the decision is widely recognized as a success and one that did say thousands of jobs would you characterize this particular program as a success. >> it is critically important to michigan with. if you look at it in terms of the perspective i've said and believe is if it would involve the one individual company it wouldn't have been appropriate because that is what the bankruptcy process these are for. this is a situation that merited additional involvement in detention because it wasn't about the two companies. the two companies would have brought down the entire industry. if the supply base wouldn't have collapsed it is a broad issue. then you get into the specifics of how it was done. what i would say is one choice is taken there are other choices

of a voluble and i don't see any value from my perspective of trying to second-guess or quarterback after the fact on those. it was important. something was done and the industry is liable now so that was a success in that regard. >> i agree, listen to read this particular recession might think caught everybody off guard. some were looking at solutions that were done in the 1930's. that's not the world we live today. there is a global economy out there. so we have to work together. the other thing both of you have stressed is education. that's why many of us sit on this particular committee and to talk of the different initiatives that the educational needs and especially for those that have been out of work. i spend a lot time with my schools which a lot of parents think it isn't good to send their child to a vocational school.

yet when i went and visited them and to of the jobs they were training for mainly because the partnerships with the business is in the area where are the jobs caribbean three years, four years, five years, that is something that i think we need to see a lot more done with that. but i also reading of the testimony, governor, i saw that you had said that consolidating programs for the cut funding for programs simply to meet a deficit reduction target can the program's be allowed more flexibility to deploy resources to meet the needs of the work force, but not if you cut overall funding. and i think it's important especially as we are seeing the states right now cutting back on education, making decisions on whether they are going to cut back on the school time which this is not the time to do it. if you can address that i would appreciate it. >> as someone that served in the capacity for many years and

frequently had to the interface and the federal government, i can to understand the combining of the programs normally was attached to the reduction of the funds flowing for the steed purpose. if you are combining programs to create synergies and there is the desire to maintain the funding i'm sure we can spend the money very effectively in our state to put people back to work. but if we are combining programs to cut money out of the programs i can assure you we need that money. i would also like to tell you that in connecticut because the president's efforts around the auto industry obama car and i want to comment i think it was a strategic investment that it had implications even in our own state. the support of manufacturing in the united states is terribly important, and i absolutely agree with the governor that the assistance given reverberates all the states with this provision manufacturing currently taking place. >> the gentlelady's time is expired.

>> thank you mr. chairman, and i want to thank both governors for being here today and bible to pick up on something that my colleague brought up a minute ago i highlighted that comment and governor malloy's presentation where he said don't cut funding simply to meet the deficit. if you or someone on your staff will read carefully the bill but we have prepared, it shows clearly we don't intend to cut any funding. cover we intend to get a lot more value for what is being spent, and i think it is really important that we point that out because there is no intention to cut the funding. i will also point out that federal dollars are not manner

from having. they are taxpayers' dollars which are simply brought to the federal government a lot of them wasted and then sent back to the state. i believe that in most cases the money can be spent much more effectively if they were simply going to the states to begin with. but anyway, let me again dewaal for being here, and i went as a particularly to the governor snyder, i appreciate the very positive comments that you made about the new bill which has been introduced and which we hope will move forward in this session. i want to point out in the summary that i have about the bill that mentions and in powers the governors of routt that bill we do a lot to give much more authority to the state.

we allow competitive grants, consultation with the governors throughout again we've changed i think the entire perspective of how we would operate these programs. and i appreciate the fact that you talk about talent development or creating talent because i rail against using the term job training and training individuals because as my colleagues have heard me say often you trained dogs and educate people, and i like the idea of talent, and i think that is a good word that we need to try to put into the bill somewhere if we can along with the term workforce development. i like that perspective and i would say to you we need a lot more talent and people who want accountability and results and bringing a fresh perspective to this issue. i would like to ask each of you coming and i know that you are

not prepared to answer this question today, but i was in the state senate in north carolina for ten years coming and one of the things that of the republicans' proposed over and over was the consolidation of all of these workforce programs so that we could save money at the state level in administrative costs and particularly governor malloy, i would like to get some feedback from you when it you go back to connecticut and from governor snyder also on how much money you can save the state level with this consultation and what efforts would you see the state being able to promote that you are not able to promote now under the existing structure? because i want us to start this consultation with the governor's right now. please, give us your feedback.

the state of north carolina would have saved a lot of money even ten years ago when we talked about this. so i would like to ask you what you, governor thomas and that information back? >> i'm sure that my staff has already made a note of your request and we certainly will attempt to do that. let me be very clear i believe in the consolidation in my first budget i proposed the consolidation of the 30 separate state agencies actually doing that by over a third, and in this budget that i am presenting on february 8th, we do it again, and i want to be very clear, consolidation for the purpose of identifying the forms to attack problems that exist, and to do away with the duplicate requirement is something that i absolutely support. having said that with respect to the program, i -- we have used that program very effectively in a number of different ways of

around job funneling in the program acquisition. so i look forward to working with the congress of the united states on that very point. i think that we can in fact do that. i am not against flexibility but i have to share my experience garnered 0325 year period of time. when i've seen the programs it has led to the reductions and the money available to apply the issues where i served for 14 years as the mayor of stamford, and now what if you're on a statewide basis and state government. ..

>> thank you mr. chairman and thank you to both of our governors. i am sorry i left. our committee, the republicans have disallowed abc, hbo and the independent news network from covering the fracking hearing, so as a member of that subcommittee it was important to go up and try to turn that around. we did not prevail. so i am sorry i missed your testimony. so, governor snyder from michigan, thank you for having a successful independent state osha, and because southern california and our osha program is steps ahead of the federal program and continue to learn

from the state programs. i understand that while i was gone, and that is why i told you why i was gone, at chairman walberg, the ranking member of the subcommittee for workforce protection mentioned there is an overlay of federal regulations, over state regulations and i don't know if he specifically referred to osha but just recently he said that he was in his district, he visited one of his companies who had just been visited by the state osha program and right behind them osha came. we have done an investigation. i mean we have tried to find out what company that was and why they were there because that would not be appropriate. have you looked into that at the state level? i mean, why would that happen? why would be wasting money in

that regard and do you know any more about it than i do sitting here today? >> no, not that particular situation. >> okay, i think it's worth looking into. we have asked over and over for the chairman to tell us what the company was so we can figure out how that all happened so i think that would be an example of a great waste of funds and the wrong use the federal regulation but thank you for responding. governor malloy, you in connecticut are on the cutting-edge in so many ways and you have a progressive work life policy and a new law that requires businesses to pay sick leave when employees can't work because of illness. i would like to hear straight from you if the state economy

has been compromised or if the state economy and health care system have enough that it in regards to this sick leave policy? i mean have you lost jobs? >> no, since the passage and ultimately enactment of that law we have actually gained jobs and lowered our unemployment rate in the state of connecticut. it is a special program. it takes a period of time for employees to earn the right to paid sick time but let me be very clear, we did it not as a matter of convenience that we made the ultimate decision that having people who prepare your food come to work sick does not make any sense, people who care for your parents or grandparents in a nursing home coming to work sick doesn't make any sense and people caring for our children in daycare programmi